Over Deliver with a 30 Day Challenge - People Magic: How to Build a $1M Community

Summary

People Magic: How to Build a $1M Community Episode Summary: "Over Deliver with a 30 Day Challenge" Release Date: December 19, 2024

In this insightful episode of People Magic, host Gina Bianchini, founder and CEO of Mighty Networks, delves into the strategic use of 30-day challenges as a foundational tool for building lucrative and engaging communities. Bianchini addresses common fears among aspiring community builders and provides a step-by-step framework to launch, validate, and scale a community-focused business effectively.

1. Overcoming Common Fears in Community Building

Bianchini begins by empathizing with entrepreneurs apprehensive about launching a membership model. A prevalent concern she highlights is the fear of launching a community only to attract a minimal number of unengaged members, leading to stagnation and wasted resources.

"Do you really want a community?" (00:00)

She reassures listeners that these fears are natural but surmountable with the right approach, emphasizing the importance of starting small to build confidence and validate the business model.

2. The 30-Day Challenge as a Strategic Launchpad

To mitigate the fear of launching an underperforming community, Bianchini advocates for initiating a 30-day challenge instead of committing to an annual membership upfront. This approach serves as a low-risk method to test the market, engage participants, and refine offerings based on real-time feedback.

A. Launching the 30-Day Challenge

Bianchini explains that a 30-day challenge provides a structured yet flexible framework, allowing entrepreneurs to:

Test Audience Engagement: Gauge interest and commitment.
Refine Content Delivery: Adjust based on participant interactions.
Build Community Dynamics: Foster relationships and trust among members.

"Start with a 30 day challenge because it means that you can practice without any fear." (00:20)

B. Structure and Execution

The effectiveness of a 30-day challenge lies in its well-defined structure. Bianchini outlines key components essential for success:

Transition Framework: Align participants in a common journey, such as transitioning to first-time engineering managers or new parents.
Daily Engagements: Incorporate daily tasks, polls, and possibly live sessions to maintain momentum.
Clear Purpose: Define a compelling goal, e.g., "put you on the path towards that best year ever."

C. Pricing Strategies: The Three Rs

Pricing the challenge appropriately is crucial. Bianchini introduces the Three Rs of Pricing:

Results: Define the tangible outcomes participants will achieve.
Replacement: Identify what participants are currently spending money on to achieve similar results (e.g., books, workshops).
Respect: Set a price that reflects the value and ensures participants take the challenge seriously.

"People pay attention to what they pay for." (08:45)

She suggests pricing in the range of $99 to $150, ensuring that the fee is perceived as a valuable and respected investment.

3. Validating the Community and Scaling

Launching a 30-day challenge not only validates the concept but also builds the foundation for scaling:

Initial Engagement: Secure a committed group of participants who resonate with the community’s purpose.
Building Trust: Deliver exceptional value to foster loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals.
Seamless Transition: Upon successful completion, introduce a long-term membership offering, leveraging the established relationships and proven value.

"When you achieve your goals, not if you achieve your goals." (27:15)

4. Transitioning from Challenge to Membership

Post-challenge, Bianchini advises transitioning participants into a membership model. This is facilitated by the trust and value already established during the challenge. She recommends:

Surprise Session: Host a session on day 31 to unveil the membership, capitalizing on the momentum.
Incentivizing Growth: Offer incentives such as extended free membership for initial participants who refer others, fostering organic growth.

"Now you announce a surprise session on day 31 and unveil a membership." (30:10)

5. Overcoming Procrastination and Building Confidence through Action

A significant portion of the episode addresses procrastination—the tendency to delay launching a community despite recognizing its potential benefits. Bianchini emphasizes:

Naming Fears: Clearly identify and articulate fears to address them effectively.
Action Builds Confidence: Taking decisive action, even with uncertainty, enhances self-assurance and propels progress.

"Action builds confidence." (45:30)

She encourages listeners to engage with communities for support, inspiration, and practical advice, highlighting the collective strength in shared experiences.

6. Final Recommendations and Conclusion

Bianchini wraps up by reiterating the value of starting with manageable initiatives like a 30-day challenge. She underscores the importance of:

Starting Small: Enable experimentation and learning without overwhelming pressure.
Consistent Action: Maintain momentum through regular engagement and iterative improvements.
Community Support: Leverage the power of community to sustain and grow the business.

"You are so much better off preparing for and building the muscle around launching than waiting." (50:00)

Bianchini invites listeners to connect further, seek deeper dives into topics, and participate by submitting their own questions, fostering a continuous learning environment.

