We invited Mike Sowden, who writes Everything is Amazing, to share his insights on cultivating authenticity, promoting “wow” moments, and riding the wave of virality.
Thank you for your generosity in sharing, Mike! I am happy to hear that this has brought you back to enthusiasm and optimism. You in turn have brought that same spirit to readers.
The idea of seasons is so sharp and interesting to me. Where did you first get this idea?
Thank you, Katie! I'm so grateful you asked me to do this...
Like pretty much every creative idea I think I've ever had, the idea of seasons was stolen from all my storytelling heroes. My newsletter is...a somewhat desperate attempt to sound just a little bit like the total brilliance of the podcast Radiolab, and they've worked very loosely in seasons from the beginning. But also, I've been a fan of serialised storytelling for a long while - the way writers can build financial models around it (see: Charles Dickens, who did the serialised newsletter model first, except all *by hand*, with paper versions & printing presses and a readership of tens of thousands, which blows my mind.)
So I had serials in the back of my mind for maybe a decade, even though I've come to paid newslettering only recently. It's very much not a new idea, and it's VERY much not mine. :)
And I would recommend everyone writing a newsletter gets hold of his Steal Like An Artist trilogy ("Steal Like An Artist" - "Show Your Work" - "Keep Going") and makes a truly stupid amount of notes from them, because everything in those books is solid gold.
So delighted to see Mike's success! I discovered Mike during his first viral success -- the one about pillars of light -- and have loved everything he's done since.
As an enthusiastic fan of Everything Is Amazing, I loved reading this! Thanks for sharing insights and thoughts and, as ever, some welcome moments of true authenticity.
As an enthusiastic fan of On The Commons, I am glad you were first to comment because hopefully EVERYONE will click through and read your beautiful writing.
Stop making work for me, Mike. (J/k, you're a treasure! And I am behind but also eagerly looking for more of your writing on oceans ...
Speaking of which, the 10/11-year-olds' textbook I was working on last week had the kiddos reading a biography of oceanographer Sylvia Earle and her two weeks living underwater. What an amazing person! Talk about curiosity about the world being sparked at a young age ...)
Being someone who's new to Substack, thanks to Mr. Mike here who inspired me, I'm only thrilled to see this interview for so many reasons. I have enjoyed Mike's work for many years now, even worked together at certian points and I can only confirm how amazing his brain is, which is no wonder that his newsletter is as amazing. I am grateful for people like you, Mike, because you inspire soooooo many of us all the time. Your inspiration seems in fact timeless and that's a treasure. And this interview with every single golden nugget you share will be helpful for us newbies and everyone yet to come. I'm truly enjoying Substack - it brought my writing back somehow. So I have to thank you and this amazing platform for doing all that you're doing. Hugs!!! To many more newsletters and successes! 🙌🏼
Dr. Mariana, as so many of us have known for a decade now, you are an absolute treasure. (And I'm super-excited to see what you're going to do with your new Substack on daily health. I am grateful to see your wisdom finding a new creative outlet.) Hooray!
Congrats on making this your full-time job, Mike. That's also my goal and it makes me happy to see others succeed. Where do you usually go for inspiration, to find your topics, if you will? I know that's a broad question and there may be a great number of sources, but just wondering. Thanks, again.
Hi Israel! Where to find inspiration! That's a hard question to answer. I'm a firm believer of being creatively omnivorous and putting a bit of effort into reading (or seeing, or hearing...) things you wouldn't normally encounter. So, anything that's wholly new to you usually has the seeds of an idea that's (somewhat) new to you as well.
But also: our enthusiasm is a bottomless well of inspiration, even if it's about the nerdiest, nichiest* things. Anything that you would happily sit and read about all day, or talk about with friends all day, is something that can engage your epistemic curiosity - your ability to take a deep, nerdy dive into a topic that really overthinks it in an interesting and increasingly original way. You can't do this with things you don't care about (you just get bored and your mind distracts you, and the next thing you know, you're watching Netflix). So - that too.
So: read wider than you usually do, and geek out harder than anyone else does. Those two things help me stumble across things I want to write about.
Mike, thanks so much for writing such a thoughtful response. Those are excellent tips and I appreciate you taking the time, in particular about the topic being something of genuine interest. I'm sure that interest and passion translates to the page, or screen. My newsletter is called "Constantly Curious" so I'm definitely in the curiosity "camp" if you will. Thanks again and you just gained a new subscriber. Looking forward to reading more.
Being only 2 months old to newslettering( I picked up this word from Mike's comments :) ), this post gave me motivation to keep going and what I could do differently from what I'm doing already.
Thank you, Nikita! :) And 'newslettering' might not even be a word, I either made it up or stole it from someone who might have made it up. But Shakespeare made up words all the time, so - I reckon it's allowed. (Unless the word is a bit rubbish. Looking at you, "glamping" and "staycation.")
Jolene! What a testimonial. I usually have to PayPal people for them to say things like that! #protip #marketing Thank you. That means a great deal from the likes of you. When we finally meet, I shall treat you to a Yorkshire cream tea somewhere fancy. There'll be lace napkins and chandeliers and everything. Mark my words.
Thank you for sharing your story! I am kind of in the trenches right now with my newsletter with only 38 subscribers 13 issues in, but this gave me a bit of hope.
This is Mike's show, but if I might jump in for just a second:
For a long time (like, really long) most of my subscribers were people I lived with. Then one day someone that wasn't my wife or kids signed up. And in turn, /they/ shared my page with their readers. And just like that, my subscriber stats looked like a hockey stick. It was the best Thanksgiving weekend ever.
My point? Don't give up. Keep going; you never know when that dam's going to break!
In my experience, everyone starts at zero readers at some point (or feels like they're starting from zero) - and everyone, without exception, finds those first 20/50/100 readers to be the hardest challenge they'll face as they grow.
I think this is maybe like the whole thing in entrepreneurship: "your first $1,000 is super hard, the next $10k is easier, the next $100k easier still..." thing. I'm not sure how true it is (economics Substackers please weigh in / rip me to shreds here) but back when I had a blog, it took me so, so long to grow my readership, mainly because I didn't know anything about how to do it. Every new reader felt like something worth celebrating - and yet they came in *so slowly*....
But you're nearly halfway over that mountain! Keep going! :)
I subscribed to Mike’s newsletter sometime ago. I have been tinkering with serials/series as a model for my newsletters. Thanks for this great insight Mike.
Oh, this isn't behind the scenes. The REAL behind the scenes is too much coffee, 15,000 tabs open in my browser and me frequently shrieking "I CAN'T WRITE ABOUT THIS WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN" as I make notes on scientific articles.
But of course I'd never say that publicly. (This comment isn't public, is it? No? Phew.)
Mike, you've talked about seasons during Office Hours but I'm specifically wondering: how long are your breaks? And what do you mean by "paid subscriber drives to my free list at the end?"
Hi Sarah! Regarding breaks - usually 1-2 weeks. But there's how long I want them to take, and there's how long they *actually* take, and sometimes these two things are not exactly the same. 😁But it's about managing expectations, so if I'm taking longer than expected, I let people know. If it was, say, a month, I'd pause my paid subscriptions for that month so nobody lost out.
And for paid subscriber drives, I mean encouraging some of my free list to sign up to the paid version, eg: the bottom half of this newsletter - https://everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/its-a-wrap-heres-whats-next (On reflection, "paid subscriber drives to my free list" is a confusing way to word it. Sorry!)
Like you were last year, I have been on Substack for one month. I am a career and networking expert and a professional networking speaker. I have retired and planned to provide my expertise to free subscribers, however the only ones signing up are from my direct contacts. I have sent my links to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and have not generated any new subscribers. When you take a break, would you please take a look at my sight and offer recommendations. Perhaps there is something I should be doing that I am simply unaware of.
I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. I look forward to your response.
Hi Bonnie. A month really isn't very long, and I see you're only a few newsletters in, so I reckon it's such early days here that it's hard for you to see what's working and what isn't. Which is hard on the heart! (And frustrating.) I think my advice here would be twofold:
- first, do lots of experiments, try different styles of posts, different angles on topic, both to see what resonates with readers and to gauge *your* reaction to them, while you're writing them. Is there something that really lights you up and gets you fascinated as you write about it? Your enthusiasm will show in your writing, and draw people in - and because you're enjoying it, you'll be able to keep coming back and doing more of it in the same style. (Enthusiasm is stamina.)
- second: who are your ideal readers? If you have a good idea who they are, in a fairly specific way, you should be able to find where they are right now, so you can go over there and get their attention. You don't just want an audience, you want the *right* audience. So where are they right now? What are they currently reading? Could you guest-post for that publication to attract them to your site? And so on.
Hi Mike (& Bonnie). That second point is gold. When I make a tweak to a social media strategy that leads to some followers, but not the right followers, I have to remind myself of that point - the "right audience." Thanks for these insights!
Thank you for your generosity in sharing, Mike! I am happy to hear that this has brought you back to enthusiasm and optimism. You in turn have brought that same spirit to readers.
The idea of seasons is so sharp and interesting to me. Where did you first get this idea?
Thank you, Katie! I'm so grateful you asked me to do this...
Like pretty much every creative idea I think I've ever had, the idea of seasons was stolen from all my storytelling heroes. My newsletter is...a somewhat desperate attempt to sound just a little bit like the total brilliance of the podcast Radiolab, and they've worked very loosely in seasons from the beginning. But also, I've been a fan of serialised storytelling for a long while - the way writers can build financial models around it (see: Charles Dickens, who did the serialised newsletter model first, except all *by hand*, with paper versions & printing presses and a readership of tens of thousands, which blows my mind.)
So I had serials in the back of my mind for maybe a decade, even though I've come to paid newslettering only recently. It's very much not a new idea, and it's VERY much not mine. :)
As my storytelling hero Austin Kleon would say, "steal like an artist!"
That Mr Kleon is the wisest.
And I would recommend everyone writing a newsletter gets hold of his Steal Like An Artist trilogy ("Steal Like An Artist" - "Show Your Work" - "Keep Going") and makes a truly stupid amount of notes from them, because everything in those books is solid gold.
+1!!
So delighted to see Mike's success! I discovered Mike during his first viral success -- the one about pillars of light -- and have loved everything he's done since.
Michael, thank you for nudging me after Mike's tweet on Zanclean Megaflood to learn more from him.
My pleasure. Mike is everything that's great about Substack.
STOP IT I'M BRITISH WE GO TO PIECES WITH COMPLIMENTS LIKE THAT.
Thank you, Michael. I owe you, sir. :)
As an enthusiastic fan of Everything Is Amazing, I loved reading this! Thanks for sharing insights and thoughts and, as ever, some welcome moments of true authenticity.
As an enthusiastic fan of On The Commons, I am glad you were first to comment because hopefully EVERYONE will click through and read your beautiful writing.
Dear Everyone: Antonia's Substack is a treat, and she's building something special with it: ----> https://antonia.substack.com/p/somewhere-in-between Go sign up quick!
Stop making work for me, Mike. (J/k, you're a treasure! And I am behind but also eagerly looking for more of your writing on oceans ...
Speaking of which, the 10/11-year-olds' textbook I was working on last week had the kiddos reading a biography of oceanographer Sylvia Earle and her two weeks living underwater. What an amazing person! Talk about curiosity about the world being sparked at a young age ...)
Just subscribed. Looking forward to reading!
Very kind of you, thank you!
