Lee: Well, hello, Brittany, thank you so much for being a guest on the Coach with Clarity Podcast today.

Brittany: Thanks. I'm excited to be here.

Lee: I am really excited to have you here. I know that you have so much to share with the listeners of the podcast. But before we get into all of that, let's start with learning a little more about you and the work that you do for the world.

Brittany: Absolutely. So I'm an email marketer, which basically means we help people make money through their emails, so they can take time off. So they can have a little bit of a break if they want. But we look really at automated emails, specifically, how can we bring those into their lives, so they have that passive revenue coming in?

Lee: Excellent. Having been in the online space now for over six years, I have learned sometimes the hard way, just how important email marketing is to the health of an online business. I would say even brick and mortar businesses do well to have really strong emails and email sequences as well. So we'll, we'll get a little more into that during this episode. But I would love to hear just a little bit more about your story and how you came to be an email marketer. I'm assuming this is not something you've always done. Am I correct?

Brittany: That's correct. Yes. I was actually a middle school science teacher for a few years. And that's what I thought I'd be forever.

Lee: Middle school. Oh, my goodness. I salute you. My youngest is in middle school right now and I love him. But it is impossible. So middle school teachers, wow, you deserve all the respect in the world.

Brittany: It was really interesting. It's cool, because you have those kids at a really pivotal point in their life. And so you get to have this huge impact, which is what I was really wanting to do. I wanted to do something where I felt like I had an impact. And so I thought, well, of course teaching is the thing to do. And my dad was a teacher for 37 years. So it just seemed to make sense. I like helping people. I thought this is it, this is going to be my career. But after two years, I was starting to get burnt out already. There was a lot of things you're being voluntold, to do instead of actually part of your job description. And after two years, I had a cancer scare. And so the burnout coupled with this cancer scare, where I literally thought I was dying, because that's what the doctor said. And I realized I am not immortal, which, of course, but you know, you don't really think about it until you're face to face with somebody saying, “You may not make it this year.” And fast forward two weeks, the doctor was wrong. I went to a specialist and it was like something that could be fixed with an easy outpatient surgery like super, super night and day. I know it was, it was really, really wild. But those 12 days in between completely changed my life. I realized I didn't want to be a teacher that, for me personally, that was a safe career as in, it was a steady paycheck. It was something that I was good at. But ultimately it didn't, it wasn't what I wanted to do. And I was neglecting my family in the meantime. And I knew long term now being faced with my own mortality long term, this isn't something that I can, that I can do sustainably. And so the next two years, I was pretty miserable, trying to figure out what to do next, trying to figure out what my skills were. And I really felt stuck. I felt not just stuck, but like trapped. And from there, I knew somebody that was in online marketing. And I said to her, “I want to work with you. I don't think I have the skills for it yet. But I want to work with you in some way.” And they just happened to have an opening that used the skills that I already had, some graphic design skills, like very basic graphic design skills. And that's kind of how I got into this world. And then at one point, she said, “Do you want to write some of my emails for me?” And I wanted to be a writer since I was in third grade. I love writing, but I didn't think I could do it as a living. And so that opened my entire world to what was possible. And with writing now I get to make this huge impact, I get to have that piece of that fulfilling piece that I wanted from teaching without working the hours that I did when I was teaching, without having the pressure of administration, of parents, of the state, of testing, of the students, of all of that. And so I get to do it from my home with my family by my side. And it's just a really, really beautiful thing.

Lee:

Brittany, I'm just sitting here in awe of your story. I did not know about the cancer scare that led to your pivot in your career. And what a powerful and terrifying experience that must have been. I can't even imagine what those 12 days were like for you. And I would think in some ways, it's almost like before the cancer scare and after the cancer scare, like how you look at your life.

Brittany: Very much so, yep. And I realized like we're all dying, which I know sounds really depressing, but it's true. Like we're all, every day is a day closer to death. And I think you can look at it as a really depressing thing or you can look at it as this is something like, for me, it was life giving to realize that I only had a certain amount of time on Earth. And I didn't know how long that was going to be. And so each day is an opportunity for me to live to my fullest, to experience everything that the world has to offer. And I don't, I think I would have just stayed safe until I had that moment. And I don't want anybody else to have the kind of regret that I did. I still remember to this day sitting in the doctor's office, that sterile smell, it was red vinyl, like patient table that I was sitting on. This doctor I had never met before came in to talk to me and like, I'll never forget that moment and the regret that I felt for continually saying, “I'll do it later, I'll learn how to become a writer, you know, as a job later, I'll maybe when I'm retired,” like, I just very vividly remember the regret that I felt knowing that I wasn't living in my full potential at that time.

