Many of my guests on the podcast have built and skilled large membership and subscription businesses with big teams of specialists and sophisticated software to support their efforts.

But what if the team is just you?

Mike Morrison, launched the Membership Geeks Podcast 9 years ago to help solopreneurs build online membership businesses. You can drive a meaningful subscription without a team and totally online, and that's what Mike teaches at his Membership Academy.

In our conversation, we talk about how the membership economy has evolved since we first met 9 years ago, some of the elements that make one membership more successful than another, and what it takes to scale when you're working alone.

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What do you do when powerful tailwinds change to headwinds as you're growing your business?
Many Membership Economy businesses have struggled to keep up momentum in the past few years as the golden era of growth has evolved to a bottom line era.

Today's guest, E-Lin Tan, took the helm at BlueMovement offering subscriptions to Bosch Appliances in Europe during the bottom line era.

In our conversation, we discussed how they balance circularity and sustainability with profitability.

Listen to learn how they've built support across the organization, developed the right culture, and continued to evolve the offering to respond to changing customer needs.

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Today we're talking about sustainability.

Where do the circular economy and the membership economy intersect, and how can both be applied to tread more lightly and produce less waste?

These questions have been at the center of the work of my guest, Patrick Hypscher. Patrick is a consultant and advisor and the host of Circularity.fm, a podcast about circular business models and Product-as-a-Service (PaaS).

With experience running PaaS businesses, both at Bosch BSH and at Bertelsmann, as well as at his own SaaS startup, Patrick has developed some really helpful models for manufacturers building subscriptions.

In our wide-ranging conversation, we talk about these models, why Europe is way ahead of the US with regard to product-as-a-service models, and the many benefits that are driving the growth of this emerging approach.

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Zumba is a phenomenon. Since its founding in 2001, the addictive fitness dance program with a Latin beat has taken the world by storm.

As of 2022, the company claimed 15 million people taking Zumba classes weekly at 200,000 locations in over 180 countries. At its core is the Zumba Instructor Network, a monthly membership program created to give instructors ongoing support and tools for success. It includes an unlimited, never-expiring teaching license, as well as monthly music and choreography marketing tools and access to the community.

Today's guest, Yael Dornbusch is the Chief Subscription Officer at Zumba, responsible for managing what she calls a prosumer subscription.

In our conversation, she explains why Zumba built their first subscription around instructors rather than students, why they launched a second subscription specifically for students, and the principles they use to balance the needs of these two constituencies.

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 If you've ever had to wait for your doctor first in the waiting room and then in the examining room, or struggled to get an appointment or had trouble getting a prescription filled while on the road, you know why primary care in the United States is in such desperate need of disruption. 

One Medical has been transforming primary care through the power of membership and customer centricity since 2007. In 2023, One Medical was acquired by Amazon for nearly $4 billion. Dr. Joseph Michelli has written a well-researched book on One Medical's journey and what enabled such rapid growth and such strong customer engagement. The book is called “All Business is Personal: One Medical Human-Centered, Technology-Powered Approach to Customer Engagement.”

In today's conversation, Joseph and I talk about how the company reimagined every step of the patient journey, One Medical's three key success drivers, and what the future of healthcare might hold.

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Something I've noticed over the years is that there's a natural membership economy mindset among many family-owned businesses and organizations, not on the venture-backed IPO acquisition path. Companies that aren't on a tight timeline to an exit have the ability to invest in long-term, trusted relationships with customers and with employees.

After a career as both a founder of multiple successful companies and a venture investor with Kleiner Perkins, Dave Whorton decided he wanted to work specifically with what he came to call Evergreen leaders, the ones who combined sound business principles, extraordinary purpose, and a desire to share their success with their employees.

His Tugboat Institute researches these organizations to identify best practices, and then he brings together these leaders to teach and support one another. Now, he's written a book, “Another Way: Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last”. It's a playbook for entrepreneurs seeking an alternate path to success.

In my conversation with Dave, we discussed how venture capital has changed the face of entrepreneurship, what it means for founders, the 7Ps that are the guiding principles of Evergreen companies, and the two key constituencies that matter most to your organization's long-term success.

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 In today's episode, we're exploring one of the most ambitious and successful business model transformations in modern corporate history, the shift of Adobe from a traditional software company selling packaged products to a thriving subscription powerhouse. And who better to walk us through this journey than Mark Garrett, Adobe's former chief financial officer and the architect behind this transition? 

When Adobe first announced its move to a subscription-based model in 2011, there was plenty of skepticism. Analysts questioned the financial impact, customers worried about cost increases, and internal teams faced the daunting task of restructuring their entire go-to-market strategy. Mark and his team remained steadfast, not just in their belief that subscriptions would create more predictable revenue, but also that they would allow Adobe to serve customers better with continuous innovation and improved accessibility.

Since those early days, Adobe's market cap has skyrocketed from around 16 billion before the transition to well over 200 billion, proving just how powerful a well-executed subscription strategy can be.

In this conversation, Mark shares the behind-the-scenes story of how Adobe made the leap as a public company, maintaining exceptional financial performance while also enhancing customer satisfaction. We'll discuss the key strategies behind their transition, the biggest challenges they faced both internally and externally, and what other companies can learn from Adobe's playbook. If you've ever wondered how to execute a high-stakes business model transformation, how to balance Wall Street expectations with long-term customer loyalty, or how to design a subscription offering that truly delivers ongoing value, this episode is for you.

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Chess.com is one of the most popular freemium platforms in the world, offering millions of users free access to an engaging online chess experience. But how do you encourage players to upgrade to a paid tier when the free version is already so compelling?

Adam, with his extensive background in revenue strategy and subscription growth, has played a critical role in designing and optimizing Chess.com's premium offerings.

In this conversation, we'll dive into the challenges and opportunities of building a successful paid tier within a thriving freemium ecosystem, how chess.com balances free and premium value, the strategies they've used to convert free users into loyal subscribers., and the key lessons Adam has learned from his experience leading revenue at a fast-growing digital platform.

If you're interested in learning how to drive revenue without alienating your free user base, how to craft subscription tiers that meet diverse customer needs, and how to foster long-term loyalty in a competitive market, then  you won't want to miss this episode.

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 Pricing is probably the trickiest, most stressful part of managing a subscription business.

How do you balance revenue and profitability? How can you keep your pricing simple to communicate and execute while personalizing it to optimize for elasticity of demand and value created? If these questions plague your organization, you'll want to take notes today.

Matt Lindsay, founding partner of Mather Economics is a subscription pricing expert who's helped hundreds of publishers build and evolve robust pricing models.

In today's conversation, we're taking on pricing controversies, including the role of introductory offers, how to raise prices and how to respond to a subscriber threatening to cancel.

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  When I wrote The Membership Economy, I knew that nearly every organization could build trusted recurring revenue relationships with their customers just by focusing on a forever promise. I really saw a huge future and hoped that companies would follow this path. But what I didn't realize was just how quickly and broadly they would heed my words and invest in subscriptions.

It can be hard to predict what will happen next, but in this episode, we're going to do just that. Today, my guest, Joe Rohrlich, CEO of Recurly, and I will talk about trends for 2025. We'll explore what's ahead, both for digital natives and large companies just dipping their toe into the world of recurring revenue.

You'll learn best practices of the most successful household names, as well as how to manage challenges relating to speed to market and scaling without losing your secret sauce.

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