Category: EventsCategory: Events

From Lucy Werner of Hype Yourself, talking about how to get closer to the sorts of people you want to be working with (from one our recent Escape Pod Zoom calls).

“One of my mantras is: put yourself where you don’t belong. Yes, it’s good to have your squad of people doing similar things to empathize with, but I always like to be the only PR (person) in a room full of artists and creatives. That’s my happy space — they’re the people I want to hang out with.”

Lucy did this at a market hall, where people were “selling jeans, or candles, or perfumes, or whatever. And I just sat there with a sign, being like, 15 minutes of free PR or branding advice.”

She said she was busy all day “because we were the only service-based people sat in a market store around product sellers.”

Joi Katskee does a radio show, and on one of our calls she told us how she talked about her program at an open mic night.

I made flyers for Social Media Escape Club, and set them out at a punk rock flea market while selling some old music gear. This led to about a dozen face to face conversations with all sorts of people about wanting to get off social media.

The common theme here is none of us hoped for an algorithm to bring the right people to us, we just showed up.

So if you’ve been thinking that social media is the only way to find your people, I just gave you three examples of meeting people in the real world, one conversation at a time. Instead of chasing follower counts or engagement, find new ways to get around the people you want to work with.

And start figuring that out with other creative folks by joining one of our upcoming calls!

​Sean Gordon co-owns Taffeta Music Hall in Lowell, MA, and makes helpful videos on Instagram for bands and independent artists about getting booked, talking about their work, building an email list, and more.

​He’s doing the stuff from the venue side that we talk about from the artist side, so this will be an informative conversation from a new perspective!

​We’ll also talk about Taffeta’s memberships program, email lists, community, and what IRL marketing looks like when it’s working.

​This is a conversation, not a seminar. You are absolutely encouraged to ask questions and geek out with Sean about all of this stuff.

Thursday, June 4 from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT
REGISTER HERE → https://luma.com/sqflzmgu

This isn’t about growth hacks or audience building, it’s about finding your people on Substack (and beyond).

Step by step instructions are for putting together Ikea furniture, not building fanbases. We’re dealing with real people, with complex lives, not shelving units. Through the tension of talking with strangers about our work, we gain understanding, and see the possibilities through the eyes of other people, and their journeys traveled to get there.

Our Escape Pod Zoom calls provide the on ramp to such conversations. Finding our way with intention, because we’re done hoping or wishing for an algorithm to magically deliver us our biggest fans, right?

Thursday, May 28 from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT
Register here → https://luma.com/84g45pka

Saturday, May 30 from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT
Register here: https://luma.com/j33otsdz

Caroline in the Garden, a musician in Atlanta, recently wrote, “I’m disgusted with myself over my phone use,” saying “my phone usage during this ‘publicity cycle’ was getting to be upwards of 6-7 hours a day.”

They’ve since deleted the social media apps and wrote a new song.

That can happen when we don’t spend all our time on social media.

How grand could we be if we spent 6-7 hours a day on your craft? Or just three? One?

That’s not possible, right?

(more…)

If you ever want to write something a little different, but you’re worried what people might think – that they might (GASP) unsubscribe – fear not, friend. As I mentioned in this week’s Escape Pod Zoom call, when someone brought this up:

“As the artist, as the creative person… I’m the lead magnet. People signed up for me, so they’re getting me. And if people get huffy about it and unsubscribe? Bye. I don’t want to hold back. I’m not a magazine. I don’t have editors. I want to write what I want to write.”

That’s the sort of stuff we talk about on our weekly calls. If you ever have pangs of doubt, fear, or apprehension about the work you produce, please join us!

THIS WEEKEND:

• BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #03: How do we reach new people without social media? Sat, May 2 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/n628yxes

NEXT WEEK:

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tue, May 5 at 12:00pm EST: https://luma.com/1y6p4ead (two hours of virtual co-working!)
• ESCAPE POD #118 W/ SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS. FREE. Thu May 7th at 2:00pm EST: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2
• BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #04: Why Every Artist Needs a Website with Chuck Marshall! Sat, May 9 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/mtvucpt5

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods