Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hey Gorgeous. This is episode number 202. And we have the wonderful LeeAnn Marie Webster back on the show today.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [0:10]
Hi, this is LeeAnn Marie Webster and you are listening to the Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:17]
I’m so super pumped to have another conversation with LeeAnn today. LeeAnn Marie Webster is the creator of Email with H.E.A.R.T. She helps entrepreneurs build grow, nurture their email lists. And a really cool fun fact is that she’s actually a runner and a triathlete who recently completed her first full Ironman event and we are going to talk about this as well. What this has to do with marketing, with sales and how you can be inspired. We are going to talk about the genuine match for saying yes, which is super, super important because you will know who is the right mentor, who is the right coach, who is the right person to work with when you feel their vibe and this is what we’re going to talk about today with LeeAnn and her experience in her own life. As well, we’re going to go deeper some other fun stuff. So really enjoy this episode. And let’s get back to the conversation. I’m so super proud that you are back on the show, LeeAnn.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [1:16]
Thank you. I’m thrilled to be back. That was really, really fun for the first time.

Christine Schlonski [1:21]
I know, I know I just love your Email with H.E.A.R.T. and we talked about what H.E.A.R.T. stands for, all the parts and you shared your amazing Email with H.E.A.R.T. starter kit, which we will talk about at the end of this episode. So you really get your hands on some juicy, juicy stuff that will support all your email endeavors. But what I really want to dive into because you shared that with me as fun fact is that you actually are an Iron Men

LeeAnn Marie Webster [1:53]
finisher. haha yes, I am.

Christine Schlonski [1:57]
Kind of I thinks that kind of translates to the email marketing consistency, authentic, really going for it. It’s like what inspired you to do an Ironman?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [2:12]
Wow. Well, let’s start with just in case somebody doesn’t know what an IronMan is, because I know sometimes people and collapses and the thing. IronMan is a long-form triathlon, it’s a 2.4-mile swim, s 112-mile bike, and a 26.2-mile run, full marathon, all in one day. And so yeah, it’s a bit of an undertaking.

Christine Schlonski [2:35]
Yes.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [2:39]
It’s one of those things. I’m sorry if this is a long answer to your question. I’m gonna try to make it brief, but

Christine Schlonski [2:45]
All good. I really want to know.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [2:50]
I’m 51, I didn’t start running till I was 40. That just happened because I signed up for this obstacle course race. My friend was like, “By the way, it’s an 11-mile course”, and I’m like, “Oh, whatever I can walk in-between”, she’s like, “No, you need start running.” So that kind of started my running adventure and then you know, half marathons, marathons. And at one point, it was like, “Okay, well, maybe triathlon would be a new challenge.” I didn’t know how to swim. So I learned how to swim. Then the same thing happened in terms of distance I did, the sprint distance and the Olympic distance, and I signed up for a half Ironman, which is half of all these distances. What’s interesting is, when I was just running and not doing triathlons, I remember hearing about IronMan and say, “That’s stupid.” Who would even try that? That just is ridiculous. I can not, never. Then I started down that whole path and when I did a half Ironman, and which I had one point that was impossible, I still remember I still get emotional thinking of coming down that finish your shoot for the half Ironman and realizing that I had just done something that I thought was impossible. It really opened my brain to the fact that impossible is by your own definition. It was like, “Where else am I telling myself something is impossible?” After doing a half, it was like, you can’t stop at a half you got to do the full, the happiness part when you did it. So the crazy part is, I did, it was 2013 I did the half and I did attempt the full and I didn’t finish the first time. They’re very strict on time cut-offs, and I missed the bite cut off. So they wouldn’t let me run. It was heartbreaking because I had trained. It never occurred to me that I wouldn’t finish. It literally was not in my brain. Which was interesting, right? There are so many parallels to business. Because you know, we do these things where we tell ourselves to think positively, and we say affirmations. And we focus on what we want to expand. And when I was going through that training, I was like, “I don’t even need to know the cutoff time because that’s not going to be an issue for me, because I’m not going to worry, I’m not going to put that in my brain.” Well, then I start getting close on the race day, and then all of a sudden, my brain is like, “Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my god.” It really was a shock to my system not finished. My three year off, and then I came back, and I trained harder. This time, I knew what the cut-offs were. This time I focus differently, mentally on what to do. This time I finished.

Christine Schlonski [5:50]
Oh, awesome. Congratulations. What a great story and so relevant for business. So thank you for sharing this. You said so many wonderful things in that story, which obviously relates to the story, but also relates to the rest of life.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [6:09]
So many lessons.

