OMARWHITE.COM

LIST BUILDING SMART START

A PROVEN SYSTEM TO ADD 1000+ SUBSCRIBERS TO YOUR

LIST FAST

How to Build an Email List: A

Proven System for Getting 1,000+

Subscribers

In this eBook you’re going to learn exactly how to build an email list using a proven

system we’ve tested across hundreds of industries and types of businesses.

Over the last 5 years, we’ve used this system to not only build our own email list of

300,000+ subscribers, but also to help hundreds of businesses get their first 1,000+

subscribers.

Most email list building posts give you a big, long list of tactics with step-by-step

instructions and case studies that show you how to implement them.

But the truth is, you need more than just tactics. In fact, I’ve found that the tactics

you choose to build your email list will be among the least important factors in

your success or failure.

Think of tactics like the “sweets” section of the food pyramid we all saw in elementary

school:

INTRODUCTION

So tasty. So easy to binge on. If you and I had our choice, we’d eat tactics for breakfast,

lunch, and dinner.

Unfortunately, they’re the smallest part of a balanced list-building diet.

Yes, you do need certain tactics and strategies to build an email list (and we’re going to

cover those).

But it’s the system that shows you how to implement the right tactics at the right

time.

The system helps you adjust when something doesn’t work.

The system keeps you from wasting time on things that don’t matter.

In the past, we’ve kept all that system stuff locked inside our coaching. But over the next

pages, we’re going to peel back the curtain.

We’re going to walk you step by step through every piece of our proven list-

building system so you can get more email subscribers in the next 8 weeks than

you did in the last 8 months.

Each step, I’m going to walk you through one part of our list-building system and give

you one or two very specific tasks so you can implement it.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re starting from scratch or you already have a few

thousand subscribers. The system I’m going to walk you through is designed to help

you make rapid, sustainable progress at any stage of list building.

Psyched? Me too.

Here’s a quick overview of the 5-Part List-Building System

you’re going to learn over the next several weeks.

Part 1: Strategy — You’ll see the 3 steps that will ensure you pick the right

strategies for growing your list so you can avoid wasting months of time on stuff

that doesn’t work. (This is also the key to avoiding shiny-object syndrome.)

Part 2: How-To — You’ll get our Top 15 Recommended List-Building Strategies

(with step-by-step walkthroughs) so you can create a roadmap to hit your list-

building goal.

Part 3: Accountability — Consistent, focused action is probably the most

overlooked ingredient in successfully growing an email list. We’ll show you how

to bake it into your schedule so you stay on track.

Part 4: Adjustments — Even perfect plans don’t stay perfect forever. We’ll give

you our system for evaluating your list-building progress and making the right

adjustments so failed experiments or stalled growth don’t slow you down.

Part 5: Fast Forwards — Yes, there really are shortcuts available to anyone

building an email list. (We call them fast forwards.) The challenge? They’re

different for everyone and highly dependent on your unique situation. Part 5 will

show you how to uncover them and accelerate your progress.

Strategy. How-To. Accountability. Adjustments. Fast Forwards.

That’s the 5-part system we see get results for people over and over again. And this

week, we’re starting with Part 1.

Strategy - 3 Critical Steps That Will Set You Up for

List-Building Success

CHAPTER ONE

Part 1: Strategy — 3 Critical Steps That Will Set You Up for

List-Building Success

This section will walk you through 3 easy steps you should take before trying to

implement a single list-building tactic.

Think of them as “Miyagi exercises.”

If you’ve ever seen The Karate Kid, you know Mr. Miyagi doesn’t just show Daniel a

bunch of super cool kicks and ninja moves on Day 1.

Instead, Mr. Miyagi has him wax his cars (“wax on, wax off”) and paint his fence—

activities that seem kind of pointless to Daniel, but end up being the perfect preparation

once it’s time to actually fight.

Fortunately, the Miyagi exercises I’m about to show you only take about 5 minutes to

implement instead of half a movie.

The result, however, will be the same: you’ll avoid implementing the wrong tactics and

start getting big list-building wins MUCH faster than you have in the past.

Ready? Let’s go!

Step 1: Set the Right Kind of Goal with Our Dead-Simple Framework

When people decide to get serious about growing an email list, one of the first questions

they spend WAY too much time thinking about is this:

“How many email subscribers do I need in order to ________________ ?”

That blank is filled with the typical reason people start focusing on list-building in the first

place:

Have a profitable product launch

Start getting better clients

Generate more sales

The problem with this question is that it will almost always lead you to one of two bad

outcomes:

Bad Outcome #1: You’ll set an impossibly ambitious goal, get discouraged, and burn

out.

Bad Outcome #2: You’ll get analysis paralysis and end up setting no goal at all.

So here’s the dead-simple one-question framework we created for setting a rock-solid

list-building goal in about 2 seconds:

Which of the following numbers of subscribers is your email list closest to?

100 subscribers

1,000 subscribers

10,000 subscribers

Pick the number you’re closest to but haven’t hit yet, and boom—you’ve got your goal.

That means if you’re starting from scratch, your goal is 100 subscribers.

If you have 300 subscribers, your goal is 1,000 subscribers.

If you have 1,500 subscribers, your goal is 10,000 subscribers.

Why those three numbers? Two reasons:

1. We’ve found over and over again that these numbers are powerful inflection

points for confidence and building momentum. When you get to 100

subscribers, getting to 1,000 subscribers suddenly seems much more attainable.

When you get to 1,000, believing you can get to 10,000 becomes much easier. And

when you get to 10,000, pretty much anything will feel possible.

Set the closest goal first. Once you hit it, shooting for the stars will be a whole lot

easier.

2. You don’t need nearly as many subscribers to start generating meaningful

revenue as you probably think. To some, setting a goal of 100 or 1,000

subscribers will feel like it’s not big enough. You couldn’t possibly have a successful

product launch or increase your income with a list that small, right?

That’s when I point to people like John Meese.

John built a list of 249 subscribers in 45 days and launched a course that brought in

$10,541 in sales. If you want all the details, but the point is this…

You do not need a ginormous list in order to create a ginormous impact for yourself and

your business.

And look, feel free to get a little flexible. If you have 900 subscribers and want to go

ahead and shoot for 10,000 instead of 1,000, go for it.

Regardless of which goal you choose, here is your first action item:

Put that goal somewhere you will see it every single day.

It sounds small, but having your goal somewhere you’ll see it regularly is one of the

most effective things you can do to make sure you’re taking small steps every single

day to make progress.

Step 2: Identify Your List-Building Strengths

Listen: there are too many effective list-building strategies for you to spend time

focusing on ones you hate or are not equipped to implement.

Instead, take 5 minutes to determine which strengths you already have (or would be

excited to work on) and which resources are already available to you.

Here is a list and description of the main ones that help with list-building. Write down the

ones you already have or that you could see yourself enjoying. This will help you pick

strategies you will actually enjoy when the time comes.

Strengths That Help with List-Building:

Writing: I’m not asking if you have what it takes to be a bestselling author. I

never thought of myself as a “writer”, yet I wrote a blog post every 2 weeks for 2+

years. Could you see yourself enjoying blogging? Does the idea of having an

audience of people reading things you write excite you? Is it something you

already do? Put writing down as a skill you might enjoy developing.

Talking: Do you enjoy conversations? Does getting in front of a camera or

appearing on a podcast sound exciting to you? Could you see yourself wanting

to speak at a conference? Mark yourself down as a talker. Because it’s about to

come in handy big time.

Tech Stuff: Are you good at figuring out how to use new software tools? Do

terms like “marketing funnels” and “analytics” and “WordPress integration” get

you all hot and bothered? Do you geek out over numbers? You’re probably good

at tech stuff, you nerd. Write it down.

Relationship-Building: Do you like meeting new people? Are you unafraid of

striking up conversations? If we were in the ‘80s right now, would you have a

giant rolodex sitting on your desk? You’re a relationship builder.

Teaching: Do you like walking people through processes? Does it feel rewarding

to show someone how to do something? Are you already pretty knowledgeable

about the topic your email list is about? You’ll probably like teaching.

Resources That Help with List-Building:

Money: Do you have an existing marketing budget? Are you at a place where

you can afford to invest in something like Facebook ads and be OK if they’re not

instantly profitable?

Traffic: Do you have a website or social platform that’s already getting traffic? If

so, write down a rough estimate of your average monthly visitors. Just ballpark it.

Existing Subscribers: Pretty straightforward. Do you already have existing

email subscribers? I’m going to show you several ways to leverage them to grow

your list faster. Put them down as a resource.

Relationships: Do you have an established relationship or social connection to

any businesses, influencers, or companies in your industry?

Time: How much time do you have per day or week to focus on growing your

email list? Again, just ballpark this. Even if it’s just 15 minutes per day, write it

down.

At the very least, you should have at least one strength you’re interested in developing

and some amount of time available in the “Resources” section.

Knowing this info is going to save you a TON of grief. But if you combine it with one

more step, you will practically guarantee yourself a head start.

Step 3: Use the ICE Framework to Pick the Right Strategies and Avoid “Shiny

Object Syndrome”

When it comes time to pick the initial two to three list-building strategies that will help

you reach your goal as quickly as possible, most strategies will fall into at least one of

the following three categories:

Stuff you like to do

Stuff you have the resources to do

Stuff that gets results

Everything we covered in Step 2 will help you with the first two categories. But the key is

to pick a strategy that will satisfy all three. Think of it like this:

See that sweet spot in the middle? When you start consistently implementing strategies

that fall into all 3 categories, your list growth will take off.

You won’t get burned out. You won’t get distracted. You won’t waste time on stuff that

doesn’t move the needle.

How do you figure out which strategies will hit the sweet spot? You use the ICE

Framework.

The ICE Framework forces you to ask three questions about any potential list-building

strategy before you take the time to implement it:

Impact: How impactful could this strategy be for my list growth?

Confidence: How confident am I that this strategy would work well for my list?

Ease: Given my skills and resources, how easy would it be to implement this

strategy?

You score each question 1 to 10 (with 10 being the highest impact, highest confidence,

and highest ease), total the scores, and boom: you’ve got your ICE score for a particular

strategy.

The ICE Framework isn’t something I just made up, and that’s part of the beauty.

People have used it for years in tons of different contexts where they need to choose

between multiple potentially effective options.

For example, let’s say I wanted to lose 10 pounds. Right off the bat, there are going to

be literally hundreds of things I could do to accomplish that goal. How do I decide what

to try first? I pick a few options and ICE them:

Option #1: Running 2 Miles Per Day

Impact: I might need to make a few tweaks to my diet to speed things up, but on

its own running is still pretty likely to eventually get me to my goal. I’ll give it a 7.

Confidence: It’s been a few years since I’ve gone for runs consistently, but with

a little conditioning I know I can do it. Let’s say 8.

Ease: My neighborhood is convenient for running, but I’m not sure what I would

do if it’s raining. I guess I’d have to drive to an indoor track or something? That

would be a pain. I’ll give this a 6.

ICE Score: 21

Option #2: Stop Drinking Soft Drinks

Impact: I know tons of people this has made a huge difference for. I give it a 10.

Confidence: I’ll probably slip up here and there, but as long as I get them out of

the house I should be able to stick to it. Let’s go 7.

Ease: I just need to replace the Cokes in the fridge with fizzy water. Pretty

easy—8.

ICE Score: 25

Within a minute, I have a clear-cut decision that I know is likely to work for me. No need

to run 2 miles every day—I’ll just stop drinking Coke.

ICE works exactly the same with list-building strategies, regardless of your industry,

business type, or where you’re starting.

Here’s an example of what it looks like filled out for two different types of businesses,

with very different list-building skills and resources:

Example #1: Johnny the Online Course Creator

Johnny is building an email list so he can have a warm audience of buyers when he

launches his online course on canoe building.

He LOVES talking about canoe building and has hosted a few in-person workshops

over the years, so talking is definitely his strongest skill. He has a blog he occasionally

updates, but he has difficulty making time to write and doesn’t feel super confident in his

writing.

The business is still pretty new and isn’t generating revenue yet, so he doesn’t want to

invest in any list-building strategies that require cash right now.

Johnny narrows down his options to 3 strategies that sound promising: partner

webinars, a podcast tour, and expanded guest posting. He plugs them into the ICE

Framework like this:

Boom! Johnny now has a clear path forward: a podcast tour is right in the sweet spot of

impact, confidence, and ease, while also aligning well with his skills and resources. With

a 22, partner webinars also seem like a promising strategy. He’ll make that his next list-

building experiment after seeing how podcasts go.

Example #2: Susie the Marketing Agency Owner

Susie, on the other hand, has a totally different business and set of skills and resources

than Johnny.

She runs a small marketing agency with a virtual assistant and two contractors. She has

a decent pool of clients, but wants to build a bigger audience for her blog so she can

attract better ones more consistently.

She’s good at creating content and enjoys writing detailed blog posts. She’s also built

up several good relationships with known influencers in the online marketing space

through her client work. Currently, her email list is at 650 subscribers and her blog gets

roughly 1,000 visitors per month.

She’s considering three different list-building strategies, so she plugs them into the ICE

Framework:

Again, there are two clear winners. While putting together a virtual summit has off-the-

charts impact potential, it would require WAY more work than adding content upgrades

to her blog or running a giveaway. Susie can start with those strategies, evaluate the

results, and then decide if she wants to invest the time to organize a virtual summit.

CHAPTER TWO

The How to - Our Top 7 Recommended List Building Strategies

Part 2: How-To: Our Top 7 Recommended Email List-

Building Strategies

Last week, I showed you the 3-step process for picking the right list-building strategies

for your business.

This week, I’m unveiling our top 15 recommended list-building strategies so you can

apply that process and discover the exact strategies that will help you get your first (or

next) 1,000 subscribers.

Here are your Action Items:

1. Skim through these 15 strategies and take note of the ones that seem interesting to

you. (You don’t need to read them all word for word right now. Just check out the

ones that catch your eye.)

2. Apply the ICE Framework (to the top 2 or 3 strategies that you think might work best

for you.

