I just navigated over to Morning Person’s homepage, and it filled me with such a sense of pride and accomplishment. Over the past four years, I built this little corner of the internet from an email list of zero to nearly 50,000 subscribers. I am so proud of this space, but it’s taken work. Here’s a little peek behind-the-curtain at how I’ve sustained that growth and built something I’m excited to come back to day after day:

• I’ve never once taken a week off (!) even through publishing my novel and the demands of grad school

• Expanded from publishing 1x a week to 3x a week (I often don’t send out Friday’s piece as an email, so I don’t overwhelm inboxes. Instead, I link back to it in other posts, and keep it as a little bonus secret to discover!)

• Steadily pushed myself to write deeper, more reflective pieces and series like ‘Plant Studies’

• I’m a team of one, but I hired a designer to create the Illustrator templates and graphics I use to make every issue beautiful and visually interesting

• Adapted to use different forms of storytelling, including podcast and video, changing as Substack and its audience did!

• Before publishing any issue, I ask myself, “What is the reader getting out of this issue?” How is it valuable to them? If it doesn’t feel valuable, I add or scrap it completely and begin from scratch!