Episode 683: Why Food Bloggers Need to Know About Email Swaps (+How to Easily Add New Subscribers) With Chad Allen

EBT683 – Chad Allen

Intro 00:00

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

[00:00:37] Megan Porta

Thanks to my amazing interview with Chad Allen from Chadrallen.com I have a great idea for you. If you want high quality, valuable email subscribers aplenty, this episode is going to shed some light on how you can get those subscribers. Chad brings his expertise with hosting email swaps to this interview. It’s such a great idea and it’s really not that complicated. He goes through the entire process inside the interview why food bloggers should be prioritizing email number one and then how to go about planning and executing an email swap and how this can gain you valuable email subscribers.

[00:01:24]   

 He talks through some best practices and tips and also common mistakes to avoid. Literally everything you need to know about executing an email swap is inside this episode. I hope you love it. It is episode number 683. 

[00:01:45]

Are you really wanting to be a part of one of the Eat Blog Talk Mastermind groups, but you’re just not in the place to make the investment right now? This the Eat Blog Talk Accountability Group might be the perfect fit for you. For just $34 a month, you’ll get access to weekly accountability check ins, a private Slack channel, live productivity sessions and monthly Zoom calls with fellow bloggers and me, Megan Porta. Achieve your big blogging goals surrounded by supportive, like minded creators who truly understand your journey. The Eat Blog Talk Accountability Group is here to help you stay focused and motivated as you build your awesome brand. Head to eatblogtalk.com/focus today to claim your spot. 

[00:02:25] Megan Porta

Chad R. Allen is a writer, speaker, editor and writing coach. A 25 year publishing professional, he has worked with such best selling authors as Michael Hyatt, Carolyn Leaf, Mark Batterson and Phyllis Tickle. He is the creator of Bookcamp, a training center and community for writers as well as Book Proposal Academy, an online course. His passion is helping writers craft must read books that reach large audiences and he blogs at chadrallen.com. Hello Chad, welcome to Eat Blog Talk, your first time on how are you doing?

[00:03:00]  Chad Allen 

 I’m well, thanks for having me on Megan, I’m grateful for this connection.

[00:03:03]  Megan Porta 

 Yes. I’m so excited and it’s great to meet you and I know you are an expert in a very important realm that we need to learn more about. So thank you for sharing more about email swaps today. Before we get to that, do you have a fun fact to share with us, Chad?

[00:03:22]  Chad Allen 

 I do. In fact, I. Shortly after graduating from college, I lived for about seven and a half months in a 12 bedroom mansion about an hour south of Dublin, Ireland in what was the home of the stepson of the celebrated author C.S. lewis. Some of your listeners will know who C.S. lewis is.

[00:03:49]  Megan Porta 

 Absolutely.

[00:03:50]  Chad Allen 

 And that’s how, that’s really how I got my start in book publishing. I learned there were these people behind the scenes that made books happen and that’s what brought me into the industry. So that’s a fun fact.

[00:04:02]  Megan Porta 

 I absolutely love that. How was your time in that house? It sounds amazing.

[00:04:07]  Chad Allen 

 It was an incredible way to spend a large, you know, a section of my early 20s. I believe all, all people in their early 20s, if they can, they should travel. It just does so much for your own development as a person. And it was a great experience.

[00:04:25]  Megan Porta 

 Oh, that’s so cool. And C.S Lewis, what just an extraordinary person. He was an author and yeah, if you don’t know who C.S Lewis is, go read some. Do you have top books of his that you would recommend?

[00:04:39]  Chad Allen 

 Absolutely. The one he’s probably best known for is the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which itself is part of a series called the Narnia Chronicles. If you have children, they’re a great read aloud to your kids. And he was known as a Christian apologist, so he wrote some faith based books like Mere Christianity. He wrote a book called the Screwtape Letters which is a really interesting one. He was an academic, he was a dean at Cambridge, so he wrote a lot of academic books as well. But there’s plenty there for a popular read also.

