← The Amy Porterfield Show
The Amy Porterfield Show
#751: The Secrets to Realistic Recurring Revenue with Stu McLaren
00:47:30
Creating financial stability through recurring revenue, fostering genuine community, and building the confidence to grow your business.
Loading summary
Transcript72 lines
- [00:01]
A
We talk about community and being a place of people supporting each other towards some common objective that we're trying to achieve. But I think community goes well beyond that. You know, like that's the beginning of the relationship.
- [00:15]
B
I'm Amy Porterfield, ex corporate girl turned CEO of a multi seven figure business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, the budget and the time to focus on growing my small but mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned and you'll see the business I have today. One that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible. One that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step by step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur or, or one in the making who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and a life you love, you're in the right place, friend. Let's get started. Hey there. Welcome back to another episode of Online Marketing Made Easy. I'm your host, Amy Porterfield and today I've got the peanut butter to my jelly coming back to the show and that is Stu McLaren. Sue and I have been friends forever for as long as I can remember when I started this business. And I always tell the story that we were in a mastermind together many, many, many years ago and we played charades and we as a team were number one and we will never let anyone forget. And so we're just a really good duo, let me tell you. And it's really been fun being his friend because he's done so, so much since when I first met him that many years ago. But one thing has been consistent and that is this man is obsessed with memberships. He has his own memberships and he's even more obsessed with teaching other people how to create recurring revenue with a membership model. And he's been on the show many times before. But today is extra special because my friend Stu has a brand new book called All About Memberships. And so I'm going to tell you about this book in a second, but let me back up because there's a small percentage that are listening right now. You don't know Stu and once you do know him, you will love him forever. But let me give this man the respect he deserves. So Stu is a pioneer in the membership industry, empowering entrepreneurs to build recurring revenue through value driven membership models. So he's the co founder of Membership IO. I am an advisor for Membership IO I use it for my membership and for my courses and I love it, for the record. And he's the creator of the Membership Experience, which is a program that I have promoted to my community on everything. It's like Digital Course Academy, but for memberships. It's everything you need to know to create and launch a membership. He's guided over 19,000 entrepreneurs through this program, which is pretty impressive. Now this is why I love Stu more than anything. His philosophy of transformation over information helps entrepreneurs deliver meaningful outcomes to the members while fostering community and connection and not overwhelming them. Meaning we don't need to create a bunch more content. We don't need to give our audience a bunch, a bunch, a bunch of new information. We need to help them with the transformation. And that is what Stu is all about. In his new book, Predictable Profits, I love that name. Stu shares the actionable insights into crafting impactful memberships for long term success. So I won't make you wait any longer. Let's bring on my friend, Stu McLaren. Well, well, well, look who's coming back to the show. Stu McLaren. Welcome back, Amy Porterfield.
- [04:01]
A
This is my favorite place to be in the online space. Thank you so much for having me.
- [04:05]
B
As it should be, my friend. As it should be. Because we have had so many fun conversations and we've been on each other's podcast and we've talked about memberships, we've talked about digital courses, we've talked about memberships with digital courses and everything in between. So we've covered a lot of ground. But today's kind of like a really extra special day because you have basically taken everything you know about memberships and put it into a book. And that's a very big deal. And I want to talk about what's in between those pages and why you decided to. Actually, let's start there. For those that there's like 2% of people listening right now that might not know you tell them who you are, but then also tell me, why now? Why'd you write this book?
- [04:56]
A
Okay, thank you for that. Couple key things. Number one, I have been working specifically helping people create profitable memberships for nearly 17 years. So for 17 years, this is the only thing that I have been focused on is like, what makes a profitable membership? How do we do it in the fastest, easiest way? And how can more people produce more stable recurring revenue than ever before? So we've been doing this with our software, with our training. We've helped tens of thousands of people do this in all kinds of markets, from photography, and calligraphy to fitness, finance, music, art, health, dog training. We even have Holly George, who has a membership teaching people how to make balloon animals, for crying out loud.
- [05:41]
B
Like, I mean, come on.
