I built a $100K Newsletter Business (Here’s How) | 123

[00:00:00] Nathan: You probably know me as the founder of kit, which is an email marketing platform that automates your growth. But there’s actually another business that I started that most people dunno about. It’s a local newsletter called From Boise and I brought on the right person to run it. That person is Marissa LaBelle.

[00:00:13] Marissa: We recently started from Boise Dinner Club. We said, Hey, I’m thinking about this dinner club and if we’re gonna a hundred people, let’s try it. And we had 656 people say yes. And I was like. Oh boy. I guess we’re definitely doing this.

[00:00:25] Nathan: Our readers are some of the most engaged I’ve ever seen. I’d argue she has more influence with her list than most creators have with 10 times that number.

[00:00:32] Nathan: How this thing makes money.

[00:00:34] Marissa: Discount Cards. Dinner Club. I sold merch t-shirts. Stickers. I also had a meetup group called BFFs, and I planned different monthly meetups. Is monetizing it in a way that feels good and makes sense for everybody involved.

[00:00:46] Nathan: I love that. Today, Marissa and I get into how it all happened, the monetization experiments she ran, how she shaped the voice and personality of the emails, and what it took to go from working part-time on the newsletter.

[00:00:56] Nathan: The full-time. You crossed six figures in revenue last year. Mm-hmm. Which is a huge milestone. What were some of the points along the way where you were figuring out,

[00:01:04] Marissa: well, so

[00:01:10] Nathan: we’re gonna have a conversation about Boise, about starting things, uh, running small companies, the future of media and whatever else seems interesting.

[00:01:21] Guest 2: Yeah.

[00:01:21] Nathan: So, we’ll, we’ve got some things that we, we can talk through and then I’ll. We can also take some time and questions and all of that. So if there’s things that you wanna know, uh, but maybe we can kick it off with what made you choose Boise?

[00:01:33] Nathan: How’d you come to Boise?

[00:01:34] Marissa: So, despite the name of my newsletter, I’m actually not from Boise. I am from, um, uh, wheat Farm in eastern Oregon. And I actually came to Boise in 2011 to go to school to go to Boise State. The reason why I chose Boise is not as cool as the reason why I chose to stay in Boise. Um, I chose to come to Boise ’cause nobody else from my high school had come here.

[00:01:56] Marissa: I was kind of trying to get away. Um, but then after I graduated, I. Was just very, very lucky to land a job at Red Sky PR working for the amazing Jess Flynn. Mm-hmm. Who like changed my life and, um, in that job, I, it was where I started writing about Boise and like I just working downtown. I just became immersed in this whole world of Boise that I.

[00:02:20] Marissa: Didn’t know about as a student and um, yeah, I cannot imagine being anywhere else. Mm-hmm. What about you? How’d you, how’d you get to Boise?

[00:02:30] Nathan: Uh, well I was born here, so, uh, I was born if anyone’s run, has anyone run Raced River Creek. Maybe No, Russ has. There we go. Uh, so if you, if you go up toward, if you do the, the course for Race River Creek, uh, I was born in Rocky Canyon.

[00:02:45] Nathan: So you run by the little house. I was born in a tiny house before Tiny houses were cool. Um, I think it was just, ’cause it was just a very small house, um, but grew up in the mountains outside of, uh, outside of Boise, up towards city and um, yeah, went to Boise State. I don’t know. They just stayed here all along.

[00:03:05] Nathan: Everyone always asks like, um, why Boise? And it’s, I find it’s hard to explain, but I love it so much and I’ve traveled so many places. Um, but I’ve actually never been away from Boise for more than six weeks. Like, that is the longest period of time I’ve ever been away. I’ve been there like a couple of times, but everyone’s like, oh, you went somewhere else for college?

[00:03:25] Nathan: Nope, just always back to Boise. I think I’ve been to 38 countries or something. Uh, Boise is home. We’ll always be home. Um, and so, yeah, I guess, uh, by the way of a, a little bit of quick background. I went to Boise State for graphic design and then marketing, and then dropped out after two years, I think. Um, and then started a web design business.

[00:03:47] Nathan: Well, worked for a company called Unity out in Eagle, and just worked for a few Boise companies. And then have been doing my own thing for a long time. So I run a email marketing company called Kit, um, founded here in Boise, but we’re global and we do email marketing for, uh, all kinds of things. Uh, whether it’s big content creators or authors like a James Clear or Andrew Huberman to celebrities like Tom Brady and Dua Lipa and, and, uh.

[00:04:12] Nathan: Then we run some other newsletters that are very special to me. Like from Boise.

[00:04:16] Marissa: Yeah. Okay. So what made you wanna start a local newsletter about your hometown?

[00:04:23] Nathan: Okay, so that’s, everyone probably thinks, uh, that Marissa started from Boise. Actually, I started it. I’m not trying to take credit for her work.

[00:04:32] Nathan: That is just how it actually came to be. But, uh, a friend of mine named Andrew Wilkinson lives in Victoria, uh, British Columbia, which is this beautiful city, and he, he ran this newsletter called, um, capital Daily. And it was all about the news and events, um, in Victoria. And I, I love the format of email newsletters and that, that content, um, and just having such a local feel to it.

[00:04:56] Nathan: And so I saw what he did there and I was like, oh, I love Boise at least as much as you love Victoria. Like, I should do something like that. And actually we were up in McCall over Christmas, um, when would that have been? 2020.

[00:05:09] Guest 3: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:09] Nathan: Um, and just talking with family and I had this idea and, and we started brainstorming it and it was like, okay, we should actually make this happen.

[00:05:18] Nathan: And so I like wrote up and I, uh, format for it, like made, um, a job listing and it then it was actually Jess Flynn. Mm-hmm. Uh, who I’ve known for a long time. And Marissa has as well, who connected the two of us.

[00:05:33] Guest 4: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:33] Nathan: And like, I don’t know, a few dozen people applied for the, for the job, uh, as you know, the editor to take this, this concept and build it into something and.

[00:05:42] Nathan: Marissa was the person who completely stood out and was like, this is a great idea you have, here’s what it should be. And kind of

[00:05:51] Marissa: took charge from that. Like, I’m doing this.

[00:05:54] Nathan: Yeah. What was your experience when, uh, when Jess sent you the, the job listing?

[00:05:59] Marissa: Yeah, so, um, like I said, I, when I was working at Red Sky is like when I started writing about from Boise, which was.

[00:06:06] Marissa: Like 10, 11 years ago now. And actually like how I really started writing about Boise was, um, we had a client at Red Sky called B vep Boise Valley Economic Partnership. And I loved working, I loved having them as a client because I didn’t even know what economic development was when I started working there.

