Category: sethwCategory: sethw

Today, I want to talk about feelings. Specifically, the feeling that you want your people to have when they get an email from you or see something you wrote online.

When I got the idea to start posting metal trivia on Twitter in 2011, I knew I wanted people to feel stoked when answering metal trivia questions on Twitter.

See, I could ask a question like, “in what year did Metallica’s ‘… And Justice For All” come out?” and the answer would be 1988.

But I thought about it, and no one gets excited yelling “1988” in line at the grocery store or hitting reply while at a show.

Could you imagine a heavy metal trivia show on TV in the mid 90s and contestants yelling out 1988? No way.

So I asked, “This ‘bass-less’ Metallica album came out in 1988.”

And I could imagine people excitedly tapping their phones and replying, “AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!” This led to people talking about the production of that album, discussing their favorite song, or talking about Cliff Burton (sorry, non-metalheads, if I lost you here haha).

Now, reverse engineer all this for whatever creative project you’re producing.

How do you describe what you’re doing in a way that would make someone feel something?

Say you’ve got a book tour coming up.

• Instead of “BOOK TOUR ANNOUCEMENT,” your subject line could be “Will I see you in Boston? New Haven? What about Providence?”
  Wait, what? My favorite author is coming to Boston? The New England area?! That’s where I am – I better click!
• Instead of “I have a new course,” say, “If you want to learn how to write a month’s worth of newsletters in one sitting, sign up for my new course.”
  People want to save time and make money and make an impact – make them FEEL that.
• Instead of “join my sci-fi community,” say “we’re debating the best / worst sci-fi movies in our Discord and you should join us.”
  People have thoughts about sci-fi movies. I have a sci-fi tattoo. People don’t get tattoos that say COMMUNITY (unless they’re big fans of Dan Harmon, I guess).
• Instead of “come see me at the market next week,” maybe say “my favorite things about setting up at the local market.”
  Sure, you’ll be selling at the market. But talk about all the things people love about markets – the food, the smells, the people, the dogs!

You don’t have to outrun a bear; you just have to outrun your friends.

You need to outrun people writing bland subject lines and boring social media posts. You just need to get people to feel something when they get your emails or visit your website.

Stop being precious and “trust the wildness in your heart.” Get a little wild, or loud, or weird. It’s how you’ve built a following, an audience, an email list.

”Your readers have signed up to go on the ride you decide for them. Be bold and lead the way,” said Nishant Jain of The SneakyArt Post.

Be bold and lead the way, indeed.

Vulfpeck’s Jack Stratton spoke recently about the streaming landscape and how Apple Music could be fixed.

Lots of people are writing about the death of Pitchfork.

Bandcamp saw 50% of its staff laid off last year.

In 2017, Spotify’s RapCaviar was the “most influential playlist in music.” Now, folks at major labels have “seen streams coming from RapCaviar drop anywhere from 30% to 50%” because “editorial playlists are losing influence amid AI expansion.”

There’s a Taco Bell commercial featuring Portugal. The Man – not for their actual music, but as a “feature” to highlight how broke the band was, but at least they could eat at Taco Bell.

It’s almost as if Seth Godin knew what I was going to write about today:

“When things don’t go the way we hope, one alternative is to look hard at the system that caused the problem. And another productive strategy is to figure out what to do with what we get, instead of seeking to find the villain that’s causing our problem.”

Right now, phones can shoot music videos, laptops can become studios, taking pictures with a disposable camera is chic, and we can post everything to the internet in seconds.

But the days of posting something on social media and getting 10,000 people to see it are over. That ain’t coming back.

If you’ve been a subscriber, you know I always say this – it will never get easier to reach your fans on social media.

Don’t blame Spotify, or Apple, or Meta – these are all companies that were built to make money for shareholders. They’re doing their job; are we doing ours?

Are we making the best art that we can?

Are we writing 1000 words a day?

Am I practicing my bass for 15 minutes a day? (No, I’m not)

If you were the lone creative weirdo in high school back in the day, well…, you’d better read some books and find some magazines because you’re on your own.

Now we have websites, Zoom, internet radio, email, and a thousand messaging apps – there’s no reason to do any of this alone.

We know the villains in the current landscape. We know what we’re up against.

Time to stop playing games we don’t want to play (and can’t win), and figure out what’s next.

