#3: The Tech & Tools used in The Spotlight Club

Kylie Kelly [00:00:12]:
Hello my loves and welcome back to episode three of low ticket membership lab. Now, if you've been listening so far, you learnt in episode one why I created the Spotlight Club and how the Spotlight Club actually came to be, which is my low ticket, high value membership, helping female business owners grow their email list fast without social media or paid ads. Episode two, we dived into a little bit deeper around what content I put inside the membership to keep it simple and digestible and not overwhelming for the members coming through. So we dived into that in the last episode. Today we are talking all about tech and tools. Now, for some people, the technical aspects of something like this is the most exciting part or the easiest part to wrap their head around because it's like, okay, I just need to get this software and this software and I'm good to go. That we know is not the case. It is way more important to actually focus on what problem the membership is solving and the messaging and attracting the ideal clients.

Kylie Kelly [00:01:07]:
There's so much that comes into creating a membership like the one that I have before you even go and look at the tools. But if you are listening to this podcast series, this is a really integral component to set a membership up. And first let me say that there is no right or wrong, there's only a right or wrong for you. So there are many options when it comes to how to do this. If you go into Facebook groups that that talk about memberships, you will be inundated with people's opinions because people have an opinion about everything. I am just here today to tell you how I've done it and the simplest way that I found to make this work. And then I want you to look at what you already have. So if you don't have a membership in place yet, but you're thinking of starting one, look at the software and the tools that you're already comfortable with, that you're already paying for, that you already know how to use.

Kylie Kelly [00:01:53]:
And instead of investing in something where you need to then learn it from the ground up to be able to run this membership, think of the ways that you can already do it with what you have. It'll be so much better for you. And trust me, it'll be a better customer experience for your members as well because you're already going to be able to start it from a better place. So let's dive into the tools and the software that I use to build the spotlight club and even today to manage it. So the first thing that I want to talk about is thrive cart. Thrive cart is like my tool of choice. Now, if you, again, people have an opinion about this, and some people hate it, some people love it. I absolutely am obsessed.

Kylie Kelly [00:02:27]:
I invested in this software back in 2022. So it wasn't because I was starting a membership, I didn't go and buy it, but I already had it. So like what I was just saying, look at what you already have. I already had it because I invested back when I was doing virtual events in 2022. I hosted two summits and I wanted a really powerful affiliate software that was affordable, that would track the affiliate links, the signups that they were getting that would do affiliate payouts or calculate all of that. That was the main driver behind getting thrive cart. And then of course, you can host checkouts, you can host courses, you can do so much with it. And the cherry on top is that it's a one off payment, that it's not a monthly subscription.

Kylie Kelly [00:03:04]:
So for me, I was like, okay, let's invest in this once and then use it throughout the life of my business, which I have. So now thrive cart actually hosts the portal for the spotlight club. So when you remember, you log into the portal and it is laid out beautifully. May I add in there in terms of there is like a start here section outlining the links for the calls and the forms and everything that you need, as well as a welcome video. And then I get to run through those nine trainings that we spoke about in the last episode in there in the portal with videos embedded with links to downloads and checklists and planners and all the things, right? All embedded in there. So it's almost like an online course. However, it's like the portal for the membership. When there is a q and a call or a replay or there's something that I am sharing with them.

Kylie Kelly [00:03:51]:
I embed the videos so it's all in one place and it's really easy to access. The other thing that I really like as well is that because I have two tiers of the Spotlight club now. So I have a standard tier for the $19 a month, but now I have a higher support tier, a premium tier for 96, $7 a month. So one beautiful benefit of thrive cart is that if somebody's in the standard tier and they want to upgrade, I can just switch out which portal they have access to quite easily. So again, from a membership host experience it's great, but also from the member experience it's great as well, because then when they log in, they just have access to the right information and trainings and portal right so love thrive cart. Obsessed with thrive cart. The other real huge benefit that I see as well is it integrates with my email service provider. So I use convertkit for my emails and what can happen is when I set the checkout page up so that when somebody is signing up, it's a reoccurring price, they sign up to one of the tiers of the spotlight club.

Kylie Kelly [00:04:46]:
It then integrates with convertkit so they're tagged as a member automatically. What that allows me to do is automatically send them that delivery email. Like the welcome, I'm so glad you're here. This is what you need to know. So they automatically get that email and they get added to a segment in thrive cart. So that when I'm sending out my weekly reminder emails of what's going on in the club that week, for any calls, for any expiring opportunities for them to grow their list, when I'm sending that email out once a week, they're automatically in that segment because they've been added to it just by the integration with Thrivecart and convertkit. So that makes my life so much easier. So thrive cart is definitely a great purchase if this is something that would fit your needs, right? So have a look.

