I help people rethinking corporate life redesign their careers and lifestyle so it's more energizing and creative . My target audience will often be on Substack but have not a lot of subscribers. They have this desire to do something more entrepreneurial or creative but aren't backing themselves, creating the space, really believe it's possible. I'm not sure how to think about building my audience using the Follower Strategy that Carrie mentions in the Notes course. I was thinking that maybe I follow people who I'd want to interview on my Substack Talkshow? Or maybe I look for people that have less followers than me... But since I have 1.2k people with less followers aren't typically very active yet on the platform. Also, anyone know what Substack showing me when I scan people's followers and subscribers? It's not the full list. Usually there are the biggest people at the top and then it goes down to just people with profiles but no followers, yes? And it's definitely not showing all the people that Subscribe. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and guidance xx

Hey everyone. Good to be here. I'm Derek, a writer and creator based in Manchester. I run the Irresistible Writer which delivers practical writing tools to paid subscribers every week. I came to this the way most people do. Writing on the side, posting into silence, not entirely sure I hadn't missed my window. I kept going anyway. Now I run paid cohorts and live masterclasses, and earns enough that I handed in my notice. That part still catches me off guard when I think about it. The thing I'm probably most proud of sits outside the subscriber count. I landed paid commissions from national magazines and got radio work, without a platform, without contacts, just by understanding how to pitch. I've since built a programme teaching exactly that. Writing, for me, has always been the engine. Every piece you publish is a small asset. It finds people, builds trust, opens doors you didn't know existed. That's what I'm here to talk about. Looking forward to learning from everyone here.

If you're not taking Substack Notes seriously yet, this is your sign. Notes are my #1 growth lever — and this is the tool that runs the whole system. My Notes Tool does the heavy lifting: - Write a month of Notes in one sitting — it pulls from every post I've ever published so the voice stays mine - Show up daily without touching the app — schedule weeks in advance - Keep earning subscribers from old wins — best-performing Notes auto-republish every 4 weeks - Clear every comment in minutes — all engagement in one feed, reply with voice text - Know what's actually converting — Substack analytics in one clean dashboard - Post when your audience is online — it tells you the exact best time If Notes feels like a chore, this turns it into a system. Drop a 🚀 if you want my weekly Notes batching workflow next. -