The Substack Live Series - Season One: Starting From Zero
Eight Conversations With Women Building What’s Next…
What does it really look like to start from zero on Substack? When you already have experience, success, responsibilities and a life you’ve built?
In this eight-part Substack Live Series, Sarah Stone speaks with women who are building, changing, creating and growing on Substack - each in her own way.
These are candid conversations about leaving what’s comfortable, trusting a bigger vision, becoming visible and creating a version of success that feels true to who you are becoming.
You’ll hear what they’re building, how they’re building it, what has challenged them and what they wish they’d known sooner. Most of all, you’ll hear from women who are taking a leap of faith toward limitless possibility.
If you’re starting over, starting something new or scaling your visibility and you’re ready to take yourself and your ideas more seriously, these conversations are for you.
Join Starting From Zero annually and receive the full Substack Live Series Workshop: Create Your Own, plus the Bonus Swag Bag of practical templates, planning tools and outreach scripts.
The Courage to Leave What’s Comfortable
Sarah Stone in conversation with Jennifer Villasante from Heynowjen
What happens when you’re successful in your career but know, with every essence of your being, that you’re ready for something more?
Sarah and Jennifer talk candidly about stepping beyond your comfort zone, trusting yourself through change and finding the courage to start from zero.
This conversation is for you if you’re standing at the edge of something new and need a reminder that fear is not a sign to stop. It’s evidence that you’re moving toward the life you’re meant to build.
You can watch the replay of this conversation here:
Finding Your People
Sarah Stone in conversation with Ellen Newhouse from The One Who Always Knew
What happens when a chance connection on Substack becomes the beginning of a friendship, a creative partnership, and the kind of support that helps you keep going?
Sarah and Ellen talk about finding your people when you are starting from zero — the power of accountability, honest conversations, shared ideas, and having someone who understands both the vision you are building and the doubts that can come with it.
They’ll also talk about Ellen’s upcoming album, the healing moments she creates at the end of her live sessions, and how Substack has given her space to show up, connect, and create in her own way.
This conversation is for you if you are building something new and craving genuine connection, encouragement, and people who remind you that you do not have to do it all alone.
You can watch the replay of this conversation here:
Building a Bestseller That Readers Want To Pay For
Sarah Stone in conversation with Sinem Günel from Write • Build • Scale
What does it really take to build a Substack that readers do not simply subscribe to but actively choose to support?
In this conversation, Sarah is joined by Sinem Günel, Co-founder of Write • Build • Scale, a publication and coaching business that has grown to more than 54,000 subscribers and 2,000 paid members.
Together with her co-founders, Sinem has built one of the most successful Substack publications on Substack right now. They have created a business, a coaching programme and a dedicated community designed to help other writers and creators build bestselling Substack’s of their own - and they are not gate-keeping!
Sarah and Sinem will be talking about the power of creating work that earns trust over time and how turning your knowledge, voice and experience publication that can continue to create income long after you press publish.
This is the conversation Sarah is especially excited to share. If you want to move beyond simply posting online and begin building a Substack with real intention and long-term potential, this one is for you!
You can watch the replay of this conversation here:
Publishing Your Book Is Only The Beginning
Sarah Stone in conversation with Susan Friedmann from Aviva Publishing Book Marketing
What happens before, during and after writing a book?
For many women, publishing a book is a lifelong dream and a huge achievement. But, it can also be the beginning of an entirely new chapter: one where your ideas, experience and voice continue to reach further than the pages themselves.
Sarah is joined by Susan Friedmann, Book Marketing Coach, Author of 18 books, and Founder of Aviva Publishing & Marketing, for a conversation about writing, publishing and building a life and business around the message you are here to share via Substack.
They’ll discuss why your book should be seen as a platform rather than an endpoint, and how authors can continue the conversation through their work, their visibility and the communities they build.
Hear what they both wish every aspiring or first-time author knew: how to think beyond the launch, connect your book to the people it is truly for and how to turn your knowledge into opportunities, authority and meaningful impact.
This conversation is for you if you have a book inside you, have already published one, or are ready to see Substack as your home beyond the book.
Don’t want to miss it? Subscribe free to Starting From Zero and add the Live to your calendar here:
You can watch the replay of this conversation here:
The Community You’re Looking For Might Start With You
Sarah Stone in conversation with Julie Marvel
What does it really take to create a community where people feel they belong?
We talk a lot about finding our people, particularly when we’re navigating a new chapter, but perhaps we don’t talk enough about the courage it takes to be the person who brings those people together in the first place.
Sarah is joined by Julie Marvel, Community Building Expert, who spent eight years building one of the largest women’s communities in Florida and has had thousands of conversations with women navigating divorce, widowhood, retirement, empty nesting, relocation, career changes and the desire to create something more meaningful in their next chapter.
