In today’s episode, I sit down with investor, entrepreneur, and content creator, Sahil Bloom (in front of a live audience) to unpack the key strategies and lessons that will help you achieve longevity and sustainability in the creator economy. Sahil has had a fascinating journey, transitioning from the world of private equity to making a name for himself in the creator economy (his bi-weekly newsletter alone has more than 400K subscribers). Upon entering this new sector, Sahil found himself...

Today, I talk to Darrell Vesterfelt, who is a longtime friend who helped grow ConvertKit in our craziest growth times (from $100,000/mo when he joined to $500,000/mo in just over a year). Darrell is one of the best marketers I know. He is the Founder and former CEO of Good People Digital, the Co-Founder of Homestead Living, and Co-Founder and COO of the School of Traditional Skills. In this episode, Darrell breaks down the goal and execution of an online summit that accumulated an astonishing...

In today’s episode, I’m joined by PJ Taei, Founder and CEO of Uscreen, an all-in-one video monetization platform for content creators that helps them build their brands and grow their businesses.  The creator economy has changed a lot since PJ first founded Uscreen in 2015. And in that time PJ has managed to grow Uscreen to $20 million a year in revenue, representing sought-after clients and their channels, like Yoga with Adrienne and Justin Rhodes’s streaming platform, Abundance Plus.  Our...

In this episode, I talk to Susie Bulloch, who runs Hey Grill, Hey, which started as a wildly successful food blog (to the tune of a million dollars or more a year in revenue). Then she did something that I absolutely love: she used her online business to kickstart a physical products company. Her sauces and rubs company in the barbecue space is now about to overtake the blog in revenue. The online world of content creation is vastly different to the product manufacturing space, and as Susie...

Today, I sit down with the Head of Deliverability at ConvertKit, Alyssa Dulin, to shed some light on the often mysterious game of getting your email into the right inbox. Alyssa's expertise about what creators need to focus on and the most recent developments in the email marketing space can truly take your company's reach to the next level! Deliverability has always been a huge part of what we offer at ConvertKit, and Alyssa unpacks the most important pieces of this puzzle, covering sender...

Today I’m talking with Thomas Frank. Thomas built a YouTube channel called College Info Geek to over a million subscribers. Since then, he’s rebranded and grown the channel to nearly 3 million subscribers. He’s also built a massive business around courses and Notion templates. In this episode we talk about making a pivot as a creator. Thomas has an interesting and understated approach that’s worked quite well. We also talk about the Notion templates he’s selling, the YouTube productivity...

In this episode I talk to Brian Feroldi. Brian is an incredible creator in the investing space. He Tweets about money, investing, and self-improvement. He also has a free newsletter with over 40,000 subscribers. Today Brian talks about Twitter and how he’s grown his account to over 400,000 followers. He has an interesting idea using your Twitter profile as a sales page, and he explains why conversion rates are important. We also pull up my Twitter profile and Brian gives it a tear down live...

The podcast is back! Today I’m talking with Turner Novak. Turner is someone I’ve followed for a long time. He has an amazing Twitter account where he drops hilarious memes, talks about life as an investor, and makes fun of venture capitalists and founders. In today’s episode Turner and I talk about how he creates content. We get into how he uses his funnel to raise capital, and how to generate the highest return on investment (ROI) for your audience. We also talk about how he grew to 130,000...

In this episode I talk to Katelyn Bourgoin. Katelyn is a creator and entrepreneur. She’s built several successful companies and agencies, and built a consultant company that she later sold. We talk about different business models. We get into why you should focus on selling checklists, cheat sheets, and outcomes rather than the traditional video courses. We also talk about how she grew her newsletter to 10,000 subscribers, and got to over 50,000 followers on Twitter.

In this episode I talk to Laura Roeder. Laura and I have been friends for a long time. I’ve learned so much from her, and it’s great to have her on the podcast. Laura started an online community and a course called Creating Fame. She’s done a bunch of stuff in the internet space. She’s one of the people who’s been doing it since the early days.

In this episode I talk to Justin Moore. Justin is a Sponsorship Coach & the founder of Creator Wizard, a school & community that teaches you how to find & negotiate your dream brand deals. In today’s episode Justin reveals how narrowing in on sponsorship coaching was a huge boost for his business. We talk about him growing multiple audiences between different YouTube channels (he and his wife, April, have well over a million combined followers on YouTube).

