Probably a little too much.

Give me a better writing routine, a new way to organize my day, or some tiny trick that promises to help me get more done and I’m listening, but recently, I heard something that made me realize we may be asking the wrong question.

I was listening to an episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast with board-certified psychiatrist Dr. Sasha Hamdani.

The conversation itself was about ADHD.

However, buried inside it was an idea about understanding productivity that I couldn’t stop thinking about as a writer.

When Dr. Hamdani talked about tracking task performance, she broke it into three separate places where someone might struggle:

1. Starting the task.

2. Staying with the task.

3. Finishing the task.

And I immediately thought:

→ Writers need this.

Because how often do we say:

• “I need to be more productive.”

• “I need to focus.”

• “I need more discipline.”

Okay.

But where, exactly, is the problem?

1. Do you sit in front of the blank page for 45 minutes before writing a sentence?

2. Do you start easily but somehow end up checking Substack, answering an email, researching something you absolutely didn’t need to research, and reorganizing your desktop?

3. Do you have 36 promising drafts and nothing ready to publish?

Those aren’t the same problem.

So why are we trying to solve all of them with the same productivity advice?

Maybe before you try to become a more productive writer, you need to figure out where your writing is breaking down.

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Your Writing Has Three Jobs

Let’s make this ridiculously simple.

A productive writing session requires you to do three things:

1. START.

Get yourself into the work.

2. STAY.

Remain with the work long enough to make meaningful progress.

3. FINISH.

Bring the work across the line.

→ That’s our framework and before we start fixing anything, I want you to figure out which one is costing you the most writing because your problem may not be productivity.

It may be much more specific.

1. Do You Have A START Problem?

You know you need to write and you may even want to write, but somehow everything happens before the writing.

• Coffee.

• Email.

• Substack.

• A little research.

• Maybe you’ll just check your stats quickly.

• Oh, someone left a comment. Better answer that.

Twenty-seven minutes later, your blank document is still sitting there like:

Hello???

Starting creates friction because the work hasn’t begun generating momentum yet.

There’s nothing to react to, nothing to edit, and nothing to improve.

→ Just you and the blank page and I think writers sometimes make that moment harder by expecting themselves to begin brilliantly.

Don’t.

Your first job is to create something you can work with.

• Write the bad opening.

• Put down the obvious sentence.

• Start in the middle.

Write:

What I’m actually trying to say is...

You can fix ugly writing, but you can’t edit a blank page.

→ If START is your problem, your goal isn’t to have an incredible writing session.

Your first goal is much smaller: Get into the work.

2. Do You Have A STAY Problem?

Maybe starting isn’t difficult for you.

→ You open the document and you’re off.

Then...

• Ping.

• Email.

• Text.

• Substack notification.

• Interesting link.

• Sudden urgent need to Google whether an em dash should have spaces around it.

And now the writing session has become an archaeological dig through the internet.

Your problem isn’t getting into the work.

→ It’s staying there.

This is where I’d stop treating distraction like some mysterious personality defect and start looking at what repeatedly pulls you away.

• Your phone?

• Notifications?

• Too many tabs?

• Writing somewhere people constantly interrupt you?

• Researching while you’re drafting?

• Checking your article stats?

You may not need more motivation. You may need fewer exits.

1. Put the phone somewhere else.

2. Close the tabs you don’t need.

3. Turn off notifications.

→ Separate research from drafting when you can and give yourself a defined period where your only job is to stay with the piece.

Also, notice something important: You don’t have to focus perfectly for four hours.

Maybe you write beautifully for 30 minutes. Great.

→ Protect those 30 minutes like they owe you money.

The goal isn’t to imitate somebody else’s perfect writing routine.

The goal to create conditions that make it easier for you to stay.

3. Do You Have A FINISH Problem?

This one is sneaky because writers with a finishing problem can look incredibly productive.

• They’re always writing.

• New ideas everywhere.

• Drafts everywhere.

• Notes everywhere.

• Outlines everywhere.

And somehow nothing is ready to publish, starting feels exciting, and finishing requires decisions.

• Is the argument clear enough?

• Does this section belong?

• Is the headline right?

• Do I need another example?

• Could the ending be stronger?

• Should I rewrite the opening?

• Maybe I should let it sit for another day.

And suddenly you’re on Draft 14 of an article that was probably ready at Draft 6.

At some point, improving the article turns into avoiding the moment when someone else gets to see it.

→ That’s where craftsmanship can quietly become perfectionism.

So if FINISH is your problem, define what finished means before you disappear into endless refinement.

• Is the point clear?

• Does the article deliver what the headline promised?

• Have you removed what doesn’t belong?

• Have you checked the facts and links?

• Have you given it a thoughtful edit?

Yes? Ship it.

A finished article can teach you something. A permanently improving draft can’t.

Stop Guessing About Your Productivity

This was the second idea from Dr. Hamdani’s conversation that stayed with me.

She emphasized tracking patterns and establishing a baseline before deciding what needs attention.

In her clinical context, that included looking separately at task initiation, distractibility, completion, and factors such as sleep and mood.

I’m not suggesting we turn our writing lives into a clinical assessment.

I am suggesting we steal the underlying principle: Collect some evidence about yourself because writers are spectacularly good at making sweeping declarations based on one bad afternoon.

1. “I have no discipline.” (start problem)

2. “I can’t focus.” (stay problem)

3. “I’m terrible at finishing things.” (finish problem)

Maybe or maybe you haven’t actually looked.

For your next five writing sessions, track a few things:

• What time did I start?

• How difficult was it to begin?

• What distracted me?

• How long could I stay with the work?

• What was my energy like?

• Did I finish what I intended to finish?

That’s it.

We’re not building a 42-column spreadsheet and hiring a data scientist to analyze Tuesday’s newsletter.

→ We’re looking for patterns.

• Maybe you discover you don’t have a writing problem at all.

  • You have a 9 p.m. writing problem.

• Maybe you can focus beautifully until you open Substack.

• Maybe your strongest sessions happen before you check email.

• Maybe starting takes forever, but once you’re in, you can write for an hour.

• Maybe you produce drafts quickly and lose three days trying to make them perfect.

→ Now we’re getting somewhere because you have something more useful than: I need to be more productive.

You have a diagnosis of the writing process itself.

Pay Attention To The Writer, Too

There’s another piece of productivity advice I think we ignore because it isn’t sexy enough.

→ Pay attention to the condition you’re in when you’re asking yourself to write.

In Dr. Hamdani’s discussion of tracking patterns, sleep was important enough to track alongside task behavior.

Her broader clinical discussion also treats attention as something that doesn’t exist in isolation from things such as energy and emotion.

Those points were made specifically in the context of ADHD, so I’m not turning them into universal medical claims about writers, but they prompted a useful question for me:

What state am I asking myself to write in?

• Exhausted?

• Distracted?

• Frustrated?

• Hungry?

• Phone buzzing?

• Fourteen tabs open?

And then we’re surprised the writing feels difficult.

Sometimes we respond by demanding more discipline.

FOCUS HARDER.

Maybe that’s not the first move and maybe the first move is noticing the conditions surrounding your best work.

You might discover that changing when or where you write does more for you than another productivity system ever did.

Build A Writing Routine Around Reality

There’s no perfect writing routine.

I know. Devastating.

I would’ve enjoyed buying it too. 😂

However, if you track your own behavior long enough, you can start building something better:

→ A routine based on evidence about yourself.

• If mornings consistently produce your best writing, protect them.

• If you struggle to begin, create a tiny starting ritual.

• If your phone destroys your attention, get it out of reach.

• If research sends you down rabbit holes, research separately.

• If you can only focus deeply for 30 minutes, build around 30 minutes instead of feeling guilty that somebody on the internet writes for four hours before sunrise.

• If you struggle to finish, give the piece a deadline and define what “done” means.

The point isn’t to become a machine.

→ The point is to stop designing your writing life around the writer you think you’re supposed to be.

Build it around the writer you actually are.

Try The START → STAY → FINISH Test

Before your next writing session, don’t try to fix anything.

→ Observe.

When you sit down, ask:

1. START: How long does it take me to actually begin?

Once you’re writing:

2. STAY: What pulls me out of the work?

And when you’ve made progress:

3. FINISH: What stops me from bringing this across the line?

Do that for five writing sessions. Then look at what you’ve collected.

→ Where’s the break?

Because once you know that, you can stop trying every productivity trick that wanders across your feed.

You can work on the problem you actually have.

Final Thoughts: If You’re Stuck Right Now—You Probably Don’t Need Another Productivity Hack

That’s the irony.

We go looking for ways to become more productive because we want another answer.

• A better app.

• A morning routine.

• A timer.

• A system.

• A trick.

However, sometimes the most useful thing you can do is pay closer attention to what you’re already doing.

• Where do you stop?

• Where do you wander?

• Where do you hesitate?

• Where does the work repeatedly fall apart?

1. START.

2. STAY.

3. FINISH.

→ Find the break.

Then fix that because “I need to be more productive” is too vague to change anything.

But:

1. I need to start faster. (start problem)

2. I need to protect 30 minutes from distraction. (stay problem)

3. I need to stop editing and publish the damn thing. (finish problem)

→ Now we have something we can work with.

Your challenge this week isn’t to become a more productive writer.

It’s simpler.

→ Track five writing sessions.

Find where you’re getting stuck.

Then make one change.

Thank you so much for being here. I truly appreciate you.

— Jessica

Move first. Refine second. Publish with structure.

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• The next article.

• The next Note.

• The next Live.

• The next idea.

Of course, I do it too, but during a recent Substack Live with , we started talking about all the different ways you can promote, repurpose, and extend the life of something you’ve already published.

I said something I’ve been thinking about ever since:

“Every piece you publish is an asset.”

• An article is an asset.

• A Live is an asset.

• A conversation is an asset.

You spent time creating it and there are ideas inside it.

• Stories.

• Quotes.

• Takeaways.

• Maybe an entire framework someone needs to hear.

So why do we give it one day to live?

We hit publish, drop a Note, maybe restack it once, and then immediately start worrying about what we’re going to create next.

→ I think we’re treating Publish like the finish line when it should be the beginning of distribution.

Before you create more content, ask yourself:

Have I done enough with the content I already have?

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Your Work Deserves More Than One Chance To Be Discovered

Promoting your work more than once can feel uncomfortable.

You don’t want to annoy people and you don’t want to look like you’re constantly promoting yourself.

You don’t want somebody thinking: Yes, Jessica. We saw the article.

But here’s what I keep reminding myself: People miss things.

• They weren’t on Substack that morning.

• They didn’t see the Note.

• They saw it but didn’t have time to read it.

• The headline didn’t catch them, but a sentence buried halfway through the article might.

• They didn’t see your promotion email.

You don’t have to promote the same article the same way every time.

That’s the difference.

Posting “HEY! READ MY ARTICLE!” five times isn’t a strategy; however, finding five different reasons someone might care about the article?

That is.

I’ve started thinking about it in four moves:

PULL → PROMOTE → PARTNER → RECIRCULATE

The 4 Moves Framework →

1. PULL: Find More Inside The Work

Once you publish an article, go back through it.

→ Not to edit it again.

It’s DONE. Step away from the paragraph. 😂

Go through it looking for pieces that can stand on their own.

• A strong sentence.

• A surprising takeaway.

• A question.

• A short story.

• A framework.

• A section that makes sense without the rest of the article.

→ Those become new entry points into the original work.

Let’s say you publish a 1,500-word article.

