This started as an accident. Here’s what it’s becoming.
👋Hi! I'm Molly. This is where I share the lessons I’ve learned from building fast-moving, messy, ambitious companies. For more from me, you can also find me on the WorkLife Podcast, on LinkedIn, and in Glue Club, a community for leaders who care about building great companies.
The short version: I’m adding a paid tier to this Substack. Posts will be free for the first 7 days, and paid subscribers will get access to the full Lessons library (all past posts) plus additional features — our library of video courses, commenting, and occasional exclusive content or experiences. Glue Club members will have full access to the paid tier.
As with most of the best things I’ve built, this Substack started as an accident.
4 years ago, I was taking four months off to travel with my family. I didn’t want to be on social media — posting on LinkedIn mostly — during that time, but I did want to keep writing. So I started a Substack. As you can tell from the first post, there was no strategy, no launch plan. I just wanted a place to think out loud while I was away from the day-to-day noise.
Fast forward: Over 680,000 reads and 10,000+ subscribers later, I’ve realized a couple of things.
First, I care deeply about helping people I might never meet, and writing is a great way to do that. Everything I post is meant to travel, be shared, and reach the people it can help, wherever they are. I’m always thrilled when someone emails or stops me to tell me that something I’ve written made them feel more sane or more capable. That’s why I write.
Second, over time, this has become more than a stream of random posts. It’s turned into a body of work: ideas and frameworks people return to again and again — patterns that hold up over time, even as jobs, titles, and companies change. I’m always amazed by the number of people who open an email from Lessons over and over again. The highest compliment.
Taken together, Lessons has started to function like a library — a resource-rich place for people who want to return to these ideas as they learn, grow, and navigate their careers.
At the same time, the most interesting part of this work for me isn’t just publishing — it’s the conversations that happen around it. The real questions people ask. The “ok, but what do I actually do in my situation?” moments. Right now, most of the feedback I get about my writing comes from friends, Glue Club members, or people I meet randomly — which I love, but it’s also a bit scattered.
I believe that the container for these conversations really matters. I want to be more intentional about that here. By creating a paid experience on Lessons, I aim to create a space for thoughtful dialogue and shared learning with a broader audience. This isn’t meant to be a bustling forum. It’s a small room I want to build carefully — one where people can think out loud, be honest, help each other, and discuss real situations without performative hot takes. I get a huge amount of joy out of helping people — and honestly, some of my best ideas come from those conversations too (see: Disagree and Let’s See).
For those interested in being a part of that experience, paid subscribers will have…
Full access to the full Lessons library as it grows.
Longer-form video courses on frameworks and tools I’ve picked up (and, in some cases, had to relearn the hard way).
Occasional content or experiences exclusively for this tier
You can pay for it monthly or annually.
Free subscribers can read all posts for the first 7 days.
And for members of the Glue Club, paid access is included in your membership — no action needed. Glue Club will remain its own thing: a place for leaders to connect with peers, learn from experts, and reflect on how they want to lead and where they want to go in their careers. Lessons is meant to be a complement and a resource for you too.
Many of you will remain free subscribers, which is great. As I said, posts will be free for 7 days, so you can read and share what’s useful.
Thanks for being here and helping me learn and grow over the last four years.
I care a lot about building the Lessons experience carefully and intentionally, and I’m excited to see what it becomes.
❤️,
Molly
What else?
If this resonates for you, here are things you can do next:
Subscribe to Lessons to get new posts. I post at least 2X per month for all, and paid subscribers also get access to video courses and the full library of content.
Listen to the WorkLife podcast, where I talk to brilliant leaders and builders to untangle the messy, human side of work.
Follow me on LinkedIn, where I share more tools, thoughts, and a little of the day-to-day chaos.
And if you’re a leader looking for a community of peers to lean on and learn from, come find out more about Glue Club over here.