Get Leads From Your LinkedIn On Autopilot | Founder @ Hat Tip

If you:

→ Make social content
→ Want to make social content
→ Tried making social content but were unsuccessful

… you’re in the right place.

Truth is, publishing content you’re proud of on a consistent basis is tough.

You get busy. Things come up.

And for most founders, content takes a backseat to whatever fire they’re putting out at their company that day.

That said, its 2025.

Content is king — and the benefits for B2B founders are clear:

→ Drive low-cost brand awareness
→ Generate inbound leads from a new lead source
→ Become a “thought leader” in your space (even though you may hate that word)

And after meeting tons of founders while working in influencer marketing, starting Hat Tip felt like a no-brainer.

You can still benefit from publishing high-quality social content — without worrying about blocking out time to write, being inconsistent, or if you’re making content the “right way”.

Hat Tip handles that for you—while maintaining your voice—through:

→ Bi-weekly content interviews
→ Product and industry-specific thought-starters
→ The will to edit and revise until you’re proud of the content being published

If high-quality, consistent social content sounds like something you’re interested in, DM me or visit the link in my profile to book a call.

Thanks 👋

Christian

📧 christian@hattipagency.com
🐤 Twitter @dibratto

Christian Di Bratto

Yesterday, I had the worst day I had in a while.

It felt like nothing could go right. 

I was frustrated and irritable, just trying to do the best work I can before I shut my laptop for the day. 

But, my YouTube vendor has been hounding me to record this one-hour YouTube video for over a week. 

So when I was finally able to, I sat down to record it.

27 minutes in, I realized my audio wasn't recording through my mic.

Enjoy.

Founder @ Hat Tip. Helping startup founders generate pipeline from social.

I've posted (almost) daily on LinkedIn since November 2023. Today, >60% of our pipeline at Hat Tip comes from my profile. What I wish I could tell every founder wanting to do the same:

1. Nobody cares enough about you to have something "cringe" alter their perception of you.

2. You'll be tempted to chase "growth hacks". Don't.

3. Give it 90 days, or don't start.

4. Your results from content are only as good as the system you build to make it.

5. You get out what you put in. Comments and DMs are your best friend.

6. Analyzing performance on a post-by-post basis is a death sentence for your sanity.

7. "I'm not getting any reach" and "my content isn't valuable enough" mean the same thing.

8. Treat social like an afterthought, and it'll treat you the same.

9. Everyone who has the power to buy from you on this platform can tell when ChatGPT writes your posts. Just saying.

10. If you only post what gets the most likes, you'll end up in the "buy a LinkedIn growth course, make a LinkedIn growth course" pyramid scheme. Did I just say that?

These are all facts and not up for debate.

My agency, Hat Tip, was doing $18,500/month of revenue before I had 2,000 LinkedIn followers. 

For context, there are accounts with 200,000+ followers that don't generate a fraction of that number.

I don't say this to brag, as that isn't the whole lot in the grand scheme of things. I do say it to clarify that you absolutely do not need a lot of followers to make this platform work for your product or service.

3 things I did to achieve this:

1. Avoid the urge to write for likes.

LinkedIn gurus will tell you to post about topics that get a ton of likes and reach...but do absolutely 0 for your pipeline.

Instead, I very intentionally wrote for who I serve - software founders and agency owners. Mainly I tried to solve the problems that came up in all of my sales/client calls.

2. Comment, comment, comment.

In my heyday, when I was really trying to win business, I blocked off 60 minutes per morning and did not get up from my computer before I left 40 thoughtful comments on others' posts.

 It was a complete slog, and I frankly hated it. But the eyeballs it brought me were invaluable (also made a ton of friends this way).

3. Free work. 

I was basically LinkedIn Costco at the time - if you were qualified, you were getting a free sample.

A very small portion of these people converted to clients, but that's fine. All that meant to me was I had to up the volume. 

I'm not saying it was easy, but if you're willing to come into the platform, it is absolutely possible to build a viable business off the back of it without a bunch of followers. 

The caveat is it takes actual work and time, which a lot of people won't tell you.

We grew a client's LinkedIn account from 4,800 -> 20,000 followers in 2.5 years. Here are the best-performing content formats we used to do it:

(it was actually 3,800, but we weren't reporting at the time. C'est la vie).

What we didn't do:

- Post sad selfie slop
- Use copy / paste post templates
- Try to "go viral"

The formats we found to work extremely well:

1. Templates

Most weeks, we create a template this person's audience can use to achieve a result, and explain how to use it. 

RESULTS:

POST 1: 105,635 impressions
POST 2: 104,899 impressions
POST 3: 79,054 impressions

2. Good/bad callout

We take examples of people/companies doing [what their company does] well, and highlight how well they do it, as well as companies doing it poorly, and highlight why it doesn't work.

RESULTS:

POST 1: 445,056 impressions
POST 2: 416,989 impressions
POST 3: 358,956 impressions

3. Niche memes

We post memes that, frankly, only this person's audience would care about. You and I would likely find them boring, but that doesn't matter.

RESULTS:

POST 1: 416,489 impressions
POST 2: 316,322 impressions
POST 3: 173,385 impressions

4. Industry-specific, data-backed commentary.

This person operates in a space that is always changing and where people are always looking for a leg up. Using their data, we're able to create hyper-relevant commentary on what's working/what's not that he can share with his audience.

RESULTS:

POST 1: 92,041 impressions
POST 2: 56,122 impressions
POST 3: 34,071 impressions.

NOTE:

These results are not typical. This client is far and away the most committed to social that we have.

They show up to their content interviews prepped and present. They're willing to test ideas and believe in the process.

And beyond the 17K follower increase, they book "hundreds of meetings per year" off social – their words, not mine.

--

DISCLAIMER: A lot of people like to fake reach and impressions numbers. I have permission to verify these. If you want help on social but are skeptical of these, DM me and I'll validate.

Everything I pay for to run and grow my content agency past $1M ARR:

OPS:

Comms – Slack
Call recordings: Fireflies.ai
Video call recordings: Riverside
Content – Notion
(Simple) Graphics – Canva
Client Feedback: SurveyGate (Eli Rubel)
Scheduling – Calendly
Payroll – Deel
Bookkeeping – Intuit QuickBooks
Contracts: Agree.com
Systems-building: Shiv Agarwal (Airtable Wiz)
Site: Webflow

Writing:

Content – Our hands.
Editing/Copy Chiefing – Claude (Anthropic)
Research for clients – ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Edits/Review – Loom

Growth:

Sales Nav – LinkedIn (pls make cheaper)
DMs – Also LinkedIn, but free.
Email nurture: beehiiv

Takeaway: Holy cow.

I think I'm accidentally building the Chick-Fil-A of content agencies.

We're a couple of months into collecting NPS responses at certain touchpoints in the client journey. 

So far, the lowest ranking we've been given was a 9 out of 10, making our NPS a 10 for the time being.

I'm extremely proud of this, as it's a commitment I made from our very first client two years ago, across our entire client base now.

There are 3 things we do that I feel lead to this score:

1. Out of scope work when it makes sense.

People tell me "this won't scale" and "you'll get taken advantage of". They're right, but fail to acknowledge that I don't care. If it makes the client happy, it makes the client happy.

2. Fast comms.

This is the lowest lift way to delight clients, and I frankly don't get how it's not the norm across service providers. 

Myself and the entire team have a mandate to respond to, or at the very least. acknowledge client messages as soon as they come in. 

It's free, but goes a long way in making clients feel heard and taken care of.

3. Proactivity at all stops.

I won't lie and say we're perfect in this regard because I don't think "perfect" exists. 

But I quite literally schedule time on the weekends to think through ideas for clients that are sometimes out of scope and/or would require extra lift on our end.

One of these ideas came to fruition in the last 2 weeks, and booked 6 calls for a client.

That's how we're making great service compulsory at Hat Tip. 

If you're a founder who wants to build a social presence while enjoying this service, DM me.

PS - We're using SurveyGate (by Eli Rubel) to collect this data!

3 years ago: 0 clients, 0 team, no network.
Today: 15 clients, great team, awesome network.

Building Hat Tip has been one of the most valuable learning experiences I've ever had.

But it wasn't my first crack at entrepreneurship. Hell, it wasn't my 2nd, 3rd, or 4th either.

I've (quite literally) been going at this since Grade 2.

Here's everything I tried before landing on this agency:

1: Snack stand business. Six-year-old me made business cards and realized nobody walks down my street. Lost a few hundred bucks on supplies and learned my first lesson about market research.

2: Call of Duty beta codes. Buying for $1-$2 on Twitter and selling for $5-$6, made a few hundred and felt rich. This taught me the value of finding arbitrage opportunities online.

3: Concert ticket reselling. Flipping Toronto concert tickets on Ticketmaster for $300-$400 monthly profit. Worked until I realized the legal gray areas and decided to move on.

4: QR code menu startup. Launched Grubster dot CA during COVID, realized I was too early and couldn't sell to restaurants. Burned through hundreds on domain and hosting costs.

5: Influencer deal brokering. Taking 20% cuts from brand deals, got featured in Forbes. Sold >$500K in ads in a couple of years, but lost clients to bigger agencies. Revenue was unpredictable because everything was commission-based.

6: Founder-led content agency. Started with one Upwork client paying $2,000 monthly, now serving 15+ founders through Hat Tip. This taught me the power of positioning yourself as an expert in a specific niche.

Something tells me I'll be sticking with this one for a while.

h/t to Marshall Haas and Sam Parr for the format inspo.

Reminder: Copying a big account's "viral" post format sentence-by-sentence will never give you the same results.

Remember:

They don't have tons of followers because that post did so well.

The post did so well because they have tons of followers.

Your time and energy are better spent on trying to write something your ICP will like, save, and share.

Brian Halligan (Co-Founder, HubSpot), gave a 41-minute podcast interview talking about growing HubSpot and building culture within it.

I listened on the way to my beer league hockey game last week, then listened again to note these takeaways (I found them interesting, and hope you do, too):

1. Customers are good validation, competitors are great.

Though most people thought HubSpot’s growth thesis around SEO and social was wrong, they found validation in large competitors (37Signals, Fogbug) executing the same playbook.

2. If you want to create a category, first define its enemy.

HubSpot created “inbound marketing” as a category by counter-positioning against “outbound” – historically associated with spammy messages.

