The Best Substack Growth Strategy for Coaches in 2026
Jan 06, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Treat Substack like a blue ocean channel and start before the platform gets saturated.
- Publish one weekly long-form post to build trust, then use Notes for discoverability and growth.
- Repurpose podcasts and YouTube into Substack posts so you grow without creating more work.
- Use collaborations, comments, and lives to borrow trust and accelerate subscriber growth.
- Detach from the outcome and run marketing like an experiment you can sustain.
If you’re a coach trying to grow on LinkedIn or Instagram in 2025, you’ve probably felt it. Social platforms are harder than ever to grow on. Posting feels like a treadmill. You do the blank page stares, post vulnerable content you ached over whether to even share, refresh your analytics, and you still wonder if any of it is moving the needle.
Start Substack early and stop waiting for perfect
Most coaches avoid Substack because they either don’t know what it is yet or because it feels like one more obligation to have to commit to.
But the opportunity Landon points to is timing. Substack is still small compared to platforms like LinkedIn. That creates an incredible opportunity.
“We all wish we were the early adopter on a platform.”
If you want a Substack growth strategy for your coaching business in 2026, you’re not expecting a silver bullet today. You’re trying to be established when the crowd arrives.
Here’s how to do this in a sane way:
- Pick one core topic you already teach.
- Commit to a simple publishing rhythm you can maintain.
- Give it 12 months before you decide it “worked” or “did not work.”
Next step
Start with the smallest repeatable action. The goal is consistency you can live with.
Use long form posts to build trust on Substack
The fastest way to lose momentum is to treat content like you have to dance and point at things. Substack does not reward theatrics. It rewards depth. That matters for coaches and consultants because depth creates opportunities for the know, like and trust factor.
Substack functions like a hybrid. It can feel like your blog, email list, and a social feed all in one place. Your long-form posts land in your subscribers inboxes when you hit publish. That changes things compared to other platforms, including LinkedIn’s newsletter option. Listen to the full episode to learn why.
“Your long-form posts go out to people’s email inboxes.”
What this means for you
When someone reads your work in their inbox, you’re not fighting a feed. You’re entering their day on the one platform they always check. That creates consistency of exposure, which is what most coaches and consultants need.
A simple weekly structure that works sustainably
- One weekly post that teaches a concept your clients pay you for
- One short story or example that makes it stick
- One clear invitation to take the next step
“It’s a place for creators that want to share their message and have an authentic voice.”
Next step
Write one post that answers one real client question. Publish it. Do not overthink the format.
Repurpose what you already have and stop creating from scratch
This part matters because you’re busy. You don’t need more content per se.
Landon’s take is simple. Text is the base layer for almost everything. Think of it like this. Podcasts and YouTube videos can be transcribed. So use them, then refine the text for Substack and hit publish.
This is one of the best long-tail plays for coaches to get found by AI or SEO search, because If someone is searching for something on your expert topic, you can win that traffic with a consistent library of posts.
A low-friction repurposing workflow
- Transcribe one long form video or podcast
- Pull three teaching points
- Turn each point into a short section
- Publish as one Substack post
- Pull 3 to 5 Notes from that post for discoverability
“Going from podcasting and YouTube is a very easy transition into Substack.”
Next step
Pick one existing podcast episode you already recorded. Turn it into your first Substack post.
Grow with Notes, comments, and collaborations
A lot of people treat Substack like email software. That misses one of the platforms biggest advantages. Substack has a discoverability layer through Notes. That layer helps you grow without needing ads or constant platform hopping.
“Substack Notes is where you’re going to focus for discoverability.”
Landon shares a baseline that is realistic. One weekly post. Then use Notes in a way that you can sustain consistently showing up. The point is not to post ten times a day. The point is to stay in the game. And Notes is the platform feature you need to do that in the most leveraged way possible.
“All of that stuff is really just nonsense if you cannot sustain it.”
Three growth levers he calls out
- Thoughtful comments that add something real
- Collaborations that put you in front of new audiences
- Going live together so both audiences get notified
He also gives a blunt warning that will save you from looking like a bot.
“Stop taking the post and putting it into AI and leaving a comment that’s longer than the post.”
Next step
Choose 5 to 10 creators in your niche. Comment with one useful insight. Do it in small pockets of time.
Monetize Substack like a coach, not like a magazine
This section is where most people get confused. Substack has a paid subscription model. That does not mean it is the best model for every coach.
Landon’s point is that small paid subscriptions require scale. If you only have a small audience, the math will frustrate you.
“You need a very large audience for you to make enough money to pay your cell phone bill.”
So what’s the smarter play for coaches? Build your audience, then monetize with offers that solve a problem. Paid subscriptions can work, but he frames it as access and intimacy, not a giant archive.
“I’m thinking about it more from the standpoint of access and intimacy.”
If you want to build a coaching business with Substack in 2026, your paid element should feel like a clear outcome, not more reading.
Next step
Keep content free while you grow. Build a simple conversion pathway to your coaching offer, workshop, or community.
The real strategy is consistency without attachment
This is where the episode stops being about Substack and becomes about growth. Landon says the question people should ask is not “how do I get subscribers.” It’s “how do I stay consistent.”
“Most people are focused on how do I get some subscribers.”
Then he drops the line that should be printed and taped to every creators desk.
“Consistency with expectation breeds resentment.”
That is the trap. When your expectations are unrealistic, your consistency becomes punishment. You start resenting the platform, your business, and yourself.
The fix is not motivational quotes or positive affirmations. It’s adjusting the playing field so you can win.
“If we can reduce the floor to putting out one post a week, and you feel like you’re winning, the dynamic of that is drastically different.”
Next step
Decide what “winning” looks like this month. Make it small enough that you will do it.
Conclusion
The best Substack growth strategy for coaches in 2026 is not a hack. It is a long game. Start early. Publish one weekly post. Use Notes to be discoverable. Collaborate. Repurpose your existing content. Build an audience you own.
