My business earns $200k+ per month. If I was starting over, here's what I'd do:
12 things I would do if I was starting from scratch
Matt McGarry
March 22, 2025
DEEP DIVE
Here are the 12 things I would do if I was starting from scratch:
1) Accomplish something
People want to learn from people who have done the thing they’re talking about.
Get real world experience. Find a job, start a business, work for free, experiment on yourself, try weird shit.
Optimize your work and time for things you can later create content about.
Work on things that build your expertise, make you interesting, and unique.
You don’t need world-class accomplishments. Building rockets like Elon Musk or testing crazy shit to live forever like Brian Johnson, isn’t required.
But you need to have done something others aspire to do.
2) Create a category
I love this quote from Naval: “Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until that is true.”
This should inform how you pick a newsletter niche and create a category.
If you’re starting a newsletter you want to be in a category of one. That doesn’t mean there are no other newsletters in the niche or category
It means there are no other newsletters that do exactly what you do.
Here are the rules of category design:
Different is better than better
It’s better to be first than better.
If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.
By creating a category you stand out.
Then you can “own” a word, phase, or idea in that category.
The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind.
I’ve worked for the past 2 years on owning the word “newsletter.” It’s paid off. When people want to build a successful newsletter, they come to me.
When my audience talks to their friends about newsletters, they mention me (word of mouth marketing).
When people search the term “newsletter” almost anywhere on the internet, I show up.
If I was starting over I would think deeply about the category and word I can own.
Email is the best-owned audience channel, and newsletters are the best way to get readership in the inbox.
Right now, there's no audience as valuable as engaged email audience.
A free weekly newsletter is the best way to start building one.
Don't make the mistake of sending your newsletter more (or less) than weekly if you’re just starting out.
Weekly is the minimum cadence readers need to build a habit of opening.
More than weekly is too much work for someone who has not a built a large email audience yet.
After you get to 25,000 to 100,000 subscribers and there's a clear financial ROI for sending more than one time per week, do it.
Until then, you need to focus your time on growing your email audience.
3) Pick the right email platform
You'll save time and headaches by picking the right email service provider (ESP) from the start. An ESP is the software platform you need to send newsletters.
I’ve tested dozens of ESPs. The only ones I would consider are beehiiv or Kit.
For most people starting out beehiiv is the best choice. It’s free to start, easy-to-use, and has all the tools you need for growth and monetization.
Try beehiiv free for 30 days and get 20% off here. (affiliate link)
4) Focus on one discovery platform
Email has no discoverability.
You can’t grow your email list without publishing content somewhere else.
Pick one platform — YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc — and spend all of your content creation time on it (outside of your newsletter).
Don't try and grow more than one at first. They’re all distinct. Focus.
One discovery platform is all you need now. There are hundreds of millions of users on each of these. After you hit 25,000 to 100,000 followers you can start another.
If I were starting over I would pick one of the following: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram.
Make your newsletter short and simple to complete each week.
1 or 2 primary sections are all you need.
My newsletter has a curated section “best links” and an article section “deep dive”. The intro and outro sections are basically the same each week.
That’s more than enough.
I often see beginners with long complicated newsletters that they struggle to write each week. It's a recipe for disaster.
If you don't have a large email audience yet, you need to spend more time creating content to get people on your email list then for the people already on it.
Do that by creating for your discovery platform.
If it’s LinkedIn or Instagram, you need 3-5 high-quality posts per week for months and years consistently.
If it’s YouTube, you need 1-3 amazing videos per week consistently.
An extreme example is Alex Hormozi: His newsletter is literally a 60 second read. Then he publishes hundreds of posts on social that would take hours to consume.
Plus, always repurpose your newsletter into:
1 blog post (web version of your newsletter)
3-5 posts on your discovery platform of choice
If you do just that, every year you’ll publish:
52 blog posts
156-260 social posts
6) Convert your rented audience into an owned audience
Make the most of every follower and view.
A. Send a DM to every new follower: This is a simple way to convert 20-50% of your followers into subscribers. Yeah, it takes time, but you can hire a VA to do this for $5 per hour.
B. Post 1 pre-CTA and post-CTA per week to tease your newsletter: This is the #1 growth tactic you’re probably not using.
C. Include a CTA in (almost) every post: Even if it’s subtle, mention your newsletter and it’s value proposition (or a lead magnet).
D. Create and promote a new lead magnet every month or quarter: Incentives are powerful. Give people something for free if they sign up. This could be a template, checklist, cheat sheet, guide, video, etc.
E. Optimize your social profile for email subscribers: Your newsletter’s core value proposition (and/or a lead magnet) should be clearly displayed in your social profile.
Don’t use a linktree. Send people to your landing page for the most conversions.
7) Make friends
Build genuine relationships with other founders and creators in your niche.
Just like entrepreneurs and investors use other people’s money (OPM) to grow their wealth — you need to learn how to use other people’s audiences (OPA) to grow yours.
This is “earned” media.
The best way to build earned media is to be kind and helpful.
8) Don’t waste time on tech or design
Don’t spend time and money creating things like a custom wordpress website or brand assets. Invest everything into content, growth, and relationships.
Spend a few hours and:
Make a simple logo in canva (or just use a picture of you as the logo)
Pick one primary brand color
Build a legible newsletter template
Make your beehiiv website easy to use.
That’s ALL you need.
Don't create technical debt. Do everything on beehiiv: newsletter, website, blog, landing pages, surveys, etc.
Yeah a custom site or professional design may look better. But that’s not going to help you grow. More and better content is what you need.
9) Collect first-party data from day one
First-party data is information you collect directly from your audience and customers.
This data is the most valuable and reliable because it’s directly from the source.
Use first-party data for personalized content, ad sales, targeted ad campaigns, segmented email and SMS broadcasts, and automations.
After you capture an email, collect information like:
Interests
Job title
Company name
Job level
Location
Industry
Phone number
And more
4-6 multiple-choice questions in a post-sign up survey are all you need. Don’t go crazy asking 10+ questions. Aim for a 70%+ survey completion rate.
And again, keep the tech simple. Use a beehiiv survey. To see an example, complete my survey here.
10) Sell these things as a means to an end
1on1 consulting
Newsletter sponsorships
Other people’s products (affiliate marketing)
Newsletter recommendations (SparkLoop or beehiiv boosts)
These aren't going to make millions of dollars at first. But they’re the best ways to make your first dollar online, cover your expenses, and build momentum.
Especially consulting or coaching.
Sell 30-60 mins of your time using Calendly and Stripe/PayPal.
With this you see your customers' problems and challenges
Use these to identify the focus of a product or service you’ll sell later.
Talking to people who pay you (customers) and seeing what they pay to fix is a better signal of what product you should create than surveys, polls, and interviews.
Another helpful signal is sponsorships and affiliate products you promote. What sponsors or affiliate promos do best? Use this to inform what product you will later create and sell to your audience.
12) Create a signature product
Through your consulting calls, sponsor results, and email replies and you’ll identify patterns in the problems your audience has.
Use this to create a product or service that:
Solves a real problem
Is aligned with the category and word your own
It may take 6-12 months to identify what product to create. But once you do, launch it fast and ALWAYS sell then build.
Don’t waste weeks or months creating a product that people may not buy.
Always do a pre-sale. This is the only way to determine what your audience wants.
Surveys, polls, and interviews may give you an idea of what they want. But many times, buying behavior will be completely different!
People vote with their wallets.
Here’s how to run a successful pre-sale:
Write a short sales email or sales page about the product.
Allow people to pre-order for 50% off.
Make a pre-order refundable and include a 30-day money-back guarantee after the product is live, so there’s no risk to buy.
Tell your audience you will NOT create the product until you reach a certain number of pre-orders. Depending on your audience size, price, and goals, that number could be 10, 50, or 1000.
Make it clear that you will refund everyone if you do not reach that pre-order number within a specific timeframe (no more than 10-20 days).
After reaching the pre-order goal, close the cart and build the product.
Deliver the product to pre-order customers, collect feedback and testimonials. Then, release it at the full price point.
BONUS: Deliver what no one else can.
It's the only way to stand out and hedge against AI.
Do what know one else can do. Be different, not better.
Add personality to your content, have a POV, share stories, host events, do things in real life, and create content about it. Do the hard things others won’t.
If your content and products are unique and solve a problem, you’ll win.
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