Liz Nable 0:00
One of the best things about COVID and there weren't many were that Australians were forced to stay home for nearly two years. I don't necessarily mean inside our own homes, although there was that and that wasn't great, but more that we were forced to stay on domestic shores and explore our own backyard. for periods of time, you could only travel to state border lines as well. Thanks WA and Queensland. So Australians rushed on mass to rural and regional towns all over our vast island nation, and made incredible discoveries of little known pockets of paradise right on their doorstep. Talented artisans, entrepreneurs, agriculturalists graziers. innovators and tech experts doing amazing things in the bush coupled with the entire country and the world being forced online all at once, and the explosion of websites like buy from the bush, the exposure of sheer talent and achievement in rural and regional Australia exploded. So my guest on the show today couldn't have timed the launch of her magazine gala in 2020. Any better gala is a magazine about regional Australia or beautiful storytelling about regional headlines that matter. Formerly a city girl Annabelle Hickson started her career as a reporter at the Australian newspaper in the early 2000s, before she fell in love with a handsome farmer from the New South Wales border, and her life took a completely different direction. She now lives on Australia's second largest pecan orchard, a farm situated in far northwest New South Wales, sandwiched between the tiny towns of Tenterfield and Texas. Yes, that's Texas, New South Wales. This is also gala HQ. As an outsider, all Annabel had ever heard in the media was negativity about the bush droughts, floods, rains and whinging farmers, but her experience on the land was proving to be quite different. Everywhere she looked, she saw smart, clever and resilient people who talked about opportunities instead of limitations. Annabelle wanted to tell a different story. And she knew most mainstream magazines were already battling diminishing budgets, staff cuts and quality issues. Annabelle wanted to create a publication that assumed people in regional Australia were a smart and increasingly diverse lot, who cared about community and creativity and the environment as well as profitability. And she wanted a publication that acted as a bridge between the city and country divide. And so the love was born. Annabelle has an incredible way with words, she's a gifted storyteller, and knows a paid ad thinly veiled as a story pitch from a mile away. Join me as we talk about the importance of building trust in your brand before all else, how she created a 70,000 plus community from scratch, and why great storytelling sells so well. Hello, I'm Liz naval and you're listening to enable my business, the podcast. When I first started in small business almost 10 years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. You see, my background was in the media. I had spent 15 years as a television news journalist and reporter working at several major networks in Australia. And then as a freelancer in the US and around the world. I spent years dividing my time between working long shifts on a news desk and travelling the world chasing stories. It was unpredictable and exciting. Until it wasn't anymore. I decided I wanted a life where I was in charge of what happened next. And where I was working to build my own empire, not someone else's. I also never wanted to work a midnight new shift again. Now, I don't have to. There was a lot I had to learn about running my own business. But one thing I already had in the bag was how to get media coverage and free PR. I knew what the media wanted. I knew the secret formula for what made us and I knew how to leverage those organisations to build my business, get more exposure, and ultimately make more sales. During my decade of building my business, I have managed to get featured in almost every major news outlet in the country. I've been interviewed on television countless times, had personal profiles written up in women's magazines, done point of view pieces, large newspapers, and been listed in top 100 List women in business and in my industry. And I've never spent a single cent on PR. I took that knowledge for granted until it dawned on me one day that I could teach what I knew to other businesses, let them in on the secret and they too could build their businesses, leveraging the media and gaining free PR. They could use my insights in the industry and My behind the scenes experience and take their business from Best Kept Secret to well known brand simply by following my formula. Welcome to enable my business, the podcast. Hello Annabelle and welcome to the podcast. Hello, Liz. Thanks
Unknown Speaker 5:16
for having me.
Liz Nable 5:17
You have been a guest in the making for me maybe a year since I first asked you on the show, but I made the terrible mistake of reaching out to you for the first time via DM. And I think you might have missed it. But we're glad to have you now.
Speaker 2 5:31
Yeah, never ever message on DMS. If you want a response of unread messages, you know, someone can make a lot of money. And I think if they worked out how to pull all the different ways you can be contacted into just one stream that came out.
Liz Nable 5:47
I know it's like those kids WhatsApp groups, right for your kids sporting sport and like all the different birthday parties and stuff. It's just too much communication over communication.
Speaker 2 5:59
Yeah, I certainly can't keep controlling. I thought you
Liz Nable 6:02
might have just been being elusive because you were so in demand. But as soon as I emailed you, you email me straight back. So there you go. I'm now Annabelle. You are the founder and editor of Glamour Magazine, which is a very well known regional magazine. And I've come across it a few times in my travels across New South Wales. Can you tell me a little bit about the magazine and how it came to be?
