Boss Talks w/ Email Nerd Matt Brady of Email FYI

My first entrepreneurial adventure was back in middle school, selling candy to my classmates on the school bus. I realized I could buy a box of Airheads cheap, sell them for less than the school store, and make a tidy profit.

Since then, I've tried a lot of other business ideas that didn't really take: bookkeeping, songwriting coach, and novelist. But email marketing is where I've finally landed.

I've always been a fan of words, whether reading or writing them, and email is one of the few channels that are still predominantly text-based experiences.

Not only that, it feels a lot more relational than something like social media. For someone to start receiving my emails or newsletter, they have to give me permission to enter their info in a box to opt in, as opposed to a relatively cold click of a "follow" or "connect" button.

They both have their uses, and I'd say it's best to use both instead of one vs. the other. But social media is more about talking "at" people, trying to grab their attention amongst the cacophony of the rest of the world.

Email marketing is meeting people in their inbox, so it's more talking "to" them, a bit more personal.

My advice would be DO IT! In all seriousness, most entrepreneurs and businesses would benefit from having a dedicated channel that gets about twenty times more engagement than social media. If you do it right, email newsletters can become a primary driver for selling products, booking services, and making more money at the end of the day.

I know people who say 95% of their revenue comes from their email list, so it's definitely worth a strong consideration.

(1.) Increasing LTV (lifetime value) of customers, (2.) Uncovering hidden revenue in an existing customer list, and (3.) Saving time by automating emails.

It's hard to beat ConvertKit (soon to be Kit) or Beehiiv in my mind. I know there are other "all in one" solution providers out there, but the features available pale compared to what you can do with those two platforms. 

I love helping people with an already profitable business model turn up the dial to 11. Once a business gets to a certain point, it's hard to see inefficiencies and places for improvement from within. Having someone come in and diagnose those areas of opportunity is a win-win for me and my clients.

As a solopreneur, disconnecting from "business mode" and taking time off can be challenging. 

I work full-time in transportation/logistics as my 8-5, so I spend my "in-between" hours and off time running Email FYI and working on email marketing. It's not glamorous to effectively work two jobs at once, but we all start somewhere!

I keep my end goal in mind: to generate enough revenue so my wife can quit her job if she wants to within the next few years. Unfortunately, she makes a good bit more money than I do, so I've got a ways to go.

At first, Email FYI was just a cool and short name for my newsletter. But the more I've sat with the name and grown my business around it, it's become more of a mission statement: email fuels your income.

The biggest hurdle so far has been sharing the true value of email with business owners & founders. While email has an amazing ROI, it's not always immediate, making the folks holding the purse strings hesitant to get started.

Stick with it. It can be so easy to throw in the towel after a month, three months, or even six months. But those who stick with it past that six-month mark have a much better chance of succeeding just by virtue of hanging on.

I talk a lot about making money with email in my daily (M-F) newsletter Email FYI, so that's always a good starting spot. I also help folks with their existing newsletters with a newsletter/email marketing review offer they can find here. 

LinkedIn is my preferred social platform these days, so folks can find me there at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattlovesemail.