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.
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“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.
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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!
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.
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“People think automation sounds hard. But If you do automatic bill pay, direct deposit, an email autoresponder, you're automating.” — Joe Casabona, casabona.org
Chances are all of us writing newsletters could benefit from some more automation. It can save us time and energy so we can focus on creating Insanely Valuable Content™️.
But what should we automate—and how?
So we brought on our favorite automation expert, Joe Casabona, to break down simple, creator-friendly automations that save time, reduce mental load, and make newsletters and online businesses run smoother.
Joe shares the automations he uses in his own business, why you don’t need to be “techy” to build them, and how small workflow tweaks can free hours every week.
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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!
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.
Quick note: We ran a 30-day Social Growth Challenge that we opened to the public for a $100 fee to join.
But all purchasers of The Growth Vault were able to join for FREE ;)
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“I love the concept of a challenge—I just don’t know that social media is the goal anymore.” — Chenell Basilio
We ran a "public" 30-Day Social Growth Challenge.
But was it worth it?
This episode breaks down the fallout and lessons learned from the GIR 30-Day Social Growth Challenge. We dive into whether or not we thought the challenge was a success—and whether it was worth it for each of us. We also share some pretty epic wins from several of our challengers.
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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!
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.
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“If you’re not exceptional at one of the Big 3 — it’s impossible to build a content business.” — Dylan quoting Matt McGarry
We're sharing the biggest stories, trends, and lessons from the newsletter space over the past few weeks.
From Bari Weiss’s $150M Substack newsletter sale to gamified engagement strategies and the rise of YouTube as the new discovery channel, we're unpacking what these moves mean for creators and operators running newsletters today.
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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!
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.
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“Stop wasting time picking the ‘perfect’ newsletter tool. Just start publishing. You can always switch later." — Dylan
We're breaking down the most common mistakes newsletter creators make in the early days — from obsessing over tools and automations to focusing on viral growth too soon.
We are challenging the conventional “how to start a newsletter” checklists floating around online (and even ChatGPT’s advice), showing how little you actually need to start. And why over-planning, over-designing, and over-automating are the real growth killers.
If you’ve been “getting ready” to launch for months, this episode will hopefully convince you to just start.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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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!
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.
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“I sent this short email—and got over 200 replies—when I usually get maybe 8 to 15. It was wild." — Chenell
In this episode, we're digging into the art (and science) of getting more replies to your newsletter.
Why replies?
Because we believe (and we're not alone) that replies should be the #1 metric most newsletter creators should be focusing on—even more than open or click rates.
We unpack why replies are a powerful signal for deliverability, engagement—even creator mental health—and we share practical strategies for getting more of them. Everything from welcome email tweaks to pattern-interrupt campaigns.
And we even highlight our own examples—plus some examples from major newsletter experts like Mario Gabriele’s “Puzzler,” Toby Howell’s gamified email, and Katelyn Bourgoin’s Fri-Yay edition (part of her Why We Buy newsletter).
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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!
The Growth Vault is LIVE: Chenell's brand-new offer for newsletter creators is here! The Growth Vault is filled with newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.
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“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.
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OUR NEWSLETTERS
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!
The Growth Vault is LIVE: Chenell's brand-new offer for newsletter creators is here! The Growth Vault is filled with newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.
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“Sometimes less is more. Cut the clutter and highlight the one thing that matters." — Chenell
It's newsletter roast time 🔥🔥 We're putting the spotlight on Hobby Card Life: a newsletter covering sports cards and collectibles.
We roast and review everything from the sign-up flow to newsletter design to growth levers. You’ll hear what’s working, what’s holding this newsletter back, and the exact opportunities we see for growth and monetization.
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OUR NEWSLETTERS
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!
Get 30+ video lessons and ideas for optimizing your newsletter: https://growthinreverse.com/vault
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“All roads point to the email list." — Sam Vander Wielen, Sam's Sidebar
In 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
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OUR NEWSLETTERS
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: Chenell's brand-new course —The Growth Vault— is here. Filled with newsletter templates, growth strategies, and real examples you can implement at your own pace.
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“If content is king, AI is storming the castle." — Darren Vesterfelt, Mighty Networks
Chenell was just in Cleveland for the annual CEX conference. And she wasn't *just* in attendance—she was also a speaker!
So we're recapping the biggest lessons and takeaways from Chenell's experience at CEX (Content Entrepreneur Expo) — where she basically opened the conference with her keynote, traded notes with some content economy heavy hitters (like Jay Acunzo, Ann Handley, Mark Schaefer, Robert Rose), and soaked up the big trends.
We dig into why slowing down beats AI-first content, the power of community and IRL relationships, how to think about discovery vs. relationship platforms, and why some SEO pros are betting on social over search.
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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.
Join our September Social Growth Challenge: https://growthinreverse.com/social
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“You have to be first—or you have to be best. That's how you win at paid content." — Nathan May, The Feed Media
In this episode, we interview Nathan May, founder of The Feed Media.
Nathan shares how he turned a small, private newsletter into a $1M ARR business in under a year, and how his agency helps some of the biggest creators and media companies scale their audiences with paid growth.
We dig into the playbooks behind The Feed Media, the experiments that worked (and the ones that didn’t), and why even a small but mighty list can generate outsized revenue. Whether you’re looking to monetize a niche newsletter or scale a larger media brand, Nathan’s story offers a unique perspective on growth and revenue.
>>Get 30+ video lessons and ideas for optimizing your newsletter: https://growthinreverse.com/vault
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OUR NEWSLETTERS
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.
>> 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
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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
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OUR NEWSLETTERS
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 >>
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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
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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 >>
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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 >>
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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
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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
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OUR NEWSLETTERS
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
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OUR NEWSLETTERS
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.