The Substack Notes Frenzy: Hype, Virality & Finding Your Own Way
A powerful tool—but is it serving you, or just spiking your dopamine? Here’s how to use it with intention and lean into the magic that already exists inside of your work.
Join me for my Joyful Growth 2025 Challenge. We start next week I’m excited! Subscribe here.
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This isn’t an anti-Notes piece in fact many newbies adore it compared to traditional social media.
I guess it’s just more of an honest piece on how I personally feel we need to be more cautious of how we use it and consume it long term. No fomo here guys. ✨1
If Tony Robbins came to Notes
You might have heard of Tony Robbins? When I first discovered him I was raving about him to my husband and
did that thing where he waited for me to finish and then told me his thoughts. 2Ever grateful for my grounded partner. If you want to see Tony Robbins live you’ll pay from $699 - $3499 for a live event ticket depending on how close you want to be to him. He’s going to help you “unleash the power within.” Something you didn’t even know you should be doing right?
“The goal is to get into a peak emotional state to motivate extraordinary results.”
A frenzy if you will… sound familiar? "Just like a Tony Robbins event, Notes can create a frenzy—people get hooked on the high of quick engagement, but what happens after?"
The tickets are probably priceless but you’ll still have to do the work after you get inspired right?! You’ll also find out he only sleeps 3-5 hours a night. There are very few people built to sleep that little and thrive. I’ve never had anyone come to me and tell me I have to go to a Tony Robbins event because it’s transformed their life and business. Maybe there are people who it has happened for but there’s still only one Tony Robbins.
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I feel like there’s a madness that descended when newbies started to go viral on Notes and told each other. Then a crowd of “boss babes” and “marketing bros” descended on Notes spiking our eyeballs with all the social media things we already know. Don’t we? We can spot the scams and the emperors new clothes?
Substack told us they were prioritising engagement for newbies - that dopamine hit makes us come back and keep trying.
Social media is social media - Notes is a nicer, kinder version but it’s still an absolute assault on our nervous system and a game of chess you never learnt how to play inside of a snow globe.
The beauty of Substack (outside of Notes) was/ is we can hear ourselves think.
Please CURATE yours so that it’s JOYFUL! Choose how and who you consume your ‘news’ from. If you notice yourself being reactive (me thanks to the Substack co-founders piece last week) 🤮 you’re already in fight or flight3 and do your best creative work in service. Create MORE than you consume on Notes.
Next time something grabs your attention ask is there any heart felt substance in it? You have to curate your experience wisely or you end up reading lots of stuff that doesn’t serve you. Our brains can’t process it. We can only read so many articles, take part in so many communities.
Negative thought patterns appear and we’re not in the headspace to do our best work. Yes you can join Notes challenges etc BUT going viral is an absolute lottery whether you’re in a challenge and hammering the thing every day or not.
What if instead we focussed on doing our best work, posting a note with grace, engaging in a Notes tab or two that interests us and getting off again? That’s what I do with conscious connection always at the top of the tree.
ai driven categories on Notes
Say something, anything really, something that connects…
Written on my phone seconds before I went in to see my dentist. 👀
is one of my 1-2-1 clients and we sent her very first note viral. I’d never seen numbers like it at the time and it brought thousands of email subscribers into her world. Catherine often gets upwards of 300 likes on her daily drawings which she posts across all socials. She has a huge following and she knows what works. Catherine continues to show up most days proving that showing up even in small amounts works…
. I chatted with Julie before Christmas as she mentioned in our bestseller’s chat she’s got 20k new readers in a couple of weeks. I’ve checked in on that process again and she’s at 64k readers now pretty much all from viral notes. Two of her notes on the same day went viral…
Julie’s notes are uplifting and EASY to like… 💖
They are helpful and educational…
And they are TOTALLY connected to what she writes over on her main publication.
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Little and often…
Jo’s arrival to Substack has been epic. She’s one of my Diamond Members and a friend and has show up consistently, made a paid membership work for her and is experimental on Notes often showing her lovely face or a video clip. Again always uplifting and cheery. Jo’s a great writer with a lot of stories to tell who focusses on getting more writers MOVING… we need that.
Jo writes here and also shares snippets on her instagram account encouraging folks over. While we were chatting we realised the Substack link was taking folks around the block and down the stairs to upgrade to paid so a solution - using a special offer coupon in stories…
You can also use a link pusher via many chat on IG posts which works great. I get lots of sign ups that way when I set them up.
Jo is about to hit 10k subscribers on Substack and she’s been here less than a year. She’s flying and consistently showing up.