Speaker 2 6:29
Yeah, so Glide is a magazine that I started from my kitchen table. And I live on a pecan farm up on the new South Queensland border. If you kind of picture Byron Bay then just had inland almost five hours. And that's where we are in between Tenterfield and Texas, Queensland, which is the most divine little town, it almost feels like the sort of western town from the States. So great. So that's where I live. And that's where I started this magazine. And the whole point of Glar was because I wanted to represent regional Australia as a place of opportunities as a place where really clever, innovative, smart people lived. And I just I really wanted to reflect that life out of the big cities was not a substantive kind of thing. And this was a realisation to me, I grew up in Sydney, I had no real connection with the country, or certainly no connection with farming. I got, you know, after uni, I got my dream job as a cadet, news reporter with The Australian newspaper. And I just thought it was going to be the beginning of what I would do for the rest of my life. I loved it. I loved it, I was super ambitious and, and just loved everything about it. Then I met a farmer fell in love with him and now ended up in between Texas and to build so so so here I am. I've been here for about 15 years. And it's interesting, because the kind of news that I've been covering in the general news rounds about regional Australia that was sort of always doom and gloom, it was droughts, it was floods, fires, people who had lack of access to health staff to education, in all my kind of the stereotypes I held about life in regional Australia was that it was pretty tough. And certainly my kind of career had been urban focused. So I just, you know, I just never really thought of it as a place of opportunity. But now having been here for 15 years, I am so lucky, I feel so lucky that I live where I do, I feel so lucky that I'm you know, raising three kids out here. And everywhere I look around me, I just see all these brilliant people. So I guess the main motivation behind gala is because I wanted to create a media platform that told those kinds of stories you don't like I love the idea of any or all of my kids when they grow up to to, you know, come back to regional Australia and set up their own lives there. And I just think if, if the only stories that are reported, or the only stories that we tell our doom and gloom, you know, we're not going to attract or dine as many dynamic and young people back as we could. And I just felt like regional Australia wasn't being fully represented. And so that's the whole point of Gala. And it's to, to create a publication that tells these stories, but also to create a publication that is top notch, the highest standards of journalism, the highest standards of production. I want the the medium itself, that glasses printed in to represent this sort of life of opportunity out here and to really kind of compete with city based publications.
Liz Nable 9:46
Wow. You know, and I think from the outside, you know, looking at something like the magazine industry, it seems like a really tough thing to do to make money. You know, it must be a lot of work to do Create a magazine and to build a magazine every Is it monthly the magazine?
Speaker 2 10:04
No, it's not well, actually, I had no idea how much work it would be when I started. I said it was going to be quarterly, and then the ad it literally nearly killed. So it's dropped back down to two a year. But now it's back up to three years. And the aim is to get it to be a quarterly. And it's you know, it's really chunky. It's like, a book, and I actually think any more than quarterly would be to just be too much go are coming at you.
Liz Nable 10:30
Yeah, yeah. And it is a lot of work, especially because you've built it from scratch. And it's not like there's a huge big News Corp or someone behind you, you know, with a team of people. So tell me a little bit about the magazine, you know, what it's, I guess its target market is what, you know, you know, what sort of articles and stories you feature? And those sorts of things for someone who hasn't hasn't read it before?
Speaker 2 10:53
Yes, so the mag, it's, um, it is? Well, it's funny, you know, it's, it's interesting, we do these big breeder surveys every year, and we've just done one. So I've got all this sort of fresh data, and it's like, my dreams really have come true. So you know, I had these two goals, one was to reflect this very vibrant, creative, innovative side of regional Australia. But it was also to be a bridge between the city and the country. So people like me, who had absolutely no idea goes on that what goes on out here, can actually, like it can sort of show them away in and, and give them something more than just the kind of stereotypes. Yeah, and, and our readers are 60%, regional, rural, 40% Metro. So this is just like my dream come true. It's, it's, I couldn't hope for anything more. So our readers, pre affluent, they're pretty educated, they're really engaged in community staff, they read lots of books, like they, they, they visit galleries and museums, you know, it's that kind of thing. And I really look to the newspaper, weekend magazine inserts as a guide, in terms of what kind of stories I want to tell. So if you open up the good weekend, or the weekend, or this mag, you know, there's always these great long form feature stories that, you know, dive into issues that aren't sort of necessarily linked to the 24 hour news cycle, you know, they have a little bit more of a longer term view. And then there's also some beautiful lifestyle, stuff like food, things like that. So I love that mix. So I kind of think about that. And I guess when I'm sort of working out what stories to run, I just never want to underestimate our readers. I want to sort of pit you know, the quality is pretty high. And I'm just assuming everyone who reads it is smart and engaged and cares about the world that they live in.
Liz Nable 12:52
What so you would say I guess your your average reader is got quite a curious mind. Is that Is that the kind of audience that we're talking about?