Inside it might be three strong quotes, two useful takeaways, one question worth discussing, and a framework someone could save.

That’s material and you already did the hard part.

You wrote it.

→ The same goes for a Live.

Once the conversation ends, you still have a recording, transcript, clips, quotes, stories, questions, and ideas that could become future Notes or articles.

In our Live, Robyn and I talked about adding context and useful takeaways to a replay instead of immediately publishing the bare recording.

In fact, that’s how this article exists.

It started as a conversation and then I went back and asked:

→ What’s the larger lesson here?

Now you’re reading it.

2. PROMOTE: Give The Article More Than One Door

This is where Notes become useful.

Instead of publishing one Note with the article link and considering promotion complete, pull different ideas from the article and let each become its own reason to discover the piece.

During the Live, I talked about creating several Notes from one article rather than repeatedly posting the same announcement.

Here’s one way to do it →

The 5-Note Article Promotion Plan

1. Note 1: The article is live

Don’t merely announce it.

→ Tell people why they should care.

• What’s the problem?

• Who is this for?

• What will they leave knowing?

Give them a reason to click.

2. Note 2: Pull a strong line

Find one sentence from the article that can stand on its own.

Let the idea do the promotion.

You don’t always need to yell: NEW ARTICLE!!!

Sometimes the writing itself is the advertisement.

3. Note 3: Pull another insight

Choose something different.

→ If your first Note focused on the problem, maybe this one gives readers part of the solution.

You’re showing another side of the same article.

4. Note 4: Start a conversation

Take an idea from the article and turn it into a question.

Ask readers what they think and ask about their experience.

Let the article become a conversation rather than something you published at them.

5. Note 5: Bring it back with the takeaway

A few days later:

In case you missed (ICYMI) this one...

→ Then give readers the main takeaway.

Not another generic link drop.

Tell them why the article is still worth their time.

→ Five Notes. One article.

Five different ways into the same work.

3. PARTNER: Let The Work Travel Beyond Your Audience

You don’t have to grow entirely inside your own publication alone.

→ Collaboration gives your work another way to travel.

When you collaborate with another writer, you’re being introduced to people who may never have encountered your work otherwise and that introduction comes with something valuable:

Context.

The other creator already has a relationship with their audience.

If they choose to work with you, invite you onto a Live, contribute to an article, or share your work, they’re helping introduce you to that audience.

Robyn and I talked about this during the Live because collaborations have become a regular part of how we’re using Substack.

We also talked about making collaboration easier by approaching someone with an actual idea instead of a vague request to “collab.”

• Know their work.

• Understand where your audiences overlap.

• Have an idea.

• Explain what their part would be.

• Have a plan before you pitch.

And once the collaboration is published, you can keep extending its reach.

→ One person might publish the original article while the other cross-posts it to their publication.

→ During the Live, we talked about adding a short introduction explaining why you’re sharing the piece and why it matters to your readers.

That little bit of context matters.

Don’t make your audience figure out why something belongs in front of them. Tell them.

4. RECIRCULATE: Stop Acting Like Good Work Expires

You published the article three months ago.

So what?

• Is it wrong now?

• Is it irrelevant?

• Did every person who might benefit from it read it?

Probably not. (I would hope not.)

During the Live, I talked about returning to older work months later, pulling out another insight, and putting it in front of people again.

I think writers need to get much more comfortable doing that.

Your audience changes, new subscribers arrive, people who weren’t following you three months ago are following you now, and even longtime readers haven’t consumed every word you’ve ever published.

• Revisit the article.

• Pull a quote.

• Write a new Note around the takeaway.

• Connect it to something you’re thinking about now.

• Restack it with a new observation.

• Read it again and discover that you have something new to say about it.

→ Your archive shouldn’t be a graveyard.

Your archive is a library and an asset. Use it and grow it.

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Final Thoughts: Publish Isn’t The Finish Line

Sometimes the next move isn’t to create more.

→ It’s to do more with what you’ve already created.

So after your next article goes live, don’t immediately race toward the next blank page.

Ask yourself:

• What can I PULL from this?

• How else can I PROMOTE it?

• Who could I PARTNER with?

• When could I RECIRCULATE it?

You don’t need to do all four every time.

→ You just need to stop giving good work one chance to succeed because as I said during the Live:

“No one’s going to promote your work unless you do.”

Publish isn’t the finish line. It’s where the work starts traveling.

Thank you so much for being here. I truly appreciate you.

— Jessica

Move first. Refine second. Publish with structure.

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Want to Go Deeper on Sponsorships with Robyn?

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To celebrate, she’s offering a limited-time, one-time upgrade opportunity for her publication.

She’s also introducing her Sponsorship Playbook & Workbook, Your Sponsor Kit Edge™, which draws on decades of her real-world sponsorship experience. 🐐

If these sponsorship conversations have you thinking, “I want to try this with my own publication”, Robyn’s new resource gives you a place to keep going.

→ Click below to learn more and celebrate 100 subscribers with Robyn at Finding Your Edge.

Find Your Edge with Robyn

Follow Robyn at Finding Your Edge →

Finding Your Edge

Helping growing entrepreneurs increase visibility and get featured in Forbes, WSJ, Inc. and more through strategic storytelling and AI search.

By Robyn Levin

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We assume the writers doing exceptional work must have something we don’t.

• More talent.

• More experience.

• Better connections.

• More confidence.

Maybe they got lucky.

Sometimes, sure, but I’ve noticed something much less exciting.

→ A lot of people simply aren’t willing to consistently do the ordinary things that produce better work.

• They want to write, but they don’t write.

• They want to publish, but they keep waiting.

• They want opportunities, but they wait to be chosen.

• They want readers to care about their work, but they rush through the work itself.

→ That’s why I think becoming an above-average writer is surprisingly simple.

Not easy; simple.

You don’t need extraordinary talent.

→ You need to consistently choose a higher standard when the easier option is sitting right there.

Most of those choices are remarkably ordinary.

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Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy

Publishing when you said you would is simple.

Doing it when you’re tired isn’t always easy.

Reaching out to someone you admire is simple.

Risking rejection isn’t.

Continuing to publish when your numbers aren’t moving is simple.

Coming back when nobody seems to care?

That can be brutal.

The actions themselves aren’t complicated.

Repeating them is.

This Isn’t About Being Better Than Everyone Else

Let’s get something straight.

Being above average doesn’t mean believing you’re better than other writers.

You don’t need someone else to be mediocre for your work to be excellent and you definitely don’t need to announce that you’re above average.

Please don’t. 😂

Let the work reveal it.

→ This is about the standard you hold for yourself.

Your real competition isn’t the writer next to you.

• It’s the version of you who knows the article needs another ten minutes but wants to hit Publish anyway.

• The version who said Monday but decides Wednesday is close enough.

• The version who wants the opportunity but keeps waiting for an invitation.

• The version who disappears when the numbers stop providing applause.

That’s the competition and there are four places I’d start. →

1. Do What You Say You’re Going To Do

Become reliable.

• If you tell your readers you’ll publish Monday, publish Monday.

• If you say you’re coming back next week, come back.

• If you tell someone you’ll send something, send it.

• If you commit to a collaboration, show up prepared.

You don’t need to publish seven days a week and you don’t need some ridiculous content schedule that turns your publication into a hostage situation.

→ You need to become someone people can count on.

Reliability isn’t exciting.

Nobody is selling a $997 masterclass called Do What You Said You’d Do.

Maybe they should because think about the people you trust.

You know what to expect from them.

Their words mean something because their actions repeatedly match them.

→ That’s reputation and it’s built quietly.

One kept promise at a time.

2. Care About The Work

I don’t mean work longer, I don’t mean publish more, and I definitely don’t mean burn yourself out trying to prove how badly you want this.

I mean care.

• Read the article again.

• Fix the paragraph that doesn’t make sense.

• Check the link before you send 2,000 people to a 404 page.

• Improve the headline.

• Answer the reader’s actual question instead of firing off a rushed response.

• Spend another ten minutes making the thing genuinely useful.

Readers can tell when something was thrown together and they can also tell when someone gave a damn.

That doesn’t mean the work has to be perfect.

→ Perfection and craftsmanship aren’t the same thing.

Perfection says:

I can’t finish this because it could always be better.

Craftsmanship says:

I’m going to give this the care it deserves, and then I’m going to ship it.

→ Know the difference.

Perfection keeps you stuck. Craftsmanship other makes you better.

3. Make The First Move

How many opportunities are you waiting for someone else to create?

• The collaboration.

• The introduction.

• The podcast invitation.

• The Live.

• The conversation with the writer you admire.

• The opportunity you keep hoping someone will notice you’re perfect for.

Go first.

• Send the email.

• Leave the thoughtful comment.

• Invite the person.

• Make the introduction.

• Pitch the idea.

• Start the conversation.

Will everyone say yes?

Nope.

Some people won’t answer, some invitations will go nowhere, and some ideas will die quietly in an inbox somewhere.

Welcome to being a person who asks for things. 😂

However, something changes when you stop building your work around being chosen.

You start participating in creating what happens next.

4. Keep Going When Nobody Is Watching

This is the hard one.

It’s easy to keep publishing when the numbers are moving.

• Subscribers are coming in.

• People are commenting.

• Your article is being shared.

• Paid subscriptions hit your inbox.

• Your Note takes off.

Of course you want to come back tomorrow.

But what happens when the internet gives you...Nothing?

• Five likes.

• No comments.

• No new subscribers.

• The invitation gets ignored.

• You publish something you were proud of and it lands with the digital equivalent of a tumbleweed rolling across the screen.

Now what?

You can decide the silence means you’re not good enough.

Or you can look at the work.

• What can you learn?

• What needs to change?

• What should you try next?

→ Evaluate, learn, and refine.

Then come back.

Persistence doesn’t mean blindly repeating something that isn’t working.

→ It means you don’t confuse a disappointing result with a final verdict because a lot of above-average work gets built before anybody rewards you for making it.

That’s the part nobody sees.

Ordinary Things, Done Unusually Well

Look at those four things again.

1. Be reliable.

2. Care about the work.

3. Make the first move.

4. Keep going.

None of them is revolutionary.

There’s no secret publishing hack hiding in there.

No special credential required, no minimum subscriber count, and no permission slip and that’s the point.

We spend so much time wondering whether we’re talented enough to do exceptional work.

I think there’s a better question.

Are you willing?

• Are you willing to keep your word when breaking it would be easier?

• Are you willing to care about the paragraph nobody would blame you for leaving alone?

• Are you willing to send the email before someone comes looking for you?

• Are you willing to come back after the work gets ignored?

Not in one extraordinary moment.

In ordinary decisions nobody else may ever see.

Make One Above-Average Decision

Don’t leave this article promising yourself you’re going to become an above-average writer.

That’s too big and frankly, it doesn’t give you anything to do.

Instead, look at the next decision in front of you.

Ask yourself:

What would the easy decision be?

Then:

What would the stronger decision be?

And finally:

Am I willing to make it?

• Maybe the stronger decision is finishing the article.

• Maybe it’s giving the draft another ten minutes.

• Maybe it’s finally sending the invitation.

• Maybe it’s keeping the publishing promise you made to yourself.

• Maybe it’s coming back after the post nobody noticed.

Pick one.

→ Make one above-average decision today.

Tomorrow, make another. Then another.

That’s how standards are built. One decision at a time.

Final Thoughts: If You’re Stuck Right Now

We spend a lot of time wondering what separates exceptional writers from everyone else.

