Guiding Members Through Their Journey: Unveiling the Seven Stages of Group Participation

In this episode of Mastermind Mastery, host Tina Corner Stolz takes us through the intricate journey that members go through within a group. She reveals the seven stages that members experience, emphasizing the importance of understanding and guiding them through each stage effectively and efficiently. 

Tina discusses in-depth insights into the first two stages:

Stage 1: Anticipation and Hope which starts the moment they say yes to being a member and Stage 2:  Excitement and Judgment which starts when they are onboarded and attend their first meeting

Listeners will gain valuable knowledge on managing member expectations, fostering excitement, and addressing judgments, all of which are essential for enhancing member experience and ultimately increasing retention and referrals. So, tune in for a deep dive into member journey strategies that can transform your group dynamics. 

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FREE resource: Member Journey Map Infographic

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00:00 Guide members through stages effectively for success.

04:40 Supporting new members at stage one effectively.

09:42 Resource available for download, email for support.

12:09 Introducing new member, building relationships, fostering excitement.

15:31 Influence perception, maximize strengths, introduce new members.

19:03 Encouraging members to seek group support.

21:46 Emphasize onboarding, manage expectations, and seek referrals.

 

Tina Corner Stolz 
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. I'm Tina Corner Stoltz, your host. And today's topic is member experience journey. What am I talking about? What I am talking about is I realized over all the years of running groups is that members go through their, their own journey in order to experience fully what being in a group is like. Their journey starts from day one when they say yes, all the way through the years that they participate with you, they have a journey. And their journey, I believe, has seven stages. And I'm going to share with you today two of the stages of the seven. And those stages they will go through at their own pace.

Tina Corner Stolz [00:01:20]:
But let me give you an example. Here's the seven stages. Those seven stages, anticipation and hope. Stage two, excitement and judgment. Stage three, awareness, confirmation. Then they go through stage four, engagement, nurture. Stage six, where they trust, that's optimized trust. And number seven, where they fully open up vulnerability, finally to that level.

Tina Corner Stolz 
Your goal is to get them through their stages as quickly as possible to the ultimate of vulnerability, but it's to get them through it in each of those stages effectively, efficiently, and again. Every member will go through it at their own pace. Some will actually never reach that final stage of fully opening up and a level of vulnerability that you aspire every one of your members to get to each stage exists. The question is, for how long? And I know that if you share these stages with your members and let them know what to expect and anticipate on their journey of being a member in your group, that it will eliminate stress, anxiety, uncertainty, et cetera from your member and have them have a much better member experience so that when they hit a stage that's difficult, they don't bail from you. So what I realized is that when we would go through this member journey with a new member as part of their onboarding, and if, by the way, you don't do onboarding with your members, you're missing a huge opportunity. I guess I should do a podcast just on that. So I will. I have to make a note of that.

Tina Corner Stolz 
But it is the chance that you will let them know you're going to stumble here, you're going to stumble that, but when you get onto the other side of it, the reward is so much higher and worth it for you that they won't, in fact, bail on you. So we realized that when we went through and created this member journey diagram, which is going to be available to all of you to download, that the retention rate not only went up but also just the member experience and their happiness went up from the participation, and they were much more engaged quickly because they understood what their journey was going to be like. If you think about other things in your life, where wouldn't it have been nice to know that this is really what I'm going to go through to get to this, how much more comfortable you would feel instead of everything being a surprise. So think of it this way. You're going to eliminate the surprise. Right. From your members. So today we're going to talk about the two, and I'm going to go through what every stage means, what to expect and what to do about it with the member.

Tina Corner Stolz 
And this way you can give thought as to. All right, the member is in stage one. What can I do to help them through this in a very positive, supportive way? I hope today if you're not doing onboarding, that you walk away with at least thinking about doing it. If you haven't had this conversation with your members, you do have it, particularly if you've been running groups for a long time and a new member comes in and let's say the majority of all the members in your group are at later stages, but that new member is obviously at the beginning stages. How is it that you kind of help bridge so that new member doesn't feel so far behind? So again, we're going to talk a little bit about. So as we get started with stage one, anticipation and hope. What does that mean? Right. Anticipation and hope.

Tina Corner Stolz 
This is when it starts. The member signs their application with you. They have said yes. So when they have said yes, they're now anticipating a positive experience or they would have never said yes. Right. So they anticipate and they have hope about what their participation is going to help them accomplish. As an owner, a senior leader, whatever it is that they do in their role, they have a vision of these are all these challenges and opportunities. And now I'm going to be able to get insights from my peers who knows really everything they're thinking about and what they're most nervous about.

Tina Corner Stolz
I don't know about you, but I've had members even be nervous about what to wear to their first meeting, how to dress, how much to prepare. All of that goes on in their head. But that doesn't mean they want to ask you that question, because sometimes it seems silly and they just think, well, that's just. I'm not going to ask that. Right. I don't want to look like I'm too vulnerable. So anticipation and hope. The member signs.

Tina Corner Stolz 
Right. Their application and because they anticipate an exceptional experience and hope again that you're going to solve with the group their copies, they're optimistic about their decisions to join. Right. Your groups, they anticipate experience that's going to help solve all their problems and capture opportunities. They expect to be with like minded peers. So again, they are hoping and anticipating that the peers, if they haven't met them, are really going to be their peers. They probably think they're so much smarter than them, they have had so much more success and that actually they're not going to be worthy to be in the meeting and there may be a little bit of impostor syndrome that's going to happen and that will show up in stages to come. What to expect? Compliance.

Tina Corner Stolz 
So what can you expect from a brand new member, stage one, who has this anticipation and this hope? It's a wonderful opportunity to get them to comply to everything you are wanting your members to do and that you expect through your guidelines that you have set. Like being on time, right? Like interacting maybe between the meetings, like showing up with, giving thought as to what they need from the group that day because they're unaware of the standard, because they haven't experienced it yet. The members at this stage can be extremely cooperative. This is a dream for us. I think about this all the time. It's a huge opportunity. They're on their best behavior. So what you're seeing here is their best behavior.

Tina Corner Stolz 
It's like a first date, right? So expect someone else to pop up later. That probably will happen. But while you got them on their best behavior, they're waiting for you to guide them through the process of deciding what to do and when to do it. Okay? So set that stage. Take advantage of their anticipation, their excitement and their hope. It's a fantastic opportunity to develop healthy habits, such as preparing them for the meeting, responding to emails, doing their homework, whatever that might be. It's now time to properly express the standards and your expectations and what people can do to get the most out of their participation in your group. Right? So take time to answer their questions and show them this journey.

Tina Corner Stolz
So when we go through, like here's stage one, stage two, and again, this resource is going to be available to you to download and if you have comments and everything, I want to encourage you to email me. And I'll tell you this really quick right now at info@lxcouncil.com but you absolutely tell them in advance. Here's what you can expect. I'm here every step of the way your peers are here every step of the way, you're going to notice the peers down here in these further stages. You're going to get there. My goal is to help you get there fast, but it is a process and you never skip a stage, by the way. And when you have that and you show them this journey and establish the tone for a long lasting member experience, you are starting them off on the right foot of stage one and creating a wonderful member experience and bonding with them right out of the gate. So stage one, right? Anticipation and hope, because when they sign and they say yes, that's where they are.

Tina Corner Stolz
Okay. And you're going to acknowledge that. Stage two? Stage two, excitement and judgment. So what does this mean? I always find this stage interesting when I talk to others that are running groups because they don't even think about this and that this is what's going through a new member's mind. This stage is when now they're coming to their first meeting. They're excited for their first meeting, and in some cases, their first meeting could be their orientation with you. So that's one thing to think about. So let's put in the bucket both orientation.

Tina Corner Stolz 
That's their onboarding and their very, very first meeting that they attend. So when they experience. Right. Orientation or onboarding with you, whatever you might call it, some of people might call it their kickoff meeting, et cetera, they're learning about the members, the meeting structure, the experience, that it's a match, it's what they thought. They're now kind of confirming, right? A little bit of like, yes, this is still a good decision for me, et cetera. And remember, anticipation and hope. So you want to keep that anticipation and hope coming through into this stage two of excitement and judgment. So they're still excited this stage.

Tina Corner Stolz
You know, they're thinking about all the possibilities still. But now you're beginning to transition, that they're a new member and that you're connecting them with the relationships of the existing members. So they are connected to you, most likely the most, right, because they've had the most interaction with you, et cetera. You're now starting to develop that relationship with the other members. You're wanting them to meet the other members. You're wanting them to connect. Maybe they have been assigned a mentor, maybe they met over coffee or they met your group just briefly, right before everybody made the decision that this is a good fit. So what do you expect in this stage first, and then what do you do about it? So excitement is the carryover of anticipation and hope because they're still excited.

Tina Corner Stolz 
They haven't been to their meeting yet, but where does judgment come from? Okay, so judgment comes when they get to their first meeting. And what do I mean by that? So first of all, you're being judged, whether you realize it or not. They're evaluating, first of all, how you're running the meeting. They're evaluating how you handle. Right. The preparation. Do you send out the meeting agenda in advance? What do you do? They're judging you and your processes, and they're making opinions about that. So don't take for granted, not telling them every step of the way why you're doing what you're doing.

Tina Corner Stolz 
Remember that when they go into the meeting, the structure and how it is, explaining that to them. So doing that in advance of their first meeting, like, this is how I open the meeting. This is why I do that. This is how we process what we call copies, challenges, opportunities, problems, or ideas. This is the process. Through it, you're going to notice that. You're going to notice, this is how I moderate through that process. This is how we close out the meeting, et cetera, et cetera, and explaining that to them so they know and they're not making judgments that are negative unnecessarily.

Tina Corner Stolz 
Right. There are numerous first impressions. So what do I mean by that? They're judging their peers. So how is that possible? Well, they get in the meeting. In the first meeting. First impressions are everything. First of all, first impression on, do you start the meeting on time? Now we're back to you. First impression about each member.

