Transcription
So, Kirby and Claire.
>> Yeah.
Will we see Andrew every single week on school news? Like, awesome. Awesome. Crazy crazy crazy school legend. But like, who the heck are you?
[laughter]
>> Good question.
>> Who am I actually?
[laughter]
>> That's so hard to answer. Um, I'm Claire.
>> Hey, Claire.
>> Yeah, I'm Kirby's fiance.
>> Oh,
>> yeah. Got the ring.
[laughter]
>> Where's my ring, bro? I just realized this is not fair. Why do the girls get a ring but the guys don't?
>> Dude, you got to go for the clothes clothes and get married and then you get the ring.
[laughter]
>> We just have to hurry up. That's it.
>> Everyone's like, "Everyone needs babies. Everyone needs to get married." It's like, "This is the way it needs to go."
>> Not everyone, but these two are definitely
[laughter]
>> absolutely.
>> He's very passionate about
>> it will be school baby.
>> Do we already have a school baby?
>> Well, we don't have an official school baby, but if anyone's out there that has had one, like, please let us know. We'll pin the comment.
>> The comment. Yeah. So, you're from Ireland?
>> Yes.
>> And you're from the UK?
>> Oh, dude. It's like a Romeo and Juliet situation going on here.
[singing]
[laughter]
>> How did you guys get involved in school?
>> Well, I was a customer of Sam's Sam's previous company. I was in his mastermind. And I remember at the time he we were like we were so bought in and he had this vision for this company that he had previously. And then all of a sudden he started talking about this thing called school. And it kind of felt like you were getting cheated on. like you have this mentor, you've put your trust in him, he's painted this vision,
>> and then this other thing comes along and you're like, "What? This wasn't part of the vision,
>> but then he decided that he wanted to start raising money for this." And basically everyone in the mastermind, nobody knew what this thing school was, but we had just seen Sam and there's this rule that you never bet against Sam Ovens.
>> So he asked like, "Do you want to invest in school?" and I invested and a few people in the mastermind invested. And then as soon as school came out, I was in a transition period where I had like I had the YouTube channel that I was going well and I'd shut down the business and I was trying to figure out what to do next. And school had come at the perfect time where I had realized that I was a synthesizer. I was someone who solved problems and shared solutions, who learned and then taught what I learn. And I realized there was no community out there for other people that were doing that. So, I launched a school community. It was the first free school community.
>> Well, I was going to give you some props cuz like you were the first school investor.
>> Yeah.
>> The first free community.
>> Yeah. Well, part of Sam. Exactly. Exactly.
>> I had no idea.
>> Dude, you're going to learn.
>> First investor, first free community.
>> You're going to learn a lot. It's like what other first are we doing?
>> First school baby.
>> First,
[laughter]
I wish I came to tell you something.
>> OH MY GOODNESS. IMAGINE IF THAT WAS the reveal. Oh my word. And so
>> that would be iconic.
>> That would be a moment. Oh, whenever it happens like we can schedule something.
[laughter]
It's like Yeah. Yeah. So you're watching Andrew like go on this crazy entrepreneurial. You guys met in university, right?
>> On the first day
>> in a kitchen. Is that what it was?
>> Yeah. My mom met him first before he was a student of Sam or after?
>> I hadn't even started my YouTube channel.
>> Yeah, He was like just a student of like
>> he was a broke broke broke student.
[laughter]
How was watching him becoming like getting into Sam Oven stuff and like did you see him change and what did you think?
>> I Yeah, I saw it from the very beginning which is pretty fascinating. Like when we first went to university he had 10 computers in his room and he would sell them on like Facebook marketplace. So this was like the entrepreneurial.
>> Yeah, this was the the spark was definitely there but I never really thought anything of it. And then he found this guy online called Sunny Tea. And then from there he was like the OG be like before even before Kirby found Sam.
>> Yep.
>> And he started it and then Sam obviously came later and the YouTube channel and then he started going out less and I was like what's
[laughter]
going on?
>> He started having a New Zealand accent all of a sudden.
>> Kiwi. Cla listened to so many of Sam Oven's videos that she could like recite the accent. And then when I started doing sales calls, Cla knew my whole script, which is the Sam Ovens script just because she was in the background as I was doing these calls again and again and again and you like learned the whole thing.
>> And then I would do sales calls just cuz I knew how to do the script. So well,
>> she closed pretty well. Closed.
[laughter]
>> You're a closer,
>> guys. I've lived many lives.
>> Yes, literally. And now like you've moved to LA and you're like working fulltime at school which is one of the most exciting fast growing companies on the planet and it all started
>> with a New Zealand accent coming from a laptop in a university dorm room. That's just wild. It's crazy.
>> It's insane.
>> How did you then like cuz you joined Sam's mastermind. So then you flew to LA.
>> Well I joined during COVID so they were all virtual which was such a shame cuz I never got to go to the actual inerson events.
>> Wow.
>> Yeah. So, the first time you went to what is now School HQ?
>> Yeah.
>> It was properly school.
>> Yeah. Well, you know, Sam had his podcast.
[clears throat]
>> Yeah.
>> I was going to be the next guest.
>> Oh, were you really?
>> I had flown over and then I get a text. I think I flew from where was it? Australia or something at the time. We were
>> We flew a long way.
>> And then he was like, I'm closing down the podcast.
>> Yo, that is wild.
>> Cuz if I if I remember the story right and if I get it wrong, like correct me. It's like he started this podcast. He, you know, built this phenomenal worldass podcast studio $15,000.
>> Yeah. It was like
>> took like 3 months to make,
>> right? And then he did like three or four episodes and then during the fourth episode he's like I can't do this.
[laughter]
>> HE WALKED OUT.
>> HE walked out.
>> He said that's enough now. Goodbye.
[laughter]
>> So did you even like did you guys meet on that trip?
>> We met at that point. Yeah. I don't think anything happened like
[laughter]
>> in your relationship. It was the seeds of a beautiful thing, you know.
>> Yeah. Yeah. That was it. We just met, hung out. It was cool. I was like a power user of school. I remember there's this screenshot from right in the beginning of school community before it was schoolers.
>> And the leaderboard, it's like me then Ted Carr, like the two people right at the very beginning of schoolers.
>> So, we had a lot of good conversations cuz I was just using it so obsessively.
>> Shout out to Ted.
>> Ted.
>> Where's Ted? So, how do you like from that like first meeting of the the bros the bromance in LA with the fake podcast that didn't happen? Like how did you end up from going to that to like working full-time at school and being on this phenomenal rocket ship?
>> Yeah. Well, it all started with Hamza.
>> Oh, what a hook.
>> Started
[laughter]
with Hamza, which for those who are deep in the internet lore know that there's the the drama drama. I didn't expect us to do YouTube beef. We're going this is new for this for this for the podcast.
>> We're
[laughter]
going straight in.
