Big ideas and hard questions.

I’ve officially lost count…

I spend hours each week looking at and dissecting the subscription and membership offerings of various companies online.

I literally have time blocked off on my calendar to do this.

Exciting, right?

And after years of going through this exercise, it has become easy to spot those who are doing real things and others who are just attempting to replicate things.

But in today’s environment, everyone’s membership is starting to look the same.

Company A takes an idea from Company B.

Company B replicates Company A’s landing page.

Company A matches Company B’s pricing….

And around we go.

Now I’ll admit, this is an interesting game we’re all in here.

But the ironic truth that often shakes out of all this madness is that, ultimately, we’re often replicating the cues and tactics of others while assuming our competition and peers around us are executing with 100% accuracy, 100% of the time, and know precisely what they’re doing with every move they make.

So this brings me to ask an important question:

What has happened to all the big ideas?

I’m talking about those uncompromising beliefs you have about your business - the things that guide you. I’m talking about the things that produce the type of conviction that causes you to wake up each day and operate your business on your terms and from a place of pure authenticity - without the pressure of replicating anything.

You see, I have a substantial amount of evidence to suggest that the art of developing and sticking to big ideas has been lost.

And by my count, less than 5% of membership operators are consistently executing their programs under their own big ideas.

So it’s no coincidence that the overwhelming majority of revenue generated within the membership economy comes from a very small slice of companies and creators - the ones who came to the table with big ideas, and most importantly, stuck to them.

So here’s a difficult, but necessary question that I’m asking you to consider:

Can you name your big ideas? Can your team name your big ideas? Can your customers name your big ideas?

If not, the model might not be doing what you think it’s doing.

If not, you might be renting the attention of your customers rather than earning it to create real equity in your brand.

📌 So, as promised, I’ve put together this slide deck for you that contains seven big ideas about membership that I know you and your team can benefit greatly from.

This newsletter benefits from these ideas each week.

My hope is that you can use this as inspiration to develop and sharpen your own big ideas about the thing you’re building right now.

It’s a result of all those hours that I’ve lost count of while diving into the core of what enables some memberships to soar while others remain stuck.

Have a look and reflect on how these things fit into your own program.

I’d be grateful if you’d let me know which ideas resonate with you and how I can help.

Oh, and one question I’ll leave you with today:

Are you leading with vision or reacting to someone else’s?

Think about it.

I want this email to be the most valuable thing that comes across your inbox each Tuesday. If I’m hitting that mark, share this newsletter with your staff, a team member or friend (just copy and share this URL).

See you next Tuesday.

-Michael