Not every growth lever is ‘sexy’.
Sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves and ditch the heels for a pair of work boots.
But just because a growth lever isn’t sexy doesn’t mean it’s not worth the effort.
That’s why I’m sharing a growth lever that—while admittedly unsexy—has been used by some of the biggest newsletter creators around:
- Ellen Yin of Cubicle to CEO used this growth lever to go from $300 to $3M with her newsletter.
- Eddie Shleyner used it to jumpstart Very Good Copy — which now boasts over 68k subscribers.
- Codie Sanchez hit 10,000 subscribers in 30 days thanks in part to this growth lever.
So what is it?
Guest Starring.
Oh, and by the way, my name is Dylan, newsletter operator at Growth Currency. I’m writing a guest post here on Growth In Reverse, taking this Guest Starring topic into full meta mode.
What is Guest Starring?
Guest Starring is when you “star” as a guest in front of someone else’s audience. (Kinda obvious, right?)
It could be something as simple as writing a post/article/newsletter edition for someone with your byline included. Kind of like I’m doing…right now.
Or it could be:
- Guest podcasting
- Guest posting
- Public speaking
- Going live on someone’s Instagram, YouTube, etc, with them
- Influencer marketing
- Twitter spaces
And IMO Guest Starring is one of the best ways to grow your newsletter (and your audience) organically and 100% for free.
So like I mentioned, is this lever sexy? No.
Effective? It sure can be.
But why does it work?
Why Guest Starring Works
It works because of leverage: one conversation with one person (on a podcast, for example) can get you in front of their whole audience. Which could be in the hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands.
Guest Starring is the ultimate 1-to-many leverage play.
It’s why anyone launching a book, course, or any kind of product—does a round of media interviews.
But in the creator space, Guest Starring is an opportunity to showcase your knowledge, experience, and expertise. And when you share it with the right audience, this growth lever works wonders for your newsletter!
Some Personal Proof
I’ve been invited on a handful of podcasts and experienced the immediate effects Guest Starring can offer.
Here’s a daily subscriber growth chart showing some modest growth from a few podcast appearances a while back:
The growth isn’t MASSIVE, of course, but that was only two podcasts. Which totaled a few hours of my time. That’s the kind of leverage I’m after.
Not fully convinced?
Here’s another benefit.
Let’s stick with the example of Guest Starring on a podcast: you aren’t only getting in front of their listeners—you’re tapping into their WHOLE online audience.
A savvy podcaster will promote their episodes with a:
- Tweet(s) about the episode
- Link and/or feature in their newsletter
- LinkedIn post
- Featured blog post or Medium article (with a juicy backlink to your website for SEO!)
- Short-form clip with your smiling mug on YouTube shorts, TikTok or IG Reels
- Mention in any community space the podcaster may have
BONUS TIP: Before Guest Starring on a podcast, check if they’re doing any episode promotion (as listed above) to make sure you can get the most out of your appearance.
Now, I want to drive this point home a little bit more, so here are those creators I teased earlier who used Guest Starring to their advantage—and how they did it—so you can learn what they did, get inspired, and follow their lead.
(Get out your notepad).
Ellen Yin (Cubicle to CEO)
Ellen turned $300 into around $3 million in revenue with her business Cubicle to CEO.
But what did she do a LOT in the beginning?
Guest Starring.
(Ellen refers to this as “borrowed traffic” and uses a really apt Lemonade Stand analogy to explain why it works—and why she does it.)
Ellen didn’t have a big audience starting out, so she went where the people she wanted in her audience were hanging out.
In other words: find someone with an audience who would benefit from your knowledge, and then make a connection.
Ellen also tried this with brands whose products she uses.
For example, she is a big user of Kajabi and they brought her on their podcast. That’s one simple example of borrowed traffic.
She’s not competing with Kajabi, and they wanted to showcase her story because she’s a power user and has seen success with their platform.
It’s a win-win-win (Ellen wins, Kajabi wins, their audience wins).
Eddie Shleyner (Very Good Copy)
In a previous GIR Deep Dive, Chenell wrote about how Eddie grew Very Good Copy to over 68k subscribers—but it all started with guest posting.
And despite his success, there are two critical mistakes Eddie’s made early on when Guest Starring which could have cost him thousands of subscribers.
Here’s what happened.
Eddie wrote his first article for Hubspot in 2015. The article performed well, so Hubspot invited him back to write more articles, which he did—but here’s where Eddie made his first glaring mistake…
Eddie had neglected to share a link to his website. He wasn’t using the full-scale leverage of Guest Starring!
Finally, after his third Hubspot article, Eddie included a backlink to his website:
He’d solved one problem and was finally leveraging the breadth of Hubspot’s sizeable audience.
But here’s where he made his second mistake…
Hubspot readers clicked through to his website and consumed his content—but there was nowhere to sign up for his newsletter.
So he had thousands of website visitors reading, loving the content, and bouncing.
Thankfully, Eddie had a contact form on his website. His biggest fans used that to reach out and basically beg to join his email list.
Needless to say, Eddie smartened up and added a subscribe button.
