In November 2025, I wrote a Post about my new Founding Member, and predicted he would become a Substack Bestseller by the end of 2026…

During our 1:1 strategy session, it became clear he had all the ingredients to become a top publication in finance and more than that, help hundreds of thousands of people with his knowledge and experience.

But I got the timing totally off. Today, less than 4 months after our strategy session, he is a top #18 Global Bestseller in Finance and the orange tick on his profile gives it away (1,000+ paid subscribers). He is also the #1 New Bestseller globally. Today you will find out why.

His story is absolutely inspiring and I recently published part 1 here. I asked Charlie to share a Guest Post for my community so that we can all learn from his experience, learnings and mistakes and here is part 2.

Write down your notes, bookmark, screenshot, memorize his strategy. Do what you have to do because what he’s sharing today is worth a lot of money. And he’s giving it away for free.

And if you want the good stuff, subscribe to Capital Mischief.

Bienvenido, Charlie!

By Charlie Garcia

Twelve days after I published the first version of this piece, the United States bombed Iran.

I’d predicted it seventeen days before the first missile hit. On the record. With specifics. In a finance newsletter that five months earlier had zero subscribers and a name that sounds like a felony.

That piece, the one you might have read in February on Veronica’s publication, was written at $275,000 in pledges, with annual revenue with 5,162 subscribers and zero dollars of actual paid income.

I hadn’t turned on the paywall yet. I was still giving everything away. My accountant was still calling it a hobby.

Here’s the original piece if you want to see what I knew and didn’t know.

Almost everything in it was right. The five-day publishing schedule. The two-engine model. The comment section strategy. The editorial flywheel. Those systems work. I have $900,371 in annual recurring revenue that proves it.

But I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I didn’t know what happens when you turn on the paywall and 503 people who promised to pay actually pay.

I didn’t know that a structure borrowed from a Spanish urbanist would become my most powerful conversion tool.

I didn’t know that publishing two posts on the same day, one free and one paid, would produce a 96% paid conversion rate.

I didn’t know my old posts were secretly selling subscriptions while I slept.

I didn’t know that doubling my price would make me more money, not less.

And I definitely didn’t know that 667 people would click on a whiskey post in the middle of a market crash.

This is the story of the 16 days between that piece and this one. It’s the part nobody writes about because most people are too busy celebrating the hockey stick to explain what actually caused it.

I could have made this an ebook. I could have put it behind my own paywall. Somebody on Twitter would probably tell me I’m an idiot for giving away the playbook.

I don’t care.

The person who needs this most can’t afford a $720 subscription yet.

They’re at 200 subscribers, publishing twice a week, wondering if anyone’s reading. I was that person six months ago.

The difference between me and them is that I had forty years of experience, six presidents, and a bourbon habit. They have something better: time and the ability to learn from my mistakes.

This is my gift to the Substack creator community. Capital M on the Mischief.

May the Mischief be with you.

Chapter 1: I Published 108 Posts for Free and My Accountant Upgraded Me from “Hobby” to “Concerning”

The first piece covered this, but I need to say it again because every creator I talk to gets it wrong.

I published 108 posts before I charged a single dollar. Five days a week. Monday investment theses. Wednesday geopolitical intelligence. Friday podcast interviews. Saturday book reviews. Sunday reader mail. For 143 days, every word was free.

People told me I was leaving money on the table.

I was building the table.

Then a war proved the thesis. And 12,065 people sat down.

That line became the most quoted sentence I’ve ever written, which tells you something about the Substack creator community: they’re starving for someone to give them permission to be patient.

Here’s what I didn’t understand in February that I understand now: the 108 free posts weren’t just building trust. They were building a conversion reservoir. When I finally turned on payments on March 1st, 503 people had already pledged to pay. They didn’t need to be convinced. They needed a door to walk through.

On Day One, the door opened. 120 people paid before dinner. $56,280 in revenue. By Day Two: 868 paid subscribers. $398,180 in annualized revenue.

From zero. In forty-eight hours.

What this means for you if you’re at 200 subscribers:

You’re not behind. You’re building. The flat line on your analytics dashboard isn’t failure. It’s inventory. Every post you publish for free is a deposit in a trust account that pays compound interest the day you activate your paywall.

Most Substack writers launch paid at 500 subscribers because someone told them that’s the number. There is no number. The number is: have you published enough that a stranger can read your archive for an hour and feel like they owe you money? If the answer is yes, turn on payments. If the answer is no, keep publishing.

My answer took 108 posts. Yours might take 30. It might take 200. The posts aren’t the price of admission. They’re the product. And the product has to be undeniable before you ask for a dollar.

Where to see this on your dashboard:

Go to your Substack dashboard. Click “Stats.” Look at your pledge count. (If you haven’t activated pledges, do it right now. It costs you nothing. It tells you everything.) Divide pledges by total subscribers. That’s your pledge rate. The Substack average is 1-3%. Mine was 11.2% when I wrote the first piece. Anything above 5% means your audience is ready. Anything above 8% means you’re late.

Chapter 2: Five Days a Week Is a Personality Disorder. Here’s Why You Need One.

I covered the five-day system in the first piece. It hasn’t changed. But the data behind it has become overwhelming, so let me show you what 155 days of publishing five days a week actually produces.

Monday: Investment thesis. This is the core product. Where I think money should go and why. This is the content people pay $720 a year for. It converts.

Wednesday: Geopolitical intelligence. This is the content that goes viral. The Iran series hit over 160,000 views across all installments. These pieces travel through group chats, Slack channels, and Signal threads. They acquire new subscribers who then discover the Monday investment content and pay.

Friday: Podcast. Free forever. Discovery engine. Someone finds an interview on YouTube, clicks through, subscribes.

Saturday: The Mischief Library. Book reviews. Free forever. Trust engine. This is the day I build intellectual credibility with people who haven’t decided to pay yet.

Sunday: Dear Charlie. Reader mail. Paid subscribers only. Community engine. This post has a 76.66% open rate, the highest of any post type I publish.

The insight I didn’t have in February:

Each day doesn’t just serve a different need. Each day creates demand for the next day. I wrote about this in the first piece, but I had anecdotal evidence. Now I have data.

On my biggest post ever, a Saturday war briefing that hit 103,548 views, I told readers to find a good financial advisor. I linked to a Friday Fortunate Fishes podcast where I interviewed two of them. One manages $5 billion. The other gave me something called the Whiskey Test, which is the best framework for choosing a financial advisor I have ever heard.

I buried the link inside a disclaimer telling people not to treat me as their advisor.

682 people clicked. Seventeen percent of openers. On a day when oil was up twelve percent and the Dow had dropped 453 points.

682 people stopped checking their portfolios in the middle of a war and clicked on a free Friday podcast about how to find the person who should be managing their money.

They didn’t click because of the whiskey. They clicked because they trust me enough to follow a link on the worst trading day of the year into a conversation that could change their financial life.

That is what free Friday does. It builds the kind of trust that makes a reader follow you into a room they didn’t know they needed to enter.

That’s the flywheel. A geopolitical crisis post sends readers to an investment post. The investment post sends readers to a lifestyle post. The lifestyle post sends them to the archive. The archive sends them to the subscribe button. Each post is a door that opens into every other post.

What this means for you:

You don’t need five days. You might need three. You might need two. But each day needs a different job. Don’t publish three versions of the same thing. Publish one post that acquires, one that converts, and one that retains. Label them. Assign them days. Stick to the schedule for 90 days before you change anything.

The creators who struggle aren’t the ones who publish too little. They’re the ones who publish the same type of content every time and wonder why growth flatlines after the initial burst. Variety isn’t about entertaining your audience. It’s about engineering multiple entry points into your publication.

Chapter 3: Two Engines, One Publication, and the Day I Realized They Run on Different Fuel

In the first piece I wrote: “Geopolitical content acquires subscribers. Investment content converts them to paid.”

That was a hypothesis based on click rates. It’s now a proven business model with $886,000 behind it.

Here’s how the engines work with real numbers.

The Acquisition Engine (free content, sent to everyone):

My Saturday post “If You Own Stocks, a Bond, or a Dollar Bill, Read This Before Monday Morning” was sent to everyone. Free and paid. 6,966 email recipients.

It hit 103,548 views. 2,143 shares. 2,646 new subscribers. Only 9% of the traffic came from email.

The rest came from people sharing it with people who shared it with people.

That post’s job was to bring strangers to the door. It did. 2,646 of them.

The Conversion Engine (paid content, behind the paywall):

My Tuesday post “The 72-Hour War That Became a World War” was a paid post behind the paywall. 24,583 views. 409 new subscribers. 123 of them paid. $54,848 in revenue.

Less than a third of the views. More revenue. Because the conversion rate was 3x higher. People who found the acquisition post arrived curious. People who hit the paywall on the conversion post arrived ready.

Where to see this on your dashboard:

Open any post’s stats. Look at “New subscribers” and note how many are paid vs. free. Then look at “Estimated revenue increase.” Do this for every post over two weeks. You’ll see a pattern: some posts bring lots of free subscribers with low revenue. Others bring fewer subscribers but higher revenue. The first type is your acquisition engine. The second is your conversion engine.

Most publications have one engine. The best have two. Design your content calendar so they alternate. My Monday and Wednesday posts convert. My Friday, Saturday, and Sunday posts acquire and retain. The interplay between them is the business model.

The discovery I made on March 7 that changed everything:

A war was repricing every asset on the planet. I had a Saturday book review scheduled. I threw it out.

I published a free war briefing to everyone at 6:28 AM.

Then at noon, I published a second post, a story about meeting the man who killed Bin Laden, and I sent it to FREE subscribers only. Not everyone. Just the people who hadn’t paid yet.

The first post acquired. 2,335 new free subscribers in 24 hours.

The second post converted. 44 new subscribers. 33 of them paid. Eleven free.

That’s a 75% paid conversion rate.

I didn’t plan this. I was angry about a war and wrote two pieces in one morning.

But accidentally, I’d invented something: the two-post conversion model.

One post to everyone that proves the value. A second post to free subscribers only that asks them to pay.

I’ve never seen anyone else do this on Substack.

The data says it works. Try it on your next big content day: publish the free piece in the morning, the conversion piece in the afternoon. Track the paid conversion rate on Post 2. If it’s above 50%, you’ve found something.

The Part Where I Tell You I Made $41,000 in 19 Hours and Pretend I Wasn’t Surprised

Three days later I did it again. On purpose this time.

March 10. The war was escalating. Oil had just swung 29% in a single session. I had a nine-chapter Wednesday briefing loaded and ready to publish at 7:30 AM the next morning.

At noon on Monday I published a second post to free subscribers only. The story of meeting Rob O’Neill, the man who killed Bin Laden, leaning against a wall on Sixth Avenue at one in the morning with an active ISIS kill order on his head and a cigarette in his hand.

That was the hook. The conversion was a 19-hour window to lock in the annual rate at $360 before it doubled to $720 permanently at 7:30 AM Wednesday, the exact minute the nine-chapter war briefing published behind The Threshold.

I was not running a sale. I was not discounting. I had already raised the monthly from $50 to $100. Already raised the annual from $360 to $720. Already raised the Founding Circle from $720 to $2,000 and then closed it permanently at $2,828.

I was reopening the old annual price for 19 hours as a neighbor exception. Then the door closed forever.

The results.

122 new subscribers. 115 paid. 7 free.

$41,400.73 in estimated revenue. In 19 hours.

A 94% paid conversion rate on the post. Not 75%. Ninety-four.

The first time was an accident. The second time was a system.

Same architecture. Free post in the morning to everyone that proves the value. Conversion post at noon to free subscribers only that asks them to decide. A ticking clock. A story worth reading even if you never pay. And a door that closes at a specific hour with the paid content publishing on the other side at the exact moment it shuts.

The difference between March 7 and March 10 was three things.

First, a CTA. The March 7 post had none. The March 10 post had seven subscription entry points woven through the narrative. Every section break was a door.

Second, an expiration. Not “subscribe when you’re ready.” Nineteen hours. 7:30 AM Wednesday. The nine-chapter briefing publishes at 7:31 AM. You’re either inside reading all nine chapters with your coffee or you’re outside reading three and wondering what’s in the other six.

Third, the price was going up, not down.

I was not offering a discount.

I was offering a last chance to lock in a rate that no longer existed. That is not a sale. That is a closing door. The psychology is completely different.

A sale says the product is worth less.

A closing door says the product is worth more and this is your last chance to get in at the old price.

The Rob O’Neill story could have been a Wednesday behind The Threshold.

I gave it away free. On purpose. To the people who hadn’t paid. Because the best conversion tool on Substack is not a pitch. It’s proof.

Show them what you’re capable of when you’re not asking for anything. Then ask.

Chapter 4: The Paywall Is Not a Wall. It’s a Threshold. The $500,000 Difference Is Not Semantic.

I don’t call it a paywall. I call it The Threshold. This isn’t branding. It’s philosophy, and the philosophy prints money.

A paywall says: you can’t read this unless you pay. It’s adversarial. It positions the reader against the writer. It frames the subscription as a toll.

A Threshold says: you’re welcome here. There’s plenty of free content. But when you’re ready to go deeper, when you’ve read enough to know this is worth it, there’s more on the other side. It positions the reader’s decision as a choice about their own readiness, not about your price tag.

I built The Threshold on a structure I borrowed from Tomas Pueyo, the writer behind Uncharted Territories. He’s a brilliant Spaniard who writes about demographics, AI, and history, and he structures his long posts so that the first few sections are free and the deep analysis is paid.

He doesn’t hide the good stuff. He gives you enough good stuff that you can’t stop reading, and then the paywall arrives at the exact moment you need to know what happens next.

I call it the Pueyo Cliffhanger Model.

Here’s how it works in practice.

Every Monday and Wednesday post has 7 to 9 chapters. Chapters 1 through 3 are free. Every subscriber, free and paid, can read them. Chapter 3 ends on a cliffhanger. Not a summary. Not a “to read more, subscribe.” A genuine narrative cliffhanger that makes you need to know what comes next.

Chapters 4 through 7 (or 8 or 9) are behind The Threshold. That’s where the investment thesis resolves. That’s where the specific tickers appear. That’s where the actionable intelligence lives.

Why this works:

By the time a reader hits the paywall at the end of Chapter 3, they’ve already invested 10-15 minutes of attention. They’ve already started checking tickers on Yahoo Finance. They’ve already clicked through to Reuters to verify a claim.

They’re not evaluating whether to subscribe.

They’re evaluating whether they can walk away from Chapter 4.

The cliffhanger converts harder than any call-to-action ever written. Because it doesn’t ask you to subscribe. It makes you unable to NOT subscribe.

The first real data on the Pueyo Model at $720/year:

My first Monday post using this structure at the new $720 price generated 110 subscribe clicks in its first 24 hours.

That means 110 people read three free chapters, hit the paywall, saw $720, and clicked through to the pricing page.

Of those, 15 paid. That’s a 13.6% click-to-paid rate. The Wednesday post that followed generated 66 /subscribe clicks and 13 paid at a 19.7% conversion rate.

Fewer clicks, higher intent.

he $720 price is not scaring people away. It’s filtering for the ones who are ready.

Where to see this on your dashboard:

After you publish a paid post, go to the post’s stats. Look at “Links clicked.” Find “subscribe” in the list. That number tells you how many people hit your paywall and actively clicked to see the pricing page. Divide that by total openers. That’s your paywall-to-subscribe-click rate.

