And we just got one more amazing VIP Mastermind. We had so many new faces, tons of takeaways, and again some new Substack features. Here’s a brief summary:

In a nutshell:

• How to write a viral note - shared how she went from 190 to 1,022 free subscribers (plus her first 9 paid) in two weeks. One note hit 107k impressions and ~10k likes. Her method: the Viral Notes Writer (which you can now get from the Unplugged Toolbox) fed with deep, vulnerable, voice-texted context - plus doing the work of replying to every comment like a friend, not just “thanks”.

• The best time to post notes - shared that her biggest growth spikes happen when she’s active during US prime time (her midnight), and Ruth confirmed the same pattern from LinkedIn. We also covered WriteStack as a tool that analyzes your own audience for optimal posting times.

• How the notes algorithm really behaves - unpredictable by design. Some notes take off instantly, some sit dead for weeks and then explode (Shagoon’s silly “self-love” note got ~500 restacks a week later). My take: comments, not restacks, are the best predictor of growth. And restacking your own note a few days later can extend its life.

• Why small accounts get zero traction on notes - shared her experience and we talked about how when you’re below roughly 500-1,000 subscribers you’ll have to manually trigger visibility through engagement with others.

• Note boosts and restacking comments - shared how boost groups keep her notes alive, and how she even got book sales from a note with a link - proving me wrong on “never put links in notes”. Test everything.

• Give AI a permanent brain - Shagoon’s engineer tip: maintain a one-pager .txt file about you, your newsletter, and your milestones, so you never re-explain yourself when a chat fills up.

• Converting free to paid - Lisa’s honest “wall” around asking for money opened a discussion. I shared the High-Converting CTA Writer (very underrated in our community - get it from the Unplugged Toolbox) that frames offers as problem-solution-outcome instead of “buy my thing”.

• When to start notes and payments - raised one very good question - if she should go all-in on notes with only one post published. It’s not about subscriber count - it’s about having something inside your Substack worth landing on first (5-10 posts minimum).

• Again we also walked through the new Substack features:

  • Group chats - private chats with up to 50 people, a native alternative to School/Circle. This sparked a full discussion with and Shagoon about School: why pulling people off-platform breaks (no automation, manual access management, zero discoverability) and why the only School model that works is tangible assets + a serious YouTube channel.

  • Automations - still bestseller-only but rolling out, and a legitimate partial Kit replacement for free-to-paid conversion flows.

  • Creator Match - see the creators with the highest audience overlap (your “competitors”) and turn them into collaborators - guest posts, lives, recommendation swaps. Marylee asked how to open that conversation, and I shared my exact approach.

  • Metering - let free readers unlock a set number of paid posts per month, and you choose which posts are metered. More selective than the 7-day trial - though I’m skeptical it converts better.

• Email overwhelm on both sides - and raised subscriber fatigue. We covered following instead of subscribing, disabling email notifications in the app (and why that quietly kills senders’ open rates), Shagoon’s audit ritual for over-promotional newsletters, and why I send promos from Kit instead of Substack - so people can unsubscribe from promotions without leaving my publication.

• Why recommendations bring followers, not subscribers - I finally answered Marylee’s question: Substack’s new subscribe flow defaults people into “follow all” with only three actual subscribes - so our job is converting followers through content and direct connection.

and so much more…

I also shared shared that The Unplugged Toolbox is now available in Perks, plus some exciting things that come up in September for VIP members only - the QUEST goes LIVE every week where we optimize your Substack for a high conversion rate.

And we’ll have a QUEST Sparring group chat for VIPs only - it’s decided.

This is the place where we share lessons, best practices, find collaborations, and help each other with anything that’s on our plate right now. We grow faster. Together.

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In a nutshell:

• How to monetize yourself - shared her view on Substack and then everyone joined the conversation, adding to it.

• How to build a value ladder - shared her way to build a portfolio of offers that complement each other and drive conversion.

• We also had a discussion about how to get funded as a creator using nonprofits - and shared their view on the options.

• We walked through the new features on Substack that unlock new levels of monetization and growth:

  • Audience-specific content - now we can finally create a proper freebie landing page on Substack

  • Subscriber perks - now we can finally have benefits for annual members only AND refuse refunds to anyone who tries to abuse the paid memberships

  • Set the tone in the comment section and how this becomes even more important with AI. I honestly hope we’ll have something similar for chats - it’s a must

  • Substack MCP and how it compares to Kit MCP. I also shared how I used Kit MCP to actually update my most valuable subscribers’ data so that I can properly personalize my emails to them

• and so much more…

I also shared what’s coming soon in the VIP membership - introducing QUEST Lives new ways for me to help VIPs sell more (more about these coming soon, VIPs are the first to hear about all new changes and it usually happens in these meetings. As always, this will come with a price increase for new VIPs, existing ones keep the same price as always. Lock it now while it’s still available, it’s will keep increasing in the future.

This is the place where we share lessons, best practices, find collaborations, and help each other with anything that’s on our plate right now. We grow faster. Together.

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In a nutshell:

• How to make a come back after a pause on Substack - had her baby with us on the call while we talked about the best approach to return back on track.

• How to incorporate YouTube videos with Substack - best approach for growth, visibility & SEO and how to reuse Substack lives.

• The importance of having an email list - shared how YouTube deleted ~24.2K accounts and how people lost their work built in years.

• Substack new content policy - and how the platform is evolving.