[00:05:15]  Megan Porta 

 Yeah, he was a smart guy. Awesome. Well, I love knowing that about you. That just gives me an extra little flavor of who you are. So thanks for sharing that and then.

[00:05:25]  Chad Allen 

 Thanks for the opportunity.

[00:05:26]  Megan Porta 

 Yeah. To frame our chat, I thought it would be beneficial to just share a little bit with my audience. Who you are, what you do, what kind of business you run.

[00:05:36]  Chad Allen 

 Yeah. So I help writers craft, must read books that reach large audiences. That’s what I do. After spending 20 plus years in the book publishing industry, about seven years ago I went out on my own as a book coach or writing coach. I use either of those terms, and so that’s my passion. I love helping writers craft their books so that they market themselves, and then I help them build their audience, which is kind of the piece that we’re working on here today is, you know, how do you generate a warm audience that’s eager to know about whatever it is you produce, whether it’s a blog post or a podcast or a book.

[00:06:18]  Megan Porta 

 Okay, great. And then you also do something called email swaps, correct?

[00:06:27]  Chad Allen 

 Mm, yes. Yep.

[00:06:28]  Megan Porta 

 Okay.

[00:06:29]  Chad Allen 

 Email swaps, freebie swaps, lead magnet swaps. They go by various terms.

[00:06:32]  Megan Porta 

 Oh, I didn’t. Okay. I didn’t realize they were called multiple things. I’ve always known them as email swaps. But, yeah, Would you mind just starting by explaining for people who don’t know what is an email swap or a freebie swap?

[00:06:43]  Chad Allen 

 Yes. So I think maybe perhaps an effective way of introducing the idea is to say, like, if I met a food blogger at a party or an aspiring food blogger at a party tonight, I would very naturally say, hey, do you know about Megan Porta and Eat Blog Talk? Did I get it right?

[00:07:06]   

 Eat Blog Talk.

[00:07:07]  Megan Porta 

 Yeah.

[00:07:07]  Chad Allen 

 Oh, good.

[00:07:08]  Megan Porta 

 Okay. Good job.

[00:07:11]  Chad Allen 

 My apologies. Yes. Like, I would very naturally say, you really have to listen to this podcast. You need to get to know Megan Porta. You know, this is something you should check out, because I would know that you and your work would benefit them. So that’s the idea behind. We do it all the time in person.

[00:07:34]   

 We just naturally go, oh, my goodness, this person needs to meet that person that I know. Freebie swaps are basically the same thing. It’s when two creators introduce each other to their audiences. That’s what a freebie swap is. So I think that captures it.

[00:07:51]  Megan Porta 

 Yeah. No, I love your party analogy because you’re right. We do that all the time. We’re like, oh, I listen to this podcast or I read this author or I see this blogger publishing on social media. We do that in conversation all the time. So why not, you know, do that with a freebie swap and we’ll get into why.

[00:08:10]   

 So why do you think going back to just kind of a more generic email topic, why do you think food bloggers should be prioritizing email over just relying maybe on social media strategies or other things?

[00:08:27]  Chad Allen 

 These days, if you want to build a business, which is to say, if you want to make a change happen in the world, to use Seth Godin’s language, you need an email list in this day and age, you know, some of your listeners have heard this before, but when you are on social media channels, that’s sort of rented property, you know, and the landlord can kick you out or change the rules anytime they want.

[00:08:53]   

 But when you have an email list, you have an asset that you own and you get to use whenever and however you like. And, you know, we’ve seen this even just very recently, where a bunch of folks have left one social media platform and have moved to another because of, you know, things going on in culture.

[00:09:15]   

 That’s just one example. I’ve known people who built their businesses on a social media channel. The algorithm changed and their business plummeted because they relied so much on that social media channel. When you have an email list, you have something that’s much more solid than that. So I really encourage people to think in terms.

[00:09:36]   

 I’m not saying that social media is not important, it is important. But I encourage anyone building any kind of business or trying to impact the world, build an audience, help them in some way. How can you convert your social media followers to email? And how can you grow your email list even, you know, outside of social media?

[00:09:57]   

 So that’s why I think it’s so important.

[00:10:00]  Megan Porta 

 Yeah, okay. I mean, I. We hear it a lot in our space. It’s very important. And Chad is here just reiterating. Yes, it is. Do it. Grow your list. And these email or freebie swaps are a really great way to get started. Can somebody do this? Even if they have maybe just a few subscribers or don’t have massive social media followings? Can anyone do an email swap?

[00:10:26]  Chad Allen 

 Absolutely. Yes. So, you know, one of the first things to do is to figure out, you know, who. Who are my potential partners that I could. That I can work with because. And this can happen quite naturally, like, as. As in my party analogy. I mean, that’s kind of a natural thing that. That happens sometimes. And this can also be quite natural where you’re, for example, in a Facebook group. This has happened to me. I’ve been in a Facebook group. Maybe I’ve shared something and somebody’s commented and said, hey, I really like what you’re doing. I’d love to connect sometime. And then that turns into a freebie swap type of collaboration.

[00:11:03]   

 But let’s say you’re trying to be intentional and you’re not in a Facebook group where that’s likely to happen anytime soon. So you want to actually reach out to somebody. My advice is, especially for your first one or two freebie swaps, it is great if you can work with somebody you already know just to kind of get the feel for things to lower the temperature of how risky it is, et cetera.

[00:11:27]   

 It’s great if you can work with somebody you already know, and it’s also great if you can work with somebody whose email list is comparable in size to yours or even smaller. A lot of times we think about, oh, I want to get somebody with a huge list so that I can get lots of email subscribers.

[00:11:43]   

 But especially as you’re getting started with this tactic, I think it’s helpful to think in terms of somebody who has a comparably sized list or even a list that’s smaller only because they’re more likely to say yes. You know, they’re more likely to be on board. And it’s great to kind of, to kind of get your, get your feet wet that way.

[00:11:59]   

 You want to work with somebody whose audience at least overlaps with yours. So I was just, just was looking up today somebody who was in a summit with me who is a. She photographs food. Well, that would be, she’d be a great collaboration partner for a food blogger. You know, she probably needs email subscriptions and so do food bloggers.

[00:12:21]   

 So that makes a lot of sense. I also don’t worry too much about, you know, if somebody’s audience is exactly the same as mine, some would think, oh, that’s competing. Why would I want to send my subscribers to them? And vice versa. The reality is people will self sort, you know, there are people who are just going to like your style better than another person’s and vice versa.

[00:12:44]   

 So I don’t worry about that too much. What I do worry about is completely misaligned audiences where there’s just not much overlap at all. So in my space, I serve writers. So great collaboration partners for me are other people who serve writers. But maybe I serve mainly nonfiction writers. Maybe I work with somebody who serves primarily fiction writers.

[00:13:06]   

 Well, there’s a considerable amount of overlap between those audiences or somebody who serves speakers. Speakers often want to get books into the world, so that’s a great audience for me. So when it comes to food bloggers, I think about, you know, other food bloggers, of course, and there are so many different types of food bloggers that I could just see all kinds of potential there, or food photographers or I’m sure there’s any number of other types of folks who would be a good match for, for your listeners.

[00:13:32]  Megan Porta 

 There are so many different niches in the food blogging realm. I mean, imagine all the food in the world. We cover all of it. So would you say that maybe like a Vegan blogger wouldn’t be aligned with, you know, someone who cooks a lot of meat. Like, those would not be good partners.

[00:13:50]  Chad Allen 

 Perhaps. Perhaps. Although I do wonder about, you know, meat eaters who are still open to a vegan dish every once in a while. You know, maybe it doesn’t go as well the other way around.

[00:14:04]  Megan Porta 

 The other way around, probably not as good.

