Pretty much anyone can start a membership business, but what does it really take to start? Also, knowing that there’s a lot of memberships and competition out there, what would be the key to having a successful one?  In this episode, Callie Willows of The Membership Geeks talks about how she ended up with the business that she is doing now. She will also give a lot of advice on having a successful membership business from starting it to retaining it as it evolves through the years.   Key takeaways from this episode: Anyone can start a membership, but whether everyone should is another matter.  Memberships are more of a slow build, and you need to be in it for the long haul and committed to that. So it's a marathon, not a sprint. Anybody can start a membership but you need to go into it with the right mindset, the right idea, and the right kind of approach to what you're going to be offering. You don't need a big audience, but you do need an audience, you need somebody that you are going to launch to. The smaller your audience is, the more realistic you need to be about the kind of numbers that you're going to get and the growth you're going to get from the start. People join memberships more for convenience because they can get everything in one place and they can be more guaranteed of a result and extra support. It isn't just about the content; It's about helping someone get success and support getting there. There's always going to be competition for anything, so the key to having a successful membership, even if it is a saturated market, is to work out what your thing is. Memberships evolve over time so start as simple as possible. You can't have a successful membership if you're focusing only on getting new members in, you've got to go into it being passionate about actually supporting people, helping people get results, and providing the best membership experience possible. There are 100 different pathways to success and you need to do what lights you up and what makes your tail wag.   Episode Timeline: 00:04 Intro 01:32 Episode Intro 02:05 About Callie Willows' business 02:47 How Callie ended up with the business that she has today. 07:27 Callie's work with her business partner. 08:33 Who is right and not right for a membership. 10:31 The need for an audience to start a membership. 11:50 What to give away for free in the membership. 15:29 The competition in the industry of memberships. 17:09 Callie's advice about starting a membership. 19:27 Advice to someone who is a new business owner. 20:47 How can people find Callie and The Membership Geeks. 21:21 Outro   About our guest: Callie Willows is the Co-Founder of the Membership Geeks together with her partner, Mike Morrison. She began her entrepreneurship journey when she was 19 years old and she created her first membership site for her first business. This led her to help people create their own membership sites and eventually started the Membership Academy.   Connect and know more about  Callie and her business here: https://www.membershipgeeks.com https://www.instagram.com/calliewillows More about Ruth: Hi, I’m Ruth, a business coach specializing in helping freelancers and business owners adjust their mindset and their marketing so they can get fully booked with clients they LOVE to work with. I’ve helped hundreds of self-employed women achieve the time and money freedom they craved.   I’ve started this podcast because when I first went all in and left the corporate world to be a freelancer, I was grateful for any work that came my way. After over 20 years of freelancing and working for other people, I started to realize I’d created a glass ceiling for myself.   In 2017, I finally started listening to that voice that had been telling me for a long time that I wasn’t doing what I loved and fulfilling my true potential.  It took a critical illness to give me that wake-up call.  I don’t want the same to hap