For a free post, this number measures general interest. For a paid post with a cliffhanger, this number measures how sharp your cliffhanger is. If it’s below 1% of openers, your Chapter 3 ending isn’t strong enough. If it’s above 2%, you’ve built real tension. My best posts run 2-7%.

How to write the cliffhanger:

Chapter 3 should end with one of three structures: a question the reader can’t answer without Chapter 4 (”So what does the Larry Williams indicator say about Monday’s open?”), a revelation that demands context (”The number I found in the defense budget changes everything I just told you”), or a contradiction that needs resolution (”Which means the bond market and the equity market can’t both be right. One of them is lying. I know which one.”).

Never end Chapter 3 with a summary. Never end it with “subscribe to read more.” The reader should forget the paywall exists until it appears. The story stops. The wall appears. And the only way forward is through The Threshold.

Chapter 5: 667 People Clicked on a Whiskey Post During a Market Crash. That’s Not a Bug. That’s Your Archive Working.

This is the section I couldn’t have written in February because I didn’t understand it yet.

My old posts are selling subscriptions. Right now. While you’re reading this.

If you’ve written 20 or more posts, your archive is your most powerful conversion tool and you probably don’t know it. I had 108 in my archive. Silver I had told people to buy was up 250%. CNQ was up nearly 50% and I recommended it my first week on Substack for everyone to see. I call this the receipts.

Here’s what I discovered.

My Saturday war briefing hit 103,548 views. Inside that post, I linked to an older piece called “The Whiskey Test and Nine Other Things.” 682 people clicked it.

Then 374 clicked my MarketWatch column. 205 clicked a piece about a man who manages $5 billion. 182 clicked the Islamic Revolution on Wikipedia. 154 clicked another old post called “Warning to Investors Who Think They Missed Rolls-Royce.”

Total archive clicks from one post: over 1,700.

What’s happening:

Readers finish your new post and think: “What ELSE does this person write about?”

That thought is the most valuable moment in your entire subscriber funnel.

Because a reader who has consumed two posts is 5x more likely to subscribe than a reader who has consumed one.

A reader who has consumed three posts is even more likely. By the fourth post, they’re reaching for their wallet.

Your archive is a gravity well.

Every internal link pulls readers deeper. Every deeper post builds more trust. Every layer of trust moves them closer to paying. The reader doesn’t experience this as a sales funnel.

They experience it as curiosity. And curiosity converts.

How to build this:

Every post you write should contain 3-5 internal links to your older posts. Not random links. Strategic links.

The Iran post links to the investment thesis because the F-35s on those carrier decks use Rolls-Royce engines, and I wrote a Rolls-Royce investment thesis three weeks earlier.

The Rolls-Royce thesis links to the Trump Doctrine because European rearmament is the catalyst.

Every link should feel like a natural extension of the argument, not a promotional plug.

Where to see this on your dashboard:

Open any post’s stats. Look at “Links clicked.” Your internal links (they start with /p/ on Substack) show you how many readers went from this post into your archive. If you see 5% or more of openers clicking into old posts, your flywheel is working. If it’s below 2%, your internal linking needs work.

The number to track over time: archive clicks per post. If this number grows as your subscriber base grows, your new readers are discovering your catalog. That means every new post you publish doesn’t just perform on its own. It reactivates the entire archive.

I have over 120 posts. Every new subscriber who arrives has over 120 posts to discover. Each post links to 3-5 others. T

he archive is a web, not a list. And the web catches people.

Chapter 6: I Doubled My Price and Made More Money. Nobody Warned Me This Would Work.

On March 1, I went paid at $360 per year. $50 per month. $720 for a Founding Member tier that included private chat and direct access to me.

On March 8, I changed the pricing. $720 per year. $100 per month. $2,828 for Founding Members.

I doubled the annual price. Nearly doubled the monthly. And quadrupled the Founding tier.

Here’s what happened.

At $360/year, I was adding roughly 15-20 paid subscribers per hour during peak content days. Revenue was accumulating at approximately $2,500-3,600 per hour.

At $720/year, the conversion velocity dropped. Fewer people subscribed per hour. But each subscription was worth twice as much. The net result: revenue per hour went UP.

At $360, I added 868 paid subscribers in 48 hours. At $720, I added 86 paid subscribers in 48 hours. But the ARPU climbed from $458 to $491. The price doubled, the volume dropped, and the revenue kept climbing. $52,458 in ARR added in the last 48 hours alone, all at the higher price.

Fewer subscribers. More revenue. And here’s the part nobody tells you: the subscribers who pay $720 are better subscribers. They’re more engaged. They open more posts. They click more links. They leave more comments. They don’t churn.

At $360, some people subscribed on impulse. They felt the urgency of a war and a deadline and clicked before they finished their coffee. Impulse subscribers churn. When the crisis passes and the urgency fades, they evaluate whether $360 was worth it. Some decide it wasn’t.

At $720, nobody subscribes on impulse. That number requires a pause. A calculation. A conversation with yourself about what you actually need. The people who pay $720 made a considered decision. Considered decisions don’t reverse easily.

The retention moat I accidentally built:

Every subscriber who locked in at $360 before the price change is now getting the publication at half the current price. If they cancel and resubscribe later, they pay $720. That discount only exists because they believed early. Canceling means losing it forever.

The price increase didn’t just raise revenue. It built a wall around every early subscriber. They have a financial incentive to never leave. That’s not a retention strategy. That’s a pricing moat.

What this means for you:

You’re probably underpriced. If your readers are telling you the content is worth it, if your open rates are above 40%, if your link click rates are above 10%, your audience has already decided the content is valuable. The only question is whether you believe them.

Don’t start at your dream price. Start lower. Build the trust runway. Publish enough that the value is undeniable. Then raise the price. The people who got the early price feel rewarded, not cheated. The people who pay the new price feel like they’re getting the current value. And you’ve created a retention moat around your earliest believers.

Where to see pricing data on your dashboard:

Go to your Substack dashboard. Click “Revenue.” You’ll see your gross annualized revenue. Divide that by your total paid subscribers. That’s your average revenue per user (ARPU). If your ARPU is close to your annual price, most people are on the annual plan. If it’s significantly higher, you have Founding Members or other premium tiers pulling the average up.

After a price change, watch this number daily. If ARPU rises, the new price is working. If it falls, people are choosing the monthly option (which annualizes lower than the annual for you if they churn) and you may need to adjust.

Chapter 7: The Recommendation That Sent 78 Subscribers in 3 Days and the One That Sent 48 in 30

I recommend four publications on Substack. Four. Not forty. Four.

My daughter’s photography publication. A design publication by the man who built my brand. Doomberg, the #1 finance publication on Substack.

And Citrini Research, run by a man whose institutional research I pay $10,000 a year for because it’s that good.

Most Substack writers recommend 20-40 publications hoping for reciprocal recommendations. I recommend four because I only want my readers clicking on things I’d stake my reputation on.

Here’s the data on what that selectivity produces.

Doomberg has recommended Capital Mischief for 30+ days. In that time, they’ve sent me 55 subscribers. I’ve sent them 952.

Citrini Research started recommending me around March 7. They’ve sent me 280 subscribers. I’ve sent them 279.

Read those numbers again.

Doomberg: 55 received, 952 sent. A 16:1 ratio in their favor. Citrini: 280 received, 279 sent. Near parity. In one-tenth the time.

Why the 16x difference? Two reasons.

First, audience alignment.

James van Geelen’s Citrini Research audience and my Capital Mischief audience are the same people. Finance-obsessed, research-driven, willing to pay for intelligence.

When a Citrini subscriber sees Capital Mischief recommended, they think: “This is for me.” When a Doomberg subscriber sees it, some think that. Most don’t.

Doomberg covers energy and commodities more broadly. The overlap is narrower.

What this means for you:

Stop trying to get 30 people to recommend you. Find one. One publication whose audience is YOUR audience.

Build a real relationship with that writer. Create value for them first. Interview them. Write about them. Subscribe to their work. When the recommendation comes, it will be genuine. And genuine converts.

One deep relationship with a high-alignment publication is worth more than 50 recommendation swaps with random newsletters.

Where to see this on your dashboard:

Go to your Substack dashboard. Click “Growth.” Then click “Recommendations.” You’ll see two sections: “Incoming recommendations” (who recommends you and how many subscribers they’ve sent) and “Outgoing recommendations” (who you recommend and how many subscribers you’ve sent them).

Sort incoming by “Subs received.” That’s your recommendation leaderboard. Your top recommender is probably worth more than all the others combined. Invest in that relationship.

Check the ratio. If you’re sending a publication 10x more subscribers than they’re sending you, that’s not a partnership. It’s a donation. The prestige of their name may be worth it. But know the math.

Chapter 8: 84% of My Readers Clicked a Link. Here’s What That Tells You About Your Audience.

100,815 people read my Saturday war briefing. Of the ones who opened it, 97% clicked at least one link inside the post. Not skimmed. Not glanced. Clicked. Ninety-seven percent.

The Substack average link click-through rate is 2-5%. Good newsletters hit 10-15%. Institutional research desks that charge $50,000 a year see 20-30%.

I got 97%. At $720 a year.

Here’s what those clicks reveal about the audience, and why this matters for every creator on the platform regardless of niche.

The clicks fall into four categories:

Ticker research: 348 clicked HYGH on Yahoo Finance. 306 clicked CNQ. 249 clicked GDX. 208 clicked SILJ. These readers opened their brokerage while reading my post. They’re not consuming content. They’re using it. That’s the difference between a newsletter and a tool. Tools retain. Content entertains.

Source verification: 277 clicked Reuters. 201 clicked Defense News. 156 clicked CNN. 124 clicked Goldman Sachs. These readers are checking my homework. They’re cross-referencing my claims against primary sources. That’s the behavior of analysts, not casual readers. When your audience verifies your sources, you’ve earned institutional-grade trust.

Archive exploration: 667 clicked the Whiskey Test. 195 clicked The Man Who Manages $5 Billion. 154 clicked Warning to Investors. These readers finished the war briefing and went looking for more. They’re not following a topic. They’re following a writer.

Conversion: 357 clicked /subscribe. These readers hit a point in the post where they decided to evaluate paying. Each click is a hand reaching for a wallet.

What this means for you:

Your link click rate tells you what kind of audience you’re building.

Below 5%: Your readers are skimming. Your content is too general or too short to generate deep engagement. They read, they leave, they forget. This audience is hard to monetize.

5-15%: Your readers are engaged. They click a few things. They’re interested but not invested. This audience will pay if you give them a reason.

15-30%: Your readers are using your content as a starting point for their own research. They trust you enough to follow where you lead. This audience pays and stays.

Above 30%: Your readers treat your publication as infrastructure. It’s not something they read. It’s something they USE. This audience will pay premium prices, refer friends, and never churn.

Where to see this on your dashboard:

Open any post’s stats. The “Links clicked” section shows total clicks and the percentage of openers who clicked. The number at the top, “[X]% of openers clicked a link,” is your link CTR for that post. Track it across posts. Watch for patterns. Some post types generate higher CTR than others. The high-CTR posts are your conversion engines.

Chapter 9: The Numbers That Actually Matter (and Where to Find Them While Your Coffee Is Still Hot)

In the first piece, I listed the metrics I track at each subscriber milestone. Those haven’t changed. But I’ve crossed into the “above 5,000” territory that I couldn’t write about in February because I didn’t have the data.

Now I do. Here’s the complete dashboard walkthrough.

Open Rate (found in: each post’s stats page, under “Open rate”)

This is the percentage of email recipients who opened your post. Substack counts both email opens and Substack app views in this number.

What good looks like: 35-50% is strong. Above 50% is exceptional. Below 25% means your subject lines aren’t working or you’re emailing too often or your content has lost its hook.

What I learned: My open rate varies wildly by post type. The Dear Charlie community post (paid subscribers only) opens at 80%. Monday investment posts open at 48-53%. The Saturday Library opens at 40-45%. Don’t track one open rate.

Track it per post type. A 42% open rate on your free Saturday post and a 50% open rate on your paid Wednesday post tells you something completely different than an “average” of 42.5%.

Where to see it: Dashboard > Stats > Click any post > The “Open rate” box. The percentage and the raw number of opens are both shown.

Traffic Sources (found in: each post’s stats page, under “Traffic sources”)

This tells you where your views are coming from. The categories:

• Email: People who opened the email. Your core subscriber base.

• Direct to app: People who opened it in the Substack app. Often the same subscribers reading on mobile.

• Direct: People who typed the URL, clicked a bookmark, or clicked a link someone texted them. This is your private sharing indicator. When someone texts your post to a friend, it shows up as “direct.”

• Substack app: People who found your post through Substack’s discovery features. The algorithm showed it to them.

• open.substack.com: People who found you through Substack’s browse page.

• LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.: Social media referrals.

What I learned: When a post goes viral, email percentage drops and direct percentage rises. My biggest post went from 20% email on day one to 9% email by day six. That means 91% of views were coming from people who were NOT on my email list. They found it through shares, forwards, and links. When your direct traffic exceeds 25%, your post is being privately shared. Feed it.

Subscribe Clicks (found in: each post’s stats page, under “Links clicked,” look for “/subscribe”)

This is the number of people who clicked the subscribe button or link from within your post. It’s different from actual subscriptions. It tells you how many people CONSIDERED subscribing while reading.

What I learned: On free posts, subscribe clicks measure general interest. On paid posts with a cliffhanger, subscribe clicks measure how sharp your cliffhanger is. My best paid post generated 110 subscribe clicks from 5,103 openers. That’s 2.2% of readers actively evaluating whether to pay.

Divide subscribe clicks by new paid subscribers on that post. That’s your click-to-conversion rate. Mine runs 10-15%. If yours is below 5%, your pricing page or your value proposition isn’t closing the deal. If it’s above 15%, you might be underpriced.

Estimated Revenue Increase (found in: each post’s stats page, top right)

This shows how much revenue Substack estimates this specific post generated. It counts new paid subscriptions that happened within a window after the post was published.

What I learned: Your highest-view post is not necessarily your highest-revenue post. My 100,815-view free post generated $102,630 in revenue. My 22,683-view paid post generated $53,408. Fewer views, more money. Because the paid post attracted people who were ready to buy, while the free post attracted people who were ready to look.

Track revenue per post alongside views per post. They tell different stories. Views measure reach. Revenue measures conversion. The best publications optimize for both.

New Subscribers: Paid vs. Free (found in: each post’s stats page, top left)

Under “New subscribers” you’ll see a total and a breakdown: “[X] paid subscribers, [X] free subscribers.” This ratio is the most underrated metric on Substack.

What I learned: On my two-post conversion day, the free post to everyone generated 187 free and 57 paid (3.3:1 free-to-paid ratio). The conversion post to free subscribers only generated 24 paid and 1 free (24:1 paid-to-free ratio). The two posts served completely different functions. The first was a net. The second was a spear.

If every post you publish generates mostly free subscribers, you’re acquiring but not converting. That’s fine if you have a separate conversion engine. If you don’t, you’re building a free audience that may never pay.

The 7-Day Chart vs. the 90-Day Chart (found in: Dashboard > Overview > use the dropdown to switch timeframes)

The 7-day chart shows what happened this week. The 90-day chart shows the trajectory.

