Energetic Email Strategy for Connection & Conversion with Breanna Owen

Colie: Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of Business First Creatives podcast. Today’s guest is going to be a real treat, so. You guys all know Brittany Herzberg? She has been on this podcast, uh, by the time this airs, I think it’s four times, maybe five. I don’t know. Brittany is a regular guest, but some time ago Brittany was like, Hey, I have this friend Brianna, and you really need to have her on your show.

And I was like, okay. And you guys know I like to invite people when people tell me, but I just looked it up and Brittany sent me that note a year ago. So it has taken me a year to reach out to Brianna Owen to come on the show. To talk about email marketing, but the way that she approaches it is so interesting, and I’m not gonna spoil it because the moment that she starts talking, you guys are totally gonna get it.

Brianna, welcome to the podcast.

Breanna: Oh, thank you so much for having me, goalie. I’m so excited to be here.

Colie: I am so excited for you to be here. So guys, today, this morning in anticipation because Brianna and I don’t know each other at all. So in

Breanna: No.

Colie: of this recording, I listened to both times that she has been on Brittany’s podcast, the Basic B Podcast, and I also listened to about half of her interview on another podcast, and I found out such interesting stuff about her. So I just wanna talk about your degree, first of all. Like, ’cause your, your degree has almost nothing to do with emo marketing. I mean, there is a

Breanna: Right, right.

Colie: tell the listening audience who you are, what you do, and what you majored in in college.

Breanna: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you again for having me. Um, like you said, my name’s Brianna Owen. The boring title would be that I am an email copywriter. But I’m not just like a regular schmegular, like I’m not. Your bro marketing person’s email copywriter. I lead with email energetic. So I firmly believe that there’s an energy to email and if your emails are not landing and they’re not selling and you’re not getting the responses that you want from them, it’s because you are out of alignment somewhere and we can absolutely use your copy to be an energetic alignment with who you are to help your messaging otherwise.

, But I absolutely did not. Start out on this path.

Colie: Mm-hmm.

Breanna: I went back to school.

I was a mom who like needed something for me. and so I got my degree in fashion.

Colie: And you guys all know listening to the podcast, Chloe is absolutely obsessed with fashion. And I do say like every day, I don’t know if Chloe is going to go to college. I don’t know if that’s her journey, but if it is, she is probably definitely going to major in fashion just like her auntie. So I just thought that was a little interesting

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: But not only got a degree in

Breanna: Right, right.

Colie: you also got a dual degree in.

Breanna: and marketing

Colie: Yeah.

Breanna: with a digital marketing certificate. So that was, you know, 2017 ish. And so we had extra little add-on things that we could get. So I did digital marketing as well.

Colie: So tell me about how you got into email. Like why email? How did you start

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: Because it seems like it’s a pretty like. path for someone who was getting a degree in fashion, even if you had a dual degree in marketing. Like when

Breanna: Right.

Colie: marketing, I don’t think email marketing is what initially comes to mind.

Breanna: Uh, and that’s fair. That is so fair. So I, again, it was all on accent. I never set out for this. but you know, God works in mysterious ways and I’m exactly where I need to be now. but I had, as part of the marketing degree, I had to have an internship and I was struggling. My fashion internship was very easy.

I had a business selling jewelry. I was just able to use that. But I. I had never really worked in the marketing industry before. I was scrambling for an internship and like my hail Mary move was to call. I knew the wife of the mortgage lender that we used to buy our house, and I called her and I was like.

Would you please talk to your husband and get him to hire me because I’m desperate for a marketing internship. And I know he has said before that he could use some help with marketing I actually like, spoiler alert, I worked for him for eight years before we like officially offboarded and we’re done together.

And he likes to tell people how, when he first said yes to me, he was like, this will ne this is never gonna work. This is never gonna go well, this is never gonna work. It’s gonna be bad. that’s not at all what happened. We were great together and you know, we worked together for like eight years, like it turned out really well.

But it was a general digital marketing internship for him. So I had set up his CRMI had done things, and a lot of it was just like watching him to see what he needed in his business and then I was gonna take the initiative to make it happen. And I was noticing how much time every day he would spend like one finger at a time typing out emails.

To his clients, like he was very, a very, still is a very client centric business owner, and so he wanted to check in with people, how’s it going, any news, any updates to share? Are you guys still looking? Where are you at? And he hated it. He hated. So much he would like bribe himself with snacks and treats and be like, I’m only gonna do three and then I’m gonna go do this other thing.

And then, right. Like if I get out 15, then I’m going to have a golf day on Friday. Like he would do anything he could to psych himself up to get these things sent out. And I was like, dude. Why don’t we just got your CRM up. Why don’t we automate this for you? Why don’t we just sit down together and say, what is the entire mortgage process like?

what kind of touch points do you wanna be giving people at when, what would you say to them? And then I will write emails for it and we’ll put ’em in an automation that will go out for you. So, so that’s what we did. And in that process I was doing a lot of other things, digital marketing too. I would write sales pages and I would do social copy, and I would do all right.

I did all the things, but I love email, like I love it so much, especially automation. I’m the girl that does not like to do dishes. I don’t like to do laundry, like I do not like to do things over and over again. I think it’s so annoying, but you’re telling me I can do something once and send it out again.

Any person who might need it, and it’ll work for me, like sign me up. I’m there all day long. So that is how my love affair with email marketing began.

Colie: All right. Spoiler alert. That’s why she’s here. I hope you guys

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: definitely the angle. And Brittany, if you are listening, thank you so much because once you started talking about these things, I was like, oh, this is why you wanted me to have her on my podcast. this is an actual email copywriter that is telling you that she is writing the emails that I fuss at you guys to

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: of your CRM every single day. And

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: what you said, Brianna, like do it once, do it right,

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: almost never think about it again. And

Breanna: Right.

Colie: it’s not for every single one of the clients, at least write 80% of it that’s gonna be the same.

And you know, sprinkle in a little 20% of personalization and go on about your day.

Breanna: And set in the reminders, right? So if you don’t have an automation set up for, it goes for you, you need some sort of automation to trigger you to send it.

Colie: Yes.

Breanna: some sort of a calendar, a task, something that says like, oh, by the way, you need to send this email. Like that’s what I do with my clients now.

Even.

Colie: So you said something really interesting because when I was asking, and this is of course before we hit record, ’cause guys all the good shit happens before we hit record. But when I asked her. About who she works with. She said, you know, you know Colie, sometimes people come to me and they want help with their welcome sequence, but then what I do is I ask them, but do you have a post purchase

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: So I want you to talk about this because I talk about this a lot, but it’s actually like, that’s not the words that I use. And so I

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: that you use those particular words, because I think about it related to digital products, but. do you ask somebody about their post-purchase sequence if they have

Breanna: Well, yeah. Well, if they, if they are an established business owner, if somebody comes to me, even if they say they are looking for a welcome sequence, because as the experts, like we know what’s best, right? So your audience or photographers, the, if somebody comes to you and says, oh, I, I wanna wear these colors and environment and you know, best, you’re gonna be like.

I’m really great behind a camera, but honestly like stripes and all these mixed patterns are not gonna do you any favors or whatever. Um, that might be like you and your authority are gonna be like, hold up. Can I give you some insight here? ’cause I’ve done this so many times. So I do the same thing. When people come to me and they are an established business owner, if they have served people already, whether it is physical, digital, or service based, because.

I don’t know if any of the podcasts you’ve listened to. It came up that I ran a nonprofit that served, we had physical products, so I’ve done it all. Is like, okay, but are you connecting with them after you have served them? After you have done something with them, are you still connecting with them?

Are you still nurturing them? These are the people, like the data shows that your existing clients or prior clients are 60 to 70% likely to hire you. Again, new clients are like 13 to 20% likely. So much more effort and energy and time and resources to nurture a brand new person than it does to nurture someone you’ve already worked with.

Not to mention, these are the people you’ve, you’ve already worked with them. They’ve already experienced everything you have to offer. They’re the ones that are most likely to be in love with you. They’re gonna need the least amount of convincing, like they know you and they’re gonna be your greatest source of referrals and connections and reviews and testimonials, right?

Like. So I start there, right? Like, let’s work with what you’ve already got, before we start nurturing anybody new. So that’s why I start with the post-purchase if they are an existing business.

Colie: I’m so glad that at the end of that, you mentioned the referrals and the testimonials because testimonial voice of customer

Breanna: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Colie: emails that you’re writing at any stage,

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: your client experience or they’re inside of your email marketing sequences, and also that referral bit because. A lot of times when I am working with like a wedding photographer and I start talking about, oh no, but like, what are you doing after you deliver your images? They’re, you know, I usually mention selling products and they’re like, oh no, I don’t wanna sell products. Like, I don’t have time for that. I’m like, okay, but like, what else are you doing with them to bring them back

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: as paying clients again?

And they’re like, no, I only do weddings. I have no interest in doing newborns or families. And I’m like, okay. Also these people are the ones that are gonna bring you the referrals. And when they get someone has given them like good word of mouth, those people are even more likely to hire you than someone that you are trying to find cold off of the

Breanna: Right.

Colie: So every time someone tells me, oh no, but I don’t need to like bring them back into my world to rehire me, well that’s fine. There is value outside of if there’s, you know, never an opportunity to work for you. Work with you again. ’cause one of the funny things is like wedding photographers are like, no, I don’t wanna work with them again.

If they get divorced and they get remarried, that’s gonna be awkward.

Breanna: Well,

Colie: start laughing. ’cause I mean, you know, but there are other ways that you can increase your client lifetime value with

Breanna: Yeah, because they’ll be your.

Colie: them rehiring you. Yes.

Breanna: They’ll be your greatest source of referrals, like what you were saying. And the best way to do that is to keep top of mind. It’s that it’s the top of mind awareness. So I think of a wedding photographer, like, you could have a whole nurture sequence, a post-service nurture sequence that goes out like once a month, that first year of marriage where maybe it’s like.

Marriage tips or like fun date night ideas like you, how do you like, think about where they’re at now, their, their first year of marriage and, and you could have an email that goes out on their one year anniversary with like a couple of your favorite photos from them or something if you really, if you really wanted to put that personal touch on it or link back to their wedding album or something like that.

Like be top of, be top of mind. For them, like you can serve them well beyond. Here are your photos. I mean, I’ve been married almost 16 years and gosh, I would, I would love to be able to go down memory lane, right? Like if somebody to prompt that and remind that, and at some point you’re like, gosh, is it our anniversary?

You know, somebody to be like, oh, somebody remembered. I’m so grateful. Somebody remembered. Like, there’s so much more to it.

Colie: No, and I really love that all of those ideas that you gave a wedding photographer, none of them were like, come by this, because it is about nurturing. And if you are top of mind If you are sending out these emails and they are like date ideas and things like this, this has nothing to do with the actual service that you provided them, but you are still providing them with like something good for them to read and something that they can implement inside of their lives.

Breanna: Well, and if you did wanna keep it photography related, but you didn’t wanna ask them to buy anything and you are not venturing outside of the world of weddings. Okay, but you are still a photographer. You still have some expertise. What about some cos ideas, right? Like what about like, hey, it’s your one year anniversary.

If you wanna take like one year photos to have. You know, capture the memory of every year. Like, here are some posing ideas, here are some ways to recreate some magic. Right? Like, there are, there are other ways that you could serve them still within the realm of what you do without it necessarily being anything else

Colie: Yeah.

Breanna: of like another service or something.

Colie: So when it comes to someone, okay, ’cause we already talked about post-purchase emails. When

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: to someone sitting down and like starting to think of all of those touch points and what the emails need to include for their customer journey, what are the common mistakes that you see people make when they sit down to actually start that process?

Breanna: Um, I think the biggest one is going for perfect from the get go. I think we can get so flustered and I think people do get so flustered with, well, I don’t know what to say or, I don’t know how to say this, and it’s like, really just then. Start with the easiest thing for you. And I mean, that’s how I do it.

I go, I go lazy before I go fancy.

Colie: Mm-hmm.

Breanna: and I say that because like I saw something recently out on Instagram that was like lazy hooks versus viral hooks, right? And the lazy hooks were like five ways to do this. And then the viral hook was this storytelling thing. Well, my brain doesn’t go to the storytelling thing first.

My brain goes to what are five ways I can do. Five ways to share your wedding photos with families. Like three ways to do, use your wedding photos as a Christmas card, right? Like what are, I don’t know. So just start with the easy thing. Just start with the basic thing. You don’t have to make it fancy or perfect from the get go.

