We chatted about Notes - how to make them, how to schedule them, how to share them & how to find analytics as well as a hack for getting ai to really help you sort what the analytics are telling you. We also talked about ideas for monetizing on Substack beyond subscriptions.

So yesterday, @Ciska Venter posted a note that just cracked me up no end. Hence the emojis... Also yesterday I made sweet potato ice cream - looks like ice cream and tastes like ice cream but a little goes a very long way... Not sure if it's a dessert or an unusual dinner side dish. @Abigail Ringger mentioned she makes pumpkin ice cream - so that's going on the list next - after all it IS pumpkin spice season how could I not? I definitely feel it will be a staple because I like ice cream but the store-bought stuff just doesn't agree with my system these days. Not sure if it's because I'm saging as @Karen Langston says or the food supply has gone over the edge into not food category all together because I find more and more things I've eaten in my life simply aren't any longer edible for me. Are you finding this too or do manufacturers where you live still make food with actual natural ingredients? (as opposed to being Frankensteined in a lab) 🌻🪴☘️✒️☘️🪴🌻 Let's talk about going live on Substack for a bit shall we? Right up front - the only time I've gone live on Substack on my computer by myself it was a massive FAIL. But I have gone live with others successfully, starting with @Deborah Oppenehim last year back when you had to use the app to go live and couldn't schedule them. It's way better these days right? I've been going live with @Tracy Nicholas on Thursdays for the last couple months. So, I've gotten to know what it's like to be on the guest side of things. Because of my issues with going live alone - I often recommend people go live with a buddy and that led to ...

Do you ever go through times when you have so many ideas you have to have a conversation with yourself about not acting on them all? Sigh - yeah for those of us with that bent - the struggle is real. I've been having all the fun with the hobo homesteading publication, Pinterest and the little pop up Printify shop. The Intentional Pin Tool makes creating pins that are actually pins to things people are looking for so fast to make. To actually seo a pin properly the old way - often called the Bubble Method - takes a bit of know-how and finesses - the tool does it in about a minute. All you do is add your url (or if it's new - copy and paste the content - even the product description) then paste in your board list and presto whamo up to 7 pin ideas with the image headline, title and description along with the best board to pin it to. By day 3 of a brand-new Pinterest account setup the way I share (just 7 boards) Pins are already getting views and likes. Normally, new accounts languish with no views on their pins forever unless they play the Pin Swap game which I actually think hurts your account more than helps it. And how frustrating is that to go look at your Pinterest account and think I did all that work, and no one is seeing my pins? That's what the Intentional Pin community exists to help with. I'll be making videos later today showing how the tool works and how I use it. In the meantime, if you think you'd like to leverage Pinterest to get traffic to your content (that you've already created) in a way that is quick, easy and effective... dm me and I'll hook you up. (And yes, you can use the images & shorts Substack makes as pins! You really just need to get the seo part right for them to be effective and that's what the tool will do for you) 🌷🍁🌺🔥🌺🍁🌷 Coming up this week... Tomorrow we will do the Q&A /SOCIAL HOUR at 1pm mtn - come join us for the hour or stop by for 5 minutes - it's very loose and not recorded. Bring your questions, share your wins or just chat about what's happening in your life.

Today is Labor Day here in the US - to me this is a silly holiday - maybe because I didn't grow up in the US it never really made sense to me. Though weirdly seems like there are several significant events in my life tied to this date. On this day 4 years ago, I embraced sobriety. It wasn't the white knuckle gotta do this sort of thing - there was a decision and an encounter with a hawk. At the time I felt the hawk was telling me it would work out and it was the path I should take. Seems like he was correct. Apparently, I have Ravens and Hawks for guides. I had never seen the Hawk in the neighborhood before or after that even, though the Ravens come to visit for a bit each spring. 🌾🌷🌼🌻🌼🌷🌾 Okay - let's talk notes - specifically how to find the analytics of notes. First, you go to your dashboard then click analytics>growth>new subscribers Then under the Substack option click the little down arrow and you will see all the parts of Substack that have brought you subscribers. If you click notes you can see the individual notes that have brought in subscribers. You can also click on the individual note and look at the notes analytics. 🌾🌷🌼🌻🌼🌷🌾 One of the biggest benefits of participating in the daily notes boost thread over here is that it gets us talking on Substack to each other and to others not in the community - it allows the platform to find people who might be interested in us and follow and subscribe to us. Consistency is important with notes, chats, lives and articles on Substack - but really, I think the biggest driver of engaged subscribers is to be engaging yourself. Not only with content from other members here but also on the platform in general. You don't have to go "viral" with notes to grow your subscriber base either. You just need to post and interact with others. Be you - give people things they can relate to about you in the notes and chats. You don't need to be all business all the time - people like to connect with people - even if you think of yourself as a leader - get personal - tell your story - be the hero in it.

I slept in this morning—it was pretty glorious. Then I meandered through some emails. Derek Hughes had a piece about sacred cows. 🐮 His point was that your firsthand experience, honest testing, and willingness to challenge stale advice are what make familiar subjects feel fresh and valuable. It brought to mind the Gist Filter I built into the Substack Post Builder. #🛠️ Use the Substack Post Builder It helps you see what’s already being said about the subject you want to explore, spot the saturated answers, and uncover the unique perspective or angle only you can bring. This isn’t about having AI write an article for you. It’s about using AI to help shape your ideas, experiences, and opinions into content that positions you outside the noise. You can use it to develop video ideas too! I demonstrated this feature during last Thursday’s Monetize Your Mission Mastermind, and it reminded me just how powerful this little tool is. 💜 Premium members: You’ll find the Substack Post Builder inside Write Your First Substack Post—Publish with Confidence in the classroom. ✨ Want access? Upgrade to Premium for $111 for the year. You’ll also receive the Substack Setup Intensive as part of your Premium membership. 🥒🍄🫚🌻🫚🍄🥒 I’ve got a mystery growing in the cucumber section of my garden! I wrote about it on the Hobo Homesteading publication last night. Will you weigh in with your theories—or suggest a name for this crazy critter? 🥒🍄🫚🌻🫚🍄🥒 Post your links to Notes, chats, Lives, and articles below for boosting. We’ll like, comment, and restack where appropriate. Have a terrific Saturday!