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CREATOR INTERVIEW

Tarzan Kay has successfully built a business around her passion for writing engaging and “not-boring” e-mails.

She started as a copywriter, got into courses and grew her business to a million-dollar one very quickly. However, she made a conscious decision to scale back down because she didn’t feel comfortable with the evolution of the industry and her approach to sales.

However, throughout the entire journey, her newsletter Emails, But Better, remained the cornerstone of her business. Starting with just 37 subscribers, it blossomed into a highly engaged audience of over 10K subscribers.

In our interview, we covered a wide range of topics:

• How she grew to over 10K subscribers

• The importance of having a unique personal brand

• Why she’s an advocate of consent-based marketing 

• Her revised approach to sales

• How to achieve diversity & inclusion in the newsletter space

Now, I’m passing the mic to Tarzan Kay.

Let’s dive in!

🏷 NEWSLETTER IDENTITY CARD

🛠 TOOL STACK

• ESP → ConvertKit

• Writing → Google Docs

• Curation & Note-taking → Evernote & Apple Notes

• Task Management → Asana

• Productivity → Superhuman

• Brand & Webdesign → One6Creative

• Digital products → Searchie, Kajabi (which we’re getting rid of, just haven’t transitioned fully to Searchie)

• Payment → Stripe & Samcart

👋 MEET THE CREATOR

Welcome Tarzan. Let’s start with getting to know you.

I teach email marketing skills to course creators, coaches and service providers.

My emails are heavily story-based and I teach people how to write emails that are interesting, occasionally controversial and very reply-worthy. I have a signature program about email marketing (that I’m retiring this year to launch a more newsletter-focused program), a course about consent-based copywriting, a mastermind, plus I occasionally work with private clients.

In one of your latest issues, you mentioned that it’s important to know who you’re learning from and what their lives are outside of work. What do you want people to know about you and your work outside of work?

I’m a polyamorous queer who loves to slip random stories about my colorful life into emails about business. I’m a divorced mother of two who carries a ton of financial responsibility since my former spouse was a stay-at-home parent. (Divorce is expensive!)

I’m an advocate for safe drug use and often tell stories about my drug use to my email subscribers. I want to normalize conversations about substance use (and abuse) so that people can unlearn what they think they know about the war on drugs. That’s just one lever of my anti-oppression work.

🥁 START

You started your newsletter in 2016 and sent it to 37 subscribers. Why did you decide to start a newsletter in the beginning?

I started my business (and my newsletter) in 2016 because Marie Forleo said I should. That was a really good idea. My first emails went to a list of 37 subscribers, and was managed and convertkit.

I took a ton of online courses and the business grew very quickly. I worked as a copywriter, writing emails for course creators and coaches.

Very quickly, I pivoted to offer my own courses.

All of the course creators I followed were saying that anybody could be an expert, and anybody could have a course. I took that advice probably a bit too seriously and created my first email program in 2017. I sold four spots and was devastated that I didn't become an overnight millionaire.

But honestly, that did happen soon after.

A lot changed about your approach to your business since then. In your own words:

“I’ve been in the business for 7 years. I started as a copywriter, grew my business REALLY fast, and got into courses. Then, I scaled back down because I wasn't comfortable with the industry and the way people are taught to sell.”

Throughout that journey, how did the role of your newsletter evolve?

I grew my list with Facebook ads. It’s always been my primary marketing channel, and for the most part my only marketing channel. It also happens to be what I love.

I hate Instagram. It makes me feel bad about myself. I used to have a team that maintained a presence for me (I let my employees go in 2022 in the middle of my divorce, for a lot of reasons most of which were divorce-related).

For years I only sold other people’s programs with affiliate marketing.

In my third year in business I made $400K, most of it from affiliate marketing, some from my own programs. I sent tons of emails. I really hammered my subscribers with sales pitches and made them huge promises.

In year 6, I have my first (and only) 7-figure year, with a list of about 6K subscribers.

I have spent years atoning for the coercive marketing I used to do, with countdown timers, fast-action bonuses, transformational promises and many, many layers of persuasion.

🚀 GROWTH

Which growth strategies did you utilize to reach 9,900 subscribers?

That number was close to 15,000, but not all of them were active subscribers. I recently scrubbed a few thousand of them. Currently, my weekly newsletter goes to 9,900 subs, and my monthly edition goes to about a thousand. My subscribers can change the frequency of emails if it's too much. I encourage them to use this option.