Making Media
Episode 27 Rethinking the Membership Model
Making Media

Episode 27: Rethinking the Membership Model

Making Media

Episode 27

Rethinking the Membership Model

Jay Clouse is the founder of Creator Science. We discuss the key ingredients for a good community, the structure and design of Jay's community 'The Lab', and timeless advice for creators.

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(00:02:35) - (First question) – He tells us about his lead social experience 

(00:04:14) – The difference between online versus in-person communities

(00:06:18) – What he thinks makes a good online community

(00:07:54) – How he incorporates his principles into The Lab

(00:10:31) – The driving force behind using videos on the platform

(00:11:50) – Transitioning out of a guiding role when introducing new members to the platform

(00:14:12) – The potential for replication of his platform membership idea

(00:16:42) – The meaning of sticky community and its measure of success

(00:18:21) – How scaling membership size can affect overall monetary growth

(00:20:20) – His opinions on turning his business into solely a membership platform

(00:22:01) – He explains how the renewal process for members works

(00:24:10) – The percentage of creators treating their content as a business

(00:26:00) – Moving from a multimedia business to just a singular outlet for content

(00:28:13) – The dangers of consistent content advice 

(00:29:36) – Other advice to be cautious of when wanting to grow your platform

(00:30:36) – The balance between giving up creative freedom for growth and staying true yourself

(00:34:31) – His advice for those who are struggling to find success 

(00:35:56) – Timeless strategies for content growth

(00:37:24) – His feelings on taking advice from experts in the field while being one himself

(00:41:28) – Who he thinks people should study in the creator space

(00:43:34) – Potentially acquiring jay.com 

(00:46:21) - Debrief 

Rethinking the Membership Model

Introduction

Matt
Welcome back to Making Media. Our guest today is Jay Clouse. The back story here, it was a previous guest, Chris Hutchins, who said that Jay had given him some of the best yet contrarian advice on memberships. That was naturally enough of a hook for us. When we look around the landscape, we think there is an obvious opportunity that everyone sees once you build an audience, can you create a community around that audience?

Many try it, few do it very well. Jay's business, Creator Science, not only sets out to help come up with these ideas for memberships, but generally to help creators earn a living. He's offering his wisdom through a podcast, through a newsletter, through YouTube and through his own community that he runs. I think this is the most interesting portion of this episode is how Jay thinks outside the box on his ideas.

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