Are You Building Your Business on Rented Land? Substack & the Future of Your Audience

Tanya Smith [00:00:30]:
Alright. And welcome, welcome, welcome to Stream Like a Boss TV. My question is this. Are you tired of battling social media algorithms, y'all? Are you tired of having your content buried? Do you feel like you're building your business on rented land? Because you probably are. In today's livestream, we're going to dive into why Substack, possibly, it could be a powerful option for creators who are ready to own their audience for a change and to escape this whole social media rat race. So I am super excited, and I am thrilled to be here with you on a Thursday. Thursday. We do our Thursdays our Thursday live streams, right, usually on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but we're making a little bit of a change tonight.

Tanya Smith [00:01:21]:
So I'm actually gonna be going live on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Substack. So let me go ahead and check-in on my Substack folks real quick and make sure that I'm able to actually see their comments. I'm not gonna be able to pull your comments up on screen, Substack folks, but I can see them through the link that I'm going to right now. So I would just wanna make sure that I mute myself out so I can't hear myself there. But I do see see some folks have joined over there, so let me say hello. Feel free to say hi back. And what I'm also gonna do is to acknowledge my folks that are here from YouTube and LinkedIn. Oh, I love it.

Tanya Smith [00:02:00]:
Love it. So I see look. If you haven't been here before, here's how we roll. So when we do these Thursdays, we fall into a couple of different categories. You are either a hashtag OG, which means you're family, you've been here before, and if you've even seen us once, you're family. So OG, hashtag hashtag OG. And and folks who are here in the comments are doing this already, so I'm gonna pop that up. But then you're a hashtag newbie if you're brand new, and we wanna welcome you and just show you a little bit of love and appreciation and some applause.

Tanya Smith [00:02:38]:
Because you are special, and we're super excited. Actually, both of you are special, but let me pop this up again so you know what to do. Hashtag newbie or a hashtag OG. I love, love, love that you're here, and I'm thrilled that we get a chance to talk about this topic. And by the way, this is gonna be a fun one. This is something I've really, really been thinking through, actually, for several months now. And so I ended up doing this experiment on Substack. And I do see my folks over on Substack as well.

Tanya Smith [00:03:07]:
What's up? Love to see you. Marcia Baker, Jim Fuze. Yeah. Okay. I am loving it. Thank you so much for being there. Alrighty, folks. Yep.

Tanya Smith [00:03:17]:
And I'm gonna let me go ahead and acknowledge some folks before we dive into our main content. I wanna do this because I love doing it. First of all, fusion marketing. Jim Fuze is over there on Substack, and he actually did a video this morning, I think, about Substack as well. The Doctor Vibe Show is in the house from Toronto, so welcome. Welcome, family. Then we've got learn live streaming with John Lacey. What's up? OG in the house.

Tanya Smith [00:03:47]:
Chris Stone is also in the house. Okay. And I've got some questions already popping up, so I definitely wanna answer those when we dig into the show. Coach Pam, love to see you. OG. And Laura Orlando, the stress commando, is in the house. Glad to be with you tonight as well. So look y'all.

Tanya Smith [00:04:07]:
I'm gonna talk a little bit about this whole idea of owning your audience, of owning your audience. That's what we're gonna talk a little bit about tonight. So let's dig into this. And what I always encourage you to do before I do this, I know we have a lot of new people because we're on Substack tonight live. Right? And it's one of our first times where we're actually doing the regular show live. I've done some lives through my mobile device. Right now, I'm actually to the question that was asked in the chat that you can't see yet, I'm actually broadcasting using Ecamm Live into Substack, as well as LinkedIn and YouTube. So Stream Like a Boss TV, for those of you who don't know what this is, this is where we teach coaches, creators, and service providers how to build what we call platform proof businesses now, and we help you to monetize without relying on unpredictable algorithms.

Tanya Smith [00:05:05]:
We talk about how to transform what we call content from crickets into cash. So I do go live most Thursdays on the major channels, including YouTube, and my name on most of my socials is at video coach Tanya. So if you would like to follow, feel free to do so. Now that I've told you who I am, again, make sure you pop into the chat and just let us know if you're a hashtag newbie or a hashtag OG. What I always encourage folks to do when we get ready for this segment and to dive deep into the content is to grab yourself a notepad and a pen because there's probably gonna be something that you'll wanna jot down. And you can always watch the replay. Catch the replay too. But I love that you're here.

Tanya Smith [00:05:49]:
I'm gonna go ahead and share this really short transition video. And at the end of that video, you'll see me back on screen, and we're gonna go deep into our content. I definitely wanna make sure that you pop into the chat with any questions. So start your question, if you can, with a q. That way, it'll be easier for me to surf for them as we go through this thing. But I am super excited. And on the other side of this short video, we're gonna dive deep into this content. You ready? Let's go.

Tanya Smith [00:06:39]:
Alrighty, folks. I'm back. And thank you. I see some folks that are in Substack as well that are typing in hashtag newbie. So I am super thrilled that we get a chance to reach a new audience in addition to our expanding family that is on YouTube and LinkedIn, as well as those who are coming over from Facebook. And I'll share a little bit why about why I decided no longer to be in the Facebook space when it comes to live streaming. We'll talk a little bit about that because it's part of this topic. Look.

Tanya Smith [00:07:08]:
If you're just tuning in, what we're talking about is Substack, but we're also talking about the importance of being what I like to call platform proof. So here's my question for you. Have you ever quit a specific social media platform? And if you haven't quit it yet, have you thought about quitting? Because, apparently, this is a hot topic right now. This is happening quite a bit. And so what I'm gonna do as we break this thing down is I'm gonna talk a little bit about three case studies. So three stories that I've seen in the news out in the wild here recently, just within the last week or so, y'all. So when I say that this thing is happening, I'm saying, like, it's happening. Like, people are talking about this because they are sick and tired.

