If you’ve ever felt stuck watching your email list inch up by single digits or stay at the same number month after month, get ready to turbocharge your list growth! This week on “She’s Got Content,” we dive deep with Prisca Benson, the master of email list collaborations, who reveals how she turned her slow-growing list into a bustling hub of engaged subscribers.
Don’t Miss Inside This Episode:
- Creative Collaboration for Introverts: Discover the advantages of collaborative opportunities for those who might be more introverted. Melissa and Prisca share their experiences inside supportive communities that offer encouragement, accountability, and the opportunity to forge lifelong friendships with like-minded entrepreneurs in groups like the Collab Club and the Podcast Collaborative.
- Networking IS Relationship Building: Explore the significant role of networking in business growth as Prisca outlines the importance of making meaningful connections. Get valuable tips on becoming an attractive podcast guest and creating mutually beneficial relationships that can lead to a surge in your business exposure and email list size.
- The Art of Effective Email Communication: Listen as host Melissa Brown discusses the common fear of emailing a growing list and Prisca emphasizes the importance of regular communication to stay top-of-mind with your audience. Learn how to balance the influx of emails during collaborations and maintain a strong connection with your subscribers.
- Imaginative Ways To Collaborate: The sky is the limit with the types of collaborations you can create with business buddies. There are at least ten different collaborative ideas shared by Prisca during this episode. Be sure to take notes!
Links and products mentioned in today’s episode:
Get Prisca’s free gift: 3 Steps to Financial Freedom Guide
The Collab Club, hosted by Nicole Batey, is designed to help solopreneurs and small business owners connect and collaborate.
Podcast Collaborative Find a guest and be a guest on podcast shows.
ConvertKit Email service provider. Get a 14-day free trial to check it out.
The video mentioned by Prisca in this episode about Creator Network on Convertkit:
7 steps to growing your newsletter with Recommendations
SparkLoop The number one newsletter recommendation platform
About Prisca Benson
Prisca is a dedicated money coach who guides professional women towards financial freedom. She crafts simple, customized plans that allow her clients to enjoy life while securing their financial future, ultimately guiding them toward a peaceful relationship with their money. With years of helping people create their money plans and a proven track record of growing her own investment accounts by over $280k in just 6 years, Prisca brings firsthand expertise to her coaching practice. Join her on Instagram (@ourgreenlifenj) for daily strategies, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes insights on mastering your finances and living your best life.
Prisca’s Website
Connect With Prisca on Social
Connect on Instagram: @ourgreenlifenj
About Your Host
Melissa Brown, MD – Coach, Author, Speaker, Teacher, and Podcast Host.
After leaving medical practice in 2009, Melissa discovered the online world and never looked back! After coach certification, she began a healthy lifestyle coaching practice online and quickly fell in love with blogging, writing, and content marketing.
Melissa believes that coaches have the power to change the world. Unfortunately, too many coaches get discouraged by the amount of content they need to create for marketing their business, which can lead to overwhelming and giving up on their dreams. There’s such a ripple effect when a dream dies, so Melissa is on a mission to help coaches and solopreneurs overcome the overwhelm when it comes to content creation so they keep those dreams alive.
Your content can impact massive amounts of people and positively change the world. You’ve got content in there inside you; let’s get it out into the world.
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TRANSCRIPT FOR THIS EPISODE:
Melissa Brown [00:00:05]:
Hello there, content creators. You’re listening to the She’s Got Content podcast, where it’s all about creating content for your coaching business. I’m your host, doctor Melissa Brown, and I’m here every week to help you get your content out of your head, out of your heart, and out there into the world where that information and your services can impact the most people. Get ready to take notes today and then take action, content creators. Let’s dive in with today’s episode because you’ve got content to get out there. I am so excited to share my new friend, Prisca Benson, who I met in a collaborative group recently. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today, collaborations, because Prisca has actually grown her business incredibly with collaborations, and she is full of ideas about how to do collaborations and how to get the best benefit from it. So let’s give a great big welcome to Prisca Benson.
Melissa Brown [00:01:07]:
Welcome, Prisca.
Prisca Benson [00:01:08]:
Thanks for having me. Like you said, I’ve been growing my business through collaboration. My business is called OurGreenLife, and origin story is that in 2020, when the whole world went amok Oh, yeah. I started a blog. It was a health and finance blog because I felt like a lot of that meshed well together. And then eventually, end of 2022, I decided to kind of niche down into money coaching. I felt like it was a way to really help people take unnecessary stress out of money, especially women. We are extremely anxious about our futures and scared to invest and all these other things that I want to help women kind of leap over that and get the confidence that I know we deserve when it comes to our money.
Prisca Benson [00:01:52]:
So that’s what I’ve been doing now. The vast difference though, especially in the last year or so, is the collaborative aspect. Because when I first started my blog, I already had my email list and things like that, but it was growing so slowly because I was doing it all on my own. And then through the membership that we both were in, this is how I started coming up with all these ideas. Well, inspired by the ideas in there, and it further inspired other ideas to work with other business owners who are also trying to grow their business.
Melissa Brown [00:02:18]:
So you said you already had an email list when you started your blog. How did you initially grow that email list?
