Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hi Gorgeous. This is episode number 201 with the wonderful LeeAnn Marie Webster.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [0:09]
Hi, this is LeeAnn Marie Webster and you are listening to the Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:15]
I’m so looking forward to the conversation with LeeAnn because a friend of ours introduced us because she listened to both of our messages knowing that I have heart cells and Leanne has email with heart and that this must be going very well together. So I’m super pumped to have LeeAnn on the show today. She helps entrepreneurs to build, grow and nurture their email lists. And yeah, I can’t wait to dive in. Also, she has a special hobby, being a runner and a triathlete who recently actually completed her first full Ironman and we are going to talk about this as well, and what this has to do with marketing and sales. So enjoy this episode and tune right in. Well, I’m so excited to have you on the show today, LeeAnn.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [1:03]
Thank you. I’m super excited to be here. I can’t wait. This is so close to my heart.

Christine Schlonski [1:08]
I know. This is so fun. It took us a while to actually figure out how to get you out of my calendar. And you are about marketing e-mail with heart. When a friend of ours introduced us, and she told me what you’re about, I was like, “OMG! I got to get her on the Heart Sells! Podcast. This is such a perfect match.” Tell us a little bit, why with heart?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [1:40]
Well, I created this, it’s kind of my ideology. It’s my perspective on email marketing. This email with heart. The reason I created it was because I really wanted people to get present to what emailing is all about and I want to change the conversation around email marketing. Because I feel that too often, the conversation is, how do I build the biggest list with the most people and then just pummel pummel, pummel, pummel them with messages until they buy something. That doesn’t really honor the fact that there’s a person on the other side of the email address and that it’s a relationship that you’re building. While that might drive results, that doesn’t get you the best results.

Christine Schlonski [2:23]
Yeah. And I’m a total believer that selling with heart, from the heart is just making the biggest difference because heart sells!

LeeAnn Marie Webster [2:33]
Heart Sells! Yeah. I did also turn it into an acronym. It also walked through all the pillars that I believe are important in email marketing.

Christine Schlonski [2:40]
I just love that and I’m happy to go there so people can catch on to what they should be looking for. So they make sure the message and send an email with heart. It’s really for entrepreneurs to show them to build, grow and nurture the email list not just seeing it as a list right there. People like human beings, in your list, in your tribe, and you want to make sure that you take good care of them.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [3:11]
Exactly!

Christine Schlonski [3:12]
So what’s your heart principle about?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [3:16]
Well, I think that it is an acronym. I can walk you through all of it and then we can talk about each one if you want. The ‘H’ stands for how. How people get on your email list, very important. I’ll come back to that in a minute. That’s a very big thing for me. And the ‘E’ is for having engaging content. The ‘A’ is for speaking in your authentic voice. The ‘R’ is for consistency, regularity, having regularity with how often you communicate with your list. And the ‘T’ is for technology, leveraging technology, both in terms of the words that you use and understanding the numbers that you can get through your technology platform.

Christine Schlonski [3:54]
Yeah, I love that. So why is it so important to know how people got on your list?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [3:59]
Well, let’s look at this. I used to not talk about this because I thought it was really obvious. And then I learned that it’s actually not very obvious. The people who, here’s the thing we all buy from people we know, like and trust. And I think everyone’s pretty familiar with that. And I know your audience believes that. And so if you’re not careful, if you’re not permissively, adding people to your list, what happens is they know you, but they don’t like you and trust you. And that means they won’t become a client. And so the best way for me to talk about permissibly getting people onto your list is to talk about what it looks like to not permissively get people onto your list because I think that’s where there’s sometimes a little bit of gray area. For example, I think this has happened to all of us. We’ve gone to a networking event, and we’ve met someone. Yeah, I can see your face. The thought of it. You pat, you exchange card, right? And then all of a sudden you’re on their email list. That’s not permissive. That’s just like, that kind of scrounging everything apart.

Christine Schlonski [5:12]
It’s totally not GDPR confirm, right? We’ll do that stuff. You should not be marketing.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [5:20]
Not be doing that. I mean, it’s yeah, it’s illegal. It’s GDPR. It’s not compliance. Also, spam. In the US, the can-spam act. But even more, than it is illegal. It’s freaking annoying. If your whole goal and growing your list is to build your business and to generate clients and revenue from it, that’s not the best way to do it. It’s a horrible way to do it. And because those are the people usually when I talk to them, they say, “Well, the email doesn’t work.” And I’m like, “Yeah, cuz you’re not doing it right.”

