Claire and I were both a little shocked when the end of the month rolled into view - which kind of explains our shock at the beginning of this podcast that it was now time for another monthly reflection.
Our first attempt at recording the podcast was abandoned two minutes in as we were all over the place! We both agreed that this was because we’ve had positive months and it was strange not to have negative issues to structure our chat.
I’ve had a wonderful Substack month in the sense I found my thing. I’ve found articles that resonate, that fill me with joy and that have also helped grow my reach and my subscribers.
Claire has also had a good month. She’s been featured on the Staff Pick section of Substack Explore and is continuing with her self-discovery journey as a writer. We both think Claire has reached a significant point after realising she needs more time to “look at the clouds” and allow herself time and space to think.
It’s been wonderful catching up with each other and taking the time to reflect on our achievements before we push on into the month of June.
This is the piece by Claire that became a Staff Pick.
I mentioned my one year anniversary here on Substack and the special essay and live session I’ve got planned for the 7th June. You can read more here:
The three posts of mine that have led to a spike in subscribers during May are:
Our Substack Story is a podcast about our progress on the relatively new medium of Substack. What works, what doesn’t. How we grow, the mindset issues we struggle with and how we hone in on what we want to write about. Plus the often icky subject of money and charging for subscriptions.
Helen has been on Substack since June 2022. And Claire launched her Substack in January 2023.
We are both coming to Substack from different places. Helen has around 15,000 followers on Instagram, a small YouTube channel and a previous mailing list. Claire has a smaller Instagram with no previous newsletter.
We want to share how we get on with Substack, how we use the platform, how we use it as a place to share our writing, how we grow subscribers, create a community, and hopefully make an income. At the same time as writing our books and, in Helen’s case, creating videos on YouTube.
If you are launching your Substack, or thinking about it, or if you’ve been on here for a while we would love you to join in and share your experiences.
Our Substack Story: MAY Reflections | Episode Five