Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

What do you fear most as a membership site owner?

Let us guess... Cancellations?!

We'll let you into a little secret...

You're not alone in this.

Cancellations are without doubt the big bad boogeyman of the membership world...

Even your friendly neighbourhood Membership Geeks face this fear with you!

No one likes them...

The truth is, cancellations are inevitable.

But there are ways to minimize them… 

Especially if you can predict drop-off points in your memberships ahead of time and take action to fix them.

In this episode of the Membership Geeks podcast, we’re going to share with you how to do just that. 

Essential Learning Points

• 5 key drop off points majority of memberships face. 
• How to make people want to stay after the initial 30 day period. 
• Strategies to put in place to maximize your number of annual renewals.
• How to identify and prevent seasonal cancellations. 

Key Quotes: 

“Sometimes the reasons for cancellation are beyond your control. And often, they're even beyond the control of your members. Life happens!”

“Within the first month when someone joins your site you'll see several different stages that can form a common drop-off point - a time when you lose a lot more members than normal - You need to ensure that you have a strong onboarding process in place to minimize the number of drop-offs.”

“If somebody joins for 12 months and this period is coming to an end, they have a big decision to make whether or not to renew, as it's a bigger lump sum investment rather than a monthly payment.”

“It’s a worthwhile exercise to monitor the performance of your membership site, identify patterns with sign-ups and drop-offs, and average member attendance. But also, to try to monitor, predict and pre-empt seasonal drop-off periods or topic-based drop-off periods according to your audience profile.”

How much time does it actually take to run a membership site?

This is probably one of the most common questions we get asked...

And as with many things when it comes to memberships, there isn't a 'one size fits all' answer. 

Some membership sites can quietly tick away in the background without really needing much attention...

Others, however, need you to work on them pretty much daily.

How much time you dedicate to running your membership is entirely up to you...

It could be half an hour a day, 5 hours a day or 8 hours a day.

But how do you decide how much time is needed? 

In this episode of the Membership Geeks podcast, we explore where you’ll most likely spend the bulk of your time when managing your site, how to decide what tasks to spend your time on and we share some top time-saving tips to help you maximize your input into your site. 

Essential Learning Points: 

• The benefits and drawbacks on your time spent running live sessions. 
• Content creation is one of the most time consuming elements of running your membership. 
• The difficulties gauging time of handling customer service.
• Marketing your site - how the closed-door model might not be the time-saving option that it appears to be. 
• Why you should hire a team to save you time managing your membership.
• The importance of picking the right structure for your membership. 
• How to manage your accessibility to members. 

Key Quotes: 

“When it comes to handling customer service it’s very difficult to gauge how much time this is going take you. That's because it's variable. It will depend on how the dynamic of your community forms and it will change over time as your site evolves.”

“Not every task for your membership site needs to be done by you”

“If you know that you don't have the time to commit to engaging with and growing your community, then it may be better for you to forego it altogether. Having no community is better than having one that's as dead as a dodo.”

“You don't have to be totally accessible to your members. There are benefits to actually taking a step back”

For performing artists, the global pandemic was a bleak time.

With everything shut down, and no hope in sight, Jim Cooney, the founder of Amplified Artists, found a way to turn lemons into lemonade.

In this episode, he tells us a bit about Amplified Artists, from how it started to how it’s going now.

Jim explains what inspired him to start a business in an industry that was dealt a bad hand and how he’s managed to grow steadily as things have opened up a bit more.

You’ll also hear about how he juggles his personal life with the responsibilities of running a membership.

Essential Learning Points:

• What inspired Jim to start Amplified Artists during the pandemic
• How Jim engages his members by asking them to create content
• Jim’s marketing strategy for Amplified Artists
• The benefits of building your membership around your life
• Why starting simple is so important

Important Links & Mentions: 

• Membership Academy
• Amplified Artists

Key Quotes:

“I just have to accept that now things have opened up, I'm probably going to lose members during this time, and that’s okay because I'll definitely pick things back up and build them.”

“I'm still having to tell myself to keep things simple — your members are ultimately going to guide everything for you.”

“Remember to take care of yourself as a person and to be human, because you’re a human first and an artist second.”

Happy #membershipday! 

Now it’s certainly no secret that we love membership sites.

But why do we love them so much? 

It's all about the 3 F’s:

Freedom. Flexibility. Fulfilment.

A membership can bring you all these things and more, and today on a special Membership Day episode of the podcast, we’re diving into what the 3Fs mean for you as a membership site owner. 

And don’t just take our word for it!

We’ve got some special guests in this episode too, sharing the impact that having a membership site has had on their own life and business. 

In most cases, you might think the words “membership” and “personalized experience” don’t belong in the same sentence.

So, you’re probably wondering, “how exactly am I going to offer tailored experiences when I’ve got hundreds or thousands of members?”

The good news is that it’s not impossible. In fact, there are so many ways to form that personal connection with your members that will ultimately drive them to fulfill their goals.

Essential Learning Points:

• Why offering a personalized experience is beneficial
• How segmentation can make the membership experience better for users
• The many uses of a member survey
• How personal videos and check-ins make your members feel seen
• When to use a private welcome video
• How to correctly segment your community

Important Links & Mentions:

• Membership Geeks
• Membership Academy
• Using Segmentation to Increase Leads and Member Sales

Key Quotes:

“What everything comes down to when we talk about personalizing and tailoring the member experience is making people think, “Hey if I were to design the perfect membership, just for me, this is actually what it would be like,” and the ability to connect directly to people where they are on their journey.”

