29 Comments
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Kate O'Connor's avatar

Great summary! Going to listen ASAP. I love The Unpublishable - I carry Jessica around in my heart past every Sephora and into every pharmacy. 😅

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Meredith Farley's avatar

HA! Same same Kate. But I've never articulated it so eloquently.

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Jared Holst's avatar

Listened to this a couple of hours ago. Was fantastic to get tips from someone who isn't famous, didn't previously have an opinion column at like, the NYT, and yet built their newsletter (not substack!) up with their talent and persistence.

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Meredith Farley's avatar

Oh, nice. I'm glad you liked it Jared, thanks for reading. Agree - Jess gave such real, practical advice. I was appreciative of how open and real she was.

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Dan Benson's avatar

I definitely agree with Jessica. Although I've written about Substack every now and then, I don't think I've ever once referred to my newsletter as "my Substack." It's just my newsletter. I definitely don't want to chain my publication to any type of branding when at the end of the day, the service hosting it has absolutely nothing to do with the themes or content that I write about.

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Meredith Farley's avatar

Same. I've been trying to be very conscious of saying "newsletter" since the convo with Jess.

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Noha Beshir's avatar

A lot of great tips here

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Meredith Farley's avatar

Nice! I'm glad if it's helpful.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Fantastic advice here! I prefer a strict publishing schedule, but that's more a forcing function for me than anything else. Without those guardrails, I'd just have 50 tabs open all day ping-ponging between them

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Meredith Farley's avatar

Ha, I hear that Kevin. Deadlines keep me productive, too.

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Jessica DeFino's avatar

Thanks for having me!!

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Meredith Farley's avatar

Loved getting to talk to you. Thank you so much.

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Bob Sassone's avatar

I wrote about some of these topics in my essay about Substack last year:

https://sassone.wordpress.com/2023/09/28/we-need-to-talk-about-substack/

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James Hanlon's avatar

Thanks for being awesome Jessica, I studied your setup here when I first started, even though what we're doing here is completely different. Your main image with the "aghast/shocked" illustration is amazing and sold me immediately.

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Good Humor by CK Steefel's avatar

Great advice. Thx for this interview.

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Meredith Farley's avatar

So glad you liked it!

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Israel Sanchez's avatar

Wonderful insights.

Thanks!

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Christine Morrison's avatar

Love hearing Jess’ perspective!

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Meredith Farley's avatar

Same, Christine. Thanks for reading.

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Yolanda M.'s avatar

So good!

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Meredith Farley's avatar

Only problem: Now I *only* want to use quotes in my subject lines.

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Kristen Luiso's avatar

This is lovely thank you! 🙏🏼 😊

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Meredith Farley's avatar

NICE!! So glad.

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Cecilia Dominic's avatar

Thank you so much for this! I’m just starting out, and I really appreciate getting different perspectives.

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Meredith Farley's avatar

Hey Cecilia. I’m so glad it’s helpful! Loved talking to Jess and sharing this. Going to give your newsletter a read now ❤️

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Cecilia Dominic's avatar

Thank you so much!

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Deborah Carver's avatar

All good advice, but who are these people getting 100 emails an hour and why don't they manage their inboxes? One-click unsubscribe, automations, labels and folders are all a thing.

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Jan 15, 2024
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Meredith Farley's avatar

So glad you liked it Kimia.

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