Everyone seems to be talking about Substack right now, and if you are a yoga teacher trying to figure out where to spend your limited time online, you have probably wondered whether it is worth adding one more thing to your plate. So I brought that exact question to Jo Hutton, who has built one of the most engaged wellness communities in the UK with over 46,000 subscribers on Substack. Her answer surprised me in a few places, and I think it will genuinely help you decide.

Jo has been teaching yoga for over 16 years. She ran her own studio in Newcastle for about a decade, trained more than 50 yoga teachers, and built a beautiful local community long before any of the online growth happened.

Then in 2022 she burned out completely. She stepped back, rebuilt her practice slowly, and out of that season came Yoga for Tired People, the brand she now grows on Substack. I share this because her Substack success did not come from being some natural online marketer. It came from being willing to experiment at a point when she was essentially starting over.

Why Jo Turned to Substack in the First Place

Something Jo said really stuck with me. She had gotten so used to thinking of Instagram as a shop front, a place to display her wares, that she felt creatively blocked there. She wanted somewhere she could actually write and play, and say more than a caption allows.

Substack gave her that space. It is built for longer-form writing, so she could explore an idea properly instead of squeezing everything into one post that had to do all the work at once.

What Actually Grew Her Substack to 46,000 Subscribers

This is the part that surprised me most. When Jo started on Substack, she had zero followers, and she deliberately did not try to drag her Instagram audience over. She wanted a fresh place where nobody knew her, so she could find her voice again.

She spent about six months just posting and experimenting before things really started to build. And the majority of her 46,000 subscribers did not come from Instagram at all. They came from inside the Substack ecosystem itself, largely through Notes, which is Substack’s own feed, a little like the old Twitter.

That matters for you, because it means Substack is not only a place to send your existing audience. It can actually grow your audience for you.

Why Substack Subscribers Tend to Be Warmer Leads

Jo was honest that moving people from Instagram to Substack is not easy. People have platform fatigue, and the last thing they want is to be asked to sign up somewhere new.

But the ones who do make that move tend to be much warmer. They are more likely to pay for her paid offering and more likely to actually engage in the community. When someone chooses to follow you onto a quieter, more personal platform, they are telling you they want to go deeper with you.

Is Substack an Email List?

This is the point I most want yoga teachers to hear. If you have followed me for any length of time, you know I believe your email list is one of the most valuable things you can build, because it is yours in a way your Instagram following never really will be.

Substack functions as an email list. When you publish, your writing lands directly in your subscribers’ inboxes. So growing on Substack is not a distraction from building your list. For Jo, it became one of the best ways she has ever grown it.

Consistency Is What Makes It Work

I do not want you to walk away thinking Jo simply got lucky. She has posted a video every single week for two years without missing one, and she usually sends three emails a week on top of that.

What makes that pace sustainable is repurposing. Most mornings she writes one caption she can use on both Instagram and Substack Notes, and those same pieces even became chapters in her book. She is not creating everything from scratch every time. She reworks what already resonated, she is not afraid to repeat her core messages, and she pays attention to what performed well so she is building on real information rather than guessing.

So, Is Substack Worth It for Yoga Teachers?

My honest take, after this conversation, is that it depends on what you actually enjoy and what you want it to do for you.

If you love to write and you have more to say than a caption allows, Substack could be the most enjoyable and sustainable place for you to build. It can grow a new audience, and it doubles as your email list at the same time. On top of that, it tends to attract people who are ready to go deeper with you. If writing feels like a chore, it is probably not the platform to force yourself onto, and that is completely fine too.

What I would take from Jo more than anything is this. She built something real by giving herself permission to experiment and by staying consistent in a way that actually felt good to her. And underneath all of it, she was always building toward an audience she owns.

Follow Jo Hutton

Follow Jo on Instagram, where she talks all things yoga: @johuttonyoga

Check out her Substack: https://happyyoga.substack.com/subscribe