Latest / Substack Writers Salon / I Want to Be Yana: The Case for Automating Your Writing Business (Without Becoming a Robot)

Transcript

I Want to Be Yana: The Case for Automating Your Writing Business (Without Becoming a Robot) · Substack Writers Salon

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's the mobile version and we are live.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're live.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, everyone, and happy, happy holidays.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you guys are probably busy preparing,
• 0:12
  but we thought we'd interrupt your holiday preparation because
• 0:17
  you have a very
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: important discussion and it's very inspiring.
• 0:20
  And I'm hoping that this discussion would reinvigorate you for
• 0:24
  the new year.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I have with me Yana G.Y.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Yana is a genius.
• 0:31
  And I'm not saying this lightly because I heard her talk and
• 0:36
  I've been followed up
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: and went through the rabbit hole of her automation work.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I was blown away.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like,
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I really,
• 0:47
  really have to have her live so that everyone would know what
• 0:51
  she's doing.
• 0:52
  And so Ayana,
• 0:55
  her forte is to help people grow using AI-powered and automated
• 1:03
  tools.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And she built something called the Creative Tech Hub,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: and it's a growth accelerator for writers and content creators.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Jana, so happy to see you here live.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a lot of questions and I see a lot of people already joining.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they're joining for you.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're not joining for me.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you for having me, Natasha.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's really an honor for me.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so happy to be here with you.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure it's going to be a very interesting conversation.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it'll be fun.
• 1:39
  So,
• 1:40
  okay,
• 1:40
  Jana,
• 1:42
  as I said,
• 1:42
  so I heard you speak at an AI community led by Claudia Faith.
• 1:48
  And what really impressed me is the amount of automation that
• 1:54
  you put on everything.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And
• 1:57
  how you manage to do how to to run a very well-oiled machine in
• 2:03
  the background
• 2:04
  while you already have your nine-to-five job where you have
• 2:07
  like your partner and
• 2:08
  your dog and your life going on but on the background
• 2:11
  everything is is going
• 2:12
  smoothly and for me this is a dream like i wanna be yana right
• 2:18
  i wanna i wanna
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: reach
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: This kind of automated existence.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because for me, like personally, my life is very busy.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I have three kids.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I work.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Two of them are teenage twins.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like really hard.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And an eight-year-old.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm running my writing business.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a husband and a house and animals in the house.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So the more I can automate, the better.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, Yana, first, how did you get into automation?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: What made you start playing the automation game?
• 3:00
  And how did you teach yourself this amazing depth of knowledge
• 3:04
  that you're sharing
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: with people on your sub stack?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 3:10
  I think I got into it just simply because I'm so much
• 3:14
  fascinated about technology
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: in the first place.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not just a hobby.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: I just really,
• 3:21
  when there is something new in the AI and automation and the
• 3:25
  tech in general,
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm also so much into physical devices at home.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I really want to rush into it and get to know it.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm using AI ever since it was announced.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: So when chat GPT announced,
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: OpenAI announced chat GPT,
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: then I just went in and jumped on the waiting list.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: I was one of the first users, I think.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: And that's how I got it.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: When I started,
• 3:56
  I didn't really imagine or think that I would build an
• 4:01
  AI-powered and automated
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: business like that.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: But I worked in that direction,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: unconsciously until it became really the core,
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: the center of my business right now.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: And it's natural for me because of my nine to five.
• 4:17
  So I don't have three kids,
• 4:20
  but I have my crazy Jack Russell dog at home and my partner as
• 4:24
  well.
• 4:25
  And I have a very demanding nine to five job because I'm at a
• 4:30
  senior leadership
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: position and I have tough projects,
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: but sometimes I have to stay after hours and things like that.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: But so my time is quite limited.
• 4:43
  So I wanted to like on my 9 to 5 job to focus on efficiency and
• 4:49
  bring that to my
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: personal business as well.
• 4:53
  And I used everything that I know from my 9 to 5 and I just
• 4:56
  applied it to my online
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: writing business and it worked.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you're currently at 10K a month just from Substack.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Is that where you are?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Substack is the core of it.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't say it's not only the paid newsletter.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: There are five, I think, five or six revenue streams in those 10K.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: But yes, I reached my first 10K month in October.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: And right now it's moving between 5 and 10K.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's not stable at 10K, but the trend is clear and it's working.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, how did you teach yourself all of these automation tools?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So for example,
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give everyone who's joining us,
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: and please,
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: anyone,
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: please feel free to jump in and ask questions.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: You have Yana here for free for an hour, so use her.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I went down the rabbit hole of your Substack Quest,
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: which is all about AI tools.