>> Let's go.
>> So, the brief story with Hamza was I at one point had maybe 400,000 subscribers and he was just starting his YouTube channel. We were both in a similar space, personal development, productivity, that sort of thing. And one of the videos I made, he didn't agree with the advice that I made. So, he made a video, why self-improvement YouTubers are lying to you. My face in the thumbnail. The video starts to perform. The video starts to do producer Ethan just let out a little excited noise.
[laughter]
>> He's strapped in.
>> He's a Hamza fan. He's
>> Yeah. He turns out he's like, "Yo, come on. Now's the chance.
[laughter]
I'm going to cut this guy's microphone."
>> Um, so yeah, Hamza made the video, but obviously the strategic thing to do if you're a bigger creator, you don't you don't address the smaller creator. That's a that's a that's a a misplay misstrategic play. So, I ignored it and moved on with my life. But then what happened
[laughter]
was Hamza's channel blows up and he gets like two million subscribers and I'm like, "Oh, maybe now's the time to respond."
>> Okay,
>> the play has changed.
>> So, I made a video back basically talking about Hamza and the problems with Hamza. Because what Hamza was doing was I had a Reddit that I created about dopamine detoxing and he was farming my Reddit
>> naughty naughty to get customers and subscribers. And that's how we got his first thousand subscribers from that subreddit.
>> But the crazy thing is is that when I got started with my YouTube channel, I did the same thing. I went on Reddit like
>> dude community Ryan Duncan funnel is strong.
[laughter]
>> It's part of the game. So I made the video back exposing Hamza drama. But then what happened was Hamza and I became friends. We both took the videos down.
>> And then I said to Hamza, Hamza had this huge audience, 2 million subscribers, but he was making I think it was like $20,000. Amazing. But for 2 million subscribers, not loads. And I told him about school. I said, "You should launch a school community. Here's how you should launch it. Here's how you should price it. Here's what you should do." I sent him a Loom video that was like, "Here's the play." He launches. He makes 200 grand.
>> Wow.
>> In like 30 days from 20 to 200 grand. So the drama was over.
>> The same audience size.
>> Same audience. Exactly.
>> That's crazy.
>> So then I said to Sam, "Was it valuable that I brought hands on to school?"
>> And Sam goes,
>> "We all know the answer.
>> So much value it hurts."
[laughter]
>> Yeah.
>> And then I go, "And would it be valuable if I brought more big creators onto school?"
>> Yeah.
[laughter]
>> So then that was what I did to start at school. I was helping big creators launch school communities on the platform. You know, it's so funny that just like it just dawned on me in this moment. It's like Kirby brought Hamza onto the platform and then you competed against Hamza in the first school games. It's like whoa, how interconnected is this whole situation?
>> It was crazy. Yeah, there was a uphill battle cuz Hamza was on the first place of the school discovery which back then just got a ton of traffic because Hermosi pushed his audience into school.
>> True. Oh my god. True. Wo. I could just not outrun him because I also had a $8 community that's the BIGGEST AND HE HAD $129 and then uh I think a big YouTuber Ali Abdal or something gave a bonus for when people signed up for him and Ali had like
>> five million subscriber or four so I was like
>> I could just not run but I held it all the way to the last day and the last day felt like you know when
>> when you suddenly see like it's not going to work out anymore and you're like
>> but that's the thing also about human nature Because the first dream was even to be in the top 10, right? And then you get this honistic adaptation and it's like, "Oh my goodness, I just got second." And then you messaged me increase your price.
>> So I was going to say it's like cuz I met Evelyn through like the third school stories episode and I was like, Evelyn launched a 999 and like loads of people buy it and like it was one of the moments where I was like I felt like whoa, I'm dealing with like a rare Pokemon called Evelyn Vice. She was like, "I will not sell a price that is high because I don't want to." And I was like,
>> "Who are you?"
>> Mhm.
>> And even now, like like with the community, like the screen time community, it's like I found myself like falling into like I just I didn't even want to place on the leaderboard. And then I was like on like number 20 on the leaderboard and I was like, "Oh, wow." And it's like then I was like number 10 and I was like number seven. I was like,
>> "Wow, how amazing." And then like this weird part of your brain goes, "Oh, we should climb higher." And then ego,
>> it's called ego.
>> it's called ego and it's called the desire
[laughter]
for more. And then literally like I ended up like going way too fast with my community. I ended up like falling into a trap that I'd seen so many people on school fall into. And I was like, "Oh my word, I'm just like this is like part of the school arc." And I was like, "Wow." So the games like they bring like they brought the super interesting dynamic to school because I think I signed up we both signed up for school like nearly the same day.
>> Yeah. Through the games with the hat.
>> It was the hat that got us both in and then
>> like I can't imagine if I don't think I would have
>> gone all in on school if it wasn't for the games.
>> Yeah.
>> So you guys have seen you saw school with before the games.
>> We've only ever really seen it afterwards. So you're like Old Testament where like New Testament.
[laughter]
It's like what was it like before the games and whenever there was like very few people on the platform and
>> do you remember stuff?
>> I also know that you had um during the whole Hamza beef you had interesting takes on that situation. Do you remember your gut reaction to all of that?
>> My gut reaction was just like this is pointless.
>> She hated it.
>> I was just like this is the most stupid thing I've ever seen. I was like don't make a video.
>> So immature. I was like,
[laughter]
just leave him. I just couldn't I couldn't understand it. I mean, I understand it more now, but it just felt like a game. It
>> Yeah, that's the thing. That was the game. Yeah.
>> Like I I don't think Hamza had any hard feelings against me. I had no hard feelings against Hamza. But you're just playing a game.
>> It's like the thing I had in my head was like it's like just two guys in high school that are just like randomly competing against each other and then in the end they just like give each other a big hug. It's like, "Oh, you're actually a bro."
>> You know, like Logan Paul KSI. Yeah.
>> Not that we're them, but that's kind of funny. One of us is white, one of us is black.
>> It's kind of similar.
>> True, true, true.
>> Well, even at the uh you know, the school games event yesterday, it's like it's so funny to see Sam and Alex like whenever you guys watch the video, it's like they're just like secretly like complimenting each other. It's like a they're like actually like very sweet the whole time.
>> It's really cute.
>> Yeah. So, I mean, go ahead.
>> Yeah. I think that's the thing. It's like I think with school because it is gamified and it is a game uh it allows you to play it in so many different ways but because it's so real you can you kind of run at risk of falling too far into it and then to recover
>> you actually land where you're supposed to be. So I think it's the ultimate game is that everybody lands on their true self through school in one way or another and because it's this ecosystem
>> you also find where you are most valuable in the ecosystem and it's even with you with the podcast right so there was also there's also an arc to it kind of falling into getting too excited about things falling out of it and basically but through that you you find like your real place
>> in the whole thing and it's also what's really cool is it's kind of a 4D chess because it develops and the new players are coming in and the landscape is shifting. So, it's so it's so interesting
>> um how it evolves as a marketplace and as a world in itself with all the different characters and all of the people you meet. It's like so it's so fun. Something that Nav always used to say is that every school community is like its own mini planet.
