Full Transcript for From Failed Startup to a $100K+ Newsletter

Substack, and you've been doing good on [00:05:00] Threads, so let's just do the same, create a new account and just try to do a newsletter. [00:05:04] Esteban Perez: So two months in, we actually started getting people paying for the newsletter, um, like pledging on Substack. More than what we were getting for people who were paying for the ADHD meal planner. And we decided to, okay, let's just erase the meal planner and let's just go for all in on the, on the newsletter. [00:05:20] Esteban Perez: So let's just like dive into it, and, and another pivot later, then we're fully into the ADHD Weasel. Um, and, and yeah, that's sort of how [00:05:30] we landed. I think I gave a, a pretty long explanation, but, uh, it's like the entire context into our ADHD Weasel, um, journey. [00:05:38] Chenell Basilio: Nice. I'm looking at your Substack now. It looks like the first post you had on there was from February 7th of 2025. [00:05:44] Chenell Basilio: Is that... Does that sound right? [00:05:45] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So just over, um, a year and a half- A year and a half ... almost a year and a half. [00:05:49] Dylan Redekop: Yeah. [00:05:50] Esteban Perez: Yeah. [00:05:50] Chenell Basilio: Wow. [00:05:51] Dylan Redekop: I, I- [00:05:51] Chenell Basilio: And you now have, like, 287,000 followers on Threads too, which is crazy. Yeah. [00:05:57] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that's been our, our main acquisition [00:06:00] channel. [00:06:00] Dylan Redekop: Dang. I, I just wanna go back to your story, and it really highlights, like, a lot of people are like, "I'm gonna start up this newsletter," and all of a sudden grow, and, you know, it's gonna be a success pretty quick. [00:06:10] Dylan Redekop: And I really like that you, you started from one point, and you didn't just give up. You just kind of finding these threads, these through lines through all of the, through all of the, um, data you'd been collecting and the customer feedback and the research, and eventually kinda made your way. Um, you know, a lot of people would've probably given up along the way, [00:06:30] but you guys kept pushing through and listening to people, getting research as opposed to just doing it on your own or, um, or stopping. [00:06:37] Dylan Redekop: So I wanna commend you for that 'cause that's, that's not easy, and, uh, it takes a lot of, you know, a drive and willpower. So, um, first of all, that's awesome, and I think it's a good lesson for a lot of people listening who start something, it's like, "Oh, it didn't work. I guess I'm gonna close it down." You can... [00:06:53] Dylan Redekop: You're proof that, you know, you can keep going and build something that's worthwhile. [00:06:57] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Thanks, Dylan. I mean, it's part of the [00:07:00] entire drive of us just wanting to be, like, startup founders and then just landing in this newsletter space and finding it fun and awesome and, um, finding a community that we related with and we wanted to, like, connect with and solve problems too and talk to. [00:07:15] Esteban Perez: 'Cause the, the newsletter ended up being like a, a, a source for us to respond to all of the things that we were hearing in these calls, 'cause we were having calls, and it was like their entire lives is way more complex than just ADHD and, and food. [00:07:30] So that's how we ended up, like, landing the topics and just talking about AD- ADHD was, like, based on what people were telling us during the calls and based on what we were trying to learn from them and, uh, from ourser- ourselves as well. [00:07:43] Esteban Perez: And it was a pretty awesome journey in the terms of just, like, how it organically, um, pushed us towards, like, building the, the newsletter and what to write about and how to write it and who to write it for as well. [00:07:58] Dylan Redekop: Yeah. [00:07:59] Chenell Basilio: I love [00:08:00] this. This reminds me, uh, we had Sam Vander Wielen on the podcast recently, well, a couple times, and she was talking about how she did, like, over 1,000 free calls with customers of hers, and it just... [00:08:10] Chenell Basilio: I'm hearing a parallel of, like, get on calls with people and ask what they want, see what they are struggling with, and actually just go build that thing. Um, and that's what has driven your success, her success, and it just sounds like such a good idea for people to, "Hey, if you really don't know where to start, you don't have content ideas, you're not sure what your readers actually want, like, just get on a call with [00:08:30] them and talk to them-" Talk to people [00:08:30] Chenell Basilio: and listen." Yep. [00:08:31] Dylan Redekop: Talk to people, man. [00:08:32] Chenell Basilio: Yeah. [00:08:33] Esteban Perez: Yeah. [00:08:34] Dylan Redekop: It could be that [00:08:34] Esteban Perez: easy. Yeah, I would even push it forward. Like, yeah, a- after the start even, like, we were doing s- like, we're still doing calls, like, almost, um, every week. We sort of, like, stopped lately, but, like, we've... That's been a constant since we started. We sort of, like, changed the focus of the calls, of course, but it's always such a rewarding, like, thing to do 'cause you get to actually talk to the people who read your content, and sometimes, like, you create this, this, like, um, [00:09:00] articles or pieces and you, like, sort of, like- Um, by yourself. [00:09:04] Esteban Perez: You send them out to the world. You probably get a comment and a like, but then you forget about, like, the real human reading it and just, like, how it impacts their life. So getting into a call with them and them saying like, "Oh, you know that piece? I showed it to my partner, and it changed my dynamic, and it had this impact." [00:09:20] Esteban Perez: So it's like, it's much more powerful than any other sort of, like, like on Instagram or follower on Threads. So it really pushes us forward

to-towards, like, [00:09:30] building something that we want for people that we actually care about. [00:09:33] Dylan Redekop: That's awesome. I love it. Um, let's get into a little bit of the nitty-gritty of the newsletter now. [00:09:39] Dylan Redekop: I'd love to know sort of how big your audience is right now in terms of the newsletter. We talked about Threads. You've got over 280,000 followers on Threads. So, um, let's quickly ta-touch on how big is your newsletter, um, what-- how do you drive revenue? You don't have to tell us your revenue numbers, but h-how do you drive revenue and, um, that kind of stuff. [00:09:57] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Um, in terms of, um, newsletter [00:10:00] subscribers, I think we're at just over 36,000, um, around those numbers. And revenue is just a Substack paid subscription, um, just people that paid for the content. There is-- Some of the content, um, is paywalled. And, um, yeah, we do, like, two formats per week. We have the every Wednesday newsletter whi-which comes with a worksheet tackling, like, more of a deep dive into a specific problem or a topic, and then our attempt at ma-making our actionable section and [00:10:30] tips into a worksheet that people can sort of like put their minds into 'cause that's something we heard from the beginning, just people with ADHD like, "Hey, I, I love all these ideas, but where do I start? [00:10:39] Esteban Perez: Like, how do I get going?" And it's like, okay, let's just make a worksheet specifically for you. We tried different formats, different designs, and we ended up landing on, on something that most people, um, liked. So we have this worksheet for paid subscribers, although I think once a month we still do the, uh, one that's free for everyone. [00:10:57] Esteban