Key Takeaways
- How Marilyn helps people get unstuck, find clarity, and take action to towards key life changes.
- The moment Marilyn realized she had a unique gift — and how she used it to first build a brick and mortar business, then an online class, and finally her membership business as she now runs it.
- The breakthrough that made Marilyn come to love the membership model.
- What Marilyn learned through TRIBE and what she did to scale from a four-figure to a six-figure membership business.
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Memorable Quote
Whenever we’re struggling with something in our lives, it’s usually because we don’t have clarity. We don’t know what to do. We don’t know what choice to make. When I took TRIBE, I got complete clarity about what my program was about, what my program consisted of, and how it was meant to be delivered.” – Marilyn Alauria
Episode Resources
Marilyn Alauria website Membership For Your Soul Soulful Living with your Guides (Facebook)Transcript
Read The Transcript
Shelli: Marilyn Alauria, welcome to It’s A TRIBE Thing. How are you, my friend?
Marilyn: Oh, I’m super excited to be here, Shelli. I love you, love TRIBE, and I can’t wait to share my stories with everyone to help inspire them if they’re thinking about doing a membership site because it’s been really incredibly life-altering for me.
Shelli: That’s awesome. So, I first got the opportunity to hear who you are and what you do and the people you serve, and I was fascinated. So, the first time I was introduced to you was TRIBE Live the year before last. So, I’m wondering if you will share with all of our amazing listeners who you are, what you do, and who you serve.
Marilyn: Yes. And you’ll probably be hearing my dog in the background maybe. I am a psychic medium teacher and coach and I teach people around the world how to get in touch with their intuition, their own innate gifts, so that they can live a life aligned with their soul, a life that they want to jump out of their bed excited to live. Not a life that they feel has been put upon them that they have to live. So, that is what I do, and I can’t remember the other questions because the dog barked so forgive me.
Shelli: So, the people who you serve are trying to get clear and you help them to be able to live a life that is passionate and aligned with what their soul is actually telling them?
Marilyn: Yes. So, a lot of people that I serve are people who are feeling bored by their life. They’re on the hamster wheel. They’re feeling the golden handcuffs of the job. They may even be in a position in their life where they can’t find the job because they’re not even excited about finding the job that they’re looking for. So, they’re just feeling very trapped and stuck and unmotivated in their life, and those are the people that come to me and then I’m able to help them to get tapped into an inner guidance system that really helps them align to their truth and listen to their inner wisdom and make choices and decisions from that place so that they’re in action, they’re taking action, and they’re not not taking action and just sitting on the couch waiting for something to change.
Shelli: I love this because I follow you online and have ever since the very first time I met you and it’s interesting to me how many people struggle with that and how you completely walk the walk like you recently completely uprooted your life and move to a place where you knew nothing based on the advice you give people on how to live and following your intuition and living and trusting your guides and things like that. So, it’s been really fabulous to be able to watch your personal journey walking the walk of what you teach people how to do.
Marilyn: Thank you. Yeah. It’s such a great place to be because I love being able to reveal the truth and be transparent and vulnerable with my audience because I always learn from other people’s stories like, Shelli, you have such an incredible story and I learned from people who share their truth at that level, and show us moments that they came out crying to the moments where they just stepped to the door anyway and made life happen. And this recent experience was really able to happen because I had a membership site as well that I was able to focus on of this magnitude as well as the inner guidance and then be able to move someplace where I didn’t know a soul, and never have had an experience like that in my life. It has completely been such an awakening, so incredibly I feel like I have courage now to do more than I ever thought I could do so I’m so grateful to the work that I do and even teaching others. You learn from teaching others. It’s so incredible.
Shelli: That’s incredible. Yeah. So, I’m curious, when you first realize you had this gift and this ability to tap in, how did that turn into online business for you? And ultimately, what ended up in you having a membership that allowed you the sanity and the regular recurring revenue to be able to make this movement to change your life the way you did, how did this gift transform from something that was an innate thing that you are indoctrinated with to something that you decided eventually, “I’m going to make this my career?”