In the next 15-20 minutes, you’ll have a complete roadmap of the strategies you’ll

implement over the next few weeks.

Feel free to use this Table of Contents to go directly to any strategy that sounds

interesting to you:

1. Jump-Start a Brand-New Email List with Ambassador List-Building

2. Use “Guest Emailing” to Get Promoted for Free to Other People’s Email Lists

3. “Expand” Your Next Guest Post and Get 10x More Subscribers

4. Get Your Content Shared Automatically with Viral Thank-You Pages

5. Turn Email Subscribers into Instant Word-of-Mouth with a Viral Email Campaign

6. Get Major Companies and Influencers to Promote You to Their Audiences with

the Poster Boy Formula

7. Convert 20% of Blog Readers into Email Subscribers with Content Upgrades

1. Jump-Start a Brand-New Email List with Ambassador

List-Building

One of the most frustrating things with general email list-building advice is that so little

of it applies to people who are just getting started.

If you just launched your website and email list yesterday, tactics like adding pop-ups or

optimizing your blog posts aren’t going to move the needle for you yet.

That’s why we always recommend Ambassador List-Building as the very first strategy

anyone starting an email list should implement (although it also can still work well if

you’ve been building your list for awhile).

You don’t need existing traffic. You don’t need existing email subscribers. And

Ambassador List-Building can still easily get you around 250 subscribers (or more).

So, what is it? Ambassador List-Building is simply inviting everyone you already know to

join your email list.

(Trust me, if you think you’ve already done that—you haven’t in the way I’m about to

show you.)

Here’s how Ambassador List-Building works:

Step #1: Make your 4F list.

The first step is to make the list of people you’re going to personally invite to sign up for

your list. They will each fall into 1 of 4 groups that all start with the letter F, hence the

name 4F List:

Group 1 is your Followers.

These are the people who follow you on any online platform where you have an active

account (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).

Group 2 is your Former Customers and Vendors.

These are people you’ve done business with before.

For example, if you’re a freelancer, you should absolutely invite all of your former clients

to join your list (and your current customers too). If you have subscriptions to software

products, invite the salespeople who sold you those products to join your list.

Group 3 is your Future Customers.

These are people you’ve met at conferences, events, networking meetups, etc. or

exchanged messages with in online communities.

For example, you can open your desk drawer and find every business card you’ve been

given. Invite every one of those people to join your list.

Look through any LinkedIn, Slack, or Facebook communities you’re in and personally

invite individual members you’ve connected with to join.

Look back through your calendar for any meeting you’ve had in the past few years.

Invite the people you met to join your list.

Group #4 is your Friends and Family.

If you’re just starting out, you might not have that many people to reach out to in Groups

1, 2, or 3.

But don’t discount the value that can come from getting your friends and family to join

your list.

They are low-hanging fruit that can share your content and website and help you get

your work/business in front of more people early on.

Step #2: Invite your 4F list to subscribe.

Once you’ve finished making your 4F List, you should have 100 to 1,000 people to

invite.

Listen, because this part is important:

Do NOT send group emails, broadcast invites, Facebook posts, tweets, or any

type of message that goes to more than 1 person when inviting your 4F List to

subscribe.

When you ask a large group of people to do something, very few people will do it

because everyone will assume that someone else in the group will do it. This is known

as the Law of Big Crowds.

However, if you ask each member of that exact same group individually, almost every

person will take action.

So, as you work through your list of people to invite, take your time, go 1 by 1, and send

a personal message to each person asking them to join. It doesn’t matter if it’s an email,

a text message, a Facebook message, an Instagram DM, etc. Just make sure it’s a 1:1

personal message.

These messages do not need to be long or complicated. Here are 2 scripts you can use

to quickly create your own. Just be sure to add in your own language and make them

feel personal.

Script for Inviting People to Join a Brand-New List:

Hey FIRSTNAME, I’m starting a newsletter where I talk about TOPIC. Thought you

might enjoy following along on my journey. Want in?

Script for Inviting People to Join an Established List:

Hey FIRSTNAME, Not sure if you know, but I write a weekly newsletter about TOPIC. I

think it’s something you’d enjoy following. Want in?

Notice how there’s not a link to a sign-up page or anything that seems like a marketing

CTA. Give each person the opportunity to tell you yes or no.

In fact, when people respond with a yes, the best way to get them to follow up on their

commitment is to simply reply with, “What’s your best email?” and then manually add

them to your list when they send it.

You will almost always get more emails this way than if you send them to a sign-up

page after they tell you yes.

Step #3: Ask new subscribers for a referral.

Steps 1 and 2 alone can add 100s of subscribers to your list.

But adding in Step 3 can get you an additional 20-30% more subscribers with very little

effort.

It’s where the “Ambassador” aspect of the strategy kicks in. The goal is to get each

person who signed up to invite 1 other person to join.

How do you do that without sounding awkward?

Easy: as soon as someone confirms they’ll sign up, thank them and ask if they know 1

other person who might be interested in joining.

For example, when my uncle joined my list I responded with…

“Awesome, thanks! Do you know 1 other person that would be interested in growing

their business too?”

He responded with, “Yeah, actually, my friend Mike runs a small print shop and he

would. His email is…”

I then reached out to Mike and made a quick reference to my uncle and he became a

subscriber. (This part is important. Do not just add someone to your email list because a

friend of theirs told you they might like it. That is spam, and it will get you in trouble.)

You should implement this strategy if:

You have a brand-new email list and not many resources like existing traffic, existing

subscribers, etc.

You have an existing email list but have never reached out to your network to

promote it in a highly personal 1:1 way.

As I mentioned earlier, we typically see people add 250+ subscribers to their email list in

less than a week when they follow these 3 steps to Ambassador List-Building.

2. Use “Guest Emailing” to Get Promoted for Free to Other

People’s Email Lists

Guest emailing is one of those strategies that somehow continues to fly under the radar

even though it can have a major impact on your list growth.

It gets 1/10 the fanfare of guest blogging, but I’ve often found that it can be 10x as

effective.

Here’s how it works at a high level:

Step #1: Find someone with an audience or customer base similar to yours.

Step #2: Ask them to email your lead magnet (or webinar, white paper, resource

guide, etc.) to their audience.

Step #3: In exchange, offer to email one of their lead magnets (or webinar, white

paper, resource guide, etc.) to your audience.

Even if you have a small list (or you’re not super well known), you can still grab big

chunks of new subscribers with guest emailing.

Quick case study:

One of our coaching students, Mike Tran, runs a marketing blog. He got a software

start-up in the same space to partner up with him on a guest emailing campaign and

ended up adding 325 new subscribers to his list in less than 48 hours.

Here’s how you can do the same thing, step by step:

Step #1: Identify potential partners.

Your guest emailing partner should be in a similar or a semi niche. A semi niche is

something related to your site or business’s main topic, but not a direct match.

For example, if you’re a freelance designer, a web developer or copywriter would work.

Next, you’ll look at size.

Partners who are either your size or smaller are going to be the best ones to pursue for

Guest Emailing, which is a big reason why this strategy can work even if you’re a

beginner.

