When I reached 100 subscribers I changed something.

I opened settings and edited my welcome email.

I stopped following the usual Substack advice.

The usual advice is to try get people to read more stuff or to upgrade to paid — but it struck me that those things weren’t that important cause what I really waned was new clients.

So I applied some 1st principles marketing.

See, in theory, any subscriber might want to become a client…

Because not everyone wants to be nurtured.

Therefore, theoretically, our very first subscriber could become a client.

So I changed the welcome email, and spoke to that person directly.

…and how did it work out?

Well, I made the change around the start of the year.

In 2025, my top 3 clients all came from Substack (not social or referral etc) and they all opened the same Welcome Email.

Another reminder that it’s often best to follow what we already know, and to be genuine, and allow people to get straight to the point if they want to.