Category: WorkCategory: Work

My Mini Escape Pod’s (the weekly Zoom calls I do with members) are kept small so we can dig into each others challenges, and get to know more about one another. Today’s call was no different, where I had a great chat with one person for an hour.

We talked about charging our worth for our offerings, and bolstering the belief in our work through our decades of experience. Not taking for granted the many chapters of our own lives, and realizing that those times in our lives bring valuable (and quirky) perspectives that not many other people can bring!

In a broader sense, this can apply to not just how we show up, but where. Since deleting all my social media accounts (except Substack Notes, ahem), there are only a few places to find me. Even fewer ways to actually reach me! But that’s by design, and you can experiment with that, too!

In fact, if you’re not on TikTok or Twitter, you’re already experimenting!

You simply don’t need to be everywhere, all the time, for everyone.

“I need more subscribers” season is over.

Maybe now it’s Embrace What Exists season. Or Time to Celebrate Who’s Here.

The season of “more subscribers” will come around again, for sure. But today—right now—there are wonderful people already in our life and creative orbit. Maybe this can be a season (or even just a week) of honoring what already exists.

I saw Substack’s latest post, Demystifying the Feed, and figured I’d rant about it on a Substack Live!

Here’s some of the stuff I covered:

• The lottery effect: I compared Notes (and social media in general) to a lottery—someone wins big to keep the rest of us playing, but most people don’t.
• Algorithms ≠ strategy: I talked about how algorithmic feeds will always disappoint. You can’t game them, and they don’t owe us growth.
• Don’t outsource your audience: I reminded everyone that Substack is useful, but temporary. Platforms crash, change, or ghost. An email list is portable and ours forever.
• Real-world examples: I shared a story about a musician who skipped social media promo, reached out to a local newspaper and radio station, and played to 150 people in a new town—plus 30 new email signups on a clipboard. You can read that post here.
• Offline matters: I talked about how flyers, zines, and conversations still work. My own punk rock flea market table proved it—people still want to connect in person.
• Community ≠ platform: I said Substack makes great tools, but the “community” belongs to them, not us. Real community happens off-platform.
• For quieter creatives: I encouraged folks to stay authentic—slow growth, not performance. I’d rather grow as myself than pretend to be louder or slicker than I am.
• Blog and email > Notes: I emphasized that everything I post on Notes should also live on my own site.
• Let unsubscribes go: I reminded everyone to stop watching unsubscribe counts. I don’t track them either, it’s better to just focus on who stays.
• Final takeaway: The way I “demystify the feed” is by not relying on it. I’d rather build small circles, reach people directly, and keep the internet human-sized.

Perhaps this is a time of undoing, ridding ourselves of complex processes and systems.

This from Yancey Strickler:

“THE LONG GAME IS ABOUT CONFIDENCE. YOU HAVE TO WILLINGLY LIVE IN A TRUTH THAT’S NOT CERTAIN, YET OPERATE WITH THE FAITH THAT IT WILL BE. A CONSTANT PRESSURE YOU MUST BEFRIEND/TOLERATE.”

Having the confidence that I don’t need to back up every single post, file, or image from the last 20+ years. Confidence is cancelling Adobe and just figuring it out. Confidence is deleting social media profiles and having the faith that it will be okay (it will).

I have no confidence that the Unholy Trinity, that a new app, gadget, or system will come along and give us the answer. Their interest is self-interest, and they’ll continue to string us along if we let them.

Instead, my confidence is with fellow creative folk, even if the directions are a little messy and the path looks weird.

Bree Stilwell tells the story about posting an idea on a local Reddit:

The idea was for an alternative local print magazine, something a bit more sideways than the long-reigning Ann Arbor Observer. The response:

‘How about contributing to the Observer? (I’m the deputy editor.)’

I’m dm’d her, she emailed me back, I sent her links to my Substack newsletter—my only published editorial work. I pitched her several ideas, we met for ice cream. We kept talking.

Yesterday, after a weekly online pilot since August, I got to see my first monthly advice column in ink, literally hot off the presses.

The audience? 53,000 direct mail recipients.

Your body of work can be expressed outside of just posting about it and hoping for the right person to see if and sweep you off your feet.

• Instagram is not the only place for your photography to exist!
• Substack is not the only place for your writing to exist!
• Your website is not the only place for your work to exist!
• Your Bandcamp page is not the only place for your music to exist!

Meet for ice cream! Get on the phone! Set up a Zoom call!

Stop waiting for people to stumble upon your magic and REACH FOR THE STARS!