WELCOME TO THE SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE CLUB

◼️ You’re tired of social media, but wondering if there’s life after the newsfeed. That’s exactly what we figure out here - together. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Hi, I’m Seth Werkheiser
Contact → seth@socialmediaescape.club
Join our weekly Zoom calls
Work with Seth

Instead of devoting so much time to socials, let’s discover ways to get awareness off our plate (and let other people promote our work for us).

Because the reality is, "your social media followers miss almost everything you post.”

Experts say not being on TikTok is a missed opportunity, but we miss opportunities every day because we are singular creative beings and must do the dishes or cover a shift at work. It’s time to stop following the creative path of other people and expecting the same results.

Let’s find ways to expand our work with other people, in real life, in smaller networks, instead of giving our best work to Zuckerberg and Musk, because social media thrives on the illusion of its necessity.

Looking for some personalized help? Check out my Email Guidance offering.

We’re so scared of leaving social media because we’ve been led to believe we’ll be alone without it. But we can delete an app today, to start (don’t worry, you can reinstall it). And as we practice leaving social media, we’ll realize that social media FOMO is a lie. And that outdated expectations kill creative dreams.

Are we so powerless to change the current situation that we sit back and hope somebody else fixes everything?

And then what? That person will sell the company to a Nabisco+Tide hedge fund subsidiary, and we’ll be back where we started.

Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer.

Soon we start saying “not my business,” we outlive social media with a website and an email list, and then we dance on the smoldering remains of the techbro internet.

Because social media loses power when we build community in other places.That’s why your next big breakthrough will happen with other creative people. It’s a big world out there, filled with lots of creative people, and that’s why opportunities exist outside of social media.

◼️ Free subscribers get all this:

• One or two email newsletters per week with advice, strategies, and hope for bolstering your work without social media.

◼️ Paid subscribers support each other in our weekly Zoom calls

As of May 28, 2025 I’ve discontinued paid subscriptions here on Substack, but I still offer weekly Zoom calls!

◼️WHO IS SETH WERKHEISER?

◼️ Starting a music blog in 2001 was how this all started.

◼️ Over the years I’ve sent email newsletters for Artists & Fleas, SOFIE, Black Label Society, Nina Nastasia, and Solid MFG, and I helped photographer Noah Kalina get his newsletter going again, too.

◼️ I launched the Noisecreep metal blog for AOL Music back in 2008.

◼️ These days I do D2C email operations for Grammy Award-winning MNRK Heavy: home to bands like High On Fire, Underoath, Creeping Death, Rolo Tomassi, The Callous Daoboys, Crowbar, and tons more. I also send emails for Last Gang Records.

◼️ I sent D2C emails for Death Row Records in 2021 (before it got sold to Snoop Dog) and individual band campaigns for Holdtight PR in mid-2022.

◼️ Started Skull Toaster in 2011 and posted over 2,000 metal trivia questions on Twitter.

◼️ I co-founded Metal Bandcamp Gift Club which has helped independent bands sell thousands of albums since 2016 (read my interview with Bandcamp).

◼️ I run a blog with photos and posts dating back to 2004.

◼️ I make soundscapes for your interplanetary commute.

When do we stop doing things we hate for people who don't care and start doing things we love for people who already love what we do?

• “God, I hate posting on social media.”

• ”Making content for social media is so draining.”

• ”All the time I spend on social media promoting my work feels like such waste of time.”

Want personalized help? Check out my Email Guidance offering.