Celebrating 1 Year on Substack and 1,000 Subscribers🌳🍋🎉

Exactly 1 year ago, I pressed the scary button…

My first newsletter went out after a dozen iterations, and I freaked out. Biggest imposter syndrome. Then, I felt liberated, empowered, energized…

“Wow, I launched my own newsletter.”

I went from feeling like an imposter to feeling like an Olympian. I must confess that as a writer, most days, I feel like both.

Today, it’s the Olympian writing this.

I’m celebrating 12 months of doing something that I LOVE: writing and building my community. For 365 days, I’ve been sharing my digital seeds for people to plant their own lemon trees around the world and build something new: a business, a book, a personal brand…

I’m amazed to see that The Lemon Tree Mindset is read across 70 countries!

To date, I have published 102 issues and I didn’t miss a single date because when you do something you’re passionate about, it doesn’t feel like work.

To make the celebration even bigger, I just hit my first 1,000 subscribers and received my Substack badge ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I decided that the best way to share this moment with you was to lift the curtain and let you all into the backstage of The Lemon Tree Mindset.

So, what happened in one year? 🎥🍿

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Part 1 🎬The beginning

I initially created The Lemon Tree Mindset to support the launch of my first book (with the same name). Every week, I shared one of the 19 lessons I used to reinvent myself and start my own business.

Thanks to my network and my connections on LinkedIn and Medium, I started with 100 subscribers, which was a nice little boost.

At least someone would read me!

On the good days, I gained 2 subscribers. On the bad days, zero. I had many bad days, but it didn’t matter because I was busy planting my own lemon tree.

After 4 months of sharing my 19 lessons, I didn’t have any chapters left, but I did have a great little tribe, so I kept writing…

My vision was clear: I’m turning my passion (writing and public speaking) into a lifestyle and I want to empower you to do the same with your passion.

I broke down The Lemon Tree Mindset into 3 pillars:

1. Inspiration

2. Building online

3. Personal brand

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Part 2 🎬 Getting momentum

That little step you think does not matter…it does.

As an endurance athlete, I can tell you that every single step matters and gets you closer to the finish line, although here, it’s a marathon with no ending.

Slowly but surely, I started to get more views and more subscribers and the compound effect started to pay off. Some writers get traction in just a couple of months; it took me 7 months to start moving the needle, but eventually, the needle always moves.

Your race, your pace!

That’s also when I started sending 2 newsletters a week: one for my free subscribers and one for my paid ones.

Publications played a key part in getting momentum. More and more Substacks started recommending me and today I have a total of 49 Recommendations, leading to 248 subscriptions.

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Part 3 🎬 Breaking through the clutter

My big breakthrough moment happened in January 2024, when I decided to be more strategic about my Substack. After a brainstorming session I changed 3 things:

1. My strategy: I reviewed everything from the look and feel to how I structure my publication. I reviewed my Sections and wrote a Hero post that created some buzz.

2. My mindset: I changed the way I approach Substack. Instead of seeing it as a one-way channel, I started treating it as a community, and publishing Notes daily to create engagement. The impact was immediate in the reads and stats. Instead of talking to the community once or twice a week, I was in the community. I became an insider.

3. Transparency: I started sharing my backstage and offering tips and frameworks that worked for me to help others on their journey here. I shared my 360-Substack strategy, and it was my best-performing post ever.

This new approach marked a before and an after and in January I hit some crazy milestones:

• My Strategy post went viral, generating 67 subscriptions, 2 paid subscriptions and 1.7K+ views.

• I went from 3-4 subscribers a day to 30+ some days.

• I increased my paid subscriber base to 17.

• January was my biggest month, with 252 new subscribers.

While those numbers might not seem like a lot for some, especially for all the effort I put into it, I’m over the moon: the lemon tree is growing! 🌳🍋

Substack Stats Feb 2022 - Jan 2023

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Part 4 🎬 What’s Next

The biggest milestone was not hitting 1,000 subscribers or celebrating one year.

The biggest milestone was getting started.

Pressing that scary button is daunting.

You expose yourself to the public and people will criticize you; people will unsubscribe. Those days, the imposter in me comes back in full swing and it’s a good sign: it means I have to step up my game and build thick skin.

I don’t know what that looks like yet but I want to turn my newsletter into a community where there is more interaction and engagement. I want polls, collaborative articles, masterclasses, featured guests…

Whatever that is, I will keep planting my lemon tree and helping you plant yours!

THANK YOU. Every one of you played a role in making this happen 🙏🏼

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Planting Your Lemon Tree 🌳🍋

Here are some additional resources:

• 79 FREE Articles from The Lemon Tree Mindset

• “The Lemon Tree Mindset” to reinvent yourself

• “Conquering Your Burnout” to thrive out of burnout

• “From Zero to Amazon Bestseller” to self-publish and promote your book

Upgrade your subscription and get all of the above for FREE + a LinkedIn profile audit.