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Contrarian Thinking
Coaching B2C

Contrarian Thinking is a premium membership community that teaches people how to add cash-flowing income streams to their portfolios and achieve financial fr...

contrarianthinking.co · Founded 2019 · 62 public sources · Updated 26 days ago

Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 62 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →

How Contrarian Thinking Grew

Community-driven platform for unconventional business acquisitions.

How did Contrarian Thinking grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

Contrarian Thinking grew primarily through building a large email newsletter subscriber base by creating consistent, thought-provoking content that appealed to people wanting to improve their financial savvy. Growth was also driven by active engagement on social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit, as well as leveraging personal networks and partnerships to expand reach. Additionally, participation in podcasts and online communities, including private Facebook groups, contributed to audience growth and community support.

Channels

27 channels · grouped by how Contrarian Thinking grows

  • Email List Growth

    · 4 mentions · 4 sources
    “We posted on social media because it's sort of out there, and it's not exactly in somebody's face. But what we did that I think will accelerate you the quickest, your first, let's call it couple hundred subscribers, is we pinged it to all of the people that we actually know personally via email. ...”
    high
    Show 3 more quotes
    “now we've got a couple thousand people on this email list and I want to grow it because I think there's an impact to be had.”
    high
    “From 2020 to 2021, we grew from just over 20,000 newsletter subscribers and no members to over 78,000 subscribers and 1,400 cashflow members. The goal of driving this growth was to create consistent thought-provoking content that appealed to people who wanted to improve their financial savvy.”
    high
    “One email, two high-value newsletters straight to your inbox. Each one delivers everything you need to be smarter than a private equity investor. 1,000,000+ Weekly Readers”
    medium

  • Partnerships

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “After you've exhausted your personal network and communities to grow your newsletter, start hitting up cross-promotions. Start with people at your same level, then bump it up.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “the 80-20 of what worked was relationships with other people she called, quote, circles of influence, centers of influence, rather. Some of these relationships were pre-existing, right?...some were new...think about the relationships and partnerships that you can lean on to get this thing off the...”
    medium
    “Another strategy that I have found advantageous is building the right partnerships and networks. I want to learn from those who have already achieved what we are trying to achieve and I want to be able to return the favor and help where I can.”
    medium

  • Organic social media

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “got hooked on Twitter, started realizing there's a whole world that isn't just rants on politics on there and started writing publicly, wrote publicly in a newsletter, got a, you know, couple humans who thought it was interesting there.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “we posted on social media because it's sort of out there, and it's not exactly in somebody's face.”
    high
    “We currently have over 100,000+ newsletter subscribers and a community of over 1.5 million people across our social media platforms with a run rate of $3m this year.”
    high

  • Online Community

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “I went and started posting it on public Facebook forums, you know, we have some mutual friends, but like the guys at the hustle and trends, you know, I would post it in there with a lot of value added content and then say like, Hey, I also wrote this, I'd be interested in your thoughts.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “As a newsletter creator, make yourself visible. Be guests on podcasts, provide value through Twitter, post valuable content in communities. Get the word out! Lead with value.”
    high
    “We were able to buy our first business within 4 months of joining."..."It's truly a genuine community filled with a wealth of knowledge. Everyone is always willing to go out of their way to help and share resources, insights, and connections."..."The community support is incredible."”
    medium

  • LinkedIn

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “As a newsletter creator, make yourself visible. Be guests on podcasts, provide value through Twitter, post valuable content in communities. Get the word out! Lead with value.”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “So like I'd go on LinkedIn, it's super easy to see who has a couple thousand followers. And you'll be surprised how many people do that you might know. So I DM them.”
    high
    “She now has a team helping with content production, so I’m going to focus heavily on these first 100,000 subscribers, because I think that’s what will be more relatable for most. Codie hit 100k subscribers in just 12 months…before getting good at any of the social channels you’re probably used to...”
    medium

  • Word of mouth

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “And as long as it's welcomed in somebody's inbox, then people are likely to stick around. People are likely to read it, to share it.”
    medium
    Show 1 more quote
    “Then one person told two people. Who told two more. Who told two more. Pretty soon the side job outgrew her weekends.”
    medium

  • Email marketing

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “the beauty is being in someone's inbox is probably the single best place to make a sale. So if you do have something to sell, doing it through a high value newsletter, I think is a great place to do it.”
    medium
    Show 1 more quote
    “They would be responsible for managing the full sales cycle process by engaging with prospects on social media and email.”
    medium

  • Referral Program

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “So viral loops is a way to benefit and give gifts to people who share your newsletter with others. So it's a referral-based marketing system. And it's all automated. So if you look at the history of newsletters, Morning Brew, The Hustle, all grew through this viral giveaway. And essentially, you'...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “That's when I started some, you know, growth hacking tactics, like asking for everybody to email it to one person that they thought might be interested in it.”
    high

