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INTRO: I'm Amy Porterfield, and this is Online Marketing Made Easy.
AMY PORTERFIELD: Hey, there. Amy, here. Welcome back to another episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast. This is a Shorty episode, and we are talking about your email list.
Now, here's the thing. On these Shorty episodes, I always promise to take you behind the scenes and share with you either something that's working in my business or a struggle that I have in my business or just kind of share with you how I'm thinking about my business and how I'm thinking about serving my students. So this really is a different take than my longer episodes. And so I was thinking about list building.
And I want to share with you the number one challenge I have with teaching people how to create digital courses. So you have a number one challenge in your business. I don't know if you've identified it or not, but I think it's really important to identify—and what I mean by that is the number one obstacle that's keeping people from buying your stuff, whatever it might be. I think we all have a number one obstacle, and it's important that you identify it, and then, you find solutions for it.
And so my number one obstacle that I face when selling Digital Course Academy is, “But I don't have an email list.” And this last launch, what it came up as, I don't have an audience. I don't have an audience. I don't have people that are paying attention and that I'm serving, even if it just be through a free podcast or a free blog. I don't have an audience. I don't have an email list, so I'm not ready to create a digital course. And I teach people how to grow their email list.
I have so many podcast episodes around how to grow an email list, secrets and strategies and tips, and I’ll link to all of them in the show notes of this episode. So if that's what you're looking for, I've got strategies after strategies to help you out.
But the thing is, if you are not focusing on growing your email list—let's say you don't have an email list yet. You do have one, but you never email your list, and you don't grow it. Or you have an email list, but you're not really sure what to do with it—then all the strategies in the world will not help if I don't help you change the way you look at that email list, the way you understand how it works in your business.
So, I already recorded this episode, and I deleted it because the reason for that—and tell me if you can relate—I felt like I was saying the same thing over and over again that I've said so many times, and I thought, “I can't keep saying that, because you guys have already heard it.” And what I was saying, the episode I deleted, what I was saying was you can't build your business on rented land, rented land to social media. The algorithm changes, or like on October 3, 2021, when Facebook and Instagram went down for hours. We actually thought we were going to go to bed, wake up the next morning and still not have Facebook and Instagram up.
And on that day that it went down, many, many people lost a lot of money. On that day, I made seventeen thousand dollars because I sent an email to my list, told them about an evergreen digital course that I have, and many people bought it. And it wasn’t even an expensive course. But I made seventeen thousand dollars, meaning a lot of people took me up on the offer. It was a course I already had and that I was reminding them that I had if they needed extra support in that one area. I mean, seventeen thousand dollars on the day that Facebook and Instagram went down for hours and hours and hours.
Now, the thing is, I talk about the power of an email list. You’ve probably heard me say it, that if you're not new to this podcast, you've heard me say that your email list is the number one most-important asset in your business. You've heard me say that an email will convert four times higher than any social-media post that you can do. And you've heard me say that when you have an email list, you have more confidence, you have a better foundation in your business, you are more clear about how you can make money because you can send out emails and put offers out there to your list. An email list gives you more confidence and clarity and makes you feel as though you have a stronger foundation to build your business on. Like, you heard me say all of that.
So then, when I get to the Digital Course Academy launch, and there's a lot of people that still don't have an email list, still aren't growing their audience, I think, okay, what's missing, then? What, maybe, do these people that haven't started their email list yet or haven't put a focus on it yet, what's missing? And I think what might be missing, and I hope this message hits you exactly when it needs to get to you, what might be missing is that you are not aligning or connecting your email list to your dreams and goals for your business.
So, hear me out for just a second. Let's say that you dream of writing a bestselling book, New York Times’ best seller. Let's say you dream about having a top-, top-, top-rated podcast, or let's say you dream about retiring a partner or spouse and you be the sole breadwinner and actually work when you want to work, where you want to work, and how you want to work in your business. Let's say you dream about taking the entire summer off. Like today, I was on a walk with Hobie and Scout, and I told him I'm going to try to take all of July off next year. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I started to talk to him about it now, at the end of 2021, for looking toward next year. Like, I think I might want to take an entire month off. Like, I dream about that. Like, how could I make that possible?
So get clear. What is it? For a minute, humor me. If you're all alone, say it out loud. If you're not, and you've got earbuds in, and you're listening to me, just say it in your head. What do you dream about? What do you want? What do you ultimately want for this business you're creating, whether it's a side hustle now and you want to make it a full-time gig, or it's a full-time gig and you want to make more money? Or if you're making good money, but you want to make a bigger impact, whatever it is, what do you want? What do you dream of? What gets you so excited? Think about it right now. It might be a mix of the money and the impact, the influence, the support you can give, changing lives. What do you dream about? What do you want? How do you want your business to look? Just humor me for a minute. Think about it. Flood your system with all those ideas, all the wishes and hopes and dreams you have for this business. Are you thinking about it? Have you said it out loud or in your head?
