Growing a Membership

Stu McClaren asked me, “What is it that drives you to create a membership site?” Let me tell you who Stu is, give my public answer to his question, and invite you to two things that I bet will be of benefit to you.

Stu McClaren founded an online application software called WishList, and (perhaps as a surprise to him) launched him to become the industry leader in membership marketing. I met him at Michael Hyatt’s first Platform Conference in Tennesee (of which I was also a contributor) where Stu planted the seed in my mind for a membership site.

It took me a couple of years to finally make that move, but I finally did earlier this year in February. For various reasons, I went a different route than WishList (primarily because I needed to sell physical products, so I went with WooCommerce). My ambition wasn’t any different, though. It’s quite simple: to provide speakers and debaters top-quality content for their competitive success. I love it and can’t get enough of it!

Here’s my dilemma, though: Getting content into the hands of speakers and debaters, as well as making sure that content is the absolute best. I’ve been doing this for years—since 1998—and in some leagues and areas of the country, I’m the industry leader. However, it’s tougher than it looks!

So, to answer Stu’s question to me, “What is it that drives you to create a membership site?” my answer is twofold:

1. First, making sure my content gets out to the niche community that depends on me every year. I’m constantly trying to find the best way to get the content in their hands.
2. Second, making sure I hire the best content providers. I have 36 authors working for me now; kind of overwhelming, but they all have passion for their work and they pump out the best content.

I’m eager to hire the best champions, coaches, and content providers in the country…even the world! Both of these drives are scalable, I’m sure, but requires a strong revenue model. This is the promise that comes with Stu McClaren’s TRIBE course, which I’m very much enjoying.

Two Invitations for You

This is my personal blog, and you are here and I consider you my friend. So, I have two invitations for you to consider:

1. Join My Membership. If you are a speaker or debater or a coach of speakers and debaters), then join my site! I’ve got a lot of content already published for this coming competitive year, and we’ve only just begun. I suspect the Stu will be pumping me full of ideas to keep my retention rates high, which—in marketing terms—means you will be very, very happy!
2. Join Stu’s TRIBE Course. If you are a business owner, you should do this…And do it with me! I love to connect with other solopreneurs on how to figure out the business we’re in. NOTE: Stu let me know that this is time-sensitive. His site has introductory videos this week, but he will eventually close his enrollment and focus on members (which could be the both of us!).

I sure love the business I’m in. Thousands of speakers and debaters are served through the good work we do at Monument Publishing. I’m quite certain it will get better, now that Stu McClaren’s TRIBE course is showing the way.