- [05:44]
A
It is. It is crazy, all the different markets. But for me, that's what's so incredibly amazing about it, is that we can find our own little corner of the Internet and we can serve a community of people and we can create an amazing living doing so. And so that's what I'm passionate about. And that's, you know, what I've been doing for the last 17 years. So. But you asked, like, the second part of that question was, like, why this book? And, like, why now? Well, we're at a point in time, Amy, where I think more people need this information than ever before, and here's why. Since 2000, salaries in the US have increased by 77%.
- [06:25]
B
All right?
- [06:26]
A
However, housing prices have gone up 172%. People might be asking, well, okay, but I. Rent. Well, rent has gone up 165%. Groceries have nearly doubled since that time. Childcare is now $16,000 per year. The average health care cost for a person in the US is $13,000 per year. And worst of all, the average household is drowning in $9,300 of credit card debt. So basically, at the end of the day, what we're making has gone up a little, but the cost of everything has gone up a lot. And so what we're doing is not working. Then as a business owner, if you factor in, like, all of our expenses have all gone up. And so when I think about, like, the way in which costs have gone up, the question I would throw to all the business owners is, have your product prices gone up 165%? Have your product prices. I know mine haven't. No. Like, my costs have gone up, but I'm not. What I'm making has not gone up. And so we're at a problem. We're at a problem in the marketplace right now where, like, things have got to change. Now, the number one stress factor for all business owners is finances. The number one stress is finances. Where. Where's the next sale going to come from? That's what this book is set out to solve. Because I know that if a business owner has recurring revenue, meaning revenue that is automatically coming in next month, whether you do anything new or not, that creates stability, that creates certainty, and that eliminates a ton of stress. That's why I'm passionate about this. That's why I wrote this book. That's why I want to get in the hands of as many business owners as possible.
- [08:13]
B
Oh, it's gonna change lives. Like, you did a beautiful job with this book. For the record, I wish I had it with me. I don't actually have the physical book yet, but I got the PDF and I wanna point out just this one area of your book that is just. It's riveting. It's the forward of your book. I mean, I have never seen anything better in my life. So, yeah, I wrote the forward for Sue's book.
- [08:42]
A
There's a huge amount of humility packed into that forward as well. Lot.
- [08:47]
B
Lots of it. And I had to say I was truly, truly honored. And really around that time was when I kind of learned that you were writing this book and what it was all about. And I was really excited. I was, of course, very, very honored to. To write it and. But I really need to get back to my notes because there's one part about kind of the summary of your book that really stood out for me, and I want to address it right away. So there's this one sentence I read, and it says, stu challenges the norm of content heavy models. And then it goes on to say, and focuses on building connections, fostering retention, and delivering tangible outcomes. So before we get into recurring revenue and why it's so important, I know a lot of my audience, they're really overwhelmed. They're like, what should I be focusing on? Not sure what the best business model is. But what do you mean by the norm of content heavy models?
- [09:45]
A
Well, in today's day and age, I think we can all agree that there's more information available to us than ever before.
- [09:53]
B
Yes.
- [09:53]
A
And then when you add on now the layer of AI producing all additional information at scale, it just becomes this overwhelming mess. And what happens is, is that people get paralyzed by that overwhelm. They don't end up taking action because they've got all these books, all these articles, all these blogs, all these podcasts, all these memberships, all these courses, all this stuff. And they're trying to process it to find the few things that are actually going to help them move forward. And that's just overwhelming. And so then people just like, forget it. They just give up and they just stay stuck or they stay dealing with whatever problem that they are experiencing. And so we don't want to add to that overwhelm. You know, as content creators, that's not what we are intending to do. We create content because the intention is that in the content we create we're there to help people, but the reality of it is, is that it's a blend of both the right information and the right support to help people implement the information. So I was just on a call actually, with our mutual friend Dr. Ben Hardy, right before this. He's thinking of launching a new membership. We were talking that through and he was saying, he said, stu, what do you think of this? He said, I've got this new model and I want that to be the core focus of the membership. And. But I'm not going to add a whole bunch of new information every single month. What I really want to do is I really just want to come back to the core model and help people implement that. I said, that's amazing. I need something like that. That's exactly what we should be doing, is helping people go deeper in a small piece of information. Because that's like a breath of fresh air. Because now instead of having to go through all the stuff and sipped and sort through, we're just saying, hey, listen, Amy, if the end of the day, just focus on this little bit right here and let's just, let's just put our attention there. Let's just go deep here. And if you do that, you will experience a tremendous amount of progress. So the thing that I would say to all content creators is like, think about the 20% that's going to help get 80% of the result for your people and go deep in the 20%. Focus less on creating more, more, more, more, more focus on going deeper and providing support and, and helping people implement. That's where you will get results for your people and the results will attract more and more people to your programs.
- [12:16]
B
It makes it more enjoyable for the creator and for the student. So I'm a hundred percent behind that. In your book, you talk about there's six reasons, six reasons that people join memberships. Can you talk about that? Because, and I don't know, sue, do we need to back up and say, like, how do I know I should create a membership? Do we need to talk about that first or do we talk about the six reasons?
- [12:38]
A
Well, I can, I can give people three quick indicators of whether they're in a good market for a membership. So number one is, can you solve a problem? Like, this is really simple. If you can solve an ongoing problem for a market, that's a green light, thumbs up, move forward. So an example of that would be like weight loss. You know, somebody just doesn't go being overweight to their ideal weight like that. Like, that takes Time to solve that problem. Perfect for membership or dog training. You're not going to go from like Scout being wildly out of control to.
- [13:10]
B
Like, yeah, you don't even need to talk about it.
- [13:16]
A
But like, you wouldn't go from a puppy that's wildly out of control to the perfect puppy like scout overnight. It takes time to train a dog that way. Right. Perfect for a membership. So number one, if you can solve an ongoing problem, that's green light, thumbs up, move forward. Number two is skills. Can you teach a skill? So again, you're not gonna go from not knowing how to grow an online business to becoming like the, the CEO of this online empire. Like that. It takes time to learn those. Heck, you and I have been doing this for decades. We are still learning.
- [13:50]
B
Yes. Amen.
- [13:52]
A
Yeah, like there's still things that we're learning and trying to master and, and even then the market changes and we've got to learn again and adjust again and evolve again. So like, skills are an incredible market. Whether it's like learning how to grow a business, learning how to paint, learning how to play an instrument, learning a new language, skill development takes time. Perfect for a membership. The third indicator is like, can you make someone's life easier? And what I mean by that is like, can you take something that's complex or takes a lot of time and simplify it and save people time? So good example. In our community, we have many multi million dollar a year memberships. By the way, helping teachers provide, by providing these teachers lesson plans, it could be Anna Dagilio, our mutual, you know.
- [14:47]
B
She'S our love child.
- [14:49]
A
Yeah, our love child who provides lesson plans for teachers in grade two. It could be Caitlin and Jessica who provide lesson plans for teachers in grade seven or middle school. Or it could be Julie Soule who provides art lesson plans for homeschooling parents. Like, all they are doing, in essence is making a teacher's life so much easier by giving them the lesson plans so, so they can spend more time helping their students. And so those are examples. Other examples would be Nicole Melton, who has a membership site providing social media templates for people in the beauty industry.
- [15:29]
B
Yes. Did you know she's also my student? So she's also.
- [15:32]
A
I didn't know that.
- [15:32]
B
That's why.
- [15:33]
A
Bring it up, Nicole. Shout out to Nicole.
- [15:35]
B
Love her.
- [15:36]
A
Yes. And so like my point is, is like in all of those cases, they're saving people time, they're making their life easier. Whether it's through templates, lesson plans, resources, scripts, things that people can use. To save time. And if you can do that, green light, thumbs up, move forward. So if you can, one, solve an ongoing problem, two, just skill, or three, make their life easier, those are good indicators for a market to move forward with.
- [16:03]
B
Got it. Okay. Problem, skill. And what was the last one?
- [16:06]
A
Convenience. Making their life easier.
- [16:08]
B
Problem, skill. Convenience. Okay, awesome. Okay, so then back to the question that you talked about. Six reasons why people join a membership.
