Have you ever wondered how someone can build a successful business while juggling a full-time job, two kids, and a dog? It sounds impossible, doesn’t it? But today, you’ll discover the secrets behind making it happen. Meet Mel Bridger, a high school teacher by day and a thriving fitness and women’s health coach by… well, every other moment she can grab! If you're busy but dreaming big, this story is about to blow your mind.

Mel Bridger is not just a high school teacher; she’s also a women's health and fitness coach specializing in menopause support. Yes, she’s doing it all. Her days start early (we’re talking 6 AM sharp) and are packed with teaching, grading, and supporting students. Then, after-school life takes over: kids’ extracurriculars, dinner, bedtime routines… and oh, did we mention she runs fitness classes in the evenings too? Wednesdays and Thursdays are fully booked with sessions she delivers in person.

Despite all this, Mel has managed to grow a successful fitness business and is now expanding her offerings into staff well-being programs for schools. How? Let’s break it down.

If you’ve ever tried to balance work, family, and a side hustle, you know time feels like sand slipping through your fingers. For Mel, time was her biggest challenge. She struggled with:

• Finding time to plan her business moves between her teaching job and family duties.
• Lack of consistency in her marketing, especially with email campaigns.
• Juggling creativity and exhaustion after long, busy days.

Sound familiar? Mel’s solution was both smart and simple.

Kennedy, the podcast host helping Mel, shared an eye-opening insight: Constraints don’t limit creativity—they fuel it! Think of it like this: In improv comedy, the funniest moments happen because of constraints. For example, if someone says, “Pretend you’re Winston Churchill stuck in a train station but can’t use the letter T,” magic happens.

Mel’s constraints became her springboard. She couldn’t work during the day (hello, teaching and parenting), so she blocked out Sunday afternoons to focus solely on her business. By defining her limits, she created space for creative bursts.

Mel’s first Sunday session was all about planning her email strategy. Instead of trying to do it all at once, she broke the process into manageable chunks:

1. Plan 60 days of emails. This sounds huge, but Kennedy advised starting with just the topics. What are the main reasons her audience might buy from her? She listed these out, such as:

• Helping schools retain teachers and reduce burnout.
• Supporting staff morale.
• Giving schools a proactive reputation for caring about well-being.

1. Focus on campaigns, not random emails. Each email campaign had a theme—like the financial cost of teacher turnover—and she planned a series of emails for each topic. This way, her emails felt purposeful, not scattered.
2. Use Sundays as creative power hours. On Sundays, Mel brainstormed ideas and wrote email drafts. Knowing she had just an hour or two kept her focused and efficient.

Here’s a tip that changed everything for Mel: Start with email hooks before diving into the actual writing. A hook is like the headline of your email—the attention-grabber that makes someone want to read more.

For example:

• “You’ll never guess what’s costing schools thousands every year.”
• “Why teacher burnout is

The link I mentioned today is: https://emailmarketingheroes.com/28

Email marketing is about to change forever—and you need to know how. Imagine staying one step ahead of everyone else, crafting emails that dominate inboxes, and using cutting-edge tools to skyrocket sales. That’s exactly what this guide will do for you. From AI breakthroughs to the sneaky trends that could tank your business, we’ve got it all. Grab your coffee and buckle up because this is the email marketing ride of the year!

Artificial intelligence isn’t coming—it’s already here, and it’s only getting better. In 2025, AI tools are smarter than ever. The trick? Train one of those powerful large language models (LLMs) to write just like YOU.

Picture this: you feed the AI transcripts of your podcasts, interviews, or videos. It learns your tone, your style, even your quirks. Want to send an email about a funny moment at the movies? AI can help you turn that story into a polished email, complete with a call-to-action to boost sales.

The result? You save hours of work while still sounding 100% authentic. Sure, it’s not perfect—it’ll never replace your best writing on a good day. But on those uninspired mornings? It’s a lifesaver.

If your business is making less than $1 million a year, here’s your mantra: sales. Forget chasing shiny objects. Forget overcomplicating things. It’s all about getting more customers, converting them faster, and increasing their value.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Advertising: Make sure people even know you exist.
• List Building: Get them onto your email list where the magic happens.
• Messaging: Nail the words that make your audience say, “This is for me.”
• 30-Day Value: Know how much a customer is worth in their first month.

The secret sauce? Use credit cards (responsibly!) to fund ads. With 30 days to break even, your email strategy has to work fast—and we’ll show you how.

This might be the scariest trend of all. AI is making information ridiculously easy to get. Need a fitness plan? A chatbot can whip one up in seconds. Want a college study guide? Boom, it’s done. The result? People are less willing to pay for “just information.”

To survive, you need to do three things:

1. Create a True Unique Mechanism: A fancy name isn’t enough. Your method has to truly deliver results in a way nobody else can.
2. Develop Unique Products: Think beyond courses. One marketer created a massive swipe file of rare direct mail pieces—thousands of pages nobody else could replicate. What can you offer that’s truly one-of-a-kind?
3. Offer Services: People want more than info. They want help implementing it. Teach your audience everything for free, then sell the “done-for-you” service to those who want it.

This is how you stand out in a world drowning in generic courses and copycat tools.

Let’s talk subject lines. Over the holidays, one stood out: “Why is this so sticky?” Here’s why it worked like magic:

1. It’s a Question: Questions spark curiosity. People want answers.
2. What’s “This”?: It could mean anything! You have to open the email to find out.
3. Sticky” Is Loaded: It’s positive, negative, mysterious—and irresistible.

Use this formula to boost your open rates and keep your audience hooked. Don’t just write emails; write emails they can’t wait to read.

Do you want more people to open, click, and buy from your emails?

This week, the spotlight is on A/B testing and how we can use it to improve our open rates, clicks and conversions so that we can maximise the sales from our email marketing.

Let’s do this!

FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketing

If you want to write better emails, come up with better content, and move your readers to click and buy, here's how. We put together this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here.

Join our FREE Facebook group

If you want to chat about how you can maximise the value of your email list and make more money from every subscriber, we can help! We know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.

Try ResponseSuite for $1

This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.

Join The Email Hero Blueprint

Want more? Let's say you're a course creator, membership site owner, coach, author, or expert and want to learn about the ethical psychology-based email marketing that turns 60-80% more of your newsletter subscribers into customers (within 60 days). If that's you, then The Email Hero Blueprint is for you.

This is hands down the most predictable, plug-and-play way to double your earnings per email subscriber. It allows you to generate a consistent sales flow without launching another product, service, or offer. Best news yet? You won't have to rely on copywriting, slimy persuasion, NLP, or ‘better' subject lines.

Thanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (all about the psychology of marketing and the 9 things we use in all our email campaigns) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review of the show on your favourite podcast player.

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