Podcast Intro
Welcome back to a new episode of the Coaching Hive podcast. I am thrilled that you are here with me, and I cannot believe that we are on the home stretch of this Coaching Hive Blueprint series.
If you have been hanging out with me, you know that back in April, the very end we started this blueprint series in episode 65. And what we did was we started with the concept of using a blueprint that is going to help you stay focused.
It’s going to help remove the overwhelm of building your business. And the other piece of it was the concept of making micro decisions each day, so that you can make progress. You can stay focused, right? And throughout this entire series, there have been action items each week to help you make those micro decisions, use the blueprint and make progress. As a quick recap.
So far in the blueprint series, we have talked about vision daily, rhythm mentors and peers, products and services, your one-liner relationships and web presence. And this week we are going to talk about your email list. Ooh, that is a hot topic these days. It is something that is becoming more and more important. And that’s why I want to spend an entire episode talking about your email list today.
If you are ready to get started, grab that notebook, grab your tablet, whatever you’re taking notes on today, grab a cup of water, a snack, whatever you need to stay focused. And if you’re ready with our theme of simplicity, clarity, and vision for 2022 in mind, let’s jump in.
Email List: Your Hidden Gold Mine
Email list. Ah, have you heard this before?
You have to have an email list. You own the asset.
Facebook or Instagram could shut you down at any time. Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn could go offline for hours or a day and you don’t have access to your community.
These are all right.
The fact of the matter is that an email list is probably one of the most important, maybe even the most important thing that you do in your business. When you have someone’s email, you have a direct line of communication and connection with them. They have trusted you with their email address and you have provided value to them.
You are building a relationship.
Last week, we talked about relationships, right? Well, here’s another way you build relationships. It’s through your email list. A lot of times that starts with a lead generator. This is going to be a PDF, a quiz, a video series, something that your ideal client says, I want that. And I’m willing to trade with you. I’ll give you my email address. You give me that item and you say, absolutely, I’d love to do that. And so they give you their email address. You send them the PDF, the quiz results, the video series, whatever it is that you’re trading. And you have grown your email list.
Why is this so important?
I will never forget the day that Instagram and Facebook went down. Do you remember it? It was not too long ago that it went down for almost the entire day. And I started getting emails in my inbox because I’m on a bunch of mailing lists. And one of them was from Amy Porterfield. She is a list building guru, genius, queen, whatever you want to say, she is amazing at building an email list.
And she said, look, you know what happened? Facebook and Instagram went down and I had one of my biggest revenue days of the year, aside from when she sells her course, why? Well, she had no access to her social network, right? But she had access to her email list. And so she sent them an email and said, I’ve got the thing for you. Don’t be held up by the fact that social media is down today. I want to help you build your asset, your email list so that you can always, always generate revenue when you need to. It was brilliant on her part. She has a podcast where she talks about it as well.
The idea here is that an email list is essential.
- Is it going to create some headaches along the way? Yes.
- Is it worth the effort? Yes.
Just like having a mentor, just like having a peer community, just like having a one-liner building relationships, creating your web presence are all required. So as an email list, you might be thinking, but I don’t work with many people at a time.
That’s okay. What it means is then you have a list, when you have a space open in your calendar, to say, “I had a cancellation or I’ve opened up one more space in my calendar. Are you interested?” You don’t have to go out and find those people. They’re just ready and waiting for the right time for you to have space. What could be better?
It means that if you have a membership, when you open your doors to the membership, you have people lined up with their credit cards. Ready to go, ready to say, sign me up. You can always fill your one-on-one calendar. You can fill your group coaching sessions. You can fill your membership with more ease.
And isn’t that what building a business is designed for is to create flexibility and ease in our lives. So even if having an email list creates a few headaches up front, as you figure out how to do it, it will create flexibility and ease on the back end. It’s worth it.
Hopefully I’ve convinced you that an email list is critical. It’s important. It is something that you do not want to pass “go” without collecting $200. Right? Think about Monopoly. Remember when you used to have to pass “go” without collecting your $200 and that felt awful. Yeah. Building your business without an email list. It’s like passing go without collecting your $200 in Monopoly.
How do you build your email list?
Because guess what? People are not going to just give you their email. I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of protective of mine in that I get so many emails a day. Do I really want to get another one? And when you think about adding yourself to an email list, this is a common question I get is “why are you sending me so many emails? I asked for this one thing.”