Christine Schlonski [5:55]
You have to deliver value. People need to be inspired. I Just love it. Sometimes you send an email and you kind of, maybe you shared something you haven’t shared before, you’re not quite sure. Then people respond back. It’s like, it’s so wonderful when I read emails like totally agree or I have a similar situation. It’s just so wonderful to receive messages back so you know that you served in the right way.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [6:24]
Exactly, exactly. And people do that. So interesting, someone responded to one of my emails, just last week, and he said, “I know this is written to multiple people. I know, it’s written to a limp, but it still feels very personal to me. And I really appreciate that.” And then he went on to say, “You know, I don’t know if I can use your course, but maybe I could, um, do you take like investments? Like, let’s have a conversation about that.” And then he said, “And by the way, I’m thinking of having you come in and speak to my team in Chicago or in Palo Alto.” So there’s a speaking agreement that might come from it or speaking engagement and so it was fascinating to me that just because I’m being conscious of how I’m writing and I’m keeping that personal connection and delivering value. There are three things that might come from that, which is amazing.

Christine Schlonski [7:12]
Yeah, totally agree. I think what was one challenge for me was how often do I email my list? I had an interesting experience, just at the beginning of this year, actually, where I partnered up with someone to help promote their product, which I really believed in. And interestingly, I’m, during that period of time, I almost emailed every single day. And I was really surprised how well my list took that.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [7:47]
Wow, okay.

Christine Schlonski [7:49]
Some people left the list and I thought, “Well, if you cannot just delete it because I think it’s amazing value for you, then you might not be right on my list.” But it was really interesting to see because that was one of the things I was so afraid of like, how often can I email? But if you still deliver value, I think you can email a lot without being afraid.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [8:15]
Right. Well, it all depends on the content. You said a couple of things. There are a few very interesting things about your story. One is, um, before you were doing that almost every day, how often were you emailing?

Christine Schlonski [8:27]
Before, like, once a week I have the empowerment notes. The same day, same time. If I have some special announcements or something, I might throw in another email. Like six emails a month or something.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [8:47]
Wonderful. What’s important about that is you’re being very consistent before and delivering a lot of value before. Then when you were promoting and sending it a little bit more, your list was open to it because they just trust you, because you’re not doing that all the time. You didn’t go from like, you know, six times a month to 12 times a month, or whatever. There’s a relationship that got built up there for people who are more than open to your message and what you’re saying. What I find is that often for this interval questions I get asked this all the time, and is that sometimes people out of kindness, out of not wanting to spend too much go to the opposite end of the spectrum, and they only send once a month, and they do a newsletter. And it’s like, oh, and then they feel the need to put all this content in there because since it’s only once a month, they want to have it be very valuable. That ends up backfiring for a couple of reasons. One is, once a month is not enough. People, if they don’t hear from you consistently, then what happens is when that email comes in, they’re like, “Who is this? Did I sign up for this? I don’t know what this is.” That’s when the unsubscribe rate will go up, the spam rate actually goes up in that instance. Then also if you’re sending all this content because you’re like, “I want it only once a month and I want to make sure there’s all this great stuff in there.” Then people open it and they go, “Oh, this is a lot to read. I’ll come back to it.” Nobody’s ever like gone back to an email, rarely, rarely. What I find is, a better strategy is exactly what you’re doing. Once a week, very consistent. Delivering content that’s really, that your audience wants to hear. Keeping it short and keeping it on one topic per email. It’s like deliver that content and if you have other stuff, you can send that in a different email but not trying to cram it all in.

Christine Schlonski [10:48]
I guess I have some potential to make it better. Because I do have, I have a topic and then I also have the updates on the podcast at the lower end. So people see the little video, they have the design, the cover art of the podcast and the short bio of the person who spoke and the links to connect. But I also thought about that. That could actually be an extra email, as a different email at a time to not overwhelm people.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [11:21]
Totally, totally. And to get them to focus on what you want them to focus on.