And then just brain dump, is what I would say to do. Like just brain dump, get it all out and then you can kind of take a step back and go, what? Are there common groupings? Is there a way that I can combine these things? What if I, I think another common mistake is people think that the post service or any sort of welcome sequence or nurture sequence has to be in a really short timeframe, and they forget about the long, the long term, right?

Who says that you can’t send or have an automated email go out on the one year anniversary who says that you can’t do things? Two years out even, or whatever. So think bigger. Don’t think just, oh, what would I send a week, a day, a month after? Right. Like, think bigger than that. And then we already kind of touched on it.

I think people get very narrowed, focus on. Well, I am only asking for this, or I can only do this, or I’m only talking about these things. And it’s like, no, meet your pe your people are whole people. You might serve them by only taking photos of weddings and you only show up for this once in a lifetime thing.

But they’re they’re whole people. That’s one day and their entire life. What other ways can you meet them where they’re at? Experience that they’ve had with you or after they’ve had this experience with you, like think, just think so. I, those are three ways.

Colie: I’m gonna say, I’m surprised you didn’t say think human mode because one of the things that I heard you talk about in two different podcasts was a lot of people really focus on business mode, and they’re not just thinking human mode. Like emails are a way to build connection with your clients. They don’t

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: have to be like, please do this, thank you.

Like.

Breanna: Right.

Colie: we just write an email because we wanna connect with our people.

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: tell them this funny shit that happened yesterday, like whatever it is.

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: so while every email should have a purpose, I don’t think every email has to have a business purpose in terms of selling them something, telling them what’s

Breanna: Right,

Colie: next, or something along those

Breanna: right. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and that’s part of the whole, like meet them where they’re at and the bigger picture than just the thing that you do.

I just use different words. We just, we just use different words to, to say it because Absolutely. Sometimes the purpose of it is, is like you are six months into being married and maybe you’ve had your first fight or maybe you haven’t, or like tell the funny story or get them out of their head or what, you know, like a hundred percent.

There’s more to the purpose of an email could just be the connection point.

Colie: And I love what you said about, I mean, I’m gonna say it in a different way, but we’re

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: thing done is better than perfect

Breanna: Yes.

Colie: you just need to start. That is the

Breanna: Yes.

Colie: preventing you from being more effective in your business is sometimes just taking the leap and hitting, publish.

Guess what happens with an email sequence? You can go edit that thing as many

Breanna: Yep.

Colie: as you’d like. And granted someone that you already sent an email to is not going to get your updated version, but the next person that gets that email is going to get the updated

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: and maybe in six months you’ll have an even better version.

I mean, the key is to get it down because if you don’t ever hit publish, you are always gonna feel like you’re in that. Oh, but it’s not ready. Oh,

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: But think about how many people could have gotten these emails and taken the stress off of you in that time where you are waiting to make it perfect instead of hitting publish.

Breanna: Absolutely. And honestly, if you make really big tweaks, I’ve done this before, if you make really big tweaks to an email that’s within a sequence, you can copy that and send it as a general nurture email. You, you’ve made enough changes that it can do a twofer for you. And you can send it to other people.

Like I guess it depends on which email you’re tweaking. Right. But, but you could, you could still make it go out in other ways. Absolutely.

Colie: I absolutely love that. And honestly, the original reason that I brought you on here was you were on the Basic B podcast and you interviewed Brittany, like you

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: host,

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: am a big fan of.

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: is going to be linked in the show notes everybody, but. Brianna went on there and she was the guest host, and she was basically asking Brittany, okay, I’m an email writer.

Breanna: Uhhuh.

Colie: these emails.

Breanna: Uhhuh.

Colie: them into blog posts

Breanna: Yep.

Colie: that my goodness is shared with people who are not on my

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: And so like once you’ve gotten this email sequence, like how are you making the decisions of which email would be good to turn into a blog post versus not?

Breanna: Oh, that’s such a great question. I just got full body chills. And also props to Brittany for being so willing. I was just, one day I’d boxer her and I was like, I have questions for you. Can we just, can I interview you with these questions on your podcast, please? And she was like, yes. So thank you, B, love you.

It was, and it was really fun. I think it comes down to of like, which emails am. Do I wanna scream from the rooftops? Which emails am I? Like, if I could infuse this very illegal, don’t do it. But if I could infuse this into every single person’s inbox out there, which emails are the ones that I would like?

