When it comes to business success, and actually success in ANY realm of life, smart and stubborn is a winning combination. I have long said that my PARTICULAR “skill” is more grit, determination and tenacity than anything else. Quite simply, I refused to lose, never gave up, kept showing up like I belonged.. and now, here I sit.
After — privately — going over numbers for a membership program that outdates my OWN experience with membership offers (there are MAYBE 4 business memberships that outdate my own), I came to realize that WOW is quite possibly one of the more successful memberships IN THE WORLD. In number of members, in profitability, in profit margin.
Yet, more and more newcomers are teaching the recent “bright shiny object” of Memberships, otherwise SOLD as “recurring revenue” or “cashing in on continuity” or some other cute phrase with great alliteration. And while I LOVE a great alliteration, I’m IRRITATED by what’s being taught.
So much of it is dead wrong. Being taught by newbies who literally just opened their own membership option… or just re-opened their umpteenth attempt at a membership option.
Here are a few things you should know:
1) To BUILD a membership from the ground up, you CAN NOT afford to do a cheap monthly fee. Period. Cheap and monthly = low commitment. You’ll have a constant revolving door in your membership (more headaches, more need for support staff, and less money!) And no, you are NOT the exception.
2) Memberships FEEL like a miracle, but they take WORK AND TIME to get up and running. If you are not VERY deliberate, you will work yourself into a hellish nightmare where you are overworked and WAY underpaid, but also… UNDER appreciated by the market you are trying to serve.
Memberships CAN be incredible, but you MUST do them right.
3) If your KEY hang ups (when considering starting a membership site) are TECHNICAL questions, software questions, etc… you are already WAY off track. ANYONE who does not immediately re-frame your focus onto the REAL nuts and bolts of membership should NOT be listened to by you, not about membership profits anyway.
Instead, you need to question whether or not YOU — and your work — have true staying power. And how to DEEPEN and LENGTHEN that staying power. You need to focus on WHY they will want to join your membership, what difference you will make and HOW…
then on DELIVERABLES (in the simplest of ways… because ALL memberships, like every eco-system evolve.)
Then on the LAUNCH, which should ALWAYS be invite-only at the beginning. (This isn’t JUST a branding move, it’s a make-money-faster move… even though it FEELS — on the surface — slower.
and so on and so on…
the technical aspect will come,
but it is NOT foundational to healthy, thriving, profitable membership.
4) You MUST build your membership around YOU and YOUR natural gifts and passions, NOT around industry norms. DO NOT be bullied into including something that “is expected” when it’s something you’ll later learn to resent.
5) If you LIVE by ads, you’ll DIE by ads. Memberships grow BEST through referrals AND through industry penetration. (This is true for nearly ALL service and expert-based businesses and is something I am getting ready to teach IN DETAIL with my Women Who WOW members as part of our MULTIPLY! intensive.) So do not be decieved into paying for attention. INVITATION marketing is far more effective. FAR more. Yet no one is discussing it.
Look, I know I’m a dinosaur here…
one of the OLDEST infopreneurs still ACTIVELY in the game,
so excuse my time on the soapbox…
but, I deserve my time here.
I earned it,
in the trenches
having been here since the INCEPTION of this incredible industry,
having learned by painful trial and error,
measuring REAL results and course correcting accordingly,
back when there were no mentors, no coaches, no blueprints, no facebook groups for this sort of thing.
I’m just sick of people being ripped off, misled and discouraged by those who are literally still figuring the entire membership thing out themselves, and dubbing themselves experts.
I have a ton of free content — and a free blueprint — for people interested in the SMART & STUBBORN approach to “recurring revenue.” 😊 Just comment below if you want it. (Or PM me. I won’t tell anyone you did! lol… )
