Caroline in the Garden, a musician in Atlanta, recently wrote, “I’m disgusted with myself over my phone use,” saying “my phone usage during this ‘publicity cycle’ was getting to be upwards of 6-7 hours a day.”

They’ve since deleted the social media apps and wrote a new song.

That can happen when we don’t spend all our time on social media.

How grand could we be if we spent 6-7 hours a day on your craft? Or just three? One?

That’s not possible, right?

But the social media platforms have figured that out for us. They insist we spend multiple hours every day promoting, networking, and engaging. They’ve set our schedule, sneaking in all those minutes that add up to hours throughout our day.

What if there was another way?

Maybe it’s the apps.

Maybe it’s the phone.

“Our attention is being syphoned.

They call it an Attention Economy, but it could be more aptly named the Life-Force Economy because we all feel what exactly it extracts from us.”

That’s from Kate Ellen’s new piece, “A year with a Light Phone,” which we’ll be talking about live this Saturday on Zoom.

As Kate says, “should be a lot of fun because me and Seth are pretty weird and fun. And so are you.”

JOIN THIS CALL

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS

You deleted an app, now what? Join other people on the same journey!

• A YEAR WITH A LIGHT PHONE w/ ! Sat, May 16 at 12pm EST: REGISTER → https://luma.com/hufzuizs

• CO-WORKING ZOOM CALL Tuesday, May 19th at 12:00PM EST
  REGISTER → https://luma.com/9jkxh2ok

• SETH’S 50TH BIRTHDAY! WISDOM, MISTAKES, AND LESSONS Thursday, May 21st at 2:00PM EST
  REGISTER → https://luma.com/q33s1ofy

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for!

Try Fastmail - A Gmail alternative that protects your privacy, respects your time, and puts you in control. (affiliate link).

Try Proton - your emails are never tracked, scanned, or used for advertising or AI training. (affiliate link).

You’ve put out years of thoughts and ideas and observations into the world (on social media platforms), never to be seen or heard from again, so don’t be afraid to revisit them!

You can copy and paste them, or just write a whole new take on an idea you had five years ago – whatever you do, it’ll work because it’s from you, and where you’re at right now.

As I said recently, everything you post, big or small, can inform the next thing you post. This from Debbie Weil, emphasis mine:

“I had decided not to publish this week… so I figured I’d take a week off too. But I missed writing and publishing; I pulled out my laptop yesterday afternoon and wrote this in about three hours. It’s not deep or difficult (it’s partially based on some Notes I wrote earlier).”

Writing a newsletter shouldn’t beat you up. Don’t believe the lie from social media that we have to release “new content” all the time!

Social media wants us uploading to their platform as often as possible so they can harvest your data and sell ads against it.

Let’s stop playing games we don’t wanna play (thanks, ).

Instead, let’s refocus our efforts where it matters most, on the people who love what we do, who gave us their email address and said, “I want more.”

Join our Zoom call tomorrow and let’s make sure we spending our energy on the right people.

“Last May I decided to give up my smartphone for the summer as an artistic experiment, to see if I could reclaim some of my creative time. The idea was that I would go return to my smartphone when my kids when back to school.

But summer came and went.”

That’s from Kate Ellen’s new piece, “A year with a Light Phone,” which we’ll be talking about live this Saturday on Zoom! As Kate says, “should be a lot of fun because me and Seth are pretty weird and fun. And so are you.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

We step away from social media a little bit each day - together!

• NOTES TO NEWS LETTERS Thursday, May 14 at 2:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/fku24gz8

• A YEAR WITH A LIGHT PHONE with ! Saturday, May 16

  at 12:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/hufzuizs

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD Tuesday, May 19 at 12:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/9jkxh2ok

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

Had a great chat with David McIlroy, all about deleting social media, embracing fear, Star Wars, and lots more - listen here!

I met Deanna Seymour on a big ‘ole Zoom party thing (thanks ), and she asked me to be on her Cool People doing Cool Things podcast, and we talked about getting off social media, building simple websites, and finding a better way to connect with people online- listen here!

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for!

Try Fastmail - A Gmail alternative that protects your privacy, respects your time, and puts you in control. (affiliate link).

Try Proton - your emails are never tracked, scanned, or used for advertising or AI training. (affiliate link).