What I learned: The 7-day chart during launch week looked like a rocket. The 90-day chart showed three months of flat line followed by a vertical explosion. The flat line is where most creators quit. The vertical part is what happens if you don’t.

When you’re in the flat line, look at the 90-day chart and remind yourself: the first 100 posts are the runway. The takeoff comes after. If you’re only looking at the 7-day chart, you’ll panic every slow week. The 90-day chart is the truth. The 7-day chart is the weather.

Chapter 10: The Dear Charlie Post That Made Someone Pay $2,828 on a Sunday Night

Every Sunday I publish Dear Charlie. It’s reader mail. The best comments from the week. The arguments, the pushbacks, the moments that made me rethink something.

The Dear Charlie has a 76.66% open rate. That’s the highest of any post type I publish. Higher than the war briefings. Higher than the investment theses. Higher than the post that hit 100,815 views.

Why?

Because belonging is a stronger motivator than information.

My paid subscribers don’t open the Dear Charlie to learn something. They open it because it’s their room. It’s the place where a theologian argues with a skeptic while a pacifist watches and a father talks about oil in the ground.

It’s where someone calls my analysis garbage and someone else calls it the best thing they’ve read all year. It’s where I publish the uncomfortable questions, the ones that made me reconsider my position, alongside the ones that confirmed it.

On a Sunday night, after the Founding tier had just increased to $2,828, someone read the Dear Charlie and paid $2,828. Not during a war briefing. Not during a market crash. During a comment roundup.

They didn’t buy the analysis. They bought the room.

What this means for you:

Your community content is not secondary content. It’s your retention engine. The posts that make your subscribers feel like they belong somewhere will keep them subscribed longer than the posts that make them feel smart.

Publish something that showcases your community every week. Reader comments. Reader questions. Reader arguments. The best comment exchange from the week. Give your community a place to see themselves reflected in your publication. Because when people see themselves in something, they don’t leave.

Chapter 11: The Platform Became My Biggest Growth Channel and I Didn’t Do Anything to Cause It

In February, I was growing through my own efforts. Notes. LinkedIn. Comment replies. The editorial flywheel. All of it was me pushing content into the world.

By March 8, Substack’s internal algorithm was sending me over 1,000 subscribers in a single day. That’s over 70% of my daily new subscribers coming from the platform itself. Not from my Notes. Not from my email. Not from my LinkedIn. From Substack deciding to show my publication to its users.

This happened because of three things converging:

First, I hit #1 on Substack’s Rising Leaders in Finance leaderboard. That badge means the platform’s algorithm identified Capital Mischief as the fastest-growing finance publication over a recent window. Being on that list puts you in front of readers who browse by category.

Second, the Citrini Research recommendation went live during my highest-visibility week. Every Citrini subscriber who clicked through landed on a publication covering a war in real time. The recommendation didn’t just send traffic. It sent traffic into a conversion environment.

Third, the engagement metrics, 1,659 likes, 309 restacks, 2,084 shares, on my viral post triggered Substack’s distribution algorithm. The platform has an incentive to show high-engagement content to its users because engagement validates its recommendation. My post’s metrics told Substack: “This content is good. Show it to more people.”

What this means for you:

You can’t directly cause algorithmic distribution. But you can create the conditions for it.

High open rates signal content quality. High engagement (likes, comments, restacks) signals audience interest. High sharing signals viral potential. When all three converge, the algorithm notices.

The practical advice: focus on engagement rate, not subscriber count. A publication with 500 subscribers and a 55% open rate with 20% link CTR is more attractive to Substack’s algorithm than a publication with 5,000 subscribers and a 20% open rate with 3% link CTR. Quality signals compound. Vanity metrics don’t.

Chapter 12: My Notes Strategy, or How I Turned Comment Replies into Half My Subscriber Growth

I covered this briefly in the first piece. It’s now my second-largest growth channel after Substack’s algorithm.

The system is simple.

When a reader leaves a comment on one of my posts and I reply with something funny, specific, or useful, I hit the “publish to Notes” button. That reply, pulled from the comment section of a post, becomes a standalone Note in the Substack feed. It reaches followers who don’t get my emails. It reaches the discovery feed where strangers browse. It shows up on screens my newsletter never touches.

I do this 7-8 times a day.

A good day generates 15-30 new subscribers from Notes alone. Not from the posts. Not from recommendations. Not from the algorithm. From comment replies I was already writing.

The three types of Notes that work:

Comment restacks: The best comment replies, published to Notes. These are your most authentic content because they’re unplanned. A reader said something interesting, you responded, and the exchange is worth sharing. No polish needed. No strategy needed. Just the conversation.

Standalone Notes: Short, punchy thoughts that aren’t long enough for a post. A reaction to news. A one-line observation. A question for your audience. These fill the gaps between posts and keep you visible in the feed.

Restack Notes: When you restack someone else’s post or Note with a comment attached. This puts your voice in front of their audience.

Timing matters:

Morning Notes catch the coffee scroll. Afternoon Notes catch the lunch break. Evening Notes catch the couch scroll. Space them 90 minutes apart minimum. Substack’s feed deprioritizes rapid-fire Notes from the same account.

Where to see the impact:

You can’t directly track “this subscriber came from Notes” in Substack’s dashboard. But you can see it indirectly. When your daily subscriber sources show “Substack” as the top source, a significant portion of those are Notes-driven. If you stop posting Notes for three days and your Substack-sourced subscribers drop, that confirms it.

Chapter 13: This Could Have Been an Ebook. Here’s Why It’s Free.

A reasonable person would look at this piece and think: “This is a growth playbook from someone with $875,000 in annual revenue. He should charge for it.”

A reasonable person would be right. I could put this behind my paywall. I could package it as a $49 ebook. I could build a course around it.

I don’t want to.

I publish five days a week about finance, geopolitics, and the place where money meets meaning. My Friday podcast is free. My Saturday book reviews are free. That’s two days a week of content, more than most writers publish in total, available to anyone on the planet with an internet connection.

The person who needs Friday and Saturday most can’t afford them yet. So they’re free. Always.

This piece is the same principle applied to the creator community. The writer who needs this most is at 200 subscribers, publishing twice a week, wondering if anyone is reading. They can’t afford a course. They shouldn’t have to.

Most people in my position would say: don’t give away your secrets. Somebody will copy you.

Nobody is going to copy me. Nobody else is going to publish five days a week about finance and geopolitics with my satire and dark humor, with the stubbornness of a man who stays up past midnight reading Iranian state media because the official story has never once been the whole story.

Nobody else has four decades of presidential advisory, an Air Force Academy honor code, and a $4,000 bottle of bourbon on the desk.

But the SYSTEMS are transferable. The five-day architecture. The two-engine model. The Pueyo cliffhanger. The two-post conversion model. The archive flywheel. The pricing moat. The community retention strategy.

None of these require my background. They require discipline, patience, and the willingness to publish 108 posts before anyone pays you a dollar.

If you’re building something on Substack and this piece helped, come find me at Capital Mischief. Leave a comment. I answer every one.

If you want your infrastructure optimized by the person who fixed mine before any of this happened, you’re already reading Veronica’s work. She told me in our first session I’d become a Substack bestseller within a year. That was five months ago. She was right.

People told me I was leaving money on the table.

I was building the table.

Then a war proved the thesis. And 12,065 people sat down.

May the Mischief be with you.

Charlie

If this story provided you value, I’m asking three things:

Hit the ❤️. One second. It tells the algorithm these lessons deserve to be found by a new creator who needs it.

Hit the 🔄 restack. Somewhere in your network is a person who will benefit greatly from it.

Drop a comment below. I read every one. I reply. And some of the best conversations are when somebody shared something they’d never said out loud.

If this landed, send it to one person. That’s all a ripple needs.

Leave a comment

ICharlie Garcia is the founder and writer of Capital Mischief, a Substack publication covering finance, geopolitics, and the place where money meets meaning. He publishes five days a week, is #18 on Substack’s Top 100 Bestsellers in Finance and #1 Bestseller on the entire platform, has two books in fifteen languages, a MarketWatch column, a bourbon habit his accountant can’t classify, and strong opinions about Iranian nuclear doctrine. The Saturday Mischief Library and Friday podcast are always free. Start there.

This piece was written as a guest post for Veronica Llorca-Smith, who fixed everything I didn’t know was broken before any of this happened. The original piece lives here.

Subscribe to Capital Mischief

Lemons & Lemonade 🍋

The CTA today is very simple: read this again and turn that knowledge into action - and a bit of mischief!

I’m inspired to revamp my strategy and build my own Substack Flywheel.

If you want help with your Substack growth, this is my lemonade:

🎓 1:1 Personalized Strategy with me like Charlie, his daughter, Amparo and 100+ creative entrepreneurs (Become a Founding Member)

🎬 Substack Live Series: 4 actionable videos to help you create your own growth and monetization strategy

🎯 Substack Bestseller Section: Posts, videos and frameworks to go from zero to Bestseller.

👨🏽‍🎓How To Win on Substack: my 5-star course on Gumroad.

¡Gracias, Charlie!

View Subscription Options 🌟

Subscribe now

When was the last time you updated your Sections and the navigation toolbar?

Your landing page matters: it’s your vision, your brand, your personality and the first thing readers see when they visit you.

Like the front door of an art gallery, it’s a gateway into your creative world, so make it count!

In this 32-minute webinar, I partnered with from Nomad Life (a lovely publication for everything nomadic) to take you through the design of your homepage and turn it from one more blog to an experience.

It’s time for a spring cleaning:

- What you should consider: navigation, journey, look and feel

- The importance of your Short Description: your message as a host is the first thing readers see before they visit your publication (and the cheeky message for those who don’t want to subscribe :)

- How to turn your readers into subscribers (a clear value proposition)

- New Substack functionalities that make the navigation smoother

- Best practices to organize the layout

- Differences between the Hero Post and the About

- How to add links to external sites (like your books and courses)

- How to customize buttons based on the target audience (free/ paid/ Founding Members)

- Mistakes to avoid (based on my own experience) like clutter and noise

- How to create an ecosystem within your publication (no dead-end streets!)

You can watch it here or on my YouTube channel to check all my videos to help you grow your writing-speaking business.

This video is FREE to help you grow your publication.

If you enjoy it, please share it so that it can reach more people and let us know what is one tip you will implement in your Homepage.

Leave a comment

Upgrade now for more strategies 🎓

Lemons & Lemonade 🍋

The Lemon Tree Mindset is all about strategies and mindset to help you grow a sustainable creative business.

If you are ready to launch your first digital mini-course, don’t miss out on this FREE Masterclass by the Write - Build - Scale team, a Substack Bestseller Top 25 in Education.

will show you the blueprint to go from zero to a profitable mini-course - even if you have a small audience.

800+ have already signed up.

🗓️ Wednesday 11 March

Sign up here📍

This week I shared how I’m diversifying my solopreneur portfolio in 2026 and one of the strategies was to launch my YouTube channel to repurpose my Substack Live videos.

It wasn’t perfect but I got the job done and YouTube sent me a trophy to celebrate my first 100 subscribers 🏆

Just a reminder that small beginnings are still big.

My goal with today’s Post is to share the full strategy I’m using to help you take off (with examples) and reach your first 100 subscribers by building a Substack- YouTube ecosystem.

This is ideal for writers who are already on Substack and have started doing Lives (or plan to in the near future) and don’t want them to go to waste.

If you are still early in your Substack journey, I suggest you start with my 13-minute tutorial to design an attractive home page that turns lurkers into subscribers. It’s 19US$ but you can get it FREE here.

Get you FREE goodie 🎁

The Substack/ YouTube Ecosystem

The goal is to create synergies between both platforms to maximize impact without adding extra hours. With just a little polish you can repurpose your Substack Live recordings for your YouTube channel, reach more people, gain more visibility, and get stronger SEO power (Substack is almost invisible to search engines, like a gated garden).

What you’ll find in the VIP cheat sheet:

- How to boost traffic leveraging Categories, Thumbnails and branding

- SEO strategies to increase views with Hashtags and Tags

- Edit like a pro without being one (Descript does a fabulous job with its embedded AI and you can use this link for a 50% discount trial)

- Create a seemless journey from YouTube to Substack (how to grow both)

- User competitors’ Metadata to improve your ranking, discoverability and views

- Increase engagement with Playlists, Recommended videos and “Cards”

Ten days ago I didn’t know a thing about editing or YouTube but everything starts with taking the first step 🌱

Subscribe now

How to attract traffic on YouTube

The first step is to design a welcome page that captures users in just a few seconds so they click to your video.

Category & Topics help you place your videos on the right shelves inside YouTube’s gigantic library. Make sure to customize them individually so people can find you in your niche.

Thumbnails: The thumbnail is one of the most important things, yet many creators treat it as an afterthought: it helps you stand out, build your brand and spark curiosity. My strategy is to strike a balance between consistent aesthetics (your brand) and freshness to generate interest with the novelty element.

Where to design them?

Canva is fantastic because it already has beautiful templates you can customize (like the ones below) to make them true to your style. I use Canva Pro for all my creative work (presentations, covers, banners…) and I think it’s a fantastic investment for building a professional brand without a design team.

Optimize ranking and views with SEO, Hashtags & Tags

For those of us (the non-experts), SEO is the enemy we avoid at all costs but it’s an incredible tool that many writers under-utilize. The idea is to use it smartly so people can find us easily in search engines (Google, etc.). Think signs and labels in supermarket aisles. That’s SEO before SEO existed.

Here’s how you can improve your YouTube ranking with just a few tweaks in your desccription and optimizing Tags and Hashtags:

Read more

When I was a kid, most of my friends wanted to be doctors, football players, hairdressers, vets, or firefighters (no YouTubers back then!).

I wanted to be “a polyglot.” I discovered the words when I was 7 or 8, and I told my parents that’s what I wanted to do as a grown-up. Deep down, what I really wanted was to travel the world and discover the fascinating places with exotic names on the world map at home.

“Were they real?”

Learning languages was the best way to find out…

As it turns out, the places were real and being a polyglot became the story of my life…

Due to my dad’s job, I spent my childhood and teenage years across different countries and continents. By age 15, I had lived in Spain, France, Brazil, and the Netherlands. Every time we moved, I loved learning a new language, but I also hated it because my accent reminded me that I was different, and children don’t want to be “different.” They want to belong. So I tried really hard to sound “like them” and get rid of my Spanish accent.

In high school, I took every opportunity to learn a new language: English, German, Italian…I remember buying 4 mini-dictionaries at once, because back then we didn’t have iPhones or Google Translate.

The obsession only grew stronger, and at Uni, I applied for an internship and graduated from Law School in Bologna. I wasn’t interested in law, but I was very interested in Italian (and Italians, ha!). Once I finished my studies and couldn’t find a job in Spain, I packed one brown leather suitcase and moved to China as an intern for the Spanish government. Mandarin became the 6th language.

Different people have different motivations for learning a new language: career opportunities, love, money, cultural immersion… for me, language was the motivation in itself: a superpower to communicate and connect with millions of people by switching channels in your brain.

Substack-ing in a second language

And connecting with people around the world brings us to today.

In November 2024, 18 months after my debut on Substack, I launched my Spanish publication, El Limonero.

Excitement was high, but expectations were nonexistent because Substack is an English-dominated platform and I hadn’t seen much Spanish (or other languages). I didn’t care and gave it a shot anyways…

What’s the worst best that can happen?

