The Substack Success Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Find out how the title of your Substack, building community, and tapping into the Substack network can lead to real, meaningful growth.

Authentic Growth PDF toolkit below.

I bring you my interview with (and case study of) two amazing Substack creators—and, I’m proud to say, clients—Seth Werkheiser and Cassidy Frost.

They both found extraordinary success on Substack:

* Seth grew from 541 to over 4000 subscribers in one year through experimenting with his offerings and taking advantage of the Substack network.

* Seth is a musician and guide for the growing social media exodus. Through his Substack Social Media Escape Club, he empowers creatives to connect directly with their audience, grow their fanbase, and burn down the constraints of social media algorithms.

* Cassidy built 1400 subscribers from 0 (that’s zero, folks) in five months by focusing their Substack and building a tight community.

* Cassidy is a writer and artist educator living in San Francisco. They run the Substack Dedicate Your Life to Music, “helping women & queers build their music careers.”

Check out both my interview with them above and my case studies of what led to their enormous growth below.

Interview and Case Study Quick Tip:

Your Substack Title Is Everything

When Seth came to see me for 1:1 guidance, I immediately saw how much incredible value he was offering, but—there’s often a but—the name of his Substack was Heavy Metal Email.

Seth: “I always tell people it was like 27 minutes into our 30-minute call. And Sarah was like, ‘I don’t like the name.’ I don’t know if it was exactly like that, but I just remember it was just like, ‘I don't like the name.’”

It wasn’t about liking or not liking; I just had no idea what Heavy Metal Email meant and that maybe it was too restrictive.

And Seth had so much to offer.

Seth: “The name change was just a mindset shift with that of like, Oh yeah, I could still rail against social media, but it doesn’t have to be limited to just music.”

He was against a title change. All his branding was there. But he did it.

And as soon as he changed it to Social Media Escape Club, his Substack took off:

The title of your Substack is everything. Unless it tells subscribers exactly what they’ll find there—be leaden, not poetic or “intriguing”—they will not visit your Substack. People are busy; they don’t have time to try to puzzle out your Substack.

Cassidy’s does so much work for the potential subscriber: Dedicate Your Life to Music. I know exactly what it is. I even know the energy behind it.

For paid subscribers:

Authentic Growth Toolkit (PDF)

* How Seth and Cassidy 10x’d and 14x’d their subscribers by focusing on community building and using the Substack network

* A clear implementation strategy based on the community-building approaches that have worked and are working so well for Seth and Cassidy\

Paid subscribers get access to guidance from my proven proprietary Substack Growth Framework—trusted by 700+ private clients and tens of thousands of subscribers and Mastermind members who’ve achieved real, measurable growth. Reach all your Substack goals by joining us today.

I’ve done a variation on this goal-setting session every year since 2018 and am amazed at the results it consistently produces—both in my own life and in the lives of the writers and Substack writers I work with.

I want you to walk away from the replay of this session knowing at least one thing:

The wins you’ve already achieved—no matter how supposedly small—hold the keys to your future success on Substack.

Through neuroscience, practical strategies, and real-world examples from writers in our community, the replay above and Goal Setting Toolkit and Magical Monthly Planner below will take you step-by-step to discover how small wins create sustainable growth.

Highlights:

* Why celebrating every win actually decreases motivation

* The “middle problem” and how to overcome it

* A 30-second technique for handling goal-related anxiety

* The surprising power of visualizing failure (and when to use it)

* How to make goals both ambitious and meaningful

Most importantly, we walked through a step-by-step process for setting achievable goals that still stretch your capabilities. The writers who attended left with clear 2025 goals and practical plans for reaching them.

For paid subscribers:

* Full goal-setting session replay (50 minutes of focused strategy)

* Your Goal Setting Toolkit (structured workbook PDF with proven exercises)

* The Magical Monthly Planner (the simple system that helped me reach 29,000+ subscribers)

* Quarterly check-ins to keep you accountable and supported throughout 2025 (March, June, September, December)

* Our first community goal-setting thread below (!)

Want to set your 2025 Substack goals in a way that makes them achievable? Upgrade to paid:

Paid subscribers get access to guidance from my proven proprietary Substack Growth Framework—trusted by 700+ private clients and tens of thousands of subscribers and Mastermind members who’ve achieved real, measurable growth. Reach all your Substack goals by joining us today.

Here’s to your ambitious, meaningful growth in 2025!

Subscribe to Substack Writers at Work: www.writersatwork.net.

I’m so pleased to bring you my interview with Laurie Stone. She writes the literary Substack Everything Is Personal. In this conversation, we talk about how she grew her Substack so quickly—plus her writing process, her approach to “marketing,” Notes, publishing, the nature of narrative, and how she seduces the reader.

She also shares her checklist for writing posts and Notes that resonate with her readers:

* Start in the middle,

* fail to arrive,

* remember to love something,

* make the reader hot,

* make the reader laugh.

