Podcasts about forever transaction

Join Robbie Baxter as she shares expert strategies for building a successful subscription business. In her interview, she underscores the importance of fostering a sense of membership and cultivating trust within the community. She emphasizes the necessity of understanding organizational culture, developing effective systems, surrounding oneself with the right community, adopting a growth-oriented mindset, and strategically leveraging goals for sustained business success. Watch the full episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/E8ivQUK8ahs.About Robbie Kellman Baxter:                                           Robbie Kellman Baxter is  a leading expert in subscription pricing and digital communities, has advised over 100 organizations across various industries, including the NBA and Microsoft, over the past 21 years. She hosts the podcast "Subscription Stories" and has developed popular LinkedIn Learning courses on business topics. Her acclaimed books, "The Membership Economy" and "The Forever Transaction," explore the shift to subscription models. A former strategy consultant and Silicon Valley product marketer, Robbie holds an MBA from Stanford and graduated with honors from Harvard. Please click here to learn more about https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/About Brad SugarsInternationally known as one of the most influential entrepreneurs, Brad Sugars is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the #1 business coach in the world. Over the course of his 30-year career as an entrepreneur, Brad has become the CEO of 9+ companies and is the owner of the multimillion-dollar franchise ActionCOACH®. As a husband and father of five, Brad is equally as passionate about his family as he is about business. That's why, Brad is a strong advocate for building a business that works without you – so you can spend more time doing what really matters to you. Over the years of starting, scaling and selling many businesses, Brad has earned his fair share of scars. Being an entrepreneur is not an easy road. But if you can learn from those who have gone before you, it becomes a lot easier than going at it alone.Please click here to learn more about Brad Sugars: https://bradsugars.com/Learn the Fundamentals of Success for free:The Big Success Starter: https://results.bradsugars.com/thebigsuccess-starter

Would you like to know the inner workings of today's Membership and Subscription Economy? Join Robbie Kellman Baxter and me on Wednesday, April 3rd, from 10 to 11 A.M. Central Time U.S. Our conversation will be about her remarkable life journey and why the membership and subscription economy models are so successful in today's business model. Robbie Kellman Baxter is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC, a consulting firm. She helps companies use subscription pricing, digital communities, and freemium models to build deeper customer relationships. For over 21 years, she has worked with over 100 organizations in over 20 industries. Robbie has presented globally as a keynote speaker at major conferences, association meetings, trade shows, elite universities, and private audiences at many of the world's most well-known companies. She hosts the podcast “Subscription Stories,” where she interviews business leaders to discuss how they use subscription pricing and membership models to redefine the biggest industries and generate predictable recurring revenue. Robbie also developed and taught nine video courses for LinkedIn Learning on business topics ranging from innovation to customer success and membership. Robbie's first book, “The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue,” was named one of the top ten marketing books of all time by BookAuthority. Her second book, The Forever Transaction, walks readers through every step of the subscription business process. Robbie received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated with honors from Harvard College. She was a strategy consultant at Booz-Allen & Hamilton, a New York City Urban Fellow, and a Silicon Valley product marketer.

If you've ever wanted to create recurring revenue inside your business you'll want to listen to today's episode of Built to Sell Radio. The show is the third in our three-part expert series and features a conversation between John Warrillow, the author of The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in any Industry, and Robbie Kellman Baxter, the author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction -- two of the world's leading experts on subscription models in one episode.

This week on the Expert Voices podcast, Randy Wootton, CEO of Maxio, speaks with Robbie Baxter, CEO of Peninsula Strategies and a leading expert on subscription business models and monetization. She has worked with companies like Netflix and has written two books on the topic: "The Membership Economy" and "The Forever Transaction." Robbie shares her background and interest in subscription models, as well as the key concepts and best practices outlined in her books. Robbie shares insights on the importance of designing products for ongoing value, the need for organizations to focus on customer outcomes, and the challenges of scaling and staying relevant in a subscription-based business. She also highlights the example of Strava and how they successfully built a community of loyal customers. Quotes"You need a lot of discipline, I think, in a SaaS model. So you need to know this kind of customer, this is how the relationship is going to expand over time and I think together to kind of start to set expectations about where is this relationship going to go after the moment of sale. The moment of transaction is the starting line, not the finish line.” -Robbie Baxter [13:03]“One of the interesting things about the SaaS business model, in general, is, obviously for Maxio, we help people understand their SaaS operating metrics, and we're able to pattern match across the 2300 customers. I think all VCs and PE firms are doing the same. So they say, look, if you're a SaaS company, this is what your net retention should be. This is how much you spend on sales and marketing. So I do think there's pattern matching going on, and everybody has the playbook now.” -Randy Wootton [21:50]Expert Takeaways Subscription business models require products that solve ongoing problems and are designed for easy deployment and expansion over time.Organizations need to focus on customer outcomes and align their pricing with the value they provide.Balancing acquisition metrics with retention metrics is crucial for long-term success in the subscription economy.Subscription fatigue is a real challenge, and companies need to continuously demonstrate value to retain customers.Listening to the voice of the customer means considering not just existing customers, but also lapsed customers and prospects.Timestamps[01:28] Robbie's career journey [08:33] Focus on customer success and engagement for retention [11:44] Sales-led growth vs. product-led growth models [13:35] Aligning pricing with customer outcomes in SaaS models. [17:06] Moving from short-term revenue to long-term customer relationships. [17:46] "The Forever Transaction" as a playbook for B2B SaaS success. [20:52] Loyalty vs. Inertia [25:31] Subscription fatigue and managing multiple subscriptions is complex. [29:30] Staying current and responding to market evolution is crucial. [31:31] Subscription dieting and the pressure to demonstrate value and justify prices. Connect MAXIOUpcoming Events

This week we're talking the membership economy with the knowledgable expert, Robbie Kellman Baxter. In this explained episode, Erica and Robbie chat through what exactly the membership economy is, why Robbie thinks those companies are best set up for success in the coming decade, and how Robbie coins terminology that the industry adopts. She has a fascinating path starting off in consulting and carving her niche as the world's expert on the membership economy.Robbie Kellman Baxter helps companies leverage subscription pricing, digital communities, and freemium models to build deeper relationships with customers. Over the past 21 years, she has worked with over 100 organizations in over 20 industries like the National Basketball Association, Hagerty, The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft, and Ingram Micro.  As a keynote speaker, she has presented globally at major conferences, association meetings, trade shows and elite universities as well as to private audiences at many of the world's most well-known companies. She hosts the podcast, “Subscription Stories,” where she sits down with business leaders to discuss how they're using subscription pricing and membership models to redefine the biggest industries and generate predictable recurring revenue. Robbie has also developed and taught nine video courses for LinkedIn Learning on business topics ranging from innovation to customer success and membership.Her first book, “The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue,” anticipated and defined the massive transformation from ownership to membership and the rise of subscription pricing. It was named a top 10 marketing book of all time by BookAuthority. Her second book, “The Forever Transaction,” takes readers through every step of the subscription business process – from initial start-up or testing of a new model to scaling the operation for long-term growth and sustainability. Prior to launching Peninsula Strategies, Robbie was a strategy consultant at Booz-Allen & Hamilton, a New York City Urban Fellow, and a Silicon Valley product marketer. She received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated with honors from Harvard College. Twentysomethings, tune in now for a jam-packed chat on all things membership economy.Follow Us!Robbie Kellman Baxter: @robbiebaxBuy The Membership Economy hereBuy The Forever Transaction hereErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

Check out Robbie's mentoring subscription and The Forever Transaction book.

Wondering how to succeed in a subscription business? In this episode, you'll hear from the authority in subscription business models. You'll learn how to identify the long and short-term problems that your customer most needs your support with, the cost value of meeting those needs with your product or experience, and the impact that subscriptions can have on your customer's experience, so you can provide continuous value with a forever transaction.  Robbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant, instructor, author and speaker. She wrote two bestselling books The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction, hosts the podcast Subscription Stories, and has developed ten courses for LinkedIn Learning. Robbie has more than 20 years' experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations, including Netflix, Microsoft and the Wall Street Journal. She has been focused on subscription and membership models for the past twenty years. She earned her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and she graduated with honors from Harvard College. You can find more about Robbie on her website https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/  Whether you are creating, managing, or simply using subscriptions, you don't want to miss this eye-opening episode!  

The Inception of Netflix's Subscription Model, with Robbie Kellman Baxter, Best-Selling Author of The Forever TransactionSubscriptions are the norm in 2023.But it wasn't always that way.Behind every genius model is someone. Someone who made things the way they are by changing the way they were.And in the case of the brilliant shift to a membership economy that Netflix led, and millions of others followed, the “someone” behind that move was our guest today, Robbie Kellman Baxter.It was such an honor to dive into a personal conversation with Robbie, who is known for her #1 best-selling books The Forever Transaction” and “The Membership Economy”, but today we get to experience Robbie's insights on not just subscriptions, but education, digital community, and even poetry.You're in for a treat.From Poetic Verses to Subscription ExpertiseIn the late 1980s, Robbie's parents encouraged her to pursue her passions and study whatever interested her.They believed in her ability to forge a successful career, regardless of her chosen field.With this support, Robbie embarked on a journey into the world of poetry...As she entered the job market after college, she faced condescending questions during interviews, such as being asked if her passion for poetry would distract her from her work. Despite such challenges, Robbie's dedication and impressive track record of achievements eventually landed her a job.“People mostly you get your next job based on what you've done prior to that. Sometimes school is a signaling factor. And what I always said about poetry as a signaling factor is that I am, I have an ability to do a close read...to see patterns and draw conclusions.” --- Robbie BaxterTo thrive in the independent consulting realm, she understood the importance of establishing a personal brand and becoming an expert in a specific area.It was during this phase that Robbie discovered her passion for subscriptions and membership models, which she has been actively involved in for over two decades.“If you want to be a successful independent in this world, you have to have a brand and you have to be an expert on something and be known for something. Eventually I sort of found my way into subscriptions and membership about 22 years ago. And it's been a really fun journey.” --- Robbie Baxter Today, Robbie's expertise lies in the realm of subscriptions, where her skills as a writer and researcher come to the fore.Robbie's JourneyRobbie shared her experience of working at three different tech companies after graduating from business school.In retrospect, these companies operated under recurring revenue models, similar to today's SaaS companies. When faced with a layoff, her immediate focus was on financial stability to support her mortgage and family. Initially, she was open to any work that could provide income. However, she realized the need to specialize and become an expert in a specific area. “Now that I'm more comfortable that I can make a living as a contractor, consultant, where am I going to focus? I need a focus. I need to be an expert on something.” --Robbie BaxterThe turning point came when she began working with Netflix as an independent consultant.Witnessing Netflix's relentless dedication to customer retention and its profound impact on...

Robbie Kellman Baxter is an Advisor to the world's leading subscription-based companies, a Keynote Speaker and Author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction. She is also the Host of Subscription Stories Podcast. In this episode, Robbie discusses the significance of upholding ethical standards when implementing a subscription business model, as it greatly affects the company's long-term viability.   Why you have to check out today's podcast: Learn about the unethical practices in subscription pricing and their long-term implications for your business Find out effective price segmentation strategies that can be applied to your subscription-based business model Know why these companies are the best models when it comes to subscription pricing   “Have a rationale for your pricing structure that you would be comfortable showing to a loved one who is a customer.” - Robbie Kellman Baxter   Topics Covered: 01:49 - What drove her entry into Pricing 04:28 - Why some companies make it hard for subscribers to cancel and what is it's negative implication in the long run 08:12 - Bad karma as a consequence of hiding a cancellation button  09:20 - Discussion around an advancing legislation on making it easier to cancel subscriptions anytime 11:11 - Understanding price segmentation in a subscription pricing 17:20 - How she negotiates when buying a car, for instance, knowing someone else paid a different price for that 19:20 - Price segmentation discussion around Everyday-Low Price[EDLP] versus High-low Price 21:09 - Discussing pricing segmentation used by Netflix and news organizations 23:25 - Another price segmentation point of discussion [based on where you live and how busy these areas are] 26:06 - Case in point at Macy's on price differential as the topic of discussion 27:51 - What makes her price sensitive even when she's non-price sensitive 29:20 - Robbie's best pricing advice   Key Takeaways: "I tried to explain to them how [putting some friction into your cancellation process] in the short-term does work, in the long term, it kills your business. It kills your reputation, it ruins the trust." - Robbie Kellman Baxter “Whatever it took to get you in there, it should take you out. If you can sign up any day of the week, any time of day, you shouldn't be required to cancel Tuesdays between two and four.” - Robbie Kellman Baxter “Where I come down on differentiated pricing or segmented pricing is if you can explain it to somebody. If your mother would be okay with being on the high end of that pricing and understanding why you're doing it, then I'm okay with it.” - Robbie Kellman Baxter   People / Resources Mentioned: SiriusXM: https://www.siriusxm.com/ Wells Fargo: https://www.wellsfargo.com/ Suzi Watford: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzi-watford-18547817/ Dow Jones Wall Street Journal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_%26_Company Booz Allen: https://www.boozallen.com/ Macy's:https://www.macys.com JCPenney: https://www.jcpenney.com/ Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/   Connect with Robbie Kellman Baxter: Website: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbiekellmanbaxter/ Email: rbaxter@peninsulastrategies.com   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com  

How many times have you heard the suggestion "we should try the Netflix model" and wondered what exactly that means? Adapting and adopting pricing models is a perennial conundrum in the membership world but today Elisa and Andrew are joined by the global subscription guru, Robbie Kellman Baxter, who talks us through the issues and opportunities of designing subscription-based membership offerings. Robbie's books are The Membership Economy  and The Forever Transaction; her regular podcast is Subscription Stories; and you can read her recent article in Associations Evolve 2023 and Beyond here.Support the show

In this episode, Tom reviews the interview between Paula and Robbie Kellman Baxter, the world's leading expert on subscription pricing and membership models. Listen in to understand why program managers should consider offering subscriptions or paid for memberships to remain competitive. Robbie is a bestselling author, speaker and consultant with more than twenty years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations including Netflix and other notable brands. She is the author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction and host of the podcast, Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches. Hosted by Tom Peace. Show Notes : 1) Robbie Kellman Baxter 2) Website: robbiekellmanbaxter.com 3) The Membership Economy 4) The Forever Transaction 5) Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches. - Podcast 6) #177: Subscription Programmes as a Must-Have Tool for Brand Success

