Rethinking the Membership Model with Jay Clouse - [Making Media, EP.27]

Our guest today is Jay Clouse. Past guest Chris Hutchins told us that Jay had given him some of the best, contrarian advice on memberships. Naturally, that was enough of a hook for us so we got on the phone and asked him how to build a community around your product. Please enjoy this conversation with Jay Clouse. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.  ----- This episode is brought to you by Scribe. Scribe is the presenting sponsor of this episode of Making Media and the magic behind the Colossus transcripts. One of the best decisions we made at Colossus was transcribing all of our audio into a searchable transcript library. We had been using another provider up until the summer of 2022 but we were constantly having issues with accuracy if our audio was just the slightest bit impaired. Whether it's training sessions, internal Q&As, or for media purposes, the value of transcripts is huge. And we are not alone. Scribe is the transcription service that powers all of S&P Global - like CapIQ - and the client list includes our friends at Tegus. Go to joincolossus.com/scribe to unlock 150 minutes of free transcription and test their capabilities. ----- Making Media is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Making Media, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @ReustleMatt | @domcooke | @MakingMediaPod | @JoinColossus  Show Notes (00:02:35) - (First question) – He tells us about is 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