Five Things I Learned After Staying Consistent in Substack for 2 Months

These are not the usual growth hacks but they are the kinds of things that helped me grow.

I’m seeing people grow and earn from this platform while I’m just pumping free content along with snail-like growth. It has been over two months of me consistently showing up in Substack. 

When I become conscious that I’m falling into such comparison games, I guide myself to do a self-analysis.  And I considered reflecting to see if I'd gotten anything valuable from here. Instead of focusing on growth hacks or earnings, I realized that the true value of Substack lies in personal connections, insights, and self-discovery. 

Here are five things I’ve learned in the past two months that mean more than numbers. 

Image generated by Leonardo AI

Things that I learned in Substack over these 2 months:

Substack doesn’t intimidate a newcomer.

Anything new can be intimidating at first. 

But it is how you feel in those first few weeks that decides if you stay or ditch the platform. I’ve tried growing my online presence on other platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I would openly admit that I felt confused, intimidated, and hopeless beyond those first few weeks. But Substack was different. Though it was new and a bit intimidating at first (maybe that’s because of my introverted nature), I felt welcomed and warm in here past the first week. 

People who are already prominent here and have a good number of people in their community followed me back. I thought it would have been a mistake. But I saw the pattern repeat with their constant engagement and replies to my words. That’s when I realized people here have a sense of community more than the urge to sell. 

It is amazing to see people like

Kristina God

and

David McIlroy

connecting with everyone and sharing their thoughts. They are the people who inspire me to embrace Substack and be a good writer.

Substack runs on the core principles of connection and community, so it is a safe place for newbies.

This sense of community has not only made me feel welcome but also helped me uncover aspects of myself, like accepting that I’m an introvert.

I’ve confirmed my introversion. 

All these years, I never confirmed the thought that I’m an introvert. 

I am all talkative with my small group of friends. But I never wanted to or even thought of communicating with people other than this small group. I felt tired after attending social events and long work meetings. I thought that it was because of my unhealthy lifestyle and sick body. Likewise, there are many such introverted traits of mine that I neatly laid at the door of something else that seemed more appropriate.

In Substack, I was naturally drawn to people who talked about introverts (I think most writers are). It led me to study more about introversion and I find myself relating too well to all of what I learned. Although this realization started way before the 2-month mark, in the initial time when I was just lurking with occasional likes here and “Thanks for sharing” comments there, I slowly confirmed my introversion and I started to embrace my nature more.

I used to beat myself up for being away from all the good “exciting” things. Now I realize that is what I need (not what others need) for my mental peace. It was Substack that sparked a trigger that led me to this conformity.

As an introvert, I always fear asking for help or even sharing about myself with no purpose to others. But here I found people who are ready to help and value support more.

People are more than happy to help.

Life is not all about money.

This is from

Marie Vandoorne

, a beautiful soul. I badly wanted to learn from her course, but I couldn’t afford to make monthly subscriptions. When I shared my state with her, she gifted me with a free period so that I could learn from her course. She worked hard to create this and I felt so much in debt to her. That’s when she told me these beautiful words. Having been exposed to people who just talk to sell made me realize that not all people are the same. We need to look at the right place, and that happens to be here, Substack.

And more people here are so happy to help you.

Fabienne Mannherz

took time to go through one of my literature review articles and gave me feedback to improve and

Maggie Jon

motivated me to get my doubts about ADHD checked. And the people who motivate me when I share my milestones here are many and beyond what I can fit in this article.

All I want to convey is that this is a helpful and uplifting community that I’ll always be grateful for. 

As much as it uplifts you, it doesn’t let you feel alone.

You can find people with thought processes exactly the same as yours.

I used to feel different in most of the social situations that I was put in.

My thought processes will be different compared to those of others who boldly share theirs. But in Substack, I found many people who had the same thoughts as mine and were never afraid to share them. I felt less lonely here.

I see a post that talks about inner child healing. I will have a response that I word in a particular way, in line with what and how I think about it in my mind. When I read the comments, there will be another person saying the exact same thing as I thought.

I’ll be waiting in apprehension to see if what I’m going to say will be taken well. But there is someone who actually says it aloud, just like I want to, and people are accepting and even appreciating those words. This gave me the confidence to talk my mind out here. 

Because there is always someone in Substack to relate to you and build upon your conversation.

Through these interactions, I gained so much more value than a self-help book can do.

Has the value and advice of several self-help books in one place.

Don’t judge me. I’m a fan of self-help books.

And I learned a lot of valuable advice and self-help techniques in Substack. That too, for free. 

When I read self-help books, I always wonder how to put all of this advice into real-time experience. I don’t have any examples to follow or replicate the process. But Substack gave this to me.

It helped me learn new things from a better perspective than I’d have learned from a self-help book. Having a human experience, pictured along with the human who wrote it to talk to, is more helpful. I’m not talking about fluffy stuff (fluff is everywhere). But there is more authentic and genuine content here than fluffy stories.

And that’s one of the things that makes Substack different from others.

Okay, now I feel like, ‘I’m starting to sound like Tom Keugler. But the guy is 100 percent right. 

Forgive me if this sounded like a hyped-Substack post. But I gained a lot from here and I want to show some gratitude. 

What about you? What have you learned from Substack? I’d love to hear your reflections in the comments. Let’s keep growing together. You are just one button away from showing your support for me.

Things that I loved this week:

I worked with

Niall McGivern

’s Review and Goal Setting exercise. It gave me a clarity to be consistent and motivated to do my work. Before, I had the awareness to align myself to my values and have plans that would make it possible. But what I lacked was consistency to keep me going. This exercise can help you if you are in similar situations in two ways: Becoming aware of what it will be like if we didn’t live the way we want our life to be aka regrets and by creating a micro-level plan so that it seems less daunting and more doable. Thus at the end of the exercise, I had something that can motivate me to take consistent actions towards my goals. You should definitely check it out.

Love from

Shanjitha