April 19, 2025 • 14 mins
In this episode, Kenny Groom from Beyond Normal Media shares his journey of creating and evolving a successful newsletter. He discusses the inception of his newsletter (00:00) the initial misconceptions and mistakes (01:06), and the lessons learned along the way (03:23). Kenny also emphasizes the value of incorporating short-form content and measuring feedback for continuous improvement (06:49). This episode offers practical advice for creators and business owners on leveraging newsletters to tell their stories and engage with audiences effectively (09:49).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:07):
Woo.
Kenny (00:16):
Hey, y'all, this is Kenny Groom from Beyond Normal Media,
where every story is a journey.
Today, we'll be diving intosomething that's really helped
me, grow as a storyteller andcreator, but certainly not
without some bps and bruisesalong the way.
And that topic is my newsletterjourney.
(00:38):
So I wanna start out bydiscussing, you know, talking a
little bit about whynewsletters, what got me into,
launching a newsletter.
I launched, the first,newsletter, when we were just
the Beyond Normal podcast.
So this was about three to fouryears ago.
I saw some other creators in thespace really leaning into their
(01:00):
newsletters and, and reallyputting their, their.
Thoughts to paper?
there was some excitementinitially for me as I saw this
as a much more, like a, a muchmore like journalistic medi that
I thought this would give mesome credibility, but I quickly
learned, that couple things,right?
(01:23):
there were a couplemisconceptions that I had.
I approached newsletter writingfrom the, From the, the lens of
like writing a book report.
Like, and so for those of usthat have gone and completed
grade school, we all remember,having to, even some of us that,
(01:45):
that may have done, some, some,college work, post grad work
especially, the, the, theprocess of writing a paper,
doing all sorts of research, andthen having, you know, several
pages.
Almost, maybe in some caseshaving what felt like an entire
book worth of information thatwe presented to the public.
(02:09):
And so that was a misconceptionthat I had because I think
initially I was writing it in aformat that was a little bit
dated and just with today'saudience and, the, the, the,
the, The mental capacity thatpeople put forward when
(02:31):
digesting newsletters, Icertainly think that nobody is
opening up a newsletter andexcitement, waiting for a book
report, right?
And so that was one really big,misconception when I started it.
Really, probably about three tofour years ago I wrote a, a few,
(02:51):
issues is what I, I like to callthem.
Like, I, I relate that to likecomics.
I read a lot of comics growingup and so I labeled mine as
issues, but I essentially wrotelike maybe one or two and it
kind of fell off.
This past, this past year, thepast 12 months, I really have
revisited.
(03:14):
the medi itself.
And I'm really excited, about,you know, what we can make this
into.
And so with that, I want to, Iwant to quickly, just touch on,
some of the lessons.
Let, let, let, let's transitionto the lessons learned, right?
So I mentioned some of thosemisconceptions that I had, but
(03:36):
there were several mistakes thatI think I made, initially.
And it was limit the, thebiggest mistake I made was
limiting the scope of thenewsletter to the podcast
itself.
And so it really forced me to,you know, almost.
(03:59):
Deliver the newsletter in like abio, like a biography kind of
format.
Again, going back to that bookreport mentality that I came
into this with, that was one,big mistake I think I had.
just early on.
the second one was, you know,skipping consistency, right?
(04:20):
And so I told myself I would tryto come out with one.
Every single month and there's acouple key words that you
probably hear.
And there it, the first thingbeing try, right?
And so I would try to dosomething obviously, priority
shuffle.
And so it would just never bethe top priority in any given
(04:43):
moment.
But then the second thing inthere was I said it, I would
just come out with it.
You know, for the month, Ididn't set a timeline.
I didn't set a date.
And so those were two thingswhen I relaunched it this time
that I, I wanted to make surethat I focused on a little bit
more and, I.
(05:04):
So this time around, from aconsistency perspective,
definitely sticking to writingit each and every month and kind
of leading up to, the, ourrelease date, making sure that.
You know, I, I have enough meaton the bones, right?
(05:25):
I, I've been thinking aboutcertain topics, you know, maybe
not as formally as an, aninstructor, structured as, as as
possible.
But I at least have somethoughts in my head where I
could sit down and really crafta unique piece, for, in the
newsletter format.
And then the, the second thingthere that I touched on was,
(05:46):
instead of saying, I'm justgonna release it once a month.
Setting a, date in place.
And so for us, our newsletterscome out on the 20th of every
month.
Don't ask me why I came up withthe 20th.
that is just the day that Ipicked.
It sounded like a good day torelease a newsletter.
It is towards the end of themonth.
(06:07):
And so for me, that gave me sometime to know, Hey, I'm gonna do
some really cool things tostart.
Most months anyways.
And so let me go have, you know,touch grass, right?
Do some activities, do some coolthings, and then use the latter
part of the month on the 20thto, to tell my listeners about
the cool things we've beendoing, the stuff that may be
(06:27):
relevant to them.
I.
Our audience for the BeyondNormal podcast is founders, and
so I'm always looking to connectin different activities,
different spaces, differentcommunities, particular to that
audience.
And so I always know, on the20th of the month I've done
some, some really cool thingsand connected with some really
cool people that I can tell ouraudience about.
(06:49):
The last thing I'll throw inthere is about measuring
feedback.
I, I think this one is a hardone to really say.
You should do it from day one.
I, I will say you should begetting feedback from your
audience, from differentwriters, from your peers.
(07:10):
Again, throughout the process.
but, you know, measuring thefeedback, seeing if folks are
opening the email consistently,are folks unsubscribing.
Those are gonna be some, some,some things you wanna look out
for.
I don't think early on whenyou're starting a newsletter
though, they're, as you know,the first few issues, they're as
important because you're justtrying to get.
(07:33):
In the, in the mode of writing anewsletter, if I can, if I can
say that.
But again, that's just somethingyou want to be mindful of.
There is a art to.
When you should be caring aboutmetrics and most of the time
when it comes to creativethings, different medis, you
probably shouldn't care at thebeginning about measuring things
(07:57):
and measuring clicks and thingslike that.
But as you start to, to figureout your process, I definitely
think it's important.
I did notice speaking on the,the feedback piece when I
originally launched thenewsletter some years ago, I.
And then I quit it.
One of the things I did noticewas.
There wasn't necessarily aconnection with the audience.
(08:19):
And so again, that book reportstyle kind of delivery, I don't
think I, I really don't think,it, it was resonating with folks
and it, and it, I.
And it proved to be true, right?
Because now we're in a world nowwhere there's so much focus on
short form content and thingslike that.
(08:40):
That newsletters really now theyare a form of short form content
because typically a newsletter'sgonna be a.
A read, somebody can do five, 10minutes or less.
Right.
Even shorter than that, at timesI've seen some really good,
newsletters, in the currenttimes where the shorter the
better.
and this leads me to, you know,just my realization on short
(09:04):
form, you know, adding thingslike clips in making it engaging
for the current times.
That's something that, you know,it.
For somebody who isn't used tothe format of newsletter
writing, I would say, you know,it is important to, you know,
just take note of that and, youknow, see what you're doing on
(09:28):
other platforms.
We have a, a, a big focus onplatforms like Instagram and
YouTube shorts and things likethat.
We can take some of what we'redoing on those platforms and
just put it into this formathere.
(09:49):
Lastly I want to touch on, orno, just one of the, the, the,
the topics I wanted to discussin this moment, right, is just
advice for.
Creators trying to, you know,leverage this platform.
again, I wanna reemphasize, youknow, being consistent,
(10:12):
utilizing what you're alreadydoing.
In terms of short form contentthat you're, you know, just the
different ways you're puttingcontent into the world and, and
realizing this is just anothermedi for you to get that out.
You don't necessarily have totransition to a journalistic,
you know, ethos to write anewsletter.
(10:35):
You can really make it your own.
You and, and.
In that, when I say that right,it just came to my mind, right,
the importance of treating thisnewsletter.
Like it's just a, a, a brandtouchpoint.
It's just another way thatyou're offering, your, your,
your brand, what you reallyfocus on, your core to your
(10:58):
audience, some of youraudiences.
They're readers, right?
They want to read throughsomething and then that kind of
gives them that food forthought.
