Inbox Insider #13 - Sun Apr 27, 2025

Welcome to Issue #13 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: My 2nd Million
3. Up Next: What I'm working on this week

Welcome to Issue #13

"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: 15,872 (last week: 15,677)
• Added last week (net): 290 (last week: 230)
• 5* Subscribers (engaged in the last 30 days): 9,368 (last week: 9,170)

My Ad Account - Lead Magnets:

• Ad Spend: $992 (last week: $769)
• Gross Leads from FB: 416 (last week: 366)
• Cost per lead: $2.38 (last week: $2.10)

Instagram (@emailschool): Started Feb 1st

• Total Subscribers: 408 (last week: 406)
• New Subscribers last week: 2 (last week: 5)

​Email School (Email-Focused Membership):

1. Paying Members: 238 (-1 from last week)
2. Monthly Recurring Revenue: $4,373 (down $48/mo from last week)

Other Audiences:

• ​LinkedIn Newsletter: (118 subscribers; +8 this week)
• ​Threads: 20 followers (+0 this week)
• ​YouTube: 619 (+9 this week)

Deep Dive: My Second Million

I was fired in December 2022. By March 2025, I had made a million dollars. Here's my story.

THE FIRST MILLION

My first entrepreneurial go-round lasted from Feb 2017 till June 2022.

Somewhere around December 2020 I crossed the million-dollar mark.

(You can listen to the "Cody Builds a Business" Podcast Episode about it - Ep. 312 - here).

The business generated about $250K in top-line revenue every year from 2017 to 2020.

That's about $20k per month, on average, for 4 years.

MONEY LOVES SPEED

A million dollars sounds cool, right?

But what if you made $100K a year for 10 years?

Or $50K a year for 20 years?

Still a million.

But you probably won't feel wealthy.

The trick, then, is speed.

How quickly can you make a million dollars?

The first time took me ~4 years.

The second time took me ~2 years (26 months technically).

The third time? Let's speed it up, shall we?

THE 2 COMMA DEBT CLUB

ClickFunnels popularized the idea of a "Two Comma Club" award.

You had to make a million dollars in revenue, eventually, from a funnel.

But...

You could spend $1.5 million in ads to make a million in revenue and still get the award.

Maybe a million bucks isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I've had a tenuous relationship with business debt.

I'll write about it in a future issue.

At its peak (or should I say "valley"), I was over $100K in business credit card debt.

A couple live events, high-ticket masterminds, and a global pandemic upset my world domination plans.

It took me years to claw my way out of that hole.

Now...

I'm trying to build a lean, laidback lifestyle empire with minimal expenses and lots of profit.

So far, so good.

MODEL MAKEOVER

From 2017-2020, I made money in a few ways:

1. Agency: Hire me to run your ads ($2k-$4k/mo)
2. Membership: Funnels, Ads, Marketing Membership ($39-89/mo)
3. Launch Management: Hire me to run ads for your launch ($10K)
4. Coaching Groups: Small group coaching ($2k/mo)

The Agency had 4-6 clients at a time.

I'd manage a few launches per year.

I only ever had 30-40 people in the membership.

7-9 in a coaching program.

Nothing really worked.

Nothing was scalable.

I was physically incapable of running ads for 42 people at $2k/mo (42 x $2k = $84k/mo = $1MM+)

At $59/mo, I needed 1,423 paying members in the membership to clear a million a year. Only shy by 1,400 folks.

The math wasn't mathing.

So when I came back online in Jan 2023, I needed more leverage.

PLOTTING AND PLODDING

The plan:

• Group coaching
• Higher demand membership
• Cohort-based course

Sold by:

• Live events (in-person and virtual)
• Launches
• Challenges, Bootcamps, Workshops

I started out hosting VIP Days and charging $1,500 for the day.

Eventually, I settled in at $3k/day and sold as many as I wanted.

• May 2023 (6 months after getting fired): I sold an $8,500 group coaching program to 9 people via a live event.
• September 2023: I hosted a 1:many bootcamp and sold 30 people a $1K cohort.
• December 2023: Another live event, more coaching sales
• January 2024: Another cohort
• March 2024: Another cohort
• June 2024: Another live event; new Coaching program launched
• September 2024: Another cohort, more coaching enrollments, new record in cash collected ($90K+)
• November 2024: Email School launches
• January 2025: Another cohort
• February 2025: Another Email School launch
• March 2025: Passed the Million Dollar Mark

There have been 3 huge breakthroughs in the past 2+ years.

1. Selling a coaching program that created leverage and MRR
2. Selling a cohort model that created more leverage and a big cash injection. I have now hosted ~150 people through these cohorts, and every time I open the doors, I make between $25-$40K in sales.
3. Email School is wildly popular, and I love it.

THE YEAR AHEAD

So, what if between May 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026, I made another million?

Here's how:

1. Top off coaching program: In May, I'm going to be opening up 6 spots for the Laidback Coaching Program. Want one? Reply with "COACHING" and I'll add you to the waitlist.
2. Focus on coaching renewals: The first renewals are up in June, and I want to make sure that the Coaching Program is a profitable addiction and as many renew as possible.
3. Move to coaching cohorts: Right now, the Coaching program is just open. Someone joined a few weeks ago. But it'll be better in the future if I can do quarterly enrollments. That way, we can start off with a group project and create a meaningful win at the same time.
4. Raise the price on the coaching program: In June, the Coaching Program turns 1 year old. Now that it's fully built out and has a lot of momentum, up the price from $1k/mo to $1,500/mo.
5. 2 big Email School launches: I'm doing a big July and (hopefully) a big October promotion. I'd like to get Email School to 1,000 people.
6. Upgrade Launchpad cohorts: I've just upgraded "The Launchpad" again by adding a lot of implementation and support to get more people to the finish line.

If I'm the author of this screenplay...

That's ^^ how this movie will play out.

Thanks for reading.

~ Cody

What's Next:

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

1. I'm hosting a new thing called "Ads Machine Build Week," and it's free to register.
2. I'm opening the doors to The Launchpad (8-week coaching cohort where I install my Laidback Operating System in your business) this Wednesday. Join the Waitlist here.
3. Want one of the coaching spots when it reopens in May? Reply with "COACHING" in the subject and I'll get you the details.

It's gonna be a great week.

Thanks for reading this issue of "Inbox Insiders."

See you next week,

~ Cody

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