Category: sethwCategory: sethw

Maybe you tried to do a Substack Live once or twice, nobody showed up, and then you figured it’s a big waste of time. No, screw that, just keep showing up!

When we were talking about this on Saturday (check the schedule for more), and it lines up well with our conversation last week with Sean Gordon, the co-owner of Taffeta Music Hall. They’re not trying to get people to show up for a live stream, but rather live events, like open mics, comedy nights, trivia nights, that sort of thing.

“We’re doing a comedy open mic night the second Wednesday of every month now… the first one, maybe like 10 people showed up. But the comedy… the comics understand, believe me, if anyone understands the growth and success of something, it’s comics.”

If you want to have a regular event where 50 people show up every week, ya gotta start somewhere!

“Those few people that are there, you gotta make sure that they have a good time, and you gotta make sure they come back, because if they’re gonna come back, they’re gonna bring a friend… and then it just kind of snowballs from there.”

Again, Sean is talking about live events, but this applies to live streams, too (and just about everything).

It’s not that no one cares about the thing you’re trying to do, it’s that no one knows! Your job is to just keep showing up, because people can’t discover what doesn’t exist if you quit too soon.

Go live this week, but do more than “just” announcing it once and thinking that everyone saw it. Invite some people personally. Like, individual emails, DMs, or texts. Figure out how to host three people first, to learn and understand how to host a gathering. Make your mistakes in front of just a few (and probably very understanding) people instead of 20 strangers.

You build trust by showing up, and your reputation is built on the work with the people in the room.

You’ve heard that one way to grow is to get on some podcasts. You did the research, sent out some emails, and got booked for a handful of podcasts.

It takes time to find the right podcast to pitch! To craft the email, and wait for the response. And we can’t discount the anxiety leading up to the call. The Substack superstar Sarah Fay had me on as a guest a few years back, and I was definitely nervous!

But afterwards? Crickets. No noticeable uptick in subscriptions.

All this work, and worry, and it had zero impact in the moment.

Heck, even artist Amie McNee “went on one of the biggest podcast in the world and it didn’t sell any books.”

It’s not that this “strategy” of going on podcasts is “bad,” it’s just how it works. That’s why social media is so alluring; you post something, and at least you get one like in the first five minutes. Instant gratification!

We got to hear this directly on a recent Escape Pod Zoom call, about going on podcasts as a way to grow an audience and how it wasn’t really paying off.

Even if you didn’t get a subscription, you built some trust. People need to see you a few times, hear you, notice you a few times, before they subscribe.

Sure, we’d all love more book sales, or at least more subscribers, but you’re learning how to get better at pitching, booking, and being on podcasts, all of which will serve you for years to come.

In the follow up email conversation with this person, we talked about this trust part, and arrived at this opportunity; reaching back out to the podcast host.

Send a two or three line message to the host a month later. Ask how they’re doing. Follow up on a point that was made during your talk. Mention a recent episode. Keep the connection going, continue building trust with a person who thought enough to have you on their show.

You can keep chasing the ocean of strangers, and doing what the “experts” says, which is spending time and energy trying to impress people who’d rather keep scrolling. It’s an exhausting endeavor that never ends.

Instead, you could flip it, and focus on the few people you’ve already built a connection with.

We talk about this sort of thing every week in our Escape Pod Zoom calls. Join a call with other creative people figuring out the same stuff you’re dealing with. Check our upcoming schedule here.

These machines once ran in the Davis & Furber Mills, in North Andover, MA in the early 1800s.

On a local trail, part of a long abandoned rail line, there are remains of buildings, one labeled, “MANAGERS OFFICE.”

These jobs and industries used to be the focal point of someone’s lives, a source of stress and income, replaced by today’s stress and income which will be long forgotten 50 years from when you read this.

Everything will be forgotten, which is actually pretty freeing.

This morning Cara Alwill and I had a lovely chat on Substack Live, and we covered so many wonderful topics:

Sending the email (don’t wait on algorithms): take matters into your own hands are start reaching out to other creative people, and maybe send more newsletters!

“If people are unsubscribing from you, it means you have a point of view.” — Cara Alwill

Scrappy vs. polished: the world has enough “optimized” text, it’s time to go feral.

Building your own team before anyone hands you one: start working with people in the early stages so you can sniff out the creeps later on.

You are the lead magnet: Forget the niche, you are the reason someone reads.

Just do the thing: Stop announcing, stop planning every little move, and start making.

“There’s a fine line between inspiration and procrastination.” — Cara Alwill

From my interview with Julie Laufer and her Be Cringe Podcast (edited slightly for readability), on the difference between hoping the algorithm smiles upon you versus putting your hope in the work you’re doing.

Spend a sliver of the time you waste on social media on your art and your craft. That way, when people do notice what you do — maybe 75 people, maybe a hundred — they turn their heads because you’re genuinely that good.

That’s what you want. Not constantly promoting. Just being undeniably good at the thing.

Yeah, yeah — “be so good they can’t ignore you.” Easy for Steve Martin to say.

But challenge accepted.

Be so good that you can have the conversation. Be ready for the opportunity, in all the ways it might show up — not scrambling to make 12-second clips hoping the algorithm throws you a bone.

The hope is in the work.

Reach out to some people just outside of your orbit. Ask to be on a podcast. Talk with someone about a collaboration. Do things that are lot more fun than trying to entertain strangers on platforms that don’t exist to send you free traffic.

Watch the full interview here.