Power Your Research w/ Dr. Sheena Howard

Passion to Profit by Building a Community

• Dr. Sheena Howard

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Ready to transform your passion into a thriving subscription community? Learn how to effectively build and maintain a Patreon community that not only supports but surpasses traditional income streams. 

Follow Dr. Sheena Howards' socials:
@drsheenahoward | Power Your Research

Speaker 1:

And now the things that I learned about building a Patreon community. I can apply to so many other elements of my business, and I don't have to learn that stuff over right. I don't want my work to be stuck behind an academic paywall. I want to leave a legacy, I want to reach my potential and I want to change lives. This podcast, power your Research, is my attempt to help the smartest people in the world do that very thing. My hope is that you use the lessons I share to make more money than what your higher ed job can ever pay you. I've done it, my clients have done it, and so can you. My hope is that you'll apply what you learn here and one day join the Power your Research program where you can work with me one-on-one.

Speaker 1:

In this video we're talking about increasing paid subscriptions, so I'm talking specifically in this case about patreon, but for any community that you're trying to build, that involves a monthly payment. This video will be helpful. So I personally use Patreon, which is a subscription site where people can join on different tiers and pay you monthly for the value that you're providing and the community that you are providing, and I've been building my Patreon community for about four years now. It took me three years to get to my first 100 members and then like three or four months to get my next 130 members, and so that is evidence to me that once you figure it out and you can grow really, really fast. Once you know what you're doing and you've put in the work and time, hopefully this video will help you have results quicker than that timeframe. But it does take work, time and commitment, like anything else. And so here are the three steps I recommend to increase your paid community subscriptions. Number one is you have to invest time and effort and money up front. You have to invest time, effort and money up front, and this is a hard one because you're probably not going to grow to 100 members, 200 members in six months or a year right, or even three years, 200 members in six months or a year right, or even three years. So you have to be doing it in the beginning with the understanding that you're probably it's probably going to be a financial loss for a while, and so go in just like you would be going into this building a podcast. Don't expect immediate results. So you want to be doing it for something other than money, like I want to build a community because I want to help people, I want to serve people and I want to get more readers for my books and I want to impact people's lives, and you're not going to be able to have a successful personal brand, in my opinion, if you also don't have a community.

Speaker 1:

Let's think about Beyonce. She has her hive. She's got a core hive of people that are going to rock with her, no matter what. Same thing with Taylor Swift. So you need these communities of people and so, in order to do that, you have to invest upfront. I don't know if you all follow Taylor Swift, but years ago she would perform at people's weddings Like she didn't have to do that. She was investing time and energy into making magical moments for people, for the long-term strategy of building ride or dive fans, and obviously it's working for her.

Speaker 1:

You need to apply that same strategy to the community that you are looking to build, so eventually you will have monthly subscriptions that are profitable and paying you on a monthly basis on a site like Patreon. So the first step is to invest time and money up front with the understanding that it's going to pay off. Number two is similar, but I want to hone in on this point is that this is a long-term strategy. Don't think in terms of, like I'm going to build this community for one year. You need to be thinking in terms of I'm going to be building this community for 10 years yeah, 10 years. That will also help you have perspective on what you're doing. If I say, if I start with, I'm going to, I'm going to give this 10 years. If my first three years were not that many people in the community I was just breaking even, or some months not making any money, but then the fourth year I make $20,000. It was worth it to me. And so if I have put in 10 years, six of those years are wonderful and the first three were not. That's a win.

Speaker 1:

Some of us are not just giving ourselves a long enough time horizon Over a long enough time horizon. If you put all of your energy and effort into one thing, it's going to work out. You're going to see progress. There's no way you can not see progress if you continue to focus on the one thing day in and day out for 10 years. It's understanding short-term pain for long-term gain.

Speaker 1:

So the four years that I've put in and investing in my Patreon community. Most of it was just paying down the debt of not knowing what I was doing. And to me that wasn't three years of wasted time because I learned. And now the things that I learned about building a Patreon community I can apply to so many other elements of my business and I don't have to learn that stuff over right. Alex Hermosy calls this paying down your ignorance debt. It took me three years to pay down my ignorance debt around how to build a Patreon community to 300 to 230 plus members. Now I have more ignorance debt to pay to get to the first 1,000 members, but short-term gain for your long-term strategy.

Speaker 1:

And then the third thing is you have to add an insane amount of value for people to join your community. Hey, everyone, real quick. I don't run any ads on this podcast, so I have to rely on word of mouth. If this podcast has helped you in any way, please share it with a friend and follow me, dr Sheena Howard, on LinkedIn, where I give more free content on building your brand as an academic. If you tell me you came to my LinkedIn from the podcast, I'll make sure I accept your request. It has to be a no brainer for your target audience to say yes to join your community. So not only do you have to add this value, which is again time and money and effort, you have to communicate to people that the value is inside of the Patreon program, right. So you have to show people on the other side of the paywall what they are missing by not joining, and they have to feel like what they are missing is so valuable and important to them that they need to be inside behind the paywall because you are just adding so much value.

Speaker 1:

So, for example, in celebration of my first 100 Patreon members, I announced that I would write a book specifically for my Patreon members. So I had to write the entire book and the book is going to teach my members how they can grow to their first 100 Patreon members. So I had to write the book and then, since this is a book exclusively for my Patreon members, I had to get it printed myself. I had to get it design layout. So all of that costs like a thousand dollars. Now I am shipping a physical copy of the book to my first 100 members, so that's going to be like $800 in shipping costs. So we're already at like $2,000.

Speaker 1:

I'm investing into my community my Patreon community does not make me $2,000 a month, but it's that value that will, one, keep people inside my Patreon and, two, show other people on the other side of the Patreon what they are missing. And yeah, I might lose money the first two months of investing this money into this particular activity that I'm doing with giving the book away, but I know that the next three months will all be profitable. If I spent $2,000 to get this book written and out to my community in this month my Patreon I make $1,000. But next month I make $1,000. Now I've paid myself back and then the next month I make $1,000. Well, I'm $1,000 up.

Speaker 1:

So that's how you have to think about it in terms of what I think are probably the three most important mindset things to building a nice subscription community that you're giving value to, that you're creating really activated people that are getting something from you but also care about the things that you're doing. Because the great thing about a community, too, is they are people that are like-minded and similar to you, and that's great Because, like when you're odd, like me, like it's kind of hard to find your people, but when you are leading and building a community of people that are like-minded. It's fun and cool and eventually, when your community gets big enough, you can do meetups. You can help your community members meet up with each other. The networking piece is cool and other people can get opportunities based on your community. That makes it all worth it. So if all of that in terms of building a community does not sound worth it to you, it's probably a good idea to not even start. I hope this helps somebody out there.

Speaker 1:

If you have any questions or comments, leave them. I'm happy to circle back and answer them Again. My name is Dr Sheena Howard. I am the founder of Power, your Research, an academic branding company. There are a number of ways to connect with me. You can jump on a 30-minute call with me to talk about your goals and getting your work out there and leaving your legacy and monetizing building your platform. You can jump into actually the Patreon community. There's a specific tier for academics, there's tiers for creatives and they're very affordable price points where you will be getting mega value. And, of course, you can always purchase the academic branding book, which I hope you do and looking forward to hearing from you all.