What content am I like? No, this is so good. I just want everybody to share, have this and know this. those are the ones that I’m like, okay, let, let’s take that and turn that into a blog post and bonus. You can use it then as a nurture to see your email list and be like, Hey, this is the kind of stuff I share in my email list all the time.

Or, you know, you can find creative ways to then use that to point back to your email list. So if somebody is out there who found you because of the SEO in that blog post that came from an email like it’s, it’s of. Funnel people right back to your email with it?

Colie: I thought that was brilliant because. I have never really thought about turning my emails into blog posts, but I quite frequently turn my blog posts into emails.

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: again, everyone please go listen to that episode. It’s linked in the show notes, but you guys talked about, okay, if you’ve got this really needy blog post, like how do you turn it into a single

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: a series of emails, because Lord knows when I write a blog post, I mean it could probably be three or four emails.

There’s so much

Breanna: Right.

Colie: and I

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: want to overwhelm someone on my email list.

Breanna: Yep.

Colie: an entire blog post that I’ve written from my website.

Breanna: Yeah. Yeah, it, and it can go both ways, right? Like that’s exactly what we’re saying. Sometimes you start with an email and you’re like, Hey, could I turn this into a blog post? And other times you start with a blog post and you can turn it into an email. I know like part of the reason this question came up is ’cause every time I thought about people sharing their blog posts in an email, it was, I felt like it was always the same thing where it was.

The intro, sometimes they would even copy paste from the blog into the email and then like, if you wanna read more, click here. I, I hate clicking, like, I’ll be honest, I don’t, I don’t wanna click. I, I opened the email because I wanted to read the email, and so I am just one of those users. And a, a lot of what I do with email marketing comes from the user experience perspective.

What does, what does it like to receive the email? And sometimes it’s from myself and sometimes it’s like, no, I have to channel their customer. I have to channel their people. But when I’m thinking about me, like I don’t wanna click to read a blog, like I just don’t. So what are the whole reason why that question came up was like, okay, what are other ways to point back to a blog post?

Then here’s a little tease

Colie: a recap. Yes.

Breanna: and go read more there. Oh my god. That’s what

Colie: blog post and you feel like, oh, but this

Breanna: I’ve read this.

Colie: anything more than the

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: I mean, when you said that, I was like, that’s absolutely brilliant. And I was thinking to myself, now I need to go through my emails and actually audit how

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: I am I am repeating. ’cause I don’t think that I copy and paste, but you know when I tend to do that. For podcast show notes. So

Breanna: yeah.

Colie: like

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: take a little bit more energy to not do that and to actually make it like more curiosity driven, more enticing, someone to go listen to the podcast episode

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: they hear it, they don’t feel like, okay, but like I got everything that I needed from that email.

Why did I need to come listen to it? Yes, Coley’s voice is awesome,

Breanna: It is.

Colie: why

Breanna: It is.

Colie: listen to this?

Breanna: You are right. Yeah. And so for that, it would, you could tell more of the behind the scenes. What was the inspiration I think of, so I’m a really big Wicked fan. I’m real big, real big fan of Wicked the Musical. And I saw it in, I’ve seen it on Broadway. I saw it twice in theaters. We bought it on digital as soon as that came out and was available, I have children who watch, have seen it.

Probably a dozen times, at least since it came out. And I will sit down and I will watch the director’s version. Deleted scenes every time. Every time, right? And so like people, there’s always more people want. So what is your director’s cut? What is your insight? What are the deleted scenes that you could be sharing?

To give people more, and you could still point back to the blog post or to the podcast, but not in a way that is, I, I already heard all this. I, I saw the whole movie in the trailer, like,

Colie: Like,

Breanna: you know.

Colie: for me?

Breanna: Yeah. Yeah.

Colie: Okay, so weird question and I, this just came to mind just because we’re talking about like the same content ideas in different formats. How do you feel about people recording their emails as like a private audio podcast? That’s something that I’ve played around with

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: my mind I have,

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: big let’s take action person, but I have

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: started that, but I’m always curious. Because you love to read emails, and so

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: like even if I did that, you would still read emails. But for people who love to listen on the go and can’t read an email at the same time that they’re driving, but can listen to your emails, what do you think about turning emails into audio

Breanna: I’m a big fan of serving people in a variety of ways, so what I don’t like is your emails have no copy and it’s only audio. So, but if you are, I, I have some, I actually know somebody who does this. She’s got her body of her email and it’s all copy. It’s all written words, but then she does have a link that you could click and it’s her reading the exact same thing.