Discover customer-centric insights in this episode with Robbie Kellman Baxter, renowned for her expertise in the membership economy. Delve into her definition of success, pivotal moments that shifted her perspective, and her theory on success. As the author of bestselling books "The Forever Transaction" and "The Membership Economy," she has consulted for industry giants like Netflix, Fitbit, and Microsoft, offering valuable advice on building prosperous membership and subscription models. Robbie's journey emphasizes understanding the customer's journey, embracing failure as a teacher, and achieving success through consistency and focus. "Think about where you're going and then work your way backward," she suggests. About Robbie BaxterRobbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant, author and speaker. She is also the author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction and hosts the podcast Subscription Stories. Robbie has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations, including Netflix, Fitbit, Microsoft and Consumer Reports. She has been focused on subscription and growth strategies for the past decade. Baxter has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on CNN. She earned her MBA from the Stanford GSB and graduated with honors from Harvard College.Please click here to learn more about Robbie Kellman Baxter.About Brad SugarsInternationally known as one of the most influential entrepreneurs, Brad Sugars is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the #1 business coach in the world. Over the course of his 30-year career as an entrepreneur, Brad has become the CEO of 9+ companies and is the owner of the multimillion-dollar franchise ActionCOACH®. As a husband and father of five, Brad is equally as passionate about his family as he is about business. That's why, Brad is a strong advocate for building a business that works without you – so you can spend more time doing what really matters to you. Over the years of starting, scaling and selling many businesses, Brad has earned his fair share of scars. Being an entrepreneur is not an easy road. But if you can learn from those who have gone before you, it becomes a lot easier than going at it alone.Please click here to learn more about Brad Sugars: https://bradsugars.com/Learn the Fundamentals of Success for free:The Big Success Starter: https://results.bradsugars.com/thebigsuccess-starter

Robbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant, author and speaker. She is also the author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction and hosts the podcast Subscription Stories. Robbie has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations, including Netflix, Fitbit, Microsoft and Consumer Reports. She has been focused on subscription and growth strategies for the past decade. Baxter has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on CNN. She earned her MBA from the Stanford GSB and graduated with honors from Harvard College.Please click here to learn more about Robbie Kellman Baxter.About Brad Sugars Internationally known as one of the most influential entrepreneurs, Brad Sugars is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the #1 business coach in the world. Over the course of his 30-year career as an entrepreneur, Brad has become the CEO of 9+ companies and is the owner of the multimillion-dollar franchise ActionCOACH®. As a husband and father of five, Brad is equally as passionate about his family as he is about business. That's why, Brad is a strong advocate for building a business that works without you – so you can spend more time doing what really matters to you. Over the years of starting, scaling and selling many businesses, Brad has earned his fair share of scars. Being an entrepreneur is not an easy road. But if you can learn from those who have gone before you, it becomes a lot easier than going at it alone. That's why Brad has created 90 Days To Revolutionize Your Life – It's 30 minutes a day for 90 days, teaching you his 30 years experience on investing, business and life.Follow Brad on Social Media:YouTubeInstagramFacebookLinkedInTikTokTwitter30X LifeBrad Sugars' Entrepreneur University For more information, visit Brad Sugars' website: www.bradsugars.com The Big Success Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-big-success-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/ep-1-robbie-kellman-baxter-the-big-success-podcast-with-brad-sugars

Brad Sugars is internationally known as one of the most influential entrepreneurs. Brad is a best-selling author, keynote speaker and the number one business coach in the world. Over the course of his 30 year career as an entrepreneur, Brad has become the CEO of 9 plus companies and is the owner of the multimillion dollar franchise Action Coach. As a husband and father of 5, Brad is equally as passionate about his family as he is about business, that's why Brad is a strong advocate for building a business that works without you so you can spend more time doing what really matters to you. Over the years of starting, scaling and selling many businesses, Brad has earned his fair share of scars. Being an entrepreneur is not an easy road but if you can learn from those who have gone before you, it becomes a lot easier than going at it alone. That's why Brad has created 90 days to revolutionize your life, it's 30 minutes a day for 90 days teaching you his 30 years experience on investing, business and life.   Questions Could you share a little bit about how you got to where you are today? In your bio, it mentioned that at the end of the day, you want to be working in a business that can work without you. Like so many people don't understand that concept. Could you explain what that means? And so, maybe could you share with us, let's say 3 to 4 success principles, or just things that will help to make you be more successful as a business owner or an entrepreneur. Could you share with us I would say maybe, let's move it up to five traits that a leader needs to really grow and develop their people. Where do you get to that point where you're starting to attract really quality people? Is it because of the energy that you're giving out, your leadership style, what makes the right people or attracts the right people to come to you? What's your views on marketing? Is it something that still needs to be occurring to keep present in the customers mind? And if so, based on the fact that marketing has changed so much I would say in the last 10 to 20 years as you've mentioned, which platforms do you focus your marketing on? Could you share with us what's the one online resource, tool, website or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? Could you maybe pick one or two that have had a great impact on you over your lifetime? It could be a book you read recently, or even one that you read a very long time ago. What has been your experience, I would say, let's narrow it down to the last one to two years of customer experience. And I know it's a very general and a wide question, but we just want to get an idea of how your experiences has been across different industries, like travelling to a hotel, or airline or restaurant, or even just local stores that you may visit in your community where you live. Could you share with us what's one thing that's going on in your life right now that you're really excited about? Either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. Where can listeners find you online? Before we wrap our interviews up, we always like to ask our guest, do you have a quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge you'll tend to revert to this quote, it kind of helps get you back on track if for any reason you get derailed.   Highlights   Brad's Journey   Me: Now, even though we read our guest bio, we always like to give the guests an opportunity to share in their own words a little bit about how they got to where they are today. So, could you share a little bit about that with us?   Brad shared that he was born and raised in Australia and moved to the United States, married an American girl. So, they have 5 kids. So, he guesses he's stuck in America now, he's an “Aus” American. Being in every type of business, you name it, he's had it, whether it's service or retail or actually manufacturing. He did manufacture in the food space, he's been across the board, he's an entrepreneur, he buys and builds and sells companies, that's what he does. And teaching became a passion and as mentioned his 90x programme.   When he hit 50, he thought what is he going to do and he built himself a TV studio and he went in and recorded 30 minutes a day, every day of business and then 30 minutes a day every day for life and success principles. And then the same for wealth and thought, “I'm going to give back” and their main company Action Coach, obviously, they're in 83 countries, he knows that coach Marcia in Jamaica there. And across Africa, they have their coaches all across the Caribbean in fact, in the US, they have about 1100 offices around the world doing that. So, 17 books on the subject of business and wealth. So, he guesses he's a prolific at creating books, kids and businesses.   Me: Amazing and for those of our listeners that clearly will not have heard our pre podcast conversation. I met Brad when he came to Jamaica in 2016 and his presentation was amazing. And Coach Marcia, who represents Action Coach in Jamaica, she's also supremely amazing, like everything Brad talks about, she continuously preaches, be, do and have and it's just amazing.   The Concept of Working in a Business That Can Work Without You   So, Brad, could you share with us, I know that your whole life has been surrounded around building businesses and in your bio, it mentioned that at the end of the day, you want to be working in a business that can work without you. Like so many people don't understand that concept. Could you explain what that means?   Brad shared that well, in essence, what they're trying to do is the difference between working for yourself and building a business is two very vastly different things. Working for yourself is building a job for yourself.   Building a business is building something that is an investment that makes money whether you show up or not. So, his definition of a business is a commercial profitable enterprise that works without you.   He learned this early in his career that he was the hardest working person in his business. In some cases, he even took home less money than a lot of the staff in his business and it just didn't seem right to him to work that way. So, he had to learn how to turn his business into something that worked so he didn't have to. See when the business works, the owner doesn't have to. If the business doesn't work, then the owner is generally the hardest working person in the business.   Principles That Will Make You More Successful as a Business Owner or an Entrepreneur   Brad stated that if we're going to go with just 3, it's hard when you've written this many books and taught for this long to pick just 3. So, first he would go, you don't build your business, your people do.   Your job as the owner or the CEO is to build your people, they build your business for you. So, as you educate them, coach them, mentor them, train them. He still remembers 20 or 21, he forgot how old he was, he went to his dad and he said, “You know what, Dad, I just can't get good people.” And he said to him, “Brad, you get the people you deserve. You're an average manager running an average business, the highest caliber person that wants to work for you is average.”   And it's like a big slap in the face. Thanks, dad. But he was right. If I became a great leader, then great people wanted to work for his company. So yeah, he would say that's the first one, build your people, they build your business.   The second he would say, you've got to be great at sales and marketing to be great at business, being the rainmaker, bringing in new business is one of the most important aspects and that's why out of his 17 books, actually his newest, his 18th book is all about marketing as well.   So, it really is about getting the customer in and keeping them for a lifetime, his definition of marketing is profitably buying lifetime customers. So, if he spends 1000 on an ad, and he gets 10 new customers, will it cost him 100 to buy each new customer. So, marketing is about the profitable buying of customers and when people learn it, every dollar out should bring $2 back in type thing. So, we really have to focus on that.   If he could only stick to 3. We will go through a lot more as we get through the day or through the session.   But he would say the third is, be really clear on where you're going with the business. He likes to think of business as something that you finish, you build it so that it eventually runs without you.   So, by what date will you finish the business? By what date will it run without you and then go to work on the business more than in the business type thing. Gerber said that based on his book.   Me: Indeed. So, we have to work on the business and so many business owners, myself included, work in our business and not necessarily on our business. And it kind of goes up and down, sometimes you get it to a point where you are working on the business and then for some reason you get back sucked into the operational activities and you're back in it again. So, it's up and down. But as you mentioned, if you really want to generate wealth, it's to have the business run on its own.   Traits a Leader Needs to Grow and Develop Their People   Me: Now, you mentioned at the beginning, I loved your first point stating that you need to develop and work on your people. And of course, that's all this podcast is about, navigating the customer experience and I preach constantly about the fact that internal customers are so important in a business. Many times, companies focus on the external, but if you don't get it right internally, it's highly unlikely you're going to be able to master it externally. So could you share with us I would say maybe, let's move it up to five traits that a leader needs to really grow and develop their people.   Brad shared that we'll break that into two separate segments. First of all, we'll break it into the difference between management and leadership. Because in a business, you need both management and leadership.   Now management is a system and leadership is an art form, the system of management is designed to do two things. Management should build competency and productivity in the people in your organization. So, build better people like build their competency, build so they can do a good job by training, coaching, mentoring, educating, make sure your people are competent at their job. If there's a lack of competency, there's a lack of management or there's bad management going on.   Productivity is also management. So, it's really about how do you manage people to get a high level of productivity because if you want to double a business, if you want to double your profits, you either have to double the number of people or double the productivity of the existing people, productivity is always faster and easier. And then the flip side then if you look at leadership.   Leadership is also in his opinion about two things. But this is where it's about, if management is sort of the short-term day to day, week to week. Leadership is more than monthly, quarterly, annual and 3 to 5 year type thing where in a leadership scenario, he's looking to create passion and focus. So, the leader's job is really building passion amongst the people and building focus. To be focused, they need to know what they're doing, what are their goals sort of thing. Where are we headed? To be passionate, there has to be more meaning to work than just the paycheck and more meaning to work than just the profitability of the company.   As a Leader, What Attracts the Right People to Come to You   Me: Indeed, indeed. So, we spoke about management and leadership so important. Now, Brad, let's say for example, you had mentioned that you said, your dad said to you, “You attract the people that you deserve.” Where do you get to that point where you're starting to attract really quality people? Is it because of the energy that you're giving out, your leadership style, what makes the right people or attracts the right people to come to you?   Brad stated that all of the above. Plus, recruiting today has to be seen as exactly that recruiting, it's not hiring anymore. Most people don't think of it this way, but what you want to do is you want to be more like a sporting team, they don't go and place an ad and say, “Hey, if you're out of work, apply to come work for us, we really want all of the people that are out of work to apply for us.” No, a sporting team goes and looks for the best player in that position.   Now, most of the best people already have a job, the vast majority of the best people are already working. So, how do you get your job advertisement? How do you get the fact that you are recruiting in front of the right people? And that's where marketing has to kick in. How do you actually invest money in marketing for a job?   Twenty/thirty years ago, people were like, “I just placed the ad and 100 people apply, and I picked the best one.” Not anymore. The way that we have to look at it these days is we have to go searching for the best of the best people, we have to search for them on LinkedIn, we have to search for them through Google, we have to search for them through Facebook, we have to search for them by going through people who know us like.   We often find that the best employees are people that already knew us, they already know our company. So, they might be on our newsletter, or they might be a friend of someone that already works for us. Or they might follow us on social media. So, how are you marketing that position to find the best of the best, and have them at least see that you are recruiting? That's the vital one.   Me: Brilliant, I've never heard someone, I would say reposition it the way how you just repositioned it for us. And you are right. If you take that approach that you've just indicated to us, your father is absolutely right, like on target in terms of attracting the people that you deserve. Because you really want to ensure that you're getting the right people, as you mentioned, using the analogy of a sporting team and getting the best player, because then you will really have a totally impactful and efficient and effective team, which is critical if you really want the business to grow. And as you as you mentioned at the beginning, function without you. I love that.   Views on Marketing   Me: Now, we spoke a little bit about leadership, we spoke a little bit about internal customers. Could you share with us a little bit about marketing? I get a lot of questions sometimes, should we spend a lot of money on marketing and advertising of our business? Shouldn't it be a case where our customers, especially if we're a brand that's already known, we're like a household name. What's your views on marketing? Is it something that still needs to be occurring to keep present in the customers mind? And if so, based on the fact that marketing has changed so much I would say in the last 10 to 20 years as you've mentioned, which platforms do you focus your marketing on?   Brad shared that is a lot of questions in one way, let's see what we can get to. First of all, marketing should be something that never stops. Marketing is the lifeblood of a business. Marketing has two jobs, getting new business and keeping business. So, you got to get them in and you got to keep them in. What's the use of building a database of existing customers and that even assumes that businesses are, you must collect the names, emails, phone numbers, etc. of every single prospect, every single customer in your business, that is the most valuable asset of business has its database of existing customers, its database of prospective customers.   Now, what you need to understand if he goes back to what he said earlier about marketing is it's the job of marketing is to buy customers, to buy new business, to buy new customers is a consistent thing. So, we're getting them in and we're keeping them in, we're looking at lifetime value of a customer, meaning how much are they worth to us over years of buying from us and that's where most businesses don't invest the time and energy because they don't even think about that. When he was in the dog food business, their average customer stayed with them for 3 years, which meant they spent over $3,000 with them and they made over $800 in profit from them. You think about that. If you just thought of your customer as a one off sale, you don't actually make a lot of money from that person, you don't think of it that way. But if you keep them for their lifetime, you'll make a fortune out of that customer.   Now, in order for marketing to really work in this day and age, he thinks the biggest thing we have to understand is that historically, marketing was almost like asking to get married on a first date, we ran an ad, and we asked you to buy straight from the advertisement. In this day and age, it seems stupid to go up to like, “Yanique, if you and I met in a bar, and I walked up and said, You look like a very smart, attentive, wonderful woman, I think you'd be a great mother, why don't we get married?”   That is the dumbest thing you could ever think of, but that's what most marketing is. You've got to actually ask people, “Why don't we have a coffee first? Why don't we get to know each other type thing.” And so, what we call that as you've got to ask prospects to raise their hand, you got to say, “Hey, if you're interested in this, then raise your hand.” And he'll give you a simple example of that.   So, at Action Coach, one of the things they do is a lot of sales training. So, they have a sales training programme for companies. He just did a webinar yesterday on sales training for companies with 20 or more salespeople, so the whole thing was, how do you manage your salespeople? How do you get great results from your salespeople?   So, 84 people showed up to their webinar saying, “I have 20, or more salespeople, I'd like to learn how to manage my salespeople.” By the end of that webinar, out of the 84, 60 of them said, “I would be interested in finding out about the sales training programme.” So not only does he then do the webinar and get 60 people that are interested, but now today on all of his social media will run a post that says, “Just finished my webinar on how you manage a great sales team, how you get your sales team to perform. If you're interested in the recording of the webinar, please type the word webinar below.”   So, he'll probably over the next month or two, get another 200, 300, 400, 1000 people that will type the word webinar. And then you'll have another 1000 people that are interested in their sales training, does that make sense? So, his goal is to start conversations. He teaches conversion rate, because that's important, out of every 10 people that call, how many did you convert?   But marketing really needs to look at conversation rate, what is the rate of conversation, so he doesn't care how many likes, how many comments you get, what he cares about on your social media, on your emails, on everything you do is how many conversations were started by that post.   Me: Indeed, indeed, that makes a great amount of sense. And I guess it doesn't matter the platform, whether it's LinkedIn, or Instagram, or Tik Tok, as long as the conversation is happening, and it's being generated, and there's some buzz and word of mouth around it and there's interest. Yeah.   Brad agreed, 100%.   App, Website or Tool that Brad Absolutely Can't Live Without in His Business   When asked about online resource that he cannot live without in his business, Brad stated that he's was going to say his phone, or Zoom. He's a believer in better levels of communication. He's a believer in high quality conversations more over low quality conversations. People like email, they like their texting, he personally thinks that a phone call or a Zoom call, obviously the highest form of communication is face to face. But he would rather have a phone call than a text message or an email, he would rather do that. And he knows that his kids, having 5 kids, he always end up in this debate. His kids text him and he's like, “Stop texting me. I don't answer your texts. You call me I'm your dad.” But if he wants a great relationship with a customer, it's not going to happen via email, it's not going to happen via texting, it's going to happen by communication at a high level, which is face to face or at least voice to voice.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Brad   Me: So, you mentioned that you are on your 18th book, but outside of the books that you've written, I'm sure you have read 1000s of books. So, could you maybe pick one or two that have had a great impact on you over your lifetime? It could be a book you read recently, or even one that you read a very long time ago.   When asked about books that have a great impact on him, Brad shared that he could list off the last set that he just finished reading. The last seven that he just finished reading Marcus Sheridan, They Ask, You Answer, amazing marketing book. Marcus is phenomenal around it. They asked, You Answer. Subscribed, Subscribed is a phenomenal book, his name is Tien Tzuo, a phenomenal book about marketing and the future of it. And then Oversubscribed. So, there's two books, they're both on the words on subscription. So, you can imagine what he's learning about. Daniel wrote a great book on that one.   Blitzscaling, another phenomenal one by Reid Hoffman, he really enjoyed that. The Membership Economy by Robbie Baxter, she's phenomenal. Just loved the work she does. The Business of Belonging, David Spinks, really cool book, really, really cool. And Building Brand Communities, that one there, Charles Vogel with Carrie Jones. So yeah, that's the last 7 books he read. Out of those, he would probably say Marcus's book They Asked, You Answer would be the top of the 7 that he just read. He reads a books a week, so he raced through a lot of books.   How Has Your Experiences Been Across Different Industries   Me: Now, you do travel, I imagine quite a bit, Brad, and you interface with many different organizations across different industries, across different cultures. What has been your experience, I would say, let's narrow it down to the last one to two years of customer experience. And I know it's a very general and a wide question, but we just want to get an idea of how your experiences has been across different industries, like travelling to a hotel, or airline or restaurant, or even just local stores that you may visit in your community where you live.   Brad shared that what's happened is, obviously, COVID changed a lot of the way we perceive the world, it virtualized the world in a way that we would never have thought possible. And that to him, has been a phenomenal thing, the level of virtual nature of the world. He thinks that we have seen a lot of the customer service experience move to more virtualized and that doesn't make it more positive by the way, that just means it's more virtualized.   The average consumer, he thinks has a little more patience at this point, not a lot more but a little more patience at this point. He lives in Las Vegas, he's in the epicentre of sort of customer service mentality, because it's a city based around tourism and Yanique's in Jamaica, in a country where tourism is very high on the agenda sort of thing.   And so, in these markets, we must be customer related. And he'll give you an example of how Vegas is different. People come here to watch a sporting event, or come to a football game or a hockey game, or whatever it might be. And normally, they're used to going to other cities where the local fans hate on the new fans coming to town type thing. Well, in Vegas, they love it when other people come to town, like, “Oh, you're visiting our city. Thanks for doing that. We appreciate you paying our taxes.” They are a hospitality-based city. So, he thinks the customer service experience in Vegas. Now that being said, where he sees the customer service experience moving to is a lot of the removal of humans, if you want to scale a business, you need to remove humans from a lot of the things now, that's because in two ways.   You need to remove humans where they didn't add value. So, for instance, Uber, all Uber really did was remove humans from the hiring a taxi, you remember the days when to get a taxi, you actually had to call a number, that person then gave the address to the dispatcher, the dispatcher then called all the taxis and said, who's in this area. And it took three people to get a taxi to your house, so they just removed the humans. There's a lot of areas where having a human actually detracts from the experience, it doesn't add to the experience, if that makes sense. And so, we're seeing a lot of the customer service experience removing humans where they don't add value.   Me: That does make sense. And I'm so happy that when you started talking about removing humans, I was actually going to ask if you actually think there's no use for humans in customer interactions anymore, but I'm glad you gave the example of Uber and you specifically stated if the human experience or the human being there is not adding value because I do believe that people genuinely still want human to human interaction, but it depends on what service or what value as you had mentioned that human is providing. So, if you think about it, technology should be there to assist us in delivering the service. But I don't think as a society even globally, we're ever going to get to the point where humans are going to be completely eliminated from all interactions.   Brad shared that no, people need people, we saw that through COVID. People at the end of COVID thought, “Oh, I'll never want to go back to an office, I want to stay working from home." And then the immediacy, immediately when we could go back to an office people like, “Oh, thank God, I could get out of my house.” It's like, “Oh, I love my spouse, but not that much. Two years locked up together was enough.” He remembers during the middle of COVID, they came down and actually spent two weeks in Jamaica, Discovery Bay and sat on the beach there and they rented a big house and just sat on the beach and had a great time.   And some of his friends, he was like, “Well, if you want to come and visit us, you can, but if you feel uncomfortable, that's okay.” Everyone's like, “We're coming. We're coming.” Like, humans need human interaction. And it's interesting to see though, people going back to the workforce now the number of them who have requested cubicles as raised dramatically, because whilst they're happy to go back and be with people, they do want more privacy, because they liked the privacy of working from home too. So that's been an interesting change.   What Brad is Really Excited About Now!   When asked about something that he's really excited about, Brad shared that he'll give you two things. Actually. One, their charities, he has the Action Coach Foundation, they take a lot of young people through YES programme (Young Entrepreneurs Smart Start). So, they actually teach 12 to 22 year olds how to not leave school and get a job, but how to leave school and give people a job. So, rather than being an employee, being an employer. The world doesn't need more employees, it needs more entrepreneurs who give people jobs. And so, they're taking a lot of young people and helping them through that process. So that's super exciting for him.   From a business side, probably because he buys into companies all the time, he's very excited, their commercial cleaning business and people like, “You're excited about a cleaning business.” Yes, he loves their cleaning business. When he originally purchased to share, it's based in Australia. And now they're opening in the US and the UK. And so, he loves watching his companies go global, he loves his businesses, geography shouldn't limit your business, especially now, especially after we've gone through this whole phase of people can do business virtually, well, they can buy from anywhere in the world right now. And so, watching that business expand into a global phenomenon is going to be a lot of fun for him.   Me: Amazing. Now, you mentioned that you have a programme for young people between the ages of 12 and 22. If we do have listeners that are interested in that programme, how can they connect? And maybe sign up or be part of that process?   Brad shared their Action Coach Foundation website:   Website – actioncoachfoundation.org   Where Can We Find Brad Online   LinkedIn – Brad Sugars Facebook – Brad Sugars Website – www.bradsugars.com Website – www.actioncoach.com   Me: Amazing. You mean you're really easy to find.   Brad shared, could you imagine being a marketer and not having someone being able to find you on every single platform there is, jump on Amazon. Amazon has all 17 of his books available. So, Audible has his books on Audible. So, you can find him pretty much everywhere.   When asked if he was on Tik Tok, Brad shared that he is, but he doesn't dance. His team asked him to do that. And he told them the story. If you think about marketing, and being true to your brand, because it's really important to be true to your brand. He had an advisor who was taking them through Pinterest, and she said, “You need to appeal to a more female audience because that's who's on Pinterest” and she kept telling him how he needed to wear certain things. And he said, “That's not who I am. That's not the way I want to be. And I'm not going to do that.”   So, he told his team the story of Adele, Adele was in a marketing meeting and a young person came in and said, “Well, we need to write a song that's going to go viral on Tik Tok that people can do a dance to.” Adele left the meeting and said, “If that young person is at another meeting ever, I will fire this company as my representation.” Being truly your brand is important. So yes, he uses Tik Tok, but he doesn't do things that are not him.   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Brad Uses   When asked about a quote or saying that he tends to revert to, Brad shared that he'll give 2, both are from the same gentleman, his name was James Rohn. Mr. Rohn said to him, he was 16 years of age, sitting in Rizman City Town Hall listening to him speak, him and about 1500 other people. And he said he things that he wrote down that he believes changed the course of his life. The first thing he said was, “Never wish your life were easier, or wish that you were better.”   And it struck him because a 16 year old, you're sort of sitting there saying “Oh, I want this, I want that.” And it all about what you want. Mr. Rohn made him recognize the fact that his goal is not to want things, his goal is to get better.   And he backed it up with the second statement that was, “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”   And he remembers running down to him at the end of the event asking him to sign his notes, which unfortunately he lost in a move one time, because he had him signed them, he signed his notes and he said, “Mr. Rohn, what's one thing I can do as a 16 year old boy to make certain I'm successful in life?” and he said, “Son, it's really simple, read a book a week for the rest of your life. Not a month, not every 2 weeks, read a book a week for the rest of your life.” Today Audible reads to him, so he's very lucky.   Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners   Links They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today's Digital Consumer by Marcus Sheridan Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future – and What to Do About It by Tien Tzuo Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies by Reid Hoffman The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue by Robbie Baxter The Business of Belonging: How to Make Community Your Competitive Advantage by David Spinks Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging by Carrie Jones and Charles Vogl   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience   Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.”   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

