Issue #38 - November 25th, 2025

In this issue:

Perspective: Members don’t just buy a product - they say yes to you, your work, and your vision.
Insight: Every renewal is a quiet vote of confidence, a reminder that what you built matters.
Outlook: Gratitude strengthens the relationship between operators and members…and keeps you grounded in why this work is worth doing.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Membership isn’t powered by transactions. It’s powered by the people who choose to say yes - again and again.”

With the holidays approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about the people behind this work.

Not the strategy, not the metrics - just the humans. The ones who gave your membership a chance. The ones who stayed. The ones who made it possible for you to build something at all.

It’s easy, especially this time of year, to get lost in campaigns, planning, and year-end pressure. But underneath all of that is a quieter truth: your membership exists because real people said yes.

They trusted you. They believed in what you were building. They gave you a small corner of their lives.

And that’s something worth pausing for.

Let’s dive in.

PERSPECTIVE

The Privilege of Being Chosen

When you run a membership, it’s easy to live in the world of charts and dashboards.

New signups, cancellations, renewals - they all just start to feel like numbers.

But behind each number is a person with a life, a family, a story, and limited attention to give.

And somehow, out of all the things they could have chosen…

they chose you.

They said yes to your ideas. Yes to your vision. Yes to your perspective, your message, your voice.

That’s not a small thing. That’s not transactional. That’s human.

And when they renew, it’s more than a payment. It’s a quiet confirmation that what you’re doing matters, that they want to keep walking with you for another cycle.

Operators move fast. Too fast, sometimes, to really let that sink in.

Today’s email is a quiet nudge to do just that…

INSIGHT

The Renewal You Can’t Measure

There’s a kind of gratitude in this work that doesn’t show up on the dashboard. It’s the gratitude that comes from knowing your membership threads itself into someone’s routine.

Into their busy Tuesday mornings, their commutes, their quiet evenings, their creative time, their downtime.

We’re talking real life here.

So in the sprit of gratitude, here are a few reflections I’ve written down over the years that I believe are worth holding onto this week:

Your membership lives inside someone’s real life.
It sits alongside their habits, dreams, and goals. You’re not selling access - you’re earning presence.
Every renewal is a moment of trust.
They don’t have to stay. Many memberships don’t earn that second cycle. But yours did.
People don’t just support your business - they support your evolution.
Members give you the space, the resources, and the stability to grow as a creator and operator.
Your work has ripple effects you’ll never fully see.
This is my favorite one: A single piece of content or a comment in your community may change someone’s week - or their trajectory. And you’ll likely never hear about it.
You built something people return to.
In a world full of noise, distraction, and endless choice, that’s rare. And it’s meaningful.

The real heart of membership isn’t in what you deliver. It’s in the relationship you build with the people who choose to stick with you - and the impact your product has on their lives.

And that, my friend, simply cannot be captured in charts or dashboards.

OUTLOOK

Gratitude Reveals the Importance of The Work You’re Doing.

Gratitude grounds you. It pulls your focus from what’s next to what’s now.

And when you lead a membership from that place, everything changes: your decisions, your messaging, your tone, your care.

Members feel it, too.

People stay where they feel appreciated. Where they feel seen. Where they feel like their presence matters.

As you move into the holiday stretch, I sincerely hope you take this moment, not as an operator, but as a person - to reflect on the simple truth that your membership exists because someone said yes.

And they kept saying yes.

I don’t know about you, but in my book, there’s no better motivation to keep pursuing this great journey we call membership.

The quiet privilege of being chosen.