I’m guessing you’ve ended up here today as a result of the Mixergy Master Class on improving Membership Site Retention I recently did with Andrew Warner.

If you enjoyed the class and want to learn more about creating online membership communities with rock-solid retention, then here are a few suggested next steps:

• Check out my posts on The Speck - I truly believe that anyone can find, cultivate & retain a “speck.” An online community with bullet-proof member retention is one of the, if not the, best online business models in the world.
• Subscribe to this blog via RSS, or drop your email in the box on the right below my photo.
• Definitely check out MembershipBlackBox.com – This is a new membership training program I’m working on that should be ready within the month.
• Visit this page if you already own or operate an online membership and are looking to decrease your attrition and increase your membership retention rates.
• Join me in New York City on Sunday, October 23, 2011, where I’ll be speaking and taking part in this session on member retention with Stu McLaren of WishList Member.
• Drop me an email regarding anything else, and let me know what you thought of the class.

Thanks for stopping by.

Noah

The ultimate benefit of those books comes when you realize you don’t really need to read very many of them, because the box is really just an artificially, self-imposed restriction you’ve placed on yourself. The box is what you decide is your reality. Tony Robbins calls them limiting beliefs.

The box is how you gauge your situation or your business at the present moment.

Is your business doing poorly because of a bad economy? Is your business stuck in the box, or is your business doing poorly because you’ve chosen to accept it and do nothing about it? Surely, you could never attempt such a unique outside-the-box method of increasing your business, could you? Not you. Stay Stuck.

Are you angry at your current situation? Frustrated that you can’t get that pay raise or that gig you’ve been applying for. Is it because you’re stuck in the box or is it because you choose to watch six hours of Dancing With The Stars every night?

The box, fortunately for us, is a fictitious confine. It’s devastating because the box is so powerful, we all find ourselves struggling with the invisible cardboard walls on a daily basis. I know I do.

Take one step to the left or one step to the right. Take one step forward or one step back.

Basically, a single step in any direction and you’re out of the box.

Try it.

Okay, you’re out. Now what?

Why do any more work than you have to? Why not just do the bare minimum? Why do any more?

Hide in the shadows. Stay out of your bosses cross-hairs. Keep quiet. Keep a low-profile. Do what you’re told. Shut up. Don’t ask questions. Follow the guidelines.

I’ve worked in places like this before. I’m sure you have too. It’s certainly not the type of working environment where Linchpins will thrive. Your employees may be asking themselves, “Why bother? I’ll just show up, take the paycheck and be on my way.”

But what if you were the employer, and you were to make it your goal to foster a working environment where employees were engaged and recognized for their achievements?

What if your employees were encouraged to make decisions and act on their own judgments?

What if you empowered employees to solve customer service complaints without having to speak to the manager first?

Would it be worth the bother?

Just the other day, I overheard a story of a project that’s currently underway. The project includes the installation and setup of some very sophisticated and expensive equipment. It’s costing one company millions of dollars and another company is being paid millions of dollars to complete the project.

It took only one employee, taking a single glance at the project’s progress and saying “stop, wait, you’re installing the entire system backwards.” He was right. Thankfully, luckily, the error was caught before it was too late.

A disgruntled, hidden-in-the-shadows, unrecognized, undervalued, unappreciated employee may have seen the error and kept his mouth shut. He may have driven home that evening with a big smile on his face. Instead, this company is doing its best to foster a working environment where employees are recognized and valued for speaking up. They’re recognized for their achievements and the work is appreciated. Sometimes, even a single nod of recognition is all it takes.

So I’ll ask again, why bother?

I’ve failed a ton of times. I’ve tried dozens of things that were total flops. But have I failed enough? Have I failed “better?”

“Embarrassing” says my inner thoughts. What a goof!

What about the next time? Will I remember that failure? My mind has a clever way of never failing to remind me of what a mess I got myself into the last time. My mind has the uncanny ability to use that failure against me.

“Do you really want to go through all that misery again Noah? Really?”

And that’s the problem. That’s your lizard brain doing its thing. That’s your internal resistance tightening up. And that’s why so many are afraid to start, let alone fail. That’s why so many of us stand at the bottom of the mountain looking up and feel defeated even before we have begun. We are wondering how such an enormous hill could ever be climbed. It is easier to just sit at the bottom and wait.

