Something fascinating is tucked away in the Biblical creation story that feels remarkably familiar to me right now, as I embark on my Substack journey.

If, like me, you’re here trying to make something of value from the raw material of your own life to share with others, to capture all the years of experience and allow something new to emerge from within you through writing, this is for you, friend.

But goodness knows the beginning is a pretty intimidating place to be.

The rules are invisible, the ground keeps shifting, the clamour of conflicting advice is loud...

In the beginning, there is no polished finished product. No neat content plan, no body of work, no audience waiting expectantly and no beautifully organised archive of essays, books, podcasts and courses.

There is simply a deep sense of calling, of possibility, potential, and a hope that you’ll figure it out and somehow bring life out from the void.

Genesis describes the earth at the beginning as “formless and empty”. There is darkness and deep water. Things have not yet been separated, named or given their purpose. I don’t know about you, but that is precisely how it felt when I first landed in Substack!

And perhaps that is not a bad picture of the beginning of a writer’s journey here.

You have years, probably decades of experience, things you have learned the hard way, stories to tell, interests to share, convictions to express, questions to ask, mistakes to warn, and skills to help others.

You have an absolutely unique experience of life which no one else shares. No-one. Perhaps there is a message in you that has been tugging at you for years, although you have never quite known what to do with it.

It is all in there.

It just hasn’t quite taken shape yet.

What strikes me about Genesis is that God does not begin by filling the earth with more and more things. First God brings order to what is there: separating, naming, creating boundaries - making space first for the life that’s still to come.

Creation has a process.

I see something very cool here to learn for those of us trying to create work that really matters.

First, there was light

God’s first act of creation, before the landscape, before vegetation, before creatures and before people, was illumination - and a distinction made between light and darkness.

For a writer, perhaps this is where we begin too: with clarity.

What are you actually trying to illuminate for somebody else?

What have I been given that might help another person? Where can I bring light to someone else’s journey?

That light may have come through your job or your family. It may have come through your faith, something you survived, something you built, something you studied for twenty years or simply something everybody seems to ask you about.

Meaningful creative work often begins with a simple moment of recognition of what you already have.

You begin noticing the threads running through your own life and distinguishing what belongs in the work you are creating here, and what doesn’t.

Then God began separating things

Water from water. Sky from sea. Land from water. Again and again in Genesis, creation involves making distinctions.

This belongs here; that belongs over there.

Boundary lines are formed, and suddenly something that was shapeless begins to have structure.

This may be one of the least glamorous parts of becoming a writer or creator, but it matters enormously. We need containers: a subject, an audience, a few themes we return to, a place where our work lives and some boundaries around what we will and won’t spend our time creating.

Without those things, even great ideas become chaotic.

I know how tempting it is to splattergun thoughts across Substack because seven ideas arrived before breakfast.

My early Notes ‘strategy’ was basically to fling spaghetti at walls. One Note about writing, another about business, something about faith, then productivity, AI, decluttering my larder, and perhaps a funny thing the dog did…

None of those things is necessarily wrong. But if everything is given equal importance, if every thought becomes a post and every subject gets equal airtime, the reader has no idea what kind of place they have arrived in.

Editing your own thoughts and ideas before they hit the ‘stack is important. The shoreline does not diminish the sea. It gives it shape.

Creation without distinction becomes more noise than signal.

Then came land — and things began to grow

Shorelines created, and now, once dry ground appears, something super important happens.

The earth becomes naturally, organically productive: seeds grow, plants appear, and even more wild - each fruit begins carrying its own seeds capable of producing yet more fruit.. and so on and so on.

Now life has somewhere to take root.

This is where you move from simply having ideas to building something those ideas can grow in.

Now is the time to establish three or four subjects you want to explore deeply.

Perhaps you decide what your newsletter is really for, create a simple rhythm for writing or finally start keeping your ideas somewhere sensible instead of having seventeen Notes drafts, six screenshots and something very important written on the back of an envelope (guilty as charged!).

None of this sounds particularly spiritual, but perhaps that’s the point.

A simple system gives your ideas somewhere to grow.

I also love that the plants in Genesis contain seed. Not only is each Note, each thoughtful comment, each article ‘food ’, they carry within them the possibility of more life as your output is repurposed, shared in multiple ways and reaches new readers all the time.

One essay gives you five Notes.

A Note sparks a conversation and a new connection is made.

The conversation reveals a problem that you know you can help solve.

That problem becomes another article…and after a few articles you begin to realise that you have been circling a much bigger subject all along.

Perhaps, eventually, there is a book in it.

You do not have to manufacture an enormous body of work at the beginning. Simply start planting something useful, tend to it and see what grows.

Fruit comes in time.

Then came a rhythm…

Next come the sun, moon and stars: markers of days, years and seasons. Creation does not only have structure now; it has seasonal rhythm.

That matters enormously for us creatives and writers because we cannot create everything today, and shouldn’t try. Most of us still need to taxi the kids, do the dishes and pay the bills. We’re not able to shut out the world and focus solely on our writing (boo hiss!).

Trying to express everything in your head all at once is a highway to burnout.

Your writing journey needs a sustainable beat, and it needs to allow for real life to happen too.

Otherwise, a particularly busy week can throw you off your 5-3-1 Notes posting strategy and your weekly Article planning - then you lose momentum. Then thoughts of giving up start to lurk at the door…

These first few months on Substack are fraught with temptation to ditch it.

Don’t do that.

The temptation is normal. All part of the process.

There are seasons for thinking and seasons for producing.

There are also seasons for simply cheering on other writers, reading and commenting on their work - and seasons for logging off and going for a long walk, a holiday, a work trip.

There are periods of deep work and periods when your attention needs to turn towards sharing what you have already made.

There are weeks when the words come easily and weeks when every sentence seems to have been assembled with a pair of tweezers…

All the seasons in balance will make you a better writer if you recognise them and let them shape you.

Over time, you begin to notice your own rhythms. Perhaps Sunday becomes your best day to publish. Perhaps you think most clearly first thing in the morning, or your audience responds better to shorter thoughts during the week. Perhaps one substantial article each week turns out to be far more sustainable for you than posting 3 days of the week.

A rhythm removes the daily negotiation. You stop waking up every morning wondering What on earth am I supposed to write today? Because you have created some gentle structure around the work.

This is when creativity begins to become a practice rather than an occasional burst of inspiration.

And seasons remind us of something else too: not everything needs to be growing all the time. There will be quieter periods, fallow periods and times when the visible output slows because something less visible is developing underneath.

Those seasons count too. Ask farmers. The land sometimes needs to rest to then spring into action the following year.

Then creation began to move

Birds begin to fill the sky. Creatures fill the sea. Life is no longer rooted only in one place; it moved beyond the ground where it had all begun.

There is a beautiful parallel here for writers because eventually you have to let the work leave you. It has to leave the safe confines of your head and your laptop.

You have to press publish, send the email, share the Note or submit the manuscript.

Creating and sharing are different disciplines, and some writers are far more comfortable with the first. We can spend months making something useful and then become oddly apologetic when it is time to help another human being discover it.

Yet if something has been created to serve other people, at some point it has to travel far enough to reach them.

This is where multiplication begins too. Someone reads something you wrote and restacks it or forwards it to a friend. Another person quotes a sentence. Someone uses an idea to make a decision you may never hear about, while another discovers your work today and ends up reading something you wrote three years ago.

You cannot control where useful work travels. And that’s the really fun part of letting what you’ve created take on a life of its own!

An example.

This week, I posted my Notes as I do normally. Somewhere between zero and 5 Likes is about average at my stage of growth.

Suddenly one Note got 50 Likes within a matter of hours!!

The one right before it got 5.

No rhyme nor reason other than something struck a chord with the right people at the right time.

You can’t plan for that. You’ve just got to let your ideas fly, let the skies fill and see what happens!

Why?

It just resonated. You can’t really plan for that.

What is even more interesting (to me at least) is that it was completely spontaneous - unscheduled and unplanned. It popped into my head, I grabbed my phone, posted and carried on making lentil soup.

And it’s one of my highest engagement Notes so far in my 7-week odyssey on Substack!

And then came people..

The growth you’re hoping for then begins to happen. You showed up, you were consistent, you were generous with your time and attention.

And here come the people. 5, 10, 12, 18, 31, 56, 81, 92, 93, 92, 95, 98, 100!!!

