197. The Intersection of Speaking and Email in 2023

On today's episode, we’re talking about a cornerstone of any successful online business: building an email list. 

I know that you know how important this topic is— yet so many experts place it far too low on their list of just do activities.

As an online business owner, you likely spend a lot of time creating content, whether it be through courses, digital products, social posts, blogs and more— but if you're not actively building your email list, you may be missing out on a significant opportunity to connect with and nurture potential customers.

In this episode, I’ll share exactly what I did right, and where I have regrets building my list, and how email fits into speaking on stages. 

Episode Highlights:

• The importance of providing ‘real’ value to your audience
• Why building list is so important and how focusing on getting ‘quality’ leads is a must
• How your email list has direct correlation to your business health (aka your ability to sell your programs)
• The connection of email list building to speaking
• Two things you need to consider when growing a healthy email list
• Strategies / sustainable ways you can leverage to help you expand your email list

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Transcript

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2:01  

Well, hey, friend, welcome back to another episode of the Hint of Hustle podcast. It's your coach, cheerleader, kick you in the ass business bestie. Today is an episode where I am going to make a very embarrassing admission and share with you my number one business regret and I am not a regret person. I live life #noregrets. I literally never used that hashtag in my life. But I'm going to share that with you today because I want to be super frickin honest with you as always. We keep it real around here. 

But also, I am going to make a plea to you today around something that you might want to approach differently in your business and what I'm making my number one focus for the second half of this year so we're gonna get into that today. 

I am excited about this episode. I also anticipate that you're fully going to roll your eyes because, like many things, I'll note my favorite quote you probably heard me use a thousand times before by Will Rogers, "Just because it's common sense, does not mean it's common practice," and today I'm going to call you on your BS that if you're not making this a priority in your business, now is the time especially with some of the changes that are happening in the online space. This needs to become a priority, and yes, friend, we are talking today about list building, specifically your email list. 

3:34  

And before you're like, 'ugh, Heather, I already know this.' I'm going to challenge you a little bit on this today and talk about how I have not been great at this. However, it has not been a hindrance to me hitting any of my financial goals in my business so we're gonna get into that today. 

But let's just do a little quick personal update because those are always fun. If you've been following along on my Instagram Stories for the last six weeks or so I shared that my family, my little family, we are making a huge frickin life change. There are lots of things going on but the one specifically is we are moving from our town that we live in South of Portland, Oregon. 

We're moving to Central Oregon to bend and it's beautiful high desert. It's near one of the best ski mountains in like on the west coast. It's great. We're going to be close to snow. It snows in the winter. It's super sunny and dry in the summer. Really, really amazing for just outdoor nests, outdoor sports. 

Now I wouldn't highly consider myself to be a super outdoorsy person, but I do love the outdoors and I'm adapting and maybe this new identity of way. Okay, side note. We've been having these conversations, James and I, my husband and our kids around what a gift it is to be able to reinvent yourself, maybe this will resonate with you for a moment. 

5:06  

But you know how sometimes when you just go through your daily routines, it's kind of easy to fall into your everyday grooves. If you have kids, you've probably also noticed kids very easily fall into their grooves, and that's why I'm a huge fan of when seasons change, or like the first of the year or back to school. I view those as a reset, reset to habits, reset your intentions, reset your behaviors. It's just a really, really beautiful time. 

And for us, we're having a really big reset. I mean, we're moving our, we're downsizing our very large, very beautiful home that we worked our ass off in our 20s and 30s to like, live the quote-unquote, dream life. We have the fancy cars, we have the fancy house, we have the cute little family with the little dogs that are not so little, and we just realized that's not actually what our priorities are. That's not actually what we wanted. So, sidenote, we'll maybe talk about that another day. 

6:00  

But we've been having a lot of conversations around what is our family look like with this move? We're downsizing to a home that's half the size, but has two and a half acres on beautiful land with trampoline in the backyard and just so much space for the kids and the dogs to play. 