That's what this newsletter is.
It's giving them that food forthought through a few words that
you deliver on a consistentschedule.
For me and what our team does atBeyond Normal Media, we have a,
(11:21):
a really big, focus on our onehour content, pro product right
now, our solution that now playsinto this.
And so we sit with, creators,creatives, business owners,
right.
And in that one hour contentsession, right.
If they have.
If they are having some thoughtsthat they're putting together,
(11:45):
right?
We're speaking through things.
They do have the ability now to.
Really figure out how a medi, awritten form, a word form medi,
like newsletters really playsinto what they're doing, you
know?
So lastly, you know, I just wantto, you know, this is my call to
action at the end.
If you've been, you know,listening this entire time, I
(12:08):
appreciate you.
we will definitely be divingmore into the newsletter space
or the newsletter kind of mediin general.
if you're in the trenches tryingto tell your story, your brand
story.
Worry.
Just know you're like, you'renot alone.
This is something for me ascoming from someone who focuses
more, who has been focusing moreon being an orator, saying
(12:31):
things out loud and, and reallyusing that as my call to action
for folks.
this is a really cool space tobe in for me.
I've leveraged, things like notetaking.
You know, mem voice notes tokind of get some of my thoughts
out before I transition theminto the newsletter format.
So there's all types ofdifferent ways I think right
(12:53):
now, that folks are trying tofigure out, you know, how to
leverage a newsletter for maybetheir creative capacity or there
if there you are a businessowner out there, there's
different ways you can tap intothis.
If you don't mind, right?
I gotta put this in there.
Make sure you hit that subscribebutton, and we'll be building
this out together.
I'll be focusing more on myjourney into newsletters.
(13:15):
Again, I shared a little bitabout some of the mistakes I
made along the way, but I wantto make sure that, you know, I'm
sharing this with the worldbecause I'm, I'm, I'm trying to
build this in public.
and see, you know, what, whatreally resonates with those that
are willing and, Spending thetime with me to, to, to talk
(13:37):
through these things, or evenjust listening to my recordings
like this.
If you do have the capacity,check out our one hour content
service.
If you're ready to show up withease for your audience, again,
our, our model for this is youspend one hour with me, you get
a month or more of engagingcontent for your audience.
(13:57):
Thank you for tuning into this,testimonial from me on my
newsletter journey.
Thank you.
Woo.
Kenny (00:16):
Hey, y'all, this is Kenny Groom from Beyond Normal Media,
where every story is a journey.
Today, we'll be diving intosomething that's really helped
me, grow as a storyteller andcreator, but certainly not
without some bps and bruisesalong the way.
And that topic is my newsletterjourney.
(00:38):
So I wanna start out bydiscussing, you know, talking a
little bit about whynewsletters, what got me into,
launching a newsletter.
I launched, the first,newsletter, when we were just
the Beyond Normal podcast.
So this was about three to fouryears ago.
I saw some other creators in thespace really leaning into their
(01:00):
newsletters and, and reallyputting their, their.
Thoughts to paper?
there was some excitementinitially for me as I saw this
as a much more, like a, a muchmore like journalistic medi that
I thought this would give mesome credibility, but I quickly
learned, that couple things,right?
(01:23):
there were a couplemisconceptions that I had.
I approached newsletter writingfrom the, From the, the lens of
like writing a book report.
Like, and so for those of usthat have gone and completed
grade school, we all remember,having to, even some of us that,
(01:45):
that may have done, some, some,college work, post grad work
especially, the, the, theprocess of writing a paper,
doing all sorts of research, andthen having, you know, several
pages.
Almost, maybe in some caseshaving what felt like an entire
book worth of information thatwe presented to the public.
(02:09):
And so that was a misconceptionthat I had because I think
initially I was writing it in aformat that was a little bit
dated and just with today'saudience and, the, the, the,
the, The mental capacity thatpeople put forward when
(02:31):
digesting newsletters, Icertainly think that nobody is
opening up a newsletter andexcitement, waiting for a book
report, right?
And so that was one really big,misconception when I started it.
Really, probably about three tofour years ago I wrote a, a few,
(02:51):
issues is what I, I like to callthem.
