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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August 19, 2021
<p>In the final episode of season five of Behind The Membership, Craig Cannings, co-founder of <a href="https://www.freelanceu.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Freelance University</a>, joins us to share the story of how he and his wife Kelly transformed their business after switching to the membership model. </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p><strong>About Craig </strong></p><p>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.</p><p><strong>Key Quotes</strong></p><p><em>“It’s a very interesting space as we see this freelance economy boom, even in the midst of a global pandemic.”</em></p><p><em>“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.” </em></p><p><em>“The membership has allowed me to take control of the business, as opposed to let my emotions or the model control me.” </em></p><p><strong>Connect with Craig</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.freelanceu.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Freelanceu.com</a> </p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/imcraigcannings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a></p><p><a href="https://ca.linkedin.com/in/craigcannings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></p>
August 12, 2021
<p>Our guest on this penultimate episode of season five of Behind The Membership is Lisa Leander, founder of <a href="https://wibenetwork.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Women in Business Education</a>. </p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p><strong>About Lisa</strong></p><p>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.</p><p><strong>Key Quotes</strong></p><p><em>“It's been really a tough year for anyone in business or launching a business trying to balance your family and your priorities.” </em></p><p><em>“You can start out scrappy and build towards something great. You don't have to have all the pieces.”</em></p><p><em>Providing quality content, providing quality discussions, delighting your current members, all helps get the word out.</em></p><p><strong>Connect with Lisa:</strong></p><p><a href="https://wibenetwork.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Women in Business Education</a></p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaleander" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/leanderlisa" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a></p>
August 5, 2021
<p>Our guest on this episode of Behind the Membership is offering an interesting and slightly different perspective on memberships… </p><p>Unlike the majority of our guests Ali McGee Kelly doesn’t actually own her own site, she manages <a href="https://society.socialmediaexaminer.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Social Media Marketing Society</a>, a membership owned by one of the world’s biggest social media marketing blogs, <a href="https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Social Media Examiner.</a></p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p><strong>About Ali:</strong></p><p>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.</p><p><strong>Key Quotes:</strong></p><p><em>“I’m not responsible for acquiring the members, but I am responsible for retaining them.”</em></p><p><em>“We take pride in the level of service and communication we have with outside speakers” </em></p><p><em>“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.”</em></p><p><em> </em><strong>Connect with Ali:</strong></p><p><a href="https://society.socialmediaexaminer.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Social Media Marketing Society</a></p><p><a href="https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Social Media Examiner</a></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/essentiallyali?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a></p>
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