So this is what I’m now finding after weeks of getting to grips with;

illumination (figuring out what it is I am carrying worth saying)

separation (distinguishing between sharing my every burgeoning thought and figuring out what people actually want to read)

seed growth (noticing some of my writing are plants, some are seed-carrying fruits where further ideas, even ‘products’ will emerge in time)

rhythm (committing to one article every single week and learning to schedule some, not all, Notes to when my typical reader is - you know - awake and able to read!)

movement (noticing people gathering around my Notes, responding to my comments, sharing and the occasional restack - oh how I live for a restack, the biggest compliment of all!)

I’m realising that only after I’ve created the right environment capable of sustaining life that life begins to flourish.

No amount of post-it note planning days, Notion templates or masterclasses would have taught this. I had to just create.

ll the strategy, systems, growth plans and publishing rhythms have to come back to people.

Not numbers.

People.

No one else has had your exact combination of experiences, strengths, interests, and perspective. And never will.

What you know. What you have. What you’ve experienced. What you’ve lived through… The world NEEDS to hear it. They need to receive this gift from you.

And you don’t need to manufacture a voice - you already have one.

And then …. rest.

The final movement of the creation story spills into the opening verses of Genesis 2.

God rests.

Not because He’s done, nor because He's run out of creative juice.

But now the foundational work is complete, and this is a moment to stop, take stock and see how far you’ve come.

This may be the part we writers find hardest.

We are remarkably bad at deciding something is finished, publishing it, and letting it stand without immediately editing it again, checking the statistics, or wondering whether the title should have contained a number.

Rest means allowing yesterday’s work to simply exist.

It may mean taking a day when you are not turning every experience into content. It may mean leaving an article alone after publication instead of checking every twenty minutes whether somebody has liked it.

And perhaps, occasionally, it means looking at something you have made and allowing yourself to say:

This is good.

Not perfect. Not viral. Not necessarily profitable! But good.

Perhaps creation is still the pattern

When I look again at Genesis, I see a pattern that makes sense to me and the early journey on Substack in the creative process: light, distinction, structure, growth, rhythm, movement, people and … rest.

Building a body of work with life in it does not have to begin with a grand strategy. It begins much earlier, with simply paying attention to the raw material already present in your life: your experience, personality, knowledge, curiosity, faith, and the things you cannot seem to stop thinking about.

Then, slowly, you bring some order to it. You separate one thing from another, name things, create boundaries, plant seeds, establish rhythms and begin making something from what you have been given.

Eventually, you release it.

And somewhere beyond you in ways a smorgasbord of statistics cannot measure, perhaps your work brings encouragement, clarity, courage or life to somebody else.

And isn’t that why we’re here?

You do not need to see the finished creation from where you are standing.

God didn’t create everything on day one. Neither should you.

A few things to think about..

If your creative work currently feels a little “formless and empty”, resist the urge to solve it by producing more. Instead, spend some time thinking about where you are in the process.

• Start with light. What are you actually trying to create — and why?

• Separate before you fill. What belongs in this project, and what doesn’t?

• Create the environment first. Do you need a platform, routine, audience or system before you add more?

• Build in stages. You don't need the website, book, course, newsletter, podcast, and twelve-product funnel by Tuesday.

• Let things take root. Some things need time and space to establish before you start piling more on top.

• Notice what is already good. Don’t be so busy moving onto the next thing that you fail to recognise what is already working.

• Leave room to rest. Rest can mean physically stepping away and refreshing your mind, body and soul and creating a breath before the next move.

You don’t need to build the whole world this week.

Start with the light.

Then see what takes shape.

If you’ve read this far - you’re my favourite reader!

And if you’re creating something too…

That’s exactly what I’m doing here on Redeeming Time: how we take the ideas, experience, calling and nudges God has given us and actually turn them into something useful without exhausting ourselves in the process.

If you’re a free subscriber, thank you!! There will always be plenty here for you to read, think about and put into practice.

If you stumbled across this and haven’t subscribed yet - hit that button and let’s be friends!

Subscribe now

Paid subscribers come a little further behind the scenes with me. That’s where I can share Perks like a free copy of my eBook ‘Called to Succeed’, and more of the practical tools, resources and deeper work behind what I’m building.

If you’re not ready for that, genuinely, no pressure. Keep reading. Keep building. Keep taking the next steps! I’m cheering for you!

Hello !

Six weeks ago, I had zero subscribers.

This week, Redeeming Time passed 100.

[C’mon now. Let me see that party popper and hear a WOOP!]

But long before anybody hands me a headset microphone and asks me to run a masterclass on newsletter growth, I should probably make it clear that 100 subscribers does not make me a Substack expert.

Far from it.

And there are shed tonnes of outstanding Substackers who can give you the full low down on all the technical top tips for how to grow.

That’s not this. This is just my own story of the past 42 days since I landed here, a mere babe, ready to learn, ready to fail, proverbial pencils sharpened.

Really, in the scheme of things - I’ve just graduated from Enrolment to Day One of pre-school.

But hand me a crayon, baby - I’m in!

I’m not new to writing. I have written blogs for years. Wrote musical play scripts as a teenager. I have built a community of over 3000 in the early days of Facebook Groups. I have published over 46 titles on Amazon (many are journals and notebooks and sell a few each month, nothing I can retire on yet) and some Christian devotionals and study books. I have studied business and theology at post-degree level, made keynotes at corporate events, facilitated executive workshops, led worship and preached for years, but the leap into Substack was accidental and pretty spontaneous.

I started from absolute scratch. No list transfer. No following pulled over from other platforms.

Zero. Zip. Nada.

I decided almost immediately after I first logged in and spent a few moments looking around (yes, I fell in love with Substack that quickly!) this is my place. These are my people. I belong here.

It is early days. I’m still wet behind the ears, so I am no expert.

But I do have one small advantage.

I still freshly remember exactly what zero feels like.

So I want to share my Substack beginning story while it’s fresh in my mind, because once you hit 1,000 subscribers, I have no doubt this gets harder to recount.

I’m going to share my Top Tips (because who does not love an alliteration on a writer’s platform..?)

I hope it helps you , and I’d really love to hear about your journey so far; whether just starting out - or for some benevolent reason you’ve got millions of Subscribers already and are reading my wee Newsletter!

Leave a comment

I remember publishing those first pieces. I remember the first few likes giving me a greater buzz than my ever-present Nespresso.

I remember my first comment from - gasp - a stranger who liked my work!

I remember the thrill of seeing that a complete stranger had decided they wanted more of my words in their inbox. My first Subscriber!

I also remember opening the statistics on the Dashboard and looking at them as though Substack had accidentally given me access to the controls of a small aircraft.

Woah! This thing is immense. The dashboards and data help you learn fast what’s working or not so much.

But importantly, you define what ‘working’ means to you.

Because everyone has a different definition of success.

Ambition means different things to us all.

But at first, there were so many new levers, buttons and dials to get to know; I needed some help.

And this is where I simply must shout out to Write.Build.Scale.

They’ll teach you the difference between an About Page and a Perk, why thinking about monetisation matters early on, and how to set yourself achievable goals to keep your Substack journey sustainable.

[And no, I’m not on commission - I genuinely can’t speak highly enough of their work.]

The first six weeks certainly are a steep climb - I describe it as ‘the molehill that feels like Everest’.

It is, however, long enough to make a surprising number of mistakes, test a few theories, obsess unnecessarily over several things that barely matter and start noticing what seems to work.

So this is my field report from the first 100.

Looking back, my lessons fall rather neatly into two categories:

1 - the things I got right (by accident in many cases)

2 - the things I got wrong, usually with considerable enthusiasm.

What I got right

1. I started before I knew what on earth I was doing

I could easily have spent another six months preparing to start a Substack.

I had questions about everything. What exactly was my niche? Who was I writing for? How much faith content was too much faith content?

Should I write about business, writing, productivity, midlife, creativity — or somehow weave all of them together? What should the publication be called? What should I charge? What should the branding look like?

And obviously, there was the extremely pressing issue of which particular shade of rose pink best represented my life’s work and matched my fave blazer in my headshot...

Some of those questions genuinely mattered. The problem was that I was trying to answer them before I had any useful evidence.

Just hitting ‘Publish’ gave me vital information that endless over-thinking couldn’t.

Once I started writing, I could see which subjects created conversations, which Notes people shared, what I enjoyed enough to write about again, and where my voice felt most natural.

I began to notice the kinds of people I was attracting and the things they seemed to value.

I’m still figuring all of that out now.

But I’m figuring it out while moving.

I have an honorary doctorate in Overthinking, so I just kept telling myself:

If you wait for all the traffic lights to turn green before you set off, you’ll never leave the garage.

