Sparkle on Substack: 🧪 Creative Growth Lab 💫

👩🏽‍💻 Things I'm doing LESS of on Substack in 2026...

Claire Venus ✨ — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:30:32 GMT

My FREE Substack/socials party for 2026 is here if you’d like to watch.

Hi Sparklers,

Happy New Year! (again) - I’ll stop saying it soon but today is not that day! I seriously wish you all the best for a firecracker year of creativity, connection and joyful growth. I hope the bumps in the road are bolstered with self compassion and kindness too. 💫

More, Less and about the same…

I wanted to write on what I’m doing more of in Substack in 2026 and invite you to share what you want MORE of in the comments below.

I led with the headline of less because negative bias in headlines get’s more clicks - I’m not mad about it - it’s all just a beautiful game. 🙃

It’s inspired by those popular ‘more and less’ lists - have you seen them? I think it’s so helpful to write about what we want MORE of and in duality what we feel we need less of…

Infact, sometimes if we start with what we don’t want, it can be an easier question than asking what we do want. Unless you’re going to the shops and then I’ll always want more milk for the fridge, some satsumas (so good) and maybe a chocolate bar to give me energy for the live calls inside of . 😆 🍫

Subscribe now

Next week inside my membership here at , we have our annual visioning retreat - yes I do a visioning retreat for Substack - this is the place of MANY life changing opportunities. You are so welcome to join us. My 14 Day free trial is still running if you want to try it out. We go deep into nervous system work to hold audiences and peel back the layers to better understand our creative practise - as well as learning the platform of course.

📸 Meeting one of my favourite authors IRL Beth Kempton from SoulCircle at the Substack Bestseller Drinks in December after a glass of prosecco. My friend Kate from Letters from Therapy and I are meeting here for I think the 3rd time - she is the most beautiful human. Substack brings so many of us writerly types together. I imagine next year’s bestseller’s drinks will be full of celebs or maybe not. I wouldn’t mind buying Lilly Allen or Dolly Parton a drink to say thanks for their art! 💫

So to more…

I missed some of the goals I set last year so I’m just continuing on, adventuring into the second act…

Edits - I was a write and go gal - I had to be when my daughter was small - now I have more time and I’ve grown to love the editing process. So more of that. That said - I don’t want a post to take me more than two hours… it’s so personal isn’t it but that’s where I’m at.
Membership focus - last year I focussed deep on the membership experience making sure my community had super warm welcomes. My material met them where they are at for a wonderful time. I also focussed on space holding so they could support each other to grow joyfully. I’m doing the same amount of that but with more regular feedback. The 2025 members survey is here. Did you know you could make surveys in Substack? Head to dash/ ‘stats’ to find the composer.
SEO friendly posts - I actually have a tonne of amazing posts in the archive that I didn’t do the ‘proper’ SEO work on so I’m re-editing those now. I talk more about this in my new course - Audience Alchemy which is about building work that creates a legacy and a constant stream of new readers, customers and opportunities rather than feeding the social media gods your daily energy tokens.
Guest posts and taking my time with those - I often felt rushed with guest posts - I always say yes but I intend NOT to feel rushed while doing more connecting to the work for those.
The Podcast - I wanted 100k downloads on the podcast in 2025 but with the algorithm shifts my new readers slowed down and it didn’t happen.
I could have done way more to make it happen so this year I am. I’ll be recording new episodes and I still have 6 from last year all edited and ready to share. I do more solo episodes too. You can listen here or search Sparkle on Substack wherever you get your pods. I talk to writers, creatives and entrepreneurs about how they are using the platform and staying creative here… their work before Substack and their plans here.

Stats as of today. I’m so so proud of just plugging in and showing up back in July 2023. Substack podcasts are the BEST podcasts - it’s FREE to host here and you get a beautiful invite into a mixed media magazine for your audience if you start one. Try reading your posts aloud first - see how you like it?

Less

Emailing - I burnt my audience out a bit whilst trying to be helpful so now I only email readers once a week on Wednesdays. My other articles are posts and I share them in Notes and in the body of the main weekly email (see below). The views are way less this way but the churn has plateaued so I’m continuing with this method. If I accidentally email you when I’m going live - apologies in advance! Marketing gurus will tell you; unsubscribes are none of your business but as this space got busier and we all got subscription fatigue, I made it my mission to ask people and I got the full picture. More is not necessarily better and it won’t necessarily get you more readers overall - it’s just more to process. 🙊
Striving to keep two bestseller badges - my paid newsletter has (at the time of your reading) 95 paid subs (not 101 as you need for a bestseller badge) and my membership (whilst wildly successful) is down by 100 members since last summer. What is sustainable in year 4 here I’ve found to be different to what was sustainable with joy at the heart in year 2 and 3. That’s all I want to say about that, oh and that I’ll ALWAYS be honest with you.
Rolling my eyes in Notes - Notes are the one and only place you get knocked off centre unless you have a super thick skin.… Substack’s social media is a great opportunity for views but we need to be cautious… You used ai to write your Note - good for you but also ‘mute’. You are teaching folks how to grow on Substack after one viral post - that’s great and generous - mute! Your triggers will be different.
I need Notes to be a CALM, nervous system experience; photos of nature and stories from the heart… a place where I show up to create and chat with my colleagues and members not a noisy marketplace of comparison. What do YOU need in Notes? There’s no harm if we mute, block if we need to and we move on. Small actions - big compounding impact.

Restacking Paddington - my favourite Peruvian Bear by Emily Male.

The Same…

I love a new year for a fresh start on things but these reflections have come out of over a month of DEEP reflection work and my annual process. A process which pretty much eats me alive and allows me to process every negative comment and subconscious thought. I’m fine!

Substack Lives - I love lives - I love that we have a smoothing filter now. I’m looking forward to meeting more colleagues live - come check out my live schedule for January Joy here. Here are my tips for going live.
Self Belief - It’s hard not to waiver when your online home is rearranged before your eyes but self belief is a real gift. My word of the year is serenity and my intention is self compassion - it should serve me super well. Being on the fire horse energy!
Acts of service - I love teaching here, I love writing Notes to connect. I also love holding space in live courses, I love working one to one - I was called to do this work - it was a ‘I can’t not do this’ - not a decision born out of strategy. I’m very grateful to God/ The Universe for showing me this path at the right time and I’ll keep leaning in and battling my own ego to better understand where and why and when I’m needed. Ever grateful to my Human Design (HD) teacher for space holding and support and my business mentor who held me through such a rough patch last year and got me re-connected to my power! 🎆

Join hundreds of members inside of Sparkle on Substack and get instant access to over 400 posts, tutorials, member call replays and our community chat. We are meeting on Monday for our 2026 Visioning Retreat and you are SO welcome to join us. 14 Day Free Trial is here and expires on 2nd Feb so you have the whole of January to explore.

Sparkle on Substack is an invite to Substack mastery, strategy and your connection to your heart work. It’s the endless invite to connect to what makes you uniquely you whist also alchemising your BEST fit audience and making the most of this WONDERFUL platform.

💬 I’ll see you in the comments below or tag me in Notes if you fancy with your more and less on Substack lists!

Until this time next week, stay sparkly and remember we have time!

Claire

✨

☕️ Recent posts you might want to catch up on… 💫

💝 LAST MINUTE SUBSTACK GIFTS? Teach your readers how to send GIFT subscriptions to their friends and family and share them on Substack!

Claire Venus ✨ — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 15:02:52 GMT

Hi Sparklers,

Fancy making and sharing a gift coupon for your Substack publication with your cross platform audience this season?

Here’s how to do that and some tips…

Subscribe now

✨SPECIAL HOLIDAY OFFER ✨

Join us at

If you know you’d like to join us as an annual subscriber in the New Year, you can use this coupon to get 30% off my annual membership until 2nd January. Monthly closes on Friday and re-opens at the new price point in Feb.

Save 30% for you.

Need an accountability buddy? You can also gift a sub to a friend with this link…

Save 30% for one year

I hope your week is going well. I wanted to share a little tip to perhaps bring in more paid subs before you wrap up for the holidays…

Last minute gifts using Substack GIFTS and COUPONS… 🎟️ 💖

All of these wonderful Substack authors offer GIFT subscriptions.

Head to their publication then click ‘manage subscription’ to buy one…

The page looks like this if you use a coupon… Thanks for the demo!

click to check out Sarah’s offer…

How to create a URL for a GIFT SUBSCRIPTION you can share with your audience,

You want your substack url plus /subscribe/gift at the end.
so mine would be sparkleon.substack.com/subscribe/gift
Substack adds the =true bit
Watch the video if you want to understand how to do it with a discount.

When you press return the url looks like this and you go right to the gift subscription page.

Might you try it?

💝

Over to my lovely members to showcase their wares and words…

You can purchase gift subscriptions and choose the date they arrive to the lucky recipient for any of these publications. I show you how in the video. ⬆️

Please support the publications you feel called to support with a sub or a friendly hello in Notes - we are building a beautiful network of colleagues and kins here. It’s this work and these people that will support us if we wobble.

Thank you , , , , , Sam, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Vicki, , Emma, , , , , , , JR, , , , , , , , Leah, Sarah, , for sharing your beautiful work and being part of this year!!

Biohacking Motherhood ","logo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UrFT!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1a470a41-d05c-421a-a405-99c7af2b85d2_832x832.png","base_url":"https://raisingona.substack.com","hero_text":"A publication that uses storytelling to explain how a mother’s brain rewires to overwrite conditioned, hard-to-change patterns and activate super-learning and deeper intuition, grounded in future biohacking trend, ancient knowledge, and channeled info. ","author_name":"Emilia Ferreira","show_subscribe":true,"logo_bg_color":"#ffffff","language":"en"}" data-component-name="EmbeddedPublicationToDOMWithSubscribe">

Treat yourself to a subscription or gift one to one of your nearest and dearest?

They’d be so grateful you did!

Claire

✨

How many paid subs is TOO many with Katie Chappell

Claire Venus ✨ — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 06:31:13 GMT

Hi folks,

Yay - I’m back with another collab in our 2025 growth lab series. These have been slower to take off that I thought but there’s a few in the archive if you’re new here. They aim to bring you stories, strategy and the thoughts of creative humans growing on Substack! 🪩 💫

Meet

I wanted to share the journey of a beautiful pal who lives close to me here on the Northumberland coast. is a WONDERFUL artist and online illustrator who started her journey on Substack a little over a year ago. She’s got a hilarious instagram account where she takes us behind the scenes of life and work.

When she first joined Substack, Katie did the beautiful thing I always encourage in using this platform like a playground, being an avid reader and making friends with it…she was here and writing but she wasn’t totally decided on how she’d use it.

🛝 ✨ 🎢

Subscribe now

And then…

Katie came to one of my in person events (at Alnwick Story Fest), joined as a 💎Diamond Member here at the next day and asked me two very specific questions about how an idea she had might work here.

It was about a ‘jobs board’ – she wanted my opinion on whether I thought it would work. I said

“yes!!”

and she asked about others who might do anything similar – I answered and sent her links to the two writing jobs boards I know of who are flying here - you probably already know and ? 💖

The next thing I knew the Illustrator Jobs board was born and what felt like two and a half minutes later Katie was closing the paid subs down as she was already at 400 paid subs.

Of course, ‘overnight success’ is never just that. I’ve known this wonderful gem of a human for probably 7 or so years now and she’s worked hard to shape her work, expand and mould her entrepreneurial spirit into a multi-income stream successful online business.

I caught up with her for a little chat about why she stopped her own growth on Substack and how it’s all feeling so I could bring you some gems and remind you staying creative on Substack is one of my most favourite ways to be.

Hi Katie – so I know you have paused new membership for – how did you do that technically and why was it important to you?

Hello. Thank you for having me! :) OK, so there were a few reasons why I paused new membership for the Illustrator Jobs Board.

Firstly, I didn’t want the jobs board to feel like playing the lottery. I genuinely want illustrators to get work from there. And for the event organisers who are looking for illustrators - I wanted to make sure they weren’t getting absolutely bombarded by applications. 1

It’s early days but I get the feeling that the illustrators who are in there right now, are pleased to be in there and there’s less of a panicky energy around.

So interesting… how is the jobs board working for your members? Do you have any success stories?

So many! This is one of my favourite things about running the jobs board. One success story that stands out is an Illustrator Jobs Board subscriber who got a $13k job - the initial budget wasn’t as high as that but after discussions with the client that was the final take-home amount.

Every week I get messages from illustrators letting me know that they’ve got their first job, or that they’re doing their first international live event illustration job, or even just that they’ve overhauled their pricing strategy since reading my articles. 🥰

Love that – do they also chat amongst themselves or is it more like an individual voyage into the jobs world and out again? 🚣🏾

Illustrator Jobs Board subscribers do chat to each other a little bit, yes. I did try out running the chat function on Substack but I found it a bit stressful. That bit is still a work in progress! People sometimes make friends in the comments section on posts and notes. Honestly though, I think people are just busy and want to get a job then get on with their day, haha.

I know you like to work online as a graphic scribe and have had some really cool clients – did you do outreach to win those clients or did they find you through SEO?

I’m pretty sure all of my work has come through SEO.
Maybe a tiny tiny sprinkling of stuff via Instagram or word of mouth but organic search traffic is my main bread and butter. SEO is something I am a bit obsessed with and love telling other illustrators about. Don’t sleep on it!

Yes, it’s a slog at first but once it pays off it’s invaluable. I love knowing that I never *have* to post on social media to get work, and that articles I wrote years ago are still bringing in lovely clients who are ready to work with me.

Do you think you’ll do the illustrator jobs board long term?

I hope so! It started in January this year as a complete experiment but so far so good.

Curious - had ai interfered or enhanced anything you do?

AI stuff I’ve noticed:

- Clients using AI to write their briefs
- Illustrators using AI to write their jobs board applications (which can be a bit embarrassing when two different illustrators write almost identical words)
- Illustrators feeling (understandably!) very concerned and upset with how AI is going and the way it’s changing the illustration industry in terms of what work is available.

For now at least, it seems that AI isn’t really impacting live event stuff.

I think event organisers hire graphic recorders because they really want some more humanness in their event - but I’m always keeping my eyes peeled for new developments.

Right now I’m learning as much as I can about GEO / AI search results. AI is definitely having an impact on organic search, and I want to know how it all works so that I can tweak my own website and then share that information with Good Shippers who are inside the Illustration Business Club.

Lastly, tell us more about how to get involved in your world – what’s on the horizon for the next few months?

I tend to hibernate in the winter, so coming up I have mid-December to January booked off. My daughter is 3 and a half now so we’ll be doing lots of Christmassy stuff and going for walks.

In the meantime though I’ll still be working on the Illustrator Jobs Board, The Good Ship Illustration podcast and we have a fresh round of the Picture Book Course coming up too :) and people can always come and say hi on Instagram. I still love hanging around on there.

Aw thanks Katie for all the good and brilliance you are sharing in the world.

Thanks for having me Claire and for all of your support.

Follow and find online…

IG -

Website -

https://www.katiechappell.com

Thanks for reading and if you’d like to be part of the 2025 growth lab series and you’re a member of with something to say just drop me an email and we’ll sort you an interview.

