1098. Why I'm Betting on Substack for the Future of Thought Leadership and Books

The Kelly Roach Show

Kelly Roach

Business, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 965 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After a decade of watching platforms rise and fall, trends come and go, and algorithms work against creators, Kelly is breaking down Substack, the platform she didn't expect to love.

In this episode, Kelly shares why Substack has quickly become one of the most exciting platforms she's seen for thought leaders, authors, and entrepreneurs who want to monetize depth, not trends.

You'll hear the numbers that caught her attention, why smaller audiences are outperforming massive followings, and how Substack creates a rare combination of trust, reach, and ownership that most platforms no longer offer.

Kelly also explains how she's using Substack to:

Create momentum for her upcoming book, The Sacred Art of Selling
Build a passive income stream managed entirely by her team
Repurpose years of intellectual property without adding more work
Go deeper into thought leadership without diluting core programs

If you create long-form content, have years of IP sitting unused, or want a platform that rewards trust over aesthetics, this episode will open your eyes to a different way forward.

TIMESTAMPS:

01:11 – 03:15 — Substack stats that actually matter
03:16 – 05:10 — Why smaller audiences are outperforming massive followings
06:51 – 08:40 — Immediate monetization and passive income potential
08:41 – 10:20 — How Kelly is structuring her own free, paid, and founding memberships
10:21 – 12:05 — Using Substack to support a future book launch
12:06 – 13:45 — Repurposing years of unused IP without adding workload
13:46 – 15:40 — Who Substack is best for and how to get started

RESOURCES

Follow Kelly's newsletter, The Sacred Art of Selling, on Substack: https://kellyroachofficial.substack.com/.
Follow Kelly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellyroachofficial/
Follow Kelly on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelly.roach.520/
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyroachint/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Okay, as you guys know, it takes a lot to get my attention these days to actually say that something new is really, truly worth doing.
0:09.3	And I don't know how old substack is.
0:12.0	All I know is that we just got on substack and I've been quite literally shocked by the results.
0:18.3	And so I felt the need to come and talk to you all a little bit about
0:22.9	what I'm seeing, what I'm observing, and why I'm excited about Substack in the new year. So let's
0:29.3	break it down. First of all, some stats that you should know about Substack, who is really the
0:35.3	quiet player for thought leadership in the online world.
0:40.3	Top creators on SubSAC are making between $500,000 and $5 million on the platform.
0:47.3	It's a platform that rewards trust, not trends, which is why I love it.
0:53.7	And the reach and open rates are absolutely crushing what we're seeing on other platforms
0:59.6	like Instagram, Facebook, and the other ones that we all use every day in love, but have
1:05.6	their built-in challenges.
1:07.3	Facebook and Instagram were maybe lucky if we reach about 3% of people, whereas reach via
1:13.5	substack and open rates for subscribers tends to be 70% or more.
1:19.5	Typical creator funnels in the online space come in between a 1 and 3% conversion rate,
1:26.8	usually, whereas substack is seeing a 5 and 3% conversion rate, usually, whereas sub sac is seeing a 5 to 10% conversion
1:31.9	rate. And what's really, really cool about what's going on on substack, which I didn't believe it
1:36.6	until I saw it for myself, is that smaller numbers are driving incredible conversions.
1:43.4	And I'm going to talk more about that in just a second.
1:46.3	Subsack earners with only 2,000 readers can actually outperform someone with a hundred thousand downloads
1:56.0	a month on their podcast. So this is something to be seriously paying attention to, especially if you're
2:02.1	someone who tends to create a lot of content, IP, you have a lot of things that you've documented
	...

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