Seven hundred people showed up to this live recording of the Substack Live Podcast to hear Austin Kleon give some of the best advice on how to have a newsletter/Substack that means something to you and your readers, including:
making what you want to see in the world,
taking time to process in a world that wants us to just move on and scroll,
writing the newspaper column you’ve always wanted to write,
the So what? test,
and so much more…
The Atlantic called Austin Kleon “positively one of the most interesting people on the Internet,” which is why his Substack is so damn good.
To have a Substack newsletter that people are interested in, it helps to be interesting, which typically comes when the writer of said Substack is interested in the world and specifically, the part of the world he writes about in a way no one else can.
Austin was Substack before there was Substack, having started his newsletter in 2013, before Substack existed. He came to Substack in 2021 because, he said, he liked the simple interface.
He’s the New York Times bestselling author of a trilogy of illustrated books about creativity in the digital age—Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going—and of Newspaper Blackout, a collection of poems made by redacting the newspaper with a permanent marker.
I love how he describes his trilogy, which is a masterclass in creativity and living a creative life:
Steal Like an Artist is the book you give to somebody who’s just starting out and needs a kickstart or a boost.
Show Your Work is for the person that has found their thing but they haven’t been found themselves yet — people who need to self promote or need to get their work out there.
Keep Going is really the book for people who are trying to make a career out of creative work — people who are trying to be in it for the long haul
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About the Substack Live Podcast
Join me for conversations with Substack early adopters who created amazing newsletters and continue to bring their good work to the world and make the world a better place in doing so.
I also bring you updates and expert guidance on the platform as it changes and changes again and again, so you can use it to fuel your creative, professional, and financial life.
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