• 6:10
  And the amount of details that you provide and the depth is
• 6:15
  someone who spent hours
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: just learning this stuff.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very detailed.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So like, for example, I went on an AI tool that Jana created.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: which take your Substack subscribers,
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: automatically add them to a kid automation email funnel.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then from there, you try to upsell them your paid subscription.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a pretty complicated process.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was chatting with Yana, but I'll get there.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know I sound like a boomer, but I will get there.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'll figure it out.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: But how did you teach yourself all of...
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: these really heavy,
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know there are no codes,
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: but they're,
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: it's someone has to be really invested to learn all of that stuff.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So how did you teach yourself all of that stuff?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um,
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: so yeah,
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: every step of the,
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: of my automation flow and the,
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: and the,
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: the place that I use AI comes from,
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: from my needs.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: So when I started initially, so I started in September last year, um,
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: And it was working really well on Substack.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but, uh, then I, I was, I was like, like much like a rabbit hole.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I was,
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: I,
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: okay,
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: I tried this,
• 7:41
  I tried community and I tried my challenges and then I tried to
• 7:44
  write a focused,
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: so like,
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: um,
• 7:46
  content and then I go into some videos and try this and that
• 7:51
  and so on and then at
• 7:53
  some point it started to build on top so the amount of time
• 7:56
  that I was investing
• 7:57
  increased like the as my growth compounded also my investment
• 8:02
  compounded and I at
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: some point I felt
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: And especially because I realized that I,
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: on top of everything that I built from the content,
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: I also have to invest pretty good amount in sales,
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  SPEAKER_02: like only focused on sales and promotion so that I keep selling.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: which then I was... And it was a very big, like, aha moment for me.
• 8:29
  And I said,
• 8:30
  okay,
• 8:31
  because I'm a person who always tries to think differently and
• 8:35
  focus in not...
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: not necessarily in the direction that everyone is focusing,
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: but think differently in a way that I can become more efficient.
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  SPEAKER_02: So less time invested, more outcomes, more results, more revenues.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's all about the questions that you ask yourself.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not, how can I do this?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: But how can I achieve the outcome of doing this?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: without the time investment or the resources or the cost that I need?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: Is there a different way to do it?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe there is a way that nobody has invented yet.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um,
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: And because everybody was talking about,
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: yes,
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: you have to sell,
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: you have to do promotions and so on.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, no, I cannot do this.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I invest a lot of time in delivering my paid content.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: So if I have to do promotions manually every month,
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: that takes me half of the time already because I have to think,
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: I have to build a funnel,
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: a promotional for them to follow up and so on.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, okay, is there a way to automate this?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: And this specific automation I built just out of this idea.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I just went on Kit because I knew that Kit has automations.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: Then I looked into how can I automatically...
• 9:56
  import and tag my subscribers from Substack to Kit because Kit
• 9:59
  doesn't have
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: automations.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Substack doesn't have automations.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: Kit has automations,
• 10:03
  but then Substack also has to somehow automatically update the
• 10:09
  data in Kit.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then I figured out how to do this automation with make.com.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then I built everything in Kit.
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  And from there,
• 10:19
  I just had to only write the sales sequence and to keep it
• 10:27
  fresh and up to date.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then it worked.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: But it worked after two months.
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  SPEAKER_02: I was like, so I installed it.
• 10:37
  And immediately after that,
• 10:39
  so one day,
• 10:40
  two days,
• 10:40
  one week,
• 10:41
  two weeks,
• 10:41
  nothing.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, okay, so.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's another failure.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's not working.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: But because and then I was thinking,
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: OK,
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: so when a new subscriber comes to my newsletter,
• 10:55
  so they need about one month to walk through all of the emails
• 11:01
  that I have setting
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: it.
• 11:03
  So I have to wait at least one month for the first subscribers
• 11:08
  so that I can see
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: effect for the first,
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: batch of subscribers,
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: which were back then about 10 per day.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: So 10 new subscribers per day, which is very small.
• 11:20
  So I had to wait even more than one month in order to start
• 11:24
  seeing results.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: And yes,
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: my paid subscriptions,
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: the sales of my paid subscriptions basically doubled because of that.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So what were the results that you were looking for?
• 11:35
  So you were looking for to convert a free subscriber to a paid
• 11:39
  subscriber and or
• 11:42
  buying some of your digital products on Gumroad or what was
• 11:46
  your main focus from
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: that point?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: My main focus was to convert from free subscribers to paid subscribers.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: because that requires a lot of effort.
• 11:55
  And so that I make it clear now,
• 11:58
  so for everyone who's listening or watching,
• 12:03
  it's not enough.
