The 7 Mental Shifts I Made to Go From Struggling Writer to Six-Figure Creator
The Simple Mindset Changes That Built My Six-Figure Newsletter Business
Early 2023, I stared at my Substack dashboard one last time before nearly hitting delete.
Nearly subscribers. Zero sales. Zero traction.
My newsletter – filled with what I thought was valuable content – sat there like a digital paperweight. Another failed attempt at building something meaningful online.
We’ve all had these “Come to Jesus” moments.
You're publishing consistently. Creating content you believe in. Following all the "expert" advice. But something isn't clicking. Your subscriber count barely moves, and the thought of monetizing feels like a distant dream.
That was me, hitting bottom in my creator journey. I had followed every best practice:
Consistent publishing schedule
Detailed, thoughtful content
Sharing on social media
"Valuable" resources (or so I thought)
But here's what made it really painful: While I was struggling to get even 10 new subscribers, other newsletters seemed to grow effortlessly. Every time I opened Substack, I saw writers celebrating milestones while I couldn't even get past the starting line.
I nearly quit for good.
But here's where the story gets interesting...
I found myself burning out from my 1:1 career coaching business. The endless Zoom calls, constant client demands, and the relentless trade of time for money – something had to change.
That's when I had my breakthrough moment.
Instead of just creating more content, what if I fundamentally changed my approach? What if I stopped thinking like a struggling writer and started thinking like a successful creator?
I completely restructured how I approached content, audience-building, and monetization. I built my LinkedIn presence to over 125K followers. I listened deeply to what my audience was actually asking for and created several simple digital products – which started generating consistent income almost immediately.
Then I relaunched my Substack with a completely different strategy. Instead of being just another newsletter, I positioned it as a roadmap to freedom for people looking to “escape the cubicle’ life by building their own thing online.
The results surprised even me:
From zero to over 5,000+ subscribers in just 6 months
$30K+ in digital product sales in the last 3 months alone
On track for six-figures as a creator this year
The freedom to take on fewer 1:1 coaching clients & end the burnout cycle (priceless…)
This growth didn't come from some magical hack or secret trick. It came from five fundamental mental shifts that completely transformed how I approached my work.
Let me show you exactly what changed everything.
Mental Shift #1: Thinking Like a Creator, Not Just a Writer
Let me tell you about the most expensive mistake I see writers make.
They stay broke.
For years, I identified purely as a writer. I loved the craft. The words. The art of communication. And there's nothing wrong with that if writing itself is your only goal.
But I wanted more. I wanted freedom, impact, and dare I yes – financial stability. Yet I kept approaching my work with a "writer-only" mindset that was keeping me stuck.
Here's the hard truth I had to face: While writers focus on the craft, creators build assets.
I remember the exact moment this shift happened for me. I was reviewing my bank account after another month of minimal income from my writing. That same week, I watched a creator with frankly mediocre content launch a simple digital product that generated more in a day than I had made in months.
It wasn't that their work was better. It was that they approached their content as business owners, not just artists.
This realization changed everything for me.
Writers think about:
Word count
Perfect prose
The craft itself
Publication
Creators think about:
Building audiences
Solving problems
Creating assets
Building systems
The shift wasn't about abandoning my love for writing. It was about expanding my identity to include the business side of creation.
I started asking different questions:
How does this content serve my audience?
What problems am I solving?
How can I turn this knowledge into an asset?
Is this scalable beyond my time?
It wasn’t about me; it was about my audience.
When I launched my first simple digital products, it wasn't because I suddenly stopped caring about quality writing. It was because I finally understood that my expertise could help people in a more structured, valuable way – and yes, generate income that would allow me to continue creating.
The mental shift was simple but profound: I wasn't just writing content anymore. I was building a creator business.
This shift alone took me from publishing into the void to thinking strategically about every piece of content. Instead of random posts, I created content that built toward larger goals and solved specific problems.
The result? My audience growth accelerated and my income followed.
But this was just the beginning. Because once I embraced the creator mindset, I had to face another uncomfortable truth...
Mental Shift #2: Embracing the Art of Marketing Oneself
Here's a confession that still makes me cringe: I used to think marketing was beneath me.
Like many writers, I believed my work should "speak for itself." I'd publish a piece and then sit back, waiting for the world to discover my brilliance.
The result? Crickets.
While I was busy protecting my artistic integrity, other creators were actively connecting with their audiences. They weren't just creating great content – they were making sure the right people actually saw it.
The painful truth hit me during a particularly empty week of metrics: Great content that nobody sees might as well not exist.
I remember the resistance I felt the first time I wrote a thread promoting my newsletter. My finger hovered over the "post" button for what felt like hours. What would people think? Would I seem desperate? Self-promotional?
I finally hit post, and something unexpected happened: People thanked me. They hadn't seen my work before. They were genuinely grateful I'd brought it to their attention.
That was the moment I realized marketing isn't selfish – hiding your work is.
Here's how my thinking shifted:
Before: "I create content and hope someone finds it."
After: "I create content AND ensure it reaches the people who need it most."
This wasn't about becoming some pushy internet marketer. It was about taking responsibility for connecting my work with the people it could help.
I developed simple promotion systems:
Sharing key insights on LinkedIn in ways that added standalone value
Creating genuine connections with other writers in my niche
Repurposing my best content across platforms
Actually telling people when I had something new to share
The results were immediate. My LinkedIn continued growing (now to over 125K+ followers). My email & Substack newsletter subscribers increased steadily. More importantly, I started getting messages from people saying my content had helped them make significant changes in their lives.
Marketing wasn't taking away from my writing – it was amplifying its impact.
But this mental shift came with another challenge. Because once people started paying attention to my work, I needed to face the most uncomfortable shift of all...
Mental Shift #3: Selling as Serving
"I'm not going to sell anything."
I must have said this to myself a hundred times when I first started my newsletter. I had this idea that selling would somehow taint my work or turn off my audience.
Let me tell you how that worked out: I created valuable content for months and made exactly $0.
Meanwhile, I watched people in my network build sustainable businesses by offering paid solutions to their audience's problems. They weren't just making money – they were making a bigger impact.
One conversation changed everything for me. A regular reader reached out after I published a particularly helpful piece about building a personal brand.
"This is great," they said, "but do you have something more comprehensive? I'd happily pay for a step-by-step system. or 1on1 help?”
I didn't. And in that moment, I realized I was actually disappointing people by not creating something more substantial.
The mental shift hit me like a ton of bricks: Not selling can be selfish.
If you truly believe in the value of what you offer, creating paid solutions isn't just about making money – it's about providing deeper value to the people who need it most.
Think about it this way:
Your free content helps people identify problems
Your paid offerings help them solve those problems
Once I embraced this perspective, creating and selling my first digital product felt completely different. It wasn't about "monetizing my audience" – it was about serving them at a higher level.
When I launched my first masterclass, I was nervous. Would people buy it? Would they find it valuable? Was I charging too much?
The response floored me. Not only did people purchase it, but the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. People were grateful for a more structured, comprehensive solution to their problems.
This shift completely transformed my relationship with selling:
Before: "I don't want to be salesy or pushy."
After: "I'm offering solutions to problems people actually want solved."
This didn't mean becoming some sleazy internet marketer. It meant understanding that ethical selling is simply matching solutions to people who need them.
My income grew, but more importantly, so did the impact of my work. I could now help people make real, lasting changes instead of just offering surface-level advice.
Mental Shift #4: Building Community, Not Just Content
The lonely writer stereotype exists for a reason.
For the longest time, I worked in isolation. Just me, my keyboard, and the constant pressure to create something brilliant. Every post felt like I was starting from scratch, trying to build momentum alone.
Then something unexpected happened.
A fellow Substack writer reached out about a potential collaboration. My immediate instinct was to decline—I was too busy, too focused on my own path. But something made me say yes.
That single collaboration brought in over 200 new subscribers in just two weeks.
It wasn't just about the numbers. That experience opened my eyes to something I'd been missing: the power of community.
The solo creator myth had trapped me. I believed that success was a solitary journey, that I needed to figure everything out myself. In reality, the most successful creators I admired weren't lone wolves—they were community builders.
"The fastest path to failure is isolation."
I wrote that in my journal after the collaboration, and it became a guiding principle for my approach moving forward.
Instead of just creating more content, I started:
Reaching out to other writers in my niche for coffee chats
Participating actively in comment sections
Sharing and supporting others' work without expectation
Building a community space for my subscribers
Creating collaboration opportunities rather than competition
What happened next surprised me. My growth accelerated, but in a way that felt less exhausting. Ideas flowed more easily. Opportunities appeared seemingly out of nowhere. And perhaps most importantly, the journey became enjoyable again.
My subscribers noticed the difference too. They weren't just connecting with me—they were connecting with each other. The newsletter transformed from a one-way broadcast into a thriving ecosystem of like-minded people all helping each other escape the cubicle life.
When I launched my next digital product, the community didn't just support it—they enhanced it. Member stories, questions, and insights made the offering richer than anything I could have created alone.
The isolation that had once defined my work was replaced by connection. And that connection created momentum I could never have generated by myself.
Mental Shift #5: Consistency Over Perfection
"I'll launch when it's perfect."
Those five words cost me an entire year of growth.
While I was endlessly tweaking and refining my newsletter concept, other creators were building audiences, launching products, and generating income with work that was—let's be honest—far from perfect.
My breakthrough came from an unexpected place: burnout.
After spending weeks perfecting a post that got virtually no engagement, I was exhausted. Out of sheer frustration, I quickly wrote and published a raw, unfiltered piece about my struggles with the creator journey.
It became my most engaged post ever.
That's when it hit me: people weren't connecting with my polished perfection. They were connecting with authenticity and consistency.
The most successful creators I studied weren't necessarily the most talented—they were the most consistent. They showed up regularly, built momentum over time, and improved through iteration rather than endless pre-launch perfectionism.
I made a decision that changed everything: I would publish twice weekly, ready or not.
No more waiting for perfect. No more endless tweaking. Just consistent creation, learning, and improvement.
The shift from perfectionism to consistency created a cascade of benefits:
My audience began to expect and look forward to my content
I learned faster through real feedback rather than self-criticism
The pressure of perfection lifted, making creation enjoyable again
My skills improved through practice rather than overthinking
Momentum built naturally, creating compounding results
This shift wasn't about lowering standards. It was about understanding that consistency creates more value than perfection sitting in drafts.
I developed a simple mantra: "Done is better than perfect."
I wrote it on a Post-it note above my desk and looked at it whenever the perfectionist voice started creeping in. Over time, that voice grew quieter as the evidence mounted: my imperfect but consistent work was creating real results.
When I launched my Substack Growth Masterclass, it wasn't because I had achieved some magical level of perfection. It was because I had been consistently showing up, learning what my audience needed, and building a system that worked.
Most importantly, consistency created compound interest. What started as a trickle of subscribers turned into a steady stream as my body of work grew larger and more interconnected.
Perfection gets you nowhere. Consistency gets you everywhere.
Mental Shift #6: Quit Trying to Be Everywhere
"You need to be on every platform."
This advice nearly broke me.
Three months into my creator journey, my days looked like this:
Writing LinkedIn posts
Trying to record YouTube videos
Creating TikToks (that was a major bomb)
Building a Facebook group
Writing my newsletter
Engaging on Instagram
The result? Mediocre content everywhere and exceptional content nowhere.
I was spread so thin that nothing had a chance to gain traction. I'd spend hours creating the "perfect" Instagram post that might 12 likes, then rush to record a YouTube video that got 37 views.
Meanwhile, my LinkedIn posts and Substack newsletters—the platforms where I naturally connected best with my audience—suffered from lack of attention.
Then came my breaking point.
After a particularly exhausting week trying to keep up with every platform, I looked at my analytics across the board. The pattern was clear: LinkedIn and Substack were bringing real results. Everything else was just noise.
So, I made a decision that made me feel nervous at the time:
I stopped trying to be everywhere and committed to being meaningful somewhere.
I doubled down on LinkedIn and Substack exclusively. No more Instagram. No more YouTube. No more trying to dance on TikTok (trust me, no one needed to see that anyway).
This wasn't about laziness—it was about focus. By channeling all my energy into the platforms that actually worked for me, several things happened:
My content quality immediately improved
My audience growth accelerated
My stress levels plummeted
My unique voice became clearer
Most importantly, I stopped feeling like an imposter everywhere and started building true authority in my focused spaces.
When people ask me now why I'm not on other platforms, I have a simple answer: "Because that's not where I provide the most value."
That clarity has been liberating. I've built a six-figure creator business not by being everywhere, but by being exactly where I need to be.
Mental Shift #7: Let Go of the Outcome
The publish button used to terrify me.
Each time my cursor hovered over it; the same anxious thoughts flooded in:
What if no one reads this? What if people hate it? What if it doesn't go viral?
I'd spend hours—sometimes days—tweaking a single post, paralyzed by the fear of judgment or failure. The weight of each piece felt enormous, as if my entire worth as a creator hung in the balance.
But something curious happens when you've hit "publish" hundreds of times.
You stop caring so much about any single post.
Not because you care less about quality, but because you understand a fundamental truth: No single piece of content defines you.
The 100-Post Realization
Around my hundredth post, I noticed something had changed. I was no longer agonizing over every word. The publish button had lost its power over me. I had developed what I now call "creative detachment."
Some posts took off. Others fell flat. And I was OK with either outcome.
Why? Because I'd finally internalized what successful creators had told me all along:
Your post goes viral: "Great! Let me learn from this"
Your post gets ignored: "Next! Let me learn from this"
This detachment wasn't apathy—it was freedom. Freedom to experiment, to take risks, to find my true voice without the crushing pressure of perfectionism.
I began writing and publishing at 3x my previous pace. Some pieces resonated deeply. Others disappeared into the void. But the overall trajectory was unmistakable: consistent growth, deeper audience connection, and genuine enjoyment of the process.
Now, hitting publish feels as natural as sending a text message. No anxiety, no second-guessing—just the satisfying click that sends my ideas into the world.