I don’t think it’s always extraordinary talent.

Sometimes it’s much less exciting.

Exceptional writers:

• They keep their word.

• They care about the work.

• They make the first move.

• They come back when nobody applauds.

Ordinary things. Done unusually well.

You don’t have to become an above-average writer today.

→ Make one above-average decision. Then make another tomorrow.

Eventually, you won’t need to ask what an above-average writer would do.

It’ll simply be your standard.

Thank you so much for being here. I truly appreciate you.

— Jessica

Move first. Refine second. Publish with structure.

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Find a company, write the email, ask for money, and hope they say yes.

Turns out, I was skipping most of the process.

Recently, and I did something a little dangerous on Unstuck to Finding Your Edge.

I brought my actual sponsorship dream list.

Not hypothetical brands.

Companies I’d genuinely love to work with.

Nike. Thorne. Apple. Oura. GORUCK. Spotify and several others.

And instead of sitting around talking about how nice it would be if one of them magically discovered me, Robyn started walking me through what it would actually take to approach them.

Then she told me something important:

“Don’t pitch anyone yet.”

Really?

I thought that was the assignment, but as we worked through the list, I understood why.

Before I contact a company, I need to know why they should care about my publication, why their brand makes sense for my readers, what I could offer them, what evidence I have that the opportunity is worth considering, and who I should actually contact.

The pitch isn’t where this process starts.

It’s almost where it ends.

So I took what Robyn and I worked through in Episode 017 and turned it into a mini guide you can use for your own Substack.

Grab a notebook.

Better yet, grab your dream sponsor list.

We’re going to make it useful.

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Step 1: Build Your Dream Sponsor List

Before you worry about pitch emails, pricing, or media kits, answer a much easier question:

→ Who would you genuinely love to work with?

Start there.

Don’t censor yourself because you think your publication is too small, don’t worry yet about whether the company would say yes, and don’t fill the list with random companies simply because they have marketing budgets.

Look for companies that make sense for:

• Your publication.

• Your audience.

• Your subject matter or topic.

• Your values.

• The things you already talk about.

• The products or services you genuinely use.

My list included everything from large companies like Nike and Apple to smaller health and wellness brands.

The size of the company wasn’t the first filter.

→ The connection was.

Your turn:

→ Write down 10 companies you’d genuinely be excited to work with.

Don’t pitch them. We’re nowhere near that yet.

Step 2: Find The Fit

Now pick one company from your list.

And ask:

→ Why them?

This question sounds almost insultingly simple. It isn’t.

Nike was one of the biggest companies on my list.

My original explanation was basically:

I love Nike, I wear Nike, and I’ve worn the brand forever.

Okay…so have approximately half the people at my gym.

That’s not much of a sponsorship story.

Robyn kept digging.

Why Nike?

That’s when the actual connections started appearing.

I grew up playing competitive hockey. Sports and movement have been part of my life for years. Health, discipline, and mindset overlap naturally with my work.

I’ve worn Nike since elementary school.

There’s Nike artwork in my office and during the conversation, another connection surfaced that I hadn’t even considered:

→ My dad used to design shoes.

Suddenly, the story wasn’t:

I like Nike.

There was history behind it.

• Family.

• Athletics.

• Identity.

• Health.

• A genuine relationship with the brand.

You don’t need a childhood story about every company you approach.

That’s not the lesson.

The lesson is:

→ Find the real reason this company belongs on your list.

Ask:

1. Why this company?

2. Why my publication?

3. Why my audience?

If your best answer is because I’d like them to give me money...we have more work to do.

Step 3: Define Your Value

Now flip the question.

You’ve figured out why you want them.

→ Why should they want you?

And please don’t immediately panic because you don’t have 100,000 subscribers.

Subscriber count is one part of your value.

It isn’t the whole damn thing.

Look at what you’ve already built.

• Do you have a clearly defined audience?

• A trusted publication?

• A podcast?

• A recurring series?

• Strong reader engagement?

• Expertise in a particular subject?

• A community?

• A distinctive point of view?

For my health & wellness publication, NP Fellow Become the CEO of Your Health, the value isn’t simply a number on a subscriber dashboard.

There’s an established publication, a defined audience, recurring content, a podcast, and readers who have developed trust in the work.

→ That’s what you need to identify for yourself.

Your turn:

1. Finish this sentence:

A company would want to reach my audience because ________.

Then:

2. My publication gives them access to ________.

If those answers feel fuzzy, stay here. You can’t communicate value you haven’t identified yet.

Step 4: Create The Opportunity

This was one of my biggest shifts.

I had been thinking about sponsorship as: Company pays me → I put an ad in my newsletter.

That’s one option, but it’s absolutely not the only one.

Robyn and I discussed several possibilities for NP Fellow:

• Sponsoring an individual article

• Sponsoring a recurring series

• Sponsoring the podcast

• A host-read podcast message

• A longer-term partnership

• Products or gift cards for readers

• Sponsoring a reader challenge

The reader challenge caught my attention because I hadn’t considered it.

Imagine a health or fitness company providing products for a challenge I’m already creating for my readers.

1. The readers get something useful.

2. The company reaches people who are relevant to its business.

3. My publication gets to create something better for the audience.

Now we’re no longer talking about slapping a logo at the bottom of an email and calling it a partnership.

→ We’re creating an opportunity.

So before you ask:

How much can I charge?

Ask:

What could we create together that would actually be valuable to my audience AND the company?

Price comes later.

Step 5: Bring Proof

You think your readers would care about the company.

Cool.

→ Can you show it?

This is where your existing work becomes useful.

Go through your publication and look at:

• Views.

• Engagement.

• Comments.

• Shares.

• Downloads, if you’re podcasting.

• Subscriber growth.

• Strong individual posts.

And especially look for content connected to the type of sponsor you’re approaching.

Robyn had me do this with content I’d already published.

For example, I’ve previously written about Nike in another publication.

If that article performed particularly well, I now have evidence that goes beyond:

Trust me. My readers will probably like this.

→ I can show what people have already responded to.

Also, don’t get hypnotized by one metric.

Open rates can tell you something, but they don’t tell you everything. Readers consume Substack in different ways, including through the app.

→ Look at the bigger picture.

You’re not trying to bury a sponsor under a mountain of analytics.

You’re giving them a reason to believe the opportunity is real.

Your turn:

→ Find three pieces of evidence that support the partnership you’re considering.

Not twenty-seven. Three.

Step 6: Find A Person, Not An Inbox

Okay.

• You’ve got the company.

• You’ve found the fit.

• You know your value.

• You’ve thought about the opportunity.

• You’ve gathered some proof.

NOW can we email them?

Almost. 😂

First:

Who the hell are you emailing?

Robyn’s advice was to avoid blindly throwing your idea into a generic company inbox if you can find a better route.

Start investigating and look on the company’s website for departments or programs related to:

• Partnerships.

• Collaborations.

• Creators.

• Affiliates.

• Influencers.

• Marketing.

Look at the company’s website and social accounts and to try to identify the department, or even better, the person, who handles the kind of partnership you’re proposing.

One tactic Robyn suggested surprised me.

→ If you can only find an affiliate department, that can still be an entry point.

You’re not necessarily asking to become an affiliate.

You can contact them and essentially say:

“I see you have an affiliate program. I have a different partnership idea for my publication. Who would be the best person to speak with?”

You’re trying to get closer to a human.

As I said during the Live:

“It’s getting your foot in the door.”

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Step 7: Start The Conversation

This may have been the most useful lesson from the entire session.

I thought the first email was the pitch, but Robyn reframed it.

→ The first email is the introduction.

That changes everything.

You don’t need to stuff your entire media kit, life story, pricing structure, proposal, analytics dashboard, childhood memories, and twelve possible deliverables into one poor unsuspecting email.

→ You’re opening a conversation.

The first message needs to communicate four things:

1. Who are you?

2. Why them?

3. Why you?

4. What opportunity do you see?

Then give them a way to continue the conversation.

• Maybe that’s another email.

• Maybe it’s a call.

• Maybe it’s a meeting.

• And eventually, it may become a formal proposal.

But the first objective isn’t necessarily:

GET SPONSOR.

It’s:

→ Get the right person interested enough to talk to you.

That feels a hell of a lot more doable.

Make The Opportunity Easy To Understand

There’s one principle underneath this entire process:

Don’t make the company figure out why it should work with you.

• Do that thinking for them.

• Make the opportunity visible.

• Here’s my audience.

• Here’s why your company fits.

• Here’s what we could create.

• Here’s why it could benefit you.

That’s much stronger than:

“Hi Nike. I have a newsletter. Money please.”

A good sponsorship approach isn’t simply asking a company for something.

It’s showing them an opportunity they may not have considered.

Step 8: Build A Sponsorship Pipeline

Once you start contacting companies, your dream list needs to grow up.

→ Turn it into a working document.

At minimum, track:

Company | Contact | Email | Date Contacted | Status | Follow-Up | Notes

Because after a few conversations, Wait...did I email that person? isn’t a sponsorship strategy.

You need to know:

• Who did I contact?

• When?

• Did they respond?

• When should I follow up?

• Am I speaking with the right person?

• What’s the next step?

Robyn’s assignment for me was to take my original dream list and start adding contacts, dates, status, and outcomes.

That’s the moment the list becomes something else.

A dream list becomes a strategy when you put names, dates, actions, and outcomes beside it.

The Before-You-Pitch Framework

Here’s the entire process in one place:

1. Build your dream list.
   Choose companies that genuinely overlap with your publication and audience.

2. Find the fit.
   Answer: Why me? Why them?

3. Define your value.
   Know what you bring beyond subscriber count.

4. Create the opportunity.
   Decide what you could actually create together.

5. Gather proof.
   Find the data, content performance, engagement, and audience response that support your idea.

6. Find the right person.
   Look for a relevant human or department instead of relying on a generic inbox.

7. Start the conversation.
   Introduce yourself and the opportunity. Don’t try to close everything in the first email.

8. Track the outreach.
   Record contacts, dates, responses, follow-ups, and next steps.

And then? You ask.

Before You Send Anything, Answer These Five Questions

Take one company from your list.

Don’t write the pitch yet.

First, answer:

1. Why them?

2. Why me?

3. Why my audience?

4. What could we create together?

5. Who needs to hear the idea?

Can’t answer one?

Good.

You just found the work you need to do before you pitch.

Final Thoughts: You Can’t Get What You Don’t Ask For

During the Live, Robyn told me about some of the unconventional sponsorships she’s landed over the years.

• Coca-Cola.

• Bauer.

• Rollerblade.

• Subway.

• Even a Jaguar dealership for an event.

She saw connections between businesses and audiences she already had.

→ Then she asked.

At one point, I said:

“You really don’t know what you don’t ask for.”

Robyn corrected me:

“You really can’t get what you don’t ask for.”

Fair 😂 and that’s probably the biggest thing I took away from Episode 017.

Getting a sponsor doesn’t begin with firing a giant proposal at the biggest company on your dream list.

It begins much smaller.

1. Know your audience.

2. Know your value.

3. Find the connection.

4. Create the opportunity.

5. Bring proof.

6. Find the person.

7. Start the conversation.

8. Then ask.

At the end of Episode 017, I still hadn’t pitched Nike, but I finally understood what needed to happen before I did.

Robyn’s next assignment was wonderfully unglamorous: find the contacts, add them to the list, write the email, track the outreach, and then pitch, and that’s your assignment too.

→ Pick one company.

Not ten and not fifty. One.

