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“During my last year as a CFO, I made more money from my newsletter and podcast than my full-time job." — CJ Gustafson, Mostly Metrics

We sit down with CJ Gustafson, former tech CFO and now full-time creator of two newsletters—Mostly Metrics and Looking For Leverage—and a podcast called Run The Numbers. CJ is masterful at taking financial and business concepts and making them wildly entertaining.

CJ shares how he went from consulting and private equity to running a high-revenue content business, why he thinks about content like product development, and the systems he’s built to keep ideas flowing. If you’ve ever wondered how to blend expertise, humor, and growth strategy into a newsletter people can’t stop sharing, this episode is packed with insights.

PS - We recently hosted CJ in the GIR Pro community where he shared more BTS of his newsletter 👀🔥

→ Take your newsletter to the next level with GIR Pro >>

KEY TAKEAWAYS

How CJ built Mostly Metrics into a leading finance newsletter with personality
The unusual career path that prepared him for creating content CFOs actually read
How CJ uses humor (and dog pics) to make complex topics approachable
How he's building out the “media mullet” business model
How CJ replaced his CFO salary with newsletter and podcast revenue—and why it happened faster than expected
CJ's revenue streams that drive a multi‑six‑figure media revenue engine
How he uses AI and transcripts to mine hundreds of hours of interviews for writing ideas
CJ's favorite—and most important—newsletter metric
The single biggest growth hack for his podcast audience
His daily creative routine for producing high-value content without burning out

LINKS MENTIONED

Mostly Metrics newsletter
Run The Numbers podcast
Looking For Leverage newsletter
CJ on LinkedIn
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Thanks to Tim Forkin for editing these episodes.

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