Tune back in to your creativity

What really matters to you?

Hello there. How’s your week going? Is it just us or has January dissolved into a Fast February and if we blink twice we’ll already be in March? Perhaps you can also see an overflowing inbox, to-do lists as long as your arms and maybe even self doubt joining the 2024 chat? Can it just not, though?

If you’ve mentally nodded away to any or all of the above, it might be a great time just to tune back in to what really matters to your creativity. We have a few guiding principles here at our Soirée, and while this could be our own manifesto of sorts, we hope you might find encouragement and timely reminders below. (Then feel empowered to get right back to your glorious work. The other stuff can wait.)

Let’s start with one of our favourites:

Your creativity comes first.

This is a principle we’re deeply committed to, and lies at the heart of all that the both of us do.

Your creativity does not take a backseat to strategy, or to audience-pleasing. It’s a trap we can all fall into, as we gradually begin to create based on what our readers are responding to or asking for, not we are inspired to create, and we risk boxing ourselves in or falling into the trap of audience capture.

We of course want to find a balance with being strategic and responsive: we look at data, we listen to what readers are saying, we market and promote our work, but we don’t make decisions at the expense of our creativity.

Especially when you land on a new platform, it can be easy to head straight to Google and ask: What are the tips and tricks and strategies to grow? And while it’s no secret we believe in collaborating with both strategy and intention, but on Substack in particular, (although we would say anywhere) we want to be known for the quality of our work.

You want to grow an audience because your work deserves it, not because you were in notes every day, tagging people and scrambling to entice people over to your publication. Even if that approach did bring quick initial growth, it’s not going to create an audience that will stick around.

You want an audience that's there because your work speaks to them.

Let your content be the magic that helps you grow.

Lead with generosity, never through fear

Especially when you’re just starting out, you can’t be too generous or give too much away. There’s no need to write from a defensive or people-pleasing place. So, when you face a kind of crossroads in your work, or you’ve come up against fears of scarcity or panic, check in and ask: ‘What’s the generous response here that shows appreciation for my audience?’

This has been our mantra throughout the entire creation of The Substack Soirée. In any of the work we’ve created together, we’ve chosen not to rush anything out, or make decisions in fear but to lean in to the generous answer. It hasn’t lead us astray.

There is no wrong way to show up

As creatives we often swing from a desire to create from a space of complete freedom, with no restrictions or considerations on how or what we should post. But also we want to be told what to do: ‘How often should I post?’ ‘Should I use this format?’ ‘Where do the buttons go?’ We’re just trying to protect ourselves and prevent mistakes, or find the shortcuts to the good stuff. While there are always data-led answers to questions like these, the only way to collect meaningful data is to begin creating and figure out what works for you and your audience. The truth is, there is no wrong unless it's not serving you or your creativity.

Stories are not exclusive to words alone

Stories can be told by both words and pictures. We know this, we see it all throughout the planet: Sculpture, music, artwork, photography, dance, theatre, are all unquestioned forms of storytelling.

Writing and telling stories, even here on Substack are not limited to the written word. Which is amazing news for people new here and wondering if there’s a place for them if they’re not “a real writer”. Yes. There is.

While Substack began as primarily a platform for writers, they’ve been expanding the platform to include and welcome a wider range of creatives and artists, offering storytelling forms like video, images, gallery, audio, podcasts, and more.

If long form writing isn’t your preferred way to tell your story, you get to choose how you package it.

We also have curated a post with 10 ideas for Substack posts that aren’t heavily reliant on words if you’re looking for inspiration.

Charge for value, not for time

Value on Substack is not about frequency, word count or time. It’s about what the reader gets to take away.

Sometimes too much content or jam-packed posts can feel like homework or lose their impact. Someone may get more value out of one clear idea you share in a simple paragraph than in a 5000 word essay. Don’t underestimate what you have to offer or feel like you need to stretch content or offers out for the sake of it seeming more valuable.

Promoting your work is an act of kindness

For some writers and creatives, the lack of value exchange for their work means they have to find work elsewhere and no longer have time to create. And then? The artist misses out on making and sharing gorgeous things and people miss out on value.

Don’t withhold what you have to give if you are able to offer it. Share it with us. Promote it, tell us about it, we don’t want to miss it.

Great writing deserves to be read (and yes, your writing is great).

Just as great creative work deserves to be seen.

It’s why we’re here, after all, isn’t it? Posting on the internet instead of confined to the pages of some leather-bound journal. Most of us want our work to be noticed, enjoyed, read and shared.

While ‘if you build it they will come’ is a heartwarming principle, it’s not always the most reliable strategy when we’ve got bills piling up on the countertop. So alongside support for your craft and creativity, we’re here to talk about strategy too.

And yes, the make-or-break deciding factor of any Substack’s success is, of course, its content. If the writing’s kind of crummy, no amount of strategy or branding is ever going to hook in a readership. Dazzle us with brilliance, though, and we’d happily read it off of a toilet wall. It’s important to keep sight of this fact whenever we start to delve into the strategy side of things.

For those of us who want to create and be paid—(so we can keep creating)—we have to be a little bit savvy too. We love that Substack’s goal is for writers, and more increasingly so, creatives, to be paid for their work. For many of us that means we have more opportunity than ever to explore the best of both worlds: Write, create, be paid. Repeat. 

But we also believe there’s a way to do that without hustle, hacks or any marketing tactic that makes us go: ‘ew’.

No manipulation. No sacrificing your values. No having to pretend that you’re somebody you’re not. Just honest, authentic marketing, to the people who genuinely want what you’re offering to the world.

Aim for excellence not perfection

Excellence looks different in the varying seasons of our lives and businesses.

School holidays, chronic illness flare up or personal stress will mean our level of excellence will look different.

We are big believers in ‘the MVP’. We’re all for minimum viable products over unachievable yet alluring perfection, iterations and what we like to call: living documents. There’s always the chance to come back and make tweaks or overhaul. The pivot is real and its existence disempowers the need for perfection.

Connection is crucial

We all love to know we’re not alone. That other people are as weird (or weirder) than us. As creatives and writers, we want to be supported, encouraged, uplifted, inspired, moved, enchanted, delighted… and we hope to do that for others too. 

Writing can be so solitary and insular, but it's also a very vulnerable and personal act. By sharing our work with others we can also build a community of like-minded people who understand and appreciate our work. We can get instant feedback, ideas and inspiration, motivation, support and growth. And in return, our audience gets better and better content - more of us showing up in the way that we always wanted to.

Good online communities are a meeting place for like-minded souls and a place to be seen and heard. We can make friends there, learn new things there, and feel more connected to ourselves in the process.

Yes, we’ve said this before but it’s a big one. Every single one of these principles here are about helping you figure out how to be as “you” as possible and show up that way.

Because as easy as it sounds, it's actually one of the hardest things to do in a world that's constantly telling us to be somebody else and to do things differently and that who we are isn't right or good enough.

So ‘you do you boo’ is a simple sentence but a difficult thing to do.

Consider all that we share here a challenge to your unique brand of creativity. Choose what works, leave what doesn’t, and at all times, make room for fun, curiosity and play.

If you’d like to hear more about how you can show up in a way that feels right for you, have a listen to this podcast episode: 10 “Commandments” for an Amazing Substack

Anything here jump out to you at just the right time? Leave a comment and let us know, we love hearing from you.

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