Start Small: Validate Your Community with a 14-Day Challenge

It's so much better to start with these smaller wins. Understand what are people the most interested in? Where can you help people navigate a transition? That is the magic unlock by far. Hey, I'm Gina Bianchini and this is People Magic, where I show you the easiest way to create a $1 million community. Let's dive in.

Hey, Gina. I'm sold on doing a membership, but I keep putting it off. I'm afraid I'll try to launch it, no one will show up and I'll be stuck running annual memberships with five to 10 people. It just doesn't seem worth it. What do I do to get over this?

I love this question because the minute we start talking about membership businesses, all sorts of fears show up. But there's one that's super, super valid and has a totally simple solution. And the fear that's valid other than just having a party and no one showing up, which is really the underlying fear of so much of this. The fear is, I'm going to launch something, I'm going to work really hard, I'm going to talk about this amazing annual membership that I'm going to build out 12 monthly themes and this weekly calendar and I'm going to hire all of these resources and I'm going to do all of this stuff and I'm only going to get five people to show up. And I've charged even at $48 a month, which is the average price that a mighty network community has. Like, that's what people are charging on average for access to a community. Courses, events, challenges, you name it. 5 times 48 is not a lot of money. So then what happens is it's like everything in the world is more important than finishing that particular launch of your annual membership. So hopefully, as you hear this, you're like, yeah, I totally get that. That's, that's me. And if we were in a chat together, you'd be raising your hand. So here's the solution, and it's so obvious when you think about it, which is don't start with an annual membership. Start with a 14 day challenge, start with a 30 day challenge, start with a six week cohort course. Start with something that has two parts to it. Part number one is that it has an end date. So you don't start something that this is this ongoing membership as the first thing out of the gate. You start with something that has a beginning, a middle and an end, like a 14 day challenge or a 30 day challenge. You market that, you learn, you adjust, but you're not, you're not stuck with it. So it's simple but so powerful to just start with something small and start with something that allows you to practice and try out all of the pieces. So being able to figure out who are going to be your first 30 members. 30 members is the magic number when creating a community and monetizing it with a challenge, a membership, courses or events. You do not have to have a social media following, you do not have to have an audience, you do not have to have a massive email list. Your starting email list can be your contacts. And then you just run a 14 day challenge or a 30 day challenge or a six week cohort and make sure that you are charging for it and that you are charging an appropriate amount of money. So for a six week cohort, I was just talking to somebody this weekend who is running a six week personal branding cohort, a bootcamp for $3,500. And what is great about this is they will know if there is real legs to it. The beautiful thing about this as a solution is that when you get to the end of your 14 day challenge, so that was a boot camp or a cohort, a challenge can be low ticket. So you could do it for a $59, 14 day challenge. You want to do something where you're charging for it and we could talk about charging. I've certainly dedicated some episodes of People Magic to talking about charging because it is the thing that surfaces so much fe for people. But assuming you've listened to those episodes, what I want to really focus in on is the concept of just do something with a beginning, a middle and an end. Go ahead and then unveil or announce what you're going to do next at the end of that lower ticket, 14 day challenge, higher ticket, six week cohort, and then you can launch a membership. You don't have to bite off everything, and this is true for any business and really any project. You don't have to bite off everything at once and make sure that you're doing it perfectly or else you can't launch. That is just going to get you into a perpetual holding pattern. And then what happens is you just start to get frustrated with yourself. I get frustrated with myself for the things that I laid out that I want to launch, that I want to do. And so it's just not fun. It's so much better to start with these smaller wins. Understand what are people the most interested in? Where can you help people navigate a transition that is the, that's the magic unlock it is by far the most popular thing that I have shared in People Magic Profit, which is the nine part masterclass that if you don't know about it, we are going to put it in the show notes because it is the foundation for creating a $1 million community, it is the foundation for creating a $10 million community and it is the foundation for creating $1,000 community. It has the same nine pillars whether you are starting something small or something big. And I love something that one of my mentors and friends says regularly who's invested in some of the biggest businesses in the world. It is just as hard to start something that is small as it is to start something that is big and ambitious. So if I could offer you anything, it is starting with something that is tangible and concrete, like a challenge, like a cohort that has a beginning, a middle and an end. Do not decide whether or not you are going to do a annual membership or launch a membership until you've proven out that there's demand for it, that your transition and those nine pillars that you want to have in place for a 14 day challenge just as much as you want them in place for a premium or high ticket six week cohort just as much as you want to have in place for that 12 month annual membership. It's the same pillars in all three cases. So start with something you're excited about, get comfortable with, hey, I'm only going to do it for 14 days or I'm only going to do it for 30 days. And then practice going out and talking to people and bringing them into your community. You only need 30 people in that challenge to validate whether or not it's going to work and whether or not people want it. And hopefully goes without saying, but as I have learned on the Internet, nothing should go without saying and it's this. You also have to enjoy it. You have to get excited about the people you're bringing together. You have to enjoy the energy of creating like what's the brand going to be? What's my transition going to be? How am I going to capture and get excited about what my challenge participants or challenge members best year ever is going to look like? What is it going to look like as these people who are going through a transition have their best year ever. That is why you are able to kick something off that will attract people to come and then you validate your idea and then you move on. Now this has been such a profoundly effective idea. This idea of having something like a course or a challenge to validate Your idea, because it lets people try before they buy as well. That also looks like something that you can start with that challenge and then upsell people into your annual membership at the end of the challenge. And if you have another cohort of the people who are in the challenge, that's super cool too. And so we actually built this into our platform at Mighty Networks. We call them mini launches. And essentially what you can do is set up a space. So a mighty network is made up of spaces. Spaces have features and people in a space, and then spaces are contained in a mighty network. Well, you can have a space outside of your Mighty network that's friends with it, that's connected, but people can come and try it out and experience that challenge or experience that course. And then when they're ready, they could buy that annual membership. If you choose to do that over time again, you don't have to start there. These mini launches have been our most popular feature. So this is definitely where the energy is for people who are starting out. And then you can go ahead and upsell people into something more. This works extremely well. And if I could offer you sort of one final thought, it's this. Don't overthink it. Break down. Starting your business or launching a new revenue stream or reimagining an existing business where you're struggling into. Okay, what is the thing I've got to go do next that I can organize into something with a beginning, a middle and an end that I'm going to learn quickly from to be able to ultimately have something that brings results and transformation into people's lives. Break it down. It just gets so much easier. Platforms like Mighty are there to be able to make this stuff easy. And you just don't have to stress about what is going to be your monthly theme in month eight in the future, or what's going to happen when you have a thousand members? It's like, we'll get there. We will get there. First things first. Just do a little bite size, do a little mini launch for a challenge, a cohort, something with a beginning, middle and end. So hopefully that is helpful. Hopefully that is getting your brain just running with new ideas and things that you can do and make amazing. As you are thinking about creating something longer term, the impact that you will have with the community is absolutely stunning. But just start with something that you feel really comfortable that you're going to learn from. And we're here, we're here. I'm here, I'm here. I'm going to show you exactly how to do it with People Magic Profit, and I'm really excited to see what you build. If you want to know exactly how to build a $1 million community, click the link in the description to get access to to our full free course. I'm Gina Bianchini and this is People Magic.