Last week I did something I’ve been avoiding for eight months: I cleaned out my inbox. (Do not judge lest ye be judged.)
Buried in there was an email from a potential client who told me point-blank that he would ONLY work with me one-on-one, that group programs and memberships have no value because “they all suck.” OUCH.
I remember exactly what I wrote back: “I’m at capacity for long-term 1:1 work, so this isn’t an option.”
That was it. Door closed. Next.
What I didn’t do was tell him the truth. I didn’t explain why cohort work is the foundation of how I built this business. I was exhausted, in full the-world-is-on-fire-and-I-just-can’t-with-anything-remotely-demanding mode, and I couldn’t muster the energy to meet his need. So I shut it down. That is why this was painful and eye-opening.
Not my best moment.
So today, imma do better. As we open applications for How to Run Your Business Without Hating Your Boss Accelerator (H2RA), I’m doing what I should have done eight months ago.
Psst, I see that you’re still on this list, friend, and this one’s for you.
Thanks for your patience. And forgive me.
Creative Businesses Need Community-Based Coaching (“They All Suck” Isn’t the Full Story)
You’ve been burned. I’ve been burned. We both know it.
In fact, many of us creative entrepreneurs have been burned by “community.” The Facebook groups that turned into complaint zones or “gotcha” traps. The paid memberships that felt like a Competitive Peacocking Olympic Event. The networking events that felt like being hit on by someone who just wants to pitch you something they can’t even explain. The “is this a cult?” vibe. Shudder.
Those experiences were real. And they sucked. Those experiences shape how we think about community. I know they do, because I’ve had them too. It’s one of the reasons I started this business in the first place. To, you know, use my expertise in culture and grassroots community building to change the way that music folks do, well, community.
Being in community is a choice. It’s so much more than FB, or networking, or even IRL social performance. In the context of H2RA, community is business owners in the same room with the same framework tackling parallel challenges together. Choosing it. The ups, the downs, the in-betweens.
Cohort as community is about investing in people the way we invest in ourselves. A scary and vulnerable thing to do. It’s about safely disagreeing, and having your hard work recognized and embraced by the community, so that you trust yourself more.
When these things happen, implementation speed increases, decision quality improves, and people stick with hard things they’d abandon alone. Accountability shifts from external pressure to mutual investment . You’re not being held accountable to standards, but rather held in community through your commitments. There’s a difference between “did you do the thing?” and “how are we doing with our things?”
Brandon Hall Group tracked this shift. In 2020, only 27% of organizations thought cohort-based collaborative learning was effective. By 2024 that number jumped to 69%. Self-paced courses see completion rates around 3%. Cohort-based programs? Over 90%. And 71% of cohort participants say their group motivates them to keep going when solo learners typically drop off.
The methodology was the magic.
👉 Applications for H2RA are open — see if cohort-based coaching is right for you.
The BeastyBoss Framework Creates Strategic Community, Not Just Social Space
H2RA uses the BeastyBoss™ Framework to teach CEO-level thinking.
Every person in your cohort learns the same language: defining ideal clients with precision, pricing for generosity instead of scarcity, building systems that function without constant intervention, making strategic decisions from data rather than fear.
This language isn’t perfect, or better, or a big secret, but it allows for shared language. Shared language makes learning more efficient, develops faster pattern recognition, reduces emotional labor, and promotes retention.
When everyone speaks BeastyBoss, patterns emerge that you’d never see alone.
The voice teacher realizes her pricing problem is identical to the web designer’s pricing problem. The studio owner sees how the photographer’s onboarding system solves her scheduling nightmare. The consultant watches the writer set a boundary she’s been avoiding for months, then sets it herself the following week.
Etienne Wenger documented this phenomenon in communities of practice research. When practitioners share a domain, engage in joint activities, and develop shared resources, they create learning systems that organizations can’t replicate through training alone. Wenger and Snyder found that these communities become “organizational frontiers”—the places where actual innovation and knowledge-sharing happen, not in formal training sessions.
This is what H2RA does. We create the conditions for strategic peer learning.
1:1 Coaching Without Community Is Learning to Swim on Dry Land (Ouch)
Our team delivers exceptional one-on-one coaching. We really do. Ask people.
You’ll walk away with clear strategy and actionable plans. Still, without peers holding you accountable, without a community normalizing the work of being a BeastyBoss, without others doing the scary thing alongside you, that clarity and inspiration fade fast.
You’re back to overwhelm, imposter syndrome, and the “I’m too busy” loop.
Dr. Robert Waldinger directs Harvard’s Study of Adult Development. His research shows that strong relationships at work directly impact engagement, effectiveness, and happiness of professionals. The relationships you build in H2RA aren’t simply emotional support tucked on the side of “real” work. They’re the infrastructure that makes implementation possible.
Your optional 1:1 sessions work because they exist within weekly co-working hours, group coaching where you watch your problem get solved in someone else’s business, and a Slack workspace where cohort members share wins, ugly-cry about setbacks, and celebrate victories that only another creative business owner truly understands.
Individual attention refines your path. Community keeps you walking it. (THAT SENTENCE IS SO GOOD I LOVE THAT I SAID THAT 😭)
What Happens in H2RA
One participant told us: “The only thing I am sad about is that we won’t have our small little slack group to keep our support going… you get so intimately known to your cohort that you don’t want to have to put all that out to a new group that may not understand all your nuances.”
That’s what happens when you spend weeks in the same framework with the same people tackling the same hard stuff.
You’re joining 10-20 people who are building what you’re building, celebrating your wins because they understand the cost, calling you forward because they’re committed to their own growth. Not a room with thousands of strangers hoping someone notices you.
Everyone speaks BeastyBoss. And yes, the silly name helps. When we are laughing, we are learning. There’s research on that, too.
Applications for the next cohort are open now.
If you’ve been burned by “community” before, I get it. I have too. Still, if you’re over building alone, tired of being your own only accountability and doing a dreadful job at it, or ready to stop being the boss you hate… this is your official invitation.
So, friend who wrote “groups all suck” eight months ago: you were right about something. Many groups do suck.
Yet strategic, framework-based cohort learning with peers who share your goals does NOT suck.
It’s how real change happens.
All My BeastyBoss,
P.S. Want proof this isn’t just marketing talk? I mean, I would. Check out just some of the research:
- Brandon Hall Group’s 2024 report on cohort-based learning effectiveness:
How to Realize the Immense Potential of Cohort-Based Learning - Harvard Study of Adult Development findings on workplace relationships:
Harvard Study of Adult Development (official site) | Work Insights from the World’s Longest Happiness Study — HBR (2023) - Wenger & Snyder’s “Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier” (Harvard Business Review, 2000):
Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier — HBR - Chad N. Loes “The Effect of Collaborative Learning on Academic Motivation”:
The Effect of Collaborative Learning on Academic Motivation — Full PDF (ERIC) - Frontiers in Psychology (2025) Impact of collaborative learning on student engagement in college English programs: mediating effect of peer support and moderating role of group size:
Impact of collaborative learning on student engagement — Frontiers in Psychology
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