We've been adopting this whole like, Okay, who is, this is my persona? Who is Bend Heather? What is Bend Heather do? Okay, random, very specific example is Bend Heather, she bakes fresh bread. I know it kind of sounds silly, but I'm giving you the silliness of all of my inter inner dialogue / actual conversations with my husband. Bend Heather breaks bread, Bend Heather drinks, coffee on the porch, Bend Heather doesn't rush in the morning. 

There's like a lot of things that I've been really exploring and we've been having this conversation with our kids and giving them the ability to be like, Oh, what is Bend Owen do or Bend Levi do, and it's just so silly. 

6:57  

Anyways, I just wanted to share with you is because normally, this Heather, I'm a big planner. I'm a big planner. I like to know what's coming. I'm really intentional with goal setting every year. I have the planner, all the planners. I've talked about that before. I also change planners all the time. I like having a plan. 

But this year, our word for a family was adventure and we're going on a pretty big adventure moving across the state. I know it's not across the country. We're not going like forever, in a way. It's three hours outside of Portland but we're going away from our family, which is just different thing. 

7:36  

Anyways, I share this with you because one, that's what's going on with me. So the next couple of weeks, I mean, we're in crazy mode over here as we're packing up the house, getting ready to sell on the market. This summer, we're going to be going to be taking a lot of time off as I talked about on the show before. Taking time off, we're going to be enjoying the outdoors nd 

I'm really going to be exhibiting what I talk about on the show which is that hint of hustle lifestyle, meaning that when I work, I'm all in, baby but I also don't work a ton. I'm very intentional with my time. And I hope that that reminds you and inspires you to find your version of the same in your business. 

8:18  

So on that note, let's talk about today's topic and it is all about list building. Now what I mean by list building, I'm talking specifically about your email list. Now if you're listening to the show, it's highly likely that you have or are looking to grow an online business.

So by online business, we're talking digital products, courses, membership, maybe you do coaching or one on one, or maybe online based services, maybe you're a copywriter or a website designer, whatever that looks like, but you're doing your business online. 

8:56  

Now, it should be no surprise to you that having an email list is an essential part of of that business, and like just logically speaking, having an email list is the way that you contact your customer / potential customers and promote your offers and services. 

A lot of people talk about your email list is really focused on nurturing your audience and providing a lot of quote-unquote value. Now I laugh because the word value annoys the crap out of me and it's not the word. It's just how people use that word, and the reason why it annoys me is value is in the eye of the perceiver. 

9:36  

So a lot of coaches, a lot of business owners, they think that they're creating all this value because they're putting all this time and energy into the work that they do, but it's not about what you think value is. It's what your audience deems as valuable, and that's one of the big shifts we're going to talk about today is when it comes to online business there is this condition that happens that online business equates to just creating a bunch of content because you're supposed to create all this quote-unquote value for your audience. 

10:13  

But then what happens is, it's very easy for you to become resentful because you find yourself putting in all this time and all this effort and it's not really paying off, meaning no one is watching it, no one is reading it, very little people are engaging with it, and the sale, selling of your programs, the return of your efforts, doesn't feel like a fair payoff. 

10:43  

So if that's happened to you, if you've had that moment where you have been cranking out your either a blog or your posting, or putting short clip videos online, on social media or on YouTube, if you are consistently cranking out some form of content, like you feel like you're always creating, yet, you're still waiting for those financial goals to pay off, to have consistent revenue in your business. If that is you, consistent revenue in your business is not happening, I want you to particularly lean in to this episode today because, my friend, being busy, creating content consistently, like knocking stuff out to have online, that isn't a business.

11:34  

And I know you know this, but again, just because it's common sense doesn't mean it's common practice. Shout out, Will Rogers. I always give credit for that quote. But the thing that we have to remember is if we are going to embody this hint of hustle lifestyle, meaning that the effort we put into things, making sure that it's actually going to be valuable, create a return for ourselves and for others, and give us more flexibility and more downtime and be able to do the things that we want, we need to be more intentional with where we're spending our time.

12:08  

So let's come back to list building. So I told you that this was my single biggest regret. Actually, this is really one of my very, I don't really have regrets as I mentioned. I am a big fan of when shit goes sideways or things don't go according to plan. I am constantly asking myself the overly optimistic question and that is what opportunity did this create for me?

 So I'm a huge fan of always looking for the lesson and always building upon whatever it is that I'm building. But if I were to name one thing, the one thing that I really screwed up in my business was I did not prioritize list building from the get go. 

12:47  

Now that might surprise you, maybe it doesn't surprise you either way, doesn't really matter. What I mean by this is I created an email list immediately in my business. So I went full time in my business in 2019. In January of 2019, I remember texting friends and family and former colleagues saying hey, I'm creating an email list, do you want to join? So my first like 34 names on my list, were super scrappy. It was all people that I knew. 

I struggled to figure out what my first freebie would be. I don't know if this resonates with you. But something about creating a lead magnet, which if you're super new to online business, a lead magnet essentially is you create some kind of download, or it could be a variety of different things. It could be a PDF, it could be an audio training, it could be, some people do quizzes, or all sorts of things, right? But it's something that essentially people opt in to your list, right? They give your email address and in return you give them this thing. 

13:46  

I don't know what it is about the first lead magnet you create but we put it in this, what I like to deem this precious basket, where we put all this energy into that. It has to be perfect. It has to like represent the quality of our work. And I remember obsessing over getting my lead magnet quote-unquote right. And it was not right. It was horrible. It was dumb. 

I even hired a designer because I wanted to look better because I felt like what I designed in Canva wasn't representative of the aesthetic that I wanted to have of my brand. Oh my gosh, like how embarrassing is that? 

But I spent all this money on it, right? And then I got the, I finally got it up and running. I even got some emails happening to quote-unquote nurture new leads coming in and I set up, I set up the list. I did it. And it took me, I don't know 10 months to get to 136 names and reminder, 34 of those names were friends and family.

14:51  

So for almost a year I grew my list by 100 people, give or take, right? I probably had some unsubscribes and two new additions. But I share this with you because I remember being very embarrassed about it, very embarrassed about it. 

But something happened to me about mid year, where I, when I realized that I was not actively sharing my lead magnet because I wasn't super happy with it. So I found myself kind of downplaying it and instead of sharing my lead magnet all the time I was sharing, I had launched a podcast, this podcast in the fall of that year and I just wanted to promote podcast. That was easier, right? 

The podcast, that's a better piece of content. I'll send people there. So I really started focusing heavily on the podcast. I had been doing Facebook Lives, I had been doing guest speaking, which is where most of my list building efforts came from. And the podcast was like, oh, I'll just focus on that. I'll just focus on that. 

15:48  

And the reason why I share this is the thing that finally made a difference for me is when I initially launched my very first program. I've shared this example before, but the my very first program was to a launch list of that 136 people, which as I mentioned, 34 or so of them were friends and family. 

So I did my first webinar and my very, very, very first launch resulted in about $26,000 and some change, which is ridiculously impressive. I am like, I'm still in shock that that happened. I'm also very proud of myself that that happened. 

Is that a duplicable thing that I would ever say someone could replicate that? I mean, sure, I mean, everything is possible. But that is it was an out of a normal scenario. 

But I'll tell you, the one reason why it still worked for me is because I am exceptionally good at speaking and selling. So my unique skill of being stellar on stages so virtually, I was speaking on webinars, I was doing sales calls with people. I'm really, really good at helping people understand their problems and connecting them to a solution and I just happen to have a really bang in solution. 

17:06  

So I share this with you because despite my frickin teeny tiny list, I was still successful. Notice I said despite because had I not been an exceptional, exceptional, I'm gonna look really toot my horn, y'all and you're not going to be surprised for this because I literally teach you how to speak and sell for a living. 

