Inbox Insider #11 - Sun Apr 13, 2025

Welcome to Issue #11 of "Inbox Insiders": Your Email List-Building Backstage Pass

In this issue:

1. By The Numbers: What worked and what didn't
2. Deep Dive: The Roller Coaster
3. Up Next: What I'm working on this week

Welcome to Issue #11

"Inbox Insider" is my Sunday newsletter sharing the behind-the-scenes of what I'm doing to grow my email list to 100,000.

I share what works, what doesn't, and how I'm growing.

Thanks for reading.

Let's dive in:

By The Numbers:

My Email List

• Total Subscribers: 15,435 (last week 15,325)
• Added last week (net): 140 (last week: 180)
• 5* Subscribers (engaged in the last 30 days): 9,230 (last week 8,998)

My Ad Account - Lead Magnets:

• Ad Spend: $769 (last week: $769)
• Gross Leads from FB: 376 (last week: 391)
• Cost per lead: $2.05 (last week: $1.97)

Instagram (@emailschool): Started Feb 1st

• Total Subscribers: 401 (last week: 398)
• New Subscribers last week: 3 (last week: 12)

​Email School (Email-Focused Membership):

1. Paying Members: 237 (-1 from last week)
2. Monthly Recurring Revenue: $4,377 (down $25/mo from last week)

Other Audiences:

• ​LinkedIn Newsletter: (104 subscribers; +2 this week)
• ​Threads: 20 followers (+0 this week)
• ​YouTube: 609 (+2 this week)

Assessment: This was a slow week. Not much growth in any area. That's part of the rhythm/cadence of running an online business. I've been traveling a lot. I haven't had any sales or promotions in a few weeks. In a way, I've taken my eye off the ball while focusing on fulfillment (attending a mastermind, hosting 2 of my own events, and Spring Break with the family).

Which brings me to today's topic. The Roller Coaster.

Deep Dive: The Roller Coaster

SHATTERING THE GLASS CEILING

I quit a 9-5 job in 2017.

My salary? $83,000 per year.

No benefits. No health care. No retirement.

I had the chance for profit share, which we rarely hit.

So I quit.

I remember saying to my wife, "Wouldn't it be great if I just put my head down, did the work, got to the end of the year, and did $250K in revenue?"

I didn't track it because I didn't know how.

But I got to the end of the year and, sure enough, did about $250K in revenue.

I was shocked.

I tripled my old salary.

Now, not all of it was profit, but still.

RECKLESS SCALING

Naturally, the next phase was reckless scaling.

I hired an ops manager, joined a $2k/mo coaching program, and brought on a funnel guy and an ads guy at $2k/mo each.

Before my 1-year entrepreneur-iversary, I was spending $10K/month.

Oops.

The revenue didn't keep up, and I eventually had to disentangle from those relationships and focus on profitability.

THE $250K CEILING

No matter what I tried, I couldn't break that $250K/yr barrier.

Every year, from 2017 to 2022, I did $250K a year.

I was stuck.

I got a job in 2022 for 6 months, and, you guessed it, I did $125K in 6 months.

When I came back online in January 2023, I knew something had to change.

I wanted to break that $250K/yr barrier.

It was like my 4-minute mile.

More than that, I wanted profit.

I wanted to be lean, flexible, and profitable.

No team.

Low overhead.

Few deliverables.

THE BREAKTHROUGH

I changed the model (VIP Days, group coaching, leveraged offers).

I changed my mindset about what I was capable of.

And I did it (barely).

In 2023, my lean 1-man business did about $290K.

2024?

Over double that amount.

So, naturally, 2025 is my million-dollar year, right?

Riiiiight???

Well, no. Not so far at least.

2025 SO FAR

December 2024 was one of my best months ever.

I hosted a paid workshop that generated around $7,500 in revenue.

Email School had a 5-figure launch.

I had 17 people paying monthly in a coaching program.

4 new people joined the coaching program.

3 paid in full ($10K).

It was wild.

January '25 was great, too.

In February, I hosted a big event and sold Email School.

Even though it was a 5-figure launch (it made about $14K), the payout occurred in March.

...which meant February '25 was about a $35K drop in top-line revenue from January.

March was back on track.

April so far? Slow.

May? Hopeful.

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

I have 4 main ways I make money:

1. Email School - low ticket, front-end membership that generates about $4300/mo
2. Laidback Membership - mid-ticket ($89/mo) back-end membership that generates about $5k/mo
3. Laidback Launchpad - a cohort that I run quarterly with 20-30 folks
4. Laidback Coaching Program - currently $1k/mo or $10k/yr (but increasing soon)

I run a cohort quarterly.

The cohort feeds the backend membership.

People can ascend to the Coaching Program unless it's full.

Email School is open for enrollment but goes to waitlist periodically.

It may sound chaotic, but I'm headed somewhere.

Imagine in a year, Email School with 1,000 members paying $30/mo.

The Laidback Coaching Program with 30 people paying $1,000/mo.

The Launchpad doing quarterly cohorts with 50 folks paying $1k apiece.

The Laidback Membership with 200 people paying $100/mo.

That's:

• $30k/mo from Email School
• $30k/mo from Laidback Coaching Program
• $50k/quarter from Launchpad
• $20k/mo from Laidback Membership

That's $1.16 million per year 😮 .

So, I know I have the model.

I have the offers.

I just need more traffic.

That's why I started this newsletter to track my journey to 100K email subscribers.

Some months are up.

Some are down.

But the trend is up and to the right.

Thanks for reading.

~ Cody

What's Next:

Here's what's on my radar this week:

1. ​Email School is open for enrollment and it's awesome.
2. I'm opening up a new promotion soon to help people automate their list-building so they don't have to think about it anymore.

It's gonna be a great week.

Thanks for reading this issue of "Inbox Insiders."

See you next week,

~ Cody

​

​

​