In It ForEVER™ Podcast
Listen in to how non-profit and for-profit businesses move from incremental growth to exponential growth, from passive customer relations to active customer relationships, and from surviving to thriving. The show includes a mix of discussions, interviews, and education focused on topics, such as, event planning, meeting planning, membership development, member retention, member engagement, value proposition development, marketing, direct sales, selling, strategic planning, managing a governing board, customer service, vendor and provider relations, and curating and cultivating partnerships.
Consulting
Experience. Expertise. Results
Membership programs of all types continue to struggle with finding new members and keeping the ones they have. Organizations often need an outside perspective, an assessment and audit of your membership program, or assistance in restructuring your membership model. Our consulting services provide hands-on guidance and direction in retooling your membership program and developing efficient and effective recruitment and retention strategies.
In addition to membership we also offer consulting for businesses focusing on their meeting needs. Our team is able to help in areas such as site selection, contracting, management, logistics and budgeting.
Meminars™
What is a Meminar™?
It’s an educational experience that focuses on improving the effectiveness and efficiencies of membership programs for businesses (for-profit and non-profit) that rely on recurring revenues at the core of their business model. New Live Meminars™ are scheduled on the last Monday of each month (except May & December.) Encore live presentations of previously released Meminars™ are scheduled throughout the year. Live Meminars™ are 60-minutes in duration. The presentation is lasts 45-50 minutes which allows 10-15 minutes for Q&A before the conclusion of the session.
The Next Steps, LLC is a CAE Approved Provider. Educational programs related to the CAE exam content outline may be applied toward your CAE application or renewal professional development requirements.
INTRODUCING THEBUSINESSOFMEMBERSHIP.COM (aka The BoM)
Joining the Worlds of Membership
Together to Grow!
For nearly 25 years, I’ve been obsessed with finding answers to these questions searching online, in books, articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos, at in-person and online events, and reaching out by phone to my membership colleagues.
Recently, I began exploring other membership-based worlds like chambers of commerce, gyms & fitness centers, golf & country clubs, churches, online membership sites, and the membership mammoths (e.g., Amazon Prime, Costco, Netflix, etc.) to expand the search for answers.
Now I’ve turned this obsession into a website. (It’s 2019. That’s what you do.)
It’s TheBusinessofMembership.com and it’s a place to share – with you and other membership professionals – the resources and information discovered in my ongoing search for membership knowledge. A place where you can find the answers to your membership questions, stay informed of the latest news and trends in membership, and learn from other membership professionals. TheBusinessofMembership.com will save you time and help you achieve the goals you have for your membership program.
A few things we’re great at
Results Above All: Too many times, we’ve watched organizations and individuals shy away from setting “SMART” goals. Even when they do take the time for goal setting they make lackluster attempts at achieving those goals, with inconsistent execution and excuses. It all comes down to performance and whether the stakeholders have generated results and made progress towards goal achievement. We believe in achieving results towards attainable goals.
We measure our success by results.
SPEAKING
Interested in teaching your chapters, board, departments, and teams about Membership or Meetings? How about the blend of both?
Our team has had the privilege of presenting at many events and meetings on topics such as, collaboration of meetings and membership teams, member onboarding, dues restructuring, and improving the member value proposition. Use the Contact Us menu item above to ask about our availability for your event.
Members of the Next Steps Team have been featured at events hosted by:
American Society of Association Executives (ASAE)
Virginia Society of Association Executives (VSAE)
American General Contractors of America (AGC)
National Golf Course Owners Association
Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau
and others…
EDUCATION
By Membership Professionals. For Membership Professionals. The BoM provides educational experiences for membership professionals through our Meminars™ series.
Meminars™ are educational experiences focused on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of membership programs for businesses (for-profit and non-profit) that rely on recurring revenues at the core of their business model.
CONSULTING
Expertise Out of Experience
The Next Steps, LLC team is rooted in decades of experience working within associations to drive change, work through the details, and take projects to completion. The Next Steps, LLC has up-to-date designations of certified association executive (CAE) and certified meeting professional (CMP). More importantly, our team has experience in putting our knowledge and expertise into practice day after day, week after week, month after month to drive progress towards accomplishing the organization’s mission.
IN³
Education for Small Business Owners
Our IN³ programs offer education and special events for small business owners, direct sellers and anyone working independently (full time or on the side) in the Washington DC Metro/Northern Virginia area. If you are looking for inspiration and practical ways of improving your performance and increasing your sales, these education and event series are for you. Build your network and your bottomline and remember…you may be independent but you’re not alone.
Client Testimonials
Don’t take our word for it – here’s what our clients say:
I can’t think of any other events like this for what you learn, get and the connections you can make all in one location in the span of 5-6 well-spent hours.
Diana F.
DianaForbes.com
Dan & Nicole delivered in a timely fashion and provided results. The Next Steps truly helped our Board recognize options for supporting their roles as leaders in our organization. They assisted with an ‘outside the box’ way to strategize and implemented a new online fundraising event.
Kelly H.
Formed Families Forward
Nicole and Dan are the real deal = passionate as they are utterly hilarious. They’ve got a real dedication to making over the stagnated membership world and with their enthusiasm and dedication to technical knowledge in marketing and membership software, they’ve positioned themselves to be uniquely valuable to association marketing and mentorship.
Heather M.
Target Rocket
Join us! It will only take a minute
Our Team
With over 36 years combined experience….here is a little bit more about our expertise.
Dan Ratner
Membership & Business Strategist
In his more than 20 years as an association professional, Dan has specialized in membership development and retention at all levels rising to executive levels of both professional and trade associations. All of these organizations achieved records in membership growth during his tenure. The size of these organizations range from 1,200 members to 175,000 and operating budgets of up to $60 million. His experience includes leading membership development, constituent relations, customer service, and direct sales teams. In several cases, Mr. Ratner pioneered and championed the use of social media and online meeting platforms for membership development purposes. He regularly took on the role of change agent for the culture within these organizations advocating for membership to be at the core of the overall business model. Dan’s major accomplishments throughout his career have left a legacy of innovation and growth.
His creativity and futuristic thinking around membership retention and engagement has led to organizations adopting practices and traditions that involve all staff members in membership growth initiatives well beyond his employment.
When working with any organization, Dan’s primary considerations have always been on enhancing the membership experience, improving and refining the membership value proposition, stimulating engagement among members and nonmember prospects, and collaborating with content developers to ensure benefits and services remain relevant to members and constituents. He is also a staunch advocate of student membership.
He is a dynamic and energetic speaker and presenter and has years of training and on-stage experience as an improvisational and standup comedian. As a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) for the past 17 years, Mr. Ratner has presented sessions at several of their conferences and been a panelist for the Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s Association Day event. He has been featured in an article for Associations Now and authored an article for ASAE’s Executive Idealinks online publication.
Mr. Ratner graduated Florida State University with a Bachelors in Instrumental Music Education and taught for two years in central Florida before moving to the metropolitan Washington DC area. He has also been a musician for a majority of his life and is a member of an 11-piece rhythm & blues, soul, and funk band in the DC area for the past 20 years.
Dan is also a proud husband and father of two adorable daughters. He met his beautiful and talented wife within the association world and is pursuing and experiencing happiness every single day.
Nicole Ratner, CAE, CMP
Meeting Strategist & Owner
With over 18 years of experience in association management with expertise in meeting and event planning, educational programming, board and committee relations, communications, and more, Nicole is a former Executive Director of a national association where she handled the day-to-day operations, membership, marketing, meetings, and education.
She is a graduate of George Mason University with a BA in communications and previously worked for NBC4 in Washington in the Entertainment field with Arch Campbell. She formally began her association management career working for the Fairfax Bar Association and later the American Bar Association as a Meetings Coordinator. Mrs. Ratner has also served as Dir. of Public Relations for a law firm in Washington, DC where she was responsible for client relations, marketing and all PR for the firm founder.
She received her Certified Meeting Planner (CMP) Designate in January of 2007 and Certified Association Executive (CAE) Designate in 2009 and at the time was in the 1% in earning this designation under the age of 30. She is an active member of The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) where she previously served as Chair of the Ambassador Subcommittee for the Community Outreach Committee. Nicole has also been a member of MPI (Meeting Professionals International) and its local chapter, PMPI for 9 years. During her time with PMPI, she served as co-chair of the Publications committee, Board Director for Marketing, Vice President, Communications and as co-chair of the Leadership committee. She has also been a member of MPI National’s Rise Award Committee. Nicole has been recognized with the Star of the Month, 2006-2007 Rising Star Award and 2007-2008 Planner of the Year by PMPI. In September of 2013 she was announced as one of the Inaugural 40 under 40 award recipients that recognizes dedication in leadership and work to the Association profession. She is President-Elect of the Prince William County Networking Community (PWC Networking Community) and an active member of TeamWIN (women in networking).
In addition, Nicole has over 10 years experience in network marketing and direct sales leading a team of over 20 at one point. She previously worked for a direct sales company for 8 years until they closed their doors in late 2014. For two years she was a founding leader with a new venture before taking a break for a couple of year. She recently signed back on with the fastest growing DS company, Color Street. Through her years in direct sales, Nicole educated her team and others on business processes. In her experiences with these companies she worked with her team focusing on events, sales, marketing, goal setting, strategic planning and leadership.
In her spare time she enjoys dancing and is a former trained dancer in competitive ballroom. In addition to dancing she loves to travel, exercise, and gamble! Her greatest accomplishments are that of her marriage to husband and business partner, Dan, two precious daughters and cat, Lucky.
Blog & Podcast
Offering over 50 episodes in all areas of the association world.
We are online at iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify.
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We are excited to welcome Marcia Sheehan, Founder of Charmed Cardinals today as we talk with her about putting together a 1st ever conference. Not only is her Society putting together this event they also have a membership program which we touch base on. Listen in to hear how she’s applying the In It ForEVER™ principle to the Connector Conference. Here are a list of resources mentioned in this episode: Connector Conference [enter code: forever[…]
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WOW, it’s our 50th EPISODE and it just so happens it’s one of our Top 5 Tips in 5 Minutes! Most of us work with Volunteers in some capacity whether it’s on a committee, Board, School PTO you name it! So we are offering up 5 Tips in 5 Minutes on working with Volunteers. Here are a list of resources mentioned in this episode: None were mentioned. RIGHT CLICK HERE and save as to download[…]
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