How to Build an Email List

It all started with these shoes…

Maybe you can relate:

I spent 5+ years as a corporate attorney wearing nothing but black, grey, and some variation of black & grey in between.

There was no pizzazz — no personality. No room for color or patterns.

And it wasn’t just that being a lawyer required drab clothes. I had no clue howI even wanted to express myself, or what kind of person I really was, because I’d become totally entangled with being a miserable lawyer.

It’s a funny thing about hating your job. You sort of let it become your life.

At the time, I blamed my job for making my life miserable. But looking back, I wasn’t building a life outside of my job. And when your miserable job IS your life, it’s no wonder you think the whole thing sucks.

During the first day of my retreat for Ultimate Bundle™️ members only the other day, I shared how I still — 6+ years later — feel like I got out of (lawyer) prison. I feel just as grateful and free now as I did on that first week out of the firm — walking around the mall on a Tuesday at 10am, smiling at every stranger that looked my way.

I’ve noticed how much I’ve changed as a person since I walked through those mahogany doors for the last time in 2016.

And while most of those changes have been deep, serious, internal shifts — I’ve also had lots of fun, fluffy ones on the outside, too. Enter: the shoes.

Especially since I moved to NY, I’ve noticed an external shift in myself, too.

Instead of buying the safe, practical shoe that goes with everything, I’ve picked the teal shoe handmade in Turkey that I just love. Instead of wearing matching colors or not mixing prints, I’m throwing on my fav bright colored T over my board shorts and heading out to kayak.

What’s any of this got to do you with building your business?!

Entrepreneurship is giving you this incredible gift — an opportunity really — to express yourself the way you’ve always wanted to.

The way that might’ve been squashed by your job, your circumstances or your upbringing.

You finally get to express yourself the way you want to: both internally and externally.

But there’s something you’ve got to be careful of as you build your business.

You’ll hear lots of “advice” along the way that the way you enjoy expressing yourself isn’t the best move. Blogs are dead, email lists are out, Facebook is a dino.

But I’m going to challenge you to say, “You know what? I love writing! It’s the best way to express myself — and my audience loves it, too.” (regardless of whether your audience is made of up 3 people or 300 right now).

That’s how I feel about email marketing. I abso-freaking-lutely love writing you here. And apparently you love reading it, too.

So over the years as people ditched their email lists and ran to the platform du jour — I remained steady.

I kept writing. I kept building.

6 years, 20,000+ of you later — I’m so glad I did.

It’s not only where the largest portion of my revenue comes from — it (along with my podcast, On Your Terms) — is where I also get the best, most thoughtful replies (which I read & reply to).

So that’s why I kicked off a 2-part podcast series today where I’m teaching you how to build your email list. You can listen to part one here.​

I wanted to give you straight-up email list building advice — way beyond the dialed in “have an opt-in” “put a pop up on your website” “create an irresistible freebie”. 

Are you going to listen?! Comment below and let me know! 🙂

🎙 Listen to Episode 65 “How to Build An Email List” of On Your Terms here!👇

PS. Building an email list is a smart, sustainable way to build your audience, make more sales & create a customer list you actually “own” (bye bye algorithms!). This week on On Your Terms, I shared Part 1 of a 2-part series on how to build your email list (w/ tips you’ve never heard before). Listen on my website, Spotify, or Apple now.