An introduction to Behind The Membership with Callie Willows: where the idea came from, why we're doing it and an overview of what to expect in the coming season as Callie sits down for frank, no-fluff conversations with membership site owners.

Stacey Harris is joining me in the very first episode of Behind the Membership to discuss her site, Hit the Mic Backstage.

We delve into Stacey's membership journey so far, including:

• Positioning the membership as an upgrade to her podcast
• How she created her membership in just 2 weeks
• The sales funnel she uses to attract new members
• The impact of $1 trials
• Why she loves running a community
• How Hit the Mic Backstage has evolved over the last two years
• and more!

Joining me on this episode of Behind the Membership is Colin Gray from The Podcast Host Academy. 

Colin actually had a false start with his membership, something many of us fear, but is now starting to thrive after pivoting his approach and brand.

Colin's membership is still quite young, but he shares some great insights, including:

• Why his first membership site didn't quite work and what he did to fix that
• Making a natural link between free and paid content, and the different roles his blog and podcast play
• Why he's not sure about having a community in the membership
• The challenge of creating ongoing value
• How live support plays a large part in his membership success
• The value in creating short actionable content to aid member results
• How looking outside of other membership sites for inspiration is a good idea
• How he's adding a SaaS product into the mix with his membership
• and more!

Avalon Yarnes from Avalon Cakes School joins Callie on this episode of Behind the Membership.

What makes Avalon and her membership so different is just how creative she is, not just with her topic but in both her marketing and her retention tactics as well.

Avalon has been running her membership for nearly 2 years now and we discuss some great topics, including:

• How Avalon walked away from her job of 10 years to start the membership site with her partner
• How she thought outside the box about what competitors were doing, and turned it into a great retention hook
• Getting creative with video trailers and free tutorials to attract new members
• The challenge of balancing life and business and wearing all the hats
• Why choosing a Facebook group for her community was the right decision
• The most fulfilling part of running Avalon Cakes School and the impact having a membership has had on her life and business
• Why she wouldn't offer two tiers of membership if she was starting over
• and more!

John Tuggle from Learning Guitar Now joins me on this weeks episode of Behind the Membership.

Learning Guitar Now has been around for over 10 years now, starting out selling books, DVDs and standalone courses before adding a membership offering into the mix. John's membership now accounts for around 75% of his monthly income, with one-off product sales making up the rest and John has a lot of great experience to share!

John has been running his membership for 3 years now, after spending 7 years selling higher priced one-off products. We talk:

• How nicheing down and focusing on his passion made all the difference to John's success
• Starting out selling DVDs and courses for hundreds of dollars and why John then decided to add a $19.95 per month membership
• How going all in doubled his sales and brought him more freedom
• Promoting a membership with free lessons and member exclusive extras
• The benefits of selling one-off products alongside a membership
• Dealing with ill health and the challenge of staying creative
• How using a forum for answering member questions provides additional content
• John's course production process
• and much more!

Julie Christie from Togs in Business joins Callie on this week's episode of Behind the Membership.

Julie's membership is less than a year old, and Julie shares some great insights into the first 6 months of her membership and how important narrowing down her ideal member has been and why her focus is on quality of members rather than quantity.

We talk Julie's journey so far, including:

• How Julie began teaching the business of photography and decided to escape the launch cycle
• The challenge - and importance - of identifying and attracting her ideal members
• How quality of members is more important than quantity
• Juggling both a forum and a Facebook group for her membership community
• Moving to an application process and purposefully adding obstacles to joining
• Attracting members with live and automated webinars
• How Julie created 'Success Month' to get new members off to a great start
• And more!

Christopher Sutton from Musical U joins Callie on episode 6 of Behind the Membership.

Christopher has run his business for 8 years now, with his membership site being the predominant offering since 2015.  Christopher places a lot of emphasis on user experience and gamification in the membership and unlike many membership site owners, Christopher is also not the figurehead or guru of the membership, in fact most of the content is created by other people.

Christopher talks about the last 2 years of the Musical U membership, including:

• How Christopher started his company after noticing a big gap in the market
• Moving from creating and selling iphone apps to a membership model
• How Christopher has built his business by predominantly outsourcing content creation and not making himself the guru
• Gamifying the member experience for increased success
• Why his community is such a vital part of the membership and aids retention
• How more sales created a need to change the member experience and reassess his UX
• How offering a trial has benefited his membership sales
• Making use of personalised opt-ins and segmentation for better results
• Building a team with a shared mission and the freedom that brings
• Why his focus is on organic growth and not Facebook ads
• Adding new products and membership tiers as the membership grows

Holly Gillen from Business Cinema Academy and Holly G Studios is joining Callie on this episode of Behind the Membership.

Holly has been running her membership alongside her video production business for 15 months now, after trying lots of other business models previously. Holly shares a lot of great tips for us in this interview, including how she uses challenges to attract new members, her experience with using Kajabi for her membership site, and how important it is to only attract members when they're ready for your membership.

Holly talks with Callie about the first 15 months of Business Cinema Academy, including:

• How Holly attracts new members with free video challenges
• Using themed months to help members focus
• The power of watching members transform and succeed
• How using Kajabi has cut out the tech headaches of running a membership
• The #oneminuteonetake video challenge
• Using a quiz to tell sales page visitors  if the membership is for them
• The value of experimenting and not staying stagnant
• Increasing engagement and connection with personal check in videos
• Why she wished she'd started the membership site earlier!