Bold Types #12: Philip Hofmacher on building business with heart 🇦🇹
“I strongly believe the future of education is community.”
Conversations with digital entrepreneurs on courage, craft, and creative living.
Today’s guest is Philip, a passion-driven entrepreneur from Vienna who helps online writers make more money through their expertise.
Philip created his first online course on Skillshare in 2015 and has been serving students since. He loves to explore digital business models and is passionate about community-building – creating cosy spaces where people stay.
Community is the future of learning. People seek connection, accountability, and support, so investing in a community now is one of the smartest long-term moves you can make.
During the lockdown, he and his fiancée and business partner, Sinem Günel, started two digital projects that have since grown into multiple six-figure businesses annually.
Their latest venture is the
Mastermind, where he, Sinem & Jari support writers through actionable resources, weekly live coaching and a private community.We chatted about growing your list and community, his income and influences, and what ‘success’ means to him.
At 33, I’m super impressed with what he’s achieved and how he and Sinem play to their strengths. “She’s the typewriter in our relationship, and I’m the calculator.” I like this sensible approach to the ‘creator economy’, that your ‘creator business should be boring’. 💯 Save the drama for life!
Congrats to you both on your engagement! They’re getting married in 10 months.
Enjoy our chat!
Cheers,
Nika 🥂
Why did you start Write • Build • Scale?
My fiancée and business partner,
and I started because we want to help online writers make more money through their expertise. We started 2023 with the Write • Build • Scale Mastermind, a membership with weekly coaching, expert interviews, training, and a thriving community.In 2024,
joined us, and in July, we launched our Write • Build • Scale Substack publication.What problem is it solving for readers?
Write • Build • Scale solves the problem of how online writers can effectively grow their audience, monetise their content, and scale their digital offerings. Most writers struggle with building a sustainable business around their writing despite having talent or good content.
Write • Build • Scale provides the strategies, tools, mindset shifts, and environment needed to turn their online writing into a successful and scalable digital business.
What’s always on your desk?
My handwritten to-do list --> I just love crossing things out by hand.
Two glasses of water --> Hard and smart work needs hydration.
Post-its with quotes I want to guide my actions like "Be helpful," "Simple > Complicated," or "1 Life".
Why did you choose Substack as your ESP, and how’s it going so far?
I didn't, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone thinking of digital marketing. Don't get me wrong, I love Substack, but it's not an ESP in my eyes. It's a full-stack platform for creators, but it's very limited in terms of email marketing.
I'm a die-hard ConvertKit fan with close to 25,000 subscribers, and I wouldn't move away from there. My team and I started on Substack from scratch in addition to ConvertKit, and we haven't imported our subscribers yet (I’m not sure if we will). We use Substack to identify hot leads and superfans and build community.
ConvertKit is the core of our entire business. Here, we have dozens of automations running 24/7 and it’s where we conduct all our strategic marketing campaigns.
Can you share a tip or strategy for growing your list and community?
Offering freebies to grow your list worked 10 years ago, and it still works fine. But my advice for growing your email list through freebies is to invest some brainpower before creating your first one.
I see many creators creating amazing freebies that provide tons of value, but totally miss the point. A freebie's job is to turn someone who's never heard of you into someone ready to buy from you. Imagine it as helping a stranger walk over a bridge so he's in the right place after using the freebie.
Our by far best-performing freebie is the 5-Day Medium Writing Course because after it, everyone understands the potential of Medium, believes that he can do it, and most of them are also motivated to try it. They went from stranger to ideal customer, and now they can choose if they want to try it on their own or use our Medium Writing Academy, which acts as a shortcut.
How much are you currently earning from your newsletter? What are your growth goals?
On Substack, we're brand new. We joined less than three months ago and just made a bestseller, meaning we're only at around 120 paying subscribers now.
Our cross-annualised revenue is around $5,740, but that's okay because we're not aiming to monetise on Substack through paid subscriptions but through all the digital offers we have in store. 99% of sales in our digital business happen because of our ConvertKit automation and marketing campaigns.
Sinem and I are recording multiple six-figure profits every year, and our goal is to grow it to seven-figures - not for the money, but for knowing that we've been able to achieve that together.
What would you do differently if you were starting out, based on what you know now?
We've taken many courses on this topic, and I wouldn't do that again.
Courses teach you how one person has done it at a specific time. Instead, I would join a Mastermind community from day one and surround myself with people doing what I want to do instead of listening to one point of view.
One person can never provide you with better insights than a dozen experts in the field. Collaboration eats knowledge for breakfast.
Which creators inspire you on Substack and beyond?
There are five people that I love to call my invisible mentors. They’ve never heard of me, but they changed my life. Unfortunately, none of them is on Substack yet.
* Gary Vaynerchuk helped me understand human behaviour.
* Steve J. Larsen taught me how to build irresistible offers.
* Russell Brunson taught me how to sell on the internet.
* Grant Cardone showed me that I’m thinking too small.
* Pat Flynn made me fall in love with digital businesses.
What does ‘success’ mean to you?
I already see myself as successful because I can live the life I've dreamed of. I get to work with the person I love, I can work from the comfort of my home, and most importantly, I can freely decide when I want to work and who I want to work with.
I don't care about status symbols like expensive cars or watches because my most important value in life is freedom. And that's exactly what my business is providing me with.
Where can we find you?
Feel free to DM me on Substack.
Philip’s tagged his favourite places to work remotely in Vienna on our ✍️🌍WorkFrom Map. Feel free to add yours!
Read all the Bold Types interviews.
Other things happening this week
▶️I interviewed with
on how I’m building The Shift. Read now. and team have also analysed 75,000 Substack newsletters - sign up for the ‘report’!▶️I’m going to The Portfolio Collective’s Portfolio Career Festival in London on 13 November. A jam-packed day of networking, learning and career development. Enjoy interactive workshops, three panel discussions and speed networking opportunities.
If you fancy coming, use my code: NIKAPCFEST to save £50 on Standard or VIP ticket prices. Please share with a friend who might enjoy this.
Ways to pay me
☕️Don't like change? Leave it in the Tip Jar...
💬1:1 chat support: A direct line to my inbox for questions about writing or life.
✍️Hire me to write your newsletter. I’m a word nerd (with a great network). Let me build your brand on Substack!
 | A guest post by
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Thank you so much for having me:) My DMs are always open for all Nika‘s readers. Just ping me, I‘m happy to help wherever I can :)
Lovely talk. I love that the move towards community is present in every talk that Philip does. Him and Sinem are my real world heros. Thanks Nika