Most important, detach from the outcome. Treat marketing like an experiment you can sustain.
If you want the full context, and the nuances, listen to the episode or read the full transcript below. There’s way more to the conversation.
External resource for context on Substack
Learn more about Substack as a platform on their official site: https://substack.com/
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Substack good for coaches in 2026
Yes, especially if you want an owned audience and a platform that rewards depth over quick takes.
How often should I post on Substack to grow
Start with one weekly long-form post, then add 3 to 5 Notes per week if you can sustain it.
Do I need a paid subscription to make money on Substack
No. Coaches can monetize through services, workshops, and offers while keeping content free.
Can I repurpose my podcast into Substack posts
Yes. Transcribe the episode, refine the structure, and publish it as a readable post.
Should I move my email list to Substack
You can import your list and still keep control by maintaining a separate email system for sequences if needed.
Will my B2B audience be on Substack
Some will be, and more will arrive. The advantage is establishing your presence early.
What is the fastest way to grow on Substack
Thoughtful comments, collaborations, and joint lives can amplify reach while you build consistent publishing habits.
Related Articles and Resources
- Substack - Publishing platform with posts, Notes, and email distribution. https://substack.com/
- LinkedIn - Primary B2B platform referenced as saturated and algorithm-driven. https://www.linkedin.com/
- YouTube - Referenced as a content source you can transcribe and repurpose. https://www.youtube.com/
- ChatGPT - Mentioned as a traffic source and for restructuring transcripts. https://chat.openai.com/
- Perplexity - Mentioned as a traffic source to Substack content. https://www.perplexity.ai/
- Google Search - Mentioned as a traffic source to Substack posts. https://www.google.com/
- Gemini - Mentioned as an AI traffic source. https://gemini.google.com/
- Kit - Mentioned as an email platform you could export to. https://kit.com/
- Beehiiv - Mentioned as a newsletter platform without built-in discoverability. https://www.beehiiv.com/
- Ghost - Mentioned as a newsletter platform option. https://ghost.org/
- Mailchimp - Mentioned as a traditional email newsletter option. https://mailchimp.com/
- Medium - Referenced as a different paid reading model. https://medium.com/
- Circle - Mentioned as a paid community comparison. https://circle.so/
- Skool - Mentioned as a paid community comparison. https://www.skool.com/
Connect With Landon Poburan
- Substack Newsletter: https://landonpoburan.substack.com/
- Website: https://landonp.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/landon-poburan/
Connect with the Host — Deirdre Martin
π deirdremartin.ie
π± LinkedIn
π§ Work With Deirdre: Book a call → https://calendly.com/deirdremartincx/first-business-soiree-instagram
Watch or listen to the full episode
Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-master-your-business-podcast/id1667327376
YouTube → https://youtube.com/@deirdremartinmyb?si=haAZF5yY4X8pYSbN
Full Transcript
[00:00:00]
[00:00:00] Why Coaches Are Burning Out on Social Platforms
Deirdre Martin: If you've been side eyeing substack, like is this another shiny object or is there something big brewing here? Well, today's episode is your sign to Stop scrolling, sit your ass down and pay attention because here's the thing, most founders, especially my B2B clients, they're drowning on LinkedIn and it feels like a red ocean mosh pit over there right now because more people are creating content.
A lot of it is absolute and utter rubbish, and it's harder and harder to get your reach and visibility out there. Everyone is shouting. And that's making people feel exhausted and it feels like they're fighting the same algorithm, which should love them back, but it doesn't. But what if there was a platform out there, one that wasn't saturated yet?
What if there was a place where depth wins, consistency compounds. And the stuff that you do post actually gets through to your ideal clients [00:01:00] because you're early, not late to the party. Well, that's why I brought in today's guest, Landon Pobarun, the guy who's been quietly building a powerhouse presence on Substack for over two years.
While most of us didn't even realize the party had started over there. And the bit that's fricking wild, Substack is sitting at about 35 million. Monthly active users, that's tiny compared to. 1.2 billion users on LinkedIn that we're used to, which means this is the first real early adopter moment most of us might see in our business lifetimes.
[00:01:39] What Makes Substack Different From Everything Else
Deirdre Martin: So Landon is gonna talk through why Substack vibe is like nothing like the other traditional social media platforms, you know, love or hate. He is gonna talk through how to repurpose everything you already have instead of doing more work. Why discoverability on Substack hits a little bit [00:02:00] differently and how to show up without treating consistency like a punishment.
And at one point, he's even gonna say these words, consistency with expectation. Breeds resentment. And I know someone listening right now is literally gonna feel like that's a gut punch because when he says it, oh my gosh, I definitely did. I'm also gonna tell you where you can find him, and yes, you'll wanna go and check him out on Substack and subscribe to his newsletter because this man, he is building a movement.
And not a mailbox or a social media platform. And if you love today's episode and conversation afterwards, please do me a solid and make sure you go and listen to episode 158 where I break down my seven C LinkedIn success strategy. Because these two platforms, they play beautifully together.
And the strategy that works over there, Landon says. Will probably work for you on Substack as well. So it's all about understanding the psychology behind visibility. Alright, enough [00:03:00] foreplay. Let's get into it.
Landon, welcome to the Master Your Business podcast.
Landon Pobarun: I am super excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me today.
Deirdre Martin: Well, seriously, I heard you speak in Alex Cone's, rain Mastermind group, and I was like, oh my gosh, Substack, what the heck is this?
And how do I learn more about it?
[00:03:22] The Early Adopter Advantage Most Coaches Miss
Deirdre Martin: So I'm like, I've got to bring London on my podcast so we can share it with all my listeners too. So, Substack, what is it?
Landon Pobarun: It's pretty crazy. I've been writing on this platform for a little over two years, and it still seems like this little hidden gem that not many people know about.
