22. Community Strategy: Anonymity, Gamification & High-ticket Communities

Brianna Leever
Jul 15, 2025
3 min read

In this episode, we’re hearing from Anonymously Anxious About Anonymity. Our letter today deals with a community builder who has seen firsthand how opening a community to anonymous posts can go downhill fast, and wants to know if it's possible to do so without that outcome.

To better help Anonymously Anxious, I invited Amanda Northcutt, the CEO of Level Up Creators, as my guest expert. She is a six-time executive with over 20 years of experience in building and optimizing recurring revenue businesses. She is brilliant (.25 speed is encouraged for this episode, we won’t judge!) and has seen it all in the community spaces.

So, tune in for how to leverage anonymity as an asset in your community and where challenges might show up, how to effectively gamify your community, and the essential ingredients for creating a high-ticket community.

Click to learn more about Heartbeat, Bri's favorite all-in-one community platform!

In this episode:

(03:50) The communitea: Anxiously Anonymous About Anonymity’s letter

(04:33) Amanda's experience with TexAgs, an anonymous discussion forum

(07:00) Cases where allowing anonymous posts can work, and what to consider

(09:55) The value of having members opt into anonymity

(11:50) What you need to have in place to stop your community from spiraling into chaos

(14:09) How to handle negative feedback and prepare your community for doing it right

(18:20) Badging and the power of gamification in community

(20:48) The importance of experimenting before fully implementing

(23:53) The role of gamification in habit formation

(27:52) The different moderation needs of low and high-ticket communities

(32:25) The essential ingredients for building a high-ticket community

(39:12) When in doubt in business, test it

Watch on YouTube

Resources Mentioned:

🎧 Go down the moderation rabbit trail next, listen to Dear Bri Episode 7 with Andrea Middleton, Community Empowerment Leader at Reddit.

❤️ Sign up for Heartbeat. Bri’s recommended all-in-one community platform.

💛 Join Ember. The place for go-getter community creators building community-powered businesses.

Noteworthy quotes

“You are the culture curator of your community, so don't ever feel like an imposter or be afraid of, 'Oh, they're gonna churn if I take their post down', or 'They're gonna say something bad about me.' Let them, let them go. Let the money go." - Amanda Northcutt

“ I think the biggest value proposition that a community has for an organization is: this is your landscape for testing. This is now your playground to figure out what do your people want, what do they not want." - Bri Leever

Amanda Northcutt

Amanda Northcutt is a six-time executive with over 20 years of experience in building and optimizing recurring revenue businesses. She left her Silicon Valley executive role a few years ago and co-founded Level Up Creators, where Amanda and her team of experts help individual creators & subject matter experts build sustainable businesses with predictable income.

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Bri Leever

Bri got her start building a community and growing it to a multi-million dollar revenue stream for a social enterprise in Portland, OR. Now, she supports folks used to running their business on content, coaching, and consulting to create their community offer. She's a Community Strategist by day and a Campervan host by night on the Big Island of Hawaii and you'll usually find her on, in, or under the water.

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