76: Efficient Content Creation with Katie Guenther
Lauren Tilden
Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact. I'm your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 76. In today's episode, I'm joined by my friend and Seattle neighbor, email marketing expert Katie Guenther. In this episode, we talked about repurposing, content efficiency and how to make your content work for you. This is a really good one that I cannot wait to share with you. But a couple of things upfront before we jump in.
First, if you struggle with figuring out what to say in your marketing, I have an awesome free resource for you. This free workbook will help you come up with a lot of content ideas your audience will love. Download this resource for free at Laurentilden.co/content. Second, I invite you to join with other values driven small business owners for inspiration, accountability, and lots of business and marketing strategy. We're currently hosting what I call procrastination sessions every other Friday, where you can jump on a zoom co working session with other small business owners and get stuff done. This all takes place in the free Facebook community for this podcast, the Good Business community. The link will be in the show notes or you can head to makinggoodpodcast.com/community to be redirected.
Finally, if you enjoy this podcast, there are a few ways that you can help to spread the love. First, I would be honored if you would leave a review on Apple podcasts or Stitcher to help others find the podcast. And second, take a screenshot while you're listening and tag me on Instagram at @LaurenTilden. I would so love to connect with you and cheer you on. Okay, so let's talk about today's episode.
As I mentioned, my guest today is Katie Guenther. Katie is a no fuss email marketing strategist. She partners with heart centered entrepreneurs to simplify email marketing so they can take their successful businesses to the next level. In this episode, we talked about how to be efficient with your content creation, why it's important to repurpose your content, Katie shares her repurposing workflow and provide some tips and tricks to repurposing.
We talked about approaching content creation between email and other platforms, the power of email marketing and why it's so important for relationship building, and much more. If you love this episode, as much as I loved recording it, I wanted to also tell you about a collaborative one day event that Katie, myself and three of our other small business marketing friends are hosting on September 24. This event called The Content Collab is designed to help you figure out how to approach your content creation. We're covering everything from bighearted marketing, to the customer journey to repurposing content, email marketing, cohesive content and more to get on the waitlist and save your seat, head to the content collab.co Or check out the link in the show notes. Okay, let's get into the conversation with Katie. Katie, welcome to the podcast.
Katie Guenther
Hey, Lauren. Thanks for having me.
Lauren Tilden
I am so excited to have you. We have a lot to talk about. And just for a little bit of context for listeners, Katie and I met over Clubhouse, although we do both live in Seattle. And I have just heard Katie talk so much about so many different small business topics. And we're going to try to dig into quite a few of them today. But this I promise was going to be a very good episode. So stay tuned. Before we kind of dig in and you let me start picking your brain, Katie, I would love for you to introduce yourself, your business and a little bit of your story, like how you came to do what you do now?
Katie Guenther
Sure. Yeah. So I have an email marketing strategy business. It started out as sort of a virtual assistant business. My background is in video production and project management. I love working in the background to help make things work efficiently and make other people's lives easier. So I work with entrepreneurs to help simplify and automate their email marketing so that they can grow their business.
And email marketing is just a key part of your overall marketing strategy. And for me, it's really just like another version of project management. And I love working with small business owners, entrepreneurs, people who want to run a business and also want to have a life. So that's sort of where like the automation and the simplification comes in. So yeah, that's me and my business in a nutshell. Yes.
Lauren Tilden
Okay. So those who have listened to a few episodes of this podcast, at least know that I'm a huge proponent for email marketing, you just mentioned like, it's critical to include email marketing in your overall marketing strategy. Can you talk a little bit about why that is so important? And why? Anyone who may have started their business, and maybe they've set up social media, and you know, they might have some other marketing activities going, but like they're putting off the email side of things. Why should they be prioritizing email?
