How I got started as a writer, built a writing practice I love, and grew to 500 subscribers in a year

Building confidence, unlocking what I want to say and creating a community around my writing when starting from scratch.

Substack is full of amazing advice on writing and how to grow a publication.

On Substack

from the Substack team has a feature called Writer Stories where writers share how they’ve grown their audience and income. They’re packed with insights, growth charts and detailed explanations about important growth moments. There’s also

Substack FAQ

for tips and tricks.

As a beginner writer with no online brand or subscriber list to migrate, I’ve felt a bit dazzled by the stats in these resources at times. Tens of thousands of subscribers, six figure revenues! I haven’t found many stories about the early days, especially for new writers who desperately want to write but feel held back in some way, people who want to start and sustain a writing practice and grow their publication at a manageable pace. I’ve seen many people asking for more advice on getting started, people like me who want to read case studies for the 0-100 and 500-2000 subs stages, before considering going paid.

I saw this recent note from the amazing

Emma Gannon

, which makes a great point about time as a factor in finding your voice and building a publication, and how long it can take to create something of value. When we see writers launching here with large numbers we might not know or forget they’ve been writing and building communities online for ages.

So I thought I’d write a piece for people like me who are at the beginning of that journey, working out if I’m creating something of value for a specific group of people, and what’s helped me to build confidence and enjoy writing in my first year on Substack. My Writer Story! This isn’t a piece about growth hacks, it’s about building strong foundations for a writing practice you love, and building a meaningful community around your writing. I hope it’s helpful 🙏

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What’s my substack about in one sentence?

System Changers provides inspiration and resources for people who lead systemic change, helping them with their wellbeing, personal growth and transformation.

Who reads my Substack?

People leading systemic change in human rights, venture capital, conservation, climate change and sustainability, education, psychotherapy, healthcare, media, politics, art, farming, finance, housing and philanthropy and so many more fields… They are filmmakers, strategy consultants, coaches, charity leaders, communications specialists... It’s a multidisciplinary crew! My readers have a growth mindset and they’re looking for support. Substack tells me that my ~500 readers are based in 46 countries! All this diversity is really exciting to me.

What do I uniquely offer them?

I curate many forms of inspiration and support to uplift and energise my readers. I make the work of changing systems more tangible and personal by interviewing system changers about their missions, toolkits and personal growth journeys. I share a wide variety of system-changing projects to demonstrate the many different ways to create change (side note: I have a penchant for highly creative initiatives that cut through the noise and shape culture 🤩). I highlight specific opportunities to take action, whether it’s joining a protest, applying for a job, or doing some training.

I also share insights from my work as a coach to system changers (more on this below). I’m particularly interested in how people can do such important and demanding work without sacrificing their wellbeing and fulfilment in all areas of their life, so I write a lot about resilience, self compassion and joy.

I believe in the power of learning in the open, so I share lessons from my journey as a coach and writer as a way of crystallising insights for myself and opening up my work to others.

What do I do outside of writing on Substack?

I’m a Co-Active trained coach working 1:1 with people who lead systemic change. Our work together helps them to lead with greater agency, impact and wellbeing. Their missions include; increasing access to venture capital for underrepresented founders; shaping national policy on mothers' rights; and scaling farmland regeneration. What unites them is their big vision for systemic change and their courage to work on themselves.

In 2019 I took a career break to rest, re-awaken my creative side, take stock of my career so far and think about what I wanted to do next. My husband and I decided to spend the break in Lisbon and when the pandemic hit six months in, we chose to stay! We live in a small village by the sea just south of Lisbon with our two dogs.

How did I build the confidence I needed to start?

I got to know myself better

I came up with the idea for System Changers during my career break, when COVID-19 was transforming life as we knew it, and the world was gripped by the racial justice movement triggered by the murder of George Floyd. I was gently exploring ideas for my next move and whilst I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, I felt called to align my work to people driving important changes in the world. I also remember feeling like I had a lot to say and wanted to explore this. I spent a lot of time reflecting on who I am, why I was making these changes in my life, and what matters most to me. I worked with a coach who helped me process the transition, and a therapist on the deep-rooted causes of my underconfidence and patchy self esteem. This work helped me to get to know myself better, to understand how my identities and roles were shifting, and how I could take action towards more of what I wanted in life. More self knowledge helped me to find my voice.

I took my time and made an ideas scrapbook

I started a mind-dump google doc and every now and then I reviewed it, looked for themes, and worked out what most interested me. I created a physical mood board packed with great quotes and pictures of inspiring system changers. I love the early stages of making things, but my challenge has often been committing to and sustaining them. After two years of noodling and researching, I knew it was something I wanted to invest in. The reflection time helped me to identify a clear mission and build conviction in it. After a while the initial content strategy was clear and I was bursting with the words I wanted to write.

