When You’ve Hit a Plateau

What I want to get to is you've proven something is there. You have helped people achieve a goal or solve a problem. And the opportunity to reaccelerate growth, I believe, is on the other side of who is my member, what transitions are they going through, and ultimately, how do I deliver an incredible experience with incredible people who are on the same path to someone in that transition. And if I can create an identity around that, then I will have the opportunity to scale so much bigger. Hey, I'm Gina Bianchini, and this is People Magic, where we talk about How to build a $1 million community and a business that you can be super proud of. Hi Gina, I've hit a plateau with my membership business. I have about 500 members and okay engagement, but I feel like there's so much more for me to do. What should I try next? I have a feeling you are not alone in hitting a plateau in your business, and I think that this is true for all entrepreneurs and a lot of creators. Especially creators where the business itself is so time-consuming in terms of like you're producing content, you're posting, you're writing, you're doing things all the time, that it's kind of hard at times to step back and say, okay, what am I doing here? And so first of all, I just wanna like honor that and acknowledge that. My first question for you is, are you able to just take a step back, take a beat, and look holistically at where are you spending your time? What is giving you the best results? Where are your members coming from? What are the set of activities that have historically been effective and are they still serving you? And this is something that in my experience, it's just hard to do as an entrepreneur or as a creator as often and with as much clarity as it requires, which is, who is my member? Who is my member? Who is the person I serve? Who's my subscriber? Whatever word you wanna use for it. The reason that sounds so basic, but is also typically something that gets lost, is because we don't spend a lot of time as creators or as entrepreneurs talking about the transitions your people are in and how you are effectively helping them navigate those transitions. And the reason that I focus on transitions so much is because transitions create the most energy in people. They are the most motivated to join a new community as a catch-all for courses and memberships and challenges and events and livestreams and all of the things. When people are in a transition, they are the most motivated to join. They are the most motivated to pay. They are the most motivated to contribute. They're the most motivated to try things. And they are the most motivated to bring new people in. So whenever I hear about a plateau, I start with, okay, what do we know about this person? Who are they? What transitions are they going through? What does their best year ever look like? What does it look like for that person to get through that transition, get on the other side of that transition? How do you think about the results and transformation that they wanna have in their lives? And one thing that I have absolutely found is now, just a baseline in anything that I'm working on, which is that person is overwhelmed. They are overwhelmed with life. They are overwhelmed with inputs. They are overwhelmed with breaking news. They are overwhelmed with new technologies. They are overwhelmed with their life. That is all of us. And anybody who is not overwhelmed has probably a set of systems and discipline that I respect, and I do not have myself, and I bet you don't either. As you think about that plateau, the more that you're like able to step back— maybe it's in a one-day offsite with people that you trust, maybe it's in getting up an hour earlier or going to bed an hour later— where you're just able to, in the quiet of your thoughts. Spend some time thinking about the people that you have today. What is it about them that is unique? Is that transition? Is that best year ever that they wanna have? How are they navigating the level of overwhelm that exists in the world today? The reason that's super important to do before you get to your growth strategies is that in my experience, the number of aha moments that any of us can have comes from that exercise. If the person or people or coach or friends or whatever it might be, as you work together with somebody else and you're brainstorming, having them think about those things as well can provide a lot of fantastic insights too. Here's what I've seen come out of these kinds of experiences, these kinds of deeper dives or reflections if you're in a plateau. Number 1 is you're not as clear in your transition as you could be. Number 2, there is a new transition that you can expand your membership to support. For example, if you are seeing that your members are super hungry For what is that next leveling up of their business? What is their ability to navigate AI? I think for a lot of people today, that is always an interesting add-on and a clear transition. That's a technology platform shift transition. Look for the transition when you have hit a plateau, either tightening up the one that you have or getting clear about other transitions that you can serve. And then you can create your programs or your content or your livestreams or your events or your in-person events all around that new transition that you've unlocked or that you've really crystallized for where you wanna go with your members. Notice I didn't say where you wanna take your business. That's a totally different topic. This is about how do you break through to the next level of growth. So transitions, again, super important because the people who are in transitions are the ones who are going to bring in new members. So that's kind of the first analysis that I would do. The second analysis I would do is around how much effort are you putting against your existing members referring new members? And if they're not referring new members, and you can do this in a number of different ways, but one of my favorites is asking for nominations. What I like about asking for nominations is it captures exclusivity. It also says you're not desperate for people and you're not asking them to do anything. Like, you're