Category: CommunityCategory: Community

Emailing someone directly puts you on the hook, which makes it scary. But if you’re stuck on what to send, Carly Valancy has some suggestions:

Networking doesn’t have to be gross, and if you’re only doing it to get something, you’re doing it wrong. Bringing more people into your creative orbit can be a gift in itself.

Amelia Hruby of the Off The Grid podcast was our guest on a recent Escape Pod Zoom call, which is 1/3 interview, then 2/3 community Q&A, and that’s where this question comes from, and I think apples to many art forms aside from podcasting!

How did you build the audience for your podcast without social media?

“The way I have built the audience for my podcast has largely been relational. Even in Season 1, I had on guests, and they liked the show, and they told more people about the show, and those people told more people about the show.’

This is definitely a variation of “getting awareness off our plate,” in that maybe we don’t need to spend so much time making social media assets or posting on several platforms to get the word out. This way we’re spending our efforts making great work that people want to be a part of, rather than trying to post our way to greatness.

It’s also important that your podcast has a focus, as Amelia explains:

“I work on a lot of podcasts, and what I will say with so much love to everyone who has a podcast is that most don’t have a clear premise, and they don’t really know why people should listen. Many people make a podcast because they want to make a podcast, which is beautiful. But people listen to a podcast because it’s giving them something—entertainment, education, or in my case, a space for people who don’t want to be on social media but still want to make money from their art. They stay because they feel so seen.”

Get on Amelia’s waitlist to be notified when her new book “Your Attention is Sacred Except on Social Media” is available for pre-order!

So later this month I’m doing another workshop, err… pizza party. The MAKING COZY VIDEOS PIZZA PARTY.

I’m still learning how to do workshops, and honestly, I don’t like the set of expectations that are tied to them. I believe we learn better together, so while I’m fine talking about what I think is best, I encourage everyone in the room to talk about what works for them as well.

My rectangle in a Zoom call doesn’t know all the answers, but together we get closer to what we’re looking for.

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I set up at a punk rock flea market last weekend with a friend, along with a stack of neon flyers and some old music gear to sell. I made some good sales, but I also had some great conversations.

A dozen people stopped by to talk about quitting social media, ditching Spotify, or just wanting something beyond the feed. Some chats were lighthearted, and others felt almost like confessions. What struck me was how different it felt compared to sending out a newsletter or posting online. The proximity, the in-person energy, it all gave the words so much more weight.

It made me wonder: what if we built more spaces like this? Not just tables with stuff to sell, but couches, chairs, maybe even a little “confession booth” for honest conversations about our relationship with these platforms. That’s where the real escape feels possible, not just by deleting some apps, but in the spaces we make to talk openly and honestly about spending less time on our phones.

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Sean Cannon, from a recent Escape Pod guest appearance.

“All you have to do is just be 5% better than everyone else who’s really bad at it. You don’t have to get everything perfect… you just have to be a little bit better so you can survive the war of attrition.”

You don’t have to our run a bear, you just need to out run your friends.