One of my favorite Bo Burnham songs is the one where he talks about his problems, one of which being a burrito that has too much stuff in it. Because when there's too much stuff in the burrito, it falls apart, eliminating the whole reason for getting a burrito. And he says he's willing to sacrifice some of the things inside the burrito to keep it all together.
And what does this have to do with being a solopreneur? Well, we're constantly told that we need to be on social, have a good content strategy, and build our authority. It could almost feel like we are overstuffing a burrito with all of the places we need to be.
And when I talk to most solopreneurs, one of the first things that gets sacrificed for the sake of keeping it all together is having a mailing list. And while I won't espouse the reasons for why you need a mailing list, at least not very much in this episode, I think it really comes down to having the right tool. And that's what I want to talk about today.
Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of Streamlined Solopreneur, the show that helps you automate your business so you can take time off worry-free. I'm your host, Joe Casabona. And here's the problem.
When I coach solopreneurs, one of the first things I ask is what tool they're using for their newsletter. And the answers usually fall into one of two buckets. They don't have one because it feels like too much work, or they have one, but they're paying for a plan they don't actually need.
And yes, there are lots of reasons why we should have a newsletter, chiefly, because you don't wanna put all of this time into social media or some other platform you don't own, just to have that completely evaporate.
I had a client who got locked out of one of their social platforms, and because they hadn't built a mailing list, they had no way to get in contact with the audience. They spend so much time building a mailing list, which prevents that.
But you do need the right tool. And usually the objection is a tool problem, not a strategy problem. You're already creating the content. So why not build your mailing list using a tool that will help you, that won't add stuff to your plate?
So today, I wanna talk about why the right newsletter tool matters. I'm not gonna go so far as to say that the right newsletter tool matters more than having a newsletter itself. That would be crazy. But why I think Kit, formerly Convertkit, is the best tool for solopreneurs.
Now, before I get into Kit specifically, this is exactly the kind of thing. The solopreneur sweeps surfaces. This is what I'll do with my clients, and we'll find out where there are holes in their process or what tools they're using that they don't need. And so if you need help with that, if you're looking at tools you're overpaying for, or tools that you're underusing, and that you are fighting instead of helping, check out the Solopreneur Sweep. You can go to streamlined.fm/sweep. There will be a link in the description.
Okay. So, we've set up the problem. You know, having a mailing list is important for a bunch of reasons, but you haven't done it, or you don't feel like you're doing it well, and you are probably not using the right tool.
The fix is kit.com, formerly ConvertKit, I'm going to refer to it as Kit from here on out, not because it's like the Flashiest tool or the new Sexy tool. In fact, there's a lot of things about Kit that I wish were different.
The reason that I think it's the best tool for solopreneurs is because it removes a bunch of work instead of adding more. So here are four reasons why I think Kit is the best tool for solopreneurs.
First is easy setup. You can sign up for an account, and you can have a landing page in minutes where people can opt in to your mailing list or your lead magnet or whatever. You don't need to connect other services.
There are also embeddable forms and, uh, you don't need to be a developer to embed those forms. They make it really easy to just like copy a little bit of code and paste it wherever you need. They also have direct integration with a bunch of platforms like WordPress, which is where most of my websites are.
But I have a few other platforms I use. Card is one of them, and they have integration with Kit, uh, and Transistor is where this podcast is hosted, and they have integration with Kit. So, lots of ways for you to take your Kit newsletter or opt-in form and put it in the places where you are already existing.
The next three, we're not gonna talk about the growth tools, right? That's for if you wanna learn how to grow your newsletter, check out my friend Chenell Basilio over at Growth in Reverse. She will help you with that part.
The real reason that I am talking about Kit today is because of the automations and the integrations and the things that I don't need to do.
So first they've got lots of amazing automations. You can set up an evergreen sequence. So like when people join my mailing list, they get an email every Friday that I don't have to send. And I think I have like 20 emails on that, and I can add more as I think of them. And so I know that my newsletter will be delivered every Friday, whether I'm at home or on vacation, or if I'm not feeling inspired in a particular week, I know my, the people on my mailing list will get at least one useful piece of content each week.