not asking them, hey, can you invite your friends? Or, hey, can you post about this on social media? It's, I trust and believe in you. You know what we're doing here. You know why it's important. Do you have nominations for our next cohort of members? Do you have nominations for people you think can bring so much more to the community? Do you have nominations for somebody who is struggling with the same transition that you successfully have been able to make it through by being a member of this community or by going through my courses or being a part of my programs? So really understanding like your referral engine, your, your nomination engine, the source of new members from your community. So I always like to think about how do you grow? If you're starting from scratch, you start with your people. Open your contacts, look through them. The high probability is you are going to look at them and be like, oh yeah, I totally forgot about that person. They would actually be great for this. Or Oh my gosh, they might know somebody, which brings me to my second bucket of people, your people's people, your people's people. Hey, I'm launching something new. Would you like to nominate somebody who is going through this kind of a transition? I'm looking for founding members. I think it's gonna be incredible. And you know me, I know you, and so I would love to have people be a part of this. So that's your people's people. And then finally, your community's people, because as your people and your people's people become your community, again, monetized with courses or memberships or challenges or events, they become your community and you have the ability to have that same kind of referral, that same kind of, hey, do you know of anybody who would wanna join Our community. So, your community's people. So, that's kind of the second bucket that I would spend a fair amount of time just really digging into. And if they're not able to nominate or not able to come up with people that should be members of the community, one of the other things you can do is, who would be fun to meet here? And just listen for how they describe the members they want to meet. And that exercise in and of itself— itself will just be so incredibly productive. So really think that's a powerful mechanism. The final piece is one that I think is actually pretty important for all community designers, and that is what's your member's identity? So what I see a lot of times with creators is that they're focused on like their content, they're focused on the point of their contact, and yes, they're focused on the point of their content. Like, what's somebody going to be able to do because of their content? They're really strong on from point A to point B. Like, this is the kind of ideal customer profile or, or student profile or member profile I have, and I'm going to get them to this level, and that is my role. Like, that is my business. And sometimes what can be missed is think about Okay, as I have my ideal member profile and I'm helping them through transitions, what is their identity? And what can I do to better package an identity for my members such that their excitement to join, contribute, come back, be a part of it goes up? 'Cause if you have that energy go up, you tend to also see word of mouth or members recruiting other members in together also go up. And then finally, when you have an identity level, number one, people don't go. And when that's the case, they are much more likely to keep paying a membership fee, keep participating in your community. They want to be a part of something that gives them identity and a sense of belonging. And very simply, if you've created something where people have their friends, eh, they're probably gonna keep coming, probably gonna keep coming back. So all of those things I'm focusing on because I think you can listen anywhere for, here's how you run Facebook ads, or here's how you do an email newsletter, or here's how you do an email newsletter and run Facebook ads. What I wanna get to is you've proven something is there. You have helped people achieve a goal or solve a problem. And the opportunity to reaccelerate growth, I believe, is on the other side of who is my member, what transitions are they going through, and ultimately, how do I deliver an incredible experience with incredible people who are on the same path to someone in that transition, and if I can create an identity around that, then I will have the opportunity to scale so much bigger and really be able to take advantage of members bringing in other members. So hopefully that's a framework that is unique and different and a little bit of an unconventional one to explore. But I think it's also one that if you really invest in it, you will have a breakthrough. And that's what I know you want, and it's certainly what I want, because nothing is better than when you are in a plateau and you just are able to reaccelerate growth because you've reframed the challenge differently. And you're looking at the same problem with a different lens. It's— I gotta say, I feel like that's the high of being an entrepreneur and why so many of us have chosen this path. It's like we can do hard things. We can fix things that seem impossible or focus on things that seem impossible in ways that no one else has done. And I want it for you, and I want it for me, and I want it for everybody who is on this path. I'm Gina Bianchini. This is People Magic, and I will see you in the next episode. Woo! Thank you for being a part of People Magic. I could not do this show without you. If you want a deeper dive on any of these topics, how to build a community, run a membership, choose your pricing, I have a 9-part free People Magic Masterclass on our website, and the link is in the show notes. This is something that I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to share with you. So hopefully you'll find it valuable. And I can't do this show without some burning questions. So everything that I tackle is something someone just like you has offered their idea or offered their question. We take it and turn it into a show. So in the show notes, There is the link to leave me a voice memo, and I hope you'll take advantage of it.