Why a subscription for teachers is great for your business  When we at The CEO Teacher® first started helping teachers, we weren't so focused on a subscription for teachers' business model. Instead, we were very focused on Teachers Pay Teachers. However, as we've grown and kept pace with the online times, we've realized that a teacher subscription or teacher membership is a wonderful way to help teachers – just like you – make extra income doing what they're both good at and what they love through a subscription for teachers program. The best teacher subscriptions are great for you and great for business. So today let's talk all about creating digital subscriptions for teachers. The top 5 subscription for teachers models and 10 ways to implement them Most of all, a subscription for teachers or a membership for teachers business creates monthly recurring revenue so that you can continue teaching in the classroom while also creating a sustainable and reliable income stream. No more worrying about great sales months or the dreaded summer slumps because digital subscriptions offer stability in a way that many of the other pathways we teach can't. Are you starting to see why teacher subscription websites are so powerful? If so, prepare to learn 5 different model types and 10 ways that you can use them right now to create digital subscriptions for students, teachers and parents that take the scaries out of this whole online business idea and help you build a snowball of income that will just increase over time. Go ahead and press play to get started… In this episode, you will learn: What a subscription for teachers is and why it's so valuable The five best teacher subscriptions How different subscriptions for teachers can be combined to create more income and value Why anything you enjoy doing in your classroom can be transform into a digital subscription Inspiration from successful teacher membership models by other CEO Teachers® LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE ABOUT A SUCCESSFUL SUBSCRIPTION FOR TEACHERS:  Stu McLaren Your Membership Journey Starts Tomorrow! video Toastmasters International Catherine Benson on TikTok Robbie Kellman Baxter The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue by Robbie Kellman Baxter CEO TEACHER® RESOURCES WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD:  What's your CEO Teacher® Type? Find out here! Download my free book, A Teacher's Map of Online Business Secrets, and get started growing your business today! Check out my CEO Teacher® Book Recommendations here! JOIN OUR CEO TEACHER® PODCAST COMMUNITY TO GROW WITH LIKE-MINDED TEACHERS: Send me a DM on Instagram– I love chatting with my people, so send me your subscription for teachers questions ENJOYING THE PODCAST? THANKS FOR TUNING IN! Tag me @theceoteacher on Instagram and tell me what you are listening to! I love seeing what resonates most with our listeners!  I don't want you to miss a thing! Be the first to know when a new episode is available by subscribing on iTunes here! If you would like to support The CEO Teacher® podcast, it would mean so much to me if you would leave a review on iTunes. By leaving a review, you are helping fellow CEO teachers find this podcast and start building a life they love.  To leave a review on iTunes, click HERE and scroll down to Ratings and Reviews. Click “Write a Review” and share with me how this podcast is changing your business and your life! READY FOR MORE? I LIKE YOUR STYLE! LISTEN TO THESE CEO TEACHER® PODCAST EPISODES NEXT! Steal My Pinterest Idea Pins Strategy to Expand Your Reach Children's Book Author: One of Many Meaningful Jobs for Former Teachers with Vicky Weber How to Use the Instagram Close Friends Feature to Make More Sales

- The Forever Transaction- Find your Following, my Twitter courseThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. If you're thinking about selling a startup, you'll want to check out MicroAcquire.You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.

My final guest of Season Three, Joanna Strober, was the very first guest on the Subscription Stories podcast. Back then, we were talking about Kurbo, the children’s service for WW (that’s Weight Watchers new name). Today, she’s back to talk about her latest venture in direct-to-consumer healthcare, Midi Health. While Kurbo focused on helping kids get to and maintain a healthy weight, Midi is for women at midlife, helping them get better as they get older. You may have noticed my interest in how the way we stay healthy is changing—with guests from Whoop, 30 Madison, Strava, just this season alone. I am fascinated by all of the transformation in the space, as healthcare embraces the concept of a forever transaction. After all, what forever promise is more compelling than more happy, healthy minutes. Healthcare is just embarking on a massive rethinking of how to better align their business models with patient outcomes. Midi is a great example of this. In today’s talk, we cover the consumerization of healthcare and how COVID accelerated the move to digital patient-centric health, the importance of “forever transaction” in treating patients, and the challenges of developing a clear business model in a highly complex environment. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Subscription Stories Community today: robbiekellmanbaxter.com Twitter Facebook

Subscriptions are ubiquitous today. From streaming services to wellness to F&B and productivity, most of us have subscriptions to match our lifestyles. But have you ever wondered just how much thought goes into the layers of subscription apps - from pricing to marketing, to early user experience to ongoing personalization?In today's episode, we're in conversation with Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of the books  "The Membership Economy” and “The Forever Transaction,” and founder of Peninsula Strategies. What's fascinating is that Robbie has worked with offline and non-digital subscription services as well as SaaS and consumer subscription companies, including Netflix in the relatively early days of their subscription model. She is able to connect the dots of the elements that make for a great subscription business and experience, be it online or offline, in app or on the web.KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Today's guest on The Shane Sams Show is Robbie Baxter, author of The Membership Economy–a book which predicted the rise of subscription services like Netflix and was literally our membership bible for growing our first membership site into a million dollar membership! Jocelyn and I went to a conference in the Philippines, hosted by Chris Ducker, called Tropical Think Tank. We went just to get around other entrepreneurs and see what they were doing. We were sitting at a table with James Schramko and I started telling him about what were selling, that it was going well, but that it was also very high-energy. He flat out told us it was a membership, all we needed to do was sell it once and have people pay you forever. He told us to read The Membership Economy by Robbie Kellman Baxter on our way home. So, of course, I read the whole thing on our way back to the Philippines. And, read it all in one sitting. I knew when we closed the book that we had to do what this book said, as soon as possible. And, then in June of 2015, as soon as we got home, we implemented the membership model into each and every one of our four businesses. Within 30 days of opening our membership, we had over 1,000 members, paying an average of $49 to $99 a month, and it's been that way ever since. Now, we've helped over 3,000 people do the same thing in the last 5 years.  All of that literally came from us reading The Membership Economy by Robbie Kellman Baxter. In today's episode we dive deep into when and where you should use free trials, pricing your membership, and we discuss her new book, The Forever Transaction. We are going to talk about all things memberships with the person who literally wrote the book on the membership model. In today's episode you'll learn: What the Membership Economy is all about The difference in headline benefits and engagement benefits Why the free trial can help or hurt you Why friction is key to attracting quality members The Forever Transaction How to evolve your offerings How to engage and retain your members If you need help starting, building, and growing an online business, check out all of the support and resources for entrepreneurs at https://www.ShaneSams.com and https://www.FlippedLifestyle.com!  Follow Shane on twitter @shane_sams.

In this episode, I talk with Robbie Kellman Baxter, the world's leading expert on subscription pricing and membership models. Robbie is a bestselling author, speaker and consultant with more than twenty years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations including Netflix and other notable brands. She is the author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction and host of the podcast, Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches. Robbie has spent many years encouraging brands to cultivate a must-have, "craveable" programme that customers and users simply cannot live without. In this episode, we explore why retailers, brands and businesses - large or small - absolutely must consider offering subscriptions or memberships as an additional "bow in their quiver" if they wish to remain competitive in their markets. Show Notes: 1) Robbie Kellman Baxter, Strategic Consultant, Peninsula Strategies 2) www.robbiekellmanbaxter.com

Most people today have a subscription to some product or service. Or leaching a streaming subscription from a friend or family member… No judgment. But when we think about subscription services as a business, what keeps us renewing month after month and how can businesses continue to improve that experience? We speak with Robbie Kellman Baxter, Strategy Consultant at Peninsula Strategies, and author of "The Membership Economy" and "The Forever Transaction", about businesses transitioning to subscription-based, the associated benefits, and the challenges those businesses will have to navigate. In this episode, we discuss: Discussing a subscription based economy Cultural changes for businesses moving to subscription-based How to leverage data effectively Advice to the audience Now that you know the benefits of subscription-based and how to transition your business, are you ready to learn how to build trust and confidence with your content strategy or how to optimize your tech stack? Check out the full list of episodes: The B2B Revenue Executive Experience. 

Most people today have a subscription to some product or service. Or leaching a streaming subscription from a friend or family member… No judgment. But when we think about subscription services as a business, what keeps us renewing month after month and how can businesses continue to improve that experience? We speak with Robbie Kellman Baxter, Strategy Consultant at Peninsula Strategies, and author of "The Membership Economy" and "The Forever Transaction", about businesses transitioning to subscription-based, the associated benefits, and the challenges those businesses will have to navigate. In this episode, we discuss: Discussing a subscription based economy Cultural changes for businesses moving to subscription-based How to leverage data effectively Advice to the audience Now that you know the benefits of subscription-based and how to transition your business, are you ready to learn how to build trust and confidence with your content strategy or how to optimize your tech stack? Check out the full list of episodes: The B2B Revenue Executive Experience. 

