847: How to Make Your Email List Work Harder So You Don’t Have To

25:51It's called the content lab. But the whole thought is when you are creating content, create in the frame of mind that you can repurpose that one piece of content on every platform. And so if you're creating in a way that it allows it to translate well to whatever platform you're going to be focusing on, it makes it so much easier and it's less work. And so I think a lot of times our brain wants to compartmentalize those as two very separate things. When in reality, they can very much coexist and work together and they can support each other. When it comes to the long form side, so if I were thinking about where I would invest my time, personally, for me, when I started, I've been blogging for the last...

26:31I mean, since 2011. So I started my blog. That was the first thing I did in my business. And we still blog to this day. I love it because it creates that resource library where people can still find and reference back to. Same for podcasting. But I would say that podcasting has a lot more steps and it takes a lot more to get a podcast episode published. It's totally doable. I teach people how to do it. But if I were looking at a limited amount of time, I would do that. And here's what I would argue to think through the lens of your ideal customer. So if you are trying to attract busy moms who are already overwhelmed and tired, maybe it's really short blog posts with like one key tweak or something.

27:11It doesn't have to be 20 paragraphs long and have tons of research and all of that. maybe it's like really digestible, interesting content that your ideal audience could take in. Yeah, I love that. And I think like what would be more approachable for me right now, because again, I just like fear that I won't be consistent, but maybe I just need to wrap my head around creating this ideal week where this is what I'm doing, you know, this day. But I think with blogging, I could be more consistent with it. But podcasts, I think would really be best for my audience. Because for me personally, I'm like, unless it's at night, I'm not like looking through my phone trying to read blogs.

27:50I am, you know, I'm in the car pickup lines like that is where five minute episodes, like they were super short. Like, you know what I mean? Listen to that. I could definitely do that. You think? So back in the day, we used to do three episodes a week. So our cadence has been Mondays and Wednesdays. But I used to do really short Friday episodes that were like five to 10 minutes. And they were really short and digestible. And I went deep on one thing. And they did really well. And so but like, if you think of your, you know, you could be like, Hey, mama, you're probably in the pickup line, or you're, you know, packing a lunch, or you're doing your skincare routine, and you're tuning in.

28:29Here's one tip to optimize your health today. And it could just be one thing. It's not overwhelming, they're going to be more likely to get results, right? Yeah, absolutely. I love that. Okay, that's good to know. Like, it could be very short, It doesn't need to be an hour long podcast. No. And I would argue that that's not... I mean, I was laughing the other day because Drew and I were watching Holiday Baking Championship. This tells us a lot about our marriage. And we were laughing because we are still on episode one of the season. It's now on episode 12. It took us an entire week to watch a one hour baking show because we just watch for 20 minutes.

29:02And then it's like, we're cleaning up and we're packing lunches and all these things. And like, we were just laughing that like, it takes us a whole week to get through, you know, 60 minutes of content. And so I would argue that that's the stage of life that we're in, you know? Yeah. And I relate to that too. So yeah. Amazing. When we were young, we dreamed of castles and fairy tales. And as we grow up, those dreams might shift into building something real, like starting a business. You need a website, payment systems, a logo, and a way to reach customers. It can all be overwhelming and confusing, but thankfully, that's where today's sponsor, Shopify, comes in.

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30:29Anyone who knows me knows that I'm all about creating spaces where people actually want to be. So when we started hosting on Airbnb, it honestly felt like the most natural thing in the world. And it's turned into one of the best decisions we've ever made. Over the years, we've hosted hundreds of couples in our little spaces. We've had so many repeat guests come back and we've created this incredible community, not just with our guests, but also with the people who help us care for our space. Whether you've bought properties as an investment or have unused rooms waiting to be shared, hosting on Airbnb is a practical and profitable choice.

31:04And just think about it. If you've put a ton of time, effort and work into your home, someone out there probably would love to experience it while they're traveling. So next time you're planning a trip or want to make some extra income from your spaces, you should definitely host on Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. Okay, where does this lead us? Well, my other question, you kind of answered it. So it was, you know, I'm not really consistent right now with nurturing my current list. Yeah, I feel like I have kind of been throwing a little bit of salesy stuff at them, which I don't like, I want to nurture them.

