Audience Building
Learn how to attract attention, develop trust, and build your audience.
Every essay
How To Connect With Anyone
Even if you have a small audience.
9 min read→Sep 5, 2026Are LinkedIn newsletters the easiest way to grow your list?
An experiment from Circular Economist, Vojtech Vosecky
4 min read→Sep 7, 2024What if you couldn't reach anyone new?
I spend a lot of time creating new content – and I'd bet you do, too. What will I post on LinkedIn today?
2 min read→May 12, 2024The Secret to Word of Mouth
Word of mouth is still among the most powerful forces for spreading ideas, brands, content, etc. If you want your work to spread, you
4 min read→Apr 7, 2024RIP Followers?
Jack Conte (CEO of Patreon) gave a fantastic keynote at SXSW 2024. The talk was called "Death of the Follower & the Future
4 min read→Mar 19, 2024Trust over Attention
I've never been great at playing the attention game. I know this is coming from a guy who seems to have a
1 min read→Mar 10, 2024Four LinkedIn Growth Tips for 2024
This past week, I interviewed Richard van der Blom . For the last five years, Richard and his team spent months studying the LinkedIn algorithm
3 min read→Jan 28, 2024Indifference is the enemy
I once heard Pete Holmes describe art as "highly sensitive people reporting back to the rest of the group what reality is like
5 min read→Jan 14, 2024Two underutilized email strategies
Most creators I talk to know they should be using email – but they don't want to commit to publishing a newsletter every
3 min read→Jan 7, 2024The magic of email-based courses
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving was quiet. Nothing on my calendar, nothing on my to-do list, and I had one of those magical sparks
4 min read→Nov 26, 2023Public Homework
I remember watching Ship30for30 take Twitter by storm. It seemed like, overnight, Dickie Bush went from a few hundred followers to a few hundred
3 min read→Oct 1, 2023Association: The Secret to Organic Growth
You're trying to build an audience. So you publish content designed to provide value to the viewer. And you publish... And you
6 min read→Apr 9, 2023Attention Retention
Imagine that you are going about your day and suddenly crossed paths with someone new. They strike up a conversation and you immediately get
1 min read→Mar 5, 2023Results from my February Email Growth Experiment
On January 22, I announced a month-long experiment to grow the Creator Science newsletter. At that time, Creator Science had 17,310 subscribers
8 min read→Aug 14, 2022Hit the road
Last weekend, I went to a show at a local pizza and music venue. The musician was Daniel Champagne – I'd never actually
5 min read→Jul 3, 2022Is Twitter engagement taking a nosedive?
For the last 6-12 months, I've been putting more effort into Twitter. According to Social Blade, I had 6,582 followers
2 min read→May 15, 2022Six lessons from Tiago Forte and Building a Second Brain
This week's episode of Creative Elements with Tiago Forte got a LOT of love on Twitter. And not just an anecdotal positive
4 min read→May 1, 2022Five audience growth strategies for creators
This week I appeared on the Danny Miranda Podcast. On that show, I shared an almost-ready-for-primetime framework that I've
4 min read→Mar 13, 2022How to grow an email newsletter
If there's one hill I will die on, it's that all creators should include email as part of their creative
7 min read→Jan 28, 2022Lead magnets that actually work
If you've ever tried to build up an email list, you've probably heard advice about creating a "lead magnet&
3 min read→Episodes about Audience Building
Will we feel nostalgia for discovery in 2020s? [Voice Memo]
What if discovery only gets worse from here?
Listen or watch→Oct 22, 2024Robin Dreeke – How to earn someone’s trust (from a former FBI special agent)
Robin Dreeke is a human behavior expert, best-selling author, and professional speaker with a pretty incredible background. As a Marine Corps Officer and retired FBI Special Agent, he served as Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, where he honed his skills in recruiting spie
Listen or watch→Oct 1, 2024How I Would Hit 100K YouTube Subscribers in 1 Year (If I Could Start Over)
We hit 100,000 subscribers in just a little over 2 years. But here's the thing –we could have done it faster.
