Ep. 18 | Building Community That Lasts with Paige Vandy

What if the goal wasn't just building recurring revenue—but building a community people genuinely want to be part of?

In this episode of The Legacy Edit, I sit down with membership expert Paige Vandy to talk about what it really takes to create a thriving membership, from finding your first members to building a business that doesn't rely on you being "on" every single day.

We dive into the mindset shifts that come with moving beyond one-on-one services, the importance of creating spaces where people feel like they belong, and why sustainable growth starts with serving people well—not chasing numbers. We also talk about entrepreneurship, motherhood, and what legacy looks like when you're building both a business and a life you actually enjoy living.

Whether you're thinking about launching a membership, growing a community, or simply creating a more sustainable business model, this conversation is packed with practical insight and thoughtful perspective.

Connect with Paige

Website: https://paigevandy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themembershipmuse/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@themembershipmuse

Million Dollar Memberships Club:
https://paigevandy.com/million-dollar-memberships-club

Join Paige's Next Challenge

If you're ready to grow your membership and work toward your next 100 paying members, Paige is currently hosting a three-day challenge designed to help membership founders build momentum and scale with intention.

Learn more and register here:
https://milliondollarmembershipspodcast.paigevandy.com/offers/Rmx3Z24o

Connect with Sarah Nicole + The Legacy Edit

Follow along on Instagram: @sarahnicolecreative
For inquiries, collaborations, or support: hello@sarahnicolecreative.com

Work With Me
Sarah Nicole is the founder of Sarah Nicole Creative, where photography, strategy, and community intersect.
Details on current offerings, memberships, sessions, and events can be found through the links in the show notes, on Instagram, or on my website below;

Sarah Nicole Creative

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About the Show
The Legacy Edit is a podcast about identity, healing, leadership, and building a life that actually fits.
We talk about personal growth, relationships, and creative work with clarity and intention—without the noise.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Legacy isn't built in grand moments. It's shaped quietly through the choices we edit every single day. Welcome to the Legacy Edit. This is where identity, relationships, and business stop competing with each other and start working together. Because you can't build something sustainable if your life isn't aligned. We have real conversations about the attitude takes to grow, the mindset, the standard, the decisions and the rooms that you choose to be. I'm Sarah Nicole, the legacy architect. And this is where we refine how you think how you move and how you build. So your life and your business are reflected. So let's get into it.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Hello and welcome back to the Legacy Edit, the podcast where we have honest conversations about identity, relationships, entrepreneurship, and the legacy we're building along the way. Today's guest has built her business around helping entrepreneurs create something many of us are searching for. A business that creates impact without requiring you to be everywhere all the time. She's a membership mentor, a business owner, and a mom who helps entrepreneurs build thriving membership communities that create recurring revenue while fostering genuine connection. After beginning with one-on-one coaching, she recognized the power of creating a model that could serve more people while building something sustainable. Today we're talking about what it really takes to build community, the lessons that come with growing a membership, and how entrepreneurship evolves as life changes around us. Please help me welcome Paige Fandy.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

Hi, thank you for being on.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

So before we dive into any questions, I would love if you would just take a second and introduce yourself to the odd to the listeners, kind of give us a quick, you know, who you are, what it is exactly that you do.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Yeah, so my name is Paige Bandy. You might follow me on social media at the membershipmuse. And just like Sarah outlined here, I specialize in online membership communities and more so specifically scaling online membership communities. Um, so helping founders, entrepreneurs, creatives, honestly, I everyone right now is like truly benefiting from having a community. Um, just really helping those people, you know, get the community set up, figure out how what actually makes a community thrive and run, and how to actually get money with your community, how to make sure that you are consistently um, you know, locking in sales and can growing your community.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

I love that. I know I excuse me, I binged as soon as I found you, I binged the membership news podcast, like the the mini-series one. I think you did. And I was like the amount of value that you packed into that, and things that I hadn't even thought about were just it was really cool to hear um somebody's perspectives and teachings who's built such a big model. Um, so that was really cool. So I want to touch on that in a little bit, but one of the things that you talk about is realizing you were building a business with an expiration date before shifting into memberships. So, was there a specific moment that made you realize like I just can't keep building this way?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah, yeah. It's kind of funny because I stumbled into memberships a little bit, like I created something. I'll do you want me to go into like the full story of how I created this? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Please do.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Okay, okay. So I'll try and give like the I won't go super, super long with this, but basically what ended up happening is I started in the online space because I personally started working with an online fitness coach, and this was like back in 2014, I think it was like a long time ago, before fitness coaches online were really a thing. Like everyone was kind of like, What you're working with someone online? How does that make sense? Um, but I was working in a corporate setting, so I lived somewhere where like gas and oil was a really big industry, and um I was doing field admin work and HR work for an oil and gas company, so I was on a salary job, it was quote unquote like a safe job, right? And um, during that time I got really into health and fitness and started working with this online coach. I didn't even work with a personal trainer in person, I just went straight to online. I liked it, I don't know what it was, and I just became absolutely obsessed. Like, was spending all of my time on the bodybuilding.com website. Um at this time, though, not really thinking this was something I wanted to personally do, I was just like really obsessed with the whole concept of it. I was like binging other um fitness coaches on Instagram, like that was a really huge thing, just like curated pictures and all of the stuff. So I got really into that world, and then it kind of came naturally, and this is kind of like a thread that goes throughout my entire career in the online space. But people in my office started really coming to me and asking me, How are you doing this? Like, we're all going out for lunch, I don't feel good, you're always packing this lunch, you like still can hang out with us, but like you have this routine. We see you like putting in your protein powder in the lunchroom, and then you're going to spin class on your lunch, and like whatever, all of this stuff. And so I kind of naturally just started helping people and like giving tips, and like people just started coming to me in my office, it was a really weird thing. Like, people would be standing at my desk, there'd be a group of people, and we were like talking fitness, and it was just like this really weird thing, and so I eventually was like, Oh, I could probably do this. Like, I went to school, I went to business school, got into this job that's really it was hard to get into. It wasn't like just something that they I kind of got in through the backdoor connections, whatever. It was something that my family was like, What the hell are you doing? kind of thing. When I was like, Oh, I want to be a personal trainer after like having this job. And so, long story short, went and got all my certifications, did all the things, and ended up being an online fitness coach for a little bit. That's where I started one-on-one coaching with people. Then one day, I kind of like to your point with your question of building this business with an expiry date. I started to see momentum with my online business and my one-on-one business, but I personally was exhausting myself. Like, I was this fitness coach, but I couldn't even make it to the gym half the time myself. I was eating meals at my computer, I was not taking breaks, like I was so busy between updating meal plans and doing email check-ins and doing like video calls, and then I had my clients on Voxer, like one-on-one messaging support, and I was so busy. And I remember one day I would like go in these waves too. That was another thing, is I would be I would have no clients, and I would be like in this fear and survival mode, being like, Holy shit, I need to make money. So I was like on Instagram in the DMs looking for people, feeling just like I hate doing this, I hate reaching out to people and like trying to create content at the same time. But it's like your content sucks when you're literally like, How am I gonna pay my groceries or how am I gonna pay my rent this month? You know what I mean? So it would be like that, and then I would get this influx of clients because all I was doing was trying to get clients, and then I would go into this space of like, okay, I have money coming in, but I have no free time, I have all of these people, and it would just like go in this up and down wave. And I remember one time just sitting there thinking to myself, like, can I I'm building this business, but can I keep this up for another five years? Like, do I want my life to look like this for five years, ten years down the road? Like, it was kind of this scary feeling of you're building this business kind of on quicksand, where it's like, you know, if you're in a regular job, you can kind of move up in your company and you kind of have this like safety salary and all the things, but it's like it's a scary feeling when you're building a business that you try and imagine a year down the road, and you're like, I don't want to be doing this. How am I gonna be making money? What am I even doing? So it's almost like this I don't know, dread existential crisis kind of thing. And I remember one day I was just sitting at my kitchen table and I was journaling about like what I really wanted for this business and what would actually light me up, and also what would be really good for my clients. Because at the same time, it was like I was working with clients one-on-one, and while they were getting good information from me, and like you know, we'd get on our call once a month or twice a month, whatever it was. In between those times, they were just alone because it was online, right? So they were alone, and I mean, even with in person, it would be the same, but they were alone. Maybe their husband didn't understand what they were doing, so like she would just have this great call with me and then go talk to her husband, and he's like sitting on the couch eating chips and being like, What did you just do? You know what I mean? So it was just like that was something I was noticing was my clients would be really motivated with me on the call and then fall off track in between the calls, and I'd be like, What's going on? Right. And so when I was writing about these things, like what would be best for my people, what would actually help them? I ended up writing for like an hour, and it ended up being this kind of community model where I was like, Okay, well, I could get these people in, I keep looking at, or I'm thinking of the same when we're getting on our calls together, I'm answering the same questions over and over again. Wouldn't it be cool if I could create something where if they came into this program, they had that information. And then when we did calls, not only would they have me, but they would have all of these other women who are also on this journey doing the same thing. They could hear, they could get their questions answered, but then they could also hear what other people are struggling with or what's working for other people and all of the things. And to me, that just seemed like very obvious. I was like, this is how people are going to get results. It's not just people don't need more information, they need an actual community, they need to be in a world in which they're trying to get a result in. So that was kind of just how the membership thing came to be. And when I created that, I didn't even know it was a membership because in my mind, I thought a membership was like this $20 offer that you know people just kind of had as like a bottom feeder thing. Um, and like at that time, this was 20, I think it was either late 2018 or early 2019.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Okay, yeah, I was gonna ask what year this was.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Yeah, it was pretty early, and so there wasn't like a lot of people doing it, especially the way that I was doing it. And so I and also like this was not a $20 thing, this was like $300 a month, and then I increased it to $400 a month, and it kind of just like scaled from there. I had different tiers, all of the things. Um, and that changed my business forever. That ended up being something that people loved. I created this world and it just completely changed everything forever.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

I love that. I know because I'm trying to think like 2018-2019, that was right around the first time that I because I started photography in 2016, and so 2018-2019 was the first couple years where I was kind of looking for community and coaching, and I remember the space then it was it wasn't like that. Like there might be like small community cohorts, but nobody really knew how to navigate memberships, nobody really knew what that would actually look like or what it should look like. So that's really cool. And I know a lot of people, especially now, you know, we really think membership is just recurring revenue. That's why I feel a lot of people are like, Oh, you need to do a membership, you need to I'm gonna do and they look at it only as recurring revenue. But what I love about your story is that you've really built it around community, right? You started it before the community aspect, and then it just kind of turned into you know what it is now. I feel like most people now, when they think I'm gonna start a membership, or maybe their coach tells them like the next step for you is starting a membership. I feel like it really comes from the recurring revenue aspect because that is what we know memberships to be now. Um, but you started yours, you know, with the intention of community and then it flourished into you know recurring revenue. So, what is your take on the difference between building a paying audience and building a community of people who actually want to stay part of?