[00:14:05]  Chad Allen 

 Yeah. Could be kind of tricky, but, yeah, that would be a case where it’s like, maybe that’s not the best fit. Maybe I should talk to somebody else.

[00:14:13]  Megan Porta 

 Yeah. Okay. And then how many people are involved in the swap? Is it just two people swapping, or do you include more than that?

[00:14:21]  Chad Allen 

 That’s been my experience. I mean, it is enough, honestly, to coordinate the emails of two people. That’s enough to figure out if I had to include somebody else in the mix, we might never get anything done.

[00:14:33]  Megan Porta 

 You know, so start with one other person, right?

[00:14:37]  Chad Allen 

 And it is a reality as you do this and you reach out to people and you have conversations, you’ll end up having a great conversation with somebody and you think you have a plan and then all of a sudden they sort of vanish. You know, that happens. So that’s why I encourage, when you’re first getting started, go ahead and reach out to three people rather than just one, because chances are at least one freebie swap will happen with one of those people.

[00:15:00]  Megan Porta 

 Right? Okay, so start with someone, you know, comparable sizeless niches that are aligned or complement one another. And then what do you do from there? I assume one person kind of takes on the organization part of it, and what is there to sort out?

[00:15:19]  Chad Allen 

 So if you’re reaching out to somebody, you know, that’s fairly simple because you know them. And you could say, hey, I’d love to connect about a possible collaboration. Would you be open to that? If you’re reaching out to somebody you don’t know, my advice is make it all about them. So if I’m reaching out to Megan, I would say, Megan, I know that there’s a portion of my list that would be interested in what you’re up to.

[00:15:43]   

 I would love to let them know about you. Are you interested? And I love that question. Are you interested? Because it’s a simple yes or no, you know, and you, Megan, might say, boy, I’m really busy right now. Could you reach out in three months? Or you might ghost me, in which case I might follow up in a couple of weeks.

[00:16:00]   

 Or you might say, wow, yeah, I would be interested. If you do say that to me, my first response back to you is going to be great. Let’s schedule a 15 minute call sometime to talk. I think getting to that call is important. It’s when you get somebody into a Zoom session or a phone call that things start to really happen.

[00:16:19]   

 So that’s my advice about how to do the pitch part of it. But really keep the focus on them and helping them reach their audience. That’s going to obviously be of the most interest to them. And then almost always, if you keep that focus as you do the pitch and as you get into that initial call, they very naturally are going to want to reciprocate.

[00:16:41]   

 If they don’t, I think it’s perfectly okay to say, you know, this is terrific. I’m really excited to bring you some new subscribers. Would you be open to doing the same for your list? That’s perfectly okay. So that’s just a little bit of the, of the details of how it goes.

[00:16:57]  Sponsor 

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[00:16:57]  Megan Porta

So as far as actually doing the swap, can you give me an example of what people are swapping exactly?

[00:17:24]  Chad Allen 

 Yeah. And this is really important because, you know, it’s one thing for a partner to email about you to their list, it’s another thing for those subscribers to actually click a link and download your freebie in exchange for an email address. So your freebie becomes pretty important. And I don’t know if there are some standard freebies out there for food bloggers.

I imagine recipes are a pretty big one. Maybe that’s too easy. But what are the things that are going to be irresistible? What’s an irresistible freebie? That a gift, if you like. Sometimes it’s helpful to use different language. What’s an irresistible gift that you can give to that other person’s audience? That’s what you’re after.

[00:18:08]   

 And I have, you know, when you’ve been doing this for a while, maybe you’re in the same boat. Megan, like I have lots of different freebies that I can talk with prospective partners about. You know, I have a book proposal template. I have a freebie on are you ready to write your novel? I have an infographic on how to develop a great book concept and the list goes on how to design a writing retreat. So after a while you end up with a number of these things and then you just kind of talk through which one would be the most attractive to that person’s audience.

[00:18:39]   

 They likely know their audience better than you do. So I think it’s best to just listen, like, which of these makes the most sense? Or do any of them make sense? Because I’d be very open to creating something new if none of these is a good fit. In fact, if you don’t currently have a freebie, I wouldn’t let that stop you from reaching out to a prospective partner, especially if you know them, because it might be in conversation that you figure out what your first freebie should be. They might say, you know where, you know where? I think you could really add value to my audience, it would be with this kind of thing. And off you go, you know.

[00:19:15]  Megan Porta 

 Yeah, okay. So you offer a freebie that the other person finds valuable for their audience and vice versa, hopefully. And then you just decide a day and you send out the email saying, hey, this is Chad. He is an expert in helping people write books and he has freebie X and I would love it if you took a moment to say hello. Like, how does that email go? Is it extensive? Is it short and sweet?

[00:19:45]  Chad Allen 

 So, so important, all these little details. I mean, it does start to feel very detailed, but these details do matter. And again, it’s sort of in the spirit of helping this other person. You want to make this as simple as possible for the other person. So if you, Megan, were doing a freebie swap for me, I would give you swipe copy.

[00:20:03]   

 In other words, I would give you an email to work with. You’re probably going to want to change it, make it work, you know, make it sound like you, for example. But I would give you something to work with, including the link. This crucial. The link to the landing page that is going to offer my freebie to your audience. And I might give you a few subject line ideas to choose from. And I would keep that email pretty. The email swipe that you give your partner, I’d keep it fairly brief because you want people to get to that link as quickly as possible. And the kind of copy that I normally give to prospective partner or to partners who’ve agreed to do this is, you know, they’re talking to their audience, so they would say, hey, so and so.
  

 And then I, I usually start with a question that gets at the problem that the freebie fixes. So let’s just, I’m just, just for the sake of discussion, let’s say that you think that there’s some portion of your audience that would like to write a book. You might say, hey, have you ever thought about writing a book but you have no idea where to start? Well, I have this friend, Chad, and he has this terrific resource called how to Come up with a Great Book Book Concept. It’s an infographic. It comes with a video tutorial. It’ll take you three minutes to go through it, and you’ll have a much better idea of the book that you’re suited to write.

[00:21:22]   

 Click here if you’re interested. That kind of thing. So pretty short and sweet. It’s really easy for you to send to your list. Hopefully you’ll give me email swipe that’s also easy for me to send to my list. And then it’s really fun to watch those subscriber numbers increase. And I always let the partner go. No, hey, it’s only been an hour and I already have 55 more subscribers. Thank you so much. You know, whatever.

[00:21:44]  Megan Porta 

 Yeah, that’s so exciting. Such a great way to get a bunch of subscribers at once and hopefully subscribers that really want to devour whatever you’re offering. Right. So it’s not just subscribers you’re going to toss in two months, but they’re valuable subscribers.

[00:22:00]  Chad Allen 

 I’m so glad you bring that up because you’re absolutely right. I have done Facebook ads and picked up many subscribers that way. I’ve done lead magnet ads and I picked up a lot of subscribers that way. I will tell you that the subscribers I get through lead magnet swaps are much warmer to whatever it is I’m offering than subscribers I get through paid ads.

[00:22:22]   

 There’s just no comparison. Now, for other people, they may have a different experience, but that’s been my experience. And the thing is, I didn’t pay anything, right? All I did was network. All I did is have a conversation and did a little reciprocal arrangement to let my audience know about somebody I thought they should know about. And it didn’t cost me anything. And my list grew. So, yeah, there are some real benefits to this tactic.

[00:22:48]  Megan Porta 

 Do you have any stories, good stories about, like, I got a million subscribers in 24 hours, or I’m sure it’s not a million, but something that just really worked?

[00:22:59]  Chad Allen 

 Yeah. That’s so good. So just recently, there’s another writing coach, Daniel David Wallace, but his specialty is fiction, and like I said, mine is nonfiction. And so we connected and I told him about my writing retreat planner. So regardless of what you write, sometimes it’s nice to take a writing retreat to get something done, you know?

