Creatively Conscious by Claire Venus: Stay Creative on Substack

Your Friday INVITE - Let's Sparkle On Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 02:00:58 GMT

“Create before you consume… "always

Morning everyone!

Surprise - 🌝 - I’m still here BUT I am ALSO on a Summer break - I promise!

Thanks to my friend J for capturing this sweet moment in a 15k step walk where I pretty much carried Luna the whole way round Holy Island.

I just wanted to let you know I set up a brand NEW home for all my new ‘Stay Creative on Substack’ posts and ‘Slow Lived Growth on Substack’ podcast content.

It’s on a BRAND new publication now… you’re going to love this…

What happened and WHY did I jump ship…

Ever conscious of sharing my process here I had simply out-grown the space I’d set up for sharing my stay creative on Substack tips. I tried a section, tags, a podcast but I started to feel like it was cluttering up my other work, my heart centred callings…

I’ve had requests to work with both individuals and huge multi-million pound companies on their Substack creation - it’s been amazing BUT I needed a place I could share Substack resources away from the other stuff I deeply long to write and create.

As you know I am a multi-passionate creative, writer, engagement consultant and mentor. I work with both corporate clients and the charity sector and adore supporting small businesses, writers, artists and creative companies of one too. I run a pay it forward model in my business so I can help everyone who asks no matter what.

That’s a whole load of different threads and to be really honest I wanted to reclaim Creatively Conscious as my space for stepping into my role as earth keeper and my passion for creativity’s incredible impact on our wellbeing…

It’s my true North.

I adore Substack and creating here, teaching on the platform and chatting about it all and that’s not changing I just needed a bigger container and to separate it from this space.

It’s grown beyond my wildest dreams and you are all so lush but I know for some of you the connect is VERY much with my Substack chat and less so with my whimsical dark skies life here in Northumberland. I can tell by the open rates 😉

A FEW gifts for your loyalty

If you’d like to sign up (for free) over on Sparkle on Substack you’ll receive;

a journalling worksheet to help you hone your creative voice and grow your Substack - coming really soon.
In your welcome email - access to a canva template with 108 different page break designs so if you wanted to get playful with enhancing your look and feel of your posts here I’ve got you! 🦋 You’re bound to find something you like or hate them all and just keep writing without them! 😉
Also the first 50 people to recommend my new publication using ‘Substack recommendations’ in their settings will be entered into a draw to receive a free Substack audit feedback email for free. I’m going to ask my kids to choose 10 of you at random! Summer holiday activities r us!

I’ve got a wait list open to explore Substack membership and paid walled options and retention coming this September. It’s new territory for us all so let’s get curious about what it can all mean and learn from experts that have run successful memberships here and in other places.
I offer one to one Substack strategy sessions too. You can email me claire@creativelyconscious.co.uk to book a 45 or a 90 minute session or check out my list of services and some testimonials here. I’ve helped lots of people claim their space, find their title and brand, creative voice and strategy for posting and growth here - there are no hacks to it I’ll just share honestly what has worked and is still working for me as I continue to grow way over 1000 subs now across four publications mostly all from within the Substack network.

I hope this email has been of service to you and I can’t wait to chat more over on

All the sparkles and gratitude for your support and shares as always. Your connection is a true gift to me at what has been such a tough time for me and my family,

Claire x

PS - You know I love a chat. Comments are OFF for this post because they are ON for you over here, do pop by - ↓

Sparkle on Substack

Hello and Welcome!

"Claire is the QUEEN of Substack" Hunter Burgtorf Hi, ✨ How’s your day going? I set up this space to collect all the lovely sparkly tools, advice and tech support Substack and the people who write here have to offer. After writing my Stay Creative on Substack emails every single week for a few months over on my main publication…

3 years ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Claire Venus

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 02:00:03 GMT

Morning everyone! How are you? Breathing a slight sigh of relief as we (just) made it to the end of the school term here in the UK.

Welcome back to another Friday Email. You’re receiving this email as you signed up to my Slow Lived Growth on Substack section. You can unsubscribe from these in your settings if you’d rather not receive them.

I (still) can’t believe how much there is to say about Substack! This is the LAST email until September as I’m taking a summer break but remember all my past posts on Substack tips I’ve created from using Substack since last April are right here on the platform AND the discount is still on my Substack growth class;

Mailing List Magic Masterclass and Workshop - ways to grow on Substack WITHIN the Substack network - it’s discounted for you through this link.

Subscribe now

“Create before you consume… "always

Using Audio here.

Over 68% of the people in America listen to podcast content each week. It’s slightly lower in the UK at 61%. 1

We have a few creative options here - remember as with everything Substack we are throwing away the rather HEAVY rule book from our days on social media and creating from scratch!

You can read your posts directly into Substack - I wanted to read this one for you but I ran out of time. All you’d need to do is press the little headphones icon above - super easy! You have to open your post in a new window to read it all as the record button covers the post but other than that it’s seamless.
You can create a podcast right here - I have somehow ended up with THREE! I have a podcast over at which is also on apple music and Spotify and I also have one right here which is more of a monthly catch up called My Beautiful Reality. I started one as part of my Slow Lived Growth on Substack journey too but I found I preferred to write so I could share links - I’ll bring it back in the autumn I think with guests.
Other ways with audio shares - shares a voice note to friends behind the paywall, & have a monthly Substack chat about their Substacks and Substack in general. often reads her Simple Letter to her audience.

If you are at all worried about sharing your voice (I was) I’d really recommend Viv Groskop’s How to Own the Room - it’s a brilliant read and if you can hear her talk on a podcast anywhere - go for it. It changed everything for me.

My biggest tip - use a mic - the inbuilt one in your computer isn’t the one - it’s fine but it isn’t the one! I just use my apple plug in headphones a lot even though we do have a fancy mic.

If you know your know with audio… 🧐

On Growth on Substack…

This note from grabbed a lot of traction and rightly so… I loved reading his take on all things growth here… NB if you’re reading in the app this will be LONG…

This post from Russel is also really fab;

The Author Stack

Where to invest your time and money when building an audience for your writing

3 years ago · 14 likes · 5 comments · Russell Nohelty

On Substack this Week…

Make sure you’re following and subscribed to for all their updates and invitations.

Subscribe now

Outside of Substack

I think this post on threads is interesting. To quote a friend; social media and the internet is like one big experiment for our brains - stop the bus I want to get off!

Culture Study

The Thread Vibes Are Off

When you download Threads — the new, Meta-made Twitter-clone released last week — you’re asked to make a decision that will determine your Threads experience. Do you want to automatically follow all of your Instagram followers? I said yes without thinking. And I’ve been thinking about that decision for the last few days — and how it’s shading my experie…

3 years ago · 477 likes · 77 comments · Anne Helen Petersen

My 4 Top Tips on Finding your Creative Voice online

Just show up, consistently, as much as you can, when you can - just show up.
Try new things and see how you feel. What feels good to you. What feels true - what doesn’t?
Listen and build community with your audience…they often understand your work better than you.
Ask for feedback - do feedback swaps - get out of your own head about it. I’m always tangling myself up with copy and an outside eye is wonderful.

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 02:00:59 GMT

Morning everyone! How are you?

I (still) can’t believe how much there is to say about Substack!

This week, I was planning to talk about collaboration. I’ve been running a guest post slot here for a few months now. It’s called Big Dreams and Quiet Ambition and it’s designed to be aspirational and dreamy with a sprinkle of grit and determination!

You can read more from my guests in that section right here.

I’ve now created a short google form for you to apply to guest post here under my Big Dreams section. It’s here.

If you’re a mum and you’ve got things to say on the topic of being, balance and business in motherhood, you can also guest over at our other shared publication and community space - here’s the call out.

“Create before you consume… "always

Subscribe now

From Substack…

So as timing would have it, Substack are calling our for collaborators and requests to collaborate - this thread is really busy and interesting…

Here’s more from Substack about collaboration and the collaborating thread…

On Substack

Find your next collaborator

One of the most powerful ways to grow your Substack is through human connections. Guest posts, cross-posts, mentions, and recommendations with writers you genuinely care about can help you mutually grow. We’ve seen that guest posts drive more signups than regular posts for both the host and the guest. Writers who host guests have upward of a 1.5x increa…

3 years ago · 217 likes · 58 comments

and if you want to jump right into the thread on Notes and meet some new folks and collaborate there…

Last Week…

On Substack this Week…

I still can’t really get over the transparency on here - it’s like we’ve re-written the internet!

I “started on instagram” in 2017 and shortly after that was invited to a ‘comment pod’. I couldn’t believe this secret world of growth tactics.

Coming from a creative background, I knew that in reality the most authentic, interesting and hard won and special way to grow was to just shine your light.

Growth hacks aside please while Substack encourages us all to do just that.

Let’s re-write that book. Quality over celebrity every time!

On that note if could take the NEW numbers of our profiles please - it’s not useful or helpful! Have you spotted it yet? I don’t feel like Substack needs to turn into social media so why is it trying to? Can’t it be an Elton rather than a Madonna (love them both btw).1

Subscribe now

This piece from was so generous on so many levels…

Kindle Curiosity

How much I made on Substack in 12 months 💵

A couple weeks ago I got stuck writing this post. Mostly because I needed 2-3 emails to explore everything I wanted to say. Here is the first. Sending it out early since I’m traveling this weekend. ✈️…

3 years ago · 21 likes · 12 comments · Sarah Shotts

as was this one from

Slow Scottish Stories

Do less but better - the REAL secret to my success as a content creator

Hello, I’m Molly and I write about my slow and simple life in the Scottish Highlands. Please subscribe to support my work and if you want to read more of my stories. You can also find me on YouTube and shop my Slow Scottish Store and sustainable Teemill Clothing…

3 years ago · 44 likes · 23 comments · Hippy Highland Living

and this one from

Notes on a Rebellious Midlife

I'm Celebrating Six Months On Substack

Hello dear readers, The last few weeks, because of the gorgeous heat and because I rarely leave the house due to chronic illness, I've been enjoying wearing hardly any clothes. I usually hang around in just my underwear or a baggy T-shirt. I feel comfortable sharing this with you because all my subscribers are women. I know nobody will judge what I say …

3 years ago · 4 likes · 8 comments · Hannah Anstee

I enjoyed this Note and replies from

And this one from

Outside of Substack

“Collaboration is all about a meeting of minds. It’s that special synergy with another maker or brand that produces something special, something which is greater than the sum of its parts. Feeling confident about a collaboration requires trust not just in your chosen collaborator, but also in yourself and your brand. It’s important to know who you are and to be grounded in a strong sense of what your brand stands for before melding your creativity with another.” Holly Tucker

There are not many emails make it into my inbox that aren’t directly related to work. I do let Holly Tucker’s email land and I read it every week.

For those of you who don’t know Holly founded ‘Not on the High Street’ - a UK based online shopping site profiling creatives and small businesses. She’s a powerhouse of in the small creative business world. I loved this article on collaboration and thought you might too.

My 3 Top Tips on collaboration

I’ve been working in partnership my whole career so it felt easy to do that here. It’s not actually that easy… it’s your space and in handing it over to someone you have to think through a few things so that it feels good to you…

The values connect - when and I decided to start a shared publication we’d known each other (although we’ve never met) for years. Our friendship has blossomed - I’ve mentored her and she’s coached me - we know each other well. We don’t agree on everything but we have a shared values system.
The creative constraints - creativity loves structure - if you have a set of questions or a way to make it easy for folks to post that will not only save you both some time but also enable you to think through the best connect for your audience.
The edit time and timing - editing takes a little while. I’m in a process with where she interviewed me on a video chat and is editing our transcript then I’ll see it and she’ll get it ready for posting. Here I paste the answers into the post first then add the bio, photos, buttons, page breaks. I then add my introduction and preview and edit a few more times before it sends. I can only do one a month so realistically 12 a year. Some pieces are pacy and fit with a mid-week posting, others feel more luxurious and seem like a better fit for a Sunday afternoon - I’m just making it all up!
Share

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 02:01:01 GMT

Morning everyone!

I can’t believe how much there is to say about Substack!

I think my post last week on Video on Substack got some of you thinking and I was delighted it fired up my imagination too and I was able to share a beautiful shot of some woods and a river near us with my members at the weekend.

A friend asked me; “I think Substack will work for my project - it’s definitely for me, where do I start?” - I was in the super market with my two year old daughter negotiating the toy aisle with her at the time.

It was very much an art imitating life moment because in all honesty where DO we start? A blank space is SUCH a gift…

Substack has become such an incredibly spacious platform for us creatives.

There are places to chat, words to inspire, podcasts, video, notes to connect with…

So what would you say if you were giving advice to a friend?

Where did you start and where would you start now you’ve been here a while?
How would you re-curate your space, what would you do differently?

Let me know in the comments.

My advice was to download the app and subscribe to a couple of writers who inspire her to get a feel for the space. My next step advice was to either take my masterclass or to watch my video over on my YouTube channel on how to make a post!

I also gave the advice to NOT subscribe to anyone too similar or anyone that could trigger comparison and I give this advice to all my clients - we don’t owe anyone a subscribe.

Our online spaces need to be akin to our real life spaces - I always imagine my Substack like a beautiful walled garden where I’m relaxing and people come and tell me wonderful things about life and creativity and all that’s in between. It’s safe and it’s beautiful and I don’t have to work hard to keep it that way.

Incase it’s interesting? My way with all of this is to be really mindful about my subscriptions online.

Here’s how it all looks;

Linked In - anyone I’ve worked with or might work with - no limit on sign ups.
Instagram - I follow up to 750 accounts - gardening, permaculture, slow living, interiors, friends, mum life, colleagues (although I’m trying to connect with them on Linked in instead)
Substack - similar to above but lots of creatives and recipe publications and Substack writes/ reads etc. I don’t subscribe to people who offer similar services to me. I only read in the app or on desktop.
Twitter - pulls through from linked in, I don’t follow new people over there - I would delete my account but I use the stats in funding apps.
Email - I don’t get emails from anyone or any brands - I just use email for work.

If we want to stay as creative as we can we have to be so careful about what we’re consuming. A quick trip into the echo chamber is as inviting as it is pointless.

“Create before you consume… "always

Subscribe now

Last Week…

I asked you where you were sharing your Substack…

The results were fascinating and we had some more chat about it all in notes….

On Substack this Week…

I really enjoyed these two posts on Substack (about Substack) this week from and …

Simple & Calm

A few quick things to mention

*If you’re reading this via email, you may want to view it directly via Substack here so that you can see the entire post* Hello lovely readers, Just a quick one from me today to update you with a few things, including: A reminder of why I started in the first place…

3 years ago · 9 likes · 4 comments · Sophie Ingleby

Haver & Sparrow

I've been cheating on my book stack with my Substack but I'm ready to recommit to reading - and writing - offline

Hello lovely One of my favourite things about Substack is how many new writers I’ve connected with and I look forward to their publications appearing in my Inbox each week. Reading interesting, beautifully written essays is always a pleasure but since I’ve been reading so much more online the stacks of books around my house have …

3 years ago · 53 likes · 31 comments · Charlene Storey

Annnnd…. look what happened to my publication… 🥳

I hit 1000 subscribers…

Over 1000 subscribers here at Creatively Conscious and I’m so so grateful - I mean that from the bottom of my heart - you’ve all been so instrumental in supporting me to share my creative voice.

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 02:00:20 GMT

“Video killed the radio star”

🎵

Morning everyone! How are you? 🔆

Welcome to Your Friday email - and my invitation to Stay Creative on Substack.

I’m being brave and sharing some video today. I posted this over on YouTube last week… I then shared the audio here so you might have already heard it?

It’s all about Substack Notes!

On the tech side, this video took about twenty minutes to calibrate and upload and I uploaded it as a downloaded zoom video file.

Subscribe now

The Video Button!

Blink and you’d miss it but you should all have the video button now up in your toolbar now… I’m not really sure what the difference is between this and posting video as a main post from your posts tab. It seems to be that video you post just as video doesn’t allow you to type above it?

For me that’s the only thing I can see?

Link, photo, record audio and a happy little video button…. the last one is a quote button.

Post a video from your posts tab or embed video in a normal post…

Where are you sharing your Substack?

I think the stats here showing where people find our Substacks are fascinating. It’s started to feel vulnerable to me to share stats but I’ll continue because I want to be of service to you in your journey. What I can see is those who view my publication on Substack Desktop convert to subscribers at a higher rate than anywhere else…

The only one I don’t fully understand is email at the top…

For me, nearly all my growth comes from within the Substack network. I’m grateful for the other places but it doesn’t feel like I need to put much energy there to grow and deepen my connection because it’s all happening here.

I know that’s not true for everyone. Where are you sharing your Substack and how does it feel to do that?

Part of this realisation has made me step BACK from social media - I wrote about my strategy this week incase you missed it it’s here and the comments are SO insightful;

How I'm using social media and staying intentionally slow about it...

Claire Venus ✨ — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 06:16:11 GMT

“The first rule of social media is that everything changes all the time. What won’t change is the community’s desire to network.” --- Kami Huyse

I was chatting with my friend and colleague yesterday and explaining that I’ve never felt better about my energy online. It helps that is a brilliant place to create, write, make podcasts, have conversations of course!

Over the years I’ve tried project specific strategy for social media - for growth, engagement, awareness raising. I’ve used all the channels; facebook pages, groups, instagram, twitter, linked in, linked in groups, YouTube, my own blog on my website. There was also a summer dalliance with tiktok - my eyes my eyes!! Am I missing any?

I’ve used social media for my commissioned clients, set up project specific accounts and retired them, built my own social media, been paid to post - questioned it all multiple times.

I’ve had some ‘successes’, I’ve felt a lot of human emotions; joy, compassion, connection, comparison, upset, frustration - the list goes on…

I once had over 20k people say they were coming to an event I set up on facebook (we could only accommodate 2k) , I wrote and helped implement a beautifully considered instagram strategy for a client and most of her sales came from a radio interview….

In January ‘21, I hosted my first ‘Creative Content Club’ - a club for creatives who want to show up consciously online - for activism, for creative projects, to build profile, to share, to connect, to inspire - It’s been a beautiful journey and as a mentor for the group I’ve also leant lots along the way!

We chat for 24hours three times a year on whatsapp - it’s a beautiful cheerleading space and it offers SO much clarity, confidence and purposeful next steps.

Subscribe now

Inspired by this work and my own strategy with social media I have a NEW masterclass. It’s my last masterclass of 2023;

More here - Choose Two - Social Media Strategy for Creative Hearts it’s on 7 Aug at 12noon. (replay and resources available)

I’d love to support you in your journey to write (and stick to) an embodied strategy around social media for your work. The masterclass is £25 or two monthly payments of £12.50 and journalling prompts, replay and follow up resources will be available.

In the class we are going to go deep into our reason for creating online, our content pillars and write our strategy for the next two years - yep we’re playing the long game and sticking to something that gives us accountability as a group. You’ll also get access to my content club group chat which is open on whatsapp three times a year.

Grab your spot/ get the replay

I run a pay it forward finance model in my company of one - if you can’t afford to join in but want to please email me claire@creativelyconscious.co.uk and I’ll give you access - it would be my pleasure.

Share Creatively Conscious

What I’m doing on social media right now…

I thought it would be helpful to share this as I know everyone has a different way with the socials and it’s like some sort of mystery funfair up front where as actually behind the scenes I’ve learnt those grateful swans have a lot to teach us;

For commissioned clients;

Consulting with individual clients on Substack design engagement and growth strategy.
Posting weekly blogs and sharing across social media (facebook, facebook groups, linked in, twitter, email and whats app).
Writing up an engagement strategy for a festival
Working on a campaign for a children’s theatre show

For me at Creatively Conscious;

Recording and posting one/ two video tutorials (about Substack) over on YouTube and playing with YouTube shorts.
Posting three times a week on Linked in
Writing here on Substack on two publications, considering a third Substack…
Podcasting
Taking beautiful photos with no clear place to share them…

That’s it. I’m changing this strategy on 21st July and again on 4th Sept. I already know what I’m switching out to switch in.

What’s your social media strategy for promoting your work, your writing, your projects, do you have one? Does it feel good to you?

How does it feel for your brain, your body, your sense of self in the world? I’d love to chat more.

See you at class?

Claire x

PS - I’ve read so many beautiful posts on finding balance on social media recently, on authenticity, on staying true to yourself. I love these conversations…

I have to share this one from my dear friend and kindred spirit Sarah at -

Kindle Curiosity

I'm not a brand. I'm a human. 🫀

I’m still recovering energy from the picture book launch. But I’ve written a longer piece for you today. This has been simmering for a while now. Last year I took two big marketing classes by brilliant teachers and I’ve decided to ignore some of their biggest advice…

3 years ago · 43 likes · 59 comments

And this one from my new Substack pal ;

Simple & Calm

What if the internet had opening hours?

You are reading my free weekly post, but did you know that paid subscribers get access to so much more, including my weekly Simple & Calm lessons, workbooks, freebies, digital downloads, resources and my private chat group? Most importantly, paid subscribers support me and my writing. They support my dream and allow me …

3 years ago · 40 likes · 39 comments · Sophie Ingleby

And this one which I’ve edited the post to include from

Haver & Sparrow

Using Substack Notes to make connections and grow your community

Hello lovely I’m obsessed with Substack Notes. It’s everything I ever wanted from social media and never found before and I am so excited that it finally exists! It’s an encouraging, long-form-is-welcome space where we can support the work of our favourite writers while growing a community of our own at the same time. I…

3 years ago · 186 likes · 118 comments · Charlene Storey

Lastly, I enjoyed this piece from and I should have commented quicker as I always forget she turns comments to paid after 24 hours or so - I LOVE this boundary!

The Hyphen by Emma Gannon

Is social media over— or are we just older now?

3 years ago · 274 likes · 97 comments · Emma Gannon

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 02:00:07 GMT

Hi all,

Busy week this week but I recorded a YouTube video (on Monday) about using Substack Notes and here is the audio ⬆️ to accompany it if you’d like to listen rather than watch.

Subscribe now

The replay of the (slightly controversial in part) 😉 Seducing Subscribers using Substack’s Notes session with writer and Substack founder is here

On Substack

Laurie Stone is using Notes to seduce new readers

Watch now (56 min) | What excites me most about Notes is that it is a new space for storytelling. When we first launched Notes, some people started off importing their assumptions about how other “social media” platforms work—there were a few scuffles, a little bit of trolling, occasional bouts of virtue signaling—but it quickly became apparent that Notes is something diffe…

3 years ago · 368 likes · 65 comments · Hamish McKenzie

I LOVE using Notes - it’s playful and fun and I’ve written about it before in these posts if you want to revisit;

What’s new on Substack this week?

This, this is new!! A leaderboard for referrals. have popped the link on your home page - you’ll be able to take it out if you don’t want to display the words ‘leaderboard’ on your home page. I’ve done that. Head to your settings if you want to edit or do the same.

I wrote this post to explain more using the Substack template they gave us.

It’s come at an interesting time for me… I think it will take a few months to see people using it the way it’s intended, but I think those of us who use Substack as our community hang out of choice will be very supportive of it (?)

My plan is to try it for a month or so then change up the offer…you’ll see why I think in July.

Ever interested in your thoughts.

I decided to take off the last option (25 subs) because it felt TOO much to ask folks to share that many times and I’m not sure how much anyone would value a 6 month membership here? I’m a big believer in people curating and choosing their own content… and how would someone know they wanted to be in my paid membership for 6 months? I guess it gives them time to experience it? Anyway it’s off for now and I’ve left the one and three month gift options.

It’s personal isn’t it?

I think one month and three months is more valuable as people are just getting to know me and what I post behind the paywall and ultimately I value my time and don’t want to give tonnes of it away in this way.

On that note my competition is STILL open to win membership here just by telling me about your connection to the ocean here in the comments of my Notes from the Sea post if you’d like -

My Substack Tip of the Week

Head to your settings and turn on Boost!

Read more about boost and what it does for you here. It basically gets Substack working to grow your publication which is beautiful and generous of them especially when you consider how social media usually works. I know Substack doesn’t consider itself to be a social media platform and I think that’s super important to keep putting into practise as we continue to ride on their generous energy here.

Meet other writers/ creatives who also like to write and support their journey

You can join my NEW Linked in Group for writers and creatives on Substack here - it’s intentional and quiet and a nice place to meet and connect with others. I started it because in all honestly I can’t sub to any more publications - I’m at max capacity with what I can read here and I wanted to continue conversations about how we are all using the platform and set up opportunities for folks to meet each other and collaborate.

I’ve got BIG, no HUGE plans for it and you’re so welcome!

If you’re not sure about linked in as a platform, I’d say I wasn’t either but it has replaced twitter for me and I’m finding carving out new contacts and space there a joy! Thanks to my beautiful friend for sharing how she uses it and who she’s learnt from.

AND want to work with me TODAY free of charge?

TODAY at 12noon BST - I have my open office hours for CREATIVITY and I am so excited to curate a space to help you with your strategy to STAY more creative wherever you choose to do it. FREE sign up here.

I’m going to record and share the replay so feel free to sign up and watch later if you are asleep/ busy at 12noon my time.

That’s it for this week, how’s your week on Substack been?

Claire x

PS - I’ve mentioned it before BUT I am SO proud of my new digital magazine space for mums here - it’s a BRAND new publication called and it’s designed and curated by me and my friend - come and see what we’re up to and subscribe! Just click the link above and you’ll find our podcasts and posts.

PPS - Mailing List Magic is ready for your sign up. I loved supporting others in their journey to grow their depth of connection and their readership in this workshop - grab the replay and all the resources here.

Subscribe now

Invite your friends to read Creatively Conscious

Claire Venus ✨ — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 04:27:11 GMT

A NEW feature from Substack!

You might see these invite emails popping up on your travels round Substack over the next few weeks. If you want to find a template and buttons for yours log in on desktop and it will be ready on your dashboard for you.

Here’s mine…

Hello petal,

Thank you SO much for reading Creatively Conscious — your support means the world to me and gives me space to keep writing and sharing my journey as a creative who also likes to write!

