Membership Program
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Greetings,
If you’re reading this, you’re already familiar with my work and are considering joining in on this online “Feel Good Marketing Fellowship,” this raggedy, motley crew of wayward entrepreneurs, this Hippy Marketing Club, this Coalition of Creatives, this Community of Conscious Entrepreneurs, this League of Life Coaches, this Haven of Healers and Hippie Business Owners, this Slow Marketing Society.
In short: the Marketing for Hippies Membership.
I’ve been running my Membership since December of 2020, and it’s only gotten better with time.
If your business path has been like mine, you sort of tripped into the work you’re doing and have been stumbling forward ever since with no particular plan, just trying not to fall over from the momentum.
This Membership is a chance to stop, stand up straight, take in a deep breath and re-evaluate where you want to go from here and how.
Stumbling only gets you so far.
If you’re brand new to my work, this letter is not the best way to get to know me and my philosophy.
I’d suggest starting with:
My Marketing for Hippies “Starter Kit”: This is the full footage (and then some) of my signature, daylong Marketing for Hippies 101 workshop that I’ve toured for twenty years.
The Five Fundamentals page: This page takes most of my content and divides it into five categories, which I call “fundamentals” (shown in the pyramid below). My work and this Membership are heavily based on these:
The Annual Rhythm
The MfH Membership has an annual cycle of four quarterly programs, which include a number of “working calls” on some Tuesdays and Thursdays to integrate the content from the semester program.
Ethics and niching are a through-line of the entire year. You’ll find a monthly call with Tad and a monthly practice call in which to hone your niche.
Through these programs, you have a chance to deepen into the Five Fundamentals (triangle graphic above) in a systematic way.
By the end of a year, you’ll have done a full cycle through all five fundamentals with a bonus kicker of cashflow tactics in The Meantime (see image below).
The Monthly Rhythm
There is a monthly rhythm to the MfH Membership.
I host calls specific to each semester’s focus (The Meantime, Point of View Marketing, Business Model, and Hub Marketing).
Additionally, there are calls throughout the month that cover other aspects of marketing, including Niching and Ethics.
There are one-off webinars (usually one per month), some hosted by me and others with guest hosts, and there’s a weekly group coaching call with me.
There are also a number of live calls and co-working opportunities, the content of which varies slightly depending on the people leading them, and depending on what the focus of a particular semester is.
We aim to offer a number of live call options each month covering a range of content that are available at different times that allow for people located all over the globe to have comfortable options for participation.
The Five Elements Of Your Semesters
Element #1: The Webinar. Each semester will start with a content-packed and example-rich, two-hour webinar giving the lay of the land of the content of that semester. This will help you wrap your head around what you’re headed into and get oriented.
Element #2: Live Calls for each Quarterly Semester Program. Each semester program contains six or seven (program dependent) highly focused, hands-on, two-hour live calls with me, supported by co-working opportunities to do the actual work of the semester’s focus.
What are they?
The Meantime (January-March)
Point of View Marketing (April-June)
Business Model (July-September)
Hub Marketing (October-December)
The calls happen on Tuesdays spread across your semester (once you’re in the Membership, you can see the specific dates).
These calls will take you step-by-step through applying the content to your own business scenario.
Each of the program calls has two options to allow for people in different time zones to comfortably attend, one at 10 am-12 pm Pacific, and one at 6 pm-8 pm Pacific. You’ll only come to one of these at the time that works best for your schedule. And we’ll provide recordings of the calls for you to review if you weren’t able to attend one live, or if you wish to review the content. The first of these calls is an orientation call to make sure you know where to find everything and you are clear on how the course will unfold. I aim to get you situated for success.
Element #3: Course Materials. Each semester will have rich, hand-selected course material full of some combinations of eBooks, DIY workbooks, key resources and specific homework to do in between the live calls with me. There will be co-working calls to give you focused time with others in the course to do the actual work.
Element #4: Bonus Content. The membership has thousands of pieces of content. Each semester has a highly organized “collection” of the content most relevant to that semester. If you find yourself curious to dig deeper into a topic, there are lots of options and resources at hand.