Katie Guenther
Well, the first reason is, an email list is the only list that you own. You don't own your list of followers on Facebook, on Instagram, if your Instagram or your Facebook account were to get shut down, or I've had clients where they get in Facebook, jail, or Instagram jail, where they can't post, they can't DM anybody, that can't do anything on the app for whatever reason. You don't have any way of reaching out to your customers or clients, and your email list you own. So even if you change platforms, you take that list with you.
The other reason is that statistically, for social media, your followers, only about 2 to 3%, are seeing what you post in their feed, as compared to email marketing, where the average open rate on your email list is a round 20%. It can vary, it can be like 50, 20, 25, I have clients who have like a 50%, open rate. But even at the lowest percentage, it's still astronomically higher than people seeing you on social. So as much as we like social, is more fun, right? It's more you get like that instant gratification of somebody liking and commenting on a post. So it's a little more fun, and you feel like you're getting that instant gratification. Email is more of like a slow burn. But over time, the payoff is much, much bigger. And again, you own it. That's the only one you own.
Lauren Tilden
Yeah, such a good point. And I really liked that you emphasized, just the reach factor. Also, I think, you know, just because you have let's say, let's say you have 1000 followers on Instagram, that doesn't mean that 1000 People are getting all of your content. So if you had even just 100 people on your email list, if a lot of them opened it, that you might actually get more traction with that content than you would have on Instagram anyway. So you actually don't need as big of a list as you might be looking to get in terms of following on a social media platform. So such a good and important point. How would you suggest that people get started with email, I know you have an awesome resource to kind of help people take that first step of figuring out what tool to use. Can you share a little bit about that? And any other kind of let's get started with email ideas that you have?
Katie Guenther
Yeah, definitely. And really, it might seem obvious, but focusing on just picking your platform first is where you want to start. Don't get overwhelmed and like what your strategy is going to be or how often you're going to email or what you're going to say, just start by picking out your platform you're going to work with.
There are a lot of options. So I've created a comparison chart that you can download. And then you'll also be added to my email list. And I think Lauren, are you going to put the link in the show notes? Yeah. It's Bellablue.com/email-platform. And it kind of breaks down some of the most popular email marketing platforms that entrepreneurs solopreneurs, and, you know, small businesses that are just starting that I recommend, because there's a lot that have tons of bells and whistles. But you probably don't need all that. If you have like a retail business, and you're trying to tie all that in. I mentioned the platform that I recommend for that. But most of the platforms that are on that chart, keep things super, super simple, and it's easy to ramp up and learn how to use it. But that's really where you want to start and don't overthink it. Don't spend a ton of time on it. It's one of those things where there's so many options. You just kind of have to go with your gut and pick the one that kind of works with the way your brain works and looks appealing like you. When you look at it. You're like oh yeah, I can do this. If it feels overwhelming, it probably will be so just keep it simple and that I think that chart will really help you.
Lauren Tilden
Yeah, that's a really good point to keep it simple but also just like Don't let this decision stop you, you know, make a decision and move forward. And if you want to switch down the line, you always can, like you have control all the time of your email list, you can add it to whatever platform you switch to. So don't feel like you have to be locked in forever. Most of these tools, or at least the ones I've used are month to month. So you're not necessarily signing up for like a year long contract, if you're paying at all, a lot of them have free plans. So yeah, such great advice there. Let's say we have looked at your handy comparison chart and picked the platform that we want to go with, we've set up an account. What next? I know a lot of people just kind of have this, like kind of blank sense around. How do I even do email marketing? So I have heard you say a lot of really awesome things about this, Katie, so let's tackle it from two places. One is like how do you get people to sign up to your email list? And two, what do you say to them? What kinds of things do you put in your emails?
Katie Guenther
Right? Okay. So again, we're gonna keep this as simple as possible, because this is so easy to get stuck in this place. Like, I don't like, let's say you have some emails, right? People have given you your emails, as soon as you have one person on your email list, you should be sending out emails on a regular basis, whether that's every week, every two weeks, once a month, whatever it is, don't wait.
