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How to Turn Your Substack Into a Real Income Stream · Substack Writers Salon

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  and we are live hi hi everyone to another episode of the
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  Substack writer's salon and
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  i today i have with me a Substack strategist uh her name is
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  carrie lorangel and she
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  helps creators and solopreneurs grow on Substack and turn one
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  newsletter into
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  SPEAKER_00: multiple income streams
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  SPEAKER_00: All right, Kari.
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  SPEAKER_00: So nice to see you here.
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  I'm excited to talk about Substack since you're the expert
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  Substack growth,
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  SPEAKER_00: Substack strategies.
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  SPEAKER_00: All right.
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  SPEAKER_00: So my understanding from your bio,
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  SPEAKER_00: and correct me if I'm wrong,
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  is that you were in the corporate world and then you went into
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  the solopreneurship.
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  SPEAKER_00: Is that correct?
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  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
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  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
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  SPEAKER_01: I had an 18-year career in the corporate world.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what was the spark that made you pivot and go to that,
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  SPEAKER_00: let's say,
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  SPEAKER_00: unconventional route,
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  SPEAKER_00: a path to this path,
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  SPEAKER_00: and a risky path?
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  SPEAKER_00: What made you take that leap of faith?
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  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER_01: So it's a bit of a story, but I had a health scare.
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  And I actually,
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  I traveled,
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  I went on vacation to Morocco and must have eaten some
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  SPEAKER_01: bad food or something,
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  SPEAKER_01: and I got sick,
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  SPEAKER_01: you know,
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  SPEAKER_01: I had like a stomach ailment like you get when you travel.
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  SPEAKER_01: Except by the time I got home, I could hardly walk.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I had something called Guillain-Barre syndrome.
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  I became paralyzed from the waist down,
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  and my hands were not working either.
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  SPEAKER_01: I was in the hospital for a couple of months.
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  SPEAKER_01: I had to learn to walk again.
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  SPEAKER_01: I had to learn to do everything again.
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  SPEAKER_01: And...
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  SPEAKER_01: It just made me take inventory of my life.
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  SPEAKER_01: I reprioritized everything.
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  SPEAKER_01: So I decided,
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  SPEAKER_01: you know,
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  what I really wanted was not necessarily this prestigious title
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  and this big
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  SPEAKER_01: paycheck.
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  SPEAKER_01: I really wanted more time with my kids.
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  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to travel more if I could.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I just wanted more control over my time because I really felt like
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  SPEAKER_01: The job and the work had been getting really stressful for me.
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  SPEAKER_01: Just being...
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  SPEAKER_01: Just working for someone else,
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  SPEAKER_01: being at a desk for 9,
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  SPEAKER_01: 10 hours a day,
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  SPEAKER_01: it was taking its toll on my body.
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  SPEAKER_01: So that's what kind of pushed me over the edge.
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  It did take me a few years after I recovered from that illness
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  to make the decision.
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  But one thing I had in my favor was that I had had side hustles
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  while I was working.
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  And I was able to stash away a lot of money in order to support
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  myself if my side
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  SPEAKER_01: hustle idea didn't,
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  SPEAKER_01: or if my business idea didn't take off.
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  SPEAKER_01: Luckily it did.
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  SPEAKER_01: So that's how I landed where I am today.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_00: So what was your business idea?
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  SPEAKER_01: My business idea was originally to help people.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I still do this today.
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  SPEAKER_01: I have services that I offer to help people with email marketing and
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  SPEAKER_01: And also like local SEO and just visibility.
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  SPEAKER_01: Then I launched that into kind of what I call my passion,
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  which is helping people who maybe were in my situation where
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  they couldn't work
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  SPEAKER_01: anymore or maybe they've been laid off.
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  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to make sure that I could do something to give back.
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  I wanted to help people who needed to get away from a
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  nine-to-five job build
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  something that they could rely on if they couldn't work
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  full-time anymore.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I decided that the easiest way to do that was to start a newsletter.
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  SPEAKER_01: Because just then the newsletter business was taking off.
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  SPEAKER_01: You know, it was really becoming a big thing.
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  And then we have Substack now,
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  you know,
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  that's really helping creators with that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_00: So you have what?
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean, looking at your sub stack, was it like 11,000?
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  SPEAKER_00: No, you have 7,000, almost 8,000 subscribers.
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  How did you manage and how long did it take you to get that
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  many subscribers?
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  SPEAKER_00: And what were the tricks that helped you grow?
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  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
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  SPEAKER_01: So when I first got on Substack, it was December 2024.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I lost two businesses on the meta platforms.
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  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people did at this time.
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  SPEAKER_01: They implemented an automated system.
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  SPEAKER_01: That was detecting, you know, bad accounts.
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  SPEAKER_01: And somehow it detected mine as a not legitimate account.
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  SPEAKER_01: I lost everything.
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  SPEAKER_01: I lost two businesses.
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  SPEAKER_01: I lost Instagram, Facebook, Threads, my ads account.
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  SPEAKER_01: Everything was gone.
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  SPEAKER_01: So I had to start over from scratch.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I chose to start on Substack because...
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  I found out it's great for monetizing and you own your audience
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  on Substack.
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  SPEAKER_01: So I was on there for about three months.
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  SPEAKER_01: I think I went December, January, February, nothing.
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  SPEAKER_01: I had 11 subscribers at the end of those three months.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking, wow, I'm really doing something wrong.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I was frustrated because I had this long career in marketing.
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  SPEAKER_01: I'm a smart person.
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  SPEAKER_01: I should be able to figure this out.
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  SPEAKER_01: So I started just...
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  I started digging into what people were doing who were
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  successful and I just
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  SPEAKER_01: studied everything I could.
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  I spent about a month studying and pivoting and building and
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  came up with a system
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  SPEAKER_01: that worked for me and then I started just growing like crazy.
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  I think within 90 days I had 3,000 subscribers and then within
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  six months I had
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  SPEAKER_01: 5,800 and here I am at
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  SPEAKER_01: almost 8,000 a year later from that first effort.
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  SPEAKER_00: So what was your secret formula, if you can share it with us?
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  SPEAKER_01: I would say it's not intuitive, but it's not secret either.
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  SPEAKER_01: I share it actually on my homepage.
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  SPEAKER_01: I have a whole piece, a long piece on how to use notes.
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  SPEAKER_01: Because when you get on the platform, you don't know.
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  SPEAKER_01: But
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  SPEAKER_01: It involves being visible all the time.
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  SPEAKER_01: Once I figured out that notes is a discovery engine for Substack writers,
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  SPEAKER_01: that's when things kicked into gear.
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  SPEAKER_01: I started posting notes.
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  SPEAKER_01: At first, I was very inconsistent.
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  SPEAKER_01: I did, you know, every other day, every, you know, sometimes twice a day.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I just kept going like that.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I started my chat.
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  Nobody responded in my chat when I first started for a long
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  time,
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  but I didn't care.
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  SPEAKER_01: I just kept posting questions, starting new threads.
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  SPEAKER_01: And pretty soon a few people joined and then it just grew.
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  SPEAKER_01: Same with recommendations and notes.
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  SPEAKER_01: I just, I forged ahead.
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  SPEAKER_01: I didn't take no results as rejection.
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  SPEAKER_01: I just took it as data.
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  Like I was doing something that wasn't working and I needed to
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  try something different.
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  SPEAKER_01: in that moment?
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  SPEAKER_00: So it's your mindset, right?
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  I mean,
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  your mindset is you don't look at it as failure,
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  but that's collecting data.
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  SPEAKER_00: How did you develop this mindset?
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  SPEAKER_00: Were you always like this or this is some sort of?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well,
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  SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty data driven because,
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  SPEAKER_01: you know,
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  SPEAKER_01: I in my marketing career,
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  SPEAKER_01: I was we use data all the time.
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  People think marketing is about,
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  you know,
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  making pretty pictures and things,
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  but it's not.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's about data when you're in a marketing like a director role.
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  SPEAKER_01: So I.
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  SPEAKER_01: You know,
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  SPEAKER_01: and I'm a sensitive person,
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  so I would have taken that type of silence as rejection
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  personally years ago.
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  SPEAKER_01: But I don't know how it happened or when it happened.
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  SPEAKER_01: I just came to realize that
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  SPEAKER_01: Substack gives you so much data for a reason,
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  SPEAKER_01: and it's telling you what's working and what's not working.
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  SPEAKER_01: So you really just need to be looking at your data.
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  SPEAKER_01: So if I had,
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  SPEAKER_01: in the beginning,
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  SPEAKER_01: I published maybe,
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  SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
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  SPEAKER_01: 30 notes,
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  SPEAKER_01: and none of them got anything,
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  SPEAKER_01: not even a like,
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  SPEAKER_01: not even a comment,
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  SPEAKER_01: or maybe an occasional like,
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  SPEAKER_01: but that was it.
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  SPEAKER_01: And then I figured out, well, I should be following people.
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  SPEAKER_01: I should be finding people in my space who I want to work with.
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  SPEAKER_01: And then when I started following them,
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  they started following me or maybe subscribing if they liked
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  what I had put
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  SPEAKER_01: together on my homepage.
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  SPEAKER_01: And it just kind of snowballed from there.
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  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER_00: So you think notes is the number one thing to do to grow on Substack?
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  Because I'm going to play the devil's advocate because that's
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  my job as a journalist.
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  SPEAKER_00: But do you think notes is the main engine for growth?
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  SPEAKER_01: I do.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you why, because I have data.
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  Okay,
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  show me today,
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  tell me,
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  why do you think Naughty is the number one entity?
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  SPEAKER_00: At one point, it was responsible for more about 71% of my growth.
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  SPEAKER_01: Today, it's responsible for about 43% of my growth.
