The Substack Strategy That Grew Her Podcast 999% with Chef Carla Contreras

Hey there, welcome to Happy Subscribers, a podcast that explores how bloggers and content creators can create more purposeful relationships with your audience through email marketing. I’m Allea Grummert, email marketing strategist, copywriter, email platform expert, and founder of the Done For You Email Marketing Agency, Duett. I started as a personal finance blogger in 2016 and have since helped hundreds of bloggers and creators like you maximize your email marketing for more impact, more traffic, and a better connection with your subscribers.

Be prepared for some advanced email talk as well as tactical tips to help get your valuable content into the hands of your audience faster and easier. I’m excited you’re here, so let’s do it. We can create a deeper, more meaningful connection with the community you love and serve through email.

Want get more strategic with your email marketing? Every month I host a few free 15-minute coaching calls for bloggers and content creators who want to make better use of their email list. Whether that means growing it more intentionally, making the most of the emails you’re already sending, or finally connecting the dots inside of your email platform. It’s a low-pressure, high-impact chat with me so that I can help you get clear on what you really want your list to be doing for your business.

We’ll also uncover maybe what’s getting in the way right now and identify one next step that you can take to feel more confident and in control of your email marketing. When you show up for this coaching call, you don’t need to prep. You don’t even need to know all the lingo. You just need to be ready to think about your email a little bit more intentionally. If that sounds like what you need, apply for your free call at duet.co/slash apply. We’ll talk one-on-one about your email strategy and your game plan to reach those traffic and revenue goals with email.

Again, that’s duet du e t t dot co slash apply. It’s a one question application, and I look forward to seeing yours land in my inbox. Guys, Chef Carla is a content strategist, food creative, and podcast host. She works with entrepreneurs and brands to bring their vision to life with content that captivates, connects, and converts. Work that doesn’t just look beautiful, but stirs up emotion and moves people into action. For the past 10 plus years, she has

partnered with iconic brands like Bobby Brown, Bumblebee Tuna, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and so many more to craft strategies and creative campaigns that don’t just align with their brand and values, but also bring in money. We like that. I met Chef Carla at Tastemaker earlier this year in Los Angeles. And today we’re gonna be talking about, of course, email marketing, but along the lines of Substack, Flowdesk, and how Chef Carla has integrated both into her content strategy.

Shop Carlin, thank for joining me.

Carla Contreras (02:55)
Thank you for having me, Allie. I’m so excited to connect with you and your community and to get into Substack and all of the ways that it supports my work.

Allea Grummert (03:06)
Yeah. Well, I’m excited too. So y’all, Carla and I have been chatting about Substack just like personally for myself. I’m like, what do I need to do? Like all these things. And I have yet to like rev up and actually do anything with it. But there’s so much there around how Substack can be used. I have been pretty clear about it and Carla, you can always disagree with me. That’s allowed here. I’m not gonna kick you off the podcast. But just that like Substack itself is not a good source of be it being your primary email marketing tool.

Would you agree with that?

Carla Contreras (03:38)
Hey, this would depend on the situation. Because I work with people in so many different industries, including food, including healers, including people that are tax experts. There are so many different aspects to this, but would I agree that we need, and I will say we need a secondary system and or a primary system like you teach on your podcast?

and work with your clients one thousand percent if it makes sense for their business. True.

Allea Grummert (04:14)
So but with content creators, I think a lot of people look at Substack and they’re like, So do I move all my blog content there?

Carla Contreras (04:21)
What do you and I don’t agree with that? Yeah. I don’t agree with that.

Allea Grummert (04:24)
You would say that’s not a good strategy? Don’t

Carla Contreras (04:26)
I would say that that now, actually, I talked to a client about this yes yesterday. I taught Build Your Substack in a Day. It is my workshop. I run through the entire Substack platform, which by the way, changes regularly. And that’s why Teaches Workshop Live regularly. They got a hundred million dollars in funding.

In July of 2025. And this is like a buckle your seatbelt platform. This is changing all the time. But I did have a food blogger come on and ask, do I need to move my recipes over? Now, a number of food bloggers, if you watch, like part of my work as a content strategist is to really look at like what are the trends? A lot of them will create a whole page on Substack and index their recipes.

Which happen to link out to guess what? Their website.

Allea Grummert (05:24)
Like a proper blog.

Carla Contreras (05:25)
There we go.

Allea Grummert (05:26)
Yeah. Okay. I like that. Do you like that strategy? Kind of indexing?

Carla Contreras (05:30)
I love it because it is bringing people, and this is part of my own personal strategy. It’s bringing people to your website. And it’s bringing people into example, if you had a funnel or X, Y, and Z, what whatever we’re gonna call it, Tripwire, you have people that are landing on your website, which you own. And yes, do you own your Substack?

I will say tentatively yes, because you can download that CSV file, meaning you can download the email subscribers. I recommend this once per month. Okay. Because you never know what’s gonna happen. I have had people in my ecosystem, in my universe, have their entire Substack deleted. There’s a glitch. A

Allea Grummert (06:18)
No.

Carla Contreras (06:19)
few yes, there’s a glitch. And I don’t know that it’s been fixed. So

Say, Allie, say you have your podcast and you’ve decided to move it over there, but then all of a sudden you’ve decided to delete that, it deletes your entire publication, which means it deletes your subscribers. And if you haven’t downloaded that CSV file, guess what? It’s gone. So what I recommend for my clients and for my students is to set an appointment with themselves one time per month and to download that CSV file.

Allea Grummert (06:51)
Yeah. For some good peace of mind. Yeah. That you have it there. So what just what is the role of Substack then?

Carla Contreras (06:59)
Role of Substack, okay, so I feel like we need to get into the definition of Substacks first. Like what is Substack? So I’ve been on Substack since 2021, which, if you looked at it in you know, 2020, 2021, actually all the way up until summer of 2025 before that funding, it would be considered a newsletter platform. And really that’s what its function was.

Now, did they introduce notes? I want to say around January of 2025. Now, all the dates like escape me, but that’s o it’s totally okay. So that is essentially the social media element of Substack. So yes, there’s a social component to this. And it functions similar to threads, similar to X or Twitter back in the day, where you’re sharing content and

This is actually this is a moving target in itself because notes used to be you could only post them essentially live. there was a person that that had like an outside scheduler that he built, but you couldn’t close down your computer. It was a whole thing. wow. Yeah, I know. And now they’ve developed notes where you can actually schedule them. But my clients and all the very curious people that attend my workshops.

Asked me really great questions. They’re like, Carla, yeah, I can schedule that, but I can’t see what I’ve scheduled. And I’m like, No. Right? This is a very good point. So this is why I say, and I like repeat this all the time to clients and students. I’m like, this is not a you not understanding the tech or you not being able to keep up with things. This is a moving target that literally is like a speeding train. So

The way that I would describe, and we’ll go back to the definition of Substack now as we’re recording this in May of 2026 is on LinkedIn it now says Substack Media App Audio Video. And so as the content strategist in me, and I haven’t labeled Substack Strategist for a reason. Like if you look me up on Instagram or Substack or LinkedIn,

I have Substack strategist. Why? Because that’s a key word. And people are finding me and my work through that. But really, my work is content strategy and looking at your entire, and Ali, we’ve worked together. I’m really looking at your entire ecosystem, your entire business. But what really brings people into my universe is like, I’m really interested in Substack and how that can support my work. So you asked me that question of like,

What is Substack? So we started with the definition. It used to be a newsletter platform. Now it is focusing on audio and video. They actually just released the Substack recording studio. I want to say that launched about two months ago as like a beta. They also launched Substack TV, which is on Apple. So we can see that this is definitely moving towards audio, video, towards more of like a content creation.

Space. Now, with all of these things together, what does this do for someone like you creating? So for me, it actually serves multiple purposes. So let’s look at this through the lens of my content ecosystem. I actually moved my podcast over to Substack, and this is very untraditional in terms of podcasting. I’ve been podcasting for eight years. My podcast is called Nourishing Creativity.

It is about the creative process. It has actually had multiple iterations over those eight years. But what I saw in December of 2024 was an insider tip. This person no longer works at Substack. Again, my work as a content strategist, I’m looking for the trends. I’m looking for the details. And someone posted Substack prioritizes audio 2.5% over written content. And I’m like,

Okay, I’m intrigued. And I’m like, I’m gonna bring, and at the time I feel like it was like 90 to 100 episodes. I’m like, all right, I’m going to leave Simplecast and I’m gonna bring all of them over here. Mind you, Allie, they’re all on my blog. So there is a backup. Okay. There is, there is a backup. There’s not, this is not like just like endless abandon here. I had a plan, I had a strategy because if something happened, guess what? I have all of those episodes. We’re good.

So I move this up, move all the episodes over. And in 2025, no, excuse me, 2024, I move it over in January. The numbers for and this is also something to to give you. The Substack numbers as of right now are not great at reporting. Okay. Okay. So, so with Spotify wrapped, this is the only reason I know this.

My podcast grew a hundred and forty nine percent. Yes.

Allea Grummert (12:22)
By hosting

Carla Contreras (12:23)
On substack.

Allea Grummert (12:24)
each individual episode has its own post on Substack.

Carla Contreras (12:27)
Yes. So I moved it over to Substack. And people are really curious about this because they’re like, wait a minute. Is it still going to Apple and Spotify and X, Y, and Z? I’m like, yes, but my host is Substack. Now, does this work if say someone is with an ad network or something else? Subnet. Absolutely not. So I’ve talked to Farnoosh Tawabi. She actually was my teacher. She has a top like 0.1% podcast. It’s called So Money. And I ran into her.

couple months ago. And she’s like, what are you doing? And then I told her my podcast, I’ll give you my 2025 numbers. I told her my podcast numbers and she’s like, but this is great for a niche podcast if you’re doing your own ads or maybe you’re reading small business ads, X, Y, and Z. In 2025, podcast like Hold On to Your Seat. Podcast grew 999%.

I know. Bananas.

Allea Grummert (13:24)
So there’s this sweet spot for the smaller creator.

Carla Contreras (13:27)
There is definitely, and if we take Farnousha’s words, it’s like this niche podcast about creativity where I interview entrepreneurs and creatives, and it’s going out weekly into people’s inboxes, but they’re also finding it through Apple, through Spotify, X, Y, and Z. On top of this, I also have a newsletter where I recap and for the last, I want to say six months, I’ve been really focused in on.

What is my Substack workshop? What are the, you know, this is you talk about this on the podcast a lot. And I invite people, if you haven’t listened, like head back. You talk a lot about systems. So I’ve been really like, what is my workshop system? What is the system that I’m working with one-on-one clients? X, Y, and Z. But now I’m bringing back, okay, what does my newsletter look like in 2026? Because that is not the same newsletter that was in 2024. Because

As we heard, Substack Audio, Visual Media App. And so I’ve actually even changed, and we can get into paid and free and X, Y, and Z. But as I build these with clients one-on-one, I’m realizing even my paid offers get to shift. And yesterday, as I was teaching this build your substack in a day, I was showing people behind the scenes and I was like,

I’m actually gonna shift this as I’m teaching this workshop so that you can see that my year five on Substack looks very, very, very different than that 21, 2021 version.

Allea Grummert (15:06)
Yes. And it’s so wild. I love that. And yeah, if it well, okay. I kind of think of Substack like Tumblr and Threads Had a Baby. I still have a Tumblr. It’s out there. If y’all wanna if you remember my college nickname, you go find it. But it’s still out there. But this idea of like kind of commentary or creative

work in the world in a way where other people get to see it and engage with it, which is not your typical newsletter. Like, you know, from within K or Flowdesk, you hit send, it lands in someone’s inbox, but you can’t see what other people are commenting on or in that kind of engagement. Whereas I think Substack is a great tool for that.

Carla Contreras (15:49)
Yes, and I will say this because some people will get really disappointed that I especially people that I work with one on one, of like, well, I don’t have hundreds of likes. They’re used to the amount of likes that are on example Instagram. And maybe they have a huge following. Now some creators, yes, but I can see a creator that has example three hundred and fifty thousand followers on Instagram get

50 likes and Substack notes. And I was like, my goodness, this is like a million likes. So when I’m talking to clients, I’m like, translate that like one Substack heart on your note into like a thousand likes on Instagram because it’s not, it’s like apples to oranges. This is a new platform. And things that go quote unquote viral on Substack.

Are not like anything else that you would see example go viral on LinkedIn or Instagram. Like it’s its own ecosystem. And this is also really important because I see these posts a lot of like, I’ve left social media. Guess what? Substack is its own social platform.

Allea Grummert (17:05)
It is.

Carla Contreras (17:06)
This is not leaving social.

Allea Grummert (17:09)
Right. But maybe it feels less performative than social. Is that perhaps why people are saying it?

Carla Contreras (17:15)
I feel like there’s a couple of things when it comes to Substack. Number one, and this is something that I’ve said, and I’ve said it actually at Tastemaker, because someone asked me, like, what is Substack to you? And I’m like, it’s the place that I get to tell my full story. I get to have the podcast there. I get to have recipes there. I get to have content strategy there. I get to have wellness apps.

Things that I use, example, like this movement practice that I love. It’s called the class. Like I can share any and all of me. And that I feel like is not the case. And maybe this is my own expression, but I feel like a lot of people that I work with, they feel like they have permission. And perhaps this is like the tumbler feel. Yeah. Like you have permission to create whatever you like there. And it might

be example a food blogger, they might be telling a different story than they are on social, which makes it endlessly creative for them.

Allea Grummert (18:22)
Right. Well, and I know you and I had talked about in my case, I’m looking at like developing a personal brand, which I’ve never really done. I mean, what you see has been organic growth. This is just me how I’ve shown up online, but getting really clear about how I show up online. And I really like the idea of Substack being like the like at Ally Grimert, not necessarily at duet, so that I can also bring in other things that are, you know, in my wheelhouse or things that I’m interested in.

Outside of just email marketing, but then I still have my kit list, which is email marketing. So people can choose to join one or the other. Can you share with me some examples of how food bloggers have done that? I think the idea of right, you have all of your content, your niche, everything that lives on a blog, and you send out emails related to that content. How do you I guess how do you formulate the purpose and use of Substack when that’s been your norm?

When that’s kind of also maybe your whole brand identity as well. I have I’ve got at least one example, but I’m curious to see how you’ve seen food bloggers expand their audience using Zubstack without just copying and pasting the same information that’s on their blog or in their emails.

Carla Contreras (19:35)
So there’s a number of people that I’ve seen, and I will say this, Substack, like any other platform, prioritizes new users. It is like a fact. I have seen it time and time and time again. And there are food bloggers that are coming on, and what I’m noticing and

They are using it with intention and getting straight into notes. And I will say this. I went to Substack headquarters in New York, I want to say in October of 2025. And they did this whole presentation around notes. And it’s important to know this ecosystem in order to know what it looks like in order to have subscribers. So with the notes, they’re looking to have that.

be essentially your front door. Okay. That people are finding you through notes. And what happens in notes is that people will follow you. So this is different than a subscribe. So there’s two yes. And this is yes. So this is this actually makes it complicated. Yep.

Allea Grummert (20:48)
Yeah, it does. You saw the look on my face.

Carla Contreras (20:51)
There’s there’s this this actually makes this infinitely complicated because

Substack has actually, and I taught this in the workshop, and I’m actually creating a brand new Substack 101 around this, the difference between a profile and a publication. Because what Substack is doing right now, and again, we we we heard Media App, they are focused in on the profile. So imagine this exactly like your Instagram profile. People are following you.

They have to actually take another step in order to subscribe to you. So what I’m talking about with notes being your front door is example, maybe your photo of Tilly, your cat, goes viral and you get a ton of new followers. That doesn’t mean that they’re subscribed to your publication. Okay. They have to take another step in order to subscribe to you. And

In fact, in the new dashboard that this is actually new within the last month. In the new dashboard, you have to actually click in custom for them to see for new people to see your publication versus your profile. Because if you don’t click that, your profile is the only thing that would show up and you would only have followers.

Allea Grummert (22:16)
So the followers, does that mean that they they would see your content on their feed? But because they’re not subscribed to your publication, they’re not getting emails and they’re gonna not gonna see your long form content. And then just to be clear, are notes the long form content? The publications?

Carla Contreras (22:32)
Notes

are notes are notes are this is like a whole masterclass, I feel like it is. Thank you. Okay. Notes are you’re welcome. Notes are essentially think of it just like threads. Okay. Think of it just like threads. Someone’s gonna follow you on threads and they’re gonna get these quick bits of information. They might get a video and sometimes Substack likes a video and sometimes it doesn’t.

I have ones that have done really well and I have ones that have done not so well. So there’s no I feel like there’s no rhyme or reason. And also photos, carousels especially do really well. Like if people like to scroll, those do really well. You can share other people’s content. That does really well.

And it also builds community. So this is like it’s kind of like an ecosystem of building. It’s essentially like restacking. And I feel like that restacking button on Instagram actually came from

Allea Grummert (23:35)
gotcha.

Carla Contreras (23:36)
Yeah, and it was Tum Tumblr back in the day, but

Allea Grummert (23:38)
First.

Carla Contreras (23:41)
interestingly enough, when I was I had a catering company in Brooklyn and I used to cater for Tumblr back in the day. I know, watch

Allea Grummert (23:50)
Yeah.

Carla Contreras (23:50)
Watch. Love it. Okay. So with this all, it makes it infinitely harder for them to actually subscribe to your newsletter.

They make it harder. They make it harder. So for me it’s and this is not their intention because directly from their words at Substack, they are making it a subscriber journey that they follow you first, then they subscribe, then they pay for your newsletter. Okay. So that’s their journey or the way that they’re describing it in their language. But for me as a user of this platform since twenty twenty one and working with clients actually since then.

Mm-hmm. Is that it’s made it infinitely harder. Okay.

Allea Grummert (24:39)
Interesting. So going back to the idea of like how does a content creator differentiate themselves from a website and traditional email list to how they show up on Substack. The example I’m thinking of, was I have a client who wanted she was gonna release a pizza cookbook. And I was like, Well, if you just took your pizza content and went onto Substack with that, and that’s where you got to geek out about pizza, even though it’s not the only content you have on your blog, that’s an option to dip because then it has different

a different purpose and a different way to like quote unquote sell it to your you know, your her kit email list. Come follow over here if you want to engage with this content. Or I believe well plated has a sub stack in addition to their email list as well. But I’m curious what examples you have.

Carla Contreras (25:27)
feel like what makes this really interesting is when people take their content and they create something like pizza or they create something example one of my clients her sub stack is Delicious Tangents. It really is around a certain subject and also and this brings it back to Tumblr or brings it back to IG circle like I don’t know twenty ten where people would pick really cute handles.

That were descriptive of what they were doing. So some of my sub stacks that do the best of like clients that I’ve worked with have that sort of nod like nourishing creativity. You kind of get an idea of what’s gonna be inside. Delicious tangents. I could get an idea of what that it might be very playful.

Allea Grummert (26:19)
Yes. I love the word tangents. That’s that’s actually like the story of my life. So

Carla Contreras (26:24)
It’s it I feel like yeah, it yeah, definitely and we could go on tangents forever, right? But this is the thing with Substep creating a world around a certain niche does really well. And differentiating it from example, the recipes that you send on a weekly basis, and also what I’m noticing lately is l is a lot of founders.