• Work through the framework.

• Find the fit.

• Find the opportunity.

• Find the person.

• Then make the first move.

Because your dream sponsor probably isn’t sitting around wondering when you’re finally going to email them.

You’re going to have to ask.

Thank you so much for being here. I truly appreciate you.

— Jessica

Move first. Refine second. Publish with structure.

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Want to Go Deeper on Sponsorships with Robyn?

There’s also something worth celebrating.

Robyn’s Finding Your Edge just reached its first 100 subscribers!!

To celebrate, she’s offering a limited-time, one-time upgrade opportunity for her publication.

She’s also introducing her Sponsorship Playbook & Workbook, Your Sponsor Kit Edge™, which draws on decades of her real-world sponsorship experience. 🐐

If these sponsorship conversations have you thinking, “I want to try this with my own publication”, Robyn’s new resource gives you a place to keep going.

→ Click below to learn more and celebrate 100 subscribers with Robyn at Finding Your Edge.

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Finding Your Edge

Helping growing entrepreneurs increase visibility and get featured in Forbes, WSJ, Inc. and more through strategic storytelling and AI search.

By Robyn Levin

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• Should I post more Notes?

• Publish more often?

• Collaborate?

• Start a podcast?

• Go Live?

• Turn on paid?

• Cross-post?

• Seek sponsorships?

I use all of those things and I teach many of them, but if you asked me for the one thing I’d focus on if I were trying to grow a Substack today, my answer would be much simpler.

→ Become the most helpful person you can possibly be.

That’s it.

Help people.

• Answer their questions.

• Solve problems you already know how to solve.

• Make introductions.

• Recommend good work.

• Explain the thing that took you three hours to figure out so somebody else can understand it in ten minutes.

Make somebody’s path a little easier because you’ve already walked part of it because the fastest way to become valuable is to create value for other people.

And I think a lot of creators have this backwards.

Stop Asking, “How Do I Grow?”

I understand why we ask it as I also ask it.

• How do I get more subscribers?

• How do I get more views?

• How do I convert more readers to paid?

• How do I grow my Notes?

• How do I get recommended?

• How do I make more money?

There’s nothing wrong with wanting any of those things.

You’re building something.

Of course you want it to work, but notice where every question begins.

Me.

• How do I grow?

• How do I get subscribers?

• How do I make money?

• How do I get noticed?

→ Now change the question.

Instead of:

How can I grow my Substack?

Ask:

Who can I help today?

That changes how you operate.

→ You’re no longer looking at every interaction and wondering what you can extract from it.

You’re looking for places where you can contribute and that’s a very different way to build.

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Help The Person One Step Behind You

You don’t have to be the smartest person on Substack, you don’t need the biggest audience, and you don’t need to know everything.

→ You just need to know enough to help the person one step behind you.

• If you’ve already figured out how to build a profitable business, teach the person who hasn’t.

• If you understand the difference between a stock and a bond, explain it.

• If you developed a skill nobody seems to have, be of great use value.

• If somebody asks a question and you know the answer, answer it.

Some of my favorite article ideas begin exactly that way.

Someone asks me something that feels obvious to me.

And instead of dismissing the question, I think:

If one person is confused about this, somebody else probably is too.

→ So I write the article.

That’s helpfulness turned into publishing and there’s something else I want you to remember.

→ You don’t need to be ten years ahead of someone to teach them something useful.

Sometimes one step is enough.

Your Readers Are Already Telling You What To Write

If you ever feel like you have no idea what to publish next, stop brainstorming for a minute.

Pay attention and look at your:

• Comments

• DMs

• Notes replies

• Chats

• Conversations with clients

• Conversations with other writers

• Questions people keep asking

Those questions are gifts. 🤗🙌

→ They’re showing you exactly where the friction is.

You don’t need to invent a brilliant content strategy every Monday morning.

1. Find the problem.

2. Help with the problem.

3. Write the answer.

Some of the strongest articles are nothing more complicated than:

One person asked me this. Here’s the clearest answer I can give them. (Literally!!)

That’s a publishing strategy I could follow for a very long time.

Being Useful Makes You Memorable

Think about the people you trust online.

At some point, they probably helped you.

• Maybe they explained something that had been confusing you for weeks.

• Maybe they recommended a resource.

• Maybe they introduced you to an idea.

• Maybe they gave you language for something you couldn’t explain.

• Maybe they made something complicated feel simple.

• Maybe they made you laugh on a terrible day.

They gave you something and because they gave you something useful, you remembered them.

→ That’s how trust often begins.

Not with:

“LOOK AT ME”

But with:

→ “Let me help you.”

That’s why I hesitate to call helpfulness a “growth strategy.”

If you start helping people because you’re calculating what you’ll get back, you’ve missed the point, but helpful people do tend to become memorable.

Memorable people get trusted and trusted people get recommended, over time, that can become growth.

Pay Attention To People

I think this may be one of the most underrated skills on the internet.

→ Notice people.

• Notice who’s asking questions.

• Notice who’s stuck.

• Notice who’s doing excellent work without much recognition.

• Notice who’s celebrating something.

• Notice who’s building something interesting.

• Notice where something you already know could save somebody hours of frustration.

→ Then do something about it.

• Leave the thoughtful comment.

• Make the introduction.

• Send the resource.

• Restack the writer whose work deserves more attention.

• Invite someone onto your Live.

• Tell somebody about their work when they’re not in the room.

• Check on the writer who suddenly went quiet.

You don’t need a huge audience to do any of that.

→ You just need to be paying attention and you don’t need a title to lead.

Sometimes leadership is simply noticing what someone needs and deciding to help.

Your Reputation Is What People Expect From Your Name

Your reputation is being built every day.

Not only by what you publish, but by how you behave.

People remember:

• She answered my question.

• He introduced me to someone.

• She shared my work before anyone knew who I was.

• He helped me without immediately trying to sell me something.

• She finally made this complicated thing make sense.

• He helped me out and saved me so much time.

→ Those interactions accumulate.

Eventually, your name starts to mean something.

• Useful and reliable.

• Generous and knowledgeable.

• Helpful.

That’s brand.

→ Your brand isn’t only your logo, your color palette, or your tagline.

It’s what people expect from you when your name appears.

That’s built slowly. One interaction at a time.

Helpful Doesn’t Mean Available To Everyone

Now for the part that matters if you don’t want this philosophy to eat you alive.

→ Being helpful doesn’t mean:

• Answering every DM.

• Working for free.

• Giving away everything you know.

• Being available 24/7.

• Having no boundaries.

• Saying yes to everyone.

That’s not generosity.

That’s a fast route to resentment.

You can be extremely helpful and still have boundaries.

• Sometimes your free article is the help.

• Sometimes your paid article is the help.

• Sometimes your workshop is the help.

• Sometimes your consulting is the help.

Sometimes the most useful thing you can say is:

“I can’t do that, but here’s the resource I’d recommend.”

→ Helpfulness isn’t measured by how exhausted you are afterward.

It’s measured by whether you genuinely helped.

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Helpfulness Looks Different for Different Writers

You also don’t need to become useful to the entire internet.

→ Help your people and remember that helpful doesn’t always mean educational.

• If you write about investing, you might help someone understand a financial decision.

• If you write about health, you might help someone ask a better question.

• If you write fiction, you might give someone an escape.

• If you write humor, make them laugh.

• If you write essays, give them language for something they’ve been feeling but couldn’t name.

• If you write poetry, make them feel understood.

→ If you teach Substack, help the new creator staring at the dashboard thinking:

What the hell do I do next?

Help can look like:

• Clarity and entertainment.

• Beauty and perspective.

• Connection and hope.

• A story and a laugh.

→ The question isn’t: Am I teaching enough?

The question is: What does my reader need from me today? Or, who can I help today?

The #1 Way To Grow on Substack

I can’t promise that becoming the most helpful creator you can be will turn you into a Substack Best Seller, I can’t promise 10,000 subscribers, and I can’t promise everyone you help will subscribe, upgrade, recommend you, or even say thank you.

That’s not why you do it, but I can tell you what tends to happen when you consistently become useful to people.

• They remember you.

• They trust you.

• They talk about you.

• They come back.

• Sometimes they bring somebody else with them.

That’s how reputations compound, that’s how communities compound, and often how businesses compound too.

→ Not because you figured out how to squeeze more value out of your audience, but because you became more valuable to your audience.

That’s the difference.

Your 7-Day Helpfulness Challenge

For the next seven days, stop asking:

How can I grow my Substack?

Every morning, ask:

→ Who can I help today?

Then do one thing. That’s it.

One.

• Answer a question.

• Leave a thoughtful comment.

• Restack someone’s work.

• Make an introduction.

• Recommend a resource.

• Write the article somebody needs.

• Celebrate another creator.

• Check on someone.

• Solve one small problem.

→ Do one unexpected good thing and don’t keep score.

Don’t ask whether it converted, don’t check whether they subscribed, and don’t calculate your ROI.

Just help.

→ Then wake up tomorrow and do it again.

→ Seven days and seven acts of usefulness.

See what changes.

→ Not only in your Substack.

In you.

Final Thoughts: If You’re Stuck Right Now

We spend a ridiculous amount of time asking how to become more successful online.

• More subscribers.

• More views.

• More money.

• More recognition.

• More likes.

Maybe we should spend a little more time asking how to become more useful because when I think about the people I respect most, their value isn’t measured only by what they’ve built.

→ It’s measured by what they’ve contributed.

They leave people better than they found them and that’s one hell of a way to build a reputation.

So maybe the question isn’t:

How do I get more from my audience?

Maybe it’s:

How can I become more valuable to them?

Tomorrow morning, before you open your analytics, ask yourself one question:

→ Who can I help today?

Then go help them.

Thank you so much for being here. I truly appreciate you.

— Jessica

Move first. Refine second. Publish with structure.

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This is one of them.

Today, I’m handing Unstuck to Published over to fellow Substack writer Timo Mason, creator of Write Your Way To Wealth.

Timo has a sharp take on something I see creators get wrong all the time: their Substack profile name.

→ Your publication has a name.

→ Your profile has a name and your handle has a job of its own.

Those details may seem small, but they affect how people recognize you, remember you, and find you across Substack.

So I’m letting take it from here.

The article below was written by Timo and is being republished on Unstuck to Published with his permission.

— Jess, The Creator 🤗

Contributor: Timo Mason 🤠
Creator of Write Your Way To Wealth

Howdy, Wealth Writers🤠

You’re split-testing your headlines.

You’re obsessing over your posting schedule.

You’re studying analytics trying to squeeze out every last subscriber.

But your Substack profile name is still wrong.

Not “wrong” like a typo. Wrong in a way that costs you trust and searchability every single day while you still think you have to post more notes to grow.

Creators come to Substack, pour everything into their content, and completely ignore the most basic thing…the name on their profile.

In this article, you’ll learn:

✓ Why your Substack profile name and your publication name are two completely different things (and why mixing them up is costing you trust)

✓ The difference between your Name and your Handle and exactly what to put in each field

✓ Why your profile name is the internal Substack SEO nobody talks about and how to make sure people can actually find you

Your name sounds like the easiest thing to get right.

Well…it isn’t. ;)

Your Substack Profile Is You, NOT Your Publication

First, we have to get clear about one thing.

→ On Substack, you have two different types of “identities.”

1. Your Publication

That’s your newsletter.

It has its own name, its own page, its own branding.

→ Write Your Way To Wealth is my publication name for example.

2. Your Profile

It’s your personal identity on the platform.

