💌 Show Up Aura-First, Pivot-Proof Your Biz & Create Strong Bonds Using Email
Image from Clarissa Explains It All (Nickelodeon)
Get yourself a cup of tea and get cosy, because we’ll jump right in with a confession: Six years ago, for a duration of several months, I ghosted my entire email list. Just straight up disappeared.
It’s… not great. And it’s what I tell my clients and students today to not, under any circumstances, ever, do.
How come I, who should absolutely know better, committed the cardinal sin of email for small businesses? Truthfully, the interface of my then-email service provider just wasn’t a place I really wanted to hang out. It felt clunky to me, and, even worse, it reminded me of jobs past (which I’ve talked about in-depth in this podcast episode on Projectors in Corporate) where, tasked with email marketing and communications, I’d be sending out large email campaigns daily and weekly, and tracking their impact.
I’d left that life behind when I chose to go into business for myself, and yet, here I was, dealing with that same unwieldy user interface once again.
Except this time, I had the freedom to choose differently 😏
Candid footage of me hiding from my email list ca. 2019 (via HBO)
📧 Enter Flodesk!
It just so happened that around the same time I was unceremoniously missing-in-action in the depths of the ethers, an at the time still tiny (but mighty!) new email platform came onto the scene: Flodesk!
As someone with a degree at the intersection where business meets tech and creativity, and a high affinity for beauty, I was immediately drawn in by their gorgeous and user-friendly design, and thus took a chance, migrating my then humble list over to the startup, and never looking back.
Gone were the days of Carrie Bradshaw-esque (metaphorical) hiding in front my laptop screen, and begun had the era of 💌 monthly Nadia Gabrielle newsletters – still going strong, almost six years later.
To which I soon added a second outlet, which, if you’re here reading this, chances are, you’re already subscribed to: The 📧 Projector Letters, a sooomewhat regular-ish (hey, I’m but a non-sacral girl in a predominantly sacral world 🫠 ) email providing resources, links and helpful little reminders about #ThatProjectorLife for, well, Human Design Projectors.
Email 🤝 Projectors in Business
Ever since that tiny… snafu 🙃 in the early days, my list has grown steadily, but more importantly, so have my relationships with my subscribers..
You might have heard me say this before: With a Projector aura, I’m much less interested in quantity than I am in quality relationships.
Feedback from a recent newsletter ☺️💓 Love us!
I’d rather have an energetically tight list that is engaged and excited to hear from me – which, judging by the email replies I receive to my newsletters (which often boggles peoples’ minds that recipients would reply to a newsletter, but for me, it’s something I’ve intentionally cultivated from day one and that makes me incredibly happy) I’ve achieved – than a super large list of people who feel lukewarm (at best) about the emails I put a lot of love and effort into.
Wheeew, that was one looong sentence, and you have to promise me not to tell Strunk & White. Okay? Okay. Moving swiftly along.
🧲 Applied Projector Aura Mechanics in a Digital World
You see, the Projector aura is designed to draw in the people that are for us. How does one distinguish between those that are and are not for one? Well, by showing up as your full self, by allowing those that are so inclined to gravitate towards you, and by directing your aura – your time, your energy, your gifts, your mastery – where it is already invited and where it feels correct for you, and then… going deep there.
Personally, I have no beef with social media the way people sometimes do, because I just see and enjoy it for what it is. However, in terms of pre-established invitations and depth over surface level, no platforms holds a candle to email, which I wouldn’t even necessarily compare to social platforms, as they serve completely different purposes.
Flodesk offers templates for gorgeous forms that allow your people to formally put up their hands and say, “I want to hear from you” = you can direct your energy with more intention
In my own business, which I have designed from the ground up to suit my design and auric needs, I have taken great care to ensure that I put the majority of my time and energy where it is wanted and invited. For me, a lot of that happens via email.
💎 Build Relationships As Who You Are
As a teacher of Service Design to service-based business owners through a Human Design-informed lens (among other things), one thing I tell all my Projector clients and students – particularly those only just starting out – is to build relationships as who they are, not as what they do.
As a Projector, your magnetism is not in your list of qualifications or the things you do, but much more in who you are. And chances are, the first or current iteration of your business will change. As you evolve, so will your view points, and as a result, your services or products.
When you build relationships as your authentic in-the-moment self, you build trust with your people, which in turn is the best way I know to pivot-proof one’s biz. As a result, you create a business that affords you the liberty and the space to grow and evolve, because from the beginning, people have come for you, not a specific thing you offer.
There is no other platform I know that is quite so effective at forging real, lasting relationships as email.
And – hand on heart, as we say in my native language – I can confidently say that even if I were to take a break from my business, I would continue paying for my Flodesk account, because it is a place I genuinely like to spend time, due to the relationship it has helped me foster.
😔 «But I don’t have anyone on my list!»
I can already hear it, you don’t even have to say it! The biggest misconception is that it’s not worth it to get on email when you’re only just starting out, because «there’s no one here yet». As you can see from my screenshot below, it really doesn’t take much.
A screenshot from my own Flodesk account, showing my first three monthly newsletters (with 46% growth over just two months)
In fact, with many of the clients I’ve coached and students I’ve taught over the years, we have focused on building out their email before anything else, because it is one of those things in your business that once set, it continues to bring you return.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a fully formed business or website or won’t have anything to sell for weeks or months. In fact: Even better. More time to build relationships, which will be the spine carrying your business for years to come, and iterations to come.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you don’t have anyone to even write to. Start with five people; heck, start with one. You’ll grow from there.
But: You’ll only grow if you begin.
✏️ Your Action Items
Obvi I’m on a mission to get all Projectors onto email so you can start building, brick by brick (or… digital raven by digital raven) your own little secret digital kingdom where you and your readers love to hang out, gather inspiration, exchange ideas and just have a fun time.
As you can tell, I’m a huge fan of Flodesk, which is the Email Service Provider (ESP) I have been using and paying for myself since those days I told you about in 2019 (in fact, I just paid my annual subscription fee last week!)
Over the years, I have referred many a client and student (who themselves have grown into super fans), thanks to which Flodesk has kindly given me a Partner affiliate link to share with those who are interested.
Start your free trial, have a look around and get a feel for it, AND get 25% off your entire first year using my Flodesk Partner link here.
My honest take? Any ESP can work for you, as long as it meets your needs and you actually use it. As a business owner, you will be spending time in your ESP every day, so best choose one you genuinely enjoy. For me (and many of my clients & students), Flodesk is the only one I can imagine using.
With every free Flodesk trial (using my link below), you’ll also get free access to my Email 101 2-part video class
If you’d like more in-depth teaching on HOW to get started, as well as step-by-step guidance (literally me screen-recording my own Flodesk and showing you how to set everything up), I’ve got you.
💌 When you use my Flodesk link, I’ll also send you free access to my 💻 two-part theory & practice Email 101 class (which I used to sell for €99).
Free up a few hours, make yourself a 🍵 warm coconut matcha, and by the end of that afternoon, we’ll have set up your own account step-by-step, from which you are now free to send gorgeous, gorgeous emails your people will adore.
Shall we?
Want more?
Here’s a post that dives more deeply into Email Energetics for Projectors
Add yourself to the wait list here to learn how to design for your energetics as well as the strategic back-end processes that need to happen for a service to be a success in the front end in my program, Service Design School