Kylie Kelly [00:05:31]:
Make sure that it's not just the next shiny thing, right? If you don't have something that could host the portal, thrive cart is a great choice, but make sure you're going to use it for the other capabilities that it has. So if you do invest in thrive cart for this portal online course, thrive cart learn component, make sure that you, maybe you can cancel some checkout software that you have or some affiliate software that you have, right? Make sure that you're not having more than one piece of software doing the same thing. I will put my affiliate link in the show notes below. So if you do want to go and sign up for it and have a look, make sure you use my affiliate link. If you use my affiliate link, send me an email and I'll be able to share all my checkout templates with you. So what I do for the women that buy through my affiliate link is a way to say thank you. I send them all of my high converting checkout pages so they can literally install that layout, install that template into their own thrive cart. Switch out all of the content and the graphics and they're good to go.

Kylie Kelly [00:06:26]:
So it will save you stacks of time. So again, my affiliate link is in the show notes, if that is of interest to you. So the spotlight club portal is done on thrive cart. The checkout for people to sign up is done on thrive cart, and then it integrates, like I said, into my email service provider, which is convertkit. So Convertkit is an amazingly powerful email service provider. I absolutely love it. I have tried plenty in the past. So I used to be with mailchimp back in the day when I very, very first was looking into email marketing.

Kylie Kelly [00:06:56]:
Then when I was a wedding photographer, I moved to Flodesk. I didn't actually use it that much. I didn't really build a list, but I had a flow desk account. I loved how pretty it was. My intention was to start and I never did. And then as I have pivoted now to an online business all about email marketing, I wanted something that was a little bit more robust than Flowdesk at the time. So I transferred over to Convertkit and they all do the same thing, right? So convertkit's not like some magical unicorn that's going to grow your list really easy or make it super simple, but my brain understands it. I like the layout.

Kylie Kelly [00:07:26]:
I like the way everything's set up. You can obviously do more advanced things with Convertkit than you can some basic email service providers or even those all in one. So there's a lot of all in one, you know, go high level funnel, gorgeous system, IO kajabi, those all in one software choices which allow you to put nearly everything for your business in one software container. I actually don't like that because for me, I kind of want them separate. I want to know that when I want to send an email, I'm just logging into Convertkit to send an email. And all the data, all the analytics, I can do more advanced things. It's all there in one place in Convertkit and it's separate to like my show at site and things. So personally for me, I get distracted very easily.

Kylie Kelly [00:08:09]:
If I was just logging in to say, kajabi to send an email, I would end up on a sales page tweaking it. Like I just know myself and I know I would get distracted. So I like to have them separate for that very reason. However, of course, like do what feels good for you. So if you don't have an email service provider, have a look around. They literally all do the same thing. They are all different price points, so make sure you just choose a price point that feels really good for you. The main thing that I think it's really important in terms of the membership space is to be able to tag and segment your members so that you know who's a part of what so they get the right emails.

Kylie Kelly [00:08:42]:
So having an email service provider that you're really comfortable with is going to be really, really important. Now, again, if you do want to check out Convertkit, I'll put my affiliate link in the show notes. They have just added a free plan where you can sign up. I think you get up to 1000 subscribers and you get one free automation, which means that that delivery automation can be included in the free plan before you start paying. So I will include that link if you want to check it out. Of course, if you are in the spotlight club and you're a premium member, remember that you can always add me as an admin onto your convertkit so that if you're ever having problems with your funnels or with your emails or automations or something and you want me to take a look, I can always jump in and do that for you. So that is like a nice little perk because I know that software inside out. However, of course if you use something else, we can work it out together.

Kylie Kelly [00:09:27]:
It's not rocket science. I know sometimes it feels like another language, but trust me, pick the one that feels good for you, you'll be totally fine and together we can make sure that we work any kinks out for you. Now the next thing I want to talk about with Slack now Slack is what I used to host, the community element of the Spotlight club. So when you join the spotlight club, you obviously have the portal that we've already talked about that houses all the trainings, all the links, all the downloads, all the resources, everything is in the portal, but you also get access to the Slack channel. Now I made an intentional choice to not do a Facebook group. I hate social media and I feel like because we don't get to choose what people see, I don't want to play the social media game, right? So if I had a Facebook group with all my members in there, I was not guaranteed that all my members would see my posts. However, if I have a Slack channel, and as long as I make sure that I'm welcoming people and they understand how to use it, it means that if I want everybody to see my message, they're all going to see my message. As long as they're logging in, they're all going to see it.

