Ivy + Chris Newport On Growing Your Business Despite Outside Circumstances!
Today on the Membership Masters Podcast Shane Sams is talking to Ivy + Chris Newport of ivynewport.com!
Not only are they creating an amazing business/membership site, Shane has had the privilege of watching their journey from the very beginning. Chris + Ivy joined the Flipped Lifestyle Community to learn how to start, build, and grow membership sites. We had the privilege of being a part of their first membership site and we watched them grow up to hundreds of members in that first month and they have been growing ever since - which is why we had to have them on Membership Masters!
Show Notes
About 14 years ago, Ivy Newport created a blog as a new mom. Ivy just wanted to get online and share her creativity with others. Through that process, she discovered a need for women to connect so they could be inspired by each other. From there, Ivy began getting into online art-focused classes and fell in love. This is when Ivy’s husband, Chris, decided to get on board and see what these online creative classes were all about!
Chris was sitting on the couch one night while Ivy was in one of the classes. He asked, “how much was that class?” Ivy said it was something like $60 and about 300 people took it. Chris immediately pulled out his phone, did the math, and that was the moment they both realized that this was what they needed to do!
With a dream, a GoPro camera, and some PVC pipe - they started their online business!
Growing your business - despite outside circumstances! (23:00)
During 2020, while many businesses were having lower numbers than usual - the online business space flourished and Chris and Ivy’s business was no exception!
But things didn’t start out that way. Ivy’s live, in person art classes had to be cancelled. Despite the odds, they continued pressing on. Their hard work was rewarded because much to their surprise, as the months went on, they saw an increase in their numbers!
What can you control? (27:00)
If the pandemic taught us anything as business owners, we learned what we can and can’t control - it was a turning point for our mindset. We can control meeting with members, we can control having a mastermind, we can control implementing a new strategy, we can control emailing our lists!
No matter what happens, when you own your own online business we can continue to serve your members even if you can’t meet in person!
Even when you’re afraid, you just have to keep moving forward. When you lead a community it’s not about you - it’s bigger than you.
How big do you want to grow? (32:00)
Chris and Ivy already have a multiple 6-figure membership. They have been looking into other products they can create for more streams of income, other tiers, different ways to upsell.
Right now, they offer digital classes that people can buy outside of the membership. However, that doesn’t really help people inside of the membership. When they create these products, people outside of the membership get a discount and are led to the membership.
A great way to scale is to connect people within their community. When you retain more and keep more around more it is easier to grow because your base keeps lifting!
Write down a vivid vision, you need to be able to visualize where you want to go. The vision is not about 7-figures, it is, “what do we want for our team, members, family?”
The only thing stopping you from growing is your unwillingness to get uncomfortable. (43:00)
The only thing holding you back from scaling to the next level is your unwillingness to get uncomfortable. It doesn’t even have to be complacency - it’s more like thinking on the open highway. the Bible says without a vision the people will perish. Without a vision your membership will perish.
If you want to scale to the next level, you’d better have a vision to get there. What is something you would never have considered to get there?
If you’re not growing your membership is dying. (57:00)
You can’t put your membership on cruise control. You have to constantly be figuring it out along the way and figure out clues to make your vision happen!
Implementing game-changing ideas. Learn from other people doing what you want to do. Implement what’s working for other people. Build in recurring revenue so you can afford to take the risks. You never really figure it all out and that’s okay!
Connect with Ivy + Chris!
- Their website: ivynewport.com