This was a totally unplanned Substack Live from this morning and was totally not planned for Max Pete to join as well, but hey, sometimes things work out!

Reaching out is a practice, not a strategy. Inspired by , Max and I talked about the value of consistent, direct outreach. Not just “cold pitching,” but also genuine check-ins and asks. Max shared his “5x5 rule” from his freelancing days: five people a day, five days a week, 100 people a month. These days, though, he’s doing one a day (and this live chat counted haha)!

Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you. Max is pitching his high school and college to speak as an alumni, committing to one reach-out a day. Instead of waiting for things to fall in your lap, make the first move!

Seeds take time to grow. Max and I both noted that outreach rarely pays off in the moment, but three months later when a client drops, (maybe) something shows up. Podcasts, interviews, random YouTube uploads… it’s stuff that people can find months or years down the road.

The live element sharpens everything. Doing things live makes you sharper. That could be a Tuesday night gig in front of four people or a Substack stream in the middle of the day.

My closer: you don’t have to be the best drummer, you have to be the drummer a band wants to hang out with. Posts aren’t about getting clients directly, they’re about showing potential clients who you are, and hopefully somebody that they wanna work with someday.

Everything you post, big or small, can inform the next thing you post. This from , emphasis mine:

“I had decided not to publish this week; my editor Erin Shetron was taking a week off to drive across country, as she moves from Oregon to Philly. So I figured I’d take a week off too. But I missed writing and publishing; I pulled out my laptop yesterday afternoon and wrote this in about three hours. It’s not deep or difficult (it’s partially based on some Notes I wrote earlier).”

Your ardent supporters are on your email list, but most will never see your Note on Substack, or a random post on Threads, so repurpose that work for your subscribers!

I’ve said this for years – if you’ve been posting on social media for years, writing your next newsletter is easy, because it’s already written.

Most of your followers didn’t see your latest social media post, so re-use the photos and text and ideas and craft them into your next newsletter, where more people will see it. Give those “random posts” oxygen, new life – you never know where they might lead with the right attention!

UPCOMING EVENTS

If you want to break up with social media, you don’t have to do it alone.

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tuesday, May 12 from 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/puz394j9

• NOTES TO NEWS LETTERS Thursday, May 14 at 2:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/fku24gz8

• A YEAR WITH A LIGHT PHONE with ! Saturday, May 16

  at 12:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/hufzuizs

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

And hey, before you join a call, listen to one of my recent interviews. You’ll know pretty quickly if this is your kind of thing.

Had a great chat with David McIlroy, all about deleting social media, embracing fear, Star Wars, and lots more - listen here!

I met Deanna Seymour on a big ‘ole Zoom party thing (thanks ), and she asked me to be on her Cool People doing Cool Things podcast, and we talked about getting off social media, building simple websites, and finding a better way to connect with people online- listen here!

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for!

Try Fastmail - A Gmail alternative that protects your privacy, respects your time, and puts you in control. (affiliate link).

Try Proton - your emails are never tracked, scanned, or used for advertising or AI training. (affiliate link).

This question came up on a recent live stream: “how to make your website your hub with AI taking traffic away from us little people?”

For the last 15 years we’ve been putting our best work on every other platform than our own. It’s no wonder that people don’t think to look up our websites, right?

So let’s start.

Start putting your best work on your website. Make it the one source of truth on the entire internet.

If you’re still on social media, tell people to visit your website (but manage expectations). Put a link in your newsletter. Put it on a flyer with a QR code.

Then get YOUR biggest fans on your email list, or tell them to follow via RSS, so you’re reaching them directly regardless of what AI does with your public content on a search engine.

Get YOUR people used to the idea of looking up YOUR website, because even though AI might scrape your work, it can’t build and nurture relationships. It can’t inspire them to keep coming back for more.

That’s your job.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Social Media Escape Club is a newsletter, yes. But the magic happens on our weekly Zoom calls. If you ever want to explore leaving social media, and breaking up with big tech, and learning new ways to exist without algorithms, come join us.

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tuesday, May 12 from 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/puz394j9

• NOTES TO NEWS LETTERS Thursday, May 14 at 2:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/fku24gz8

• A YEAR WITH A LIGHT PHONE with ! Saturday, May 16

  at 12:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/hufzuizs

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

I met Deanna Seymour on a big ‘ole Zoom party thing (thanks ), and she asked me to be on her Cool People doing Cool Things podcast, and we talked about getting off social media, building simple websites, and finding a better way to connect with people online- listen here!

