#295: Community Building Trends for 2026 with Becky Pierson Davidson [Greatest Hits]

About this episode

Becky Pierson Davidson discusses the future of community building and the shift from courses to membership models.

I brought back Becky Pierson Davidson to compare notes on where community is headed — and we found a few areas of disagreement. Becky works with 6, 7, and 8-figure businesses helping them build memberships and courses through design thinking and customer research, and she's seeing a major shift right now: course businesses are slowing down, and the smart ones are pivoting to membership models. The difference? Shared learning experiences are replacing self-paced education. Community is what people stay for. We dig into the real mechanics: how to set expectations that don't feel like a bait-and-switch, why meaningful engagement isn't what most people think it is, the mastermind paradox (increases retention, decreases forum activity), and why in-person events might be the most important retention lever you're not using. Becky's hot take for 2026: content drops are dying. People don't need more stuff — they need connection and programming that moves them forward. ⁠Affinity Collective⁠ ⁠Build with Becky podcast⁠ ⁠Episode 197: Building Raving Fans (with Becky & Chanel)⁠ ⁠Circle (community platform)⁠ ⁠TightKnit (Slack archive plugin)⁠ ⁠Dreamers and Doers⁠ ⁠Full transcript and show…

People in this episode

Host: Jay Clouse

Guest: Becky Pierson Davidson

Topics covered

• community building
• membership models
• course transition
• engagement strategies
• retention tactics

Keywords

• community
• membership
• courses
• engagement
• retention
• design thinking
• customer research

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Affinity Collective, Build with Becky podcast, Circle, TightKnit, Dreamers and Doers

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