- [16:16]
A
So a couple of the big ones. Number one is that they have a real need. Like, a need is like they have a problem. And if they don't solve this problem, it's getting worse and worse and worse. And they have come to the point where they're like, okay, now is the time I need to solve this problem. That's a need. When people have a need, that's like the best customer that you can serve because there's real urgency behind, like, wanting to solve that problem. So that's, you know, that's a really good thing. Another thing is like, people join for convenience. We talked about this earlier. Like, there's just something that's gotten too complex. It's cumbersome when we talk about teachers. Like, my wife Amy was a teacher for 10 years. And the problem with lesson planning is that she was doing it on the weekends and, and she was doing it on the evenings and it was taking away from our social life. So that's like, when we can make their life more convenient, it's going to immediately create desire for the membership. So another example of a reason why somebody's going to want to join a membership is that is mastery. So, like, what we were talking about earlier about people wanting to learn new skills, where do they go to learn those skills and where do they get the support, you know, for those skills? So example for you, like, you know, people come through dca, they learn what to do and how to do it in terms of creating a profitable digital course. But there's a gap between, like, knowing what to do and how to do it and actually getting the result with it. And that's what a membership helps support people in doing, is mastering the skills to be able to get the outcome that they're after. And then another one that I'll just throw out there. And again, all six are in the book. But the last one that I really want to emphasize is community. And I can't emphasize this enough because in today's day and age, like, it is lonely trying to learn and, or do things that maybe nobody in your household has done. None of your friend group have ever done, and you're trying to figure it all out by yourself. But when you've got a community of people who get you, understand you, or on a similar journey, it can breathe life into that passion. And so when you create that place, it can become magical. Now, I'm going to share something that actually just recently happened. And this is a bit of a sad, somber moment, but it emphasizes the power of community. Here we had somebody in our community pass away recently, and, and it's heartbreaking. You know, she had some health complications, was diagnosed with als, and then things went south pretty quickly from there. But there's another woman in our community. So her, by the way, this woman's name is Kristin, and there's another woman in our community. Her name's Lisa. They met through our community. They discovered that they actually live near each other. So they had formed a. A friendship and a bond, and they met on a regular basis. And Lisa has been helping Kristen kind of wind down her business and has been supporting her family throughout this whole process. And we just got a message that relayed through Lisa that her, that Kristen's husband said that our community had a big impact on Kristen's life, and she wanted us to know that. And, and I, I share all this because, like, we talk about community and being a place of people supporting each other towards some common objective that we're trying to achieve. But I think community goes well beyond that. You know, like, that's the beginning of the relationship. And Lisa and Kristin are a perfect example that it, it can and should extend beyond that. And as membership side owners, what I'd encourage is like asking the question, how. How can we help our members connect with each other beyond just the digital screen? How can we help them form deep and meaningful relationships? How can we create this stickiness in their life that is so meaningful to them that it's more than just a transaction. That's the opportunity that we have with community. And that's a big reason why people will join is because they can't find it elsewhere.
- [20:40]
B
I really think I'm excited about AI we're implementing into the business, but if it could really isolate people, if you, you know, get really deep into AI, you can start isolating yourself. So coming up for air and getting into a community can be so important. And I think it's going to be even more important as the years go by. Speaking of community, I think of engagement. And I know one of the things my students ask a lot is how do you balance keeping members engaged without overwhelming them with Too much content. Because I think for so long, and I've done this before, I'm going to give them content because that will have them engaged with my content. And I give them way too much content and now nobody's engaged. So how do you balance that?
- [21:28]
A
I think one of the things to realize as content creators, it's, it's creating the content is part of the equation, but facilitating the implementation of the content is another major part of the equation.
- [21:42]
B
That's great. Creating it and facilitating the implementation of it. So can you talk about the facilitating and the implementation? What does that look like inside of a membership?
- [21:52]
A
So a couple examples that I'll share from our own. We host what we call connection calls. So these are real simple. We host them every month, our team hosts them, and we facilitate people being able to connect and mastermind with each other. So there's no content being taught. I'm not on there teaching this new this or this new that. We're just facilitating a discussion between members and they spin off into smaller groups based on topics or, you know, things of interest. But it's a mastermind like discussion that's being facilitated. That's an example of a connection call. Another example would be a implementation workshop. So we host one of these. One a quarter. They're four hours long. Oh, wow. Focus is like, at the end of this, we will have X, Y, Z accomplished.