Perez: And then on Saturday, we do a bit more of, like, a personal [00:11:00] reflection piece, maybe something that we've been sort of like thinking of our own, and it's not as much of like a scientific driven, like, deep dive. It's more of like a, a reflection. And then we also have some guest writers coming in here and there. [00:11:12] Esteban Perez: If there's a topic that we can't, um, speak on 'cause we're not experts but our audience is asking to learn more about, then we just look for someone who, who, who can actually write, write a good piece- Right ... and we, we bring them over. [00:11:24] Dylan Redekop: Can you tell us what your, your tiers are or how you, how you're pricing that out and if it's monthly or annual [00:11:30] or how that works? [00:11:31] Esteban Perez: Yeah. It's, uh, $10 a month, um, or $100 a year- Okay ... for the, for the paid subscription. [00:11:36] Dylan Redekop: Okay. And then with the paid you get a little bit of extra- And- ... content for, for subscribing? [00:11:41] Esteban Perez: Yeah. [00:11:42] Dylan Redekop: Okay. [00:11:42] Esteban Perez: Yeah, you get to go through the pay- through the paywall, and then you also get the worksheets. [00:11:46] Dylan Redekop: Okay. Nice. [00:11:47] Chenell Basilio: Can we-- So it looks like you have about 36,000 free subscribers. [00:11:51] Chenell Basilio: Um, are you willing to share, like, how many paid subscribers you have or, like, [00:11:55] Esteban Perez: an estimate? Yeah. Yeah, I think we had over, um, 830, around those [00:12:00] numbers. It depends on the, on the churn and the growth. Yeah. But I, I think it would be around those numbers, 830 paid subscribers. Okay. Yeah. [00:12:06] Dylan Redekop: Dang. [00:12:07] Chenell Basilio: So sounds like easily a six-figure business, which is great. [00:12:10] Chenell Basilio: Um, that's awesome. Uh, I like, I like this. Are you-- When did you launch the paid side of things? Like, was it as soon as you started? Was it a few months later? How did that go? [00:12:21] Esteban Perez: No, it was-- Like, we-- Our idea with the newsletter was just sort of like, let's find more people. Like, it seems like we were cracking threats [00:12:30] for the meal planner, for the, uh, food waste, um, ended up like ADHD meal planner sort of like journey. [00:12:36] Esteban Perez: Um, that's how we were landing a bunch of the calls, just like doing like shout-outs and call to actions and just dropping our Calendly. Like, you have ADHD, you struggle with food, wanna talk to students who are doing research on it, here's our Calendly. And we were finding some formats that were, like, getting virality and just, like- working for us in terms of conversions. [00:12:57] Esteban Perez: And I think at wh- at some point we [00:13:00] did like, uh, um, just drop your email sort of thing, and we got like a couple hundred, um, emails from something that went viral, and that's how we sort of like got the idea of like maybe how ... We should send them emails. Like, we should look into newsletters. Like, this, this is a really good-- Like, they're giving us their emails. [00:13:17] Esteban Perez: They wanna learn more. Like, why don't we tell them what we learned in the research? Like, why don't we, like, share more stuff? And then that ended up landing on the, actually, let's, let's just talk about ADHD. Like, let's just keep on giving value [00:13:30] to these people who are having calls in and just like l- let's see what happens. [00:13:34] Esteban Perez: And the initial idea was just to use it, like, as this, like, marketing channel funnel where we, like, s- try to, like, sell the, the, the meal planner for ADHDers at the bottom. But then, um, at the top, it's, it's just like talking about ADHD, and maybe we monetize through, um, paid advertising or ... Yeah, we didn't really, like, plan it out. [00:13:55] Esteban Perez: We just, like, launched it. And then I remember the day where we got a [00:14:00] couple of pledges. We didn't know that was a thing, but a couple of people just pledged to subscribe. We didn't even have the, like, the, the paid tier. Someone just said, like, "I think this is worth my

money even if you guys are not, like, asking for it, so here's my money." [00:14:14] Esteban Perez: And that probably, like, changed our lives, um, more than any other sort of, like, little thing 'cause it made us realize, like, this is generating enough value for people to give us money. And at the time, it was, like, similar to what we were asking for the, for the meal planner, but it was, [00:14:30] like, so hard to get people to, to that end of, like, the funnel of like, okay, pay us for the meal planner, that it was just like, okay, let's just open the, the, the paid tier and let's try to talk to them and ask them what they want. [00:14:43] Esteban Perez: They wanted worksheets, so we filled worksheets and asked for, for, for their money, and that's, that's how it happened. [00:14:50] Dylan Redekop: Wow. [00:14:51] Chenell Basilio: I love that. Just like accidental kind of paid newsletter. That's great. Yeah, it was- Are you doing sponsorships too, or is it just paid [00:15:00] newsletter at this point? [00:15:00] Esteban Perez: Uh, not, not yet. We-- I think it's something that we've, we've thought of, and it's sort of, like, in the, in the pipeline 'cause of, like, who doesn't wanna, you know, make more revenue and make the best out of the, the newsletter space? [00:15:13] Esteban Perez: Um, but, but yeah, it's, it's ... It hasn't been that easy. We tried using paid for a bit and using different, like having, like, a media kit and, like, sort of, like, putting it somewhere like, "Oh, you wanna sponsor us? Here's our link, and just reach out to us." Um, but [00:15:30] the actual, like, effort of, like, trying to find sponsors, um, was time-consuming, and we wanted to just spend more time doing the more of the fun part, to be honest. [00:15:38] Esteban Perez: Just like, um, talking to people and doing the marketing and seeing how we could grow, uh, more than, like, growing the, the revenue just for the sake of, of growing the revenue. But we're still, like, that, that door's still open. Um, I know Substack just launched, like, the, um, sponsorship, um, kit For, for [00:16:00] bestsellers. [00:16:00] Esteban Perez: I- I've looked into it barely, but, um, yeah, hopefully within the next couple of months it's a, it's an avenue that we are exploring. [00:16:08] Dylan Redekop: Nice. I think one, one way you could go, if you haven't already thought about this, which you probably have 'cause you're smart guys, but, uh, looking at other, like, ADHD-adjacent types of newsletters and see who's sponsoring them and just, like, start making a list and be like, "Oh, these would be great brands. [00:16:23] Dylan Redekop: If they are willing to sponsor another newsletter in our niche, they might be willing to sponsor ours too." So that's one way you could go about it too. [00:16:29] Esteban Perez: I [00:16:30] think that's a great idea, and definitely something, uh, I think we probably looked into it when we were, like, trying to find sponsors, but we had to make a decision over, like, where to spend the time, and that sort of, like, fell off the table. [00:16:42] Esteban Perez: But I feel now we'd probably be more ready to, to look into it. So definitely a thread I would, I would follow for sure. [00:16:49] Dylan Redekop: Cool. Should we talk about the quiz? [00:16:51] Esteban Perez: Yeah. [00:16:52] Dylan Redekop: Yeah? [00:16:52] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Let's go. [00:16:53] Dylan Redekop: Okay. Okay. Well, tell, tell us about-- We, we- Yeah ... we led into it a little bit at the beginning, that you started this quiz- Yeah [00:16:59] Dylan Redekop: [00:17:00] because you saw Chenell's talking about, at the New Media