There is a point when preparation stops making you more prepared and starts unstitching your confidence.

My point in 2 words? Just begin.

2. I discovered that Notes aren’t a side dish - they’re directions to the restaurant

When I first arrived on Substack, I assumed the articles were the proper writing and Notes were the little promotional bits around the edges.

I’ve completely changed my mind.

Your longer pieces may be where readers get to know you properly, and they are going to gradually build your body of work, of course, but Notes are often where people tend to find you in the first place.

A good Note can travel far beyond your subscriber base. It gives someone a tiny sample of your voice, your humour, your brand of thinking, your idea - without asking them to commit to a ten-minute read.

One of my first Notes to travel beyond my immediate circle was about Noah (the guy with the big boat):

There was nothing sophisticated about it. It was short, encouraging and immediately understandable. But it was my first note to get more than just a couple of Likes.

Something about it connected with people.

I was so excited that more than 20 people Liked it - I went ahead and Liked it myself too!!

Then decided to Like ALL my own Notes - why not? I am going to be my own biggest supporter after all. And I am only going to post Notes I genuinely like. So (bonus Tip) if you don’t already - go ahead and Like your own Notes - I guarantee it will make you smile!

Trialling all kinds of different Notes has been fun - and massive learning.

What trialling all kinds of Notes has taught me is that a Note should have value even if the reader never clicks anything else you’ve written.

I now think of Notes less as advertisements for my articles and more as small pieces of publishing in their own right.

Some disappear without trace.. and call me a liar if I ever say that’s not a weird feeling - when you’ve put your heart into a Note and refresh-refresh-refresh but Nope! No Likes.

It happens. That’s fine. I just remind myself that Notes roll into a tsunami of people’s newsfeeds 24/7 - so don’t be disheartened if your Note gets washed away.

Wait a week. If you still think it’s that good - then restack it, or mention it in a comment in discussion elsewhere (when truly relevant) . Don’t be shy about sharing your work - it’s the entire point of the platform.

The point is that they give people many more opportunities to encounter you than your weekly article ever can.

3. I talked to people like actual people

Revolutionary, I know

One piece of Substack advice appears everywhere: comment on other people’s Notes.

It’s good advice, but I think there’s an important caveat.

Have something of value to say.

Sometimes a quick ‘well done!’ ‘Thanks - that was super interesting!’ is absolutely fine. It increases your presence around the Stack-o-sphere, but it won’t move the dial on inviting people to check out your profile and get into conversation.

When somebody writes something that genuinely makes me think, I try to tell them what it was that made me think. Sometimes I ask a question, add an experience of my own or simply offer encouragement because I genuinely mean it.

That takes much longer than firing off generic comments, but it has also led to some of the best connections I’ve made here.

I don’t want to network my way around Substack just dropping tiny digital business cards everywhere - I really want to meet people. I want to connect and build with others.

So I treat others the way I'd love them to treat me. I’m generous with my attention, time and encouragement. You soon find other writers you click with because they’re bringing the same spirit to the party.

4. I decorated my corner of the ‘net with some personality

I like branding. Love tinkering with colours, fonts, shapes, all of it.

But that’s not a dial-mover either.

Give me half a chance, and I can lose an afternoon deciding between two shades of pink that nobody else on Earth can distinguish. But a little visual consistency helps.

A clear, recognisable profile picture, an interesting publication name, a small palette of colours you like and won’t get sick of too quickly, and some consistency in imagery make your publication feel intentional rather than accidental.

More importantly, people start to recognise you.

If someone repeatedly sees your name or style appearing in their feed, familiarity slowly builds. And on a platform where readers have a huge amount of choice, familiarity matters.

The danger is allowing branding to become a highly respectable way to avoid writing.

You do not need a complete logo suite, six complementary fonts, a 30-page brand strategy or professional photographs of yourself standing thoughtfully in a wheat field before you’re permitted to publish.

5. I let my niche evolve and reveal itself instead of wrestling it to the ground

If you’ve spent any time in the world of online business, you’ve probably heard the command:

NICHE DOWN.

And there is truth in it. If somebody lands on your page and has absolutely no idea what you write about or why they might want to stay, that’s a problem.

But I think we’ve sometimes turned finding a niche into an enormous pre-launch exercise, when the answer often only emerges once you begin.

When you begin, pay attention to what works, who restacks, who Likes, who opens your emails. You’re building a picture of where you and your readers align.

I can see which subjects people respond to. I notice which conversations I enjoy most and want to have more of. I see certain types of readers appearing repeatedly.

I’m discovering that I gravitate to connecting with thoughtful faith-writers, many in middle age and later years, and Christian creatives trying to build something meaningful without becoming full-time digital marketing machines. I’ve spent 20 years building companies and supporting entrepreneurs, so I'm naturally leaning into helping faith-led writers build their incomes through their work.

Six weeks ago, I couldn’t have articulated that nearly as clearly.

So my niche has already moved considerably, but it's getting clearer all the time as my confidence builds and I get that feedback loop.

My advice is don’t wait until you know your ideal subscriber’s exact age, coffee order and preferred brand of washing powder before you get stuck in.

Your niche can and will sharpen in motion - as you grow.

What I got wrong

(often enthusiastically)

1. I treated my About page like the cupboard under the stairs

‘Shove everything in and hope nobody opens it’

At first, my About page felt like admin. Something to complete quickly so I could get onto the more interesting business of writing.

That was a mistake.

I started to realise that readers often arrive at your About page at a very particular moment. They’ve read a Note or article they liked. They click on your name because they’re curious. They’re not yet committed to subscribing, but they’re considering it.

In other words, your About page has a job to do, and it can do it well if you set it up for success.

It needs to answer a few simple questions:

• Who are you?

• What do you write about?

• Who is this publication for?

• Why might I want more of it?

It doesn’t need your complete biography - just enough clarity for the right reader to feel at home around you.

I’ve rewritten mine several times in six weeks, and I expect I’ll rewrite it again. That is all part of these early days and means the publication itself is becoming clearer.

2. I spent an unreasonable amount of time ‘perfecting’ my bio

Writer. Coach. Author. Woman staring at a comma.

My bio has probably had more edits than some of my articles.

Put writer first. No, coach. Remove that word. Put it back. Maybe this phrase sounds too corporate. Maybe that one sounds too vague.

Move the comma. Add an emoticon for flavour. Should that be capitalised?

I make MY decisions on who to subscribe to pretty much 96.4% based on their bio - so I wanted to get mine as right as I could.

But on the 19th edit in 48 hours, tweaking your bio stops being brand positioning and becomes procrastination.

Nobody has ever thought, I loved everything she wrote, but unfortunately noun number three in her bio was slightly under-positioned.

I am saying this mainly for my own benefit.

3. I nearly turned pricing into a postgraduate research project

£5? $6? Annual? Founding? Send help...!

Once I had paid subscriptions switched on, my brain found an entirely new subject to overanalyse.

How much should I charge? Monthly or annual? Pounds or dollars? What was everybody else charging? Should I charge less because I was new, or would that undervalue the work? What should stay free? What should go behind a paywall? What should a Founding Member receive?

There was a spreadsheet forming in my head - never a good sign.

What I’ve eventually accepted is that your first pricing decision does not have to solve your business model for the next ten years. It just needs to be reasonable, understandable and connected to what you’re actually offering right now.

At this stage, I’m deliberately not pushing paid subscriptions hard. I want to get to know my Subscribers (hellooooo!), understand what people come to me for, and create something of real worth for you.

Right now, I offer my paid subscribers a complimentary copy of my eBook ‘Called to Succeed’ for instant perky download when you subscribe - as well as access to my VIP lounge where we can get into the detail of how to develop our writing, lean into our God-given gifts and have a bucket load of fun together. Feels like a good offer for less than 2 coffees a month :)

But building something people value is the priority, and I enjoy the writing and the process so much, I know my paid subscribers will find me when they’re good and ready to go Next Level…

My Biggest Learning: Discovering the difference between Deep Work on Substack and Wide Work

Somewhere in the process of trying to balance articles, Notes, comments, statistics, sharing, conversations and an actual life, I realised that I’ve been treating two very different kinds of work as though they were the same thing.

They’re not.

So I’ve started calling them Deep Work and Wide Work.

Deep work is when you go a hundred inches in one direction. You shut out the world, focus, and get to work creating.

Wide work is almost as important. You go an inch in a hundred different directions. Promoting. Notes. Comments. Share on other platforms. The work of sharing your genius far and wide.