• 12:04
  So what I figured during those two months is that once I
• 12:09
  installed this automation,
• 12:10
  you have to also keep delivering fresh content for paid
• 12:13
  subscribers so that you
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: give them more reasons to upgrade.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: So this sales sequence that is working on the background
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's not enough.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, definitely.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: It is selling while you sleep,
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: basically,
• 12:25
  but you still have to continue to deliver the value for the
• 12:28
  paid subscribers.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, it slows down.
• 12:31
  I was looking to keep selling at the same rates that I was
• 12:35
  selling without having
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: to do the promotions.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: I see.
• 12:41
  So basically,
• 12:42
  your idea is somebody subscribes and becomes a free subscriber.
• 12:46
  You take them into a month's worth of email until you convince
• 12:51
  them why they should
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: convert from free to paid.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Are you worried about them getting a lot of emails?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh my God, another email from Yana, I'm unsubscribing.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Would you?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what I worry about.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I have marketing funnels coming,
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: but I worry like how,
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: like what's their tolerance threshold of keep receiving emails from me?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they must really love me to unsubscribe.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:19
  Every time I post an email,
• 13:23
  I send an email,
• 13:24
  I have a few subscribers,
• 13:26
  but it's not a lot.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: A few unsubscribes, and it's not a lot.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Initially,
• 13:33
  I had that concern that maybe it's too much because basically
• 13:36
  they're receiving
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: every day for one whole month an email from me,
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: and what comes from Substack comes on top of that.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: So there are days that they get for two emails, for example.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: And,
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: uh,
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: I had that concern,
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: but,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: um,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: I,
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: I,
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not so much concerned because I also have in my nine to five,
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: um,
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: that experience that,
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: um,
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: out of all of the channels,
• 14:07
  So my background is in telecoms and in the marketing and sales
• 14:11
  and marketing.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I know we have tested so many channels to sell.
• 14:15
  And out of all of the digital channels that you can have to
• 14:19
  communicate or promote
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: or sell an offer to your audience,
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: the email is the most efficient one.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: The conversion rates are the highest there.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's not SMS if anybody's thinking it's not SMS.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: People hate it.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I come from telecom, I know.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's not that.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so I knew that this has to work.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: And in order to sell more, you have to send.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: The more emails you send, the more money you make.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's as a rule of thumb.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: And for as long as your unsubscribes are...
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: less than your new subscribers,
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: so your net growth is positive,
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think there is no problem at all.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: Because anyway, so people are going to unsubscribe for sure.
• 15:05
  But if they do,
• 15:07
  most probably they're also not going to buy anything from you
• 15:09
  anyways.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Hmm.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:12
  So why did you go all in in Substack as opposed to other tools
• 15:18
  like LinkedIn,
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: for example?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: you being a senior leader at your position,
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: I would expect you to go all in on LinkedIn and create all these funnels.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And why did you choose Substack?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, because LinkedIn is social media.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like any other social media, it gives me followers.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't give me access to email.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I always wanted, I also know from my nine to five.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I always with my,
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: this online writing business that I started,
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: I always wanted to build a email list for myself.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I knew all of the, all of the ways to do that.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, right.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: I was writing on medium.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: I was trying to, I had lead magnets.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: I was trying to do something on social media.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: LinkedIn is just another social media.
• 16:03
  And the amount of effort that you have to put there for the
• 16:07
  number of subscribers
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: that you get out of it was,
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: it's just too much for me, especially on the side of my job.
• 16:16
  And when I heard about Substack,
• 16:17
  back then it wasn't,
• 16:18
  so notes weren't available.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I said,
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: okay,
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: Substack is great,
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: but I still have to bring my subscribers on it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I started, I continued on Medium, on social media.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was trying to, I don't know, code emailing.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: I looked into everything.
• 16:38
  um but then i learned about notes and that was the thing the
• 16:42
  moment that i decided
• 16:44
  okay now is the time i have to go in because it's the only
• 16:48
  place right now probably
• 16:50
  there are going to be new platforms in the future but right now
• 16:53
  it's the only place
• 16:54
  where you can post something like as if you're posting on
• 16:57
  social media instead of
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: getting a follower you're getting a subscriber
• 17:02
  So,
• 17:02
  you also have this,
• 17:04
  like,
• 17:05
  the famous chat GPT agent that I started using it.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the minute I started using it, my notes completely changed.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I, like, they, yeah, I get more engagement and...
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: I even took them and I posted them on LinkedIn.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt even my LinkedIn engagement became,
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: much higher just because of these notes.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I take the result and I edit it a bit.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: I add, try to add.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then I post it there.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So of all the automation tools that you created,
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: what's the one that was the highest ROI for you?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's that GPT, actually.
