Hapitalist

In this episode of Hapitalist, Russell sits down with former corporate executive turned CEO coach Alison Godfrey to discuss powerful coaching frameworks designed to give “chaos-minded creators” better structure and self-awareness. The conversation dives deep into the differences between therapy (excavating the past) and coaching (building a bridge to the future), and explores how our bodies physic...

* Listen on the app of your choice Here is a summary of the podcast episode based on the transcript provided: The Big Idea The episode explores how creators and entrepreneurs can thrive in a market being rapidly transformed by AI. Guest Aurora Winter argues that while the “middle of the market” is being crushed by generic AI-generated content, there is a massive opportunity for those who lean into...

* Listen on the app of your choice Aaron Henden — author, speaker, meditation teacher, and managing broker of a real estate team based on a small island in Puget Sound — joins Russell for a conversation that moves from the philosophy of gratitude all the way to frameworks for coaching, selling, and building a business that earns trust before it asks for anything. 1. Why Gratitude Journals Don’t Wo...

* Listen on the app of your choice Wes Towers, founder of Uplift 360, a digital agency based in Australia that’s been building and optimizing websites for trades, construction, and industrial brands for over 20 years, joins Russell for a wide-ranging conversation about why your website is the only real estate you actually own online, why confusion kills conversions, and what good business actually...

* Listen on the app of your choice Mal Cooper — sci-fi author (M.D. Cooper), Facebook ads expert, and co-founder of The Writing Wives — joins Russell to talk about what it actually takes to run ads, why indie authors keep handing money to corporations, and what the web got right the first time around. Here are some favorite insights from this episode. 1. Facebook Ads Have No Silver Bullet — And Ne...

* Listen on the app of your choice Russell sits down with Chelle Honiker — publisher, vibe coder, and what Russell calls “the queen of vibe coding in the author industry” — fresh off a three-week international event sprint through Savannah, London, and Ireland. What starts as a state-of-the-industry conversation pivots into a live tech problem-solving session, a breakdown of how Chelle built a ful...

* Listen on the app of your choice Honestly, you’ll probably want to just skip to about minute 27 or so of this one when it goes straight into a coaching call and you see in real time how Russell’s brain works, and how it all clicks into place in 30 minutes. In this one, Russell sits down with Jermaine, a serial founder whose current passion project, Heirlight , an AI-powered estate planning app,...

Hi, I was a guest on a livestream by my friends at One Brilliant Arc (OBA) this week, and I said a lot of words. Here are some of my best takeaways. I was pretty animated in this one, and I’m still on fire even now typing this bit to you. Everyone Has the Same Four Problems Doesn’t matter if you’re publishing novels, drawing comics, running a tech company, or selling tarot decks — the problems are...

* Listen on the app of your choice I’ve been trying to understand tarot for years, but every time I tried to learn it, nothing stuck. It’s hard for me to see the framework until I break it down and rebuilt it for my weird brain. So, that’s what I did. I broke it down to first principles and rebuilt it in a language I already understood. This episode is all about the process I used to build this de...

* Listen on the app of your choice This episode is part of the January Joy(ful) Growth Club with Russell and Claire program I’m running with Claire Venus ✨ . Join and get access to special challenge and interviews all month. Join by clicking here. In this episode, we’re joined by education entrepreneur and writer Michael Simmons to explore a radically different way of thinking about work, learnin...

* Listen on the app of your choice This episode is part of the January Joy(ful) Growth Club with Russell and Claire program I’m running with Claire Venus ✨ . Join and get access to special challenge and interviews all month. Join by clicking here. In this conversation, we’re joined by artist and writer Elin Petronella from Follow Your Gut to talk about intuition, energy, and what it really takes...

* Listen on the app of your choice This episode is part of the January Joy(ful) Growth Club with Russell and Claire program I’m running with Claire Venus ✨ . Join and get access to special challenge and interviews all month. Join by clicking here. In this conversation, we’re joined by artist and illustrator Adam Ming from Ten Minute Artist to talk about what it actually means to build a creative...

* Listen on the app of your choice This episode is part of the January Joy(ful) Growth Club with Russell and Claire program I’m running with Claire Venus ✨ . Join and get access to special challenge and interviews all month. Join by clicking here. In it, I sat down with Seth Werkheiser from SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE CLUB to talk about why social media is making people miserable, and how it’s not actual...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube In this episode, we kick off the new year by slowing down on purpose. This episode is all about our new January Joy initiative we’ll be talking about all month as part of our Joyful Growth Club . Join at: https://www.joyfulgrowthclub.substack.com/ Rather than jumping straight b...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube This is the recording from December’s Path of Least Friction presentation. While I didn’t record the breakthrough sessions, I took a video of the presentation bit for you. It breaks down your path of least friction , the place where your natural strengths, joy, and effort align...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube This week, I’m bringing you sneak peek into Craft Con , a free two-day virtual summit I’m hosting with my friends at Plotdrive happening Thursday, Nov. 20 and Friday, Nov. 21 . Craft Con is all about helping authors break through their biggest creative blocks whether you’re stu...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube I ran a live breakthrough session at Author Nation, which meant I needed to introduce the whole Hapitalist system to people who’d never heard of it before. If you want to download that presentation, including a framework for running your own breakthrough session, you can do so...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube I’ve known ( Wheeler Dealer ) Maggie Beeler for years. I took her out to breakfast the first year we met and she was incredibly charming, if a little naive. Still, I wish I had an ounce of her ambition and direction at her age. Since then, she’s shed the naivete and evolved int...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube Recently, Substack added drip campaigns for “bestsellers”, which means it will probably be launched to everyone in a month or two. Claire Venus ✨ and I jumped on a call (because we’re nerds about this stuff) and talked through the new feature we’ve both been waiting for this f...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube In this power-packed session, USA Today bestselling author Russell Nohelty sits down with Shiv Chibber from Kit to break down the exact email marketing system that powers Russell's business—using automation, segmentation, and recommendations to nurture, segment, and monetize a...

Let’s be real. Most advice about growing on Substack feels either too vague to be useful or too hacky to feel good. That’s why we decided to do something different. We’re not outside observers. We live in this ecosystem. We talk to creators every day, see what’s working in real time, and watch what quietly fizzles out once the hype dies. So instead of theorizing, we sat down and gave each strategy...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube Substack is having a moment, but not everyone is thriving. In this deeply honest episode, Claire Venus and Russell Nohelty dig into what’s actually working on Substack in 2025, what’s changed, and how it fits into a larger creative business ecosystem. This isn’t a “growth hack”...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube This is our first joint live broadcast since the end of Writer MBA , and we’re kicking it off with a bang. Joining Russell Nohelty are two powerhouse guests: * Monica Leonelle , author, strategist, and creator of The World Needs Your Passion —and longtime advocate for author em...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube In this episode of The Author Stack , Russell Nohelty breaks down a critical reason why many writers struggle to build true connection with their audience—despite being good (or even great) at their craft. Russell focuses on the Forest archetype from the Author Ecosystem model,...

* Listen/subscribe on Apple * Listen/subscribe on Spotify * Listen/subscribe on Pocketcasts * Listen/subscribe on Youtube This week on the show, Russell Nohelty is joined by none other than Tyler James , creator of the ComixLaunch podcast—an essential resource for indie comic creators navigating Kickstarter. In this candid conversation between two seasoned creators, they peel back the curtain on w...