[00:23:21]   

 And so I had this little. It’s like two to three pages that asked the writer some questions to help them design a writing retreat. And so he sent that to his list and this just happened. That’s why it’s fresh in my mind. And I didn’t get a million, but I got over 200 new email subscribers.

[00:23:37]   

 And presumably there’s a number of those folks who are a good fit for, for the products that I offer. So that’s one example. I will, you know, I especially, I think about people who are just getting going with their email list. Maybe they, maybe they don’t have much of an email list. Maybe they have 100, 200. Maybe they’ve plateaued at like 250, you know, and they really just don’t know where to go from here. It is pretty awesome when you get that first email that goes out from your partner and you see all of a sudden hundreds, you know, it doubles your email list in a day. That happens all the time. So this tactic really does work. It’s very effective.

[00:24:17]  Megan Porta 

 Oh, I love that. I know a lot of bloggers who do plateau right around that. It’s funny that you said 250 because it’s like, yeah, I’ve been here for like two years and I, I keep culling to get rid of the people who don’t open, and then I’m back to 250. It’s like this point where you just. It’s like one of those plateau points. You just have to get past it. So to have something like this just push you so far past it would be so exciting.

[00:24:45]  Chad Allen 

 Yeah. I mean, in my own experience, one of the reasons I geek out about this tactic so much is it really has been multiple times in my business, in my journey as a business owner. These freebie swaps have been inflection points that have really helped me move the needle in terms of sales, you know, so it’s terrific.

[00:25:04]   

 And I would say this too, you know, so that you might have a listener who’s thinking, well, this sounds like, you know, an advanced tactic. Like, I don’t have any. I don’t have an email list, so what do I have to offer another partner? I have a resource that we’re going to talk about here that helps you replicate your current network.

[00:25:22]   

 So if you’ve lived for any length of time, you have a network of people. And I call these people your eager sneezers. These are the people who are eager to share your content just because they know you and like you. Not even like your food. Right. But they know you and like you, so they will help share your message with the world. These are the. Your friends, your coworkers, your former coworkers, your family, your acquaintances, your schoolmates, whatever. These are people who know you and like you. And so I have a resource that will help you kind of replicate your current network inside your email list so that you can get, I would say try to get to at least 50 email subscribers before you begin pitching an email, a freebie swap with somebody, but almost. I haven’t met anybody who can’t get their first 50 email subscribers.

[00:26:08]  Megan Porta 

 Yeah, absolutely. Everyone eats food, everyone needs food and a lot of people love food. So it’s a great fit for food bloggers. Do you have any other, I don’t know, best practices or tips that you would share that we haven’t mentioned yet?

[00:26:25]  Chad Allen 

 So I can’t emphasize enough that, you know, you focus on serving that partner and then also don’t lose sight of the fact that you are trying to get people on your email list. Why? To serve them. So make sure that you have, you know, an email. As soon as I subscribe to your list, I should get an email that welcomes them. And maybe it’s a 5 email sequence that helps me get to know you, you know, if I’m a new subscriber. Because you’re not just adding numbers to a list, you are starting a relationship. So make sure that you have that back end figured out as well. How are you going to introduce yourself to those new members?

[00:27:07]  Megan Porta 

 Serve and add value. I think that’s such an important thing to remind people. It’s not just about the number, it’s not just about getting past the 250 mark or whatever. You want them to show up so you can serve them value. That’s such a great reminder. And then for your welcome sequence, do you have just like a, I don’t know, one to three email sequence welcoming people? Do you just have one email? What do you do for that?