Even if your partner only has 500 subscribers, you can still expect to 50+ to your list.

Step #2: Pitch the partner (with this exact email script).

When you’ve found the right partner, instead of instantly asking them to promote your

lead magnet, start by looking at the content they have that you could promote to your

list.

When you find something you genuinely like (and you think would interest your

audience), it’s time to reach out to be the partner.

Here’s an email script based on what we’ve seen work with our own guest emailing

partnerships:

Notice that this script tells the prospective partner you want to promote their lead

magnet BEFORE it asks them to promote yours in return.

Offer to give before you ask.

Step #3: Swap and deliver lead magnets.

To execute the swap, I recommend drafting the email your partner will send to their list

for them.

It’s fine if they want to make tweaks, but giving them a pre-written draft will make the

process way easier on them and guarantee that the email is as effective as possible.

The structure I recommend is super simple, and you should be able to put it together in

under 30 minutes. Here’s the template we typically use:

Simple and to the point, right? It might seem too basic, but we’ve found keeping it short

and sweet leads to more clicks and subscribers.

You can use the same template to write the email you’ll send to your list about your

partner’s lead magnet as well.

You should implement this strategy if:

You have a lead magnet, white paper, resource guide, etc. that a partner could

promote to their list. (And if you don’t have one, you can easily.

You have at least 100 subscribers to promote your partner’s lead magnet to. (Note:

This can also work if you have an audience on a platform like Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, YouTube, etc. Don’t hesitate to offer to promote a partner’s lead magnet

on another channel besides email.)

Here are the typical results you can expect from a guest emailing partnership based on

your list size:

If you have an email list of 100, you can expect to add 10-20 subscribers.

If you have 1,000 subscribers, you can expect to add 80-90 new subscribers.

If you have 10,000+ subscribers, you can expect to add 500-1,500 new subscribers.

Like I mentioned earlier, we almost always recommend that you try guest emailing

before guest posting. It requires much less effort since you don’t have to write an

entirely new blog post specifically for someone else’s audience from scratch.

That said, guest posting can still be highly effective as long as you do one very

important thing in your guest post’s CTA…

3. “Expand” Your Next Guest Post and Get 10x More

Subscribers

There are very few things more frustrating than putting weeks of work into pitching

dozens of guest post ideas, finally landing one, putting in even more work to write the

post, and then…

…getting a measly 15 new email subscribers as a result.

If that sounds weirdly specific, it’s because that’s exactly what happened to me back in

2014 when I landed a guest post on popular blog, which had a massive audience at the

time!

Soul crushing. Which is why I decided to do something dramatically different for my next

guest post.

The results? 665 new subscribers within a week of the post going live.

What did I do differently?

I used the Expanded Guest Post strategy.

To understand how the Expanded Guest Post works, let’s think about what usually goes

wrong with guest posts: the call to action.

The CTA in a guest post typically looks something like this:

A tiny “About the Author” section with a single link to your site that’s crammed between

a bunch of other CTAs that aren’t related to you.

The problem with a traditional guest post is the conversation stops at the last sentence.

There is no compelling call to action and no incentive to start getting emails from you.

An Expanded Guest Post extends the conversation by incorporating a CTA that ties

directly into your post’s content and delivers on suspense you’ve built up throughout the

post.

The CTA from my expanded guest post EXPANDS (wink, wink) on the post’s content.

The post taught readers 3 of my best list-building techniques. The CTA offers a content

upgrade that covers 7 more.

There are just 2 things you need to be sure to do in the post before inserting this kind of

CTA:

Thing #1: Make sure the post includes your very best content.

In the previous example, I covered 3 list-building techniques in the guest post and then

included 7 more in the content upgrade. But the 3 I covered in the post were so valuable

and in-depth, it didn’t make readers feel like I was holding out on them.

Play your best cards in the guest post. There’s no better way to convince new readers

they should become a subscriber.

Thing #2: Let readers know your bonus resource is coming early on in the post.

You don’t want to bet on everyone reading your entire post. So give readers a hint in

advance that you’re going to offer something valuable at the end.

You can also explicitly state that you’re going to offer them a free bonus resource like I

did in another expanded guest post I wrote.

You should implement this strategy if:

You can secure a guest post on a website that gets significantly more traffic than

yours. (Since guest posting is high-effort, I’ve usually found you can get better

results from smaller sites by guest emailing instead of guest posting, although there

can certainly be exceptions to the rule.)

You really enjoy writing. The effectiveness of a guest post is first and foremost

dependent on the quality of its content. It needs to be really freaking good.

4. Generate Social Shares Automatically with Viral Thank-

You Pages

Right now, when someone opts in for a lead magnet on your site, you’re probably

sending them to a generic thank-you page like this:

When you stop and think about the person who is landing on this kind of generic thank-

you page, you’ll realize that it’s missing a HUGE opportunity to grow your email list.

Anyone who lands on your thank you page is VERY interested in you. They are so

interested they just gave you permission to send them more emails. That means this is

the perfect moment to ask them to take an additional action that will help you.

So why not ask them to tell their friends about your site/business?

That’s exactly what the Viral Thank-You Page is designed to do. Except it doesn’t just

ask them to spread the word about your site—it incentivizes them to do it.

Check out the Viral Thank-You Page that blogger Jeff Goins sends subscribers to after

they sign up for the lead magnet he offers on his home page:

The page offers subscribers two additional bonus resources if they tweet a message

that promotes the lead magnet they just signed up to receive.

The results? Jeff has gotten 7,439 people to share his website since implementing it,

which has led to thousands of additional email subscribers. All because he made a

slight tweak to one of his thank-you pages.

Here’s how you can implement your own Viral Thank-You Page:

1. Identify the most popular lead magnet on your site. Where do you get the most opt-

ins?

2. Create a simple Viral Thank-You Page to send people to after they sign up for that

lead magnet.

3. Create a tweet for your visitors to share in order to unlock additional bonus

resources. Include a link in that tweet that promotes the original lead magnet or

something else on your website.

You should implement this strategy if:

You’re already offering lead magnets on your website.

You’re getting at least a handful of people who sign up for one of those lead

magnets every week.

The results you get from this strategy will depend on the amount of opt-ins your lead

magnet is already generating, but a good rule of thumb is to expect at least 40% of

those who sign up to share your tweet (though we often see people get much higher

conversion rates than that).

There are few things more powerful than word of mouth, and this strategy generates it

for you automatically.

5. Turn Email Subscribers into Instant Word-of-Mouth with

a Viral Email Campaign

If you’ve ever created a lead magnet, you’ve probably had that awkward moment where

you have to figure out how to promote it to your existing email subscribers.

Generally, you have 2 not-so-great options:

1. You can send them to the same landing page everyone else has to go to in order to

get access to the lead magnet. This is kind of a bummer for your subscribers

because they then have to sign up for your email list AGAIN in order to access the

lead magnet, even though they’re already on your list.

2. You can just email them a link straight to the lead magnet file. This makes it

convenient for your subscribers to access your lead magnet, but you don’t get

anything in return.

