If you're trying to grow a newsletter, there’s one tactic Milly Tamati swears by — and she can’t believe more people aren’t doing it.

“Why is no one else doing this?” she laughs. “It’s criminally underused.”

At the center of her strategy is a simple quiz. A five-minute, free “generalist scorecard” that feels like a BuzzFeed throwback but delivers real insight, a personalized roadmap, and a reason to stick around.

Tamati is the founder of Generalist World, a community and learning platform built for people with nonlinear, “squiggly” careers. 

In just two years, she’s grown a global community of over 600 paying members and built an email list of 30,000+ using a deceptively simple funnel powered by ScoreApp, TikTok, and beehiiv.

The quiz draws people in, but what makes it work is everything that follows. New subscribers don’t just read — they engage, join the community, and often step into roles as contributors, collaborators, even leaders.

In this article, I’ll break down how Generalist World:

Let’s go!

At the heart of Generalist World’s funnel is a five-minute quiz that implicitly asks one question: Who are you as a generalist?

The quiz lives on ScoreApp and walks users through a short series of questions designed to uncover their “generalist archetype.” 

The result is a personalized report that helps people understand their strengths, articulate their value, and feel seen in a world that often misunderstands broad, non-specialist skill sets.

There are four core types:

• Connectors - You're a natural at bringing people together and building relationships. Whether it's collaborating with teams or networking, you make sure everyone feels connected and works well together.

• Innovators - You love coming up with new ideas and finding creative ways to solve problems. You're always looking ahead, pushing boundaries, and thinking outside the box to make things better.

• Systems Thinker - You're all about organisation and efficiency. You see how everything fits together and find ways to make things run smoothly. If there's a process to improve, you're on it.

• Translator - You're great at turning complex ideas into simple, clear messages. Whether it's explaining things to different teams or creating a plan, you help everyone stay on the same page.

Each result includes a summary of how that archetype shows up at work, what roles and industries they tend to thrive in, and how to describe their skills with more clarity. 

The quiz is quick, insightful, and feels tailor-made. Tamati collaborated with an organizational psychologist (who is also a community member) to build it, ensuring that the results are valuable for readers. 

Most importantly: you have to enter your email to get your result.

That one step turns curiosity into subscriptions. But it doesn’t feel like a funnel — it feels like a favor. 

When I discovered I was an innovator, I literally wanted to jump up and take notes. “Ahhh this explains everything!” I thought. I suspect most people who complete the quiz feel the same. 

As Tamati puts it:

And from a newsletter growth perspective, it works like magic. Tens of thousands of people have taken the quiz. Each one adds a new reader to the Generalist World email list, people who already feel understood and want more.

To date, this quiz alone has driven more than 22,000 newsletter subscribers (out of 30K total!).

Next, we’ll look at how Tamati drives traffic to the quiz in the first place without spending a dime on ads.

Tamati didn’t need a big ad budget to grow Generalist World; she used TikTok. Her videos are short, personal, and speak directly to people who’ve never fit neatly into job titles. 

She shows up as a “career growth BFF,” sharing stories about being a generalist, redefining success, and giving language to the squiggly paths many people have taken.

One of her early viral hits? A simple message: “Why it’s a great time to be a generalist.”

That video racked up 18,000+ likes and hundreds of comments, with people tagging friends and saying, “I feel so seen.”

At the end of nearly every video, Tamati includes a simple call to action:

👉 “Take the quiz and find your generalist archetype.”

It’s a soft but powerful pitch. By the time someone clicks, they already feel like the message was meant for them. That emotional resonance is why the quiz converts so well.

And because TikTok videos can keep circulating for weeks, one good video can keep driving leads long after it’s published.

This kind of reach — with zero ad spend — is what makes TikTok such a powerful discovery engine, and yet it’s still an enigma for most other newsletter creators (myself included!). 

Each video revolves around one clear call to action (CTA). Sometimes it’s “take the quiz.” Other times it’s “reply in the comments — what kind of work do you do?” 

