Grow: How Carissa Potter built an audience around being human

This is the continuation of our Grow interview series, designed to share the nuts and bolts of how writers have gone independent and grown their audiences on Substack. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

We invited Carissa Potter, who writes Bad at Keeping Secrets, to share insights on cultivating intimacy through her essays and interviews while being disciplined with deadlines and writing through hard moments.

Carissa Potter

What’s your Substack about in one sentence?

Bad at Keeping Secrets is about sorting through the mess of life—hoping to make meaning.

Who reads your Substack? 

I think it would be coastal female-identifying beings between the ages of 24–40. 

I am always surprised when people tell me they read my newsletter. At SF Art Book Fair, someone named Beth told me it helped get her through the pandemic. I live for moments like that. It gives me a sense of belonging, of connection, of a shared humanity that made the hard times worth it.

What do you uniquely offer readers? 

I hope to be someone who accepts you or helps you feel OK in your own skin and be OK with the uncomfortable parts of being human.

Growth by the numbers

• Started Substack: January 2021

• Free subscribers: 16,650

• Paid subscribers: 180

Free subscriber list as of July 2022.

Why did you decide to start a Substack?

It sounds silly and lofty, but I wanted to become a writer. I wanted to move conversations I was having in single images on social media over to a longer forum. I wanted to discuss the details. 

I also wanted a platform to hold me accountable and develop my creative practice. It’s hard for me to do things without a deadline, and, in a very real way, my Substack is my deadline.

It’s hard for me to do things without a deadline, and, in a very real way, my Substack is my deadline.

Content strategy

• Essays: I aim to create closeness, understanding, and acceptance by sifting through the beautiful emotional mess of life. Two of my top posts give you a feel: On My Last Night With You and How Emotional Granularity Works.

• Interviews: These are intimate conversations with people who spend a lot of time thinking about what it means to be human right now in creative, scientific, and therapeutic disciplines.

Carissa’s header to free subscribers

Carissa reminds free subscribers what they are missing out on by teasing paid subscriptions in email headers and footers. Learn more: How do I edit email banners, headers, and footers?

What have you learned about interview outreach?

Famous people will talk to you. It still surprises me when someone says yes to sharing an hour of their time. 

People are busy. Keep the first email short and put what’s in it for the person you want to interview at the forefront. I wait to send the actual info on when and how the interview will work until I get a response. 

Rejections happen all the time, but often, when I push a little, people can spare a half hour of time. It is important to be flexible yet offer exact times. You definitely have to find a balance when asking people to work or collaborate with you.

What is the sharpest insight you can offer other writers about growing a Substack publication?

This is not new, but you have to share your work everywhere you can. With your mom’s book group. With your neighbors who make you jam. With your friends from undergrad. Whatever. If people don’t know about it, they can’t enjoy it. 

If there is one thing I can count on to be really reliable, it is that if you really pour your heart into something, there will be someone out there who needs to hear it; you just have to find them.

If there is one thing I can count on to be really reliable, it is that if you really pour your heart into something, there will be someone out there who needs to hear it; you just have to find them.

What has been a meaningful moment for the growth of your publication?

I have been thinking a lot about silver linings and our American way of thinking: “Hard things make you strong.” I don’t agree. I would choose to not go through the hard stuff if I could. 

However, I do think going through hard things is good for one thing: creativity. There was a hard moment last year that I wrote about. I felt a little better after sharing it. I found understanding in why it was so hard by leaning into the feelings. 

Who’s another Substack writer you’ve turned to for guidance or inspiration? 

Emily Oster is a trusted source of information in my friend group on parenting. I don’t always agree with her, but I do think her way of reframing parenting choices is always interesting. 

Gabby who writes Design Mom: She is an amazing storyteller. She also has the keenest eye for trends, and she writes on super niche stuff, but no matter what the topic, her newsletters are page-turners.

I really like how Haley Nahman’s writing is colloquial yet elegant. I am always interested in the topics she tackles. If there is a time when I am feeling out of touch, I feel like she is a trusted friend that grounds me in reality.

Takeaways

• Pour yourself into your work. Carissa’s intimacy in her essays and with interviewees allows readers to feel close, understood, and accepted.

• Set a deadline. As an independent writer, you are in charge. For Carissa, committing to subscribers and publishing on Substack is the system that helps her do great work.

• Be specific but flexible when collaborating. People are busy. When doing outreach for interviews or collaborations, keep it simple by proposing timing and constraints for the conversation while creating room for discussion on how to best work together.

What questions do you have for Carissa that we didn’t ask? Leave them in the comments!

To read more from this series on growing your publication, see our interviews with Jørgen Veisdal, Anne Byrn, Nishant Jain, Michael Fritzell, Glenn Loury, Erik Hoel, Jessica DeFino, Mike Sowden, Elizabeth Held, Jonathan Nunn, Polina Pompliano, Michael Williams, Judd Legum, and Caroline Chambers.