The Viral Email Campaign gives you a third option that will actually help you build your

list—you send your existing email subscribers to a page that grants them access to your

new lead magnet after they share a pre-written post on social media.

This is exactly the kind of page Michael Hyatt created to promote a free PDF to his

email list:

Within a few days of promoting the lead magnet to his email list, the campaign had

already generated 527 Facebook shares:

the post that people share doesn’t link to the same page that Michael sent his list to.

It links to a landing page where people have to sign up for Michael’s email list in order to

get access to the lead magnet, allowing him to get new subscribers every time one of

his existing subscribers shares the post.

Here’s how to implement your own Viral Email Campaign:

1. Create a free resource to give away, or use an existing one that you’ve never

promoted to your email list.

2. Create a share page for your lead magnet for free.

3. Tell your email list about the lead magnet and send them a link to your page.

You should implement this strategy if:

You have an existing list of email subscribers. This strategy can work well even if

your list is small.

You have some type of free resource or lead magnet that you haven’t promoted to

those subscribers yet.

The results you get from this strategy will depend on the number of email subscribers

you have, but you can expect at least 50% of the subscribers who click through your

email to share your social post.

6. Get Major Companies and Influencers to Promote You to

Their Audiences with the Poster Boy Formula

The concept was simple:

1. Pick a company/influencer that has your target audience.

2. Record every big or small win you get by using their product, service, or content.

3. Show them the detailed info behind all of your wins and how they helped you

achieve them.

4. Become a success story that they happily promote to their audience, thus giving you

tons of free traffic, leads, and credibility.

That strategy alone was how I went from zero email subscribers to over 8000 total

susbs in 4 months.

Here is how to do it:

Step #1: Identify your Poster Boy targets.

Your first step is to identify the people or companies you could be a good Poster Boy

for. Start by making a quick list of:

Blogs or email lists you’re subscribed to

Podcasts you listen to

Courses or other products you’ve bought

Books you’ve read

Services you use

Once you’ve made your list, you want to look for people or companies that meet 2

criteria:

They should have a significantly larger platform than you. Remember, the goal is to

put yourself in position to be promoted to a large audience.

Their topic/audience/customer base should be directly related to yours, but they

shouldn’t be a direct competitor. For example, if you’re trying to build a list about

weightlifting, someone with a popular weightlifting blog might not be as likely to

promote you. But someone who is a dietician might be a great fit. A good chunk of

their audience is likely to be interested in weightlifting, but it’s not the blog’s focus.

Step #2: Warm up your primary targets.

Before you reach out directly to your Poster Boy targets, you need to put yourself on

their radar.

By the time your first email hits their inbox, you want them to at least recognize that

they’ve seen your name somewhere before.

Here are 3 quick things you can do in just a few minutes per week to warm up your

targets:

1. Subscribe to their newsletter and send a friendly reply to their welcome email.

In your response, don’t ask for anything. Just let them know why you’re excited

about signing up and how you learned about them or their company.

2. Leave high-quality comments on their blog posts, podcast episodes, YouTube

videos, or anywhere they publish content.

Don’t force this part with generic “Nice post!” comments. I’m talking about finding

content that you genuinely like and find helpful and leaving a comment that shares

why. Do it because you like the content, not because you expect anything in return.

Spread your comments out over the course of a few weeks instead of leaving a ton

at once and coming off like a stalker.

3. Share their content on social media.

This might sound self-explanatory, but the key is to share their content in a way

they’re likely to notice. To do that, praise their content in a way that’s shareable. Like

this:

Notice how Karine compliments Jeff’s book AND mentions why she liked it. She

even included a nice picture of the book along with it.

When you put thoughtfulness and effort into it, you’re 10x more likely to get on your

target’s radar.

Step #3: Thank your targets and share your results.

After you’ve warmed them up, you’re going to reach out to your targets with a thank-you

email that shares the results you’ve achieved thanks to them.

Important Note: These results do not need to be mindblowing! You don’t need to have

made a million dollars or won a Nobel Peace Prize in order to share an

accomplishment.

The result you share can be:

A valuable lesson you’ve learned

A new habit you’ve been able to build

A win you’ve had thanks to a product you bought from them

A result you’ve gotten from taking a course they created

You can even just share that they’ve been an inspiration as you’ve made progress

toward a goal you have.

Remember—you are not asking for anything with this email. You are simply sharing

your results and saying thank you.

Step #4: Follow up every 90 days.

This is the most straightforward step. You’re going to follow up with each person you

sent a thank-you email to every 90 days with a brief update on your progress.

You have one goal here: stay on their radar.

The reality is that your initial email isn’t likely to lead to anything beyond a nice reply.

However, if you keep coming back with more in-depth details on what they’re helping

you accomplish, you’re much more likely to create opportunities for yourself.

You should implement this strategy if:

You’re currently experiencing any amount of good results thanks to someone’s

product, service, or content.

Yes, that means basically everyone should be implementing this strategy. It

only takes a few minutes of your time each week, and is very easy to run in the

background as you focus on implementing other strategies in this post.

Speaking of strategies that have been around for awhile but still work incredibly well…

7. Convert 20% of Blog Readers into Email Subscribers with

Content Upgrades

Real quick, think about the most popular blog post you’ve published.

Now, ask yourself: what do you offer readers after they’re done reading it?

If you’re like most websites, it’s the same generally-related lead magnet or newsletter

sign-up form you put at the bottom (or in the sidebar) of every other post.

But did you know that if you offer a lead magnet that’s specifically related to that post’s

content, you could start converting as much as 20% of the people who read that post

into email subscribers?

Those kinds of blog-post-specific lead magnets are called content upgrades, and they

consistently get us sign-up rates as high as 20% when we offer them.

Creating content upgrades for your top 5 to 10 most popular posts (by traffic) is one of

the easiest ways to start automatically generating more email subscribers from your

blog.

In fact, when Brian Dean from Backlinko did it, the email sign-up conversion rate across

his entire website increased from .54%. to 4.82% (which is a 782% increase).

After you’ve identified your most popular posts by traffic (Google Analytics makes it

easy to do this), follow these 2 steps to start generating more email sign-ups from them:

Step #1: Create your content upgrade with 1 of these 4 simple templates.

This is the step that people tend to make WAY more complicated than it needs to be.

This piece of bonus content doesn’t need to be a masterpiece. It just needs to be highly

relevant to the post’s topic.

We’ve found that these 4 templates are extremely easy to create and consistently work

well with most types of blog posts:

1. Checklist: A checklist gives readers a quick-reference version of the steps,

strategies, or techniques you describe in your blog post.

2. Resource Guide: A resource guide is a collection of tools, products, or links that are

described in your blog post.

3. How-To Guide: A how-to guide either expands on something you teach in your blog

post or condenses a process down into a series of steps.

4. Case Study: A case study shows off a success story from someone who

implemented what your blog post teaches.

Step #2: Put multiple calls to action about your content upgrade in your blog

post.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to wait until the end of your blog post

before you tell readers about your content upgrade.

I recommend including a call to action to download the content upgrade in the intro to

your blog post as well as at the end.

