What To Expect When Your...internet bestie starts her Substack?

Bless her heart–does she know what she's doing!?

(Psstt I recorded an audio version of this post. Hit “play” above! Also, did you hit “subscribe” yet? Make sure to do that first!)

Aunties, welcome to my first Susbtack post! (Thank you SO much for being here! ♥️)

Listen, I am the MOST reticent person to adopt to new platforms and trends. (Ask me about the TikTok 👵🏼 Or how I tried to be cool and buy cargo pants this week but screamed and ripped them off because all I saw was Nigel Thornberry staring at me in the mirror.)

BUT. I feel like Substack has sticking power though for a couple reasons. And I’ve been meaning to re-start a newsletter for…4+ years? 😩 Today is the day!!

Much like the time I lived in our city condo for almost 8 years and never got around to hanging art on most of the walls, I’ve had the best intentions, but, somehow, I never got around to doing it. (Can you relate?)

But then Substack came along. And again, I resisted. But the more I learned about it, the more it felt like the early days of blogging (just with the added bonus of being a newsletter) but also so much more!

What is this, Jess? Why Substack?

First, being that my career lies in the hands of an increasingly untrustworthy Mark Zuckerberg (sorry Mark, no offense) and that my Instagram account could just go POOF or be hacked at any time, and I would have no way of getting ahold of any of you!

I can’t control the algorithm. I hear from readers every day saying “I want to see your stories, yet you never come up in my algorithm!” 😭

This is a way to ensure you and I can ALWAYS be in touch, no matter what else happens elsewhere in the crazy world of social media. (Not to mention, a really nice way that we can connect that is OFF SOCIAL MEDIA. 😵‍💫) I am personally craving more and more time off Instagram and it’s MY JOB. I am sure you’re feeling it even more than I am!

Substack is yes, a newsletter, but also SO much more!

It’s also just like a blog. (So you can easily go back into the archives of any newsletter or any post!) With so many other features! There are a lot of things I can do here that I can’t do on other platforms, and a way I can bring value to you all that is so much deeper!

I recently saw a quote where a creator said Substack allowed her to “build the social media community she wish existed”–and my inner voice said, “Jess. This is what we (meaning, collectively, you and I) have been waiting for!”

What you’ll get here and nowhere else:

More personal posts, essays and more:

A safer, more intimate community to share more personal content, particularly around the topic of just, you know LIFE (particularly motherhood)–as we all continue to “grow up” together. (At what age does one stop using the term “growing up”?)

I get a lot of messages saying, “Please write a motherhood book🙏🏼” (why by the way, is so unbelievably flattering it makes me cry) and truthfully–this is going to be the start of that!

There is so much more I have to say that just doesn’t lend itself to an Instagram story or Reel format!

A more interactive home for our community:

Substack is more community-centered than any other platform–I LOVE that there’s a chat feature, because I think one of the most unique things about this community is that it’s feels like one big group text.

I have always felt like you are a close-knit group of my 85,000+ girlfriends (I realize how ridiculous that looks to type that sentence, but it’s true 😂) yet Instagram just doesn’t support conversations between *you all* (and can sometimes feel one-sided) and I have so many ideas on how to utilize the community chat feature to create a lot of amazing connections and helpful content!

So many of you have told me you’re having trouble finding “your people” as we all try to navigate different stages of our lives–this is a way I can finally introduce you all to ONE ANOTHER! ♥️

Think the crowdsourced reader roundups I share on Instagram, but living here, so you can always go back and reference them, and ongoing discussions we can have via the chat feature!

Speaking of, I also love the idea of LIVE hangouts (on video!) Live workshops–maybe even a “podcast” type format where I bring my friends (both regular, everyday people as well as seasoned professionals) on to talk about topics you want more in-depth knowledge on that we’re all dealing with right now. (Pelvic floor physical therapy? Getting your kids to go the F to sleep? My first experience with a medium and connecting with my dad after he died? Navigating marriage and family life with a mental load that feels like it weighs 1,000 pounds and what can we do about it?)

Also think audio Q&A’s–either live or recorded (or both) so we can go way more in-depth into topics than I ever could on an IG story Q&A–plus, you have an easier format to consume content in, and a home where you can always find it. (I always appreciate audio formats so I can multi-task and get off my phone!)

More in-depth guides:

Substack will allow me to get back to creating the super in-depth helpful guides on reader-driven topics (because first and foremost, what gets out of bed in the morning is helping you all ♥️) that typically take me multiple days that I have been doing for free on the blog for years (but haven’t been able to do much of over the past year because I only have so many hours in a day and have to focus on the stuff that can pay my bills first. 🫠) By creating a reader-supported publication, I can once again return to doing these super helpful posts, and I plan to make them all available to paid subscribers!

Andddd there’s one more little tiny reason (in June’s voice who always says, “just a littttleee tiny”):

This might be what my soul needs?

Something I kind of forgot about myself?