On the podcast we talk with Robbie about finding your super users, the real reasons for subscription fatigue, and why pricing isn't as important as you might think, especially early on.Our guest today is Robbie Kellman Baxter, consultant, keynote speaker, and author. She's advised many of the world's leading subscription-based companies, including serving on the advisory board of Strava. Her most recent book, “The Forever Transaction” is a deep dive into everything consumer subscription, and a must read for anyone in the space.In this episode, you'll learn: Identifying and attracting lifetime value customers How to get and maintain customer loyalty Three causes of subscription fatigue Why customers cancel their subscriptions Links & Resources Strava Intuit Survey Monkey Oracle The Subscription Economy Tien Tzuo: Subscribed Eric Crowley Seth Miller CrossFit Shopify Calm Matthieu Rouif PhotoRoom GoPro Elevate VSCO Robbie Kellman Baxter's Links Robbie Kellman Baxter's website Follow Robbie on Twitter Robbie's book: The Forever Transaction Robbie's book: The Membership Economy Robbie's LinkedIn Follow us on Twitter: David Barnard Jacob Eiting RevenueCat Sub Club Episode Transcript00:00:00 David:Hello, I'm your host, David Barnard, and with me, as always, RevenueCat CEO, Jacob Eiting.Our guest today is Robbie Kellman Baxter, consultant, keynote speaker, and author. She's advised many of the world's leading subscription-based companies, including serving on the advisory board of Strava. Her most recent book, “The Forever Transaction” is a deep dive into everything consumer subscription, and a must read for anyone in the space.On the podcast we talk with Robbie about finding your super users, the real reasons for subscription fatigue, and why pricing isn't as important as you might think, especially early on.Hey Robbie, welcome to the podcast.00:00:58 Robbie:Thanks for having me. I'm excited to chat with you both. 00:01:00 David:I was introduced to your work by somebody recommending your book, The Membership Economy, and it really struck me. I was so excited that you agreed to be on the podcast, because here's a book written in 2015, and we'll talk about your other book that was written more recently, but written in 2015. I was looking through it, scanning the chapters, so I bought the book. I was like, this is everything we're talking about now, thinking it's all so novel with subscription apps, but really consumer subscriptions have been around for decades. You've been working in this space way longer than any of us.So, I thought it would be really fun to have you on the podcast to talk more broadly about these principles of consumer subscriptions that apply equally to D to C subscriptions, as well as the app space that we work in. That's where I wanted to kick things off.So, how did you get your start in consumer subscriptions?00:01:57 Robbie:A couple of threads came together. I was in product-marketing for what is now called SaaS, for five years, right before I hung out my own shingle and started consulting. So, I had that background as a product manager working with software products that were being sold as subscriptions, and then as an independent consultant.My fifth client was Netflix. I fell in love with their business model, and I was wondering why isn't everybody else falling in love with their business model, too? This is amazing. Recurring revenue, predictable cashflow, the amount of data they were collecting on their customer. The fact that they're offering was just a much better way of delivering on a promise that many of us wanted delivery for, which is a professionally created catalog of video content delivered in the most efficient way possible. It meant not having to put a raincoat over your jammies to go pick up a movie, with cost certainty and no late fees.I was consulting with Netflix. I was already a customer, and a few people started calling and saying, “Hey, we heard you worked with Netflix. We want to be the Netflix of our space.” Whether that was news, or music, or bicycles, or dental pain management products, or clothes, there was a lot of interest in what it was that Netflix was doing.So, I started trying to create frameworks, trying to say, what are they doing? Which parts are applicable to other businesses, and which parts are just unique to that group of people solving that particular problem?That's really where I got started, and it turns out to be big enough and deep enough that it's kept me really busy for, it's been 20 years, 20 years. 00:03:55 David:Fifth client to, to land as a consultant. That's a. Really great. And so you were with them before they even introduced the, video on demand on the internet, right. You started with them when it was DVDs in the mail, 00:04:09 Robbie:Yeah. 00:04:10 David:Traditional D to C subscription service. 00:04:13 Jacob:But, but even then was satisfying a lot of those, almost all of those conditions. Right. I didn't have to go outside just to my mailbox, not too bad price certainty. I didn't have late fees. and then like, you know, insanely large catalog. Right. you know, it was, it was, it wasn't. We tend to wait for the technology to get that right.And then, then we had VOD being, 00:04:33 Robbie:Yeah. And they were already thinking, I mean, it was amazing to me. So I was there, you know, the time that I worked most actively with dev 2001, 2003, even during that time, which was all DVDs, all three DVDs out at a time, they were already thinking about streaming versus, you know, should they let you download it?And then have it explode after, you know, you know, some duration. What was the best way to deliver it? Should they come through your, you know, for awhile? I remember I think it came through your PlayStation or your, your we, were thinking like, 00:05:06 Jacob:My first like set top box experience with Netflix would have been on Nintendo. Yeah.00:05:10 Robbie:Yeah. I mean, so they, they were already thinking about it and I think that's a really important part of any subscription is even if your subscription works great today and it's good enough to get people to sign up the product team has to be thinking, how are we going to continue to evolve it in particular fringy? Right. How do we continue to stay relevant to these people while also having those new and improved features that bring new people in? And I think a lot of organizations. I have been taught to over-index on acquisition benefits and not thinking as much about those, the sticky engagement benefits that often are really hard to talk about credibly. Right? If I say to you, you know, sign up for my subscription, my, my video subscription, because it's the most, it's the easiest to find the next piece of content. And you're going to love our algorithm, right? People aren't going to believe you. You don't have credibility. So, all they're going to say is, oh, you have Hamilton, I'll sign up for that.And then I'll cancel. And then it's still up to you, you know, if you're Disney plus to get them from Hamilton to princess movies, national geographic titles, ESPN, all the other great stuff that they have. Star wars.00:06:26 David:I'm 00:06:26 Robbie:Yeah. 00:06:26 David:My son right now. Yeah. That's great. And then I do want to kind of step back and you're kind of right into the weeds with some really actionable advice, but I want to, I want to step back a little bit and talk more broadly. So after working with a few, companies in the subscription space and Netflix so early eventually wrote this book, The Membership Economy, which I love.Phrase and wanted to ask actually, did you, did you coin that phrase then how did you at the time and how do you still kind of define this membership economy that you wrote about. 00:06:57 Robbie:Yeah. Well, first of all, I'd love to say that, like I just came up with it and it was so natural and obvious, but, you know, I was thinking, I was like, is it, is it about subscription pricing? Is it about premium services? Is it about recurring revenue? Should I call it the recurring revenue that I was trying to think?What is it? And where I came out was it's not about the subscription pricing, which I think is a tactic. it's a tactic that you earn the right to do by having. Relationship that is trusted with your customer. The customer trusts you so much that they're like fine. You can charge me every month or you can charge me every year and I will just keep paying you and not look for alternatives.And for me, that was based on a certain kind of human relationship. And that's where I came up with this concept of membership that you belong. That it's, you're committing upfront to a long-term relationship as a vendor, and then you earn the right to have subscriptions. So that was kind of where I came up with it.I worked with Netflix. I also worked. At that time Intuit. I worked with a survey monkey and their predecessor. Uh Zoomerang and I worked with Oracle on the B2B side, and those were some of the companies that helped me sort of connect the dots and figure out how. The framework, of, you know, here's some ways to think about what happens when you treat your customers like membership members.Here's what you need to track. Here's how you need to think about it. And here's what it, what it can do for you. Honestly, the first book, all I was trying to do is say, this is a good idea. You might want to consider it for a bunch of reasons.00:08:26 Jacob:Think of it in opposites. I think it's is it the. the Zuora founder's book subscription economy,but but you're right in the sense that subscription kind of implies like 00:08:37 Robbie:Okay. 00:08:38 Jacob:Particular tactic for monetization that does go really well with this concept. But when I think of membership, as opposed to just subscription, like membership implies also community to me, right.00:08:48 Robbie:Yeah. 00:08:49 Jacob:Like building this. This, this ecosystem, this community that, that, which was then in genders trust, which then allows you to monetize, right. And and this great business model. about it in those terms, I think is a really nice way to put it as opposed to like, let's take something.Let's take something that, that we were monetizing another way and just slop noodle on it, which is something a lot in the, in the app world, this transition from paid upfront or micro-transactions driven apps to subscriptions, some have made it and some have not. And I think the ones that have made it are the ones who look at it in that light, in the membership light, in the.Earning their business repeatedly through content or through community. so I, yeah, that, that framing I think is really accurate.00:09:36 Robbie:Your point about, you know, so many companies to slap a subscription price onto whatever they already had, you know? Okay. We have a usage based model. Let's see what happens if we do a subscription based model for the same product, or let's see what happens if we take, you know, a model where you have ownership, where I download the app and it's mine, and I can use it forever, even if it's really, really obsolete.If it solves my problem, who cares, to one where you're being forced to pay every month. Yeah, extensively to get upgrades and maybe access to your peers and some kind of community functionality. It really is a different product. You need a different product for subscription than for, you know, a purchase or usage based model.And, you know, I love teens books. Subscribed is a great book. I recommend it to people. It's very, well-read has a lot of interesting ideas. but I didn't go with that, you know, subscription economy model just because I really want. To focus more on the culture and the relationship and not jump straight to let's get some of that subscription pricing stuff so that we can get a good valuation, you know?00:10:39 Jacob:Yeah. Yeah. I, it, you made me think of this one experience I had just as an anecdote was, X-Box in for three or four years ago, released an Xbox subscription. And I thought this is a really cool one because I could defer, I buy another X-Box every three or four or five years. So it was like, oh, I'll just spread that cost out.I didn't have a lot of cash at the time. I was like, this is a great 40 bucks a month. I get a new Xbox, right. And so I went in to do this at the, at the Microsoft store. What it really was, was they were giving me like a cash advance, like they were giving me, like, basically I had to get a credit check to get a subscription.And I was like, this is 00:11:12 Robbie:That's not a subscription. 00:11:13 Jacob:In mind. Exactly. Right. Like I thought I was joining the, the X-Box club and I was going to just get an expert and they're going to place my Xbox for me. Right. example. of that case of just like slapping subscription pricing on what was essentially a loan.00:11:26 Robbie:Yeah. Yeah.00:11:27 Jacob:Now my credit score, I have loan for a 19 20 16 Ford edge and a next box, on those are my two like credit items I've ever had. So it's really weird.00:11:37 Robbie:And they've come a long way. I mean, Microsoft has come a long way with their subscription strategies, you know, not just on the gaming side, but you know, with, with office 365 and you know, they've done a lot of thinking about subscription, but it really is super complicatedto, to make it work. 00:11:54 Jacob:Right? Like with software zero marginal costs or whatever you can It makes a lot of sense. will say, I will say, I want to give Microsoft some credit, back in the gaming world there Xbox game pass product product, which I also subscribed to has been amazing.I bought a new X-Box game in forever, cause I don't really care about title individuality. I just, whatever it is, $10 a month or $15 a month. And I get access to like 50 different games that rotate. Plenty. That's plenty for me. And I will probably never unsubscribe from that. Right. But it feels like a 00:12:22 Robbie:Yeah. 00:12:22 Jacob:Cause it's, software-driven, in there. There's like there's changing and there's events stuff that comes in and out and they make it a big thing. built it up into this, into this. Yeah. This kind of, it feels like a membership, as opposed to, yeah, just slapping an affirm loan on an X-Box purchase, basically.00:12:39 David:I do want to step back to your, to your book, The Membership Economy, and, I love the subtitle. Find your super users, the forever, transaction and build recurring revenue. finding super users is something we've actually talked a lot about here on the podcast. So looking for those cohorts, one of our recent podcast, guests, Eric Crowley.Talked about locals versus tourists. Seth Miller, another recent podcast guests talked about how, you know, figuring out these cohorts was just a huge unlock for their business. so what's your process? How do you recommend clients find these super users and how do you think about these, super users?You mentioned all the way back in 2015 before any of us were thinking about these things.00:13:24 Robbie:Yeah. Well, so for me, what I think about with super you. So I think about, you know, anybody does subscriptions knows. Segmentation is like re like the most important thing. You have to know who your customer is. Not just at the moment of acquisition, what they look like. You know, when you're like, that's the person I want, but how are they going to behave once they join?The moment of transaction becomes the starting line for understanding your customer, not the finish line. What like, oh, we knew them well enough to get them to buy it. We knew them well enough to get them to buy. And then to get them to make this a habit and then to get them to go deeper and to stay for a long time and maybe even bring their friends.So, you know, the first thing I always do with my clients, I say, let's focus on who you're, who you're making the problem. What is the promise you're making, who are you making it to? and that's kind of part one. And then we map out the journey. What is it? What is the goal that they have that is ongoing or the problem that they have that is ongoing?And what are the moments on their journey where you might be able to intervene and help. Right. So in the beginning it might be just one or two places, right? I'm I'm, I'm QuickBooks. I help you at tax time, but then it might be, oh, and I'm going to help you with some other key moments in your process of adulting financially.Right. You know, one of the things is you move at your parent's house and you pay your own taxes. Another is you might take out a loan for that. Awesome. You know, for whatever car you said, you know, you're going to get an, get a car and you need a loan and you know, they can help you. And so you're layering in those different beds.On a journey cause you want them to stay. You want to keep providing value. and then once you know what that person looked like, then you go tell your marketing team to go get lookalikes, get more people like that. Super users goes one step beyond that, which is not only are they great customers, you know, high customer, lifetime value, easy to serve, whatever.They also were putting their own money and effort, their own resources into strengthening your model. So these are people that bring in. These are evangelists who bring in other members. These are people who give you feedback on your products and services, which sometimes doesn't feel like a gift, but always is a gift.And it's, people who are willing to help onboard. New members. Right? So the ones that, you know, explain in the user group, you know, that, you know, this is, this is how you use that product, or this is, this is my workaround, or this is, you know, what was hard for me and how I fixed it. So those people, you know, that make referrals, that that speak out on your behalf that gather, you know, others they're so valuable.And I got really into this idea actually with CrossFit. my sister is a, is a big CrossFitter and watching her. in addition to all the money she was spending to, to be a member of this CrossFit box, the amount of time and effort she was spending to onboard new members to invite them over. When the, when the box was closed, she and her husband would put out their equipment on their live on a cul-de-sac.They put it all out on the street and invite the whole box, come over and get their workout done there because they love the community so much, right. Their own time and money to support the community.00:16:27 David:There kind of specific, Ways, especially digitally like, with, with or customer service, what are the tools that, that you see people be successful in finding those kinds of users and understanding those patterns and who they are and what they 00:16:45 Jacob:Yeah. 00:16:45 David:Like. And those sorts of things. 00:16:47 Robbie:So the, the starting point, I think is always lifetime customer value. So. You look at the group of customers who stay the longest and spend the most right. And the ones that people would say, we wish we could make more of these, you know, and then you look, you develop hypotheses. What does this group share?And it can be as simple as writing the names of your first 10 customers on a boards. These are the 10 customers we had. These five have been awesome. These. You know, didn't stick around long canceled, complain a lot, you know, whatever the reason is. And then you try to come up with what is, what did this group share that this group doesn't share?That's the simplest way in a, in a data world where you have the data you're doing the same thing, but digitally, how did they onboard? What was the source of the lead? what time of year? Like which cohort are they in? Did they join? You know, people like, for example, with QuickBooks people that join in tax season, Might be behave very differently than people who join as a new year's resolution or who joined in August.Right. What kind of person starts thinking really hard about managing their money in August? Great. you know, so, so looking for those things, developing hypotheses, looking at the data, trying to say what's the difference between our most valuable customers and our not most valuable customers, which is not your worst customers, because your worst customers are often outliers, but just the ones where you're like, they're just not that good.They came for two months, they left, they binged, they used up, you know, they were using us really heavily for six weeks. And then they left. What's different about them than the ones who continue to use this gradual. For five months. and I think that's where the hypotheses come out and then tactically, what you do after, you know, as you look at the difference in onboarding those different groups and you optimize your onboarding experience.To build those habits and then you mark it. This is often requires a tremendous amount of discipline. You mark it to only attract the high value people and not to attract the others. So if I walk into McDonald's with a gown on with my husband and I say, it's our 20th anniversary, show us to your finest team.Give us the best you've got. And we'd like a nice bottle of champagne, right? Customer's not always right at McDonald's. Right. They're not going to say, oh man, Robbie needs champagne. Somebody scraped down to the seven 11 and you know, get a bottle of Prosecco and you know, we'll try to pass it off. They say, that's not really what we do here.Dummy. They might not say dummy, but they might be thinking it, right. That's not what we here, you know 00:19:10 Jacob:The 00:19:12 Robbie:Right. We're here, you know, we're cheap, we're fast. It tastes good. Your kids love it. You can drive through and eat it. But we don't do, we don't do special occasion stuff. And so they know who they are.Right. And they're okay with me not coming in. Right. They're even okay with me saying, by the way, don't go to McDonald's, it's a terrible place to celebrate your anniversary. Right. They're kind ofCause it. 00:19:32 Jacob:Just all 00:19:33 Robbie:Right. The leaning is terrible. It makes your skin look awful. You know, the point is that if they took care of. Right. What am I going to do? I'm going to tell you, you know what, just go there for your anniversary. Just tell them it's your anniversary. They'll run out and get all the stuff you need. Right? And then they have all these people that are expensive to serve. Right? It's the same thing digitally, right? If you bring in the wrong people who are going to binge on your content in the first month, or the people who are going to push you to create features that nobody needs, except that.Right. It's just going to throw your whole business off in the wrong direction. So having that discipline upfront to know what you do and you don't do well. And to say no to some prospects, it's really hard to say no to prospects, right? If they have money and they're like, just add this feature and I'll pay.You know, Netflix in the early days, a lot of people wanted them to have video games. Right? Video games were also on discs seems easy, right? As an outsider, as an expert, right? I'm like, ah, video games, same thing. Video games work in a totally different way. And what Netflix said is we don't really understand how people would view.Games. We don't understand how they've use them. We don't understand how many we need. We don't understand how they value that. We don't understand how to negotiate terms with gaming companies, but that's a whole different thing we're going to, we have plenty of runway here. Just focusing on video content.00:20:51 Jacob:Yeah, it's, it's really interesting that, that, that feeling as a founder, especially true in SaaS, when you have literally 10 customers and like you will do 00:20:59 Robbie:Yeah. 00:21:00 Jacob:For the, your 11th, it's a little bit true in consumer. Two in the early days, like you, you're just kind of like, how do I get the funnel bigger?How do I, how do you, I think you are a little bit myopic on, the top of the funnel and not thinking about this long-term thing, partially because we don't have a lot of data. You launched your app six months 00:21:19 Robbie:Yeah. 00:21:19 Jacob:Trying to make decisions on customer lifetime value. And you don't really have a good sense because you don't know who's sticking around.You probably don't have a ton of data, but one thing you said. That really got my gears turning was that of putting them on a board and just looking at them, looking at the 10 customers or whatever it is, a hundred, even in consumer SaaS, where you have hundreds of 00:21:37 Robbie:Yeah, 00:21:38 Jacob:So it's not that many, you can grab it.You'll be surprised at how many things I've in my old days in consumer's house of like just clicking into a customer and just watching how they use the app, like an individual, right. It doesn't, not data, but it gives you hints and you can start there. And then, and 00:21:54 Robbie:Yeah. Hypotheses, right? 00:21:55 Jacob:Yeah. Hypothesis. And then you actually talk to those people, if you can, like get them on the 00:22:00 Robbie:Yeah. 00:22:00 Jacob:Surprised what they tell you. One of our, our guests Matthew and photo room a few weeks ago talked about, they would take their app to McDonald's and just show it to people to keep the McDonald's references going, and get like in-person feedback.And that helped them learn, you know, they, they were, they were an app that thought that. For everybody and find out later that they're actually like, kind of like a pursuer app for Shopify people, people 00:22:23 Robbie:00:22:24 Jacob:And people with, with e-comm and, and that like kind of exploded their business for this exact case.You're talking about where they found out. Okay. Yeah. We're not for this entire, like long tail of low intent users where for this really core set, but that can be really scary if that sets kind of 00:22:39 Robbie:It's always scary to niche down, but it's almost always. a good strategy. And I wanted to tag onto something else that you said, Jacob, which I think is really important. People often say, how can I make any decisions about, you know, based on, you know, who has the highest customer lifetime value?When, you know, we've only been around for three months or six months, we have to wait until they leave. Hopefully not for three years or five years, but what I've found. And, you know, I wonder if you've seen the same thing. Most people who leave leave in the first two months. So what you really want to do is optimize for onboarding, you know, are they adopting habits that look like people who are steady users getting value, and you can often tell that in the first month, by how many people drop off by who stays and buy, you know, are they bingeing or are they using it in kind of a normal way? And so you don't have to wait for 18, 18 months or however many periods, a lot of it, you get your answer right away. Do they cancel at the end of the first period?00:23:43 Jacob:Yeah, it's good to think about your product in terms of not just. Like signups and getting through the end of onboarding, like that day one experience, but think about what hooks are like, what are the things that people are actually investing contingent on? I always think that that's, that's a, know, you think about this long-term relationship, giving users, in your product to invest and to give back and to connect, like putting in 00:24:05 Robbie:Yeah. 00:24:06 Jacob:Themselves.Like there's passive usage consumption. Netflix does a good job. Like you can save, listen stuff that they do a lot of this just in passively, right? Like you consume content and they learn about you and then they have a profile. but I think some of the best apps, like let put in and that's going, gonna also not only probably make them stickier users, but also it gives you early indications and some things to hook on and be like, okay.I mean, Dropbox, this was a big thing in Dropbox. This story. they, they could get people to like understand the concept, but we had massive product issues, getting people to put a file in the thing, right? Like 00:24:41 Robbie:Yeah. 00:24:42 Jacob:Not necessarily the most user friendly thing. Like is some sort of app that runs in the background whenever they would, they did, they pulled users in, they watched them do it and totally fail.And then they fixed the product. Right. and, that's, that's. core product problem, but it relates to this this story of getting somebody to membership, right? Like getting them 00:25:00 Robbie:Yeah 00:25:00 Jacob:And focusing on that.00:25:02 David:One of the things that you talked about in your most 00:25:05 Robbie:No. 00:25:05 David:That I think, is so important to understanding the activation. Is is this concept of a forever promise. And so, so your most recent book that forever transaction we'll we'll link to in the show notes and whatnot. but in order to activate, in order to even just build a business, especially a subscription business, you need to start with Promise that you're going to make to customers. and then, especially again, like you said earlier to justify recurring payments, like, so tell me how you think about a forever promise and how, how any app, any business that wants to set up recurring payments should be thinking about this forever promise.00:25:47 Robbie:Yeah, it's, it's really simple. You take a step back and you say, when my customers come to. What is the ongoing problem they're trying to solve, or what is the ongoing goal they're trying to achieve and how can I best align my product and my messaging with that goal, that ongoing goal or that ongoing problem.So what can I promise them about it? So with a Netflix, it's about, you know, entertaining. You know, I'm going to provide you with the biggest selection of professionally created video content delivered in the most efficient way, right. With cost certainty. you're never going to have to pay extra fees and you know, there's a lot of, a lot of apps that are around.You know, helping you with some part of your business process, getting a certain kind of work done or tracking your finances or creating beautiful images for, you know, personal use for your hobbies. What have you gaming apps for fun? And I think first getting really clear on what your promise is and who you're making it to, and then you design the features and benefits to support them.Forever on their journey. And you say, as long as you continue paying me regularly, I am going to continue improving the way I deliver on my promise to you. Right? If I'm a gym, I'm going to have new equipment, I'm going to have new classes. I might offer you stuff online. If I'm news source, I'm going to offer it maybe through an app.Maybe I'm getting the access to the journalists. Maybe I'm getting, get the access to conferences or webinars on top of news because. My promise is I'm going to help you understand the world around you so you can make better decisions. And I don't have, like, if you even think about that promise, There's nothing about that promise that makes you say it needs to be a newspaper, right?It could be a conference. It could be classes, it could be a community of like-minded people sharing their learnings and their observations. So why not layer all of that in over time so that you get closer and closer to guaranteeing that they're going to get the impact that they hoped for on an ongoing basis.00:27:55 Jacob:It's interesting. in some ways relates to like what a company mission can be for a different audience. Right? You say, you know, revenue has as a mission. And that's one thing that I won't change, right. That that's kind of what we do. And that's part of joining the company and whatever. But, but I do think there's value in communicating that as well.This is like the customer facing version of that. Like, what's our 00:28:15 Robbie:Exactly. 00:28:16 Jacob:Charter. Like, why are we here? And what can I 00:28:18 Robbie:Right, 00:28:19 Jacob:That's not going to change. Right. It, especially when you think in those terms of not the like person who's coming to do a very quick transactional thing as in, I'm going to binge you put it, or maybe I just some trying this out, or I have this like one limited life or limited pain, like a limited time pain. Like what's 00:28:35 Robbie:Yeah. 00:28:36 Jacob:Engagement that we're going to do, is really interesting ground when I read the, framing of just the forever transaction forever promise. It's really exciting because we have the infrastructure for the first time in human history to really make this efficient at scale that like computers can do these sort of like, patronage relationships for us.Yeah. And, rethinking how we frame and, and relationships with customers, I think. Yeah. I mean, it's some of the work are a bit ahead of us on.00:29:05 Robbie:Yeah. Well, I mean, I, you know, I've been here a lot. Like I got here first cause I was here for a long time, but you know, it kind of a dubious distinction, but you know, I think you're right. Like you step back and you say, what are the problems? What's the ongoing problem. The ongoing problem is I'm constantly running out of laundry detergent.Right? The ongoing problem is I look in my closet and I have nothing to wear for this occasion, whatever this occasion might be. Right. you know, something that I think is really interesting to think about, you know, Amazon. Talks about removing all friction from all buying decisions, right. They started with just books.Right. And you still have to wait two weeks to get the book right when you ordered it, but they had this. All the different friction in all the different buying decisions. We're just going to, you know, layer by layer. We're gonna remove all of those things. And, you know, at some point, you know, I think they want to get to the point where I think to myself, those are really cool headphones that Jacob's wearing.I wish I had those. And before I even say. They're on my ears. And then I'm like, oh, these are uncomfortable. And they make my hair look bad. They're gone. Right. That it's almost magical. That's what they're moving to. No friction. I don't even have to say a word. It just happens. you know, I think having that kind of guidance of like, that's what we're trying to do, there's so many times when I've gone shopping and I've needed something, whether it's like buying a new house or buying a white blouse for an event and thinking this shouldn't be that hard.I have enough money to pay for. I know exactly what I need it for. And I've already spent four hours or four months, or in the case of buying a house for years, trying to find, you know, the needle in the haystack. It should not be this. When, when you say it should not be this hard, that's probably00:30:46 Jacob:An 00:30:46 Robbie:Good, 00:30:47 Jacob:Opportunity. 00:30:48 Robbie:Opportunity.Yeah, 00:30:49 Jacob:No, I I'm. I mean, I'm just sitting here thinking about revenue. Cats are, you know, this is a shameless plug time to talk about my company, but, I think about our forever promise and we, our mission is like we help developers make more money. That's our goal. but I almost think that. Kind of like a short, pithy way of like phrasing. It really it's about how do we remove the way he put his barriers? Like, how do we remove all the barriers for a developer to make money? How do we remove all the for a developer to value with software for other people? and often like people see a lot of these.Yeah. Subscription, infrastructure problems, data problems, all these, all these things are not why somebody got into it. Right. When they started Netflix, it wasn't like, I just can't wait to do like cohort analysis. 00:31:35 Robbie:Okay. 00:31:35 Jacob:Like all these things, it's like, no, we want to deliver entertainment to people the easiest way possible.And so, you know, for us, like, In some ways, our particular problem that we're, we've committed and, and going to the forever thing to, you know, our product is, it's a subscriber, it's a, it's a subscription essentially. but it's a long-term commitment by the nature of it. It's very infrastructure-related so like I've always talked how to, you know, is there something the early days had to give a lot of assurances to folks like yeah.We're, we're sticking around like, yeah, this is, 00:32:06 Robbie:Yeah. 00:32:07 Jacob:The long-term goal for us. But I think, I think that comes down to consumers too. Like the best companies I've seen. In our space doing consumer software apps, subscription apps essentially have like a really deep connection to the mission. And the problem I think of calm, I think of, 00:32:24 Robbie:Yeah. 00:32:24 Jacob:Photo room, this app, we work with that the, you know, they've been in vision, computer vision, and they've worked for GoPro and they've just, this is in their DNA to 00:32:34 Robbie:00:32:35 Jacob:Of image manipulation.And then, and then on the other spectrum of that, you think of. Companies that are just stamping out, don't know anybody ever heard that company stamping out utility apps or like whatever it is, and then slapping a subscription thing on it. Yeah, it works. I'm going to get marginally more LTV than they were, you know, before, but 00:32:54 Robbie:Yeah. 00:32:54 Jacob:Not going to, that's 00:32:55 Robbie:Yeah. 00:32:56 Jacob:The level of like computer or like problem solving for consumers that we were then we were doing before.00:33:02 Robbie:I think you have to be really passionate about the customer needs and the customer's journey rather than on your product. And this is, this is always a really rough conversation because a lot of businesses, really, really, really hold their products in high regard, whether it's. Automobiles or, you know, software, I mean, software, you know, most companies around here in Silicon valley, like the software team, they run everything.Like that's, that's the talent and everything, you know, they can build what they want. And, you know, I, I used to joke that, you know, when you work with. The car world, right? Sometimes it's just about the cup holders, right? It's not about, it's not about the big engine, right. Which is what a lot of the people, a lot of people go into the world of cars, automotive because they love cool cars, but a lot of people who buy cars.Don't buy cool cars. They buy practical cars that solve certain problems for them. And you have to be passionate about the problems you're solving for the customers. That again. So I did a lot of work early on with, in my sort of subscription life in the high-end bicycle industry. I was working with the bicycle product suppliers association, really, really interesting space.But one thing about it is that most people who own bike stores and work in bike stores and sell bikes and manufactured by. Our bike researchers and off-road, you know, risk-taking bike enthusiasts that have nine bikes at home, there's a whole huge untapped market of people who just need a bike to get to school or a bike to get to work or a bike for, for Saturdays to go to the farmer's market.And they ask really annoying questions at the bike store. Like, does this come in pink or can I get a basket for this? Or, this going to get em, you know, Reese on my, on my work pants and at some point, even, you know, like there's always this tension because the people who create the products, sometimes they're like those aren't problems I want to work on.Right. Or, you know, I worked in the hospital, you know, kind of in the, in the, in the health industry. And I talked to a lot of surgeons and they're like, yeah, you guys can do whatever you want around customer, this customer that treating customers like patients, whatever. But I want to see my patient unconscious on a table and I'll cut them open and I'll fix them and make them better.And I don't want to do all that other stuff. Right. it's hard because they're the talent. you know, I think this is a big issue with subscriptions because those Mark Key elements, aren't always the thing that's going to drive engagement, retention.00:35:30 Jacob:It's falling in love with your own product, right. It's falling in love with the 00:35:33 Robbie:Yeah. 00:35:34 Jacob:And not the problem, you know? you 00:35:37 Robbie:Exactly. 00:35:38 Jacob:I mean, I've been in the, you know, in the past, when I was in the weeds, like you start to really over it. I think analytics can actually like be, this is where, yeah.Back to the discussion of like, just throw 10 users on the board and maybe don't like, get the finest. Tooth comb to like go through your data. First is like, when you have like super high fidelity data on everything, you can start to get really data oriented. But if your product is the thing, collecting the data, you sort of inherently bias the data collection you're doing based on the product you have.You miss a lot of opportunities because you're not just thinking about the problem space. I worked on this app called elevate, which was training, and I can remember so many. So many like heated discussions about, this flow, should we do this or X and Y and Z. And not as many as we should have had about like, why are people actually coming to this app like addressing those questions from like head-on, and thinking about ways that we can improve the product with that.The beginning. And I haven't seen that revenue cat too. Like we have a lot of which are really deep and rich and people use and they're in love with, and we can, you know, you can spend a lot of brain power and a lot of focus thinking about the next iteration of that thing. The re yeah, like you said, the, the, the, the bike shop owner who's really into bikes are like really into some particular technology touch with.Yeah, these bigger things, it's like forever promise this, like, what are we actually building? Like what does revenue cap mean? And in a decade when the problems we're solving now, actually, maybe aren't that relevant the case. We've talked a lot about media companies and I almost snuck in a metaverse joke.And now I will just refer to OMA 00:37:14 Robbie:Yeah. 00:37:15 Jacob:Joke your headphones, but like, Yeah, we think about this as like modes of consumption are going to be changing. that's where these, like, missions, customer mission or forever promises kind of come in. It's like making sure that regardless of a Netflix delivered on a DVD or on a streaming set top box, or into some sort of like brain 00:37:34 Robbie:Okay. 00:37:35 Jacob:Like this, the subscribers will transfer.Right. 00:37:38 Robbie:Yeah. 00:37:39 Jacob:Yeah. And this is one of my, like now I'm now I'm ranting, but think is one of the reasons I'm still really excited about all of these pieces coming together, is because it does just feel like we've reached some stage in our economy where we can align a lot more incentives this way.Then maybe we have been able to in the past, which I think is just exciting.00:38:00 David:But as we align those incentives and people get more and more subscriptions. Nice little transition there. Thank you, 00:38:07 Jacob:That's great. David, you're getting this podcasting thing, like really turning it in.00:38:11 David:There is a growing, chorus of, but subscription fatigue, People are tiring of all these subscriptions and no matter how much you can align incentives And everything else, people are just not going to want to pay subscription. So having, having seen the, the growth in subscription, consumer subscription starting way back at Netflix in the early two thousands, and now we are layering on more and more and more.What what's your perspective on this, this concept of subscription fatigue, our consumers really tiring of, paying in this way. 00:38:49 Robbie:Yeah. So the upside of, you know, this explosion and subscriptions is that consumers, and actually businesses alike are much more receptive to subscription offerings. They understand them, they understand the value they can provide if they're done. Right. and they're easier than ever before for any kind of company.You know, from the smallest mom and pop up to the, you know, the biggest multinationals to offer subscription pricing. The downside is there's this glut of subscriptions. Every company has them and not all of them are well-designed as, as we've been discussing. and that leads to subscription fatigue, and, and there's sort of three things.Contribute to that. One of them is where these, the product does not justify subscription pricing, right? This is a product I'm going to need once and you're requiring me to subscribe to it. That feels unfair. you know, or I'm never, I'm hardly ever going to use this in. You're making me subscribe, even though, you know, my use case doesn't justify that investment.Second problem is kind of the flip side of that, which I think of the subscription overwhelm or subscription guilt, which is. This great value. Actually, your product is fantastic, but I can't use all the value because of my own issues. And that makes me feel bad about myself. Like this is when you, you know, you have the new Yorker magazine piling up on your bedside table.Right. And you just cause you just want to Netflix and chill cause you're tired. But like your thought at the beginning of the day is I'm going to get so smart. I'm going to read all these great. That makes you feel bad about yourself, you can't, you know what I would suggest for example, that a new Yorker does is to educate consumers, that you only have to read one or two articles to get the full value of your subscription.It's all you care to consume, not consume all of it or you're, you're lazy. but I think that overwhelm, or, you know, same thing with blue apron where the meal kits are in your fridge and you're not using 00:40:34 Jacob:No, Don't even fatigue. it's a rough subject.00:40:39 Robbie:Yeah. Cause you feel bad, like the meals are calling to you and you're like, don't go out with your friends. 00:40:44 Jacob:Yeah. 00:40:44 Robbie:In the fridge. Don't be a waster. 00:40:47 Jacob:With my spouse about cooking because we have the giant meal kit to do. but it's great. I love the time.00:40:53 Robbie:Yeah. So then, and then, and then I think the last one, I mean, but it's, it's great. Cause it's not the fault. The meal is great. It's I don't feel like eating it today or someone invited me over for like the crazy one is when someone invites you to dinner. And so then it's not even a question of finances.You're like, well, either way, I'm not going to have to spend any more money and I'm going to get a delicious dinner. Do I want to make the blue apron dinner or go to my friend's house? Who just invited me? Well, I can't go to my friend's house because I feel bad throwing the blue apron in garbage 00:41:19 Jacob:To, the lettuce is going to be wilted by the next by tomorrow.So. 00:41:22 Robbie:Day I can cook. And then the last issue, so there's there's know, bad product-market fit. There's this subscription overwhelmed or subscription guilt. And then the last one is hiding the cancel button. And I'm really interested in what you guys think about that one. Cause a lot of subscriptions, make it really hard for you to get out of this.Cancel anytime relationship, even though. That's what they pitched. Join and cancel any time. If you can find the cancel button, which we've hidden behind 27 clicks with a call us on Tuesday, you know, extra hurdle.00:41:54 Jacob:Yeah, I think it's, well, my take is it's terrible. And anybody that does, it should really reevaluate what they're doing in software. Cause like, I think it violates that trust, right? Like, welcome. We're going to ask for this thing where you're gonna you're you're gonna let us charge. We're just going to suck money out of your bank account every month, because you've decided to like enter this relationship with us and then we're going to go ahead and betray that trust.Right. We can turn around and betray that 00:42:16 Robbie:Yeah,Advantage. 00:42:17 Jacob:But, yeah, I hadn't. Thought of fatigue in so many channels like that are so many aspects, but like the, the overwhelming aspect is interesting. And I resonate. I feel that, like, I feel that with, with dinner boxes, for sure, but even in software too, there's certain pieces of software.Like, I feel like, ah, I can't cancel it cause I have these intense and things like that. And that's not really what you want to, those, aren't the relationships you want to focus on. Right? Like so. 00:42:40 David:Side there, I think like I use this example a ton, but, Visco, I'm not a daily user. I'm not even necessarily a monthly user, but when there's a photo of my kids or just a photo, I took that I really cherish. I important into Visco and Fisco makes it better. And that to me is so valuable that I didn't even care.I mean, 20 bucks a year, I think is too cheap for their product. I would pay a lot more, even though I maybe only use it quarterly sometimes, or maybe once a month or, you know, when I'm on vacation, maybe I use it every day for a week, but it's interesting that that product. Doesn't create that sense of, oh, I'm not getting enough value out of it because I get so much value when I do. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Maybe if it were $60 a year, it would be too much. But I mean, I just, I just would never consider canceling because I it's just, when I have a photo I care about, I take it to Bisco and it's better and it like, that's their forever promise and it just resonates so well with me that I don't, I don't get that, guilt you know, I get more than $20 a year of value out of 00:43:49 Jacob:00:43:50 Robbie:Yeah, I think, I mean, it's interesting. I think one of the things about this, you know, sort of dealing with subscription overwhelm is, you know, is it framed like whatever the customer is, anchoring their pricing to. where they say it's valuable enough. So, so for example, I worked with, one of these produce box companies, and one of their challenges was that most of their customers said that most weeks they ended up throwing something away.Right. Because it's never the exact right amount of produce. Right? So you end up at the end of the week with like soggy kale or, you know, turnips, and then you go on vacation and you come back and they put them into with these turnips. But one of the things that we did is we set expectations. That it's okay to throw out a little bit of produce that you're still getting a better price than you would at the store.And you're still supporting farmers, local farmers. So sometimes it's as simple as just reframing what the expectation is like saying for Visco. You know, if you, if you use, you know, if you use this for two or three, you know, memory pictures a year, You know, doesn't that pay for itself in 20 bucks worth, you know, three great shots of your life.You know, the three best moments of 2021. a lot of it is about, is about, I think, expectation setting and understanding your customer and what the value is. Like. I don't know how much I pay for Amazon prime. I don't care.00:45:05 Jacob:Yeah, 00:45:06 Robbie:I it almost every 00:45:07 Jacob:I 00:45:07 Robbie:Mean, I don't. 00:45:08 Jacob:A decade ago and haven't thought about really 00:45:11 Robbie:Right. But I use it every day. Like I don't care what it costs. I mean, if they start charging $3,000, I would care. But like, if it's a hundred dollars a year or $85 a year or $115, I don't care. And that's a really important point about pricing is that at least I've found with many of the subscription companies I've worked with and a lot of, you know, software products when they don't sell well, when their business isn't growing, they immediately jumped to the. Must be too expensive. We'll have to lower our price. But in so many cases, it's not about the price. It's about the value. I'm not using it. If I'm not using it, it doesn't matter if it's a dollar or a hundred dollars. and so thinking about why aren't they using it before you jump right to, well, I guess I'll take 10% off the top.00:45:56 David:Yeah, let let's let's talk pricing real quick.Cause you, you do have several strategies that you get through in the book and in what you were, what you were just explaining was one of the things I really took away from your book. is it you say in the book that it's more important to understand product-market fit and willingness to pay than finding the exact right price.And so you, you were, you kind of backed into explaining that, but let, let's elaborate a little bit. And essentially what you were just describing was that a product that doesn't have product-market fit, it doesn't matter what you price it. You know, what are, what are your, what else, what are your thoughts on that?00:46:36 Robbie:Yeah. I, I just think, I mean, in so many things in life, you're kind of on a continuum. Like, you know, I remember when many years ago I started doing weightlifting and, you know, I told people that I was doing it to be more fit and you know, stronger, and now it's very common, but at the time a woman doing weightlifting, you know, working out with weights and people would say to me, I don't want.Huge muscles. And I was like, oh honey, you are so far from that being a problem. Like we're at the other end of the continuum. Like there are certainly people, women who work out and get too muscly and that's not what they want men to wear. Like then it intervenes with my ability to do my sport. But for most people it doesn't just happen.And I think in the world of apps, I think most people. Kind of over index on pricing and think that that's going to be the key thing to figuring this out. When a lot of times there's actually a pretty big gap between, you know, kind of where you can make money and where your customer is willing to pay there's lots of room, lots of different prices. And as long as you launch somewhere in that. You're going to make some money and over time, there's lots of ways to become more sophisticated and get to a better and better price point. But a lot of people assume that if they have a highly elastic product, meaning that for every dollar you increase your pricing.Your number of customers drops by a predictable percentage. And I think in many cases for a lot of products that are inelastic, if I use it, I'll pay anywhere between five and $10 month. And if I don't use it, I will pay nothing. And so if you notice that people aren't are canceling and they're the same people who aren't using the product, it's probably not a pricing problem.It's probably a product problem.00:48:17 Jacob:Right. I mean, if you're talking about product-market fit and a forever relationship like that, I'm going to pay incident money in terms of my lifetime. Right? Like I'm going to pay 00:48:27 Robbie:Great. Right. And it's, and the thing is that people assume like, so what I would say is if. If you're trying to figure out your first price, I'd say, don't worry about it too much. if you need to do a land, grab like a Spotify priced low and you can raise your price later, although that's hard, but just do it cause you, you want people to adopt your solution.If you're worried about, you know, hurting your core business, And so, you know, then start by pricing really high and you can lower it as you have increased confidence and understanding of use case. But there's a lot of room in there and that's really, my advice is be somewhere in that range. And if people aren't buying it or aren't staying.Look for the other signs of what might be driving it besides pricing, like, is it that they, you know, failure to launch? They never onboarded. They never activated, they never used the best features. is it that they were using it for a while and then their usage trickled off. Maybe they used it up, right?Either they binged or, you know, they've watched everything they've seen, maybe their job changed. So these features are no longer relevant to their work, but really try to be a detective about where the problem is like. it's like you have a party, in a bar you're not making money from the party in the bar. Like before you lower the price at the front door, see like, are people walking by and not recognizing that you have a party, so you have nobody in there because that's an awareness problem or is it that people come in the front door and can't find their way to the food and drink and music. And so they think it's a lame party is that they leave and they never come back.You know, that's an onboarding problem. Is it that they've been eating all the food and dancing to all the music and they're like, I'm tired of these songs. I'm tired of this food, which is a different kind of product problem, product assortment problem. Or is it, I went downstairs to the food and there was no food and the music, you know, the speakers weren't working and that's an operational issue.Right. So fix the problems before you drop the price.00:50:20 David:That's such...00:50:21 Jacob:I mean I think about it, if you have product-market fit, you're going to go this way (up and to the right on the curve). All the price is going to do is maybe define that inflection on that curve. Exponential curves, the slope doesn't matter often all that much in the longterm. You can optimize it eventually, but it's really getting that product-market fit. Then it just takes care of itself.00:50:52 David:That that is a great bit of advice to wrap up on.Your book, The Forever Transaction, is fantastic. Reading it was so fun just to think about—we put our blinders on with this podcast and in the space we work in with apps—but realizing that so many of the ideas that we think about, so many of the problems we work on, are things that are across the entire industry, across all consumer subscriptions, even a lot of overlapping in B2B SaaS.So, it was just so fun reading your book, and then getting to ask you questions here. I had 30 more questions that I wanted to ask you. I could go another hour or two, but I'll, put links to your LinkedIn, to your website, to your Twitter in the show notes.Is there anything else you wanted to share with our audience as we wrap up?00:51:42 Robbie:No, I think we covered a lot. If there's one thing that I want to leave people with, it's this idea that if you start with the promise you're making to your customers, helping them with an ongoing problem, or achieving an ongoing goal that's important to them, and then you optimize your offering around that, your chances of both acquiring and retaining your customers going to go way up.00:52:06 David:Such great advice. Great place to end.You mentioned that there's some extra goodies listeners can get if they click on the link in the show notes, they can get your book and some extra goodies along with that.So, thank you so much for being on the podcast.00:52:22 Robbie:Yeah. A real pleasure.

