Season 4, episode 4 is here!
Not Exactly Ana didn’t know what Substack was when she joined. She wasn’t a seasoned writer or a marketing expert. She was a 26-year-old Bulgarian woman who had just walked away from her cleaning job in Austria to chase something she’d always wanted.
Eight months later, the results speak for themselves.
What we covered
- How Anna built close to 3,000 subscribers without a strategy, a niche playbook, or any prior knowledge of the platform.
- Why she chose to write about mental health and personal stories rather than leaning on her psychology knowledge for something safer and more distant.
- What she says to writers who are afraid to publish something real, and why a little fear before you post might actually be a sign you’re doing it right.
- The daily Substack routine she’s built around genuine connection rather than growth metrics, and what that looks like in practice.
- Her digital magazine for independent writers, where it came from, and the much bigger vision she has for where it goes next.
- A book she’s currently writing about her own past, one that takes a lot of courage to put into the world.
- The one piece of advice she left us with that had nothing to do with writing at all.
You can find Anna on Substack, where you’ll also find a link to the first issue of her magazine.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedavidmcilroy.substack.com/subscribe
