7 Mental Shifts That Will Help You Make More Money on Substack

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I've been writing online since 2018. I've published over 500 pieces on various platforms, got featured in publications like Thrive Global and Business Insider, and reached millions of readers.

With my work at Write • Build • Scale, I’ve coached and supported thousands of writers, coaches, and entrepreneurs to share their message with the world.

And I've seen over and over again that it's not the most talented writers who manage to turn their work into a profitable business.

In fact, most writers fail to make money through their work because they are stuck in mental models that don't fit today's creator economy—especially on platforms like Substack, where building a paid audience is both an art and a science.

If you want to build a sustainable, profitable writing business, you might need to think differently.

Here are the mental shifts that helped me grow my audience, income, and brand over the past six years:

1. Choose Visibility Over Busywork

Let's be honest, Substack can be confusing, especially if it's one of the first platforms you use to build your audience.

One of the most common mistakes I see with new writers here is that they get buried in busy work (e.g., they spend dozens of hours adjusting their publication settings, tweaking their formatting, playing with fonts, and messing up the design of their publication page).

Here's the harsh truth: If nobody sees your work, all of these tiny details are irrelevant.

If you want to grow faster, gain visibility, and monetize your work, you have to spend at least 80% of your time on the actions that will actually put your writing in front of more readers.

This includes learning how to write content that people want to read, publishing consistently, promoting your work, engaging with your audience, and collaborating with other Substack writers.

Just because you're feeling productive by working on your publication doesn't mean that your actions will actually have an impact.

Sometimes you have to think outside the box to achieve your desired goals.

For example, we recently launched $10k Secrets, an anthology that we wrote together with 10+ other creators, which helps us reach new audiences and grow our own Substack publication.

This isn't something we see many people do, but we knew it was an idea that could help us achieve our growth goals, even if it’s not conventional wisdom or a widely known strategy. (You can download your copy of $10k Secrets for FREE here)

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2. Build Assets, Not Just Content

If you’re publishing post after post without a strategy, you’re creating a hamster wheel, not a business.

Great Substack creators don’t just write—they build assets:

• Paid tiers

• Learning tracks

• Resource libraries

• Mini-courses inside their newsletters

Start thinking about how each piece of content can contribute to a scalable ecosystem instead of just standing on its own.

If you start to look at your content as an ecosystem instead of isolated pieces, you’re taking the first steps to create flywheels that help you grow faster and monetize more reliably.

If you want to get paid for your work, you have to implement strategies and mindset shifts that will actually make it easier to monetize your work.

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3. Treat Your Writing as a Service, Not Just Self-Expression

If you’re writing non-fiction content with the purpose to educate your readers and help them achieve a certain goal or get rid of a specific pain, they will only pay you when they clearly understand how your work is going to serve them.

Whether you’re teaching a skill, sharing hard-won lessons, or providing inspiration—your writing must create value on the reader’s side of the screen.

Yet I see so many writers arguing that they don't want to be too focused on the readers and want to write for themselves instead.

And that's all fine if your writing is supposed to be a form of self-expression.

But if you actually want to get paid for your writing, you have to put your reader first and treat your writing as a service because that’s exactly what it is.

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4. Stop Romanticizing Hustle—Start Building Systems

I see so many creators pretending that being consistent is the holy grail to growing your audience and income. But that's not true.

Publishing more isn't the answer.

Being everywhere isn't the answer.

Building smart, repeatable systems is the answer.

If you are consistently doing the wrong things, you can show up for years and still end up with no audience to show.

The key is to pair consistency with consistent feedback loops so that you know you're on the right track.

Knowing whether you are doing the right things is hard when you are just starting out and don't have mentors or coaches to help you track and review your progress.

That's why we build programs like Substack System, where we take creators by the hand and help them ensure they’re not wasting their time, energy, and resources.

The only way to know that you're on the right track is to regularly check in with someone who has more experience than you so they can guide you in the right direction.

At Substack System, we help our clients build repeatable, scalable systems so they can publish consistently, confidently promote their work, and grow their paid tier without heroic daily effort.

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5. Collaborate Instead of Competing

Substack isn’t a zero-sum game.

Other writers aren’t your competition. They’re your growth partners.

Recommendations, guest posts, co-hosted Chats—all of these can double or triple your growth without needing more content.

Shift from "How do I beat other writers?" to "How can we grow together?"

At Write • Build • Scale, collaborations have been our #1 growth driver.

We've been able to go from zero to 10,000 subscribers within 10 months without relying on viral content or our existing audience. Instead, we leveraged collaborations as our number one growth strategy: We run recommendations, host live events, write guest posts, and build win-win opportunities with other creators.

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6. Be Confident About Selling (or Stay Invisible)

Many writers stay stuck because they’re afraid of promoting their paid tier.

They don't want to be "pushy" or “salesy,” but here’s the truth: If you don’t show up for your work, nobody else will.

Think of selling as inviting readers into a deeper transformation—not taking something from them.

Confident promotion = better service to your audience.

If you run your Substack publication without getting paid for months, you'll probably give up and not pursue your goals at all. This means that you'll never be able to share your knowledge, expertise, and wisdom with a significant group. The way I look at it, this would mean that you are wasting your knowledge and talents. If you want to help more people, you have to confidently sell your writing and expertise so that you can sustain doing it for long periods, and therefore help even more people through your work.

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7. Being Fast Beats Being Perfect

On Substack, speed wins.

Not because you should rush through your work, but because waiting for perfection kills momentum.

The faster you publish, learn, adjust, and improve, the faster you grow.

Get comfortable publishing "good enough" posts and iterating over time.

Speed + Action > Perfection.

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Final Thoughts

The difference between a struggling Substack creator and a thriving one isn’t necessarily talent.

Sometimes, it’s just the discipline to step outside of the box and try something new.

If you shift the way you think, you’ll shift the results you get.

You’ll stop doubting your paid offer and start promoting it with confidence.

You’ll stop writing in circles and start building assets that grow over time.

You’ll stop chasing hacks and start building a real writing business that lasts.