See snazzy diagram below:

Deep Work: you originate

Wide Work: you circulate

Both matter, and mistaking one for the other gets exhausting fast.

I can spend an hour on Substack replying, commenting, checking statistics, reading Notes and tweaking something on my profile. At the end of it, I’ve been genuinely busy. Some of that activity may even have been useful.

But I haven’t originated anything.

Equally, I could spend weeks producing beautiful long-form writing in splendid isolation and then be vaguely affronted when nobody magically discovers it.

A publication needs both.

What I’ve discovered is that I don’t think you have to try and do both, all day, every day. They each use different skills, different parts of your brain and varying amounts of your time and energy.

So my best advice is;

Find your deep/wide rhythm.

Build a deep/wide routine.

This is probably the most useful advice I can offer from my first six weeks.

Don’t just decide what you’re going to do. Work out when you are naturally best placed to do it.

If you’re a morning person and that’s when your brain is clearest, protect some of that time for originating. Write the article. Develop the idea. Do the work that needs your best concentration. Keep a tab of your article ideas on your phone or in a little notebook you can carry around. It’s amazing where inspiration strikes.

Perhaps if, like me, you’re in a 9-5, then lunchtime is when you might decide to build the habit of spending 20 minutes responding to people and joining in conversations.

Maybe later in the day you’re too tired to write something substantial but perfectly capable of sharing a Note, restacking something interesting or replying to comments.

Your pattern may be completely different.

You might be a night owl. You might have children, a day job, caring responsibilities, health limitations, church commitments or simply other things in life that you don’t want your Substack to swallow whole.

Good. Build around your reality. This makes it sustainable and a joy - not yet another obligation to fulfil.

These few weeks have already shown me that there is always more you could do on Substack. Another conversation to join. Another Note to write. Another statistic to inspect. Another person to discover.

The opportunities to read, write, share and connect on Substack has no natural finishing line. So you have to create one to make it sustainable.

This is really important if you’re going to make side income from Substack, and vital if you want it to BE your income full-time one day - because it’s going to take some planning and process to make your Substack scalable. (More on that in a future article as this is a topic I’m pondering deeply).

So, 6 weeks in, 100+ subscribers, here’s what I think

I came into Substack thinking growth would mostly be about writing good things and persuading people to read them.

It is exactly that.

But it’s also about learning, experimenting, listening, connecting and gradually discovering the rhythm that allows you to keep doing all of those things without turning your publication into a chore and dropping off as many newbies do.

Great writing still matters more than clever growth tactics.

At the beginning, Substack can feel as though you’re standing in a very large room with the lights switched off, talking to yourself. Then somebody answers. Another person arrives. Someone shares something you’ve written. A conversation starts.

Slowly, the room doesn’t feel quite so empty.

Today there are 100 people in mine.

In internet terms, that’s tiny.

But picture 100 actual human beings sitting in a room because they chose to hear what you have to say.

In fact, let’s visualise it.. here’s what around 100 people in a room looks like!

Suddenly it doesn’t feel tiny at all!

So if you’re sitting at 3 subscribers, or 17, or 42, wondering whether you’re getting anywhere, I wouldn’t tell you to hack the algorithm or spend every spare moment networking.

I’d tell you to keep writing. Keep experimenting.

Talk to real people. Notice what lands best. Let your niche sharpen as you go. Make it easy for the right people to understand who you are and why they might want to stay.

And then:

Find your rhythm. Build a routine.

Go deep when you’re creating.

Go wide when you’re connecting.

I’m certainly not claiming to have figured Substack out. I’m simply six weeks further down the road than I was when I started.

And perhaps that’s exactly why this is the right time to write this.

If you’ve read this far, you’re my favourite Subscriber!

Could you please do me a little kindness and share this with your network?

Share Redeeming Time

And please leave me a comment below with your own lessons learned - it helps me find and share your work too!

Leave a comment

Well, there’s a story here I have to tell because publishing your first Christian non-fiction book is a messy tale of tech fails, false starts, crushingly loud imposter syndrome and shouting into a void.

And that was the upside…

Let’s rewind.

During lockdown, I got bored. Really bored.

Like, type-A energy bored… I-could-drill through-the-walls-with-my-elbows kind of bored.

Some people surrendered to the banana bread craze. Some did Couch to 5K in their backyard.

I started messing around with Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing - their self-publisher platform).

For a couple of years, on and off as life got back to (cough) ‘normal ’, I published quite a few things under pen names first because it felt mysterious and author-like.

46 titles to be precise.

Many were notebooks and journals. Some were bible study workbooks.

One of my best sellers was a Password Keeper with a Golden Retriever on the front. (Not all that safe, but people love ‘em - both the dogs and the handy one-stop-shop for all your passwords!)

Plus, nobody needed to know it was me while I figured out ISBNs, formatting, margins, keywords and why-oh-why Amazon had suddenly moved something critical three pixels to the left.

It was trial and error.

Mostly error.

At one point, in the midst of the final triumphant phase of uploading to KDP to hit the hallowed ‘Publish’ button, the whole computer went full-blown beachball crash-out on me, and I lost the entire manuscript…

Not going to lie. Words were said.

But I learnt one thing. Well, lots of things. But one BIG thing:

You can read about self-publishing for months, or you can just give it a whirl. Be willing to fail and possibly embarass yourself and publishing something will teach you more in a weekend than a 3-month heavily discounted online course.

So I pressed the button.

Phew!

“That was quite fun!” I pronounced to no one at 3:13am as I finally worked out how to set my pricing in 14 different currencies.

I felt like I had won before I made a single sale because it was a full-on biblically proportioned uphill learning Everest experience. BUT I had indeed written my first Christian non-fiction book: Called to Succeed: Doing Business God’s Way.

It wasn’t perfect.

I would do quite a few things differently now.

OK, a LOT differently.

What I got wrong

First, I should have invested in a proper cover.

I didn’t.

I hodgepodged something that looked vaguely snazzy by myself on Canva after a few too many coffees (neon pink and black, anyone?) thinking ‘good enough is good enough!’

After all, everyone knows it’s what’s on the inside that counts with a book, right?

There are places to save money when you’re experimenting.

Your cover isn’t one of them.

People I handed author copies to loved the content, but I noted the slight squirm on their faces at the industrially bold cover.

Exhibit A, your honour.

People do judge books by their covers, it seems. Annoying, but true.

I’ve redesigned it now for the eBook version to mellow it down (and save a few retinas), but I’m leaving the OG cover on the one on Amazon for now because, honestly, it makes me laugh so hard when I see it, and in the world of being new to self-publishing, laughs are not that easy to come by.

Second, I was far too shy about asking people to buy it.

Writing a book and then quietly drumming your fingers on your overheated laptop, hoping somebody just magically discovers it, is not a particularly robust marketing strategy.

My college professors would hang their heads in shame and swipe my Business Degree right out of my hand without a second thought for the papercuts.

I should have messaged friends, colleagues, former clients and people who knew my work and simply said:

I’ve written a book. Would you buy a copy? And if you find it helpful, would you leave me an honest review?

Not everyone would have.

But I didn’t even post about it on my personal Facebook or my professional LinkedIn to my gazbillion followers (okay, slight exaggeration) because I felt far too shy.

I had already let the imposter mindset get the better of me. I had already decided it wasn’t good enough, and no one would buy it.

But some absolutely would! And did!

Because there are people out there who want you to succeed.

There are people out there who daren’t write the book that is inside them yet, and they’re curious to see someone start out.

And there are also a few people out there who need the answer you’ve got in your sweaty, scrunched-up hand.

So. Write it. Publish it. Release it.

Third, I probably spent too much time trying to make everything look like a “proper author” would.

Whatever that means.

The best lesson KDP taught me was to keep things simple.

Write it.

Format it.

Upload it.

Order a proof.

Fix the obvious disasters. (There were many, probably still are).

Publish.

You can improve as you go.

What I got right

I did make the book focused.

It wasn’t trying to be an academic theological work. It was practical Christian mentoring; friend-to-friend style, for people navigating work, careers and business.

The manuscript is full of things I have said for decades and still say to people now:

use the gifts you already have

ask for advice

test your plans

focus on what matters

expect setbacks

don’t confuse being busy with making progress.

That’s probably why I still like it.

Because this tiny wee tome simply sounds like me sitting across the table from someone saying:

Right. Here’s what I’d do.

I also made it shareable, without particularly planning to at the time.

That has turned out to really matter.

