Advertise on podcast: Newsletter & Email Growth: Growth In Reverse

Get Esteban's 36k Subscriber Content Machine → growthinreverse.com/esteban/ *** Esteban Perez is the co-founder of the ADHD Weasel newsletter. Their newsletter has grown to over 36,000 subscribers and reached over 280,000 followers on Threads. But it wasn't all sunshine and butterflies. The cofounders first launched an app for food waste and discovered the hard way what happens when you don't validate your idea. Now, their newsletter is earning over $100k annually with 800+ paid subscribers. In this episode, Esteban shared how they go there, along with his most successful growth strategy - and their content strategy that allows a two-person team to post over 100 posts per week. KEY TAKEAWAYS How a failed food waste app accidentally revealed the audience that became The ADHD WeaselThe "accidental" moment that convinced Esteban to launch a paid tierThe quiz that 6-7X'd conversions in one weekThe Threads posting system behind 4+ million viewsThe Meta ad format that worked because it didn't look like an adHow Esteban treats segments with a Substack newsletterThe platform Esteban believes has the most valuable subscribersThe weekly "bottleneck analysis" habit that everyone skipsLINKS MENTIONED Get the 36K Subscriber Content Machine →ADHD Weasel — adhdweasel.comADHD Weasel on ThreadsEsteban's email — [email protected] ADHD Weasel Quiz (ADHD Weasel lead magnet)Publer (scheduling SOCIAL tool)FOLLOW ON SOCIAL Chenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERS growthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & Leave a Review: Love what you’re hearing? Make sure to subscribe, and if you found this episode helpful, leave us a rating & review on your favorite podcast platform.

Get free access to Jay Clouse's Memberships Teardown including how he built The Lab: creatorscience.com/teardown *** And you can take YOUR newsletter to the next level by joining our private community — GIR Pro >> *** Jay Clouse, founder of Creator Science and The Lab, joined us live from Kit Studios in Boise. Jay pulls back the curtain on 4+ years of building one of the most enduring creator communities out there — from its origins as the Creative Companion Club to a 340-member operation with tiered access, mastermind groups, and a wait list. Jay shares what's worked, what's backfired (including the scarcity campaign that became his worst churn month ever), and what he's actively redesigning right now. KEY TAKEAWAYS Why their highest-ever membership revenue month was followed by their worst churn monthThe difference between marketing levers that convert and the ones that serve your membersHow The Lab evolved from a 200-member cap to a tiered application modelThe "mid-boarding" gap that kills retention in most membershipsThe troubling paradox of community-led mastermind groupsThe two onboarding secrets Jay considers his unfair advantagesWhy offline events are a retention tool, not a growth toolWhat to think through before launching a membershipThe unexpected risk in scaling a community too quicklyLINKS MENTIONED CreatorScience.com/teardownChenell on Jay's podcast: 1st Appearance || 2nd AppearanceFOLLOW ON SOCIAL Chenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERS growthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & Leave a Review: Love what you’re hearing? Make sure to subscribe, and if you found this episode helpful, leave us a rating & review on your favorite podcast platform.

Stop losing subscribers with your onboarding — get Chenell's Subscriber Onboarding Course included in The Growth Vault: growthinreverse.com/vault This episode is a live recording from the 2026 Newsletter Conference in New York City where Chenell sat down onstage with Tim Huelskamp, co-founder of 1440 — the daily digest for more than 4.7 million curious readers. Tim shares the full arc of 1440's growth: from 78 subscribers to a media company generating roughly $1M in revenue per employee, including the unconventional early tactics, the Facebook ad playbook that still runs today, and the ambitious new "Topics" platform they're building to become the Pinterest for knowledge. KEY TAKEAWAYS Why Tim spent the first 7–8 months focused entirely on product before touching growth The counterintuitive decision to remove images from 1440 entirely The discovery that 3x'd sponsor revenue without adding a single new advertiserThe bet on their "Topics" platform: what "Pinterest for knowledge" actually looks like LINKS MENTIONED 1440 Newsletter — 1440's daily digest (join1440.com)1440 Topics — 1440's new knowledge platform (1440.io/topics)WhoSponsorStuff — Newsletter sponsorship intelligence tool mentioned by Tim ("Ryan and Jesse's" tool)FOLLOW ON SOCIAL Chenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERS growthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & Leave a Review: Love what you’re hearing? Make sure to subscribe, and if you found this episode helpful, leave us a rating & review on your favorite podcast platform.