Who are separating out the content from, say, I don’t know, the Brightland is a great example. really, and I we could put some of these examples in the show notes perhaps, but really differentiating the content that you’re creating on a day-to-day basis. And it’s almost like if we were to separate this into like the pizza book, like it’s really around this niche thing that is

infinitely interesting and I want to subscribe to.

Allea Grummert (27:27)
Mm-hmm. Infinitely interesting. That’s a high bar. Slash, would people, I mean, I would hear that and think, well, first of all, I know my audience, I know my clients who are already like overwhelmed with how much they have to do. And then to think that it needs to be infinitely interesting, is that a reason for people to say, hmm, never mind, I’m gonna put this off for another couple years? Like, how do we how do we do both? Like, how do we work our way into Substack?

in a way that we can like test it and get some of the benefits from it without feeling like it has to become a whole new arm of your business.

Carla Contreras (28:03)
Well, I will say this. I get emails consistently. Carla, I should have listened to you three years ago and started a Substack. Okay. So I will like let’s just put that like as a pen. Yep. Because I consistently get this like, or you’re a genius. Why didn’t I listen to you? X, and Z. And I can like pat myself in the back because that is also my job to really notice the trends. Like this is my job.

At the same time, and I teach this in the profile, like Substack 101, and I’ve taught this for Tastemaker. The only thing that you need to get started on Substack is a profile.

Allea Grummert (28:47)
Hmm. You can go profile and then straight into notes.

Carla Contreras (28:51)
Profile straight into notes. And that those notes, it does not love links like any other platform. Does not, does not love links. Even links within the Substack ecosystem does not love it.

Allea Grummert (29:05)
Suppressed.

Carla Contreras (29:06)
Yes. It does not, it really, it really does not perform well. So at minimum, Substack profile, amazing. Like, and give me, and this is controversial, and some of my clients.

Really don’t like it. Give me one link in your profile. Give me that one link. I want to go one place. Give me that one place. And if that happens to be example Allie for you, maybe it’s the podcast. Yeah. But give me one place. Don’t give me like 35 links and a link tree, because guess what? I’m going to look at it and I’m going to leave.

Allea Grummert (29:43)
Yeah.

Carla Contreras (29:44)
It’s totally overwhelming. So at minimum, profile. If they want to get a little bit more, okay, could we develop? And I do this with clients. Could we develop something thoughtfully and intentionally? And perhaps it’s a sequence. Like we’ve talked about this. Yeah. Like perhaps it’s around example. I have a client right now that I’m going to develop a private podcast around. So it’s like,

intentional, it’s six episodes, and it leads directly to her work. So that could also be it. It’s like set it, forget it, crock pot type thing. All right, we’re done. And then there’s different levels of like, you know what? I’ve always been interested example, and I teeter on this because I want to have more than one publication. But as a strategist, I know I put my eggs in this basket.

And it’s around the creative process. So I’m going to stay in this lane and develop this community. Now, could I have like 15 other sub stacks? Yes. Could I have one on, I don’t know, drinking cacao, because I love drinking cacao. Could I have one on X, Y, and Z? Of course. But creating something around something that you’re interested in. And then I have clients that are like, you know what?

I have this app or I have example a book launch coming out and I want to direct it around. And you said this with your client, and it makes perfect sense of like how can that content be separated out? And also, could you give me? I saw this with a recipe developer. She gave us all of the behind the scenes of how she actually, because this content doesn’t actually

fit into her flow desk or her kit or whatever platform that she’s on. But what it does fit in is to substack of like, okay, this is how I developed the recipes. This is, I got divorced during this, wrote about that. I had to negotiate and renegotiate the cover because I didn’t like the cover. X, Y, and Z. This content sometimes doesn’t fit into, I don’t know, the 40 top Mexican recipes there are.