[00:06:23] Marissa: I was like 21. And, um, but I, we started this blog that I was in charge of called Grow Ideas here. Does anybody remember this? Okay, thanks Russ. Russ was every, so no one really read it, but, but it was called your ideas here. And, um, I mean, looking back from where I am now, it’s like an early from Boise, like I would, um, interview companies who were either like relocating or bringing their.

[00:06:47] Marissa: Companies here, um, you know, business owners, and I would like write these profiles. Um, basically what I do now. And so I’ve been doing that and then I started freelancing. And so I was still writing about Boise, but like for, you know, IVR and visit Idaho. And, um, then I had started working on reviving this music site called Go List in Boise.

[00:07:07] Marissa: Does anybody remember Go List in Boise? Yes, of course you do. Chili. Okay. So I was like, um, I was working on reviving that and then Jess sent me. This tweet and she’s like, do you know this guy? And I’m like, no, I don’t. Um, but that is, she was like, you’re made, this is made for you. And, um, and it totally was.

[00:07:29] Marissa: And you know, at the time I was also working at True Fort Music Fest and like freelancing, it was so easy for me to see the path of from Boise, like, you know, more so than anything else I’ve ever done. Um. And yeah, I just kinda hit the ground running. I mean, it was kind of hard for me to figure out what, I think I wrote like four really long stories and then was like, what am I, what is from Boise?

[00:07:50] Marissa: You know? ’cause it didn’t have any sort of, uh, brand And I had been freelance writing for other people and um, so I just wrote it from me and sent it out.

[00:08:00] Nathan: Yeah. And we pretty much had the same format from the beginning. Uhhuh of the long form story on Tuesday and then the, the Thursday of here’s what’s happening, uh, what to plan for the weekend.

[00:08:08] Guest 3: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:09] Nathan: And it was just, we grew it with a combination of social media. Um, we ran some Facebook ads. Mm-hmm. That was actually a funny moment of the Facebook ad that we ran for a while, was me walking through Freak Alley and just saying like, Hey, that’s Nathan. I started a local newsletter and I, I did it in Freak Alley so that people would, would notice the location, be like, oh, this is actually.

[00:08:32] Nathan: A Boise thing.

[00:08:32] Guest 2: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:33] Nathan: And so I’d be playing soccer, like, uh, indoor soccer or volleyball or something. And people that I only knew from that would be like, I saw you on Facebook, you have a newsletter. But it was fun as it grew over time. ’cause there’d be, um, all kinds of things that were just incredible to promote in Boise.

[00:08:50] Nathan: Like another friend started a, um, a coffee truck that was at the, um. All the food truck’s there. And he was like, yeah, we’re just getting going. We don’t quite, like, it’s busy on the weekends, but we don’t have, uh, traffic in weekdays. And I was like, oh, lemme tell you about my side project. I have, at the time it was probably 10,000 people uhhuh on a local newsletter.

[00:09:11] Nathan: And like, we can promote that. Mm-hmm. And so Marissa would be like, oh, this is a great story and we, you know, feature that in. And so it was really fun to have, um, this ability, this platform to be able to bring and, you know, bring visitors and traffic and attention to. All these people are doing great things.

[00:09:25] Nathan: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:26] Marissa: Yeah. And I think like the time that we started from Boise was interesting. It was 2021, so January of 2021 I think is when. Mm-hmm. And we, I sent the first one on March 30th, 2021. Um, so I’m coming up on five years. Yeah. That’s wild. Yeah. Five years. And you

[00:09:42] Nathan: tell everyone how many subscribers it has now.

[00:09:43] Marissa: It’s pretty, we have, uh, 24,072 when I look today.

[00:09:48] And

[00:09:48] Nathan: she knows every single one of them person I’ll.

[00:09:50] Marissa: Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Um. Something that really drew me to this because, you know, I was kind of working on this music blog, but the newsletter format, like there was not other, other local newsletters at the time.

[00:10:02] Marissa: Mm-hmm. Um, like there is now, you know, there’s a couple other ones in Boise and, and really across the country, like they’re really, it’s gaining a lot of momentum,

[00:10:09] Nathan: but I knew of one local newsletter. I was gonna say nationwide, but it’s actually in Canada.

[00:10:14] Marissa: Yeah.

[00:10:14] Nathan: So like at the time we started, there’s just the one, and now there’s probably hundreds

[00:10:17] Marissa: Oh yeah.

[00:10:18] Nathan: Across the country. But, but it was a very new thing.

[00:10:20] Marissa: Yeah. Yeah. And so that was very exciting to me ’cause I like doing things that mm-hmm. Whether people haven’t done or, you know, just like taking something in, uh, something that’s like new and exciting. Um, but it just immediately clicked for me to like, what a cool format that I can just, I mean, I love writing emails in general and letters, but, um.

[00:10:39] Marissa: Uh, yeah, it was just like such a cool format to just like get to actually talk to, you know, if you get from Boise, it’s like, it’s actually from me. And it just felt like such a natural way to write the newsletter because it is for me and I’m writing to you. Um, so yeah, that was just like I’ve, I still am excited about that.

[00:10:58] Marissa: Like, I still just love that format.

[00:11:00] Nathan: Well, and I think the, the cool thing about newsletters. It’s something that I’ve spent a lot of time in. But is you, you know, you had your blog, but it, it was how do you actually push the content Yeah. Out to people.

[00:11:10] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:11] Nathan: And so with the newsletter, you’re able to say, okay, here it will show up in everyone’s inbox, and, and you don’t have to go pull people into you, you can

[00:11:18] Marissa: mm-hmm.

[00:11:18] Nathan: Um, push out to them. So that was really good. One of my favorite things that you brought to the format though. Is the just trust me.

[00:11:25] Marissa: Oh. Mm-hmm.

[00:11:26] Nathan: And

[00:11:27] Marissa: it’s always the most click thing.

[00:11:29] Nathan: And, and so there’s also like, you brought this style and personality to everything. Like, it feels like, um, you know, the, with love from Boise, right?

[00:11:37] Nathan: Mm-hmm. It’s got this, um, style and so, so many people. You know, love following you. Mm-hmm. You love your voice and it’s been really fun.

[00:11:43] Marissa: Yep. I actually borrow, I borrowed or like stole that from another newsletter. Ann Helen Peterson, she writes about, um, culture. She lives in Montana and I’ve been following her newsletter for, for years.

[00:11:55] Marissa: She was kind of like, she was actually one of the first like journalists who got laid off and started a newsletter. Um, and she has a distrust me that’s. It’s kind of like, it’s a lot of like other essays or something, but mine’s just all over the board. You never know what it is.

[00:12:10] Nathan: What’s one of your favorite things that you’ve put behind the Just trust me link.

[00:12:13] Marissa: Oh my gosh. I mean, there’s so many, but usually in October, I love Halloween, so I try to like make the newsletter spooky. Um, and so I usually try to find some like music videos that are not actual Halloween songs, but like the. Music video checks out and those are always kinda weird ’cause they’re music videos.

