10,000 subscribers in my first 4 months on Substack?

I love the Substack community and just this past weekend my Substack passed 10,000 subscribers. Not paid, free subscribers.

These past 4 months since Iaunched on Substack have been a joy, but also lots of hard work. Writing long-form content takes time and is not easy. And navigating Substack as a new creator/writer was a bit challenging... I still struggle with finding my voice on Notes and Chat. And I have not tried the video feature yet, although I watched many videos on Substack.

Some told me I should start paid subscriptions ASAP, others have told me to wait for the subscriber count to grow... What should I do? What has your experience been?