Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

One of the most effective ways to position yourself as an authority in your industry is through public speaking, and done right it can be a great way to grow your membership business. However for many the idea of standing up and speaking in front of a room full of strangers is the stuff that nightmares are made of! And even if you're comfortable with public speaking, then there's the question of how you actually get booked, how do you make sure your presentation is good and - importantly - how do you make it a worthwhile activity for you and your business. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, we speak to Grant Baldwin from The Speaker Lab about how to get started with public speaking and use it as a platform to grow your business.

With our community of thousands of membership site owners, we see the same patterns emerging when it comes to wrestling with membership tech. People starting their site build and then 6 months later they're still stuck, spinning their wheels, trying to get everything perfect and making no progress! Often they'll blame this on the technology being too tough, but more often than not it's because of their own unrealistic expectations. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I give a kick up the backside to anyone stuck.

We've all come across the concept of the "starving artist" - the notion that to pursue creativity and artistry is to sacrifice any hope of making money. Jeff Goins is on a mission to dispel this myth. Many successful memberships are built around the skills and passions of their founder; however we've seen time and time again in our community that in more traditionally "creative" industries there can be a little resistance to the idea of monetization - almost as if to do so would be "selling out." In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, Jeff Goins breaks down where this whole idea came from and how you can shake this mindset and effectively monetize your "art." In this episode you'll learn: Where the whole idea of the "starving artist" originated from; and the surprising truth about how wrong it is! How you can shake limiting mindsets around monetizing your creativity How Jeff Goins uses his books to sell digital products The 3 steps anyone can take to start monetizing their skills

When you either have a large amount of content inside your membership, or you’re continuously adding new content on a regular basis – there’s a real risk of overwhelming members. And when members are overwhelmed, they're less likely to stick around. This is where having a smart approach to your membership content strategy is crucial. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast; we look at the most common causes of member overwhelm, and the tactics you can employ to avoid it. In this episode you'll learn: Why overwhelm is a dangerous thing for your membership site A breakdown of the main kinds of overwhelm common in memberships and what causes it The "Four S's" you need to focus on in order to reduce overwhelm Managing your own workload so that you don't become overwhelmed too!

Chris Ducker is the founder of the YouPreneur membership community and the man the man behind popular events such Tropical Think Tank and the upcoming YouPreneur Summit. It's through these live events that Chris has been able to help his community to build connections and develop relationships way beyond what's possible online; and this has been a key factor in the success of his membership. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, Chris shares his insights into the benefits of running live events as a membership site owner; plus his advice on how you can orchestrate your own events. In this episode you'll learn: How Chris Ducker has used live events to grow his membership community The 3 most important things to consider when organising your own live event How to choose speakers for your event and - more importantly - get them to agree Specific ways to make events extra special for your community members (and get more signups from other attendees!)

Looking to increase your membership sales? Who isn't, right?! We often find that rather than huge complex sales strategies and eye-watering ad budgets, it's usually a culmination of minor tactics and little details that end up moving the needle in terms of attracting new members. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I dish out 5 specific, quick and actionable tips that you can implement right away in order to increase your membership sales. In this episode you'll learn: What tools should you add to your sales page in order to increase conversions? The small tweak you can make to your checkout page that stops you losing sales How to use your membership content to get more qualified leads A simple risk reversal technique to increase membership sales

Podcasts have made a significant resurgence in recent years, having never quite hit their full potential back when they first became “a thing” in the mid-2000’s. This growing popularity, coupled with it being easier than ever to start your own podcast, makes for a great opportunity for membership site owners to really get ahead by incorporating podcasting into the content marketing strategy. In this episode, I discuss the main reasons you should consider using a podcast to promote your membership site, and the 5 steps you can take to get started.

We made it! 100 episodes! To celebrate our centennial, I invited 16 fellow membership site owners to share insights, experience and advice from their journey so far. I asked my guests to answer 3 questions: What's the one piece of advice you'd give anyone starting a new membership? What impact has having a membership site had on your life or your business? What would you do differently if you were starting your own site again from scratch? The answers they shared are packed with golden nuggets for anyone planning or running a membership website. In this episode you'll get insights from: Nathan Chan - Foundr Heather Crabtree - The Savvy Community Scott Devine - Scott's Bass Lessons Chris Ducker - Youpreneur Janneke den Draak - Learn Dragon Online Andrew and Pete - Atomic Colin Gray - The Podcast Host Chris Marr - Content Marketing Academy Marisha McGrorty - SLP Now Janet Murray - Soulful PR Bjork Ostrom - Food Blogger Pro Christina Peters - Food Photography Club Shannon Rogers - Hand Tool School James Schramko - Superfast Business Ben Adam Smith - House Planning Help Avalon Yarnes - Avalon Cake School

To the uninitiated, money-back guarantees can feel a bit like those scenes in cartoons when someone puts a freshly baked pie on an open windowsill. Someone is bound to come along and grab a slice – it’s just too tempting.But in all our years of running our membership site and helping others run their own, we’ve learned that money-back guarantees are not an easy option for people to exploit. In fact, they can be an essential part of persuading people to join who end up becoming long-term members.In this episode of the podcast, I do a bit of money-back myth-busting and explain the ins and outs of why you should embrace offering a money-back guarantee (with a few caveats…) Essential Learning Points:What money-back guarantees are and why they are actually an important part of your marketingAnswering some of the most frequently asked questions about money-back guaranteesThe fatal flaw in one of the most common objections to money-back guaranteesImportant Links & Mentions:Advanced Tips and Tactics for Offering a Membership TrialKeeping Your WordPress Membership Site SecureHow to Deal With Payment Disputes in Your MembershipWhy You Should Keep Things Simple with Your MembershipKey Quotes:“A money-back guarantee shows confidence in your product. You’re essentially saying: ‘we know that our product is so good that you’re not going to regret buying it, but if you do, we’re confident enough that we’ll give you your money-back.’”“If you find yourself struggling to communicate the terms of your guarantee, then you are probably heading down the wrong path.”“Have as few conditions as possible, have as few hoops, as few ‘gotchas’ within your money-back guarantee.”

Offering a membership trial can help you take people from sitting on the fence to joining your membership, by giving them a risk-free test-drive of your membership.But it isn’t as simple as adding a new option to your sales page, creating a great membership trial system is a fine art that will take some time and consideration to get right.This episode of The Membership Guys will fast-track you to becoming the Michelangelo of membership trials, sharing advanced tips and tricks to create high-converting trial sequences that will help you grow your membership with less stress and better results.Essential Learning Points:The key things everyone offering a trial for their membership NEEDS to make sure they’re doingWhy charging a nominal fee is often better than making your trial completely freeWhat to do about the people who don’t actually make use of their trialSpecific tactics for taking your trial to the next level and improving conversionsImportant Links & Mentions:5 Things to Include in Your Member Onboarding SequenceTrial periods and risk reversal6 ways to use onboarding to make new members feel welcomeHow to level up by creating a membership ecosystemCalendlyIntercomActive CampaignKey Quotes:“Trials get people over the initial hurdle of signing up, get them into the habit of logging into your website and consuming your content, and expose them to the quality of your membership.”“You don’t want to have the mindset of assuming everyone signing up for a trial is only looking to stick around for that free period. You need to have the confidence in your product.”“There are two sides to this coin – really making sure that people get off to a good start in their trial and get plenty of value from it, but also future pacing and signposting future value beyond the trial so it becomes a no-brainer for them to join your membership full-time.”“Once you get people in your ecosystem consuming the basic level of membership content, it becomes so much easier to prompt them to upgrade to full membership.”