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for!

Try Fastmail - A Gmail alternative that protects your privacy, respects your time, and puts you in control. (affiliate link).

Try Proton - your emails are never tracked, scanned, or used for advertising or AI training. (affiliate link).

• Leaving social media doesn’t have to be permanent or dramatic. You don’t have to delete anything. Log out, delete the app, see what happens. The pull to go back is real… that’s just how these platforms are designed. Start somewhere, start small: just stop opening it.

• You are the lead magnet. People follow people, so put more of who you actually are into the world. A good personality and genuine curiosity about what other people are doing will do more for you than any post schedule or “content strategy.”

• Think small instead of viral. Three people at a Q&A is not a failure. One subscriber who sends you a 500-word reply is worth more than 1,000 passive followers. Stop trying to reach 10,000 and try to reach the right one or two people.

• Your website is an insurance policy. You need somewhere people can find you if Substack goes down, your account gets hacked, or Instagram quietly buries your profile. I talked about paperblogging.com around this point: simple, a domain, an email signup, recent posts.

• Treat reaching out as a creative practice instead of a marketing task. Talked about Carly Valancy and Tim Day (Grammy + Emmy winner, no social media, emails strangers every Tuesday from YouTube/Bandcamp credits). Outreach works even without a big audience because you’re planting seeds for your future self.

• Meg! Lewis on our group Zoom call! Thu, May 7th at 2pm EDT: luma.com/jzdkvpp2

• WHY EVERY ARTIST NEEDS A WEBSITE w/ Chuck Marshall - Sat, May 9 at 12pm EDT: luma.com/mtvucpt5

See all our upcoming events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

I get to talk to a lot of creative people, and whenever I mention the whole “having a website,” folks tune out. I think this happens because for the last decade we’ve been hammering our creative round pegs into the templated square hole website builder platforms, and they feel gross.

Not to mention we’ve been throwing our best work onto social media platforms, where at least we get some LIKES and replies on occasion, right (even when hardly anyone sees them).

For me, posting to my site (like right now) is lower stakes writing. I don’t need to think about if an algorithm will pick it, or if someone might misinterpret me and leave a nasty comment.

This site exists between something like Morning Pages, which no one will see, or a full-blown email newsletter, which goes to thousands of people.

Here is where ideas germinate, in public, with just enough tension. Something I write is likely to be referenced a week from now, or even a year (or more) later.

“My blog posts inform the posts I haven’t written yet, they become the solutions to problems I didn’t know I had. They get referenced in member calls and workshops. They become subconscious scripts for future conversations I’ll have months from now.”

Good ideas have to start somewhere.

Join us this Saturday to talk about why every artist needs a website.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Social Media Escape Club is a newsletter, yes. But the magic happens on our weekly Zoom calls. If you ever want to explore leaving social media, and breaking up with big tech, and learning new ways to exist without algorithms, come join us.

• SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS. FREE. Thu, May 7th at 2pm EDT: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2

• WHY EVERY ARTIST NEEDS A WEBSITE with ! Sat, May 9 at 12pm EDT: https://luma.com/mtvucpt5

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tuesday, May 12 from 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/puz394j9

• NOTES TO NEWS LETTERS Thursday, May 14 at 2:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/fku24gz8

• A YEAR WITH A LIGHT PHONE with ! Saturday, May 16

  at 12:00 PM EDT: https://luma.com/hufzuizs

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

I met Deanna Seymour on a big ‘ole Zoom party thing (thanks ), and she asked me to be on her Cool People doing Cool Things podcast, and we talked about getting off social media, building simple websites, and finding a better way to connect with people online- listen here!

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for!

Try Fastmail - A Gmail alternative that protects your privacy, respects your time, and puts you in control. (affiliate link).

Try Proton - your emails are never tracked, scanned, or used for advertising or AI training. (affiliate link).

Some stuff I covered during this hour long stream:

• Turning On Paid Subscriptions — Don’t overthink it; turn it on now and let people give you money!

• Finding Your Offering — You fumble around until you find the thing that energizes you instead of draining you, and also something that people actually want!

