I Built a Simple 3-Step System that Took Me From Zero to 20,000+ Subscribers and 200K in Revenue

Five years of back-to-back client calls…a calendar that never seemed to have any breathing room. Good money, but very little freedom.

That was my life before I started this newsletter.

I spent years writing resumes and coaching clients four or five days a week. If I didn’t work, I didn’t get paid.

When I started my Substack, I was genuinely excited. I also had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

So I followed the usual advice…

I published consistently…share my posts on LinkedIn…tested every growth strategy that sounded promising.

The problem wasn’t effort. I had plenty of that.

The problem was that I was winging it every day and hoping something would eventually work. I didn’t have a clear direction or any kind of repeatable system.

I was throwing ideas at the wall and waiting to see what stuck.

If that’s how you’re approaching your Substack right now, I understand the frustration. I lived it for months.

Eventually, I got tired of the randomness.

I stopped trying to follow every piece of advice I came across and started paying closer attention to what was actually working for me.

I tested different approaches, documented the results. I stopped doing the things that created activity without producing meaningful growth or sales.

Slowly, three clear steps emerged.

It wasn’t an elaborate framework that required me to spend my entire day online. It was three practical things done consistently and in the right order.

Not because I stumbled onto one lucky viral post.

I finally built something repeatable and stayed with it long enough to let it work.

And I’ve taken everything I learned and organized it into the same three steps for other writers.

I’ve turned each step into its own training.

You can start with the one that solves your biggest problem right now, or work through all three as a complete system. Each step builds naturally on what comes before it.

If you’ve been winging your Substack and wondering why growth or sales still feel random, this is the roadmap I wish I’d had when I started.

Here’s how it works.

This is the step many writers rush past.

They start publishing before they’ve clearly answered a basic question:

“Why should someone subscribe to this particular newsletter when they have thousands of others to choose from?”

I didn’t have a good answer when I started.

My early content was helpful, but it could’ve come from almost anyone. I hadn’t figured out how my story, experience, and perspective connected to what I wanted to teach.

Your story is one of the few things nobody else can duplicate.

Advice can be copied. Information can be found anywhere, especially now. But nobody else has your exact collection of experiences, mistakes, opinions, and lessons.

I’ll show you how to clarify your direction, position your newsletter, create content people want to subscribe for, and use Substack’s growth features more intentionally.

These are the same foundational steps that helped me grow from zero to more than 20,000 subscribers.

Join the Substack Growth Masterclass

Once the foundation is in place, you need a consistent way for people to discover it.

For me, that became Notes.

Notes has been responsible for a significant share of my daily subscriber growth. During one 30-day period, it brought more than 900 new subscribers to my newsletter.

But posting consistently isn’t enough by itself.

Some Notes receive plenty of likes and bring almost no subscribers. Others quietly introduce your work to new readers for days after you publish them.

The difference comes down to what you post, how you present your ideas, and whether you give the right reader a reason to visit your profile and subscribe.

…what types of Notes attract subscribers, how to turn your existing content into multiple Notes, how to avoid wasting time on empty engagement, and how to create a routine you can follow in approximately 20 minutes a day.

If you join by Tuesday, August 18, you’ll also get access to the August Notes Challenge.

Beginning Thursday, August 20, I’ll send you one focused assignment, prompt, or template each day for seven days so you can start putting the Workshop strategy into practice.

Join the Notes Growth Workshop

Growing your newsletter is exciting, but subscribers alone don’t automatically produce income.

Many writers wait until they have a massive audience before creating something to sell.

I wouldn’t.

I made my first $1,000 through Substack with fewer than 500 subscribers.

You don’t need tens of thousands of readers, and you don’t need to create an enormous course containing everything you know.

Your first product could be a Google Doc, a template, a short recorded workshop, or a focused guide that solves one specific problem your readers keep asking about.

Simple digital products like these have generated more than $200,000 in sales for me.

…validate it before wasting time creating something nobody wants, turn it into a clear offer, and start selling it through the content and emails you’re already writing.

The goal isn’t to create more work for yourself.

It’s to create something useful once that can continue helping—and selling to—new readers over time.

Join the Digital Product Masterclass

You don’t have to solve everything at once.

• If your publication still lacks a clear direction and growth strategy, start with the Substack Growth Masterclass.

• If you’ve built something valuable but not enough new readers are finding it, start with the Notes Growth Workshop.

• If you have readers but nothing clear for them to buy, start with the Digital Product Masterclass.

A lot of writers choose all three because the pieces are meant to work together:

Build the foundation. Help people discover it. Create something useful to sell.

That’s the complete system.

Earlier this month, I took a week off and went to Cabo.

I barely wrote, didn’t promote much, and wasn’t sitting in front of my laptop every day trying to keep everything moving.

My Substack growth and product sales didn’t suddenly stop.

That doesn’t mean this is passive, it’s not. I still write, promote my work, answer questions, and improve what I’ve created.

But it’s very different from my old resume-writing and coaching work, where taking a day off automatically meant earning less money.

That’s what I wanted this system to change.

I didn’t want to stop writing. I wanted the things I’d already written and created to have a longer life.

Everything I’ve learned while building that is inside these three steps.

Keep writing,

Wes

Question: Which step are you working on right now? If you’re not sure, leave a comment and I’ll help point you in the right direction.