Claire (and Katie)

✨

Do the maths on your limit for subscriptions - what would feel an expansive/ perfect amount - you can use my Substack calculator to work out how much you’ll get paid…

9 Reasons people unsubscribed from my paid subscriptions over 7 weeks.

Claire Venus ✨ — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 07:11:55 GMT

Hi folks,

How’s your day going?

One of the big things I’ve learnt this past year is that our own buyer behavior is NOT the same as our customers…

I ran a 7 week experiment to receive the ‘paid sub expired’ emails. I wanted to get into the weeds of what was going on behind the ~~sad~~ informative grey dashboard… 🤓

I was originally hoping to set up a zap to tag my unsubscribes inside podia email1 so I can better segment over there but you can’t do it.2 Hurry up Substack api!

✨

Here’s what I observed from the unsubscribe emails…

It felt like I received them almost every day. This set off a spiral inside of my nervous system. It took about 4 weeks to understand it within my self worth snowglobe.

Some folks needed to update their card
Some comps expired (from competitions, team members or other requests)
Two people deleted their Substack publications entirely
Some people needed to cancel for financial reasons
Some people needed to cancel for capacity reasons
Some people didn’t want to focus on growth - it felt like another ‘thing they weren’t doing well’ 3. You’ll get this if you run a membership and email people more often. Emails serve as reminders.
Some people were going in a different direction because of a values clash with Substack
Some Diamond Members expired - these folks usually stay for 12-24 months depending on their goals. The membership by design should give you a huge boost in a year, some folks like to take longer or stay for extra mentorship with me. More here.
People often don’t know how to pause, downgrade or manage their subscription. You can help them out with this by adding /account onto your URL and sharing it. You can pin instructions to your membership section or pop on your nav bar if you run a busy space.

Subscribe now

How to toggle on your paid sub emails incase you want to receive those/ set up a zap through google workspace.

Actions

I was on holiday so didn’t reach out individually but I saved all the emails in a folder and ran the reasons through chat GPT to summarise and better understand if there was more I could do when I returned. It’s my plan to do an off-boarding questionnaire and incentivise it so people feel compelled to fill it in.

There was so much LOVE for my work which was reassuring and then the truth bomb which came out in a journalling session…

subscription businesses take a TONNE of ‘consistent’ work.
hundreds of people have left Sparkle since I set up. Over 1/4 of them have returned, there have been 3 complaints since I started this work. You plug into alot of energy when you run memberships.
you have to have focus points to attract new members in every single month BECAUSE you are running a monthly subscription, people will always cancel. This can feel tiresome which is why I plan sales in advance and have automated lots of it now.
if you take a break churn will outpace growth (this coupled with my lack of growth since Substack changed the algorithm inside of recommendations is problematic).

Acceptance 🙏

I’ve been running a paid newsletter/ membership since April 2022 and writing a newsletter since 2017. I’ve seen incredible growth, I’ve seen churn, I’ve met thousands of people through the process. It’s beautiful work but YES it’s high churn work over the long term. 4 Being inside of the work you do brings a tonne of gratitude - we can’t live inside of a grey dashboard but we can’t always push for green either…

So what can we do?

This is where it really comes back to your goals for writing, for being paid, for being in the world of subscriptions AND your mindset.

There are actually one million and one things you can do and I’ve written articles about lots of them. The main one is a mindset piece and it’s to accept this is the beautiful game.

Class this week!

Thurs 4th September - 12noon (UK time) - BONUS call - Substack visioning and planning (with your wider eco-system online) for the rest of 2025. (REPLAY posted after)
Want to go deeper with me and a gang of lovely creative cheerleaders Come along to my planning session for the last chapter of the year this Thursday at 12noon and we’ll get into it! It’s for paid members - you can join as a monthly or annual sub if you fancy connecting with our beautiful community and coming along to my masterclasses and hot seat coaching calls this Autumn! If you’re a member, you’ll find all the details and links to get reminders inside of my live classes tab or if you’re not but want to see the overview, head to this article.

This post is public, so feel free to share it if you’ve found it helpful.

Sending September sparkles,

Claire

✨

P.S - want to go deeper on actions you can take to outpace churn? Here are some articles from the archive…

Podia is the all in one web, course, webinar and CRM I use for email sequences for customers and hosting all my classes and courses. You can take my podia class for free here if you’re curious.

I have zapier set up to run a welcome sequence for new paid members and it’s working so well - I feel it holds people much better than Substack’s welcome email which often ends up in spam. We don’t get stats on the welcome email opens so this feels like a more secure way to ensure people are getting gold star service and able to find what they need inside an archive of 400+ articles and replays.

They were and it can feel hard out there.

You will get less churn if you offer a ‘no brainer’ price because your price will sit in the place of ‘I may-as-well stay’ rather than I’m not using it so I’ll go - you have to do the maths on volume with that. I have to pay VAT inside of subscriptions (because we can’t add it) and we pay 10% to Substack and then 20% VAT so 30% of my payment goes out before I get it. Then I pay corporation tax so the profit out of a £20 subscription is nearer £12 than £20. Like I said, it’s the beautiful game.

📮 “Dear Substack Follower...Sorry but Did You Mean to Subscribe?”

Claire Venus ✨ — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 06:17:08 GMT

Hi Sparklers,

How are you doing?

shared recently in our weekly members chat she’d been busy experimenting here. You guys know I ADORE an experiment. This one is about growth, clarity and connection. 👩🏽‍🔬 💫

Following your profile (Substack Notes) v Subscribing to your Substack Newsletter (our posts and our publication) here on Substack

When Substack announced the intro of “followers” a few months back, my advice was to ignore it and focus on our publications, doing our work, building conversations with our readers.

I’ve pretty much ignored ~~nearly~~ all of the FOMO in myself around Notes, going viral and growth and brought you what I feel is worth investing your time in.

I felt that in my gut followers and the following metric weren’t aligned with what we’re really here to do. It’s nuanced though - all subscribers automatically follow our Notes so technically we have a warm audience for our Notes. That is to say our newsletter subscribers should see our Notes if they are online when we post them.

I get the loose triangular concept - followers who do not subscribe follow our notes, then eventually subscribe (questionable) then might pay. NB subscribers automatically follow your Notes.

▲

However, in practise that’s not working for any of my members or clients. You can also see how this plays out publically with writers with large accounts;

Hey thanks for following me, did you know I have a newsletter you can subscribe to…

Maybe that works but with the reach I see, I doubt it.

The cynic in me also knows followers are data and data is precious to tech companies. On the flip side, we love Substack and we want them to do well so 🤷🏽‍♀️

So following/ followers - Personally - I don’t think it’s worth using energy in your beautiful brain if I’m honest.

It’s ‘busy work’ not productive work. You are here to write, to connect, to grow something beautiful. Followers is not that thing. It’s not the thing we are here to care about honestly.

Let me tell you my biggest frustration - No one (I repeat no one) new to substack understands the difference between following and subscribing. No one new to Substack understands where to find anything either. It’s over complicating an already complex platform.

This is where it’s our job as writer/ curators to help them navigate our space. It also hugely impacts on customer journey in such a positive way. ✨

Lovely Things you can do…

Do good work. (of course goes without saying)
Direct message subscribers (free, paid, founding) as they arrive (I dm every single paid sub and always have)
Make your welcome email irresistible and/ or run a ‘nurture’ sequence through an external list. I use podia. Drip funnels are currently in beta testing in Substack. ✨ 1
Direct message followers (say whaaaaaat?)

Subscribe now

One of my members, the lovely Donna took the bull by the horns and had an upfront request and approach for her Substack followers aiming to convert them into subscribers and I LOVE IT… 💖

I’ll let her tell you more…

“Dear Substack Follower, Sorry but Did You Mean to Subscribe?”

Curiosity and frustration inspired me to try an experiment to grow my subscriber list after hovering around 480 readers for weeks.

I was curious why some of my personal friends and former colleagues told me they weren’t seeing all my posts, which I publish religiously every Wednesday morning.

I looked them up and saw they were following my newsletter and hadn’t subscribed. I sent messages from within the app and explained the difference between subscribing and following. They thanked me and subscribed.

That got me thinking: Would this work with people I don’t know?

Some people choose to follow instead of subscribe for various, legitimate reasons:

They don’t want to clog their email box and don’t know that you can adjust settings to get notified in the app and not email.
They’re active on notes and see everything they want to see there.
They’re only following as a gesture and don’t really want to see my posts.

But I suspect many followers just don’t understand the difference. Could I convert people with a dose of information in a friendly note sent via dm? I thought it was worth a try.

I have about 250 followers (you can divine this number by looking at the subscriber page on your dashboard, choosing followers above the chart and scrolling over to see the current number).

Thanks for reading Sparkle on Substack! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Followers of Claire’s Substack Notes.

Typical Engagement in Notes

Substack Followers - how do I reach them?

I couldn’t figure out how to message them as a group… 2

Hello followers

So this gets a bit tedious.

First, go to your welcome page in the app (where you arrive when you click on your photo).
Click on the subscriber number and then choose followers.
Start with the first person who isn’t a bestseller or someone you know publishes regularly. You should assume those folks know how Substack works and chose to just follow you on purpose.
Then I sent a private note (using the paper airplane on their welcome page) to everyone who follows me and subscribes to fewer than 50 newsletters.
The note I pasted into the message said something like this (I used a few different versions):

“Hi John, It’s nice to “see” you here. You may already know this: If you want to see my newsletter (or anyone else’s), you should subscribe instead of follow. Subscribers receive publications in their inbox boxes (either email or just on the app). Followers only see our notes, which sometimes link to newsletters but you’ll only see them if you’re scrolling at the exact right time. This is true of any newsletters you’re interested in. You can choose whether to get more emails or just see newsletters in the app. Donna.”

Using my arbitrary criteria, I sent about 100 messages over the weekend. Thirteen of them subscribed to my newsletter by Monday morning. I also posted a note with similar language, which attracted a few likes and comments.

Not all the responses were positive….

One person argued with me about the difference between followers and subscribers. I sent her the language from Substack. She didn’t subscribe.
Two older gentlemen took it as a personal invitation to get to know me better.
One got annoying even after I replied to say I was out with my husband and couldn’t respond (this was actually true). He didn’t subscribe.
The other guy was friendly but not creepy and he subscribed.

Zero people said I was being stalkerish, which was my biggest worry.

And I feel like I offered a small public service by explaining something complicated about Substack while gaining a few subscribers at the same time. I think I even earned one paid subscriber, but I’m not certain about the timeline. Subscriber count on Monday morning: 497.

✨
Donna Blankinship recently retired from a long career as a journalist and since January has been pursuing a passion project to inform American voters (and non voters) about how the U.S. government works. Her Substack posts are mostly not political, but politics adjacent. She is also creating embarrassing TikTok videos — combining cooking and politics — to reach younger, less engaged Americans with the same message.

Thanks so much to Donna for writing for us. If you’d like to support her work and help her get past 500 subs, you know what to do!

Claire

✨

BONUS Tips (from Claire)

7 Short engagement scripts for members to support you if you want to do this work and dm your followers without cringe…

Use the person’s first name.
Check their profile first and make sure you think they are a good fit with what you write about (no creepy bots or guys).
Yes it takes energy - only you know if this feels like it’s is worth it for you.
Sign off with your and the name of your newsletter if you’d like maybe your most popular post?
Add where they can find you on socials - some people are new to Substack so it’s helpful to share another social media if you have one.

Hi [Name],
Thanks for following me here! How are you finding your experience? Just in case you didn’t know, following and subscribing work a little differently here on Substack.
If you want to receive my full newsletter in your inbox or app, you’ll need to hit “Subscribe” as well. You can adjust your settings so it doesn’t flood your email. ✨
Warmly,
[Your Name]

Hi [Name],
Lovely to see you here! I noticed you’re following me - thank you 🙏
If you’d like to see my weekly newsletter in full, subscribing is the way to go. You’ll be able to catch every issue either by email or just in the Substack app.
Let me know if you have questions? I know the setup can be a bit confusing at first! Here’s one you might like - (insert link)

Hey [Name],
Thanks so much for following!
I send out a newsletter every [day/time] with behind-the-scenes thoughts, tips, and reflections that only go to subscribers. If you’re enjoying the vibe here, I’d love to have you on that list too. 💌
You can subscribe with just one click and manage whether you receive my work in the app or in your email inbox.

Hi [Name],
Here’s a little Substack tip! Following someone means you’ll see their Notes, but not their actual newsletters unless you hit “Subscribe.”
If you’d like to read mine regularly, subscribing makes sure you never miss a thing. You can totally manage how often you’re notified, too.
Thanks for being here 🌟

Hi [Name],
I’ve been wondering why some folks haven’t seen my recent posts and I realised/ realized the difference between following and subscribing on Substack is a bit unclear!
If you’d like to get my newsletter each week, make sure to hit the “Subscribe” button (you can choose to get it in your inbox or just in-app).
No pressure, just wanted to share in case it helps your reading experience?

Hi [Name],
Thank you for following my work here 💛
If you’ve been meaning to read more, subscribing is the easiest way to stay in the loop posts go straight to your inbox or Substack app, whichever you prefer.
Here’s to creating and connecting

Hey [Name],
Fun fact: following on Substack is like peeking in the window. Subscribing is like being invited in with tea and biscuits 🍪 🫖
If you’d like to actually get my newsletter, hit that subscribe button and come on in! You’re always welcome.

Ok folks, that’s all for now.

Ooo and this is a pre-scheduled email. I’m still on hols. 🌞 If you’ve loved it you can restack it and share to Notes - I always appreciate shares so so much!!

Here’s my free podia class.

There isn’t a way to message followers as a group (Claire)

Why I won't leave Substack even though my growth fell off the cliff last month 🏔️

Claire Venus ✨ — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 06:42:23 GMT

Hi folks. I’m Claire. I like on the (currently) very sunny Northumberland Coast in the UK with my family and our pet whippet pup Stella.

Here at , we’re interested in life in the slower lane and building a business including Substack that takes care of us personally, professionally and financially. People call me The Queen of Substack. I just started working with a new financial mentor who starts every message with ‘Hey Queen…’ it’s a trip! 👸🏽

We deserve that and all of the creative gifts and connect that come with it. 💖

One Day

Day One

You guys know I adore it here on Substack.

I’m constantly banging on about claiming back our attention spans and joyful, sustainable growth. You guys know my work here unlocked my first 6figure year in my business and took further forward on my golden timeline than I thought possible at break neck speed.

And things are (~~sometimes, often,~~ probably) different now and that’s ok.

Substack Notes1 and the swell of publications feel busier here and you might feel there is ‘more competition’ now (and that’s ok).

Subscribe now

I don’t get anywhere near as many subscribers monthly as I once did (and that’s ok).

In-fact, this month I am in negative 30day subs for the very first time. Yes my brain has asked my body multiple times - who did you upset, what did you say?

My ego has also told me I can’t write about it but yet here I am.

Acknowledging change is the first part of the journey to reclaiming our space. The space meant for us. It truly doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing, teaching, sharing.

It matters that you understand the connection with your best fit reader, your most supportive audience. Why? Because those are the people who share your work. You don’t need to go viral (I haven’t) ✨

You want to focus on the people who are here, who already read your work, you already know, like and trust you.

You want to lean into and know that this space getting busier is actually a GOOD thing for us writers.

