Get the FREE Lead Magnet Guide >> growthinreverse.com/leadmagnet

Get Instant Access to the Growth Vault now >> growthinreverse.com/vault

***

“Lead magnets definitely still work. I think they’re having a resurgence right now.” — Chenell Basilio

It took 60 episodes.

But we finally dedicated a full episode to lead magnets — what they are, what’s actually working right now, and what’s quietly a waste of time.

In this episode, we break down the three lead magnet formats we see winning, why “quick win” matters more than length, and how tactics like comment-to-get and pop-up newsletters can create real growth flywheels. We also talk about when lead magnets don’t make sense (yes, that’s a thing) and the simple promotion step most creators skip that could double the impact of what they’ve already built.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The “Trojan horse” that beats the “Subscribe to my newsletter” CTA
• Whether or not lead magnets still work
• 5 keys to a creating a successful lead magnet
• The most critical lead magnet mistakes to avoid
• The best types of lead magnets working right now  
• Chenell's number #1 tip for lead magnets

LINKS MENTIONED

• The Growth Vault → 
• Sam Vander Wielen Episode → 
• Growth In Reverse Pro 

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

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

OUR NEWSLETTERS

• growthinreverse.com
• growthcurrency.net

Subscribe & 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 Instant Access to the Growth Vault now >> growthinreverse.com/vault

***

In this episode of the GIR Podcast, we're airing "cross-published" episode originally featured on Jay Clouse's Creator Science podcast.
Check out the Creator Science podcast here >>

***

“If someone can Google what you wrote and get the same thing elsewhere, it’s not differentiated.” — Chenell Basilio

Chenell Basilio joins Jay Clouse on Creator Science to break down how she built Growth In Reverse into a thriving newsletter with over 35,000 subscribers.

Chenell shares the strategy behind her deep dive format, how she thinks about positioning and differentiation, why focus beats platform sprawl, and how she turned detailed research into sustainable audience growth. Jay and Chenell also discuss monetization, collaboration strategy, audience building, and what it actually takes to build a durable newsletter business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why depth beats volume when building a newsletter audience
• The compounding power of collaborations in niche markets
• How to create “internal share” content that spreads inside companies
• Why narrowing your focus accelerates newsletter growth
• The difference between building an audience and building a business
• How to turn research into durable newsletter content
• Why distribution strategy matters more than content frequency
• The real value of long-term positioning in the newsletter space

LINKS MENTIONED

• Creator Science podcast
• The Growth Vault
• Growth In Reverse newsletter
• Jay Clouse on LinkedIn
• Growth In Reverse Pro 

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

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

OUR NEWSLETTERS

• growthinreverse.com
• growthcurrency.net

Subscribe & 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 the FREE Growth Levers Library: growthinreverse.com/growth-levers-library/

***

“Most people underestimate how long it takes for anything meaningful to happen.” — Matt Paulson, MarketBeat

Matt Paulson is the founder of MarketBeat, one of the largest independent financial media brands on the internet. What started as a scrappy side project eventually turned into a multi-newsletter business serving millions of investors, driven primarily by search, disciplined publishing, and long-term thinking.

In this episode, Matt walks through how MarketBeat grew over time, why newsletters became a central growth lever, how monetization evolved alongside the audience, and what most creators misunderstand about “overnight success.” This is a grounded, reality-based look at building a newsletter business that lasts.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why Matt believes most newsletter creators reach for paid growth far too early
• The channel Matt actively avoided for years, even as others obsessed over it
• The two most important metrics Matt pays attention to
• MarketBeat's sign-up flow that earns back paid growth spend 
• The surprising channel Matt is most bullish on today and why it prints money
• What “organic growth” actually looked like when it wasn’t glamorous
• How MarketBeat evaluated channels based on profit, not attention
• The point where “more traffic” stopped being the goal
• What Matt would double down on today if starting from zero

LINKS MENTIONED

• MarketBeat.com
• MattPaulson.com
• MarketBeat YouTube Channel
• NewMediaSummit.com (use GIR20 for 20% off your ticket)
• Take your newsletter to the next level with Chenell & Dylan — join GIR Pro today
• All of Chenell's Free Content → 

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

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

OUR NEWSLETTERS

• growthinreverse.com
• growthcurrency.net

Subscribe & 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.

