In about a month, Devon grew to around 6,000 subscribers on Substack and 77 paid subscribers, which is roughly $8,400 in annual revenue.
One article alone brought in about 2,000 new subscribers.
In this workshop he walked us through exactly how he did it, with his real dashboard on screen.
Before I tell you what he covered, I’m curious:
Ok, here’s what we covered:
1. How he set up his Substack and why
Why he starts with identity (“who do I want to be?”) instead of “what should I write about?”
How to attach your name to a movement people already care about and why
The one question to answer before you post anything
Why he turned on paid subscriptions even though he didn’t plan to, and what happened next
Importing his email list: what it did for his numbers, and what it didn’t do
2. How he comes up with ideas for what to write next
How he finds viral posts and Notes in his niche
Using the Rising bestseller charts to find ideas
Borrowing winning ideas from other niches and reworking them for your own topic
3. A full breakdown of his posts and Notes
Posts:
His process from bullet-point talking points to a voice memo, then the draft, then editing it into something that holds attention.
How he layers each article with 7–12 relevant quotes and visuals
How he uses proofreaders and how this helps him
How much time each article takes him, and where this times goes
Notes:
Why his Notes got under 10 likes at first, even when they had gone viral on X
The trick that took him to 50–100 likes per Note
His rule for comments
4. How he uses other platforms to grow his Substack
How he sees Instagram, X, TikTok and YouTube, and the audience each one attracts
Why Substack is his “think tank” and YouTube is his testing ground for ideas
Why Substack is only about 2% of his views but his highest-converting platform
How he grew inside other creators’ paid chats by giving value instead of self-promoting
Promoting each post after it’s published: engagement, giveaways and reciprocity
Bonus: live Q&A
What data to track, and when to stop looking at analytics
How to choose your audience by zooming out one or two levels from your niche
How to turn free subscribers into paid ones
How he handled a major business setback, and why sharing struggles builds your brand
And so much more.
Watch the full recording, take one thing, apply it and tell me and Devon how it worked for you.
I can’t wait to celebrate your next milestone on a live!
Yana
P.S. Devon is my VIP member and a 1:1 client because he prefers the shortcut. If you’re tired of figuring things alone, check this.