Unknown Speaker 12:59
Yeah, it looks like it. Definitely. Yeah.
Liz Nable 13:03
So what's the sort of the revenue model of the magazine? And and also, are you? Are you looking specifically for certain kinds of stories to feature? How does that work?
Speaker 2 13:16
Yes, so the revenue model is almost 100%, Reaver, reader revenue driven. So when I started, the first four issues had no advertising at all. So the only revenue coming into the business was what readers would pay to buy the magazine. And we've got a really like a pretty high cover price. It's $30, a mag. So I guess I kind of went in with more of a book model, then with a, you know, an advertiser driven model. And that was, mainly because I didn't know how to serve the two masters of, you know, I didn't know how to serve advertisers, as well as serve my readers. And I sort of started, I guess, with this quite utopian belief that maybe I can just have one master, and that is the readers. And I can just do everything to make sure what I'm doing delights, interests, and engages them rather than having to worry about, you know, what, what the advertisers want. So it didn't quite work out. That way, I have started taking on some advertising, because basically, I needed a different revenue stream. But I guess my idea is that over time, as our readers grow, I'll have to rely on less advertising.
Liz Nable 14:32
So you must have a big subscription for the magazine to be so successful. Yeah, were you.
Speaker 2 14:39
So this the last issue we printed 14,000. And, you know, in mags speak, it's very common to sort of times that number of what you'd like no magazine will tell you what they've printed. They always talk about circulation. And I think that seems to be a multiple of what they've printed. And you know, that can be sort of between three or four or five To You know, like a best selling book in Australia, I think if you sell more than 10,000 copies, you're a best selling book. So
Liz Nable 15:08
it's really your best selling mag.
Speaker 2 15:10
So So I guess so. So anyway, but it's interesting. I mean, I really wanted to just keep the distance between me and my reader as short as possible. Because, you know, middleman, you know, everyone needs to take a clip. I mean, and certainly like the news agency model, I think, is I don't like it at all, because US agencies, they only pay on copies sold the copies, they don't sell they, they throwing landfill, because you know, it costs money to send back. Yeah, just like in this day and age, that's not a good way to run a business. And it's fine if you're advertiser funded in a way because, you know, the, it's basically the advertisers that pay the bills, rather than the readers. So as long as they can see circulation, they're sort of happy. But for me, it just seems I don't know, I don't like it. And so we've sort of set up a whole kind of network of stalkers throughout Australia, ourselves, and we sell the mag wholesale to them, and then they sell it. And I just feel like that's a lot less wastage in that kind of a system. And then we also have direct sales and subscribers.
Liz Nable 16:22
Yeah. Wow. So was there a multiple put on magazine circulations in general? Because they're assuming that multiple people will read the magazine?
Speaker 2 16:31
Yeah, that's the that's the thing. And certainly, in our survey, you know, on average, probably four sets of eyeballs would see our mag. Yeah. Wow.
Liz Nable 16:38
So interesting. And so, I mean, that's a huge success to be having 14,000 printed when you've only started three years ago, and added the word of the magazine spread? Is it? Is it the very stories that you feature in the magazine that served to be your marketing? Sort of avenues as well?
Speaker 2 16:58
Yeah, well, as age issues come out, it's, you know, the mag is doing a certain amount of its own marketing, I suppose. But to get it off the ground, I don't think I would have been able to do it by myself, you know, completely independently, unless I hadn't spent years building up a bit of a community on Instagram. So I started, you know, before, before I'd even made the issue, I kind of put out onto Instagram, I've got this idea, I'm going to start this magazine, I kind of worked out their printing costs for the first run. And I thought, if I can get enough pre orders to cover the printing costs, I'll just go for it. You know, and if not, I'll, I'll refund everyone's money. And, you know, not pursue it any further. But because of this kind of, like really years of doing stuff on Instagram, or writing blogs, that kind of thing. I guess I built up a fair amount of trust within a, you know, a direct audience. And enough of them got behind this kind of what was just an idea, and they put their money where their mouth was, and it was enough to cover the printing costs and the design costs. So I'm like, okay, great. I'll go for it. Let's do it. So I really think I don't know how I would have started it if I hadn't already had that audience in place.
Liz Nable 18:17
Yeah, you starting from really from scratch, aren't you? Yeah. So talk to me about the features inside the magazine? Do people's, like write your submissions? Do they pitch you? What sort of stories are you looking for? And who do you feature?
