Estimated read time: 5 mins

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” 
— Stephen King 

This is a story all about how I created an epic membership and I’m killing it now. 

In favor of something better and *fingers crossed* WAY more supportive to the people I’m here to serve.

What you’ll learn in this article:

🍵💲Why Fertile Ground is no more, grey areas, and why if it’s not an F YES for all involved, it’s a no 

🍵💲Learning in public: my hypothesis on what worked and what didn’t 

🍵💲The 2 patterns I couldn’t ignore anymore (+ what I’m doing about them)

This week’s tea: why I shut down my Fertile Ground membership

This month I did something that felt REALLY hard… I pulled the plug on the community and mentorship experience that I poured my heart into over the last year. 

I grappled with this decision for months. It was very much NOT a black & white choice. 

First and foremost, I ADORE the humans in there. I didn’t want to lose our connection or for them to feel like I don’t have their backs. 

But more importantly, as a business coach who encourages every client to look at the BIG picture and the whole ecosystem, I have to lead by example. 

& the scope of what I aimed to offer within Fertile Ground didn’t match the structure of the container I created or the price point.

To be fair, I don’t think you know this stuff until you do it.

We all have to be okay with learning in public.

I want to offer full-spectrum, deep, intimate, no holds barred growth coaching that touches every corner of someone’s life and business — and I can’t do that for $147-$300 a month. 

Which is what I was trying to do. 

Under the guise of being accessible. Because I’m tired of $30k masterminds being the only solution people have. That still holds. I just didn’t get it quite right. 

It’s also not what everyone in the room needed. 

So I started doing what I do (and what all of us searching for the dream offer that feels like a no brainer and gets serious results should be doing) and I looked for the pattern.

The most common themes coming up again and again with members and all of my 1:1 clients came back to 2 things:

1. LACK OF AUDIENCE. 

You can have the dopest offers, the most expertise, and all the best ingredients for a killer online business, but if you don’t have an engaged audience that trusts you, you’ve got nothin’. 

Building that audience right now isn’t easy. Consumer trust is at all time lows. The coaching and online course industry has grown so much in the last 5 years and with it so have the number of coaches and creators. 

The ones who are weathering the immense changes we’re now faced with and still doing well have one thing in common: an audience that trusts them. 

Which brings me to the next pattern… 

2. LACK OF SYSTEMS TO GROW AN AUDIENCE.

The thing we’ve all been told to go all in on to build said audience is social media. Which is fair, right? Free platforms we all have access to where our audience is surely hanging out. All we need to do is get their attention, right? 

Except that the whole game feels like it’s rigged against you. There’s no consistency in results. And in that arena, we’re forced to play by rules that don’t necessarily align with our personal values. 

One of the most dominant patterns I notice in the people in my world is that they’re exhausted by the incessant and ever changing demands of the social stratosphere… 

But it feels like the only option. 

I know for a fact and from my own experience over the last decade that it’s not. 

It’s not the only way. 

So I asked myself…

What if I stop trying to do it all and start showing up with solutions that I KNOW the humans in my orbit not just need but want?

That’s why I created the Anti-Social Visibility System. It’s FREE (for now) and in it I’ll share how I’ve built a social media optional business in addition to: 

→ How to take a social media sabbatical, and still grow your audience like never before, and become KNOWN (without being glued to your phone 🤳) 

→ The KNOWN Method™: The 5-part framework for sustainable visibility on your terms — no posting daily, spending hours on your hooks, or hoping someone comments THE WORD or clicks your Link in Bio 🔗 

→ Behind the scenes on the anti-social strategies I’ve personally used to drive multiple 6-figures in my own business 

→ The ‘borrowed trust’ short-cut and the built discovery long-game playbooks to make this the year you prioritize what separates the crushers from the crushed (audience!) 

I’m really excited about this, and hopeful that it will ultimately be what’s most of service right now.

If you recognize that sustainable audience growth and systems you can rely on to get results is the missing piece for you too, grab a spot!

& hit reply if you’ve ever been in the same boat of having to kill your darling(s). 

My philosophy these days is that if it’s not an F yes for all involved, it’s probably a no, and moving on creates space for that full body yes to flourish.

Sip on this…  

🧋An oldie but a goodie… (serious meme shortage lately because I’m on an IG hiatus 😅 ) 

🧋Reading: Reality Transurfing Steps I-V and it is some paradigm altering mindset on crack MAGIC.

What’d you think of this issue of Spill the Tea?

• Been there, done that, buried the darling too 😭 — deeply resonated!
• Appreciate the honesty. Makes me rethink what’s actually working in my biz…
• You’re crazy for shutting it down.