So evergreen sequences, automations built in so that if someone comes in from a particular form, you can tag them or send them a certain email. So if someone joins my mailing list from a recommendation, I can talk about how much I like the person who recommended me or give them a little extra context for who I am in case they signed up without really knowing who I am. I can tag them based on certain actions they take.
So, if you join my mailing list, at some point I'm gonna say like, Hey, if you wanna hire me, let's hop on a discovery call. I can tag a subscriber when they click on that link. I can tag a subscriber when they book a call, and a bunch of other stuff, and I can tag a subscriber when they book a call because they have integrations with lots of other tools.
And that's really the third reason I love Kit for my workflow, for my processes and systems. They have integrations with other tools. So, for example, HubSpot for my CRM, they have direct integration with HubSpot. I use Cal.com for my call scheduler. They can integrate with Cal.com thanks to Zapier.
I sell my products through ThriveCart. They have direct integration with ThriveCart, so I can make all of these automations happen many times without needing Zapier. And that's really important, right? Because one of my core philosophies is the fewest links in the chain, the better, like it's called, I call it my Fewest Links philosophy.
And so the fact that Kit directly integrates with all these things, and like I mentioned, Transistor is another one, card is another one, WordPress is another one. The fact that it directly integrates with all of these things means that I don't have to worry about Zapier breaking or me hitting some weird limit or Zapier going down. I can trust that my automations, my integrations are going to work really well.
So those are the first three easy setups. So you're not burning a bunch of time building a whole new website just to get people onto your mailing list. real automations, so that you can control the flow of your subscribers to really get to know them. You can have sequences, so you don't have to be on the hook for writing a new email every week if you don't want to, and lots of great integrations.
Number four, and I think an underrated one that a lot of solopreneurs don't necessarily consider, but it's something that can really help them in their automation and their process and save a ton of time, is RSS feed to email. So if you publish a podcast or a blog, you don't have to copy and paste. You can directly integrate your RSS feed with Kit so that Kit can read your feed and then send out new entries to the RSS feed. So a new blog post article or a new blog article, uh, or a new podcast episode can send it immediately or build a digest to send weekly.
So this is an entire task that you can stop doing manually, and you'll get an email, uh, about 30 minutes before it's supposed to go out. So if you do wanna check it, you can, but this is, I think for a lot of solopreneurs, if you're already putting the effort into creating the content, hook up the RSS feed to Kit, and now you're sending it to your mailing list. So I think that's a really, really great workflow thing that will save you a lot of time.
And here's the thing about kit.com as well, is that you don't need to start with a paid plan, which is wonderful. Uh, I wanna tell you about, um, one of my clients, Laura, uh, we did a case study episode back in December that I will link to in the description as well. But she talks about how I saved her more money
than she spent on my coaching, which is incredible. And one of the big saves, aside from consolidating a bunch of tools, was Kit. She was paying for an email service provider. And I said, you know, with the free Kit account, you get everything you need.
And so on the free account, you get up to 10,000 subscribers, create the landing pages and forms, you can create sequences, and you can still tag and segment your audience. You can even sell digital products and subscriptions on the free plan. So, for what Laura needed, she was writing her newsletter and sending it out, and she was able to go to the free plan and save a bunch of money.
I would strongly encourage you to check out kit.com, especially if you haven't started a newsletter, because it will help you connect with your audience in a way that every solopreneur should. And it has a free plan that you can get started on to really understand how you're gonna use your newsletter. And then you can build on the automations, and some of the things I talked about here.
I'm a big fan of Kit. I think they do a lot of stuff for solopreneurs, one-person businesses, creators, and the automations and integrations are really the place where I get my money back. You know, I've done sales, I've had some sequences, you know, where I've used their features to sell things. And if I gain one coaching client from actions taken on my mailing list, Kit pays for itself for the year. But the time I save because of what Kit has to offer is where the money is for me. So I would say check out the Kit Free plan.
There will be an affiliate link in the show notes if you wanna check it out. I'm a big fan.
So that's it for this episode of the Streamlined Solopreneur. Again, if you wanna know what tools you're overpaying for or underutilizing, if you wanna know where you can find time and space in your solopreneur business so that you can really focus on the work that matters, I have the solution for you. It's the Solopreneur Sweep. You can find it at streamlined.fm/sweep. It's totally free. It's a 30-minute exercise, and it will find you time.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time. I hope you find some space in your week.