Prisca Benson [00:02:24]:
I had the blog, and then I have, like, a pop up, you know, on my blog that says, here’s your freebie so people can download it off there. I also had it linked to my social media. I didn’t promote it. I don’t think even as much, but I did have it there. It was available for people to get. But, literally, my list was, like, at 20 for years.
Melissa Brown [00:02:44]:
So, like, cool. Okay. Alright. So that technique, the lead magnet from your blog and on social media was growing very slowly.
Prisca Benson [00:02:51]:
Yes.
Melissa Brown [00:02:52]:
Okay.
Prisca Benson [00:02:53]:
You gotta imagine too, especially with SEO content. You know, that kind of stuff takes a while to build up, and then you have to get your messaging down in order for people to have interest in what you’re offering. So I think this that was just like a big learning process when you’re doing it literally on your own.
Melissa Brown [00:03:08]:
Got it. Okay. So in 2023, you joined the collab club with Nicole Batey.
Prisca Benson [00:03:16]:
Yes.
Melissa Brown [00:03:17]:
I did too. I we both joined, I think, at the same time. Right?
Prisca Benson [00:03:20]:
Yeah. I believe so.
Melissa Brown [00:03:21]:
Okay. So tell everyone what’s happened since you started in the collab club and and started doing these collaborations with people.
Prisca Benson [00:03:31]:
So just for background too, I’m a huge introvert. Okay? So
Melissa Brown [00:03:34]:
Okay. I can relate. I can relate.
Prisca Benson [00:03:38]:
These kind of things look foreign to me, like, trying to reach out to strangers, but the mindset thing was the first thing that helped. Being in a collaborative membership where people you’re expected to meet with people and talk to people. So I felt like the barrier of entry in terms of my own feelings about it was largely decreased because nobody should be mad at me for reaching out to them and saying, hey. Can we partner up on something? That’s literally why we’re all here. Just a little tidbit for people who are interested. This is a great leap into doing that because, you know, everybody’s here from the same place. We’re all trying to grow our own businesses. So that was the first thing.
Prisca Benson [00:04:11]:
People would do intro posts, and I would look to see, okay, who has an audience that may overlap with mine. So that way we could probably support each other. What value can I bring to you and what value can you bring to me? And it’s not always just as simple as the content that I’m doing, but just in our business experiences as well. When I was first starting this journey, I felt very, very green. And then when you talk to other people, there’s people greener than you. So, like, they say, though, a rising tide raises all boats. That’s the kind of thing that I was applying through the collaborative membership.
Melissa Brown [00:04:45]:
Awesome. Alright. So let me recap a little bit. You said you’re a big introvert and Yes. Collaborations, especially these 1 on 1 or very small collaborations are like they’re like honey for an introvert. It’s the perfect place. It’s like the perfect combination. And joining a group where there is the expectation of having collaborations is really where it’s all about because you don’t have to worry that somebody’s gonna think you’re weird or why they’re reaching out or what’s your second agenda, what’s underlying all this, being suspicious of the fishy DM into your Instagram or an email that comes out of nowhere because we’ve all gotten those.
Melissa Brown [00:05:27]:
But when you say that you’re part of a collaboration club or you Yeah. Meet up with someone who’s well, actually, I I think I did the same thing. I looked to see who was overlapping with the same audience, and then I would send them a I guess it was a DM inside the collab club because it’s held in the heartbeat app.
Prisca Benson [00:05:46]:
Yes.
Melissa Brown [00:05:47]:
And then I think a 100% of the people responded to me when I did that, and people would reach out to me. Same thing. It was like, this is a beautiful thing. The number of collaborations that I had since being in that group has tremendously increased.
Prisca Benson [00:06:02]:
Oh, yeah. And it’s lifelong friendships, I feel like, too in business. So especially if you’re new, your friends in the real world, quote, unquote, may not relate to what you’re doing. You you could tell them what you’re doing, but there’s limited assistance they can give you because they’re not going through things. And a lot of it is very sometimes it’s very discouraging, and you really need someone who’s been there, who’s gone through it that could keep you encouraged. And so there’s a couple people in there that I literally make sure I regularly text. Hey. How are things going with your business? They check on me.
Prisca Benson [00:06:31]:
They look at my content like, good job. None of my real friends do this. Okay?
Melissa Brown [00:06:34]:
Yeah. Yeah. Right. It’s so lonely trying to be an entrepreneur out there when other friends and family, they just don’t understand what you’re doing. They just don’t get it. Yeah. And they don’t have the experience of what you’re doing online. Yeah.
Melissa Brown [00:06:50]:
Yeah. There’s someone that I have met through the Podcast Collaborative, which is another group where Yeah. You’re looking for speakers and people are looking for, guests. So and we’ve grown into becoming accountability buddies and doing collaboration. You’re right. Lifelong friendships.
Prisca Benson [00:07:08]:
Mhmm.
Melissa Brown [00:07:08]:
I’m curious. Tell us what kinds of collaborations you’ve actually done and how it’s worked out for
Prisca Benson [00:07:15]:
you. So I first started off with participating in bundles. Mhmm. So with bundles, it’s kind of an interesting thing because you wanna have a digital product that you are already selling or planning on selling or it’s for a price. And during the bundle, you are then offering it to the bundle as a free product. The people who sign up for your product through the bundle, they will be on your email list, and then you get to nurture them to hopefully become a paying client.
Melissa Brown [00:07:41]:
Yes.
Prisca Benson [00:07:43]:
So that was the first thing I did, and that’s a low barrier of entry for people who are just getting into the collaborative space. Usually want to find other groups. Facebook is robust with this. I don’t know any place else where it’s, like, as robust as Facebook to find these kind of opportunities. There’s specific groups that people join where they are looking for guests, and so they advertise it and then you just sign up. You make sure that you’re eligible and that you can meet the requirements. A lot of them have a very low barrier of entry even if you’re just starting, may not even need, a large email list. But we wanna make sure, if you’re gonna do this, that you are routinely emailing your list because otherwise, it’ll be a waste.
Prisca Benson [00:08:22]:
You don’t want to get people on your list and never say anything to them. So those are, like, the key things that you want to pay attention to when you’re applying to a bundle.
Melissa Brown [00:08:31]:
Yeah. That is such a good point. I hate to admit this, but that I I wanna say a 100 years ago or and when I first started building a list and I started participating in bundles, this was back before bundles were really, really as popular as they are. But my list grew to, like, a1000, and I was afraid to email. It took probably literally a year before I sent an email out to people.
Prisca Benson [00:08:59]:
Oh, wow.
Melissa Brown [00:09:00]:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean and most of those people were like, who is this person? So, yeah, I have made that mistake. I’m not making that mistake now. But, yeah, I was actually challenged by a mentor of mine at the time to just write the first dang email. Yeah. Just write it. And then write another one a week later.
Melissa Brown [00:09:20]:
And then I said, you know what? I have to get into the habit, and I think it’s been four plus years that I send out a Monday message email since then. So I haven’t missed one through a lot of trials and tribulations, let’s put it that way, and things that I’m like, oh, do I really have to send something out today? But I do. So, yes, you need to email the people that come onto your list through these collaborations.
Prisca Benson [00:09:45]:
I do wanna remain top of mind too, especially if you’re selling a service. You want that if someone, maybe even if it’s not that person that becomes your client, but maybe their friend. In my instance, I help people with managing their day to day money. So a friend complains about it. Like, oh, you know, I know someone. But if they never hear about you from me, they’re gonna think of the other person that was in their email box. You know? Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa Brown [00:10:06]:
One of the tips that I’ve discovered works really well. When you’re in a bundle, everybody’s sending a whole bunch of emails to the people who sign up for the different products. If you send an email, either the one that delivers the product that you’re giving away or the next one, and say, hey. I know you’re gonna be inundated with emails. I don’t want to add to that. I’ll be back in your inbox and, you know, fill in the blanks. We a week, 2 weeks, or when this thing is over or when the the deadline has passed. So just know that I respect the fact that you’re you’re gonna be inundated, and I will be back.
Melissa Brown [00:10:47]:
Don’t forget about me or something like that.
Prisca Benson [00:10:50]:
That is true. People do appreciate that. I even saw that recently in one of the Facebook groups where someone gave people the option to hey. Maybe a week from now, they could just click, and then they wouldn’t get the welcome sequence until that time. So Right. Which is very sophisticated. If you’re just starting out, don’t be mad if you can’t set this up. But there are ways to delay things so that way it’s not as cumbersome in a more simple manner.
Melissa Brown [00:11:11]:
That’s a really good point. Right. So if you have a welcome sequence, and everyone should, if you have a welcome sequence, then if you’re in a bundle, particularly, you might wanna delay it. Most of the automations, like ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, I don’t know about Mailchimp, but most of them out there, you can delay it as long as you would like. Okay. Besides bundles, which is really a great way to collaborate with someone, either as a contributor or as a bundle host, which that is a lot more work. But, yes, your list will grow incredibly, and you’ll have so many collaborative partners with that. But we’ll save that for another time.
Melissa Brown [00:11:52]:
Tell us what other kinds of collaborations you’ve been involved with.
Prisca Benson [00:11:56]:
So freebie swaps are also a great way to grow your list. What I’ve done in order to get a freebie swap is literally just ask people either in those same Facebook groups, alot of them to allow you to post basically anything collaborative. What I did was I created a Google form, and I say I’m a b to c business, and I want to collaborate with more b to c members, Freebie swaps, and that’s the main thing I’m sharing. But also in the actual form, there’s other opportunities if they wanna do, like, a Instagram takeover or if they have a podcast that they want listeners on or a YouTube channel, whatever the case may be, any kind of these opportunities, we’re here for it. And there’s also even an option for other in case they have other ideas for how they would wanna collaborate. And then it automatically puts them into my CRM where I use Zapier to just add them right there, and they’re added to a Biz Bud email list on my CRM. So that way, I know that these are my business people and they get a separate content emails. But with the bundle, you’re exposing yourself to an audience of people who already know this person.
Prisca Benson [00:13:01]:
A person that they know is saying, hey. This is a great resource. Check it out. And then they wind up on your email list.
Melissa Brown [00:13:08]:
Yes. Oh, I love that. So you’ve got so you use Zapier to connect them to your CRM.
