(FYI, this one is from the archives. Sign up for Monday musings to get these in real time.)
Hey friend,
I get the feeling this one is going to be spirally, because in the last ten minutes of grabbing my coffee and settling down in my office it’s mentally gone in six different directions.
I mean honestly though is that any different than any other one I’ve sent you? This is my brand voice LOL.
It’s been a loooong time since I shared podcast recs, so I’m going to put the focus there this week because I’ve listened to some gooders recently.
But first, I want to touch on the importance of having an email list, because guys, Saturday.. ouf. Okay.
Let’s go back.
It’s Saturday morning. 7:37am on the dot, Wes starts his usual ‘moooooom’ signalling that my deepest sleep is now over.
At some point before getting him I shared a Reel of Dave Ramsay (not my favourite) talking about how often entrepreneurs have ADHD – or ADHDers become entrepreneurs? – because we are just always finding work arounds, adapting, thinking critically because we have to work so much harder to function ‘normally’…
Then, my IG stopped loading.
Just spinning wheels, ‘Something went wrong’, over and over.
Throughout the day same same – I closed the app, deleted the app, tried logging in on other accounts, Googled ‘is Instagram down?’ 10 times…
I bounced between ‘it’s obviously down, whatever’ and ‘shit they shut ME down again’ whilst busying myself painting our upstairs hallway and scrubbing the bathroom floors…
When I finally stopped and went to collapse on the couch and mindlessly scroll Reels for the night – 🦗🦗🦗
The alarming thing was, my ‘business page’ (that I never use) was still working fine. My clients page was working fine. Steve’s seemed to be working fine. It was just @millsonandmain.
I kept thinking, I haven’t even be on there much to have posted anything to piss the Meta gods off ??
Then I remembered I was perusing my profile and thought ‘maybe I should change my ‘Digital Creator’ title’, since I don’t think that’s going to be my 2024 focus AND I was curious how it would affect my traffic / algorithm…
… and rather than Product or Service, Entrepreneur, or even Community, you know what I saw and was like that’s it, that’s the one?
Grocery store.
Now, it’s still unclear if that’s what did it, or if it was in fact down (there were reports so I think it was…), I didn’t REALLY panic… Not like last time they actually did shut me down, anyway.
Sure, inconvenient, but I have my other profile with a few followers that could help me find my way back to my circle, and I had you. Yeah, you, you reading this email.
If my IG went *poof*, my entire business wouldn’t crumble.Â
I have several hundred people on my email list, so when I’m like hey, here’s an offer for my services, I’m really not shouting it into the void.
To that note, I’m actually sending it to people that are MORE engaged than probably 7,500 of my ‘followers’ on IG. You ever go through who your following like ‘wow I forgot about them…’
Yeah, exactly.
But here, people are replying to these emails every week.
And if I’m being honest, it’s because this is where the good stuff is. This is where I provide VALUE (even if it’s hidden amongst chaos). This is where I currently have capacity to put effort.
Sure my IG stories are entertaining, what shit show has Meaghan been hit with this week? … Literally do I need my own Chris Harrison ‘THE MOST DRAMATIC DAY WEEK MONTH YEAR HOUR‘ intro yet ??? But they don’t reaaaaally provide you much value.
So anyway, all this to say, have you started your email list yet??
f you’re like ‘Meaghan, I am not writing 15 page emails about painting my ceiling, I sell candles’ that’s cool, I want you to stay on brand (this is a do as I say not as I do moment).
But you know what email lists are great for if you have a product based business? A quick little ‘sign up for 10% off your first order’. (There’s a reason everyone does it LOL.)
I could spiral off there with a whole nurture sequence and why that’s important, but baby steps (or book a Brainstorm Session and we can totally get into it). This is what I want you to do right now:
1. Make your account (I personally love Flodesk but depending on your business there might be better options – you can take your list wherever though, so pick one).
2. Link your sign up form somewhere (your footer, menu, make a pop-up if you feel fancy)
Go, do it now, I’ll wait……
Because the last thing I want is for you to be subscribing to my emails for the last however many months this has been a hyperfocus yelling at you to start building a list *minus the inflection of my voice*, only to have Meta randomly take your entire business down tomorrow because you called yourself a Grocery Store, y’know?
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