I hosted two “Let’s Break Up 💔 With Gmail” calls last week, and one guest mentioned this as we were wrapping up on Friday:

“This was very helpful if for no other reason than just to know I’m not the only nut in the room.”

It’s such a relief knowing other people are facing the same challenges. That we’re not alone.

Because, at the end of the day, it’s not just about email, but also the lock-in with Google Calendar, collaborative docs, and photo management. This makes a move look harder to manage, and so then we never start.

And we landed on two big points:

1. The replacement will never feel “perfect” because Gmail feels so familiar – some of us were beta-users of Gmail back in early 2004!
2. Do we want to replace one “all in one” soultion with another? What will some of these companies look like in ten years?

A good place to start? Stop researching and just sign up for a free trial with another email provider like Fastmail or Proton (affiliate links) or Hey. Get a feel for them, because if the vibes are off, you’ll never switch over.

Start small. Switch something like your Netflix account first, then maybe a store account. There’s no need for a big announcement, to tell everybody about your move. Just update your email here and there as you migrate, and leave the critical accounts (like banking, work stuff) for later on.

For the last decade we’ve put our best work on social media – videos, images, hot takes – you name it! But with so much time and energy devoted to publishing on so many platforms, our websites and newsletters just became digital brochures; static and boring.

So it was refreshing to hear Natalie Brite on Amelia Hruby’s Off the Grid podcast talking about where we limit our imagination.

“For so many entrepreneurs and micro businesses … this total dependency, where there’s no imagination outside of social media, it’s like my imagination stops at social media marketing and it’s like there’s so many other ways, right?”

I’ve seen this for decades. I was one of the first 3,000 people to sign up for Twitter. I’ve subscribed to a lot newsletters since I began this journey in 2001.

(more…)

If you feel like you’re always in “marketing mode,” you need to read “Don’t Market More. Matter More,” from Amanda Natividad, where she talks with Jay Acunzo.

If you’re not saying anything that compels people to seek you out, you were always going to be exposed the moment the pipes changed.

And the pipes are always changing. Jay’s reminder that distribution channels aren’t neutral systems of pipes — they’re ad networks with opinions about what should spread — is something I think about weekly.

While social media platforms may have “worked” for you in the past, they were never made to send you free traffic. Those platforms, the pipes as mentioned above, have changed, and they will always change, and more than likely not in your favor.

Marketing more is a race to the bottom, but mattering more is gonna cost you. It’s time, effort, and energy. It ain’t cheap. But if you want cheap, you make something for everyone, which I’m sure is not what you’re called to do.

Your work matters to you, but it’s hard to convince anybody that it should matter to them.

It’s not that your work is bad, it’s that no one knows about, which is why you should get awareness off your plate, something Michelle Warner talked about with Jay Acunzo – find out what I’m talking about here.

I got to do a Substack Live with Julie Laufer (she interviewed me on her Be Cringe Podcast here), and we covered the NY Knicks, finding work, being in alignment, and more.

THREE BIG IDEAS

Trust is a credential. Julie landed a social media strategy client, not because that’s their background, but because of the trust that the client had in them. Build trust, build relationships, and see where that takes you!

Being a generalist can be an asset. There’s a role for the generalist, the problem-solver, the hard-working Josh Hart of the New York Knicks position, but most places / teams are hesitant to hire since it’s so non-quantifiable. It’s easier to hire someone who has done a certain role for a decade rather than the person that can pull together a team.

Alignment feels GOOD. Find bits and pieces where you can squeeze in moments of alignment throughout your day, and then do that over and over again over many weeks, months, and years.

TWO ACTIONS:

Stop waiting for the perfect positioning! Pull together what you can, do what you have to do, and stop waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect alignment of everything that comes together, to start doing the thing that you want to do. Stop waiting!

Trust your gut! The “right” choice is tempting, and lets you off the hook. But picking the path with more risk just might be the thing that’ll get you where you need to be.

ONE QUOTE:

“It’s like, well, I’m supposed to want a job,” said Julie. “I’m supposed to want health insurance. Like, I have a three-year-old. Yeah, yeah. Like, so, it’s hard to make those opposite choices. But I find comfort in the fact that they feel so right.”

Be sure to subscribe to Julie’s This Might Be Cringe newsletter!

In an interview with Frame Set, cinematographer Todd Banhazl (Winning Time, Hustlers, Nike) is asked for advice for young cinematographers trying to make work like his:

Don’t make work like mine, make the most personal thing possible, and really try to spend time shooting what you love in the way that you love it. I really mean that. I don’t know if that means it sounds like a platitude, but like, there’s a lot of cinematographers out there now that I feel like the technology has been democratized, like everyone’s a DP, so I think the thing that sets you apart is making the work personal, and like being brave to make it personal.

Writing good subject lines and building our websites is great and all, but it’s secondary to being brave and making the work you love.

Watch Banhazi talking about “The Cameras Behind Olivia Rodrigo’s Lo-Fi Music Video.”

You’ve followed the advice, watched how everyone else is doing, tried all the tricks and trending things, and you hated it all. Just dreaded, it right?

You spent all that time begrudgingly, doing something you despised, then wondered why it didn’t resonate.

The problem with modern marketing is that we’re performing for everybody. We’re sanding off the edges, turning ourselves inside out to impress complete strangers on platforms that are built like casinos for attention.

Wouldn’t it feel so much better if you were just talking to people who got you, instead?

In 2023 I knew I wanted to talk to more people about leaving social media. Not selling courses, or writing a book, but talking to people about leaving social media. I started hosting weekly Zoom calls and I don’t do “marketing” anymore. I just tell people who like my work what I’m doing from week to week.

You’ve done the same thing for years on social media, but your followers missed probably 80% of everything you posted. It’s not that nobody liked your work, it’s that nobody knew about it.

It’s amazing what happens when you can actually reach your fans. Your email subscriber count may be less than your social media follower count, but that’s okay.

Because the truth is this: you can build a fanbase, but if you can’t reach your fanbase, you’re at the mercy of the algorithms, and you don’t want to play that game because it’s a game you can’t win and it never ends.

Instead, send an email once a week, talking about the work you make for the people who’ve signed up and said they want to hear from you.

When you can reach those people, they can support your work, which makes the whole “marketing” thing feel a lot easier.

If you lose access to your Gmail account, then what? That’s why I say your email is important enough to pay for, because if things go sideways, good luck reaching any for help!

I’ve been using Fastmail since 2014. I ditched Google Workspace in early 2025.

If you’d like to have less Google in your life, get on one of these calls. They’re not webinars. They’re not step by step walk throughs. These are for people scared, uneasy, afraid to tackle this sort of things alone!

• Monday, June 15th at 9:00AM EDT → https://luma.com/qebt5cj9
  
• Friday, June 19th at 11:00AM EDT → https://luma.com/1k3gnx6a

You can post about things being unfair, or you can do the work and make art.

I’ve seen this from all sorts of creative folks, from people just starting out to Grammy nominees, dating back to my music blog days in the early 2000s.

I get it – part of the problem is that people aren’t aware that Spotify doesn’t pay well. Or that simply “liking” something “really does help” with the algorithm.

But what resonates for me with this clip of comedian Anthony Jeselnik is that no one is gonna see him hurt. There’s enough hurt in this business. Why add to the pity party? Who does a crack in the armor serve?

The art doesn’t need excuses, it needs work.