In this final episode of the year, we broke down the biggest lessons we learned from growing the Write • Build • Scale publication to 1,000+ paid subscribers (and 29,000+ total subscribers) in 2025.

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In this value-packed episode, we covered:

- The biggest mistake beginners make with paid subscriptions (00:45)

- The exact free vs paid content mix we follow (00:02:39)

- Why we create a few “pillar posts” per year - and how they drive paid subscriber growth (05:30)

- How one free post became our most profitable piece of content ever (07:23)

- Why personal connection will matter more than ever in an AI-heavy future (11:05)

- Why we treat our paid Substack as an entry-point offer, not the end of monetization (18:05)

- How Substack is becoming an all-in-one creator platform heading into 2026 (28:24)

- The Substack features we’re most excited about for next year (33:15)