3. Category creation is a lottery...be prepared to play more than once.

Though “inbound marketing” clearly stuck as a category, “inbound sales”, “content optimization system”, and “CMR” (Customer Managed Relationship) did not. 

4. The antidote to an underperforming metric is comp structure for those affecting it.

HubSpot fixed early churn issues by adding NPS as a metric sellers were compensated on, a commission clawback for fast-churned customers, and a retention threshold sellers had to hit before their sales accelerator. 

5. Great support talent lives in non-obvious places.

Brian would walk into Apple to fix his phone, and extend job offers to those he had positive experiences with. The pitch was “If you're making $40,000 standing on your feet all day, why don't you come sit and do the same?”

6. Culture is a product.

After having a culture enlightenment at a CEO group, HubSpot began scaling culture by: 

a) Writing a culture code. 
b) Appointing Dharmesh Shah (Co-Founder) as “Culture Czar”. 
c) Implementing NPS for employees. 
d) Implementing, hiring for, and evaluating on core values. 
e) Ensuring they built something people can get behind in the first place.

7. When asked, "what do you do when a customer is screaming at you?"

Brian: “Listen, and say you’re sorry”.

Also, The Library of Minds by Dara Ladjevardian and Delphi is a growing binge bank of content with leaders like Bryan. Wish I found it sooner - definitely check it out.

Hook-writing is the most in-demand skill on social right now.

Here are my 10 tips to write an undeniably great one:

1\ Create a Curiosity Gap 

The fundamental principle behind every hook: create a gap between what the reader knows and what they want to know after reading your hook. Every word must serve this purpose.

2\ Build Authority with Numbers 

Use specific figures relating to time, money, or volume to establish credibility. Examples include company size, revenue figures, email volumes, or years of experience. The more specific the number, the better.

2a.\ Use Ultra-Specific Numbers 

- Instead of "6 figures," use "$151,323.60." 
- Instead of "dozens of websites," use "37 websites in 22 months." 

3\ Start with Stories 

Story-based hooks naturally create curiosity. Add context about timing, circumstances, or unexpected outcomes to make it hit harder.

5\ Use Colons and Ellipses 

Include ":" or "..." in 99% of your hooks to signal there's more content worth reading. The sentence before these punctuation marks must create genuine curiosity.

6\ Promise Listicles 

Craft lists using odd numbers (3, 5, 7, 9) or 10. Never use 2 or less, and avoid even numbers between 3-10. Combine with authority for max impact.

7\ Highlight Process Outcomes 

When sharing processes, lead with the end result and timeframe. Use "how" language and include step counts when possible.

8\ Make (Calculated) Bold Statements 

Avoid wishy-washy language like "could be" or "might help like the plague" 

Instead, make definitive statements that demand justification.

9\ Borrow Authority from Big Names 

Reference recognizable brands or figures to capture attention. Combine the company name, impressive metrics, and a promise of insights.

You've seen this get overused by a certain crowd here on LinkedIn, but they are worth doing here and there. 

Ex: "Company X is worth $Y. I studied their strategy - Z takeaways:"

10\ Cut Ruthlessly 

Remove any word that doesn't directly contribute to making someone press "see more." The hook must sound natural when read aloud while maximizing curiosity per character.

P.S. This was a small part of my 83-page guide for founders to generate pipeline from LinkedIn. Get it here: https://lnkd.in/eFFv7k9J

If there's one thing I've learned from helping 40+ founders grow a social presence, it's that these 7 mistakes hold them back more than AI or anything else:

1. Lack of strong POV. At least once per week, we have a client sit on the fence on if they want to share a (completely justified) hot take on their space. They're scared it will piss people off. That is exactly why they should do it.

2. Optimizing for LinkedIn "hacks". Posting at 8:01am vs 11:03am, or using one hook template over that another, or holding the selfie camera at a specific angle mean absolutely zero if your content isn't plain good.

3. Blindly outsourcing to Head of Marketing or contractor. This is coming from someone who owns an agency. There's a direct correlation between our list of most successful clients on social and level of buy-in from the founder themself.

4. Lack of a system. Every week, I talk to a founder who says some variation of "yeah, I tried posting, but fell off the wagon". If that's you, I don't blame you. You have a company to run. A proper content system fixes that. Whether it's an agency (I heard Hat Tip is good) or a team member, you have to build actual process around content, or it'll never work.

5. Being afraid to repeat yourself. Every time a founder says "didn't we already post about that?", I say "yeah, exactly". If it performed well, and is something you want to be known for, it is your duty to propagandize your audience with the take or belief.

6. Letting imposter syndrome win. It is insane to me that founders can raise funding from world-renowned investors, but posting on LinkedIn is where they feel imposter syndrome. People (team and investors) obviously believe in the mission. LinkedIn gives you the chance to make others, too.

7. Playing the comparison game. You aren't Adam Robinson, or a partner at a Tier 1 VC firm. You're a founder solving a unique problem, with a 1-of-1 story on how you're doing it. Put your blinders on, and focus on making the best damn content you can. At one point, you'll look up and realize you're on the same playing field.

I hope this post helped clarify social for you. If you want additional help, or even just to chop it up about LinkedIn, feel free to comment or DM me.

If my job was on the line and I had to generate demand from social for a B2B startup, here's the exact playbook I'd run to save my job 90 days from now:

Step 1: Decide on platform.

