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(Members - don’t forget - Get it DONE (on Substack) Weeks - by Claire Venus 💫 is happening live this week and our welcome sequences membership class is tomorrow)
Are memberships dead? Ai is making us all redundant! Do we all have subscription fatigue now? Are paid subs the first thing to be cut from budgets? I don’t know about you but I feel like people want to constantly rain on our parade just as we’re gearing up to throw more sparkle.
Don’t listen!
Guess what love - the internet has WOKEN up - we have digital migrants and natives all in this mix here on Substack and beyond - if you you want to build something it’s not too late and you have time.
If you feel called to create, thank goodness because creativity is an infinite resource. If you feel called to share your voice - thank you because I need to stand with other strong spirits as we navigate this next chapter and model new ways of working and dismantling systems for our kids together.
I LOVED this live chat with my mentor Leonie Dawson - she is always so generous with her time (and clear with her boundaries) which is why she’s been able to deliver subscriptions programmes for 10+ years - wild!
“I’ve been able to create a membership that doesn’t feel like it’s another thing for me to mother. It’s something that is there and nurtures me and supports me and has been able to hold me through some of the most challenging times of my life.” — Leonie, on designing her business around flexibility and her own wellbeing as a neurodivergent person.
That’s sustainability for you right there!!
Leonie’s Academy Closes again in just a few days and we’re all starting the million dollar memberships programme together next week - come join us over there? (*)
I wrote a whole post about how much I’ve learnt from Leonie Dawson in the last five years and why I think everyone should be in the academy.
You can read it here…
Ai summary - thanks Claude
Leonie shares her origin story selling art online from 2002, launching her first e-course in 2008, and eventually creating a membership model that now has around 3,000 members, 80% annual retention, and generates roughly a million dollars a year all while working roughly 10 hours a week.
The conversation covers pricing strategy (she’s moved her membership from $99 to $495 and back to $99 again), how to tune out internet doom and gloom about AI, subscriptions being “dead,” and trust recessions.
A recurring theme is the importance of building something sustainable that doesn’t “brutalize your spirit” — including taking four months off and structuring the business so she doesn’t have to answer every DM.
“If you want the basic b***h result, AI is for you. But if you want extraordinary results, you need to learn from people like the ways that they’ve been able to create those outsized results.” — Leonie, on why AI won’t kill well-run e-courses built on genuine expertise.
Thank you Sally Ekus, Kate Harvey, mary beth kaplan🪶, Margaret Williams, MS, ACC, Colleen | 3rd Act Field Notes, and many others for tuning into my live video with Leonie Dawson! Join me for my next live video in the app. (*) aff link.
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