Oct. 24, 2023

How to Build a Continuity 101

How to Build a Continuity 101
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Season 2

In this episode, Tara breaks down the "how" to build a continuity program. In this year's FHL, Russell Brunson explains that "if you don't have a continuity program, you don't have a business". But the big question now is, how do you get started to build a continuity program? This episode will give you the answer.

Transcript
Tara Bryan:

Hey everybody, welcome to today's episode of

Tara Bryan:

the course building secrets podcast. I am thrilled you're

Tara Bryan:

here with me today, hey, this is a post FHL Funnel Hacking live

Tara Bryan:

conference podcast today. And I recorded a bunch of them when I

Tara Bryan:

was there. But this is the first one post conference. And one of

Tara Bryan:

the reasons I'd love to do this one, is because after a couple

Tara Bryan:

of days, you get the chance to reflect and really think about

Tara Bryan:

all of the awesome speakers and things that happened at the

Tara Bryan:

conference. So if you're not familiar with fho Russell

Tara Bryan:

Brunson owns Click Funnels, and click funnels has an annual

Tara Bryan:

conference every year. And what happens is about 5000, marketers

Tara Bryan:

get together and learn and network and really just share

Tara Bryan:

awesome ideas. And so a lot of times, we get sort of the State

Tara Bryan:

of the Union of what's happening in all things marketing, by

Tara Bryan:

going to this conference. So it's one that we love our team

Tara Bryan:

goes. And it we really get some great insights for this year.

Tara Bryan:

One of the most awesome things is, is that for the first time,

Tara Bryan:

Russell actually mentioned fulfillment, which makes me so

Tara Bryan:

happy and makes my heart happy. And he's, he gave a very

Tara Bryan:

strategic sort of view into how to create a marketing funnel

Tara Bryan:

that will bring people in and convert them into buyers. And so

Tara Bryan:

he gave the big picture view of that. And one of that, one of

Tara Bryan:

the key components of it is how do you put people into a

Tara Bryan:

continuity model. And he went so far as to say that you don't

Tara Bryan:

have a real business until you have a continuity program, which

Tara Bryan:

makes a of course makes me happy. But the reason he said it

Tara Bryan:

wasn't because of the fact that you can actually really help not

Tara Bryan:

only serve your customers, but but ascend them and retain them

Tara Bryan:

so that they stay in a membership model. He was saying

Tara Bryan:

it because of the reoccurring revenue, right. And so the goal

Tara Bryan:

in any business is to continually make money and help

Tara Bryan:

serve your people, right, so you're exchanging value in order

Tara Bryan:

to get those sales. And so that's what he's talking about

Tara Bryan:

is you create a sustainable business when you have

Tara Bryan:

reoccurring revenue that you can count on in your business. But

Tara Bryan:

one of the key things that is included in a continuity or

Tara Bryan:

membership program, which, which, obviously, from a sales

Tara Bryan:

and marketing perspective, he's not focused on is once you get a

Tara Bryan:

customer, you have to keep them. Right. So in order to get that

Tara Bryan:

monthly reoccurring revenue, you have to do things in a

Tara Bryan:

continuity program to keep and retain your, your members or

Tara Bryan:

customers. And so, he talked a little bit about that. But you

Tara Bryan:

know, the overall goal of a conference, such as a marketing

Tara Bryan:

or sales conference, or any conference that's out there is

Tara Bryan:

to share the what and the why, right, the whole goal is to give

Tara Bryan:

people believe that what they're talking about is possible and

Tara Bryan:

not only possible for, for them, the person who is the expert,

Tara Bryan:

but also for anyone who wants to do it as well. So when you look

Tara Bryan:

at a conference, or you know, any type of webinar or sales

Tara Bryan:

presentation, that is the goal, the goal is to give the why. The

Tara Bryan:

what and provide belief. It's not to get into the nitty gritty

Tara Bryan:

of the how, and I think a lot of people who, who are new to the

Tara Bryan:

game, don't necessarily understand that right. They

Tara Bryan:

think that the how is going to be explained as well as they're

Tara Bryan:

going through the conference. Now the how has explained

Tara Bryan:

actually in case studies or testimonials of the speakers,

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but you have to be paying attention to it, right? Because

