Our guest on this penultimate episode of season five of Behind The Membership is Lisa Leander, founder of Women in Business Education.
Lisa’s story is a very interesting one. What started off as a planned side hustle targeting a very specific niche audience (possibly the smallest we’ve ever seen with only a few hundred people in the world in the market), quickly resulted in Lisa quitting her job and managing the membership full-time due to the pandemic.
During this episode, she shares what life is like as a membership owner. How she’s tapping into her 10 years of experience as a Director of a membership organization to build the business as quickly and efficiently as possible, why she made the decision to invest in building a team from the very beginning and how Lisa’s personalized approach to recruiting new members has a 50% to 70% conversion rate.
She also talks about why she only delivers live content to her members, how her site is structured to cater for different segments of her members to give them a specialized peer experience and her plans to grow her niche further later this year.
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Are you ready to hire your first employees for your membership business?
You may have already dipped your toe in the water by working with freelancers or contractors…
People who essentially work for themselves or third party companies and handle one-off tasks or work for you as and when needed…
But now you’re at a point in your business when you need more…
There are tasks that need to be completed on a regular basis…
And you don’t have the time or the bandwidth to do it…
So you’re now ready to hire your first employee…
And that’s a whole different ball game…
So where should you start?
Having completed our own recruitment drive here at The Membership Guys, we have some experience in this area…
And of course, as always we want to share our knowledge with you…
So here are our thoughts on how to go about hiring your first employees for your membership business…
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Our guest on this episode of Behind the Membership is offers an interesting and slightly different perspective on memberships…
Unlike the majority of our guests Ali McGee Kelly doesn’t actually own her own site, she manages The Social Media Marketing Society, a membership owned by one of the world’s biggest social media marketing blogs, Social Media Examiner.
In this episode Ali shares what it’s like to manage a membership as part of a wider team for a larger business, she talks about the changes the company has been forced to make as a result of the global pandemic and the Society’s unique approach to recruiting guest experts.
She also reveals some changes that have been made behind the scenes to enhance member experience, why the Society has decided to adopt the open door model and how Ali and her team manage content within the membership to ensure it stays relevant in an industry that changes almost daily.
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Is your quest to make everything perfect with your membership website holding you back?
When you’re at the beginning of your journey…
Or maybe even if you’ve been in business for a while…
The need to get everything right…
From features and tech to your content and community…
Can be all consuming.
So much so that it prevents you moving forward altogether.
You become stuck over-analysing, over-thinking and fretting over every little thing.
But it doesn’t need to be this way.
Here’s how to overcome perfectionism when starting a membership website…
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Sean Wilson joins Callie for this episode of Behind The Membership to talk about Sean Wilson Piano, his membership site for Gospel pianists.
During this episode Sean shares the details of his journey so far, how he tapped into a small but engaged audience to launch his membership back in 2017, why his approach to delivering content within his membership has changed and the positive impact the pandemic has had on it’s growth.
He also tells us how he recently overcame his subscription ceiling, now attracting over 100 members a month instead of 40, the steps he’s taken to make engagement skyrocket inside his community and how YouTube has played a huge part in the success of his membership … Plus so much more!
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Why are people not joining your membership website?
You could have the most incredible membership…
One where you work tirelessly perfecting each and every little element of it…
But people aren’t joining and you’re left scratching your head wondering why.
Well there may be a good reason for it…
And we’re going to help you find out what it is.
Here are nine common reasons people aren’t joining your membership site…
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Our guest on this episode of Behind The Membership is Vahn Petit, Founder and singing coach at School Vocalize, an online contemporary singing school based in France.
When Vahn made the decision to adopt a child she realised that she needed to make some changes to the way she worked so she could prioritize family time… and a membership offered her the perfect opportunity to do that.
Since launching School Vocalize just under two years ago Vahn shares how she has quadrupled her income after niching down to the French market, how she attracts new members using youTube and how recently introducing a new tier to her membership has enabled her to offer one on one feedback to a limited number of members.
She also discusses how the pandemic has had a positive impact on her membership, how she’s building a thriving community who plan to meet in person soon, her goals for the future and much more!
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Looking to drive sign ups for your membership using email marketing?
Well that’s good because your email list can be a gold mine for bringing in new members!
That’s because when someone subscribes to your email list, they’re expressing an intent…
They want to learn more from you.
So this is the perfect time to strike while the iron is hot…
And send them an automated series of email follow ups.
These emails are specifically designed to let your subscribers get to know you and your brand better…
What you offer, how you can help them…
And begin sowing the seeds to nurture your relationship further with the aim of eventually converting subscribers to paying members…
Sounds good doesn’t it?
But what should these emails cover?
We’ve got the answer.
Here are five essential emails that every membership email series needs.
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Do your potential members understand your membership offering?
The benefits of joining your membership…
What to expect as a member…
And how you can help them take the necessary steps to reach their desired outcome?
More often than not the answer to this is a resounding no.
And this can be for many reasons…
The most common of which is that they simply don’t know what’s inside the box.