Like, I, I relate that to likecomics.
I read a lot of comics growingup and so I labeled mine as
issues, but I essentially wrotelike maybe one or two and it
kind of fell off.
This past, this past year, thepast 12 months, I really have
revisited.
(03:14):
the medi itself.
And I'm really excited, about,you know, what we can make this
into.
And so with that, I want to, Iwant to quickly, just touch on,
some of the lessons.
Let, let, let, let's transitionto the lessons learned, right?
So I mentioned some of thosemisconceptions that I had, but
(03:36):
there were several mistakes thatI think I made, initially.
And it was limit the, thebiggest mistake I made was
limiting the scope of thenewsletter to the podcast
itself.
And so it really forced me to,you know, almost.
(03:59):
Deliver the newsletter in like abio, like a biography kind of
format.
Again, going back to that bookreport mentality that I came
into this with, that was one,big mistake I think I had.
just early on.
the second one was, you know,skipping consistency, right?
(04:20):
And so I told myself I would tryto come out with one.
Every single month and there's acouple key words that you
probably hear.
And there it, the first thingbeing try, right?
And so I would try to dosomething obviously, priority
shuffle.
And so it would just never bethe top priority in any given
(04:43):
moment.
But then the second thing inthere was I said it, I would
just come out with it.
You know, for the month, Ididn't set a timeline.
I didn't set a date.
And so those were two thingswhen I relaunched it this time
that I, I wanted to make surethat I focused on a little bit
more and, I.
(05:04):
So this time around, from aconsistency perspective,
definitely sticking to writingit each and every month and kind
of leading up to, the, ourrelease date, making sure that.
You know, I, I have enough meaton the bones, right?
(05:25):
I, I've been thinking aboutcertain topics, you know, maybe
not as formally as an, aninstructor, structured as, as as
possible.
But I at least have somethoughts in my head where I
could sit down and really crafta unique piece, for, in the
newsletter format.
And then the, the second thingthere that I touched on was,
(05:46):
instead of saying, I'm justgonna release it once a month.
Setting a, date in place.
And so for us, our newsletterscome out on the 20th of every
month.
Don't ask me why I came up withthe 20th.
that is just the day that Ipicked.
It sounded like a good day torelease a newsletter.
It is towards the end of themonth.
(06:07):
And so for me, that gave me sometime to know, Hey, I'm gonna do
some really cool things tostart.
Most months anyways.
And so let me go have, you know,touch grass, right?
Do some activities, do some coolthings, and then use the latter
part of the month on the 20thto, to tell my listeners about
the cool things we've beendoing, the stuff that may be
(06:27):
relevant to them.
I.
Our audience for the BeyondNormal podcast is founders, and
so I'm always looking to connectin different activities,
different spaces, differentcommunities, particular to that
audience.
And so I always know, on the20th of the month I've done
some, some really cool thingsand connected with some really
cool people that I can tell ouraudience about.
(06:49):
The last thing I'll throw inthere is about measuring
feedback.
I, I think this one is a hardone to really say.
You should do it from day one.
I, I will say you should begetting feedback from your
audience, from differentwriters, from your peers.
(07:10):
Again, throughout the process.
but, you know, measuring thefeedback, seeing if folks are
opening the email consistently,are folks unsubscribing.
Those are gonna be some, some,some things you wanna look out
for.
I don't think early on whenyou're starting a newsletter
though, they're, as you know,the first few issues, they're as
important because you're justtrying to get.
(07:33):
In the, in the mode of writing anewsletter, if I can, if I can
say that.
But again, that's just somethingyou want to be mindful of.
There is a art to.
When you should be caring aboutmetrics and most of the time
when it comes to creativethings, different medis, you
probably shouldn't care at thebeginning about measuring things
(07:57):
and measuring clicks and thingslike that.
But as you start to, to figureout your process, I definitely
think it's important.
I did notice speaking on the,the feedback piece when I
originally launched thenewsletter some years ago, I.
And then I quit it.
One of the things I did noticewas.
There wasn't necessarily aconnection with the audience.
(08:19):
And so again, that book reportstyle kind of delivery, I don't
think I, I really don't think,it, it was resonating with folks
and it, and it, I.