This is a clip from the FULL GIR episode with Tom Orbach:
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3LiScMzoSsoyASlymH8vC6
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD-xde5kQ4Q

***

How do you launch a paid Substack newsletter earning $50,000—without a long pre-launch, teaser campaign, or complicated funnel?

And all this while working a full-time job?

In this Growth In Reverse podcast clip, Tom Orbach breaks down exactly how he launched the paid version of his Substack newsletter after nearly two years of publishing for free—and why simply announcing it to his list worked so well.

You’ll hear how Tom:

→ Designed a paid Substack offer people couldn’t price per email
→ Ran a surprise-style launch without warming up his audience
→ Used multiple emails (not just one) to drive conversions
→ Signed up 500+ paid subscribers before publishing his first paywalled post

LINKS MENTIONED

• Tom's 3 Big Growth Levers & Launch Plan
• The Full GIR Episode with Tom Orbach
• Tom's newsletter — MarketingIdeas.com
• Tom's 3 Big Growth Levers & Launch Plan
• NewMediaSummit.com (use GIR20 for 20% off your ticket)
• Take your newsletter to the next level with Chenell & Dylan — join GIR Pro today
• All of Chenell's Free Content → 

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

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

OUR NEWSLETTERS

• growthinreverse.com
• growthcurrency.net

Subscribe & 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 Matt's 1,000 Email Subscriber Formula: https://growthinreverse.com/matt-yt-download/

***

"The way to monetize a small, niche audience is not sponsorships — it’s higher-ticket services." — Matt McGarry, GrowLetter

Matt McGarry has helped grow some of the largest newsletters in the world — including The Hustle, Milk Road, and 1440 — to millions of subscribers. But in this conversation, he makes a contrarian case: you don’t need a massive email list to build a highly profitable newsletter business.

We dig into why sponsorships are a weak monetization strategy for most creators, how Matt generates $76+ per subscriber from LinkedIn, why short-form video is the most underutilized growth channel for newsletters right now, and how to think about business models before chasing scale.

Matt also shares how he’s evolved his own newsletter past 50,000 subscribers, what growth channels are actually working in 2025, and why events, services, and higher-touch offers often beat low-ticket products — especially early on.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why sponsorships are one of the weakest newsletter monetization paths
• How Matt earns $76 per LinkedIn subscriber (and why lead quality matters more than volume)
• How one YouTube video drove 1,000+ email subscribers with a simple lead magnet
• When not to start paid growth — and the exact criteria Matt uses before spending a dollar
• Why newsletters should often monetize with services and consulting before products
• The biggest newsletter opportunity most creators are ignoring in 2026

LINKS MENTIONED

• Matt's 1k Email Formula Breakdown
• Growletter.co
• NewMediaSummit.com (use GIR20 for 20% off your ticket)
• Matt's newsletter — The Newsletter Operator
• Chenell's on Matt's podcast 
• Take your newsletter to the next level with Chenell & Dylan — join GIR Pro today
• All of Chenell's Free Content → 

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

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

OUR NEWSLETTERS

• growthinreverse.com
• growthcurrency.net

Subscribe & 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!

The Growth Vault is LIVE: Chenell's brand-new offer for newsletter creators is here—filled with newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.

--------------------------------------

“Creators overinvest in subscriber count and under-invest in content quality.” — Chenell Basilio 

We went live on YouTube for the first time and opened up the floor for a full creator Q&A session! 

In this session, we answered audience questions about newsletters, growth, ROI, lead magnets, AI in email, overcoming writing fears, and building creator businesses that last.

QUESTIONS WE ANSWERED

These are the questions we tackled during the livestream:

• Do newsletter writers need to have a podcast and/or YouTube channel to succeed?
• Should creators focus on one platform first, or spread across multiple?
• What’s was our ROI and ROF (Return on Fun) of running a podcast for a year?
• What were the biggest benefits of podcasting this year?
• What would we do differently if we were starting the podcast in 2026?
• Which part of our podcast workflow will we stop doing (or want to stop)?
• How do subject lines affect open rates for new vs. long-time subscribers?
• What’s one thing newsletter creators over-invest in?
• What’s one thing newsletter creators under-invest in?
• What is the most important metric you track in your ESP? 
• What metrics matter more than open rate?
• How are AI features in Apple Mail and Gmail changing how people interact with newsletters?
• ...and more!

LINKS MENTIONED

• GrowthInReverse.com
• GrowthCurrency.net
• Join a community for newsletter creators: Growth In Reverse Pro 
• Get The Growth Vault — newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.
• Want your newsletter roasted? Submit it here. 
• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• Check out past Growth In Reverse Deep Dives: https://growthinreverse.com/archive/

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

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

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!