I had never written in public in Spanish, and this new passion project became the perfect opportunity to build a bridge to reconnect with my roots. Having spent most of my life as a foreigner, growing my own Spanish community felt a bit like home away from home. I was closing the loop.

It’s been a bit over one year and what started as a little seed has turned into a beautiful lemon tree, or limonero 🌳🍋

While I don’t have huge numbers or a Substack Bestseller badge, I have a lovely community of over 2,800 Spanish-speaking writers, authors, creators and solopreneurs across 72 countries! And now I know these places do exist ;)

It’s been a wonderful journey and my goal with today’s newsletter is to encourage people to get out of their comfort zone and live life in different languages.

Unlike when I was growing up, today you don’t have to move to Taipei to learn Chinese or pay an expensive tutor to study French. The possibilities are endless and accessible and you can even subscribe to brilliant publications for free in your favorite language!

Subscribe now

Ready to launch your Substack in a second language?

If you are ready to launch your Substack in a second language or are curious about my experience, in this 18-minute video, I share my strategy and tips to help you successfully grow 2 publications without burning out.

Some of the questions I answer:

• Which language you should launch first.

• When is the ideal time to launch the second publication.

• Is it better to keep the same profile or create a second one?

• Why it’s important to create independent publications.

• How Notes work for multilingual creators (and how to ensure you are seen)

• Strategies to create synergies between platforms (my English publication helps me grow my Spanish one).

• Tips for cross-promotion and monetization

To make the experience smoother, I have just launched my YouTube channel and you can watch all my videos there for FREE:

Subscribe now

Other resources for language lovers

I’ve also curated a list of FREE resources and multilingual creators in my community.

Also, if you want a customized 1:1 strategy session to map out your Substack growth and monetization plan in 1 or 2 languages, you can become a Founding Member.

View Subscription Plans 🌟

📝 My Substack Journey in 2 Languages: Is It Worth It?

🎬 Live: Mastering Multilingual Substacks with

Other multilingual creators in my community based on language:

🌎 has a wonderful publication, How We Learn Languages.

🇪🇸 Spanish: (Poetry), (ecommerce), (Family business), (Bilingual families), (personal growth)

🇧🇷 Portuguese: (Purposeful business)

🇫🇷 French: (Solopreneurs), (Minimalism)

🇮🇹 Italian: (Self-improvement)

🇦🇪 Arabic: (Ghostwriting)

PS: If you write in a second language, feel free to add it in the comments, and I will edit the list👇🏽

Thank you for reading! If you made it this far, you have officially made it to language lover 🌎❤️

And if you enjoyed it and would like to give me a little boost, please comment and share it with your multilingual buddies.

Gracias 🙏🏼

Subscribe now

“What’s the ideal size of a newsletter?”

It’s a topic writers and creators never seem to agree on, and many struggle with, wondering if their email is too short to have real substance or too long to keep readers engaged.

Honestly, I do too.

And when we reach out to Google or ChatGPT for help, we get even more confused as we are bombarded with contradictory information:

“Keep it under 500 words for brevity!”

“Aim for 2,000 for depth!”

So which one is it?

Substance vs length

As a full-time writer and creator (4 books, 1,000+ newsletters), I’ve been able to grow a coaching business on digital strategy that has allowed me to meet 100+ clients and go deeper into their newsletters and writing business in general. I’ve also observed hundreds of newsletters over the years, and this is what I know.

Obsession with length is a distraction.

What truly matters is substance. But what does “substance” mean? It’s a combination of the value you deliver (entertainment, education, inspiration…), the connection you build with your readers, and the relevance that keeps them coming back.

Substance = value + connection + relevance

Let’s start with some numbers.

In 2023, Reletter analyzed a database of 1.2 million Substack and LinkedIn newsletters and discovered that the top 50 performers (by subscriber count) averaged 871 words versus the average length of 451 words.

I usually try to stick to 1,000 words because I find that that’s my sweet spot, allowing me to add substance without packing excess luggage. I’m also a direct and to-the-point person who doesn’t like to waste words (or time), so how I write is how I speak.

Other sources and studies suggest that shorter emails achieve higher click rates and often win for quick engagement. I found a super interesting analysis by Boomerang showing that if your goal is to engage and drive action, the sweet spot is between 50-125 words, all of which yielded response rates above 50%.

That study was published in 2016, but it’s still often referenced in email marketing. It makes sense that if you are trying to push a CTA, such as joining a webinar or downloading a free guide, a short and clear message wins over a long letter. Point taken.

Some might look at the 2 reports above as conflicting, but I actually prefer to look at them as complementary: you can mix both approaches to fit your strategy. For example, you might send a weekly newsletter with more substance but then have short, punchy emails to promote a specific product or initiative.

Think newsletter vs email marketing.

Subscribe now

Meet the creators

Now let’s look at some actual creators.

Morning Brew, a daily business digest with millions of subscribers, keeps issues concise (often under 500 words) with witty summaries, bullet points, and curated links. It’s not about length; it’s about digestible value: readers get the day’s essentials in 5 minutes, feeling smarter without the overwhelm. Their open rates hover around 40-50%, far above industry averages, because the content feels essential, not exhaustive.

Similarly, The Skimm delivers news in a skimmable format: short paragraphs, bolded highlights, and conversational tone. With over 7 million subscribers, it proves that brevity builds habit: readers know they’ll get a quick, empowering update tailored to busy professionals.

Seth Godin’s newsletter, Seth’s Blog averages 100-300 words, focusing on one profound idea. His success (millions of readers) stems from substance: provocative insights that spark reflection, not filler. As Godin himself might say, it’s about delivering a “purple cow” moment that stands out, regardless of word count.

These examples show short formats excel when substance meets efficiency. Creators like these don’t pad content; they distill it. Justin Welsh shares how he streamlined his newsletter to 45 minutes of writing using a 4-step formula: hook, problem, solution, call-to-action. His short Saturday Solopreneur issues focus on actionable advice, building a $10M business through consistent value. He often indicates the reading time of 3-4 minutes as a plus.

But if substance is king, longer newsletters can thrive by offering immersion. Lenny’s Newsletter, Substack’s top business read with over 500,000 subscribers, often exceeds 1,000 words with in-depth product and growth advice. Lenny’s pieces include research, interviews, and frameworks and readers are willing to invest time because the payoff is career-changing insights. It’s not bloated; it’s comprehensive, turning subscribers into superfans who pay for premium access.

The Hustle, acquired for millions, mixes short snippets with deeper dives, averaging 800-1,000 words. Its curated news and features keep 2 million readers hooked by solving the “too much info” problem with substance: relevance and analysis.

Dan Koe advocates starting with long-form newsletters because they force originality and depth. His pieces, often 3,000+ words, repurpose into threads, videos, and posts, building exponential growth. I checked one of his newsletters this week on X and it had 3.9M views (!!).

Finding your sweet spot

All these creators succeed because length serves the content, not vice versa.

So, how do you shift focus to substance and find your sweet spot?

My take: Don’t get too caught up with numbers and rigid templates. Experiment and play with hybrid approaches. Long-form builds trust and voice, while short gets seen and acted on, but both win with substance.

In the end, the ideal newsletter length is whatever serves your message. Whether it’s Morning Brew’s brevity or Lenny’s depth, success comes from delivering what readers crave: value that informs, inspires, educates or entertains.

Stop counting words; start counting impact.

As you craft your next issue, ask:

Does this matter to my audience?

If yes, length will take care of itself.

What’s your take: short and sweet, or long and thoughtful?

PS: I didn’t try to hit a specific number but this newsletter hit 926 words - my sweet spot 😉

If you found it useful, you can support my work by sharing it with your community ❤️

Share

Subscribe now

Lemons & Lemonade 🍋

Upgrade now to join my MasterMind on Collaboration (Premium Members):

- Find out the best collaboration strategies in the digital space in 2026

- Best practices from other creators (co-authored books, Guest Posts, podcasts, joint webinars…)

- How to incorporate collaboration into your creator strategy (cadence, type..)

- Pitch your idea and find potential collaborators live!

🗓️ Session America- Asia pacific: 19 Jan 8pm EST || 20 Jan 12pm Sydney

🗓️ Session Europe: 20 January 8am London:

Upgrade now 🌟

If you are starting on Substack or are feeling invisible, I hear you. It’s not easy.

The truth is, you have to talk to the wall for a long time to build trust and be seen. It took me one full year to get traction, and even with over 13,000 subscribers today, many of my Notes flop, so I’m still figuring things out.

What I do know is that being human beats hacks and AI any day.

Sometimes we overcomplicate things, but people are here for the connection and the best way to beat robots and algorithms is by connecting: sharing your story, what makes your heart sing, what you are building or running away from, your hobbies, your passions…

We are in the writing people business.

Below are some ideas and prompts that can help you build real connections with readers and turn them into subscribers and even collaborators. I’ve been writing on Substack for 3 years, have grown a Substack Bestseller, and although the algorithm always changes, the nature of human connection doesn’t: it’s about sharing a little piece of yourself that makes someone say, “I needed to read this today.”

Subscribe now

Prompt 1: A mini story

People love stories because they are human and help us relate at an emotional level.

We live life through stories. You just have to look around with curiosity and pay attention to the little details: an act of kindness from a stranger, a random encounter, a brief moment of happiness…all of these can turn into your next story.

is the best at sharing stories with squirrels. They are super cute and somehow you can’t get enough of these little rascals!

Prompt 2: A first time

I love how blends storytelling in this Note to share how she started journaling and the picture makes it real and human.

Prompt 3: A flop

There are enough people out there sharing how fantabulous they are.

Sharing your mistakes openly lets people in because we all relate to the underdog.

Don’t be afraid of sharing the stories that make you feel embarrassed or silly. They are often the ones that people love most because it could be any of us and remind us how beautiful imperfection is.

Prompt 4: A strong stand

Having a firm stand is hard because we are people pleasers by nature, but daring to share your views unapologetically is a great conversation opener and often triggers a debate, like here talking about the George Clooney Effect.

Prompt 5: An Interesting fact

I love everything fitness and health, and always has fantastic advice, great info and tips that go beyond the mainstream wisdom. Doing a mix of tips and education backed up by science is a great formula to stand out and be useful.

Prompt 6: What you are up to

I love sharing what I’m working on, planning and how my business is evolving. Not with numbers and stats but with real in-action shots and images.

Use Notes to bring your business to life: a picture of your webinar, a sneak-peek of your new project, the behind-the-scenes of your new book…

Prompt 7: Something you’ve learned

turned an interesting fact about neuroscience and the power of naming emotions into a short, punchy Note. Interesting, educational and conversational all at once.

Asking a question at the end is a great way to engage the community.

Prompt 8: Share your hobby (mine is triathlon!)

Humans connect through shared passions and interests. Runners love meeting other runners and you would be surprised by how many subscribers and clients come to me because of fitness and sports in general.

Your hobby is part of who you are so don’t leave it behind. Tell us about your yoga class, your art and your pottery. We are all here for that too!

This morning, I ran a half marathon in Hong Kong and I posted a little Note to share the excitement with my community and motivate others to get out there and exercise.

Prompt 9: Behind the scenes

People love to know a bit more about the person behind the publication, not just the writer and the creator. What you do in your free time, how you spend your summers, and what your life looks like outside the Substack bubble.

I really enjoyed this Note from where she shares more about her solopreneur life (and I’m slightly jealous too!)

Prompt 10: A testimonial

Sharing reviews and testimonials is a fantastic way to let people know how your clients really feel about working with you and what the real impact is.

Don’t be afraid to share the good words from your customers. They help you build credibility and go a long way. In this case, my Founding Member is absolutely killing it and I want the world to know about it.

Prompt 11: A Celebration

You don’t need to win an Oscar or complete a marathon to celebrate. The small wins are worth a party too. celebrates her rising on Substack and she threw a heck of a party!

Prompt 12: Introduce your pet

One of the best things about working from home is that I get to spend hours every day with my furry friend, Django, a 9-year-old Frenchie that snores like a piglet and thinks he’s a big. scary guard dog.

So, if you are a solopreneur, this is like introducing your team (but better).

Prompt 13: A handwritten note

My notebooks are filled with notes, reminders, motivational quotes and to-do items.

Sometimes I share them openly, without filters and the handwriting always stands out.

Prompt 14: A launch

Whenever you launch something, anything, take it as an opportunity to share it with your community. Authors celebrate authors!

is great at sharing his books, doing cover reveals, giving updates…be creative and have fun sharing your creativity with the world!

Prompt 15: The timeline

The good thing about ageing is that you get to brag about how old you were when you started writing! The silver lining…

Prompt 16: A motivational quote

I love reading and sharing things that inspire me. From quotes from famous people to infographics and motivational bits that keep us going.

Have you read something encouraging today?

Did you see something that made you smile?

There goes your next Note!

Prompt 17: A technical tip

You can use Notes to share tactical tips and bits of knowledge so that people want more. Think the teaser before the appetizer.

I often share tips that help me as a writer and speaker and then develop them into long-form Posts.

Prompt 18: A personal story

does an incredible job at raising awareness of autism by sharing stories about her son Jack. I won’t spoil the beans but this story won the hearts of Substack and as a mom myself, I felt the love ❤️

Prompt 19: Add some humor!

Sometimes we forget that Notes should be fun, so don’t take yourself too seriously.

I often share things that make me laugh or that I hope will make others smile.

As my friend, the brilliant Jennie O’Connor always says, “the person who is having the most fun wins.”

What’s one thing that made you giggle today?

Happy Sunday and if you liked this, please share so that we can all grow together 🌳🍋

Share

Subscribe now

Lemons & Lemonade 🍋

Collaboration is acceleration!

Check out my January MasterMind on Collaboration to grow your writing-speaking business (paid subscribers):

• A brainstorm on how to collaborate effectively.

• Exchange of best practices from various creators.

• Overview at different types of collaborations: Guest Posts/ Cross-Posts, podcasts, co-authored books, lives..

• Strategies to collaborate with external organizations.

• Opportunity to pitch your collab idea and get feedback and input.

• A supportive community to meet peers and exchange ideas to grow.

This session is for my paid subscribers and I’d love to have you there 🌳🍋

🗓️ Session America / Asia Pacific: 19 Jan 8pm EST || 20 Jan 9am Hong Kong || 12 pm Sydney

🗓️ Session Europe/ Africa / India: 20 Jan 8am London || 9am Paris || 1.30pm Mumbai || 4pm Hong Kong

I want to join the MasterMind 🌟

Substack Course 🎓

It was a simple article sharing my story: why I started writing, my vision as a creative entrepreneur, and who I am as a person.

Not a fancy strategy, growth hacks, or how-to templates. Just the story of a mum who found herself unemployed in a new country during the pandemic and started writing to make sense of a world that very often doesn’t have any. It was just my origin story, how it all began.

I didn’t think too much of it and I published it but I did something very silly: I never sent it as an email to my subscribers, so none of you ever received it (it was simply published on my publication, hence no recipients in the stats).

But I also did something smart: I highlighted it on my home page so that everyone landing on my lemon tree would see it, like a welcome sign hanging on the door.

I turned it into my “Hero Post,” and added a FREE goodie inside.

The Crazy Story Of How My Substack - The Lemon Tree Mindset Was Born

And it was one of the best decisions I've ever made for my publication.

