Diary of a Community Builder

This Friday was really special: I took the whole day out of the office to brainstorm with a colleague. Full whiteboard situation, markers out, total back-and-forth, and by the end we had planned all the way to the end of the year. And oh boy, did it give me the energy I needed after this week. So today is about whiteboard people, why different brains multiply each other, and the thing I most want to put out there: do not be an island.

In this entry:

• A full whiteboard day, and a plan mapped to the end of the year

• Why a day of thinking together gave back more energy than a day off

• How different working styles multiply: where I spiral, they push; where they'd settle, I poke

• The default trap of building alone (your own head has the same furniture every day)

• Something to noodle on: who's your whiteboard person, and when did you last get in a room with them?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, collaboration, planning, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

This little community of ours is growing, fresh faces everywhere, and it is so fun. But my biggest win this week is a Jason story. If you don't know Jason, he's our amazing community manager in the Society, and you should get to know him. The digest workflow I built freed up a lot of his time, and he took that time and created the most epic Friday wins post I have ever seen. And I've seen a lot of Friday wins posts, friends. It's basically a genre.

In this entry:

• The Society is growing, and what fresh faces do to a room

• How the community digest workflow quietly handed Jason his hours back

• The most epic Friday wins post I've ever seen (and the engagement to match)

• The line I'll be repeating forever: the workflow didn't replace Jason, it funded him

• Automate around the humans, so the humans do what only humans do

• Something to noodle on: if a workflow gave you back three hours a week, what would you actually do with them?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, AI workflows, community managers, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

What a day. Wednesday was our first live session over in the Circle community, and it was unbelievably fun. I was incredibly nervous (the instant yes and the butterflies, you know how I'm built), and it all worked out, and it was fantastic. Minds were blown when I showed the community digest setup. And the other big news: all my Claude + MCP projects, converted into Circle AI projects, launch today. As you're listening, they're going live. They're like your little teammates, each one helping you get a specific thing done quicker.

In this entry:

• The first live Circle session: nerves, nerdy joy, and a chat that lit up

• The community digest moment that blew people's minds

• The launch: my projects, converted to Circle AI projects, live the day this drops

• Little teammates: what they are and what they help you do

• Double the RSVPs already in for next week's session (what is my life)

• Something to noodle on: if you had one little teammate for one job, what would you hand them first?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, Circle AI projects, live sessions, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

I spent Tuesday doing something I make everybody else do and almost never do for myself: I built out my own blueprint. My community has pivoted, we've added things, we've leaned heavily into AI, and my documented version was describing a community from a whole chapter ago. So I sat down, ran my own process, attached it to the Circle MCP, and friends, it was remarkable how much quicker it went. Also: the fill-in-the-blanks. Thank you, Molli. Could you have made it any more seamless?

In this entry:

• Finally doing my own Community AI Blueprint (a to-do list loop, officially closed)

• Running the process with the Circle MCP: refining instead of excavating

• Why this jumped the queue: new Circle AI projects, a.k.a. mini agents, coming tomorrow

• AI is only as good as the context you give it, so the context has to be current

• Something to noodle on: what process do you run everyone else through that hasn't been pointed at you lately?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, Circle AI and MCP workflows, taking your own medicine, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

It's happening. This week is my first live session inside the Circle community, the partnership I cried at my desk about and finally announced. We've been prepping like crazy, running prompts, nerding out, playing with my favorite toys and calling it my job. And also: Monday turned into a sixteen hour day, and boy, did I feel it. Both things are true, and I'm sitting with what that means.

In this entry:

• Prep week for my first live Circle session: prompts, testing, full unapologetic nerding out

• The sixteen hour Monday, and why excitement is sneaky fuel

• The part nobody puts on the vision board: the dream came true, and the dream is expensive

• An honest word on the health journey during a big season (the messy middle, no pretending)

• Something to noodle on: what's your tell that you've blown past your limit?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, Circle AI, big seasons and their costs, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

We made it, friends, to another Friday!! I try to keep my Fridays light, a gentle off-ramp into the weekend. This one was not that. Deliverables to multiple clients, recording, proposals, and wrapping up our big launch (yes, there's a big launch coming, a whole AI toolkit for Circle AI, and you'll hear plenty about it here). But the thing I can't stop thinking about is something Molli and I landed on this week: I never put work things off. Ever. My health things? Another day, every time. Same brain. Same woman.

In this entry:

• The long Friday: client deliverables, proposals, and the AI toolkit launch wrap-up

• The "health journey," said in that tone on purpose

• The Molli conversation: closing every loop for clients while my own slide

• The sentence I didn't love saying out loud: I treat my clients better than I treat myself

• The special water, the powders, the kiwis, and the first hit of coffee (what a treat)

• Something to noodle on: what would change if you treated yourself like your best client?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, founder wellbeing, launches, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

This week I live demoed inside the Circle community, and to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I said yes immediately when the invite came, easiest yes ever. Then demo day arrived and I felt like I was gonna vomit most of it, while my team and clients filled Slack and my DMs with "you're gonna kill it," which was so kind and somehow cranked the pressure higher. So, did I kill it? Yeah. And then Circle's cofounder posted about it on LinkedIn.

In this entry:

• Live demoing Circle AI inside the Circle community, building a summit live

• When support turns into pressure: everyone deciding you'll be great before you believe it

• The nerves, the practice reps that carried me, and the LinkedIn post I stared at

• The honest Thursday routine report I promised Monday: a 6:30am call, a squeezed morning, and a wobbly floor under a big win

• Something to noodle on: what would you say yes to instantly, and then be terrified about?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, Circle AI, visibility and nerves, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

I hosted a book club get-together this week, and it was meh at best. Basically nobody came. And I want to talk about it, because a fraction of the things I come up with actually work, far more flop than land, and if I only bring you the wins, that's just a highlight reel. So let's take apart what actually went wrong, because it wasn't the book, and it wasn't really the timing either.

In this entry:

• The book club launch that started with real momentum and fizzled by mid-month

• The get-together nobody came to (thanks for the timing, Circle Eclipse)

• The real lesson: they told me what they wanted, I built something bigger than the want

• The most community-builder mistake in the book: giving a spark of interest a clubhouse with bylaws

• Next month's lighter-touch attempt: Unreasonable Hospitality, just announced in the Society

• Something to noodle on: where have you wrapped a real want in too much container?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, engagement experiments, honest flops and fixes, and the in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

As I'm recording this, I should have flown to Seattle to support an old friend at her movie launch. Yes, I have a friend cool enough to have a movie premiere. And I'm at my desk instead, mid-launch on a beast of a client project, after finally admitting my hop-there-hop-back itinerary was delusional. This one stings a little, so let's talk about it.

In this entry:

• The Seattle premiere I'm missing, and the truly delusional itinerary I almost attempted

• The beast of a launch: a custom course and credentialing platform layered into a Circle community

• Put-on-your-big-girl-pants decisions, when the business you love keeps you from people you love

• The nervous flyer honesty: why what it costs YOU belongs in the decision

• Something to noodle on: when two things you love pull against each other, how do you decide?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, client launches, hard founder decisions, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.

Accountability buddy check-in. Last week I told you I was making some changes, and around here we keep our word. Today was day one, and I'm recording this fresh off of it: yoga, deep breaths, Bucky's walk, and a slightly later arrival at the desk where, it turns out, the world did not end. It's just day one, of course. But you have to have a day one. That's the whole point.

In this entry:

• Day one of the new morning: yoga, stretching, deep breaths, and one very happy puppy

• Getting to the desk later than usual, and the world not ending

• Pumping the brakes on the day-one glow (the real story is Thursday)

• Why every effortless-looking habit started with an unremarkable day one nobody clapped for

• Accountability buddies, report in: has your day one happened yet?

The Diary of a Community Builder is a daily, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to build and run a membership community and a community-led business. Real entries about community building on Circle, founder wellbeing, building new routines, and the honest, in-between moments of growing an online business, without the highlight reel.

Want to take it one step further? The Diary lives inside coCreator Society too. Each day's question drops in the community, you leave your own entries, and we support one another while we build our community-based businesses, together, out loud.

Come join us 💛 https://cocreatorsociety.com/

ABOUT THE DIARY OF A COMMUNITY BUILDER

The Diary of a Community Builder is a free daily podcast from Rachel, a Circle Expert and founder of coCreator Society. Every weekday at 6am Eastern, a new entry drops: musings, behind-the-scenes moments, and lessons from inside real membership communities and community-led businesses, plus one question to noodle on in your own day of building. It's the messy, honest, in-between of building something that lasts. For full-length strategy episodes, listen to the Community at Heart podcast wherever you get your shows.