Jan 4Liked by Claire Venus (she/her) ✨, Russell Nohelty
Love this episode! Thanks so much Claire and Russell the whole thing was pure gold! I noted down some key banger moments if anyone is interested and time short to listen or wants some bookmarks to go back to:
13.00 - positioning your writing to resonate & be for the reader (even if you're writing about yourself)
24.00 - strategy
28.52 - knowing what to pay wall
34.03 - writing to be recommendable
43.51 - seasons of success (loooved this part on embracing change in your creativity).
Right?! I loved this thread too - I worked with a yoga teacher once and she said there are 3/4 of her clients who have bought everything she’s put out for like 4 years - I was blown away she said yeah they are my super fans - I loved that! ✨🥰
Jan 3Liked by Claire Venus (she/her) ✨, Russell Nohelty
Loved this conversation and was nodding along furiously to the comments about branding 😂
It can be so playful and I love to help folk approach branding with more curiosity because, here on Substack, we are all “branding” our publications on some level.
When you consider branding, you’re doing people a service, making it easier for them to find what they’re looking for and share your knowledge and insights.
Also, Russell being upstaged by Luna at the end. Kind of her to draw him a pig 🤣
For future interviews I would like to hear about people who are making a success of their writing, especially when they are doing it around dealing with chronic illness. Jen Carrington jumps to mind but there must be others. Managing time and energy and what to do when something is scheduled in advance but on the day they are not up to it. 😜
Yes, I suppose the question I really want to hear answered is how people struggling with chronic illness also manage to have successful businesses? How do they navigate up and down health with up and down energy levels and manage to get the work done? How do they make decisions about what they can and can't do? How do they prioritise.? What's the minimum amount of time someone could spend on their substack each week AND still be successful?
Having a chronic illness can go on for years even when having a really healthy lifestyle and good relationships and environment. I am 16 plus years in and although I have been making progress the last 8 years it's still up and down. I don't need advice on what can heal me, I have tried all sorts of approaches. Most did nothing. Some worked for a bit then stopped. I manage it pretty well and that's the best i can do at the moment.
But I don't want it to define me. I want to find a way of still being successful in my career and making enough money to sustain me through my old age. I am really enjoying being here on Substack and don't want it to end up like everything else and have to give up because I can't keep up. I feel this is the very best place for me to achieve all this. 😄
My publication is written by somebody with chronic illness about how to succeed. While it's not always explicit, I do often have posts about succeeding with chronic illness. Also, Rachel Katz has a complete publication about it.
I really appreciate David’s insight here because he lives with chronic illness but he’s also a healing coach and what I want to say is that we all have our own version of success. Freedom is success to me; freedom to have a long lunch in the garden, to pick the kids up from school, to work at 5am and stop at 2pm if I want to. Getting to know your subscribers is the first step to “financial success” here because you have to understand the value you’re offering and there’s a meeting place between what we think and what they receive - that’s the magic I think? ✨💫🥰
Yes I agree! But how do you get to know you're subs when they are not interacting? I think I am blocking it to some degree because when I feel rough I don't want to engage myself. 😁
I retrained 5 years ago so that i could work around chronic illness on a part time and self employed basis. There will be no one size fits alll approach of course, but what worked for me was having no set days/hours of work. I took apts at any time of day/evening over the 7 days. It was a bit of a catalyst for going with the flow of things a bit more and I did find flow helped. I still pushed and strived for a while until the pandemic brought me the lesson that everything you have pushed and strived for can still be swiped away from you so better to slow down even more. The message for me always being, even when you think you’ve slowed down, you need to slow down some more. In terms of priority, it’s ALWAYS been a health first approach. Doing what I can when I can. My health comes first no matter what and my other priorities come after (I still have big priorities so it didn’t mean they were any less important it’s just that health still came above them). I worked with the mantra “if it ain’t healing, it ain’t happening” for quite some time. This helped immensely with decision making. In the end I had to cycle sync my menstrual cycle and start bringing in boundaries before/during/after my period. This meant closing my diary down for apts, saying no to all invites/offers and resting like a mother fluffer. (For people who don’t menstruate then the alignment would happen with the lunar cycle). There was a time where it was actually easier to be bedbound in severe/agonising pain than it was to make these changes to honour my femininity in a masculine dominant world, so in no way am I suggesting this is easy or as straight forward as it sounds. However it does mean that I have been able to keep a roof over my head and food on the table through self employment, at the same time as seeing health improvements year on year.
