One of the biggest mistakes I see happening right now is this.
So many people are excited by the promise of Substack — and they should be. It is not just another social media platform. Yes, it has a social element in the form of Notes. But it is so much more. It is a platform to publish your content that can be used everywhere. It is a huge email marketing strategy. It is a podcasting strategy. It is so many things wrapped into one, and it still blows my mind.
Here is the mistake. People think they really need to understand how to use Substack — instead of understanding how to bring their unique personal perspective, their convictions, and their content in a way that is completely different than content creation on any other platform.
There is an opportunity right now to create something foundational to your business, your brand, and the legacy work you are here to do in the world. But if you get swept up in the how and the tactical, you will miss the most important part — building strategically and in alignment with you.
You are the unique factor you are bringing to Substack.
9/23 LIVE Workshop - Architect Your Publication by Your Human Design
This is not content pillars. This is your own show.
We have moved beyond content pillars and content calendars and all of those things.
On Substack, this is about creating your soapbox. This is about having your own personal show. Your publication is the ultimate reflection of you — what you are here to say, what you care about. I almost want you to look at your publication as its own newspaper, its own radio show, its own TV show, its own magazine.
It is not like Instagram. It is not like LinkedIn. It is not Facebook. It is none of those things. This is an opportunity to re-establish your brand in a way that is so authentic to you.
And I believe that understanding your Human Design more deeply — not regular Human Design, but Human Design the way we teach it in the IGNITE Her® Frequencies — is what helps you architect your presence and your publication. Architect really is the best word for this.
Your publication is your body of work.
Your publication on Substack is your body of work. My publication on Substack is now my website.
You cannot go to any other platform and see your body of work. You do this incredible reel, you do this post — and it is gone forever in two days. It is a black sinkhole of content.
That is not what Substack is. Substack becomes a curated body of work that can be leveraged over and over and over again. It is completely different.
So if that is the case, you want to make sure you are thinking strategically about your publication. And what is happening is that people are so down in the weeds on the how.
How do I use Notes? How do I create an article? How do I get other publications to recommend me? How do I do collaborations? How do I go live? What is the best Notes strategy? How do I set up my paid tiers? How do I do subscriber perks? How, how, how.
What is missing is deep work on the what.
What is your publication? What is the content you are putting out there? What are your angles? What are your convictions? Who are you creating this for?
It is the what and the who.
The how is the easy part.
I am sure you are getting a lot of help and support on the how of Substack. In fact, inside our Soapbox, I give you all the how.
The how is the easy part, quite frankly. Especially now that you can literally connect your Claude up to your Substack — the how is not a problem anymore.
What is a problem — and what I am witnessing — is this. People are learning the how, they are putting their stuff out there, and then they say, “But nothing’s happening.”
I am following this Notes strategy and no one is joining my paid tier.
I created a paid tier and no one is buying it.
I created a paid tier, people are opting in, and then they unsubscribe.
I am putting an article out every single day and nothing is happening.
I am going live and nothing is happening.
Listen. The how is not the biggest thing here, even though I know our mind thinks it is. Our mind thinks there must be a Notes strategy, an article strategy, a collaboration strategy that is going to open everything up. I am not saying those things aren’t helpful — they completely are. But they cannot be helpful if you do not have the what and the who and the why really dialed in. And not just dialed in — aligned with the energetic blueprint of your design.
You are here for a very specific reason, for a very specific sliver of humanity. If you are not developing content in the way you were specifically designed to bring your message into the world — what that message is, your brand, your persona, who you are meant to be seen as — and if you are not bringing it to the right people in the way they need to hear it, consume it, and experience you, it is going to be a miss. And it is going to be a bummer when you spend all this time developing on a platform and it does not work.
I know, because I did exactly this.
The $5,000 quiz that made zero dollars.
In 2022, before I understood my Human Design, before I understood any of this, I spent about $5,000 and six months of my time on a quiz strategy.
Quiz strategies had become the thing. Everyone was doing a quiz. It was the funnel. So I invested in the how. I put the whole thing together — the content, the flow, all of it. So much time. Then I put ad spend behind it.
And guess what? The ads did fantastic. Thousands and thousands and thousands of people completed that quiz.
Guess how much money I made off that quiz funnel?
Zero.
No one converted at the other end of that funnel into what I was selling. I got the how down. I got it out. It was actually beautiful, and people wanted to take it. But because I did not understand my design, it was never going to work — and I had no idea.
Now I know. I would never do something like that again, because now I understand how people are meant to experience me. They are not meant to experience me in a quiz funnel — or a quiz funnel alone. There are other elements that are so required for my design in order for people to experience the belief and the trust to then be able to buy, even something lower ticket.
That is why I am watching so many people go down the rabbit hole of time and money on the how of Substack — and I do not want you getting to the other end without the result, like I did with the quiz.
9/23 LIVE Workshop - Architect Your Publication by Your Human Design
Your profile is your public role.
This is where your Human Design comes in.
Your profile — not your profile on Substack, although it is tied to it — your profile in Human Design is also called your public role. It gives you so much insight into how others are meant to see and experience you. Which is exactly how they experience you through your Substack. And when we are off the mark on that, it falls flat.
This one aspect of your design can tell you so much about the what and the who for your publication. I have rewritten the language so it is super applicable — very different, very unique from how Human Design is taught anywhere else.
You have to understand your design so that you create your publication, pull together the right strategy that works for your design, and reach who you are here to serve.
That is what we are going to go deep on together.
The Publication That Pays — September 23 at 11am Eastern
I am running a live workshop on September 23rd at 11 Eastern, and I am going to be teaching — very strategically, based on your unique design — how you want to be thinking about your content, your publication, your body of work, and how you are making the offer into your paid tiers.
We are going to look at your profile, your public role, and what it says about how you are meant to be seen and experienced. And we are going to look at Substack completely differently than any other platform.
You are going to get such clarity on where you need to focus and dial in — so that all the how you are learning on Substack can actually work.
If you are already a paid member or a founding member - you are IN - the workshop is on your calendar.
If you are not a paid member, join us! Let’s focus on the WHAT & WHY of your publication, not just the HOW.
I cannot wait. It is going to be epic.
— Julie
