Wander Wealth

As there is so much discussion out there right now about Substack’s newly launched AI screener, I really wanted to chip in with my own two cents. As you know, I use AI, and I even have another publication here (Level Up with AI) which is all about how to use AI systems and automations to make your life as a writer and creative easier. So you’d think I’d be first in line for a tool that sorts the real writers from the slop. I’m not. Three things keep nagging at me. I use AI to help me in my processes.

Nine days ago I published a post about Notes. This morning I pulled its numbers for my usual performance check, and one of them made me put my coffee down. That post brought 24 new subscribers. My average over my last 21 posts is 9. My first guess was that it must have reached way more people than usual. So I checked. 4,934 views, slightly below my average. Fewer people saw this post than a normal one, and it still brought in almost three times my usual subscribers.

Everything we fixed in the first Substack Glow-Up, so you can steal the whole check list. Almost 100 people showed up to watch me give live feedback on a Substack with 88 subscribers. My screen share froze twice 😅. At one point I vanished completely and Robyn, my guest, had to host her own feedback session while I restarted my connection. My laptop battery gave up right as we wrapped.

This morning I did my biweekly Notes analysis, the one where I pull the engagement data on everything I posted. And one pattern jumped out at me again, so clearly that I decided to write this post instead of the one I had planned. The Notes advice everyone gives you is: study the big accounts. Copy what works. Write like Dan Koe (325,000 subs). I tested that advice with actual data. It’s wrong, and it’s wrong in a way that wastes months for smaller accounts.

I published a post about how to get paid for your travels two weeks ago and something unexpected happened. People started sharing their own travel stories. Gabby talked about her Budapest site. Melanie just got back from a week in India to celebrate her 50th. Jenn’s been writing about all her different travel stories on Substack. Reading through all of it, I kept thinking two things. First, this is exactly why I write.

I stared at the “Go Live” button for 14 minutes before I actually pressed it. I know because I checked the timestamp on my screenshot afterward. 14 minutes of sitting there, water glass filled, notes open, telling myself I’d click it “in a sec.” My heart was doing that fast shallow thing. I had 4 bullet points written on a sticky note next to my laptop and I kept rearranging them like the order mattered. When I finally hit the button, 3 people showed up.

At the end of the day, we are all here looking at our numbers. I mean, who are we kidding if we say we donā€™t care about it at all. We get excited when a new subscriber pops up. We get sad, when some decide to leave. And oh my do we get crazy if a paid subscriber appears out of nowhere. Letā€™s just be honest about it and accept that, after all, we are here to connect with writers, to earn with our words and to put our stuff out there to be read.

Two years ago I was sitting in a camper van outside Sicily, Italy, writing a blog post about the best spots in Sicily. Our second European road trip. Wifi from a phone hotspot that dropped every 20 minutes. And somehow, between the bad connection and the smell of the gas stove, I managed to publish. My camper van in Sicily, Italy That trip wasn’t actually a typical “content trip.” I wasn’t researching travel guides or reviewing hotels.

Sometime around mid-July, you’re going to open your Substack dashboard and feel your stomach drop. Open rates down. Subscriber growth stalled. The Note that would’ve gotten 40 likes in April gets 12. This is normal. This happens every single summer. And the writers who know it’s coming use it instead of panicking through it. I know because I panicked through it last year. July through October 2025, my subscriber count flatlined. Gained 30, lost 25. Gained 15, lost 20. Net growth was basically zero.

Playback speed × Share post Share post at current time Share from 0:00 0:00 / Transcript Do you use AI for Substack? I tell you how I use it. I went live today to show how I use AI on Substack. It turned into one of my favorite conversations in a while, so I wanted to share the recap while it’s fresh. The video is above if you want the full thing. Here’s the short version. What I walked through: My writing system is called Drift. It knows my voice from past articles, but I taught it everything else.