Christine Schlonski [6:10]
You learned swimming after you were 40, you said you learned swimming, and I like, “What? Why would not learned that as a child?” but obviously there are children that don’t learn how to swim as children.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [6:22]
Well, and to clarify, I knew how to not drown. I knew how to get across the pool, but I didn’t know how to do it properly with your head in the water.

Christine Schlonski [6:35]
It’s what you said like we have the mindset is really holding us back. I see that over and over and business with heart-centered, impact-driven entrepreneurs who have a really hard time asking for money, asking for the sale. If I’m saying asking you can also say like, usually it’s just an invitation. We don’t need to overcomplicate it, just invite the right people at the right time, so that you can serve them.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [7:10]
Absolutely, absolutely. My business coach has, and she calls the sales of service. We have this wonderful story about how we connected. It was really interesting when I first started working with her six years ago and I spoke with her and I didn’t have the money for what she was selling. Instead of, she could have said like, “Okay”, with what a lot of us do, “You don’t have the money, okay” She knew at that moment like she knew she could help me and she said she never felt stronger before that call with anyone. She knew she could help me and I knew it too. Like I loved her. I love what you’re offering and I knew she was the next best step for me. It’s just, at that moment, I literally did not have the cash and so she sat on the phone with me and we brainstorm how I could make the money and how I could make it happen fast. We got off the phone and within 48 hours, the money appeared that I needed to go take her course. I’ve been with her for six years. I mean, it’s just —

Christine Schlonski [8:19]
Oh, I love that.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [8:21]
When we talk about that from the sales perspective, like that’s it. It wasn’t hard-selling me. She wasn’t making me feel guilty or using those close tactics. It was she genuinely knew she could help me. She really wanted to help me. I genuinely knew she could help me. I really wanted to work with her. We said, “How can we make this happen?” And I’m so glad that we did that because it would have been easy for me to walk away and not have a transformation and I had a transformation just by having someone kind of stand there with me, and then help me work out the logistics of it.

Christine Schlonski [8:54]
Yeah. That for me is like the heart sells. That you really care about the other person. That it’s not just a number of shitty business.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [9:05]
And she didn’t discount her price. She didn’t say, “I’ll give it to you for free.” She didn’t do those things that sometimes, but I’ve done that before. When I was starting out before I started working with her. “I really want to help you and I know you can’t really, I’ll take that off”, that doesn’t really serve you and it doesn’t really serve the person.

Christine Schlonski [9:26]
Yeah, it totally does not serve the person. I think that’s really, really important learning.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [9:31]
Yeah!

Christine Schlonski [9:32]
Because if you really put all your efforts in and you are, you’ve made the decision, it’s really, there’s no other way and coming up with a solution. You have a different shift and transformation than if somebody just all of a sudden discounts you.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [9:49]
Absolutely, absolutely.

Christine Schlonski [9:52]
Yeah. What a great story. What was the very first thing that you ever sold in your life?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [10:01]
That’s a great question. My very first little entrepreneurial journey was when I was in, I have to think about the grade, I feel like it was around fifth grade. I sold flavored toothpicks.

Christine Schlonski [10:19]
That’s a special one

LeeAnn Marie Webster [10:23]
We used to go into the pharmacy, there used to be these little, jar, not jars, little bottle of, mini bottles of oil, flavored oils that were edible, so peppermint and cinnamon, whatever. I would soak toothpicks in there. I remember I had, I don’t, I have thrown it away, which is sad, but I remember making a little brochure at one point. They were a penny a piece, but it was like10 for a nickel or something like that. I had a little brochure of all my different flavors. I was doing pretty well. Then the school decided that it was not good to have someone selling toothpicks, sharp instruments on the bus. So the man shut me down.

Christine Schlonski [11:10]
Is that true? But I mean, what a story, how creative! I was like, “I’ve never heard about flavored toothpicks”, but well, I guess you invented them. So anybody listening here is an opportunity out of something amazing. I love that. How did you feel when you receive money? Do you remember the first kid you sold a toothpick to?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [11:41]
I don’t remember the first one that is sold. But I know that it felt good to be generating my own money. I grew up very poor. I learned very early on that if I needed something, I wanted something that I was the one who was going to, need to provide for that my family was not providing. I think that’s, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” I think that’s why I cooked up the toothpicks. I don’t know that it was the best business model.

Christine Schlonski [12:14]
But it worked, right? If you wouldn’t have sold it on a bus. It is a little bit about location, right?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [12:25]
I was getting a bus to school. I felt like there’s an opportunity, the captive audience.

Christine Schlonski [12:33]
I think that’s a cool story. Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing that. It also shows like if you are creative, if you fulfill a need, obviously, there was the need for toothpicks, but you elevated the toothpick by giving it.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [12:50]
That’s right.

