When I first checked out Substack back in 2021, I thought that the platform was a joke. All you could do was write posts and send them as emails. There were no social features, no discovery, no built-in audience tools, nothing that could convince me to stick around because I already had an email list running on Kit that I wasn't willing to give up. And I genuinely didn't see a reason to add Substack to my mix. So, I ignored it. Fast forward to 2024, suddenly everyone seemed to be talking about Substack and several of my creator friends were trying to convince me to give it another shot. So, I did. And when I came back, Substack had become a completely different platform. Instead of an email publisher, it was now a mix of a publishing platform with integrated social layers, collaboration tools, live streaming possibilities, and so much more. It only took us a few short weeks to get completely hooked and go all in on Substack. And within less than 2 years, we have grown the Right Scale publication to over 40,000 subscribers and more than 1,400 paid members. And when I look back at what drove our growth, it was not just consistency or content quality. It was three specific decisions we made. And in this video, I'm going to show you exactly how you two can leverage those three decisions even if you have no audience and no experience on the platform. Because if I had to start all over again today, these are the first things I would do. So, let's get into it. If we are meeting for the first time, my name is Siyana Mayron. The Right Scale publication on Substack together with my co-founders Philip and Yari. So, let me share what actually changed my perspective and how you can make it work for yourself. The first thing I would do before I write a single post on Substack is treat my publication setup like a product launch. And I know that sounds intense, but hear me out. Most people who join Substack do the same things. They sign up, they pick a name, usually their own name. They write something, they hit publish, and then they sit there waiting for readers to magically show up. And when nothing happens, they assume they are not a good enough writer or that the platform does not work for them. But the real problem is that they launch without a clear blueprint. Imagine you're opening a restaurant, for example. You would not start by cooking food on day one. You would first decide what kind of restaurant you're opening. You would think about who your ideal customer is, who you want to serve, what the menu looks like, and how people are going to find you. Starting a Substack publication is no different, especially if you treat it as a business and want to monetize it. And the first thing that determines whether strangers subscribe or scroll past you is something most creators spend about 30 seconds on. It's your publication name and your one-liner, your profile description, also called your bio or tagline. When someone discovers you on Substack, whether it's through a recommendation, or search, they see three things. They see your name, your bio, and your photo. And they decide in about 5 seconds whether to follow you or move on. For example, if your publication is named after yourself, you have a problem because your name means nothing to someone who has never heard of you. It's like putting your name on a restaurant sign instead of telling people what kind of food you serve. Your name stays on your profile page, but it's not the name of your publication. What works instead is a name that tells a stranger exactly what they will get. If I were starting today, I would ask myself this. If my ideal readers saw my publication name in a list of 50 other Substack, would they be able to tell if my publication is for them? At Right Scale, our name says a lot. We help you write confidently, build your audience, and scale your income. You know what you're getting before you even read a single post simply because it's in the name of the publication. Now, the second piece that most people skip entirely is the about page. This is actually one of the first things we work on with our students and our one-on-one coaching clients because your about page is not just a formality. It's a silent salesman that works for you around the clock because it's always on your publication page. When someone is even slightly curious about you, they click on your about page and they are asking three questions in their head. Who is this person and why should I trust them? What will I actually get from this publication? And do I belong here? The strongest about pages answer all three of those questions within the first 200 words. And here's why this matters so much for you. When you have nailed your about page, it means you have answered the most critical questions about your own business. You know who you serve, you know what value you deliver, and you know why someone should care. That clarity alone does not just make your about page better. It makes every single post, every note, every piece of content you create much sharper and more effective. So, if I were starting on Substack today, before I write a single post, I would spend time on three things. My publication name, my one-liner, and my about page. These three elements will do more for your growth than your first 10 posts combined if nobody sees them. Now, once your publication is set up properly, most people assume the next step is to start publishing long-form posts every week. And that is important, but it is not how you actually grow on Substack in 2026. Because Substack is not what most people think it is. And this is the single biggest mindset shift that separates creators who grow from creators who stall. Most people still treat Substack like a place to host their blog. They write a post, they send it to their existing subscribers, and they call it a day. But Substack in 2026 is closer to a social media platform than most people would like to admit. And I say that as a compliment because unlike Instagram or X, Substack's algorithm is not designed to keep you scrolling. It is designed to help readers find writers they want to subscribe to and eventually pay because that is how the platform itself makes money, which means every feature Substack builds is designed to help you get discovered and grow your audience if you are telling the Substack algorithm that you are actually gaining subscribers and converting them. And the biggest growth lever on Substack right now is notes. If you are not posting on notes consistently, you are leaving subscribers on the table every single day. And here's something I want you to understand about notes that most people get wrong. The instinct for most creators is to write educational notes, tips, frameworks, how-to advice. And that makes sense. You want to provide value and teaching feels like the obvious way to do it, right? But here's what I have learned from publishing notes consistently and studying what actually drives growth. Educational notes get likes. Story-driven notes get subscribers. When someone reads a tip, they think that is useful and they like. When someone reads a story that reflects their own situation, they think this is me and they subscribe because they want more from the person who just made them feel understood. This is connection. So, when you write notes, don't just share advice. Share real moments from your journey, a specific struggle you had, a decision you made and what happened because of it, a lesson you learned the hard way. The best notes follow a simple arc. You open with a specific moment, something a reader can picture in their minds. You share the insights that came from that moment, and you show what you did because of it. You give a real