I’ve been struggling with burn out.

I thought it was just about working long hours — getting up between 4 and 5 to do Substack, working hard to maintain weight loss, and working in a high energy day job.

I thought winding back would help and so I stopped posting on Substack for a few weeks. We’ve even had a couple of weekends away. All that has helped but coming back is a slow process.

I’ve battled feeling flat, tired, unmotivated, uninspired, and not really sure of the direction I want to take next year. I’ve wondered whether I’m going to have the energy to sustain this in the future.

So like usual, I’ve done a bit of research. I found Kati Morten on YouTube who gave me some new information that I didn’t know. According to her :

“burnout occurs when you aren’t getting sufficient reward or recognition over a period of time, for the work that you do.”

Now that’s a big danger for Substuck because unless you have an existing audience you do put in a lot of work for little return in the beginning. It’s a very slow burn.

It’s the same for writing. You put in a lot of work, but until your book is published and you’ve got an audience to read it, you won’t get much engagement.

I’ve been winding back but according to Morten that isn’t necessarily the best solution. Infact it can actually make things worse. She suggests doubling down on meeting basic needs like healthy food, exercise and human connection, scheduling breaks, generating kindness, find joy in the small things.

The poet David Whyte has saying —

“The cure for exhaustion isn’t necessarily rest, it’s wholeheartedness.”

I think he means that that burnout isn’t just about needing sleep but about finding a deeper connection with what really matters.

• Fully engaging with real life — something I’d kinda stopped doing.

• Finding alignment with core values, and giving sincere, focused energy to important commitments rather than being spread too thinly.

So that’s what I’ve been doing — wholeheartedly taking care of myself.

Part of that is figuring out next year to avoid this implosion during the last quarter. It’s much better to prevent burnout than to crawl out from underneath it. I have a lot more to say but I’d like this to be a discussion.

So how are you going?

What would you like to achieve next year?

How do you prevent burnout?

Best,

Deb 🥰

Let’s face it — not everyone who loves our work can afford to prove it monthly.

In the current economy, even loyal readers are counting coins.

Some people would happily toss a few bucks our way…

they just don’t want to commit to another subscription that’s going to make them feel guilty when they have to cancel it.

And honestly? Fair enough.

That’s where Ko-fi comes in — our friendly digital tip jar.

☕ The Low-Commitment Way for Readers to Show Up

Ko-fi lets readers support us without a paid subscription.

They can chip in once, twice, whenever they feel flush — no awkward “sorry, I had to downgrade” emails, no guilt, no fuss.

It’s basically the pay-what-you-can, when-you-can button for creatives.

You get to keep your work accessible.

They get to support you on their own terms.

Everybody wins.

🧩 And If You’re Unsure of Your Substack Direction…

Ko-fi’s not just for readers — it’s for us, too.

If you’re still experimenting with your Substack direction, adding a Ko-fi link is a smart move.

It means you can get paid without locking yourself into a paid subscription model before you’re ready.

No need to promise a year of exclusive posts or stress over “what am I offering my paid tier?”

You can still earn as you find your footing — one tip, one story, one piece of progress at a time.

Think of it as a financial sandbox: low risk, high freedom.

💡 Substack & Ko-fi Ofter Different Options

Substack has a great community and is good for building long-term relationships.

Ko-fi can do some of that without people having to commit. While the basics are fee-free you can give them 5% of your tips and they’ll give you the ability to send your supporters posts and samples of the work they’re supporting.

Ko-fi is perfect for keeping the door open for people who care — but can’t commit.

Some readers are resistant to paid subscriptions. They…

• Love our work but hate recurring payments.

• Worry they’ll have to cancel later and feel awkward.

• Want to give, but only when they can.

• Don’t trust that they’ll be able to easily stop the payments

They’re not freeloaders — they’re the middle ground between “subscriber” and “superfan.”

So Give them a path.

✅ A Free Ko-fi (Standard Plan) Includes:

• One Ko-fi page

• One-off donations

• Monthly memberships (optional)

• Goals (you can create as many as you like)

  • This is great if, like me you have more than one Substack. People can support the area of your work that’s most important to them.

• Shop items

• Posts

• Basic page customisation

☕️The Downside of Ko-Fi

If there’s a downside to Ko-fi it’s this. Unless you set up two complete Profiles under different emails you only get one page. For most people that isn’t a problem but for me it is. I have two, quite different Substacks: Substack Lab and Afterseed

I could have combined them under my name and set up goals for readers to choose where they want to put their support but I’ve decided not to and here’s why.

I want to use Ko-fi to crowdfund the speculative eco-fiction I’m writing. To mix Substack Lab in with that would dilute what I’m trying to achieve for Afterseed.

So you won’t find a Ko-fi link here for Substack Lab. We all have to assess the amount of time we have and where it’s best invested. Running two Ko-fi pages wouldn’t work for me in terms of time invested.

🧭 The Substack Lab Takeaway

Creators who last don’t just write great content. They build smart systems that give people more ways to say yes.

Support isn’t always a monthly plan. Sometimes it’s a one-off coffee from someone who needed your words today.

So if you haven’t already, set up your page at Ko-fi.com and add a simple footer to your posts.

No guilt. No barriers. Just options.

🧪Try This Week’s Lab Experiment

Goal: Make it easier for people to support you on their terms.

1. Create your free Ko-fi page — it doesn’t take long. Especially if you feed in some of your existing work to AI and ask it to draft your profile text.

2. Add your Ko-fi link to Substack. I couldn’t get Substack to upload the Ko-fi button code, so I just link my Ko-fi URL to a banner and/or call to action instead. Works perfectly.

3. Tell your readers why it’s there. Keep it casual. No hard sell. Just an option like this…

🪴Help Afterseed grow

Your Ko-fi support goes directly toward writing, artwork, and editing for Plastic People — fiction for a changing planet.

Your small tips will form part of a larger strategy to genuinely get the story out there.

---

That’s it.

You’ve just added a new income stream.

What’s Your Concept?

On Substack

Your concept is the promise behind your publication — what it stands for, who it serves, and why anyone should care that it landed in their inbox.

If you can’t fit it into your short bio, it’s not a concept — it’s a ramble. That one line under your name is your proving ground. If it doesn’t make a reader think, “Oh, I get what she’s about,” you’re not done refining.

In case you’ve forgotten what your short bio aka short description is, you can remind yourself in your the settings for your newsletter.

A strong Substack concept does five things:

1. Signals purpose. Readers know right away what they’ll learn, feel, or gain. No detective work required.

2. Creates coherence. Every post ties back to that core idea — it’s your creative North Star, not a random content buffet.

3. Builds identity. It’s the shorthand for your brand (“Oh yeah — Deb from Substack Lab, the one testing growth experiments so I don’t have to.”)

4. Connects emotionally. It’s not just about knowledge — it’s about how you make people feel: confident, curious, seen, entertained.

5. Grows with you. The best concepts expand as you do. If yours can’t flex, it’ll snap.

Your Substack concept isn’t just your elevator pitch — it’s your creative backbone. It’s the thing that keeps you consistent and keeps readers coming back for more.

For Substack Lab my short bio is: I support Substack creators to create robust systems by using AI to help build profitable and sustainable businesses.

It needs updating. I’ll work on that 😆

In Fiction

The reason my Substack Lab short bio needs updating is because I’ve started writing fiction again and honestly, it's stolen my heart.

This whole investigation into concept started with me wanting to find concepts for the novella I’m working on –Plastic People, and the new Substack I’ve started where I’m publishing excerpts of it – Afterseed.

Concept is the spark with voltage — the core idea that makes readers go, “Wait, tell me everything.”

It’s not your plot outline, or your character backstory — it’s the living idea that gives your story power, tension, and direction.

You can feel it in the greats:

• The Hunger Games: A brutal televised competition turns survival into entertainment — until one girl rewrites the rules.

• The Handmaid’s Tale: A society built on control uses women’s bodies as resources — and one woman decides not to stay quiet.