Now, what if I told you that all of that would be easier—dare I say even faster?—to get to if you had an engaged email list. I'm not even pretending or making light of it. You will get to your dreams faster. Those things will happen for you in a bigger way if you had an email list that you could go back to again and again. If you feel like your dreams are taking longer than you want them to take; if you feel like you're not hitting your revenue goals; if you feel like you are wanting to grow a team but you don't have enough money to grow a team yet, you got to make money to have a team, and you're doing it all yourself, and it's frustrating, focus on your email list. Your email list can get you to your dreams and your goals faster versus not having an email list.
So, if you look at me and you say, “Amy, what's one thing you wish you did differently when you started out thirteen years ago?” and it would have been I would become a master at growing my email list. I would put a focus on it in the beginning to build the foundation. Get the email-service provider, create the lead magnets, find different ways to mention it in any which way every single week. I would make it a mission to get interviewed on other peoples’ podcasts, to mention my lead magnet, to drive them back, to get into my world. I would have done that so differently in the first few years of my business so that once you focus on it, my friends, it starts to happen more organically and more easily.
But if you haven't grown your email list, if you struggle to grow your email list, if you feel like you don't put any focus there, if you keep pushing it off, if you're not using your email list to make money, what I think is missing is that you do not see how your dreams and your goals can be closer and happen faster, can be closer to actually coming true and happen faster than you think they could, if you had an email list and you nurtured it, and then you emailed your list, with different offers, so that people can take you up on it.
On a day that people freaked out that they were losing money because Facebook and Instagram went down, I made seventeen thousand dollars. I do not worry that I don't have a solid foundation that I control in my business. And I know that I can get a New York Times’ bestselling book one day with the help of my email list, because those are my most loyal, trustful audience that I have is my email list. I know that I can sell more courses. I know that I can make an impact with my courses by creating relationships with people through my emails. I know that I can change lives, and I can do big things in this world, and I know that I am closer to getting to those goals because I have an email list. If I just had social media, it would be harder.
So, I'm going to end this Shorty episode with this. Let it be easy. Let it be easy. And I'm talking about your business. You're hearing from a girl—talking about going behind the scenes and really sharing my heart with you—right now, you're hearing from a girl that always thinks it has to be hard. I have to catch myself so often. I was raised with a dad that believed that if it wasn't hard work, it wasn't worthy. Like, if you weren't kind of sweating and putting so much heart and soul into it and kind of make yourself miserable, if you didn't work hard, work yourself to the bone, you weren't doing important work. I think my dad got it wrong. And I love him dearly, but I think he got it wrong. I don't think it has to be hard in order to be successful.
And so, if you ever find yourself making it more hard, if you feel like growing your business is hard, if you feel like making money is hard, if you feel like finding your audience is hard, what if you let it be easy? And the way you let it be easy is you say, okay, finally, I'm just going to make list building part of how I do business. It's going to be the foundation of what I do versus it's not going to be some project on a list that I have to get to down the road and I keep kicking—we call it kicking the can down the project plan, meaning you just keep kicking that one thing, like, I'll get to it, I'll get to it. I'll get… No, no. Let's just set the foundation. Get the email-service provider. Create the lead magnets. Find ways to mention it. Do it every single week. Make list building how you do business.
And in your head, more than anything, in your head, think, when I have an engaged email list—I didn't say big. I said engaged email list—I will reach my dreams and my goals faster. I will connect with my audience on a deeper level. I can make a bigger impact when I finally focus on my email list. Tie your email list to your dreams. Tie your email list. Like, actually think email list equals bigger revenue. Email list equals bigger impact. Email list equals more ease. You don't have to work so hard for it, my friend, when you have an email list. It's easier. If you want more ease in how you do business, finally, focus on your email list.
To do that, I've got tons of resources, tips, strategies, insights. I’ll link to a bunch of episodes in the show notes. And also, if you are absolutely starting from scratch, amyporterfield.com/listbuilding. It’s exactly how to get started. I've got a free class. Amyporterfield.com/listbuilding. That’s for any of you right now listening who are starting from scratch.
All right, my friends. I just wanted to do a tiny mindset tweak of how you look at list building. Let list building be part of how you do business. Let list building be absolutely tied to your dreams and goals and getting there faster and with more ease.
I hope you enjoyed this episode, going a little bit behind the scenes of how I look at list building in my own business. And I'll see you Thursday for more entrepreneurial goodness. Until then, take care.