• 17:50
  I'm not sure whether it's between the automation that I have in
• 17:54
  kit to sell my paid
• 17:55
  subscriptions or is that GPT because the GPT is by far the paid
• 18:00
  member benefit that
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: I have in my paid newsletter that has brought me the highest number,
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: the biggest number of paid subscribers.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you think people subscribe?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a subscriber, by the way.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, everyone.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe to EIS.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's worth every penny.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is...
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: So people who subscribe to you get all your automation tools for free.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still digging in because there's a lot of material.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you need to automate reading for me.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: There is a way, yes.
• 18:46
  I'm thinking I also sometimes need something to ingest all of
• 18:50
  the information that
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: I want automatically without me having to.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's put a chip to the knowledge immediately.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: But...
• 19:01
  What other tools people would get if they subscribe to you
• 19:06
  besides the ChatGPT
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: viral notes agent,
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: which I tried and it's amazing.
• 19:13
  And now I'm like going down the rabbit hole of the Substack Kit
• 19:17
  integration.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: What other tools that also people use and like and got them results?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:25
  So everything that I do for myself to automate with AI and
• 19:31
  those automations,
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: I also enable for my paid subscribers for free.
• 19:35
  Some of the things are very few,
• 19:38
  but some of the things are for the founding tier subscribers.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: Those
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: things that are connected to growing outside of Substack mostly.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: But the majority of the tools are enabled to all of the paid subscribers.
• 19:52
  And so starting from the very beginning,
• 19:54
  for example,
• 19:55
  like content creation.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I have several custom GPTs.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: One of them is the notes writer that we just mentioned.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: And this GPT has...
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's really, it's very, very popular.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: So people who are really serious about using it are getting viral notes.
• 20:17
  And I have people who are getting,
• 20:18
  like every other note is getting more than 100 likes.
• 20:22
  And it's really working very well when you adapt it and use it
• 20:28
  the right way.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: I have also a GPT for long form writing.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: I have one for title generation and subtitle generation.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: I also have one for call to action generation because I,
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: those are the things that I figured that most people struggle.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: And also it was a struggle for myself when I was a new writer.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um,
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: and I,
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: I also use them for myself because you know,
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: sometimes I would rather have some,
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: uh,
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: 10 or 20,
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: um,
• 20:57
  options for headlines and sub-headlines for my post,
• 21:00
  then start from scratch.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's always easier to pick some and adapt it and edit it.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: And besides those two, so that's for writing for content generation.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Then you have to sell.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: And for selling,
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: all of these automations that I have just described,
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: so automatically import Substack subscribers to Kit,
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: then build the automation in Kit.
• 21:25
  That's a workflow that I have in the Quest labs,
• 21:30
  also for my paid subscribers.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so I have extracted my entire sales sequence.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: And that's not a random sequence, by the way.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: It took me months.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: to study other people's cell sequences.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I also worked with AI, but I also collected a lot of data.
• 21:49
  And I was subscribing like crazy to people and I was receiving
• 21:52
  emails and I was
• 21:54
  collecting sequences and I was analyzing with chat GPT and so
• 21:59
  on in order to come
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: up with this cell sequence,
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: like those 30 days.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's a very well-researched cell sequence.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I extracted it and I'm also,
• 22:07
  the entire text I'm giving to my paid subscribers and I'm
• 22:10
  giving them a prompt and
• 22:12
  a workflow how they can go to ChatGPT or Quote or whatever and
• 22:15
  import it there and
• 22:17
  use my prompt and give it some context for their paid
• 22:24
  membership or for a product,
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: for example,
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: a course or a book or whatever.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it will come up with a proposal.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: It will adapt my sequence.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: It will adapt my sequence to your product or paid newsletter.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: And that's a workflow that I have developed for my paid subscribers.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I had a workshop where I did that live for three of my paid members.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: And the result was really amazing.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: I have the recording also available in the Quest Labs.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: uh, for my paid members.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then I also, I didn't stop there.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: So,
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: because at some point I figured that growth on Substack,
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: um,
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: yes,
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: you have,
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: you can have viral moments and you can grow 30,
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: 50,
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: 60,
• 23:11
  100 new subscribers per day,
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: but then it's ups and downs.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um,
• 23:13
  So I thought,
• 23:13
  yeah,
• 23:14
  I have to figure out how to automatically take advantage of
• 23:17
  social media.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: And initially,
• 23:19
  I thought that I have to also engage and be present on those
• 23:23
  platforms in order to
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: grow.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: But then I got inspired from Sabrina Romanov,
• 23:30
  who said that she developed an automated flow of content
• 23:35
  generation and posting to
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: social media.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: And on Instagram, she has...