Most B2B startups' audience spends time on LinkedIn or X. One or both of those is a good bet 99% of the time.

Step 2: Pick (a) team member(s) to become "company cheerleaders".

Trying to grow from the brand account isn't enough anymore. The timeline is inundated with founders posting high-quality content that will completely overshadow your polished product demo.

To combat this, we need to put up our own fight with actual people from the company as well.

The founder / co-founders are ideal, but other leadership members can work, too.

One is great, two is better. So on and so forth.

Step 3: Map buckets.

Armed with our platform and leader, we need to figure out what they're going to talk about.

To do this, we'd devise content buckets that will help attract, nurture, and convert those we want to sell to. This is best done with top, middle, and bottom of funnel content buckets.

TOF: Industry takes, trends, contrarian opinions (brings new eyeballs)
MOF: Problem-focused content for your ICP's pain points (nurtures audience)
BOF: Product updates, case studies, social proof (converts followers)

Step 4: Prompts.

I'd come up with a list of 12-15 prompts that map to those buckets, which I'l ask the leader on a recorded interview.

Step 5: Interview.

I interviewed the leader with those prompts on a podcast-style conversation, recorded on Riverside so we can clip up relevant answers.

Step 6: Writing.

With the interview recording, I'd draft 10 LinkedIn posts. Each post gets mapped to the appropriate content bucket and optimized for LinkedIn's algorithm.

Step 7: Review/edits.

Send the drafted posts to the leader for review (Notion or Docs). I'd ask specifically about tone, voice, and word choice preferences, then log all feedback to reduce edits in future rounds. 

Step 8: Post!

I'd post the content (each weekday, ideally morning local time) and actively reply to comments to maximize engagement. 

I'd handle the basic comments myself and compile industry-specific questions for the leader to answer personally.

Step 9: Report 

I'd do this weekly using a tracking spreadsheet. I'd monitor impressions, new followers, profile visits, and engagement rates, then summarize everything for easy leader consumption.

Step 10: Connections.

I pull a list of decision makers at our target account list and manually connect with 100 of them weekly. When they accept, the high-quality content we're producing will show up in their feed.

Step 11: ICP Profile Viewers.

Each Friday, I'd filter the leaders' profile viewers down to our ICP in Sales Navigator and export a list to send to our sales/GTM team for outbounding purposes.

NOT DONE - MORE IN COMMENTS:

Content truth few are humble enough to admit:

Consistent weak content performance rarely has anything to do with the algorithm, and far more to do on level of value in your content.

Rarely does an increase in the level of value not correlate with an improvement in content performance.

So, to help here is a week's worth of content prompts that, when answered, generate the most valuable content:

(1) In all of your/your team's prospect conversations in the last 4 weeks, what were the most common concerns, issues, pain points, or objections they brought up? Answer and overcome them in a post.

(2) What is the 1 result you undeniably know how to produce, and how can you lay it out in its simplest form for your audience to do, too?

(3) What is the most common mistake your ICP might make when trying to generate a result? State it, and lay out exactly how to overcome it (for a beginner to understand).

(4) What 3-5 things (stakeholders, systems, tools, etc.) does a [function you serve] team need to have in place to achieve the result they want? Share what they need, and how to set it up.

(5) Pick the 5% of customers having the most success with your product/service. What do they do, or how do they think about the motion that the bottom 95% don't? Clearly highlight how to graduate a reader from bottom 95% to top 5%.

PS - If you're a founder who wants to get this content out but doesn't have the time or systems to do it, DM me. I'll pick a couple to write free posts for.

h/t to Oren John for the tweet.

If your likes and comments are filled with the same non-ICP accounts with each post, do these 4 things:

1) Switch posting time. If you're posting at 8am sharp every day, you're likely mostly reaching folks on the platform at that time. There's a strong cohort of folks who get on earlier and later. Try reaching them.

2) Comment out* of network. 

Commenting on friends' posts is great. Only commenting on friends' post is a growth death sentence. Intentionally get out* of your network, and find other content you care about / can add value to. SalesNav's 2nd degree connections filter is a great way to do this (LMK if you want a tutorial).

3) Connect with / DM your ICP specifically. 

There are whispers that DMing with someone makes your content show up in their feed more. Anecdotally, I believe this. To that point, if you can have proper conversations in your ICP's DMs, all that's left is to make content they care about.

4) Refine who your content is pointed at.

It's VERY easy to fall into the trap of posting what gets the most likes and comments. Often, though, you'll find this doesn't correlate with what people care about (i.e. your ICP doesn't care about your commentary on an unrelated topic).

For every post you write, ask yourself: Would [ICP] care to like, save, or share this? If yes, post. If not, don't.

If you want to help executing any or all of these, feel free to DM me. I will send you some resources.

How to optimize your LinkedIn profile to convert maximum traffic (A-Z, save this):

1. Profile Picture: Clean headshot with your face clearly visible. Professional but not overly formal.

2. Banner: State your benefit on one line + add social proof underneath (logos work great). Right-align everything and leave padding so it displays properly on mobile.

3. Headline: Must include three elements - benefit statement starting with an action word, social proof, and your actual title. Example format: "Cut SaaS spend 20% before Q3 | Helped 50+ startups | Founder at XYZ"

4. Custom Button/CTA: Add a custom button. Founders skip this completely but it converts surprisingly well. Link to your newsletter, call booking page, or case study depending on your main goal right now.