Tanya Smith [00:07:56]:
Okay? So I wanna talk a little bit about the three case studies. I'm gonna share with you something called the OWN formula, which I actually got a chance to share with Digital Stage Summit. Shout out to my friend, Alec Johnson, because he was doing it big with Digital Stage Summit this week. Three days chock full of amazing speakers. So if you didn't get a chance to get in and listen and watch, but you registered, you should be getting those replays. I know it's limited time access if you don't have a VIP pass, but that was amazing. And so at my presentation, I actually delivered a talk around the OWN formula, and I'm gonna share that with you tonight as well. And then finally, we're gonna close out by talking about Substack, and I'm gonna share with you what it is because half of you are probably like, wait a minute.

Tanya Smith [00:08:49]:
What is this? I keep hearing people say, what the heck is Substack? What is this thing? So I do have a couple of slides and things, and and we're prepared. We got some structure, but at the same time, I wanna make sure I cover what you wanna know. So if you've got specific questions, pop those into the chat. I'm gonna try to do my due diligence to take a look over at the Substack crew as well to answer questions from there. I just won't have an opportunity to pop those comments on screen as though you'll see these comments. So I'm gonna show you some comments that we've got going on over here. Doctor Vibe is being shouted out by Ari at the resilient powerhouse. I love it.

Tanya Smith [00:09:35]:
I love it. Let me see what else we got going on here. John Lacey said Facebook will yes. Yeah. I'm gonna talk a little bit about the whole Facebook thing. Yes. I'm definitely gonna do that. But there's been several things that have kind of really been on my heart and mind, and I I wanna deliver a message to you that I hope will give you some I always like to share possibilities and hope.

Tanya Smith [00:10:02]:
Okay? So if you've been feeling a little bit like, you know what? I'm tired of being held hostage. I'm tired of feeling like I have to jump through all of these hoops and then I still don't reap the rewards. You know, I got a $6.37 check the other day from Facebook and I looked at it and I was like, wow. I can't even buy eggs with that. Like like, what so so look, we have to take back control. We have to create systems that will allow us to be able to show ourselves as the experts that we truly are, and in the process, also be able to reach and make the impact on the communities and the lives that we're meant to impact. And in addition to that, we need to be able to monetize and to be able to support our families. Right? Because many of us are not just in this content game just for sake of doing content, although I love it.

Tanya Smith [00:10:59]:
Right? We're also trying to make sure that we're doing something that is really truly going to make a difference. So I wanna talk about that. Okay. I got three stories, and I do see some some commentary in here. Let me go ahead and pop some of these up before we dive into key point number one, which is gonna be our case studies. Okay? Let me do this real fast. John Lacy said, did you get a new chair? Nope. I had this chair.

Tanya Smith [00:11:28]:
You just never get to see it from that angle, John, because I'm actually using, like, angles today. I was trying to show off. Because, you know, I got people like Hicks in the house and Jim Fuze, and I see doctor Sean Shawyn Jackson that's in the house on such that. So I was like, hey. I need to do this right. I need to show up for my people. Hey. What's up, Michelle? John says people love Facebook groups and pages for communities, but they weren't making money for Facebook, so they're being pruned back dramatically.

Tanya Smith [00:12:01]:
Okay. This is a good lead in to my first point. So I wanna talk a little bit about three situations that I have literally seen over the last three days. This is crazy, y'all. Because I've been thinking about this for, like I said, months now. Like, why do I feel like I'm being held hostage by all of these different social media platforms? To give you a specific example, think about the whole idea of, okay, so Meta decided they're gonna change up their algorithm. Instagram decided they're gonna change their algorithm, which is a part of Meta too. Right? TikTok is doing this.

Tanya Smith [00:12:39]:
If you're still on x, they're doing something different. Everybody's doing these different things and every time they say jump, you have to jump in order to be able to be effective and to get the results. Right? And so let me share with you a couple of different stories of things that I've heard. So three. I'm just gonna give you three, but there's more. The first situation was that we have a well known creator, and I'm gonna try to keep names out of this just for sake of I mean, you can go look this up if you want to, but I'm gonna keep names out of it. There's a well known creator who made a she has a ridiculously large impact on Instagram. She has 892,000.

Tanya Smith [00:13:26]:
Okay. I'm a say that again. 892. 8 90 2 subscribers on Instagram, and she quit Instagram completely. And she wrote a video about this on YouTube within the last week. Here's why. Not necessarily burnout from creating, because she loves to create just like you and I do. But it was burnout from battling algorithms.

Tanya Smith [00:13:54]:
She talked about how they were spending more time trying to stay relevant than actually serving their audience. So they moved their focus to email list and to YouTube, so platforms like YouTube, where she was able to see more advantages for herself and for the time that she was spending. She didn't quit creating. She just quit renting the space from Instagram. What she said was visibility shouldn't be a gamble. It should be your right as a creator because you're you're putting this time and this effort in here. Right? This is you. They're making money, and they're getting more visibility and more people coming to their platforms because of you.

Tanya Smith [00:14:38]:
It's just facts. Because you're taking the time to spend energy in that space. So owning your list specifically beats chasing time and chasing algorithms. One of the most important things that I gathered from her, but honestly, again, I've been hearing this all over the place, is that you must, you must, you must build your list. We're gonna talk about that with the OWN framework in a minute. But just imagine, 892,000 people y'all, and she talked about how she struggled with this idea of leaving because she felt like I've done all this work and all of it. Is it for nothing now that I'm leaving? But just imagine the freedom that she now has to be able to do what she wants to do and not be beholden to this specific platform, to keep changing just because they decided, hey, we're gonna split off. And instead of reels being a part of this, we're gonna do this.