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Yeah. So the biggest thing when it comes to memberships, and this is where most people kind of miss the mark because exactly like you said, people think, okay, I'm gonna build a membership, this is gonna be great, there's gonna be a community aspect, there's gonna be trainings, whatever. They just kind of like stuff this online space with stuff where it's just like if I get people into a group and I have resources for them, they're gonna figure it out. Like, this is great, the community will start. I just need to get more people in. So, what ends up happening is people spend so much time creating the membership, the structure of it, putting it on kajabi, school, whatever, like doing all of that stuff. They've spend so much time creating modules and videos and like all of that kind of stuff, put it in there. They spend so much time on social media trying to get people inside of it, and then they kind of just hope that by doing those things everything is going to work out. But the main piece is that everything is going to actually stem from your community. So, like, when I'm working with clients or members inside Million Dollar Memberships Club, we're not focusing, like, the content and all of that kind of stuff is like the last thing on my mind. Like, I'm a fan of like create the community and don't even have that stuff in there yet. You don't need it, like, truly, what you need is you need to understand what people are going to find valuable for your community. Like, why would being in a community for them make the world of difference? You have to understand that, and then you have to really understand the pill, like the main pillar of a membership is community and connection. And what so many people are used to doing is creating an audience because we're on social media, right? We're creating content and we're like talking at people or giving tips and tricks and like all this stuff. So then we go into our communities and we repeat the same patterns. We're just like, here's a tip for doing this today. Hope everyone's having a good Monday. You know what I mean? Like, we're just kind of filling the community with stuff when in reality your community is only ever going to take off when your members are connecting to members, and that's what is actually going to create a community in there. So, like, I always say too to my clients, you almost want to be working to getting yourself more and more and more removed from your community every single month. And you want your members to be the ones who are really holding the group together and talking to each other. But as the founder and as someone creating a new community, you have to be the one to really initiate that, and you also have to be the one to kind of train your members on that, right? Because people aren't just gonna come in community and just start talking to people, like you have to actually set that precedence of what that looks like.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

So, with that, I'm really curious on because I've I've been, I honestly, since that 2018-2019 time frame, I can't even count the number of memberships I've been in for like varying reasons, right? Some are more networking communities, some are coaching communities, some are photography communities, some are paid, some are free, high ticket, low ticket, right? I've I've kind of been in a little bit of all of them. And I know what I personally prefer from the consumer standpoint, right? But I'm really curious with that um when you're saying, you know, you want to be more and more remote, which I I I see that. But my question is then where I'm trying to think of how to put it into words. I guess not necessarily like what would then be the role, or like, is it is that only does that only work for a specific type of community? Does that kind of make sense? Because like if you're removing yourself more and more, and maybe it's because I'm looking at it from most of the memberships I've been in have been the kind where it's info dumping or resources. So when you're building that community and your goal is to get them engaged with each other, and you're slowly removing yourself a little bit each month. So, what is then does that only work for a certain type of model? Or like, does that question make sense?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

I'm like, in my brain, I know what I'm trying to say, but like getting I was saying, like, yeah, are you are you asking if you remove yourself, how are people actually getting the information that they need inside of the membership or like the results if they're just kind of like into each other?

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Is that what you mean? Yeah, yeah, so like taking it because then from an outsider's perspective, that kind of sounds like then it's just community and not maybe the initial intention that they joined for. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Yeah, yeah. So it works for every sort of community, but it also depends on like what kind of community you have. So, for an example, like you said, you've joined networking communities, right? If you are constantly trying to take yourself out of the community, you still want to have pillar posts in your community. So I call these like your regular weekly cadence posts. These are things that your members can expect, but they're not just like info dumping sort of posts, unless for some reason that's it pertains to your membership. But like for the majority of memberships, it's going to be your weekly cadence things that people can expect on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

So for example, was that like the win Wednesdays that some groups have where it's like share a win type situation?

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Yeah, it could be like win Wednesdays, it could be like Monday weekly planning, it could be Friday check-ins, it could be what there's a QA, like it could be all of these things, right? Okay, within those, you want to make sure that everything is always going to be tied to a result of why your people are joining. So, for example, if you're like in a networking kind of community, maybe on Mondays you have something where it's like highlight what you do and your expertise, and then everyone posts in there, and then also maybe on that post it says something about like connecting with someone who you think you can collab with this month. You know what I mean? So it's like on there, you're it is driving directly the result of what this networking community is there for, but it's also getting people to connect with other people inside of something that's more like results-driven, like my membership, we have uh was it what's an example for mine? So on Wednesdays, sometimes we do like a give and an ask Wednesday. So basically, for my membership, our members are working towards building seven-figure memberships. That's the whole goal, right? So then on Wednesdays, if we have a give and an ask, what this does is two things. It helps people come in every Wednesday, they know what to expect. They can give something that's working for them in their membership right now, and then they can ask something that they're struggling with. So, like, I don't know what to post this week, what's working for you guys, right? So then when people are posting inside of there, they're seeing all these people's gives, and they're like, Oh, I never thought of this. I'm gonna try that in my community, or they're also helping other people, and it's getting people connected to their membership, it's getting people direct results because they're seeing what's uh what's working, and it's also getting people to connect to each other and actually create a community. So there's that, and it's really just also you know, when you have these posts going in there, you're posting them unless you have a community manager posting them, right? So, but you're posting them, so you're in the community. But number one, these are like scheduled posts that go out, and number two, they're not direct asking you questions as the founder. Everything you want in there needs to be connecting members, not connecting yourself. So that's like kind of the first point when it comes to the results. And then the second thing is also if you have a membership that's geared like mine, which is a you know a big result, that needs more. More than just community, obviously, right? Like that means strategies. So we need to teach sales, we need to teach marketing, we need to teach all of these things. That's how that's where we kind of train our members of the differences between using our content and using our community, and we train them on what the purpose is of each thing. So obviously, our content, that's where you're going to actually learn the specific strategies, dive into our challenges specific for what it is that you're working on inside of your membership building phase. But then our community, that's where you actually implement. So we want you in there every single day, checking in with the community, posting what you're working on, connecting with another member, answering our giving our asks, checking in on Mondays, doing your check-in on Fridays. Like that's how we kind of train our members on, you know, you're your learning happens here, but your implementation and results happens when you come to community and you come to our calls and things like that. Does that answer it or did I?

SPEAKER_02 22:56

No, that makes so much sense. Yeah. I mean, and that answers my question. I mean, I live so I've always loved like exploring different memberships and seeing kind of like what works. And so I I love this conversation. Um, but so what you just said right now, um when because again, I've seen so many different both like models. So what is your take on a membership where so they have the content pieces, but they're not run necessarily by the membership owner, right? Maybe they're some of them are run by the membership owner, but then it's like expert calls um where maybe that's like so you know, talking about for you in particular. So for you, I'm sure like you lead all of your sales, like you these are things that you have the genius in, right? So what about memberships where maybe they don't have the genius in those areas, but that's still a community that they're trying to bridge? Is that something that you've seen work? Do you recommend it? Do you not recommend it? Like, what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Yeah, like are you asking a community where the premise of it is a community having people connect, but then also just like bringing in guest experts to do the teachings?

