How to Build a Successful Paid Community | Growth in Reverse

**Jay Clouse** (0:14)
Hello, my friend, welcome back to another episode of Creator Science.
Last month, while I was in Boise for the Lab Offline and Kits Craft and Commerce Conference, I recorded a podcast episode. Not for this show specifically, but for Chenell and Dylan on the Growth in Reverse podcast.
Chenell is a member of the Lab. She's been on this show multiple times. She's always an audience favorite. And this time, they turned around the mics to ask me a bunch of questions about community, memberships and where I see that space going. Given that this has been a huge focus for our team over the last month plus with the membership summit and now the live cohort we're running, it felt like a good time to share this on our feed as well. Some things you'll hear me talk about in this episode are the persistent challenge I have found with member led mastermind groups, two onboarding tactics that have kept secret for a while, the goal of offline events as I see it, what to think through before launching a membership and the unexpected risk in scaling a community too quickly. That's just a few bullet points. We covered a lot of ground in this one, all related to communities and memberships. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to Growth in Reverse. There's a link in the show notes. They do a great job. We'll get to that full conversation right after this.
This episode is brought to you by Circle, the community platform chosen by Tim Ferriss, Dr. Becky Kennedy and of course me. If you've been online over the last month, you've probably seen some chatter about Circle Eclipse, their biggest product release in company history. Here are two of my favorite parts of this release. First up, Circle AI. Imagine an AI partner that knows your business and runs it alongside you. Not only that, but it has the full knowledge of what you can do with Circle. From routine tasks to strategic work, it's like having the power of an entire team without one. What used to take you days or weeks to build can now be built in just a few hours with Circle AI. Number two, Circle Discover. A marketplace where millions of people can sign up, tell Circle what they want to achieve, and get matched with the creator businesses on Circle that take them there. Discover already features thousands of the top communities, courses and events on Circle. And for creators, it's a new marketing channel that you switch on with a single click. These are just two aspects of the Circle Eclipse launch. Read about the rest and join the waitlist for Circle AI at circle.so slash eclipse. That's circle.so slash eclipse.
This episode is sponsored by Ahrefs. Listen, this is going to sound like I'm joking, but I'm really not. I get fired up about software products that offer a generous free plan, and that is what I get to tell you about today. I've been a user of Ahrefs Free for years. SEO has never been my biggest focus, but I like to know how I'm doing, and Ahrefs Free lets me do just that. With an Ahrefs Free account, you can see your website's backlinks and understand who is linking to you. Check which pages and keywords are bringing organic traffic to your site. Use free SEO tools for keyword ideas, backlink checks, website authority, broken links and more. Spot content opportunities for your site and even look up competitor websites to see where they are getting traffic from. All of this without becoming a full-time SEO person. To me, creating an Ahrefs Free account and understanding your search results is a total no-brainer. Go to ahrefs.com/free, that's ahrefs.com/free, and verify your website today. That's Ahrefs, ahrefs.com/free.
That month was the highest month of membership revenue. The following year, February, was our highest month of churn ever. The strongest marketing levers sometimes are not exactly what people actually need.

**Dylan** (3:58)
How do you think about scaling a membership like that? It's doing really well, tons of engagement, people are loving it. But do you settle in for a little bit and then think about growth?

**Jay Clouse** (4:06)
I really care about retention more than anything else. When somebody discontinues their membership, like I do feel it sort of personally.

**Chenell Basilio** (4:14)
What is a strong marketing lever for a community?

**Dylan** (4:16)
Who shouldn't launch a membership?

**Jay Clouse** (4:19)
Um...

**Chenell Basilio** (4:23)
Welcome, Jay.

**Jay Clouse** (4:24)
Hey, we're doing it.

**Dylan** (4:25)
We're doing it.

**Jay Clouse** (4:26)
We're doing a whole club. I love it.

**Chenell Basilio** (4:27)
Yeah. Chenell, you've been on Jay's podcast one, two... Two, if not three. You guys did like a Becky collab.