Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business 1153: A 50K person newsletter in 3 months!? You can grow YOUR newsletter for $100/month w/ Evan Kozliner
What if building a high-performing newsletter didn’t require hours of content creation or expensive software? Evan Kozliner, co-founder of Potions, shares how he scaled his AI-powered newsletter to 50,000 subscribers in just 3 months—and how you can do it too. With a deep background in AI and experience working with brands like Amazon, Sephora, and Fashion Nova, Evan breaks down exactly how entrepreneurs can use AI and email marketing to drive real results. This episode is packed with practical insights on audience building, content creation, and how to finally get your newsletter strategy off the ground.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
- 🚀 How Evan grew a personalized newsletter to 50,000 subscribers in 90 days (and how you can apply his playbook)
- 🤖 The two-tier internet strategy—and why your email list is 10x more valuable than your social followers
- 💌 Why consistent, high-value newsletters drive sales, retention, and referrals (even with a tiny list)
- 🎯 How to turn just 15 minutes of your time into a full week of newsletter + LinkedIn content
- 🧲 What makes Potions different from generic AI tools and why their hybrid approach drives better engagement
- 📥 Actionable ideas for agencies, consultants, and service-based businesses to stay top of mind with prospects
📝 About the Guest
Evan is the co-founder and CEO of Potions. Before starting Potions, Evan helped big brands like Sephora and Fashion Nova automate their email and SMS marketing at Attentive Mobile, where he was the first AI hire 5 years ago.
Evan has been passionate about AI's power to make people's lives better since he was in college. He went to Ohio State where he specialized in AI for his undergraduate degree and conducted cancer research for the Bioinformatics department.
After school, he worked for Amazon's cloud org, AWS, for a couple of years. Then left Amazon to join Attentive Mobile where he got his hands dirty doing AI powered marketing.
When he saw how effective the email and SMS he was producing for large brands was, he became excited about how many of the same techniques could be applied to help smaller businesses automate their content marketing.
Having recently blitz-scaled his own AI-powered newsletter to 50,000 subscribers in just 3 months, he knew a thing or two about newsletter marketing, and decided to start there.
🎯 Guest’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
🗣️ “Marketing IS product—if your content isn’t solving a problem, it’s not valuable.”
💥 Key Takeaways from Evan’s Advice:
- ✔ Good marketing provides real value, not just promotions—focus on solving a customer’s problem
- ✔ Content should feel like a product in itself, not an afterthought
- ✔ Consistency and relevance are key—make people want to open your emails
📢 Memorable Quotes
“You can make money with just a couple hundred people on your list—if they’re the right people.”
“We don’t use templates. We build blueprints—custom-designed newsletters tailored to your brand.”
“Think of email like a handwritten letter—it’s personal, direct, and powerful.”
💡 Actionable Takeaways
- ✅ Start building your list NOW—even if you're just getting started
- ✅ Invest in high-value, personalized content—not just copy-paste AI fluff
- ✅ Use email to stay top of mind and nurture relationships—not just make sales
- ✅ Let tech and experts like Potions help you scale without losing your voice
🔗 Links & Resources