Reflections on My First 20 Substack Posts and How They’ve Shaped My Perspective
20 Posts In: What I’ve Learned About Consistency, Creativity, and Growth
Every post has felt like a small experiment. Some were long. Some were simple. Some had no real point except that I showed up. But the more I wrote, the clearer things became. Not just in the writing itself but in the way I think, speak, and build. Twenty posts later, I see how this has shaped my work and my worldview.
IF NO ONE SAW IT, WOULD YOU STILL WRITE IT?
It is easy to feel like everything we create needs to be seen. But I have learned the most from the posts that did not take off. The quiet ones. The ones that had maybe two likes and no comments. Those were the ones that helped me remember who I was writing for. And often, it was me.
Writing without expecting applause is not just freeing. It is honest. When I stopped chasing reactions, I found more clarity in what I actually wanted to say. I learned to listen to my own voice instead of checking for feedback every time I hit publish. If the post helped me process something, then it was already a success.
There is power in doing something because you believe in it, not because it performs. That mindset has helped me show up more consistently, and weirdly enough, it has also made the writing better. People can tell when you are creating from a place of truth. That is what they connect with, even if they do not click the like button.
I BUILT A STRONGER COMMUNITY WITH THE ONE I ALREADY HAD
What surprised me the most was how many friends I reconnected with through writing. Some of them had quietly been reading every post. Others reached out for the first time in years. Some even sent their own writing in response. It made the whole thing feel less like a broadcast and more like a conversation.
I did not grow a giant following. But I deepened the one I already had. These posts gave people a reason to reach out and tell me what they were working on, what they struggled with, or what they saw in the story that reminded them of their own. The writing became a bridge, not a spotlight.
What matters more than going viral is going deeper. That is what I want for my brand and for myself. I want to be in rooms that feel aligned, not crowded. Building something thoughtful does not always look like growth on paper. But it feels like connection. And that is enough.
To plug my homies & my favorite subscriptions:
CONSISTENCY YIELDS RESULTS. EVEN WHEN IT FEELS LIKE IT DOESN’T.
Doing something twenty times will change you. It has to. That is what consistency does. It creates momentum, whether you see it right away or not. Some posts were shared around. Some flopped completely. But all of them gave me something to build on.
There is no secret to getting better except showing up. Every week, I had to find something to say. I had to think about what mattered to me and how to explain it. That pressure was not always fun, but it was always useful. The work improved. My thinking got sharper. My voice got more defined.
Most people give up before they get to the part where it starts working. But if you commit to doing the thing without expecting instant validation, you will find yourself growing in ways that are hard to measure but impossible to miss. You will find your pace. You will find your process.
WRITING IS THE STRATEGY. NOT JUST THE OUTPUT.
Writing every week gave me something I did not expect - clarity. In my business, I have always had a strong sense of purpose. But sometimes, it is hard to explain that purpose in a way that feels simple and true. Writing forced me to strip it all down. What are we doing? Why does it matter? How do we say that clearly?
That clarity spilled over into other areas. I started noticing patterns in what I talk about. Purpose. Equity. Identity. Creativity. Not just in fashion but in how we live and how we connect with others. Those themes show up in CISE because they show up in me. And now, I have the words to express that.
People think writing is just a nice add-on for business. But it is the work. If you cannot explain what you stand for, no one else will either. These posts helped me sharpen the way I talk about CISE. About community. About change. And I see that showing up in the way we design, hire, and lead.
EVERY POST IS A STEP. EVEN THE ONES THAT STUMBLED.
Not every week felt good. Sometimes I struggled to finish a sentence. Sometimes I rushed to hit publish just so I would not break the streak. But even the hardest weeks taught me something. They showed me that progress does not have to feel good to be real. You just have to keep going.
There were moments I wanted to quit. Days where I thought, no one reads this anyway. But then I would get a message that reminded me it mattered to someone. Or I would reread a post and see how much clearer I had gotten. That was the proof. Not in the metrics, but in the mirror.
This practice gave me evidence. Evidence that I can stick with something. Evidence that clarity comes with repetition. Evidence that slow and steady really does work. I do not need every post to be a hit. I just need to keep laying bricks. Because eventually, they become a foundation.
So cheers to 20! Cheers to many more!
Thoughts before you go:
Would you keep creating even if no one responded?
What is something you could commit to doing twenty times?
What would happen if you measured progress in clarity instead of metrics?
"Writing IS the strategy" - I love that! Your consistency is noticed and you're right - people are reading quietly and the like button isn't the only metric of success.