Audio de la grabación realizada el 23 de abril de 2020 (Día del Libro, en España). En ella, Inmaculada Pérez e Inmaculada Setuáin (de @LesegLeyendo) conversan con José Luis Orihuela (@jlori) acerca del mundo de los libros. Lecturas de apoyo Más reading y menos streaming https://www.ecuaderno.com/2020/03/10/mas-reading-y-menos-streaming/ 10 recursos en línea imprescindibles para amantes de los libros https://www.ecuaderno.com/2019/03/13/10-recursos-en-linea-imprescindibles-para-amantes-de-los-libros/ 20 libros para leer en 2020 https://www.ecuaderno.com/2020/02/06/20-libros-para-leer-en-2020/ Sitios citados Leyendo se entiende la gente https://leseg.wordpress.com/ Entrevista: “No me resisto a comprar libros en tinta aunque no los vea, sé que son el mejor adorno para mi casa” https://leseg.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/no-me-resisto-a-comprar-libros-en-tinta-aunque-no-los-vea-se-que-son-el-mejor-adorno-para-mi-casa/ Biblioteca de la UNAV https://www.unav.edu/web/biblioteca Re-Read https://www.re-read.com/ Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/ Feedly https://feedly.com/i/welcome Voice Audiobook Player https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.ph1b.audiobook&hl=es Five Books https://fivebooks.com/ World of Books https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb Libros recomendados Barrio Lejano (Jiro Taniguchi, 2016) https://amzn.to/2W7WVkL El libro de mi destino (Parinoush Saniee, 2014) https://amzn.to/2XZ0V9s El sonido de un caracol salvaje al comer (Elisabeth Tova Bailey, 2019) https://amzn.to/3eMnnsm El poder de las historias: O cómo han cautivado al ser humano, de la Ilíada a Harry Potter (Martin Puchner, 2019) https://amzn.to/34ZMDHc Tarantula (Bob Dylan, 1966) https://amzn.to/3bzXhqJ The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue (Robbie Kellman Baxter, 2015) https://amzn.to/350l6FC Blanca Nieves y los Siete Enanitos - Pequeño gran disco de Walt Disney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FyZAPrmVZY Twitter. Manuales Imprescindibles (Antonio Cambronero, 2012) https://amzn.to/2yBrkzN Mortadelo y Filemón (Francisco Ibáñez) https://mortadelo-filemon.es/ Mafalda (Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón, Quino) https://www.quino.com.ar/librosmafalda El hombre en busca de sentido (Viktor Emil Frankl, 2015) https://amzn.to/2S2TREW