The name that shows up when you comment, when you get mentioned, or when someone searches for you.

→ Mine is Timo Mason🤠.

They aren’t the same thing, but creators constantly treat them like they are.

They put their newsletter name in their personal profile name field and wonder why they aren’t able to build an engaged audience

When your profile name says NewsletterGrowthHQ instead of your actual name, you don’t look like a person anymore.

→ You look like a brand account and people don’t connect with random brands.

The second your profile stops feeling like a real person, you lose trust before you even open your mouth.

“But what if I’ve been using my newsletter name as my profile name for months?”

→ Change it today. The sooner it’s right, the sooner people trust you.

If you’re afraid that some people might be confused, send out a quick email to your audience and tell them about the update you made to your Substack.

Keep the newsletter name for your publication, and your profile name for you.

Just Use Your Name (But Read This First)

There’s something worth knowing before you go type in your name.

When you open your Substack profile settings, you’ll notice two separate fields.

→ Name and Handle.

They’re not the same thing, and most people don’t think twice about either of them.

1. The Handle

→ Your handle is how people find you and mention you on Substack.

When someone tags you in a comment or a note, they’re using your handle.

Keep it clean.

No emojis, no special characters, just your name in plain text.

→ Mine is simply timomason. (@timomason)

2. The Name

This is where you have a little room to play.

→ Your name field is what displays publicly next to your profile picture. It’s what people actually see.

This is where you can add something that makes you visually distinct, like an emoji or symbol, something tied to your brand.

→ Mine is Timo Mason🤠

That cowboy emoji is part of my brand. And here’s the thing… whenever I get mentioned anywhere on Substack, I stand out immediately. The emoji makes me impossible to miss. :D

It’s a small detail that adds up to real recognition over time.

“But wait…do I have to use my actual legal name?”

Nope.

Timo Mason isn’t even my real name. You don’t need your exact legal name, just something that sounds like a real human being and is easy to find.

So pick your name, keep the handle clean, and add something small to the display name if it fits your brand.

Your Profile Name Is The “SEO” Nobody Tells You

I once tried to find the Substack profile of a client and when I put her name in the Substack search bar, nothing came out, like she…didn’t exist.

She was daily on the platform, but her profile name wasn’t her personal name, so Substack Search was like: 🤷‍♂️

Now think about what that means for you.

A potential collaborator heard your name somewhere or a reader from another platform wants to follow you on Substack.

They search your name, and if that’s not aligned with your internal Substack name they won’t find you.

Your profile name is your internal Substack SEO, and unlike Google, there’s no algorithm to game, you either have your name there or you don’t.

The 30-Second Fix

Go to your Substack profile settings.

You’ll see two fields:

1. Name

Put your real (or “could be real”) name here. Add an emoji or something on-brand if it fits.

2. Handle

What people use to find and tag you. Use the name you put into the first field without any extras.

That’s it, thirty seconds and your profile name is optimized for growth and trust.

This Is Just The Beginning

What you just read was part 1 of 3 in The Perfect Substack Profile Series, where we fix every part of your profile from the ground up.

1. Name
2. Picture
3. Description

By the end, your profile will be optimized to make sure all your visitors will become loyal subscribers. :)

Also subscribe to Write Your Way To Wealth to get the Substack Side-Hustle Sprint(A 5-day masterclass to build the foundation of a $2K/month Substack business from scratch), for free.

See ya soon,

Timo Mason🤠

Continue With Timo

This article is part one of Timo’s three-part Perfect Substack Profile Series, covering your name, profile picture, and description.

If you enjoyed his contribution to Unstuck to Published, you can continue reading the series and subscribe to Write Your Way To Wealth on Timo’s publication.

Write Your Way To Wealth

The exact system I used to escape the 9-5 through my own Substack biz. Get simple strategies to turn your stories & skills into content that gets seen AND makes money. P.S. Without any "Viral Notes" BS. :)

By Timo Mason🤠

About Timo Mason

Timo Mason is the creator of Write Your Way To Wealth, where he writes about building and monetizing a Substack publication.

He helps you use your writing and story telling skills to build wealth writing online. Timo knows the Substack platform very well and has had great success creating income by writing online and using his AI systems.

If you want your articles working just as hard as your profile, check out the Article Architect, Timo’s AI-writing system that creates personalized Substack articles in minutes.

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“How do I become a better writer?”

They expected me to recommend a book, or a writing course, or a better editing app.

Instead, I gave them a much simpler answer.

→ Start journaling.

Not because I want you to become a journaler, but because I want you to become a better writer.

Most people think great writing begins the moment they open a blank Substack draft.

I don’t.

I think it begins long before you ever click Publish.

It begins the moment you start paying attention to your own thoughts.

That’s what journaling really is.

Not writing beautifully, not writing for an audience, and not trying to sound intelligent.

→ Just thinking on paper.

The writing nobody else will ever read is often the writing that prepares you to create something thousands of people eventually will.

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The Biggest Mistake New Writers Make

One of the biggest mistakes I see new writers make is that they only write when it’s time to publish.

• Every writing session becomes a performance.

• Every sentence feels permanent.

• Every paragraph feels like it has to be impressive.

That creates pressure and pressure leads to perfectionism.

Perfectionism leads to overthinking and overthinking eventually leads to avoidance.

→ A journal removes all of that.

Nobody is grading it, nobody is subscribing to it, and nobody is waiting for it.

It’s one of the few places where you’re allowed to write simply to discover what you think. That’s where better writing begins.

You Have Permission To Journal

Before we go any further, I want to give you something.

→ Permission.

• Permission to write badly.

• Permission to write privately.

• Permission to change your mind halfway through a sentence.

• Permission to fill a page with thoughts that never leave the notebook.

Somewhere along the way, many of us learned that writing only had value if it was polished enough to share or maybe something even harder happened.

Maybe someone read your journal without your permission or maybe your private thoughts stopped feeling private.

If that’s your story, I understand why opening a blank notebook doesn’t immediately feel safe.

So let me say this clearly.

→ Your journal belongs to you.

It isn’t content, it isn’t homework, and it definitely isn’t something you owe the internet.

Nobody gets to decide what happens to those pages except you.

→ It’s simply a conversation with yourself and you get to decide whether that conversation stays private forever.

There’s no rule that says your journal has to become your newsletter.

In fact...I hope most of it never does because the freedom comes from knowing nobody else has to read it.

That’s what allows honesty to show up and honesty is where good writing begins.

Your Journal Isn’t Content

This may be the most important idea in this entire article.

Don’t journal because you plan to publish it.

Journal because you don’t.

The page isn’t asking you to perform.

• It isn’t asking you to build an audience.

• It isn’t asking you to become more productive.

It’s simply asking you to be honest.

The more private your writing becomes, the stronger your public writing often becomes.

Not because you copy your journal into your newsletter, but because your journal gives you something your audience never can.

A place to think before anyone is watching.

The writer you become in private is the writer your readers eventually meet in public.

Join The Collective

Two Questions I Hear All The Time

Whenever I encourage people to start journaling, two questions almost always come up.

1. “What if someone reads it?”

That’s a real concern.

→ The good news is that journaling doesn’t have to look one specific way.

Your journal can be:

• A notebook you keep somewhere safe.

• A password-protected notes app.

• An encrypted digital journal.

• A handwritten page you shred afterward.

• Even a document you delete as soon as you’ve finished writing.

Remember...the value isn’t keeping every word forever.

→ The value is the act of writing.

You don’t owe anyone access to your private thoughts.

2. “What if I don’t know what to write?”

Perfect. That means you’re starting honestly.

Don’t try to write something profound.

→ Start by writing something true.

Try finishing one of these sentences:

• Today I’m thinking about...

• I can’t stop thinking about...

• Something surprised me today...

• One thing I noticed...

• Today felt difficult because...

• If I were completely honest...

That’s enough.

The goal isn’t beautiful writing.

The goal is honest thinking.

5 Benefits of Journaling

1. Journaling Develops Clarity

Have you ever noticed how confusing something feels......until you write it down?

Thoughts are messy.

Writing forces them into order.

That’s one of the greatest gifts journaling gives us.

→ Clarity.

Readers rarely remember complicated writing.

They remember clear writing and clear writing almost always begins with clear thinking.

2. Journaling Develops Courage

Every writer experiences fear.

• Fear of sounding foolish.

• Fear of being judged.

• Fear that nobody will care.

A journal gives you a place to write before any of those fears matter.

Nobody is watching, nobody is evaluating, and definitely nobody is clicking Unsubscribe.

Over time, the blank page becomes less intimidating because you’ve met it over and over again without pressure.

Confidence isn’t something you suddenly discover.

It’s something you quietly practice.

3. Journaling Develops Consistency

Nobody expects a musician to perform without rehearsing and nobody expects an athlete to compete without practicing.

But somehow, writers expect themselves to produce their best work only when it’s time to publish.

→ Journaling changes that.

• Five minutes with your morning coffee.

• A paragraph before bed.

• A page while you’re waiting in the school pickup line.

Every entry is another repetition and repetition builds confidence long before it builds skill.

4. Journaling Helps You Find Your Voice

One of the biggest questions new writers ask is:

“How do I find my writing voice?”

The funny thing is...you usually don’t find it by trying.

→ You find it by forgetting that anyone is listening.

Without an audience, something changes.

• You stop performing.

• You stop trying to sound like your favorite author.

• You stop writing the way you think you’re supposed to write.

You simply write the way you think.

Over time, that voice becomes familiar. Then recognizable and recognizable voices build loyal readers.

5. Journaling Helps You Collect Stories

Every article starts somewhere.

Mine rarely begin as polished outlines.

More often, they begin as:

• A conversation.

• A question.

• An observation.

• Something I noticed while walking through the grocery store.

• A sentence I couldn’t stop thinking about.

Most great writing isn’t invented.

It’s noticed.

Journaling trains you to notice.

→ It gives those small moments somewhere to live before they disappear.

Weeks later...

• One sentence becomes a newsletter.

• One paragraph becomes a podcast.

• One observation becomes your next article.

The blank page becomes much less intimidating because you’re never really starting from zero.

You’re simply returning to thoughts you’ve already taken the time to notice.

A Simple Journaling Practice for Writers

If you’re not sure where to begin...keep it simple.

• Set a timer for ten minutes.

• Open a blank page.

• Start with one sentence: Today I’m thinking about...✍️👩🏻‍💻🧑‍💻

That’s it.

No word count, no editing, and no expectations.

Some days you’ll write one paragraph and some days you’ll write three pages.

Both count.

Showing up matters far more than sounding brilliant.

Your Permission Statement

Before you leave this article, I want to leave you with something you can carry into your next writing session.

→ “Today, I give myself permission to write without performing.

I don’t need perfect words.

I don’t need perfect ideas.

I don’t need anyone else’s approval.

This page belongs to me.

I’m writing to think more clearly.

To understand myself more honestly.

To become a better writer tomorrow than I am today.

Showing up is enough.” ←

Your Challenge

Before you close this article...open a notebook or a blank document.

→ Set a timer for ten minutes.

→ Write one sentence. Then another.

Don’t edit, don’t judge, and don’t ask yourself whether anyone will ever read it because they don’t have to.

The goal isn’t to write something worth publishing today.

The goal is to become the kind of writer who keeps showing up tomorrow.

Journaling Resources

How to use rapid logging in bullet journaling.

How to keep a simplified bullet journal.

How to identify and shrink your resistance to achieve your goals with journaling.