I kind of like to think about Substack as this, a amalgamation of Twitter, your blog, your email list, and your Facebook group. It has transformed a lot since I've been on the platform. It originated as kind of like a writing [00:04:00] platform, so a lot of the original publications on there are, you know, in politics or news and things like that, but it's really transformed into this place for creators.
That want to share their message and have an authentic voice. So it's really, they have this kind of like Twitter, like newsfeed. They have you know, your long form posts go out to people's email inboxes and. It's this place where it didn't kind of feel like social media, you know, two, three years ago.
But it is effectively social media today, but it has a completely different vibe because of the depth of the content that's on the platform. Now, that could be that it's a little early and we haven't kind of captured as much market share yet, but it's still fairly early days on this platform, which is really exciting for.
Us as coaches and creators because I was just running, I just wrote a post, I think it was this morning. There's about 35 [00:05:00] million monthly active users on the platform. When we contrast that to the platforms that we're used to, let's use like LinkedIn for example, like your favorite platform. You know, we got a billion users.
So Substack is like a 30th of the size of a platform like LinkedIn. Even smaller compared to something like, you know, Facebook or Instagram and things along those lines. But.
[00:05:23] How Written Content Builds Trust Faster
Landon Pobarun: We're starting to see people coming over to these platforms and creating really, really profitable businesses, and it has this unique way of creating depth and connection and rapport with your audience that I didn't really get when I was trying to be active on all of these other platforms.
And it's really interesting because now I'm in this place of. I want to spread the message. So now I'm trying to reemerge on these other platforms to talk about Substack because the only way to spread the message is [00:06:00] to be in places where people haven't quite heard about it yet. So that's kind of where I'm actually like reemerging right now on places like LinkedIn and soon to be other platforms, but.
In short, it is kind of like a text first written kind of like social platform. And the growth there is from my experience and everybody else that I'm talking to is kind of head and shoulders above what a lot of, you know, coaches, creators, and businesses and founders are seeing on other platforms that have just reached this large level of kind of like saturation within the market.
Deirdre Martin: Okay. That's so interesting. And honestly, like I've seen, one of my clients uses it, she started a newsletter on it earlier this year and I've seen people on LinkedIn move over to it. So I've seen like Justin Welch who's a LinkedIn influencer, and I mean he posts about LinkedIn, but he uses Substack. And recently some of the people who I've [00:07:00] trained with brand strategy under Martin Newmeyer and Andy Star.
Those guys are over on Substack as well, and I'm like, Hey, I need to get in on this. But like one of the things that I'm curious about, and I'm sure listeners are too, is like most of my clients, they hang out on LinkedIn and their ideal clients are on LinkedIn because they're B2B. All of my clients are pretty much B2B, I'd say with the exception of one or two.
[00:07:27] Is Your Audience Actually on Substack
Deirdre Martin: So who are the people who are over there on Substack? Are they. Businesses, are they consumers? Who are they?
Landon Pobarun: It's an interesting conversation and I have it quite often, so I'll talk with, you know, coaches and they're like, I don't think my audience is on Substack. And in some cases, you know, I was chatting with a lady and she does brand strategy for hotels resorts and like Airbnb owners.
And I'm like, yeah, you know what? There might not be as many of your people here yet, but the [00:08:00] difference is if we take a step back and understand where this platform is in kind of like its growth. So it's been around for eight years. If we contrast that to Meta and LinkedIn, which have been I believe 22 years, they've been on the market.
It's still like an emerging platform. So the way that I try and pose this to people is yes, that may be correct. There may be fewer of your people on the platform right now, but I don't know anybody that is like, I am so happy I didn't start posting on LinkedIn 3, 4, 5 years before I did. Or. You know, I'm so glad I didn't start on TikTok when growth was really good or like we all wish we were like the early adopter on a platform.
And this is the first time that I've ever felt I've been in a position [00:09:00] to be an early adopter on a platform. So I think the people that. Take advantage of this are going to be in a unique place in the coming future. The platform's growing rapidly, they are working very hard to start pulling creators from other platforms, and we're starting to see this transition.
We have people just like you said, Justin Welsh, Dan Ko, we have Gary Vaynerchuk. Just very recently I applied for the job. I didn't get it, but he's. Hiring a a Substack growth strategist and writer to bring his brand onto Substack. And if you listen to Gary V's Podcast, who we all know is very dialed in with culture and what's happening and what's coming up, Substack is now part of his talk.
If you listen to his podcast, he's now, it's part of just what he's speaking about when it comes to social. These are the signals we need to be picking up on. And go, okay, maybe you're not gonna go in there and get a high ticket client, or you're gonna land, you know, a six figure contract today, but [00:10:00] what's that going to look like in 12 months from now or in two years from now?
Those are the conversations that I'm really trying to encourage people to, to look at and also understand that, okay, maybe that person isn't there, but what other opportunities are possibly there? There may be other things that you're just not even consciously aware of or that may drop in in six months from now, or you might land a deal or a podcast interview even for me, like I landed a presentation inside of Alex Cone's Mastermind because I was present on Substack.
So there's so much out there and I agree that yeah, there's definitely gonna be niches that aren't there, but. There's like something like 18 or 20 different categories of publications on the platform. Marketing doesn't even have one. Business and education are quite small relative to some of the other ones, but we have you, there's like health and wellness and philosophy, literature, like [00:11:00] technology.
There's all of these people out there and there's people that have, that are. Making full-time livings from everything from you know, business publications to stuff about like, you know, faith and religion to, you know, working inside of like health and trauma to like talking about horses or knitting.
There's a very. Diverse set of people that are making money on this platform when you kind of double tap and look closer into things. So it's definitely something that I'm now talking to a lot of people about and going, there's an opportunity here. We need to start thinking about how we can get your brand over there to be the dominant player now, so that as the platform grows.
You're already established there.
Deirdre Martin: Okay. I'm like, I'm gonna start a substack about horse riding and knitting. How did you know Landon? Seriously joking aside and with moving over. Right. So I'm curious as well, because one of the things that, that I've really [00:12:00] been thinking about even for my own business and what, one of the things that I really encourage clients to do is to repurpose content, to create long form first and then repurpose that.
And I'm always saying marketing is a lesson in memorability. The goal is to be redundant with your marketing. That you're saying the same thing over and over and over again in 50 different ways, right? And that's how you make it stick and make it land, and it builds trust.
[00:12:25] Repurposing Podcasts and YouTube for Substack Growth
Deirdre Martin: So I'm curious how Substack would fit into a strategy like that, or some of my clients would be podcast first strategy or YouTube first strategy.
Some are LinkedIn first strategy. So where do you see substack fitting into those types of strategies?
Landon Pobarun: The really cool thing with how it integrates into an overall content strategy is that text is the basis of every single one of those things. So going from a podcast to [00:13:00] Twitter. Is a little bit tricky.
We got character count limits. We have just the culture of the platform is different, but when we start to think of, okay, podcasting and YouTube, first off, they can both be transcribed. There isn't character limits. They're both pieces of content that are focused on depth. Building trust, building rapport, answering people's questions.
That translates beautifully into written content. So going from a YouTube video on whatever it might be. You mentioned knitting and you know, horse breeding. So I, I know nothing about either of those things, but let's say there's, you have like a 25 minute YouTube video. I believe I was listening to one of your podcasts this morning.
Talking about, you know, creating irresistible hooks. Now if you transcribe that, that with just a little bit of refinement is now something that people can read. And the reality of it is, you mentioned repurposing content. Repeating the same message [00:14:00] over and over again is when we're trying to build a brand, the focus starts to shift a little bit.
So. I like to study brand and marketing and sales a lot, and there's this convergence of brand marketing, which is kind of like long term. And then we have sales activation, which is generating sales. So a lot of like our paid advertising, our CTAs and launches, that's all sales activation and that's always going to be more profitable in the short term.
When we start to look at brand building, that's much more of a long-term endeavor. So we need to kind of maximize our reach. All things similar, like not, you know, just trending and trend jacking and stuff like that, but people consume different ways. There's some people that wanna watch, there's some people that wanna listen.
There's some people that wanna read. And there's a lot of people, if we're focusing only on video content or only on podcasting, we're completely missing out on everybody who would prefer to read things. We're also missing out on just this other [00:15:00] area of things like, yes. We have the SEO side of YouTube.
But what I'm starting to see, even in my own publication, as I'm going through my stats and I'm like, oh, I got this much traffic from Google to my Substack. I got this much traffic from Perplexity Chat, GPT Gemini, and I'm like, oh, like these articles like. Ranking and search ranking and AI is a thing. So there's this whole other kind of authority and brand building side that we're not considering.
So going from podcasting and YouTube is a very easy transition into Substack because it's. Transcribing it, having just a refined structure which can be created with ai. Just having a prompt or a GPT that is taking that transcript and just restructuring it into a newsletter or a long form piece of written content.
Very, very simple. When it comes to the, and like the mechanics of it, [00:16:00] going from LinkedIn is also super simple because it's already text-based and the beautiful part about it is, is it works the other way as well. You can write a 800 word or a 2000 word article, which effectively, if we think of a podcast or a YouTube video, most of them are scripted.
These can become your script and you can start with the written content and create your podcast based off of that. Create your YouTube video based off of that. Pull the short form content for LinkedIn, Twitter, substack notes, all of these other platforms, so it goes both ways really, really easily. When I'm talking with people that are already have a YouTube channel or already have a podcast, those channels require them to be present.
You if you're recording a podcast, at least today, you have to be the one speaking it. If you're recording a YouTube video, you're the one that's there recording the YouTube video. You don't have to be the one sitting at the keyboard to post on [00:17:00] Substack. So there is this dynamic of it doesn't require your face to be present there, so you can use your body of work and even expand it further.
With additional resources, which is some of the stuff that I'm currently working on creating right now. But there's like this whole untapped market that just adjoins to existing content strategy in like the most seamless of ways.
Deirdre Martin: That's really interesting and I think really helpful for people who might be considering the platform or maybe even after today's episode, considering the platform and thinking, okay, is this more work?
I think that's a really great way to alleviate that
[00:17:42] Email Marketing vs Substack Discoverability
Deirdre Martin: and something I'm curious about, so I mentioned one of my clients. Is using it for a newsletter. And I see Justin Welsh, he's using it for a newsletter and so are the level C guys. So I'm curious, how does that contrast to email marketing? So it's like a newsletter on [00:18:00] Substack versus your newsletter via email.
What's the difference?
Landon Pobarun: So I would say that. In an over simplistic way, it's not really different. So if we're gonna think of like other newsletter platforms, you got Beehive and we got Ghost, and we have all of these other, you know, people sending out regular newsletters with MailChimp. Substack effectively does the same thing.
So the vernacular and language on Substack, I do find a little confusing. I think they could do a better job with it in the platform. They're called posts, which to me is like the worst word for something. 'cause we kind of identify everything as a post. But they're what I would call long form posts.
Would be a newsletter or an article is what goes out to people's email inbox, which is really cool. 'cause if we spend that time, you know, you, you need to have, if you have a podcast, you also have to have an email list if you want to get it distributed to people. If you have a YouTube channel, like yes, they're subscribed, but you still want to get it [00:19:00] in front of them, guaranteed.
You still need to have a list or another platform to be able to push it out in front of them. Substack your subscribers. Every time you hit publish, they're going to get that newsletter. So. It is acting akin to email. Now, it isn't a full fledged email marketing system with automations and tagging and all of those things, but you can filter out your email contacts based off of their engagement dates, what they've engaged with, if they've paid all of those types of things.
They just rolled out the ability to create welcome sequences for new subscribers so you can see them like these features are being developed. One of the key differences between Substack and something like, let's say you have an email newsletter just on Kit or just on beehive, is those don't really have a discoverability engine.
