#292: Chenell Basilio — The state of email in 2026, growing your list without social media, and new predictions.
Author: Jay Clouse
February 3, 2026
Duration: 53:25
This week I'm joined by my good friend Chenell Basilio, creator of Growth in Reverse and one of the most thorough newsletter analysts in the space. We spent over an hour diving deep into what's really working in email right now — from the death of newsletter hype to the opportunity hiding in recommendation networks. Chenell shared her framework of "insanely valuable content" (the one thing that matters more than any growth hack), and we got surprisingly honest about using AI to create short-form content from our long-form work.
We also tackled the big question: how do you grow an email list if you refuse to use social media? Turns out there are more options than you think — from public homework challenges to old-school guest posting making a comeback. Plus, I introduced a new segment called "Unhinged Questions" where we played kiss, marry, kill with email platforms.
Growth in Reverse (Chenell's newsletter)
The Dink (pickleball newsletter with great referral program)
Lenny's Newsletter (guest posting example)
Ship 30 for 30 (public homework example)
Tweet 100 (my old challenge that drove email growth)
Full transcript and show notes
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TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Introduction
(02:21) Email maturity and the end of newsletter hype
(05:16) Why CPC advertising doesn't work for small creators
(06:08) Chenell's focus: turning recommendation subscribers into fans
(09:01) James Clear had 250K subscribers in 2012 (email inflation is real)
(11:20) "It's never been easier to reach someone, harder to sustain a relationship"
(12:33) "Insanely valuable content" — the one metric that matters
(15:28) The struggle with AI-generated content that performs well
(20:11) Short-form repurposing: employee vs. AI debate
(24:18) What's no longer working: recommendations (before the reframe)
(24:53) YouTube to email is massively underrated
(29:25) How to grow without social media (5 strategies)
(34:50) Public homework challenges (75 Hard, Tweet 100, Ship 30)
(43:31) Unhinged Questions: Kiss, Marry, Kill email platforms
(44:44) Operating on hunches without data
(45:31) "I hate that I'm not doing deep dives every week"
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RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE
→ #147: Chenell Basilio – How the best newsletter operators grow to 50K+ subscribers
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