Social media dangled the carrot of audience, assuring us that “everyone” was there. It was the food court at the mall, the place for many of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s.

I remember spending time at the mall, when I was still trying to find myself. I dressed like a skater, rode BMX, played basketball with friends, and loved music. So yeah, I’d do a few laps at the mall to see and be seen with some friends.

But then I met Johnny Rydell (may he Rest in Peace). I joined his band, we played shows, we went to shows, and well, I can say my whole life became music some 35 years later.

The food court was no longer interesting because it gave me none of the things I loved. I didn’t miss it because something else was now taking up my time and attention.

This is my best metaphor about leaving social media – to stop giving our minutes to the platforms, and put them somewhere else. I spend 3+ hours a day walking. And a few hours a week hosting Escape Pod Zoom calls here with Social Media Escape Club.

We’ve all got so many hours a week to spend freely. Either invest them in yourself, or hand them over to social media.

I went on a six hour hike with a friend this weekend, which is a great way to cut six hours of screen time from your week.

“When anyone asks which social media network I’m looking to join next, I tell them NONE. I have this website. A few newsletters. An email address.”

I wrote that back in 2022, and every day it’s about “progress, not perfection.” I still catch myself scrolling, mindlessly scrolling YouTube Shorts or even Substack Notes.

But then I get outside. Or record some music for 10 minutes. Make some art. Just cuz it’s not my full time job doesn’t mean it won’t compound.

I’ve been walking 10+ miles per day since May 26th. That’s 76 days of multiple adventures, sometimes 20 minutes at a time (which is how long it takes to walk about one mile).

If you don’t think it compounds, I still walked 860 miles, and burned through three pairs of shoes in that time.

Imagine three hours a day of drawing, reading, writing, rehearsing, frolicking, dreaming, practicing. Our minutes are finite, and we don’t know when they expire. A few minutes at a time is better than no minutes, and certainly better than giving those minutes to Facebook or Instagram.

Liz Derstine recently had a pretty exciting week, crossing Switzerland on the 242 mile Swiss via Alpina trail and nabbing a FKT (fastest known time).

My total time was 5 days, 17 hours, 40 minutes–1 day 2 hours faster than the current women’s record, and 1 day 5 hours faster than my previous time from 2023! I averaged over 43 miles (70 kilometers) per day and 12,650 feet (3,850 meters) of elevation gain per day.

Now, I had read her piece on crewing Tara Dower at this year’s Hardrock 100, where Tara finished 3rd woman, and 14th overall. She also “ran a large portion of the course over several days (aka “Softrock”)” and mentioned a particular bag she used, the Lickety Split 20L Backpack from Mountain Hardware.

Well, I go on plenty of adventures (though not as hardcore), and rarely need an excuse to buy a new bag, so I ordered one, and love it!

(more…)

From Joshua Heath Scott of JHS Pedals and Art House Grandview:

“I believe I have learned from everything I have made. I have obsessively adjusted my approaches and products. I have improved everything all the time. But it is still math, and the reality is that if you do not put things out there, you have fewer chances. Both are true. In the last twelve months I have released more than a pedal per month while making what I know is some of my best stuff, but I still cannot tell you which of them will be the ones.”

This doesn’t just pertain to guitar pedals, but for how we make our offerings, write our newsletters, book our events, pitch our work, and everything else.

(more…)

Got this question recently, about community building. I’m a big believer that audio and visuals help build trust, which helps build community, as it’s you on display, in real life, unlike words on a page which can look very similar to other words on a screen.

What if my writing is the regular gathering? Maybe I don’t want to do a ton of video content—that’s okay. What if I treat my writing and sharing my work, and inviting others to comment/reply/engage, as the gathering I’m hosting every week? It’s been an interesting shift of perspective!

When I started a music blog back in 2001, we wrote it real by-the-books at first, just the facts, and nobody said a word — no comments, nothing. It wasn’t until we opened up and showed our actual personality that people started sticking around.

I still talk to people from that site 25 years later.