Together, they’ll explore what Julie has learned about friendship, belonging and building genuine community - why somebody has to be willing to extend the first invitation, and what separates a group of people from a community where people genuinely feel seen, welcomed and connected.
They’ll also talk about the vulnerability of making new friendships as adults, why so many women assume everybody else already has their circle, and what can happen when we stop waiting to be invited and become brave enough to say, “Would you like to join me?”
And, for those of us building here on Substack, they’ll explore a particularly important question: how do we move beyond building an audience and begin creating a community people genuinely want to be part of?
This conversation is for you if you’re looking for your people, building a community of your own, starting again in a new season of life, or simply wondering whether the connection you’re waiting for might begin with one invitation, one conversation and one person willing to go first.
You can watch the replay of this conversation here:
What If Midlife Isn’t a Reset, But an Evolution?
Sarah Stone in conversation with Nat Sang from The Midlife Reset
What happens when the life you spent decades building no longer feels like the life you want?
After more than 35 years in corporate healthcare, Nat Sang didn’t plan to leave corporate life, but when an unexpected layoff brought a surprising sense of relief alongside the uncertainty, it gave her permission to ask a much bigger question: What do I actually want now?
Sarah and Nat talk about the identity shifts that happen when a career or title disappears, rebuilding confidence after difficult experiences, recognising what we may have quietly outgrown and why starting again in midlife doesn’t mean starting with nothing.
In a wonderful twist, after meeting here on Substack, Sarah and Nat discovered they actually live seven minutes apart... eight with traffic!
This conversation is for anyone questioning what success looks like now, navigating the space between an old identity and a new chapter, or wondering whether midlife might be less about reinventing yourself and more about becoming more of who you already are.
You can watch the replay of this conversation here:
Building What’s Next, On Your Terms
Sarah Stone in conversation with Tomide Awe 🪴 from On Your Terms
What happens when the successful life you worked so hard to build no longer feels like the life you want?
After building an impressive corporate career that included Wharton, Twitter and Meta, Tomide Awe was laid off from Meta while on maternity leave, but rather than immediately searching for the next corporate role, the experience gave her permission to ask a different question: What would it look like to build work and a life on my own terms?
Sarah and Tomide talk about the uncomfortable space between the career you’ve built and the business you haven’t quite figured out yet, why being exceptionally good at something doesn’t mean it has to become your next thing, and how accomplished women can begin separating what looks impressive from what actually feels meaningful.
They also explore Tomide’s “bravery ladder,” why confidence often comes after we take action rather than before it, and what it really means to build a business that creates enough income, freedom and choice to make returning to corporate optional.
This conversation is for anyone questioning what success means now, contemplating life beyond corporate, or wondering how to take everything you’ve already achieved and use it to create a next chapter that feels much more like your own.
Because starting from zero doesn’t mean starting with nothing. This time, you get to decide the terms.
You can watch the replay of this conversation here:
Could Substack Change the Way We Discover Books?
Sarah Stone in conversation with Fleur Hull, Founder of The Substack Bookstore
Amazon changed the way we buy books, but could Substack change the way we choose them?
Fleur Hull created The Substack Bookstore after recognizing a problem many independent authors face: writing and publishing a brilliant book doesn’t necessarily mean the right readers will ever discover it.
Sarah and Fleur explore whether Substack is creating a different kind of book-discovery experience, where we might read an author’s essays, follow their Notes, hear their story and get to know the person behind the words before we ever decide to buy their book.
They also talk about what Fleur has learned from building The Substack Bookstore from zero, why community and collaboration can be so powerful for independent authors, and whether human recommendation and genuine relationships can offer something an algorithm simply cannot.
For anyone writing a book, dreaming of becoming an author or wondering how to help existing work find new readers, Fleur also shares practical advice on building an audience before publication, using Substack for discovery and why an older book doesn’t necessarily have to have had its moment.
Because perhaps Amazon will continue to be somewhere we buy our books, while Substack becomes somewhere we increasingly discover the people who write them.
You can watch the replay of this conversation here:
Starting From Zero has honest conversations about what it really takes to build a business, community and life that actually supports you in every season.
Talk Topics Include:
Build out loud - Sharing the real behind-the-scenes of creating a business, community and home on Substack, so you feel inspired to begin or grow your own.
Show up as the woman you’re becoming - with consistency, courage and self-trust, even when life feels messy or uncertain.
Build meaningful community - so the right people can find you, connect with your work, trust you and choose to stay.
Take intentional action - towards the business, visibility, income and life you know you are worthy of creating.
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