Podcast Summary
From Education to Entrepreneurship: Monetizing Content with Creator Science: Focus on building communities and directing attention to monetize content and provide value to both creators and audiences.
Creating a successful business around content requires a shift from relying solely on technical expertise to embracing artistic and creative control. Jay, the founder of Creator Science, shares his journey from a background in education to discovering the world of entrepreneurship and content creation. He started making money from writing through group coaching and freelancing, but soon realized the potential in productizing his knowledge and creating a course. His business, Creator Science, now helps others monetize their content by providing value to their audience and capturing value for themselves. Jay's unique approach, as discussed on the podcast, is to focus on building communities and directing attention in a way that benefits both the creator and the audience. This niche but transformative business model has helped him build a successful membership community, The Lab, and hit best-seller lists with his book, "Feel Good Productivity."
Misconception about Creator Economy: Only Coaches Make Money: Creators make a living by providing value in various niches, not just coaching other creators.
There's a common misconception that the only way creators make money is by coaching other creators. However, there's a vast industry of people selling online courses and doing coaching for various niches. The success stories of creators teaching creators are often the ones we hear about, but there are countless individuals making a living by providing value in specific and niche areas. For instance, there's a member in a community who teaches people how to become runners on a plant-based diet, and another who teaches high school football coaches defensive line techniques. These creators may not be as visible to those outside their niche, but they hold significant opportunities for growth. Ultimately, it's essential to focus on providing value and results to your audience, regardless of the niche or meta nature of your business.
Why people join online communities: connection, transformation, identity: To build a successful online community, focus on providing value through connection, transformation, and fostering genuine relationships.
Online communities are becoming an essential aspect of making money online, with recurring revenue and connection being the main drivers. However, not all communities will thrive, and it's crucial to focus on providing value and fostering genuine connections to stand out. People seek out online communities for various reasons, primarily for connection, transformation, and a sense of identity. As social creatures, we have an inherent need for connection, and online communities offer a platform to meet that need. Transformation is another significant value proposition, as people often join communities to learn new skills or change their lives in some way. Lastly, a sense of identity is crucial, as communities provide opportunities for individuals to discover and express who they are. Therefore, building a successful online community requires a focus on these areas to create an engaging and valuable experience for members.
A 'Peloton for productivity' community: Create a structured community with weekly/monthly sessions, daily co-working, and accountability to boost productivity and provide a supportive environment for individuals to commit to their goals.
The success of a community can be attributed to the sense of connection and identity it provides. A person looking to start a productivity community, inspired by the science metaphor, could create a "Peloton for productivity" with structured weekly and monthly sessions, daily co-working sessions, and a focus on accountability and showing up to do the work. The goal is not just to make friends or talk about productivity, but to provide a structured environment that helps individuals commit to their productivity goals. The success of such a community relies on lowering the activation energy for individuals to engage and make progress towards their desired outcomes.
Maintaining control and leadership in productivity communities: To create a successful productivity community, maintain control and leadership while keeping it low lift for the business and host. Separate compelling promise from delivery, find balance between community self-management and business leadership, and follow habits like YNAB's to reduce financial stress and focus on productivity.
To create a successful productivity community, it's essential to maintain control and leadership while keeping it low lift for the business and the host. The community should not impede content creation or take excessive time from the host. While scaling is possible through hiring and resources, the business aims to provide guidance and support rather than leaving it up to the community to self-manage. Additionally, the importance of separating the compelling promise from the delivery was emphasized. The hardest nut to crack seems to be finding the right balance between community self-management and business leadership. Furthermore, the discussion touched upon the sponsor YNAB, an app that helps users change their mindset around money by implementing simple habits such as giving every dollar a job, embracing true expenses, rolling with the punches, and aging your money. By following these habits, individuals can reduce financial stress and anxiety, allowing them to focus on other areas of their lives, including productivity.
Start with a flexible offer: When starting a new project or using a new tool, focus on making a strong, flexible offer to allow for learning and growth over time.
When starting a new project or trying out a new tool, like budgeting with YNAP or investing with Trading 212, it's important to keep an open mind and not put too much pressure on yourself to have everything figured out right from the start. Instead, focus on making a strong promise or offer that allows for flexibility in delivery over time. For example, with Trading 212, features like investing in index funds for free, practicing with fake money, and copying professional allocations can help beginners learn the ropes without feeling overwhelmed. Similarly, for building a membership community, it's better to offer value in a flexible way that can evolve over time, rather than being too specific and rigid about the delivery. By focusing on the strong offer and allowing for flexibility, you can set yourself up for long-term success.
Maintaining flexibility in membership promises: Being vague in membership promises allows for experimentation and adjustment to meet member needs, while clear communication of recurring value ensures alignment and sustainability.