More readers, more potential for paid subs, more connection! Acknowledge it then move on and focus on who is reading your work. Look at their names, visit their Substack publications, go live with them, converse with them in your comments - you are not Beyonce (and that’s ok).💫

Subscribe now

Substack is not my parent or my employer

2When we’re doing the internal work (and hats off to anyone who is), the external can mirror some of the hardest lessons.

When my subs dipped last year, I started to wonder if Substack changed and not me. I started to give Substack a strange identity. Where as actually Substack is neutral. I trust the platform but not nearly as much as I trust myself. That’s the way it should be if you don’t want to be let down.

Either way, I’m the ONLY one who can change the energetic direction of my present and future. I’ve read FAR too many ‘moany’ posts about algorithms in my years creating for fun over on IG to get swamped with this.

What’s the point?

We can take action ANYTIME. Now…tomorrow. On the first day of every month - we are in the driving seat ALWAYS!

We can write post, a note, tidy up our about page, welcome emails, have a break if we want.

We can re-read our most popular posts and see exactly why they connected. Send a poll or survey to our members. Reach out and meet someone for coffee we met here.

✨

Two of my besties left and part of my creative spirit died…

The biggest spiritual lesson I’ve learnt is that two things can be true at once.

For neurodivergent folks, we can be quite black and white and so it’s helpful for me to remember.

Holding opposites really helps me stay grounded and calm in approach to being online where everyone wants to tell you it’s a bin fire and I see rainbows and unicorns.3

In the golden days, when I told all my friends and colleagues about Substack and they arrived and loved it and moved creations we had that in common. Opening up the app was a JOY - all my creative friends were here. I’d arrived home!

After some political trickery last year two of them made the decision to leave. I’d given them lifetime comps here and they asked to untangle from that. I felt sad but I also felt 1million percent clear that I was staying. I felt sorry that our values clashed and kind of ashamed that I see the world differently.

I also felt clear I could not and would not sabotage my legacy in a creative fire. I’m not an activist or an anarchist anyway - that’s not my path.4

I even sat with it to better understand the sadness - it always gets to be deep right? I just never liked goodbyes.5

What do people who have left Substack have in common?

They know their values and want to stay connected to what feels right to them in their creative eco-system.
They feel their readers will be better served elsewhere.
They don’t mind learning new tech
They see their relationship publishing here as a relationship with Substack.

This week one of the co-founders of shared he was writing on Bee Hiv. interviewed him about it. Four people sent me the article to asked me what I thought. What I think is that he’s a sovereign adult that has a job at Substack but it’s just a job right? I felt the same when one of the writer’s I’ve followed for years added an affiliate link to a toothbrush - fine - you do you!

The online algorithms are neutral.

Sometimes they work in our favour, sometimes they frustrate us, sometimes we feel like it’s all one big test.

We can hack them but they are NOT a measure of the worth of our work and creativity. Nope!

Our creativity, words and work is intrinsically valuable NO MATER what! ✨

REPEAT THAT ONE!

When political events shaped and twisted our reality, we had two choices - live there or up our sense of self care.

I will ALWAYS choose to focus on the highest good.

I mute everything that focusses on external doom or drama spirals - we already know. The only options we have are activism, prayer or creativity and I’m not an activist so I chose the latter two as a daily affirmation.

When ai threatened to (and did) take our art, our jobs, our sense of security, we had two choices (we still do) - complain or master it for our own use (again for the highest good). 6

Of course I opted for mastery with ai.

We get to win at life, at business, at creativity - being unique by default in our glorious human ways.

We don’t have to trudge through struggling and living off scraps. I have young children, a house to manage, peri-menopause symptoms7, a business that’s growing and a sick husband.

For examples - Chat GPT can write a meal plan to suite our families complex needs and support my brain space away from grocery shopping so I can take care of my family more whole heartedly.

Oh and so I reframe my connection with clients/ readers/ members too.

I want the best for me and the best for you too. You get to take breaks, you get to stay in your lane, you get to ignore the noise of people leaving or choosing other ways.

Claire

✨

P.S - me and my four year old have listened to this song on repeat all weekend. IYKYK.

New 25+ ways to increase your engagement

Images to show you it’s always about the long game… joyful, sustainable growth. You are not a measure of your subscriber graph. Go gently ok?

Notes is Substack’s inbuilt social media - here are some free trainings on it.

I did work as a paid mentor for Substack for a year. With - she’s incredible and inspired me so much. 🍄

I listen to yoga nidras from and

There is nuance in everything. Creating on Substack is creating on the Internet - they are the same thing. People who exist on Substack also exist on the internet. This is one of the safest most generous places to create you’ll ever find!!

When I was 21, my step dad gave away our dogs without telling me. I arrived home from graduating uni and travelling the USA asked where they were. We’ve all got a thousand and one stories like this.

I will only use it for the highest good. I loved Jenna Kutcher’s recent podcast on using Chat GPT with her business.

The easiest way to know if you’re in peri isn’t actually blood tests it’s to ask about your female lineage - asking about it will bring up way more than just timings of hormones… trust me. This is the work. Check out and for resources and further reading. Also follow work and future projects. 🌀

Ways to Work with Substack coupons that help your Substack GROW! 📈

Claire Venus ✨ — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:12:05 GMT

You are not a book someone left on a lonely park bench.

My visibility challenge starts September - come join us over here.

Hi folks

Do you LOVE getting discounts? Do you save coupons and use them in store? I’ve learnt recently that some people will always buy on discounts.

Some people will only buy if something is discounted, but that’s not the full story.

As I like to say; there is nuance in EVERYTHING. I like discounts but when I am in a no spend mood discounts don’t get me out of that.

Before I share more about my experiment with Substack special offer coupons this year and why I used them, I wanted to share a mindset shift. One that was once hard for me and now is really easy;

If you email your subscribers, you will get unsubscribes especially if you email them when you are in the middle of ‘selling’ something. BUT guess what - This is also the time that you tend to bring in more paying customers… YAY!
You are safe to remind people about what you sell. Your value is not tethered to your subscriber numbers. We shouldn’t be trying to ‘keep’ subscribers, let that energy go just like they let themselves out when they’ve had enough or realised they are in the wrong place. 1

The 8 Coupons I Made this year and the impact they had…

Subscribe now

Going Viral in nice ways on Substack Notes with Kendall and Kristi

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 02 May 2025 05:44:40 GMT

Thank you , , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with and !

Available for iOS and Android

Well this was an absolute DELIGHT. I am so fascinated with the viral sensation of our day of chasing views and wanting frenzy.

I teach the opposite of this - joyful, sustainable growth but I also hold people to make the most of the opportunity when going viral happens.

It was great to hear from and on how going viral made them feel and how it impacted their publications.

You can subscribe to their BRILLIANT work and words here…

What would you like to see next on a live? I love doing them!

Claire

✨

P.S - If you are curious about how to get over the stage fright and go live, reach your audience, new audience and encourage more paid subscribers, I have a whole course teaching you how to use audio and video on Substack!!

Results of My Joyful Growth Challenge

Claire Venus ✨ — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 03:00:40 GMT

“I feel like you speak my language - you come from an arts background but have tried lots of things and you understand what it's like juggling plates and I like your tone and the permission you give to take things at your own pace.”

Hi Folks

As some of you know I set up a separate Substack publication to run participatory projects and used it for a challenge. I couldn’t use as working with sections is tricky and people haven’t signed up for daily emails here.

There are many ripples from the folks that took part but this is more of a snapshot of the stats. I thought it could be helpful incase you wanted to try something similar.

If you have any questions I’d be happy to share more? Comments are open.

The Joyful Growth on Substack Challenge took place here on Substack from 12-20 Feb and stayed open until 28 Feb. It was free and open to all.

“Practical and implementable advice, and a lot of cheerleading and encouragement. I particularly enjoy the Sparkle sessions.”

