Ep 204: Break Through The Membership Plateau and Scale Effectively
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Break Through the Membership Plateau and Scale Effectively
Membership growth often hits a ceiling. It’s not only about traffic or ads, it’s about how well you keep people once they’re in.
When your membership plateaus, that’s the stage where retention becomes the growth driver. My friend and past client, Corinne Crabtree, who scaled to 13,000+ members, shares what actually shifts and how to break through.
Retention Is the Problem
If you can’t grow past your current member count, it’s not because of a cap on potential. It’s because you’re losing members as fast as you gain them.
Retention must increase alongside acquisition. At scale, even a small leak becomes costly. Improving retention by just one percent makes a massive difference in growth.
But it’s not about one big change. You need to fix the small things, the thousand friction points inside your program that slowly erode member experience.
Bigger Memberships Don’t Need Bigger Complexity
There’s no real operational difference between 5,000 and 13,000 members. What changes is how you support them.
Here’s what needs to shift:
Stop serving 5,000 members the same way you did 500 members
Hire enough internal support to keep people engaged
Train your team, not just yourself, to deliver value
Focus your time on leading and marketing, not delivery
If your systems aren’t built for scale, the growth will stall or worse, break everything.
Use Metrics That Matter
When your numbers grow, raw churn can look scary. That’s why you must look at percentages, not headcount.
Instead of panicking over 80 cancellations in a week, track if your retention rate is holding steady at 92.5%. That’s how you stay grounded and make smart decisions.
Percentages reveal trends. Numbers only show volume.
Don’t Let Growth Scare Your Members
When members fear losing access, they resist growth. Corinne dealt with this early. At 150 members, her community panicked about scaling to 500.
Instead of ignoring the fear, she addressed it head-on. She:
Reframed growth as a win for everyone
Showed how support would stay personal
Proactively marketed the benefits of scale
It’s your job to control the narrative. Don’t let members decide how to feel about changes. Teach them why it's better for them.
Scale Intimacy with Smart Systems
Yes, you can keep it high-touch at scale. It just takes planning.
Corinne pre-records calls and uses coaches to deliver live interaction around the videos. Her members still feel seen. They still feel supported. And they stay longer.
You don’t have to be on every call live. You do have to design the experience to feel personal.
Want Better Retention? Act Like a Marketer
Most founders stop marketing once someone joins. That’s the mistake.
Retention is a sales function. You need to keep selling the value of staying, just like you sold them on joining.
If you know how to:
Build belief
Overcome objections
Reinforce transformation
...then you know how to retain members. You just have to use those skills after the sale.
Go High-Touch, Even at Scale
Corinne’s team now runs small group onboarding calls for every new member, with over 13,000 active members.
That’s intentional. It sets the tone, builds trust, and shows members the value of coaching. It’s not just about retention. It’s a smart growth lever.
These calls:
Increase satisfaction
Improve onboarding
Boost long-term value
Open the door for 1:1 coaching upsells
Build Checkpoints That Keep People Engaged
Corinne’s next move? Every member gets a small group call every quarter. Not just onboarding.
These 30, 60, 90-day and quarterly calls:
Address seasonal shifts in behavior
Keep momentum high
Create consistent accountability
The result? Better outcomes. Higher retention. More referrals. And more revenue, without more churn.
Retention drives scale.
If your growth is stuck, stop pushing for more leads. Start keeping the people you’ve already worked hard to earn.
Want help fixing your retention leaks?
Apply to RETAIN at joinretain.com
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