Substacking! — Chapter 2 of 20: How I Escaped the Algorithm and Became a Viral Podcaster

(Excerpt from the upcoming 20-chapter book Substacking! — It’s Not a Platform, It’s a Business Model — coming soon from Firestarter Publishers.)

The Day I Realized the Algorithm Was My Editor, Censor and Chief

For years I thought YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter were partners in growth. Then I saw my analytics — 98% likes, massive watch-time, almost no algorithmic reach. That’s when it hit me: the machine wasn’t my promoter anymore. It was my limiter. A silent censor disguised as code.

I didn’t need to outsmart the algorithm. I just needed to leave it.

From Viral Podcasting to Substacking

When I wrote Viral Podcasting, the premise was simple: own your feed, own your future. It worked—until the algorithm decided my listeners had heard enough. Then I found Substack.

Substack wasn’t another platform. It was the business model I’d been waiting for. Email is the original algorithm-proof technology: it doesn’t demote, throttle, or shadow-ban. It simply arrives.

With Substack, my podcast became more than a show — it became a publication, a community, and a P&L. I stopped chasing distribution and started compounding trust.

Substack = Business Plan

Every creator should start with a plan. In the old days you wrote it in Word. Now you build it in Substack.
Substack isn’t rented space — it’s digital land you own.

Traditional Business Plan Element

Substack Equivalent

Mission Statement

About Page

Product Offering

Free + Paid Tiers

Marketing Strategy

Posts · Notes · Referrals

Revenue Model

Recurring Subscriptions

Distribution Channel

Inbox Delivery

Metrics + KPIs

Open Rates · Retention

The Viral Mindset Reborn

Podcasting taught me this: virality isn’t luck, it’s trust multiplied by frequency. Substack supercharges that truth. My voice, essays, and research now live under one roof — a media stack that scales without selling its soul.

That’s how I became a viral podcaster again—by building vertically, not virally.

The Algorithm Escape Plan

Leaving the algorithm isn’t protest—it’s construction. The escape plan looks like this:
1. Podcast → Trust Engine
2. Substack → Ownership Core
3. Social → Discovery Layer
4. Email → Equity

The Moral

When I hit “Publish” on my first Substack post, I wasn’t chasing views; I was reclaiming control. It felt like stepping off a treadmill and realizing you can walk your own path.

The feed doesn’t belong to them anymore. It belongs to you.

The Invitation

If you’ve ever felt invisible to the algorithm, stop fighting it — escape it. Turn your voice into equity. Build your business around trust.

Substack isn’t just the future of journalism; it’s the future of creative sovereignty. Because the only algorithm that matters now — is you.

Bonus Plug

📘 Also check out my bestseller, The World According to Martin Armstrong — the foundation of the Armstrong Economic Code. It’s available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever fine books used to be sold.

Next Up → Chapter 3: Substack Is the Business Plan

(Part of the 20-chapter book Substacking! — It’s Not a Platform, It’s a Business Model — coming soon on Firestarter Publishers and on Substack first.)