Notable Quotes

"Do you really want a community?" — Gina Bianchini (00:00)
"Start with a 30 day challenge because it means that you can practice without any fear." — Gina Bianchini (00:20)
"People pay attention to what they pay for." — Gina Bianchini (08:45)
"When you achieve your goals, not if you achieve your goals." — Gina Bianchini (27:15)
"Now you announce a surprise session on day 31 and unveil a membership." — Gina Bianchini (30:10)
"Action builds confidence." — Gina Bianchini (45:30)
"You are so much better off preparing for and building the muscle around launching than waiting." — Gina Bianchini (50:00)

This episode of People Magic serves as a practical guide for entrepreneurs seeking to create and scale a thriving community. By advocating for actionable steps, empathetic understanding of fears, and strategic use of 30-day challenges, Gina Bianchini provides listeners with the tools and confidence needed to build a $1M community-centric business.

Transcript

A (0:00)

You do not have to announce anything after or set any kind of expectations after this 30 day challenge. You can just go market the 30 day challenge and prove to yourself whether your audience, if you have one, or an email list if you have one, and if you are starting from scratch, it's even better to start with a 30 day challenge because it means that you can practice without any fear. Woo. Hi, I'm Gina Bianchini and this is People Magic, where I show you the absolute easiest way to create a $1 million community. With that, let's dive in. Hey, Gina. I want to launch a membership with recurring revenue, but I'm afraid I'm going to launch this thing and only get 10 people to join, and then I'm stuck with these 10 people for a year. What do I do? I hear this concern in question, verbalized more often than you would think, but also I think a lot of fear around. Oh my gosh, am I going to launch? Is this the best kind of business? What, what should I do? Do I really even want a community? Really stems from this concern? Am I gonna sign up and market a party annual membership that no one's going to show up to? Or worse? I'm going to get 10 people and they're not going to be 10 people I'm stoked to spend the next year with. And you're worried that you're not going to be able to provide those 10 people with enough value that they're going to be excited about what they've purchased. So if that resonates with you, I have a solution. Don't start with an annual membership. Do something smaller one time first. So before you promise anybody anything related to an annual membership, if you are worried at all that you're only going to get 10 people and you're not sure, is your audience going to follow you? You know, is this the best thing for you to be spending time on? There is a solution. Don't stay with just a bunch of questions. Channel those questions into one action and it's this. Launch a 30 day challenge, host one event, think about having a mini course or a workshop. What do all of these things have in common? They have an end date. They have an end date. So if you launch, I'm just going to stick with a challenge because I think it's the best example. So let's say you offer a two week, or let's even call it a 30 day challenge and you do all the things that we talk about here in People Magic, you start with a transition. So you're gonna, you're gonna bring people together in this 30 day challenge who are all going through the same transition, that it's first time engineering managers, or it's first time parents, or it's somebody who is building their first business as a solo entrepreneur and you take them through a 30 day challenge. So for example, we're going to do this 30 day challenge to put you on the path towards that best year ever. So that's the idea. So you want to actually make sure you still have people in a transition, you still have best year ever. You pull that together to launch your 30 day challenge with your big purpose in the big purpose formula, which is I or we bring together who you're bringing together those first time engineering managers so that we can have our best year ever. So for a 30 day challenge, it's also I or we bring together first time engineering managers so that we can plan our 2025 or plan our 2026, or plan our 2027 and organize our goals. You can accomplish that in 30 days in a really, really compelling way. Then normally in people magic, when we're creating a community that can become a million dollar community, we would have monthly themes, a weekly calendar, daily polls and questions. In the case of a 30 day challenge, you would just have something for people to do every day. We've also run challenges and seen people do challenges really effectively. When you could even have almost like a live session right at the beginning of the day or a mantra or action for that day. So those things work really, really well. Then you have your offer. So you get to build the muscle around charging for that 30 day challenge so that you can go and validate or prove to yourself that you can charge money and people will pay you the money that you would like to charge. So you want to have your offer. As we've talked about before, pricing has three Rs. So it's results. What are the results that they are going to get their your members or the people who join you in this 30 day challenge, what are they going to get and how would they value those results? Number two, the second R is replacement. What are they replacing? So what does your 30 day challenge give them that is going to get them those results, but also, you know, what are they spending money on today to get those same results? So it might be a book, it might be a workshop, it might be an annual membership. You want to charge a price that creates respect, respect for you to invest heavily in making that 30 day challenge as compelling and awesome and valuable. As you can possibly make it. And what do we know? We know people pay attention to what they pay for. This is a universal human action. People pay attention to what they pay for. So you want to charge enough that they're gonna pay attention to the 30 day challenge. So that might be $150, that might be $99. But because you can be confident in the results that you're generating for somebody over the course of 30 days, what you replace and set your price so that you can offer people something that you respect and they respect, then you have your launch. So you would have the same two week launch time frame which we recommend with launching anything. An annual membership or a 30 day challenge, or an event or a course. And then what's beautiful, especially if you are on a mighty network, is you will have a magical first experience. You do not have to announce anything after or set any kind of expectations after this 30 day challenge. You can just go market the 30 day challenge and