Marilyn: And Shelli loves to make people cry with the questions. So, it’s such a long story as to how it came about but it’s something that I had since I was a child who didn’t know it and instead, for me, it translated into thinking I was crazy or making it up or PTSD. I had PTSD just because I was raised in such a traumatic home. And when my gifts really started revealing themselves, I was lucky enough to fall upon a psychic medium who said, “Learn how to use your gifts. It’ll move your life along,” and I had no interest in doing this work at all. I was on a whole other career path and as I studied with different people and even my own guides that I met, and I started learning how much better my life could be by following the advice and I went from suicidal to really enjoying what I was doing, it became an entire career. Like I started practicing to people and reading them and found that I was really good, and people started paying me and I was like, “Oh my goodness, I have a career,” but it was brick-and-mortar. It was physical, in person doing that. And I had an aha moment where I was like, “I don’t want to be chained to where I was living,” and at that time I was living in LA. I want to be able to create a business online and be able to live wherever I want. I never want to feel trapped again. I’ve had too many experiences to my life of feeling trapped. And it was a moment in my life where I was $150,000 in debt. Just bought a house. I was petrified, and my guides had told me, and guides are just – whether you peer it as intuition just for those who don’t understand that it doesn’t matter what it is to you. It’s just that inner wisdom.
They said, “Stop worrying about this. Just every time you worry about it, put your attention on us,” and I did. And in that process, an entire class dropped into my system and I wrote up the class and I sold it. So, that was my first online class. And from that process, seeing the change that it created in people, I recognize the benefits of having an online community and being able to grow an online community and to continue to teach them. And I found it to be much more so exciting to connect with people all over the world who are having similar problems and to be able to help them and guide them so that’s how membership came about because I, one, wasn’t going to be trapped in my life ever again and, two, look, Shelli, you and I’ve never met and we completely love each other and we don’t – that’s what online communities do. You create a place of safety and growth and it’s exceptional.
Shelli: Well, that was the first thing that struck me about the online community too when I was first introduced to it. It’s incredible the fact that you can have so much emotional support and build relationships with people that you have never physically met and like to your point, you’re a perfect example, that we have never met face-to-face. I saw you on stage at TRIBE Live. We’ve been best buds ever since. We communicate regularly and that is the power of having an audience and having a community and being able to take them on the journey with you and share your gifts to create transformation for them.
Marilyn: Yeah. And I like to say two quick things about that. One, I probably wouldn’t have had the guts as much to move to a place where I didn’t know a soul without having an online community because you have that there. The second thing, that is the one thing in my membership program because I have people in the corners of the world where they can’t talk about the things they’re going through with anybody around and in the physical. So, being able to have a safe community to come to and share in a setting where they feel supported and loved has been unbelievable for them and it’s been amazing for me to witness and to be able to hold that space for these people, to create a safe place for them.
Shelli: Totally makes sense and I agree wholeheartedly. But the thing with you though, you started a membership site long before you ever transitioned into the way you’re running it now. And I was wondering if you could speak into like what that was like for you initially because you are running like a well-oiled machine now, my friend, but that was not always the case for you. So, I was wondering if you could share what that looked like at the beginning for you.
Marilyn: Yeah. So, somebody had suggested to me, “Do a membership site,” and I was like, “All right, I’m going to do a membership site.” I finally was convinced. And really, I threw it out to my audience. I can’t member how many people joined. It’s like maybe about 50 or 60. It was a beta and I had it for like two years. I think the most we got up to like 80 people. And that’s great. For some people on here might be that’s wonderful but for me, I wasn’t really interested. I started losing my interest in it. The people in there started losing their interest. It wasn’t really very organized. It wasn’t a clear success path. This is why you’re joining. This is the result you can expect from this program. This is how your life is going to change and I just got to a place like why am I even doing this? It’s taking up more time because I wasn’t knowing how to do it right either. It was taking up more time and energy and it was making me feel bad about myself because I don’t like putting anything out there that’s kind of crappy. I don’t want a curse on this and I was like, “You know, this really sucks,” because people are coming to me and I’m not really interested anymore in this whole program and I don’t know what to do and I was ready to give it up.
