354 How To Create Recurring Revenue Through Memberships with Stu McLaren
Stu McLaren
Founder of The Membership Experience
Today, Stu McLaren shares his Tips for Creating Sustainable Recurring Revenue through Membership Models.
Stu McLaren has extensive experience helping entrepreneurs develop membership models, so this episode explores the exponential growth of the subscription economy and its potential to provide stability and predictable profits for business owners.
Stu shares valuable insights on building meaningful relationships in the business world, launching successful memberships with a small audience, and retaining members by ensuring they experience continuous progress.
If you're curious about launching a membership or simply want to learn more about sustainable business models, this episode offers essential guidance from The Memberships guy, himself - Stu Mclaren.
We talk about:
Stu’ Advice on Building Relationships
The importance of PROACTIVE networking and service
How to maintain relationships over time
Why people cancel their memberships
Tips on Framing a value proposition to retain members
Techniques on showcasing the transformation and outcomes offered.
Episode Time Stamps:
[10:57] Practical Steps for Building Business Relationships & Growing Your Network
[15:26] Why Stu prioritizes Thoughtful Gestures
[16:59] Lighthearted Networking: Building Authentic Connections
[20:54] Paris Women's Entrepreneurial Networking Event Highlighting Community Building
[24:05] Eliminating months with low revenue by adding in recurring subscriptions and membership offers
[29:37] One-on-One Client Model: Why it's Not Scalable & what to do about it
[40:14] Prioritize Outcomes in how your do your membership marketing
[50:45] "Iterative Launching and how it accelerates the Path to Success"
To connect with Stu:
Grab a copy of the new book: https://stu.me/predictable-profits
To connect with Kelsey:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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You're listening to the Visionary Life Podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Reidl.
Each week I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures, and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship. This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders, and people just like.You who have a story to share.
Or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode, it's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us. You know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime. But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explain, explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down inside of you. It's in you. It's in all of us. Let's dive in.
Hey, visionaries. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I have a very special episode for you with Stu McLaren. He's the founder of the Membership Experience. You might know him as the membership guy. I'm going to share a bit more about Stu McLaren, who he he is, how we were connected, and get into everything we're going to cover in this episode. But first, I just wanted to catch up with you. So I'm back from Costa Rica.
Perhaps you saw on my Instagram stories that we escaped to the sunshine, 35 degree weather. It was hot AF and also amazing.
And it was our first official family.
Trip where Dave and I got to travel with Freddy, who is almost 14 months now. And you hear all things right. People say don't travel with kids, do travel with K. At the end of the day, do what makes you happy. We knew that a family vacation was on our list for sometime this winter. I live here in Ontario, Canada, where it is frigid cold, snowstorms bundling up, all the things. So to be able to escape to the sunshine is such a treat and it honestly just like renews me, renews my soul, my skin, my hair, everything.
Loves the salt water. So I just feel like even if.
I flew there just to dive into the ocean for five minutes, it would have been worth the flight, quite honestly. Obviously, traveling with kids is very different. The plane rides are no longer relaxing. You're kind of operating on nap schedules. But it's all what you make of it, right? And we just had the best time. We got to stay with our friends who own a home there. We were so active. We hiked every day, we swam every day.
We, I got to go mountain biking. Dave did a lot of paddleboarding and surfing and we came back feeling that good, kind of tired. I was definitely in bed by 9pm every night just cuz the sun and the activity, it like wiped us out. Freddy slept so good while we were there. And it's so funny because on the final day of our trip, Dave and I looked at each other and we were like, oh my God, Freddy hasn't seen a toy in eight days. Like there were no toy. We didn't bring toys the place we were staying. We just played with nature.
We looked at monkeys. We were in the ocean, crawling in the sand. He ate more sand than I can possibly imagine. And you know how that comes out in the diaper. We tried to just keep things simple. We cooked a lot of our own meals and we just made memories as a family. And I'm almost getting emotional thinking about it because I just don't think you can ever put a. You can't put a price on that.
And I'm just so glad we put the time aside, made the trip happen. It's easy to say, oh, well, we're too busy or oh, it's stressful to travel with a kid. But honestly, the experience was great. People at the airport are extra kind. When you have a kid, you get to go through all the family lines. So there are definitely perks to it as well. And we were lucky that on the way home we had an entire row of seats to ourselves so Freddy could sprawl out. He even got a little nap in, which was very different than the plane.
Ride there where he just stayed up all day.
All day.
But anyways, it was so great.
And I am always reminded that when something's on your heart that you want to do, do it now. Do it today. Don't put things off for next year when I retire when this happens, because we are not guaranteed tomorrow. I always think about my mom. One day she was golfing with her friends, having her anniversary dinner with my dad. They were planning a cruise for a few months from that time and the next day she was dead in the hospital. And I just share that as a very powerful reminder. It's more for me, but we're not guaranteed tomorrow.
And part of the Visionary Life podcast and this whole brand that I am building and hope to inspire people around the world with is to simply chase your most visionary life today. Don't wait till tomorrow. Don't wait till next week. I want you to live out your most visionary day, your most visionary hour, your most visionary minute right now. And I know rapid change is not always possible, but do what you can to make today awesome. And that is life changing. Instead of waiting for the next vacation or. Yeah.
