āMost of us have experienced the disconnect between what our body is telling us and the stories our minds create.ā
Sarah Raad
Iām delighted to introduce my friend Sarah Raad to the Creative Growth Lab (the place where we bring the lighthearted FUN to growth experiments and audience alchemy on Substack).
I literally harangued Sarah into starting a Substack pretty soon after I did because I knew sheād love it! Sheās also a HUGE supporter of my work and it always feels nice to share an online universe with people who deeply āget itā.
She runs a beautiful membership right here on Substack, sheās also a brilliant writer!
If you missed my previous guest post on viral note growth with Sam ā¢ Aspiring Bookseller as part of the Creative Growth Lab - itās also an inspiring read on the impact of writing Notes that activate your audienceā¦
Ok letās get into itā¦ I know lots of you have questions about going viral on Substack Notes, how much energy to bring - how to play the slot machine of algorithms without it sucking out your soul.
Let me tell you I have NEVER gone viral on Substack notes - sure Iāve had over 300 likes, Iāve had lovely chats, Iāve had followers and subscribers join me but my joyful, sustainable growth this past four years has not included a viral note - I donāt make that to mean ANYTHING about the quality of my work or my worth. I keep going regardless.
A viral Substack Note, itās impact and returning to joyful, sustainable growthā¦
A few weeks back something VERY exciting happened in that one of Sarahās Substack Notes started to pick up some speed reminding us of alllllll the opportunity and sheer number of eyes now on this platformā¦
I invited her to tell us more about her relationship with her writing, Substack Notes and her journey over the last few yearsā¦
You can subscribe to Sarah hereā¦
Hey Sarahā¦ welcome to The Creative Growth Labā¦
Iād LOVE to know how you feel about building on Substack three years into your journey?
Thanks for inviting me Claire - gosh a lot has changed hasnāt it?
Iāve enjoyed using the platform and building content and connection here, but I have never really seen it as a panacea for business growth.
As a Gen Xer I have ridden lots of waves in online business from the early days of blogging and online learning, through social media and now here with multiple platforms to choose from.
Iāve learned to take the good times when they roll but to expect āenshittificationā (which 100% always happens to platforms) and to keep looking ahead for what might be next.
That said, Substack has offered a lot of connection for me and a different feeling place to social media, which has felt off to me for years now. Substack Notes in some ways feels like the early days of twitter which is lovely, but we all know what happened to that! šļø š„
At one point 80% of new business for my husband1 came from twitter so we rode that wave pretty well for a few years. Itās all such a moveable feast though, we cannot afford to get attached to platforms.
The mainstay of Substack for me is the (email) list.2
The gold is in the list and building and nurturing an email list has always been the heart of my coaching business, and it always will be. In my heart I am a writer, and I have never written so much as I have in the past 3 years and for that, I am very very grateful.
What surprised you about your viral note and what it brought to your publication?
What surprised me most was the sheer reach of it.
It was only a note - a casual photograph of my kindle showing a quote from The Book of Magical Living by Poppy Jamie that particularly resonated with me. I snapped it, posted it and thought no more about it.
There wasnāt a strategy behind it at all. I wasnāt trying to create engagement or make a point.
I was sat on my couch on a Sunday morning, reading, and just thought it was such a true thing and wanted to share it. I suppose the only strategy involved is me always thinking about the kind of thoughts and opinions that my right people would like and appreciate.
The response was wild.
Thousands upon thousands of people saw it, liked it, restacked it and shared it. It travelled far beyond my own subscribers and more than 200 people subscribed to me as a result, a good proportion who seem a good fit for my work here, but a fair few that arenāt. 14k people liked it and over 1.7k people restacked it.
Although it dramatically increased my visibility on Substack over that time and I had lots of comments, most of which I replied to and had nice snippets of connection, it didnāt directly translate into lots of coaching enquiries or paid subscribersā¦.yet. 3
And I think thatās a really interesting lesson for those who think virality is a growth mechanism or tool.
I have seen this happen to clients when their work has gone viral, so this aspect didnāt actually surprise me at all. Iād also had a previous viral note about how much I hate LinkedIn :)
Visibility and business growth arenāt always the same thing, despite the seductive idea of a viral note or social media post! There are people out there will tonnes of followers and whose posts get a lot of traction but who do not grow their business through that activity.
Ironically, it was a completely different piece a little later, a full article that bestselling author India Knight liked and restacked, that generated far more meaningful business for me.
That article brought in, in a much smaller number, exactly the sort of readers I wanted and led directly to coaching enquiries, including one who told me she booked a discovery call almost immediately after reading it. Sheās now a coaching client.
The note gave me reach but the article was my own voice and idea and so it built genuine interest and trust.
Do you know why the note went viral?
I donāt think anyone really knows why something goes viral.
I see viral notes all the time that I simply donāt understand why, as the point being made or the idea being shared seems very obvious or not super interesting (and often looks like the work of AI if I am being honest!)
If there were a formula to going viral weād all be following it but then, I guess that wouldnāt work either as the whole point is that not everything can go viral.
My guess is that a few things happened at once which collided into something reaching further.
The quote itself is incredibly memorable and is something people can immediately get on board with.
Most of us have experienced the disconnect between what our body is telling us and the stories our minds create.
Itās simple enough to grasp immediately, but deep enough that people want to save it and share it and try to embed the thought somehow.
People replied saying how it just instantly landed with them, they got it, they felt they needed to hear it.
Notes work differently from newsletters.
Theyāre designed to spread quickly, particularly when people restack them, so once a few more influential people shared it, it gathered momentum of its own and kept running.
A lot of people were also replying to it or restacking with a comment so the Substack algorithm picked up on it and pushed it out even further.
And finally, I think timing always plays a part.
There seemed to be something in that particular moment that meant people needed reminding to trust themselves a little more. I posted it on a Sunday, maybe people were in a reflective mood which gave it that initial momentum.
The restacks and likes kept going for 10 days in total. I turned off notifications in the end as it was distracting! The funny thing is that I couldnāt recreate it if I tried and I certainly wouldnāt want to spend my time chasing viral Notes.
Iād much rather write articles that make one person think differently and book a call, than create content that reaches thousands of people but changes very little in my business. Having said that I am glad the note landed with people and it shifted their perspectives, thatās always valuable stuff.
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Find me on my website www.sarahraad.com. Anyone who wants some support with their creative work and life, to get clarity around a decision or make a plan to take action can come and meet me online in a free 30 minute coaching session so see if we are right for each other. This can be booked at https://calendly.com/sarahraad/30min
I so LOVE a bts donāt you?
š§ Sarah and I have chatted a few times if you want to listen inā¦
Iām on hols through August so the comments are turned off - If you are online, Iād LOVE you to like this post (if you like it), subscribe to Sarah Raad and restack it to Notes so others can find mine and Sarahās work. Hope youāre having a gorgeous summer doing lovely things and feeling creatively inspired!!
āļø
Dom runs a design agency - https://tent.uk.com/
Remember we build email lists here, followers on Notes are pretty meaningless - GO all in with your favourite creators and SUBSCRIBE to their work, recommend it, share it to Notes - be a WHOLE HEARTED subscriber - online energy is important - letās not be half in!
I love Sarahās take on what happened in terms of exposure to her work, the note itself and her reflections afterwards. I also love that it was a 'ālight liftā note that went viral - I post a few of this type of note which do drive traffic for meā¦ sometimes people just need something to like in their conscious scroll.
(*) The title of this post is of course inspired by this song - IYKYK - š Number 2 in the singles chart in 1988. I was 7 years old. šš» what a choooooon!
