A lot of you have asked how I built Longevity Decoded from zero to 40K subscribers in twelve months while working a job, with two young kids at home and trying to practice the health lifestyle I preach.
The honest answer is longer than a Notes reply.
And I believe in people to sharing knowledge, growing an audience and increasing their impact.
So I’m writing it down in a newsletter called Grow Your Authority Newsletter.
Nothing will change about Longevity Decoded. I see this as a way to give value.
Twelve months ago, in May 2025, I started Longevity Decoded with zero subscribers.
For the first few months, basically nothing happened.
By August I had a few dozen subscribers and was wondering if I was wasting my evenings.
Late September a small bump showed up. Through October, November, December, and January it was a slow steady climb.
By late February I was at around three thousand subscribers and quietly wondering if the ceiling was about ten.
Then in late March something specific changed. The list went from about seven thousand to over thirty four thousand by mid May.
For the first ten months I was running about one third of the system. I was writing the newsletter. I was barely posting Substack Notes. I was not networking with other publications for recommendations. Those two missing pieces are most of the engine.
In late March I started doing all three. Notes daily, mined from the newsletter drafts, edited by hand. Real conversations with other publications: reading their work first, commenting genuinely, then proposing recommendation swaps once the relationship was real. A small contribution came from Threads. The bulk came from Notes plus Substack recommendations.
The mechanism was concrete. Three things I’d been neglecting, started doing properly, in the same week. Six weeks later the list exploded.
And it’s not just about number go up.
These are real people who you can help with whatever service you offer.
Most stuck professional newsletters are stuck for the same reason: the two missing thirds of the engine.
So that’s what this newsletter is.
The system, in order. Positioning. The Notes engine. The recommendations engine. Headlines and welcome sequences. The operating rhythm that fits around a real job. Monetisation when you’re ready for it.
AI shows up where I actually use it: ideation, research, drafting, fact-checking, and image creation. The voice is mine. I read every piece aloud before publishing. I verify every cited fact.
Position a Substack that signals authority on day one
Run a Substack Notes engine that compounds week on week
Earn recommendations from publications you actually respect
Write headlines and welcome sequences that hold up at scale
Open a paid tier without breaking the trust you’ve built
Keep the whole thing alive on the hours a working professional actually has
Occasional free articles and notes
Access to the free content above the paywall on articles.
The toolkit underneath the writing:
Paid-subscriber articles below the line on each issue. The working templates, swipe files, and checklists I actually use, with the fields filled in.
Q&A access in Substack Chat. Ask me about your positioning, your homepage, your stuck point, your first paid post. I answer.
50 Substack Notes templates. A swipe file across the five hook families and the three modes. Each one labelled, ready to adapt to your niche. (coming soon)
The Substack Notes Playbook. The deeper reference behind the templates. Anatomy of a Note that travels. The Hook/Feeling/Authority triad. The 10-5-1 daily rule. The mining-three-Notes-from-every-issue pattern. (coming soon)
The 90-Day Step-by-Step Guide to Your First 1,000 Subscribers. A Notion guide that walks you through it day by day, with the decisions, the checkpoints, and the honest post-mortems. (coming soon)
I’ll keep adding to the paid tier as the work earns it.
The point of running a paid tier from day one is that the toolkit grows with the publication.
Professionals and knowledge workers building a Substack newsletter alongside the day job, including doctors, lawyers, therapists, coaches, consultants, academics, financial advisors, senior PMs and designers, founders with a day job etc.
The About page covers who this is and isn’t for in more detail.
Learn more here: Grow Your Authority Newsletter
Best,
Dr Adrian
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