I Am That Content Creator Podcast

Ep#116 ADHD Business Model: How Neurodivergent Creators Use Memberships for Steady Income

• Kristen Werner & Mia Steel • Season 1 • Episode 116

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Stop treating your pivots like proof you’re flaky.

If you’re an ADHD or neurodivergent entrepreneur, this episode will rewire how you see your so-called “shiny objects.”

We share a practical framework for turning creative chaos into steady, livable income using fast validation, pre-sales, and simple membership models that regulate both your revenue and your energy.

Drawing from our lived experience as two neurodivergent mums building a multi-six-figure business, we break down:

  • Why pivots are data, not failure
  • How to validate before you build (and get paid first)
  • The Dopamine Launch System step-by-step
  • When to iterate, when to scale, and when to exit cleanly
  • Why likes don’t equal demand (and what actually does)

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Welcome & Hosts’ Neurodivergent Lens

SPEAKER_03

Are you ready to master the art of creating content that converts? Hey, I'm Mia, a mum of two, who went from being a burnt-out ambo to six-figure content creator in West Video, or never getting a late ADHD diagnosis. I'm Kristen, also Mum of Two, and a former corporate branding queen to an entrepreneur. My dyslexic brain sees marketing very differently, and that's my superpower. And together we're showing women like you how to master video marketing and create content that generates income. Whether you're just starting out or ready to scale, we are breaking down everything from learning brand news to building your own empire. Welcome to I Am That Content Creator Podcast, where we turn scroll stopping content into serious income. No filters, no fluff. Just real strategies from two neurodivergent mums who get it. So let's turn your phone into a video marketing machine. And let's go! Let's go.

SPEAKER_04

We're all wired differently. And as a neurodivergent or those of us that are just multi-passionate and we have no diagnosis, but we know that we were never meant to stay in one lane doing one thing continuously for our entire lives, we have been shamed. Whether it's by the universe, whether it's by just the school system, whether it's by a teacher, whether it's by a parent, a partner, there has been some kind of shaming in our life. And I'd love to see in the comments and hear in the comments if you have felt that, where you've got to pivot. And the first thing that comes to your mind, or you start a new project, and the first thing that comes to your mind is like, what are people gonna think? I'm just I'm glad I'm gonna start this and just not gonna keep going. And what we want to tell you right now, we want to make sure that you hear clear and write this down somewhere. These are all research and development points. It is not failure, it is not shiny object, is you doing research and development. Because here's the thing: there are neurotypicals that will never go outside the box because they're scared of the failure. They don't understand how they can pivot and move and be fluid with their decisions, and therefore they don't get that research and development. They don't get those data points, they don't get that enough to go, oh yeah, I can fail, but if I fail, I'm actually nothing's gonna happen to me. I'm just gonna take another step because I know now what I did wrong in order to do something better next time. So we want you to make sure that you can feel that in terms of we want this to be a permission slip, as shitty as that sounds. I hate that sometimes, but this is your permission slip to be like, this is just me collecting data. I'm just figuring it out and I'm gonna fail, and that's gonna be excellent because I'm not gonna do it again. I'm gonna be able to take the next step. And we've got the systems and the processes for you to follow because we failed a lot. We've done a lot.

SPEAKER_01

And I'd love to hear in the comments too, because before I found out that I had AHD and the way that my brain actually worked, every time I, because I've always been, I've just had that entrepreneurial feeling in me for a long time. But every time I had an idea and then I wanted to go to the next idea, the things that used to play in my head were like, I can't stick to anything. What is wrong with me? I'm so flaky, like, why isn't this working? But I just I literally couldn't fight the urge to look at the next thing and think of what's coming next and what's coming next and what's coming next. And I used to shame the hell out of myself and think, well, I'm probably just not meant for entrepreneurship, just meant for this nine to five world. But I just didn't understand my brain.

SPEAKER_04

Your brain was meant for entrepreneurship because that's the only way we can hope is by doing things differently. Exactly. Yeah. Like, like I don't like, but Anastasia said, failed and now I'm broke. And I want to just say, I don't know the full story, obviously, but that is also still, please know that that is you doing that research and development. That is the data points because there's something in there, there's a reason why it failed. There is a reason why you're broke, there is a reason why it didn't work. And next time you won't do that again.

SPEAKER_01

But you actually need to fail. You can't, you cannot succeed without failure. Lots of failures on the way. So we want you to fail forward. And like we're going to get into it about this research and development, which is, you know, called shiny object syndrome to the neurotypicals, but you actually need to fail. It's important too, but we just have to reframe it.

unknown

Yeah.

