Ep 07: The Secret to Member Progress with Stu McLaren, Membership Expert

Apr 5

The Secret To Member Progress with Stu McLaren

If you have an online business, especially an online course or membership, you know the importance of a common cause that your students and members focus on. This is the first pillar of my Community Cultivated™ Framework, which I frequently discuss. If you're not familiar with it, I recommend listening to the first episode of the Community Creators podcast, where I talk about the significance of having a common cause.

In that episode, I talk about three essential elements: purpose, path, and progress measurement for your members. I also mention Stu McLaren's Success Path™, which is a powerful way to map out the common cause for your members and guide them on their journey while measuring their progress.

Stu McLaren is known as the membership guy. He founded Wishlist Member, a WordPress plugin for memberships, back in 2008 when memberships were not as popular. He later became partners with Michael Hyatt in Platform University and launched his own program, the Membership Experience, focused on helping people create recurring revenue using their passions and expertise, known for its vibrant community.

I'm excited to have Stu on the show as he has been a friend and mentor to me for years.

A Strong Culture In A Community

Shana: Typically I ask people when we first get started for them to tell me about their favorite community and what they love about it. But I know you are going to tell me that the membership experience community is by far your favorite community.

So can you tell me a little bit about what you think makes that community so unique and attracts such a really strong culture?

Stu: I'm biased because I love our people and community. Initially, the membership experience was called Tribe, and it evolved into what it is now. The culture developed organically, and though I didn't plan it intentionally, I soon realized its significance and decided to focus on it. At a live event, someone asked a question, and I noticed others wearing the same t-shirt with my face and quirky sayings that had become known as "Stuisms." This moment made me realize the deep connection beyond just the content.

Years later, I'm grateful for the opportunity to be myself as the program's creator. Before, I tried to be overly professional, which didn't feel natural. In our community, we embrace individuality while pursuing the common goal of generating recurring revenue and understanding its possibilities.

What makes our community special is that we don't take ourselves too seriously, allowing people to be authentic. We set egos aside and celebrate every little win, from clarifying the Success Path™ to welcoming new members or relaunching with thousands of members. We rally behind each other and provide support, understanding that not everyone comes from a supportive environment.

Our community is a safe haven where people can feel supported, be themselves, and have fun along the way. That's what truly makes it special.

Authentically Leading In A Community

Shana: I love how you authentically lead the community, creating a safe space for others to do the same. Unlike the smoke and mirrors often found in the online marketing world, your community is genuine, like a unicorn community—something truly special that you have to experience to understand fully.

What sets you apart is that you genuinely care about the progress of the people in your program. It's not just about having fun or feeling good; you're passionate about helping them achieve real results. This dedication led to the development of the Success Path™ concept, realizing that people need a clear path to see their results and transformations. You understand that delivering on your promises is crucial, and you focus on ensuring each person gets the outcome they signed up for.

While some business owners may shift their energy away after making a sale, you prioritize delivering results because you know it leads to powerful success stories, which, in turn, drive future sales. I'm curious to know how you developed the Success Path™ and what its core principles are?

Stu: You hit the nail on the head. As a membership guy, success with memberships involves various components. Getting traffic to your offering is vital, as is effectively conveying its value to convert leads into members. However, retention often gets overlooked. Keeping members happy and paying month after month boosts profits significantly. Many businesses struggle with retention, claiming the average member stays only a few months.

The problem lies in overwhelming new members with a vast library of content. Without clarity or direction, they get paralyzed by doubt and fear, hindering progress. To address this, the concept of a Success Path™ was born. We guide members based on their journey, tailoring content to help them make steady progress towards their goals.

This approach has been magical, enabling members to experience significant progress, creating momentum to overcome challenges. It also serves as a measuring stick of success, highlighting their growth within the community. Sharing stories of progress at various stages becomes the best marketing asset, showcasing how our teachings benefit different scenarios and markets.

Focusing on the journey, not just the big wins, resonates with members. The Success Path™ speaks to the progress and wins they can relate to, making them never want to leave.

The Success Path™

Shana: This is fantastic because it addresses a common misunderstanding about the Success Path™. Many people mistake it for a mere checklist or course outline when entering a program.

You highlighted the true power of the Success Path™—it helps individuals identify where they are on their unique journey. We all start from different places, and that's where the assets within the program come into play. They can be leveraged to support members at their specific stage of the journey. Additionally, the Success Path™ serves as a valuable marketing tool, especially in the current climate where people are eager to join programs and seek guidance from proven leaders.

Could you break down the uniqueness of the Success Path™ for me? I know you cover it extensively in the Membership Experience program, but could you provide some insights into how it works and how someone can create a high-level version of a Success Path™ for themselves?

Stu: The high-level overview consists of four different elements.

The first element is stages. Just like in karate or learning to paint, progress doesn't happen overnight. There's a natural progression in the journey. As business owners, it's crucial to evaluate where someone is in their journey and identify key indicators for each stage. For instance, are they at the white belt, yellow belt, blue belt, purple belt, or black belt level?

Drawing parallels to swimming, the progression is similar. In my kids' swimming lessons, the instructor assesses their strength and skill in various strokes like freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly. He gauges where they stand in terms of their swimming abilities. The same principle applies to our journey.

We aim to break down the journey of our teachings from a beginner level to mastery, achieving the desired result. There are different stages that individuals may go through to reach that point. I usually recommend identifying five stages, as it strikes a balance between creating momentum in the early stages and allowing ample time for mastering the skill or achieving the desired outcome. We avoid having more than seven or fewer than three stages.

The second element consists of descriptions for each stage. I first discovered the importance of this when I was business partners with Michael Hyatt. We were selling his goal-setting course, "Five Days to Your Best Year Ever," and he created an assessment with descriptions for different areas and stages. Even as a fit person, I realized that according to the descriptions, I was at a different stage than I initially thought. This highlights the significance of these descriptions in helping people quickly identify their stage.

To create effective descriptions, we need to consider what people are thinking, feeling, and doing at each stage. This paints a clear picture for individuals, allowing them to see themselves and easily identify their current stage. Additionally, it helps them envision the progress they can make in the stages ahead and how it will positively impact their lives.

I recommended envisioning a Hallmark movie-like scenario for that person's day to visualize their stage effectively. Creating such a script for a day can be incredibly beneficial. It allows individuals to cast a clear vision for their next stage and identify the milestones they need to achieve in order to reach it.

The third element is understanding the importance of milestones. Imagine sitting down for coffee with someone and trying to gauge where they are in their journey. You might ask questions to assess their expertise and abilities. For example, in my kids' swimming lessons with their new instructor, McKenna, he noticed that my daughter, Marla, was very good at breaststroke, but there were still technical elements she hadn't mastered yet. Achieving mastery of these elements would be a milestone.

Similarly, my son Sam excelled at the freestyle stroke but had specific milestones within that stroke that he hadn't yet checked off. These milestones indicate their level of accomplishment and progress within a stage, allowing them to move forward.

Using the analogy of karate, just being able to punch and kick doesn't automatically make someone a black belt. Progression in karate involves mastering various skills and demonstrating specific levels of accomplishment to move from one belt to the next. The same principle applies to those we teach. Before they move on to the next stage, we want to ensure they have mastered certain aspects or accomplished specific milestones, signaling readiness for the next stage. That's what a milestone represents - a measure of mastery or progress, enabling advancement to the next stage.

The fourth element is straightforward: it's an action item. So, if someone hasn't mastered those milestones, what should they do? What should they focus on? These action items are very clear-cut, leaving no room for interpretation. We often come across milestones that lack specificity, like "thinking about X, Y, Z." But what level of thought is required? Is it just a quick, two-second pondering? That vagueness won't do.

This is a lesson I learned from Michael's assessment. I initially thought I was a 10, 11, or 12, but I ended up being a six or seven because Michael had specific criteria indicating progress. Similarly, we want to be clear, providing black or white distinctions regarding whether someone has completed a milestone or not. This precision enables us to focus on the action items they need to demonstrate mastery and progress to the next stage.

Celebrating Progress

Shana: This is really awesome because it gives people in our community a reason to celebrate their progress. With clearly identified milestones, we can hold each other accountable and know exactly what steps to take next on our journey. It brings much-needed clarity to the sometimes overwhelming content in our membership site, especially for those who have been with us for a while and might feel unsure where to start. The Success Path™ allows us to craft a unique and personalized journey for each member, providing clarity on where they are, their next milestone, and the specific action steps to reach it.

Stu: There are also pieces in our program that can support you with those particular action steps. It's refreshing for people when they come into a program and realize they don't have to learn all the things at once. They can focus on just a few key areas to help them grow.

Taking the example of my kids' swimming instructor, McKenna, he simplified their learning process by giving them one specific thing to focus on during each session. For Sam, it was pointing his belly higher to the sky during his backstroke, and for Marla, it was keeping her head in the water longer while practicing freestyle. By honing in on just one aspect, my kids made significant progress in a short time.

The same approach applies to our program members. If we overwhelm them with too much information, they can get discouraged and struggle to make progress. However, when we guide them to focus on a few key actions, they experience momentum and achieve more in a shorter time frame.

A perfect example is Julie Sol, who had no prior experience in business but started with small steps. She began by sharing her art lessons in a free Facebook group and later launched a membership based on her audience's demand for more content. By taking one step at a time and focusing on the right things, Julie grew her membership to over 1400 members in just one year.

The key is to create an environment that allows our members to make steady progress by breaking down their goals into manageable steps. By doing this, we empower them to focus on what matters most and experience significant growth. There are countless success stories like Julie's, which highlight the power of taking small, intentional steps on the path to success.

Creating A Success Path™

Shana: Whether you run a group coaching program or provide one-on-one consulting services, having a Success Path™ for your business is valuable. It helps you serve your clients better and provides clarity to them about their journey, where they currently stand, and how you'll assist them in reaching their goals. So, Stu, if I were to grab my notebook and begin creating a Success Path™ for my business, what's one piece of advice you'd offer as I embark on this process?

Stu: Start with the extremes, the two opposite ends. The first extreme on the left-hand side is the very beginning place where people start from. It's easy to think about and describe because it's from complete scratch, and we know their thoughts, feelings, and actions. The other extreme is on the far right, where they have achieved the goal and mastered the skill set. This end result is often very clear.

Starting with these extremes creates a powerful contrast between their old world and their new world. This sets the stage for marketing and sales because you simply describe these two worlds, and people naturally see where they are and where they can be. Then they naturally wonder how to bridge that gap better, faster, and easier. That's where memberships, courses, coaching programs, or consulting come in to help fill that gap.

After starting with the extremes, you can then work on the in-between stages. But the key is to first describe those two extreme stages - where they are now and where they want to be. From there, map out the milestones and action items. This comparison exercise makes writing copy for your website or any other marketing materials much easier because you have clear comparisons.

Keep Momentum Going

Ready to help your members make more progress and keep momentum going but not sure where to start? My Cultivate Course is for you! Let me help you create a thriving and profitable online community for your course, membership, or coaching program!