A solid book, even if it’s a little messy round the edges and won’t ever hit the Bestseller list, can provide you with content for a long time to come.

It also gives you a visual boost to see your name on the cover of a book.

Your first foray into the world of publishing is going to feel precarious. There is so much to learn. And every time you learn something, you open a new door to a corridor of more doors marked ‘Learn THIS too!’. It can be overwhelming when you have a dream, a big vision, huge scary hairy goals.

But start somewhere.

And decide to be okay with it being a bit rubbish.

That’s what I had to learn.

The book is quite good. There are nuggets of golden wisdom in there. Not because I knew what I was doing, but because I just wanted to try.

And God honours that.

Oh wow does He honour that.

So friend. Is it time to get out of the boat and publish that first book, eBook or mini book?

If so - drop me a comment or reach out in the Chat Channel and I’m very happy to share how KDP actually works, and any other advice I can offer that might help you avoid some of the hair-pulling, angsty moments I endured!

New paid subscribers to Redeeming Time now get the PDF of Called to Succeed as a welcome gift.

And if you would like to become a Founding Member, I’ll post you a personalised, signed paperback — wherever you are in the world.

It’s not some enormous publishing empire.

It’s one little book.

But this one little book has given me an asset I can keep using, sharing, repurposing and building on.

And its garish original cover still makes me chuckle.

So, please stop waiting until you’re a ‘proper’ writer.

Publishing something is one of the things that makes you a writer.

Your first book does not have to be your definitive masterpiece.

Your first book can simply be the thing that teaches you how not to write your second.

So go ahead and cringe at your cover.

You may discover a typo three months later (I sure did…).

You may sell 12 copies rather than 12,000.

But you’ve succeeded the moment you press Publish because most never do.

You’ve heard it before - nobody can read the book you never release.

So write something YOU like. Make it as good as you can right now.

Get an actual sensible human to look at it and proofread it for you and tell you what they honestly think…

Then hit publish.

Ship it.

Learn.

Improve.

Repeat.

I’ll see you on the Bestseller list.

If you’ve read this far, you’re my favourite Subscriber!

Consider signing up for a monthly subscription for your FREE copy of the now-infamous first version of my eBook. Called to Succeed.

Subscribe now

It feels like everyone is a ‘content creator’ nowadays.

But actually, humans have been creating content since Eve said, “You really need to try this - it’s delish”, and influencer marketing was born...

Whether you’re writing for fun, to do something other than the dishes, to counter-balance the boredom of your 9-5, or you’re very serious about building your own side hustle / slash / 7-figure empire - if you write stuff on the interweb, you are a content creator.

You want to find people who ‘get’ you.

You want people to enjoy, benefit from, be moved by and maybe even celebrate and share your work.

After all, isn’t that why we’re here on Substack?

And there is certainly no shortage of advice telling us content creators what we should be doing.

Post more often!

No, not that often, spammer! (hits ‘unsubscribe to all’)

Tell stories!

Wow, get to the point already…

Teach something useful!

Hey, I got lost after step 94, can you go back?

Start conversations!

Are they being sarcastic or am I being over-sensitive?

Build a community!

Does 4 people in my Chat count? …three of them are related.

The problem is that most creator advice starts with a strategy.

I think we need to start with THE Creator. The One who breathed all this into existence, and always knew the kind of creators He had made in His own image.

We writers are different. Every one of us.

It’s why the content that feels natural for one person can feel painfully performative for another.

It is why one writer creator can throw a provocative opinion into the internet before their second coffee and thoroughly enjoy the resulting debate.

Another would rather quietly publish a 2,000-word guide explaining the subject properly and then hide from the comments.

Neither is doing content wrong.

Each of us is simply built differently.

The best content strategy isn’t a 16-point blueprint you downloaded one Thursday morning from Gerald on LinkedIn. The best content strategy is the one that works with the way you naturally think and communicate.

That’s the thinking behind my Content Creator Types framework.

I’ve identified five broad ways we tend to create and connect:

Coach. Teacher. Host. Challenger. Pioneer.

You’ll probably recognise bits of yourself in several of them.

That’s normal.

This isn’t an attempt to squeeze the entire human creativity spectrum into five colourful pigeonholes.

But most of us have a natural centre of gravity in our style and preference.

Why knowing your Creator Type makes you better

When you understand what you’re naturally trying to do through your content, quite a few things become clearer.

You begin to understand why certain formats suit you and flow better.

Knowing your core type will help you get better at recognising your blind spots and help you focus on your God-given strengths, rather than swimming upstream because it felt like something you should do.

And perhaps most importantly, you stop assuming that every successful creator needs to behave in exactly the same way.

A Coach doesn’t need to get lost in the detail and undertake 4 months of study before launching their next article.

A Teacher doesn’t need to manufacture controversial opinions every Tuesday.

A Challenger doesn’t need to turn every thought into a seven-step tutorial.

A Host isn’t failing because their greatest strength is creating conversation rather than publishing perfect essays.

And a Pioneer probably needs someone to occasionally confiscate the My Ideas notebook until they deliver on the last one.

Different strengths. Different risks. Different ways of building trust.

So, which one sounds most like you?

The Coach

You create transformation.

Coaches naturally want people to make any move, as long as it’s forward.

You’re unlikely to be satisfied simply putting an interesting idea out into the world. You want someone to read it and think:

Right. I know what I need to do next.

You naturally spot potential, problems and practical next steps.

Your content tends to be encouraging, useful and action-focused.

People often come to Coach creators because you don’t just give them information; you help them with transformation.

Your great strength is turning your insight into their progress.

Your danger?

Trying to solve everybody’s entire life in one Substack Note.

Top Tip for the Coach:

• Share some of your own journey. Advice becomes infinitely more compelling when people can see the human being behind it. Even if you haven’t lived their particular challenges, sharing your own shows you know how to make progress.

The Teacher

You create understanding.

Teachers love joining dots and rejoicing in patterns.

You gather ideas, explanations, experience and research and turn them into something other people can actually understand.

Your audience is likely to trust you because your content has real substance. You don’t particularly want to shout louder than everybody else. You’d far rather know what you’re talking about.

Teachers are often brilliant at guides, frameworks, explainers, resources and long-form content. Choosing a few pithy lines for Notes poses a dilemma: ‘Where do I start?’

Your great strength is turning information into understanding.

Knowledge is cheap. It’s your interpretation of it that makes people come back to you.

Your depth and attention to detail are a superpower in an era of brevity and surface-level quips.

Your danger?

Trying to explain the whole concept, complete with the historical context, 14 reference texts and some Hebrew - when the reader only asked for 3 bullet points.

Top Tip for the Teacher:

• Lead with your reader’s questions. Traditionally, teachers talk - the class listens. The hands go up with ‘Any Questions?’ In the era of content overwhelm, start by listening to your audience first. Learn what problem they’re trying to solve, then offer the solution.

The Host

You create connection.

Hosts instinctively gather people.

Your writing is the literary equivalent of a campfire, or a laden buffet table where everyone’s welcome to pull up a chair.

You ask questions. You notice people. You make introductions. You create conversations people want to join.

You put out something nourishing and genuine, and you stick around to make sure everyone enjoyed their meal.

And that is a genuine content-creating master skill.

We sometimes talk about community as though it simply appears once enough followers have accumulated. It absolutely does not.

Somebody has to intentionally create the conditions for depth of connection.

Your content is not takeaway food. It’s dine-in with others.

If your content, your Substack, your Chat Channel, podcast or YouTube channel has fostered inter-follower chit-chat, then you, my friend, are a Host.

Your danger?

Becoming so good at facilitating everyone else’s comments that your time for creating fresh content gets limited.

Top Tip for the Host:

• Create recurring gathering points. Regular threads, themes or rituals give people reasons to return and an established sense of belonging. A ‘Wednesday Boost’ chat lets newbies and old faithfuls alike jump right in and share. Set it up and let your readers entertain one another, and your reputation as the gatherer compounds.

The Challenger

You create conviction.

Challengers notice what isn’t quite adding up.

You question assumptions, push against conventional wisdom and tend to remain curious long after everyone else appears to have agreed far too quickly.

Your strongest content makes people pause for thought.

You have a knack for articulating something your readers already sensed but haven’t been able to put into words. Your super strength is posing questions to your readers that confront their assumptions and leave them pondering something completely new to them.

Used well, this creates powerful thought leadership.

Your great strength is turning assumption into re-examination.

Your danger?

