How To Turn a Brick-and-Mortar Business into a Thriving Membership Business

Shelli Varela: Oftentimes, when we start a membership site based on what we know and what we love, one of the greatest unexpected gifts is who we inspire along the way.

 

Stu McLaren: There is a big trend brewing that’s revolutionizing the way business is being done. Big companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple are jumping on this too but so are thousands of others in all kinds of markets like photography and calligraphy, fitness, finance, meal planning, lesson planning, dog training, and so many more, and they’re doing it by shifting to a recurring revenue model. Hi. My name is Stu McLaren and for more than a decade I’ve been helping tens of thousands of entrepreneurs generate recurring revenue through membership sites. Join our host, Shelli Varela, as she takes you behind-the-scenes to see how these companies are building a thriving tribe that spends with them every single month. Now, let’s get to today’s episode. 

 

[INTERVIEW]

 

Shelli Varela: Julie Dueck, welcome to the It’s a TRIBE Thing Podcast. Great to have you.

 

Julie Dueck: Thank you. It’s great to be here.

 

Shelli Varela: You have an amazing membership site called Quilt For Joy. And just wondering if you can share who your audiences and how you got to be in this position where you have this membership site. Who were you before you started working with quilting?

 

Julie Dueck: Well, I’ve been a quilter for about 26 years. And I learned to quilt when my ex-husband was in the army, and we were living in Germany. And so, when I got to the point in life where I was able to, I decided to make that my business and so I own a quilt shop. And in my membership, I serve women or quilters, it could be men too, there are men quilters, who have lost their passion for quilting and want to get it back because it’s a really fun hobby.

 

Shelli Varela: I love it. Can you take us back to your beginning roots? I know in our pre-conversation you were talking about how you were a single mom after you separated and went back to school and how kind of that whole thing transpired.

 

Julie Dueck: Okay. So, yes, I was a single mom. I was kind of an older mom. I had my daughter when I was 31 but my ex was in the army and I ended up a single mom and didn’t want my child to be disadvantaged because of that. I wanted her to be able to have fun and be able to do things and I didn’t want us to be living paycheck to paycheck. So, I decided to go back to school and got some advice to go back to school to be in networking, in information technology. And it was in 2000 and as you know, the dot com bust happened in 2001. So, I was still in school when that happened. So, my dreams of big money from doing that kind of went down the drain. 

 

Shelli Varela: Quickly death. 

 

Julie Dueck: But I happened to be very good at that job. And so, the school that I went to hired me out of class basically to do their network administration. So, I worked for a college for 10 years doing their networking and all of their computer tech stuff.

 

Shelli Varela: So, then you were homeschooling your daughter, you were saying.

 

Julie Dueck: Oh, right. And then I got remarried and got to a point where I was able to quit my job because of my amazing husband. And my daughter needed me to be home with her. She was very unhappy in school and so I decided to homeschool her. So, I stayed home for about it was about nine months or so before I really started to go stir crazy because I’ve been working since I was 12 years old. 

 

Shelli Varela: Wow. That’s crazy.

 

Julie Dueck: Yeah. My dad owned a business as well so I used to work for him and it’s way harder to work for your dad than for anybody else in the whole world.

 

Shelli Varela: No doubt.

 

Julie Dueck: So, anyway, I just couldn’t not work because I’ve worked my whole life. So, I told my husband that I couldn’t stand any of the quilt shops in this area. People weren’t nice to me and they didn’t have the kind of fabric I liked. And so, he said, “Well, if that’s how you feel, you should do it yourself then. You should have your own quilt shop,” and I was like, “Okay,” He’s like, “Yeah, we got a little bit of money left over from our tax refund. Why don’t you use that to start the shop?” So, I did. And one collection of fabric turned into three, turned into six, turned into moved out of the house because the house got too small. 

 

Shelli Varela: I love it. I love it when a dream takes off. It started out as an idea then all of a sudden you need to move. 

 

Julie Dueck: Exactly. So, I ended up opening a brick-and-mortar and we were open for about five years. My mother got ill and so we moved her in with me while she was on hospice. She subsequently passed away and almost immediately, probably not even a week later, I got diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that I didn’t know that I had, that I basically had all my life but didn’t even know it. And so, I had to have some major surgery. So, I closed my brick-and-mortar because I wasn’t going to be able to work about six months, went back to just having the online shop and quickly realized that that wasn’t going to pay the bills anymore because I had a lot more bills from having a lot bigger business. So, that’s when I started thinking about having a membership and that was a couple of years ago. 