• Creative Writing vs. Strategy — Write freely first, and then you discover your strategy through the writing itself.

• Consistency — It’s about trust, not hustle. Show up and publish, over and over again. And stop apologizing for going quiet, nobody noticed!

• The Value of Going Live — The tension of live is the point; that’s what makes you sharp and builds real connection.

• Growing on Substack — Be the person people love to see in the comments! It only takes one person to change everything.

• Repurposing Content — Nobody saw your Instagram posts (or Substack Notes) anyway, so put them in your newsletter.

Be sure to check out my upcoming Zoom calls! https://luma.com/escape-pods

Subscribe now

Meg Lewis recently posted “The Grown-Up’s Guide to Growing Down,” a permission slip to skip acting our age:

“The way out is to tap into humanity, love, joy, curiosity, and play. Just like we were all born to do. The adults want us to think doing this is nonsensical and ‘childish’. But ‘childish’ is a term created to keep us alienated from what we were all supposed to be this whole time.”

Grown ups say we need to be on every social media platform, save 10% using the code BORING for our lame Square Space site, sand off all the corners of our personality, and definitely listen to what everyone says on YouTube.

Instead, we can just never log into LinkedIn again.
We can stop playing venues that serve alcohol.
Stop chasing book publishers or record labels.

We can make the things we want, the way we wanna make ’em.

So hey, sign up to hang out with Meg and I on Thursday’s Escape Pod Zoom call, and hear how Meg is navigating her own Candy Land world and soak up the inspiration from her and others living how they wanna live!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Social Media Escape Club is a newsletter, yes. But the magic happens on our weekly Zoom calls. If you ever want to explore leaving social media, and breaking up with big tech, and learning new ways to exist without algorithms, come join us.

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tue, May 5 at 12:00pm EST: https://luma.com/1y6p4ead (two hours of virtual co-working!)

• ESCAPE POD #118 W/ SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS. FREE. Thu May 7th at 2:00pm EST: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2

• BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #04: Why Every Artist Needs a Website with ! Sat, May 9 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/mtvucpt5

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for.

Try Fastmail - A Gmail alternative that protects your privacy, respects your time, and puts you in control. (affiliate link).

Try Proton mail - your emails are never tracked, scanned, or used for advertising or AI training. (affiliate link).

Our next call will be a super casual hang out, sharing our collective wisdom, mistakes, and lessons we’ve learned over the years.

SETH’S 50TH BIRTHDAY! WISDOM, MISTAKES, AND LESSONS
Thursday, May 21st at 2:00PM EST
REGISTER → https://luma.com/q33s1ofy

FULL SCHEDULE:

• CO-WORKING ZOOM CALL Tuesday, May 19th at 12:00PM EST
  REGISTER → https://luma.com/9jkxh2ok

• SETH’S 50TH BIRTHDAY! WISDOM, MISTAKES, AND LESSONS Thursday, May 21st at 2:00PM EST
  REGISTER → https://luma.com/q33s1ofy

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for!

Try Fastmail - A Gmail alternative that protects your privacy, respects your time, and puts you in control. (affiliate link).

Try Proton - your emails are never tracked, scanned, or used for advertising or AI training. (affiliate link).

On today’s live stream I talked about how to reach new folks without social media.

1. Jess Raymond’s story: 150 people, a new town, zero social media (12:00) She emailed the local newspaper, called the local radio station, passed a clipboard from the stage, and walked away with 35 new email subscribers. Read more about that here.

2. Your website is like a shingle — put something up now (21:00) You’ve been updating social media eight times a day and nobody sees it. A Google Doc or a $20 Carrd site with your name, what you do, and how to reach you is plenty.

3. Promote other people in your orbit (22:00) Use your newsletter to shine a light on artists you admire. That’s how scenes used to work, and we can do it again!

4. Social media is like a bad partner (33:12) It tells you you’re nothing without me, keeps you from your audience, and punishes you for linking offsite. You wouldn’t put up with that from a person.

5. Get your awareness off your own plate (41:45) Stop shouting about yourself on social media. Get on other people’s podcasts, newsletters, and YouTube channels — that’s how new people actually find you.

I go live throughout the week, and host Escape Pods, too; regular Zoom call where we figure this stuff out together. See our full schedule here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for. Try Fastmail free for 30 days and get 10% off your first year (affiliate link).

