Behind The Membership with Callie Willows

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.

Stacey Harris is joining me in the very first episode of Behind the Membership to discuss her site, Hit the Mic Backstage. We delve into Stacey's membership journey so far, including: Positioning the membership as an upgrade to her podcast How she created her membership in just 2 weeks The sales funnel she uses to attract new members The impact of $1 trials Why she loves running a community How Hit the Mic Backstage has evolved over the last two years and more!

Joining me on this episode of Behind the Membership is Colin Gray from The Podcast Host Academy.  Colin actually had a false start with his membership, something many of us fear, but is now starting to thrive after pivoting his approach and brand. Colin's membership is still quite young, but he shares some great insights, including: Why his first membership site didn't quite work and what he did to fix that Making a natural link between free and paid content, and the different roles his blog and podcast play Why he's not sure about having a community in the membership The challenge of creating ongoing value How live support plays a large part in his membership success The value in creating short actionable content to aid member results How looking outside of other membership sites for inspiration is a good idea How he's adding a SaaS product into the mix with his membership and more!

Avalon Yarnes from Avalon Cakes School joins Callie on this episode of Behind the Membership. What makes Avalon and her membership so different is just how creative she is, not just with her topic but in both her marketing and her retention tactics as well. Avalon has been running her membership for nearly 2 years now and we discuss some great topics, including: How Avalon walked away from her job of 10 years to start the membership site with her partner How she thought outside the box about what competitors were doing, and turned it into a great retention hook Getting creative with video trailers and free tutorials to attract new members The challenge of balancing life and business and wearing all the hats Why choosing a Facebook group for her community was the right decision The most fulfilling part of running Avalon Cakes School and the impact having a membership has had on her life and business Why she wouldn't offer two tiers of membership if she was starting over and more!

John Tuggle from Learning Guitar Now joins me on this weeks episode of Behind the Membership. Learning Guitar Now has been around for over 10 years now, starting out selling books, DVDs and standalone courses before adding a membership offering into the mix. John's membership now accounts for around 75% of his monthly income, with one-off product sales making up the rest and John has a lot of great experience to share! John has been running his membership for 3 years now, after spending 7 years selling higher priced one-off products. We talk: How nicheing down and focusing on his passion made all the difference to John's success Starting out selling DVDs and courses for hundreds of dollars and why John then decided to add a $19.95 per month membership How going all in doubled his sales and brought him more freedom Promoting a membership with free lessons and member exclusive extras The benefits of selling one-off products alongside a membership Dealing with ill health and the challenge of staying creative How using a forum for answering member questions provides additional content John's course production process and much more!

Julie Christie from Togs in Business joins Callie on this week's episode of Behind the Membership. Julie's membership is less than a year old, and Julie shares some great insights into the first 6 months of her membership and how important narrowing down her ideal member has been and why her focus is on quality of members rather than quantity. We talk Julie's journey so far, including: How Julie began teaching the business of photography and decided to escape the launch cycle The challenge - and importance - of identifying and attracting her ideal members How quality of members is more important than quantity Juggling both a forum and a Facebook group for her membership community Moving to an application process and purposefully adding obstacles to joining Attracting members with live and automated webinars How Julie created 'Success Month' to get new members off to a great start And more!

Christopher Sutton from Musical U joins Callie on episode 6 of Behind the Membership. Christopher has run his business for 8 years now, with his membership site being the predominant offering since 2015.  Christopher places a lot of emphasis on user experience and gamification in the membership and unlike many membership site owners, Christopher is also not the figurehead or guru of the membership, in fact most of the content is created by other people. Christopher talks about the last 2 years of the Musical U membership, including: How Christopher started his company after noticing a big gap in the market Moving from creating and selling iphone apps to a membership model How Christopher has built his business by predominantly outsourcing content creation and not making himself the guru Gamifying the member experience for increased success Why his community is such a vital part of the membership and aids retention How more sales created a need to change the member experience and reassess his UX How offering a trial has benefited his membership sales Making use of personalised opt-ins and segmentation for better results Building a team with a shared mission and the freedom that brings Why his focus is on organic growth and not Facebook ads Adding new products and membership tiers as the membership grows

Holly Gillen from Business Cinema Academy and Holly G Studios is joining Callie on this episode of Behind the Membership. Holly has been running her membership alongside her video production business for 15 months now, after trying lots of other business models previously. Holly shares a lot of great tips for us in this interview, including how she uses challenges to attract new members, her experience with using Kajabi for her membership site, and how important it is to only attract members when they're ready for your membership. Holly talks with Callie about the first 15 months of Business Cinema Academy, including: How Holly attracts new members with free video challenges Using themed months to help members focus The power of watching members transform and succeed How using Kajabi has cut out the tech headaches of running a membership The #oneminuteonetake video challenge Using a quiz to tell sales page visitors  if the membership is for them The value of experimenting and not staying stagnant Increasing engagement and connection with personal check in videos Why she wished she'd started the membership site earlier!