Element #5: Deep Dive. Each semester will finish with a three-hour, final “Deep Dive” call (10 am-1 pm Pacific and 6 pm-9 pm Pacific). In this call, you’ll get down to work diving deeply into everything you’ve learned and pulling it together into something clear and useful for you to carry forward in your working context.
And in addition to the semester-focused coursework there is…
Live Call Content Through The Month
The Niching Arc is a year-long program comprised of monthly call with me to guide you through my niching process. These calls are usually scheduled on the first Wednesday of the month with options at 10 am-1pm or 6 pm-9 pm Pacific.
You can join in this call anytime during the “Arc” of the year, and there’s no pressure to be at all the calls. But if you are interested in digging deep into your niche, then participating in all 12 of these calls will allow you to work through my entire Niching Spiral process.
Niching Practice Calls: These calls allow for a group co-working time to focus on the work that I presented in that month’s Niching Arc call. They are usually scheduled on the third Wednesday of the month. The calls begin with a reminder of the content of the recent Niching Arc call, followed by time in small breakout rooms where you’ll share what you’ve come up with on the topic. You’ll return to the large group to share any major insights. The purpose of the Niching Practice calls is to actually do work. The easiest way to avoid meditation? Read books about meditation. Easiest way to avoid niching? Watch my videos on niching.
Weekly Calls with Tad: These are the calls during the week where you can reach me directly. If you want coaching from me in a group context, this is your best chance to do it. There’s no guarantee you’ll get your questions answered, but if you show up early with your question pre-written, chances are higher. They’re held on Fridays from 12 - 1:30 pm Pacific. Every once in a while I have to miss one. Every once in a while, I offer bonus calls.
The following call topics are examples of regularly scheduled calls that happen at least once per month and are hosted by various other Members and guests:
Networking for Hippies: A chance to connect with the other amazing folks in the MfH Membership! If you’re looking for hubs, accountability buddies and kindred spirits, this is a good way to do it. The calls include a round of introductions, planting seeds for future connections and collaborations, and time in breakout rooms, allowing a chance to meet and connect individually with others to get to know one another a little better. There is also time for requests and offerings: a chance for you to share any offerings you have or ask for support that you need.
Copy Co-Labs: Want feedback on your homepage, bio or a sales letter? Bring these as a Google Doc to the Copy Co-labs. The group takes ten minutes to go into each of the docs and provide feedback on one another’s copy.
Client Catalyst Calls: These highly focused, power-hour, quarterly calls are focused on generating clients during the call. You’ll be given a series of approaches you can use, and then turn off all distractions and go. You might be amazed at what happens from this.
Target Market Reviews: Since almost everything you do in any of these semesters hinges on you having a workable target market, each semester, you’ll have a chance to attend a sixty-minute, rapid-fire, feedback factory of next steps for your existing target markets. You bring your best articulation of who you’re trying to reach to the call and I will, personally, give you my honest take on where it’s strong, weak and exactly what you can do to take it to the next level.
TAD Talks: Guest presenters on a wide range of topics. You can expect at least one presentation per month from either external guests or fellow members on topics relevant to growing and managing your business ethically.
How To Keep Track of All This Content
There’s a lot in the MfH Membership! And you can participate in as much or as little as makes sense for you in the context of your current work/life situation.
Here’s how we’ve organized it all to make it as streamlined and easily accessible as possible for you:
Each collection has (or will soon have) a “START HERE” section that will orient you to the content in that area. Each collection will have the content organized in the most logical order to go through it.
I have migrated all of my content onto this platform.
So you won’t need to go to a distracting portal like YouTube or Facebook to check things out. It will only get more organized as time goes on.
Plus, each of the Zoom calls we do in the Membership is recorded. My coaching sessions with people during these calls are turned into small videos (much like the ones featured in this YouTube playlist from my public Free First Thursdays, now renamed as Open Office Hours calls) and put into just the right place to find later. They will rarely (and only with permission of the person featured) be put on YouTube publicly.
What does this membership actually look like inside?
If I were you, I’d want to take a peek under the hood to see what exactly I was buying. So, here you go …
7-Min Backstage Video Tour of The Membership
What Exactly Do You Get For Your $100/Month?