• We walked through:

  • my results of May’26 - revenues and channels, and what specifically worked for Meta paid ads - we also exchanged ideas and strategies about how Meta paid ads can work for Substack growth

  • new features of Substack - now we can lock content behind a free subscription and let everyone comment on a post for paid members (finally!!)

  • Substack automations - yep, they’re now called “Automations”, they have new functionalities (some we don’t have in Kit) and it’s a big WHY everyone should aim to get to the bestseller badge

  • we also saw how Substack sponsorships look like and the brand new feature Kit just launched - Kit Signals

• and so much more…

This is the place where we share lessons, best practices, find collaborations, and help each other with anything that’s on our plate right now. We grow faster. Together.

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In a nutshell:

• Welcomed some new VIP Members , , , ,

• What works for engagement to grow your subscribers - I shared my workflow, and others did as well. We talked about automation as well.

• To pick a niche or write broad an see what sticks - everyone shared what worked on their side, and we discussed the QUEST frameworks

• How to grow as a fiction writer on Substack - ’s great example of how she uses Notes to grow faster

• As per ’s request, I showed how you can take your latest Instagram copy, turn it into a Substack post and post it automatically using Claude code (mind the quality)

• Walkthrough my process of creating my AI clone talking head video - all four apps I used and how I set them to get the best quality

• and so much more…

This is the place where we share lessons, best practices, find collaborations, and help each other with anything that’s on our plate right now. We grow faster. Together.

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In a nutshell:

• Walkthrough the all-new features of Substack that recently popped up in the app and on the publications

• The new publications of and how she grows using Instagram

• How grows using LinkedIn and his brand new book

• Welcomed a brand new VIP Member and talked about her upcoming launch

• The new ads monetization feature in Kit and how I use it

• Why Kit is useful for your Substack and how to use it to grow paid subscribers (I go deep into this in this video)

• and so much more…

This is the place where we share lessons, best practices, find collaborations, and help each other with anything that’s on our plate right now. We grow faster. Together.

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What we covered in a nutshell:

• How the experiment of and with writing daily went last month and what happened

• How used Notes to promote her new book launch and how many sales this brought her

• What plans to do with her rehearsal room

• What happened with Savitree and Dr. Jane’s 21-day eating and speaking challenge

• The TikTok and YouTube Shorts strategy that’s actually working

• How to use Finn Tropy’s data + AI to figure out what your audience actually wants (instead of guessing)

• and so much more…

This is the place where we share lessons, best practices, find collaborations, and help each other with anything that’s on our plate right now. We grow faster. Together.

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What we covered in a nutshell:

• The highly effective system of writing every day from and how stopping affected her paid subscribers

• What types of Notes go viral right now, for how long and how to write them

• A new challenge from and starts today - check it out in ’s chat

• The quiet luxury method of and how it changes the industry

• and so much more…

It’s a place where we share lessons, best practices, find collaborations, and help each other grow faster. Together.

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What we covered:

• The 5-10 account daily engagement strategy that’s working for multiple VIPs, plus specific tactics that work for growth

• The simple hack that drives high engagement on your Notes

• The unusual way to repurpose Notes on Facebook and LinkedIn for 10x the reach

• Why audience quality beats growth numbers every time and how to achieve it

• The automation hack that turns Notes into social media posts instantly (no manual interaction)

Plus:

• I revealed some insights from Substack about growth in 2026

• I shared what comes next in Kit about monetization

• We discussed more ways how we can help each other grow (more in the VIP Club on WhatsApp - link to join is below)

And: was so kind to make a Special Gift for Unplugged paid members (you have to redeem in the next few days).

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A week ago I asked if you’d be interested in monthly live calls - not me presenting boring stuff you already saw in my videos, but actual direct conversations about what’s working, what’s not, and what to do next.

The answers were clear: yes, make it happen.

So here’s what we’re doing to kick-off 2026 properly:

Monthly VIP Experience Sessions

Starting next week. One hour. Once a month.

Here’s the format:

• Quick check-in (~10 min) Everyone shares a word about how their Substack month went. No pressure, just connection.

• Mastermind (~20 min) What’s working now + what’s not - we’ll share what works, what doesn’t, tactics we’ve tested, and behind-the-scenes of what we’re currently working on. Most of us are experienced on the platform, and I named this membership VIP for a reason - let’s build a space where we have a closer connection and help each other move ahead faster.

• Sparring (~20 min) Bring your specific idea or a challenge - your publication setup, a post that flopped, a funnel that’s stuck, a new logo, anything. The group weighs in. I add my take. You leave with a concrete next step.

• Accountability (~10 min) Everyone commits to one thing they’ll do the next 3 weeks. We follow up on the next call.

The details:

• When: Fourth Tuesday, every month at 1pm EST in US (7pm CET in Europe)

• Where: Zoom (link with recurring calendar appointment coming to your inbox - VIPs only)

• Recordings: will be available to VIPs only

• First session: 27th of January 2026

Between calls, we’ll have a WhatsApp group to stay connected and keep the conversation alive. It’s where we share wins, bring collaboration ideas, ask questions, or just say hi. I’ll share the link with the invite to the group in the invitation.

What I need from you:

Come with intention:

1. Stay active in the conversation

2. Share what’s on your plate right now and get feedback

3. Bring one win from the past month and share what worked (or a lesson learned)

If you can’t make the first call, no stress - there’ll be a replay and the WhatsApp group keeps the conversation going.

Let’s make 2026 the year your Substack actually pays you back.

See you soon,

Yana

P.S. I’m increasing VIP price for new members soon, so if you’ve been considering the VIP tier, now would be a good time to take the leap.

Become a V.I.P. Member

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