Summit back in February, about success that people- Yeah ... were having with these quizzes. And so you guys decided, "Hey, let's actually act on this," which not a lot of people at conferences do. Um, and so I guess tell us about what you created, um, and then how it's working for you. [00:17:19] Dylan Redekop: Like, what, what have been the results? [00:17:21] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Um, at, at that time we had run this bottleneck analysis into, like, okay, what's, what's going on? Like, why is revenue not growing as much as [00:17:30] it was growing on October or September? Like, where are the different bottlenecks essentially of, of the business, and how can we grow faster? [00:17:38] Esteban Perez: And one of the things that we realized is that we were sort of, like, exhausting our free subscription pool, and we were not growing new free subscribers, um, in order to then get them to convert to paid subscribers. And we also saw that the best conversion rate came from, um, organic acquisition, which was most of our [00:18:00] acquisition. [00:18:00] Esteban Perez: It still is. Um, but then the question is: How can we, um, maximize that? Funny thing is that we ran th-this analysis maybe the week before going to the conference, so we were at the conference and we saw, like, all these really smart people talk and just say stuff. So had a bunch of notes, and I remember Chenell's, um, um, um, session, that I had, like, all of these notes and I, like, highlighted "quiz," like, five times. [00:18:25] Esteban Perez: And we went to, like, debrief the, the, the call later, [00:18:30] like, that day in the Airbnb, me and my co-founder, and it was, like, one of the things, like, "Hey, I'm gonna go back home and I'm gonna, like, immediately try this." And yeah, we ended up in the, in the implementation side of things, I think what I did was, like, I probably downloaded all of the slides from the, from the presentation- I also downloaded the transcript from the presentation so that I didn't miss anything. [00:18:55] Esteban Perez: Created a new, like, terminal. Um, we use Cloud Code a lot for, like, operations and [00:19:00] just building stuff quickly and websites. And yeah, we sort of, like, dropped it all there. Had, like, like a, a four-hour session into,

like, how this is gonna look. Then did some research into, like, okay, we do a quiz, like, what really is the outcome that we wanna do? [00:19:16] Esteban Perez: 'Cause we wanna do, like, ADHD types, but I don't wanna get into, like, the science of the actual types. I wanna, like, divide the types into weasel types and, like, where in our community do you fit? And then have all these different sort of, like, [00:19:30] subtypes, and based on what the answers that they give us, then have, like, these quiz results. [00:19:35] Esteban Perez: Then talked to our illustrator, made a different card for, for each, um, quiz result. And, uh, and yeah, after that, we just sort of, like, launched it. And of course, we made some iterations on it. And we launched it, and instead of having our, um, Substack link, we just added that same call to action, same threads, um, sort of like content and format, just changing [00:20:00] the quiz, one for the other. [00:20:01] Esteban Perez: Of course, now having a customized landing page, we could see way more stuff than what Substack allows us to see. So that was also pretty encouraging. And the conversion just went, like, crazy in terms of, like, I think it was, like, 7X or 6X the, the, the conversion. And at that time, we were also like, "Okay, let's open up to, to paid ads on Facebook," 'cause there was another call-- another, um, speaker that talked about it. [00:20:29] Esteban Perez: I [00:20:30] think it's, uh, it was Erica from, uh, 1440. So that was another thing that we did, and then we also realized that the, the quiz was converting really well for, like, a, a, a low, um, cost per lead on, on Meta. So that was also encouraging. And yeah, I think I'm gonna start going in circles now, but I hope that's a good, a, a good journey map of the, of the quiz. [00:20:52] Dylan Redekop: Yeah. [00:20:53] Chenell Basilio: No, it, it's awesome. So just for context, because I had to go back and look. So the New Media Summit [00:21:00] was February 26th and 27th. Mm-hmm. You sent me this email on- Like April 15th, so about a month and a half later. But you implemented this, like it shows the quiz launches March 6th. This was like a week. [00:21:14] Chenell Basilio: You guys did this in so, like just incredible speed. I love it. You sent me this like screenshot of like the growth beforehand, and then the growth after, and it was like from 17 subscribers a day up to 125 was the daily average. Yeah. And [00:21:30] you said your peak single day was like 308 subscribers, and I was like, "This is awesome." [00:21:35] Chenell Basilio: Like, just, I, like so many kudos to you for putting this into place- Mm-hmm ... so fast, and having it work, and iterate, and all that stuff. Like nobody does this, so thank you. Yeah. [00:21:45] Esteban Perez: No, I mean, I mean, thank you for the, for the framework and all of the ideas. I, I would have honestly, uh, done it quicker, but um, Matt took some time to share the slides, and the, and the I was waiting for the day that Matt shared the slides, and [00:22:00] like once he shared it, I was like, "Okay, I know exactly what I'm gonna do," and- [00:22:03] Dylan Redekop: Right [00:22:03] Esteban Perez: I already had a like a quiz sort of like idea in mind, but I wanted the, the transcript and everything from the, from the actual, um, session so that it could be as close as possible, and I'm not like missing anything, and then I could actually implement the, the tool, um, the best I could. Hmm. [00:22:21] Chenell Basilio: That's awesome. [00:22:22] Chenell Basilio: So it's Matt's fault it took so [00:22:24] Dylan Redekop: long. It could've [00:22:24] Esteban Perez: been- Yeah, exactly ... it could've been [00:22:25] Dylan Redekop: faster. [00:22:25] Esteban Perez: You should... Yeah, you can share it in a week. [00:22:29] Chenell Basilio: Yeah. [00:22:30] [00:22:30] Dylan Redekop: Oh, man. [00:22:31] Chenell Basilio: That's [00:22:31] Dylan Redekop: great. And so you- I love it ... in this, in this graph, it shows that the Weezal quiz pull, or pulls roughly 88% of your total acquisitions for like subscribers. [00:22:40] Dylan Redekop: Is that correct? In terms of like- Yeah ... all new subscribers? [00:22:42] Esteban Perez: It's not, I wouldn't... Um, yeah. At least for, for, for that analysis- Yeah ... that we did, that's- Yeah ... that's right, yeah. [00:22:48] Dylan Redekop: Okay. That's, that's wild. So, um, you're essentially running through two ways, through threads, which is like organic, quote-unquote, free, and then you're running it through meta ads like you had talked about.[00:23:00] [00:23:00] Dylan Redekop: And it looks like your conversion on those, the, the paid were a little bit higher even. Um, or at least were, um- Geez, what, 50 s- 53% versus 32%, like paid to organic. So it just-- It's really interesting to me that even though you were-- people were, like, getting s- shown this advertisement, they were still converting really well. [00:23:22] Dylan Redekop: So you really, you really hit on something. Um, I'd be curious to know how your ads looked in Meta, what you were like-- how you came about [00:23:30] that. Because you could have this really great product or lead magnet, like the quiz, but if you don't know what you're doing with Meta Ads or you don't have good creative and that sort of thing, that's gonna fall flat. [00:23:40] Dylan Redekop: So what was your process with using Meta Ads for, um, for creating that, for creating that content and that, and that creative? [00:23:47] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Meta Ads was, was an interesting, um, journey. It was also something that we sort of like, um, used the blueprint from Erica's, um, talk, 'cause we didn't know anything about Meta [00:24:00] Ads. [00:24:00] Esteban Perez: So it's like, okay, we don't know anything about the quiz, anything about Meta Ads. Let's just download the transcript, and let's just, like, run it

