How Ronda Nelson’s Membership Site Helped Her Get Her Life Back

In 1993, Ronda Nelson’s oldest daughter survived a diagnosis of terminal bone cancer. Though she had no medical or nutritional planning education at the time, she was a mom with a problem to solve, and she experienced a profound ah-ha moment when she discovered a link between cancer and nutrition. After getting a Ph.D in holistic nutrition, she opened her own clinic in 2003. To deal with her rapidly growing waitlist, she began teaching other practitioners all over the country, and found herself exhausted and physically sick after traveling over 30 weeks a year. Now, at Restoration Health, she gives people what they need to be better clinicians. She’s built a sustainable, thriving community – and gotten her life and health back. In today’s conversation, Ronda shares the story of her unique journey into holistic medicine. You’ll hear why her practice left her feeling trapped in a career she loved, and how she now runs a life-changing, authentic business that gives her the freedom and support she needs, while empowering others.

Key Takeaways

Why teaching all over the country wasn’t a sustainable way to address Ronda’s massive waitlist – and how this work took a mental and physical toll on her.
How Ronda’s membership site helps her feel comfortable, gives her peace of mind, and allows her to take a moment to herself when she needs it.
Why you should trust in your authentic voice and your ability to change lives for the better as you develop your membership site.
Ronda’s advice for someone thinking about launching a membership site – and why it’s okay to put out less than perfect work.

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Memorable Quote

“If you can solve a problem for someone, and there’s more than one person who has that problem, you’ve got a membership site.” – Ronda Nelson

“My favorite word in the English language is ‘why.’ If I hadn’t asked why, I wouldn’t have been able to figure out the solution.” – Ronda Nelson

Episode Resources

Transcript

Read The Transcript

[INTRODUCTION] Shelli: Not all gifts come wrapped in a bow. In fact, some of those gifts come wrapped in a problem that when solved, impacts not only your life but positively impacts the lives of thousands of others. Stu: 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: Ronda Nelson, you are one of the most inspirational stories. Welcome, my friend, to the It’s a TRIBE Thing Podcast. Ronda: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be with you. Shelli: It is my pleasure to share not only your membership journey but also your personal journey with respect to how you started the membership. I know you started out as an accountant and ended up with a Ph.D. in holistic nutrition and are a master herbalist. Can you talk about what happened in the accounting job and where you are now and how you came to be a membership site owner you are today? Ronda: Yeah. That kind of makes me laugh because I really never thought about it like that. Thanks for pointing that out. But yeah, it’s like they’re pretty opposite, aren’t they? I never really thought about it. I know, polar. So, I started out with my left brain super dominant. I love helping people. So, I found that as an entrepreneur myself that there were business owners that needed help and they would bring me like their shoebox full of receipts and invoices and bank statements and canceled checks back in the day and they just were like, “Oh, I filed my taxes in two weeks. Can you help me?” and I knew how to do it so I went, “Okay. Well, I can do that,” and I started working with accounting firms and I just got really good at it and made a little business, made some money and I was good at that. And then in 1993, we had quite a distraction in our life. My oldest daughter at 10 years old was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, and they basically said there’s no like she’s stuck. There’s no chance this is going to turn around. And so, Make-A-Wish came out and for anyone who knows, any of the listeners know, the Make-A-Wish shows up you know that the kiddo is going to die like that’s it. So, Make-A-Wish came and that’s a whole other funny story but anyway, yeah, they come and they give her what she wants, which wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted a trip to Disneyland. She was nodding the bat but anyway you got to do what you got to do. So, Make-A-Wish comes out. They go away and we’ve got a new thing which is what she wanted and I kept saying that something’s not right about this like children should not have cancer. This is so not okay. It not okay in anyone’s book. When I was a young girl the only people that got cancer were old people like old people in their 80s. Those people got cancer, not a 10-year-old and especially not my 10-year-old. Thank you very much. This is not okay on my watch. So, I just started reading and digging and looking and reading and reading, and I had all of a sudden, I just had this aha moment and I went, “Oh my gosh,” like this cancer thing has a lot to do if not everything to do with what you eat. And I knew today, that sounds like the dumbest statement in the world because we know that, but back in the 90s that was not as common like at least not in my world. And when I have that aha moment, I went, “Oh my gosh, this has everything to do with diet and was the queen of mint chip ice cream, Little Debbie Oreo Cookies or Little Debbie Oatmeal Cookies, top macaroni and cheese, and we thought that it was healthy when you put hot dogs and frozen peas in it. Like that was a good meal, man. We were on it. We were serious. That was health food at its finest right there and that’s just how I grew up. So, when I made that correlation, I went, “Oh yeah, this accounting thing is all fine and dandy, but there’s a bigger mission out here that needs to get to have an answer and I have got to help. I’ve got to help these people.” So, I completely shifted and I went back to school and 10 years later in early 2000, 2003, 2004 I opened my own clinic and started helping people. Shelli: Wow. I don’t even know where to start, honestly. So, I love though the resiliency of the human spirit. So, here you are as an accountant. You have literally no medical training. No nutritional training. No background whatever. You’re just a mama bear with a problem to solve, and so for those people listening like hopefully none of you are in this particular position, but we all have those moments where we’re like, “Wow, something’s going wrong. How do I fix it? How do I solve it? I’m wondering if you can share kind of like what happened next to you and how you became, you know, how you ended up with a membership site specifically and how that membership site is now impacting not only the lives of the people that you’re helping but in the lives that they go on to impact because they’re happier, they’re healthier, they’re more productive? Ronda: Yeah. That’s a great question. Once I started to kind of get in, when I started to open my clinic, you graduate from school and you think you know everything and it’s really fast before you realize that you know nothing. And so, my first few patients that I saw, clients that I saw, I wasn’t as successful with them as I wanted to be and so I knew there was more that I needed to know and that just because I graduated, that didn’t mean that the learning stop. So, I kept learning and my favorite word in the English language is why. That’s my favorite word, why. When kids, two-year-old and three-year-olds get that word, you think you want to like put them in a box and put tape on their mouth, right? Why? Why, mommy? Why, mommy? But I found out that that to me is the best word because if I hadn’t asked why so much, I wouldn’t have been able to figure out the solution and, by the way, as just for the listeners to know so I don’t leave everybody hanging, my daughter lived and she was born in ‘82 so, yes, she’s like 30, going to be 37 this year and she has four kids and has a very successful online business. And so, I knew that I was on to something. So, when I opened my clinic, I