Last week, I said something plainly that a lot of operators felt immediately:

Membership is no longer an add-on.

It named something you’ve probably been living with quietly - A sense that the old structure doesn’t quite fit anymore.

That treating membership as one of many things creates friction you can’t optimize your way out of.

So this week, I want to take that idea one step further…

If membership is the core, then everything else must orbit it.

It’s a structural truth.

And once you see it, it’s hard to unsee.

Let’s dive in.

The memberships that will struggle this year won’t do so because their offer is weak...

They’ll struggle because too many things will try to lead at once.

Here’s something I’ve observed lately:

Content wants to lead.

Social platforms want to lead.

Launches want to lead.

Partnerships want to lead.

Metrics want to lead.

Membership, meanwhile, sits somewhere in the mix - important, but not authoritative.

When that happens, operators feel constant tension. Every initiative pulls energy in a different direction. Decisions feel harder than they should. Nothing ever quite feels finished, because the system itself isn’t organized around a single center of gravity.

This is where exhaustion creeps in. Not from the volume of work, but from the lack of alignment.

You can’t prioritize effectively when everything is competing to be the priority.

Alignment is the real work for today’s membership operator.

Treating your membership as the core doesn’t mean doing more for members. It means allowing membership to decide what deserves attention and what doesn’t.

When membership truly sits at the center, a few things happen:

This is the difference between stacking initiatives and organizing a system.

Today, operators need more systems, not more content.

They need systems that know how and when to serve members. Systems that decode the needs of members. Systems that run on purpose, intent and meaning.

Your membership cannot exist just to generate revenue - it must become the lens through which you decide how to operate a business that leaves an emotional and authentic dent in the world.

Here’s the part that’s uncomfortable to say, but important to acknowledge:

If membership is truly the core, some things will need to move out of the center.

At the end of your day, not everything deserves equal weight.

Not every channel deserves equal energy.

Not every opportunity deserves a yes.

That’s not limitation - it’s leadership.

The next chapter of membership won’t be defined by clever packaging or louder messaging. It will be defined by operators willing to reorganize their business around what actually sustains it.

This isn’t about being extreme. It’s about being honest.

So as you look at how your business is structured right now, here’s the question I’ll leave you with:

If membership is the core - what is still behaving like it’s in charge?

That answer will tell you exactly where the work is this year.

Think about it.