- [22:40]
B
That's good.
- [22:41]
A
So it's like the lesson, they have access to, the lessons they, they have could have gone through it all by themselves, but many times it's just like, just carve out this time and by the end of it, we'll have this done and you'll be a gigantic leap forward, forward in terms of your progress and your momentum. And so carving out time and just supporting people in implementing and doing the things in real time, that's where, like, people's, you know, they get, there's an element of accountability. And like, at that point, it's, that's when the real questions come up, right? Like, that's when it's like, whoa, hang on a minute, like, how do I do X? No problem. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll help you there. And so now those naggy questions that would have normally held people back and they would have spawned and spawned and spun and, you know, got distracted by something else. Now they actually get through that and they actually, like, are making and experiencing progress. And the real win for all of us is that as long as members are experiencing progress, they will stay and they become these beautiful stories that we can now reflect back to all the other members. We can say, listen, look at the progress that Tara made this year. She was on this call when this happened. She was on that call when we did that. And so people can start to see, ah, I show up, I experience progress, I get results. And that's exactly the mindset that we want to have happen. So I think there are ways and deliverables that are solely focused on facilitating and helping people process the information that don't require us to create more content. It's more about implementing the content we already have.
- [24:23]
B
Oh, I love that. Implementing the content you already have. Because it doesn't have to be overwhelming. I think gone are the days of, well, I can't create all this brand new content every single month, and I'm on a content hamster wheel and that's why I can't have a membership. You have really transformed how to look at memberships and how to facilitate them so that that whole issue kind of goes out the door. And through the pages of this book, you talk a lot about content creation and again, engagement and community so that it all ties together. I think you've done a beautiful job. But those that are thinking about a membership, I want them to hear directly from you. There's some common mistakes that you see entrepreneurs make when starting a membership.
- [25:05]
A
So.
- [25:06]
B
So before my audience even begins to pick up this book and start implementing what you learned, what are some common mistakes they should just avoid right from the get go? What are you seeing and how to avoid it?
- [25:18]
A
Well, the first one is that they wait way too long. So, you know, I don't know if anybody watching and listening has ever fallen into the trap of, like, waiting until the perfect moment, the perfect time when all the stars align, when everything is, like, in order before we take them. If you are raising your hand or nodding right now that you have done that, I want you to listen to me here because, Amy, let me ask you this question. Has your membership changed at all from the very first time that you launched it?
- [25:53]
B
Well, first of all, I used to charge 297 and now I charge 97 because I realized I really missed the mark on that one. And the whole layout, the whole way we do it, has dramatically changed. If you ask some of my students who have been there from day one, they would say it was very different, very different.
- [26:11]
A
And I want everybody to hear that because that is absolutely commonplace. Because we learn how we can best support our people by working with our people. And so, like we can have the best plans, the best ideas, the best strategy, and we can wait until that perfect moment. But the reality it is the moment that you get paying members is the moment that things begin to dramatically change because you're going to adjust the membership based on the members needs. So my argument is like, get going before you think you're ready. Because why not start working with people as early as possible and learn how to craft a winning membership as early as possible and you'll create way more momentum for yourself. So the first mistake is that people wait way too long. I actually think you should launch a membership before you've created any content. And I know like some people are going to be like, what the heck is he talking about? Like, that crazy Canadian has gone off the rails. Like, I just want people to know that we have thousands of people in our community doing what we call a founding member launch. I detail the whole thing in predictable profits. But a founding member launch can be done by the end of today. Somebody's listening to it right now. They could do a founding member launch. They got an audience of 200 people or more on social, email, customer list, podcast, wherever it might be. They're in front of 200 people or more. They could do a founding member launch today before they've created anything, start generating recurring revenue and start welcoming paying members, which now, now you can start getting clear on how to best serve them. And so that's the first mistake is waiting way too long. Okay. Second mistake is creating way too much content. We've already talked about this.
- [28:01]
B
Yes, I've been here.
- [28:02]
A
Yes, we don't, we don't need to go in depth here. But listen, nine times out of 10, people are creating way too much content. I'll give you an example of how this impacts the experience. So we had a torn it last year who came to us and said, hey Stu, can you take a look at our membership? Something's just off and we can't put our finger on it. They had had the membership site for nearly nine years. They had more than 8,000 members. So listen, this is like a well established membership, but they were struggling from a retention standpoint and they were losing hundreds of members a month. So I took a look and right away I knew the problem. Like this membership has been around for nearly nine years. So there is a ton of content in there and you get in and I was just like, like, where do I go? What do I do? And it was just paralyzing because it was so much. And that's that overwhelm that we talk about. And the moment that overwhelm is planted, it is a matter of time before that person just cancels entirely from the membership. So we went in and we helped them revamp that membership. And we didn't change any of the deliverables, didn't change the offer, didn't change the price, didn't change any of that. All we did was simplify the experience so that members only see content that is relevant to them. And what happened is it massively drove up consumption. Ultimately it drove up retention and they cut their churn in half. So what that means is that like hundreds of members who would normally have left stayed, that meant tens of thousands of dollars in month number one over the course of the year. That is hundreds of thousands of dollars just in streamlining the experience. So before anybody starts, what I would say is that you're probably thinking you have to deliver way more than you really do. And so streamline that whole experience. Deliver a more personalized experience. You'll see consumption go up. If consumption goes up, retention goes up, people get better results and everybody has a better membership. So those are a couple examples, really great examples.
- [30:20]
B
I think they hit home for a lot of people, like, oh, that's why I haven't gotten started or that's what I was most worried about. You know, let's talk to the more established entrepreneurs that are listening. I've got a lot of beginners that are just getting going, but there's a lot of people listening right now. They're already making money, Stu, and they're doing one off sales. So let's say high end coaches, consultants and, or just one off sales that really take a lot of work. They want to have recurring revenue and. But they don't want to alienate their existing audience. So they, There's a challenge here. I think there's a, maybe a mental block. But what would you say to them?
- [30:56]
A
Well, this is where I was in 2008. You know, I had a great business, I was working with clients and I had the who's who of the client list and I was helping them by means with their affiliate programs. And I was involved in all of these, you know, online launches back then. It was incredible. But I realized I had just gotten married a year before Amy and I, my wife and I were thinking of starting our family and I realized like, I can't keep doing what I'm doing and be a present husband and father. Like I was working late, I was up early. Like it was just, it wasn't A business model that allowed me to grow beyond the number of hours that I had in a day. And I just didn't have any more hours. And so I asked a friend of mine, I said, you know, what do I do? And he said, you should create a membership. I said, well, what's that? He said, well, think about all the things that you're doing for your clients. If you were to just teach the things that you're doing for your clients to others who maybe couldn't afford you, you would teach one time, but be able to get paid by hundreds, if not thousands of people. And I was like, omg. And that was the unlock for me, was realizing that a membership allows me to continue doing the things that I was doing before, but now in a much more scalable way by teaching people who may not have been able to afford my services, but now I could serve so many more people and be able to do it at scale. And so I think the trap that a lot of people working one on one with coaching clients and, or like service providers get stuck in is that they are only thinking about the next client or the next project or whatever it might be. And what I want to encourage you to think about is like, sharing the skills that you've learned, the things that you do for clients, teach to other people. And now I know right away the gremlin that's going to creep in everybody's mind is like, yeah, but if I do that, like, I'm going to be out of work. Nobody's going to want my services, nobody's.
- [33:11]
B
Going to want to hire me 100%. That's what they're thinking.