Harnessing Strengths: Dyslexia, ADHD And Marketing

SPEAKER_04

And so just looking at these things here, I'm wondering, like we've just all touched on, I can see the comments. You guys know this and and you've felt this, that these are some of the unique struggles we have. And there's nothing wrong with these struggles, and there's nothing that makes us worse than it's it's just how we are. And what we now need to do is look at, okay, well, how do we flip that? There is always a positive. There is always a way that we go, okay, that's actually, you know, I know that um ADHD and things don't always like to be a superpower. I understand that, but there is a positive in, like, you can't, you can't just leave it on the bench and be like, you know what, I'm not going to actually have that anymore. I don't, I'm not going to take any forever. It's with you for the rest of your life. It's been with you forever. So how do you now take that and turn it into a positive? And, you know, for me personally, my dyslexia, I couldn't love it more because it means I'm an excellent public speaker. I've stood in rooms of hundreds of women older than me and done presentations with not a card, not a piece of paper in sight, because I'm I'm that's like my safe place. I love it there. Where there are lots of people that don't love that. But that to me, the reason is where if you ask me to read from a piece of paper in front of those people, that's where I'd be like, I'm out, I can't do it. So it's it's just finding what you're struggling with and looking at it and going, okay, well, how can I make this great? How can I use this to my advantage? How can I leverage this skill that the world tells me isn't good enough, that I'm failing at, that in my head, it's a fucking mindset game. Like you're the only person that can change that mindset.

SPEAKER_01

And your brain isn't going to change, is it? So we need to change our business model, the things around us to be happy. There's only so many productivity hacks and apps and planners and all that shit that they try and force on us to get better and be more productive. But you're just constantly fighting your brain, trying to stick to those things. So, how can we change this world, these business rules to suit our brain so we can actually succeed in a way that is unique to us? Yeah. And so you're probably familiar with this dopamine trap. I've been through it many, many times in the past. You know, you have this idea, this brilliant idea, like this is the one, this is the one that's going to change my life. And you just hyper focus. You dive in, you build the website, you do all the forms and the colours and the branding, and you you're just in this different world when you're hyperfocusing on something.

SPEAKER_04

Who's done that? Who's done that? Hadn't you ever like, oh, must do the website, oh must get the domain name, oh, must do this, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

This is awesome. And then generally that's what a lot of us will do first. We have the idea.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, yeah. And then we don't like we've done all this PS. Still do it. Now we have formulas that make stop us before we go spending hours and money in doing it. So just letting you know it's very normal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then yeah, you put it out to the world, and then there's crickets or not many people coming to your website, or you only got one sale or two sale, and you think, oh my god, this idea is shit. It is me, like all the shame just keeps coming and coming. And the dopamine just crashes down. And so you ditch the whole idea and start afresh with something else. So, how many people have done this before?

SPEAKER_04

Um, there's a lot of yeses just happening in the comments here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And this is quite normal until you start to figure out what we're going to teach you today.

SPEAKER_04

And so this is just the part that you write. Exactly what Mia's just explained. This is why we burn out, this is why we fail. This is why we go, it didn't work, this is no good. Because this is the emotional roller coaster you are riding with your dopamine hits. This is what's happening. And there is no, like, please know, there is no shame in this. All we are doing is now taking the mirror and going, oh, that was a problem. Because what we can do, now we know there's a problem, is we can do this and we can create something that does actually work. Because now we have formulas and systems that we've provided multi-brilliant brains to work that isn't linear, that isn't structured, that isn't so tight, you don't fit into it. And you know, um, one thing that we said, it's like wearing a woolen jumper on a hot day and it's like around your neck and it's all scratchy and like sitting in a neurotypical marketing strategy for your beautiful brains feels like that. Like you just want to rip it off and you can't stand it. We're doing business like this in a way that moves with you, that's fluid with the way that you work, allows you to feel comfortable in pivoting because you've got the data, you've got the research, and we'll show you that in our systems. And we have something that will be explaining to you, the dopamine launch system, which is a way that you can do it that gives you dopamine hits, like little quick wins, like, oh, that worked, oh, that worked, oh, that worked, oh, that didn't, I'm gonna back out. And so that you don't find yourself in these troughs where you don't back out, you burn it. You find yourself along this line here where you're kind of testing an idea and that worked great. Or you test another idea and doesn't, but you haven't invested time and you haven't invested lots of money. So this is what we want to make sure that you really can feel today so that we can move you guys through this in a way that feels really fun again, because business really should be fun.

The Dopamine Trap Of Overbuilding

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, what's the point of building another nine to five for yourself if it becomes hard and you feel like you're in a box and all the things? So, I mean, we've got a bit of a slide here to show you from where we have been in the past and where we are now. So taking neurotypical advice that just wasn't meant for us. It's fine, it works for neurotypicals and it works. But for us, it is very difficult to be happy and successful using their advice. And so we went from that to steady monthly recurring income while having fun and working with our brains, one static course or one static product or service to something that gives us time and space to test new ideas and get curious and not have it to burn everything down in the process. One niche, but now we're the eye of the storm. You know, we are the niche. Our audience is the niche, not one particular topic. Do the same things over and over again. We've done lots of coursework and signed up to the gurus, and they all say, do the same thing over and over and over again until your eyes bleed, and that's the only way you're going to be successful. Why? Like, if it's painful. Oh, many times. And then, and you know, this leads to overwhelm and stuff. So having an unregulated nervous system when you're trying to grow a business is not great. You start to become resentful and go to places where it is really hard to succeed when your energy is down. So, what we're going to teach you today is the best way to enjoy your business and rest when you need to without all these dips in income as well. And a sense of shame if you pivot or do something different. But we've figured out that you can have multiple income streams that do not depend on each other. And that gives your brain that dopamine and that novelty that it needs to keep going.

