EPISODE 043 | Monetizing Your Knowledge Through a Membership with Stu McLaren

Today, we are diving into this concept of working online, and not just working online, but working online in a way that leverages your time.

When it comes to membership communities, Stu McLaren is the membership king. He has this amazing energy, and he's so passionate about not only what he does, but teaching others how to do the same thing as well.

Every time I hear Stu speak, or listen in to one of his podcast episodes, I leave with a different level of appreciation for the work that he's doing, the passion that he has, and the level of knowledge on membership models, and after listening to our conversation I hope you feel the same way.

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL DISCOVER: 

• How to conquer the guilt factor in your money mindset.
• The secret to “niching down” without feeling like you’re leaving money on the table.
• Why a membership may be the biggest growth opportunity for your business you never knew existed. 

Resources:
Sign up for Stu’s FREE workshop HERE!
Check out Stu’s podcast HERE!

If this episode has inspired or resonated with you in any way, I’d love it if you’d leave a review and share your biggest takeaways. Or if you’re interested in starting or growing a membership, DM me on Instagram @OTsGoneRogue.

And while you’ve got your phone out,  you can also connect with Stu on Instagram @stumclaren.

Transcript

Melissa LaPointe  00:06

You're listening to the OTs Gone Rogue podcast, where we inspire therapists to think outside the box and do things differently. I'm your host, Melissa LaPointe. My passion is in helping OT entrepreneurs have a bigger impact on the world while building a life they love and doing transformative work that lights them up. On each episode of the show, I'm going to share tools and tricks to help you flex your entrepreneurial muscles and grow your business from the inside out. I want to see more OTS step up as visionary leaders, change makers and influential CEOs. So let's get started.

Melissa LaPointe  00:51

Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the OTs Gone Rogue Podcast. Today, we are diving into this concept of working online, and not just working online, but working online in a way that leverages your time. So what do I mean by that? Whenever we're talking about leveraged products, or a leveraged offer, what we mean is, you're creating and delivering something that requires the same amount of energy, if you have five people going through, or if you have 100 people going through. So you're really getting away from that one to one model of service delivery. So for example, an online course. So the energy that it takes to create, build out and deliver an online course, theoretically speaking, it's the same amount of energy, if you have five people going through that online course, versus 1000 people going through that online course. Now, of course, we can break it down into bonuses. And you know, there's some different variables that we can play around with where it may be considered more work. But again, in general, theoretically speaking, a leveraged offer. So five people coming through that online course 1000 people coming through same amount of work. Another example would be a virtual Summit. So by the time you set up the registration system, you set up the process the speakers, the way that you're creating the offer at the end, generally, it's an all access pass. By the time you set all this up, whether you have 20 people come through, or 20,000 people come through, that's where we're getting into this leveraged offer, right? So leveraging your energy and your time and your effort. Another example may be templates resources, a group coaching program, or a group mentoring program, to a certain extent is a leveraged offer. And then we have membership communities or a membership site. So memberships are another great example of a leveraged offer. We're going to talk a little bit more about that today. Now, for a lot of OTAs, there's definitely a pull to be working in the online space. So there's this attraction in the form of freedom. So more flexibility and autonomy with your schedule. You know, you can work from wherever you can work from home. So that can be very attractive for a lot of people that they have this, you know, not just flexibility in terms of when they work, but also where they work.

Melissa LaPointe  03:39

In the online space, there's also potential for a higher profit margin. And so I've had a brick and mortar and now I've been so I've been in business for almost 10 years. And of that 10 years, I had a brick and mortar for a number of years. So I had a brick and mortar for five years. And now I've been six years in the online space. And I can say with confidence that my profit margin with my online business is much higher than my profit margin was with a brick and mortar practice.