5. About Section: Follow this structure exactly - Call out your ICP, state their pain points, agitate the problem, explain your solution, back it up with proof, end with a clear call to action.

6. Featured Section: Use this as your social proof shrine. Add one case study, your best-performing post, and a notable press mention or podcast feature.

7. Experience Section: Include your proper title and explain what your company actually does. Relax with the buzzwords or fluff.

Follow this framework and your profile becomes an always-on sales machine.

And if you want me to just optimize your entire LinkedIn profile for you, DM me.

GrowLetter

We help media, creator, and education companies get subscribers and convert them into customers | Clients include 1440, Milk Road, The Daily Upside, Chartr, Wondermind, and many more.

Founder and CEO

HubSpot

Growth Marketing Manager - The Hustle

The Hustle

Growth Marketing Manager

OnlineDegree.com

Led paid user acquisition that grew our user base from several hundred students to over 100K in less than 2 years. Over 90% of that growth came from the ad strategies, funnels, landing pages, and email sequences I created.

User Acquisition Manager

ClassTag, Inc.

-Created a paid media strategy that increased user growth 5x YOY 
-Built an onboarding process that increased user activation rate by 133%
- Created Facebook and TikTok ad campaigns from the ground up. 80% of our user growth came from these sources.
- Lowered our FB  CPA by 53% and grew FB ads to our largest channel for user acquisition.
- Built an affiliate program and recruited 50+ early childhood education content creators

Senior Marketing Manager

Facebook and Instagram Advertising Manager (Freelance Partner)

MattMcGarry.co

Earn a 5-star rating and 99% job success rate on Upwork as a media buyer and copywriter. Worked with dozens of clients in SaaS, online courses, and e-commerce. Including Nicholas Kirchner, MDHearingAids, ClassTag, OnlineDegree.com, Photographytalk.com, Ecommece Studio, and Marketpilot.com

Digital Marketing Consultant and Copywriter

The Newsletter Guy | Our clients have 15.4M+ subscribers | I help grow your owned audience and convert subscribers into buyers | Founder @ GrowLetter 📧

I run GrowLetter. We help media/creator/education companies build owned audiences and drive revenue with newsletters. We operate a marketing agency, conference, cohort-based course, newsletter, and podcast.

Previously, I led growth at The Hustle and helped grow the newsletter to 2.5M+ subscribers. We were acquired by HubSpot. Then, I was the first employee at Milk Road. We grew to 250,000 subscribers and were acquired in 10 months. 

This led to the creation of GrowLetter, the first "newsletter growth agency." 

We've driven over 10M newsletter subscribers and over $100M in sales for clients like:

James Clear, Codie Sanchez, Sahil Bloom, Dan Martell, Jay Shetty, Chartr, Sherwood News, Money.com, WorkWeek, and many more.

Since starting, GrowLetter has become more than a "newsletter growth agency." 

We help clients build entire marketing funnels, comprehensive ad campaigns that drive ROAS, email marketing, innovate on strategy, and more.

We're the #1 marketing partner for media, creator, and education businesses who want to own their audiences and scale subscriber and customer acquisition.

Matt McGarry

GrowLetter got to see all the NEW features beehiiv is droping at their Winter Release Event. It's NOT what I expected. 

Sure, beehiiv is known for shipping new features fast. 

This is different. 

For the past 6-12 months, I've been talking about the shift beyond email & newsletters to what I call New Media. 

And I'll just say... beehiiv is on top of it. 

This is more than just shiny new features. 

It enables founders and creators to build what was previously impossible.

Often, when brands launch new stuff I feel like "This is cool, but what we REALY need is ___"

Well, I don't feel that way at all about what beehiiv is building now. The product direction is on point. 

And if they pull this off, it will put them further ahead of competitors than I ever expected.

Matt McGarry 

The Newsletter Guy | I help founders & marketers build owned audiences and drive revenue with newsletters | Agency, event, newsletter, & podcast below 👇

"Should I publish more than 1 newsletter per week?" Wrong question.

Here's when you should actually consider sending more email:

✅ Option 1: You've sold out 2-3 months of ad inventory

More newsletters = more ad slots = more revenue.

✅ Option 2: You have 25,000-50,000+ subscribers

You have proof that people want more from you.

✅ Option 3: Never

Some people should stick with one newsletter forever.

Send marketing emails on top of that as needed.

Focus that extra time on discovery content instead (more LinkedIn posts, YouTube videos, etc).

Here's why:

Publishing more newsletters doesn't help you grow in the early stages.

Nobody knows you exist yet.

You need MORE discovery content (LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram).

Not more newsletters.

Newsletters don't get discovered. Social content does.

When you're starting out:

- 1 newsletter per week
- 3-5+ social posts per week

Not:

- 5 newsletters per week
- 0 social posts

I see this mistake constantly.

People think "more newsletters = more growth."

It doesn't work that way.

Save your time. Build awareness first.

beehiiv is no longer a newsletter company.

Today, I sent 50k+ subscribers my take on their new direction -- and what it means for you as a publisher or creator.

