#182: Noah Kagan — Behind the scenes of writing (and marketing) Million Dollar Weekend

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. Chenell has done deep dives on Justin Welsh, Codie Sanchez, Lenny Rachitsky, Harry Dry, and many more. I read it every week and think it’s incredibly well-done. The premise is super clear, and as a result, Chenell has seen her OWN newsletter grow very quickly – nearing 10,000 subscribers in just about four months. In this episode, you’ll learn: The common patterns between these newsletter operators Some of the most effective growth tactics she’s uncovered And what’s working for HER right now Full transcript and show notes Follow Chenell on Twitter / LinkedIn Subscribe to Growth In Reverse *** CONNECT 📬 Subscribe to the newsletter 🐦 Connect on Twitter 📸 Connect on Instagram 🎵 Connect on TikTok 🙏 Make a guest or mailbag request 📝 Check out our curated Playlists *** SPONSORS 💼 View all sponsors and offers *** SAY THANKS 📞 Leave me a voicemail 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WATCH ▶️ Watch this episode on YouTube *** EPISODE DESCRIPTION Tony Santos is a YouTube editor with over a decade of experience working with people like Thomas Frank and Noah Kagan. With his own YouTube channel, Tony has built a reputation for helping creators and editors communicate in a more positive way, which makes him the perfect person to teach us how to find, hire, and work with great YouTube editors. In this episode, you'll learn, Where to look for an editor How to evaluate a potential hire when you're not an editor yourself And much, much more. Full transcript and show notes Tony's Website / YouTube / Twitter / Instagram *** TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Meet Tony Santos (00:56) Where to Find Editors (05:53) When to Hire (09:04) What to Pay Editors (16:22) Misaligned Expectations (18:56) Per Project vs Hourly vs Retainer (25:46) How to Reach Out to Editors (27:30) Evaluating a Portfolio (29:15) Editing Skill Expectations (33:15) Workflow Expectations (34:43) Timeline and Revisions (37:55) How to Give Feedback (41:59) Nurturing Long Term Relationships *** CONNECT 📬 Subscribe to the newsletter 🐦 Connect on Twitter 📸 Connect on Instagram 🎵 Connect on TikTok 🙏 Make a guest or mailbag request 📝 Check out our curated Playlists *** SPONSORS 💼 View all sponsors and offers *** SAY THANKS 📞 Leave me a voicemail 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard van der Blom is the founder of Just Connecting, a social selling and LinkedIn training consultancy based in the Netherlands. And with nearly 200,000 followers on LinkedIn, he's one of the most respected voices on the platform. Richard was really early to LinkedIn. And as his own reach grew, he started getting a lot of questions about how to best use the platform. 5 years ago, Richard started creating an annual LinkedIn algorithm insights research report. This thing is a gold mine of data driven observations about how different aspects of LinkedIn are working and even how they are trending compared to the year before. In this episode you'll learn Why LinkedIn reach may be down What formats are most effective right now How to use LinkedIn as a lead generation And you'll get a feature by feature breakdown of how Richard himself uses LinkedIn Full transcript and show notes Read the 2024 LinkedIn Algorithm Report Richard's Website / LinkedIn Listen to episode #127 with Daniel Murray *** CONNECT 📬 Subscribe to the newsletter 📫 Get my Professional Creator Crash Course (free) 🧰 Get my full gear list (free) 🐦 Connect on Twitter 📸 Connect on Instagram 🙏 Make a guest or mailbag request 📝 Check out our curated Playlists *** SPONSORS 💼 View all sponsors and offers *** SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Stelzner is the founder of Social Media Examiner and the man behind Social Media Marketing World, the industry's largest conference. He takes a very different approach to events. Before talking with Michael, I was told that events are not profitable from ticket sales, that you had to design events to make money during the event itself by selling products or bringing in sponsors. But he disagrees. In this episode you'll learn The nitty gritty of the economics behind events Where things get expensive How to save money And how to make your event feel more like a fine dining experience than a marketplace Full transcript and show notes Michael's Website / LinkedIn / Twitter / Instagram Listen to episode #144 with Bari Baumgardner *** CONNECT 📬 Subscribe to the newsletter 📫 Get my Professional Creator Crash Course (free) 🧰 Get my full gear list (free) 🐦 Connect on Twitter 📸 Connect on Instagram 🙏 Make a guest or mailbag request 📝 Check out our curated Playlists *** SPONSORS 💼 View all sponsors and offers *** SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this audio episode, we are going to dive into questions that I got from the lab, from Instagram, from LinkedIn, Twitter, and threads. Now this is actually a part 2. The first half of these questions I recorded in video format with my producer, Connor. We took a lot of the questions from YouTube and about YouTube and we prioritize those for a video episode on the channel. But before we get into that, I have a couple of things that I want to tell you. Thing #1, if you are not already subscribed to the Creator Science newsletter, please do so. You will like it. Almost 60,000 creators subscribed to it already. Thing #2, I've spent the last couple of months building a new product called Creator HQ. And this is a templatized version of my personal Notion setup that is how we run the entire creator science business. It's what we use for task management, content preparation, content publishing, content repurposing, and much more. Audience Q&A Part 1 Join The Lab Join the waitlist for Creator HQ Full transcript and show notes *** CONNECT 📬 Subscribe to Creator Science 🧪 Join The Lab 🐦 Connect on Twitter 📸 Connect on Instagram 🎵 Connect on TikTok 🙏 Make a guest or mailbag request 📝 Check out our curated Playlists *** SPONSORS 💼 View all sponsors and offers *** SAY THANKS 