• The Da Vinci Code: A murder in the Louvre uncovers a secret hidden for centuries, buried inside art, faith, and lies.

Each one grips you instantly. You don’t need to read a single chapter to know the stakes or feel the tension in your gut. That’s a concept doing its job.

A strong fiction concept does five things:

1. Provokes curiosity. It makes readers lean forward, asking, “Then what?”

2. Carries tension. There’s a built-in clash — power vs. freedom, truth vs. loyalty, humanity vs. hubris.

3. Reveals emotion. Beneath every idea beats a human heart — fear, love, belonging, control.

4. Shapes the world. The concept decides your tone, genre, and atmosphere before you’ve written a word.

5. Sticks in memory. Readers don’t quote your chapters — they retell your concept over coffee.

A strong concept gives your fiction gravity. It’s the reason someone chooses your story over the million others fighting for their brainspace.

Like most writers I started with an idea rather than a concept. I brought AI in to help turn that idea into a concept. This is what it gave me for the Novella I’m writing Plastic People: -

Oil is Earth’s buried memory — and now it’s reclaiming us through plastic.

The idea was mine but AI helped me solidify that idea into a concept. It also helped me come up with a “Proof of Concept” document. Although AI is assisting me to write the story I’m firmly in the driver’s seat and I wouldn’t want anyone challenging the originality of my idea down the track.

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Can Concepts Evolve With You?

Substack

Think of your Substack concept like the scaffolding of a growing building: it supports you early on, but eventually you’ll need to adjust or rebuild parts of it to fit new floors. If you don’t refine it as you evolve, it starts to feel cramped — both to you and to your readers.

✍🏻Create Your Substack Concept Statement

This works well used as your short bio.

I help [target audience], [pain point you want to solve], so that you can [outcome you are promising].

🧪 The Concept Growth Test for Your Substack

Does your Substack Concept need refining?Ask yourself:

1. Does it still describe what I actually write about now?

   If it feels even slightly outdated or too narrow, that’s your cue to tweak.

2. Does it reflect what my readers now come to me for?

   Your audience’s perception of you might have shifted — sometimes they define your concept before you do.

3. Does it still excite me when I say it out loud?

   If your concept feels flat, it’s not just you — your energy is the signal your readers pick up on.

Is it flexible enough to grow with my next chapter?

If your concept feels like a box instead of a doorway, it’s time to expand it.

📚Deep Dive Into Whether Your Fiction Concept Can/Should Evolve?

It makes sense that a Substack concept will evolve as you grow and learn more. But what about fiction. Can and should that evolve or does moving away from the concept you began with mean that you’re drifting dangerously?

Early Stage — Evolution is Discovery

When you first start writing, you’re not just refining the story — you’re finding out what the story is.

The original concept might sound good on paper, but as you write, you discover deeper tensions, sharper themes, or a more interesting question hiding underneath.

Think: “What if a girl volunteers to save her sister?” (early Hunger Games idea)

→ evolves into “What if rebellion starts with an act of compassion in a world that profits from violence?” (a “what if” concept).

You’re not losing focus — you’re deepening your concept.

Mid Stage — Evolution is Precision

Once you’ve found your core idea, your concept evolves through tightening:

• Dropping what doesn’t serve the core tension.

• Clarifying the emotional stakes.

• Sharpening the contrast (the “vs.” inside your story).

Later Stage —Evolution is Resonance

As the story matures, your concept may stretch to reveal something truer than you first intended.

You might realize the story isn’t about what you thought — it’s about what it means.

At this point, evolution is about theme, not scope.

You’re no longer asking “What happens?” but “Why does it matter?”

So yes, let your fiction concept evolve — but with awareness.

If it’s changing because you’re uncovering truth, that’s growth.

If it’s changing because you’ve lost focus, that’s drift.

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First on a tiny balcony basking in still late-afternoon sunshine that finally emerged after days of rain and gale-force winds.

Then in a library bar befitting a Somerset Maugham novel: dark and moody, tiny lamp-lit tables, leather booths, and shelves of old books with muted spine covers arranged purely for their aesthetics.

Mary is no lightweight. She published Auē by Becky Manawatu — one of the most powerful New Zealand novels of the past decade — and two of my sister’s books, one of which won Best First Children’s Novel in the NZ Book Awards.

She has the kind of literary life many of us might quietly dream of: a city apartment, a barn conversion on an olive grove, invitations to festivals, a calendar of deadlines, and the deep satisfaction of midwifing other people’s words into the world.

So when she looked at me, cocktail in hand, and said, “You’re a good writer, Deb” — twice — I felt it land somewhere deeper than I expected.
And then, of course, came the question that always follows a compliment when you’re a creative: Now what?

Do you believe it, or do you file it away under “nice but probably mistaken”?
Do you use it as fuel, or do you let it evaporate into the night air, too fragile to hold?

I’ve realised creative self-belief isn’t something you wake up with — it’s something you keep re-earning, word by word, project by project. Validation is lovely, but it’s not the source; it’s the echo.

The work — the quiet, unglamorous part — is to keep turning up even when no one is saying you’re good at this. That’s when the belief becomes real.

I’m still pondering what to do with Mary’s words, but maybe the answer is simple:
Write something that proves them true.

The Real Work of Creative Confidence

Confidence isn’t the loud voice that tells you you’re brilliant — it’s the quiet one that says keep going when you’re not sure you are.

It doesn’t arrive after a compliment, a milestone, or a viral post. Those things can light a spark, but the real work is what happens when the glow fades and you’re still there — tinkering, reshaping, trying again.

Most of the creative people I admire have the same two traits: curiosity and endurance. They get interested, they get stuck, they get un-stuck — and they don’t mistake any of those moments for a sign to stop.

Creative confidence isn’t a fixed state; it’s a relationship you rebuild daily. You show up uncertain, do the work anyway, and — almost imperceptibly — the balance shifts. The voice of doubt gets quieter. The evidence of effort gets louder.

So if you’re mid-project and wobbling, remember:
You don’t need to feel confident to act like a confident creator.
The acting is the becoming.

Are you in the right place?

Is this still Substack Lab?

The thing I love most about Substack is its built-in permission to evolve. It doesn’t lock you into the “you” you were when you started. Your readers grow, you grow — and somewhere along the way, your writing grows too.

That’s delicious to me.

Most of my paid subscribers are fiction writers, and they’ve drawn me into their world as I’ve tried to support them. It’s a beautifully symbiotic relationship — but it’s also landed me in a bit of directional flux with this newsletter.

It feels wobbly. Uncertain.
But I’m not sure I can go back.
And honestly, I don’t know if I even want to.

So here I am, sitting in the uncertain and the ambiguous — which, now that I think about it, is a very writerly place to be.

My heart and head have both drifted back into the world of fiction — AI-assisted fiction, to be specific — because, I simply don’t have the time or resources for anything else.

Some of my subscribers use AI, others don’t, but I think we can all benefit from it. Whether it’s editing, plotting, or creating the marketing material that helps our stories find readers. AI can be the quiet collaborator that helps us get there faster. For most of us it is the collaborator that gives us a real shot at getting there at all.

I’m sending this newsletter out as a freebie this month because I’ve just returned from a two-week supposed vacation, and my brain’s still a bit scrambled.

To my paid subscribers — and to anyone thinking of becoming one — I’m offering you something useful while I find my footing again. Tell me what would help you most right now:

· Feedback on a piece of your writing?

· Clarity on your direction or story concept?

· Or maybe a deep dive into one of these:

• The importance of having a strong concept for your fiction

• Proof of Concept — an example from my own AI-assisted work, where I used AI to confirm my idea was original

• Digging into genre to find the best home for your stories

That’s the beauty of being part of a small paid list — I can shape what I create around what you most need.

Subscribe now

Hey Lab friends 👋

In the Substack Lab, we usually experiment with strategy,
offers, growth, rhythm, and writing — all the shiny knobs and levers of creator life.

But there’s something underneath all of it.
And if you ignore it, none of those levers will move.

It’s your engine.