SPEAKER_04

And you can have these multiple income streams with your dynamic personal brand because you've built a dynamic personal brand. And that's what we want to be really helping you understand today is that allows you to be the eye of the storm, to be kind of this thing that things are attracted to rather than building one course that then you're so deep in it, you're like, but I really want to do that, but I can't because everyone knows me for this. This is what I need to be. What we want to do is help you understand what a um dynamic personal brand is and how it works best for you.

SPEAKER_01

And the inconsistent revenue, especially for brands like ours, we need that dopamine. So when the money is not coming in, your motivation dips hardcore. We haven't had a zero dollar day in nearly three years. So it's setting up a business that keeps the money coming in. Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, like we need change, novelty, creativity, external motivation to be happy. And when you're following your typical marketing and business advice, that kind of gets really hard.

SPEAKER_04

And just touching again on these data points that we want you, hopefully, does everybody understand what we mean by data points? When we say research and development and we reframe shiny object, like I'd love you if nothing else, you walk away from today, reframing, oh, I've got shiny object syndrome, to like, I'm just getting data points. I'm just doing some research and development. This is okay because I'm gonna learn something in this process. And if that's all you can do in just supporting yourself, then amazing, because that to us is the only way you're actually going to get better. So it's not I bought a course, I didn't finish it, it wasn't good enough. Now I'm a failure. I'll now buy another course. What if I don't finish that one? It's more like I bought a course, learn a lot of shit. Was it for me? Realize that there's seven things in there alike and 45 things I didn't, but I'm gonna try someone else. And that's really please, if nothing else, know that that's amazing. The amount of courses Mia and I have bought between us apart, I couldn't tell you, but there is not one, not one that I can hand on heart tell you I regret buying. Because all of them, even some of them were shit. I went, yeah, could have seen that coming, but I needed to know. That's okay. Nothing happened, we move on.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And all of my little side hustles and little businesses I learnt from every single one of them. Some really hard lessons, like one that I invested$20,000 in and got fucked over by, you know, um my business partner at the time, and other little micro lessons that I've learned from just testing things out. And if I didn't have this shiny object syndrome, I would still be trying to push shit up a hill from my very first business, perhaps.

SPEAKER_04

Or still being paramedic, being like, why don't I like this? Oh no, no.

SPEAKER_01

So, how do we turn these tiny experiments and all these little data points into something that is sustainable for you? So we need to stop thinking like building a box for yourself and start building a tree, something that can grow with you and can sustain your really fast brain. Everything about trees too, like the trunk's always there, no matter it's winter, summer, spring, autumn, the leaves change and everything. But that trunk is always there.

Fluid Systems That Fit Nonlinear Brains

SPEAKER_04

And the the idea with the trunk is that becomes your code. That is what you stand for, what you believe in, your vision, your mission, which is deeply rooted and deeply in the ground, anchored in nice and hard. It's there. You've got, you've got that, but then the branches are kind of the playground where you get to play. So if you've got this incredibly strong trunk with your deep why, understanding your dynamic personal brand, that is what you build your monthly recurring revenue off. That is what you build your paid community from, is the trunk of this tree, the who you are, your dynamic personal brand. You build it from there, that becomes your monthly recurring revenue. That becomes your nervous system just deregulation, which you can chill out. And then at any point, you're like, oh, I want to do an event, oh, I want to do this, I want to do that. They're the branches you get to play with and in the dopamine launch system at any point. And what we're gonna do today when we finish here, and we give you the Google Sheet, is to get you to go through the idea of okay, well, how do I test it? How do I test it to see whether it's worth branching out here or doing this there? So this is the trunk becomes basically what your main focus is in this whole thing that we're talking to you about, is getting this right and feeling really strong in this, is what's going to be able, what you can leverage as you move forward in your business.

SPEAKER_01

And when you build this personal brand, and we call it a dynamic personal brand because it allows you to kind of do a few things at once, you can't quit being yourself. You know, you can quit a side hustle or things fail, but you can't quit your personal brand, especially if you build it so solidly, it's very hard to kind of lose revenue all at once. Because, you know, for example, if our membership was to end tomorrow, God forbid, I have my personal brand and I could make money tomorrow if I wanted to from that. So it's really important, especially in this world of AI as well. If you don't have a personal brand, it's going to be really difficult for people to trust you and buy from you when you don't have that solid foundation.