Being overly specific in promises made on sales pages for membership programs can limit flexibility and potentially lead to unnecessary pressure. Instead, maintaining a certain level of vagueness and framing memberships as an evolving lab or community allows for more experimentation and adjustment to meet the needs of members. This approach also aligns expectations and incentives well, as long as the recurring value is clearly communicated and delivered. Additionally, offering recurring revenue models requires providing recurring value, and misaligning the recurrence schedule with the time it takes to achieve a specific outcome may lead to churn. Overall, being adaptable and open to feedback from members is crucial for creating a successful and sustainable membership program.
Building trust through authenticity and transparency: Authenticity and transparency are crucial for building trust. Use a 'private opening, public launch' strategy to build trust with a select group before making a public promise. Testimonials and case studies persuade potential customers. Be honest and genuine in your connections and consider pricing structure carefully.
Building trust with your audience and delivering on your promises are key elements of successful marketing. The speaker emphasizes the importance of being authentic and transparent, especially when making promises. He suggests using a "private opening, public launch" strategy to build trust with a select group of people before making a public promise. The speaker also emphasizes the power of testimonials and case studies in persuading potential customers, and the importance of making honest and genuine connections. Additionally, the speaker touches on the importance of considering the pricing structure for a membership or product, and the balance between content and connection in the offering. Overall, the speaker's advice emphasizes the importance of building trust and authenticity in marketing, and using strategies like private openings and genuine testimonials to create compelling offers.
Focus on connection and relationship in membership businesses: Understand audience and pricing to create a scalable, relationship-focused membership business. Target professionals and entrepreneurs with a mass-market product.
When building a membership business, the focus on connection and relationship versus content and programming sets a bias and preframes the expectations of members. The relationship-focused model can be challenging to scale, but a strong product and intent can help overcome these challenges. The target audience and pricing are crucial factors to consider. The audience for a productivity membership, for instance, might consist of ambitious entrepreneurs, creators, and professionals, but it's essential to understand their willingness and ability to pay. While the data is limited, assumptions based on existing customers and audience surveys can provide valuable insights. The goal is to create a mass-market product that caters to professionals and entrepreneurs alike, offering value regardless of their employment status or income level.
Broadening target audience for productivity lab: Expanding to a larger market can increase impact and potential revenue, but requires careful consideration of value proposition, pricing strategy, and operational resources.
Expanding the target audience for a productivity lab from entrepreneurs to a broader market can lead to greater impact and potential revenue, but it comes with challenges such as lower individual revenue per customer and increased operational overhead. The decision to target a larger market or a more sophisticated, high-revenue one depends on the business goals and resources. It's essential to consider the value proposition for different customer segments and the pricing strategy that aligns with the target audience's willingness and ability to pay. Ultimately, the choice between serving a smaller, high-revenue market or a larger, lower-revenue one depends on the business's mission, vision, and long-term growth strategy.
Focusing on a specific audience or niche can add value and perception: Consider long-term vision, add value to specific audience, and use barbell approach with free or very expensive offerings while maintaining overall business model
When considering business strategy and product development, it's essential to think about the long-term vision and how each offering contributes to building the brand. The speaker suggests that focusing on a specific audience or niche can add value and perception. The barbell approach, where most offerings are free or very expensive, can be effective, but it's crucial to consider the implications for the free offering and the overall business model. The speaker plans to continue providing free content while also releasing low-ticket productivity software and hosting free events for the broader audience. If the goal is to serve both audiences at different price points, starting with a higher ticket offering and scaling down could be a viable approach. The numbers for bringing in people for a private opening depend on the desired level of relationship building and connection.
Personalized onboarding process for new community members: A thoughtful onboarding process with personalized introductions, clear instructions, and a welcoming environment can significantly enhance member engagement and retention in online communities
Building a strong community relies on a thoughtful onboarding process. The slower the integration of new members, the better for forming genuine relationships and conversations. A personalized onboarding experience, including one-on-one introductions, can significantly enhance member engagement and retention. When people join, they may feel a mix of excitement and anxiety. Providing a welcoming and supportive first experience can help alleviate their concerns and encourage them to fully engage with the community. Clubhouse, for instance, offered personalized onboarding calls to its early users, creating a memorable and engaging first impression. To effectively onboard new members, consider implementing a multi-step process, including a personalized welcome message, a guided tour of the community, and an introduction to other members. By providing clear instructions and answering the "now what?" question as much as possible, you can create a sense of belonging and encourage members to actively participate in the community.
Creating a welcoming community experience: Respond promptly and positively to new members, prioritize timely assistance, and focus on creating a welcoming, responsive, and supportive environment to foster a thriving community.