Yes. But this is where I’m like infinitely curious and infinitely interesting, is that for me, I am very interested in the content of like, okay, so you turned down the publisher’s cover and you told them absolutely not. This was not in line with my branding. And this is actually like almost, you know, it’s very controversial because they want to have X, Y, and Z cover, but in the end

They aligned with your brand, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like I want to know all that. Yeah.

Allea Grummert (32:40)
Yeah, the behind the scenes

content. Yeah. And I think they just the the format of Substack itself lends itself more to those conversations.

Carla Contreras (32:50)
It lends itself to and this is again like I will bring it back, the full story. Like you are able to tell the full story. And I want to, and I say this during my workshops and to clients all the time. I’m like, you can underline, circle, highlight this. You get to tell it in the way that you want to. And whether that’s through long form content, whether that’s

You writing that long form content and actually recording an audio of you reading it. Mm-hmm. It could be a video of you. I have a client yesterday that’s that told me this is her idea that she’s going to video record this and put this onto YouTube. Like that’s what she wants to do with her newsletter. You can have photo essays, like you can do recipe. There is a recipe feature in there. Yes. But many people do not use it. Yeah.

Allea Grummert (33:42)
Carl and I talked about this pre show. Just link to your recipe on your blog.

Carla Contreras (33:45)
Yeah, I I agree with you one thousand percent. Like link to the recipe on your blog and also, and I’ve noticed this with multiple food bloggers, recipe developers, etc., is that people love a PDF. And Allie, you’ve talked about this. Like, is there is there something on your blog that is giving them example, a sequence of X, Y, and Z? Like there are there is an infinite ways that you can get people

into example your kit or your flow desk or wherever into that ecosystem too. Yeah.

Allea Grummert (34:21)
So much. Well, we didn’t actually get to dive much into Flowdesk, but y’all, I I know I talk about kit a lot, but I don’t wanna hate Flowdesk either. And so I have Carly here who uses Flowdesk and I would love for you to share what it is you love about the tool and why you prefer that tool.

Carla Contreras (34:38)
I love Flowdesk. There’s a couple of reasons. Number one, it’s woman owned. So I love that. I love that and I’ve been with Flowdesk since the beginning. That’s awesome. So thank you. It is a beautiful tool that also and I’ve been involved in this because they actually listen. They will have forums, etc. And I advocate it. I’m like, we need Klarna. We need Afterpay. We need

We need actual carts. We need X, Y, and Z. And I will chime in there and like they will prioritize because they see people wanting these different things. And I have definitely been involved in the process of being the first to advocate for X, Y, and Z. And

Allea Grummert (35:26)
Yeah.

Carla Contreras (35:27)
they listen. They listen. So that’s awesome too. And for me, and I don’t know if this is like close to number one, it’s the design. Mm-hmm.

Allea Grummert (35:38)
Yeah. So if you’re listening to this and you don’t know, Flowdesk was created by two designers, co-designers, right? And so like design has always been like their number one thing. And so they have these beautiful templates that if you just go select one, you just go replace the copy, replace the images, and you have a really beautiful email. And I know that people who do like photography or graphic design and whatnot like absolutely love how it showcases their work.

Carla Contreras (36:07)
And on top of this, and I will say this, unlike Substack, Flowdesk is so easy to use. It is so easy to use. And the integrations, like they just did an integration with Canva. I wanna say this is less than two weeks old.

Allea Grummert (36:26)
I love that. Fresh news.

Carla Contreras (36:28)
fresh news and again design heavy with this integration with Canva. Mm-hmm. So if people are into like, you know what, I really want my work, like maybe they’re a stylist or a n fellow recipe developer or they have some sort of photography or video heavy content that they’re like, you know what, this needs to be beautiful and also and I don’t know if this is the community, like

I have a freebie or I have a product that I want people to purchase. Like there are beautiful checkouts that go along with this too. Yeah. So it’s not just the email, it’s the entire experience for the client, the consumer, the purchaser, in order to be part of that like heavy design. Yeah.

