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Most of what gets said about email publicly is either very old or very generic. This hour was the opposite. Five people who build lists for a living said what's working right now and what quietly stopped.


The consensus on what's dying: static PDF lead magnets and organic social. The consensus on what's replacing them: collaborations, live anything, and giving people a real preview of what it's like to work with you.

Liz Wilcox pays cash for survey responses, because nobody wants a Starbucks card and everybody wants money. Nadalie Bardo says her one-to-one JV webinars outgrow her list faster than hosting an entire summit. Amira Sake Irfan got paid $2,500 for one solo email that sent the buyer 600 leads. And Tracy Beavers admitted on a live panel that her own lead magnets went stale.


On this panel: Liz Wilcox, Tracy Beavers, Amira Sake Irfan, Samantha Fine, Nadalie Bardo


What we covered:

  • [5:30] The opening question: what's growing your list right now, and what stopped working?
  • [6:00] Tracy on putting the human element back in. Her free Facebook group grows her list every month, and her lead magnets went stale. People are stingy with their email addresses now.
  • [7:30] Samantha on live workshops and membership open houses beating standard PDFs, for her and her clients.
  • [8:15] Liz on collaborations and bringing the fun. People are exhausted, and if you look like you're enjoying yourself, they'll trade you an email address for it.
  • [10:00] Amira on summits and bundles, and why organic social is rented land. She's stopped chasing leads there entirely.
  • [11:15] Destini on running the same collaboration play across a B2C brand and a B2B brand, and why it barely changes.
  • [12:30] Elaine's question: 1,000 subscribers, 70% open rates, good clicks on free stuff, nobody buys the coaching. Tracy on training your list to expect only free things. Nadalie on the chasm between a freebie and high-ticket, and the missing stepping stone. Amira on the freebie and the paid offer being a mismatch, and selling the transformation instead of the service.
  • [15:30] Nadalie on speaking Klingon. Your buyer and you can be describing the exact same thing in words that don't overlap.
  • [18:45] How do you actually get survey responses? Liz: bribe them. Nobody cares about your survey. Cash in their PayPal or Venmo, a drawing rather than a payout to everyone, and a 24-hour window that trains people to open your emails fast.
  • [21:00] Nadalie's version — free gifts instead of cash, and how she turned survey answers into a checklist, then an ebook, then a course idea.
  • [22:30] Growing a B2C list from scratch. Nadalie on one-to-one collabs beating big events, and her bootcamps averaging 1,800 signups. Tracy on the monthly list swap being the lowest-lift thing she does.
  • [24:30] Paid newsletter sponsorships. Amira was paid $2,500 for one solo email that sent the buyer roughly 600 leads. Liz on a student who spent $150 across two or three placements and got over 200 leads, and on getting on someone's list before you pitch them.
  • [26:45] What do you do when PDFs stop working? Samantha on giving people a preview: a chapter, a module, an open house. Liz on the definition being too narrow — your Facebook group, podcast, blog, or YouTube channel is a lead magnet if you've set it up for list growth.
  • [30:15] Liz goes rogue on the author question. Her friend grows a poetry list with a paper signup sheet at the library, vendor fairs, and a collab with a goat farm. Plus BookTok for introducing characters.
  • [33:30] Where do you find collaborations in a weird niche? Nadalie on figuring out who's already talking to your people, and Facebook group search. Destini and Amira on using AI to find newsletters in a narrow niche — Destini asked AI for ten, then pitched sponsorships. Tracy on the spider web: just tell people what you're looking for.
  • [39:45] What are you actually offering in a collab? Nadalie's four-part pitch formula: why them, who you are, what the collab is, what the next step is, plus a PS with credibility. Liz reframes it as mutual growth, and her opener is "can I pitch you an idea?" She's never gotten a no.
  • [45:00] Are collab unsubscribes a problem? Liz: unsubscribes are neutral to deliverability, stop worrying. Amira on running a two-week onboarding sequence instead of dumping people straight into the weekly newsletter. Liz on deliberately staying quiet during someone else's event and following up after.
  • [47:45] Do collabs need contracts? Amira on when you can skip it and when you can't. Email swaps, fine. Summits, sponsorships, joint ventures, and podcast guests need agreements — mostly for asset rights. The last copyright case she helped settle was about half a million dollars.
  • [51:45] Rapid fire: list size vs. health, favorite subject line moves, and the one email tool nobody would give up.


Grab the panelist gifts: https://lab.destinicopp.com/closed-door-hub

Keep all five panels permanently, plus searchable transcripts, takeaways for each one, and the live Q4 Money Map session on the 20th. That's the Back Room, $47.