So what do you get for your money?
Basically, everything I have.
But, to be specific, see the list below.
PROVISO #1: Values Are Approximate. Not all of these are actually or have ever been on sale, and so prices are “this is what I would charge” if I were to sell it to the public. It’s not inconceivable that I might do so one day.
PROVISO #2: This is all subject to change. What you see in the chart below is our most recent articulation of what’s in the Membership. But the Membership keeps changing in response to the members. Items listed here may not last long if they’re not used, and new (hopefully better) items will be added.
PROVISO #3: Many things are left off of this list. This Membership is in a state of flux, and there are many things that have not been included on the list below because I couldn’t figure out how to price them, or they might change soon. But what you see below is the bare bones of what you’ll be getting.
So, there’s about $7200+ USD a year in value. But the MfH Membership costs $1200 USD per year to participate.
What would you save from signing up for the Membership?
Keeping in mind that the chart above is based on you coming in for a full twelve months and using everything (e.g. every live course, every DIY course) …
You’d save about $6000 USD in year one.
What It Feels Like To Be In The MfH Membership
Monday morning, you wake up, pour yourself a hot cup of something to drink, turn on your computer, and login to the Membership.
There might be a Community Collaboration Call where you gather together with other Members in a group of four to help each other with your issues.
Maybe you need help with that online tech issue you’ve been having for months, or maybe it’s a marketing question.
By the end of the hour, you’ve gotten a few more options than you had before and some new directions to consider.
You post a refined version of the question in the Ask A Question thread and a community host, or a fellow participant has posted links to a few of the videos and blog posts I’ve written that are most relevant to your question. If there isn’t one, they let you know that I’ll be making one soon just for you.
As you go over the materials you remember the content from the video of my day-long workshop you watched and the mini-courses you dug into earlier when you first joined the Membership and you realize that you’re beginning to see how it all fits together.
You’re really starting to understand, intuitively and practically, how to market your business in a way that feels good and works.
You never thought this would be possible.
It makes sense.
New approaches and points of view aren’t things you can hear once and “have it.” It can take years of reminders, reinforcement, translation and application to properly “get it” and design one’s business systems around them so that your business becomes a relatively effortless embodiment of them.
You hop on the weekly call with me and some of the other members from around the world. You show up a bit early to make sure your question gets answered but are also amazed at how useful and relevant the answers to everyone’s questions are to your own business.
After the call, a fellow member shoots you a personal message to let you know they’ve got some resources for you that might help. That kind of thing seems to happen from time to time. It’s such a helpful community. Perhaps you yourself realize you have a resource that would be useful to share with another member and you send them a quick personal message.
The next day, there’s a public webinar that I’m running and you’ve always wanted to attend (which you can now attend free).
And you’re looking forward to next month when that six-week program of mine you have most hoped to get into is finally coming around again … which is also included in your membership now.
To Sum Up: The MfH Membership looks like a pretty awesome, supportive week, full of low-pressure marketing work, the sum of which will be ever clearer, stronger, and more honest marketing of your business over time
The MfH Membership might be a fine fit for you if:
You are familiar with my work: If you have followed my work for a while and think, “This fellow seems to talk sense about marketing!” Maybe you have been thinking it would be nice to delve more deeply into my perspectives and see how you could apply them to your business.
You are craving community around these ideas and approaches: If you like the idea of having a place where you can gather and talk with other people drawn to the same no-pressure approaches to sales and marketing that you find in my work. Perhaps you lack a place to check in, touch base, get ideas, and be steeped in a perspective you resonate with. You know your business growth would be easier with good company, encouragement and regular touch points.
You have “entrepreneurial loneliness”: If you often feel alone in your business and have few colleagues who understand the marketing worldview I’m espousing. Trust me, your spouse is tired of hearing you talk about your business.
You are committed to growing your business and willing to put in the needed time: If you are excited and committed to the journey of building your dream business. Up until now, your business has mostly been an expensive hobby; a mysterious and beguiling project that always seems to be almost there and just about to succeed, but never seems to crest the wave.
