Led by the revered guitarist John Browne, MMA makes its members into metal masters. With a subscription-based membership, John combines daily lessons and songwriting challenges with themed classes ranging in topics from recording techniques to music theory. Today, MMA has a radically supportive community with 5,000 members — a number Browne attributes to the quality he can deliver with Mighty Networks.
After decades of touring internationally, metal guitarist John Browne lives a much quieter life in the tiny village of Haworth, England. Perched on the misty, heather-gray Pennine Moors, Haworth’s landscape inspired the Brontë Sisters’ gothic classics like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Although the scenery seems fitting for John’s Modern Metal Academy, he doesn’t have to worry about his followers making the trip to his rural town of just 6,700 people. Using Mighty Networks as his educational platform, John teaches musicians around the world all from his countryside studio.
“I’ve played on every inhabited continent on the planet, from Australia and New Zealand to South Africa and India, even Russia,” John says about his time performing with bands like Monuments. “It’s been really awesome to do that. But at the same time, over the course of that entire period, I learned so much. I wanted to teach everyone else what I'd learned.”
During those years on the road, John found his own sound and developed his signature downpicking style that he’s known for today. Friends encouraged him to start teaching his method, which led to Riffhard, his first iteration of MMA in 2018. But after six years of developing an online lesson library and managing a separate social media community, John couldn’t keep his crescendo without a significant financial investment, especially if he wanted a mobile app.
“It used to be that you had to build a website from the ground up yourself, with something like Wordpress. At that point, it starts getting extremely expensive because you need coders,” John explains. “The main thing I was looking for was an integrated community with the lessons. You see a lot of websites that have everything divided up amongst multiple applications, and it feels disjointed.”
When John found Mighty Networks, he knew it checked all of the boxes he needed for MMA to, in the words of Spinal Tap, go to eleven. But he also knew moving his people to a brand new platform could present a challenge.
“Ultimately, we're creatures of habit. You want your tea, coffee, and sugar containers in a certain position in your kitchen. The moment someone changes that, the entire kitchen feels wrong,” he says.
But growing pains from the shift were shortlived, and in just 10 months, John had just as many new members join as he had seen in two and half years on his previous website. A few of those newcomers were headlining artists themselves. “Even the ones who are at the top of their game, they constantly want to learn. It never stops.”
John designed MMA as a yearly subscription (alongside a monthly option) for $380 with the promise that his students’ best year ever would have them accomplish new skills at triple speed and level-up their artistry. The annual plan includes master classes, the lesson library, a members lounge, one-on-one coaching, and Guitar Hacks, a daily exercise routine with guest instructors. When he set out to design his offers, John didn’t want to overwhelm new members, but he knew he needed to give them a choice of avenues to get involved from the jump. After asking for and hearing his followers’ feedback, he found a balance of content and incentives that have earned him a mega-engaged community. And because MMA lives on Mighty Networks instead of a wide-open, troll-ridden website, members’ first magical experience is extra upbeat.
“When they post their first video and everyone is universally positive about how they can improve and how they’re doing a great job, that's a completely different experience than the rest of the Internet where it could be quite negative,” John says. “That can change the mindset of how people want to be involved. You don't want to be around communities that make you feel bad about yourself.”
That hardcore support system isn’t just evident in vibes or anecdotes; it shows up in MMA’s Mighty Insights™ (the in-depth analytics only available on Mighty Networks). John can see some members have sent more messages than even he has, which tells him that they are talking with each other just as much as they are commenting publicly.
One of John’s favorite stories about MMA’s people magic is also a moment that reaffirmed his decision to move his platform to Mighty Networks. One longtime member started posting videos of his lunchtime practice sessions in his car. Inspired by his commitment to shred despite his work schedule, other members started posting videos of themselves practicing during their lunch breaks. The response created Gui-car Hacks, a new take on those daily exercises.
“It was quite cool,” says John. “I think that was such an inspiring moment because it showed that with this platform you can practice anywhere.”