The Simple Newsletter Making $20M+ A Year With 1 Employee

**Sam Parr** (0:00)
Did you save like 30,000 subscribers at $600 a year?

**Kevin Van Trump** (0:03)
Yeah, probably in the 30,000 to 40,000 range on paid subscribers.

**Sam Parr** (0:07)
You better tell me everything here.
All right, Kevin, what's going on, man? We're here. So I have got to do a quick story on how we met. So about four years ago, I think we're in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Design Pickle Conference. I just get done doing this talk about how the hustle is like doing pretty good. We're at a million subscribers, whatever. At the end of the talk, I just walk backstage or I walk in the back of the crowd.
You're wearing a Ramones t-shirt and like shorts, and you walk up to me and you're like, hey, nice little talk you did there. And I was like, oh, thank you. And you've got this confidence about you. And you're like, so how many subscribers do you have?
And I was like, I think a million or something like that. And you go, well, you know, that's pretty nice. I got a little newsletter myself.
We're doing okay. We got about 30,000 subscribers. And I was like, oh, that's a good start. And you said, well, how much do you charge people to read The Hustle? And I'm like, it's free.
I make money via advertising. And you're like, oh, you don't charge? And I was like, you do? And you go, yeah, we charge about $600. And it takes about 10 seconds. And I'm like, doing the math. And I'm like, wait, did you save 30,000 subscribers at $600 a year? And you're like, yeah, what do you expect?
And turns out you've got this massive newsletter business. And I was like, what's the newsletter about? And you're like, oh, we talk to farmers. It's all about farming and agriculture. And I'm like, wait, hold on, man.
You've got to tell me everything here. And that's when my mind was blown. And I was like, we got to get you on. And it took about four years, but finally we made it happen.

**Kevin Van Trump** (1:43)
I appreciate it.

**Sam Parr** (1:44)
Sean, what did you think when you met the Van Trumps and got around his people?

**Shaan Puri** (1:50)
Man, I would just call it a series of amazement and confusion.
I showed up and first of all, it's called Farmcon. So I think the conference is going to be a bunch of farmers. By the way, at this point in my life, I don't think I'd ever met a farmer.
I had grown up overseas. I live on the coast. I had never really met a farmer. So I thought it's going to be about farming and whatnot. And instead it's actually about investing. So that was the first part where I was amazed and confused about was I walk in and it's a talk going on about options trading, corn futures, and it was so far over my head. And I was like, wow, wait, these guys are actually talking about crazy Wall Street stuff. What's going on here? And then over time I met a bunch of people. The conference was amazing.
And they were like, well, what are you doing here? And I was like, I don't know.
I don't farm and I don't trade commodities. So I'm not really sure, but I'm here to talk. I have a talk scheduled tomorrow and I'm here to just be out of my comfort zone, be out of my bubble, because I had only been going to tech conferences. When I was doing my research for this pod, I learned that you actually kind of did a similar thing, which was that there was a period of your life where you wanted to shake things up and you started just going to different conferences or trade shows that were totally unrelated to what you were doing and what you were familiar with. You kind of intentionally put yourself in that to just shake up your worldview. Is that right? Can you talk a little bit about that?

**Kevin Van Trump** (3:11)
Yeah, for sure. That's how I met Sam. I mean, we were at this, I don't even know what the hell it was. My son had called and said, let's just make it where we make ourselves go to different things, make ourselves uncomfortable, get out of our comfort zone.
He called me and said, hey, there's this conference in Phoenix. Mom wanted to go to Phoenix and out there. And I said, what is it? And he said, design pickle. I said, what the hell are we? They had people speaking out, we're doing like hair, you know, they had a hair drying business and they had all kinds of crazy stuff. I said, okay, I'll go.