Kylie Kelly [00:10:26]:
And it's been a great place for people to connect. I have different threads for different things. I'm still in the free plan, so it doesn't cost me anything. The only downside with that is that you do lose posts after 90 days. So if there is something in there that's older than three months, you're going to lose access to it. You're not going to be able to see it anymore. But really, three months is a long time and I haven't ran into any problems with that again. So slack for the community, I've got 150 of the 200 members in there, and they're pretty much all active.

Kylie Kelly [00:10:56]:
It's very engaged. They're all encouraging and cheering each other on. There's a thread there to ask me questions. I'm in there practically Monday to Friday. It's a great platform. So if you're looking for a community platform to use and you want to stay away from social media, I'd highly recommend Slack, especially if your audience is b, two b. So I find other business owners know what Slack is. If you have a b, two c, and let's say your membership is about knitting, Slack might not be the best choice because they might not know what Slack is or how to use it.

Kylie Kelly [00:11:26]:
You still could get around that by educating them as part of that onboarding sequence into your membership. But just know there might be an extra little hurdle there. If they're not familiar with the platform, highly recommend Slack. Now, the other things that I wanted to talk about were just things that I found over time that I'm using for the membership and just for my business in general. And I thought it might be helpful for you to hear. Up until this point, you've heard me say the main things really is my email service provider, convertkit, thrivecart for the portal and the checkout and slack for the community element. Of course, stripe is integrated with my thrive card, so when people sign up, they pay with their credit card. It goes into my stripe account, and I really like doing that.

Kylie Kelly [00:12:06]:
I don't do PayPal and Stripe, which might turn some people off, but for me it's really important to have that main dashboard so I can see the health of the membership at any time. And that happens in the stripe homepage. So I have that set up so I can see the revenue that I've made for the month, what my monthly reoccurring revenue is to date. I can see the churn percentage, so the amount of members that are leaving and cancelling. I can see the new members that have come in. I can see how much each member spends on average during the life that they're in the membership. So that homepage is really important to me and it saves me a lot of time because I don't have a team trying to work out those numbers so I just use stripe. I have had a couple people that have had to pay through PayPal because their card just wouldn't work with stripe.

Kylie Kelly [00:12:49]:
But out of 200 people, that's maybe three or four. So pretty, pretty minimal. Okay, so the other things I wanted to talk about was my video hosting software. So I actually used to use Vimeo for the longest time, but I found it really expensive. And especially as I was adding more and more content into my Vimeo plan, the price just keeps going up, as with everything. So again, I'm always trying to be really conscious of my expenses and really conscious of what I'm spending and looking at how I can slim everything down. Because that's what we want, right? The less expenses that we have, the more profit that we have. When I was looking at the Vimeo and how expensive it was, I went on to Appsumo, which I love just looking at occasionally because it has some really great deals with a lifetime license.

Kylie Kelly [00:13:30]:
Again, just like thrive cart. Big fan of the lifetime license approach. So I saw that there is a software called Adillo that was again, lifetime license video hosting, pretty much unlimited. And so I've switched over to that and it's been brilliant. So now I host all my videos there. I'll then embed them into the portal, all the core replays, any one on one sessions, any trainings, the Q and A calls, like everything gets hosted, gets recorded in Zoom, and then the recording uploaded to Adillo and then embedded into the portal. And it's been working absolutely seamlessly. So I think Adilo is off Appsumo at the moment.

Kylie Kelly [00:14:05]:
I will put the link in the show notes so you can check it out, but just know, like it does come up on Appsumo occasionally. So keep your eye out if you do want to make the switch. Then, as I mentioned, zoom. I'm using Zoom a lot. There was a software called sessions that was meant to be a zoom replacement and that was on Appsumo. And I looked into that, but honestly it could be great. But because I'm so comfortable with Zoom and I host calls now with 30 50 people joining, I would much prefer to stick with something that I'm comfortable with. So I actually cancelled the sessions and got a refund.

Kylie Kelly [00:14:35]:
The best thing about Appsumo is you can get a refund in the first 30 days, like no questions asked. So I did that and I'm just sticking with zoom. Again, it's what I'm comfortable with, it's what I was already using. Makes it super easy because I'm familiar. So again, with no right or wrong, but I'm familiar with it so I've stuck with it. The other two things I wanted to mention was airtable. I use airtable a lot. I use airtable for intake forms, for feedback forms, for question submissions.