[00:12:38] Nathan: I think something that stands out to me about it is the connection with the audience. Mm-hmm. And you know, if we think about total view count or the number of subscribers, like on one hand it’s a lot of people, like there’s 24,000 people. In this city. Actually, one thing that surprised me is how many people don’t live in Boise who read the newsletter on a very regular basis.

[00:13:00] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:00] Nathan: Like what are some of the examples you hear from

[00:13:02] Marissa: that? I mean, I hear it all the time. It’s, it’s, I don’t know exactly what it is now, ’cause it’s been a while since I asked that on a survey. But I mean, for a while it was like 20% and it was either people who were thinking about moving here and were just kind of like researching, which I’ve talked to many people now who.

[00:13:19] Marissa: Um, say, you know, I, like I was thinking about moving here and followed your blog and that’s, or your newsletter and that’s why I moved. Like, you, you are one of the reasons, um, which is awesome. And then it’s people who used to live here and just wanna, you know, keep in touch or it’s people like, you know, my parents who just wanna know like, what’s, what’s going on in Boise and they don’t live here.

[00:13:41] Marissa: Um, but it’s also, I, I do have a lot of parents of college students, so like they’re just wanting to. To know what’s going on in the city that their kid lives in, you know? Mm-hmm. Um, but yeah, it’s always been really cool. And, and even, I mean, obviously most of the people are in the Treasure Valley, but like McCall, sun Valley, I mean, people who are going to come here on a regular basis, they totally follow it and they save, save things to come and, uh, you know, visit when they, when they come down.

[00:14:08] Nathan: Yeah. That’s really fun. But the idea of the level of connection that you’ve built with all of these different. Um, subscribers, like something that I think about a lot is we, in everything we do online, we hear a lot about view counts, right? There’s a thousand people or 10,000 people or all of that, and it often doesn’t mean that much of a connection.

[00:14:28] Nathan: It’s just passive views. And so something that. I’ve really been impressed with, as I’ve watched from Boise. ’cause I, I have this weird relationship of like, started the thing, helped fund it, got everything going, and then really just left you to do your

[00:14:42] Marissa: own thing. I’m always like, yeah, he started, but he doesn’t do anything.

[00:14:46] Marissa: He like answers my questions every once in a while.

[00:14:49] Nathan: Um, I try to be useful, but I don’t try hard. But is this idea of building an audience versus a crowd. And so I think a lot of times on online we have these people we follow, but you don’t really care about them or someone, you know, a content creator has a ton of people, a ton of views, but there’s not really a relationship there.

[00:15:10] Nathan: And so what stood out to me, like I think of that as a crowd. It’s just a bunch of people. They don’t really, they may be passively interacting, whereas what you have is like a real audience where. People engage, they show up to events, they mm-hmm. Uh, they reply to all of the emails. Mm-hmm. All of this, the stuff.

[00:15:27] Nathan: What have been some of your examples of like, it seemed like an audience and not just a crowd of

[00:15:31] Marissa: people? Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing, and you know, something that I think about is like, what does it mean to have influence and like, what does that look like? And for me, I mean, people. Not only are they going and doing the things, but then they’ll report back about like how it was and, and what, you know, what it was like.

[00:15:48] Marissa: And hey, next time you talk about this, like you should, I mean, a great example of this is over, um, the holidays. I, you know, I talked about a bunch of different holiday markets. It was in the Plan Ahead newsletter and I talked about the Bruno Cowboy Christmas, which is amazing event. I don’t know if anybody’s been there, but it’s so good.

[00:16:04] Marissa: Um, this market takes. Over all of Bruno, which is, you know, south of Boise. And this guy wrote back and he said, um, you know, we went, it was amazing. If anything, I would’ve gotten there earlier. You should tell everyone to get there earlier. Also, just so you know, if you are like me and you’re bringing your family along, they have puppies for sale and it will be very hard to tell your children that they cannot have a puppy from this Christmas market.

[00:16:30] Marissa: I mean, stuff like that, it’s just like. That’s so cool that, you know, and then of course I write back. And so it’s, it’s this conversation. It’s not just like something that somebody saw, you know, and maybe sent to their friend on Instagram. Like, yes, that’s also great, but they went and they did it with their family and he knows that I am a real person and like reported back with real information.

[00:16:51] Marissa: Um, so yeah, I just, you know, I think that’s. I have so many people that I feel, you know, when we meet in person, they’re like, wait, yeah, I feel like I know you. I’m like, me too, because we’ve been emailing. Um, so yeah, I, I I think it’s so cool to have that connection with

[00:17:07] Nathan: mm-hmm.

[00:17:07] Marissa: With my readers. Like I, it’s really, it’s so special

[00:17:11] Nathan: you hear this term thrown around of influencer and I think a lot of people who are called an influencer don’t actually have influence.

[00:17:19] Nathan: And so what does it mean to have influence? Like if you say, Hey, I would like a hundred people. On a random weeknight to all get dinner together. They go, yeah, okay. They do it.

[00:17:29] Marissa: Yeah.

[00:17:29] Nathan: Right.

[00:17:30] Marissa: Yeah.

[00:17:30] Nathan: It’s like, talk about the, the dinner parties

[00:17:32] Marissa: that you

[00:17:32] Nathan: now throw.

[00:17:32] Marissa: Yeah. Um, yeah, so we recently started from Boise Dinner Club.

[00:17:36] Marissa: We did the first one in January and had so, um. I mean, backing up a little bit is that I, you know, anytime I’m like, I think of everything kind of as an experiment. So like every time I’m gonna try something, I, you know, put it out there and say, Hey, here’s an idea. What do you think about this? And a great feature that Kit has is Pulse.

[00:17:56] Marissa: So it’s really easy for me to say, Hey, here’s my idea. Like, you know, yes or no? Um, what do you think? And, but you can actually put up to five options. That’s really a great feature. Um, but, so anyways, I, um. Said, Hey, I’m thinking about this dinner club. You know, this is how it would be. You fill out a, a questionnaire kind of about, you know, who you’re hoping to meet.

[00:18:18] Marissa: Like, you know, what kind of person are you at dinner? Are you more of an introvert? Are you an extrovert? Um, ’cause you can’t have all the introverts together, you know? Um, that’s

[00:18:27] Guest 4: never gonna work.

[00:18:27] Marissa: Yeah. There’s gonna be awkward. Um, but they, uh, you know, and then you would. You’ll go and get dinner, but it’s at a, you won’t find out the place until the day of, um, you know, would you go?

[00:18:40] Marissa: And I told, uh, Leslie, who, who works with me, um, she’s the only other person up from Boise. Um, uh, I said, if we’re gonna a hundred people, let’s try it. And we had 656 people say yes. And I was like, oh boy, I guess we’re definitely doing this. And then the first one. Had, um, 96 people. The second one had 105 and this one just sold out at 120.

