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 Bottleneck01:09 Building a Strong Audience Relationship03:07 Lessons Learnt from the Startup World07:18 The Decision to Start a Newsletter13:31 The Structure of the Newsletter17:00 Experimenting with Different Writing Styles20:08 How the Newsletter Generates $30k a Month26:00 Building an Audience from Scratch to 28k Subscribers32:30 Are Creators Also Founders?37:27 Building a Team as a Founder40:57 The Many Failed Experiments that Led to The Bottleneck44:27 Building a High Value Community49:52 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 Dewey03:27 The Origins of the Newsletter06:16 Taking a Break and the Pressure of a Rebrand13:36 Building a Community With Readers17:53 Building a Good Salary From Subscriptions19:49 The Definition of Creators vs. Journalists27:42 Bring Back Comfortable Middle Class Lifestyles32:59 Collaboration in the Newsletter Community37:37 The Painful Art of Content Planning43:21 Substack's Shift in Business Model50:13 The Craft of an Aggregation Newsletter53:19 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 Intro01:20 Accidentally starting a marketing agency03:30 Building a team and hiring for content creation06:17 Growing the newsletter Social Files13:04 The devolution of Twitter - LinkedIn #1 now?15:36 How to craft the perfect viral post20:23 The relationship between the business and personal brand23:41 Monetizing a creator led business27:21 What makes someone good/bad at marketing?29:27 Starting with content creation and rules for posting39:19 Finding content ideas for viral posts41:10 Uploading to YouTube but not being a YouTuber43:55 How you can grow your online brandIntro 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 plansIntro 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 Instagram04:39 Advice for working with brands09:02 Winning and judging Webby awards14:05 Building a newsletter for content creators, Link in Bio25:03 Growing an email audience of 65k+35:50 Being a good social media managerIntro music produced by J. and Doug Organ.

This week we are joined by Michelle Curb, co-founder and editor of Gloria (hellogloria.com) Michelle is an expert in leading monetization for online media brands — she's been doing it for most of two decades.00:00 The Gloria newsletter 05:50 Getting started in online media 08:52 IS it hard to sell a media company? 14:15 Monetization and stats 15:58 Building an audience online 24:52 “I don’t want to be online” 27:38 Day in a life of a media founder 39:21 How to monetize as a creator 45:35 Looking forward and back

On today's pod we talk building a career in soccer journalism, the women's game, producing one of The Athletic's flagship podcasts ("Full Time with Meg Linehan"), and plenty more.00:00 Why Theo pursued soccer journalism 08:23 How much does soccer journalism pay? 17:24 How to tell the real story 23:36 Newsletters are the future of journalism 39:11 The stats 41:17 Building a newsletter into a sustainable business 47:01 How to get better at podcasting Intro music produced by J. and Doug Organ

Today's guest is Cole Derochie, creator of theToday in Design newsletter and a multitalented design professional (he's done everything from web design to leatherwork, not necessarily in that order).00:00 How Cole accidentally became a designer08:04 The espresso of newsletters13:43 Evolving and growing the newsletter20:24 Finding sources for design news26:16 Writing a newsletter in 1 hour29:08 Monetizing a 5,000 subscriber newsletter37:53 Using Twitter to grow your brandIntro music produced by J. and Doug Organ

Today’s guest is Sean Devlin, a media entrepreneur whose Nice News newsletter has, in less than three years, gone from 0 to 820k subscribers. The company currently has a team of seven full-time employees, plus at least four freelancers — and it’s been profitable for just under one year.00:00 Building a 800k subscriber newsletter 08:53 The biggest mistakes when designing a newsletter 12:26 Why it’s important to have nice news 19:20 How to find positive content online 22:32 Who subscribes to nice news? 30:51 Building a following of 800,000 39:00 How to monteize your newsletter audience 44:30 What not to do when building a newsletter 47:00 Is it too late to start a newsletter? Intro music produced by J. and Doug Organ.

