I’ve spent a lot of time studying the top Substack creators — the people in the top 1% of the platform, both in terms of audience size and paid subscribers.
What’s interesting isn’t just what they do. It’s what they don’t do.
Because eliminating some of the habits and behaviors that keep you stuck is often one of the fastest ways to make progress.
Here are the three things the top 1% Substack creators don’t do, and what they focus on instead.
#1: They Don’t Write for Themselves
I want to be careful with how I explain this, because it’s easy to misunderstand.
When I look at newsletters that are struggling on Substack, one of the most common patterns I see is that the creator writes primarily about themselves — what happened to them, what they’re feeling, what they’re doing.
It reads like a personal diary. And while that’s completely fine as a creative outlet, it creates a growth problem.
Every time a reader opens a piece of content, they’re asking themselves - consciously or not:
What’s in this for me?
What am I going to learn?
What problem will this help me with?
What will I have after reading this that I didn’t have before?
That’s not selfish. It’s just human.
Our time and attention are limited, and we spend them where we expect to get something back — whether that’s education, inspiration, entertainment, or a new perspective.
So before you hit publish on anything, ask yourself:
What does my reader actually walk away with?
If you can’t answer that clearly, the piece probably needs more work.
Now, and this is important, this doesn’t mean you remove yourself from your writing. Not at all.
Some of the best content on Substack is deeply personal.
The key distinction is that your story, your experience, your perspective is a vehicle, not the destination.
Through your experience, you can teach something new.
Through your failures, you can show someone what to avoid.
Through your wins, you can give someone a roadmap.
I call this being a guide rather than a guru.
You’re not writing to showcase yourself. You’re writing to lead your reader somewhere useful, using your own journey as the path.
When you make that shift — when you genuinely put the reader first — everything changes.
You attract subscribers faster, you retain them longer, and eventually you build the kind of loyal audience that turns into a real business.
#2: They Don’t Ignore Marketing and Distribution
There’s a belief that floats around creative communities that if you just focus on the writing, and if it’s good enough, people will find it.
I understand the appeal of that idea. But unfortunately, it’s just not how it works.
I’ve seen incredibly talented writers producing genuinely valuable work on Substack — and almost nobody is reading it.
Not because the writing isn’t good enough, but because they publish quietly and wait for people to find them.
And waiting for people to find you is not a growth strategy.
The top 1% of Substack creators understand that creating content is only half the job. The other half is making sure the right people actually see it.
And they approach distribution with the same intention they bring to their writing.
The good news is that this doesn’t require a marketing budget, running ads, or becoming a full-time marketer.
Substack has built features specifically designed to help you get more visibility; you just have to use them.
For example, Substack Notes are one of the most powerful discovery tools on the platform.
When a note gets good early engagement, the algorithm distributes it to people who don’t follow you yet — people who’ve never heard of your publication.
That’s how new readers find you.
I publish at least three notes per day and have found it to be one of the highest-leverage habits in our Substack content strategy.
Collaborations are the other major growth lever. Guest posting, for example, gets your writing directly into the inboxes of another creator’s subscribers.
The newsletter recommendations feature (which brought us close to 10,000 new subscribers) works largely on autopilot once you’ve set it up.
Joint Substack Lives, guest podcast appearances, collaborative posts — all of these put your name and work in front of audiences that would never have found you on their own.
Remember, even the best writing in the world goes unnoticed without distribution. The top 1% Substack creators never forget that. Neither should you.
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#3: They Don’t Rely on Motivation or Inspiration
Top creators don’t find content creation easier than everyone else.
They don’t wake up every morning overflowing with ideas and energy and enthusiasm to sit down and write.
What they have instead are better systems.
Motivation is unreliable by nature. Some days you feel fired up, ideas flow, and you could write for hours.
Other days, you open your laptop, stare at a blank page, and would genuinely rather do anything else.
If your output depends on being in the right state of mind, you will be inconsistent. And inconsistency is one of the surest ways to stall your growth on Substack.
The solution isn’t to wait for more motivation. It’s to build systems that make consistency the default.
Here are the three systems that have made the biggest difference for me personally.
System #1: Fixed Writing Schedule
I don’t leave my writing up to chance or inspiration.
Monday mornings and Wednesday mornings are writing time — it’s fixed in my calendar and non-negotiable.
I don’t have to decide when I’m going to write, or whether I feel ready, or whether maybe I should do it tomorrow. The decision is already made.
And there’s something almost paradoxical about this: when you sit down and just start writing, even without inspiration, inspiration tends to follow.
The act of beginning is usually all it takes.
System #2: Batch Content Creation
Every Monday afternoon, I block one hour and write all 21 of my Substack Notes for the week, scheduling them in advance using WriteStack.
So even on the days when I’m busy, distracted, or not feeling it, three notes are still going out — because I did the work earlier in the week.
I do the same with podcast episodes: I batch record every episode for the month in a single day, rather than treating it as a recurring weekly task.
Batching means you get into a creative mode once and produce everything at once, rather than constantly switching in and out of it.
System #3: Content Calendar
Once a month, Sinem Günel and I sit down and plan our content for the next four to six weeks.
Every podcast episode, every YouTube video, every Substack post — we know exactly what’s going out and when, well in advance.
This is a genuine game-changer, because one of the biggest sources of friction in content creation isn’t the writing itself — it’s not knowing what to write.
When you already know your topic before you sit down, the blank page stops being intimidating.
Put these three systems together — a fixed schedule, batching, and a content plan — and content creation becomes significantly less dependent on willpower.
You show up consistently, not because you’re always motivated, but because the system makes it the default option.