Listen or watch→Sep 17, 2024Dan Misener – How to ACTUALLY grow your podcast (and measure its success)
Dan Misener is the co-founder of the podcast growth agency, Bumper. Prior to co-founding Bumper, Dan served as Director of Audience Development at Pacific Content, where he worked with brands like Slack, Adobe, Charles Schwab, Ford, Dell Technologies, Morgan Stanley, Red Hat, and Atlassian.
Listen or watch→Sep 14, 2024What to do when platforms stop working for you [Voice Memo]
Why giving up is probably the wrong answer.
Listen or watch→Sep 3, 2024Paddy Galloway – How he makes any niche go viral
Paddy Galloway is arguably the world's best YouTube strategist. With more than 10 years of experience and 10 billion views generated, Paddy is one of the most respected YouTube authorities on the planet.
Listen or watch→Aug 6, 2024Bryan Harris — How to grow your audience through partnerships (even if you have a small audience yourself)
Bryan is the founder and CEO of Growth Tools. That's a coaching program that guarantees to help you grow your business. And I don't say that lightly because they actually guarantee that they will help you land 10 partnerships in 90 days.
Listen or watch→Jan 9, 2024Chris Hutchins – A master of podcast growth and building relationships.
Chris Hutchins is an avid lifehacker, a financial optimizer, and he's the host of the top-ranked podcast, All The Hacks, where he shares his quest to upgrade his life without having to spend a fortune.
Listen or watch→Nov 7, 2023Justin Welsh Returns! – Behind his rebrand, innovating on social media, and building relationships.
Justin Welsh is known as one of the leading voices in the solopreneurship movement. And as a solopreneur himself, he's generated more than $5,000,000 in revenue since 2019.
Listen or watch→Oct 31, 2023BONUS: How To Build an Audience From Scratch, Understanding Discovery and Relationship Platforms, Email vs Newsletters, Vertical Integration for Creators, and more
For this week's episode, I was recently on the Newsletter Operator podcast hosted by Matt McGarry and Ryan Carr. Matt was actually a guest on this podcast back in episode 145.
Listen or watch→Oct 10, 2023Jenny Hoyos – How she averages 10 million views per video (YouTube Shorts)
Jenny Hoyos averages 10 million views per video. A masterclass on YouTube Shorts — hooks, structure, retention and why her videos travel.
Listen or watch→Sep 12, 2023Jon Youshaei – Ex-YouTube employee shares the best growth advice (that you’ve probably never heard)
Jon Youshaei is a former YouTube and Instagram employee and host of the Created podcast.
Listen or watch→Jun 9, 2023Nathan Barry of ConvertKit — Acquiring SparkLoop and turning email into multiplayer mode with the Creator Network
Nathan Barry is a creator, author, speaker, designer, and the founder of ConvertKit. ConvertKit powers the audiences for creators like Gretchen Rubin, Chris Guillebeau, Pat Flynn, Tim Ferriss, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Tim McGraw.
Listen or watch→May 9, 2023Kevin Espiritu – How Epic Gardening went from a blog to a video empire.
Epic Gardening has 2.5 million subscribers and nearly 300 million views on YouTube alone.
Listen or watch→May 2, 2023Chenell Basilio – How the best newsletter operators grow to 50K+ subscribers
Chenell is the writer of Growth In Reverse, a weekly newsletter where she reverse engineers how a top creator grew from 0 to 50k+ subscribers.
Listen or watch→Apr 18, 2023Matt McGarry – The man behind email acquisition for The Hustle, Codie Sanchez, Sahil Bloom, and The Milk Road
Matt McGarry is the owner of Growletter, an agency helping some of the biggest newsletters in the world grow. He's helped The Hustle, Codie Sanchez, The Milk Road, and others attract millions of email subscribers.
Listen or watch→Mar 14, 2023Sean Cannell – How YouTube is changing and what works in 2023
Sean Cannell is the founder of Think Media and the author of YouTube Secrets.
Listen or watch→Feb 21, 2023Chris Williamson – How his podcast exploded to 70 million downloads and 125 million views
How Chris Williamson went from club promoter to one of the biggest podcasts in the world — the decisions, the growth levers, and what he’d do again.
Listen or watch→Feb 14, 2023How I’ve doubled my following on LinkedIn in the last few months
For the past several months I’ve been experimenting with my own growth strategy on LinkedIn, and I’ve doubled my following. Here’s the full strategy.
Listen or watch→Feb 7, 2023Kevin Parry – How he goes viral on EVERY platform
Kevin Parry is a stop-motion animator and video wizard who creates fun animation and mind-bending illusions!
Listen or watch→Jan 3, 2023Natalie Ellis of bossbabe – Attracting 3.5 million followers on Instagram (and what's working today)
bossbabe is a community of female entrepreneurs – and it started on Instagram. Today, the bossbabe instagram account has more than 3.5 million followers.
Listen or watch→Dec 27, 2022Daniel Wall – 1.6M followers on TikTok using this viral framework
Daniel Wall creates short-form videos highlighting behind-the-scenes stories in music and entertainment.
Listen or watch→Nov 22, 2022Daniel Murray – Why LinkedIn Company Pages are a HUGE Opportunity
Daniel Murray is the creator of The Marketing Millennials, a podcast and newsletter focused on today’s marketing leaders and tomorrow’s stars.
Listen or watch→Sep 20, 2022Sahil Bloom – Attracting 700,000 followers on Twitter by being consistent
Sahil Bloom is a writer, investor, and podcaster. Every week, his content reaches over 1 million people around the world.
Listen or watch→Aug 23, 2022Kat Norton aka Miss Excel – Engineering virality and earning more than $100,000 in a single day
Kat Norton energetically teaches Microsoft Excel to individuals, businesses, and educational institutions.
Listen or watch→Aug 16, 2022Austin Belcak – From zero job offers to attracting 1.3 million followers on LinkedIn
Austin Belcak is the founder of Cultivated Culture, which people how to land jobs they love without “traditional” experience and without applying online.
Listen or watch→Jul 19, 2022Justin Welsh – How a LinkedIn legend expanded into Twitter and Email
Justin Welsh has 150,000 followers on Twitter, 250,000 followers on LinkedIn, more than 35,000 subscribers to his email newsletter, and has earned more than $2M as a solo creator.
Listen or watch→Jul 5, 2022Chanti Zak – How (and why) you should be using quizzes
Chanti Zak is a quiz funnel strategist and growth coach for online business owners, change-makers, and brands.
Listen or watch→Jun 28, 2022Bop-It Inventor Dan Klitsner – How to create and commercialize games
Dan Klitsner is the inventor of Bop It and more than a dozen different versions of Bop It including Bop It Extreme, Bop It Blast, Bop It Tetris, and even Bratz Bop It. Since 1996, Bop It has sold more than 30 million units worldwide.
Listen or watch→May 31, 2022Daphne Gomez – Leaning into rapid growth and finding rapid growth on Instagram
Daphne Gomez is the creator of Teacher Career Coach. She is a former teacher turned instructional designer, podcaster, and career coach.
Listen or watch→May 17, 2022Sam Parr – from The Hustle to one of the top podcasts on the planet with My First Million
Sam Parr is the co-host of My First Million and the founder of The Hustle. My First Million is one of the top business podcasts on the planet, generating more than 1 million downloads per month.
Listen or watch→May 3, 2022Arvid Kahl – From SaaS founder to full-time creator
Arvid Kahl is the creator of The Bootstrapped Founder. The Bootstrapped Founder is the home of his Twitter course Find your Following, the books Zero to Sold: How to Start, Run, and Sell a Bootstrapped Business and The Embedded Entrepreneur, which is an audience-driven book…
Listen or watch→Apr 19, 2022Amanda Natividad – Growing on Twitter and using her platform to lift up others
Amanda Natividad is VP of Marketing for audience research startup, SparkToro. She’s also a contributor for Adweek, a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, and a former journalist.
Listen or watch→Apr 5, 2022Dickie Bush Returns! – Jumping ship from full-time job to full-time creator
Dickie Bush is the creator of Ship 30 for 30, a cohort-based course and community of people developing a writing habit in 30 days.
Listen or watch→Mar 1, 2022Codie Sanchez – Growing a newsletter by dominating social media (in just over 2 years)!
Codie Sanchez is a reformed journalist, turned institutional investor to cannabis investor and advisor, to now Founder of Contrarian Thinking and Cofounder of Unconventional Acquisitions. She helps people think critically, and cashflow unconventionally while allocating to what she calls "sweaty & bo
Listen or watch→Jan 18, 2022Tori Dunlap – Building an audience of millions on TikTok with Her First $100K
Tori Dunlap is a nationally-recognized millennial money and career expert. After saving $100,000 at age 25, Tori quit her corporate job in marketing and founded Her First $100K to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money.
Listen or watch→Jan 4, 2022Mitch Long AKA OG Pickle – Building brands for influencers and becoming a professional streamer
Mitch Long (also known as OG Pickle) is a professional streamer, Twitch Partner, and PUBG Partner.
Listen or watch→Oct 5, 2021Ali Spagnola – Making outrageous music and videos while trying to befriend the algorithm
Ali Spagnola is a musician, comedian, and artist. Ali creates outrageous videos including turning her car into a Chia Pet, covering her apartment with fur, or putting 3200 PopSockets on her wall! She also creates "What If" videos where she remixes popular music into the…
Listen or watch→Aug 17, 2021Jack Rhysider – 300,000 downloads per episode as an indie podcaster
Jack Rhysider is the creator and host of Darknet Diaries, audio stories specifically intended to capture, preserve, and explain the culture around hacking and cybersecurity.
Listen or watch→Jul 27, 2021Chris Sutherland – How a Physics professor built an audience of 2M+ followers on TikTok (in less than two years!)
Chris Sutherland is a former collegiate Physics professor turned full-time content creator. Chris began posting videos to TikTok in January 2020, quickly going viral and building an audience of more than 2 million followers.
Listen or watch→Apr 13, 2021Cole Cuchna – Dissecting how an indie podcaster went from side hustle to full time as a Spotify Original
Cole Cuchna is the creator of Dissect, a serialized music podcast that examines a single album per season, one song per episode.
Listen or watch→Apr 6, 2021Dickie Bush – Building an audience, product, and community in less than one year
Dickie Bush is a macro investor and the creator of Ship 30 for 30, a community of writers developing a writing habit in 30 days.
Listen or watch→Mar 23, 2021Corey Haines of Swipe Files – Five pillars of growth and a tactical guide to sharing your work on Product Hunt
Corey Haines is the creator of Swipe Files, a membership site that provides content, community, and courses to help you master marketing.
Listen or watch→Jan 12, 2021Matty Benedetto of Unnecessary Inventions
Matty Benedetto is the creator of Unnecessary Inventions. Unnecessary Inventions solves problems that don’t really exist by creating products that no one is really asking for.
Listen or watch→Dec 1, 2020David Perell – How "The Writing Guy" thinks about Twitter, education, and creating your own games
David Perell is a writer, podcaster, and the creator of Write of Passage.
Listen or watch→Oct 20, 2020Anne-Laure Le Cunff – From burnout to mindful productivity and quickly building an audience
Anne-Laure Le Cunff is an entrepreneur, an ex-Googler, and a neuroscience student. She’s the creator of Ness Labs and a Masters of Science in Applied Neuroscience candidate at King's College.
Listen or watch→Sep 8, 2020Tiffany Aliche, The Budgetnista – Paying off debt, saving for retirement, weathering a recession, and building wealth
Tiffany "The Budgetnista" Aliche is an author, speaker, and founder of the Live Richer Academy.
Listen or watch→May 26, 2020Amy Landino – Leveraging YouTube, building an audience, creating a persona, and being all in for the conversation forever.
Amy Landino is the creator of the award-winning series AmyTV and author of the best-selling book Vlog Like a Boss; How to Kill It Online With Video Blogging.
Listen or watch→May 12, 2020Adam Turla – Going on tour, building a fanbase, launching albums through kickstarter, and playing cave shows
Adam Turla is the guitarist, lead singer, and founding member of Murder By Death, a five-piece band from Louisville, Kentucky. They have a unique sound that's somewhere between folk, rock, and spooky western.
Listen or watch→