You want to as soon as somebody has given you their email address, they're already a quote unquote, warm leads, there's someone who's interested in what you have to offer. So make sure you're staying top of mind. If you're starting from zero, which a lot of people are, you want to create some sort of simple incentive for people to want to give you their email address. Nobody wants to just sign quote, sign up for a newsletter. We don't really know what that means. But if you have an incentive, or a lead magnet that you can give someone in exchange for their email that's going to really, really help build that list quickly.
With the subscribers that you want to see. I don't always recommend having like a discount, but sometimes that's the simplest way to start. So if you have a retail website, you can say, you know, you've probably seen them where there's like a pop up, it's like, you know, 10% off your first order, you enter in your email address, that's a really simple and easy way. I usually recommend coming up with some sort of freebie or lead magnet that offers a different kind of value. So maybe something that a list of resources or something that really speaks to your target audience and your ideal client, maybe it's, you know, top 10 swim suit styles for every body shape, or whatever it is, but come up with something that speaks to your people. So you're going to attract the customers and clients that you want.
What that looks like, technically, is once you've signed up for your email marketing platform, you can build a signup form, where it shows up on your website, the platform will give you a link that you can share on social media, in your Instagram link in your captions in your email signature wherever to get people to sign up. And then once they enter in their email address, then you've got them on your list.
The next step, and that is, and most email platforms will have simple templates for you to get started with this is set up an automation so that as soon as somebody enters in their email, hit submit, they get something from you in their inbox, delivering that coupon that freebie that lead magnet and also a warm welcome message. So that as soon as they give you their email they're hearing from you. And then I usually recommend following up with a few emails after that which can also be automated, so that you're building that relationship and building up that know, like and trust factor right off the bat. It sounds complicated, but once you pick the platform and look at the templates and things that they offer for doing those automations it's actually not as intimidating as it sounds. You really just have to take it one step at a time. Does that help Lauren? I feel like it was like a lot of words to make it simple and sounded simple.
Lauren Tilden
So yes, I love how you break it down in terms of like creating content. So what to talk about. We've talked about automations, we've talked about creating, like a reason for people to sign up for the list. But in terms of whatever content we're sending out on a regular basis, so like you say, weekly or bi weekly, I think a lot of people get stuck on, what do I actually put in there?
You know, like, for some reason, to be easier for a lot of people to think about, what do I put on my Instagram post, or in my Facebook posts, or reels, or Tik Toks? Or whatever that kind of marketing, I think comes more intuitively to many people. But the email marketing, I think a lot of people just are like, kind of blank page syndrome with what do I say here? So, what do you have any tips or just things to think about when it comes to, what do you say in your email marketing? Is it all that different from social media? I have my stance on this, I know you do, too. What would you just say to someone who just is feeling a little bit of stuck around what to say in email?
Katie Guenther
Yeah, I think and even I get stuck in this a little bit like I send out a weekly newsletter. And by newsletter, I just mean like it, is it just an email newsletter is just the the term that marketers use, right? It's not like what you picture like, you know, and you get the school newsletter in your backpack when you were a kid, it doesn't have to be like that at all. Yeah, it can be a lot of different things, it can just be a quick note of catching your audience up on something that's happening in your business. It can be, I found this article that I wanted to share that I thought, you know, you would get some value out of, it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be a big, formatted beautiful, with lots of pictures. It doesn't have, don't overthink it, I guess what I'm trying to say is, keep it really simple I, what I tend to do is I have some content buckets or content pillars that I stick with.
So when I don't know what to write, I go back to those. So I talked about time management, I talked about growing your email list, I talked about mental health, I talked about taking time away from work, you know, like outsourcing, things like that. So I'll go back to those buckets. And think, okay, what can I say about taking time off? What can I say about mental health in your business this week. And sometimes it's just like writing a note, it's just reading a letter to a friend, because you also aren't broadcasting your email message. It's something you're sending, if you think of it as you're sending it to your ideal client, you're sending it or writing it to one person, because on the other end, one person is receiving it.
