How a Student Built 1,900 Subscriber Without Going Viral
Escaping the algorithm, surviving the void, and the quiet power of simply talking to people!
Ok. Let’s be brutally honest for a second.
Most of the growth advice you see on the internet makes you feel like you are already too late!
We see 20 year olds on TikTok flashing sports cars and screaming about how they built a massive audience overnight.
It makes you feel exhausted before you even open your laptop..!
But what happens behind the screen?
What happens when a 17 year old kid, terrified of being trapped in a 9-to-5 cubicle for the rest of his life, actually tries to play that game?
This is the story of William Leroux.
Today, William is 20 years old.
He is a student-athlete who trains 5 days a week, and he is the founder of Become Better You - a Substack newsletter that just crossed 1,900 loyal subscribers.
But his story isn’t about a viral miracle. It isn’t about a lucky algorithm!
It’s a story about the darkest parts of the creator economy, the paralyzing weight of imposter syndrome, and the exact system he used to escape it!
Grab your coffee (or whatever you’re drinking). Let’s look at how a real business is built in the shadows. ☕
The Hollow Numbers
At 17, William was completely lost.
He had no real goal, but he knew he had to build something.
So, he did what everyone tells you to do: he started building an online brand on Instagram and TikTok.
He pushed out content.
He chased the trends. And played the algorithm’s game.
And it slowly started destroying his mental health..!
Imposter syndrome was eating him alive.
He was gaining followers, but they were hollow.. They were just passing scrollers, swiping through his videos while half-asleep.
The numbers were going up, but it never felt like a real win.
The pressure to keep dancing for 15-second dopamine hits was exhausting him.
He was losing his own voice. And he wasn’t himself anymore…
So, he did the hardest thing a creator can do.
He stopped. He walked away from the noise..!
In that quiet space, away from the endless feeds, he started journaling.
He started thinking about the person he actually wanted to become.
And almost by accident, he stumbled onto Substack!
For the first time in his life, he found a platform where he felt free to actually express himself.
A place where deep, slow thought was rewarded.
If you are reading this right now and feeling that exact same exhaustion from social media, welcome! We are building a different kind of contents here. If you haven’t subscribed to The Solopreneur Drafts yet, join us. Let’s build your quiet escape route together.
The Void (And The Awakening)
Freedom is beautiful.
But freedom does not mean instant success.
When William started his Substack, he brought the old “hustle” habits with him.
He listened to the typical advice: post twice a day, be everywhere, grind it out!
He wrote. He published. He pushed.
The result?
Two full months of deafening silence. 60 days of work. Only 2 subscribers.
Just imagine the despair!
This is the exact spot where 90% of writers quit!
They stare at the screen, they blame the platform, they say the market is too saturated, and they close their laptops forever.
William didn’t quit.
Instead, he completely shifted his philosophy. He calls it “Adaptive Action.”
He stopped treating Substack like a broadcasting tower, and started treating it like a living room full of real human beings.
He stopped posting into the void and got out of his comfort zone. He started actually talking to people!
He found newsletters he loved, and he left genuine, thoughtful comments.
William started building actual relationships, one person at a time.
And when someone did subscribe, he didn’t just celebrate the number.
He asked himself the hard questions: Why did this person subscribe? What exactly did I say that resonated with them?
He paid attention! He adapted. He stopped waiting for a manual and built his own system!
The Boring Math of Compounding
We all want the cinematic montage where the numbers explode overnight. 😌
But real leverage is incredibly boring to watch!
Going from 0 to 100 subscribers took William a grueling 4 months.
Four months of bleeding for every single reader.
But going from 100 to 1,000? That only took 3 months!
Why the sudden shift?
Because the tipping point wasn’t a viral Note. It wasn’t a shoutout from a massive creator.
The tipping point was 90 straight days of pure, boring consistency with the strategy he now calls the Comment Method.
90 days of showing up in other writers’ comment sections. 90 days of leaving actual value, not just dropping links.
90 days of people discovering his brain, one comment at a time.
That quiet, slow compounding eventually caught fire. And it pushed him all the way past 1,900 subscribers!
The War Inside the Mind
It’s easy to look at William today and think he has it all figured out.
But underneath the dashboard, he is still a 20 year old student-athlete trying to balance a heavy life!
When you are building a business for the first time, the pressure to “have it all figured out right now” can literally paralyze you.
William admits that there were moments he wanted to just quit.
Everything felt like too much.
He would lose consistency, disappear for a bit to focus on his life, and then come back to find his engagement had dropped.
The guilt of resting is the hidden tax of the creator economy..!
But he found a way to fight that internal war.
And it is a lesson every single one of us needs to hear today:
He reminds himself that his presence online isn’t going anywhere. He doesn’t need to have a massive empire completely figured out in a month. He is still early!
He learned to calm down.
He stopped punishing himself for needing rest, and started actually enjoying the moment.
And realized that staying in a relentless “grind mentality” destroys the very freedom he started this journey to find..!
This is too important to know it early! I mean this understanding comes with a great cost!
If you want freedom, you should know that it’s not a destination. It’s a mental state!
The Solopreneur Takeaway
You do not need to hustle yourself into an early grave!
You do not need to go viral on TikTok to build a life of freedom.
You just need to find the one action that actually connects you with another human being.
Like leaving a genuinely thoughtful comment, and repeat it until the compounding takes over!
William built a system. He found his flow state. He adapted.
If a 20 year old student-athlete can build an audience of almost 2,000 loyal readers while training 5 days a week... what is stopping you?
I highly recommend checking out William’s newsletter, Become Better You.
He is documenting this entire journey with radical honesty, and he is doing it right. Go support a real builder! 🙂🤝
The biggest limiting belief
Is that I’m too old or too early for that.
You’re not, my friend! William is still young. You read his story.
Derek Hughes started at 51 and look at what he built!
I don’t know how much longer this windows of Substack will be open like this, but for now everyone in every age group can start their journey here and build their community!
We can talk more about limiting beliefs and how they effect your progress, but that’s for another essay.
Your Move
I want to know what is happening in your own journey right now.
We all face that void or the “period of silence” wall that William faced.
Some of you might be staring at it today!
What is the biggest psychological hurdle keeping you from pushing past that wall? Is it the imposter syndrome? The lack of time? The fear of judgment?
Don’t think in your head.
Touch reply to this email right now and tell me. Or, if you’re reading this on the web, drop it in the comments.
I read every single one myself!
And hey, if you found this story valuable, share it with one other writer who is feeling exhausted by the algorithm today!
Thanks for reading. Take care, and see you next Saturday!
Recap:
Great feature, Riza.
I'm actually interviewing Substack creators with stories like that on my publication, and I've seen his name around and liked his content.
This article inspires me to actually reach out to him for an interview.
Thanks ☺️
Freedom as a mental state rather than a destination reframes what the whole thing is for — you can't arrive at it, you can only practice it in how you approach the work.