✈️ Secret to Growing Your Audience? 🤫

Welcome to the 'Brief', your favorite newsletter where we unlock hidden growth levers in your business. Each week, I reveal valuable insights building my 8-figure company in public.

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Jetsetters, welcome aboard flight FCF5!

Here's what you'll learn on today's flight:

• How to embrace the suck

• Biggest growth tactic for my company

• How I achieved my 4th best sales day in 7+ years!

Last call for boarding — we're about to take off!

✈️ Episode Itinerary

Can we create our own luck?

I certainly think so.

Ever since I re-joined Twitter (after a 10+ year hiatus), I've been lucky enough to meet so many like-minded creators building awesome products.

Two months ago, I had my first Twitter-to-Zoom networking call with none other than Kevon Cheung from Public Lab.

Our 45 minute call turned into 1.5 hours and by the end, we discovered the biggest growth lever that I used to grow my own business to near 8-figures in revenue.

This is one powerful tactic that not enough creators are doing right now to grow their audience, which is surprising to me!

By the end of this episode, you'll be well-equipped with a new tool for growing your audience.

I'm also introducing a new segment in the show: Ask Me Anything.

Really excited for this so please sit back, relax, and enjoy! 😁

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Collaboration is So Powerful (2:30)

• How to Collaborate Successfully (2:41)

• Collaborating on Distribution (6:25)

• Collaborating on Product (6:57)

• Ask Me Anything (15:12)

📝 Weekly Reflections

Big Win:

Let's start with a big win this week from my company Urban EDC. We had our 4th best sales days ever, just shy of $67k. Wow!

As I wrote about previously, I spend 1 hour per day working on Urban EDC, allowing my team to take ownership and drive the growth of my company.

It's quite the feeling when your team can carry out your vision and grow the business on their own, without me.

So how did we do this?

It's a culmination of everything we've done over the past 7 years.

Let's break down our record-breaking sales day by top-selling products:

If you look carefully, you can see that one product drove 73% of total sales. (And we sold out!)

If you're curious what that product is, it's this magnetic fidget toy resembling a poker hand:

So why did this product sell so well?

• Retro design is nostalgic

• Peter McKinnon promoted it

• Instant sell-out on the last batch

• Collaboration with a hot brand (Lautie)

It's a combination of great product, hype, and... guess what else?

Collaboration.

If you're listening to the latest First Class Founders episode (which you should be!), I mention collaborating on both PRODUCT and DISTRIBUTION.

Here's the perfect example:

• Distribution: Work with content creators with large audiences

• Product: Co-create product with an up-and-coming brand

We collaborated on multiple angles to make this a smashing success resulting in a historical sales day.

💡 Lesson: Collaborate on both Product & Distribution to maximize your sales impact. (Share this on Twitter)

Algorithm Gone Quiet:

Last week, I shared how I had my best week ever on LinkedIn in terms of impressions and engagement.

The graph resembled a hockey stick growth curve:

Well, it's a different story this week.

I had a lot going on this week in my business so I wasn't able to post my usual carousels which tend to perform the best.

This hurt my engagement. A lot.

Sometimes it feels like I'm on a hamster wheel pumping out content to keep the almighty algorithm happy, which also doesn't feel right.

On the flip side, it does seem like my "base line" is higher so there's a silver lining in all this.

I'm learning that as tempting as it is, I can't let any platform's algorithm dictate how I should spend my time. I'm in this for the long haul.

💡 Lesson: Be mindful of each platform's algorithm, but don't let it ruin your life. (Share this on Twitter)

It is "Social" Media, After All:

Social media isn't just about broadcasting your message.

It's about supporting others and growing together.

Get to know your audience. It is social media, after all.

Earn your audience's trust.

This one simple shift in my mindset has accelerated my presence on both Twitter and LinkedIn.

I found an engagement tool for Twitter that I really enjoy: Engagement Builder.

It uses an algorithm to help you "expand your network" so you can reply to tweets for folks who overlap with your interests, but aren't following you, yet.

It's a powerful tool that I use religiously once in the AM and once in the PM so I don't miss out on any mentions, replies, etc.

Big shoutout to Kevon Cheung for telling me about this tool.

Here's a screenshot:

You can try Engagement Builder by clicking here.

💡 Lesson: Don't treat social media like a broadcasting platform. Build meaningful relationships. Grow your audience by supporting each other. (Share this on Twitter)

Embrace the Suck:

I was interviewed on two podcasts this week. Both of them commented on how well the interviews went. One of them even invited me back on the podcast for a future episode saying that my episode was one of the best episodes they've recorded in the last 4 years.

Now, that was surprising.

Just 3 months ago, I was not a great speaker, let alone a podcast guest.

But now, I understand that you have to get through the "suck" to get good at anything.

It's a necessary pre-requisite to mastering your craft.

Tom Brady (who finally retired last week - great career, Tom!) was never great at football. But he never gave up, and ultimately became the greatest football player of all-time.

💡 Lesson: Embrace the suck. It's part of the process. Enjoy each phase of your journey. (Share this on Twitter)

🎛 Metrics Dashboard

Why am I sharing these numbers?

Because it keeps me accountable, and it keeps you entertained! (Maybe.)

I'm building First Class Founders in public. So each week, I share my numbers exclusively through newsletter subscribers only. Don't you feel special?

Step inside the cockpit...

Podcast:

• 90-Day Downloads: 12,194 (+334)

• 30-Day Downloads: 5,288 (-2,880)

• 7-Day Downloads: 618 (-548)

👍🏻 Recommendation: Starting a podcast? I love using Buzzsprout.

Newsletter:

• Subscribers: 443 (+83)

• Open Rate: 47.7%

• Click Rate: 13.2%

👍🏻 Recommendation: Interested in starting a newsletter? I highly recommend Beehiiv.

🔍 Community Spotlight

This week, I'm highlighting Lloyd George's Cre8tor Hub.

I met Lloyd through both the podcasting community and the newsletter community, both on Discord.

He's one of the most talented creators publishing great content. And his branding is on-point!

Here's the pitch...

"Cre8tor Hub is a digital brand that focuses on educating, inspiring and building community within the creator economy."

💬 Final Word

I had a great time recording an interview with Arvid Kahl this week.

We talked about:

• How he's using tools like ChatGPT

• How selling his company changed his life

• His framework for content generation & distribution

I can't wait to share with you all. If you don't know Arvid, please give him a follow on Twitter.

Here's some real footage of the recording:

And yes, I record inside my wife's walk-in closet for sound proofing! (Don't judge please.)

That's it for this week!

Have a fantastic rest of your week.

Yong-Soo Chung — Serial Entrepreneur, Podcaster

P.S. If you enjoyed this, I would LOVE it if you shared it on Twitter with your audience. 🙏🏼

🤝 Let's Work Together

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

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

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

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