[00:27:34]  Chad Allen 

 Yeah, so I do have it set up. I use Kit and that’s another thing that people talk about. What email service provider do you recommend? I used Mailchimp for a long time and I think it’s great, especially if you’re just getting started these days. I use Kit. It used to be called ConvertKit. It’s the email service provider formerly known as ConvertKit, but it’s now called Kit and that’s the one I use. I think a lot of people in this space use Kit, but there are a bunch of others out there and I have Kit set to send an initial email as soon as somebody subscribes and it’s just, I think the subject line is, great to meet you.

[00:28:12]   

 And it’s a very brief, you know, I’m so glad you’re here. Try to give an interesting fact about me. And then I do have a five email sequence. I don’t think everybody needs a five email sequence. I think three to four is just fine. I think it’s smart on maybe the third, third or fourth email to mention that you offer both free and paid services so that you’re letting them know right away that you, you do sell things.

[00:28:40]   

 Assuming you do so that that doesn’t come as a shock later when you’re, you know, doing some sort of promotion. I also, I think one of those emails, it’s a great idea to kind of, you know, put your stake in the ground. This is what I stand for. This is, you know, if there’s some way that you’re, if there’s something you’re saying no to by doing what you do, that’s always really interesting. You know, I’m saying no to the fact that people just want to get their name on a book. I know that writers want more than that. So those are some ideas for a welcome sequence.

[00:29:12]  Megan Porta 

 I like that there are a lot of things to stand behind as far as food goes. So just stating that I’ve never thought of that before. Like, I don’t do this, I do do this. And we, a lot of us have that sort of thing spelled out in our about pages. So maybe people could just browse through their own about pages and get some ideas about what to put in their welcome email. Just a thought. What are some other best practices? Anything else come to mind?

[00:29:38]  Chad Allen 

 Yeah, I think another thing you can put in your welcome sequence is any, any piece of content that you’ve put out there that’s been particularly popular. You know, that’s a great thing to just throw in the PS by the way, check out my article on such and so or I did this podcast with so and so. Check this out. That’s a great thing to include. So those are, you know, you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel. You can like, to your point, you can use some of your own bio in that welcome sequence. You know, think about content you’ve already created that you can just repurpose for your, for your sequence.
 

And you know, I just encourage people to be, to be themselves. You know, especially with ChatGPT and, and these large language models, you know, we’re tempted to let them do the writing for us. And I think there’s definitely a place for, for those AI tools. I use them all the time, but I don’t often use them to, to, to write my email from scratch. 

I try to write the first draft and then use AI to edit it. I can’t overstate the value of your own voice and just use that first sentence or two to share about something going on in your life. Because the trick is to build a connection. My friend Liz Wilcox talks about going from fans to friends to followers. So you want to take them along that journey. And I think the best way to do that is to speak authentically.

[00:31:03]  Megan Porta 

 Yeah. There’s only one you in this world. Right. So speak your voice. Are there common mistakes that we should avoid when going about doing an email swap?

[00:31:16]  Chad Allen 

 Yeah. So one thing I would say is if you get in to one of these calls and you just don’t have a good feeling about the other person you’re talking to, it might not be anything that, you know, they may not be a bad person or anything like that, but for some reason you just, you’re just not clicking or, you know, on learning more. Yeah, it feels off. I would listen to that. I would listen to that. And you don’t necessarily have to say, you know what, this isn’t a good fit for me. Bye. You can be polite, finish the conversation, even wait a day or two as you’ve thought about it, and then send them a polite email that says, I loved hearing about you and meeting you after further thought.

 I just don’t think this is a really good fit. But I’d love to stay in touch, you know, just to let them down easy. But I, I would listen to that. If you don’t have a good sense intuitively, that is something to pay attention to. The other mistake would be, yeah, going, you know, pursuing somebody who has a very different audience from yours that’s not likely to produce. That’s going to be just a waste of time for both of you. And I think like losing sight of, of the overall project, you know, losing sight of the fact that what you’re trying to do is serve an audience, you know, and you. By serving your partner and serving the folks that end up on your list because of that partner, don’t lose sight of that. And I think if you keep those things in mind, you’ll. You’ll be just fine.

[00:32:44]  Megan Porta 

 Awesome. So we have everything we need. Thanks to you, Chad, to get started, like thinking through who to reach out to land on somebody that you know to start and just do it. I mean, it sounds super easy. And the rewards can be great. So why not? What do you have to lose? Right?

[00:33:03]  Chad Allen 

 Yes, absolutely. Get those first 50 subscribers and then reach out to someone you know and see if you can’t get a call scheduled and let the rest unfold.

[00:33:13]  Megan Porta 

 I love it. And you have a freebie to offer my listeners. Right? Do you want to talk about that a little bit?

[00:33:19]  Chad Allen 

 Yeah. So it is. You’ll notice in the title it’s targeted toward writers, but I promise it will work for anybody who wants to grow their email list. And it’s basically a way to get those first 50 email subscribers, or if you haven’t already done the work of reaching out to people that you know, like I said, friends, family, acquaintances and so on.

[00:33:42]   

 This is a tool that will help you do that in a way that’s not weird. You know, that that actually is genuine and will just help you to build that initial. Those people are some of the most important people to have on your list. You know, I always think about, like, you know, if you were to start a restaurant, that’s a good. That’s a good analogy for food blog. If you were to start a restaurant and you didn’t tell your friends and family because, well, they don’t really count because, you know, they’re not real customers. Because they’re my friends and family, like we have, we sometimes will have that mindset when it comes to our email list, but that’s crazy, you know, like, these are the people who just by virtue of their relationship with us, with us, will want to see us succeed, will want to help us succeed.

So make sure that you have those. Even if you have a thousand people on your list, make sure you have those people because they’re really important to your growth as a business and to your ability to make a change in the world. So this tool is at chadrallen.com/grow G-R-O-W and it is a simple tool to help you grow your email list.

[00:34:49]  Megan Porta 

 Great. Everyone go check that out. Thank you for offering that, Chad.

[00:34:53]  Chad Allen 

 My pleasure. Yeah.

[00:34:55]  Megan Porta 

 I like to ask all my guests if they have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to end the episode with. Do you have something to share?

[00:35:02]  Chad Allen 

 I do. I just read Ali Abdaal’s book, Feel Good Productivity. Ali Abdaal is a physician turned YouTuber. He’s done very well for himself. He’s a great follow if you don’t know of him. And he wrote a book called Feel Good Productivity. And the quote is, the secret to productivity isn’t discipline, it’s joy. That has been true in my life. If I can somehow find a way to make this fun like this conversation with you has been. I tend to be more productive. You know, I tend to have a better time. I tend to get more done. So that’s one I’ve been chewing on. And maybe it will be useful to your listeners.

[00:35:41]  Megan Porta 

 I love it. I haven’t heard of that book either, so I always love a good book recommendation. Thank you for sharing that.

[00:35:48]  Chad Allen 

 Absolutely.

[00:35:49]  Megan Porta 

 We will put together a show notes page for you, Chad, if anyone wants to go peek at those and see everything we’ve talked about today. We’ll have the link to Chad’s freebie and all of our notes from the episode. You can head to eatblogtalk.com/chadrallen with an A L L E N.

[00:36:07]   

 Correct.

[00:36:08]  Chad Allen 

 That’s correct.

[00:36:08]  Megan Porta 

 I got that right. Okay, good. Awesome. Well, is that the best place for people to find you, Chad, or is there a better way if they want to get a hold of you?

[00:36:16]  Chad Allen 

 My blog is great. Chadrallen.com that’s also my Facebook page. That’s my Twitter handle, my Bluesky handle, all of that Instagram, Chadrallen. And again, the freebies are at chadrallen.com/grow.

[00:36:32]  Megan Porta 

 Awesome. Thank you for reiterating that and thank you so much, Chad for your time today. We appreciate you and thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

[00:36:44]   Outro

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you posted it to your social media feed and stories. I will see you next time.