>> And so like you know this episode is going out in the schoolers community
>> and so like schoolers is its own little planet and if you're not on the planet you're like these guys are aliens.
>> It's like what do you mean a cat and a fire emoji and school news is like why is everybody wearing like rainbow logo stuff and like talking about passion like making money by like you know doing things that they love. It's like the outside world looks at it and they're like, "What is going on in there, but once you step into it, it's like you do like you get the culture and you get the energy and you get the passion yourself." And yeah, I just like became aware in this moment that like every single one of us like around the table, we started on school with a community and then we ended up like working in some capacity. Like Evelyn's now running the ads. Both of you guys are fulltime. I get to do the podcast and it's like wow diverse weird people and like you were saying, it's like everyone has a role to play.
>> Yeah.
>> Everyone has like a part in the school planet ecosystem. It's like oh yeah it's like that's like the big music guy. It's like goose is doing a world tour. It's like this is like the marketing person and this is like the fun crochet people and we got the calligraphy twins and it's like wow what a fun planet to be a part of. And where else do you have even the opportunity to influence a software business or you know any company to that extent where it's just I mean I think I don't know you know Simon you can speak to this, but he thinks so differently than any
>> one I've met like in business.
>> Yeah.
>> It's called autism
[laughter]
>> dude. It's the ultimate superpower. That's what I've learned.
>> Have you seen those reels about we need to weaponize autism?
[laughter]
It's so good though.
>> Some of the best people like Sam is a genius% actually
>> what autism.
>> Yeah.
>> I don't know if he's been formally diagnosed. But I think everyone's on the spectrum, right?
>> Now I'm glad I talked about this once and nobody You didn't care. Now I know why you smiled like that.
[laughter]
>> But it's almost like video game character points. It's like you only get like 10 and you can spend them in different areas and it's like Yeah. It's like some people are maxed out at like the ability to see the world through a very different lens that allows them to build a very very very complicated product like school.
>> Can you imagine if like we started trying this software company? It's like oh my goodness,
>> forget about it.
>> Yeah. You were speaking about like people finding their place and it feels like Sam has found his perfect place. All of his unique quirks, the things that he obsesses about far beyond what is healthy or natural. It's like perfectly fit for school. And there's something so beautiful when you see someone that's in a role that's so perfectly fit for them. It just feels like, oh, the world is right. Like there are very few people that could do what he's doing, but he's doing it to an extraordinary ability.
>> And I think what also happened with school, you were talking about like different people in different places. What happened at the end of last year was things were wrong, right? There was a configuration of things. There was this hustle bro problem.
>> There were the right pieces of the puzzle. The right people were there, but the configuration was slightly off.
>> And what happened all this year was that the pieces fell apart.
>> Matthew School stories stopped.
>> Goose went away. We didn't see him. He was doing his tour, but we didn't see him. Nav went away. All of these people, and there's like dozens of people kind of drifted away.
>> What it feels like has happened in the past few days. It's like
>> a homecoming reassemble.
>> It's so strange.
>> Everyone's come back and the
[clears throat]
configuration feels better than it was before. Totally. It's really cool.
>> And I do think that that is like a really good like meta for for like the entrepreneurs journey or like the community owner journey on school where it's like you'll try so hard into one thing and then it's like it won't work and then you fall backwards. You're like oh no it didn't work and it's like, but then one year later it's like you have an idea it's like oh that old thing like now works here. It's like it's like I just have this fundamental belief that nothing is wasted. Mhm.
>> And I feel like school, the way it is designed as a product and the nature of communities in general is that like it makes it really really easy for things to boomerang back around and get better and better and better every single time. It's like
>> Sam I think
>> everyone wants to talk.
[laughter]
No, you go. No, you go. No, you go.
>> In that um in that configuration of people finding the right place, I I found it really interesting to see your journey through everything you've done. For the people that don't know, can you walk through your like career trajectory and where you've ended up now? Because it definitely feels like now you found yourself in one of those roles where it's like it's made for you and I don't know many other people that could do it.
>> We are launching your story into the school ecosystem.
>> People need to know.
>> Okay. Where do I start at uni? What were you studying for?
>> Okay. So, I'm the executive assistant for school.
>> Cool.
>> Basically just means I'm trying to keep everything
>> Dude, you're the school mom
>> running. Yeah.
[laughter]
Literally, it feels like that.
>> It really feels like that.
>> Also, from the warmth and the nurture and the feelings, that's I think something that it adds across like all the like, you know, that's the invisible stuff like you can't touch but you feel it like that
>> welcoming and the being wanted. I think you bring a lot of that.
>> Oh, thank you.
>> warmth.
>> And moms just like they they get all this they catch all the stuff that everyone else drops and that they don't see. And it's like even at the event yesterday like when like huge huge props to CLA it's like
>> you know that event is like a huge huge huge event to bring all these different you know school games winners across all different categories and personalities and countries around the world. It's like and you were just the mom that just like made sure everyone got there everyone had water. Everyone was like it's like yeah phenomenal.
>> Thanks.
>> So what's your origin story?
>> I guess that that part of my job is like invisible strings. It feels like
[clears throat]
>> it feels like I'm always doing things behind the scenes to make things feel more seamless
>> and every community needs a Claire.
[laughter]
>> Well,
>> you put that on a t-shirt.
>> She's at
[laughter]
capacity at the moment.
>> Um, so yeah, going back to the beginning, we met at university. I was studying nursing, so very very different.
>> I didn't know you were
>> Yeah, cuz this what me and your wife bonded over. That's right. Yeah.
>> Yeah. So I was studying nursing three-year degree finished early because of COVID worked.
>> Yeah. Like CLA was studying, right? You need to learn the skills to be a nurse. You can't just be a nurse. But because CO happened, they said, "We don't have enough nurses. You don't get your full education. You're not ready, but we need you. So step up
>> and we'll pay and we'll pay you." So it was supposed to be unpaid placement where you like learn on the job. And then they said, "Yeah, you're finishing 6 months early. it won't be a placement. You're going to be actually working and we're going to pay you.
>> So, we were all broke, so we were like, "Money, okay, we'll do it."
>> But then
[laughter]
money, good. I mean, it wasn't very much money at all. But when we started working, we had like no support and it was in the middle of CO. Well, not even the middle, like the very beginning of CO. So, then worked all throughout CO.
>> Like how many patients?
>> Like in a major trauma unit. So we would have like horrific accidents from like car accidents to like train incidents, paragliding, like very extreme injuries and then obviously because of the lockdown people stopped kind of going out. So actually the accidents went down but then we had to look after co patients and then once the lockdown would finish the 25year-old boys would go back on their motorbikes and then get in accidents. I'd like look after 12 patients at once for 13our shifts. It's very, very, very intense.