(You know, amidst the dark, whirling sea that was “having a baby in the middle of a pandemic followed by the death of my father who was sick for a long time and with whom I didn’t have a totally UN-complicated relationship with… (but that makes him sound bad and we loved each other immensely!), navigating some crippling adult ADHD that just recently got diagnosed at age 36 but I always knew I had, buying a new house and renovating it while balancing a significantly higher mortgage, adjusting individually and as a family to a totally different life and lifestyle, trying (and often completely failing) to maintain a thriving marriage on top of all of these things–all in the span of a couple of years”–*Takes giant gasp of air* wow, now that I see it listed out like that, I need to give myself more grace 😩)–is that I am first and foremost A WRITER. Yet–somewhere–I seemed to have stopped writing?

Is this the missing puzzle piece?

I have talked about this multiple times previously, but for the past couple of years I’ve felt a pretty aimless career-wise. (What is my career even? Honestly? As someone who fell into “online influencing” LOL.)

I felt so grounded and purposeful in my career as a “blogger” but then what that shifted to “Instagram influencer” it seems that everywhere I turn I am hounded by this 167 page long checklist of the things I’m supposed to be doing–more reels! The algorithm! Why aren’t I on threads!? Stop posting so many stories!! And it seems somewhere along the way it started to just feel less like I was just talking to all my girlfriends whose lives I want to improve in some small way–to being a cog in the wheel of this new algorithm-driven world.

It seems like every day there are at least 10 more things I need to start doing vs the day before just to keep up with the status quo (ha–similar to like…everything in life it would seem!?)

Long story short–the writing seems to have fallen by the wayside, but it took the creative part of my soul with it too.

This is something I have not realized until I started typing this post. 🤯 (Thanks for coming along this emotional roller coaster with me in real time.)

Anyway, here are my thoughts–of course, knowing me, this is subject to change as I figure out my content on here.

What you get as a FREE Substack subscriber:

• A virtual hug from me because I’m so happy you’re here!

• Free membership to the “Hot Mess Aunties” club, which is the name I randomly came up with for my newsletter subscribers that may change at another date, but TBH, it really felt like “us” so we’re rolling with it!

• Reassurance that we’ll always have a way to be in touch that is not dependent on an algorithm and also gives us a way to connect off social media.

• What you can expect in the Hot Mess Aunties club newsletter–(including, but not limited to…)

  • Roundups of crowdsourced answers on various “adulting” topics. (Maybe it’s various ways that none of us have our shit together. Maybe it’s the weird, random products we couldn’t live without. Maybe it’s a bunch of easy ways we cut corners to save our sanity.) We’re all in this together!!

  • Product highlights: What I’m obsessed with, what YOU’RE obsessed with (and maybe products that are overhyped?) as well as a roundup of links you might have missed shared on Instagram.

  • Thoughts and musings about topics we’re all going through together

  • Book reviews + what I’ve been reading lately

  • Access to the community chat. I truly have the most wonderful readers, and you all have so much in common. I’m so excited for you to meet each other!

  • And of course a whole lot of other stuff. It’ll be a little bit of everything and you won’t really know what you’re going to get, but I promise it’ll be worth your time. 😉 The goal of this newsletter is to bring joy to your inbox in a way that is both funny and HELPFUL. (My goal is to always to bring you as much value as I possibly can!)

What you’ll get for being a paid subscriber:

I’m thinking of this as the NPR model–a reader-supported publication! If you’ve enjoyed and found my free content to be valuable over the past decade, and feel excited about where this Substack is going, chipping in the equivalent of a latte (or less, if you like bougie lattes 🤪) goes so far in helping me grow this into the magical idea I have in my head. ♥️

• Extras like the ability to listen to audio versions of posts, access to recordings of lives and the ability to start new threads in the community chat so you can lean on one another for support on various topics, form friendships, plan local meetups with readers in your area, and more!

• Access to more personal posts on more intimate subjects that I wouldn’t necessarily share widely/ publicly.

• Access to in-depth motherhood content and guides that typically take me a REALLY long time to write. (Being able to get paid for these kinds of posts allows me to return to doing them again!)

• My eternal gratitude for supporting my work, so I can keep producing more of this kind of content!

To wrap this all up–thanks for reading my first official Substack post.

I often feel the pressure to have something “fully baked” with a whole plan or strategy before jumping in, but truthfully, that’s just never worked for me. I am a “follow your intuition” kind of girl, and I read the other day that your intuition doesn’t give you multiple steps. It just tells you what the next right step is.

I know this methodology doesn’t resonate with a lot of people. But I hope it resonates with you–and I hope that just living out this “jump before you feel ready” ideology in public, it can help inspire someone else to do the same.

So this is me just “jumping” (falling? 😬) and having the courage that the direction for my Substack will shake out how it’s supposed to.

I love you guys endlessly. Thank you for your support, thank you for being part of my village and I’m excited to see all the amazingness that happens when this community all gets into the same room. ♥️

xoxo

Jess