#129: Simple Ideas To Build Your List

Michelle Leotta:
Hey there health coaches. We are back. And this month is all about building your mailing list, because if you haven't heard so far, your list really is your business's most valuable asset. It's like a must have for all health coaches. So, if you're listening and you're like, what the heck is the list? What's that all about? And how do I get one bigger question? That's okay. Because we all start at the beginning. We've all been there. Just getting, going, not even understanding half of the terms that are being thrown at us. So if you're new and you do not have a mailing list set up yet, you can get that taken care of right now for free. It's going to take you like 10 minutes. It's super easy. You can just go do it right away. After you listen to this episode, head over to healthcoachpower.com/mailinglist for my tutorial, that's going to walk you through the process and then it'll be done and you'll be ready to move on.

Michelle Leotta:
Now, if you do have a mailing list, first of all, if you're here, live with us, go ahead and just raise your hand, say hello in the comments. Let us know that you're here. And also, I would love to know what's up with your mailing list. Have you started it? If so, what service are you using, et cetera, how many people are on your list and are you actively trying to grow it? Cause that's the really important part once you get it started. So one mistake that I see health coaches making all the time is that they go, okay, I need to build my mailing list. So, what am I going to do? I know I'm going to offer a 30 day detox, like a reboot, and it's going to have like 200 recipes.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. Maybe 250, and there's going to be daily yoga videos. And I'm going to have a Facebook group and we're going to have a meeting every single day. And I'm going to have everybody give up sugar and give up coffee and give up gluten and, and use, Oh, essential oils. We have to use essential oils and we're going to do breathing exercises. And it just kind of goes on and on and on. And it sounds so super valuable, like to you as the health coach coming up with this idea. But even for others, they're like, wow, look at all that stuff, you know, who can resist? So seven people sign up and you run this thing and your site's right. It's on, you are a health coach today and that seven names on your mailing list. And okay, so four of them were already on your list because it's like your mom and your sister, but then of the remaining, like those three, you've got, one is your mom's friend, one is your neighbor, George, and one is your 16 year old babysitter.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. And it takes hours and hours every day for you to pull this thing off, right? You're going to make this free program happen for your seven people. And by day five, you notice only half of the group is showing up. And by like the third week, only one person is still opening your emails. And it's just crickets in the Facebook group. And you think, man, building my list is so hard.

Michelle Leotta:
So, who has experienced anything like that? I'm curious to know, because this is something that I hear about all the time, like some version of this story, and you might be thinking, how am I ever going to do this? How am I ever going to get beyond my tiny list? So today what I want to do is talk about ways to build your list that are simple.

Michelle Leotta:
And at the same time, much, much more effective than the scenario that I just described. And then later this month, I'm going to be teaching exactly how to multiply your mailing list without using paid advertising. During my free training and registration is open now at healthcoachpower.com/listbuild. I'm going to put that link over here in the comments for you right now, in case you haven't joined during this training. Not only am I going to show you how to build your list, how to get in front of new audiences and how to bypass the expense and the headache of Facebook ads entirely. I'm also going to show you how your list kind of fits into a business generating profit generating engine. So, get ready for like tons of ideas, tons of inspiration and actual step-by-step tutorials. When you sign up to join us again, that's healthcoachpower.com/listbuild.

New Speaker:
Okay. So, joining me today is Kirsten. Who's one of our Healthy Profit University members to share her recent experience with list building. I think you guys are going to find it interesting to hear, not just for me, but from other coaches who are in the weeds, in the muck, you know, doing the work and, and just starting out. So I'm going to take you off mute now, Kirsten, and let's just make sure I can hear you.

Kirsten:
Hello.

Michelle Leotta:
There you are. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Kirsten:
Oh, thank you so much for having me and for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. This is fun. I love having you guys on, so it's not just me talking to myself all the time. It's great. Why don't we start by just telling everybody a little bit about yourself and your business. Like how long have you been a health coach?