 

Shelli Varela: Do you remember for those who are listening because I hear all of the time people have a dream or an idea or something they love but they quickly dismiss it as well. You know, that’s not really a business. That’s just my passion or something I like. Do you remember the first time you recognize not only did you love quilting, but you wanted to do something else with it? What did that feel like for you and what advice would you give for people who are listening right now perhaps experiencing something similar?

 

Julie Dueck: Let’s see. I think I’ve always had that feeling that I wanted to be an entrepreneur at everything. My father was always into business. And so, I think I probably got the bug from him. Everything in my life that I’ve ever done, I’ve always wondered, “How can I make a business out of this?” 

 

Shelli Varela: I love it. 

 

Julie Dueck: Everything I’ve ever done, and I still do it. So, even, you know, I still have other ideas besides the quilting but I think as far as making a business out of quilting, I don’t think that it was even viable until my husband said, “Why don’t you do it?” And then I thought, “What? Could I really do that?”

 

Shelli Varela: What was that light bulb moment when you actually made the decision and said yes to it?

 

Julie Dueck: Oh, what was the light bulb moment? Like I said, I think it was just him saying, “You know, we’ve got this extra little bit of money. You can use this,” and I thought, “Oh, is that enough?” And then I was like, “Yeah, I think it is.” And it’s funny because I think a lot of what I’ve done in my life has kind of led to it. The fact that I was in IT and that I know how to build a website and then I know how to work backend and I can pretty much reverse engineer software, look at it from a text file and figure out, “Oh, that’s how that works,” I think all of that fed into me being able to have an online shop and then that building into a business because when I started, I started on Etsy. And I was only on Etsy for about three months before I opened my regular online shop but I don’t think I would have known how to build that business and build my Facebook page and all of that if I hadn’t had the tech background as well. So, I think it just fell in together.

 

Shelli Varela: It’s interesting for me to watch people who start to tap into all of their seemingly unrelated gifts and it’s been a theme on this podcast and you’re illustrating the same. There are no accidents and If you look back in your life through that true line, you know, you start to look at the things that you’re curious about or interested in and to watch people start switching on, making a decision and saying yes to that and then to go on and create thriving businesses and membership sites. It’s so rewarding and also really inspiring. And I’m always curious about what was that moment when you stepped off of the ledge from, “I’m not sure. I don’t know how that’s going to work. I don’t have all the answers,” to just like, “Yes, the answer is yes. I don’t know how but I’ll figure it out.”

 

Julie Dueck: Yeah, that’s exactly how it was. I thought, “Okay, I’m going to do it but wherever this goes, this is what I’m going to do.” 

 

Shelli Varela: What was the most unexpected benefit that you’ve encountered from starting your membership site?

 

Julie Dueck: From starting the membership, I think it is probably the fact that I am a lot more confident now. I would have probably not taken this interview actually a few months ago. Before I had the membership site, I’m a super introvert so it’s hard for me to talk about myself, talk about all these things, but I think it’s given me a lot of confidence in the fact that I’m in that group all the time. You know, I do a Zoom call with them every week and so I’m in front of people a lot more now and I think it’s given me a lot more confidence. And, yeah, so I think that’s probably what it is that strange benefit but the fact that I am now much more outgoing and less introverted than I was. 

 

[ANNOUNCEMENT]

 

Stu McLaren: So many people in all kinds of niche markets are leveraging their existing knowledge and influence and they’re transforming it into passive monthly income. This isn’t luck. This is a repeatable formula for producing a growing subscription income and if thousands of others can do it, you can too. To find out what type of membership site would be right for your business, visit GetTRIBEGuide.com. Go to GetTRIBEGuide.com and download it today. You’re awesome! 

 

[INTERVIEW] 

 

Shelli Varela: Well, fun fact, I’m actually a ravenous introvert myself. And I know that that many people will say to themselves, “You know, I don’t love being on camera. I don’t want to be on a stage or I’m not really sure,” or they’re nervous about being in front of people but I love the fact that you just said yes, did it anyways. And also, the lesson for all of us in that is that you almost prove to yourself that you can do it by doing it. So, waiting for yourself to feel like you’re ready and feel like all of the ducks are lined up, it’s almost like you can’t steer a parked car, right? You just have to hop in and just get moving. But what you learn along the way is people do actually want to learn from you, want to hear from you, value your opinion. They do want to see you and be seen by you. And you know, I love that you said that because so many of us are in that position where we’re sitting on that gift or that idea or that something that we want to do, and we’re not saying yes because we either don’t have it figured out or we think, “Well, who am I to do it? Or who would listen to me?” 

