The gentlemen's agreement that netted 210,000 subscribers. [Steal this play.]

"If you make videos, podcasts, or social media posts, you know you should be encouraging engagement. But if doing so makes you feel like you need a shower, this story is for you. Today, the producer of My First Million shares how they turned boring engagement farming into shared language that their audience willingly (and joyfully) spreads - netting 200k subscribers in the process."

"'Instead of doing something we should be doing, just by default, we decided to make it a funny exchange, and then turn that into a bit that's also a value add. We're going to turn it into something that becomes part of the language of the audience.' So, instead of the typical 'like and subscribe,' Parr and Puri came up with the Gentlemen's Agreement."

Sam Parr and Shaan Puri created the Gentlemen's Agreement to replace blunt 'like and subscribe' prompts with a playful exchange that became audience vocabulary. The ritual framed the first episode as free and rewarded repeat listeners with a tongue-in-cheek pact, turning a routine call-to-action into a value-add and an inside joke. The approach emphasized authenticity and community norms over aggressive engagement farming. The branded phrase encouraged voluntary sharing and subscription, scaled audience participation, and contributed to significant subscriber growth while reinforcing the show's identity without overt begging.

Read at Hubspot