Inbox Insider #7 - Sun Mar 16, 2025

Welcome to Issue #7 of "Inbox Insiders": Your Email List-Building Backstage Pass

In this issue:

By The Numbers: What worked and what didn't
Deep Dive: How My "Laidback Flywheel" Works
Up Next: What I'm working on this week

Welcome to Issue #7

"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: 14,856 (last week: 14,706)
Added last week (net): 200 (last week: 200)
5* Subscribers (engaged in the last 30 days): 9,659 (last week: 9,410)

My Ad Account - Lead Magnets:

Ad Spend: $767 (last week: $768)
Gross Leads from FB: 374 (last week: 386)
Cost per lead: $2.05 (last week: $1.99)

Ads Assessment:

No change in the list-building strategy.
This is "the machine" in maintenance mode.

Instagram (@emailschool): Started Feb 1st

Total Subscribers: 361 (last week: 341)
New Subscribers last week: 20 (last week: 21)

Email School (Email-Focused Membership):

Paying Members: 229 (+4 from last week)
Monthly Recurring Revenue: $4,082 (up $92/mo from last week)

Other Audiences:

LinkedIn Newsletter: (88 subscribers; +2 this week)
Threads: 18 followers (+1 this week)
YouTube: 597 (+5 this week)

Deep Dive: The Laidback Flywheel

HOW MY BUSINESS WORKS

I used to do everything in my business, but nothing worked.

From 2017 to 2022, my main income stream was done-for-you ads.

I spent about $100K per year on events and masterminds to try to meet potential clients.

I charged between $ 2k and $4k per month to run your ads and launches.

I locked clients into a 3-month "Phase 1" deal. Month to month after that.

I generated, on average, $20K in gross revenue per month with very little profit.

I became comfortable with huge overhead and at one point was spending $10K/month on a team.

After ads, software, team, travel, membership, and masterminds, I had very little profit.

I tried to launch a coaching program to create more leverage.

But I never quite dialed it in and burned it down every 6 months.

I hosted in-person events in 2019 and moved to virtual in 2020.

I had a marketing membership that peaked around 60 people and made a few grand per month in recurring revenue.

I was very busy.

I was very unprofitable.

LANDING AND LOSING MY "DREAM JOB"

That's why, in May 2022, when my favorite coaching client offered me a full-time job, I leapt at the chance.

I burned down the old business:

Shut down the membership
Offboarded the remaining coaching clients
Transitioned the DFY clients to someone else.

The job didn't work out - I was let go in December that year - and I was forced to rebuild.

But I needed a new model.

INSPIRATION FROM ANNE

When I returned online for Round 2 of Entrepreneurship, Anne was one of the first to hire me.

I knew Anne from a Mastermind I was in, and she hired me to help with emails.

She had a super-duper simple business model.

She charged $20 for a "coaching week" in her area of expertise
She then sold a $2K cohort-based program
Lastly, she sold a membership on the backend for $99/mo

She did this every 8-12 weeks and worked half the year.

According to my calculations, she made about $500K with this model.

I thought about this for 9 months until I had the courage to try it for myself.

THE LAIDBACK LIST-BUILDING BOOTCAMP

In September 2023, 9 months after getting fired, I hosted a 5-day challenge.

Just like Anne.

I charged $20 to help people automate their list-building.

I sold a $997 8-week program on the backend.

It worked.

100 joined the bootcamp, and 30 joined the cohort.

After we were done, 22/30 joined the membership.

😮

I did it again in January '24.

Same result.

I did it in March, July, September of '24 and January of '25.

Same model. Rinse and repeat. $30-40K launches every time.

(No, I can't figure out why I'm capped at $40K, but that's a story for another day).

THE BIRTH OF THE LAIDBACK BLUEPRINT

This is the model I've been using since Sep '23 to grow my laidback lifestyle empire.

It's great.

I've sold 150+ people in my cohort.

The membership has about 80 paying members and generates just shy of $5k per month.

Every now and then, people upgrade out of The Membership into The Coaching Program.

Email School sits alongside this model and generates another $4k/mo.

Every offer I have now is leveraged.

The Laidback Coaching Program has 24 people in it.

The Laidback Membership has 80.

Email School has ~250.

No 1:1 work.

No Monday meetings.

No updating dashboards.

No travel to meet potential clients.

It's lean. It's laid back.

And it's profitable.

Finally.

Thanks for reading.

~ Cody

What's Next:

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

I'm hosting a Welcome Series Workshop this week.
Email School is open for business but the price is going up on Friday, March 21st.
I'm looking for 2 more coaching clients. If you're winning and want to win faster, reply with "COACHING" 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,