ENCORE: Moving From An Online Course To A Membership Model with Jennifer McGurk, RDN, CDN, CEDRD-S

Today’s show takes on a very niched perspective, but the information and wisdom are useful in many aspects of our work as clinicians and business owners. We are specifically discussing how to move from an online course to a membership model. Maybe you’ve wondered about these components of your practice and how to make the transition. Join us for expert advice!Our Featured GuestJennifer McGurk, RDN, CDN, CEDRD-SJennifer McGurk is a registered dietitian in NY whose specialty is helping clients with eating disorders. She made the transition from an online course to a membership model, so she is sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly of such a move. I hope our discussion will be helpful to you if you’re considering a similar transition. WebsiteYou’ll Learn:●     How membership sites can help a clinician accomplish career goals●     Details of Jennifer’s journey in private practice from an online course to a membership model●     The benefits to therapist and client of a membership model over a one-time course model●     How imposter syndrome can crop up when creating a membership site●     How it’s helpful to see others reaching their goals in transitioning from an online course to a membership site●     Common mistakes in this transition●     What the business gurus DON’T tell you about your online course as a passive income stream●     The components of Jennifer’s membership site: Dietitian Business School●     Jennifer’s advice to a clinician either launching an online course or making the transition to a membership siteToday's Podcast Sponsor: We do not have a sponsor this month. TRANSCRIPT Melvin:Hi Jennifer,welcome back to Selling the Couch.Jennifer:Hi, Melvin; thankyou for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you.Melvin:I really enjoyedour last conversation. I'm so grateful that you reached out, you are doing justso many neat things in the world, so many out of the box things. And I'm justgrateful when you reached out and then two, just to hear about the journey andshare all the lessons and all those things that you've learned.Jennifer:Yeah, thank you somuch. I'm so grateful for your work, too. We were talking before we hit recordabout how mental health is so needed right now and therapists are doing such anawesome job. So anyone out there listening, thank you for your work too. It's atime where people really need mental health services.Melvin:Yeah, absolutely;I do feel so grateful to be part of this profession. I don't know who couldhave imagined something like this. But I think one of the things that's reallybeen on my mind, especially through this pandemic, I think it was there beforebut it's kind of accelerated it is this question of like, what do I want mycareer to look like? And where do I want to focus my energy?And one of thethings that I've kind of realized is, I actually want to eventually justcompletely pull back on one on one work or if I have to it's kind of morehigher-priced and it's very limited. And I think one of the ways that you cando that is through online courses and membership sites. I think there's like alot of information online about how to do these, all of that kind of stuff. ButI wanted to hear from you, because you had an online course, you transitionedinto a membership site, you're actually doing it and yeah, I'm just sograteful, I think for this conversation.Jennifer:Yeah, thank you so much for letting me to share my story. Yes, I did have a course and I was inthe same situation that you have just said, I was seeing clients and I had beenseeing clients at that point for probably seven years or so in private practiceand even more before that, before I started my private practice, and I did getto the point where- I was going to say burnout, but I just wanted to dosomething different because I specialize in eating disorders.I felt likeeveryone's story is very different in a way. But I was seeing the same thingover and over again and I just thought to myself; I really want to work with Dietitians,as well to teach them all of the knowledge that I've learned over the years, fromworking with clients and my own supervision and just everything that I'velearned about business.So that's when Istarted my second company pursuing private practice. And pursuing privatepractice really was for Dietitians to start and grow a business. So long storyshort, it started out as a book series, it turned into a DIY course, and thenit kind of morphed itself into a group program/business coaching, hot seat,stuff Facebook group, and it just got way too big for a one time purchase and Ifelt like I was coaching forever.So I turned itinto a membership and that membership Dietician Business School has really doneawesome in the past six months since it's been open, and I've been able tobring on team members and really help Dietitians in a way that feels so good,because I'm giving them so much support. And I'm not burnout, because it's amembership versus a one-time course payment. So I'm happy to talk and elaborateon that process, because it was a journey to transfer it from a course to anactual membership.Melvin:Yeah, I know. Itis quite a bit of a journey. So for those of you guys are listening, I had avery similar process, I guess back in like 2018, where I had my health casterspodcasting course and then it was a single payment. And then I got to thispoint where for me I hated doing these launches, and I hated the like you saidthe one off kind of payments. And then I just began to think about how I thinkthe question that you just or the statement that you said, of thinking about yourown personal health and how do you sort of scale this while preserving thataspect, right?Jennifer:Yes, definitely. Ithink courses are great, and for anyone out there interested in even doing acourse I think courses are really great for information, and really awesome tostart someone on a journey. But let's face it; a lot of times the businessgurus out there that are teaching people how to sell courses are basicallysaying, “Oh, it's passive income, create once and sit on the beach and watchyour money roll in.” Which I absolutely hate; I feel like it's diet culture in whatI do, I'm an eating disorders dietician.So I feel likeit's this false message of hope. But yet, the reality of it is that your peopleare going to have questions, they are going to need to process and theinformation, and they are going to want to bounce ideas off of somebody, and youcan provide more than just the information as a course. But if you do thatyou're probably creating a Facebook group or you're having people come to groupcalls. And that in my opinion, I have learned kind of the hard way like, that'sa membership, that's not a course.So I was doingthis one time course all the way up until I probably knew I needed to changeJanuary 2020, before the pandemic, but once March hit, what happened to me wasjust, “Oh my Gosh, my people need help.” So I added extra group calls to mycourse, I added more prompts in my Facebook group. I added so many differentworkshops and things like that. And I saw that my Dietitians were getting somany results from it, they were actually doing better.And this was whereCOVID was really starting to hit our at least in the United States, like inMarch was starting to hit our country and people with eating disorders werereally struggling. So the Dietitians are really struggling and no one reallyknew what was going on. So I felt like all the support that I gave my Dietitiansin my course, was so helpful and I could see the results happening I could seepeople making better connections and I almost created a little bit of a mockmembership in that Facebook group and group calls. And then I decided likeokay, this is working, but I need to really officially change my businessmodel.Melvin:Yeah, that's cool.So a lot of really great information, I want to like break it down here. Sopractical kind of tools; the group was on what? Was it on Facebook? Or was iton? Where was the group on?Jennifer:The course startedout as information in teachable. I use teachable and I really like teachablealthough you can use whatever platform you want. I did information in teachableand then we had a Facebook group and we had zoom group calls once a month justas a quick QA and it was great. It was awesome to connect with people.But I personallydon't feel like that's enough of a connection for a lot of people like peopleneed constant reminders, people need to feel supported, people need to process.So once COVID hit, I really stepped up to the plate and I said my people needme. And granted...