Erin Halper is the founder/CEO of The Upside - a private community of top independent consultants that gives them the resources and the support that they need to grow their business. The Upside uses Circle as their community platform. In fact, they were recognized as one of Circle's top performing communities out of more than 10, 000 communities that are hosted there! In this interview, Erin reveals the unique strategies she uses and the mistakes she has learnt from to build a premium community membership business. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 02:54 The idea of Upside 04:49 Starting with a stupidly low price 06:33 The 250-member limit 10:09 Not in it for the money 11:42 Some things that didn't work 16:09 Getting first 20 customers 17:39 3 main sources of new customers 19:44 Switching from Facebook to Circle 24:37 Why Circle worked for her community? 27:31 Erin's 3-person community team 30:53 Directory of content role 33:12 Member spotlight campaigns 34:30 Automating matches between members 39:18 Playbook for running masterminds 49:07 Application process for The Upside 52:03 Welcoming new members 57:42 Erin's big question for you