The Substack Soirée Podcast

Hello! In the lead up to our live Q&A this Friday we thought we’d share a replay of the Substack Q&A Sara hosted last year. Before we get into the replay, let’s just give you all the details for the upcoming live so you won’t miss it.

The next live Q&A “Substack for Instagrammers”

Join us this Friday! We’ll be there to help answer your questions about Substack and Instagram: using the two together, how to transition your work to this space and whatever other questions you may have! 

When? Friday 19th April, 12 Noon BST, 9pm AEST (Timezone woes? Check out World Time Buddy here.)

Where? Over on Instagram at @me_and_orla (look for the ‘live’ circle around Sara’s profile picture when it starts.) If you have questions please bring them along!

Can’t make it and still have questions? No problems! Submit your questions here, and/or catch the replay which we’ll upload here after the fact.

Back to today’s episode, in this Q&A from last year Sara tackles questions like:

* How can I use Substack to market my business? Is that even allowed?

* Can I just use it instead of staying on Instagram?

* What if I don’t have much of an audience yet?

* Can I use Substack if I’m not much of a writer?

* What about my existing blog and mailing list?

And much more.

Mentioned in the episode:

* Episode 2 with Helen Stephens and Helen’s Instagram

* Kerani Arpaia’s Substack publication: Girl With Antlers and Instagram

* The Substack Soirée class

* World Time Buddy

* Sara’s Instagram for the live Q&A (more details below.)

* Google form to submit your questions

The Substack Soirée starting soon!

As we mentioned in the episode, we’re getting ready to start the very first Substack Soirée class for the year. Join us for a deep dive into the craft, the magic and the strategy of making Substack the online home for your work and creativity. We kick off April 22nd, and would love to see you there! Click here to find out more and lock in your place.  

In the meantime, we’re both looking forward to chatting live very soon!

Sara & Keeley

“Such a brilliant experience.”

Sara and Keeley are so encouraging and inspiring and it's been a pleasure to be part of their community. The resources in the Substack Soiree are beautifully presented and practical - there are short tasks and steps you can put into practice straight away to start and grow your Substack community. Their advice in the coaching calls was so useful whether it was in answer to a question I asked or one that someone else brought along. I've watched the replays of the classes again and taken notes and I enjoyed the co-working calls for some extra accountability too. I really can't recommend it enough, especially if you're new to Substack and are feeling overwhelmed or not good enough to write here - this class will help you get organised, gain confidence and create a plan for your newsletter that's right for you and what you'd like to offer.

Charlene Storey ~ Haver & Sparrow

“It’s honestly the best course I’ve ever done!”

The Soirée has given me some wonderful ideas on how I can begin to move forward with my publication. Everything was so beautifully designed and laid out in a way that was easy to understand and work through in your own time. I couldn’t be more grateful and I loved the calls too! A huge thank you to both for putting on this wonderful course and allowing us all the room to grow on this platform.

Jenna ~ Magic & Musings

“Think of this as an up-to-date digital communication refresh, underpinned with a precious modern marketing approach, delivered by two warm-hearted and extremely knowledgable hosts.”

I can't recommend the Substack Soirée highly enough. Sara and Keeley have created an extremely well-crafted and beautifully curated offering that has got me wanting to write write write. Some of the lessons can be applied to areas outside of Substack too. Enjoyed every minute. It would be impossible not to apply the skills learned to other arenas and I'm so pleased to say I feel my general "toolkit" has expanded exponentially.

Emily Chalmers ~ Caravan Column

Read more from other class members here.

S & K

x

Hello, hello! Something different for you today, as we’ve decided to share the audio from one of our live Application Calls from inside our class, The Substack Soirée. We chose this call in particular because there were a few great questions asked and all things we felt would be relevant to many. From dealing with imposter syndrome, to what’s the best way to share our work, merging blogs over to Substack and more, it is our hope this episode is helpful and encouraging to you. And if you would like some more hands-on help and feedback for your Substack journey, we’d love to see you inside the next round of the class!

A few of the questions we cover in this call:

* Should I have two separate Substack publications?

* What’s the best way to merge my blog and publication?

* What do I do now I have a new (exciting and delicious) visual direction for my publication?

* Am I an imposter? Or worse…boring?

* How do I format my posts so they can be interesting to my readers?

And more!

Featured guests

Martine Ellis

Martine writes about the intersection between productivity and well-being. We love how she puts it so beautifully: “To do well, you need to be well.” Read more and subscribe to Notes from Martine here.