That is my job. It is my gift. It is a skill that I've worked my ass off on over the last 20 years. But because I am an exceptionally great at that, that's why my launch was successful. That's what it is, right, to be able to tell other people that oh, you can duplicate that. It's kind of BS, right? 

And you've heard that before, when people share their great stories with like, you can too. I would not on any means be like you can do that, too. I mean, maybe you could, right, and there are people who have done it. However, if I were to coach you in a different way, I would say friend, let's focus on having quality leads on your list. 

18:06  

Now let's pivot and talk about that. I mentioned that thing quality leads. So here's something that I have done really, really well with list building. When I say I've sucked at list building, what I mean is I'm not actively doing Facebook ads. I'm not consistently posting my freebies and lead magnets online. I am not like hyper like free, free, free, sign up, sign up, sign up. 

Most of my leads and my opt ins on my email list come from my speaking opportunities, come from referrals from past clients posting about me, come from y'all sharing the podcast with other people and getting new listeners who binge the crap out of these episodes, which I love y'all. 

Thank you so much for sharing and thank you so much for binging. It's still like blows my mind that you want to hear me yammer on so much. But that like that's what build my list is people hear me speak and therefore they're like, oh, I want to work with her. 

So they run to the website and download all the freebies, right? My magnetic phrases freebie, 19 specific phrases that you can use to send potential clients run into your list. I have my Podcast Guesting Guide around exactly how to prep for your first or next podcast interview. Those are two really popular ones online. 

19:20  

But the other way that I've grown my list is through launching, specifically launching webinars or most recently, I launched my private podcast series, Becoming An Authority which side note will be coming back this fall. So if you miss that one and you want to jump back in, be sure to be on the waitlist for the next round of the Signature Talk Accelerator coming in September, October. You can find that waitlist in the show notes of this episode. 

But I've really focused on building my list with building it through hot leads. So specifically people who are already interested in speaking, specifically people who have have come on and said I want to grow my business through speaking, that's how I've grown my email list. 

20:03  

Now, why do I have that as a regret? I mean, from what I've done, I'm damn proud of what I've done and I have a great engaged list. We have incredible open rates. I have really great conversion rates in my programs. 

However, what I've realized, and if you listen back to my episode I did two weeks ago, where I shared with you my own personal money blocks and the insight that I had recently going through a retreat. Here's where I'm going to connect the dots together. 

20:31  

So in that episode I shared with you that I realized I have this aha insecurity around having excess money. You have to go back and listen to episode it was, if you like me sharing the inner workings of my brain / my own vulnerabilities, you will love that episode but also, we all have our own shit with money so I really think it'll resonate with you. 

20:53  

But I shared that I have this big realization aha, that I have this connection that when if I spend money on quote-unquote frivolous things, I have some guilt or some shame around that. It makes me separate from other people. Other people going to think that I think that I'm better than them, that there's something wrong, right, of people who spend money on quote-unquote lavish things, which is funny to say out loud. 

21:20  

Anyways, connecting all the dots back together, what I realized was I hate saying this out loud. I have felt, I felt very uncomfortable these last five years, right, getting an online brand, sharing all of the things in my heart and my head on a podcast mic every week with about 200 episodes. I mean, I share a lot. I share embarrassing stories in my email. I share a lot of pieces, right? And that is scary. It's very, very uncomfortable. But also, I have worked really, really hard on my storytelling, my communication skills, and I know how to communicate in a way that there's a payoff for my audience. 

22:00  

So while it is uncomfortable, it's also very comfortable because it's a skill that I have cultivated over the last 20 years. So what I've realized is, even though at face value, I'm making bold moves, I'm showing up, I'm being courageous with my voice, and I'm making an impact, all things that I'm proud of. I've also realized that I have been plain in a nice little warm pond. Yes pond, like frogs and fish, in a little cute little pond. 

22:33  

Now what I mean by this is, you know, the the metaphor, big fish, small pond, or small fish in a big lake, I guess. I don't know if that's the metaphor, but you're following me, I would assume. I think a lot of times, we get courageous and we swim in a pond where we feel comfortable. 

So for me, specifically, swimming in a pond where it's easy for my clients and you to talk about me and refer me because it's safer. It's safer because you help me control the narrative, meaning I don't have a bunch of random strangers coming across my stuff being like, who's this crazy lady with her eyebrow? Who's this, why she talks so fast? Why is her lips move weird? That doesn't make any sense. 

I shield myself a bit and I didn't realize this. I shield myself from the quote-unquote trolls and the quote-unquote haters and the strangers who have a lot of things to say online because I'm swimming in a very, very small pond. 

23:35  

And the way that I've grown my email list by leveraging guest speaking, which I highly, highly recommend you all. This is what I teach. The benefit of that is you grow your list with really warm leads who are hot to buy in a short time period. It's very aligned and it works really, really well. And I'm gonna challenge you as I'm challenged myself, to also grow your list in a sustainable way that exposes you to new audiences, exposes you to a larger pond. 

24:07  

Now, I'm gonna say this that I'm happy with the way that I've done it because it's really helped me nail down my message, nailed down my voice, nailed down my offers, and now I can expand. But if I were to go back and do it, I would have grown a little bit more wider to reach more people quicker. So I could have also honed my message down to non recoverable audiences, meaning that audiences who are maybe meeting me because they came across a landing page or they saw me in a Facebook group that wasn't referred by someone else. 

24:43  

So I tell you all of this is because your email list is directly correlated to your business health and your ability to sell your programs, your ability to fill your webinars or your launches or your applications, however, it is that you sell your programs, having a healthy growing email list is a big piece of that. 

25:08  

Now, I'm also not going to tell you it as the only contributing factor because clearly, it's I mean, it hasn't held me back and other people are able to sell in different ways. 

However, we all have seen and I know you've heard this, you're probably going to roll your eyes. We've also seen, it's very easy for algorithms specifically, like different features on social media, for those to shift and change. 

Instagram and Facebook, they're all distinctly one meta as a business. And their responsibility is to their sponsors, specifically, the people who pay them and run advertising on their platforms. So they have to optimize a platform so that more people see the ads because they have to keep the people who pay for ads happy, which, yeah, like if we have that mentality like how stupid. No, you're a business and if you pay to play, aka, do ads. 

Be grateful for that because that's how like, this is the most modern way for us to get our offers in front of people. I mean, this is not 1990, where we have to get billboards, or run an ad in the Yellow Pages like we are so motherfreakin lucky that we have all of these platforms to get our message in front of other people. 

26:17  

So you can't have both, you can't be pissed that they're not showing your stuff to more people and then on the same, like the other corner of your mouth be like, I didn't make any paying for it. Like, well, if shit, of course, they are, like you were a business, advertising and getting your stuff out, like in general, it's not free. 

We have been so freaking lucky that we have all of these platforms available for us that are free so let's take advantage of that. But also, those platforms could change the way that people see things. And now the platforms are really great in my opinion, for exposing people to your work for even nurturing audiences, for them to get to know you, like I love freaking Instagram Stories. It's a great way to continue to build relationships and show more of your personality, more of your business, right? It becomes more engaging for people to watch. 

But at the end of the day, the way that you cultivate a relationship is in the inbox, building that consistency of that expectation of showing up and delivering something to your people consistently. And when you have offers, when you have something to send that still relevant to them, it's still helpful for them, having that be in the inbox, like hello, my friend. 

You might be successful on social promoting, maybe freebies, maybe like sharing content online but when it comes to promotional windows, it's all in the freaking email. And it's only really going to pay off if you have successfully nurture those emails. 

27:47  

So why is, I mean, why am I hammering on about this? Well, as I've been saying, list building is important and list building has a couple different facets, right? It's one, it's getting people onto your email list. Now how you do that, I'm not going to tell you the best way to do that. I mean, I think guest speaking is incredible way to do that. Also, advertising to get cold traffic in, could be a great way to do that. Whether you're posting on social or doing podcast interviews, all these ways could do it, you just need to ensure that you have an effective way to talk about your freebie so that they want to join because let's be honest, everybody is shoveling their quote-unquote, free stuff at audiences all the time. 