Being someone who's new to Substack, thanks to Mr. Mike here who inspired me, I'm only thrilled to see this interview for so many reasons. I have enjoyed Mike's work for many years now, even worked together at certian points and I can only confirm how amazing his brain is, which is no wonder that his newsletter is as amazing. I am grateful for people like you, Mike, because you inspire soooooo many of us all the time. Your inspiration seems in fact timeless and that's a treasure. And this interview with every single golden nugget you share will be helpful for us newbies and everyone yet to come. I'm truly enjoying Substack - it brought my writing back somehow. So I have to thank you and this amazing platform for doing all that you're doing. Hugs!!! To many more newsletters and successes! 🙌🏼
Dr. Mariana, as so many of us have known for a decade now, you are an absolute treasure. (And I'm super-excited to see what you're going to do with your new Substack on daily health. I am grateful to see your wisdom finding a new creative outlet.) Hooray!
Congrats on making this your full-time job, Mike. That's also my goal and it makes me happy to see others succeed. Where do you usually go for inspiration, to find your topics, if you will? I know that's a broad question and there may be a great number of sources, but just wondering. Thanks, again.
Hi Israel! Where to find inspiration! That's a hard question to answer. I'm a firm believer of being creatively omnivorous and putting a bit of effort into reading (or seeing, or hearing...) things you wouldn't normally encounter. So, anything that's wholly new to you usually has the seeds of an idea that's (somewhat) new to you as well.
But also: our enthusiasm is a bottomless well of inspiration, even if it's about the nerdiest, nichiest* things. Anything that you would happily sit and read about all day, or talk about with friends all day, is something that can engage your epistemic curiosity - your ability to take a deep, nerdy dive into a topic that really overthinks it in an interesting and increasingly original way. You can't do this with things you don't care about (you just get bored and your mind distracts you, and the next thing you know, you're watching Netflix). So - that too.
So: read wider than you usually do, and geek out harder than anyone else does. Those two things help me stumble across things I want to write about.
* not a word.
Mike, thanks so much for writing such a thoughtful response. Those are excellent tips and I appreciate you taking the time, in particular about the topic being something of genuine interest. I'm sure that interest and passion translates to the page, or screen. My newsletter is called "Constantly Curious" so I'm definitely in the curiosity "camp" if you will. Thanks again and you just gained a new subscriber. Looking forward to reading more.
Being only 2 months old to newslettering( I picked up this word from Mike's comments :) ), this post gave me motivation to keep going and what I could do differently from what I'm doing already.
Thanks Katie and Mike for putting this together!
Thank you, Nikita! :) And 'newslettering' might not even be a word, I either made it up or stole it from someone who might have made it up. But Shakespeare made up words all the time, so - I reckon it's allowed. (Unless the word is a bit rubbish. Looking at you, "glamping" and "staycation.")
True that! Words made by Shakespeare are still read and used.
I like the word whoever made it up :)
Mike! So happy to see this! Your enthusiasm and curiosity about the topics you cover are an absolute joy for the reader. Team Amazing Mike!
Jolene! What a testimonial. I usually have to PayPal people for them to say things like that! #protip #marketing Thank you. That means a great deal from the likes of you. When we finally meet, I shall treat you to a Yorkshire cream tea somewhere fancy. There'll be lace napkins and chandeliers and everything. Mark my words.
Oh, wait…this isn’t a paid endorsement? Geez 🙄 😂
See you in Yorkshire sometime in the (hopefully) near future! Rock on, Mike!
Thank you for sharing your story! I am kind of in the trenches right now with my newsletter with only 38 subscribers 13 issues in, but this gave me a bit of hope.
This is Mike's show, but if I might jump in for just a second:
For a long time (like, really long) most of my subscribers were people I lived with. Then one day someone that wasn't my wife or kids signed up. And in turn, /they/ shared my page with their readers. And just like that, my subscriber stats looked like a hockey stick. It was the best Thanksgiving weekend ever.
My point? Don't give up. Keep going; you never know when that dam's going to break!
In my experience, everyone starts at zero readers at some point (or feels like they're starting from zero) - and everyone, without exception, finds those first 20/50/100 readers to be the hardest challenge they'll face as they grow.