through a terminal and see if we can use it as a blueprint. Um, Meta Ads has an, an MCP you can connect to Claude, and that's how I used it as, as like a, "Be my mentor." [00:24:17] Esteban Perez: Like, imagine you're Erica. Everything that she says is, like, pretty much, like, the blueprint that we wanna implement, and that's what we used at the beginning. We have now stopped, like, now a couple of months in. We've stopped Meta Ads now because we're [00:24:30] focusing more into, like, the quality of the subscribers and trying different stuff. [00:24:34] Esteban Perez: But yeah, that's pretty much how we implemented it. We were doing-- testing new creatives every eight days to two weeks, um, which was Erica's blueprint, and doubling down on the ones that worked, looking at what other people in this space were using for, for ad creatives, and just trying to implement it into our thing. [00:24:54] Esteban Perez: A format that worked amazingly, that it was just, like, a test That we, that we [00:25:00] ran was, like, actually trying to copy a format of threads that we know went viral, putting it into Canva and just using exactly like almost as if it's like Facebook organically showing you a thread, but it's just an ad, and it's just our ad. [00:25:15] Esteban Perez: And just using that, like, thread format into it and then just pretty much using the, the call to action as, like, the quiz or anything else really. But in, just in terms of, like, meta creatives, that, that worked amazingly because it felt like-- Maybe this is my hypothesis. It's [00:25:30] because it felt, like, organic to an extent, so it didn't feel too salesy. [00:25:34] Esteban Perez: And it was not about like, "Okay, this is our newsletter." It's, like, just us saying something, like, super hyper-specific that we know our audience, um, connects with, something that's valuable because it's just giving them, um, knowledge and just, like, information that it's valuable to them and it's something they can reflect with. [00:25:51] Esteban Perez: And if that's interesting enough, then they're just gonna click on it. And then if that comes with a lead magnet that's strong enough for them to say, like, "Am I a weasel? What type of [00:26:00] weasel am I?" And it's like, "Okay, let me, let me figure this out." And then it's like, "Oh, here's your weasel type, but first give us your email so that we can send you the results of the weasel type," and all of this, like, sort of like funnel connected into this, um, really amazing and efficient, um, acquisition source. [00:26:17] Dylan Redekop: And so you guys were using-- You're using Substack, but you-- Did you mention Beehiiv as well in the report for segmentation? [00:26:24] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Yeah. [00:26:25] Dylan Redekop: Okay. So- [00:26:25] Esteban Perez: Yeah, we were using Beehiiv because... Yeah, sorry. No, Beehiiv is just sort of like a [00:26:30] marketing tool for us because it's how we, um, are getting the-- 'Cause we, we build the, the, the web page for the lead magnet- We first actually started building lead magnets on Beehiiv itself 'cause they could use, like, the, the email gates and all that stuff. [00:26:45] Esteban Perez: But then I realized, um, I'm not particularly technical, but just with using Cloud code, um, and just having, like, some idea into, into what I wanna build, it was really easy to just build lead magnets and websites and connect [00:27:00] them to Beehiiv through their MCP and just, um-- or through their API, sorry, and then just get anyone who's putting their email here, just send it to Beehiiv. [00:27:09] Esteban Perez: And then using Beehiiv and the custom fields to start to categorize them better, like what were their quiz responses. And then on top of that, now that we're trying to segment our audience better and understand, um, like, their demographic and trying to double down on a specific segment and niching down, um, we can run, because of this custom [00:27:30] page, we can run different things and questions like your age range, if you have ADHD or you're just curious about it, or these different sort of questions, and we can use Beehiiv to segment our, um, our new subscribers and then export them into, into Substack, but also, like, knowing who they are or, like, tagging them in different, um, at different levels. [00:27:52] Chenell Basilio: Yeah. I noticed after somebody goes through the quiz, you ask for their email, and then right after that you ask them, like, their age [00:28:00] and one-- like, their biggest struggle or one other question that you had. So that's super smart because you're just getting that first-party data right away. Mm-hmm. Um, I'm, I'm curious. [00:28:08] Chenell Basilio: W- you said there's six different types of, of weasels. Uh, does each one get a different, um, email sequence after that? And, like, what are you promoting inside of each of those email sequences? Like, any paid s- like, product or anything like that, or is it just the paid newsletter? [00:28:24] Esteban Perez: J- just the newsletter, but we do, um, we do run different email [00:28:30] sequences in terms of, like, if they are in the emotional amplifier type, for example, it would be more about, um, rejection sensitivity dysphoria and things related to more of, like, the emotional struggles And even in the, in the first-- in the welcome email itself, we even link some, um, articles that we think they're gonna like. [00:28:50] Esteban Perez: So it, it is as customized, uh, as possible in terms of, like, a journey of like, now we know what they struggle with, like wh-where they fit within our, um, ADHD [00:29:00] weasel sort of like map, so let's just send them what the-- what we think is gonna be more-- the most valuable to them. And if it works out because they find value, hopefully they end up becoming a paid subscriber. [00:29:09] Chenell Basilio: Okay. How are you-- 'cause I know Substack doesn't talk well with

other tools, so, like, if someone does become a paid subscriber, like, is it-- are you able to see, like, like, tie it back to their Beehiiv record of like, "Hey, this person took the quiz. They ended up becoming a paid subscriber," or is that a little blurry? [00:29:26] Esteban Perez: Yeah, we-- It is a little blurry, but it [00:29:30] becomes more clear as we run different filters through them. And what we do is we just, um, import everything into Substack, like, manually from Beehiiv. I mean, they, they get the sequence. Once the sequence is, is over, then I just manually import them. I do it, I think it's every Tuesday and Friday. [00:29:46] Esteban Perez: Good reminder that I have to do it today. I'll just write it down 'cause I haven't [00:29:51] Dylan Redekop: done it. Are you running these sequences through Beehiiv, or are the sequences going through Substack? 