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: half a million followers.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: And she says that she doesn't even have Instagram installed in her phone.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: So that got me, that was a new moment for me.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I said,
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: okay,
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: so maybe some of the platforms require me to,
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: to,
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: to spend some time there,
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: but not all of them.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I can test.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: So then I, um, and then I went to, to chat GPT, um, um,
• 24:06
  And start talking to it because I wanted to automatically share
• 24:10
  my notes and my
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: posts to social media.
• 24:14
  And since there is no direct automation,
• 24:18
  no official API from Substack,
• 24:20
  I created another app.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's an automation app.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's called the Creative Tech Hub app for make.com.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it's also available for my paid subscribers.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: which takes your latest published notes and latest published posts.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: And from them you could do, out of them you could do so many things.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: So some of my notes I am directly posting to X and to LinkedIn.
• 24:45
  I also create quote images,
• 24:46
  so text on an image and post them to X and also to LinkedIn.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: and some different format.
• 24:53
  I'm using Gemini with Nano Banana Pro to create me some more
• 24:59
  creative images,
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: and I'm posting to Pinterest and to Instagram.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm also doing very short,
• 25:05
  like six-second videos that I'm posting on YouTube Shorts and
• 25:09
  on TikTok as well,
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: and also on Instagram.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: And that's happening automatically.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: And those workflows I also enable for my paid subscribers.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I have some more to come, so a lot of tools.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of toes.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't hear you, by the way.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: Is it on my side?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, can you hear us?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Hi.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Out of my mind.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Out of my damn mind.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Can somebody say?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: But can you hear me?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: No?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Can you hear me?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes?
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: No audio from Natasha.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Natasha should be probably on your side.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you can switch the mic from the menu below.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe check if you didn't mute yourself.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: So when you click on the microphone,
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: it automatically mutes you, maybe.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, now I hear you.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: I just switched it.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows what happened with this mic?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's technology.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: It always has bugs for us.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows what happened?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I was saying is that...
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 26:57
  So basically what you're doing is you're posting notes and then
• 27:00
  automatically they
• 27:02
  go from notes to a different social media channel without you
• 27:08
  doing anything.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: You just post a note and the little like minions and your little minions,
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: they work in the background and they take everything for you.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, this is like mind-blowing, honestly.
• 27:28
  And so,
• 27:30
  okay,
• 27:31
  I'm gonna play the devil's advocate because that's my job as a
• 27:34
  journalist.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: What would happen if two things, Substack opens its API,
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: And two, they start allowing you to schedule notes.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: How would that affect all the automations that you built?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: How are you going to pivot?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: So that would make it even easier for me, actually.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: So right now I also have a note scheduling tool that I'm using.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's not mine.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: I use two, actually, from Fintropy and also from Oral.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's the right stack app.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm using both of them, and they're working really well for me.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: But if Substack creates an automatic scheduling, then...
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: I think those two boys are in trouble.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: They have to think of something else.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that's expected already.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Or pivot maybe in some additional features and things like that.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: But for me, that's not a big impact.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's only going to make it easier for me.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: But if Substack enables...
• 28:46
  enables API that would be much much easier because right now we
• 28:52
  are there's no
• 28:53
  documentation and we are testing and learning and there are
• 28:57
  books all of the time
• 28:58
  and for some users it's different so it's also if you have a
• 29:03
  custom domain if you
• 29:04
  don't have a custom domain if you have enabled notes on your
• 29:06
  publication and if not
• 29:08
  as if I get the feeling that Stubstack has like two backends
• 29:12
  one for mobile and one
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: for
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: for PC,
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: like for the web or something like that,
• 29:19
  and one for notes and one for publishing and publications and
• 29:23
  things like that.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure if that happens,
• 29:25
  but I would love to have an official API documentation to
• 29:33
  understand at least what
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: are the possibilities and how we can use those APIs to scale even faster.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a comment, there's a question from Anjali Pradhan.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, how often do you post, Tiana?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: How easy is it to get new followers on Substack?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: Followers?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I post notes.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think I post between 5 and 10 notes every day.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: And that's usually around 10 and sometimes even 12.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: For the posts,
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: I tried to have,
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: there was a time where I was posting every day on the posts as well.
• 30:12
  But now I try to have,
• 30:14
  I don't know,
• 30:14
  at least two,
• 30:15
  three per week,
• 30:15
  something like that.