Melissa LaPointe  04:11

So for me, you know, that was definitely part of the allure to be going in the online space. So all of those features that I just listed, but there was something else. You've heard me talk about this before. But I live in a very small town. So I live in a rural community. And while we have an airport, generally it's not convenient in terms of the flight schedule in terms of the price of the tickets. It's not convenient to travel by plane out of my town. So typically I drive about three and a half hours to a larger airport. And it makes travel a little bit challenging. So I'm fortunate I live in a beautiful part of the country so I can travel locally and Mike up as often fall, but if I want to do anything more than that, it's a big investment. It's a big investment and a big commitment in terms of time and resources. And I have always been drawn to working with other therapists. So in terms of professional development, teaching, mentoring, now, when you have someone who's in a very small town, who really loves to teach, and mentor and work with other therapists in terms of a leadership role, there are limited opportunities in a small town, I like to think outside the box. So working in the online space was giving me a lot of opportunity to make these connections, and also to build community. So when I was looking to work in the online space, there are not a lot of online entrepreneurs in the health and wellness industry in my town, there are more now than when I started. But in the beginning, it was really lonely. And, you know, there was a certain sense of isolation and feeling like I didn't quite fit in, but yet was really feeling pulled to this world. So what happened for me is the online space really opened things up. Now we had, you know, the world shut down for a while because of COVID. But before and now after that, you know, these different opportunities have presented themselves, where I'm able to get out and attend events, see amazing speakers connect with really cool people. So other online entrepreneurs, other OTS who are thinking outside the box that has been so fulfilling, and so inspiring to be able to facilitate those connections. One of these people, so speaking of getting out attending events, those in person events, oh my goodness, there's something to be said about in person, I think we're all appreciating that connection again. But one of those events, I had the opportunity to meet and here in person, Stu McLaren, I am no stranger to Sue's work, but seeing him in person was it just took it to a different level. It was awesome. Now when it comes to online memberships, so going back to those different examples of leveraged offers, when it comes to membership communities, or membership models, Stu McLaren is the membership king. He has this amazing energy, and he's so passionate about not only what he does, so he's so passionate about his business, it's very contagious, but he's also passionate about life. In my business, in the work that I do, I've had a few variations on membership models in the last six years. So I launched my first membership model in July 2017. And since then, we've had a few variations that we've built into my online business, and it served me really well. We also have a group program called zero to 60, where we help other OTAs get their online businesses up and running. And we've had a number of members come through that program where sometimes they don't always start with a membership community. Sometimes they start with an online course or they start with a group coaching program. But then they may do a pivot towards a membership community. So it's really neat once we really learn the fundamentals of working in the online space. You know, this is why I don't just teach people how to create an online course, or I don't just teach people about membership communities, I think it's important to have all of those fundamentals in place and really understand how to build, create, Launch and sell an on line product. So that, you know, regardless of which way the wind carries you, you have those fundamentals in place, and you're able to accommodate to the season of life you're in to the phase of business that you're in, and you don't know what you don't know. So you know, as you're learning and discovering different ways of working in the online space, I think it's really important to have this solid foundation so that you are more comfortable, you know zigging and zagging so to speak. So we've supported a number of members in zero to 60 to create and Launch membership communities. And then in terms of my work as a coach and a consultant, so the work that I do one on one with my clients. I've had a number of clients who are in the mid six figures and they have membership communities that are providing a really solid recurring revenue. But once you know Often the work that we're doing is to then help them to streamline help them to improve the efficiency in terms of their systems, their processes, looking at the operations, and again, how we can just improve the overall infrastructure of their business

Melissa LaPointe  10:16

so that they can hit that next revenue goal without burning out. So as they're growing and scaling. So through all of this, I am no stranger to membership sites. And still, every time I hear Stu speak, or I attend one of his workshops, or now following him on social media listening to one of his podcast episodes, I leave with a such a different level of appreciation for the work that he's doing, the passion that he has, and the level of knowledge on membership models, membership sites, membership communities, whatever term you want to use everything memberships. So with that being said, let's roll out my conversation with Steve McClaren.

Melissa LaPointe  11:20

All right, welcome back, everyone to another episode of the OTs Gone Rogue podcast, super excited to have my special guest here with me today. Welcome, Stu to the podcast.

Stu McLaren  11:30

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Melissa LaPointe  11:32

I'm excited to have you here. All right. So I know we don't have a lot of time really appreciate you fitting me into your schedule, because I know you have a busy season right now. So Su, you are the membership guy. And I have learned so much from you over the years, just in you know, you have so many different trainings, I've had the pleasure of seeing you speak in person. And that really resonated for me. So I'm going to jump in right there when I saw you speak. So I'm an Occupational Therapist, I'm in the health professions, and there's definitely some internal conflict in terms of charging in terms of pricing. And this is something I support therapists with as well. And one of the biggest takeaways, when I saw you speak at the BBD event in 2019. Was the talk you did around impact, and that we can make a difference, but not if we don't have money in the bank account.

