Grow: How Leslie Stephens’s honesty paid off
The Grow interview series is 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
, who writes , to share how engaging in genuine, honest conversations with her subscribers and collaborating with fellow writers led to her biggest spikes in growth after launching.
What’s your Substack about in one sentence?
Morning Person is the weekly newsletter I always wanted in my inbox. It’s packed with obsessively curated entertainment recommendations, plus ideas and essays around living a meaningful life.
Who reads your Substack?
Primarily women, across all age groups, although my subscriber base has widened since I began publishing over a year ago.
What do you uniquely offer readers?
An antidote to modern lifestyle blogs with genuine recommendations, not filtered through sponsored partnerships or affiliate links.
What’s your content strategy?
Schedule: I publish my primary newsletter every Tuesday, with bonus issues at least twice a month and occasional community threads.
Format: In writing every single issue, I ask myself, “What is the reader getting out of this?” I want every issue to have value.
I begin with three recommendations, which can include a show, book, movie, recipe, podcast, and occasional product. The first two recommendations are free to all readers, but I add a paywall before the third.
Then I head into the “meat” of the issue, which always begins with a short personal essay. That’s followed by either an interview with an expert or actionable recommendations, like products, tips, or original recipes—a nod to my days as a food editor. I’ve been including a lot more podcast-style interviews lately, which is a lot more work on my end but adds a nice variety to the content.
Learn more: How do I publish a free preview of a paid post?
Process: Anytime I’m not actively writing, or working on school or my novel, I’m vetting content for the newsletter.
Growth by the numbers
Started publishing online: I had a presence on the blog I worked for, Cupcakes and Cashmere, and around 20K followers on Instagram when I launched Morning Person.
Started Substack with paid subscriptions: August 2021
Total subscribers: 17,350
Paid subscribers: 5,750. That includes a number of comps. I give away a number of subscriptions every month to readers who want to subscribe but are unable to due to financial need.
Meaningful growth moments
Planning. I applied to graduate schools in the fall of 2020 and began conceptualizing and planning Morning Person early the next year. A lot of thought and many drafts went into creating the newsletter you see today.
Launching. The week between quitting my job of 5+ years as the editor of a lifestyle blog and beginning my master’s in addictions counseling, I announced Morning Person on Instagram. I published my first post four days later. After a decade of working in lifestyle and food journalism, I was itching to start something reflective of my own voice and interests and wasted no time in starting it! I was blown away by the immediate response and number of readers who were excited to support my new venture.
Revamping the logo. When I launched Morning Person, I created all of the logos, illustrations, and branding myself. In July of this year, I hired a talented artist, Claudie Lamarre, whose work I came across while traveling in Canada, to revamp my logo. I still make all of the graphics myself (this is a one-woman operation!) but love what her designs bring to the newsletter and have worked with her since to create more line illustrations for the newsletter.
Opening up to my readers. In Issue #51, I made a last-minute decision (about six hours before the issue went live) to be honest about the fact that my husband and I were going through a separation. I called it “Reading Between the Lines.” In between the post I had planned to publish, which was largely filler to mask my heartbreak, I wrote about what was really going on—I was living in an Airbnb since July, and couch-surfing at friends’ since the start of August. I was terrified to publish about my separation but recognized it was important to write about. So much lifestyle journalism glosses over the hard things, to project a “perfect” life. The morning it went live, I received hundreds of emails from readers who told me they were going through similar things, which opened my eyes to the importance of writing vulnerably, despite it being so painful. My husband reads every post about our separation before it goes live; respecting him and our shared heartbreak remains a priority.
Today. Now I try to balance the lifestyle-y content I still love, like how I designed my first solo apartment or tips for creating a “capsule” pantry, with the bigger life things, like an interview with a psychotherapist about my “quarterlife crisis,” which was effectively a counseling session I made public.
Why did you decide to go paid?
I went paid immediately. I had a sense that other people were hungry for the same content I knew I wanted to create and understood that having a paid subscription would allow me to create content free of sponsors or affiliate links, which was important to me.
Also, grad school is expensive, and I hoped this Substack would help me pay for it. My Substack is my entire source of income at the moment, although my agent and I will be shopping my first novel to publishers at the start of next year, so fingers crossed!
Also, grad school is expensive, and I hoped this Substack would help me pay for it. My Substack is my entire source of income at the moment, although my agent and I will be shopping my first novel to publishers at the start of next year, so fingers crossed!
What’s the sharpest insight you can offer other writers about growing a Substack publication?
Since launching, a lot of my readers have come from other Substack publications. Be sure to recommend and interact with other Substack writers—support them, and they’ll likely support you too!
How does Substack differ from other social media platforms in terms of your relationships with your readers?
Instagram employs the same strategies slot machines do to keep its users engaged and literally addicted. To keep up with the algorithms, and remain relevant and well-compensated for their work, content creators have to create engaging content on a 24-hour cycle (Brooke Erin Duffy does amazing research in this area). As a result, it is nearly impossible to be genuine on social media—there are no off days, nor room for boring content.
As an Instagram creator, I realized I was no longer capturing my life on Instagram but living my life in order to capture it on Instagram. As both a creator and consumer, I felt anxious and depressed anytime I interacted with the app. With Substack, I don’t have to work with an algorithm to make sure my work is seen—you either subscribe because you enjoy the content I create, or you don’t. It lends itself to a much stronger community, where I am able to interact with a smaller group of subscribers who resonate with the topics I write about.
With Substack, I don’t have to work with an algorithm to make sure my work is seen—you either subscribe because you enjoy the content I create, or you don’t.
Can you tell us about a meaningful moment engaging with readers?
When I wrote about my separation from my husband, I turned the comments off, but hundreds of readers reached out directly to me.
Many who live where I do, in Portland, Oregon, offered to meet for coffee. I took them up on it, and many of those coffees with readers blossomed into true friendships. I’m planning an in-person meetup with readers in the new year!
I also recently published an issue on the wrong day, before I had finished writing it. I was horrified (there’s no undo—it was already in inboxes!), but the responses in the comments were so supportive and warm. One reader wrote, “Thank you for this mistake! I needed it so badly.”
Who’s another Substack writer you turn to for guidance and inspiration?
My friend
has a wonderful Substack, , and we are in a constant dialogue of supporting each other. I’m also an enormous fan of and am in awe of her reporting on , but also find inspiration in her down-to-earth voice and the genuine way she connects with her readers. I recently met ,who writes , in person, and it was love at first sight. She and many fellow Substackers, including , , and , have been generous with their time, allowing me to interview and feature them on Morning Person. There’s a real camaraderie I’ve found with other Substack writers!Takeaways
Convert your free readers using the paywall. While the majority of Leslie’s posts are only for paid subscribers, she always sends out a free preview to the rest of her subscribers. This is a powerful tool for conversion, without the work of writing an extra post. Your writing is your best marketing.
Collaborate with fellow writers. Tools on Substack like recommendations and guest posts make it simple to amplify others’ work.
Show up where you care. Leslie writes honestly and genuinely, capturing her life at her own pace free from any algorithm. Ultimately, this lends itself to building a stronger community with subscribers—so much so that she made offline friendships too.
What questions do you have for
that we didn’t ask? Leave them in the comments!To read more from this series on growing your publication, see our interviews with Becky Malinsky, Tim Casperson, Marlee Grace, Gergely Orosz, Anne Kadet, Category Pirates, BowTiedBull, Justin Gage, Noah Smith, Carissa Potter, 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.
Share this post