• 30:17
  Because right now I'm building the quest with a lot of tools
• 30:21
  and automations and it
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: takes me a little bit more time to,
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 30:24
  to develop the use case and the scenario and then to enable it
• 30:29
  for my paid
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: subscribers.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: How easy is to gain followers?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: I don't really count them,
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: but last time I checked,
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: it was half of my followers are also subscribers.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: It depends.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: It depends.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm tracking subscribers mostly and not sure.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: To be honest, I wouldn't say it's easy, but it's definitely simple.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: We just have to do what's necessary to grow,
• 30:58
  and that is to post notes and to grow your recommendation list
• 31:03
  and to also keep in
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: touch and connect with others on the platform,
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: like stay active on the platform,
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: invest some time daily,
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: It helps a lot.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: How often do you spend time on Substack a week or a day?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: I think every day.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm opening up every day.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:23
  So what are your plans for 2026 in terms of growth and in terms
• 31:32
  of new automation tool?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: What are you planning to do?
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: I have been thinking about this a lot,
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: especially now since it's the end of the year,
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: the best time of the year when you have this.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like...
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: a reconciliation of the whole year, if I may call it like that.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: But it's more like a reflection.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: But I would like to,
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: I really need also,
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: it's not just a business need,
• 32:05
  but I feel inside of me that I have the need to connect with my
• 32:09
  audience in a
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: better way.
• 32:11
  And unfortunately,
• 32:12
  Substack community features are not so well developed.
• 32:16
  So I have been contemplating on building a different and more
• 32:20
  connected community.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: But on the other hand,
• 32:24
  I don't really want to pull people or push people away from the
• 32:28
  platform because
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: it's native to them.
• 32:30
  So I'm still thinking about how to increase the interactions
• 32:36
  with my audience and
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: build a more connected community.
• 32:40
  So right now we have the challenges in the chat and it's
• 32:44
  working really well.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: I would like to definitely go beyond that.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: So that's one thing.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of the directions.
• 32:51
  So I'm thinking maybe probably some workshops or some sessions
• 32:57
  connected to the
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: Quest and the Quest Labs so that we have some space to communicate,
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: but also to share problems and to discuss and to
• 33:09
  to exchange some ideas on the things that I have published I
• 33:13
  really want to know
• 33:14
  people who have been testing them what's their experiences and
• 33:18
  how do they do and
• 33:19
  also if I can help them to do it easier because it's not very
• 33:23
  easy especially with
• 33:26
  the reposting of notes and posts it can become complex so
• 33:30
  something in those ideas
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: and more tools in the labs for sure that's for sure yeah
• 33:35
  so you're i want to go back to the to the issue of community
• 33:39
  and and i also go back
• 33:41
  and forth with it because big creators are using uh third-party
• 33:46
  apps like circle
• 33:47
  and when they grow they go to circle because it has all the
• 33:51
  community features and
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: do you think that that is the only solution to grow
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: or just keep them inside Substack.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it's very limited, as you said.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_02: To be honest,
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't seen a successful community in Circle,
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_02: or in school,
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: or anywhere else,
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: or in Slack.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: I have been part of many communities, and some of them I'm still part of.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I try to be active there, but
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't seen the level of engagement that I'm looking for.
• 34:36
  So I would rather try to do something and stay mostly on
• 34:42
  Substack,
• 34:44
  as stubborn as it is.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: But I think we have to build where people are.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's true.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I want to pivot a bit and ask you about your webinars.
• 35:07
  So I attended one of your webinars and I was a bit confused
• 35:11
  because I thought you were live.
• 35:13
  So I would text you on Substack Direct and you're still talking
• 35:21
  and then you're
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: responding to me.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, how is she doing that?
• 35:27
  you just drove me crazy and then i and then i realized that uh
• 35:33
  you're actually uh
• 35:35
  doing you having them recorded with and they run several times
• 35:41
  a day but then you
• 35:44
  have the live chat open so people can ask you why you're so how
• 35:49
  is that going for
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: you i'm just curious
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was an experiment.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's something that I built also with ChatGPT,
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: like my creative tech hop-up,
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: which I vibe-coded with ChatGPT because it requires some coding.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: So with the webinar, I had a struggle, I had a challenge.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to sell my courses more and better,
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: again,
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: without having to invest so much time into it.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: And for me,
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_02: I could easily adapt my sales sequences to sell the courses,
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: but I didn't feel that that was enough.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_02: Because my courses,
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: as much as I'm trying to keep them simple,
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: like for example,
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: the quest,
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: it's a huge thing.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: It really needs explanation.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not enough for the people to have the emails only.
• 36:43
  And then I was thinking,
• 36:44
  okay,
• 36:44
  so I have to explain to the people what this is.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: which can happen through some kind of a video.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was thinking about the live webinars.