And it proved to be true, right?
Because now we're in a world nowwhere there's so much focus on
short form content and thingslike that.
(08:40):
That newsletters really now theyare a form of short form content
because typically a newsletter'sgonna be a.
A read, somebody can do five, 10minutes or less.
Right.
Even shorter than that, at timesI've seen some really good,
newsletters, in the currenttimes where the shorter the
better.
and this leads me to, you know,just my realization on short
(09:04):
form, you know, adding thingslike clips in making it engaging
for the current times.
That's something that, you know,it.
For somebody who isn't used tothe format of newsletter
writing, I would say, you know,it is important to, you know,
just take note of that and, youknow, see what you're doing on
(09:28):
other platforms.
We have a, a, a big focus onplatforms like Instagram and
YouTube shorts and things likethat.
We can take some of what we'redoing on those platforms and
just put it into this formathere.
(09:49):
Lastly I want to touch on, orno, just one of the, the, the,
the topics I wanted to discussin this moment, right, is just
advice for.
Creators trying to, you know,leverage this platform.
again, I wanna reemphasize, youknow, being consistent,
(10:12):
utilizing what you're alreadydoing.
In terms of short form contentthat you're, you know, just the
different ways you're puttingcontent into the world and, and
realizing this is just anothermedi for you to get that out.
You don't necessarily have totransition to a journalistic,
you know, ethos to write anewsletter.
(10:35):
You can really make it your own.
You and, and.
In that, when I say that right,it just came to my mind, right,
the importance of treating thisnewsletter.
Like it's just a, a, a brandtouchpoint.
It's just another way thatyou're offering, your, your,
your brand, what you reallyfocus on, your core to your
(10:58):
audience, some of youraudiences.
They're readers, right?
They want to read throughsomething and then that kind of
gives them that food forthought.
That's what this newsletter is.
It's giving them that food forthought through a few words that
you deliver on a consistentschedule.
For me and what our team does atBeyond Normal Media, we have a,
(11:21):
a really big, focus on our onehour content, pro product right
now, our solution that now playsinto this.
And so we sit with, creators,creatives, business owners,
right.
And in that one hour contentsession, right.
If they have.
If they are having some thoughtsthat they're putting together,
(11:45):
right?
We're speaking through things.
They do have the ability now to.
Really figure out how a medi, awritten form, a word form medi,
like newsletters really playsinto what they're doing, you
know?
So lastly, you know, I just wantto, you know, this is my call to
action at the end.
If you've been, you know,listening this entire time, I
(12:08):
appreciate you.
we will definitely be divingmore into the newsletter space
or the newsletter kind of mediin general.
if you're in the trenches tryingto tell your story, your brand
story.
Worry.
Just know you're like, you'renot alone.
This is something for me ascoming from someone who focuses
more, who has been focusing moreon being an orator, saying
(12:31):
things out loud and, and reallyusing that as my call to action
for folks.
this is a really cool space tobe in for me.
I've leveraged, things like notetaking.
You know, mem voice notes tokind of get some of my thoughts
out before I transition theminto the newsletter format.
So there's all types ofdifferent ways I think right
(12:53):
now, that folks are trying tofigure out, you know, how to
leverage a newsletter for maybetheir creative capacity or there
if there you are a businessowner out there, there's
different ways you can tap intothis.
If you don't mind, right?
I gotta put this in there.
Make sure you hit that subscribebutton, and we'll be building
this out together.
I'll be focusing more on myjourney into newsletters.
(13:15):
Again, I shared a little bitabout some of the mistakes I
made along the way, but I wantto make sure that, you know, I'm
sharing this with the worldbecause I'm, I'm, I'm trying to
build this in public.
and see, you know, what, whatreally resonates with those that
are willing and, Spending thetime with me to, to, to talk
(13:37):
through these things, or evenjust listening to my recordings
like this.
If you do have the capacity,check out our one hour content
service.
If you're ready to show up withease for your audience, again,
our, our model for this is youspend one hour with me, you get
a month or more of engagingcontent for your audience.
(13:57):
Thank you for tuning into this,testimonial from me on my
newsletter journey.
Thank you.
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