5 lessons from building a 400,000-person email list

Six years, a few expensive mistakes, one asset nobody can take away.

Jonathan Montoya | July 12, 2026

This newsletter exists because of one decision I made six years ago: collect emails from day one.

That list is now over 400,000 people. Every algorithm has changed since. The list is the only asset that never stopped working.

Here are the 5 lessons, learned the expensive way:

Lesson 1: The money isn’t in the list. It’s in the trust. I’ve made more from a couple thousand true buyers than from hundreds of thousands of freebie-seekers. Depth beats width, every single time.

Lesson 2: Email daily or be forgotten. Scared of unsubscribes? The people who leave were never going to buy. The people who stay start expecting your email at 9am - and that expectation is the asset.

Lesson 3: Give away the whole answer. Hold nothing back in the value. People assume (correctly) that if the free stuff is this good, the paid stuff must be better.

Lesson 4: One email list beats every follower count. Instagram can shadow-ban you. YouTube can change the algorithm tomorrow morning. Your list lands in the inbox every time, forever. You OWN it.

Lesson 5: Start before you’re ready. The best day to start your list was six years ago. The second best day is today. My first email went to 4 people. One of them bought.

I filmed exactly how I’d rebuild the entire thing from zero in 24 hours, starting with no audience:

https://youtu.be/QnTbNgdl6P4

Talk soon,

Jonathan

P.S. Lesson 2 is why you’re getting this on a Sunday. Consistency IS the strategy.

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