Category: sethwCategory: sethw

“There’s no reason indie musicians can’t use the same strategies the mainstream does—only with more authenticity, more intention, and way less bullshit,” said CARRÉ in “you don’t need a record deal, you need a community.”

Then I saw “US town forms human chain to move 9,100 books one-by-one” (via Kottke). The book shop owner even said it took just under two hours; “much shorter than hiring a moving company to box and unbox the thousands of titles.” 

How do we build community and help each other along the way? How do we build our work and our mission together?

I joined Russell Nohelty as a guest on his Substack Live as part of his January Joy(ful) Growth Club.

“If you gain a thousand new followers on social media, you might reach ten percent of them. Might as well get a hundred people on your email list.”

One of my favorite lines to throw around, ‘cuz it’s true!

Russell and I talked about building creative careers without relying on social media, using music, writing, comedy, and live events as examples of how audiences actually grow: slowly, locally, and through lots of repetition – because no one sees everything we post!

“I don’t do (Substack) Lives where there’s no energetic exchange beyond that hour,” said Russell, “I want something I can give back to my audience.”

The conversation covered message repetition, storytelling around your work, why most people don’t see everything you publish, and how having an audience gives you the freedom to make work that isn’t optimized for going viral but still matters.

In a Substack Live with Sarah Fay last year, I made the point that you don’t have to go live, you just need to bring life to your thing.

There are several ways to go “live” (Substack Live, Mixcloud, Mixler, your local radio station), and none of them need to include your face. Where’s the Substack Live cat-cam? Who’s making coffee? Reading night time poetry? Making ambient music? Flipping through old Computer Shopper magazines?

Watch the full video replay (or audio podcast) with Sarah Fay here.

I got a newsletter awhile back from a talented musician, and they casually mentioned they’ve got new music available, but if you want to hear it you need to reply to the email.

In one our Escape Pod Zoom calls someone mentioned how they leave “easter eggs” in their newsletters, usually a phrase that someone needs to include when they reply.

Parker Gates sent me this link (it’s an Instagram link, sorry!) about artist Jon Bellion and how he sent his fans to websites without linking to them (they had to type them into a browser from a screen shot), used message boards, and sent out music via WeTransfer.

Don’t just wonder who your biggest fans are – send them on adventures and see who makes it back alive.

Before seeking more (subscribers, audience, fans), seek flow. This is something I bring up a lot through my Email Guidance offering.

Is your website set up in a way that pulls people in? Or is it a bunch of links to third party platforms that seek only to monetize and collect data from your fans?

Does your sales page include comforting and informative videos about what you offer? Or do you only post those sorts of videos on Instagram for just 3% of your followers to see?

Does your store have more than one item (this one from Laura Kidd 💌 Penfriend) in stock?

We want to expand and grow our audience, but stepping back and making subtle changes to our current operations might be a better place to start.