Category: CommunityCategory: Community

During an interview last week I spoke with someone about musicians getting email addresses from live gigs. I gave two examples I’ve heard over the years, which broke something open for my host, who burst out a whole new idea.

On a group call over the weekend, a musician was stuck in the mire of writing music, recording it, getting the word out – the never ending list of things to manage and tend to. After we batted some ideas around the group, they said the magical words: “you can really clarify your thinking by bouncing stuff off other people.”

As I said, “your next big breakthrough will happen with other creative people.”

“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.”

Platforms can only take you so far. Time to pull great people in your creative orbit. Email someone way up the food chain. Go to the event. Ask for an introduction. Make your own luck.

Your next big break could be one email, one interaction, one person away.

Don’t expect a platform to serve you, or look the way you want it to look. You’ll never be satisfied.

Instead, serve your readers. The people already on your email list, the people who trusted you enough to subscribe and say “I wanna hear more from you.”

From today’s ’Making Cozy Videos’ Zoom call, an absolute mic drop quote from a guest:

“(Treat) making a video (on your website) about making someone comfortable, like, if someone came to an opening of mine, I’d want them to feel welcome and comfortable.”

Video isn’t just for touting your expertise and knowledge but to give the visitor a glimpse into what it’s like to work with you, or run into you at a book shop.

Don’t think of each video as something that has to end up on YouTube to be seen by everyone. Think of how one video can put someone at ease, to let people know they’re in the right place when they show up on your website.

This from a recent Email Guidance offering (where I answer people’s questions):

You have the permission to do absolutely anything you want and you can do it outside of the confines of the social media attention stealing industry. Just get in front of a few people and do the thing. By doing that, you put up the flag for all the fellow weirdos that want to do the exact same thing. They say “yes, I want to do this!” Lead the way for them. 

You’re not creating a tribe because the tribe already exists., they just haven’t met. So be the one who makes the introduction and pulls people together.

Then three years from now. you’ll look up and know exactly what to put in your newsletter, and what your website needs to look like.

If you’re doing work that feeds you, and resonates with other people, they’ll be no doubt what goes into your next newsletter, your next album, your next painting. Everybody is doing what they want, and you can, too.

This from Howard Wuelfing, who made zines and documented the vibrant punk rock music scene in Washington, D.C. (read the full interview here, via Jen)

“(My) phone number wasn’t published in the magazine, but people were doing research. People were looking to make connections. At a certain point over a number of years, they built up something that at one point they used to call Fanzine Nation: this whole network of fanzines all over the place. You had local clubs that really specialized in booking indie bands that were created because people were looking to connect. It wound up being a very vital, very active, and very effective network of all these people working together. They looked for each other, they found each other, they collected that information, they shared it, and it was great.”

This isn’t just nostalgia, this is still happening. Social media companies make you think that all the connections start and end with their platforms, but there are many routes to make things work.

People are leaving social media and finding life outside of algorithms, away from the influence of techbro monoculture, and it’s all about sending the right signals.

What signals are you putting out today?

How can you send better signals?

And how can you make sure your signal doesn’t get lost in the noise?

Posting on social media is a lottery ticket, but sending an email to someone in a far away scene, or a newsletter write covering a particular topic, those are better odds. Get what you want by asking for it, not wishing upon a star.