✍️ i'm not trying to go viral. here's what i'm doing instead to build my newsletter
the real numbers behind my instagram to substack strategy 2 weeks in
✍️ Welcome to Field Notes, a Creatorly series with behind-the-scenes reflections on sustainable writing and creator growth. I share what I know from 10+ years in communications and marketing, and what I’m learning here in real time, so that you can create with clarity and show up consistently.
There was a season not long ago where urgency made most of my decisions for me. I have found myself in this cycle more than once. The one where I research fast ways to make money instead of trusting the slow work I had already started. What I haven’t shared yet is what I decided to do differently once I came back from it.
I started a brand-new Instagram account from scratch a few weeks ago, and before I posted a single thing, I made a decision. I was not going to build it the way the internet tells you to build it, with urgency, with chasing virality, with performing a version of myself I would have to keep performing to stay relevant.
I left TikTok for the same reason. I didn’t want to create content that required me to be someone louder than I actually am. I go back and forth about creating content on different platforms because I don’t want to be everywhere at once, and I don’t want to be spending all my time on social media.
So this is quiet, on purpose. I am not trying to go viral. I am trying to build a simple, honest path that brings the right person from a Reel she happened to scroll past to a newsletter that might actually help her. Not reach for its own sake, not followers for their own sake, just a path that leads somewhere real.
Here is how that’s actually going so far, the parts that are working and the parts I’m still figuring out.
Everything from here is for paid subscribers. Inside I am sharing the complete breakdown of how I built this, the exact path someone takes from finding my content to landing on my subscription page, and the real numbers 2 weeks in, including what's working, what isn't, and what I am still figuring out.