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Yes you can advertise…
Ads or offers don’t do well in Notes usually BUT there’s a way in with combining your offer with a thank you like
Remember, the more we share our work the more eyes we’ll get on it. It’s even better if others restack it…
There are TONNES of lovely people on Notes right now…
Other ways of ‘going viral’ outside of Substack Notes…
Comfort Blankets and cosy cups of tea
🫖 Beth Kempton had had nearly 7000 people sign up for a free writing and Substack challenge by leveraging her current eco-system and ads on instagram at a great time for people jumping ship on meta and TikTok. There is pique interest in Substack, new readers are coming.
had his Substack publication go viral thanks to a podcast mention. This is my favourite reminder to us all to always do our best work inside our publications and the reason I decided to write this piece for you all…
"Write your heart out and put up your best work, because you never know who is reading your stuff. In my case, it was Gretchen Rubin and Liz Craft's mum!
Their shout-out for Footnotes and Tangents on Gretchen's Happier Podcast was seismic. In less than a month, subscriptions doubled and Footnotes and Tangents became the fifth most successful Literature newsletter on Substack."
Write your Notes off platform and copy and paste them in individually when you’re ready. Try to be thoughtful across your brand identity with a mix of original notes that truly connect with your followers and potential new subs. Think about imagery, tone, humour, speak as if you would to your readers - be familiar and kind.
Get critical about your own Notes - check the stats as to what is driving clicks and engagement, free subs and paid… you can use your publication url and add /notes like this ⤵️ to scroll back through your own notes.
Go back and makes notes on your last 10 - 30 notes - what is performing best? Why?!
Use the recommendations tool - I have tutorials on this topic if you want more insight in my A-Z. 7000 of you have come from recommendations since June 2023 - I’m a big fan!
Finally - do your best work on your publication, enjoy tinkering with it and having fun connecting with the people who do subscribe… if each of them shared your work with 10 people - that would be 10 more good fit subscribers.
Final thought - Notes is a tool, not a magic ticket. Use it thoughtfully, create more than you consume, and curate your experience so it fuels your creativity and your inspiration —rather than draining it. You can always pivot and circle back if it’s draining you - you are NOT missing out by not using it if you need a break/ don’t want to.
I would LOVE to hear from you and your take in the comments! Restack this piece if you enjoyed it, it means the world to me to have your support to grow joyfully on the world wide web.
I have never gone viral, not once and as a Substack educator of course it would be good if it happened so I could talk about it BUT I’m cool, it’s cool. Joyful, sustainable growth lives here.
There’s no doubt Tony Robbins has created an incredible life and business as a transformational speaker but so does the pastor who shows up every day and addresses their congregation. Are they equally as happy as each other?
Fight or flight is a nervous system response which dumps adrenalin so we can run from danger. It’s not ideal to be put into it most days we open our screens. It causes long term stress on our systems and isn’t conducive to creativity or clarity of thought. It will also make you forget what your north star is. Observe and curate.
Great piece, Claire. I have had to step back from Notes over the past few months as it got way too noisy and started to feel like all the other social media sites that I left many years ago. I still do share my own Notes and respond to comments I get but rather than going to the feed and scrolling, I go to the profiles of people I am interested in and want to interact with and read any Notes they have posted there instead. It’s much better for me to do it this way!
Thanks for the mention Claire and sharing my little bit of good luck!
Since New Year, I've spent less time on Notes. I removed all social media apps from my phone, including Substack, and scrolling feeds feels less addictive on a browser. I dip into it now but never get lost in it.
The other thing to note is that going viral is *scary*. Slow and steady growth allows your confidence to grow with your audience. Viral sets off the imposter syndrome alert button and you're just waiting for all your new readers to discover that you haven't got a clue what you're doing.
Great piece, Claire. I have had to step back from Notes over the past few months as it got way too noisy and started to feel like all the other social media sites that I left many years ago. I still do share my own Notes and respond to comments I get but rather than going to the feed and scrolling, I go to the profiles of people I am interested in and want to interact with and read any Notes they have posted there instead. It’s much better for me to do it this way!
Thanks for the mention Claire and sharing my little bit of good luck!
Since New Year, I've spent less time on Notes. I removed all social media apps from my phone, including Substack, and scrolling feeds feels less addictive on a browser. I dip into it now but never get lost in it.
The other thing to note is that going viral is *scary*. Slow and steady growth allows your confidence to grow with your audience. Viral sets off the imposter syndrome alert button and you're just waiting for all your new readers to discover that you haven't got a clue what you're doing.