The Creator Spotlight Podcast

Matt Kiser is the creator and editor WTF Just Happened Today?, a political news newsletter with over 200,000 subscribers built entirely on a pay-what-you-want membership model. In this episode Matt breaks down how he grew from zero to 100,000 subscribers in six months, the editorial philosophy behind curating the news every day for nine years, and the biggest mistakes he made along the way.

Read the newsletter: https://www.creatorspotlight.com/profiles

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Matt Kiser

Newsletter

LinkedIn

Bluesky

GitHub

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Timestamps

00:00 Introducing Matt Kiser

01:18 Zero to 100k in six months

11:06 Building the skill of aggregation and curation

17:41 The death of objectivity

18:37 From 100k to 200k subscribers

20:36 Don’t hate the media, become the media

29:18 Transparency with the revenue model

35:40 The AI podcast controversy

46:46 Biggest mistakes and learning moments

50:23 A deeper connection with the audience

Vin Matano is a B2B influencer marketing agency owner and part-time creator who made $200K as a creator and $2.5M through his agency Creator Buzz in 2025. In this episode, we get into how he lands and keeps long-term brand deals, his LinkedIn content strategy, and how he built Creatorbuzz from zero to $2.5M in its first full year.

Read the newsletter: https://www.creatorspotlight.com/p/vin-matano

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Use code: CREATOR1X1

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Vin Matano

LinkedIn

YouTube

Twitter/X

Instagram

Creatorbuzz

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Timestamps

00:00 Introducing Vin Matano

01:30 From $94k to $200k in one year

05:32 Getting brand deals and overdelivering

13:48 How many followers do you need for brand deals?

20:10 Partnering brands with creators

25:53 Making $2.5M in a year

28:50 The challenges of being a new founder

31:34 Getting leads with social media

37:24 The three types of LinkedIn posts to go viral

44:38 Debunking LinkedIn myths

49:25 The third generation of B2B marketing

54:12 Changing how success is measured

Rachel Meade Smith is the founder of Words of Mouth, a weekly newsletter focused on finding meaningful work. In this episode, we discuss how she built and monetised a values-driven newsletter to 72,000 subscribers over 10 years without ever running a single ad.

Preorder Search Work now: https://orbooks.com/catalog/search-work/

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Rachel Meade Smith

Words of Mouth

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Book

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Timestamps

00:00 Introducing Rachel Meade Smith and Words of Mouth

01:38 10 years of values based curation

07:17 Growing to 70k subscribers organically

13:03 72% open rate, 22% clickthrough rate

14:07 Monestizing while maintaining strong ethics

20:07 4 ways the newsletter is monetized

37:29 Developing beyond purely aggregation

43:21 The art of aggregation, curation, and editing

46:13 The process and expense of writing a book

Caper is a new media company covering the people, money, ambition, power and chaos that fuels the food world. In this episode we speak to Max Tcheyan, the co-founder and CEO, as well as three of the founding journalists.

Read the newsletter: https://www.creatorspotlight.com/profiles

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Get 10,000 free monthly credits at Eleven Labs: https://elevenlabs.io/

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Caper

Newsletter

Caper

LinkedIn

In this episode

Max

Emma

Annie

Chris

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Timestamps

00:00 Introducing Caper Media

01:00 The gap in the market

03:45 Who is the audience?

07:29 How equity changes journalism

15:46 Food journalism that makes a difference

23:46 Building a team of founders

26:30 The $2.5M bet

29:28 Doing something that matters

Daniel Berk is beehiiv’s first sales hire-turned-strategist, cofounder of a local newsletter Palmetto Parents, and cohost of the Two Dads in Tech podcast. In this episode we discuss his journey from chaotic notebooks to 25,000 LinkedIn followers, how he helps creators and enterprise media businesses grow and monetize, and how to run a profitable newsletter and podcast.

Read the newsletter: https://www.creatorspotlight.com/profiles

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Get started with Taplio for free at https://taplio.com/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=nl_creatorspotlight_0126_011526

Use code: CREATOR1X1

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Daniel Berk

LinkedIn

Twitter/X

Threads

Podcast

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Timestamps

00:00 Introducing Daniel Berk

01:34 13 years of writing newsletters

05:25 The problem every creator and business has

11:13 Adapting to the AI driven web

14:24 Best and worst social media platforms

21:58 Why a big LinkedIn platform is so important

29:16 Making $60k with a podcast side-project

38:33 Building a community driven local newsletter

46:38 Outcome vs output driven creators

50:26 The value of writing every day