225: How I Run 4+ Memberships Without a Community Platform

Foreign welcome to the Creators MBA Podcast, your go to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product business without the need to be glued to their desks, constantly live launching or worrying about the social media algorithms. I hope you enjoy our episode today. Hi there and welcome back to the Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Destiny Kopp. And if you have ever felt like running a membership means Also running a 24 by 7 community, this episode is going to feel like a breath of fresh air. Now, earlier this week I was a guest on another podcast and the host said something to me that really kind of made me sit back and think. She asked, wait, you can have a membership without a community? I didn't realize that. And her simple question really made me think that so many people still don't know that this is possible. So today I want to pull back the curtain and walk you through exactly how I run four active memberships. And we're about to add a fifth one for hobby school without a Facebook group, a circle community school, or any type of social platform like that. Okay, so let's get right into it, but first I want to take you back a bit. So in the past I have done the traditional community type model. I've had a private Facebook group, I've used other platforms and I've tried all of the must haves that other kind of people recommend for memberships. And every single time I ran into the same problem. Problem. It wasn't sustainable for me. Not for my schedule, not for my mental energy, and honestly, not really for my members either. Because here's the truth. I'm a perfectionist type person. I love supporting people, I want to help them and I want to be helpful right away. So in those communities, when someone posted a question, I really felt this internal pressure to respond instantly. I always wanted to make sure that everyone felt seen and supported and encouraged and were able to keep moving forward. But over time that became exhausting to me and I felt guilty if I wasn't in the group constantly. Like I felt like I was failing my members. And eventually I realized that community does not equal connection. At least not in the way I wanted to build it. So I gave myself permission to design something to different a model where support was still high touch but not high pressure. Something that was sustainable for me and my members. All right, so let's talk about what exactly does this look like? And I want to walk you through how I have structured support inside my memberships without that traditional community type model. And the first is live monthly workshops. All of my B2B memberships include a monthly live workshop. And these aren't just random topics that I have pulled out of the air. They are built around the real questions and needs of people in my memberships. Sometimes what I'll do, I'll collect questions ahead of time and sometimes people will show up live and then we will workshop things together. And that gives the members a direct line to me without needing to post in a group or wait for a reply. And if someone can't attend live, no problem. They still get access to the replay so that they can benefit. So this format allows me to stay present and connected, but it has boundaries around it. The other thing I do is I allow members to ask questions at any time. 24 by 7 they can ask as many questions as they want. So instead of a group chat or discussion board, basically what I've set up is an option. I offer an ask me anything form. So members can submit unlimited questions anytime. And they can also stay anonymous if they want or not. I would say most people are like, you can tell them anything. You can give them my name, you can give them my details, whatever you want. And I answer those questions in our private podcast feed. So you may be asking, why podcast? Because I have found that it is easy to listen to. People can tune in while they are walking, working, out, driving, and when I answer one person's questions, dozens of other people benefit too. So it definitely becomes kind of this rich, bingeable resource of guidance and insight that continues to grow over time. The other thing I have done is built in AI support in a lot of different areas and I'm going to walk you through all of that. So one of my favorite ones is inside of the newsletter Profit club where I've actually created a clone of me. So an AI support assistant that members can access 24 by 7. They can ask questions, they can get guidance, they can stay consistent with their newsletters without waiting for a live response. So this particular clone is not some generic chatbot. It's been trained on the systems and strategies that I teach inside the club so they feel like they're getting direct help from me. The other thing I have put together are accountability AI assistance. So let's talk about the real struggle that many people have and that is being consistent. And that's where these AI accountability assistants come in. So here's what I've built here. So one is an accountability assistant to help People get their weekly newsletter written. So on Wednesday account a text reminder is sent out that it also links to my 15 minute newsletter AI Bot and that basically gives them this very gentle nudge saying have you done your weekly newsletter? If not, click here and I will help you write it in 15 minutes or less. And then on Friday they will get a very friendly text that says have you done your weekly newsletter or do you need a additional help? I have basically a coach SMS text. So this an AI assistant that sends them a message, a text saying what are your goals for the week? How can I help you? And it links to an AI coach that will help them set their goals if they need help there and break it down into doable steps. And then on Friday they're going to get a follow up text asking him them how their week went and offering support if they got stuck. I also have a 24x7 mindset coach that they can access anytime they are feeling overwhelmed, stuck or just need a pep talk. Now all of these tools are automated, but they're very personalized. So they're working for me, they're working for my members and and most importantly, they're not requiring me or my members to be on all day long. Next, I want to talk about what's coming next. Now inside of the Digital Product Growth Lab, I'm considering adding another layer of support. So this might be like a monthly Q and a type session or a co working call where we can build and kind of work side by side together. So that's going to give my members even more access to me, but really within a structured scalable format. So I don't want to go back to a model that requires me to constantly monitor a group. Instead I want to keep asking myself how can I deliver maximum value without the burnout? And more importantly, how can I make it easier for my members to get results without the noise of a busy group chat or the pressure to show up in a community? So if you have been thinking about and dreaming of launching a membership but feel overwhelmed by the idea of managing a community, I want you to hear me on this. You can absolutely build a successful, supportive and scalable community or membership without a community type platform. You just need to be very intentional about how you structure support. So think about workshops instead of chats in a Facebook group. Think about podcast answers instead of post. Think about smart automation instead of 24 by 7 availability. It has helped me support thousands of creators while staying aligned with how I want to run my business. And if this episode gave you a new perspective or really just sparked an idea for you. I would love to hear from you. And if you want to get a behind the scenes look at how I set up my actual offers, you can explore everything in the links that I'm giving you for the newsletter, Profit Club and the Digital Product Growth Lab below. Thanks for listening and I'll see you in the next episode of the Creator's mba. Bye for now. Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you love the show, I'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.