And perhaps most surprisingly, this detachment has led to better work. When you're not desperately trying to create viral content, you create authentic content. And authenticity, it turns out, is what people actually connect with.
Results & Transformation: Where These Shifts Led Me
Some days I have to pinch myself.
It's not just about the numbers, though they tell part of the story:
5,000+ newsletter subscribers in 6 months
$30K+ in digital product sales in just 3 months
On track for six figures this year
A growing community of creators supporting each other
But the real transformation goes beyond metrics.
Remember that burnout I mentioned? Gone.
Feast-or-famine client work? Replaced with consistent, scalable income.
The isolation of creating alone? Transformed into a growing community.
What changed wasn't just my business — it was my entire relationship with work.
Instead of trading hours for dollars in endless Zoom calls, I now wake up to sales notifications from products I created months ago. Rather than chasing clients, I build assets that work while I sleep.
The freedom this creates is something I couldn't have imagined when I was staring at that empty Substack dashboard, ready to quit.
But perhaps the most meaningful change has been in how I impact others.
Last month, I received an email that hit home. A subscriber wrote to tell me they had just made their first $1,000 as a creator after following the framework I teach. They described leaving a toxic job, building their newsletter, and finally gaining the confidence to launch their first digital product.
"Your content didn't just help me build a business," they wrote. "It helped me reclaim my life."
These are the moments that remind me why these mental shifts matter — they're not just about making money. They're about creating freedom, impact, and meaning.
The struggling writer who was ready to delete their Substack is now helping others build their own path to freedom. And the best part? I'm still writing. Still creating. Still doing what I love — but now in a way that's sustainable, impactful, and liberating.
That's the real transformation these seven mental shifts created. Not just a better business, but a better life.
Is it always easy? Of course not. There are still challenges, still days of doubt, still moments of frustration. But the difference is that now I have a proven framework that works, a community that supports me, and the confidence that comes from seeing real results.
Your Path Forward: Where Do You Go From Here?
Let me ask you something.
Which version of the creator path resonates with you right now?
The struggling writer publishing into the void, hoping someone notices
Or…
The confident creator building a sustainable business around your knowledge and expertise
If you're still in that first category, I get it. That was me not long ago. The gap between where you are and where you want to be can feel enormous.
But here's what I've learned: That gap isn't as wide as it seems.
Each of these mental shifts I've shared wasn't some dramatic overnight transformation. They were simple choices, made daily, that gradually changed everything.
I didn't become a "creator" overnight. I simply started thinking differently about the value I provide.
I didn't become a marketing expert instantly. I just stopped hiding my work.
I didn't transform into a salesperson immediately. I just started offering solutions to problems.
I didn't build a community in a day. I reached out to one person at a time.
I didn't become perfectly consistent all at once. I just showed up a little more regularly.
I didn't immediately know which platforms would work. I experimented until I found my focus.
I didn't overcome publishing fear in a single moment. I just kept hitting publish until it got easier.
The path from where you are to where you want to be isn't about dramatic reinvention. It's about small shifts that compound over time.
That's the secret no one tells you about building a successful newsletter or creator business. It's not about being special or having some magical insight no one else has. It's about making these fundamental shifts in how you approach your work.
I've watched hundreds of creators make these same shifts and achieve similar results. Different niches, different backgrounds, different starting points – but the same transformative shifts in thinking.
Which brings me to an important question:
What if you could make these shifts in weeks instead of the months or years it took me to figure them out through trial and error?
📌 Join the Six-Figure Substack Growth Masterclass
That's exactly why I created the Six-Figure Substack Growth Masterclass. It's the step-by-step system I wish I'd had when I was staring at that empty dashboard, ready to quit. It distills everything I've learned into a clear, actionable framework for building a thriving newsletter and creator business.
Inside, you'll discover:
The exact content strategy that took me from 0 to 5,000+ subscribers in 6 months
How to position your newsletter to attract your ideal audience
The simple system that grows your subscriber count daily without being pushy
Monetization framework for creating digital products people actually want to buy
Community-building strategies that turn passive readers into engaged superfans
If you're ready to stop struggling alone and start building something meaningful, the Substack Growth Masterclass might be exactly what you need. Join below:
But whether you join us inside or not, I hope these seven mental shifts give you a new perspective on what's possible for you as a creator. The path to building a successful newsletter and creator business is more accessible than you might think.
The question isn't whether you can do it. The question is whether you're ready to think differently about how you do it.
Hey Wes, this was super valuable to me as a new writer on Substack, especially the part about engaging in the community. I’m definitely taking a step towards this by commenting here, thank you!
Wes, thanks for sharing in abundance! There is a lot of good information! Too much for me to digest at 7:30 in the evening. Do you have anyone edit your work? Best wishes!