I’m not saying you need to publish six times a day like we did. I’m not saying post daily. I’m not saying start a podcast. But building community is about showing up in front of people, regularly, and inviting them to comment, reply, engage. If you want those things, you need to model that. You can’t just hope it happens.

So lean into email, because the inbox is intimate in a way social media ain’t. Bring people into your newsletter — “hey, I was talking to so-and-so about this.”

If you want to use names, ask for permission. Otherwise, it’s okay to generalize (like this post).

So much of building community is proving there’s community, beyond a like or a comment. Bring other people’s conversations into the forefront. My rectangle on a Zoom call doesn’t have all the answers, but all our rectangles together, we get closer, and you can say that in writing just as much as on a Zoom call.

Now, is all of this slower going without video? Sure. Video gives people the cues, the body language, the vibe, all that trust-building happens faster when they can witness you. But you can still do it with words, you just gotta be more intentional about it since it won’t come up easily. Be vulnerable, bring other people forward, make it a safe space, and know it’s not gonna happen overnight.

I’ve been doing my calls since 2023, writing online since 2001, none of this is quick. Challenge accepted though. Give it a shot.

Talking about your thing once ain’t enough, as there’s just too much going on in everyone’s lives. But how do we repeat our message without feel cringe?

That’s what we’ll be talking about later this week in our REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT Escape Pod Zoom call (Thursday, August 6 at 2:00 PM EDT – more info here).

Once you realize that no one sees everything you make, you’ll feel better. No one opens every single email, and they certainly don’t see every social media post. But you also don’t want to just send an image with a BUY NOW button 19 times a week either. There is a balance to find, and we’re gonna find it together.

Thursday, August 6 at 2:00 PM EDT – sign up here

The sky isn’t falling, and most people don’t even know what “a Substack” is, let alone Pangram.

This was the common theme that carried through our two “WHO’S WATCHING THE WATCHERS?” Escape Pod Zoom calls. While, sure, there’s a lot of hot takes from multiple fronts within the Substack eco-system about this subject matter (read Substack CEO Chris Best’s piece here), we need to step back and remember that there’s a big real world out there.

We probably don’t need to quit using Substack today, but as always, don’t put all your eggs into any one platform. Export your email list. Back up your work. Even better, put the bulk of your work on your own site, so if any platform goes away tomorrow, your work is safe.

Then write for the people who showed up, who read your emails and bookmark your blog. Have more conversations than hot takes, and focus on the existing relationships you already have in your creative orbit.

During yesterday’s “WHO’S WATCHING THE WATCHERS?” conversation, we started talking about Substack’s recent partnership with Pangram, the thing to detect AI writing. The thing is, talk to a bunch of people in the real world, and they have no idea what “a Substack” is, let alone what the fuck an AI detection tool is.

Let’s not outsource our taste to these AI conglomerates, and instead rely on the decades of life experience. The magazines we read when were kids. The songs we listened to on the radio. The adventures we had when renting movies.

From “The Lost Civic Life of Movie Rental Stores,”

Video clerks and store owners fostered a true third-place atmosphere in their stores. “There was always conversation in our store,” recalls Jerry Frebowitz, owner of Philadelphia’s Movies Unlimited. “Especially on Saturdays . . . there was so much film talk going on. Total strangers were talking to each other; it was really a phenomenon.” Though his customers always came to rent a movie, Frebowitz says, “They definitely stayed to talk . . . hardly anybody came in to get the movie and leave.”

There was no shortage of slop before AI, it’s just now we have a multi-billion dollar industry behind it trying to to sell bottom of the barrel CPM ads against it. Just as the techbro vultures co-opted the vibrant blogging ecosystem of the 2000s, they’ll decimate the post-social / current newsletter landscape to the ground as well.

Just go for a walk and let it burn/ Talk to our neighbors. Gather on a Zoom call (we’re talking about this again on Monday). Send each other letters. Update your website. Hop on the phone.

Does this solve everything? Does this “grow your audience” or help you make $10,000 per month?

Friend, the future is each other. The only zen at the top of a mountain is the zen you bring with you. Find your zen.