Yes, you are sending out your weekly newsletter or whatever your frequency is, but you have to get people to your email [00:20:00] list. And how are you doing that? So that person still needs to be on LinkedIn or on Instagram or on Twitter or running ads to get people on there. But within Substack, they've rolled out, which is called notes, which is effectively, you can think of it as a Twitter feed inside of the platform.
Which just has massive discoverability. So with that, you can grow your entire platform from new followers and subscribers, building your email list, landing in the email, people's inboxes, all within that platform. I'm of the belief, I do like to pair it over to also still having an email list. Just as a marketer, we like to have a little bit more control over, you know, post-purchase sequences and all of these things and sales sequences and launches that we like to have a little bit more control over.
But for somebody that's looking to get started in more of a simplistic fashion, [00:21:00] you can create these newsletters that go out. They show on your public feed, people can read them. They rank in search engines, they rank in ai. But you can also send out emails that don't show up publicly, so you can still treat it a little bit more similarly to just an email marketing software.
So if you want to just throw like a hand raise email, get some feedback from people. You can do that. When you go live, it gets sent out to everybody's email address if you want, with the click of a button, you can. So there's a lot of capabilities that are very similar to email. I'm curious to see where they go with those features in the future.
But you can see they're really trying to cater to being a hub for creators. So you have this social aspect of it, you have this depth content and landing it inboxes. Part of their philosophy is, is ownership. So you own your list. When we're on LinkedIn, you can't just export your followers.
Deirdre Martin: Hmm. So like got I was gonna ask that.
[00:22:00] Yeah. Do you own them? Can you export them to one of those other platforms? You can. That's so cool.
Landon Pobarun: Yeah. So you can export all of your subscribers. So if. Like worst case scenario, you want to go to Kit, well, you just export everybody and bring them over to Kit and just pick up your email marketing over there.
So it's got this, a lot of these kind of like overlooked benefits that from the surface you don't quite see and they're starting to roll out. You can now host your podcast on Substack, so it's got an RSS feed. You can import one, an existing one if you have one, and from there you can go. When you publish an episode, it goes out to your email subscribers.
So you can see they're trying to create this kind of like ecosystem to really support creators.
Deirdre Martin: That's amazing. And what I think is pretty cool I love the fact that it's so similar to email, but that you do have a little bit of control around that. 'cause [00:23:00] there's always a fear, like on LinkedIn you can be shadow banned.
I've been in LinkedIn jail multiple times. You know, there's always this. Fear, like, oh my God, what happens if I lose all my subscribers? But if you can export them, that's like a mega bonus for being on that platform. I love that. And a couple of questions that spring to mind on this are, first off, let's say LinkedIn.
I just recently, for anybody who is looking at LinkedIn have recorded an episode around my LinkedIn seven C success strategy. So this is a framework that I teach my clients. For how to get visible and how to get clients on LinkedIn. And it works. And I'm curious do you have a structure for the things that people should do when they show up on the platform?
And I know there's no silver bullet, my framework isn't a silver bullet either, but it like, we know and it's been proven and tested that if you do these things. Over this amount of time, you will get some results, you [00:24:00] know, assuming you do it reasonably well and consistently and all of that sort of stuff.
But for Substack, what does that look like? And just to share another example for this I'm talking about on LinkedIn. One of the things that I say to people is, you don't need to post every single day. If you can't manage posting every single day. Don't post every single day, but comment and do it intentionally and strategically, and we work through what that looks like.
So what's the comparative on substack?
Landon Pobarun: In my core, and people might not like me saying this. I really don't believe it is that much different from the strategy that you grow with on all of the other platforms. They recently came out and said how the Substack algorithm works and other platforms, they just want you to be scrolling and you know they want watch time and Substack
they're gonna push stuff that gets subscribers and I'm like, if we take a step back, quality [00:25:00] content. Is what holds, what gets people to watch it and is what gets people to subscribe. So the root of it, what gets people to grow is no different from platform to platform. So when I talk about strategy, it would be very akin like you could just transplant your LinkedIn strategy most likely to substack.
I recommend people I have it is kinda like the five stages of substack growth that I recommend for people getting started. It's gonna be slightly nuanced based off of somebody like yourself, established brand. You know who you're working with, you know what your brand message is. You have your market, your content pillars.
You know what you're going to be posting about. You also have a library of existing content to get you started, so you're not starting from square one. That's definitely different. Getting started is going to be a little bit simpler in terms of you don't have to necessarily put as much thought into what you are creating, so to speak.
Whereas somebody that's like, I'm going to create a substack. I don't have an [00:26:00] existing business. It's a little bit different in terms of you are going to be spending the first three to six months just kind of figuring shit out. Like you need, if you want to define your voice and figure out what you're going to sell, start writing and you're going to figure it out while you're going through the process.
I've spent the last four to six weeks reworking my brand messaging, and you know what? It would not have happened if I was just like, I'm just going to write this post, or I'm going to use AI to define. It's like, no, I've been in there nonstop, kind of coming back multiple times a week, refining it, refining it.
A lot of the process happens while we're kind of in the trenches and in the arena. There's a combination between content of a long form content and short form content. Your long form content is what lands in people's inboxes, the email newsletter. So this is going to be longer, going to be more building trust, going in deeper with people, sharing your perspectives, getting people to buy into your message, providing value, et cetera.
The thing about it [00:27:00] is, is when you start and have zero subscribers, you don't have any inboxes to land in. So you need to start getting subscribers. You can import an email list, so if you have. A hundred people, a thousand people, 10,000 people. You can import that into substack and they will now receive your substack newsletter.
So people can do that as well. But Substack notes is where you're going to focus for discoverability.
[00:27:25] The Posting Frequency Mistake Everyone Makes
Landon Pobarun: My recommendation for people is you start by getting one weekly newsletter out to your audience every single week, even if you have two subscribers. The reason I want people to focus on that is because you need to get into the consistent pattern.