Explain the value of your content upgrade and how it will help them accomplish

something related to the content of your post.

You already put the time into creating great content people like, so why not start

maximizing that content’s ability to grow your list? That’s exactly what content upgrades

will do for you.

You should implement this strategy if:

You’re getting consistent traffic every month to at least one blog post.

That blog post (or posts) isn’t currently converting at least 10% of visitors into email

subscribers.

Like I mentioned earlier, it’s not uncommon to start converting 20% of readers into email

subscribers with content upgrades, or at the very least doubling a post’s current email

sign-up conversion rate.

Accountability - 3 Ways To Guarantee Your List

Building Growth

CHAPTER THREE

Part 3: Accountability — 3 Ways to Guarantee Your Email

List Growth

Over the past few pages, I’ve walked you through our Top 7 Recommended List-

Building Strategies and showed you exactly how to discover which ones are most likely

to work best for you.

But, like I’ve said many times before, strategies alone are not enough.

Strategies alone won’t stop you from getting distracted and losing focus on your list.

Strategies alone won’t motivate you to keep showing up and to stay focused week after

week.

Strategies alone won’t keep you accountable.

But the 3 systems I’m going to show you today will.

I know words like “accountability” can give off Afterschool Special vibes, but I honestly

believe it’s the most underrated factor in any successful list-building story.

Over the years, nearly every person I’ve seen build a large list did something—whether

consciously or unconsciously—to hold themselves accountable and force themselves to

keep taking action.

There are 100s of different ways to do it, but the 3 approaches you’ll find below hit the

sweet spot of effective and easy to implement.

So take the next 5 minutes to check them out, pick one, and take the first step toward

implementing it.

Accountability System #1: The “Scary Consequences”

Contract

I first tried this strategy several years ago when I had an x-ray on my back due to huge

pain I experienced and the doctor told me that I MUST lose weight.

I’d been concerned about my own weight for a while but couldn’t seem to find a

diet/exercise regimen I would actually stick to, so I took drastic action.

I signed a 1-page contract with myself that spelled out my goal for the quarter and 2

health-related action items I had to complete every day that I knew would help me

accomplish it.

Two other people also signed the contract, and if I failed to complete my action items for

even ONE day, I owed them $200. I gave them the signed check right off the bat so

they could cash it if I failed.

The result?

They never once got to cash those checks and 2.5 years later I’m still regularly

exercising and eating a WAY better diet, and overall I’m much healthier.

a few key things about the contract:

The scary consequences are not tied to whether I achieve my goals or not. Instead,

they’re tied to whether I take daily action on a handful of small tasks that will make

me more likely to hit my goals. This is important. The goal of accountability is to

make sure you stay focused and keep taking action, not to punish yourself if you fall

short.

The contract only lasts for a ~90-day period. I’ve found this is enough time for you to

get a sense of whether the action steps you’re committing to are effective or not.

After 90 days, you can assess your progress and decide if you need to stay the

course or change things up with a new contract.

It spells out WHY I’m setting these goals. The simple act of writing why you’re

choosing your goal(s) is a great way to make sure they’re actually good goals. Have

a hypothesis for why they’re likely to help you.

Your scary consequence doesn’t have to involve money. Not everyone’s cool with

putting cash on the line. I get that. But losing money is definitely not the only

consequence you might find scary. Trust me, I was WAY more frightened by the

idea of having to wear nice clothes every day than I was of losing $200. Just make

sure that whatever consequence you choose is something that the other person

signing the contract would kind of like to see happen. That’ll motivate them to stay

on your case.

You can create the exact same type of contract to keep yourself accountable with your

list-building efforts. For example, your action steps might be things like:

Write 250 words every day (if creating content is a big part of your list-building plan)

Send at least 5 outreach emails per week (if you’re implementing strategies that

require outreach)

Write down your daily list growth at 5 PM every day.

Again, these action steps don’t have to be complicated or crazy difficult. They just need

to force you to make regular progress and stay focused on growing your list.

Accountability System #2: Turn List-Building into a

Friendly Competition with the Spar App

Are you competitive? Then you need to meet the Spar app.

Here’s the basic gist:

1. You create a challenge or goal. For example, “Sending 2 Guest Email pitches per

week.”

2. You invite people who have the same (or similar-ish) goal to participate.

3. You snap a quick video “check-in” when you complete the challenge/goal.

4. If you miss the check-in, you have to pay a penalty fee. Something small like $5 or

$10 usually works well.

5. The winner gets to keep all the penalty money.

Spar actually makes accountability feel pretty fun and it’s surprisingly effective. Even if

the challenge is tiny:

Another cool thing about Spar is it’s pretty easy to find people to join your challenge

(even if you think you don’t know anyone).

You can get Spar free here.

Adjustments – Stay On Track with the 90 Day

Review

CHAPTER FOUR

Part 4: Adjustments — Stay on Track with the 90-Day

Review

The original promise of this eBook was that it would help you grow your list more in the

next 8 weeks than it grew in the last 8 months.

That’s exactly what Parts 1 through 3 will do.

But today I want to show you how to continue replicating that growth, again and again,

no matter what changes, using 1 simple process:

The 90-Day Review.

The 90-Day Review is what ensures you’ll CONTINUE finding and focusing on the right

strategies as your list grows.

Because the reality is, your skills will change. Your resources will change. Sometimes

even the types of people you’re trying to attract will change.

But when you’re knee-deep in the weeds of trying to grow your business, it’s super easy

for that stuff to go unnoticed.

For example:

For the first 3 years of my career as an entrepreneur, I consulted 3 business owners

every week on a regular basis for an average of 6 months each. This means I was

working with 12 clients at a time on a monthly basis.

But after 3 years of doing it week after week, I was completely burned out on coaching

one on one.

So the whole team came together one day with one question in mind: How else can we

grow?

The answer ended up being so obvious I felt like I owed myself a punch in the face.

It turned out, when we actually analyzed exactly where our leads were coming from,

one on one coaching was nowhere near the top of the list.

Since then, we’ve implemented a mandatory 90-Day Review process not only for our

own company, but also for everyone who goes through one of our courses or coaching

programs.

The 90-Day Review prevents you from burning out. It cures “shiny object syndrome.” It

stops you from pouring MONTHS of your time into strategies that aren’t actually moving

the needle.

And it’s as simple as asking yourself 5 specific questions 4 times per year.

But before I show you those questions, here is the #1 rule for the 90-Day Review:

Don’t make it exhausting.

The 90-Day Review doesn’t need to be some kind of vision quest where you lock

yourself in a remote cabin for a week and ponder the meaning of life.

Think of it more like checking in on the Thanksgiving turkey after it’s been in the oven

for 90 minutes. You’re looking at the major stuff and making adjustments as needed.

Is it still on track to be done in time for dinner?

Does it look like it’s drying out?

What’s the internal temp?

Is it time to start the green bean casserole yet?

Wait, is Uncle Steve already on his fourth glass of wine?

You’re going to ask the same types of questions about your progress growing your

email list over the last 90 days.

No plan or list-building strategy continues to work without adjustments. Use the

following 5 questions to pinpoint any issues or opportunities and adjust your strategy

accordingly for the next 90 days.

