Why I won't leave Substack even though my growth fell off the cliff last month 🏔️
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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).
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).💫
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.
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. 🍄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. 🌀
Love this Claire, your honesty and reframes so helpful ..people do come and go in our lives and that is fine. This resonated deeply “The only options we have are activism, prayer or creativity.” I choose all 3 daily 💖
Claire, thank you so much for sharing this.
I too, have seen very little growth here over the last few months, and a major dip in who engages with my work. I keep wondering what’s changed and whether it’s my work (knowing deep down that it isn’t). It’s also started to give me writers block, and my ideas are drying up.
I remind myself that with more writers being on here, more people are subscribing to read other writers work too. I know I’ve certainly subscribed to a whole load more people recently, and some days I struggle to keep up with reading everyone’s work.
I know comparison is a demon I battle with regularly, it’s just some days it can feel difficult when we put our all into our work and get very little back for it.
I adore Substack and know that I want to continue sharing on here, and maybe that will occasionally mean a rethink or some time to ponder new ideas, and that’s okay ✨