Christine Schlonski [12:53]
I think that’s pretty cool. Is there any advice like that you would give to someone tuning in that has a little bit of a hard time in their business? Is there anything that when you look back, any advice or experience that you can share today that made a huge difference for you?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [13:16]
Yeah, I’m having a lot actually. How much time do we have?

Christine Schlonski [13:21]
I mean if you’re not in business for three months, you probably have stories and help you.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [13:31]
I think the biggest one is to, I wouldn’t say this the best way. I think there’s a sweet spot in having a vision for what you want your business to be, and for moving towards that, you need to be in action and moving towards it. Being open to what actually is coming and happening and paying attention to that and not in the, “I’m going to get distracted by shiny objects”, kind of way, but more in the, “Who am I being called to be? Is that something I really want to be and step into?” I’ll give you by way of example, the first iteration of my business. I’ve been in business for eight and a half years now. The first iteration was called, Busy Girl’s Guide to Running. It was to be a motivational coach for women runners because I started running when I was 14. And I felt there are other professional women out there who don’t want to be like a star athlete, but they might want to do this. I went out and I built my website, and I went out of marketing. And people kept coming up to me and say, “Wow, yeah, I’ve been on your website. I love how you enter your name and your email and you get that video series.” It was a lead magnet. It’s a way to get people on your list like we talked about in the first episode, the how, that was how you execute the how in H.E.A.R.T. What happened was, after a year, and no running clients, unfortunately, but I organically had all these business clients with people that would help set up their email structure. Set up their lead magnets and put all this together. I was like, “All right. I don’t care. I’m not attached to how you with the running.” But I am attached to helping people create a business that works for them and helping them be passionate about it. Helping them set up a system in a way that makes sense. So I’m totally down with switching what I’m doing and it’s now ultimately become my entire focus.

Christine Schlonski [15:22]
Yeah, I love that, just being open. I think it’s important to be open to possibilities. Then at the same time, and that makes it maybe a little bit more complicated or difficult not to fall for the shiny objects.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [15:37]
Right.

Christine Schlonski [15:39]
Because it’s gonna distract you. I’m definitely not free from the shiny objects. From time to time again, I’d like, “Oh, I really need this now because I have this vision”, and you might not follow through the way you thought because you are not ready yet.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [16:00]
Right.

Christine Schlonski [16:03]
So, um, yeah, focus. Tell us a little bit about focus, like what happens when people actually start to focus?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [16:11]
Well, I think that’s where the magic is. Interestingly because in many ways you don’t have to do a lot of things to have a really successful business, you have to just do a few things really well. If you focus on who you’re serving, you focus on how you’re serving them, and you focus on the activities that help you connect with them. That’s it, that’s the business.

Christine Schlonski [16:39]
Then you have a business, right?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [16:40]
You have a business and if you instead get sidetracked in, got to have the right logo, and I’ve got to have the right website and I’ve got the right lead magnet and I’ve got to go to this networking meeting and I’ve got to go try to speak over here and then I’ve got to have a podcast and I’ve got to do a tell summit and I’ve got to get on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn. There’s no way you can do all of those things wonderfully. But if you can, like hone in, to like, what do you love to do? How do you love to show up and get your basics down? Then you can focus on maybe speaking for a while. Then once you get that down, then you can focus on Linked-In, if that’s where your audience is, and then you get that down. And you can focus on Instagram, like, just, how to eat the elephant, one bite at a time. Don’t try to be everything and all over the place if you never. The truth is, we can’t multitask. We think we can multitask, but we’re really not good at multitasking at all and you don’t get nearly as much done if you just focus on little chunks along the way.

Christine Schlonski [17:39]
Yeah, I agree. Then when you build your business, obviously, you can build a team and a team can support you.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [17:45]
Yes, and actually, if you don’t mind, I’ll throw a little IronMan parallel in there. I’m actually working on a new keynote. I’m already talking about IronMan and entrepreneurship. This has come up. In the triathlon, in any length distance triathlon, especially in that long-form Ironman distance, the best thing is to focus on, you can only focus on one aspect of it at a time. When you’re swimming, swim. It doesn’t do you any good when you’re swimming to be worried about the bike and the run. When you’re biking, no good to worry about what happened in the swim and worry about the run that’s coming up. But if you can focus on biking, whatever with the biking, that’s it, get to the run, the same thing. businesses like that, you know, you can’t do all of them at the same time, though, focus on what makes the most sense and then let everything else fall into place.