In this episode I’m joined by Kaya Yurieff. She is the Creator Economy Newsletter writer for The Information. It’s the publication I read when I want to know what’s going on in startups and funding, learn about Spotify’s latest launch, find out what’s going on with Instagram, and things like that. We talk about her writing process and her system for publishing four days a week. We talk about how they’ve grown the newsletter and what they pay attention to for monetization. We also talk about...

In this episode I talk to Wes Kao, co-founder of altMBA. Her latest startup is called Maven, and it's all about cohort-based courses. We talk about the State Change Method, which is something I use to make my presentations much more interesting. We talk about building an audience on Twitter. We also talk about course design, cohort-based courses, and a lot of other fun things.

On today’s show I’m talking with Brennan Dunn. Brennan is a longtime friend. He's been around since the very early days of ConvertKit. He helped me review pull requests from our very first developers. We talk about some of the ways you can gradually get into automation. We go over some examples of the advanced things Brennan does with Liquid and snippets to create custom experiences for subscribers. We also talk about how you can earn more money from email with these systems, and much more.

In this episode I talk to Sahil Bloom. This is Sahil’s second time on the show. He’s doubled his audience from an already large number since then, and he’s now a full-time creator. We talk about Twitter growth, monetization, growing a podcast, and newsletters. I also try to sell him on switching to ConvertKit. You can be the judge of how well I did to convince him.

On today’s show I talk to Isa Adney, a resident storyteller at ConvertKit. Isa is very good at systems. She shares how she uses systems to free up time for creative activities. We also talk about reusing content, and how to create systems and flywheels to make one piece of content work across many platforms.

In this episode, I talk to Ellen Hyslop, Co-Founder of The Gist. The Gist is a newsletter all about sports, written entirely by women. Ellen and her co-founders have scaled a massive team to 20 people. They’ve grown The Gist to almost 400,000 subscribers, and they’re earning fantastic revenue from it.

In this episode I talk to Rachel Rodgers. Rachel is an attorney turned business coach. She’s someone I’ve admired and respected for a long time. She helps small business owners understand contracts and the legal side of running a business, and helps them scale their business. We talk about why business partnerships are a bad idea. Rachel shares her keys to building a successful membership community, and the benefits of publishing a book. We also talk about why you should take expensive...

In this episode I talk to Reid DeRamus. He comes from the video streaming world of Hulu, HBO Max, and Crunchy Roll. His background in data analysis helped these companies grow their streaming services. We spend this episode riffing on business models, and the analytics that you should pay attention to as an individual creator. We also discuss branding, positioning, and local meetups. It’s a fun episode that I think you'll enjoy.

In this episode, I talked to Samir Chaudry. Samir is the co-host of the popular YouTube channel, Colin and Samir. He and his business partner, Colin Rosenblum, have built a really interesting enterprise. It’s been fun getting to know them. We talk about how they built and structure their entire business, and what drives revenue. Then we get into storytelling, and at the end we even talk about designing the perfect day, what’s driving growth on YouTube, and much more.

After founding and later selling two successful startups, Andrew decided there needed to be a better way to connect buyers and sellers in the startup marketplace. He founded MicroAcquire to fill this void in the startup acquisition arena. In this episode, Andrew shares how he grew his Twitter audience from 30,000 to 70,000 followers in a few short months. He uses his connections with others, his partnerships, his brand, and savvy marketing techniques to boost engagement and attract...

Sherrell Dorsey is the founder and CEO of The Plug, a publication and community for news, insights and analysis on trends in Black innovation. The Plug features stories that show the substantive ways Black people engage with the innovation economy, including analyses of modern technologies. On today’s show, Sherrell shares about building an audience and growing The Plug. We talk about sponsorships, The Plug’s revenue model, and her background in journalism and how she brings that into her...

Matthew Kepnes runs the popular travel blog, Nomadic Matt, and also writes a successful newsletter. In fact, Matt’s newsletter is one of the biggest I’ve had on the show. His book, How to Travel the World on $50, is a New York Times Best Seller. I talk with Matt about his unique approach to running his business. While others are building online courses, Matt has shifted to doing more in-person meetups and events. We talk about his newsletter, and we also talk about growing your Instagram...

Andrew Warner has been part of the internet startup scene since 1997. Andrew and his brother built a $30 million per year online business, which they later sold. After taking an extended vacation and doing some traveling, Andrew started Mixergy. Mixergy helps ambitious upstarts learn from some of the most successful people in business. Andrew and I talk about his new book, Stop Asking Questions. It’s a great read on leading dynamic interviews, and learning anything from anyone. We also talk...