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120. How to Build an Email List (4 Simple Steps) · Burning Brightly

• 0:00
  I highly recommend you don't spend time and energy on a website until you've started building an email list.
• 0:05
  So you go into your email software that you've chosen, you click Landing Page Builder, and you build a beautiful, super simple page that says, "Hi, I'm so and so.
• 0:13
  Get my free guide.
• 0:14
  It's amazing.
• 0:15
  Enter your name and email address."
• 0:17
  And don't waste lots of time picking the right colors or then hiring a branding guide to make sure you have the right font.
• 0:22
  None of that is necessary.
• 0:24
  There is never a time in your business that is too early to build an email list.
• 0:27
  You want an email list yesterday, so build it as soon as you can.
• 0:31
  Start collecting emails, and you can tweak all that later if you so choose.
• 0:37
  If you're a Latter-day Saint or another woman of faith feeling called to build a business, welcome.
• 0:41
  I'm Bonnie Wiscombe, and each week we'll combine faith and practical business strategy to help you answer that calling with confidence.
• 0:47
  This is Burning Brightly.
• 0:51
  I wanna ask you if this sounds familiar.
• 0:53
  You post on Instagram, maybe hope somebody sees it, you make a reel, maybe it gets a couple hundred views, maybe it gets 3,000.
• 1:00
  You put something on Facebook, you try to get people to your website, and maybe there's a little bit of scattered success, but it feels like you're constantly trying to chase down your next potential client.
• 1:09
  If this sounds familiar, Then this is for you Today I'm gonna talk about how to build an email list for your coaching business, And we're gonna start with why.
• 1:16
  First, a little story.
• 1:18
  When I began as a DIY blogger over a decade ago, I found myself getting some success.
• 1:24
  I would have lots of traffic to my website, but just a few sales.
• 1:27
  I was selling digital patterns at the time.
• 1:29
  Some days they'd come in like a flurry from Pinterest or Google.
• 1:32
  Some days there was nothing at all.
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  Sometimes there were weeks of nothing at all.
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  There was unreliable traffic, just depending on what people saw on Pinterest or Google.
• 1:39
  That's where I got most of my traffic.
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  I was posting things.
• 1:42
  I was just kind of hoping that it worked out.
• 1:44
  I had no consistent way to follow up with people.
• 1:47
  And then one day, I went to a training that a fellow blogger invited me to, and the guy giving the training said, "An email list is what everyone needs."
• 1:54
  I remember thinking, "An email list is for big businesses that sell lots of products.
• 1:58
  It's not for a content creator like me."
• 2:00
  But he convinced me otherwise, and so I started my email list.
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  And did it completely revolutionize my business?
• 2:06
  Not necessarily.
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  But it did change the energy.
• 2:09
  It changed me from the hustle and grind energy to reliable sales, a way to communicate with people directly, and a way to nurture relationships with my ideal customers.
• 2:19
  I was able to make offers to people who were already interested in me, instead of just hopefully occasionally getting a sale from a cold lead that found me on Pinterest Everything started to become a little bit more consistent,
• 2:29
  and even better, I started to have relationships with people who were following me.
• 2:33
  It didn't magically fix everything, but all of a sudden it gave me a thread to pull at of a consistent business, and I have just grown it since then I have four simple steps for how to create an
• 2:42
  email list from scratch.
• 2:43
  I'm gonna walk you through each one, but before I do that, I wanna make sure you know about my upcoming list-building challenge.
• 2:49
  I built this for people just like you who know they should have an email list but haven't yet made progress yet for whatever reason.
• 2:55
  Maybe it's overwhelm, maybe it's lack of time, maybe it's just feeling a little bit confused on how to do it.
• 2:59
  This challenge will walk you through step by step everything you need to build an email list that brings in ideal clients.
• 3:06
  Click the link below to sign up.
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  It's totally free.
• 3:08
  It's gonna happen in just a couple of weeks.
• 3:10
  I hope to see you there.
