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Jenna Warner
Welcome to Shiny New Clients, the marketing podcast that helps you attract shiny new clients to your business. We'll talk about social media, what makes people buy, how to go viral, and marketing psychology all in 20 minutes or less. Whether you're a coach, a stylist, or a wedding planner, if you've got a service based business to sell, this is the show you need to fill your calendar. I'm Jenna Warner, your new marketing coach and this is Shiny New new clients. I've never talked more about email list growth in my life, but I'm on such a kick about it now, and I am like, I cannot wait to hear about how you got 5,000 names on your email list. Tell us everything. Don't leave out a single detail.
Dallas Travers
Dallas, I'm so glad to be here because just to give a little bit of context, I realized like mid year last year my business was on a falling feather. So this is the analogy I use, right? If, if you and I are sitting side by side riding a feather that's just floating to the ground, the ride is smooth and it's so graceful and subtle, we don't notice we're falling until we hit the bottom.
Jenna Warner
Wait, so sad. You took us such a beautiful feather and I was picturing this nice feather and then we crashed.
Dallas Travers
Now we're dead. So that's what. Why does it feel harder to sell? Right? And we could blame a lot of things, right, that, like the, the climate of the world and like all of those things, but when, when you look at the numbers, the online coaching space and the online course creation space is still growing. Even in 2025, there's more people selling, right? There's. There's 26% more people selling online courses or offering coaching than there were back in 2021. But it's still growing. But anyhow, the competition is still there. So I realized, why is it harder to sell? Oh, that's because I have completely ignored list building. So list building became my sole focus last year and I decided the fastest way to get aligned subscribers to my email list without playing roulette with meta ads. That just feels like too risky for me was to host a bundle. So we're wrapping up. By the time this episode drops, we'll be wrapping up our third bundle in six months and coming in at about 4, 800 new subscribers.
Jenna Warner
Okay. A bundle. I have a million questions, but if we go really micro on this, I've heard the rumors and I have been meeting people in some bigger circles of some fancier entrepreneurs. And then there's all this hubbub about like how things you can't sell online right now. And I hate, I don't want to buy into that at all because online courses and not everyone listening has an online course or program or is a coach. But still like sales is different but the online course creation industry is still like multi billion dollar industry. So things have shifted. Things are different than they were in 2020, 2021. But a big thing is, is just that people don't trust sellers, they don't trust business owners, they don't trust service providers. So if we can find ways to reignite that tr it, like list building, like collaborating with other people, like affiliate partnerships and like you know, aligning yourself with different communities and letting them get to know you before they make a big purchase, like we, we get that trust back.
Dallas Travers
Exactly, exactly. And which is why I love prioritizing list building. Because if I'm in your inbox consistently, even just the regularity of that is a different way of building trust than if, if I only follow you on Instagram because you might show up in my feed and you might not. Two things work together really beautifully. But the, but without email marketing it's, it was harder for me to sell. So that's, my primary sales mechanism is selling through email, even if I'm promoting through email, my launch or my webinar. So email for me is where it's at. And bundles has been the quickest, easiest way to grow my list.
Jenna Warner
Yeah, absolutely. And like you need people to get on your list from somewhere. Like I don't mind sometimes when people come on this show, I'm like, please don't shit on Instagram, please don't shut on Instagram. Right, but, but the fact is you need a top of funnel, something to get people onto your list. So like you said, they're sisters, they work together.
Dallas Travers
Totally.
Jenna Warner
They're not in competition. But bundles would be another way to get people onto your list. Okay, so I did not know what a bundle was. I started getting invited to them maybe a couple, two years ago. People would always ask me if I wanted to be a part of a bundle. I didn't really know what it was and I'm sure there's lots about it that I still don't know. So just explain to old me what you're talking about.
Dallas Travers
Great. So a bundle essentially is a free online event. That's kind of a big word because there's no like no one's showing up live. But an event that you would host where you invite and the Math is important here. So for me it's 40 contributors who all have a freebie, a lead magnet. I know you've been talking a lot about lead magnets lately. Right. So I know your audience is familiar. Right. They all have a lead magnet that is aligned with the audience that you serve. Right. Now, every contributor agrees to promote the bundle and their email subscribers. In order to get access to all 40 freebies, they have to opt into the bundle first. So as a bundle host, I get all subscribers and then once people are on the inside of the bundle, they can pick and choose which freebies they want to opt into.
Jenna Warner
Yes. See, I already didn't realize that.
Dallas Travers
Okay, I'm so glad we're talking.
Jenna Warner
I wasn't. I, I guess I hadn't thought of it because I've participated in one, but I've never hosted one. So you. Yes, it's a lot of work to find 40 contributors, but you are coming out so seriously on top. But it is a rising tide, lifts all ships. Everyone is. Because everyone is going to get list growth when they have that really good lead magnet with the perfect topic and title, which is what I'm always on about.