  • Facebook Community

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “But you have a huge Facebook group. And actually, that's how we first connected, right, was I posted in a couple groups ... I did that in your group and in Trends and in like, The Hustle and My First Million, a few sites like that. And I got thousands of subscribers that way too ...”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Contrarian Cashflow ... private Facebook group to interact with other members, and weekly calls with her team.”
    medium

  • Webinars

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “And we experimented first with a webinar. And this webinar was open so people could ask questions. ... So that's where I got my little ding, ding, ding. This is interesting. I could do one call a month like this, and I could only allow premium members on it.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “and so we would essentially AB test every single newsletter.”
    medium

  • Reddit

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “As a newsletter creator, make yourself visible. Be guests on podcasts, provide value through Twitter, post valuable content in communities. Get the word out! Lead with value.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Codie even started using Reddit to try and spread the word. But she knew it was a platform that you couldn’t just jump into randomly and be successful.”
    medium

  • Newsletter

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “And the reason that it did that is I did a course on top of it. The course, no ads, you know, no big marketing push, no big influencers posted it, but it was solely through pushing out to the newsletter, this online course.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “we have this newsletter called Contrarian Thinking, and it goes out every single week, and my goal with it there is twofold. It's one, to make people think, and two, to help people make money”
    high

  • Weekly newsletter

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “probably the best is contrary and thinking.co. That's the newsletter. Sign up a comment section. I love to hear all the comments and read them.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Every Thursday Contrarian Thinking is a weekly newsletter. It’s like having a rich friend who wants to share all their money-making and empire-building secrets with you.”
    medium

  • Lead magnets

    · 1 mention
    “My first few subscribers were friends, family, and old coworkers… I did a mail merge to my entire Google contacts list and wrote them a note about what I was building. I told them my goal, what the newsletter would be about, and how it would help people, and simply asked them to subscribe to foll...”
    high

  • Twitter

    · 1 mention
    “While tweeting is great for growing a following and getting subscribers, it also can lead to you rubbing elbows with some big names in….podcasts. ... Make a list of 10-15 podcasts that would be super relevant to your industry ... Go through that list 2-3x per day and engage with everything those ...”
    medium

  • Guest Podcast

    · 1 mention
    “Since then, I’ve found over 100 podcast appearances for Codie. I overlaid them onto this chart to give you an understanding of just how frequently she has been on podcasts.”
    medium

  • Buzz Campaigning

    · 1 mention
    “Facebook Groups Posting in Facebook Groups was another method Codie used early on to get more eyeballs and subscribers to the newsletter. She would take one of her articles, or a business idea she was highlighting and post about it in those groups.”
    medium

  • Building in public

    · 1 mention
    “I hacked a lot of other people's networks in order to grow it.”
    high

  • Existing Tik Tok Content

    · 1 mention
    “Codie now runs cross promotions with large newsletters like Sahil Bloom, Noah Kagan, and Ali Abdaal. All of these have over 100-150k subscribers, and likely bring in thousands of new subscribers for her.”
    medium

  • Content marketing

    · 1 mention
    “So the reason why I write so much content, I'm on Twitter and whatever is my DMS are filled with some weirdos, but also a lot of really good business deals and people looking to sell their businesses. And so, um, if you really want to play in this space, I would say the best thing to do is to sta...”
    high

  • Integrations

    · 1 mention
    “Contrarian Cashflow ... private Facebook group to interact with other members, and weekly calls with her team.”
    medium

  • Podcasts

    · 1 mention
    “Then August rolls around, and Codie ends up on the Pomp Podcast – which is a top 10 podcast. If you think it had nothing to do with the relationship they built via Twitter, I think you’re crazy.”
    medium

  • Personal network

    · 1 mention
    “Codie is not afraid to ask people in her life to join the newsletter. She emailed a lot of old contacts she found in Gmail and messaged friends she hadn’t been in touch with in a while.”
    high

  • Community marketing

    · 1 mention
    “If you're looking to grow your newsletter quickly, start by joining every community there is that's related to your niche. Provide massive value and then pitch them your newsletter. Leverage other people's audiences to build your own.”
    high

  • Leveraging existing platforms

    · 1 mention
    “But if you use the fact that their model is so easy, you don't have to spend a ton of time or money building anything, and instead put some time and money into growth hacking, then that's where I think Substack is actually really great.”
    medium

  • Press

    · 1 mention
    “After cross-promotions start with podcasts and other media.”
    high

  • LinkedIn outreach

    · 1 mention
    “So like I'd go on LinkedIn, it's super easy to see who has a couple thousand followers ... So I DM them. ... So you're reaching out to these people, you have some sort of warm connection with some sort of preexisting relationship with, hey, I built this thing. I think it would be valuable. Here's...”
    high

How 3,299 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — Contrarian Thinking’s highlighted.
  • Social media
    64% ◀
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    63% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    58%
  • Email
    47% ◀
  • Community
    37% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    35% ◀
  • Partnerships
    32% ◀
  • Events
    24% ◀
  • Paid ads
    23%
  • Outbound/Sales
    19%
  • Press/PR
    17% ◀
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    12% ◀
  • Podcasting
    4%
  • Influencer partnerships
    3%
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