In this episode of People Magic, Gina Bianchini offers a practical framework for pricing online memberships, courses, and events. She proposes using a $48 per month (≈$575 annual) price as a "North Star" based on the average subscription price on Mighty Networks, arguing that higher price points signal value and drive attention. Bianchini introduces the "3 Rs"—Results, Replacement, and Respect—as criteria for determining what to include in an offer and how to justify price: quantify the financial impact (Results), identify what the membership replaces (Replacement), and set a price that commands seriousness (Respect). She critiques freemium models, presenting data that front‑door paywalls yield higher conversion, engagement, retention, and word‑of‑mouth, and recommends a "paid‑plus‑paid" structure where a core paid membership can host additional premium programs. The episode also revisits the People Magic framework (Ideal Member, Best Year Ever, Big Purpose) to guide product design and pricing decisions, and addresses a caller’s question about à la carte pricing, suggesting that bundling into a subscription often works better unless the audience truly prefers lower‑cost, modular options. Throughout, Bianchini emphasizes shifting from fear‑based pricing to a focus on delivering measurable results and building a vibrant community rather than merely stacking content.
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When you come from a place of fear, people don't want to pay for this, or I can't ask people for that kind of money, I would flip it on its head and say, the place I need to focus is on what results am I going to be able to get for people and what am I excited to get for people? Woo! In today's episode, we are going to talk About offers. Now, there are a lot of people, fancy people, who talk about offers and all of the different components to it and all the different ways that you can do bumps and upsells and low ticket, high value, and all of these tricks of the trade. I'm gonna do something a little bit different in today's podcast. I'm gonna get back to the basics. And if I can encourage you to think about and just remember 3 things, It's the following. Number one, people pay attention to what they pay for. And so if you are thinking, oh my gosh, I'm going to do something that has a, you know, is the price of a cup of coffee, like $5 a month or something, I want to encourage you to think about $48 a month. Now, why $48 a month? $48 a month is the average price of a subscription across almighty networks, which means that there are a lot of people who are charging more than $48 a month and a few charging less than $48 a month. But $48 a month is actually a price that you can charge on a monthly basis, and then the annual equivalent of roughly $575. So what I like to do is, again, because we've got your ideal member, that person who's in a transition, and your membership, your courses, your challenges, your events are going to get them their best year ever. People pay attention to progress, and when they pay, they pay attention. So think about what you could offer somebody for $48 a month. That is a great place to start when you start to think about charging for memberships or courses or challenges or events. And events are a little bit easier to think about because you're like, oh yeah, it's a ticket to an event. So just kind of keep that price point in mind. And then I like to price based on what I call the 3 Rs. So number one, results. How much Can you quantify the value that someone is getting from being a member in your community or being a part of your online course that they are taking with other people? So for example, if you have a professional community where people are there to help each other build incredible businesses, and there's an insight that one member gets from another member or from you as the host that allows them to start generating $15,000 more a month in revenue. Well, the value of your community is $15,000 a month. That's results. Then the second piece is replacement. What are they replacing? What are your members replacing as they join your membership? So it might be they're leaving other memberships that are not nearly as cool as yours. It might also be that they are replacing books, they're replacing other courses that they're taking, they're replacing pieces that just aren't working as well for them because your community, your membership has really zeroed in on the transition that that person is in and how to get them their best year ever through the power of community. So that's replacement. And finally, I think about respect, meaning you need a price point that someone Someone's going to take your membership, your course seriously, and that you're going to take it seriously. So one of the other things I see regularly is somebody basically being afraid to charge. And so in their fear of charging, they either undercharge or make something free. And then what happens? They're like, I'm giving all of this incredible value away for free and people don't, don't respect it. Then what happens? Well, they stop investing in it. And so now they have something that's kind of mediocre and that people aren't engaging in. It's just a negative spiral. So instead, think about it this way, which is, again, using that $48 a month as kind of that North Star. What could I provide my ideal member, that person in a transition, such that I can help them meet incredible people who are on the same path, have their best year ever, achieve results and transformation they can't get on their own, and will pay attention to this community, this amazing thing that we're building. And so that is how to back into what is included in your community. And as I've said in other episodes and in the masterclass, this does not mean more of your content. Saying you have 40 hours of video content or course material, it doesn't actually inspire people to join you. It just actually sounds like a lot of work. Now compare that to, you are going to be a part of a community, a network, a membership, a movement where you are going to meet amazing people on the same path. Interested and excited about the same topics that you are excited about, and there's going to be structure to it so you can actually meet people. Sounds pretty awesome, and it doesn't sound like a lot of work. So this is one of the things that I think social media has kind of corrupted everybody and make them think that like the only value you provide in the world is your content. But the reality is that if your offer is giving people the platform to have real relationships with other people on the same path that can help them and that they can help, and also it's a lot more fun and creates a lot more energy, well, that's significantly more valuable, especially in a world where content is becoming more and more and more