Get it here:

JSESSIONID

li_at

Talks about #newsletter, #advertising, #emailmarketing, #growthmarketing, and #newslettermarketing

newsletteroperator.com

Will beehiiv live up to the hype?

New Media Summit now has an MC! Dylan Redekop is our master of ceremonies. He's been writing about newsletters for longer than just about anybody -- he's also the co-host of the amazing Growth In Reverse podcast.

The easiest way to grow your email list from social (that almost no one is doing)...

Someone just followed you on LinkedIn/X/IG.

Most people do nothing.

I send them a DM like this:

"Hey [Name],
Thanks for the follow!
If you want my best stuff on [topic], I share it once/week in my newsletter.
Here's the link to join: [link]
See you around!"

Conversion rate: 20-30%

100+ new high-quality subscribers per month.

Zero cost.

But people don't do this because they think it's "salesy."

It's not.

That person JUST followed you.

They clearly want more from you.

You're giving them what they asked for.

The mistakes I see:

Mistake 1: Sending cold DMs to people who don't follow you (Only warm DMs work)

Mistake 2: Long pitch about your newsletter's features (Nobody cares)

Mistake 3: Waiting weeks to send it (Timing is everything)

Send it within 24 hours of a new follower.

 If you're starting, do this manually. It takes 5 minutes a day.

I have a VA do this on LinkedIn. 

On IG, it can be automated with ManyChat. 

To make it work even better:  

Tell people about a lead magnet, not just your newsletter.

BIG Announcement: New Media Summit tickets are buy 1 get 1 FREE and 40%+ OFF (until Monday Dec 1st).

This is the biggest Black Friday promotion we've ever done.

If you want to save your spot, now is the time. 

We're bringing together the best minds in the new media and content economy to Austin, Feb 26-27.

Including speakers like:

• Codie A. Sanchez - Founder of Contrarian Thinking

In just a few short years, Codie has built an audience of 10M+ social followers, 100M+ monthly views, and 1M+ newsletter subscribers.

• Saagar Enjeti - Co-founder of Breaking Points

Saagar and his co-host Krystal Ball left traditional media in 2021 to launch Breaking Points. 

Breaking Points now has 989M+ views on YouTube, tens of millions of podcast downloads, and ~47,000+  paying members. 

• Ryan Deiss - Founder of The Scalable Company & DigitalMarketer .com

Ryan is the godfather of digital marketing. He started 17 companies, exited 4, and his portfolio of companies generated $200M+ in revenue last year alone.

• Tim Huelskamp - Co-founder & CEO of 1440 Media

• Erika Burghardt - VP of Growth at 1440 Media

1440 Media is the fastest-growing newsletter in the world with 4.3M+ readers and $25M/year in revenue with a team of just 25 employees.

• Anik Singal - Serial entrepreneur and best-selling author with $100M+ of revenue generated from online publishing sales.

• Isaac Saul - Founder of Tangle News. He's grown an independent news organization from 0 to 70k+ paid subscribers in the past 5 years.

• Alexis Grant - Founder of They Got Acquired. Business acquisition expert.

• Chenell Basilio - Founder of Growth In Reverse. Newsletter growth expert.

Plus, Sam Gaudet, Sean Devlin, Sherrell Dorsey...

…and more speakers to be announced soon.

Get the 40% OFF + BOGO deal at:

NewMediaSummit(dot)com

Or with the link in the comments:

Calling it now: SMS will be the hot new direct channel in 2026. 

I'm talking to lots of founders who are launching a texting service or doubling down on SMS now.

The barrier to entry is still somewhat high. It's a good time to start before the channel gets flooded.

If you want to build an audience from scratch, don't make this mistake:

More content doesn't equal more growth (at first).

A consistent content cadence does.

Here's what I recommend for your first 100 days of publishing:

✅ 1 newsletter per week 

✅ 1 blog post per week (same content as newsletter, auto-published)

✅ 3 social posts per week (repurposed from your newsletter)

OR if you're doing video: 1 YouTube video instead of 3 social posts.

That's 5 pieces of content per week.

Not 20. Not 2.

Five.

Most people try to do more and burn out in a month.

Or they do less and wonder why they're not growing.

This cadence is:

- Achievable for people with full-time jobs
- Enough to build momentum
- Simple enough to stick with

Don't add more until you've done this consistently for 100 days.

 And for your first 100 days, only focus on the INPUTS. 
 
Don't worry about engagement, followers, or anything else.

You need to build the HABIT of creating 5 pieces of content per week. 

The #1 reason people don't build an audience online is that they quit too early.

When you're starting, consistency beats volume.

I continue to be amazed by the number of people who work hard to publish a great newsletter every day or week...

Then never publish that content anywhere else. 

Repurpose!

It’s the easiest way to grow your email list organically.

Yesterday, I sent 50,000+ founders my framework for repurposing a weekly newsletter into 500+ social posts per year. 

It's called ADAPT: The 5 best ways to repurpose your newsletter.

Get it here:

Open article: ADAPT: 5 ways to repurpose your newsletter into 500+ posts a year that grow your email list for free by newsletteroperator.com

Learn how to grow and monetize your newsletter. Trusted by 50,000+ founders, CEOs, creators.

ADAPT: 5 ways to repurpose your newsletter into 500+ posts a year that grow your email list for free

If you can't fill in these blanks, your newsletter won't grow:

"We help [market of one] avoid [problem] by [solution]."

