New Media

Daniel Berk (Moneywise Podcast by Hampton) joins Matt and Kolby to talk about why the local newsletter isn't the business—the audience is, how AI services are the untapped green space for local brick-and-mortars, why the viral Substack tweet got email wrong, and how an X DM with Sam Parr turned into a podcast hosting gig.
Timestamps:
 00:00 Intro
 02:00 Palmetto Parents: Three Local Newsletters
 06:40 How Local Newsletters Actually Make Money
 11:00 "Own The Town" — Arbitraging Your Audience
 14:30 Axios, 6AM City & The Big-Metro Model
 17:00 Local AI Services: The Untapped Greenspace
 23:15 The Nonprofit (501c3) Newsletter Play
 26:15 Is Email Dead? The Viral Substack Tweet
 33:00 What "Owned Audience" Really Means
 37:30 Moneywise & Two Dads In Tech
 40:00 How A Twitter DM Became The Moneywise Gig
 45:30 Command The Room Like A Nine-Figure Podcast
📌 Resources:
 Palmetto Parents
 Moneywise by Hampton

🔗 Connect with Daniel Berk:
 LinkedIn
 X / Twitter
 Newsletter
Enjoying the show? Leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify, then email matt@growletter.co or kolby@growletter.co with a screenshot and a question — we'll answer it on the show.

Justin Moore (Creator Wizard) joins Matt and Kolby to talk about how Sponsor Games lost ~$10K in year two but still turned a profit, why 22% of his challenge attendees upgrade to VIP every single time, the great event food debate, and how to find your real ICP with a book funnel.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:26 Sponsor Games Year Two: A $10K Loss and a Reality Show
03:50 How the Mastermind Offer Made It Profitable
04:15 Marketing a Novel Event With No Speakers
05:56 Changing the Date and Venue for Year Three
09:30 Should the Event Go on Tour?
11:50 Pre-Selling 20% of Next Year's Tickets
12:09 Ryan Deiss's 3 Types of Events
16:15 The Halo Effect of Hosting an Event
22:56 The Great Event Food Debate
26:14 Do You Actually Need a VIP Tier?
30:16 Inside the 10K Brand Deal Challenge
36:09 The Partner Challenge That Flopped
42:00 Book Funnels and Finding Your Real ICP
50:07 The Case for Focus Over Shiny Objects
51:42 Where to Find Justin

📌 Resources:
Sponsor Games
Sponsor Magnet

🔗 Connect with Justin:
LinkedIn
Newsletter

Matt Paulson (MarketBeat) joins Matt and Kolby to talk about the SMS playbook that's now 25% of MarketBeat's revenue, why he pays Twilio $400K a month to make it work, and the case for treating digital media as a depreciating asset he'll shut down at 65 rather than sell. 

Timestamps: 
00:00 Intro 
03:30 SMS Is The New Email 
06:00 SMS Is Now 25% Of MarketBeat's Revenue ($1.5M+/Month) 
10:00 Promoting Advertiser Offers Over Your Own 
13:30 $100 Paid Webinars That Sell $2,500/Month Coaching 
14:30 SMS Sunsetting, Short Codes, And Deliverability 
17:00 Confirming Phone Numbers To Avoid TCPA Lawsuits 
19:00 SMS Tech Stack And Twilio's $400K/Month Bills 
23:00 Why Newsletters Are Still Worth It (Gmail's March 20 Change) 
28:00 Multi-Channel: Spending $500K/Month On Meta Ads 
33:00 The Co-Reg Wars: IMS vs AfterOffers 
35:00 Every Tech Company Will Eventually Buy A Media Company 
38:00 Why MarketBeat Won't Be Sold Or Acquired 
41:00 Beehiiv, Substack, And ESP Feature Bloat 
46:00 Marketers Matt Watches: Hormozi, Sanchez, Deiss 
50:00 Where to Find Matt Paulson 

📌 Resources:
MarketBeat
AfterOffers
The Email Copywriter (Chris Orzechowski) 

🔗 Connect with Matt Paulson: 
LinkedIn
Twitter/X

Leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify, then email matt@growletter.co or kolby@growletter.co with a screenshot and a question — we'll answer it on the show.

Jonathan Hunt (VP of HubSpot Media) joins Matt and Kolby to talk about how HubSpot built a 50M-reach owned-media network, the four-part test they run on every acquisition (Hustle, Mindstream, Starter Story, Futurepedia), and why they killed every audio-only podcast on the network.
Timestamps: 
00:00 Intro
 03:33 Why HubSpot Buys Media Companies
 04:45 What HubSpot Media Actually Is (65 People, 3 Pillars)
 07:15 The Editorial Thesis Behind Every Acquisition
 12:26 The HubSpot Acquisition Test: 4 Criteria
 14:53 Inside HubSpot's 150-Creator Program
 22:24 Co-Creating Brands With Creators
 25:06 Why HubSpot Went YouTube First
 30:41 The Ad Fatigue Problem (And How They Solved It)
 33:01 Scott Galloway and the Native Lead Magnet Play
 36:15 How HubSpot Reinvests Profits Into Growth
 39:46 Minority Report-Level Attribution
 42:00 Why HubSpot Killed Audio-Only Podcasts
 43:12 Reactions: Puck, TBPN, Sherwood, A16Z
 51:31 Why HubSpot Won't Launch a Net-New Live Show
 53:47 Where to Find Jonathan
📌 Resources: 
 Mindstream
 Starter Story
 Futurepedia
 HubSpot Creator Program
🔗 Connect with Jonathan: 
LinkedIn

Enjoying the show?
Leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify, then email matt@growletter.co or kolby@growletter.co with a screenshot and a question — we'll answer it on the show.

Katelyn Bourgoin (founder of Unignorable) joins Matt and Kolby to break down the 6 types of ownable ideas, the 5-question framework she uses to engineer one, why courses are losing value to AI-enabled "brainware" agencies, and a live audit of Matt's ownable idea.

Timestamps: 
00:00 Intro 
00:39 The Why We Buy → Unignorable Rebrand 
04:16 Ownable Ideas: Test Round (Sinek, Welsh, Sanchez) 
09:30 What an Ownable Idea Actually Is 
12:22 The 6 Types of Ownable Ideas 
16:26 How to Create Your Own (and Why It's Hard) 
18:55 The 5-Question Framework 22:10 Brené Brown Broken Down by the Framework 
24:16 Lightning vs. Engineered Ideas 
27:06 Live Audit: Matt's Overlap Effect Framework 
39:58 Brainware: The AI-Enabled Agency Thesis 
43:32 Productized Services as the New Course 
50:37 Accountability as a Service 
52:36 Sunsetting What No Longer Fits 
54:38 Where to Find Katelyn

📌 Resources Mentioned: 
UNIGNORABLE
Why We Buy newsletter
Brian Balfour's Four Fits Framework 

🔗 Connect with Katelyn Bourgoin: 
LinkedIn  
Website & Newsletter
Enjoying the show? Leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify, then email matt@growletter.co or kolby@growletter.co with a screenshot and a question — we'll answer it on the show.