31:43I probably, you know, with my meal prep course and my retreat coming up in May, and I want to nurture them better. So I... Let's talk about it. Yes. And so I think what I'm hearing from you is that creating that long form content where you could almost snip and repurpose and put it into that email is the best way. Yes. Okay. So here's a few tips that I would do. So just yesterday, we planned out an entire month's worth of email content. So this is a rhythm that I have in my business where I sit down and I say, Okay, I want to send... So we send about 8 emails a month. So it's about two a week, which is a high frequency.

32:20I would not recommend that for somebody starting out. I would say one email a week would be amazing. And so I just sit down and I look at, okay, here's the month coming up. Here are our focuses. Here is where we already have promotion blocked in. What else can we do to serve? What else is going on? What else would support? What does that look like? And honestly speaking, we have a really good ratio of serving versus selling. And that's why I think we have a really high engagement rate and we have a very low unsubscribe rate. And so I've done a lot of research because it's like the average entrepreneur is spending like 45 minutes to an hour and a half a day responding to emails.

32:57And it's like, we're responding one to one all day, all week. What would it look like if we could just sit down and tangibly create one email that will serve many? It's a way better use of our time, right? And so what I think I would do if I were you, Cassie, is I would say I would look at like, okay, here's the month coming up. Here are four things. And I would create some sort of cadence for yourself where it could be like, you're just telling a relatable story in an email and that's it. And there's like no links. And you're just like reminding people, like I relate to you or like my kid asked the funniest thing the other day and this is my response.

33:32Or have you ever noticed that like when you wake up, you're still exhausted? This is one thing that's helped me. Like it can just be something really quick, easy, no links, no call to actions in it, just like straight up serving. Then I would do one email that's pointing to an additional resource that you've created. And the goal of the email is to sell the clicks. So the goal of the email is to get somebody to click the link. So you don't want to give away everything about like, let's say the podcast episode in that you want to make people actually click to listen, right? Because that's another form of hearing from you another way you're invited into their life.

34:07And then you could have one email that is a little bit more promotional that shares about an offer. And again, the goal of the email is to get them to click to the landing page. So I think a lot of times our emails feel incredibly salesy because we're almost trying to take the sales page and put it into the email. And that's not the goal of the email. The goal of the email is to get people to click to the page that has already been built that shares about the offer in its entirety. And so how can the email still have good content inside of it and focus on selling that click? and then the last email of the month could maybe be a roundup of like three tips or three products or three meals or three you know it could be whatever but just something that like gives something for everyone we do one email a month where it just kind of rounds up like if you love to read here are our blog posts if you love to listen here are our podcast episodes here is my favorite instagram post of the month here are three products i bought on amazon that i love like it's just like a something for everyone type of email and it's really fun to right?

35:04Because it kind of makes you pause and be like, what happened in the last month? They're like, what do I swear by? Or like, what's new? So I would just kind of map out like a cadence. It doesn't have to be rigid by any means, but it might just help your brain sit down and understand, okay, week one, week two, week three, week four, and then you could write them all out and literally lock and load them and schedule them into your email software. And you wouldn't even have to think about it for the rest of the month. So I would argue that that would probably take a couple hours of your entire month.

35:33And you could rest assured at night that like something is happening behind the scenes each week and it's dripping out for your audience and you won't feel that guilt. Because I think a lot of people feel that guilt of like, I grew this list. I gave the free value off the front. Now I'm not reaching out and then I'm only reaching out what I'm selling. And it almost becomes this like weird shame guilt feeling of like, I know I should be doing more. And I there's a lot of easy ways to do more that doesn't feel really overwhelming. Yeah, I love that so much. And I think I'm all about batching everything.

36:04Yeah. So I do think that is approachable. And it's like, you know, you know, these things, but you just need to do them. Yes. And I mean, something too is like, if somebody were to like reach out to you, and you could even have your friends, like if you had a group of like mom friends, and you could just say, can you text me like five questions that you would want to ask me and use that to inspire the content. Or one of my friends recently just said, he went on to chat GBT and he said, okay, this is who I am. This is who I serve. Generate 52 questions that my ideal audience would be asking me.