Tanya Smith [00:15:40]:
Instead of us having square images, now we want you to have four by five. Wait. We're also gonna have you have these broadcast channels over here. So it's like every single time somebody has an idea, you're supposed to be expected to make a shift. Part of this is because we have been trained, and it is a psychological it's a mental thing. We have been trained that we must do the things that these social platforms are telling us to do in order to be successful. And what I'm saying is I'm making a decision because I'm a grown woman that I don't want to do that anymore. And I think more of us are standing up and saying, we're tired.

Tanya Smith [00:16:24]:
We're not doing that. Here's what I'm gonna do instead. But I still want you to have the level of success you want, and that's why we were talking about this right now. So case study number two is this, And this broke my heart. I felt like I wanted to cry for the poor guy. This gentleman was on oh goodness. He was on a Facebook group that I happen to still get pinged about. And by the way, I've limited and reduced the number of groups I've been a part of too, y'all, because many of them, I don't even see the content I wanna see.

Tanya Smith [00:17:00]:
I don't see the people that I really wanna see even in my threads and post and chats, but I definitely am not seeing the content that I wanna see in certain groups. So I've kinda pulled back from that. But in this particular group, it was a gut wrenching story. This creator who spent ten years building a massive loyal community on Facebook in a group, and one day, he said within the last few weeks, months, the platform just cut his organic reach to almost nothing. He had also been spending money on ads, and even those took a drop. So tens of thousands of followers, but crickets on their post. He said, I can't believe that I built everything on this borrowed land and now it's gone. He said, I have been working to build this up for years and now everything is gone.

Tanya Smith [00:17:56]:
And that, my friends, is the danger of platform dependency. That's the danger. As you keep building on rented land, you don't really get a say. And it doesn't the the key I want y'all to hear here is not even just the stories because this is happening to smaller creators too, but what I want you to really get is it didn't matter that they had these numbers. They're still getting some of the same results and impact that you and I are getting, which is reduced reach. So I'm gonna pop in a few comments, and I'm gonna also see some questions if there are any in here. Let's see what we got going on. Lisa, what's up? She said, hey, everyone.

Tanya Smith [00:18:46]:
I love it. I love it. Yes. I got the feeling you moved or I get the feeling you've moved your communities to different platforms. Do you feel like Substack is going to be a stable option for a while? We're definitely gonna dive into that question a little bit here because I think that's an excellent question. And so one of the things that I can tell you, John, is that I'm an early adopter. But but actually, Substack, I believe, has been around since, like, 2017. They are early or I'm early adopting in this in the aspect that they now have video at the forefront of the content.

Tanya Smith [00:19:25]:
So this is why I'm so excited that I'm able to actually also have conversations with people that are right now over in Substack as well. I'm looking at this. Hicks actually answered a question that I earlier said. So James Hicks said, yeah. I just recently quit fan base, and you know how I feel about Facebook. Yeah. Zach from Substack is here. What's up, Zach? Zach in the house? I love it.

Tanya Smith [00:19:49]:
Okay. So y'all, when I think about platforms and I think about spaces, and John, I'm definitely gonna get into your question in just a second and try to answer that as best I can. I'm gonna give you one more case that I recently read about and saw, and actually is not a case. This particular one is a situation. A situation. So a dear friend of mine, who also is a heavy hitter influencer, She has created an entire course, and she is known to be a go to expert in a certain space which shall not be named. She has been ringing the alarm bell for the last several weeks. I've been noticing posts that I never would have seen from her before.

Tanya Smith [00:20:37]:
They're very critical posts. When this has been her bread and butter, she calls she's been ringing alarm bells around something she calls unconnected content. Posts that never ever make it to your community and in front of the eyes of the people that you want to see it. So now she's even created a course where she's teaching people how to break free from just relying solely on traditional social media platforms. And again, this person this person is someone who has built her entire brand around a particular platform. So it is a wake up call y'all. It is a wake up call if some of the biggest names in certain social media platforms where they're marketing are saying that you need to diversify, it is time for you to listen. It's time for us to listen.

Tanya Smith [00:21:30]:
It's time for us to take back control, and this is why I think it's perfect timing for me to talk about substack. Before I do that, I'm gonna give you my own formula, my own framework, o w n, And then we're gonna dive into the the mechanics of Substack as I see them. And I'm gonna give you this disclaimer and tell you I'm not an expert, and I don't have 10,000 followers or fans yet in the space. Still newer to the space, but I'm gonna talk to you about the psychology behind why I made the decision to move there, what I'm doing over there, what the experience has been like, what I'm learning are some of the pros and cons and the things to do and the things not to do in the space. But before I do that, let's go to point number two, which is the own framework. So when we talk about the own framework, I want you to really be thinking about the lessons that were learned from the three studies that I just mentioned to you, the three incidents that I just shared with you. First of all, when it comes to the own framework, I want you to really get this. And this is where I told you, write you know, get your pen and your notepad out.

Tanya Smith [00:22:38]:
Okay? Own your audience. So you need to be able to engage and understand your audience's needs for better alignment. You need to be thinking about how can I create a community that I own? I'm not renting it. It's it's mine. Right? Nobody can easily take this away from me. An email list, in particular, are a really important space for you to grow and to build because that is a space where you're able to nurture people through your writing, and also through your videos if you're choosing to include and incorporate videos and other content. But building on your email list is a way for you to really be able to own your audience, because what happens with email is even if, even when YouTube decides to take down a video, or Facebook decides to close your group, or remove documents, because I've had those things happen to, or LinkedIn for that matter, whoever. Right? You still have the opportunity and ability to be able to reach out to the people who you have spent blood, sweat, and tears creating this list.

Tanya Smith [00:23:55]:
Right? You've been building this. So now you get to communicate with them and say, hey guys, this happened and so we're not gonna be meeting at this place tonight, we're gonna be over here. And they see it because they're on your email. Work smarter is about making sure that you're leveraging the tools and the strategies to enhance your efficiency and productivity. So what I'm talking about is strategically repurposing. And when you're creating your content, you're creating it not from a space of, okay, well, what social media platform am I gonna be on? You don't start there. You start instead with your audience in mind and your expertise versus starting with, okay, what does the social platform say I need to create today? Did they say I need to go from creating three pieces to 10? Forget that. No.