It’s been almost 2 years and my story still lives there, front and center. I’ve tweaked it and updated multiple times, but it’s still the same essence.

And here is the crazy thing: without any publicity, it’s still one of my most popular Posts and continues to attract new subscribers every week, even paid, after 2 years:

190+ new subscribers, including 12 paid and over 1,000 US$ in revenue.

My Hero Post

Same story in my Spanish publication, El Limonero, which is much smaller.

The message here: Stories work.

Subscribe now

About your Hero Post

Your Hero Post is the most important piece of content in your entire publication.

It’s the first impression you make, and a golden opportunity to make a great one and turn lurkers into loyal readers.

Let me tell you a secret after (almost) 3 years on Substack: people don’t subscribe to a newsletter. They subscribe to people and are here for the stories.

People subscribe to Chris, the single dad raising a wonderful kid with a disability, Gail, the solopreneur who is reinventing herself and squatting her way into her 70s, Maria, the coach who overcame anorexia at 13 and now helps women build confidence… Real people with real stories. That’s what I’m here for too.

Our brain is not programmed to remember data and numbers; we are wired, driven and motivated by stories because they make us feel. That’s why we remember them so naturally and effortlessly.

Stories flow.

Let it flow

This is how you can craft an engaging Hero Post with 6 clear steps and prompts for ideation to set your publication up for success in 2026.

You can upgrade now to unlock the framework and if you are a paid subscriber, I’m happy to give you personalized feedback on yours in the VIP Group Chat.

Subscribe now

Read more

We just landed in New Zealand for a road adventure before heading to the Gold Coast to spend Christmas with our Aussie family.

The end of the year is always a moment of pause and reflection. That’s why for December, I picked inspiration as the monthly theme because it’s the best way to start a new page, a new chapter and a new year.

And inspiration was my SEO keyword of 2025.

The highlight of the year was meeting new, inspiring people who are doing incredible things, from 7-figure writers and NYT Bestseller authors, to successful solopreneurs and public speakers who are making their dreams come true.

Thanks to the launch of my new book, The Anti-Procrastinator, with Penguin Random House, I had the opportunity to travel and meet award-winning authors in India, Hong Kong and Singapore who showed me what’s possible.

All these people and their amazing stories pushed me to try harder and made me dream, think and act bigger.

Having launched my second Substack publication, El Limonero (Spanish version), in November 2024, I pushed myself to look at things with curiosity and fresh eyes and did a lot of things differently:

I launched my first MasterMind, published my first digital course, hosted my first cohort, went live in English and in Spanish…

From strategic collaborations to serialization and live coaching, I reimagined the way I was growing my communities and it was the beginning of my Lemon Tree Mindset 2.0.

I’m ending the year with a real community that focuses on people and connection and even had the opportunity to meet some of my members in person in Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. My tiny seed is blossoming into a beautiful lemon tree with over 13,000 members across 164 countries!

This wouldn’t be possible without you, and as a thank-you, I’ve prepared a curated collection of Substack resources to help you on your journey as you grow your own community and your lemon tree 🌳🍋

It’s a freemium collection of Posts and videos. You can follow them in order or dive straight into the ones that catch your attention.

I wanted to make sure you have everything you need at your fingertips to learn fast and act faster.

Less clicks = less friction.

My hope is that you find one thing that will inspire you to try something new.

And my only ask is this: if you find inspiration somewhere, please share it with one person who could benefit from it.

Subscribe now

I suggest starting with my most popular Post in 2025 with 26K+ views, 150+ Restacks and a lot of debate about the future of Substack:

Substack Is Changing in 2026 And This Is How You Can Prepare Now

To design your publication

• Getting the basics right: how to design and structure your publication

• I Revamped My Substack Homepage In 27 Minutes [5 Tips]

• Is Your Welcome Email Just An Afterthought? Let’s Fix It.

To grow your community

• The best tools to grow organically (Notes, Recommendations and Lives)

• Making Sense of the Recommendations Shenanigans

• 3 Things I’ve Learned After Publishing 1,000 Substack Notes

• Grow your Substack with Live Sessions

• Build Momentum with (Micro) Collaborations & Community

To gain paid subscribers

• The Mindset Shift That Took Me From 5 To 202 Paid Subscribers

• A Clear Roadmap to Gain Paid Subscribers

• My Substack Offer Wasn’t Selling Until I Did These 3 Things

• The Beauty of Serialization on Substack

• The Strategy To Gain Paid Subscribers No One Talks About: Show vs Tell

• From A Newsletter To A Multi-Stream Business

To unlock my Substack 2.0 Collection, you can upgrade now before the prices go up on January 1st.

79 US$ for one year of unlimited lemonade (or 1 coffee a month ☕️)

Enjoy!

Upgrade now 🌟

Subscribe now

Think Friends, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones…it’s the anticipation, the connection built over time and the emotional attachment they create between the audience and the characters. And it’s not a coincidence: the producers brilliantly blend marketing and storytelling to keep us hooked, season after season.

And I think we, writers and creators, have a lot to learn from them.

What if we turned our content into a series to build trust with our readers?

That’s exactly what I started exploring on Substack last year: serialization.

And it was a game-changer for both my publications, The Lemon Tree Mindset and El Limonero (Spanish version), allowing me to move from isolated earnings to a more sustainable and predictable income.

Today, serialization is a key part of my digital strategy and here you have 3 examples:

• 1. Personal Brand Studio

In 2024, I launched a series of 8 interconnected posts about personal brand. Although I had a much smaller publication then (less than 2,000 subscribers), it was the first time I had a significant boost in paid subscriptions and earnings and 2 months later, it helped me earn the Substack Bestseller badge. I then turned it into a digital guide on Gumroad and gave it to my paid subscribers for free as an extra perk.

• 2. Speak to Scale

A few months ago, I launched The Public Speaking Playbook, a sequence of 5 exclusive Posts on Substack. The series helped me gain paid subscribers and add incremental revenue. I recently turned it into a stand-alone course on Gumroad, Speak To Scale for creators who want to get on camera/ on stage and generate a new income stream, so it’s still bringing in passive income.

• 3. Substack Live Series

This month I wrapped up the Substack Live Series, 4 live sessions to help you grow, scale and monetize your publication.

The sessions are sequential and built on one another, creating loyalty and connection with readers. It was my first time serializing live sessions and I was pretty happy with the results (both in English and Spanish).

Check the Substack Live Series 🌟

If you like the idea of serializing your content instead of publishing random, disconnected pieces that get forgotten after 2 days, this is what you’ll find below the paywall:

• A clear serialization strategy to attract subscribers with every Post

• A framework to help you with the “how-to”

• Marketing and branding to make your series stand out

• How to turn your series into revenue streams (active and passive)

🎬 I’ll follow up with a live session on serialization in January 2026 for my paid subscribers.

🌟 Check out the subscription options and upgrade before the prices go up in January 2026.

Subscribe now

The Why: A clear promise

The good news is that you can serialize anything: a book, your memoir, a journey (think travelogue), a collection of recipes, a process, a list of podcasts…

The key is not what you serialize but why you serialize it and be crystal clear on who the series is for and what the outcome is.

Who is your audience.

What is your promise.

How you turn promise into outcome.

Once you nail these, the rest will flow.

For my public speaking playbook, the audience is creators who want to incorporate public speaking into their strategy to boost visibility and create new income streams.

For my Substack Live series, the audience is Substackers who want to grow, scale and monetize their publication.

One simple promise, one simple (although not easy!) outcome.

Action: Identify your ideal reader and articulate the promise.

The What: Bet on the winning horse

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or play the guessing game.

Instead of blindly selecting a topic, zoom out and look at your previous Posts, blogs, podcasts and find the winning horse.

What are your most popular articles?

What is already having traction?

Find the hidden link and double-click on it.

Pick a topic where you have a mix of experience, passion and business proof (credibility) and unwrap it into 5-8 sub topics that are interconnected.

Action: Do a search in your achive to find your winning horse

The How: A simple framework

You never know 100% if a series is going to work, but having a clear plan sets you up for success.

Also, the beauty of serialization is that you don’t have to spend hours developing the entire content beforehand. Instead, you can create it on the go, to make sure there is a demand and even fine-tune if needed based on the readers’ feedback.

If after a couple of issues you don’t get traction, you can ditch it without regrets and move on. Don’t waste time creating something people don’t want.

The process can be very simple: once you pick your topic, you break it down into parts.

If it’s a book, it will naturally be the chapters.

If it’s an outcome (how to achieve x), you can break it into the different phases or steps.

If it’s a journey, it will be the chronological sequence.

In my case, for the Substack Live series, I divided it into 4 simple blocks from simple to complex:

1. Design your publication

2. Internal tools for growth

3. Collaboration and community

4. Monetization

Put yourself in your reader's shoes and craft a journey that builds toward the promise: each session should take them one step closer to the final destination.

Action: Break down your topic into parts and build the series skeleton.

The branding and experience

Back to the TV series, the branding is critical: ensure people remember the name, the music, the cover.

(Good) marketing is about making something memorable (I recognize it), reliable (I trust it) and desirable (I want it). And it’s also about a great experience.

Think Netflix: they do a summary of the previous episode to make sure you don’t miss anything and it automatically jumps to the next one in a seamless way. It flows.

That’s the goal: minimum friction, maximum engagement.

You can recreate something similar by using a unique cover for your series and ensuring all chapters are one-click away.

This is how I designed the user experience for my Substack Live Series. You can’t get lost and it naturally leads you to the next one…with one single click.

Action: Create the branding and the experience for your series

Monetization

Should you paywall your series?

It depends on your strategy.

When I serialized my first book on Substack, The Lemon Tree Mindset, my goal was to develop a community of readers, so I left it free to attract new subscribers and grow.

Today, I monetize my series because my community is bigger and it’s a great way to give value to my premium members and attract new ones strategically.

Both options are valid, and if you decide to paywall it, the most important thing is to ensure all your readers get some value from it. I like to see the paywall as a bonus and give readers an extra: exercises, the how-to, a video…

Personally, what I find most exciting about serialization is what happens afterwards: unlike most pieces of content, which die after a few days, series can have a second life. I often repackage the content and turn it into a new digital product on Gumroad: an ebook, a digital course…you plant the seed once and you keep getting new lemons 🌳🍋

The beauty of serialization is its longevity, which is so rare these days in the digital world, where everything is disposable and gets “thrown away” after a single use.

Who doesn’t love a little black dress you get to use again and again on different occasions?

If you are ready to serialize your series or have already played around with it, my community would love to know about it and maybe even discover a new favorite for the season!

Feel free to add your questions or series in the comments, and I will check them out.

PS: What is your all-time favorite TV series?

Leave a comment

4 exclusive LIVE sessions to help you grow and scale your publication by building your community and getting paid for what you love doing:

• Session 1: Getting the basics right (28 min)

• Session 2: Tools to grow organically (36 min)

• Session 3: Scale with collaboration and community (40 min)

• 🌟 Session 4: A roadmap to gain paid subscribers (45 min) today!

This is my most popular initiative on Substack in 2025 and today we had 79 live viewers in the final session (!)

You can upgrade now to watch the replays and join the VIP Chat for Q&A and personalized feedback with 200+ premium members (writers & creators).

The content is a mix of mindset, strategy and tactics paired with practical exercises to help you turn the theory into action.

It’s 100% based on my experience growing a Substack Bestseller, 13K+ subscribers across 2 publications with 22K US$+ in annual revenue (The Lemon Tree Mindset and the Spanish version, El Limonero) and a beautiful global community.

You can upgrade now for full access to the live sessions, recordings and the VIP group chat.

If you put in the work, I honestly think you can make your investment back in 60 days.

View subscription options 🌟

Subscribe now

Session 4: A roadmap to gain paid subscribers

It took me 18 months to crack the monetization code on Substack and in this video, I share with you everything I learned to create an offer that turns readers into paid subscribers.

I don’t have the magic formula to becoming a Substack Bestseller overnight but I share strategies, real examples and tactics to help you think different about the value you (can) add to your readers and how to turn your content from a “nice to have” to a “I’m ready to pay for this.”

This is what you will learn in this session:

• Type of monetization strategies (Paid/ Free/ Freemium) and pros and cons.

• When to launch paid subscriptions and what to consider before you do.

• How to do a successful launch (hint: treat it like a digital product and go big!)

• Types of offers: readers are not looking for just “information.” You can explore different ways to deliver value:

  • Education: actionable “how to” based on your personal experience

  • Proximity: access to you (like this live session)

  • Exclusivity: be part of a VIP club

  • Personalization: 1:1 coaching, audits and personalized feedback

  • Collaboration: opportunities to collaborate with you/ other members

• Using the paywall smartly: When and how to use it in your content strategically. How to lead with value and focus on a positive experience for all subscribers. The paywall should open an extra BONUS and create curiosity and FOMO.

• Personal Examples: wins and flops after (almost) 3 years on Substack. I share real examples and stories of what worked and what didn’t.

  • Serialization: the killer move to gain paid subscribers (like this series in English AND Spanish)

  

  • Group chat to build a VIP community that fosters collaboration

  • Personalized services such as profile audits and 1:1 calls

  • Welcome gift to incentivize upgrade (and what to avoid)

• Tips for marketing and soft sales: from selling to serving

  • Maximize digital touchpoints to promote your offer (welcome email, Hero Post, About Section…)

  • How to communicate leading with benefits (not features) and my CSR framework

  • Launching segmented campaigns for your most engaged readers

  • Doing a monthly recap to let readers see the benefits in action

Here is an example to show you it’s possible to gain paid subscribers from your Hero Post through soft-selling and serving (no hardcore sales or massive discounts):

This was the final session and I had a blast seeing so many of you pop up on the screen!

If you found it useful, I encourage you to check the previous ones to ensure you have a 360 strategy to grow your community and monetize your work in a sustainable way.

December is full but if you want a 1:1 strategy, you can become a Founding Member and we can plant some trees in January to start the year in style 🌳🍋🎉

Thank you , , , , , and many others, for making this my most popular live session in 2025 🙏🏼

Gracias!

Ready to upgrade 🌟

Read more

4 exclusive LIVE sessions to help you grow and scale by building your community and getting paid for what you love doing:

• Session 1: Getting the basics right (28 min)

• Session 2: Tools to grow organically (36 min)

• 🌟Session 3: Scale with collaboration and community (40 min)

• Session 4: Monetize with a clear strategy and offer (next)

This is my most popular initiative on Substack in 2025!

The sessions have 55-70 live participants and you can watch the replays and join the VIP Chat for Q&A and personalized feedback with 200+ premium members.

The content is a mix of mindset, strategy and tactics paired with practical exercises to help you turn the theory into action.

It’s 100% based on my experience growing a Substack Bestseller, 13K+ subscribers across 2 publications (The Lemon Tree Mindset and the Spanish version, El Limonero) and a beautiful global community.

You can upgrade now for full access to the live sessions, recordings and the VIP group chat.

View subscription options 🌟

Subscribe now

Session 3: Collaboration & Community

Session 3 hit a new record: We had a peak of 70 viewers, the highest so far!

Here is the recording for my paid subscribers (40 minutes) with a FREE preview.

And as some of you prefer the written format, here is a little teaser:

About the mindset

The foundation of everything we talked about is mindset. In a world full of inauthentic hacks, AI content, and quick-fix pods, the writers and creators who stand out are the ones who show up as themselves and lead with transparency and honesty.

