In this solo episode of the Business Without Burnout podcast, host Kirsten Roldan explains why she rejects the common advice of using freebies to grow an email list and instead focuses on attracting high‑quality subscribers who genuinely want her content. She outlines three concrete tactics to double email subscribers within a week: (1) weave personal stories into every piece of content to make the creator interesting and relatable; (2) share surprising results or unconventional beliefs that capture attention and spark curiosity; and (3) invite the audience to join the list daily by previewing upcoming email subject lines and emphasizing the exclusive nature of the content. Throughout, Kirsten draws on her own journey—from a healthcare worker and side‑hustle blogger to a multi‑million‑dollar entrepreneur—to illustrate how authentic storytelling, surprising insights, and consistent calls‑to‑action can transform a generic audience into eager email subscribers. She stresses the importance of believing one’s story is valuable, making content fascinating, and positioning the email list as the only place to receive unique, valuable material.
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Welcome to the Business Without Burnout podcast. I'm Kirsten Roldan and I help entrepreneurs make a lot of money peacefully. I'm an Eurekan who went from working in healthcare while cleaning houses and braiding hair on the side to building a business that's generated over $4 million and counting. But there was a time I almost shut my business down because I had a lot of money but no peace. I managed to turn it around, and that's why every week I share the 4 strategies that help you grow without burnout: email marketing, team systems, and mindset. So let's dive in. Hello, Peaceful Millionaires. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm excited to share how to double your email subscribers this week, and you are not going to need any freebies to do it. So first and foremost, let me just explain why I'm not going to teach you to create a freebie in order to double your email subscribers. So a core philosophy of mine is that the highest quality email subscriber, the highest quality lead, is the one that joins your email list just because they want to read your emails. They join your email list because they want more content from you. So the question that you need to be asking yourself in order to double your email subscribers this week is, what would make my audience want more content from me outside of what they're already getting? You all are not asking yourself that question, and so you are not creating interesting enough content to even get people to want to be on your email list without a freebie. So I'm going to give you 3 things that you can do this week to double your email subscribers and get them to want more content from you. Okay, so these are the 3 things. It's going to be very, very simple. Number 1: Where are you not sharing your story and infusing your story in your content, okay? So many of you are caught in like the educational loop, the how-to loop, where all you're doing is like every single post is like how to do this, how to do that, how to, you know, save this if you wanna do XYZ, share this if you wanna do that, whatever it is, just very like generic. Like when I look at people's pages, pages, I'm just like, oh my goodness, why would someone want more content from you when you're creating very generic, very uninteresting content? And the first thing that makes you more interesting than anyone else is your story. So if you don't believe your story is interesting, you better start, you better start believing it is, right? You have to think that your story is interesting enough to tell and that it actually is relevant to your ideal clients. A lot of you also don't think it's relevant. So when I was first starting, I came into this industry with no marketing experience, no corporate background. I literally was just a random girl in healthcare. Like, that was me. And I was selling, when I first started, social media management and virtual assistant services. And I felt like my healthcare experience was not relevant to anyone. Nobody cared about it. Nobody cared that I was in a 9-to-5. Nobody cared what I was doing in healthcare. I was in cardiology. It had nothing to do with what I was doing, but I had to believe that, okay, there's something about my story that makes me relevant. And I started to tell my story of how I started a side hustle because I loved blogging. And because I loved blogging, I realized that I could actually do social media and I wanted to help other people do social media too. Right? Like I found a way to make it relevant. And then even healthcare, I would tell stories about like, this is how I helped my department organize their SOPs, like, you know, to help with my virtual assisting experience. I would find a way to make it relevant. So even if you don't think it's relevant, you need to find a way and figure out the ways that it is relevant, but also that it is interesting. You have to believe that your story is interesting as well. For example, even recently I started thinking about how interesting it is to people when I tell them, you know, when I came into this industry, I was just like a random girl from like a small town outside of New York City. Like that, you know, I'm not even like I'm from New York, but like I'm not from the city. I'm from this like small town outside of it. And like I was just this random Puerto Rican girl from New York who was like working in healthcare and like didn't have that like interesting of a story, you know what I mean? Like I didn't have any corporate background and I was able to build a million-dollar business. And people have been finding that very interesting. And I even was like, wow, that actually is like really cool and something that's interesting to talk about. And so I've started sharing that part more. I've