Show Notes
In this week’s episode, I sat down with Luis and Rui Sousa, co-founders of The AI Break, a Substack newsletter that’s grown to more than 90,000 subscribers in under two years.
The two brothers shared how they turned their side-project into a full-time business, combining paid ads, organic growth, and practical AI education.
🧰 Grab your FREE Substack Starter Kit: https://www.writebuildscale.com/podstarterkit/
We also covered:
- Why paid ads became their biggest growth engine - and how they reinvested every dollar to scale (02:41) - How they monetize their newsletter through 3 powerful income streams (13:00) - Why the best way to sell your services might be to stop pitching them altogether (19:40) - The smart paywall strategy that converts free readers into paying subscribers (21:00) - How to start using AI if you’re feeling overwhelmed or intimidated by it (28:20) - How you can create high-quality content with AI - that actually sounds and feels like you (37:00) - Why you should start monetizing your knowledge right now - even if you only have 10 subscribers (01:00:45)
And much, much more…
Connect With Rui & Luis Sousa:
📙 Follow Rui Sousa on Substack: https://substack.com/@ruisousa11 💼 Follow Luis Sousa on Substack: https://substack.com/@luissousa28 ▶️ Subscribe To The AI Break Substack: https://theaibreak.substack.com/
More from Substack Growth Podcast
If you’re ready to turn your Substack into real income and not just a growing list, that’s the work we do inside the Substack Accelerator. It’s direct coaching from the Write • Build • Scale team, built around one outcome: Becoming a Substack Bestseller and building a real business on top of your publication.
If you’re ready to turn your Substack into real income and not just a growing list, that’s the work we do inside the Substack Accelerator. It’s direct coaching from the Write • Build • Scale team, built around one outcome: Becoming a Substack Bestseller and building a real business on top of your publication.
Between being on Substack almost every single day for the past two years and working with 100s of coaching clients and course students, I’ve had the chance to look closely at a lot of Substack publications. More than a thousand by now. And the patterns are clear… The newsletters that grow, that build loyal audiences, that actually make money, they do certain things differently than the average Substack publication, in particular in three key areas. Let’s dive straight in. ---- 💰 Want to Become a Substack Bestseller? You’re invited to our brand-new masterclass, How to Become a Substack Bestseller in Less Than 12 Months. During this live training, I’ll share the exact system behind attracting paid subscribers, becoming a Substack Bestseller, and using the platform to grow your business. You’ll leave the Substack Bestseller Masterclass with a clear roadmap to turn your publication into real income.
Most Substack creators are sitting on a goldmine of growth tools they’re barely using. They publish their newsletter, maybe post a Note here and there, and then wonder why growth feels so slow. Substack has built some genuinely powerful features specifically designed to get your work in front of new people. The problem is that most creators either don’t know about them or don’t use them consistently enough to see results. At Write • Build • Scale, we’ve used these features to grow our publication to over 48,000 subscribers, so everything I’m sharing here is backed by real experience, not theory. Let’s dive straight in. ---- 🧰 Grab your FREE Substack Starter Kit: https://mwa.kit.com/podstarterkit 📙 Subscribe to Write • Build • Scale: https://writebuildscale.substack.com/
I’ve spent a lot of time studying the top Substack creators — the people in the top 1% of the platform, both in terms of audience size and paid subscribers. What’s interesting isn’t just what they do. It’s what they don’t do. Because eliminating some of the habits and behaviors that keep you stuck is often one of the fastest ways to make progress. Here are the three things the top 1% Substack creators don’t do, and what they focus on instead. ---- 🧰 Grab your FREE Substack Starter Kit: https://mwa.kit.com/podstarterkit 📙 Subscribe to Write • Build • Scale: https://writebuildscale.substack.com/