Allea Grummert (37:21)
Yeah. And I’ve always said, you know, when when people come and ask me about which platform they should use, I always want to ask more questions because it’s not just like a one size fits all. Like if you have found your email marketing tool to be too complex or yeah, just like it’s harder to send out emails. Like I would rather make it easier for you to get your content out to your audience three days a week than you feel like you are, you know, white knuckling it through a tool that you don’t understand.

Of course there’s always like a learning curve with each one, but from what you’ve said and what I’ve heard and what I’ve experienced using Fodesk myself with clients, it is a really nice and easy platform to use.

Carla Contreras (37:59)
They also have Flow Desk University.

Allea Grummert (38:00)
Yeah, kit has that too. I don’t know about Mailer Light or other ones, but yeah, as much as you can like get trained up a little bit. And then if it still feels like there’s too much friction with whatever platform you’re on, you’re always welcome to try a different one. You don’t have to move everybody over right away. Just like create a flow desk account. Get in there, see what it’s like. and consider that some kind of training and development just so you just so you know that you are good with where you’re at. And these tools do change over time. So if you tried it years ago, maybe you want to dabble in it now.

He must change.

Carla Contreras (38:33)
I mean they’re constantly evolving. I mean, I would say that Substack is at this breakneck speed.

Allea Grummert (38:42)
Yeah. So if you were to take on Substack right now, maybe don’t worry about also changing your email platform. But Carla and I would both say, you know, be emailing your list, get your content out to them and use Substack, perhaps fill in the blank, use Substack as a tool to help you

Carla Contreras (39:01)
If I was to fill in that blank, I would say build your community through your profile as a testing ground.

Like this does not have to be, and especially as we’re overwhelmed doing a million different things. If considering building example, a publication on Substack is not it, then a profile is completely appropriate. Yes. And remember there’s different levels to building a publication. You could totally

Build a limited series and let it live there.

Allea Grummert (39:46)
I love that idea. That’s a great one. Thank you for that. The final tidbit. as we wrap up, where can people learn about your workshops, how to contact you? I know you do one on one work as well. What’s the best place for people to find information and contact you?

Carla Contreras (40:05)
I have Carla Contreras.com slash gift. Ooh. And you can get the one on one workshop, Substack One One. You can get all my social media links, X, Y, and Z. Like there is a treasure trove of literal gifts in there.

Allea Grummert (40:24)
We will include the link to that in the show notes. Thank you so much for your generosity and sharing that workshop with us.

Carla Contreras (40:29)
Thank you for having me. This has been I feel like there’s like a part two, three, four of Substack and where it’s gonna go. But thank you. And I invite anyone that has gained anything from this, send me a DM. Instagram, LinkedIn, et cetera. I’d love to chat.

Allea Grummert (40:46)
Yeah, go chat with Chef Garla. Thank you so much for your time today.

Carla Contreras (40:49)
Thank you.

Allea Grummert (40:55)
So much for listening to Happy Subscribers in our conversation about email marketing today. I hope you feel inspired to take action, even if it’s a small change, so you can more confidently share your valuable message with your community through email. Special thanks goes to my team who makes it possible to produce and share these episodes with you. Seriously, thank you guys. If you want to hear more email marketing tips, strategies, and success stories to help you develop deeper, more meaningful relationships with your email subscribers, be sure to subscribe to Happy Subscribers so you don’t.

Miss an episode. If you have a few seconds, I invite you to share this episode link with a friend or post it on social media so your peers and community can benefit from it as well. And if you have a few minutes, I’d appreciate if you’d leave a written review of the podcast, since that helps more people hear about it. And I believe we need more creators sending more valuable emails to their audience with more confidence. If you want to reach out to me directly, the best way to do that is to join my email list through one of my top freebies listed in the show notes. You’ll get regular emails from me that are packed with value. And if you hit report

To any of those emails, it’ll land in my inbox, and I can’t wait to chat with you there. Until next time, let’s duett