Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

You’ve heard that one way to grow is to get on some podcasts. You did the research, sent out some emails, and got booked for a handful of podcasts.

It takes time to find the right podcast to pitch! To craft the email, and wait for the response. And we can’t discount the anxiety leading up to the call. The Substack superstar Sarah Fay had me on as a guest a few years back, and I was definitely nervous!

But afterwards? Crickets. No noticeable uptick in subscriptions.

All this work, and worry, and it had zero impact in the moment.

Heck, even artist Amie McNee “went on one of the biggest podcast in the world and it didn’t sell any books.”

It’s not that this “strategy” of going on podcasts is “bad,” it’s just how it works. That’s why social media is so alluring; you post something, and at least you get one like in the first five minutes. Instant gratification!

We got to hear this directly on a recent Escape Pod Zoom call, about going on podcasts as a way to grow an audience and how it wasn’t really paying off.

Even if you didn’t get a subscription, you built some trust. People need to see you a few times, hear you, notice you a few times, before they subscribe.

Sure, we’d all love more book sales, or at least more subscribers, but you’re learning how to get better at pitching, booking, and being on podcasts, all of which will serve you for years to come.

In the follow up email conversation with this person, we talked about this trust part, and arrived at this opportunity; reaching back out to the podcast host.

Send a two or three line message to the host a month later. Ask how they’re doing. Follow up on a point that was made during your talk. Mention a recent episode. Keep the connection going, continue building trust with a person who thought enough to have you on their show.

You can keep chasing the ocean of strangers, and doing what the “experts” says, which is spending time and energy trying to impress people who’d rather keep scrolling. It’s an exhausting endeavor that never ends.

Instead, you could flip it, and focus on the few people you’ve already built a connection with.

We talk about this sort of thing every week in our Escape Pod Zoom calls. Join a call with other creative people figuring out the same stuff you’re dealing with. Check our upcoming schedule here.

This morning Cara Alwill and I had a lovely chat on Substack Live, and we covered so many wonderful topics:

Sending the email (don’t wait on algorithms): take matters into your own hands are start reaching out to other creative people, and maybe send more newsletters!

“If people are unsubscribing from you, it means you have a point of view.” — Cara Alwill

Scrappy vs. polished: the world has enough “optimized” text, it’s time to go feral.

Building your own team before anyone hands you one: start working with people in the early stages so you can sniff out the creeps later on.

You are the lead magnet: Forget the niche, you are the reason someone reads.

Just do the thing: Stop announcing, stop planning every little move, and start making.

“There’s a fine line between inspiration and procrastination.” — Cara Alwill

From my interview with Julie Laufer and her Be Cringe Podcast (edited slightly for readability), on the difference between hoping the algorithm smiles upon you versus putting your hope in the work you’re doing.

Spend a sliver of the time you waste on social media on your art and your craft. That way, when people do notice what you do — maybe 75 people, maybe a hundred — they turn their heads because you’re genuinely that good.

That’s what you want. Not constantly promoting. Just being undeniably good at the thing.

Yeah, yeah — “be so good they can’t ignore you.” Easy for Steve Martin to say.

But challenge accepted.

Be so good that you can have the conversation. Be ready for the opportunity, in all the ways it might show up — not scrambling to make 12-second clips hoping the algorithm throws you a bone.

The hope is in the work.

Reach out to some people just outside of your orbit. Ask to be on a podcast. Talk with someone about a collaboration. Do things that are lot more fun than trying to entertain strangers on platforms that don’t exist to send you free traffic.

Watch the full interview here.

Matthew Ferrara comes from the real estate world, and often challenges the notion that social media is the most important thing in the getting the word out. From “Why This Simple Sales Move Outperforms Social Media Marketing:”

The National Association of REALTORS® most recent survey asked 173,250 buyers a simple question: Was social media the main method used to find your real estate agent?

1% said yes.

But 37% were referred by a friend, neighbor, or relative; and another 29% used the same agent they worked with the last time.

You can not deny the foundation of “referred by a friend, neighbor, or relative,” across all business and creative fields. We make big transactions and small deals based on trust, and in the year 2026 referrals still carry a lot of weight.

Saw this while walking around Portsmouth, NH, from the “Public Poetry Project.” This is run by the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program, where they organize submissions from poets to be featured in businesses around town.

There are people who would love your work and they aren’t even on social media – they might just be out walking around town!