Authenticity is no longer just nice-to-have; it’s the rarest currency we have and it’s also our unique advantage.

If you pair that with a win-win mindset so that both parties win and a commitment to long-term strategies instead of short-term steroids, you have the mental framework to grow not just today, but to turn your creativity into a sustainable business over time.

About collaboration

Collaboration doesn’t have to start big. In fact, it rarely does.

I love the idea of micro-collaborations: small, human moments that help us connect. Leaving a thoughtful reply on someone’s Note, following up on a comment on your Post with a question instead of just “thanks,” sending a helpful resource with no strings attached…These micro-moments slowly turn strangers into familiar names, and familiar names into trusted collaborators. That’s how collaboration is born, from our human denominator.

Honestly, I collaborate with people I know and like. It’s that simple.

The secret almost nobody talks about is this: Invite others in before you knock on people’s doors. Be a host and bring your guests in first: offer a Guest Post spot, invite someone to co-host a live with you, ask if they’d like to do a written interview and give first.

When you become the person who gives others the microphone, something incredibly refreshing and gratifying happens: most creators naturally recommend you, cross-post your work, or invite you to their space later. Be a great host.

About collaborators

Finding the right people is easier than we think. Your future collaborators are often already around you: they comment on your work, they support you, and they are one step away from becoming more than just “subscribers.” Send them an invitation right now (and let me know how it goes).

And if you don’t know where to get started, you are welcome to join my collaboration day in my group chat, where I invite my members to pitch their collaboration idea (for FREE). So many subscribers find opportunities there and I always try my best to do some sneaky matchmaking.

About types of collaborations

I explored different collaboration formats that actually work based on my personal experiences and here are some examples:

• Guest Posts supported by Cross-Posts

• Live sessions with another creator

• Joint webinars with a partner

• Written interviews/ co-authored Posts

• Challenges

These are just some and the possibilities are endless once you start thinking creatively.

One counterintuitive truth: the most successful collaborations rarely come from the creators with the biggest audiences. They come from pairing with someone who is just as hungry and excited as you are: two people willing to join forces, get their hands dirty, and have fun in the process, regardless of the outcome.

About pitching

Pitching doesn’t have to feel sleazy.

Shift from selling yourself to solving for us.

Do your homework, spot gaps in other communities that you can fill with your knowledge and expertise, and lead with the value you bring to them. That’s what I mean by a win-win mindset.

Always answer this question before pitching (to anything):

What’s in it for them?

Numbers help, but a compelling story, unique expertise, or a different background can open just as many doors. And remember that rejection is redirection and every no is a step closer to a yes.

About community

Community, the second half of the equation, is where the magic compounds.

Real community isn’t built overnight because it runs entirely on trust, and trust can’t be hacked or bought. It’s earned slowly by showing up consistently as the same human being people see on live, by creating spaces where no question is too “silly,” by celebrating every tiny win like it’s a medal, and by actively encouraging members to connect with each other (not just with you) so that the sum is larger than its parts.

I shared how I borrow from real-world communities I love: my triathlon club, for instance, where people cheer whether you come first or dead last. That’s the feeling I try to recreate: a safe space to ask for help, a place that celebrates progress, and an environment that naturally sparks collaboration between members without fabricated boosts or steroids.

Weekly celebration threads, personal sharing days (like your hobby), guided questions to spark a conversation…these small rituals slowly turn a quiet chat into a living, breathing community. Again, micro-habits at scale.

When collaboration and community feed each other, you create a flywheel: more collaborations strengthen your community, a stronger community attracts better (and more) collaborations, and suddenly growth feels natural and effortless because it’s organic, sustainable and has strong roots, just like a lemon tree 🌳🍋

Leave a comment

What’s next

That was Session 3.

Next week, we close the series with the topic so many of you asked for:

Monetization: how to craft an irresistible paid offer and turn your creativity into a real, sustainable income.

🗓️ Monday 1 December 8pm EST || Tuesday 2 December 9am Hong Kong || 12pm Sydney

Ready to upgrade 🌟

Can’t wait to see your name live!

PS 1: If this helped you, please share it and let’s keep passing the microphone 🙏🏼

PS 2: If you were among the 70, thank you for showing up. I had a blast!

Share

Read more

Welcome to the Substack Lives Series:

4 exclusive LIVE sessions to help you grow and scale your Substack by building your community and getting paid for what you love doing:

• Session 1: Getting the basics right (28 minutes)

• Session 2: Tools to grow organically (36 minutes) Today 🌟

• Session 3: Scale with collaboration and community (next)

• Session 4: Monetize with a clear strategy and offer

The sessions are a mix of mindset, strategy and tactics paired with practical exercises to help you turn the theory into action.

The content is 100% based on my experience growing 2 publications (1 Substack Bestseller and the Spanish version with almost 3,000 subscribers in 1 year).

You can upgrade now to get access to all the live sessions, recordings and the VIP group chat for Q&A and personalized feedback.

View subscription options ✨

Session 2: The Best Tools to Grow Organically

Today I hosted Session #2 and 57 people joined live!

The topic was how to grow organically – no ads, Notes Boosts or external platforms; just the tools Substack already gives us for free.

95% of my subscribers come from within Substack, and in this video I share how and my 3 key levers: Notes, Recommendations and Live sessions.

1. Notes

Notes are still the #1 growth engine on Substack and while we can’t predict the algorithm, there are things we can control: consistency, intention, and connection.

Also, it’s important to highlight that success is not measured by vanity metrics. It’s the depth of conversation and the real human connections that turn into subscribers (sometimes even friends!). Here are some tips that work for me:

Cadence and timing

Try to be consistent (1–2 Notes a day if you can) and be in sync with your audience’s time zones, as they will spread across different continents. In my case, my key market is US but I have many subscribers in Europe, so I try to catch their awake time.

Let your Note breathe. Don’t post again 30 minutes later just because it’s quiet: Notes often take hours or even days to pick up steam. The content on Substack has incredible longevity compared to other platforms, so being patient pays off. Let the chicken marinate.

Topics: what to post

Every Note should ideally do one of these two things (if it does both, even better):

- Build connection: Share who you are as a person - your hobbies, your struggles, your little daily stories, your late start, your personal thoughts…

Share you story and humanize your content.

- Build credibility: Share what you’re learning in public, your flops, your backstage, your tiny wins, your process. People follow journeys, not perfection. And don’t take yourself too seriously!

Subscribe now

Notes as your digital lab

I love using Notes as a “laboratory of creativity and ideation”. Test an idea in a Note before writing a full Post.

If it gets curiosity and questions, that’s your signal to expand it into a Post (or even a series of of Posts).

If it gets crickets, you just saved hours writing something nobody wanted.

My most popular Posts are the result of a lot of trial and error on Notes. Fail fast and move on.

What to avoid (lessons from my own mistakes)

These are some practices I stay away from because they push people away:

- External links: Substack wants to keep its users inside.

- Posting too frequently (cannibalizes your own reach).

- Humble-bragging or over selling: you always build trust first.

- Long walls of text – people are scrolling and are not ready for a full meal. Give them a tasty snack.

- Bad titles: your title will make it or break it and very often it becomes an afterthought. Here is a tip you probably haven’t tried: your best line is often your last line. Try moving it to the top.

2. Recommendations done genuinely

75%+ of my subscribers come directly from Recommendations (in the Spanish one is over 85%) and my strategy is simple: be genuine and have an abundance mindset.

You can’t force them, but you can earn them: give first, support others genuinely, collaborate, show up in their chats and lives, leave a thoughtful comment and recommend first.

Be like the nice waitress who always has a warm smile and gives you a free cookie with your flat white (I love cookies).

The most powerful recommendations are born from real relationships, not swaps.

If you want to go deeper into Recommendations, I have a dedicated video for my Paid Subscribers with best practices and examples:

🎬 Making Sense of the Recommendations Shenanigans (21 min)

3. Live sessions

I only started hosting live sessions on Substack earlier this year, and every time I go live, 3 things happen:

1. It brings new subscribers because some people discover you in the app.

2. It deepens the connection with existing subscribers because they get to know you better in a very casual and conversational way.

3. It builds confidence as a writer, creator and person. If you can speak live to strangers while stumbling over words and still think on your feet, you can do anything. It gives you the courage to launch webinars, host Masterminds and you feel comfortable in podcasts and interviews. Even if your audience doesn’t grow, you do, and just for that, it’s worth it.

To go deeper into Substack Live sessions, you can watch this video for paid subscribers:

🎬 You Can Actually Grow Your Audience With Live Sessions (25 min)

Explore subscriptions 🌟

Plant the seed

Organic growth on Substack is slow at the beginning, then suddenly compounds. It rewards consistency, generosity, and genuine connection over time.

Show up, give more than you take, share your full messy human self, and trust the long game. Nothing happens until one day, everything happens.

Next week is Session 3 (my absolute favourite): Collaboration & Community: how to go from growing to truly scaling with the help of others.

🗓️ Monday 24 Nov 8pm EST || Tuesday 25 Nov 9am Hong Kong || 12pm Sydney

💬 Join the VIP Group Chat to keep the conversation going and get your personalized feedback.

I would love for you to comment and ask questions below, and if this is helpful, please share it with one person who could benefit from it.

What goes around comes around 🌳🍋

Gracias 🙏🏼

Upgrade now to join ✨

Read more

Thank you , , , , , , and many others for attending 🙏🏼

4 weekly LIVE sessions to help you grow your Substack community and get paid for what you love doing:

• Session 1: Getting the basics right (28 minutes)

• Session 2: Tools to grow organically

• Session 3: Building momentum with collaboration and community

• Session 4: Monetizing with a clear strategy and offer

The sessions are a mix of mindset, strategy and tactics paired with practical exercises to help you turn the theory into action.

The content is 100% based on my experience growing 2 publications (1 Substack Bestseller and the Spanish version with almost 3,000 subscribers in 1 year).

You can upgrade now to get access to all the live sessions, recordings, exercises and VIP group chat for support, peer-to-peer learning and personalized feedback.

Subscribe now

View subscription options ✨

Session 1: Getting the basics right

The debut session had 65 live participants which felt amazing after my book launch flop last week! Remember, this is a journey.

The key message: get your house ready before you bring your guests in.

As a visual learner, I use the metaphor of a house to help you design your publication step by step so that you readers become subscribers and your guests come back for more because you are not only focusing on your writing but their experience. 🏡

This is how I structure mine and below are guidelines and tips that can help you organize yours:

1. Invitation (Short description)

Your short description is the reason why someone should visit your house, aka, subscribe (or not).

It’s the first thing readers see before making the decision, so make the invitation clear and give them a reason to visit you and explore.

Action: Review your Short Description and make it clear and relevant for your ideal reader.

2. Know your guests (ideal readers)

When you talk to everyone, you talk to no one because you become broad, generic and hence irrelevant.

Describe your ideal reader:

What are they trying to achieve?

What’s holding them back?

How can you add value to them?

Step into their shoes and try to understand how you can support, educate, teach and/or encourage them along their journey.

The focus is not on you (what you do) but on them (how you serve them).

The woman over 60 who wants to regain confidence and be heard.

The mid-manager who is feeling stuck in his job and wants to move forward.

The author who loves writing books but hates seling books.

Shake hands with your ideal reader and put yourself in their shoes.

Action: Describe your guests answering the questions above

3. Add your rooms (Sections)

After I added Sections, in 2024, my growth of paid subscribers doubled because readers were able to find what they were looking for and the value was publication was adding was much more obvious because it was easy to find. This is how.

Read more

Exactly 12 months ago, I published my first Post ever in my native language. And it marked a before and an after in my Substack journey and my career as a writer.

Even though the Spanish-speaking community on Substack is quite small (third after English and Portuguese) and the platform is heavily anglo-centric, I ignored all the warnings and limiting beliefs telling me to stay in my comfort zone and published the damn thing.

363 days later, El Limonero has grown to 2.680 subscribers (50 paid) in 66 countries, so it was definitely a risk worth taking.

It’s been quite a journey and it grew way faster than my English publication in its first year: +1,514% annual growth! Giving Bitcoin a good run for its money, ha!

My mission at The Lemon Tree Mindset is to help other writers and creators turn their creativity into their lifestyle and today, I want to share strategies that will help you grow your creative business on Substack.

If you’d like to go deeper, tomorrow I’m launching the Substack LIVE Series for my paid subscribers (see more below):

4 strategic Live sessions + Recordings + Group Chat support:

- Session 1: Getting the basics right (design + navigation)

- Session 2: Grow with native tools (I grow 100% organically)

- Session 3: Scale with community and collaboration

- Session 4: Build a sustainable business (offer, pricing, CTAs)

Upgrade now 🌟

My seed 🌱

They say you always start from zero, but that’s often not the case: with some lateral thinking, you can use your experience as a springboard and build bridges. Almost everyone has some kind of leverage, even if it’s not obvious at first.

In my case, when I launched El Limonero, I’d already been active on Substack for 18 months with The Lemon Tree Mindset, and that gave me a competitive edge when starting “from zero” in Spanish.

At the time, I didn’t realize it, but I already had seeds for my new project:

- First-hand knowledge: Tons of hours messing around online and learning through trial and error.

- Strategy: I already knew how to grow organically, what tools to use, and how to craft an offer (that sells).

- Network: Many of my subscribers were already from Spanish-speaking countries (you can filter the country in Subscriber Stats).

- Substack Bestseller status: Once you hit 100 paid subscribers, Substack rewards you with a badge displayed on your profile. That builds credibility and opens doors for collaborations.

White: 100+

Orange: 1,000+

Purple: 10,000+

- Numbers: Creator profiles don’t break down #subscribers by publication. To a stranger, I had 5,000 subscribers, even if only 1% were from El Limonero. Today, when you see 13K on my profile, the reality is that 10,500+ are from the English one and 2,600+ from the Spanish one. The math benefits creators with multiple publications.

- Collaborations: Instead of waiting, I started collaborating with other Hispanic creators from the get-go because I knew how powerful joining forces with others can be instead of doing all the work solo.

- Community: From day one, I bet on building a community newsletter because people crave human connection and belonging. The webinars and group chat helped me create that little nest of collective creativity and I applied the same approach to my Spanish publication.

Your seed 🌱

The cool thing is that while the quantitative part can’t be replicated, much of the qualitative stuff above is within your reach and you can start applying it today. This is how:

- Build connections with other writers and encourage collaboration among your members (comment, reach out via DM, be nice).

- Nurture your small community instead of just sending one-way emails. Take every opportunity to go deeper and keep the conversation going. Use the chat, even if you talk to the wall at first.

- Define your strategy instead of simply sharing your morning thoughts and hoping the audience will relate. Find the sweet spot between intuition and strategy:

Who’s your ideal reader?

Why will they love what you write?

What transformation do you promise them?

- Create an attractive brand with a beautiful, welcoming, easy-to-navigate homepage. Many writers focus on writing and let the visual and marketing aspect become an afterthought but your look and feel matters and helps you turn readers into subscribers.

Check out my FREE tutorial to design your homepage.

None of this is technically hard, but to gain knowledge, you must invest time or money. Your pick.

The lemon tree 🌳🍋

Back to El Limonero, while the first year was on startup mode and I was solidifying the trunk, this second year I’m going all in on the fruits: the lemons.

