Growth In Reverse: Newsletter & Email Growth

Get free access to Jay Clouse's Memberships Teardown including how he built The Lab: creatorscience.com/teardown***And you can take YOUR newsletter to the next level by joining our private community — GIR Pro >>***Jay Clouse, founder of Creator Science and The Lab, joined us live from Kit Studios in Boise. Jay pulls back the curtain on 4+ years of building one of the most enduring creator communities out there — from its origins as the Creative Companion Club to a 340-member operation with tiered access, mastermind groups, and a wait list. Jay shares what's worked, what's backfired (including the scarcity campaign that became his worst churn month ever), and what he's actively redesigning right now.KEY TAKEAWAYSWhy their highest-ever membership revenue month was followed by their worst churn monthThe difference between marketing levers that convert and the ones that serve your membersHow The Lab evolved from a 200-member cap to a tiered application modelThe "mid-boarding" gap that kills retention in most membershipsThe troubling paradox of community-led mastermind groupsThe two onboarding secrets Jay considers his unfair advantagesWhy offline events are a retention tool, not a growth toolWhat to think through before launching a membershipThe unexpected risk in scaling a community too quicklyLINKS MENTIONEDCreatorScience.com/teardownChenell on Jay's podcast: 1st Appearance || 2nd AppearanceFOLLOW ON SOCIALChenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERSgrowthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & 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.

Steve Kamb bought the domain for NerdFitness.com in 2007 and grew it into a 45-person, SEO-driven coaching company. But then he burned out. Badly. He demoted himself twice, and eventually stepped away from running the business entirely — all so he could do the one thing he actually loved: write. In this episode, Steve joins us to talk about his new book How to Try Again, the hard lessons from 17+ years of building Nerd Fitness, and why starting over isn't a failure — it's a skill. His PACT framework (Pause, Accept, Change, Try) offers a practical roadmap for any creator who's ever felt stuck, burned out, or tempted to quit.KEY TAKEAWAYSHow Steve built Nerd Fitness from a blog into a 45-person companyWhy he demoted himself out of his own CEO roleThe brutal reality of pandemic-era burnout and what it taught him about chasing the wrong thingsWhy "all or nothing" thinking almost always failsHis four-step PACT framework for starting over after burnout or failureThe question he asked that changed everythingWhy writing two articles a week for 10 years was the real engine behind Nerd FitnessThe danger of modeling celebrity success over relatable successHow Steve separated his personal brand from Nerd FitnessWhat success actually looks like for Steve nowLINKS MENTIONEDSteveKamb.comHow To Try Again (Steve's Book)NerdFitness.comKit — email platform used by Steve and the hostsFOLLOW ON SOCIALChenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERSgrowthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & 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 BasilioChenell 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 TAKEAWAYSWhy depth beats volume when building a newsletter audienceThe compounding power of collaborations in niche marketsHow to create “internal share” content that spreads inside companiesWhy narrowing your focus accelerates newsletter growthThe difference between building an audience and building a businessHow to turn research into durable newsletter contentWhy distribution strategy matters more than content frequencyThe real value of long-term positioning in the newsletter spaceLINKS MENTIONEDCreator Science podcastThe Growth VaultGrowth In Reverse newsletterJay Clouse on LinkedInGrowth In Reverse Pro FOLLOW ON SOCIALChenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERSgrowthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & 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/3LiScMzoSsoyASlymH8vC6YOUTUBE: 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 postLINKS MENTIONEDTom's 3 Big Growth Levers & Launch PlanThe Full GIR Episode with Tom OrbachTom's newsletter — MarketingIdeas.comTom's 3 Big Growth Levers & Launch PlanNewMediaSummit.com (use GIR20 for 20% off your ticket)Take your newsletter to the next level with Chenell & Dylan — join GIR Pro todayAll of Chenell's Free Content → FOLLOW ON SOCIALChenell: Twitter | LinkedInDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERSgrowthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & 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 MENTIONEDGrowthInReverse.comGrowthCurrency.netJoin 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/questionsCheck out past Growth In Reverse Deep Dives: https://growthinreverse.com/archive/FOLLOW ON SOCIALChenell: Twitter | LinkedIn | SubstackDylan: LinkedIn | Substack | InstagramOUR NEWSLETTERSgrowthinreverse.comgrowthcurrency.netSubscribe & 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-knowLicense code: 1XP9IRXHPZSBPGMM