>> It sounds like you were building high capacity.
>> Yeah, the capacity was going and then it just stopped after like a year and a half. I was like, I can't do this anymore.
>> Yeah, CLA's the sort of person that will do things to 120% capacity every day. And as a nurse working 13-our shifts and night shifts
>> with 12 patients
>> with 12 patients in a major you just can't do that. Like
>> you just can't
>> Mhm.
>> be the best version of yourself every day cuz you burn out really quick.
>> It's like
>> you have to
>> Mhm.
>> not try your hardest if you want to do it for more than
>> two years. And not to like just like make metaphors for the sake of metaphors, but like so many people who come on to school, they're like doing the nurse version of that in their business where it's like I like like I was running a high ticket like service-based podcast agency where I did all of the work and I was like completely burnt out, completely like could not grow, could not scale. Like I had my 12 patients and I I just couldn't see anything else.
>> And you see that with a lot of people in school. They take on too much. They try to give too much. And actually you need to find what like your bandwidth is and saying actually I can go up until this point and then I have to stop. Something has to change. So there something has to change. We I left my job. I said I'm going traveling for 3 months. I'll be back
>> as soon as we could. CO was happening. We couldn't travel anywhere. Thailand opened up in like a middle portion where it's like you have to go but you have to get like what was it? Testing and testing in a hotel for a few days. like we are gone straight away.
>> But I was like I'll be back. I'll just be gone for 3 months. Told my manager.
>> Still haven't been back
>> like 6 years later.
[laughter]
>> She has not set foot in a hospital.
>> Something I think is very interesting is there is so like I grew up my mom is like a social
>> worker background. She also used to be a nurse. Like my sisters are the same.
>> So I grew up with this like heavy like in order to
[snorts]
help people that's what it looks like.
>> Yeah. And then when I was that age, I was like, "Oh, business is bad and business is like just like selfish people who want to make money." If you really want to do good in the world, it's like you will like be a mother type character.
>> It's true.
>> So for you, like what was it like to step into the world of entrepreneurship? And how did you start to realize, wo, I can change the world through business.
>> That was a really hard transition because in my mind, I felt so much of my identity was wrapped up in being a nurse. Like anybody you say I'm a nurse, they're like, "Oh my goodness, you are amazing." Yeah. And I'd worked really hard for it and then I just left it all behind and then didn't work for 6 months. Just used the tiny bit of savings that I had and then got into the world of like entrepreneurship and this strange online business space from this job application that I took on Twitter for Thiago Forte to be his social media specialist. And somehow I got the job with like no experience of doing that before.
>> Yeah.
>> And then I was his like tweet writer for a while, managed all his social media, launched his book, building a second brain.
>> A number one bestseller,
>> which is how I know him like that. And then the notion stuff is like Thiago Forte. It's like everyone around me for like that time was just like you got to listen to Forte. You got to get on Thiago like and then like then it's like oh wait that was Claire.
[laughter]
>> Yeah. Yeah. I have that book.
>> Yeah. What the?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, that wasn't that was
>> Yeah, it's crazy.
>> Such What happened was you started running out of savings and we were like, "Okay, are we going to stop traveling or are we going to figure something out?" And we definitely didn't want to go back.
>> You have to figure something out.
>> What were you doing in that time?
>> I was fighting with Hamza just like
[laughter]
in the mud in Thailand somewhere.
>> Well, I had my previous business. I grew the channel up to half a million subscribers. I had monetized it effectively and was basically just trying to figure out what I wanted to do next. So I did so many different things. Like at one point I was helping reindors with this YouTube channel. At one point I was helping I had like a mastermind at one point. I had just a lot of different stuff trying to figure out what to do.
>> We have this like tweet from you that's one of our best performing ads. Uh when you now say you figured out how to monetize a creator. I
[clears throat]
can you speak to that because I think you know even
>> people with large audiences and Hamza making 20K with two million people
>> it's like not that he was bad at this like what it normally looks like best case. So I would love to hear from you kind of what you figured out around that time.
>> Yeah, I think it depends on the creator basically. You have to add the most value to your audience as possible. So you have to figure out what problems they're having, what desires they have and then figure out how you can best solve those things. Um, the biggest thing with big creators is the launch. Like if you can figure out how to do a launch to your audience, that's where things get crazy. And
>> did you learn that from him when you were doing the launch for the book or was it the other way around? Like how did you guys during that time learn from each other?
>> Yeah, we definitely we definitely helped each other. Well, Kirby like helped me get the job initially cuz he was like do this overd deliver like write a tweet thread.
>> It's so classic. If you're going for a job interview, they ask for this just give them a bit more. And it's like immediately it sets you out from everyone else.
>> Yeah. And they were like, "You went above and beyond." And
>> they asked for an application. CL did the application and wrote a Twitter thread for them.
>> Oh, very good.
>> That they could actually use like they could just post tomorrow.
>> So, they were like, "This is really valuable." But that was like all Kirby's idea to get me to stand out, I think.
>> So cute. Like a power couple and you guys both go on this like, you know,
[laughter]
journey and then all of a sudden it's like you come together. It's like
>> it's like the full on heart.
[laughter]
>> Yeah. Oh, it's the heart. Oh, nice. Like wholesome AF. That's good.
>> It's funny because we like I don't know being a power couple has so many it has like that is not something we identify with. Like we would not say that we are a power couple.
>> Sure. That's why I said it and not you guys.
>> Back to the launch
>> cuz I was like I need the value.
>> No, people need to know this because it's like I think that's one of the biggest questions is like how do I launch on school, right? if I already have an audience and then also what would you do if you don't have an audience? Should you already start a school before you have one?
>> Can you speak to that? Because you see so many communities, both of you see so many communities is launching every day.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think the biggest mistake that people with an audience make is they think they need to have like a full course built out before they launch. And that's so silly because once you have people inside of a group, you can build a course with them and it's going to be so much better than before. That's like the biggest mistake that people make. But really, if you just know your audience really well, and if you don't know it, you can speak to them, you can get on calls with them, you can do posts with them, you basically just need to find an angle. Like that's the biggest thing to make the launch work well. What is the unique angle that you can bring to the market that makes this a really exciting, interesting product. And if you can find that, it makes the launch so much bigger. And then you want to like view it as like a a pressure cooker. So you want to build up hype, tease, whisper something's coming. And then over time you have to slowly drip more information, more information, more information until the crescendo where you're like, "It's here." And the goal is to make that be as exciting a time as possible. Because if you've built an audience over years, you have so much goodwill and energy built up that you just have to maximize that as much as humanly possible during the launch, which comes from that like whisper tease phase before the actual launch. Do
>> you know what's really funny? Like I obviously learned so much from you and from Sam and from Alex like just being part of the school ecosystem whenever it came to like the like my community. I did that whole process but I just did it like for my friends and family.
>> So it's like I didn't have any audience you had zero YouTube channels like I like dude I got nothing. How am I going to get people into this thing? And I just like whispered with my friends. It's like hey like do you ever like like have any problems with like spending too much time on their phone? They're like yeah really do. And it's like and then you just like and then like I think we launched it with like 10 people and then like I found like 10 more friends and then I found like 10 more friends and then like I like in my church there's like other families who like were like talking about it and so like it works on every
>> it doesn't matter if you have 2 million or if you have like 20 friends that are like relevant to like the thing that you want to help them with. It's like the perfect process.
>> Yeah. I can talk about this because there's been a lot of people that haven't had an audience that have done big launches as well. Like I know people that have made $100,000 without an audience and they're like what? How does that make sense mathematically?
[laughter]
>> But what happens is is assuming you've been interested in something for a while, especially if you're good at this thing, you have more of a audience/n network than you realize. The example is if you're just a random rock climber, really passionate about it. If you check your Instagram, you've probably posted pictures of you rock climbing. You've probably gone to rock climbing gyms and you've made friends with different rock climbers. So you can do a launch even if you don't have an audience by doing two things. The first thing is you look through all of the different places you can post.
>> Even if you just have Facebook friends, you have an Instagram profile, you can launch to those places.
>> So make a list of all the different places that you could launch Instagram stories, Instagram post, Instagram reels, Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts, whatever you have an audience. That's the first thing. Then the second thing is you do a network audit. So you look through all of your contacts. You look through everyone you've texted. This
>> is what I did.
[laughter]
It's like I followed the playbook.
>> Like every profile, who have you Twitter DM'd, who have you messaged on Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, if you do everything, almost everyone will end up with a long list of people they can reach out to to do the whisper, to do the tease that when the launch happens, you can do a launch.
>> That's so cool. I think you said one thing that's so important is like once you found your thing and you start to get really good at this, I feel like a lot of people get into it and they're like, "Oh, which type of community sells? Well, I do a community like this that sells." And then what ends up happening is like the thing doesn't sell and they actually don't launch. Not because it doesn't work, but it's like because they actually have this kind of insecurity that it's not the actual thing that they want to do. So, they fall off of it. They join a bunch of communities to figure it out. Eventually through those communities in like weird rabbit holes they find the thing that they actually want to do and then it's like their second or third community suddenly they they have that experience right so it's like oh that's you know you started with podcast key and eventually it's like helping families with screen time
>> it's like a weird arc
[laughter]
>> yeah I started with stoicism videos oh yeah
>> then productivity then personal development then I realized what I like most don't tell
>> did you do bushcraft at one point don't
>> what is that
>> pull it from the archive.
>> Bushcraft.
>> Bushcraft.
>> Can you like leak like a video or something, Claire?
>> It was SEO.
>> I bought some SEO course
>> through WordPress
>> and they told me to start a blog
[laughter]
>> and he didn't and he didn't want to do it, so I did it.
>> So he made you
[laughter]
write?
>> Yes, I'm writing blog posts on bushcraft,
>> which is like wilderness like
>> naked fires, how to survive.
>> I know why you proposed. It's like did you use words?
[laughter]
Yeah. It's like, dude, Kirby really locked out here. This was this was a good decision to make, but neither one of us are into bushcraft.
>> That's And that's the perfect example not working. Zero passion
[laughter]
because zero passion passion. I just did some keyword research. This should work. Low competition. Let's do this.
>> Yeah, it was the low. But that's the same stuff, right? That's what people do. It's like, oh, low competition and potential.
>> Where do we get to in your character arc?
>> I just think it was so funny. So, I was like like Claire starts as a nurse. Yeah. And now she ends up like
>> I know you know
>> being the mom of like one of the most the coolest companies on the planet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> With 40 kids.
>> Actually technically like you'll have a billion kids by the time school's finished. So
[laughter]
>> yeah. So how did you then Yeah. Like what happened next in your story?
>> So was working with Thiago was an amazing experience. That was like the first time we actually came to LA was for
[clears throat]
our team meetup. um cuz he lived in Long Beach and I was like I'm going to LA like I work for this US company. I went from getting like NHS pay in the UK to
>> which is like £25,000 which is probably like £30,000
>> and then I went to earning like 75k with Thiago and I was like I can never I can never make more.
>> I remember you saying that you were I said that I will never make more money than this is what you said.
>> I was like I'm rich like this is like
>> we're from Ireland, right? So like what did your friends and family like think it it's like 75k a year is like on it's not real? No, I don't think they knew that. But they saw me in LA and they saw me with this like US company and they were like I don't think people understood because they were like why would you leave a stable nursing job to go to this like weird you know super super niche company with eight people like that doesn't really make sense
>> but I kind of I knew that it was the right thing to do and that really opened so many doors after I stopped working with him. I then was like what
>> I'm just thinking of all the chapters like there's a lot of chapters to the story
>> there's so many chapters
>> there was a few other creators that you worked with similar to Thiago well basically what happened was Thiago Ford is like the biggest creator in this niche of note takingaking knowledge management they call it and he was the biggest and CLA helped him launch the book bestselling books now all of a sudden all of these other notetaking influencers are reaching out
>> dude if only you're out of school community it's like I help note takingaking influencers like really because that actually would be a really pretty good school for me.
>> It's a perfect passion niche thing. It's unreal. Yeah.
>> So, there was that. Then there was
>> then a recruiter.
>> Then I did recruiting in the middle. Very random. And then
>> almost got sucked into a cult.
>> Oh, dude.
>> That's a Tuesday for me.
[laughter]
>> That's a story for another day. That was I dodged a bullet there. But you know I mean well I mean you just
>> but that's an interesting thing though to speak about because you know we get these acquisitions school is a pyramid scheme school is cult like and I think when you go into the to the like online space for people it's very hard to tell the difference right cuz there's a lot of hype everywhere how do people vet an opportunity and what are you know what are the red flags for like the future when you're like okay don't get into any of this like what did you notice and we don't have to call out the government or anything with with that experience. It was like strange how it came about. Kirby thought Kirby like met this woman. They had a call. She seemed really interesting. Kirby's like, "Oh, Claire's like looking for a job." This was after Thiago. Claire's looking for a job. Do you need anyone to like help you with recruiting, got on a call with her? She was like, "You seem great. Let's hire you." But I'd never done any recruiting. And then that it all seemed fine. And then things started getting weird when I think when people like cross the boundary of work,
>> professional and
[clears throat]
personal.
>> Yeah. But but
In school that also happens like all the time. No, it's true. She outright came and said that she came from a cult. Oh, she made it pretty clear. She made it pretty clear. Like there was a lot of red flags, but sometimes people, you know, like if someone's extra friendly, it's like kind of a red flag, but they're just extra friendly. So it's like love bombing kind of. Okay, that's exactly what it was.
