Exercise: Your first five Substack posts and the root system beneath them
You’ve started. Now let’s keep you moving.
You’ve pressed publish. You’ve started experimenting with Notes. You’re someone who actually does this, not just thinks about it. Whoop!
And now, before the momentum fades, before the inner critic suggests you wait until you have a better idea, before life fills the space back in, we want to look ahead.
Because the single biggest reason people fall away from their Substack isn’t lack of ideas, it’s the gap between posts. One week becomes two, two becomes a month, and somewhere in the pause, the whole thing starts to feel harder than it was.
The antidote isn’t discipline. It’s direction and steady momentum.
When you know (even loosely) what you’re building toward, showing up becomes easier. The next post isn’t a blank page, it’s the next natural thing.
So let’s take away some of the friction between you and creating a sustainable Substack habit, by sketching out five possible options for you to explore over the coming weeks.
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Your first five posts: some territory to explore
These aren’t prescriptions. They’re invitations. Feel into which ones call to you, and trust that call. You are a channel for what needs to come through, and the more you honour those intuitive hits when they land, the more they’ll keep coming.
That said, here are some of the most powerful places to begin:
Your philosophy What do you actually believe? Not your method, not your offer, but your worldview. The thing that underlies everything you do and say. The lens through which you see your industry, your people, your work. This post is often the one that makes people forward your Substack to a friend and say you need to read this.
The thing you’re moving away from What is the tension you feel in your space that nobody is naming out loud? What are you responding to, standing against, quietly done with? This isn’t a rant — it’s a observation. The best versions of this post name something your reader has felt but couldn’t articulate, and in doing so, they make them feel profoundly understood. This is the post that builds tribes.
A piece of your story Not your full origin story, but a specific moment, a chapter, a turning point that reveals something about why you see the world the way you do. Specificity is everything here. The more particular and honest, the more universal the resonance.
Something you’ve learned that changed how you work or live A reframe. A shift. A thing you used to believe that you’ve let go of, and what replaced it. These posts are generous by nature, you’re sharing something that cost you something to learn.
What people think they need vs what they actually need Break down the gap between surface-level solutions and deeper truth. What’s really going on when someone hires you or reads your work? What are they actually navigating? This is where your work becomes distinct.
What this season of life is teaching you What are you navigating? Keep it present, not polished. This brings immediacy and relatability which means people feel like they’re walking alongside you.
A window into your world Something more intimate. A behind the scenes, a current obsession, a ritual you can not live without, a question you’re sitting with, a book that’s undoing you. Let them see the you behind the mission.
Your first posts don’t need to “position” you perfectly, they’re about getting into a habit of sharing and a way of exploring the edges of your voice. What you see, what you feel, what you know to be true.
Start there, and let the clarity come through the writing.