Christine Schlonski [18:44]
Yeah, yeah. Sports is such a great teacher for business.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [18:48]
Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [18:52]
What do you, I mean, obviously pushing your limits and finding out that you can do way more than you ever thought you can. How do you keep your life in harmony? Like when you have a day that’s not that great or in your business or in your life? What do you do to get back to your authentic self?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [19:19]
Yeah. Why do you know what you’re talking about because it’s all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns.

Christine Schlonski [19:24]
Exactly.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [19:25]
Every day is perfect. The short answer is, well, I think I have a process that I go through. When something’s off or whatever, I really, I’ve learned this over time, instead of going like, “I’m just going to say some positive affirmations and I’m just going to not think about the thing that’s making me feel sad, or whatever it is, is bringing me down.” I think there’s a line around that. What I do know is I say, “All right, what is it? What is bothering me?”, and I dive in. You’ve gotten to the point now where I can do this pretty quickly. It’s like, “Alright, well what’s bothering me that much bothering me about this. Is it, I don’t like the person? I didn’t like the situation? Did I just not eat right? Did I not sleep well? What’s happening here?” If it’s somebody else, which is often is, somebody else sometimes triggers something and it’s like, “What that triggered? Why am I getting triggered by that?” I either remedy it. It’s like, “Now that I know what it is. How can I move to the other side of it?” That could look like I’m doing some self-care, it could look. I’ve taken a nap sometimes, the bonus of entrepreneurship. Sometimes you just need to go reset for a little bit. It might be that I take a walk. It might be that I get you to really yummy chocolate chip cookie. Sometimes that’s the answer.

Christine Schlonski [20:52]
Sometimes it is the best.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [20:55]
The best answer, walk down to the ice cream store, get a scoop, come back, life is beautiful again. I have friends I can call. Friends who are coaches, so not just like a girlfriend. I have a number of people who are really, really good coaches and they are entrepreneurs also and I call on them. Reaching out for help, I think is very important. Can you help me process something? Or can we work through this and often getting somebody else’s perspective helps me understand what my next best step is. Also, I spent a lot of, I’m very focused in the morning on setting myself up on the right foot. That has really helped me have less of those moments or have shorter moments where I feel like things arrive.

Christine Schlonski [21:44]
Yeah. Do you mind sharing your morning routine?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [21:47]
Sure, not at all. I get up and I drink lemon water first thing in the morning, hydrating and vitamin C. And then I meditate for 10 minutes, at least 10 minutes. I’m on like a 420 something days streak by that, with that, by the way. I never was able to meditate before for any length of time and then all of a sudden someone taught me how to do it in a way that like click. So then I meditate. Then I do my gratitude journal. I write everything I’m grateful for that morning and get really present to that. And then I do, Louise Hay power thought cards. I kind of shuffled the deck and I pull out a Thought for the Day. Then I go on exercise. And you’ll notice, by the way, I have not answered any email. I haven’t looked at any of this by the time, exercise, I come home, shower, make breakfast, then I read the Skimm. Then I get into my email. I don’t touch email for usually the first, I would say two and a half, maybe sometimes even three hours that I’m up. And so I can get into second take care of myself first. And then get me in the mindset of what’s going on. What’s important. Now I go do that because I find that email does get me on somebody else’s agenda and ain’t never the one that served me best.

Christine Schlonski [23:06]
Yeah, I totally agree. That’s a wonderful morning routine. I think gratitude is so important. If you are struggling with sales, why don’t you just tune into gratitude and be grateful for the people that are showing up, that have shown up, that will show up because they need your very special gift. Open up that space, that energetic field comes your way.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [23:37]
Yeah, that’s a fantastic point. And I do that when if I am having those moments where it’s like, aren’t what I want them to be or it’s like, “Alright, let me just take a moment”, and just think about this one client that I have who I love. Why do I love her? “I love her because she’s open and coachable. And she’s funny and she gets what I do, and she implements and she’s amazing. And we have some fun on our calls”, like tapping into the gratitude around that. Tapping into that energy that gets created from her always opens me up to someone else like that coming in. Again, being of service. What do I love being of service with her? How can I get 10 more of her? That’s a way more powerful question to ask then. How do I have it and how do I get more clients?

Christine Schlonski [24:28]
Yeah, how do I sell? How do I make more money?

LeeAnn Marie Webster [24:30]
It’s way more powerful to be like, “How do I find another Mary? Here’s why I love, Mary. Where’s my next Mary?” That feels much better to go fine.