Dallas Travers
Yes. Yeah. So when we look at the numbers with our bundles, the Average contributor gets 112 new subscribers and we're asking them to send one email at some point within a month. So it's a very low lift for them. We've, we also have curated the other contributors so everyone's audience fits together well. But we've had some, you know, you had almost 300 opt ins when you were in my bundle.
Jenna Warner
Yeah, that might have been the first one that I did. Honestly, it might have been because I thought it was akin with summits. And so when you get invited to a summit, if you don't know, dear listener, you, I know you know Dallas, but you'll get invited to speak and you have to promote it to your list. But then you speak virtually in front of a group of people and people sign up and over two days there's a whole bunch of presenters. And that is another great way to grow your list. But it is not low lift because you need to create that presentation, you need to promote it probably multiple times. Usually you need to have at least a certain number of people on your list. So you need like 5,000 names on your list to participate in the summit and then you have to go and teach and schmooze people. So I like kind of ignoring some if I'm busy. Like I, I can't always do a Summit. But what you're saying with the bundle, it's easier. It sounds too easy.
Dallas Travers
It is, it is. So let's give everyone like a quick win right away. The biggest thing that I have seen make a difference in my bundles in terms of getting an easy yes from contributors is having the letting the contributors pick any day in a 30 day period where they're going to promote. So a lot of times with a summit for example, or some sort of list swap, it's much more time bound. So you have to commit to sending two emails in this 10 day period or something like that. And if you're in a launch that's just not going to fly. But now if you have this 30 day window where you get to choose when you send your email out, it's way more enjoyable for you, the contributor and way easier for you as a contributor to say yes to the invitation, which I think Jenna is the hardest hill to climb in the whole bundle process is like working up the courage to invite people that you may not know and might be nervous about inviting, but also setting it up to really be a win win and an easy yes for them. And that larger promo window has worked like a charm for me.
Jenna Warner
That is so smart because I just said no to one recently because it was right when I was launching something else. So I'm like be promoting your thing midway of promoting my thing. If they'd have given me a month, I could have, I could have swung it.
Dallas Travers
Yes. Yeah.
Jenna Warner
Although it's also a good excuse if you don't actually want to do it and you're too afraid to say no.
Dallas Travers
I mean don't do that to me because I'll be doing another bundle in two months and I'm going to keep inviting you until you actually are brave enough to say no. So for the record, so what's it.
Jenna Warner
Look like for you? For you, how often do you do them? How are you making money from this, this list after the fact?
Dallas Travers
Great. So let's just look at the timeline first, beginning to end. So the phases of a bundle, the heaviest lift you have is in the beginning. So let's just say it's the first three weeks of a 90 day process. This is where you are researching aligned contributors, inviting them to confirm their participation. Okay, we should do that 60 days ish before your bundle starts because people, especially people with lists, they have marketing schedules and things that they are doing and they need time to plan. So one really cool resource everybody to research potential contributors is listennotes.com, which is a podcast search engine. So let's just say I'm a parenting coach, right? I can go on to listen notes and just research the topic of parenting, and it'll give me hundreds of podcasts where the hosts are speaking into that topic. Plus, each of these shows has countless guests who also can speak into the topic of parenting. So Listen Notes is a fabulous resource for research.
Jenna Warner
That is so smart.
Dallas Travers
It's like my evil plan, right? So we're doing listen notes to get our invites going. And then, you know, I rely on some and I give my students these really cool chat GPT prompts for them to easily fire off really well written personalized invitations. But also all the marketing copy that contributors are going to need to send to their list. So that's phase two, the production phase, where you're just getting links to people's freebies and getting their headshot and all of those little pieces. And what I love most about a bundle is how lazy it is when the bundle's actually going. I don't do anything. I like, tell my list about it maybe twice. But it's all of the contributors who collectively are promoting the bundle on my behalf.
Jenna Warner
What was the name of the one that I did with you?
Dallas Travers
It was called the Profitable Coach Bundle.
Jenna Warner
Okay, so did you make the art to promote each person's thing?
Dallas Travers
Okay, I'm going to make a confession. There were. I'm a bit of a snob, and there were a few people who gave me really ugly art that I did go into Canva and make better.
Jenna Warner
Okay.
Dallas Travers
Yours may or may not have been one of them.
Jenna Warner
It was because I was. It was because somebody sent me a picture of my face and. And I was like, what is that? That is so much better than my strategic stories are. It was so nice. And then I was scared because I didn't know I had just met this girl and she's like, hey, look, you're everywhere. And so she sends me this screenshot of like, haha, you're everywhere. And I was like, actually don't know where. Where am I? Where is that? And then I thought somebody had like, ripped off my product and was reselling it. But no, but it was beautiful. I loved it. I was happy because like, I'm not a graphic designer and we've been in like graphic design limbo for several months. We have a graphic coming in in the summer and she's gonna like, fix everything. So I can admit that it was not cute and you made. But usually you would be asking people to send that. Not normally what? You would?
