Sport Stackers: Substack Notes & Social Media for Sports Creators & Journalists

About Sport Stackers: Substack Notes & Social Media for Sports Creators & Journalists

We help sports creators & journalists stack wins, subscribers, and income! sportstackers.substack.com (https://sportstackers.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Robbin Marx

Category

business · sports

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

17 Dec 2025

Latest episode

16 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

20 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   16 Jun 2026

   How to Stay Creative on Substack Without Burning Out

   I almost stopped. The YouTube channel for Sport Stackers has been pretty flat. No real growth to speak of. And I kept looking at the numbers thinking, I don’t know if I can keep doing this. But here’s what kept me going. The Substack community is close to hitting 1,000 subscribers. People are actually getting value from this. The growth on Substack is compounding in a way I can see in real time. So I kept going. Burnout is real. But a lot of what we call burnout is actually a planning and pacing problem. When I looked honestly at my own situation, I noticed I didn’t have a system. I had momentum, then crashes. I had output, then silence. So I built something to fix that. I call it the P.A.C.E. Method. Four steps. Simple to remember. Hard to skip. P is for Plan Before you create anything, you need to know where you’re going. For me, that means mapping out themes for the week or the month before I sit down to write or record. It means knowing my publishing days in advance. For Sport Stackers, I aim for Monday or Tuesday on the newsletter. Sunday nights, I record the episode, transcribe it, and build out the content from there. Is it a lot on Sunday nights? Yes. But it’s planned. I know it’s coming. My family knows it’s coming. That makes it easier to protect. The trap most creators fall into is reacting. Rushing because something is due. That’s what drains you. Planning doesn’t eliminate the work. It just means you’re ready for it. A is for Allocate Time is the one thing you can’t get back. So what you spend it on matters. Allocating time means your creative work gets a real spot on your calendar. A dedicated block. A recurring time you actually show up for. Every Sunday night at 9pm, that’s mine. I also separate ideation from production. All week, if an idea comes up, I write it in a notebook. Old school. Pen and paper. Or I leave myself a voice memo. Sometimes I just talk into an AI tool and say, save this for me, we’ll come back to it. That way, when it’s time to create, I already have material. I’m not starting from zero. The last part of allocation is treating your blocks like meetings you can’t cancel. If your boss scheduled something for 9am, you’d be there. Your creative work deserves the same respect, especially on Substack where no one is scheduling it for you. C is for Calibrate This is where honesty comes in. Calibrating means checking in on yourself and your content and asking what’s working and what’s draining you. Then adjusting accordingly. I had a podcast called Land The Talk. Interviewed speakers, CEOs, nonprofit leaders, marketers. Genuinely enjoyed it for a good stretch. But I committed to one season, finished it, and then made the decision to stop. Not because it failed. Because I didn’t have the energy to do it well and also pour into the work that actually had momentum. That was the right call. Calibrating sometimes means cutting. I’m even thinking about it now with these web pages I’ve been building for each episode. They take real bandwidth. I use Claude Code to help with the graphics, but injecting my frameworks and making sure everything is tight still takes time. Some of these frameworks, like Robbin’s Hierarchy of Engagement, I built from scratch. That creative work adds up. So I’m asking myself the same questions I’m giving you: What is your why? How much time can you actually commit? Will you still do this if no one is watching? That last one is the one that matters most. E is for Elevate Growth is what happens when you’re consistent long enough to improve. Elevating means taking what you’ve built and pushing it forward with intention. Not just doing more. Doing better. Each month, I try to identify one area to improve. And every dollar that comes in from paid subscriptions, brand partnerships, or consulting, I put it back into tools and skills. If your first paid subscriber on Substack gives you $20 a month, don’t pocket it. Find a tool that costs $20 a month that helps you reach more people. That’s how you compound. The other piece of elevation is celebrating what you’ve already done before you go reaching for the next thing. I didn’t always do this. I’d hit a milestone and immediately look at what I hadn’t done yet. That’s a fast way to feel like you’re never enough. Take a moment. Acknowledge the progress. Then keep going. The Loop These four steps aren’t one-time moves. They run in a cycle. Plan your themes. Lock in your days. Allocate your blocks and guard them. Calibrate weekly, cut what’s draining you. Elevate by improving one thing at a time. Then repeat. I’ve been around long enough to know the creators who stick around aren’t the ones who started with the biggest audiences. They’re the ones who figured out how to keep showing up. Not out of pressure. Out of purpose. When I stopped chasing numbers and started focusing on the people I was actually helping, things started clicking. The Substack community is proof of that for me right now. If you’re feeling the weight of it, take one of these steps today. Start with P. Just plan. That’s where it begins. Robbin Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe (https://sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

2. 