And I got to tell you, one of the things we didn’t share is like I was in a one-on-one model and trading time for money on a one-on-one model, especially readings and helping people at that intense level, look, most people can’t experience this in a one-on-one model, was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting. I was at my wit’s end and I was really depressed, so something had to change. And since membership wasn’t giving me the outlet I needed, I was like afraid to let it go yet didn’t know how to grow it. So, I felt trapped. I felt like, “What am I going to do? This isn’t working. I can’t go back to the one-on-one model,” and that’s where I was when I found TRIBE and that’s the truth.
Shelli: So, how was it then when you had to reframe about because it sounds like what you’re saying is when you’re running the membership model in a way that was busy and it was maybe disorganized, probably the whole purpose of having a membership site is the fact that you get to create recurring revenue, you get create a community, you could have some stability, and also reduce that sort of overwhelmed feeling. But it sounds like for you because you had the membership site and also were running in a certain kind of way while you were doing your one-on-one readings and doing all of your other stuff, it was working kind of countered how it’s intended to work.
Marilyn: Completely. Because you talk about being busy. When you’re just disorganized or not disorganized, you’re distracted, you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t have a clear path, a clear understanding, a clear outline of what you’re putting out, you’re just kind of willy-nillying it so you’re wasting a lot of energy on not knowing what to do so you try something. It’s not working and then you’re like, “That’s frustrating,” and then you’re trying something else and then you’re trying to get people and then you’re trying to communicate with them and it just was a lot of like wasted energy in places that were not having any end results. Does that make sense?
Shelli: Totally. Yeah. So, not creating any traction either so all of the efforts you’re putting in and then still not creating the traction you are hoping for.
Marilyn: Totally. And then what happens with that is, personally, I felt like a loser. I’m seeing other people creating a success in their life and I’m like, “Wow. I really suck,” for lack of a better word. I’m like what am I doing here? I just can’t seem to be a success. And then I just started feeling worse about myself and it’s really hard to create a successful, look, you have those moments in your business no matter what level you’re at because you up level and you have a mindset shift you have to do, but I was really not feeling good about myself. I felt like everything I threw at the wall was just becoming a failure and that is a hard place to create from.
Shelli: Yeah. Exactly. Well, it’s interesting too because when you especially when the service you provide or the expertise you have is in such a place of either intuition or creativity, when you’re feeling emotionally drained because of that, it really does cut you off the knees and create one of those resistant situations whereby you’re not creating the gift that you’re meant to give in the first place.
Marilyn: Exactly. Yeah. Because we just started this whole conversation about how I walk my talk and how can – if I’m walking my talk at that moment, feeling like someone who should be hiding in the corner then what’s happening?
Shelli: Then what was the point at which everything shifted for you with respect to your membership?
Marilyn: One of the things for me was seeing people succeed in different areas of their life and having a thirst for it, seeing people being able to create a life where they could live wherever they wanted, and they could just work online and not be in the one-on-one model. I feel like I clearly saw that on the online communities that I was in and I thirsted for it so much. I was so desiring it and that was the turning point to me. It was like I’ve got to make something happen. I’ve got to make the changes in my life. I have to invest in myself because it always gets to the point like, “Well, you’re not making the money so how do you spend the money?” And it’s like, “No, I have to invest in myself to make this change because I’m not going to live like this any longer.” And luckily for me, this is why it’s so important to invest in programs in yourself and I’m not saying this because I’m being interviewed by you. I’m saying this because this was a life-altering change for me that I got into a community. It’s not like free Facebook groups. When you start getting into communities where you’re paying for programs, you need a different type of people and there’s a different type of accountability and investments from other people in the groups with you that want to help you out.
