Welcome to Bold Types, where I chat with successful newsletter creators about courage, craft, and creative living.
Today’s guest is Lex, a newsletter writer and subscription marketing expert. With over 10 years of experience leading growth projects for tech startups like Gusto, Prosper, and Burner, she helped pioneer growth design. Lex also founded the Growth Designers community, where she educates tech teams on using data to guide product decisions.
In 2019, Lex started her own growth design consultancy and, by 2021, shifted her focus to marketing for creatives. She’s now on a mission to help journalists and indie newsrooms grow their audience and income through subscription marketing.
Her new venture, Journalists Pay Themselves, does what it says on the tin! With the rapid decline of journalism jobs, she’s exploring ways to support those transitioning to independent work.
It’s written for journalists but applies to most media subscription businesses.
We chatted about growing your list and building community, Substack v Beehiiv, how much she’s earning from her newsletters, and the benefits of niching down.
Hey! It’s Nika from The Shift | NUJ London Freelance & Magazine branches.
This Autumn, I’ll be running the Royal Parks Half Marathon and raising funds for the Rory Peck Trust, supporting freelance journalists globally.
I would LOVE your support and cheerleading to help me get there. I have RA flare-ups and my health is a bit up and down, so this may be a half run/half walk – aka ‘Jeffing’! depending on how I feel on the day.
It’s a bit of a gamble but I’m going for it! Hotel is booked.
You can support me by sharing this page with media/writer colleagues or by making a donation – no amount too small – or too large!
Go ahead and make my day – and make a massive difference to journalists worldwide. It has never been more important.
I hope to do a bit of a livestream on the day via my Substack newsletter, The Shift – see how we go.
Can't sit still for long. Fabulous art by @sophillustrates
I just read about Dax Shepard’s estimated $80M deal with Amazon Wondery for the ‘Armchair Expert’ interview podcast. It’s been exclusive to Spotify since 2021, so good to see it available on other platforms again.
The deal, valued at an estimated $80 million, also includes plans to develop two new podcasts, a first look deal for future podcast ideas, plans to host livestreams, and rights to develop and sell Armchair Expert merch. The company will also launch video episodes of the podcast. [Hollywood Reporter].
No mention of his co-host Monica Padman in any of the headlines (she’s not on the cover art either), so I wonder what’s going on there. I’d be peed off if I were her unless it’s deliberate and she’s planning on branching out. Read the full post.
This was originally published on The Shift newsletter. For the full experience and to join the community, subscribe here.
Since 1999, I’ve been writing online and interviewing creative folks I admire about courage and craft. I love learning from others’ journeys & experiences and want to help more ambitious solo entrepreneurs—especially women—impact the world with their personal stories. And make a shit ton of money!
Inspired by the book ‘Bold Types: how Australia’s first women journalists blazed a trail’ in the fight for gender equality, I’ve launched the Bold Types Q&A series.
Christin is editor-in-chief of The Salvation Army in the western US, where she tells stories about people making an impact for good and prompts others to action. She holds a master’s degree in specialized journalism from the University of Southern California, has taught journalism, and helps creatives simplify their content strategies on Substack.
Welcome, Christin! ✨
What problem is ‘The Content Brief’ solving?
I help creatives simplify their content. Anything we create and share is an invitation to connect, and I want people to have a plan and a workflow that is exciting to show up for.
I hold a master’s in specialized journalism, have worked for nearly two decades leading a content marketing team for an international nonprofit, and taught journalism and communications as an adjunct professor. Content is what I eat, sleep and breathe if you will.
After helping friends strategize how they could better connect with the right people online around their makeup artistry, barbershop and even psychology practice, I saw how overwhelming this world of content is to people who aren’t necessarily in it daily. I enjoy helping people break it down into something more tangible, sustainable, and real-life approved, so I’ve taken up doing so here on Substack.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, frazzled, and frustrated with how you show up online… If you want to better connect (and convert) people to your ideas and your work…
The Content Brief is for you. I’ll help you take control of your content so you can stay in your zone of genius.
What’s always on your desk?
At my full-time gig, coffee, water, a Blackwing and my Airpods. At home, I’m often typing straight into my Notes app between baseball practice or bath time.