Kirsten:
Sure, sure. Well, um, my name is Kirsten and I started my business in April of this year, which was just perfect timing thanks to COVID. But honestly I wouldn't, I wouldn't have it any other way. Um, and I've been slowly and steadily building my business. It's been an incredibly slow process also, thanks to COVID because I'm virtual schooling, my three kids at the same time. So, I'm sure many other health coaches out there can, can, um, empathize with that as well. But, um, I jumped in on the opportunity to, to do healthy profit university and there's just so much valuable information. It's been a wonderful experience and it's actually being a part of that course in this group has brought my business further in the last month than it has in the previous five months. So it's been really awesome.

Michelle Leotta:
Oh, good. So I love your story because you're, you're brand new to this basically. I mean, just within this past year, you're doing the thing that you said, like you're right. So many moms, health coaches, dads in general, we're all dealing with this nonsense with the kids home all day. Tell me about it. Um, and, and yet you've been, you've been moving forward and that is a really cool thing. So inside our HPU group, I noticed that you were talking about how your recent list-building event was so fantastic. You got so much out of it and it was so much more simple than you had done in the past. So can you tell us a little bit more about that and maybe compare what you did this time to what you had done previously?

Kirsten:
Absolutely. So, I being new in the health coach world, want to provide all the value and all the information like I'm sure many of us want to when we're new, because we're just really excited. Um, and in the past, what I had done was not even think about this building. It was just a matter of how can I help this person? How can I help this person? What information can I throw at them? And at the end of the day, I kind of felt like I was almost over informing people, um, and over informing my clients because there was just here, look at this here, here's this handout here, here's this.

Kirsten:
But what I did with this time, like this time around with this event was I just, I started off with what I think I would have wanted to do, which is on day one, I'm going to do this challenge on day two. I'm going to do this challenge, but it like the scope of each of those challenges covered mental health, it covered physical health, it covered nutrition, hydration. Like it just, it covered everything as opposed to what you've been teaching us, which is niche down. So I sort of niched down my challenge and I said to myself, what is the thing that my clients have always been surprised or shocked by? And I went back and I looked at my notes and I thought through all the different types of events, like the 10 day reset that I did, um, the 14 day reset that I did. And it was always the same thing. It was always water. I feel so much better when I'm hydrated. So I basically built my five day challenge on just five ways each day to include more water in your day.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. Okay, stop right there. Stop right there. So, you were able to pull off a successful list builder. I just want to underline this and the premise of the whole thing was simply drink more water. That's it. Okay. As opposed to what may it have looked like in the past? Like what would you have been asking people to do on any particular day?
Kirsten:
Probably a, like a step challenge. Pick how many steps you want to do during the day and meet that goal. Um, I would do a water day making sure that my clients were drinking half their body weight in water. Um, another one would be add vegetables or try this new smoothie, like a nutrition piece, try meditation or sit quietly for, you know, five to 10 minutes. So like truly like every day was something new and something different and it connected, but too broadly, right? It connected in overall health and wellness as opposed to sort of honing down on one particular aspect of health and wellness.

Michelle Leotta:
It's so interesting. I mean, you can do either of those things, but I think the beauty of what you did this time was that, because this happens always people miss day one, they miss day two, day three comes, they feel like they failed, but in your case, if they could just do the thing they were supposed to do all long, it's a win for them. And like you said, like you have clients that go, wow, this makes such a big difference. And that's what, like, I'll refer to as an aha moment and you can give somebody even just one substantial aha moment. They will love you for ever. So. Okay. Sorry. What else, what about the structure of the program is different? I know you mentioned like 14 day challenges in the past this time. It was different.