[00:19:06] Marissa: Um, and I think we’re gonna start doing ’em twice a month. And it’s so cool. Like people really, really are making these genuine connections at the, at the February dinner, so our third dinner’s on Friday. Um, but at the February dinner I had a, a group. That reconnected at the after party. They had all met at the first dinner in January and they’re like, yeah, we’ve already been hanging out.

[00:19:27] Marissa: We just had coffee on Tuesday. And then we were all kind of bummed that we like weren’t seated together again. Um, but they knew it was, it’s the point of the event. But yeah.

[00:19:35] Nathan: So just if anyone didn’t follow the format of what it is, is everyone’s like groups of six or eight people.

[00:19:42] Marissa: Yeah. Six. And we are gonna experiment with eight.

[00:19:44] Marissa: But um, yeah, six people to table

[00:19:46] Nathan: and restaurants. All around. Mm-hmm. Did you do 10, 10 to 15? How many different

[00:19:50] Marissa: restaurants? We have, uh, we have 12 different rest. 19 tables at 12 different restaurants for Friday.

[00:19:57] Nathan: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And so you’re just going out with a bunch of strangers. Mm-hmm. The thing that you have in common is that you love voice.

[00:20:04] Nathan: And you love this weird little newsletter about Boise and you’re up for trying something new,

[00:20:10] Marissa: Uhhuh.

[00:20:10] Nathan: And then afterwards there’s an after party where everyone can gather up and

[00:20:14] Marissa: mm-hmm.

[00:20:15] Nathan: Connect and, and all of that.

[00:20:16] Marissa: Yeah. Okay. Another story though about people just having this wild amount of trust in me is, um, there, so in October I wanted to try.

[00:20:27] Marissa: So some feedback that I’ve always gotten is like, Hey, we would love some deals with local businesses, you know, like discounts. And so I, um, decided I was gonna make a Boise discount card and it’s, it’s a punch card with 12 different local businesses on it, and you get 10% off at each local business. And I was, had been thinking about it and I was like, I’m just gonna do it.

[00:20:47] Marissa: And so I put it up for sale and emailed the 12 businesses at the same time. And so I was, I was just said, you know, Hey, here’s this. This is what it is and I’ll let you know what, I’ll let you know who’s involved. And like 36 people bought one without know, like immediately without knowing even where they were gonna get a discount.

[00:21:11] Marissa: And they just, um, yeah. And they were just happy to. To support me and just, I don’t know, I guess it was a surprise whenever they, they did figure out what they bought.

[00:21:23] Nathan: Hey, I hope you’re enjoying this episode and I’m gonna just quickly jump in to tell you about Craft and Commerce. It’s the annual conference that we host at Kit for creators who are serious about building a real business.

[00:21:33] Nathan: We host it every June here in Boise, Idaho. As so much of our work shifts to ai, the thing you can’t replicate is being in the room with other creators. Get what you’re building. We have incredible speakers and workshops, but honestly, the real value is the people you’ll meet and the relationships you’ll build.

[00:21:51] Nathan: We sold out last year, and this year is gonna sell out really soon. So you wanna grab your ticket, go to kit.com/conference. There’s a couple different directions we could go from here. One is around what’s go to monetization for a second.

[00:22:04] Guest 4: Okay. Yeah.

[00:22:04] Nathan: Like how this thing makes money. Mm-hmm. Because you’ve talked about a few of these experiments.

[00:22:10] Nathan: Mm-hmm. And just. Trying things, throwing out there. What are a few of the different things that you’ve thrown out there? There are the discount cards. What else have we tried?

[00:22:18] Marissa: Yeah, discount cards, dinner club. Um, I’ve sold merch t-shirts. If you have a from voice T-shirt, that’s like a limited edition. Um, stickers.

[00:22:27] Marissa: And I also had a meetup group called BFFs, um, that started in 2023 and it was either $9 a month or $99 a year. And I planned different monthly meetups, like we played Boise trivia. One time I wrote all the questions. It’s really fun and um. We like just went, we went to the spirit of Boise Balloon Festival together.

[00:22:48] Marissa: We went to a concert, we went to, um, barbarian and just like got beers and hung out on the patio. It was just this very informal, um, meetup group and it’s, it, it just was hard for me to plan the events. Like it was a, um, it was a hard, at the time I was pretty much doing everything. It was just me. Um, and so it was just, it was just hard for me to spread my time.

[00:23:11] Marissa: Um, but that kind of has become dinner club. And so it’s, it, it was an experiment that then, you know, became, the next iteration is, is dinner club.

[00:23:21] Nathan: Well, and the thing that stood out to me is from, as we would talk about these ideas and you’d run some things by me and, and all of that, and. I would’ve expected that, hey, let’s host an event of trivia and people can be part of this membership and it’d be a bigger group thing that that would work better than go have dinner with five other strangers.

[00:23:41] Nathan: Mm-hmm. But it turns out the first one worked. Mm-hmm. And people loved it, but it ran into some of the issues you talked about. But the dinner club is like far and away the hit. Yeah. Like month after month. Mm-hmm. Selling out and, and so this idea of experimentation, like that’s the thing that we’ve always done, is just like, mm-hmm.

[00:23:58] Nathan: Thankfully a newsletter doesn’t really cost much of anything to start. And, you know, we’re like handing out different things or different ideas, uhhuh from social or any of that to, um, to get people to sign up for it. Mm-hmm. But then like the barrier entry is really low and so we can just experiment with things and try things and

[00:24:15] Marissa: yeah.

[00:24:16] Nathan: See what sticks.

[00:24:17] Marissa: Yeah. There’s this chapter in, uh, the Creative Act by Rick Rubin, where he talks about how all art is a work in progress and regardless of the outcome. You’ll gain valuable information along the way. And so, and I, I think what he says is we’re not, we’re not playing to win. We’re playing to play.

[00:24:35] Marissa: And ultimately playing is fun. And I’ve always, I read that book like very early on in this and um, I really took that to heart. And that’s how I feel about, honestly, all of it. Like even from the get go, it’s just, it’s all an experiment and I really am just playing to play. Yeah. Like it’s. There’s no winning in it, there’s no like, real level of success other than, you know, am I providing real value and doing cool, fun new stuff, and like, am I enjoying my, my day to day doing this?

[00:25:06] Marissa: Mm-hmm. Um,

[00:25:07] Nathan: yeah. It comes through and everything you’re doing right? Mm-hmm. I think if you were, if you had like this tight grip on it and you’re like, oh, it has to be this certain way or it has to work, or

[00:25:15] Marissa: mm-hmm.

[00:25:16] Nathan: All of that, that would come through in the content that would come through in the community.

