Welcome back to the Jasmine Starshow. I am so excited about this episode because when

I first started my business in 2007, people told me to build my email list, but I didn't

really understand why. So I just put a sign up for my newsletter button on my blog. I would

occasionally send newsletters about what I was up to, but I wasn't sending them with intention

or strategy. So let's back up a tiny bit. I want to paint the scene to when the first time

I actually heard about the word newsletter, specifically in relation to a business. I was

sitting across the table from an industry peer. He was a photographer and I was a photographer,

and he was talking about how photographers in the future were going to market their business via

email. And I was like, okay, via email, got it. But I should have said like, got it with the

question mark, because I just didn't understand why somebody would want to read a newsletter

from a photographer. And I just really didn't know what I would write about or what would I say,

but I trusted him. And so I just followed his advice. So let's take a pause here and just let you

know, even if I ask you to do something, but you really don't get it. First things first,

give yourself the space and grace to figure out the why and how it would work for you. Because it

wasn't until 2016. Y'all, that is almost a decade later. Now, during this time, I was still building

out my newsletter and still randomly sending newsletters, but it wasn't here again without a plan

or a strategy. And then all of a sudden, 2016 rolls around and I started to seriously build my email

list. And I quickly realized that it was the strongest form of communication and the best way

to build trust. And I was building trust by regularly popping into people's inboxes. Now,

if you have signed up for my newsletter, hey, you know, I love sending you a love note every

Tuesday. It's how I do boo boo. Okay. So I should probably take a second and let you know that

clearly, if you've listened to the podcast, you know, I love Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn

...