Today’s episode of the podcast is all about the importance of aligning your business decisions with what feels right for you, rather than conforming to industry norms or seeking validation from others.

In this episode I share my recent experience of how and why I have made decisions in my business, that goes against the advice of the online business industry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

1. Why you need to trust your gut instincts and not be swayed by the opinions of others


2. How the Dream Business Club has changed over time and who it now attracts


3. Why I have changed my pricing structure to move away from Grandfather pricing, which is not the done thing in an online business

I'd love to know if you have an experience of going against the norm in your business, or if this episode has inspired you to do it in the future - please drop me a DM on social media and let me know!

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Find out more about The Dream Business Club

Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Your Dream Business Podcast with me, your host, Teresa Heath Wareing. How are you doing this week? I got lots of messages from lots of you about last week's episode and how useful it was and how you thought that, you know, the timing was perfect. I just feel like a lot of people are going through a lot of stuff at the moment, and that's why I want to do an episode on when things go hard in your life, how do you then keep going in your business?

So, I really hope if you got a chance to listen to it, it did help. If you haven't listened to it, then please go back and listen to last week's episode. I think it was quite a good one. This week I wanna talk to you about some changes I've made in the club.

And the reason I wanna tell you these changes and talk about it is because I am hopefully gonna give you permission to do what you want to do in your business regardless of what is the norm or what people expect or think, or have done it in different ways all that time. So as you know, I have an online membership or you might not know, in case you don't know. I have an online membership and it's pretty awesome.

And the membership started off, it was actually called Marketing That Converts Academy, so that when I first started back in the day, like four years ago, I've had my membership now. I, my background's marketing, my degrees in marketing and I know a lot of stuff to do with marketing. And I set up this academy, this membership in order to help small businesses with their own marketing and help them develop their businesses through marketing their businesses better.

And over the years I have changed and it has changed dramatically. I and now the club, it's called Your Dream Business Club is much more focused around business in general as well as obviously, you know, the marketing stuff is still there, but definitely focused around, you know, running a business in general, but also now includes a lot of mindset, a lot of coaching because I've developed and I've been, become a qualified coach.

And I it just now is a much more rounded product. And like I said, and I have changed, hugely in those four years. Now, I've invested and spent a lot of money on me and making sure that, you know, I'm at the top of my game and I can offer the best service I can. And when I first opened the what was called the academy, I opened the doors at $29. Right.

Which now kind of makes me smile because that feels like a million years ago. And what normally happens in the online space and what is the done thing is that you grandfather people in at the price they came in at. So if you joined on day one, which some of them did, they were given the price that it was then, and then if the price went up, they stayed on that price.

And this is a done thing for memberships. Okay, this is what is kind of the norm. This is what people do. And say, except it didn't quite sit right with me. And, and I was realizing that there was a big difference, not only in cost, because the club is now 222 a month. You know, which, when you think about 2000 a year to be coached by me is bugger all.

But that's what the, the club is. So you pay 2000 pounds, I guess if you're in pounds, it's like 2000. If your dollars, it's 2,222, for the year. And you get to be in my world and I get to coach you in a group setting as well as get access to all of the, the club stuff and the mindset calls and the content hours and the coworking and all that jazz.

But like I said, I've changed and the people that I'm attracting now have changed because when people are paying that kind of money, they take it really seriously. And so they should. I don't ever want someone to join my world and it be one of those things that they just sit and they have and they don't take action because that's no good to them, and it's no good to me.

I love seeing people take action. I love seeing that people. It can make a difference in their business if they take some steps. And I'm not saying that people came in at the lower amount, weren't doing that, but the people I'm attracting now are a different type of person. So anyway, I went away to that Mastermind when I was speaking in Nashville.

And I was talking to someone who doesn't have an online business, and they were talking about increasing pricing and all this sort of thing, and they were asking me about like what my pricing is. And, and I told 'em what the cost was and they said something about, you know, oh the number of people you got at that amount. That's really good.

And I was like, yeah, but you have to remember, not everyone is at that amount. And fyi, this is always something worth remembering when you see someone else's membership and you think, oh my God, they've got loads of members, they must be earning loads of money, not always the truth. So anyway, they were like, what do you mean the price didn't go up?

And I'm like, well, for those people they get grandfathered in and they're like, but that's mad. Like, and it started me going down this kind of route of just because I've been a loyal shopper at Tesco's doesn't mean I get 2019 prices, let's say. You know, just because you shopped somewhere doesn't mean that they grandfather in the price.

And I realized that the online space was one of the only places that did that. But yet what I offered, how I showed up, the difference I could make in people's business had changed dramatically. The cost of the club has changed dramatically, and please bear in mind it took four years to get to that point, but, It's a huge difference from day one.

So I started to think about this and think about who I was now attracting and think about the work that I was expecting people to do on their business and how I was expecting them to show up. And I just thought it wasn't sitting right, that I had people in the club who were still paying $29 a month when if anybody wanted to join, they had to come in at the higher level.

So, I gave it some thought and I literally got a list of all my members and I looked at everyone who was paying under a certain amount and it was literally the most loyal, loving people ever. Cuz obviously they've been in for a long time and I know them all personally. I know what their partners do. I know how many children they've got.

Like I literally know these people. And the decision to increased their pricing knowing there was a fair chance I was going to lose them was the worst decision ever. As in for me to have to make. It wasn't the worst decision. It was the hardest decision for me to have to make. Cuz I literally looked at these people and I was like, oh my God.

But I love them and I love them and I know them and I'm friends with them now. And they're amazing. And they're amazing. But I had to really think about I what was I trying to show with my business? How was I trying to stand out? What were the things that I was trying to do in terms of the business? And I made the decision to contact them and basically say, I have decided to increase your prices.

So basically anybody under a certain figure, were having their prices increased, not up to the 2 22 because they have been loyal and have been in for a long time, but to move them up to a higher amount. And this isn't done in the online space. People don't do this like this is unheard of. And I spoke to the lovely Cali from the membership geeks and I was like, what do you think?

And she said, your business, do what you like. And I was like, yeah, it is. And you're right. So I decided to personally emailed them and I invited them onto a call with me to say, I want to explain what's happening with the club. And I got on a call with them and I had a chat and basically said, this has been the hardest thing ever for me to do.

And I genuinely don't want to, to do this because I love you all dearly, but I know I've gotta do this for my business. And for kind of putting a line in the sand in terms of like, you know, this is where I'm at now. Like people have to pay this level to be with me. So, they all took it brilliantly and they were all very kind.

And I said to them, if you think this is a money making exercise, believe me, it's not because I knew a