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  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm going to tell you what my experience has been.
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm not like a huge creator on Substack.
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  SPEAKER_00: I have like 5,000, so let's say it's small compared to many others.
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  SPEAKER_00: But what I noticed personally,
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  SPEAKER_00: yeah,
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  SPEAKER_00: notes,
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  SPEAKER_00: I get likes and whatever,
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  SPEAKER_00: and some people follow from notes.
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  SPEAKER_00: But what I realized,
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  SPEAKER_00: at least for me personally,
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  SPEAKER_00: maybe because I'm kind of capitalizing on my strength,
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  SPEAKER_00: is that going live,
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  has been the number one growth engine for me and the reason for
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  that is um whether
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  it's live with other creators or going live on my Substack hours
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  the reason for that
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  is people actually see you on video they feel your energy they
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  realize you're real
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  that your whatever content you produce is not generated by ai
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  and you're like
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  someone who's real,
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  you know,
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  like with an accent,
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  with whatever,
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  you know?
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  SPEAKER_00: And that for me kind of tripled my growth.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so if I ask you, how would you feel about that?
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  SPEAKER_00: And going live versus notes, where do you stand?
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  SPEAKER_01: I will say that lives are my number two.
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  SPEAKER_01: And it absolutely will accelerate more.
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  my growth if i go live on a consistent basis how often do you
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  go live sometimes i
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  used to go twice a week sometimes three times a week and that
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  can be a mix of me
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  interviewing people and then people interviewing me and going
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  office hours which is
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  and i haven't been doing that much because um i have a good
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  problem which is i have
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  SPEAKER_00: a lot of client work
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  SPEAKER_00: So I've been kind of buried in the client work to organize this.
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  SPEAKER_00: But,
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  SPEAKER_00: you know,
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  SPEAKER_00: this month,
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm just like,
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  SPEAKER_00: regardless,
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  I'm going to squeeze it and I'm trying to go back to at least
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  going live three
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  SPEAKER_00: times a week because...
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  especially now with either so many tools that you can just turn
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  notes,
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  you know,
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  forever.
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  SPEAKER_00: You can turn 100 notes a day, right?
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  But,
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  and then maybe you can tell me we have to have different types
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  of notes.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I feel that the personalization of Substack
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  really happens when you go live like when people see me when
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  you see like my messy
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  hair you know my gray roots that i still need to die like all
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  of that stuff is it
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  makes you read right and and people people will follow you
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  because they like you
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  SPEAKER_00: not only because they like your content you have to be also likeable
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  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
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  SPEAKER_00: What would your answer be to this?
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  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely agree that it's super valuable.
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  SPEAKER_01: I love lives because I don't have to edit them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, yeah.
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  SPEAKER_01: Video editing is tough for me.
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  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why, but it just takes a lot of time and
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  SPEAKER_01: And you're doing little micro things and I just don't have patience.
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  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, no, I agree.
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  SPEAKER_01: Lives are powerful.
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  And right now I would say my notes growth has slowed down in
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  the last couple of weeks.
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  SPEAKER_01: So probably I'm going to try something different here very shortly.
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  SPEAKER_01: And maybe it's going live.
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  We have the new Substack recording studio now,
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  which is amazing.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I tested it out on...
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  SPEAKER_01: the weekend with Dharaj Sharma.
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  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you know him, but he's just brilliant.
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  We worked on an automation together to create YouTube
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  thumbnails using N8N and automation.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to be putting out an article about that this week.
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  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I tested it out.
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  SPEAKER_01: It works pretty well.
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  SPEAKER_01: The quality was really good.
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  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I think, you know, that's going to give people opportunities to
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  SPEAKER_01: really just do YouTube-style videos by yourself.
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  SPEAKER_01: You could share your desktop.
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  SPEAKER_01: It worked really well.
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  So I'll be probably testing that out because you don't have to
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  edit the video.
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  SPEAKER_00: So for those who don't know about the Substack Studio,
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  SPEAKER_00: if you can explain that to me,
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  I'm a bit actually confused between the Substack Studio and what
• 14:30
  I'm doing now.
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  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going live on Substack.
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  using my desktop now they added the feature to schedule from
• 14:38
  the desktop because
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  before i couldn't schedule from the desktop and i had to like
• 14:41
  switch between my
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  phone and desktop and it was like um there was a lot of
• 14:46
  friction so can you explain
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  to us what is that the Substack studio and what are the features
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  and what the
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  difference between what i am doing now and i'm not in a studio
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  am i i mean if you
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  SPEAKER_00: can just explain explain this
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  SPEAKER_01: You're in the live streaming studio.
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  SPEAKER_01: So we are streaming live.
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  SPEAKER_01: People can join.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: They can ask questions.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: So we're live live.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, people are seeing us in real time.
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  SPEAKER_01: When you use the recording studio...
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: You record with someone or by yourself.
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  SPEAKER_01: I think you can add up to two other people.
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  SPEAKER_01: So you could do something with three people.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: You record that and then you release it when you want to.
