#FtheHustle ~ 044 – Searching for the Perfect Platform

Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself.

For many reasons (too many to list here), I’ve had a hard time finding a platform for courses (or a community) that I absolutely love.

It’s certainly not for lack of trying (maybe lack of patience 🤔), but I’m absolutely fine with that. At this point in my business, I trust myself to know when something doesn’t feel right (I think the world would be a different place if we trusted our guts more often, but I digress).

The biggest factor that has helped me come to my recent conclusion, which is to use Circle.so for my upcoming community, is clarity.

I’ve been working on the community with my coach for a few months now. I’ve gone deep into the content, what I want people to get out of it, how it will be run, the whole 9-yards so to speak.

The fact that the community is based on #FtheHUSTLE reminds me to keep it simple (even if it takes me a minute to ‘get that’ sometimes).

I tested Circle.so when I ran my first cohort for Email Insiders VIP.

I’ll admit that I didn’t give it the due diligence required, but I was clear with the group that it was a test.

After considering another WordPress plugin (AccessAlly), I came back to Circle.

Only this time I spent a lot of time in the Circle community itself, looking at what other people had done, how they were using it, and samples of customizations and tweaks that people had made.

I was BLOWN away.

It also helped that they recently added 3 features that don’t require a Zapier integration:

• A paywall (Stripe integration, but you can do a free trial, one-off payment, payment plans, or recurring payments)
• BETA: Live streaming – native in the platform (doesn’t require a 3rd party tool)
• BETA: Events – so people can register for your events within the community

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Anytime I’m seriously looking at a new tool and there is an option for a live demo I jump on it, so I also did that this week.

I was pleased to know that I had a good grasp on using Circle (and will be improving the usage for Email Insiders this next cohort).

I wanted to share this with you to remind you that you get to change your mind.

I knew that whatever route I went with this it had to be easy to use, sustainable (future growth), and not require tons of things to co-exist together (which is often the case with WordPress, as much as I love it).

I’ll do a video walkthrough when the community is built out to show you how I’ve set it up.

The best platform (or tool) to use is the one YOU feel most comfortable using (and will actually use).

In the meantime, let’s get into the goodies today!

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A Little Brainpower 🧠

I’ve been a Brene’ Brown fan for a long time (met her in person at a book signing in California years ago). I LOVE this 1×1 strategy of hers. The names of all the people you’ll tolerate and accept feedback from should comfortably fit on a 1”x1” index card. Read “Brené Brown’s “1×1 Index Card” Trick Could Permanently Boost Your Confidence And Focus by Nick Wolny here.​

Related: “Dare to Lead” by Brene’ Brown​

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This resonated with me on so many levels. I have always felt that I was supposed to do something different with my life (which I’m doing)… and it’s definitely a deeper human need. Read “Why Our Best Work is a Human Need” by August Birch here.​

Related: “Deep Work” by Cal Newport

Tool Time  🛠

Featured Tool

I’ve just grabbed “Smart Subscriber” and had to share this with you. I got to meet with the founder, Shai, to set it all up and it was done in minutes. Co-founder of Right Message, Shai created a tool that makes it easy for your subscribers to set email preferences. Right now it’s a one-off price but that will be changing down the road (hint-hint, get it now if this is a feature you want for your subscribers).

*BONUS*​
If you want to see this in action, my good friend Jason Resnick (who introduced me to this tool), has a short YouTube video showing you how it works! Watch Smart Subscriber in action here.

Here are a few other fantastic finds this week:

• AI writing: You know I love my AI tools and this just might be the game changer you were looking for. A fully integrated WordPress plugin that helps you write your website content! Sign up now to get an extra 1000 words FREE. Get Bertha.ai here.​
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• No code: I found this when I was deep in the Circle.so community. Talk about a game changer! Easily create over 80+ website widgets without code (or a plugin!). Create, copy & paste and you’re done. Checkout all the options on Elfisght here.​
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• Planning/mapping: I’ve tried a lot of these tools (not a huge fan of mind mapping) but like to visually plan things out. I found this tool and love the hand drawn effect (may even use it to create images in posts!). Use Excalidraw for free here.​

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This is SO my sense of humor… and I am also my target audience 

Did you miss this last week? 

We are running a VERY limited sale on the Content Creators Planner! For the first time EVER you can get 50% off ALL Planners and courses! WHAT THE WHAT? 🤯

Use coupon code FBGROUP at checkout!

​Get your Content Creators Planner here (merch excluded)​

Have a fantastic day,

Kim