I think like we're obviously all like ride or die school people and also it's like we're aware of reality. It's like school is a place where like millions of people can come together and as part of that it's like a useful skill to have. It's like knowing who to trust and who not to trust and like you're in schoolers and schoolers like one of the most fun places on the planet and like someone will slide into your DM someday and maybe like ask you to do something or an offer. So, it's like how can we keep ourselves safe and like keep our eyes open while being on this super exciting passionate ride. I think that's like an interesting lesson from your experience.
Yeah, definitely. And also trusting your gut with these things because I definitely didn't have the best internal gut feeling towards that situation. Yeah. But I ignored that. And then like it always does, it comes around, right, and shows its true colors. It's pretty easy to appear credible on school when you have little credibility. That's the dangerous trap. There's a lot of people that oh, they look pretty credible and then you look at their work or you start working with them and you're like this person sucks. Yeah, that happens a lot.
And it's just like just like your journey. It's part of the journey. It's like it's totally fine if like your first community doesn't work, your first job as a community admin doesn't work or your first friend on school maybe betrays you and lets you down. It's like no, it's like you got to keep going. And you got to keep finding the way. Actually, you would have loved this. Like at the last podcast, I was talking about the little Irish blessing where it's like the road rises to meet you. And it's like when you take a step forward, it's like the road will come, but you got to keep stepping.
What was it like for you guys to like completely uproot your lives and move to Los Angeles? And what's your plan? What are you currently doing? You got it. You got it. It was uh it was it was good. We've been traveling a lot, so it didn't feel super crazy. And it's great to be where the action is and being in the office every day and learning from people and knowing what's going on and seeing the behind the scenes and the weather's great. Sucks to be away from family. Like the biggest thing is I have a niece who's like, how old is she now? Two. Yeah. And it's been a year since we've been back. Oh yeah. And a lot changes between one and two. That's the part that's like Yeah. My girl's two at the minute. So I just see it like between one and two. The difference is totally different. Massive.
When you were on school and you helped the creators, you then transitioned when Horoszi came right into the games because that's how I got to know you and experienced you. So I and I I keep telling Sam that I I missed the school games community the way it was and the way it was shared. Were you already on school at that time or where were you at that time when the games came around when the when Hermosi came? I was still just working separately but still knew so much about school from Kirby. Like he would share so many things. So I feel like secondhand I was learning behind the scenes. And that was also probably when a lot of momentum came on school, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Also, you've been an admin in my community since the very beginning. So you kind of like saw the evolution just not super proactively. Mhm. Yeah. Almost from like a bird's eye view. Yeah. Which actually makes it feel crazier because you're like looking down at it changing so rapidly. How did Synthesizer change like when you look back? So much like it was when I was first there there was like 10 20 members and now there's what 30,000. Yo, it's crazy. It's insane. And people's lives have really been changed. And like when I see the post it's so easy to just be like, "Oh, this is another post." But there's people behind it. Like somebody came up to Kirby yesterday and was like, "You are the reason I'm here." No, two two people were like shouting him out yesterday, which is incredible cuz there are only two people and how many people have made posts. Yeah.
I mean, you personally helped me so much on the platform. Yeah. It's crazy when you're just online, you forget that there's people on the other side. It's like you know it's a person, but you don't feel it's a person. But when you meet someone in real life and they're like, I have three kids. There was this one guy and he was like, I teach Spanish. If you tell someone on the street, I teach Spanish, they just assume you're some broke Spanish teacher earning $20 an hour. This was his words. He was like, I earn $30,000 per month doing whatever I want to do. I support my whole family because of this. And I wouldn't be on school if it wasn't for you. And my whole YouTube strategy was copying one video that you made where you were walking outside with your phone. And now I do that every single day. And I'm like, wait, what? You're like a real human. This is insane. Yeah.
And for some reason when there's family involved for me the impact feels so much more real. Like helping someone make money is cool. But when that person has kids for some reason for me that's like wo like that's not just impacting a person but a family that's cool and you have to think like those are the cases you know about right but there's so many people picking up so many small things through the lines right so that that was for me when I transitioned to school everything was new. It's a completely different way of doing business as well. much easier one once you get it like once it clicks it's so much easier but I would have not been able to make that transition if it wasn't for all of the posts with all of the micro insights and even I remember you you had these graphics right where it was like I think it was like a paramedist like the guru down versus thinking about that one and I was like oh I get it you know so it's like those small it's I think it's all of the small things you learn and you pick up from someone and then from all other creators as well, right? And that's the beauty about school, I think, is you learn from so many diverse people, from so many different paths in business, and it kind of all condenses to, oh, this is my way of doing it that feels sustainable, that doesn't feel like such hard work.
Why do you think community owners should get IRL with people? cuz you've seen this from like a meta level of like school itself introducing IRL meetups through like the school games events and now you're like hanging out with people you usually only see on profile pictures like you know every single week like what's the benefit of IRL for an online community you like you just have to you just have to it changes everything it becomes real it just becomes real there's something about the computer it doesn't feel real like we talked about you're playing a That's what it feels like. But when you meet someone, you're like, "Oh, real human, real life, real backtory, real family, real friends." Imagine having a beer with Mario. That's what school allows you to do. It's true. It's like you meet all the characters. Yeah. Yeah.
How do you make it a good experience? Cuz that's what you also do right now, right? So like one of the many things is you organize the events. You make sure to set the space for people to connect. I think it's making the experience the best it can be by just thinking of everything that could go wrong and trying to mitigate it, but then also knowing that nothing's ever going to be perfect, which I have a hard time with. I like to make things good. But yeah, just knowing you've put in the work, you've done all you can do, and now the event will take place. And it also people are going to make their own journey. Like people are going to talk to people they've been talking to online. People are going to create space. Yeah. create space for real connection. And I think a lot of people yesterday had been talking online for so many years and then they were like, "We're actually meeting in person. Like, you're a real human." And people were making group chats of like really small little microcosms of people. Yeah. All the Spanish bros, like all the Spanish speaking winners, they were like, "Oh, we definitely got to like connect." And then all the French dudes was like, it's like, "Wa, this is crazy." So cute. All the music niche, they were popping off. I was like, "This is beautiful." I know. It's amazing. Even though they've been talking on school for years, until they actually met in person, then they were able to take their relationship to the next level. So, yeah, that's definitely a huge benefit of these events.