“This challenge was like a sweet, gentle nudge each day from a friend instead of feeling like a frenetic growth challenge. My main takeaway was collaboration with other Substacks, making comments into conversations and exerting some control over my Notes feed! Your presence is so calming and encouraging. I love your style.”

Here’s the stats, subscribers and sales it brought in…

She's a hero!

Claire Venus ✨ — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 12:01:01 GMT

Oh my days, I can’t believe it but I’m celebrating 10k subscribers to Sparkle on Substack (8k from YOUR recommendations.) 💖

Thank you for supporting me to build my dream business and making the most conscious and thoughtful place to be.

Sparklers,

This week’s 2025 Growth Lab post is on ‘Hero Posts’. 1

When you arrive to Substack, you might hear this term. You think; goodness I just mastered the about page, I’ve not even looked at the settings page and now I have to make another thing? YES, yes you do! When you have time of course…

Hero posts are great for building awareness and driving conscious subscriptions. They show your reader who you are, they build trust and find you great fit readers.2

My hero post has been up since 24/9/24, it's driven 19 free subs. It's had 15 likes, which for me it pretty good. It is still being looked at as I still get a 'like' every so often. I always intended on doing a follow up just haven't done it yet, but recently I've finally had an idea for a hook to hang it on.

Stats on my hero post before I took it down. It was up for over a year.

Subscribe now

My pinned post to do list…

Capture attention
Encourage GREAT fit readers!
Invite folks in.
Demonstrate value, authority and ‘likability’ 3
Add a photo/ use video…

Update - I tried a PINNED post for a couple of months and it didn’t drive anywhere near as many subs as my hero post so I wrote a new one…

✨

Here’s three ways with a pinned/ hero post…

To make a quick hero post for your Substack publication…

Copy and paste the info from your about page into a post, add a photo of you so it pulls through and an inviting title and you’re done.
Check your best performing post and pin that… make sure the heading makes sense as an invite and the photo works. (this will also display in the app)
Write something SHORT and fresh, something that invites your audience to get to know you at a deeper level. Imagine they have forgotten everything they know about you.
See your Substack homepage as a WHOLE thing… where are you asking your reader’s eyes to go? Is it confusing eg 'x2 ‘start here’ or x1 ‘start here’ and x1 contents - fix that! Make the invite clear.

“I put up my hero post when I launched Poetry Pals 30.12.23 and it led to 108 free subs, 15 paid. I can’t tell whether that was all at the start but I’d imagine it was (they are people who joined in early on).”

Top Tips

Add photos (ideally of you) after you’ve emailed it out (to help delivery) OR
Pin it to your profile without emailing it, test it’s effectiveness and email it later?
Imagine the reader doesn’t know you but add some nice nuggets for those who do.
Consider leaving comments turned off… don’t add external links, make the invite clear… subscribe!!
Think carefully about the header text as this is ‘prime real’ estate. (see visuals below)
Add two subscribe buttons. One after your first few lines.

“My pinned post has driven 116 free subscribers and 7 paid.”

Here’s some more great articles on Hero posts and layouts;

Follow Your Gut

7 things I intentionally did in my hero post and why writers should pay attention

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on Substack. This reflective article is purely based on my own observations of the platform and as such a part of my public effort to document my writing journey on here as a real-time case study…

2 years ago · 85 likes · 28 comments · Elin Petronella

On Substack

New ways to customize your Substack

Today we’re excited to share new ways to customize and organize your Substack homepage, giving you the ability to create a distinctive look for your publication without extra work. These updates are part of a series of ongoing aesthetic improvem…

3 years ago · 1297 likes · 397 comments

musings by mika

Fav Five 🖐️ | Is this the one thing missing from your publication?

Dear friend…

2 years ago · 96 likes · 72 comments · Mika

Here are some visual examples of hero posts I LOVE…

Note the clear friendly invite in the photos and text…

Louise gives us a snap shot of her cosy style with knits, a portrait, coffee and her logo.

Kate shows us she’s a compassionate professional with this relaxed garden and welcome page.

Emma puts the focus on us - the curious reader and reminds us of her dopamine dressing and her recent book.

Sarah uses a pro shot with a CLEAR welcome

Lucy gives us a start here and an invite to her and her brand, she also gives us a couple of other options… we can choose.

This one from over at is a video post and super brave. It brought 63 subscribers into her world.

Ready for it? Let’s pin hero posts!

Go a step further and make a video part of your hero post? I am trialling this at the moment and the views are up over 2500+. Ideally, you’d use Substack video, ask me more about that in the comments as I’m near the email limit. 😵

Hope this is useful to you today! If you like it, please like it and share to Notes if you feel called to. If you have a hero post already, drop it in the comments?

Claire

✨

PS - If you want a video tutorial on hero posts, you’ll find that in my A-Z library along with 40 hours of tutorials to support your joyful growth journey on Substack!

A hero post is a post front and centre on your Substack website that is the biggest, brightest, clearest invite to subscribe you can think of.

Remember unsubscribes can be from people who didn’t realise what they signed up for/ who you are in the world. A hero post gives you the opportunity to ‘get it right’.

I’ve talked about it before but my vision for Sparkle was not for EVERYONE to be here. I was one of the very first people I know to be talking about staying creative on Substack and educating on how to use it. That could have been a recipe for building a feast for locusts. Instead, I threw all the sparkle and cuteness I could at it to find my right people. Be a beacon not a people pleaser!

👩🏽‍🔬 Turning your monthly Substack subscriptions (on and) off...

Claire Venus ✨ — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 18:52:49 GMT

It’s a choose your own adventure here at Sparkle on Substack focussing your attention on joyful, sustainable growth - I can’t wait to see what you create!!! Come and join my community for instant support in the exclusive members chat and more creative ideas, insight and experience than you ever thought possible - folks have time for you here and so do I!

Hi Sparklers,

I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot recently but have you considered the power and value of your archive here?

I wrote this post to prompt some creative thinking for those of you who run membership models here and communities across time zones.

We ALWAYS have a choice!

This piece is part of my collection of Growth Experiments which is a new section here for 2025. The idea is, I do a set of experiments (across multiple publications and models) and report back so you feel better informed if you want to be inspired to do your own version. If you’re also running experiments longer than 30 days on your Substack, you can email me to be featured.

✨

Subscribe now

Why I Turned Off Monthly Subscriptions for my Substack publication and What Happened Next

A couple of months ago, I made (what I thought was) a bold decision: I turned off monthly subscriptions on my Substack. I spoke about it quite vulnerably in this podcast episode.

For a long time, I’d offered both monthly and annual plans as well as my Diamond Membership, nudging up the price as the archive became more valuable. I know the flexibility of a monthly payment makes it easier for people to say yes. It’s less commitment and you can budget.

I also know a month passes by quite quickly and folks have the excuse to say “I’m leaving as I’ve not ~~had~~ made time to make the most of this”.

There are different types of ‘buyer’ who come to browse our offers here… I talk about this more in my membership calls. Not everyone is a full body yes as soon as they stumble into your ‘Substack shop’. Some folks take their time to get to know you, others will never pay you - neither are good or bad, that’s just the nature of the Substack/ social media hybrid model here. With on average 5% across all Substack subscriptions converting to paid you can guarantee you’ll have WAY more readers than paid subs/ members. Both are beautiful but we also need to get paid. 🎢

“Claire is extremely knowledgable about the inner workings of Substack, and makes it super easy to navigate the whole process.”

Photo by Alyssa DeGarde on Unsplash

In the first 18months on Substack of running a membership model here, I learnt a lot.

I had never dealt with volume of enquiries, questions, connection like that ever in my life. I went from living life on my own terms to being ‘plugged in’ and responsive. After a while of being responsive, I had to re-train my nervous system and re-model my business. Life online moves quickly, the internet is 24/7, your nervous system needs time to catch up. 1

I have THE best customers but started to notice a pattern—some ‘wrong fit’ people would sign up for a month, dip into the content, and then cancel or worst take my words as their own.