- [33:14]
A
But it actually has the opposite effect because you actually become in more demand because you're seen as even, even bigger authority. And so what actually happens is that your prices go up in terms of your services. And then for everybody else, you say, join the membership and I can serve and teach you there how to do it for yourself. So now you give the best of both worlds to people. They can either hire you to help them, much more expensive, or they can do it themselves. And you take them through that whole process. And so it's not a cold, hard switch. Amy, I would encourage people to grow into it. Don't go into it, but start taking inventory of the questions that are being asked, your processes and what you're doing for your actual clients so that you can teach that. In fact, I had a voice message from one of our students. Her name's Tara Phillips. She's had an incredible year she crossed the million dollar milestone in her membership. She's an educator of 25 years, specifically working with kids with autism and she created a bunch of resources that she thought, hey, other teachers and parents who are working with kids with autism would benefit from. Ultimately, she launches a membership crossed a million dollar milestone this year. It was incredible. But one of the things that I was coaching her on was now Tara, is the time to uplevel your branding. Because you know, it was kind of her, she was just like a, a lone wolf kind of doing it herself and, and she was at the stage where it's like, okay, like now's the time to up level your branding. So she hired this designer and she was telling me she's like this designer, she's amazing. Like she's walked me through this whole process. Expensive, but it's been really amazing. And then she said, and then I got talking to her about you and memberships and this designer said, I've been thinking about like teaching this branding process to others who can't afford my services. And bingo. That's exactly what we're talking about here is like there is a huge portion of people that can't afford your coaching or your services. That huge portion of people is who you can serve inside of a membership, just teaching what it is that you do.
- [35:29]
B
That's such a great point. So so many people can't afford or don't want to hire a one on one coach or consultant, but they want to know what you know. And you said this earlier, you can take what you do in those one on one private sessions and you can templatize it inside of a membership. I say the same thing for a course. We've seen it over and over. It absolutely can be done. And of course you're going to kind of change a few things up. But you're good at your job. You're going to figure that out. So it absolutely can be done. Okay, so I've got one more question for you. Do you remember what you said on. I think it's page 62. Do you remember joking? But do you do you did say something in your book. I don't know what page it is, but I wrote it down. You said recurring revenue allows you to lead with generosity and stability in your business. Generosity and stability. And I think you talk about that a lot. And you know, as we wrap up, I want you to talk a little bit about how have building memberships actually affected you personally? Not teaching other people, but for, you know, you've had memberships in your own businesses, how has that changed you personally? And what advice would you give to entrepreneurs seeking that same kind of freedom that you have?
- [36:45]
A
I actually had this conversation with our team earlier this week, and we were talking about, like, kind of like the lay of the land of what's happening in our market. And things are changing. Like, I've been around this game a long time. You've been around this game a long time, Amy, and every, I would say, five to six to seven years, we see a moment in time where a lot of things are changing. And if you don't evolve, then there's a good chance you'll get left behind. And I believe we're in one of those moments right now. And so what's happening is we're seeing a lot of the old ways in which we used to market are just not as effective anymore. Or, like, a lot of the old ways in which we generated leads just. It's a lot more expensive than it ever has been. And so, like, the old models are way more difficult to make work today than they were two years ago, five years ago, seven years ago. And so I was talking to our team about this, and I could kind of see, like, this, like, worry on their faces. Like, are we in trouble? Or, like, is. Are, you know, like, is this. What. What. What is he really saying? Like, what's underneath all this? And so then I said, look, I want you to know that we are not in any financial trouble. We, you know, have a very profitable business. We, you know, have reserves. Everything's totally fine. And I said, one of the biggest, most beneficial things that we have to our advantage is that we have multiple streams of recurring revenue. Multiple streams of recurring revenue. What that affords us, that affords us the ability to be able to experiment. That affords us the ability to. To try new things. So when everybody else is clinging on and holding on to old ways of doing stuff, we can experiment and try with liberty, knowing that we're never financially going to be in trouble because we have these recurring revenue streams coming into the business so that no matter what happens, moving forward with the new experiments that we try, we will always have the stability of that recurring revenue that breathes life into a business. Because you can make decisions with confidence as a business owner. You know that your bills are going to get paid, you know that you can pay your team, you know that you are going to get paid. Like, things are going to be okay because you have that stability. And this was emphasized more for me during COVID than any other Time because I remember getting a message from one of our students, Casey Hope. She has an art studio in Texas. People come into her studio, they learn how to paint. She teaches them mainly kids. And during COVID her art studio got shut down. And she sent me a message and she said, stu, normally I would have been freaked out right now. I would have been freaked out about like, where's the income coming in? How am I going to pay my people? How am I going to pay rent? How am I going to pay myself?
- [39:52]
B
Many people were, yeah, many people were right.
- [39:55]
A
We, who knows what's going to happen? She this was like, nobody would have predicted, like everybody would have to shut down their business. But then she said, but I'm not scared. She does.