So anywho, I'm back.
Yesterday kind of slapped me in the face with so much on my plate. I made that critical error of not booking a buffer day in between, in between vacation and getting back to work. But regardless, it was so fun. I got to do podcasts yesterday, catch up with clients, had my mastermind call with a group that I'm part of, and today I get to be recording this intro because Stu McLaren is on the podcast. He is a membership expert, expert that has worked intimately with tens of thousands of authors, speakers, coaches, consultants, creators and business owners to transform what they know, what they love and what they do into reoccurring revenue. And Stu is on the podcast because he has a brand new book out called Predictable Profits and I wanted to bring him on to talk about it. Stu has actually done a training session inside of our WAVE mastermind. So if you want this intimate experience with Stu, learning from him in real time about memberships, then you'll definitely want to go to kelseyridle.com mastermind to learn about WAVE and how you can be part of it if you're a female entrepreneur.
But today you get to all learn from Stu. And I'm going to ask some heavy hitting questions in a day and age.
Where I feel like people are incredibly.
Sensitive to to reoccurring charges on their credit card. I'm asking Stu, like, is this actually a good time to start a membership? Because there's all these softwares now that scan your credit cards, look for reoccurring memberships, and basically tell you to cancel them. People are increasingly frugal, especially during times of economic contraction. And so before I was hyping this book up, I wanted to know, is this actually a smart business model? So Stu answers that and thank you, Stu, for entertaining my harder questions. And then we get into who a membership is for, how to price it, what you need to do in order to sell it and retain members and make it easy. And I really think you're going to love the episode. So Stu is definitely the go to guy on this topic. So if you're somebody who wants Predictable profits, what a sexy book name, right? Then this episode is for you.
You can find more about St@stu me. That's s t u dot me. You can find him on Instagram @stu McLaren s t u M C L A R E N or just Google his name and you'll probably find him.
All right, you guys make sure you get a copy of Predictable Profits.
If you like this episode, I had a chance to read it and it is a great beginner entrepreneurship book for anyone who is kind of trying to find their footing and get that foundation solid and then potentially layer on top of membership to that. So enjoy the episode and I will see you guys next week. Hey Visionary. I want to interrupt this episode to share a little bit more about one on one coaching. I work with clients who want to stay on top of the latest marketing trends, who want to bring more ease into their marketing funnel or just build a marketing funnel in the first place because maybe you don't have one yet and ultimately take the effort and overwhelm out of your marketing plan. I know your energy is limited and you just want someone to tell you what to do. Should you be on threads? Should you be creating on TikTok? How do you grow an email list? What does SEO mean? Anyways, this is why I offer private one on one business and marketing coaching for business owners like you who need help with their marketing strategy. You can head to kelseyridle.com private coaching to learn exactly what it's going to look like if we decide to work together.
And I'm excited because I can give you the precise strategies that will take your business to the next level this year. So if you want to learn more KelseyRidle.com Private coaching of course it is a bit more of an investment than any of my other courses or offerings, but my private clients are seeing crazy results. Christina landed a six figure consulting contract. Emily signed six clients in one day. Barb had a Black Friday sale that generated a lot of money. And these are all based on the strategies that we've implemented. So kelseyridle.com private coaching you can learn all about it. You can see all of the amazing visionary businesses that I've worked with and supported over the last decade and I can't wait to see see your application come through.
Kelseyridle.com Private Coaching now back to the episode.
Stu McLaren, welcome to the Visionary Life Podcast. I'm so excited because I'm featuring this interview right at the beginning of season 15 and I can think of no better guess than a fellow resident of Ontario, Canada, where I also live. So first off, welcome to the show. How's it going today?
Stu Mclaren00:10:44 - 00:10:48
It's going great, thanks. We are legit, like a stone's throw away from each other, which is pretty fun.
It's so fun. I always love connecting with people in Canada, in Ontario, and when you're a stone's throw away, then maybe we need to meet up for coffee sometime. So.
Stu Mclaren00:10:56 - 00:10:57
Exactly.
Something that I talk about with all of our visionary life community is the power of relationship building. And the first thing that I noticed when I read your book, Stu, was that you have testimonials and book reviews from people like Gabby Bernstein, Amy Porterfield, Dean Graziosi, Alex Cotone, Nathan Barry, people that my audience is very familiar with or are very familiar with. My first question is, when you think about the journey of building relationships in addition to your business, what are some practical steps you took? Because so many people these days, they're behind their laptop, they don't understand that they need to get out and. And meet people. And I just want to ask you first, like, when you think of all these people who have rallied to support you and who have testimonials in your book, what were some of those practical steps you took to get yourself out there in the early days and even continued into today?
Stu Mclaren00:11:50 - 00:12:35
Well, I'll tell you an interesting, funny little story that will kind of set the stage for relationship building, because you're absolutely right. In our virtual world, it is, I think, easy to hide behind a keyboard or even hide behind a screen and not build genuine relationships. Now, in my early career, I will say I'm going to kind of date myself a little bit. I've been online for a really long time, so I've been online for 21 years. I've had my own business for 23 years. So it's been a long journey of, like, developing those relationships. But in the early days, one of the things that I learned from a mentor of mine was he taught me a lesson. He said, it's not what you know or who you know, it's who knows you.
Stu Mclaren00:12:35 - 00:13:19
And so there's some really important lessons there because, number one, we want to become known for something specific. Because if we're not known for something specific, people won't know who we are. And more importantly, people won't know how to refer us to anybody else. So for the last 17 years, the only thing that I have been focused on is helping people grow memberships. So I've become known for something very specific, which is memberships. And that makes it easy to not only have people refer me, but also to become the person who, oh, you're struggling with your membership. You got to talk to Stu. Oh, retention's not doing well.
Stu Mclaren00:13:19 - 00:13:51
Got to talk to Stu. Oh, you're thinking of launching a membership? You got to talk to Stu. So, number one is you got to become known for something specific. Number two is, you got to be proactive. So in my early days, I remember this is where I'm going to date myself. I was on a teleseminar, and it was a series of teleseminars. And this isn't like, for all the youngsters watching and listening, this was like when you actually had to call in on a phone. Like, there was no, like, you know, YouTube or anything or Zoom or anything of that nature, but you'd call in, and you could only hear people's voices.
Stu Mclaren00:13:52 - 00:14:23
And so this was a series of calls that was led by a particular instructor in person, and I wanted to develop a relationship with them. And so at the beginning of the call, they would always open up the lines and they would say, you know, let me know your name and where you're calling in from. Typical, right? Like, we always do that, even on, like, Zoom or webinars. Like, where are you watching in from? And I was very deliberate. Kelsey. I would always say, hey, this is Stu McLaren from Waterford, Ontario, Canada. Like, there's nobody from Waterford, Ontario. But I made sure that.
Stu Mclaren00:14:23 - 00:15:05
I said. And every single call, I would always jump on, hey, this is Stu McLaren from Waterford, Ontario, Canada. Now, what ended up happening was that became something that the person, the instructor would remember because it was memorable in the sense that it was a different city or town or whatever. And so when I reached out the. I reached out via email, because on one of those calls, he was saying that he was thinking about doing xyz. And I had some experience in that, and I had some resources that would be valuable for him. And so I literally just sent him an email, and I just said, hey, this is Stu McLaren from Waterford, Ontario, Canada. You probably heard me on your calls.
Stu Mclaren00:15:05 - 00:15:26
I heard you say that you were looking for X. Here's some resources. Hope you know, it helps. If you have any questions, let me know. And so I was just looking for ways to be of service. And so it's like, become memorable for something specific. Number two is, like, be intentional about, you know, introducing yourself. And then number three, look for ways to be of service.
Stu Mclaren00:15:26 - 00:16:23
And if you do that consistently enough, the relationship side of things just takes care of itself. And I would fast forward to today. Like, you mentioned a lot of those names, you know, from the books, I think it's very easy to initiate relationships it's very difficult to maintain relationships over time. And so here's one of my little secret hacks. And we have a mutual friend in Blake Fly who is exceptional and world class at this. But one of the things that I've learned from him is that we've got to be intentional about keeping that connection. And so he'll do it, like he'll send me, you know, he'll pull over on the side of the road and he'll send me a picture of him like beside a McLaren street sign and he'll be like, just thinking of you, like that kind of stuff. Well, my little hack is like, when I'm in a bookstore, I will take pictures of myself rearranging the bookshelves for all of my friends books.
Stu Mclaren00:16:23 - 00:16:59
And so I'll send it to them. So like, let me see here, I was just in the bookstore the other day. Here's per example, I was just in the bookstore the other day and here's me rearranging the shelf for Danielle laporte's book or in the same bookstore. Here's me rearranging the shelf for Jamie Curran Lima's book, or here's Humble the poet. So I do this all the time in any bookstore that I go into, and it's just a fun way to reconnect. So once you've initiated that connection, then it's really important to maintain that connection. And just finding little hacks to be able to do that makes it easy.
Oh, I love this. These are like the unscalable, almost intangible skills that I feel like we need to lean into more. And it should be the fun part of business, right? Like, relationship building shouldn't feel stressful and heavy. It should be, you're out at a bookstore and you're like filming a video and keep it light hearted, right? We have enough people who feel very, I don't know, like when you get these cold DMS in your inbox and you're like, there's no connection here. So to lean into that lightheartedness and to just say, thinking of you, or hey, I saw a sign where it reminded me of you. So brilliant and such a valuable point about not just building relationships and going to a networking event, but hey, pick two or three people that you want to stay in touch with and do your best to send messages on a monthly, quarterly, weekly, and see if that relationship is looking to build over time. Because as you have obviously gone through this journey of writing a book, I can only imagine somebody who's like 10 years into their journey, they reach the pinnacle, write the book, and then they look around and go, who's gonna write the forward? Who's gonna write? And imagine thinking, nobody. I have no connections, no friends who are entrepreneurs.
So I think that's just such a valuable story. And thank you for sharing that.