Discovering that being contrary definitely gets attention and accidentally turning yourself into the person arguing with the trolls…

Top Tip for the Challenger:

• Challenge ideas rather than people. Strong opinions can still land well when expressed with a few soft pillows for the impact. A well-reasoned alternative builds far more trust than a hot take. Tell your story. Put your content in context. No one can argue for long when it’s your story, your life, your journey.

The Pioneer

You create for possibility.

Pioneers are drawn towards what could be.

New technology. New approaches. New combinations. New opportunities. Experiments and trial runs.

You’re unafraid of giving things a shot, learning, adjusting, pivoting as you go.

Where someone else sees uncertainty and decides to hang back and see what happens to the early adopters, you see an interesting new opportunity that somebody might as well open.

Pioneers are compelling creators because curiosity is contagious. You bring people into the process of discovery with you.

You’re often at your best saying:

I’ve been thinking… what if we tried this?

Your great strength is turning possibility into curiosity, and curiosity into movement.

Your danger?

Moving onto possibility number 47 while the audience is still trying to understand possibilities 2 through 6.

Top Tip for the Pioneer:

• Turn experimentation into content. Share what you’re trying, live and unsanitised. Sharing the behind-the-scenes as you explore is stand-out and compelling in a world of polished show reels.

Your type isn’t a content prison

You aren’t only one of these types. Not at all.

A Teacher can challenge. A Host can coach. A Pioneer can teach.

In fact, the most interesting creators often have a strong secondary type.

But understanding your dominant instinct gives you something useful to build from.

Instead of asking, “What should I create today?”
Start asking, “What kind of creator am I. And how can I become exceptionally good at that?”

There’s a faith principle buried in here too.

I wrote recently about doing business God’s way, and one of the things that keeps striking me is how differently people are gifted.

Some build.

Some teach.

Some encourage.

Some lead.

Some challenge the status quo.

Some see possibilities nobody else sees yet.

Our job isn’t necessarily to become brilliant at every possible way of showing up online.

Less really can be more.

Especially when you’re bold enough to accept and lean into your unique inherent gifts and preferences.

Then it really starts to flow.

So if you’ve been struggling to find your voice, perhaps don’t start by asking what everybody else is doing.

Start with a better question.

What kind of creator am I?

Share your thoughts in the comments. I can’t wait to find out if it has been helpful for you.

Did it resonate?

If you read this far, you’re my favourite subscriber!

And if this is your cup of chai - I would love you to share, restack, and help a little new publication out - thank you.

There is no shortage of advice on how to start and grow your business.

Walk into any airport bookshop, and you’ll find shelves groaning under the weight of business advice.

Leadership.
Productivity.
Negotiation.
Influence.
Marketing.
Mindset.

After twenty-five years helping founders start and scale businesses, raising millions of pounds in investment and watching companies soar (and occasionally spectacularly implode), I’ve learnt a lot.

And I’m going to share what I’ve learned here on my new Substack publication - Redeeming Time.

Very little of the lessons I’ve learn were found in the non-fiction section of airport stores.

Podcasters, multi-millionaires from (often) privileged backgrounds seem to have it all together and of course we want to find out how they made their companies successful… but… as Christians our story is not the world’s story.

The processes are different.

The systems work in ways that can’t easily be captured in a 4-point blueprint.

There are forces of blessing, favour and innovation at work that didn’t come from a business model canvas or a boardroom.

Because when God is involved in your business - it’s a whole different rulebook.

So I’ve been wondering whether we’ve been looking for business mentors in the wrong places.

The Bible has a lot to say about how prosperity in faith and business go hand in hand.

Not prosperity at any cost. Not hustle until burnout. Not “manifest your millions.”

Jesus came to bring redemption and right-standing with our Creator God. He did not come to make us rich.

We may become rich in many ways, be it through privilege, advantage, hard graft, inheritance, luck, savvy decision-making or a good day at the races.

It doesn’t mean we’re any more loved or any more favoured to acquire and build wealth.

However, the scriptures are full of people who were blessed. And blessed beyond measure.

Biblical prosperity is about faithful stewardship. Building well. Serving well. Creating value. Managing wisely. Treating people with dignity. Making money without making money your master.

And the fascinating thing is that some of the best business mentors in history were never called entrepreneurs.

Perhaps because it was just accepted that risk-taking, problem-solving, meeting the customers’ needs and giving the best possible service was a given for those who became successful.

There are biblical heroes we admire for their obedience, their bravery, their perseverance. There are libraries full of bible character case studies.

But not much has been said or written about what we as business leaders can learn from these legendary entrepreneurs.

Ask Noah about innovation.

Every genuinely original idea looks ridiculous before it looks inevitable.

Bill Gates believed there would be a computer in every home. Most people thought he was dreaming up nonsense. Why on earth would normal people want anything to do with computers?

Airbnb suggested people would happily sleep in strangers’ spare rooms. Investors laughed them out of the room.

Noah spent years building an enormous boat when there wasn’t so much as a cloud in the sky.

Innovation has always required the courage to look slightly foolish before everyone else catches up.

Ask Joseph about setbacks.

Joseph’s career path wasn’t exactly textbook.

Sold into slavery by his brothers.

Dumped. Forgotten.

Wrongly imprisoned.

Then unexpectedly promoted to become Egypt’s chief operating officer, overseeing one of history’s greatest economic recovery plans.

Every entrepreneur with a vivid dream will face setbacks.

Every career hits seasons that make no sense.

Sometimes the greatest obstacle of all could even be your nearest and dearest. Friends and family who are fed up of you and your big ideas…

But Joseph reminds us that preparation in difficult seasons is never wasted. It simply sharpens our focus.

What Joseph’s family tried to bury and hide became their saving grace when famine hit.

Ask Esther about influence.

The most influential people in business aren’t always the loudest.

Esther didn’t storm into the king’s palace demanding change.

She built trust, understood timing and spoke with courage when it mattered most.

Influence isn’t measured by your job title. It’s earned through wisdom, credibility and character.

Ask Nehemiah about purpose.

Nehemiah already had a successful career. He was a civil servant, just like me!

Trusted adviser to the king. Secure salary. Prestigious position. He must have felt quite secure working so closely with the authorities of the day. Security was his for life if he just kept smiling and did a decent job.

But then he heard that Jerusalem lay in ruins.

His heart broke for the loss to God’s people. He couldn’t ignore life outside the comforts of the palace.

He left his secure, comfortable position to go and solve a problem that wouldn’t leave him alone.

He not only asked the King if he could take a career break to go and work on his side hustle, but he also dared to ask for the King’s favour to make his way smooth!

Ask Lydia about profit.

Lydia sold luxury purple cloth across the Roman Empire. She had an impressive home, employed a good few people, and she famously used her success to support the early church.

And she never apologised for being successful.

She wasn’t ashamed of her hard work and success because it was her mission to do good with the profits.

She held her wealth with open hands, and God was able to use the gifts He put in her in the first place to support the work of the ministry.

Business success isn’t something Christians should whisper about.

It’s a tool. And like every tool, it just depends whose hands it is in.

And those are just five examples from the pages of the scriptures, but there are so many more that we will get into over the next few weeks.

Friend, we’re just getting started.

You’re going to have your mind blown with all the incredible lessons from biblical mentors…

Ask Deborah about courageous leadership.

Ask Ruth about rebuilding your life when everything has changed.

Ask Daniel about maintaining your integrity in the workplace.

Ask Martha about the difference between being busy and being fruitful.

Ask Mary about protecting your attention and nurturing God’s gracious gifts in your life.

Ask Barnabas about encouraging people long before anyone else sees their potential.

Ask Gideon about battling imposter syndrome.

Ask Bezalel about craftsmanship and excellence.

Ask Priscilla about building great partnerships.

Ask Boaz about playing the long game.

Ask Hannah about praying before making big decisions.

Ask Zacchaeus about second chances.

Ask Paul about changing direction when life doesn’t go to plan.

Ask the Proverbs 31 woman about investing, manufacturing, property, pricing, trading and planning for the future. Frankly, she’d probably have an impressive LinkedIn profile. [Much more on her later… she’s worthy of her own series!]

It’s the story of ordinary people learning to steward extraordinary opportunities.

Some built businesses.

Some rebuilt cities.

Some managed wealth.

Some managed teams.

Some failed. Some failed then tried again and again

.

All of them discovered that success without wisdom is fragile.

If you’re building a faith-led business, don’t just ask what works.

Ask what lasts.

Ask what honours God.

Ask what serves people.

Ask whether you’re doing business God’s way.