Stu McLaren  12:26

Yeah, you know, I struggled for a long time with the guilt of making money. You know, I, I grew up in a small rural town, you know, corn on one side, cows on the other, you know, and both my parents are two tremendously hardworking people, you know, we're we are a blue collar family, and basically what I'm trying to say, and so when I was experiencing success, early on, in my career, I felt guilty about that, because I wasn't working anywhere near as hard as my parents, and yet, I was making a lot more money than both of them. And so subconsciously, what would happen is my income would come up, and then I would stop doing the things that were working to grow my business, I'd stopped calling clients back, I'd stopped the marketing campaigns, like it was a weird thing. But later on, I realized that it was my subconscious that, you know, didn't have or felt guilty about making money. The turning point for me, though, was when I was in Kenya, for the first time with my wife, and we were looking to build a school. And you know, I gotta get my wife, the credit, she's always been the visionary. She's always had, you know, the vision of being able to contribute and help people, especially, particularly in developing countries. And she always said to me, she said, student, you'll never really appreciate or understand the impact that you can have until you go and see the people that you are impacting. So here we are in Kenya, and we had this goal of building a school, and we didn't have experience in this, we had, you know, didn't understand how what was gonna, what it entailed. But here we are, we're in this village. And the woman I read that we were working with, had identified, this would be a great village. And so we're talking, I'm talking to the chairman of this community. And I'm trying to figure out, like, how much do things cost? And so I just said to him, I asked, How much does it cost to fund the full time salary of a teacher? And he thought for a moment, and he said, it's about $100 a month. And I realized, like, we were selling a piece of software at the time, that was roughly around $100. And I realized, like, wait a minute, if I saw one more license of the software, I could fund the salary of this teacher and imagine the impact that that would have. And then the real light bulb went off, which was like, Well, wait a minute, Stu. Like what if you make a whole lot more money, then you'll have a whole lot more to give to people and causes you're passionate about. And in that moment, everything changed, because I realized, the more money I make, the more impact I can have. The more money I have, the more good I can do. And so that changed for me everything because now I love making money for the right Good, I love making money more I make, the more good I can do. And so it is nothing more than a resource. And we just get to be able to use that resources for the people and causes that we're most passionate about. So this is why I love being an entrepreneur, you know, like, there's no limits on how much we can earn, and therefore no limits on how much we can give.

Melissa LaPointe  15:21

Yes. So everyone summarise, money is a tool, and good people making good money can do really great things, which Steve just highlighted. So thank you for that. Now tied onto that. membership sites and pricing. So one area where I support a lot of therapists is in their pricing and valuing what they're offering. And where I see a discrepancy is in pricing that membership. So generally, it's like, can I price it at this, this feels too much. But then the flip side, which I've heard you speak about a number of times is over delivering, oh, my goodness, I'm charging this much. Now I need to over deliver. And then they end up on that content hamster wheel and either overwhelming their people because they're over delivering content like crazy or overwhelming themselves, because it's no longer sustainable. And often it does come from that. Is this worth it? am I providing enough value? No, there's the money mindset piece that we always have to bring into the picture. So can you can you speak to that in terms of people who are struggling with putting a price on their membership? Or wondering, oh, my goodness, Are people really going to pay? Is that something you run into in your, in your line of work in terms of where people are struggling with what to price their membership sites?

Stu McLaren  16:35

Yeah, and there's two things that I really want to unpack here. Like, first is certainly around the mindset and the strategy. And then the other thing is more tactical. But that around the mindset and strategy, what I really want to do is shift people's focus from the stuff being the thing that has value to the progress that people make is what has value. So it's not about like the stuff, it's not about how many videos, it's not about how many pages of this or that or, or anything of that nature. That's not why people join a membership, you know, because if we have an abundance of information available to us everywhere, like I'll give you a real example of this. So because of COVID, obviously, I've spent more time in my home office, and I'm like, it would be nice to remodel the home office and turn it into a nice video studio. So I go online, and I do a couple Google searches. And I search for ultimate home video studio. And I find all kinds of videos. And I start investing time and I'm you know, taking notes, and I got all kinds of amazing ideas. And then there was a point where I was just like, okay, but where do I start? Like, I have so many, so many ideas, so many things I can do. But I don't know what I should do. And so I went online to one of our Facebook groups and I explained this. And Dana Abraham piped in, she's like, well does do, there's a membership for that. Go to live streaming proz.com. So I go to live streaming pros, I don't even hesitate, I sign up $97. And like, don't even hesitate. Why, because they've taken all of the all of the noise, all of the mess, and they've just filtered it out and narrowed it down to like the few things that I should focus on right now. Like, as it relates to, you know, the design and the setup and the equipment, like it was just, it was so neatly laid out that it took all of the complexity and overwhelm, and created clarity and simplicity. And now I can start moving forward. So at the end of the day, the value doesn't come from the volume of information, the value comes from the speed of which people are able to implement the information. And I'll give you one other example. Jaime bright, is a photographer, she had a very successful photography business that she primarily built online, you know, and so she was teaching other photographers how to do the same. And she was teaching them all the things. You know, she was teaching them Facebook ads and blogging and SEO and it was just like, really heavy because she was creating a lot of content. And it was heavy for her. But it was also overwhelming for her people and they therefore weren't implementing it and therefore weren't getting results. So she reimagined what that membership might look like. And instead, she created a membership for photographers that taught one new strategy a month to help them attract one new recurring client per month. Don't you just feel like so much easier and lighter in the way that that was structured? And what happened was that it was way easier for her to create that content, ways for her people to consume it and use it and what do you know, they got far better results. And so it was therefore way easier for her to attract new members because she had all these amazing stories. And so again, we overcomplicated in our minds thinking the more I give, the more value I create not true it's all about speed. of implementation and with a membership less is best. Now from a tactical perspective about pricing, easy thing here is start low and raise your price up. So if you want to get to say $50 a month, start lower start at $20 a month, and those that are in at $20 a month are locked in at that price. And guess what they are, are they going to go anywhere knowing that their price is 20, and you've raised it to 30? No, and those that get in at 30, they're gonna go anywhere, when they are paying 30, and you raise it to 50. No, and because nobody wants to give up a good deal, and it's an incentive for them to stay, and you're rewarding them for getting in early and honoring them, which we totally should. But the bottom line is like, I always recommend starting low and raising your price up, because that's a way easier path to take than starting high and realizing you've got to lower it. So bottom line, start low, raise it up after love that

Melissa LaPointe  20:54

stew. Let's keep going. So you were giving that photography example. But what I was also hearing was someone niching down because that's again, what my audience often struggles with, we are generalists by nature. And this idea that we need to hone in and niche down is something that a lot of occupational therapists struggle with. So can you speak to the importance of niching down with a membership site?

