Matt Paulson (MarketBeat) joins Matt and Kolby to talk about the SMS playbook that's now 25% of MarketBeat's revenue, why he pays Twilio $400K a month to make it work, and the case for treating digital media as a depreciating asset he'll shut down at 65 rather than sell.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro
• 03:30 SMS Is The New Email
• 06:00 SMS Is Now 25% Of MarketBeat's Revenue ($1.5M+/Month)
• 10:00 Promoting Advertiser Offers Over Your Own
• 13:30 $100 Paid Webinars That Sell $2,500/Month Coaching
• 14:30 SMS Sunsetting, Short Codes, And Deliverability
• 17:00 Confirming Phone Numbers To Avoid TCPA Lawsuits
• 19:00 SMS Tech Stack And Twilio's $400K/Month Bills
• 23:00 Why Newsletters Are Still Worth It (Gmail's March 20 Change)
• 28:00 Multi-Channel: Spending $500K/Month On Meta Ads
• 33:00 The Co-Reg Wars: IMS vs AfterOffers
• 35:00 Every Tech Company Will Eventually Buy A Media Company
• 38:00 Why MarketBeat Won't Be Sold Or Acquired
• 41:00 Beehiiv, Substack, And ESP Feature Bloat
• 46:00 Marketers Matt Watches: Hormozi, Sanchez, Deiss
• 50:00 Where to Find Matt Paulson

📌 Resources:

• MarketBeat
• AfterOffers
• The Email Copywriter (Chris Orzechowski)

🔗 Connect with Matt Paulson:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter/X

Leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify, then email matt@growletter.co or kolby@growletter.co with a screenshot and a question — we'll answer it on the show.

Jonathan Hunt (VP of HubSpot Media) joins Matt and Kolby to talk about how HubSpot built a 50M-reach owned-media network, the four-part test they run on every acquisition (Hustle, Mindstream, Starter Story, Futurepedia), and why they killed every audio-only podcast on the network.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro
• 03:33 Why HubSpot Buys Media Companies
• 04:45 What HubSpot Media Actually Is (65 People, 3 Pillars)
• 07:15 The Editorial Thesis Behind Every Acquisition
• 12:26 The HubSpot Acquisition Test: 4 Criteria
• 14:53 Inside HubSpot's 150-Creator Program
• 22:24 Co-Creating Brands With Creators
• 25:06 Why HubSpot Went YouTube First
• 30:41 The Ad Fatigue Problem (And How They Solved It)
• 33:01 Scott Galloway and the Native Lead Magnet Play
• 36:15 How HubSpot Reinvests Profits Into Growth
• 39:46 Minority Report-Level Attribution
• 42:00 Why HubSpot Killed Audio-Only Podcasts
• 43:12 Reactions: Puck, TBPN, Sherwood, A16Z
• 51:31 Why HubSpot Won't Launch a Net-New Live Show
• 53:47 Where to Find Jonathan

📌 Resources:

• Mindstream
• Starter Story
• Futurepedia
• HubSpot Creator Program

🔗 Connect with Jonathan:

• LinkedIn

Enjoying the show?
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Katelyn Bourgoin (founder of Unignorable) joins Matt and Kolby to break down the 6 types of ownable ideas, the 5-question framework she uses to engineer one, why courses are losing value to AI-enabled "brainware" agencies, and a live audit of Matt's ownable idea.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:39 The Why We Buy → Unignorable Rebrand
• 04:16 Ownable Ideas: Test Round (Sinek, Welsh, Sanchez)
• 09:30 What an Ownable Idea Actually Is
• 12:22 The 6 Types of Ownable Ideas
• 16:26 How to Create Your Own (and Why It's Hard)
• 18:55 The 5-Question Framework 22:10 Brené Brown Broken Down by the Framework
• 24:16 Lightning vs. Engineered Ideas
• 27:06 Live Audit: Matt's Overlap Effect Framework
• 39:58 Brainware: The AI-Enabled Agency Thesis
• 43:32 Productized Services as the New Course
• 50:37 Accountability as a Service
• 52:36 Sunsetting What No Longer Fits
• 54:38 Where to Find Katelyn

📌 Resources Mentioned:

• UNIGNORABLE
• Why We Buy newsletter
• Brian Balfour's Four Fits Framework

🔗 Connect with Katelyn Bourgoin:

• LinkedIn
• Website & Newsletter

Enjoying the show? Leave a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify, then email matt@growletter.co or kolby@growletter.co with a screenshot and a question — we'll answer it on the show.