"Yours are the only emails I actually open and read" - a regular reply in my inbox since 2009...and I'll bet in yours, too, once you subscribe and learn by pure, lazy osmosis to become the most compelling writer around. That said, no promises on improving your moral character.
My new Substack + massive growth hack
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Hi! You know I started a Substack, right? Maybe not. Got it up and running about 5 weeks ago with this maiden post: It explains why I started a newsletter on Substack when I already have a whole thing going on over here with you, my email subscriber. It’s not about growing a huge audience — though that would be nice. It’s not about a fat new income stream from paid subscriptions or affiliate links — though that would be super nice. It’s not about getting in early on a new platform — though that would’ve been GREAT! I’m about six years too late for that, thanks to my needless “should I, shouldn’t I” dicking around over something that required zero investment, zero risk. And, as I kept telling my Shrimpers who didn’t have a subscriber list, Substack was the place to start from nothing, because it would actually grow your list for you. In a nutshell, the answer is: It’s a place for me to write just for fun. These emails are fun to write, absolutely — so fun, I designed my whole business around them. But I do want them to keep making me money. And to do that, I have to keep in mind my buying audience and what they want to hear about (and will engage with, click on, and — when I’m selling — purchase from). Gotta make it relevant. Gotta make it persuasive. Gotta give it a CTA. Yadda yadda. That doesn’t take the fun out of it. But it does take the “just for fun” out of it. So why now? Well, for one, I wanted to chronicle my “woo journey” — the recent adventures in developing my intuition, kicked off when I signed up to work with my coach, Deb Driscoll.* And, because my spidey senses got so sharp so fast, they guided me to jump into Substack at the most perfect moment in the platform’s evolution. I kid. I won’t say it’s the worst moment, because I’m sure we ain’t seen nothing yet. But it seems my arrival there coincides with a mass influx of “growth bros.” Someone called it the “Linkedinification” of Substack. Every other note in my feed is about how to get more subscribers. I clicked on that last one, and of the three examples, two were Notes about how to grow on Substack. The third was a 'motivational' post about normalizing doing things later in life — his example being, naturally, starting a Substack. I’m not looking for Substack growth hacks, Bub. For me, the Substack is the growth hack — as in, personal growth. Well, don’t wait around to subscribe. You might miss its golden era. The reviews are in, and it’s giving chills. Thank you, Kate Northrup! Hop on the Woo-Adjacent™ bandwagon here. And leave comments, please! I don’t know if they’ll help me grow, but they’ll make it even more “just for fun.” xoLaura PS - *Deb offers 20 minutes of magic, free. You can pick a time here. PPS - The latest issue just landed. Check it out.
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Laura Belgray (Talking Shrimp)
"Yours are the only emails I actually open and read" - a regular reply in my inbox since 2009...and I'll bet in yours, too, once you subscribe and learn by pure, lazy osmosis to become the most compelling writer around. That said, no promises on improving your moral character.
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