Shannon Rogers from The Hand Tool School joins Callie on episode 8 of the Behind the Membership podcast. The Hand Tool School has been up and running for 7 years now offering standalone courses (Semesters), and the recurring membership element (Apprenticeship) was added just over 12 months ago. Shannon provides a unique approach to his teaching model and makes impressive use of automation and tagging to provide a more hands on and customised approach to his members. Shannon has a wealth of experience to share so listen in to find out: How he's managed to succeed in a low-cost hobby based market by being a niche within a niche How his site grew from a podcast and video show to monetising with an online school Why he created a coaching based membership alongside his standalone courses and how he's combined these into a cohesive learning system How advances in automation have helped him to scale and enable a more personal approach How he's using live video and tripwire products to attract new members How he manages running the school alongside a full time job (and without a team!) Why creating content based on member needs forms the backbone of his membership How he completely redesigned and relaunched his site a year ago Why you just need to be one step ahead of the people you're teaching Why fostering a strong and supportive community makes life easier And much more!

Lisa League from QPractice is today's guest on episode 9 of Behind the Membership with Callie Willows. QPractice has been running for 4 years and focuses on helping interior designers to pass their professional exams, which means that the membership is somewhat finite as there is a natural conclusion to the membership once members pass their exams. Listen in to find out how Lisa deals with this and ensures that the membership works for both her and her members. "I really have liked how it's just grown and evolved over time...I've really, really enjoyed the under the hood stuff as well as making the content." Listen in to find out: How Lisa initially got started with online education and community building Dealing with the inbuilt churn of a results based or limited lifecycle membership Using audience feedback to steer course development Pre-selling the membership and creating content live Providing assessments, hands on review and feedback as core membership features The challenge of getting and keeping good team members How the membership site has drastically evolved over the last 4 years, including the need for custom software development Being hands on in the community and dealing with high levels of customer support Why she uses and recommend Mighty Networks for membership communities Attracting members with SEO and content marketing Using a guarantee to encourage action and implementation Why she's focusing on simplifying for the future

Laura Robinson from Worditude joins Behind the Membership this week for the 10th and final episode of Season 1. The Worditude Club is still in it's first year and Laura talks with us about how the membership has already changed and evolved in that time, why she is aiming for consistency more than scale, how collaborating with others has helped growth and also how the membership fits in with her one-to-one services as well. And much more! Having the membership club does naturally market my one-to-one services, because I'm constantly marketing the club but there's always going to be those people that look at that and go, "No, I don't want to have to figure out this myself. I just want to pay you and you do it for me." Laura discusses the lessons learned in her first 9 months of the membership, including: Creating the membership based on audience demand Moving from a hands-off membership to a more personal offering Why she no longer creates new content every month and the benefit of member-led content Creating a pathway to help members navigate through content Closing the membership whilst making changes to ensure the best new member experience Why consistency is more important than quantity Juggling running a membership site with one-to-one work Taking a break when times get challenging Using collaborations to get in front of new people and attract new members How having a membership has helped to break the feast-famine cycle of one-to-one work

I’m kicking off season two of Behind the Membership with a very special guest, the one and only Scott Devine from Scott’s Bass Lessons. Now, Scott was actually a client of ours for many years, the very last client we stopped working with in fact. And we saw his site go from free YouTube videos and a PayPal donate button to a seven figure membership site in the years that we worked with him. Scott’s Bass Lessons has been running for 6 years now and has attracted over 30,000 members in that time. It’s also gone from one-man bad to having a full faculty of world class bass educators. So there’s a lot to pack into this episode!

In this episode of Behind the Membership I'm talking with Janet Murray, PR and marketing strategist and owner of The Studio membership. Janet has actually built a whole ecosystem around her membership, providing a natural progression through a different range of services and products including books, live events, consulting and mastermind groups. Here we dive into the role The Studio has in Janet's business, and how the membership has evolved and expanded over the last few years, actually resulting in a current rebrand and a restructuring. We also look at why customer care is vital and some of the things Janet is doing differently to help with both attracting new members and keeping existing members, including the use of open days, reset and exit calls.

In this episode of behind the membership, I'm talking with Brandon Vogt from Claritas U about how he's achieved success with his membership site for Catholics who want to get clear on their faith. Brandon has managed to create and run this six figure membership site alongside a full time job and gained over a thousand members with just his first launch, a pretty impressive achievement by anyone's standards. Here we look at how Brandon uses the launch model to only open his site twice a year and the pros and cons he's found of doing this, including how it impacts his churn and ongoing member numbers. We also talk premium tiers, engagement, content creation, retention and more! Listen in to hear How he managed to achieve over 1200 members with his first launch The pros and cons he’s found of having a launch cycle membership and why he might not choose that route if he was starting again How he cut his churn in half and and uses ongoing content to keep members coming back for more Why Brandon decided to move from books and speaking to a membership site and how it’s saving him time and stress How Brandon created and runs his membership alongside a full time job and with a minimal team Offering both standard and VIP membership options and how this impacted sign up numbers How he overcame objections from an audience unfamiliar with membership sites Why he gave influencers in his niche free accounts and how this created a loyal band of evangelists for the membership Why he’s considering moving to an evergreen membership despite his success with launches

On Episode Four of Season Two, Callie is talking with SEO and content strategist Kim Bultsma about her membership site, A Cup of Content. Kim and I talk niching down, running completely free trials to attract new members, implementing member challenges to improve engagement and retention and the joy of watching your members make progress thanks to your content. We also talk about how Kim came to start her own business in the first place after years of being a teacher, and the impact that this change has had on her family and her life. Plus, Kim shares some of the challenges that she’s encountered along the way, particularly when it comes to balancing time between her service business and the membership site. So, Listen in to hear: How her daughters serious health problems led to Kim leaving teaching to start her own business and how they are all happier as a result Why a membership site was a natural addition to her service business and allows her to reach more people The need to niche down rather than be everything to everybody when it comes to attracting members Using bite-size 5 day challenges to provide member content and increase engagement The challenge of juggling time with both a service business and a membership site Why Kim changed from a $1 trial to a completely free, no credit card required, trial, and how that impacted sign-ups The importance of making members feel valued and important for increasing retention Why Kim spends an hour a day building relationships and engaging with other people’s content How the membership site is continually evolving and why listening to members is key

In this episode of Behind the Membership Callie talks with Scott Baptie from Food for Fitness about his new membership site, The Food for Fitness Inner Circle. While Scott's membership site has only been open for a few months, he already has a few hundred members, and here we're talking launching, going all in on the membership model after years of offering services and products, and how he's managed to attract members, despite being in a very crowded market. We also dive into how Scott uses features like private coaching and accountability groups as part of his membership, as well as what he's doing to grow his membership and improve retention going forward.  

In this episode of Behind the Membership, Callie talks with Tim Topham from TimTopham.com, whose membership site is all about helping piano teachers to improve both their creative skills and their teaching businesses. Tim's had his Inner Circle membership site for two years now and in this episode we dive into how he made the leap from his teaching job to full time membership site owner, and the challenges and opportunities that that's brought for him. We also talk about increasing member engagement via gamification, challenges, and apps, and how Tim uses monthly webinars to attract new members. And we discuss growing a team, making your first hire early, bringing in other content creators and the importance of just getting started and fine tuning as you go. And much more! Listen in to hear: How Tim’s membership evolved from his free blog sharing tips with other piano teachers The benefits of launching to an existing audience Why he quit teaching to run the membership site full time and how that enabled him to grow quicker The challenge of pricing a membership aimed at solo practitioners How Tim is running monthly webinars to bring in a steady stream of new members How sending physical gifts and personal videos at key points has improved churn The effectiveness of running challenges throughout the year as well as giving members ways to mark progress Why he created an app for delivering his free content to members The part tech plays in the long term success of your membership site and why he wish he’d got it right from the start How he’s building a team to enable him to focus on the more important tasks and his top tips for getting started with hiring How bringing other experts in to create content provides a wider perspective for members and diversifies the experience

In this episode of Behind the Membership Callie talks with Mark Warner about his membership site for teachers, Teaching Packs. Mark has a very different model to most membership site owners, offering only a very low cost non-recurring annual membership.  So we're talking about why Mark made that decision, and how it's enabled him to attract 15,000 teachers to his membership over the last five years, as well as completely transform his own life in the process. We're also talking about how Mark has spent 20 years building his audience, including an impressive three million Facebook page likes. And Mark discusses how he uses reviews and free resources to attract new members, and why, unlike most memberships, his members join for the content and stay for the content.

In today’s episode of Behind the Membership Callie talks with Terra Dawn from Uncork Your Dork and the Wham! Bam! Business Plan! Terra's had her membership for over a year now and in this episode they're talking about why she initially moved from Teachable to WordPress and why she's recently moved her community from an onsite forum to Mighty Networks, and the effect that this has had on both her engagement and her retention. Terra also discusses how she uses challenges and summits to market and grow her membership site, how the membership has changed her business focus and what she's doing next to grow the membership even further.

In this episode of Behind the Membership Callis is talking with Nigel Moore all about his membership site, The Tech Tribe. Nigel places a high emphasis on providing excellent service for his members, including offering all members a personal coaching call when they join, a private coaching section in his community and creating most of his content based on member questions and needs. As a result he's really tuned into what his members and his potential members are looking for, and what will help them to get results and this has enabled him to build a six-figure membership site with relative ease. Here we also talk about how Nigel gets a member a day without marketing, and what happens when he actually turns his marketing funnel on. And we’re talking about the challenge of content creation, dong things that don't necessarily scale, and introducing a higher membership tier into the mix, plus more.