If you are willing to approach your business as a business, and not perceive the marketplace as “wrong” for not liking your first, second, and third ideas.
Plus: you can’t seem to quit, even though it would make all the sense in the world to do so. You take (or are willing to start taking) your work seriously.
This isn’t a hobby.
It’s a business.
It’s a craft.
It’s something you’re passionate about and committed to getting better at. If you are very good at what you do and you already enjoy some solid word-of-mouth and referrals from your existing clients. If you are serious about growing your business and figuring out your niche.
The MfH Membership may not be a fit for you if:
You need instant results. If you want to get from nothing to six-figures in six months, look elsewhere. If you’ve got a workshop you need to sell out next month, this is not the program you need, although there is likely some great content in here that could help you improve your results quickly.
You don’t have the space or time to engage in this. This is not a self-working machine. You don’t just pay $100 USD/month and things magically start working. This takes time and effort. It’s a new platform. It’ll take time to figure it out. There will be new things and new language to learn.
How much time do you need to put in to make the most of this? Of course, there’s no proper answer to it. It depends on how familiar you already are with my work, how many of my courses you’ve already done, videos you’ve watched and blog posts you’ve read.
But I’ll suggest this: if you can’t spend twenty-five minutes a day or three hours a week on this, why bother?
How will you get $100/worth of value from it without even investing enough time to finish listening to a decent podcast. Change requires not just reading but writing, not just learning but doing, not just apprehending but application. And … That. Takes. Time.
One hour a week is just enough time to listen to maybe ten of my videos or to do one part of an online course, or to attend the weekly call. One hour a week will not give you much more progress than you have. One hour per week will not give you momentum. It won’t interrupt the patterns that need to be interrupted.
Consider three hours per week the rock bottom, bare minimum.
If you’re expecting a new child, your parents are needing your care, you have some other major projects looming etc. the time is not going to magically appear. Unless you have a plan to carve out the time, it might be better to wait a few months.
$100 USD per month is a lot to spend on something you’re not using.
You’re expecting 1:1 coaching or handholding. This Membership doesn’t run like that. I’m present in the group on a daily basis (except weekends). I’ll do my best to answer specific questions when I can. But this is not an individual coaching program. If that’s the kind of support you’re needing from me, you could also book some Puttering Sessions (a type of coaching session I offer). Or you could find another coach who does that.
You have a habit of signing up for these things and not using them. Why spend $100 USD per month on something you’ll never use?
You’re a fundamentalist of any persuasion. If you are proudly dogmatic about your food choices, black and white on religion, strident in your politics, have clear cut definitions of what is right and wrong, have no issues with cancel culture and shaming or shunning as a first resort to deal with people whose opinions you take issue with, then we are not a fit.
You’re overly punctilious. Over the years, I’ve come to realize that there are certain personality types that are not a fit. I run a business called Marketing for Hippies. I talk about Slow Marketing. I am a hippie. I do quality work but it’s not always perfect the first time out of the gates. What I offer in affordability sometimes comes with a certain level of technical glitch from time to time. My vibe is chill. We get there eventually. I’m not a multimillion dollar company (and even they have their glitches). Some people can’t deal with that.
Mistakes will be made. I will mess up from time to time. Expect it. But you can also count on the fact that I do my level best to make good on my blunders, and we’re always learning and growing from the inevitable hiccups along the way.
If you are blind or visually impaired. You’re welcome to join but honestly the Membership it isn’t yet set up as well as it could be for you. As of June 2nd, 2021, we got this message from Mighty Networks (the host of our network): “The Mighty Networks iOS apps work well with VoiceOver. Android devices typically have a built-in TTS engine that reads the text that it can find on the screen. We do not currently have web screen readers, however, and Closed Captioning is not offered, so we recommend adding subtitles or transcript downloads for videos. We also recommend you add text with your photos for any content you publish. We are also working on improving the alt-text to improve that experience for Members soon.” We are getting better at making sure there are closed captions for our videos.
So we’re still working this out. Feel free to email us and ask where things are at in this regard.
