How to Infuse Your Personality into Your Substack

If you want to be remembered, sound like a human.

Why this isn’t optional

Substack’s getting crowded. Big names, micro-creators, and everyone in between are publishing. That means you can’t rely on volume or consistency alone.

And generic advice isn’t going to cut it. In an AI-saturated internet, the only thing left that feels real is you.

Readers want a voice they can actually hear in their heads. If they can’t picture you talking, they won’t bother reading.

Let them see you

Most people pick a random image from Unsplash and wonder why their post flops. If the thumbnail looks like everyone else's, it gets ignored like everyone else’s.

Use your own photos. Not polished headshots, just real-life stuff. Or your desk, your cat, your cluttered bookshelf. Anything that proves you exist.

Your colors aren’t just decorative

The visual tone of your Substack does half the talking before readers even get to a word. That includes your logo, your background, and your dividers.

Ditch the basic grey line. Use something that hints at taste, personality, or a functioning sense of humor. A small design choice does more than a paragraph of over-explaining.

Don’t outsource your About page to your inner LinkedIn voice

Your About page is not a résumé. It’s a story.

Skip the credentials. Tell me why this newsletter exists. What annoyed you enough to start it? What obsession made you stay?

You don’t need a big origin story—you just need a true one.

Your welcome email shouldn't sound like a business memo

If your first message is just a table of contents, you've already lost them.

Let people see something off-script. Your weekend ritual. A bad haircut story. Your current snack fixation. If you’ve ever told a friend, “This is dumb, but…”—start there.

That’s the kind of detail that sticks.

Write like you talk

Drop the formal tone. No need to pretend you're submitting to an academic journal.

If you talk in short bursts with a sarcastic edge, do that. If you ramble with charm, fine, but clean it up. Stop writing as if someone’s grading it. They're not.

You don’t have to be funny or deep or poetic.
You just have to be you, consistently.

Add one weird thing, then repeat it

Start a running segment only you would think to include. Something small. A sentence, a phrase, a note to self. Readers love it when things become familiar, but only if they’re specific.

Add a segment that only you would think of:

• “What I’m overthinking this week”

• “A recent ‘WTF’ moment”

• “My creative high + my real-life low”

• “Something I wrote but almost deleted”

Rituals like these give your readers a sense of rhythm, and deepen your relationship.

One more thing…

People don’t follow newsletters. They follow personalities. So make yours hard to miss and even harder to confuse with anyone else.

Otherwise, you’re just more noise.

Warmly,
Andi

📌 PS - If you found this post helpful or inspiring, would you please consider restacking it and sharing it with your audience?