There’s a lot to deal with as a membership site owner…
From the day-to-day operations of engaging with members and handling customer service to creating content, marketing and navigating tech…
And that's on top of strategizing and planning for the growth of the membership…
It all falls on you.
So it’s no wonder many of us struggle to stay motivated from time to time.
Especially if you've had a bad day…
Maybe sales have dropped or you've had to deal with a problem member inside your community…
Or you could be trying to juggle managing your membership site alongside agency work for clients or holding down a regular 9 to 5 job.
While being a membership site owner is the best job in the world, it can also be tough.
Why membership site owners are prone to demotivation
Even if you have hundreds, or even thousands of members, running a membership site can be a lonely job.
This is because you don’t actually see your members, and as a result, don’t typically develop deep relationships that you can draw from to give your motivation a little shot in the arm.
Green Day understands…
If you work a 9-5, you can usually leave your problems at the door, talk with colleagues and managers, and start fresh the next day.
If you work with clients and are struggling with one project, you can switch your attention to another client and come back refreshed and motivated.
As a membership site owner, the isolation can really get you down and amplify those hard moments.
But there are some steps you can take to get your motivation back and return to the joy of running your membership site.
Let's find out what they are…
1. Remember why you’re doing this
Think back to those beautiful early days, when the seed of your membership site germinated and started growing.
The excitement, the buzz, the mission, the change you wanted to create, the results you wanted to achieve for yourself and your members…
Get back to the roots of why you started your membership in the first place.
To do this you could look at your scrapbooks and early planning files when your membership first came to life…
Or look at your first review or payment.
You could maybe even read one of your own case studies.
Reconnecting with your “why” can reignite your inspiration and desire, allowing you to double down on your commitment and fight through the fog that comes with feeling demotivated.
2. Eliminate comparisonitis
You scroll through social media and you see it…
People who run memberships or online businesses doing great things and making it look easy.
It leaves you thinking:
“How on earth do they do it?”
“Why aren’t they feeling demotivated? I bet they don't have bad days.”
The truth is, they do…
It's just that you only ever see what's on the surface…
The things they want the world to see.
When it comes to social media you're often seeing people’s highlight reels, not the times they're feeling demotivated.
We have a tendency to think everyone else has it all figured out and we're the only ones who are struggling.
That's simply not true.
Everyone has moments where they just have to stop and say:
“Screw this. I’m not working this week and I’m going to lie on the sofa with a pint of ice cream and binge-watch the latest Netflix series.”
We just don't see that.
Carrie Green shared a great quote in episode 87 of The Membership Guys Podcast…
She said: “You can’t compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter 20.”
That is absolutely true because even if the people you're comparing yourself to do have it all figured out, the chances are it’s because they’re a lot further along in their journey than you are.
So always take what people share publicly on social media at face value and don't compare your situation to theirs.
3. Focus on the positives
If you’re going through a negative time, circle back to the positive elements of your membership.
We're naturally inclined to focus on the bad – it’s human nature…
999 good members weigh the same as 1 bad one…
And you can focus all your attention on that one person forgetting the 999 people you're helping.
It's important to find a way to reflect on the positives.
We do this by keeping ‘The Happy Folder'.
‘The Happy Folder' lives in our Dropbox and is filled with cuttings and screenshots of nice comments, wins and milestones we’ve passed…
All the good stuff.
It’s like diving into a ball pool, cuddling a puppy, hearing the ice cream truck, and getting your own pet unicorn all at once.
Bad days are a lot easier to get through when you have ‘The Happy Folder'.
4. Don’t underestimate the power of time off
You're allowed to take time away from your membership.
Let me say that again…
You're allowed to take time away from your membership.
Sometimes you just need to binge on Netflix
We’ve talked at length before about Why It’s Important to Take Time Away from Your Membership, but let’s recap…
It’s one of the benefits of the membership model – if you decide to check out for a day or two, the world won’t stop turning.
Your members don’t expect you to be in the membership serving them ASAP every single day, 24/7.
If they do expect the unreasonable, you can correct that by setting (or resetting) your boundaries.
So if you’re feeling a bit rubbish and demotivated…
Take the time to feel it.
Then you can come back refreshed and ready to tackle whatever it was that made you feel demotivated in the first place.
You're not the only one who will benefit from this… your members will too!
5. Reward yourself!
Don’t let the fact you’ve worked harder than usual or overcome a big challenge get you down.
Use it as the basis to treat yourself.
Give yourself a reward…
Have a spa day, book a holiday, buy the thing you wanted to buy.
Turn what feels like a negative situation and the effect it's had on your motivation into a positive.
This means next time when you're facing a similar challenge – or whatever it is that has sapped your motivation – it becomes an opportunity to be a positive thing.
It changes and repositions your mindset in a way that helps you avoid getting too down in the dumps.
If you need to, create a ‘rewards list’.
Load it up with things that you’d love to have or do and let yourself choose something from it when you go through a challenging time.
Motivation comes and goes, but your dedication will persevere
If you’re not feeling motivated with your membership right now, or you’ve felt that way before…
I want you to know that it's absolutely 100% normal.
We all experience it from time to time.
I'm yet to meet a membership site owner yet who hasn’t had a bad day or week, where everything feels like a drag and their inspiration and motivation have just disappeared.
That’s not a problem, because your passion and dedication for your membership are the things that are constant.
Even when you’re not feeling the motivation, your dedication will come through and help you come out the other side, ready to go again.
So, when you do have one of those days, don’t sweat it.
Use these tips to come out of those moments…
And don’t forget about the pint of ice cream and the Netflix marathon – That’s always a good choice.
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