Wait for what?

Sam Beckett suggests failing again. He suggests failing better. And no matter what, keep going. Keep failing. But each time, fail a little better.

How exactly can we fail “better?”

How can we keep going when the internal resistance grows with each failure?

I’m thinking that maybe when Beckett made that comment, he really meant it in a simplistic, easy to understand way:

Next time, fail a bit better. Even if just a little, but for goodness sake, keep failing. Always.

And I’m thinking, fail often enough and the resistance and all that tension will eventually go way. If you keep pulling an elastic band, it’s eventually going to break.

Once the resistance is out-of-the-way, there’s really nothing left in your way.

The sooner you start the better. Start again and again and again…

This morning, we were awoken at 3:30am to an unhappy baby. It seems she needed a midnight snack. Then after a quick bite to eat, she fell back asleep.

As I laid in bed watching and listening to the snow accumulate, I got to thinking about momentum. You know when you get a little momentum in life, and you’re suddenly moving in the right direction, constantly picking up speed, everything and everything seems to go your way? Well, I think momentum, for the most part, is a powerfully important force we need to have, and more importantly utilize; but there’s good news and bad news about momentum.

Think for a minute about a tiny snowball sitting on the side of a snow-covered hill. As the snowball starts rolling down the hill, it gathers and collects more and more snow. As it collects more snow it gets bigger and bigger, all the while gaining tremendous power and speed. It becomes unstoppable. Nothing can stop it now.

So what about good news and bad news?

The bad news is that to gain momentum you need to start.

The snowball (you) sitting on the side of the hill needs some sort of force or action to start the movement down the hill. Sometimes it just needs a tap or maybe just a slight push. Sometimes, it’s in need of a massive amount of energy like an avalanche. Regardless, it won’t start moving on its own. It won’t miraculously start itself down the hill. Without a start, it sits idle on the top of the hill and will eventually melt away into nothingness.

So what’s the good news?

The good news is that to gain momentum all you need is a start.

You made a decision to get something special out the door on a specific day, and you did it. I applaud you. You acted as a linchpin and shipped something new and exciting. You went against protocol and tried something fresh and unique.

Unfortunately, it was a flop. It turned out to be a complete and utter failure.

In to the office walks Bob, the Monday-morning quarterback. This is Bob’s favorite moment - to bask in your dismay and to cherish the moment when the deck is stacked against you. Bob is eager to tell us he would have done it this way or that way. Bob surely wouldn’t have done it the way you did. Hell no.

And Bob is first to tell your Boss, “told ya so, I knew that wouldn’t work!”

Here’s the thing, in 5-10-20 years, Bob will still be playing for the same team. He’ll still be playing that same position. He’ll still be a lousy, washed up, second-string quarterback continuously doing his Monday-morning thing. Fresh meat is what Bob craves. This is Bob’s drug. If only there was a way to warn the fresh meat. Bob has a sneaky way of causing creative paralysis amongst you special folks out there. He plays dirty.

But not you. In five years, you’ll be long gone. You’ll be a star. You’ll be in demand. You’ll never wait long as a free agent. You’ll be sought out. Bob will pass out resumes; after all, 20 years of experience must mean something, right? You won’t have a resume. You wont NEED a resume. You know that one, two, or even ten failures isn’t enough to take you out of the game.

Bob’s a sly S.O.B.

Let the Bobs be Bobs. You keep shipping.

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Do you have any evil plans?

My first evil plan was devised over seven years ago when I left the rat race only six months out of University and into the first “job” of my career. Spending six months in an office without a window was enough for me. It meant six months sitting in traffic jams and commuting over an hour each way. That was enough for me. I’ve never looked back.

It I hadn’t had some sort of a plan, seven years ago, I’d still be sitting in that office without a window staring at that brutal taupe colored walls. I’d still be dreading that same brutal commute each day and listening to the same ole FM morning shows.

Hugh MacLeod‘s newest book hit the shelves the other day, “Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination” and I had a chance to blaze through it last night. It was so good, I’m reading it again today.

The word evil has the connotation of meaning that something is profoundly immoral, wrong, and malevolent. When Hugh teaches us about evil plans, the word isn’t meant to be understood in that sense.

