The Secret to Surviving the Substack Summer Slump is Hiding in Your Subscriber Tab

Tomorrow: 2 ways to find the real source of your subscriber momentum

If you've been staring at your Substack dashboard lately wondering why everything feels harder, you're not alone.

Growth feels sluggish, engagement feels forced and that little voice is whispering that maybe you've lost your touch.

But here's what I've discovered after filtering through hundreds of thousands of subscriber data points: the secret to surviving your Substack Summer Slump is probably inside your Subscriber Tab... and tomorrow I'm showing my founding subscribers exactly how to crack the code.

I've spotted patterns that will completely flip how you think about audience building, and I likely know where to look inside your data to find the insights and answers you’re seeking.

The Instagram Reality Check

When I tell mission-driven authors that Instagram is often their weakest converter to paid subscriptions, the room goes quiet. I regularly work with creative entrepreneurs who are spending hours daily crafting beautiful Instagram content, convinced they're "showing up authentically" for their audience.

But when we dig into their subscriber data, Instagram consistently underperforms compared to other sources. I've seen authors with thousands of Instagram followers discover that their newsletter recommendations from other Substack creators are converting at significantly higher rates.