It’s to build relationships. So if you complete one of my quizzes or get a PDF from me, you’re going to get between six and eight emails so that I can help build that relationship and continue to provide value beyond whatever it is you’ve downloaded, whatever we’ve traded for. I don’t want you to be left in the dark with a PDF when you still need more help.
Your email list is a great opportunity to build relationships, to serve your clients, your potential clients in a meaningful way. How do you do it though? In some cases you see people saying, well, I’ve got a newsletter. I would encourage you to shift that focus a little bit.
And this is something I talk about as a StoryBrand Certified Guide. You want your newsletter to actually be focused on like tips and tricks because people will sign up for that versus just a newsletter. They want to know that they’re going to get something important for trading their email. Now quizzes are hot right now. I got more leads, more people on my email list from a quiz than I do anything else, because quizzes are fun. They’re quick. And you get to provide a report that is meaningful to that person. So I love quizzes. Quizzes are fun. There are so many great quiz softwares out there now, or quiz programs that it makes it easy. It simplifies everything. I use TryInteract as my quiz platform. And I’ll tell you, you may have to try a few quizzes at first, but then once you land on one that works, you are going to love it. For instance, I have a quiz right now. It is at www.coachinghive.com/assessment. And it is all about the blueprint and where you are in the blueprint. What you could work on based on your score on the quiz. Lots of people love to go there and fill that out and get more information.
Action Item for the Week
So there are lots of ways to build your email list. This will depend on who your clients are. Some of them want a quick PDF, a checklist of things to do. Others might want mistakes to avoid because they’re getting started on something new. They want to know what mistakes to avoid. For instance, five mistakes to avoid when marketing your business, five mistakes to avoid when making changes to your health routine. It’s going to take time. Guess what? You probably know what’s coming if you’ve been listening to these episodes, it’s an iterative process. It’s going to take you time this week. What I want you to do for your action item this week is to explore possible lead generating ideas.
If it’s a PDF, a quiz, a video series, whatever that looks like, think about what your potential clients would like. It’s not necessarily about what your favorite thing is. Although that’s going to come into play at least a little bit. We want to make sure that we are focusing on what your potential client wants and needs. Right now, there is a trick to this. Focus more on what they want, because that’s what they’re going to sign up for. And then you can slip in the stuff that they actually need as well. Build that email list, but start with your lead generating ideas this week. And if you are feeling a little bit lost, feeling confused, overwhelmed, or unfocused, as a StoryBrand certified guide, guess what? I can help you with this.
As we clarify your message, really work through your one-liner, we can also develop a lead generator to help you build your email list. What do you think? Are you getting excited?
I’m hoping at this point that you’re starting to see how your business builds with these micro decisions, with these little steps that you put into place each and every day in your business.
You’ve been doing it now for several weeks, and I hope that you’re getting into a daily rhythm. Like we talked about in episode 67, be patient with yourself. This is a process and it’s iterative. Just like you’ve heard me say over and over, there’s no right and wrong here. Your journey is your journey. Just like Stu McLaren says your journey is your journey.
And I’m here to believe in you. Just take action.
Here’s where we wrap up with a few reminders. I do have a favor to ask. If you have not yet rated the podcast, would you do that for me? And take just a moment or two, leave a review and let me know what was helpful about this episode. So you can do this each week.
If you want, let me know what was helpful about the episode, what you liked, how you’re going to use it. And this will help me plan our content moving forward in the coaching hive and in the coaching high podcast. And as always, if you are thinking to yourself, this is great, but I need more one-on-one and help. I need a mentoring community. I need a peer community send me a DM that says application either on Instagram, at www.instagram.com/coachinghive or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/coachinghivelife. Send me a DM that says “application”. And what I’ll do is I’ll send you an application to fill out. It’s brief. I promise so that we can explore what you most need and think about how we can work together, whether it is working together on your marketing and messaging, whether it’s working on building your coaching business, using the blueprint or a combination, we can make that we can figure that out. We’ll get together. We’ll talk.
The first step is to send me a DM with the word application or apply if that’s simpler for you. And I will get back to you with that link to apply and learn more. We’ll sit down together and talk and figure out the next right steps for you.
As always, I just want to thank you for listening to today’s podcast. I look forward to seeing you back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive podcast, where a focus on mentoring and community removes the overwhelm of building your successful coaching business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week.
~ Dr. Moira Hanna
