In this episode of Behind the Membership, Deborah Engelmajer discusses her membership site for makers and handmade businesses, Tizzit HQ. Deborah's membership is just eight months old, but already a six figure a year business. Deborah shares how she actually delayed creating her membership site in order to build her audience first, which she attributes as the key to her success. She also talks about how having a membership site has reduced stress and provided more balance, enabling Deborah...

John Hatcher from the Blues Guitar Institute joins Callie Willows for this episode of Behind the Membership. John was previously a CPA and tax accountant working 60 to 80 hours a week, but since having his membership he has been able to quit his job and now focuses full time on his membership site, giving him far more freedom. This is even more impressive when you consider that John's membership only actually costs $9 a month! In this episode John talks about how he made that career...

Varvara Lyalyagina from Start Blog Up joins Callie Willows for this episode of Behind the Membership to talk all about her membership for Russian speaking entrepreneurs, The Studio. In this episode Varvara's talking about how she is succeeding with her membership despite it being for a market not as familiar with the membership model, and why she has decided, after a year of being open all the time, to experiment with moving from an always open model to closing the doors and only letting new...

Jodie Clarke from The Empowered Educator joins Callie for this episode of Behind the Membership. While Jodie's membership is only just a year old she has already surpassed her member goals and even managed to retire her partner from his job, which has had an enormous impact on her family's life. In this episode Jodie's talking all about how she succeeded with her membership, from nurturing her wait list to her webinar strategy that's bringing in 5 to 10 new members at a time on autopilot. ...

Chris Marr from the Content Marketing Academy (also known as CMA) joins Callie Willows for this episode of Behind the Membership. Chris launched his membership in 2015 after running a six month in person masterclass and it's now a major focus of his business. Here, he talks about the importance of customer experience in creating a community culture, using free in-person workshops as a way to attract new members and how he has recently launched a very low cost price tier to help those who...

n this episode of Behind the Membership Callie Willows talks with Dr. Melissa West all about her longstanding yoga membership. Melissa has had her membership for nearly eight years now and here she shares how she went from burnout teaching in-person classes to setting up her membership with her husband Tim, how the membership has evolved over the years, and the importance of community and relationships in her long term success. Melissa also talks about how she uses YouTube to attract new...

Louise Brogan from Social Bee Academy joins Callie for this episode of Behind the Membership. Louise has run the Social Bee Academy alongside her business Social Bee NI for around 18 months now and in this episode Louise shares what's been working for her when it comes to attracting new members, including how connecting one to one with people via in person workshops and networking events, as well as online via Facebook and LinkedIn messenger have been great ways to grow her site. Louise...

In today's episode of Behind the Membership Callie is joined by Mike Collins from The Green Room. Mike runs his membership site alongside his wife Carina, and over the five years and thousands of members that they've had, they've crafted an amazing community of people around the world, all connected by their Irish ancestry. In fact there is an incredible sense of community in everything that Mike and Carina do, and in this episode you'll hear all about the special touches they add to...

Jared Falk from Musora and Drumeo joins Callie on the last episode of Season 2 of Behind the Membership. Jared has not one, but four membership sites, all in different music niches. And with over 10,000 active members in his original membership site, Drumeo, and having served over 200,000 customers so far in his business, he’s achieved a lot by anyone's standards. In this episode Jared is discussing world domination when it comes to membership sites, including how he is replicating his...

In this episode of Behind the Membership, Callie is talking with Kim Jimenez from The Business Lounge, a membership site for online business owners. Kim has had her membership for nearly two years now, and in this episode she discusses how she didn't initially want to create a membership site, what changed that opinion, and how starting one has actually transformed her business and life. Kim also talks about how she is using YouTube, webinars, and trials to attract new members, and why she...

In this episode of Behind the Membership Callis is talking with Nigel Moore all about his membership site, The Tech Tribe. Nigel places a high emphasis on providing excellent service for his members, including offering all members a personal coaching call when they join, a private coaching section in his community and creating most of his content based on member questions and needs. As a result he's really tuned into what his members and his potential members are looking for, and what will...

In today’s episode of Behind the Membership Callie talks with Terra Dawn from Uncork Your Dork and the Wham! Bam! Business Plan! Terra's had her membership for over a year now and in this episode they're talking about why she initially moved from Teachable to WordPress and why she's recently moved her community from an onsite forum to Mighty Networks, and the effect that this has had on both her engagement and her retention. Terra also discusses how she uses challenges and summits to market...

