You can afford to be more polarizing on the internet

Hey honeys and hustlers,

Today, I’m bringing you some words from Lex Roman, the writer and publisher behind Revenue Rulebreaker, which covers how solopreneurs make a living. They host events regularly on how to run paid subscriptions and grow your audience. They are Substack’s number one nemesis. For anyone speculating, I didn’t move to beehiiv because of Lex, but I do appreciate their perspective on building a sustainable media business. I care less about how Substack could be a much better platform than it is, and more about how platforms actually support creators. No matter what platforms you decide to spend your time, energy, and money on, I firmly believe that your biggest return will always be from spaces where you can show up as your full self. Today’s article is about how we can do that without worrying about the financial impact (when there are so many things impacting us financially right now). I hope you enjoy it.

P.S. Thank you to everyone who participated in our giveaway with Conntapp last month in honor of the 6th anniversary of the Honey & Hustle podcast! In case you missed me this week, I went live on Substack with Michelle Jackson on Wednesday and Daniel Hunter on Thursday, and you can watch the replays now!

My most popular post ever was a list of petty beefs. It converted 5 new paid subscribers right after I published it, and I hear about it whenever a reader discovers it in the archives. I’ve always been a mean girl. Now, I’ve monetized it.

There’s no use pretending you don’t have opinions on stuff, because the only thing worse than having a bad opinion is being neutral. I’ve worked with so many entrepreneurs over the years whose main professional perspective was that “you should have a website” or “you should send newsletters.” Ok? Is that all you got? Because if so, you’re convincing people that they need help from someone in your industry, but not you specifically.

If the alt-right has taught us anything useful—and yeah, I know that’s a stretch—it’s that people flock to leaders who make status quo challenging statements. Do that in a way that’s actually for the greater good you believe in, and you’ll attract like-minded supporters who will champion your work. 

I’ve been leaning into this harder since it seems to work. I made a list of all the controversial takes I could come up with. Some were not that controversial, like “Everyone has to become a marketer now,” but some were pretty fresh, like “You should kick more people off your newsletter” and “Substack is not growing your audience, they’re stealing it.”

Writing out that Substack statement helped me clarify my position on the tool. It wasn’t just “bad.” It was stealing from creators. I began writing a series of stories about how exactly I came to that conclusion, including this one. It’s rare that a single post of mine attracts much attention, but that story gets reshared on social every time there’s another Substack controversy.

Another topic I get fired up about is subscription fatigue. I run my business on a subscription model, and I’ve worked inside subscription businesses for over a decade. I’m sick of people parroting the same subscription fatigue excuses in response to a single struggling subscription business. The other day, I took to LinkedIn to debunk it. That post has 50k impressions. Maybe that’s not a lot to you, but that’s a lot for me. I got a note in my inbox today from a founder who saw it and wants to explore a partnership with me.

Subscription fatigue and Substack’s thievery are recurring themes I bring up on social media, on my blog, and at my events. I hammer on them over and over again through different lenses. I use relevant online conversations as a reason to update my thinking and repost from my archives. They never fail to bring new, right-fit audience members into my world and onto my newsletter.

You could think of these as content pillars or as a subset of your content pillars. Ideally, they are closely related to what you do or what you sell. Once someone reads your take, they’re going to want more, and you want to have more to give them. Even better if they are topics that are regularly discussed online, such as AI, the job market, the cost of living, or other highly politicized themes. That way, you have reasons to repeatedly bring up your past takes and plug right into a hot topic.

Ed Zitron has turned being an AI hater into a super profitable newsletter business. Molly White made a career out of busting crypto myths. I notice other publishers will paywall their most fiery perspectives if they feature insider intel. The only reason I ever personally paywall these is if I include personal stories I don’t want blasted widely. Otherwise, they should be public.

Making a list of your controversial takes is a good way to start. Dig deeper than what everyone else is saying in your space. Figure out what you really think about something and why. Tie it back to what you’re growing or selling. We don’t care that you put hot sauce on ice cream. We care that you just blasted apart a fundamental assumption we had about your industry.

It’s not enough to be good at your job in 2026. You need a perspective that grabs people out of their chairs and gets them tuning the hell into what you’re saying. You don’t have to be mean, but don’t be afraid to be controversial.