Now I Really Have Something to Say (6:43) – Association Hustle Podcast Episode 250

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09/16/2020

This week we’re celebrating the release of the 250th episode of the Association Hustle Podcast. Tune in as JP Moery dives into the lessons learned and what the future holds.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.
Here’s JP.
Hello, my friends, and welcome to Episode 250 of the Association Hustle Podcast. For those of you who have been listening for a long time – thank you, thank you! For those of you who are joining for the first time – thank you, thank you! If you haven’t already, go back and download previous episode, lots of good stuff!
On to episode 250. Today, I’m going to let it rip. The title of this one is, “Now, I Really Have Something to Say,” because I’ve learned a lot over the last 250 episodes.
One of the things I’ve learned is the power of podcasting. Friends, it the most positive communication tool I’ve ever launched in business and I’ve been in the association space now for almost 30 years. I don’t understand any association that does not have one by now. Until recently, we were getting about 400 people listening per month, now we’re getting over 4000. Podcasts scale overtime and you have the opportunity to reach people that you’ve never reached before; the possibilities are endless.
Here are some of the other things that we have learned… Virtual programming is absolutely scalable. It’s on demand and we embrace the variety of ways that we can use these platforms to connect with multiple audience segments and groups that you’ve never been able to reach before. If you think about your in-person meetings, it was only getting to a limited amount of people, typically one attendee from an organization. Now, you can reach whole departments, and even companies, with your virtual programs.
Meetings and conventions are going to reappear and they will do so with vigor, however, the business model for events will change. Anticipate smaller, more regional events. May be high end, and exclusive ones. I’m concerned about organizations that typically put on large events with thousands of people in attendance. I hope they can figure it out and work through it because they’re so important to our business model. In all of these cases, we’re talking about a blended and diversified series of programs to reach a larger audience to be more influential and we are able to deepen the bench in our member companies – if it’s a corporate membership – and be relevant in the lives of these member companies more than ever.
After 250 episodes, I’m also worried about inaction. My former colleague Don Neal, President of 360 Live Media, said recently in a blog post that he was concerned about the cost of inaction, and I am too. Over the last 250 episodes, we talked about a number of ways to embrace new and innovative ways to engage audiences, but I know that there are some associations that really need to check themselves and to see if they’re truly helping out their members while the industry they represent is under incredible stress and strain. Now, here’s what I’m fascinated by, some associations have absolutely woken up; in some cases, it’s new leadership that’s catapulting the organization forward. I’m going to name some people today for you: Chris Walker, of the Distilled Spirits Council, this is you. David Long of the National Electrical Contractors Association, this is you. These guys, they’re firing so much new! And, I know they’ve got staff doing it and helping them but these folks are leading and they’re firing so much new and innovative content, you can’t even keep up with it. By the way, they’re not clients of mine; they used to be but I’m not getting paid by them to say that. They’re producing so much content that I can barely keep up with it. Podcasts and virtual meetings and videos every single day! They are both fairly new executives, from industry. They are not career association folks. Twenty-year association execs, including myself, can learn a lot from them.
About half of our podcast episodes are about value delivery and monetization of value and then selling the value effectively. Serving the needs of someone – and having them break away from their well-earned cash to give it to your association or your business – requires a consistent delivery of value and we’ve talked about that freely.
It’s the spirit of free enterprise that I still believe in. When we started this podcast, many moons ago, there were some really smart people out there – speaking at ASAE meetings and on message boards – talking about free memberships and providing all content for free. I made the point that this mindset was not a sustainable model for advocacy organization. Where are they now? Probably broke and not publishing their archived content and still speaking at meeting.
The path is being made and it is pretty darn clear to follow. To me, it hasn’t changed that much and this is what we’ll continue to talk about and go into detail and describe and discuss over the next 250 episodes, every single week.
Communicate often and on mobile, that’s where everybody is. Advocate. Government Affairs matters now, doesn’t it? Elections matter, don’t they? So does your political program. We know that now more than we’d ever did before. Facilitate; bring your different member segments together is a difference maker. Virtual programs and in-person events are going to be critical in delivering unique and valuable information. Virtual programming, and in-person, are both going to be required and will live together as a hybrid moving forward.
You’ve got to communicate, advocate, and facilitate. Then, you have to sell it. You have to have someone on the other end that can do that.
 
We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Facebook page. To purchase a copy of JP’s book, Association Hustle: Top Strategies for Association Growth, go to JPMoery.com.
 
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