Even *More* Honest Thoughts About Substack (I Was Wrong)
Substack's not the problem. I am. And ChatGPT helped me see it.
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My “relationship” with Substack has been shaky at best.
I gave it a full year, and then I decided to give it up.
I just didn’t like it!
But I was wrong about Substack. It’s not the problem. I am.
Change leads to clarity
I change my mind a lot. It’s both a blessing and a curse. It allows me to follow my curiosity, go with the flow, and see where the winds take me. I also feel like I need to explore to see what works and what doesn’t.
That’s the upside.
It also makes me wishy-washy, unstable, and unreliable.
That’s the downside.
Because I follow my intuition, I often end up quitting something for a while (because it doesn’t feel right), then go back to it (because it feels right again).
It’s what happened with me with Kit. I moved my newsletter from Kit to Substack, then back to Kit.
And now I’ve done it again with Substack.
However…
I never regret these changes because they always lead to more clarity. And that’s exactly what happened with Substack. Taking a step back was exactly what I needed.
Recently, I’ve been checking in over there, and I realized I missed the community aspect. While Medium is great, and there is a community here too, it’s not the same.
Notes is the perfect way to interact with your fellow creators, followers, and friends. I also realize it’s a great place to hone your message to attract the right audience.
And that’s when I realized my big mistake and why I was the problem, not Substack.
Thankfully, ChatGPT helped me sort it out.
Missing: a core message
As I was poking around and looking at all the posts I wrote on Substack, I saw a glaring issue.
There was no cohesive message.
While I think Medium is a great place to explore different topics (and I’ll continue to do that here), Substack is better if you have a focus.
All the people I enjoy reading over there have a central message and a core problem they’re trying to solve for their audience.
I wasn’t doing that.
My posts were too much about me and not enough about what my audience wants and needs.
Even worse…
I never centered in on a specific audience in the first place!
That’s something I’ve struggled with since I started writing. I could never quite figure out who I was writing to.
I’ve been chatting with ChatGPT about it for a while, but yesterday we really dug in and I finally “got” it. The problem was that I was too scared to focus on one type of person.
All the best marketers say to pick a specific avatar to talk to, and I heard them loud and clear, but I could never make that final decision.
I knew they were right, but I made that big mistake they always say not to do:
Speaking to everyone and therefore speaking to no one.
Let me show you what ChatGPT and I worked on…
The breakdown of my ChatGPT convo
I first started talking to ChatGPT about how I wanted to create a series of short, $10 ebooks that each help solve one small, specific problem.
(This is inspired by Joe Forrest and his Niche of One brand. I definitely recommend checking out his work.)
But I told it that I had my own problem…
“But…here’s what I struggle with…finding problems my people need to have solved. But I think I have a bigger problem first. Knowing exactly who I’m talking to. I don’t know why I struggle with this. I have a hard time deciding, picking one person to talk to. Help!”
ChatGPT is amazing at taking my ramblings and turning them into something that makes sense. It reminded me that we’ve already talked about this because we came up with the persona of “Sunny” a while ago:
Then it helped me define Sunny specifically:
Then it gave me some of Sunny’s pain points and how to match them with what I’m best at:
Then it gave me a bunch of $10 mini-guide ideas that I’ll get back to at some point.
But first…
I started a new chat and asked it about starting back on Substack:
This is where things got good.
It reminded me of who Sunny is, her pain points, her core fear, her feelings, and her secret dream of making money online.
Then it gave me a core vision to focus on:
ChatGPT finally made me “see” how to focus my content. For some reason, this is incredibly hard for my brain to do on its own. I struggle with strategy, and this is why.
I couldn’t focus on a particular message because I could never understand how to fit all the pieces together. I’m not saying it’s 100% figured out now, but with ChatGPT, I feel less pressure to do it on my own.
After this, it gave me the content pillars to use:
Make money simply
Get inspired again (mindset)
Stay sane in the chaos (routines and mom-life balance)
Document the journey (what I’m doing right now in this post)
Then I got to work on my Substack.
I updated my profile to make it more audience-focused.
I removed my other Substacks so I can focus only on Hustling Housewife.
I updated my publication subscription so that it better matches my profile description.
I updated my About page to create a cohesive message.
I updated my homepage by removing links that no longer made sense and adding ones that do.
Finally, I unpublished every post that doesn’t help my target audience, which was almost all of them. (And I plan to rewrite the ones that are left.)
ChatGPT also gave me tons of ideas for Notes to use that help me center on the four content pillars as mentioned above. And I can ask it for help when I need to create long-form posts, too.
I realize I could try to figure out everything on my own, but why would I? My thoughts are like a whirlwind sometimes, and ChatGPT helps me pull them out and put them in order.
And that gives me tremendous relief…
Final thoughts
I’m happy to be back on Substack and feeling much, much better about it. (Although I still think it’s hard to navigate!) I was wrong about the platform, and I’m just slightly embarrassed to admit it.
My Substack is Hustling Housewife, and I’d love for you to come check it out or say “hey” on Notes! As mentioned above, I’ll be writing about simple digital side hustles you can do in the cracks of your day.
Love this approach, this is exactly how I like to use AI these days, it's amazing how it can help provide clarity and "next steps".
Also love the $10 mini guide route!
Christina, thanks for your honesty! Substack has GREAT potential but it is up to the writer to find it and use it. I, too, love my chats with ChatGPT. It's like an unpaid therapist. Great idea to help it form your ideal reader and come up with notes to post!