Creator Deep Dive Series #2: Justin Welsh
Welcome to Letter #010 of The Creative Alchemy, a weekly letter on building a creative, intentional life through content, freelancing, and storytelling.
Every week, I share honest reflections, practical lessons, and experiments from my own journey as someone who left a stable job to build a business and life on her own terms.
If you're figuring this out too, I've launched Side Hustle OS — a year-long community to help freelancers and creators grow their business, get consistent clients, and stay accountable while building what they love.
You'll get access to our group chat, live Q&As, monthly workshops, and a crew of people who get what you're trying to do.
Every week, I explore how creators, freelancers, and solopreneurs are building meaningful businesses with content. Not just what they’re doing—but how they’re doing it, and what we can learn from it.
This week’s deep dive: Justin Welsh
From solo posts on LinkedIn to a million-dollar digital product business, to now building a new kind of creator community on Substack.
Let’s break it down.
What makes Justin stand out is his clarity.
He picked one niche: helping solopreneurs build leveraged, one-person businesses.
And then every post, product, and platform he touches loops back to that one idea.
But here’s where it gets more interesting. If you look closely, Justin’s entire LinkedIn strategy revolves around three types of posts:
Educational — actionable breakdowns, frameworks, personal systems
Contrarian — pushing back against popular startup/creator advice
Engagement/Banter — light posts designed to build connection or start conversation
This mix keeps his content sharp but accessible.
And most importantly, it stays in the same niche. First, SaaS businesses. Now, creator-led businesses.
He turns every idea into a Solopreneurship angle
Justin doesn’t just post productivity tips or thoughts on tech.
He re-frames everything, from writing habits to sales calls, through the lens of being a one-person business.
That framing is what builds a brand.
People don’t follow him for general advice, they follow him because every insight helps them build a simpler, more intentional business.
His system is boring - in the best way possible!
He writes every day.
He understands what performs well.
And he repurposes his content every 3–6 months.
If a post does well in February, you’ll likely see a variation of it again in July. Sometimes just a new hook. Sometimes the same words with a different CTA.
Most creators are afraid to repeat themselves.
Justin isn’t. He respects attention by giving people what works and he doesn’t waste time reinventing the wheel.
From LinkedIn brand → to Substack community
Recently, he launched @Unsubscribe on Substack.
It’s so clean and simple it’s mind-blowing. Nothing complicated, just long-form writing. Thoughtful essays. Simpler packaging.
And yet, people showed up.
You probably read that he made $100,000+ on launch. That isn’t just an email list at work. That’s trust built over years, repaid in a month .
He created a high-trust brand on LinkedIn. Now he’s converting that trust into community on Substack.
What stands out is how quietly he did it. He is not promoting it like crazy on Linkedin or X which could have gotten him more subscribers. But he is leveraging the organic growth of Substack and his brand value!
What most people miss
Justin’s not trying to go wide. He’s going deep. He’s not everywhere.
But his ideas are, because they’re repackaged, re-used, and redistributed intelligently.
He built his brand by doing two things well:
Saying the same thing better, every day
Making it easier for the right people to find him
I am a huge fan and loved breaking down his work on social media. It also helps me improve my content game! Hope you liked reading it as much as I did writing it <3