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Yeah, like alongside the owner of the membership.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Yeah, anything can work as long as you have a very clear result of what you know what I mean, what is that result for the community? So if you don't, if you want to create a community where it's actually really not about you and it's just about say, let's just say, like entrepreneurship, for example, right? So let's just say you're creating an entrepreneurship community, you maybe feel like you're not an expert in anything entrepreneurship, but you love entrepreneurship and you love the conversation and you know the power of bringing people together. So let's just say you're starting a community like that, and your whole premise is okay, I want to have a community of women entrepreneurs. This is gonna be a place for people to collab, connect, get to know each other, come up with opportunities or have opportunities presented to them, all of the things grow. And then for the results, like the content or whatever you want to call it, that is where you bring in experts, and maybe there's an expert on marketing, maybe there's an expert on mindset, manifestation, whatever. As long as for you as the founder, you can very clearly articulate this is where your life is right now, this is where you want to be. Here's how the membership creates that bridge. Here's how you're gonna get there through this membership. So, truly, anything can work as long as you have a very specific, clear transformation, bridge, transition for your people. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 26:05

No, that makes so much sense, and I love that. And I love like this is this is why I'm so excited to have this conversation. Like, you clearly, like you just listening to you know that you are a genius in your field, like knowing what you do. No, it's really cool. Like, and I knew as soon as I heard the podcast, like I knew I wanted to have you on, and then you sent out that email, and I'm like, oh okay, it's fate, I have to have her on.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

But one thing that I did want to kind of go back to touching on, so you mentioned, you know, we feel like we have to grow an audience, right? Because we're in social media and we're so focused on an audience versus necessarily community. So when you're teaching your clients or when you're advising or when you're looking at other memberships, I what do you see most people focusing on that doesn't actually move the needle when it comes to excuse me, when it comes to building their membership?

SPEAKER_00 27:02

That doesn't move the needle. So I when I see people build a community, I feel like so many people focus, kind of like I said before, they focus on just the content and they focus on like all of the stuff and the resources and the things that the people are going to get, and they focus on like the the membership aesthetic itself, which that's important, in my opinion. I love a good aesthetic, so like it is important, but it's not like a main focus, you know what I mean. Whereas, like, when you are really trying to get a community going up and running, you really need to be focusing on three areas. It needs to be visibility, first of all, because people aren't gonna know about your membership if you're not visible, and that's something that so many people struggle with because people will spend so much time doing the content, structuring the membership, putting it in school or wherever they're putting it, and then they just don't have time to create content or like don't feel like that's their job, you know what I mean? Where it's just like, well, I'm not a content creator, I'm I'm this, and this is what I want to do. So people completely just I don't know the word I'm looking for right now, but disregard it, I guess. You know what I mean? And then they can't grow their community because they don't have the eyes there, they don't have the people there, there's no awareness around it. So that's one. The second one is people don't actually know how to get sales for a membership community. So when I say that, I'm kind of hesitating because when people are so used to just like being on social media and creating content and they're excited for this membership, they feel like just talking about the membership or like posting it on stories or creating awareness around it is going to be enough to sell a membership. And and really, I mean, in 2018, it was hard, it you could do it, but it was like it was hard to do it, but it was definitely you could do it. Now in 2026, that's nearly impossible to grow an actual successful membership just by doing it that way. Like eventually, maybe the first round, whatever, you could get some people in there, but that will burn out really, really quickly. So that's the second thing is just not having actual structured conversion events for this membership. Like that needs to be tied directly with the membership. Is if I have a membership, I also have conversion events. That is just how it goes. And then the third one is all around retention. So this is obviously when your community is starting to get going. When people first get people into their membership, they almost like do you have a membership? I do, yeah. Okay. You might have felt this then. When you like first create your membership and you do all this work to get it start, like get it going and all the stuff in it, and all of the things, and then you get people in there. Maybe you did have a conversion event, or maybe you just like were able to get people in there somehow, and then all of a sudden you're just like this relief where you're like, Oh, that was so much work. And then you don't really do anything on top of it. It's just like, okay, the people are in there, they'll do them, like they'll figure it out. We have our regular monthly calls, like they'll come to those and it'll be great, right? And then we just don't do anything with the retention. Whereas community building and retention, that's like a that's a weekly thing. That's not just it doesn't just happen. It's something that you actively have to work at. And if you don't actively work on it the right way, in especially that first year of your membership, that will be the fastest track to kill a membership. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

No, I I love that. And I've seen I've seen that in communities that I've been in too, where it's like you just go in, there's no there's no guidance, there's no, it's basically like every man for himself, and I definitely those are the ones that I leave the quickest, you know. I definitely see that. So I want to switch gears a little bit because I saw, and I don't know how recently you posted this post, but I was I was on your Instagram this morning prepping for the call, right? And one of the posts that you talked about was the four like the four non-negotiables that you do either every morning or I don't remember exactly what it was, I could pull it up, but you know, it was really focusing on mindset. And you know, earlier you talked about journaling, and I know um most, I feel most of us are pretty familiar with journaling and mindset work now. Um, you know, I don't know so much back in 2018, 2017 era. Um, I know I was, but I don't know how many other people were, but like has that always kind of been a part of who you are? Is that something that you learned just when you started transitioning into entrepreneurship? Like I'd love to hear more on like your actual mindset and like your your priorities for you know keeping yourself able to hold everything that you're growing.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