In this episode of Behind the Membership Callie talks with Mark Warner about his membership site for teachers, Teaching Packs. Mark has a very different model to most membership site owners, offering only a very low cost non-recurring annual membership.  So we're talking about why Mark made that decision, and how it's enabled him to attract 15,000 teachers to his membership over the last five years, as well as completely transform his own life in the process. We're also talking about how...

Anissa Holmes from Delivering Wow joins Callie for this episode of Behind the Membership and shares how she's managed to achieve financial freedom in the first year of her membership site, and how she is now planning to restructure and reposition her membership for even greater success. Anissa also talks about building her movement and making an impact, why memberships don't have to be low cost and how she is choosing to charge a premium price to ensure members achieve results. And we also...

In this episode of Behind the Membership, Callie talks with Tim Topham from TimTopham.com, whose membership site is all about helping piano teachers to improve both their creative skills and their teaching businesses. Tim's had his Inner Circle membership site for two years now and in this episode we dive into how he made the leap from his teaching job to full time membership site owner, and the challenges and opportunities that that's brought for him. We also talk about increasing member...

In this episode of Behind the Membership Callie talks with Scott Baptie from Food for Fitness about his new membership site, The Food for Fitness Inner Circle. While Scott's membership site has only been open for a few months, he already has a few hundred members, and here we're talking launching, going all in on the membership model after years of offering services and products, and how he's managed to attract members, despite being in a very crowded market. We also dive into how Scott...

On Episode Four of Season Two, Callie is talking with SEO and content strategist Kim Bultsma about her membership site, A Cup of Content. Kim and I talk niching down, running completely free trials to attract new members, implementing member challenges to improve engagement and retention and the joy of watching your members make progress thanks to your content. We also talk about how Kim came to start her own business in the first place after years of being a teacher, and the impact that...

In this episode of behind the membership, I'm talking with Brandon Vogt from Claritas U about how he's achieved success with his membership site for Catholics who want to get clear on their faith. Brandon has managed to create and run this six figure membership site alongside a full time job and gained over a thousand members with just his first launch, a pretty impressive achievement by anyone's standards. Here we look at how Brandon uses the launch model to only open his site twice a year...

In this episode of Behind the Membership I'm talking with Janet Murray, PR and marketing strategist and owner of The Studio membership. Janet has actually built a whole ecosystem around her membership, providing a natural progression through a different range of services and products including books, live events, consulting and mastermind groups. Here we dive into the role The Studio has in Janet's business, and how the membership has evolved and expanded over the last few years, actually...

I’m kicking off season two of Behind the Membership with a very special guest, the one and only Scott Devine from Scott’s Bass Lessons. Now, Scott was actually a client of ours for many years, the very last client we stopped working with in fact. And we saw his site go from free YouTube videos and a PayPal donate button to a seven figure membership site in the years that we worked with him. Scott’s Bass Lessons has been running for 6 years now and has attracted over 30,000 members in that...

Laura Robinson from Worditude joins Behind the Membership this week for the 10th and final episode of Season 1. The Worditude Club is still in it's first year and Laura talks with us about how the membership has already changed and evolved in that time, why she is aiming for consistency more than scale, how collaborating with others has helped growth and also how the membership fits in with her one-to-one services as well. And much more! Having the membership club does naturally market my...

Lisa League from QPractice is today's guest on episode 9 of Behind the Membership with Callie Willows. QPractice has been running for 4 years and focuses on helping interior designers to pass their professional exams, which means that the membership is somewhat finite as there is a natural conclusion to the membership once members pass their exams. Listen in to find out how Lisa deals with this and ensures that the membership works for both her and her members. "I really have liked how it's...

Shannon Rogers from The Hand Tool School joins Callie on episode 8 of the Behind the Membership podcast. The Hand Tool School has been up and running for 7 years now offering standalone courses (Semesters), and the recurring membership element (Apprenticeship) was added just over 12 months ago. Shannon provides a unique approach to his teaching model and makes impressive use of automation and tagging to provide a more hands on and customised approach to his members. Shannon has a wealth of...

Holly Gillen from Business Cinema Academy and Holly G Studios is joining Callie on this episode of Behind the Membership. Holly has been running her membership alongside her video production business for 15 months now, after trying lots of other business models previously. Holly shares a lot of great tips for us in this interview, including how she uses challenges to attract new members, her experience with using Kajabi for her membership site, and how important it is to only attract members...

Christopher Sutton from Musical U joins Callie on episode 6 of Behind the Membership. Christopher has run his business for 8 years now, with his membership site being the predominant offering since 2015.  Christopher places a lot of emphasis on user experience and gamification in the membership and unlike many membership site owners, Christopher is also not the figurehead or guru of the membership, in fact most of the content is created by other people. Christopher talks about the last 2...