And it’s exactly what you said before, like some people just really, they like to listen. Or maybe they’re blind or they have visual impairments or they’re on the road and they can’t. Read while they’re driving because that’s not safe. Please don’t do that.

Colie: Don’t do that.

Breanna: Like, like surgeon general’s warning, do not read emails while you’re driving, please.

And like, this is where I would bring up human design too. So some people like their voice and like the physical aspect of their voice is so magnetic and it, there’s so much energy in just the way their voice sounds that, or, or like. You wanna make sure you’re putting the right emphasis on the right syllable, right?

Like our, we can read the same sentence, and if I just write it in copy and there are things we can do with formatting, we can do bolding and italicize and all sorts of things. But if you really want people to read and hear and absorb your emails, your words, the way that you are intending for them, you have a lot more power and control.

To do that when you voice it, would you, when it’s your voice speaking it as well. To your point though, the action of it, of actually making it happen can, it takes a little more effort. Takes a little more work,

Colie: a little more effort. It does. And it’s funny because, an evergreen email sequence, ’cause you said earlier, you know, you can do the emails on automation forever. We talked about one year, two years. Having an evergreen email sequence to kind of feed my audience on autopilot, if you will, was something that was on my to-do list, I think for or 14 months.

And then I finally did it and I’m like,

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: But at that point it was kind of between, I was like, okay, so do I just do evergreen emails or do I, do I actually make like a private audio podcast on them?

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: won because at that point, writing just seemed easier. But

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: back in another situation where I’m like, okay. I could very easily pick my favorite 15 Evergreen emails where they talk about different topics, record

Breanna: Yes.

Colie: them out as like a private podcast, even

Breanna: Yes.

Colie: past those 15. Like giving people like a taste. And then it’d

Breanna: Right?

Colie: Hey, and if you wanna read more of these emails, you can get them on my email list.

Please come join.

Breanna: Yes. Well, and if it’s a private podcast, you could use it as that is your lead generator. Like, so they’re already there, and then just after they go through those 15, then it’s whatever comes next, right? Maybe you give them the rest of the emails in written form instead of having

Colie: audio.

Breanna: audio version of them.

Or when you do record them, you can go back to your email list and you can share ’em with your email list. Because I’m a big fan of repurposing and reusing content. We just don’t have time to be on a hamster wheel of content creation, especially for your audience, especially for people who are like, I know photographers that you do more than show up in snap photos.

Like, I know there’s so much more to what you do than that. You don’t have time to also be constantly in creation mode, and so where can you reuse and repurpose things? And so if you’ve sent out an email and it went out to people a year ago. Six months ago, like I can get it again. And they’re probably gonna pick up something different, especially if it’s in a different format.

Especially if you sent it out originally, ’cause you wrote it and now you’re sending it out because you’re speaking it and it’s spoken word, they’re gonna hear it differently a thousand percent. So I would say also send it out to people who’ve already gotten it.

Colie: Yeah. Okay. So you mentioned human design. I feel

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: let you off this podcast because this is a big part of

Breanna: Yeah. Yeah.

Colie: email energetics in your

Breanna: Yep,

Colie: in your client’s businesses. So

Breanna: yep.

Colie: me a little bit more about how you’re using human design to help your clients. Write better emails for their audience.

Breanna: Absolutely. I would love to, it all came about because, so I. I personally studied human design for probably four years, right? Like, I used it for myself, I used it for my family. I am a marketing expert. I’m in marketing. And so the whole time I would ask myself, but what does this mean?

Not just for me and not just for my business, but for my marketing? Like, what does this mean for my marketing? Because I was like, there’s gotta be a way, there has got to be a way for it also to be in my content, in my marketing and whatnot. I just kept asking the question and I started realizing like there are little pieces.

And then all of a sudden, like one day it literally was this light bulb moment and I, I could see how to infuse it all. So then I immediately went back and started practicing on some of my clients. With their permission, they have full consent of like, Hey, could we try these things? Could we try these things?

And so I do have about. There are about 12 little pieces that I kind of like I layer together, uh, because anybody in human design will tell you there’s no one aspect of it that exists in isolation, right? So, um, it’s not just a type, it’s not just, and if anybody isn’t familiar with human design, a lot of these things you’re gonna be like, I dunno what you’re talking about anyway.

But like, it’s how you make decisions or how you speak or like whatnot. So. I’m trying to think of just like really basic ways to demonstrate and explain this. So we’ll go with type. So there are five basic types in human design. This is your energy type. There’s the most common is, Generator and manifesting generator because these are sacral energy types.

Sacral energy is very like do builder go energy, and about 70% of the population fall into that. 70% of people are either a generator or a manifesting generator. And then you have projectors, that are about 20% of the population. And projectors are, are like, they’re are seers, they’re our guides. They can, they can see things, they can see the train coming down the tracks.

They know where it’s gonna fall off the wheels. They know what’s going to happen, like, and that’s about 20% of our population. We have who population and initiators. Informers. They are the, I’m telling you what is going to happen and so that you can get out of the way or get on board. But like, either way, this is what’s happening.

I don’t need your permission. I’m not asking you what you think I’m telling you. And that, like I said, they’re about 9% of the population and then 1% of the population are reflectors. And rare percent are.

If you like a, if you were to fly an airplane and you just have like the dashboard of all the symbols and they’re, none of those things are controlling the plane, none of, they’re just informing you what’s happening, right? They are just telling you, this is what’s happening with this engine. This is what’s happening with that engine.

Here’s what’s happening over here, and that’s how reflectors act. Like they aren’t doing any of the things. They’re just telling you what they see and what they’re noticing and what’s happening. So, but all of those things can influence how you show up in your email. So if you are a generator in the sacral energy generators, a manifesting generators, they were meant to respond to things externally.

Well, if a generator or manifesting generator goes about their email or their marketing and this initiator informer, I’m chasing after it, I’m gonna go get it way like that’s not an alignment. With how they’re meant to show up. You know what I mean?

Colie: I do.

Breanna: Does that make sense?

Colie: mean for the email? So

Breanna: Yeah,

Colie: figure out, you, you know, you, you have your type

Breanna: yeah.

Colie: that is gonna influence how you should be writing these emails. Is it. your human design have anything to do with the way that you receive the emails, or is that it’s only as you’re writing them?

Breanna: kind of, so like at, if. You’re talking about like if you go into your inbox and you are Yeah, kind of. So like a generator or a manifesting generator who’s meant to respond. They are gonna read their email and they’re going. Are they responding to it? Is this like, do they have this sacral Yes or no?

Because they, they will operate very much in a yes no thing. So if you know a generator, a manifesting generator, and you wanna be able to go out to dinner, you don’t say, Hey, what do you want for dinner tonight? You go, do you want tacos? Yes or no question, right? Like, do you want burgers? Yes or no question.

So they’re gonna read emails in a very much like, yes, no way. Do I like this? Yes or no? Do I wanna click on this button? Yes or no? projectors are going to be looking for the invitation. They’re gonna like, they need to be invited into things. They need to feel recognized and. When they are receiving their emails.

But when you are writing the emails, I would say like when I write emails for a projector, it’s very much from this place of recognizing themselves. So if you are a photographer who is a projector, then we want to make sure your emails are standing in this place of recognizing your own skill because you have to recognize your ability in order for anybody else to recognize your ability and invite you in to work with them.

And in human design, people will often say like, projectors have to wait for the invitation. Well, projectors can also ask for the invitation. So you can do that in an email. You can ask for the invitation to work with someone. You can ask for the invitation to receive a testimonial or a referral or whatever, right?

And so, but very much so it can infuse how we receive, but also when, when they can send emails in alignment from that place. Because I think our business world wants us to be more manifester, more initiator, go-getter. I’m just gonna go chase this. I’m gonna do the cold leads, I’m gonna do the whatever.

But that doesn’t, that doesn’t work well, right? Yeah.

Colie: No. So it, it is, and I, I feel like, because I don’t do much with human design, and so this is why I’m kind of fascinated with this, but I’m thinking to myself, once you know your type, you write emails that are in alignment with your type, you are going to feel better about writing the email.