   9 Jun 2026

   Five Lies That Are Killing Your Substack Growth

   I spend a lot of time on social media. Comes with the territory. And I keep seeing the same pieces of advice recycled over and over again on every platform, from every creator, dressed up in different thumbnails. Some of it isn’t just unhelpful. It’s actively working against you. I’ve been building in this space for 20 years. I started doing social media before most people knew what to call it. I was booking shows for bands on MySpace and didn’t even realize I was carving out a future career. That’s how far back this goes for me. So when I see stuff spreading online that I know is wrong, I can’t just scroll past it. Here are the five lies I see most. And what I actually think is true. GRAB WEBPAGE HERE: regal-moonbeam-7f1843.netlify.app (http://regal-moonbeam-7f1843.netlify.app) Lie #1: Post More and the Algorithm Rewards You This one travels fast because it removes thinking. More equals more. It’s clean and measurable. You can count posts and feel productive even when nothing is growing. I’ll admit I used to push a version of this myself. Early in my consulting days, I was telling clients to push out obscene amounts of content. Sometimes 20 posts a day. Consistency builds the habit. Value builds the audience. Those are two different things. When it comes to Substack Notes, I talk about the 555 method. Five notes a day. Five restacks. Five comments. But even then, I tell people: do what your bandwidth allows. If you want to do 1-1-1, no problem. The number matters less than the consistency. Pick what you can actually maintain and stick to it. Lie #2: You Are the Niche This one is sensitive because there’s a version of it that sounds inspiring. Just be yourself. Talk about whatever you want. Someone out there will connect with it. I’m not going to completely knock that idea. But it skips over something important. The people saying this usually already have an audience. They spent years writing about one thing before anyone knew who they were. Then they earned the right to just exist out loud online. For a writer who’s just getting started, that advice can cost you months. Substack Notes moves fast. A reader makes a follow decision in about two seconds. If your profile is a mix of personal observations, life updates, and random opinions, they can’t figure out what you’re about. And a confused reader doesn’t subscribe. Your topic earns the follow. Your voice earns the loyalty. You can still be yourself. You just need to give people a reason to follow first. Lie #3: Better Hooks Will Fix Your Notes I’ve been in this space long enough to know that hooks aren’t new. We were talking about headlines and hooks in traditional copywriting before social media existed. But right now, everyone is using the same hooks. Somebody downloads a free lead magnet with 50 hook templates and just swaps in their niche. It’s exhausting to watch. Hook frameworks are easy to sell because they’re teachable. Takes aren’t. The take is the note. The hook just opens the door. Before you write a hook, figure out what the payoff is for the reader. What are they going to get from this thing you’re creating? Once you’re clear on that, the hook usually writes itself. And here’s a simple self-test. If someone else posted this exact note, would you restack it from their account? If the answer is no, it’s not ready. One more thing that’s helped me personally. Try cutting the first two sentences from a note and see if it reads better. A lot of times the real note starts at sentence three. Lie #4: More Followers Equal More Revenue This one feels true because the numbers are visible. You see the count go up and assume everything is working. But misaligned follower growth doesn’t just fail to convert. It actively misleads you. You keep producing content for the audience that showed up, even if that audience isn’t the right one. The gap between your follower count and your paid subscribers gets wider and you can’t figure out why. The right 300 followers beat the wrong 10,000. Build for the reader who would pay. That means being specific about who you’re writing for and what they’re going to get. Chasing a broad audience feels productive. But broad audiences rarely pull out their wallets. Lie #5: You Have to Be Everywhere I hear this one on almost every consultation call I do. People want to know which platforms they need to be on. Do they need TikTok? Facebook? Instagram? YouTube? X? All of it? My answer is always the same. Pick one. Being everywhere looks like working hard. It usually just means being stretched thin and mediocre in a lot of places at once. If you’re new and trying to figure out where to start, I’d say Substack and YouTube. Those two, in some order, depending on what you’re building. And if you’re already on Substack, start with Notes. It’s the highest leverage platform for Substack writers right now. You don’t need to be everywhere. You need to be undeniable somewhere. These five lies spread because they’re easy to say and hard to argue with in the moment. Volume sounds smart. Being yourself sounds smart. Hooks sound smart. Big follower counts sound smart. But when you actually sit with your numbers, the story gets more complicated. I created a full breakdown of all five of these with specific action steps for each one. You can find it linked in the description of the podcast episode this came from. It’s worth bookmarking. I’m truly grateful you’re here. Whether you’ve been with me for a while or just found this, I don’t take lightly that you chose to spend a few minutes with this newsletter. The internet is loud. Your time matters to me. See you next week. Robbin Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe (https://sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

3. 

   2 Jun 2026

   How to Get Started on Substack in 2026 (Unstoppable Framework)

   I spent a long time tinkering. Tweaking my format. Rethinking my schedule. Watching other writers pop off on Substack and wondering what they were doing that I wasn’t. I told myself I was being strategic. Honestly, I was just overthinking it. What I needed was a simpler way to think about what I was building. That’s where the SYNC method came in. SYNC is a framework from my book, Social Media SYNC. I’ve been using it for a while now, but recently I walked through how it applies specifically to Substack. Four pillars. Each one fixes a different mistake I see sports writers making every week. Here’s what it looks like. ACCESS RESOURCE HERE: https://sport-stackers-sync-method.netlify.app/ (https://sport-stackers-sync-method.netlify.app/) S — Simple One idea per issue. That’s it. I know that sounds obvious. But most writers, myself included early on, try to pack too much in. Three angles on last night’s game. A mailbag. A stat breakdown. A personal story. All in one issue. Your reader clicked because they trust you. Give them one clear idea and make it easy to consume. Write your subject line last. Do it after you’ve finished the piece so it reflects exactly what’s inside. And then ask yourself if someone could read your issue in one sitting without having to dig for the main point. If the answer is no, cut something. Y — Yield to Your Intentions Know why you’re publishing before you publish. This one separates people who grow from people who stall. Reactive posting, jumping on whatever feels hot that week, builds a scattered audience. Intentional posting builds a loyal one. I use something I call a Content North Star. It’s a sentence: “I create for [specific reader] to help them [specific change].” Writing it out forces you to get honest about who you’re actually serving. Pick three content pillars and stay with them. Give it three to six months before you decide something isn’t working. I’ve watched so many sports writers pivot their whole brand every few weeks. That’s not a strategy. That’s impatience. Also: track conversations, not just open rates. Who replied to your last issue. Who recommended you to their own audience. That’s your real reach. I had a creator reach out to me recently about a recommendation swap, and that one conversation opened up more than any open rate ever did. N — Natural Be the human in the room. AI can write sports takes all day. It can’t be you. Your stories, your wrong predictions, your honest opinions after a brutal loss, that’s what Substack readers actually support. If your issue sounds like a press release, rewrite it. Tell the behind-the-scenes story. What surprised you while reporting. What you almost missed. Admit when you got something wrong in your last issue. Readers respect that more than polish. Let your personality show in the opener. That’s what makes them come back. C — Change It Up Variety within a consistent framework. Your readers expect your voice. Surprise them with format instead. Rotate through long analysis, quick takes, Q&A, data breakdowns, interviews. Try a recorded conversation about a game and see what happens to your subscriber count. The 90-day variety audit is worth running. Look at which formats your readers actually engage with. Double down on those. Drop the ones that drain you. Building Your Content Universe Here’s where it gets practical. Think of your newsletter as the sun. Everything orbits it. Your Substack Notes, your posts on Threads or BlueSky, your activity on other platforms, those are the planets. Shorter formats that feed readers back to your main newsletter. Podcasts and live streams are comets. Rare, so they land harder. You don’t need to be on camera. An audio-only podcast still counts and the opportunity there for sports writers right now is real. Meteor showers are timely reactions. Something breaks in the news cycle that lines up perfectly with your beat. You move fast, publish something punchy, and stay on brand. When the Spurs advanced to the NBA Finals last night, that was a meteor shower moment. I used it. You can do the same for whatever team or sport you cover. The 70-20-10 Rule This is how I think about my content mix. 70% of your issues should be core pillar content. Deep dives, analysis, stories that define what your Substack is actually about. 20% should be timely and responsive. Breaking news, reader questions, trending topics in your lane. 10% is experimentation. New formats, adjacent topics, behind-the-scenes looks at your process. Try it, measure it, keep it or drop it. This ratio keeps you consistent without going stale. What This Means for You Pick one of these pillars and apply it to your next issue. Not all four. Just one. Maybe you write your subject line last for the first time. Maybe you write out your Content North Star before you start drafting. Maybe you admit in your opener that you got something wrong last week. Small adjustments stack up faster than full overhauls. The writers I see growing on Substack aren’t doing anything magical. They’re showing up with one clear idea, in their own voice, on a schedule they can actually maintain. That’s it. Thanks for being here. I don’t take it lightly that you’re spending time with this. If any of this connected, bring it into your next issue and let me know how it goes. I read every reply. See you next week. Robbin Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe (https://sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

Contact Sport Stackers: Substack Notes & Social Media for Sports Creators & Journalists

Guest appearances

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Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.