The Creator Spotlight Podcast

This week Francis is joined by creative entrepreneur, Lex Roman. Lex is a freelance growth marketer with two newsletters, Journalists Pay Themselves and Revenue Rulebreaker.

Journalists Pay Themselves: https://journalistspaythemselves.com/

Lex's Website: https://lexroman.com/

00:00 The Multi-Hyphenate Journey of Lex Roman

04:00 Defining Creators and Creative Entrepreneurs

10:53 Monetization Strategies for Creators

15:43 The Boutique Creator Model

19:00 Revenue Streams and Success in the Creator Economy

23:33 The Role of Journalists in the Creator Economy

26:22 Virtual Events and Controversial Takes

33:27 Understanding Subscription Fatigue

40:44 The Overvaluation of Social Media for Growth

45:19 The Future of Internet Columnists

This week Francis is joined by Alex Dobrenko, a comedian and writer of the newsletter Both Are True.

Both Are True: https://botharetrue.substack.com

Alex's Twitter/X: https://x.com/dobrenkz

00:00 Intro

01:23 The Journey to Comedy and Writing

08:20 Writing Style and Honesty

15:02 The Role of Improv Comedy in Creativity

22:07 The Growth of an Audience

30:26 Professionalization of Content Creation and "Selling Out"

38:57 Whoa: Exploring Deeper Conversations through Interviews

45:37 Navigating the Solitary Nature of Creation

49:15 The Evolution of Social Media Engagement

This week Francis is joined by Penn Weinberger, founder and head of the agency Bad Behavior. Bad Behavior works with creators to produce original short-form shows for brands; they’ve worked with clients like Lyft, Columbia Records, Cash App, and Stanley.

Bad Behavior: https://www.bad-behavior.com/

00:00 Introducing Penn and Bad Behavior

01:42 Working with Creators vs. Influencers

05:00 The Impact of Viral Marketing

07:14 Empowering Creators

09:35 Upsetting the Traditional Advertising Model

13:42 Starting and Then Diversifying the Agency

17:12 The Blur Between Creator and Celebrity

22:22 The Revenue

26:07 The Increase in Management Amongst Creators

30:06 Rules for Building a Creator-Led Show

32:47 Finding Brands as a Creator

36:35 Red Flags for Brands and Creators

41:06 Unpredictable Virality

This week Francis is joined by Rameel Sheikh, founder and writer of The Bottleneck which, in his words, is the only weekly newsletter offering stories, frameworks, and tactics to sharpen how you execute.

thebottleneck.io

00:00 Introducing Rameel Sheikh and The Bottleneck

01:09 Building a Strong Audience Relationship

03:07 Lessons Learnt from the Startup World

07:18 The Decision to Start a Newsletter

13:31 The Structure of the Newsletter

17:00 Experimenting with Different Writing Styles

20:08 How the Newsletter Generates $30k a Month

26:00 Building an Audience from Scratch to 28k Subscribers

32:30 Are Creators Also Founders?

37:27 Building a Team as a Founder

40:57 The Many Failed Experiments that Led to The Bottleneck

44:27 Building a High Value Community

49:52 Future Dreams or Goals of The Bottleneck

Today’s guest is Swapna Krishna, creator of Ad Astra, a YouTube channel and beehiiv newsletter about space. She’s a professional writer with over a decade of experience doing everything from journalism to content marketing to authoring a book.

She’s been all-in on Ad Astra, her first venture as an independent creator since the start of 2024.

00:00 Intro

01:20 The Journey of Writing and Publishing a Book

04:35 Transitioning to Video Content Creation

07:22 Developing Presentation Skills Through Podcasting

12:42 Defining the Creator and Journalist Identity

18:31 Swapna's Journey Through the Content Creation World

22:22 The Differences in Solo Creating and Working in a Team

30:25 All of Swapna's Projects 31:50 Production Process: From Idea to Execution

41:58 The Relationships with Swapna's Different Audiences

48:34 Space-X's Media Dominance

50:40 The Monetization

54:25 Defining Goals and Editorial Mandate

Today’s guest is Alex Emery, a creative director and content strategist who spent the first 8 years of his career at Sky Sports before leaving 2 years ago to work with creators. His first client was John Nellis, a YouTuber with 5,000 followers at the time — they’ve since increased that number to 1.74 million and counting, and Alex is working with John full-time.