If you enjoy reading Creatively Conscious and the articles I share, it would be brilliant if you invited friends to subscribe, read and join the community here.

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I’m Claire. A mum and a multi-passionate creative with a portfolio career.

For work I’m an engagement consultant and mentor for creatives. I LOVE Substack and I’ve been writing here since April 2022. I also love to teach other creatives how to start, write and stay creative on Substack and I publish a weekly letter on Fridays to help your journey.

If you want a reminder of other things I write about here check out my about page or my home page on your desktop.

Art and Ceramics in the Woods with artist Amy Lord in Wooler, 2019

To learn more about this new feature, check out Substack’s FAQ.

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 02:01:03 GMT

“Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others.

Unfold your own myth.”

Rumi, The Essential Rumi

Hello all,

How are you? How’s your week on Substack been? A SPECIAL hello if you’re new here - I’ve had 70 of you join my Substack adventure since last Friday - Hi I’m Claire 👋🏼and I’m SO grateful for each and every one of you. If you want to read more about me you can head to my ‘about me’ page.

A quick reminder this email series ALL ABOUT SUBSTACK sits in its own “section” called ‘Slow lived growth on Substack’ here so you are welcome to opt out of updates in your settings if it’s not for you.

Instructions on how to do that are at the bottom of last week’s email here.

Subscribe now

Holy Island, 2019 - the view from Lindisfarne Castle

This week on Substack

Notes on Notes…

Co-founder co-hosted a session about Substack NOTES.

I’ve been enjoying notes have you? Substack followed up to ask us what they BEST piece of advice we’ve had since joining is… find the thread here…

Here are my personal takeaways and observations from using Notes since it started;

It’s not social media - different rules apply - writers WANT to start and have conversations. If a note doesn’t gain traction, try again a different day!
Photo threads gather interest and momentum sometimes over 5 days or more.
Conversations attract people who aren’t subscribed to you to chat.
You get to know a writer more quickly if they are active on Notes.
You can get to know your own subscribers on Notes and therefore understand more deeply how to connect with them.
You don’t have to self promote if you don’t want to (by writing a Note and sharing what you want to share, you’ll still be self promoting)…

Substack of the Day

I love to share other Substackers here and this week I am sharing who brings so much sourdough flavoured joy to my inbox;

A Sourdough Story Newsletter

SOURDOUGH CINNAMON RAISIN BREAD

Did I break the Bread Code with this one? I may have just done that with the most Whole Grain Cinnamon Raisin Bread. Your summer toast is here to stay through at least October. The flavor is out of the world amazing with all the crunchy texture from the raisins and the nuts combined with a Brown Sugar/ Butter swirled throughout each bite…

3 years ago · 12 likes · 2 comments · Chapin

I’ve also made some new writer friends thanks to ’s community - yay!

Learning more from me

I have a online masterclass on MONDAY which focusses in on HOW TO grow within the Substack network. If you want to reach a bigger, more diverse and glorious audience with your words this one’s for you!

AND because I so appreciate you being here and reading my words here’s a 20% OFF discount code. I am not teaching this anywhere else online so do jump in especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed with how and where to share your Substack or mailing list.. 🧐 It’s just £60 with the code and you can catch up anytime you like. I’ve been on Substack (nearly) every single day for over 15 months and I’ve learnt a lot about how things work here.

Mailing List Magic Masterclass takes place Mon 19 June at 12noon BST (Replay available) and I’m taking questions in advance and during the masterclass and workshop. I’d love to see you there!! 👩🏽‍💻

Substack Sections/ Second Publications

There is mixed advice out there on sections. I’ve written about it before but it popped up again this week and I thought I’d revisit it with you… I’m so keen to hear if/ how you’re using sections.

Personally, I think ‘sections’ and ‘tags’ are a multi-passionate’s dream!

I have four sections here;

Big Dreams begin with Me
Slow Lived Growth on Substack
Notes from the Sea
Creatively Conscious

When you guide your readers into a section you get to introduce that section at the top with a few words if they click into the URL.

This is the first difference between using tags to organise posts and using sections. The second is that people can sub and unsub to sections within ONE publication.

I’m not sure what the limit is on sections within a publication but I’ve seen publications with at least 7 different sections.

NB - a reader told me this week that you can’t link a stripe account to two publications therefore you couldn’t have two sets of paid readers unless you have two stripe accounts which I don’t know if that’s possible and I haven’t checked this out…

Screen shot of Notes from the Sea section (my monthly email) - click here to look at the URL

I didn’t start all these sections at once. I started writing first and figured out what I wanted to write about for 10 months or so first.

I’ve added sections that fit with my goals for this year and some for my long term goals. I’m not wedded to them - some might retire in time and that’s ok.

How do you feel about sections?

More importantly how does you audience feel about sections? Pop back in a few days and check out this poll again or host your own if you’re curious?

You’ll find ‘poll’ at the bottom of the list of ‘more’ options on your post dashboard…

Share Creatively Conscious

Sign up for your OWN emails

That’s it - that’s the thing! Receiving your own emails will not only help you with this 🙉 🙈 but remind you of this 🦄 👸 and show you what your audience are receiving - yes we can preview them and that’s great BUT receiving is just a different energy - it makes you proud…try it…?

Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash

A NEW shiny space but it’s a lot of “work…”

I love a new blank page and setting up a NEW publication was such a thrill.

The reason Company of Two is a WHOLE publication of its own is its for a specific audience and we’re building a specific community aimed at mothers with little one’s under 10.

Lot’s of you tell me you find the decision making hard and I think sometimes with decision making the ONLY way forward is through. Laura and I started by agreeing to record four podcast episodes, then it became a Substack, then it became weekly posts… who know’s where it’s headed next because here’s the thing

- once it’s out in the world it belongs to our community and they DRIVE our decision making. As a co-creator it’s the only way I can work.

Feeling stuck and or overwhelmed about your direction here?

My top tips

Quiet the noise - you know what I mean - delete other apps, don’t go on Notes, hit the unsubscribe button.
Grab a big piece of paper, some coloured pens and observing your own process and flow. Ask yourself why you want to publish and how often and why that often - drop comparison and write for you and the beautiful audience you serve.
Ask for feedback before you publish - I read everything my husband writes before it goes live. Sometimes we are lost in our own heads, our own words and we forget about the witnessing part of writing…

How’s your week on Substack been, what feels easy, tricky, impossible? Come tell me in the comments.

More next Friday,

Claire x

PS - I’m going to say SORRY for the typos/ grammar because I’ve literally got steam coming off my keyboard spinning all my work around my husband’s birthday this week and a poorly toddler today. Thanks for bearing with me and not judging me if I missed a comma or a word out… 💨 💜

💌 Join my membership here on Substack

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Your Friday Email (and podcast) - Stay Creative on Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 02:00:09 GMT

“Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. Trust them. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert,

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Hello!!

Welcome back to Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack.

It’s a bumper edition week this week and if you need even MORE you can head to the menu of my other Substack tips posts. Because it’s so long, I’ve broken it up with some ‘lovely pause pictures’ for you.

This email exists in it’s own ‘section’ here so if you’d rather not receive updates on Substack and how to create t/here you can head to your desktop and follow the instructions to change that. I’ve popped screen shots at the end of this email/post on how to do it. (*)

On the ‘Slow Lived Growth on Substack’ Podcast this week (audio above)

(Listen above… ) a whistle stop tour of my Substack journey and how I’m curating my Substack experience to get GOOD balance and maintain my creative practise on and offline.

I don’t have a transcript but it also includes;

Considering value for you and your readers.
Community
Being a reader/ consumer
I touch on running two publications under the same writer profile
My Substack sections and running two Substack accounts too.
How I feel about unsubscribes 💌 🌻 - link to post on rejection.
“Should I do that too?” - Comparison traps, knee jerk reactions and sitting with it.
Curating YOUR own creator and reader experience.

My mantra (until I run out of space in the notebook) - DREAM, INSPIRE, CREATE…

A hack for your sanity!

This week one of my dashboard metrics turned green. My shoulders dropped and I breathed a sigh of relief. Those grey metrics are NO fun for this visual creative. (my over seas artist friend) and I were chatting about our distaste at ‘the new dashboard’ driven by ‘external success metrics’ and when I woke up the next day she’s sent me a SUPER easy hack to avoid it.

All you do is bookmark your ‘posts’ URL - you should have no reason to head to the dashboard if you don’t want to see those stats shouting at you. Phewf!

If I could design my own Substack, I’d have the world map as my dashboard along visual with some testimonials - that’s the essence of what motivates me here - kind words, deep connection writing in flow for a purpose.

Everyone is different of course but if you’re a sensitive soul or not keen on striving for growth metrics you might want to try it?

How to…make a podcast in Substack

I go into much more depth about this in my course but if you want to voice note/ podcast/ share audio here it’s a great way for your readers to feel connected to you.

My top tips

- You podcast has it’s own ‘section’ which as I’m learning is a very good thing.

- You can record the audio externally and upload or record straight into the desktop.

- You get to see lots of cool stats like where people are listening from and how they choose to listen.

- You can just be quite casual (well I am) and just voice note your subscribers - no intro/ outro/ edits or music unless of course you want those things… it makes recording audio so so accessible.

It’s also a really great way to grow WITHIN the Substack network which was one of your questions this week.

Look 👀

Things I LOVED this week on Substack

It really made me laugh this week on Notes as co-founder wrote a note about his electric toothbrush. There (we)? are all ~~over~~ thinking hard about what would make a lovely engaging note for our community and all the while we are invited just to say “something” ? Anything? Although I appreciate the odd hap hazard share on notes, I must admit the considered writing on Notes is something I am absolutely here for and why I don’t use much other social media now. 🤹🏽‍♀️ 🦸‍♂️
I had a lovely chat with a few folks over on Notes when I asked what their biggest struggle here was… the answers are so insightful if you fancy a read…

I also love this Note about ‘going paid’ from my IRL pay I ~~forced~~ encouraged to join Substack

And I had to mention the lovely who shares a beautiful lesson in STAYING true to herself this week and reversing/ re-pivoting her move to paid. 🧜‍♀️
And finally - You are going to LOVE this one… A Substack Library - whaaaaa! How on earth am I going to get off Substack and read books again? 🧝🏻‍♀️

The Library

Welcome to The Library

This is The Library, where readers can check out all the best books Substack has to offer. Search for and find your next great read here! The Library is exactly what it sounds like. Well, sort of. With so many writers publishing full-length works of fiction here on Substack, as well as nonfiction works like biographies and memoirs, it became clear that r…

4 years ago · 68 likes

I think it’s SO important for us to curate our individual experiences here.

After managing ALL the feelings on social media over the years we have a chance to make, curate and creative something new here.

More in the podcast above but my biggest takeaway from being here 14 months is that I don’t need to subscribe to everyone. I don’t want Substack (or anything actually) to feel like a competition.

My only experiences of competitions as a kid were winning creativity competitions and loosing all the sports ones. Those experiences imprint somewhere and make us BELIEVE certain things to be true.

An art project at a local forest school

Learn Substack with me?

I’m a huge advocate for learning the way you want to learn and giving yourself the space and time to embed a creative practise.

When I hosted my first masterclass ‘Get Creative on Substack’ 1 back in March, lots of you came along and the theme running through the heart beat of most people who attended were they were they were Creatives who also like to write.

I held the masterclass simply because I wanted to share my knowledge.

What works for me isn’t necessarily what will work for others but (and it’s a fancy but), in sharing my perfectly imperfect creative journey it felt important to invite others to consider the same.

I was (and am) just genuinely passionate about getting more creatives to see the incredible power of this platform. I loved how easy to use it was and how beautiful to navigate too.

I now offer one to one strategy sessions on starting and staying creative with Substack or perhaps you fancy coming along to my FREE open office hours for creativity on zoom 12-1pm, 23 June.

(I have nothing to sell to you in the session - it’s genuinely just a session of me holding space in thanks to my lovely online communities).

This weekly email of ‘Substack Tips’ was born out of sharing more of my knowledge about the platform, the tech side, the mindset side and encouraging you to use it in a creative way because there’s one thing the world needs more of - your art!

I’ll repeat this on a loop - we can throw away the rule book and just create - this must be THE most creatively FREE platform on the internet?

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

I have a FOLLOW on online workshop this month on 19 June at lunch time here in the UK called ‘Mailing List Magic’ and I am SO excited to teach it.

It’s good for you if you’ve been here a little while and you’re looking to grow from within the network here.

Here’s some stats you might be interested in;

There are 30million (and growing) monthly visitors here each month and over 1million people pay for subscriptions.
46.57% of all visitors are from the USA, while visitors coming from the UK (5.9%) and Canada (5.77%) come in second and third position, respectively.
The gender breakdown of site visitors is 62.6% male and 37.4% female.
31.74% of website visitors are aged between 25 and 34, while the second most popular age range is 35 to 44 (19.23%). 2

I’ll cover strategy (you’ll write yours for the next two years in the workshop), ways to grow and find your ‘right people’ and answer ALL your questions.

