Quadrupling Your Email List and Selling Out a Group Program with Steph Crowder of Courage & Clarity
Episode 199: Show Notes
Today on the podcast we welcome the email list queen, Steph Crowder. Steph is an educator and coach at Courage & Clarity, one of our Mastermind members and the “Den Mamma” at Fizzle.co. She is a delight to have on the show and we’re excited to dive into her secret sauce! The email list is where it’s at, right? Everyone has heard about the email list buzz, but the truth is your email list is keeping a lot of you up at night! This episode is helpful for those who are terrified of opt-ins, emails and have no clue what to do with those subscribers afterwards! Steph has been on a recent journey of quadrupling her email list in just 30 days. But what is brilliant about Steph is that she then successfully went on to sell programs to those already warmed up dreamy dreamers.
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Steph has so many action steps for those who are feeling overwhelmed by their email list, are not sure what to focus on and don’t know how they should grow. For those of you just starting to get your business off the ground – Steph feels ya and gives some great tips on what to do, as well as what not to do in those early stages. She also gives us a great model for setting up your work week in just 15 minutes every Sunday afternoon while you sip a cuppa tea. So take notes because by the end of this episode, you will have all the tools and all the inspiration needed to get to work on this right away!
Find Out How Steph Started Out With Her Email List
We like to refer to Steph as the email queen because not only does she know how to get people on her list, but in addition to that she knows what to do with those subscribers after – which is really crucial. A lot of you are scared of the world of email, but Steph is here to encourage you to experiment, have fun and connect with your people in a way that’s meaningful and authentic.
The email list is where it’s at! Right? Everyone has heard about the new email list buzz but the truth is, that email list is keeping a lot of you up at night! Steph likes to think of the email list as building your business on land you own, versus land you rent. But it’s a little bit of a puzzle. So what is going to get someone to happily join your email list? Not in a manipulative way but really cracking the code of what people need to hear in order to make it a no-brainer for them.
Our email addresses are a form of currency. It is that one step before people give you real dollars. It took Steph quite a while to create a lead magnet for her podcast Courage & Clarity. She didn’t know what to do and at six months in, she decided she was going to make a study guide to go with season one of her podcast. She put it out there and it did “okay,” in Steph’s words. Over the next few months she was getting 1-2 new subscribers a day. Nothing crazy. Her list was hovering around the 500 mark and that took her into 2017.
How Steph Doubled Her Email List In Seven Days
Steph had been dragging her feet on starting a Facebook group but eventually started a Courage & Clarity Facebook group in 2017. This is where Steph really started listening. She set up a question for people wanting to join her FB group: “What are you struggling with?” Today, Steph had 650 people in that group and she logs everything that people are saying. She started to keep track of what the most common responses were from her audience and it just started to punch her in the face! People were often saying, “I have no time” and “I have no focus” and “I’m stuck” and “I don’t know what to work on when.”
Steph on the other hand, has no problem with being productive. She has a little ritual that she calls the 15-Minute Planner Method, where she sits down for 15 minutes on a Sunday and plans her whole week. Steph created a 15-Minute Planner Method guide for her audience to help them get stuff done. By listening to her audience saying over and over again, “I have no time” and “I have no focus” and “I’m stuck” and “I don’t know what to work on when” – she shared her method for dealing with the issue of productivity with them. This was a fun thing for her to do, and it totally blew up! In a very short space of time, it doubled her email list and she crossed the 1000 mark in just seven days. Then they did an episode on Fizzle.co about how to double your email list in seven days, which in turn, grew her list. Then she wrote a blogpost about it and that grew more people! Which meant she quadrupled her list over the course of 30 days. In three months, Steph’s list has cleared 2500 now. Her golden ticket is meshing a personal interest with a need for her audience.
How To Figure Out What It Is That Your Audience Needs
The reason Steph has become the email queen is because she has started playing the game of, what should the lead magnet be? And one special trick for this is thinking to yourself, “What is an irresistible offer?” A lot of people just create a product for their audience that they know has worked for other audiences. They create something just for the sake of creating something, rather than having listened to a need and addressed it.
One of Steph’s favorite quotes around this is by Henry Ford, inventor of the automobile. He said if he would have just asked his customers what they needed, they would have said “A horse that goes faster.” So, if you ask your customers what they need they would just say, “I don’t know.” If they knew, they would have already gone and gotten it for themselves! It’s about achieving what people actually want. Asking them what they are dying to know and then packaging it for them.
You’ve got to get in their heads. There is a difference between what your customers think they need and what you know they need. The mistake that many of us make is not speaking from our place of expertise.
Another tip from Steph, is when your email list starts to grow rapidly, then you know you’re doing something right. Listen to that. When Steph’s list doubled in that first week, she jumped on it, and started a 5 Week Challenge for the 15-Minute Planner. After those five weeks, she delved deeper, offering her audience who completed the five week challenge the chance to go even deeper with another course. These are two other factors that contributed to Steph’s email list growth. So the lesson here is, when someone bites – keep them well fed!
Revenue Generating Activities That You Can Be Doing Day-To-Day In Your Business.
Steph is very aligned with us on the notion of starting out in a service-based business. For her service-based people out there, herself included, this means getting on the phone and getting more discovery calls, it means making more meaningful connections with people who could be clients, it means warming up potential clients (however you do it). Steph believes in being visible. The more you show up for your people, the more they will show up for you. If you notice someone is constantly engaging in your facebook group for example, drop them a personal message and say, “Hey, I love seeing your progress in the group. I think you’d be a great candidate for my upcoming course, etc.” This works when you have already built trust with people by helping them in your group. This is definitely a revenue generating activity for Steph.
She also believes that you should be keeping tabs on every connection you have with your clients and customers. Email can be the death of business! People are not checking email as often anymore, so bare that in mind if you are wanting things to happen quickly. In general, it’s helpful to look at every single aspect of your business and see where it can be optimized for revenue. You don’t need to be the founding CEO to have this mindset. So ask yourself, what can you do to bring more money into the business and where can you do it? Revenue might be scary but it doesn’t have to be difficult. You’ve just got to know how to optimize for it...
Quote This
The golden ticket is meshing a personal interest with a need for your audience.
—Steph Crowder
Highlights
Find Out How Steph Started Out With An Email List Of 500. [0:04:00.1]
How Steph Doubled Her Email List In Seven Days And Quadrupled It In Thirty. [0:08:00.1]
How To Figure Out What It Is That Your Audience Needs and Give Them An Irresistible Offer. [0:16:00.1]
Revenue Generating Activities That You Can Be Doing Day-To-Day In Your Business. [0:36:00.1]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:43:00.6]
Implement the 15-Minute Planner Strategy and get your do-to list on paper.
Rocks, pebbles and sand: Do the right things in the right order.
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Steph Crowder
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
Steph Crowder is an educator, coach and "Den Mama" at Fizzle.co, a place for courses and community for entrepreneurs. She also hosts the Courage & Clarity Podcast and co-hosts The Fizzle Show. When not helping people build their thing, she's hanging out with her husband and one-year-old daughter, sipping wine and decorating her new home in Louisville, KY.
KEY TOPICS
Email list, Weekly planner, 15-minute planner, Revenue, Prioritizing, Grow your list
