>> Join the 30-Days of Growth Social Challenge: https://growthinreverse.com/social

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“The first 6 months taught me that consistency beats everything — even if you’re not perfect."

In this episode of the Growth In Reverse podcast, Dylan and Chenell rewind the clock to when Chenell was just starting her newsletter. She breaks down the two strategies that fueled her early growth to 11,000 subscribers in six months: creating insanely valuable content and consistently engaging on Twitter.

PLUS: We're launching a new challenge to boost your content's visibility on social media—just like Chenell did to reach her first 11k subscribers: https://growthinreverse.com/social

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The simple posting strategy Chenell used to get her first subscribers
• How one Twitter comment brought subscribers instantly
• The role of curiosity and passion in standing out with your content
• Why treating your social profile like a landing page matters
• How early replies and comments built relationships with influential people
• The burnout risk of trying to post every day (and what Chenell would do differently)
• How a newsletter & podcast shoutouts boosted early credibility

LINKS MENTIONED

• The GIR Social Growth Challenge 
• 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:

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!

Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.

“If you spend 80% of your time making incredibly good content, you probably only have to spend 20% marketing it."

In this special episode, we’re bringing you Chenell’s conversation with Darrell Vesterfelt, VP of Growth at Mighty Networks, for a recent Creator Summit. 

In the chat, Chenell talks about why she started a newsletter — and why she chose a newsletter — way back in December 2022. 

Chenell and Darrell also dive into the art and science of growing a newsletter from scratch — from picking a topic you’ll never get bored of, to building relationships that fuel growth, to deciding when and how to monetize. If you’re looking for a behind-the-scenes look at how one of the most well-known newsletter growth strategists thinks about audience building, this episode is loaded with ideas you can apply immediately.

>>Get 30+ video lessons and ideas for optimizing your newsletter: https://growthinreverse.com/vault

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why passion for your newsletter topic is a wildly underrated growth lever
• How Chenell leveraged “content-led growth” to get early traction
• The commenting strategy that landed her first subscribers
• Why treating your social profile like a landing page matters
• The balance between high-quality content and active marketing
• How to use “cryptic teasers” to generate curiosity before publishing
• The biggest mistake she made with social posting frequency
• Why she didn’t run Facebook ads for Growth In Reverse (and when she would)
• The simple poll that landed her first paid sponsor
• How she would structure a paid newsletter if starting today

LINKS MENTIONED

• Mighty Networks
• Darrell Vesterfelt on LinkedIn
• Chenell's first Deep Dive on Mario Gabriele @ The Generalist
• 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:

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!

Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.

The Growth Vault is LIVE: https://growthinreverse.com/vault

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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:

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!

Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.

The Growth Vault is LIVE: https://growthinreverse.com/vault

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“You don’t need to create for everyone. You need to create for the people who value you most — and they’ll carry your newsletter further than you think."  — Matt Johansen, Vulnu.com

We sat down with Matt Johansen, creator of the Vulnerable U newsletter (nearly 30,000 subscribers), to unpack how he’s grown a must-read in the cybersecurity space. Matt has successfully transitioned from working in the cybersecurity space to running a newsletter + content agency business. So we wanted to learn exactly how he's done it. 

Matt shares how he combines industry expertise with personal storytelling, why B2B creators can command a premium, and what’s working for him across newsletters, sponsorships, and short-form video. 

If you want to learn how to grow and monetize a niche newsletter, this one’s for you.

PS - Matt is not only a brilliant video & newsletter creator, he's also a member of the GIR Pro community 🔥

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

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• How Matt grew to over 30,000 subscribers in under 2 years
• How he's crushing short-form video content for his newsletter
• How he monetized through sponsorships and built an agency alongside the newsletter
• The strategy behind his short-form and long-form video content
• His approach to setting boundaries with sponsors while maintaining audience trust
• How he leveraged industry presence & experience for early newsletter traction
• Why and how he’s adding a paid newsletter subscription tier 
• Tips for avoiding burnout as a solo creator juggling multiple content platforms
• Why platform-specific editing matters for short-form video success

LINKS MENTIONED

• Vulnu.com (Matt's website)
• Matt's socials: Instagram || YouTube || Twitter || LinkedIn
• Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
• 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:

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!

Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.

The Growth Vault is LIVE: https://growthinreverse.com/vault

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“This is the underrated growth strategy every newsletter should be using.”

What if every subscriber could turn into 10 more?

In this episode of the Growth In Reverse podcast, Dylan and Chenell unpack one of the most underrated newsletter growth levers: referrals.

They explore how to turn one subscriber into ten, without even needing a full-blown referral platform. From embedding share prompts into your welcome sequence to clever ways to incentivize email forwarding, this episode is packed with low-lift, high-impact strategies that help creators build a referral flywheel — even without a tech stack.