I shared it with people I trust for feedback and encouragement

I wrote a one pager for the concept and shared it with my husband and friends. They were encouraging and enthusiastic, and that nudged me to share with professional contacts and former colleagues in my target audience. They loved it and asked how they could help. Voicing it out loud made it real, helped me to get feedback and, crucially, helped me to gauge how committed and excited I felt. All the signs were good.

What did I set up for launch?

A good about page and launch post

I made a mind-map from my ideas scrapbook of the most important things to mention and my about page and launch post wrote themselves. For the about page I answered three questions; Who reads System Changers?, Why Subscribe?, and Who am I? My launch post was titled ‘My plans and dreams for this newsletter’ and I used it to make some clear commitments to my readers and to give myself enough space for experimentation as I learned about what worked. This core content makes you much more recommendable to people who don’t already know you. I wouldn’t recommend a writer to my readers if they’ve not explained a clear and compelling purpose for their Substack, even if I love their writing. This stuff can be hard to write, but it’s worth investing the time and energy into it.

The visual identity

I had a bit of a head start here because I’d already worked with some talented people to create the brand for my coaching practice. But all I really needed to launch the Substack was a good headshot and decisions on colour and imagery use. I took a look around at what other people were doing to get some inspiration. I used Canva to create some basic visual assets and Unsplash for good free photography.

What’s my content strategy and how’s it evolved over time?

I publish once a week across a variety of different features; a monthly digest of inspiring projects; useful resources and opportunities to take action; interviews with system changers; community threads; and lessons and insights from my work as a coach and writer.

I used to publish one very long piece once a month which was a mish-mash of these topics, but it became a bit much. I realised they were covering too much and that I had four great standalone features. During my one year review I decided to publish shorter, more discrete pieces and write more regularly.

I aim to publish a digest and a community thread once a month, but I give myself more flexibility for the interviews and lessons pieces. I find that creating too rigid a strategy creates too much pressure and limits spontaneity.

Growth by numbers

Claimed my Substack URL: August 2022

Published my first piece: October 2022

Reached 500 subscribers: October 2023

All subscribers: 538

Meaningful growth moments

1. Sharing with my networks: I shared my launch piece with everyone I knew who might be interested in the subject matter and keen to support me. I sent it to family, friends, coaching clients, former colleagues, I shared it in various WhatsApp groups I’m in, and I posted it on Instagram and LinkedIn. I also started talking about it with everyone. I shared my excitement about it and made it visible.

2. A piece on a popular subject with a good title. In April this year I wrote a piece called ‘12 things everyone should know about coaching’. At this stage a lot of my subscribers and connections on LinkedIn were fellow coaches and people practitioners, so I knew the topic would appeal. I was also seizing the chance to respond to some key questions being raised about the rapidly growing coaching profession. I used this piece to position myself with my audience, many of whom follow my writing because they’re interested in my coaching. Interestingly, April is my birthday month which is usually a creative time for me.

3. Celebrating a milestone and upping my commitment. About a week before my one year Substack anniversary, I spotted I was 20 people away from the 500 subs milestone. I also happened to have booked a writing retreat which would wrap up on the date I published my first piece a year earlier. So I wrote a short message to friends, supporters and fellow retreat writers saying I’d love to reach the milestone in time for the anniversary, and could they share System Changers with anyone who might like it. 25 people signed up in a week! This was a good reminder of how important it is to keep sharing, and how powerful milestones like this can be for growth. After I reviewed my first year I made the decision to write more regularly, which explains the higher growth rate since then.

How am I building community?

I borrowed the idea of creating an introductions thread from fellow Substack writers. This is a place for my subscribers to say hello, share a bit about themselves and how System Changers can help them, and to connect with other subscribers. When I first published it I wrote an email to a few of my most engaged readers with the subject line “can you help me to warm up my community?”, asking them to contribute to the thread. Lots of people got involved and this encouraged others to chip in too. It’s a great way for me to learn about everyone’s interests and it’s given me ideas for what to write about and how we can help each other. I invite new subscribers to introduce themselves on this thread in my welcome email.

I’ve really enjoyed exploring Substack and making connections with other writers. I have about five writer collaborations in the works for both written pieces and community events, and I love engaging with other writers in comments sections and threads. I got very excited the other day when

Elizabeth Gilbert

replied to a suggestion I made for her guest appearances!

Six signs that I’m creating value for a specific group of people

1. Lots of engagement with the introductions thread. People share detailed comments about themselves, their work and their personal growth. They’ve shared illuminating insights on how they relate to the System Changer identity and how this resource and community can help them.

2. Superstar System Changers agreeing to be interviewed and featured here, and reaching out directly to ask if I could interview them.

3. Connecting with fellow Substack writers who express appreciation for my work and interest in collaborating with me.

4. Being recommended by values- and pupose-aligned publications like

   Out Of Office Network
   and
   Institute of Belonging
   to their readers.

5. Meeting someone new during a group lunch at a conference who, when I introduced myself and what I do, shared that she loves my Substack and recommended it to everyone at the table (including the global curator of TED!).

6. Exciting target audience subscribers I don’t know finding me via their LinkedIn feed when our common connections engage with my content.

How have I created a writing practice I enjoy?

Writing System Changers helps me to focus on what I’m passionate about. Far more than a research and writing exercise, this project provides me with a new lens for learning and living. It’s shaping what I choose to read, how I engage with my local community, and how I travel. The search for great work has re-connected me with old friends and former colleagues I haven’t spoken to in years. My values are intentionally baked into this project, shaping what and how I write and providing me with many opportunities to live in greater alignment with them. It brings a lot of joy and meaning to my life.

Working as a coach can be a little lonely sometimes so I really enjoy having a writing practice that involves some collaboration with others, whether it’s talking about writing and reading with friends and fellow writers, working with system changers on my interview series, or working with people to design and deliver group experiences.

Underconfidence and perfectionism were the main barriers to me enjoying writing when I was starting out. It’s been helpful to adopt a learning framing for the project; this Substack is a way for me to document what I’m learning and share it with others. I’ve also created a safe environment to nurture this new skill; I practise lots of self-compassion, I’ve published at a pace that feels manageable, I’ve taken guilt-free breaks when I’ve needed them, and I’ve recorded all the wins I’ve had along the way. I’ve prioritised a supportive environment as a new writer over fast growth, trusting that these solid foundations will help me build something special over time. I feel so much more confident now than I did at the beginning, which is really gratifying!

A writing practice which gives me more exposure to inspiring work on important problems has made me more hopeful about the future, and we all need a bit of that these days.

What have I learned about writing?

I have a tendency to over-write. I’ve learned to get better at being economical with words and cutting anything unnecessary. I recently deleted the second half of a nearly finished piece when I realised it was confusing the message. A brilliant copywriter once told me to imagine having to spend a tenner on each word I use. Trim, trim and trim again.

Writing isn’t a solitary practice and I shouldn’t write in isolation. Sure, I need quiet time to think and get the words down, but as an introvert I’ve been surprised by how much sharing and discussing my writing with others, and sitting down to write with others, has helped me find my flow. I’ve learned I need community; honest and encouraging editor friends, fellow Substack writers, virtual communities like London Writers' Salon and opportunities to play and reflect deeply with other writers in person, like a writing retreat.

Practice is so important. When I started System Changers I was really rusty. Writing required a huge amount of energy and it took me a long time to finish pieces. As with most things in life, it’s got a lot easier with practice and patience and I’ve honed a distinctive style with time. Now that I’m publishing weekly I’m noticing a big difference in how quickly I can write and edit, and more ruthlessness with waffle!

I need to read in order to write well. I read for a few hours every day, mostly non-fiction. Nothing, however, beats fiction for helping me to think more creatively about language and communication. Recent favourites include ‘Piranesi’ by Susanna Clarke and ‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’ by Gabrielle Zevin.

Someone recently shared ‘The Bothers’ with me, a surprisingly effective practice Michael Rosen uses to write out his troubles. It’s a great way to get the words flowing and write through a block.

What’s the best piece of advice I can give to beginner writers on Substack?

Writing is not one activity, it’s the process and product of many different tasks, mindsets and processes. Anna Birney at School of System Change has written a good piece on this and everything that goes into a writing practice; setting intentions, identifying something to write, creating the space to write, sifting through ideas, themes and data, finding a narrative, getting stuck, getting the words out, editing, getting feedback, publishing, sharing the writing with others. It’s a lot!

Things to think about:

• How can you capture ideas when you’re on the move?

• How much time do you need before a deadline to work through the writing process?

• Who could you ask for feedback?

• What does a supportive writing environment look like for you?

• Where do you get your inspiration?

I’ve found it so helpful to honour all the different steps, giving them the time and support they require, especially as I’ve tried to stick to a consistent publishing schedule.

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What questions do you have that I haven’t covered here? Leave them in the comments!