Stu Mclaren00:18:17 - 00:19:15
Yeah, and I will say too, like, another big opportunity where you can really stand out is just looking for moments when you can show up for somebody. So I'll give you a couple examples. In our community, we have a number of people who, during the crazy hurricanes that were going through the US were living in those locations. So our team just proactively reached out and just said, hey, wanted to check in with you. How are you doing? How can we help? Or during the LA fires, same thing. Or here's another example. One of my friends, Jason Gaignard, another Canadian, shout out, he does this really well, is anytime he sees one of his friends who is launching a book, he not only buys a bulk order of that book, but number two is he has a goal of being the first person to leave a review on Amazon for that book. And so think about that.
Stu Mclaren00:19:15 - 00:19:47
That's a vulnerable moment for any author. Is like, the book is finally published. It's like, oh my gosh, what are people going to think? And so of course they're going to be monitoring the reviews. And it's like that feel good moment when you see somebody who you know is the first person to leave a review. That goes a long way. So I just think that there's moments like this that we have where we can show up for people and it can just be a simple text, it can be, you know, a book review, or it could be buying bulk books as an example. But that goes a long way and people don't forget those things.
So, so, so powerful. Great reminder. So you say in your book that as far as business models go, memberships are king. And you say too that in the last 10 years, the subscription economy has grown by something like 400 plus percent, 435%. So first of all, I was like, whoa, that is incredible. What a missed opportunity for me. But then the other part of my brain was like, wait a second, I just heard an ad on a podcast that was talking about, we gotta cancel every subscription. And you can download software that's like, delete all those subscriptions in one click.
So then I'm like, whoa, wait, our memberships for everybody. Is this the time? Or are we at the kind of crux where it's like, now we're so price sensitive. So I want to pass that over to you. Like what's going on in the world of memberships? Because our listeners, they love the idea of a membership, but is it the right time to launch? Are they still growing? Or are we really pulling back from memberships like Netflix and like a coaching membership visionary?
In case you didn't hear, we have an amazing in real life event coming up in Paris, Ontario, Canada on Friday, March 28. We have rented out the most stunning riverside venue to gather female entrepreneurs. Why have we done this? Because what we've realized over the last 10 years of running our businesses is that posting on Pinterest, creating a viral reel, designing your website, having a fancy logo, none of that matters if you don't have a community of people who celebrate you, who share your work and who rally behind you in times of need and in times of celebration, your community is everything. The relationships that you have are everything. And that's why we want to invite you out to join us for this amazing real life daytime event. So what is a Wave event? Well, we have guest speakers. We've got the founder of Naples labels coming company that sold for $13 million. We have Sheila Cummins who helps women access the capital that they need in order to thrive and build a seven figure business.
We have money mama coming. She talks a lot about money mindset and managing your finances.
And there's going to be time for connection.
There's going to be amazing food, there's going to be incredible fireside chats or actually Riverside chat. So if you've been craving more real life connection with female entrepreneurs from all over Canada, then you have to get your ticket. You can go to KelseyRidle.com Paris-2025 again KelseyRidle.com PARIS P A R I S 2025 and as a podcast listener, you can save $50 by using the code WAVE50 at checkout if you're in driving radius to Paris, Ontario and you can get yourself here on Friday, March 28 from 11 to 3. Do not miss this event. Do yourself a favor, grab one ticket for you, grab one ticket for a friend and come together. We gather the most amazing women in business and we would love to see you there. So again, kelseyridle.com Paris 2025 use the code WAVE50 checkout to save yourself $50 and I will see you in March.
Stu Mclaren00:23:19 - 00:24:05
Well, great question and I love that we're talking about it and hitting it head on because here's the reality. The industry is growing and it's growing Exponentially. It's the reason why big companies are moving to a membership and subscription model. It's the reason why now New York Times makes more money from its online subscription mod than it does its actual newspaper. Right. Like, there's a major reason why companies move that. I don't know if you know this, Kelsey, but 73% of Costco's profits come from their membership, not the stuff that they're actually selling in the store. So this is, it's wild when you start thinking about, like, oh my gosh, like these big businesses are all moving to a subscription and membership model.
Stu Mclaren00:24:05 - 00:24:57
Why are they doing that? They're doing that because it creates more stability and predictability for their business. And so the. Unfortunately, the vast majority of business owners are hoping that the next sale is going to come in next month, or they're hoping that the promotion that they're going to do is going to work, or they're hoping that clients that they've been working with for years are not going to leave. Like, but what happens in those moments when a big client leaves, it immediately creates a vulnerability in that business. And so as business owners, we want to eliminate those vulnerabilities. And it's no wonder that the number one stressor for all business owners is finances. Like, where's the next sale going to come from? This is why I'm so passionate about what I wrote in this book. Like, because this book, in my opinion, and it's a very biased opinion, but in my opinion is the savior for all business owners.
Stu Mclaren00:24:57 - 00:25:25
Because if you have recurring revenue in your business, you don't experience that stress because you're not hoping that people are going to come back and buy from you, you know, with certainty that they will be back at the beginning of the month paying you to continue to access those services and products and so forth. So the second part of your question is, yeah, but Stu, I see all these software now that are automatically canceling subscriptions. Well, of course, because nobody wants to continue paying for products that they don't like.
So at the end of the day.