She was a longtime writer for the Village Voice (1974-1999), which comes up here. She’s also the author of six books, most recently Streaming Now, Postcards from the Thing that is Happening (Dottir Press, 2022), long listed for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. She writes for The Paris Review, Evergreen Review, and Galerie. 

You can join her monthly Zoom conversations on writing craft by contacting her at lauriestone@substack.com. 

Subscribe to Everything Is Personal here: https://lauriestone.substack.com/

Timestamps:

00:15 Laurie’s Substack success

02:14 Narrative techniques

04:39 Using Notes and social media

05:51 Teaching and workshops

09:41 Laurie’s writing process

17:37 Building a sustainable Substack

25:47 What’s next for Everything Is Personal

✦ If you haven’t yet joined Substack Writers at Work, subscribe right here: https://www.writersatwork.net/about

❡ I’m thrilled to bring you this interview with Elle Griffin. Elle talks about building a following, defying traditional publishing, handling criticism, and staying creative. She also shares her advice for aspiring Substack writers.

Elle is something of a Substack icon. In 2022, she was awarded one of 10 places in Substack’s now-defunct Grow program, which launched her Substack into the stratosphere.

(The Grow program is similar to Substack’s current Creator Studio Program, which we talked about in the “Create Connection Using Substack Video Workshop.”)

Her dogged pursuit to bring back serialized novels made mainstream media take notice of Substack as a platform for fiction. Her Substack, The Elysian, has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, Business Insider, Fast Company, The Information, Publisher’s Weekly, Means of Creation, and Morning Brew.

She describes The Elysian as a kind of living newsletter salon:

“[A] utopian garden where we can study philosophy and debate politics and rethink capitalism and enjoy contemplative leisure and be part of a new enlightenment. It’s a place where we can think through a more beautiful future through essays and literature and discourse.”

Her TEDx talk “What if we release books episodically?” has garnered 25,000 views.

Enjoy this interview with Elle Griffin.

01:33 Elle's Journey to Substack

02:20 The Challenges of Traditional Publishing

05:04 Discovering Serialization on Substack

06:52 Building a Following and Promoting Work

09:04 Pivoting to New Projects

14:44 Handling Criticism and Staying Creative

17:34 Advice for Aspiring Substack Writers

If you haven’t yet joined Substack Writers at Work, subscribe right here ⤵

https://www.writersatwork.net/about

Be inspired by creators using Substack video in innovative ways. Find at least one way you might use video in your Substack. Get the most inexpensive, time-efficient way to produce video.

As you watch the replay, I want you to imagine how video might be a way to connect more deeply with your subscribers and yourself. If you’re already doing it, maybe go deeper.

Substack Writers, Sophia Efthimiatou, and Katie O'Connell. It was so fun to put this together and see the great video that’s out there, the types and genres video tends to fall into, and the many innovative ways Substackers new to video might use it in their own Substacks.

Workshop highlights:

1. Be inspired by creators using Substack video in innovative ways

* We go through the video artists chosen for Substack’s Creator Studio, and you get to choose your favorite:

* Jenny Gorelick, Night Out

* Kellerman, The F*ckin' News

* Coco Mocoe, Coco Mocoe

* Kit Lazer, Movies Are Therapy

* Gabi Jones, The Vintage Vault

* Miguel Peña, Build a Boy Workshop

* Patrick Hicks, Patrick Hicks Music Stories

* Justice Jackson, The Curl Diaries

* Jeauni Cassanova, With Love, Jeauni Cassanova

* God, The God Pod

2. Find at least one way you might use video in your Substack (or double down on how you’re using it)

- Talking/thought-wandering/touching base with your subscribers

* Patti Smith, Happily talking about nothing

* Marya Hornbacher, Riffs & Rants from the Road: Episode 10

- Workshops, co-working sessions, silent retreats, writing groups, etc.

* This video from Substack Writers at Work

- Memoir documentary

* Lynn Chen, Not So Perfect Pitch (from Taegan MacLean’s One Word)

- Responding to subscribers’ questions

* Priya Joi, The Art of Freelance

- Food and travel sensory stimulation

* Sunnyside Breakfasts and Desserts

- Introducing a written post

* Mary Joan Cunningham, “Fun Weekend Vibes: Inspiration from Awesome People”

- Video essays

* Taegan MacLean, One Word, Names, Nothing, Path

- Author reading (and essay)

* Marya Hornbacher, “Truckstop, Fireworks, Stories, Night (take 2)”

- Interview/conversation/podcast

* Evelyn Skye’s interview series

* Robert Reich’s Coffee Klatsch

3. Get the most inexpensive, time-efficient way to produce video

* A simple, inexpensive way to produce video that isn’t flashy or self-indulgent and expresses you. (I believe in zero-to-little overhead for your Substack.)

Important!

Such a fun strategy session!

