In this episode, I’m breaking down the three core components every sticky membership needs in 2026. By sticky, I mean the kind of membership people naturally return to again and again because it feels like part of their routine.

I’m sharing what I’m seeing across dozens of membership strategy sessions at Affinity, and why personalization, quick time to value, and human connection are the real drivers of engagement and retention right now. We talk about why onboarding matters more than ever, how to design for fast wins without overwhelming your members, and what it looks like to intentionally build belonging and connection instead of leaving it up to chance.

If you’re building or updating a membership and want people to stay, participate, and actually get results, this episode will help you rethink what “value” really means in 2026.

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Before I get into what I want to share today, if you're listening to this the week I'm dropping it, then you should hang out with me on Thursday.

It's called Future Proof your membership.

I haven't done a free training in, I don't know, a couple of years because I don't know, I just haven't.

And I wanted a chance to teach longer than a voice note, but also connect with people that listen to the podcast newsletter.

And so if you are free at 12pm Eastern on Thursday or if you want the replay, definitely grab the link in the show notes, it says future Proof your membership, click that, it's a free training, get it added on your calendar and I'll see you on Thursday.

All right, diving in now.

So I have been doing a lot of strategies at Affinity lately.

Right now I'm doing like maybe two to three per week with it's a one to one session with a client.

We do a workshop and then we give them a strategy for their membership, either to update it or like their new product.

I believe that there are three core components you need to have a sticky membership.

And if you're not familiar with the word sticky, what I mean by sticky is people log in again and again.

They're kind of like addicted to it in the way.

Not in a negative like doom scrolling way, but in the way that they, it's part of their natural routine.

They want to keep coming back, they're returning members over and over.

And obviously that's what makes raving fans, it's what makes customers that share, it's what makes people stay retained and never cancel.

And that's the kind of member that we want, right?

The ones that participate, they show up, they do the work, they're engaged like this.

We want more people like that.

And to create more people like that, you just need a few components that really contribute to the user experience of your membership and will improve your retention rates, will improve your engagement.

And so I wanted to dive into those three things today.

So the first one is personalization.

If you want your members to feel like, wow, this was made for me Then you need to personalize the experience on the front end.

So imagine.

And a lot of this has to do with onboarding, but it's ongoing too.

So I come into a membership, it's my first day and I'm lost logging in and I'm going through the start here experience.

And it might feel cookie cutter or like it's what you're, how you're introducing everyone.

And the problem with that is that they're less likely to feel like, wow, this is designed exactly for me, right?

Think about like your streaming services.

When you log into your Netflix, it looks like your Netflix, it's the shows you watch and then it's stuff recommended to you based on what you watch.

Now I'm not saying you have to build some crazy learning algorithm, but I am saying that having some level of personalization, like their custom plan, doing a one to one, an onboarding call, giving them a path based on their goal, their specific goal, or giving them maybe it's membership tiers.

So it's like based on your level, you're getting this certain experience.

There's a lot of ways to do personalization.

And this is something like we designed bespoke for every single client.

But it is the crux of getting people to feel like, oh my gosh, I belong here right in the beginning.

Which is really important for community and connection, like building belonging.

It's also important for people to keep showing up because they're like, like, okay, this is, this is my thing.

This is for me, the second component of a sticky membership is a quick time to value.

And what I mean by this is that we're getting people results as fast as humanly possible.

We can get results so fast.

And so we need to expedite that as part of your onboarding experience is really, really the crux here.

Again, onboarding is a huge component of all of this.

Like stickiness and retention are directly tied to onboarding.

So a lot of this goes into onboarding, but then it's something that shows up again and again throughout the membership.

So think about it like this.

I always talk to my clients about their transformation statement.

So you start with like where you're taking people.

So like I take people from A to B. I'll give you an example.

We worked with this like esthetician community.

So it was like we take people from working in an esthetician business as an employee to being a solo owner of their esthetician business.

And then even beyond that, to having a thriving seven figure esthetician business with multiple locations and a team.

Because they had, like, you know, these different products.

So they had their program there, and then they also had like their mastermind level.

So this, for them, it's like, okay, if we're taking people, let's.

Let's really go with like, the, the middle there where, like, they have left their job and now they have their own solo esthetician business.

Like, what are the things that they need to do in order to reach that goal and work backwards?

So instead of creating a community with or a membership model with like a ton of content in it, it's more like we're designing this yellow brick road for them to follow, and we're getting them there as fast as possible.

So coming back to, like, the quick time to value being the component, part of this is giving them the tools, templates, custom AI prompts, GPTs, micro product tools, whatever they need to make that f. It's like you want to increase their speed to accomplishing their goal.

And I know you're thinking, well, I want them to stick around for a long time though.

And it's like, yes, we want them to reach their goal and then they're gonna have new challenges, right?

And that's where, like, iteration and improvement and all of this stuff comes in, which we're not talking about today.

But get them that quick win, get them that result as fast as humanly possible, design for that, and for the love of God, don't make it a hundred hours of video in order to get there, because nobody has time for that anymore.

All right, the third component, and you probably saw this one coming, is human connection.

We need people to feel like they belong.

Like, wow, I belong here.

Again, this was designed for me.

I'm already seeing results.

You can start to see how this, like, picture comes into play where they're like, this is the best thing I've ever bought and I have to log into it every single day, right?

And like, that's the goal.

And so if we want them to feel belonging, how do we create that belonging?

A lot of it has to do with culture.

So crafting a culture by having people show up authentically in the way that you want them to, by modeling that behavior yourself, by having a team of people, or, you know, I've affectionately called them plants in the past, like having plants in your membership that show up the way you want them to, to really be stewards and models and ambassadors of what it means to be in this community.

And how to be a great member and for people to feel super welcomed is another huge part of this.

So when think about, like, you go to a party, when you walk into the room, are people saying, like, oh, my gosh, hi, it's so nice to meet you.

Are they welcoming you?

Are they making you feel good?

Or does it feel, like, clicky and weird?

So that's the kind of space we need to design online as well.

Also recognizing what they have in common with other members and being able to connect them.

Like, as a community builder, you are a connector, and that means bringing people together, matching them.

You probably do this without even thinking about it.

You, like, have a new member come in.

You're like, oh, you should talk to Stacy.

She's doing X, Y and Z.

That is something you kind of want to, like, build in and craft as part of your process.

I got this really amazing advice from my business coach recently.

She was, She's.

She helps me with scaling my agency and she was talking to me about, like, the magic.

She's like, tell me about some of the fun things that you do with clients.

And I started saying like, oh, like, you know, I'll, whatever.

I gave some examples.

And she was like, now what would happen if you made that part of, like, the System or your SOPs or you taught your team how to do that stuff?

Then that starts to take the magic from just like the experience of working with you to now it's working with your team.

And that was kind of like an unlock for me.

And I want you to think about that.

Like, the things that you do that make a member that are really magical when a member comes in because you recognize, like, oh, let me connect them with this person, or they need this thing.

Like, how can you build that into your process and really start to, like, systematize that connection piece?

Like lovable, for example.

I mean, you guys know, like, I built this whole assessment using lovable in one night.

That means, like, I built an entire app in one night.

And so people are coming for SaaS products, like the AI.

Like, people are like, how can I, like, replace this expense in my business?

Can I build it myself?

And so I think a lot about, like, the human connection piece.

And I think there's some really interesting, you know, SaaS companies.

This is especially true for SaaS companies, but out there that are doing this well, like, kit my email platform, you know, they have this amazing creator community and you get to go to their recording studios and they have a conference every year and they do these like pop up events and they have the creator network where you can like recommend other creators and connect with them.

That makes their product really sticky.

It makes it better than any other email platform really.

And so they have built in this like human connection in this community piece to their business and that makes it really, really sticky.

And so I want you to think about the SaaS businesses that are doing this really well and how you can bring this to your membership product.

Because as we are starting to make it so like education is a lot more accessible using AI, we also need to think about how do we start to infuse more like software pieces, more micro products, more experiences, especially experiences into our membership models so that it becomes this like sticky experience that people never want to leave.

So I think we have a lot to learn from SaaS companies.

I think we have a lot to learn from just what's happening with technology and how human connection is like the glue that makes people want to stay.

Okay, so three components of a sticky membership personalization have building in quick time to value and building human connection and really like being intentional about it and systematizing what that looks like and having different ways for people to connect to.

Okay.

Hope you loved this one.

I'm excited to jam more on this in my Thursday workshop which is absolutely free.

I would love for you to come hang out.

I'm going to do a whole training.

We're going to have a Q A.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

So meet me there and I'll chat with you next time.