Stu Mclaren00:25:27 - 00:26:11
Like, if the product isn't doing what we had bought it or purchased it, and it for its intended purpose, then of course we're going to cancel. And so as membership site owners, it's really simple. All we got to focus on is just helping people experience progress in some area of their life. We want to make sure that we're driving consumption and engagement. And what that means is regardless of whether you have a product based membership, a service based membership, an information Based membership or a community based membership. If people aren't consuming the content, they're not getting any value. If they're not getting any value, it's a matter of time before they cancel. So let's say I have a product based membership.
Stu Mclaren00:26:11 - 00:27:01
Let's say it's like the Dollar Shave Club, like the razors. If I've got a stack of razors that I haven't used, then of course I'm going to start questioning why do I belong, continue to belong to this. I got more razors than I need. Right. So it's about consumption. If it's a service based membership, and I'm like Mary Claire Fredette in our community, she's a massage therapist and so she started a membership. Now if her clients aren't using the massages, they too are going to question like, should I continue paying for this? Or if somebody joins our information or knowledge based membership and they're not experiencing progress of some kind, they're going to question it. So at the end of the day, of course people are going to cancel subscriptions that they're not getting value from, but if they're getting value and they're getting results, they won't want to leave.
Stu Mclaren00:27:01 - 00:27:20
Like, in all the years that I've been doing this, literally serving tens of thousands of people, I don't know that I've ever heard somebody say, you know what, Kelsey, I've experienced way too much progress and success in my life thanks to this membership. So peace, I'm out. Like, people don't say that. So as long as we help them get results, they'll stay.
Yep. And that's such a good reminder too that even, like no amount of marketing can sell a bad product. No business model can solve a bad product. You really have to show up and make sure that what you've created is a five star, a six star experience every single time. You can't just launch the membership and then go be in the hammock on the beach and be like, the rest will just work itself out. And I think that that's sometimes the dream that people seem to sell themselves on. But it's like, no, we get to have the reoccurring revenue and we get to show up and make sure we give our best freaking work every single month because we want to hold on to those members.
Stu Mclaren00:28:00 - 00:28:31
Yeah. As long as you obsess over the progress of those members, you will thrive in the membership industry. And you know, oftentimes we think that it's, it's going to require that we Create. We're on this content treadmill. We got to create, we got to create, we got to create. But the reality of it is, is that the number one reason that people leave a membership is overwhelm. And so it's like counterintuitive because as a business owner, we think, oh, the more I create, the more value I am giving. No, no, no, no.
Stu Mclaren00:28:31 - 00:29:04
Like it's a balance. You don't want to overwhelm your members. So you got to hold space in terms of like what you provide and then space for them to actually implement and use the thing that you're providing. And so if you just keep loading them up, loading them up, loading them up with more products or more services or more content, that's going to overwhelm them and they're going to leave. And so it's not about loading people up, it's about, you know, making sure that they're experiencing that progress and holding space for them and just obsessing over the progress that they're making. And if you do that, you'll thrive in the membership world.
Amazing tip. Now, for somebody who's just starting out in their business, would you say that it's okay to enter straight into a membership model? Say they're a nutritionist, they're just graduating from college and they're like, do I.
Do one on one coaching?
Do I do group coaching? Do I do membership? Do I do digital course? Would you say that membership is okay? Or it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you have to build an audience first. You got to know some people, what is the best path and when do we think about launching a membership?
Stu Mclaren00:29:37 - 00:30:26
I mean, if I was starting from complete zero, the very first thing that I would likely do is work one on one with clients. Now what I want everybody to realize is that that's a broken business model because the challenge is it is very limited in how many people you can serve. And I know this because that's the path that I took. My initial business was thriving. We were doing multiple six figures, but it was one on one with clients. And what I realized after I got married and my wife and I were looking to start our family, I could not be the present husband and father that I wanted to be. If I was burning the candle like I was at both ends and I was at the mercy of my clients schedule. And so that's when I realized, like, this is not scalable.
Stu Mclaren00:30:26 - 00:31:33
There's a cap to how much I can grow this business. Because I got to, the only way to grow is to give More of my time and I don't have any more time to give. But it is by far the best way to initially get started because you're going to get that hands on experience and you're going to learn like how to best serve your audience. Now from there though, now it's like, okay, how do we create a scalable business model? And I would not stay working one on one with clients for very long. I would use it as an opportunity to get paid to learn how to best serve your people. Then in the midst of that, I would be thinking about, okay, what are the commonalities between the questions that these clients are asking? What are the commonalities between the challenges that these clients are experiencing? And how could I build a framework or a process to help similar people experience progress, but in a scalable way? And that's when a membership does make sense. And you don't need an audience of tens of thousands, you don't even need an audience of thousands. Like a couple hundred people is all you would need to be able to get started.
Stu Mclaren00:31:33 - 00:32:15
And when I say a couple hundred people, I'm talking like a couple hundred people on Facebook or Instagram or a couple hundred subscribers on YouTube or a podcast, or maybe you have, you know, a couple hundred clients already on an email list. Like you don't need thousands of people, you just need a couple hundred to do your initial founding member launch. And that's what then creates the momentum. And see a lot of people, they wait way too long before they launch. They're waiting till everything's perfect. And in the membership world you are always going to be making changes based on your members needs. So just get to work with your members as soon as possible and you'll get that membership to where it needs to be, faster, better, easier, amazing.