• 3:12
  Okay, step number one for building an email list from scratch.
• 3:15
  You have to create something worth signing up for.
• 3:18
  People do not give out their email addresses willy-nilly.
• 3:21
  Does anybody want more things in their inbox?
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  No.
• 3:24
  It takes me forever to filter through all the garbage that's in my inbox right now.
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  I'm not looking for newsletters to sign up for.
• 3:29
  But if someone says, "Hey, I have this amazing thing that's gonna change your life.
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  You just have to give me your name and email address," you better believe I'm gonna go, "Here you go," right?
• 3:37
  I know I can always unsubscribe later if it's not worthwhile.
• 3:39
  So that's our trick.
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  Number one, coming up with something worthwhile that people want to give their email addresses for, and number two, making them stick around with valuable emails.
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  We'll talk more about that later.
• 3:49
  What your ideal clients or customers want, is they want help with a specific problem.
• 3:53
  What is that specific problem?
• 3:55
  Well, there's likely half a dozen of them that you can think of right off the top of your head, but try to come up with just one that you could deliver to them in a simple package.
• 4:04
  It doesn't have to be completely revolutionary or the best thing you've ever created.
• 4:07
  It should just be worth an email address.
• 4:10
  So something that solves one small problem, something that appeals specifically to your ideal client, not a broader sector, because you wanna find that very specific person that you're talking to.
• 4:19
  It needs to be also related to something that you help them with eventually.
• 4:23
  So if you are a macro nutrition coach, you don't wanna give them a freebie about cutting fat out of their diet.
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  That's not necessarily what you're trying to do.
• 4:31
  It could bring in some of the ideal audience, maybe those looking to lose weight, but you're specifically trying to help people balance their macros, so maybe it would be a week's worth of macro-balanced meal plans.
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  Okay, so make sure it leads into the thing you're eventually trying to sell people.
• 4:45
  You want them to get a quick win from this thing and naturally lead toward your paid offer.
• 4:51
  So we call this thing a freebie or a lead magnet because it magnetizes your ideal client to you, and we call them a lead once we've gotten their name and email address.
• 5:00
  All right, let me give you a handful of e-examples for coaches in a lot of different niches, because I think once you start hearing ideas, it will become a little bit clearer what you wanna build for your people.
• 5:09
  If you're a decluttering coach, it could be a checklist for decluttering a single room in their home.
• 5:14
  Or it could be a guide for lowering insulin resistance, if if that's a problem your clients deal with.
• 5:19
  Maybe a parenting workbook to help with moody teenagers, right?
• 5:22
  I didn't just say a parenting workbook.
• 5:24
  We're gonna talk about one specific type of parenting problem.
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  Even though you can help with everything, try to focus on one specific problem, one specific win.
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  You could also do a quiz, maybe one that helps them determine where to strengthen their marriage.
• 5:35
  They know their marriage needs help, but this quiz is gonna tell them exactly where they need to focus.
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  Maybe it's a short video training on weightlifting postpartum, after having a baby.
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  Or maybe it's a budgeting framework for people with variable incomes.
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  They get bonuses and commissions, and they don't know how to budget.
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  You see?
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  There's a variety of different types of freebies, checklist, guide, workbook, meal planning, quiz, et cetera, and very specific problems that these freebies solve.
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  So that is your number one job.
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  Figure out the specific solution that you can offer people.
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  Figure out how you want to deliver it, a short quiz, maybe a couple of videos, maybe just a PDF guide, and then start brainstorming what you're gonna put in it.
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  Again, doesn't have to be the greatest thing in the world, and it should not be long.
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  You should be able to deliver that win in just an hour or so of your client's time As an example, my current freebie that I offer to just about everyone is a short video training on how to get
• 6:30
  their first five clients with almost zero technology.
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  They just need their smartphone.
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  So what that does is it calls out my ideal client, which is a newer coach who hasn't yet gotten a bunch of clients yet, who isn't making a lot of money, and who might have some hesitation about building
• 6:43
  a lot of complicated tech, right?
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  And that's a quick win.
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  They can go out, follow my advice, and get their first or next five clients in just a few weeks, and then they know, "Oh, Bonnie can help me with more stuff," and they come back feeling trust in my
• 6:55
  expertise and wanting to follow along.
• 6:58
  All right, so that's step number one,, creating something that is worth signing up for, creating that freebie.
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  Step number two, choosing an email software So unfortunately, you cannot just manually collect email addresses and bulk send out emails on Gmail or Hotmail.
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  That is not allowed and this is in all honesty, a step where a lot of people get stuck 'cause they think, "Oh, there's so many options.
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  I don't know.
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  I don't know what to do.
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  I don't know what to sign up for, and how much is it gonna be," and blah, blah, blah.
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  Do not let yourself get overwhelmed.
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  There is no right answer.
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  You're just gonna choose one software and dive in.
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  And guess what?
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  It's a choice that can be changed at any time.
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  Does it take a little bit of time to take your list and transfer it to a different one?
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  Sure.
• 7:36
  But it's nothing that you need to stress over, okay?
• 7:38
  So you probably won't stay with this email software provider.
• 7:41
  Just pick one and move on.
• 7:42
  There's my little caveat before we dive in All right, so now that you know you're not gonna get stuck and overwhelmed, there are a few things that every email software needs to do.
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  collect your subscribers, store their information, organize them in some way, maybe segment them or tag them.
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  It needs to send emails.
• 7:59
  It needs to automate the delivery of your freebie, and then eventually allow you to send offers or sequences.
• 8:04
  Now, pretty much every email software I've ever used does all of these things, so don't stress out and think you're gonna pick one that doesn't do one of these things.
• 8:10
  But these are the jobs we're giving it, just so you know.
• 8:13
  does not need to be perfect.
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  You just need one that you can learn to use today.
• 8:16
  And will there be a learning curve?
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  Of course, 'cause every software comes with a learning curve.
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  But you can do it.
• 8:21
  I believe in you.
• 8:23
  You just need to get started.
• 8:24
  Here are a few that newbies use and have success with all the time.
• 8:29
  Flodesk, this one is a favorite of mine because it's very beautiful and super easy to use.
• 8:33
  Mailchimp, MailerLite, and Kit, formerly known as ConvertKit.
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  Out of all of these, probably my very favorite is Kit because it is extremely powerful.
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  But it is not necessary for a newbie.
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  It is a little bit more expensive than the other ones.
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  Inside the challenge that I have coming up, I will give you a link to two weeks free for one of the software programs that I use, but in the meantime, you can play around with whatever one you want.
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  Most of them do have free plans as well, again, if you wanna play around and see if you like it before you commit Okay, so we've created our freebie.
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  We have chosen an email software without drama and overwhelm.
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  Step number three, we're gonna build a landing page.
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  Now, there are actually two ways to build a landing page.
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  A landing page is just a simple webpage.
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  It's just something that pops up on your browser that says, "Hi, I'm so and so.
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  I wanna help you with this thing," ergo your freebie, "Enter your name and email address."
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  So it's a place for people to give you their information.
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  You can build this on a pre-made website.
• 9:24
  Maybe you already have a website built in WordPress or Wix or somewhere else.
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  You can build the landing page on that.
• 9:29
  But even easier, that I highly recommend for newbies, is building the landing page inside your email software.
• 9:36
  So let's say you choose Flodesk, and that's the one you wanna use.
• 9:38
  Great.
• 9:39
  There's a landing page builder inside Flodesk, so you don't need to connect it to any other website.
• 9:44
  You don't even need to have a website yet.
• 9:46
  In fact, I highly recommend you don't spend time and energy on a website until you've started building an email list.
• 9:51
  So you go into your email software that you've chosen, you click Landing Page Builder, and you build a beautiful, super simple page that says, "Hi, I'm so and so.