Of producing content. And if you get subscribers, that's what they're there to read. So you wanna have this consistent content of getting out that long form content. It also becomes this simplest way to start posting short form notes, kind of like Twitter esque posts. You can pull those from your long form content.[00:28:00]
And then very much like you mentioned. A lot of it is just finding what your own unique kind of capacity is. I believe that is the name of the game. It's not about posting daily, posting 10 times a day, posting two times a week, you know, posting at 7:00 AM. All of that stuff is really just nonsense if you cannot sustain it.
It's just like the best diet doesn't work to lose weight if you quit next week. 'cause it's not actually realistic and sustainable for you. So if you can only post three notes a week, post three notes a week, because if you're still posting three notes a week in a year from now, you're going to be a lot further ahead than if you were posting three times a day but couldn't sustain it.
And you quit after a. I like to just recommend the baseline of being three to five times a week for consistency, getting in the reps, getting kind of that repetition of being visible for people on the platform, and then just graduating like when you're ready, when that's sustainable. Now [00:29:00] increase. I'd say the goal would be to try and get kind of five to seven of those short form posts a week.
And they can be created in five minutes. Like it's not anything crazy to create these. That's kind of the baseline, the what I would refer to as like the biggest amplifier.
[00:29:20] Collaborations and Comments That Drive Growth
Landon Pobarun: To start growing is going to be through collaborations, so collaborating and creating connection on the platform. I would list in roughly a few different buckets.
Commenting is going to be one of them, so you need people to start to know who you are. So that they start to see your content engage with you, want to have a reason to subscribe to you and read your stuff. So leaving thoughtful comments with people in your similar niche is going to get you exposure. We know that people see comments you see.
Platforms like Twitter where they actually show you how many views your comment has got. So we know as marketers that you can get a lot of [00:30:00] visibility just by leaving comments.
Deirdre Martin: Ooh, LinkedIn has that now too. Landon. Yeah.
Landon Pobarun: Yeah. So it's really powerful, like you can, people can share your comment and things like that, and you can create entire conversation threads off of a good comment.
Don't leave comments like, great post. It's not gonna get people reading it. Stop taking the post and putting it into AI and leaving a comment that's longer than the post that everybody knows was created with ai. I don't pay attention to these anymore. It's so obvious like, oh, your comment sounds better than my actual fucking post Did I know you didn't write it.
Be thoughtful. It's so much easier to bookmark five to 10 people. Open those up in a tab, drop some thoughtful comments on five to 10 people's posts, call it a day, 15 minutes, 30 minutes. I like to, I call it commenting in the margins, you know? So I'm sitting waiting at the barbershop. 'cause obviously with my beard, I'm the barbershop quite often and I'll like just open up and I'll just leave a few comments.
Or you're in an Uber, you're in the [00:31:00] Starbucks line. Like we don't need to overcomplicate the process. It's about finding a way to just install it into our lifestyle and routine. Outside of that, going live is like a really, really great amplifier. 'cause like everything else we know, joint venture marketing, getting in front of somebody else's audience is very beneficial for, you know, kind of borrowing their trust.
So when you do a live with somebody, it would be just like we're doing here. We can go live. It's a split screen. We both click that button and email goes out to both of our audiences. Everybody can join and you just start to see an amplification in people that are subscribing to your publication and following you on the platform.
Those, I think, are like the three key things to growth.
Deirdre Martin: Okay.
Landon Pobarun: And then it's sustainability. It's shifting our mindset and removing the expectation of this is gonna work tomorrow. And just sticking with it. That's [00:32:00] really, really kind of like the cornerstone of how I recommend people start to grow on the platform.
Deirdre Martin: I think anything related to growth, that's just such a great point. It's remove the attachment to what the outcome is going to be and treat it as a giant experiment. 'cause that's what marketing fucking is. Anyway. I actually bought a lab coat to have fun with sharing that. Like seriously. 'cause marketing.
It is. It's a giant fricking experiment. We just don't know how it's. Gonna go.
[00:32:25] The Real Truth About Paid Subscriptions
Deirdre Martin: One of the things I've heard a client talk about is monetization. So like other platforms you can't really monetize as easily, I think, based on what you're saying. So can you just speak to that a little bit please?
Landon Pobarun: I take a little bit of a contrarian approach with monetizing on the platform.
The default, right?
Deirdre Martin: We know contrarian stuff here, Landon.
Landon Pobarun: Perfect. Perfect. So I had a post, it went viral. It's received thousands of comments, thousands of shares. [00:33:00] Not all good comments. But the default way to monetize on Substack has always been through a paid publication. So you are effectively putting up a paywall.
People pay per month. To get access to your gated posts, they give you the opportunity to choose. You can have a monthly plan, a yearly plan, and like a founding member plan. When they subscribe, you can choose which posts are free, which posts are paid. You can choose where in a post the paywall goes, so you can create kind of like previews and try and hook people in and get them to pay.
That's been what most people have done to monetize.
Deirdre Martin: It's also an interesting strategy from the platform too, isn't it? Because it makes you continue to show up for your audience so that you have to continue to use the platform, so, Hmm. Smart.
Landon Pobarun: Yes. So, and you can see it's different than a platform like Medium, where they just charge effectively everybody that wants access.
You just have to become a, whatever it is, $5 a month. I believe [00:34:00] it is to read anything that's not free on the platform. So there's been these kind of like traditional models for kind of like text-based content. You can also monetize in every other way that you would monetize. LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, which is through products and services.
So you can write all of your content because you're effectively building an email list. You can have things to sell, and as long as you set up what I refer to as your conversion pathways, you can generate a lot of sales. So with Substack, you have a series of links. Your publication effectively is kind of like a quasi.
