262: She Built a 7,000-Member Empire by Throwing Rocks at Her Enemies - Ashley Alderson
2026/05/25 | 30 mins.
Ashley Alderson spent 14 years building The Boutique Hub into a 7,000-plus member empire by doing something almost no one else does in the membership space: she names her enemies and throws rocks at them. In this episode, she breaks down the multi-tier membership model, the 30-ads-a-week Meta Andromeda playbook, the 500-opt-ins-a-week opt-in machine, and the radical-honesty content rhythm that turned her members into her best advocates. Ashley is the founder and CEO of The Boutique Hub, a membership for independent retailers and boutique owners that has grown to over 7,000 members across the world. She also runs Retail Bootcamp (a $2,000 course) and Boutique Black (her highest tier with one-on-one coaching). What started as an "online shopping mall of boutiques" idea in middle-of-nowhere North Dakota became a 14-year compounding business through one core principle: community over competition. In this conversation, Ashley reveals: - The chicken-and-egg pivot from failed marketplace to thriving membership - The Six Layers of Lasagna framework that powers her $2,000 course - The Meta Andromeda shift and why she launches 30 new ads every week - The 500-opt-ins-a-week target and the content engine that feeds it - How "Pink Friday" became a worldwide shopping movement - The Donald Miller wise guide vs villain framework - The Ask Ashley AI clone built on Delphi - Why $5 a day is enough to start with paid ads
FREE RESOURCE: Get the full Boutique Hub playbook: https://podcast.stu.me
CONNECT WITH ASHLEY: - The Boutique Hub: https://theboutiquehub.com - Instagram: https://instagram.com/ajalderson
CONNECT WITH STU: - Website: https://stu.me - Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz - Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren - Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me - Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe for new episodes every week.
261: The 3 Reasons Your Audience Isn't Growing
2026/05/22 | 18 mins.
You've built something great. World-class quality, loyal customers, and yet you're roughly the same size you were last year. If that's you, this episode is for you. This week I'm taking you behind the scenes of my son's Canadian National Jump Rope Championships, where I watched world-class athletes do things that take hundreds of hours of practice, in front of an audience that's far too small for how good they are. As I watched, I kept thinking like a business owner, and I saw three clear ways the sport could grow almost immediately. The same three things holding skipping back are quietly holding a lot of businesses back right now. I walk you through all three: making your customers the heroes of your stories (the way Drive to Survive and Welcome to Wrexham grew their audiences), opening the door to sponsorships and strategic partnerships (including how our mastermind client Tara Phillips landed Sesame Street, Melissa and Doug, and Beaches Resorts), and building recurring revenue that funds full-time focus instead of capping you at "evenings and weekends." If you've got a great thing that just isn't reaching enough people yet, these three lessons are your roadmap.
In this episode, you'll learn: Why people fall in love with the people in a sport, not the sport itself, and how to apply that to your business
How the very first sponsor or partner unlocks the next ten (and why momentum creates momentum)
Why a passion project run on evenings and weekends can never become a category-defining business, and what recurring revenue unlocks
Three questions to sit down with this week to reshape how you think about growth
CONNECT WITH STU: Website: https://stu.me
Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz
Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren
Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me
Membership.io: https://membership.io
Subscribe and leave a review if this episode helped you. It means the world and helps more business owners find the show.
260: The Audience You Don't Actually Own
2026/05/20 | 12 mins.
You wake up tomorrow, grab your phone, and your Instagram account is locked. Or the app is down. Or the algorithm just decided to stop showing your stuff. What happens to your business? Stu got reminded of this exact question this week after a conversation with Jeff Walker, the creator of Product Launch Formula. Jeff mentioned a few customers who had been on his email list for ten years before they ever bought anything. That one comment is the heart of this episode: most creators are obsessing over the wrong number. In this episode, Stu breaks down the three buckets of audience (rented, borrowed, and owned), the "landlord problem" that makes platform-built businesses fragile, and the simple test you can run on your last ten posts to see if you have a "bridge problem." It is a short, direct reset on where your real asset has been all along: the people you can reach without asking anyone for permission. In this episode, you'll learn: The landlord problem: why the algorithm is the landlord and you are the tenant
The three audience buckets (rented, borrowed, owned) and why only one is truly yours
The one-question test to run after every piece of content you publish
Your next step: audit your last 10 posts for the "bridge problem"
RESOURCE: Grab the resources from this episode at https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH STU: Website: https://stu.me
Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz
Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren
Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me
Membership.io: https://membership.io
Subscribe and leave a review if this episode helped you.
259: She Got 1,400 Members in 5 Days (43% Conversion Playbook) - Sarah Williams
2026/05/18 | 45 mins.
