The Accidental Membership That Became a Six Figure Success with Caylee Grey

“Fairy art mother” Caylee Grey joins Callie on this episode of Behind the Membership to talk all about her art journaling membership, Get Messy Art. Caylee’s membership journey is actually a little different to most, as the membership was started accidentally as a result of a personal project rather than being the goal from the start.

However, it’s safe to say it was a great accident as the membership is now four years old and has flourished, creating an amazing business for Caylee that has allowed her to quit her job and achieve more freedom than she previously thought possible.

In this episode, Caylee discusses how she makes use of seasonal themes for her content, and is currently testing out the closed door model to only let new members in at the start of each new season. As well as how she utilises the experiences of guest teachers and members to help with content creation.

And Caylee also talks about how she focuses on making the membership action driven, and how she nutures members and provides the space for them to connect and engage with each other on a deeper level. Plus the challenges she has had along the way, and much, much more besides!

What To Do if Someone Tells You That They Can’t Afford Your Membership

Have you ever had someone tell you that they can’t afford to join your membership?

What was your reaction?

For most membership owners, hearing that sort of feedback tends to send them into self-doubt over whether they’re charging too much or delivering too little.

However in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I reveal why that’s very rarely the case, and how you should handle these types of objections.

Reducing Stress & Creating a Membership You Love with Deborah Engelmajer

In this episode of Behind the Membership, Deborah Engelmajer discusses her membership site for makers and handmade businesses, Tizzit HQ. Deborah’s membership is just eight months old, but already a six figure a year business.

Deborah shares how she actually delayed creating her membership site in order to build her audience first, which she attributes as the key to her success. She also talks about how having a membership site has reduced stress and provided more balance, enabling Deborah to do what she loves, like focus on her community.

And Deborah also discusses how engaged the Tizzit community is and what she does to encourage this, including how she sent welcome packages to her first 250 members when she initially launched. Plus the challenges of content creation, how aspects of the membership such as coaching calls, have evolved since the membership first opened and much more.

5 Things That Have Moved the Needle For Us (And a Few That Didn’t)

One of the best ways to learn about growing a successful membership is studying what others are doing.

Academy members often tell us that this is one of the biggest benefits they get from being in our community.

With that in mind, I wanted to highlight 5 specific things that have made a major difference in our success – as well as a few things that turned out to be a bit of a waste of time.

From Overworked CPA to Full Time Guitar Membership with John Hatcher

John Hatcher from the Blues Guitar Institute joins Callie for this episode of Behind the Membership. John was previously a CPA and tax accountant working 60 to 80 hours a week, but since having his membership he has been able to quit his job and now focus full time on his membership site, giving him far more freedom. This is even more impressive when you consider that John’s membership only actually costs $9 a month!

In this episode John talks about how he made that career transition, as well as how he manages his time and the challenge of content creation in a video-heavy membership site. John also talks about how he went from not having any community at all in his membership, to struggling to get engagement, to now having a thriving community with members connecting and sharing their own videos as well. And of course lots more too!

How Membership Owners Can Combat Subscription Fatigue

As more and more companies move into the membership space, consumers now have an overwhelming amount of choice.

Streaming services, music subscriptions, subscription boxes for everything from beauty products to underwear, SAAS subscriptions and of course – online memberships.

It all adds up.

And this can lead to what’s being called ‘subscription fatigue’ – where people get fed up and overwhelmed by juggling a countless array of subscriptions and start clearing out anything they deem non-essential.

So, how do you avoid ending up on the scrap-heap as a result of subscription fatigue?

Experimenting by Closing the Doors to her Membership with Varvara Lyalyagina

Varvara Lyalyagina from Start Blog Up joins Callie for this episode of Behind the Membership to talk all about her membership for Russian speaking entrepreneurs, The Studio.

In this episode Varvara’s talking about how she is succeeding with her membership despite it being for a market not as familiar with the membership model, and why she has decided, after a year of being open all the time, to experiment with moving from an always open model to closing the doors and only letting new members in at certain times.

Varvara also talks about the emotional challenges of running a membership and learning not to take cancellations personally, the power of members promoting your membership for you, and how adding a personal touch with things like video and gifts is aiding her retention. And Varvara also shares her strategy for running online parties to both engage existing members and attract new ones, plus more!

Does The Membership Model Have a Future or Is It a Passing Fad?

Memberships have become a hot topic in recent years.

But what happens when all of this hype dies down and people move onto the next thing – what will that mean for the future of the membership industry?

Are memberships just the new shiny fad? And is there any point starting a membership if the bubble is about to burst?

