The other day, the Facebook Gods put this in my newsfeed.
It’s a case study video for Stu McClaren’s program, Tribe — which teaches you how to start an online membership site.
Now, Stu’s marketing is always high quality. He’s a master at keeping things simple and fun.
So I did a breakdown of his case study video. To point out what he’s doing, what’s working, and how it could be even better.
His video appears to be in 5 key sections. I analyzed each one below:
Part 1: The “Origin Story” intro
The video starts with this woman, Susan Garret, introducing herself and her business.
She then dives into how her business got started — how she became passionate about dog training at an early age. Then she went on to win a zillion dog training competitions. And soon after that began she teaching people dog training because she was in high demand.
What’s happening here is Stu is using this woman’s “origin story” to connect with the viewer.
Because a significant portion of Stu’s audience is people in a similar situation. They’re passionate about what they do and have achieved success in their business.
So Stu is basically calling out and saying “Hey, if you have a successful business and want to reach more people this is for you.” Except he’s not TELLING you that, he’s SHOWING you. He’s proving it through a story of someone in a situation similar to the viewers.
This is a more subtle, less market-y way to call out the people you want to talk to.
Part 2: The problem
After sharing the success Susan had, they talk about how she hit a limit for all the one-on-one work she could do. And how she wanted to reach more people.
They even use this quote from Susan: “People wanted to know what I knew…”
That’s a quote the resonates with the reader. It’s the exact situation they’re in — trying to share their message and knowledge with others.
Now, because of her desire to share what she knew, and the demand for her services, Susan became extremely busy.
She talks about how her job became a “grind.” And how she was rarely home because she always had to travel for work.
Then, they go into a “journey moment” — a specific moment in time during the story that was particularly important or charged with emotion.
In this instance, they talk about a low point Susan hit. She shares how she was in another country when her husband had a heart attack. Which meant she couldn’t be there with him.
Sharing “journey moments” like this keeps the story emotionally compelling. Because you go beyond concepts like “Being busy” and see how that actually translates to real life.
Part 3: The search for help
From there, they talk about how Susan learned to take her business online. And how that solved a lot of her time and travel issues. Because now she could serve people all over the world without leaving her home.
In this section, they sneakily overcome an objection that a reader may have about taking their business online.
See, someone who is in a situation similar to Susan’s may be hesitant about doing that. They may worry that without one-on-one, in-person interaction they won’t be able to help people as deeply. Which would be bad for their reputation, business, and keep them from making the impact they want.
But they overcome this by sneaking a line in where Susan says that taking her business online helped her serve her customer’s better.
They don’t just make that claim, they back it up by explaining why. For example, Susan shares how being online means she can help her Australian customer’s on a regular basis — instead of only being able to help them the 2-3 times a year she flies there.
So now viewers who may have been afraid to take their business online have an “ah-ha” moment. They see how it can not only solve their problem of needing to reach more people but can help them be better at their job. So they have even more reason to get online and start working with Stu.
From there, they show how her decision to go online led to another problem…
Susan shares how she was stuck doing launch after launch. And how 90% of her income was dependent on launches.
For viewers that already took their business online, many are likely in a similar situation. They want to get off of the launch cycle and get more predictable, regular income.
However, the viewer may have heard about membership sites before. And they may be scared to do them because it sounds like a lot of work to be in there every day helping members.
Stu crushes this objection by having Susan share how she had the same fear. But because she did a membership site the way Stu taught, that was never a problem.
With this, they address the viewers concerns while showing they don’t need to worry about that IF they work with Stu.
Part 4: The Shortcut
Susan goes on to describe the benefits of having Stu as a mentor.
She shares how it helped her know what to do when, avoid mistakes, and be more efficient.
Susan talks about how Stu’s method allowed her to keep people in her membership site for long periods of time. The more savvy viewers are likely worried that if they start a membership site people will drop out. So this shows how they can avoid that problem if they work with Stu.
Susan then mentions how having a membership site is “easier than I thought once I learned how to roll things out.”
What they’re doing here is addressing the viewers concerns that starting a membership site can be difficult. But they’re easing those concerns by showing that working with Stu makes it easy.
Part 5: The aftermath
Finally, they end the case study with Susan talking about how much better her life is.
It’s not just about her business being better. It’s about her lifestlye. How she can now help more people AND has more time to herself.
Those are the two big desires the viewer has. They want to expand but are already tight on time and don’t want to be even more overworked. So Susan is sharing that she has the life they want.
Ways to make it better
There are a couple of things that could make this video even stronger.
First, sharing specifics around how Susan’s business and life improved.
For example, they could show how a certain percentage of her revenue now comes in every month like clockwork. Something tangible that makes the transformation clear and easy to understand.
They could also go into specific detail of how her life has improved. Since the challenge was around not being able to be there for her husband, I’d make it around family or her husband specifically. For example, share about how she’s able to be home with him every single evening. Or talk about how her husband needed her and she was able to be there no problem.
Second, I’d look for ways to make the case study more valuable.
Right now the only real lessons are:
- Membership sites can help you make steady income while expanding your impact
- Working with a mentor can help you succeed faster
Those are pretty basic lessons. So I’d go deeper to make this story more valuable for people who already understand membership sites and mentors are good.
For example, I might go into a specific lesson she learned that allowed her to create this online membership site without needing to spend a ton of time each day on it. Or talk about a trick she learned from Stu for keeping new members in for a longer period of time.
Third, I’d share some specific moments from her journey working with Stu. For example, an instance where she doubted Stu’s advice but followed it and it worked out anyway. Or what it felt like the moment she saw people had joined her membership course. Or what those customers were now saying about it.
Susan’s answers to those questions can help with overcoming objections and making a membership site appear even more desirable.
Finally, I’d have Susan go into more detail on the problems of relying on launches. What was at stake? Why is having 90% of your income coming from launches such a problem? Was there any urgency to fix that? Going into more detail here can “twist the knife” on the pain the viewer feels if they are in that same situation. It can also ramp up the drama and make the story more intriguing.
Okay, you read this far, let’s make sure what you learned sticks.
Leave a comment and let me know one take away you got from the either this article or the video 🙂