said, “Well, I can apply these same concepts and I can start having people start to change what they eat and start to replenish maybe some of the nutrient deficiencies that might be there and I kind of started going down that road and I got more success and more success and within about two years, I had a waitlist practice like people waiting six and eight weeks to get in to see me. And I thought, okay, look, now this doesn’t scale well because I’m now trading time for money. This isn’t working for me because I had no freedom, I had no flexibility. I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t say, “Oh, hey, let’s just take a couple of days off.” I can do that because I have these people that were waiting two months to get in to see me. I was basically a prisoner, so to speak, in this job that I really did love and so I thought, “Okay. I have to be able to scale this.” So, how I can scale this is there’s only one of me, but there are thousands and thousands and thousands of other wellness or alternative holistic healthcare practitioners like myself out there and if I can teach them what I know then they can go impact their little tribe. And I don’t have all those people coming to see me and tying me down so that I have no – I felt like I was trapped. So, I started teaching and I started traveling all over the country and I was teaching big sold-out continuing education seminars to healthcare professionals that were just like me and just wanted better ways to help their patients. And so, that took off and I was traveling all over and ended up being gone about 30 weekends a year. So, now I’ve created a bigger problem. I now have patients every day and five during the week, four or five days a week full days’ worth of people that I’m helping and helping and then I leave on a Friday, teach all day Saturday, half a day Sunday, fly home Sunday night, exhausted on a Monday, get back up and do it again on Tuesday and that was my life and I thought, okay, this isn’t working either because now I’m helping more people, but I’m not taking care of myself. Shelli: At the expense of your own health, ironically. Ronda: Exactly. Right, which is like so crazy because look at the steal that I’m in, right. So, about three-and-a-half years ago in January, about three-and-a-half years ago I kind of have a big crash and within 24 hours I was not pretty much nonfunctional emotionally. I was on the couch. I was crying all the time. Within a day or two, I had open sores on my leg, a couple on my leg. I had an infection in my navel. Who gets an infection in their bellybutton? Me. I had it like underneath my cuticles. I had a staph infection in my leg and literally my poor little immune system and my ability to adapt and cope with this crazy lifestyle, I literally hit the wall. So, now I am now becoming the person that I need to fix and it was a huge wake-up call for me that this model that I had created, although very satisfying, was not working well for me. So, it took me a couple of years but I ended up winding down, and that the teaching gig, teaching these practitioners kind of stopped abruptly, another story, but it stopped abruptly and it was the greatest gift because it forced me to go, “Okay, now I’m not on the road 30 weekends a year.” Now, I can start creating a membership site or a way that I can get this information out to these practitioners to help them do what they need to do. I can impart what I know. Give what I know to them and then they can go out and help their people. And when those people, when their patients feel better, they’re better mothers and they keep their marriages, and they keep their jobs, and they can parent better and they’ve got energy to be able to take care of their children and they can take vacations because they’re not exhausted and tired like I was sick, digestive issues, stress, you know. Lord, please. Nobody with staph infections, but it happens and I just pushed it way, way, way too hard and too far. And so, not being on the road was a gift but being able to create a membership where I can impart information and give them what they need to be able to be better clinicians has now freed me up so much. So, now I get to create content and material for them and impact them and I have a life. Shelli: That’s amazing. Ronda: Awesome. Shelli: I love what you said about you kept using the word gift, and I have a saying that I use often and it’s that not all gifts come wrapped in a bow. Sometimes they come wrapped in like hardship or kick in the butt. You not only did this and I will never refer to your daughter’s illness as a gift by any means, but this health… Ronda: It was. Shelli: And then also the business stopping abruptly, both of those things were pointing you in a direction that was so much more aligned with who you are and who you be in the world, but the other thing that I wanted to drive home for everybody is when you have a membership site and you’re able to care for yourself and kind of be in your zone and impact more people, people are very quick to say, “Here’s what I provide for my members,” but to your point, you talked about, not just a feature of what you provide your members, but the benefit of what that actually means in the world going forward. When you know in your case these people are healthy, they have more energy, they feel better. So, what that means to the children that they’re parenting to the elderly parents that they’re caring for to their business, to their lives, to their health, to their sense of adventure, to their sense of hope. And so, I just want to really drive home that for everybody out there, you have a membership site or you’re thinking about having a membership site, there’s the feature of what the membership provides and then there’s the benefit and the ripple effect that goes so far beyond just what you provide specifically for your members. [ANNOUNCEMENT] Stu: 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: And I also loved what you talked about. You were talking about, you know, you have this will to help and you have this ability to problem solve and this has been