Every hot take
is an opt-in.
You don't build a text list. You run the segments you already run, tell people to text in, and the list is what's left over.
Nobody sells anything. Nothing goes on the rate card. This is a perk you hand the fans, and it grows because the show is fun. That's the entire mechanism.
The fans do
the work.
On purpose.
You already end segments by asking the audience for something. Hot takes. Mail bag questions. Birthdays. Roasts. Right now, answering means going and finding a comment box. Change the answer to "text it in" and the exact same segment starts building an asset.
You ask on air
"Big Thursday. Text your hot take to 57780. Best one gets read."
They text in
Four hundred people fire off a take because they want to hear their name on the show.
Every text is an opt-in
Four hundred numbers just joined the Insider Club. You never ran a signup campaign. You ran a segment.
You read the funny ones
Free segment content. The show got better and the list got bigger in the same twelve minutes.
The audience is already trying to talk to you
Viewer Mail Bag. Hot takes. VM birthdays. Roasts. Pet photos. Every one of those is a listener who wants to participate and is currently jumping through a hoop to do it. A text is the shortest hoop that exists. You'll get more entries, and better ones.
Every text in is an opt-in. That's the growth engine.
This is the whole thing, so it's worth being blunt. You never run a "join our text list" campaign. You run trivia. You run a Cowboys confidence poll. You run "text WIN for Rangers tickets." You run Pick'em. People text in because they want the thing, and the list grows as a side effect.
A signup drive asks the fan for a favor. A segment gives the fan a reason. Only one of those scales.
It pays you in show before it pays you in money
Poll results read on Wednesday morning are free segment content. Trivia leaderboards. Pick'em standings. Fan of the Week. The funniest hot take of the day. The list feeds the show that feeds the list.
Nothing about that requires a sponsor, a rate card, or a sales call.
You can't build this list the week you need it
An asset like this takes a year of QR codes at remotes and a keyword read on air. Starting now costs almost nothing. Starting in 2028 costs you a year, and by then you'll want it for something specific and it won't be there.
And when you want it to make money, it will
Not today. Today it's a toy. But ten thousand DFW sports fans who chose to be there is the most valuable thing in your business after the show itself, and every option it opens later is a live-read-shaped sell, which is the only shape you want to make.
The honest part: texts cost money to send. One presenting sponsor covers the carrier bill from day one. "The Insider Club, presented by ___." One call, to a partner you already have. That's the only sales conversation this ever requires, and we'd rather say it now than surprise you in month four. The math is further down if you want to check it.
SET
You can get out here.
That's the pitch. If you're in, that's the whole decision, and there's nothing else you need to read. Say the word and we'll have the Insider Club live before your next remote.
Still reading? Good. Everything below this line is the deep dive. Every segment you could run, sixty things to give away, a sample month on the calendar, and exactly what it costs. The sponsorship material is dead last, and you can ignore it for a year.
Everything you
already do,
delivered on time.
A new distribution layer under the show you already make. Not a new show. Here's a real week.
A giveaway is
just a signup form
with a prize on it.
This is the fastest list-builder you have. "Text WIN for Rangers tickets" adds more members in ten minutes than a month of asking nicely. Run one a week and the club builds itself.
Most of those cost a partner money instead of you. The two that don't, guest host for a day and wear the headphones, are the two people will lose their minds over. Access is the only prize that can't be bought.
MMS: the part everyone forgets
SMS is a headline. MMS is a moment. An image on a lock screen gets screenshotted and forwarded, and a forwarded text is the only truly free growth channel left.
Live events are the best signup night you'll ever have
The Generic Summer Event, the Dragon Den remotes, Cane Rosso, Broken Bow, the road shows. A room full of your best fans, all holding phones.
Best signup moment on earth: a QR code at the GSE bar that says "text to win the bar tab." A thousand numbers in one night, and a partner pays for the tab.
Call it a list and
it dies. Call it a
club and it grows.
Positioning matters more than the tech. Nobody joins a "text list." Everybody joins a club with a name, a number, and a bit.
Insider
Episode alerts, breaking news, polls, trivia, giveaways. Free forever. This is where everybody lands the first time they text in.
Insider VIP
Auto-enrolled for every Substack and Patreon subscriber. Bonus clips, presale windows, the Quarterly Business Review reminder. Costs them nothing and makes the sub worth more.
Founding Member
The first 500 numbers on the list. Permanent badge, permanent bragging rights, first crack at every giveaway. Costs you nothing and will be the most fought-over thing you've ever offered.
A sample month.
October.