And another thing you can do is if you're already creating content in your business, whether you have a blog, or you have videos, if you can break those up into smaller pieces. So sometimes I'll take one paragraph or one thought, from a blog post, and sort of rework it into an email and send that out. So it doesn't have to be something that you're spending a lot of time on, it doesn't have to be something that you're creating from scratch. It can really just be like I said, like a note or a letter to a friend, who's your ideal client?
Lauren Tilden
Yes, I'm so glad you made that point around. Talk to one person, talk to someone who you feel comfortable talking to don't like, don't default to what you think business communications should sound like with jargon and fancy words like, really be yourself. That is what connects most with people. So I love that you made that point. And I'm so glad that you kind of brought up organically.
The next topic that I really wanted to get into in our conversation, which is repurposing. I know something you talk a lot about is time management. Like you just mentioned. It's one of your content, pillars, and part of time management is being efficient with the content that we create. And I think, when I think about efficiency and content creation, repurposing is the first thing that comes to mind. So for anyone listening who may hear us using the word repurposing content and doesn't know what that means, could you just define that and maybe give an example of how you do that in your business?
Katie Guenther
Oh my gosh, repurposing content is my favorite. And really, what does repurposing mean? It just stopped creating content from scratch everywhere. So when you're creating posts for social media, don't just sit there and write from scratch and then go create a graphic, it's a waste of your time, I prefer to start with a piece of long form content that solidly aligns with my brand, my messaging, my values, my, those content pillars, like we talked about. And then I break that piece of long form content into a bunch of pieces over and over again. And sometimes I even reuse those pieces, you know, six months later, I might just repost a post, I may not even tweak it like, that's not really repurposing, this is more like recycling. But it's, it's taking content you've already made the work you've already done, and figuring out how you can use it again, and that in a little bit different way. Why expend so much energy creating, when you've already done all the hard work, and it saves you energy, it saves you time, and really bigger picture, like we're marketers, so we talk about marketing a lot, but like marketing and content creation are only part of your business. We don't want to spend all of our time there. So repurposing content is so important. It's so important.
Lauren Tilden
Yeah, it totally is. And I love that you mentioned you start with long form content, kind of create one big, really well developed piece of content, and then split that up into a bunch of other places as well. So for anyone listening, what are some examples of long form content? Maybe what is that in your case? What are some other pieces of long form content that people could think about creating? And maybe let's just get really granular? Like, what is one piece of long form content? And what are the actual little things that you would break that up into?
Katie Guenther
Yeah, so for the long form content, I'll usually ask clients like, where do they feel like they shine? Like, where? Where are they the most comfortable? What are they what do they enjoy creating the most? For me, it used to be video, like I could record a video and cover a topic. And maybe I would edit it, maybe I wouldn't, I throw it up on YouTube. And that would be my piece of long form content.
And so from there, I might have it transcribed, turn it into two or three blog posts, so it's broken up once already, then taking those other pieces and taking small video clips of maybe like a really strong point you've made in your video. Or if your podcast is your long form content, breaking that down into things like audio snippets, quotes that can be made into a graphic and creating though like a folder of broken down pieces of content that you can go back to again and again. So six months from now, maybe Lauren, you're having a conversation with somebody else about email marketing, and you go into your folder from content, you create it from this podcast, like a graphic or something and you can share that out without re doing the work.
I think of it a little bit as like mosaics you know how like you have this like china plate that's like the piece you're starting with and you break it up into a million pieces. And then you can kind of use it to make 10 different things in different ways. And some pieces are smaller and some pieces are bigger, but you're not recreating the plate every time you sit down to plan your content for the month. So it really depends where you're most comfortable. Now I'm most comfortable with blog posts, I have somebody that helps me write them so I kind of outline the ideas and flesh out the cons the the ideas and the information that I want people to have and then she helps me make it more blog SEO searchable and all that kind of stuff because I'm not great at that. But that's where I start because then I have written words I can copy and paste and go back to that way.