Tara Bryan:

it's not like, you know, here's this seven step model, implement

Tara Bryan:

this, and you're good to go. Right? Like there's a little bit

Tara Bryan:

of that, but it's only around a particular model. So by the time

Tara Bryan:

you walk out of the conference, you have so many ideas and so

Tara Bryan:

many steps and so many things to happen, that you get

Tara Bryan:

overwhelmed. And and so, you know, I say thank you to Russell

Tara Bryan:

because he brings that business to me because people go oh,

Tara Bryan:

yeah, continuity, I need a membership model. I need to

Tara Bryan:

figure out, you know, I was working on this course or I have

Tara Bryan:

this course and now I have to switch it to a membership. Like

Tara Bryan:

what does that look like? How does that work? I don't really

Tara Bryan:

understand any of that. And, and that's what we specialize in,

Tara Bryan:

right is Once somebody becomes a customer, how do you put them in

Tara Bryan:

the right model? How do you put them in the right fulfillment

Tara Bryan:

system so that they get results so that they stay and continue

Tara Bryan:

to ascend? into your other offers and, and things that are

Tara Bryan:

out there that you have for them. Right. So that was a

Tara Bryan:

question that I came out with is, I wonder how many people are

Tara Bryan:

trying to figure out what to do to build a continuity program.

Tara Bryan:

He was so gracious and to give people levels, you have level

Tara Bryan:

one, level two and level three very similar to the way that I

Tara Bryan:

talk about it as I'm helping people kind of frame how to

Tara Bryan:

build their signature programs, is you have level one where it's

Tara Bryan:

getting in the game, level two is playing the game, right?

Tara Bryan:

You've got to, you've got to get some things figured out. And and

Tara Bryan:

level three is mastering the game, right. So this is when

Tara Bryan:

people are ready to scale and grow. And, and so he laid it out

Tara Bryan:

in that nice framework, which is great, because that is exactly

Tara Bryan:

the framework that we teach. But there's a huge difference

Tara Bryan:

between I, I shouldn't have a continuity model. And I'm

Tara Bryan:

successfully running a continuity model, where I'm

Tara Bryan:

retaining my customers each and every month. And so the question

Tara Bryan:

I want to answer for you today is how do you do that? And what

Tara Bryan:

does that look like? I happen to turn on my audio recording, I

Tara Bryan:

was at the pool, and I was asking the question like, What

Tara Bryan:

do you think it means to deliver a continuity program? And I got

Tara Bryan:

some really interesting answers from people who are, you know,

Tara Bryan:

had been listening all week? And so I want to dive in into that a

Tara Bryan:

little bit today. Because I think that, that is a question

Tara Bryan:

that a lot of people are asking. So if you're asking this

Tara Bryan:

question, don't don't worry, right? It's it's a totally

Tara Bryan:

normal question, as you're thinking about how do you

Tara Bryan:

package your expertise, how do you take what you want to teach,

Tara Bryan:

or you want to help people with, and and deliver it in either a

Tara Bryan:

continuity or a program or a course or whatever you want to

Tara Bryan:

call it right. And, and so, for those of you who are at the

Tara Bryan:

conference, or those of you who weren't at the conference,

Tara Bryan:

hopefully this serves you as you start thinking about continuity.

Tara Bryan:

So continuity, again, is is where you are serving your

Tara Bryan:

customer, month after month, and they're staying in your program,

Tara Bryan:

your course, your membership, whatever it is that you're

Tara Bryan:

offering for them. And so therefore, you have to provide

Tara Bryan:

value every month, right, that's gonna hit their credit card. And

Tara Bryan:

whether you're charging 97 297 497 10,000 50,000 100,000

Tara Bryan:

Doesn't really matter. You need to be providing value for them,

Tara Bryan:

so that they keep their membership month after a month.

