Most Substack Growth advice tells you to chase more: more subscribers, more impressions, more reach, more badges, more algorithm wins.
But growth for growth’s sake can pull you further away from the business, publication, and life you actually want.
In this Creative on Purpose Live episode, Scott Perry shares the three essential questions every purpose-driven solopreneur, creator, coach, freelancer, or publication-builder must answer before trying to grow an audience:
What change are you trying to make?
Who are you trying to change?
What promise are you making?
These questions, inspired by Seth Godin’s Marketing Trifecta, help you stop chasing vanity metrics and start building a permission asset rooted in resonance, trust, and a smallest viable audience.
You’ll learn why more subscribers are not always better, how to clarify the transformation your publication offers, how to identify the right people by worldview instead of demographics, and how to make promises you can actually keep.
Scott also shares how he moved away from digital marketing BS, burned-out funnel-building, and growth-hacking tactics to build a simpler, more sustainable business around Substack, conversation, and trust.
Subscribe to the Creative on Purpose Substack for more principle-based guidance on building a prosperous business without digital marketing BS:
→ https://creativeonpurpose.substack.com
Subscribe to the Creative on Purpose YouTube channel for more videos on solopreneurship, Substack growth, audience building, meaningful marketing, and purpose-driven business.
Chapters:
00:00 Why audience growth needs a better question
02:42 The 3 questions for growing on purpose
03:21 Why growth for growth’s sake fails
07:02 Why someone else’s playbook won’t build your business
08:13 Permission marketing and the smallest viable audience
10:58 Scott’s Burnout story: winning the wrong game
14:20 The Marketing Trifecta
20:31 Escaping the algorithm hamster wheel
21:52 Question 1: What change are you trying to make?
24:29 Question 2: Who are you trying to change?
28:08 Question 3: What promise are you making?
32:45 Why the right audience creates compounding growth
38:16 Q&A: Moving from delivery work to an advisory publication
45:53 Minimum effective dose for your current business
48:47 Exposure, proximity, and access on Substack
51:21 Q&A: Overdelivering, generosity, and boundaries
55:46 Q&A: Using Substack with YouTube or Facebook
01:00:39 Stoic philosophy and building a publication
01:05:17 Subscribe and next steps
Hashtags
#SubstackGrowth #SolopreneurSuccess #CreativeOnPurpose #PurposeDrivenBusiness #PermissionMarketing #SmallestViableAudience #DigitalMarketingBS #AudienceBuilding
