Category: ReplayCategory: Replay

Today I did an hour long “Office Hour”, and we got into doing Substack Lives, how to show up for the people who already read your work, why lives aren’t an audience-growth hack, building community, running Zoom calls, starting tiny email circles, ditching Instagram/TikTok, and creating offerings for your audience.

I warned that we shouldn’t think of Substack Lives as an audience builder, but rather a way to let your existing audience get closer to you.

“Use Substack Live to show up for the people who already know you — not to chase new subscribers. Don’t treat it like some growth hack or algorithm play. Think of it as getting closer to the folks who are already here, the ones who actually read your work. Show them your vibe, how you talk, how you think. That’s where the trust comes from — not trying to perform for a crowd that isn’t even watching.”

When setting up a Substack Live, you’ve given the option to send an email to your subscribers to let them know. Someone asked if I do that or not.

“Send the email. If people get pissy about it, bye. Hit the road. I’m doing things, and I’m going to tell people about them. You’re either along for the ride or you’re not.”

On building offers when you don’t really know what your audience wants:

“Stop overthinking your offers. Don’t send a giant survey asking people what they want — most won’t fill it out anyway. Just say, ‘Hey, I’m doing this. Come along if you want.’ If no one shows up, cool. You didn’t waste time building a whole thing no one needed. Show up, do the work, and let people join or not.”

From a Substack Live I did on Sunday, Nov 30th. Welcome to a very serious intellectual exercise, where I open postcards on the internet.

Okay, yes… it’s a live “unboxing,” but really it’s a peek into how Noah Kalina treats his Patreon supporters, and why his whole setup is basically a masterclass in how to make the internet work for you instead of draining your soul.

We use Noah’s approach as a launchpad to talk about other questions from creative people, like selling online with Gumroad or Big Cartel. And then we get into how a beginner can spin up a clean, one-page CV site with Carrd or Notion.

Stuff we covered from a recent Office Hour Substack Live:

• The “boring stuff” that actually moves your career, like emailing people, following up, doing the unsexy work that compounds.

• Stop worshipping social platforms. Algorithmic reach is terrible, 90% of your audience doesn’t see your posts, email beats everything. RSS is even better.

• Audience-building for musicians. Embed your music, play live, collect emails in person, nurture your actual fans, don’t drive traffic to Spotify or YouTube.

• Let people pay you in multiple ways. Use Patreon, Ko-fi, PayPal, Stripe links; don’t make anyone jump through hoops to support you.

• Local, in-person proof builds trust — photos of real events, showing up in the world, and letting that strengthen the online side of your work.

This is a recording of a Substack Live I did on Sunday, July 6, 2025, edited down a bit. This is mostly based off a piece from Pixel Envy called “Pressure on Substack.”

“(Substack) is still another platform hosted elsewhere. It simplifies the process for writers, podcasters, video creators, and others to publish their work for money. But their stuff is still made available at the mercy of software they do not control…”

I talk about my buddy Tom who is my “WordPress guy.” He runs I Heart Blank, so get in touch with him if you need WordPress installed with reliable hosting, and maybe some set up help. He’s solid.

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Big thanks to my friend and owner of I Heart Blank, Tom DuHamel everyone! Tom talks about different WordPress systems, SEO, calendar plugins, ADA accessibility and lots more.

Come to our next co-work, Tues June 3rd from 9am-11am. Register here: https://lu.ma/7t5k37r6

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