Time to take your Substack power back
Let the Substack Curator Era begin!
» Your weekly report on the state of the platform + your weekly assignment of what to do now + pep talks and quick tips from the leading Substack Strategist, cat obsessive, and dog appreciator, Sarah Fay…
2026 will be the best year to be on Substack.
It’s the year we stop being creators and become curators instead.
By curation, I don’t mean listicle posts with a bunch of links. And curation isn’t about algorithms sorting what you see based on data points they optimize to keep you engaged.
In Substack terms:
Creation = the hamster wheel of content; the pressure to produce more posts, more Notes, more comments just to please the algorithm; limitless AI slop; lifeless “ideas;” overwhelmed subscribers clicking unsubscribe and thinking, yes, please, unsubscribe.
Curation = selective; experiential; embodied; writing posts that your subscribers look forward to; your subscribers clicking upgrade and thinking, yes, I’m happy to pay for this; you taking care of you, your work, your time, your attention.
Curation is human. It comes from the Latin curare, meaning to take care of.
Being a Substack curator =
Curating your time and attention
Filtering the noise for your subscribers
Selecting what needs to be shared/told
Owning your subscribers and your work (like owning all your masters)
Taking care of yourself and your personal Substack
It means not letting Substack be yet another platform to game, another hamster wheel of creation.
Note: Creation ≠ creativity (necessarily). Creativity, by definition, comes from the imagination, which comes from the human mind. Creation is simply output, production by a human, ChatGPT, or whatever.
This month, I’ll guide you through the 5 steps to becoming empowered in the Curator Era (yeah, it’s like the Eras Tour but more exciting):
Today! Curate your ideal Substack life by setting your 2026 Substack goal (paid/Premier)
Filter the noise for your subscribers by writing from your Substack DNA (all)
Take care of yourself by deftly navigating Substack (using the algorithm, not becoming subservient to it) (paid/premier)
Facilitate your subscribers’ experience via design, particularly the wordmark (yes, I’m giving you a wordmark template that actually works) (paid/Premier)
Select a paid offer based on the 3 proven paid models (paid/premier)
» Your weekly assignment of what deserves your attention most right now…
Curate your Substack life by setting your 2026 Substack goal
People get goals all wrong: They use them to strive for some ideal of “I’ve arrived” (which is fine), but then turn them into weapons they use against themselves.
Setting a goal is just a way to focus, which will be crucial for growth in 2026.
Below is my Substack Goal-Setting PDF for you to do on your own. ↓
Or come to the Substack Essentials Workshop this Saturday, and we’ll do it together. ↓