Lee: Wow. Thank you. I just want to say thank you for sharing that. I am finding myself getting a little emotional, actually. Because you're right, we are given one precious life. And so often we do what is safe, what is comfortable, what supports us and, and there are times in our life where that is the priority. I know it was for me when I was first starting out as a young social worker, I was taking whatever jobs I could find, because I needed the income, I needed to help support my family. But then you have something happen, for you is the cancer scare. Actually, for me, it was when I had surgery a couple years ago, and I had a complication and things went south, it really forces you to examine “What matters to me. What are my values? What are my goals? And am I living my life in such a way that reflects my values and my goals?” And while yes, I hope that those of – well, yes, I hope that people who are listening to our conversation right now, don't have to experience that kind of life or death moment to bring that into clarity. It certainly is a powerful way to kind of reset your intentions. And it sounds like that's what you were able to do as well.

Brittany: Absolutely. And every time I find myself getting into those depths of fear, again, I think it's actually kind of funny, there's a clip from it's like an Instagram Reel or something like that, which I never thought an Instagram Reel would like, impact my life as much as this one has. But it's Billie Eilish, and she's basically saying, “Everybody's gonna die. So screw it.” Like go for the thing that you want to go for, be the person that you want to be now and like, step into those shoes, because nobody's gonna remember if you, you know, feel like you're making an idiot out of yourself online or whatever, you know, you're putting yourself out there. Nobody's gonna remember, longterm, nobody's gonna remember that because everybody passes at some point or another. So why not just go for it and see what you can actually do. And sometimes it's going to be embarrassing and that's okay. Like, that's part of the process.

Lee: It is, you know, it's interesting, because on last week's episode of the podcast, I talked about five things to stop doing in your business, and one of them was “Stop trying to make everyone happy.” And I can't tell you the number of clients and students and collective members that I've worked with that have a real fear about putting themselves out there because they're afraid of being judged. They're afraid of being laughed at or ridiculed. And that's a normal, natural fear. I mean, we're humans, we're social creatures, we want to be accepted. We want the approval of others. But when we start prioritizing other people, and especially like these nameless, faceless people, that it's not specific people, it's like them, whatever “them” is, right?

Brittany: The trolls.

Lee: Exactly. But when we start prioritizing their needs over our own, then we really do get thrown off track. And so I talked about how, yes, we need to be prioritizing our own beliefs and desires and goals, and to know who our stakeholders are in our business and in our lives. For me, that's my husband, my partner. It's my business coach, it's my clients. Those are the people whose opinions I care about. They don't necessarily trump my opinion. But thinking of that as like, “Okay, who really matters here?” has helped me turn down that volume of the “But what if, what if people don't like it? What if people make fun of me?” It doesn't make that fear go away. But it allows me to take a step forward in the face of that fear so that I'm still working towards my goals and living in alignment with what matters most. 

Brittany: I love that. 

Lee: Well, I love you and I want to talk more about what you do because I'm one of your clients. And not only have we worked together one on one, but you've also been a wonderful asset inside the Coach with Clarity Collective, my group coaching program, and you will be teaching an upcoming workshop for my mastermind, which I'm very excited about. So I know just how gifted a writer you are, and how you're able to translate your gift of language into emails. So I'd love to hear from you. Especially because the majority of people who are listening are coaches – what words of wisdom do you have for coaches in particular around emails? Like what are the things that they should really be thinking about with regard to emails and their businesses?

