$25,000
upfront, 22 members, 45 days
“Within 45 days, I went from not having a membership to launching a membership with 22 members collecting $25,000 in cash upfront.”
Enroll nowBuild A Beloved Membership
The playbook for launching a membership people love.
Who it's for, what to charge, how to launch and how to keep members: step by step, from the person who built The Lab.
Enroll now · $399
Join 400+ students.
“This is the playbook. Don't look anywhere else.”
- Upfront in 45 days · Kevin Chemidlin
- $25K
- From 50 founding members · Miles McNair
- €40K
- In the first 30 days · Mick White
- 30 members
- Of members stay · Parker Worth
- 93%
Student results
What students launched with the playbook.
400+ students have taken the course. Here's what some of them launched, in their own words.
€40,000
almost, from 50 founding members
“We chose to launch relatively small… we were able to fill up the first 50 spots, which drove in around almost €40,000 in top line revenue.”
100 members
at $47 a month, in two months
“Each of them pay $47 a month and I've only had it open for two months… It has a 93% stick rate, which means people love it.”
$50K+
and 44 members at launch
“Once we launched our community, we had 44 members join in the initial marketing campaign and we took in over $50K.”
30 members
in the first 30 days, no newsletter
“I had thirty paid members in the first thirty days by following the playbook… even though I don't have a newsletter.”
4 hours
and one email to fill the beta
“I launched my beta testing thinking that it would take like a bunch of emails and social media posts. No, ma'am. It took one email and 4 hours.”
Where do I start?
A membership has a lot of moving parts.
Who is it for? What does it promise? What do you charge, and in tiers or not? Which platform? How do you launch when you don't have a massive audience? And what if nobody joins?
Most creators guess. That's how memberships end up as ghost towns: forums that go quiet, chat rooms full of shouting, members who don't renew after a couple of months.
It's not your fault. Building a beloved community is really hard, and it starts long before launch, in how you design it. This course gives you the order to do it in, and what to decide at each step.
“I've created a ton of things as a creator… And yet creating a membership, it felt daunting. There's just so much surface area to that project.”
Jay AcunzoAuthor and creator★★★★★“Before then, I was just guessing on how to build a community. I had no idea what I was doing.”
Benjamin WatkinsFounder of ThisIsCopy.com★★★★★Taught from inside The Lab
You see every decision behind The Lab.
I launched my membership community, The Lab, in March 2022. In its first 12 months it gained 200 members, generated $250K, more than doubled my business, and became my favorite place on the internet. I did that without a massive audience, and I designed it to stay small on purpose.
The course shows you how I made each of those decisions, so you can make your own.
- The member growth and engagement you see here, and how it was built.
- The revenue it produced: more than $1M since launch.
- Why a small, high-value membership might be the model for you too.
“He's showing you directly how he's managing that inside his own membership, the Lab. And that has been so valuable to us.”
Miles McNairCo-founder, PPC Mastery★★★★★The playbook
Four phases, in order.
From first idea to members who renew. Each phase is a step students say they'd have guessed at without it.
- 1
Concept
Design it
Every decision you need to make to design a membership that serves your customers and your own lifestyle: the levers that produce the strongest, best-aligned and most profitable concept.
“It helped me to get clear on my community, my premise, my promise, and how to overdeliver a meaningful experience.”
Lauren Abrams - 2
Pre-launch
Prepare it
With a concept you're excited about, how to prepare a launch that succeeds, including filling your first spots before you open the doors.
“Officially opened up the pre-launch payment doors yesterday and now have 20 paid members.”
Marissa Goldberg - 3
Launch
Open the doors
Go out of the gates strong with the two-phase launch I used for The Lab, even with a small audience.
“After one week we already have 250 members!”
John Farren - 4
Post-launch
Keep it growing
The work isn't over after you launch; it's just beginning. How to keep marketing your membership and keep the members you have.
“When people join, they know what's going on, they have a great onboarding experience, they're having fun… all while only spending five to 10 hours a week on it.”
Parker Worth
The idea students credit most
Launch small first.
You don't open the doors to everyone on day one. You fill a small group of founding members first, before the full launch: they pay, they shape the community, and they prove it works.
It's the two-phase launch I used for The Lab, and it's behind more of these students' results than any other lesson. It answers the scariest question, "what if nobody joins?", before you've built everything.
“Officially opened up the pre-launch payment doors yesterday and now have 20 paid members… Thanks for the pre-launch idea! It still works 🙌”
Marissa GoldbergFounder of Remote Work Prep★★★★★“I launched my beta testing thinking that it would take like a bunch of emails and social media posts. No, ma'am. It took one email and 4 hours and my beta testing is already filled.”
Delaina BakerFounder of Social Media Study Hall★★★★★How it feels to take
Short, practical, and no fluff.
- Bite-sized lessonsEverything you need and nothing you don't, so you can get through it quickly and get to work.
- Action from module oneYou start making decisions about your own membership in the first module, not after a week of theory.
- Taught by someone who's done itThe lessons come from building The Lab, SPI's community and Unreal Collective, with real examples throughout.
“I am what you would call a digital course hoarder… But this course, this is the first one that I have blown through and was able to take actionable steps within the first module.”
Delaina BakerFounder of Social Media Study Hall★★★★★“This course teaches you everything you need to know about building an amazing membership in these marvelous bite sized pieces… The signal to noise ratio is off the charts.”
Noam SegalCoach★★★★★See how I think
Watch me coach Ali Abdaal on his membership.
In February 2024, Ali Abdaal sent me a DM to ask if I could help him think through his new membership, Productivity Lab. He later aired that entire coaching session on his channel.
If you want a feel for how I think about memberships before you enroll, this is it.
Reviews
What students say.
“Build a Beloved Membership is an excellent course. It is a really practical course that helped us launch our Community on Circle called The Pointy End of HR - after one week we already have 250 members!”
John FarrenDirector, Farren McRae Workplace Lawyers★★★★★“There's nothing else out there teaches how to build a community like this. Jay is a fantastic example with his own community, and the lessons and advice in the course is first class.”
Chad CarsonPodcaster and author, Coach Carson★★★★★“Taking the Build A Beloved Membership course gave me the clarity and confidence to finally launch the membership I had been ideating on for months.”
ElizabethConscious Fashion Collective★★★★★“BABM was the perfect tool to get me to the private launch phase of my membership community… I feel like I avoided a ton of pitfalls because of it. Most important course of the last several years for me.”
Michael PierceThe Human Condition★★★★★“What a fantastic comprehensive course going through every single step, clarifying all doubts about memberships! Jay is not only a well experienced professional but one that knows how to communicate and teach in an outstanding way.”
Aleyda SolisSEO consultant and founder, Orainti★★★★★“I've taken a lot of courses online but Build A Beloved Membership is just plain better.”
Zach SwireScaleOS★★★★★“Jay's course is exactly what I wanted and needed at the moment: very clear step-by-step guidance that covers everything I need to get started!”
Harper XIndependent creator and podcaster★★★★★“This course walked me through step by step, where to start, what to do, in what order… This is the playbook. Don't look anywhere else.”
Bodie QuirkYou Can Learn the Bible Academy★★★★★“I walked away from the Build a Beloved Cohort with a foundation and plan to confidently launch my membership. Jay's insights definitely saved me from making some potential mistakes.”
Travis FerenceGrammy-nominated recording engineer and podcast host★★★★★
Pricing
One wrong guess costs more than the course.
Price it wrong, launch to nobody, or build the wrong thing, and you've lost months. Students say the course paid for itself many times over.
Build A Beloved Membership
$399 one time
The step-by-step playbook for planning, launching and growing a paid membership community, with every decision behind The Lab explained.