- [40:06]
B
She already have one.
- [40:08]
A
She had a calligraphy membership. And she said because of the revenue coming in from the membership, the recurring revenue, I'm not scared, I'm not worried. Even a month later, she sent me another update. She said, stu, you won't believe it. She said, I realized, like, this was an opportunity. All these parents are at home with their kids, not knowing what to do. She's like, I could teach them the stuff that I was doing in the studio online. She said. So we launched another membership. She welcomed another thousand plus members, generating another recurring revenue stream. And so I just think about, like, that stability and the, and that confidence that comes from that recurring revenue. That's why I'm passionate about this, Amy. That's why, like, every business owner should get a copy of this book. Because it's not about memberships per se, it's about the confidence and comfort of knowing that day in and day out, you can experiment, you can try, and you will always be able to have the bills paid, your staff paid, and your self paid because of that recurring revenue. That is why it releases that stress of finances, where that next sale is coming from. Because you're not hoping, you are knowing with confidence. That's why everybody should go get a copy of that book.
- [41:20]
B
Absolutely. And I love what you said where her name was Hope with the art studio.
- [41:24]
A
Casey Hope.
- [41:25]
B
Yep, Casey Hope. Imagine if she waited and realized, oh my gosh, my studio is getting shut down. I gotta figure something out. Which a lot of people did. But don't wait till you have a huge problem to say, I better add recurring revenue. The whole point is add it now so you don't have that huge problem down the road that there's like a really big distinction there. And I want people to hear. So, Stu, this book is beautiful. I'm so excited that you wrote it. Where should people go to get it? And I think you have some bonuses.
- [41:57]
A
We definitely do. Number one, everybody should go get a copy. Just to read the forward.
- [42:01]
B
I mean, right?
- [42:03]
A
Yes.
- [42:03]
B
Where we started the conversation and where we're ending it is riveting.
- [42:08]
A
I want to see reviews on Amazon about the forward for sure.
- [42:14]
B
This is, this is very important.
- [42:16]
A
Yeah. Okay. Number one, I've talked about this being everything that I have learned in 17 plus years distilled into 250 pages. It is everything you need to know about launching, growing a profitable membership. So bottom line, go get the book. Go to stu.me forward/book s t u.me book. When you come to that page, you're going to find a variety of additional bonuses. Now, I will say in the book, you will also have. We even have like a QR code right at the front of the book.
- [42:50]
B
Ooh, nice.
- [42:52]
A
You can immediately go to a members area that contains a ton of resources and complimentary supportive materials for what it is that you're learning. But there's a couple of bonuses that I want to highlight. Number one is I take people through this process called the messaging map and it's actually outlined in chapter five of the book. But this process, it enables you to be able to describe what it is that you do in a way that people naturally want it without you coming across as like some cheesy salesperson. It's just like, how do you say what it is you do in a way that makes people want to join your membership? And one of the bonuses is I'm going to walk you through that process with real live examples. And so it's really powerful to see how we communicate what it is that we do can come alive in a completely different and highly effective way. So that bonus is included. Another bonus that I want to highlight is we talk about the founding member launch, like how people can launch literally day if they have an audience of 200 people or more. And I have a whole mini course that walks through that process in detail with scripts and resources. People will get access to that as well, along with a 30 day trial of our software that's all included free as a bonus when you go grab the book and claim your bonuses.
- [44:23]
B
Okay. The software is incredible, so that is very, very worth it. Okay. Stu me forward slash book, my friend, we have been friends for years and years and years and I couldn't be more proud of this masterpiece that you've created to help people have recurring revenue. So congratulations on your brand new book. Everyone needs to go grab it. I'm so very excited for you. And thanks so much for being on the show.
- [44:50]
A
Thanks for having me, Amy. I appreciate you. Love you lots.
- [44:52]
B
Love ya. So there you have it. I hoped you found value in that conversation, because I know I did. I also always love having Stu on the show. And listen, my friend, do yourself a favor and create recurring revenue in 2025. It will transform how you do business. And also it will transform your personal life in terms of the profits that you will see consistently coming into your business. So you could start with predictable profits. Go to Stu me forward slash book and grab yourself a copy. All right, I'll see you next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.