Yeah. Honestly, I feel like it's like a little bit of a level of delusion. And like, you know what I mean? Okay, so yes, I definitely journal all the time. My journaling is more so I'll brain dump like nights before. That's like that version of journaling where it's like I'll brain dump all the things in my head, get it out of my head, like that's one thing, but then also I'll do my future self-writing, which I do all the time. And actually, like the craziest thing, I put it on my Instagram. I don't know if you saw it, but when I first started my business, and when I actually first started that was 2018, I think, is like when I actually put out the first post and like all of that kind of stuff in 2018. Um, and as you know, being a business owner, shit's hard like to do all of this content and to be, you know, when you're first starting something, even just like positioning yourself as someone people would want to invest into when you don't even necessarily know if like you're the best, you know what I mean? So there was that, and so one thing that I used to do every single morning, and this was actually kind of like hand in hand too with how my membership started, because that started with a journaling session, right? Which I just kind of called my soul writing and would journal things out. But one thing I did every single morning when I that first year of my business and like continued on, is I would do future writing, so like I would write as if the thing was actually happening to me, or like that was actually my morning, as if it was even though I was like broke laying on my living room floor doing this journal. I would be like, Oh, I woke up this morning and I got in my Range Rover and I drove to my workout class and then I came back home and I had a green juice, and I went on to my patio and I overlooked the lake and um the city, and like I would write like that. Yeah, it was just so like delusional for where I was at the time. I was making like negative $500 a month, and literally, like I remember that first year of business, I would literally like scrounge my couch for change sometimes to try and just find something for groceries, like it was bad, and um, but I just kept kind of having this delusion of like this is where I'm going to get, this is where I'm going to be. And I don't know exactly how this works, but I almost feel like by doing that, it always gave me a direction, you know what I mean? Like I always kind of I could see what I wanted this future self to look like. I could see like how she showed up in her days and how she ate, and like eventually, little by little, the more money I made, it was like I could kind of start living in these sort of ways. It's like I couldn't necessarily have a lake house, but I could like buy the organic groceries sometimes, you know what I mean? And like that would make me feel a little bit more elevated, and the more elevated I could make myself feel, the better I could show up on my socials, and then the more money I made, I could do it in bigger ways. So I couldn't have the lake house, but I would go and I'd get an Airbnb for a weekend and I would be by a lake, and then that would get me like closer, you know what I mean? Yeah, and it's so crazy because the house that I just moved into is literally the lake house that overlooks the city, and it has a private, and like something I always used to write about is having a private dock. This morning I walked out to my private dock and I went paddleboarding, and then I got on this podcast, and like these are the things that I used to literally journal about all the time, and I think it's just like when I say it's delusion, I think you just have to have this version of yourself that you want to be or that you're working towards, or like your business, what you want your business to look like, how much money you want to make, and just hold on so tightly to that because that will always at least be like this North Star for you. Yeah, and you won't give up when you're holding on to this so tight, like when you are completely journaling about it every day and like telling yourself this is going to happen, yeah, you're less likely to actually give up on that dream because you're you're never gonna be this kind of sounds crazy, and like maybe some people are like that's I don't know if that's healthy, but you're not really completely satisfied until you have it, and so you keep pushing yourself. And I think as an entrepreneur, you need to kind of have that in you, you kind of have to have that obsession, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Yeah, no, I love that, and so okay, so that brought up two two questions on that. So has it has it shifted much for you, or have there because I mean obviously you just said like you know, you journaled about waking up your lake house, your private dock, and that's literally what you have now. So obviously that piece stayed true, but were there ever pieces that maybe you at one point were journaling about X, Y, and Z, and then as you grew, it kind of shifted, or has it stayed pretty consistent or just kind of like the overarching end goal, and then small pieces kind of shifted?

SPEAKER_00 37:45

You know what's funny, most of it has come true. Like the sounds so materialistic, but like the things that I really wanted was like this lake house, and I really wanted a Range Rover, and I got those. I really also wanted to have like workout classes instead of going to regular gyms. Yeah, I got that. I don't go to a regular gym anymore. I have like this specialized gym. So those are like the things that I always really wanted. Another thing I put on the journal, and like I actually posted it on you might have seen it, it was like, I want to fly first class and drink wine in the airport lounge, like all of the things. I did that a bunch of times, sober now, so I don't do but still like fly first class, it whatever. Yeah, um, but the one thing that I would write sometimes is I want to be speaking on stages to like millions of women. And when I was writing that, I and I have I have spoken, but not at these huge events that I was writing about. But when I was writing about it, something about that never it felt like it was like a dream that you were supposed to have, you know what I mean? Especially in the like, especially in like the girl boss era, it was like you make a lot of money, you go speak on stages, you wear these blazers and like all this stuff. And I'm like, that's not me personally. I'm somebody who it's like I want to make a lot of money, but also I want to be on the lake and like I want to be a I don't want a chill life. I don't want to be at networking events 24-7 and like expending all this energy because I don't care to do that. I would rather podcast and then have my day wide open and do whatever the fuck I want. Like that's kind of my style. And so I would write these things, and then I think it was like a couple of years ago, maybe it was when I had my daughter, I don't remember, but I revisited that because I had this conversation with a client of mine. And um, I kind of realized I was like, this dream was never really my like that's not who I am. I'm not somebody who like I'm just if you meet me in person, I'm not this like high energetic person who's like bouncing around and like all this stuff. Like, I like to have one-on-one conversations and like go deep with people. Um, and like I I like to go to the occasional event, but it's just not me to do the whole like production type of situation, and that's not a bad thing, it's just like not my personality. Um, and so that was definitely one that I would say I would write about sometimes and didn't come true, but also I think it was like I never actively was working towards that, I was never putting myself in those situations where that would come true because I didn't want to, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

So it kind of makes this kind of what it was because no, I remember that. I I remember that so clearly. Like that was that was the one path, right? And I feel like every couple years, the entrepreneur space, especially for women, it comes out with this new one right way to get everything that you want, right? And like you have to do it this way. And uh yeah, I remember, I remember that. Do you remember? Um, it was around COVID time. Were you ever on? Oh my gosh, what was that? It was literally just like a talk app. Oh my gosh. Oh, um, Clubhouse. Clubhouse, yeah. Yeah, were you on it? I was on it for the Clubhouse era.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

Um, so no, like I tried it, yeah, I didn't get into it though. Were you?