Prisca Benson [00:13:15]:
Yep.
Melissa Brown [00:13:16]:
And then you’ve got that list of who we are, your biz buddies. Yep. I recently saw on an email that you sent out. I don’t know if you sent it to your whole list or you sent it to your biz buddies, but you had someone who did a newsletter takeover.
Prisca Benson [00:13:30]:
Yes.
Melissa Brown [00:13:31]:
Tell us about that.
Prisca Benson [00:13:32]:
So that was to my biz so it depends. When people apply for the freebie swap, then I look to see what their audience is. And since because I did host a bundle end of December 2023, I was able to put, like I said, the separate list of biz buds. And so now I have a good chunk of people that are business owners that we can support each other. So if someone did apply for my Freebie swap but their audience is more b two b, then I send it specifically to other businesses. So in that last freebie swap, email takeover because she was promoting her services. She owns a VA agency. And, of course, so my b to c people don’t really need that, but now you have a really target audience that you could actually market to.
Prisca Benson [00:14:16]:
And then they’ll have it in their emails for as long as they want to, and they could book a call or they could have downloaded her freebie or wherever the case may be. And that was just exciting. She’s from Mauritius, which is, like, what the in today’s world, we can be good work with people all over the world. So You know what?
Melissa Brown [00:14:30]:
I think that’s Anne. Right? Yeah. Okay. I actually have her booked for later this month to do a podcast interview here. So
Prisca Benson [00:14:37]:
Nice.
Melissa Brown [00:14:38]:
We we may have to bring this back up and follow-up
Prisca Benson [00:14:41]:
Yeah.
Melissa Brown [00:14:42]:
How things went with that too.
Prisca Benson [00:14:43]:
It’s a way of free advertising. There are ways some people could pay for sponsorship in their email, but you don’t know what your return is. The free, option makes it less of a like, you don’t know what you’re gonna get the other way, and then you would put a cost to it. This gives you option of putting that person in front of people that they want to speak to Mhmm. And they get to know you that way. Even if right away, I don’t know that she would she necessarily got 3, 4 clients out of it, but you get your name out. People who didn’t know who you were, people are always looking for VAs and they want a reliable source because you’re living in their inbox. They could save the email and come back to it Mhmm.
Prisca Benson [00:15:19]:
Months later if they if need be.
Melissa Brown [00:15:21]:
The thing that I love about that newsletter takeover or a social media takeover is you’re endorsing that person. You obviously trust them. So it’s that transference of that know, like, and trust factor to other people. You wouldn’t give this opportunity to just any person. And I
Prisca Benson [00:15:39]:
can value your list too. A lot of the times, the reason the freebie stock came to be as well, besides the fact that it was recommended as a strategy, is that I’m not gonna know I’m not the expert in all things. And while my expertise lies in making money simple for women and helping them to achieve financial security, there’s more aspects to life. And so we want people to be able to connect with reliable people in that space, people who are in that space all the time. That’s the thing with money. Right? To some degree, everybody knows something about money even if they don’t think they’re great at it, but I’m in the space. I’m reading up on it all the time. I know all the things.
Prisca Benson [00:16:15]:
So same way if somebody is doing freebie swapping, it’s a meal plan. That person is an expert in how to optimize that and make that better for the consumer. So that’s the whole goal, helping them live a very holistic approach to creating content for your clients.
Melissa Brown [00:16:29]:
That example that you just gave about someone who has meal planning and knowing about budgeting and money, You can help that other person’s clients by okay. This person’s teaching them about meal planning. You’re gonna teach them about how to save money with that meal planning or it’s just such synergy.
Prisca Benson [00:16:47]:
Yes.
Melissa Brown [00:16:48]:
I love these ideas. You also mentioned before we hit the record button, you mentioned something else about a strategy that I had not actually heard of yet, the discovery call swaps. Yes. Tell me about that.
Prisca Benson [00:17:02]:
I’m very deep into looking how other people strategize and how they grow their businesses. And so I saw that people, they do discovery call swaps. So a lot of businesses, they have a setup where you meet with the client, and to their client, if they are a good candidate, they become a prospect, then they could book a discovery session. And then from there, they may go on to ongoing long term coaching. So with someone who has that kind of model, if you have a similar model, that discovery session, you can swap. So they sign up for your discovery session, you sign up for theirs, and it really gives you a chance to not just say, oh, my friend has this and you should check it out. It really gives you a more in-depth opportunity to learn how they do the things. So that way, when you do speak to your audience about it, you can more easily rave about it.
Prisca Benson [00:17:50]:
It’s not just, oh, my friend does this and you should check it out. This is what she does. These are specific things that she does to help you get to your goal and I’ve seen how effective this could be for you. You should really check it out. It gives a different layer of genuine opinion and experience genuine experience of your biz buds offer.
Melissa Brown [00:18:11]:
Right. I see this as a great way for referral partners.
Prisca Benson [00:18:16]:
Oh, yeah.
Melissa Brown [00:18:16]:
You really get to experience the other person’s discovery calls. You know what it’s gonna be like for the people that you’re sending over there, and you know better about who’s a better fit.
Prisca Benson [00:18:26]:
Oh, yeah. When you said that with the better fit, instead of sending just everybody, you know, this works better for this kind of person, so you could give more actual clients that will more likely convert.
Melissa Brown [00:18:39]:
Yeah. And as the other, shall we say, pretend or posing as the ideal client for the other person. You can give the other partner feedback on what lands well and what was a little confusing, and maybe you might wanna try this or ideas. And they can do the same for you.
Prisca Benson [00:18:59]:
Right? Mhmm. And then you can see what works. Even a lot of times, I’m just talking even for when I met with Jillian, and she’s she has a referral program. I’ve been thinking about doing something like that. How do we even how do you do this conversation alone? We’re learning about how we can optimize our businesses. And instead of trying to figure stuff out from scratch, you can learn from what someone else is doing.
Melissa Brown [00:19:20]:
Such simple ideas, but just so effective. So we’ve talked about bundles, freebie swap, IG takeovers, podcast appearances, YouTube channel appearances, which would probably also apply in, like, a livestream. Someone who has a livestream show
Prisca Benson [00:19:41]:
Yeah.
Melissa Brown [00:19:42]:
Collaborating with them for that. And then it would live on a YouTube channel or a podcast, newsletter takeovers, discovery swaps.
Prisca Benson [00:19:52]:
Yeah. We got a good list going there.
Melissa Brown [00:19:54]:
Yeah. There there’s so many ideas here. There’s virtual summits. Have you collaborated with virtual summits as a speaker or as a host?
Prisca Benson [00:20:03]:
Yeah. And not as a host, but as a speaker. So the good thing about summits is majority of the time well, there’s 2 ways that people do it. If you’re a guest, is that they either have you prerecord, which is awesome for introverts. Right? You basically create your slides. I use Canva to do the recording, and then you could just send them the link to the recording or however method they prefer you to send it. Canva is great with that. Or also, they will do a live Zoom situation, and then they will interview you, and that’s another way they can do this summit.
Prisca Benson [00:20:34]:
So it depends. Also, summits, they vary in terms of which ones I I did 2 summits in January. It’s like a nutty. I was like, I have a lot going on here. And they both happen to follow around the same time. I was like, oh my god. This is nuts. But where one I did because my email list was smaller than the minimum requirement.
Prisca Benson [00:20:52]:
I couldn’t remember what the minimum requirement was. You paid. It was a nominal fee, so it was worth it to me. But while the other one didn’t have that requirement, so there’s just expect that. Even with bundles, sometimes they do stuff like that where especially if it’s a prominent bundle you may have to pay to get in, if your list as not to the same size or your whatever the case may be.
Melissa Brown [00:21:14]:
But And you’re speaking about just a participation fee.
Prisca Benson [00:21:18]:
Yes.
Melissa Brown [00:21:18]:
Because some of the bundles have a sponsorship fee or
Prisca Benson [00:21:21]:
Mhmm.
Melissa Brown [00:21:22]:
No. That’s right. A higher level of investment to get into the bundle. But, yeah, you’re right. I’ve been seeing more people like, a nominal fee, $7, $9, something, small amount, which helps offset the bundle host having a VA to help put this thing together. So to me, it’s money well spent.
Prisca Benson [00:21:40]:
Yeah. Yeah. And I think it it makes it important for someone to figure out their messaging. You want your messaging to be clear so that way you really get the full value of what you’re spending. Mhmm. You know? Like, you really don’t wanna waste that. You definitely don’t wanna waste the opportunity to pay for it even if it was just $7. You wanna take full advantage.
Melissa Brown [00:21:58]:
Yeah. And you wanna make sure that you’re going into a bundle that is attracting your ideal client. You don’t wanna go a
Prisca Benson [00:22:05]:
big deal.
Melissa Brown [00:22:05]:
You don’t wanna mismatch there because you probably won’t get too many opt ins if that’s the case. Or if you do, you might get opt ins that are so mismatched that they’re gonna drop off of your list immediately, so it’s not gonna be as effective.
Prisca Benson [00:22:17]:
That’s an excellent point you’re making too, Melissa, is that being a host of a bundle Mhmm. At one point, you see people apply, and it’s like, what are you
Melissa Brown [00:22:26]:
doing here? Yeah. Right. I’ve experienced that too.
Prisca Benson [00:22:29]:
That, read what I said. It’s important to be intentional about where you’re putting your content because the thing is too of course, depending on which email platform you’re using and the features that you’re using, you are paying for these people to come on your list.
Melissa Brown [00:22:42]:
Yes.
Prisca Benson [00:22:42]:
So you don’t want just randos, honestly. You want people as much as possible that lean in, and there are always gonna be opportunities. Do not feel like you’re missing out because, oh, this doesn’t really blow them up. I just want people on my list. It they won’t buy. Okay? So take that out of your mind.
Melissa Brown [00:22:59]:
You want people who are ideal clients, and you wanna give them something that will really showcase your expertise. You don’t wanna just give them, like, any old, like you said before, rando. Rando type of digital product. You wanna solve a problem for them. You wanna show them that you can solve a problem. We could talk for hours about bundles. Believe me, I could I would love to talk about bundles, but let’s get back to the list. Okay.
