The 4 Commitments of Substack

The opportunity is incredible, but you are on sacred ground.

Substack is sacred ground. Don’t desecrate it.

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I have been a solopreneur and then a CEO of my company for 8 years. Social media was never something I was interested in to grow my business.

I didn’t want to be Youtube famous or an Instagram influencer. I wanted to do really meaningful work, develop my thought leadership and deliver it to a community of women who were my tribe.

So that is what I did. I used a marketing and sales strategy aligned with my Human Design and built a wildly successful business without organic social media.

It is not that I am anti-Instagram or any other platform. I continue to run ads on Meta and LinkedIn.

But I am not a performer. I am not a comedian, actress or want a behind the scenes camera filming every aspect of my life.

I also don’t love short form content. It is NOT my jam. I don’t even love when podcasts are only 15-20 mins!

I like to consume content the way I like to have conversations. Deep, long and meaningful.

When I am at a party, you will not see me flitting and floating from room to room to talk to everyone. You will find me in a corner in deep conversation with a couple of people. Or even just one person.

None of the other platforms reward long form content.

So I stuck to podcasting as my primary channel for long form content - which I thoroughly enjoy!

And then I found Substack.

I was in awe. A long form content platform for thought leaders. HEAVEN.

And then I discovered the culture of Substack.

Respectful, real, empathetic, supportive, and protective. And by real, I mean anti-AI written content. Thank God.

I cringe when I see AI written Notes or Articles. I wince when I see an Instagram influencer try to post her usual short form Instagram content on Subtack.

And I sigh when I see the “$100K in 10 days” slop on Substack that is pushing, bro-marketing-esque, FOMO filled crap come over to here.

Caveat - I am all for sharing what is possible and showing people genuinely. For example, in 8 years on other social platforms, I have never created a $1. But in the last 30 days on Substack, $23K has come in via the paid tier subscription model.

I overdeliver on anything anyone pays me for. It is my MO. It is a requirement for me. I will genuinely share results, I will genuinely be transparent and help others.

My audience is like me, not wanting to be performing on social media and wants to make a difference with her work.

But there is a fundamental different poaching energy to making money off people telling them they have the secret sauce to make money. It is gross, we are over it and we don’t want it here on Substack.

But it is here and more will come.

The Gold Rush of Instagram and Youtube is over and the Gold Rush of Substack has just barely begun.

I would love to share what I believe are the Four Commitments of Substack Culture - (sort of like the Four Agreements book).

Commitment #1: Consume - read/listen to others’ work. Take the time to engage on other thought leaders work. Look at the topics and niches you are most interested in and curate your feed of Notes, of subscriptions (free or paid). Appreciate their words, perspective & talent.

Commitment #2: Create - begin to share your own ideas, thoughts, musings - either simply in Notes or in more depth via Posts (articles). Create a publication that is thoughtful, value creating and with deep intention for your tribe.

Commitment #3: Connect - there are incredible collaboration opportunities in Substack - it is a platform like no other in how it fosters real human to human connection and collaboration. Restack others work, quote others work easily in a Note, collaborate in an article, go live with other creators.

Commitment #4: Contribute - intentionally engage and contribute to the conversations. This is not a platform with automations like Many Chat (again, Thank God), this is about real conversations. This is not a platform to come, dump your posts, hope for it to go viral and automate responses. Don’t ghost responses - it is literally ignoring other humans.

It is my humble opinion that if these four commitments aren’t for you, this platform won’t be for you.

But if, like me, you read these commitments and you are saying “I found my new home” and “this is what I have been waiting for” then Substack is for you xo.

I have been a business mentor and strategist for 30 years. I help women near or over 50 with their voice, their thought leadership and their brand/content strategies using Human Design. If you want some help in your voice, thought leadership and brand/content strategy on Substack, I have a fun, amazing membership right here on the platform called the Substack Soapbox. We would love to have you join us!