He mentioned in an interview that after adding the signup form to his site, 200 out of the next 1,000 people who hit the site signed up for his email list.
Codie Sanchez (Contrarian Thinking)
Codie Sanchez grew her Contrarian Thinking newsletter to 250k+ subscribers in only 3 years (now over 700k!)
Codie took a similar approach to Ellen Yin to scale the growth of her newsletter: Guest Starring on podcasts.
When Chenell first wrote about Codie’s epic rise, she discovered Codie appeared on 10 podcasts during the first month of launching Contrarian Thinking.
But that was just the beginning.
Codie has since been on hundreds of podcasts, sharing her niche finance & business knowledge with the right audiences.
All of these appearances have no doubt pushed Contrarian Thinking across the epic 250k-subscriber milestone—and helped get it to reach the 700k list size it’s at today.
How to Guest Star For Success
Hopefully, you’re becoming a bigger believer in Guest Starring is a powerful growth lever.
But the key to reaping the rewards lies in the execution.
So I want to share some actionable steps you can take to turn Guest Starring into a significant growth lever for your newsletter.
1. Aim For Audience Relevance, Not Size
Yes, Guest Starring is all about that sweet, sweet leverage.
But writing for—or podcasting to—the wrong audience no matter the size will likely be a waste of time.
In essence: relevance often trumps size.
So look for podcasts, blogs, or other newsletters where the audience closely aligns with your niche, even if they’re smaller.
Tactical Step:
Use tools like Listen Notes to find niche podcasts, or search Substack,
Then create a shortlist of 10 niche-relevant shows or publications to reach out to. To help narrow down this list, look for podcasters or content creators who are actively promoting their content so you can get the most out of your Guest Starring efforts.
2. Create a Simple Guest Starring “One-Pager”
Guest Starring only works when the person you’re pitching says “Yes!”
Make it easy for hosts or editors to say “yes” by creating a one-page media kit or “Guest Starring one-pager.”
This could include:
- A short bio.
- A few suggested topics or talking points that are relevant to their audience (see Step #3 for more on this)
- Links to past guest appearances (if any).
- Your headshot and social media links.
Here’s an example of a One Sheet:
Tactical Step:
Draft your one-pager using a Google Doc or Canva template to keep it visually appealing and easy to share.
3. Pitch With Specific Value, Not Just Your Expertise
Popular podcasts and websites receive a ton of pitches.
This means you’ll need to stand out a bit when pitching larger content publishers.
So don’t just pitch yourself—pitch the value you’ll provide to their audience.
Your pitch should be tailored to the audience of the platform you’re targeting. You wouldn’t apply to every job using the same cover letter, so customize your pitch.
Tactical Step:
Structure your pitch using the PAS (Problem-Agitation-Solution) framework:
- Problem: Highlight a common problem their audience faces.
- Agitation: Briefly stir the pain point to emphasize the need for a solution.
- Solution: Present your unique angle or story as the solution and why it would resonate with their audience.
It’s smart to approach a pitch the same way you’d approach writing copy for a sales page. After all, you’re trying to sell yourself to the host or business.
So make it clear how you understand their audience, the main problem or challenge they face, and how you have experience with the solution.
4. Be Ready With a CTA
Every guest appearance is a chance to funnel audience members into your newsletter, so be strategic about it!
(Remember the mistake Eddie Shleyner made when writing for Hubspot? Here’s how to avoid that.)
Having a dedicated place to direct readers or listeners is the whole point, right? The bare minimum is driving the audience to your website or newsletter sign-up page.
But you can get even more tactical…
Tactical Step:
Before your guest appearance, create a dedicated landing page for podcast listeners or blog readers.
Then, when Guest Starring, make your CTA even more compelling with some sort of irresistible offer like a free, high-value lead magnet or a special offer.
You can reuse the landing page template for each guest appearance, but be sure to customize the URL so you can track the success of each guest appearance.
Guest Starring Equals Leverage
So, got your work boots on yet?
I warned you in the beginning: Guest Starring is a bit of work, no question. Rewards will not be reaped overnight.
But it can be a real boon for growth when executed right. Take Ellen, Eddie, and Codie’s stories as proof.
And as much as Guest Starring is a huge leverage opportunity, there’s even more to it than simply “reaching all the people!”
A massively underrated “hidden” benefit?
Building valuable relationships. Writing for someone on their blog or newsletter—or going on their podcast—is a rare opportunity to build a sincere, meaningful connection among the many not-so-meaningful connections of social media and the online world.
Start building those connections, refine your pitch, and get ready to step into the Guest Starring spotlight.
Chenell here again. Thanks, Dylan, that was awesome. I love how it yet again comes back to building relationships 🙂 See, it’s not just me saying it again and again, even when I have someone else write the post it comes back to that. 😆
You can find Dylan on Twitter (he doesn’t love ‘X’ either), Threads, and LinkedIn.
And you can check out his Growth Currency newsletter here.
If you enjoyed this, drop Dylan a line in one of those places and let him know you want to see more! And DM me on Twitter and I’ll see if we can make more of these happen.