Tanya Smith [00:24:52]:
You create the quality content that your audience, that your community demands from you because you've promised them that you're an expert and that you have solutions that will help them with the problems and the pain points they have. The final in the framework is nail your brand. In order for you to be able to do those things, you must understand who you are and create a strong, recognizable brand that transcends any type of platform. So wherever you are, people recognize that's you. That's your content. This is what you do. Look. There was no greater compliment than something I heard the other day from a person.

Tanya Smith [00:25:33]:
I was completely surprised and shocked. I didn't even know she knew any of my stuff. She said, you know what? Every time I see you, you're still you're always aligned. I know exactly what you talk about. I know what you do because everywhere I see you, I still see your brand. I know what you stand for. I know the flag that you're planting. Right? And this is what we must do.

Tanya Smith [00:25:59]:
We must understand our brand, who we are, who we serve, what we're all about, what our message is. We need to know those things first. And we definitely need to understand our audience because that is where the content is born. Not, oh, let me figure out how to create the next dance move so that, you know, everybody on TikTok will love and follow me. I tell y'all this story all the time. So for those of you who are new, you've never heard this from me before. But everybody who's been here who's an OG, you probably have heard me talk about the whole TikTok trend thing. So I made a decision.

Tanya Smith [00:26:36]:
I was gonna go I was gonna go over and just play around for a little bit. And mind you, I'm not downing any particular platform. What I'm sharing is my experience so that this maybe sets a trigger for you or some further understanding of what we're talking about. But I decided I'm gonna go over there and and I wanted to build my audience to the point to where I could reach the goal of being able to go live. And so at the time, you needed to have a thousand subscribers. I wasn't getting much organic reach because people just weren't interested in what I have to say when it comes to these topics that we talk about here. We I'm I'm really about business. The people who I speak to are either in the coaching field, coaching world consulting, creators.

Tanya Smith [00:27:21]:
Right? And so at least at this point in time, I hadn't reached people with that particular topic. But I decided to participate in the boat trend because I was like, hey. Let me get this thousand real quick. So I jumped on the boat, and some of you will know what I'm talking about. If you know what I mean, type in boat, if you know the boat trend. So got on the boat, did the little video clip with the boat, and lo and behold, within less than twenty four hours, I had a thousand subscribers. I reached the goal. But I realized very quickly that after that, it was kind of like, okay, 90% of these people could care less about content strategy.

Tanya Smith [00:28:09]:
They just don't care. They want me to do more boats. They want more trending things. Okay? That doesn't drive revenue for me because that's not what I teach. I don't teach people how to be on boats. You gotta think about that. What's the connect? So when you're creating content for a social media platform first, what happens is there's a disconnect at times between the revenue strategy. If you are a a person who is marketing a business and you have goods, services, and products, and programs to sell, and you wanna serve people, you know, and and make an impact in that way, sometimes there's disconnect when you're starting from that.

Tanya Smith [00:28:52]:
So you need to start from the brand. You need to start with the own framework. Let's go into Substack, and let's talk about why this is a great opportunity in this time. So Substack is my point number three. Let's talk about it. Are we ready? Okay. So when we talk about Substack, there's a couple of things that I want you to know. And I'm gonna pull my little points over here because I do also want to show you if I can, I'm gonna show you some things on, Substack.

Tanya Smith [00:29:24]:
Yes. Yes. Yes. I see some some notes from Thaddeus Howes. He's talking about what he's working on. Okay. So people are having good conversation in the chat. I love it.

Tanya Smith [00:29:34]:
I love it. And let me let me look over on my YouTube. Yes. So people know the boat trend. I love it. Okay. And I see the note. We ready for the doctor vibe show.

Tanya Smith [00:29:48]:
Okay. So let's talk about Substack. So first and foremost, the question may be, you might be like, okay. But what is Substack? Because I've had a lot of people who are like, okay. She keeps talking about Substack, but what is it? Substack Stack is a platform that lets you create newsletters, publish podcasts, and build paid or free memberships all under one roof. It's designed for creators who want direct relationships with their audience without necessarily having the middle man in the way and without the algorithm walls. So the key benefits and I'm gonna share I'll show you, like, what the Substack dashboard looks like. Well, maybe not the dashboard.

Tanya Smith [00:30:35]:
I'll show you what the notes threads looks like. I'll show you what my page looks like in a minute so that you can kinda get a feel for this. But it appears to have been originally started as a space for writers. And I say appears because, being fairly new to the space, that's what I'm seeing. That's what I'm reading is that many of the folks who originally showed up for Substack showed up similar to if you're familiar with Medium as a platform, Medium is a platform that, was also intended for writers. So more articles. Right? And still really is for articles, for newsletters, for that type of thing. And so Substack, from what I understand, was initially launched in 2017, and it was a go to place for authors and writers.

Tanya Smith [00:31:28]:
And some creators too who wanted to own their audience and build an email list. What has happened, the reason what here's what attracted me to it. What attracted me to it is that they added video. They also have give you the ability to create these, like, different packages depending on how you choose to create them such that people can either pay to access certain things behind a paywall, or they can access certain features for free. But you get to design what this looks like. You get to create how this looks and works for you. So there are several different features. One is that they have the space for you to actually create post.

Tanya Smith [00:32:16]:
And so I'm gonna show you let me do a quick screen share here. I'm gonna pull up my my substack space. Let's see. Okay. It's funny because you can actually see my video at the very top. So let's let's share screen. This might be a little like that movie Inception, but but I think this will be cool. You can you can see it.

Tanya Smith [00:32:40]:
Okay. So you're taking a look at my screen right now. I'm actually on Substack live, so you can see people that are right here watching live, which is really cool. But on a normal day, you'll see my page look like this because I've set it up in this particular style or theme. So you can can create a theme based on the post that you're putting together. Now my posts are primarily video posts because, I mean, that's what I do. But maybe you have posts that are based on articles. Right? And so maybe yours are articles.

Tanya Smith [00:33:14]:
For me, it's video. For others, it's audio. Because when you create a post and let me just see if I can open up one without causing too much drama right there. This was a live stream we did the other day. So Steve Worthy, James Hicks was with us too, Corey Gumbs from the Black Podcasters Association. We had a live the other day, which was just amazing and fun. But when you create these articles, right, notice how I have the video at the top, because I do video. But if you had a an audio podcast, you could have your audio podcast.

Tanya Smith [00:33:52]:
Notice how you can actually send people to your audio podcast. So Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etcetera, all this can connect, right, to what you're sharing. Additionally, you can show your recent episodes. So it looks a little like a newsletter. So not only do I have the capability of being able to showcase my expertise through, articles and post, but I can also go over into what they call notes. Right? So let me go over into notes. And notes is more like a if you're on threads and any other types of chats and things like that, your notes will be similar to that. They don't necessarily go into your articles or post.

Tanya Smith [00:34:37]:
And by the way, the articles and post that you saw, when I publish them, I have the option of being able to send them as an email to my subscribers. The notes area is more like a thread or a chat feed. Right? So this is my personal notes, but I'm gonna go let me see if I can go to the main feed. K. Let me pause that. Let me go into the main feed if I can do that. And I wanna try to navigate this without messing something up. But, you know, I might mess something up.

Tanya Smith [00:35:14]:
There we go. Okay. So here's notes. And what you'll see, this is something that's really critical. This is part of the reason why I moved here, why I love it here. You will constantly see people saying things like, I love it here. It's so positive. Keep going encouraging messages.

Tanya Smith [00:35:35]:
You're doing amazing things. They're supporting each other. A lot of journalists have also moved into this space. Some of the ones that we know and love that used to be on traditional media are now here. But there's a lot of conversations that take place. There are notes parties going on where people are sharing each other's content, but here's something else that's really cool. So Anna is someone that I follow on the how we grow. How we grow today, I think is what, yeah, her channel is called.

Tanya Smith [00:36:08]:
And she has created an amazing following of people who just eat up her post. But while the notes are free, if you go to her post and her articles, she has created a space where you're able to read a portion, and I'm gonna show you how this looks on somebody else's. So the online writing club wrote this article. Right? And here's what I want you to see. You wouldn't be able to see it if I went to Anna's page because I'm a paid member for her. I'm not on this page, but watch this. So she's sharing with you some information to get you intrigued, and then near the bottom she says, if you wanna continue to read and to learn more, become a paid subscriber. This post is for paid subscribers.

Tanya Smith [00:36:57]:
And so you can subscribe and read more and get more of the creators and the writers and the authors that are in this space that you wanna hear from and learn from. You can also participate in various chats that are going on over here. I have not turned on my chat just yet, because I'm making decisions strategically about how I wanna leverage that. But I'm a member of different chats, and this particular one is Beyond the Firewall, which I love because he talks about privacy. Here's the how we grow chat that's going on, and it's constantly filled with just great conversations. But you really have an opportunity to curate your feed in a way that you see the content you want to see. And y'all, what a refreshing thing. Oh my goodness.

Tanya Smith [00:37:49]:
I actually see the people that I follow. That's different. Right? I mean, I'm serious. Think about that. So you get to see you get to curate your feed. You get to curate what you see. You get to own more of the space and control it and create it in a way that is in tune with who you are and how you want to operate your brand on a platform. And if you choose not to ever turn on anything for, you know, a paid value, then you don't have to do that.

Tanya Smith [00:38:27]:
You can leave everything free, or you can turn things on and off. It's totally up to you. But the benefit of something like a substack is that we get to build an an audience first, content first platform. And the fact that it gives you the ability to actually be able to email people, goodness, all under one roof. So I can email folks. I can monetize subscriptions if I chose to do that, I can create newsletters, I can create an audio feed, a podcast that then goes out and gets distributed to other major podcasting feeds, I can foster loyal community, And I can see the people that I wanted to interact with in the first place. It's all in one. And the algorithm wall is gone.

Tanya Smith [00:39:21]:
And so these are reasons why I made a decision to go and test it out. So I do wanna answer some questions. And if you do have questions, pop them into the chat. I see that my friend, Jim, who also has Fusion Marketing is now on Substack. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Here's a question from coach Pam.

Tanya Smith [00:39:45]:
Is it easy to use? I will tell you it's becoming easier to use because because of the fact that I'm spending time learning how to use it. Right? And there are there's an abundance of people who are positioning themselves to to be experts in Substack. And there's some really good folks who are who are over there that are teaching. Let me see. Okay. I'm I see a lot of questions. So I'm kinda going through to make sure that I can answer all of these. Okay.

Tanya Smith [00:40:18]:
So thank you for sharing this Jen Hardy Show, I cannot wait to see you next week at the fifty over fifty podcast awards. Y'all, I'm gonna be on the red carpet because I'm one of the judges, and I get a chance to go and hang out with my friends. So that's gonna be fun. Julie, I typically heard Substack mentioned when talking about blogs or newsletters for podcasts, but now I'm hearing more about it with video options on it too. Yes, Julie. Exactly. Exactly. That's what drew me is the fact that I was able to live stream and to share my videos and to share them in such a way that they would reach my audience via newsletter.

Tanya Smith [00:40:58]:
Jen says it's so cool. Okay. What would be the benefit of this versus our own site? Excellent. Excellent question. This is one of the questions that I definitely wanna go into. And there's another one that Paul Gowder has asked as well before I even went live that I've gotta address. But, Jen, the benefit I think is that when you can leverage a platform like this I mean, think back to when you first started going to LinkedIn, Facebook, and the rest of them. It wasn't because you wanted to turn over your control from your website, it was because they already had traffic.

Tanya Smith [00:41:38]:
You wanted to position yourself in the crowd to be a part of the traffic. Right? You wanted to position yourself so that you could have people see you and get the visibility. Whereas with your own website, you must drive traffic to that site. And there's an abundance of things that you have to do, and especially because Google has made certain changes. For those of you who are SEO heads, you know this. Google has made certain changes, and it's made a shift in terms of how easy or how difficult it is for people to really draw traffic to their own site. So when you think about the fact that Substack has a built in audience, just like with other platforms, you're positioning yourself to be in front. It doesn't mean you don't have your own site, because I'm still all about owning my audience.

Tanya Smith [00:42:29]:
I'm still all about making sure that I do have a website and a space I can send people to where I promote, exclusively promote my programs, my services, and what I can do. You should be thinking about that too. But there is an opportunity for you to position inside of a space that already has an active conversation going on. And if your people are there, and if you your people decide to come there because of you, then that's all the better because they bring their friends. So it's just a it's just another opportunity. It doesn't mean it's a replacement. Let me see what this question is. Are you using a streaming let me pop it up on the big screen.

Tanya Smith [00:43:12]:
Let's do it this way. Let me do it a little bit differently. Are you using a streaming platform for Substack or going live directly on their platform? Great question. Great question. Okay. And Thaddeus is over here answering questions too, which I love. I'm gonna read some of his answers. So, Thaddeus, thank you.

Tanya Smith [00:43:30]:
Let me pop that back up, Danny. Danny Marie says, are you using it so I am using a streaming platform in this moment to go live, but you can go live directly on their platform too. So let me give you the distinction. There's two different ways right now. As of just a few days ago, Steve Worthy and Hicks turned me on to the ability to be able to go and request access for an RTMP link. Okay. I'm not gonna go deep on that. I know some of you are like, what? Okay.

Tanya Smith [00:44:05]:
But for those of you who do live streaming, you know what that is. And so that gives you the ability to be able to leverage. Like, I'm leveraging Ecamm Live right now in this moment to be able to go live in Substack, YouTube, and LinkedIn at the same time, which is the bomb. Hey. So I love that I'm able to do that. But previously, what I was doing is I was popping in because I I've been doing a three month experiment. And I'm a little over halfway point when it comes to my three month experiment on substat because I wanted to see. See, what I do as an early adopter is I don't just jump in and say, hey, everybody.

Tanya Smith [00:44:40]:
Come on over here now. What I like to do, and I've done this for twenty something years now, is I will say, let me go test the waters, see what I think. I'm not making a 100% commit commitment. I'm not getting married. We might get engaged for ninety days. So I've been engaged to to Substack for a little bit so that I could see how can I how can this fit into my marketing strategy? Remember what I said, you're starting because of the own framework. You start with your brand. How can I make this thing fit into what I'm doing? How can this help me to reach my goals? And so, as I've been spending that time, what I was doing is I was jumping on my phone.

Tanya Smith [00:45:28]:
So I just get on my mobile device, go onto the Substack app, click the plus sign, and go live from the phone, which you can still do. Okay? So you can go live natively from within their app, or you can leverage a third party streaming platform like I'm doing right now. But you must get permission and authorization in both cases from Substack to be able to do so. And I believe with the mobile, you have to have at least 10 subscribers first. Much like any of the other platforms, in order for you to go live, because they don't want you to be, like, suspect. They want you to actually be building an audience, like, for a reason. So they're going to review your your space and then give you access. Right? Okay.

Tanya Smith [00:46:16]:
Ain't that that's so hilarious. So let me read I'm gonna read this because I can't pop it up, Thaddeus, but Thaddeus explained. He said, Substack is a content management system which offers an array of services including newsletters, podcasts, video blogs, and graphically integrated written entries. I love it. You can also monetize your work. Yes. You can. So everything he said, he just said it more eloquently than I did and quicker.

Tanya Smith [00:46:45]:
So thank you, Thaddeus. I love it. Here's the other thing, I will mention before we get ready to do a really quick recap. One of the things that you also are able to leverage inside of Substack is the ability to build referral programs. So you can reward people for sending other people to your newsletter. So how cool is that? You can do that. So you can, for instance, give people special access to, you know, a particular video or webinar or something that you're doing, or give them access to an article or document that you've put together, some type of PDF checklist, or your custom GPTs. Like, I'm I'm getting ready to do more of those and to share more of those as lead magnets, because they are amazing for helping people to automate different tasks and content strategies that I teach.

Tanya Smith [00:47:37]:
And so you can reward people through Substack Referral Programs. All of these things are just I mean, they have really just been amazing to me. I can't think of a negative thing just yet, other than one thing. And that is, I've had a little bit of a difficult time with getting customer service to respond on an issue that I had with syncing Spotify, but it hasn't been a deal breaker. I've been able to do some workarounds. I have heard some people say that it takes a a little bit of time to get access to support. So that's one thing. If I had to tell you one thing that I'm a little kinda like, that would be the one thing that I would say I'm not so in love with.

Tanya Smith [00:48:21]:
Now Paul Gowder, amazing, and he has built an amazing tribe on YouTube. So an amazing group of people. And when I say tribes specifically, he works with indigenous peoples. Right? And so his YouTube channel is off the hook. It's it's great. And so he had a question for me. He's like, yeah. So I I think that Substack has a lot of he said, you're saying it has a lot of potential, but does it have a lot of niches? Can people just go over there and instantly create success? He didn't ask it that way, but that's kinda how I was interpreting.

