From Starting Over to 13k Newsletter Subscribers in Under 1 Year

Sam started with next to nothing. 

Within a year, he had over 13,000 subscribers [now] to his newsletter, consistent consulting gigs, and a whole new work experience with more flexibility and freedom than he had in his prior 30+ year career. 

Sam had just left his FT 30-yearcareer as a pastor. 

He picked up a couple of clients doing some coaching & content creation but wasn’t enough to sustain a full business after his severance ran out. 

He was thinking about launching a paid newsletter on Substack to add a revenue stream. 

He had a few hundred followers on social media, no email list & no real online presence. 

He posted on LinkedIn but got no real engagement. Mostly questions or sharing links. 

So I coached and helped him grow his email list to over 12k in less than a year.

At first, Sam said he was a content creator/editor. 

He loved the leadership coaching/consulting more. 

Given his background and years of experience, he could do both but found traction and momentum as The Nonprofit Leader.

First, we identified several key pillars:

- Personal holistic health of the leader

- Organizational culture

- Strategic thinking

- Fundraising

Everything connected to these main themes and topics.

Then we reversed-engineered what was working on LinkedIn & published accordingly.

- Posting consistently - daily

- Links in bio or comments

- Longer form posts

- Targeted hashtags (2-3 max)

- Images

The engagement saw an immediate lift.

This was the 2nd & perhaps most important piece.

With those who engaged in his posts, Sam started

- liking their comments

- replying to comments

- engaged in DMs

He also

- engaged other creators w/ similar themes

- joined groups/events

This is the one thing you can do to stand out and accelerate your growth on any platform.

Creating good content is one side of a two-sided coin. 

You need to be social while sharing your content.

Without an audience, a paid newsletter wasn’t a realistic goal.

But a free value-filled newsletter? Absolutely!

He started pointing people to his newsletter every so often, in between the value-driven content he posted daily (1-2x a week).

✅ Full calendar of paid coaching and consulting opportunities 

✅ More flexibility than he had as an FT pastor 

✅ Email list 13k+ subscribers 

✅ 1900+ followers on LI

✅ Featured by LI as a “Newsletter to Explore.”