No matter our ESP, get some new ideas and actionable tactics to boost growth using your most valuable asset: your existing subscribers.

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

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The absolute best time to ask subscribers for referrals (and why most miss it)
• A surprising strategy a deliverability expert recommends to get more shares
• How one subtle tweak in your welcome email can 10x word-of-mouth growth
• The low-effort email trick that gets people to forward your newsletter
• “Send this to your plant bestie” — why hyper-specific asks perform better
• Why sharing via social might outperform traditional email referrals
• The hidden moment after a lead magnet download you should be capitalizing on
• A single click that triggers a referral follow-up (without any tech stack)
• The tiny line at the bottom of your email that can quietly drive growth
• A one-referral incentive so clever, readers feel compelled to share

LINKS MENTIONED 

• Get The Growth Vault — a vault of newsletter growth strategies with templates and real examples you can implement at your own pace.
• Tyler Cook (Email Deliverability)
• Dan Oshinsky's Growth Lever
• The ShareLinkGenerator (Dan Oshinsky's "mailto" tool of choice) 
• Aakash Gupta's GIR Interview
• Ali Abouelatta's GIR Deep Dive
• Shaan Puri's Viral Post Framework
• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• Check out the 30 Days of Growth FREE >>
• 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:

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!

Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.

“I waited to launch my paid newsletter until I had a solid strategy and felt like I’d earned it.”  — Tom Orbach, Marketing Ideas

Tom Orbach of MarketingIdeas.com — which recently crossed 44,000 free subscribers and over 500 paid subscribers in just the first few days after launching his paid tier — joins Chenell & Dylan to share the exact playbook he used to grow his newsletter and launch the paid version. He became a Substack bestseller within a day of his paid launch! And he did this all while working a full-time job.

You'll learn how he engineered a wildly successful Product Hunt launch, and why he delayed monetization for nearly two years. We also dive into the tools he uses, the psychology behind his launch strategy, and how Substack's built-in network helped supercharge his growth after turning on his paid tier. Whether you're at 500 subscribers or 50,000, this episode is a tactical goldmine.

PS - Tom is not only smart marketer & newsletter creator, he's also a member of the GIR Pro community 🔥

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

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Tom shares how he started the newsletter and bought the domain marketingideas.com after selling a viral tool.
• He explains why he invested in a ".com" domain instead of going with a cheaper option
• What publishing his first newsletter edition to a waitlist of 1,000+ felt like—and why publishing early and often matters.
• Balancing a full-time job with weekly publishing.
• How his job fuels his content.
• His top growth levers (including one that helped him gain over 7,000 subscribers).
• Why he waited nearly two years to launch a paid tier.
• How he designed the offer to feel premium and "non-calculable."
• Behind the scenes of Tom’s nine-day email launch strategy that brought in 500+ paid subscribers.
• How Tom reinvests revenue into experiments, gear, and ads to continue scaling.
• The emotional pressure of going paid—and how he maintains quality content and subscriber trust.
• Building community and micro-launches as the next phase of his newsletter growth.

LINKS MENTIONED

• MarketingIdeas.com
• Tom on LinkedIn
• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• Check out the 30 Days of Growth FREE >>
• 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:

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!

Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.

“$250k is when growth changes. It’s when you need systems. You usually can’t do it solo.”  — Matt Gira, The Quarter

Matt Gira joins Chenell & Dylan — in person — to share how he went from building underwater drones to launching The Quarter: a newsletter that deep dives into how founders grow bootstrapped businesses to $250K. This is an interview, but also an impromptu coaching session with Matt as we help him figure out how he can grow his newsletter faster and get it in front of the right audience.

We talk content strategy, growth experiments, and the surprising data he's uncovering along the way.

PS - Matt is not only an up-and-coming newsletter creator, he's also a member of the GIR Pro community 🔥

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

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why $250k is the key milestone for bootstrapped founders
• How Matt turned a niche data set into a powerful newsletter growth lever
• How he grew his newsletter to 1,200+ subscribers without chasing virality
• Collaborations, events, and the tour that could 10x his reach
• The power of being early, scrappy, and generous in your creator journey
• How Matt reverse engineers founder journeys from YouTube to written content
• The role of YouTube, LinkedIn, and in-person meetups in his growth flywheel
• Strategies he’s testing now: content swaps, data licensing, services

LINKS MENTIONED

• The Quarter (Matt's newsletter)
• The Bootstrapped Report
• Matt on LinkedIn
• Kit's Craft + Commerce conference
• Chenell's Deep Dive on CJ Gustafson of Mostly Metrics
• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• Check out the 30 Days of Growth FREE >>
• 30 Days of Growth Course Pre-launch
• 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:

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!

Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.

“I love unsubscribes. Don’t be here if you don’t want to be here.”

