The I Am [Dot. Dot. Dot.] Podcast

#46 I Am...Turning My Audience into a Thriving Paid Community with Passion and Practical Steps

August 22, 2024 • Kristen Werner & Mia Steel

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Can you truly turn your audience into a thriving, paid community? Learn how Mia and Kristen achieved just that and discover if the membership model is your next big move. 

We share our personal journeys and insights, transforming the often-misunderstood concept of memberships into nurturing paid communities. Passion is key, and we’ll help you identify if this model aligns with your goals, all while providing practical tips and a handy free resource to guide you through the foundational steps.

Explore the power of connection and trust, rather than expertise, in building a monetised community. 

We discuss the benefits of monthly recurring revenue, providing both financial stability and personal fulfillment. For those juggling multiple passions or even living with ADHD, the membership model offers the flexibility needed to thrive. 

Our advice includes strategic planning to fit your lifestyle, emphasising community over content. From simple monthly emails to engaging weekly Q&A sessions, we offer actionable steps to manage and grow your membership without feeling overwhelmed. Join us and uncover the secrets to a successful membership community.

➡️ 🪩 JOIN our Membership Recurring Revenue Society now and let us teach you how to grow your social media & build a profitable online community.



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Speaker 1:

I'm curious about determining whether a membership model is right for you and your business. We're going to unpack some nuggets of gold this episode, so buckle up and let's go.

Speaker 2:

I'm Mia, a mum of two, a former burnt out ambo who sold it all to travel Australia in the caravan and turned a single TikTok idea into a six-figure content creation business, leveraging UGC.

Speaker 1:

And I'm Kristen, also a mum of two, with over 15 years experience in brand and marketing. I went from the corporate world to being made redundant and decided to back my idea of starting a branding business and a successful wedding venue side hustle generating six figures, all whilst living on the vineyard.

Speaker 2:

One random DM between us sparked more than just a friendship. It ignited a passion to mentor women online around the world.

Speaker 1:

We know what it takes to make it work online, and we're here to show you what's possible.

Speaker 2:

In less than 12 months we built a six-figure membership together. And here's the kicker we have not met in person yet. That is a kicker.

Speaker 1:

We're here to show you the power of reoccurring revenue and how achievable it really is. We don't sugarcoat things around here. We talk about the real shit, the good shit and the bullshit. So buckle up, let's go. Welcome to the I am dot dot dot podcast, the podcast for busy creators who want to consume useful shit for their biz and their life and learn how to turn your audience into a paid community. I am kristen werner, who feels like a bag of shit and mia.

Speaker 2:

Yeah well, kristen isn't feeling great this week. It is the end of winter, you know these things happen. It's not everywhere.

Speaker 1:

It's good times it's really good times. The old kids at school, and it's not everywhere, and then the whole family gets it. It's good times. It's good times.

Speaker 2:

Good times, yes, good times.

Speaker 1:

But today we are going to take you down a path of is a membership a good idea? Is it something that you've thought about? Is it something that you've considered? Is it things that you've heard along the grapevine? And when we talk memberships, we're always we're also talking paid communities, cause we know when we say the word memberships it can kind of freak you out. It feels like it's really big, like oh my God, like how would I do that? How do I get enough content?

Speaker 1:

And all the things start creeping in, the imposter syndrome walks its way and it's like hey, you, you can't do that every single month, that's right, but we're here to tell you that what we're talking about is turning your audience the audience you already have, that know, like and trust you into a paid community, which, yes, is a membership. But we really want you to understand that when you look at it as a paid community, it feels, I think, more humble, it feels more nurturing, it feels like something that you can achieve. I think sometimes memberships just have that stigma that we want to break down for you so that you can feel like it is possible for you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and people are seeking out communities these days. They want connection, they want to feel like they're part of something exclusive. So when you say that you're building this community and then you monetize part of that community, it feels much better than going around saying, yeah, I've got this membership and people pay me every single month to be in my world. It's more of a community that people want.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So we want to break down for you today the kind of the things that we want you to consider. If you're like, okay, well, hang on, is a membership right for me? Now, before we go too far, inside the show notes you will find a freebie that is going to help you really identify and get clear on the three simple things that we know is going to help you go from I'm not sure if I can do this to oh, it's that easy, gosh darn. So you can get that in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Or please go to at Hive Hub Collective it's in our link in there. So wherever you need it, go, grab it because it's going to help you really uncover this whole idea. Is a membership right for you? So I mean, grab it because it's going to help you really uncover this whole idea of is a membership right for you? So I mean you do want to take it away with just helping people truly try to understand how we go through this with our community, certainly, and speak to them and help them understand if this is something that that they might want in their whole career trajectory, trajectory yeah.

Speaker 2:

So with memberships, there's no real point setting one up if it's not based around something that you're passionate about, because when you have a paid community or membership, you're going on a journey with other people, so you need to be really passionate about what you're teaching. So understanding your passion and really knowing what lights you up is the fundamental 101 of starting a membership. Because the minute you start a membership just to make the money or just to tick a box or something, that's when it's going to start to crumble and that's when it's going to start to feel hard and you become resentful. So really understanding your passion and finding out what that is is key to all of this, and that might take time. You know a lot of people don't understand their passion until they start creating lots of content or building audiences in different niches, or so you really have to uncover that first.

Speaker 1:

And if you've got an audience already and it could be a few hundred followers but you've got an audience that are showing up, that are commenting, that are in your realm whether it's on your email list or actual followers and you're providing content each and every day or each and every week and they're enjoying it and you're enjoying it, that is you turning your passion into something.

Speaker 1:

So really, look at that. Don't just look at it like oh, I've just got these social media followers and they turn up and they enjoy my content, like the amount of influencers we know and that we see that have hundreds of thousands of followers and then we go to their LinkedIn bio and there's nothing, there's no way for them to monetize their community, that obviously their community love them. So, like that's a passion in itself, is whatever you've built your community around is something that you can kind of dig into and think hang on a minute, people do come for that, they are enjoying that, they are making comments. So it's about really understanding what you bring to the table and then being able to turn that into something that is paid. And, like Mia said, if you've built that community and you've built it because of a passion, then you're going to be able to continue that passion. You're going to enjoy creating content about that in the future.

Speaker 2:

Like you'll feel it when content becomes easy and just flows out. You'd be like I really enjoy talking about this because I can just flip my phone out and just start talking. When you have to push it and it feels very unaligned. You'll start to realize that maybe this isn't the right niche, or I don't know what my passion is yet.

Speaker 1:

But that will come and that's the right thing. Like at the moment, there's obviously a lot of different accounts that we've seen that you can tell by the creators the way they show up on the camera and the way that they bring the content. Sometimes you can tell if it's not a passion and you can tell if they're just forcing content and it feels really like oh, I think this is what makes me money and oh, this will do.

Speaker 2:

You can make money on the money generally, yeah, most of the time, of course, and it's becomes a time and I went through it too there just comes a time we like it just doesn't feel right anymore. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

That's when you know, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So really, just that's probably the first thing that we want to say to you is really understand that. So if you're like, okay, I've got an audience, I do enjoy it, but I'm not sure if I could monetize it, would people really pay for it? I just want you to think and sit in that whole idea of, okay, well, what do you bring to the table, what do you love about it and what could you keep sharing, like just understanding that, and how does that make you feel when you do uncover that type of feeling?

Speaker 2:

And just touching on one pretty big point is you don't actually have to be an expert in a certain field to build a community and monetize it. You can. You know people come for the community that come for you because they love you and how you teach things or talk about things. It's not like you have to have a PhD in health and nutrition to you know create a weight loss community. So just keep that in mind. You don't have to be an expert.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and the other thing that we know can frighten people away from the idea of a membership or a community is the commitment, the commitment issues we have around that. And look, that's a real feeling. I understand it, but I suppose Mia and I would turn that around to you and say cool, do you rather show up every single day on social media and sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell that one thing you create like we are huge believers in digital products create it once, over and over and over again, absolutely tick, fucking tick. Right, but that does involve you. And what we know from our history is when we are talking about our thing, we sell our thing. The second we stopped talking about our thing, the we sell our thing. The second we stop talking about our thing. The second we stop selling our thing. Like, we will show you the fucking charts if you want. We know the days that we're like hey, our ADHD brain is like, oh, we should talk about that again. And then like there's a spike in sales. Oh, why is that?

Speaker 2:

Oh, because y'all talked about it. No, we were talking about it.

Speaker 1:

No one bought it, talk about it. So if you love continuously selling cool, that's amazing when. If you're like, okay, it's not my favorite thing, tell me more. Then, when it comes to a paid community, what that means is that people are paying for you each and every month. That is the real MRR monthly reoccurring revenue. The absolute king dick, queen, bee, motherfucker of all of them is the monthly reoccurring revenue.

