How Shelly Expanded Her Group Program into a Thriving Membership with Practice Better

If you’re a dietitian, health coach, or wellness practitioner running a group coaching program and wondering what comes next... this one’s for you.

Shelly is a registered dietitian who had already built a group coaching program for women navigating perimenopause and menopause. After her first run, like a lot of practitioners, she didn’t want the connection with her clients to end once the program wrapped up.

She wanted a way to keep those women in her world, to continue supporting them beyond the initial transformation.

So, she reached out to me with a clear vision: “I want to create a membership that continues to support my clients.”

The Vision: A Cooking and Recipe Membership on Practice Better

Shelly didn’t want just any membership. She wanted to create something interactive, high-touch, and valuable—a supportive community where her clients could continue learning and growing month after month.

One of the standout features she wanted to include? A Sunday night cooking class. Each week, Shelly hosts a live cooking session where she teaches her community how to prepare hormone-friendly meals that support energy, mood, metabolism, and more—especially for women in perimenopause and menopause.

Here’s the twist: she wanted these classes to be included for free inside her membership, but she also wanted the option to sell them individually to non-members.

How We Built It Using Practice Better

Shelly was already using Practice Better to manage her group coaching program, so expanding her setup into a full-blown membership made total sense. The platform has just the right tools to support this kind of transition—without needing to duct tape together a bunch of different apps.

✅ Flexible Pricing & Smart Access That Supports Growth

One of Shelly’s biggest goals with launching her Practice Better membership was to keep serving her clients long-term—but she also had a smart lead generation idea in mind.

She wanted her Sunday night hormone-friendly cooking classes to be included free for members, and available for purchase separately for non-members. This way, women could get a taste of her teaching style and value—and potentially join the membership after attending a class.

This kind of hybrid setup can be tricky on some platforms. But Practice Better makes it simple using their Group Services feature.

Here’s how we made it work:

• Free for members: We added the weekly cooking class as a group session inside her membership program, so subscribers could attend at no extra cost.

• Paid drop-in option: We also set up the same class as a paid group service, allowing the general public to book and attend for a one-time fee.

  
  

With just a few clicks, you can offer the same live session in multiple ways—as part of a package or program, or as a standalone service. This level of flexibility is one of the reasons Practice Better is so well-suited for wellness professionals looking to scale and market creatively.

👉 Learn more about creating and managing group sessions here:https://help.practicebetter.io/hc/en-us/articles/115000473667-Creating-and-Managing-Group-Sessions

✅ Recurring Auto Payments

To keep things simple on the billing side, we used Practice Better’s ongoing payments feature.

Shelly’s members pay $97 automatically each month—no need to chase invoices or manually renew subscriptions. Payments process via Stripe or Square and continue until the member decides to cancel.

This auto-debit model is a game-changer for practitioners who want to build sustainable, predictable income.

👉 Here’s how to set up recurring billing:https://help.practicebetter.io/hc/en-us/articles/360037913873-Creating-Membership-Packages

✅ Built-in Community with Group Chat

One of Shelly’s goals was to maintain the sense of community her group coaching program had created. With Practice Better’s group chat feature, we made it easy for her members to stay connected—without relying on Facebook Groups or other outside tools.

Inside the Practice Better client portal, members can:

• Join a private chat thread

• Ask questions, share wins, and support one another

• Interact with Shelly between sessions in a private and secure space

This all happens right inside the platform—no switching apps, no added tech stress.

👉 Learn more about group chats in Practice Better:https://help.practicebetter.io/hc/en-us/articles/4403191042071-Managing-Group-Chats

The Results? A Savvy Launch with Momentum

Shelly officially launched her membership just one week after we finished setting it up.

In her very first week, she welcomed 6 brand new members—and the best part is, now that the foundation is built, she can keep growing month after month with minimal lift.

She took massive action, followed through on her vision, and now has a structure in place that:

• Keeps her best clients engaged

• Generates recurring income on autopilot

• Provides ongoing support in a community setting

• Showcases her unique value in a scalable way

Want to Build Something Like This?

If you're a practitioner, dietitian, or wellness coach running a group program and wondering how to turn it into a long-term membership model, Practice Better is the platform you need—and I can help you make it happen.

We’ll work together to:

• Map out your membership vision

• Set up billing, scheduling, and access rules

• Make your offers scalable and simple to manage

• Use the features in Practice Better that actually grow your business

👉 Apply to work with me here: https://practicebetter.io