This is your Job To Be Done.

It's your value proposition. The reason people subscribe.

And most newsletters can't answer this question clearly.

Examples that work:

→ "Help me win at fantasy football" (Football Guys)
→ "Keep me informed in 5 minutes" (TLDR)
→ "Help me save money on flights" (Going)
→ "Help me understand big tech" (Stratechery)

Notice how specific these are?

Not "keep me informed."

Not "help me with travel."

Not "teach me about technology."

The job has to be concrete. Tangible. 

Something people would pay for (even though it's free).

Your job to be done should answer:

- Who is this for? (market of one)
- What problem does it solve?
- How does it solve it better than alternatives?

Nail this, and growth becomes 10X easier.

What's your Job To Be Done?

We have teetered between "email is dead" and "email is the shit" every 3 years for the past 25 years.

Keep building your list! 

Everyone else will be chasing the next hot thing while you're building the most valuable asset: An email audience.

Founder of Creator Science: I help you earn more from attention | Creator of The Lab: Invite-only membership for 6-and-7-figure creators | Investor: Kit, Carry, Kick, Maven, Gumroad, Beast Industries

The newsletter hype cycle is trending down and video is trending up...

But we'll be back to writing in ~2 years.

• People will get worse at writing (outsourcing to AI)
• People will get burnt out on video (cost + effort)
• People will want more privacy/anonymity

Writing will be the opportunity in 2027.

Leaving this as proof. I'm just going to skip to the end and double down on writing now.

What do ya'll think beehiiv is dropping today at 1 pm EST?

Best guess gets 50% off a ticket to New Media Summit or any of my products.

beehiiv

New Media Summit

If you want to grow your email list from LinkedIn, this is how. 

After building a 50k+ subscriber newsletter and helping hundreds of clients, I've discovered this framework.

It's called MAGIC.

The 5-step formula guaranteed to convert social followers into email subscribers.

Get it here:

https://lnkd.in/edcQXuEp

The MAGIC formula that converts social followers into email subscribers

Announcement: Matt Paulson is speaking at New Media Summit!

Matt bootstrapped MarketBeat to a ~$50M per year financial media and education powerhouse. 

MarketBeat has:
- An active email list of 6.346 MILLION subscribers 🤯
- 419k YouTube subscribers, ~15M web visitors per month 
- And the most advanced email and SMS marketing systems I've seen

At the event, Matt will cover "Advanced List Growth and Monetization." 

The "Level 10" strategies and tactics that almost no one is talking about. 

Learn more at: NMS2026(dot)com

Or with the link in the comments.👇

Tickets are 40% off and BOGO for Black Friday.

Your first newsletter doesn't need to be perfect.

It needs to exist.

I see this pattern constantly:

Someone spends a month designing the perfect template.

Researching 100+ newsletters for inspiration.

Writing drafts they never publish.

Waiting for the perfect niche.

Meanwhile, the person who ships a "good enough" newsletter on week 1?

By month 3, they've published 12 issues and have 1000+ subscribers.

Your first newsletter will suck when you look back at it.

That's the point.

The only way to get better is:

1. Publish
2. Get reader feedback
3. Publish better next time

Not:

1. Research
2. Plan
3. Overthink
4. Never launch

Spend 2-4 hours max creating your first newsletter.

Then publish it.

Even if you don't love it.

Make small improvements every single week.

Week 10 will be 10X better than week 1.

Week 50 will be better than week 10.

Just publish.

P.S. Go look at the first "issue" from every media brand / creator. The first Morning Brew newsletter (below), the first Joe Rogan podcast, etc.

None of them are special.  

They just kept publishing and improving every week for years.

We just secured a speaker for New Media Summit who has 6,000,000+ newsletter subscribers and nearly $50M in annual revenue. 👀 

Announcement coming soon : )

Huge wins are happening inside the Write, Grow, Sell community. 

This cohort, we're sending $15,000+ of refunds to people who add 1,000 newsletter subscribers after joining the program. 😲

Your newsletter will NEVER grow on its own.

Because email is a relationship platform, not a discovery platform.

Let me explain the difference:

📈 Discovery Platforms:

- TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, etc
- Algorithm pushes your content to new people
- You don't own the audience
- Inconsistent reach

🤝 Relationship Platforms:

- Email, podcasts, SMS
- You own the contact (email, phone, RSS)
- Consistent reach every time
- No algorithmic discovery

This is why the "just write a great newsletter" advice is garbage.

If you only publish newsletters, nobody will discover you.

You need BOTH:

- 1 discovery platform (to get found)
- 1 relationship platform (to build trust and monetize)

No more. No less.

I see people trying to master TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube simultaneously.

They publish for a month and quit.

Or I see people only publishing newsletters with zero social presence.

They grow 10 subscribers per month.

The system that works:

Newsletter (relationship) + 1 Soical/Video Platform (discovery) = Growth

For example:

- Newsletter + LinkedIn
- Newsletter + YouTube

Stick with it for 90 days before you even think about adding another.

Most business events suck. I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to do events differently. Here's why...