Brittany: I think I see a lot of people that are writing emails just for email's sake, they know that they're supposed to be sending out emails, so they send out emails that just don't totally feel like them, that feel a little bit hollow almost. And I think part of that is because when you lose sight of that one person that you're talking to, and you're trying to talk to everybody, you're trying to talk to the masses, that it gets almost watered down. And so instead of focusing on everybody on your list, think of that one person that you want to be talking to. The one person that you want to open that and tell them exactly what they need to hear that day. So focus on that one person. And to get to that one person, we want to ask them questions. So we want to ask, “What are their problems? What kind of problems are coming up for them in their life right now? What are their symptoms? So what are patterns that they're seeing? What are the things that they care most about? What are the things that they feel nervous about?” And we want to really get into that person, not just the demographics, but more importantly, the psychographics of it, so that when you're talking to them, it feels like they're opening an email from somebody, they know somebody that they trust, and you hear people talking about, like that no trust piece a lot. But I think one thing we miss is really seeing that person on the other side of the computer as that is truly human, not just this mass of people you're sending emails to, but a human that's reading it. One of my favorite things to do is send emails that I put a lot of like heart into a lot of how I'm actually feeling. And I get a lot of responses that are like, “This is exactly what I need to hear today. This felt like a warm hug.” And those are the things that I'm personally going for, because I want my audience to feel like they know me, I want them to feel like I'm actually there for them. And so you want to think: What do you want your audience to feel like when they open it? And they read it? Do you want them to be encouraged, inspired, educated? How do you want to come across? Because my way, I want them to be inspired, I want them to be encouraged, but you may want to focus on education or an offer. And that's okay, too. But really, the main thing is to focus on that one person on the other side of the screen, that’s reading it, that is is looking for something they need to hear today to be able to get through the day, and really thrive.

Lee: I love that. And I think it's so easy, especially when we're looking at email marketing and there's a huge push to look at data And data, data matters. I mean, we make decisions on our businesses based on data. And it's so easy to focus on open rates and click through rates and unsubscribe rates. And we lose sight of the fact that behind those data points are people, are actual human beings. And so I love that you are coming from this place of centering the person, not excluding the data, because that matters, of course. But if we're not writing to that one person, if we're trying to write to the masses, then we, you're exactly right, we watered down our message and we wind up speaking to no one.

Brittany: Actually, I find too, that typically, our open rates and our click through rates are higher on the ones, on the emails and on the emails right after where it's like you're speaking to that one person. And we've tested both ways, because I look at the data too. And so I want to make sure that what I'm providing for people, what I'm doing for myself is working. And every single time it's higher, we have a list of a little over 20,000 for one of our brands. And we consistently have 38-42%, open rate, even on that high list. And it's because of how we talk to our people because they feel like I know where they've been. And we do a lot of pre-work on the front side of that to make sure we know the problems, what they're looking for, how we can help. And we consistently offer value to them in their emails, we're not just sending out offer after offer after offer. We do a lot of times have offers in the PS and then we do offer emails too. But we want to make sure that no matter what the email is about, even if it's an offer email that we're offering some kind of value in it as well.

Lee: I love that. And I think it's extraordinary actually that you have such high open rates for that large list. And I suspect too, it's because you really are focused on who you're writing to. Which means that the people that it's not for, they're going to unsubscribe, and that's not a bad thing. And I remember when I first started out and I had a really tiny list like 50 people then 100, just kind of creeping up towards that 1000 mark. I took every unsubscribe personally. I was like “Oh my god, I can't believe they don't want to hear from me. What am I doing wrong? I'm failing.” And now I'm at the point where I welcome unsubscribes because it means “Okay, that person's not a fit. And so I wish them well. I release them.” It allows me to focus even more intently on the people who do want to hear from me. And so with those unsubscribes gone my open rate and my response rate goes up so, that's the other thing too is not to be afraid of an unsubscribe.

Brittany: Absolutely we scrub or not scrub our list but we clean our lists fairly frequently to make sure that anybody that hasn't open it in a certain amount of days isn't on there anymore, because we don't want to continue to send it to inboxes, where nobody's opening it, because that doesn't impact things, your open rate, deliverability, things like that. And so we want to make sure that we're keeping a list of engaged people, people that want to hear from us. And I totally know what you mean with taking it personally at the beginning, I think especially anything under like, 5000. I see a lot of people saying, “Oh no, I had a lot of unsubscribes this time.” And that's typical, especially when you write an offer email, it's typical to have unsubscribes. But I noticed that a lot where people will take it really personally, and when they have a list of under 5000. But after that, it gets to the point where you're like, “Well, that's less than I have to pay for.” Because you pay a lot of ESPs, you pay for, you know the amount of people that are on your list. And so, like you said, you get to release them, and they can go on their way to find the right fit for them. The other thing I've seen happening is, you'll have people that put their business email address on there, and they only want to get client information from there. And so I've done that before, where I've unsubscribed from somebody because it was my business email address, but I still really wanted to hear from them. So I signed up under my personal email address. So you'll see that happens sometimes as well.