Speaker 2:

It's literally the best business model out there. I cannot think of anything else that is better than digital monthly recurring income.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And the other thing I think that Mia and I would absolutely say is that, yes, the money is insane, it's beautiful, it's just so good every month coming in. But, honestly, for us and for the communities that we know, it's the nurturing of your soul. It's that feeling that you've got these people that are willing to give you money because they like you, they trust you, they know that they can grow with you, they know they can learn from you, and they're saying like we trust you and you're like holy fuck, this is beautiful, it's so fulfilling.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And when you sell a course over and over and over again, yes, that can be great. Usually it can be higher ticket than a paid community or membership. But you don't take those people on a journey. It's like here's my course, see you later, good luck. Yeah, with a community, you're taking them on that journey. You get to hold their hand, you get to make really great friendships, connections, network with other people inside the community. It is just more fulfilling.

Speaker 2:

And I'm I've got ADHD and I initially thought with these sort of things that oh, yeah, I can't commit to that because I'm just changing my shit all the time. But really for my brain it has been the best business model because I can do lots of pivoting and lots of fun stuff inside the membership. But it's that stability of having the recurring income, the community I can pivot with inside my membership. You know it is good to niche down, but we're not niching you down as a person, niching your membership down because it's solving one particular problem, but inside your membership, yeah, you can be ADHD as you like.

Speaker 1:

And that's exactly right, whether it's ADHD, whether it's multi-passionate, whether you're a manifesti generator like me and you're just built to do lots of damn things like me, is exactly right. In terms of yes, we would absolutely encourage you in this journey to niche down on the top niche down on that top funnel when you are attracting your ideal customer. But then when they, she, he, whoever gets inside your membership, that is where you have the license to say, okay, now you're here, we're here for the long haul strap in, let's go, let's do what you need to do, like inside that we do teach you how to create a fast track funnel system. Let's do what you need to do Inside that we do teach you how to create a fast track funnel system, which is our tailored system to make sure that your members come into your membership and understand where they need to be and where they need to go.

Speaker 1:

It can feel quite overwhelming, but in saying that it's the whole, the value and that long term, that can feel quite overwhelming If you look at it in terms of okay, well, basically, you've got 12 months in a year. You just need 12 content ideas to speak about. So all of that is outlaid in our freebie that you can get, like we said in the show notes or on the AdHive Hub Collective in our socials. But we talk you through that process so that you can see in a one page document in about 10 minutes if you want to do it in 10 minutes you'll see like, oh, it's actually not that big a deal.

Speaker 1:

Like I'm so passionate about this topic, I could talk about 12 different things. That's as easy as it has to be. So that's where the commitment doesn't have to be so enormous, because you get to choose inside your membership the container in which you teach, the journey in which you take your community on. And if one moment you're doing I don't know recipes, because we have one of our members right now thinking about her membership in that space but if she's talking recipes and cake mixes and baking and all that, and then one day decides, hang on a minute, my community inside this membership, all of a sudden they're really concerned with the weekly shopping and they want to now understand how they can save $100 a week. You know what I'm going to talk about that this month. So you have the ability to do that where, if you decide to pivot on a dime on your social media platform on that high level, top funnel, then your audience around you get very confused and the algorithm gets very confused.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So the commitment and that ongoing commitment that can feel overwhelming with a paid community and a membership. I just I suppose what we're saying is think about it as okay, what are 12 topics I can think about, to talk about, write that down. Okay, that's, that's 12 topics. That's an entire year's worth of content. And at any point, my members say to me hey look, I really want to discuss this or this is going on in the world right now. This is a concern for me, this is a concern for my family. Interest rates are going up. What are we going to do about it? Okay, I'm going to get an expert in and I'm going to get somebody from the bank to come in and talk about interest rates. Great, you've serviced your community in what they need. So that's where. Don't fear that long-term commitment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, on the commitment thing, when your membership starts to work and you're getting this month's recurring income, the commitment issues go out the door. This is the bomb and I'm not doing anything else. So once you get over that commitment issue, feeling it goes away and yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So from there, probably the next thing that we want to say that does keep on coming up, if you think, is a membership right for you. You might be listening to this and you might be like great, me and Kristen love you guys, but I'm actually in a nine to five. I'm a mom, I'm in a nine to five. I want to leave my nine to five. I don't fucking know how, and I really want to teach my community how to do arts and crafts, but I'm just like this is a lot.

Speaker 1:

How is this a decision? Because you might be wanting to maybe take this leap of faith and build this community, because it might mean that you can drop one day of work a week, or this might then take over your full-time work. We don't know what that looks like for you yet, but you might be just starting to think about that. So if that overwhelm is hitting you with like holy shit, like we've got some members that are traveling Australia in a caravan, okay, how's that possible? Like, let's talk through that there in terms of why we see this being the fucking perfect model for mums in general, but as a holistic tool in getting you paid monthly in a space that gives you that fuels the soul and kind of gives you all the feels that you don't obviously always get in your nine to five but it's not adding more work. How do we, how do we explain the balance of that to people that are like, yeah, bullshit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, I think, firstly, you don't need a huge audience to get started.