You can read more and book here. (same day replay available)

Interesting posts by Sub Pub- my husband shared one of his with me and it’s not something that I’d usually come across in my ‘slow lived echo chamber’.
& host a monthly podcast all about their Substack journey. I listened to their latest episode last week and thought it was brilliant - they are such cheerleaders for each other and genuinely care about each other’s unique talents.
This post by - I adore Charlene’s words and feel like I’m right there with her having a cuppa and an oaty biscuit on the Shetland Isles - this post was perfect timing for me.
Haver & Sparrow
Curating your Substack: preserving your peace while growing your community
Hello lovely Did you come to Substack as a reader or a writer first? I arrived here as a reader but quickly decided it was the perfect space to share my writing and photography. I started Haver & Sparrow as a place to put out extra chairs around my virtual kitchen table and gather people into…
Read more
3 years ago · 117 likes · 65 comments · Charlene Storey

Over on Youtube

If you search anything to do with Substack on YouTube you’ll get lots of hits about growth and monetisation.

If your goals are quieter and you’re just enjoying the process of creating here here’s some links to videos I think you’ll enjoy. If you enjoy a screen share you’ll like some of these and often although Substack tutorial posts are great I think we do need the video examples to help compute it.

Here’s Substack’s YouTube channel - it’s GREAT when you need a screen share or want to dive into interviews with folks who have incorporated paid subs in their publication
My Slow Lived Growth on Substack YouTube Playlist is here - I’m adding to it with short tutorials every week. I need lots of practise and support 🙉 so please consider subscribing and sharing my videos. This week’s is about how to consider what free email/ web and what paid email/ web folks receive if you sent to your whole list with a paywall inside.
Louise over at Confessions Of A Terrified Creative made this Youtube video on how she’s grown her email list using Substack
This is an interesting video from ‘Convert Kit’ about why they rate the long game and building right here on Substack.
This hour long video is a couple of years old but Abigail over atThis Needs Hot Saucetalks about growing and shaping a newsletter without a social media following and so much more.

Subscribe now

Substack of the Week

I adored this from -

Heart Leap

Your darkest hour

When I was 19, I was a little lost. My father had just died, and I randomly decided I would go to New York. I bought at £99 ticket to JFK, maybe hoping that I could outrun grief in the city that never sleeps. When I rang my mum to say I had arrived safely, my mum told me there was an advert for a nanny in New York in The…

3 years ago · 5 likes · 11 comments · Suzy Walker

and a new and delightful writer to my eyes this week

Finding Sanity

Time management, productivity, and the commodification of your life

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had an irrational fear about the passing of time. Not having enough time, not making the most of it, time going too quickly. I constantly feel the sand falling and hear the clock ticking, reminding me of the constant, unstoppable passage of time. The existence of a k…

3 years ago · 3 likes · Isabelle Drury

My Mentors and Teachers

I get asked this question a lot and honestly I’ve learnt from so many people over the years. There is wisdom everywhere.

My understanding is mentors and teachers can hold up a mirror to your brilliance but it’s still yours. It’s your gift and your soul’s calling.

They can provide cheerleading and accountability, help you to see and work on blind spots but you still have to show up for yourself and push through the tricky bits in your own time.

You can’t just be a brain in a body - your brain and body are the same tool and they ask a lot from you. If your nervous system feels fried, chances are you need more time in nature or to search at a deeper level for intrinsic reward in your life and work.

If you feel wrapped up in that painful place of comparison and obsering what others are doing and how it (appears to be) working, chances are you need to hit the unfollow/ unsubscribe button a WHOLE lot more.

Our path is our path, it belongs to us and when we’re on it - everything feels aligned. I know this because I walk it. It’s not easy but I do and yes I unsubscribe a lot. It’s not personal it just makes sense.

I’m my own mentor and teacher on Substack because I’m genuinely geeky about it and as a creative thinker I’m all in for connection, for my writing craft and for the growth of my business to sustain my ‘Big Dreams’. I’ve spent hours and hours here since starting and I am just genuinely in awe of the writing here.

Looking forward to chatting in the comments if you have questions/ things to share this week?

Perhaps you have a win or you’ve gotten over a block or you’ve finally posted that post? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Maybe your week has been more frustrating or slow or you’ve felt blocked - perhaps it’s all part of the beautiful creative journey we’re on?

If this work I do serves you in any way please feel free to share it and use it in ways that set your creativity on fire.

Sending sparkles,

Claire x

🌸 💌 Join my membership here on Substack. When you upgrade to ‘paid’ here on Substack, there are so many gifts already waiting for you including (new for June) 5% off all my online workshop and courses.

Subscribe now

(*) PS - As promised, if you’re figuring out sections or want to unsubscribe from this or another section a writer hosts you’ll need to know how to manage your subscriptions to different sections within one newsletter.

Head to the newsletter you want to manage your subscriptions settings in… click on the burger menu on the far right next to your profile picture, in the drop down click ‘manage subscription’ in the white box (as shown).

Postpartum Matters CIC

Then you’ll see a list of options for the sections the creator has set up.

You can unsubscribe from any of them there;

Zoe and Lottie’s Postpartum Matters CIC as an example - thanks to them for being my example here.

Replay available but NB the Get Creative on Substack masterclass was recorded before Notes was brought in.

Source - https://sellcoursesonline.com/substack-statistics - I’m not sure where the gender split comes from as I don’t remember being asked do you?

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 02:01:09 GMT

Round the block and down again - this sign lives at the of our street!

Hello!

How’s your week on Substack been? I’ve figured out some more bits and pieces here about what works and what doesn’t and what works for me - they are all different things I think?

What I mean is what works for me might not also be the thing that works for you? What works on the tech side is more fact? What works today might not work tomorrow - ok I’ve gone too far now…

Anyway, I’ll share with you and do let me know what you’re learning here too?

This will be a shorter post this week as it’s half term here in Northumberland and I’ve been busy exploring a new project that will come out in time for the Summer holidays.

I feel like writing apols for the typos - sent from my iphone but it’s not 2014… 😬

The ‘Stay Creative on Substack’ podcast will be back next week. If you want to read past ‘Stay Creative on Substack’ tips - the posts are are all listed (tagged) here on my home page

Please feel free to share those with new folks joining. They are ESPECIALLY relevant to creatives who also happen to write.

I’ve pretty much written about ALL the features here (I think) and I have a masterclass and course and now some YouTube videos dedicated to my love of Substack. There are also some others teaching about the platform - I’m gathering them up so I’ll share those next week.

First up this week -

Did you claim your Substack Handle?

Do it now!

It makes it much easier for folks to find you and tag you in Notes and in posts.

While I’m here, to “tag someone” you just use the ‘@’ button before their name here and in notes. To pull their publication through into one of your posts if you want to celebrate them and link to their work, just copy and paste the URL and tag them - that way they’ll get notified.

Subscribe now

What do you think of the new dashboard?

💌 📮 I don’t quite know yet but I’d love your thoughts.

What I do know after 14 months on Substack, I’ve quickly got used to any change they’ve brought in…

I can’t find my scheduled posts as easily and the BIG annual revenue thing is a bit triggering as it goes down if a monthly sub doesn’t renew… hmmmm… This is where it’s important to have our own ‘success metrics’ and I chatted about intrinsic reward in last week’s post… ultimately I’m just glad they haven’t made the design green and red but green and grey is hard enough to see…

A thread that was meant to be a chat

Ok I was wrong about this but ‘New Thread’ on desktop is NOT the same as ‘New Chat’ on app.

Oooops - I thought they were the same as the icons are the same/ similar? To start a chat from desktop I have to type /chat at the end of my URL where as with threads the button is right there in writer dashboard…maybe it’s the same for you. To make it more confusing you can also send chats as emails to both subscribers and paid members.

This is an accidental ‘thread’ I sent when I thought it was a chat… You can better see the difference if you’re on desktop.

Here’s the back office but in the app it just looked like a regular email and I felt a bit spammy 1about that last week…

I noticed shared a thread this week and (I think) wrote THREAD in the email subject which makes is SO much clearer - Sara is SO brilliant at engaging us on the internet and making things easy to follow!

I’m part of her Hashtag Authentic course community and a paid subscriber here which I’m very glad about!

The last post at the bottom of the list above My ‘Creative Content Club’ in the image above is a blog post and invitation I pulled over from my old wordpress blog and updated.

I didn’t email it out which means it doesn’t get seen as much BUT it’s really handy to be able to link to it as I’m re launching that programme and a series of free group mentoring sessions. As I was editing the post from last year I wondered if updating it would make it jump up the timeline but it doesn’t. I had to copy and paste the content and then re post it. So now it exists twice here - once from Feb 2022 and once from now…

I also realised folks get notified if you’ve mentioned them in a post every time you update it. 🙊 sorrrryyyyy for all my edits this month. Tags coming in sent my organising brain into overdrive and I wanted to organise my home page!!

So for those of us who are slowly working through and adding tags it’s nice to know that any @ mentions will be re notified.

So, in short if you want to start a thread from your desktop you can (third button down) - I think this could be really great for a regular weekly or monthly discussion - looking at you?

I wrote about my thoughts on chat a few Fridays back but basically I don’t think it works as well as it could and to honour a calm and spacious Substack experience for my subscribers, I’m just hosting one a month at the moment.

I do wonder about threads as I love chatting in the comments of posts and can’t REALLY see the difference? Perhaps because I don’t have 10s of thousands of subs I don’t need to differentiate between a thread and a post with comments on? Is that it?

You can see uses it really well and pulls her “threads” through to the main menu on her home page so people can see at a glance what a brilliant community she supports here - https://thehyphen.substack.com/s/threads

Where do you stand on having comments turned on or off here?

The POWER of a super network

I absolutely love Substack for the network of people it shares with me. Years on social media wondering why it felt like everyone else was having all the fun (just me) have been replaced with joyous interactions with writers and creatives here on Substack.

This post on Notes really caught my attention this week by

I had to think about this a lot because my multi-passionate, portfolio career does not let me niche! I could write on so many of these ‘micro-journalism’ ideas… I’ll keep thinking…maybe a creative producer stack or a curation stack or just a good ole sparkle stack? Thanks to for that last suggestion.

Later in the week, drew my attention to a place called ‘Memoir Land’. It looks like they curate a tonne of personal essays and re-share every Monday - I’ll be taking a dive into this content come the weekend!

There’s also if you’re interested in fiction and 1000’s words of summer is coming up if you want to join that community to write. I’m going to give it a go. I love the romance of the invitation - it reminds me of when I was a teen and sitting round the pavements of County Durham listening to friends tell of holiday romances and discos and two ice creams a day!

CRAFT TALK

Everything you need to know about #1000wordsofsummer

Hi friends. The sixth (!) year of #1000wordsofsummer starts June 17. Are you getting excited? I have been feeling all your positive energy online. And I am absolutely thrilled by this year’s list of contributing authors. I really think something extremely special is about to happen this year…

3 years ago · 154 likes · 31 comments · Jami Attenberg

There was also this Note with lots of insightful responses which was exactly what I needed to read;

Lovely often pulls my posts through to recommendations in Explore. Want to know how it works?
Ha - me too! I do have a theory but I’ll not unpack that this week. Thanks for all your do to support my creative work and writing here !! 💁🏽‍♀️

Substack of the Day!

We are all here to read different things and it’s not a competition (and thank goodness) but I wanted to bring this feature back because I started it over on instagram and ~~no one cared~~ it was quiet in response and so I moved my energy here where it’s much better spent.

I loved Mackenzie’s words over at and the invitation here in this post is glorious…

the lovely road

why i'm having a slow summer

A common theme starting right around Memorial Day or the end of spring depending on where you live, is creating a summer bucket list. What are your plans? What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? What do you want to accomplish? What are you going to do with your life for 8 solid weeks without a game plan? What. Are. You. Going. To. Do…

3 years ago · 1 like · 1 comment · Mackenzie

Where I’ve been finding value

There is a lot of brilliant writing on Substack which is just gorgeous. I’ve found real value here in my paid memberships. I LOVE running mine here and I pay for a membership to which is a new addition and Suzy is BLOWING my mind with her generosity and connection to big thinkers, dreamers, journalists, writers and happy to be here-ers. I know Suzy IRL and I’m yet to meet a more open hearted, fiercely determined creative. Story for another day but I followed her down a HUGE slide last week and her invite to join her membership popped in my inbox the next day - it was an instant YES PLEASE!

NEW - Youtube Videos about Substack!

My Get Creative on Substack & Stay Creative on Substack series is also on Youtube now. 🥳

I want to be of service to as many folks as possible so if you’re a creative who also writes you might find these useful.

I’ve been meaning to pick up youtube for a while and the lovely Molly over at along with my eight year old son and my husband have been very supportive to inspiring my journey.

I started with 24 subscribers and I’ve given myself a year to learn the ropes over there! Are you youtubing? I mean are you a youtuber, I mean are you creating content on youtube - I’m definitely not cool enough I know. 😙

Ok that’s all for this week, tell me something you’ve enjoyed or discovered here on Substack this week?

Claire x

PS - If you want to work with me as a mentor in unpacking your creative strategy for writing and creating here I have a few ways you can do that. More here.

You might also like my Substack Contents Page - doing my best to keep it updated each season! I didn’t email this one out - I just published it and pinned it to my home page.

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The spam FEAR - am I emailing too much, are people sick of me in their inbox, am I taking up too much space, does emailing people wreck the planet because it all has to live on a server somewhere… ? Ok only the last one is a real question! The other stuff is mindset stuff. I’m ok. 🌻

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 26 May 2023 02:01:02 GMT

Alnmouth, Summer 2022

Hellllloooo,

How’s your week on Substack been? I’ve tried scheduling this for 3am my time so it meets your morning in the UK and your evening in other spaces. How does that work for you?

This post is really a continuation of what I started in last week’s podcast piece about being paid to write here because the conversation is bigger and more nuanced than I first thought…there are a couple of tips at the end but this is definitely more of an article than a set of quick tips.

There’s lots to think on here but I do get to some tips if you’re thinking about going paid at the end.

If you’re looking for Substack creator tips perhaps head here to one of my previous Stay Creative on Substack posts.

I will say before I start that NOTES has been BRILLIANT for both conversation and new subscribers this week, I’m learning more about running a second publication here and I moved a commissioned client here too - I’ll talk about it in another post.

I have a question…

Do you think using platforms to share out art/ our creative voice/ our writing can sometimes see us loose sight of the ‘deeper’ why behind the very first why? We join with one intention and then somewhere along the line things shift and change for us? We’re influenced by others of by energy the platforms brings or something else?

I was chatting to a friend about this very topic over the weekend because we both came here (originally) to write long form again - to find a new blog space if we’re honest.

So I would have ticked the second option in the poll above -

‘To write/ create’.

The reading and the connection came second to me here as I didn’t know it existed when I joined. Then after that? Well it’s been a wild ride and now Substack is an integral part of my business and a beautiful tool for deep connection.

I can’t express how much I get from being subscribed as a paid member to and and connecting with their offers behind the paywall.

Step back in time

Here’s my very first post (the older posts are imported from an old blog).

After the first post

What came afterwards for me was a very gentle year of experimentation. Seven Months of showing up, writing, considering, writing some more, reading, being blown away by the talent of writing of many kinds… then I moved my mailing list and then despite my best intentions everything changed and I was more than OK with it.

In the here and now I’m working with a plan for Substack that I came up with in January ‘23. You can read that post here…

In the post I talk about the 1000 true fans model.1 Have you heard of it? Now I know people with 1000s of followers, email subscribers - does it mean they have 1000 true fans? Nope!

I actually have a combined online ‘following’ of over 6000 ‘people’ now and I’m not turning over 6 figures or inundated with messages to reply to - nowhere near actually. I think you’ve figured out that I’m not here selling that message. 2

The internet is busy, our time is precious and it’s so easy to be signed up to stuff you’re not really interested in or worst still stuff that triggers you. True connection is hard to find (both online and IRL) but my beloved Substack has it in DROVES!

But who is actually listening?

Me and my husband were having a chat about instagram the other day. He was asking me how many people on instagram do you think would be able to get to the end of a 10 min long video if we both said;

“You have to watch this, it’s the best thing ever, no but honestly you have to watch it!”

We bet none!

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We then took the analogy further and said how many other ‘influencers’ of the people whose opinion you really care about would have to say - you REALLY have to watch this video - it’s 10 minutes but it’s amazing - 10 people, 20 people, 50 people?

What about if when you watched all the way to the end you were entered into a prize draw with 100 other people to win a car! Could you do it? Remember you’re watching it ON social media and you have to watch to the end…

Could you sit on a social media platform and watch a 10 minute long video that we both said was amazing if you won a car at the end?

So TOUGH!

I think you get my point - it’s incredibly hard to engage in anything for any amount of time whilst on social media. There has been lots written on the topic of being distracted by our phones and we know deep down don’t we - we see it everywhere.3

So, moving on from all that and circling back to WHY I wanted to write this piece and why I write right here on Substack.

I didn’t sign up to Substack thinking people would pay to read my writing. 4

Being a writer for a photoshoot with Laura Hardy Rotchester

A complex love affair

I’ve had a beautiful career in the cultural sector - 20 plus years of project work, creative producing, directing theatre, working with communities. I make enough money in this career, it’s unstable and unpredictable but I adore it and I’m good at it. I’ve not had an annual “pay rise” in over 10 years which is why I don’t do it full time.

I see full time employed cultural sector jobs advertised that I could do but we couldn’t afford for me to do those. I bring in the majority of earnt income in our house so it just doesn’t make sense to even look at those jobs.

It’s why I sought out other ways to diversify my income because there is value in what I do and there’s value in what I have to say and teach others. With the rise of being able to teach online and in other creative ways to show up there’s opportunity and lots of it.

But here’s the thing - society (as a whole) does not value my creative work. There’s no way to increase your wealth unless you become a CEO, a best selling author, a celebrity or a famous/ sought after artist. 5

Game Changer by Bristol born artist Banksy

So although I could have aspired or still could aspire to be those things I don’t need or want to. My success is cultivated by intrinsic rewards - feeling content, connected, happy, in flow, in abundance…

It’s a balance for sure but in 2023, there is surely opportunity EVERYWHERE?

Share Creatively Conscious

Being Paid to Create

I have a pal who is a successful part time instagram influencer. They get paid upwards of £3000 for up to four instagram stories. If you want to read that again you can.

I have paid artists/ creatives anywhere from £200 a day to £850 a day (plus VAT) to work on projects with me. I don’t question their daily rate - their daily rate is their daily rate.

I have worked on project budgets of millions of pounds brought in from multiple sources to support the arts, cultural and heritage sector. I’ve worked for the second biggest charity in Europe, I’ve worked for individual artists who earn less than £18k a year (every year) and are very happy. Yesterday I was part of the press launch for the world’s biggest play structure. It’s right here in Alnwick and it’s cost £18million to build.

I have received 1000s of emails over the course of my work in response to call outs and applications. Wildly different proposals from artists massively under charging and the odd one or two massively over charging too. 6

The big thing to remember is it’s all made up!

There are no rules when it comes to setting and receiving money for your skill, art, writing, creativity or teaching. Honestly… none!!

Two people were in absolutely disbelief when I told them I’d raised funding7 for our vision board project ‘The Soil Web’ - I had to explain how I’d done it and how it worked - (well I didn’t have to but I wanted to…because it’s all made up).

There are millions upon millions of ways to make money as a creative and millions of people who will pay for your art, ideas, writing and creativity. People who want to feel. People who crave connection. People who want to explore what it actually means to push outside of what we’re ‘here for’.

So how do we relate ANY of this to being paid on Substack?

Glad you asked, I was getting to that… 🙃

Here are my top 3 take aways after offering ‘pay walled content’ here for over a year…

For me my membership (paid for space here) is a completely DIFFERENT space to my main Substack. It’s quiet, it’s thoughtful, it has time… if I had to liken it to a space it would be round the corner from a noisy but beautiful slow waterfall in a sunny open grassy field with multiple canvas tipis set up, stations to write, make art, grab cake and tea and sit round a fire and chat. It’s the complete opposite to the feeling of ‘being on social media’ I made above. It’s a space to look after your wellbeing through creativity and put down the success metrics of society to build your own.
It’s hard when people come and go but it’s part of it. No final words? No goodbye? *Deep breath*. Just me!? I think it’s because people on the whole (me included) are still trying to figure out what we want to pay to be part of, what we have bandwidth for and what really serves us in our journey. Everyone has a totally different bandwidth on what they want to connect to in the current season of their life. Pay walled content is STILL relatively new to us 8
The money has to work for you. Like the metrics I’ve given above every single person here will be being paid different amounts for writing/ sharing here. Some of the purple, orange and white tick gang will receive 10s of thousands of pounds each year for writing behind a paywall. Perhaps they charge less than you want to. Perhaps it’s even a full time income for them or perhaps they blew it all on a holiday last year. It’s really not my concern, other than to know if I keep coming back to centre, to my goals around creating and being of service I’m happy.
We learnt the hard way - lots of us here have come over from other platforms where we’ve felt increasing disappointment at the lack of ‘reward’ for our creativity. If we track back that reward, that connection was there and gone in a flash. What if it had never been there - would we miss it?
Could we create just for us, could we share knowing it might reach that one person who needs it and feels connected and inspired?

Leave a comment

Ok this is really long now but I’ll get it all out… bear with me… (should have been a podcast)!

My Top ‘Substack tips’ to better understand the ‘paid metrics’ model

Performance (best seller) Related Check Marks/ Ticks. It’s not you it’s me. This is my least favourite part of Substack simply because I’m burnt out with ‘success’ metrics like this existing in the world but if you want to know more about purple ticks here you go. Don’t worry about what anyone else is doing - set up a paywall that works for you.
Substack crests and what they mean - have you spotted a little crest symbol next to your name or someone else’s name here - it’s most visible on chat? If you’re new to crests - here’s what it means.
Substack Boost - I leave boost switched on because I trust Substack. You can get to this feature in your settings. Here’s a screen shot… Before you decide what to do here, think about the person receiving the emails and how it fits with your offer here, your ethics, your goals - is it comfortable to you?
Substack has a youtube channel - there are some great resources and interviews there about being paid for your art/ writing.
Bounce ideas off other people. I offer paid strategy sessions but you don’t have to pay me or anyone else - ask a real life pal, join a small biz networking group or do a shout out in Notes and see who’s about to chat with you.

Ok so I’ll wrap up there for this week but if you have ANY questions on what I’ve written here or want me to unpack any of it - feel free to ask in the comments!

I’ll be back with a podcast episode in two weeks so if you’d like me to answer one of your questions on Substack do let me know.

As always I look forward to chatting in the comments and if you’re new here you’ll find all my articles on Substack Tips for slow intentional growth right here.

Claire x

NEW TOOLKIT - “I want to host a membership on Substack?”- Resources suite incoming!! - wait list here. FREE sign up. I’m going to work with you on this one so sign up for updates and I’ll be in touch when it’s ready.
If you want to join my ‘Creatively Conscious’ membership here on Substack you’d be so welcome. All of my member benefits are listed here so you can be sure it’s the right fit for you before you jump in and hang out with me and my others members.
I have a LIVE NEW SUBSTACK MASTERCLASS coming up - Mailing List Magic is next month - replay available. In it I’ll cover exactly what I’ve done to double my mailing list and deepen my focus and connection here. Not a hack in sight.

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The concept is by Kevin Kelly - more here - https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-rise-of-the-internets-creative-middle-class

Some of these will be duplicates of people / bots/ expired/ go to junk mail - but 3200 on instagram, 800 on linked in, 400 on facebook, 825 on substack, 1000 on twitter. What does it all mean if my 8 year old wants me to ‘be to be a youtuber’?!

When I was working for a children’s charity in 2019, I attended a conference and half of the conference investigated the impact mobile phones had on children’s development. The research had found children in low income families (where it was focussed) were showing extreme signs of neglect due to the amount of times parents spent on mobile phones. The babies and toddlers were missing vital facial cues in their development pathways due to the faceless expressions we have whilst on our phones. This book is also an excellent read on the topic - https://www.nirandfar.com/indistractable

I did switch the paid for option on at the start because it serves me to be open to money and opportunity as a slow lived entrepreneur. I thought I would find it harder to switch it on further down the line so I just switched it on and showed up wholeheartedly here.

Banky’s ‘Game Changer’ raised £16758,000 for the NHS a year after lockdown.

The AN produce a table of incremental rates of pay based on years of experience.

I wrote about it here

I’ve not paid to read ANY media off Substack because I don’t follow any news. Business investments are tax deductible when you’re self employed and lots of paywalled stuff here would count as business investments - mine included. I joined two memberships (off Substack) in 2022 - one I paid monthly for and I left after a couple of months, the other I paid annually for and I adored a year’s worth of dipping in and out of the offers there. The first was £33 a month, the second was £200 for the year. Both were business investments.

Your Friday Email (& Podcast) - Stay Creative on Substack

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 19 May 2023 03:00:05 GMT

Let’s do some of it (but not all of it) all of the time?

Ok so this week it’s a combination of both audio and written Substack tips from me - both hold different information and different thoughts.

The audio speaks to some of my thoughts on hosting a membership here rather than just writing behind a paywall and also answers a question from a subscriber on frequency of posting and on how much to show up and how they might feel about setting up the paid for option here. The written tips are all about the different functions we can use and our and our reader’s user experiences.

I’m reverting to sending these Substack Tips monthly from here on in now I’ve covered off the big changes they’ve made here and a lot of the things I’ve learnt being here for a year.

There’s already tonnes of tips in these posts so do check them out.

(NB - my Substack Tips posts are locked to paid subscribers after a month of being published)

I SO appreciate you supporting me and my creative work. These posts take a long time to put together and my membership and founding members and my passion help pay for my time to do that for the wider community here. I see you and I’m so grateful to you.

Subscribe now

So to Substack and all it’s many beautiful and distracting portals

Again, I’ll make the point that we can throw away AND create our own rule book here on Substack. I wanted to share my experience of using all of the functions on my terms here over the last month or so and some questions/ prompts for you as you decide what’s right for you and how much time to spend here…

When I go to write something I’m already plugging into a plan I made at the start of the year for Substack and how it fits into my business. It’s purposeful and fits together and it puts you the reader at the heart of the experience. 💜

Subscribe now

Let’s rattle through the main portals (ways to connect with folks) here…

1. Chat 🥉

In my opinion chat is the least well functioning part of Substack. The issue with chat for me is I can’t keep a chat at the top of my feed to stay up to date with the conversation. I’ve actually stopped checking it and I’ve taken the tab off my home page too.