With three boys under six, I love and live by the Julia Cameron quote:
The ‘if I had time’ lie is a convenient way to ignore the fact that novels require being written and that writing happens a sentence at a time. Sentences can happen in a moment. Enough stolen moments, enough stolen sentences, and a novel is born—without the luxury of time.
I also printed out a screenshot of my first-ever paid subscription and put it in a little frame to remind myself I might be onto something, to keep going, and to keep finding ways to be helpful as I build this community.
What are you struggling with right now?
Time! I have so many ideas, but we all only have so much time, so I’m constantly reminding myself to focus on what moves the needle. This week, I am largely wrestling with delivering a virtual summit I’m hosting: The Content Spark Summit.
This free full-day event on Substack June 27 is meant to help you spark meaningful connection with your content. From understanding the importance of engagement to creating a content strategy you can’t wait to show up for to fostering genuine connection and leveraging your unique expertise and experience, 14 expert speakers will share what they know.
Just this other day, I saw this quote from Seneca: “You must match time’s swiftness with your speed in using it, and you must drink quickly as though from a rapid stream that will not always flow.”
He may have been a Roman philosopher, but the advice holds today:
Keep a bias toward action. It’s easy to hide behind planning, plotting, and perfecting (I know!), but the impact you want to make can never take hold until you actually take action.
Tell me about your newsletter strategy, its value to your business, and how you measure success.
Right now, I’m in an awareness-building phase, focusing on free subscribers, which is part of the strategy behind the summit.
There are three ways to engage with me at The Content Brief:
As a paid member, you get access to my quarterly content planning party, where I’ll help you plot out your next three months of content. The next one happens in August and will help you create a plan to show up consistently, with intention.
And as a paid member of The Briefing Room (the founding member tier), which I’m just about to launch, you get exactly what you need to design or redesign your newsletter content strategy with ease, including my exact simple content system, an all-in-one dashboard workspace, and a monthly brief on one specific thing to reset to keep your strategy fresh. It’s all designed to save you a lot of time and frustration so you can have a bigger impact with your newsletter.
I’m also building in ways to collaborate and share with other creatives. I hope The Content Brief becomes a vibrant community that supports each other in what can sometimes be a lonely endeavor.
What important truth do very few people agree with you on? Or your ‘spiky point of view,’ Wes Kao calls it.
Providing value doesn’t mean having all the answers.
Creative work that inspires an audience and builds a community (and business) doesn’t require anything stunt-like, viral or wildly innovative.
We don’t have to show up as “experts,” with all the answers ready to guide others to the big transformation. Trying to do so often leads to becoming another faceless creator of tips & tricks and *value* in some Wikipedia-esque, robot-generated “I have it all figured out” status quo.
And the problem is…that says nothing of the journey.
You could have the most well-researched writing in the world, but if it feels like nothing more than a robot production, it won’t get read.
Conversely, you could write about your life as a dog walker, and if you’re asking questions that take us on a journey and leading a conversation from your perspective, every word will get read.
To provide value, you need curiosity, questions, and a yearning to explore. It means being willing to lead the conversation and invite us on the journey of an idea in real time through your content. People don’t want to see processes, deliverables, skills. We want to see perspective, relationship, transformation—and that means your point of view, personality and perspective.
Last week, I wrote about why I hate the word ‘content’. It’s become a catchall term for everything we make—words, video, audio—invading everyday talk and devaluing the creative process. What’s your take on it?
This is SUCH an interesting question and a sentiment I’ve seen pop up recently. I’ve never thought of it negatively. I think of it like the word “box”—a catchall term that encompasses so many different specific things but one word that gives you the gist.
I’m sure some of the negative vibes toward the word come from the push for “top ranking” and “click-worthy” content that doesn’t deliver, but for me, it’s just a succinct way to describe the many ways we invite people to connect with us.
That’s what content is, in my view, whether it’s a newsletter, podcast, social post, and so on.
When you create and share something, you invite others to connect with you about your ideas and work. Of course, if you are specifically a podcaster or a novelist, say that. Lean into concrete specifics over summary words whenever you can.
How have you shifted from ‘creating content’ to ‘building community’ on Substack?
With a relatively new newsletter on Substack, I came in knowing I wanted to build a community. I love to plan parties. I love to build everything around a specific purpose. To carefully word the invite. To think through the menu. To find the right party favor. To design the table. To welcome everyone in. To surprise and delight. To make them feel loved.
I feel the same about crafting my own little club right here on Substack. Building a newsletter and community is the ultimate gathering. And I’m here to party. 🎉
Can you recommend some resources for entrepreneurs?
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White—I love this illustrated version of the classic go-to guide for writers on how to “make every word tell.” (It’s also one of my favorite gifts for the creative types!)
Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller—The best how-to I’ve seen on using words to talk about your product or service. It’ll help you define a clear message on how you can help potential customers. Worth re-reading annually. (Here’s my full list of favorite books to improve your writing for more.)
Hype Yourself, for learning how to generate your own buzz.
Are you using AI tools? If so, how are they helping you work better/save time?
Yes! I call Chat GPT my intern. I love using it to prompt my thinking, research subjects, synthesize interviews, and spot holes in them. It also helps repurpose my hero content into supporting pieces.
My goal is to create one Substack post a week and then repurpose it into snippets and teasers for my supporting platforms. To help save time prepping those shorter pieces, here’s a basic starter prompt I use:
I am a [what do you do], and I need to create a social media post based off a newsletter I previously wrote. The audience is composed of [your audience.]
Use this text to write 3-5 short-form teaser pieces of content for [platform] that highlight the main points, benefits or offers of this newsletter. Ensure the tone is [your tone].
Include a CTA at the end to subscribe to my newsletter, [your newsletter name].
Not bad for a first pass. I always edit the intern’s work for quality and to sound more like me, but the beauty is you’re not starting from scratch.
Best coffee & coworking in your town?
I haven’t done any local coworking, but my favorite coffee shop to work in is The Boy & The Bear in Redondo Beach, California. It has an aesthetically pleasing dark, earthy, “let’s get to work” vibe and good coffee. Win-win.
I’m experimenting with a new (shorter) format because a) I respect your time and b) I need to get outside and enjoy the early days of summer. There might not be much of it in the UK. And it’s my birthday month!
1️⃣ Went to a Leading Expert talk on the Sorry State of Social Media with Brian Clark – an overview of the evolution of social media from a helpful audience-building tool (Digg and Delicious) to a dopamine-fueled distraction and time suck—with more emphasis on ‘influencers’ and attention than community and connection.
From a business perspective, it’s hard to justify spending time on social media. He’s been experimenting with LinkedIn and succeeding, but “there’s no aspect of fun on LinkedIn.” (I agree—it’s boring AF—what can we do about that?)
Some thoughts on how to fix it: Focus on building your email list and a deeper psychological understanding of your prospects. Test paid ads in other newsletters and/or write guest posts for folks in your niche. The business basics: People and relationships power everything, and that won’t change. He says he’s “lost all techno-optimism,” – noooo! BUT there will be something else—we can’t predict it.
The Mill, which has just reached a six-figure reader milestone. Exciting to hear they’ve announced a major hiring round (hiring 11 staff in FIVE cities) and are expanding into Glasgow and London (making hay as the Evening Standard goes from daily to weekly). Love the ambition! Bringing deeper narrative journalism to local news. What local news to you read/need? Let me know and I’ll ask him.
3️⃣ Went to a Scaling Paid Subs Mind Meld with Lex Roman. I love her new project, Journalists Pay Themselves, for reader-funded journalists. Sharing tiny experiments and helpful resources in her newsletter and hosts free monthly meets to help folks grow their paid readership. We discussed pricing and tiers and tried to work out why anyone would pick the middle tier!? Plus, a hot-seat publication rundown is super useful. I’m hosting the next session on Monday, July 1. RSVP here. Interview with Lex coming soon!
PS It’s the Publisher Podcast & Newsletter Summit / Awards on Wednesday. Esther Kezia Thorpe shared this post on what burnout feels like and how challenging event marketing is as a part-time gig and full-time parent. They’re open to ideas re partnerships, investment, or refocusing to work smarter, not harder. The lineup is insane – last chance to grab a ticket here.
▶️ Tiny Marketing Actions: The Six-Week Experience [Pam Slim on Maven] Like this concept. How to execute TMAs on a daily/weekly basis to grow your business with a community of small biz owners.
Nika Talbot 