The Dopamine Launch System Overview

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And this is just to show you what it looks like to have our incredible brains that are chaotic and wonderful and do all the things, and we call it chaos, and the world says all that. But then when we can turn that into the eye of the storm, and we become that, you know, that's what we say when we say get your vision and your mission and who you are. And then you can talk about all those things like neurotypical marketing. I mean, I've been in marketing for 10 plus years in my corporate days. You've got core things that you have to do, you've got strategies that you have to have, you've got pillars that you talk about, you've got all of these incredible systems that work when you're at neurotypical and you need to get that kind of job done. But as neurodivergent, incredible humans that we are, multi-passionates, multi-brilliants, we have lots of things. And building a dynamic person around in 2026 is the only way you are going to step into the next era that people want to know all those random things that fly around you, that you talk about, that make you, you, that make you magnetic to the people around you. They are all incredibly, and we think of it like this because it's, you know, at any time you've got this storm whirling around you, and that's your content. That's one day I'm in the gym, one day I'm dressing in colours, one day I'm painting pots, one day I'm talking about the membership. It's all flying around me. But the people that need it will get it, and they'll be magnet to it on the day that they need it. But it's all in all of this, and stop us at any time, this doesn't make sense, but in all of this, we have what's called a through line. And this is your deep why. And this is what we go into inside evolution, our larger coaching container. This is what we dig into deeply, is understanding your deep why. And that is the thread that goes through absolutely everything. It allows you to be chaotic. And my thread in my deep why is to simplify things so that it's not hard for other people. I want to make it simple. I want to do the hard stuff and then share it simply so that you can just walk through it. So that is the through line. And if that doesn't make sense to anybody or you're you've got any questions about that, let us know in the comments. But you can still have this beautiful chaos whirling around you, and your through line is the eye of the storm that you can keep talking about in your marketing to make you magnetic in order to build your dynamic personal brand.

SPEAKER_01

And when you focus on a niche audience, so going deep on the psychographics and not just target women who are 40 who like exercise, when you focus on a really particular niche audience that is basically you and what you believe in and your life experiences, that helps as well because it means that you've got this audience and this community who love you for you. And so it doesn't really matter if you talk about a few different things because they're following you for you because they resonate with you so deeply. So when you're thinking about, you know, the type of audience that you want to sell your services or your product to, go deeper, especially these days. It's way too hard to sell broadly to a heap of people. So think about your niche audience.

SPEAKER_04

And so um, we're not gonna do it. I like in the comment Red has written that last time we did the deep why work, she cried. And that often happens. We're not gonna do the deep white work today. That is inside evolution, inside our coaching. But that, if you if you don't know what your deep why is, it's fine. You may have never done this exercise before. And we've got Leah here whose um mediator's just dropped a question. If you do know it, let us know in the comments. But the deep why work is something I am so passionate about and have been since I started online business and I started doing this and helping people understand their personal brands because when you actually identify your deep why and why you do what you do, and I'm talking not like, oh, because I'd like freedom and I'd like some more money. It's so much deeper than that. Why do you want freedom? Why do you want money? Where's that story coming from? It's a it's a whole psychology that we go deeply into inside evolution. But when you nail that, it allows that through line to be, it's like, it's like the water's part. It's so clear. But before that, you can really run around in circles and wonder why you're doing what you're doing. How's my personal brand aligned? What is my values? I don't really understand. But when you nail that personal brand, and it can take a while and it's worth the work, what happens after that opens up an entirely new online presence, personal brand, even as who you are and what you stamp on your everyday as a mum, as a wife, as a as a human being, it changes you at, you know, I think a cellular level, but it's an incredible piece of work to do. So we won't do it today, but it's definitely there. If anyone wants to know more, just let us know.

Dynamic Personal Brands And Multiple Income Streams

SPEAKER_01

So it's a really important exercise to do. And I I didn't do it until I met Kristen before I was I was the same. I was just like, oh, I just want more money. I just don't want to work anymore. But when you do the work and you go deeper, then everything else tends to get easier and you don't have to force the content or feel like you should be doing this and that and the other. You just know because that deep why just it's just apparent that, okay, this is why I'm here. Silly me. I should have been doing this the whole time. And so not everyone wakes up and thinks, I want to start a membership. Put in the comments if you feel like running a membership or building a membership is big and hard. And I don't know if I can show up or I don't know if I can provide constant value every single month. So I want to have a conversation about how you feel about memberships. Because when I started diving into this world, my very first membership, I was doing UGC, which is user generated content. So I was creating content for brands, and all these women started asking me how to do it. And so I set up this$5 a month community. And at the start I was thinking, oh my God, this is like I'm just gonna have to do all this stuff and it was like all too much. But we overthink it. It really doesn't have to be as overwhelming as you think. And so not only does it bring you monthly recurring income that compounds over time, that keeps your nervous system regulated. You know, we don't have to stress and constantly sell all the time. When if we had a regular one-off business, if we walked away, like we had six weeks off when the kids were at on holidays, and the business just kept ticking. And so that that's really helpful to regulate your nervous system. But you only need 12 topics a year to share. Just 12. Memberships are a funny thing that if you put too much in there, people kind of freak out and leave. So you're keeping it really, really simple. You get to choose how much time you put into it. Do you show up once a week or do you show up once a month? Is it a live call or is it an email or a template or a recipe? So you get to call the shots depending on your energy levels. You might be high energy and love all these live things and want to shop every single week. And that might scare the shit out of you if you're someone else and you're like, oh God, no, I don't want to do that. You can do it any way you like. And it's not static, so it evolves as as you do. Our membership has evolved consistently. The members who are in here today will testify that they've seen our evolution. And the thing is, if we if we aren't evolving, that's a disservice to our students and our community. If we're just static and doing the same shit over and over again. So when you have a membership, it's almost expected or encouraged for you to evolve and change and test new ideas and try new things. But that monthly recurring revenue stays. So it lets you have this time to explore and test new ideas without burning everything down in the process.

SPEAKER_04

And I can see in the comments a lot of the kind of objections that have come out, which is excellent because we're going to do um something very, very soon. We're nearly at the end of the slides, that's gonna get you to take some action, to see that this doesn't have to be difficult, um, that it doesn't have to be hard. And it's and even I just saw Haley's message about not feeling like the expert. And at the end of the day, if you know 10% more than somebody else that you're teaching, you're the expert. You don't need to be the best of the best. You just need to be able to guide somebody through a situation that no doubt you've been through. That makes us an expert.

SPEAKER_01

You don't even have to be teaching someone something like this big revolutionary method or something. It can be as simple as we just did a masterclass in the membership the other day about creating a mail club, you know, sending your art prints out once a month to your subscribers, or maybe it's a crafting membership, like it doesn't have to be big. People are just yearning for connection and community. And half the time, you know, we can see the back end of a lot of our courses and stuff, but most people are there for the calls in the community, not so much to sit down and watch 17 modules of coursework.

Build The Trunk: Your Deep Why And MRR

SPEAKER_04

So we'll answer some of these questions as we get into the work in a minute, because I think they're really important questions that we all feel and that we've felt before, but we want to make sure that you can leave here thinking, actually, it is possible, me, because it is possible. It's just how do we get past those things that are stopping us? And I'll let you know right now that is you looking after yourself. That is your brain thinking, if I just tell myself that I'm not the expert, no one will come, I might fail, then I don't have to try it. Because if I try it and I fail, well, then that says a lot more to the universe, doesn't it? No, what that says is a bit of research and development, but it's just so it's really important that you you can hear yourself saying those things and read it and then go, hang on a minute, let's be realistic. It's 12 topics a month. You decide how much you give to this. You might say, one email a month is all you get. That's not that fucking hard. Or you might say, you know what, I'm turning up live once every week. Cool, if that's your personality, but it's going into it thinking, I will, I will promise the least and then I will deliver the most. And that's where then you get to decide. And then when you're in that membership, like we have with our incredible community, which we can't thank enough for following us on our journey because hell, you guys have probably been in a washing machine while we've been in our chaos sometimes. But you've allowed us to test the water. You've allowed us to pivot in a way that you've come back and understood where we're at. Or if you haven't, you've been like, guys, what the fuck are you doing? Like, oh, sorry, let's show you what we're doing. Let's open the back end and show you what we did and why we did it. But you get to then run that message and you get to build a community and in and moving forward in 2026 and God knows how much longer, we are just craving this. Where, you know, yes, we've got the slides, but if we didn't, we we just want to have a conversation with you. We want to just make sure that you leave here today going, oh fuck, I can do this. Amazing. And and hopefully then be around more people that go, I'm struggling, cool, let's talk about it, or you know, whatever that is. So we're gonna answer some of these in a minute because it's so important that you can see that it's possible for you.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm seeing a bit of a um, you know, curring theme in the chat of like, I can't show up once a month, I can't, it's the consistency, it's the having to do this all the time. But if you want a business to work, if you just want a one-off course or a one-off product, the consistency required to sell that thing over and over and over and over again is so much more energy than showing up once a month in a membership or a community. And remember, this income is recurring. Yes, people leave memberships and you still have to get people in, but you can breathe and you can have time off and you can live your life basically just by showing up once a month. And I say this to a lot of people when they say, I can't, I'm not motivated enough, I can't start things, uh, and all the excuses that we tell ourselves. But if you can put that amount of energy into a nine to five for 30 or 40 years, this stuff, it's fine. And that's why we teach the dopamine launch system and and our processes, because we know you need that dopamine. We do it the normal way, it drops off. So try to think of it like a membership is monthly recurring income that lets me be myself three weeks out of every month. And so when you look at it like that, and if you, you know, if I've got to sell water bottles consistently, it's really hard. It's really hard to sell products and one-off things consistently without burning out or spending a lot of money on it.

