584 - Building a thriving membership with Golden Brands Founder Lisa Macale

Welcome back to the Next Level Life podcast. I'm excited to bring you another amazing guest today. I've invited the beautiful Lisa McHale from Golden Brands to come and join us. Thank you so much for joining us today, Lisa.

Thanks so much for having me, Christine.

I'm excited to chat all about everything that you've created within the Golden Brands brand and membership and also talk about the amazing conference that you have coming up in Brisbane in October. So just to kick things off, would you mind just talking to us a little bit about your journey and tell us a little bit about Golden Brands?

Yeah, so my journey, just to give like a quick overview because this is actually the fourth business that I have started. I started off as a wedding planning and stylist in Brisbane. That was my very first business when I was 24. Then I went on to have children and I sold that business and somewhere around that time frame I started my second business, which was a stock image based business. That business, for various reasons didn't work out, so we ended up closing it and then I moved back to New Zealand where I'm based at the moment. And my third business was socialized, a social media management business. And that business grew really quickly. I ended up getting really burnt out and long story short, I had my second son and I went on to sell that business. And it was around this time that I could start to recognize that a lot of small business owners were having all of the same problems and challenges that I had across all three of those businesses that I had started and growing. And at the time there really wasn't a membership platform like Golden Brands in New Zealand. And so I had this idea to create a platform where small business owners could go on those early stages of their business journey to get all of the support, the resources, the training, like everything that they need to really succeed and thrive in those early stages. And so I had a million ideas for Golden Brands. It did take a long time to get the platform actually built and to get to that launch stage a couple years later after I had the idea, I ended up launching it at the end of 2022. So it's still a fairly new platform, but we've got members now all across New Zealand and Australia. We have masterclasses, group coaching, templates, resources, and we do in person events as well across New Zealand and Australia. So that's kind of a bit of a snapshot of my business journey and where I am now with Golden Brands.

Love it. I love that you share the evolution of the different businesses that you've had and how you literally, exactly what you just said. Like, every business owner has had a similar experience from all of them. Like, burnout. Oh, my God. Is this working? Should I. Should I just close this business? Like, what the hell? And then going through these evolutions and then growing too fast, like, all of those, all those key pieces. So I'm imagining that you brought so many, so many of the lessons from the first few businesses into then what you created then with Golden Brands. Talk to us about. What would you feel like the biggest lessons were that you brought into Golden Brands that you feel like you kind of held as your North Star?

Yeah. Oh, there's been so many lessons. Like, I've had so many failures over the years, but also lots of successes too, which I think is really important to remember. Like, we can get really fixated on all the times that things haven't worked out, and we often just, just don't celebrate the small successes and wins that we experience along the way. So I think that that is really important as a small business owner because it's really easy to get so fixated on our vision and how far away that feels and seems, but not actually, like, acknowledge all of the progress and all of the action that we are taking to get closer to that vision. So I think when I started Golden Brands, because I was so, so burnt out in my last business, and I realized that I just. Social media management was just not for me. I'm like, I don't know why I even started that business. But with Golden Brands, I think I was really clear on where I was actually heading with the business. Like, what my vision was, the impact that I could make in the lives of other small business owners, and also what I wanted to create for myself and my family in terms of the freedom and the flexibility and that I was really working towards as well. And I knew that creating Golden Brands and a membership model, although it's been a lot of work, that it could eventually support me to get to that vision that I have for myself and for the business.

Yeah, I love that because you're so right. Like, having that vision is so, so important. Yet I absolutely agree with you when it comes to celebrating the small things, because otherwise it can get really disheartening because you're only looking to those really big goals, and if you haven't achieved them, you feel like a failure. And I see that with so many clients. I actually do like a celebration every single Friday within my programs because I'm like, I want you to find something from this week to acknowledge that you've been able to achieve or you've been able to overcome. Because it's in the small moments, it's actually how you take care of yourself and guide yourself and celebrate yourself every step of the way. Because it's such a challenging, hard road business and I think sometimes we can just again look at the social media and think that it's all roses everywhere else. And when it's hard for you, you think oh my God, what am I doing wrong? But it's actually not the case at all. Like if you, if you feel like it's hard, you're probably doing something.

Absolutely. We actually do that in the Golden Brands membership too. We have like posts that go up to help celebrate all of our members wins that I've experienced. So I love that you do that, love it.

