How I Planned 5 Substack Posts While Walking To Starbucks — Overcome Writer’s Block In 3 Easy Steps

Here’s how I turned 1 Substack Note into 5 Posts on a 10 minute walk to Starbucks.

“New free subscriber” notifications lit up my phone every 15 minutes.

All originating from one single Substack Note. Notes are my “testing ground” for posts and long-form newsletters. This is where everything begins.

This is the secret to overcoming writer’s block.

Here’s How I Turned 1 Substack Note Into 5 Posts on a 10-min Walk to Starbucks.

It started with writing daily Notes.

When you’re struggling with new ideas, write notes. When you want to test new ideas, write notes. When you want to grow your followers on Substack, write notes.

Notes are quickly becoming a cornerstone of Substack.

Use them to:

• Quickly test ideas.

• Build your followers/subscribers.

• A lower barrier than writing full posts.

• Comment on others’ Notes for added exposure.

• Then turn good notes into your full-length posts.

Step 1: Assess which Notes perform well.

Every Note is data.

I start by posting daily Notes.

When they generate likes, comments, and most importantly restacks I pay close attention. These insights form the foundation of the long-form posts I write.

Here’s the Note that inspired this post (the one you’re reading)

On top of the likes, comments, and restacks it has generated considerable growth for my Publication — Over 12% growth in Subscribers in less than a week.

The key to growth with content is listening to these signals.

You don’t need 400 likes, though.

Anything above your “baseline” is a strong signal.

Step 2: Expanding upon proven topics.

Give the people what they want.

When we listen to the signals, we write on proven topics.

We can write about lots of different topics. Some things do great and some don’t. Over time this data allows you to refine your content to be laser-focused on your niche.

Proven topics accelerate your growth.

After I noticed this Note performing well? This is what I did.

As I walked for my morning Starbucks, I opened Answer The Public, searched “Substack” and planned my next 5 posts.

Here are some other content idea tools:

• YouTube.

• Answer The Public.

• Medium, Reddit, Quora.

• Google Search (Suggested/Autocomplete).

This can be done in two ways:

• Generate new content ideas.

• Expand upon existing content ideas.

For ‘New’ ideas: Browse top content or top creators to inspire ideas.

To ‘Expand’ ideas: Browse what people are searching, asking, and posting about related to what you want to expand. In my case, Substack.

Step 3: Document new ideas for your content.

I planned 5 posts in 10 minutes.

As I walked to Starbucks I scrolled through the questions people were asking about Substack and began documenting articles I could write.

Here are the questions that inspired articles to write:

Post 1: “how to get substack subscribers”

I will write an article on how I’m generating new Subscribers on Substack.

Post 2: “who uses substack”

I will research and document well-known people who use publish on Substack.

Post 3: “why use substack instead of a blog”

I will write and educate people on why Substack is more beneficial than a blog.

Post 4: “substack monetization”

I will document how I write on Substack and generate over $10,000/Month and how I plan to expand my monetization efforts in the future.

Post 5: This article.

It sounds meta, but I am documenting this entire process in this article. For the perfect demonstration of this point.

Here’s how you can apply this strategy, everywhere.

I apply this strategy everywhere in my business.

Here’s how you can too:

• Notes lead to Posts.

• Posts lead to lead magnets.

• Lead magnets lead to new products.

• Top content leads to my top-performing ads.

This isn’t just limited to Substack.

I’ve used this strategy on LinkedIn and Substack. I’ve used this strategy for both organic content and paid advertising. Even to build lead magnets, products, and courses.

Expanding upon what works is a philosophy.

And you can use it to beat writer’s block.

Landon

PS.

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