Website landing page. So you have, you can pin posts that stay there. You can create links. You have a navigation bar. So you'll see on mine I have like, you know, it's a substack note, templates, you know, a substack growth workshop, how to Sell on Substack. Those all link to products that are being sold.
You can create a welcome email and with your welcome [00:35:00] sequence, so you have these opportunities to put your offers in front of people. You can drop in links in every single one of your posts, whether it's in like a PS in the footer. Or just kind of very naturally as we're like, I could be doing a live and be like, oh yeah, this is what I teach inside of my subliminal selling course, and I'll have people that go buy it while I'm live.
You can do the same thing in content and it's, if you were to think of like pre-sale pages and like direct response marketing, you can take like this similar approach to. Create content that's relevant to the things that you sell and naturally integrate CTAs into things. It's a very effective way to be able to do things and also a way to do it without feeling like salesy.
You're not always like pitching people, you're not sending cold dms to people on the platform. So I wrote a post and it was on I did an experiment where for 30 days I posted 10 times a day and I was like, here are the results. It got really great traction. The, it wasn't trying to, a lot of people misinterpreted it that I was [00:36:00] telling people to post 10 times a day, which it wasn't the point, but inside of it, I was like, I couldn't sustain this after a few days.
So I had to build this content calendar in order to track everything. And here is that content calendar and it was a lead magnet and I generated hundreds of email subscribers for that. That lead magnet had an email sequence that pushed my course on substack. So we can use all of these traditional marketing things to monetize on Substack.
I anticipate, and I've written a few articles on this, that the traditional model of gating your content on the platform I am. Like I'm for it and against it. So I have a lot of friends that that's their business model and they make a lot of money with it. The kind of the issues that I take with it is from like a coach standpoint or a consultant standpoint, is that it now starts to create almost like a secondary business [00:37:00] model, where now you have effectively you still need to create free content 'cause you have to grow.
But you now also have this. People paying for things, so you have to create something for them. So that's kind of where I'm like, a lot of people don't understand what it takes to do that. Also, at a 5, 10, 20, $25 a month subscription, you need a very large audience for you to make enough money to pay your cell phone bill.
So a lot of people are like, the minimum is $5. I'm just gonna put. $5 a month subscription, and they're like, why am I not making money? And it's like, well, because you only have 75 subscribers, three of them have paid. And it's like somebody like Justin Welsh that comes to the platform with an audience of three or 400,000 people on his email list, sends out a couple emails.
He can get a shit ton of paid subscribers very quickly because the economics are in his favor. So [00:38:00] it's very contextual to what people do. Where it makes sense is for people that don't necessarily have products and services to sell. Somebody writes poetry, somebody writes fiction. Totally cool. That's not typically who I serve on the platform.
[00:38:15] Where Substack Fits in a Long-Term Strategy
Landon Pobarun: Where I see it going in the future is wherever everything has gone. With marketing, you are going to have to craft. A good offer around your paid subscription so that there's a reason for people to pay for it. I don't think you have to make it your content. I actually think, I don't want access to your 200 article archive.
'cause I don't wanna fucking read them. Like I'm busy enough as it is. It's like, what problem are you going to solve for me? So a lot of what I'm putting my time and effort into is. What would that look like for me, because where my brain goes as a marketer is if they start to push people with paid [00:39:00] subscriptions in the feed, then I'm going to have to reconsider if I have one or not.
So my mind is starting to go into, 'cause they call them paid subscriptions, is going, I'm thinking about it more from the standpoint of access and intimacy. Creating a paid community, not necessarily paid access to my content. So what would I be offering if I kept all of my content free? That's how I'm starting to come at it from.
So it could be access to courses, it could be effectively no different than if you created a paid community on school, a paid community on circle. You're just doing it on Substack. That's the mentality that I'm bringing to it. And the interesting part is that. A lot of the Substack community is, they're creators first.
So you're a brand strategist. You're probably have seen [00:40:00] this as well. People that start from a content first standpoint have a very different understanding of marketing than people that come from marketing first and then come into content. A lot of them don't quite understand like, well, what do I sell?
How do I make money? And then the marketers are like, here's a hundred ways to make money. But they have no idea how to build the audience. And these people have the audience and it's like, we need to merge these things together and go, okay, maybe it's new worksheets, templates, trainings each month that they get access to.
Maybe it's exclusive guest interviews like Justin Welsh does. He brings in experts and you get access to those. Something that my community has loved has been like weekly q and a threads. So it's like, how can you now start to craft an offer that people want to exchange their money with? Because once we reach a critical mass.
That paid subscription where people were just like, yes, I want to pay to read [00:41:00] Landon. When there's 300 people or 3000 people that are producing content similar to mine, it's going to be a lot more difficult for me to. To get their money. But if I have an actual offer that is enticing enough for them and I'm solving the problem that they need to solve, that's what I'm going to be able to stand out from the rest of the competition.
So that's a lot of how I'm trying to get people to think about monetization on the platform. But it's like. If you just want to write in your spare time and share your poetry and have people that pay to do it, and you don't really care about making money and you're not trying to like, you know, live on the beaches of, you know, wherever country it is, like you don't need to stress out about those things.
Like alignment and having it contextually support your life is the most important thing. So there's no right or wrong, but if we're trying to maximize it in the coming years, that's how I'm thinking about it.
Deirdre Martin: Oh, there's so much [00:42:00] food for thought there, Landon. Thank you so much. I have two final questions.
The first one is, what are people not asking you about the platform that you're like, they should be asking me this thing, but they don't know. They don't know what they don't know. What is the thing that they don't know? That they don't know?
Landon Pobarun: Yeah, it's a really, really great question. Just trying to see what kind of drops in for me.
[00:42:27] Consistency Without Burnout
Landon Pobarun: Most people are still very surface level that are on the platform, and they are all just very focused on how do I get some subscribers? What I wish people would start asking me is. How do I maintain consistency and how can I embrace the trust in the process and embrace the pursuit?