So, by doing that, there was a person that I become friendly with, Ricky Heller, who’s great and she was joining TRIBE and I got on the phone. Here’s somebody I never met. We met at the 90-Day Year, but we didn’t know each other before that and we’ve gotten to know each other and probably, well, okay we’ll talk about that. We met and once in the physical then we talked on the phone and everything, whatever. It doesn’t matter. I called her and I said to her, “Will you please tell me about TRIBE because I want to join.”
Shelli: For those that are listening because many people who are listening are part of the TRIBE community and many of them are not. So, what was the first twinkle in your eye with respect to TRIBE like what is it and what did you see it as for yourself and for your business?
Marilyn: So, it was Stu’s video, okay, like those freaking videos. Oh, my goodness. So, I saw that Ricky was joining. It was at the last like 24 hours because I just found out about it. I watched his video and how he created this freedom in his life and how people can create the freedom in their lives to live the life they desire with recurring income and with membership and not having to work 80 hours a week. When I watched that video, I was like, “That’s it,” and I got on the phone with this person who’d already joined, and she said that she thinks he’s – she doesn’t know anything about him, but he seemed great. This was the first time that was offered and she’s like, “He seems quirky and kind of fun, so I like him.” And I’m like, “All right. I’m joining. That’s it,” and I’m so glad I did.
Shelli: So, what were you hoping to get or what did you get from receiving that type of training from joining TRIBE? What did you get and how did that transform your membership as opposed to how your membership was running previous to that?
Marilyn: Okay. My membership was making like maybe 2K a month and now it’s a five-figure membership multiple six-figure membership if people want to know finances. And the main thing it did for me, the way Stu lays it out is so understandable and easy. It’s not one of those programs that you go, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with this. I’ll just shut this down.” Understanding the deliverables, the organization, creating, I remember sitting down creating the whole year content, normally, I would never do something like that because I didn’t like to work that way. That was so easy knowing what was coming next, being able to talk to my community about what was coming next, being able to see the success that they would have over the year from the content. It became so much easier. Just the way he made it understandable that this is what the four pieces that material you give out, when you give it out, how to run the community, it’s really not a lot of work and that was the turning point for me. And then launching it. When you believe in something, and you see that it’s organized, you’re willing to launch it bigger because you believe in it yourself and that changed everything.
Shelli: Yeah. To your point about creativity like I’m interested to ask you this question because it sounds like before when you had your membership site it was running the way you’re running it previous, it was overwhelming and it was stifling your creativity and you’d mentioned it wasn’t going well and you were feeling like a loser and you can’t create from a place where your creativity is being stifled. And then you learn a new way of doing it and it’s organized and it’s easy. What I’m interested in knowing though is clearly it has become successful, clearly it has become rewarding and far less overwhelming, but how did it change the feeling that you described before of that person who couldn’t keep all the balls near, couldn’t keep all the plates from spinning and felt like a loser? How does that compare to the way you’re running your membership site now?
Marilyn: Clarity. Focus. Whenever we’re struggling with something in our lives, it’s usually because we don’t have clarity. We don’t know what to do. We don’t know a choice to make. When I took TRIBE, I had complete clarity about what my program was about, what my program consisted of, and how it was meant to be delivered. Therefore, I was free of any distracting thoughts and energy and experiences. What am I going to do? How am I going to do? What’s going to happen? How are they going to receive it? I had none of that. I was so pumped and excited and inspired to create the material, to drip it out to them, and to communicate with them because I could stand behind it now. I had a clear vision and that is what changed everything.
Shelli: How did that change how you felt about yourself?