Zentangle art and patterns to draw in a meditative, relative state!

Final Thoughts: If You’re Stuck Right Now

People often ask me how to become a better writer.

They’re usually hoping I’ll recommend the perfect book, the perfect course, or the perfect app; however, better writing rarely begins with better tools.

It begins with paying closer attention.

• Attention to your thoughts.

• Attention to your questions.

• Attention to the moments most people rush past without noticing.

→ That’s what journaling teaches us.

• Not how to write beautifully.

• How to think honestly.

• How to notice more.

• How to listen to ourselves before we ask anyone else to listen to us.

Writing isn’t just about finding the right words.

It’s about discovering what you actually believe before you try to explain it to someone else.

So if you ever ask me how to become a better writer...you’ll probably hear the same answer every time.

→ Start journaling.

Not because every journal entry deserves to be published, but because every writer deserves one place where they never have to perform.

The page doesn’t need your best writing.

→ It just needs your honesty.

Honesty has a funny way of turning into clarity.

• Clarity turns into confidence.

• Confidence turns into better writing.

Long before anyone ever clicks Publish.

📓 Free Download

I’ve created a simple Journaling Starter Page you can print or use digitally to begin your own journaling practice.

Journaling Starter Page

40.2KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Thank you so much for being here. I truly appreciate you.

— Jessica

Move first. Refine second. Publish with structure.

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Work With Me 1:1

When someone tells a writer to start a podcast, I think we immediately make it bigger than it needs to be.

Now I need a microphone, editing software, guests, and a recording schedule.

Another content calendar and suddenly, what could have been another way to share your ideas has become an entirely new job.

However, that’s not how I think about podcasting.

During my latest Live with , I kept coming back to one simple idea:

→ A podcast is just another way to express yourself.

You’re not necessarily creating a new message.

→ You’re giving the message you already have another way to reach people.

And for writers already publishing on Substack, that distinction changes everything.

Podcasting Is A Format, Not Another Job

Think about what you’re already creating.

• You write articles and you share ideas.

• Maybe you host Lives or maybe you teach or have conversations with interesting people.

All of that can become audio.

• An article can become a podcast episode.

• A Live can become a podcast episode.

• A conversation can become a podcast episode.

→ Even a five-minute thought recorded on your phone can become an episode.

You don’t necessarily need another content strategy.

→ You need another format.

Once I started thinking about podcasting this way, it became much less intimidating.

Start With What You Already Have

I didn’t start out trying to become a podcaster.

More than a year ago, I started noticing the option to add voiceovers to my Substack articles.

So I began reading them myself.

That was it.

If someone wanted to listen instead of read, I’d rather they hear the article in my voice than an automated one.

Readers responded, so I kept recording.

Eventually, I realized I had accumulated something valuable:

→ Audio.

Those recordings could become podcast episodes without requiring me to create something new.

The same thing happened when I wrote my guide about creating a podcast on Substack.

I wanted to show readers the actual process, so while writing the step by step tutorial, I created The Publisher’s Desk.

Because I’d already hosted several Lives through Unstuck to Published, I already had material for it.

Suddenly, I had a podcast with multiple episodes. →

It looked like I’d launched an entirely new content project.

In reality, I had repurposed work I’d already done.

That’s why before asking:

“What should my podcast be about?”

I’d ask:

“What have I already created that people might want to hear?”

You may already have the beginnings of a podcast sitting inside your publication.

Your Audience Doesn’t Consume Content The Same Way

You might write an excellent 2,000-word article.

However, that doesn’t mean everyone who would benefit from it wants to sit down and read 2,000 words.

Someone might want to listen while walking the dog, while another person might listen during a workout, or while someone else might put your episode on during their commute.

Robyn shared a story during the Live about turning webinars into audio years ago and hearing from people who listened while exercising or winding down at night.

→ The information hadn’t changed.

→ The way people could access it had.

That’s what makes another format valuable.

→ You’re creating another doorway into your work.

Someone who would never read every article you publish might happily listen to you for 20 minutes.

Someone who discovers you through audio might eventually become a reader and someone who already reads you might prefer having both options.

Your Voice Adds Something The Article Can’t

There’s another reason I like recording my own articles.

The words may be exactly the same, but the experience isn’t.

When you read your own work, people hear where you pause.

• What you emphasize.

• Your humor.

• Your excitement.

• Your personality.

They hear you.

Robyn called it a personal touch during our conversation, and I think that’s exactly right.

→ Writing allows someone to understand your ideas.

→ Voice gives them another way to understand the person behind them.

For creators building trust online, that’s valuable.

You Probably Don’t Need The Equipment You Think You Need

At one point during the Live, Robyn recommended getting a good microphone because audio quality matters.

Then she discovered something.

I wasn’t using one. I was recording with what I already had.

It became the perfect example of what we were talking about.

Yes, good audio matters, and yes, you can eventually invest in better equipment.

However, if finding the perfect microphone is the reason you haven’t recorded anything yet, start with your phone.

• Record something.

• Listen to it.

• Does it sound good enough?

• Publish it.

If the quality bothers you, improve your setup later.

Equipment can improve with the podcast.

It doesn’t need to come before it.

Let Substack Do Some of The Heavy Lifting

This is where podcasting through Substack becomes especially useful for writers.

Your publication and your podcast don’t have to exist as two completely separate content machines.

• Recorded articles can become episodes.

• Lives can become episodes.

• Substack provides tools that can help distribute your podcast beyond the publication itself.

Robyn summed it up well during our conversation:

“This is a great example of repurposing your content without creating more.”

Exactly!

→ Create once. Distribute intentionally.

The core idea hasn’t changed. Its ability to travel has.

Don’t Ignore The Last 10%

Automation doesn’t mean you should stop paying attention.

If you’re turning an article or Live into a podcast episode, take a minute to look at what the listener will actually see.

• Does the episode title make sense on its own?

• Does the description tell someone why they should listen?

• Does the artwork display properly?

• Is there a clear path back to your publication?

You don’t want convenience to make your work look careless.

I think of this as the last 10%.

→ Let the technology handle the repetitive work.

Then add the human judgment.

That’s what turns simple repurposing into thoughtful publishing.

The Big Lesson

This episode wasn’t really about convincing every writer to become a professional podcaster.

It was about making podcasting feel smaller, and doable.

You don’t need a studio, you don’t need a complicated format, you don’t need famous guests, and you don’t even need to know what Episode 100 will look like.

Start with one thing.

• Read an article.

• Record a five-minute thought.

• Repurpose your next Live.

• Interview someone interesting.

→ Use the phone you already have. Then see what happens.

• You can improve the equipment later.

• You can change the format later.

• You can become a better interviewer later.

However, you can’t improve a podcast you never start.

And if you’re already publishing?

→ You may be much closer than you think.

You don’t necessarily need more content.

You need more ways for people to experience it.

In This Episode

Robyn and I discuss:

• Why writers tend to overcomplicate podcasting.

• How to think about podcasting as another format for your ideas.

• Turning existing articles and Lives into podcast episodes.

• Why I started recording my own Substack articles.

• Using your own voice versus automated audio.

• Giving your audience different ways to consume your work.

• Whether you really need a microphone to start.

• Recording from your phone.

• How Substack can simplify podcast distribution.

• Why episode titles, descriptions, and artwork still matter.

• My experience creating The Publisher’s Desk.

• How to repurpose without constantly creating something new.

→ If you’ve been thinking about starting a podcast, but keep telling yourself you’re not ready, I hope this conversation makes it feel a little lighter, smaller, and simpler.

You don’t need to build an entire media company this weekend.

→ Press record on something you already know how to talk about.

Then build from there.

↑ Replay Above

Resources From This Conversation

Want the Step-by-Step Playbook?

If this episode convinced you to finally start your podcast, I’ve already created the practical next step.

My How to Create a Podcast on Substack playbook walks you through setting up and publishing your podcast without making the process more complicated than it needs to be.

Read the full playbook → Click here

Follow The Publisher’s Desk podcast by Jess, The Creator on Spotify →

Follow Jess at Unstuck to Published →

Unstuck to Published

Turn your Substack from an idea into a live, paid publication—in 60 minutes, without guessing what to do next.

By Jess, The Creator

Follow Robyn at Finding Your Edge →

Finding Your Edge

Helping growing entrepreneurs increase visibility and get featured in Forbes, WSJ, Inc. and more through strategic storytelling and AI search.

By Robyn Levin

Follow Robyn at Rare Finds - Luxury Travel →

Rare Finds - Luxury Travel

For luxury travelers drawn to extraordinary hotels, design, emerging destinations, and the people behind it all. You'll find them here. Go before the crowds.

By Robyn Levin

Thank You

Thank you so much for everyone who tuned into this live, your presence is truly appreciated, and to the people who are watching the replay, thank you!

See you next Friday at 12pm ET for our weekly show, stay tuned!

-Jess, The Creator & Robyn Levin

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There’s a phrase travelers say all the time.

“I’ve already been there.”

We say it about cities, countries, and sometimes entire regions of the world.

We visit once, see the famous places, take the photos, and mentally check the destination off our list.

Done.

Next.

However, during my latest conversation with of Rare Finds - Luxury Travel, I started thinking about how much that mindset can cause us to miss.

Robyn first traveled to Croatia four years ago.

Since then, she has kept going back.

Not to repeat the same trip.

To discover how much she didn’t see the first time.

A Country Isn’t One Destination

When most people think about Croatia, a few familiar destinations probably come to mind.

• Dubrovnik.

• Split.

• The coast.

But during our live, Robyn pulled up a map and started walking me through the country.

• Zagreb.

• Rijeka.

• Pula.

• Poreč.

• Istria.

She showed me just how close northern Croatia sits to Slovenia and Italy. Trieste is nearby. Venice isn’t nearly as far away as many travelers might assume.

And I realized how easy it is to reduce an entire country to the one place we’ve heard the most about.

Robyn’s first Croatia experience was Zagreb during Christmas.

She arrived from Florida to temperatures around 17 degrees and her luggage was lost.

She had one set of clothes and instead of sitting in her hotel waiting for her suitcase to arrive, she went out with a private guide and explored the city.

There was an ice-skating rink winding around a park, a DJ, music, food booths, and Christmas markets!

An entirely different version of Croatia than the coastal summer destination many travelers imagine.

That’s the first lesson.

A country isn’t one destination.

And one trip rarely tells you the entire story.

Sometimes You Have To Go Back

I asked Robyn near the end of our conversation where she wanted to travel next.

She started listing places she hasn’t seen yet.

• The Baltics.

• Finland.

• Scotland.

• Ireland.

• Southeast Asia.

There’s still so much of the world she wants to explore; however, she said something that stayed with me.

She never expected to keep returning to the same countries because when you love travel, the instinct is often to keep moving.

A new country, a new stamp, and a new destination.

But Robyn has learned that going back doesn’t necessarily mean doing the same trip again.

• You can visit the mountains in one region and the coast in another.

• You can experience a country in December and return in May.

• You can stay in the capital on one trip and discover a 2,500-year-old town you had never heard of on the next.

Going back isn’t always repeating yourself.

Sometimes it’s how you finally begin to understand a place.

The Croatia Most Travelers Miss

For this episode, Robyn took me into Istria.

It’s a region in northern Croatia with hills, vineyards, coastal towns, and access to the Adriatic.

Last time we talked about Croatia, Robyn took us truffle hunting.

We talked about wine, olive oil, and family-owned businesses.

This time, she brought me into Poreč and showed me two completely different ways to experience the same town.

