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“During my last year as a CFO, I made more money from my newsletter and podcast than my full-time job."  — CJ Gustafson, Mostly Metrics

We sit down with CJ Gustafson, former tech CFO and now full-time creator of two newsletters—Mostly Metrics and Looking For Leverage—and a podcast called Run The Numbers. CJ is masterful at taking financial and business concepts and making them wildly entertaining.
 
CJ shares how he went from consulting and private equity to running a high-revenue content business, why he thinks about content like product development, and the systems he’s built to keep ideas flowing. If you’ve ever wondered how to blend expertise, humor, and growth strategy into a newsletter people can’t stop sharing, this episode is packed with insights.

PS - We recently hosted CJ in the GIR Pro community where he shared more BTS of his newsletter 👀🔥

→ Take your newsletter to the next level with GIR Pro >>

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• How CJ built Mostly Metrics into a leading finance newsletter with personality
• The unusual career path that prepared him for creating content CFOs actually read
• How CJ uses humor (and dog pics) to make complex topics approachable
• How he's building out the “media mullet” business model
• How CJ replaced his CFO salary with newsletter and podcast revenue—and why it happened faster than expected
• CJ's revenue streams that drive a multi‑six‑figure media revenue engine
• How he uses AI and transcripts to mine hundreds of hours of interviews for writing ideas
• CJ's favorite—and most important—newsletter metric
• The single biggest growth hack for his podcast audience
• His daily creative routine for producing high-value content without burning out

LINKS MENTIONED

• Mostly Metrics newsletter
• Run The Numbers podcast
• Looking For Leverage newsletter
• CJ on LinkedIn
• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• Get 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 Community
• Want your newsletter roasted? Submit it here. 
• Check out past Growth In Reverse Deep Dives: https://growthinreverse.com/archive/

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

• Chenell: Twitter | LinkedIn | Substack
• Dylan: LinkedIn | Bluesky

OUR NEWSLETTERS

• growthinreverse.com
• growthcurrency.net

Subscribe & Leave a Review:

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Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.