The Power of a Newsletter

This episode is brought to you by:
Scribe. Scribe is the presenting sponsor of this episode of Making Media and the magic behind the Colossus transcripts. One of the best decisions we made at Colossus was transcribing all of our audio into a searchable transcript library. We had been using another provider up until the summer of 2022 but we were constantly having issues with accuracy if our audio was just the slightest bit impaired. Whether it's training sessions, internal Q&As, or for media purposes, the value of transcripts is huge. And we are not alone. Scribe is the transcription service that powers all of S&P Global - like CapIQ - and the client list includes our friends at Tegus. Go to joincolossus.com/scribe to unlock 150 minutes of free transcription and test their capabilities.

(00:01:13) - (First question) - How he tackles challenges through research, delivering actionable insights
(00:04:24) - Juggling weekly and long-term posts, correlating effort to engagement
(00:07:21) - How his varied experiences shaped his online content journey
(00:11:14) - Maintaining relevance by advising companies, addressing problems, and drawing from a variety of lessons
(00:12:54) - How he aims to sustain his content creation without corporatizing
(00:16:13) - Quantifying podcast success monetarily and by growth; emphasizing quality content to overcome growth plateaus
(00:19:03) - Evaluating post quality and striving for non-obvious, surprising connections while maintaining brevity
(00:22:57) - Emphasizing stakes to underscore a topic's relevance
(00:23:59) - Maintaining simplicity by avoiding empire-building, utilizing contractors, and focusing on core offerings
(00:26:48) - Starting small and curating members while maintaining quality controls for community growth
(00:29:07) - Engaging active supporters and notable individuals for a self-sustaining community
(00:32:36) - Utilizing the 'Jobs to be Done' framework to better serve readers
(00:37:57) - Why some topics resonate more than others
(00:40:27) - How Lenny’s Newsletter drives engagement and distribution across platforms due to its shareability
(00:43:46) - Appreciating Substack's simplicity and audience growth
(00:47:20) - Debrief