Steve Kamb bought the domain for NerdFitness.com in 2007 and grew it into a 45-person, SEO-driven coaching company. But then he burned out. Badly. He demoted himself twice, and eventually stepped away from running the business entirely — all so he could do the one thing he actually loved: write. In this episode, Steve joins us to talk about his new book How to Try Again, the hard lessons from 17+ years of building Nerd Fitness, and why starting over isn't a failure — it's a skill. His PACT framework (Pause, Accept, Change, Try) offers a practical roadmap for any creator who's ever felt stuck, burned out, or tempted to quit.KEY TAKEAWAYS How Steve built Nerd Fitness from a blog into a 45-person companyWhy he demoted himself out of his own CEO roleThe brutal reality of pandemic-era burnout and what it taught him about chasing the wrong thingsWhy "all or nothing" thinking almost always failsHis four-step PACT framework for starting over after burnout or failureThe question he asked that changed everythingWhy writing two articles a week for 10 years was the real engine behind Nerd FitnessThe danger of modeling celebrity success over relatable successHow Steve separated his personal brand from Nerd FitnessWhat success actually looks like for Steve nowLINKS MENTIONED SteveKamb.comHow To Try Again (Steve's Book)NerdFitness.comKit — email platform used by Steve and the hostsFOLLOW ON SOCIAL Chenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERS growthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & Leave a Review: Love what you’re hearing? Make sure to subscribe, and if you found this episode helpful, leave us a rating & review on your favorite podcast platform.

Check out the 30 Days of Growth: 30daysofgrowth.co/ Get the Growth Vault: growthinreverse.com/vault *** Alyssa Dulin is Kit's deliverability expert. She joined us to pull back the curtain on one of the most misunderstood forces shaping newsletter success: deliverability. We sat down with her to unpack why emails land in spam, what the big Gmail and Yahoo changes really mean for individual creators, and how to build a sending reputation that lasts. From domain warmups to fake opens to bot clicks, this episode covers the stuff most newsletter creators won't learn until something goes wrong. KEY TAKEAWAYS The custom domain mistake tanking open rates — and how to make the switchWhy your sender reputation works like a credit score, and what "starting at zero" actually means for deliverabilityThe top 3 subscriber engagement signals ranked by impactHow long you should wait before removing inactive subscribersWhat actually happens to your sender reputation if you take a break from sending Alyssa's deliverability checklist for newsletter creatorsHow to onboard Creator Network and "recommendation" subscribers without hurting deliverabilityThe uncomfortable truth about whether your open rates and click rates are even realHow AI inbox summaries are becoming the new gatekeeper between your email and your readerHow to safely increase your send frequency without triggering spam filtersLINKS MENTIONED Kit — email platform used by Alyssa and the hostsGoogle Postmaster Tools — monitor your domain reputation and complaint rates with GmailSendGauge — Alyssa's new deliverability intelligence platform (beta)Deliverability Defined Podcast — Alyssa's podcast with the deliverability back catalogKit deliverability support: [email protected] ON SOCIAL Chenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERS growthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & Leave a Review: Love what you’re hearing? Make sure to subscribe, and if you found this episode helpful, leave us a rating & review on your favorite podcast platform.

Check out the 30 Days of Growth: 30daysofgrowth.co/ Get the Growth Vault: growthinreverse.com/vault *** Chenell and Dylan break down everything that happened with the second annual 30 Days of Growth — 30 cross-promotions with 30 different newsletter creators, published as a daily email series over 30 consecutive days. They cover what worked, what flopped, why Chenell wishes she'd done opt-ins instead of opt-outs, how 2,086 new subscribers came in (beating last year's 1,757), and which tips from the series they found most compelling — from AI-powered subject line analysis to a 5x landing page conversion boost from changing one button. KEY TAKEAWAYS Why Chenell decided to run 30 Days of Growth for a second time The biggest mistake they made with subscriber onboarding this year Why daily newsletters can quietly hurt engagement and deliverability The surprising ROI of referral incentives and private podcast feeds Why collaborations create long-term relationship leverage beyond subscriber growth The operational reality of coordinating 30 creators in 30 days Whether 30 Days of Growth will return again next year LINKS MENTIONED: 30DaysofGrowth.cohttps://helloaudio.fm/The Growth VaultThe GIR Pro CommunityFOLLOW ON SOCIAL Chenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERS growthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & Leave a Review: Love what you’re hearing? Make sure to subscribe, and if you found this episode helpful, leave us a rating & review on your favorite podcast platform.

Get Sam's FREE $500K Launch Breakdown >> growthinreverse.com/500k Get Instant Access to Chenell's Growth Vault >> growthinreverse.com/vault*** What does a $500,000 digital product launch actually look like behind the scenes? In this episode, we welcome back Sam Vander Wielen to the show. She's breaking down the exact strategy behind her recent 4-day launch that generated over $500,000 in revenue — with only about $24,000 in Meta ad spend. Sam walks us through the entire launch machine: how she generated 11,000 webinar registrations, why she treats Meta ads like a social media channel, the psychology behind her webinar structure, and the surprising role personalized VideoAsk responses played in boosting attendance and conversions. KEY TAKEAWAYS: The exact webinar strategy behind a $500k launch in 4 days  Why Sam treats Meta ads like a social media content channel  The personalized VideoAsk tactic that boosted webinar attendance  How she generated 11,000 webinar registrations  The subtle webinar psychology most creators completely miss  Why she believes creators should focus on ONE flagship product  The “Olive Garden Effect” philosophy for customer retention and referrals  Her secret trick to sending webinar replays that dramatically increased replay consumption  The biggest mistakes creators make with launches and digital products LINKS MENTIONED: The FREE $500K Launch Breakdown >> growthinreverse.com/500kSam Vander Wielen Official WebsiteSam’s Sidebar NewsletterOn Your Terms PodcastWhen I Start My Business, I’ll Be HappyVideoAskFOLLOW ON SOCIAL Chenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERS growthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & Leave a Review: Love what you’re hearing? Make sure to subscribe, and if you found this episode helpful, leave us a rating & review on your favorite podcast platform.

