🧌 Don't let the Substack numbers eat you...
📈 + How to Hide your Substack dashboard Stats this Summer? 🍭
Do you have Substack subscriber anxiety? What have you been making your stats mean? It’s ok you can tell me I’ve genuinely heard it all love.
I stopped looking at my Substack dashboard stats last month, I deleted the Substack app for 6 weeks and I’m only just back. I don’t know if I’ll stay - I’m only a week in.
I didn’t do it because I felt negative about my experience here - I did it because I was utterly bored of having a feeling about it everyday. I wanted to push my creativity and to tighten my work / life boundaries, create more on instagram, write my book, re-launch my signature course without wobbles.
There’s a beauty of realisation in all of it… about what the stats mean EVEN if you are telling yourself ‘oh no it’s fine, I’m fine’ - what happens in your body when you see the number - good or bad?
I spoke to author and bookshop owner Katie Clapham for my podcast yesterday - you can watch our convo here if you like.
Katie is SO bookish and lush - I loved chatting with her. One of the things that struck me was her comment on the steadiness of her ‘Substack growth’. She’s not (yet) been featured by Substack or gone viral.
We started on Substack back in 2022
Starting from the ground up is humbling because you literally connect to the ACTUAL people behind the subscriber names - it feels like a beautiful and magical act…people want to hear from you and read your work on the internet, then reply - I’ll never get over that.
Somewhere after writing for a while, the buzz of the Substack subscriber numbers (our readers) accidentally become a fun game of fire hose or die.
…green means go, grey signifies the not good enough sadness, then you’re in the spotlight or a worm that eats itself to better understand what you’re actually made of.
Then someone celebrates you, you feel the audience alchemy1, you turn into a butterfly and go again - it’s a lot. 🩶 🦋. Substack burnout is real - we don’t need to go there.
Signals, your nervous system and the long game
Those early experiences of online writing are the breadcrumbs to the bigger picture you create for yourself here and more widely for your legacy.
It’s how being perceived feels under the microscope.
I LOVE my work. All of it. I bet you do too?
Work online is only in part about growth and at that it’s joyful, sustainable growth not frantic, not grabby. Showing up for your creative practise, doing the reps if that feels good, connecting with like minded people.
Sometimes it feels so quiet I feel like EVERYTHING is broken and I don’t know what to do to fix any of it. In reality there’s a steady pulse to the work, you can feel it if you pause and listen hard enough. Deleting apps really helps with this in my opinion.
Here’s where I’m at with it all;
I refuse to chase the dopamine quests - it gave me a strange sense of self - I don’t need it.
I won’t endlessly parade my successes in front of my colleagues but I will share aspirational things and milestone moments to inspire others.
When epic growth was happening organically here, I expected that to continue at the same rate - that’s on me. Platforms can’t promise that and we shouldn’t ask that of ourselves either. It’s like pressing a random number generator and expecting to get the same number out twice in a row. Rare!
When I zoom out on my own growth trajectory here on Substack I have vast, undulating feelings. The graph doesn’t contain viral moments but I’ve had an absolute rollercoaster of a time.
Probably because writing online is like self development in technicolour with the intensity dialed right up to max.
I’ve hired assistants (plural) to support me with engagement and customer service. I’ve struggled to put my phone down in front of my kids, replied to messages in the loo incase I’m judged for being ‘one of those mums’.
Join us for Digital Detox (13-17 July 2026) - by Claire Venus 💫 - hit subscribe over there and you’ll all set - I’d love to see you there it’s FREE!
It’s easy to tell yourself everyone is growing except you…
Right now I’m in a slower period of reader growth. Paid members here and paid subs on Creatively Conscious by Claire Venus have been going backward in numbers too.
I’m used to it now.
It’s not personal and it doesn’t say anything about the quality of my work or the gorgeous welcoming spaces I’ve created.
✨
Create the things YOU wish existed…
Sparkle on Substack was always created to be a nervous system friendly space, a space to ‘stay creative’ here, to lean into your unique creative practise, to write for you and figure out where that meets the audience who arrive. A space to add depth and education to your Substack experience. It’s primarily a space for female voice - my branding and my essence calls in the women who want to self express in safe ways online and learn more about their own visibility and what they are called to do.
So to a question -
How do you want your space here to feel over summer? Do you know?
Perhaps you’ll finally get to read those saved pieces or go back through your favourite author’s archive. Perhaps you’ll schedule some posts or take the whole summer away from writing and gift yourself a new notebook to observe summer and your part in it all?
What do you want? What do you want out of this wild and precious experience online this summer?
When I deleted the Substack app I had no real feelings about it other than I had less to do and I didn’t see my stats every day. I see the subscriber graph and I raise my sense of satisfaction at supporting some of the most creative and kind people in the world.
I don’t want to be lost in numbers looking for myself. I’m already here. 📍
Depth
Let’s talk today about what that’s taught me about depth. Depth of experience, depth of connection, depth of understanding - it’s all so helpful in the ‘quieter’ periods…
My intention this year has been about depth of connection - going deeper with the people who choose to show up. Being in acceptance about those who want to leave. This practise led me to my first $14k launch. Not bigger subscriber numbers than last year - DEPTH.
Maybe this is also a nice intention for you?
In practise -
Coffee and coworking slots in real life
Whatsapp voice note chats with colleagues
Parties within parties 🎈
Reaching out and breaking the fourth wall when someone shares something they are proud of in an email or post
Thoughtful comments
Supporting a colleagues crowd funding campaigns
Letters, postcards, printing physical photos and giving them to my friends.
Let’s do it together?
👀 Hide your Dashboard Stats from the log in page for Summer with me? Or delete the app? Or both?
✍️ Before you go… a few questions/ journaling prompts to sit with…
Screenshot these or share them with a colleague to write on together with an iced fizzy elderflower cordial drink in the sun?
Where might you be holding yourself to a pace of ‘growth’ your most congruent self doesn’t agree with.
Which parts of your Substack world and experience feel heavy right now? Can you cut/ cull/ edit them?
What would you change if you trusted depth over volume for this next season?
If a post or a note or post went viral tomorrow, how would that feel? Would you change anything about your publication to receive the influx, tighten up your welcome email - better explain your position? Subconscious work is important.
Tell me in the comments: what are you choosing for your own Substack experience this summer? Posting, not posting, going offline, staying on - nothing changes if nothing changes.
Enjoy!
Claire
✨ Incase you missed it…
There’s never anything ‘to do’ here at Sparkle on Substack but you can dip in and out of posts, classes, the community and our members group chat too. Your question will never go unanswered and we’re kicking off our Notes engagement chat thread today so you don’t feel like you’re posting into the abyss.
Recent posts…
Live video catch ups are here or listen on Apple or Spotify…
https://sparkleon.substack.com/t/live-chats
“Life is a song, it ends when it ends”
Taylor Swift
Thank you Claire, Stats are hidden now. Up to a nice and relaxed summer and beyond 🌸🙏☀️
Loved this chat so much ☺️💕