Sarah Williams went from running a brick-and-mortar gift shop to 80% recurring revenue, then invented a 5-day launch model that converted at 43% and pulled in 1,400 paid members in a single week. In this episode, she breaks down Coaching Week, the day-one sell strategy, and the paid ad shift that's now driving 3 to 8 new subscribers per day on autopilot. Sarah is the founder of Framed (a women's monogrammed subscription box business doing thousands of subscribers a month) and Launcher Box (a membership that teaches product-based business owners how to launch their own subscription box). She started with a small gift shop in Wichita Falls, Texas. Today subscriptions account for 80% of her e-commerce revenue and her education business surpassed her e-commerce income in its first 18 months. In this conversation, Sarah reveals: - How she built her first subscription box in 2016 by curating her top 3 best-selling categories - The 50-DM launch that got her first 19 paying members in August 2019 - The invention of Coaching Week (5 days, 4 deliverables, 43% conversion rate) - Why she sells on DAY ONE of her launch, not the end - The shift from organic to paid (and why she's keeping ads running year-round) - The $10/day awareness ad that took her blow-dry bar from 1 stylist to 5 - Her three-tier framework: visibility first, conversions second, retention third FREE RESOURCE: Get the full Coaching Week playbook: https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH SARAH: - Launcher Box: https://launchyourboxwithsarah.com - Framed by Sarah: https://framedbysarah.com CONNECT WITH STU: - Website: https://stu.me - Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz - Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren - Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me - Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe for new episodes every week.
258: 3 Lessons That Flipped How I Think About Content
2026/05/15 | 21 mins.
You're posting consistently, but the followers aren't coming. You're running webinars, but barely anyone shows up. Or you're creating lead magnets, but the list isn't growing. Last week, Stu sat in a room with some of the smartest business owners he knows, and he walked out with three things that flipped how he thinks about content, lead generation, and webinars. In this episode, he unpacks all three so you can start using them in your business right now. First, a gardener with 1.6 million followers reveals the content mix that actually grows a personal brand, and why most experts have it completely backwards. Then, an SEO expert shows how he's using simple AI-powered tools as lead magnets to generate thousands of leads a day. And finally, a former photographer with jaw-dropping webinar numbers explains the pre-webinar work most of us are wasting. Stu shares why these lessons apply whether you sell courses, memberships, software, or anything else, plus why the real magic of a mastermind isn't the strategy at all. In this episode, you'll learn: The 60/20/10/5 content mix for growing a personal brand, and why being known for one thing may be holding you back
How to use AI to build simple, free tools that convert at over 2x the rate of PDF lead magnets
The pre-webinar email shift that moves people from interested to paying
RESOURCE: Grab the resources from this episode at https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH STU: Website: https://stu.me
Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz
Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren
Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me
Membership.io: https://membership.io
Subscribe and leave a review if this episode helped you.
About Marketing Your Business - Marketing Strategies for Business Owners
About Marketing Your Business - Marketing Strategies for Business Owners
About Marketing Your Business - Marketing Strategies for Business Owners
Marketing Your Business is a podcast dedicated to all things marketing. It's a behind-the-scenes look at the marketing tactics and strategies that lead to a loyal following, growing sales, and a business that gives you more freedom in your everyday life.
Each episode is packed with takeaways to help you get what you have in front of a lot more people. It's about leveraging your marketing to build a business that's high in profit, low in stress, and one that gives you the ability to have the greatest impact on the world.
Join leading online marketing strategist and entrepreneur Stu McLaren as he shares what's working for selling products online with product launches, online communities, email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, and more. This is about the marketing that leads to more sales, more profits, and a high-growth business.
But this show isn't just about making money. It's about using the power of marketing to give you more freedom. The freedom to work with who you want, where you want, while having time to travel and do the things that matter. It's about reducing the "go-go-go" stress and redesigning your business so you can be more present in the lives of those who matter most to you.
About Stu McLaren:
For years, Stu has helped experts transform their knowledge and influence into recurring revenue by launching, growing, and scaling 7 and 8-figure membership sites. In 2008, he co-founded the world's most popular membership platform for WordPress (WishList Member). He then went on to partner with New York Times best-selling author Michael Hyatt, helping his company go from a high 6-figure business (with lots of stress) to a high 7-figure business (with low-stress). Michael's profitability soared, his email list grew from 70,000 to over 500,000 and he gained back over 100 days with his family by not having to travel.
Today, he's the Co-Founder of Membership.io, helping creators and entrepreneurs build thriving membership businesses. He's also the author of Predictable Profits, which shows business owners how to create recurring revenue so they can stop chasing new customers and start building real stability.
If you've got an established business and you're looking for ideas on how to get your products and services in front of more people OR you're thinking about starting a business and want to see the behind-the-scenes of another entrepreneur doing it in real time, Marketing Your Business is tailor-made for you.
Listen to Marketing Your Business - Marketing Strategies for Business Owners, Ideas That Matter Podcast by Vusi Thembekwayo and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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