Category: LifeCategory: Life

  • NETWORK BY SHARING GIFTS

    Published On: September 16, 2025Categories: Community, Life

    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:

    Source https://substack.com/@carlyvalancy/note/c-156573906

    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.

  • JUST BE 5% BETTER

    Published On: September 6, 2025Categories: Community, Life, Work, Writing

    Peabody-winning producer, journalist, and cat rap pioneer 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 all the impatient people around you.

    (Updated 7/5/2026)

  • Quit social media

    Published On: September 3, 2025Categories: Life

    Solid advice from Manuel Moreale:

    If you feel even the slightest of temptations to quit some of those stupid apps and sites, here’s my advice for you: do it. Don’t overthink it. Just delete your account, delete the apps from your phone, and start living a better life without them. And if you miss your friends, do something radical: pick up the phone you likely have in your pocket and give them a call. Or send them a text. Or go meet them in person if you can.

    Read more: https://manuelmoreale.com/you-will-not-believe-what-i-just-wrote

  • SENDING 10 EMAILS IS SCARY

    Published On: September 2, 2025Categories: Community, Life, Work

    Instead of posting 10 things on social media today, email 10 people you’ve never talked to before.

    Hop on a Zoom call, swap ideas, ask questions, tell them you like their work.

    What if just one of those people included your work in their next email? Or mentioned you on their podcast?

    Posting into the void lets us off the hook. “Well, I tried!” we can say.

    There’s tension involved in writing to 10 people directly, know that one person will most definitely read your email, and they just might respond.

  • NOT MY BUSINESS (A WORKSHOP LAUNCH)

    Published On: August 10, 2025Categories: Community, Email Marketing, Life, Work

    It’s “Not My Business” season again.

    A year ago Olivia Rafferty declared that some things were not her business:

    Things That, As A Substacker, Are Not My Business

    1. How many subscribers I have? NOT MY BUSINESS
    2. The current state of my header/footer? NOT MY BUSINESS
    3. Whatever is happening on my welcome page? NOT MY BUSINESS
    4. The growing pile of unread newsletters in my inbox? NOT MY BUSINESS
    5. How many emojis I use? NOT MY BUSINESS
    6. The leaderboard for Culture? NOT MY BUSINESS
    7. Substack Chat? NOT MY BUSINESS
    8. My Notion database for future post ideas? NOT MY BUSINESS
    9. My open rate? NOT MY BUSINESS

    Social media, and lately the newsletter busy-ness industrial complex, has us spinning our wheels on so many things that are not our business.

    Things like open rates, deliverability, A/B testing headlines, churn, soft bounces and hard bounces, email lists spread across multiple CSV files – really, it never fucking ends, and most of us ain’t making enough to sweat all the finer details.

    (more…)
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You’re tired of social media, but wondering if there’s life after the newsfeed. That’s exactly what we figure out here – together. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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