Latest / The Comeback Career Podcast with Fexingo: Returning After a Gap, Stay-at-Home Re-Entry / How a Career Gap Can Help You Build a Paid Newsletter
Transcript
- Lucas: So, you're out of the workforce — maybe you're at home with kids, maybe you took a few years off for family or personal reasons — and you want to come back. But the thought of updating your LinkedIn and sending out cold applications feels soul-crushing. You're not alone. Luna: And the data backs that up. A study from the Harvard Business Review found that someone with a two-year career gap gets about half as many callbacks as someone with continuous employment. It's brutal. Lucas: Exactly. So what if instead of trying to hide that gap, you built something during it that makes you more credible than a continuous employee? I'm talking about a paid newsletter. Luna: A paid newsletter? Like Substack? That feels like a whole business, not a gap activity. How realistic is that? Lucas: It's more realistic than you think. Let me give you a concrete example. A former marketing manager — let's call her Sarah — left her job in 2023 when her second child was born. She planned to be home for two years. She started a Substack about 'B2B content strategy for small teams' — her exact niche from her previous role. Luna: Okay, so she was writing about what she already knew. That makes sense. Lucas: Right. She wrote one long post per week, shared it on LinkedIn and in a couple of Slack communities she was part of. By month six, she had 300 free subscribers. She then introduced a paid tier at $30 per year — that's two-fifty a month. By month twelve, she had 600 paid subscribers. Luna: Wait, so she went from 300 free to 600 paid in six months? That's a conversion rate of — what, like two-thirds of her free list converted? Lucas: No, she had built her free list to about 1,200 by that point. So roughly 50% conversion. But here's the key number: at $30 a year, 600 subscribers is $18,000 in annual recurring revenue. She was making $1,500 a month. By month 18, she hit 1,200 paid subscribers — $3,000 a month. Not life-changing money, but real income. Luna: And she was doing this while home with two kids? Lucas: One post a week. Maybe two to three hours of writing per post, plus an hour of promotion. She told me she did most of it during nap time. It was a side project that didn't eat her life. Luna: But the real value wasn't the money, right? It was the credibility. Lucas: Exactly. When Sarah started applying for jobs again last fall, she didn't lead with 'I stayed home for two years.' She led with 'I built and grew a paid newsletter to 1,200 subscribers in a niche that directly overlaps with this role.' She had proof of expertise. She had a portfolio of writing. She had an audience. Luna: And she got hired? Lucas: She got a senior content manager role at a SaaS company. The hiring manager told her that the newsletter was the reason she got an interview — it showed she stayed sharp, built something real, and understood the audience. Luna: That's a great story. But I want to push back a little. The math only works if you have something to say that people will pay for. Not everyone has a B2B content strategy niche. What if you were in a completely different field — like operations or finance? Lucas: Then you pick a sub-niche. A finance person could write 'Personal finance for dual-income families navigating a single-income gap' — super specific. An operations person could write 'How small teams build scalable processes.' The key is to focus on a problem you helped solve in your past work, and write for people who are still in the trenches. Luna: So the gap itself gives you the time to build the newsletter, but also gives you a unique perspective — you're living the 'going from dual-income to single-income' transition, for example. That's actually a selling point. Lucas: Exactly. You're not just writing theory. You're living the topic. That authenticity is what makes people subscribe. Substack's own data shows that the top newsletters in any category are almost always written by practitioners, not journalists covering the field. Luna: Let's talk about the time commitment more. You said two to three hours per post. But what about the first three months when you have zero subscribers? That's a lot of writing into the void. Lucas: It is. But that's when you set a low bar. Write short posts — 500 to 800 words. Share them in one or two relevant online communities. Don't expect viral growth. If you can get 10 subscribers in month one, you're on track. Sarah had 20 subscribers after three months. Luna: Twenty subscribers in three months. That's not exactly encouraging. Lucas: It's not, but it's real. And here's the thing: those 20 were super engaged. They commented, they shared. That gave Sarah confidence to keep going. By month six, word of mouth kicked in. The compound effect of writing consistently is real. Luna: What about the platform choice? Substack is the obvious one, but there's also Beehiiv, Ghost, ConvertKit — does it matter? Lucas: For someone using a career gap to re-enter, I'd say Substack is the easiest because of its built-in discovery. People browsing Substack can find your newsletter. Beehiiv is great if you want more growth tools like referrals. But honestly, pick one and start. The platform isn't the differentiator — the content is. Luna: So let's say someone listening is in month three of their gap. They have no newsletter. What's the first step they should take this week? Lucas: Define your niche as a single sentence. 'I write about X for people who Y.' For example: 'I write about remote team culture for engineering managers at startups.' Then write three sample posts — they don't have to be long. Then set up a free Substack and publish the first one. Send it to five former colleagues and ask for feedback. That's week one. Luna: And by month six, they could have a hundred subscribers. By month twelve, maybe a few hundred. And that's already a credential. Lucas: Exactly. And if they monetize even at $5 a month, a hundred paid subscribers is $500 a month. That's not nothing — especially during a gap when income is tight. Luna: Speaking of that, I want to touch on a related point. If someone listening has gotten value from this episode — maybe it's made them think about their own career gap differently — we want to keep this podcast ad-free and accessible. It's a small way we can give back to the community. Lucas: Yeah, and we don't do sponsorships or ads. The show stays independent. If you've found it helpful, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That really helps us keep going, and we appreciate it. Luna: Totally. And speaking of building something during a gap — that newsletter can also be a revenue stream while you're looking. So it's not just a resume booster, it's a side income. Lucas: Right. And that side income can give you more leverage when you negotiate your next role. You're not desperate for a paycheck — you have something of your own. That changes the dynamic. Luna: So let's wrap with a concrete challenge. If you're in a career gap right now, what should you do by this time next week? Lucas: Write a 500-word post about one specific problem you used to solve in your previous job — and why it matters. Publish it on a free Substack. Send it to three former colleagues. That's it. If you do that, you've started. And next week, do it again. Luna: And by the time you're ready to re-enter the workforce, you'll have a body of work — not just a gap on your resume. Lucas: Exactly. It turns the gap from a liability into an asset. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.