As a business owner, is giving stuff away for free effective? Michelle Cummings, the founder of Training Wheels, has seen it work. In Michelle’s case, free content builds trust with her audience.

“They'll shop around a little bit, of course,” she says. “But the more they build loyalty with you as either the face of your company or the brand behind it or just the mission and what you do and how you do it, that actually will get people to … want to purchase from you directly.”

She has seen it work. Michelle has been in business for 24 years, and she’s been a Constant Contact customer for almost just as long. She sends a newsletter every Wednesday to her list of more than 22,000 people interested in team-building and leadership tactics. 

This is on top of running a leadership training online course, conducting keynotes and online workshops, and authoring several books — one of which is being made into a screenplay (!!)

On this episode of Be a Marketer, Michelle and host Dave Charest discuss the importance of blocking off creative time and why you should focus on your list-building efforts. 

👉 Ask Michelle & Chris About Team Building [podcast]

☕ What she does: Michelle founded Training Wheels, dedicated to building high-performance teams and skilled facilitators through hands-on learning. Michelle, who has authored multiple books and travels the world as a keynote speaker, started her first business over 24 years ago. And she's been a Constant Contact customer for almost as long. 

💡 Key quote: “People love good stories. We learn through story all the time. So if you have a client or you have a best practice … and if that could help another person that does something similar to what you do, or it drives people to your site for a sale, then that's a great little newsletter article that you can do.”

👋 Where to find her: LinkedIn | YouTube

👋 Where to find Training Wheels: Website | Podcast | Twitter | Facebook