And you have so many good tips for going through that. Founders members launch and how to build your audience in the book. So I'll refer people to your amazing book for that. My next question then is, so it seems in life there are seasons of expansion and season of contraction and sometimes you'll see this fear mentality and everyone's like, gotta save money. And then they all cancel everything. So just knowing that life ebbs and flows like that and there will be people inevitably who say, not right now, I can't have this membership next month. When somebody says that to you and they say I want to cancel. And maybe they're saying that out of fear, but they're not really thinking long term, what are some things we can do as Entrepreneurs to not lose that member, to continue to add value so that they don't just make a split decision and say I'm leaving and then not get results in their life.
What are some practical tips you would share?
Stu Mclaren00:33:12 - 00:33:52
I think it's how we frame that value that we're providing up for our members. So I'll give you a couple of practical examples. We have multiple memberships. So I'm like the hair club for men, because not only do I talk about memberships, but we have memberships too, right? And so we have multiple streams of recurring revenue in our business that. Because it's so critical and important. So in those times of financial stress, what is interesting, by the way, is that you'll see businesses that don't have that recurring revenue. They will panic and they will, you know, contrast, so to speak. So they'll, they'll start like, you know, laying off people.
Stu Mclaren00:33:52 - 00:34:31
They'll start like really hardcore, like trying to cut back all these kinds of things. And we're the opposite. Like, we don't need to do that because we have the stability of recurring revenue from our software, recurring revenue from our membership, recurring revenue from our masterminds. And so this is a model that creates that stability for us. Now I share all that because yes, 100%, no membership is ever immune to somebody saying, hey, I'd like to cancel. So how we frame up the value is really important. So I'll just jump to our highest level, like our masterminds. We have two of them.
Stu Mclaren00:34:31 - 00:35:17
One is for businesses that are doing six figures, that are looking to get to seven figures in their memberships, and the other one is for people who are running seven and eight figure membership sites. So the highest one is $30,000 a year. Now that's a lot of money. I'm very much aware that that's a lot of money. But what's interesting is everybody in that group are membership site owners. So watch how quickly I will show you how insignificant that $30,000 is in relation to the value that they receive. So if I take that $30,000, which is $30,000 a year, I'm going to first divide it by 12, 12 months of the year. Okay, that is 20$500 a month.
Stu Mclaren00:35:17 - 00:36:14
Now what I would do is I would take the price of their membership. So let's just say, like I'm thinking of one member right now per membership is $144 a month. So I'd take that 2,500. I would divide that by 1:44. That means Kelsey, all she needs to do is welcome 18 new members. And that $30,000 mastermind has paid for itself because of the compounding nature of memberships. And so the question I would ask that particular person if they were questioning leaving is I would say, do you think that by being in this Mastermind with people who are running seven and eight figure membership sites that you're going to get one idea, just one that would help you welcome 18 new members this year? Well, of course that's a duh. Like in our Mastermind, we're, we're doing debriefs of people who are welcoming thousands of members in a single promotion.
Stu Mclaren00:36:14 - 00:36:45
But all she need would need to do is welcome 18. And that's immediately now a completely different frame. It's not $30,000, it's 18 members. Oh my gosh, that's a no brainer. And so it's all how we frame up what it is that we're offering. And the other thing that I'll say on this, that's really important. His contrast is everything. So if you are not comparing your price to something your market or your customers are.
Stu Mclaren00:36:45 - 00:37:15
So let me give you an example, Kelsey. Let's just say that we go into the grocery store and grocery prices are like outrageous these days. But we walk into the grocery store and we see that blueberries are $4 off. Now if blueberries are $4 off, Kelsey, you and I are loading up. We're like, oh my gosh, this is a great deal. Blueberries. Now we're going to probably tell other people like, hey, you should go hit up this particular grocery store. Blueberries are $4 off.
Stu Mclaren00:37:15 - 00:37:46
Like, we're pumped about a $4 discount. But if we go into a car dealership and the car dealer says, you know what, Kelsey, I got a deal for you. I am going to give you $4 off the price of this car. You're going to look at that dealer and be like, what are you talking about? Like you're going to feel insulted. Now time out a minute. In one sense, we're tickled Pink about a $4 discount. And in another, we're insulted it's the same $4. Why do we have a completely different reaction? It's because of what it's being compared to.
Stu Mclaren00:37:46 - 00:38:13
$4 off. Blueberries is probably like 50% off. That's a huge deal. $4 off a car is nothing. And so it's all about the contrast. So when you are presenting your price for your membership or your masterminds or anything of that nature, what you got to realize is that it's what it's being compared to. And if you don't compare it to something, your market automatically already is. So we need to control that framing.
Stu Mclaren00:38:13 - 00:38:26
And when you control that framing, that's when everything becomes much easier for people to see the value because they're not comparing it to something else, they're comparing it to whatever it is that you are framing up. Does that make sense?
That's so brilliant. And so by saying, by telling us that story, are you saying that we should always break it down to a monthly price? Instead of saying just pay me a one time annual fee of 2500, you're saying no. Or you know, in your case, 30,000, it's a year. Or you break it down because it's easier to wrap our head around $2,500 per.
Per month.
Stu Mclaren00:38:52 - 00:39:25
Yeah, in my case it's the 18 members. All they, in this case. So break it down again would be 18 new members. And so that makes it realize like, oh my gosh, this is like, of course I'm going to get many ideas, they're going to help me welcome way more than 18 members. But if that's all I did, this is paid for itself. Now the other like framing that I would use is many times I love, especially for an initial price point, I love for a membership, a low dollar membership would be like $30 a month. Now why I like that is that it's less than a dollar a day.
Less than a dollar a day.
Stu Mclaren00:39:27 - 00:40:14
That's a framing right? Because less than a dollar a day, that feels insignificant. Less than a dollar a day. To be able to transform my body, to transform my mind, to be able to learn these skills, whatever it is that we're teaching that makes the value feel way greater than what the investment is. A dollar a day. Like we could find a dollar a day in our couch or in the car or wherever, you know what I mean? Like that's in, you know, feels insignificant. And that's all framing again in terms of creating that contrast between the value and the price. So it's not $30 a month, it's less than $1 a day. And so how we frame those things up is really, really important to, for people to understand the value of what they're getting in our life.
Stu Mclaren00:40:14 - 00:41:30
The other thing that I would say is that you want to focus on the outcome and the transformation. Like what is that worth to people? And not only what is it worth, but what are the consequences of not taking that. So good example, like if I had a parenting membership you know, my kids right now, our daughter Marla, she's gonna be turning 14 this year, and our son Sam turns 11 tomorrow. And so if I were running a parenting membership, I would be talking about, like, the compounding impact of not having a deep and rewarding relationship with your kids. And it may seem insignificant now that you're here, there and everywhere, but, like, over time, those decisions start to add up. And if a child doesn't feel supported and cared for, what could that lead to? Now I'm going to tell you a fictional story because Amy and I were watching a new Netflix series. I can't even tell you what the name of it is. But in the show, the wife, she's a high profile, like, CIA agent, so she's gone from the home a lot.
Stu Mclaren00:41:30 - 00:42:13
The husband, he's a high profile surgeon, so he's away from the home a lot. And they've got two kids. And in the episode that we just watched, the daughter got in a car accident with her friends. And then she had to have this surgery. And before they did the surgery, they were taking a bunch of blood tests and found out she was pregnant. And that created conversation with my wife and I because we're like, there's no wonder that that child in this fictional show was doing these kinds of things. She doesn't have the parents that are home and that are present. You know what I mean? And so, like, that's the consequence of not showing up as a parent.
Stu Mclaren00:42:13 - 00:43:10
And so that's what I would be reflecting back to people is like, what's the consequence of not fixing this problem right now? What does that look like a year from now, three years from now, five years from now? And talking about that future if they don't fix the problem now? Like, if I had a yoga membership, I'd be talking about, like, what are the consequences of not improving your flexibility, especially as you get older and older? Well, it means, like, you can't go and play with the kids like you once used to be able to. You can't be that fun mom or dad that's like, you know, running through the obstacle courses with the kids. You can't, you know, do the skiing and the outdoor activities and the hiking that you once loved and enjoyed. You can't enjoy nature the way that you used to. Like, there are real. Can't travel. You can't travel the way you used to. And so it's like, what if they don't fix that problem? What does that problem look like a year, three years, five years from now? Compounded.
Stu Mclaren00:43:10 - 00:43:21
And that's the contrast that we're creating. It's like what we're selling is not just a bunch of information. It's a transformation. And we've got to talk about that and hold space for that. Does that make sense?
Oh, it makes so much sense. And I think that that's where so many business owners, they. They kind of stop thinking about their product after, hey, I wrote a really catchy headline for my Instagram and for my website. But then they don't think, like, about what are the alternatives people are trying or what happens when they don't sign up. And speaking to that, because that hits people on an emotional level, it, like, really makes you stop dead in your tracks. When you say, do you not want to be able to play with your grandchildren when you're older versus, like, want to join a 6am Fitness class? It's like, no, no, I do not want to do that. But when you think further down the line, right? And I think you do such a good job of illustrating how to do that in your book. So for somebody listening to this podcast, they're feeling hyped up, but they do not have any members yet.
They barely even have the. The bones of their. Their membership offer started, but they have the idea, right. They graduated from college recently. They just took a sourdough course, and they're excited. They are in pottery and they really want to start, you know, doing teaching pottery. Somebody who's feeling lit up, they're listening to you. You're an example of what you teach.
What is one piece of advice or something they can take away to get the ball rolling, to build momentum towards their membership. Of course, getting your book is step one, but something else that they can do in this moment while they're feeling excited to launch their membership.
Stu Mclaren00:44:54 - 00:45:33
Well, thank you for that. Yes, Obviously very biased. Step one is go get a copy of Predictable Profits. And what a lot of people are doing also is not only getting the book, but they're getting the audio as well. Because I'm reading the audio throughout the whole thing as well. But the thing is, is that I think more than anything is to just open your mind to possibilities. And a lot of the time it's just seeing and being aware of other examples. And there are so many examples in the book, like literally hundreds of different examples in all kinds of markets, from photography and calligraphy to fitness, finance, music, art, health, dog training.
