💡 if you write on Substack, you're a founder
& the everlasting tension between art and commerce
This past Monday night, I was invited as a panelist to speak at Kylee Hayden’s amazing Women + AI event here in San Francisco.
I was on the panel sharing my experience as a founder, as I’ve just recently launched CozyJobs, a project I’ve been vibecoding with my fiancée Kyle Cords for the past 10-ish weeks. It was such a lovely night and I had some life-giving conversations with some very creative women in that room.
But I left the event thinking about how the title “founder” still feels a little lopsided to me at times. I don’t know exactly what would replace it — my preferred title of “creative person who likes making stuff” is a bit wordy.
On paper, my work resembles being a founder pretty closely: I’ve built six- and seven-figure businesses and have been freelancing as a memoir ghostwriter for the past decade.
When I lived in LA, I even ran an in-person events company called Kingdom of Pavement where we hosted open mic nights and secret shows spotlighting local creatives, writers, and musicians.
When 2020 arrived and disrupted our show schedule, I pivoted the company into producing scripted podcasts with our community of actors and musicians, and we produced my show The Last Station and Kyle’s show The Horror at Martin’s Beach with an insanely talented cast and crew.
That’s just a few of the projects I’ve been doing for the past chunk of time, and yes they’re business-shaped even if they all have some sort of creative heartbeat at the center.
Even CozyJobs.ai has a little lo-fi player at the bottom right of the screen that plays lo-fi music made by Kyle to help de-stress your job search.
But even if I hadn’t made any of those things and I was a writer on Substack as my sole focus, I’d still claim the title of “founder.”
✍️ if you write on Substack, you’re a founder
I do a sprinkling of Substack audit sessions for writers, Founding Members here in Sutoscience, and interesting startups that I like, and in one of my conversations with a founder I shared something I think you’ll find relevant.
Writing on Substack isn’t just about learning a platform — it’s about understanding how to capture someone’s attention.
How do you structure a post that a reader feels joy scrolling through? How do you write a headline that makes someone want to click in and read?
For many of us, writing on Substack means we are running a one-person media business. We set prices, run discounts, do our own art direction (maybe with the help of a hired designer!), and write the copy of our welcome emails.
Founders are people who do similar strategic thinking. They ask themselves “what will my target audience get value from?” and run experiments. They create a hypothesis and then create milestones to test their theories.
Writing on Substack is an art and a science, and that’s why some writers can feel a bit conflicted here: art, science, and commerce are almost always at odds in some way.
🎨 protecting your art while making money
I wrote an entire book on this topic, but the fundamental error in logic us creatives make is that when we focus on commerce, our art suffers.
In reality, thinking like a founder allows you to build a better buffer around your creative time.
By being strategic with my finances and business structures, I get to have more open creative time.
By optimizing my SEO and Substack landing pages for paid subscriptions, I get to chill out and enjoy the writing process more since my systems are bringing in subscribers on autopilot while I spend too much time on a chapter of my new fiction novel.
I used to stick my tongue out at thinking like a bUsinEsS pErSOn, but then I realized that being a “founder” doesn’t mean kowtowing to venture capitalists or being on Zoom calls all day. In fact, I don’t have to operate like any of the founders I see on the internet — I can rewrite the rules to fit my no-alarm-clock life.
Instead, being a “founder” is just a cap I put on from time-to-time to make my world better so that I can then go back and do my creative work undisturbed.
✨ the rule is this: the person having the most fun wins
Not all money is created equal.
There were freelance assignments where founders or companies were throwing money at me — but I ended up walking away from those projects because I just couldn’t stomach another day doing something that I didn’t feel passionate about.
When I discovered memoir ghostwriting, I felt like I stumbled on a huge secret. Are you telling me I get to write people’s stories and be a detective in their lives? I get to travel to exotic locations and get to know their culture and families and business partners? I get to see inside the lives of the rich, famous, and accomplished and learn from them? Hell yeah, sign me up. I’ve spent a decade being a ghost, and it’s still some of the most fun I’ve had as a writer.
Discovering Substack also was one of those moments. In 2024, I found myself sitting on the floor of our traditional Japanese home with a powerpoint on the screen of the small TV telling my fellow digital nomad friends that they all needed to get on Substack, stat.
I wasn’t making much money on Substack back then, but at the time it was enough to fund my travels and give me a place to share my writing and ideas.
These days, I make quite a bit more than I did then, but my passion for Substack is not just about the money. I’m more excited about how the business model frees up creatives to do more of what they love (and less admin work!)
When I think about what brings me the most joy in my career so far, I know that I have the most fun sharing what I’ve learned, teaching others the things I wish I’d known earlier, writing books for people, building stuff, and writing my own fiction and nonfiction.
Because I do what I love, work doesn’t feel like “work” to me, which means I can do much more of it, and do it at a higher level. That’s my advantage — and the advantage of anyone who is having fun.
So if you want to think like a creative AND like a founder, here are two questions for you:
What would you have the most fun doing?
Now how can you get paid to have fun and do more of what you love?
💡 more ways to think like a founder here on Substack
My most popular post is all about this, and if you’re a Founding Member I hope to see you in our May Substack Lab next week! These group workshops on Zoom have been lots of fun and also it’s cool to see the breakthroughs happening in real time.
And if you haven’t already taken the 6 Week Substack Sprint, you can revisit these 6+ hours of classes by me at any time if you’re a Founding Member. I’ve also reopened my 1:1 Substack Audits for new Founding Members for limited time.
But even if you don’t take a look at any of these things, I’d love to offer you this last idea.
Think like a founder when it’s time to be efficient and measure what needs to be managed. How much money do you need to make for your ideal creative life? Since not all money is created equal, what types of things do you want to do to make it? (i.e. freelancing, Substack, self-publishing).
How do you track conversions/create business structures that can work while you sleep?
How do subscribers and readers find and enjoy your work?
What do you charge for and what do you give away for free?
Think like a creative when it’s time to make the art itself. Find the fun and shut everything else down. Don’t let doubt or worry creep into your safe space. It doesn’t belong there!
It can sometimes be easy to give into the existential dread that lurks in the shadows, but I’ve found that instead finding the lightness in the delusional optimism is actually way more “productive” and life giving!
And as a bonus, the times that I’ve believed that everything was going to just work out actually did indeed work out (sometimes better than I could have every imaged.)
So how can you create more spaces of play in your life? What do you need to do strategically to protect those spaces?
And remember: the only rule is that you need to be having fun in this life.
We only get to live it once, after all.
Sending you good creative vibes,
-Amy