Christine Schlonski [24:44]
Yeah, totally. And it will shift your energy and also sometimes, you know, my clients get stuck when they are on that selling journey, that they feel like, “Oh, but I have not sold that before. It’s a new package. I’m not 100% confident If I will deliver the way I think I have to deliver so that everybody is happy.” What they totally forget is that their ideal clients, they are happy with everything you give them.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [25:13]
Totally.

Christine Schlonski [25:13]
Because they don’t have your perspective. Don’t get stuck in, I might not be able to deliver, just deliver and get feedback. then, if you have to adjust, adjust.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [25:25]
Exactly. I firmly believe, that everyone who’s listening, everyone gets drawn into this, is the kind of person who would never under deliver in the sense of would never, say would never be like, “Yeah, thanks for the cash. You’re not going to get what you signed up for.” The people who are drawn into your sphere, in your world and are listening are the kind of people who will say, “I am going to, I’m going to do what it takes to deliver. I’m going to make sure that the client is happy”, you know that and trust that within yourself, then if no worries, and then delivery of it. You’ll figure it out.

Christine Schlonski [26:06]
Exactly. And then when you go into gratitude and you actually think of the peoples you’ve got to serve, that will kind of reaffirm that feeling of, “Wow, I help them to get this transformation.”

LeeAnn Marie Webster [26:20]
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Christine Schlonski [26:25]
To keep in contact with all your amazing people, you obviously need to get them on your email list.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [26:31]
Yes, exactly.

Christine Schlonski [26:33]
The best way to do that is actually Email with H.E.A.R.T. You brought us the starter kit. It’s pretty simple to find http://www.emailwithheart.com Also, it will be in the show notes, on the resource tab. So yeah, tell us about the starter kit.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [26:52]
Yeah. And I’m very excited about it. It’s just a series of videos that walk you through my whole Email with H.E.A.R.T. philosophy and point of view And there are some extra goodies in there and some infographics and some other things to help you actually implement the information that we’ve talked about. And you know, the thing is with your email. And in fact, I don’t even know if I mentioned this on the first one that, you know, email is important because it lets you stay in touch with all of those people in a way that feels good and the way that you own. Those social media platforms are wonderful, but you don’t own them. And so they can change your email list you own. And it’s a direct connection to your people. And what I’ve found is, you know, even when I’m not selling, quote-unquote, selling anything, I often get clients or get referred to other clients, or I get speaking engagements or I get something that happens because of an email because it prompts people. It gets you right in front of their brain and gets you to get them to think about what you do and say, “Oh, yeah, I loved working with her. I got to make sure so and so should know her.” It serves a lot of functionality. Keeps you in touch with people that you do not have time to be talking to you every single day individually. So it’s way more efficient,

Christine Schlonski [28:07]
Totally. You deliver something that they can consume at their own pace, and their own time, and you know, if you do it with heart, then obviously you will send out amazing emails, serving, inspiring, making really great irresistible offers, and really helping your tribe to grow and transform, whatever it is you do and whatever it is they need.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [28:30]
Absolutely, absolutely and even just for your repeat clients. I got an $8,000 contract the other day because I have a client that I’ve worked with multiple times. And she saw my email and said, “Oh, yeah, I’ve been meaning to call you.” She wasn’t even on my radar for someone that I needed to be following up with them.

Christine Schlonski [28:51]
That’s amazing. Well, thank you so much for sharing. Thank you so much for all the golden nuggets. I just love this conversation. So much fun and thank you so much for having been on Heart Sells! Podcast.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [29:03]
Thank you. I love what you’re up to. And I love what you’re putting out in the world. And I’m super, super excited to help more and more people sell with heart. So thanks for having me.

Christine Schlonski [29:11]
Oh, thank you so much. Bye.

LeeAnn Marie Webster [29:13]
Bye.

Christine Schlonski [29:13]
I just loved all the inspiration from this episode with like, knowing who your right mentor is, following your heart, going for your dreams. As we have seen, LeeAnn started running when she was 40. She then completed IronMan which I think is just amazing, just amazing to see where you can take your body with your mindset. And I feel it’s the same in sales. You can redefine sales and all of a sudden from being afraid or shy or not confident when making offers when selling to becoming a solid sales Rockstar, going for your dreams, making offers with ease, grace, confidence while asking your price and being true to your values. I just love that everything is possible, that you set your mind on and you can create a life and business that you just totally love. Hop on over to https://christineschlonski.com/ Find the podcast app for this episode’s show notes, including the wonderful resources and the free gift that LeeAnn has brought with her, Email with H.E.A.R.T starter kit. And also once you’re over there, sign up for the empowerment notes, join my tribe and receive empowerment right into your inbox and amazing offers and specials that only my tribe gets. Thank you so much for tuning in. Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world. And I’m saying bye for now.