Tara Bryan:

So it's not a set and forget model, it's not a oh, we're

Tara Bryan:

going to focus on sales and marketing. And oh, by the way,

Tara Bryan:

we're just going to put a bunch of people into this continuity

Tara Bryan:

and hope that they stay or, you know, assume that they're going

Tara Bryan:

to drop, but that's okay, because we're going to keep

Tara Bryan:

churning through people. For those of us who are interested

Tara Bryan:

in building sustainable businesses, where we're creating

Tara Bryan:

an impact, and we're really helping people, we want to have

Tara Bryan:

our customers stay, we want to provide them an experience that

Tara Bryan:

gets them results, and brings them into our community, perhaps

Tara Bryan:

into our movement, where they have a place where they can

Tara Bryan:

connect with other people get coaching and, and help from us,

Tara Bryan:

and then learn the pieces that they need to be successful in

Tara Bryan:

their own business. Right. And so how do you do that? So first,

Tara Bryan:

let me address the question that somebody had about course, so

Tara Bryan:

they were working on their course. And that was an O.

Tara Bryan:

Russell said, Now I have to have continuity. So I am going to

Tara Bryan:

scrap my course and move into continuity. my follow up

Tara Bryan:

question for him was, well, what does it look like? What what do

Tara Bryan:

you think is in a continuity program? And he said, Well, I'm

Tara Bryan:

not really sure. And so. So this is for him and for all of you

Tara Bryan:

is, if you're building a course, if you have a course already,

Tara Bryan:

where it's teaching your signature framework, it's

Tara Bryan:

teaching your methodology and in doing kind of the step by step,

Tara Bryan:

success path or formula that takes somebody from where they

Tara Bryan:

are today, that pain or problem they have to that solution, that

Tara Bryan:

is an awesome place for you to start them. So, that could be

Tara Bryan:

the first level of your membership program, it could be

Tara Bryan:

part of the entire membership program or it could be something

Tara Bryan:

that they do first before you put them into a membership

Tara Bryan:

program. So when you think about where where. So just to define

Tara Bryan:

membership or continuity is that there is typically some type of

Tara Bryan:

educational component. There's typically a community component

Tara Bryan:

and there is also an interactive component, right. So some sort

Tara Bryan:

of

Tara Bryan:

take action or resources or ability to to it, make it come

Tara Bryan:

to life so that they're progressing through either

Tara Bryan:

levels or, you know, multiple, multiple courses, multiple ways

Tara Bryan:

to stay engaged. And the more you can actually orchestrate the

Tara Bryan:

experience that more people are going to stay. But I'm getting

Tara Bryan:

ahead of myself. So when you think about continuity, it is

Tara Bryan:

dripping content in a way that keeps them engaged,

Tara Bryan:

participating, and staying month after month. So sometimes that's

Tara Bryan:

with live calls. Sometimes that's with community. And, and

Tara Bryan:

new content being dropped. Sometimes it's having guest

Tara Bryan:

speakers, there's lots of different ways that you can make

Tara Bryan:

your membership come to life. But you think about it, like,

Tara Bryan:

think about like a gym membership, you go into the gym,

Tara Bryan:

and there are various things that you can be doing every time

Tara Bryan:

you go in, right, you can do weights, you can do a class, you

Tara Bryan:

can do, you can go to the swimming pool, you can go to the

Tara Bryan:

spa, you can get a smoothie, like there's lots of different

Tara Bryan:

activities that you can do that keep people engaged in going

Tara Bryan:

month after month, if you went to a gym, and you could only do

Tara Bryan:

one thing, you may find that you don't want to pay for that month

Tara Bryan:

after month, right, you may get to the point where like, I

Tara Bryan:

wouldn't need a little variety, I need something that's a little

Tara Bryan:

bit different. And so I want to go somewhere where I can connect

Tara Bryan:

with other people get my workout in. And, you know, maybe if

Tara Bryan:

you're like, like me when I was a new mom is that I would get

Tara Bryan:

two hours of daycare. So I would work out. And then I would go in

Tara Bryan:

and and get a little work done, right. And so, so a lot of times

Tara Bryan:

people like that variety. So the difference between a course is

Tara Bryan:

that there's a discrete beginning and end, right. And so

Tara Bryan:

you have a point in time where they've, they've gotten the

Tara Bryan:

result in a continuity, there isn't a start and stop right

Tara Bryan:

there is a start and stop in terms of an organized path to

Tara Bryan:

each problem resolution. But there may be and usually are

Tara Bryan:

multiple problems that they're solving. It's a journey from

Tara Bryan:

where they're starting to, where they ultimately want to go at

Tara Bryan:

the various levels. It's not a one and done kind of scenario.

