Hey online writing friend,
I’ve got a confession.
I’ve been so busy the past weeks that I couldn’t write long form posts.
Boxes everywhere. Life everywhere. Kids everywhere. Brain nowhere.
But today I’m back at my laptop.
And this feels huge.
For the first time in my life, I’ve got my own creativity hub. My own studio. My own space. Never ever before.
At our old place, my “office” was the attic. Suuuuuuuper hot in summer. And my hubby and I shared one room. Which meant calls, keyboards, sighing, and very polite versions of “are you done yet?”
Now this new house is a real home for my kids. And this room is finally a home for my creativity. Which feels perfectly aligned with today’s story.
Because I want to tell you about my podcast conversation from two weeks back with my Substack Bootcamp alum Ellen Scherr from Life Branches.
She’s a therapist, a writer, a midlife truth teller…
And WOW WOW WOW WOW
Ellen went from basically zero to 10,000 Substack (now already 15,000!!) subscribers in just a few short weeks.
One minute: “hello? is this thing working?”
Next minute: phone exploding, notifications flying, people clutching their pearls.
And this freaking bonkers growth explosion didn’t happen because she had a big launch. Or because she gamed the system. But because she kept showing up (and maybe also dancing), talking about the messy middle of life when no one, ZERO people were was watching.
In her words:
“I’m just plugging away, just, you know, still hearing crickets and just keep plugging away. And next thing I know, my phone is like blowing up, lit up from all the notifications.”
If you want the full story, go listen to the podcast episode. That’s teaser #1. There are more coming.
Here are the biggest things I learned from Ellen.
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1) Use the exact words your audience is already saying
This is the strongest lesson.
Ellen’s a therapist. She hears the same phrases every single day in her practice.
She said:
“I know what they’re saying. I know what words they’re using. I know what they’re telling me.”
And she doesn’t translate that into fancy writing. She uses it as is.
One line she shared that shows up again and again in her work:
“Many women start with, I’m stuck. I just, I don’t know what to do.”
That’s why her intros hook people instantly.
Readers don’t think, “That’s well written.”
They think, “That’s me.”
2) Write to connect and build trust
Ellen didn’t plan for her post Aging Out of Fucks: The Neuroscience of Why You Suddenly Can’t Pretend Anymore to go viral.
She said:
“The title got people to look at it, but I didn’t realize that the content was going to resonate so much.”
And when it did resonate, people shared it everywhere.
She realized:
“It was coming from everywhere. People had posted it.”
Including places she didn’t expect.
“I was a little embarrassed because people were posting it and loving it on LinkedIn.”
Her takeaway is simple.
Make it shareable. Make it human. Make it something people want to send to a friend and say, “Read this.”
3) Practice headlines until your brain learns the pattern
Ellen was very honest about how she learned to write headlines.
She said:
“I would go into ChatGPT and just ask for examples.”
And also:
“A lot of times it just didn’t resonate, but it taught me different words and different things.”
She didn’t copy. She practiced.
Now she mostly uses it like this:
“I’ll come up with a title and say, what do you think about this?”
Also yes, she takes her time.
When I asked her how long one post takes, she said:
“Sometimes two to three hours.”
So if you’re slow, you’re not doing it wrong. You’re doing it seriously.
4) Your overnight success is built on invisible effort
Ellen started writing on Substack in August 2025. She posted long form posts. She posted notes. A lot of them.
And at first, nothing happened.
Her words:
“So all those notes, I was pumping out like three a day and nothing.”
And:
“I mean, you know, maybe three likes or whatever.”
Then her long form post Aging Out Of Fucks took off.
And suddenly everything changed.
“But now all the notes that I wrote back when that had no visibility, now people are seeing all the notes.”
Let me share one example with you from Ellen’s Notes feed:
That part really stayed with me.
Effort compounds quietly. Until it doesn’t.
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5) When it blows up, you’ll feel overwhelmed
Ellen was very real about this part.
After the viral post, she said:
“When I went to go post a post right after the one that went viral, I was like, oh, crap. Now what am I going to write?”
She also said:
“It’s overwhelming.”
And:
“I thought I’d have more preparation time to build up to get to a certain level.”
Totally normal.
This is why community matters. Growth is heavy when you carry it alone.
And yes, you can meet Ellen inside the Online Writing Club community. She’s also a Substack Bootcamp alum, which makes this story even better.
If Ellen’s story lit something up in you, go listen to the podcast episode. Then come hang out with us.
I’m back at my laptop. In my own studio. In my own creativity hub. And it feels really good.
PS: If you listen to the episode while eating leftover Christmas cookies and thinking about New Year goals, that’s the way to do it.
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