SPEAKER_04

And then we're gonna start getting into the Google Doc in a minute. Now, you don't need to do it now, but it's there if you want it. Keep it, use it, because this is a document that we've got inside Evolution that we use with our members and our community in there. And what this is going to allow you to do is every time you have this, oh, what about that? You can go back to a document like this and you can test it and you can try it because we want you to be able to do that to see if it's worth you doing that in what we call a proof loop, is what it ultimately will explain. And inside the dopamine launch system, there is five different phases. And these five phases are pretty simple, they've all got different steps that we explain to you inside evolution that we go through to make sure that you really understand it. But you're you need to validate an idea, and that's the biggest thing. Each of these things gives you a hit of dopamine, and that's why we've set it up like that. Because the typical um kind of marketing funnel would have you kind of generate an idea. Yes, that feels good. Yes, I think that's what my audience wants. Yes, yes, okay, I'm gonna start to build it, I'm gonna start to create it. Once I've created it, then I'm gonna set up my core pieces of content. I'm gonna set up all the things that I need to do to launch it. But I'm gonna build this thing, I'm gonna create it, it's gonna get really good. I've got the systems now to launch it, and then we're gonna go. And when we launch it, there's no one there. There's no one there, and you go, what? Why didn't it work? And so we're gonna reverse engineer that and make sure that we validate it. So we confirm that there is a demand for this. And then we're gonna back it. And now this is our little secret weapon, our secret formula that we absolutely love inside the dopamine launch system, and that is to back that idea before you go and build it. So this is you getting paid before you've got a goddamn thing. And it will feel foreign and you'll hate it and you'll think, nope, that's not gonna work. But we have never, ever created anything that we have not got paid for before we did it.

SPEAKER_01

It's a game changer. Absolute game changer. Because when when you think about it, if if you're building this thing with this idea, especially with our brains, like the procrastination kicks in, we overthink, we get paralyzed, we just spend so much time building this thing. But if you get paid first and get feedback first and then build it, you're you're completely transparent with your audience, by the way. Like they know that they're buying in first. We'll go through all that. But when you flip it like that, all of a sudden, you've got this validation and you've got money. And you're like, holy shit, people actually want this. They have given me their money. I've got to go. This is this is great. And again, it's the dopamine hit. And yeah, we we we've got ideas coming out our ass all the time, and we always do this. We never go cord without doing this because we know what it feels like to build something and have it go to shit, and then the shame comes in.

Memberships Demystified: Simple, Sustainable Value

SPEAKER_04

So once you've backed it and you're getting paid for it, somebody's given you money, then you build it. And the dopamine is kicking in because somebody's given you money, so now you need to deliver on it. That shouldn't be a fear. That shouldn't be like, oh no, they've paid for it. What if I don't do it? Like, I know that's probably gonna grind someone and someone's gonna be like, it's hard. If someone pays you, it's like if you go to work and your boss is like, hand that thing in for me. Now you've got a patient that's needs cardiac arrests and needs, I don't know, fucking whatever you do, me when they have cardiac arrests. And you go, nah, probably not going to. Like if you're building these businesses and you want this, and I know you do, because you want something that isn't neurotypical and you feel stuck, then if somebody pays you, you're gonna do it. We know you will. And that's why we've built this, so that then once you've built it, then you start to get that dopamine of people going, Oh, but that worked really well. Or you might have commute people in your community that go, yeah, that was good, but I don't really understand how that worked. Great. Because if I'd have built it without asking you, I would have wasted a shitload of time and money where you've now told me this doesn't work or I've missed that step. Amazing, I'm gonna now create it for you, and that's gonna be next month's tutorial. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01

And exactly what Sarah said too, like our brains, we need that external motivation or that pressure or that time thing where we've got to do it, and this helps with that as well. Because you're not just on your own working on things in the background, I'll get it to get to it tomorrow, I'll do it. Ah, maybe it's shit, oh, maybe I just won't do it. Like, it's there. And people who've paid you are telling you what they want. And when we did this, I think we had 40 or 50 people pay us a monthly recurring subscription before we had anything. They built it with us, they told us exactly what they wanted, and we got the feedback, and we slowly built it with them. And the good thing about a membership is you don't have to fill it with stuff before they get in there. I I know of lots of memberships where it is literally this one I always talk about is a tapping membership. I don't know if you know about the tapping. I think she's got 350 people paying$75 a month to be in a tapping thing, and once a month they get together and do a tapping session. So you're not going in there searching through all these modules and courses and templates. There doesn't have to be anything in there. It's just that touch point once a month.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so and that's again, that's just in this process, you're anchoring in, you're getting those touch points, you're getting the feedback, and then you get to a point where then you get to scale it and you get to multiply what works. So then you you've got your founding members, maybe, and then you go back and you open the doors again, or you do a launch and you add um a high ticket, or you add an event, or you add something else. But all of these things, they give you dopamine every time you do them, so that that's gonna continue pushing you forward and giving you the inspiration you need to continue moving forward. And inside all of those five steps, we have what we're gonna go through today, which is the proof loop. So this proof loop is important because you want to test it, you want to do your market research, you want to gain the proof, and then you want to move forward with certainty. And each of these steps has a little bit of dopamine so that you can get the reward, you can see the progress, you can gain that motivation, and you can predict that the success is coming. And inside this proof loop is this. And at any point, if you don't get the market research and nobody says they want it, and you don't get anybody on your wait list, cool. You just you just leave. Not that fucking hard.

SPEAKER_01

And that's what if you've got a membership that is ticking along quite nicely and you do this proof loop on this random idea that you've got, you don't have to burn the membership down. You've got more time to test these ideas. If it works, cool. Explore it, get curious. If it doesn't, that's cool. I I've figured that out, and that's a data point that now I know not to do that again, or I learned this lesson from that, and you haven't burnt your business down in the process.