Melissa Brown [00:23:23]:
So we’ve got virtual summits as another opportunity. How about teaching in other people’s groups? If somebody has a mastermind group or a a membership group
Prisca Benson [00:23:34]:
Yeah.
Melissa Brown [00:23:34]:
I I know that that’s an option. A lot of times, instead of just a a virtual summit or, an in person summit. There’s all kinds of speaking opportunities that are out there. That’s another collaboration. Have you actually tapped into that? Teaching in other people’s groups?
Prisca Benson [00:23:53]:
Yeah, some people have very robust memberships and they want content. They want reliable information for their people. You could do it in different ways. You could do it via when we’re talking about being in the person’s group, they may have routine monthly calls that they have guest speakers on. The other way I did this was interesting. This actually was set up months ago, but she has such a robust thing. It took months to even get on the calendar to be the featured speaker, and she gave you a month. You decide what the topic is.
Prisca Benson [00:24:18]:
So I re also recorded this thing on Canva, and it would go out. I don’t know her exact system, but in February, that’s when your thing goes out to her people. It’s a private community,
Melissa Brown [00:24:27]:
and Yes.
Prisca Benson [00:24:28]:
You’re just out there for those people. And it’s so neat because you clearly we talked about the know, like, trust factor. They because it’s their community, they’re gonna be very protective over it. So the people who are in the group know that you’re bringing value and that this person trusts you, and you should be able to trust the person that’s speaking as well. So finding opportunities like that doesn’t come as readily as stuff like bundles and stuff. That requires you actually reaching out and making those connections. I don’t know how much when people are building their businesses that they realize how important that’s gonna be was to build those connections and then try to find once you have one, try to create new ones, continue to build on it, which means staying in touch with people, which means maybe they’re on your email list as well so that they can see what you offer and then they could see, okay. Well, if I need someone on this topic, this is the person I’m gonna reach out to.
Prisca Benson [00:25:17]:
So your consistency in both networking and in your content is going to draw that in as well.
Melissa Brown [00:25:24]:
I like what you just said about that model that the person who you taught in their class or in their membership, you actually recorded it ahead of time.
Prisca Benson [00:25:34]:
Yep.
Melissa Brown [00:25:35]:
And so the host or the person who has the membership has a chance to view it first and put their stamp of approval on that before releasing it out to all the members in their membership
Prisca Benson [00:25:48]:
Yep. Which
Melissa Brown [00:25:49]:
adds even a higher level of know, like, and trust factor. The
Prisca Benson [00:25:54]:
Yeah.
Melissa Brown [00:25:54]:
The host has actually looked at this and said, yeah. This is great stuff. I want my people to be able to have this access and put it into the membership. I’ve seen the model where it’s been more live teaching,
Prisca Benson [00:26:08]:
which Yeah.
Melissa Brown [00:26:09]:
Definitely. Is is also a good option because then your members can ask questions. Yeah. They can ask questions of the expert who’s in the room. So it just depends.
Prisca Benson [00:26:20]:
With the live component, you get to know what your ideal client, hopefully, is even thinking. And that even helps you make better content.
Melissa Brown [00:26:33]:
Exactly OK, Are there any other collaborations that you’ve done or heard of that we didn’t touch on? Because we touched on a lot.
Prisca Benson [00:26:38]:
Obviously, this is even another one, podcast guesting. Yeah. But that only, again, is something that you do by building through relationships. So the way that we met even is just not only that we’re in both in the collab club, but there’s opportunities to match with people. And if you’re not taking advantage of those opportunities, there’s some other groups I’m in too where it’s okay. Well, this month or this week, you’re matched up with this person, and you get this email and you just ignore it, it’s not to your benefit. So, if you’re trying to grow your business, even if it’s someone that you may not think is an exact match, it doesn’t hurt because you don’t know who they know, who they might connect you with. You schedule a 30 minute meeting over Zoom, over the phone, and you’re able to see what they have to offer.
Prisca Benson [00:27:17]:
Maybe their friend is the person that they have a podcast that you might be eligible on. The thing is too, when you’re applying to podcasts, a lot of times, who knows how many people are applying to this podcast. Right? Right. You don’t know until you have that connection with someone, you could either directly pitch them or you know them in person, then you just really never know that you’ll ever get called to actually be a guest. So the connections are ideal even though the same way even to with applying for a job, even though it’s off topic. It’s always better if you know someone on the inside. Yeah. So it’s the same exact It’s
Melissa Brown [00:27:49]:
who you go. Right?
Prisca Benson [00:27:50]:
Yep.
Melissa Brown [00:27:51]:
Yeah. That’s such a great point because if you see this collaboration partner connection, someone thinks that you should meet this person.
Prisca Benson [00:27:59]:
Mhmm.
Melissa Brown [00:27:59]:
And you just blow it off and say, oh, I don’t think there’s any synergy here. You’re missing connecting to that person’s entire network.
Prisca Benson [00:28:07]:
Yes.
Melissa Brown [00:28:08]:
And it’s all of these connections, I feel, should be two way. Like, they’re missing out on connecting to your network and the people that you know. So I always like to say do the activity, let go of the outcome. So any other ideas that you can think of where it’s helped grow your list through these collaborations?