 

And so, thank you for sharing that piece of wisdom because that’s definitely something we all need to hear whether it’s a membership site or just carrying on in life in that same way. Can you speak about how this membership has impacted? You know, you said that you had some health concerns and, you know, I’m very sorry to hear about your mom but how has this changed your life in terms of the way that you get to be and interact with the world because you now have this online membership site? Has it allowed you to take more time for yourself in terms of self-care and health and prioritizing or reorganizing what you get to do as opposed to what you had to do? You know, if you look back to when you had a job in IT and now you have this online business where you can create your own opportunity or hours or build the life that you want by design instead of by default?

 

Julie Dueck: Okay. I see what you mean. Yeah. So, because I own the business and I have bills to pay, I was constantly worried about making that next sale. It felt like every day, that was a monkey riding on my back. You know, I worried about, “Oh, I only got one sale today,” and my husband takes my shipping for me and he’d come home every day and go, “No shipping today?” He’s like, “Oh, how are we going to pay the bills?” So, I think the biggest thing as far as the membership goes is that I know that payday is coming every month. I’m going to get enough money to pay my bills, pay my credit card. Yeah. So, as far as that goes, that has been wonderful. And then there’s the other thing of I get to go out and do things outside of the house. And so, I always felt like I had to stay home and be working constantly on either taking pictures or doing social media or doing something to make money to do a sale or something. I went shopping yesterday for the first time, you know, for like three hours for the first time in so long because I didn’t feel like I had to be sitting here doing something for the business and that’s huge. I got to go take my daughter, I took my daughter to Japan in April for a week and she loves Japan. She taught herself how to speak Japanese when she was 16. 

 

Shelli Varela: Wow. 

 

Julie Dueck: She’s amazing. But we went to Japan and I wouldn’t be able to do that if I was still working in the corporate world or if I still had a brick-and-mortar even because I wouldn’t have been able to leave for a week, you know. So, there’s all of those things that you get to do when you have something that you know you’ve got money coming in without you having to be there constantly working it.

 

Shelli Varela: That’s brilliant. That’s something I feel if everybody had the freedom to do what they love and also learn what they want to learn and explore the places they want to see, like what a happier, more peaceful world this would be, not in terms of just the ability to support your family in the way that you want to but, I mean, there’s the business side of it, where there’s finances and there’s the mechanical workings of a business but attached to the business is a human being living a life and the quality of that gets to be so much different when you have the ability to serve a one-to-many model like you do with your membership site. If you were to give somebody a piece of advice who is perhaps sitting on their gift, their dream, their idea, and they’re hedging and they’re not sure if they want to jump, what advice would you give them?

 

Julie Dueck: It’s been said a million times but just take the first step. The first step leads to the second step leads to the third step. And if you just get started, if you just start in motion, you’ll stay in motion and you’ll surprise yourself with what you can do and what you have inside of you. And the biggest thing is to remember why you want to do it, not just for yourself but for the people that you’re serving because it makes a huge difference in people’s lives, even what I do. I mean, all I’m doing is teaching people how to quilt or teaching them how to make a certain quilt block or just talking to them. And some people all they have is the people that they know on their computer basically. They’re alone. Some people are not married or don’t have people to sew with. I know it sounds like a funny thing, but it’s a social thing. But just being able to give somebody a little bit of joy every day is so much and it does so much for you as well and it gives you so much joy as well. And that makes a huge difference not only to you but to the people in your life, to your family, to your children, them being able to see you happy, and you doing what you love gives them the courage to work toward doing what they love and being happy in their lives as well.

 

Shelli Varela: Absolutely. Like our boy, Stu McLaren, says people come for the content but they stay for the community. But just a small reframe if I may you don’t just teach people how to sew or to quilt, you teach your daughter what it looks like to follow her dreams. You teach people how to carve out self-care and meditation and to take time. You give people community and a place to belong. You don’t just teach people how to quilt. So, thank you for doing those for all the people that are with you and need you so thank you for that. If people are looking for you online, what is the best place they can find you?

 

Julie Dueck: My website is IntrepidThread.com which is kind of long, IntrepidThread.com, and I’m Intrepid Thread everywhere so Instagram and Facebook, easy to find.

 

Shelli Varela: Thank you for the great inspiration. And thank you for showing all of us what it looks like to follow your dreams.

 

Julie Dueck: Thank you. 

 

[CLOSING]

 

Stu McLaren: I hope you love that story. It’s amazing, right? That’s what It’s a TRIBE Thing is all about. So, many people in all kinds of niche markets are leveraging their existing knowledge and influence and they’re transforming it into passive monthly income. Listen, this isn’t luck. There’s a repeatable formula for producing a growing subscription income and each week we’re going behind the scenes to show you exactly how they did it. Get the latest stories and actionable ideas from each episode at www.ItsaTRIBEThing.com and if you know one other person who could benefit from this, tell them to subscribe. Tell them to go to ItsaTRIBEThing.com.

[END]