We’re now 100+ VIP members strong!
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 - Lisa Garvey 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 - Shagoon Nayyar (SN💜) 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 - Elisabeth Bromberg 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 - Marylee Pangman, Author 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 - Roxy Ahmed-Suarez 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 Ruth Dale 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 - Marta Keller and Marianne McCourt 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.
