🪴 Parish News
Hiya 🌊,
First up, if you found me from the Beehiiv Creator Spotlight interview, welcome, welcome. This is The Hype monthly edit, which you receive as a free reader!
Natalia Perez-Gonzalez
For the next year, I'm not going more. I'm going better.
Without Substack. Without ads to grow my business.
Sharing the beauty in the boring with you.
And I wrote myself a Hype manifesto which you are welcome to borrow.
The headline in my drafts for this time next year is: "How I grew my newsletter business 200% in 12-months since leaving Substack".
Whilst I do want to ramp up my own hype and show you how I do it, I'm also giving myself the next six weeks to focus on the foundations: business systems, website improvements and community upgrades and I'll share it all as I go!
Stick around. I've got a few gifts and updated book resources coming your way soon.
Let's get into it.
Lucy x
💡 Inside The Hype This Month
A quick recap of what we’ve been talking about inside The Hype paid community:
- 📈 Replay: Setting PR goals for 2026 and live Q&A
- 📚 December Directory - Bi-monthly pitching opportunities a few expire at the end of this month - hurry!)
- 🌈 The Secret Colour-Coding trick I use to Hype Myself
- 🕵🏻♀️ #004 - Does your audience know what you are selling?
- 🙋🏻♀️ Why I share outrageous goals publicly
- 📋 Top 11 books - For freelancers, business owners and small biz owners from Hype readers
- 🗄️ Useful things: Contents Page, FAQs,
If you have not, come and introduce yourself or say hello to others here: Come and Sit With Us (I reply to everyone — and if you share a PR challenge, I’ll offer suggestions too.).
🔮 What’s Coming Up in The Hype
- 📆 Calendar dates directory — my OG newsletter resource (first launched in in 2021) is back by popular demand!
- 🤪 My favourite mistakes of 2025 — you don't need another highlights reel, so here's what really happened behind the scenes
- 📰 Q1 is all about pitching.
💡Hit reply: tell me a podcast, newspaper, magazine, radio or platform you want to be featured on — and I’ll see what guest opportunities we can uncover
🚀 Building in Public — The Road to 1,000 Paid Subscribers
Current count: 375
This month’s focus: Creating better community connection and sharing the beauty in the boring publicly
What worked: Promoting paid members inside weekly emails, the monthly edit, and stand-alone listicles.
What I’m tweaking: Updating free book resources and refining the welcome email series for both free and paid readers.
Takeaway for you: I’m still moving backwards on paid numbers — and I know I’ll reverse it. I’m owning it publicly because there’s no shame in a dip when you’re in a period of change
🌍 Mini Directory — Free Opportunities for Everyone 👇
Here are a few public-domain opportunities worth jumping on now if you want something to pitch before year-end
- 🗞️ Ever wanted to create your own newspaper? Playground Magazine & Newspaperclub are inviting you to create your very own printed publication.
📆 Deadline 15th February 2026 Submit here - 🎤 SXSW London 2026 is open for submissions: Talks, artists, promoters, workshops & more. Read the guidelines here.
- 🗺️ OFFF Barcelona is inviting creators worldwide to submit motion artworks for this unique public projection. Submission guidelines here.
- 🌍 Web Summit Rio 2026: Submit your speaker submission here
💡 Pro tip: These are all public-domain opportunities. Paid members receive curated, journalist-verified openings in the full Hype Directory published bi-monthly.
📈 Curated hype trends - What is hot?
Trends aren’t just noise, each one gives you a ready-made hook for pitching, posting, or commenting this week
📈 Vogue Business TikTok Trends.
Many a social media trend starts on TikTok before spilling into mainstream media. Worth checking you’re not missing a timely news hook.
📹 The year on YouTube: The topics, creators, music, and podcasts that defined 2025
🎄 Brits are more likely to do something charitable at Christmas time. I love a good classic research-led newshook PR piece. For national press, surveys with ~2,000 respondents tend to be the minimum. Regardless, if you have a warm “and finally” story: a strange tradition, volunteering habit, or festive anecdote now is a great time to pitch print, radio or broadcast.
🧡 Paid Reader Wins of the Month
- 📘 Beatrice N. Kabutakapua, author & founder of The Business Storytelling Centre, whose recently published book, Lead With Your Story, became an Amazon best-seller in the DEI category.
- 🏆 Karen Webber from Goodness Marketing winner of two national awards leading to local newspaper cover star
- ✏️ Emma Thompson secured a paid commission for Grazia magazine on the Midlife Collison
- 🎥 Louis Grenier launched a new YouTube series involving what appears to be the open kidnapping of three freelancers
🏠 House News
🎙️ Today:
I'm hosting a live Borrow Everything I know about Growing a Newsletter for Creative Mornings. Last few online seats left - Register here.
📚 Coming up:
Freelancer Magazine Masterclass Live:
📆 Go from survival mode to fully booked in 2026 — 4–5 March (2-day virtual event)
🎟️ Grab your ticket and see full line-up here
🏡 Retreat news:
June is sold out 🎉
Only four cabins left for September 2026 → Save your spot here. with a holding deposit.
🎧 Community shoutout:
Huge thank you to Kevin Chung from StandOut Authors for interviewing me, you can read the piece here.
🧾 Are you a creator with a platform?
Got a podcast, newsletter or membership and want a guest expert?
I’m compiling the next Hype Directory for Feb → Submit here
New to me and my work?
- 🎧 Podcast playlist
- 📚 Books: Hype Yourself, Brand Yourself, No-Nonsense PR
- 💻 Domestika PR course
- 🤓 Book me for a one-to-one mentoring 2026 - (5 slots left for Q1)
- 🏡 Creative Writing Retreat 2026 - 4 cabins left for September 2026
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