Speaker 2:

You can have a very small, highly engaged audience to make this work. And it doesn't have to be this big thing where you've got to spend all your time in the membership, going in there every day answering every single question, like spending all this time in there. You get to run your membership how you want it to suit your lifestyle. Is it one hour masterclass per month? Is it one email per month? Is it one template per month? Is it you might love it and you might be doing weekly Q&A sessions.

Speaker 2:

You run it how you want it and you set that expectation at the very beginning with your members. So all of a sudden, you've got the whole month to organize what is going to go into the membership that month, and then the rest of the time you're mumming, you're working, you're traveling, you're looking after sick kids and you're not having to constantly sell on social media because you're not starting from zero every month. So for mums busy mums it's the perfect business model because you're getting that money coming in every month, regardless how many times you show up on social media, and you get to plan the membership how you want it to work for you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you know being realistic with the fact that most of us, if you're anything like me, are on your phone while you're watching Netflix and you're scrolling. So if you're dipping into your own Facebook group that are paying you, your community and they're having a conversation and you dip into that conversation, that's part of you working on your membership and building and, you know, creating that space that your members want to be in, where you're interacting with them or they're interacting with each other and, like Mia said, you get to choose what that looks like. And one thing that we have learned and one thing that we know to be fact is the less is more, theory is big with a membership. So if you want to start out, our best piece of advice would be starting out with what you know you can achieve. And if that for you, is you telling your members, and especially your founding members, which we'll go into in another podcast episode but if that's you saying to them, hey, look, every single month I'm going to send you an email with one template and that's what's going to happen, and then there'll be a Facebook group or a stand community that you can get into, that you can have general conversations. I will pop in there when I can, but I will not be there all the time.

Speaker 1:

Cool, the person paying you knows that's what they're going to get. And then all of a sudden you're like I love this and you go. You know what? I'm going to start adding one free live a week where we just catch up and we sew together, live for two hours, because I'm going to be sewing anyway, I may as well put my camera on and we'll all be there and chat while we go.

Speaker 1:

And all of a sudden your members go. Oh, that's cool, that's really great. But you've not promised that. So then, if that next week you go, you know what? The kids are sick, it's school holidays. I can't do this. You don't turn up, but you do provide them that monthly thing that you said from the start. And the thing with memberships is people stay for community Nine times out of the 10, they don't stay for the content, they stay because they love the community, they love being part of something bigger, and as a mum, it can be lonely, it can be hard, it can be a lot of things. So to be part of something and to find these random, sensational human beings anywhere in the world that you get to connect with, that, you would never have met outside of that community.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they're in the same mindset as you. They like the same weird things as you. Maybe you're into pickling food preservation there is a membership for that. You're like I'm a bit weird. And all of a sudden you find this community online that are doing pickling every week and you're like, oh my God, I thought I was the only one. I'm joining this ASAP. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And so that's where you know, adding that to an already busy schedule, we want you to make sure that you it doesn't feel overwhelming and that you choose how you want to run that membership. So that's something that we really do want to make clear for you, because you know all these overwhelming things. This is what the procrastination does is. It's the fear. It's that thing that shows up, that says you what you actually can't do.

Speaker 1:

This, you're not good enough, no one's going to pay for it and it'll take too much time, so don't bother where yeah, it's all those stories that you get to rewrite that by doing some really simple things and, like we said, that freebie is in the show notes. Go and grab it just to see. Holy shit, this is a lot easier than I was thinking it was going to be. So, if we just kind of reflect on what we've been through, just so that you're feeling better about it, if you're thinking, okay, well, is a membership right for me, let's go back to understanding your passion. So, if nothing else, after this podcast, go grab a piece of paper, write down what you're passionate about.

Speaker 1:

What do your community already love about you? What do they enjoy hearing? Or what do you want to start creating for a community to niche down? To start, you're like, hey, I really love pickling, because we all love a good pickle membership, but if you love pickling, fruits and veggies and all that kind of stuff in a jar, then maybe cool, write down why you love it, how you can help somebody else, and then start that if that's what you really would love to do. The other thing is that commitment issue. So we touched on the fact that it doesn't have to be bigger than what you think it does. You get to decide on that, and that is just really understanding that it doesn't. It's just 12 pieces of content. If you can talk about 12 different topics in a year, then that's all you need to do, and please keep in mind that your members are going to change those topics because they are human beings.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they're going to be like actually, I'm actually really struggling back at washing the jar situation. Cool, let's go back there. I don't know, I've never pickled before. I've never pickled. We actually need to get that lady on the podcast because we found her membership and she does do pickling and we're fascinated about it.