📞 Leave me a voicemail 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WATCH ▶️ Watch this episode on YouTube *** EPISODE DESCRIPTION In this audience Q&A video, my producer Conor and I answer all your questions about YouTube and building a creator business. We talk about getting sponsors and how we craft our podcast intros We discuss pivoting your content and more. Get my Notion Template Listen to my recent Mailbag episode Full transcript and show notes *** CONNECT 📬 Subscribe to Creator Science 🧪 Join The Lab 🐦 Connect on Twitter 📸 Connect on Instagram 🎵 Connect on TikTok 🙏 Make a guest or mailbag request 📝 Check out our curated Playlists *** SPONSORS 💼 View all sponsors and offers *** SAY THANKS 📞 Leave me a voicemail 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amy Porterfield is an online marketing expert and the creator of a multimillion dollar education business. Now you may know Amy from her top ranked marketing podcast called Online Marketing Made Easy or her new best selling book, Two Weeks Notice. She is a legend after all. Amy quit her job in 2009 and started out on her own. In 2011, she launched her first course, but despite her background and experience, that course was a total flop earning just $26. She tried again in 2012, and this time, she earned $30,000 from her course launch. Then in 2013, she launched her podcast and really hit her stride. In 2013, Amy posted $915,000 in revenue. Amy has now built an online marketing machine. With 22 employees and millions of dollars in revenue each year, Amy has really nailed both evergreen sales and course launches. Her launch formula leverages the use of webinars. In this episode you'll learn The specific step by step strategy that Amy uses for her course launches How she builds her email list during the launch period How to be more successful in selling through those webinars even when you're sitting in the sale part of it And if you stick around towards the end, we even dig into how she's thought about building her team Full transcript and show notes Amy's Website / LinkedIn / TikTok / Instagram *** CONNECT 📬 Subscribe to the newsletter 📫 Get my Professional Creator Crash Course (free) 🧰 Get my full gear list (free) 🐦 Connect on Twitter 📸 Connect on Instagram 🙏 Make a guest or mailbag request 📝 Check out our curated Playlists *** SPONSORS 💼 View all sponsors and offers *** SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WATCH ▶️ Watch this episode on YouTube *** EPISODE DESCRIPTION Two years ago, Thomas Frank made the seemingly crazy decision to abandon his 2 million subscriber YouTube channel that he spent a decade of his life building to make software tutorials. His decision paid off big time. The @ThomasFrankExplains channel has grown to 220,000 subscribers, done over 10 million views, and doubled his revenue, just by teaching people how to use the productivity and note taking software, Notion. In this episode, you'll learn: How to design the perfect viewer experience How to think about browse views versus Search the pros and cons of relying on outside platforms for success And what every person starting a tutorial channel needs to do Full transcript and show notes Thomas's Website / YouTube / Twitter / Instagram *** TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Abandoning a 2 Million Sub Channel (01:17) Thomas’s New YouTube Strategy (04:10) Why Start a New Channel? (05:35) Browse Views vs Search Views (08:09) When Serving the Audience is Bad for Retention (12:01) Evaluating Platform Risk (16:14) Permanence on YouTube (18:40) How to Decide What Videos to Make (19:48) How Important is Production Value (24:32) Advice for New Tutorial Creators (30:07) Does First Mover Advantage Matter? *** CONNECT 📬 Subscribe to the newsletter 🐦 Connect on Twitter 📸 Connect on Instagram 🎵 Connect on TikTok 🙏 Make a guest or mailbag request 📝 Check out our curated Playlists *** SPONSORS 💼 View all sponsors and offers *** SAY THANKS 📞 Leave me a voicemail 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mariah Coz is the founder of Fearless CEO. Mariah teaches coaches, course creators, and CEOs strategies for growing a course company that is sustainable, impactful, and evergreen. In this episode, you’ll learn How Mariah thinks about pricing How to design your high-ticket hybrid program How to avoid sales calls And why you may want to consider an evergreen offer. Full transcript and show notes Follow Mariah on Instagram / Twitter / Facebook Follow Fearless CEO on Instagram / Website / YouTube *** CONNECT 📬 Subscribe to the newsletter 🐦 Connect on Twitter 📸 Connect on Instagram 🎵 Connect on TikTok 🙏 Make a guest or mailbag request 📝 Check out our curated Playlists *** SPONSORS 💼 View all sponsors and offers *** SAY THANKS 📞 Leave me a voicemail 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah Kagan is the CEO of AppSumo, an 8 figure company that is the #1 software deals site. He also runs a YouTube channel where he shares his tips for finding financial freedom with more than 930,000 subscribers. Before AppSumo, he was the 30th employee at Facebook reporting directly to Mark Zuckerberg and the 4th employee at mint.com. Noah has built this reputation for being a relentless tinkerer. He's constantly running small experiments. A couple weeks ago, Noah's new book, Million Dollar Weekend, officially became available for sale. And since that time, he's been everywhere. The Tim Ferriss Show, School of Greatness, Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal. In this episode, you'll learn about his experience making the book itself. Full transcript and show notes Buy Million Dollar Weekend Listen to my episode with David Moldawer Listen to our publishing playlist Noah's Website / YouTube / Twitter / Instagram / LinkedIn *** CONNECT 📬 Subscribe to the newsletter 📫 Get my Professional Creator Crash Course (free) 🧰 Get my full gear list (free) 🐦 Connect on Twitter 📸 Connect on Instagram 🙏 Make a guest or mailbag request 📝 Check out our curated Playlists *** SPONSORS 💼 View all sponsors and offers *** SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices