My friend Bradley Spitzer sent me this, from David Hieatt:

A newsletter is playing the long game. But it is a good game. The more you can help your readers, the more they trust you.

Around 2 years ago, I started a paid for newsletter.

98% of your free newsletter readers won’t sign up for it. 2% will.

That’s enough.

Then make sure you put a ton of effort into writing it.

And just keep going.

Your biggest talent is you won’t quit.

You don’t have to out run a bear, you just have to out run your friends.

This my third conversation with Max Pete, and we talk about the difference between having an audience and building an actual community, the slow grind of consistent output versus going viral, and why honest and real beats polished on social right now – and actually how the most best thing you can do on any platform isn’t broadcast, but connect people to each other.

“One of the coolest things about having an audience is bridging the gap between so-and-so and someone else. Being like, oh, someone’s looking for someone — I know that person. I can connect them together. That is the coolest thing.”

If you’re looking for help with building a regular outreach habit or just need a pep talk about charging what you’re worth, this is a good one to watch.

I drop post ideas into WordPress drafts throughout the week. Then, on the weekends, I flesh out those posts and schedule them.

That’s over 100 posts so far this year on this site. Just four have 100+ views. But this is the practice, something I do regardless of who shows up.

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.

Blogging is lower stakes writing, and the payoff goes far beyond views.

I noted this comment from Sarah Jo Austin, which perfectly aligns with our Social Media Escape Club vibes:

“I wore myself out last year making IG reels out of my Substack content. I stopped in January, thinking I would go back, but the time and creative energy I’ve gotten back is worth not engaging in IG at all.”

Trying to convince people on one platform to follow you to another (and to fork over their email address) is hard work, and eventually you need to ask yourself if it’s worth the time and energy.

Social media platforms make it easy, right?

Easy to sign up! Easy to find your friends! Easy to post a video! One click purchase!

People LOVE “easy” on the internet.

How are we making it easy for our readers with our newsletters? Our websites? Our booking pages?

How many clicks are required to book you?

How many clicks to pre-order your new album or book?

From Clarissa We, who wrote “Made in Taiwan, Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation (A Cookbook),” which “earned out in two years and has sold far more copies than I have social media followers.”

“Don’t confuse virality with value. Follower counts are just noise. Quality is what actually sells.“

We don’t exist in a meritocracy. The best stuff doesn’t always “win.” But as they say, you don’t need to outrun a bear, you just need to outrun your friends.

You don’t need to be the best in the world, you need to be the best for 10 people, then 100, then maybe a 1000. Your mileage will vary.

But we’re not gonna win anything with mediocre work, or cos-playing as a social media manager and expecting great results.

The work comes first, and it’s a good practice to make it great.

All our events next week are FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE!

◾ CO-WORK ESCAPE POD
Make a podcast, tune your guitars, clean your desktop, finish your taxes – together!
Talk about what you’re working on (or not), camera on or off, stay for the whole thing or not – this is our chill (free) corner on the internet.
Tuesday, March 31 from 12:00-2:00 PM EST: https://luma.com/y2n7ghry

◾ LIVE WITH MAX PETE VIA SUBTACK

“The tech dream is a nightmare… more people I talk to that are in this industry want to leave and do something else—like work at the coffee shop, work at Trader Joe’s—but don’t know how to do that or feel like they can’t.”

That’s a quote from our chat in August 2025, so make sure you tune in LIVE and see how much more disillusioned we are seven months later.
Wednesday, April 1 at 10am EST

◾ ESCAPE POD #113 W/ CECILIE MARIA NIELSEN AND NIKKI LERNER
​Both Cecilie Maria Nielsen and Nikki Lerner are deeply musical people who started their own choirs, and that act of gathering voices is what brings them together as our next special guests!
Thursday, April 2 from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST: https://luma.com/tadh4hgz

We were right.

“Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial.”

“Meta must pay $375 million for violating New Mexico law in child exploitation case, jury rules.”

We knew something was off. We knew something didn’t feel right.

We talked about it, but most everyone around us kept justifying the platforms.

“If you’re not on social media, how will you find new clients?”

“How will I stay in touch with family?”

I’m not saying we need to delete our accounts today, but we need an exit plan.

Someone you know checked Facebook for the last time today. A hundred people you don’t know uninstalled Instagram. A family member will get locked out of their account this week.

Not everyone is tired of scrolling social media, of course. But someday in the future a lot of people you know will look back on this time and grieve for the hours lost, the attention we gave away to these hideous companies.

Today is a great day to delete a social media app from your phone.