It’s day two of your challenge. One person posted their intro in the lesson comments, another is asking in a DM where the chat is, and three more are still waiting on a welcome email that hasn’t landed.
You’re answering the same question in four places.
The content is fine. The setup is the problem.
I know because I built that setup. The first time I ran my Challenge Creator Lab, participants told me flat out it was overwhelming. So I stripped it down. Here’s how to set up a challenge in Circle so it’s easy to join, obvious where to engage, and simple for you to run without managing every piece by hand.
What’s the Simplest Way to Set Up a Challenge in Circle?
Put everything in one space group: a course space for lessons, one chat for conversation, and an event space for live calls. Then automate the points and the entry so nothing waits on you.
When I rebuilt the challenge, I kept asking one question: what’s the simplest version of this that still works? The answer came down to four decisions.
- Keep everything in one place. Last time, people bounced around trying to figure out where to go. Now it all lives in one space group.
- Make it obvious where to engage. Chat is for conversation. The course is for lessons. That’s it.
- Turn on gamification for the week only. A little friendly competition, with an end date.
- Automate the entry. No manual onboarding, no waiting on an email.
We’re on Circle Plus, so the whole thing runs inside our branded app. People never leave one platform. They open the app and it’s all right there.
A challenge should create momentum, not chaos. If there are too many places to be, engagement drops. If you’re managing everything by hand, you’ll burn out before day five. That structure is a big part of why community challenges work so well in the first place.
How Should You Structure the Challenge Space Group?
Use three clearly labeled spaces: a scheduled course for the daily lessons, a post space that works as the challenge chat, and an event space for the live calls.
I named the space group Challenges. Nothing cute. The label’s only job is to get people in the door and pointed at the content.
The course space
This is where the lessons drop, and it’s set up as a scheduled course.
What that looks like:
- A short welcome video that’s live the moment someone joins, covering what to expect and asking them to go introduce themselves in the chat
- One new lesson every day at 7:00 AM, two to three minutes long, with one simple action item
- A quick actions menu at the bottom of every lesson, linking back to the chat and to the event RSVPs
- A daily email that goes out with each lesson to nudge people back into the community
The whole day should take someone 15 to 30 minutes. Quick wins are the point. Each day should feel like progress, not homework. If you’re still deciding what each day asks of people, how to structure a community challenge covers that arc, and how to run a challenge in Circle covers the planning that comes before the build.
The challenge chat
This is the heartbeat. It’s a post space we use as the chat, and it’s where people introduce themselves, ask questions, share wins, and post their daily action items.
A pinned post at the top tells new arrivals exactly what to do first. More on how they land there below.
The event space
Two live calls go with the challenge. The kickoff call happens on the afternoon of day one, so everyone can talk through the week and where they are. For a lot of people in my lab, that includes deciding whether a challenge is even the right model for their business.
The Friday wrap-up call closes it out. Both live in the event space, so they’re in the same group as everything else.
Should You Turn On Gamification for a Challenge?
Yes, but only for the challenge week. A leaderboard adds real energy to a short sprint, and automated workflows can award the points so you never assign them by hand.
I don’t run the leaderboard all the time in my own community. I don’t want the whole space to feel like a competition. For a five-day challenge, though, it’s perfect. People love it.
The catch is that nobody has time to hand out points to individual members. So every bonus point is awarded by a workflow.
The point structure
Circle already gives one point for every like on a post or comment, system-wide. On top of that:
- 5 points for each post in the challenge chat, to reward showing up and doing the daily action item
- 10 points for every course section completed, to keep people moving toward the finish
- 25 bonus points for attending either live call
How the workflows run
Each one is simple. For the chat points, the trigger is someone publishing a post in that specific space. The action awards five points and gives a reason.
That’s it. It runs in the background, and Circle tracks everything on the leaderboard automatically. If you want to take the same idea further into a permanent system, gamify your Circle community with levels that build on it.
How Do You Automate Challenge Signups in Circle?
Create a private tag, an access group for the challenge spaces, and an invite link that applies both. Then point your signup form’s thank-you redirect at that invite link.
This is the part that saves me the most time. Someone signs up on the landing page and is instantly inside Circle, looking at the pinned post. No “where do I go?” emails.
Create a tag
Mine is called Challenge. It isn’t public. It sits in the background so I know how each person joined and can tailor communication to them later.
Build an access group
Mine is called Challenge Creator Lab. It gives access to the challenge space group: the lessons, the chat, and the public event.
Create the invite link
The invite link sends people straight to account creation. In its settings:
- Assign the tag you just created
- Set the redirect to the challenge chat, so they land on the pinned post the moment they log in
- Choose the access group
Send your form’s thank-you page to the invite link
My landing page asks for first name and email. When someone clicks to join, the form (mine is in Flodesk) uses that invite link as its thank-you redirect. They go straight to Circle’s signup page and they’re in.
You can get the same result with Circle’s own website builder and forms if you’d rather keep everything on one platform.
Try This Prompt
If your challenge plan has more moving parts than it needs, this helps you cut it down before you build.
“I’m running a [number]-day challenge in my Circle community for [who it’s for]. Here’s my current plan: [list your spaces, daily content, live calls, and how people sign up]. Based on the approach in this post, simplify it into one space group with a course space, one chat, and an event space. Suggest point values for the actions I want to reward, and list the tag, access group, and invite link settings I’ll need. Give me the output as a setup checklist in the order I should build it.”
It drafts the checklist. You decide what your people actually need.
Clarity Beats Complexity
If you’ve run a challenge before and it felt messy, I’m guessing your idea wasn’t the problem. The setup was too complicated.
Before you build the next one, ask yourself three things:
- Where will people naturally go first?
- How do I reduce decision fatigue?
- What can I automate so I’m not managing it by hand?
One chat for conversation. One course for content. Events for connection. Automated entry. That’s the whole playbook.
If you want the planning side in a ready-made template, the Challenge Blueprint Starter has the goal and milestone pages ready to fill in.
You don’t need more complexity. You need more clarity.
Watch the Video
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More Like This
Watch: How I Hosted a 14 Day Challenge in My Circle Community. The planning dashboard and drip setup behind a longer challenge.
Listen: Gamification Essentials: Why Challenges Are Your Community’s Secret Weapon. The psychology behind why a short challenge outperforms an ongoing points system.
Listen: How to Create a Community Challenge That Works. The goal and the free versus paid decision that come before any setup.
Watch: Challenge Accepted: How to Create Engaging Challenges That Keep Your Community Hooked. More on designing a challenge people actually finish.
Keep Going
coCreator Society is where community builders and membership founders work through this together, with the templates, the walkthroughs, and people who are one step ahead of you. Join coCreator Society
If you would rather not do this part alone, Rachel and the team build, migrate, and run communities for founders who need it done properly the first time. Talk to the team
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