So there has to be a reason for them to want to grab your download, and more importantly, a reason for them to open up and read your first email, second email, third email. 

28:37  

I can't tell you, Oh my gosh, this is funny. I noticed this the other day. I can't tell you how many freebies I've downloaded in the past couple weeks for a couple different reasons, and I will get an email from the person three days later and I'm like, who the F is this? And I opened it I was like, oh, oh, and then I unsubscribe because I literally only one of the email. but only one of the freebie because I was just wanting to look at it. I was curious about it. I downloaded one recently around a Human Design Guide. It seemed very interesting to me but I don't really have an interest of having that person share their life stories with me every single week. 

29:12  

So the thing is, is email list building, it's yeah, there's a rhythm about it and I get that that's why it can be intimidating but you still have to figure out how to make it work for you. 

So there's two kinds of things that I would recommend for you specifically because also email list building, you can either love it or what I noticed most business owners is they hate it, and they hate it because of that time return I talked about earlier with content creation, email, like writing an email, getting everything set up, getting the right freebie, all of that takes time. And when you see it growing at the pace of a snail or you see people unsubscribing or you see like, ugh, it's just not, you're not making progress. I understand that it can be deflating, it's very easy  to maybe take a break. 

30:03  

Here's the second admission on this podcast. At the time of this recording, y'all, I haven't sent a newsletter to my list in five weeks. And I am like, oops, oops. And now granted, people have been getting less emails on my list. I have my, I have a really great nurture sequence going people who have doing downloads. They're getting emails once to twice a week. 

So my list to some degree is getting nurtured but for anyone who has been on my list for more than three months, and hasn't purchased one of my programs, you probably haven't heard from you in five weeks. 

30:37  

Now, here's the thing, a lot of people beat themselves up over that. That is not a normal thing for me. I'm actually very consistent with list building. But as I mentioned, I'm in a really big life transition right now  and we launched a brand new program, the 3-day Accelerator. We went on vacation. There were a lot of things going on, and it just, you know, it just fell off and I have no guilt, no shame. There'll be no like big, hey, oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry, you haven't heard from me for weeks. None of that shit, like, I'll just jump back in. It's on my list to do today to get an email out and just do a check in and focus on how can I create information that's relevant and helpful and timely for my audience. 

31:17  

So again sometimes you fall off, I hear this all the time from business owners as they go on a hiatus so they like forget about it and then they're embarrassed and they feel they have to make a big grand entrance, you do not need to do that, like, don't worry about it, just start adding value back to your list, and by value, remember what's valuable to them. Don't just cram a bunch of stuff in an email be like, they're gonna love this. Well, I don't know what's gonna be the most valuable, what's gonna be the most relevant for them, timely for them, helpful for them in that moment? That is the focus. 

31:46  

But with your email list, I want you to really think about two things. Number one, it's building the habit for yourself to make your email list building a priority. 

Number two, it's building a system to ensure that habit happens. The first is the actual habit, and that's around you making that commitment and what are you physically doing each week or your setup to get it going? And then the system are what is the tech behind it? What are the processes for either you or you and or a team member to make sure that it happens. 

32:21  

Now, when we talk about list building, there's a couple parts. There's the actual setting up of an initial email list, there's the setting up of your first freebie or your next freebie, right? Having a really good freebie or lead magnet, then you have you're consistently nurturing and emailing your audience. Those are kind of three different buckets. So figure out where you are in that journey and you just have to start taking some action. 

I think my rule of thumb is when it comes to business, is keeping things simple. I don't think this, I know this to be true. I talk about this all the time, as if anytime I find myself thinking about new initiatives, new strategies, like oh, we can try these new things in business. I have to go back and ask the question, what is the business need? And the business needs me to be disciplined and keep things simple. And by doing that, that helps me go alright, simple. 