Speaker 2 18:34
So we, we do accept submissions, but actually, we do a lot of commissioning. Now, you know, we come up with sort of story ideas that we're interested in and want to pursue, but we do accept submissions, but it's really nothing is more important to me in this business, then readers, and my readers trust, you know, like this print is now not what it was, like print is a luxury good. It's is people read for pleasure, you know, to sort of be up to with the fast paced news, you do that or digitally. So print is this. For me, it's this kind of like sacred thing that I want to protect and every single decision I make is based on Will this be interesting to the Raiders, how can this serve the Raiders, you know, so that is the prism through which I look at everything that comes in. And so if, if we get a you know, a pitch that's, that's kind of like basically someone with a brand and something to sell, and they've just sort of tried to kind of turn it into a story, but really, it's like an ad. We're not only interested in that. So I'm interested in editorial stories. That's that's the thing. And I mean, let me give you an example. So there's an amazing business in Dubbo. And you've actually interviewed Jemima, one of the founders Lorenzo and make these beautiful leather handbags and really lovely leather goods. So ostensively they are a brand with products that have something to sell. If Jemima had sent me a press release saying, you know, our new new collection of handbags are out, you know, next month, I would just ignore it. Because, you know, that's that's sort of just like an ad. But I heard Jemima talking about how TAFE had shut down their saddle making apprenticeship course. And so now there was nowhere in Australia where you could learn, you know, you could become a saddle maker. So they because they need people to work, you know, to make all these beautiful leather things. So they decided to build in house, a kind of leather making course, apprenticeship themselves and they took on all these apprenticeships and, and now they're, you know, training the next generation of leather makers in Australia. To me, that is the story. That's the story. So we wrote that story. And we mentioned their brand, of course. But that story was about that kind of more newsy component.
Liz Nable 21:00
Yeah. And it's such a good example, because the story is then not about them self promoting or selling or it's about, you know, this incredible, you know, lost art of saddle making being reignited by local business. So there's so many beautiful things about a story like that. And I think that's the hardest thing. Obviously, I teach, you know, business owners how to pitch different kinds of media and magazines and TV and that sort of thing. And I think that's the hardest thing is to know, a What magazine, like, like yourself, what sort of stories you're looking for, but also, what is the actual story angle? Where is the story in side that business? Because there's so many out there, but people find it really difficult to see it themselves if they don't know what that story angle should look like.
Speaker 2 21:53
Yeah, that's exactly and, and I think it's hard when you care so much about what you're making and what you're producing. And when it's your livelihood. Of course, you're focused on sales, you know, selling your product, getting your product mentioned out there, but, you know, readers can sniff an advertorial a mile away. And because glare is this thing that's not at all about advertorials, it's not at all about trying to get people to buy products. We just can't tell those stories. So yeah, we've it's, yeah, it's definitely I mean, it's hard. I'm not saying it's easy. But it's, um, yeah, you just got to get away from trying to push those products.
Liz Nable 22:34
Yeah. And it sounds like the magazine really is sort of honing in on that last part of purely storytelling. Because when, you know, when someone reads, you know, for example, Jemima story about this, you know, them, you know, starting their own kind of saddle making apprenticeship because it was no longer available within the main sort of education systems. It helps people see a different side of the business, it helps people see, you know, what they're putting back into the community and the opportunities, they're giving young people and you know, how the business has grown. And it's like, the business is a byproduct of that story. But it's so beneficial for that business to have a story like that out there.
Speaker 2 23:15
Like, I think if you're a business, and you're actually doing really innovative things, or doing things that are somehow like helping the wider community, there is probably a story there that's of interest to gala or other news, newsy publications, you know, so yeah,
Liz Nable 23:31
yeah, it's it's important to be able to see that story and look past just the direct sell or pitch to someone like yourself. So do you only feature regional businesses? Can you give me sort of an example of like, the different kinds of businesses you feed you like the cross section? And is it just New South Wales? Or is it rural Australia,
Speaker 2 23:50
so all original Australia, so that's my thing. So I need some kind of unofficial tagline is life beyond the city. And so I want to cover kind of all different types of regional Australia. So that's whether that's like rural Outback, or regional towns or coastal regional, you know, I want the sort of the whole gamut of basically life outside of the big cities. So that's, that's what we focus on. And then I mean, we have a big art focus because I really believe in the what artists bring to small towns is just so valuable. They bring diversity, they bring creativity, you know, we all benefit from their presence. So I guess that's why I want to kind of shine a spotlight on them. But I love like, you know, we did a big beautiful feature on Luke skip Eros, who's like one of the most well known artists in Australia, but then also we did a feature on this lovely kid cold and back, Ramsey, who was about 15 at the time, we did the story, and he lives across the river from me and he built his own forge in his dad's shed and he He made the most beautiful little knives, he taught himself how to make knives and, and he might collect D horns that are D antlers and make little, you know, handles out of them. And, you know, so it's I sort of want the full gamut of really well known really famous people and also people who aren't famous, but are doing beautiful things with integrity, but will also do stories like, like, the next issue of glad it's coming out has the theme of home and I just have these themes to help me sort of kind of zone in and pick stories because there's just so many millions of stories. But you know, the housing crisis is huge in in regional Australia. So we're doing like a big feature on the housing crisis, and also different ways people are trying to solve those problems. And you know, we've got this amazing, beautiful house story that I feel like could belong in world of interiors, you know, so there's a real mix.