started talking more about it. For example, on my webinars, I mention it now. Like, I'm just this random girl from New York who like, you know, was able to build a million-dollar business. And it's very, very interesting, and it makes people want to hear more from me. But that was something that I never really thought was that interesting about me. Like, I actually thought it was the opposite. I thought it was very uninteresting. I'm not like the cool kids, you know what I mean? So I just never I never really talked about it that much or made it like a key part of my messaging, I should say. And now I'm like, wait, this is actually extremely interesting. Or even today, for example, I told a story around how I started learning Spanish again. I related it to business, right? And how I'm willing to look like a beginner and I'm willing to look dumb. And that's how I was able to build my million-dollar business because I'm willing to look dumb when I'm learning Spanish and I'm willing to look like a beginner. And I told this story how I got really emotional. And I get emotional a lot of the time because I think about how my dad's not in my life and he speaks Spanish and it would have been easier if he could have taught me and all this stuff. And I told this whole like story. And again, it was interesting. I had people reaching out to me that were like, oh my goodness, I relate to that. I also have a parent that isn't in my life that like took the culture with them and things like that. And like we were connecting on that and they found it very interesting. And I had other people that were like, oh yeah, that's such a good mindset to have. I need to have that mindset in my business. And so don't underestimate your story making people want to hear more from you. So that's number one, is start infusing more of your story, make yourself more interesting by actually talking about yourself and who you are, right? And building a community around that. The next thing that you're going to do to double your email subscribers this week is you're going to talk about something surprising to your audience. So you're going to surprise them either with a surprising result that they can get or a surprising belief that you have. So let me give you an example. I always use the example of how surprising it is to my audience when I tell them that they can make social media optional with email marketing, or that they can grow their email list without freebies. They're always very surprised that they can get that result, and that's very interesting to them, and it makes them want to hear more from me. Or I may share a surprising belief, like I don't believe in looking at open and click rates. So maybe on my marketing, I talk about, right, I don't believe in open and click rates. And that's a surprising belief for people. And they're like, wait, okay, that's interesting. I want to hear more from you about that. So you need to think about what is something surprising that either I can help my clients do, or that I believe that I want them to now know. Right? What is something that is surprising, interesting, fascinating? That's what you want to think about. I also think about my client Gina, who always surprises her clients when she tells them that you will pay off debt faster when you save first. They're always very surprised when they hear her say that. I remember one time she did this whole content series on being a trust fund baby, right? And like, that was like interesting and surprising. It was kind of a little bit of both, like the story and the surprising. Ness of it, right? Bringing in her story of like, these are my secrets of a trust fund baby. This is what I believe is a trust fund baby. And that was like really surprising and interesting for her audience to see. And they were excited about that. It made them want to hear more from her. So that is the content strategy that you want to be thinking about when you're doubling your email subscribers. How can I get people to want to hear more from me? How can I be more interesting and more fascinating? You need to Have your story and your content and surprising results and beliefs. The next thing, just strategically to get them on your email list, is you need to be inviting them to join your email list every day. And one of the simplest ways that I recommend you do that is by sharing what subject lines you're going to be writing that week, or, you know, what emails you're going to be writing that week and sharing the subject lines. So what you can do is you can, for example, if we were to apply all of this together, you can share a subject line related to your story. So one of my highest performing subject lines is "How a random Puerto Rican girl from New York built a million-dollar business with email," right? That is a part of my story that's very interesting and fascinating. There's a surprising result in there as well. Maybe another subject line would be "Why you need to stop looking at open and click rates to double your email sales." That's a surprising result or belief, and I'm sharing that with my audience and telling them, hey, I'm about to send this exclusive exclusive content. You're not going to see this anywhere else, so join my email list. Okay, you need to give them a reason to want to hear from you, number one, but also why would they want to join your email list if you're just gonna put the same content anywhere else? Why would they want to join your email list? So you have to make sure that you are promoting the exclusive nature of it as well. So this is very, very important. So these are the 3 ways that you're gonna double your email subscribers this week. You're going to infuse more of your story, You're going to surprise your audience with a surprising result or belief that you can share, and you're going to share your subject lines to get them on your email list. All right, let me know how it goes, and I will see you all in the next episode.