In other words, they have no idea what goes on inside your membership…
And that’s preventing them pressing the ‘join today’ button on your sales page.
It’s our job as membership website owners to rectify this…
And there’s one very simple but powerful marketing tactic you can use to do that:
Taking them behind the scenes of your membership…
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Meet Anna Geiger – mom of 6 and owner of The Measured Mom Plus, an online membership that offers resources, printables and training to pre k-third grade educators.
In this episode of Behind The Membership, Anna joins us to share the story of how she has turned her hobby into a thriving business.
What started as a blog sharing content with family and friends while living abroad has become, over the space of 8 years, an online shop and membership that attracts millions of site visits per month and hundreds of thousands of subscribers to her mailing list.
In this episode Anna talks about how she’s built her audience, why she made the decision not to sell any of her products until two years after her blog went live and what inspired her to launch her membership just under 2 years ago.
She also shares how her site attracts over 100 members each month with little to no marketing, what she loves most about being a membership owner and the challenges she faces targeting teachers… Plus much more!
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Let’s talk about money!
When it comes to this subject people tend to be at wildly opposite ends of the spectrum…
Some will happily talk about money all day long…
Whether it’s about how much they make, how little they have or their financial goals…
Others, however, completely shut down as soon as the ‘M’ word comes up.
That’s because many of us have a complicated relationship with money…
Which is possibly why I’ve waited so long to tackle this topic!
But, the truth is, when it comes to business, it’s a subject you simply can’t shy away from…
That’s why I’ve decided to share some of my musings about money and mindset in the membership world…
Our perceptions of it, how we treat it, how we think about it…
And the impact that can have on our memberships.
So, let’s dive into some random musings about money, memberships and everything in between…
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Alisha Robertson from The Purpose To Service Academy joins Callie for this episode of Behind The Membership and she has a very interesting story to share…
After experiencing burn out as a coach, Alisha knew that she had to find a solution that would help her scale her business, without the time constraints of one-on-one coaching… and she did, in the form of a membership program.
But the interesting thing about Alisha is that before doing research and launching her membership, not only had she never heard of the business model before, but she’d never been part of a membership herself!
In this episode you’ll hear about Alisha’s membership journey to date… how her program looks very different from when she opened its doors nearly two years ago, her realization that she could serve her members better if she niched down and the challenges she’s faced being new to the membership space.
Plus you’ll hear how Alisha adds a few personal touches to her member experience, how her life has changed since launching her program and what her plans for the future are…And much more.
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Ready to start building your membership website?
That’s great news!
Now there are some tough membership tech decisions you need to make.
With so many different systems, plugins and tools out there to choose from…
And a lot of questions for you to mull over…
Wordpress or hosted platform?
What should your domain name be?
Should you build your website yourself or hire a developer?
It can all get a bit overwhelming…
Which is not surprising when there are so many moving parts to manage!
This is why it’s important to do your due diligence to make sure you build a site that’s right for you and your prospective members…
And we’re here to help you do just that…
So if you’re ready to build your membership website…
Or are currently fleshing out your idea for your membership…
Then this blog is a must read for you.
Here are some tips on how to tackle five of the toughest tech decisions you need to make when starting out…
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Mark Asquith, founder of Podcast Success Academy, is my guest on this week’s episode of Behind The Membership.
Mark’s membership story is a little different to most, not only because of its position as part of a wider ecosystem of businesses, but also because it has a whole tier that members can access for free!
In this episode Mark shares how Podcast Success Academy came to be and what inspired him to build it using the freemium model. He also shares how he’s building a community with two very definitive segments who share an interest in all of his products and the challenges he’s faced in getting his audience to take action.
Plus he explains how he’s going the extra mile to give his audience the best learning experience by plugging a gap of knowledge in the podcast industry, without the hard sell… And much more.
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Are you thinking of switching your membership enrolment model from closed to open?
Making the decision to open your doors permanently isn’t as simple as flipping a switch…
It can change a lot about your business…
And you need to make sure you’re fully prepared to manage these changes effectively…
For the good of both you and your members!
We’ve previously talked about moving from the open door model to closed…
And now we’re doing the reverse!
Here’s what you should take into consideration before switching your membership from a closed-door model to an open one…
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We’re kicking off season five of Behind The Membership with an awesome guest. Jenny Finnell is Founder of CRNA School Prep Academy, a highly specialized membership for nurses in the United States who want to become Registered Nurse Anesthetists.
The Academy has recently reached its first memberversary and in that time has become a big success – so much so that Jenny was able to retire her husband within eight months of launching the membership!
In this episode we talk to Jenny about her membership journey so far. How some queries from nurses resulted in her creating a free Facebook group that sowed the seeds for her idea of the Academy, why she hired a team to help her ahead of her launch and how she’s growing her membership successfully with little to no marketing.
Plus we talk about the challenges she faces managing her time juggling life as a mom of three children (one of which is a newborn) while managing the Academy, how the flexibility of the membership model enables her to better serve her members and much much more!
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