Three More Practical, Business-Building Things You’ll Get Access To If You Join The MfH Membership
THING#1 – Prioritized Responses: Can you get my attention by commenting on my blog or Youtube? Yes, maybe. But I prioritize my responses to Members within the Membership platform over my public platforms. Feel free to DM me any time.
THING#2 – First Dibs On Any New Stuff I Make: As I grow my body of work, experiment with new ideas and offer new courses, books or programs, you’ll be the first to be invited … and these things will almost always be included in your Membership.
THING#3 – First Dibs on Puttering Sessions: This was mentioned in the chart above. Every month, I offer up about a dozen chances to work with me 1:1, which I call the Puttering Sessions. They always sell out (often quickly). But, if you’re in the Membership, you’ll get notified before anyone else (even before the advanced notice list). Plus you also get $50 USD off each session.
Want Personal Feedback?
Here Are Three Ways You Can Get It
(that are included in your Membership)
Way #1: You Can Ask Me Directly On Live Calls. Wondering what materials you should check out next? Don’t spend hours searching for that needle in the haystack? Just come to a live call and ask me.
Way #2: Access To An “Ask For Help” Section. Here’s a place you can post your questions and get feedback from myself and the other members 24/7.
Way #3: Help From Your Community Host. You’ll have access to a community host who will help cheer you on and make sure you never get stuck, lost, frustrated, or confused about how to use the MFH Membership platform.
Okay … That’s A Lot of “Stuff.” But How Will This Actually Help Me?
A lot of content doesn’t mean much. It can just be overwhelming. So, here’s our commitment to you: If you really engage in the material, by participating in this Membership you will:
Become grounded in the basics of my perspective on marketing. As time goes on, they will become fully integrated in how you operate your business.
Enjoy ongoing improvements. You’re going to have access to a program and community that will only get better and better and have more content, context, and support added.
Savour a chance to work in a distraction-free environment. This is not a Facebook group where there are constant notifications going off all the time.
Be able to come and go as you need. Ask for help when you need it, join a program when it’s relevant, read an eBook when you have time.
Have access to a very user friendly phone app. You’ll be able to view the MFH Membership and go through my courses right from the phone app so you can dip into things on the train, while sitting in a park, or at a restaurant while waiting for your table.
Enjoy an exclusive, intimate space. No tire kickers here. No more Facebook groups with very little engagement or engagement from people who aren’t engaged in doing the work. By virtue of signing up for a Membership like this, people have a little more skin in the game. They are also likely to be fairly steeped in this content already and won’t give you questionable advice from other schools of thought in marketing.
All of this may bring up some important questions for you …
Okay … That’s A Lot of “Stuff.” But How Will This Actually Help Me?
FAQ: “What time are the calls with Tad likely to be? I work better with live calls, I rarely get around to recordings.”
ANSWER: I’m much the same myself. The weekly live calls with me are currently at 12-1:30pm Pacific most Fridays. I’ll have to miss some, so I guarantee at least 36 of these per year. You’ll miss some too. But I’ll be there most weeks. Also, in each semester you’ll have access to the six or seven (program dependent) live, two-hour calls that I host.
What’s my coaching style?
Here are a few excerpts from the calls (shared with the permission of the people being coached) to give you a taste.
You can find a lot more examples in my public Open Office Hours call recordings. If you’d like to try a live call for free, I lead one once a month for the public. You can learn more here.
FAQ: “How much time will you be spending in the Membership Program yourself, Tad?”
ANSWER: When I’m not travelling, I spend about about 30 minutes a day, five days a week on average. I have a Membership Co-Ordinator and Assistant who let me know what things I should be responding to. I won’t be reading every comment. They will respond to everything they can, and I’ll handle the rest. My goal for all of us is to spend as little time in the Membership as we can muster. I’d love this to be such a well organized resource that you can go in, get what you need and get out. None of us need any more screen time.
FAQ: “How will information in the membership not overwhelm and instead support with accountability, motivation and inspiration?”