I think the thing that shocks me about the school games events is how simple they are. And I know like before I did an IRL thing with like any of like my online communities. Yeah. Yeah. It's like that's a long story. That's also a very long story. Uh but I was so inspired by you guys. Like the reason why like those events worked was because it was like, "Oh, you just like pick a place, make sure people have some food, and you just like bring them together." It's like the actual format is not complicated. You don't have to have like 50 talking points to like bring people together. And it can be even less than that. Like you can meet in a coffee shop, meet in a park. Yeah. It doesn't have to be in a wedding venue. But there is more than it looks like behind the scenes. Oh. Well, that's the thing about simplicity as well, isn't it? Exactly. That's hard hard work to keep things simple. Yes.
What fascinates me working with uh Kirby and with Sam every day is how much thought they put into all of the features, all of the flows. It's like something comes out on the other end and it looks simple, but it's like such a journey to make it simple. It's so many conversations and it's so much data and like that goes into it. And it's actually I I learned about myself from school that it's so much easier to do something complicated than it is to do something simple. It's so much harder. I will take zero credit. It's all Sam. Like it is all Sam. And if there's any part of it that's me, it's because I've learned it from Sam. No, you know what I see is like you also challenge things like that. I think that's the biggest value is to keep reminding like does it have to be like that? Is that actually true? Like a little bit. uh the devil's advocate and I think that adds a lot. Yeah. But because that keeps it that keeps us clear as well otherwise there's things you don't consider like you know we talked about world tour and stuff like that. So I think that's really important to to get into that perspective as well.
And again like the beautiful thing about being a customer on school is that like the old way of doing business was like you were all by yourself trying to build this thing you had no idea how to do. You had zero feedback. You had zero devil advocates. you're angel advocates or whatever the opposite of that is. It's like you've got nothing and like you you live in Ireland and you like have friends and they all work for the NHS and they're all nurses and teachers and it's like you're so lonely. Mhm. And then it's like you jump into schoolers and it's like here's 200,000 people that are building the same type of business as you. By the way, you can be friends with them all and learn everything you need to know from them. It's like what? I know.
So, what advice would you guys give to people just getting started on school? Like, how do you start to take those first steps? Do you mean someone who's just joined school today? Or if you were to talk to Claire who's like at the end of her wits with the nursing job, what should I do and you know school and you know Claire and what she can potentially do? How would you advise her to check it out? I would pick what I'm most passionate about. I think I have an answer for you that's more accurate. Okay. #marriage. I I think that you this and I said you speak and you said no and then I I think that that the way you're framing the question is asking it as if CLA is going to start her own community. But from what I've seen about CLA is that everything that you've done has been supporting other creators. And I think that the thing is a great split actually. You don't just need to start your own school community. There is plenty of opportunities helping other creators like you've done with so many different people and now like you do with school. Oh, this is perfect. Andrew can do the creator side and you can do the the operator support side. Growth operator. Dude, when you ship in the growth operator course, let's go. It's so it's so under utilized opportunity on school. Well, because it's easier to make money helping a business that already exists than it is to start your own as an entry level. And then we've seen so many people on school like become an admin or become a moderator and then like it teaches them everything they need to like go.
Yeah. I think also knowing that not everyone has to start a community. Like, and I was just going to say like pick something you're passionate about, but I don't really have anything specifically I'm passionate about, but I like helping people. I like being useful. I like being good, being of service. So, like what Kirby was saying, I could find a community that I like and then go to them and say, "I have these skills. What could I do for you? How could I make your life better? How could I also earn money while doing that?" And then I don't have to start my own community. I don't have to, you know, be this thought leader. I just Hi, I'm Claire. I help crochet community scale to 1 million a month on school. People also think like when they support community owners that they always have to support them in marketing. Some communities are actually already great in marketing, but it's just like speaking from my community, you can reel in more people than you can like take care of, right? So, and having somebody who can also nurture and who gets that human component is so helpful. And even at one point at university when I was getting into the whole YouTube online creator stuff, when you get into it and you love it so much, you try to get everyone you know to do it. Yeah. So I you were running the affiliate scheme before there was even an affiliate program. You were like, I need to get as many people into entrepreneurship as possible. He was recruiting me. So yeah, Claire started uploading YouTube videos about nursing, nursing secrets. Shout out But then here's the thing, like I was paid back for the bushcraft thing. That was called Bushcraft Secrets. Whoa. Um, but then like you didn't like that. What happened was I I loved it so I thought everyone would love it. So I was like, "Cla, you should start this." And then CL's and then I was like, "You should start this CLA." And then CL fine, I'll start it. Uploaded a few videos. You hated it. And then stopped. Really hated it. Yeah. And I had like sponsors and on paper it was good, but in my heart it was not. No passion. It was not good. Need the passion.
So, what about on the creator end? Like, what's the biggest pitfalls that you see schoolers fall into that would that just make it harder and longer than it needs to be? Yeah, I think that in the beginning, if you're serious, you can learn a lot really quickly if you go deep down all the rabbit holes like you were saying, you read all the posts. Like if someone went and they read all of the posts in schoolers from Evelyn and me and Sam in the jams category have a PhD in school. Yeah. Just spend a week like going deep and you'll learn a lot that'll help you shortcut a lot of the process but then after a week start taking action cuz people get caught in just consuming for too long. Like I've my life has been changed by information. Like I went through like we're talking about Sam's course and it completely changed my life. Hamza we were talking about completely changed his life just through information. So if you learn the information and you obsess about learning it for a limited period of time, you can completely change your paradigm, your knowledge pretty quickly and then you just implement what you learned. Yeah. It's like how do you get good at a video game? Mhm. Practice.
How would you recommend? So, you know, we just like discussed there's probably creator souls and there's probably supporter souls sounds like it's, you know, not as important, but I think it is as important as creator. It's just like a being of a different different breed. I don't know. How do you know or how would you go about finding your place? If you see school and you're like, "This sounds amazing, but I don't feel, you know, passionate about something or I wouldn't know what my thing is or I'm doubting what my thing is." How would you go about figuring out where your space is? All I know is that I tried a lot of different things like I I talked about stoicism and productivity and personal development. Whatever it was I was interested in. We can't forget. It took me so long to realize though. I tried all these things but then I realized that the thing that I truly loved wasn't productivity or stoism or personal development. The thing that I loved was the thing underneath that. I loved synthesizing. I loved building businesses around solving problems and sharing solutions. And I wouldn't have been able to know that until I had tried a lot of different things. If I had just thought, what do I like? I would never have found that.
Was it for you the same experience? Like also just trying trying and then you were like actually I don't want this this this. That's my thing. Yeah. Exactly. And also all my other jobs after nursing were online and I realized that wasn't for me at all because they were all behind a screen. They were all on these like weird Zoom meetings that I never felt real connection. And then I think the difference with this school job is I'm in the office every single day. And I think that's where I thrive way more than online. Yeah. Like I swear the best communities they in my opinion that I've seen have they have both. they have like the IRL connection between like the co-founders or between like the local community or whatever and then they get to benefit from like the massive high leverage of the internet and of school and being able to connect with the world like there's really interesting winner uh yesterday he run he was like a doctor for 27 years he's practice in Louisiana Dr. Chris Yeah. He said, he's like, I have had this bricks and mortar practice in Louisiana for 27 years, and now school allows me to have one that reaches the whole world. And it's like, wow. Like that was insane. You can do that. And again, like coming from like that Irish mentality where it's like a little village type business. You can still do the really the passionate thing like, you know, your little local bushcraft thing that you love. You now can scale this to be a global enterprise.
