Behind The Membership with Callie Willows

The Membership Guys
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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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  1. EPISODE 1

    Replacing the Family Income in Just 8 Months with Jenny Finnell

    We’re kicking off season five of Behind The Membership with an awesome guest. Jenny Finnell is Founder of CRNA School Prep Academy, a highly specialized membership for nurses in the United States who want to become Registered Nurse Anesthetists.  The Academy has recently reached its first memberversary and in that time has become a big success - so much so that Jenny was able to retire her husband and reduce her own working hours within eight months of launching the membership!   In this episode we talk to Jenny about her membership journey so far. How some queries from nurses resulted in her creating a free Facebook group that sowed the seeds for her idea of the Academy, why she hired a team to help her ahead of her launch and how she’s growing her membership successfully with little to no marketing.  Plus we talk about the challenges she faces managing her time juggling life as a mom of three children (one of which is a newborn) while managing the Academy, how the flexibility of the membership model enables her to better serve her members and much much more!  About Jenny:  Jenny Finnell MSN, CRNA, and Founder of CRNA School Prep Academy.  She runs a membership community for aspiring Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists in the United States. She has been working as a CRNA for over 6 years with a variety of experiences. She is passionate about giving back to the anesthesia community and loves fostering leadership through mentoring future generations of CRNA's.  Key Quotes:  “I  actually essentially retired my husband to help me full-time with the business. And as of December of 2020, I only work two days a week and when I go back from having our third child, I plan on only hopefully working one day a week.”  “I really think just showing up and serving has been what has made this business so successful.” “I just want to keep growing it as far as the resources for my students and getting the community involved. I think that the more community I get involved the better, the more resources for my students” Connect with Jenny:  Email: jennyfinnell@crnaschoolprep.academy  Follow her on Instagram  Find her on Facebook Check out her Facebook group Subscribe to her Apple podcast

    50 min

  2. EPISODE 2

    Success Using a Freemium Model with Mark Asquith

    Mark Asquith, founder of Podcast Success Academy, is my guest on this week’s episode of Behind The Membership.  Mark’s membership story is a little different to most, not only because of its position as part of a wider ecosystem of businesses, but also because it has a whole tier that members can access for free!  In this episode Mark shares how Podcast Success Academy came to be and what inspired him to build it using the freemium model. He also shares how he’s building a community with two very definitive segments who share an interest in all of his products and the challenges he’s faced in getting his audience to take action.  Plus he explains how he’s going the extra mile to give his audience the best learning experience by plugging a gap of knowledge in the podcast industry, without the hard sell… And much more.  About Mark:   Mark Asquith is a serial entrepreneur who has built several globally successful businesses since he quit his real job in 2005. Billed as the U.K. podcast expert, Mark is CEO & co-founder of Rebel Base Media, a podcast tech and strategy company that owns Captivate.fm, Poductivity, Podcast Websites, Podcast Success Academy & Rebel Base Studios and is well known as an insightful, thought-provoking and actionable podcast industry keynote speaker. He's a wildly approachable Brit, Star Wars/DC Comics geek and believes that good business starts with being good to people. Key Quotes: “It's a fascinating model. People like it. I think people like that transparency of "all right, you're a host, but this other thing exists, and if I want that, it's extra, but you're not pushing it down my throat." Whereas a lot of people would have to upsell something” “The ecosystem, this idea of growing a business or a set of businesses horizontally, not just vertically, was fascinating to us. It took a lot of patience.”  “Our goal is to be a place that everyone can come to learn. If they end up buying, all well and good”  Connect with Mark: RebelBaseMedia.io MarkAsquith.com Twitter Facebook Instagram

    48 min

  3. EPISODE 3

    Pivoting Your Niche & Offering with Alisha Robertson

    Alisha Robertson from The Purpose To Service Academy joins me for this episode of Behind The Membership and she has a very interesting story to share… After experiencing burn out as a coach, Alisha knew that she had to find a solution that would help her scale her business, without the time constraints of one-on-one coaching... and she did, in the form of a membership program. But the interesting thing about Alisha is that before doing research and launching her membership, not only had she never heard of the business model before, but she’d never been part of a membership herself! In this episode you’ll hear about Alisha’s membership journey to date… how her program looks very different from when she opened its doors nearly two years ago, her realization that she could serve her members better if she niched down and the challenges she’s faced being new to the membership space.  Plus you’ll hear how Alisha adds a few personal touches to her member experience, how her life has changed since launching her program and what her plans for the future are…And much more.  About Alisha:   Alisha Robertson is an author, business coach and the founder of The Purpose To Service Academy; a group coaching program for coaches and service based entrepreneurs who are ready to launch their signature offer and serve their clients with less stress and more intention. After experiencing severe burnout, Alisha tore down everything she thought she knew about becoming a successful entrepreneur and decided to build a brand that helped women to focus on building their business without sacrificing the life they desire.  Through her work, Alisha strives to not only help women entrepreneurs to launch, grow and scale their brands but also help them to prioritise themselves in the process. Key Quotes “I had to figure out a groove that worked for me and how to build in that excitement without feeling like I was launching every single month.” “I think even more access to me has helped a lot because even if you don't have a question now, you know that when a question does come up, you have someone to go and ask. It's like, you almost have a coach on retainer. You have someone there.” “If I could go again, I would definitely narrow my focus from the very beginning. I would have started out from the very beginning only focusing on this one very specific industry and this one specific problem and audience.”  Connect with Alisha:  The Purpose To Service Academy Alisharobertson.com Find her on Facebook Follow her on Instagram Follow her on Twitter