'Cause I know Substack has recently- Through Beehiiv ... launched Sub-- Okay. So, so the [00:30:00] main newsletter, the weekly broadcasts, and the paid is all run through Substack, but then these specific sequences related to your weasel type with quiz are going out through Beehiiv? [00:30:10] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Any sort of acquisition, it's not, not only-- 'cause we have different, um, um, landing pages that we've tried, 'cause we're always, like, testing new stuff. Let's, let's test this landing page, see how it converts. All of those, like, custom landing pages are connected to Beehiiv because of, like, how it allows us to, like, um-- From a marketing tool perspective, it's really awesome at, like, categorizing and [00:30:30] tagging and just, like, um, keeping that as the source and hub data for, for the new acquisitions from the custom pages for both paid and organic acquisition. [00:30:39] Esteban Perez: And what we do is just, like, we import them into, into Substack, um, twice a week just before the, the, the newsletter goes out. And we import the, the, the emails that have already seen the entire email sequence. So once they're done with the email sequence, which is, I think it's 16 days, [00:31:00] then they become like, okay, they're good to import into Substack. [00:31:03] Esteban Perez: So what the reader sees is just, like, their email sequence, and then they still get emails from us, but now they're fully on track with the entire, um, sort of like- community of weasels that are just living in Substack [00:31:16] Dylan Redekop: Right. I think it, this opens up the maybe sort of obvious next question is why are you not just using one platform instead of two? [00:31:26] Esteban Perez: Yeah, that is a good question. It's something we've debated back and forth. Yeah. And it's like, why [00:31:30] are we paying Substack like 16% of our, of our revenue- 16? ... and then also paying Beehiiv? I think it's something along those lines. Wow. I, I might be exaggerating just because I, I, I feel, I feel hurt by Substack's, [00:31:43] Dylan Redekop: I know they do [00:31:43] Esteban Perez: 10 [00:31:45] Dylan Redekop: by Substack's numbers, but- They definitely take 10, but with the processing fees, it's probably up closer to that, yeah. [00:31:47] Esteban Perez: Yeah. I, I think that's, like, what the total of the analysis that maybe it's a little bit lower than that, so don't quote me on that. But I'm, I might just be exaggerating. But we haven't changed because a lot of our, a lot [00:32:00] of our acquisition also comes from Substack notes, and Substack has proven to be really good at, like, getting paid subscribers and discoverability. [00:32:10] Esteban Perez: And w- I mean, it's, it's an, it's an open question that we, like, keep going back and forth on. Like, should we switch? Should we not sh- switch? Like, why are we also, like, now spending, like, $200, $300 on Beehiiv just because, like, we have this long email list? So the one thing that I'm doing now, um, is actually, like, a task that I've been, um, [00:32:30] working on for the past, um, couple of weeks, is like Not to pay for Beehiiv, like, high tiers. [00:32:38] Esteban Perez: So when we get the, when, when we make the imports from the, from Beehiiv into, into Substack, just make a copy on like Google Sheets with all of the data that we have on Beehiiv. That way it's not just that way, that's just, like, increasing our costs. So we can just, like, use Google Sheets as the hub of the tags and [00:33:00] everything, where they came from, um, when they subscribed, their Weasel type and all of that. [00:33:04] Esteban Perez: So using Beehiiv only for those 16 days for tagging for the API, and then that's hopefully reducing our costs by a couple hundred bucks. [00:33:15] Dylan Redekop: So then you [00:33:16] Esteban Perez: delete- We haven't fully implemented it. I'm, yeah, s- I'm not deleting yet. I haven't fully tested the, the Google Sheets enough to, to make sure I can delete the emails from, from Beehiiv. [00:33:26] Esteban Perez: The email sh- I'm sorry, the Google Sheets is working, [00:33:30] but yeah, I, it's one of the tasks that's, you know, like, running on the, on the back of my mind and I haven't fully- [00:33:37] Dylan Redekop: Yeah ... I haven't fully [00:33:38] Esteban Perez: done it. Yeah, I [00:33:38] Chenell Basilio: mean, if you're not sending other emails from there, it makes sense to just, like, stop. Yeah. Why would you pay for all of those people you're not even emailing anymore from Beehiiv? [00:33:45] Chenell Basilio: Exactly. Or, [00:33:46] Dylan Redekop: or even, like, just unsubscribe them. Yeah. 'Cause I don't think you get charged for unsubscribes in your database in Beehiiv. I could be wrong. I don't think you don't, but yeah. [00:33:56] Chenell Basilio: Yeah, but then if he wants to go and re, like, start actually using Beehiiv, I don't [00:34:00] know that he can resubscribe those people as easily. [00:34:02] Chenell Basilio: Right. Yeah, good point. [00:34:03] Dylan Redekop: As

opposed to deleting [00:34:03] Chenell Basilio: them. I don't know. That's, [00:34:05] Dylan Redekop: yeah. Yeah, that's a gray area. He'd have to look into that, yeah. [00:34:08] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Shoot. Again, I have done half of the tasks, so I'm still in the, I haven't done the unsubscriber deleting, so that's probably why I'm in, in such a, such a gray response there. [00:34:20] Chenell Basilio: Hmm. Interesting. [00:34:20] Dylan Redekop: Yeah. [00:34:21] Chenell Basilio: Okay, so I wanna talk about, like, Threads and Substack Notes. Yeah. [00:34:26] Esteban Perez: Yeah. [00:34:26] Chenell Basilio: A lot of people are not using Threads to grow. Or Notes. But also just hearing [00:34:30] you s- yeah, but just hearing you say that actually Substack Notes is now your biggest driver, I'm curious how you're thinking about both platforms, and, like, are you taking emphasis away from Threads now and focusing more on Substack Notes? [00:34:42] Chenell Basilio: Or what does that look like? [00:34:43] Esteban Perez: Yeah, um, actually this week and last week I've been spending a little bit more time on, on Substack Notes. And yeah, how I go about it, uh, on Monday, um, I do, like, an analysis of how the last week went. Um, I use Publer, it's, like, the tool for, like, [00:35:00] scheduling, um- Specifically for threads for Substack notes. [00:35:03] Esteban Perez: Subta-Substack just launched a tool for, I, I mean, their in-house, like, scheduling, um, tool. So I just do the same on, on, on Monday for both. I do, like, I run an analysis. I look at all of our posts for the week for both threads and Substack notes, and during the week, I just, like, scroll through the platforms, and I find different contents and formats that other creators are using that are going viral or are hitting notes for people, and I just, like, save them.[00:35:30] [00:35:30] Esteban Perez: Then when I do this analysis process, I sort of, like, share everything, um, to this cloud terminal, and I just, like, go back and forth into, like, what happened this week, what worked, what didn't, what's the breakdown of the, of the call to actions that we used, what links did we use, what, um, lead magnets did we use, quiz versus subscribe page. [00:35:50] Esteban Perez: Do we wanna do, um, just regular Substack landing page? Just, like, all of these different things that we're currently testing and just, like, get a read into how they perform [00:36:00] different proposals into what it's gonna change for the week. And then for threads, um, yeah, I guess bringing it back a little bit 'cause this is sort of like the fully finished, like, version of, like, me working on it for a year, now understanding what's, like, the optimal sort of like, velocity and, and framework to, to run, um, threads under. [00:36:22] Esteban Perez: But at the beginning, it was just, like, all manual. Like, it was, like, taking, like, blurbs from our newsletter and posting it on Substack

