🔻 How to find your Substack DNA (the most important thing you can do for your Substack)

Why I turned down 'Substack for Dummies'

» Your weekly expert guide to Substack—with leading Substack Strategist Sarah Fay, helping you carve out your own space on the internet.

Today:

• Why I turned down Substack for Dummies

• Why knowing your Substack DNA is the key to creating the Substack you want and making all your Substack dreams come true

• How to find your Substack DNA (tell us yours in the comments!)

---

Yes, I was asked to write Substack for Dummies.

And I turned it down.

Many reasons, of course, but here are the main three:

1. There’s no such thing as a “dummy” on Substack—or anywhere, to my mind but mainly on Substack because Substack is maddeningly unintuitive.

2. And the platform changes soooo quickly that a book is too static to keep up.

3. And because what makes Substack great—and what you’re doing on here great—and what actually helps you get subscribers and earn an income and what makes this your internet home—instead of another platform to game and place where you’re not doing enough or you aren’t enough—has very little to do with whatever would be in a book like that.

We want you, not your Substack

The truth: People subscribe to you, not your Substack—and they get to know you and subscribe when you know your Substack DNA.

But you have to come out in your Substack—clearly.

---

What your Substack DNA isn’t

• It’s not the stuff you offer—posts, chat, etc. It’s what makes the stuff you offer make sense.

• It’s absolutely not your marketing “niche.”

• It’s not what makes you “unique” or “different.”

---

What your Substack is

Your Substack DNA is the core of what makes your Substack you.

It will save you from chasing after tricks, hoping to game the platform, and trying every new feature Substack introduces. Because your DNA is the operational blueprint that determines how your Substack functions, based on your goals, expertise, talents, skills, obsessions, and interests, translated into the right type and mode for the platform.

Knowing it will bring subscribers because there’s no confusion about what your Substack is, who you are, what’s important, what we get as subscribers, etc.

More importantly, it gives us a sense that we’re describing to a person, not a strategy.

---

When my clients discover their Substack DNA, that’s when their Substacks really take off. To show you how this might play out, here’s what happened with two of my clients.

Your Substack DNA may be narrower than you think: Petya Grady

Petya K. Grady is the creator of A reading life.

Petya changed her Substack from Lifequakes, about life transitions, to A Reading Life—a wonderful Substack about how we can reclaim our intellectual and reading lives and take responsibility for our inner landscape.

• Within a year of figuring out her Substack DNA, she went from 400 subscribers to over 7500.

• In the eight or so months following, she was also featured by Substack three (3!) times.

A key moment came during one of our sessions when she realized she should focus on who she wants to be “talking with” rather than “talking to.” (I love this too.)

It happened when she stopped asking What am I an expert in? and instead focused on What am I most interested in? and (I love this) What activates my gossip nerves?

---

---

Your Substack DNA may be broader than you think: Emma Vivian

Emma Vivian is the writer behind Attempts at Optimism by Emma Vivian.

Her story of being diagnosed with breast cancer at 29, shortly after her best childhood friend was also diagnosed, and being the only one to survive it, is so compelling but better suited for her memoir. Her Substack, as we discovered while working together, is larger than that.

Initially, it was called Am I Cured Yet? but then she realized she didn’t want to write about cancer all the time. We talked through what her posts had in common. As Emma put it, “I had cancer. I am not cancer.”

The DNA, the core, of her Substack ended up being her outlook on life: attempting optimism despite our natural human pessimism (and without toxic positivity).

It didn’t change what she was writing; it just made her Substack clearer to readers, subscribers, and herself.

---

Your turn: Find your Substack DNA

I can’t take you through the entire process of finding your Substack DNA in a single post—and don’t feel like you have to know yours right now. But know that with every post I send, you’re honing yours and working from my Substack DNA Growth Framework.™️

For now, answer these questions and move beyond the obvious. Again, this is not about “finding your niche” or what makes you “unique.” It’s deeper than that.

ANSWER IN THE COMMENTS:

1. YOUR SUBJECT: What’s the topic of your Substack in one or two words?

   Wait! Check your archive. Just scroll through the headlines. If you haven’t posted yet, meditate on this: Is that actually what you write about or is it something else?

2. YOU: What obsesses you about that topic?

   Really. Don’t “get ideas” or brainstorm with AI. Check in with yourself. Whatever just came to mind is the right answer. If it feels too simple or too hard, “not interesting” or “not what people want,” great.

   What can you talk and write about endlessly and never get bored?

3. YOUR SUBSCRIBERS: Who do you want to be “talking with” rather than “talking to”?

Remembers to share what you came up with in the comments…

---

All my best,

• If you want to go deeper into your Substack DNA and what actually makes a Substack succeed, relaunch your Substack in my signature Substack DNA 4-Week GrowthAccelerator: May 1, 8, 15 & 29, Fridays, 12-3 PM CT. Limited space available. » Enroll and get the details before doors close on Thursday, 4/30 here.

• Join this week’s Notes Boost Community or our paid-subscriber 24/7 Substack Chat.

Substack Starter Pathway | SW@W homepage | Premier homepage | Manage your subscription | Upcoming Events | 24/7 Substack Chat | Book a Substack Strategy 1:1 with me

---