Did you know that on social media only 1-3% of your followers are actually seeing your posts?
PHEW! 😥
Many are struggling, so it's no wonder many creators are quitting social media right now.
Algorithms have turned the follower into a ghost town. Creators are sick and tired of wasting their valuable time.
And where do they go? They get on the newsletter platform Substack.
Tom Kuegler quit YouTube, Facebook, Medium and LinkedIn
This week’s podcast guest is
who ditched hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube (160K), Medium (63K), Facebook (500K), and LinkedIn (20K) to chase real connections on Substack - instead of feeling pushed to create content he hated just to gain more followers, views, and likes.Tom is no longer chasing 100K a year with just followers and feeding the algorithms. Now his goal is to hit that mark with subscribers instead.
It’s an honor having Tom on the show because I’ve been a fan since my first day on Medium in December 2020. Together with writing rockstar
he was the one I saw in my feed 👋🏻all 👋🏻the 👋🏻time.Fast forward to today, Tom built one of Medium’s biggest publications called The Post Grad Survival Guide (PGSG) with 44K followers.
In 2023, he left Medium with 63K followers because he no longer wanted to write for a platform that didn't value him the way he wanted.
He went to a platform that cared. Substack.
I just feel like I'm kind of so sick of what I see on social media half the time, and I feel like Substack is that next evolution in social media where to a more real type of content.
Substack is the next evolution
Tom started blogging in 2016! He's built up a large following on multiple platforms, and from the outside looking in, you'd say he's successful.
But he didn't feel successful. He thought it would never be enough. He would never be enough.
Eight years later, I love seeing this thirty-something grown man who has lived so many lives, traveled the world, paid off his student loans and learned so many valuable lessons.
Now he's even ready to go back to the US with his wife. What I love most is that his relationship with his family has grown stronger and that he has reconnected with his father through his newsletter
.For the veteran content creator who has published videos, short posts, long posts, online courses, live webinars, recorded webinars and everything in between, Substack is a place where people are more real.
Want unexpected and real answers from a former social media rockstar?
Similar to Tom who wanted to be vlogger Casey Neistat, I bet many want to be Tom Kuegler. Traveling the world, embracing freedom, writing every day and growing a massive following.
In our interview, Tom gives an honest behind-the-scenes look at a very successful online rockstar who struggled to make money, wanted to support his wife, hated the stories he pumped out for the algorithms, lost the connection to himself and is now reconnecting to the real Tom Kuegler.
100K/Year Without Social Media is a raw and honest interview with unexpected answers, insights and future plans.
If you say: Let me listen to the interview!
You can listen to it as Substack podcast and/or watch our interview on YouTube:
Table of Contents
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:02 Tom Kuegler's Attempt to become a Medium Bost Nommer
00:06:31 Advice that Tom would Give to Medium
00:10:36 Would Tom Ever Come Back to Medium
00:12:33 Advantages of Substack having No Algorithm
00:16:19 How Much Time Tom Spends Writing
00:19:37 How Tom Plans to Reach $100k a Year
00:24:00 How Much Money Tom Spent on Marketing his Courses
00:28:53 Tom’s Journey to Making a Living from Writing
00:32:04 How Tom Gained 20,000 Followers on LinkedIn
00:37:07 What is a LinkedIn Sprint and Why Tom Started them
00:44:19 Explaining the Flywheel between LinkedIn, YouTube and Medium
00:47:12 What Else Tom is Planning for 2024
00:49:26 When Tom Started his Email List and Its Current Size
00:52:48 Tom’s Experience Living in Mexico City
00:58:13 What Tom Loves about America
01:00:37 How People can Connect with Tom Kuegler
🥳You don’t have to be 100% ready to take the first step and build an email list 🥳
Don’t waste your time.
Sometimes, the only thing standing between you and your dreams is that first small move. Let’s do this together!
Inside my “Substack School Course” I’ll help you start and grow your email list, write non-sucky emails, get your first paid subscribers and connect with other like-minded writers.
🎙️Join Kristina’s Exclusive Podcast Launch Club
My podcast is hot & new. This is my second episode.
Do you want to join my podcast launch club? You’ll get discounts on future bootcamps, challenges and exclusive webinars. We’ll meet and discuss the pod together to make it better. You can win prizes!
If you say:
“Kristina, I want to join your Podcast Launch Club!”
Let me know in the comments. I’ll then invite you to join my exclusive group.
I want to make my pod better.
❤️🔥Your feedback is just a spark but it’s enough to keep me, a part-time writer, going.❤️🔥
I hope this eye-opening interview inspires you.
Dare to be YOU!
P.S. Liked it? Please share, like, and let me know what you think about my new show 💗 Your feedback is important and can spark many ideas. Thanks sooooo much!
P.S.S. Tom Kuegler belongs to the category “I knew him when”. Make sure to subscribe to Tom’s publication
. It’s a wealth of wisdom from a thirty-something writer and creator who has done it all.
100K/Year Without Social Media | Writer Tom Kuegler Shares His Eye-Opening Journey