It sometimes felt transactional rather than like the deep, engaged community I wanted to build. If you ever feel like folks are barging into your beautiful space anywhere IRL or online, you’ll know it feels all kinds of wrong.

I started asking myself: What would happen if I removed the monthly option altogether? Would it push people away? Would my paid subscriptions take a hit? Would I stall my own growth? Would more of my ‘right fit audience’ find me.2

I was taking an option away but I was confident I could keep the monthly views metrics and the GAR increasing! Plus I was tired, last year was big personally as well as in my business. Oh fun - an experiment, we like those. 👩🏽‍🔬

An opportunity to test an new way of engaging my audience through Substack and to gift members my Substack beginners course which wouldn’t have been appropriate a year ago. 3

“Since working with Claire, my Substack has been transformed. It was a bit busy and scattered, which does not align with my mindful message at all! I was trying to tell everyone everything at once about what I do and what resources are available to them. Claire told me to simplify the homepage design and now it looks so much better. But the best thing about working with Claire is that she gives you insights and inspiration in a way that makes it all feel heart-centred and holistic. There’s no hustle culture in it and that is so important to me and how I show up in my Substack, my business and my life.”

The Results?

An absolute dream for steady energy and personal creative recovery.

Subscriptions are forever BUT the energy that is needed to keep conversions and keep paid subs coming in takes work. It doesn’t have to be hustle but there’s an element of showing up and selling… people aren’t going to trip over and give you their card details. 4

My membership numbers stayed steady, the grew and then dipped which is a pattern I see quarterly anyway in line with the energy I push around what people value here. E.g I almost guarantee any class on managing paid offers is a crowd pleaser.
It’s my hope that after 6-12 months in my membership working part time on their Substack folks have what they need and choose to stay anyway. Is that always the case NO! There are two ways to make folks stay - high consistent value5, no brainer price. You can put the two together to grow faster but that’s not my style.
It didn’t make a difference to free subs (always around 500 more a month)
I (felt like I) had more time to welcome folks into the community - I drop everyone who pays a direct message and my energy shifted from a quick - ‘here’s everything you need’ to ‘how’s your day going?’ - much more my vibe.
The shift encouraged people to be more intentional about subscribing. They were more excited to tell me why they’d joined. It’s not about numbers for me it’s always been about connection and being of service to the people who align with my creative practise and values.
I know I am safe to turn it on and off for seasons when I am delivering elsewhere.

“Your energy and enthusiasm are infectious. Your concept of a unique creative spirit at the heart of everyone.”

Why not just pause Subscriptions?

The Truth (without shame)!

Ok, I don’t pause subscriptions because the model here means people pay for access to an archive as well as the live elements. I can take time off however because I have support. We can each run our publications in a way that works for us and our energy across the seasons - we just need to communicate it with the people we are here to serve.
Not everyone likes to commit to a subscription or membership. People are open about swapping spaces - it’s like a fun sweet shop here. It’s IMPORTANT we make our home a space they want to stay, we respect their time and money, we don’t ghost, overwhelm or confuse them. That’s really the biggest mistake I see with creators.
You can get Substack education more readily online now. When I first started, there was me and like 2 others who are very different to me in their approach. In the last two months the amount of new Substack education and people going viral sharing growth hacks and content is dizzying… I hide it all. 6
You simply can’t get the community I’ve cultivated anywhere else online. The people who have been with me since the beginning (2023) experimenting and growing their Substacks. They are so helpful and they are paying it forward when new folks join live in my community chat every single day! They meet for coffee, dinner, organise meet ups, they support each other’s podcasts, book launches. It’s so so beautiful and I’m honoured to have been a catalyst in a conscious way.
There is NOTHING triggering for anyone’s nervous system here on , no frenzy, no hustle - all joyful, sustainable growth - my methods work LONG TERM. It’s a burn out free zone. You care about your health? So do I? You care about being your most creative self? Me too!! You want your Substack to earn you money? I’ve got you! Do I believe we can grow without hacks and hustle - you betcha and I have over 400 members who feel the same. Come join us!

“I love listening to your relaxed take on building a Substack following organically, that it doesn’t have to be large. it is actually relaxing for my nervous system vs creating panic or FOMO. Your insights have been encouraging and motivating.”

Dr Josie

The Takeaway:

More Commitment, Less Churn

Removing the monthly option made joining my membership here on Substack feel more like a thoughtful decision rather than an impulse or grabby one. (NB- not all people.)

Instead of people hopping in and out, they’ve consciously invested in a year of connection, learning, and engagement. It led to deeper conversations and me connecting to the names and the motivation of the people who joined.

If you’re wondering whether it’s the right move for you, I’d say this: If your goal is long-term community over quick wins and metrics, it’s worth stepping into how you want to feel. Marketing guru Seth Godin talks a lot about why he’s not on social media. My favourite line of his is around the concept of one deliriously happy customer/ member who tells 10 people passionately about your work. The power!

People paying monthly access for membership have the choice to come and go - are you 100% comfortable with that in the season you’re in? Do you have energy to meet them? Does it fit your business model? 7

Have you considered turning off monthly subscriptions for your Substack publication?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! It’s hard to get across the nuance of feelings here hence the footnotes/ asides. Probably should have done a podcast!

NB - to turn off monthly subs, you simply make the price the same or slightly lower than your annual price. (You don’t actually turn them off just stop the flow).

Ooof that was the longest post I’ve written (and hopefully edited *quite* well) in a while.

Sending sparkles for the DELIGHTFUL home you’re building on Substack, I’m here for you and I’m so excited about what’s possible at this expansive time where your creative voice is more important than it’s ever been.

Claire

✨

PS - If you are looking for support outside a membership model, I have two signature courses I’m incredibly proud of with rave reviews.

“I love Claire's open hearted, enthusiastic and generous sharing and support around Substack. It has made me feel it is possible to achieve my goals, it has extended my goals, I've managed to get Bestseller status within months of working with her, all whilst working intuitively, from the heart, with flexibility and always keeping my writing at the heart.”

I don’t have notifications on my phone, I don’t consume any news except accidentally on IG/ Notes. I regularly take apps off my phone and step into my work consciously at the laptop.

We all have different metrics for growth… mine is a feeling goal but I also like to see green on my dashboard. I can cope with grey but I prefer green!

This is a business decision, the course is over a year old. I have updated it but Substack education is free and easy to come by for beginners. I want people to see where I was when I was building - it’s cute!

Unless it’s from a free trial - it often happens there as they miss the email. People are very transparent with me in that they ask for a refund as they can’t afford to pay but wanted to access the free trial when I offered it. That’s the way the cookie crumbles when something is labelled as ‘free’. Not everything is measured in money and I am often glad of these connections and those folks stay on a bursary spot or send others my way - it all works out.

Value is subjective. I value lots of things - inspiration, education, honesty, congruence, art…

I have supported folks to take their Notes go viral but I haven’t personally had one go viral. It became a bit of a running joke as I was researching the Notes chapter of our book ‘How to Grow a World Class Substack’. I don’t play the lottery either - maybe I have an energetic block or maybe there’s a different type of magic at play.

Subscriptions (unless built as hands off systems) focussed on volume need some sort of nurturing by a human - it’s just the way it is.

💬 So you want to go LIVE on Substack?

Claire Venus ✨ — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 06:43:43 GMT

“Video killed the radio star!” 🎵

(Updated 15th April 2026)

Hi Sparklers,

How are we all feeling about lives?

Going live?

Trying out Substack’s new desktop live tool?

I thought I’d see a few folks pop up in my app this week but I haven’t? 👀 📲 🏃🏻 💨

Honest question - Do Substack Lives feature into your content eco system? Your ambition for joyful, sustainable growth here?