Ambreen Ali is a tenured and accomplished journalist as well as Founding Editor of Central Desi, a local newsletter focussing on the South Asian community in New Jersey. She joins us for episode 22 of the Creator Spotlight podcast. Central Desi: centraldesi.beehiiv.com 00:00:00 Ambreen Ali - putting journalism first 00:05:02 Growing a local newsletter 00:14:07 Why being a journalist is difficult 00:22:02 Is society losing its media literacy? 00:28:53 The best and worst of tradition journalism 00:35:26 Why prisoners should be taught journalism 00:39:39 Making a local impact 00:43:26 Not wanting to be a “creator” 00:52:00 Monetizing journalism is hard 00:57:43 Advice to other creators Intro music produced by J. and Doug Organ

Today’s guest is Glennda Baker, a real estate agent from Atlanta who has become a social media star over the last four years. After a couple of false starts, her content marketing play has turned into a full-fledged media business.00:00 Glennda Baker, TikTok's favorite realtor05:58 How Glennda Baker makes 30-50 videos per month26:18 Sharing your life online — what about the family?35:16 Glennda’s newsletter — working with a writing partner40:57 The business of being Glennda Baker (business is good)43:57 Creating social media videos is better than creating reality TVIntro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Today's guest, Ernie Smith, has been writing for the internet for 15 years. He's been writing his current newsletter, Tedium, for almost 10. We spoke about his approach to newslettering, turning down money from Substack, and making cool stuff for the internet purely for the sake of it. 00:00 Who is Ernie Smith? 01:30 Why (and how) Ernie coded his newsletter himself 05:35 Has personality been stripped from the internet? 12:44 How Ernie grew his audience 15:20 UDM14 — Google without all the fluff18:56 Ernie’s approach to side projects 31:39 Is the creator economy good for the internet? 41:28 Hopes for the future of the internet 45:10 What’s next for Ernie? Intro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Today’s guest, Justin Gordon, seems to have more energy to expend in a day than we do in a week. Literally: we put out one ~50min podcast episode per week; he once put out one ~50min podcast episode per day for 112 days straight.Justin has been a podcaster, vlogger, producer, and newsletterist, sometimes all at once, for the last 12 years. In this episode:00:00 Who is Justin Gordon?01:24 Lessons from 500+ interviews04:30 Podcasting every day for 112 days12:55 6 Lessons from podcasting every day15:23 Why start a newsletter?18:17 How to grow a newsletter19:50 Writing deep dives about entrepreneurs28:33 The athlete-creator mindset31:14 Making money as a creator36:17 The best and worst interviews he's ever done39:43 Advice for podcasters and writersIntro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Kate Lindsay is a freelance writer and newsletter editor whose own newsletter, Embedded, is pushing 35k subscribers. She's one of the best people out there writing about the internet for the internet. This is an episode about why more newsletters should be run by two people, an indie newsletter born from a shuttered publication, and paying NYC rent with premium newsletter subscriptions.00:00 Who is Kate and what is Embedded?05:33 How Embedded evolved from a killed publication09:56 Kate's other projects (as a newsletter editor and writer)13:35 Blowing up with the Millennial Pause16:44 Being an editor vs. a writer19:09 What is a newsletter? What is a creator?27:42 The stats — how to grow a newsletter34:22 Are creators the new journalists?38:49 Advice for online creatorsIntro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Today’s guest, Andrew Southworth, always wanted to become a musician. To do so, he became a mechanical engineer. Last year he quit his day job to make music and help other people market their music full time. He does YouTube, newsletters, courses, he has an agency — he does it all. We spoke about:📆 A 13-year long bet to become a creator-entrepreneur🪴 How to diversify, effectively, as a creator🤔 Can you over-diversify?00:00 Andrew Southworth's many businesses04:27 When to hire as a creator07:47 How Andrew makes money09:42 16 years of being a YouTuber19:33 Why Andrew started a newsletter22:47 Andrew's future plans and dreams25:10 Advice for other creators

Today’s guest is Akhil Chauhan, who runs The Writer’s Job Newsletter (TWJN). But he didn’t create the newsletter — he acquired it.Akhil has been running TWJN solo (besides occasional social media help) for two years. The guy he bought it from ran it for only one year. We spoke about:💰️ The economics of a newsletter acquisition🤐 Keeping his personality (mostly) out of the newsletter🤝 Pulling off a seamless handoff after acquiring the newsletter🧑‍💼 Being accountable to subscribers who rely on the newsletter for jobs00:00 Acquiring a newsletter 08:05 Researching solo 14:10 The differences in journalism in the UK vs US 15:35 Growing a newsletter to 10k+ subscribers 23:18 Work/life balance as a creator 29:23 Premium subscribers and monetisation 33:04 Keeping a distance from your audience 36:50 Advice to creators, from a creator 41:05 The future of TWJN 45:30 The biggest regret as a creator Intro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Today’s guest is Peter Ramsey. He runs Built for Mars, a UX consultancy and content library he started almost by accident after the company he founded during university was acquired in 2018. I was drawn both to his story and the undeniable quality of his content.Peter is a rare type — an obsessively detailed researcher but not pedantic about it. He’s just as talented at spinning that research into fun, useful, and easy-to-digest narratives.In this episode:00:00 Who is Peter Ramsey and what is Built for Mars 05:30 The MrBeast of UX 09:47 Using every bank in the UK 13:19 Who are Built for Mars readers? 16:30 How Peter monetizes the newsletter 19:30 Is the website fantastic, or does it suck? 25:20 Why start a newsletter? 27:43 The stats 30:23 Peter’s most viral posts 31:40 Why Peter hates social media 33:38 The gamification of education sites/apps 38:11 The different types of written content 40:46 Growing an online business 47:00 The future of Built for MarsIntro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Today’s guest is Caitlin Murray, better known by her Instagram handle @bigtimeadulting. After her son was diagnosed with leukemia in 2016, she started writing about it to friends and family — nearly 8 years later, she has 1.4 million Instagram followers. It’s a great story.In today’s episode:00:00 The origin story05:50 How to gain over 1 million followers10:15 The 4 chapters of @bigtimeadulting14:15 Turning Instagram into a business19:25 Building a positive community24:08 Growing an Instagram following, organically29:22 Podcasting is hard33:41 Monetizing as a creator38:31 Starting and building a newsletter47:45 Having multiple monetization streams51:53 Advice lightning roundIntro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Today's guest is Tyler O’Shea, creator of Joker Mag, a website and newsletter about sports underdogs. He started the project in that “what am I gonna do with my life” period after graduating college. Nearly 7 years of posting later, he’s still doing it as a side project, but it’s also led him to a career in SEO (search engine optimization).In this episode, we talk about:🐶 Learning how to write for the internet🌟 What writing and posting content online can do for you🔎 How posting led Tyler to discover and start working in SEO📱 How to figure out which social media platform is most useful for youNote: Yes, Francis' sound is slightly off in this episode. Good thing Tyler does most of the talking!00:00 Tyler’s motivation and the mentality of a creator 05:37 The inspiration to start writing 08:40 Is Google’s AI killing SEO ?11:36 The average Joker Mag reader 14:44 Finding amazing sports stories 18:37 How to grow a loyal audience 23:25 How much time does it take to grow a newsletter? 27:38 The different monetization channels 32:03 Hiring other writers 37:21 SEO tips: How to make your website the best 39:06 Advice for creators 43:40 Future goals 49:30 Quick Q&A Intro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Today's guest is Kate Samuelson, co-creator of Cheapskate London. Every Monday, they send out a newsletter built around free events, two for each day of the coming week. Over the last five years they’ve built an audience of over 19k, winning praise from longstanding media institutions in the process.All the while, Cheapskate is a side project; during the day, Kate works as a journalist. She specializes in newsletters.In this issue:🍸️ Giving subscribers a free bottle of gin as a referral reward📰 Operating a newsletter while working full-time in journalism💷 Running paid ads for your newsletter is easier than it sounds00:00 What is Cheapskate London? 06:10 Who is the average reader? 10:03 Choosing what content to include — curation17:36 Kate’s career as a journalist30:45 The stats — how to grow an audience38:42 Kate’s unique referral program — giveaways!41:58 Monetization 52:49 Advice for newsletter creators Intro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Today's guest is Haya Kaylani, creator of a curation-style newsletter called The Deep Dive. What does she curate? YouTube video essays, five of them every Wednesday. She’s built an audience of 92k TikTok followers and 13.5k newsletter subscribers in just 15 months — pure organic growth, with almost all of her newsletter subscribers coming over from TikTok.In this issue, we discuss:🎨 Curating, gatekeeping, and gatecreating📺️ Why writing about YouTube is a huge opportunity📢 Applying lessons from a career in PR to indie creator work🤳 Building a newsletter audience by building a TikTok audience00:00 What is The Deep Dive02:30 Being a curator06:23 What is a video essay?14:26 Going viral on TikTok19:04 Why start a newsletter?24:21 Why we need curators and gate-creators28:22 The stats - How to grow subscribers33:32 Haya’s premium newsletter, The Rabbit Hole37:27 Monetisation and referrals41:47 Advice for creators and lessons learnedIntro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Today's guest is PJ Milani, a high school animation teacher recently turned social media star. He’s known for his “visual metaphors” — single-panel illustrations featuring lessons about life and creativity. Across his socials he has over 200k followers, his newsletter has 16k subscribers, and he teaches a perennially sold-out cohort course about visual thinking on Maven.In this issue, we discuss:🌱 Organic growth🔜 Trusting the process, every day🎨 What it means to live a creative life🤝 Working in community with other creators00:00 Who is PJ Milani 01:25 Why PJ started creating — Getting on social media 09:04 How to gain 200k followers 14:48 Relationship between writing and drawing 19:39 Which social media platform is best — Twitter vs Instagram vs LinkedIn 23:57 How to convert social media followers into newsletter subs? 30:56 How PJ monetises his content 42:23 The long term plan Intro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Ryan Broderick is the creator of Garbage Day, “A newsletter about having fun online.” He’s among the most popular journalists-turned-newsletter-creators out there. It’s clear by the numbers (68k subscribers, 3k of whom pay for premium content), praise from other creators, and the nearly 200 press clippings on his About page.In this episode we discuss: 📰 There’s (almost) no difference between journalists and creators🛋️ Why you need a Simpsons couch gag in your newsletter🫵 Every American is a journalist (if they want to be)🚖 Creators are Uber drivers for content🧑‍🎓 Garbage Day is on the syllabusIntro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Jared Dashevsky runs Healthcare Huddle, a twice-weekly newsletter for physicians and other healthcare professionals. In just over four years, he’s built an audience of 30,000. He’s also built a team of 13, dismantled that team and been acquired. But today, Jared is once again a solo creator.In this episode, we discuss:🎓️ The cap on how far Healthcare Huddle can or should scale😍 Understanding your newsletter’s “true fans”✍️ Creating a sustainable newsletter workflow🧠 Jared’s four key lessons from four years of newslettering↩️ Pivoting from a B2C to B2B audienceIntro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Arielle Nissenblatt knows podcasts. She writes a weekly newsletter about podcasts, hosts a podcast version of that newsletter, co-hosts another weekly podcast and a daily podcast. She runs a Discord community for podcasters. On top of all that, she works full-time as a community marketing manager at Descript.In this episode, we discuss:🤝 How Arielle broke into the podcasting industry🎙️ Why you should not start a podcast (unless you should)🫂 What “community” means to brands and creators💖 The potential of creator advocacy organizations🏠 How brands should work with in-house creatorsIntro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Ryan Sneddon runs Naptown Scoop, a local newsletter serving Annapolis, Maryland. In three-and-a-half years, he’s built an audience of over 18,000 (nearly half the town’s population), and last year the business generated around $200,000 in revenue.In this episode, we discuss:🏘️ How Ryan got half the town to sign up for the Scoop👩 Exactly how Ryan defined his core reader 💲 How Ryan prices the newsletter’s ad spots👀 The Scoop’s simple and incredibly effective referral system📈 Ryan’s plans to increase revenue by 175% this year