Tara Bryan:

And so when you think about your continuity or your membership

Tara Bryan:

program, it's thinking about it as a living and breathing, ever

Tara Bryan:

changing, ever evolving community of people who are

Tara Bryan:

learning and connecting and engaging together in order to

Tara Bryan:

make it something that people want to stay and continue

Tara Bryan:

continually contribute to for life. And so there's multiple

Tara Bryan:

levels, there's multiple ways that people can have a more

Tara Bryan:

engagement or a more intimate experience if you're going to do

Tara Bryan:

live events or masterminds or something like that. But at the

Tara Bryan:

end of the day, it's it's just a more dynamic model that keeps

Tara Bryan:

people active month after month versus a course traditionally,

Tara Bryan:

and especially as Russell would talk about it is, is something

Tara Bryan:

that has a start and stop. And it's a smaller unit of value

Tara Bryan:

that that people have as they come into your world or as

Tara Bryan:

they're ascending through your world. So still provides a ton

Tara Bryan:

of value, of course, is not something that's lesser value.

Tara Bryan:

It's just a different experience. It it just helping

Tara Bryan:

people solve a particular problem that they're working on.

Tara Bryan:

And a membership is doing that and doing more, right. And so

Tara Bryan:

it's it's a continuous evolution of how use either loop courses

Tara Bryan:

together, or create a more dynamic experience. So that's

Tara Bryan:

continuity. That's how you think about it. So the next question

Tara Bryan:

is like, how do I create that, right? Like, how do I put that

Tara Bryan:

out there, and I'm going to tell you, the biggest mistake I see

Tara Bryan:

people doing is that they go right into the software, and

Tara Bryan:

they just start like putting a bunch of stuff in oh, maybe some

Tara Bryan:

marketing videos, or maybe some, you know, some of my courseware

Tara Bryan:

or, Oh, I did this one thing, random thing this one time, I'm

Tara Bryan:

just gonna throw that in there. And what you want to do is you

Tara Bryan:

actually want to start with a strategy of what your membership

Tara Bryan:

membership sites goals are, and what the experience is going to

Tara Bryan:

be what is your membership site? And how is it different? How

Tara Bryan:

does it help your students? How does it keep your students in in

Tara Bryan:

your world by creating a continuous cycle continuous loop

Tara Bryan:

that brings them deeper and deeper into the other programs

Tara Bryan:

or offerings that you have? And so start there, kind of map that

Tara Bryan:

out? What, how can you put together a cohesive experience

Tara Bryan:

that walks them through how to how to go through it right?

Tara Bryan:

Instead of just dumping a bunch of stuff in there, how do you,

Tara Bryan:

how do you make it into something that has a progression

Tara Bryan:

to it has a levels has the ability to take, still take

Tara Bryan:

people on a path that gives them results, one of our favorite

Tara Bryan:

ways to do this is to add in our assessment at the beginning, and

Tara Bryan:

the assessment actually will put them into the right place. So

Tara Bryan:

you are at this level, or you should take, you know, modules

Tara Bryan:

X, Y, and Z, because that is going to help you get to your

Tara Bryan:

goal. So when you can do a personalized learning path in a

Tara Bryan:

membership, it helps to provide that, that strong experience for

Tara Bryan:

people so they aren't getting lost, so they know where to go.

