I'm a Full-Time Substack Writer. Here's the Exercise I Used to Define My Content Pillars.

Grab your journal. We're doing this together.

Olivia here! I’m a bestselling Substack strategist living in the south of France, here to help you romanticize the everyday and step into your 💫 main character energy 💫 At Petal + Hearth, I share stories and strategies to help you design a life you love, and a creative business that supports it.

Image courtesy of Pinterest.

Substack is my full-time job. I still get a little stunned typing that. I wake up in the south of France, spend my days writing about the things I care about most, and somehow, it supports my whole life.

When people ask how it happened, they usually expect me to point to a viral note or some clever growth hack. The real answer is much more simple: I got clear on my three content pillars, and everything else grew out of them.

Here’s the honest part of the story, though: I didn’t sit down on day one and strategically map them out. When I started, I was a freelance copywriter who had spent years writing for tech companies and startups. I wanted something that was finally mine. So I just started writing about the things I was most passionate about, and over time, the pillars revealed themselves.

I know how that sounds. “Just write what you love” is the kind of advice that’s true and completely useless at the same time, because it doesn’t tell you what to actually do on a Tuesday when you’re staring at a blank page. So over the past year, coaching dozens of writers through this exact thing, I’ve worked out how to take what happened to me by accident and turn it into a process you can follow on purpose. That’s what the rest of this post is.

And it works no matter where you’re starting from. So many posts like this assume you’re on day one with a blank slate, but this is just as useful for the writer who has been publishing for a year and feels a little scattered, or who has had the same pillars forever and can tell one of them has gone stale. Wherever you are, grab your notebook. We’re doing this together.

My Content Pillars

Before you start building your own pillars, it helps to see a finished set so you know what you’re aiming for. Fair warning: mine look completely unrelated on paper. Stick with me though, because the way they connect underneath is the part that actually matters (and it’s exactly what I want you hunting for in your own!).

1. Creative entrepreneurship. How to start freelancing, make Substack your full time job, build a following on LinkedIn, and design a business around your life instead of the other way around. This is where most of my tactical, how-to content lives.

2. Life as an American in France. My Year of Living French series lived here, and my monthly French roundups live here now. It's where I share the slower, more intentional life I'm building abroad: the books and media I'm loving, the towns I'm exploring, the recipes I'm attempting. A 38-hour croissant experiment one week, a tiny-village chestnut festival the next.

3. Main character energy. This is the one people ask about most, and the one that means the most to me.

I’ve shared many times that I’m in recovery (celebrating five years sober this month!). And five years ago, my life looked nothing like it does now. If you had told me back then that I’d be running my own business from the south of France, building a life with a partner I adore, I would have laughed. It would have sounded like a joke.

Main character energy is the pillar where I get to say to people: it’s possible. Wherever you are right now, you can change it. You can build the life you didn’t believe was available to you, because I did, and I promise, I’m not special.

This pillar is really an umbrella. Underneath it I’ve written about self-care that costs nothing, building a dopamine menu, curating a wardrobe that feels like you, the tiny daily decisions that add up to a life you actually want to be living. On the surface those are wildly different posts. Underneath, they’re all the same idea: becoming the architect of your own life instead of living on autopilot.

And that’s the thread that ties all three together: Creative entrepreneurship, life in France, main character energy. They look like three separate newsletters at first glance. But underneath every single one is a belief that you can build a life you love, and find the courage to actually go after it. When I’m writing well, every post pulls on that thread.

That’s what you’re hunting for. Not three random topics, but a few lanes that all lead back to the one thing only you can say.

Why your pillars matter more than any growth hack

I know “content pillars” sounds like the boring homework you rush through to get to the fun stuff. But your pillars are the foundation the whole publication sits on. Your Notes, your essays, your branding, your paid tier, your reason for existing on this platform at all – every bit of it grows out of these few ideas.

Here’s what getting them right actually does for you:

• It gives you focus, so you stop chasing every shiny topic that drifts past in the feed.

• It makes you reliable, so your readers always know what they signed up for.

• It rescues you on the hard days, because you never have to stare at a blank screen wondering what on earth to post.

Counterintuitive as it sounds, boundaries are what create freedom here. When you know your lanes, the writing gets easier.

There’s a deeper reason too. Clear pillars are how you build a point of view, and a point of view is the whole reason someone subscribes to a person instead of bookmarking a search engine. Nobody is paying to read generic advice they could Google in ten seconds. They subscribe because they want your specific take on a few specific things.

Your pillars won’t directly “sell” anyone a subscription. That’s not how it works. But without them, none of the rest of it exists. The clarity comes first, and the growth follows.

My content pillars, expressed through Pinterest photos 😉

For the cost of a monthly chai + croissant, you can unlock the full Petal + Hearth experience — weekly downloads, private essays, and access to the growing Member Vault of resources designed to help you romanticize your everyday life.

How to define your own pillars, step by step

Okay. Journal open? Good. Let’s actually do this.

Step 1: Brain dump everything. Don’t filter.

Write down every single topic you could imagine yourself writing about. Every one. Don’t think about what’ll perform well, and don’t worry about what’s trendy or profitable. Just empty your thoughts onto the page.

You’ll probably end up with a sprawling, chaotic list, and that is exactly what you want right now. We’re not editing yet. We’re just getting it all out.

Do this now: Set a timer for five minutes and list every topic you’d ever write about. Aim for at least fifteen. Mess is the goal.

Step 2: Circle the ones you could write about forever.

Now go back through and circle the topics you can see yourself writing about a year from now. Two years from now. This step matters more than people realize, for two reasons.

First, growth on Substack is slow. You are very likely going to be writing to an empty room for a while. I did, for months. The only way you survive that stretch is by writing about things you actually care about, whether or not anyone is reading yet.

Second, a lot of topics feel thrilling for the first couple of posts and then go completely dry. You sit down to write your fourth piece on something and realize you’ve already said everything you have to say about it. The topics that survive are the ones with real depth for you.

Do this now: Go through your list and circle only the topics that still excite you when you picture writing your tenth post on them. Cross out anything that fizzles past post three.

Images courtesy of Pinterest.

Step 3: Find where you already have a real point of view.

If you’re stuck on what makes the cut, stop thinking about Substack entirely and ask yourself a few honest questions:

• What do you already talk about constantly in your real life?

• What advice do your friends come to you for?

• What are you sending people long, rambling voice notes about?

• What are you practicing, prioritizing, or fighting for in your own life right now?

The answers point you straight to the topics where you have an actual perspective, and a perspective is the whole reason someone subscribes to you specifically.

This, by the way, is exactly how I found mine. I didn’t engineer them. I just kept writing about what I was most passionate about, and the pillars surfaced on their own.

Do this now: Answer those four questions, then look at your circled list and highlight every topic that overlaps with your answers. Those are your strongest contenders.

Step 4: Look for the overlap.

Now look at your highlighted topics and notice how they relate to each other. Your pillars should feel like they belong to the same person, like they feed one coherent story rather than a few unrelated newsletters glued together.

Mine look unrelated on paper, remember. But underneath all three sits one idea: building a life you love and going after it. That’s my thread. Yours will be different, but it should exist.

Do this now: Write one sentence that captures what all your top topics have in common. If the thread doesn't jump out right away, that's normal. It's usually there before you can put words to it, so play with the phrasing and try a few different angles until the sentence clicks, or until you spot the bigger idea sitting underneath all of them.

Step 5: Use umbrellas if your list is still too big.

If you finish this and you’re staring at eight topics you love and can’t bear to cut, you probably don’t have eight pillars. You have a few umbrellas with a lot living underneath them.

Main character energy is my clearest example. Self-care rituals, wardrobe curation, dopamine menus, money mindset, morning routines. Five very different posts on the surface, one single pillar underneath. So before you decide you need six or seven pillars, look for the larger themes your smaller topics could nest inside.

Do this now: Group any leftover topics under two or three bigger headers. Those headers are very often your real pillars.

Step 6: Don’t overthink it, because they’ll evolve anyway.

Here’s the permission I wish someone had handed me on day one. Your pillars are not a tattoo. Mine have shifted plenty since I started.

Topics I thought were central faded out, and others I never planned for became core to the whole thing. Your publication will evolve too, and your pillars will move as you figure out what actually lands with your readers.

The goal right now is simple: pick a few things you genuinely care about so you can start publishing and start learning. The clarity sharpens as you go.

Image courtesy of Pinterest.

It doesn’t have to be exactly three

I say three a lot, so let me be clear that it’s a guideline, not a rule.

Some of the best publications I know run on two pillars. Plenty run on four. Three is just the sweet spot I land on with most clients, because it gives you enough range that you’re never bored, without handing readers so much that they can’t tell what your publication is actually about.

If two feels right, do two. If four feels right, do four. The number matters far less than whether you can sustain them, whether they belong to the same world.

What this looks like in other niches

Your pillars will look nothing like mine, and that’s the entire point. A few examples of how this tends to shake out:

• If you’re a therapist: navigating anxiety in your thirties, setting boundaries without the guilt, and the relationship patterns that keep resurfacing.

• If you’re a writing coach: finding your voice, building a sustainable writing practice, and getting over the fear of hitting publish.

• If you’re a fitness creator: strength training for beginners, eating well without calorie counting, and the mental side of showing up for yourself.

• If you’re a relationship coach: building a healthier relationship with yourself, dating with intention, and the messy personal stories from your own healing.

Notice how in each one, the topics feel connected. They sound like one person with one worldview, not a grab bag of random content.

Your turn

Here’s your assignment this week. You’ve already done the hard part above. Now, pressure-test it. Take your top contenders and try finishing this sentence:

I write for people who want to __________ so that they can __________.

If your pillars feed naturally into that sentence, you’ve found your foundation. If they fight it, keep refining until they click into place.

Then come tell me what you landed on. Drop your three (or two, or four) in the comments. I read every single one, and I love watching these take shape in real time.

A final note

I know pillars sound like the throat-clearing part of building a Substack, the boring step before the fun stuff. But I promise it’s the most important decision you’ll make here. Everything good that’s happened to me on this platform grew out of those three little ideas.

Substack is my full-time job now, and the foundation under all of it is just a few things I genuinely love to write about. That’s the whole secret. I followed what I was passionate about, paid attention to the throughlines, and let the rest build itself.

So go find yours. I cannot wait to see them.

Love love LOVE, Olivia ✨

P.S. Pillars are step one. If you want every step after them, I put the whole system into my course, How to Take Your Substack Full-Time: content strategy, Notes, paid tiers, and the leap to full-time, all broken into steps with a workbook to build it as you go.

About the Author:

Hey there! I’m Olivia, the heart behind Petal + Hearth. I’m a full-time Substack writer, originally from California, now living in the south of France. Here, I write about life abroad, what I dub ✨main character energy ✨, and what it really takes to build a creative business you love. When I’m not writing, I’m teaching other writers on how to grow their own Substack publications. It’s the kind of life I once only dreamed about, and I’m so glad you’re here for it.

Want to go deeper? Here’s how I can help:

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❤️‍🔥 And if you want to hang outside of your inbox, find me Instagram or LinkedIn!!

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