Cody Hock, Matt Ragland, and Cole Hock on how you can bypass any algorithm:
Cody:
We’re not fighting with an algorithm. I don’t like to fight with the algorithm. Like, I don’t like to play that game.
Matt:
Yeah. Who needs that?
Cody:
And I think creators also are starting to realize that more and more, as it gets finicky and you just can’t stay as consistent, maybe, as people have in the past.
So it’s— it’s a nice tool to have in arsenal, for sure.
Matt:
It’s like, I can— I took, like, 10 months off of my YouTube channel last year — and I had a really solid channel, like, nearing 100,000 subscribers — and just, like, between running— running this business with Tim and Daryl, and doing some other things like having kids and stuff — I— when I started posting to YouTube again, numbers were pretty— pretty small.
But the times that I’ve taken any amount of significant time away from my newsletter, I send, like, that next email, warm it back up a little bit and, in no time, I’m back up to like 60% open rates.
And that’s, like, thousands of very very direct views. And they’re just, like,
‘Hey! Great to s— great to see you again!’
And I’m landing right in the inbox, instead of hoping that they see a notification, or like it comes across their notification screen.
Newsletters in general for entertainment — I mean, you know, like I know Kenny’s not specifically an athlete — but in that kind of athlete entertainment where you guys work more, is that something that you feel is, like, turning into more of an understood asset? Or, is it, like— I think it’s, like, something that’s turning around. But it’s also something where it’s not very common, either.
Cole:
Yeah, it’s not— it’s not too common, at all, and I think in the early days we had to, um, just educate Kenny on, you know, the value of having a newsletter, and why it’s important.
And I think as a creator he understands more than anyone, um, sort of the the fight versus the algorithm and how, um, sort of unreliable that can be at times. And so the value of owning all these emails.
And, um, you know, the— the early days of the company — before we actually started it — uh, Kenny wanted to create a clothing brand. That was sort of the initial idea.
And— and “Enjoy basketball” was a phrase that he used, uh, throughout his content, and just sort of always driving this positive messaging home of, like,
‘Hey, everybody just chill out Let’s just enjoy the game for what it is.’
Sort of, we came in with the idea to expand it into a media company as well as the lifestyle side.
So, um, but— but showing him the power of the newsletter, and even going back to the lifestyle side and how we’ve used our product drops to integrating those into the newsletter um getting right into people’s inboxes with these email blasts every time we do a drop — whether that’s through Shopify, or just directly to our list — um, that’s been super valuable, too.
— end of vid clip: @ minute 23:37
Bravo. If your manager doesn’t understand this, it’s time for a new one.
My work is done when 10 million creators no longer consider algorithm chasing to be a fact of life.
— Tang
Btw, pro tip: a newsletter can be a full-blown production and tons of work — or, it can be as simple as 3 sentences sent to your audience, once a week. 😉
Matt Ragland’s owned platform is Bullet Journal Guy and is co-founder of HeyCreator.
Tim Forkin’s owned platform is TimForkin.com and is Content Producer at HeyCreator.
Cody and Cole Hock’s owned platform is Up North Management Group.
