$300k per month, 1 hour per day.

✈️ Episode Details

For years, I worked late into the night trying to grow Urban EDC, my e-commerce business, alone, by myself.

Then, after 2 long years being stuck at $80,000 per month in revenue, I finally broke through.

I couldn't believe it.

It took me long enough but I finally realized the power of leverage through people.

I hired my first employees and it unlocked new revenue channels.

Now, Urban EDC is at $300,000+ in monthly revenue and I spend 1 hour each day checking in with my team.

You read that right. 1 hour per day.

Too many of us want are pulled into the allure of Solopreneurship.

But with the 'I / We / They' framework, you can have freedom AND growth.

Let's dive in.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to delegate decision-making properly

• 3 critical operational systems you need to scale

• How to validate your business idea by building an audience

• What activities you should focus on via the 'I / We / They' framework

📝 Weekly Reflections

Newsletter:

I sent out my first-ever newsletter and got some brutally honest feedback from several other creators. (Thank you all!)

Here's what I changing starting this week:

1. Better Hook: Use a better hook for why anyone should listen to the podcast episode. What's in it for them?

2. Clear Call-To-Action: I assumed people knew about the podcast so I didn't have a clear call-to-action button to listen to the episode. But really, I shouldn't assume anything.

3. Add More Context: Metrics Dashboard is cool and all, but seems a bit out-of-place. I needed to explain better what the numbers mean and provide more analysis behind it. This is where the good stuff is.

4. Expand Weekly Reflections: This was by far everyone's favorite section. So I'm expanding it this week, hooray! 😁

By the way, if you're looking to start a newsletter, I highly recommend using Beehiiv.

Podcast:

I interviewed Kevon Cheung from Public Lab 🥦 last week. (As you can see here!)

Instead of doing the traditional Q&A interview format, I decided on a narration format because there are simply too many Q&A style interviews and I wanted to stand out and make First Class Founders a premium, superior listening experience.

Boy, did I underestimate how long this takes. In fact, it took me twice longer than I expected so I wasn't able to record a new podcast episode this week. 😅

Since I recently ran a paid campaign through Player.FM that 10X'd my downloads seemingly overnight, I was stressing out because I know how important consistency is and I didn't want to skip a week. (Read further down in the Metrics Dashboard for more insights!)

So instead of trying to cram two episodes in one week (and burning myself out), I decided to do a feed drop with another podcast that I was recently interviewed on.

This way, I still get to share value with my audience while re-purposing content that I spent time on. Plus, I love helping other creative entrepreneurs get their word out there.

If you want to cross-promote your newsletter or podcast, just hit reply and let me know!

By the way, if you're thinking about starting a podcast, I use and recommend Buzzsprout for your hosting — Get $20 in credit by using my affiliate link.

🎛 Metrics Dashboard

Why am I sharing these numbers?

Because I'm building First Class Founders in public. It builds accountability for me and it's fun for you. Maybe you'll learn a thing or two also.

Come along for the ride each week!

Let's dive in...

Podcast:

Let's talk about the Player.FM sponsorship. From 12/26 - 1/8, I ran a sponsored campaign and seemingly 10X'd the number of downloads.

During a typical week before the campaign, I was getting anywhere between 100-150 downloads. During the campaign, I peaked at 4,351 downloads per week.

This is the first week after the campaign and we're at 1,386 downloads per week... that's 10X. Will the download numbers sustain itself? Only time will tell.

The 30-Day and 90-Day numbers are still inflated due to the effects of the sponsorship. But over time, it'll even out eventually.

Here are the current podcast download numbers:

• 90-Day Downloads: 8,506 (+1,265)

• 30-Day Downloads: 7,744 (+1,220)

• 7-Day Downloads: 3,328 (-1,942)

Newsletter:

I posted this tweet about subscribing to my first-ever newsletter. It generated some buzz and got many of my followers to sign up!

I plan to continue to tease the newsletter before it comes out. Then post about it afterwards, like I did on LinkedIn, and Twitter.

I'm going to try a few different strategies this week on getting more sign-ups. I'll report in next week!

Let's look at the subscriber metrics:

• Subscribers: 105 (+17)

• Open Rate: 41.4%

• Click Rate: 22%

Not too shabby for the first week!

🤝 Let's Work Together

When you're ready, here are 3 ways we can work together:

1. Want to join our community? Join our First Class Founders Membership.

2. Want to cross-promote your newsletter or podcast? Email me.

3. Want to work directly with me? Book a 1:1 session.

💬 Final Word

I took several pieces of feedback from last week's newsletter and iterated on it for this week's edition. What did you think?

What was your favorite part of this week's newsletter? Just hit reply and let me know.

Also, if you want to cross-promote with my audience on either podcast or newsletter, let's do it. Just email me.

I love helping other creators in the community!

Have a great rest of your week.

All the best,

Yong-Soo Chung — Serial Entrepreneur, Podcaster