Dallas Travers
You would? Yes. But let me tell people. Why are your listeners so. Because hopefully people are getting excited about this idea of hosting a bundle. Right. We want contributors to have a great experience. We also want potential email subscribers to take us seriously. So if you have a graphic and I'll give everyone another tip around this, whether you're hosting a bundle or you're a contributor to a bundle, we have found by far the offers that get the most opt ins have a picture of your smiling face on the image. Anything that is like a PDF download or something else that doesn't have a smiling person on it got dramatically fewer opt ins. So I want to make sure you get opt ins as my contributor. I want to make sure that people looking at the bundle feel like, oh, this looks good, I want to be a part of it.
Jenna Warner
So.
Dallas Travers
So for me, it is worth taking the time to make sure everybody's graphic looks great.
Jenna Warner
Hey, literally, Dallas, I submitted another crappy graphic to someone today and I'm going to email her and replace it.
Dallas Travers
Like, do it, send it to me and let me redo it for you. I love it.
Jenna Warner
Right? But yeah, I'm just thinking, because what else do they have the lead. Looking at this list, they're going to see this whole overwhelming page of all 40 offers. Of course the smiling face is going to win just kind of like on Instagram or graphic design or anything. Okay, I'm going to fix that. That is such a good tip. So you, you teach people how to put these on to be the host of the bundle.
Dallas Travers
Yes, absolutely.
Jenna Warner
Okay, tell us about Bundalicious.
Dallas Travers
Okay, so Bundalicious. This is where I Can we just like stop, pause and celebrate the name for a second? I love the name so much. This is my, this is my program where I teach coaches, service providers and course creators how to host a bundle in 90 days. And I'll give you. Let's just use Clarissa, who just wrapped up her bundle kind of as the case study here. Clarissa is a, an autoimmune coach. She is the best student you'll ever meet. She does all the things, checks all the boxes, does all the work and was really stuck at list growth. She only had 165 email subscribers, which is the case for a lot of people through the bundle in the first seven days she got past 700 subscribers just in the first seven days. But even cooler than that, just by being the host, the prestigious host of this bundle, she got five sales calls booked from complete strangers who had just opted into the bundle. And then booked a sales call with her. So within the first week, she's already on track to be generating revenue. So you asked earlier, like, how do you make money from the bundle?
Jenna Warner
Yeah.
Dallas Travers
Our biggest challenge in 2025 is how do we cut through the noise enough to build trust so that people want to buy from us? Email marketing is one branch on that tree that's essential if we want to make sales. So by adding subscribers to your email list, you literally have more people to sell to. And the numbers, what are they? On average, 3% of your list is going to buy anything you sell to them over email. So if you have 1200 email subscribers, that's 36 buyers from your bundle ready to say yes to your offer. So while Jenna, the bundle itself does not sell, the bundle builds your list, and it's through emailing your list that you're able to sell. And Bundalicious just takes people step by step through that process so they feel confident enough to host a bundle. Some people may feel like they're not ready to take that responsibility on, but they'll feel confident enough to host a bundle. They'll know how to pull it off in a way that makes them want to do it again. Clarissa's already planning her next bundle, and they'll reap the benefits of new aligned subscribers on their email list who are actively seeking the solutions that they offer.
Jenna Warner
So good. I'm already thinking about mine, and I did not get onto this call going, like, okay, this is for me. Like, I'm like, okay, other people. Other, like, literally, like, other people might want a bundle. Oh, Dallas will teach other people how to do it. But now I'm just like, okay, why not?
Dallas Travers
I'm. I'm realizing there's this other side effect. Like, you and I are friends now, and I don't know that that would have happened if I hadn't worked up the courage, because I'm, like, a bit of a fan girl of your Instagram. Right. But worked up the courage to invite you. You said yes, and now, like, I've been an affiliate for you. Here I am on your podcast, like, we're buddies.
Jenna Warner
You took Magic Marketing machine. Yes. Yes.
Dallas Travers
I signed up for your program. Like, it's just been awesome. And that's another awesome. Especially if you're newer and ever feeling like, I don't belong here or I'm not ready. What a great way to build a community of peers who respect you as a collaborator.
Jenna Warner
Mm. And one more thing that I'm kind of seeing is if you do have only 300 Instagram followers and you only have 15 names on your list. Like, I don't like using only, but, like, if you feel like those platforms, the numbers are still small. This is a great bootstrappy way to reach out to people with an offer that they benefit from. And just put your name into people's mouths.
Dallas Travers
Yep, exactly. And you don't have to worry about feeling too small. I'll use that term. Or not. Not ready yet. Because it's not your audience that the bundle is being promoted to. It's a collected effort of 40 different people who are equally going to share the bundle to their audiences. So, as you said, a rising tide, it lifts all boats. Yeah.
Jenna Warner
Okay. Amazing. We're going to link everything about Bundalicious.
Dallas Travers
I have an. I have a sneaky affiliate link.
Jenna Warner
So we're going to link everything in description for this episode. And Dallas, where can people follow you?
Dallas Travers
Great. Find me on Instagram. I'm Alice Travers and My website is Dallas travers.com.
Jenna Warner
Beautiful. Thank you.
Dallas Travers
Thanks, Jenna.
Jenna Warner
I'm genuinely excited.
Podcast Summary: Shiny New Clients!
Episode: 4800 Email Subscribers in 6 Months - Here's How She Did It!
Host: Jenna Harding (Warriner)
Guest: Dallas Travers
Release Date: July 7, 2025
In this episode of Shiny New Clients!, host Jenna Harding welcomes Dallas Travers to discuss an impressive achievement: gaining 4,800 email subscribers in just six months. Jenna expresses her enthusiasm for email list growth, setting the stage for an in-depth conversation about effective marketing strategies centered around bundles.
Jenna Warner [00:00]: "I've never talked more about email list growth in my life, but I'm on such a kick about it now..."
Dallas begins by sharing her initial struggles with her business, which was experiencing a steady decline comparable to a "falling feather."
Dallas Travers [00:49]: "I realized like mid-year last year my business was on a falling feather... we could crash."
She identifies the increasing competition in the online coaching and course creation spaces, noting a 26% growth in these areas since 2021. Dallas attributes her recent difficulty in selling to neglecting email list building, a realization that pivoted her marketing focus.
Dallas Travers [01:22]: "I have completely ignored list building. So list building became my sole focus last year..."
Jenna inquires about the concept of a bundle, a term she was previously unfamiliar with. Dallas explains that a bundle is a free online event composed of multiple contributors, each offering a lead magnet to participants who opt into the bundle, thereby joining the host's email list.
Dallas Travers [05:02]: "A bundle essentially is a free online event... 40 contributors who all have a freebie, a lead magnet."
She emphasizes that bundles are a winning combination for list growth, likening it to the synergy between Instagram and email marketing.
Dallas Travers [04:38]: "They're sisters, they work together. But bundles would be another way to get people onto your list."
Dallas outlines the phases of hosting a bundle:
Research and Invitation (First 3 Weeks of 90-Day Process):
Dallas Travers [10:44]: "Listennotes.com is a fabulous resource for research."
Production Phase:
Dallas Travers [13:43]: "Offers that get the most opt-ins have a picture of your smiling face on the image."
Promotion and Execution:
Dallas Travers [07:51]: "The biggest thing... having the contributors pick any day in a 30-day period where they're going to promote."
Jenna appreciates the flexibility and ease of implementing bundles compared to more intensive strategies like summits.
Jenna Warner [06:03]: "I do share a lot about lead magnets lately... bundles have been the quickest, easiest way to grow my list."
Dallas introduces her program, Bundalicious, designed to teach coaches and service providers how to host effective bundles within 90 days. She shares a success story of Clarissa, an autoimmune coach who experienced remarkable growth:
Dallas Travers [15:05]: "Clarissa... got five sales calls booked from complete strangers who had just opted into the bundle."
This case study underscores the monetization potential of email list growth, with an average 3% conversion rate leading to tangible sales opportunities.
Both Jenna and Dallas highlight the importance of trust-building in today's market, where consumers are increasingly skeptical of sellers and service providers. Bundles serve as a platform for nurturing trust through consistent and meaningful engagement.
Jenna Warner [03:42]: "People don't trust sellers... list building... collaborating with other people... getting that trust back."
Dallas adds that bundles enable even those with small audiences to achieve significant list growth by leveraging the collective reach of multiple contributors.
Dallas Travers [18:45]: "You don't have to worry about feeling too small... a rising tide, it lifts all boats."
As the episode concludes, Jenna expresses her newfound understanding and excitement about hosting a bundle. She acknowledges the community-building aspect and the potential for long-term benefits through programs like Bundalicious.
Jenna Warner [17:16]: "I'm just like, okay, why not?"
Dallas reinforces the value of collaboration and community, mentioning her ongoing partnership with Jenna as a testament to the relationship-building potential of bundling.
Dallas Travers [17:37]: "I'm an affiliate for you... we're buddies."
Listeners are encouraged to explore Bundalicious and connect with Dallas through her social platforms.
Dallas Travers [18:58]: "Find me on Instagram. I'm Dallas Travers and my website is DallasTravers.com."
Explore more about Bundalicious and connect with Dallas Travers through her Instagram or visit her website at DallasTravers.com.