Liz Nable 25:57
And how do you find these stories? Like you said, you've got a team, but do people come to you and say, I've heard this? I've heard that? Or is there a specific process, you go to find these, especially like, the hidden gems, like, obviously, it's easy to discover someone who might have a bit of a profile or, you know, to continue a story that's been started, you know, on someone's, you know, career success, or whatever that might be? But how are you finding these undiscovered stories? And have you ever sort of discovered someone, and they've sort of had this huge opportunity by being featured in the magazine?
Speaker 2 26:28
Yeah, well, that sweet Mack from across the river, he just was inundated by middle aged women who wanted to raise knives. And He's so charming, and he just, you know, speaks to the mall, and people email him and DM him. And yeah, so he's, that had a really big impact on him, I think. And I mean, I'm so happy because he's the most delightful kid, well, he's a bit older, now he's, he's probably getting close to almost being an adult. So that is really satisfying, I think when you can kind of just connect these people with talent with wants to, you know, support them financially, so they can keep doing what they do. But yeah, it's my greatest fear, running out of stories, not that there aren't millions of stories, but but me knowing about them, you know, and you just have to get out there. Like, I think this is where Goliath is really different to lots of other mags, because we're not based in a, you know, an office building in Sydney, like, you know, I live where I do, like all our teams scattered all over Australia. And I think we have to just double down on that, you know, we have to be out in these small towns, talking to people to, that's how you get to know and it's not going to be sitting in an office building looking at Instagram, like, that's, that's not the future. And I think it's interesting, you know, now we touch EBT and an AI, like, you know, lots of I think lots of industries are worried that their jobs are going to be done by AI now, and certainly there's there's probably a lot that will, but I can't see how AI is going to go out there and do the original reporting. They might be able to write it out well, but I feel like we need to double down on us humans being out on the ground in these far flung places and, and just chatting to other humans. That's, that's something that's going to become increasingly valuable, I think.
Liz Nable 28:22
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it because back in the day, my first job in HR was in regional television in Wagga, which is not a tiny town, but it's still regional Australia. And this was I'm making myself sound really old here. I'm actually not that old. But there was no like the internet, we weren't allowed to use the internet in the newsroom. Because we were always on a budget, we never had any money. So we couldn't you couldn't use Google, you use the phonebook, and literally got in the car and drove around finding stories. And I absolutely loved it. And we would find the best stories that way, or someone calling you with, you know, so and so's next door neighbour heard from someone so that person's doing this amazing things, or has won this award or whatever it might be. So it's interesting that it could eventually come full circle in your generic content online anywhere, you know what I mean? So the stories are on the ground,
Speaker 2 29:11
right? That's it. And that generic stuff is now the cost of production. And that is zero. Thanks to chat, GBT, you know that it can summarise all sorts of things. And that means anyone can do it. And who would pay $30 a magazine to read that, you know, it's, I think it's really exciting because it's sort of put a focus on on the part of media that I find the most interesting anyway, you know, I don't want to publish like boring listicles and stuff. So I'm, I feel quite positive, at least in the short to medium term about, you know, sort of human made media as opposed to AI made media. But it is yeah, it's it's all about having a network and there's only so many people that you can know, you know, and I sort of, you know, I that's where the fear comes from a running out of story. because it's like a will, and he knows certain amount of people I am going to run out one day. But I think this is where I've got to really rely on a network of writers and photographers, but also our readers. And I love hearing from the readers. And it's so great because we publish, you know, so infrequently, like three times a year, where is really exciting to hear from readers is in our newsletters. So we send out newsletters on a weekly and a fortnightly basis. And that really bridges the gap between the print issues. And I love it because people can really reply and write straight back to you are in direct conversation with your readers.
Liz Nable 30:38
Yeah. And that was actually going to be my next question. Because you know, your emails, which to a lot of people listening, you know, obviously, the main main audience for this podcast is, you know, women who run their own businesses or who are thinking about starting their own business. You know, we talk a lot about pitching in the course, and I talk a lot about that online and that sort of thing. But that email, that email conversation of like a weekly or a monthly newsletter is something that you do so well, it's certainly not written by AI or chat GPT. And you can tell straight away that it's written by a human. And you use storytelling that as well, which is so interesting, because, you know, like I said to you, before we hit record, you know, I get a million emails, as does everybody else. And I always take time to open your emails and read them, because I know, there's good content inside. Can you tell me a little bit about that? And was that a conscious thing to just try and keep your audience warm in between? In between the magazines? And and how do you do that? Like, what are you talking about every week? You know, because sometimes it's not the subjects not that exciting, but it's the way you sort of speak so conversationally that keeps that audience woman. It's the same kind of storytelling that we would do when we pitch the media, I think.
Speaker 2 31:54
Yeah, so that's so interesting. So Well, I mean, I started a newsletter, because I'm a, you know, blogger from way back, I love the whole, the whole concept of being able to write something, two seconds later emailing it to people, and having that direct conversation. I think that's really exciting. And that's what, you know, the big legacy media, they sort of can't offer this sort of intimacy that smaller media giants like Glock can do. And you know, so again, we've got to double down on the things that only we can do. And then you know, everyone says, Start a newsletter, it's the best way to, to market stuff for your business and sell products. And so I knew I wanted to start one, but I knew I didn't want another bad newsletter in my inbox. You know, there's the the amount of email I mean, I think I have something like 40,000 unopened.
Liz Nable 32:43
Oh, my god, does that no need to do your hidden? Well, no, it doesn't,
Speaker 2 32:46
because I've just learned. Ground Zero is like, it's never gonna happen, it's gonna happen, or whatever they call it, like, I've just let go that drain. And I just, I just can't be bothered to sit down and unsubscribe from things because it's so it's so time consuming. I mean, this is what I want AI to do for me, actually, if they can work out how to do that. Great. But so I knew I didn't want just another email selling something, you know, you've got to, I think, offer people something they value to expect them to give you their time. And so, I guess how, I mean, I don't think I pull it off every time. But certainly my intention is when I sit down, I never think about selling Gala. It's like not even on it. How can I tell a story from the you know, I send my newsletter, fortnightly. And then we have a weekly newsletter, which is sort of like more of a roundup of regional headlines and what's going on and that kind of stuff, which works so well, digitally. I don't think you should have that imprint anymore. That stuff's perfect for digital. But for my fortnightly, it's just like what story that I can tell that somehow has some illustrates something about regional life and can hopefully hit some sort of chord that's a bit more universal than just my own singular experience, you know, and life, how can I just bring joy and delight into people's inboxes. So that's sort of what I sit down to think about when I write and that's it. And then, you know, after the sort of mini cop builds a column, I suppose I'm after the column, then of course, I'll have a link to any events we're doing or or maybe a link to a, you know, a magazine that you can buy. But the primary driver for my newsletter is how to delight readers. It's not how can I flog this stuff to readers.
Liz Nable 34:36
And that's the primary driver of the the magazine is to bring delight to read it. So it's the same thing, just a sort of quicker version that happens on a weekly basis. And I think as journalists, we don't consciously we enjoy those sorts of things we enjoy coming up with content we enjoy writing. Would you have any advice or sort of, I guess any tips or tricks for, for, for women who are, you know, listening to the podcast who want to start that conversation and keep their audience warm with things that aren't just like heat, my products are on sale or whatever. Like, because a lot of them find it a chore, as do they find finding a story angle and pitching the media at short? Is there a way you can simplify that? You know, give people advice about how to come up with that every week, or every month or whenever the email is coming out?
Speaker 2 35:30
I'm afraid I don't know if I have any useful advice, because it's something I enjoy. And it's something I do. I did something I do anyway, you know, and so it's, but I see, they're, like, you know, I have lots of friends who do not like writing, you know, so I don't know how I would advise them to do it. But I tell you, what an amazing book to read. If you haven't read it already. It's called Bird by Bird.
Liz Nable 35:55
Oh, my God. You mentioned this last week in your email. Ah, Anne Lamott
Speaker 2 35:59
is this American writer. So the tagline for it is some instructions on writing and life. She's just, she's basically I like have a metaphorical shrine, and I, you know, worship and my mom every day. She's amazing. She's a novelist, and, you know, a writer herself. I think Burbo birds a beautiful way in to start thinking about writing. And it's also just an interesting read, even if you're not that interested in writing, but, you know, one of her big, big things is crappy. Well, she calls him shitty first draft. Yeah, like, I think people who don't write a lot, they expect that their first draft is going to be the thing. And I've never ever, ever published a first draft that I've written because they're always shit.
Liz Nable 36:52
And it's true. It's
Speaker 2 36:55
that, and I think that's what freaks some people out, because it's so much more work than you might think it's going to be, I think, because you know, because we all write emails we all write, you know, we write texts we all write. But to write something that's worth publishing, I think, you know, it needs to go through several iterations. And it's also like getting fit, you know, you just need to run a beer, and you're not going to be fit straightaway. Like, you know, you just need to do it again and again. And I don't know, I mean, maybe that's depressing advice. But it's, I think people underestimate the work it is to write something clear. And I also have a real pet hate for super fancy language.