Lauren Tilden
Right? Yeah, I love that nonstick analogy. That's That's so clever. Another thing you said I just wanted to reiterate to make sure people caught is don't be afraid to reuse content actually. Something I did recently was like just scroll through a bunch of my old posts. And there were some in there that I did not even remember posting or writing or creating the graphic for like, it felt new to me. So if me as the person who created that content forgot about it, even if your audience member didn't see it, the likelihood that they remember it, that they read every word that they would recognize it. Like that's already a very low likelihood, as we talked about earlier in this conversation, we get such a low reach on social as it is. And not everyone is following us in all places.
So if I do a podcast episode today about email, I can post like Katie said, I can post little snippets of this conversation across all my other platforms, Instagram, Pinterest, I can talk about it on Clubhouse, like this content can really work hard for me in a lot of different ways. And that almost like broadens my audience because it's, it's sharing this content a lot wider than if I just recorded this episode, I published it. And then that was it. Like, only the people who listened to my podcast religiously, would be sure to get the content, whereas when I split it up and kind of disseminated across a lot of different platforms, I reach a lot more people with it. So such a good point there. Do you have any like specific tricks or hacks that you use when it comes to repurposing content that you could share with people?
Katie Guenther
Yeah, and you made me just think of one, when you were talking about like, you went back and looked at old posts. Sometimes I'll go back. And actually not sometimes I do this a lot. I'll go back into old Instagram posts, because the insights are really easy to see. And I'll look at what posts got a lot of engagement interaction. And sometimes it's the weirdest posts, and so I'll repurpose, I'll just repost those, I might change the caption, or edit the photo if I feel like it. The one that I have, I have to look and see what's different now. But for the longest time, the most popular Instagram post I had was a picture of my slippers. Like that was really all it was. And I was like, Okay, I guess we're gonna reuse this lens. But I think that, don't be afraid, like you said to recycle those posts over because the people who are following you now, maybe weren't following you, the first time you posted it. And even if they were, they probably didn't see it. Even if they saw it, they probably won't remember. And if anything, it might feel familiar, which isn't bad. It's like watching your favorite movie or a rerun of a show you've seen you might get something from it, you didn't get the first time. So don't worry about it. No one is going to be like, Oh my god, Lauren posted that six months ago, what does she do? No one cares. No one cares. And no one notices. Most people are probably like in the bathroom scrolling through Instagram, they're not thinking a lot about whether or not you've done this before. Revisit it, maybe refine that a little bit, and don't be afraid to recycle it for sure.
Lauren Tilden
So good, yeah, I think this just what came to mind for me is like, really the concept of branding. And building a brand is all about repetition. So people should hear you talking about the same things over and over again, that's not boring. That's like helping to establish you as an expert or a credible authority in these three categories. So yeah, don't be afraid. And in fact, I encourage everyone to really lean into have a few things that you talk about a lot like of course, take a different angle to it most of the time, then don't like just copy paste the same post every day. Of course, we're not suggesting you do that. But just the concept of creating some unknown pattern and consistency with the types of things you talk about.
That is a good thing that is not about things. So you talk about time management a lot. Are there any other time management strategies that you would share with listeners as small business owners who, like you say like marketing is one thing that we have to do, but most of us have a lot more than just marketing on our plate. So how do we balance all the different responsibilities that most of us have in our business? Do you have favorite ways to approach that?
Katie Guenther
Yeah, I feel like I am not great at doing it consistently all the time. But I have little tricks that I use to sort of get myself back in line like create those better habits.
So time blocking is something that I'm doing right now because there's literally no structure or routine in my house and it's driving me crazy. So every morning I write, you know, I write on a pad of paper, like the hours in the day that I'm going to be functioning, and what I want to get done or what needs to get done. And then I cross it off as I go, I might add things. But it gives me a sense of accomplishment instead of just feeling busy. But also it gives me a realistic picture of how long things actually take or whether or not I'm spending too much time on something. I will say that over the past quarter, probably, I went, the pendulum swung in one direction a little too far with how much marketing I was doing, I was spending a ton of time on Clubhouse and social media, and I was tired. And I, I just wasn't feeling it.