The way it works which is different to say a ‘whatsapp chat’ is that the chat disappears as soon as another one appears. I’d like my own chat to be at the top of my feed and one for paid and one for free subs so I can actually chat with them through the month more easily. As it is I have to start a new chat with them instead of continuing the old one.

It’s also a bit frustrating to open chat and see lots of invites to locked to paid members chats for other substacks because that’s noisy and I just want to archive them to tidy up but I can’t. Tagging so they see my suggestions… perhaps you agree or perhaps it’s working well for you?

Photo by Fiona Smallwood on Unsplash

I’m trying this month to just have ONE chat space with my members here and use the other functions of the platform for other elements of my creative writing and work.

If you’re a member here at Creatively Conscious and you missed our intention setting chat it’s here. Feel free to jump in.

2. Notes 🥈

I’ve written about Notes before here and here but what I’d say over a month down the line is that I really like Notes but I can’t ‘do’ notes and another social media platform - it’s more ‘like’ social media than other places on Substack so for me I show up in very intentional ways there and that’s it.

I loved this thread - it’s so beautiful and a really unique way to connect with community here.

3. Posts 🗝

We know what posts are here but we also kinda need to think about the web, email and app versions of posts as they all present slightly differently. I have smart notifications turned on so I don’t get any posts via email, I read them all in the app.

I keep an eye on who is reading on app and who is reading in email etc which you can see in writer dashboard. Ultimately I’m being gentle with myself because that’s a whole heap of content from just one post/ email.

I’ve seen some other writers talk about open rates - I don’t obsessively check mine but I do find it interesting. This is a relatively new section so I wouldn’t expect the folks who signed up to my list years ago to read it. Having said that it does reach a lot of people within Substack and that’s magic isn’t it.

I find it so beautiful that some writers choose JUST to use posts - just to write a weekly newsletter and draw a boundary saying that’s it - that’s the content. I love a firm boundary don’t you…

4. Restacks 🛎

Ok so I have lots of love for restacks. In an ideal world I write a comment and restack a part of the post I adore. Double the love.

I want to have the conversation on the post and I’m happy to have it in notes too but then it disappears and new people finding the post won’t see it. On the desktop this week I wrote a comment on and ticked the button to publish it to Notes thinking I was giving it permission to pull through if Charlie restacked. Actually what happened was my comment ONLY went to Notes and it felt a bit weird there… because well it was a comment - part of a conversation with Charlie and the community. Confused? Me too!

5. Podcasts 💌 📮

We can record directly into the web browser here and that’s what I do for my podcast here. The new podcast I’m recording with my pal over at will be recorded on zoom with microphones and uploaded here as well as on other platforms and that’s because we are recording together, it will be edited with music and an intro/ outtro and we want a certain type of listening experience.

6. Video 🎁

I applied for video here on Substack (not available to everyone yet) so I use it to share video chats with my members, I don’t plan to include video more generally but I might next year we’ll see… I recorded one this week about bringing our vision board to life in our black and white actions - it’s a GOOD one and goes out Saturday morning!

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OVER TO YOU

Zooming out to zoom in on YOUR space here…

If you zoom out and think about your Substack a year from now how do you want to be using it and building community?
What would feel good to be sharing and how much - how much depth of connection have you got space for?
How about 5 years from now and 10 years from now?
Do you enjoy using all of the functions within the platform and the app? You can do whichever parts fit for you…

I love using Notes at the start of the week and catching up with replies as the week goes on. At the weekend I use Notes to remind people about posts of mine they might have missed. This ‘Cosy round the Fire’ intro post is nearing 200 comments and that’s because I’ve shared it multiple times on Notes. It feels like REAL community and that’s what it’s all about for me.

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Ways to work with me

I made a video sharing what I love about Substack a year on - I’m trying to get better at showing up in multiple ways and me and my husband really want to start a youtube series for our Soil project so we need lots of practise - if you want to watch it’s here.

Want more support with Substack? I have an hour long masterclass ‘Get Creative on Substack’ and 4 week course ‘Stay Creative on Substack’ you can find here.

I love to support creatives with their substack strategy and growth making space for your quiet ambition and big dreams.I’d love to build a bigger container for you and support you. I’ve doubled my mailing list here since November ‘22 and although it’s not all about the numbers it’s really a sure way of knowing the work I’m doing is working.

My holistic mentoring focusses on your creativity and is 90 minutes over zoom together with a week long email follow up exchange.

Let me know what you’ve discovered or are discovering about yourself here on Substack this week?

Claire x

PS - New on Substack this week

I have to shout out to Bex from who I know from instagram and has started the most beautiful space here as an extension of her Slow Lived and Hyggee lifestyle. Bex is an old soul and a beautiful one too.

I discovered A Sourdough Story this week and this is one niche I’ve definitely here for!

I also discovered lots of new content and writers through this post from Jess;

The Write Up

Substack Posts I’ve Loved Lately (Vol.6)

I’m bringing you 5 more reads than usual this week! A bumper edition, if you will. I couldn’t stop adding to my list — it took a little longer than expected to finalise my recent book reviews — and I thought you’d like to hear about all of these pieces…

3 years ago · 16 likes · 16 comments · Jess

And not new to me but I really wanted to shout out to the ‘depth’ in creative practise Tanya talks about here - it’s really inspirational.

with EASE

800+ days consecutively

Now there are experts and gurus and specialists way more experienced on the subject of journaling than I am, many of whom are actually here on Substack. However, there is not one single person on this planet that is an expert on ‘my kind’ of journaling. Which is kind of crazy. But it’s true. I’m so high on life right now, because I am leaning into t…

3 years ago · 4 likes · 3 comments · Tanya Lynch

I also wanted to shout out to Sophie at Simple and Calm who wrote a beautiful piece articulating some of our fall out with instagram which for me doubled as a piece about hope in connection here on Substack.

Simple & Calm

The downfall of Instagram

This post is free to read, but Wednesday’s post will be for paid subscribers only. To receive ALL of my posts each week & to get access to my Simple & Calm course and community of likeminded slow living enthusiasts, why not consider becoming a paid member for less than £1 per week? To celebrate my…

3 years ago · 38 likes · 75 comments · Sophie Ingleby

Your Friday Email - Substack Tips for creativity and intentional growth

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 12 May 2023 05:10:50 GMT

Welcome back to another slow, intentional growth on Substack post.

I started this Friday series after this post back in February stirred up a bit of a conversation;

My intention here is to talk about creativity, finding your creative voice and to share what I’m learning along the way. I started writing here in April 2022 and by November I’d moved my mailing list here. I’ve doubled the number of email subscribers since then and I’m so grateful for the community I’m building here.

When I was on maternity leave with my daughter in 2021, I ran a year long project for mums that celebrated perfectly imperfect creativity - it changed my whole practise and it means I can show up and create without things needing to feel ‘perfect’ or ‘ready’.

I’m happy to share as I go and that’s my intention with these Friday posts.

You can check back through at how my writing and creating here has shifted and changed - I’m not planning on editing ‘past me’ to bring ‘now me’ in there….well not yet anyway!

CREATIVE gifts!

In this week’s post we’re going to take a look into;

Tags
Blurbs
A design tip (just me?)
Shout outs

So far I’ve created these tags in settings on my writer dashboard;

Wellbeing
Slow Living
Quiet Ambition
Creativity
Soil
Substack Tips
Project Bloom

And if you head here to my ‘home page’ you’ll see I’ve popped some of them on my navigation bar.

My Home Page by Wednesday

I don’t know if this is the best place for them to live and I might change it all but for now that’s what I’m trialing out. Tags give you a URL to share in posts which may be useful if you’ve got a series you want to loop in together? The difference between tags and sections is that folks can unsubscribe from specific sections.

With with ‘sections’ you can also write a few lines about that section at the top and pin a post.

Any questions? Just ask in the comments

Here is one of my sections here on Substack.
And here is a URL of my membership tag.

The jury is still out on how they might work in ‘search’ or on the ‘explore’ page - only Substack technies know that - can we tag a technie on Notes? Do they live there? Have you found one? Does anyone know what SEO stands for - kidding! 🙆🏽‍♀️

Design - Black v white/ Dark v Light

Substack Design Tip of the Week

When designing your page breaks or other branding consider those that read in ‘dark/ night mode’ on their phone - I know at least 3 people who do including my husband so I just realised my page breaks weren’t showing up the way I’d intended.

Thanks for pointing this out to me.

This is a page break with a transparent background

This is a page break with a white background so folks will see the white box on dark mode which isn’t my intention - I now need to go and do a lot of replacements!! *sigh*

Welcome page blurbs/ recommendations for fellow Substackers

A couple of weeks back I wrote about how you should be using recommendations. if you want to grow your readership and community. It really is THE best way for YOUR people to find you and support your publication.
Let’s unpack that some more. Recommendations are a two second job if you want to recommend another Substack publication you simply click a button. You ALSO get the option to write something about why you recommend the writer/ creator/ publication. Just a couple of lines is fine.
Once you have recommendation blurbs you can add them to your Substack.
They pop up on your welcome page before someone puts their email in. Here’s the Substack article on welcome page blurbs
Below are two screen shots. First one of the back office and your magazine cover to encourage you with embracing this lovely bit of admin!

Screen shot of how to add and remove recommendation blurbs - you can choose three people see before they type their email in on your welcome page.

And here’s how they appear when someone is NEW to your publication and hasn’t yet subscribed.

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Substack Shout Outs 🦥

I want to shout out this week to lovely who is very active on notes. I especially liked this one on growth.

Beth from who has set up such a fun way to interact with her artwork. Beth did a little shout out on Notes asking us to look for a pup hidden on the about page and screen shot it back in the thread when we found it. Our reward? 3 months free an upgrade to her paid tier here on Substack - and I won one - thanks Beth!

While I’m here, if you’re looking for illustrators to sub to to brighten your day check out , , , , , , or type illustration into your explore page on desktop to see more - there are SO SO many - https://substack.com/search/illustration

This post from Katie at Katie Draws was just awesome. I know Katie IRL, her instagram is brilliantly light and funny (if you’re over there) plus she’s just a really lovely down to earth person and incredible business woman - she’s a gem!

Katiedraws (and writes)

Guide: How to Have Lots of Ideas and Get Out of Your Own Way

Sometimes (all the time if you are in the creative industry) you need to think of lots of ideas quickly, or come up with creative solutions to problems. Last week my brain went on strike right in the middle of a deadline, and here is a summary of the things that helped me to get out of my urgh-I-cannot-think-of-a-single-thing rut…

3 years ago · 6 likes · 3 comments · Katie Chappell

What have you learnt on Substack this week?

Do you have any questions for my next podcast episode? I’d love to support you on your Substack journey just comment below or hit reply to this email if you want to me to anonymously answer your question.

Claire x

PS - I made a video sharing what I love about Substack a year on - I’m trying to get better at showing up in multiple ways and me and my husband really want to start a youtube series for our Soil project so we need lots of practise - if you want to watch it’s here.

PPS - Want more support with Substack? I have an hour long masterclass ‘Get Creative on Substack’ and 4 week course ‘Stay Creative on Substack’ you can find here.

I’ve done three one to one mentoring sessions on showing up and creating for Substack this year - you’re so welcome to book some time with me - I love making space for your quiet ambition and big dreams here. My holistic mentoring focusses on your creativity and is 90 minutes over zoom together with a week long email follow up exchange. I’d love to build a bigger container for you and support you.

Your Friday Email - Substack Tips. Your creativity loves structure (and courage...)

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 05 May 2023 04:00:56 GMT

Hey all,

It’s Friday which means it’s time for another Slow Lived Growth on Substack post. I’ve been thinking a lot about courage and structure this week. Crossing t’s and dotting i’s on a project launching tomorrow.

Eeeeek - beyond excited to share more over at .

BTW - If you are not interested in my intentional growth stories here you can opt just to receive the other things I publish in your settings on the dashboard.

Being a leader

Ok, onto this week’s note and podcast. There have been a few times I’ve felt sick with anxiety whilst being here on Substack this last few months because growth is sometimes un comfy right? When I started here it was a place of self expression, somewhere to come and calm my nervous system and write to publish and get playful.

The butterfly and the cocoon analogy comes to mind. This week we were chatting about leaderboards and what they are in Notes. A lovely Substacker replied and said my publication was on a leaderboard for ‘Culture’ 1and I felt sick immediately.

My first thought was I don’t have thousands of subscribers, I’m not a leader, I don’t talk so much about culture here - that’s part of my career but I keep it separate to Substack.

My second thoughts were Culture is everything isn’t it - it’s in the fabric of the decisions we make in the way we show up online, in what we consume for entertainment, for education and more.

I don’t know what ‘it means’ being a leader but I’m not striving for ticks or leadership here I’m striving for creativity and that is courageous enough.

Creativity is an intrinsic reward

…and that’s why I’ve made a career out of it, that’s why I’m here and external validation clashes with that (for me) because I’m simply not used to it.

I’ve won three awards in my life - one for a colouring competition when I was 8 (I used a gold pen) and two Journal Culture Awards for my engagement work as a Creative Producer. All of them felt brilliant and uncomfortable and a complete surprise. So 411th on the leaderboard for Culture - that’s probably a nice complement but I make a note to look into ‘leadership boards’ to better understand the intent behind that.

I wanted to talk today about three things;

How I’ve been using Substack Notes and the growth it’s brought.
The shift in commenting culture I’ve noticed and my plans.
Design, customisation and growing into your creative space here.

I unpack these in the podcast above.

Listen in and let me know in the comments what connects for you?

- What are your Substack struggles this week and where are your blocks?

- What feels good and what feels terrifying in sharing your creative voice?

My Beautiful Reality - The Journal, Centre Spread pages in a local cafe. You can read more and purchase one here.

Substack Notes and replies on intentional growth I loved this week;

Sarah’s notes are also brilliant and evoke lots of discussion - join in here…

Something New and Something Surprising this Week

Customisation! Check out for more - I'm excited (I think) tags have arrived and I'm wondering about how it will all help us find more brilliant folks to connect with... I'm not rushing to do anything with them.
There are writers with huge followings here who have negotiated year long paid contracts2 and sizeable fees to write and move audiences here.
Hashtag ad springs to mind - more transparency on this please Substack and writers - we want to feel genuine connection!

An offer for you

I’ve decided to do one short mentoring session a month here so if you’d like to submit a question for a mentoring answered via public voice note/ podcast right here on Substack you can pop that in the comments or simply reply to this email to keep it anonymous - I can’t wait to hear from you!

Claire x

New on Substack or curious about growing your readership and community?

You might also enjoy my other posts on the topic of growing your community here soulfully and intentionally including;

Leaderboards are present for every category - you can choose two different categories when you set up your Substack and they publish the listing based on free, paid subs, growth and how often you publish… Only the first category is taken into account for leadership boards. More here.

Substack is a business after all and as transparent as they are they are a very different type of business to mine.

One I’m absolutely happy to be part of but would like to better understand of as I have investments here and we’ve been so burnt on social media platforms I take my creativity here seriously. Their Grow posts - https://substack.com/inbox/post/117874249 & my rabbit hole 🐇 search took me here where Rob talks about his $100k Substack contract quite openly -

Rob Henderson's Newsletter

Thoughts After One Year on Substack (April 2023)

3 years ago · 200 likes · 20 comments · Rob Henderson

Your Friday Email - Substack Tips - A feature, a friend and a recommendation

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 04:30:16 GMT

Happy Friday all - here’s another Slow Lived Growth on Substack update from me. I’ve called it ‘Substack Tips’ as a tag which felt clearer.

You can read more by clicking through to my section right here on Substack.

There are short podcast/ voice notes and some screen shots, some recommendations and some ‘how tos’. It’s my intention to publish these most Fridays.

I love writing these segments. If you’re ready you can Start your own Substack or sign in to read others. Let me know if you have any questions. I have a masterclass and a 4 week course on making Substack work for you.

NB - After my little ‘what’s new round here’ round up below, this post mentions anxiety caused by being online so if you’re looking for sunshine and rainbows today maybe save for another day…

What’s new for me on Substack this week?

I nearly fell off my chair when I got a notification that had mentioned me in a post. I clicked into their section and there it was a little screen shot of my blossom picture and invitation on Notes. The reason I think this Note got spotted was because it did these things;

Asked a question (about blossom) - who doesn’t love to chat blossom this time of year ESPECIALLY here in the UK.
Shared a whimsical picture - this was a total test but why not!? Photos are lovely - people love photos.
Started something ‘snowbally’ - I’m not planning to talk about algorithims but people started shared their own blossom pictures in reply and people are still pressing the like button and the note is over a week old!

I’ve heard snippets from the team at Substack and they’re saying - use Notes to chat - encourage discussion there - encourage connection, they love connection here and so do we right?

The same day the lovely Molly from shared my Substack with her subscribers and I realised something else that felt really really nice;

There is a beautiful generosity of spirit here mixed with a much longer attention span than social media. That’s it, that’s the real magic. That’s why it’s working.

That’s why every one new subscriber is so precious.

Next up - BOOKS! we get to read long form, connect and hopefully support people’s real life beautiful books 📚 📚📚

I love the new feature of sharing your book links on your profile.

If you’ve written, self published or been published by a publishing house add a link. You could also add a link to an ebook/s. I’ve added both of my creativity and wellbeing journals to my links page - you can add any online link there.

We have a saying in the North East of England - “Shy bairn’s get nowt” - in short, it means if you don’t ask you’ll not receive. A bairn is an endearing word for baby or child and it’s usually used by adults as a saying relating to a plucky child asking for sweets or something but not always.

I think this is very true of promoting your book here! Do it now!

You might notice I’ve taken twitter off here as a link. I was chatting in notes with an author who has deleted her twitter and I’m SO tempted to do the same but I do use my follower numbers in funding apps so I’m not sure… Do you have links on your page here?

Update - Substack and Twitter are in dispute so no sharing to twitter at the moment (May 23)

Share Creatively Conscious

Onto this week’s tool for slow, intentional growth;

Are you using your recommendations feature? I started using recommendations at the end of last summer. I write a little heart centred blurb about why I recommend individual Substacks and this toggles through 5 different Substacks on my home page. I pop in twice a month and check this space and add more recommendations if I’ve read/ discovered more folks. It feels so wonderful to get an email to say someone is recommending my Substack. Thank-you if you’ve done that for me.
I like to think of this as a cover to my Substack Magazine! The back office looks like this in your settings.

And this is how it looks on my ‘home’ page.

I recommend way more Substacks than they list in the bottom right corner, but if I check back tomorrow the list will look different again… I have a quiet goal around recommendations here because why not?!

Screenshot from a recent email from Substack updating me on lovely news…

are very transparent and fast in the development of features and responding to what we think. If you don’t know your boost from your notes just yet this is a great article from them;
On Substack
Product news for writers: Boost, Subscriber report, Chat on the web, and more
At Substack, we believe great writing is valuable. We’re focused on building simple tools that allow you to grow your audience and earn an income directly from subscribers, on your own terms. Learn about the new tools we’ve built for and with writers below…
Read more
3 years ago · 258 likes · 169 comments

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I really wanted to address online burnout here today after an experience a few weeks ago gave me some ABSOLUTELY non negotiable light bulb moments and new boundaries as a consumer.

I wrote out this piece in my notebook sat with a coffee in the sun at a little cafe on holiday so it’s a little different to my usual style. It’s more free writing journal style.

I only had Substack on my phone over hols - no emails or social media. My phone was quiet. Well it’s always on silent and I don’t have any notifications on there but it was a different extension of me - more camera than communication device.

On hols, there were two instances I felt anxiety rise up that I couldn’t shake quickly - one when a well meaning Dad from a family we were chatting poolside with tried to talk to me about Brexit and the other I’ve written about here.

The holiday was a HARD reset for my nervous system and it couldn’t have come soon enough. It really struck me as I unfurled from pregnancy in a pandemic and all that followed in the heat of the sun on a beautifully designed sun-lounger we’ve all just been through so so much. We’ve shifted the way we communicate and quickly and that’s only half of everyone’s pandemic story.

I’m boundaried around work and social media but those places are often like a sneaky racoon living under your porch isn’t aren't they…? 1

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The Island of Near Nighttime Insanity

Coming back to centre, always back to centre. Underneath the fight or flight and sheer shock at the ridiculousness of the internet there is always a sea of calm, of possibility, of freedom.

Trusting a body to protect a soul, honouring a body to make space and time - we have time, there is so much time.

Why I’m not subscribing but in not subscribing, I’m still subscribing.

A hop, skip and a jump into the unknown. A brilliant writer shares a round up of things we can look at on the internet. A popular style that’s been landing in my inbox for years. The writer is brilliant and I trust them so I click one, two, three. The point of no return. I trust them but I don’t know them - Gosh - I REALLY don’t know them at all.

How do I get off the island I didn’t sign up for this? I feel sick. I need to sleep, Luna will be up early. Why can’t I sleep?

Before we know it we’re catapulted into worlds that are not ours, reading and seeing people’s lives we don’t know talking about things we don’t care about.

If this is escapism, if this is entertainment I need my money back.

Oh wait I didn’t pay - it’s free and recommended and suggested I would like to read this. I’m here of my own free will. How did this happen?

Things I personally would never google or seek out or want to know filtering through my eyes to my brain to my senses to my sense of sense? Empathy, compassion, sadness at the world of celebrity striving and consumerism.

It’s late now, the sun is well down and there’s a creep of darkness in this place, in my space - my nervous system is clinging on by a mere thread. Show me the light! Cortisol races through my body it’s too late. I can’t sleep now.

But, we tell ourselves this writer is ‘brilliant’, has 5 stars, thousands of subscribers probably straight As and a first degree from a top university. Oh!

We could have backed away abruptly, there was no one to make apology too. Snook out the back door while everyone was partying long into the night - we should have done that, we’ll do that next time.

They’ll see we clicked the links, 1 then 2 then 3 - looking for a resolve but falling deeper, deeper down into the thicket. Staring up looking for stars through brambles.

They’ll think people want more of this - do people want more of this? I don’t.

What’s wrong with us? Are we so devoid of connection we search for it in endless clicking of links? Is this what it means to be human in 2023?

On Brilliance

The time to realise brilliance doesn’t mean we need to consume everything suggested is upon us.

Brilliant writers are not gurus they are brilliant writers (sometimes).

We don’t need to subscribe to anything outside of ourselves to BE brilliant ourselves.

Brilliance comes from being not from consuming.

We have free will to travel around the internet and read and click and scroll but sometimes just sometimes we stumble into space not good for us and it’s just all ok to practise getting the hell out of there.

My experiences are my experiences, I’m a real sensitive soul so I hope you know there’s no judgement here however you travel round the online world.

I just have a little question for you, an invitation if you like - what’s getting in the way of you being brilliant?

If you zoom out and look down on little beautiful you going about your day. If you peer down from the moon can you see it? Is it something you want to share with others?

Let’s chat in the comments,

Claire x

PS - Please know everything I write here on Substack is written from a place of creative curiosity and building community and trust with you.

I will never share left field links and if I write about ‘difficult topics’ or things that might be difficult to read, I’ll say that from the off.

Photo by Albert Stoynov on Unsplash

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I don’t have racoons living under my porch. In fact I don’t think they live here in the UK and I don’t have a porch. If I did have a raccoon and a porch, I’d imagine I wouldn’t notice him at first, then I’d see him on the way somewhere but think to myself; “oh cute but small, probably won’t be a bother. I’ll deal with you later or maybe you’ll leave soon”.

Months might pass and and then I’d remember I saw the raccoon and right here and realise there was a full family of racoons inviting all their racoon mates round to chew away at the foundations of my home. Then I’d be in trouble. Here’s to spotting the racoon early on and asking what exactly what he needs!

Your Friday Email - Substack Tips - Notes, Growth and Creating on your terms

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 05:43:49 GMT

A piece of me

This post lives in my ‘Slow Lived Growth on Substack’ section.

You can read more like this by heading over there. My plan is to publish new posts there most Fridays.

Think of it as a few small library shelves next to a small open window on a sunny day. You can hear gentle bird song, no traffic and a giant squishy mustard coloured sofa with cosy pink coloured scatter keeps you company as you make time to read. In reading, you get to know yourself better and then… well then you decide.

My Why

Showing up and Shutting Down - A Trip Down Online Memory Lane

There are a thousand and one options when it comes to showing up online.

It’s like a 24hour news stand of sweeties from every decade shouting at you to buy into the multidimensional rabbit holes. Your ticket into a multi-sensory wonderland.

So when Substack gave us just one more place to show up (Substack Notes) a lot of us felt overwhelmed in the invitation.

I remember POB, later My Space - I had one. GULP. I remember friends re-united and how excited my mum’s generation was about it. I remember “Welcome to AOL”, I remember creating a facebook account, watching ‘The Social Network’, joining twitter in 2009, starting instagram a few years after that. I remember when Facebook ‘changed’ and I couldn’t do it anymore. I remember trying different wordpress themes to better represent who I am and hating them all. I remember opening Linked In and thinking I better up my game. I remember writing LONG emails to my friends when I was meant to be working 15 years ago.

I remember starting here on Substack last April. I remember my first paid subscriber.

Let’s take a minute

If the internet started again - like a totally blank slate, brand new started again…

If you had ALL the knowledge you have about our internet (which you do) and all the online places to show up existed (which they do).

What would you do differently?

I’d start a Substack!

Photo by LeeAnn Cline on Unsplash

How to use Substack Notes

Ok so I’m 10 days into using Substack Notes and I've read lots about Substack's intention with it.

One of the brilliant things about the team here is they LISTEN to our feedback and change things as they are building and developing the network and the functionality.

For example, just this week (7 days after Notes launched) they've given us another filter to choose from so now we have 'HOME', 'Subscribed' and 'My Subscribers'. That is FAST implementation by anyone’s standards.

