How We Created A $30,000 Substack Business In 2 Months

The Highs and Lows of starting a 5-Figure Substack Business From Scratch

“This really does feel like a campfire.”

Renee Puvvada

wrote these words to us in our Workshop last week and they made me emotional.

For the past two months, I’ve worked tirelessly with

Michael Simmons

to put the Substack Campfire together.

• We’ve spent 100+ hours discussing and creating this experience.

• We grew an email list to 800 subscribers in 2 weeks.

• We had 68 people sign up for our upcoming 4-week Note writing challenge.

• We put on 3 live trainings in 5 days.

• We’ve created $32,000 in annual revenue from thin air.

It’s been hard. We’re both tired. We’re both wondering whether this is resonating.

The truth is, it is.

We accepted applications for scholarships to our Note writing program the last few weeks. With it, we sent out a question that spawned an influx of unbelievable messages:

“What do you hope to get out of this program? And why is that important to you?”

We had one person,

Christie Sausa

, write us an 800 word response. She writes

Not Your Average Athlete

and talked about her career as a figure skating writer, and how she’s been writing professionally for 15 years. She gushed about how she interviewed World and Olympic athletes, and was a semi-finalist in Microsoft’s blogging contest—nearly winning her a trip to the Olympics!

Then COVID happened. She wrote “With the rinks closed, our business closed, and no skating events to report on, I questioned my identity. Without skating and writing about skating, who was I?”

I mean, that means the world to us.

We had another scholarship winner,

Rabbi Ben

, write this “In 2022, I was arrested on class 1 Felony Drug Manufacture with intent to distribute charges, for leading my Orthodox Jewish community in Colorado, including occasional psychedelic use. I counter-sued the state of Colorado and spent the whole of 2022 fighting on both fronts. I won. The state dropped the criminal case in late 2022 and we successfully sued Colorado for religious protection in early 2023.”

As I kept reading, I could not believe the depth of her response. These words were for my eyes only—away from public consumption. I had a heartwarming thought, ‘People want to be involved in this so much that they would send us 800+ words to get a scholarship.’

I mean, that means the world to us.

This is why I absolutely adore writing online. The stories people have are incredible, gripping, anxiety-inducing, sad, and inspiring!

This is why I LOVE YOU ALL! Yes, you! Reading this. I love that a place like Substack exists where we get to hear stories like this. Furthermore how blessed am I to work with someone like

Michael Simmons

and create something people want to be a part of?

Wow!

In our first week of selling this 4-week Note Writing Program, we had 30 or so people sign up. In our second week, we had 10. Incredible numbers, but I think Michael and I were a bit disappointed because we wanted this to be a major event on Substack.

We wanted everybody to be talking about this.

But then everything changed when we had our first call last Friday.

I was a bit nervous. I was supposed to teach people how to write a Note live, and I’d be doing it FROM SCRATCH! YIKES!

One beautiful soul,

Teri Leigh 💜

, suggested I take a photo from my phone and write about it. I looked at my gallery and immediately welled up looking at this photo:

A photo of my sister in law and I! Our first picture together. I wrote up a post about shyness and human connection and how to receive love, we have to give love.

The comments on this call were so supportive. I was laying my soul out there on the line for people and they offered me nothing but support. One Camper wrote this in our private chat after the call:

I’ll tell you something.. the genuine human connection I received on this private call was worth more to me than a million likes. Look, I’ve done everything there is to do on social media. I’ve:

• Made 10+ million view videos

• Had half a million followers on Facebook

• Created Facebook Live Events where 700+ people flooded in in a matter of seconds

I’ve had it all.

But NOTHING feels better than when I bear my soul to a stranger online and they accept me for it.

The support of just one or two people means more to me than a million views.

Michael and I wanted to create a “Campfire” of sorts where you could tell your stories and get support from other kind souls. And guess what? We succeeded. We succeeded with flying colors.

Katie Bean

wrote this wonderful post on that same call:

Teri Leigh 💜

wrote this beautiful post, too:

You see, I think I kinda screwed up. It’s easy as course creators to write about the tangible benefits of our challenge.

• More likes

• Better Notes

• Consistency for 4 weeks

• Unlimited access to Michael and I

But these are not the best parts of this challenge.

The best part is feeling the love of a complete stranger on the internet.

You cannot put a price on that. I promise you.

Across time, and borders, and trauma, and culture, to create a bond with someone else online? It’s Nirvana.

I used to run cohort programs on LinkedIn and one time we had a woman from the Middle-East join our call, with video off, and talk about how her work didn’t like that she posted a personal story on LinkedIn, and that she got fired from her job for it.

Her post was NOT egregious in any sense.

It was one of the most shocking moments of my career. All us Westerners were shell-shocked on the call. We didn’t know what to say. In that moment we realized just how lucky we were to write our personal stories on the internet without fear of getting fired for it. What a privilege!!

I’ve had so many “this is way bigger than writing” moments in my career as a writing coach, and most of them happened in cohorts.

I had one lady, Liane Davey, tell me my LinkedIn cohort was the best money she ever spent on a development activity.

This is the power of doing a program WITH other people.

My message as a coach is one of inspiration. I want you to have hope you can make money as a writer! The positive response to these messages makes me sad sometimes.

Why?

Because the reason my inspirational messages resonate is because people don’t feel like they can write online. They think it’s impossible. And the people around them probably tell them it’s impossible, too. The lack of encouragement in this world is astounding!

Sometimes all us writers need to keep going is ONE supportive friend. Just one.

And cohorts facilitate this beautifully.

I think the proof is in the pudding for us here at the Substack Campfire already.

Michael and I had a goal to sign on 100 paid subscribers to this first 4-week Note Challenge. But the bigger goal was to create a safe space on Substack where you could make new friends across cultures, borders, and time.

Photo from our Tuesday call

I think we succeeded. Don’t you?

We’re offering a final 10% discount that expires this Friday, July 5th. Come join 68 other writers on this 4 week Note-Writing journey. We start on July 8th.

You might discover, first hand, the life-changing power of doing a writing challenge with a group of amazing people.