Kirsten:
Yes. So, this time it was incredibly... It was a lot more easy to be frank because it was just five days. Um, and I was able to key everything in. So I had Facebook posts scheduled to go. I had emails scheduled to go. I had, um, topics written out for my end of day, uh, Facebook live. So at every step of the way I knew exactly what I was doing because I had done all the preparation beforehand. Um, instead of in my, in my past challenges in my past, um, like classes, it was always all right, what am I going to talk about today? Okay. What am I, what am I going to text out to two people today? Like what, what, you know, fascinating thing am I going to tell them about this reset or whatever? Um, so it was a lot less stressful, frankly, um, because I did all of the stress pieces well before the actual event hit.

Kirsten:
So I could actually enjoy my event. I could enjoy interacting with my participants in my Facebook group. And I was also really surprised at how many people ended up jumping in. I had kind of expected maybe five or six people with most of them being family members, because that's how my family rules, but I ended up with 25 people now. I knew all of them. Only one of them was someone I hadn't known before, but each of those 25 people walked away with something tangible that, that aha moment. And I walked away with like 10 new email addresses. And for me that's a huge, like a huge deal, uh, because my list is right now at about 65. So that was a big deal for me, um, which I'm excited. Like I'm going to do it again. I can't wait. I'm going to do it again in the new year. So I'm hoping to get, ideally even more participants and double the amount of email addresses as a result.

Michelle Leotta:
Good. And I wanted to ask you about that. What happens when you run it again? But hold on that for just a second. Um, you mentioned that you had people jumping into a Facebook group and interacting with you and that you had way more people than you expected again, doing like the most simple thing in the world. So I've just, I love that because I'm sure someone's thinking, well, gosh, like what is there to say about drinking more water? Why would anybody even interact over this? It's not interesting enough. It's not giving enough. It's not something enough. I am not enough if I'm not shoving information down their throat every time they turn around. So talk to us a little bit about like, what kind of interaction did you get in the group? And like, what was their feedback?

Kirsten:
Yeah. Um, the, the program itself, I structured it so that each day had a specific water centric challenge. But then on top of that, um, each day would build upon itself. So day one was, you know, drink half your body weight in ounces of water. Day two was, do day one. Plus here's a way that you can add on water to get to that amount. Day three was backing up days two and day one. So it really built upon itself and allowing the participants to just be able to, like you said, not feel like they failed at the end of the day, because all of the challenges from day two day five, we're getting them to day one challenge, which was how are you going to be able to drink enough water to get to you half your body weight in ounces? Um, so there was a lot of positive feedback with that, meaning it's not just we're drinking all this water, but then we're also adding on more water so that we feel like we're just walking around and bloated and full of water.

Kirsten:
But then it's all about just that Facebook interaction. It was share your picture, share your win today, share your trackers. Um, lemon water was one of our days. So here show us what your lemon water was. Did you like it? Did you not like it? What did you, or did you not like about it? So really just having that opportunity for the participants to just jump and know that they're a part of a community and that they're not the only ones doing it. And if they have an off day it's okay, because everybody has off days and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Michelle Leotta:
Again, I think that the winning piece here is how simple it was. Because if you ask these people to, you know, change everything about how they were eating and exercise and do this other thing and, you know, uh, make this recipe and I'll make this recipe, no, go to the grocery store and get goji berries, no, get chia seeds. You know, it's like, it's overwhelming. They don't even know what to write about. They feel like they failed and then they just don't write anything at all. But because you're making it so easy for them to win, like, that's it like, and people are going to hire you because they feel like you help them succeed. Right. Cause they want to succeed. They're not going to hire you if their overwhelming sense is that you help them do nothing and they actually are failing. Right. So I think like that is like, again, how much can you possibly say about water? It's not, it's some sharing like, Oh, I did something and I tried something new. I made it. I just think that's, that's awesome. So for you, from your business perspective, we know that you added 10 new names to your list. The others were already on your list, but you were able to like, presumably build engagement with those. It's always cool to get those people engaged too. What other wins did you experience coming out of this list builder?