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[This is a replay from our conversation with Sam Vander Wielen from September 2025] “All roads point to the email list." — Sam Vander Wielen, Sam's SidebarIn this episode, we interview Sam Vander Wielen—a lawyer-turned-creator who has sold over $9M in legal templates with a 50k-subscriber newsletter.  Sam shares how her motto of "All roads point to the email list" has helped her earn over $9M in total revenue since starting her business in 2017. And she's done it with a small team and a replicable funnel strategy most creators could copy.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Why she decided to walk away from strategies that “should” work — and what happened afterThe $100k turning point that reshaped how she runs her businessHow she blends storytelling with practical education to keep readers engagedHow her newsletter fuels her entire content ecosystemWhat creators misunderstand about legal protections (and how to fix it)Why she believes the boring stuff is actually the growth engineThe platform she almost abandoned — and why she came back strongerHer advice for creators chasing growth but ignoring long-term sustainabilityLINKS MENTIONED Sam's websiteSam's book: When I Start My Business I'll Be HappySam's Socials: LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTubeAsk us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questionsGet Chenell's brand-new course: The Growth Vault — newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.Growth In Reverse PRO CommunityWant your newsletter roasted? Submit it here. Check out past Growth In Reverse Deep Dives: https://growthinreverse.com/archive/FOLLOW ON SOCIAL Chenell: Twitter | LinkedIn | SubstackDylan: LinkedIn | BlueskyOUR NEWSLETTERS growthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & Leave a Review: If you found this episode valuable, take a second to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify! It helps more newsletter creators find the show. Plus, if you submit a review, you’ll get priority for your own newsletter roast!

If 30 top creators handed you their best newsletter growth tactic, for free, would you take it? Of course you would! I'm excited to share that we are launching 30 Days of Growth (Part 2!) on April 20th. If you missed last year's event, you don't want to miss it again. Each day I'll be sending you 1 tip you can use to improve or grow your newsletter. In this episode, I break down why cross-promotions are one of the most underrated newsletter growth strategies, share the real numbers from last year's 30 Days of Growth (3,714 signups, 1,757 new subscribers, 77% open rates), and announce what's coming for year 2 - including the creators, the prizes, and how to get in. Sign up for free at 30daysofgrowth.coCreators featured this year include Dave Gerhardt, Katelyn Bourgoin, Justin Welsh, Sam Vander Wielen, Daniel Bustamante, and many more. Sign up: 30daysofgrowth.coGrowth In Reverse newsletter: growthinreverse.comGrowth In Reverse Pro community: growthinreverse.com/pro/

NOTE: This is a rerun of an episode we published in September 2025. But just because it's a rerun doesn't mean it ain't still a banger 💥 -------------------------------------- “One of the worst things you can do is send new subscribers to a dead-end thank you page. That kills engagement immediately." — Chenell We're breaking down the most overlooked (yet critical) part of growing a newsletter: onboarding new subscribers. We'll take you through Chenell's 3-step onboarding process every newsletter creator should have in place—and show how to optimize each for higher engagement, deliverability, and long-term retention.  We also tease an advanced 5-step version and share examples from top creators like Katelyn Bourgoin, Tom Alder, and Eddie Shleyner. Whether you’re just starting out or already running a large newsletter, you’ll learn how to avoid common pitfalls and set up onboarding that actually works. KEY TAKEAWAYS The 3 Cs of a high-converting landing pageWhy default Thank-you pages kill engagement (and what to do instead)How "sniper links" can push new subscribers directly into their inbox to find your emailThe #1 mistake welcome emails makeThe most important job your welcome email hasA simple incentive trick to encourage repliesThe difference between a “true” and “false” double opt-inHow (and why) to include surveys in your onboardingWhat top creators do with their “almost there” pages to hook new subscribersLINKS MENTIONED The Growth Vault →Katelyn Bourgoin's Why We Buy landing page →Eddie Shleyner's 'Social Proof Avalanche' →Tom Alder's Strategy Breakdowns → Growth.Design →Senja →RightMessage →Growth In Reverse PRO Community →Want your newsletter roasted? Submit it here. Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questionsCheck out past Growth In Reverse Deep Dives: https://growthinreverse.com/archive/FOLLOW ON SOCIAL Chenell: Twitter | LinkedIn | SubstackDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | Bluesky OUR NEWSLETTERS growthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & Leave a Review: If you found this episode valuable, take a second to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify! It helps more newsletter creators find the show. Plus, if you submit a review, you’ll get priority for your own newsletter roast!