Music from #Uppbeat:
https://uppbeat.io/t/21-on-the-block/i-know
License code: 1XP9IRXHPZSBPGMM

Get 30 proven strategies to grow and optimize your email list FREE >>

This week, we're playin' the hits!

Let's rewind the clock to December 2024. This episode was the very first episode we published—and it's been our most popular episode to date! In this very first episode, we dig into the 3,000+ hours of research Chenell has done into creators and uncovered some of the wildest ways successful newsletter creators have grown their newsletters.

Get the full list and 75+ newsletter growth tactics here: https://growthinreverse.com/wild
Start collecting testimonials for free with Senja: https://growthinreverse.com/senja

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Codie Sanchez’s Playbook: How buying and growing newsletters helped her build a massive audience.
• Yossi Levi (Car Dealership Guy): Building a powerful brand—100% anonymously.
• Ali from First 1000: Breaking down intentional, daily growth strategies.
• Tom Alder’s Prelaunch Strategy: Using social media to validate your newsletter idea to the tune of 5k subscribers.
• Justin Welsh’s Content OS: A behind-the-scenes look at the system that powers Justin’s consistent content creation—and how it's earned him over 7 figures.
• Cross-Promotion Tactics: How creators like Alex Garcia used newsletter-video swaps to grow their lists by thousands.

LINKS MENTIONED

• Codie Sanchez Grew Her Newsletter to 250k+ Subscribers in Just 3 Years (deep dive)
• Yossi Levi Built The Car Dealership Guy to 550k+ Followers (deep dive)
• First1000.co Grew to 60k Subscribers in 32 Months (deep dive)
• How Justin Welsh turned his sawdust into $2 million (deep dive)
• "Car Dealership Guy" Yossi Levi's "Who the f*** is Car Dealership Guy" video
• Justin Welsh's Content System: https://youtu.be/0tjGORsL2QI?si=LRUt9hOqRAJHNdaW&t=1012 
• Justin's ContentOS course https://growthinreverse.com/contentos (aff link)
• Check out all these growth levers here: https://growthinreverse.com/wild

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

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

OUR NEWSLETTERS

• growthinreverse.com
• growthcurrency.net

Subscribe & 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!

The Growth Vault is LIVE: Chenell's brand-new offer for newsletter creators is here—filled with newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.

--------------------------------------

“I think you are being financially irresponsible if you do not have a newsletter.” — Nathan May, The Feed Media

The GIR Podcast is approaching it's 1st anniversary of publishing!

To celebrate, we pulled six standout clips from some of the smartest newsletter operators and creators we interviewed this year.

Each clip highlights a growth or monetization tactic that actually works in the real world — from using testimonials strategically, to building self-liquidating flywheels, to using DMs to drive thousands of subscribers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• How Eddie Shleyner drives high conversion rates on his landing page
• The Self-Liquidating Flywheel Olly Richards uses to fund his paid growth
• The IG + ManyChat strategy Sam Vander Wielen uses to convert viewers to subscribers
• How Katelyn Bourgoin uses an incentivized newsletter poll question to drive sales
• The successful + unscalable strategy Justin Moore used to get his first devoted subscribers
• Nathan May's private newsletter strategy earning $1M ARR. 

LINKS MENTIONED

• Eddie Shleyner's GIR Podcast episode
• VeryGoodCopy.com
• Olly Richards' GIR Podcast episode
• OllyRichards.co
• Sam Vander Wielen's GIR Podcast episode
• Sam on IG
• Nathan May's GIR Podcast episode
• TheFeedMedia.com (Nathan's business)
• Katelyn Bourgoin's GIR Podcast episode
• Why We Buy newsletter (sign-up to get the Fri-Yay email)
• Justin Moore's GIR Podcast episode
• CreatorWizard.com
• Milly Tamati's GIR Podcast Episode
• Chenell on Instagram
• Dylan on Instagram
• Join a community for newsletter creators: Growth In Reverse Pro 
• Get The Growth Vault — newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.
• Want your newsletter roasted? Submit it here. 
• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• Check out past Growth In Reverse Deep Dives: https://growthinreverse.com/archive/

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

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

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!