36:37And then he used one question a week to kind of theme his content, whatever that was, whether it was Instagram, email, podcast, whatever. And that way, every week he was answering a question of his ideal audience. and that was all generated from chat gpt so i think there are a lot of different ways that you can inspire that content and again it's like one to many so you just have to see it in a different way versus like the one-to-one interactions that a lot of us spend a lot of time you know fostering yeah i love that man that is my idea of batching that's right two questions oh awesome okay where does this lead us what are you thinking what are your hesitations Do you have any obstacles in your brain?

37:18Not really. I do have like one more question. I'm just curious, just from all the conversations you've had with people and, you know, with your success, I'm just curious which ideas that maybe I've had or that I share that or that you have that you feel like would reach my ideal audience and like, I guess, and then be able to kind of create a lead magnet out of it, which I feel very equipped to do. Like I actually like doing that. but like what do you feel like like what are your top ideas for like yes these three like we have to have a resource a checklist a template something around that yeah so okay one of my friends her name is kelly she was in my mastermind years ago and she has an account called the family freezer and they teach freezer meals and she is like she's just amazing and it's so funny because like my mom my sister and i will all talk about like which kelly recipe are you using if like one of us brings over a soup or something because we know it was probably a Kelly recipe.

38:15And so she would be somebody really good to follow just because I feel like she does some really interesting things. One thing that would be really fun to go deeper on, this is a very random idea, but if you sent out a very small grocery shopping list and you did like an Instagram live or a Zoom call with a group of people and you literally walked them through food prep and said, here's one hour. by the end of this hour, we're going to prep one, two, three, four, whatever it is, three meals and a snack for your week. And you could do it almost like a cooking show with your audience. I think that would be super fun and compelling.

38:52The other thing that I often struggle with, because honestly, you serve a version of me. I am someone who I very much prioritize my health. But when I don't have a plan for meals, that is when I go off the rails. I was just talking to someone. I was like, I feel so dialed in in so many areas of my life. And today after four podcasts, I'm probably going to go eat chicken nuggets from the freezer because I don't have a plan. Right. And so you are talking to me. And so my dream scenario, my dream life would be like on Sunday afternoons when Quinn is sleeping and Coco's doing quiet time, I would prep a couple meals and some really healthy snacks for the week.

39:34Right. And I could open my fridge and there is the plan. And so I think I often get overwhelmed or I'm looking up too many recipes and then I'm like, this is so many ingredients. Now I'm overwhelmed with my grocery shopping list. Now I'm just like throwing in the towel. And so it would be interesting to have something very simplified where it is entirety. Here's your grocery shopping list. I also know there's a feature now that you can share your Instacart cart with people. So you could literally put the ingredients in the cart and share the link with somebody to make that part even easier and then have the recipes and the order.

40:12And then, you know, like, so it's just like thinking through some of those biggest hurdles of like where people get overwhelmed. But again, the other thing that I think would be really interesting for you to do is because you had like the idea of a membership and different things like that, I would say, and I know you already mentioned this is an idea, so it's your idea. But having a container of 10 to 20 women where you walk with them for 4 weeks or something, and by the end of the 4 weeks, they have X, Y, and Z, and you have a very clear what they will leave with. I think you'll get a ton of feedback.

40:48You'll get a lot of insight. You'll start to see where are people falling off or where are they getting overwhelmed. And I think that a lot of times we jump straight to a course and I think that's fine and great. But I learned so much when I did some one-on-one mentoring with people because I was like, oh, they're all asking the same questions. Oh, I didn't even think that was interesting. Oh, they're emailing me about this. They got stuck here. And so I think that when you're getting those new offers up, sometimes having those higher touch points at the beginning will lead to lower touch offers down the line that really solve the solutions that you're trying to solve.

41:27What do you think about that? Yeah, I agree. Like, I think the members, like having some sort of collective, like you had said, or a group program will really help me fish out like the questions, exactly how you said something, everything, but like, I definitely think that would be helpful. And maybe if I just offer like Q &A sessions where it's like brainstorming rather than, and then offer a really low ticket where they're not expecting like tons and tons of resources and all these things. I think that would definitely be a great place to start. And I just have to say like your idea of, you know, you're like perfect day Sunday.