Instead, Hugh says evil plans are your own plans. Your own secret little plans to create the life you’ve been dreaming of. Your own secret plans to escape the cubicle and do what you love. Your own secret plans to step off the treadmill and bow out of the rat race.

Every day, I find myself talking to people looking for a map, or for a quick-fix, or a fast solution to changing their lives. It’s the wrong approach.

Sometimes you just need to be inspired. Sometimes you just need a kick in the butt. But honestly, all you really need is your own evil plan. This book can help.

3-2-1 Go.

Can you believe we’re already over a month in to this year already? Only eleven months to go.

For me, 2010 was a big year. To me, it symbolized the importance of becoming a Linchpin in an ever-changing economy.

As we zip through 2011 at an ever-increasing pace, I ask you to consider your own plans for these next eleven months.

At what cost are you willing to stay with the drudgery of a job or career that you have not an ounce of passion for?

At what cost are you willing to hide your amazing talent for the harmonica, or your unique view of the world which you capture through your photography. (Which remains a weekend hobby, only if you can spare a few moments, of course…?)

Let’s also consider just how toxic drudgery can be. Stuck in a situation you’re unhappy about only amplifies the problem. It will find a way to seep through the cracks into every other aspect of your life.

Surely you can’t just give up following the status-quo and decide you’re only going to do what YOU want to do this year. You can’t decide you’re going to turn your love of photography in to a business. You can’t build that website and online business you’ve been thinking about. After all, there are bills to be paid, babies to feed, diapers to buy, dinners at Applebee’s, and cable television to watch, isn’t there?

But maybe, just maybe, if you could grasp the fact that a lot of the people, who do decide to take the risks, actually reap the rewards, maybe then you’d be willing to give it a shot.

The world, believe it or not, has a strange ability to actually work in your favor.

What do ya say? Maybe this year?

The clock is ticking.

Where did the time go? I find it hard to believe that my last posting was November 23rd.

Here’s a quick update about both my personal and professional life.

First – The Personal Stuff.

Our beautiful daughter arrived on December 19th, 2010. Her name is Avalon Kate Fleming. She’s amazing. Seriously though, what a life altering event. Nobody can truly prepare you or explain to you what parenthood is actually like until you experience it.

So without further ado, I’ve included a picture of Avalon and yours truly.

My wife is doing fantastic. She felt great shortly after the birth and has settled comfortably into being a mother. She seems to be a natural.

The Biz Stuff

After spending a day with Seth Godin back in September, I arrived home energized and ready for a challenge. After all Seth, doing what he does best, provoked me and posed a challenge to me. Could I go home and ship something new this year? (Shipping is used metaphorically… it’s the art of creating something and actually getting it out into the world.)

I met with my friend Derek, who’s a crazy home-beer-brewer. He’s been brewing beer for over twelve years, and we wanted to see if we could turn that hobby into a business.

The business we decided to launch was TheBrewersMarket.com - The concept is simple. A website selling a small batch of all-grain beer. It’s a brewing system for folks who want to try making their own real beer – not like a Mr. Beer where you add water and turn on a machine; but the real deal. It will mean mashing grains, extracting sugars, and using real hops and yeast. Essentially, you follow the same process as your favorite beer maker on a very small scale. I knew nothing about making beer at home until I met Derek.

Our first official meeting was on October 5th. We sat down and filled out Seth’s Ship It Journal as our unofficial business plan.

The most important aspect of the Ship It Journal comes when you set a date. This is a date that’s set in stone and you’re basically saying, come hell or high water, we’re shipping to the world on this date.

We set a goal to launch a full-blown business within a month. November 1st was our date. Now, keep in mind, I’m talking about a full-blown business. We had one month to go from literally nothing to something special.

For example, and not limited to the following,

• Building a website from scratch
• Creating a marketing and launch plan (the goal was to be, not just shipping on November 1st, but making money on November 1st.)
• Sourcing inventory and figuring out various logistics such as packaging and shipping
• Setting up bank accounts, merchant accounts, wholesaler accounts and relationships.

The list goes on and on. When we told people about our plan, the first words were always along the lines of, “that’s impossible.” I’ll show you a few pictures of the Ship It Journal at a later date. We also used Basecamp to track our daily progress.

Anyway – skipping forward, this gives you a good idea of why my last post was somewhere in the middle of November and the one before that was in mid-October.

