Writers at Work

Why learning doesn't have to be lonely | TS #126

Happy Sunday! A quick update from me: I’ve got a date with Kenneth Branagh this evening 🎭

I’ve been thinking about growth and what feels good and sustainable. I had two chats this week with other Substack writers - Claire Venus and Russell Nohelty.

Claire is ‘the Queen of Substack,’ says Hunter Burgtorf - an engagement consultant and creative mentor who writes Creatively Conscious, Sparkle on Substack and runs the ‘Substack Writers & Creatives’ group on LinkedIn.

I love her banner - made me smile. You can listen to her latest podcast here - growth on Substack and what it really feels like to hit 2k subscribers in year two.

Russell Nohelty writes Author Stack and helps writers build better businesses. Just finished reading his excellent tutorial on ‘How to create a world-class Substack publication’. He goes in-depth about the methodology behind branding a publication from the ground up.

I messaged him on LinkedIn and said I’d found him via Claire, and he replied straight away, ‘Nice to meet you. Claire is great.’

Claire’s last words were: ‘Yay! Let’s chat more, Nika!’

I came away from both conversations feeling inspired - it’s a nice way to grow, one conversation at a time. Open to possibilities and coming from inside the network rather than leveraging outside platforms (scroll down to the bit from Simon Owens on how to optimise your newsletter posts - he sums it up very well).

For me, growth is about the depth of connection, not numbers, which is why I’ve stuck with this platform for four years. You don’t really get that on social media.

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📚 Writers At Work with Sarah Fay

I’ve also been down the rabbit hole with Writers at Work with Sarah Fay - an excellent resource and great to have specific advice - Substack is its own thing. She will save you from spending years flailing around on the platform, trying to figure it all out!

Substack is the best platform for writers—financially, professionally, and artistically—and the hardest to succeed on. Don’t do it alone.

I’ve come round to spending money on paid subs and investing in myself (and other writers) rather than trying to save money by doing it all myself - it just takes soooo long, and it’s lonely.

Interesting to see how she’s serialising Cured the Memoir by Sarah Fay on the platform (apparently, editors don’t consider Substack as ‘published work’, so it’s a good way to build an audience and test proof of concept if you’re looking for a publisher).

I’ve made some changes to my bio/about page/welcome letter and realise that some of what I’ve been doing (Swapstack, paid ads, etc) isn’t the culture here. I’ve had some success with Swapstack and think it’s great, but not enough to justify my time on it. Something jars - a different part of the brain. It’s a relief to let it go.

Substack is about relationships and connections and getting to know folks over time. Reading, commenting, and sharing their work. Being part of the eco-system - that’s how you grow here.

Tinkering aside, what I’ve enjoyed most is the little chats - hearing other people’s stories and what’s holding them back. Mindset is a huge part of all this. She showed us an example of an About page where the writer was going on and on, basically apologising for paid subs and begging for money. That needs to change.

Another common theme is that people are fed up with the freelance hustle and want more agency in their work life.

Very much enjoying this cohort-based learning and being part of it all - the future of education is community 🙌 🎉

Sarah is running a workshop tonight, September 17 (9 pm GMT) on ‘Building Community and Keeping Subscribers on Substack’.

Let’s stop focusing on getting subscribers and instead delve into keeping them.

Overwhelm be gone! You can sign up here.

Have a great week.

Nika ✨

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Work with me

Wanted to be Jane Bond but ended up in journalism 🤷🏻‍♀️

I run Firebird, the content consultancy helping entrepreneurs impact the world with their stories. I want to see more female founders succeed. See my services here.

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