Episode 23: 3 Ways Successful Membership Owners THINK Differently

Written By Natalie Taylor

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EPISODE DESCRIPTION & RESOURCES:

Over the last 8 years I've worked closely with business owners whose memberships generates the majority of their income, to the tune of multiple 6- or 7-figures per year.

In this episode, I'm sharing how they think about their membership (plus one thing they often forget!) and how you can apply these perspectives to grow your recurring revenue in 2025 and beyond.

Listen now (and let me know what you think) or keep scrolling to read the article. ⬇️

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PREFER TO READ? HERE’S THE TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome back. I feel like this is the time of year when we’re all either a little bit sick of summer or a little bit sick of winter.

If you're in the Southern Hemisphere like me, I am recording this from under a heated blanket. Our winters are very mild, and if I were in the winter sun right now, I’d be very happy. But none of the homes in Australia are particularly well insulated (it’s a thing) so we all kind of sit inside our homes wearing all of these layers, even though it’s not actually that cold outside.

But I was just talking to a friend in upstate New York, and she said she’d rate her summer a 6 out of 10. It’s the part of summer where it’s muggy, it’s sweaty, and maybe you're realizing that expectations haven’t quite lined up with reality.

You’re not feeling so great about this season that you’re in and you’re hoping for a bit of a reset. But sometimes…

Sometimes, the best reset isn’t what you do, but how you think

So in today’s episode, I want to share three mindset shifts that are key to becoming (and growing as) a membership-driven business owner.

Two of these shifts are especially important if you're at the stage where you're trying to get your membership beyond that $10K/month recurring revenue mark.

And the third shift that I share at the end is something you’ll need to keep practicing as your membership scales, especially when you’re working with a team and growing into that multi–six or even seven-figure stage.

When something just isn’t clicking anymore, or when you’re feeling disconnected from your own membership, it’s usually because you’re missing that third shift.

Let’s get into it.

The Membership Growth Gameplan context

The ideas I share in today’s episode are inspired by the work I’m doing behind the scenes with my Membership Growth Gameplan clients. If you’re not familiar with that offer, it’s how we work together to grow your membership in 90-day windows.

We get clear on your priorities. Dial in your sales assets. Create new assets so you’re not reinventing the wheel every launch. Get solid on your numbers. And choose the activities that move the needle to help you grow your membership.

If you're serious about making your membership your main source of income, this is the perfect way to do it:

One thing I’ve noticed while doing this work with clients is that the decisions required to grow a membership often create friction.

Because becoming a membership-driven business owner—where the primary source of income is your membership—requires you to say yes to things you might not be used to saying yes to. And no to some things you’re used to relying on.

You have to market differently. Sell differently. Run your business differently. And lead differently inside your programs, because the way you support people in a membership is not the same as how we support people through a linear course.

I talk about this a lot in Episode 16 of the podcast, but here’s what I want to unpack today: three key shifts I’m seeing show up again and again, for both newer membership owners and those already earning multiple six or seven figures.

Shift 1: From Expert/Coach/Doer → Activator of Action

This is an internal shift. It’s about how you run your membership behind the scenes.

Most of us don’t start our businesses with a membership. You might have been a service provider, a coach, or an educator with digital products. And so you come into your membership with that identity: someone who’s hands-on, results-oriented, deeply supportive, or ready to teach.

But where this gets tricky is that your membership is actually all about action. IT’s not about filling your members’ heads with stuff.

That means if you show up wanting to solve, coach, or teach, you might find yourself overgiving and still feeling like it’s not working.

Your members might be saying, “This is great!”… and then doing nothing with it.

You’re probably frustrated. You’re adding more content, more support, but still seeing low engagement and momentum.

That’s a sign that this shift is needed.

You have to move from:

“How do I teach this brilliantly?”
To:
“How do I get my members moving and taking action?

Your membership is in the business of behavior change.

Even your best monthly masterclass will fall flat if it doesn’t help members get something done this week or this month.

So ask yourself:

  • Did they walk away knowing exactly what to do next?

  • Did I name where they might get stuck?

  • Did I help them make time for the work in their actual life?

  • Am I designing systems to check in, offer support, and guide their action between calls?

This shift is about letting go of being the expert and instead becoming a guide for someone else’s momentum.

Shift 2: From Saying Yes to Everything → Strategic Builder

This is the hard one.

If you're in the traction phase of growing your membership, there’s often a moment where you realize:

“I literally cannot grow this unless I say no to something else.”

And that’s terrifying, because that “something else” is often tied to reliable revenue.

Maybe it’s a service, another offer, or one-off project that you’ve sold before and that sells easily. You know that with just one sale, you could bring in the equivalent of 10 (or even 100) membership signups.

That’s the tricky part because Memberships are designed for scale. So they need space, consistency, and volume. And that space doesn’t exist if your calendar is packed with short-term revenue plays.

This shift is for you if:

  • You feel totally maxed out and can’t imagine doing another enrollment push

  • You finish a launch and feel like you need 3 months to recover

  • You keep deprioritizing membership marketing for higher-ticket offers that you don’t actually want to be selling

  • You’re trying to grow the membership, but you feel under-resourced and overwhelmed

What we do in the Gameplan Intensive is make space.

That means identifying what can be paused, stripped back, or removed. That means treating your membership as a long-term asset, and running the numbers so you can take one step back to take three steps forward.

Ask yourself:

  • What mix of offers do I actually want to take into the next chapter?

  • Which offers reflect who I am now, not just who I was a year ago?

  • What could change if I gave my membership 90 days of focused space?

This doesn’t mean burning your other offers. It means running an experiment and giving your membership room to succeed.

Shift 3: From Leader on the Pedestal to Being in the Arena with Your Members

This last shift tends to show up as you scale.

Maybe your membership is making $500K, $1M, or more. You’ve got a team. You’ve got systems. You’ve got SOPs. The membership is running like a machine (…. mostly. ha)

But you? You feel weirdly disconnected from it.

You’re teaching your masterclasses. You’re showing up to the planning meetings. But the spark is gone. The energy is off. You’re not really in it.

This happens because, as you scale, you slowly start to drift out of the work. You’re no longer in the day-to-day—and while that’s great for your capacity, it can lead to a slow disconnection from your members and the value you’re trying to create.

So here’s the question I ask my clients:

Are you still in the arena with your members?

If not, how can you get back in?
How can you embody the work again?
How can you keep practicing the ideas and values you want your members to model…
And bring your members along for the journey with you?

It might mean:

  • Trying an experiment alongside your members

  • Showing behind the scenes of how you’re doing the work

  • Setting a challenge and inviting them to join you

  • Sharing what you’re learning in real time

This shift is about staying close to your own material, because that’s where energy and connection come back.

Getting off the pedestal and back into the arena is one of the best things you can do for both your sales on the front-end, and your retention on the back end.

It’s Time to Think and Grow Like a Membership-Driven Business Owner

If you’re ready to make your membership your main thing: to strengthen your recurring revenue and get real clarity on how to grow, the Gameplan Intensive is the perfect way for us to work together.

We’ll create a plan to grow your membership through the end of 2025 and decide on the specific moves you’ll make to grow your recurring revenue.

The Gameplan includes personal support from me plus Voxer access between sessions to work through decisions and assets as you implement over the next 90 days.

You can find all the details on the Gameplan Intensive right here.

And as always, if any of these shifts struck a chord for you, I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for joining me, and I’ll see you in the next one.

YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY…

Natalie Taylor
Next

Episode 22: Membership Sales Slowing Down? Here’s What’s Really Going On