Confession time…
Back when I had my marketing agency, I rarely took a vacation. (Don’t play any violins for me… I’ve made up for it since… visiting Paris, London, Moscow, Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Disney four times in the last year alone.)
If I wasn’t working, I wasn’t making money because I was paid by the hour… a fee for service. The hourly rate was great, but with the expenses of running a company, it still required me to work all the time just to make ends meet.
Plus, to be frank, there was a little voice inside of me (I call it God, you can call it what you like), telling me I was meant to reach more people all along.
Eventually, while reading a newsletter for a membership program I belonged to, I got an idea… what if I created a newsletter that could be offered to others for a subscription? That way my clients would get content from me and I could afford to mail it because the other subscribers would pay for it.
And that was how today’s Powerful Professionals Business Coaching started. Now it is more robust with monthly Masterclasses, a vibrant Facebook Group community, live events and more… but we started simple. Without that beginning we wouldn’t have the community we have now.
And that would be even more tragic than Adam Levine’s performance at the Super Bowl.
Today it is so much easier than ever to start your membership program. With resources like Facebook Groups and video meeting software, you can literally launch for free.
In case you are thinking this just has to be all business… it doesn’t. Your membership program can be based on a topic you simply find interesting.
Whether for building your core business or a side passion, having a membership program gives you a way to reach more people than you ever could one-on-one. It also leverages your time because you can create a piece of content once and it can serve all of your members.
(A virtual photocopy machine of your fabulous self.)
I’ve worked with Scott Whitaker—Founder of Membership Multipliers and monthly contributor to our RISE magazine—on our membership program for the past year. He’s helped us with our vision, scale, and growth of our membership program. Plus, he helped us launch two Mastermind programs in the past year… one of my favorite things ever in my career.
To get a sense of the different types of membership businesses out there, I asked him to name a few of the folks in his “tribe.”
- Scott Molchan, Million Dollar Landscaper. Membership Focus: Landscapers who want to grow their businesses.
- Steve Anderson, Workamper News. Membership Focus: People who want to travel the U.S. and work out of their RVs.
- Adrian Curran, Meet Me There Events. Membership Focus: Busy professionals who are looking for fun and social events in their area.
- Jonathan Graf, Prayer Shop. Membership Focus: Churches who want to start a prayer ministry and mobilize their people through prayer.
- Karin Haysbert, Queens for Christ. Membership Focus: Women who want to create a Hot, Holy, Happy Marriage.
Some business. Some not. All incredible in that they are changing lives and leveraging time.
So how do you get started?
There are three steps to launching a membership program in 21 days. (Aren’t there always 3?)
First, you’ve got to create a buyer’s list. This is different than just an “audience.” These are people who’ve shown interest in the membership topic you are going to be launching and are qualified to buy in once you launch.
The best way to do this is to make it a sample of your membership program itself. Just like seeing a sneak peek of a movie before the main attraction, your membership sneak peek is an effective, and frankly the simplest, way to launch.
Second, you create content the audience craves. How? Spend days, weeks, or even months crafting the most perfect content that never sees the light of day? Nah!
Instead, you don’t do any of the heavy lifting. Simply bring in experts from your niche as your monthly guests. Not only will this provide great content for your tribe, but it will give you an excuse to reach out to key influencers with whom you’d like to develop a relationship.
I did this back when I had the agency and wanted to meet a new referral source, or a prospect from my “Dream 100” list.
I still use this technique today and turn these interviews into chapters of my books.
Third, you can’t let technology get in the way of launching. Too many great membership ideas stay in the dream phase because the dreamer doesn’t know how to collect payments, or how to set up a site.
Thankfully today, you can launch without a membership site and without any complicated merchant services. Using a simple Facebook Group and PayPal Subscription Payments, you can launch quickly with no software or developer costs.
Want to get the complete step by step system for launching your membership program in 21 days?
Join me and Scott Whitaker for a one-time only livecast by clicking here: How to Launch Your Membership Program in 21 Days
You were made for this. I can’t wait to celebrate your success.