Tanya Smith [00:48:59]:
Right? And my answer is this. I think like any platform, your success will come down to how well you know your audience and your brand and how you're driving and engaging with people. You're driving traffic to your spaces. What's the value that you're offering? What I wanna do in this space is I wanna, first of all, be crystal clear about what I stand for. So in my about me page, I shared my rules of engagement. So I can be clear that if I boot someone, they understand why I'm booting them from my spaces. And I can be clear on this is the flag that I'm planting about who I am and how I create safe spaces for the people who have entrusted me. Right? You get a chance to do that too because we don't there's a lot of negativity and adversity going on in a lot of different platforms.

Tanya Smith [00:49:56]:
So I'm very conscientious about that. But your success comes down to how well you know yourself, how well you know your audience, and what you choose to do to drive traffic by sharing valuable content. I think that Substack is ideal for creators who want direct ownership of their audience through email, but it's not just about showing up and hoping that people will find you. It literally is about leveraging your existing platforms as well, so that you're consistently inviting people to join your Substack list. So what I've done, for instance, is every time I post on Substack, I'm actually taking the images that they provide, which are just really cool. That's another cool thing I didn't even talk about. The images that they provide that are clips from my post or article or video. Right? I'm sharing those on other spaces and saying, hey, I just posted a new video over here on Substack.

Tanya Smith [00:50:59]:
So I'm posting them in stories. I'm posting them in my regular feed on other spaces. The other thing that you can do, I, right now, with my LinkedIn newsletter previously, my newsletter had the full video with the article written. Now I'm putting a summary with some key points and driving people to get access to the full video and the full article over in Substack. So you gotta get laser focused on how you're trying to build and what your growth strategy is going to be. And for me, it's looking at all of those different ways that I can drive traffic here. Because my experiment is telling me that the more I do that, the more likely I will be able to grow this space. Also, collaborate with other sub substack people.

Tanya Smith [00:51:50]:
So Steve asked me to be a part of an amazing conversation the other day. I'm gonna be asking more people to be a part of conversations on Substack too. So collaboration with other writers and video creators and people who just want to share their voice. I think because of the fact that this platform is allowing all types of ways for you to collaborate and communicate, leverage all of that. Use notes to engage with readers natively on Substack. So if you're not if you're not engaging in notes, I think you're missing out on an opportunity because that's another way for you to really kind of get into the conversation and be a part of the conversation by commenting on other people's notes. And then make sure you're optimizing your content for discoverability. So you're writing with strong searchable headlines and tags.

Tanya Smith [00:52:44]:
You're considering lead magnets and freebies to encourage people to sign up. Do all the things that you would do with any other platform and I feel like there's a home and a space for you. That's my answer. I know it's long winded, but but that's where I feel that we have an opportunity to grow. Let me see what other there's a bunch of comments in here. Let me let me pop up some of these. And I'm checking over here too. Alright.

Tanya Smith [00:53:13]:
Yes. Have a space to retreat to. Thank you, Thaddeus. Exactly. You you're not you're still renting space. Don't forget that. You're still renting space, but I love that this is yet another opportunity. And, you know, honestly, it's been fun.

Tanya Smith [00:53:33]:
Like, the people over here have a whole different vibe. And I just I just I'm tired of not I'm tired of having to guard my pearls when I'm on certain platforms and to be super careful that I don't say certain things because it might trigger one person a certain way, and then we have to get into debates and all of that. And it probably happens on Substack too, but I haven't seen that yet. I'm mostly seeing, and it's because I'm curating and deciding who I wanna follow, and I actually get to see those people. I love that we're able to create that space, that environment that we want. Let me pop up some comments here. Okay. Doctor Vibe, exactly.

Tanya Smith [00:54:14]:
I am getting engaged. I am engaged to Substack right now. I'm not yet married. I'm on the way, but not quite there yet. It looks like the Substack RTMP access is in beta. It is. You can request it, John. And what I would do is once you get over here, if you decide you wanna check it out and you get consistent in all of those things and you decide you really wanna play here, then just go in and request access and see.

Tanya Smith [00:54:40]:
Right? Just like with anything. Just like we all had to do with LinkedIn Live. Remember that? I'm excited too, Jen. I got I finally bought my dress. And I don't even wear dresses. But I'm wearing one for you and for the red carpet. I'm gonna do that. I listened to recordings of those phone subtext streams, and I must have missed I missed your normal mic quality.

Tanya Smith [00:55:02]:
I know. I'm an audio snob too. He's talking about when I did some of the videos through you know, remember I said you can do it on your mobile? I didn't love it, but you know what? Worthy taught me something that I think he learned from Corey over in Black Podcast Casters Association, which is I coulda just connected my Rodecaster Pro two to my phone and it would have been fine. I just didn't know at the time. Great, great, great quilts and chocolates. Yes. Line in the sand. Yes.

Tanya Smith [00:55:33]:
We get to draw our line and say, this is who I am. This is who I'm gonna, you know, commune with. This is how I'm creating the safe spaces. Exactly, Michelle. So I love that. This is super helpful. I have been considering substat. Laura, girl, come on over.

Tanya Smith [00:55:50]:
The water's nice. And you know you can always hit me up if you got some additional questions beyond this show. Sounds like a nice space to test out, learn about, and see where it goes. The idea of a space without arguing and girl. Okay, Julie? Look. Julie and I are gonna be spending some time on her in her community next week, so I'll be sharing out more about that soon as well. RODECaster to Phone is a great option. Yes.

Tanya Smith [00:56:20]:
It is. Doctor Vibe, I am excited. I like being an inspiration. And you know what? I always love your photo too. Your photo is an inspiration. Y'all check that out. The Doctor. Vibe Show, he's like, hey.

Tanya Smith [00:56:34]:
I'm showing up. Show it up and show it out. Alright. So let's let me kinda recap a little bit. I said three, but it's really four. I guess I need to correct this slide. Here's some takeaways that you can you can write down and and move with. Okay? Stop renting and start owning.