ANSWER: A fine question. Let’s take these a piece at a time:
OVERWHELM: All of the content has been divided into clear collections with the content sequenced in the most logical order. The year is divided into four semesters. Every month includes a number of different live support calls for you to attend. Each week you have at least one live call with me (sometimes up to three). Our Membership Manager and Assistant are available to direct you to the resources you need if you feel lost. You’ll receive advance notice on (and a discount for) one-on-one coaching with me. And you can DM me anytime in the Membership’s chat system. We’ll do everything we can to help you find what you need when you need it.
ACCOUNTABILITY: That will likely be very low here in this program. You’re welcome to find your own accountability buddies in other members, and during the semesters we encourage people to form work/study Pods to keep each other connected and accountable. So really it’s on you to create the accountability that you need, with like-minded people, who you can find in the Networking calls, or by putting out a request to the group for the kind of person you’re looking for and what sort of timeframe/schedule you envision.
MOTIVATION: That is not something I plan to help you with. This Membership Program is not for unmotivated people.
INSPIRATION: In some ways, this is similar to motivation but I will say this … being in a community of dozens of other like minded entrepreneurs will likely be inspiring. As will our weekly calls.
*
FAQ: “What is the account cancellation policy?”
ANSWER: You can cancel your subscription at any time!
PLEASE NOTE: We do not provide pro-rated refunds except in extenuating circumstances.
FAQ: “I was wondering if it is the right time for me (going over the starter kit this week) to join the membership now makes sense since I am just starting my business – I don’t even have a website or business cards yet.”
It’s a good question. If you’ve just begun, will this Membership be useful? I don’t know for sure but there are a number of factors I’d consider.
The first is your age and how long you’ve been doing work similar to it. For example, someone who is fifty and has been employed as a counsellor for twenty years with a community agency and is now going solo is in a very different place than a twenty year old with no experience in coaching or therapy starting off. The former has a lot of material to work with and can quickly cobble together a clear niche, robust point of view, workable business model and profitable hubs. Someone who is brand new will take a few years to do all of that.
The second consideration is how clear you are on a niche walking in. I’ve known some who were young and without any previous experience who had a very clear niche (and connections in those communities) who became very popular very fast.
Third is this. Regardless, the general reflection I’d give is this: I wish almost all entrepreneurs could go through this material before they began so they could have it in mind as they developed. In the early days, it won’t make you any money at all. No financial return, but you’d be laying a solid foundation for the years to come. Then the only question is – can you afford the time and money in the meantime.
If you can, I’d suggest it. If not, there’s no rush. Work with the Ethical Marketing Starter Kit on your own and then if it ever seems like a good fit, jump into the membership.
FAQ: I can’t afford the $100 USD per month. Are there any discounted rates available?
I hear you. I’ve certainly been there myself when the money was tight. There’s no lower rate on this. If anything the price will be going up in the coming years as we are priced on the low end of most of the memberships we’ve researched and our membership seems to offer more value than many of the ones we’ve found. Having said that, if you can’t afford it, you can find a lot of free resources on this topic here that you can work with in the meantime. And also this interview I did with Bari Tessler years ago on how to survive cashflow dips might be helpful too.
Do I think this Membership is great? I do.
But, of course I’d say that.
It’s my Membership.
I’d like to give you chance to check it out for yourself with no pressure to continue at all. You can sign up and poke around for a week to see if you really like it or not.
Now, could you join for a week, come in and download all my eBooks and then leave?
You could.
I’m trusting you won’t.
And I think that, if you join for the seven days, you might just fall in love with it and want to stay for a while. At the end of the seven days, if it’s not a fit, you can cancel your membership and there are no hard feelings at all. If you stick around, it’s just month to month with no need to commit further.
If you don’t, your card will be charged automatically and your paid membership will officially begin.
That’s all. If you have any questions, please email us at admin@marketingforhippies.com. We’d love to see you around the digital campfire of the Marketing for Hippies Membership.
Stay human,
Tad
PS Does this all feel like more than you need? All good. Here are some free or low cost, risk and commitment ways to dig in:
follow me on Instagram
join us for an Open Office Hours call
sign up for your free, Marketing for Hippies Starter Kit
join the Marketing for Hippies Facebook Group
book a one time Puttering Session
Your Seven-Day Free Trial
Duncan, BC V9L 1G8
Canada
