Hello from Ginkgo & Fern
We’re Alex and Victoria, Biz Besties who have been working together since 2017.
We started our business partnership when our eyes met across an entrepreneurial speed-dating networking event in Tokyo (true story). After that, we joined a business mastermind together, launched a product collaboration, and then moved to in-person small business training in Tokyo in 2019 while simultaneously running our own brands.
Alex is the founder of Turquoise Port, a home decor brand with a 5 year retail presence in Tokyo, Japan. She has worked her way through a range of industries spanning 7 countries on 3 continents: finance, government entities & NPOs. She also wrote content for a magazine and ran a Chamber of Commerce.
Victoria is the founder of Bikudesigns, a vintage kimono accessories brand based in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo. She has been working full-time at Bikudesigns since 2016 and was a part-time small business owner for over 30 years before that. She is also a small business mentor.
When Alex moved from Japan to New Zealand, our partnership continued online and was rebranded as the Ginkgo and Fern Course Society. We meet weekly on Zoom for co-working accountability sessions and get together online every month to chat about non-business-related topics.
Working alone in your business can be really lonely and isolated at times, and it’s just so lovely to have a group of cheerleaders who’ve got your back.
We’re passionate about all things small biz, being small business owners ourselves. We’ve been through the pain of setting it all up and learning through trial and error and now we want to share what we know in easy-to-digest, practical, bite-sized chunks. We want to help you focus on and prioritise the things that will get you the business growth you want. Just a lot quicker than we did.
When we both jumped into our businesses, we were busy collecting email addresses in many different ways: speaking engagements, in-person collection, giveaways, raffles and more.
And we didn’t email our mailing lists (not regularly anyway).
Why? We had no idea what to write, how often to send or even how long an email should be. We had no strategy, and we left so much money on the table.
Maybe you’re in the same boat? Stuck in mailing list limbo...
Maybe you’ve been avoiding sending an email to the list you’ve been generating or maybe you’ve been too shy to ask for emails at all.
Or maybe, you’re thinking that it’s all just too hard.
Whatever stage you’re at, you know you’re missing the chance to deepen relationships with the people who love what you do. And leaving money on the table.
Don’t worry. We’re here to hold your hand through the process, support you through the tech (spoiler alert, it’s easier than it looks) and help you get organised to regularly get in front of the people who want to hear from you.
You got this!
By attracting the right people and emailing them regularly you will no longer be leaving money on the table.
Follow our logical steps to get your mailing list set up and overcome your:
- Procrastination
- Fear of unsubscribes
- Writer's block
- Embarrassment
- Under-confidence
- Fear of asking for the sale
At G&F you get two brains for the price of one and direct access to both of us, not an assistant or someone managing our inbox.
In our unique partnership, spanning two countries, we each bring our personal strengths and passions to the business:
Alex is the ‘hardware’ (systems, schedules, course hub management, numbers) and Victoria is the 'software' (curriculum development, mindset work, copywriting, design).
We walk you through setting up your mailing list slowly and thoroughly. The course is self-paced so you can do it all in one day, spread it out over a week or work on it over the course of a month. It’s up to you and your schedule.
With only 6 video modules and short tasks at the end of each module, the course is super manageable. We give you a downloadable workbook to print out at the start of your course, so there’s no running back and forth to your printer.
By simply watching each video and then completing the tasks in order, you will have a functioning mailing list by the end of the course.
Both of us teach an equal amount of modules in the course and we divided them up according to our skills and what we LOVE to talk about. We’re bringing all the energy and passion you need to inspire you to keep going.
To make sure you get it all completed, you can hop into one of our WHAM sessions (Weekly Hour of Accountability Magic) every week to check in and state your intentions.
As well as the course, you’ll also get:
- Email marketing evaluation activity
- Content Pillars Video Training
- 40+ locations to place your opt-in both online and offline
- How to get started with an Email Service Provider - walkthrough video
- 45+ Lead Magnet Ideas
- Email ideas/ types download
Once we’d set up our mailing lists and started emailing consistently, the magic began to happen:
- We had more time to work on rather than in our businesses.
- We realised that social media platforms could close tomorrow but we could still reach our best people.
- We created deeper relationships with our customers.
- We got more eyes on our words than we ever did on socials.
- We wanted to shower our subscribers with special things (secret sales, giveaways, freebies popped in packages, a little treat).
- We drove more people to our events.
- We realised that having a small list is a great opportunity to try out and experiment without the fear of judgement.
- We began to plan, batch-create and schedule a month in advance giving us more time for coffee.
- We could maintain a business rather than an expensive hobby.
- We made direct sales.
After you’ve made your purchase, you will have access to the course hub right away.
From this point you can start building your mailing list straight away. No waiting for modules to drop.
It’s all yours. For lifetime access (and free updates too).
See you in there!
Victoria & Alex
Need more info?
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10-30 min video x 9
5-60 min task x 14
= 14 hours approx.
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Module 1: Get started
Module 2: Email types
Module 3: Plan your content
Module 4: Design it
Module 5: Get it going
Module 6: Manage it
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YES!
- Email marketing evaluation activity
- Content Pillars Video Training
- 40+ locations to place your opt-in both online and offline
- How to get started with an Email Service Provider - walkthrough video
- 45+ lead magnet ideas
- Connect with like-minded business owners in an online community space, The Ginkgo & Fern Society
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Committed business owners who:
- Want to grow their sales
- Understand the power of the inbox
- Know that email marketing helps you scale your business
- Are willing to do the work to set it up
- Are overwhelmed but want to free up time in the long run
- Want to make deeper connections with their audience
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- Branding your emails consistently
- Workflow (saving time and energy)
- Automated emails
- How to get your ideal customer/ client to subscribe
- What to write and how often to send
- Understanding insights (open rate, bounce rate, click rate)
- Managing the health of your list
- Knowing and following the rules/ laws
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It's for you, if
- You have a small product/ service business.
- You know you need an email list but have no idea where to start.
- You feel like you are bothering or annoying people when you send out emails.
- You want to connect with your dream client/ customer on a deeper level.
- You don’t know how often to send emails.
- You rely on social media to connect with your customers/ clients but this is not converting to sales.
- You’re not sure what to write in your emails.
- It all feels so overwhelming that you keep putting list-building on the back burner.
- You’re worried about the tech.
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- 6 video modules taking you through the process of setting up your mailing list
- Practical task sheets after every module
- Weekly WHAM calls (WHAM = Weekly Hour of Accountability Magic)
- TONS of small biz videos in the The Gingko & Fern Society