You are gonna feel better about sending the email. And perhaps if I can just take one more step forward, I would say that you’re gonna feel more confident. Your audience is going to respond in the way that you hope to your

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: I pushing that too far?

Breanna: No, not at all. That’s the whole point though, is because energy is everything, right? Like you can walk into a room and you know. If you’re like, do I like being in here or not? Do I like these people or not? Right? Like, you can, it’s everywhere. We get the icks without knowing why we feel the ick with something.

We scroll on social, we watch, reels or videos or whatever, and we like some and we don’t like some. We know whether we can or consciously explain it or not. We know if we like something or not. Well, a lot of the time we get the ick because we know it doesn’t we, it doesn’t feel right, like they’re pushing at us.

They’re trying to sell something, they’re trying to force something and we don’t like it. Well, on the flip side of that, on the business owner side of that, if you are sending from a place of alignment. It’s, it’s the opposite of the, it, it’s, it’s the yus, right? Like type of a thing of absolutely. It will feel good for you to send it and they will feel good to receive it because you are sending it in alignment with who you are.

Colie: Okay. I mean, I, I don’t know, this might sound a little woowoo, but now I’m interested in

Breanna: Yeah.

Colie: this more and thinking about what my messaging is and how I’m sending these emails,

Breanna: Yeah,

Colie: my own type, and also likely the types of people in my audience that are receiving the emails.

Breanna: well, you don’t even have to think about them as much. Like you really don’t. If you are in alignment with you, that is what is going to magnetize people to you.

Colie: Okay.

Breanna: another big area and element of this is. The human design motivation, there are six types of motivation. We all have one, so it’s not one of those of, oh gosh, how do I send.

Create content that will resonate and speak to all six types of motivation. You wanna create content that is aligned with your motivation, because when you are aligned, that is what activates other people. That’s what magnetizes them to you. And that’s what gets them to take that action to make them feel good about saying yes to working with you.

So it’s really like if you can get an alignment with who you are, then the energetic flow is there.

Colie: It’s there. Brianna, do you have stuff on your website that people can go read to hear more about this?

Breanna: On my website. Well, I do most of this actually in email, so, but I know, right.

Colie: I mean, who would’ve thunk That should have been what I said to start with.

Breanna: But on my website you can absolutely, owen your mark.com/links. And that has, there are a couple of different entry points to get into my email list, depending on which one, fits your fancy, whether you wanna grow your email list or if you want to, you’re interested in sending more automated emails, but you don’t wanna lose that personal touch.

I do have like a free guide on there. Make it a keep it personal, so

Colie: Oh. my, my audience has heard that phrase before, probably more times than anybody cares to recount. It works. I know it works, which is the whole reason that Brittany was insistent that I bring you on this podcast.

Breanna: I love it.

Colie: I loved our conversation and I’m

Breanna: It’s so fun.

Colie: with you, later and more about this because guys, I did book a call so that I can discuss my emails with Brianna

Breanna: Yes.

Colie: got on this, interview. So again, if you would like to connect with her, it was Owen, your mark on Instagram and also owen your mark.com for

Breanna: Mm-hmm.

Colie: I’m gonna have you

Breanna: Thank you so much.

Colie: have you come talk about next time, but we’ll figure it out later.

Breanna: Yeah, well, we can definitely talk, brainstorm ideas or if people have questions. I’m happy to answer specific questions. If they email you or ask you or like, Hey, I wanna know this from Brianna. I am a generator. I’m here to respond. So

Colie: so maybe I will try an email

Breanna: there you go.

Colie: with this podcast episode to say Brianna is gonna come back on the podcast at some point if you have any specific questions. Uh, please let me know. And guys, if you decide listening to the podcast and you’re not on my email list, please come join me. I

Breanna: Yes.

Colie: kinds of business and random shit on my email list, but it is hi at Colie james.com.

If you just wanna drop me an email.

Breanna: I love it. Thanks so much for having me. It was a joy chatting with you and connecting with your audience.

Colie: Yes ma’am. Finally meet you like face to face on a computer.

Breanna: Uh.

Colie: Alright everyone, I hope that listening to someone else tell you all about personalizing your automated emails and how this is where she starts with every single one of her clients was incredibly motivating for you in your own email journey.

I. I love it when someone comes on my podcast and I can really hammer my point home, but I am sad to say that is it for this episode. See you next time.