Reallocated the former ad budget into an in-house content team that produced SEO-oriented explainer articles about Stoicism alongside video and podcast content.

“We wrote explainers and SEO pieces about philosophy.”

Two evergreen explainer pieces in particular are credited with driving a large share of new email subscribers.

Ran a substantial paid Facebook advertising program for Daily Stoic for several years.

“I used to spend six figures a year on Facebook ads for Daily Stoic.”

Holiday says the ad spend was not unprofitable, but he stopped it anyway because it felt hollow compared to making lasting content, and redirected the entire budget into an in-house content team instead.

“It's not that I wasn't getting a return on my investment. But it struck me just how empty it all was.”

After cutting paid ads, hired a videographer, a social media manager, and a researcher, then built out a content team that launched the Daily Stoic podcast and YouTube channel.

“I hired a videographer. I hired a social media manager. I hired another researcher.”

The podcast was seeded by promoting it directly to the existing email list rather than relying on organic podcast discovery, giving it an initial audience from day one.