[00:25:18] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:19] Nathan: And so this. This fun, you know, outpouring of love to the community and the writing and everything else.

[00:25:25] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:26] Nathan: Is why people subscribe to it. And I think something that’s come that we’ve both learned in this journey is this idea of you can just do things right. There’s no. Credibility or you know, no one looked at both of us and was like, well, who are you to, you know, we don’t work for the city.

[00:25:44] Nathan: We don’t, yeah. We just love the city that we live in. Mm-hmm. And wanted to start something. And I think that’s something that, like an ethos that I see all throughout Boise.

[00:25:52] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:53] Nathan: And it’s represented in the businesses that you’re like, Hey, will you be a part of this thing? And they’re like, yeah. Mm-hmm.

[00:25:58] Nathan: Yeah. Absolutely. And everybody just kind of supports that and rolls with it.

[00:26:01] Marissa: Yeah. I feel like that’s, that’s such a huge part of what I. And have noticed about Boise, you know, ever since I really started writing about it, like 10, 11 years ago, it’s like people just have an idea and they’re like, Hey, I’m gonna do this.

[00:26:16] Marissa: And they tell people and they’re like, cool, I’ll support you. And I’ll come, you know, I’ll, I mean, Treeport ISS a great example, like mm-hmm. Eric was just like, Hey, I’m gonna start a music festival. And people were like, okay, how can I help? You know, and like, cool. You can use this parking lot or, you know, um, and look at what it’s grown into.

[00:26:35] Marissa: It’s this like amazing community event. Huge economic driver, like a huge opportunity for artists at all stages in their career. Mm-hmm. I mean, and I’ve seen that so many times in Boise, like it’s. Of course you can just do things anywhere, but there’s something in Boise like this community, and it’s regardless of how long people have lived here in this community, people just rally around like cool new ideas and it’s so special.

[00:27:03] Marissa: And I think it’s, it’s what draws people to Boise. Whether they know that’s what’s happening or not. Like I really do think that that’s a huge part of it. It’s, it’s just like very special.

[00:27:14] Nathan: Yeah. You’ve gotten to profile a lot of businesses. Over the years. That’s something that I always like in the original idea for it, that I wanted to see.

[00:27:22] Nathan: Mm-hmm. A lot of is like, I wanna know the stories behind all of these businesses. Mm-hmm. And so you went and did that, and now I’m like, great. Now I can just on a Tuesday morning, I can just sit and read this.

[00:27:30] Marissa: You’re like, Hey, what, what, what is this? Will you go find out?

[00:27:33] Nathan: Yeah.

[00:27:33] Marissa: Yes. Here is a 2000 word article.

[00:27:36] Nathan: Thank you. Um, but. If you think about that idea of you can just do things. Mm-hmm. Tree fort’s a great example. Who are a few other people or, or businesses or projects in Boise that really embody that.

[00:27:46] Marissa: Yeah. Um, Idaho Film Society is a great one. Um, like you have this old bus station that was a popup tree fort venue, and then Aiden’s like, I’m gonna make this into a really awesome theater and show, you know, these.

[00:28:00] Marissa: Films that maybe, you know, maybe you don’t know, like every night of the week it’s like, so, and be this kind of like incubator for the film industry here. Um, another one is, uh, Shea with Cat’s Eye Creative Reuse, um, on, uh, Broadway. Mm-hmm. And it’s like a, it’s, it’s all, it’s all craft. And art supplies.

[00:28:25] Marissa: That’s like secondhand. It’s like a craft thrift store. It’s awesome. I don’t know if you haven’t been in there. It’s so cool. And, uh, you know, she like hosts these, that’s such a crazy idea. Like, I’m gonna gather a bunch of used craft stuff and it’s this awesome, cool store. Um, oh my gosh, there’s like so many.

[00:28:45] Marissa: Every story I feel like is that it’s, it’s um, catalyst Arts collaborative. That was a recent story is another one. Um. Yeah, I, and like so many of the nonprofits too, that’s just like, you see a need in your community and then you just make the thing to help it. It’s, it’s amazing.

[00:29:03] Nathan: Yeah. I love that. Okay.

[00:29:05] Nathan: Another thing is that people often look at from Boise or a local newsletter and they really latch onto this, the news aspect of newsletter, and so they’re like, oh, so you’re telling us what’s happening, what city Council is doing now? Yeah. What, what’s being built? Or any of those things.

[00:29:21] Marissa: Uh,

[00:29:22] Nathan: and they’re like, oh, you’re the new wave of media.

[00:29:25] Marissa: Mm.

[00:29:25] Nathan: Right. So maybe first let’s talk about the, the news side. Yeah. Because we’re deliberately not doing that.

[00:29:29] Marissa: Yeah. I don’t talk about the news. Um, mostly because everybody else has that covered and it doesn’t really interest me in the way that I want to, like, regurgitate it every week. I, I really saw a need for.

[00:29:42] Marissa: Okay, so also this was in 2021, right? So it was like all bad news the, the year before, before that’s

[00:29:49] Nathan: gonna bring some

[00:29:49] Marissa: joy

[00:29:50] Nathan: to the world. I was, and I’d just be like, yep, things aren’t great.

[00:29:52] Marissa: Exactly. Yes. I was like, people need to know that there is still fun to be had. And um, that was really huge part it. And um, but you know, it’s.

[00:30:03] Marissa: I really do feel like people, other outlets have that covered and I don’t also need to put that out there. Like you can find it. And I really saw a, a need for a really clean live music calendar that has the genres. So you know what you can go find or explore. Um, you know, this, we have more comedy shows it feels like than ever before.

[00:30:28] Marissa: A place to find all of that. And then, you know, where’s like the. The things to do is really what I wanted to, you know, kind of compile and curate every week. Um, so yeah, part of it’s just because, like that’s not what gets me as excited as talking about fun things to do. Um. Yeah. And also I just feel like other people have it covered, and I’m not like a trained journalist, so it scares me a little bit to talk about the real news.

[00:30:55] Nathan: We’ll leave that to Boise Dev Yeah. And all the other great, uh, publications that do that.

[00:31:00] Marissa: Yeah.

[00:31:00] Nathan: What about like the shift happening in media?

[00:31:02] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:31:02] Nathan: I, I feel like that’s something that people ask you often. Mm-hmm. And you’re like, oh, you’re part of the new wave of media.

[00:31:08] Marissa: It’s kind of funny for me to feel like I’m part of that, but I suppose I am.

[00:31:13] Marissa: Um, and. I mean, I honestly think it’s kind of sad that we don’t like, like I like reading the newspaper. I like having like a physical thing. But I think that now, nowadays, a reason why newsletters are popular is because it is coming from a person. Mm-hmm. Um, and. I don’t even wanna get into like the media distrust.

