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Making Money as a Writer: Memberships & Masterminds · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've been working our way through a series on making money as a writer.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And on today's episode, we're talking about two of my favorite methods, which are memberships and masterminds.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, memberships and masterminds are two different things, but they're similar in many ways, which is why I've lumped them together here in this episode.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the main idea of both of these is that people have access to you on some type of ongoing basis.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these are paid products and they have a barrier to entry in the form of a payment.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: So by definition, it means that people are generally more serious about growth and learning because they have to pay more than they would have to pay for a book or for something that's free.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, you know, listening to a podcast like this doesn't cost you anything.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Buying one of my books costs you a little bit of money, not very much, but being a part of a membership or mastermind and having higher access to me or whoever is hosting or leading the membership or mastermind, that costs more because the value of that is higher.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, don't get me wrong, we should offer to help people for free with some things.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, as I mentioned, this podcast, as well as things like my blog post or the free daily rider starter kit guides, those are my main ways of offering free, helpful content.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: But if people want to grow, they've got to have some skin in the game.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that they show that they're serious is that they have to pay for access.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is why a lot of times, so now keep in mind, I let me go on just a little bit of a rubber rabbit trail here, if you'll allow me.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So as you may or may not know, I come from the worlds of church ministry and higher education.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: These are two career paths, if you will, or these are two types of work that generally they have a mindset of uh how can I put this?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's oftentimes a mindset of helping people out of goodwill, or because we care about them, um, or because we just we just want to see people succeed, and therefore we're kind of afraid to charge money.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of the world that I come from, and I'm not trying to be negative about that at all.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'm saying is that sometimes when you come from those kinds of places, your immediate impulse is always to help people for free.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that can actually hurt people sometimes.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got to be totally honest with you, this has really been um, this has been a major growth area for me over the last few years because as somebody who taught at a small Christian college for a long time, and I was a pastor before that, I was a music pastor, it was really, really hard for me to get comfortable with the idea of charging money for something because I just always got a salary for what I did, and I just helped people all the time with different things.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really, really difficult when I first started out to embrace the idea that I was actually doing people a favor by charging them money in many situations.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of the thing number one with this is you have to get comfortable with this idea of charging people money, and you have to embrace the concept that sometimes the very best way you can help people is to charge them money for something because psychologically, if if they're not paying for something, they're probably not going to value it nearly as much.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's just a basic principle of life, you know.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Things that we pay more for, we tend to value psychologically.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's why.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm a fan of Apple computers.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's why uh my MacBook Pro, which I bought two or three years ago, that was a very expensive computer.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in fact, I think I paid close to$3,000 for it.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I got top of the line, all the bells and whistles, as much storage as I could get, because I knew that I was going to be using this computer for probably six or seven years, something like that.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my last MacBook Pro I actually used for nine years, and it was still a good computer when I got done with it.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: So Macs are great computers, by and large.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I value that a lot more than I would buy a cheapo Walmart$250 total bottom of the barrel laptop.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't even know what brand that would be.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you can even get a laptop for$250, but, you know, I value my MacBook Pro a lot more than I would some cheapo off-the-shelf bottom-of-the-barrel laptop because it's more expensive and it's way, way better.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And by and large, when people pay money for things, they're paying for quality, they're paying for access, they're paying for convenience, and paying for something that's going to last longer than something that's cheap and that's just typically for free.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now let me come back from my rabbit trail a little bit.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the deal with memberships and masterminds.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: They can have all kinds of different structures, but in general, a membership is a group that has a recurring monthly charge and it offers resources, courses, calls, and community interaction.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: A mastermind, by contrast, is a higher level group where you have more access to the leader and you're actively adding value to the other group members to help each other succeed in specific areas.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I currently offer a membership group, which is the Daily Rider Club, and you've heard me talk about this before, probably.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I have also at times offered a higher level elite mastermind.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I did that for a few months earlier this year, and I may be launching one again this fall.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not totally sure about that, but I'm playing around with it.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the mastermind cost a lot more than the membership because it was personal time that I invested in a very small group of people, and it was at a much higher level.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, not just anybody could join the mastermind.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: You had to kind of be at a certain level in your business, and it was a lot of personal interaction and attention from me helping people in that group versus a membership, which is kind of like, okay, you have access to these, all the replays for the calls.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can jump on our weekly call where we have guest speakers and QA and and uh some things like that, and it's very valuable, but it's not the same level of access as a mastermind is.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I love both of those things because I know that when people invest in themselves, they will accelerate their success.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this is kind of a key point is you need to offer a variety of things as your business grows, and you need to give people a way to express their appreciation to you by paying you for either personal coaching or for some kind of service you provide, maybe like editing or ghostwriting or design or freelance writing, copywriting, whatever it is.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you really want to help people and you're at a level where you think you can help people grow their business or things like that, then my goodness, offer a paid group, offer group coaching, um, offer a membership or a mastermind or whatever it might be.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's really important for us to offer a variety of ways that people can can engage with us, all the way from things that are free but yet still really valuable, then all the way up to more expensive things like one-on-one coaching or masterminds or things like that.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're not offering any of these things right now, don't stress about it.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I just want to plant this idea in your mind that number one, it's possible.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, as your writing business grows, you can begin to offer more of these kinds of ways that you can help people.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because not every way that you help people is right for everyone.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Some people need a mastermind, some people just want the free stuff for now, just to get to know you and your message.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Some people want a low-priced book or they want to join a, you know, a higher price but not a ridiculously priced membership group, like the Daily Rider Club.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think when you offer those things, you might be surprised at the response that people have.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So think about the different types of value that you could add to others, and if people would be willing to pay for ongoing resources or access to you in those types of formats, you might be really surprised at how much you enjoy running those and helping your fans and readers in a more direct way.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So here's a question for you to kind of wrap up, uh wrap up our episode today.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: What are some specific ways that you could help people be more successful by offering a membership or a mastermind?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely something for you to think about.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we close up shop on this episode, I want to give a huge shout out to today's sponsor, Thumbprint Creative.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I am a huge fan of good book design.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Good book cover designs are really, really important.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you've probably heard the saying, don't judge a book by its cover.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: But in the book world, that is a huge lie because people actually do judge books by the quality of the design on the cover.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's the very first thing that people notice about a book.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's why my graphic designer of choice is Christy Griffith, who is the owner of Thumbprint Creative.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I worked with Christy for years, and she has designed covers and done the interior layout for a lot of my own books, as well as a lot of my ghostwriting client books, and many friends and family members that I have sent her way.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Christy works really closely with you to design a layout and a book cover that perfectly captures the theme and the genre of your book.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: She's very good and easy to work with, and she's very reasonable on her prices.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to go to go thumbprint.com to learn more about Christy and her designs.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if you'd like a personal introduction, if you if you're looking for a great cover designer, just shoot me an email.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: My email is Kent at DailyWriterLife.com, and I would be happy to make a personal introduction between you and Christy.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: I really, really like Christy a lot.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: She's good at what she does, and my goodness, don't skimp on your book cover.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Do not have a crappy book cover.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: You will regret it forever.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So don't make that mistake.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure and hire Christy to get a great book cover going for you.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, my friend, as always, thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.