It's true. when you when you were realizing, you know, that because I can so like resonate with that. It's like you go from 30,000 to 75 5,000 a year and you're like, I'm making this insane money now. Nobody ever's going to pay me this much again, you know, like when they figure out, you know, kind of situation. And then you get into the entrepreneur world and then you see like, wait a second, you know, I'm not like maybe such a unicorn. It's like there's so many people. And this is I think that's one of the biggest things that school also showed me cuz I had my memberships before and I was like, "Oh yeah, I run online memberships and I'm the only person in the world like doing this and you know that and then you go in school and you're like, "Wait a second, there's all these people and maybe I'm just scratching the surface of what's possible." So maybe can you speak to like seeing what's possible on school through all of the communities? I think like what you said, it really just opens your eyes to realize that there is so much more out there. Like that 75k thing, you look at that on school, like you said, there's so many people making that per month. And also knowing that if you don't want to make that per month, that's also okay. But also knowing that if you do want to, that's also okay. And it's you can do both. And there's opportunity for both as well. Yeah. Yeah.
There's something beautiful about the internet because you see everyone doing everything and it removes so many limiting beliefs. Like growing up, neither of us knew people making a lot of money. Neither of us knew people working online. Growing up, there was only like 10 jobs you could get. You could be a teacher, you could be a doctor, you could be a firefighter, you could be a policeman. Now it's almost like whatever it is that you love, whatever bushcraft, whatever it is that you like, you can build a full business around that. It's crazy. Yeah. Like you can turn yourself into a business. Yeah, true. You can monetize your personal growth journey. Yeah. Redo is you can monetize your passion. You can monetize your skills. You can Yeah.
Have a very similar idea. Like I think I loved Kirby's post and how he was managing the games community and the things he shared. I was like, I know this is true. Yeah, I know this is true. I didn't have the words for it, but yeah, what this guy is saying is like exactly what happened to me as well. Yeah. So, I think more or less like everybody goes on the same journey, but when you try to describe it to someone, it just doesn't click the way like we you just talked bushcraft secrets. I read expert secrets and I read the book and I was like, I don't know what to do now. And then I've been through the journey and I read it again or I was actually listening to it on an audio book and I was like, oh my goodness, he gave us the complete blueprint. This is exactly how it works. But you were not able to execute on it before you've not done the work cuz then you're like you have to have to go for the fire. There's no other way.
And just on that note of posting, I want to keep making posts. The reason I don't make posts isn't cuz I don't want to. It's because whenever an admin makes a post in a community, everyone gets notified. There's 200,000 people in schoolers. We view schoolers as like schoolers is people's second community. Yeah, your first community is your own community. That's where 80% of your focus should be. You just pop into schoolers every now and again, see what's going on, get some value. And if I'm just making posts, broadcasting it to everyone, that's not good. And back then when I was making posts, school's churn was higher. Now school's churn is stupid low. So it's like what we're doing is working. I'm not saying my posts were why people were churn, but if it's working now, then but people could find it in synthesizer, right? So then that's the best place to go I think. Yeah, totally. #selfpromo #droptheaffiliatelink Evelyn. It's a free community.
So yeah, and I love what you guys have done with schoolers like in so many different ways. I even just love like the name. I love that it's one community now instead of two. I love the cat logo. I love like the school news format of like the one really really good weekly call. And so like we get a lot of Kirby, not so much Claire. Maybe you can like poke your head in next time and just like whisper bushcraft into the microphone or something for the memes. So we we get like a weekly update from you. We get like weekly value. If you could kind of zoom out a little bit more. I'm I'm not asking for like company trade secrets or for you to cast a vision for the company. Take them. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. But for for both of you guys, it's like on a bigger level, it's like what are you really excited about school over the next year? Let's just limit it like that.
I think the thing that's going to be most exciting is that once school is really polished for the creators on school, the focus then shifts to getting members. And yeah, the idea is to focus a lot and spend a lot of money helping people get members because if you're a YouTuber, you post on YouTube because that's where the viewers are. How could a YouTuber switch to Vimeo? Imagine as a YouTuber you start uploading on Vimeo. You're like, what? You can host videos there. Similar features, no audience. That's the problem. School's goal is to blow up the member side of school so that everyone on school gets a crazy amount of members. Just like when Tik Tok spent a billion dollars on advertising, creators would go to Tik Tok because that's where you build an audience. Creators were blowing up on Tik Tok. That's what's going to happen to score. If your group's good, you'll get a lot of members and that's exciting. Yo, very exciting. That was a perfect like piece of content right there. I was like, whoa, whoa. clip that. Yeah. Like come on, Evelyn. Run now, Evelyn. It's like I see your odd brain just like No, but it's it's what you know that's I think the best thing about school is that you guys really want to solve all the problems of the creator and like if you're just passionate about serving your people, I think maybe you would reconsider starting a community if it was like I can really do just like what I like and I actually get sent members because I'm doing a good job in here. Yeah. because you know that marketing piece is really hard for people that are passionate for example for bushcraft into bushcraft. I'm not into marketing, but now I could actually get members, right? So, I think there's not any other platform that I know of that is yeah, taking care of their people like that. That's the thing that out of everything that just sticks with me about school is that like like Sam and Kirby and you and all of the leadership team and the insane talented people that actually build and support like every person on the school team like they care like they love community owners and they want to like they exist to help them. Yeah. And it's like, wow. That's why it feels like such a warhog every time I log onto the platform. Bro, it's true. On other platforms, you could spend millions and you don't even get a human on the support. Yeah. Like where can we name any names, but where can you actually talk to the people on the platform like even smaller platforms, I don't think you could get their CEO to care about that. That's true. And they truly care. like seeing them in the office, how much like Erica and Sid and the team put into it. They read everything and they really put their whole like heart and soul into it. Like it's it's not just replying to, you know, messages. That's how you have a good community. You just care about And I was also going to say like being in the office so much, I really get to see that like firsthand. And on Wednesdays is our leadership day. So the whole leadership team comes in and like even just being at lunch and hearing them constantly talk about how can we make school better? What problems are we having? How can we solve it? Having two three-hour long meetings about how we can make school better. It's like that's when you know that you have something special. Yeah. And that is the perfect way to end. Let's go. Yeah. Thank you so much. So super cute. Thank you so much. Thanks for everything you do as well. Thank you. Thanks for co-hosting. Should we do a proper heart now? Oh, here we go.