Someone needs exactly what you’re making, but your paths haven’t crossed yet. That’s not because you’re bad at marketing, but because the platforms are aligned against you.

Subscribe now

If you ever want to write something a little different, but you're worried what people might think - that they might (GASP) unsubscribe - fear not, friend. As I mentioned in this week's Escape Pod Zoom call, when someone brought this up:

“As the artist, as the creative person… I’m the lead magnet. People signed up for me, so they’re getting me. And if people get huffy about it and unsubscribe? Bye. I don’t want to hold back. I’m not a magazine. I don’t have editors. I want to write what I want to write.”

That’s the sort of stuff we talk about on our weekly calls.

If you ever have pangs of doubt, fear, or apprehension about the work you produce, or how you promote it (maybe without social media?!?!) then come join us on tomorrow’s Break Up 💔 With Social Media Zoom call.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Social Media Escape Club is a newsletter, yes. But the magic happens on our weekly Zoom calls. If you ever want to explore leaving social media, and breaking up with big tech, and learning new ways to exist without algorithms, come join us.

• BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #03: How do we reach new people without social media? Sat, May 2 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/n628yxes

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tue, May 5 at 12:00pm EST: https://luma.com/1y6p4ead (two hours of virtual co-working!)

• ESCAPE POD #118 W/ SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS. FREE. Thu May 7th at 2:00pm EST: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2

• BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #04: Why Every Artist Needs a Website with ! Sat, May 9 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/mtvucpt5

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

A photographer I spoke with recently asked a question a lot of creatives ask: why bother with a website when nobody visits?

Here’s my reframe: you don’t need a hundred visitors, you just need two creative directors.

The people who like your photo on Instagram won’t hire you. The creative director who finds your site and sees your work? They can hire you, then you can send you an invoice. That’s the difference between audience and client.

If you missed my Substack Live from Tuesday night , Watch it here.

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for. Try Fastmail free for 30 days and get 10% off your first year (affiliate link).

You agonized over a social media post again, didn’t you? Tweaking the copy, picking the right image, then you hit publish and waited for the likes. Then… nothing happened.

There are better ways to spend your time and energy, and it sure as heck doesn’t involve an algorithm deciding whether your work is worth showing to the people who decided to follow you.

That’s what Social Media Escape Club is about, and we’re figuring it out together.

Subscribe now

YOUR WEBSITE COULD BE A BLOG

I get asked a variation of this question quite a bit:

I do multiple things, how do I bring them all together on my website?

This always reminds me of Seth Godin’s blog.

Everyday there’s a new post. On occasion Seth is working on something new – a new book, an event, something else.

And he writes about it, and links to it.

Yes, there’s a sidebar. But the main event is that big block of text that starts at the top with a headline.

That says “we’re starting here today. Come along for the ride.”

It’s not for everybody, and that’s the point. Your blog is the cool band shirt you wear on the first day of school, or the book you read on the subway, or the shade of green you dye your hair.

You’re not for everyone, but the people that can pick up on those cues? Those are your people.

If you hate the idea of starting a website but you realize it’s probably a good idea, come talk about it with us this Thursday.

THE PEOPLE YOU’RE TRYING TO REACH MIGHT NOT BE ON SOCIAL MEDIA ANYMORE

Platforms display view counts of short form “content,” but that doesn’t mean you’re required to play along. Are those numbers even accurate?

Lots of people drive past billboards everyday on highways, but so what?

It’s 2026 and $20 magazines exist. People are buying vinyl records. Young people are buying digital cameras and camcorders and CD players.

There is a possibility that people you’re trying to reach aren’t even on social media anymore.

How do we reach new people without social media? Join us on Saturday and let’s discover some new ways together.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Social Media Escape Club is a newsletter, yes. But the magic happens on our weekly Zoom calls. If you ever want to explore leaving social media, and breaking up with big tech, and learning new ways to exist without algorithms, come join us.

• ESCAPE POD #117 - EMAIL, AND THEN WHAT? Thu, Apr 30th at 2:00pm EST: https://luma.com/7asv89sv

• BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #03: How do we reach new people without social media? Sat, May 2 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/n628yxes

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tue, May 5 at 12:00pm EST: https://luma.com/1y6p4ead (two hours of virtual co-working!)

• ESCAPE POD #118 W/ SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS. FREE. Thu May 7th at 2:00pm EST: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2

• BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #04: Why Every Artist Needs a Website with ! Sat, May 9 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/mtvucpt5

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

Oh yeah, I did a quick Substack Live last night where I made a clear case for directing traffic to Bandcamp and an email list instead of Spotify or Instagram, and also how two creative directors visiting your website is worth more than 500 random views. Watch it here.

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for. Try Fastmail free for 30 days and get 10% off your first year (affiliate link).

• The platforms are rigged. Someone groaned about figuring out what to post for a Friday release, and I pointed out the math: 10% of followers might see it regardless of effort. It’s not your fault. You don’t suck. it’s just how the game is set up.

• Stop sending people to places where you can’t reach them. I made a clear case for directing traffic to Bandcamp and an email list instead of Spotify or Instagram. The fan who clicks “follow” on Instagram probably won’t see your next ten posts, but the email subscriber will probably open your next newsletter.

• Two people helped get 150 people to a show. I told the story of Jes Raymond reaching out to a local newspaper and a radio station before playing a town they’d never played before. Direct outreach beat a week of social media posts.

• Your email list is the long term project to build. Whether it’s a clipboard passed around at a show, a photo booth that trades photos for email addresses, or a Bandcamp purchase exported into Substack, every tactic I talked about circles back to collecting contact info you actually own.

• You don’t a million people, you need the right people. I used the example of a photographer: two creative directors visiting their site is worth more than 500 random views. One person on a nonprofit’s email list forwarded a story to a Pearl Jam forum — and Pearl Jam shared it to millions.

Subscribe now

Hi, I’m Seth, and I’m handing you permission slip to break up with social media. If you’re banging your head against the wall, trying to make every post just right, please trust and believe that bowing to algorithms isn’t a requirement (and we’re figuring that out together).

As Substack co-founder Hamish KcKenzie recently said, “email is an important distribution channel. It should not be your only one.”

I’m pretty he didn’t mean “if you’ve built everything on Substack and Substack goes away tomorrow, you’re fucked,” but well, the shoe fits.

Email lists are wonderful, of course, but only until Substack has an outage, or KIT suspends your account (I’ve heard that happen), or Gmail banishes your email to the promo folder (or worse).

The entirety of your work shouldn’t live on a platform you don’t own; not Substack, not Instagram, not YouTube. A website you own, on a hosting service you pay for, via files you can back up - that’s your safest bet.

Publishing your work on your own website ensures your biggest fans can find it, even when they don’t get an email from you.

​Join us later this week on Zoom to talk about making sure all your hard work won’t disappear at the whims of the techbro empire.

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS:

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tue Apr 28 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/vfukbhlk (two hours of virtual co-working!)

• ESCAPE POD #117 - EMAIL, AND THEN WHAT? Thu, Apr 30th at 2pm EST: https://luma.com/7asv89sv

• BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #03: How do we reach new people without social media? https://luma.com/n628yxes

• ESCAPE POD #118 W/ SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS. FREE. Thu May 7th at 2pm EST: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for. Try Fastmail free for 30 days and get 10% off your first year (affiliate link).

Hi, I’m Seth, one of the first 3,000 nerds to sign up for Twitter. I ran a metal blog for AOL Music, sent email campaigns for Death Row Records, and these days I’m trying to help make it less scary for creative people to leave social media.

From Lauren Bliss over at Thought Enthusiast:

I recently took a month off from social media, and while I initially thought it would be detrimental to my work, like I needed to stay tapped into trends and what other brands are doing, it actually had the opposite effect. I felt like I had more creative ideas because my brain wasn’t bogged down by endless content (and constant bad news).

This is why some people say to take walks without listening to a podcast, or eat without watching YouTube videos – we need to give our brains time to process and sort things out! By doing so we might actually think of our next great idea!

Can you take a break?
Can you log off?
Could you delete a social media app?

Come hang out with me on Zoom and let’s talk about it!

Can’t make it? Here’s a replay of Friday’s Substack Live.

STOP YELLING AT CIRCUIT BOARDS! The algorithm isn’t your friend or your enemy, it’s just dumb code. Stop waiting for it to show you cool things and find fill your life with rad people who tell you about cool stuff!