So how’d we do?

The business launched on November 1st as planned, but only after numerous sleepless nights. That was our first major success. At that point, I kicked into gear on an intensive marketing strategy.

This is when things got really interesting.

On December 15th, our business was featured in two major Canadian newspapers. We managed to finagle our way into The National Post in a big way and secured a mention in The Toronto Star. It was totally coincidental that they both happened on the same day. The two newspapers have a combined circulation of around four million people.

This contributed to a spike in sales almost instantly. But even more exciting was that because the story ran in The National Post, which is owned by PostMedia Network, the story was also syndicated to nearly every other major Canadian daily in nearly every major Canadian City. We assumed this meant the story would show up on their various websites. No. To our surprise, it ended up in print in literally dozens of newspapers. Our business was exposed to millions of Canadians in a single day .

A great start. But then the real magic of the Internet kicked in.

The following day, while my wife and I were driving, my iPhone started going bonkers. Taking a quick glance, I noticed these email were notifications of sales coming from the popular website Etsy. I’m talking one after another, after another, after another.

A week earlier, I was invited to write a blog post for Etsy. I carefully crafted our message and sent in the posting. I had no idea what to expect from it nor any idea if it would actually be used.

As it turned out, the post I’d written was featured on the front page of Etsy.

THEN… things got even more interesting when only four days later, my wife and I were in the hospital, smack dab in the middle of having a baby.

I can’t thank my business partners enough who kept their cool and ensured the business ran smoothly at time where my involvement and help was minimal at best. After all, I’m not Gordon Gecko, and my family comes first. Derek and Laurie had to fulfill, literally, hundreds of orders only days before Christmas.

Needless to say, one month to launch an insanely successful business, and it’s just getting better and better by the day.

You can do the same. This is the year folks.

Enough blabbering – lots of exciting things planned for 2010. I’m going to be changing up my blog in several ways and creating a whack of new sites and products. I’ll keep you in the loop.

As for my goals in 2011, I want to be a great father and keep shipping.

Cheers!
Noah

P.S. Last but not least, there are a few people I’d like to thank who helped tremendously in the successful launch of TheBrewersMarket.com.

Josh Stipancic – Josh handled all of the branding and design for our business in a very short time. We gave Josh an idea of the look and feel we were hoping for. When he returned a short while later, he had totally nailed it. Thanks Josh. He also designs some pretty amazing stuff. I’m sure he could help you too.

Shawn Veltman – Shawn is someone who’s at the top of marketing and copywriting game in Canada. I worked with Shawn on a website a few years back offering coaching and consulting servers to the chiropractic industry. He’s around 30 years old and pretty much retired. He’s good at what he does. Shawn helped me craft press releases, write blog posts, and tweak landing page headlines for optimal performance. If you ever need advice in any of these areas, contact Shawn.

Brandon Scott Photography – Brandon is a local photographer who, my partners just happened to know, and I believed he owed them a favor. He came through to help us with product shots that didn’t look like total crap. (Starting a business in a short time gave us a great opportunity to call in favors.)

Larry Cornies - Larry is a guy who knows the newspaper industry inside and out. He offered valuable advice on how to make sure our story got to the right people. His advice was spot on.

Seth Godin – Thanks for challenging me in September to go home and ship something new and exciting before the year was over.

It’s such a valid question in North American because we spend the majority of our waking hours at work. You’ve all heard it before, we are what we do.

So next time you’re asked the question, and I can guarantee that you will be asked that question at the next Christmas cocktail party,  go ahead and answer the question as everyone expects you to.

But later, in a moment of reflection, I want you to change the question around and ask yourself this instead, “What are you doing for a life?”

When you think about it, ‘the living’ part will take care of itself for an uncertain amount of time. What you do to make a life is the part that takes work. I believe there’s a big difference.

————————————————————————————-

P.S. - This is my first post in a while. Here’s an update on what’s going on.

October was an insane month. I launched a new business with a few friends. We’ve had a fantastic start to the business with sales from one end of Canada to the other in only 23 days.

November has been an equally busy month.

My wife and I are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby. Up to this point, my wife’s had an amazing problem-free pregnancy.

In the past month, I also added a new business coaching services to my website. Check it out and let me know what you think.

That’s all for today. I hope you’re doing well.