Your Email List May Be the Most Underused Asset in Your Business

For years, while helping Tommy Mello grow what became an 8-figure expert business, we built the audience through his podcast, books, Facebook groups, paid ads, and other channels.

But email was mostly something I used when we had a reason to send one.

Then, in 2023, we decided to put on our first three-day live event.

We needed to fill the room.

And I knew that meant emailing our list consistently.

But I had the same concern a lot of experts have:

How do you keep emailing people without annoying them or constantly pitching them?

So I started experimenting.

Instead of sending another tip, announcement, or generic AI-written email, I’d take something that had actually happened to Tommy and tell the story.

A mistake. A decision. An experiment. A lesson he learned the hard way.

Then I’d naturally connect that story to the event.

From January to August, we sent hundreds of emails.

And to my surprise, people kept reading—and buying tickets.

In November 2023, 736 people showed up. Nearly 70% of the ticket sales had come through email.

But the sales weren’t the most interesting part.

As I moved between groups, introducing myself and listening to their conversations, I kept hearing Tommy’s stories come up.

People weren’t simply repeating his advice.

They were using his stories to make sense of what was happening in their own businesses.

Someone would describe a problem they were dealing with, and another person would connect it back to one of Tommy’s emails.

The clearest proof came on the final day of the event.

When we introduced our new membership program from the stage, people began rushing to the table at the back of the room with credit cards in hand.

In less than an hour, one hundred people joined—generating $250,000 in enrollment fees alone.

That experience changed the way I thought about email.

From then on, the question wasn’t:

“What should we send?”

It was: