Chenell Basilio

Day 4: The Trusted Referral Flywheel That Beats Paid Ads

And brings in 50-100 high-quality subscribers each time.

Welcome to Day 4 of the 30 Days of Growth.

This is a pop-up newsletter put together by Chenell from Growth In Reverse. I’ve pulled 30 creators together to help give one short, actionable way you can either grow or improve your email list.

You can view all past issues of the 30 Days of Growth here.


Amanda Goetz grew her newsletter Life’s a Game to over 65,000 subscribers – not just by reinvesting ad revenue, but by hitting a turning point and switching to something smarter.

After two years of pouring sponsorship revenue into SparkLoop and paid growth, Amanda had a key realization: she had enough momentum to shift to creator cross-promotions. Not just because they were cheaper, but because they converted better.

Amanda built a referral engine based on trust and now gets higher-quality subs without spending a cent.

🔍 How Amanda Did It:

Day 3: The Google Doc That Drove 18k Subscribers

The free Google Doc that led to 18,632 subscribers and $1.2m.

Welcome to Day 3 of the 30 Days of Growth.

This is a pop-up newsletter put together by Chenell from Growth In Reverse. I’ve pulled 30 creators together to help give one short, actionable way you can either grow or improve your email list.

You can view all past issues of the 30 Days of Growth here.


Let’s talk about the Google Doc heard ’round the [creator] world.

​Olly Richards​ created a free Google Doc that built his audience from 0 to 18,632 subscribers — and resulted in $1.2m in revenue.

You see, Olly built a successful business in the language learning space. But instead of just retiring from that, he wanted to start building his personal brand and helping others in the online education space.

So he poured everything he knew and had done into a Google Doc that he gave away for free.

🔍 How Olly Did It:

Day 2: The “Free Advice Flywheel” That Drove 650+ Subs

How Tom Orbach turned comment threads into subscriber generators without spending a dime on ads.

Today, we’re talking about how Tom Orbach from ​Marketing Ideas​ has figured out how to earn hundreds of subscribers from a simple comment thread.

He’s gotten over 650 subscribers from just two posts.

No ads. No paid tools. Just generosity with a smart P.S. line.

Let’s get into it.

🔍 How Tom Did It

Tom turned two comment sections into list-growth machines. Here’s how: