What Helps Me Publish on Substack Without Formulas

An anniversary-ish reflection on how I keep showing up — without burning out, masking or losing the thread of who I am

My Substack anniversary is somewhere in the summer.

I realize that’s not very precise, as anniversaries go.

But when I first made an account in 2022, I was a blurry-eyed, newly diagnosed autistic first-time mom. Things were foggy. I was exhausted and watching Substack tutorials after my four-month-old daughter went to bed.

Today I’m celebrating that I started publishing at all — even if it was, at first, more like dilly-dallying before falling asleep at the kitchen table.

Eventually, I caught the Substack “media garden” itch and began treating this less like an experiment and more like a real publishing practice.

Substack became an incubator — a way to keep writing without masking or burning out. A place to discover whether the real me, my real ideas, my real writing, could survive on the Internet.

I was also deeply skeptical. I knew the old marketing and writing advice that had pushed me to burnout, again and again. I threw it all out — and felt very silly doing so.

Who do you think you are, not having a funnel or high-pressure call to action? Can you really tell that story? Will people still want to read you if they know that about you?

But for me, ignoring the rules and listening more deeply to my own creative voice (and taking action on my creative instincts) is what began to change things.

Of course, along the way I saw plenty of get-attention-quick schemers on Substack.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 Just try this for 30 days and you’ll be amazed!🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

It always sounds appealing, doesn’t it? To skip the hard parts and get to the good stuff.

But I know from experience: using someone else’s formula is a recipe for disaster. Every time. It doesn’t work for my brain, my creative practice or my writing inspiration.

Because of how I’m wired, I have to build from the ground up.

That doesn’t mean I do everything alone or without support. (I hire experts whenever I can afford to!)

But it does mean that to build something I can thrive inside, I have to piece it together like a puzzle — trying one thing here, another there and testing it against my lived experience. Over time, I’ve learned to distinguish what’s simply uncomfortable from what’s actually unsustainable. I practice toggling between the two often.

This process has made publishing a newsletter feel less like chasing a quick win and more like tending a practice.

Everything comes down to practice — even publishing on Substack.

So if you’re anything like me — someone whose sensory needs and creativity collide with real-world pressure — and you know the old robotic ways of publishing do more harm than good, I want to share what’s made things different for me in the last three years on Substack.

These are the five things that have helped me stay connected to my online publishing journey, build a bestselling newsletter and slowly re-emerge as a truer, more compassionate version of myself online.

1. Systems That Honor How I Work, Create and Ideate

Years ago, I was mentored by a human factors engineer who designed systems for hospitals and aviation — not to blame people for human error, but to build environments where humans could function without crashing (literally and metaphorically) or burning out.

That framing changed so much about how I see the world and how I approached publishing in every single professional role since. The systems we build for ourselves on Substack matter deeply. Because there are endless ways to design a system, here are a few of my non-negotiables:

• The system has to flex and help me move forward. It can’t just let me spin in circles, but it also can’t crush my energy. My publishing calendar, for example, flexes intuitively with me — but it also has enough structure to keep things moving.

• The system can’t silence or exhaust me. I keep my calendar bare-bones. I know that remembering 6 or 8 color-coded cells costs creative energy I don’t have to spare.

• The system serves my creativity, not the other way around. If I find myself uninspired or ready to pull the ripcord (as K.C. Davis and I talked about), I pause to check whether my systems have turned into goblins.

2. Data as a Tool for Connection

There are a lot of moving parts in publishing a newsletter. Thanks to my background in marketing and analytics, I was curious about Substack’s backend. (Spoiler: it’s scattered, which is why I created a resource to help make sense of it and walk through the data quarterly.)¹

There are plenty of people who use data to dominate, manipulate or force results. That’s not my approach.

If you, like me, light up when someone comments on your writing or you find yourself texting poems to friends in the middle of the day — data can become a tool for relationship. It’s not about control or coercion; it’s about connection.

Used with care, data helps you understand who’s reading — and how to keep befriending them.

3. Creative Nourishment & Community That Support My Sensory Needs

In the last few years, I’ve come to know my “sensory portals” — the experiences that wake me up and re-energize me. (See above: friends who text poems.)

When I feel stuck in my writing, one of the best things I can do is try a new recipe — something that involves chopping herbs, working with new seasonings and fully engaging my senses.

Sleep is a portal too. I regularly check in to make sure I’m prioritizing creative nourishment and relational connection. Without those, I’m just tired and grumpy and publishing becomes a drag instead of an inspiring part of my journey to relaunch my career.²

4. Knowing Which Writing Season I’m In

I reflect often on where I’ve been, where I am and where I’m going. That contemplative practice helped me identify the four Writing Seasons that most writers (myself included) move through over time:

Musing, Tending, Craft and Rest.

Knowing my current Writing Season helps me operate with more compassion and clarity. It gives me a way to prioritize how I spend my time, energy and resources — so that I’m nurturing my writing in its current form, not forcing it to be somewhere it isn’t.

5. Tuning Into My Somatic Signals

Publishing online has a lot of moving parts. I tend to want to deep-dive into every decision — even something like sending an upgrade/check-in email becomes a philosophical question about relational integrity.

But I live in the real world, with real limitations. So I’ve learned to tune into my somatic signals — what my body is trying to tell me before my brain finishes the sentence.

Those signals often unlock something essential — a memory, a reminder, a story, an instinct — that brings clarity when my brain alone can’t get there.

Let me be clear: there’s no one-size-fits-all roadmap to publishing, especially if you’re navigating neurodivergence, burnout history or creative tenderness.

But this is the shape of what’s worked for me.

It’s not perfect, it evolves with me as I’m changing, too — but it’s deeply honest.

And it’s helped me keep writing, keep sharing and keep showing up.

If you want to build a sustainable publishing practice that works with — not against — how you’re wired, you’re welcome to join me as a paid subscriber.

For $49/year, you’ll get access to all my latest essays and resources inside the Publishing Studio Library along with:

• My Substack Launch Materials — designed to support your voice, not shape you into someone else’s formula

• Guides on how trust works inside the publishing relationship — and how to understand and connect with your audience through the lens of trust

• A self-guided data workshop — to help you use audience insights in a way that feels relational and creatively energizing, not overwhelming

This is all part of how I share what I knew before Substack about publishing while also sharing insights from my time as a publishing strategist on the ground with other writers and small teams.

If you’re drawn to the idea of a publishing practice built on care, intuitive wayfinding and connection, I’d love to welcome you.

1. My paid subscribers have access to a Google Sheets template I designed for gathering their Substack data once quarter. You can take a look at last quarter’s here.

2. I’m in the middle of a big life transition right now and relaunching my career. If you’re interested in how I support established authors and small teams using intuition and data, take a look at my store here.