42:01This is literally what I teach in my meal prep course. I think what I need to do is... I need to be a customer because this is literally... I will send it to you for free. No, Cassie, this is like the point of contention in our marriage. I am not even kidding you where every single night, this is literally, I will give you what actually happened last night. Drew came home from the aquarium with the kids and I saw his car pulling in and I'm like, oh crap, I got to get food on the table. So I'm like cutting up an avocado and I was like, I had like avocado grapes and an apple. And then I heated up a corn dog and he like walked in and he was like, corn dogs again.

42:35And I was like, I didn't know you were coming home. I didn't have time to prep anything like where this is like a point of contention. And I also think like so many of us have the desire for better things. Like I'm like, if I had like a chipotle salad bar with like rice prepped, meat prepped, corn and salsa and all these things. I could make a really healthy bowl every day. And so the thing that I think will be really interesting about your offer, and here's where I want to challenge you deeply, is that you are going to have a tendency or a desire to want to throw in everything in the kitchen sink to over deliver at the risk of overwhelming your person.

43:15And so your offer needs to be so stupid simple that anyone like me will follow through on it. And to you, it's going to feel so common sense and so silly. But to somebody who has failed to follow through, simple is going to be the only way they're going to get results. And so you're going to feel like you're underserving. But that is how you are actually going to get people results. I think that is actually going to be the challenge in a beautiful way. And I think when you create the offer, you want to not focus on it's 5 hours of content and da-da-da-da-da. You want it to be like 10 minutes of content.

43:58You know what I mean? Digestible for that ideal audience. And it doesn't mean that you're not adding immense value. I would argue that the value is in the simplicity of it because it allows people to actually get results. And so that can be hard in its own way. Does that make sense? Absolutely. I have that problem. I want to provide so much. I want to give... Because everybody's different, right? So somebody might want more ideas on the kitchen tools that I use. Somebody might want more ideas on school lunches. And so I'm just throwing all this stuff in my program in modules thinking, oh, they'll just skip over if this doesn't pertain to them.

44:33Let's position it. Okay. So this is good because then the goal here is to position it in a way so that the main course is super, super digestible, right? Even our Pinterest course is two hours of content. And I'm proud of that because people actually finish it, right? And so even the other day, my friend Mel Robbins was like, hey, I'm going to take your Pinterest course. And I was like, awesome. It is literally two hours. And I love that because that means people will actually do it. So I would look at your positioning of your program and make the modules like walk it through so that you have to do these three to five things, right?

45:11These are the three to five non-negotiables and then have all of those extra things as like a choose your own adventure because the achiever in us, like women like us want to do it perfectly or we don't want to do it at all. And so the positioning of how you present your offer and how it's laid out for people is going to really help them find success. And so it might be something you want to just revisit as to what is the core offer? What do they have to do step by step to get the end result? And then what are the extras that they might need so that I am adding that value and meeting them wherever they're at, but it's up to them if they want to do that and let them know that too.

45:54So you are not a failure if you don't go through every single module. These are just extra things that might be helpful. Choose the ones that work best for you and leave the rest behind. That will also help in terms of them getting results. I love that. That is very helpful. I will absolutely be changing that within the next couple of weeks here because yeah, it's so much information, but I think the framework is key. Like I needed to get better at frameworks. Frameworks are so important. They need a clear map. And I think it's like, if the map is like across the whole US, I think people are not going to want to go on that journey.

46:27Yes. Yeah. And I, you know, it's, it's so interesting because I think women often disqualify themselves before they even start something because they're like, I'm just, it's just not going to work for me. And so that'd be interesting. One other thing to consider is it might be interesting to do a really concentrated launch to your existing audience. It could be five people, 10 people, whatever it is in terms of who signs up and do a weekly coaching call with that group. Make it almost like an incubator where you're getting the feedback, you're hearing the questions, they're invested so they have skin in the game.