• 36:55
  I know people are doing them and they're really successful in
• 36:58
  selling such courses.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: But again, I was like, okay, so I have to do a live.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: It requires a lot of time.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: And also if something happens on my job,
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: it's not a really good thing to have to cancel some live event.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: And also because it's live, not all of the people will be able to join.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so I went to chat GPT and started talking to it again.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: And then it suggested this one app that I'm using.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: I never, I have never, I never heard about it before.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's called eWebinar, eWebinar, where it allows you to
• 37:38
  um to create a fully automated webinar that looks like life and
• 37:42
  it also you can
• 37:43
  chat with your so while people are watching you can talk to
• 37:47
  them you can chat with
• 37:48
  them directly and that's really amazing and it um the entire
• 37:54
  and also the user
• 37:55
  experience is is quite it's amazing uh it's very very really
• 37:59
  very good i think it's
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: even better from the majority from the bigger platforms um
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: And it has a lot of interactions that you could also automate,
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: which increases the engagement as well.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I decided to test it.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I have pretty good attendance rate and engagement rate.
• 38:16
  It's over 70% of the people are engaged during those webinars,
• 38:20
  which is amazing.
• 38:22
  And my conversion rate is 10%,
• 38:24
  which compared to my sales sequences,
• 38:28
  it's quite high.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's quite tight.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: So 10% of the people who attend your webinars, they buy your product.
• 38:36
  So these are to buy your products,
• 38:37
  not to become paid subscribers,
• 38:39
  correct?
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: No, yes, yes.
• 38:41
  But I also,
• 38:42
  so in this webinar,
• 38:43
  it has a very exclusive offer for this webinar only.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's one of the best offers that I have ever made.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm offering the Quest and all parts of the Quest,
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: like bundled one,
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: and also a lifetime access to my paid subscription.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a very good price already.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you host your courses?
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: Gumroad, all of them?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's on Teachable.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's on Teachable.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Teachable, okay.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: So why do you use Teachable?
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what do you put on Teachable and what do you put on Gumroad?
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I started with Gumroad because it's easy and it's free.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: And even though it's taking 10% of your revenue,
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: then as a new writer and somebody who's building everything from scratch,
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: I decided to not really invest that much in the bigger platforms.
• 39:41
  But then for the courses,
• 39:42
  I decided to move to Teachable because the user experience is
• 39:46
  better.
• 39:46
  And also because I already had enough of a big audience to sell
• 39:51
  those courses.
• 39:52
  And for me,
• 39:55
  it was enough to cover the costs and also be profitable with
• 40:00
  it.
• 40:01
  But for somebody who is starting from scratch,
• 40:02
  I wouldn't recommend to go to Tito at all.
• 40:05
  It's because it's $200 per month in order to be able to build
• 40:08
  something really good.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: And you have to, if you don't have the audience, it would be
• 40:16
  You know,
• 40:17
  you don't have to be in a place where you struggle to cover
• 40:20
  those costs only.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, wow.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let me think.
• 40:27
  Okay,
• 40:27
  so you mentioned Sabrina as one of the people who you follow
• 40:31
  and inspire.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Who are the creators that inspire you, that you follow?
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: And let's talk about creators also on Substack that you follow them,
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: you learn from them,
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: and you make sure to read all their emails.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I read a lot about AI lately.
• 40:52
  I really love what Nicholas Ko and Dickie Bush are doing in
• 40:55
  their newsletter.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's one of my sources of inspiration as well.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Which newsletter?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Write for AI?
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: Write for AI, yes.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you pay for that?
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a paid subscription?
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I have to.
• 41:14
  okay the paid membership um i also i also recently not not
• 41:20
  recently i think it was
• 41:21
  last year actually their christmas uh initiative but i also won
• 41:25
  one of their
• 41:26
  giveaways uh for ship 3430 it's a great course actually so they
• 41:33
  uh they gave it to
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: me for free it was a giveaway over the email oh that's nice yeah okay
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: Who else?
• 41:45
  I think the one person who inspired me to even think about
• 41:50
  Substack was Tim Denning.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: And even though he's not so much on AI and automations,
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_02: he's more on the content and virality part and also business and mindset.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_02: I feel that we have a lot of things in common with him.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's the way of thinking, and he really inspires me.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, yes, I'm following Alex Hormozy.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: He's my...
• 42:21
  source of inspiration mostly about mindset because everything
• 42:25
  to be honest
• 42:25
  everything that I learned from him in some way or another it
• 42:30
  was I already knew
• 42:31
  from my job it's because he's teaching business and how to
• 42:35
  build offers and how to
• 42:36
  sell them and how to adapt them for online and and so on and
• 42:40
  it's a big part of it
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: is something that I I was already familiar with
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: I can't hear you.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: Can you hear it?
