Why You Won’t Make Money With Your Substack

The Psychological Shift Needed to Build a Sustainable Creator Business

If you’re into positive thinking, I suggest you don’t read further. This is going to be a reality check for creators tired of shouting into the void. So, if you’re ready to face some uncomfortable truths about the creator economy, then let’s get started.

I vividly remember a friend sending me an article about digital nomads. "This is so you," she said. I entered a rabbit hole.

That was the first time I heard that entrepreneurship was a viable career path. I was 24, about to finish my Master’s, and shocked I hadn’t heard about it before. My future career path, chosen five years earlier, suddenly felt like a cage.

The promise of this new world was intoxicating: you can make money online, working from anywhere in the world. I was hooked.

Something is Wrong

When I first started my business, I wasn’t just naive. I was delusional. It’s not that I never heard of the struggles or statistics. I just didn’t think they applied to me.

And I had got reasons to believe so.

The entire creator economy is a massive positive-thinking seminar run by other delusional people. You get programmed to believe anyone telling you otherwise is just a cynic.

You want to believe in the dream, because it looks like the perfect life.

So you commit. You start learning how to make the dream come true. I can’t count how many courses I took. In total I probably burned over $100,000 on courses, seminars, and books.

For years, I was the perfect student in the creator economy… or shall we say customer?

In the beginning, it was all tactics. Financial freedom. Making money online. When they didn't work, I thought I was the problem. So, I bought more courses on personal development, trying to fix the broken part of me that was failing.

It took me years to realize that I wasn’t the problem, but the whole industry.

It’s a game. And it’s designed to make you feel like you’re always one course away from a breakthrough.

Maybe you’re one of the many who never even starts the course. But I suspect you’re not one of them. You're like me and take action.

You invested the time and money, so you have to keep up the illusion that this is what you want. That leads to some serious problems you try to ignore. You find yourself using tactics that don’t align with your values, but you rationalize it. You have to somehow make back the money you invested.

It forces you into morally questionable actions, and you do it because, well, everyone else seems to be doing it… and you have to pay the rent.

It goes on for a while. Your ego is a sneaky bitch and a master of storytelling.

But there's a persistent feeling that something is off. You can't quite name it. It's the feeling that makes you justify yourself when you talk about your work. It's the cringe you feel when it's time to "sell your stuff."

This is the point where you get a glimpse of the real game being played.

Welcome to the Guru Game

Let’s call this what it is: The Guru Game. It's a beautifully designed trap, and you’re the target. Here's how it works.

You come across a successful influencer or creator who has the life you want. Freedom. Wealth. Fulfillment. They are the gurus.

They give away 99% of their knowledge for free, building desire and trust. You binge their content, feeling like you’re making progress. There are hints at the solution, but it’s missing structure. Maybe you just need to learn more.

Lucky for you, they have a premium course with their whole “blueprint.” Hello Mental Obesity.

It sounds cynical because… well, it is. And here is the part that so many creators miss.

It doesn’t matter if your guru is flexing a Lamborghini or a dark-mode aesthetic philosophy. The game is the same.

Why?

Because both are selling a pre-packaged identity. One promises the status of wealth and freedom. The other promises the status of intellectual depth and artistic integrity.

To be clear, I’m not saying they all have bad intentions. Many are providing a lot of value. My point is that they are responding rationally to the incentives of the system.

And that’s the problem.

The economic machine of the creator economy is designed to reward this exact model. It relies on a steady supply of new players who believe the next blueprint is the final answer.

It exploits our primal needs for status, security, and belonging. It creates a system where a few at the top sell the dream to the many below. And since the survival of that system depends on your continued desire and participation, it will make sure to keep running.

Then, you hear about Substack. It’s pitched as the escape hatch. The sovereign land for creators. No algorithms, you own your list, you have a direct relationship with your readers. It’s the promised land.

Now I have more bad news for you, because fuck it, I’m on a roll.

Substack is actually reinforcing the same winner-take-all economic patterns it was designed to disrupt, while simultaneously creating the illusion of democratized success.

The Brutal Mathematics of Substack Success

Was that too much? I might be committing algorithmic suicide here, but you need to hear it.

Let’s look at the numbers:

• The top 10 authors make $25-40 million per year.

• These superstars are less than 0.3% of paid creators.

• The top 5% of writers capture over 90% of the platform’s revenue.

But wait there is more.

• An estimated 97% of creators on the platform never achieve meaningful monetization.

And then there is the myth of the creator “middle class:”

• The platform celebrates its "bestseller" status for reaching just over 100 paid subscribers. This reveals how low the bar actually is. The platform has created artificial tiers of success that mask the reality that even "successful" creators often struggle financially

That’s not a creator middle class. It's a creator lottery.

For everyone else? The average conversion rate from free to paid is a pathetic 1-3%.

If you grind for a year to get 1,000 subscribers (a massive achievement) you can expect to make about $240 a month.

That's a hobby, not a business.

You've been invited to play a game where the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against you. The recommendation algorithm and the Notes feed are network effects that overwhelmingly favor those who are already winning. It's a power law.

