Ep 59: The Key to Unlocking Member Progress

Apr 4

The Progress Wheel™| Keeping Up the Momentum

I talk all the time about how engagement isn't the goal, progress is. I want to share with you how to help your people make progress and not just make it once, but continue making progress over and over and over again. Well, I do have a framework for this that I teach inside of my Cultivate community training program, but I want to share it with you today because I know how important it is for you to understand how to get your people into momentum.

A big part of our role as community creators, whether you're running a course or a membership or group coaching program, is to be thinking about how we're crafting our programs and community experiences to help people take action that helps them make progress. But how do we not only help them get started, but actually keep that momentum going? My framework called The Progress Wheel™ helps you do just that.

The Progress Wheel™

Purpose: This is the starting point of The Progress Wheel™, and it is crucial to have a clear purpose that everyone in the community is working towards. People are motivated by a sense of purpose, and it gives them a reason to keep showing up and making progress. It's important to communicate this purpose frequently and ensure that it is relevant and meaningful to your community members.

Path: Once you have a clear purpose, the next step is to define the path. This could be a framework like Stu McLaren's The Success Path, which involves defining stages, milestones, and action steps. You can go back to Episode 7 and listen to the podcast episode covering this framework. That could be the path that we're talking about here, but it could also be just helping them get clear on their best next step. The important thing is to keep pointing them back to the path to success and ensuring that they have a clear direction to follow.

Action: After they know the purpose and their path, then they take action because they're motivated and know what to do next. You have equipped them inside of your program to take that step so they take action and we can celebrate that action. Getting them to take action gets a lot easier when they are motivated by a clearly defined purpose and are guided to a path that has a clear next step.

Progress: The next step of The Progress Wheel™ is for your customers to make progress. When they take action, progress should happen. The question for you is, how are you helping your members recognize the progress they are making? And then how are you acknowledging and recognizing that progress and celebrating it with them? It all starts with having some type of measuring stick. Now, maybe you're using The Success Path and you have milestones and action steps that they can actually measure the progress, but maybe there's a different measuring stick. Maybe you have some type of assessment, or they're just able to check a box. That feels like progress.

Spotlight: Once they have made progress, you need to spotlight that progress. You want to celebrate big and small wins. It could be rewards like badges inside of your program or a certificate. It could be something as simple as words of affirmation or a celebration gift for them inside of your community. It could be an acknowledgement on a live training that you're doing or inside of a newsletter. You can celebrate their progress in a thousand different ways. Sometimes bigger progress or wins calls for bigger celebrations. But that doesn't mean that those little attaboys and attagirls that we give people inside of our community are not valuable. They are valuable in helping keep The Progress Wheel™ going.

How to Use The Progress Wheel™

I want you to be thinking about each of these steps. Do we have a clear purpose? If not, go back to Episode 1 and listen. Do we have a clear path and are we able to point them to their best next step? Go back to my interview with Stu McLaren, where he breaks this down. Third, am I getting them to take action and when I get them to take action? Fourth, are they able to recognize their progress with some type of measuring stick? Is there a way that they can see that they have done the work? And then how are we shining a spotlight on that?

The Progress Wheel™ framework will help your community members make progress towards their goals and maintain momentum over the long term. By focusing on purpose, path, action, progress, and spotlight, you can create a community that is engaged, motivated, and making consistent progress towards their goals.

If you want a more in depth discussion on The Progress Wheel™ and learn how to create a thriving, profitable online community go check out my Cultivate Training program that will help you become a Cultivator.