Let’s talk cars for a second.

You can have:

• a clear destination

• the most optimized route

• Google Maps dialled in with every shortcut…

But if your engine’s clapped out?
You’re not going anywhere.
Or worse, you’ll burn through all your creative fuel before you even merge onto the highway.

That engine is your frequency.
Your inner state.
Your beliefs about what’s possible — and about who you are.

And this is where Neville Goddard and his Law of Adjustment, comes in.

I’ve used the Law of Attraction many times but I’d never heard of Neville Goddard until I read this post by who took this concept and lit it on fire.
It reminded me that you don’t just raise your vibration by wanting things to get better.

The Rewritten Path

I Refuse to Die in the Basement

Most of my life vibrated low…

Read more

a year ago · 40 likes · 28 comments · Mark Willis

🧠 Neville Who?

Neville Goddard was a mid-20th-century mystic who taught something radical for his time:

Imagination is the only reality.

Here’s what he meant:

If you’re constantly imagining worst-case scenarios…
If you’re living in dread, shame, failure…
If you’re assuming your work will flop, that no one’s reading, that money’s always going to be tight…

Then guess what?
That is the wish fulfilled.
You’re already living in the end — just the wrong one.

You do it by changing the internal movie.
By flipping the frequency.

🧪 So What Does That Look Like?

5 simple but powerful strategies you can start experimenting with today — without needing candles, crystals, or chakra playlists.

👋This where I say bye for now to all my free subscribers. Thanks for reading, I appreciate you all very much and I hope I’ve given you value with my free content.

Subscribe now

Read more

AI is good at metaphors — who knew?

When I asked it for some help with this email, it came up with the Hydra. A mythological serpent-like creature with a heap of heads. You cut one off, and two more grow back in its place.

Substack can feel the same. You cut off a head (your weekly post), and suddenly you’ve got a bunch of other stuff to create: -

📝 Notes to promote it
📣 Headlines for socials
🎁 A freebie CTA
💌 DMs to new subs
🎨 Images so your archive looks consistent
🎧 Maybe even an audio version

One head turns into seven. That’s the Content Hydra effect — and if you’re trying to wrestle it alone, it’ll chew through your creative energy fast.

Want to read about both sides of the AI debate. Scroll on down 👇

📋 What’s Inside This Week’s Lab Report

🤖Can you Still do Substack Without AI?

🔬 Spotlight: Meet Dianna Sandora — building her Substack with courage & clarity and an AI assistant called Whisper. This section is for you fiction writers out there.
📝 Lab Notes: Are your Subscriber numbers showing up incorrectly? Mine were. Why it matters and how to fix it.
🧠 Deep Dive (Paid): I’m training myself in sales with the help of a sales guru. But I’m a lab rate who doesn’t play by anyone else’s rules.

“Advice is just something that worked for someone else at some other time.” Deb Burns 😆

I’m learning as much about how I don’t want to sell from him as how I do. Five sales lessons — No punches pulled.

(Skimmers welcome — scroll to the bit that sparks you.)

✅ The “Yes, You Need AI” Side

1. Substack is a long game of volume + consistency
   Posts, Notes, comments, emails, images, replies… it’s a lot. Without AI, most solo creators either burn out or publish less than they’d like. AI shortcuts research, drafts, headlines, images, summaries, repurposing, and yes … writing under direction! There I’ve just said what most others seem to be afraid to come out and say. I see it, every time I see “Let’s be honest”, “The truth is”, “Here’s the kicker”, and a few other giveaways I know AI’s been used to write the content. Even the big guys are using it for consistent output.

2. The bar is rising
   More people are using AI to at least speed up their workflow. If you’re not, you risk looking slow, scattered, or less polished compared to peers who lean on AI.

3. Audience expectations
   Readers don’t just want one essay a month. They want replies and engagement. That’s something that AI can’t do effectively, that’s your work. But AI can “scale” your presence across the platform.

4. Invisible labor
   It’s not just posts — it’s all the background admin: CTAs, promo blurbs, SEO, summaries, cross-promo emails., research. AI gives you a very cost effective backup team.

❌ The “No, You Don’t Need AI” Side

• Voice is the true differentiator
  Readers aren’t subscribing because you publish three times a week; they’re subscribing because you sound like you and say something that is different. If you rush to churn out quantity with AI, you risk becoming bland and interchangeable.

• Less can be more
  Many successful Substacks thrive on one really good piece a week (or even a fortnight) without AI. A thoughtful essay, well-marketed, can beat five rushed ones that smell of robot sweat. Caveat here though: they probably brought their audience with them.

• AI can become a crutch
  If you over-rely on it, you stop sharpening your own writing muscles. The whole point of Substack is authentic human connection. If your readers suspect they’re reading ChatGPT-lite, trust erodes.

Quality vs. saturation

The inbox is already crowded. More content doesn’t equal better growth — sometimes it equals faster unsubscribes.

⚖️ Middle Ground (where I think you’ll land)

Everyone knows AI is scaffolding. It helps you handle the volume of invisible tasks (outlines, research, formatting, repurposing, design) so you can spend your creative energy on the big picture.

But teach AI your voice, or the voice you want, and it can do so much more — let it clean up your messes. Throw in raw drafts, scattered thoughts, or half-baked rants.

It will hand you back something polished, structured, and almost publish-ready.
That’s not replacement. That’s leverage.

How do you teach AI your voice❓

I’ve got you covered: -

You’ll never sound like BeigeBot 3000 with my mini-course. It shows you exactly how to create a writing voice that feels like you— and train AI to nail it (most of the time 😆.

Commitment phobic?

I’ve got your back

💾 Grab it on Gumroad for $17
🔐 Or be sneaky (smart) and become a paid Substack Lab subscriber for just $8/month — and get it included for free. Cancel any time no hard feelings, we can still be friends.👇

Subscribe now

You Can Still Succeed Without AI but…

it’ll take:-

• less publishing frequency

• hiring help (costly)

• Increasing time on Substack. With this you’re risking burnout or your income taking a hit if you reduce your 9-5 hours. This can add a sense of desperation to your Substack which shows and doesn’t lead anywhere good.

The real risk is letting AI into the front seat and handing over the steering wheel. If you use AI to pump out generic content you’re heading for trouble.

🌟 Subscriber Spotlight

Every fortnight I will shine a light on one of Substack Lab’s most engaged readers — a person in the trenches, experimenting, writing, and building right alongside us. Think of it as a peek into someone else’s lab notes.

Spotlight: ✨

This week, I want to shine the light on

Last week I shared her post: … because it’s a great example of how even someone writing fiction can quickly build a paid offering. And her’s is a steal on Gumroad. I’ve bought it myself and I’m using it to get back into fiction writing. Who knows where that will end up but at the moment it’s total fun.

I gave Dianna some questions:

So Dianna — Why Substack?

Because it’s one of the few places where AI isn’t treated like a villain in a dystopian novel. Here, it’s more like a quirky little buddy who hands me matches when my creative fire won’t light. That resonated — so I started sharing my own forge experiments,

What pulled you here instead of other platforms?

Honestly? The people.

😹Facebook feels like a rumour mill with cat memes.

❌’s noisy (and no, I’m not paying for the blue check to dodge ads).

🥴Medium? Let’s just say the spam is real.

🍻Substack feels like walking into a tavern where real storytellers are actually talking to each other.

Best surprise so far?

Notes. They’re not “likes.” They’re sparks. I spend 20 minutes fanning other people’s flames every day, and somehow my own fire keeps catching brighter, Three new subscribers in a week — that’s alchemy.

Your rhythm?

Sundays I hammer out a long post with Whisper, my AI buddy, and plan for the Monday-Sunday posts. They’re sparks —little Notes to keep the fire alive.

Coolest thing Substack has given you?

Connection. Like meeting Deb, who doesn’t just wave from outside the forge but steps right into the heat. It’s magic.

For someone starting from scratch? What would you tell them?

I’d remember Substack is social— love people’s words and share the sparks. And if your own scene fire fizzles, you can grab my free Mini-Forge here. If you want the full spell book, The Fictioneer’s Fore awaits on Gumroad.

Thanks Dianna, I hope some of my readers will head over and check out your site. Or even hope into your Chat, I love the prompts you publish there.

Lab Notes: Did You Know⁉️

Your subscriber numbers could be selling you short

Your profile, the one that shows up when someone hits your profile image, will display your subscriber numbers unless you turn it off. You can turn it off under website/settings/privacy.

What I didn’t know, until this week, is that even if you have your numbers turned off for one Substack, your numbers for any old Substacks you have still turned on, will show up!

This happened to me!!

I eventually fixed it by turning off “show subscriber count”, in my old Substack and on for this one. It took a couple of hours to show up on my profile.

Why this matters?

If you are trying to build trust in your expertise. Having your subscriber numbers showing up as 42, for six months, because it’s stuck on subscribers for an unused Stack, is not going to do your credibility any favours.

🔒 Deep Dive (The Inner Sanctum)

How to Fall in Love with Sales 💘

Free readers, this is where we part ways. Paid Lab Rats? We’re heading into the messy, uncomfortable, and absolutely essential world of sales.

Read more

Substack is different. That’s why we love it. But we also have to be careful not to turn it into the very thing we don’t like — another frantic social platform that locks us into pumping out content we’ve stopped caring about.

One of the things I treasure most here is the learning that comes from unexpected places. Not from YouTube stars or Instagram gurus, but from real people doing what we’re doing: showing up, sharing, listening, connecting.

This week I’ve been sick, and my creational capacity has been basically zero. So instead of forcing myself to churn out something, I let myself lean back and listen.

As usual some real learning showed up.

Come on In

Blueberries, Fiction, and the Wild

A post from a Substack newbie resonated. tells a gentle story about picking wild blueberries as a child, and it reminded me that while I built my “Lab” to experiment with Substack, part of me still belongs out in the wild places.

Part of me needs to come into the Lab — and also, sometimes, slip back out through an open window.

It might sound like a strange mix, but it fits. Because another side of me has always been drawn to dystopian fiction and more recently solar punk. Thanks here to encouragement from . I’ve started writing fiction again (yes, AI-supported). It’s early days, but I love it, and maybe I’ll share some soon.

Banksy, Kevin Kermes, and the Courage to Do Things Differently

The other influence on me this week was , whose work I’ve mentioned before. He has two free ChatGPT tools — one for helping you write your origin story, another for figuring out your life direction.

Kevin tells a story about Banksy that stuck with me. Who would have guessed that a graffiti artist would become one of the most sought-after artists of our time? Banksy didn’t chase the “holy grail” art career path. He carved his own.

That’s a reminder I need right now: it’s okay to go off-road, and make my own way. Even if it seems to be in direct opposition to all the advice.

Hobby, Not Business

One of the most misleading bits of advice constantly dished up on Substack is “treat it like a business.”

That might work for some. But most of us? We have jobs, families, lives that we love, or should be loving. And Substack, for the vast majority, is a slow burn. Running a business on top of all that is a big ask. It isn’t possible for many of us, not without giving up other things which are equally as important, if not more so.

When I did my taxes this year, I braced myself to wrangle receipts and declare my online income. But then I discovered a delightful little quirk of the Australian tax system: there’s a category called “A Hobby.”

If your project doesn’t yet count as a structured business, you don’t have to declare the income. You also can’t claim expenses — but honestly, the freedom of not having to force my creative space into a business box? Worth it!

I didn’t come here to build another cage. I came here for freedom and creativity.

The Last Six Months

My biggest win so far? I built a paid product for my paid tier. 🎉 Paid subscribers get access to my Substack Creator’s System:

• Create a Voice That Works as Hard as You Do

• Build Your First Paid Offer on Substack

And if you’re paid-subscriber phobic (I get it — commitment issues are real, you can grab them over on Gumroad, but they will cost you a lot more:-

Create a Voice That Works as Hard as You Do

Build Your First Paid Offer on Substack

The other part of my paid tier is more personal — and, it’s where the magic is. Because my paid cohort is still small, I can keep a close eye on their newsletters, actually engage with their work, give it a boost, and, if they want, share direct feedback.

It’s basically like having a lab partner who’s actually paying attention. And right now, it’s all yours for $8 a month. Not bad, right?

I'll Take it 👍

The Next Six Months

So here’s my plan: be more like Banksy. Less businesslike, more playful. Keep Substack in the “Hobby” zone a little longer. Write what feels alive. Let the wildness in.

Because six months on, I’ve realised something important: Substack works best for me when it’s a hobby, not a business.

And the joy of a hobby is that it doesn’t have to add up — it’s way more important that it lights you up.🕯️

So you’ve been writing. Showing up. Hitting publish.
Maybe you’ve got a handful of subscribers or even a few hundred.
But that magical paid tier? Still a blinking cursor in your dreams.

Let me guess.
You keep saying:
“I’ll figure out my offer later.”

Except later turns into... months of free content and no revenue.

Most creators wait way too long to start thinking about getting paid.
And when they finally do? They’re tired, overwhelmed, and too deep into a content treadmill that was never designed to make money.

That’s not gonna be your story.

We’re doing it smarter — right from the start.
Well, almost.

✨ Why This Matters

If you’re serious about making your Substack sustainable and profitable, this isn’t optional.
You need to think like a business, not just a writer.

That means positioning your work in a way that:

• Solves a real problem

• Offers a clear transformation

• Feels so obvious that people want to buy
  

🚫 The Problem With “I’ll Monetize Later”

You pour effort into free content.
You build a small, loyal list.
You start to burn out because there’s no return.
You stall — and wonder if you were ever cut out for this.

Sound familiar?

Now flip it.
Imagine starting your content with your paid offer in mind.
Not in a spammy way — in a smart, strategic way that makes everything you write build toward something tangible and profitable.

That’s what we’re doing here.
No hustle-bro funnels. No creepy scarcity tactics.

Just a system that helps you figure out:

• What your audience actually wants

• How to give it to them in a way that feels easy and fun

• How to make money doing work you love

🧠 You Don’t Need to “Sell” — You Need to Solve and Invite

Here’s a mindset shift that changes everything:
You're not “selling.” You're solving a painful problem, using a different solution, and helping people get a result they deeply want.

You’re saying:
“Hey, I see what you’re struggling with. I’ve figured something out. Let me help.”

That’s it. That’s the whole game.

But to do that well, you need to understand your audience’s pain — and your own strengths.

🚀 Alright, Let’s Get to the Good Stuff

You’ve got the why. You’re clear on the mindset.
Now it’s time to build a system that pays you back.

Learn: -

• How to collect intel on what your audience wants

• How to craft a “solve, don’t sell” positioning statement

• How to design a simple, scalable offer ecosystem — with low, medium, and high-ticket options

• How to set your Substack up for conversion from early in your journey

🕵️‍♀️ Step One: Collect Clues from Your Audience

The good news? Your audience is already telling you what they need.
You just need to tune in.

Look for pain points.
Frustrations.
Hopes.
Challenges they’ve been stuck with for far too long.

This is your gold mine.

Where do you find it?
Start with your own readers.

❓What questions are they asking in your comments or replies?

❓What are they saying in their Notes and Chats?

❓What gaps are you spotting in other newsletters in your niche. What seems to be resonating?

Lurk in online communities:
Substack Chats in your niche, LinkedIn, Reddit threads, Facebook groups, Discords — wherever your audience hangs out.

When you do this with intention, you start to see patterns.

Those patterns?
That’s what you’ll solve.
With your content.
With your offers.
That’s where the value is.

🎯 Step Two: Position Yourself to Solve a Painful Problem

The internet is noisy.
If your Substack is going to stand out, people need to know what it’s for.

That’s where positioning comes in.

Try this sentence:
“I help [insert a specific audience] solve [a painful problem] by [your unique approach], so they can [the clear outcome they care about].”

