Podcasting Business School · Adam Schaeuble, Online Business Coach for Podcasters.

577: The Podcast + Newsletter Strategy w/Chenell Basilio

July 8, 2025·42 min·4 clips

A 30-day pop-up newsletter experiment brought in 1,750 new email subscribers in just one month.

Here is the play. The host starts with a podcaster problem that gets tempting fast: you want growth, partnerships, and list momentum, but every collaboration still has to earn the recommendation. Quality comes first. The guest warns that saying yes just because a partner says yes can cheapen the next thing you send your audience. Listeners notice. If they follow your suggestion and land on something weak, the bruise shows up on your name. Keep the exchange simple, but make the recommendation real. The mention should sound like the way you already talk, not like someone dropped an ad read into the middle of your list. Adam tightens the point. A big list can look exciting, but a bad swap can cost real subscribers. List size does not beat audience trust. Quick growth is not worth a trust leak. Then the conversation turns to unsubscribes. The host jokes about openly weeping when one person leaves, especially after the work it took to get that subscriber. The guest is calmer about it. So many people have unsubscribed from her list that it no longer lands the same way. Her view is that some people leaving is healthy when they are not into the content anymore. Early lists still sting more. When you have your first hundred subscribers, losing two feels enormous. So build thicker skin. Read unsubscribes as feedback, not a verdict, and keep the recommendations strong enough that people want the next one.

As heard by us

A practical look at turning audience trust into sponsors, memberships, and better recommendations.

Podcasting Business School turns a listener success story into a clean lesson about trust, sponsorships, memberships, and recommendations. The best part is how plainly it ties a clearer brand to a first sponsor and a membership offer, while keeping the real filter simple: only…

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Why you'd press play

You want your podcast to open doors, not just fill a feed.

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