Tina Corner Stolz [00:14:55]:
How do they greet them? How do they welcome them? They're listening for each member's interaction to determine if they think they're smart or not. Are these really my peers? Are they going to be able to help me? Did I make a good decision? These are smart people. These will be able to help me. Can I add value? I don't know. So that's what's happening. Is this judging? The new member is assessing the other members to see whether they can help them. They question whether the members are truly peers, wiser, more sophisticated. You get the gist.

Tina Corner Stolz 
So what do you do? You want to influence this perception, and you have the power to do that in order to ensure that the existing members strengths and synergies with the new members are maximized. And what do I mean by that is you want to bring out the positives, the strengths of every member around the table. When you have a new member there, whenever you introduce a new member to an existing member or a new member to your whole group, you're going to play up every single existing member. So what do I mean by that? For example, if John was joining the group for the first time in his first meeting, and let's say John has a partnership and he's in a partnership, meaning he's got partners in the business, but he's the CEO. And let's just say that his organization is a manufacturing company. And one of the challenges is they're getting ready to do an acquisition. Well, I will have probably told him about other members in the groups that also have partnerships for commonality, maybe that also have similarities to the type of industry he's in and maybe that have already done an m, a transaction or are also considering that. So in introductions, or let's just say somewhere throughout the meeting, I might be saying, john, oh, by the way, you just heard Sam talk a little bit about this relationship with XYZ company.

Tina Corner Stolz 
That's something that he did in regards to an acquisition, kind of like doing a venture, an acquisition, and maybe offline, you could talk to him a little bit about that. But the point is that you are building everybody up. Or you might say, sam, can you expand on that a little bit more for John on what you learned and the success that you had in that area? You are always trying to bring out the best in the members so that the existing member can understand what everybody is bringing to the table, because rarely will you have members really stand on a soapbox and toot their horn to a new member. So you have to be that catalyst as a moderator to bring that out. You, at this point, know more about everybody in the room than everybody knows about each other. Most likely, you will always know that because of the role that you play. Right. And so take that knowledge and be sure it's shared among each of the members to prevent, in stage two, a member making a bad judgment on another member.

Tina Corner Stolz 
That is not true. So let me go back in a quick example. I really learned this the hard way when I had new member come on board in their very first meeting, and they actually left the first meeting and they said to me, tina, I don't think this is right fit group. I just don't think these guys are at the guys. When I see men and women at the same level I am. And I knew that those members were even at a higher sophistication level than that new member. And I said, well, what makes you think that? Well, I just didn't see things talked about that I wasn't aware of. Or I just felt the conversation wasn't sophisticated enough.

Tina Corner Stolz 
Or point being, they made some judgment calls. And then I had to go back into what selling mode and say, well, new member, I can see how you might have thought that. However, so and so has this experience and has been successful here, and so on and so on and so on and so on until they were like, or that you will have a new member say, I don't really think I want to bring up that because I don't think anybody can help me in the group. Their making a judgment call. And I used to hate because I would say, how do you know that? What makes you think that and actually believe that no one in your group can help you with that? You don't know until you ask because you never know who they know, but you don't know every single experience they've been through. And it's uncanty. But how many times then I would get the member to bring that up and the group would help them tremendously. And I would just look at them and kind of wink and they'd be like, all right, I know you were right, but don't let your existing members get away with not bringing up something because they think somebody in the group is not going to be able to help them or the group as a whole can't help them.

Tina Corner Stolz
That's judging. You have to, as a moderator, be on top alert for judging and nip it because judging means no trust. Making assumptions that you want to teach those leaders not to do that in their own business themselves. Right. And make those judgment calls unless they're accurate. So they should seek to understand and be sure before having that opinion. This is why stage two is so important of your new member getting off on the right foot so that you set it up to where they can't judge and that when they do judge, it's positively, not negatively. And that's what you can do to help them through stage two.

Tina Corner Stolz
Okay, so to summarize, today you have seven stages, right. It's a journey to get to that last stage of vulnerability that sometimes takes years to do. Some people get through stages one through four. Right. Fairly quickly, within six months or so, and they stall in a stage. And as I talk more through the other stages, you'll get a better feel for why that's the case. Because some of the other stages that we're going to talk about is they have to go through some tough times for them to get through to the next stage. And what do I mean by tough times? Is some tough conversations in the group.

Tina Corner Stolz 
All right. So, again, all I want you to take away today is onboarding and sharing with your new member what they can expect, particularly in the very beginning. But for you, as a moderator, what you have to be aware of to manage their expectations, their judgment, and keep their excitement at a high level. So with that, thank you, everyone, for another episode of Mastermind Mastery on the member journey, which will enhance your member experience. And I guarantee you increased retention and most likely referrals. Right. We always love referrals. Who does not like referrals? And you can download this resource.

Tina Corner Stolz
Right. And you can see it in the show notes and be able to click on that. And until next week, you guys go make it happen. And I always love spending time with you. Bye.