If you have any other questions, you are welcome to ask/contact me.
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this Amber! This: 'even when you think you’ve slowed down, you need to slow down some more' really grabbed me. I can feel my body saying a big fat YES! Because although I do slow down and often have to slow down more at this time of year I am still pushing myself to my limits and a bit beyond sometimes. I am still to some degree giving myself a hard time about not doing enough. Hmm... Interesting...
And this: “if it ain’t healing, it ain’t happening” I will borrow. 😊
I can more or less be flexible about my time and energy. My husband still earns enough to keep us for now but I do want some financial independence. I have come a long way just working out and tweaking how I can make it all work going forward with my Substack and I need to remember that. 🤎
Loved this! Late to the party but it was just awesome to hear Russell for the first time, he’s so clear and so many takeaways. For me the part around creator connections vs customers was really impactful - I’m in a real phase of bringing that group of creators around me and it’s challenging but nourishing too. I’ve also decided to remove my 3 month paywall, I’ve been um-ing and ah-ing for a while, but happy to take the nudge!
This was a great listen, thank you both! 👏 many takeaways but one that will really stick with me is the part questioning where in someone’s journey do you want your writing to be recommended, AND later how to recommend other resources to your community as an act of kindness.
Love this episode! Thanks so much Claire and Russell the whole thing was pure gold! I noted down some key banger moments if anyone is interested and time short to listen or wants some bookmarks to go back to:
13.00 - positioning your writing to resonate & be for the reader (even if you're writing about yourself)
24.00 - strategy
28.52 - knowing what to pay wall
34.03 - writing to be recommendable
43.51 - seasons of success (loooved this part on embracing change in your creativity).
Of course time is in countdown mode 🙃.
Thanks so much! Xx
Wow Lua - what an act of service to share with others in this way - THANK YOU!! ✨✨💫🙌🏻
It was a great listen! Happy to share the gold, thank you for recording it 🥰💫
Awesome! So glad it resonated and you got so much out of it :)
Thanks Russell! 💫🙏
Thank you Russell and Claire. So many great lessons here. The one I appreciated most was the distinction between a collaborative network and fans.
Right?! I loved this thread too - I worked with a yoga teacher once and she said there are 3/4 of her clients who have bought everything she’s put out for like 4 years - I was blown away she said yeah they are my super fans - I loved that! ✨🥰
You're welcome!
Loved this conversation and was nodding along furiously to the comments about branding 😂
It can be so playful and I love to help folk approach branding with more curiosity because, here on Substack, we are all “branding” our publications on some level.
When you consider branding, you’re doing people a service, making it easier for them to find what they’re looking for and share your knowledge and insights.
Also, Russell being upstaged by Luna at the end. Kind of her to draw him a pig 🤣
Lol. It was my pleasure to be upstaged in this case.
Phenomenal ! The entire podcast is pure gold✨💛🌟💫
Yay!
Such a great conversation-the objectively good vs the subjective is so clearly discussed
My wife HATES when I talk about this topic, but I think yesterday I finally convinced her what I'm trying to say. Glad it resonated with you :)
Does your wife do similar work Russell?
no, but she and I watch a lot of movies and talk about it, and read a lot of books.
Love that... I’m so interested in my husband David’s written voice... it’s like “oh that’s what you think...”
Laughing. And thank you for sharing this.
Thanks for listening in Sasha! ✨✨✨
Thank you for making this!
Fantastic episode that has helped me make some decisions. 👌🏼💫
Yay!
For future interviews I would like to hear about people who are making a success of their writing, especially when they are doing it around dealing with chronic illness. Jen Carrington jumps to mind but there must be others. Managing time and energy and what to do when something is scheduled in advance but on the day they are not up to it. 😜
Love that idea Karen! So I’m not sure whether you know but Russell lives with chronic illness - more here - https://open.substack.com/pub/raekatz/p/no-amount-of-success-made-me-feel?r=506nf&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Claire, you can interview me for this one - at any time in the future! ✨🙏
Thank you and I’d love that!! I was actually thinking it would be a great post!
Thanks Claire, that's a useful read. I didn't know.
You’re welcome! This is the thing isn’t it - there is so much to learn about people’s behind the scenes. ✨
Yes, I suppose the question I really want to hear answered is how people struggling with chronic illness also manage to have successful businesses? How do they navigate up and down health with up and down energy levels and manage to get the work done? How do they make decisions about what they can and can't do? How do they prioritise.? What's the minimum amount of time someone could spend on their substack each week AND still be successful?
Having a chronic illness can go on for years even when having a really healthy lifestyle and good relationships and environment. I am 16 plus years in and although I have been making progress the last 8 years it's still up and down. I don't need advice on what can heal me, I have tried all sorts of approaches. Most did nothing. Some worked for a bit then stopped. I manage it pretty well and that's the best i can do at the moment.
But I don't want it to define me. I want to find a way of still being successful in my career and making enough money to sustain me through my old age. I am really enjoying being here on Substack and don't want it to end up like everything else and have to give up because I can't keep up. I feel this is the very best place for me to achieve all this. 😄
My publication is written by somebody with chronic illness about how to succeed. While it's not always explicit, I do often have posts about succeeding with chronic illness. Also, Rachel Katz has a complete publication about it.
Thanks Russel. i am subscribed to both of you but haven't dived in far enough yet maybe. 😄
I really appreciate David’s insight here because he lives with chronic illness but he’s also a healing coach and what I want to say is that we all have our own version of success. Freedom is success to me; freedom to have a long lunch in the garden, to pick the kids up from school, to work at 5am and stop at 2pm if I want to. Getting to know your subscribers is the first step to “financial success” here because you have to understand the value you’re offering and there’s a meeting place between what we think and what they receive - that’s the magic I think? ✨💫🥰
Yes I agree! But how do you get to know you're subs when they are not interacting? I think I am blocking it to some degree because when I feel rough I don't want to engage myself. 😁
I retrained 5 years ago so that i could work around chronic illness on a part time and self employed basis. There will be no one size fits alll approach of course, but what worked for me was having no set days/hours of work. I took apts at any time of day/evening over the 7 days. It was a bit of a catalyst for going with the flow of things a bit more and I did find flow helped. I still pushed and strived for a while until the pandemic brought me the lesson that everything you have pushed and strived for can still be swiped away from you so better to slow down even more. The message for me always being, even when you think you’ve slowed down, you need to slow down some more. In terms of priority, it’s ALWAYS been a health first approach. Doing what I can when I can. My health comes first no matter what and my other priorities come after (I still have big priorities so it didn’t mean they were any less important it’s just that health still came above them). I worked with the mantra “if it ain’t healing, it ain’t happening” for quite some time. This helped immensely with decision making. In the end I had to cycle sync my menstrual cycle and start bringing in boundaries before/during/after my period. This meant closing my diary down for apts, saying no to all invites/offers and resting like a mother fluffer. (For people who don’t menstruate then the alignment would happen with the lunar cycle). There was a time where it was actually easier to be bedbound in severe/agonising pain than it was to make these changes to honour my femininity in a masculine dominant world, so in no way am I suggesting this is easy or as straight forward as it sounds. However it does mean that I have been able to keep a roof over my head and food on the table through self employment, at the same time as seeing health improvements year on year.
If you have any other questions, you are welcome to ask/contact me.
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this Amber! This: 'even when you think you’ve slowed down, you need to slow down some more' really grabbed me. I can feel my body saying a big fat YES! Because although I do slow down and often have to slow down more at this time of year I am still pushing myself to my limits and a bit beyond sometimes. I am still to some degree giving myself a hard time about not doing enough. Hmm... Interesting...
And this: “if it ain’t healing, it ain’t happening” I will borrow. 😊
I can more or less be flexible about my time and energy. My husband still earns enough to keep us for now but I do want some financial independence. I have come a long way just working out and tweaking how I can make it all work going forward with my Substack and I need to remember that. 🤎
“if it ain’t healing, it ain’t happening”
Love this!!! 💖💖💖
Loved this! Late to the party but it was just awesome to hear Russell for the first time, he’s so clear and so many takeaways. For me the part around creator connections vs customers was really impactful - I’m in a real phase of bringing that group of creators around me and it’s challenging but nourishing too. I’ve also decided to remove my 3 month paywall, I’ve been um-ing and ah-ing for a while, but happy to take the nudge!
This was a great listen, thank you both! 👏 many takeaways but one that will really stick with me is the part questioning where in someone’s journey do you want your writing to be recommended, AND later how to recommend other resources to your community as an act of kindness.
Thanks Jess! ✨
Thanks Claire and Russell - really focused the mind!
Such a great chat! What was your main takeaway Jo?
So much - one of the items that stood out for me was the part about finding one key thing a year that really works.....
Oh yes I love that too. I’m going to have another read through the transcript today!
Can't wait t listen to this. x
Circle back and let me know the light bulbs?! ✨✨