notes, taking a [00:36:30] format that we know was going viral and applying it to, like, our own newsletter and our own concept and just trying it out, and just doing it manually, not even, like, scheduling, just doing, like, five to eight posts a day, just, like, doing it on my phone and just seeing what worked. [00:36:46] Esteban Perez: And through that sort of, like, trial and error process, we landed on, like, different formats that we knew were working. We also realized that, like, threads has, like, this wave of being where there's, like, different things that, like, [00:37:00] trends that go viral in terms of, um, formats that then you sort of like, if you catch them and you apply them, they become viral, and then you, like, you might catch up to them, and then they sort of, like, die off. [00:37:13] Esteban Perez: Like, the algorithm just sort of, like, kills them off after a couple of weeks, so you need to be in this constant, like, search of, like, what's working, what's not, and then also having, like, your backbone of, like, "Oh, th-this format in particular has always worked well for me. Let me just, like, keep on trying it." [00:37:28] Esteban Perez: Substack or threads [00:37:30] might kill it for a week or so, but let's, like, bring it back and test it again, and it's like this constant, um, trial and error. Now with Publer, which we started using, I think, around, um, Feb or January of this year- We can schedule about 110 posts per week. [00:37:47] Dylan Redekop: Wow. [00:37:48] Esteban Perez: So it's like 12 posts per day. [00:37:50] Dylan Redekop: Wow. 110 posts a week, 12 posts per day on Threads? [00:37:53] Esteban Perez: Uh, something like that. Sometimes it's like we're posting too much, let's bring it down to 100. Sometimes it's, it's not that much, let's do [00:38:00] 130. Um, it's-- Right now it's, it looks like that 120, 110 posts per week. And yeah, it depends on the format. There's also, like, a sweet spot with the amount of links that you can put in. [00:38:13] Esteban Perez: Like I've-- Like, that's a personal hypothesis that I have that I've been, like, testing. And it's like you need some of-- like, some posts that are, like, not links, not anything. You're not, like, trying to sell, you're just trying to get people to resonate and like and comment, and that's it. And if you do that, then you [00:38:30] have, like, this constant, like, inflow of views and engagement to your account. [00:38:36] Esteban Perez: And our account, um, has between, like, 4 to 8 million views per month, um, based on, like, on, on this sort of like, okay, we're just, like, posting out every Monday. I just go in, I make the posts for the week. During the week, I just, like, save the references that I, I feel will, will be valuable for Monday. And then that's how Threads goes. [00:38:58] Esteban Perez: And then Substack is similar, but [00:39:00] it's different in terms of, like, how quick it goes. You can't really post that much in Substack 'cause there isn't that much people as in Threads viewing the platform, and the algorithm just works differently in terms that it, it slow rolls and it shows older posts in, in people's feed. [00:39:15] Esteban Perez: So it's more of like, you know what? Like, just make posts, posts that are a lit- are a little bit longer, have more format flexibility. You can use, you can use bolding, you can use, like, pull quotes, you can use italics. So for people with ADHD, [00:39:30] all of these, like, things that help them digest the text better always helps. [00:39:34] Esteban Perez: So if you can, like, try different frameworks of, like, structures of, like, digesting using a hook that's just, like, hyper-specific and relatable, then using a bit of, like, a science bit into it, into, okay, this is a- actually what's happening and why this is, like, the why of, of this experience to you. And then sort of like some tips. [00:39:56] Esteban Perez: So almost like a mini newsletter in a post. That works [00:40:00] well, and then sometimes like a thread goes like insanely viral, like couple hundred, um, thousand views. So I might just like copy and paste it into Substack note just to see like, "Okay, people are resonating with this. It might work." Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but it's part of this like trial and error where like Substack notes is like similar enough that you can like feed into, into from threads, but it's its own little monster. [00:40:24] Esteban Perez: So it's, it's different. [00:40:26] Chenell Basilio: Are you repurposing anything? Like, uh, that's a lot of [00:40:30] content. I'm just wondering if there's times where you're like, "Okay, this generally does well. Let's go ahead and like repost it-" Yeah ... in 30 days or whatever." [00:40:36] Esteban Perez: Yeah, I do have some, some winners, and there is like there are times where my Mondays are going to this rabbit hole where I'm like, "What, what was that thing that I posted like two months ago that went crazy viral? [00:40:49] Esteban Perez: Why, why am I not pos-posting that again?" Or I might feel like Substack is not working. Um, I mean, sorry, Substack not-- Threads is not working as much as it was like week prior. So I run [00:41:00] like a deeper analysis with Claude, and it's like, but like what was the-- how was the verbiage different? Like, not only looking into the formats, but the tone and the topic and all of that. [00:41:09] Esteban Perez: And then there are some winners, to answer your questions, that I tend to go back into. But it's also part of like these like trends and things that the algorithm just does on its end, and it's like you might post exactly the same post exactly the same day and, and time, but two weeks apart, and Substack might grab it. [00:41:29] Esteban Perez: I mean, sorry, [00:41:30] Threads might grab it and make it 100,000 views post, or it might just hide it, and you might just get a couple likes, and then

that's just the way of the, of the, of the platforms. Sure. Yeah. Or that's how I look at it. [00:41:42] Chenell Basilio: Yeah [00:41:43] Dylan Redekop: I have so many questions. [00:41:43] Chenell Basilio: Go ahead, Dylan. [00:41:44] Dylan Redekop: Oh, I just have, I have so many questions around your, your, you have- Yeah, same [00:41:48] Dylan Redekop: yeah, like, the 110 posts per week just threw me for a loop. The 12 posts a day. I was just looking- [00:41:53] Chenell Basilio: On one platform. [00:41:54] Dylan Redekop: Yes. So I was looking at your threads, and you're posting once an hour. So it's like, it's like there's this like, my guess- Yeah ... is [00:42:00] you do, like, a 12-hour window from maybe 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM or something like that, and you're, you're scheduling out these posts once per hour. [00:42:07] Dylan Redekop: And a lot of these posts- Yeah ... even in threads, have, like, a almost a thread nature to them, where you're like, you post the original one, and then an hour later, there's another attached comment below it. And, uh, what's going through my head here is, how do you have the time and focus and energy to do so much of this content on social and then still run a [00:42:30] successful weekly newsletter, um, also an attached paid newsletter with additional con- [00:42:35] Dylan Redekop: Like, how much... I, I guess what I'm a- trying to get at is, how much AI are you using to generate this? 'Cause I don't f- feel like this is humanly possible. [00:42:42] Esteban Perez: Yeah. No, I mean, for the, for, to answer your question, like, the, the reply threads on, on, on threads itself, that's part of why I chose Publer. 'Cause w- something that I realized is that if you put a link on the post right when you post it, threads sort of, like, [00:43:00] hides it. [00:43:00] Esteban Perez: Yeah, yeah. 