    42 min

  4. EPISODE 4

    Hobby to 100+ Members a Month with Anna Geiger

    Meet Anna Geiger - mom of 6 and owner of The Measured Mom Plus, an online membership that offers resources, printables and training to pre k-third grade educators.  In this episode of Behind The Membership, Anna joins us to share the story of how she has turned her hobby into a thriving business.  What started as a blog sharing content with family and friends while living abroad has become, over the space of 8 years, an online shop and membership that attracts millions of site visits per month and hundreds of thousands of subscribers to her mailing list. In this episode Anna talks about how she’s built her audience, why she made the decision not to sell any of her products until two years after her blog went live and what inspired her to launch her membership just under 2 years ago.  She also shares how her site attracts over 100 members each month with little to no marketing, what she loves most about being a membership owner and the challenges she faces targeting teachers… Plus much more!  About Anna: Anna Geiger, M.Ed.,  is a former teacher and mom of six. She has been sharing education resources since 2013 on her website, The Measured Mom. In 2019 she began her membership site, The Measured Mom Plus, which shares education resources for Pre k-third grade educators.  Key Quotes “I've found too, that was surprising to me, but maybe I just should have known this, that most people don't want to join a membership. The people that joined the membership were kind of like my super fans and there's plenty of them. And I do really well with it, but a lot of people just want to buy something.” “I'd been hovering under 2 million monthly page views for years and I jumped over it to like 2.4 million” “You can see 150 members leaving, but 95% of people stayed. That's very encouraging” Connect with Anna: The Measured Mom Find her on Facebook Follow her on Pinterest Follow her on Instagram

    39 min

  5. EPISODE 5

    Daily sales from psychology driven emails with Rob and Kennedy

    With a background in psychology, hypnosis, entertaining and influencing, Rob and Kennedy, owners of The League of Email Marketing Heroes are no strangers to the membership world. In fact, they both run successful memberships for their diverse range of businesses.  In this week’s episode of Behind The Membership they’re sharing the story of The League, a membership that teaches entrepreneurs how to turn their marketing emails into profits using psychology.   During the episode they tell us how they’ve taken ownership of the email marketing space, growing their membership successfully starting with little to no audience, why they choose to send psychology driven daily emails and how 95% of their member conversions come via email.  Plus they share how they manage their time effectively while running all of their businesses, why they’ve chosen not to adopt the closed-door enrollment model and how their top lead magnet isn’t actually a lead magnet… And much much more.  This episode is packed with a lot of value!  About Rob and Kennedy:  Rob Temple, Hypnotist, Marketer and Penguin LoverBorn in London before moving to Sunderland in the North East of England as a young child, Rob always wanted to be one of the cool kids.So he took up learning Magic as a hobby. Go Rob! Despite not understanding why this kept him from the popular tribe, he went on to win multiple awards as Young Magician of The Year at The Magic Circle. After performing close up magic at weddings and children's parties he saw a hypnosis show and convinced his Dad to pay the hypnotist for mentorship. This lead Rob to moving to the Greek island of Kos for a number of summer seasons where he hypnotised and entertained thousands of tourists in his infamous shows. Realising that these gigs won't keep knocking on his door, Rob decided to apply his skills to marketing himself which lead to him performing all over the world in places like The Seychelles and for events for royalty. While sitting around the pool waiting to perform, Rob started accepting offers from marketing companies and coaches to help them apply his skills to their businesses and quickly saw the results he was getting for them. Kennedy, Psychological Mind Reader, Creative and Theatre LoverRefusing to do PE at school, Kennedy spent extra curricular time in anything and everything to do with the theatre. Amateur dramatics where he played parts in the likes of The Railway Children and Oliver meant that whenever there was a choice in school, he'd choose the theatre. His mother discovered his entrepreneurial flare when she emptied out his school trousers to find the 50p coins he'd been collecting from the other kids in exchange for writing excuse notes so they could skip. school. Naughty Kennedy. After seeing someone on TV memorise a deck of cards, Kennedy became obsessed with the potential of our minds and this lead him to study influence, body language, micro-expressions, misdirection and memory. He combined these skills with his natural wit (or as his mother calls it, his ability to ‘think his way out of anything' into an after dinner show. Since many of the clients who booked him were large corporations like Yahoo!, Mars, Tarmac and Royal London he spent a lot of time in departure lounges and hotel rooms waiting to perform. He used...

    1h 4m

  6. EPISODE 6

    Setting Limits on Member Numbers and Quadrupling Income with Vahn Petit

    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

    49 min

  7. EPISODE 7

    Overcoming a Subscription Ceiling with Sean Wilson

    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

    56 min

  8. EPISODE 8

    From Founder Member to Membership Manager with Ali McGee Kelly

    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

    47 min

  9. EPISODE 9

    Succeeding with a Small Niche with Lisa Leander

    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

    52 min

  10. EPISODE 10

    Changing Your Business Trajectory with Craig Cannings

    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

    51 min
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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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