2,000 Subscribers: My Overnights Success Story

The journey from zero to 2,000

Last week, I celebrated a milestone: 2,000 people are planting lemon trees! 🌳🍋

I was over the moon, so I emailed my subscriber #2,000 by surprise with my ebook, The Lemon Tree Mindset, as a gift. Thank you,

Gloria Liu

🙏🏼

I wanted to share my story and the behind-the-scenes to encourage you, especially if you are starting on Substack and are not getting traction.

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The beginning

When I launched The Lemon Tree Mindset🌳🍋 in February 2023, I heard crickets.

I sent one newsletter a week, and for the first 8 months, nothing happened.

On the good days, I had 1 subscriber.

On the bad days, I had none. 

On the really bad days, I went backward, and my audience shrank.

For the entire first year, my growth was steady and marginal. I did grow, but it wasn’t fast and certainly didn’t reflect the effort behind the scenes.

Not so long ago, some of my newsletters had 1 like (mine).

I had my first paid subscribers, and that gave me a confidence boost, not because of the money but because of the symbolism: people saw value in writing. 

As they say, slow and steady wins the race, so I kept going…

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Celebrating 1 year 🎉

I celebrated my first anniversary and decided to reassess my Substack.

I looked at it with fresh eyes and changed 3 main things:

1. Strategy

Instead of treating it as a newsletter, I started to approach it as a start-up. If I wanted it to scale and have a bigger impact, I had to do things differently, and I did.

I brainstormed with myself and created my Substack Strategy.

I clarified my vision and my content pillars and elevated the look and feel and the branding. I kept the essence but curated everything else and increased the cadence to twice a week.

The results were almost immediate.

Part of my promise to my subscribers is to share my journey openly, so I turned my strategy into a FREE newsletter.

🍋You Can Steal My Substack Strategy But You Can't Steal My Croissants 🥐

2. Tactics

There’s a clear correlation between successful Substackers and their activity on Notes.

However, posting publicly in a new place was intimidating. I had no clue what to share, and the imposter in me told me to hide behind the curtain.

Still, I decided to give it a try.

For the first few months, nothing happened.

I had little to no engagement, but I evicted the imposter who was living rent-free in my head, so that was a win.

After posting daily Notes for several months, I started to trigger engagement and some great conversations, all while building my little tribe.

Many Notes flopped, but after 100+, many others fueled a great discussion and led to hundreds of engagements and new subscribers.

What changed?

Nothing.

I kept showing up every day, and my Notes became an amplifier of my writing.

My most popular ever was the announcement of my book deal with Penguin. You can read the story on Medium for FREE.

🍋 How I Got A Book Deal With The World’s Top Publisher Penguin: The Sexy Story (And The Unsexy One)

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3. People

The biggest driver of any newsletter is the power of its people: the community.

The more you engage with people, the more they engage with you. That’s how you build relationships and trust. I dedicate time every day to comment and support fellow writers, and it’s a win-win. Sometimes, I feature them in my newsletter, too.

Recommendations from other Substacks are my top source of growth. Today, I have 110 Recommendations that have generated 684 subscriptions.

I also tackled another terrifying monster: Threads.

I started to use it as a forum to connect with my subscribers, and that has increased my engagement with my tribe.

At first, I was talking to myself, but we now discuss topics that interest writers, from how to build a digital ecosystem to writing online and overcoming limiting beliefs.

The Lemon Tree Mindset Thread

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Thank you 🙏🏼

I’m grateful for every one of you who takes the time to read and support my work.

I wouldn’t be where I am without you, so thank you.

This is my journey and my approach to my writing, but everyone has a different path.

The pillars of strategy, tactics, and people are what help me have a 360-degree view of my work and stay both focused and balanced.

There’s no shortcut, no fast pass, no magic trick.

You have to plant the seed first 🌳🍋

I don’t believe in overnight success stories.

I believe in stories that are written over many nights.

Lemons & Lemonade 🌳🍋

My dream is to become a full-time writer but I’m not there- yet 😉

A lot of my work is FREE because I believe in adding value and growing together.

If you would like to support my work, you can consider upgrading your subscription to get some tasty lemonade:

The Lemon Tree Mindset ebook

Personal Brand Studio 🎬 a weekly course to build your brand and monetize it

LinkedIn profile audit with tips based on my experience growing a 7K audience

Exclusive Threads about writing

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🍋 18 Ways To Write Engaging Notes on Substack (And Prove You Are Not A Bot)