Kirsten:
I think for me, it was just the fact that I could do this. I've never done something that was as structured as it was. Um, with daily emails being scheduled and daily Facebook posts being scheduled. Like I said, I'm kind of more as the moment happens and as the opportunity presents itself, so going through and actually like training myself to plan ahead, as opposed to just doing things on a whim was a big win for me. And then just, I don't know, I just get real excited when other people are really excited and everyone walked away with that, that aha moment that learning and that's really why one of the reasons why I got into health coaching was to be able to help people get to that, to that learn about themselves, whether it's, they're going to learn that they, yes, you can actually drink water and feel good or yes, you can actually get through a challenge that you didn't think you could. So, I got that sort of happy, glowy feeling. And then being able to have people talk about what I did and talk about it in a positive way, which led to more people referring me out and saying, Oh, I did this with Kirsten. You should really try this. And next time she does it, it was really great. Plus it was free. So, just being able to sort of spread that, that word of now,

Michelle Leotta:
That is terrific. I love what you said about that. Happy, glowing feeling. Cause like, I think we've all experienced that even, you know, working with a client, you can, you can have like that session, you get that happy, glowing feeling because they're doing so well and it just feels so good. And so, and you exuded that feeling when you came into our Facebook group and you were talking about your experience. I was like, I can feel this woman's energy through the screen. You were buzzing with the good feels. And like, I know, yes, we are here to make a profit. We are here to do good in the world, but like we're also here because we want to be in a career that makes us feel good. Right,

Kirsten:
Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. I got into health coaching because I wanted to be able to help people. Like I, my health journey has been just step-by-step, it's been a long journey. Um, but I wouldn't have it any other way. And I want people to understand, especially my group, the group that I work with is mompreneurs healthy and being healthy. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing, but it also doesn't have to be as time-consuming as people make it out to be. It can be as simple as adding water to your day.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. I mean, and as a mompreneur myself, I will tell you that that is sometimes a difficult thing to do because I'm on a Facebook live for hours on end doing things like this. I'm talking to clients I'm so busy and I'm in my office. I don't even get into the kitchen to eat. So that's how you can take a very simple habit and relate it to whoever your target market is. Right. Make it relevant for them. So that was brilliantly done as well. Okay. So you are planning to do this challenge again, have you already set dates for it?

Kirsten:
I am. I have set dates in my head. I have not advertised those dates. Um, I'm probably going to do my next round in early to mid February.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. Awesome. And I mean, that's a cool time of year cause like every, everybody is cold and it's very dry and your hands are cracking. It's a good time to talk about hydration. Right. What might you do differently this time around in order to boost your numbers?

Kirsten:
Partners. I listened to the person who was talking on your podcast last week. Yes, Abby. Yes. And, um, for me, I did basically everything on my own, but I would love to be able to get more partners, um, and get more sort of FaceTime face value in front of those individuals. Um, so that I can actually welcome. I would like to get like 30 different people into my next round, so, and have his ID 5% of them be new people.

Michelle Leotta:
Awesome. Okay. And so we're thinking about mompreneurs, what, and I'm asking everybody, who's listening too just like where, and I'm asking you, where will you find a partner that's going to help connect you with mompreneurs? Do we have thoughts?

Kirsten:
I do. I do. I have a friend of mine who, um, has also participated in some of my random challenges, as well as the water challenge. She owns a, a woman's physical therapy company. Uh, so I'd like partner with her. I don't know how quite yet. Um, my struggle there is what she going to get out of it because she has a much bigger client base, um, and sort of presence online as well. So I'm having to sort of think through so that it's not feeling like a favor, but I'm also not, um, ashamed to cash in a favor if I need to. Um, and then I have, um, the fitness group that I used to work for, that I used to teach for. Um, I'd like to partner with the owner of that as well because that's in front of moms. Um, it's not as big as the physical therapy group, but it's still an opportunity. So...