Prisca Benson [00:28:27]:
Yes. And this is an unexpected thing. You can get collaborators
Melissa Brown [00:28:30]:
secret here. Secret. Secret.
Prisca Benson [00:28:32]:
You can get collaborators that you don’t even know. If you’re a ConvertKit paid user, they have a feature called creator network, which is easily to gloss over and ignore. But I initially, when I first got on, they promoted it. I was like, okay. Let me put something on there. Whatever. Okay. And then so every once in a while, I get one every few months or so.
Prisca Benson [00:28:49]:
Okay. That’s cool. A random person is coming on my list, but okay. Whatever. But then if you’re ConvertKit user, you know that on the site when you first log in, they always have these videos telling you how to use a feature or how someone grew their list. And there was a specific video, I’ll give you the link so you can share with the people. I’ve been sharing it everywhere, kinda like people need to know this.
Melissa Brown [00:29:08]:
Oh, okay.
Prisca Benson [00:29:08]:
She talked about all the different tweaks she made to her Creator Network profile to help her get more leads. And when I implemented and not even every single thing. A lot of the things I think she gave 6 or 7 points that you could alter to make your list more attractive to basically strangers. And I consistently get at least 2 or 3 a day at this point. Wow. They’re basically people off the street. Okay?
Melissa Brown [00:29:33]:
Yeah.
Prisca Benson [00:29:33]:
And then because you’re doing this, other people in their creator network, they can also refer you because you’re part of their creator network. So, of course, if you have a very robust explanation, which she talks you through like how she did hers and you could build it for yours, for your profile, then it’s easier for them to recommend you because you’re not some nondescript person selling or promoting a nondescript service. You’re very specific. And so then people refer you. You also get notifications when people refer you so you can refer them back because and now you’re networking with someone who you don’t even know, honestly. This is not like the actual definition of networking. But nowadays with the Internet, you could do so many things, and this is one of those things. That’s another opportunity too to give value to your members from other people’s email list.
Prisca Benson [00:30:17]:
So, like, one of the things I’m not an expert at, but I enjoy, but I can’t be the person who really speaks to this, is like travel hacking. And so you can actually put a snippet. There’s actually a feature now where and the same way you could put a snippet or a image on your emails. If you go down, there’s recommendations and whoever is on your recommendations, you could put their recommendation in the email to provide value to your audience. So it has so many features. You could post one of your newsletters or more of them so that people can see it before they join and see, oh, yeah. This really brings value. It adds more juice to your content because it’s like now they’re not just joining it because, oh, yeah, you talk about money.
Prisca Benson [00:30:55]:
It’s like, oh, but this is how she talks about money. Yes. And I could see the value in this, so I need to join this list. It’s exponentially it’s almost insane to me how many people just come off the street that way. Okay.
Melissa Brown [00:31:05]:
So So I’ve gotta check that out. Well, it took me a long time to transition from ActiveCampaign to ConvertKit, but I have recently pulled the plug on the other one, and I’m into ConvertKit a 100%. So I haven’t really fully explored the creator’s network, but it sounds like I’m missing out on an opportunity there. And anyone else who has ConvertKit already, please explore that. We’ll make sure that all of those links are in the show notes. And it may actually help sell people on ConvertKit because of that particular feature.
Prisca Benson [00:31:37]:
They even have also the integration with SparkLoop. SparkLoop is like a newsletter referral system, and so you can get paid to refer people. That’s, like, unexpected. If you do it more actively, you might be I just do it passively. And so that’s income that you could get by promoting people who are advertising for their thing. Obviously, again, you wanna make sure that you’re advertising things that are a benefit for your list. Okay? We always wanna think about our list comes first. Okay?
Melissa Brown [00:32:04]:
Yes. Always.
Prisca Benson [00:32:05]:
But people come from there too. That part, I have not figured out. I now have people coming from Creator Network and from SparkLoop, and I don’t pay for squat. Okay? Uh-huh. This is even happening. So if somebody actually knows, they could tell me how I’m get I keep digging into the sparkle loop website trying to figure out where are these people coming from, but it’s a separate line. And so now it’s like going to set up the automations to make sure everybody gets out of welcome sequence because they just pop up on your list. You wanna make sure that they get nurtured as well.
Prisca Benson [00:32:30]:
So Yeah. It’s a funny game.
Melissa Brown [00:32:33]:
Yeah. Oh, well, I love that. So listen. If any of our listeners know how that spark loop works, please put it into the comments in the show notes so we all know. Absolutely.
Prisca Benson [00:32:43]:
Inquiring minds wanna know.
Melissa Brown [00:32:45]:
Right.
Prisca Benson [00:32:46]:
But I’m grateful to the opportunity that ConvertKit gives. It’s that that makes it so these people just keep coming on to the list.
Melissa Brown [00:32:53]:
Yeah. You just never know. We’ve been talking lots and lots about the collaborative opportunities. But tell us how that’s impacted your list. Yes. How has it grown?
Prisca Benson [00:33:05]:
So, initially, like we talked about, I had 20 people about 20 people on my list forever. With every opportunity we discussed here, my list has grown. And then the bundle hosting is what made the biggest impact. So at that point, I had around 200 people on my list.