Stu McLaren  21:16

Well, you know, in our community, we have all kinds of people who have created all kinds of, you know, crazy and amazing and wild memberships. And, you know, I'm I used to be surprised with all the new markets that I see. Now, I'm not because it's just I've been doing this game for so long. And it just goes to show that it doesn't matter what your interests, what your expertise may be, the more you focus in on it, the easier it becomes to attract members, and I get it. Sometimes we think like, there's no way there's going to be enough people in this world, that I can build a viable business around this specific niche. But I'm telling you, this is the amazing time that we live in, I was having this conversation with friends on the weekend, because we were talking about our kids, you know, growing up and you know, and thinking about like careers and things that they want to do. Like, our kids now have more options available to them than they've ever had, you know, like, I didn't even realize all the things that could I could do until much later on in life. But this is what's so amazing. So I'll give an example. Like, Tamra Bennett, she's in a market teaching people how to paint decorative door hangers. I didn't even know this. Like I love this. When Tamar came to me, I was like, Well, what what is that is that like, you know, at the hotel, you know, where you put you know, do not disturb. And she's like, No suit. She said here in the south, you know, instead of putting like a wreath on our door, we put like a decorative door hanger. And I was like wow. Now she launched this and ended up welcoming 400 400 members right out of the gate. And three years later, she's grown this to nearly 2000 members who are interested in decorative door hangers, or there's Holly George, she helps people make balloon animals. And I'm like, what, and she's got a membership and it's called the twister hood. And she started this. And she's she's a mom with two young kids. She just wanted something on the side like her husband's in the Air Force. So he's gone a lot. So she's just wanting something that she could do, you know, and and yet still have time for her kids. Well, this membership, it's grown. She's generating over $7,500 a month from a membership teaching people how to make balloon animals. Amazing. So I'm sharing this because again, we can go down the path thinking that there's not enough people. I was talking to Darryl a couple weeks ago, and he's got a membership that teaches people how to, he's teaching them Greek, but got by by going through the Bible, the old Greek Bible. And so like that's like super niche, right? And it's pretty niche, super niche. But the point of the matter is, is that like, the more niche you are, the easier it is to attract people because your messaging is so much more powerful. Yes. I'll give you one other example this. So Brian sing, he started a membership last year. He's a volleyball coach out here in Toronto. He started a volley membership around volleyball, but he was initially trying to help all people who have interest in volleyball, like coaches, players, anybody who's got an interest in volleyball. And he started with 20 founding members. But what he found was that it was really hard to like, you know, grow from that point, because who is he talking to? Is he talking to players? Is he talking to coaches like those are two different people. Ultimately, he realized that the people that he is best able to serve our coaches. And that was a scary moment for him because, you know, there's a lot fewer coaches in the world than there are players. But the moment he consciously made that decision to narrow the market, it became so much easier for him to attract members. Now he has nearly 125 members in this first year, and the messaging is on point. It's way easier to attract people get it, they understand it. And it's easier to convert people who are interested in becoming paying members because they see the clear value. So narrowing down the market, becoming known for something specific is only going to help you attract a far more members love that.

Melissa LaPointe  25:16

All right, do I know our times wrapping up true or false question. Last one, you have to have it all figured out. And everything set up perfectly before you open the doors for enrollment.

Stu McLaren  25:27

False, you can Launch with any, you just launched with an idea. That's what we recommend, because it gives you a way to quickly gauge whether the market has interest in it. So false false false Launch now, I love it.

Melissa LaPointe  25:40

So Stu, thank you so much, I know that you are on a tight schedule. So I'm going to stay in integrity with our time together, I could talk to you much longer. Perhaps another time, we'll do a more drawn out interview where I'll really get some behind the scenes answers from you. But for now, thank you so much for your time, your energy and your words of wisdom on membership sites.

Stu McLaren  26:00

Well, thank you so much, you know, I really appreciate the time. And I just want to encourage everybody, come and join us for our free workshop, I'm sure you'll hook them up with the link where they could do that. But you know, if you are thinking like, well, I don't know if a membership will work for my market. Like come join us, we'll help you figure that out. We'll talk about the different types of membership models. We'll talk about what to provide and how to attract members and so much more. It's all free. We do this one time a year during the workshop, come and join us now. And I can't wait to support so many others in generating that recurring revenue and stability in their business.

Melissa LaPointe  26:31

Awesome. Sounds great. I will be there with bells on and I'm sure some of my some of my cohort of people will be there with me. So best of luck with all the great things you have going on and I cannot wait to be a participant.

Stu McLaren  26:44

Thanks so much. Okay, we'll talk to you soon.

Melissa LaPointe  26:47

All right, folks. There you have it, a little taste test, so to speak in terms of student's level of knowledge, passion, and excitement for everything memberships. If you are interested in starting or growing a membership site, or if you already have a membership site and you are interested in taking it to the next level, so streamlining those systems and operations. Reach out. I would love to chat and see if one of our programs is a good fit for where you are in your business. And of course if you are interested in learning more about Steve's work, I'm going to link his podcast his social media and how you can get on his list in terms of any upcoming workshops that he's going to be offering where he does a deep deep dive into membership sites. Alright, that's it for today. Take care and we'll see you on the next episode of the OTs Gone Rogue podcast.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

membership, people, membership sites, online, business, terms, speak, create, stu, money, offer, ots, niche, communities, members, attract, group coaching program, grow, thinking, delivering