How I Turned My Burnout Into a Booming Membership Business

Picture this scenario: You’re up early, working late, launching multiple times a month, managing endless clients and your business is technically successful. Money’s coming in. Your clients are happy. And you’re doing what you love.

But there’s one massive problem: you’ve inadvertently built yourself a prison disguised as a business.

That was me in 2008. From the outside, everything looked great. I was behind the scenes on major marketing campaigns, working with multiple high-profile clients, living the digital entrepreneur dream. But my wife (Amy) and I wanted to start a family, and whenever we talked about kids, my stomach would turn. Not because I didn’t want to be a dad. The problem was my business model. I was burned out, overworked, basically handcuffed by my clients’ schedules, and trading time for dollars.

Here’s the harsh reality I discovered after working with thousands of entrepreneurs. Most of us are building our businesses completely backwards. We’re chasing one-time sales, riding the feast-or-famine rollercoaster, and starting from zero every single month.

Whether you’re selling courses, running a coaching practice or delivering services, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You know firsthand that feeling in your stomach, wondering where next month’s revenue will come from.

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When my friend Armand Morin suggested I start a membership site, I had no clue what he was talking about. “It’s a site where people pay monthly to learn from you,” he explained. At the time, I was an Affiliate Manager for top information-based entrepreneurs. “You teach them how to manage their own affiliates and launches,” Armand said. That simple conversation changed everything.

The traditional business model most entrepreneurs follow creates three devastating problems. First, you’re always starting from zero. Every launch brings you back to square one. It’s like trying to fill a bucket with a massive hole in the bottom.

Second, you become a slave to timing. When the economy tanks, your revenue disappears. When a competitor launches the same week, there goes your income. When your income depends on perfectly executed launches, you’re gambling with your family’s future.

Third, your business owns you instead of you owning it. I’ve watched brilliant entrepreneurs sacrifice everything, missing family dinners, skipping vacations and destroying their health. All because they’re trapped in this backwards model that demands constant hustle.

But here’s what I discovered: There are strategies to avoid all these stressors, and they revolve around one simple shift — recurring revenue through memberships.

Think about your own life. How many memberships are you already paying for? Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, your gym, software tools. The subscription economy has grown dramatically. Everyone from solopreneurs to Fortune 500 companies is realizing the enormous benefits of monthly recurring revenue.

Companies like Peloton and Costco make more money from their subscription programs than actual product sales. Apple, Amazon and Google are pushing toward recurring revenue models to stabilize their sales.

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When I partnered with New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt, he was making high six-figures but burning himself out speaking at events and traveling constantly. We collaborated to shift his entire business model to a membership. Everything changed. His business grew to multiple seven-figures with far less stress, his email list exploded from 70,000 to over 500,000, and most importantly, he gained back over 100 days per year with his family. The membership model gave him his life back.

After years of working with membership businesses across every market imaginable, I’ve discovered exactly why memberships succeed where other models fail.

With memberships, every month builds on the last. It compounds over time. When you have 100 members paying $47 monthly, you’re starting next month with $4,700 guaranteed. The momentum compounds month after month, year after year.

Retention becomes your superpower. Instead of constantly convincing new people to buy, you focus on keeping existing members happy. Keeping a happy customer is infinitely easier and more profitable than finding a new one.

You can serve at scale without burning out. Whether you have 10 members or 10,000, you’re creating the same content. The effort doesn’t multiply with each new member, but your revenue does.

Plus, you may already have the audience you need. Say you charge $25 monthly and find 20 people who’d benefit from your skills — that’s $500 monthly. Find 80 people and charge $50, and you’re looking at $4,000 monthly.

I’ve seen this work across every market. Artist Nick Wilton launched his membership to 180 people who said yes immediately. He made $5,400 in recurring revenue from day one. Teacher Tara Phillips created a membership called Autistic Little Learners that eventually earned her more than her full-time teaching position.

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I’ve seen success in markets from teacher lesson plans to beehive growing, from Jewish wedding planning to balloon artistry. If there’s an ongoing problem to solve or a skill to master, there’s a membership opportunity waiting.

You’re just a few decisions away from a whole new life. The difference between wondering how much you’ll make each month and knowing with certainty is simply choosing a different model. It’s the difference between starting from zero and building on momentum.

The backwards way of building a business is draining entrepreneurs. But memberships aren’t just the cure; they’re a completely different way of doing business that creates the life you actually want. You don’t need thousands of followers or to be a marketing expert. What matters is recognizing that people are willing to pay monthly for your expertise when you help them solve ongoing problems.

The membership model is the future. Whether you’re teaching guitar or helping newborns sleep, there’s a membership waiting to transform your business from unpredictable chaos into predictable profits.