Caroline Donahue

Caroline is the host behind Book Alchemy and her award-winning podcast: The Secret Library. Her publication is like a cosy room to curl up in, read, swap book recommendations or ‘write the ones that don’t exist yet’. Read more and subscribe here.

Also a huge thank you to our other guests who remain anonymous but their questions have been so helpful to others.

Mentioned in this episode:

* The Substack Soirée class

* Kate Watson Smyth

* Jon Ronson

* Hidden Potential by Adam Grant

* Pi app.

Want to hop on a call and chat just like this? Come join us at the next Soirée!

Throughout the class we host weekly opportunities to meet together on Zoom and answer questions, review pages, give feedback, offer encouragement or chat through things that might be blocking your creativity.

It’s one of our favourite things about the class and is a much-loved and appreciated by the community within the soirée.

The Substack Soirée is for anyone looking to start, grow or expand their Substack presence. This class combines our decades of wisdom and insight into audience growth, online marketing, writing and storytelling with the factors we believe matter the most: community, compassion and creativity. Our mission is to guide you to find your voice, the stories you’re here to tell, the work the world needs from you and the best way to get it all seen.

The Soirée opens its doors for pre-class drinks and refreshments* April 18th, 2024 and class begins officially the following Monday.

Say you’ll join us?

*By drinks and refreshments, we mean of course, you will have the opportunity to wander about the Soirée grounds, review a few set up pieces we have prepared for you, meet the other guests and so on before class kicks off. The type of beverage and snacks (or lack of) you have beside you as you do this, is, as ever, up to you.

On the podcast today we’re talking about one of our most frequently asked questions: “Do I need a mailing list provider like Flodesk or MailChimp if I have a Substack?”

The answer is of course, it depends. While Substack does offer some of the functionality available in an external email service provider, it is limited and depending on your business, goals and audience, Substack alone may not be sufficient for you. Alternatively, you may find yourself with both a platform like Flodesk and Substack and feel like you’re holding the equivalent of two left shoes—either could work—but using both at once is not only unnecessary but potentially problematic.

While it’s not a right/wrong, black/white answer, in this conversation we attempt to provide a way forward that’s easy to follow and hopefully create some clarity around the topic. Plus, we offer some ideas on how to make the most of both traditional emails and Substack.

In essence, we break down the answer into two categories:

Category one: doesn’t need both.

Category two: might find both Substack and a traditional email service provider useful.

We go into more details about which category you and your business might fall into and why in the episode, so give it a listen and let us know what you think?

BIG news: The Substack Soirée is open for enrolments!

If you’ve been waiting for the next round, we’re thrilled to let you know the wait is over. The first day of class kicks off on April 22nd and we’ll open up the doors a few days earlier so you can get settled and meet your fellow guests. This will be our first class for the year so if you want to make Substack the big, warm beating heart of your online endeavours then please know you’re invited and we’d love to have you join us. Click below to find out more!

Mentioned in this episode:

* Hello Funnels

* ‘Let’s talk about welcome emails’

* Substack Soirée class (we start in April!)

* Sara’s post: How to automatically add subscribers to Mailchimp, Flodesk etc.

Extra notes, caveats, disclaimers etcetera

There was mention of the next round of our class starting in March, however due to health issues, moving house, general #lyfe adventures between the two of us, we’ve moved the starting date to the 22nd April. You can read all about the class and sign up right here.

Please welcome our guest for today’s episode: The Brand Stylist, Fiona Humberstone.

Just between us, she was one of the first guests we knew we had to ask onto the podcast, before we’d launched a single episode.

Fiona is an entrepreneur, designer and brand stylist, known for her work empowering heart-led businesses to express themselves through their brand.

This is THE episode for the brand-curious and brand-phobic alike. Her masterful approach to ‘finding your magic’ and showcasing it might just turn what you think you know about branding on its head. Creators and writers all over the Substack-o-sphere can glean from her wisdom to tell and share their very best stories with confidence.

In this episode we’ll cover:

* Branding for beginners, the brand-curious and the brand-phobic.

* Why your Substack branding is already saying a lot about you, whether it’s intentional or not!

* How to establish your own brand identity, and why it’s about more than just a logo.

* The simple ways you can up-level your Substack visuals to help it support your work’s messages.

* Re-branding branding - it can be just another fun expression of your creativity and opportunity for storytelling.

* How to keep your work consistent and recognisable across all your different online platforms (hint: it’s about branding! Surprise!)

* Sara’s growing Sylvanian Families/Calico Critters hotel empire. (It’s a whole thing.)

