Starting a Membership Business with Purpose
Discover how Dovile turned a simple idea into a thriving paid community of over 2,000 members. If you’re thinking about starting a membership business, her story offers real insight into building with intention, heart, and sustainability.
We sat down to have a chat with Dovile Urbanaite – Schukowski, a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and the founder of She Is Glowing—Lithuania’s leading personal and business development platform for women. With over 2,000 paying members, the community offers transformative education, networking, events, and support for ambitious women, serving as a powerful example of what’s possible when starting a membership business with intention., Dovile knows just what it’s like to start a membership business from scratch and create a raving community of people.
We met on Zoom with the perfect backdrop of Dubai’s skyline, where she recently created a second home with her husband Kai. She shared her excitement that her business allows her to offer time and flexibility, so she can live anywhere in the world.
Having started her first (now sold) business at the age of 21—a wedding planning business called Barefoot Bride—her vision has always been seeing women living a freedom lifestyle, running barefoot on the beach, radiating happiness and enjoying life. Which is a resemblance of the life she has now created, thanks to her current business, She Is Glowing Club, operating in Lithuania.
When I asked her why she created her community and what inspired her to start a membership business, she says:
“Starting my first business at the age of 21 in Tenerife felt incredibly lonely and isolating. I could not find people who were like me—young, ambitious, interested in personal development, and looking to redefine what success looked like for them.”
When she was first featured in the media in Lithuania about her first business, she had an incredible response from women. And she had two types of enquiries: one was about weddings in Spain, and the second was about starting a business. She felt overwhelmed with hundreds of messages and so many similar requests for advice that she realised it was not going to be possible to respond to all individually.
So, she created a free Facebook group where she could speak to everyone and answer their questions in a group format, instead of 1-2-1.
Was this where the idea for the She Is Glowing Club was born?
“Well, it was a spark of inspiration, but I did not start building a membership just yet. I actually spent quite a long time listening to my audience—hearing all their common challenges, what support they wanted, and the resources they needed. It actually took me quite a long time to start the club because I wanted to be sure about what I was getting myself into and create something that mattered.
As they say, timing is everything, and at the time I was still studying for my masters in Manchester, UK, so I wanted to complete one project before starting a new one.”
What advice would you offer someone thinking about starting a membership business or a community today?
“I would say listen to your audience—they are the best source of wisdom when it comes to doing market research before starting anything. If you already have an audience, do some polls, surveys, or actively engage in conversations with them. Your audience will tell you if creating a community is a good idea. Even today, nearly five years later since starting She Is Glowing Club, we still run twice-a-year surveys to find out what we could be doing better in our business, and it pays dividends.”
How did you go about starting your membership business with She Is Glowing Club? What was the first thing you did?
“We actually started with hosting events in Lithuania, which became very popular very quickly. I would regularly sell them out on the day of the launch. This was an indication that I had a strong pull for my audience and they wanted more than just community—they wanted real-life connections. So I would recommend for someone who wants to start a community to consider adding a live events element and creating opportunities for your audience to connect. As they say, your audience will come for the content but will stay because of the relationships they create within it.”
What would you recommend to someone who may not have a big audience yet but wants to start a community?
“I believe that if you want to have a successful community you need to have numbers—this makes a community sustainable and easier to maintain when there is momentum. So if you already have a warm audience who are engaging with you, I would say go for it. But if you do not yet have that, I would actually recommend instead of starting a community, looking into perhaps running a course program or a higher-priced mastermind.
Our membership is relatively low-cost, but we have more than 2,000 paying members, which makes sense as it is sustainable to maintain. But it is not always the case with small, low-cost communities.”
What’s your view on doing 1:1 consultations with people, which I know is something you have moved away from?
“I personally loved it but got burned out trying to do 1:1 consultations with people. It was too time-consuming and energy-draining, and I realised that the majority of the people had the same questions, facing the same issues. So I turned it into a monthly Q&A session with me inside my membership, so my club members could ask me all their burning questions and others could benefit from it.
I always try to find ways I can add extra value to my membership and support my club members in a way that helps them but does not deplete me of my time and energy, which would defeat the purpose of why I started this business in the first place.”
What makes your membership different?
“I was already known as a personal brand. It was an extension of me and my passion. But my business is still functioning without me, which is an important part of being able to build freedom.
What’s different about my business is that I stay present to be there for my audience, because I CARE. I dedicate hours to answering every single post inside my paid community, which is often not the case with other influencer communities.
Whilst my personal brand is a big driver and pull for the audience to be part of my community, I continue to deeply care about my business and my clients, so I pour my heart and soul into it. I don’t just treat it like a passive income business—I stay present. I know who my members are, and when we meet in person at our regular events, I actually know things about them and their journey, which makes the whole experience really personal. I see them, I understand them, and I am with them every step of the way.”
What do you think were some of the success factors to your community?
“I think it succeeded because I really focused on a specific location—which was Lithuania. At the time, there was no such thing as an online business community for women. While it was new in Lithuania, it was certainly not new globally. So I brought something fresh into a very specific market that really took off.
Being focused on a specific target audience and relatively small market or location really enabled me to zone in on my message, focus my marketing on local promotions, and reach a bigger audience within a shorter space of time, which allowed me to grow relatively quickly.
We became known in Lithuania much quicker than we probably would have globally, because people speak and share with each other. Word-of-mouth marketing really helped us further our reach. Good word makes it easier to spread in smaller communities, reducing the cost of marketing and effort.”
What else did you do differently compared to other communities?
“We stuck with one core product and main offering that we just focused on—which was the membership club. This helped us become really well known for it. Instead of creating so many different offerings, I would innovate and create various added benefits inside the community.
So everything was driving back to the club. If you wanted to connect with people, attend our events, have access to incredible expert advice, or get my eyes on your business, all you had to do was join the club.
It was easier to communicate about it and drive people to one core offering than diluting our message with so many different things, which creates confusion within your audience—and confused minds do not buy anything.”
If someone wants to have a freedom lifestyle, is starting a membership business a good idea?
“Yes, I would say it is a good idea, but at first, you will need to be involved to make it successful. This I did for a long time before I started to monetise my audience. But when I launched my business, I started to grow my team because I realised doing it alone was not going to be sustainable. This helped me clarify what my key role in the business was and outsource anything that was not my job to do.
This gave me more time to focus on things I was really good at, like being the face of the brand, the visionary, the communicator of our mission. I was able to build incredible partnerships, bring in more amazing experts, and create valuable content inside the membership, without having to worry about the administrative side of the business that my team could take care of.
We as women are so good at being everything for everyone, but that is not the idea when we want to build a successful business that gives us freedom. So I would say never be afraid to hire help in your business.”
So many people think freedom lifestyle equals multiple streams of revenue—was this the case for your business?
“You know, this isn’t my strategy. Whilst it may be risky to rely a lot on one core revenue stream, it has also been a really successful strategy for me to focus on building something great and making it sustainable. Though membership isn’t my sole revenue, I also actively do influencer marketing via my personal brand, which is fun and keeps me engaged with various brands that I love.
We also introduced physical products, which are beautiful planners for business owners, which I really adore. It adds another value to our community and makes one of our offerings more tangible. And even though I had so many opportunities to expand our offering by doing one-time courses or programs, instead I add them into our membership and give more reasons for people to stay or join the club.”
What advice do you have for those who already have a membership?
“Once you have a community or membership, do not become complacent with it—keep innovating, because people get easily bored. Make your membership ‘the place to be’ and meet people. Our member events are so popular and in high demand that we are having to look for bigger venues to support that. This shows that our members are so engaged and want to have in-person connections with others.
We also give so many special and beautiful perks to our members that just entice them to stay with us for longer. We do surveys twice a year, which helps us understand how we can better serve our customers and continue to improve things.
Never assume that some of the problems your members tell you about will magically disappear—address them early and make your community even better.
Stay in close contact with your community and they will continue to help steer it in the right direction for success.”
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
About the Author
Name: Dovile Urbanaite-Schukowskiski
Professional Title: Serial Entrepreneur, Speaker, and Founder of She Is Glowing
Bio: Dovile Urbanaite-Schukowskiski is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and the founder of She Is Glowing—Lithuania’s leading platform for personal and business development for women. With over 2,000 paying members, the community offers transformative education, networking, events, and support for ambitious women. Her mission is to help women step into their full potential, build meaningful businesses or careers, and create lives they genuinely love.
Social Media Handle