result, something specific. And then, you turn it back to the reader. You make the last line about them, not about you. This is how someone stops scrolling and thinks, I need to follow that person. And here's an exciting update. As of late March 2026, Substack has finally rolled out native note scheduling. We've all been very excited about this because up until now, you could only schedule notes through third-party tools. Now, it is built right into the platform, which means you can batch your notes, schedule them out for the week, and show up every single day without having to be on the platform daily. This is a game-changer for consistency and for actually planning ahead. If being active on notes every day feels too much for you, just batch produce and schedule your notes ahead of time so you can still show up consistently and stay top of mind. Now, notes are your discovery engine. They bring in new people who have never heard of you. But your long-form posts are what build deeper trust. They are what turn a curious follower into a real subscriber and eventually a paying customer. Think of it this way. Your notes are the storefront window. They catch people's attention as they walk by and scroll through the feed. Your newsletter, your post, that's what is inside the store. It's the reason why people stay. You need both working together. And beyond notes and posts, Substack has built an incredible set of tools for growth that most creators are not even using. Recommendation exchanges with other publications, cross-promotions, guest posts, live streams, recording studio that lets you create polished audio and video content right inside the platform. So, if you are only writing posts and hitting send, you are using maybe 20% of what Substack can do for your business. The creators who treat Substack as a full growth platform, not just a newsletter tool, are the ones who grow the fastest because they are using every feature the platform has built to help them get discovered. All right, so you have a strong foundation and you are treating Substack as a real growth engine. Now, here's the third decision. And this is the one that determines whether your Substack becomes a hobby or a real business. Most creators on Substack keep pushing monetization to the future. They tell themselves they will figure out how to make money once they have a big enough audience. And I understand that instinct, but it's a trap. Because when you don't know how you plan to earn from your publication, you do not know what kind of content to create, what kind of audience to attract, or what your publication should lead to. You end up writing about everything for no one. And here's what most people don't even realize about Substack. There are so many ways to generate income through your publication that go way beyond the typical paywall and paid newsletter. You can offer coaching or consulting and use your publication to attract clients. You can build digital products like templates, guides, or toolkits. You can create group programs or workshops. You can run a paid community. You can host live events. You can sell sponsorships once your audience is large enough. You can do affiliate recommendations. And one of the most effective approaches, especially for Substack creators, is to build a mini course. Now, let me explain why this works so well. A mini course takes a specific transformation that your audience wants and packages it into a focused, step-by-step experience. It's not a 40-hour certification program. It's a compact offer, usually priced between $37 and $150 that solves one clear problem. And the beauty of it is that you do not need a massive audience to make it work. Some of our students inside our mini course accelerator program have started building their courses before they even had an audience at all. Because here's the thing. If you deeply understand the person you want to help, and you know exactly what transformation they need, you can build a compelling offer while you grow your audience at the same time. That means by the time your audience reaches a few hundred or a thousand subscribers, you already have something valuable to offer them. Instead of spending years growing your audience and then scrambling to build a product, you are on the fast lane. Growth and monetization basically happen in parallel. At Write Your Bill Scale, this is a core part of what we teach. And the single biggest factor that determines whether a mini course succeeds or flops is whether it solves a problem people are desperate to solve right now. It's not about something they find interesting or something they might gather around someday. It needs to be something urgent, something they would pay to fix right now. And that is why understanding your audience deeply matters so much. It's the difference between building something people appreciate and building something people are willing to actually pay for. Now, I want to make sure this lands the right way because I know there are two types of people watching this. If you already have a business, maybe you are a coach, a consultant, or an expert in your field. I want you to hear this. Substack can become one of the most powerful client acquisition channels you have ever used. Your publication builds trust at scale. Your notes bring in new leads every day. And your existing offers become easier to sell because your audience already knows, likes, and trusts you by the time they are ready to buy. And if you are just getting started, if you do not have a business yet, I want you to hear this, too. You don't need to have everything figured out before you start. What you need is direction. So, ask yourself, what is one problem I can help people solve? What do I know that others are struggling with? Start there and start publishing around that topic. And as you grow, as you learn what your audience responds to, the right offer will become clear to you. The point of all of this is not to have a perfect business plan on day one. The point is to know the direction so that every piece of content you create starts moving you toward it instead of staying in your way. Now, I want to be real with you. Everything I just shared works. We have seen it work for ourselves, for our students, and for creators across all kinds of different niches. But it does not work overnight. The creators who built the most successful publications all have one thing in common. They kept going even when growth felt slow. There will be weeks where you publish and nothing seems to happen. There will be notes that nobody engages with. There will be moments where you wonder if any of this is actually worth it. But it is. Because Substack is growing rapidly right now. New readers are joining the platform every single day looking for creators exactly like you. So, the window is wide open. The question is whether you will step through it and take advantage of it. And if you start right now with the right foundation, the positioning, the growth engine, and the revenue path, you are already ahead of most people who will join Substack in 2026. If you want a clear road map for building that foundation, we have put together a free Substack bestseller workbook that walks you through every key decision. Your positioning, your pricing strategy, your paid tier structure, all of it. You can grab it for free. The link is in the description box below, and I will pin it in the comments, too. If you found this video helpful, make sure to hit subscribe because we publish new videos every single week to help you grow on Substack. And if you want to learn more about how to leverage Substack notes in particular to grow your audience, check out this video next. I'll see you there.