Lee: I've done that to where I'll be multiple subscribed to someone. And I know that actually that can cost them money, because for many platforms, you pay based on the number of active subscribers, I don't want to cost them more money. So I am going to unsubscribe. And so in that sense, maybe I'm doing them a favor. 

Brittany: Exactly. I love that. 

Lee: So let's talk a little bit more about the actual process of creating emails. Because I for one, as a writer, know the fear of the blank page, whether I'm writing for my business, whether I'm working on my script, I'm in a playwriting class right now. Sitting down at that blank page can be terrifying. And I'm curious if you have any thoughts or even suggestions on what coaches can do to overcome that initial hurdle of the blank page when they're starting their emails?

Brittany: Yeah, I think the blank page is one of the most overwhelming things just knowing where to start sometimes. That's where people really struggle. And so I think about what's been going on my day, and to us, it's just a regular day, it might be really boring. But the thoughts that pop up in your head throughout the day, like starting to kind of become aware of that inner voice that’s talking while you go throughout your day, that's a great place to get ideas for your emails. And then if I'm really stuck, and I can't think of anything else, I start to go through rooms of my house. And I'll say, “Okay, I'm in the office right now, what feelings come up for me in the office?” I'll even look at, even back here, for example, I have this little Wookiee. For those of you that can see the video, there's a little action figure Wookiee back there. I had one of my clients give that to me because he knows my husband and I, we play D&D, and we have Star Wars one going. And talking about building relationships through the clients that you have, how they become friends, and the kind of things to do to be able to build those relationships. That could be an email right there. Or even talking about how I found the letters for E-M-A-I-L, so email, but I found those letters in like the Target dollar spot. So talking about that, how you can find some of those good things, or even doing something on a budget. So that's a lot of different things right there. And I didn't really have to look too far, I just looked behind me. I also have a picture back there and a book back there. So there's a lot of things all around you right now. It's just kind of being conscious of what's there. 

And so from there, we have an acronym, it's ATMRN, it stands for Attention, Tell your story, Make it mean something, Reflect and Next step. So when we're getting somebody's attention, I usually actually kind of skip past this part of the beginning, because sometimes they get a little stuck on that. And it often comes to me after I've written the rest of it. So I'll think of a story. It doesn't have to be a long story, it can be your story can be somebody else's, but just telling some kind of story where I think just naturally, we're, we're storytellers, because that's how, as humans, you know, we've survived as telling stories like, “Oh, don't eat that plant, because uncle Rick ate that plant and like, didn't work out for him.” But I mean, from really long ago, we've used stories to connect with people, we've used stories to just bridge a gap, and survive, and all those things. So utilizing the power of story. And again, it doesn't have to be long. It can even be a few sentences, but you want to think about something that they can relate to. 

So for example, we have an audience, we have a brand. It's called Life After Teaching and my husband runs this brand now, but it's for teachers that want to find their path out of teaching. That's something we can relate to, that’s something we experienced, both my husband and I. And if I was to say, I went to Target for the first time in a while, nobody really cares. But if I said, I want you to Target and for the first time since leaving teaching, I went through every single aisle, and I didn't feel bad. I didn't feel bad because I was not at home grading. I didn't feel bad because I wasn't buying stuff for students. I just bought stuff for myself and I spent time there and I didn't have to feel guilty about it. That's something that a teacher is going to be able to relate to. So we want to thank the person that's reading this, “What did I do today that they might relate with?” And then that make it mean something. So that's where that meaning comes from. If I just said, like I mentioned, if I just said, “I went to Target,” nobody cares. But if I said, why I went to Target, how I felt, those kinds of things, bringing up these emotions, that makes a difference to somebody. And then the R is reflect, so I'm thinking, What's my audience thinking? What are they reflecting on? Where are they saying, “Oh, that's great for her, but I could never because so,” “Oh, that's great. If she was able to leave teaching, she must have a spouse that makes a lot of money,” because that's something I've heard them say before. And so I want to think of those questions they’re reflecting on and answer those. And then next step, what's the call to action? What do I want them to do next? From there, I go back to the attention. And I want to think about something that maybe they're feeling this week, maybe something that they would have seen this week, those are kind of the things that I want to think about.