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  SPEAKER_01: And you can also download it and edit it if you'd like.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't like editing.
• 15:38
  But the quality is really good in the recording studio for what
• 15:43
  I've seen.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the studio is basically just to record before going live.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's basically recording and then posting it.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the going live is, we are in the live studio portion of the studio.
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  SPEAKER_01: Right.
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  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER_01: And the cool thing is that you could, I don't know...
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  it's nice because you and i could be doing this in recording
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  studio right now and
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  we could add another person and it's just a nice clean format
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  that you don't have
• 16:17
  to worry about editing and what happens after we record it they
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  would the studio
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  itself would create the shorts and all of that yes it does and
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  it will also do the
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  SPEAKER_01: auto publishing to your podcast to youtube
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  SPEAKER_01: You know,
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  SPEAKER_01: all the things that the live does,
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  SPEAKER_01: but just you can save it as a draft and release it when you're ready.
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  So the live I did with Deeraj,
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  we're going to put an article around that demonstration.
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  We're going to give them the workflow free,
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  you know,
• 16:52
  in the posts that we co-author.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's just a way to collaborate.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: I see.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay,
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: so I want to go back to notes,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I'm going to ask you from all the data that you collected,
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: since you're the data queen,
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  SPEAKER_00: what are the notes that perform well in 2026?
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  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:16
  So some of the note types that perform really well are what I
• 17:21
  call the generosity note.
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  SPEAKER_01: And that's where you help someone else.
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  SPEAKER_01: You probably have seen these notes.
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  SPEAKER_01: They used to be more popular than they are now,
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  SPEAKER_01: but that's where you tell somebody,
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  SPEAKER_01: hey,
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  SPEAKER_01: if you're,
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: and then you say in a certain category.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: So you could do if you're new, if you are
• 17:42
  a mom of three kids,
• 17:44
  whatever it is that you want to say,
• 17:48
  I'm here to support you.
• 17:49
  Drop your publication below and I'll take a look and do what I
• 17:54
  can to support you.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Something like that.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Substack is a very...
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: friendly place in general.
• 18:01
  And helping someone else grow who's just coming on and figuring
• 18:06
  it out will help
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: you grow as well.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: The next type would be what I call a quick win.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: So
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: These are things that somebody can do really fast in a minute or less.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's,
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: hey,
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: turn on the setting,
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: run this prompt,
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: do this thing really fast,
• 18:26
  and they'll get some tremendous value from whatever it is that
• 18:29
  you're asking them
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: to do.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Those work really well.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Sharing stories, very powerful.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Sharing stories will get a ton of comments as well.
• 18:42
  When I talk about my experience being laid off from that
• 18:48
  Fortune 500 company after
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: 10 years of devoted service at a high level,
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: People share their stories about being laid off.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how you start to build relationships.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And those relationships build trust.
• 19:02
  And that's where you find partners to collaborate with,
• 19:07
  to do lives like we did.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: I probably started with a comment on one of your posts or something.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't recall.
• 19:13
  But the relationships on Substack are just unlike any other
• 19:18
  platform.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: I've made more friends here than I've ever made on social media.
• 19:24
  yeah yeah i agree i actually um went last week i was in
• 19:28
  baltimore to help another
• 19:31
  uh creator another fellow ghost writer um set up like work at
• 19:37
  her booth like man
• 19:38
  her booth uh and we only met on Substack so she knew i'm in uh
• 19:44
  close to baltimore
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: and she's like yeah sure i'd love to meet you and love to help so
• 19:48
  spend the whole day in baltimore you know like collaborating
• 19:50
  meeting others and it
• 19:52
  was fun uh and that was really that we met and actually yeah i
• 19:56
  mean i'm gonna go to
• 19:57
  scotland hopefully later this year and i have a short list of
• 20:01
  friends i've made
• 20:01
  over in scotland and i'm gonna go visit you know oh wow this is
• 20:06
  great dr sam
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: illingworth he's over there um
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Derek Hughes.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think he's in Scotland, but he's in the UK.
• 20:17
  But,
• 20:18
  you know,
• 20:19
  when I go,
• 20:19
  I'm for sure going to hit them up and say,
• 20:21
  hey,
• 20:21
  I'm coming your way.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to get together?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so I feel like I respect them so much.
• 20:28
  And,
• 20:29
  you know,
• 20:29
  we have we have this working relationship that I think it would
• 20:34
  be fun.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's nice.
• 20:37
  Okay,
• 20:38
  so do you use tools,
• 20:41
  like third-party tools to schedule notes or to look at
• 20:45
  anything?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: What do you use?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: I use WriteStack.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Do you use WriteStack as well?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm a big fan of WriteStack.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: I actually interviewed the founder here, yeah.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, you know the founder as well, Oral?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I had a live Substack with him here.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: he's a young guy,
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: brilliant guy,
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: always improving the tool based on feedback from his users.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just love it.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's the best tool out there.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Not even a year ago,
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: less than a year ago,
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: about eight months ago,
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: I started testing tools,
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: and his by far was the best.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if things have changed now.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: There could be others out there that are equally as good, but...