Four texts a week baseline, more when news breaks. The text-in days are the ones that grow the list. Everything else earns its place.
| Week | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat / Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Jason CalendarLocations, guests, streams. | Trivia TuesdayCowboys history. Reply to answer.Text-in · grows the list | BIZ WEDTopic + link. Reply with a question.Text-in · grows the list | Hot take Thursday"Text it. Best one gets read."Text-in · grows the list | DeeZ PicksPlus the Pick'em standings. | Game day + Weekly WrapConfidence poll Sunday. Wrap alert Saturday. |
| Week 2 | Merch dropNew No Puppet hat. Insiders 2 hours early. | PollMavs season over/under.Text-in · grows the list | MMS: studio photoFrom the Fox 4 Gameday Men's Health studio. | Emergency pod alertBecause something will happen. It always does. | Guest announcementBig name Monday. Insiders hear first. | RemoteLive from Cane Rosso. Text HERE to check in.Text-in · grows the list |
| Week 3 | Jason CalendarPlus a win-back to the lapsed list. | Giveaway"Text WIN for Stars tickets."Text-in · biggest growth day | BIZ WEDPlus a poll. Results read Thursday.Text-in · grows the list | The bit"Jake has been fired." Then the correction. | Weekend recOne bar, one taco, one thing to watch. | Game day MMSScorecard graphic at halftime. |
| Week 4 | Milestone10,000th Insider wins Cowboys tickets. | Exclusive audioTwenty seconds that never made the show. | VIP onlyQuarterly Business Review reminder. | Fan of the WeekChosen from replies. Named on air.Text-in · grows the list | Roast the hosts"Text your best one. We'll read the worst."Text-in · grows the list | PresaleNext live event. Insiders get 24 hours. |
Nine text-in days in a month. Nothing above requires a single new piece of content. It's all show you're already making.
What it costs.
Argue with it.
Texts cost money to send. That's the one honest catch, so here it is with the math showing. One presenting sponsor covers it. Move the sliders and check us.
The subs you stop losing
You're a subscription business. At 8,000 Insiders, catching even a handful of expired cards a month with a win-back text pays for the carrier bill by itself.
Merch and ticket lift
An Insider-first head start on a hat drop or a GSE presale. Costs nothing to send, and it moves units.
Everything on the next screen
Sponsored polls, coupons, giveaways, geo-targeted offers. All of it is available whenever you feel like it, and none of it is the ask today.
You talk.
We do the rest.
7 Media Group has run SMS programs since 2009. We currently power text clubs for roughly 300 Harley-Davidson dealerships on a short code we own. Compliance, carrier approvals, opt-in language, HELP and STOP, quiet hours, throughput. That's our job, it's boring, and that's the point.
Your job is to be funny at 11:30. Ours is to make sure the funny arrives.
Pick a keyword
Text DUMBZONE to 57780. It runs on our existing short code, so there's no six-week carrier wait.
Say it on air
End a segment with it. "Text your hot take to 57780." That's the growth plan, and it's also just a segment.
Put a QR code at every remote
The Dragon Den. Cane Rosso. The GSE. A room full of your best fans, all holding phones.
We run the calendar
7MG drafts the month's sends. You approve or rewrite in five minutes. Blake can fire anything ad hoc from his phone.
You get the numbers
Growth, replies, redemptions, opt-outs. One page. Useful the day you decide to do something with it.
None of this
is the ask.
It's just there.
When the list is big and you feel like turning the dial, here's what's sitting on the shelf. Every one of these is a live-read-shaped sell to a partner you already have. Not a new product category, and not a new pitch.
The Insider Club, presented by
The one that pays the carrier bill. Their name in the welcome text every new member ever gets.
A code inside the read you already sell
"Text WINDOW to 57780 for a free quote." Now the live read has a number attached to it. You don't have trouble selling reads. You have trouble proving them.
Sponsored trivia & polls
The segment runs anyway. Now it carries a logo, and the sponsor pays for the reply data.
Coupon delivery
A restaurant sends $10 off on a Friday afternoon and watches the redemptions come in that night.
Geo-targeted drops
Only text Insiders within 10 miles. A Fort Worth sponsor stops paying to reach Plano.
Sponsored giveaway
"Text WIN for Rangers tickets, courtesy of ___." Sponsor gets the leads, you get the growth, listener gets the seats.
The small-budget tier
Bars, gyms, taco shops. Budgets too small for a read, perfect for a Tuesday text. Customers you currently turn away.
Subscriber-only sponsor
A category exclusive that only reaches VIPs. Smaller list, wealthier audience, higher rate.
Compliance note: gambling and alcohol messaging is allowed on a short code, but the rules are strict and carrier-enforced. 7MG handles the approvals, age-gating, and disclosures. We don't guess at this. We get it approved.
Say the number
on the air.
That's the whole job. Ask for a hot take, run a trivia question, give away some Rangers tickets. The fans text in because the show is fun, and the list builds itself while you're busy being funny.
7 Media Group builds it, runs it, keeps it compliant, and hands you the numbers. Somewhere down the road it turns into money. Today it's just a better show.