What you get
- Instant access to the self-paced course
- Four phases: Concept, Pre-launch, Launch and Post-launch
- The two-phase launch I used for The Lab
- Platform-agnostic, with examples shown in Circle
Join 400+ students.
“Once we launched our community, we had 44 members join in the initial marketing campaign and we took in over $50K. Is BABM worth the price? YES!!! Many times over!”
Brian WithersCOO/CTO“I've been in Masterminds that cost $68,000. And this is still one of the best courses I've taken… considering the cost of the course, pretty freaking solid ROI.”
Kevin ChemidlinFounder and host, Grow The Show★★★★★In The Lab? This course, and all my others, is included free with your membership. See what's inside The Lab →
Who it's for
For anyone starting a paid membership community.
It will help community builders of all kinds, but it focuses on how to build, launch and grow a paid membership. The concepts work on any platform; my favorite is Circle, the one I use for The Lab, so many examples are shown there.
You've never done this before
No marketing or business background needed. The course tells you where to start and what to do in what order.
“I don't have a marketing or a business background at all. But because of this course, I was able to follow the steps that Jay outlines and launch my academy.”Bodie Quirk, former pastor
You don't have a big audience
The small first launch is designed for exactly this. The Lab launched without a massive audience too.
“I don't have a newsletter. I don't have some of the typical tools creators have, and I had thirty paid members in the first thirty days.”Mick White
You've built things before
Experienced creators and community builders say it changed how they think about memberships.
“Even with a lot of experience in this area, I found Build A Beloved Membership to be extremely helpful.”David Hooper, BigPodcast.com
About Jay
I build beloved communities.
My community-building journey began in 2012, when I organized my first Startup Weekend. I organized about a dozen of them in person before I started my first online community, Unreal Collective, in 2017. Online or off, people want the same thing: genuine connection. I still build communities through that lens.
Unreal Collective grew to 110+ members around the world. Based on that success, I helped the Smart Passive Income team design and launch their membership, SPI Pro, and in 2020 Pat Flynn and SPI acquired Unreal Collective. I led SPI's Community Experience team, building its membership community, course community and cohort-based courses.
I went full-time as a creator in 2022 and launched The Lab, which I'm determined to make one of the best communities on the internet. If you're building your own, I'll share all my secrets.
- $3.28 million in creator earnings
- 2,483,432 podcast downloads
- LinkedIn Top Voice7 LinkedIn Learning courses
- 2 company exits1 kid at home (another on the way)
- subscribers
- 145,000
- subscribers
- 65,858
- followers
- 64,149
- followers
- 55,528
- followers
- 12,757
- followers
- 7,495
FAQ
Questions, answered.
What is your refund policy?
If you take it and don't find it helpful, we'll give you a full refund within 14 days. But be honest! Karma is not something you want to mess with.
Do I need a big audience?
No. The course is built around launching small first: you fill a founding group before the full launch. Mick White had 30 paid members in his first 30 days without a newsletter, and The Lab launched without a massive audience.
I don't have a business or marketing background. Is that a problem?
No. The course walks you through where to start and what to do in what order. Bodie Quirk stepped down as a full-time pastor to build an online Bible academy, with no marketing or business background, and launched it by following the steps.
How long does it take?
The lessons are short and practical, so you can get through them quickly and start making decisions in the first module. Kevin Chemidlin went from no membership to launching with 22 members in 45 days.
Is it self-paced or live?
Self-paced. You get instant access when you enroll and go at your own speed.
Which community platform does it use?
The concepts work on any platform. My favorite is Circle, the platform I use for The Lab, so many of the examples are shown in Circle.
Is it included in The Lab?
Yes. All my courses, including this one, are a complimentary benefit of membership in The Lab. It's a particularly good fit: you learn from the course and see the lessons in action inside The Lab itself.
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Build A Beloved Membership
Stop guessing. Launch the membership.
The playbook students used to launch with their first 20, 30 and 50 members.
Join 400+ students.