44 Comments
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Nat Sang's avatar

Holy shit!! I don’t even know how I found your post but it’s 100% spot on! I’ve been on here writing for about 3 and a half months. Still not getting like a huge amount of subscribers, but moving along. Two days ago I got so sick of the guru posts, now combined with tech for automation of this bullshit - I lost my mind. I posted an honest, unfiltered, unhinged rant! I had to, I thought I’d explode if the words didn’t come out on paper. Guess what? It’s gone nuts, over 100 likes, genuine interest and comments. I gained about 12 subscribers so far. But, the point was not to do anything like that, I just had to vent.

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

Just read your rant, good job!

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

YES! An honest rant beats a generic post any day of the week, especially if people in general are feeling it. I’m so glad you found this post! 🙌

Nat Sang's avatar

Thank you 😊! I feel much better. I needed to release that

Kristine's avatar

Even this note of yours earned a follow from me - because I’m all about this energy ✨

Nat Sang's avatar

Well thank you so very much 🤗that means so much

Kristine's avatar

Wait! It wasn’t your rant post…..it was another one that you wrote about your exit from the workplace experience

Nat Sang's avatar

I figured it was one of those. Lol I write from my emotions so it probably all seem like rants 🤣🤣

Kristine's avatar

My page - as I'm sure you'll discover - is sometimes on point with my larger purpose of helping people understand how to read the room, in particular, in the C-suite, but sometimes I treat it like OG Twitter and rant at random. I miss those days of doing a brain dump and finding community around that.

Kristine's avatar

I like your style - I read your rant post and I had a visceral reaction. I've had that exact experience before at a large, public tech company. Things are fine one day then suddenly, it's an out-of-body experience. And what's strange is it's happened to many other people. It's definitely the most surreal thing that's happened, and although I'm happy to be past it, it's definitely a head scratcher. Like, why do that when you could just say you're exercising your at-will employment status - why take the time to gaslight?

Nat Sang's avatar

Thank you, I appreciate that. My writing comes from the gut. Ahhh I think you’re referring to one of my lay off or work posts. I’m sorry you experienced that too. The gaslighting was awful. For most at will terminations they need support to justify that or they can have a lawsuit. In my case I never had anything supporting at will termination, I even had good reviews. I suspect that’s the case for a lot of people. Some people will use their authority to unleash their shortcomings on others. I applaud you, I’m doing the same - it’s good to be past it, but it doesn’t lessen the mystery of it all. Thank you for reading my content. I’m heading to your page as well.

Kristine's avatar

That makes sense. I didn't know they needed justification for at-will employment. The still-bothersome part is the number of companies with puppets who are willing to turn on a dime against their employee when they know for sure they have a good performer on their hand. What kind of person can stomach that and still continue to stay? Talk about ick!

Nat Sang's avatar

Well sadly those people exist. I just saw your stuff. I love that you’re doing this. I only discovered Substack after I was told about the layoff. I wish I had a space like this earlier, because I would have navigated the situation a lot better and quicker. Keep fighting the good fight. Rants here do generate some meaningful conversation! I mean look at us 🤗🤣

Jenn Smukler's avatar

This is the first article I read about how to help me grow on Substack that felt genuine and actually helpful. 🙏

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

omg Jenn, THANK YOU, that means so much that it landed like that for you. That’s my intention!

Jenn Smukler's avatar

💯

Claire Schoen's avatar

This rings true. The Notes I respond to most are the ones that feel like someone thinking out loud rather than performing.

Rani Monson's avatar

Super insightful -- breaking down Notes in a way I hadn't considered. So relatable! Thank you.

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

Thank you, Rani!

Sarah Hennessey's avatar

These were super helpful. My notes have been flopping and getting no engagement, so I’m definitely going to try these.

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

🙌❤️ awesome!

Kaila Krayewski's avatar

This was super helpful, Tracy! Thank you for sharing your insights. It's definitely got me thinking :)

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

Awesome! Thanks Kaila!

Suzy🌀Women in the Middle 55+'s avatar

Thanks! I'm a newbie and I really appreciate hearing your insight. I've been blogging for about a decade and have a podcast that's 8.5 years old. I'm used to expressing myself, but this space is a little different. I'm excited!

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

You’ve been at it a while! Welcome to Substack, so glad you found my corner of it! :)

Maira Ribeiro - Life Purpose's avatar

OMG, so on the same page. I can't stand Guru BS. There is no magic formula. If you want to get fit, you need to do the work. That so undermines those who are really showing up every day, doing the work, and can I start thinking, what's wrong with me? Why can't I achieve that?

Noemie Mooney's avatar

Super useful Tracy! I think I need to rethink my notes a bit. I used to get most of my new subscribers from notes but the past 2 months or so I'm not getting a lot of visibility

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

Right, and I think they’re always tweaking the algo… :/ so we have to always stay on our toes and notice.

Sourav Bandyopadhyay's avatar

Note types that resonate with your audience are underrated. Smart breakdown of what converts!

DJ Esquivel's avatar

Awesome fields notes Tracy. I can attest for the first type hehehe 👌 Great post

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

Awesome and thank you!

Craig Youngkrantz's avatar

Sometimes I feel like use substack like linkedin. Need to relax and let loose more. This is a good reminder.

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

Yeah it’s kinda hard to remember, we’ve all been trained on these other platforms. I think this time around we actually have more freedom

Gabriel Serban Chinole's avatar

Amen to that

Cin Suzuki's avatar

Saved and will try to implement! Appreciate the tips.

(There’s literally a guy who writes original songs based on unhinged Tinder messages. That’s an entire content engine built from one specific (and funny!) frustration.) --> you need to include a link to this lol

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUGd3kWDfCi/?igsh=d2liYnNpbjJvazdp

His handle is Lewky and I think he’s on Facebook and YouTube too 😂

Cin Suzuki's avatar

ohhhh my goodness, I absolutely loved this. I mean, the song is pretty good (and surprisingly right up my alley lol). I can imagine belting out, “I’m gonna block you nowwwwwwwwwww!” in the car. Thank you for this gem!

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

😂🤣🤣🤣🤣 when I found him I binged as many as I could, I was crying laughing so hard!

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

You’re going to laugh at this! Let me find a link…

Jeremy Hall's avatar

Brilliant! I get stuck when writing notes because being new I am still finding my voice on Substack. This post sparked a few ideas I can focus my notes on.

Tracy Friedlander's avatar

Awesome, Jeremy! I look forward to reading yours when you get them out there! 🙌