Effective onboarding and welcoming experiences are crucial for building successful communities. When new members join a gym or a digital community, they crave a sense of belonging and recognition. A well-designed onboarding process, such as a personalized welcome session or an introductory channel, can help establish a connection and set the stage for meaningful engagement. However, failing to respond promptly and positively to new members' introductions can lead to a negative experience and hinder their sense of belonging. Additionally, communities that prioritize timely assistance and support can differentiate themselves from competitors and keep members engaged. When designing a community, consider keeping the number of spaces to a minimum, ensuring each one serves a distinct purpose, and being mindful of the potential use of gamification as it may not always align with members' goals. Ultimately, focusing on creating a welcoming, responsive, and supportive environment is essential for fostering a thriving community.
Creating and managing online communities: Consider demand, density, and engagement: Start with a few well-defined community spaces based on genuine demand and member density. Vet requests through a voting mechanism and identify a champion. Provide clear onboarding and training. Gradually add more spaces over time. Consider the customer journey stage when designing membership products.
When creating and managing an online community or membership space, it's important to carefully consider which spaces to create based on genuine demand and density of interested members. Vetting requests through a voting mechanism and identifying a champion for the space can help ensure its success. However, adding too many spaces too quickly can be overwhelming for new members and may lead to lack of engagement. Instead, starting with a minimum number of spaces and gradually adding more over time is a better approach. Additionally, providing clear onboarding and training on how to use the community tool effectively can help members achieve their desired outcomes and increase participation. It's also important to consider the specific stage of a customer's journey when designing a membership product, as trying to serve a wide spectrum of stages can be challenging and may result in the community reverting to the lowest common denominator.
Ensuring a good community fit through application process and recurring value: Implement an application process for member selection, provide recurring value through workshops and goal-setting sessions, and effectively organize content to keep members engaged.
Building and maintaining a successful community requires careful consideration and management. While pricing can help filter out some members, it's not foolproof. High-ambition individuals with means or even those with delusions can still join and negatively impact the community. Therefore, implementing an application or screening process can help ensure a good fit for the community. Another important aspect is providing recurring value to keep members engaged. While one-time content is valuable, recurring content such as workshops or goal-setting sessions can create a sense of community and keep members coming back. However, adding too much content can lead to overwhelm and decreased value perception. Recording and archiving sessions can be beneficial, but it's essential to consider the quality and organization of the content. A large library of assets can be overwhelming, and it's crucial to help members navigate the content effectively. In summary, building a successful community requires careful member selection, recurring value, and effective content organization. It's a balancing act between adding features and keeping things manageable.
Creating a Successful Membership Community: Tailored Content and Experiences for Different Member Groups: Identify member types, plan value proposition, use membership management tools, implement effective onboarding, organize events with clear structure, consider using a payment platform like Circle Payments for streamlined payments, and provide tailored content and experiences for each group.
Creating and managing a successful membership community involves identifying the different types of members and providing tailored content and experiences for each group. Early planning and consideration of value proposition, membership management tools, onboarding processes, and event organization are crucial elements. Regarding payments, using a platform like Circle Payments with paywalls can streamline the process and reduce support costs. When it comes to events, having a clear structure and possibly consolidating multiple communities into one larger one can help manage the volume while ensuring members have access to all relevant content based on their membership level. However, there are limitations to using a platform like Circle with permissioned access levels, and careful consideration should be given to whether full access or separate accounts are the best options.
Managing access and permissions in online communities: Clear call to action, make announcements exclusive, consider privacy, start with a small group, create separate interest groups, and focus on a magical first experience.
Creating a successful online community involves carefully managing access and permissions to ensure a positive and engaging experience for members. Jay, from Creator Science, shared his experience using Circle, a platform for building online communities. He highlighted the importance of having a clear call to action for all members in the home feed, but also the need to make certain announcements and events exclusive to specific groups. He emphasized the importance of considering members' privacy concerns and the potential complications of having all members visible to each other. Additionally, Jay recommended starting with a small group of people and focusing on creating a magical first experience to build a strong community culture and ensure long-term retention. He also suggested creating separate interest groups and making them joinable only for members, to enhance the community experience. To learn more about Jay and his approach to building online communities, visit creatorscience.com and consider enrolling in his membership course using the coupon code "deepdive".
Staying updated with latest trends and technologies: Continuous learning and exploration can lead to new opportunities and innovations, whether in business or personal growth. Seek out new resources and connections to expand knowledge and skills.
Importance of continuous learning and exploration in various fields. We talked about how staying updated with the latest trends and technologies can lead to new opportunities and innovations. For instance, in the world of technology, keeping up with advancements can help businesses stay competitive. Similarly, in personal growth, expanding knowledge and skills can lead to new experiences and discoveries. The speakers also emphasized the value of collaboration and networking, as these can open doors to new learning opportunities and potential partnerships. So, whether it's for professional or personal growth, it's essential to remain curious and open-minded, and to seek out new resources and connections. And if you're interested in learning more, be sure to check out the suggested episode for additional insights on this topic.