Melissa Brown [00:33:19]:
Do you remember the numbers, how many people you actually got on your list when you hosted that bundle?
Prisca Benson [00:33:25]:
So when I hosted the smart money bundle, and mine was a modest bundle. I only have 13 contributors.
Melissa Brown [00:33:30]:
Okay. And it sounds like it was pretty targeted also. Smart money. Okay.
Prisca Benson [00:33:35]:
Mhmm. And I went from 223 subscribers to 314 subscribers. So that’s almost a 100 new people. So all these, opportunities, they all build into each other because not only are you getting more leads, but you’re also getting more opportunities to network even further with people, and hosting does that the best. And then so that builds on it. Right? Then that’s more freebie swaps. That’s more podcast guesting. That’s more email takeovers, IG lives together.
Prisca Benson [00:34:03]:
All those things those opportunities open up exponentially so that now your your list can grow forever, infinitely.
Melissa Brown [00:34:10]:
Right. Yeah. It just opens up some floodgates.
Prisca Benson [00:34:13]:
Yes.
Melissa Brown [00:34:14]:
Well, last summer, when I hosted a bundle, first time in, like, 3 years, 4 years, I think I got 200 new subscribers. It was very targeted.
Prisca Benson [00:34:23]:
Yeah.
Melissa Brown [00:34:23]:
New subscribers. I think when I did my first bundle, I didn’t know what I was doing. I made all the mistakes, and it was way broad. There were more subscribers, but then I didn’t email them. Remember?
Prisca Benson [00:34:35]:
Yeah.
Melissa Brown [00:34:36]:
So a lot of those people dropped off. I love when you’re hosting that you can just target exactly who you’re looking for and tap into so many other people’s networks and just grow your list with real specific targeted good leads. So, Prisca, I am sure that other people are gonna wanna get in touch with you. You’ve got a free offer for our listeners today. Can you tell us about that?
Prisca Benson [00:35:01]:
So as we talked about, I’m a money coach, and I wanna help professional women create a plan for their money that is simple, customizable, and helps them to live their best life now and in the future. So 3 steps to financial freedom. It basically walks through the main three things I feel make people successful long term financially. And I like to make it start off small because we want it to be achievable and so that you could build momentum. Not only will it tell you what the 3 steps are, it walks you through. It’s a workbook as well so that you can actually take notes and make a plan that you can then implement so that you can see a difference almost immediately.
Melissa Brown [00:35:38]:
Okay. So why we’ll make sure that link to get that freebie is in the show notes. I think there’s gonna be all kinds of links into the show notes with a lot of the things that we talked about.
Prisca Benson [00:35:49]:
Oh, yeah.
Melissa Brown [00:35:49]:
For sure. And where on social media do you usually hang out?
Prisca Benson [00:35:54]:
I live primarily on Instagram at our green life n j. So that is where the bulk of my content is today and where I live most on, and it’s the best way to reach me if you do wanna collaborate.
Melissa Brown [00:36:07]:
Okay. Alright, everybody. Did you hear that? If you wanna collaborate with Prisca, go over there to Instagram and check out her feed and kinda slide over there into her DMs and send her a message. I’m sure she will respond right away.
Prisca Benson [00:36:21]:
Yes. I love it. Just to clarify, our green life NJ is one word. There’s no underscores or anything. Our green life NJ.
Melissa Brown [00:36:28]:
NJ. And the NJ is New Jersey. You’re another Jersey girl. Yay.
Prisca Benson [00:36:34]:
I love whenever somebody says they’re from New Jersey or that they’re nurses because that’s my day gig. I’m like, oh my god. I’m so excited. Yeah. I’m meeting people in the field.
Melissa Brown [00:36:42]:
We have several things in common. We’ve had to discover. We both have a medical background, and Yep. We’re both in New Jersey. So yeah. So all the good things here. Well, Prisca, this has been great. Thank you so much for all of this great information, and I will see you in the next collaboration.
Prisca Benson [00:37:01]:
Oh, yeah. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.
Melissa Brown [00:37:04]:
And thank you all the listeners for tuning in and staying here to the end of this episode. I hope you took plenty of notes. And if you didn’t, go back and listen again and take notes because this information about collaborations is golden. We’ll see you again next week. Bye bye. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the She’s Got Content podcast. I hope you got at least one nugget to take action on this week. If you got value from today’s episode, I would be so grateful when you leave a 5 star rating wherever you listen to podcast.
Melissa Brown [00:37:38]:
It only takes a second, and it really helps me get my message out to impact even more people so they can, in turn, keep the ripple going. If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts and leave a review of the show, it would really make my day, and you just might receive a shout out on the show as my content creator of the week when I read out your review. And last but never least, if you want an endless supply of just right ideas for content you can write about for your blog post, your emails, your videos, podcast episodes, all the content things, then you wanna head over to my website at she’s got content.comforward/content, and pick up your free workbook. Never run out of content ideas. Look for that link in the show notes today along with the other links mentioned in today’s episode. Until next time, content creators. You’ve got an audience waiting to hear from you, and you’ve got content to share with them. Stop being the best kept secret and make a bigger impact when you’ve got content out there in the world.