From Beginner to Substack Bestseller | Interview with Valentin Bunea
Learn more about Valentin's struggles and his fitness and writing journey that eventually turned him into a bestseller with thousands of paid subscribers.
Being a newsletter writer isn’t glamorous, though many influencers try to sell you that story.
Valentin Bunea
has been putting in the work for 10 years, publishing daily despite working, having two kids, and other responsibilities.
He's not lazing around on a tropical island sipping a cocktail.
His reality is this.
Bed at 9 pm, up at 4 am.
He writes for three hours, then wakes up his kids, makes breakfast, cycles them to school, and hits the gym.
After more writing, he picks up the kids from school.
He’s a health and fitness newsletter writer, not just doing the reps in writing but also working on his fitness.
He showed me his biceps, though he joked about not showing his glutes.
He’s not the glamorous type telling you it’s easy.
He doesn’t work just 2 hours a week.
That’s not how you thrive.
He started while working full-time, eventually quitting coaching to offer courses and help others lose weight.
His tips for writers:
Walk an hour a day
go to bed early
do intermittent fasting
add exercises
stand more (you can also create your own standing desk, as he showed me)
It’s different, and I love it.
Valentin belongs to the top 10% newsletter writers on Substack, earning six figures.
He squeezes in work before taking his kids to school, juggles childcare, chores, and grocery shopping while building his online empire.
Living in Romania with raised taxes (20%+), he needed to take action to support his family.
He doesn’t recommend grinding excessively. He believes too much work leads to unhealthy habits. He shows that you can build a writing business and newsletter empire with a busy life and job.
You can build a successful newsletter business in 6 hours a day.
That’s how much time Valentin spends on his newsletter daily.
It’s a profitable business that lets him live the life he wants with his family.
Or take me.
I’m not creating full-time.
I spend about 1 hour per day on my newsletter and 1–2 hours on YouTube videos, nurturing my paid community, and writing on Medium.
The key to our success?
We have a family, our WHY.
We do the work that needs to be done and ignore those claiming they do it in a few hours a week.
With experience from our full-time jobs, we focus on the tasks that drive 80% of the value for our readers. We know our audience and nurture them.
That’s how you can build a newsletter empire and potentially earn $16,000 p.a. as I do or even $100,000+ one day.
It’s possible to earn a living writing a newsletter.
Valentin’s example shows:
Believe in yourself.
Similar to your body, believe in the daily reps in writing.
No matter how much time you have, spend it on your newsletter.
For some, it’s 6 hours.
For others, it’s 1 hour.
✅Wait! Want to win a membership and coaching session?
As you may know, I love to gamify your newsletter experience. So if you leave a comment on YouTube, you could win a 1-month paid membership to my “Online Writing School” (with The Substack School and Medium School) or a 30-minute coaching session in June!
New VIDEO: From Beginner to Substack Bestseller🥳 🚀
✅Table of Contents
00:00 Who is Valentin Bunea and why should you care
04:36 Valentin shares his secret on daily content creation for social media platforms and newsletters
08:52 Valentin Bunea on growing a newsletter from scratch to 100+ paid subscribers. 13:58 Valentin about personal development, marketing for his writing business, and parenting.
20:35 Sleep and weight loss - Valentin emphasizing the importance of early bedtime and healthy eating habits
25:22 Valentin on writing on the internet, including tips for beginners and the importance of finding one's audience.
30:33 Valentin on growing a substack newsletter to 1,000 paid subscribers with exclusive content.
35:31 Personal questions
Willing to do the reps in a community of like-minded writers?I always say:
“There are two types of newsletter writers. Those who are curious and those who are serious and willing to do the reps!”
If you say:
“I want to do the work, do the daily reps it needs to start and grow my writing business and email list healthily and sustainably, in a community with like-minded writers to never feel alone or working in a silo and to connect with inspiring voices such as Valentin Bunea LIVE…”
… then my “Online Writing School” is for you.
It opened its doors about 100 days ago and is already filled with 30 hours of video tutorials, interviews, recordings from our LIVE sessions with David Mcllroy, Sarah Fay, Derek Hughes, Maya Sayvanova and many more.
You also get access to free resources and ebooks all about making money with your words.
You create this community together with me. Based on your feedback, I create videos and invite guest speakers.
Plus, you can chat with me and aks your questions.
New: You can book a coaching session with me, if you’re an annual subscriber.
You want this?
It’s super easy.
Just upgrade and become a paid subscriber to join our exclusive community
If you say: “I know doing the daily reps, holding each other accountable and a fierce crew (of writers who are on fire) – make ALL the difference” then my paid membership experience is for you.
🙏🏻Your support means the world to me as I juggle the roles of a busy working devoted mom, and a passionate solopreneur. Every bit of encouragement fuels my journey as a part-time creator, making a meaningful impact on my daily hustle. 🙏🏻
Many thanks to all paid members! I appreciate you
Upcoming LIVE event - the best is yet to come
Wednesday, June 5
1:00 pm EST
Register by becoming a paid subscriber. You can add the event to your calendar and will also get the Zoom invite from me.
Your doing-her-daily-reps… 💪🏻
P.S. Wait, please, could you do me a favor? 😘Re-stack and/or share this post with our interview, so more people can feel inspired and learn!😘 Thanks!
OMG, thank you soo much! See you Wednesday!
What a gerat story!
I have a question for Valentin: how often does he publish his newsletter?
Great motivation for those of us who are focused on growing our Substack!