Speaker 1:

Let's contact her and be like, come on the podcast, Anyway, side note. So the commitment and also, like Mia said, those of you or us that are ADHD, that are multi-passionate, that are manifesting generators, generators, whatever we are in our human design, that we want to do all the things, a membership is your ideal business model, because you get to grab those people that are magnetic to you and take them on a journey with you and allow them to be probably as multi-passionate as you and go down this journey with them. And then, lastly, is this too much for me to cope with? I'm a busy mum, I'm working a nine to five. I want something different, but I don't know how. No, it's not. It's just about you planning what that looks like for you, your business, your mind, your life, and then you decide that and you get to choose that, moving forward.

Speaker 2:

Yep and with memberships you know very different courses. You don't have to build out an entire suite of videos and courses and everything to begin with. You get members in and they're there for the monthly whatever it is, so you can start with an empty membership.

Speaker 1:

And make sure you subscribe to the podcast, because we will be also taking you down different journeys around how you create your founding members and how you actually validate that offer, because the one thing that we don't want you to do is go out and be like sweet. These guys said start a membership, I'm going to create everything in here, I'm going to pay for Kajabi, I'm going to plan it all out, I'm going to do everything, I'm going to pay for a website and then I'm going to go to my audience and be like hey, let's go pickling for me so we'll do an episode on validating your offer.

Speaker 1:

So please subscribe it's little plus button in the top of your um podcast so that you can grab those episodes when they drop out. But right now we're going to wrap up today's episode. We're going to try and keep our episodes around the half an hour 40 minutes. We're going to try, guys, because you're a busy mom, we get it, um, but right now we want to go to love. Don't? What are your loves? Don't loves this week.

Speaker 2:

We need a little song for that. Love don't loves.

Speaker 1:

That's just going to be the song. So if you could just re record that.

Speaker 2:

Wicca, wicca, wicca, it'll do. You'll just get out of my deck. My don't loves this week.

Speaker 1:

Well, my loves and don't loves tie in together.

Speaker 2:

So I'll start with my loves, which is our new caravan. We got another one. Yeah, we did the lap, sold the big, expensive one, and what are we now, six months later, we're like, oh, getting the itch again. So we went and bought another one, just a little cheapy little pop pop just to you know love it so jelly option, yeah. But my don't loves is the actual guilt of dipping into our savings for it. Nah, fuck it. But you know, yolo, you know it's yeah.

Speaker 1:

Because I'm going to tell you, the other day I got the fucking council rates and I was like I'm sorry another $250 for absolutely fuck all that you do for me here, council, are you just for? Living me like, just for living here and you've not done anything, you're going to charge me another on top of. I was like no thank you, so I'm gonna dip in the savings yeah dip into the savings.

Speaker 2:

Savings aren't fun, are they just sit there doing nothing. So I could be really smart and like, invested in some, like friggin, you know, mp, bloody, crypto, whatever but bought a caravan.

Speaker 1:

So get the memories. The memories are what is in the golden nuggets. Could die tomorrow so yeah, what about you this week? Okay, so my don't loves is snot, because the family's been riddled with the bug. And usually I get a bug and you kind of just roll with it Like you're the mom, you just keep going.

Speaker 1:

This one knocked me on my ass and then all the kids have got it, and then yeah, yeah, it's good stuff, and then my husband's got it, and so it's just like it's not a nice house to live in, because we're all like it's just gross I'm sick of it. But anyway, whatever my loves for this week pretzels and chocolate-cutter pretzels in the same packet, don't you think I love that? And you know I do the like. I tell my kids not to do it. I'm like don't just eat the chocolate ones, I just pick them out.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know, you know what is good when you go to the movies and you get popcorn, also buy a bag of Maltesers and then you eat them together, popcorn and Maltesers at the same time. I'm here for that Salty, sweet Love, that Best combo which would be like the pretzels Okay.

Speaker 1:

So that is our Loves. Don't Love this week, but until next week. That is us. And remember, go to those show notes, grab the freebie, the three simple steps to starting. What is it actually called? I should know that off the top of my head and I do not.

Speaker 2:

Three simple steps to transforming your Instagram audience into a paid community.

Speaker 1:

Thanks, Mia, I appreciate that. Go and grab that and please, guys, subscribe. And if you love this podcast, leaving a review means the absolute world to us. It just means that we can get out to see and talk to more people and build incredible memberships with the weird, the wacky and the wonderful stuff that you love and that you do and that you can share. So until next week we be out.