They’ve also taken away the functionality to ‘restack’ a comment out of context so our comment spaces are lovely little safe havens again to talk deeply about our lives.

Because this section is about Slow Lived Growth I’m sharing these stats.

One because I want to be relatable - I’m not a person with a huge audience on the internet I’m just me in my little cottage by the sea passionate about creativity and sharing our voice.
And two (the most important part) because it always helps to have a ‘why’ behind your writing/ sharing…

More on my goal and intention setting here…

Creatively Conscious

A SMART breakthrough?

I adore facilitating workshops! Ideally I’d be in person with folks but online works too! I can’t apologise for my enthusiasm around goal setting - I’ve always just been geeky like that. I make new goals every year and check in with them once a quarter…

3 years ago · 16 likes · 24 comments · Claire Venus

What I’ve learnt

Let’s talk - I’ve missed talking! Substack want to encourage conversation in Notes. It’s not the water cooler esq. office chit chat…more the deep and meaningful, the conversation that spans multiple messages with multiple opinions backwards and forwards. I actually cringe when I think of how many instagram posts I’ve shared with no response… but it was ok over there because you could SEE in stats people were looking. Just feels sad and a shame really - no judgement.
It’s ok to self promote - You can share your work (older and new). Writers and readers are showing up to find Substacks to follow and people to learn from, engage with and be online pals with.
You don’t have to ‘do notes’ - there are other ways to grow and connect on Substack. If you want more on that I have a masterclass and course you can buy here.
You don’t have to show up there everyday. We know this don’t we, but sometimes we think we should be everywhere online all the time especially if we work for ourselves. We have time, there is so much time. Cosy up with your personal goals and show up in an intentional way for you the way that works for you.

This week’s mid week Note from me…

It’s personal

Notes is a great place for me but if I’ve learnt if I show up there I can’t show up on instagram as well - it does something to my brain and sucks me too far into my phone. Not only is that just not good for me but I want to be present - being present is amazing! Life outside of our phones is beautiful and precious and passing us by.

So my strategy going forward is;

To use Instagram Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays then delete the app from my phone.
To use Notes the rest of the week. I’ll be lifting up other writers, sharing quotes, photos and some of my archive posts to reach new audiences and make new connections.
To have weekends off. No time on any social media or social media inspired platforms.

How about you, have you figured out what you want to do with Notes here? Is this post useful? I want to share my thinking and make sure it’s of service to you.

Perhaps you're flying the flag for Substack away from ‘typical social media’ too?

Claire x

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Thanks for being here at Creatively Conscious.

If you’re NEW here or if you haven’t had chance to visit yet I’ve got an intro thread where people are introducing themselves and bringing lovely drinks - it’s here - ‘Let’s Cosy Round the Fire.’

For more in depth musings, spiritual connects and creative experiences you can become a paying subscriber. You’ll get access to the back catalogue of ‘Big Dreams begin with Me’ posts which share the (very honest) behind the scenes of how we have built our life on the Northumberland Coast.

I share how we balance working part time with raising our family, insight into my funded work and lots of creative ways in for you to connect to your centre and set up quiet ambition to stay slow lived in a world that is often the polar opposite.

For £7 per month or £70 for the year you’ll get access to all archive and at least two new posts a month plus invitations to online meet ups inspired by our community too.

I’m so grateful for all your shares and support.

It really does mean the world and helps me to live and work my dream and step fully into my heart centred life.

On Substack Notes - a day after the launch!

Claire Venus ✨ — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 13:07:44 GMT

This post lives in my ‘Slow Lived Growth on Substack’ section - you can subscribe/ unsubscribe or read more by following the link.

So… Substack Notes arrived yesterday!

Just a short update on my feelings so far on ‘ Notes’. At first I was definitely a firm NO!

Less than 24 hours in I’m realising how actually as curators of our own internet/ community experience we have more control than we might think of our calm and beautifully curated experiences online.

I meant to add in this podcast, I did have 10 more folks join my community here since engaging in Notes so that was lovely.

What do you think of Substack Notes? Let me know in the comments.

Substack Notes - a GIFT too creators or just TOO much glitter?

Writing and Reading on the Substack app...

Claire Venus ✨ — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 07:14:01 GMT

“Oh the app is a whole new experience, I get it now”

EDIT - I wrote this article BEFORE Notes and Chat were a thing here.

Leave a comment

A comment from one of my friends and clients on downloading the Substack app and using it.

Earlier this year, I taught a masterclass called ‘Get Creative with Substack’ (replay available). I’m pretty geeky about this space because it’s really the most creative space on the internet for me - I just 💜Substack!

I’m super passionate about it as a tool to communicate with your audience and grow your readership.

If you haven’t downloaded the app yet you’re missing so much of the experience of what the Substack platform is and can do.

I actually don’t read the emails in my email inbox at all. Not because that isn’t valuable but because it’s a busy enough space already and I don’t have emails pushed through on my phone anyway.

Alnmouth Beach

Here are my top three reasons to use the app as a reader;

It’s calm and spacious - Although Substack isn’t social media, the app is an incredible social media detox tool. It honestly re-wires your brain away from the dopamine hit and into deeper connection to folks who write here. I would really recommend deleting all the social media apps from your phone and diving in to what Substack has to offer. Just try it for a weekend - you’ll see what I mean.
It’s easy to use - and easy to find things lovely things to read from your subscribers or via the explore page or by seeing Substack recommends.
You can make friends - we are so used to communicating through written text on our phone and you can add emojis if you like too. 😬
Commenting/ chatting on open comment threads and finding/ building community. Remember when you would post a wordpress blog and the comments were crickets? Yeah it’s not like that at all.

Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash

And as a writer…

I don’t write in the app but you can. I just like to write in notes in my phone and that syncs with the laptop and I post from there. I often just write in my journal or straight onto the desktop platform too.

Any downsides?

Just a couple…

Staff picks (of articles/posts) are only available on desktop and I’d like these on the app so I can see them where I read all my Substack articles.
The 'big writers' have a big presence here and lift each other up/ feature each other a lot. That’s not to say there’s not space for all of us it just feels a bit ‘head girl/ head boy’ at times after being here a year and seeing the same names. I’d like to see lots of folks featured/ recommended and interviewed by with a range of different sized accounts/ purposes for being here.
The categories are just a HUGE long list of Substacks and you have to do a little digging to find out whether these folks are ‘active’ or not. I found one I was really interested in last week only to find that she hasn’t posted since 2021.
There are sometimes glitches - it’s all fine in the end but things do happen in tech.

Hope that was useful to you and if you’d like you can click here for more articles on Slow Lived Growth on Substack and over on my Substack Tips tab.

It's my Substack birthday!

Claire Venus ✨ — Sat, 01 Apr 2023 05:29:44 GMT

It’s special occasion!

Here’s four things I’d like to say about Substack one year on from discovering it…

Reading and the whole user experience is better in the app.
Substack really is a platform that want to help you learn, grow and craft your writing.
I’ve REALLY enjoyed writing and connecting here…
The Substack team are real people who pop up every week in in Open Office Hours - you can subscribe to reach them and find other supporters!
This is how I found Rebecca and and lots of other brilliant writers and community!
I’ve now started a ‘Let’s cosy round the fire intro post’ if anyone reading wants to come and say hi - you can type replies in the comments on your desktop on in the app.
I also have a WHOLE section dedicated to the slow and intentional growth here - you can read all the articles I’ve published and listen to a couple of super short podcasts over here - Slow Lived Growth on Substack.

To celebrate a year writing here, I wanted to share Elizabeth Gilbert’s

‘Instructions for Freedom…’ as an invitation to you.

My invitation is for you to pick one of the statements below that REALLY resonates and write it out - journal on it or stick it on your fridge. Ready? Here goes…

“1. Life's metaphors are God's instructions.

2. You have just climbed up and above the roof, there is nothing between you and the Infinite; now, let go.

3. The day is ending, it's time for something that was beautiful to turn into something else that is beautiful. Now, let go.

4. Your wish for resolution was a prayer. You are being here is God's response, let go and watch the stars came out, in the inside and in the outside.

5. With all your heart ask for Grace and let go.

6. With all your heart forgive him, forgive yourself and let him go.

7. Let your intention be freedom from useless suffering then, let go.

8. Watch the heat of day pass into the cold night, let go.

9. When the Karma of a relationship is done, only Love remains. It's safe, let go.

10. When the past has past from you at last, let go.. then, climb down and begin the rest of your life with great joy."

— Elizabeth Gilbert

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The Big Dreams part of being here on Substack

Numbers and experiences

In my masterclass, Get Creative with Substack, I share stats and numbers of subs and I said;

“Try not to think about the numbers, we’ve been given a unique opportunity to just connect, to craft and write and connect some more.”

Away from the ‘vanity metrics’ of social media you are simply invited to create!

That being said, I LOVE the stats on Substack but not for reasons you might think...

When I worked with a marketing coach last year (2022), we talked about my goal to reach more folks outside of the UK.

I felt like my social media reach couldn’t do it, my website wasn’t going to and I wasn’t sure why.

Photo by Natanja Grün on Unsplash

Part of that coaching helped me to better articulate what I do/ offer. It’s been a game changer for me as has FINALLY creating a nice website. Let me know if you want my referral link for my provider - it hosts by online courses/ masterclasses etc too.

I adore hearing from folks in other places across the globe. The UK is a tiny country and although fascinating in it’s own way it can be frustrating and small minded in it’s identity.

I’ve done a fair bit of solo travelling in my time and international connects always feel SO nice to me. They give me that feeling of ‘everything being possible’ and from the comfort of my sofa.

I often feel like I’m back in New York drinking the good coffee and people watching the excellent outfits with a new friend. Or even (because I love this analogy), back walking with a brand new group of free spirited folks along Australia’s Great Ocean Road enjoying an 11am banana bread from the local deli.

Those experiences shaped who I am and being here on Substack now with the responsibilities I have close to home gives me the wonder of staring out to all the wonder of the world…

Fast forward a year and NOW LOOK;

You can find these maps for yourself on your own desktop Substack in ‘stats’ then far right ‘audience insights’. How fascinating!!

Hello everyone just waking up!!! How are ya?

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

To celebrate all things Substack because we can’t eat cake together, here’s a special offer for you - 20% off your monthly or annual subscription for a year.

It’s valid for the whole of April!

Thanks for being here and I hope this post was useful in your Substack journey.

I’d absolutely LOVE to have you here as a paid subscriber - I have so so much to share with you.

Claire x

PS - We are jumping into an intention setting planning session on zoom for Chapter 2 (April, May, June) of 2023 tomorrow - read more here if you’d like to join in I’d love to see you. It’s included for paid subscribers.

Photo by ORNELLA BINNI on Unsplash

Creatively Conscious by Claire Venus: Stay Creative on Substack

Your Friday INVITE - Let's Sparkle On Substack

What happened and WHY did I jump ship…

A FEW gifts for your loyalty

As you grow your Substack…

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

Using Audio here.

On Growth on Substack…

On Substack this Week…

Outside of Substack

My 4 Top Tips on Finding your Creative Voice online

Other links/ spaces you might like as you grow your Substack

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

From Substack…

Last Week…

On Substack this Week…

Outside of Substack

My 3 Top Tips on collaboration

Other links/ spaces you might like as you grow your Substack

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

Substack has become such an incredibly spacious platform for us creatives.

Here’s how it all looks;

Last Week…

On Substack this Week…

Annnnd…. look what happened to my publication… 🥳

Other links/ spaces you might like as you grow your Substack

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

The Video Button!

Where are you sharing your Substack?

Other links/ spaces you might like as you grow your Substack

How I'm using social media and staying intentionally slow about it...

What I’m doing on social media right now…

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

What’s new on Substack this week?

My Substack Tip of the Week

Meet other writers/ creatives who also like to write and support their journey

AND want to work with me TODAY free of charge?

Invite your friends to read Creatively Conscious

A NEW feature from Substack!

How to participate

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

This week on Substack

Notes on Notes…

Substack of the Day

Learning more from me

Substack Sections/ Second Publications

Sign up for your OWN emails

A NEW shiny space but it’s a lot of “work…”

Your Friday Email (and podcast) - Stay Creative on Substack

On the ‘Slow Lived Growth on Substack’ Podcast this week (audio above)

A hack for your sanity!

How to…make a podcast in Substack

Things I LOVED this week on Substack

Learn Substack with me?

Here are some other folks and articles that will help you consider your own Substack without leaving the platform

Over on Youtube

Substack of the Week

My Mentors and Teachers

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

First up this week -

Did you claim your Substack Handle?

What do you think of the new dashboard?

A thread that was meant to be a chat

The POWER of a super network

Substack of the Day!

Where I’ve been finding value

NEW - Youtube Videos about Substack!

Your Friday Email - Stay Creative on Substack

I have a question…

‘To write/ create’.

Step back in time

After the first post

But who is actually listening?

A complex love affair

Being Paid to Create

So how do we relate ANY of this to being paid on Substack?

My Top ‘Substack tips’ to better understand the ‘paid metrics’ model

Your Friday Email (& Podcast) - Stay Creative on Substack

Let’s do some of it (but not all of it) all of the time?

So to Substack and all it’s many beautiful and distracting portals