[00:31:35] Marissa: I think it’s just more of a connection. Like you are, like someone is writing to you. Even with Boise Dov, who does cover the news. Like it comes from one of their journalists who are fabulous, by the way, who’s best, best journalists. Um, and like, you know, if you, if you ask them a question, they’ll answer it in a news story.

[00:31:52] Marissa: Like it’s, it really is coming from a real person who lives here. Um, and. It’s, it’s almost like what columnists were in the newspaper, right? Like you, like I used to have these like columns that I loved reading. Um, and I think that’s why, you know, Substack is, has become like such a place for journalists who leave traditional media to go because we really just want connection with, with humans.

[00:32:18] Marissa: And that, I mean, that’s like never changed, right? I mean, storytelling amongst humans has like always been part of. Who we are and I don’t think that will ever go away. It’s just shifting the delivery format.

[00:32:31] Nathan: Yeah. I think that’s a cool thing of having all these individual writers can now build their own email list.

[00:32:36] Nathan: Mm-hmm. Have their own platform and, you know, have their regular readers on, on a consistent basis. Mm-hmm. And get pretty incredible reach. Yeah. Right. People who have, whether it’s 10,000 or 24,000 subscribers, or in some cases these newsletters are hundreds of thousands or you know, there, there’s newsletters on a kit that are.

[00:32:53] Nathan: You know, a few million subscribers just written by one person who’s like, Hey, here’s what I’m thinking about this week. Mm-hmm. Here’s what I found interesting. And it goes out to millions of people.

[00:33:01] Marissa: Mm-hmm. Yeah. On kit, on Substack too. I mean, there’s some journalists on Substack that are like, they have a huge reach and people pay them.

[00:33:09] Marissa: Mm-hmm. I mean, it’s, it’s really a cool, it’s really a cool shift. Um. I am excited to be part of it even though this, the people we’re talking about are like legit journalists. Um, I’m here to tell you about fun things to do and voice history. Um, but I do think it’s, it’s, it’s an exciting shift to, to watch And, um, there’s some just amazing, amazing writers out there and it’s like, I love reading, I love reading people’s essays and newsletters and um, yeah, it’s a really cool way to consume media.

[00:33:41] Marissa: Like from somebody.

[00:33:43] Nathan: Yep. The point of view is, is good. Something that’s been interesting for me as maybe if we go back to the, like the arc of from Boise, there’s a lot of times where we felt like it was going really well. There are times where I’m like, oh, I’m totally off doing other things. Like, I’m sorry, Marissa, you were a hundred percent on your own

[00:34:01] Guest 6: Uhhuh.

[00:34:01] Nathan: Um, if you need some money to help run some more Facebook ads for growth, like I can help you with that, but I have no time to help.

[00:34:06] Guest 6: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:07] Nathan: Um, but it’s been really cool from my seat to watch you. Like step up and learn this whole creator world. Mm-hmm. And, um, like how to turn a random set of attention from, you know, a thousand or 10,000 people into a full business.

[00:34:24] Guest 4: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:24] Nathan: You crossed six figures in revenue last year. Mm-hmm. Which is a huge milestone. So it turns out you can make a hundred thousand dollars a year more off of, off of a local newsletter.

[00:34:33] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:34] Nathan: Um, but what were some of the, the points along the way where you were figuring out like, oh, this is how. This part of it works.

[00:34:41] Nathan: Mm-hmm. Or a few of the unlocks.

[00:34:42] Marissa: Well, so in 2022, so from 20, all of 2021, basically you were really handling the, the subscriber growth. Mm-hmm. And, um, I was doing, I was mostly just focused on the content. Yeah. Like, I wasn’t even really focusing or even thinking about, um, monetizing it because I had another job.

[00:35:02] Marissa: I worked at Tree Fort and I was just doing fun freelance things when it would pop up. Um, which now I. I think it was kind of like a safety net that held me back from it progressing sooner, um, because it was my part-time job until 2024. So 2025 was the first year I was really all in on it, and it was the first year across six figures.

[00:35:27] Marissa: Mm-hmm. I mean, that really speaks for itself. I also had a new baby, so, um, women are amazing. Um, but, but, um, but really, um. I in 2022 when you, you kind of like handed the keys over, if you will, like, Hey, I’m, you got this now. And I was like, do I, we remember we were sitting on the patio at, uh, wild Root and I was like, I don’t know.

[00:35:51] Marissa: Like, I don’t even know what you’ve been doing. I feel like I’ve just been writing over here. Um, and so yeah, I had to figure out, you know, how do I keep the subscribers growing also, like, how are we monetizing this because I think I do want this to be the only thing I’m doing eventually. Mm-hmm. Um. And it has had a lot of ups and downs.

[00:36:09] Marissa: I mean, just the split of attention for me, I think like I would have all these story ideas and I would, you know, be weeks ahead and then I’m like, oh my gosh, I don’t have any sponsors. Like, we have no money coming in. And then I would get all these sponsors and then I’m like, oh my God, what am I writing about today?

[00:36:25] Marissa: You know? And it was just this, this up and down and, um. And what really changed, changed a lot for me was relying on some freelance writers, which is really fun for me to work with other writers too. Um, I love doing that and so I’m not having to write every single story. Um, outsourcing the sales and the social media.

[00:36:47] Marissa: Mm-hmm. Like just getting some things off my plate so that I can focus on, um. What I want to learn and what I’m best at, and I’m best at writing and I want to learn other pieces of the business. So, um, it’s been really fun to, you know, try to figure out how to make money in a way that is still bringing value to our readers and our community.

[00:37:07] Marissa: Um, ’cause that’s important to me. And, um, just get to work with like, a lot of different businesses and organizations and our partnerships and to figure out ways to reach new people, you know, and, um. It’s kind of fun because I was just recently on a podcast and he asked me, you know, what’s the population?

[00:37:26] Marissa: And so like, what’s the ceiling? And with the fact that people are just, it seems like infinitely interested in Boise, even if they’re not, if they don’t live here and they’re not gonna move here or moving here, um, I don’t feel like I have a ceiling on how many people can potentially read from Boise, which is really cool and kind of scary when you think about talking to that many people.

[00:37:46] Marissa: But, um. Yeah. I mean, figuring out the business, the writing part has always been easy for me. Mm-hmm. The business side has been a big learning curve.

[00:37:56] Nathan: It’s been fun for me to see you go from writer to then learning all these other skills like learning, social learning, uh, you know, selling sponsorships, like how to write, uh, how to grow a newsletter, all of these other things, and then getting team members in place for it.

[00:38:12] Nathan: Mm-hmm. See you now like leading the whole business. Mm-hmm. And building the brand and everything else.

[00:38:18] Marissa: It’s been, mm-hmm.

[00:38:19] Nathan: It’s been a great journey. Yeah.

[00:38:21] Marissa: Um, it, I feel like there was really a turning point in, um, 2023 when I felt like, ’cause the brand that we originally started with is something that you just, like, you made it like very quickly.