While I'm taking a break from recording new podcasts and LinkedIn Live conversations, I'll be sharing a few compilations of previously recorded interviews. We have pulled out relevant insights and chunks of conversation from guests that you'll find useful as you lead or take part in the CX undertakings in your organization. Today's episode features two authors, Alain Hunkins, who wrote Cracking the Leadership Code, and Robbie Kellman-Baxter, author of The Forever Transaction. Both guests share examples and tactics from their books to help you elevate your leadership. Their strategies will help you think through ways to better connect with your audience, your team, and perhaps even yourself! Enjoy!

Repeat business is the lifeblood of successful enterprises. But a new generation of entrepreneurial leaders are recognizing a higher level of customer loyalty: The Forever Transaction.  On this episode of the Customer Experience Advantage Podcast, I have a fascinating conversation with Robbie Kellman Baxter, a pioneer of the “membership economy.” In fact, she coined the term. Robbie has helped some of the biggest brands build their membership models. We talk about the growth of the membership and subscription business models, why they work and for whom they don't.   If you have aspired to the reoccurring, and predictable revenue of a membership business model, tune into this powerful conversation with a brilliant business strategist. You can find David Avrin on, www.davidavrin.com www.linkedin.com/in/davidavrin www.twitter.com/DavidAvrin www.facebook.com/therealdavidavrin www.instagram.com/therealdavidavrin You can find Robbie Kellman Baxter on, https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbiekellmanbaxter/ https://twitter.com/robbiebax https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Kristen interviews author of The Forever Transaction, Robbie Kellman Baxter. Kristen and Robbie talk about the inner workings of subscription models.

Robbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant, author and speaker. She is also the author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction, and hosts the podcast Subscription Stories. Robbie has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations, including Netflix, Fitbit, Microsoft and Consumer Reports and has worked in or consulted to clients in more than twenty industries. She has been focused on subscription and growth strategies for the past decade and coined the popular business term “Membership Economy," which is now being used by organizations and journalists around the country and beyond.  Robbie has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on CNN. She earned her MBA from the Stanford GSB, and graduated with honors from Harvard College. In this podcast she shares: Why you should consider evolving your business model from a transaction-based one into a membership-based one What she learned from working with Netflix and other member-based companies across a range of industries Why evolving into a membership model is not just about changing your pricing structure, but requires you also looking at making three others sets of changes __________________________________________________________________________________________"You have to think about the impact on the products that you offer, the processes that you use internally, the metrics that you educate your leadership and your board to focus on all of that needs to change as well. If you're [moving toward a membership model], it's not as simple as taking the products you have and slapping a subscription price on it."-Robbie Baxter__________________________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:00—Introducing Robbie Baxter + The topic of today's episode2:00—If you really know me, you know that...2:31—What is your definition of strategy?4:31—What got you interested in strategy?5:51—What are you most well-known for?7:53—Can you paint a picture for us of how a business could become a membership economy business?11:43— What is the key lesson or takeaway from your work?13:09—How do you align your metrics, business processes and products to a membership economy model?14:30—Can you be both transactional and subscription, or do you have to choose between two worlds?15:54—Of all the strategic advice that you've gotten, what has been most impactful?17:04—Where can people connect with you and what are you working on now?__________________________________________________________________________________________Additional Resources:Subscription Stories podcast: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/podcast-2/Personal website: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbiekellmanbaxter/

Robbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant, author and speaker. She is also the author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction, and hosts the podcast Subscription Stories. Robbie has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations, including Netflix, Fitbit, Microsoft and Consumer Reports and has worked in or consulted to clients in more than twenty industries. She has been focused on subscription and growth strategies for the past decade and coined the popular business term “Membership Economy," which is now being used by organizations and journalists around the country and beyond.  Robbie has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on CNN. She earned her MBA from the Stanford GSB, and graduated with honors from Harvard College. In this podcast she shares: Why you should consider evolving your business model from a transaction-based one into a membership-based one What she learned from working with Netflix and other member-based companies across a range of industries Why evolving into a membership model is not just about changing your pricing structure, but requires you also looking at making three others sets of changes __________________________________________________________________________________________"You have to think about the impact on the products that you offer, the processes that you use internally, the metrics that you educate your leadership and your board to focus on all of that needs to change as well. If you're [moving toward a membership model], it's not as simple as taking the products you have and slapping a subscription price on it."-Robbie Baxter__________________________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:00—Introducing Robbie Baxter + The topic of today's episode2:00—If you really know me, you know that...2:31—What is your definition of strategy?4:31—What got you interested in strategy?5:51—What are you most well-known for?7:53—Can you paint a picture for us of how a business could become a membership economy business?11:43— What is the key lesson or takeaway from your work?13:09—How do you align your metrics, business processes and products to a membership economy model?14:30—Can you be both transactional and subscription, or do you have to choose between two worlds?15:54—Of all the strategic advice that you've gotten, what has been most impactful?17:04—Where can people connect with you and what are you working on now?__________________________________________________________________________________________Additional Resources:Subscription Stories podcast: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/podcast-2/Personal website: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbiekellmanbaxter/

In this latest episode, Kristen reviews:The Forever Transaction by Robbie Kellman BaxterThis book discusses different ways businesses can approach subscription models. Though it may not be focused only on Customer Success, there is a lot of useful information in there!Next month, Kristen will review Now, Discover Your Strengths by Don Clifton. The new episode will be available on October 7th, 2021.While she has some books in mind for the rest of the season, she'd love suggestions as well. Email kristen@thesuccessleague.io with any questions or ideas. As always, thanks for listening!