Christine Schlonski [11:25]
Yes, totally agree. Awesome. What else do people do that’s not supporting growing their email list in a heart-centered way?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [11:40]
My ‘A’ for heart, speaking in your authentic voice. From that I mean, coming through with who you really are and really connecting with your audience. What I find is that sometimes people and they can have someone write their content for you. I know that there are people out there and they get tripped up on what to say. They’re like, “Oh, just hire a copywriter”, or there are templates that they’ll buy from someone. What happens is that ends up being not in their voice and it ends up being, it ends up feeling like a mismatch. What happens then is the audience sometimes they can’t articulate it. But sometimes it’s something just feels off and it doesn’t feel right. And you’re like, “I don’t know if this is what I really signed up for.” And it creates that little bit of a distance. Whereas, if you can, and instead, you don’t have to write your own content, but if someone else is going to write your content for you, you need to make sure they can speak in your voice and that you’re editing it to make sure that it sounds like it comes from you. Just being really conscious of like, who are your people? What do you want to say to them? How can you connect with them? How can you make it a little more personal? How can you tell a story? How can you talk about a client? How can you relate to them in a way that that is going to be a little more direct than just very like, you know the business, business, business, businesses, buy, buy, buy, buy.

Christine Schlonski [13:02]
Yeah, totally. Yeah, that should not have the feel of buy, buy, buy but also you want to make sure that you nurture your list and you also make some offers from time to time.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [13:13]
For sure. For sure.

Christine Schlonski [13:15]
That’s how you get to serve the people. So what would you recommend? Is there like a good email structure? Because you said like, focus on one thing. Like if I’m starting out and I do not really know about email marketing, I might be just building my list. I have a handful of people, maybe to my mom, my dad. I know so many people study out like this. They have like, family on their email list. That probably not buying from them. But what can people do so it feels good and they also have this list as a tool to grow their business?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [13:54]
Yeah. This actually falls under my ‘E’ for engaging content. Here’s the thing, first of all, always sit with everything you’re doing. I think, frankly, in your business, but especially with your email, sit in the space of your ideal client. Who is that person that you love to work with? That you wish you had hang out? Who didn’t light you up and you light them up and you’re like, “Wow like I just really….. This is juicy, juicy. This is why I got into business?” Sit in that person’s mind and think about, “What does that person need? What is he or she looking for? What’s he or she struggling with? What problem does he or she have that I know I can help them with?” Start from that place because that’ll drive your content. The other thing is, content is everywhere. It doesn’t have to be the Magna Carta. It doesn’t have to be this you know, dun dun dun, most amazing email ever written in the world. It can really simple. It can be an invitation to an event that you’re speaking at. It can be a podcast interview that you were on, it could be a tool that you use in your business that you know your clients can use. It can be a link to an article that’s really interesting. And it could be a quote that you love, and you send the quote, you pull an image off of, you know, the internet, or create your own meme and Canva and put why you like this quote. It could be a book that you read. Today, yesterday, 10 years ago that has transformed your life. It doesn’t have to be, people often put content like in this box, and there’s great content in a lot of different places.

Christine Schlonski [15:44]
Yeah, and that’s something everybody has probably to discover for themselves, what they like, what they love to post, what they love to write about. As you said, don’t overcomplicate it.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [15:57]
That’s what a lot of people do. They think it’s got to be this thing. I do a lot of planning with my clients. I do a lot of, I like to keep them 90 days planned out for their content but I had one woman who just, she hired me at the end of the year to plan for the entire year. She was like, “I don’t wanna do a 90 day. I’ll do the whole thing.” And we did it. The course of, I think an hour for an entire year. She was shocked at how easy it was. I have a system that I walk people through, but it’s also just because the content is everywhere, you can get inspiration for it everywhere. If you can just plan out a little bit, a year with a lot, and I myself only do about 60 days, 60 to 90 days. And the other thing that’s interesting on this note too is, looking at just other sources. I, for example, I watched Marie Forleo. I don’t know if you know her, pretty well known. I also love the Skimm. Are you familiar with the skimm? Like a daily email. It’s fantastic skim with two M’s, I recommend checking it out. It’s just a Monday through Friday debrief of like what’s going on in the world. So it’s meant to skimm on your commute. I love it. It’s crappy the way it’s written. It’s I don’t watch the news. I don’t read papers, but I checked my Skimmbecause then I kind of know what’s going on. And then if I want to find out more. Marie Forleo interviewed the founders of the skim to talk about why they picked their distribution method as being email instead of being social media. It was a great interview. They talked a lot about email marketing, why it’s important, you know, all these things. So I pulled a couple of quotes out of it. And then I just sent that to my list, because I thought, “It’s a third-party endorsement of my point of view. And it’s an interesting interview, and I love the Skimm and I love Murray, and it was super easy content”, quote-unquote, for me. So nice giveaway and for them to go get something a little juicier, but that I didn’t have to write, and there’s stuff like that all over the place.