So when you feel like you're shouting into the void, you are. When you feel like you're spending more time promoting than creating, you are. You aren't just fighting for attention. You're fighting a system designed to concentrate it at the top.

The Hidden Cost Playing a Role

The tragedy of this system is not just the financial struggle. It's the psychological toll.

The survivorship bias, where you only see the winners, fuels your imposter syndrome and makes you feel chronically inadequate.

You get high on the drug of external validation. You check metrics obsessively. You adopt the tactics of the top 1%. You try to replicate their voice, their business model, their topics. But because it's not aligned with your authentic self, the work feels hollow. The creation feels forced. The selling feels cringe-worthy.

When you fail to see their results, you start to believe you are the problem.

This self-blame leads directly to burnout. Not the burnout from working too hard. The burnout from a lack of alignment. You're exhausted from the psychic friction of playing a role.

This is the feeling that your current story is too small for you. The game requires you to shrink yourself to fit its rules, while your soul is demanding you expand.

You feel like a fraud because you are one. You are playing a role that was never meant for you.

It erodes your self-trust and manifests in a profound lack of meaning. You’re disconnected from your own purpose.

Why Substack is Still the Best Place to Build

You might be thinking, "Why the hell am I even on this platform, then?"

Great question. My goal isn't to trigger an existential crisis (well, sort of). I’m not trying to tell you to leave. Quite the opposite.

Once we see the system clearly, we can choose how to engage with it.

Substack is not here to rescue you from the power law. That’s part of the game. So what do you do?

You can let nihilism creep in. You can decide it's all pointless and give up.

Or you can leverage the game to make a positive impact.

Before we can get optimistic, we have to see reality for what it is. The facts are not negative. They are just facts. Ignoring them is a strategy for failure. Facing them is the first step toward building something real.

You have two options.

1. Keep playing their game, hoping you’re the 0.3% who wins the lottery.

2. Stop playing their game entirely.

If you’re still reading, you know what the right choice is.

So you stop playing their game. Start playing your own.

This is the Path of the Sovereign Creator.

And Substack offers you the perfect platform to do that. It gives you the tools for sovereignty:

• You own your email list.

• You have a direct line to your readers.

• You have a space designed for depth and long-form content.

Most importantly the right kind of people are on Substack. The ones who are done with trying to play the lottery.

Claim Your Sovereignty

So, let's use Substack to play a different game. A game you can actually win.

This path requires you to make two fundamental shifts.

1. Redefine Winning

In the Guru Game, winning is about external metrics. Subscribers, open rates, revenue. Chasing these is how you become dependent on the system.

What if your Substack wasn't just about money or hitting metrics, but a vehicle for self-actualization?

The metrics change to: self-knowledge, skill acquisition, and the creation of a body of work you are proud of.

Treat your Substack not as a revenue machine, but as a laboratory. It is a place to test your ideas, clarify your thinking, and articulate your deepest insights.

If you do this, you literally can’t lose.

Let's say you spend two years writing and don't make a living from it. In the Guru Game, you failed. You lost time and energy.

But on the Sovereign Path? You’ve gained something no one can take from you. You’ve developed a unique point of view. You’ve grown. You’re closer to fulfilling your potential. You’ve won the only game that actually matters: the internal one.

When you win the internal game, you create the very thing the market is starving for: authenticity and trust. You stop chasing an audience and start attracting the right one. Financial success becomes a byproduct of your authentic work, not the goal of it.

2. Stop Playing Their Game

The second shift is to stop seeking answers and start trusting your own. The Guru Game thrives by convincing you that someone else has the blueprint. The Sovereign Path is about realizing you are the blueprint.

This doesn't mean you should stop learning. It means you shift from being a passive consumer to an active synthesizer. You build your own philosophy. You trust your own taste. You develop conviction in your unique perspective.

A business built on your authentic self is immune to the lottery, because it’s not competing for the same price.

Playing their game means you are always competing as a cheap imitation. You will never be a better version of them than they are.

Your only sustainable competitive advantage is your own sovereign self. Your unique blend of experiences, insights, and obsessions creates a perspective that cannot be replicated. AI cannot fake your lived wisdom. Trend chasers cannot mimic your genuine conviction.

This is how you provide real value. Not by giving people generic answers, but by giving them your answer. You attract the small, dedicated group of people who are looking for your specific lens on the world.

Trusting yourself is the most potent business strategy there is.

Build a business so deeply aligned with who you are that the work itself becomes the reward.

That’s a game you can’t lose.

How to Get Started

This all sounds good, but where do you start?

You start by understanding your own psychological blueprint.

The first step in building a business from the inside out is to stop looking at market trends and start looking at your own innate strengths and archetypal patterns.

This is how you find a niche that isn't just profitable, but is a true expression of your purpose.

To help you take that first practical step, I've created a guide called The Archetype Navigator.

It’s not another list of hot market trends.

It’s a framework that uses Jungian psychology to help you uncover the creator you were meant to be, so you can start building a business that feels like an authentic expression of who you are.

It’s the first tool to help you stop playing their game and start building yours. Substack is the best way to turn that knowledge into a business that is a true expression of who you are.