This content was created by Kyle Ford. This content was uploaded by Kyle Ford. This is a podcast episode titled "Stop Losing Members: The 'Sticky' Community Framework" (published 2026-01-29) hosted by Sheena Bianchini. The episode is an instructional monologue about creating a "magical first experience" for new members of online communities, presenting a formula (purpose + connection + surprise) and multiple real-world examples (Playwork, Live Richer Academy, Outlier Project, Bite Shot). Tactics discussed include welcome videos, personalized welcome emails, bonus mini-courses, intro calls, IRL meetups, badging, downloadable gifts, and multi-week challenges. There is a short listener prompt from a member named Gina describing a launch that didn’t go well, which the host addresses, and the episode concludes with thanks and a mention of trying Mighty Networks.
You have worked hard to get your members into your new membership or course or challenge or event and making that first experience magical is so important and also really fun.
Hi Gina, I have an online community business, for instance aspiring fiction writers that I recently launched. I put all my community guidelines on the welcome page plus a welcome video telling everyone how the website works. But the launch kind of tanked. Not sure what to do.
Why do I actually feel the need to call out creating a magical first experience? Well, this is the most important thing. So many times when we want to get our members in and especially if we're trying to use different platforms and we have our courses on one place, our community somewhere else, our coaching business on a third, we focus on logistics or mechanics and the value of your membership, the one that you just worked really, really hard to create, your offer and your launch and your sales page and invite new people in gets lost. It's not a magical first experience. So let's look at what the formula for that value creation is. Add purpose plus connection plus surprise equals that magical first experience for your new members. Now let me show you just a couple examples. So the first is Playwork. These are early career stage computer programmers and engineers who love to game. And for members of Playwork, the first thing that they are encouraged to do and is start to attend live events with other members that they're gaming together. Then there is a personal tour of the Playwork community and finally there is an intro call with the team. Another example is the Live Richer Academy from the budgetista Tiffany Alice and her incredible community all around financial wealth, health and freedom. So in their magical first experience they surprise new members with a bonus mini course on investing. Then they have a totally personalized welcome email and finally a free book on how to grow and maintain a multimillion dollar business. So these are just little surprises, things that they weren't necessarily expecting when they joined that they get when they join the Live Richer Academy, the Outlier project which is for driven leaders ready to prioritize self improvement. Their magical first experience is an IRL in real life meetup opportunity for members all over the country. Then there is badging. A brand new member has an opportunity to take one action and get their own badge. Finally there is a warm and welcoming welcome video from the hosts of the Outlier project. Here's another example. The bite shot for food photographers excited to improve their skills and feel confident behind the camera. Their magical first experience is a free downloadable gift for members. They also have a fantastic welcome video and an invitation to a free 52 week food photography challenge. And so that's the magical first experience. I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a part of this. It really means a lot to me that you've invested the time to watch these videos and hopefully I have inspired you to start a free trial of a mighty network. This is people magic. I'm Sheena Bianchini. Until next time.
