EntreLeadership - #165: Robbie Kellman Baxter—Getting Your Customers to Stick

Episode Date: September 19, 2016

In today’ economy, businesses that are winning create connections and community. And this week’s guest is going to share how to do exactly that. Robbie Kellman Baxter joins us to discuss the membership economy and how to find your super users. Because when you make your customers feel like they are members of a club, you’ll make more money and perform a really valuable service. Also on this episode, we’re sharing an EntreLeader’s story on turning a stop sign into a starting line, and we’re giving you free tools to help you win. entreleadership.com/podcast 3 Reasons Team Members Fail Giveaway E1D LiveStream Infusionsoft's Lifecycle Marketing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Now, here is your host, Ken Coleman. Broadcasting from the Music City, this is the podcast of leaders, by leaders, for leaders. Thank you so much for joining the conversation. Our feature interview is with Robbie Baxter, author of The Membership Economy. Find your super users, master the forever transaction, and build. recurring revenue. And this is fun for me because I had mentioned her in an article. I believe

it was over a year ago on this podcast. In sourcing a quote from her book, somebody told her about it. She reached out to us. And it was a book that I had wanted to read and do something with and honestly had forgotten about it. And it's really cool to kind of reconnect. I really think you're going to enjoy this conversation. This really matters. So that is the feature conversation. And we've got some free stuff coming for you as well. But first, it's time for another email from Ken's electronic mail. Ken's electronic mail. You've got mail.

This email comes from Jack Groot. Jack is an entree leadership podcast listener, and we love that. It's a quick plug. We love to get emails from you. We love to hear your stories. And this email comes to us because I have recently said in a podcast, I want to hear some more of your turning nose into yeses, right? Turning stop signs into starting lines.

And we've gotten so many of them, and we're going to share this one from Jack Groot. Hope this inspires. you and incidentally if you want to send us your story suggestion questions podcast at ontraeleadership com is the email so jack writes and i'm going to summarize this long story but he writes to us and he tells us of a long period of time if you will where he is getting some maybes from an organization that he wants to join getting a lot of maybes hey check back in with us jack keep checking back in and Jack does. Finally, he says, I got to get a yes or a no. And so he presses. And I think this is great, by the way. I mean, if you're getting a bunch of maybes, just go ahead and force the

issue. And so he does. And he gets a no. And I'm going to pick up in the email as he writes, what did he feel, what did he do when he heard the no? As he said that word, he's talking about the guy who says, nope, Jack is not going to work out. Something clicked inside of me. It was if I was looking for the word no, even though I didn't know it. My mind, will, and emotions wanted a yes. And yet the moment I hung up the phone, I said to myself, that's it, I'm going to pursue a coffee shop. Incidentally, he has no experience with coffee. But something in his mind and in his heart said, all right, this is where I'm going to go next. Fast forward, two years to 1993 and I opened my first business, a coffee bar in Holland, Michigan. We later opened a coffee and business training school.

We created products and services for the coffee industry and consulted and trained people nationally and internationally. I was a monthly columnist for a coffee magazine for years, and in 2014, our coffee bar was noted as one of the top 10 coffee houses in America by USA Today destinations. This all led to being approached in 2014 by a large coffee industry company, and being offered a deal I could not pass up. I sold my business to them and took a newly created role at the company as director of retail overseeing. multiple retail outlets, a staff of over 60, and all future retail growth. Now, he eventually exits, and he is now in his early 50s, and self-described as, these are his words, semi-retired, and join my family, real estate, and whatever opportunity comes on my way. And here's the best part of the email. He puts it in all bold, Eric, and all this

from the word no. Now, why do I read that email? Like, why do we kind of keep sharing some of these stories. You know, it gets back to that Brian Bafini episode. If you're new to us and you haven't heard of that episode and I talked, I shared a very, very, honestly, at the time it was painful when it happened. Now I look back on it as one of my favorite scars, right? Those painful nose in life, if you turn them into yeses somewhere else, like it's a clear no there, move on. But you know, the pain from the nose, if we have the maturity to learn, filter what's happened, and move on and get a yes somewhere else. And we look back on them and, and we look back on them, just like Jack and my story that I shared and other stories we've shared,

they're now just awesome scars. You know, Eric, I look at that story and it's a scar, meaning it hurt at the time, it left a wound, but it healed. And just like any scar, we can rub our finger over a scar and we remember the circumstances. You can't feel the pain anymore. I can remember that it was painful. But when I touch that scar, no pain.

It is healed. Has it left a mark? Yes. And so we, this is a reoccurring thing because you are entrepreneurs, you are leaders, you are men and women who want to get the most out of your potential. Newsflash. When you're in those categories, you're going to fall. You're going to scrape your arms and knees. You've got to move forward.

And it is a community like this where we share these stories like the Jack Groot's that hopefully that's story that you just heard will encourage some of you right now who are hearing some maybes and you're beat down by it. So press forward. Get a yes or get a no, but goodness gracious, get some clarity so that you can keep moving forward. So Jack, thank you for the email and you listeners. Send us those stories. We want to encourage each other with more of these stories where we've heard those and we've accepted it and moved on into other areas. Now we're defined by the yeses that happened because we were correct. courageous enough, mature enough to accept the no and move forward and not let it define us.

Hey, I'm excited about our conversation with Robbie Baxter. We're going to get right to it, but here's an announcement. We're going to give away five of her books, the membership economy, and we'll tell you how to enter to win after the conversation. But this is vitally important. We're in a membership economy and you need to figure it out. So here it is, my conversation with Robbie Baxter. Well, Robbie, it's a thrill to have you on. I talked about your book a while ago on this podcast, and I found the title, membership economy, to be fascinating and looked into it more. So I really want to unpack not just the title, but really the idea

behind the book. So let's start with that. What is the membership economy? And then answer, why is it important to entrepreneurs, small business owners? Yeah. So the membership economy is a massive transformation that we're seeing across virtually all industries and across organizations of all sizes, from the very large, like LinkedIn, Facebook, to the very small family-run businesses, mom and pops, your local nail salon. And it's really about a move from focusing on your products and your processes to focusing on the member. And it's about a long-term formal relationship, moving from ownership to access, from a focus on anonymous transactions to known relationships. And it's about enabling connection and community under the umbrella of your brand.

Yeah, now that's, I like that. That's laid out very well. Connection and community. That really jumps out to me. Yeah, absolutely. And the long-term nature of that relationship. that, you know, you walk into a supermarket and they might have no idea who you are. You come in, you go out, you could never go back again, and they probably wouldn't know.

But in the membership economy, the supermarket is trying to figure out how do I build a relationship with Ken or with Robbie so that they get more value, they feel connected, they accomplish their goals more fully. And that's really what we're trying to figure out when we move to the membership economy. All right. So I want to talk about several different things that you write about and speak about with this idea. But one of the things that jumped out to me is this idea that you introduced, this forever transaction. And that just sounds fantastic. I mean, who doesn't want a forever transaction? But what does that really mean? What's that look like? Yeah, it's about a move from when someone moves from being a customer to being a member. It's a very different way. When I'm in the mode of being a customer or a consumer,

I'm evaluating each decision. When I'm a member, I say, give me what you got. I trust you. Right? I think actually with Dave Ramsey, there are many people who say, whatever he's got, wherever he goes, whatever he's finding interesting or thinks might be useful for me, I'm interested. That's a forever transaction.

It's when you really trust the organization to help you identify ways to better achieve your objectives. and aren't always in that mode of, well, I'm going to evaluate this one, and then I'm going to evaluate that one, and I may or may not stick with them. Now, I want to spend a little bit of time talking about two big parts of this idea of a membership economy and that forever transaction. That is, of course, acquisition and then retention. So let's just start with acquisition, because that's obviously people want to know. How do I really begin to create a pipeline of acquisition for these folks that want to become members? you suggest chapter five of your book that you build the funnel from the bottom up obviously that makes a lot of sense but again describe how we can do that yeah so ken nobody wants to start

the funnel from the bottom up it's just not as fun but it is so much more effective when i say the funnel from the bottom up for people who don't think in terms of you know marketing speak and you know that kind of thing the funnel is at the top people hear about your organization or your what you're offering, and then they evaluate it, they might try it as they move through the funnel, and then in the traditional marketing or sales funnel, they transact, they say, okay, I'm going to buy it, and then you're done. And you go back to the top of the funnel and you look for more people to acquire and take them through that process. In the membership economy, we start at the bottom, and we make sure that once somebody has that transaction, once they buy something from you,

they're going to get tremendous value, and they're going to stay forever, that you have a real, transaction. Because if you don't, if people join and then leave, you have a sieve. You're losing people out of your funnel all the time. And there's no point in bringing more people in. So you make sure first that the people that come and learn about your product and buy it stay in your community, that they love it, that you actually deliver on your promise. And then it's only after you're confident of that that you should start investing in building awareness, trying to get more people to learn about your organization, your services, your products, and so on. Yeah, I love that. This is idea of dance with who brung you, right?

The old school Southern saying, I mean, you've got to take care of the folks you have before you start thinking about bringing more in. And that really is the foundation there. Okay, that leads us, that's beautiful. I think that really leads you into retention, which you say is more important than acquisition. Why is it so much more important? because it's much easier to keep a person for an extra month or to engage them more deeply than it is to bring in a new person. It's about one-tenth the cost. So if you improve retention, let's say by 10%, you're going to see 10 times the return is if you improve acquisition by 10%. So it's a no-brainer if you do the math. And in the membership economy where a lot of organizations are working on a,

recurring revenue model, so a monthly payment or an annual payment to stay engaged in the community, it's really real to say, wow, one more year or one more month is much more valuable than getting somebody in for one month and then having them leave and having to find a new person for one month. I want to talk about something you said earlier and I actually highlighted it, but I want to come back and that is community and connection. Those are two C words that are vitally important in the membership economy. I'd love for you to give us some special. specific strategies and ideas, things that you've seen that are working to build community and connection. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, in the 1940s, Abraham Maslow talked about this

hierarchy of needs and said that once your basic physiological needs have been met, things like food and shelter, Wi-Fi, you know, things that human beings can't live without, you move up into mitigating risk, wanting to feel like you belong, like that you're recognized by others and accepted, wanting to be held in high regard by those people and admired for your contributions and achievements. And then finally, we're all seeking self-actualization, which is kind of a fancy word for saying, we want to be our best selves. And organizations that can tap into that, into those needs are going to have better results with their members. They're going to connect better. So you think about how do I help people belong? How do I

help hold them in high regard if they contribute to our community. How do I provide them with recognition? So if you take that down to the level of a small business, let's say like a nail salon. So I have teenage daughters and sometimes we get our nails done. And there's a place in New York where, which is not where I live, but I wish it were for this nail salon, where they know that there's times when people aren't as likely to come in. And so they offer a membership where if you come in between whatever the hours are 2 and 5 p.m. And you make your regular appointments then that the price is cheaper. You get it every week or every month as you choose. And they have some snacks and drinks. It's the same people that come in every week. They try to do the appointments of the same

people at the same time. So there's sort of a sense of you come in. It's not just the people that work there that you know, but it's the people that come in at the same time. And so they're building community in something that people normally think of as, you know, quite transactional. Right. But because they're creating community around this task, this to-do item on our list, they're building greater loyalty. Because now I don't just go there to get my nails done because the technician does a good job. I'm also going there because my friends are there because I feel a community. And small businesses really actually have the upper hand on this compared to large organizations because you actually know the people you serve. Yeah. So really developing that connection is what allows you to then.

get specific and strategic about building community. The more you know about your customer, then you can begin to employ strategies that allow that community to take place. People love that. There's something to be said about bouncing into people that you know. I see that happen a lot with private schools, you know, in certain areas where you get some word of mouth factor going on

and there's a connection with a couple people, then they tell other people, and you want to send your kids to school sometimes where you know the parents, you know, of other people, than people you do life with. There's something to be said about that. Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of businesses get so focused in their product. So in the case of a school, what kind of classes do we have? Who are the teachers? What's our curriculum? What kind of sports fields do we have? That they forget that people make choices based on those basic human needs, right? Where do I feel like I belong? Where do I

feel connected? Where do I feel like the choices that I've made with my life are going to be held in high regard? You want to go somewhere where people not only recognize you, but say, yeah, he's pretty good. He lives a good life. He's worth emulating. He's the kind of person I want to know. So yeah, I think a lot of organizations forget that. But schools are really good at this, both at the elementary and high school levels, but also universities that really invest not just in the time while you're there, but also in really building a great organization around alumni, who then bring people in, you know, spread the culture, spread the word, serve as ambassadors. I call them super users. That's right. Yeah. I love that you said ambassadors. I mean, that, the big takeaway from me in

all of this is taking this term, membership economy, this phrase that you used to title a book. But this is really about helping your customers feel like they're part of a club. I mean, you as a business, no matter what service or product you're offering, you want people to feel like, hey, I want to be a part of what's happening over there. And that is just club, almost mob mentality in a positive way. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people talk all the time about isolation and how with the rise of technology, we're feeling, you know, and people being able to travel, you know, my daughter left for college yesterday on the other side of the country and we're all separated from our loved ones. we're looking from ways to connect.

We're looking for ways to belong. And if organizations can provide that to their customers and make them feel like members, they're both going to make more money and perform a really valuable service. All right, I want to put you on the spot, so to speak. You gave us a great example of the nail salon with the connection and community. But I want to stay in this small business vein here because that's a huge part of our audience. and just a context statement. We know, Robbie, you know, that most small businesses, or that's 500, that classification in America right now is still 500 employees or less. So a wide range of organizations can be called small businesses. But let's take another example of a local business and they don't traditionally maybe think of themselves in this membership economy. How do they change trajectory there? So let me just pick. pick one. My family right now, we're going to a chiropractor. Two of my kids have got, you know,

some issues that just minor stuff and they're helping them, and it's great. Let's take it a chiropractor or a local physician, something like that. I'm putting you on the spot with that. How do they look at this book, and more importantly, this concept, and take their normal practice and begin to think membership economy here? How can they make it more like a club and true membership here? So this is fun for me. I love doing this. And I would, would say that any organization that would tell you that marketing matters in their business, that in other words, they have to go find customers in order for their business to work, they can use these principles.

Doesn't matter how small you are or how big. So in the case of a chiropractor, there's a couple of things. First of all, physicians, chiropractors, medical professionals, like many of us, they focus on what they do, which is, you know, you come in and I work on your back or you're, you know, wherever you're having the problem. but from the consumer perspective, from the patient perspective, you're trying to optimize health. You're trying to live a pain-free life. And so to the extent that the chiropractor can focus on, how can I help my patients optimize

their health and live a pain-free life, you start to see all these new services that can come into effect. And instead of thinking of you as a problem that comes in that they solve and then you leave and maybe you come back if you have another problem, they see. see you as somebody who wants optimal health. So then what you would build, if I were the chiropractor, is they could come to you and say, look, we're going to have a program where you can drop in any time it's a fixed price. Also, we're going to have, I'm making this up, of course, we're going to have weekly gatherings. They're going to be kind of socials for, I'm assuming your kids are

athletic and maybe that's why they need the chiropractic. We're going to have young athletes and their parents and we're going to gather monthly and we're going to have speakers come in to talk about how to optimize health while you're working your body really hard. And then we're also going to figure out what else do you need that the chiropractor can't provide. So maybe he'd say, well, that's surgery, you know, God forbid, but let's say that, you know, something like that, you need to find a great surgeon or you need to find a personal trainer who will work in a safe way to strengthen certain muscle groups so that the problems don't happen again. Have it. Have a person, that for the chiropractor to have those people in his or her community and to be able to refer

and to offer even a full package that fully solves your problem. Because very often what happens is, especially when you have a health issue, is like you go to the chiropractor for this and then you have to find a physical trainer for that. And then you actually have to change your nutrition. So you go somewhere else. And you're on the hook to figure this all out. And then you're paying them each separately. What if they came to you and said, given the issue, with your daughter or your son, here's what the ideal health package would look like. It's a monthly payment. And ideally, it's covered by your insurance, but, you know, that would be perfect. But do you see the idea? It's like you focus on the mission of your customer instead of

the products and services that you sell. And suddenly all kinds of possibilities open up. Yeah. Can I brainstorm with you on this one? Because I think this is fun for the audience to think through this. I'm also wondering if, and again, this is just one specific example, but if the chiropractor is going, look, if you are, you know, and you join this membership or whatever, then once a quarter or once a month on a Saturday morning, we're going to do up to three or four friends or family free adjustment or something like that. You've got to, don't you have to build in things like that that are these perks because you've decided to become a much bigger player, not just a customer, but now you're a member. And as a result, you get these.

added benefits. So if Uncle Larry is in town and he wants a neck adjustment, well, then we can do that. I mean, I'm just trying to think, you know, how do you take those extra benefits and offer those? Yeah, absolutely. So you're bringing up a couple of important concepts that I want to tease out for the audience. One of them is the concept of freemium. What is available for free? And how do you do that to bring people into the community, into the forever track transaction? So that might be your daughter telling her friend on her soccer team, hey, this chiropractor is awesome. And on Saturday, he's going to do free adjustments. And you might not know this, but even if you don't feel like you're broken, a chiropractic adjustment can really optimize your health. And you should just

make that a habit. Give it a try. You're going to love it. Right. So being brought in by a friend into the community, even if it's free, can be a really effective way of building your community through those ambassadors that we were just discussing. The other thing that you brought in is this idea of freebies and also of recognizing the special things that your specific members really value. So I come in and I say, gosh, you know, Uncle Larry's in town. He needs an adjustment.

I know that this, you don't have time. I know that Larry can't even pay for this, but can you hook me up? Can you help me? It's a favor, right? And now I am very familiar with asking for favors on the airlines and never getting them, right? I'm 1K.

I fly all the time. And I'm like, you know, I just want to sit next to my daughter. Right. Can we do that? And they're like, nope, I'm sorry. But this plane changed to that plane. And now you're in row 17 and she's in row whatever, you know. But in a small business, you can do it.

And look that person and I say, yeah, I'm going to do this favor for you because you're part of the community. And as the organization grows, you can formalize that by giving your frontline staff the ability. Like Caesar's entertainment, which is a huge organization that's actually been going through a lot of troubles recently, but has done very well. They actually give all of their frontline people quite a lot of latitude to do special favors, to delight and surprise their best members of their rewards program. Yeah, boy, I like that. Delight and surprise.

And that just pops a question in my mind because you actually write about this. And that's the idea of finding the members, your customers, who can really help you take things to the next level. scale advocates, they become ambassadors. I think about that a lot. How can small business owners, how can we find those customers who, if we really, really treat them right and make sure that they buy into what you're trying to do in this membership economy, they can really help you move the needle? Yeah, it's such a good question. I think for going concern, small businesses that are already in effect, you probably know who those people are, that there are certain people who go beyond just being good customers or good members or good subscribers, and they actually spend their

own time improving the condition of your business. And that means they recruit new people in, so they act as advocates. They help onboard new members. So that's like if you own a gym, let's say, and somebody says, oh, you're new to the gym. Let me show you around. And by the way, this is a great class for people of our age or our health. You know, why don't we go together, sort of onboarding them, showing them the ropes, helping them be successful, and then giving feedback

to the leader of the organization and saying, you know, hey, I just wanted to let you know, I love this, but it would be great if you added that, or this isn't really working, or I had this problem, giving feedback.

When you see people who are exhibiting those traits, number one, you want to acknowledge them for their behaviors. You want to thank them, you want to appreciate them, you want to recognize them,

you might give them something special, you might just say thank you. And then what you are you you want to do is replicate them, find other people, and encourage them to move in that same way. How do we avoid problems? I just want to make sure that we're thinking to this thing holistically. And when you begin to move into this type of operation, what could be some pitfalls that you are aware of that we need to be careful about? The downside or the dark side of the membership economy is that organizations that have had membership structures for a long time,

sometimes listen too much to their longest term, loudest complaining members. Uh-huh. Yes. And it gets them off track. So what I always say is you want to love your member's mission. And you have to look at that. Who are my members? Who's both the ones that are already here and the ones that are coming in that I'm committed to serving? and what do I need to do to keep moving in that direction for them, but it doesn't mean that you want to serve the needs of any one member or any subgroup.

And what happens a lot, and I'm sure you've got cases. I certainly have cases of this in groups that I've been in, is that some people have been there a long time. They often rise to the level of being on the board or knowing the executives or the leaders of the organization personally, and they start pushing their own agenda. and the agenda is not consistent with the needs of the broader group. So think about like a professional society, like accountants or the American Medical Association, and you think about a 62-year-old physician who owns her own practice, and you think of a 29-year-old coming out of their fellowship with huge debt, right? They have incredibly different needs from the American Medical Association.

And it can be really challenging if that 62-year-old successful practice owner is making the decisions that are going to affect the 29-year-old just joining the association. And then what ends up happening in many cases, and I've seen this over and over again, is that the 29-year-old says, you know, this organization's not relevant to me. It's really optimized on how to sell your practice and how to manage your team. Like, I don't have a team to manage. I'm trying to figure out how do you manage your debt and how to manage your debt? and how do you get your first job? And this organization doesn't help me, and so they don't join. And then the organization stagnates.

Okay, I want to ask you a final question here, and again, to translate it for those of us who are in small business, the entrepreneur. But if you look at two of the certainly most successful membership economy businesses, you know, Netflix didn't have the easiest of starts, but it really righted the ship, you know, after some out-of-the-gate success, had some wawks. had some wobbles, if you will, but they appear to be winning. And Amazon Prime, I'm actually a member of both because of the content. You know, that's what's really what's driving it for me. But I'm just curious, when you look at two behemists like that in our business culture, they certainly are winning

in the membership economy. What do we learn from them? What can we scale down and then apply in our world? Okay. So let's do Netflix first. So I actually, you know, confession, I worked with Netflix soon after they went public on their member acquisition strategy. I worked with them on pricing. I worked with them on a bunch of different things. And that's where I fell in love with this model. This is where I kind of learned, like I got this idea for the membership economy book that I wrote, you know, just 15 years later. But it was where I started noticing all these trends.

And what Netflix does incredibly well is they focus on doing one thing. They solve the mission, which is people want professionally created video content delivered in the most efficient way with cost certainty. And when they started, they did that with three DVDs out at a time, right, and a fixed price. And then they moved to streaming and now they actually create their own content. But it's the same objective. So they've said no, they don't do YouTube, you know, user generated content. You know, they don't rent games.

They are really, really focused on doing this one thing really, really well. And adjusting the actual products and services. but staying constant on the mission. So to go back to the chiropractor example, a chiropractor could end up in 10 years having a business that includes personal trainers and therapists and a nutritionist because they're trying to solve the problem

of helping teenage athletes optimize their health so they could go in a very different direction. If you say, I'm a chiropractor and all I do is I adjust people, they might not see that. So Netflix has been really flexible about changing the specific things they do in order to continue to meet the objectives of their members. Right. Desired content at a fixed price.

I mean, that's as simple as it gets. And essentially, Amazon Prime has just gone out and copied that, you know, as far as the content goes. Yeah. The actual content piece of it. So the really interesting thing about Amazon Prime is that they've used Amazon Prime. So most people signed up for Amazon Prime to get free shipping. Right. And then once you have free shipping, they start offering you all this other awesome stuff.

And then you're completely hooked in and you actually change your behavior, right? Because number one, Amazon is a river, right? It's a river in South America that is the source of all life for everything around it. Right. Right. Amazon, the company, is trying to be the source of all life for all of us, right? That we buy everything, whether it's physical products or digital products or hardware. And so they've continued to expand what they do. You know, they started as just selling books.

then they sold everything. Then they were a platform for retailers who sold everything that Amazon couldn't provide. Then they developed a Kindle so that they could sell digital products. And then they became a big seller and distributor of digital products. And they just keep expanding and growing and trying to figure out how can we provide everything so that you have a forever transaction with them. And you say, I'm going to go to Amazon first and I'm going to take what they have and I'm not going to look for alternatives. It's so true. I love the river analogy, providing life for everything around. I mean, it's really, really fascinating. This is good stuff, folks. And Robbie, I want you to tell folks where they can connect with you online. Yeah, so I'm at membershipeconomy.com, and I'm Robbie Backs on Twitter. You can link in with me. I'm there, too. I'm not hard to find. And my email address, this is a teaser. My email address is on the last page of my book. Oh, I like that. I like that. I wasn't sure.

what you were going to do with that. But folks, she is Robbie Baxter in the book, is the membership economy, find your super users, master the forever transaction, and build recurring revenue. Who doesn't want to do those three things? Really fascinating stuff. We just barely covered the tip of the iceberg. Really, you should run, get the book. And Robbie, we appreciate you spending time with us. We are much better for it. Oh, thanks so much for having me. It's been a lot of fun talking to you. Good stuff for Bobby Baxter. Here's a takeaway. It's a question. I want to challenge you with a question because I think what jumped out to me the most is this idea of community and connection. This membership feel has to take on a level of community, not just

sheer membership, but how do you take it to another level? So here's the question for you. How can you and your business connect better to your existing customer base? And then take the connection and move it into legitimate community. How do you strengthen your connection with your existing customer base? And then how do you take it to another level and create community? Two very different things. You are connecting by virtue of taking their money and providing them the service that they've paid for. But that's not true connection.

So that's the challenge. How do you really connect better so that you can. and build true community. I think if you can answer those questions and then begin to take some strategic steps, that's an absolute win for any organization. Nonprofit, a ministry, straight up for-profit business, a school. How do you build better connection? And then turn that into legitimate community among your customer base.

That's huge. That's what I took away. There's a challenge. Go to it. All right, you need to run and go get this book. But before you do, you need to enter to possibly win it for free. Five of the membership economy books are going to be given away to somebody in the audience. Very easy to enter.

All you got to do is go to this week's show notes, okay? Just go to the show notes at entreleadership.com slash podcast episode 165. And the link is there, all the details you need. And it's free. You'd have to give your life away, but enter it to win. And five of you are going to get the book for free. And the rest of you, if you don't win it, she's also giving away a free chapter of the book. So if you don't win the book, you get a free chapter of the book. All free, free, free. So again, go to episode 165, the show notes at entreleadership.com slash podcast. Get the free chapter and enter to win the free book as well.

Hey, folks, we've been telling you about the three reasons that team members fail. Dave Ramsey taught a valuable lesson on this. It's a 40-minute lesson from a previous Entree Leadership Master series. video of Dave teaching on why team members fail. This is our free resource for Monterey leadership this month. We've been telling you about it. And the focuses of this talk are three key questions. Was your employee, your team member, given the tools to win? Is your team member struggling personally with something? Is the team member incompetent? Some heavy, heavy questions there that need to be answered. And by the way, when you look at something like this. The reason we give you a resource like this is because we know that these questions are difficult to answer. They're difficult to answer because this is just not fun to sit around and go,

okay, what's our role as leaders on this to the answers to these questions? Like, what's the environment like? And honestly, to sit down with a teammate who is failing and have that conversation, oh my goodness, that's difficult. And you know what? It's messy. And I think of difficult and messy conversations. And it reminds me several years ago. I went on a retreat with a bunch of guys. Big personal growth retreat. Really fun.

And we were on the Chesapeake Bay. Eric, the producer, have you ever eaten crabs directly out of the ocean? I mean, they come out, you boil them, and then you crack them and eat them. You've never done that? Because you come from Yankee stock. That's why. I'm a southerner. I grew up on the coast of Virginia.

So we're at this retreat, and we're out on the edge of the dock. and they've brought in just a pass-hole load of crabs. Chesapeake Bay crabs. I mean, that's good eating people. So I'm sitting there with a bunch of guys, and we're getting ready to eat, and I've become friends with a guy who's from Michigan, and he's like you, Eric, the producer. He's never had crabs like this, where you've got to crack them.

It comes with a little hammer, and it's a whole process. Like, it's not going to a restaurant where they've prepared it for you. These babies have been prepared, and they're sitting there. And so it's funny, I start telling him because he looks at me. He's like, what do I do? This is, this is, he's a little intimidated. Isn't that true about difficult conversations? A little intimidating.

And they're going to be messy by nature. So stay with me on this. Because it really taught me a valuable lesson about difficult conversations. So I began to tell him, okay, here's what you got to do. And I showed him how to use the little hammer, the little wood hammer, how you crack the shell. You got to dig in with your hands, showing him where the good meat is at with part you don't want to eat. the whole nine yards. Dip it in butter. You got your butter over here. And by the way, folks, if you've never done this before, the setting is, is you've got a bunch of newspaper out there,

and you just dump the crabs, and you're cracking them, and you're eating them, you're cracking them, it's really messy. I say to him, now look, you got a nice shirt on. You might want to put a bib. You know, it's like, it's a plastic bibs. It's hysterical. Or you put napkins all over the front of you. But you need to be prepared that to eat this crab and to truly enjoy it and get what you're supposed to get out of it, it's going to be really messy. Isn't that true about difficult conversations. So what's the thought there? You've got to prepare. You got to get the little hammer out. You got to get your little butter dish. You got to get prepared for the meal. And here's the other thing. It's not just prepared with the tools you need for that difficult conversation.

It's also prepared mentally and emotionally. Like you've got to prepare that my hands are going to get really gross. Make it a little bit of butter on my shirt. If I'm worried about getting butter on my shirt or some crab on my shirt, maybe I should put on a different shirt, or maybe I should protect myself. You get the analogy here. This goes so many different ways, but that's what a messy conversation is like. It's like a messy meal. Difficult conversations are like messy meals. Here's the best part of a messy meal, though. You prepare for it. You know you got to dive in. You're not using a fork and a knife with crabs. You're not using that. You're getting your hands dirty. You dive in. You crack the crab, you pull it open, you get the best stuff out of it, and then you sit back when the meal's over

and you're satisfied. I think if you handle difficult conversations the right way, is it going to be messy? Absolutely. But you're going to be satisfied, just like a great messy meal. It's so worth it. Of course it's worth it. I get crab all over my face, butter all over my face. I look like a four-year-old.

My belly's happy. There it is. There's some wisdom, huh, Eric the producer? That's how you handle difficult conversations, much like a meal. So there you go. Hey, listen, this resource covers so much more, and thankfully, Dave doesn't teach on how to eat crab out of the Chesapeake Bay. But he gives you so much more and what you need to do.

We've been telling you about this. Text the word failure. That's right. Text the word failure to 33444-4-4. Text the word failure to 33-44-4-4-4. Or you can go to the show notes in this episode, 165, Entreeleadership.com slash podcast is where you go, and we will have a link for you to download the video.

video, it really is great stuff. Speaking of great stuff and free stuff, you heard from Chad Kirby last week, VP of InfusionSoft, talking directly to you about their September resource. Life cycle marketing planner. People are jumping all over this. How do you create a marketing cycle strategy? Life cycle marketing plan. Are you kidding me? I mean, this is a great resource. It involves planning advice for every stage of the funnel, interactive tools to customize your plan, instructions to identify your ideal customer, proven strategies to increase conversions and innovative ways to build and keep customer loyalty, all of that available at infusionsoft.com slash life cycle. Infusionsoft.com slash life cycle.

Hey folks, the calendar tells me we are getting closer and closer to a historic event for us at Entree Leadership. The very first time ever, we are offering Entree Leadership one day. signature one-day event where Dave Ramsey, Chris Hogan, Christy Wright, reveal the playbook of how Dave went from the living room, a cart table in the living room, to where we are at, at Ramsey Solutions. It is a special, special day, an opportunity again to watch it wherever you are with whoever you want to. It's a one-day offering.

We're not going to give it to you on-demand. You have to be there live that day, October the 19th in Kansas City, or watching it on October the 19th from Kansas City wherever you are. It's going to be great. And we're giving you the podcast listener a special rate. It's only $24. That's a $5 discount. If you use the code,

EL Podcast, EL Podcast, and you can get all the details that you need at entreleadership.com slash e1D. We would love to be with you that day, whether it's live in Kansas City or across the interwebs. And we want to thank Al Gore for that. October the 19th,

the Entree Leadership One Day live stream coming to you. Let's see you there. Hey, I want to thank Robbie Baxter for her time and her wisdom. On behalf of Eric the producer and the entire Entree leadership team, thank you so much for listening. We'll talk with you again very soon.