Hello friends,

For this episode of Rough Draft, we’re thrilled to welcome of Mostly Metrics. I’m also joined by my co-host of . Jaryd was my partner in crime in creating Rough Draft and hope he’ll be a frequent co-host.

CJ is a self-proclaimed micro-media mogul, running a newsletter and podcast beloved by finance professionals and operators. We dive into CJ’s journey from his early writing experiments to building a newsletter that now has over 55,000 subscribers and is a go-to resource for CFOs and operators across industries.

We cover topics like:

• How CJ battled through the early slog of building an audience.

• How he thinks about the different reasons why readers will share his work while writing a post.

• A deep dive into how he’s turned sponsorships into a meaningful revenue stream.

• Stacking your talents in writing and other entrepreneurial pursuits.

Check out the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Let's dive into a few highlights from our conversation.

It took CJ a year and a half to reach 500 subscribers. Then, in the following year, his newsletter skyrocketed from 500 to 27,000 subscribers. In the early years, CJ felt like he was ‘writing into the void,’ a common struggle for many writers. But instead of giving up, he used that time to hone his skills and form a habit of writing consistently.

At the start, I was getting single-digit views on some of my posts — like, literally, my dog and maybe my mother-in-law were the only ones reading it.

To grow his readership during those early days, CJ became relentless. He hopped into conversations across Indie Hackers, Reddit (where he was consistently kicked out), social platforms, and anywhere he thought his audience would be. He had a list of 15 finance-related terms (e.g., “net dollar retention”) that he wanted to absolutely own. By responding to comments and questions, and linking back to his writing, he gradually built an SEO flywheel that steadily drove traffic to his newsletter.

CJ wasn’t just driven by the desire to build an audience or business — he wanted to capture the lessons and ideas from his startup experience. Writing became a tool for self-reflection and clarity, allowing him to capture and retain those insights. By committing to this process, while also steadily growing his audience, CJ pushed through the difficult early years.

In the early days, it was pretty much just 10 people reading my blog, and I had no real audience. I wasn’t sure where it was going, but I kept writing because I needed to get those ideas out of my head.

CJ described a virtuous cycle of sharing loops by his readers, each contributing to subscriber growth. What stood out was the specificity of each example and their motivation for sharing:

• Venture capitalists and investors share CJ’s posts with their portfolio companies to feel as though they’re adding value.

• Analysts and operators will forward his writing to their bosses to signal their intelligence and ambition.

• CFO’s and leaders will pass CJ’s posts along to their teams to incorporate into their decision-making and workflows.

The key is that CJ writes with these specific sharing scenarios in mind, understanding why and how his audience would pass along his writing. He even uses it as a barometer to gauge the quality of his posts.

We also discussed how many of today’s biggest newsletters built their audiences through social platforms — a strategy that’s become more challenging. This shift has increased the importance of other growth channels, especially encouraging readers to share posts.

These days, CJ doesn’t pay as much attention to email list growth, choosing to keeping a closer eye on readership and people interacting with his posts. He can tell within 20 minutes how a post will perform based on early interactions (e.g., likes, comments, and shares).

What truly matters to CJ, though, is hearing how his writing has impacted readers’ lives. Whether it’s helping someone improve at their job, negotiate a raise, or make better business decisions, those stories resonate the most with CJ.

When people message me saying my newsletter helped them solve a problem at work, that’s what blows me away — that you took my thoughts and made it real.

A huge thank you to CJ for joining and a huge thank you to Jaryd for co-hosting and being instrumental in creating Rough Draft.

We hope you enjoy the conversation — let us know what you think!

We’ll be back with you in a couple weeks.

As always, thank you for your support,
Reid