Music from #Uppbeat:
https://uppbeat.io/t/21-on-the-block/i-know
License code: 1XP9IRXHPZSBPGMM

The Growth Vault is LIVE: Chenell's brand-new offer for newsletter creators is here—filled with newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.

--------------------------------------

“The quiz brings them in, the newsletter builds the relationship, and the community closes the loop.” — Milly Tamati, Generalist World

This week on Growth In Reverse, we sat down with Milly Tamati, founder of Generalist World — a thriving online community for multi-passionate professionals.

Milly’s story is a masterclass in building an ecosystem that grows itself. She used a quiz funnel to attract her ideal audience, a newsletter to nurture them, and a lifetime-membership offer to monetize — all without relying on constant product launches or heavy ad spend.

In this conversation, we dig into how Milly designed her quiz to drive newsletter sign-ups, how she uses TikTok and LinkedIn differently to drive new subscribers, and how the Generalist World newsletter feeds directly into her paid community. She breaks down conversion numbers, lessons learned, and the surprising reason she decided to cancel recurring monthly revenue—and switch to a lifetime membership model.

If you’re looking to turn your newsletter audience into a self-sustaining business, this episode is packed with ideas you can steal today.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• How Milly went from 0 to 15,000 subscribers in under a year with one quiz.
• The exact structure of her quiz that’s driven 23,000+ completions.
• How she optimizes quiz results pages to convert visitors into newsletter subscribers.
• How Milly uses TikTok to fuel growth.
• Her LinkedIn strategy that has her posting for 1000+ weekdays in a row.
• How her newsletter now reaches 40,000+ globally — and the flywheel that keeps growth compounding.
• The reason she switched to a lifetime membership offer.
• How she's driving newsletter revenue after cancelling monthly subscriptions.
• How Milly landed her Big Four "dream" sponsors.
• The metrics she tracks weekly to measure real growth (not vanity metrics).
• What she’d do differently if she rebuilt the Generalist World from scratch today.

LINKS MENTIONED

• Generalist World
• Generalist Quiz – “What Kind of Generalist Are You?”
• Milly on LinkedIn
• Milly on TikTok
• Join a community for newsletter creators: Growth In Reverse Pro 
• Get The Growth Vault — newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.
• Want your newsletter roasted? Submit it here. 
• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• Check out past Growth In Reverse Deep Dives: https://growthinreverse.com/archive/

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL

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

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!

Music from #Uppbeat:
https://uppbeat.io/t/21-on-the-block/i-know
License code: 1XP9IRXHPZSBPGMM

The Growth Vault is LIVE: Chenell's brand-new offer for newsletter creators is here—filled with newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.

--------------------------------------

“Organic needs to be your biggest channel if you want a real audience that feels connected to you.” — Sean Griffey, Industry Dive

You might not have aspirations of building a $100m newsletter empire. Neither did Sean Griffey.

But 10 years after cofounding Industry Dive with two peers, Sean and his cofounders sold their newsletter media business for a reported $500 million. We sat down with Sean Griffey, to understand what it took to build a behemoth like they did with Industry Dive, and whether or not Sean is still bullish on the newsletter business model.

In our chat, Sean breaks down exactly how they grew Industry Dive—from buying LinkedIn groups to mastering first-party data—and shares what today’s newsletter operators can learn from Industry Dive’s playbook.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The real reason Industry Dive launched with five newsletters on day one (and why Sean says they all “sucked” at first).
• How a bad story accidentally proved their newsletter finally “mattered.”
• The exact growth levers they pulled early on — including buying LinkedIn groups.
• Why Sean believes “organic audience growth beats paid growth every time” for long-term brand value.
• How they turned a small B2B news business into a 500-person company operating globally.
• The virtuous cycle of investing revenue back into better content.
• What their content studio does—and how it now drives ~40 % of total revenue.
• What Sean believes is the most valuable data point in newsletters.
• How Industry Dive decided which metrics actually mattered. 
• The lessons creators today can steal from a company that built 9 figures in newsletter revenue.

LINKS MENTIONED

• Industry Dive
• Sean Griffey on LinkedIn
• Informa (the company that bought Industry Dive)
• Join a community for newsletter creators: Growth In Reverse Pro 
• Get The Growth Vault — newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.
• Want your newsletter roasted? Submit it here. 
• Ask us a question or submit a podcast topic idea: growthinreverse.com/questions
• 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!

Music from #Uppbeat:
https://uppbeat.io/t/21-on-the-block/i-know
License code: 1XP9IRXHPZSBPGMM