✨

I love a chat - you guys know that, so when Substack rolled out the live feature in the app I thought it was a nice opportunity to chat more casually with some of my colleagues. It’s a different medium to podcasting in my mind (although Substack pile the replays into my podcasting tab).1

I also made a Substack tag so that folks could easily re-find the full replays if they missed them. https://sparkleon.substack.com/t/live-chats

When you make a Substack tag (which you can do at the point of posting or later in your settings), you are making a little collection to help others find your posts now and in the future.

Top tip - This small act of organisation will INCREASE your monthly views. We are allowed to remind folks of the Substack archive regularly!

Substack’s announcement post on how to use Live Video in the app - https://substack.com/home/post/p-154826615 and an updated article on going live from the desktop - https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/43904564079892-How-do-I-go-live-on-Substack-using-my-computer

💫

My tag on my home page (live Substack chats)

Going live and screen sharing on the desktop

Top tips for going live in the Substack app.

Before you go live…

It now works in the app and on the desktop!! You can adjust your image to smooth it out if you like.
You can also add your branding on desktop - FUN!
Give your Live a catchy title and give folks prior notice if you can. Once you schedule your live the best thing to do is share that link with your audience rather than email everyone.
Grab your plug in apple headphones (with built in mic) or fancy mic… it makes it a better auditory experience for everyone and helps you concentrate.

At the time of going live…

If collaborating - DM the person you are going live with and they should be near the top of the list when you go to invite them in. I’ve found this makes it easier to find them on the live.
If using a phone - decide where to look and use a tripod - if you don’t have one a hair bobble and a tin of beans can work just as well.
If using a laptop - stay inside the guided area for people watching on phones!
You’ll be on a preview screen first - you can adjust your appearance and angles - don’t be too close.
GO LIVE
Engage your audience - say hello to people who pop in. (You don’t get notified when they leave so I suspect the number is cumalative but I don’t know.)2
Introduce yourself, tell people how long you plan to be on and what you’ll talk about
You’ll pop up in the app and it will say ‘name is now live’ on your homepage on your Substack website too.
People can type questions so you can pause to read those or try and catch them as they come in. I have an iphone 14 and I find it really hard to read the questions if they go over 3 lines so I tend. to open the desktop as well on mute and read them there.
When you’re ready end the call/ live.

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

After going live on Substack.

‼️ Don’t email it out! No body needs that email.
Go into drafts and download the transcript, ask Claude to summarise and pick out two/ three key quotes. Add that in for people skim reading (note it’s ai and you’ll need to check it and disclose it’s ai writing)
Your live will be saved to drafts when you close (takes around 20 mins) so you can edit, add bits, post it or email it out. Make it meaningful.
You can change the thumbnail if you feel like you look like an alien!
Subscribe now

Does going live on Substack work for growth?

Yes I get subscribers every time.

I’ve had over 900 people on a live - it’s great fun - just be yourself!

Ok - personal growth YES! For most of us this is outside of our comfort zone. For Substack growth - hard to quantify as Substack aren’t giving us that data. There are already some BOLD claims about this 🥴 but I’d say yes my subscribers do get a gentle boost when I’ve been live.

I grew exactly the same number of subscribers on Thursday as I did yesterday (x35). I didn’t post or go live on Thursday so I personally don’t think there’s a mad rush to go live for any sort of fomo based reasons.

Let us know if you fancy trying it in the comments, what you want to talk about and if you don’t want to go it alone, find someone who wants to go live with you?

Have fun! You learn so much about yourself and your colleagues doing lives!

Claire

✨

💬 Sparklers - if you want to go live - come meet a buddy in the comments?

I think this is actually incredibly helpful. Although I wanted to curate my podcast feed into seasons and episodes it just means folks listening on other platforms (spotify, apple etc) get notified of the live after it’s happened and can listen and circle back into our Substack ecosystem.

The views go up the longer you stay on a live (this has happened every time and I guess encourages us to stay on where as I imagine people are clicking in and out?).

Three ways to run a New Year Sale

Claire Venus ✨ — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 09:35:13 GMT

Hi Sparklers,

WELCOME to ‘The Growth Lab’ at Sparkle on Substack. A new section for paid members here. This first post has a preview. If you’re a reader and you’d like to join us to read more you are welcome to jump in;

Three ways to run a New Year Sale ✨

Offer a discount using a special offer coupon. If you do this you can set parameters like a closing date and/ or in conjunction with annual sign ups only. It’s best to send this email from your subscriber tab and select all free subscribers only rather than publish to your Substack website. A class on how to do this is in the a-z.
Offer an added bonus - a competition works well. Perhaps you could offer a physical product/s like a bundle of your favourite books or an act of service some mentoring time with you. Make it clear the odds will be stacked high to win!
Offer a deal on monthly subscriptions. Sometimes folks don’t want the commitment of annual for all sorts of reasons. Here at Sparkle, the option for monthly subs close tonight but have been open for a couple of days which has led to 11 people jumping in. I might run this again in Spring and once more in 2025 - I’ll see how I feel. If you look at your monthly pricing, maybe there’s a way to make it slightly cheaper for a limited time?

Photo by Wout Vanacker on Unsplash

Other tips

Make sure your value proposition is clear. What do people get if they sign up? What’s in your archives? How often do you publish? When do you take breaks? I cannot stress enough how important this is. You are safe to be human - don’t over promise. Better to under promise and over deliver!
Curatorial excitement - can you give us a sneak peak as to what’s coming - if you’re excited about it - we will be.
Transparency and trust is key. If people trust you they are more likely to trust you will deliver and pay for your offer. How are you building trust with your audience? How are you peeling back the curtain for them to get to know you?

RESULTS - my other publication - a newsletter for creative business owners.

My recent growth experiments 👩🏽‍🔬

💫 Your FREE 2025 Substack Planner

Claire Venus ✨ — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 07:41:01 GMT

Hi all,

Just dropping in to say Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas if you celebrate.

I made you a bottle of inner sparkle to send you well wishes. 💫

Subscribe now

Members - the community chat is open so you can support each other if you are online. I’m SO looking forward to our goal setting and visioning classes in January. If you have time over the holidays, you can dive into the a-z.

Sending so much love for your holidays ahead,

Claire

✨

PPS - this post is free so please feel free to share it! 💫

PPS - You can download your FREE Sparkle on Substack 2025 Planner. It’s my gift to you all for supporting my work and subscribing here.

We used a version of this planner in 2024 and personally the work expanded EVERYTHING I thought was possible on this wonderful platform. I’ve talked about it before but my goal at the start of 2024 was consistent 25k monthly views. This month, I hit my second month of over 111k monthly views!! You are safe to take up space, you deserve the gifts the universe has to offer when you take conscious steps towards your true north.

✍️ Write stuff...

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 10:06:58 GMT

Photo by hannah grace on Unsplash

Subscribe now

Write with us, every Friday and other times you choose.

One of the most beautiful things about hosting a members only community is that the connection deepens week on week. People connect, feel safe, do their best work.

I created a writer’s room for so you guys could check in, chat and hold each other accountable to publishing here.

It looks like I’m going to hit 250 published posts here this year. That’s a lot. Next year there’ll be less - I had a lot to say, to explain, to do.

You can find out ANYTHING you want to know about Substack strategy and tools in my a-z library and I’m delighted this resource exists.

We can always ‘create the thing we wish existed’ - shall we use that as a starting point for our writing at 12noon?

See you there!!

Claire

✨

PS - before I go, the reason I sent this email to all 8650 of you is because I just launched 12 Chapters Club. 85 of us are going to write books next year. Join my FREE community initiative and let’s write our hearts out. We start 1st Jan 2025. More detail soon. Sign up here.