And I started tracking my time using an app called Toggle. And you can use it for tracking time to like submit to clients or whatever, but I just use it for my own purposes. So then I started tracking like how much time I'm spending on networking. I can I can use words, networking, marketing, actual client work, follow up, like mental health and self care like, is important. And what I realized is it was completely out of whack. And I needed to like spend less time on marketing and more time on following up with previous clients and things like that. So I think just looking at how you're spending your time, literally, and then adjusting it from there. And kind of checking in with yourself is really the best time management tool, things like timers and stuff work too, but that doesn't really work for me, I get too stressed out about a timer going. So yeah, Toggle and then just time blocking work from you really well.
Lauren Tilden
Yeah, that's such a good point that, you know, looking at where you're spending your time isn't necessarily just like, sit down and think about it. I don't think any of us have a great sense of like, exactly where every hour is going, or every minute, even. So I love the suggestion to like, you know, spend a couple of weeks tracking everything you do in your business, like, Okay, for this hour and 15 minutes, I worked on podcasting, then I spent two hours on social media, like maybe that wasn't the best use of my time.
So we can't really, you know, evaluate how efficient we're being without having like a clear and accurate awareness of where our time actually is going. So, such a great suggestion and something I should be doing. I completely relate to you and like, I love marketing, I'm sure you do too, which is why you do what you do, it can be so easy to spend all your time doing it. And yeah, we have, all of us have other sides of our business as well. So are you someone who talks about batching regularly?
Katie Guenther
Um, I in theory, in theory, again, like all of these tips, I am not super consistent all the time with them. Batching is a tool I use, but I'm not one of those people who like every first of the month, I sit down and I batch all my content. Because sometimes I like to be spontaneous and create content on the fly, as I'm thinking of it so, but when I know I've got stuff coming down the line, or you know, before the holidays, I know I'm not gonna work very much I might you know, batch content. Sometimes I'll batch my email, like I'll do all the emails for the month ahead of time, so I don't have to think about it, but I highly recommend it, I just don't always do.
Lauren Tilden
Well, I like that you're admitting that because I think you don't have to do some, like you don't have to do these tactics every single day of your life for them to help you. You know, doing them when you need it is still helpful and it's like, I personally can fall into the trap of like all or nothing thinking like, either I have this like extremely detailed batching framework that I do consistently every single day, or I don't do batching at all. Like that's kind of how my brain wants to work.
So I've been trying to give my permission myself permission to do exactly what you're saying like when you need the kind of supercharge productivity then yes, do batching and I've done that when I'm taking a break from work or over the holidays I did double episode. So I have a lot more work to do with the podcast. And yeah, I batched all of that, I went to a hotel for a weekend and just did podcasting for the whole weekend. But do I have a rigorous batching habit? No. So thank you for that permission to just use these tips when when we really need them, but don't feel like you have to do just, I don't know, just don't feel like you have to do it all the time. Do it when it's, it's helpful to you.
Katie Guenther
Right? I don't think many of us have time to be that rigorous, like, you know, we're, we own our own businesses and things kind of ebb and flow. And so it wouldn't really, if you think about it, it doesn't make sense for us to be rigid in how we do things. When everything around us ebbs and flows. It's like, you kind of have to, like, what fun is that? That sounds awful.
Lauren Tilden
Right? Yeah. I mean, there's only so much we can control. So yeah, just gotta go with it. Sometimes. Especially I know you're a parent, I am a brand new parent. A lot of your time is out of your control anyway. So yeah, just give ourselves a break. I vote for that for sure.
Katie Guenther
Exactly.
Lauren Tilden
How do you approach doing good through your small business?
Katie Guenther
I think we've like, we've sort of talked about it a little bit in the sense that, like, I seek out and also find myself aligned with other business owners that have parts of their lives, that they have to juggle with their business, like raising kids or caring for parents, chronic illness, mental illness, whatever it is. And so, I tried to create a business that helps support that reality. And helping clients or even just people that are in my network, help them work in a way where they can juggle those things be realistic about what is possible, and what is sometimes not possible. And I tried to be supportive. And I also tried to talk honestly about my own struggles, because I think we've passed the point of like, trying to prove that we've got everything down and that we're perfect is that's just not real life.
And I think that it's still new to talk about that it's still sort of uncomfortable for a lot of business owners, especially in like the age demographic that I tend to work with. It's like, when I can relate and say, Oh, no, I didn't work last week at all, because you know, I have this emergency thing pop up. And that took priority. It's like people are relieved to hear that other people struggle to have a life and run a business. And so I think just being open and honest about that with clients, with people I network with and just in life, help other people I know it helps me when other people are like, Oh my God, I am struggling. Like oh my god we are, I've been there I get and then other than that, we do donate like a percentage of my businesses under my husband's corporation. So we have a two entrepreneur family. So we donate a percentage of money to causes that you know, means something to us. And then we also, we do a lot of like Amazon stuff for our business and so we use like Amazon smile and I think right now our Amazon smile account donations, go to camp 10 trees and which is an organization that's really important to us. And so yeah, just trying to be like real so other people feel comfortable being real. And then you know, giving back in ways that feel important to us, too.
Yeah. Yeah. So good. Um, what is one small business you admire?
I had the hardest time coming up with an answer for this. Like, I had so many in my head. I was like, oh, but then there's that other business down the street and then another. So God I have the hardest time, I think just any I know. I think just any business that is willing to evolve and change and, like, admit, when they mess up, or admit when they're pivoting or admit when Hey, we thought this cool thing we're gonna do it was gonna work and you're gonna love it. Okay, for example, there's a company called rubies, and it's a dad and daughter, and the dad design In underwear and bathing suits for trans girls, and adults now, I think. And so we joined their, I don't know, their crowdfunding, I forget what they did. And it was so exciting. And they were going to release this line of underwear. And we gave money to that cause. And then they couldn't release it. And they wrote an email to everybody on their list. And they were like, we thought this was gonna be awesome. We were solid with our design, we really believe in it. But no, like, the demos that would come back to them, none of them were good enough. And so they scrapped the whole project.
And they're like, we'll get back to it, but we're just going to scrap it. Nothing has been up to our standards or satisfaction, and we're so sorry. And we hope that you will consider, you know, we, I think they offered to give people their money back. And I wrote back and I was like, No way, are you kidding me? Like just the fact that they weren't wrong, they just were open and shared what was happening and like I can relate to that struggle, they're trying to do so many good things, and it just didn't work out. And hopefully they'll use that $100 we gave them and other people gave them to like, do something else. Awesome. Yeah, that was a really long answer. But I think just like, businesses that are honest, and are just trying to help other people, I think is so important. We all have to do that in small ways, in big ways.
Lauren Tilden
Yeah. Yeah. And I just you've made this point a couple times. But I like the point that kind of pulling back the curtain sometimes and showing what's hard, or what you've struggled with, of course, share things that are safe for you to share. But, you know, it's that doesn't make you less of a business that people should hire from. In fact, it makes you more human to write. Because you can, I can relate to someone who struggles like everyone struggles, right? So I like, I really like that you're highlighting that. Like, it's okay.
In fact, Katie is suggesting that it's something to admire when you see a small business, who's like, you know, yeah, willing to be honest and own up to mistakes, and, you know, be transparent about how things are going. I think there's this narrative, like a kind of like a put your best foot forward narrative with small business or small business really, somehow that like, you can only show the good side. And, you know, that's what your marketing should be. And I totally disagree with that. Um, I hear that you do also. So, yeah, such a good point that, yeah, opening up and being honest and transparent, like that. Probably Katie gave you more respect. And, you know, you're sharing about this company now on a podcast, like you were so impressed with how they handled that. So yeah, great point.
