Mighty Network’s Gina Bianchini on How to Create a Community Worth Subscribing to

Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches

Gina Bianchini brings her community-building and subscription expertise to this episode. She joins Robbie to discuss the role of community in building a broader Forever Transaction, why some communities go off the rails, and how to use community as a starting point for membership, before layering in other elements of value, like content, digital courses and subscription commerce.

Highlights from this episode:

• 1:57 - Why Gina decided to create another online community platform after leaving Ning
• 5:40 - The distinction between launching a subscription company, and an ad-based one
• 8:20 - The Myth of More - why content is not always the answer
• 11:36 - Subscription Overwhelm and how to avoid it
• 13:00 - How MightyNetworks defines “community”
• 15:47 - Knowing when not to build a community
• 16:39 - How COVID turned a community from social running to career networking
• 18:12 - The importance of focusing on helping a customer achieve their goal, not consume a product
• 22:26 - Two common mistakes when building a community
• 23:25 - The right resources and structure for starting that nascent community
• 26:26 - MightyNetwork’s extra easy approach to onboarding
• 31:21 - Story Time: how a group of Cacao Growers built a MightyNetwork of their own
• 33:10 - Gina’s advice for entrepreneurs and executives who are sitting on the sidelines of community
• 34:48 - Robbie’s Speed Round

Gina's Bio:

Gina Bianchini is the Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks, an online platform that serves “creators with a purpose.” Creators can offer experiences, relationships, and expertise to their members via community, content, online courses, and subscription commerce. All of these features are offered in one place, under the creator's brand. In addition to Mighty Networks, Gina serves as a board director of TEGNA, a $3 billion broadcast and digital media company. Under Gina’s leadership, her prior company, Ning, grew to 100 million people in 300,000 active social networks across subcultures, professional networks, entertainment, politics, and education. Gina received a BA and MBA from Stanford University.

Links:

• Gina’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginabianchini/
• Gina’s Email: [e-mail]
• Oiselle Community: https://www.oiselle.com/pages/community
• Mighty Networks: https://www.mightynetworks.com/
• Robbie’s Membership Economy Lab: http://membershipeconomylab.mn.co/
• Robbie’s Book THE FOREVER TRANSACTION: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/the-forever-transaction/
• Robbie's Website: https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/podcast