On today’s episode, Kyle Leavitt will be joining us. We discuss building a startup and what it takes to build one from the ground up. Kyle shares his advice on improving customer retention, increasing customer loyalty and the importance of core values in a business. Kyle Leavitt is the recent co-founder of LoyalStream. He had also co-founded CustomerHub, which he sold to Infusionsoft, where he became a key leader who helped grow the company from $1M to $100M+ in annual recurring revenue. Kyle joined Infusionsoft in 2005 then started talking to entrepreneurs every day on the phone and selling Infusionsoft to them. He left Infusionsoft in 2008 and started a software business with his brother and business partner called CustomerHub, which he then sold back to Infusionsoft and joined the product team where he served as Director of Product Management and later VP of Product. He was there for five years before leaving to start another business and get back to his original love, which is building software products that help small businesses succeed.In this episode, learn more about what it takes to have a successful membership site, how you can become proactive instead of reactive and how you can streamline your decisions and process to align with your overall vision. You’ll hear more about setting SMART goals, tips on building a loyal customer base and advice you can use to improve the retention of your members. LoyalStream connects to your customer data and teaches people the secret to loyalty which lies in your customer data. Customers start demonstrating behaviors indicating they aren’t happy or healthy long before asking for a cancellation. LoyalStream identifies customers that are at risk of canceling. If you would like to learn more from Kyle about LoyalStream, visit https://.loyalstream.com. You can also schedule a consultation directly from their website. Key Takeaways Being a good salesperson is about understanding the needs of the prospect that you are talking to. It’s about understanding their business and the problem they are looking to solve. Building a successful product is understanding a need that exists in the market for more than one person. A product persons’ primary job is to understand the needs of the market and create a solution that will solve the problem their target market has. Consider finding ways to be more scientific in your approach to building product. Determine ways to effectively measure everything that you are doing. Learn how to create a vision and how to execute against a vision. Setting SMART goals is crucial to achieving your desired outcomes. You have so many things that cross your plate that are opportunities. They are often time good opportunities but where people get off track in growing their business is in saying yes to too many things. Have a vision and have priorities clearly defined early on when starting a new business. The internet has put a heavy emphasis on customer loyalty. It’s more important than ever to build a loyal customer base. Its about getting the business owner from a state of reactivity to a state of proactivity. It’s not about saving customers; it’s about helping them be more successful. Links

Eric Christopher is an innovative business consultant and media expert who helps business owners position themselves as authority figures and assists them in gaining exposure through major media channels. Throughout this episode, Eric brings up some key questions every business owner should ask themselves about what the ultimate endgame is for your business and what the end game is for your membership site. Eric shares his advice on how you can better position yourself and your brand as a respected authority figure for the long term that matches up with the goals and core values that you have for your business. In this episode you’ll learn how to go about positioning yourself as an expert (and how to stand out from the pack), marketing your membership site, how to get media attention from major media outlets, the importance of building relationships the right way and much more... As a membership site owner, want to learn how to get attention of journalists and learn how to develop those relationships to get consistent media coverage? Eric is offering a free module from his membership site called “Free Media & Publicity Tips” that will help show you how you can go about getting major media exposure for yourself and your membership site. To get the free module, just text the word Memberium21, to the number 21777.