Following the English version’s playbook, my strategy is to build a digital ecosystem beyond Substack. In June, I launched my first digital course, How To Win On Substack, and a month later, I published the Spanish version. Together, they have over 100 students! I’m thrilled with these results, which are both modest and promising.

My goal is to create a rich and varied offer so my community members have more options and resources to grow their digital business. Substack isn’t the end goal: it’s the base, the trunk from which I’m building my business. That trunk, in my case, is called community.

I advise thinking beyond a newsletter and diversifying your offer.

You can grow your digital business by adding volume or you can grow it by adding depth:

- Availability: on-demand courses and videos

- Proximity: live sessions, in-person events

- Peer-to-peer learning: Mastermid, group chat

- Exclusivity: group coaching and cohorts

- Personalization: 1:1 coaching, async support

Same content, but when you choose depth, you get depth. That’s my bet.

Let’s build together

If you’d like to grow your publication in a way that feels truly yours (I don’t believe in templates and boost programs), upgrade now to join my Substack Live Training Series (Paid Subscribers):

🎬 Session 1: Getting the basics right

✔️ Craft your value proposition

✔️ Identify your content pillars

✔️ Define your ideal reader and how you can (really) help them

✔️ Design your publication to gain subscribers

🗓️ Monday 10 November 8pm EST || Tuesday 11 November 9am Hong Kong || 12pm Sydney

Subscribe now

Upgrade now 🌟

I only started speaking in public at 41, and even though I’m an introvert and English is my second language, my business went 5X once I grabbed the mic and. This is why:

I started selling high-value offers like workshops, keynotes and webinars ($$$$).

Was able to reach new audiences, which means more readers, clients and students.

Gained visibility (and extra sales) for my books and my coaching business.

The best part is that your fees go up as you build experience and credibility.

To my younger self,

The stage is waiting!

If you want to incorporate public speaking into your strategy, check out Speak To Scale and let’s get you on stage too!

And if you need a little push, check out this inspiring Guest Post from my Founding Member : My Accent Used To Sabotage Every Presentation.

Subscribe now

October’s explosive growth

After a flattish summer, October brought in a tsunami of subscribers (695 NEW!!) and a good dose of controversy.

If you are wondering, the growth was 100% organic, as I don’t promote Substsack outside. This is the breakdown:

• Substack app: 431 (62%) People who subscribed via an app feature, such as Notes/ Lives, Chat or Substack Leaderboard.

• Other Substack Network: 136 (20%) Subscribers via Recommendations and referrals, as well as Substack boosting your content internally.

• Substack existing accounts: 122 (18%) “People who subscribed more easily because they already have an account”.

Full disclaimer: Not every month is like this, but it shows there’s still an opportunity to grow organically through the native tools to connect and build community.

Going Viral

I wanted to talk about this because it’s my first time having a viral Post on Substack and it was an interesting “social experiment.”

My Post Substack is Changing in 2026 reached 18K+ views, and 263 shares, generating 144 subscribers (4 paid!), and a nice boost in revenue of 475 U$. Insane.

It also ruffled some feathers, which led to more virality (gotta love the irony in that).

I stopped reading the comments because it became a toxic echo chamber but the common sentiment of the “opposition” is that people didn’t come to Substack to play by the same rules. They want a quiet place without videos, without noise, without lives. A sanctuary for writing and exchanging ideas without the franziness, the vanity and the transactional aspect of social media.

And you know what. I want that too.

2.5 years ago, I came to Substack looking for a good alternative to Medium (RIP) to be able to write long-form and connect with my readers at a deeper level.

Depth over breadth.

I came to build my community and far from algorithms, pods, follow-for-follow, shadow-banning and all that crap.

But throughout the journey, something happened. I started to open my mind about new possibilities.

In May 2024, I launched my first webinar for my paid subscribers, and it made me realize that some people love connecting with a group. Many are alone at home and want a bit of company; others are looking after an elderly parent and it’s their rare moment to socialize and feel that they belong and their voice matters.

In January 2025, I did my first Substack live. I had no idea what to expect and I wasn’t sure about the whole transactional vibe of going live.

Am I too old for this stuff?

Since then, I’ve done 30+ live sessions and I’ve gained new subscribers every single time (even paid).

The best part is that they keep me focused and energized and when I’m live, my community feels alive too. It makes it even more real. Some of my subscribers love them because they say “it feels like having coffee with an old friend” and they enjoy the authenticity of something that’s imperfect and real.

Point being, you can be flexible and adaptable all while staying true to your principles and your core. To me, my pillars are community and collaboration and it’s beautiful that they can take many different shapes.

The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists - Japanese proverb.

How do you feel about changing and evolving your strategy? I would love to hear in the comments.

Leave a comment

What You Missed (Replays)

Every month I host 2+ Substack Live solo or in partnership with another creator.

These sessions are mostly for Paid Subscribers because they are highly strategic and packed with value and actionable tips to help you grow and monetize your business.

You can upgrade now to unlock access to 30+ recordings in the exclusive Section “Lives and Webinars”:

🎬 How To Build A Writing Business with (38 minutes)

🎬 Grow your Audience With Substack Live (25 minutes)

🎬 Strategies for Solopreneurs with

Margaret Williams, MS, ACC

(41 minutes)

🎬 Build a Community, Not A Newsletter with (37 minutes)

Upgrade NOW 🌟

November Lemonade and Gumroad Academy Launch

This month, my focus will be on building a digital ecosystem.

Many of my strategy clients ask me for advice to grow their writing business. The answer is to develop a diversified portfolio that caters to different preferences and budgets because people learn in different ways.

I’ll share the BTS of how I’m growing my own portfolio with digital courses, a B2B offer and coaching, and give you frameworks and tips to help you build your own ecosystem.

I also have exciting live sessions lined-up with Substack peers:

🎬 Publishing books and your digital ecosystem with (4 Nov 8pm EST)

🎬 Purpose, Business and Lifestyle with (11 Nov 7pm EST)

🎬 How To Prepare for Substack in 2026 with TBC

And if you are ready to launch your digital course, check out my new online program: Gumroad Academy!

An actionable blueprint with tutorial and how-to videos and demos to help you build your course from zero to launch.

✔️ Gumroad tutorial

✔️ Step-by-step demo

✔️ Gumroad Checklist: 11 items not to miss

✔️ Bonus module to boost sales with email marketing and affiliates

If you want to publish your first course but feel overwhelmed by all the tech and options, the Gumroad Academy is for you.

🌟 Free subscribers: 25% OFF until 10 November: 66US$++ i/o 88US$

🌟 Paid subscribers: 40% OFF on all my digital courses (exclusive link below)

Upgrade now 🌟

I want 25% OFF 🔥

This week, my Founding Member, Jen Baxter, sent me an email ahead of our 1:1 strategy session. One of her questions hit hard:

“How can I prepare for Substack in 2026?”

And that’s exactly what we are going to discuss today.

I’ve been on Substack for over 2.5 years and the evolution has been mind-blowing. The platform, once an underdog, is now attracting top voices and creators, publishers and even investors.

From its origins as an indie writing platform, it’s now a full-on multimedia hub leveraging podcasts and videos and it’s so much more than a newsletter: it’s where you build communities and businesses from the ground up.

This move is 100% intentional and if you look up Substack on the App Store, it markets itself as a “Videos, writing & podcast.” Video first.

Substack is becoming the cool kid on the (digital) block and it’s positioning itself as a fresh and solid alternative for creators who are tired of the same old crap you get in every other social media. Let’s not fool ourselves, though. It is still social media but…

It feels more real.

It feels more intimate.

It feels more human.

With growth come both challenges and opportunities, and all these changes mean we have to adapt and pivot because what made you successful yesterday is not what will make you successful tomorrow and you can easily fall behind.

So, what’s ahead and how can we be ready now?

Below are 6 trends that are (re)shaping the platform and how you can prepare to ride the wave without paddling against the current and if you are looking for a course to fast-track your growth and monetization, check out my digital course, How to win on Substack, with all my strategies and tips to become a Substack Bestseller.

How To Win on Substack 🎯

1. Substack goes mainstream

With 5 million paid subscriptions in 2025, Substack’s mainstream appeal is skyrocketing.

This signals opportunity but explosive growth makes organic discovery harder. Many writers reported subscriber growth dropped 80-90% in 2025 due to algorithm bias toward big names, fierce competition and noise.

Personally, my growth from Recommendations is only 30% of what it was in 2024.

Does it mean you can’t grow internally?

No, you still can and you should maximize the native functionalities to appeal to users who are already on Substack (Notes, Recommendations, restacks, lives…) but it’s smart to pull readers from external sources like social media, SEO blogs, or Google to add incremental traffic to your publication and not rely solely on the algorithm.

Most top creators are now bringing readers from outside:

Lenny’s Newsletter is the #1 publication in Business with over 1 million subscribers and it grew by syndicating to LinkedIn and X, funneling thousands to Substack.

Spanish creator does this extremely well: he’s able to bring 300+ subscribers from LinkedIn to Substack every month through a carefully curated strategy and an optimized profile with a clear CTA.

More and more creators are offering “flywheels” between channels to create cross-platform leverage.

Personally, I’m starting to use LinkedIn not only to grow my public speaking business, but also to fuel my Substack publication.

Treat Substack as your hub, but make sure you build bridges from outside by auditing your external channels and creating synergies between platforms.

Action step: Organic growth gets tougher, so diversify your traffic through cross-platform flywheels.

2. Collaborations are a must

Collaboration is your secret weapon to cut through the noise. With heavyweights like Justin Welsh and Dan Koe joining Substack, smaller creators need to join forces to break through the clutter.

The platform’s 35 million active subscribers create a ripe opportunity for cross-pollination and there are multiple ways you can collaborate with others to boost views, reach and even monetization.

Here are a few examples from my community:

- Joint publications: and recently launched The Substack Bookstore, a publication dedicated to supporting indie authors, now a Substack Bestseller.

- Guest Posts: I invite 2-3 guests every month to The Lemon Tree Mindset and they cross-post to reach more people. This gives both creators extra visibility, often leading to new subscribers (free and paid).

- Co-authored projects: in 2025, I collaborated with other Substack Bestsellers on a co-authored book called the “10K Secrets”, where each creator shared their own strategy to grow their business and reach 10K US$ months.

- Interviews, lives, and podcasts: many creators are incorporating multimedia collab into their strategy to have a broader reach.

I speak on podcasts every month and both parties benefit, as we join our communities to amplify our work:

🎙️ Speaking in public might be your smartest move this year with .

🎙️ How To Beat Procrastination Without Toxic Productivity with

Action step: Team up to amplify your impact

Subscribe now

3. Embrace multi-format content

Substack is pushing beyond text, with 2025 updates like livestreams and video feeds making it easy to sync content with YouTube and Spotify and now even LinkedIn. Recently, they started to save live recordings directly as drafts with pre-created clips available to share with just one click.

They want creators to go live and create videos because multimedia content boosts engagement and keeps users longer than text alone and creators ignoring this trend risk stagnation or missing out on opportunities.

That’s why many of the top creators across all categories already have their podcasts on Substack:

Letters from an American: #1 publication worldwide, focused on U.S. Politics.

The Pragmatic Engineer: leading podcast for technology professionals.

Lenny’s Newsletter: # 1 publication in business with a podcast that focuses on tech, product management, and growth strategies..

The Isolation Journals: popular podcast within the literature category on Substack.

The Forgotten Side of Medicine: top publication in health and medicine.

I launched live sessions in January 2025 and they have boosted engagement with both existing subscribers and new viewers. Yes, many people hate live sessions but the point is, many people enjoy them.

Live sessions, especially in partnership with other creators often attract new subscribers on the spot (both free and even paid) because they create an immediate bond and a sense of connection. When people click with you, they feel compelled to take action there and then out of impulse (join your community, send a DM, buy your membership…)

The numbers don’t lie.

Action Step: Explore new ways to engage your community, leveraging formats that align with your values and personality.

4. Humanize your content to fight AI fatigue

AI-generated content is flooding the internet, and audiences are craving real, human connections. According to a PWC study, 71% of readers say they prefer to interact with humans over bots (what the heck is wrong with the remaining 29%?!).

People want authentic voices over polished AI outputs and more than ever, Substack creators must humanize their work through proximity, personalization, and showing their real selves.

“How I” stories are now much more powerful and effective than generic “How to” stories that can be prompted to Chat GPT because they are more imperfect and hence relatable.

One of my most successful Posts ever on Substack (both in English and Spanish) is my Hero Post, which is simply my story of reinvention and how I started a new path from zero. No AI, no copy-templates, no empty promises, just an honest and raw talk from human to human.

You have many ways of humanizing your content: Live sessions, group coaching, or 1:1 calls and the result is more connection, loyalty and trust.

Here are some great examples from some of my Founding Members who are connecting human-to-human:

goes live every week to do group coaching for her paid subscribers.

hosts regular webinars for her premium community.

launches regular writing cohorts for her premium members.

organizes online readings of poems for her subscribers.

In January 2025, I launched Mastermind sessions for my Founding Members to give them a sounding board where they can discuss ideas and get personalized feedback from real humans.

People want you, not a bot. Start planning one human-centric touchpoint this month.

Action Step: Find opportunities to create proximity and intimacy with your community.

5. Navigate the “How-to-Grow” saturation

Whenever a platform becomes successful, it comes with an overflow of meta creators who focus on “how to grow” on that platform. 50% of my LinkedIn feed is about how to grow on LinkedIn (yawn).

The “grow on Substack” niche is overcrowded, with many meta-newsletters stalling at 500-1,000 subs due to recycled advice.

If you are in that topic (or any “how to grow” in general), find a distinctive angle or a micro-niche to break through.

focuses on extracting best practices from Substack Bestsellers.

focuses on Substack for indie authors.

helps authopreneurs nail the marketing strategy for their books.

Create your own unique flavor.

My own angle is to help creators build a writing-speaking ecosystem that has multiple pillars (community, digital products, public speaking, etc).

You can also focus on a specific demographic: beginners, women 50+, 9 to 5 employees who want to start a side gig…

Action Step: Find your unique angle to stand out from the crowd.

6. Monetization shifts: Substack as top-of-funnel

Substack’s 10% subscription cut is solid, but creators are diversifying, earning 2-3x more by layering revenue streams like cohorts and digital products.

uses Substack to funnel readers into his writing business.

Most seasoned creators are using Substack as a community builder where they nurture trust and connections. It is the entry point of their ecosystem but the real monetization magic happens outside the platform, beyond paid subscriptions, especially through high-value tickets.

is having success turning subscribers into students of his cohort or participants of his Masterclass.

uses Substack as a gateway to drive subscribers to his closed community on Skool.

Personally, most of my earnings as a creator come from a mix of paid subscriptions, coaching, digital products on Gumroad and cohorts. It’s a digitaly ecosystem.

Remember that the conversion from free to paid on premium newsletters is generally quite low (2-3% in my experience) and so it’s smart to map your funnel, diversify your strategy and invest in other income streams.

Action Step: Boost monetization with an ecosystem centered around your community.

The bubble

In 2026, Substack’s evolution demands agility.

From tools for collaborations, multimedia options, native tools for growth and built-in monetization infrastructure, the platform is a creator powerhouse - if you adapt.

Start implementing these strategies, track your metrics, and stay flexible.

The bubble isn’t bursting; it’s reshaping, and the opportunity is there for us to make the most of it and ride on an awesome wave.