I think this is maybe like the whole thing in entrepreneurship: "your first $1,000 is super hard, the next $10k is easier, the next $100k easier still..." thing. I'm not sure how true it is (economics Substackers please weigh in / rip me to shreds here) but back when I had a blog, it took me so, so long to grow my readership, mainly because I didn't know anything about how to do it. Every new reader felt like something worth celebrating - and yet they came in *so slowly*....
But you're nearly halfway over that mountain! Keep going! :)
This was very motivational! Thank you, Mike! Checking out your newsletter now :)
I subscribed to Mike’s newsletter sometime ago. I have been tinkering with serials/series as a model for my newsletters. Thanks for this great insight Mike.
My pleasure. Thanks for reading!
Yay Mike Snowden! I love your newsletter and it's great to get the "behind the scenes" look.
Oh, this isn't behind the scenes. The REAL behind the scenes is too much coffee, 15,000 tabs open in my browser and me frequently shrieking "I CAN'T WRITE ABOUT THIS WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN" as I make notes on scientific articles.
But of course I'd never say that publicly. (This comment isn't public, is it? No? Phew.)
Lol - :D
😂
Love hearing this, Mike! Very well deserved for a very kind and generous writer 👏
Thank you, sir. Praise from the praiseworthy is the best kind. Love what you're doing with yours. :)
Mike, you've talked about seasons during Office Hours but I'm specifically wondering: how long are your breaks? And what do you mean by "paid subscriber drives to my free list at the end?"
Hi Sarah! Regarding breaks - usually 1-2 weeks. But there's how long I want them to take, and there's how long they *actually* take, and sometimes these two things are not exactly the same. 😁But it's about managing expectations, so if I'm taking longer than expected, I let people know. If it was, say, a month, I'd pause my paid subscriptions for that month so nobody lost out.
And for paid subscriber drives, I mean encouraging some of my free list to sign up to the paid version, eg: the bottom half of this newsletter - https://everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/its-a-wrap-heres-whats-next (On reflection, "paid subscriber drives to my free list" is a confusing way to word it. Sorry!)
This is helpful -- thanks!
So many great takeaways! Cheers to the infectious enthusiasm, curiosity, and generosity of this work.
Yes, I have plans for a guest interview. Thank you for your advice. Much appreciate it.
Like you were last year, I have been on Substack for one month. I am a career and networking expert and a professional networking speaker. I have retired and planned to provide my expertise to free subscribers, however the only ones signing up are from my direct contacts. I have sent my links to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and have not generated any new subscribers. When you take a break, would you please take a look at my sight and offer recommendations. Perhaps there is something I should be doing that I am simply unaware of.
I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. I look forward to your response.
https://bonniea.substack.com/p/industry-expert-part-2?utm_source=url
Hi Bonnie. A month really isn't very long, and I see you're only a few newsletters in, so I reckon it's such early days here that it's hard for you to see what's working and what isn't. Which is hard on the heart! (And frustrating.) I think my advice here would be twofold:
- first, do lots of experiments, try different styles of posts, different angles on topic, both to see what resonates with readers and to gauge *your* reaction to them, while you're writing them. Is there something that really lights you up and gets you fascinated as you write about it? Your enthusiasm will show in your writing, and draw people in - and because you're enjoying it, you'll be able to keep coming back and doing more of it in the same style. (Enthusiasm is stamina.)
- second: who are your ideal readers? If you have a good idea who they are, in a fairly specific way, you should be able to find where they are right now, so you can go over there and get their attention. You don't just want an audience, you want the *right* audience. So where are they right now? What are they currently reading? Could you guest-post for that publication to attract them to your site? And so on.
Hope that helps!
Hi Mike (& Bonnie). That second point is gold. When I make a tweak to a social media strategy that leads to some followers, but not the right followers, I have to remind myself of that point - the "right audience." Thanks for these insights!