In this episode, long time marketing expert and finance veteran, Kim Sinder shares the inside story of how she launched her new membership site, “Sane Crypro” with Memberium for ActiveCampaign. Sane Crypto is a membership site that teaches baby boomers how to create a sane strategy for investing in cryptocurrencies to save more for retirement. Kim won Infusionsoft’s ‘Most Helpful Partner’ award a few years back and was big in the Infusionsoft space. Before that, she started an Investment firm that was on the Inc 5,000 list two years in a row. You’d think that someone with all this marketing experience would build an advanced membership site with a pretty complex marketing funnel, right? She did the exact opposite. Kim marketed and built her membership program strictly following what she refers to as the “reverse funnel concept.” This means before she even created one piece of content for her membership site, she did a lot of work figuring out who her target market really is, what they wanted and figuring out what messaging they responded best to. Once she figured out the best “hooks” that her target audience responded best to, she then pre-sold access to her membership program to make sure there would be enough people willing to join her membership site. All before she built or invested her time in creating one piece of content for her membership site. The way that Kim went about doing all of this is a lot simpler than you think. To find out how she did it, you’ll want to listen to the full episode to discover how… Over the years, we’ve seen a tons membership owners think they need to have the perfect membership site before they start selling it. This can turn into a project like Noah’s arc. Except once it’s built, no one comes...and no one ends up buying the membership. This is why we recommend taking a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach to creating a membership site, or even better pre-selling your membership like Kim has. In this episode Kim shares a ton of valuable advice for anyone who’s looking to start a membership site from ground zero or is in the process of starting one. You’ll also find out Kim’s advice on marketing a membership site in the early stages, how she’s created all of her ‘members-only’ content following a minimum viable strategy, and what’s worked best for her. To learn more about SANE crypto and Kim you can visit or check out her podcast, the SANE Crypto . You can also download her quick start guide or sign up for her webinar every Wednesday through the link above. Throughout this episode, you’ll also discover... The importance of targeting the right people for your membership site, how to find them and discovering the right message or “hook” that lures them to join your membership site. Find out what the reverse funnel concept is and why it’s the best strategy for solopreneurs and anyone who’s looking to start a membership site on their own. Find out Kim’s minimum viable approach to building her membership site’s content, how she successfully marketed it and much more. Kim’s advice on what to do, what not to do and when to do it when it comes to first launching a membership site. Building your marketing funnel for your membership is just like building a house, you start with the foundation first not the roof. Find out Kim’s minimum viable approach to building her membership site’s content, how she successfully marketed it and much more.   Resources/Links Mentioned:

In this episode, Micah Mitchell shares his candid advice on running online business and the inside story of how he’s lead Memberium to where it is today. Micah goes in-depth on a wide range of topics that most membership site owners and entrepreneurs can learn from. The story begins with Micah’s first decision to quit his first office job right after high school and start a lawn care company. That led him to start learning how to build websites in the early 2000’s and the rest is history. Micah shares some inspiring and helpful advice on how to be a successful membership site owner and tips on operating with a remote team. One of the key points Micah focuses on is how to entice your members to stay interested in the content you put out by providing value they will want to pay for. He explains his “quick and dirty” approach to implementing things in his business. Where he believes it is best to start with a minimum viable product first, so it gets out as fast as possible, and learn from market feedback after. There is no doubt Micah will impress you with his thoughts on competition, which he sees as an opportunity for collaboration and partnership. Other topics Micah touches up on in this episode include the importance of the team in a business, as well as the importance of diversity in a team and tips on managing a remote team across the world. He also talks about his hiring strategies for remote hires and much more. To wrap it up, Micah discussed about the importance of trusting your gut when running a business, especially as a self-made entrepreneur. He also discusses the importance of keeping the end in mind when it comes to business ownership.

In this episode, Micah interviews internet marketing legend Dave Dee. Dave shares his incredible story of how he went from being a struggling magician, to becoming one of the world’s most sought after marketers and head of marketing for GKIC. He credits this transformation to one big shift in his thinking. In this interview, Dave explains how membership site owners can use that same type of mind shift to transform their business for the better. This isn’t focused on certain tricks or gimmicky sales tactics for membership sites. Dave shares his best (and proven) sales advice that any membership site owner will be able to take advantage of.

Bradley Morris shares some insights from his membership site, The Great eCourse Adventure.

Scott Whitaker shares his wisdom and insight from his online course “Seven Systems of a Growing Membership Business.”

Fred Gleeck of Online Membership Summit shares his wisdom from interviewing membership site experts.

Bree Dillow and Ruth Soukup walks us through the success of Ruth’s online course, the Elite Blog Academy, and the story behind its success.

The second part of our interview with Bernardo Smith-Feitosa from Membership Authority shares how he uses BuddyPress, Memberium, Learndash, BadgeOS, and Intercom to build GraceSmithTV.com