Embracing Substack: A Journey of Personal Writing and Community Building

Now that I’m one month into Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h, I’m sharing my reflections on Substack as a software platform for personal writing (and potentially moving my newsletters soon too). I recorded this bonus episode for the BFF Community at the end of July; since then, I decided to officially migrate my Pivot and Free Time mailing lists and go all-in.

;TLDR: I’m utterly delighted! The last time I felt this thrilled about software was when I first started tinkering in Notion four years ago, which became one of the best things I ever did for my business :)

✨ If you have the means and it feels joyful to support me and this new body of work, you can subscribe as a paid or Founding Member here 🙏 Huge thanks to those of you who have already joined and commented — I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me!

🌟 3 Key Takeaways

• As a reader, Substack allows you to more easily reply and engage in the comments, “restack” snippets you like, browse the archives, bookmark favorite posts, see what percentage of each article you’ve read, and support fellow creators’ work if you feel called to.
• As a writer, the composition interface is such an improvement! You can create richer newsletters with fancy content embeds—my husband calls it “upgrading the facilities,” host an archive page ****with previous issues, and for the first time—publish essays and podcast episodes to the same main feed.
• One writer I follow, Kathryn Vercillo, practices artistic tithing: Ten percent of her income goes to supporting other writers on the platform. I now pay for fifteen fellow Substackers, and while at first I feared subscription fatigue (like so many of us!), this combined expense has become the happiest money that leaves my bank account every month. I love supporting the writers and thinkers whom I respect most, and who have given me so much.

📝 Permission: To make changes in your business operations even when it seems like no one solution is perfect, and you know you’ll break 100 things in the process. No risk, no reward! You also hereby have permission to charge for your work :) We’re all getting a raise in 2024!

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Download the Substack app and see how joyful it is to browse newsletters again away from the chaos of your email inbox! You might be surprised at how many people you read and follow are already on there :)

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Writing coach: Writers at Work with Sarah
• Loom Walkthrough: Notion for Idea Collection (5 min)
• Video: TEDxBerkshires—Homework for Life
• Course: MasterClass—Dan Brown Teaches Writing Thrillers
• JB’s Substacks: Notes (and “restacks”), Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h, Time Well Spent, PivotList
• Elizabeth Gilbert’s new Substack: Letters from Love
• Articles: Time Well Spent Newsletter with Writing Apps, Substack Office Hours, Top Twenty Tips for Writing Memoir
• Apps: Substack, Notion, Circle, OmmWriter, SaneBox, Kajabi

📚 Books Mentioned

• Intuitive Writing: The Remedy for Writer's Block and the Secret to Authentic Communication by BFF member Jacqueline Fisch
• Happy Money by Ken Honda
• Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks
• The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith
• How to Tell a Story from The Moth, and check out their related podcast
• Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
• Life After College

🎧 Related Episodes

• Spotify Playlist: Behind-the-Book podcast episodes
• The Active Voice with Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie
• SPARKED: The Confidence Trap: Why You DON'T Need It To Do Big Things
• Working Wife, Happy Life: Bethanie & Jenny on being the breadwinner
• Free Time: 210: Knot a Care—Sailing the Free Time Seas with Joy and Ease, 203: 🎢 Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster of Launching with Natalie Lue, and 034: Organizing Research and Ideas — Notion Walkthrough #1

✍️ Check out my new Substack Rolling in D 🤦🏻‍♀️h: Divine Disaster Diaries

📝 Check out full show notes at: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/222

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