This newsletter format is GENIUS
(And almost no one is using it)
If I were starting a newsletter from scratch in 2026, I wouldn’t write “tips for X.”
I’d do this instead:
I’d launch a “Behind The Scenes Newsletter.”
Let me explain what I mean (with a cool example).
Jake Ward’s New “Behind The Scenes Newsletter”
A few weeks ago, Jake Ward started an experiment:
He decided to “hire” an AI employee for 30 days and give it real tasks and responsibilities, as a way to figure out whether all the hype around AI agents is real.
He named him Tobias.
Now, instead of keeping the experiment internal, he turned it into a newsletter where readers become “board members” who get weekly briefings, performance reviews, and votes on what Tobias works on next.
Pretty cool, right?
Why this works
This is interesting for 2 reasons.
First, it stands out immediately.
By definition, this type of newsletter looks completely different from what most newsletters look like. It’s not “5 tips for X” or your typical curated roundup.
Instead, it’s a real-time experiment readers get to participate in.
That alone makes it way more compelling to subscribe to than a “regular” newsletter.
Second, it’s a brilliant distribution play.
You’re turning “sawdust” into traffic.
Every Slack message, every dashboard, every weird thing Tobias does... that’s a LinkedIn post. Which drives signups to the newsletter. Which becomes a newsletter. Which feeds back into more content.
The work creates the content. The content creates the audience. The audience compounds the work.
That’s what we, systems nerds, call a Flywheel.
So here’s a question for you:
What’s your version of this?
What’s something interesting you’re doing inside your business (or for your clients) that you could build a Behind The Scenes Newsletter around?
Maybe you’re:
Building a product in public
Testing a new offer or funnel
Scaling something from zero
Running an experiment with AI tools
Documenting a transformation (your own or a client’s)
Any of those could become a Behind The Scenes Newsletter.
Now, before you ask…
No, this doesn’t have to be a “forever thing.”
You can treat it as a temporary, limited-time experiment and use it purely as a list-growth play for the period you’re running it.
The constraint of “this ends in 90 days” actually makes it MORE interesting to subscribe to, not less.
Because it feels almost like a “limited time drop.”
People love following along with something that has a clear beginning, middle, and end. It creates natural urgency to join now before they miss it.
Now, trying to figure out your Behind The Scenes Newsletter concept be can be a bit overwhelming.
So I put together an AI prompt to make it easier for you.
The Prompt
Here’s a prompt to help you brainstorm what your Behind The Scenes Newsletter could look like.
It’ll help you figure out what you’re already doing that could become content, how to position it, and even how to structure the first few issues:
