My biggest thing has been controlling our platform. Seeing what happened to Lucy Werner shook me, and is the reason I've moved memberships off of Substack, and really started bolstering my own website for Social Media Escape Club.
I'm very happy you started Escape Pods, it really made my year! All the conversations, people, sharing ideas and resources, jokes, all the things that happen in those calls. Highly recommend for people to join :)
Of the 19 times someone performed one of my pieces of music (I'm a composer) this year, 17 of those times were because I directly reached out to an individual musician or ensemble, not because they were passively consuming or interacting with me or my content on social media.
I was fortunate enough to have Fivemind Reeds, a brilliant young chamber group based out of LA, take on my music and they played it to the hilt, pulling things out of the music I didn't even realize were there.
I really appreciate your encouragement and support, Diana!
Oh wow, I just listened and my brain feels like it had a wash in a brisk stream, and has been hung out to dry in the winter winds in the sunlight! Thank you for posting the link to it, and thank you to the person who asked for that!!
I started the year thinking, "I'm never going to have an art studio space outside my home", but now I do. I'm ending the year by finishing my first book, Mark Rushton's Abundant Spare Time, which is an edited edition of this past year's Posts on Substack plus music recommendations and some hearty extras. It's not about selling books. It's about getting the thing out the door and moving on.
Deactivating all my legacy social media profiles on October 1st has had a profound impact on my wellbeing and a force multiplier for building and serving the Creative on Purpose community. Your example and encouragement made it happen, Seth!
On craft…I’m surprised that I am still doing my calligraphy. I often flit from hobby to hobby but something about the variety of possibility in the art has kept me hooked.
On SM, I’m slowly detaching more and more. I essentially cut out FB an IG after I heard the did some shadow deletions at the start id the year. Bluesky was a dud during inktober. And while I still enjoy Notes, something has shifted and I’m not gonna let the algo determine my behavior just to get a few extra views. Better to just detach.
My big find this year was the cult of done manifesto that has helped me close out some old projects. It helped me publish or perish half of my pile old blog drafts …hopefully I’ll finish the job in ‘26. Maybe by getting creative about diverging my substack newsletter vs my personal blog (using time that’s been freed up by not hitting Notes every moment).
My biggest thing has been controlling our platform. Seeing what happened to Lucy Werner shook me, and is the reason I've moved memberships off of Substack, and really started bolstering my own website for Social Media Escape Club.
I'm very happy you started Escape Pods, it really made my year! All the conversations, people, sharing ideas and resources, jokes, all the things that happen in those calls. Highly recommend for people to join :)
Thank you for being a part of them, Diana!
Of the 19 times someone performed one of my pieces of music (I'm a composer) this year, 17 of those times were because I directly reached out to an individual musician or ensemble, not because they were passively consuming or interacting with me or my content on social media.
Ooooh, I love that!
That's amazing! Congratulations, I'd love to listen to some of your music.
Thank you, Diana!
I'll point you to my favorite performance of the year—of my new piece "A Sunward Tilt":
https://www.shanevallemusic.com/a-sunward-tilt
I was fortunate enough to have Fivemind Reeds, a brilliant young chamber group based out of LA, take on my music and they played it to the hilt, pulling things out of the music I didn't even realize were there.
I really appreciate your encouragement and support, Diana!
wowwww, this was so fun!
Oh wow, I just listened and my brain feels like it had a wash in a brisk stream, and has been hung out to dry in the winter winds in the sunlight! Thank you for posting the link to it, and thank you to the person who asked for that!!
What a wonderfully evocative way to describe the music! Thank you for your close listening and for your kind words, pook!
I started the year thinking, "I'm never going to have an art studio space outside my home", but now I do. I'm ending the year by finishing my first book, Mark Rushton's Abundant Spare Time, which is an edited edition of this past year's Posts on Substack plus music recommendations and some hearty extras. It's not about selling books. It's about getting the thing out the door and moving on.
Oooh, heck yessss I love this!
Deactivating all my legacy social media profiles on October 1st has had a profound impact on my wellbeing and a force multiplier for building and serving the Creative on Purpose community. Your example and encouragement made it happen, Seth!
YESSSS love love love this!!!
On craft…I’m surprised that I am still doing my calligraphy. I often flit from hobby to hobby but something about the variety of possibility in the art has kept me hooked.
On SM, I’m slowly detaching more and more. I essentially cut out FB an IG after I heard the did some shadow deletions at the start id the year. Bluesky was a dud during inktober. And while I still enjoy Notes, something has shifted and I’m not gonna let the algo determine my behavior just to get a few extra views. Better to just detach.
My big find this year was the cult of done manifesto that has helped me close out some old projects. It helped me publish or perish half of my pile old blog drafts …hopefully I’ll finish the job in ‘26. Maybe by getting creative about diverging my substack newsletter vs my personal blog (using time that’s been freed up by not hitting Notes every moment).