'Cause it's like, okay, this guy's- Yeah ... like, selling something. Like- Trying to get [00:43:02] Dylan Redekop: them off- [00:43:03] Esteban Perez: Why? Like- They're trying to take you [00:43:04] Dylan Redekop: off platform, right? [00:43:04] Esteban Perez: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So I, I, I put a, like, a condition on the last post on, on the last, like, comment or the last thread where it's like, wait 10 minutes or wait 30 minutes, and then after those 30 minutes, post the link and, or post, like, the actual thread that has the link. [00:43:21] Esteban Perez: And that's how we manage it. Again, it's just a factor of, of Publer. And for the actual content on the newsletter, that's where my co-founder comes in. [00:43:30] He's, like, the one that gets, like, the product side, and he's actually doing, like, the, the product, the writing, the thing, and, like, the... There's also part of the threads, which doesn't happen weekly but happens monthly, is that my co-founder schedules the entire posts for the, for the month in advance, so he has all of the drafts ready. [00:43:53] Esteban Perez: I download the drafts as PDFs, and based on formats that we know that work to [00:44:00] lead people into newsletter articles specifically, I run a similar sort of, like, content creation session where I create four to five threads post that all lead only to that newsletter, and those posts are, like, hyper-specific, like, very Very like, um, tailored for people to like read that thread and then say like, "Oh, I actually wanna read more about RSD," or, "I wanna read more about task initiation and how, how to do [00:44:30] that." [00:44:30] Esteban Perez: So we write like five to four posts that come out the day of, um, and directly lead to that article on Substack instead of leading to the lead magnet. And that's part of like merging that acquisition and also making us feel like, you know, like there's a newsletter article coming out, let's make content for it. [00:44:48] Esteban Perez: 'Cause, you know, like there's like this pressure of like, okay, we created this newsletter article. We're creating all these posts. How like we make sure that we're creating content for each article, so like each article is like ge- getting [00:45:00] its fair shot. And, and yeah, that's part of it. Something that I have in mind as well it's to create more of like these like posts that we know have done really well in terms of conversions and getting people to the, to the platform and making them a little bit more evergreen. [00:45:13] Esteban Perez: So trying to implement something of like, okay, once a month we have two to, two to three posts for this newsletter, and it's something that I haven't implemented, but it's in, it's in the back of my head. [00:45:24] Chenell Basilio: This is awesome. Uh, okay. Wait, so back to the formats you said you were going through. Are you just like s- [00:45:30] going through whether, like on Substack notes or on threads, and like going through the feed and seeing what posts are doing well, maybe outliers for a smaller account? [00:45:39] Chenell Basilio: Or like how are you like honing in on these trends that you're seeing or that are working right now? [00:45:45] Esteban Perez: Yeah. It's all, it's all pretty organic. Um, I guess that the, the core of it is like our own formats that we worked like manually for like almost a year. Like since Feb until like November, December, when we actually started [00:46:00] scheduling the, the posts. [00:46:01] Esteban Perez: Um, we, like I personally that ran the, the threads content manually. I had a lot of experience of just like, "Oh, this doesn't work. This does work," 'cause I was like manually posting them, each, each and every one of them. So that gave me a lot of experience into like what formats were like, uh, uh, things that were working like recurrently and what things were more of like a, uh, a trend that would die in a couple of weeks. [00:46:26] Esteban Perez: So through that, it gave me s- a, a good edge and [00:46:30] like a good sort of like eye into

just scoping the platform and just finding different options and different ideas. And then in the content creation process, I would say there is like a core, like 60% of things that we know how they're gonna look like, and then the other 40, 35% are just like tests that we're running based on formats that we saw that week, or tests based on things that worked in the past that might have died off and we just wanna retry again. [00:46:57] Esteban Perez: So there's like a core 60% and [00:47:00] there's weeks where Threads just loves us and just throws a bunch of people our way, and we might get, like, a million views that week and scattered through, like, all of our posts. Or we might just have more of, like, a flop week where it's, like, only, like, a couple of hundred thousand and [00:47:17] Esteban Perez: Which is still awesome, and we're pretty grateful for, but yeah, it's just part of the tweaking and altering, and it's part of, like, why we like to do it once a week, 'cause it's like it gives us the flexibility enough to [00:47:30] iterate on it and learn from what happened last week. But at the same time, it's not as tedious as doing it daily or multiple times a week. [00:47:37] Chenell Basilio: Okay, so I'm gonna ask a question. You might not have the answer, but I'm hoping you have some- ... estimate. Okay, so over the last 30 days on Threads, 4.2 million views is what I see. How many subscribers do you think you got from those views in the last 30 days, on Threads specifically? [00:47:54] Dylan Redekop: Yeah, Threads- [00:47:54] Chenell Basilio: And then I guess conversely, like, how many [00:47:57] Chenell Basilio: 'Cause your posts on Substack get a lot, [00:48:00] quote-unquote, "less engagement," still doing really well, but I'm sure because the subscribe button is right there, it's like you're probably getting a higher percentage of those people. So I'm just curious if you know, like, what the conversion rate is in a way. [00:48:11] Esteban Perez: Yeah, it, it's hard 'cause, um, if you would've asked me this, like, a month ago, I would've been able to tell you the exact number 'cause I was running everything on, on Threads to Beehiiv, so I had, like, a really clear number. [00:48:24] Esteban Perez: Now, we having, like, different call to actions, and I did this bottleneck analysis on, on marketing [00:48:30] based on, like, the quality of the subscribers, which led me to just kill, like, every other link and just try getting people to the Substack link. So that is gonna mess things up for this month. Um, but yeah, I don't know if I [00:48:47] Esteban Perez: I can probably look [00:48:47] Chenell Basilio: it up and- Or even l- I mean, last month, month's numbers, too. I'm just curious, like, 'cause 4.2 million is a lot, and you would think, you know, you'd probably get a good chunk of those, but it sounds like maybe it's a, a [00:49:00] smaller, like, maybe a few hundreds or thousands every month from Threads versus Substack. [00:49:06] Esteban Perez: Yeah, I'm actually gonna pull the, the number up so that I'm not, um- ... BS'ing you on- [00:49:10] Chenell Basilio: Sorry to put you [00:49:10] Esteban Perez: on the [00:49:11] Chenell Basilio: spot. Yeah. I'm just so curious. Uh, [00:49:14] Esteban Perez: no worries. Let me see what week would be a good week to analyze. Um, week of May. Okay, on May the week, 14th, that I've been, like, running these, like, analysis, May 4th to the 10th- We had 124 [00:49:30] posts. [00:49:30] Esteban Perez: We had nine, uh, 960,000 views that week and 57,000 engagements, and the engagement rate was about 6%. We, we increased 2,000 followers only on the platform, and then in terms of acquisition of how many people converted into it, um, it was above, um, [00:50:00] 1,600 from those, the threads organic. [00:50:04] Chenell Basilio: Okay. [00:50:04] Dylan Redekop: So 1,600 new subscribers based on 2,200 followers. [00:50:10] Dylan Redekop: And as ... You could even maybe assume that some people who followed you-- Or sorry, some people who subscribed maybe didn't even follow you potentially. [00:50:16] Esteban Perez: Yeah, exactly. And then also the, the ... I actually have a good number here that you might like. The, the weasel quiz that, that week, um, led to 752 only from organic, [00:50:30] and the weasel quiz from meta paid led to 146 new subscribers Um, and the Whistle Quiz organically was, like, the biggest, um, source of, of, of new subs that week. [00:50:44] Chenell Basilio: Interesting. And then on Substack, are you seeing, like, similar numbers, w- like, [00:50:51] Esteban Perez: of subscribers? No, no, no. They're, they're, they're way lower, but the thing about Substack notes is the quality of the subscriber, 'cause it's just showing the content to people who already have, like, [00:51:00] newsletter subscriptions. They probably already have their cards on the, on the platform, so it's, for them, it's just like, they might be, like, two clicks away from becoming a paid sub, like, if they really like your note. [00:51:10] Esteban Perez: We've actually had this couple of notes that lead to paid subscribers. Like, they see the note, and they pay from the note, which is- [00:51:19] Dylan Redekop: Wow. That's cool ... [00:51:20] Esteban Perez: crazy. [00:51:20] Dylan Redekop: That is crazy. [00:51:21] Esteban Perez: And that's wh- that's why we're trying to spend more time on, on Substack notes. I felt like they were being a little bit underused, [00:51:30] and then I did the bottleneck analysis, and then, um, all the all of my beliefs were confirmed. [00:51:35] Esteban Perez: I had to spend more time on Substack notes, so that's what I'm doing this week. [00:51:39] Dylan Redekop: Well, yeah. It sounds like one subscriber on Substack is worth 10 subscribers or followers or whatever that metric is on Threads or other platforms, maybe even a multiple more than that. Yeah. Maybe one, uh,

subscriber from Substack is worth, like, you know, 25 Threads. [00:51:56] Esteban Perez: Yeah. Yeah, I can actually look for that number out as well- [00:52:00] Yeah. ... for that bottleneck analysis. [00:52:01] Chenell Basilio: The, the one thing I've n- I'm noticing throughout this whole conversation is, like, the amou- the amount of times you're using the word analysis, and I don't think so many creators do this, and it's awesome. You're like, "Oh yeah, I'll just, every week I run this analysis." [00:52:15] Chenell Basilio: And it's like, what? Like, what does that look like? How are you ... Like, and I'm sure you have this templated now through, you know, your AI tools and, and such, where you can just say like, "Hey, go analyze this thing and, and give me a new report." But it's just- Yeah ... it's fascinating to hear that, so- I [00:52:28] Dylan Redekop: mean- ... [00:52:29] Chenell Basilio: it's interesting [00:52:29] Dylan Redekop: [00:52:30] for me, it's like, if- Yeah ... if ADHD Whizzle for, you know, hopefully does, but if it doesn't work out, man, you could get a job with, like, a, a decent sized media business running their, their growth and their strategy- Yeah ... with this. Like, just with what you've taught yourself, like, this is, this is really epic. [00:52:42] Dylan Redekop: It's, it's really awesome. You should be proud. [00:52:44] Esteban Perez: Yeah, I, I appreciate it. It does give me some peace of mind knowing that there's, there's value on the, on the word analysis and on the processes. But yeah, I do run them 'cause they do give me a bunch of peace. It's like, "Why is this not working the way I want it?" [00:52:56] Esteban Perez: So, um, it's like, I just need the data, [00:53:00] and I just need to see it, and we just, like, we firmly believe that it will just run analysis, like, all the time, and we just, like, are really tedious with the way we, like, put them against each other and just see how these change across time. Then we're able to take the, the better decisions, and it's been like that so far, sometimes not so much. [00:53:20] Esteban Perez: Of course, there's some things that you just like, um, you just need to fail on. But yeah, that's just part of it. And- [00:53:30] Yeah, we, we love our analysis at, uh, at the ADHD Weasel. [00:53:33] Chenell Basilio: That's awesome. I... If you're ever bored and you wanna jump on a call and share your screen and walk me through what you're doing- Yeah [00:53:37] Chenell Basilio: I would love to see. Yeah, absolutely. It's just awesome to see. I didn't [00:53:41] Esteban Perez: really come prepared with all my analysis set up, and now I'm feeling like, "Where is that bottleneck?" 'Cause I wanna I wanna read the numbers properly, but, but yeah, like, if, if you wanna do that, of course, like, I'm always, like, I'm a, I'm a big nerd for, for looking at the numbers and the subscribers, and the dashboard that Substack gives [00:54:00] us is not detailed enough for me, so we just have to build it ourselves. [00:54:04] Chenell Basilio: Yeah, totally. Thank you for coming and sharing all this. This has been fascinating and awesome to see. Um, very much appreciated. Yeah. [00:54:12] Dylan Redekop: Yeah, man. [00:54:13] Esteban Perez: Thank you for the spot. It's, it's been awesome. Yeah. It, it was, it was great to, to see you both and in Austin. I know I, I got to chat a little bit with, with Dylan- Yeah, it [00:54:21] Dylan Redekop: was awesome [00:54:22] Esteban Perez: in one of the n- networking sessions, and yeah. Um, thanks for the spot. It's been really fun, and always open to share more [00:54:30] about what we learn, what we're learning and in terms of, like, acquisitions and analysis. And getting feedback and looking at these numbers with people is always good 'cause, like, it's not just me in my, in my room with my dog next to me just staring at me, waiting for me to tr- throw the ball. [00:54:44] Dylan Redekop: Yeah. [00:54:46] Esteban Perez: Feels more human. [00:54:48] Chenell Basilio: Uh, well, maybe we can get you to come hang out in the Growth Reverse Pro community for a session- Oh, man ... sh- talk all about this stuff and go even deeper. I [00:54:56] Dylan Redekop: was gonna say- If [00:54:57] Chenell Basilio: you're up for it That [00:54:57] Esteban Perez: would [00:54:57] Chenell Basilio: be [00:54:57] Esteban Perez: fun. We [00:54:58] Dylan Redekop: would love it. Yeah, [00:54:58] Esteban Perez: yeah, that would be [00:54:59] Dylan Redekop: fun. If you're [00:55:00] blowing our minds a little bit with this stuff, you would, you would definitely... [00:55:03] Dylan Redekop: Like, there would be blain- brain splatter [00:55:04] Chenell Basilio: all over [00:55:04] Dylan Redekop: the [00:55:04] Chenell Basilio: place. Yeah, they would [00:55:05] Dylan Redekop: love it. There'd be so many minds blown. It'd be, it'd be good, yeah. Sorry to be graphic about [00:55:09] Esteban Perez: that, but That, that would be fun. That would be fun, for sure. All right. I'm, I'm down for that. [00:55:14] Chenell Basilio: All right. So if people wanna go check out everything you're doing, uh, adhdweasel.com, is that the best place? [00:55:19] Esteban Perez: Yeah, yeah. If they wanna look at Threads, it's the ADHD Weasel, and yeah, adhdweasel.com you should find all of our, all of our content. That goes straight to our newsletter on [00:55:30] Substack. [00:55:30] Dylan Redekop: Sweet. Do you- Awesome ... and if anybody has questions for you about this stuff, do you have any personal profiles that people can reach out to you, or do you not wanna share that? [00:55:37] Esteban Perez: Um, yeah, sure. They can, um, I, I can share my, my email. It would be esteban@brocco.app. That was the initial app for the, for the food waste that failed. Oh, nice. It's our way of honoring, our way of honoring our, our humble origins. And, and yeah, they can reach out there. [00:55:55] Chenell Basilio: Thanks again for, for joining us, Esteban. [00:55:57] Chenell Basilio: This was [00:56:00] great.