Lee: Okay, I want to repeat that acronym, because I think it is so powerful, you have so concisely described the structure of an email. So A is kind of getting their attention. Yes? T is telling the story, right? M is making it mean something. R is reflect and N is next step, so the call to action. Oh, that is so good. Brittany, that is so good.

Brittany: It just helps to have that structure sometimes. 

Lee: It does, it does. Because all of a sudden, instead of a blank page, I can literally put ATMRN on the page and just kind of write next to it. And to your point, we don't have to start at the beginning. And this is something that I found really helpful when I was writing my book, and also even writing my play. Sometimes just picking a moment where I do want to start and just starting there, getting the juices flowing, getting something out and then worrying about the introduction and the conclusion later, can be a great way to overcome that initial fear of the blank page.

Brittany: And as always, at least in my experience, it's so much easier to write it after the rest of it is done and you have a feel for the email and a feel for what you want to share with the world. It's always a little bit easier, I think, to add it then.

Lee: I agree. I agree. Well, thank you for sharing that acronym. That's that's, I think the key takeaway from our episode today, although I think we've had a few. So maybe it's not fair to just say the key takeaway, but a key takeaway. I'm curious, I'm sure in your work, you have seen all sorts of incredibly powerful emails, and I'm sure you've seen a few duds as well. And we don't have to call anyone out. But I'm just curious, if you've seen some common mistakes, or common pitfalls that writers tend to fall into when they're creating emails for their people. 

Brittany: I think one of the biggest pitfalls I see comes from sales emails, where people are talking about some kind of offer they have or something like that. And they think of it through business owner eyes instead of customer/client eyes. And so I was working with somebody recently who was talking about the benefits and it reminded me of a mechanic that tells you like, “Oh, the, the pistons aren't blah, blah, blah,” like all these kinds of jargony words. And so as I'm reading through this, for the first time as a potential customer, because I'm kind of putting myself in their shoes, I'm thinking this doesn't really matter to me, I know that this offer could literally change their life. But it doesn't matter to me, because you're not talking in my language you're talking in, and business owner-ese, you know what I mean?

And so taking those sales emails and thinking about what they need to hear. What's going to be most appealing to them? There's going to be things that are most appealing to you where you say, “This is what's going to change your life right here.” But if they're not ready for that piece of it yet, and you're pushing that piece, then you're not going to see as many sales as you would otherwise. And ultimately, you're not going to impact as many people as you could, because you're focusing on what you know they need versus what they want right now. And so focus on what their wants are, focus on where they're at and meeting them there, instead of meeting them where they're going to be six months from now. But I think that's one of the biggest mistakes I see too, is people trying to write to somebody who's six months further than where they are right now. So really focus on meeting your audience where they are today. And I do this by asking questions of the audience before I start writing usually. So I want to find out and often the business owner will know this. But because they've maybe made this offer a few times, it just kind of feels like the same old same old to them. But they're going to be speaking to somebody that maybe has never heard of it before. And so we really want to think about from their perspective versus from your perspective. 

So when I'm writing sales emails, I want to focus on engaging with them. And really, the whole point of sale emails is to get them to the sales page. So instead of trying to sell them on the email, we just want to generate enough curiosity that they'll click to the sales page, because that's where you're going to have all the copy, the design, it's where everything really comes together. If you're trying to sell them on the sales page, you have to sell them once on the or sorry, sell them on the email. You have to sell them once in the email and then again when they get to the sales page. And so instead of doing both of those focus on the one thing that's going to be most interesting to them, curiosity driven to them and maybe one objection that you know that they're going to have so what do we need to get out of the way and what do we need to put in for them to be like, “Oh, I need to know more. “That's really the goal of the sales email.

Lee:That's brilliant, because then all of a sudden, it's not about the email being the one opportunity. 

Brittany: Right.