Liz Nable 37:39
I agree. Agree.
Speaker 2 37:40
I think that something that's really simple like to have the confidence to write something in just a really simple, easy way, I think is as a reader. That's what I love it. And actually, that's what Anne Lamott does. So well, she's read the book, just read her book, and
Liz Nable 37:57
they know why I have that book. And I bought it about 14 years ago, when my daughter was born. How weird is this, that you suggested this book, because aborted in New York, I started writing a chiclet novel, based in New York. And I couldn't, I did this book writing course. And I couldn't get through this writer's block. And my course, the course teacher was like, go get this book by animal. And it's Bird by Bird, which basically means bit by bit. And so you start writing, and even if it's absolute nonsense, word, vomit, whatever, that you're putting down on paper, the actual process of writing. I don't know the science behind it. But the process of writing starts the brain functioning in a different way to if you just keep it in your head, like I totally like and you start to write better, even though you actually didn't know what you're gonna write when you put pen to paper.
Speaker 2 38:49
And you didn't even know you were thinking that I often have this sort of experience, if I like, you know, I've been working on something done a few drafts, but you know, and then it's into a place where I think, okay, I can probably publish this. And I sort of think, who wrote that?
Liz Nable 39:03
Yeah. And it's bizarre, because, and we're in the week, two calls at the moment, and we take, I'm teaching the students about writing their own brand story. So it's more like a really personal version of their professional brand story. And a lot of them are like that. I don't, you know, I just don't know what to write. And I don't know where to start. And I'm like, you just have to start and I think a few of them may be like, well, that's not very helpful. Yeah. Literally just have to start typing, writing or what if you're writing with a pen or typing, like literally anything, what comes to the top of your head, like whatever comes out of your mouth and onto the page, and it starts this incredible process and I think it can be simplified into things like an email newsletter every week and you start to get really good at it because you will often be writing about really simple things. And but that's what people relate to the most.
Speaker 2 39:59
Absolutely. that see that like that thread of universality and actually, like, sort of a strange way, the more like singular and specific you can be, the more likely that is to tap into something universal, you know. So I think you can actually speak about, you know, your very singular personal experiences. But it I mean, it's a fine line. And I don't know, I don't know how to advise what the difference is sometimes that can just be self indulgent. And people read that and I think, why am I don't want to listen to your diary entry. But then if we didn't way where there's this sort of spirit of this is what I'm going through and maybe you are to eat, you know, what I mean? Used to backfire,
Liz Nable 40:43
right? Because people want to see themselves in your story. It's like a human mirror reflection thing. Like they like to think, oh, animals had struggles to or Annabelle, you know, hates the, you know, the morning routine with the kids or she struggles with work life balance, or whatever it might be. They love to see themselves reflected back in those stories.
Speaker 2 41:06
Absolutely. And somehow you got to skate the line where it's not a like a self indulgent diary piece. Not need more of them in this world, you know?
Liz Nable 41:16
Yeah, look, I think without like, the two of us rant like rambling rabbiting away, because we like writing, but I think, I think generally with things like an email, you know, an email in EDM that you send to your database once a week, or whatever it might be. But I think your advice is, you know, just keep it really simple. And something that you think people will relate to that, you know, you're in your world, even if it's got nothing to do with your business, isn't this
Speaker 2 41:42
unlike, that's the end, if you're sitting down with the intention of how can I delight the people that are going to open this? Or how can I inform them at will? How can I like educate them about something that's going to be useful? I just think that whole intention is completely different to how am I going to flog my product? Yeah. And I just think if you have that intention from the beginning, you're already on your way to making something that people want to
Liz Nable 42:04
read. And consistency in that, you know, in those emails to your community is key, because you you're essentially conditioning them to want to open your email, right?
Unknown Speaker 42:16
Yeah. Well, I
Liz Nable 42:17
hope so. Yeah, well, you know, and you know, when you get an email from a certain company, there's always a sale email, or, you know, you just delete, you don't even actually give it a chance, because you know, that it's not going to be anything of use to you, unless you want to buy that product. Whereas, you know, you know, certain companies will always have a really clever, you know, weekly email or whatever it might be. And I think you, you know, you may end up deleting it down the line, but you give it a chance, and you open it up and you start to engage and invest your time into that business digitally, in a way which creates a really strong bond, I think and sets you apart from your competitors.