• 9:59
  Get my free guide.
• 10:01
  It's amazing.
• 10:02
  Enter your name and email address."
• 10:03
  Boom.
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  Done.
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  Okay?
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  That is the easiest way to do it.
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  It should not be complicated.
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  It needs to just be simple and direct and to the point.
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  And make sure you don't waste a lot of time talking about yourself.
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  It really just needs to say, "This is how I can help you.
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  Put your email in.
• 10:17
  You'll get my free guide And don't waste lots of time picking the right colors or then hiring a branding guide to make sure you have the right font.
• 10:23
  None of that is necessary.
• 10:25
  There is never a time in your business that is too early to build an email list.
• 10:28
  You want an email list yesterday, so build it as soon as you can.
• 10:32
  Start collecting emails, and you can tweak all that later if you so choose.
• 10:36
  All right, so we have a freebie, we have an email provider, and we have a landing page inside that email provider.
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  Fourth step is to hook all the pieces together.
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  So before I get into this step, let me explain how the final flow is gonna look.
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  Number one, someone is going to find your freebie.
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  They're going to click your link, "Oh, cool, I want that thing," maybe they find it on Facebook or Instagram.
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  They're gonna land on your landing page.
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  They're gonna enter their name and email address.
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  They're going to get added to your email software, Kit, Flodesk, whatever.
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  Then they're going to automatically receive your freebie.
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  We'll talk about how to set that up in a second.
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  They get welcomed into your world, and then you can regularly email them to nurture them and get them closer to becoming clients.
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  So how do we set that up?
• 11:15
  How do we set that email up?
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  Well, there's a variety of different ways, which is why I'm d- dedicating an entire day to this in my challenge.
• 11:21
  You can sign up for that in the You can sign up for that in the link below.
• 11:28
  You can sign up for that via the link in the description.
• 11:31
  But essentially, you're going to Write an email inside your email software that says, "Hey, thanks for downloading my freebie.
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  I know it's gonna help you."
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  Maybe a little bit of copy and a button that says Download.
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  And then you're gonna link that freebie.
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  Maybe you upload it to your email service provider, maybe you leave it in Canva and you add the link.
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  There's a couple of different ways of doing it, but you're gonna link it in that email.
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  And then you're gonna set up your email to automatically deliver to anyone who signs up on that landing page.
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  Again, there's no way for me to tell you step-by-step on this without knowing what email provider you're using, but that's what the challenge is for, so come join me.
• 12:08
  So come join me if you think you want a step-by-step tutorial.
• 12:12
  Once that is done, you don't have to do anything else except share your freebie, except just get on social platforms, get in front of other people's audiences, get on podcasts and say, "I have this amazing guide.
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  I really wanna share it with people.
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  Here's the link."
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  They come, they sign up, it gets automatically delivered to them, and your email list grows without you having to do anything else except for share it Now, do not let yourself get overwhelmed on this step.
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  If there's anything that is more overwhelming to people than choosing the email software, it's hooking it all together to make sure that e-me- that freebie gets delivered automatically, but it does not h- need to be hard.
• 12:46
  You can always ask AI for help with this because it is pretty good at walking you through step by step depending on the platform that you're on or Googling tutorials for that specific platform.
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  But you are a big...
• 12:58
  You are a grown-up who knows how to do hard things.
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  I promise you can figure it out.
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  Don't let your brain tell you that it's gonna be too hard or too overwhelming.
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  Okay, so up to this point, we have created a freebie, something of value people want to give us their email address for.
• 13:14
  We have create-- We have chosen an email service provider.
• 13:16
  We have a software that we love and are going to use.
• 13:18
  We have built a landing page that simply and easily invites people to download this freebie, and then we've connected it to an automated email that will then deliver the freebie to them when they sign up.
• 13:29
  Now, I do have a bonus fifth step, and that is starting-- and that is what we do after our list starts to grow, 'cause the idea isn't just to collect a list of names.
• 13:38
  The idea is to build and nurture relationships.