You might discover your next business mentor has been hiding in plain sight all along.

If you’ve read this far... thank you.

You’re my favourite Subscriber!

And there’s so much more to come.

Share

Pic above: AI has its moments… how much fun would THIS Board meeting be!?

.

I have posted Notes almost daily.

I have Followed and Subscribed like a good faithful.

Cue: insert Subscriber button - hint hint :)

Subscribe now

I have researched how the platform works (and there is still so much more to learn - “Perks” anyone??

But I have also changed my Bio a gazbillion times trying to craft 50 years of life into 18-20 words in a pithy and hooky way; with just the right measure of warmth, humour and information to help viewers decide in a snap whether to Follow, or even (*loud gasp*) Subscribe.

Or even (*deafening gasp*) PAY.

(I know, what kind of Newbie turns ON the paid subscriptions before they even have 100 Followers, let alone free subscribers. I guess I am just plucky that way.)

But you probably know what’s coming next…

I’m confused.

I just can’t seem to find my tribe.

Not yet, anyway.

Heck. I can’t even work out what colour my own stripes are.

Do I write about business? I’ve helped hundreds of entrepreneurs start and scale companies, securing millions in investment and live out their dreams.

Do I write about church? I spent 20 years in the evangelical church only to be chewed up and spat out by toxic leadership.

Do I write about enduring faith? (See above) Perhaps I can give others hope beyond the trauma of disappointment at the hands of (dis)organised religion?

Do I write about chronic disease? Every day being a silent battle to just keep moving might encourage someone else out there to just. keep. going.

Or do I vow to only look forward and chatter about pretirement and my grand plans to seize my 50s by the cahoonas and start living my best life?

One thing is for sure.

Trying to be all things to all kinds of people is confusing me, let alone my followers.

I apologise to you all.

But I’m also kinda not that sorry because I have a feeling I need to go through this rite of passage to find my peeps.

It’s like I am wandering up and down the corridor in a huge mansion in the middle of the best party ever and I’m visiting each room to check out the vibe before deciding whether and where to hang out.

The lounge dwellers are philosophising and debating over fascinating topics my brain both loves and loathes (who wants to be the dumbest person in the room so I’d better stop and listen a while).

The kitchen crew are churning out handy 8-step frameworks to help me learn ropes I didn’t even know I wanted to pull. But now I do.

The bedroom folks are just chilling and vibing and planning their best lives, making my morning routine look like a slow car crash. Perhaps if I rearrange my work station and add a few pots plants, I’ll also start channelling Best Life vibes.

The hallway nomads (like me) are bumping into each other with a ‘hey! love your work!’, an exchange of nods, and then the conversation stalls, so we move along. Encouraging, but not making any BFFs.

The porch is crammed with midlife musers trying to rediscover their inner child and declutter their lives to find their authentic selves, and I want to linger longest here.

These are definitely my homies.

But I tear myself away.

Out to the garden - into the wilds of ‘Explore’.

I’m amused to find out that I’ve been on Substack longer than Simon Sinek. That made me chortle. I’m not only in good company - I’m ahead of a curve!

And then I find there’s a raging debate that has sparked over the use of AI on Substack; using it to draft, write, format, plan…

With the rollout of Pangram, now we’re using AI to tell on those using AI.

Some writers are incensed.

Mostly, it seems, those who want to use it.

But it’s also clear that some readers don’t really care - they just want value.

And hey, almost as fast as Pangram was rolled out, we found the ‘off’ button. I’m not sure I understand the point of transparency that can be switched on or off, but I’m new here - don’t judge.

And let’s not even get started on false positives, which throw the whole point of ‘a transparency tool’ into chaos.

Hey, I feel pretty heated about all this; maybe I should write about AI?

NICHE DOWN! I hear you yell from the bathroom…

You’re right, but niche down to what?

We are human beings; we’re not niches.

We’re tapestries of the cumulative years we’ve lived and loved and lost and laughed and lamented.

And I love it all.

I am it all.

And I’m endlessly curious about people of all kinds - I don’t want to live in an algorithmic echo chamber, but Substack clearly doesn’t know who to send my way, nor who to send me to.

Because all the good and sensible Substackers (and apparently successful, AI or not) seem to stick to gorgeously neat topics.

They build their credibility with consistency.

They show up day after day.

They know who their audience is, and is not.

They are offering one dish on their menu and, my goodness, it’s tasty.

Yeah.

That’s not me.

Not yet anyway.

So growth is gonna be slow.

And possibly painful.

I’ll probably be experimenting for a while until I find my clearest voice.

And if you’ve read this far - you’re my favourite Subscriber.

Thank you.

How’s that going? you might well ask.

I’m not even sure I can recall exactly how I decided to start, other than finding myself glued to a YouTube video by an amazing creator called which wasn’t even about Substack. I went off down a rabbit hole on her channel (Highly Recommend for authenticity). As I learned more about the “writer’s platform”, I instinctively sensed something good was ahead and Substack was calling me onboard!

It seemed to be serendipity, and here’s why:

I was 24 hours away from turning 50 years of age last Monday when I first logged on.

I was in Whitley Bay, England, on holiday “so I can wake up by the ocean at the start of my 5th decade on Earth” as I lamented to my poor husband, who was completely bereft of ideas for how to mark the occasion.

I was feeling existential I suppose. I was searching for something, a new place for my soul, a mental garden of sorts 🪴 where I could potter, and learn and grow something new.

My soul felt restless.

I’ve felt like this for over a year after bereavements, marriage crisis, burnout, the big 5-0 coming over the hill at me, finding myself at a major career crossroads, chronic disease trying to shred me, perimenopause jumping up and down on my nervous system…. You name it.

I needed to take a big, big, deep, deep breath.

So, I decided to create an account, and have a nosey around.

Wow.

Just wow.

[And…….. exhale…..]

I immediately felt something which no other platform, and few real-life spaces, make me feel.

My beleaguered soul has found its home.

Outpourings of wisdom, wit, emotions and tips.

I found myself inspired to sugar-high levels without even touching the Skittles, and I naively jumped right in.

Hours spent by the seaside marking my transition to my fifties, coupled with writing, and rewriting, and rewriting my Bio… this week was the happiest I’ve felt in months, maybe a couple of years.

Following people who had something to say where I could sense their personality and presence through the screen of my phone as if they were walking the sandy shoreline beside me, has felt sacred.

My first few Notes were about turning 50, and sea glass.

Nothing fancy.

Hardly intellectual or inspirational.

But it was me.

Because that was the absolute simple truth of where I was in those moments when I made my first few posts.

And when I wake up and greedily surf through my Notes feed, clicking on articles that grab me and savouring every word, here I find people who are writing about exactly the spot they find themselves in that moment, and so I click Follow so I can enjoy their journey too.

It has been exhilarating and addicting in a way that sparked the creative inside me that has been locked away for many years.

I’ve always been a writer.

As a charming podgy kid on holiday on the North East coast of Scotland - whilst my brothers built sand-fortresses until sundown - I’d be carving words into the shore only to squeal with glee as the tide obliterated my etchings.

As a student I found nothing more satisfying than tapping out an essay or a short story on my fancy electronic type-writer (it was the 90s…).

I began to write and publish songs for church swing my 20s and 30s and sung them to large congregations caught up in a cloud of adoration for God and the gospel that captured my heart and set my soul on fire.

I wrote Bible studies and workbooks for the She31 community which grew to over 3,000 globally - purely by word of mouth before monetisation was a ‘thing’.

I wrote web copy, presentations, briefings, speeches, papers and reports and hundreds of thousands of emails throughout my corporate career so far.

During Covid, I discovered Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and created little practical books for people to journal in. And a few more Bible studies and sermons here and there.

Words and I are good friends.

It’s a simple friendship - I won’t win awards for my ramblings - but we are well acquainted and when we dance, we hope others pick up on the joy too.

Ten years ago the onset of arthritis in my hands, belligerently shunning biologic therapy when it flares, means I don’t always know how much pain writing will cause me day-to-day.

But I do it anyway.

Because it is so deeply ingrained in who I am and all the things I love to do that give me joy.

So, that’s the backstory to WHY I joined.

How’s it going?

• as I write I am stunned to have 23 Followers (‘waves Hello!’) who have found something vaguely interesting in what I have to say which is a huge privilege

• as of yesterday - Day Six - I have 3 Subscribers which I am ridiculously excited about - thank you lovely people 🙏

• the range of things to write about is overwhelmingly exciting so there is a large chance my ‘niching’ will take some time (please bear with me Subscriber Fam!)