What are the fundamentals that need to happen for me to grow my audience and serve them exceptionally growing my email list? Comes back top on the list, having exceptional quality programs that help people get transformations and a timeline that they're ecstatic about. Those, my friend, those are the priorities. Everything else is just innovation, and excitement and flashy and sometimes distraction. So keeping it really really simple, saying what does the business need from you? the business needs you to grow your email list. 

33:49  

Now, if you need some help in this area, I'm going to reference some resources in the shownotes. I have a few specifically, there are some podcast episodes prior podcast episodes where we specifically talk about email. 

There, I remember I did a really good interview with Bobby Klinck a couple of years ago around how to add your personality into email. There's been one with my dear friend, Liz Wilcox, we've talked about simple launching / email. 

There's some in here, so I'm gonna reference those in the show notes if you want some additional conversations around that. But there are two specific resources that I really really like really freaking real, really freacking really, wow. Remember that time when I said I was an exceptional communicator and then you hear me ramble? Yeah, both things can be true.

34:38  

But the, I think the first resource that I would highly recommend if you have not got the system and the habit built for list building, if this has been a backburner piece and you're still going, I really need to make this priority. I'm going to recommend a kick start. So my friend and Business Coach, James Wedmore, who will be on the show in about a week and a half, which we're recording an credible interview, that I'll be coming up the week of May 22 but he put together this really frickin incredible mini training. It's totally free, and it's a like a mini training with a specific lessons and activities that will walk you through step by step around how to grow your email list to get leads, qualified leads, we're not talking just getting names on your list. 

35:25  

Sidenote for one of my biggest pet peeves, a lot of people are really good at quote-unquote growing their list, but they're growing them with a lot of unqualified leads. People who are never going to be buyers who are just downloading the freebie. 

Great example, me, the freebies I downloaded in the last couple of weeks. I have no intention of learning from those people or buying them. I just literally wanted the freebie. So the question is, how do you ensure you're going to get those people but how do you ensure you're adding quality leads to your list? That is the most important question you should be asking yourself and building a system around. 

It's not just about the numbers, it's quality leads, as in people who are actively seeking a solution or going to be open to solving whatever problem that they have and you can establish that credibility and trust to be that person. 

36:14  

So this mini course is called Your first 100 leads. Now don't be thrown off by that if you already have an email list with more than 100 people on it. I personally will be going back through this mini training myself to get a new lead magnet up and running and start a better practice of actively building my list because this is my number one focus for the next six months. 

So if you would like to join me on that journey of going through that mini course, if you want to join me in getting a new freebie up and running that really aligns to your core offer that you're wanting to sell and get those hot buyers on your list, you can grab the link to grab that mini training in the show notes. It is is actually one of the best freebies that I've ever seen. So Your First 100 Leads link is in the show notes. 

This is the perfect time to do it in the spring to start your list building now before the summer months start getting people kind of distracted and taking time off. This is a really good time for you to establish and build that habit. 

37:16  

The second resource that I am obsessed with that I highly recommend for anyone who already has a list setup, right, and you're starting to send out newsletters is a great, it's a $9 membership for my dear friend Liz Wilcox. She's been a two time guest on the show and she has a freacking banging membership. 

It's $9 a month and every single week, she sends you a template for your newsletter and specifically is how to write your newsletter in 20 minutes every single week so you can focus on actually serving your audience that value that I talked about earlier. Her templates ensure that you're creating actual value for the people reading it. 

So that is incredible, I highly recommend it, I have an affiliate link in the show notes. If you join it, I mean, you're going to be paying for a coffee every month for me so thank you for that. But I highly recommend it, I use it in my business and anytime I'm feeling like oh, I don't know what to write this week.

Side note, I'm probably going to use the template for this week's newsletter that I need to write. It is a great go to piece and you get access to a bank of newsletters that you can pull from. There's also has a really great free community where you can ask questions on list building in general but Liz is a really great resource. 