THE “READS” TAB IS A CHEAT CODE. Click through someone’s Substack profile and browse who they’re subscribed to. Infinite discovery without a single algorithm involved.

EMAIL ISN’T YOUR ONLY DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL. Hey, that’s what Hamish says! Learn about RSS, YouTube, a simple voice note podcast - multiple ways to reach people even more directly than email. This will be the focus next week’s Escape Pod #117 - find out more here.

KNOW WHAT YOUR CREATIVE FRIENDS ARE DOING so you can talk about them with your other creative friends! A common theme today, like I say - human curation beats algorithmic curation!

LET PEOPLE HEAR YOUR VOICE. In an age of AI text, your actual voice is the differentiator (even without a fancy microphone, or a 4K camera).

WATCH THE REPLAY

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS:

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tue Apr 28 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/vfukbhlk (two hours of virtual co-working!)

• LET’S BUILD AND HOST YOUR OWN LINKTREE IN 90 MINUTES, Wed Apr 29th at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/v5yvyvi2

• ESCAPE POD #117 - EMAIL, AND THEN WHAT? Thu, Apr 30th at 2pm EST: https://luma.com/7asv89sv

• LET’S BUILD AND HOST YOUR OWN LINKTREE IN 90 MINUTES, Sat May 2nd at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/n73cc7yo

• ESCAPE POD #118 W/ SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS. FREE. Thu May 7th at 2pm EST: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

Subscribe now

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for. Try Fastmail free for 30 days and get 10% off your first year (affiliate link).

On today’s casual stream on this fine Friday afternoon, I had some thoughts:

STOP YELLING AT CIRCUIT BOARDS! The algorithm isn’t your friend or your enemy, it’s just dumb code. Stop waiting for it to show you cool things and find fill your life with rad people who tell you about cool stuff!

THE “READS” TAB IS A CHEAT CODE. Click through someone’s Substack profile and browse who they’re subscribed to. Infinite discovery without a single algorithm involved.

EMAIL ISN’T YOUR ONLY DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL. Hey, that’s what Hamish says! Learn about RSS, YouTube, a simple voice note podcast - multiple ways to reach people even more directly than email.

KNOW WHAT YOUR CREATIVE FRIENDS ARE DOING so you can talk about them with your other creative friends! A common theme today, as human curation beats algorithmic curation every time.

LET PEOPLE HEAR YOUR VOICE. In an age of AI text, your actual voice is the differentiator (even without a fancy microphone).

Hi, I’m Seth and that’s Blue (meow). He returned to the cosmos today after we discovered a growth in his belly on Monday. I miss ya, buddy.

If you’d like to help offset the $1,500 in vet bills, you can buy me a coffee or two here, and / or become Social Media Escape Club member here.

One person on your email list can make a big difference.

I found out that Pearl Jam posted about the local nonprofit community art center Alice and I started, Art House Grandview, on their Instagram.

Three point eight million followers. A photo of a kid at Art House learning guitar, small hands on the neck of an instrument almost too big for them. Their foundation, the Vitalogy Foundation, picked Art House as the April recipient of their Future Days Fund grant. The money goes directly into the programs where we teach kids music for free.

Joshua Heath Scott wrote a newsletter, ‘HOW GUITAR CHANGED MY LIFE,’ and someone on the email list forwarded it to Pearl Jam’s foundation, which led to them highlighting Art House Grandview.

Joshua wrote that piece as only he could, talking about how Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’ album was a huge influence, and “I’ve spent a lot of time on this Substack trying to articulate why art and creativity matter — why guitar matters — why it’s more than an instrument, why it carries the weight of where music has been, why holding one connects you to something larger than yourself.”

This is the core of talking about what we do.

We don’t just play music, we change lives.

We don’t just write essays, we shape culture.

We don’t just take photos, we document the world around us.

When we reduce ourselves to commodity offerings (check out my song, buy my print, read my article), we can’t be surprised when it’s treated as “content.”

So talk about your work in the same creative manner in which you make it. Dare to say you’re a writer even if you’re not “published.” Call yourself a photographer, a musician, a poet.

If the ding-dongs running the United States right now can claim they know what they’re doing, you have my permission to be anything you wanna be.