Lee: It's more just the introduction, it's, it's the appetizer to the main course. And the main course is on the sales page, but we need to get them over there. Excellent. 

Brittany: The only time that this would not be the case is if it's like your last email on the last day. So typically, on the last day, we send three, sometimes four emails, the last email or two emails, we're not going to, you can do a little bit longer if you want. But typically, this is like your last chance to really get them over there. So if you're doing four emails, a third email I would do is a longer one that talks more about it. And then the fourth one I would do is just a super short one of “Hey, this your last reminder, you have like 30 minutes until it closes.”

Lee: So I'm gonna go on a bit of a tangent, because what you just said sparked a new question for me, you just talked about length of emails, and sometimes they're a little longer, sometimes there's a little, they're a little shorter. Certainly within a sales sequence we want to have that kind of variety. But I'm curious if we're sending our weekly or every other week, however, often we email our list, if we're sending our weekly email. Is there a sweet spot do you think? In terms of length, is there something we should be shooting for?

Brittany: So what we found and this is really interesting, what we found is that when people have only long emails, or only short emails, they start to have a lower and lower open rate. But when you vary it, when you have some that are short, some that are long, some that are medium length, that's when you have more people opening consistently, which is so weird. But it's just an interesting fact, I guess that we found after working with all the clients that we worked with. I often see people that feel like they have to fit all the things into one email. And so they'll have like nine pages of email, that's definitely too long. 

So I wouldn't do that ever, I would say like max five pages. But even that is quite lengthy. If you are going to do that, make sure that you're using proper formatting. So I see a lot of people will, they'll write this really, really long email or even a short one. But they won't have the formatting in there, they won't have bold, they won't have italic, they won't have different sizes, they won't have underlying, they're just gonna have plain text. And that's really, really hard to read. And so when you're writing, even if it's long, we want to keep it kind of short and punchy. So usually we do no more than three sentences per paragraph, often we do two. And then we use a lot of formatting so that for somebody that's just scrolling, they can get the gist of it and see what we want them to see. without them having to read the whole thing.

Lee: That's a great point. And that was something I really had to learn, or maybe unlearn. When I started writing emails for business, because in school, I was taught the standard five paragraph essay, and every paragraph should have at least five sentences. And we don't use a lot of bold or italics. So academic writing requires a very different skill set than email writing or copywriting. And so I had to get used to shorter sentences, shorter paragraphs, plenty of white space to make it easy on the eye. And it did take some practice. So for listeners out there who are used to that more academic style of writing, it's okay if it takes a little while to kind of unlearn those tendencies. But for emails, we really do need to change the format.

Brittany:  That's very true and think about it to over 50% of most audiences are reading your email on their mobile. So when you think about it, even three sentences can be a lot sometimes. When it's on mobile, it looks like this giant paragraph, even though it's not. And so we want to think about it not just from a desktop perspective, but also from a mobile perspective. Most audiences are going to be using a little over 50% on mobile.

Lee: That's a really good point. Which is why it's also helpful if you're using a program like ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit, you can see what the email will look like on phones or on tablets. So you can get an idea of what the user experience will be like as well. So definitely check that out if that's something that you're that you're using. So Brittany, before I let you go, I just want to talk a little bit about the actual work you do with your clients. Because being a client myself, I know just how powerful it is. And so I'm curious if you can talk a little bit about what it's like to work with you and what you most enjoy about your client work.

Brittany: So, what I most enjoy about my client work is that I get to have a bigger impact through other people as well. So not only do I get to have an impact on some, like on the business owner, because I'm helping them make money. I also am getting to have an impact on them because they're getting to take more time off because they're making money passively too. A lot of times we work with sequences, which means that we can write it once and then automate it and then it just continues to run. And so I love getting to do that. That feels, because of my cancer scare, because I know spending time with my family and living this full life, that doesn't just include work. It includes work because I love what I do, but it doesn't only include work that is very fulfilling for me. So I love that piece of it. 

I also love knowing that because I'm helping write the email, or I'm writing the email, or I'm showing them how to write the email, I know that the emails that they write, that go out into the world, I get to have a little, a little piece of myself in there, too, a little piece of, I'm making an impact on all of their audience too. So I like knowing that I may not be, you know, the biggest influencer in the space or something like that. But I know in my little corner of the world, I get to have a huge impact on these business owners and their families and the people they're working with, and that is probably my favorite part. And so it feels like a life purpose kind of thing for me on that. And then as far as what I do, we think it's important to be able to help people with their emails, no matter where they're at in their business, no matter what stage they're at, no matter what their income level is. And so we offer, “do it yourself” items. So like a course, we have programs, we have workshops, trainings, like we just want you to write emails. And so because we know how beneficial they are. And then we have “done with you” items as well, or offers as well, so that we can work with people that love to write, but just need help with that email piece of it, or getting all their thoughts that are kind of jumbled in their head onto paper, and then tightening it up, based on what we've seen work again and again. And then we also do “done for you” and that's usually for people that are like, I don't want to write, I don't have time for it, I don't enjoy it, like please just write it for me. And we do a lot of like, intensive work getting to know them, getting to know their audience. And the goal at the end of that is for their audience to not know if it's coming from them or from us, because it sounds so much like them. And so that is what we do.

Lee: I love that. And I especially love how you view your role in changing the lives of business owners and the people that they touch. You have such a ripple effect through your words. And it's clear that you have married your talent for writing with your passion for service. And you've just created this fantastic business for yourself.

Brittany: It's a really, it's a really fulfilling thing. And one of the reasons is my dad, he was in ICU a few years ago for multiple strokes. And it was really, really scary. But one thing he said that I will never forget is “I wish I had spent more time with you and your brother when you're growing up.” And having my own daughter now I really, really, really feel that. Especially, I've had two periods of time where I'm working 16-18 hour days, like I'm working those really, really long days. But then when she came around, I thought oh my gosh, I don't want to be in that same position, you know, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years from now, thinking the same thing. And so how can I break that cycle of overwork? And so it really does feel like a life purpose/life goal, to be able to shift not only how we as business owners see work and see the role of work in our lives, but also how our family see it to how our kids, our grandkids, see what work can look like in our lives. Because you don't know what you don't know. So if you see overwork, if you see, you know, this constant state of trying to get all the work you can, get all the money, you can whatever. And you're seeing that there's not always that fulfillment there. If that's all you know, that's what's going to continue. And so I want to be able to break that cycle, help people break that cycle in their lives, and for their kids lives or grandkids lives. And it really just feels like I mean, I know it's emails, but it's so much more than emails, you know?

Lee: It is. I mean, this is your mission: to change the way we relate to work and to give ourselves more time and opportunity to be with the people we love and your vehicle for achieving that as emails, but the mission is so much stronger. And I know that that's going to resonate with every single coach who was listening to our conversation today. So Brittany, thank you for coming on the show. It's been such a pleasure. And I know people are gonna want to reach out and connect with you. So where can they find you?

Brittany: You can find me on email, brittany@winwithsystems.com. Our website winwithsystems.com, on Instagram @TheQueenOfEvergreen, and then on YouTube under Brittany Long as well.

Lee: We will have links to all of those in the show notes. And again, Brittany, thank you so much for being here today. I've really enjoyed our conversation. 

Brittany: Thank you for having me.

Lee: Wow, I am sitting here practically speechless because I feel like Brittany shared so many valuable gems inside our interview. Not only did she basically walk us through the structure of how to create a captivating email, and I will never forget ATMRN as an acronym. But she also showed us how no matter what work you do, you can connect it with your broader mission. And that is clear in the work that she does. Yes, emails are her livelihood but the purpose behind that is far greater. It's about creating time freedom, so that we can invest in the relationships that matter most to us, and so that we can show up in and for our businesses on our own schedule. And I just really believe in Brittany's mission, it's an honor to have her on the show. And be sure to check the links in the show notes so that you can connect with Brittany as well. 

Well, my friends, that is it for this week's episode of the Coach with Clarity Podcast. I can't wait to connect with you again next week for a brand new episode. If you're not already subscribed to the show, take a minute to do that now if you would. Whatever podcast platform you're using there should be an option to subscribe or follow or maybe it's just a little plus sign, click that button and then the next episode of the Coach with Clarity Podcast will automatically arrive in your feed. Until then, my name is Lee Chaix McDonough, reminding you to get out there and show the world what it means to be a Coach with Clarity.