The Creator Spotlight Podcast

This week, Francis is joined by Henry Winslow, founder and writer of Tricycle Day, a newsletter focused on psychedelics research, policy, and business. Francis interviewed Henry exactly one year ago, and this conversation is centred around Henry's growth over the past year. Tricycle Day Newsletter: https://www.tricycleday.com Tricycle Day Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tricycleday 00:00 Sust...

This week Francis is joined by Matt McGarry, also known as the Newsletter Guy. They discuss his agency Growletter, the nuances of newsletter-only businesses, the challenges of monetization, and the evolving role of creators in the media landscape. Newsletter Marketing Summit: https://newslettermarketingsummit.com FOR $200 OFF, USE CODE: CS200 Newsletter Operator: https://www.newsletteroperator.com...

This week Francis Zierer speaks with Lindsey Stanberry, creator of The Purse, a newsletter focused on money, motherhood, work, and relationships. Lindsay shares her journey from working in corporate media to becoming an independent creator/entrepreneur. The Purse: https://thepurse.substack.com/ 00:00 Introducing Lindsey and The Purse 01:25 Transitioning from Corporate to Independent Creation 06:16...

In this episode of Creator Spotlight Francis is joined by Daisy Alioto, CEO, editor and writer of Dirt Media. They explore the evolution of Dirt Media, its unique approach to content and community, and the challenges faced in the current media landscape. Daisy: https://x.com/daisandconfused Dirt: https://dirt.fyi Tasteland: https://www.tasteland.fyi 00:00 Introducing Daisy Alioto and Dirt Media 04...

This week Francis is joined by Michael Kauffman to discusses his journey building a local newsletter business, Catskill Crew. He shares insights on audience engagement, growth strategies, and the importance of branding in the creator economy. Catskill Crew: https://catskillcrew.com Newsletter Club: https://thenewsletter.club 00:00 Building a Community-Led Newsletter 05:57 Local Relationships are C...

This week Francis is joined by content creator and entrepreneur John Hu, also known as Jayhoovy. John is the founder of Stan, an all-in-one monetization tool for creators. He shares insights on the challenges creators face in the business landscape and how his platform, Stan, aims to empower them. Check out Stan: https://www.stan.store/ John's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jayhoovy 00:00 Intro...

This episode is with one of the best business minds in the newsletter world, Adam Ryan of workweek.com Workweek: https://workweek.com Adam: https://x.com/adamry_n 00:00 Introducing Adam Ryan and Workweek 03:44 The Balance of Creativity and Sales 06:21 Key Levers for Audience Growth 08:53 Content Trends and Audience Engagement 10:03 Current Projects and Initiatives at Workweek 12:39 The Difficultie...

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 Strate...

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 an...

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...

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 Bottleneck 01:09 Building a Strong Audience Relationship 03:07 Lessons Learnt from the Startup World 07:18 The Decision to Start a Newslett...

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...

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...

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...

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 Intro 01:20 Accidentally sta...

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...

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 Instagram 04:39 Advice for working with brands 09:02 Winning and judging Webby awards 14:05 Building a newsletter for content creators, Link in Bio 25:03 Growing an email audience of 65k+ 35:50 Being...

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...

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 susta...

Today's guest is Cole Derochie, creator of the Today 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 designer 08:04 The espresso of newsletters 13:43 Evolving and growing the newsletter 20:24 Finding sources for design news 26:16 Writing a newsletter in 1 hour 29:...

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’...

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 0...

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 realtor 05:58 How Glennda Baker makes 30-50 videos per month 26:18 Sharing your life online — what about the family? 35:16 Glennd...

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 strip...

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 Lesson...