It used to be we only subscribed to newspaper and some magazines. Now we're subscribing to just about everything, but are we suffering from subscription fatigue? Robbie Kellman Baxter author of two books on the subject, “The Membership Economy” and “The Forever Transaction” says we might. She says we are in the wild west of the subscription economy thanks to technology making it easier for businesses of all sizes to pivot to a membership model. While subscriptions may be possible, Robbie says there's one key thing many companies miss when they change over. Find out what they're missing on this episode of All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett.   Connect with Robbie: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/   Join the C-Suite Network: https://c-suitenetwork.com/executive-membership Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Podcast: 2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns (LS 49 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)Episode: Different Pricing ModelsPub date: 2019-06-05Blair is struck by how creative businesses have trouble applying their creativity to their revenue models, so he and David discuss some of the best ways firms can get paid.   LINKS Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It by Tien Tzuo The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue by Robbie Kellman Baxter The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry by John Warrillow 2Bobs Episode 31: “Mastering the Value Conversation” 2Bobs Episode 25: “Pricing Creativity” Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour by Blair Enns   The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David C. Baker and Blair Enns, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

In this episode, I have the honor and pleasure of talking with a foremost expert in the subscription industry.  She is an author, keynote speaker, podcast host, Consultant, the co-founder of the D2C Summit, and advisor to the world's leading subscription based companies, the one and only Robbie Kellman Baxter!Robbie Kellman Baxter is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC, a management consulting firm, as well as the author of the bestselling book, The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue.  Her new book The Forever Transaction: How to Build a Subscription Model So Compelling, Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave was released in April of this year. If all of that wasn't impressive enough, have a listen at some of Robbie's clients:  They've included large organizations like Netflix, the Wall Street Journal, Nike and Microsoft, as well as dozens of smaller venture-backed companies.Guest Links:Here's a link to a free chapter of Robbie's book: https://pages.robbiekellmanbaxter.com/ft-excerptRobbie's podcast robbiekellmanbaxter.com/podcastLink to her ebook “launch your subscription business” https://app.convertkit.com/forms/designers/1464235/editLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbiekellmanbaxter/This is the upcoming conference in CT where Robbie will be speaking at: https://www.digitalsalesandmarketingworld.com/conference Deal of the month! Manscaped and their NEW Lawnmower 4.0.  Want 20% OFF?  Visit https://manscaped.com and use discount code TSBS at checkout!  Manscaped, the #1 one Grooming Kit!Eric's Recommended Affiliate Courses & Resources:Eric and Christine's Ultimate Guide for Graphic Design for Your Subscription Box Business: https://www.thesubscriptionboxshow.com/resourcesJulie Ball's Subscription Box Bootcamp 2.0 Course Link:https://ericmusick.krtra.com/t/h67apnWbBQ9cThe Subscription Box Experts Academy Course By Liam Brennan Link: https://ericmusick.krtra.com/t/jIw4to2rXSoQ Host Links:The Subscription Box Show Website: https://www.thesubscriptionboxshow.comThe Subscription Box Show Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/thesubscriptionboxshow.comEric Musick's email: eric@thesubscriptionboxshow.comEric Musick's Instagram: @thesubscriptionboxshow or https://www.instagram.com/thesubscriptionboxshowThe Subscription Box Show Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2960087864057955/To request being on TSBS, please book a call with Eric at: https://www.calendly.com/thesubboxshow

In this week's episode we hear from Robbie Kellman Baxter, an author and consultant with over twenty years of experience in subscription pricing, digital community, and freemium. Robbie started working with membership and subscription models like Netflix while they were still sending out DVDs, and has written The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction exploring the membership models of the industry giants, and how organisations of any size can take a slice of the subscription pie for themselves. Robbie is currently working with FIPP on an online event exploring the world of direct-to-consumer revenue models for media businesses.  In the news roundup we speak about a report that local publishers are set to lose tens of millions from the demise of the third-party cookie, ask if The Athletic's mooted sale to the NYT was always a cynical scale play, and examine what the likely features of Twitter Blue are. Esther sings Eiffel 65.

Robbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant, author and speaker. She is also the author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction and hosts the podcast Subscription Stories. Robbie has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations, including Netflix, Fitbit, Microsoft and Consumer Reports.  She has been focused on subscription and growth strategies for the past decade.  Baxter has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on CNN. She earned her MBA from the Stanford GSB and graduated with honors from Harvard College.

Robbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant, author and speaker. She is also the author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction, and hosts the podcast Subscription Stories. Robbie has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations, including Netflix, Fitbit, Microsoft and Consumer Reports. She has been focused on subscription and growth strategies for the past decade. Baxter has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on CNN. She earned her MBA from the Stanford GSB, and graduated with honors from Harvard College. You can find more about Robbie on her website https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/ Check out Robbie’s special audience site with all kinds of goodies. Read a free excerpt of her book, The Forever Transaction Follow Robbie Kellman Baxter on LinkedIn Follow Robbie Kellman Baxter on Twitter Follow Robbie Kellman Baxter on Instagram Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

Shownotes(0:58) Intro(5:54) What are you reading?(9:34) Redefining how we approach virtual presentations(18:05) Stop using COVID as an excuse!(23:25) The Morning Huddle(31:37) Advice for the next year(33:46) Wrap upLinksShawn BlackDavid Avrin Visibility International The Morning Huddle: Powerful Customer Experience Conversations to Wake You Up, Shake You Up and Win More Business! Book RecommendationsThe Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue Quotes“So with virtual life, it’s just a live presentation done remotely, but in a way that’s engaging.  And so there’s two ends of the spectrum.  People were doing webinars, which were excruciating -- Zoom fatigue is a thing – or they were trying to replicate a huge big stage thing on their webcam.” (11:04)“I don’t share my screen.  I just run it behind me so that you and I, myself and whatever audience I’m speaking to, we can just deal with the content.” (12:01)“We have choices.  We can work with anybody.  Those who are remarkably easy to do business with – and they define what’s easy – win.” (17:54)“Our policies and procedures and behaviors are not to make life easier for us and our team.  It’s to make life great for our customers,  and our customers have choices.  And if you’re difficult to do business with, if you have a frustrating process, if you have a maddening wait time, they will be gone, because they can.  Competitors are everywhere.”  (20:04)“We create this whole journey, and it works.  There’s a sense of predictability, and if we can predict that path, we can strategically plan.  We can budget.  We can anticipate cash flow.  It works, but here’s the problem.  The problem is your customers haven’t read your employee manual.  They just know how they want to do business.”  (21:07)“We get so focused on controlling everything that we don’t let our people be creative and accommodate.  We do it this way.  We are entering an age that will require an extraordinary level of accommodation, and we’ve got to start saying yes to things that we haven’t historically, or at least find an alternative.” (21:42)

Joining us this week is Robbie Kellman-Baxter author of The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue and The Forever Transaction: How to Build a Business So Compelling, Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave. James and Robbie discuss the evolution of the way we do business, how consumers buy and how any business can implement a ‘subscription model' into their business. If you're thinking about how the subscription model can be implemented into your recruitment business then you need to listen to this! If you want more information about Robbie you can find it on her website robbiekellmanbaxter.com where you can also find links to purchase both her books. Want to know more about The Recruitment Network and how we can help your recruitment business? Click here The Recruitment Network.

Most subscription entrepreneurs initially are attracted to the model for its predictable recurring revenue, but there are other benefits to having an ongoing relationship with members. Alli Harper works at the intersection of subscription eCommerce and social impact. Dedicated to the advocacy of promoting diversity in the picture book industry, Alli is building OurShelves, a scalable enterprise that serves the underestimated audience for diverse children's books. Trained as a lawyer and community organizer, Alli launched the business from her kitchen table in the home she shares with her wife Jenn and their two children. Host Robbie Kellman Baxter featured Alli’s launch story in her recent book, The Forever Transaction. She now invites her to the podcast to share the way she is using her subscription business to persuade publishers to include more diverse families in the everyday stories they tell in their children’s books. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Subscription Stories Community today: robbiekellmanbaxter.com Twitter Facebook

"If you need to optimize for lifetime customer value, you need to bring in the right customer." - Robbie Kellman Baxter in today's Tip 778 How do you build a forever transaction with your customers? Join the conversation at DailySales.Tips/778 and learn more about Robbie! Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: scott@top1.fm

In this episode, Owen speaks with Robbie Baxter, who is the founder and lead Strategy Consultant for Peninsula Strategies and is the bestselling author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction. She has over 20 years of experience working in strategy consulting and marketing. Key points shared in the show: Learn the overview of how to run a subscription business model Advice to get involved in the technology industry Learn about her view and tips on networking Grab her books below: The Forever Transaction: https://geni.us/NkO5Ntn The Membership Economy: https://geni.us/pcYl8K2 Use the code: UNLEASH to get 20% your Knowable membership: https://www.knowable.fyi/ Check out Owen's new startup, Gura: www.gura.io Follow Unleash The Knowledge: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashtheknowledge/?hl=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/UnleashTheKnow_ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnleashTheKnowledge/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleash-the-knowledge/ Subscribe to our email newsletter and get 3 bestselling ebooks after sign up: https://unleashtheknowledge.ck.page/9844648e75

In this episode, we sit down with Robbie Baxter, consultant, speaker, and bestselling author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction. Robbie has more than twenty years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations like Netflix, Consumer Reports, and LinkedIn. She offers up her insights on the evolution of subscription-based pricing, membership trends that drive recurring revenue, and how sales and customer success can work together to be less siloed.

This week Ron and Ed welcome Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of The Forever Transaction. We will be talking about, of course, SUBSCRIPTION! Robbie's customers include Netflix, the National Restaurant Association, and The Mail Newspapers in the UK, as well as dozens of Silicon Valley SaaS and consumer subscription companies.

This week Ron and Ed welcome Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of The Forever Transaction. We will be talking about, of course, SUBSCRIPTION! Robbie's customers include Netflix, the National Restaurant Association, and The Mail Newspapers in the UK, as well as dozens of Silicon Valley SaaS and consumer subscription companies.

Startups that have a subscription model are valued a lot more than startups that have to repeatedly sell to their customers. This is why publicly-listed Netflix or privately held Notion, and many others are valued at a premium. Even traditional businesses have started to see this trend and are now building their own subscription businesses. But what is it that makes them successful? Why do they tend to do better than traditional companies? In this episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast, we bring you a conversation with Robbie Kellman Baxter, one of the most prominent thinkers in the field of the membership economy. Robbie, whose clients include companies like Netflix, Fitbit, Microsoft, and several others, talks to us about how startups should go about designing their membership models to unlock value for customers and shareholders. We spoke to Robbie about

Robbie Kellman Baxter has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations, including Netflix, Fitbit, Microsoft, and Consumer Reports. She has been focused on subscription and growth strategies for the past decade. Baxter has been featured in the WSJ and on CNN. She has her MBA from the Stanford GSB, and graduated with honors from Harvard College. She's the author of the books, The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction, and a consultant with Peninsula Strategies. In this episode of the Product Science Podcast, we talk about what successful subscription businesses do right, and why retention is what you need to keep focused on the long term. Read the show notes to learn more.

Hey y'all! You're listening to a preview of our interview from the Membership Masters Podcast with Robbie Baxter. Robbie Baxter is the OG evangelist of the membership model. Her book, The Membership Economy, predicted the rise of subscription services like Netflix. Listen to the our preview of the full episode where we dive deep into when and where you should use free trials, pricing memberships, and her new book The Forever Transaction.

For decades, consumers and businesses have joined clubs, bought products and accessed services using a subscription model. But it has only been in recent years that the model has been transformed and perfected through massive changes in technology. Robbie Kellman Baxter is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC, a management consulting firm, as well as the author of the bestselling book The Membership Economy. Her new book The Forever Transaction was released in April of this year. Her clients have included large organizations like Netflix, the Wall Street Journal, and Microsoft, as well as dozens of smaller venture-backed companies. Join us as Robbie shares how you can radically rethink how your organization can build loyalty, viral growth, and recurring revenue.

Rob and Paul host Dave Monahan, CEO of Kleer, an advanced, cloud-based platform that enables dentists to easily design and manage their own dental membership plan and offer it directly to their patients. In this episode, Rob and Paul chat with Dave about why a dental practice should consider implementing a membership plan now as part of their COVID-19 recovery strategy, how a membership plan can help patients access the care they need and drive treatment acceptance, the impact that a membership plan can have on dental practice results and best practices for implementing a membership plan (spoiler alert - DIY isn't one of them). Listeners who want to learn more about Kleer can visit www.kleer.com, and they can email Dave at Dave@Kleer.com. Listeners who want to reach out to Paul can do so at Paul@DentalNachos.com and those who want to reach out to Rob can do so Rob at Rob@RMontgomery-Law.com. For the inquisitive minds, here are links to the books Dave and Rob mention on this podcast: “The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue” by Robbie Kellman Baxter: Click here. “The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry” by John Warrillow: Click here. “Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” by Dan Ariely: Click here.

In recent years, we have experienced a massive transformation in the way organizations relate to the people they serve. The focus has shifted from ownership to access, from transactions to relationships, from single payment to subscription pricing, and from one-way conversation to open dialogue. In this new Membership Economy, businesses are called on to build trusted relationships with customers in order to earn their loyalty. Robbie Baxter is the founder of Peninsula Strategies, a consulting firm that supports solopreneurs, venture-backed startups and industry leaders in developing business strategy. She has 20 years of experience working on growth initiatives with nearly 100 organizations in 20-plus industries, including ASICS, Netflix and The Wall Street Journal. Baxter is also the author of The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue, an Inc Top 5 Marketing Book of 2015, and she received her MBA from Stanford, where she serves as the Vice Chair of Stanford Women on Boards. Today, Baxter explains the Membership Economy, describing how she supports entrepreneurs and startups in building authentic relationships with their clients and customers. She shares her transition from corporate product marketing to independent consulting, discussing how being the mother of young children made it difficult for her to be an A-player in a traditional nine-to-five setting. Listen in for Baxter's insight on defining your area of expertise and learn how to choose a career path that works for your life. Key Interview Takeaways Businesses benefit from building relationships with customers. Baxter coined the term Membership Economy to represent the massive shift in how organizations relate to the people they serve, developing trust with consumers in order to win their loyalty. Independent consulting requires niching down to a specific area of expertise. Baxter fell in love with the Netflix business model and leveraged her understanding of the Membership Economy to build a successful consulting business helping entrepreneurs and startups establishing meaningful relationships with clients and customers. Integrity is key in the membership economy. Subscription businesses that don't treat their customers well will lose them. As an independent consultant doing knowledge work, it doesn't matter WHEN you work on a project, as long as you complete it on time. The flexible model affords more control over your career and may be ideal for women who are the mothers of young children. Connect with Robbie Baxter Peninsula Strategies Robbie Baxter on LinkedIn Robbie Baxter on Twitter Resources The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue by Robbie Kellman Baxter Stanford Women on Boards Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices