From business broker to course creator: building The Brokers Roundtable
Joe Caffrey didn’t start his journey as a community builder until fairly late in his career—and even then, he just stumbled into it. And it’s turned into a steady income stream ever since.
In 1997, Joe sold a business he’d started in 1991. He spent much of the next four years wandering around Europe, trying to figure out what he wanted to do next. Upon returning home to the US, he tried to buy a business using a business broker affiliated with the largest brokerage franchise system. Let’s just say the process was broken, leaving Joe frustrated but ultimately with an even better idea—it was time to give the big business broker franchises a little competition.
Joe unknowingly started his community builder journey in 2001 when he launched Worldwide Business Brokers, a business brokering company that works with and guides business owners when the time comes to sell their business.
As he grew his business, he was training brokers as they joined the Worldwide Business Brokers network and supporting those brokers via email and a weekly group call. In 2018, he digitized the training program and began offering it online. He soon realized that he was doing more training than brokering.
“Our audience was now anywhere that had an internet connection. I sat down and asked myself, ‘What business am I really in?’ I decided that I was in the teaching business, and I really wanted to see if I could develop new streams of recurring revenue from my business,” Joe says.
As fate would have it, Joe listened to an episode of the Smart Passive Income Podcast with Pat Flynn featuring Josh Hall. During the episode, Josh shared his story of moving his community to Circle and the success he’s had since.
“I started to do a little research,” Joe says, “and it occurred to me that I could probably move our support for our network of business brokers—and others around the world—into Circle.”
He started outlining the community in the Fall of 2022 and joined Circle shortly thereafter, beginning the community build early in 2023. By late April The Brokers Roundtable℠ was ready to launch.
Six or seven months later, when Circle announced the addition of courses—the ability of Members to sell their courses through Circle—Joe decided to take the leap and in November 2023, with the epic assistance of the Circle team, the courses were moved into The Brokers Roundtable℠ community.
“Now we've got this all-in-one platform where we can get people into the courses and fully support them 24/7,” Joe says.
Scroll on to learn all about Joe’s community, growth tactics and more.
The community breakdown
📍 Community: The Brokers Roundtable℠
👋 Founder: Joe Caffrey
🗓️ Circle community launched: May 2023
🌟 Size: 36
🎯 Purpose: To support business professionals in the merger and acquisition (M&A) industry.
💰Pricing model: Quarterly memberships are available for $175, along with paid courses that offer limited access to the community.
Core community offering
The core offering of The Brokers Roundtable℠ is The Brokers Academy, where a menu of courses teaches aspiring business brokers, real estate agents and others how to value and successfully sell businesses.
Joe describes it as a hub for business owners, brokers, buyers, commercial lenders, accountants, attorneys and other professionals that are instrumental in the transfer of a business from one owner to the next.
The Brokers Roundtable℠ is a community where Members can share ideas, connect with others, ask experts for help, line up financing and find answers for the inevitable questions that arise in any business transfer.
Joe structures the community into three key tiers:
- Stuff for everybody: This is Joe’s free tier, open to anyone. It includes businesses that Members are selling, member testimonials, a description of businesses that buyers are looking for, announcements, and other resources.
- Roundtable members only: Paid members have access to the full community, including workshops, monthly live interviews and Q&As, weekly office hours, and The Thursday Special, an intimate, limited-seat discussion with Joe himself.
- The VIP level: This tier is only available to members who have purchased one of Joe’s courses. It includes weekly Pro Sessions and one-on-ones with Joe and his team.
You can explore the live community space here.
How it’s organized
Joe’s community is built around course offerings, as well as free and members-only spaces.
The spaces include:
- Potential opportunities: Members can view businesses for sale or post about businesses they’re interested in acquiring.
- Live events: Joe hosts a monthly interview and Q&A series featuring industry talent as well as weekly office hours sessions and short, topic-specific live commentary that all paid Members have access to.
- Discussions: Paid Members can access discussion forums and Ask the Experts sessions to discover insider tips on valuing and brokering the sale of businesses.
- Talent: Members include seasoned brokers, business appraisers, sources of deal financing, transaction attorneys, accountants, franchise specialists and all the related talent generally involved in selling and buying any business valued roughly between US$250,000 and US$25M. All this talent is available to all Members.
- Courses: The Brokers Roundtable℠ currently offers a menu of seven courses on specific aspects of valuing and brokering businesses in the Main Street and Lower Middle Markets (businesses valued between US$250,000 and US$25M). Though the courses are not included in the membership, membership provides a 20% discount when purchasing a course and, to facilitate support for all students, up to a year’s FREE membership in The Brokers Roundtable℠.
Joe jokes that he has “shamelessly copied Circle’s layout,” including using images to give potential members a view of what’s happening inside a space.
“We took a screenshot of a space and posted that screenshot here so anybody who was not in The Brokers Roundtable℠ could see the benefits. We do this with each of the spaces and we make sure that the screenshot is always current.” – Joe Caffrey
How it’s monetized
To kick off the paid membership feature, Joe selected 15 broker professionals and offered them free lifetime membership to “seed” the community. (These initial Members are helping him grow interest across their own networks.)
There are two main ways that Joe makes money through The Brokers Roundtable℠:
- Paid memberships: Initially, to join The Brokers Roundtable℠, early Members paid $115 per quarter. Once membership reached 30, this was increased to the current $175 per quarter.
- Courses: The Brokers Roundtable℠ also offers a menu of seven courses on all aspects of valuing and brokering businesses. Each can be purchased individually and include a limited-time membership. Anyone who purchases the Flagship Course for $2,997 receives a free one-year membership to the community. But more importantly for growing the membership, Members get a 20% discount on current and future courses!
“Nobody has to be a member of the Roundtable to enroll in these courses, but with a 20% discount, it makes it imperative for them to join. It’s even more important when they understand that the community is where the support is.” – Joe Caffrey
The community team
Joe runs The Brokers Roundtable℠, but that doesn’t mean he’s building the community alone. He credits the support team at Circle with providing a level of customer service (and caring) he hadn’t expected.
“I've been in business most of my life and the support that one had in the 1990s is much different than the support one has now. It was personal. In the past 25 years, it has gotten less personal, but I have found that the people at Circle have been extremely professional and helpful. That is a very big deal.”– Joe Caffrey
Joe’s top community building tips & tricks
💡Launching with 15 non-paying members: Joe strategically "seeded" his community by offering free lifetime memberships to a select group of M&A professionals. By organizing a founding member launch, Joe could test his ideas and get valuable feedback on the community’s structure, content, and services.
💡Converting visitors into paid members through free access: Joe designed previews of his community by integrating screenshots of the private spaces. This allows anyone who discovers the community through a blog or social media post to explore and get key information about what’s behind the paywall. Prospective members see a visual representation of the resources and opportunities awaiting them, making the decision to pay for access more compelling.
💡Drawing in new members by testing marketing tactics: Joe currently attracts new members through blog posts and social media content, as well as 20% course discounts and free community membership for his students. Through understanding what information appeals to his ideal customer, Joe is crafting tailored marketing tactics that highlight the impact of his community’s offerings. And by testing out new promotional strategies, he is able to figure out what resonates with his audience and translates to membership growth.