Tara Bryan:

So they don't come in, get overwhelmed and then leave. And

Tara Bryan:

so that is a great approach to use to get started, is that

Tara Bryan:

personalized learning path. And you can do that almost in any

Tara Bryan:

tool. It's just really thinking about, like, what are the what

Tara Bryan:

are the starting points, like, maybe you have, you know, three

Tara Bryan:

different types of people or three levels of people who are

Tara Bryan:

coming into your membership. And, and so you would create an

Tara Bryan:

assessment that would would, you know, trigger that first level,

Tara Bryan:

trigger the second level, and trigger the third level. And

Tara Bryan:

then provide them some suggestions or an actual action

Tara Bryan:

plan that they can use as they're going through your

Tara Bryan:

membership. Awesome. So the next thing is, you know, one of the

Tara Bryan:

easiest ways to, to make sure that people have the ability to

Tara Bryan:

participate, is to publish a calendar, what is your, you

Tara Bryan:

know, monthly or 90 day calendar of events that keeps people

Tara Bryan:

actively engaged, sometimes it's just office hours, sometimes

Tara Bryan:

it's special guests, sometimes it's you're going to focus on a

Tara Bryan:

particular topic that you want to teach, that has relevance in,

Tara Bryan:

in the kind of the cadence of where people are. And so those

Tara Bryan:

are ways to keep people engaged and keep it stick sticky is that

Tara Bryan:

you are actually having them show up for live sessions, you

Tara Bryan:

could have specific challenges or,

Tara Bryan:

or conversations or community posts that are going on that

Tara Bryan:

help them engage and connect with other people, when they're

Tara Bryan:

engaged and connected to others, not just you and your material,

Tara Bryan:

they are much more likely to stay because they want to, you

Tara Bryan:

know, be a part of that network, they want to be a part of that

Tara Bryan:

community. And the more you can make it their identity, the more

Tara Bryan:

they will actually stay. Alright, so hopefully this has

Tara Bryan:

given you a little bit of clarity on what is a continuity

Tara Bryan:

program? How do I create one? How's it different than a

Tara Bryan:

course? And like, how do I get started. So, so hopefully, this

Tara Bryan:

serves you again, like, it's always amazing, when, you know,

Tara Bryan:

Russell's just touches on fulfillment, because, again,

Tara Bryan:

it's not his role. It's not what the marketing and sales

Tara Bryan:

conferences for. It's not for focusing on fulfillment, but at

Tara Bryan:

some point, somebody's got to focus on it, you need to focus

Tara Bryan:

on it in your business, because it's actually what will help

Tara Bryan:

drive your success is if you have to constantly be getting

Tara Bryan:

new customers, because you're not keeping them as you're

Tara Bryan:

bringing them into your world, you're spending more, you're

Tara Bryan:

expending more energy. And it is so much better and easier to

Tara Bryan:

just keep the customers that you have and keep them engaged and

Tara Bryan:

becoming raving fans. And so that's why we do what we do. So

Tara Bryan:

if you are in a position where you're sort of trying to figure

Tara Bryan:

that out, or you've sold a bunch of memberships, or, or licenses

Tara Bryan:

to your course, and you're so overwhelmed, because the

Tara Bryan:

fulfillment just isn't quite there yet. That is a great time

Tara Bryan:

to pick up the phone and give me a shout. If you want to talk

Tara Bryan:

about you know, kind of your ideas or, or how you're putting

Tara Bryan:

this together or ask any questions. I do have the ability

Tara Bryan:

for you to just schedule a free discovery call where we just get

Tara Bryan:

on and, and talk through some of those things. But I encourage

Tara Bryan:

you to do that. The sooner you can do that as you're building

Tara Bryan:

your business. As you're moving into a continuity model, the

Tara Bryan:

sooner you're going to be able to set up the right foundation

Tara Bryan:

that helps you bring people in and continue to ascend them in

Tara Bryan:

your world instead of losing them and and creating an

Tara Bryan:

experience that's really hard to unravel once you once you've

Tara Bryan:

gotten there, so give me a shout if you need to other Was I hope

Tara Bryan:

this episode served you and and you'll look for more on this

Tara Bryan:

coming up soon because that this conversation is not going to

Tara Bryan:

end. And we do specialize in that fulfillment piece of

Tara Bryan:

things. And so when you are ready to create that packaged

Tara Bryan:

version of your service or your expertise, you know who to

Tara Bryan:

contact. Alright, I'll talk to you soon