“There is evidence of people who are launching, not with audiences of tens of thousands, not even with thousands, but with just a few hundred people. This is what the founding-member strategy is all about. It creates an opportunity for you to not wait, because waiting until you have an audience of thousands or tens of thousands is nothing more than procrastinating on the opportunity that is right in front of you. And a founding-member launch allows you to get going, create massive momentum, with just a tiny audience.” – Stu McLaren
The reason the Founding Member Strategy is one of the fastest strategies to deploy in the marketplace, is that you do not need a sales page, you don’t need launch videos, you don’t need a webinar; you don’t need any of that stuff. It is about speed.
And the real benefit to this strategy is that it allows you to validate whether there is actually interest in what you are considering creating, it allows you to generate money before you create anything, it allows you to create a ton of momentum, and most importantly, allows you to generate stories. Stories are your most-valuable marketing assets. As you begin to continue to grow your business, the stories of people using what it is that you’re providing to get results is a key tool to have people purchase.
The benefits to your audience are plentiful because it’s going to allow them to get in on the ground floor at the lowest price possible, and you’re going to extend that low price for as long as they remain a member. They can help shape the direction that you take with your course, membership, product, webinar etc. and they get first access.
5 Key Steps to the Founding-Members Launch
1. Share the idea.
Where did the idea come from? Where did the spark come from? It could be a story or a conversation that got you thinking about doing this. But you got to share where the idea came from and why it gets you excited. The idea is number one.
Ex post: I’m thinking of hosting a workshop for a small group of people. And this is what I would essentially teach in the workshop, (and then outline it.) If it’s something of interest to you, just send me a direct message if you’re interested.
This is a very simple, very easy, very non-threatening way to gauge interest, and when interest is there, you are able to sign people up for the workshop, course, webinar etc. You don’t need to say that you are doing it and here are all the dates and here are all the materials, and here’s what you’ll get. Just say you are thinking about it, and if they are interested, to send you a direct message.
2. Cast the vision.
This is where you’ve got to cast the vision for where you see this becoming. Explain that it’s not created yet, but we’re going to be co-creating it together. But you’ve got to cast the vision for where it’s going, what it’s going to become, and why this is so much more than just version one.
3. Invite people to join
This is where we invite people to join us as a founding member. People are going to be excited about this. People love getting in on the ground floor. People love being able to help shape the future of this big idea that you are sharing. And this can be done by email. It can be done by a Facebook Live, a Facebook post, an Instagram post. Wherever you’re communicating with your audience, use that platform.
4. Call to action.
What do you specifically want people to do? Ex. Send me a direct message, or if it’s in an email, you would say, hit reply, and explain to them what will happen next. Explain to them that you’re going to follow up with details if you do decide to move forward with this idea or if there is enough interest and you decide to move forward.
5. Follow-up
When people do respond, make sure you follow up. Make sure you send them the details. Make sure you talk to them about it.
Do you need an audience? Yes. Do you need an audience of tens of thousands and thousands? No. You just need to see an audience of just a few hundred people.