It's so important and I feel like it's one of those things that I find that if I have someone that hasn't shared that I'm like what's going on over there? Like you, if you haven't found something, it's actually. And I challenge it even more when they, when they feel like they've had a hard week because I'm like it's actually in those weeks where you've got to find something, you've got to find those glimmers otherwise it will just stack on top of each other week after week, it'll just get harder and harder. But if you find those moments to really acknowledge what you've been able to achieve even in the hard times, it allows you. Like for me it's a, it's a really big self worth builder and it's a really big self belief builder and we need that in business. Right. We've got to believe in ourselves otherwise no one else will. So it's so key. So I love that you do that within the membership. That's just awesome. So what would you say? One of the non negotiables you brought from your last experiences into this business, having better boundaries.

Like there's boundaries and I actually have them written down and I stay true to them because in my last business boundaries just went out the window. I was just working like a crazy person and I was saying yes to every single opportunity, every single client because I was just, honestly I was just thinking about the money and that was what was driving me. I'm like I had, I found out a week before I launched the business, my last business, that I was pregnant with my second son and, and we decided that my husband would go on parental leave. So I'm like, I need to earn as much money as possible. I know so much pressure. And I think that that was like I was letting all the wrong things drive me in that business. And I didn't, I wasn't clear on like my why or my vision or anything. I'm just like, money, money, money, what can I do to make more money? And so, yeah, I feel like that's been a completely different journey now with Golden Brands, that I am actually clear on where I'm headed with the business.

So talk to us about what it is that you do to uphold those boundaries now.

Well, I think like they're non negotiables for me. So when someone, because people constantly test the boundaries and I think as a small business owner, like, that's always going to happen. So for example, one of those boundaries that I have, I have certain days of the week allocated to certain things because that's the only way I can get through the amount of work that I have to do. And I've got two little kids, so I can only work school hours. So I only do my like, meetings with like, with inside the membership on one particular day of the week. And there's a reason for that because then we have like group coaching on Tuesdays. We've got other things on Thursday. So Wednesday is the day that I do those meetings. And I quite often get people ask me like, oh, I can't do Wednesday. Can you do Monday night? Can you do Saturday morning? I'm like, no, Wednesday is the day that I do that.

Oh my God, no thanks.

I would have just said yes. I'm like, oh, yeah, well I'll make that work. But I'm like, I actually can't now because I have children in the evenings and in the weekends and like, I can't take meetings when my kids are here because it's just so disruptive. So just that's like one of the boundaries that I have just been really clear about what I say yes to and what's like a no, that's not for me, love that.

I always love to like tack on how it's also beneficial for the client as well. Like if someone's listening and they're like, oh, but you know, maybe you've got the reason that you can say you've got kids so you can't do it in those hours. But if you don't have kids, how can you use that excuse, right? And it's like, not that it's an excuse but like, use that reason. And I'm like, I always like to communicate how it's beneficial for them. So, like, I have to often have people ask me if I can do early morning sessions, like 6am, 7am, because I have clients in the US and the UK and, and I'm always like, sorry, no, like, unfortunately, like, I am not the best coach for you in the morning. I cannot get up and function and have my brain switched on the way I would like to be able to serve you at 6am in the morning. So if you want me to be a great coach for you, we're going to have to do evenings because that's the only time I can do for the outside of Australia. But then I obviously keep Australians within that timeframe. But you're so right. And I feel like the social media managers listening to this, we're going to be like, we'll take a lot away from what you've just shared because the social media manager business, business is hectic. Right? Like it's go, go, go all the time, trying to switch off all the different platforms and it feels like you have to be available and accessible 24 7. I see burnout happen with so many social media managers.

Yeah, I do too. Yeah. It's a hard industry. It's a hard job to have and industry to be in. But that's why, like, the boundaries, it's important to have them. And when you, you're upfront with your clients and you set those expectations, then they respect that. But when you try and bring them in later down the track, like four months into working with a client, it's much harder to do it. So I think it's just good to write them out really early on when you take on a new client, have an onboarding document that has. These are the expectations that I have of working with you. This is what I need from you to make this a success. And this is how we work. You can't contact me via Messenger, Instagram, dm, setting those boundaries. Email is the best point of contact, telling your client how they can work with you to achieve the best results. It's going to work mutually beneficially for.

Both of you and having to reset them again and again and communicate them again and again. So if they are contacting you on messenger, that you have to, like, put that boundary in place. Because one of the biggest things I find with boundaries too is that if you let the line be crossed, then they will just expect that. Right. So it's just being conscious of that, that it's just as Important for you to uphold that discipline. Otherwise you're basically letting them treat you a certain way. So being conscious of that, I always, like, say it's almost like you're teaching a toddler, like, to not touch the hot stove. Like, you have to say it a few times and communicate it a few times. You can say it with respect and kindness 100%, but just communicating it. And I love that you've placed it in that context of like, this is how we can best get the best results together. So that's awesome. So take us back. Let's talk about the beginning of, like, you got the idea for building the, building the community online and building out the membership. Tell us about that first stage of growth before you got it online, before you launched it. What was the challenges and what were thought processes that you had around? Like, how can I make this work?