47:00You're collecting that insight because that would also give you that insight of what do people really need? Do they need the more one-on-one support? Can this be an evergreen offer that's running in the background? What does that look like as well? And so maybe just doing like a really concentrated effort in that way would be really smart too. Yeah, I like that. And I do see value in that. I offered it this past fall and I had two connection calls and I did gain a lot of information. And then I had like a individual coaching call with each of them, but I could increase it to weekly to really give more value into.

47:34And you can just do it as a group because I feel like people can learn so much from other people and it could also like decrease the amount of time you're on the phone ultimately and people will be willing to share or like let them be the guinea pig of the week and so that could be a different way you approach it to where it's not taking up so much time because I remember the first time I did a course I did the same thing where I did like one-on-one calls with everyone and I was like oh my god I am on the phone all the time this is not what I wanted ultimately but it was it was really insightful in terms of what I learned from it yeah I'm just like still in my head.

48:09I'm laughing because when you get the example of the Chipotle bowl, I'm like, that's literally like in my course, I'm like core, create yourself like these like 10 core ingredients and you can use them. Like you can do tacos, you can make nachos, you can make loaded sweet potatoes. Like there's so many different ways. So I'm just like, this is it. I told you, I am your ideal customer. I know I was arguing through the other day. Cause I was like, so I read this thing where you can literally go to Chipotle and get like family size where all the food is prepped for you. And we could just see that instead of meal prepping.

48:38And y 'all was on, we can do it ourselves. And I was like, but we're not doing it. So I will be your ideal audience. This is something that I really want to focus on. And I know so many of my listeners. So as we wrap this up, you have a specific goal and I want to help you reach it. So share what your goal is. And then we'll tell our audience how they can join in and see what you do next. Yes. So, well, I just have to side note my goal moving forward in the next month is really to hone in on the making the meal prep course, my full offer. But to kind of get people to know, understand like what I do and what I offer, I do have a seven day challenge.

49:18Well, five day, five day challenge. what it's called. Yeah. Five day challenge of fit in your greens. So it's a way that we can inspire people to eat more leafy greens. So, you know, the actual vegetable leafy greens, and it is just really geared towards, there's so many benefits of eating leafy greens, the cognitive function, just helping your brain work better, energizing you more, creating the fiber gut health. Gosh, I could go on and on, but it's going to be amazing five day challenge. And I hope everybody can join. It's a downloadable guide that I will have. Awesome. And we will link to it in the show notes so you can check out Cassie and we'll help her get to her goal on that.

50:00Thank you so much for coming on the show. I hope that this was helpful and not overwhelming. You are already making amazing progress. And I see so much of myself in you and the moves that you're making and the decisions that you're making right now. So I just I want to say you are on the right path. And I'm so excited to see what unfolds. And just thank you for being willing to come on. Thank you so much. No, honestly, like the value you provided me today. And honestly, the value that you bring to so many people just through your podcast is amazing and inspiring to dream of like the impact that we all can create in this world just by connecting, collaborating and just building one another up.

50:37So thanks again, Jenna. Honestly, it's just been my absolute pleasure. Aw. These coaching sessions are so fun and I hope they are so valuable for you. Now, don't get me wrong. I love interviewing exceptional entrepreneurs, but let's be honest, most of them started many years ago and their stories aren't always relatable to where you are at today. My solution is these coaching sessions and I get so much out of them, but I hope that you do too. If you want to apply to be coached on the Gold Digger podcast, make sure you're a part of our Facebook community. It is an amazing place to be hanging out on the World Wide Web.

51:14We've linked to it in the show notes. And if you love today's episode, can you leave me a review and let me know that you want the coaching sessions to keep on coming. I feel like they are chock full of insight and information and hopefully stuff that you can apply to your business today. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Gold Digger podcast. It is an honor to show up in your earbuds today, wherever you are in your world or in your life. And until next time, Gold Diggers, keep on digging your biggest goals. Thanks for pulling up a seat for another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast.

51:46I hope today's episode fueled you with inspiration, gave you information that you can turn into action, and realigned you with your true north in life and business. If you've enjoyed today's episode, head on over to golddiggerpodcast.com for today's show notes, discount codes for our sponsors, freebies to fuel your results, and so much more. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a future show. We'll see you next time, Gold Diggers.