[00:38:34] Marissa: It seemed like you just were like, yes, here’s the logo. And that was pretty much all we had.

[00:38:38] Nathan: 20 minutes in Photoshop.

[00:38:39] Marissa: Yeah, exactly. And, um. Up until December of this last year, we only had a landing page. Like I didn’t have a legit website. It was just like a landing page. Here’s just where you can subscribe.

[00:38:51] Marissa: And, um, I decided I like that logo. Just didn’t really feel like true to what I felt like from Boise was and could be. And, um, so went through a, I mean, I, I don’t know if it was a rebrand. I felt like it was the first brand, um, that Isabelle did. And, um. That has just, I felt like it really helped us level up, like it felt so much more official.

[00:39:15] Marissa: Um, and then this, this last year we worked with Ampersand Studios to do a website and I really, it, it was like the next level up, like just seeing that brand come to life and just, you know, um, be across all our things. Like, it’s, it’s been really fun to just, it feels, uh, like it’s growing up.

[00:39:38] Nathan: Yes, it is. Um, well, I want to.

[00:39:40] Nathan: Open it up to questions. Is there anything that you all wanna know about from Boise or the newsletter or building businesses or any of that? Yeah.

[00:39:49] Guest 5: Do you, do people pitch you that they want you to cover them? Or how do you determine what you’re gonna cover?

[00:39:54] Marissa: Um, yeah. It’s a mix of things. Yes. People send me story ideas and I love that.

[00:39:59] Marissa: Um, which is which? It’s really fun to hear from readers. Um, people pitch me stories like they’re from the organization or even just, Hey, did you know about this thing? Um, and I love those. Some of it’s also things that I wanna know more about. Um, and the best ones are where I am biking around or walking around and saying.

[00:40:21] Marissa: Hmm, what’s that? Or for example, there, there’s the red bridge. Um, you know, if you’re coming down off of garden on, on the Greenbelt, there’s a bridge that goes over the river, kinda in between Boise and Garden City. And in 2023, I was writing that and I looked up and it said 1903. And I’m like, wait, what?

[00:40:41] Marissa: This bridge is like what? And um. Yeah. Or it says 1923 ’cause it was a hundred years old. And so yeah, then I started doing this digging and it’s like, the bridge doesn’t even have an official name. It’s a hundred years old. And so, yeah, did a deep dive on that. So part of it’s just like being curious about what’s going on.

[00:41:01] Marissa: Um, some of it’s also things I think people need to know, like, you know, event guides. And then the histories are just kind of fun things that I wonder about.

[00:41:11] Nathan: Some of my favorites are the, uh, or one of my favorites is the history of the Boise Greenbelt. Mm. Like that was one that, you know, you learn so much about it and how it developed over the years and who championed it and made it all come to life.

[00:41:22] Nathan: Mm-hmm. You could see the, the old videos of the helicopter shot of like, okay, this is before the green belt. And, and the, the idea of what it could be.

[00:41:31] Marissa: Mm-hmm. And that one came from a reader actually. Um. Somebody wrote me and said, Hey, we recently moved here, but I would love for you to do a history of the Boise River because, and, and the green belt.

[00:41:42] Marissa: Because when we first moved here, I learned that it used to be, you know, filled with trash. Like it used to be a trash river. And um, and yeah, so that one was really fun. I mean, people just throw things out and I love that. So if you ever have a story idea, let me know. I love that. Yeah,

[00:41:59] Guest 3: so I just want clarity.

[00:42:01] Guest 3: Is the money that you make from ads, is it from sponsorship? How do you actually, what is your money actually made from?

[00:42:07] Marissa: Um, it’s mostly sponsorship, sponsorships, which are ads in the newsletter or sponsored content on social media. That’s where the majority comes from. Um, and then I also make a little bit off of dinner club and BFFs was another example.

[00:42:22] Marissa: And then, you know, some of the products that I’ve sold, like the discount cards in merch. Um, and then also we have readers that donate to us every month, which is really cool. Um, it’s like 300 bucks a month to, in total, um, a handful of subscribers just. Either, we’ll, we’ll give a, um, kind of like a tip or they are donating on a monthly basis, which is like so amazing.

[00:42:46] Guest 8: But you had mentioned how there’s like a lot of newsletters that have come and gone. I’ve lived in Boise for a long time and, and like the event list and what’s going on. So, um, like why do you think yours has so much longevity? Is it the person that, you know, you talked about that feels real and real connected and so it’s, there isn’t that desperation.

[00:43:05] Guest 8: Please sign up for my newsletter. Is that what you think is keeping people hooked or,

[00:43:10] Marissa: it’s a really good question. Part of it’s definitely because I’m very stubborn and I, I love what I’m doing and so I don’t really wanna do anything else, and I’m going to figure out how to make it work no matter what.

[00:43:21] Marissa: Um, and I think the other, the other piece of it is I just don’t. See a cap on the amount of things I have to write about. Like there’s, there’s so many things to write about here, um, and it just is like continuously growing. Um, so yeah, I think it’s, it’s those two things that I am just ever curious about.

[00:43:46] Marissa: Uh, what’s going on here, what has already happened here, and, um, sharing it with people and. I just don’t wanna give up on it ever either. Yeah.

[00:43:56] Nathan: I really appreciate watching the stubbornness that you’ve had. Like there’s, it’s such a, it’s probably the most important entrepreneurial trait. It is just like a refusal to give up

[00:44:05] Guest 6: Uhhuh.

[00:44:05] Nathan: Um, ’cause we had a conversation actually, like, probably because a hundred feet that way on the patio where it was like, Ooh, I don’t know that this is gonna work. Yeah. And like, how to push through that period of time when

[00:44:16] Guest 6: mm-hmm.

[00:44:16] Nathan: Uh, when it was rough. Two things that come to mind for me. One is. I was thinking about how do we get to a certain volume where it has escape velocity?

[00:44:26] Marissa: Mm.

[00:44:27] Nathan: And so that was the first, probably two years, is where I was trying to think, okay, how can we get enough subscribers that you can charge enough for a sponsorship? Mm-hmm. That it makes sense for everybody. Mm-hmm. And so. You know, if you’re going off selling $200 or $500 sponsorships because there’s only 500 or 2000 readers, this newsletter, like it’s never going to get traction.

[00:44:50] Nathan: And so is it investing enough time and effort to where we could get to probably eight to 10,000 subscribers? Was that that point where it was like, okay, there’s at least enough that a sponsorship makes sense. Um, so we did all kinds of things. Mm-hmm. Um, and we talked about that a little, a little bit more.