Yeah, it was such a big project to tackle. Like, I. Because I had the whole membership platform custom built from scratch, which pro. I probably wouldn't recommend to anyone to, to do that. So it took like a good six months from. It was in June of 22 and then we launched at the end of November. So yeah, five or six months it took just to build like the platform and, you know, get all of my ideas down on paper, design, the whole thing. And during that period, I was working like a crazy person to get to reach this deadline and I thought I'd given myself like ample amount of time, but that was not the case. Like, I actually really had to like hustle, really work hard in that time too.

And had you, had you closed the social media business by then?

Yes, I had sold it a year prior.

Okay, cool. Okay, cool.

Yeah, so then I, I did like a little bit of contracting work in between those, the two businesses. But yeah, when I decided to start Golden Brands, I had to let go of all my contracting work because they just, I just didn't have enough time to do everything. And I had to learn so much in that six months too. I had to learn how to build a successful membership site. Like, how am I going to keep people engaged? How am I going to launch the platform? How am I going to run like these launch periods with like an open coast closed cart model? Like, I had never had experience in any of that before. So there was a lot to learn in terms of like actually marketing Golden Brands and then retaining the members once they do come inside, keeping them really engaged. Like, that's just as big a job as getting people in there. Like actually keeping them once they're in there?

A hundred percent. A hundred percent. So you spent months building the platform and then you went to market. What were some of the things that were key to you when it came to like attracting the right clients and doing that first launch? Like tell us about that first launch.

Well, I did do a beta round before we launched, which was actually really helpful because then we could build up all that social proof and testimonials and that to have for when we actually launched to everyone. So that was a really valuable like exercise to go through for the membership. But what I found, I guess helpful to launch Golden Brands for the first time because, well, one thing I did do wrong actually, I didn't have like a clearly defined niche or audience. I was trying to market to everyone. So that was definitely a good lesson to learn. It's really hard when you're trying to market something to literally every small business owner. Like I had to get actually really clear with my messaging. So that's taken a little bit of time to develop. But what was great like is building up like in that three or four months before we launched for the first time, I spent a lot of time, time and energy and money and building our audience, growing our email list, running live webinars, like providing resources, lead magnets like all of that for free to try and build up, build our audience and interest in them, what we have to offer and then putting them for like a nurturing, nurture email sequence. I also did some in person events as well just to try and build up brand awareness and get people kind of excited about what was to come with the membership. So I really did a lot of marketing working in that period to help reach the right people and to get people like in our audience and into our community.

Yeah, I love that. I feel like sometimes we, you know, it takes so much to just build something, let alone market it. Marketing is like a whole other thing and to make sure that we've got enough numbers in order for it to be successful. Because one of the biggest challenges that I see with memberships is if people start them at different stages in their business for different reasons. So I'd love for you to share like your idea and your goals around the membership because obviously it was brand new business. It was something that you really wanted to create around your lifestyle and have that freedom and space. But also it's got to be profitable, right? Like it's got to be something that you can make money from. So would you mind sharing with us like talking through that evolution of like, obviously you did the beta round on the first launch and then the second launch. Like, how did you find that that worked, having that type of business membership model?

Yeah. So from a like, financial perspective, with the membership model, like, it, what we offer is a low ticket offering. It's 49amonth to join the membership. New Zealand, So it's like 45, maybe Australian a month. And so it is a reasonably low ticket offering. So we do need to get the numbers in there for it to be profitable. So that's always been like a big focus of getting the numbers up. And that obviously comes from then building up an audience, building our email list, reaching more people. So I've really had to put a lot of time and energy and focusing on all of those things.

Yeah.

So sorry, what was the other part, Part of your question here?

Yeah, so the evolution of it, like, obviously with the numbers, like, what was your goals going into it? Like, did you know that going into it you were like, okay, I'm gonna have to really build this and I'm not gonna expect it to be, you know, making hundreds of thousands of dollars straight from the get go. Like, how did, what was your mindset going into that?