You can be a trailblazer and pave the way, or you can stay behind, reminiscing on the old times and regretting the wave you didn’t catch 🏄🏽‍♀️

Your blueprint to win on Substack in 2026

And if you want to want to know more about Substack and how to turn it from a hobby to a sustainable business, check out my Digital Course, How To Win On Substack, my blueprint to becoming a Substack Bestseller.

88US$++ for 13 modules, videos and actionable exercises.

100+ students and 5-star reviews on Gumroad.

How To Win on Substack 🎯

A couple of days ago, and I went live from Hong Kong and Istanbul to talk about community-building.

Newsletter Circle explores the best practices from Substackers around the world. Every week, she interviews creators who’ve successfully grown their newsletters and I’m super excited to be her guest this week and share my strategy for my 2 publications: The Lemon Tree Mindset and El Limonero (Spanish version).

The topic we chose is how to build a community because that has been my formula to unlock growth.

This session is exclusively for my paid subscribers and it’s ideal for creators who want a strategy to build a community-first business.

Free subscribers can have a 10-minute FREE preview and below are key 5 takeaways with actionable steps to grow your community:

1. Move from Broadcasting to Connecting

When I launched my publication in February 2023, it was a one-way street: me sending content to subscribers. It wasn’t until my second year that I realized a true community requires two-way interaction. Here’s how I made the shift:

• Substack Chat as a conversation starter: Most people give up on the chat too soon because they hear crickets. I did too, but you must give people time to get comfortable and build trust. Treat your chat with care, share useful tips, give personalized feedback, be a good host and it will slowly become a cozy corner people want to hang out at.

• Webinars: Connecting with my subscribers in real time allows me to listen to their needs and challenges, fostering group discussions. It’s a space where I’m not just talking at them but with them.

• Masterminds for deeper connection: This year, I launched quarterly mastermind sessions for my Founding Members. These have become a “sounding board” where we brainstorm, get feedback, troubleshoot and collaborate..

Action Step: Open a Substack Chat with a specific question tied to your niche. For example, if you’re in wellness, ask,

“What’s your preferred method for stress relief? I love running outdoors.”

Use the responses to shape your next Post or webinar.

2. Collaborate Early and Often

Looking back, I wish I’d started collaborating sooner. It took me over a year to write my first Guest Post (shoutout to !). As solopreneurs, we don’t have to do it alone: partnerships amplify our reach and build community faster.

• Find collaborators: Reach out to creators with similar audiences for Guest Posts, Live sessions, or Joint webinars. I personally have 3-4 collaborations every month and it’s a game-changer.

• Host collaboration chats: My weekly “Open Day” chat invites subscribers to pitch specific collaboration ideas (Interviews, podcasts…).

Action Step: Connect with one creator in your niche with whom you already have a relationship and pitch a partnership, like a Guest post or a Joint live session. Be specific and make sure it’s a win-win.

What’s in it for them?

3. Deliver Value to ALL Subscribers

I treat all subscribers—free or paid—with the same care to build trust first because trust is the foundation of any business. People trust people.

• Free subscribers: I put a lot of effort into the experience of ALL my readers from day one. From the design of my publication, to the welcome email where I add a video to create a warm impression, to a Start Here Section and a Hero Post, I try my best to be a great host and make my guests feel like VIPs.

• Paid subscribers: I offer services, not just content. My paid subscribers have exclusive live sessions, personalized feedback in chats, discounted rates for my digital courses and the possibility to collaborate with me through Guest Posts.

  My Founding members enjoy exclusive one-to-one strategy sessions and quarterly masterminds.

• Encourage long-term commitment: My pricing incentivizes annual subscriptions to foster deeper relationships. It’s not about a transactional interaction but building a community that sticks around.

Action Step: Review your welcome email this week. Add a personal touch, like a short video or a clear call-to-action. For paid subscribers, plan an exclusive service, like a live Q&A, to enhance their experience.

4. Diversify Your Monetization Strategy

Many creators obsess over paid subscriptions and miss the big picture: the most important thing is to build a community of engaged readers. Depth over width.

Once you have your tribe, you can find so many other ways to add value and create new income streams.

Substack is just the top of my monetization funnel. Here’s how I diversify:

• Beyond subscriptions: My books, Gumroad courses and eguides, affiliate programs (40% commission for paid subscribers), and coaching sessions provide multiple revenue streams.

• Skip low-value tactics: Note boosts or “follow for follow” chats create a quick dopamine hit but don’t build lasting engagement. Focus on meaningful interactions that align with your community’s interests and add value on the long term.

Action Step: Brainstorm 2–3 additional revenue streams, like a digital product or coaching service. Offer one to your paid subscribers with a special discount to test interest.

5. Give Before You Ask

To turn subscribers into a community, I prioritize giving value first. My most engaged subscribers are the heart of my community, and I make them feel seen.

• Engage with active readers: I use Substack stats to identify my most active subscribers and send them personalized messages, thanking them or offering collaboration ideas.

• Offer collaborations: my most loyal subscribers are also my partners. We have done lives together, they have become my affiliates or have written Guest Posts for my publication. I want to give them visibility and help them be seen.

• Build organically: By engaging with readers’ comments and Notes, I create a sense of belonging and give them a warm welcome into my community. No pitches, no hardcore sales.

Action Step: Send a personalized message to your top 5 engaged subscribers. Thank them for their support and ask for feedback or collaboration ideas.

If I Started Over

If I could rewind to February 2023, I’d focus less on churning out content and more on collaborating with other creators from day one. I’d also get crystal clear on my offer and my value proposition sooner, as without a strategy, all you have left is hope.

My Biggest Advice

Give before you ask. Your community is already there. Nurture it by listening to their needs and helping them feel seen, heard and valued. Create spaces like chats, webinars, and masterminds where they can connect with you and each other. The SEO keyword here is TRUST.

Lemons & Lemonade 🍋

To watch previous interviews, webinars and live sessions, you can become a paid subscriber/ Founding Member and have unlimited access to 50+ recordings in my VIP Section Webinars & Lives 🎬

How To Win On Substack Course 🎬

Upgrade Now 🌟

Read more

I’m very excited to share with you the recording of the live session I co-hosted today with my Founding Member and friend .

The topic is Mastering Multilingual Substacks because both Katja and I have publications in 2 languages and we wanted to share with you our journey, learnings, challenges and tips to support and encourage other creators who also write in 2 languages or are thinking about it.

This session is 100% based on first-hand experience and you’ll hear different perspectives about how to write in 2 languages - without burning out.

Katja is the Founder of Clever Finance Girls (German) and The Substack Hustle (English).

In my case, I launched The Lemon Tree Mindset 2.5 years ago, and the Spanish version, El Limonero just turned 10 months and reached its first 2,000 subscribers!

Subscribe now

What we covered:

- Strategies to write in different languages on Substack

- Technical challenges for multilingual creators and how to overcome them

- When is the best time to launch your second publication

Spoiler: my Spanish publication one much faster because I had a clear strategy.

- Separate Section vs Separate publication

- How to manage things your bio and profile strategically

- How to build leverage and use one publication to grow the other (Recommendations, segmented emails, links on your publication, banner)

- Tips and best practices for publishing Notes in 2 languages

- Motivation and pep talk to keep you going!

Thank you , , , , , and many others for tuning into our live session!

It’s wonderful to see more languages on Substack 🌎

Feel free to ask your questions in the comments.

Some more resources:

Post: My Substack in 2 Languages: Is It Worth It? [Unfiltered]

Digital Course: How To Win On Substack || Curso de Substack 360

This session is FREE and Katja and I would really appreciate it if you could share it with other creators who also publish in multiple languages.

Thank you | Gracias | Danke

View Subscription Options 🌟

They have very different backgrounds and goals but there’s one word that always comes up during our session: monetization.

The hardest part about writing is not the actual writing; it’s the selling. And that’s because selling requires different skills and engages a different part of the brain: the Marketing Genius.

It’s not only what you sell but how you sell it and to whom.

I’ve made every single mistake you can imagine when it comes to creating a poor offer:

• Boring

• Generic

• Irrelevant

• Confusing

So I can speak with authority about what not to do if you want to create an attractive offer that turns readers into your loyal fans.

I have also been able to successfully monetize my Substack and turn it into a Bestseller with over 250 Paid Subscribers as we speak. So I can also speak from a place of first-hand messy experience about what works.

1. Mindset

The golden rule of personal growth is to ditch the scarcity thinking and feed an abundance mindset.

Writers want shortcuts to get paid subscribers. Who doesn’t?

What many fail to realize is that your (future) paid subscribers are already there: they are your readers on the other side of the digital wall.

Think of a shopping mall: there are tons of people walking around the mall and then there are those who are already in the store, your store. They haven’t purchased anything yet, but they willingly came to you and are keen to listen to what you have to say.

They came to you and they are interested.

Even if it’s only one person, that’s one opportunity.

A little story…

Last year, I proudly shared a screenshot of my Substack progress. I was celebrating a milestone and a party pooper spoiled the fun:

“It’s disheartening that out of your 1,000 subscribers, only 28 are paid. So much work for so little reward.”

The party pooper didn’t mean to be rude. It was a valid comment that got me thinking.

And it’s also the perfect example to help illustrate an abundance mindset:

In my mind, it’s freaking incredible that hundreds of people and now thousands are already in my store, curious to see what I have to offer. I don’t have to drag them in or pay ads to Musk or Zuckerberg to seduce them with their dodgy tricks for me.

They are already here… for free.

That’s 50% of the job done.

The other 50% is to get them to see the value in my community so that they want to be part of it and get that value.

An abundance mindset looks at those numbers and thinks:

“28 done, 972 to go. Game on.”

See, the glass is not half empty or half full: the glass has water and water means opportunity.

That’s how I want you to look at your Substack and your creative work in general — no matter how small the numbers might be.

Lesson 1: Feed a mindset of abundance and focus on turning potential into reality.

2. Strategy

As a writer, my big aha moment was discovering that writing is an ecosystem: it’s not a pile of disconnected articles, disparate ideas, and “junk miles” on the keyboard.

Everything needs to be connected to make a bigger impact and draw a journey for your readers based on transformation: your social media posts, your books, your webinars, your newsletter, your courses…

People don’t pay for a product or even a service: they pay for a transformation.

My Paid Members don’t pay for a webinar: they are investing in new skills to self-publish their first book, monetize their writing, or grow their online business.

My coaching clients don’t buy a coaching session: they seek guidance to create a strategy that will help them grow faster and turn their passion into a lifestyle.

My readers don’t purchase my books: they want proven frameworks to start a new career as a creative entrepreneur or overcome procrastination.

My students don’t enrol in my courses to learn: they want to grow their community strategically.

My Substack Course 🎬

Once you evolve from transaction to transformation, you start thinking about an ecosystem with interconnected pieces and a journey with different touch points for your readers.

This is what the ecosystem and journey at my ecosystem, The Lemon Tree Mindset🌳🍋 looks like:

Awareness (followers):

Notes and Lives to attract readers and turn them into followers/ subscribers

↓

Engagement (free subscribers):

Free newsletters, Live sessions and Group Chat to create a connection

↓

Conversion (paid subscribers)

Webinars, serialized courses and an exclusive group chat to get people to be a part of my community and develop new skills as writers and creators.

↓

Customization (coaching clients):

One-to-one strategy sessions/ cohort for those who want personalized support.

Everything is connected. I’m trying to create a journey for my readers to take them deeper and enable their transformation through different options and touchpoints.

Warning: It doesn’t happen overnight.

Most of my coaching clients start as free subscribers. Then they see something that seduces them to go further and upgrade (my book, a webinar, a course..). After a while (usually months!), some want personalized guidance and become clients who want my strategic support in some shape or form.

It’s a process that can take many nights, so you have to be in it for the long term.

My conversion rate is currently below 3%, which is lower than Substack’s official figures (5–10%) but it doesn’t matter: I know that the more people come into my shop, (aka my ecosystem), the more opportunities I have to turn them into Paid Subscribers, provided I deliver on my promise.

Lesson 2: Think bigger and build an ecosystem and a journey of transformation

3. Tactics

When you are selling something, the what is cool but the how is just as important.

One of the most common mistakes I see on Substack is how the offers are presented:

“Upgrade here for unlimited access to my archive.”

“Become a paid subscriber to read my exclusive content.”

Visiting an archive is as exciting as watching paint dry.

And I have to pay for it?

People want to be seduced by your offer but are you speaking their language?

How you communicate it is critical.

I created a simple framework I use for all my marketing communication to speak my readers’ language.

My CSR framework:

• Clear: Is it easy to understand and remember?

• Specific: Is it detailed and precise?

• Relevant: Does it speak to your ideal client?

This sounds simple but most people overcomplicate offers, use fancy names and jargon and lose their audience with too many options.

Do you understand your own offer?

It’s a valid question. I realized I didn’t understand mine. Ouch.

“Webinars” — about what? How many?

“Exclusive content” — videos, courses, newsletters?

“Continuous support” — one-to-one? Messages? Group chat?

I followed the principles of CSR to update my offer and you can check it below.

Lesson 3: Communicate an offer that is clear, specific and relevant.

My Subscription Plans 🌟

The Marketing Genius

Ready to unlock your Marketing Genius?

• Lesson 1: Feed a mindset of abundance (and don’t be your own party pooper)

• Lesson 2: Turn your store into a strategic ecosystem (from transaction to transformation)

• Lesson 3: Keep it clear, simple and specific (CSR framework)

  Subscribe now

My Course How To Win on Substack has 25% OFF until 30 September.

13 modules with videos and a clear strategy to help you win on Substack.

🌟 5-star reviews on Gumroad

I want 25% OFF 🔥

But…it’s still a mess: boxes around, empty corners, plain walls…Dave and I (and our girls too) are putting a lot of effort into the little details to make it feel like home sweet home and be great hosts when our guests come over for a drink or a BBQ.

Your Substack publication is the same: it’s your (digital) home, your little cozy corner on the internet and you want to be a great host so that when your guests visit it, they have a blast and look forward to coming back.

“Mi casa es tu casa” type of vibe.

So this weekend, I decided it was time to give The Lemon Tree Mindset some love.

I recommend reviewing your homepage every 3 months or so, but I’m guilty as here, as it’s something I tend to add to my procrastination box.

I only had 27 minutes until I was on Mommy duties, but it was enough to declutter and do a decent spring cleaning. It’s not perfect and it’s still WIP, but that’s the point.

Today, I share 5 tips that will make your publication a place people want to come back to.

You can watch the video for FREE by downloading my 12-minute tutorial on Gumroad.

Download FREE tutorial

1. Choose Strategic Sections

I love organizing my content in Sections (navigation bar at the top) so that it doesn’t feel like a scary closet where single socks end up mixed with underwear.

My rule of thumb here is less is more and remove things that don’t add value/ are redundant (Leaderboard, Archive, Chat…) to focus on what really matters: your message.

For me, that’s 4 main Sections (plus the About, which is there by default)

❤️ Mindset: how to train and reframe your mind to achieve your goals

💡GROW: Digital strategies for your creative business

🎓 LEARN: Webinars and lives for writers and creators

🎯 Substack: strategies for growth, community building and monetization

Tip: focus on 3-4 content pillars and turn them into Sections

2. Review your “About”

The About is a combination of the what (your publication), the who (you and your reader) and the why (your purpose and why readers should care).

Read more