Switching to an Evergreen Membership Model with Jodie Clarke

Jodie Clarke from The Empowered Educator joins Callie for this episode of Behind the Membership. While Jodie’s membership is only just a year old she has already surpassed her member goals and even managed to retire her partner from his job, which has had an enormous impact on her family’s life.

In this episode Jodie’s talking all about how she succeeded with her membership, from nurturing her wait list to her webinar strategy that’s bringing in 5 to 10 new members at a time on autopilot.

And Jodie also talks about moving from a closed door model to an evergreen model and why she’s chosen to do that, and so much more as well!

Updating The Membership Guys Brand – Behind The Scenes

It’s an exciting time for us here at The Membership Guys as we unveil a fresh new update for our brand, and also announce that Member Site Academy is now Membership Academy!

While on the surface it may not seem like a major change, there’s a lot more involved than meets the eye…

In this episode I give a bit of backstory about why these changes mean so much, and walk you through the process we used to update our brand identity.

Fitting a Membership to Your Lifestyle with Chris Marr

Chris Marr from the Content Marketing Academy joins Callie for this episode of Behind the Membership. Chris launched his membership in 2015 after running a six month in person masterclass and it’s now a major focus of his business. Here, he talks about the importance of customer experience in creating a community culture, using free in-person workshops as a way to attract new members and how he has recently launched a very low cost price tier to help those who can’t afford his full membership fee yet.

They also talk marketing challenges, how Chris is successfully using Slack for his members community and how the membership has enabled Chris to create the lifestyle that he wants, as he’s undergone the transition from flying solo to being a father of four and family man.

4 Things That Have Made Us More Productive Membership Owners

Membership site owners wear a lot of hats and juggle a lot of tasks on a day to day basis.

With so many moving parts, and so many plates to keep spinning, anything that we can do to streamline our workload and become a little more efficient is a big win.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I talk about 4 specific things we do within our business to make us far more productive in running our membership

Building a Thriving Member Community with Melissa West

Melissa West joins Callie for this episode of Behind the Membership. Melissa has had her membership for nearly eight years now and here she shares how she went from burnout to setting up her membership with her husband Tim, how the membership has evolved over the years, and the importance of community and relationships in her long term success.

Melissa also talks about how she uses YouTube to attract new members and some of the things that she does to ensure her membership community continues to thrive, including how she’s built a team of committed volunteers that help her with her membership on a day-to-day basis, and a counterintuitive content strategy that she has introduced that is working really well for increasing engagement and retention.

Using Segmentation to Increase Leads and Member Sales

Content marketing is one of the best ways to build your audience and demonstrate your expertise…

It’s brings people into your funnel and helps you direct them towards your membership. 

And there’s some awesome free content out there…

But then there’s also some content that’s very middle of the road…

All a bit generic and broad…

Because it’s not tailored to the group people who it’s created for.

Membership owners go to great lengths to make their content as accessible to as many people as possible…

But that isn’t always a good thing…

In fact, the broader your content, the less compelling, relevant and effective it will be to each individual reader. 

So sadly, by trying to cater to everyone, you end up catering to no one. 

And this doesn’t just apply to your content… 

It could be your call to action for your lead magnet that’s letting you down…

We see lots of memberships with great content asking people to sign up to their email list with a really generic opt-in…

Or even worse, they’re just asking people to subscribe with no incentive…

How boring is that? No one’s excited to just sign up to a newsletter! 

So how can we make content more interesting and relevant so it prompts people to sign up to your email list or membership?

The answer is simple…

Use segmentation!

Let’s explore this further…

Connecting One to One with Potential Members with Louise Brogan

Louise Brogan from Social Bee Academy joins Callie for this episode of Behind the Membership. Louise has run the Social Bee Academy for around 18 months now and shares what’s been working for her when it comes to attracting new members, including how connecting one to one with people via in person workshops as well as online via Facebook and LinkedIn messenger have been great ways to grow her site.

Louise also talks about the challenges and highlights of her membership journey so far, including why she has moved from a closed model to always being open, and how seeing the results from her members makes everything worthwhile. And you’ll also hear why Louise plans to focus even more on her membership this year and really make the membership a priority in her business!

6 Simple Ways To Make Your Member Experience Extra Special

When it comes to running a membership, most people focus their attention on the content, community, or managing the business itself.

It makes sense, of course…

After all, that’s what people sign up for…

And that’s how you make money…

The thing is, you can have the best content in the world and a super slick platform to host your community…

But if your member experience isn’t up to scratch then people just aren’t going to engage.

They’ll stop logging in, consuming your content and participating in your community…

Which ultimately means they’ll be less likely to stick around long term…

And that’s the last thing you want to happen…

So, what can you do to ensure you’re delivering a fantastic member experience?

What it comes down to is making your members feel extra special and valued…

Here are six simple ways to do that…