If you've attended a few events, you've seen BS like this:

• Speakers who spew corporate nonsense and ramble about how great they are (instead of actually helping attendees)

• Meaningless doom and gloom or “rah-rah” motivational speeches

• Celebrity keynotes who haven’t operated a business in 20 years

• The rush from session to session without time for networking

• Shameless pitch-fests pretending to be “training”

• Low effort panels and filler content

It’s all noise.

If you’ve ever walked out of an event wondering why you wasted your time (and $1,500)…

You’re not alone.

That’s why I created New Media Summit.

I was fed up with the events in the media/newsletter/marketing space and wanted to do things DIFFERENTLY.

And, based on attendee feedback, I think we're on the right track...

• We did our first conference in Feb -- dozens of people told us it was the BEST event they ever attended

• 25%+ of attendees took the time to share a VIDEO testimonial

• At our most recent event, 50%+ of attendees shared a testimonial

Now we're going bigger and better with New Media Summit 2026...

With speakers like: Codie Sanchez, Ryan Deiss, Tim Huelskamp, Erika Burghardt, Isaac Saul, Alexis Grant, Chenell Basilio, and MANY more.

Here's what we do differently:

✅ 1) It's not just about the content on stage. 

The most important part of an event is the connections you make.

We design an environment to make networking effortless. 

For me, as an introvert, this was key.

We create a welcoming and ego-free space that makes it easy to find your people. 

Plus, our networking is more than session breaks. It's meet-ups, dinners, receptions, and more to be announced soon :)

✅ 2) Still, the content must be worth 10x the price of admission. 

I've been to events where it feels like they threw together a bunch of panels and fireside chats last minute. It's like a podcast, but worse. 

Everything at New Media Summit is tested and proven to ensure you're getting what you came for:

A plan that will make a positive impact on your business.

We require speakers to prepare and share real tactics that are working RIGHT NOW in their businesses - and how they can apply to you.

Expect presentations, workshops, audience Q&As after every session, interactive content, and (some) great panel discussions.

✅ 3) It's affordable <$500 for a ticket. 

I've paid $1,500-$5,000+ for events. Many times, it was a great investment. 

But we decided to keep prices down while maintaining a relatively small and intimate experience (500-600 attendees).

But just like any event, prices increase over time. 

Our prices go up Friday at midnight EST.

Until then, tickets are on sale at our lowest price ever. 

Check it out with the link in the comments. 👇

P.S. Let me know what you love or hate about events below :)

Co-Founder & CEO, 1440 | The News and Knowledge Platform for the Insatiably Curious | 4,500,000 Readers Spent 4,000,000,000 Minutes Learning last year | Former PE/VC | Sharing Insights on my CEO journey

Vice President of Growth at 1440

Founder of Tangle

Founder at They Got Acquired 🧿 Media entrepreneur, 2x exited 🧿 M&A strategy

Newsletter growth strategist. 40k+ subscribers. Helping creators cut through hacks and grow sustainably. DM me “LIBRARY” to get 75+ growth levers I’ve compiled through my research free.

YES, I'm asking for your money. If you're a media founder, publisher, or creator, it's worth taking 1 minute to read this: 

Since Friday you've seen dozens of emails, ads, and posts about sales. 

I'm doing one too :)

But instead of trying to persuade you - I'll get straight to the point:

If you've enjoyed my content, buy a ticket for New Media Summit. 

It’s my conference. 

It's happening in Austin, Texas, Feb 26-27.

It brings together 500+ of the world's smartest media founders, creators, journalists, and marketers shaping the future of media and education.

Seriously...

Our speakers have 14.2M+ email subscribers, 6.8M+ YouTube subscribers, and 25M+ social followers, collectively.

Speakers include: Codie Sanchez, Matt Paulson, Chenell Basilio, Ryan Deiss,  Tim Huelskamp, Erika Burghardt, Alexis Grant, Isaac Saul, Anik Singal, Sean Devlin, Sam Gaudet, Sherrell Dorsey, and MORE. 

Hundreds of amazing people have already secured tickets. 

Many attendees are just as impressive as our speakers. 

✅ Why should you join?

Well, until tonight at midnight EST tickets are cheap.

40% off AND when you buy any ticket, you get a GA ticket FREE.

After midnight, that deal expires completely. 

✅ Is it worth it? 

Our speakers spent years and millions of dollars figuring out, what you can learn in just one session… or one conversation.

I believe BEST investment you can make is getting in the room with the people building what you want to build.

You'll learn the distribution, monetization, content creation, and AI strategies used by $10M-$100M content businesses. 

✅ But this event is so much more than the content on the stage...

The most important part is the connections you make.

We make networking effortless.

Even for introverts (like me)!
Even if you show up and don't know anyone!

There are so many amazing useful (and fun) networking opportunities we have planned. 

✅ Why do I need you to buy a ticket?

Compared to the money you've probably spent on software, courses, and programs -- event tickets are cheap. 

But putting on an event is expensive as hell.

We're spending at least $300,000+ and hundreds of hours on New Media Summit with the plan to hopefully break even.

That's the biggest investment we've ever made as a small business.

I want this to be a staple in our community for years to come.

If you would like to help make it happen...

Go to: NewMediaSummit(dot)com

Or click the link in the comments:

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The Battle

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Matt McGarry

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The Battle

Christian Di Bratto

Matt McGarry

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Christian Di Bratto's LinkedIn Performance

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