One had more than 500 rooms. The other had 13.

One Town. Two Completely Different Trips.

The first property Robyn showed me was a sprawling five-star coastal resort.

• Eleven swimming pools.

• Seven restaurants.

• Water slides.

• Family activities.

• Adults-only suites.

• A rooftop deck overlooking the Adriatic.

Robyn described it as almost like Disney on the beach in Croatia.

Families can bring their children and find enough activities to keep them entertained, while adults looking for a quieter experience can stay in a separate adults-only building.

The resort had only recently opened when Robyn visited, yet it was already attracting significant demand.

Then, only minutes away, Robyn took us somewhere entirely different.

A 13-room heritage hotel.

The rooms don’t have numbers.

They have names.

Robyn stayed in the Teresa room, named after the woman who helped open, manage, and design the hotel with her husband in 1913.

Even the bedside experience was personal.

Guests are given four scented cards.

You scratch them, smell them, and choose your favorite.

The next day, a diffuser with your chosen scent appears beside your bed.

My immediate reaction during the live was simple:

“That’s next level.”

Because it is.

Neither hotel is automatically better.

They simply offer completely different ways to experience the same destination and that’s the point.

The same place can become a completely different trip depending on how you choose to experience it.

Luxury Is Often In The Details

One thing I’ve learned from listening to Robyn talk about travel is that she notices details some people would probably miss.

• The glass bar holding the utensils at dinner.

• The architecture of a hotel lobby.

• The way a building resembles a ship.

• The scent waiting beside the bed.

• The story behind a room’s name.

• The concierge who remembers what you need before you ask.

These details are why I think Rare Finds works.

Robyn doesn’t just walk into a hotel, take a picture of the pool, and tell you the view is beautiful.

She pays attention to how a place makes you feel.

At the larger resort, she experienced a nearly four-hour, 12-course dinner with nine wine pairings.

Each course came with an explanation, how the dish was made, what went into it, and why a particular wine was chosen.

At one point, Robyn explained that she had a 4 a.m. flight to catch.

The concierge’s response?

Essentially: no.

You’re doing the tasting menu.

That story made me laugh during the live, but it also says something about hospitality.

Sometimes the thing you remember isn’t the meal.

It’s the person who made sure you stayed long enough to experience it.

You Remember The People

This might have been my biggest takeaway from the entire episode.

Toward the end of our conversation, Robyn said:

“It’s not just the destinations, but it’s the people you meet that make the experience so much better.”

And when I look back at everything she shared, the people are everywhere.

• The private guide who showed her Zagreb.

• The concierge who wouldn’t let her skip dinner.

• The hotel team who made her feel welcome.

And then there was chef Ana Roš.

Robyn sat with Ana for an hour over a glass of Merlot.

They talked about her upbringing in Slovenia, her background as an athlete, her path into food without a traditional culinary career, her travels, her creativity, and the way she thinks about flavor.

When Robyn asked how she creates her dishes, Ana gave an answer I love:

“Painters see colors. I see flavors.”

That’s the story Robyn remembers.

Yes, the restaurant matters, the food matters, and the destination matters, but years from now, I have a feeling she’ll still remember sitting on that deck and having that conversation.

You may choose a destination because of the place, but you often remember it because of the people.

The Big Lesson

One trip gives you an introduction.

It doesn’t always give you the full story.

Sometimes you have to return in a different season, to a different region, and with a different itinerary.

You have to be willing to look beyond the place everyone told you to visit and ask what else is there because a country can hold more than one version of itself.

• Mountains and coastlines.

• Five-hundred-room resorts and thirteen-room heritage hotels.

• Christmas markets and Adriatic sunsets.

• Michelin-starred tasting menus and conversations over Merlot.

Going back doesn’t always mean repeating the same trip.

Sometimes it means discovering the place for the first time all over again and maybe that’s why Robyn keeps returning to Croatia.

She hasn’t run out of things to see and she keeps discovering how much more there is to find.

In This Episode

Robyn Levin from Rare Finds - Luxury Travel and I discuss:

• Why Croatia keeps pulling her back.

• The difference between visiting Zagreb, Split, Pula, and Istria.

• Why shoulder-season and winter travel can completely change a destination.

• The quieter Croatian town of Poreč.

• Two completely different luxury hotel experiences in the same town.

• A sprawling five-star coastal resort and an intimate 13-room heritage hotel.

• The small hospitality details Robyn notices while traveling.

• A 12-course tasting menu with nine wine pairings.

• Robyn’s conversation with chef Ana Roš.

• Why the people you meet often become the most memorable part of a trip.

• Why returning to the same country doesn’t mean repeating the same experience.

Whether you’ve been to Croatia before or it’s still somewhere on your travel list, I hope this conversation makes you reconsider the phrase:

“I’ve already been there.”

Maybe you have. but maybe there’s still an entirely different version of that place waiting for you.

↑ Replay Above

Resources From This Conversation

Scan Robyn’s QR code for exclusive activities in Jadran →

Scan Robyn’s QR code for exclusive activities in Pical →

Follow Robyn at Rare Finds - Luxury Travel →

Rare Finds - Luxury Travel

For luxury travelers drawn to extraordinary hotels, design, emerging destinations, and the people behind it all. You'll find them here. Go before the crowds.

By Robyn Levin

Follow Robyn at Finding Your Edge →

Finding Your Edge

Helping growing entrepreneurs increase visibility and get featured in Forbes, WSJ, Inc. and more through strategic storytelling and AI search.

By Robyn Levin

Scan Robyn’s QR code to access her Youtube channel →

Follow Jess at Unstuck to Published →

Unstuck to Published

Turn your Substack from an idea into a live, paid publication—in 60 minutes, without guessing what to do next.

By Jess, The Creator

Thank You

Thank you so much for everyone who tuned into this live, your presence is truly appreciated, and to the people who are watching the replay, thank you!

See you next Friday at 12pm ET for our weekly show, stay tuned!

-Jess, The Creator & Robyn Levin

It sometimes feels like every creator is expected to turn on a camera.

• Record a video.

• Go live.

• Post reels.

• Show their face.

For a while, it seemed like if you wanted to grow an audience online, video wasn’t just an option—it was the expectation.

However, what if that’s not how you communicate best and what if your ideas come alive through your voice instead?

If the thought of being on camera has been the one thing holding you back from podcasting, I want you to know something.

You don’t have to be.

I know this from my own experience. I’ve had my NP Fellow Collective podcast on Spotify for almost a year now.

I have an entire library of recorded episodes of me reading my NP Fellow Become The CEO of Your Health articles.

There’s no intro with a jingle, no special guests, no cameras, no crazy podcast room, no microphones, and definitely no fancy equipment or lighting.

I use my phone to read the article out loud and I use my laptop to record. That’s it.

My podcast is literally just my voice. If I can do it, you certainly can too. 🙌

The Real Reason I Wrote This

After publishing my guide on How To Start A Podcast On Substack, I expected questions about microphones, recording software, and podcast hosting.

Instead, something else happened.

People started telling me why they hadn’t started a podcast in the first place.

One reader shared:

“I don’t like being on lives or doing videos, so a podcast will allow me to share what I want to without sharing my face.”

That comment stuck with me because it wasn’t really about podcasting.

It was about finally finding a publishing format that felt natural.

Sometimes we assume podcasting means interviews, video, expensive equipment, or a professional studio.

It doesn’t.

Sometimes it’s simply your voice. Just you, your recording device, and your piece of writing you’re reading out loud. That’s it.

Work With Me 1:1

Presence Without Performance

One of the biggest misconceptions about podcasting is that it has to feel like performing.

It doesn’t.

Podcasting gives you the chance to connect with people in a different way.

• You don’t have to think about lighting.

• You don’t have to worry about your background.

• You don’t have to spend time editing videos.

• You simply press record and share your ideas.

For many creators, that’s a much more comfortable way to communicate.

Your audience isn’t looking at your camera.

They’re listening to your thoughts and your perspective.

Your Voice Is Enough

One of my favorite things about podcasting is how flexible it can be.

You don’t have to interview guests, you don’t have to create elaborate productions, and you don’t even have to invent brand-new content.

If you’ve already been publishing articles on Substack, your next podcast episode could simply be you reading one of them aloud.

→ You’ve already done the hard part and you’ve already written the words.

→ Now you’re giving your readers another way to experience them.

Sometimes that’s exactly what they want.

Join The Collective

Build The Podcast That Fits You

I think creators get into trouble when they try to copy someone else’s podcast.

• They see polished interviews.

• Multi-camera setups.

• Professional intros.

• Weekly guests.

And they assume that’s the standard.

It isn’t.

Your podcast should reflect the way you naturally communicate.

• Maybe that’s reading your articles.

• Maybe it’s sharing a five-minute lesson.

• Maybe it’s having thoughtful conversations with other creators.

• Maybe it’s a mix of all three.

There isn’t one right way to build a podcast.

There’s only the way you’ll still enjoy recording six months from now.

Start With Your Strengths

The goal isn’t to become a podcaster.

The goal is to become someone who publishes consistently.

→ If podcasting helps you do that, it’s worth exploring.

Not because everyone else has a podcast, but because it might be the publishing format you’ve been looking for all along.

Final Thoughts: If You’re Stuck Right Now

For a long time, it felt like creators only had one path.

• Write.

• Film.

• Edit.

• Repeat.

Today, we have more ways than ever to share our ideas.

If being on camera has kept you from starting a podcast, it doesn’t mean podcasting isn’t for you.

It might simply mean you’ve been imagining a version of podcasting that doesn’t fit the way you naturally create.

The best podcast isn’t the one with the most expensive equipment, the biggest audience, or the most polished production.

It’s the one you’ll actually keep publishing because consistency has never come from choosing the most popular format.

It comes from choosing the one that feels like home.

Thank you so much for being here. I truly appreciate you.

— Jessica

Move first. Refine second. Publish with structure.

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📓 Field Note

Writing Comes First. Publishing Comes Second.

When and I sat down for the very first Conversation at The Publisher’s Desk, I thought we were going to spend our time talking about burnout.

Instead, we spent nearly five hours talking about writing.

Somewhere in the middle of our conversation, Odel said something that completely changed the way I think about publishing.

→ “When I write, I don’t think about posting. I just write.”

That sentence stayed with me long after we ended the conversation because I realized something.

Writing and publishing aren’t the same thing.

For a long time, I’ve treated them like they are.

I’ll spend hours researching an article.

• Then formatting it.

• Designing a thumbnail.

• Adding images.

• Creating a downloadable resource.

• Tweaking the layout.

• Checking every heading.

By the time I hit publish, I’ll tell myself I just spent eight hours writing an article; however, I didn’t.

→ I spent part of that time writing.

The rest?

→ I was publishing.

Those are two completely different creative acts.

Writing asks:

“What do I want to say?”

Publishing asks:

“How do I want people to experience it?”

Both matter, but they’re not the same job.

That realization helped me understand something else.

Maybe burnout doesn’t always come from writing too much and maybe sometimes it comes from expecting ourselves to write and publish as if they’re one continuous task.

They’re not.

→ Writing requires curiosity.

→ Publishing requires craftsmanship.

→ Writing creates the work.

→ Publishing shapes the experience.

Neither is more important than the other; however, recognizing the difference changes how I think about both.

That’s what I’m taking away from Conversation 001.

Not a new productivity system and not a better publishing schedule.

Just a quieter reminder that writing deserves its own space before we start thinking about headlines, formatting, thumbnails, and everything else that comes after.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is simply write.