Michelle Leotta:
I like it. And then you could think about things like the small business association or a mompreneur groups on Facebook or all these places where it's not just women and moms congregating, but it's the entrepreneurial ones who are congregating. And I know there are a ton of groups like that. Of course you can usually cannot just throw out your, your promotional thing on a Facebook group, but it's always worth reaching out to the admin of these types of groups and asking politely, like, is this something that you think would benefit the group? Would you like to be a part of it? You know, again, finding that win-win for them to be included. And then you may find yourself in front of tens of thousands of women who fit your target market.

Kirsten:
That's exciting.

Michelle Leotta:
We love the sound of that. That's so good. Okay. So that's in the promotion. Is there anything you would do differently executing the event, you know, once people are signed up?

Kirsten:
I think, gosh, I don't... Maybe I would tweak my content a little bit, but I was really happy with it. Um, and I got good feedback on it. So in that, in that realm of simplicity, I just want to, I just want to roll with it, you know, and, and if I feel like something just doesn't sit right, then maybe updating it. But I feel like the content that I provided was valuable and I got the feedback that it was valuable. So I'm just going to roll with that.

Michelle Leotta:
That's awesome. And that's another way to keep it simple. You guys do it once and then reuse it, reuse it, right? Yeah. There's no reason to reinvent the wheel. Thank you so much for sharing with us today.

Kirsten:
Oh, thank you.

Michelle Leotta:
All right. You guys. So I hope that was helpful to hear about Kirstin story. Even a challenge can be done in a very simple way. Just have your participants focus on doing that one thing, keep your materials to a minimum plan in advance. So you're not feeling chaotic and keep it short. So you can go out on a high note, right on day five. People should still be going. I like this. I want to do more of this. I E why don't you be my client, as opposed to like letting it go on for weeks and weeks. And they're kind of bored by the end and going, Oh, this is really dragging. So that's one example of a simple list builder that you can do. I want to just give you a couple of other ideas again. So simple. How about a checklist that would be helpful for your target market?

Michelle Leotta:
How about a quick start guide of some kind a quiz? These would all be a PDF format. Something that they could simply download only a few pages long. We're not talking about a hundred page PDF here. We're talking like four or five pages. It doesn't get much more simple than that. Uh, we love recipe books. That's another thing the health coaches often give out as freebies. And those can, if you let them, they can take a lot of work. If you are creating your own recipes from scratch, doing the photography, doing the recipe testing and all the rest. I used to do those. It took forever, but these days it's so nice because we have that clean life, which is a meal planning and recipe, book creation service. If you haven't heard about it already, they got all kinds of recipes for all kinds of diets.

Michelle Leotta:
And within minutes, literally minutes, your recipe book can be done. So if that's of interest to you, I just wanted to toss that out there as an opportunity. You can check them out at healthcoachpower.com/tcl stands for That Clean Life. Um, what else? You can do a short e-course. And when I say eCourse, that sounds crazy. But what if I told you all an eCourse would be, is a series of five emails. Like each day participants are going to get an email from you. No big whoop, right? That's it, it's just an email. So whatever you're teaching, you can break it up into five emails and just send one each day. So simple. I can't even nine times out of 10. What happens is health coaches. Over-complicate everything about their marketing. So I'm hoping that today you can see how simple can actually be better not to mention.

Michelle Leotta:
You'll actually get it done. If it's simple and you won't drive yourself crazy and it can really be more effective that way. We have Samantha saying that when she ran a challenge and she's also part of our HPU group, she grew her list by 23 people.

Michelle Leotta:
And Missy saying, thank you for sharing. I think this is to you, to Kirsten's story. And thank you for sharing. This is so encouraging. I hope so. That's what we're here for to show you that real coaches are doing the work and it's not like make a million dollars overnight. Like that's not what this field is about, but with slow, steady effort, you do grow your business grows. You can be very successful and there is a lot more from where this comes from. Join us to multiply your mailing list without using paid ads. My free training gets released on December 27th and you can sign up now at healthcoachpower.com/listbuild. We'll see you there. Take care, everybody.