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Sam Harper built The Waco Buzz to 16,000 readers, left his corporate job three months ago, and is now full-time on local media in Waco, Texas, newsletter, social, job board, and community events.
In this Local Media HQ interview, Sam walks through the side-hustle-to-full-time jump (the newsletter beat his W-2 pay for months first), why relationship capacity is the real unlock when you go full-time, how monthly Dinner Club made Waco Buzz feel like a real brand, Social Studies talks with local professors, and the big swing: renting Baylor’s football stadium for Waco’s first paper airplane championship. He also breaks down his LinkedIn “social selling” play, Meta grows the list; LinkedIn books senior meetings, plus “Good Life in Waco” surveys that feed the newsletter, job board, and a 30-day wealth campaign with a local partner.
Caveat from Sam: events should be fun, get people doing something together, and stay easy to fulfill. He’s not trying to turn the stadium night into a bloated production.
Chapters:
00:00 Sam Harper / The Waco Buzz intro
01:52 16,000 readers and going full-time
03:31 When the side hustle beat the W-2
06:42 Filling a 40-hour week with relationships
10:34 Community builder vs more products
13:33 Dinner Club and Social Studies
14:56 Paper airplane championship at Baylor Stadium
20:23 When local news covered Dinner Club
29:58 LinkedIn social selling playbook
36:18 Good Life in Waco (reader-generated stories)
39:09 Job board + 30-day wealth campaign
45:03 Where to find Sam
Guest links discussed / find Sam:
https://www.thewacobuzz.com/
https://www.instagram.com/waco.buzz/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-harper-coach
https://wacobuzz.beehiiv.com/
Work with me: https://www.localmediahq.com/
Discord: https://discord.localmediahq.com/
TJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjlarkin1
TJ on X: https://x.com/TJLarkin23
TJ on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tj.larkin
#LocalMedia #NewsletterGrowth #Entrepreneurship #CommunityBuilding #WacoBuzz #DigitalMarketing #SideHustleToFullTime #LinkedInStrategy #LocalEvents #PodcastInterview