Question #1: On a gut level, what worked well?

When I say “gut level,” I mean gut level.

Don’t kick off your 90-Day Review by pulling up Google Analytics and getting lost in a

bunch of numbers. That’ll just give you a reason to procrastinate.

Instead, think about the last few months and ask yourself:

What stood out?

When did you get the most excited?

What wins did you have?

What did you really enjoy doing?

Even if you think of stuff that feels small, write it down.

Question #2: On a gut level, what did not work well?

Approach this the same way you approached Question #1. Think about:

What felt like a waste of time?

What did you not enjoy doing?

What fears or anxieties did you experience the most?

What felt like it did nothing to move the needle?

Make a separate list of everything that comes to mind right next to your list for Question

#1.

Question #3: What were your biggest sources of new

subscribers and traffic?

Now’s the time to get into the numbers a bit. But I still recommend keeping this as

simple as possible.

Remember, we’re focusing specifically on your email list growth—not revenue, sales, or

anything else.

These are two primary numbers you should try to get a feel for as best you can:

1. Leads / Subscribers

What were your top 3 to 5 sources of new subscribers? These sources might be

things like posts on your blog, guest posts, landing pages, etc.

If you instantly know some of these off the top of your head, feel free to write them

down. For example, sometimes you don’t have to check Google Analytics to

remember that a particular guest emailing campaign doubled the size of your list.

The bigger your list is, however, the more important it becomes to actually check the

numbers on your site and opt-in forms. If you’re already averaging hundreds of new

subscribers per month, it can be easy to lose track of where they’re all coming from.

2. Traffic

With traffic, you want to get a sense of what generated the most traffic, and

what received the most traffic.

For example, knowing that a particular blog post received more traffic than any other

page on your site is helpful because you can then apply specific strategies to that

page to make it convert more visitors into subscribers.

However, it’s also helpful to know WHY that particular post received so much traffic.

What was responsible for generating it? Did someone influential share it? Is it

getting lots of organic search traffic?

Asking this question should leave you with a list of:

Your top 3 to 5 sources of email subscribers over the last 90 days

Your top 3 to 5 highest traffic pages

Your top 3 to 5 biggest traffic sources to those pages

Question #4: What’s changed?

A lot can happen in 90 days.

The more work you’re putting into growing your list, the likelier it is that you might have

new or improved skills, resources, and/or relationships by the time you conduct your 90-

Day Review.

Take 5 minutes to make a list of what’s changed in those 3 areas:

Skills: Has your confidence in any particular skill grown? For example, maybe after

doing several podcast interviews over the last 90 days, you feel confident enough in

your speaking ability to give webinars a try. Or maybe after publishing 10 blog posts,

you feel confident enough in your writing to start reaching out for guest blogging

opportunities.

Resources: Do you have more revenue to invest in your list growth now than you

did 90 days ago? Has your traffic or total number of subscribers increased

significantly? As those increase, so will the number of effective list-building

strategies available to you, so it’s important to take note.

Relationships: Have you established any new connections with potential partners,

influencers, or companies with audiences who would be interested in your business?

Don’t worry about how you might utilize those relationships, just write them down.

Question #5: What will you implement over the next 90

days?

After you’ve answered Questions 1 through 4, you’ll likely already have a few ideas

about what you should or shouldn’t implement over the next 90 days.

I recommend making a list of 3 things:

1. Strategies you want to continue or double down on

If your answers to Questions #1 and #3 uncovered stuff that worked well, list the

specific strategy tied to it here. For example, you might write “run more giveaways”

or “book 3 more partner webinars.”

2. Strategies you want to cut (or spend less time on)

Question #2 will probably produce a few obvious things to list here. But be sure to

pay attention to your traffic/subscriber numbers. A lot of times, things you THINK are

important to keep doing aren’t actually producing earth-shattering results. Don’t be

afraid to scale something back a bit if it’s not performing.

3. New strategies you want to implement

At the end of your 90-Day Review, take a few minutes to skim back through the Top

7 Recommended List-Building Strategies I detailed earlier in this ebook. Based on

your progress, are there any new ones you’d like to try?

Make a list and run them through the ICE Framework from Part 1.

Your Action Items:

It’s easy to understand the value of the 90-Day Review.

It’s easy to get excited about implementing it 90 days from now so you can make the

right strategic adjustments.

It’s even easier to completely forget about it and let that 90-day mark whoosh by without

even realizing it.

So right now I want you to take ONE action:

Pull up whatever calendar app you use and schedule an event called 90-DAY REVIEW

for 3 months from today.

(Don’t worry about it being exactly 90 days from now. 3 months is fine.)

90 days from now, you’ll have yourself to thank.

Go!

Fast Forwards – How to Unlock the Shortcuts That Will Accelerate Your List

Growth

CHAPTER FIVE

Part 5: Fast-Forwards — How to Unlock the “Shortcuts”

That Will Dramatically Accelerate Your List Growth

Other than having the right list-building plan (which parts 1 through 4 of this ebook gives

you), the biggest factor for how fast you can grow your email list is 1:1 guidance and

feedback.

In other words, the ability to get direct help from someone who has already

accomplished what you’re trying to do when you need it.

For the longest time, I called this coaching.

Unfortunately, when people hear the word “coaching,” this is how they tend to think of it

in relation to their business:

You spend years slowly growing your business in isolation and then hire a mystical guru

who takes your business into the stratosphere.

In my experience, real coaching looks nothing like this.

When I look back on the most valuable guidance I’ve gotten over the years, it didn’t

come from a single all-knowing source that descended from entrepreneur heaven and

bestowed his teachings upon me.

Instead, it was a series of people who each helped me accelerate my progress on

specific challenges or goals:

When I wanted to get better at selling products online, I found someone who had

specific experience selling products online.

When I wanted to learn how to build a company, I found someone who had specific

experience building healthy companies.

When I wanted to improve at over-the-phone sales, I found someone who had

specific experience selling over the phone.

Sometimes their guidance came free of charge in a single email.

Sometimes it came in the form of an hour-long conversation.

And yes, sometimes it was the result of a more traditional “coaching” relationship that

unfolded over the course of several months.

That’s why think it’s more helpful to think of coaching in terms of “fast-forwards.” In

reality, it looks a lot more like this:

Fast-forwards come in all shapes and sizes.

You don’t need thousands of dollars or months of hour-long conversations to unlock

them.

Forms of them are available to you no matter where you are in your list-building journey.

All you have to do is know where to find them.

Below, you’ll find my 3 go-to fast-forward sources and how you can leverage them to

leapfrog past the biggest challenges you encounter when building your email list—

whether you have a big budget, small budget, or no budget at all.

Fast-Forward Source #1: Get FREE advice from bloggers

you admire.

Think about the biggest challenge you currently have with growing your email list.

Now, what if you could get detailed feedback from an influential blogger you admire on

exactly what steps you should take to overcome that challenge?

And what if you could get it for free?

In many cases, you can.

All you have to do is know how to ask.

For example, let’s say you want to grow an email list so you can have a successful book

launch and you follow Tim Grahl from BookLaunch.com.

How could you get Tim to give you some direct feedback on YOUR book launch?

You could use a little something I call the “Action-Report-Ask” Formula.

Quick Sidenote: Do NOT use this as an excuse to spam Tim. Or I will come after you

with the fury of 1,000 burning suns.

The “Action-Report-Ask” Formula is based on the fact that 99% of the emails influential

bloggers receive from their readers are, well… bad.

They’re long-winded.

They don’t have a specific ask.

They offer little to nothing of value to the person on the receiving end.

“Action-Report-Ask” enables you to write an email that will stand out from the sea of

mediocre ones flooding Tim’s inbox so you can develop a relationship and get his

guidance.

Here’s how it works:

First, you would find the latest email you received from Tim and look for a specific action

it asks you to take.

For example, here’s one he sent about a new blog post he published. Obviously, his

goal is to get you to read the post:

Your goal is to take action on whatever Tim teaches and report back with results. How

would you do that with this email?

I would take 5 steps:

1. Read the blog post Tim links to.

2. Identify something actionable Tim teaches in the post.

For example, in this post he tells readers to invite people they already know to join

their email list (hey, that sounds like the Ambassador strategy!):

3. Invite 100 people to join your email list based on Tim’s instruction.

4. Wait a few days to see the results that come in.

5. Reply to the original email you received from Tim with all the details of your

experiment.

This is what I would write:

Remember what I said earlier: 99% of the people who email Tim will never actually

implement something he teaches before asking him for help.

Which is frustrating.

When you send someone an email like this you are giving them a gift.

Hearing from people who “get it” NEVER gets old, no matter how popular someone has

become.

If you’re willing to take action and write an email like this to someone you would love to

get guidance from, doors will open that you never knew existed.

They will read it.

They will be grateful.

More often than you might think, they will respond to your email.

And that is your opportunity to unlock a “fast-forward.”

When you get a response, here’s what you do:

1. Send a reply as quickly as you can.

2. In the reply, acknowledge what the influencer said in their response and thank them

for replying. (Don’t just skip right ahead to an ask.)

3. Ask them ONE SPECIFIC question related to the challenge you’re currently

experiencing.

Don’t be vague. Don’t be broad. Don’t be long-winded.

Ask a direct question about your #1 challenge—you’ll be surprised by how many people

are willing to respond with 1:1 feedback once you’ve already shown them you’re willing

to take action on their advice.

Fast-Forward Source #2: Clarity.fm

The top 2 excuses I hear from people who can’t find coaching are:

1. “I don’t know where to look.”

2. “I can’t afford it.”

Clarity.fm is one of the most effective resources I’ve found for obliterating both of those

excuses.

What is it?

In a nutshell, it’s a directory of people who are experts in specific topics or areas of

business. And for a per-minute rate, you can hop on the phone with them and get their

direct feedback/guidance on anything related to their topic.

For example, let’s say you’re building an email list so you can promote a launch you’re

running on Kickstarter.

You can go to Clarity.fm and search specifically for Kickstarter experts:

Look at all the people available who are experts in crowdfunding via Kickstarter:

In the top 5 results alone, there’s someone who has raised over $175 million on

Kickstarter, someone else who has raised over $900k, and someone who has raised

over $50 million.

Do you think a phone call with one of those people might be able to fast-forward your

first Kickstarter launch? Like this guy, for example:

For less than $200, you could spend an hour getting specific guidance from someone

who’s succeeded again and again at exactly what you’re trying to do.

The cool part is you can even read reviews from people who have already hired the

expert you’re considering:

That is the review of someone who just experienced a massive fast-forward.

Regardless of whether you can afford to hire someone for this type of coaching right

now or not, I want you to do 3 things real quick:

1. Go to Clarity.fm.

2. Search for your specific niche/industry.

3. Browse through the list of people who come up and imagine what questions you’d

ask them.

You don’t have to commit to hiring anyone immediately. But I want you to see the kinds

of options that are available, no matter what type of business you’re building—and how

affordable many of them are.

Fast-Forward Source #3: Ask your heroes who THEY go to

for coaching.

Fast-Forward Sources 1 and 2 are both what I would call “ad hoc coaching”—you have

a specific goal/problem/challenge and you find someone who can accelerate your

progress on that specific thing.

When you’re starting out building your list and growing your business, those are the

kinds of fast-forwards I’ve found to be the most helpful.

But you may eventually get to the point where you want to hire a coach who can meet

with you regularly and go deep into broader issues across your business and life.

Once you get to that point, promise me you’ll ignore the conventional wisdom on how to

find that person:

“Go to someone whose business and/or life you admire and ask them to coach you!”

This is a nice idea in theory—and sometimes it does work—but more often that not one

of the following things happens:

They say no because they’re too busy to offer coaching.

They reluctantly agree but end up being a mediocre coach.

The bottom line? If someone isn’t already actively coaching people—and isn’t laser

focused on being a great coach—you’re likely to be disappointed.

It’s freaking hard to help people solve their problems, and it takes a lot of time, energy,

and focus. Even though you know someone who built the kind of business you want to

have, that doesn’t mean they’re equipped to help you do the same.

So before you ask someone you admire to coach you, try asking them this question

instead:

“Who have you hired as a coach?”

(Yeah, yeah, I know it should technically be “Whom” but you’ll sound like a weirdo if you

ask it that way.)

Why will this question get you better results? It’s simple:

Solving people’s problems = hard.

Recommending someone who solved YOUR problems = easy.

Asking your heroes this question is basically like getting access to their secret weapons.

You’ll get the names of people you didn’t even know existed who have a proven track

record of helping people get the results you want to achieve.

And guess what? If the person you ask does offer their own coaching services, they’ll

tell you when you ask them this!

It’s a win-win.

Your Action Items:

Write down ONE challenge you’re going through that you would love to get feedback

on.

Choose 1 of the 3 Fast-Forward Sources listed above that you think could lead you

to someone who has already solved that challenge.

Take the first step associated with the Fast-Forward Source you select.

You’re capable of eventually figuring out 99% of the list-building challenges you’re liable

to encounter.

The only question is how long you want to spend trying to solve them on your own.

You don’t have to go it alone.

Fast-Forwards are all around you. But you have to take the first step if you want to

unlock them.

You Have Everything You Need to Add at Least 1,000

Subscribers to Your Email List. What Will You Do With It?

Listen, I know this is a long eBook.

But it’s not long for the sake of length.

It’s long because it contains the best of what we’ve learned about building an email list

after dedicating the past 5+ years to helping businesses of all shapes and sizes do

exactly that.

The businesses we’ve seen consistently succeed at building large email lists are the

ones that stay focused on executing a simple plan while tuning out all the other

distractions.

They don’t get sidetracked by the latest shiny tactic.

They don’t give up when the first strategy they try doesn’t go according to plan.

They don’t continue to aimlessly publish content and just hope subscribers sooner or

later discover them.

They follow the 5-part plan I laid out in this post over and over again.

So save this eBook. Come back to it when you need a fresh idea. Ask me questions by

email if you could use some help over at: ask@omarwhite.com