The Hype - January edition 📣
The Hype - January edition 📣
My free monthly newsletter of self-promotion tips and creative inspiration.
Hiya 🌊! I’m Lucy from Hype Yourself. The Hype - is my monthly free round-up born in 2019. I chat about self-promotion and creative living. If you are new to this page, pop your email below to ensure you receive my posts.
Hiya! How are we all doing?
What a month. Is it just me? She was a long one, right?
I’ve got my 2024 wallchart up; I’ve plotted in the school holidays, and when Hadrien (the co-founder of my children) is travelling for work. I’ve mapped out for work what I need to do, want to do and have been doing.
Keeping it simple: The Hype (this email) goes out monthly to everybody.
The paid community hear from me every Sunday, and for the next three months, I’m trying micro-workshops, 15 minutes of workshopping under instructions, followed by practice / Q&A.
The offering may evolve, but the frequency and my commitment to you all will not.
Lucy
🙏🏼 Big thank you to former PR colleague Lottie O’Connor for including my comments in The Telegraph
👩🏻🎤 And Victoria Dove for not just grabbing me a copy but sending me a b-roll of joy for my socials. If you need help with social media with a PR / marketing background, check her out.
“For many business owners, staying small is an active choice. Lucy Werner, writer and founder of education platform Hype Yourself, has scaled back her business in recent years for a more balanced lifestyle. “I’ve never been smaller, having recently shut down the client side of my business to focus on writing and workshops”, she explains. Lucy believes that small businesses are at the forefront of a new movement, one in which success isn’t just measured by profit and loss. “If big business was driven by happiness as much as profits, what a world that could be.”
❤️ Stats update for the bunch of you who were interested:
- I turned on paid October 22nd
- I now have 221 paid and approaching the 6,000 total subscriber mark
- I imported a cleaned list of just under 5,000, and via this network, I’ve been growing about 400 a month
🏆 I set myself a challenge in 2024 to hit 1,000 paid subscribers sustainably. This last month has been the slowest, and I’m ok with that. I’m not going to risk my health for growth. Slow is the word for this year.
BEST OF THE FREE TO READ
💵
author of More Sales Please guest wrote How to increase sales and stability in 202452 PR Tips Challenge preview
Based on my prompt cards, the 52 PR Tips, I send out an email every fortnight with expertise and templates to help you Hype Yourself.
Usually, this is for paid subscribers, but the last two are free to give you a little taste.
If you wish to continue to read challenge posts in full AND join me for a one-hour session during the last week of the month coming up we have:
💻 January’s workshop: “Let’s get pitching” will be about how to put a pitch email together (tomorrow!)
🖼 February’s workshop: “Picture Perfect” will cover headshots, picture stories and video news ideas
🎤 March’s workshop: “Mic Me Up” will look at securing our first paid speaking gigs (with a guest speaker whose speaking booking intel is priceless!)
‘"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different." -- Coco Chanel
*Here are some very cool things my paid Substackers are up to. If you want your hype featured, consider joining our friendly crew.*
HERO POST HIGHLIGHT
👋🏼 Self-promotion comes in all shapes, sizes and Substacks.
This hero post from
It's the best I’ve seen. Big love to everyone in my community who restacked or welcomed her. She became Number 1 in Health & Wellness on her first day, grew from 12 subscribers to over 100, and is a great example of setting your stool out. Bonus points for her graphic design background weaving through (HELLO! gorgeous coral page dividers! I’m looking at you!)Want more ideas on how to write your own hero post?
has you covered in this post?GUEST INTERVIEWS NEEDED SPOTLIGHT
🕵🏼♂️ If you know me, you know I love a drag Queen (or King). So imagine my squeal of delight when the creator of my favourite “Dragatha Christie” murder mystery, ‘Death Drop’ Holly Stars, joined my paid membership.
Holly has her first book a drag detective novel coming out early 2025 which you can pre-order here. She is looking for podcasts and interviews to grow her audience this year. Pop her a friendly DM on Insta and tell her I sent you her way. (Also, she is perfect for anyone who covers expats as she resides in France like me!)
RESOURCES AND HELPFUL THINGS
💵 Need more of
📚 Stuck in the indie or traditional publishing route and considering self-publishing? Read this post from
on why she has self-published her last two books.🎨 Designer? Aspiring designer. You need
AND she has created a helpful portfolio walk-through for beginners and refreshers🔮 January whizzed by, and feeling a bit planless for the year. Creative business owners can get realigned with this workbook from
🕰 Interested in a midlife portfolio career? Check out this substack from
⛑ Looking to avoid an HR crisis? Get HR ready with
HR training PDF🚨 Need a confidence boost?
has a free masterclass you can watch in your own time.That’s it from me for another monthly round-up. See you in February folks.
Keep on hyping.
Lucy x
Thank you for the tag Lucy! It’s been fun to read everyone’s hero post. A lot of people commented about how they had to be concise and clear about what their publication - which I know you are passionate about.
Thanks for the shout-out, Lucy! I hope the article is helpful for those working through that trad- vs. self-publishing decision.