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  Because I don't wanna work with someone, especially to the tune of several thousand dollars, if I don't know who they are and if I don't intimately trust them and believe that they can deliver what they say they can
• 13:54
  'Cause getting a list of email addresses does us no good unless we're actually moving them closer to becoming clients and getting real help from us.
• 14:01
  We wanna build a relationship that leads them to become a client.
• 14:06
  So how do we do that?
• 14:07
  Well, that's the next step, and that involves sending out regular emails.
• 14:11
  Well, you can do this in an automated way.
• 14:12
  I highly recommend to my clients that they build, like, a welcome sequence.
• 14:15
  That's a little bit too-- We won't get into that today, but that's a great way to get started introducing yourself and offering a little bit of value as soon as someone gets on your list.
• 14:22
  But even if you don't do that, just every single week, hop in your email platform and just talk to them a little bit.
• 14:28
  You don't need to overthink this.
• 14:29
  You don't need to make it complicated.
• 14:30
  You don't need to have a fancy huge content strategy.
• 14:37
  You just need to talk from the heart, especially if you have stories to tell.
• 14:41
  For example, most of the clients that I work with experienced a transformation themselves before they started helping other people get a transformation.
• 14:49
  So maybe they decluttered their own house before they started helping other people.
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  So they talk about that in their emails.
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  You know what I realized back when my house was cluttered and overwhelming?
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  Is that I never had time to spend with my kids.
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  I don't want that for you.
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  That's why I'm teaching you XYZ.
• 15:01
  That's why my tip this week is ABC, right?
• 15:04
  So little by little, you're teaching them about this transformation and how it can change their life The other thing I wanna say about these emails is don't gatekeep your information.
• 15:14
  Don't think, "Well, I won't give them that information till they become clients."
• 15:17
  No.
• 15:17
  The more information and tips and the more help you can give them for free on your email list, the more likely they are going to be to trust you and believe that you can really deliver the transformation you
• 15:28
  say you can.
• 15:29
  Be helpful, serve, show up in a way that makes you proud, and then people will see you as the amazing expert that you are, and they will want to hire you down the road Now remember my story I
• 15:43
  told you about my blog at the beginning?
• 15:45
  My email-- For me, building an email list changed my business because I didn't have to hope that a social media algorithm was gonna show my content to the right people.
• 15:53
  I collected them myself, yes, sometimes on social media, but also by getting in front of other people's audiences or even running ads, and then I knew I had the right people in my list, and I had access to
• 16:02
  them every single day.
• 16:05
  Didn't mean I had to send emails every day, but any time I wanted to, wanted to help, wanted to serve, wanted to offer something and make money, I had a way to do that, and my business has become
• 16:14
  vastly more profitable since building an email list than it ever has before that.
• 16:20
  In my mind, I don't have followers anymore.
• 16:22
  I have friends who I've been helping for-- so who have been getting help from me and changing their lives, and some of them for years have been on my list.
• 16:31
  Social media is a borrowed audience.
• 16:33
  It can be beneficial to grow your list, but your email list is an audience that you own and can contact directly, and it is worth a millions of...
• 16:42
  And I think it's worth tens, hundreds of thousands of social media followers You can use social media to find people, but your freebie and landing pa- but your freebie and landing page give people a way and a reason
• 16:57
  to stay connected to you and to gain more help until they're ready to hire you All right, so hopefully you can tell that building an email list does not need to be complicated.
• 17:07
  It does not need to be overwhelming.
• 17:08
  It can be really fun and exciting, and you can get it done in just...
• 17:13
  And you can get it done in less than a week if you come join my free challenge.
• 17:16
  The link is below.
• 17:17
  Hope to see you there If today's episode encouraged you, my book, Burning Brightly, is the next step to answering God's call to build a business through faith and confidence.
• 17:28
  Grab your copy and the free companion workbook through the link in the show notes.
• 17:32
  The world needs more women willing to burn a little brighter.