SPEAKER_04

And it might be that some of this stuff is like, I've got nobody on my wait list. All right, maybe it's a messaging problem. And inside the dopamine launch system, inside evolution, that's where we'd go back and go, okay, before we jump out of the loop, let's just test it. Was it messaging? Did you really hit the right point? Are we talking to the right person? What does that look like? And so there's still data points that you can grab at each different step before you jump out. But it also means if you're like, you know what, it just doesn't actually fill a line. I'm jumping out, cool. You jump out, there's no failure because you've just got those data points.

SPEAKER_01

So I understand that memberships feel big and such a huge commitment and all the rest of it, but a nine to five and a regular business almost requires more commitment, to be honest. So it's something that you don't be afraid to try it. I my first one was$5 a month, and that's still not that's not going anymore today because I was testing and I was learning. But again, it doesn't have to be online Zoom calls. It can be letters, it can be in-person, it can be anything you want, basically. You can basically turn any idea into a monthly pay community based on the way you your brain works and how you want to do it. How do I test it?

SPEAKER_04

Or I don't know where to go to test it. I mean, obviously, social media, if you've got a social media account, you test it with the audience that you've got already. If you've got an email list, you test it with the email list. If you have none of that and you're literally just starting, but you think it's a good idea, go to Reddit, go to Facebook groups, Google, Chat GPT, find the information. This is what I'm thinking, this is the problem I'm solving. What's out there? Is there a group like this? And here's the thing: if there is a group out there, there is a membership out there, there is a community out there already, fucking great. Because you know what's happened? They've validated that idea for you, so it's gonna work. Now then you're like, oh, but it's a competition, it's not gonna work for you. No, it's going to work for you because you are you. You are different, you are unique. People want things from you that they might not want from another community. So then it's about building your dynamic personal brand in a way that makes you magnetic to the problem that those people are having, and you're the one that's gonna solve it for them, or you're the one that's gonna show them how to crochet or show them how to knit or whatever that is. And so if there is not, if there's communities doing it, that's an excellent thing. And if there's not, it doesn't mean it won't work. It just means then you need to start building that dynamic personal brand and attracting and finding those people that want what you've got and kind of going from there.

Validate Then Get Paid: Back It Before You Build It

SPEAKER_01

And just the other week we tested an idea with somebody else's Facebook. We we truly believe that communities, this is where everything's going because of AI. And you can jump on Chat GPT and figure something out pretty quickly. You don't need to go and buy a 17-module course anymore. So courses are they're not dying, but there's a shift, right? So people are looking for community connection, real talking to real people, in-person things. So if you've had an idea for a static course or something, like it can just be turned into a membership pretty easily, but we've just got to remember that the world is changing so fast, but no matter what, people are never gonna not want community and connection. It's not going anywhere. In fact, it's gonna get stronger because of AI. So it's almost imperative that you start to think about these things as well instead of going down a particular line because that's the way you've always thought or that's what you've always wanted to do.

SPEAKER_02

And then people telling me you can't launch a membership first, it has to be a course and then go into a membership. And I'm like, is it right? I don't know. Anybody telling me you can and can't do, they can get fucked. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

That's true. I have learned that. I've been in this business a long time. I can tell you that a membership for something like that, it involves emotional connection.

SPEAKER_01

It involves the isolation's the massive pain point. And your total audience, like, do mums really want to sit down and watch a big long course on something? They just want that.

SPEAKER_04

No, yeah, they probably just want to rock out with a cup of coffee and be like, my day was shit, can we chat about it? And then be provided with expertise that can guide them through it and a place that they feel safe and seen to actually say, it's not great, or I'm having a good day, and people celebrate that, and like it's the emotional connection is what a community brings. And I think as a collective, everybody is in this this need, even though it's online. I mean, I can feel from I can see all your faces now, and I can feel that there's still a connection here, even though it's online. We're okay with that as a as a society now, and we'll do a live event this year, but it's still a good, safe, wonderful place to be. So I think, yeah, don't listen to that.

SPEAKER_01

Go with your gut.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And the beautiful thing about a wait list too, you don't even have to know what's going to go inside the membership yet. This is why you get await and you talk to these mothers. What do you want? What is it that I can help you with? And they will tell you what they want. And that's where the testing comes into it, you know, this proof loop and just sing about it. And and then, you know, once you start it, it might look a bit different to the idea that you had, but it opens doors to all these other different things that you can do inside. And maybe people tell you that I I do want a course, and you create a course and sell it on the outside of the membership as another offer. You know, there's lots of different ways you can do it, and people they will tell you what they want.

SPEAKER_04

Inside evolution, we've got that support that what we love about it is um more hands-on, where they're like to be honest, I think the community, there's some community members here, which I can see uh for both the club and inside evolution. And I'd say that those live calls are probably the highlight of the whole thing. Yes, the coursework is there, you can go in and grab it anytime, especially being able to ask questions like this when you are saying to yourself, I can't do this, I don't understand it, what am I going to do? So then that's that's where the community and the connection part is just really, really special because it it's it's kind of kick up the ass you need sometimes, and it's also the support and that gentle kind of hard when you're really filling down that um we can give you that I think the whole community kind of shares as a collective.