prove to yourself whether your audience if you have one, or an email list if you have one and if you are starting from scratch, it's even better to start with a 30 day challenge because it means that you can practice without any fear. What's the worst that can happen? You have a 30 day challenge that doesn't go that well. You will learn more by having a 30 day challenge where you've gone through those steps of people magic and you get five people or you get 10 people, or you get zero people than if you just keep kicking the can down the road and you're like, oh my gosh, I know I can help people. I know what I can offer is valuable. I know I love to teach, but you know, I'll worry about, or I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll launch my membership next month or I'll launch my membership after I get back from travel or I'll launch my membership once I get through the holidays. You are so much better off preparing for and building the muscle around launching, inviting people in, talking to people about a 30 day challenge than waiting until after the holidays or, or waiting until you're through the next set of travel. You want to get this going because you will learn in a way that you won't if you keep putting it off. So start with a 30 day challenge. Don't worry about the annual membership. Let's even talk about that for a second. So, so what's great about a 30 day challenge is again, you don't have to announce anything after it. You don't have to set expectations for people. You can just have a 30 day challenge. And guess what? When it achieves your goals. Notice how I said when it achieves your goals, not if it achieves your goals. But let's say you're able to get 30 people paying you $159 for a 30 day challenge and they fit that criteria of your ideal member. They are motivated by the results and transformation that you have offered them. Well, guess what? Now you announce a surprise session on day 31. And what are you going to do on day 31? You are going to unveil a membership. So you've already validated and you haven't announced anything. You've already validated that people want this. And then you just tack on the ongoing membership. Not only should you have those 30 people who are a part of it and who have gotten value and actually now are building relationships with each other, because that's, that's going to be the key in a challenge. It's why a challenge is probably a better alternative to validate an annual membership than say a mini course. Because in a mini course you'll get stuck on. But what about all of my content? And my content has to be perfect and it's all about me. With a challenge, it's like, hey, I'm bringing people together and we're gonna go through this together and we're gonna get this specific result. As a first time engineering manager, I'm gonna over deliver. And how do I over deliver? I'm gonna make sure everybody's super happy. I'm not gonna lose anybody. I'm going to make sure everybody has a, a career plan. And most importantly, I am going to push as hard as I can with love, encouragement and energy to deliver our projects on time, on budget, on scope, with a little bit left over. So that could be your best year ever for a first time engineering manager. So you want to be able to offer those things in the 30 day challenge, then unveil your longer term business opportunity, the longer term thing that they could do. And then as you do that, maybe do something really cool like you say for these first 30 people, it's free for the first year. If you bring in three more people, that's a deal to do every day of the week. So now those 30 people, let's say, let's say 20 of them, brought in three people each. Well now you're sitting at a heck of a lot more than 30 people and it is starting to grow itself. So this is just one example of looking for solutions. When you are procrastinating, you're putting it off. You know you want to do something and you know that it's going to be really lucrative and valuable, but also you're going to be able to help a lot of amazing people. And yet you just can't get it done. You just can't make it happen. When you find yourself in that situation, break down the problem. First of all, I'm a big believer. I just did this on a different project. Name your fears. Name the things that are getting you stuck. What I love about the question that started this episode is that they named their fear the fear of, oh my gosh, I'm going to launch something, I'm going to be stuck with 10 people I'm not that excited about for a year that is easily addressable with something like a challenge or an event. But if you don't name your fears when you are finding yourself stuck and putting things off and like kicking it down the road, then you won't be able to find those solutions. So this is relevant whether you're starting a community, a business, or you're just trying to get your life in a place where you can set a goal for yourself and confidently build practices that let you deliver against that goal, which, by the way, is easiest to be done in a community. And finally, if you are finding yourself procrastinating or putting something off or just being afraid, join a community. Join a community. Get stories, experiences, ideas from other people. Someone who has run a really successful challenge may open your eyes to, not just that, as a solution to what's a way. I can test my way into having an annual membership, but they might also be able to offer you all sorts of really interesting ideas around how to market a challenge, how to translate or transform something that starts as a challenge into a membership or a really interesting series of workshops or whatever it might be, but when you can get it out of your head, get it onto a piece of paper, get it into a community, you are going to be able to move so much faster and, and with so much more confidence. And this is the thing, I have learned this lesson more times in the last two weeks, which is action builds confidence. Action builds confidence. So taking an action, getting a response, even if that response is somebody's not interested, you will have more confidence because you took an action than if you let that gap exist between the thing you want to do and your present moment and not doing the thing. That's what I would recommend. This is people magic. I'm Gina Bianchini, and we'll see you in the next episode. Thank you for being a part of People Magic. I if you want more of a deep dive in any of these topics, but certainly having the framework of People Magic profit, head on over to the website. The link is in the show notes. Have your own burning question about creating People Magic? Well, I want to answer it. So here's what you're going to do. You're going to just drop your question in the review section, wherever you're listening to this podcast and keep tuning in.