Yeah, yeah, I knew that there was gonna be quite a long period where I couldn't pay myself or take a wage from the business. And I knew that from day one because just with what we offer, like, I kind of worked out from the day that we launched. I would probably need to get to at least 100 people before I could take anything out of the business, just with the amount of money that I would need to invest into it over that next 12 to 18 months. So I was very much aware of that. And thankfully, I'm fortunate that I was in a position where I could take that risk for that period of time. And I know that a lot of other small business owners might not quite be there. And that kind of came from selling my last business and having a little bit of money there to be able to support me getting into this business. And yeah, so I had the goal when I started Golden Brands. Like, my goal is I want to reach and make an impact on the lives of thousands of small business owners. Like, that's, that's my goal and my vision for the business. Like, I can see one day that would be able to have thousands of members across New Zealand and Australia inside the membership. But at the moment we've got about 100. So I've still got a really long way to go and it's definitely growing a lot quicker over the Last kind of few months. The first 12 months was really, really hard. It was really hard. Each launch period we would get maybe like 10 to 15 new people. And it's grown a lot quicker this year since we've got like a bigger audience and we're doing more events and things like that now, which have supported that. Yeah, it's, it was a tough, a tough 12 months, but I feel like I've kind of come out the other side of that now and I can now see the momentum in that building to, to get to, you know, increase those numbers a bit quicker.

Love it. Thank you so much for sharing that. Like, I honestly really appreciate it, Lisa, because the reason why I asked it is because I think sometimes people go into the headspace of like, oh, I want to create a membership or a low ticket offer and think that because it is low ticket, it's easier to sell and it's not necessarily the case. Right. It's still going to take time to build up your audience and find the right people and still go through the sales processes in order to bring people into the business. And I think that it's so good to hear you share that because I think that's just the reality of a membership, that it takes time to build. Unless you already have a massive audience. If you have a massive audience and you most likely can get the numbers and then it's actually a really profitable business from the get go. But I love that you shared that it was an evolution and that it took time and money and investment back into the business and time into the business in order to get it to where it is today and you are still growing it. So I just, I just love that you shared that because I think sometimes, yeah, I feel like some people go down the wrong path with creating a membership thinking it will be the savior for their income. And if they don't have the backing or the time, like if they're expecting they're going to launch something and it'll automatically have 100 members from the get go. It leaves people feeling like they've done something wrong or that they're a failure. But really it's just what it takes to build the business. Right. Like it takes time, energy, effort and money in order to invest in getting it to those stages of growth.

Yeah. And it did require a lot of money as well. Like, that's an important thing to mention. Like, I did have to spend a lot of money in that first 12 months and I'm still spending a lot of money as well. But I started from zero followers, like, from scratch. Like, I didn't have an audience from my last business or anything that I could use. Like, I literally started with zero followers, zero people on my email list. So it was really hard. And, like, now, of course, people know, like, on Instagram, it is a little bit harder to grow an audience when you're starting from zero. So I did have to invest quite a bit into, like, everything from running our events to paid ads to different collaborations, like, looking at lots of different opportunities. I even explored PR and many different things to just grow our audience in that first 12 months. Because I know, like, we need a bigger audience so that we can have more people in the sales funnel and that we can market to. Yeah.

And you also took the risk to go, well, actually, I'm going to need more people outside of New Zealand and.

I'm going to have to cross the.

Waters and actually go over to Australia. And you actually came to run an event here in Brisbane. So talk to us about the idea around that. Like, obviously, like, you considered the fact that you would need to attract more people, more people live in Australia, which isn't far. So, like, what was your thought process around then running events here in Australia and talk us about, talk through us how you did that.

Yeah. So I knew from day one that my audience would have to be outside of New Zealand, and obviously Australia is the. The easiest option for me. And it's great in the membership too, because the time difference is, like, minimal, like to a couple hours. It still means that everything's accessible for our Australian audience and our New Zealand audience. And I know if I went worldwide, that would create a lot of problems. Yeah. A lot of challenges. So that's why I've kind of kept it between New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand's a hard market and I find actually Australian market, it's a little bit easier to market inside Australia. And I think because, like, I lived in Brisbane for 10 years and I have a lot of friends and different businesses there and my two of my businesses were also in Brisbane, that it just kind of made sense for me to look at doing an event there and to expand Golden Brands firstly within Queensland, but now we've got members, like, across New South Wales, Western Australia, like, all kind of across the country.

Awesome.

Yeah. But it was a big financial commitment to do that.

Yeah. And. But you nailed it. Like, it was a great event. I went to it. It was a great event. Right. So I think it's one of those things that there's a skill there that you have as well. And I'm imagining, I think you spoke about how coming from like your wedding planning days, like you knew how to run events. So talk to us about how you utilize events to actually support growing the community.