We can worry about publishing tomorrow.

Conversation 001 Takeaway

→ Writing creates the work. Publishing shapes the experience.

Don’t confuse the two.

Continue The Conversation

Thank you for pulling up a chair at The Publisher’s Desk.

If today's conversation sparked a new idea or perspective, I'd love for you to continue the conversation by sharing your biggest takeaway in the comments.

↑ Listen to Conversation 001 of The Publisher’s Desk:

Write What You Can Sustain

One of my favorite parts of The Publisher's Desk is introducing you to thoughtful people whose work I genuinely admire.

I'm grateful that Odel’s the first person to pull up a chair at The Publisher's Desk.

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About Odel Assellie

Thank you so much for everyone who tuned into this live, your presence is truly appreciated, and to the people who are watching the replay, thank you!

Odel Assellie is the author of The Mirror Room.

Through thoughtful essays, reflections, and poetry, Odel explores identity, relationships, and human behavior, helping readers better understand themselves and the lives they're living.

If today's conversation resonated with you, I think you'll really enjoy Odel's work in The Mirror Room.

The Mirror Room

Reflections, essays, and poetry to help you better understand yourself, your relationships, and the life you're creating.

By Odel Asseille

Scan the QR code below to subscribe to The Mirror Room →

Scan the QR code below to subscribe to Unstuck to Published →

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Thank You

Thank you so much for everyone who tuned into this live, your presence is truly appreciated, and to the people who are watching the replay, thank you!

-Jess, The Creator & Odel Asseille

“How do I start a podcast on Substack?”

The good news?

You don’t need a recording studio, you don’t need expensive equipment, you don’t need years of podcasting experience, and you definitely don’t need thousands of subscribers before you begin.

You simply need an idea, a way to record your voice, and a place to publish it.

Substack gives you all three.

However, before we jump into the setup, there’s one thing I think every creator should understand.

Subscribe now

Your Podcast Isn’t A Separate Business

When most people think about starting a podcast, they imagine launching something completely separate from everything else they’re already creating.

• A new brand.

• A new audience.

• A new platform.

• A new business.

That’s not how I think about podcasting on Substack.

I think of a podcast as another doorway into your publication.

→ Some people love reading.

→ Others would rather listen while they’re driving to work, walking the dog, cooking dinner, or exercising.

They’re consuming the same ideas.

They’re simply choosing a different format.

That’s what makes podcasting on Substack so powerful.

Your podcast isn’t living on an island.

It connects directly to your:

• Articles

• Notes

• Live videos

• Chat

• Subscribers

• Paid memberships

Everything strengthens everything else.

• One article can become a podcast.

• One podcast can spark a conversation in Notes.

• That conversation can inspire your next article.

Your publication becomes an ecosystem instead of a collection of disconnected content.

That’s the mindset I want you to have as we go through this guide.

You’re not creating more work.

You’re creating more ways for people to connect with your ideas.

Now let’s build your podcast.

Step 1: Decide What Your Podcast Is About

Before you click a single button inside Substack, spend a few minutes getting clear on your podcast.

You don’t need a detailed business plan.

You just need a simple answer to four questions.

Ask yourself:

• Who is this podcast for?

• What will I talk about?

• Why would someone listen?

• How often can I realistically publish?

Keep it simple.

For example:

“This podcast helps new Substack creators build, publish, and grow with more clarity.”

Or...

“This is where I read my weekly articles for readers who prefer listening.”

Or...

“Every week I share conversations about publishing, creativity, and building an audience.”

Notice something?

None of those are complicated.

They’re clear and clarity matters far more than cleverness.

Your first version doesn’t have to be perfect.

It simply has to give listeners a reason to press play.

Step 2: Choose Your Podcast Format

Now decide what type of podcast you want to create.

There isn’t one right answer.

Choose the format you’ll actually enjoy creating.

Some simple options include:

• Solo teaching episodes

• Audio versions of your written articles

• Interviews with guests

• Weekly reflections

• Reader Q&A episodes

• Recorded Substack Lives

If you’re just getting started, I’d recommend keeping it simple.

In fact, one of the easiest ways to begin is by reading one of your existing articles aloud. I’ve been doing this for over a year now and have received positive feedback from my readers as they appreciate listening to the article in a familiar voice.

Many creators think they need an entirely new content strategy before starting a podcast.

You don’t.

If you’ve already published ten articles...you already have ten podcast episodes waiting to happen.

• Read the article.

• Expand on a point.

• Tell the story behind why you wrote it.

• Answer a question a reader asked after reading it.

• Podcasting doesn’t always require creating new ideas.

Sometimes it simply means delivering your existing ideas in a different format.

That’s one of the biggest advantages of building your podcast inside your publication.

Everything compounds.

One idea can become:

• An article

• A podcast episode

• Several Notes

• A Live discussion

• A future workshop

→ One piece of content can create an entire week of conversations. That’s leverage.

Creator Tip: Choose the format you can repeat consistently.

Consistency builds trust.

Complexity usually builds excuses.

Step 3: Record Your First Episode

Now it’s time to record.

Here’s the good news.

Your first episode doesn’t need to be thirty minutes long, it doesn’t need professional editing, and it definitely doesn’t need to sound like an NPR production.

A strong first episode might only be five to fifteen minutes.

You can record using:

• Your phone

• Your computer

• A simple USB microphone

• Substack’s recording tools

Any basic recording app you’re comfortable using.

→ Find a quiet room.

→ Pick one topic.

→ Press record.

If you’re unsure what to say, answer these questions:

• Who are you?

• What’s your publication about?

• Why did you start this podcast?

• Who’s it for?

• What can listeners expect?

• How often will you publish?

That’s enough. Seriously.

Most creators delay publishing because they think the first episode has to impress everyone.

It doesn’t.

Its job is simply to exist.

You’ll improve by recording Episode 10; not by endlessly editing Episode 1.

You don’t need a professional studio to record your first episode.

Step 4: Open Your Substack Dashboard

Once you’ve recorded your episode, log in to your Substack dashboard.

This is where you’ll manage everything related to your publication, including your podcast.

Depending on when you’re reading this, the layout may look slightly different as Substack continues to evolve.

Look for the podcast option within your dashboard settings.

If you don’t immediately see it, don’t worry.

Substack occasionally updates where podcast settings live, but they’re easy to find within your publication settings.

Click on “Podcast” on the lefthand side under “CONTENT” then choose ‘Create podcast” to begin setting up your show.

Step 5: Create Your Podcast

Inside your publication dashboard, choose the option to create a new podcast.

If you already host a podcast somewhere else, you’ll also have the option to import your existing RSS feed.

If you’re starting fresh, simply choose:

→ “I’m starting a new podcast”

Substack will walk you through the setup.

Don’t worry if some of the settings feel unfamiliar.

We’ll go through them together.

Remember...you’re not building an entirely separate business.

You’re adding another experience to the publication you’ve already been building.

That mindset makes the setup feel much less intimidating.

Choose “I’m starting a new podcast” if you’re starting a new one or click “I have a podcast hosted elsewhere” if you already have a podcast.

Step 6: Name Your Podcast

Now it’s time to give your podcast a name.

You have two good options.

Option 1: Use the same name as your publication.

For many creators, this is the simplest choice.

If your publication is already well positioned, keeping the names the same creates consistency across your brand.

For example:

• Unstuck to Published

• The Unstuck to Published Podcast

When readers see the title, they’ll immediately recognize it’s connected to the publication they already know.

Option 2: Give your podcast its own name.

Some creators want their podcast to have a slightly different identity while still supporting the publication.

For example:

• The Publisher’s Podcast

• The Publisher’s Desk

• The Creator’s Publishing Lab

• Behind The Build

• Publishing Out Loud

There’s no right answer.

Just remember:

Clarity beats cleverness.

Someone should understand what your podcast is about without needing you to explain it.

Choose a title that’s clear, memorable, and connected to your publication.

Step 7: Write Your Podcast Description

Think of your podcast description as your elevator pitch.

It doesn’t need to be long.

It just needs to answer three questions:

• Who is this for?

• What will listeners hear?

• Why should they subscribe?

Here’s an example:

The Publisher’s Desk, brought to you by Unstuck to Published, is where creators learn how to stop overthinking and start publishing. Each episode explores the mindset, systems, and strategies behind building a publication people want to return to.

Notice what’s missing?

• Long biographies.

• Buzzwords.

• Trying to sound impressive.

Your goal isn’t to explain everything.

It’s to make the right person think:

“This sounds like it’s for me.”

Your description should quickly explain who the podcast is for and why someone should listen.

Step 8: Add Podcast Artwork

Your podcast artwork is often the first thing people see.

Keep it simple.

A few guidelines:

• Use large, readable text.

• Choose high contrast.

• Avoid tiny details.

• Make sure it still looks good on a phone screen.

If your publication already has established branding, carry that into your podcast artwork.

• Use similar colors.

• Fonts.

• Design elements.

Your podcast shouldn’t feel like a completely different brand.

Here’s an example of artwork for The Publisher’s Desk →

Upload a square image sized at least 1400px X 1400px to represent your podcast.

Remember:

You’re expanding your publication—not creating a second one.

The more connected everything feels, the easier it becomes for readers to recognize your work.

Keep your podcast artwork clean, readable, and consistent with your publication.

Work With Me 1:1

Step 9: Upload Your First Episode

Now for the exciting part.

→ Upload your first episode.

Substack allows you to upload audio—and depending on your setup, video as well.

You’ll be asked to add:

• An episode title

• A short description

• Your audio or video file

Simple first episode titles might include:

• Welcome to The Publisher’s Desk

• Why I’m Starting This Podcast

• Start Publishing Before You Feel Ready

• What This Podcast Is About

For the description, don’t overthink it.

A couple or few sentences summarizing the episode is enough.

→ If you mention resources, links, or related articles, include those as well.

Remember:

Every episode becomes another piece of content inside your publication.

It isn’t separate; it’s connected.

Click “Create new episode.”

Upload a recording file or press record to get started on your first episode. Then, write a title and subtitle, and add a short description, field note, or companion article before publishing.

Step 10: Decide Who Can Listen

One of the biggest advantages of podcasting on Substack is that you control access.

→ Before publishing, decide who can listen.

Depending on your publication settings, you may choose:

• Free for everyone

• Paid subscribers only

• Free preview with the full episode for paid members

• Bonus episodes for paid subscribers

If this is your first episode, I’d recommend making it free.

Why?

Because your audience hasn’t heard your voice yet.

Give them an easy way to experience your podcast.

Once you’ve built trust and established a rhythm, you can introduce paid or bonus episodes if they make sense for your publication.

→ Don’t rush monetization.

→ Focus on connection first.

→ Trust creates subscriptions.

In the “episode or post Settings,” which is located in the bottom righthand corner of the post, choose your audience—whether your episode is for all subscribers a.k.a “Everyone” or “Paid subscribers only.”

Step 11: Publish Your Episode

Eventually you’ll reach the button every creator spends too much time avoiding.

→ Just publish.

This is where perfectionism usually shows up.

You’ll hear yourself differently than everyone else does.

You’ll notice every pause, every “um,” and every sentence you wish you’d said differently.

Your listeners won’t.

They’re listening for your ideas.

Your perspective and your experience.

Not flawless audio.

One of my favorite reminders is this:

→ Your first episode isn’t your final episode.

→ Its purpose is to teach you what recording Episode Two should sound like.

So when everything looks good...press publish.