🌟 Editor's Note
Welcome to the fourth edition of the Owned & Operating Newsletter! We've got a packed newsletter full of insights, events, and inspiring stories from the world of owned media.
Also thanks to the 15 people that subscribed in the past 7 days!
1️⃣ The Weekly Play
Why This Content Creator Cut Her Email List in Half (And You Should Too)
You own your email audience, and no algorithm can mess with your reach.
But here's the thing: many founders focus on growing their list fast instead of growing it right.
Victoria Kurichenko learned this the hard way.
She was obsessed with subscriber count and let anyone join without verification.
Her open rates were stuck at 30-35%. Deliverability was tanking because too many emails were bouncing or going unopened.
So she did something bold. She deleted half her email list. She also:
Activated double opt-in to stop fake signups from hurting deliverability
Segmented subscribers based on engagement levels and behavior
Set up automation to remove people who don't engage for 90+ days
The result? Open rates jumped to 70-80% almost overnight.
Interesting, right? See how Victoria rebuilt her entire email strategy and the exact tools she used to do it here.
2️⃣ This Week in Growth
How WorkplaceBuddy Got 4.1M Online Impressions With Smart PR
WorkplaceBuddy had a problem most B2B startups face: zero media presence. So they partnered with PRLab to fix it.
PRLab:
Made their CEO the face of the brand with podcast interviews and media commentary
Helped them jump on trending topics in AI and remote work to offer expert opinions
Allowed them to focus on thought leadership instead of generic company promotion
The results:
20 media publications covered them
4.13M total online readership reached
144K estimated coverage views
CEO Sjoerd Koolen became a recognized voice in the digital workplace space
3️⃣ Owned Intel
3 Headlines You Shouldn’t Miss This Week:
Why Every Newsletter Needs Its Own Website (And How to Launch One Fast). Turn email subscribers into search traffic and evergreen content.
OpenAI’s Big GPT-5 Launch Gets Bumpy. Basic mistakes and broken features.
YouTube Lets Creators Pick Exact CTAs in Promote Website Ads. Think “Book now” or “Get quote.”
4️⃣ The Scroll Stopper
This Pricing Page Has 60-Second Videos (And It’s Genius)
Kyle Poyar from Growth Unhinged spotted something brilliant on Monday.com's pricing page. 60-second videos explaining exactly why you'd want each plan.
Kyle's obsessed with it, and so are we. Stop dumping your product team's feature matrix on your pricing page and start explaining what buyers can do.
5️⃣ In the Loop
Watch Neil Patel Talk About a Paradox
Neil Patel just dropped a 42-second explainer. Your polished, branded emails are getting flagged as promotions and tanking your open rates.
@neilpatel Your 'Professional' Emails Are Hurting You. Here's the Fix! The more your emails mirror personal messages (plain text, minimal branding, c... See more
📣 Forward or Reply
If you liked this edition of Owned & Operating, forward it to a founder who needs to start building their media engine.
🎥 Sponsor Spotlight: Newsletter
Spacebar Studios are offering to set up a brand-new newsletter for free for subscribers of this newsletter.
If you run a company doing $1M–$50M in revenue and want a growth channel that compounds every time you hit “send,” I’d book a call by clicking on the image below ASAP while slots are still open.
📣 Forward or Reply
If you liked this edition of Owned & Operating, forward it to a founder who needs to stop renting audience — and start owning it.