[00:45:05] Nathan: Um, so the escape velocity matters. And then the other one is, I think of a Seth Godin quote of profit is just permission to do it again tomorrow. And a lot of people, whether they’re running a nonprofit or they’re saying, oh, it’s just a passion project, and so it doesn’t need to make money, and it’s really hard to do things again tomorrow and the next day.

[00:45:26] Nathan: Mm-hmm. If it doesn’t make money and you’re worried about those things. Mm-hmm. And so that’s why. You’ve always had this green of like, okay, but this is still how I make money.

[00:45:33] Guest 4: Mm-hmm.

[00:45:34] Nathan: So we’re gonna make money.

[00:45:35] Guest 4: Mm-hmm.

[00:45:35] Nathan: And so I think of how much you love the project in Boise and all of this. And because you love it though, at least from my perception, because you love it, it’s so important to make money from it.

[00:45:46] Nathan: Mm-hmm. So that you have the permission to do it again. Mm-hmm. And again, um, and that’s how it has staying power. Mm-hmm. And so I think a lot of the projects that have come before this ne either never got escape velocity or never figured out monetization, and then it. Is never gonna, uh, continue.

[00:46:01] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:02] Marissa: And I think when you’re doing something for the sake of creativity, um, which is probably, you know, how a lot of those projects started, it’s really hard to figure out the monetization. Like, you have to wear this business hat that’s like not as creative necessarily. Um, and yeah, it, that has definitely been the, the biggest learning curve for me for sure, is the, is monetizing it in a way that feels, um.

[00:46:29] Marissa: You know, it feels good and makes sense for everybody involved, like you said.

[00:46:33] Nathan: Yep. I like it. All right. Who else has a question? Yeah, Dennis.

[00:46:37] Guest 2: I was just going to say that one of the things that I learned from you, Nathan, is back when you wrote your book Authority and you had about 300 subscribers at that time and how much money you made off of writing your books, that people who are just getting started with writing newsletters don’t realize that you don’t need to have.

[00:46:58] Guest 2: A huge following all the time to make some decent income outta it.

[00:47:02] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:03] Nathan: Yeah. I think that’s something that we’ve figured out, and part of the reason that why we both love newsletters is if you get, you know, a small group of people who really care about this subject, then you know you can make meaningful income.

[00:47:15] Nathan: And it’s not just like, oh, we had to get hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube to be able to pay rent. It’s like, no, you can actually have thousands or tens of thousands of people paying attention and turn it into a full-time living.

[00:47:26] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:27] Nathan: Yeah.

[00:47:28] Guest 6: On Thursday is when you put together all the concerts and mm-hmm.

[00:47:32] Guest 6: Places to do and all those, how do you get all those consistently to, um, yeah. So

[00:47:39] Nathan: the question is about the Thursday email and all of the information. How do you compile that and curate everything? Mm-hmm. And go from there. Mm-hmm.

[00:47:46] Marissa: Well, honestly, for way too long, it just lived in my head and I just. Knew all the places to check, which was not the most efficient way to go about it.

[00:47:56] Marissa: Um, and now I, I have a huge list in, in notion, which is what I use to kind of organize everything. And, um, I go through and, and look at what’s going on and decide, you know, what I wanna include or not. I also still spend quite a bit of time, um, scrolling like Facebook and Eventbrite events because. That’s where like the kind of quirky, weird ones are.

[00:48:19] Marissa: And those are great. So I love those. And I mean, for example, um, a couple weeks ago, one of the most clicked links like ever was an estate sale that I found on Facebook that I was like, that looks amazing. And they’re not releasing the address until Saturday. So like, you have to save this newsletter to click the link to get back to this, to find the address.

[00:48:41] Marissa: And it was like. So many clicks. Um, so, uh, yeah, I, I really just like search around. I, um, you know, spend a little bit of time like kind of scrolling Facebook, um, Instagram and will send myself events that I see that are, that are kind of quirky. Um, but yeah, the music I, I go through and I look at every single, um, venue and see what they’re doing.

[00:49:07] Marissa: Um, yeah.

[00:49:09] Nathan: I think there’s a, a level of curation that can only come from someone who lives in Boise, loves Boise, wants to go to these things. And it’s just so different from, oh, I used AI to scrape.

[00:49:22] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:49:22] Nathan: You know, all of these different sources. And then I used another AI to curate it down to a list and there you go.

[00:49:27] Nathan: Help you find something in there you like.

[00:49:28] Marissa: Yeah. Yeah. I, I also, um, you know, I find this interesting. I ask myself. Do I wanna go to this? Would my mom wanna go to this? And would my dad wanna go to this? Because they’re diff, they’re divorced, so they like different things. And so, but it really helps me, like my audience is so broad, um, with age groups.

[00:49:49] Marissa: Like it’s truly, I mean, I have a reader with 93 and so, um, and she writes me back all the time and tells me, you know, I will not be attending this event. I’m like, thank you for letting me know. But it really helps me to have these people in my, in my mind, you know, because I’m, I’m curating for a very broad audience.

[00:50:09] Marissa: Um, and I like to have, uh, something for everybody in there. I try to,

[00:50:13] Nathan: I love that. Okay, let’s take one more que I think we have a hand up right here.

[00:50:16] Guest 4: I just have a brass tax question. I’m curious, do you own it now? Is this an LLC? Like what is the business structure behind it now?

[00:50:24] Marissa: Yes, it’s an LLC. It’s very official and, um, yeah, we’re, we’re 50 50 partners in it now.

[00:50:31] Marissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:50:31] Nathan: Yeah, it’s been a, a fun venture and uh, when I’m not like totally busy running my other company, then I get to come in and help out. Mm-hmm. And otherwise just mostly provide moral support and occasional advice

[00:50:47] Marissa: and the occasional like, Hey, did you know this business just, uh, popped up? And those are always fun too.

[00:50:53] Nathan: Yes, exactly. Well, it’s been fun to have all of you here and. Here’s chat about our little, little project. I appreciate that you love the city as much as we do, and, uh, that you know, Russ, thank you for hosting, hosting this and, uh, listening to us talk about. You know the newsletter, if anyone has not subscribed yet, you should go subscribe from boise.com.

[00:51:14] Nathan: Mm-hmm. There’s no excuses. It’s free and uh, come check out one of the events. Maybe sign up for a dinner club.

[00:51:20] Marissa: Yeah.

[00:51:21] Nathan: Not March ’cause it’s sold out, but mm-hmm.

[00:51:23] Marissa: We might add another one. Come to the April one. Yeah.

[00:51:26] Nathan: Sounds

[00:51:26] Marissa: good.

[00:51:26] Nathan: All right. Thank you everybody. If you enjoyed this episode, go to YouTube and search the Nathan Berry Show.

[00:51:33] Nathan: Then hit subscribe and make sure to like the video and drop a comment. I’d love to hear what some of your favorite parts of the video were, and also just who else do you think we should have on the show? Thank you so much for listening.