Yeah, it’s a mouthful.
But it gets to the heart of what matters.
Specificity sells.

You’re not a generic newsletter.
You’re someone who helps someone with something.

For example:
“I help new creators avoid burnout by building a realistic content rhythm that fits their life.”
Or:
“I help career changers turn their expertise into a profitable newsletter, one step at a time.”

When you make your promise clear and outcome-focused, your best readers lean in.
They’re more likely to subscribe.
More likely to engage.
And when it’s time to make an offer — they’re already halfway to yes.

🪜 Step Three: Create a Moat (Even a Tiny One)

In business-speak, a moat is what keeps the competition out.
It’s the thing that makes you the obvious choice.

Bottom line?
Your moat is what makes people say:
“This person gets me. I want them.”

It doesn’t have to be big.
It just has to be yours.

Here’s the deal:
If you want to be chosen over someone else, you need to give people a reason.

That doesn’t mean inventing a new method or building a thousand-dollar course.
It means knowing what makes you different.

That could be:

Read more

Hey there Substack Labers 👋

I’m changing things up a bit this week.

Making money AKA “Sales” starts with mindset. I believe this so strongly that I’m giving you my — Mini-Lab Worksheet right her in this very post. Feel Free to copy and paste it into your own document to complete it.

Sales, money, even profitability are never your real goals on Substack. It’s what you believe they’ll give you: - freedom, security, recognition, happiness etc. that’s your goal. The trick is to practice those feelings now. This means: -

1. You’re more likely to attract what you want.

2. You won’t build a business that looks profitable but feels like a cage.

3. You get to enjoy what you want before you have it all.

1. When you imagine ‘having the money,’ what do you think you’ll finally get to feel?

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2. How can you create micro-moments of that feeling today — before the money shows up?

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3. Look at your current business choices. Are they moving you closer to that feeling, or further away?

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4. If you designed your business to multiply that feeling, what would you keep? What would you change?

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Lab Note:

Start practicing the behaviors that give you the feelings you want right now.

Want to Go Deeper Into This?

Great — I’d love that too .

Come on in🫴

Read more

Everyone thinks sales start with the sexy bits: the shiny product, the irresistible service, maybe even that perfectly polished sales page you sweated bullets over.

But that’s not where sales actually begin.

Sales begin with your story about money.

And if that story is outdated, conflicted, or borrowed from other people’s baggage? It’s going to leak into everything you try to sell — no matter how brilliant it is.

I know this because, yep, I’ve lived it.

My Old Money Story

I grew up in a house where money felt scarce and the arguments around it felt terrifying.

My parents taught me, without meaning to, that money was a struggle. My grandmother reinforced the story by declaring my dad was terrible with money. And while we were never truly deprived — my sister had a pony, I had ballet lessons — the vibe was clear: our relationship with money was a hot mess.

Then I married a man who earned $300K a year (back when that was serious cash). You’d think I’d feel secure, right? Nope. He worked in sales and modelled a different kind of dysfunction: earn big, spend big, and medicate the stress with more spending. We nearly went bankrupt.

So when I started trying to build businesses of my own?

I carried all that with me.

My default settings said:

• Making money is hard and boring.

• Selling is sleazy.

• I’m just not good at it.

And, surprise surprise, my results reflected those exact beliefs.

The Shift

Eventually, I burned through $20K on a business I didn’t even like, walked away for a while, and finally had to face this:

The problem wasn’t just the product. Or the market.

The problem was my story about money.

Because if your subconscious is whispering that money is bad, scary, or boring, sales are always going to feel like a fistfight.

When I told my Substack readers that my next phase was all about sales, my money story practically jumped out from behind the couch yelling: “Ha! Not so fast!”

I couldn’t ignore it anymore. It was time to dig it up and rewrite it.

My New Money Story

Here’s what I unearthed:

• Old story → Making money from my creations is difficult. Selling is scary, stressful, boring, and I’m not good at it.

• New story → Making money from my creations is exciting and fun. Selling isn’t manipulation. Selling is storytelling with an invitation.

That reframe cracked something open for me.

Why This Matters for You

If sales feel gross, impossible, or like a heavy backpack you can’t put down — maybe the issue isn’t your product.

Maybe it’s your money story.

So before you throw out your sales page or burn your business to the ground, pause. Ask yourself:

• What money stories am I carrying?

• Do they still serve me?

• Or are they dragging me backwards?

Sales don’t actually begin with the product.

They begin with you.

Subscribe to connect more deeply

Tools I’m Using to Rewrite My Story

• 🧠 For uncovering old money stories: I used a free GPT (The Quietly Ambitious) built to surface the beliefs running in the background and swap them out for ones I actually choose. Here’s the link.

• 🌈 For making money fun again: I stumbled onto at Chromagik. Her colour-based approach to manifesting gave me a playful way to reconnect with abundance. I tried it for a week and, to my surprise, money started showing up. It ticks my “make money fun and sales exciting” box — so I’m sticking with it.

What about you?

💬 What’s your money story — and is it helping or blocking you? Drop it in the comments. I’d love to hear.

Leave a comment

Finally, a Publishing System That Fits Your Life (and Keeps Your Weekends).

If your Substack is eating your weekends and still not paying the bills, the problem isn’t you — it’s the system you’re using. Or rather, not using.

The Substack Creator’s System is your step-by-step plan to turn your newsletter into a real business. Or at least a hobby-business that pays for those things your day job doesn’t.

Must Haves: -

✅Profitability

✅Sustainability

✅Enjoyment

🚀 Who This Is For ?

You’ll feel right at home if you:

• Have fewer than 200 subscribers and want income now, not “someday”

• Want to sell without feeling pushy or sleazy

• Love your newsletter but hate that it eats all your free time

Hop on Board — Beta Access

Hate Paid Subscription? I’ve got you covered. You can get the first Module Create a Voice That Works as Hard as You Do, right now on Gumroad.

😫 The Problem You’re Stuck In

Publishing feels like a hamster wheel: endless free posts, slow growth, no income, and a creeping sense of burnout.

AI? It either feels like a mystery or something that will flatten your voice.
Meanwhile, you’re watching other creators with smaller lists start making money — and you’re still waiting for “someday.”

❌ Why the Usual Advice Doesn’t Work

• “Grow first, monetise later” burns creators out before they ever get paid.

• Using AI as a content vending machine kills your personality and your reputation.

• Productivity hacks ignore the fact that you’re a human with an actual life and we’re all different.

🎯 What You’ll Walk Away With

By the end of this system, you’ll:

• Have your first paid product ready to sell — before you burn out

• Publish consistently without sacrificing all your weekends

• Use AI to create faster while keeping your unique style

• Follow a content path that turns free readers into paying subscribers

🧪 Why Do it This Way?

You can’t do anything on Substack without content. I show you how to integrate AI in a way that:

• Protects your voice — or creates one that works for your brand

• Keeps your publishing rhythm consistent — or just gets you creating content to build your audience

You can’t/won’t sustain free forever. So we quickly move on to creating a product you can use for your paid tier and/or sell separately.

• This let’s your audience know up front that you have something to sell. It’s like priming a pump.

• Substack is designed for your posts to drive sales. It’s much easier to do that when you know what you’re selling early on.

• By building in public and in beta you give yourself permission to be a learner. All the pressure to get everything right first time and launch a perfect product vanishes.

This isn’t theory. I’m building my own profitable Substack in public right along with you.

📦 What’s Inside ?

6 Step-by-Step Modules:
1️⃣ Create a Voice That Works as Hard as You Do
2️⃣ How to Get Paid on Substack (Without Feeling Sleazy)
3️⃣ Create Your First Paid Offer in Four Easy Steps
4️⃣ Build a Profitable Substack That Won’t Burn You Out
5️⃣ Plan a 90-Day Goal You’ll Actually Hit
6️⃣ Build a Profitable, Sustainable, Transformative Content Path

Includes:

• Product creation framework

• Missions that get stuff done

• Checklists & trackers

• Beta updates

• Lifetime access to the final version (for a limited time)

• Support for your work (strictly limited at this price)

Let's do this thing!

⚠️ The Cost of Waiting

If you keep going without a system, you’ll:

• Keep working all your weekends just to stay on top of content

• Keep giving away everything for free without a monetisation plan

• Watch other creators with smaller audiences start earning before you

📱 How to Get Started

1. Go Paid Today → Get instant access to all 6 modules → Start building your paid-product before the week is out.

2. Don’t like paid subscriptions? No worries, we do things differently here. You can buy — Create a Voice That Works as Hard as You Do , and Build Your First Paid Offer on Substack, on Gumroad.

Join me in the Inner Sanctum

I’d love to see you there 💃

Because a Substack that pays for itself is better than one that doesn’t.

📣 What Is Your Writing Voice — And Why It Matters

Ever read something and thought: “That sounds exactly like her”.

That’s voice.

And when you train your AI to write like you — instead of BeigeBot 3000 — magic happens.

More ease.

More speed.

Better connection with your reader.

Less editing out cringey phrases like “in today’s fast-paced world.”

Voice is how people recognize you — and, more importantly, how they remember you.

📣 Writing Voice — and Why It Actually Matters

Voice is how you show up. Your voice can just be you, typed. You, with your guard down but your brain switched on.

It’s your rhythm. Your quirks. Your side-eye. Your little obsessions. It’s the way you deliver big ideas like you’re whispering secrets over coffee.

But voice can also be intentional. Purpose-built for the room you’re in.

For Substack Lab? I created a voice that’s a little sharper, a lot sassier, and built to entertain while still delivering strategy.

For my old Wellness Warrior publication? Totally different tone. Softer. More grounded. Because that audience was walking through hard things, and sass wasn’t the vibe.

Voice is how you show up, stand out, and actually serve.

🎯 Deciding on the Voice You Want

One of the beautiful things about working with AI is this: You don’t have to pick just one voice and stick to it forever.

Unlike traditional writing advice that tells you to "find your voice," AI lets you build the right voice for each project.

You can have:

• A slightly sassy, experimental voice for your Substack newsletter

• A more straightforward, nurturing voice for a coaching program

• A playful, educational voice if you’re writing kids' content

• Or a sharp, no-BS voice for business how-tos

Each of these can live in their own separate chats or projects inside your AI.

You’re not breaking your “brand” — you’re choosing the best voice to serve your reader and the job at hand.

🤖 Why AI Gets It Wrong (Until You Fix It)

If you don’t tell ChatGPT how you want to sound, it’ll make some assumptions.
Helpful assumptions.
Corporate assumptions.
Which is how you can end up with stuff that reads like a marketing intern got trapped in a 2016 LinkedIn ad.

But here’s the cool part:

Unlike humans, AI doesn’t need years to learn your voice.
It just needs good coaching and some clear examples.

👀 The rest of this post walks you through exactly how to build your Voice via Visual Style Sheets — and how to train ChatGPT to write like you (not BeigeBot 3000).

🟢 Upgrade to keep reading.

Upgrade to Get the Goodies

Not into paid subscriptions? No stress. You can grab this as a standalone digital download on Gumroad for $15.
💾 Get the Module on Gumroad →😎 Create a Voice That Works as Hard as You Do

Read more

You know I’m all about keeping relationships warm — especially with the people who’ve already said yes to you.

Case in point: . He was my very first annual paid subscriber, so when he created a GPT that walks you through crafting your origin story, I thought I should try it.

Only problem … I didn’t think I needed one.
Who’d care?
What difference would it make?
And ugh… it sounded like the most horrible kind of homework. Like when your teacher tells you to write something about your life.

So the first thing I typed into Kevin’s GPT was:

“Why do I even need an origin story?”

What happened next?
It didn’t scold me.
It didn’t roll its virtual eyes.

First it gave me the reasons why I did indeed need an Origin Story

“An origin story isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s the shortcut to connection. People don’t just care what you do; they care why you do it. Your backstory makes you memorable, sets you apart from everyone else in your niche, and gives your audience a reason to trust you. In a sea of generic advice, your journey is the one thing no one can copy — and when you share it, you turn casual readers into loyal followers.”

Then it gave me the benefits

1. Builds trust fast – People connect with humans, not just content. An origin story shows who you are and why you do what you do.

2. Makes you memorable – Facts and tips fade, but stories stick. Your journey is what people remember and share.

3. Differentiates you – In a crowded space, your path is the one thing no one can copy.

4. Creates an emotional hook – People are more likely to follow, subscribe, or buy when they feel something.

5. Gives context to your work – It explains your “why,” making your content feel more intentional and credible.

6. Builds a loyal audience – When people feel like they know your backstory, they stick around to see what happens next.

7. Inspires others – Your struggles and wins can help someone else navigate their own journey.

…And the benefit that took up residence in my head, that it didn’t give me?

“When I finally get around to going live, I’ll have a story to tell.”

Then it very gently led me through a process

Before I knew it, I had an origin story that was relevant to my niche, and that I would never have written on my own. What’s more creating it was actually fun!!

And here it is!!

I wasn’t even going to write this post

I’d already told you we were diving head-first into a series on sales and marketing.
And then I realised: -

💡 Sales and marketing don’t start with strangers — they start with the people who’ve already said YES.

I wrote my Origin Story because I was supporting a paid subscriber. I hope it helps him as much as it’s helped me.

One of my paid subscribers — the very first annual one, actually — had put something out into the world. Supporting his work wasn’t “on my content calendar.” It wasn’t “in my 90—Day Goal. It was just the right thing to do.

Well it was the right thing for me to do because my paid Subscribers are my Super subscribers, and I’m their’s too.

I need a Superscriber

Well, that’s it from me this week. I’m headiing back to the Lab to implement my Super Subscriber system. From there I’ll be sharing a Super Sales Secret I’ve just uncovered.

Avoid FOMO

Best,

Deb 🥰

The “big guys” have too many subscribers to ask, “What do you actually want from me right now?”

You can. And that’s why your retention can wipe the floor with theirs.

But First❗️

What is a Super Subscriber❓

When you're just clocking your first paid subscribers they're all your Super Subscribers.

In the early stages of your journey Super Subscribers are also the free ones who open all your emails, like, comment on, and re-stack your work. Some are also keen to do collabs with you.

No super subscribers yet? Find some by becoming a Super Subscriber to others. You'll get noticed.

Do You Only Have 2, 5, 10 Paid Subscribers❓

When you’ve only got 2, 5, 10 maybe even 20 paying subscribers, you can pull off moves that large creators can’t even dream of:

• You can spot when someone’s engagement is dipping

• You can personally reach out without it being awkward because you haven’t pitched yourself as a guru.

• You can tailor what you offer to keep them excited — even if it’s not what they originally signed up for.

These are some of the unglamorous but insanely profitable habits that most creators skip.

The Potential of a Small List

Most creators get so obsessed with chasing more subscribers, they ignore the ones already paying the rent. Ok, more like the coffee, but you get the picture .

No paid subscribers yet? It’s the same deal for your most engaged readers. They’re the ones with all the stars under “Subscribers” inside your Substack dashboard.

💵The Three Platinum Rules of Sales

They’re true for any business — and Substack is no exception:

1. It’s easier to keep a customer (paid subscriber), than to get a new one. Nurturing a prospect from a follower through to a paying customer, (subscriber), is no easy feat.

2. It’s easier to upsell, or sell a second offer, to an existing customer (paid subscriber). If you’ve done a good job, the trust factor is off the charts. They already know your style, your reliability, and the kind of results you deliver — which makes saying “yes” to the next thing far easier.

3. Going the extra mile for a customer, is a cool route to turning them into a super fan. And super fans? They are platinum in themselves because they will sing your praises from the rooftops.

But here’s where some creators screw it up: -

• They let their paid, and most engaged subscribers drift away without so much as a “Hey, are you good?”

• They treat free and paid subscribers exactly the same because it feels “fair” (it’s not — at least, not to the people paying you).

• They treat their paid subscribers like fish they’ve reeled in and turn their focus to moving free subscribers to paid. Shame❗️

If someone’s paying you, they’ve basically stood on a chair, waved their arms and yelled, “I value this enough to invest!”

Your job is to keep them yelling “YES” — all year long, not just the week before renewal.

But be careful❗️

It’s a sliding scale. The more super subscribers you have the less time you have for each one. There is a balance with this as I found out.

Here’s how to use your small list advantage without killing yourself in the process: -

How to Nurture Paid & Super Subscribers (Without Becoming a Full-Time Community Manager)

🥴 The Time I Over-Nurtured Myself Into the Ground

Do more for your list with less time

Read more

They say building an online business is simple:
📦 Create a digital product or paid newsletter.
📢 Substack will hand you an audience.
⏰ Work a couple hours a day and watch the money roll in.
🎉 Make it fun and you’ll never work a day in your life.

Cute. 🙃

But here’s what I found:
🪜 Creating something people will pay for is just one of the major steps you’ll need to take to build an online business.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Substack’s “built-in audience” is a myth for most niches.
⏰ Two hours a day? Unless you have a system and get AI to help you'll be using up your weekends too.
🎉“make it fun” isn’t just about picking a topic you like — if the process itself is a grind, the topic won’t save you.

And don’t get me started on the “you have to be on social media” crowd. 🤦‍♀️ I can’t stand it. Which meant I had to find another way to reach my people — and for me, that was writing what people on Substack wanted to read.

🚨 The Wake-Up Call

I didn’t have one big crash moment — I had dozens of little WTF moments where reality didn’t match the pitch. Eventually, I couldn’t unsee it.

Before that wake-up call, I wasn’t chasing a hobby — I was looking for an escape hatch.
💼 My job felt like a slow leak on my sanity.
💸 Every “make money online” promise looked like a lifeline.
If someone said they’d built “freedom” in a few months, I believed them — because I needed to.

Then came the snap.

I was going broke — fast. 🚨
In less than a year, I’d burned through $20k and my credit cards were looking nasty chasing the “easy” online income dream.
And the worst part? I’d picked a niche I was hating.

🛑 Walking Away

So I walked away — not from the idea of building an online business, but from the fantasy that I could replace my income in a matter of months.

The numbers people threw around online made it sound effortless: six figures in a year, “replace your salary” in 90 days. That’s only possible for a tiny group of people — the ones with massive audiences, endless time, significant relevant skills, and preferably all three..

I got myself a job I didn’t hate. One that paid the bills and gave me the flexibility to build on the side. 🫶 With the financial panic gone, I could finally focus on what was real instead of chasing someone else’s highlight reel.

🔍 Starting Over as a Skeptic

With some breathing room, I started again — but this time as a skeptic.
I tested every shiny piece of advice I’d been fed.
I ignored what didn’t fit me, kept what did, and made peace with the fact that progress would be slower — but it would stick.

And I learned a few more hard truths:
✨ Fun isn’t a “nice to have,” it’s fuel.
✨ And it’s not just about loving your topic — it’s about loving the way you work on it.

For me, that meant ditching the marketing tactics that drained me (looking at you, social media) and focusing on platforms I actually enjoyed showing up on. That’s why Substack became my home base. 🏡

🔄 Finding My Way

I also realised I’m easily bored.
I don’t want to write about things I’ve already mastered — I want to write while exploring and learning. Which is exactly why my Substack isn’t a “how-to” from the mountaintop. It’s me sharing the experiments, the missteps, and the small wins as I go.

At some point, I stopped obsessing over speed and started obsessing over sustainability. That was the real game-changer.

Once you let go of the idea that everything has to “blow up” overnight, you can actually enjoy building it — and ironically, that’s when the momentum starts to pick up. 🚀

👋 Where I Am Now

Now I run a newsletter about how to be sustainably profitable on Substack — without the burnout, the fake timelines, or the six-figure fantasy.

Subscribe now

I’m not your guru.
I’m the fellow traveler who’s willing to say, “Here’s what actually happened when I tried it.”

If you’re tired of the noise, the inflated numbers, and the pressure to quickly turn your idea into a cash machine, you’re in the right place.

💌 After all those false starts, I finally stopped chasing someone else’s version of success and built my own — and I turned it into something you can use too.

It’s called The Substack Creator’s System, and it’s my step-by-step for using AI to:
⚡ create content faster (without losing your voice)
📅 stay consistent
💰 make your Substack profitable without burning out

I’m building it in public, so you can get in now for just $8/month or $50/year, try it while it’s still in beta, and keep full access when it’s done.

If you’ve been wanting a system that actually fits your life — not someone else’s hustle fantasy. — come build it with me.

Learn More

Best,

Deb 🥰

I could have titled this post “Seven Secrets to Sales Success on Substack,’ but it would have been Bs. Unfortunately becoming good at sales doesn’t happen with secrets or steps, or over a weekend with a downloadable checklist.

For most of my life, I’ve said:

“I suck at sales.”
With my whole chest. Proudly, even. As if that let me off the hook.

But now? That mindset won’t cut it.

Because if you’re building something successful on Substack — a business, a body of work, a new way of earning — sales can’t be the thing you keep avoiding.

No more tucking it behind “generosity” or hoping your brilliance speaks for itself.
It’s time to build something stronger. More grown-up. More sustainable.

It’s time to build a sales engine.

I need this

🧱 The Four Pillars of a Sales Engine

🧠 1. Mindset: Sales isn’t the enemy

This is the one I’ve resisted the longest.

Most writers don’t think of themselves as salespeople. We think we’re above that.
But in the world of solopreneurship? That’s just not going to fly …

Because:

• Something paid for is valued more and gives the creator credibility. .

• No one wants to give their best work away forever.

• And we deserve to be compensated for the time, energy, and brilliance we put in.

The “I suck at sales” story feels true, but it’s just that — a story.
It’s one I’ve lived for years. But now I’m choosing a different one.

Because avoiding sales means avoiding growth.
And we didn’t come all the way to Substack to stay stuck.

🔧 2. Skill: Sales isn’t magic — it’s practice

Sales is a skill. And like any other skill, it can be learned.

That practice won’t make you perfect — but it will make you skilled.
That’s how anything works, right?

• You write → you get better at writing.

• You lift weights → you get stronger.

• You sell → you get better at selling.

Not every attempt will work. Some launches will flop. Some DMs will be ignored.
But if you keep practicing? You get sharper. Braver. Calmer.

You also get more solid in yourself. Because real sales skill includes mindset control:

• How do you stay steady when you hear crickets?

• How do you keep offering when your brain screams “No one wants this”?

• How do you detach your worth from your conversion rate?

This is the part no one talks about in the “tripwire funnel” world.
But it’s the foundation for everything.

🧴 3. Offer: You have to believe in what you’re selling

Here’s the thing: if your offer is wobbly, your sales will be too.

I don’t mean it has to be perfect. But if you:

• Don’t trust that it helps people

• Aren’t proud of what it includes

• Secretly wish it didn’t exist...

...then yeah, it’s going to feel like pushing a wheelbarrow full of shame uphill in a headwind.

This pillar is about creating something solid. Something you:

• Believe in

• Want to talk about

• Would buy yourself if you were your reader

Confidence in the product takes pressure off the pitch.

This is something we’ve been working on in my Inner Sanctum.

🧩 4. System: Sales needs structure

Even with the right mindset, solid skills, and a great offer — if you don’t have a system, you’re starting from scratch every time.

This is where I feel most at home.
Creating The Substack Creator System was easy for me. Because I’ve written courses professionally for years.

But sales? That’s been my nemesis.
The one thing I’ve never felt like I could crack.
The thing that kept me working for wages instead of building something on my own terms.

A sales system is what brings all the pieces together:

• Audience building

• Relationship nurturing

• Offers at the right time

• CTAs in the right place

• Pathways from free reader → paying fan → long-term customer

Without it, every sale feels like a fluke.
With it? You create repeatable momentum.

And the hard part: it’s not linear. It’s a dance. 💃

So what’s next?

I honestly don’t know, (yet).

Yes, there’ll be a series . But I definitely won’t be writing it from the top of the mountain. I’ll be writing it from halfway up the damn thing, shoes muddy, hands scratched, still figuring out which direction is north.

But here’s my promise:

I’m going to figure this out.

I’m building my sales engine in public — and if you’re a “sales tragic” like me, I hope you’ll stick around.

We’re not here to hustle harder. We’re here to build something solid.
To get our work out into the world.
And to finally feel good about getting paid for it.

Get on board now before your audience gets tired of free content.

✊ I want in !

⏰If I Had My Time Over…

I'd start with my first paid offer. Yes Really‼️
Before my About page.
Before my welcome email.
Before my hero post.

Why? Because building outward from a clear centre is so much easier than trying to invent that centre later—after you've already scattered 47 posts across the content universe and can't remember what half of them were for.

This is exactly why we tackled your offer early in the Substack Lab System.

⌚️Time For a Re-Cap

We Started This Work Back in Module 3: How to Get Paid on Substack -Without feeling Sleazy I gave you a positioning statement that can become your short Bio: —“I help [insert a specific audience] solve [a painful problem] by [your unique approach], so they can [get a clear outcome they care about].”

We went on to lay the foundations for a paid offer by establishing: -

✔️ What your audience is struggling with and …
✔️ A basic offer ecosystem (low, mid, high) that will transform their experience from struggle to success.

Then in Module 4: Create your First Paid Offer in Four Easy Steps we went deeper.

You started mapping and validating your first paid product—your low-ticket offer—using AI to speed up your thinking and test your assumptions before wasting hours on something nobody wants.

Module 6: helped you incorporate your paid product into a clear 90-day goal.

And now?
We're creating the content path that leads to your offers.

🎉One Module to Go— 8: Putting it all Together: Your Custom Publishing Strategy

After that I’ll be polishing up two modules each week for the next four weeks before this baby goes live on Gumroad.

I’ll also be in touch with my paid subscribers to see how you’re going and if there’s anything specific I can help with.

✊Let me in❗️

🧩 Start with Your Paid Offer — and Everything Else Gets Easy

When you start with your paid offer, your content path basically builds itself.

Why?
Because your AI already knows what the offer is — it's been helping you create it.
So now all you have to do is plug it into the rest of your system.

Ask your AI to help you write:

• Your Welcome emails (introduce the path + seed your offer)

• Your About page (anchor your positioning + show what’s possible)

Your Hero post (tie the whole journey together in one banger post)

And because I didn’t know this stuff when I started, I went back over the weekend and redid all these pieces of content over the weekend 🥴

Use the voice + vibe prompt we crafted back in Module 2 so everything sounds like you.
Of course you’ll need to edit — no robot’s replacing your genius —
but AI gives you a fully framed house.
You’re just furnishing it.

🛋️ You’re not starting from scratch. You’re arranging the throw pillows.

These pieces of content are where many creators start — but now that you have a strategic centre, you’re going to do it smarter.

Here we go :

Read more

If your Substack strategy is:
“Vibe it out and post what feels good,”

…I’m gonna need you to step away from the Publish button.

Because unless your vibes come with a map, your reader’s just wandering around in content purgatory.
Lost. Confused. Maybe entertained. But definitely not transformed.

And transformation?
Well that’s really the whole point.
It’s what turns readers into subscribers, subscribers into buyers, and buyers into super fans.

This week, we’re building a Content Path.

Your very own Yellow Brick Road.
A strategic, story-driven, I needed this” experience that moves your reader from “meh” → “move over, I’m changing my life.”

Subscribe and make both our days ☀️

Let’s go.

🧱 First: What Even Is a Content Path?

Think of it like this:
A content path is the opposite of chaos posting.

It’s not a funnel.
It’s not a vibe.
It’s not “Monday tips, Wednesday musings, Friday memes.”

It’s a guided journey through your brain — and it’s shaped like this:

🔻 Wide at the bottom:
People can enter anywhere — Notes, search, cross-recs, that one juicy tweet you forgot you wrote.

🌀 Then it narrows:
As they read more, they start to get you. Your tone. Your take. Your magic. Your promise.

🚪 Then — if you’ve done it right — they exit changed.
They unsubscribe from that other creator who posts all over the place.
They do the thing.
They hit “upgrade.”
They forward your post to their BFF with “omg this is us.”

Or they leave because you’re not their thing. But that’s OK, not everyone will be.

Trying to keep everyone on board and please everyone is just going to mean you end up pleasing no one.

Stick to your core idea but give it direction.

🎯 Step One: Choose the Transformation

Before you build the path, you need to know where the heck it’s going.

What are you actually helping your reader do,have or become?

We’re not out here writing for “everyone who’s interested in [vague idea].”
We are writing for one person, in one moment, trying to solve one problem.

Examples:

• From burnout → to boundaries

• From “I could never…” → to “Wait, what if I did?”

• From “I’m stuck” → to “I have a plan.”

• From “free subscriber” → to “take my money.”

🧠 What do you want your best-fit reader to say after bingeing three of your posts?

“This is what I need.”
“I’ve never heard it said like that.”
“Where has this been all my life?”

That’s your north star.

🛣️ Step Two: Map the Mindset Shifts

Every great transformation has a few key “aha” moments.
Your job is to deliver them like plot twists in a Netflix series.

We’re talking three types of posts:

🔥 1. Belief-Breakers

Posts that slap your reader awake.
The kind that make them rethink everything they thought they knew.
“OMG, it’s not me — it’s the way I’ve been taught to think about this.”

🛠️ 2. How-Tos That Don’t Suck

Practical, punchy, permission-giving.
No fluff. No 17-step frameworks. Just “Here’s what actually works.”
“Maybe I can do this.”

🪞 3. Identity Posts

You’re holding up a mirror and saying:
“I see you. I’ve been there. You’re not weird.”
“Wait… this person gets me.”

Weave these together. Build tension. Drop breadcrumbs.
Make them want to cancel plans just to read “one more post.”

🧩 Step Three: Stack the Steps

Don’t overthink this.
You’re not writing a curriculum.
You’re building a trail.

Which means:

• Link your posts. Refer back. Point forward. Build momentum.

• Pin the key stuff. Give them a “Start Here” post or section.

• Re-use the gold. Rfer back to earlier posts. You know you can restack your own posts a few times don’t you?

Your reader should feel like they’re going somewhere transformational.

💅 Step Four: Make the Transformation Obvious

Your reader should feel it happening in real time.

Like:

• “I thought I was just reading a post. Now I’m rethinking my whole life.”

• “This person is in my brain. I need to stick around.”

• “Wait — do they have a course???”

Ways to do it:

• Repeat your core message until they can chant it in their sleep

• Use CTAs that don’t suck (“Subscribe for more” is fine, but “Subscribe if you’re done playing small” hits harder). You can customise your subscribe key so do it.

• Remind them who they’re becoming

• Show them what’s next

Every post should be a brick in your little brick road.
You’re creating a transformation.

Let people feel their Path.

❓What’s Happening in the Inner Sanctum (aka my paid tier)

🎉 We’re nearly there: — Module 7 (of 8): Build a Profitable, Sustainable and Transformative Content Path... (dropping next week).

This module takes what you have here and puts it on steroids.

✅Discover why nailing your paid offer early makes everything else easier

✅Identify 3–5 core shifts your reader might need to make in order to get what they want

✅How to deliver those shifts with the right post format

✅How to lay your posts into a self-guided path that leads to transformation

✊Let me in❗️

🚀 A Final Word

You don’t need more content.
You need content that moves.

This isn’t about chasing followers.
It’s about helping someone transform so they can have what they want.

Your words are the vehicle.
The path is the plan.
The transformation? That’s the magic.

So go build the path.

Your reader’s waiting to walk it.

With my very best wishes,

Deb 🥰