My three quick ideas on that:

1. Write a good newsletter to your fans that they’ll want to read
2. Set up a website and fill it up with all the cool stuff you do
3. Delete the social media apps from your phone this week

Will that raise streaming rates and bring back organic reach on Facebook? NOPE. But it’s action, something we can do right now, and it’s a step toward new possibilities.

I had a wonderful chat with Raziq Rauf and friends last week (Raz writes Running Sucks, and it’s great), and got to continue screaming this message from the rooftops:

Don’t ask social media followers to subscribe to your newsletter; tell them what they’re getting.

And don’t just say “an interview” or “new music,” sell it!

“Make it easy for your fans to say “yes, I want that.”

Do you want free donuts? Yes.

Do you want more of my art? Yes.

Do you want more photos of my travels? Yes.

Do you want more music? Yes.”

Get fans to your site (or newsletter).

If they subscribe, great.

If they don’t, they don’t.

Sure, with a zillion followers, you can ask for the subscribe and see some success, but explaining what fans will be getting is a lot more fun.

I was a one-man band called Seth W.

I played the drums with my feet, I played the bass, and I sang all at the same time.

I played “The Car Song,” “The Jock Song,” “Runny Nose,” and many more. I even covered Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” (The Titanic movie has just come out).

It did this from 1998 to about 2001 or so.

Around this time, I met Tommy (maybe he took the photo above, but I’m not sure). He drove from NJ to see another band on the bill, but he “got” what I was doing. He booked me for a show in his town.

I got to play with Folly. I met Ben Kenney from Supergrub, who would go on to play with The Roots and Incubus.

That was around 25 years ago, and me and Tommy are still buds.

Could I have kept playing shows, writing silly songs, and maybe started touring?

Sure. But I didn’t want to do all that.

As Scott Perry says, play your own game:

“You can’t win playing someone else’s game.

And you can’t win a game you don’t want to play.”

I never got to play arenas or do big interviews, but I met Tommy.

What has this got to do with the Social Media Escape Club?

Well, I deleted my Instagram account on January 1st, 2024.

I met many great people through that app, but after all these years, I didn’t want to play that game anymore.

Could I have met another “Tommy?” I don’t know, maybe.

But just like I don’t want to spend time writing silly songs, I don’t want to waste hours on Instagram every week for some mystical payoff.

I mean, I turn 48 this year. I have a limited number of years left on this flying space rock – do I really want to spend that time staring at my phone?

Sure, “growing my audience” sounds like the right thing to do, but how much time am I investing in the people who are already onboard?

It’s like when I see people on social media say, “Gonna send some goodies to my 1,000th follower!” Is that how you make your first 999 followers feel special?

Tommy invited me to his New Year’s Eve get-together, but I was already planning on hiking up the nearby Appalachian Trail to watch the sun come up with another friend I met years ago (also from playing music).

Instead of chasing more, let’s seek depth in the new year.

Can you name five of your subscribers? Do you know what state or country they live in? Have you seen photos of their pets?

Depth isn’t a growth hack, but it has much better rewards.

Happy New Year.

When Roy Wood Jr. was asked if he deserved a shot at hosting the Daily Show, he said sure, but also, “make your own shot.”

Roy Wood Jr. understands how the game is played; wait to get picked, or make your own shot.

Seth Godin wrote, “reject the tyranny of being picked: pick yourself” back in 2011, and it absolutely stands the test of time:

It’s a cultural instinct to wait to get picked. To seek out the permission and authority that comes from a publisher or talk show host or even a blogger saying, “I pick you.” Once you reject that impulse and realize that no one is going to select you–that Prince Charming has chosen another house–then you can actually get to work.

Make your art, share your music, take your photos and then make your shot.

I write about newsletters – what you’re doing is probably a lot more interesting.

If no one asked you to share your 10 favorite things of the year in their publication, feature yourself on your website.

There’s no underground / alt flea market in your area? Make your own (a buddy and I are working on a pop-up flea market for musicians to unload their unused gear).

Wish you had a community of art freaks to hang out with? Start your own.

The technology is there (Zoom, Google Meet, Discord), you just need to ask some people to come hang out.

Because just posting and talking about what you do only goes so far, mostly because that’s what everyone else is doing.

We publish, post, and repost, hoping to get picked.

Pick your people, build a community, grow together.

Make your own shot.