SPEAKER_01

And it and if we've actually got a checklist inside the membership to when you feel like pivoting, go through this checklist. Like, is it connected to your deep why? Or are you just chasing, you know, this new method that's out there and everyone's making money from? Is it just a money thing? Like we've got this process, so you can go through it to go, okay, actually, probably shouldn't go down that path. And like I'm guilty of the shiny objects that aren't connected to my deep why. But when I take myself through this process because I know my brain, I can guide myself back to probably gonna be a waste of my time because it's not deeply entrenched in my deep why. So I'm gonna get sick of it pretty quickly. I know what I'm like, um, and then maybe kind of, you know, go back to what you're doing. So having these little processes to catch you before you go too far is really important. What we stand by when we're teaching you guys all this stuff is it can get overwhelming if you've got all these things going at once, but we really want you to build your trunk, build it, and get that money coming in so then you can have your branches and get that dopamine and get it all out of your system. So having because when you've got too much stuff going on when you're trying to build your trunk, it will feel a little bit hard.

SPEAKER_00

I just thought I'd um jump on and just say I'm an OG member, so being around the box. You've been in the washing during that time. I've just started several different things. So I did some UGC, I've done digital products, affiliate marketing, all that sort of jazz. I'm now in e-commerce. Um, and I've found value along the way in each different area from the girls. So even today, I didn't come on here to because I then thought about um starting a membership, but I just had this brainwave idea that actually matches with my e commerce store and the shit. Show that's been my life the last 12 months. So it just, you know, it just goes to show that the value that they bring and it's not just for someone who wants to start a you know subscription membership. There's many different things to it. So I just wanted to jump on just but the new people here or the ones that haven't quite joined yet to know that it's definitely well worth it.

SPEAKER_04

I'm in my shedding here. I've got a fate.

SPEAKER_01

But that's the other thing with the membership too, like you build these relationships. Like I feel like half the members are our friends because we see each other all the time. We're watching journeys, you know, but we may not have met in person, but it's building that community and you just feel like you know each other and um I've just seen Nikki's question here about a specific um group of people.

Proof Loop: Test, Iterate, Or Exit

SPEAKER_04

Women 35 starting or going through the recovering from IBF. Yes, there might be a boundary there, but then then that's your trunk, right? Your trunk is talking, walking, sharing that story or whatever that looks like for your community. But the branches get to be what happens after, where where you go after, the resources around you, events that you could have. Maybe you were fortunate enough to have a child because of IBF, there could be one section for that, maybe you're not, maybe there's another section for that. And so it's it's not that they'll just leave. It's building that community that is formed, and like we're talking trust and relationships and love and caring and what you bring that will take those people further with you. But starting with that that core and that foundation and leading with passion and and purpose from that point is where I'd start. I wouldn't be thinking about it won't work, because you don't know that. Where if you start with this will work because I'm passionate and this is what I I know is needed, and this is what I'd love to be surrounded by or I'd love to surround women with, then you start there, and then you get to a point where you're like, wow, this is amazing. Your community will say, you know, this is where I am now, this is how I'm feeling, and then you can start doing this process again, finding that proof loop, going again, finding the different areas that you can branch off into. But I I would say that that kind of it's a needed thing, and it's something that you then get to play in it after to see where those women will go with you and what that looks like. Mia and I have had conversations where we're both in tears because we're so passionate about this working, and the thought of it not working terrifies us more than the thought of it actually working. Because what if, what if, what if, but it's always, well, what if it does work? What if I get to change someone's life? What if I'm the catalyst for their life changing? What if I'm the person that means that they then get out of their way? What if, what if, and so if you don't do it, you miss that. But if you do do it, you create this incredible ecosystem that you get to be involved in that fuels your soul, that allows you to create an income that changes your life as well as other people's, and you're not going to a job that you fucking hate. You're doing something that you love all the time with people that are here for it and here for you, and and it's it's it's a crazy feeling.

SPEAKER_01

Like the content, like sometimes you can get all in your head, like, oh, my content sucks, oh, this is shit, oh, I don't want to post for uh that's just being selfish. What if there's someone on the other side of that phone who just needs to hear what you have to say? Just on my ADHD TikTok page, a lot of the times I'll be like, Oh, am I just you know doing this for no reason? But I constantly get DMs from people, hey Mia, I love your content. Thank you so much for sharing it. I feel like you are me, we are twins, and like they'll tell me their whole life story, and that keeps me going. So the content's not for me, even though it has helped me. I feel like it's my you know video journal, but it's putting yourself and your story out there to help someone else. And so when you flip it from my content sucks to I'm just helping someone else, they just need to hear this. Sometimes it's yourself that needs to hear it, say it out loud. But yeah, when you know you're helping someone, it can give you that motivation to keep going as well. We will wrap it up here. Thank you so much for staying um for almost two hours. We always do this. We try for 60 minutes, we go for two hours. But yeah, Thursday, bring your questions, have a think about what you've you know learnt today and let it all out and come with your questions Thursday. We'll do similar to what we did um in this second half and just really nut your ideas out.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely so many good ones too.