00:00 Intro

01:10 Getting into the world of football content

04:43 Tripling the growth of Sky Sports YouTube channel

07:27 The partnership with John

13:52 Combining the business and creative mind

16:24 How the business operates

18:41 How big is the team?

20:05 Producing content from in-front the camera

24:49 Why John Nellis is the best to work with

29:50 Growing and reinvesting into the business

35:10 The importance of the title and thumbnail

37:34 The myth behind "retention editing”

40:46 How the channel is monetized

44:27 Why you should delete your old videos

46:09 How much money is the channel making?

48:23 The work/life balance of a content creator

51:54 The goal for the channel

55:52 YouTube vs TV

Today’s guest is Caitlin Dewey, creator if Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends, a newsletter she started nearly 11 years ago, when she was the social media reporter for the Washington Post. She wrote it for 2 years, taking a 4-year break before bringing it back in 2020; earlier this year, she decided to go all-in and make it her main gig.

We spoke about the particular challenges of being a creator-journalist, how to write an actually good links aggregation newsletter, and choosing to build a lifestyle business instead of a media empire.

00:00 Introducing Caitlin Dewey

03:27 The Origins of the Newsletter

06:16 Taking a Break and the Pressure of a Rebrand

13:36 Building a Community With Readers

17:53 Building a Good Salary From Subscriptions

19:49 The Definition of Creators vs. Journalists

27:42 Bring Back Comfortable Middle Class Lifestyles

32:59 Collaboration in the Newsletter Community

37:37 The Painful Art of Content Planning

43:21 Substack's Shift in Business Model

50:13 The Craft of an Aggregation Newsletter

53:19 Fake News Is Now Just News

Today’s guest is Tommy Clark, creator of the Social Files newsletter, founder of Compound Content Studio, and a B2B social media expert. He started making content for his nutrition coaching business while still a college student, in 2018 — he never set out to build a career in content. Five years later, he has an agency on track to make over $1 million this year.

00:00 Intro

01:20 Accidentally starting a marketing agency

03:30 Building a team and hiring for content creation

06:17 Growing the newsletter Social Files

13:04 The devolution of Twitter - LinkedIn #1 now?

15:36 How to craft the perfect viral post

20:23 The relationship between the business and personal brand

23:41 Monetizing a creator led business

27:21 What makes someone good/bad at marketing?

29:27 Starting with content creation and rules for posting

39:19 Finding content ideas for viral posts

41:10 Uploading to YouTube but not being a YouTuber

43:55 How you can grow your online brand

Intro music produced by J. and Doug Organ

Ryan Gilbert, creator and writer of the newsletter 'Workspaces' joins us for episode 28 of The Creator Spotlight Podcast.

Workspaces: workspaces.xyz

00:00 From supply chain to tech startups

04:31 Building a niche from scratch

10:57 Monetizing with affiliate links

12:42 Abandoning a career to pursue content

16:32 The acquisition and reacquisition of the newsletter

25:08 Monetizing the newsletter is harder now

28:22 How the newsletter grew to 13k+ subscribers

35:35 The stats

37:12 The best home-office setup so far

40:30 Balancing personal and brand identity

44:12 Strategies for newsletter growth

47:02 Reflecting on success and future plans

Intro music produced by J. and Doug Organ

This week we speak with Rachel Karten, the woman behind every social media manager's favorite newsletter, Link in Bio, and an excellent social media consultant herself.

00:00 Getting started with food Instagram

04:39 Advice for working with brands

09:02 Winning and judging Webby awards

14:05 Building a newsletter for content creators, Link in Bio

25:03 Growing an email audience of 65k+

35:50 Being a good social media manager

Intro music produced by J. and Doug Organ.