Ali built an audience of over 7,000 subscribers before he even sent the first issue of his newsletter, AI for Work. He would only end up sending 13 issues before (at approximately 30,000 subscribers) he went looking for advice on how to monetize and ending up selling the whole thing instead.We spent an hour discussing:🧲 How he built an ingenious, highly successful lead magnet👀 Emailing every new subscriber to build relationships💰️ Experimenting with monetization🤖 Using TikTok to grow his email list (without making his own videos)📰 His plans to start a local news newsletterIntro music produced by J. & Doug Organ.

Andrew Huang is lifelong musician and a pioneer in the Creator Economy. He made his first dollar online auctioning off songwriting commissions on eBay two decades ago and has since became a celebrated YouTuber with 2.36 million followers, produced commercial commissions for international brands, and published a book.Make Your Own Rules: Stories and Hard-Earned Advice from a Creator in the Digital Age came out in February 2024. We spoke with Andrew shortly after about:📍 Why he focuses his output on just a few platforms🧑‍🏫 His approach to creating his online music production course🪞 Scaling as a creator without losing authenticity📕 Writing this book (his first) and giving timeless advice

Casey has been writing the youth consumer trends newsletter After School for three years, the culmination of nearly two decades writing and editing content about and for teens in her own online publications and in Teen Vogue and New York Magazine. On the occasion of Casey leaving her day job to work full time on a newsletter — for the second time in her career — we spoke about:💵 Building and selling her first newsletter business (2016–2019)📭 Writing her newsletter to 0 subscribers for the first month✌️ Leaving a full-time job to commit to her newsletter business (again)📈 Her premium subscriber model with a 5% conversion rate👩‍🎨 Monetizing a curation-style newsletterRead our feature on Casey and subscribe to our newsletter for more behind-the-scenes stories from the creator economy.