Episode 98: Building Your Digital Home on Substack with Jenna Knapp of Have Cake Creative
Podcast
Episode 98: Building Your Digital Home on Substack with Jenna Knapp of Have Cake Creative
“It can be really hard to sit down and do the foundational work, but it can be easier when you have a community to do it with.” — Jenna Knapp
In this week’s episode, we’re shaking things up a bit! I’m pulling back the curtain and sharing the behind the scenes of my upcoming Substack workshops. I’m joined by Dear Self with Love founder, Jenna Knapp. She is also my workshop co-teacher, virtual assistant, and the founder of Have Cake Creative.
Jenna is a creative assistant who supports me in pressing publish on the Nourishing Creativity Podcast and Sunday newsletter, each week. Being supported by Jenna has made me realize how important it is to have community around getting your work out into the world. This is exactly why both our workshops include virtual coworking after each session!
In this episode, Jenna and I share what we love about Substack, our personal experiences with the platform, and the inner-workings of the workshops we are offering to support others who are ready to press publish and are seeking community and support in getting it done.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform while you cook, clean, or create.
What’s in This Episode:
Jenna Knapp and I reflect on being introduced to Substack (years ago!) and what makes this platform different from other social media and newsletter platforms. We both have unique ways of sharing their creative projects through Substack and highlight the flexibility people have to express themselves in this space.
Jenna and I emphasize the importance of mindset and confidence in the creative process, and how the workshops aim to cultivate a supportive community while also empowering participants with clear action steps and accountability to launch your creative project on Substack.
Jenna and I share behind the scenes details of their upcoming Substack workshops:
1. Getting Started With Substack & Building Your Community 101 11/21
2. Building Your Substack In A Day 12/7
Topics Covered:
Getting started on Substack, even without a newsletter
Fostering genuine connection on Substack (it’s a special corner of the internet)
Celebrating community and receiving support throughout the creative process
Honoring your nervous energy (hello, fear of being seen) and nurturing your mindset as you prepare to launch a creative project
Moving through doubt and taking action, even if it’s messy action
The unlimited ways the Sustack platform can be used
What creative projects are you working on? What wants to be born through you? Tag us on IG @chefcarlacontreras & @havecakecreative so we can cheer you on!
Eat Well,
xo Chef Carla
PS: Are you craving community this season? Dreaming of starting your own Substack? Join us on November 21st for Getting Started & Build Your Community On Substack 101 or on December 7th for Build Your Substack In A Day!
Disclaimer: Always seek the counsel of a qualified medical practitioner or other healthcare provider for an individual consultation before making any significant changes to your health, lifestyle, or to answer questions about specific medical conditions. This podcast is for entertainment and information purposes only.
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About Jenna Knapp
Jenna Knapp is a multi-disciplinary artist, mindset coach, and creative virtual assistant based in Milwaukee, WI. She earned her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 2014 and is a recipient of the Mary L. Nohl Fellowship for emerging artists.
Jenna’s passion for mental health led her to become certified in life coaching, neuro-linguistic programming, and hypnosis. Jenna combines her creative life force and coaching background in her virtual assistant business, Have Cake Creative. With over 900 hours of coaching experience, she helps her clients feel confident enough to publish the projects they’ve been keeping private.
Jenna writes weekly self-love newsletters on Substack as part of her project, Dear Self With Love. This project invites participants to write letters to their future selves, which she later mails back to them — creating a powerful connection between the past and the future. She has facilitated in-person and virtual workshops for hundreds of people and created the Dear Self With Love planners to support bite-sized daily self-love practices that even the busiest people can dive into.
As an artist-in-residence at Lynden Sculpture Garden, Jenna cares for a labyrinth she designed in 2019 in the Wisconsin native prairie, which is now featured on Google Maps and The Worldwide Labyrinth Locator.
Find + Work With Jenna:
Full Transcript:
Carla (00:01):
Welcome to Nourishing Creativity. The cycle of the last few years has left you and me feeling mentally, physically, emotionally, and creatively drained, nourish your very full life through interviews with creatives and entrepreneurs about how they create and move through their creative blocks. If you don't know me, I'm Chef Carla Contreras, a food stylist and content strategist. You can find me, chef Carla Contreras, across all social media platforms and more information in today's show notes. Jenna, I am so grateful to have you here. Can you share with us who you are and how you serve your community?