Christine Schlonski [18:05]
Yeah, totally agree. And you know, sometimes just a short quote is gonna make somebody stay. We have to know that. I have many days that are made so much better by reading the right quote at the right time, consider that inspiration.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [18:23]
Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [18:24]
Awesome. So what does heart sell mean for you?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [18:30]
It means being conscious of that relationship. But it also means, um, it also means tapping into that heart-centered part of myself to make sure that what I’m selling and who I being is there in alignment. Make sure that I’m coming from that space of, how can I connect more with my clients? Not how can I get them to buy more, which by the way, I want to make sure I’m really clear, there’s nothing wrong with selling and there’s nothing wrong with building your business. And there’s nothing wrong with making offers. There’s nothing wrong with making money. And I think as women, we need to own that this is a good thing, the good more women have more money, and we’re going to do it in a way that feels really good, both for us and for our clients. That means what heart sells mean.

Christine Schlonski [19:26]
Yeah, I just, I just love that. And it’s so true. It’s so important that you do grow your business. That you make a ton of money because, with money, there’s a tool. It’s energy. You can use it for other amazing things that you can’t use if you don’t make the money. I think it’s really important and it also shows you how many people you have served and what kind of level. Like how deep did you get to take them. I’m a total believer that the higher ticket stuff, people will go deeper than when they buy the low-end ticket.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [20:07]
For sure.

Christine Schlonski [20:08]
They didn’t go that deep. There might be exceptions. I totally agree with that. Depending on the mindset but in general, I’ve seen that. There’s a difference if I paid $1,000 or $20,000. Now I value things differently. That’s the energy of money. I just love that. Make sure your business really thrives, you make the money because then you have a bigger impact and with a bigger impact you can do more amazing things.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [20:41]
Exactly.

Christine Schlonski [20:43]
To help everybody who’s tuning into this podcast, you have a wonderful gift for us, Email With H.E.A.R.T. Starter Kit, I just love that. Tell us a little bit about it. And obviously, all the links will be in the show notes, but where can people find it. If they need to type it into Google right away.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [21:04]
Right away get to you. You can do http://www.emailwithheart.com that’s the easiest way to get to it. And this is a great starter kit. It’s me, and it’s got, I think six videos, it walks you through my whole email with heart process. And then there’s a couple of really cool infographics, what I want to call it, like guides that go with it that helps you understand the structure that I work with all my clients on and there’s also a really fun one in there that is about and this, can I add someone to my email list? Because going back to that question, I realized as I was in conversation with people that sometimes some people had questions about that. Some people said, “I have a member directory, can I just download them?” I was like, “No, no, no, no, no, no.” So this outlines a lot of different situations. So if you’re not sure it tells you whether you can or can’t. It also gives you some instructions on what you can do instead so that you can remedy it. It’s really cool.

Christine Schlonski [22:08]
Awesome. Well, thank you so, so much. I’m really looking forward to. I have a second episode with you. And I have some really cool questions you shared a fun fact with me. So you do not want to miss out on that fun fact that it plays back and what you’re all about. And we will figure that out in the next episode.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [22:28]
Can’t wait.

Christine Schlonski [22:29]
Thank you so much and have an amazing day. I hope you love this episode, Gorgeous, E-Mail with H.E.A.R.T, as much as I did. I took some notes and I obviously had a little extra coaching as you might have realized. It’s really interesting to find out that when you have the right to try. When people are subscribing to your newsletter or in my case, the empowerment notes. You can deliver even more content, you can email more often and people will find value because they know like and trust you. And they also know that if you do a special promotion for someone else, you really believe in their work and you are aligned with it. And if you do some more promotion for your own products and services, it really comes from this place of the heart because you want to serve. And I’m always looking for ways to improve, to deliver more value, to deliver more content, and obviously to make invitations more often so that I can really support you on your way to create a lifestyle and business beyond your wildest dreams by redefining sales. Hop on over to https://christineschlonski.com/ Find the podcast tab. Sign up for the empowerment notes if you have not yet and make sure you connect with LeeAnn Marie Webster. I have all the links to her with just one click away, as well as her wonderful free gift, Email With H.E.A.R.T. Starter Kit and you can just sign up right on this page. By hopping over to https://christineschlonski.com/ Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world and I’m saying bye for now.