Kylie Kelly [00:14:59]:
Anything where my members are submitting something to me normally comes through an airtable form. So as an example, in the premium tier of the spotlight club you do get some bonuses. You get a weekly coaching call with me, you get to submit a piece of copy once a month for a review and feedback for me, which could be like a sales page, a landing page, a lead magnet, an email, whatever that copy might be, you can submit that through. I do a loom video back and provide feedback. I do a design call where I help them design or redesign their canva graphics to make sure that they're optimized and actually getting sign ups when people are in summits or bundles or doing freebie swaps, making sure their graphics are really pretty and appealing to the eye. Right? So we do a canva design call as well as that. I do offer the opportunity that once a month I promote them to my own email list of 6000 female business owners. So for all of those things, there's forms for them to fill out their submissions, right? So airtable makes it really easy because I can create a form, make it viewable to everyone, they fill it out and then I get the results.

Kylie Kelly [00:15:57]:
Super simple. Of course there's other options like there's Google forms. There's plenty of software options out there for surveying and polling and sending forms, so plenty out there. But airtable is just what I'm comfy with. One thing that I have just added is adevent. So since I started the spotlight club, I've been putting this off because it's not cheap, right? I think it costs me about 50 australian dollars a month at the moment, which again, I'm trying to run a business with the lowest expenses that I can while still making sure the member experience is as best as it can be. So this is why I added ad events. So when I introduced the premium tier and I increased the price, it's gone from $47 a month to 97.

Kylie Kelly [00:16:36]:
There were way more calls that I was introducing. So we've gone from maybe three calls a month to about nine. So that is a lot of time zones, that's a lot of things. Calendars, a lot of things to get right. And so at event now makes sense. Previous to that I was just having the calls listed in the portal and they had to figure out the time zone difference for themselves, right? So I had the calls listed, the times, the dates and the link to the zoom room. Now it's all in at event, and I have gotten some feedback from the members. It is so much easier.

Kylie Kelly [00:17:07]:
And I think a lot of people use at event now, especially when they're in different time zones, when they have a lot of calls and people are used to how that works makes it really simple for you to import that calendar of wherever you're coming from into your own calendar. So you get reminders. Everyone's loving it. So that is something that I've just introduced. The other thing that I mentioned there briefly is loom. So I do use loom. I do a lot of reviews for copy and even feedback that it might not be copy feedback, but it might be just a little bit more advanced or complicated. So rather, instead of typing it out, I much prefer to record a loom video and screen share and show them what I'm doing.

Kylie Kelly [00:17:43]:
If I need to talk them through something, I do that often. I also will just record a loom video if somebody hits my inbox from my list that has a question about something or whatnot. So loom is really valuable for me. I use it a lot. I do pay for it now. I started with the free plan and then when I was making a lot of videos, obviously I've had to now start to pay for it, but it's been really, really, really helpful. So that is the bulk of the tech tools, the software that I'm using. Again, look at what you already have.

Kylie Kelly [00:18:10]:
If you want to check some of this stuff out, I'll put all the links to everything that I've mentioned in the show notes below. Please check it out. But also look at what you already have. There might be things that you're already using that you can just dual purpose for what you need. We want to make sure that we're building a business that focuses on profit, that focuses on keeping their expenses low. So please don't sign up for something just because it's new and shiny. Look at everything that you have already, look at what you need for it to do, and then make a decision on whether you really need to invest in something else or whether you're pretty good. Right again.

Kylie Kelly [00:18:43]:
Links are in the show notes below. Please reach out if you have any questions. I'm not an expert on much of this, but this is the way that I've made it work and it's going really, really well. I'm really happy with it, especially as a one woman team over here trying to do my best. Right? So please reach out if you have any questions. I can't wait to bring episode four to your earbuds shortly. We are talking about my favorite part of any of this. I'm any offer which is launching and marketing it.

Kylie Kelly [00:19:07]:
I love launching. I think probably because I do it in a way that's a little bit different to most, but I love launching. And I think that the excitement, the buzz, the momentum that you can build through a launch done well is just incredible. It really sets you up for success. So I'm going to be diving into exactly how I did that when I launched the spotlight club, what I would do differently, what I love about it and my takeaways and what I'm doing going forward. So make sure you tune into the next episode if that's of interest. Thank you again for being here, and I will talk to you again soon. All right, bye.

Kylie Kelly [00:19:38]:
For nowhere.