Inbox Insider #5 - Sun Mar 2, 2025

Welcome to Issue #5 of "Inbox Insiders": Your Email List-Building Backstage Pass

In this issue:

By The Numbers: What worked and what didn't
Deep Dive: Dreaming, Dabbling, Doing.
Up Next: What I'm working on this week

Welcome to Issue #5

"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: 14,554 (last week: 14,326)
Added last week (net): 370 (last week: 610)
5* Subscribers (engaged in the last 30 days): 9,630 (last week: 9,501)

My Ad Account - Lead Magnets:

Ad Spend: $1,056 (last week: $3,221)
Gross Leads from FB: 444 (last week: 832)
Cost per lead: $2.37 (last week: $3.87)

Ads Assessment:

Ad spending dropped back down to normal after running ads for the 5-day challenge.
CPL stayed steady on my lead magnets.
CPL jumped to around $8 for the free 5-day challenge in the last few days of the promo window.

Instagram (@emailschool): Started Feb 1st

Total Subscribers: 320 (last week: 315)
New Subscribers last week: 5 (last week: 26)

Email School (Email-Focused Membership):

Paying Members: 232 178 (+54 from last week)
Monthly Recurring Revenue: $4,160 (up $1,219/mo from last week)
I did a launch last week; then I moved Email School to a waitlist

Other Audiences:

LinkedIn Newsletter: (79 subscribers; +5 this week)
Threads: 13 followers (+2 this week)
YouTube: 584 (+3 this week)

Deep Dive: Dreaming, Dabbling, and Doing

I USED TO SIT ON THE SIDELINES, ARMS CROSSED, JUDGING QUIETLY

I've been in the online marketing space for about 12 years.

I've attended countless conferences, keynotes, breakouts, launch debriefs, and networking events.

While successful people shared on stage, I sat back in my chair.

"Sure, that worked for them, but it would never work for me."

The skepticism was birthed out of my former failed, half-hearted attempts.

Here's the cycle (tell me if this sounds familiar):

I'd hear about a new method that someone made work.
I didn't believe it would work for me.
I tried it with 90% skepticism and 10% effort.
It obviously didn't work.
I'd sniff around for another method to try.

But something about getting semi-publicly fired in Dec '22 jolted me out of my funk.

I had to shed the cloak of skepticism.

For years, I dreamed of making my online business actually work.

Time freedom. Money freedom. Location freedom. Relationship freedom.

No more dreaming.

Time to wake up and make it happen.

THE CEO OF MIH

Before getting into the online space, I was a manager at a sales company.

We had 7-8 sales reps, and I was in charge of keeping them motivated.

In what sounds like an episode of The Office, I ordered a plastic placquard to put on their desk.

It said, "CEO OF MIH" and was passed around the office to the sales rep with the most sales.

"MIH" stood for "Making it Happen."

Was it corny? Yes.

Did it work? No.

But I like the empowering idea of "making it happen."

When I got fired from my marketing job, I looked around my basement office to see whose fault it was.

All I saw was a room full of mirrors.

This is confronting, scary, and sad.

But that dark cloud had a silver lining.

If losing my job was my fault...

My build-back story would be my fault, too.

DREAMERS, DABBLERS, AND DOERS

Dreamers watch others succeed and think, "Must be nice."

Dabblers give it a shot.

Doers make it happen.

"Good things will happen because I will make them happen."

(I don't know who to attribute this quote to, but I like it.)

Dreamers wonder what it'd be like.

Dabblers dip their toe in.

Doers say, "Hold my kombucha" and go all in.

CALL YOUR SHOT

No one is coming to save you.

It's time to call your shot and make it happen.

This ^^ mindset took me from a broke skeptic to a profitable 1-man shop.

It'll work for you, too.

Thanks for reading,

~ Cody

What's Next:

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

I'm hosting a Welcome Series Workshop, coming soon.
I'm having fun onboarding new members to Email School.
I'm prepping a new workshop for my Coaching Group on "How to Explode Your Sales with a CustomGPT."

It's gonna be a great week.

Thanks for reading this issue of "Inbox Insiders."

See you next week,