Tanya Smith [00:57:00]:
Like, you get to design your own space. So whether it's substack or some other place, it's up to you. But create something that you really can enjoy, be passionate about, feel good about, make an impact with, stop renting on other people's spaces. And look, I'm not saying don't be there, because I'm still on Facebook. I'm still on I'm in these places. I've just decided they're not going to come first. They are not the priority. The priority for me is what I know in here is going to be the solution to problems that the people I'm talking to need and want.

Tanya Smith [00:57:44]:
So audience first, content first. Social media is somewhere down the line. The platform itself is somewhere down the line. Okay? Those are tools and they are vehicles. But you're the driver in the driver's seat. Right? So stop renting, start owning. Algorithm dependence is not a strategy. So the folks that keep telling you, okay, y'all.

Tanya Smith [00:58:09]:
Here's the next 10 things that we now have to do because this platform is I'm just I you get to make your own decision about this. I've made the decision that I'm just I'm done with that. I'm tired. I'm not doing it anymore. I'm not gonna depend on algorithms. I'm going to depend on what I know to be true. I'm gonna depend on facts and numbers and metrics and all of those things, but I'm also not going to see algorithm dependency as a strategy. My strategy is, I know that I am a video marketing consultant.

Tanya Smith [00:58:44]:
Here's my the things that I do. Here's my audience and their pain points. Like, I understand my brand very clearly. So focus on that. Spend more time on that, and then the content that you deliver is gonna be of more value. Take back control of your time and energy, y'all. Somebody said this the other day too. Actually, I think it was the woman in the video that I was talking about.

Tanya Smith [00:59:10]:
The woman who left Instagram with 892,000 followers. She said, you know, once you get over 50, and I'm with her, once you get over 50, you start realizing, look, my time is very limited here. Like, there's only so many things I'm willing to do. We get a bit ornery. And that's where I am. I'm I'm a bit ornery now. Now I'm like, no, I I run this. I'm grown.

Tanya Smith [00:59:38]:
You don't get to tell me how to operate this. I'm gonna do it this way. Nurture your audience and you can grow anywhere. Nurture the people. People first. Content first. Right? Put all those things ahead of the fact that you are on a particular platform, and then you will be platform proof. Then you can move and you can try Substack and see how it works like I'm doing.

Tanya Smith [01:00:02]:
And if it works, great. And if it doesn't, it's okay. You move on to the next thing. Position yourself differently, but you get to make those choices. And that to me is what's important. Now before I go, I'm gonna definitely pop in a few more comments. And if any of this felt like it resonated with you, I want you to pop a fire emoji into the chat. Even if you're on Substack, even if I can't pull it up, I can see them.

Tanya Smith [01:00:29]:
Put a fire emoji in there. Let me see. I follow small list of creators on Substack, and I love that. On platforms where I follow too many accounts, I end up just avoiding them. It's just too much. Curated spaces are where I am in 2025. Okay, Sarah. I am with you.

Tanya Smith [01:00:47]:
I stand with you on that. I know. He does. Doctor Vibe show has a great photo. Let me pop doctor Vibe up there. Much thanks, Jen. Love these takeaways. Thank you.

Tanya Smith [01:01:01]:
Thank you. Thank you. I don't think there's a problem with also being on social media, but I think you need to set your expectations accordingly. Exactly. Set your expectations and know, again, who's in control. Stop allowing other people to take over the driver's seat for you. Sharon says, I agree. I'm testing out email platforms and you've inspired me to take a serious look at Substack.

Tanya Smith [01:01:26]:
Thank you, Sharon. And I love, love, loved having you in the multiplier method. It was wonderful. You are so right loving this. Thank you. Opportunities are everywhere, but opportunity cost. Oh, you know what? You're always dropping nuggets. Always.

Tanya Smith [01:01:46]:
I need to have let me do I have my DJ horn on this thing? John. I didn't do the right one, but, you know, you get it. That was that was gold. Actually, let me do this. I'm gonna pop that back up again, and we're gonna do we're gonna do mind blowing? Hey. Opportunity cost, y'all. It's very real. Thank you for the fire.

Tanya Smith [01:02:10]:
The fire all of the fire? Yes. The goal is to be platform proof. Look at you, miss Twig. It's wonderful to see you here tonight. Thank you. Always love your positive vibes. I love yours too. Look.

Tanya Smith [01:02:26]:
It's been my pleasure, everyone. Thank you for spending the time with me. We are at the top of the hour, but it has been so much fun. And if you have not already liked, subscribed, and followed, you know, all the things, make sure you go ahead and do that because I would love to see you in some future streams. I would love that. And also some of our programs that we have coming up. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna be because I keep getting asked about cast magic. I sent a note to Blaine the other day, and I said, look, I'm gonna have to host a workshop, and I'm gonna make it free the first time.

Tanya Smith [01:03:01]:
So I'm gonna do a free workshop on how to leverage Cast Magic to repurpose your content, because part of the own formula was what? Work smarter. And so when we work smarter, we're leveraging AI tools and automation and apps. We're leveraging the tools that we need to help us to be smarter. That way, we can put this effort into this, like, amazing piece of content and then we can multiply ourselves. Right? So cast magic workshop coming. I just need to find a date. I'm looking for one now, but I'll make sure everybody knows. Thank you.

Tanya Smith [01:03:36]:
And John says, smash that like button or whatever you have on Substack. Thank you. Thanks, John. I love it. I know. I can't wait. So I'll be I'll be sharing out the news. I just need to pick a date where I'm not traveling or doing speaking or whatever.

Tanya Smith [01:03:54]:
Right? I need to do that, so it's coming. But have an amazing evening. Please make sure that you take care of yourselves. Remember to take control. And not only scheduling the time to create content, but also schedule time to simply relax and just be. Because Lord knows we all need some time to just relax and just be with ourselves and with the people that we care about the most. So I will see you next time in the stream, y'all. Have a good one.