Find Fiona here

* Instagram

* The Brand Stylist on Substack

* Fiona’s blog

* Website

Mentioned in this episode:

* Elevate program

* Fiona’s courses

* The Substack Soirée

* The Substack Branding Bundle

Extra notes, caveats, disclaimers etcetera

As always, this stuff is all optional! We always encourage you to take what you like and need from our episodes, and leave everything else. (Please see point #10 on this episode here if you’d like us to embellish further.)In the intro, Sara mentions that The Substack Soiree class is now in session. This was true at time of recording, we’re now gearing up for our first class of 2024! You can join us here!

Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us Fiona Humberstone, it was lovely to chat with you!

Please join us in welcoming our first ever super duper special guest to the podcast: Helen Stephens, Illustrator and Author, sensational human with flair and really cool flags, plus she’s the genius behind the Substack Featured publication: Pencil Pals.

This conversation was such a joy and filled with wisdom on finding our way to a fun, easy, doable creative life that co-exists with subscriber growth, engaging with a thriving community and earning an income through Substack.

As Helen says, we have to be willing to waste time, stay flexible and be unattached to the outcome, allowing ourselves to play, experiment and mess about.

Plus, we talk about that time she thought there was a volcano in her kitchen and we're *still* waiting on her world-famous cheese scone recipe.

So. Pop that kettle on, have a cuppa with us and let’s chat…

In this episode we’ll cover:

* Approaching ideas without attachment to the outcome.

* How experimenting and ‘wasting time’ is crucial to the creative process.

* Not getting caught up in planning everything out and just taking action and moving on to the next thing.

* Style and how it can connect us to our own creative voice and unique styling.

* Approaching branding as an illustrator and why they have a head start.

* Growth strategies that are sustainable and bite-sized.

* Helen is super generous with her numbers of both subscribers and Substack income.

* Advice for illustrators wanting to join or use Substack.

* Future plans for Pencil Pals and Substack

Mentioned in this episode:

* Her Sunday House Chat post. (Bodies, volcanoes, sink holes, etcetera.)

* The Logo post.

* Our free Substack Branding Bundle

* Helen’s Pro-create e-book

* The Good Ship Illustration

* Home by Lisa Post

* The Substack Soirée class, starting on Monday!

From Helen:

* Here’s my Substack, Pencil Pals

* Check out my website

* Let’s be friends on Instagram

Extra notes, caveats, disclaimers etcetera

Thank you Rory for working your editing magic as always.

And of course, thank you to Helen Stephens. (Whenever you’re ready, that recipe’d be great. Ta.) xx

There’s still time to join The Substack Soirée class!

Just a couple of days now until our festive soirée begins!

If you want to make Substack the most fun, free and far-reaching platform out of all of your online work then come and join us in The Substack Soirée.

We'll be digging into everything from growth, monetisation, writing habits, themes, topics, branding, copy, the works—and all by the twinkle of fairy lights. It’s an amazing community space to support each other, get guidance, advice, feedback, have a few laughs. (Plus a festive party thrown in for good measure.)

If that sounds like something you could do with right now, then we'd love you to come and check it out right here.

Until next time,

S & K x

The Substack Soirée is here to support you in showing up as the creator, writer and artist you want to be. Here on the podcast, we offer you a mix of insights and stories from guest interviews with a wide range of writers and creators on Substack, as well as our own (nerdy) reflections and things we know you'll love.

We thought we’d start our first ever episode together by sharing how we met, The Substack Soirée’s origin story and how that all became reality thanks to one very helpful random generator robot. (We love that guy.)

But more importantly, we’re sharing our foundational principles—our 10 commandments, if you will—for navigating Substack. 

Obviously, we’re not commanding you. You get to choose which (if any) of these apply to you and leave what doesn’t.

Our hope is that these prove to be useful ways to frame your creativity and explorations on Substack... 

In this episode we’ll cover:

* Putting our creativity first, even when we’re trying to do the “right” thing.

* Exploring generosity as a creative in a loud marketplace.

* Navigating through fear and learning not to be led by it. 

* How creating a space on Substack is helping to shape the future of creativity and paid creative work.

* Why #10 is probably the most important one.

And much more.

Which “commandment” resounds with you the most? Leave a comment and let us know!

Mentioned in this episode:

This Visual Essay  by Kat Schneider

How to Write Without Words post

The Substack Soiree Class (On sale now for our Christmas Soirée!)

Extra notes, caveats, disclaimers etcetera

*Now if one of us sounds like we’re calling in through a tin can and string, it would absolutely be because one of us is in Australia, and *not* because we had a tech hiccup. That never happens. Especially not to us 👀

**We will upgrade to TinCan&String V11 for the next episode. Promise.