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Yeah, um, I was for a while, and then it started kind of like devolving into just drama, and it was cool for the time when it was when it first started out, and it was like it put you into spaces with like Lori Harder or like bigger names that on a regular basis, on a regular like regular social media, you're not gonna be talking to Lori Harder one-on-one and asking her questions on a random Tuesday, right? Right. Um, so that aspect was really cool, but it was yeah, it devolved pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

I kind of wish I was thinking of that thing the other day. I kind of wish it was back because now I feel like maybe I would like it a little bit more. Yeah, but you know, like one of the other things too that I would say like grew me the fastest, and what actually like I would suggest to everybody to do is I find that so many people they're trying to do all of the things, and they're trying to like be everywhere and be everything to everyone, and like all of the and for me, and and also like people are trying to get invited to things where it's like, yes, put yourself out there to like open up opportunities. Like for me to get on podcasts, I always go on a podcast tour and I put it out there. I'm going on tour who like you, you know, you know what I mean. But like people will, and I used I can say this because I used to do this, where it was like I tried to collab with people or get on podcasts or like do the things because I knew that's what grew people, but I didn't actually give people the reason to want me on the thing, yeah. And so the thing that grew me the fastest is and I call this you know how like everyone's using maxing now. Oh, yeah. I am museum. Uh yes, I'm obsessed with calling this muse maxing because I didn't post on that. Did you? Yeah, yeah, it's just like you have to it the thing that worked for me is just understanding what you're actually good at and becoming the best at that thing. Like stop booking your calendar full of networking events and like trying to get on all these podcasts and trying to do all this thing, and instead fill your time actually just being the best at what you do, studying it, getting whatever you need to do to become the best, like do that thing and then share your expertise on your social media or on your whatever you're on, share it there, like actually show people instead of telling people, right? And that is the thing that when I started really doing that, because before I specialized in memberships, I've always been teaching memberships. Like when I became a business coach, that was always the thing that people kind of came to me. Like people kind of knew if you come with me, I teach you how to go from one-on-one and scale, and I did that through memberships, but I never labeled myself as the membership exporter coach. I just literally labeled myself as a business coach and I teach you how to do memberships, and I never went full in on that thing. And then one day I was just like, fuck it, I don't want to teach people how to do one-on-one. I don't want to talk about courses and like all of this stuff. I only want to do this, and this is what I'm good at, and this is what I like to talk about and like to do, and all of the things. Um, so I like scrapped my whole online identity up until that point. I got rid of a podcast I'd had for five years that had huge names on it, and it was something that was growing. And I I mean, that was like for a lot of people, they're like, What the fuck are you doing? But I scrapped that, changed my Instagram name to the membership muse, didn't even, you know, everyone tells you the personal brand, you don't want to put yourself in a box. And I was like, No, I gotta do the opposite because I need to go full in on this thing, and like that is what grew me the fastest is just becoming the expert in that one thing, and then that's when people come to you, and that's when your energy starts to be the attraction, like you are the magnet now, and you're not this like desperate energy trying to get into other people's orbit. So that was a little side tangent, but I'll take it.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

I am I'm the tangent queen. I literally go on them all the time, and I will always take one because honestly, I feel like they always give the best the best information because it's not what you plan to say, right? It is genuinely your expertise, your genius, your passion coming out. So I love that. I did want to um kind of still in that same sense, but no, because your daughter is four. She'll be four in October. Okay, yeah. So I know for me, you know, I I have my kids are older. My son is 17, my daughter will be 10 this year. So, you know, I started entrepreneurship. I was already a mom, so I was already kind of like juggling that work life balance, which is one thing. Um but you know, juggling, you know, school and work and kids and business, all the things, right? And so I feel like when you start out in that sense, you kind of already have this idea of like things, how how things need to go or what makes the most sense for you. But you did start before you had, you know, your daughter. So I feel like maybe I mean, and this is just me from an outside perspective coming in. Like when I see people without kids start who then turn into moms, and it's like, you know, I feel like I I'm so curious on how that affected your operations, your mindset, everything, because it's like you kind of had all the freedom and all of the like you could do what you wanted when you wanted, if you wanted to wake up at 2 a.m. and work, if you wanted to, you know, however it was, you know, it was just you, and then it transitioned to having a daughter, and then you know. So I guess like the overarching question is just like how has how has that becoming a mom shifted the way you define success and running your business and like prioritizing, right?

SPEAKER_00 47:19

So I mean like she was a huge catalyst in why I decided to go all in with this and like kind of trim the fat because before I had her, I had two memberships, seven-figure memberships, very successful memberships. I was living in San Diego, traveling, like that was kind of just I had this dream apartment in Little Italy that overlooked the ocean.

SPEAKER_02 47:45

It was like San Diego is literally one of my favorite cities on the planet, so I love little Italy.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