Marilyn: Oh, my goodness, Shelli. Well, first of all, I feel like, in any of these types of programs you recognize that the problems you’re having, you’re not alone, and then you recognize there’s a solution when you don’t think there is one. So, what I felt about myself was I have something here and there is the solution. And if I struggle at moments, you know, you go through launches and there are times when you just want to quit, and you have those moments, but you know that it’s just a moment, it’s going to pass, and then there’s going to be something greater behind it. So, that’s what changed for me. I became a CEO of my business because of this. I’m going to tell you something Stu said to me, and it was a life-changing moment for me. I didn’t focus on retention, which is keeping people in, and here I was at TRIBE Live and I was being featured as one of the people up there. I’m sitting at lunch with a bunch of people and Stu, and I told him this, I was embarrassed, and I said, “But you know what, Stu, I’m going to get on the plane and I’m going to make it better and I’m going to work on retention now and it’s going to succeed,” and he said, “Now you’re a CEO because you’re no longer worried about failing. You know that there’s going to be moments that are going to be difficult and you’re,” he didn’t say exactly this, “And you’re ready to walk through it,” and that was a life-changing moment for me.
Shelli: Isn’t it ironic that having the community and the top of this interview we were talking about community and how that allowed you personally to make this huge life altering change and move to a completely different place where you knew nobody? And part of the reason was because you have the support of the community that you built. Yet, the thing that has up-leveled your business is being part of a community of like-minded people as well. Not just leading one, but also being part of one as well.
Marilyn: That to me is one of the biggest things in business and I have to tell you and I’m not going to say the program. I was in another, I didn’t, I don’t go to a lot of networking events, so I didn’t up until TRIBE because I can’t be in big crowds, whatever that may be. I went to an event the year before TRIBE and I felt it very competitive in the room and I was like, “I don’t like this. People aren’t really helping each other. It’s just a lot of competition.” Then I went to TRIBE and it’s a huge lovefest and what’s interesting to me is everybody’s running memberships but nobody’s competing with each other. Everybody’s sharing their secrets. This is what works for me in evergreen. This is what works for me. You know, and that comes from Stu. Stu is a very, very compassionate, caring person about all the people that he really wants to see you succeed. He’s invested in that.
Shelli: Yeah. Champion of community for sure.
Marilyn: Say it again, Shelli. I want to hear that.
Shelli: The champion of community for sure. A new way for business that instead of competing and being conflicted, you’re now co-creating and collaborating. And, man, like that’s the whole purpose of community of both leading a community and being part of a community is exactly that.
Marilyn: Exactly. And now I’m not, because of that moment I’m like, “Oh, I can go to more, I’m going to a retreat next week of transformational leaders,” like that would be something I wouldn’t do because of like past experiences, but now I’m like, “No, this is great.” And then in the physical like it’s great now to meet people in person and forge even relationships that go further. And you know what’s so great about these experiences too is then I have people that I meet in these communities. Now, they’re guest speakers on my membership or I’m not even creating content anymore. I am now free from creating content. I have guest teachers creating content for me.
Shelli: Incredible. So, what a difference a day makes as they say like starting out, being completely overwhelmed and now you’re out there networking with people. You’re having other people help create the content with you and for you and co-create it and your overwhelm is now hovering somewhere around to zero.
Marilyn: Exactly. Exactly. I mean, for me to be able to buy a house in a completely different location that I had to keep flying up to and to sell a house in four months and had to step away from my business and my business is still operating and money is still coming in while I make this huge life change, that to me was a whole other level of how important membership is, besides the fact that the people I’m helping. That’s the biggest part, to see their success, to witness their journeys, and even when they choose to leave. I celebrate them because they now are graduating to a whole other level. That to me is amazing. I love my community.
Shelli: Well, I am blessed and privileged to be part of your community as well and I’m also so grateful for you to be able to come on and share your story and spend some time. So, if people are looking for more information about Marilyn Alauria or Membership For Your Soul, where can they find you online?
Marilyn: Definitely, MarilynAlauria.com so I’m sure my name is spelled out in somewhere on here so you can spell that out or you can go to MembershipForYourSoul.com and if it’s not open, join the waitlist and you can learn more about how I work. And then I’m very active on my Facebook business page which is MarilynAlauria1 and that is me, not somebody else posting and I also have a Facebook group called Soulful Living With Your Guides so you can test me out.
Shelli: Amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time and thank you so much for letting us get a peek behind the curtain of all things Membership For Your Soul.
Marilyn: You’re welcome. Thank you, Shelli.