So I highly recommend getting Your First 100 leads so you get your system set up, and then if you want some help if you get stuck around but what do I send people? The newsletter membership, the $9, Oh my gosh, it's freacking it's been, so those two things together, my friend will set you up well on your way. 

38:49  

Now the big question comes in. Okay, Heather, this was a lot today about list building. What does this have to do with speaking. So let me connect the dots here for you in just the last few minutes of this episode. 

The time you spend on stage should give you more freedom and flexibility off stage. That is the mantra that I have been operating off of for years, and that is the concept of the very simple principle of the show that when you show up on quote-unquote stage for your online business. 

Now it could be a physical stage, it could be a virtual stage, it could be a metaphoric stage, when you show up those moments with the microphone should have a ripple effect so that you're not constantly required to continue to show up. 

So the question is, what is the connection between those two? Well, one is having a damn good message, right? That's what I help you with. You have to show up with magnetic presents with a damn good connected message where people want to work for you. 

But the second piece of that is you have to be able to send audiences some where, and sending them to your Instagram, sending them to your Linkedin, sending them to, I mean, I don't know, wherever, just pointing them to your podcast, those are great starts but the best place is sending them to your email list so you can continue to build that relationship. 

40:15  

What I like to think about is when you step on stage, it's like a first date. And it's actually better than a first date, right? Because a first date can be kind of awkward and weird. But that first date is they seize you up? Do I like this person? Could I see a life with this person? Do I want to be around them? Do I want a second date, like they're really going to get to know you on that, and you have to give him the chance for a second date. Now that second date isn't a, will you marry me a big pitch in your face offer? Sometimes it could be. 

But this is why I'm not a huge fan of selling from the stage is because a lot of times, it's very emotional and people get swept up and it's not the best user experience for selling from the stage so I do that sparingly. 

However, having a next step for them, whether that's a lower ticket offer or that is like a really, really awesome freebie, whether it's a mini training, or one of my favorites is I have a secret podcast playlist with the best of speaking related episodes from the show. By the way, if you'd like that, shoot me a direct message on Instagram and I will happily send you the link for that. 

41:20  

But thinking about what's something that you can offer this audience to allow them to continue the amazing conversation that you had on stage, oh, email list, email list, email list. So having either a texting option or a having like an opt in page. 

My students and I last week in one of our sessions, we were talking about the power of QR codes, oh, it's a game changer. Get a QR code up on your slide. And instantly, people can go straight to your landing page and grab whatever value that you have but speaking and list building, those two things need to go together. 

And if you're like, but Heather, like what if I can actually pitch my freebie, that's fine, too. We will link to a podcast episode where I talk about different ways that you can monetize and continue the relationship off stage. 

So as always, the show notes if you click on them and go to the blog, where we talk about this episode, we always have recommended next episodes for you. So if you're liking this and you want to binge a little bit more of Heather in your life, go check out those related episodes and that'll help you continue to move forward. 

42:28  

My friend, I hope that this episode today, it probably was not new for you. But I hope that it reinspired for you or to you to make this a priority. If you want to build a sustainable and scalable online business, we have to prioritize simplicity and discipline on the things that will allow us that scalability we want. 

Continuing to add things to our plate, continuing to innovate and try to come up with new ways, like that is all well and great, but you're adding more complexity than necessary in your business. Starting simply with your email list, getting your habits, getting your systems in place. That is a time investment that will pay off in spades, and I hope today's episode was just what you needed. 

43:15  

My friend, if you love today's episode, please share it with a friend. You can post it share it in your stories tag me @theheathersager or @hintofhustle. We're on the Instagram. We now have officially a podcast account, and the best way that you could say thanks for this episode is to leave a review, specifically, a written review any words for other people who are evaluating their options to read. Y'all know podcast reviews our life in the podcasting world. 

So it's been a hot minute since we've had a batch of reviews on the show. So if you could do me a solid and in this wonderful month of May of 2023, if you could leave a review for me today it would mean the absolute world. Alright friends, I will see you again on the next episode