Stu Mclaren00:45:33 - 00:46:16
I even talk about Holly George, who is a military wife who wanted to be able to, you know, earn some extra income. While her husband's away in the military. So she had a passion for making balloon animals. And so she created a membership site called the Twisterhood and she has thousands of members. Like this is a six figure membership. And so when you start immersing yourself in the membership world, you start to see like, oh my goodness, like it is not only possible, but it's possible like right now. And these people are able to build these incredible businesses with the things that they're passionate about. Like I think of Bonnie Snowden in our community.
Stu Mclaren00:46:16 - 00:46:58
She is a woman who loves to, to draw realistic animals. So she started a membership teaching people how to draw realistic animals with colored pencils. And in two years she went from zero to a million dollar membership. Now in year three, this is a multimillion dollar membership and it's teaching people how to draw realistic animals with colored pencils. Like, it's so specific. So I think step one is get the book. Step two is start exploring some of the stories and the case studies of people who are doing this. And I think it starts to expand your mind and create the belief that it's possible.
Stu Mclaren00:46:58 - 00:47:20
Yeah. Step three then is realizing that again, you don't need a massive audience. Like 200 people or more is all you would need. And then I would do a founding member launch. Now I talk about the founding member launch. I'm not sure what chapter it is. Let me just see here. Gosh, I don't want to, I don't want to hold up a whole bunch of time trying to find the chapter, but it's in here.
Stu Mclaren00:47:20 - 00:47:59
I talk about the founding member launch. And the founding member launch is the most simple process because essentially you're going to send a message to your audience and you could do this by the end of today. And you're going to send a message and you're going to invite people to join your membership. Now I know somebody watching, listening is saying, stu, I don't know what kind of maple syrup you've been drinking out there, but like, listen, I don't even have my membership yet. Like, how can I invite somebody to join a membership that I don't have? And that's my point. You don't need one to be able to launch one. And so you can do this. And we got so many stories of people who started with five members, 10 members, 20 members.
Stu Mclaren00:47:59 - 00:48:30
Like, I think of Jennifer Chamberlain. She was a 50 something grandma who just loved art and she just wanted to share that passion with other women her age. So she didn't have like a big Audience. She wasn't, you know, building an audience specifically for this business. She didn't even consider herself a businesswoman. Yeah, she's just passionate about art. But she put it out to, you know, her friends and followers on Facebook and she ended up starting with 20 founding members for her membership. Now, after year one, she had grown that to 100 founding members.
Stu Mclaren00:48:31 - 00:48:53
After year two, she'd grown that to 200 founding members. Wow. Going into year three, there was like an identity shift. She started to realize, like, I am a businesswoman, like, I can do this, like this is a thing. And in year three, she went from 200 members to 2,000 members. That was now a multimillion dollar membership.
Wow.
Stu Mclaren00:48:54 - 00:49:14
Other women her age how to paint. And so my, my point is, is that she didn't immediately jump to a million dollar membership. She started with 20 founding members. And I want to encourage everybody to just get started. Just do your founding member launch. Put it out there. Now let's talk about the elephant in the room if we can.
Kelsey, what if no one signs up?
Stu Mclaren00:49:17 - 00:49:20
Exactly. What if we put it out there and no one signs up?
Everyone's worst nightmare.
Stu Mclaren00:49:23 - 00:49:33
Worst nightmare. Here's the thing. There's a quote from the great Nelson Mandela, and he said, I never lose. I either win or I learn.
I love that quote.
Stu Mclaren00:49:35 - 00:50:12
I never lose. I either win or I learn. So if you don't have anybody sign up, does that mean that your failure and your idea sucks? No, it just means that your messaging was off. It was out of alignment with what the market wants. And P.S. isn't it amazing that you learned that before you went and created a whole bunch of stuff before you spend time, energy, and money? Of course. So that's why I recommend the founding member launch. It's like you're either going to win and welcome members or you're going to learn and you've learned without it costing you a whole bunch of time, energy, and money.
Stu Mclaren00:50:12 - 00:50:43
And then you can make adjustments and you do it again. And so at the end of the day, like, we just got to get out of our own way. We got to stop overthinking. We got to stop over planning, and we just got to start putting things out and start working with people. That's how we'll figure out, you know, how to provide the best content in our membership. That's when we'll figure out if our messaging is in alignment with what the market wants. And that's how we're going to make the most amount of progress. And you'll shrink your time to success dramatically just by getting into action.
That's such a great spot to end.
I love that analogy of shrinking the time to success. It's like it is only a matter of time until you have great reoccurring revenue. But you got to go through the different iterations. You have to launch version one. You have to start and test and experiment and you're shrinking the time to success. What a great visual, Stu. We will put everything as to where people can buy the book, your bio, your website, all of the things in the show notes. So for the listener who's feeling super hyped, we encourage them to go out, grab your book, read through it, make notes, and then connect back with you when they launch their successful membership.
So thank you so much for being on the show and we wish you all of the best as you you change the world with predictable profits.
Stu Mclaren00:51:33 - 00:51:47
Well, thanks so much, Kelsey. Thanks for having me. And listen, I am a big fan of all Canadian entrepreneurs. Friends, we gotta like, we gotta represent. Let's go, let's get these membership launched and let's make it happen. Thanks so much, Kelsey.
Amazing.
Thanks, Stu.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Visionary Life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis. So it would make mean so much to me if you could help me.
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