Let’s not define ourselves by our primary source of income, as we were put on earth for reasons beyond comprehension, beyond punching someone else’s time clock to pay the rent.

Subscribe now

Join me and the Social Media Escape Club TOMORROW, April 23 at 2pm EST, as we talk about this (and more), and you’ll leave with some new ways to talk about your work – sign up here.

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS:

• LET’S BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #02, Sat Apr 25 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/4eqvlsck (this is gonna be a new weekly event)

• LET’S BUILD AND HOST YOUR OWN LINKTREE IN 90 MINUTES, Wed Apr 29th at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/v5yvyvi2

• LET’S BUILD AND HOST YOUR OWN LINKTREE IN 90 MINUTES, Sat May 2nd at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/n73cc7yo

• ESCAPE POD #118 W/ SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS. FREE. Thu May 7th at 2pm EST: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

Subscribe now

◾ Look good, feel good. I use Boom to make my Zoom calls for the camera controls (like exposure and vibrance), and share my screen in super fun and creative ways (affiliate link).

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for. Try Fastmail free for 30 days and get 10% off your first year (affiliate link).

Hi, I’m Seth, one of the first 3,000 nerds to sign up for Twitter. I ran a metal blog for AOL Music, sent email campaigns for Death Row Records, and these days I’m trying to help make it less scary for creative people to leave social media.

ESCAPE POD #116
LET’S GET BETTER AT TALKING ABOUT OUR WORK ZOOM CALL
Thursday, April 23 from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT
Pay what you want, starting at $3 (or free for members)
Replay available if you sign up.
Register here: https://luma.com/f5p4u3u0

I’m no sales expert, but I’ve watched enough YouTube videos to know about “scripts.” Literally planned out lines of dialogue to making the sale in person or on the phone. Teams will even review calls from during the week, just to make adjustments and get better.

With most things, there are extremes.

I’m not saying we need to script everything, but maybe we can prepare just a bit for when we’re asked about our work!

I used to stumble through this, talking about a mix of my day job stuff (D2C email marketing operations for a record label), work I do but don’t advertise (admin work an independent hard rock and metal music publicist), and eventually get to the thing I love doing, Social Media Escape Club.

These days, when someone asks that dreaded, “so what do you do” question, I know what I’m saying:

“I help make it less scary for creative people to get away from social media.”

If I wanna do more of the work that I want to do, people need to know that I do it. Even if they’re not my next client, they might have an artist friend who recently complained to them about Instagram, and so now they might be able to recommend me.

Is it perfect? Of course not, but it’s better than nothing!

Join me and the Social Media Escape Club this Thursday, April 23 at 2pm EST, because we’re gonna talk about this (and more), and you’ll leave with some new ways to talk about your work – sign up here.

Thursday, April 23 from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT
Pay what you want, starting at $3 (or free for members)
Replay available if you sign up.
Register here: https://luma.com/f5p4u3u0

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS:

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tues Apr 21 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/w767uysy (two hours of virtual co-working!)

• LET’S BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #02, Sat Apr 25 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/4eqvlsck (this is gonna be a new weekly event)

• LET’S BUILD AND HOST YOUR OWN LINKTREE IN 90 MINUTES, Wed Apr 29th at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/v5yvyvi2

• LET’S BUILD AND HOST YOUR OWN LINKTREE IN 90 MINUTES, Sat May 2nd at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/n73cc7yo

• ESCAPE POD #118 W/ SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS. FREE. Thu May 7th at 2pm EST: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

Subscribe now

◾ Look good, feel good. I use Boom to make my Zoom calls for the camera controls (like exposure and vibrance), and share my screen in super fun and creative ways (affiliate link).

◾ Your email is important enough to pay for. Try Fastmail free for 30 days and get 10% off your first year (affiliate link).

• Substack Notes is just another social media feed. Write a newsletter, hit send, do it again next week.

• Spend an hour a week with peers. Find people doing what you do, then learn and grow together.

• You don’t need a reason to email someone you admire! Just tell them you love their work, no ask required. See also: CARLY VALANCY SAYS REACHING OUT IS A CREATIVE PRACTICE

• There are millions of people who’ve never heard of Substack. The platform is not the ceiling of your audience. Trust me, there’s a whole world out there!

Subscribe now