An introduction to Behind The Membership with Callie Willows: where the idea came from, why we're doing it and an overview of what to expect in the coming season as Callie sits down for frank, no-fluff conversations with membership site owners.

Introduction to Behind The Membership

Join Callie Willows from The Membership Guys for no-hype and no-fluff discussions with successful membership site owners about the highs, lows and day to day realities of running a paid membership website. Real people, real stories, real memberships.

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In the final episode of season five of Behind The Membership, Craig Cannings, co-founder of Freelance University, joins us to share the story of how he and his wife Kelly transformed their business after switching to the membership model.  He shares what inspired him to go down the membership route after selling a la carte courses for so long, why they made the decision to adopt the closed-door enrollment model and how they’ve found a way to stabilize growth in-between launches.  He also talks about what it’s like running a membership with his wife, the changes they made to the business during the global pandemic to better serve their audience and how they use badges and certifications to aid member retention… Plus much much more.  About Craig  Craig is the co-founder and Chief Learning Officer of Freelance University, the #1 learning hub for Freelancers to level up their skills and increase their income opportunities. Since 2008, Craig has been delivering high-impact online training to 1000s of students in over 75 countries. He has been freelancing successfully since 2003 and has design a proven plan for launching a thriving Freelance business in 30 days or less. Key Quotes “It’s a very interesting space as we see this freelance economy boom, even in the midst of a global pandemic.” “Now we’re at a really good place. We have almost 800 members in our community and we’re at the highest point we’ve ever been.”  “The membership has allowed me to take control of the business, as opposed to let my emotions or the model control me.”  Connect with Craig Freelanceu.com  Twitter LinkedIn

Changing Your Business Trajectory with Craig Cannings

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.  About Lisa Lisa Leander is an international development and management expert with eighteen years experience managing higher education initiatives in 22 different countries. In addition to leading WiBE, she currently is a Senior Advisor to the Global Business School Network where she previously spent a decade working to improve management and entrepreneurship education globally. During the day you might find her consulting for U.S. multinational companies navigating complex market opportunities in the Middle East, creating complex art creations with her two daughters or attempting to train a high energy German Shepherd. Key Quotes “It's been really a tough year for anyone in business or launching a business trying to balance your family and your priorities.”  “You can start out scrappy and build towards something great. You don't have to have all the pieces.” Providing quality content, providing quality discussions, delighting your current members, all helps get the word out. Connect with Lisa: Women in Business Education LinkedIn Twitter

Succeeding with a Small Niche with Lisa Leander

Our guest on this episode of Behind the Membership is offering 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.  About Ali: Ali McGee Kelly is the manager for the Social Media Marketing Society with Social Media Examiner. For the past several years, she has pursued an expertise in social media marketing to help businesses capitalize on this relatively new marketing resource. Her passion for making social media work for businesses is evidenced by my MBA thesis where she benchmarked the use of Social Media for small businesses in Central Kentucky. Key Quotes: “I’m not responsible for acquiring the members, but I am responsible for retaining them.” “We take pride in the level of service and communication we have with outside speakers”  “The interesting thing that I think makes us a little different than a lot of other memberships is, we do not come to the table claiming to be the expert in any one thing ourselves. And this is the same across all of our products with Social Media Examiner. We are acquirers of talent.”  Connect with Ali: The Social Media Marketing Society Social Media Examiner Twitter

From Founder Member to Membership Manager with Ali McGee Kelly

Sean Wilson joins Callie for this episode of Behind The Membership to talk about Seanwilsonpiano.com, 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!   About Sean:  Sean Wilson former math teacher has been playing the piano since he was 5 He helps musicians to learn piano by ear and feel confident playing gospel piano Featured in LA Today as one of the entrepreneurs you should be watching for 2021 Key Quotes: “I think I maybe overvalued content, the importance of it.” “We're the only gospel music website in the world, actually, that has a roadmap. So, it's really cool and when I'm on YouTube, it's a nice positioning offer .” “Honestly, I think the biggest challenge for me is kind of getting out of not being so hard at myself.” Connect with Sean: Seanwilsonpiano.comYouTube InstagramFacebook


Overcoming a Subscription Ceiling with Sean Wilson

Our guest on this episode of Behind The Membership is Vahn Petit, Founder and singing coach at School Visualize, 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 Visualize 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 coaching 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! About Vahn:  Vahn has been a singing teacher in contemporary music for 20 years helping her students get the best of their voice with passion. She teaches a diverse range of singers from beginners and self-taught to professionals.   Key Quotes: “I'm kind of an idealist, so seeing people from all over the world - because it is not only French people. There are Canadian and people living in Africa and in the Arabic countries. Yeah, everywhere - It's just wonderful.”  “I always have new ideas, so it's not a problem to come up with content.” “I think that's one of the beauties of a membership is that you can have that relationship with your members where it's a bit easier to say, something's come up. I'm going to need to postpone this, or I need to do this a bit differently this month, and things like that as well.” Connect with Vahn:  School Vocalize YouTube Instagram

Introduction to Behind The Membership

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