Katie Guenther
Well, and I want to spend my money with human beings, right, like, any time, I can give my money to a human being, instead of like, just the giant building, then I am all for it. So I mean, of course, there's such thing as oversharing. Like, I don't want to see you on a Zoom call in your underwear. But like, if you're having a hard day, like that's okay, share it, you know?
Lauren Tilden
Yeah. Yeah, totally. What is one book that you would recommend to the listeners?
Katie Guenther
I am reading Atomic Habits right now, I think the author's name is James Clear. And I, I'm in the middle of it. So I don't know all of the messages that are in there. But the reason I am sticking with it and kind of taking my time with it is, and we sort of talked about this a minute ago of like, it's not about having these rigid habits, these like, it's to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to get up at 5am and blah, blah, blah, blah, it's not about that at all.
It's really, he kind of has this great perspective of coming from a place of you, find out the habits that work best for you. And when you fall off track, go back to those habits, like habits are tools in your toolbox. And we can't do all the things all the time and we slip and we fall off the wagon and just go back to those habits when you know that they work. And the more you practice them, the easier it gets to go back to them. But I love that idea of creating healthy habits, but not feeling like you have to live by them either.
Lauren Tilden
So good. That's the book. I've heard that book recommended before and I have not read it. So I'm gonna push that forward to the top of my list. Okay, Where can listeners connect with you online, and if you want to share, I know you had another resource that I think would probably be really helpful for people about lead magnets. If you want to share a little bit about that, that would be great too.
Katie Guenther
Yeah, so you can join my email list by downloading any of my freebies. My website is Belablue.com And I've got the email platform comparison chart that we mentioned earlier. And then I also have a lead magnet guide. And that's at Belablue.com/leadmagnet, I think. But I think the actual link will be in the show notes. But that is a two page guide that tells you what qualifies as like a good, efficient, effective lead magnet. So if you're trying to grow your email list, then you're kind of stuck on what to offer besides maybe a discount. And then the second page is 30 plus ideas of lead magnets that you can use. And a lot of times people telling me that they already have something in their content box or whatever that they could use as a lead magnet that they hadn't even thought of. So definitely check those out. I think they're really helpful. And if you do create a lead magnet and a signup form you totally share with me I love to see what people come up with.
Yeah. Amazing. Katie, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. We did not share this yet. But I had a disaster of a time with my internet and a coffee spill and all kinds of things this morning. So thank you for being so patient with me. Thanks for everything you've shared about email and repurposing and just like giving permission to be yourself and your marketing and in your business. I think so much magic in this episodes. I'm really excited to share it. Thank you.
Thanks for having me. I loved having this conversation. This is so great.
Lauren Tilden
Oh my gosh, I always love a good content conversation. And this one, Katie did not disappoint. I mentioned this at the top of the episode but do not forget to get on the waitlist for the content collab a one day event on September 24. With Katie, myself and some of our other small business marketing trends are covering everything from big heart and marketing. That's my session to the customer journey repurposing content, email marketing, cohesive content, and more. Head to the content collab.co for more info, or you can check out the link in the show notes of this podcast.
I know that Katie and I would both love to connect with you on Instagram. Take a screenshot of you listening to the episode and tag us both. You can find Katie at @emailkatie, and I'm at @LaurenTilden. Everything mentioned in this podcast episode can be found at the show notes page at makinggoodpodcast.com/76 If this is your first time tuning in, and you're interested in learning more about what I do, check out the Good Business free Facebook community for this podcast with accountability exclusive content and great community at makinggoodpodcast.com/community how I can help with their small business marketing at Laurentilden.co. My plant inspired greeting cards, vinyl stickers, and art prints Good Sheila at goodsheila.com And the Seattle retail shop Station Seven at station7seattle.com. Thank you for being here and for focusing on making a difference with your small business. Talk to you next time.