That's really what I love [00:43:00] doing because. Every business is run by a business person. We know historically that most businesses fail Within the first five years, only 10% ish of businesses ever make over $150,000 a year in Canada. So by definition, nine out of 10 of them are going to fail. So a lot of it is just like staying in the game long enough.
I'm firmly of the belief. A lot of people come at me for it. 'cause I'll say just be consistent, which is, yes, it's the root of it. But yes, it doesn't give you as much tangible advice. But I do believe that if somebody sticks with things that you are going to get curious about how to improve it. As you write and as things drop in and as people ask questions, things present themself, and I do believe that you will get interested in how to improve it, but people get so caught up [00:44:00] in the expectations that culture and society has placed upon us.
So a saying I have is consistency with expectation breeds resentment. So it's how do we shift that narrative and how can we uncover what is holding us back from being consistent? How do we adjust those expectations so that we don't feel like we're failing all the time? So if you expect to put out a post every day, and you have three kids work a full-time job and you're caring for a loved one, it's just not gonna fucking happen.
So if we can reduce the floor to putting out one post a week and you feel like you're winning. The dynamic of that is drastically different. So I really wish people would start to, and it takes a shift in self-awareness, but to understand that there's something be beneath that if you want to get these subscribers, there's a few things in a few boxes we need to check off that just kind of becomes the [00:45:00] byproduct of.
[00:45:01] Why Marketing Works Better When You Detach
Deirdre Martin: That's such great advice really and truly, and I completely agree 100% with everything you've just said there because you know, so many people think that the only way to be successful in business is to hustle and grind, but it doesn't have to be that way. And stepping back. Taking time out intentionally to be strategic, to think, to get creative, to put your feet in the grass, to do the things in nature that are going to inspire you.
That's where you get the fire in the belly and you get those drops outta nowhere. You know, I always find, like when I'm in the shower or shoveling horse shit, quite literally, the horses that's when the stuff just hits me and it's like, oh gosh, it just. People say about downloads, and you get these downloads from the universe and it's like, yeah, that's total bullshit until it fucking starts happening to you.
And seriously, the only way it can is when you step away. But when you're so attached to the outcome, that's [00:46:00] absolutely when you end up disappointed. Disappointed with yourself. And also it's where your inner critic. It's literally given them the power to go rampant on you when you become attached to that outcome.
So yes to all of that, Landon. Okay, last question. Where can people reach out to you? What do you have coming up? How can they find out, learn more, get your courses, all of the things related to substack?
Landon Pobarun: Yeah, so My Substack is just my name, landonpoburan.substack.com get takes you straight to my publication. Landon p.com is my website where everything is linked up as well. But yeah, there's, I've got a lot going on kind of behind the scenes right now. There's a total shift in kind of brand messaging for like the movement that I really want to lead and kinda like just what we touched on about all of those things that are kinda like the prerequisites and understanding what we actually want to create and not creating what we were [00:47:00] told we should be trying to achieve by.
You know, the gurus and the experts out there, and I'm just really over people being sold the template that they can copy and paste into their business. But being given the false promise that they're also going to be able to copy and paste the result. So it's like can work, but we need to find what's going to work for you.
And that's really kind of what this next chapter of me is going to look like. So I have a few things that are going to be coming in the new year, which is a paid community that I'm really trying to figure out the best way to launch it, but it's likely going to come in January and starting to roll out.
An offer to help bring brands and coaches over to Substack. It's the reason that I'm now starting to re-expand. 'cause I was the burnout guy. I was, you know, in debt in therapy, just completely disconnected from myself, from trying to be on nine platforms. But I've been blessed in what I've been able to create over the last two to three years, and I'm [00:48:00] in a point where.
My mission has grown and I want to help more people. So now I can get some support to start getting onto these other platforms. 'cause if I want to help people that are on LinkedIn get onto substack or people that are on Instagram get onto substack, well, I'm gonna have to be on LinkedIn and Instagram 'cause they don't know about Substack yet.
So the, an offer to help people take their brands and launch it on Substack is going to be something that I'm launching very, very soon.
Deirdre Martin: Amazing. Amazing. Okay folks, you heard it here first. Go and check out the new community. Go and check out the offers and absolutely follow or subscribe to Landon over on Substack.
Landon Pobarun: Thank you so much. This was so much fun
Deirdre Martin: Alright, my friend breathes. That was a lot in the best possible way, but if you just feel like a fire hose about substack has been coming your way. Here's the thing that I want you walking away with. It's not just another platform. It's a blue ocean option. A blue [00:49:00] ocean opportunity. Even in a world where most of us are really burnt out from trying to be the tallest poppy or stand out in some overcrowded feeds, and Landon did not hold back.
And three moments I want to anchor for you is that firstly, Substack rewards depth over. How much you post. So if you're tired of chasing hacks, this platform is gonna flip that whole game on its head for you. Second is repurposing is your superpower. So whether you already have a podcast or on YouTube or do long form content on LinkedIn, it all becomes written content.
So there's no extra pressure, no extra performance, or having to go live or do any of that crap. You just repurpose whatever you've already created and you can share it over on Substack too and the third one, the big one. And you heard me say yes when he said it was detach from [00:50:00] the outcome and treat your marketing like a joint fricking experiment because the minute you stop white knuckling the results shit finally starts working. And folks, listen, if this episode has gotten you thinking, okay, Deirdre, maybe Substack is worth exploring, then do the smartest thing you can do next. Go check Landon out on Substack and subscribe to his newsletter. He's not teach in theory. He's literally in the trenches building in real time with you.
I'll drop his link in the show notes so it's really easy for you to connect with him. Thanks for hanging out with us today. Thank you so much to Landon for being such a generous, grounded voice in a space full of theoretical bs. And hey, you know the score. If you got any value from this episode, please share it with a friend who's been stuck refreshing their feed and their analytics for validation.
And be their sign to try something different. Until next time, keep mastering your business.
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