The feedback loop is immediate. People pour into the comments:

Some videos have gone semi viral with hundreds of thousands of views. The quiz becomes more than a marketing tool. It’s a social object. A shared language. A reason to comment, DM a friend, or reflect on your own career path.

These viral videos also lead to direct spikes in leads from the quiz, as you can see in the chart below. 

Once someone takes the GW quiz, they’ve also stepped into the customer funnel.

From there, beehiiv takes over.

Using a simple Zapier connection, Tamati automatically sends every quiz taker to beehiiv. From there, they get a welcome email, regular content, and updates about the Generalist World community. 

Here are a few features that I love:

The Generalist World team has nailed down this funnel down to the welcome sequence. Shortly after getting my results, I got this personal welcome email from Tamati. I love it for many reasons, one being that it feels authentic to her and her voice. 

She follows all of the basics: introduces the community, shares their top content pieces, and tells you what you’ll expect next in the newsletter. Chef’s kiss!

Following that, you’ll receive a few emails that introduce more about Generalist World and help you ease into the community. (Of course, beehiiv makes it super simple to set this all up on the backend, and it makes a huge impact on me as a reader!.)

The newsletter feels like an extension of the quiz. It’s thoughtful, personal, and full of resources that help generalists navigate their careers. 

There are interviews with other members, mental models for positioning yourself, job opportunities, and essays about building a nonlinear life.

And because the quiz already segmented readers by archetype, the GW team can tailor content and offers to match what each subscriber cares about most.

beehiiv makes that easy, too. It lets the team:

The lifeblood of the business is the Generalist World community, which is more than 600 members strong around the world.

Tamati and her team have created a space where people who once felt misunderstood in their careers now feel seen and supported. 

The community includes everything from member-led meetups around the world to career accountability pods to deep-dive discussions on frameworks, mental models, and big career questions.

One member even built the new AI Fluency Quiz. Another leads their hiring platform. Others write essays, co-host events, or step up as mentors.

And this all started with one quiz and one newsletter.

Tamati names two beehiiv features that have been especially valuable for their growth: surveys and the collaborative editor.

With over 3,000 responses, Generalist World uses this data to pitch sponsors, shape content, and write better copy. 

One of her favorite questions? “What’s the biggest pain point in your workflow right now?” Plus, there's even a rant box.

Tamati runs the responses through AI to spot trends, turning insights into new products, ideas, and audience-driven language.

beehiiv’s editor powers the team’s weekly newsletter.

If you’re a creator or newsletter writer looking to grow without ads, here’s a simple breakdown of how to do it based on what’s actually worked for Generalist World.

Your quiz should be genuinely interesting — not just a tool to collect emails (readers are savvier than you think!).

Tamati’s quiz worked because it tapped into something people were already wondering: What kind of generalist am I? It gave them insight, language, and validation.

Start by asking yourself these questions:

Tamati’s quiz results weren’t generic. They helped people see themselves with custom summaries, career advice, and job-related insights tied to their archetype.

This is what my very own archetype results looked like:

To make yours resonate:

Here’s the stack the Generalist World team used:

There was no clunky copy-pasting or data wrangling. The moment someone clicked submit, they were inside the newsletter loop, automatically added, welcomed, and tagged.

Set this up once, and it will run in the background while you sleep.

Tamati’s content worked because she knew who she was talking to, and every piece of content had a soft CTA back to the quiz. 

If TikTok’s not your platform, here’s some things to think about doing:

Once someone lands on your list, it’s all about consistency. Tamati sends weekly newsletters that feel like an extension of the quiz — same tone, same audience, same vibe.

Using beehiiv makes it possible for her to do the following: 

Generalist World isn’t just a great newsletter. It’s a smart, well-run business, and a model more creators should pay attention to.

The real takeaway here isn’t “make a quiz.” It’s about building systems that do the work for you:

If you’re trying to grow your newsletter — or your business — take this as a cue to make your entry point more useful, more fun, and more personal.

And don’t underestimate the power of a well-timed quiz.

beehiiv makes this all possible, so you can focus on building a business that you truly love. Test it out today and you’ll see why Tamati and her team say the survey feature, editor, and growth tools are simply unmatched.

Try beehiiv for free here.