What Works | Small Business Podcast With Tara Mcmullin

A year ago this week, I deleted about 12,000 people off my email list. That meant that my audience shrank by about 80% with the push of a button. GDPR was going into effect and, while I wasn’t caught up in the mass hysteria happening in the digital marketing world around compliance, I did look at the regulations as an opportunity to take a new approach to building an audience for my brand. Quick aside—pro tip: never get caught up in any mass hysteria, especially when it’s about digital marketing. The me of 2018 felt pretty calm and collected about the whole thing—but the me of 2016 or 2017 would have lost my marbles. That email list—and the number attached to it—represented all of the work that I had put into writing, speaking, teaching, and positioning my business over nearly 10 years. But there was a problem… I had become more attached to the number than the people on that list. And that number was holding me back. I viewed every marketing, branding, sales, or product developm