Speaker 2 42:55
Yeah, and you know, this just popped up in my mind, I don't know how relevant it is, but there's this coffee roaster I follow on Instagram, and I forgotten his name, maybe it's a yellow coffee or something. And you know, he's they're trying to sell coffee beans or ground coffee beans or whatever. But his posts like I'm, I'm a coffee nut. I love coffee. I don't live anywhere near a cafe. So I make it on my little Italian stovetop thing. I have a grinder I you know, take it all quite seriously. And his posts are amazing, because he educates. So he's like, Okay, if you're making it in a stovetop, this is how you do it. This is not the think you do it like this, but you don't, you've got to start with hot water. You've got it, you know, all this sort of stuff. He just gives me all this amazing information. And I've actually never bought coffee from him. But maybe I need to because I get so much value. But I guess this sort of trust and delight and informing it's like a long play, isn't it?
Liz Nable 43:52
Yeah, it is it? Does he sell his coffee online. Could you buy it? Yeah, he does.
Speaker 2 43:58
And I feel like now I need to actually go and buy it because he's given me so much joy.
Liz Nable 44:04
I know. And you'll remember that name. And you'll remember that brand, which is a really clever way of him to share his expertise to build his business. Yeah. How important do you think the magazine itself is because you mentioned that there's a 60% regional audience, and then there's 40% people in the city reading the magazine. Like how important a roll Do you feel like that, that plays in? I guess bridging the divide between city and country or what have you sort of noticed about that part of the readership and what is brought to people?
Speaker 2 44:42
Well, I think that's hugely important because, you know, lots of decisions are made in the city, you know, by people, like on behalf of people who live in regional Australia, but there's lots of and so you can't make good decisions unless you have have good information and good stories and, you know, stuff that goes beyond the stereotypes. So, for me, it's really, really important. And, you know, there's lots of people in the city who really care about, you know, let's say climate change and renewable energy and fast food and where and how it's got all that stuff happens in regional Australia. And, you know, it's really interesting, like with the, the renewable stuff, you know, there's, there's a huge push for renewables. And this is largely to provide energy to the city. But it's all happens in regional Australia. And there's all these conflicts over land news, you know, like, in theory, no one really has anything against wind farms or solar farms, but when they're happening in your backyard, and in your community, there's all these issues that people in the city just don't know about don't appreciate. And I think there's this sort of, I think there's an underlying sense of lots of people in regional Australia, that, that, that what they do isn't acknowledged or respected by people in in urban Australia. And I think that drives, you know, we don't want that, because that then just drives teams and tribes and groups of people further apart. And I don't know, I just think it's so important to go beyond, you know, like a toothless farmer complaining about the drought on the news, like, these are nuanced topics that impact people really differently. And everyone can have the best intentions, but without actual good information, you know, it's hard to make proper progress.
Liz Nable 46:41
I think that's one good thing that's come out of COVID is, you know, and things like, buy from the abortion and those kinds of kinds of things. I feel like city people, and I don't know what maybe it was just at the time, but I certainly am far more aware of my kind of country colleagues and what's happening in the regions and care, as you know, as living in the city, then, I think the awareness after COVID is much better than it was, let's say, 500%.
Speaker 2 47:11
I totally agree. And I think in a way, it was quite a good time to start a magazine about regional Australia. Very good time. Yeah. And it was you right, because a lot of people, you know, they travelled in Australia, because they couldn't go anywhere else. And they, they all of a sudden had some hooks to hang things off. And it's so beautiful. And, you know, like, it's, it's hard to care about things that you don't have any link to. Yeah, no, it's Yeah, I think it's really exciting. And I think we need to like draw on that rather than, you know, pull away.
Liz Nable 47:47
Yeah. Well, I do. I've always loved a road trip to the country. And I've got a lot of friends from school and from university who, who live in rural and regional Australia. So I will full on will continue to do my road trips. And I'm looking at Texas on Google Maps. So your new is it Gunda. Windy.
Speaker 2 48:08
Well, we're further east. So we're about two hours, east of Gundy and Texas is probably about one hour is to get to you know what you've got to cover. We just had the Texas show, you know, there's beautiful country show. Horse stuff and pig racing and all that sort of stuff. That was that's just been in Texas. So this time next year.
Liz Nable 48:29
It is even in the dark. It's like even though there was a Texas here now. Yeah, learning new things.
Unknown Speaker 48:37
Yeah, it's so cool. I love it.
Liz Nable 48:39
It's been such a pleasure having you on the show. Annabelle. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 48:43
Thanks, Liz. I've loved chatting.
Liz Nable 48:45
I'll see you in Texas next year. All right, you're on. Thank you for listening to this episode of Nable My Business. If you've loved it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook for your friends. I'm all about listening and learning from you my audience. So please pop a review on iTunes and let me know how you're enjoying the show. I'd love to hear from you. So if you have any questions, email me at Liz at Liz nabal.com And if you want to know more about what I do, head over to Liz nabal.com I truly hope this podcast is a game changer for you. Whether you're a small business owner, a franchisee you have a side hustle or you're just starting out. This is where you truly begin to build your own empire and the life of your dreams.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