of a commodity. So that's how I would encourage you to think about Your offer. Do something that is at a higher price point and back into the value that you are able to create for people. Think about results, think about replacement, think about respect. And one final thing, when I see people who are a little nervous about charging, and you would be shocked at the number of people who are torn on this, you know, they wanna have a digital business, they wanna bring people together, Mm-hmm. They wanna have an impact on people's lives, and then they are terrified of charging. What do they do? They have a freemium model and they point to SaaS companies, software as a service platforms like Mighty Networks for, well, they have a free plan and then prompt people to upgrade. So, you know, you think about all the consumer apps that are out there, they have a free version and then a paid version that, for example, doesn't have ads. Communities are different. So we have a lot of data on this. The most successful digital businesses are those that have a paywall at the front door. So there's a paid membership. It's not freemium. That doesn't mean you don't have lead magnets or you don't use social media for, you know, sharing the kinds of experiences or the kinds of insights and expertise that people are getting from your community, but you don't have a free community and then you're trying to use that free community to upsell people on paid programs like a mastermind or courses or challenges or even, you know, IRL events. This is a controversial perspective. I get a lot of pushback about this, but the data doesn't lie. We looked at this 5 different ways from Sunday, and what we found is that the paywall model where you charge for the front door of, in our case, your Mighty Network, will have the highest conversion rates, the most engagement, the longest retention, and the most word of mouth, the most members inviting in other members to a paid membership. And then what's great about a paid model is that you can still add more paid programs within it. So we see a lot of what we call paid plus paid. You have a paid membership, and then, for example, there's another premium mastermind, or there's a certification program, or there are additional courses that you can buy à la carte within the membership. That model tends to work extraordinarily well. And so really look at What's behind your motivation to want to have a freemium model? If it is fear of, oh my gosh, I don't have enough members, I don't have enough value, I can't charge until I have 100 members, which is the opposite of what is true and we'll cover in the next episode when we talk about how to launch and how to find your first members. As we think about the offer, Really zero in on paid at, again, that North Star price of $48 a month. It can be higher than that, it can be slightly lower than that, but don't put a ton of work into something that either you're offering for free or for $5 because you will get resentful and your members won't engage in the same way that they're going to engage when you charge.
Hi Gina, I don't think $48 per month is my demographic, but I want this to be profitable. I'm thinking about charging à la carte for courses and live events to make it more accessible for people. Be honest, will this be too much work for me?
It really depends on the first 3 parts of People Magic: your ideal member, their best year ever, and then your big purpose, which is just your ideal member Plus their best year ever equals your pitch or your big purpose. The questions that I would start to ask are, number one, who is your ideal member? Who is that person and what is their transition? Then what results will those events and those à la carte courses get for them? I would ask the question, would it be easier to package them up into a paid membership? That might actually work really well for you. And then I would look at what are you replacing? And finally, what are you charging à la carte for? And are they at price points that your members are going to pay attention? Because again, people pay for progress and they pay attention to what they pay for, which means they're probably going to get better progress, which means they're probably going to get better results. They're going to value and quantify those results, and you are going to get something that your members cannot stop talking about. So those would be the things that I would look at in order to answer your specific question about à la carte and your members aren't the right demographic for wanting to pay for something and certainly not paying at the $48 a month. You may actually find that with a few more conversations with folks that they actually like the simplicity of a simple subscription. So could you charge less than $48 a month? Absolutely. Or less than, you know, $500 a year for sure. But you wanna start asking yourself the question, are you gonna grow resentful? Are you gonna be able to offer something as valuable as you need to, to keep people's time, attention, and again, get them those results that they want and can't get on their own? These are actually the right questions to be asking. And that's also where it's like when you come from a place of fear, People don't want to pay for this, or I can't ask people for that kind of money. I would flip it on its head and say, the place I need to focus is on what results am I going to be able to get for people? And what am I excited to get for people? What am I excited to build? This is the whole concept I love. It's like the best party trick in the world is thinking bigger. What could you offer your members in their best year ever, where $48 a month starts to feel like an absolute steal. And what I would say is, if you find yourself wanting to, you know, again, just get pulled into that $5 a month world, or I need to give people something for free before I could ever charge, get clear on where that's coming from. Because a lot of times it's coming from a place of fear more than it's coming from the realities of your potential members' lives, what's important to them, what do they care about, and what they're trying to get. And I think separating those 2 things out will just get you such better results and help you build a better profitable business that not only you can be proud of, but is going to give you energy, not create resentment. And that's today's episode. I'm Gina. This is People Magic, and I'll see you next time.
Woo!
Thanks for listening to People Magic. Want more of a deep dive on today's topic? Well, check out People Magic Profit, my 9-part free masterclass on how to launch your own wildly profitable paid membership and community. Do you have your own burning questions you'd like me to discuss on this podcast? Well, I want to hear them. So leave your questions in the review section and keep tuning in.
