Category: LifeCategory: Life

Had an amazing chat with artist David Speed on his Creative Rebels podcast:

“Navigating (social media) is hard, so I was so happy to chat with Seth Werkheiser who offers a bunch of alternative ways to connect with your audience. Ways that don’t involve spending six hours producing a video that won’t be shown to the people who have chosen to follow you!”

We end our chat talking about this post ‘Outdated expectations kill creative dreams,” which is about my dad, and I was surprised to find myself getting emotional talking about it, but that’s where the conversation went!

Give a listen to the full 57 minute interview on Substack or Apple Podcasts.

One of the best ways to start getting away from social media is to think about where we put our stuff. We’re so conditioned to upload a photo, a thought, a hot-take to social media because we know something will happen – likes, comments, shares, etc. It’s absolutely the slot machine at the casino – insert coin, pull the lever, and something will happen.

Instead of posting that photo for “everyone,” try sending it to a friend and see what happens. Send it to another, with a little note.

Maybe post that photo on your blog and write a bit about it, and send a newsletter later to let people know about it.

Same with all our “hot takes” and opinions and ideas. Instead of posting them onto a platform to be monetized by Mark Zuckerburg and Elon Musk, put it on your website, use it as a prompt for your next Zoom call with friends, or email it to someone who would “get it” in your creative community.

We won’t get the same dopamine hit from these actions. They won’t go viral.

But maybe they’re the start of something better, like deeper relationships, or strengthening friendships.

It’s hard to be good friends with 10 people in your life when you’re always trying to entertain 1,000 strangers.

If you’re not on social media, what’s one thing you can do today that can help you get the word out?

Reframe the thinking of posting to everyone, and think of sharing with a few people.

Open your phone and send something to the people that are important enough to be in your phone.

How much energy could you gain by having a laugh with an old friend, or reconnecting with a colleague from a few years back?

Then, start finding the creative people outside of your orbit that are doing amazing work. Email them. Tell them. Not in a transactional networking kind of way. Do it from the heart.

Posting to everyone is a lottery ticket, but there’s a 50/50 chance someone replies to your email.

Thank you Mary Thoma, GeorgeAnn, Richard Schulz, Michael Maupin, Ken Seals, and many others for tuning into my “live office hour video” on Substack Live.

I don’t know what to call these. Do they need a name? I just know I like going “live” and helping people out. Shooting the breeze, talking about our lived experiences. It’s a joy, really.

Eventually Mary Thoma dropped a great question in the chat: she’s got a Substack newsletter, and has 4,000 followers on Facebook, and she’s worried about losing that audience she’s built over there on Meta.

I riffed on how only a small fraction (maybe 100–300) are actually seeing her posts, and so you need to do what you can to move your biggest fans off it.

“The vault is still open,” I said, meaning she can still reach those folks (I wrote about this here).

So today you can ask (reply to, DM) your biggest fans to join her email list, which is something she can actually own for years and years. You can build a sustainable career with an email list!

I talked about how I had around 2,300 Twitter followers but only 20 or send ended up subscribing to Social Media Escape Club.

Some people just wanna be on social media!

Mary mentioned that her Facebook audience, “wants to know what I’m doing but doesn’t want to read,” and I said, “Later. Bye.”

I’m not trying to be harsh, but maybe I am! If you’re writing a memoir, then people that wanna scroll on FB for three hours a day might be your target audience!

That’s when Mary mentioned she has 600 newsletter subscribers.

Oh, well then.

So then I mentioned that maybe her energy is better spent “watering the garden” of her 600 current subscribers than chasing strangers. And I think that’s true for a lot of us.

Write the best newsletter you can for the people who signed up for it, and then some of them will the marketing for you.

You don’t need everyone. You need the right people, and you’ll find them (and they’ll find you) by committing to the work you’re meant to be doing.

Full replay below:

I’m part of Alex Dobrenko’s BAT CAVE. He writes Both Are True on Substack… BAT, get it?

Anyways, I started following Alex a year or two or three ago, and always looked forward to his newsletter showing up in my inbox.

Quick note: I don’t know that it shows up on a regular schedule (I have other things to worry about), like so many email marketing gurus say you have to do. When Alex’s email shows up, I read it. That’s it.

Okay, back to what I was saying; Alex now does group Zoom calls with his paid subscribers, which he totally stole from me. Just kidding, but no really… group Zoom calls with your paid subscribers is so good. Not everything needs to be a paywalled posts, or extra “content.” Hang out for an hour with the people who love you work once a week and see what happens.

Back to Alex: he starts off these group calls like a damn performer. Oh, that’s right, that’s because he is. It’s hilarious, and funny, and wonderfully over the top. There are SLIDES.

Lots of jokes and silliness throughout, because that’s the world that Alex creates. But then… shit gets real. People get deep.

Not in a, “okay, let’s be adults now and talk about REAL stuff.”

No, it just sort of eases into the room, because space was made for it to come into. The room was filling with fears and doubts and fart jokes, so then there’s room for all sorts of emotions and feelings.

So that’s just a thought on creating a Zoom room hangout with your members, through the lens of how Alex is doing it, and I think it’s great. Find out more about the BAT CAVE here.