Yes, it was gorgeous. Um, loved it. It was like at that time, that was also one of my dreams. I wanted to move to San Diego, so I did that. Um, and then yeah, when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter, I was a single mom right away because I was literally that same week breaking up with her dad. Like we were not, we were not doing well. We literally decided we are going to move or like we're gonna separate, you're gonna go back to Canada, I'm gonna stay in San Diego. Like, that's what we're gonna do. And then like a day later, I was like, guess what? Okay, so it was messy from the start, honestly. Um, also, what this helped me real like do is I'm so grateful for the business that I had. I won't say like, yes, it was hard work, but like I will say that was something that I was so privileged to have because that whole year I was able to really not work and kind of like still just have my membership clients and like do our thing, whatever. Um, but able to, you know, move back to Canada, find a place. I didn't live near family, all my family was a plane ride away, so I did everything there, like alone. Um, I was able to get a nanny to help me. Um, but where it ended up kind of getting crazy was when I had my daughter, I started to really not like my business anymore. And it was because I was doing all the things, like I was still just marketed as that business coach, right? And I was just like, this feels hard. Like content feels hard, everything feels hard. I don't know what to post, I don't want to post. Um, and from another journaling session of mine where I do my soul writing and all the things, really came to that realization that I can't, if I want to have the life and the business and the lake house. I didn't have the lake house at the time. If I wanted to actually like have this stuff that I want, yeah, I cannot do it this way anymore because I'm not standing out. I'm like, I'm doing like it's working because I also know how to grow a community so but like my social media wasn't taking off or anything, it was just literally because I was really, really good at making like doing communities. Yeah, if I wasn't, I wouldn't have been successful. Um, but when she was one, I think she was one, that's kind of when I decided to burn everything down. I did it in the craziest way possible. My family and friends were like, you are insane, because I just burnt it all down. And I because I'm the kind of person who I can't like have this long running plan where I'm like, okay, I know in the year I want to do this, but until then, I'm gonna like strategically, nicely tie it up in a bow and like say goodbye. I was just like, no, okay, we're cutting this off. I'm gonna, you know, like the I'll see it out for the people who are in, whatever, but I'm gonna let them know like there's a this is gonna be ending. And I started my membership podcast, um started Million Dollar Memberships Club, my membership. My other two memberships that I had before this, they are more high-ticket, like they had a little bit more of me in them, especially the one because it was uh a more yeah, high-ticket membership, so it involved more of me. I just wanted to have something really low that didn't take much of my time, and it was a lower ticket membership, which is Million Dollar Memberships Club, had all the information in it still, had all of the things, but like was really, really community-based alongside like the information inside of it. So I burnt all that down, built this, and that first year was really hard, honestly, because I did. I like said goodbye to all this money that I was used to making, and then built something from scratch, but I knew also that I had to do that if I wanted to, whatever, right? We've gone over that. So, um, what was your original question? I'm going back to it.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

No, like how it how it shifted with like becoming a mom.

SPEAKER_00 52:01

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, with that, is also it's like, you know, with being a mom, you don't have all of this time to do all of the things. You have to be really particular with your time, and so that kind of like went hand in hand with like being very particular with my membership. So now it's like my whole focus is I could have different tiered options, I could have like a mastermind, I could have all of these things and make more money, yeah. Um, but I don't because I want to put everything into the membership and be really, really intentional because I know how I want my life to look. I have my daughter 50% of the time when I'm with her, I want to be with her. I don't want to be on calls, I don't want to be doing all these things, and so that is kind of how I'm just doing everything now is I'm really looking at how do I want my life to look schedule-wise. And that's what I'm going to do. Like, I'm going to build my business around that. So when my daughter's in bed, I do my content. When she's, I don't know if she goes, she loves her little school. She was a little daycare, like half days, because she loves it. She is the most social kid. She doesn't want, like, even if I'm like, Do you want to stay home with mom today? No. No, I want to go see my friends. I'm like, fuck, okay. So she will go there just for a half day and I'll do project work, or that's maybe when I'll do like a call inside of my membership, whatever it might be. But I'm just so intentional with yeah, what I want my life to look like, and that's what I build my business around. And instead of trying to, you know, have a podcast, have this, have that, do like a mastermind, have a membership, like have all of these things. I'm just really focusing in on like one of everything and going that way.

SPEAKER_02 53:51

I love that. That's that my daughter's the same way too. Like, she's so she's nine now, but it's like this girl has so much more of a social life than I, and I'm totally fine with her having the social life and not me. But I'm like, how? Like every weekend that she's home, she's like, Can I go? And I'm like, ma'am, I want to spend time with you too. Like, what? Can we? But anyway, I like that.

SPEAKER_00 54:17

She already like asks for her little friends to come over. I'm like, you're three.

SPEAKER_02 54:22

Well, I mean, I mean, in that, so for me, that was like where my importance on community started with was with my daughter in like a mom community, so not even in the online space, right? Um, I was, I don't know how much you know about my story, and I don't talk about it much, but I I'm an abused survivor, so I was in an abusive marriage. I left in 2021 when she was four going on five, right? And so, like having that community from the time she was six months old was like literally the thing that kept me from losing my mind um for the whole time, and so it was like that was like my first like I need community, um, and then so I love the online space. That was just like a little side note, yeah, but yeah, um, but one of the things that um we do talk about at the legacy edit, and especially like with you talking about like I love when people build like life forward businesses, I guess, where it's like we're not building a business that we live around. We're building wait, we're not building a I don't you know what I'm trying to say. Life first business fits it. I don't remember the ver yeah, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, but one of the other things, you know, this is the legacy edit. And the reason I named and restructured and rebranded to the legacy edit was because for me, I've been through so many different versions, right? You know, going through abuse, coming out of it, relearning everything, you know, and really seeing like legacy. When we think of legacy, we think that it is just something that we leave behind, but it's also pieces that we receive throughout life. It's you know, the opportunities that we that we receive, it's the lessons we receive, learning what to do and what not to do from you know, seeing other people or the people in our lives that hand us pieces of their legacies. And so I always love to talk a little bit about that. And you know, everybody does kind of think of a different thing when they hear legacy, is what I've I've learned. So when you hear the word legacy, like what does that mean to you personally? Like, not just as a business owner, but like as a mom, as you know, a single woman embracing like all of the things, you know, what what does legacy look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 56:57

Honestly, when I hear legacy, it to me, I just think of this way of living or like standard of living or standard that you want set, like almost paving this path, you know what I mean? Where it's like sharing you can do this and you can do this, or you can live this way and you can have this, and it's just like you are kind of trailblazing this path for the people behind you, whether that's your family or people just in your orbit, your community, whatever, you're kind of trailblazing this path and leaving this legacy of you know, showing people what's possible, showing you can live this way, and I kind of obviously being the business owner too, think of it in both business and life. But like for me, it's kind of all this one way of being, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 57:46

Yeah, oh, I love that. Thank you for sharing. Of course. Yeah, so I want to I wanna I want to respect your time. Like I said earlier, I know you said you don't have a hard stop, but um, I do want to make sure we still respect your time. Of course. Um, I want to give you an opportunity to obviously let everybody know where they can find you, any offers you have going on, because I think you have a closed membership model, so you're not open. Yeah, when is this when is this episode going out, or do you know? Uh yeah, it's gonna be where June. So I just put one out today, or I'm putting one out today. I don't I do Thursdays, so it'll be the second, so not next Thursday, but the Thursday after.

