Chris Williamson’s Hollywood Heist: How Clip-First Strategy Skyrockets Podcast Subscribers

Chris Williamson, host of Modern Wisdom podcast, is rewriting the rules of podcast growth.

His strategy is straightforward yet powerful: he borrows Hollywood’s teaser playbook, releasing clips before full episodes to build anticipation. This approach helps his podcasts attract subscribers.

Clips Before Episodes: The Anticipation Engine

Williamson releases short, engaging clips from upcoming episodes before the full content drops. Each clip ends with a clear call-to-action: "The full 3+ hour episode with [guest] goes live on [date]—press Subscribe!"

This approach was on full display with his teaser featuring Naval Ravikant.

Williamson dropped a clip early, and Naval amplified it by sharing it with his 2.7 million followers on X: "The first clip from my recent recording with @ChrisWillx is available. Full episode coming Monday."

Flipping the Podcasting Script

Most podcasters, like Joe Rogan, release full episodes first and clip highlights later. Williamson flips this model.

For his episode with George Mack, he released two 10-minute standalone clips before the full 3-hour video.

Both clips were released 3 days and 6 days before the episode went live.

This incentivized viewers to subscribe for the complete conversation, turning curiosity into commitment.

Stealing Hollywood’s Teaser Playbook

Williamson’s strategy isn’t original—it’s stolen from Hollywood.

In the 1970s and 1980s, teaser trailers became a staple for big-budget films.

Superman: The Movie (1978) used a teaser with minimal footage to create massive hype.

By the 1990s, teasers were cultural events, as seen with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999), whose teaser trailer became a phenomenon.

YouTube & Social Media: The Hype Amplifiers

The rise of YouTube in 2005 and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok turned teasers into viral marketing tools.

Studios could now reach a global audience instantly, and short clips could spread like wildfire.

Williamson adapts this model from an adjacent industry, using preview clips to drive anticipation and subscriptions for his podcast.

From Afterthought to Pre-Release Magnet

In the past, fan edits and tribute videos only emerged after a movie’s release.

Today, preview content is the norm, driving audience interest before the main event. Williamson’s clip-first approach leverages this shift, turning podcast promotion into a Hollywood-style anticipation engine.

By releasing clips early, Williamson doesn’t just promote episodes—he generates more subscribers. It’s a calm, calculated strategy that proves anticipation is the ultimate growth hack. And it’s working.

Top Tweets of the day

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The video starts by explaining why Image to JSON is needed.

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Rabbit Holes

1. Kennan Davison on Icon, the AI Admaker, and Raising from Founders Fund. by TBPN

2. FIND A POSITION OF LEVERAGE by Eric Jorgenson

3. Examples of humans getting ambitious things done ridiculously fast by Patrick Collison

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