inherent throughout your entire story, but the membership site allowed you to combine your will to help with your ability to administer self-care as well and the gift in that is now this is beautiful gift you have to offer people is now able to be sustained because it’s not exhausting you to the point with your back against the wall going, “I cannot do this anymore.” Ronda: Right. It gave me the ability to be able to say, “I’m going to take this afternoon off,” and I live in Las Vegas and so it’s sunny and wonderful and warm here and I can say, “I can take the afternoon off,” and I’m going to sit in the lawn chair or float in the pool and read,” or I’m going to say to my husband, “Let’s go on a motorcycle ride. Let’s go ride up in Red Rock Canyon for the afternoon.” I would have never been able to do that before but my heart can be at rest knowing that I can go do that because I know that I’m caring for people who are caring for people who are caring for people. Shelli: Just get goosebumps. Ronda: Like that’s why I get to sit. I can go on a ride today because I know my peeps are okay. Shelli: Yeah. Yeah. Ronda: Because they’re good. They’re all good. Shelli: Mama bear’s got her cubs looked at. Ronda: I’m good. My little cubs, my little tribe that I built online and my little Facebook community, they love each other, and they take care of each other, and they ask questions of, “Hey, I’ve got a patient that has X, Y, and Z. What would you all do?” The rest of them collectively come together and they say, “I would use this and maybe try this and have you ever thought about this?” And then my heart goes, “Okay. They’re good. I’m going to go on a motorcycle ride or I’m going to go lay in the pool which is great.” Shelli: There’s magic in having a community of like-minded people and in the TRIBE Community, we always say we’re better together, but the impact of what that actually means, when you have like-minded people coming together of service to each other, it really is like, you know, pulling all of your resources on steroids. Ronda: Yeah. Shelli: And you really can’t accomplish so much more when everybody – it’s kind of like I always say to people that are like trying to articulate their dream to people but maybe they’re at the beginning stages of that big vision they have and they don’t want to talk about it because what if they fail? And I just say to people like you’ve got to just say it out loud because at some point if you talk about it to enough people, somebody will say, “Oh, well, you should meet so-and-so,” and it’s kind of like that in the community, the membership community, where you ask enough people and somebody goes, “Oh, well, have you tried XYZ? And there are so many resources available to serve and to help them to create a bigger impact for not just each member but the membership as a whole. Ronda: Right. And the fact that the practitioners there’s so much noise I should say in my world like in this alternative health space, everyone is interested and like I don’t often – if I’m sitting on an airplane or I’m at a restaurant, you strike up conversation or something, I always just tell people, “I’m in the healthcare space,” because so many people are interested and if I say, “Oh, I’m an alternative healthcare practitioner,” like, “Oh, well, I have hemorrhoids. What do you do for hemorrhoids?” Like I don’t want to talk to you about your hemorrhoids right now. I’m not working. I’m eating. And so, there’s so much interest in this space but there’s also so much confusion. If you just type in alternative healthcare, there’s 20 million hits that you’ll find and everyone has a different approach and it’s okay that there’s a variety. So, in my space, there’s lots of people who do what I do but no one does it with my voice. Shelli: Well, and to your point also, I’ve heard many people say, “Well, you know, I’m thinking of starting a membership site on XYZ topic but one already exists and I say if you like photography, do you only ever buy one photography book? What that’s actually proving is there is a market for what you want and absolutely to your point, there will be people that are looking for the way you deliver it, your perspective, your voice, your personality, and who you be when you’re delivering the information. There is a spot for everybody. Ronda: Right. And don’t think that your voice isn’t important because what you have to say is so needed in the world and it’s not – I never questioned my voice because I knew that I was passionate about it and I knew that it would help someone. Even if it just helped one person, I guess the risk of me stepping out and being willing to help that one person if I could change that one life, I knew I could change many. So, I was willing to take the risk. I’ve never done a membership site before and, oh my gosh, talk about bumble around like hole. It was like I stumbled a lot when I started and I launched it. I actually started, decided that I was going to do it, and 10 days later I launched it. I wouldn’t recommend. Shelli: Wow. Ronda: I know. I would not recommend that. So, for anyone listening, don’t do as I do. This is the one time like he really just don’t want to do that. But I had great staff and all of us had a little PTSD after we were done but it was only because we crammed a whole bunch into a really short period of time. But I had a great launch, I have a great tribe, and next time I’ll do it the way that I’m supposed to do it but this time for my out-of-the-box, this is what I did and it worked but it was a little bit more stressful. So, see here, I am back in the same space. I get my back against the wall but I go, “Okay. I’m not doing that again.” Shelli: Yeah. But you also have the flavor of rocket fuel. You’re like problem solution, boom, here we go. I just have a few last questions for you and they’re kind of related. What advice would you give to somebody who is, A, entertaining the thought of starting a membership or, B, has a problem with their solving but doesn’t think it could be a thing that could turn into a membership site that people would pay month after month for. Ronda: Okay. So, for A, if you’re thinking about doing or starting a membership site, I would absolutely the only thing that I would say is, why are you still thinking about it? Why are you not doing it? Because thinking about it isn’t going to get you off of first base or home plate. You’re going to think about it forever, and that’s why I didn’t start mine either was because I just kept thinking, “Okay. Is the name right? Do I have the right logo?” Look at Stu, look at TRIBE, look at all their beautiful graphic. It’s like I’m a little bit of a perfectionist. I have to admit that and I just wanted it all be perfect but I’ve learned that B or B minus work is really okay. You still graduate, you still get a diploma with a C, right? Don’t wait, just don’t, because it doesn’t matter if it’s perfect. Just get it going. Don’t wait. Just get going. Shelli: Well, and it’s also too like you can’t steer a parked car. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to need until you actually start moving and then you’re like, “Oh, well, my members are telling me they want this. I didn’t even think that was a thing.” That comes so easily and so naturally to me that I didn’t even entertain the fact that it could be a thing but you won’t learn that until you start moving. Ronda: Yeah. Your parked car analogy is great. That’s exactly right. So, I would just say don’t wait to start. Just do something. Even if you put a survey out and you just surveyed the people that you know around you and if you don’t have a list, you don’t have an email list, it’s not hard to build. There’s lots of online courses that you can take. Pick the one that’s your right flavor but build that list to start and the way that you build is you give value. You just pour in them and love them and give them value, value, value and when you do that, people start to trust you and they start to go, “Wow. She really has my back,” and I think she probably knows what she’s talking about. So, I think I am going to listen to her. But it’s because I built the relationship first so don’t wait, start building a relationship so that you can start to serve your little tribe or group of people that you want to love on and you’re committed to helping them have better more successful lives so they can impact more people. So, that’s the answer to question A. Shelli: And question B was like you seem to have an affinity for problem-solving and turning the problem into a solution that’s beneficial to others. Would you have any advice on a reframe for people that are maybe solving a problem that they don’t deem something that might be worthy of teaching or helping or providing resources for other people in terms of that particular problem? Ronda: You know, honestly, I think it comes back to value. If you provide value for them, if you can solve the problem for someone, then you’ve got a membership site. If you have a solution to a problem and there’s more than one person that has a problem then bingo there you go, sister. You got a membership site. Shelli: Love it. Ronda: That’s it. I mean, that’s all you have to do. Just you don’t have to think, “Oh, do I need a membership site that’s international?” In my world, I don’t have an international, I can’t because what I do and the things that I have access to, and the herbs that I use, etcetera, it’s in the US so my market is here and it’s okay. So, but I can solve this problem for someone. So, first, figure out what is your superpower. What do you do really well? For me, I’m a problem solver because my favorite word is why. So, I just think, “Well, how can I fix that problem for you? What can I do? How can I help you?” And if you can help one person, then there’s going to be more people out there with the same problem and you’ve got a membership. So, don’t worry if you don’t think – if there’s nobody else doing it, you might just be the person to break into that space. No one was doing Uber before Uber started. Shelli: Exactly. Ronda: Right? Like sometimes you got to break into a new space and what if it doesn’t work? So? Not working means that it’s never a failure. All it is is wisdom. I don’t ever think of it as a failure. I just think of it as I just learned something. It was an opportunity to learn. Shelli: My friend James Wedmore says, “You either get the thing you wanted or get the lesson you needed.” Ronda: Exactly. That’s exactly right. So, don’t be afraid if there’s no one doing what you’re doing so be the first guy. Don’t be afraid to step out because if you step out and you go, “Oh, there’s only three people that need this solution in the whole wide world. Okay, maybe not a good plan,” and then go to Plan B but I would bet you, if you’re passionate about it, somebody else out there is passionate about it too. Shelli: And the thing is if it’s never been done before and you are passionate about it, it just might mean that you’re an innovator and a visionary. Ronda: That’s right. That’s exactly right. Just like Uber, I always think of Uber like look at that. Internationally successful company and it just start with an idea. Shelli: Well, thank you so much. You are ridiculously inspirational and I’m so grateful for your time, for your insight, and for the work you’re doing in the world. If people are looking for you online, where’s the best place they can find you? Ronda: We’re in the middle of the website transition but the best right now, the time that we’re recording this, the best website is RestorationHealth.net but the new rebrand which will be available soon is my name, RondaNelson.com. You know, my people are really alternative healthcare practitioners. I’m not taking any new patients at the moment because I’m trying to keep myself in a really awesome space so that I can serve and love on the doctors and the practitioners that I work with. But you’re welcome to come check me out on Facebook so Ronda Nelson. If you just google it, you’ll find me. Shelli: Amazing. Thank you so much, my friend. I appreciate your time. Ronda: You’re welcome. Thanks for having me. I loved it. [CLOSING] Stu: 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]