SPEAKER_00 58:27

Okay, perfect. So I will actually a Million Dollar Memberships Club will be opening in July, mid-July. Um, but also at the time that this comes out, I will be enrolling for a challenge that we're doing. It's a yeah, it's gonna be really it's called the Get Your Next 100 Members challenge. And basically it's just a three-day challenge where I'm gonna be walking you through my step-by-step strategies of you know, really figuring out where you personally as a membership founder are leaking, like why you're not growing, where is that leak, really understanding that. Um, and then the next day and the two days after that, we're really just coming up with your personal strategy and basically giving you a roadmap that you can leave those three days with to actually know how you're gonna get your next 100 members without it just feeling like chaotic and all over the place. You're gonna have an actual mapped out personalized strategy. I review everything in there, it's it's gonna be a fun time. Yeah, so that will be going on July 14th, I think is when it starts, 14th, 15th, 16th. Okay, and then yeah, we'll be opening up Million Dollar Memberships Club, and then yeah, like I said, that is doors closed. We open that up usually like a week or two whenever we open the doors. So yeah, you can definitely come check that out. Find me on Instagram at the membership muse, and you'll get all the information and see what's going on there.

SPEAKER_02 59:58

I love that, and then I want to um so I want to really quickly and I'm sorry, I'm gonna make you do it again because I'm like, I want to do a question first, and then I'll just edit and put that at the end. So it's okay. Um, so if before we close out and let everybody know where they can find you, uh huh, I have one last question that I like. I always like to close out with this question, um, or a question similar. So for anyone listening who is standing at the beginning of building something they believe in, whether that's a membership or business or whatnot, but they don't have much proof yet that it's going to work, what's one piece of advice you'd want them to hear?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:42

Oh, if they don't have much proof that it's going to work. Honestly, I you have to kind of borrow proof for a bit. You have to borrow belief and you have to borrow other people's. So whether like you're starting, I don't know, this business, maybe it's in you're starting a small like nail business in your hometown or whatever you're doing. If you don't think it's gonna work out, like where can you maybe search for some inspo? Or like what I would say is your mews, right? Like find your industry mews and kind of borrow that confidence from them for a little bit, see how they show up and you know, dive into their story. Uh, reach out, even like just kind of have someone or people that you can really look up to as your mentor, whether they know they're your mentor or not. Look at that person and kind of borrow that belief until you can kind of grow those legs on your own and start walking with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:44

Oh, that is such good advice. Thank you so much. Yeah, of course. All right, so as we close out, I would love to give you the opportunity to let everybody know where they can find you, any offers you have going on, any um, obviously, all about the membership, where they can find you, how they can join, all of those. Because I, if you're not following her, if you're not seeing what she's building, like you absolutely need to. Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:09

Thank you. Um, yeah, okay, so I have my membership, Million Dollar Memberships Club. That one opens randomly throughout the year. At the time that you're listening to this episode, though, it will be shortly opening, opening soon. Um, you can find me on Instagram at the membershipmuse. I have a podcast called Million Dollar Memberships, um, which is pretty easy to find. It's available everywhere. I just started posting it on YouTube as well. I have like 400 YouTube followers. No, subscribers is what they call them over there. So maybe come follow me over there and let's grow that a little bit. But that's been fun, that's been a journey. Um, and then I July 14th, 15th, and 16th, I am running a three-day membership challenge, which is gonna help you get your next 100 membership members, where it's just really going to be strategy, really figuring out your leaks, like where you're not, where your membership isn't growing, or what's stopping you from really signing members inside of your membership, and then really coming up with a customized plan for you to walk away with, leave that challenge with for you to sign your next 100 membership members right away. I love that. For that my website website is just at you know www.pagevandy.com. And that one just you can check it out and see different things that I have going on. I'll update that. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:34

And then for the membership challenge, do they need to already have a membership established, or is it kind of for what's that look like?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:44

So the way that we're gonna be running it, most people are going to have a membership established with this, but I always say if you are just like wanting to start a membership and you're wanting to do it the right way, come join it as well because you're going to need to know this information anyway. Like this, getting your next 100 members can also apply to getting your first 10 members. So I would definitely say you'll have to do some starting steps before you use the strategies that we're going to teach, obviously, get the membership up and running, but you're going to need this information anyway, so definitely come join us.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:18

Awesome. All right. Well, um, you guys know where to find Paige. I will have everything down in the show notes for you. I I genuinely mean it if you're not following her, if you are even remotely interested in entering the membership space, you need to be following her, you need to listen to the podcast, you need to join this challenge. Like it is invaluable information. And I just want to thank you again for coming on and sharing your your genius and and everything with us. Yeah, thank you for having me. This was fun. All right, until next time, take care.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:52

Bye.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:53

Bye. If this episode shifted something for you, don't just leave it here because you can't grow in isolation. And trying to will only slow down what you're actually capable of. And that's exactly why the Legacy Edit membership exists. It's a structure space designed to support how you grow across the three areas that actually move everything forward. You, your relationships, and your business. Inside, you're stepping into monthly conversations that challenge how you think and how you show up. Not surface level conversations, but the kind that actually shift your standards and your decisions. You're getting quarterly content planning, so your visibility stays consistent and aligned, no more guessing what to say or when to show up, and you'll have access to expert conversations that expand how you move in all areas of your life. And you're in a room with people who are actually applying what they're learning. Because when you're in the right room, everything gets clearer. If you're ready for that level of direction and support, you'll find the next steps in the show notes. And if this episode resonates with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss what's coming next. You can also connect with me on Instagram, Cer Nicole Creative. I would love to hear what landed for you. I'll see you in the next episode and inside the Legacy Edit Membership.