In this Strategy Session:

00:09 Understanding Your Audience's Reading Habits

00:44 Checking Your Dashboard for Reader Insights

02:46 Adapting Content for Different Mediums

09:54 The Importance of Quality Content

11:42 Strategies for Writing Shorter, Impactful Posts

16:06 Editing Tips for Clarity and Engagement

31:53 Exploring Workarounds for Audio Posts

33:43 Setting Up a Podcast for Discoverability

36:01 Managing Paywalls and Free Content with Audio

40:47 Podcasting Tips and Best Practices

Write Less, Say More Challenge Workflow

DRAFTING STAGE

* Talk out your post to a friend or yourself.

* Write your post.

MACRO EDITING STAGE

* Write that one thing you want the reader to remember if it’s all they take away.

* Using that, cut anything that’s unnecessary. Of every paragraph ask, Does my reader really need to know this?

* Revise generalizations to make them specific.

MICRO EDITING

* Cut cliches

* Check it’s, this, that for antecedents

* Create two sentences for every sentence with and that has two ideas

* Fight for every adverb and adjective

Enjoy the replay!

All my best,

Sarah

P.S. We have an exclusive 24/7 Cohort-only chat to connect, ask questions, and publicize your latest posts! Find it here.

In this Strategy Session:

00:09 Understanding Your Audience's Reading Habits

00:44 Checking Your Dashboard for Reader Insights

02:46 Adapting Content for Different Mediums

09:54 The Importance of Quality Content

11:42 Strategies for Writing Shorter, Impactful Posts

16:06 Editing Tips for Clarity and Engagement

31:53 Exploring Workarounds for Audio Posts

33:43 Setting Up a Podcast for Discoverability

36:01 Managing Paywalls and Free Content with Audio

40:47 Podcasting Tips and Best Practices

To upgrade to listen on Apple, go to www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

Be a Substack success story. Subscribe to Substack Writers at Work!

Today, Post Less Often, Please. How often should I post on Substack? 

It’s an age-old question that’s sent many a Substacker into spirals of doubt.

In today's episode:

00:00 Introduction to Substack Posting Frequency

00:43 The Six-Part Framework for Posting Frequency

01:43 Debunking Common Misconceptions

05:57 Respecting Your Subscribers' Inboxes

06:18 Be Your Own Publisher

06:50 Analyzing Substack Stats

07:27 Learning from The New Yorker

08:50 Personal Experience and Recommendations

10:55 Interactive Exercise for Subscribers

12:16 Conclusion and Gratitude

This is a free preview. To listen to the full amazing workshop, become a paid subscriber: www.writersatwork.net/subscribe

* We want devoted readers, listeners, viewers, and/or clients (depending on your category and what you do)—a.k.a. “superfans.” (Don’t love that term, but you get the idea.) But Substack doesn’t offer a clear path on how to find and keep them. You have to pave that road yourself, which is what this workshop will help you do.

Highlights:

* What and who are your devoted readers, a.k.a. “superfans”

* How to give them the highest quality writing even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer

* The 2 types of “great writing” on Substack

* How to pitch other Substacks to get your exceptional writing out into the world

To upgrade to listen on Apple, go to www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

I’m absurdly excited to bring you my interview with Miller Coffey. Miller is a digital marketer who helps established authors start a Substack. He’s also incredibly genuine and real and smart and…I could go on. Miller is the president of the marketing firm Bellflower Media, a trans and queer-owned business that’s dedicated to equity and social justice.

We discuss everything from what every Substack should have to what he does for his clients to which social media platform writers should be on to branding and logos.

Live Substack Office Hours. Your Substack questions answered.

Become a paid subscriber to Substack Writers at Work: www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

Yet another way SW@W is here to help you be your amazing self on Substack.

Who?

* Me, you, all of us.

What?

* Your Substack questions answered.

When?

* I’ll announce the day and time of each live Substack Office Hours every Tuesday in that week’s post.

* We’ll also have popup Office Hours.

Where?

* You’ll be notified in email and the app when we’re live.

* We’ll be live in the app.

Why?

* Imagine: Getting to ask me instead of the bot.

* Imagine: No more confusion. No more frustration. No more feeling alone.

* Office Hours are for paid subscribers.

What are they like?

* Watch the replay above to find out! (Great to listen to in the app or on Spotify or Apple. Timestamps are below.)

* Basically, come on, be with each other, connect, put your questions in the chat, and I’ll try to get to each one.

How?

* Join us by upgrading to paid.

Substack Office Hours, 11/8/24

[00:04:17] Niches vs. being a generalist—my signature Substack DNA paradigm

[00:07:35] Setting up subscriber challenges/workshops

[00:09:33] Understanding the activity tab & metrics

[00:14:18] Posting frequency - category differences & expectations

[00:29:56] Balancing posts vs. notes - social media strategy

[00:33:02] Monetization & subscription value

[00:39:01] Headers, footers, and banners - design elements

[00:42:02] Building audience—reality vs. perception

[00:44:21] Custom domains and URLs

[00:48:46] Selling/marketing without losing authenticity

[00:51:31] Writing calls to action effectively

[00:52:26] Community building among Substack Writers at Work subscribers