Yeah, that's a great question because I think that this has really, really helped us to grow that community, especially in the early stages in the first year. So last year we did maybe eight or nine events all across New Zealand and the one in Brisbane. And I think that that like so many benefits come from running events because it obviously reaches a new audience, creates more interest in what we're doing, brand awareness, like all of those things. But it also creates more that sense of community. And it's a wonderful way that our members and other people in our audience can connect with each other and build those incredible relationships. And we often have like little collaboration challenges and things like that inside the membership. And the events have been a really great way for people to be able to meet other people that they are now collaborating with or working with or partnering on different projects or referring business to each other. Like there's so many benefits that come from the events, not just for us, but also from the people that are attending.

I love running events. I'm the same as you. I love running events. They're so much fun. Even though like the lead up can be stressful and there's so many moving parts and all the different things that go into play. But it's that in environment that you create of an in person event just is so worthwhile. I just love them like I run them regularly as well. I used to run events here in Brisbane for three years and every single month it was. That was, that was too much. Let's be honest. I actually stopped doing it because it was way too much every single month to like try and find speakers and then have different themes and then market it like it was full on. But now I did them a little bit more sporadically. So I just love that you built in the event space because you're so right. Like people are really craving community. They're really craving in person, especially after Covid, like really craving that in person experience. So then talk to us about like with the different events that you ran last year, how were they different compared to what you're creating for the conference in October?

Well, the events we did last year were kind of more smaller intimate events, normally evening events. And the conference is going to be like our first full day event with 11 speakers, over 120 attendees. It's going to be on A bigger scale to what we've done previously, which I'm really, really excited for. I'm excited to head back to Brisbane. I'm excited to go to the Carlisle and just have such an amazing lineup of guest speakers joining us. This is going to be on a slightly bigger scale from our other events, but still very much in same format that we, that we do for all of our Golden Brands events.

Love it. So what can someone expect from attending the conference?

There'll be lots of opportunity for networking and it will be done in a way where you're not going to have to wear a name tag and then get up and introduce yourself in front of everyone. Like done in a way that just feels really natural and authentic. And we'll be having multiple different exercises and things throughout the day to really encourage people to connect with one another. So my goal kind of for the conference is that everyone leaves with at least like 5 to 10 new business connections made. And of course there's going to be lots of wisdom and knowledge and incredible lessons that our guest speakers will be sharing. Lots of those little like gold nuggets of information that we can then take and apply to our own business journey. And then of course a beautiful setting to host a conference. There'll be like amazing food, drinks, goodie bags like all the rest of the stuff that we typically have at all of our events. Love it.

And you'll also have a couple of vendors also then sharing some key pieces that they can, you can buy as well.

I heard yes, we are going to have a little like expedition space. So this is going to have, I think we've got about eight vendors on board. A couple of them are our speakers and sponsors where there will actually be things to purchase and some of these things like my all time favorite products. And there'll be like everything from homewares to some business books. Yeah, I can't even think off the top of my head. But lots of, lots of beautiful items that you can on our sponsors and speakers.

Amazing. So full day of inspiration, full day of learning from incredible people who have achieved some massive things within their own businesses. Incredible panels that you have running as well and lots of networking.

Yes, yes.

Sounds awesome. I can't wait. I've already got my ticket so if anyone is listening they want to grab their ticket. Feel free to this. I've popped the link in the show notes so definitely come along and if we've never met before, I want to meet you. If you haven't met Lisa, I'm sure she'll Want to meet you as well. So make sure that you grab your ticket and come along. Sorry. October 8, is that right? October 8 in Brisbane at the Carlisle.

Yeah, perfect.

Amazing. Amazing. So cool. All right, so I'd love to just have a couple more questions. So I'd love for you to going back to the membership, what would you say some of the biggest lessons that you've had along the way of building it to what it is today? And would there be anything you do differently if you were to build it again?

Okay, biggest lessons. I think one lesson that I've had to learn is just to be patient. And I know that seems really obvious, but I'm like, I will have 150 members in six months and 12 months, I'll have 500 members. Like, that's actually what I thought. And I've just had to be really patient. And again, going back to just recognizing the progress that I am actually making all of the time. I've also just had to really listen to our members and I survey them quite frequently. I have a lot of conversations with our members just to ask, like, how we can actually best support them, like, what challenges are they facing at the moment? Like, what do they need access to? And making sure that I'm constantly adapting the membership to suit the needs of our members. Like, we're making changes every other month, like, big changes. I'm just constantly. Because it's still a very new platform. Like, I'm constantly adding new things into it, just mixing up how we do things to get people's feedback and just making sure that our members are really supported and connected with inside the membership. So those are a couple lessons, like making sure I'm surveying and listening to our audience. Another lesson I've had to learn. I'm not really a numbers person, but to run a membership successfully, you have to get really clear on the numbers and you have to be across everything from what it's costing you for every new member that you acquire into your membership, what it's actually costing you to get that person into your membership, what your churn rate is, how many members are dropping off every month, what the industry averages are, what you should actually be if your rate is good compared to the industry averages or if it's something that you should be working at. I like getting really clear on those numbers. And during reporting often. I've never done that in other businesses, but I've had to get really, really good at it.

And so you mentioned earlier as well. I mean, I love that you do the numbers because it's one of those things that I feel like a lot of business owners avoid, yet it can actually give you so much information and data to support the growth of your business. So I love that you do that. You mentioned earlier around, like, really learning to retain people. What are some of the lessons you've learned there and what are some things you do now to make sure that you can retain more people more regularly?

I think it just kind of comes back to, like, the basics, like, just having conversations with those people and just making sure, like, if I can kind of see that there's members that haven't been a part of anything for a couple months or they're not really tuning in, like, just actually touching base with them and saying, like, oh, what's going on at the moment? Like, is there anything that I can help you with? Like, but just having those relationships with our members then helps them to stay engaged inside the community. And I also do challenges. And we've got what we call an accountability partner program where we match up our members with other members, things like that, just to keep people really engaged and keep them actually taking action every month. That's another challenge, too. We can give everyone all the content every month, but we want them to actually apply it and take action. Otherwise there's just no point in them being there. So I'm always kind of thinking of ways that we can encourage them to be applying that to their business.

Yeah, love that. That's so key, right? Because, like, I can imagine that being a big impactor for retainment, because if people aren't seeing the results because they're not taking the action, because they're too busy learning, right, they get to end of the period and they're like, oh, well, why am I still here if it's not gaining me results? Right? So even though it seems super valuable to learn, it's like, actually it's the implementation of what you're learning that makes all the difference.

Absolutely, yeah. Love that.

And I'd love to hear you share about, like, your experience with how you manage the content and how you manage all the key pieces, the moving parts. Because when it comes to running a membership, like, I. In my. My energy type, like, I don't think I could ever run a membership for that long because it's just. It just feels so overwhelming for me to think about all the constant things you need to be doing all the time. So talk to us about how you manage that and, like, how does that feel? Like, how is that for you? Like, is it something that you are always, like you mentioned, you're adding things, change things all the time. Do you find that keeps things fun and exciting or do you find that it's actually quite a lot to manage? Like, if someone was coming in and thinking about creating a membership and they're listening to this, what would you say? Like, what are some of the things that you do to help manage that?

Yeah, I think that's a good point that you touched on. Like, from my experience, I've had four completely different business models. Running a membership business has been the hardest business model that I have ever done across everything that I had done. And it is really content heavy. Like the amount of content that you have to pump out every single month, like, it is a lot. So if you don't enjoy creating content, then you. This probably may not be the right, right option for you. Unless, of course, you're just facilitating and getting lots of other people to create your content. But yeah, it does take a lot of planning and how, how I kind of manage it. I always try and have at least three months of content planned out in advance. And I know that might seem like a lot, but if I didn't, I would just be constantly stressed out, like panicking, like, what am I going to do month, like quickly edit some videos and like, it would just feel so overwhelming. So I always try and have like at least three months, like, done pretty much. And then I have kind of six to 12 months where I've mapped out our content, like, topics for each month. So every month we have a specific theme for the month and then all of our content kind of comes from that particular theme. Otherwise it would just get, you know, too messy to try and put in all these different pieces of content every month.

Love that. And I find, like, I found that really amazing to hear. Like when we spoke about me coming in and also running a masterclass within your membership, and you were like, it's all good. We've got. The rest of the few months are planned, like, take your time. And I was like, oh, thank God. Because if you really wanted it this month, that was going to be a lot. So I was like, this is good. She's super planned. I love this. So talk to us about, like, you obviously have guest speakers coming in and speak as well. Like, how do you manage that? Like, that's a whole other thing. Also bringing other experts in, like, do you look for certain things? Do you. You obviously plan very far in advance, but how do you go about finding people to come and create content for you?

Yeah, so we do, we have a masterclass every month and a guest speaker. So I'm. I have to find someone for the master class and someone to be the guest speaker every month. And so that, yeah, it does take a lot of research to find those people, but often I just come across people on Instagram and I just have like a saved folder on my phone of all the people that I could reach out to in the future that could on different topics. So every time I see someone who like, they're jumping on a Instagram live chatting about PR and I'm like, oh my gosh, they just nailed that. I'm like, quickly save that. They will be my topic, my speaker on pr. So just things like that as it comes up. But we also get, when we survey our members, we ask them like, who do you want us to interview? Who do you want us to get on board? And so a lot of the feedback and suggestions come from our members and like a lot of our guest speakers so kindly then recommend other guest speakers, which has been. I know you did, Christine. You recommended some people, but that has actually kind of been the case of a lot of our past speakers. They have recommended other people they think could be a really good fit for Golden Brands. Awesome.

Awesome. That's so good. So you're building out your whole bank of people that you can tap onto. That's awesome.

I've got a really big list of people.

So good. I've got more to add. By the way, I'm always like, so many of my clients are freaking amazing that I'm just, just like always suggesting that they go and create more opportunities to speak. And I'm just like, you should be speaking or they're already speaking. So I'm always like wanting to give them more opportunities. So I love that. So is there any other major lesson that you would say, like, if anyone else is listening about memberships? Is there anything else you'd love to share when it comes to running a membership business?

I think just that it is going to be really time consuming and it's going to require you to get really good at marketing and running launch, like having launch periods. That's also something I have found with Golden Brands. In the early stages, we trialed like an evergreen where we just kept jaws open all the time. Then we tried like open close periods, we had long periods, short periods, bonuses. Like, we've literally tried everything. And it does require a lot of testing to work out what's actually going to be successful for you to sell spots in your membership. And I have found having like some type of scarcity around, like how many people you let in or the time that people can join, like, that does help just to help people, like make a decision if this is going to be the right opportunity for them or not. Often people do need like a little bit of a nudge just to get off the fence and make a decision. And having some type of scarcity around that can be really beneficial.

Love that. Yeah, it's so true. It's so funny because it's like I've been talking a lot lately online around like sales tactics and stuff like that. And it's like, we can. You can use urgency and you can use scarcity in integral, integrous ways. It doesn't have to be like, you know, you've got to be truthful in the way that you're communicating it. But if you. But absolutely, it works, like 100 works. Because if you don't have something that then creates or requires someone to make a decision, people just sit on the fence forever.

Forever.

Like, they literally just watch and they're like, yeah, next month, next month, next month. And they never actually take action. But if you don't create something for them to be like, oh no, no, I need it now and I want it now, then people will just sit there on the fence. And I think that that's where, like, I love that UVA tested every single type of model. When it comes to the launching period, you're right. It is literally just testing and measuring, testing and measuring and then having to navigate different changes as well. Like, I find that this year there's been some really differences, big differences in people's buying behaviors and the length of time people are needing to make decisions and how much more discerning they are with spending their money. Like, all of those types of things come into play when it comes to the shift in economy and things like that. So have you noticed anything else with regards to the beginning of this year for you, for your business?

Yeah, like this year actually the beginning started off really good and then it kind of went downhill after that. And from a lot of conversations that we're having inside the membership, like, and I'm sure you probably know this too, with your clients. Like, it's kind of been felt across the board that a lot of people just find that sales are slow at the moment. Like, people are a little bit more reluctant to spend money. And so that does present certain challenges for small business owners. And I think by now, more than ever, it's just really important to.

Get.

Your messaging really, like, get your messaging right and actually directly speak to the people that you're targeting. Don't rely on ChatGPT to write your coffee. Like, I feel like you really need to be more authentic with how you show up and how you approach things because there's just so much noise and you like when you write any of your copy or sales emails or anything with ChatGPT not backing it out, you can write, you can use it effectively to help you. But people just want like real authentic. They want to hear from you, like as a real person and they want you to be really vulnerable and truthful and just. Yeah. Show that. That raw side of you. Well, that's what I found.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The realness. Right. Because I think the other key thing that's showing up in the market is people want to know whether it's going to be the right fit for them. Like, I think that there's less spending in. Right. Frivolous spending or less spending in a space of like, oh, it might be the right fit. I'm happy to spend my money here. Where people more now are like, no, no, no. I want to know, is this going to give me what I want? And so they're so clear with that. And so if your messaging is like wish washy or if it's like, oh, it could, or if you're not really clear on your ideal client that 100% people are like, not like, major red flag, we're going to go over here. And so that can feel really challenging. But I feel like for this year I've really, like listened to that from, from members and from my mastermind clients and being like, okay, so how can I really, really hone in on how I'm different and really hone in on what we create that's different. How do we hone in on who it's for and who it's not for? And it's been like this almost like, like further niching in a way which feels super uncomfortable. Like super uncomfortable. Because I want to help everyone. But it's one of those things that if you don't communicate the differences or who you're really for, then it can all cause that indecision for people. And I think that that's what's really showing up for people is that people have been burnt before. They bought into stuff that didn't actually deliver. They've bought stuff that they thought was one thing, but it was actually another thing. So I think that people are just being much more savvy Now, I think it's not just the economy. I think it's just the evolution of buying. Buying behaviors.

Yeah. And I think what you mentioned to like actually having some type of niche, as much as we all want to just market to everyone. Like when I started Golden Brands, I didn't want to even put that Golden Brands is for women. I want. I'm like, nope, it's for everyone. I don't want to be. This is only for women. If a male can benefit from it, then absolutely they can join. And we do have a couple males, but 98% of people are woman. Yeah. So even just that, like I was trying to market to literally every single small business owner, regardless if they were service based, product based. Yeah. What. Regardless of what industry they were in. And then I did have a couple people join in. Then I realized, okay, maybe Golden Brains isn't quite for everyone.

Yeah.

And so I've actually had to really get clear on who it's for now. And it is more for service based providers, creative service based providers in the early stages of their business journey. But it's taken me a whole year to come to that realization.

I did the same thing, Lisa. Like, honestly, like I had, I've been running Elevate Mastermind and it's. I had let a couple of product based businesses come into that early on because I wasn't clear. And like before actually it was even Elevate, Elevate Mastermind, it was elevated. It was a different program and I've been evolving it. But like I, I was like the same. It's for everyone. If you're a woman in business, it's for every, it's for you.

You.

And so then I had a few people come through and look, they loved it. I got great feedback from it. But then I was just like, but for me to be able to really hone in on really delivering results in this area, I'm like, no, no, I'm service based. Like, that's my forte. That's my strength. And when it comes to a product based business, it is so different. So different. So I was like, I can't go and create content to help you hit 10k months with a product based business versus a service based business because they're completely different pieces of advice. So I had the same realization that I was like, okay, they were great. But next round I'm going to really niche it down even more to service. And I think that it just helps again, helps your client be able to make the right decision for them and make sure. That they're investing in what's right for them.

Yeah, yeah. I was doing that. The exact same thing I had or I've actually still got quite a few product based business owners inside the membership. But in that first 12 months I was trying to create content every month that spoke to a service based business provider and a product based because I wanted everyone to be happy and to get like the results, results from the membership. And I'm like, I actually can't do that because it is so different and I personally have never owned a product based business so I don't have that expertise in that area and I had to just realize that. And we still have lots of E commerce businesses in there that love it for like the marketing and all of that side of thing.

But the network and the people, the connections.

Yeah, yeah. I have had to get clear on who it's actually for.

Love it. Amazing. So good. Lisa, thank you so much for sharing everything with us today. I really appreciate you taking us behind the scenes of what it's been to create a community online and all the challenges that come along with running a new type of business. And I just love all the lessons that you've had along the way. Even though. Yes. But you've shared the hard stuff too, which I think is really cool. So I'd love to like flip it. I would love for you to share what are some like two things that you've had that have been major wins that you're like so proud of from.

My whole business journey? Well, I think like in my very first business because I was so young and naive and literally had no idea in the world what I was doing. I remember getting a call one day from Modern Wedding magazine and they like, lisa, would like to feature you as one of the top 20ish stylists in Australia. I'm like, oh my gosh. Like people have actually seen me and recognized my, my expertise or creativity. Even though I didn't, I never felt like I was very good at wedding styling. And I think just having like that external acknowledgment that like you are actually good at this, like you're doing something right. I'm like. And then it just kind of gave me that motivation to just keep. Even though I just had so much imposter syndrome in that business because I was so young and just literally so many things went wrong. So that was definitely kind of, I know kind of seems a little bit insignificant, but just how that affected where I was at in that business journey just really pushed me to keep going. I think with Golden Brands, like, just every single month, when I get feedback from my members about like, like from what you've taught me over the last couple months, I've been able to go full time in my business or I've hit 100k this year. It's my first year of business. Like, hearing all of these success stories and how our members are working together and how they're actually utilizing the tools and the resources to see results for themselves, like, every time, like, that's just such a big win for me and it just really motivates me to keep going and keep making it even better and better. So I love hearing, even if it's just something small like someone's like, oh, I picked up a new client from Golden Brands this week. I'm like, oh, that's a win. Like, I'm so happy for you.

I love that. That's so good. It's honestly like the testament to, I think to business owners that really care about their people is like their wins are your wins. That's the way I look at it too. Like my clients wins and my wins. Like, I'm like celebrating you, shouting you from the rooftops. It's so awesome to see. So thank you so much for sharing everything with us today. I really appreciate you coming on the podcast and if anyone is listening and want to, to come along to the Golden Brands conference happening in October in Brisbane, definitely check out the link in the show notes. It's going to be such an epic day. Come along and let's network. Let's get to know each other and have great day. Amazing. Thanks so much for being with us today, Lisa.

Thanks so much, Christine.