• Inspiration seems to begat inspiration so the more time I’m here writing note and articles, the more is flowing out through me. How curious.

• Even on the couple of days I’ve wondered for a moment what to write, within seconds of reading my feed, something just ✨comes✨ because the environment here is so cultivating

• I’ve seen only a couple of trace amounts of AI-generated work which seem isolated and I really, really hope Substack keeps it that way

• The web interface is super-detailed with lots of tailoring options most of which I’m still exploring… (Note to self: insert Subscribe button here 👇🏼)

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• The vibe is just phenomenal and I defy anyone not to find their tribe here

• There is the predicted “How to make a million by telling people how to make a million” digital pyramid selling going on which is a tempting rabbit hole of its own

• The algorithm is VERY responsive.. I went from a feed of ‘getting started on Substack’ to ‘monetising your Substack’ to ‘become a millionaire with this Substack framework!’ in about 4 clicks without trying - but it was equally easy to retrain it to the kind of quality thought pieces I am looking for.

Am I a Best Seller yet?

Definitely not. Ha.

Pic: Treasure in plain sight. From one of my many hours on the beach oscillating between sea glass hunting, enjoying the ocean, spotting orcas, supping coffee.. and launching my Substack!

Am I on course to hit 100 Subscribers before I turn 51?

Doubtful.

Have I nailed down that pesky bio and niched myself within an inch of my life?

Not yet.

But I’m having the most fun ever…

I hope you are too 🫶🏻✨

For my 49th birthday, my husband bought me an hourglass.

It was a beautiful, if slightly unnerving gift, given I was already exceedingly mindful of teetering on the brink of my 5th decade.

As I watched the sands fall, mesmerised by the unstoppable flow, it reminded me in a bittersweet way that for all of us, time is running out.

Our finite allocation of moments, minutes, hours, weeks and years is headed to an inevitable conclusion.

Every plummeting grain of sand is a moment that will never return.

You can’t slow it down.

You can’t turn it back over.

You don’t get to choose how much sand is in the glass in the first place, but you do get to choose what you do while it’s still falling.

Are you spending time - or investing it?

Every one of us gets exactly the same amount of time each week. 168 hours.

You get 168. I get 168.

Productivity gurus want us to spin the whole world on our big toe, whilst self-care gurus want us to slow down and savour the life of less.

I kinda want both.

Because I only just turned 50.

I’m not done yet.

But I am done stuffing every moment of every day and week with things that have no lasting value.

And there’s a world of difference between the two.

When you spend something, it’s gone.

When you invest in something, you expect a return, even if you can’t see it yet.

Faith understands that not every investment pays back immediately.

Are you living on crumbs?

How often do you catch yourself saying, “I just don’t have time”?

We wear “busy” like a badge of honour.

“How are you?”

“Busy.”

“How was your week?”

“Busy.”

I do it too. I’m actively trying to say anything but the ‘b’ word now.

After work, family, chores, shopping, emails, appointments, social media and everything else that fills a week, what’s left?

Often, just a few crumbs.

A rushed prayer before dinner.

A quick verse on the Bible app.

Maybe nothing at all.

It made me wonder...

God has already invested in you

Jesus spoke about investing because investing isn’t simply about money; it’s an entire mindset.

God has already invested in you.

Your body.

Your mind.

Your personality.

Your gifts.

Your strengths.

Your experiences.

Your story.

The question isn’t whether He’s given you enough. The question is: what are you doing with what He’s already invested in you?

Here’s what changed everything for me

I realised I have time for every single thing God has asked of me.

Every single thing.

Not everything the world expects of me.

Not everything the boss, friends and family ask of me.

Not every opportunity that comes my way.

But everything God has called me to do.

Hear me, my busy frazzled, burned-out friend;

He has given you exactly enough time to fulfil His purposes for your life.

Refuse to let the world distract you to death.

Refuse to allow others to take command over your calendar.

Look at the gifts He has placed inside you. Dig them out. Let them shine.

He has already given you everything you need to please Him and serve the people that matter.

So let me leave you with some questions:

What are you spending your time on?

How can you change some things to create an investment of your time instead?

Who can you pour into?

Who can you help?

What can you let go of that doesn’t serve anything or anyone?

I’d love to hear your answer. Share it in the comments below. I read and respond to every single one.

Far from being the Superwoman job description that the church has typically weaponised against women just out there doing their dang best, this portion of scripture has far more to say than first appears.

We’ll get into this in a lot more detail in articles to follow … (so now’s a great time to hit that Subscribe button so you don’t miss out).

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But for now, if in Proverbs 31 you see one woman doing a million things brilliantly, you’d be correct.

She’s everyone, being everything to everyone (especially her husband), she’s an entrepreneur, an investor, a merchant, a seamstress, a domestic goddess, the mother of all mothers, the wife that causes envy at the city gate…

She’s a ninja at everything, basically.

Don’t you hate her just a teeny bit?

That’s okay.

Because she doesn’t exist.

She’s a fantasy.

An ideal.

‘She’ is a conglomerate of the best of womanhood (and arguably personhood - I mean, seriously, who wouldn’t want all those skills).

Our greatest mistake is thinking we have to BE her.

So, let me take you back in time for a moment.

18 years ago, on my usual commute into the City, to hit those coproate KPIs as I clambered up the early career ladder, I was doomscrolling to pass the time.

Now, remember that 18 years ago, the number of platforms to scroll on was approximately two.

We had Facebook - for the crafting groups and photos of people’s dinners.

And we had Twitter - for political ranting and pithy indie-lit poems.

I craved a space online to meet and chat with other Christian women out there just doin’ life. Commutin’. Motherin’. Wifin’. Churchin’. Livin’.

(In those days, the word ‘viral’ still led to a GP appointment, not a million ‘Likes’.)

We studied the Bible together, prayed for each other, shared the minutiae of life.

And it was glorious.

Events took a turn, and I had to close the group down.

That’s a very juicy story for another day (this is another super moment to hit Subscribe as I’ll share that story with my Subscribers very soon).

But once God Himself plants a message in your heart, it’s hard to shake.

So here I am.

18 years on.

Publishing my very first Substack post about this incredible piece of scripture I have studied, mulled over, and LIVED.

If you’ll come with me for a moment, I will do my best to help you see yourself in those pages like never before.

Because you are in there.

Not as superwoman.

But as your wonderfully messy, organic, gifted self.

Together, we make up ‘the’ woman described in those verses.

Together, we’re the Bride who makes the Bridegroom die and rise again for His love of her.

It’s the greatest romance of all time.

And you, yes, you there, you are part of it.

So take a look at this framework I created to get the conversation rolling….

And let me ask you a question:

Which type of Proverbs 31 woman are you?

Are you;

• the pioneer - you see the possibilities others miss, you are a true entrepreneur, love starting new things, and you’re passionate about solving problems

• the builder - you get the thing done! You see what the next steps are and you’re already on it

• the steward - your love language is ‘detail people, detail!’ as you bring your keen eye to the gaps and fill them with your keen management abilities

• the advocate - if they’re in pain, you feel it and you don’t hesitate to speak up for the voiceless and the marginalised, you’re a natural includer

• the teacher - learning, education and building understanding make you deep fried happy and you love to share what lights you up with everyone around you

• the mentor - quietly, effectively you create pathways for people to walk in toward their freedom, you naturally see and come alongside people to support them

Now, don’t overthink.

Everyone who has seen this immediately sees 1-2 TOP TYPES that resonate with them.

You’ll likely have another couple that underpin your main type.

And psssssst… here’s a secret:

They’re not just for women!

I bet you can almost immediately see your spouse, your BFF and your kids in these types.

(And that’s another upcoming article where we will explore the Proverbs 31 ‘woman’ as the Bride of Christ, i.e. the Church body itself. Prepare to have your mind. blown. You will truly never again see this chapter as being Superwoman’s to-do list, thank God).

Have fun with it - share it - get the conversation going with your prayer or Bible study group and see where it leads.

We will get into the verses behind each of these ‘types’ in our next few articles, so be sure to Subscribe as we go deeper into each type;

• Your strengths and possible pitfalls

• The kind of work you will tend to thrive in

• Ministry areas that align with your giftings

• Business ideas that will flourish based on your unique type

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Meanwhile - let me know your type(s) in the comments.

I promise I read and respond to every single one.

And if you enjoy this kind of content, let me know. There’s much more to come - I’d love you to join me on this journey to unbox your gifts and illuminate the next steps on your journey.