• 21:40
  i'm a big fan of right stack yeah me too okay so i want to talk
• 21:48
  about i think the
• 21:49
  title of of this chat was how to make income from Substack so
• 21:53
  let's talk about money
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you how I monetize mine for anyone who's listening.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: So when I first started Substack, I was not in it for making any money.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it's just a nice community and whatever.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then lo and behold, someone became a paid subscriber.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, where did this come from?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: That was like my first experience.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then...
• 22:23
  one page became more than whatever and now i have 11 which i
• 22:26
  know it's a small
• 22:27
  number but it takes time to grow and the other thing is
• 22:32
  consulting coaching so a
• 22:34
  number of my book coaching clients come through Substack um and
• 22:40
  another thing is i
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: sell some of my digital products
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Occasionally,
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: maybe I should spend more time on Substack than I'm spending,
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: but again,
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: it's catch 22 because I have to do my client work as well.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: But so let's hear you and say,
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: especially now in 2026 and the platform is changing rapidly,
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: now you should measure the release of the Substack Studio.
• 23:05
  How can you monetize all the offer that you put on Substack in
• 23:09
  2026?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the second question is a follow-up question.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Can you do this full-time?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with the first one.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I do do it full-time now.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm, you know, I'm making a living.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you can... You make a living from Substack?
• 23:28
  Not entirely from Substack,
• 23:30
  but it's my...
• 23:33
  It's my engine that drives everything else.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: So,
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: like you,
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: I have clients that I work with and help them build portfolio businesses.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: So the only thing I do and teach...
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty single-minded.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of the analytical thinker in me.
• 23:51
  But I am very focused on just helping people secure their
• 23:55
  financial future by
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: building multiple income streams.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: I call it a portfolio of paychecks.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I have done that for myself.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: I help other people do that.
• 24:08
  And I really believe in it with a deep passion because of the
• 24:12
  fact that I was laid
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: off,
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: the fact that I had a health challenge,
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: the fact that I couldn't work anymore.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people are faced with that.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: So that's my big why behind what I do.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: But in terms of the revenue model itself, yes, I have...
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: I revised my paid subscribing tiers this year.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: The founding member is called now the Creator Cashflow Club.
• 24:37
  And this is for real serious creators who want to build these
• 24:41
  multiple income streams.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: I offer a monthly coaching call with that.
• 24:45
  They get access to my Substack 360 course about building the
• 24:50
  business.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that's my founding member tier.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: They love the monthly coaching calls.
• 24:58
  So I've taken some of what I might have offered as a cohort or
• 25:04
  a program or a
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: course and put it into my founding member tier.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I still do offer boot camps and workshops.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: I just finished my digital product in a day workshop.
• 25:17
  where I help people actually build their first digital product
• 25:23
  or their next digital product.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: I sell digital products as well.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: I have a whole store on Gumroad.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: I have some done-with-you services.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: I do a Substack audit,
• 25:39
  and I also have the Substack setup sprint where I help people
• 25:42
  who are new and want
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: to figure this out get set up properly for conversions.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, and then I have a clarity call.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I have my live events, my done with you services.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: I have done for you services for people who need help, just want it done.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: I do that as well.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of the revenue model.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's everything.
• 26:09
  Okay,
• 26:09
  so let's say I come to you,
• 26:10
  and now we're going to do a free live consulting session.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to tell me,
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: okay,
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you,
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm new to Substack,
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've been posting.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: How can I turn this into one of my biggest income streams?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: What would you, and I need like a roadmap, one, two, three, four, four.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the roadmap is very individualized, of course.
• 26:33
  But,
• 26:34
  you know,
• 26:34
  the first thing we're going to look at,
• 26:35
  I would say,
• 26:36
  is your messaging.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Is your messaging clear?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Is it clear what you do?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Some people can, believe me,
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds so easy.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'm clear about what I do.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: I do this, that, and the other thing.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's three things.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's not clear.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's not one thing that you help people achieve.
• 26:57
  So if you want to make money monetizing your knowledge or
• 27:01
  coaching or whatever it
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: is,
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: you need to be very clear on the outcome you help that person achieve.
• 27:07
  And if you're looking for paid subscribers to your newsletter,
• 27:11
  same thing.
• 27:12
  Your newsletter has to be really clear about what people are
• 27:16
  going to get,
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: what's the transformation or the outcome by subscribing.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the foundation.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: We build the foundation first.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then, okay, we build the foundation.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we built the foundation.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then we just look at, you know, it's different.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, it's really hard to say.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's different for everybody.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like I work with a real estate agent.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: She's got a whole business off of Substack.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we're using the newsletter in a different way.
• 27:50
  She's only doing a free version,
• 27:52
  but she's kind of using it across multiple platforms.
• 27:57
  Some of the content as sort of driving business for her real
• 28:02
  estate business.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: You see, so it depends on the model.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: But beyond your messaging, we're going to look at your homepage.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: Is that set up for conversions?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is it well-branded?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: Does it look put together?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Or is it just kind of haphazard and messy?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is it obvious what people,
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: if they like what they see on your homepage,
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: how they can work with you?
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: What's the logical next step?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: Is that clear on your homepage?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're going to look at your pricing tiers as well.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: What are you offering behind the paywall for your pricing tiers?
• 28:39
  And is that something that people are actually telling you
• 28:42
  they're willing to pay
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: for or something you just think they're willing to pay for?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's a big difference.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then beyond that, we would go into the content itself.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: What's your weekly content cadence?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then,
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: there's some very advanced stuff looking at the data and analytics,
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: of course,
• 29:02
  and building out the different revenue streams that are right
• 29:07
  for you in your
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: business.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so where is Substack going in 2026 and beyond?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: there's been a lot of changes I've seen in Substack since just in a year,
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: from lives to just...
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't have a crystal ball,
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: I know,
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: but where from...
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think is that if you want to just predict or foresee,
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: where do you think we're going as a Substack in terms of the growth,
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: in terms of the feature,
• 29:45
  in terms of the overall positioning of the platform compared to
• 29:50
  other platforms?
• 29:51
  Yeah,
• 29:51
  I mean,
• 29:52
  to me,
• 29:53
  Substack is the ultimate creator platform,
• 29:56
  right?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: It has everything.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: It has recommendations.
• 30:00
  It has short form in the form of notes,
• 30:03
  long form newsletter,
• 30:06
  revenue monetization tools.
• 30:10
  Now we're,
• 30:11
  you know,
• 30:11
  we had the live streams,
• 30:12
  like you said,
• 30:12
  that's evolved.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now we have recording studio platforms.
• 30:16
  I think probably the next area we're going to see improving is
• 30:19
  some of the email
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: features on Substack.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: I really feel like that's coming.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: I know they were beta testing some email automations last year.
• 30:29
  I haven't heard anything about that since it's been maybe six
• 30:37
  or more months since
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: they released that.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: They were just testing it with some creators.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I did find out what that looked like.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I think if they introduce some more email tools,
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: that's going to help keep a lot of people working from the platform.
• 30:55
  For example,
• 30:55
  right now,
• 30:57
  my subscribers,
• 30:58
  I've set up an automation to send them over to my CRM.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: And once they get there, then I can add them to an email sequence.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: So Substack just gives you that first welcome email.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: But what happens after that?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sure,
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: you can email them your newsletter,
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: but what if you want to communicate about your other offers?
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's very difficult to do in Substack.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: You can't do it in an automated fashion.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: You have to do one-off emails.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that type of thing will be very useful for creators.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right now,
• 31:33
  I do feel like Substack is trying to build the ultimate creator
• 31:38
  platform tool.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think they might at some point introduce some AI features as well,
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: like for helping you with content.
• 31:45
  I'm not sure about that,
• 31:47
  but I think it wouldn't surprise me if that's coming as well.
• 31:51
  Maybe not this year,
• 31:53
  but it would be something that would be useful to many people.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: What CRM do you use?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: What are the tools that you use?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: My tools?
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: That I use?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I use WriteStack, of course.
• 32:12
  I've recently started using a tool called WhisperFlow that
• 32:16
  helps me actually speak
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: my responses to people in the comments.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: I refuse anything that's one-to-one engagement.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: I will not use AI ever.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't believe in that.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because like you said, you need to show your personality, right?
• 32:33
  And if we're talking about writing and we get some kind of AI
• 32:36
  words in there,
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: people are going to be like,
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: they pick that up.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I like to just speak my responses to people.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then, I'm sorry.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: And your CRM, you said that you said.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, my CRM, yeah.
• 32:52
  I use Go High Level for my landing pages,
• 32:55
  my CRM,
• 32:57
  my email marketing,
• 32:59
  my pipelines,
• 33:00
  all of that.
• 33:02
  also for my revenue generated from digital products some of
• 33:06
  that but not all flows
• 33:07
  into there so I can keep track of everything and I also use
• 33:11
  that obviously for
• 33:12
  selling my off-platform services and you know offers and is
• 33:20
  that where do you sell
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: your courses also on a high level
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, my courses are built in high level right now.
• 33:29
  My next group cohort,
• 33:30
  I'm going to test out a different platform and probably test
• 33:34
  out school.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: It seems a little more user friendly,
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: but like my paid members get access to my creator tool vault.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's all built within Go High Level.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and what do you offer in that vault?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Tons of stuff.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's where all the free videos and masterclasses are.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of how-to information, guides, some of the templates.
• 34:02
  pretty much any kind of tool that they need to build their
• 34:07
  Substack up to a point
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: where they're ready to generate revenue.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then even some,
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 34:12
  templates and email templates and things like that for building
• 34:17
  out the revenue
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: model.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: I see.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: So in terms of making income on Substack,
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: if I want to divide it,
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: I would say paid membership,
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: selling offers,
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: and selling your digital products.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything else I'm missing?
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Done with you.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: Done with you services.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: Which is what?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: An example of that is my Substack setup sprint.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: I work with them.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: I have four sessions.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: We work together and build,
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: set up their everything,
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: their homepage,
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: their paywalls,
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: their emails,
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: about page,
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: welcome page,
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: everything.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: We do that together.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay,
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: and who are the,
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: let's say,
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: the Substack rock stars that inspire you,
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: that you follow religiously,
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: that you collaborate with,
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: that you like to copy and steal from?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I, oh, let's see.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot in my space, but there's also a lot out of my space.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think I mentioned Dr. Sam Illingworth.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think he's brilliant.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: He talks about being careful with AI because it can get you in hot water.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: I totally agree with everything he writes.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: So he's one I've done lives with.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: Derek Hughes, definitely, he and I have done lives.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: We kind of started around the same time at the same subscriber count.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we've been in parallel paths, more or less.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: in our journeys, which is nice.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: I do a lot with Sinem and Yari and that team over there.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: They use my content in their newsletter for the Creator Economy.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I check in on them occasionally.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, my big concern is AI is changing so fast.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: How can solo creators keep up?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because solo creators need to automate things.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you're going to be doing everything and you don't scale.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: So...
• 36:37
  I've been trying to kind of collaborate and work with some,
• 36:41
  like I mentioned,
• 36:42
  Deeraj Sharma.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Charlie Hills is fabulous.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he'll show you how to do things with AI.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: So those are kind of the things that I watch because right now,
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: once you get to a certain point,
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: you have to scale and a certain percentage of your business has to run on
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: autopilot.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: What do you make run on autopilot for you?
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: What are your automations?
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: well,
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: my automations for content,
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: or what I mean by autopilot is that the income is more or less passive.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: So digital products are a great example of that.
• 37:24
  They go on my store,
• 37:25
  I talk about them in my articles,
• 37:27
  and,
• 37:28
  you know,
• 37:29
  I get paid.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: without doing anything else, right?
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: I created it.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: I put it on the digital store.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mentioned it and it gave a link.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't have to spend a lot of time marketing and selling that.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing with affiliate links.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: I would only promote affiliate tools that I use.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: I don't believe in promoting things that I don't use and love.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, those affiliates can start earning money.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: And again, that's...
• 37:57
  Not a lot of energy I have to do beyond just mentioning it and
• 38:01
  talking about it.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: So those are examples of what I'm saying.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: They have to kind of earn money on autopilot for you.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we have a few minutes, and we have around 54 people live.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if anyone wants to ask questions, please feel free.
• 38:17
  Meanwhile,
• 38:18
  I'm going to read some of the comments here just to make this
• 38:21
  chat more interactive.
• 38:23
  There's Lynn Williams who says,
• 38:25
  Carrie's Substack trainings are great.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still a newbie and a WIP.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: What's a WIP?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: Work in progress.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: Work in progress.
• 38:35
  Okay, all right.
• 38:36
  Lynn is one of my,
• 38:39
  you know,
• 38:41
  I have weird,
• 38:42
  I feel like they're friends,
• 38:43
  right?
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: When I help them, but she's a client and I've helped her.
• 38:47
  She runs a nonprofit and she's trying to save her nonprofit
• 38:51
  literally with getting
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: some Substack subscribers.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm kind of helping her with that process.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: And she's an amazing individual.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you haven't followed Lynn, Lynn Williams, she's here on Substack.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Great person.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then we have the strategy signal.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have not thought about going live.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: I can see the benefits, squeezing it where you can.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: The personalization of life stands out greater than not.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: I agree with you, the strategy signal.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: I totally agree too.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: What else?
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: There is a connection.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: I hope I pronounced your name correctly.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Says, maybe merge is going to take place in time.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, merge products.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then I have a question from Kimberly.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jeanette, how do notes really work when you are small?
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: When you're small, how do notes work?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's a question.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: The same way.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think what she means is how do you actually grow your notes?
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_01: Try the generosity note.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's the first thing I would do is try the generosity note.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: Which is if you can remind us what that is.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: Is what?
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you can remind us what the generosity.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: Call out your audience.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: I have one going right now that says,
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: if you're over 40,
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: dot,
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: dot,
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: dot,
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: because people over 40 are particularly vulnerable to layoffs.
• 40:29
  And I want to help them now before that happens to build a
• 40:32
  revenue stream through a
• 40:33
  newsletter that can lead to many other things and secure their
• 40:37
  financial future.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: Call out your audience, Kimberly.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: Kimberly's one of my paid members, I believe.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, okay.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Great, great.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, any final thoughts before we conclude?
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Any, like, thoughts on how you can shine on Substack?
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, authentic.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite places on Substack is my chat.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't talk about that, but...
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: We have a few minutes, if you can tell us.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: I have the same issue with chat and I kind of gave up on it,
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: which is I use chat like nobody responds.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes people respond to you here and there.
• 41:24
  But how do you use chat and why we should not give up on chat
• 41:29
  like what I did?
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great place to start being generous.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: teach them something,
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: share something valuable,
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: help them grow in some way through your,
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: your chat.
• 41:40
  So last week I did something,
• 41:44
  I said,
• 41:44
  Hey,
• 41:44
  let's find other people to recommend.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: Just write a sentence about what your Substack is about.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know,
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: maybe find some other collaborators.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I got 97 comments in that thread.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: They were chatting to each other and talking.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's a generosity thread, right?
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're helping people do more, connect with others in their field.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was, you know, that kind of thing is what you do.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: I also,
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: I ask them what they are working on,
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: what they're struggling with,
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: what they want more of.
• 42:20
  it's like it's like my community it's like my tribe you know
• 42:24
  same people show up um
• 42:26
  plus new people um and it's just really enjoyable to see
• 42:30
  everything unfold in that
• 42:31
  chat it's just like a little community and do you have it open
• 42:35
  for everyone free
• 42:36
  and paid yeah you know i tried doing the paid only and i didn't
• 42:41
  get enough
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_01: paid people dropping in comments to make it really robust.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I want it to be really robust.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_01: So right now I'm just keeping it free.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: How often do you use chat?
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, once a week, twice a week at this moment.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: There was a time when I was doing it five days a week.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: That was a lot because some of these threads live on for days,
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: especially the one that I talked about,
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: the recommend,
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: connect and recommend thread that went on for days.
• 43:14
  So I was just thinking yesterday,
• 43:16
  hey,
• 43:16
  I need to put up a new one for this week.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay,
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: so we have Matt Ray who says,
• 43:23
  was there ever a time when you posted something on chat and
• 43:26
  just got crickets?
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: For months, probably.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: So...
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: When you create the thread, I believe the thread also goes to notes.
• 43:44
  So that's why you need to be following people and they'll
• 43:48
  follow you back.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: You want people to see that thread posted in the notes.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: So you get new people coming in.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: You can also send the chat thread via email.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you, when I do that, I get so many unsubscribes.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's not formatted nicely.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't even look like me.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think they think it's spam, to be honest.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever seen what those look like?
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they look terrible.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: And my subscribers probably go, well, that's not Carrie.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't look like what she publishes.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: They probably think it's a bot or something.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't do that.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: But you certainly can try it.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: I tried it.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I think I also got unsubscribes after I tried it.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: But it's the game of iteration.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we just try and see.
• 44:42
  So because Matt says he's anxious about starting a chat thread
• 44:46
  and getting no responses.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: Just keep going.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: Ask different things.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that one didn't pique people's interest.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: You've learned from that.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's a data point.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: Try something different.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: Try a different angle.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: Try a different approach.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: Generosity always works for me.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what finally worked for me, to be honest.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: Look at other creators in your space, see how they're using their chat.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: That will give you some ideas, right, on what's resonating with people.
• 45:16
  If you see that they have something in their chat that got a
• 45:19
  lot of activity,
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: that's a clue to you.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's great.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: All right,
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: so we've been talking for almost an hour now,
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: and I promised you half an hour,
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: but,
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: you have a lot to say.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: I always do.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, in a good way.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: You can tell I'm very passionate about this.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_01: I really believe everybody needs multiple income streams,
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_01: employed or not,
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: because things change so fast.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: Especially now with people losing their jobs right, left, and center.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: So how can people reach you?
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: How can they subscribe to your newsletter?
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is your plug right here.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: So feel free to tell them how they can do it.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I can put it in the chat.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: The best way is just to go to Thrive with Carrie.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_01: thrive with Carrie dot Substack dot com.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: And
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's where you'll find me.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_01: You can go to my DM and message me.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's my preferred method, honestly.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_01: Paid subscribers get faster responses in my DMs.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: And my founding tier,
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: the Creator Cashflow Club,
• 46:40
  will also get my full attention because I know they're probably
• 46:44
  putting something
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: together,
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: building something,
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: and they need help with it immediately.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: So they're priority.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, that's where you can reach me.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is great.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, well, thank you very much, Carrie, for your time.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you're a very busy woman.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I took a lot of your time.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you for the 61 people that joined us today.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: We enjoyed having you today.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's a big group, actually.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they all came for you, Carrie, not for me.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about that, Natasha.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you have those 61 people here.
• 47:17
  And thank you for joining us for another episode of Substack
• 47:22
  Writer Salon.
• 47:23
  And I'm going to turn this into,
• 47:25
  as well,
• 47:26
  a post that will go into my newsletter.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: I will have the shorts everywhere.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, thank you so much.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking forward to more collaboration.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: And enjoy the rest of the day.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: And until we meet again.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ciao, everybody.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, Natasha.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for everyone.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.