“99% of people with large customer bases are not doing any of this. People have come to expect automation and an impersonal experience. And so, if you show that you’re a real person, that's going to go a long way.”

“If the experience someone has inside your membership is personalized, then that member is more likely to extract the specific things that they're most interested in — essentially, that’s more value.”

Imagine launching a membership based on your passion… 

It’s the dream, right?

But what if you’ve built your business delivering classes in-person and are faced with the challenge of finding an online solution that will deliver the same value?

And you need to do this in the midst of a global pandemic…

That’s exactly what Lucy Walker from The Metalsmith Academy did…

And her story is awesome! 

She’s only a year into her membership and has thousands of members…

And while she’s been hugely successful as a membership owner, the past year hasn’t passed by without its challenges… 

In this episode Lucy joins us to share her journey so far… 

Listen to hear about:  

• How the pandemic forced Lucy to put her entire business online and make the transition from offering courses to launching her membership. 
• How The Metalsmith Academy launched with over 3,000 members in total, with 1,300 of them opting for the annual plan. 
• The reasons behind changing her enrollment model from closed to open. 
• How Lucy uses Instagram and YouTube to drive people into her membership funnel.
• Her approach to fostering a positive community and driving engagement.  

Key Quotes:

“We try and get people straight into the forums. As soon as they join, the first thing we say on email is ‘Hey, go and say hi in the forums, I’ll be there waiting for you. Come and introduce yourself” 

“With jewellery, it’s such a practical skill. When we were teaching in-person classes you could just have a vague outline and show people then be there to guide them through their problems. With online classes, the clearer you make them, the less work you have to do in the background, so being online has made me be a lot clearer in my teaching.”

“As a team we can often pack up and head off to a tropical island to work and that’s absolutely amazing.” 

“I wish I’d started building an audience earlier. I wish we’d started concentrating on Instagram when I first started making jewellery, rather than doing it when I started the business because I had to.” 

Are you running your membership on the side while managing an existing client focused or service based business? 

Maybe you’re a web designer who still builds websites…

Or a music teacher dealing with private students… 

And to put it quite simply, you’re feeling stuck… 

You want to make the transition from working with clients to running your membership full-time… 

But you’re not sure how to do it… 

Or even if it's the time is right to make the switch! 

We’ve been there… 

And completely understand that it’s a HUGE decision to make… 

So we’ve decided to help you out… 

In this episode we share some tips on how to switch from working with clients to running your membership full-time…

Essential Learning Points:

• Why you should treat your membership as a client. 
• How to decide when to start making the switch to working on your membership full-time.
• Three different approaches to choose from for making the switch. 
• Our tried and tested process for making the transition as smoothly as possible.  

Important Links & Mentions:

• New Year, New brand: Say Hello to The Membership Geeks
• How Much Time Does it Take to Run A Membership Site?
• 7 Things You Need to Validate Before Starting a Membership
• How Much Does it Cost to Start and Run a Membership Website?  

Key Quotes:

“Far too often when working on our own projects and trying to fit them in around the main activities in your business, those projects slip down the priority list and only get attention when the important stuff is done - so your first step to readying yourself for transitioning from side-gig to full time focus is changing your mindset and habits on this front.”

“It’s important to know that this whole process is not going to happen overnight. You’re not going to be servicing clients today and then from tomorrow you’re only working on your membership.”

“The timing of making the switch is really going to come down to your attitude towards risk, your confidence, and the particular situation you’re currently in with your business and in life.”

After 7 years we have a very sad announcement to make...

The Membership Guys are no more.

I know, I know... what a devastating way to start the New Year!

But the good news is that we've just undergone a little bit of a rebrand and henceforth shall be known as...

Membership Geeks!

This is a change that is several years in the making, so tune into today's very special episode of the podcast to discover why we've rebranded, what it means going forward, and get the inside track on some of the exciting things we have planned for 2022 and beyond.

Is it me or has 2021 been a bit of a blur?!

It's definitely been another strange year as we've all tried to navigate life running a membership in the midst of a global pandemic...

But from what we've seen in our membership and Facebook communities, you all seem to be handling it pretty well!

So what have we been up to?

It's been another busy 12 months for myself, Callie and the TMG team...

In 2021, we’ve: 

• Created and launched our EPIC new Roadmap inside Membership Academy.
• Celebrated the 6th anniversary of our business.
• Grown our team further with the addition of our awesome Community Manager, Hannah, and... 
• Created another year’s worth of The Membership Guys weekly podcast and season 5 of Callie’s Behind The Membership podcast. 

And a whole lot more besides!

That being said, with only a few days left of 2021, it’s time for our traditional end of year recap show.

Listen for our top 10 most popular episodes of The Membership Guys podcasts in 2021. 

As always, I'd like to thank you so much for your continued support of the show this year - I really appreciate each and every one of you. 

Here’s to an awesome 2022. 

• Musings About Money and Mindset in the Membership World
• Avoid These 6 Common Member Retention Mistakes
• Competing with Established Memberships in Your Market
• Setting Goals for Your Membership Business: A Practical Process
• The Untold Origin Story of The Membership Guys
• How to Encourage Engagement without Nagging Your Members
• Are You Leaving Money On The Table in Your Membership Business
• How We Built Our Audience Before Launching Our Membership
• Using Instagram Stories to Promote Your Membership
• Why People Aren't Joining Your Membership Site