It is insanely easy to subscribe to a newsletter—and even MULTIPLE newsletters all at once.

But is that a good thing? Should newsletter creators be more choosy when determining who signs up? We're diving into one of the most overlooked and under-discussed aspects of newsletter growth: friction.

Specifically, how adding friction—rather than eliminating it—can actually improve subscriber quality, open rates, and monetization.

This one’s a must-listen if you’re growing via referrals, recommendations, or paid ads—or if you’re cleaning your list and still not seeing better open rates.

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

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why the "low friction" mindset can lead to worse subscribers
• What happened when Chenell got aggressive about cleaning her list
• Backend vs. frontend friction: which is better and when
• Building a false double opt-in to retain more good subscribers
• Why double opt-in purgatory can kill 20–40% of your growth
• How paid ads can inflate list size but tank your quality
• Form fields, first names, and checkbox tactics that work
• The danger of creating “unsubscribe friction” (and why you shouldn’t use it)
• What Dylan includes in every single broadcast to improve list health
• Creative ideas like gated quizzes, segmenting checkboxes, and engagement-driven welcomes

LINKS MENTIONED

• Workweek
• beehiiv Creator Network
• Kit Creator Network
• Chris Hutchins → AllTheHacks.com
• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• Check out the 30 Days of Growth FREE >>
• 30 Days of Growth Course Pre-launch
• 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:

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!

Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.

“The real value wasn’t in the keynotes—it was the dinners, the hikes, the casual connections.” – Dylan Redekop, first-time C+C attendee

Dylan and Chenell reflect on their time at Kit's Craft + Commerce email newsletter conference for creators in Boise.
 
But this episode isn’t just a recap — it’s a deep dive into what made the conference unforgettable: the people, the ideas, and the big shifts in how creators are building authentic businesses. From mastermind dinners with Pat Flynn to keynote takeaways on AI, content strategy, public speaking, and creator community, they unpack what creators should actually focus on in 2025.

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

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The irreplaceable power of in-person connection
• The difference between “insanely valuable” vs “insanely frequent” content
• Why mastermind-style events create outsized ROI
• How to use AI without burning out
• The importance of crafting your personal “what do you do” intro
• Creator identity and the fight with impostor syndrome
• Content strategy lessons from Sam Vander Wielen and Amanda Goetz
• Pat Flynn’s “lean learning” growth loop from 0 to millions of YouTube subs
• How to run better meetups and create serendipitous opportunities
• What Craft & Commerce nailed — and why you might want to go next year

LINKS MENTIONED

• Kit's Craft + Commerce creator conference
• Pat Flynn's Deep Pocket Monster YT Channel
• Sam Vander Wielen's website
• Amanda Goetz's website
• Ultraspeaking (Tristan de Montebello & Michael Gendler)
• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• Check out the 30 Days of Growth FREE >>
• 30 Days of Growth Course Pre-launch
• 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:

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!

Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.

"Every time I try to be an expert, I lose readers. When I’m just me, they stick around." – Jesse J. Anderson, Extra Focus newsletter

For the first time ever, Chenell & Dylan have recorded LIVE, in-person podcast episodes!  

Coming at you in-person from Kit Studios in Boise ID, Chenell & Dylan connect with Jesse J. Anderson—better known online as ADHD Jesse—to uncover the evolution of his successful newsletter, Extra Focus. 

Jesse's grown Extra Focus to over 70,000 subscribers and a combined social following in the hundreds of thousands. Jesse shares the real, raw, and often hilarious truth about building a brand and business around ADHD while balancing a full-time job and raising three kids.

We talk through the early days of posting atomic essays in Ship 30 For 30, stumbling into virality, learning what content resonated (and what didn’t), and how he’s navigated massive growth across platforms like Substack, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Whether you're managing life with ADHD or not our chat with Jesse is full of valuable insight into newsletter growth, business, and some brutal honesty.

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

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Jesse’s unexpected entry into content creation through Ship 30 for 30
• The signal pointing him towards doubling down on ADHD content
• How he built a massive newsletter while working full-time and raising a family
• Lessons learned from running paid newsletters, courses, and planning a thriving ADHD community
• What led to his viral Instagram and Twitter growth, and Jesse's simple content repurposing strategy
• The emotional rollercoaster of getting laid off and turning that moment into a creative breakthrough
• Why authenticity matters now more than ever in a post-AI content world

LINKS MENTIONED

• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• Jesse’s Newsletter: ExtraFocus.com
• Jesse on: Instagram | Twitter | Bluesky
• Ship30For30.com (←affiliate link)
• Recorded in Kit Studios, Boise ID
• Check out the 30 Days of Growth FREE >>
• 30 Days of Growth Course Pre-launch
• 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:

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!

Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.