If you’re currently building your Substack publication from scratch and quietly wondering whether someone with no audience, no social media presence, and a busy life can really make it work, this conversation is for you.
Tina’s publication Joy God’s Way went from around 20 subscribers to 600 in a just a few months.
One of her Notes received thousands of likes, bringing in hundreds of subscribers alone:
The full replay is available above, and it’s worth watching start to finish.
Here are the most tangible lessons from our conversation:
You only need one person to write for
The instinct when you start is to go broad, because broad feels like it reaches more people, but the opposite is true.
The narrower you are on who you’re writing for, the better you can serve them.
Tina built her entire publication around one specific person, and as she realized along the way, that person turned out to be a version of herself. That clarity made everything else easier.
Notes aren’t optional, and scheduling makes them doable
Tina avoided Notes for months because they felt like too much work. Then she started batching them in 30-minute sprints, and those Notes have now reached tens of thousands of readers.
One thing she nailed: keep a consistent identity in your Notes, so people see your name and instantly know it’s you.
You don’t have to use every feature
Substack hands you livestreams, Notes, chat, podcasts, video, paid tiers, more than any one person can use well.
And here’s the part most beginners miss: you don’t have to use ALL the tools right away.
If the idea of livestreaming makes you want to run away, just skip it. Focus on the features that fit your audience and your personality, and ignore the rest without guilt.
Build a foundation, not just a social presence
We don’t want you to just build on the platform, we want you to build something that can stand on its own.
Tina called it her “mini empire,” and that’s exactly the right frame.
You’re building your corner of the internet, an ecosystem with a real foundation, not a pile of posts.
The creators who grow fastest on Substack rarely do it alone.
Our programs helped thousands of entrepreneurs, experts, and coaches build their publications, grow their audiences, and scale their income.
If you’re serious about doing the same, we should talk.
Apply to work with us → substackcoaching.com
Don’t copy what works for someone else’s audience
A Note that went viral in a completely different niche isn’t a template for yours.
Before you borrow a tactic, ask whether it actually fits your reader. The same goes for your chat, your livestreams, every feature, what works depends entirely on who you’re serving.
Attention is easy, trust is the real work
A viral Note gets you attention. But attention alone doesn’t build a business, trust does. And trust takes time, multiple touchpoints, and showing up again and again.
There’s no shortcut, no amount of ad spend that buys it. That’s good news, because most people are too impatient to actually be trusted over a long period.
Consistency alone won’t save you
Here’s the uncomfortable part: you can be consistent with the wrong thing for a very long time.
Showing up 150 times and seeing nothing move is both an achievement and a warning.
When you’re doing everything solo, with no one to tell you what to adjust, you can pour months into a direction that was never going to work.
Consistency matters, but consistency plus the right guidance is what actually compounds.
Done beats perfect, so just hit publish
“There’s no time like the present,” Tina said.
When you’re starting from scratch, you have an advantage: No one is watching closely enough for your mistakes to matter. You get to experiment, fumble, and learn in peace.
You don’t fail because you make a mistake. You fail only if you stop listening to your audience, or stop showing up.
What changes when you’re not doing it alone
We asked Tina what the support actually changed for her.
Her answer was immediate: “Everything. It changes everything.”
She’d spent most of her life doing things on her own, and she was honest about the cost of that. “When you find reputable coaches, it’s a small price to pay.”
Right now, Substack heavily rewards the people who don’t try to do it all alone.
If you’re currently building your publication here and want to be sure you have the right people in your corner, our private coaching program might be the perfect fit for you:
Apply to work with us → substackcoaching.com