Jenna (00:48):
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Carla. I'm so happy to be here. My name is Jenna Knapp and I am an artist space holder and creative virtual assistant living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I host and facilitate in-person workshops in the Milwaukee area, but I work with the virtual worldwide community online by supporting clients nationally and internationally hosting virtual workshops. I have a newsletter that goes out and I also make physical products and sell them that get put in the mail and sent so they can live in people's hands all over the world.
Carla (01:30):
Jenna, this is a special episode because we are going to talk about the behind the scenes of our Substack workshop, why we created it, why we're fans of substack, and how we work together. First of all, I'm going to give a definition of Substack and I would love to invite you to share yours once I finish with that. Yeah, absolutely. I got introduced to it in 2021. My friend Sarah Copeland started Edible Living on Substack, and I was like, oh my gosh, what is this? And instantly the content strategist in me was like, add this link, do this, do that. And she's like, amazing. Thank you so much for your support friend. And she actually has been on this podcast and I definitely will have her on again. And from there I started to support clients in building their substack. What was interesting is that I had a space holder for my own, but I did not commit to nourishing creativity until 2023. Took me a while to view land into what is Substack. That definition has actually expanded from a newsletter to a social platform that happens to have a newsletter, which also houses my podcast. Jana, I'd love to ask you about your Substack journey and how do you define it? How do you look at it?
Jenna (03:14):
I love it so much. I don't think I had ever actually heard your origin story of how you first found it. I love how far back it goes for you. My first experience with Substack, I've been following Cody Cook Parrot for Monday, Monday for years, but it wasn't obvious to me that it was hosted on Substack. I was just used to getting that email Monday, Monday in my inbox every week. Having that consistency to look forward to from a fellow artist and creator, I really enjoyed. When I looked deeper and saw that it was hosted on Substack, I just fell in love with the idea of, oh, this is an email newsletter sort of platform, but it holds it like a blog on the website. So I felt like this inner child sort of essence come back around. Thinking of when I had my first blog thinking of Tumblr, it was like me being able to combine my artist mind with how I wanted to share ideas, share photos, share audio, share my voice in one platform while also being able to experiment with thinking of how am I reaching the people that I'm serving and working with and telling them about what I'm doing and inviting them in without it feeling like sales email, because I was entering into a phase of experimenting with that.
(04:40)
It's felt so good, but it's really evolved over time. So I kind of began thinking about it as more of a newsletter and that blog home. Then I experimented with bringing my podcast over. I since have gotten really, really invested in writing, and now I'm more committed to a regular weekly newsletter, but I host these end of the month audio workshops where with my voice walk people through end of the month reviews that come from my dear self with love planners. And honestly, I'm still experimenting because Substack feels like a hub for creatives, feels like a kinder community. When you think of social media, I love the energy of Substack. There's just something unique about it compared to other platforms that if I'm going and I'm on my substack app and I'm scrolling, I'm not doom scrolling. I feel like I'm soaking up goodness and magic and poetry and delicious images and it fills me up rather than drains me.
Carla (05:47):
That's beautiful. I want to share the behind the scenes of why we created our workshops. So we have two workshops. We Substack 1 0 1, which is the introduction to substack, and then we have a larger workshop, which is actually to build your substack and podcast in a day. So let's talk about the 1 0 1 workshop first and behind the scenes, we've been creating this for months, and I also want to be transparent that you support me as a VA in order to get my substack out mostly two times a week with my newsletter and podcast. And when we started to think about this, we're like, how can we help other people get theirs up and out? But step one is actually creating the profile. The profile is really kind of think about it like Instagram or Facebook. You're setting up a picture of yourself, you have a bio and you're able to share a link. And once you do that and mind you literally don't even have to have that in order to engage in Substack. But when you do that, people know who you are and you can go into notes and you can comment notes is very similar to threads or what Twitter used to be. At least that's my interpretation of the vibe there. And you can also comment like and subscribe to newsletters. Jenna, do you want to tell me about your thoughts on the profile and the bio?
Jenna (07:40):
Yeah, absolutely. So what you just mentioned about being able to have the foundation without full on committing to a newsletter or podcast is one of the benefits of being on this platform where you can really come and you can view it as being a consumer of content. But like I said earlier, how it feels really good to be on substack, maybe you can think about it as being a celebrator of content. Instead, we used to get magazines in the mail. Now you can have newsletters all in one place. That is content that really inspires you. And even if you're not ready to share your writing or your voice with the world, you can have this space that you celebrate and archive and collect content that means something to you and engage with it and build community because that's one other thing that I don't think we've mentioned yet is that the creators on Substack are engaged and it's really not far of a distance to reach out and connect and leave a comment or restack a note, restack a newsletter and share it, spread it and find some virtual friends. I don't know about you Carla, but I've made some virtual friends on Substack and it's again, that different than if I've connected with someone on Instagram or Facebook and it just feels like everyone's pitching me on Substack. It feels like you're creating community.
Carla (09:04):
I feel that too. And I also feel like when I'm commenting, and I do this on Instagram and I do this on other platforms for people that are part of my communities there, I really spend time and think about it. But with Substack, it feels like there's almost another layer because the content is much richer because it's a long form content for the most part.
Jenna (09:32):
Yes, that's a really good word for it. Richer. I love that.
Carla (09:36):
Let's talk about in the 1 0 1 workshop, what we're going to do is we're going to build the actual profile. We're going to show them how to do that, and we're also going to show around Substack what is notes? How do you like a newsletter? How do you sign up for a newsletter? How do you be a participant? I think that as I'm voicing it out, is the clearest way to describe our workshop for one-on-one, how to be a participant of Substack. And that is on November 21st at 12:00 PM Eastern and we meet for an hour and we also have one hour of coworking post workshop. And if you are listening to this podcast and you miss that, no worries. We have a recording and Jenna and I have decided already, we have not thought of the date yet, but we're going to do this again. So if you're listening and you're like, oh no, I have missed this.
(10:41)
But I also want to mention that we have a workshop coming up on December 7th that is from 12 to 3:00 PM plus an extra hour of coworking. And that is going to be how to Build Your substack newsletter and podcast in a day. So this is a full on dedicated workshop to show you a live example. This isn't a course, this is a live example of how someone is going to set up their substack in our community, and Jenna and I are going to support them and moving through all of the steps. And Jenna, let's talk about it because there are a ton of steps to set up a substack. Can we talk about that?
Jenna (11:33):
Yeah, absolutely. As someone who sort of just jumped in the deep end, I remember not going through the steps chronologically and just sort of piecing it together and slapping it together as I went, which is a fine way to do things. I think messy action is powerful, but this workshop, the deep dive is what I feel it really is, is a really beautiful way for people who want to set up the foundation, build on top of it, get all the pieces in order, and really feel, support and feel the foundation before launching their newsletter on that space or moving their podcast over so that you can feel really solid. Because once you do make the migration of bringing your email list over, for example, if you have this new digital home, that's how I kind of think of it. That is there with a welcome sign on the door.
(12:33)
That's what I feel like we're kind of doing. We're helping people set up their visual assets. We're helping people figure out what kind of vibe they want, the energy of their personal substack to have, and walking through all the technical details of the behind the scenes with two people, you and I who have been on the platform for years now and have also witnessed a lot of the evolutions of it, but we admit we're still learning too. And that's what I like about us is that we come in with a curiosity and an excitement for all the new features. It's really playful in a sense that we can come together and celebrate each other's growth on this new platform. You are literally going to walk us through part of the bio because we're going to redo my bio but needs some extra love. And I'm vulnerable. I'm open, I'm honest. I know it can be stronger, and I'm so honored to have your wisdom and expertise to be One of the examples,
Carla (13:36):
And I want to highlight this because I even hear it in your voice, is that you have a coaching background. This is really at the heart of your work as well, and mine too. I went through mental wells with you. Can you share about that mindset and the way that we are approaching this workshop?
Jenna (14:00):
I think one theme that keeps surfacing while we prepare for this workshop is realizing that people are nervous to move forward with their big ideas. People find ways to talk themselves out of it. And I am a big believer with my coaching background and now my virtual assistance business that people with big ideas and a fire inside of them and that spark for a creative project they really want to bring to life deserves to be born through you, right? It's hanging out on lingering for a reason. And so there's a really big confidence piece in it of being able to show up in the name of your old podcast or your previous podcast, show up fully. There is a big mindset piece to allowing yourself to show up to having the confidence to show up, to having the ability to be like my ideas, my creations do deserve a space in this world.
(15:03)
And being surrounded by people who believe that is a really awesome energy that creates a momentum that I think we're really trying to cultivate in this workshop. But another thing that I want to share, bringing the coaching background and combining it with the virtual assistant work that I've been doing and helping you out. Even Carla, it's like I used to love holding space so much for people who were moving through ideas and where mindset is a big piece of it. To be able to step into that confidence or thinking about stepping into the future you or your higher self or whatever language resonates with you. Another element that is just the truth is just sitting down and doing the steps and just doing the actual tasks. So combining those things together is where the magic happens. And it can be really hard to just sit down and do the foundational work, but it's a little bit easier when you have community to do it with.
Carla (16:03):
And when you're saying that, I'm like, this is why we have coworking after each workshop, we have that set up for a reason. We have that structure. And we mentioned this because I text with Jenna as part of working with her and I'm like, we're doing the darn thing.
Jenna (16:22):
Yes.
Carla (16:23):
And how can we help support others in doing the thing? And I also want to mention that this platform, Substack is not just for coaches or artists or writers or podcasters. This is a platform. And Jenna, I feel like you can speak to this, is that you can make it your own. You can make it your art.
Jenna (16:52):
To give a little bit of context, let me share a little bit about how I really even arrived at the newsletter as a part of my art. The dear self with love planners that I've been creating, designing, hand binding, selling, and sending out for the past two years. I'm going into the third year of production now. But the newsletter really became an idea for how to promote and encourage other planner users to use their planner, which sounds so silly, but I am an autistic A DHD individual, and I have a really hard time without a sight out of mind. And in the first year of me having my own planner and using my own planner, my neurodiverse mind, it would just be closed for three months and I wouldn't even use the tool that I made. So having the newsletter honestly became one form of self-accountability to sit down.
(17:51)
And what I do is I write about the intention of the week that I write in the planner each week and then invite other people to reflect and think about their own intention and how they use the planner and whether they have the planner or not. These are all questions that are sort of serving a self check-in of sorts, a self-love, little drop in each week. But yeah, I also created it because I wanted to experiment with, if I write about using my planner every day or every week for a year, really curious will that encourage more planners to be sold in 2025? And now I'm going into that season where I really get to see like, okay, did writing about this product, right? There's people on Substack that are using that platform to promote products that are handmade things by them. Would that increase sales? And that's more of the logistical business side of it. So it's like I got to use my heart, brain and my business brain, but the flexibility of it all and the ability to experiment has really allowed the creativity to come out in many different ways.
Carla (19:02):
I want to underline something that you said. You said the extra accountability, and I want to make sure that people also know that the workshop on 12 seven also includes a q and a. That's on Saturday, December 14th from 12 to 1:00 PM Eastern. And the reason that we're doing this is exactly what Jenna just said. When we have extra accountability, and I'm going to say we, because I am in this creative process with you, Jenna, and I know that our community is in that process as well. I want to make sure that they have the space, the people that come to this workshop in order to really be held through the experience of creating their substack, creating their podcast, of creating their audio, of creating whatever way that they want to share their content through.
Jenna (20:05):
Yes. So not only to have the foundation with the 1 0 1 workshop of if you want to be a participant on the platform and start engaging and building community in that way, but if you want to go deeper and take the deep dive and really build the foundation for your own newsletter, podcast videos, however it is you want to share, but being able to translate that live example into action steps that you can really put into place right away so that you, right, I'm thinking of the timeline of 2025, so that you can go into the new year with confidence to begin and to really launch that new space. Maybe that new space really does more for you than you can even imagine. Maybe you want to get off of other social media. Maybe this is your exit strategy. Your exit plan.
Carla (21:01):
I love that idea. There's so many possibilities when it comes to content creation, when it comes to whether you are making substack part of that plan, part of an exit plan, and these are the questions that we invite to the workshop as well as a content strategist and you as a VA that supports others in creating their substack, their podcasts, their courses, we are able to bring so much experience as well as both being coaches to people, and we hope to see you in the substack workshops.
Jenna (21:45):
Yes, please. It will be such a good time. The best part is that we get to hang out for the workshop, but then once you're on Substack, Carla and I are both very engaged and we're like, we're in your comments. We are cheering you on. We're restacking your notes. It really does feel like an expansion of community and I'm so excited to hold the space for you if it feels aligned.
Carla (22:09):
Thanks so much for tuning in to Nourishing Creativity. You can find me Chef Carla Contreras across all social media platforms and more information in today's show notes. While you have your phone out, please leave a review on iTunes or Spotify. This is how others find this show. I really appreciate your support sending you and yours so much love.