The Midstack Notes Experiment

Five days of real feedback, real support, and tracking what actually works

I keep hearing the same thing from Midstackers — in our meetups, in our spring cohort, in the surveys I sent to subscribers:

“I don’t understand Notes.” “My Notes just disappear into the void.” “It feels like another social media platform I’m supposed to master.” “I have no idea what’s working.”

I get it. Notes can feel like shouting into emptiness: one more algorithm to crack, one more performance to perfect.

But what if we tried something different?

What if, instead of following what so many of the marketing gurus and experts tell us, we just supported each other?

I’m launching a five-day Notes experiment, starting Thursday, and I’d love for you to join us.

Here’s what it is:

• Daily writing prompts designed for Notes (take them or leave them; they’re there if you get stuck)

• Five days of getting real feedback on your Notes drafts before you publish

• Sharing your published Notes with a small army of midlife women ready to engage

• Two (entirely optional!) informal meetups to connect and troubleshoot together on Friday, June 12th at 1 p.m. Eastern and Tuesday, June 16th at noon Eastern

• Tracking what actually works for our community, not what some growth hacker says should work

These five days aren’t about going viral. It’s about testing a theory that I’ve been playing with:

Can a small group of women genuinely supporting each other make a difference in how the Substack algorithm treats us? Can we figure out what works by actually paying attention instead of copying templates?

Can we make Notes feel less like social media performance and more like... our community?

I certainly don’t have all the answers. That’s the point. We’re going to try to figure this out together.

Who this is for:

• Midstack subscribers who feel lost or overwhelmed (sometimes or all the time) on Notes

• Writers tired of expert advice that doesn’t fit midlife women

• Anyone willing to experiment, give feedback, and actually show up for each other

Who this isn’t for:

• Writers looking for a magic formula

• Anyone not willing to engage with others’ Notes

We start this Thursday, June 11th in a private forum specifically built for these five days. The first day will be about introductions and getting started.

After you sign up, you’ll receive an email with next steps.

Interested?

➡️ Paid subscribers can sign up HERE.

(Please use the same email to sign up as the one you use for your Substack account.)

➡️ If you’re not a paid subscriber, and you don’t want to become one, you can sign up HERE.

P.S. Yes, this is only an experiment. I’m hoping we might discover that genuine community beats algorithm hacks every single time.