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I probably I muted myself.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_02: So the way that he talks, it's really inspiring.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: And he's one of the people I also follow.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I also have, I have some people who I follow outside of Substack.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's Mindvalli and Vishen Lakhiani, who is more about mindset also.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_02: self-development.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: He has this Mindvalley app,
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: which is a self-development app,
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_02: but he has a great AI community and he's doing AI.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: What's his name?
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Vishen Lakhiani.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, okay, yeah, yeah.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think I know him.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we have a question here from the audience.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: Where is it?
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: It says, I came to you through Instagram ads.
• 43:46
  How much of your Substack has come through or SS,
• 43:52
  I don't know what's...
• 43:53
  Substack.
• 43:54
  Substack subscribers has come through paid ads on other
• 43:57
  platforms.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really in love with ads, honestly.
• 44:04
  Maybe that's why I also follow Alex Hormozy because he's
• 44:08
  talking a lot about ads as well.
• 44:12
  And paid advertising has been something that I've been testing
• 44:16
  for years already.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_02: Also in my job,
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: I work with paid advertising,
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_02: digital advertising a lot in Google and Facebook and also social media.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I have been testing this in my business.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: Right now, it's very, very limited.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_02: I use it for two reasons,
• 44:30
  to promote my master class and also to promote my lead magnet
• 44:34
  on Substack.
• 44:35
  So I have some subscribers on Substack who are coming from
• 44:39
  Facebook and Instagram
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: ads.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so far,
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_02: I think there are a few hundreds,
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_02: like two,
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_02: three hundreds,
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_02: something like that,
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: overall from my business.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_02: 9,000 or something.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not so much.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm testing with very limited budget right now.
• 44:57
  I'm not very happy with the average cost of subscriber that I
• 45:01
  get from Substack.
• 45:04
  And probably my videos could be better and my creatives on the
• 45:09
  ads could be better,
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: that's for sure.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: But also the user journey,
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_02: the subscription user journey on Substack,
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_02: it's not optimal for paid advertising.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a room for improvement.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: And that's something that I'm going to,
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: once I figure it and come up with something that is working for sure,
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to enable it for my paid subscribers as a workflow,
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: as I know how to grow with paid advertising as well.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: I see.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay,
• 45:38
  so I'm just thinking about what you said in terms of what
• 45:45
  you're planning to do in
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: the future with community.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: What about for growth?
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: How are you planning to grow more?
• 45:57
  I will,
• 45:58
  I think I will explore more and try to leverage more social
• 46:04
  media outside of Substack.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm also thinking about paid advertising,
• 46:10
  but not so much to bring paid traffic to Substack rather than I
• 46:17
  would like to find
• 46:19
  and to build a profitable way to have a paid funnel that
• 46:23
  converts and is profitable
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_02: in itself without any organic support.
• 46:29
  Because a big part of my audience is organic and whenever I
• 46:34
  launch something,
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_02: Sales are good,
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_02: but if I try to isolate,
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: like take separately the effect of the paid advertising right now,
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_02: it's very difficult to do it right now,
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_02: but I have to figure out how to build a funnel so that...
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: I can measure it more accurately and ultimately to make it profitable.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: Right now,
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot measure it,
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_02: but my gut feeling tells me that it's not profitable at the level of the
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: acquisition cost that I have right now.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's varying between $4 and $6 per new subscribers, which is a lot.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like it.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like it.
• 47:16
  all right i know we've we've been talking for almost an hour
• 47:19
  now and it's the
• 47:20
  holidays and you're probably uh gonna go and uh get ready and
• 47:26
  so how how can people
• 47:27
  reach you how can they you know find your stuff where can they
• 47:31
  find you like any
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: last words you would like to say to
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the best way to find me is on my newsletter.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Unplugged by Yana GY.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah,
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_02: even as a free subscriber,
• 47:45
  you're going to get in touch with a big part of this huge thing
• 47:48
  that I have built
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_02: already.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll be happy to connect with you.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_02: You could also write me an email at yana.creativetech.consulting as well,
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_02: or just direct message me on Substack.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this was great.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for your time.
• 48:08
  And thank you for everyone who joined us for another episode of
• 48:11
  theSubstack
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: Writer's Salon.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: And until we meet again, and happy holidays, everyone.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you so much, Yana, for everything.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: Happy holidays.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll see you on Substack.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, see you.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for having me, Natasha.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: It was great.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_01: Take care.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_01: Bye-bye.