Am I overcomplicating this funnel? Looking for honest feedback from people who’ve built communities/courses.

I’ve been going back and forth on this for the past couple of weeks and could use some outside opinions.

For context, I’m a travel creator. Most of my audience follows me because of the destinations I visit, but over time I’ve realized a lot of the DMs I get aren’t actually about travel .. they’re from people asking how I get hotel collaborations, how I work with brands, how I get paid to travel, etc.

A while back I put together a low-ticket PDF/playbook that basically walks people through pitching hotels, outreach, media kits, mistakes I made, and the process that worked for me.

The weird part is…it doesn’t convert nearly as well as I expected.

The audience is there, the questions are there, but people don’t seem super excited about buying “just a PDF.”

What I’ve noticed, though, is that people seem to want me more than the information. They want feedback, accountability, someone to answer questions, and to be around other people trying to do the same thing.

So now I’m thinking about changing the whole model.

Instead of selling the playbook as a standalone product, I’m thinking of making it the “ticket” into a Skool community. You buy the playbook once, and that automatically gives you access to the community.

My thought process is: • It filters out people who are just looking for vacation recommendations or free advice. • Everyone inside has at least invested a little, so they’re more serious. • The community stays focused on becoming a travel creator, landing hotel partnerships, brand deals, etc. • The playbook becomes more valuable because it comes with ongoing access instead of just being a PDF you download once.

Then inside the community, I’d eventually launch a more in-depth course covering content creation, pitching, editing, growing an audience, negotiating with brands, building a portfolio, all of that.

That would be a separate one-time purchase, and the people who join that would also get weekly group coaching calls where I review profiles, answer questions, help with pitches, and give feedback.

In my head it feels like this:

Free content → Playbook + Community → Course + Weekly Calls

My biggest concern is whether I’m overthinking this.

Has anyone built something similar? Does requiring the playbook to access the community make sense, or would you just make the community a paid membership instead?

I’d much rather build an active group of creators helping each other than try to squeeze every dollar out of recurring subscriptions, but I also want the funnel to make sense.

Would love to hear where you think the weak point is or if there’s a better way to structure it.