Maria Popova started Brain Pickings “in 2006 as an email to seven friends.”

The left sidebar is titled “donating = loving,” and goes on to say “If you find any joy, solace, and inspiration here, please consider a donation.”

No tiers, no levels, no free tote bag, no bonus content.

In a recent Zoom call, Shelley told a story about going to the book store, and a kind stranger giving her quarters to buy the kids some books, to which she initially refused. She eventually took the coins, and her daughter told her afterwards, “don’t ever refuse prosperity.”

If we don’t give our readers a chance to donate, we are literally refusing prosperity.

Set up a Buy Me a Coffee account, and Ko-Fi, and a Patreon – why not? Lots of people use different services. To get the ball rolling, let people give you money in a way that’s comfortable for them.

Remind them of their options, send them links on occasion, subtle reminders.

There are people who want to support the work you do in its present form, without extra content or behind the scenes material.

If you enjoy my work, you can buy me a coffee via Ko-Fi, PayPal, Cash App, and Venmo. You can also become a Social Media Escape Club Member here, and buy my HUNTERTHEN music here.

Maybe centralized kingdoms of power are a bad thing, via the ACLU:

“Recently, Apple pulled an app called ICEBlock from the AppStore, making it unavailable in one fell swoop. This app was designed to let people anonymously report public sightings of ICE agents. In the United States people absolutely have a First Amendment right to inform others about what they have seen government officials doing and where — very much including immigration agents whose tactics have been controversial and violent.”

AI slop, censorship, never ending streams of videos – this is what we get from handing over so much of our lives to the unholy trinity.

Social media apps are addictive by design. It’s built to keep you on the their site, in their ecosystem, for as long as possible every waking moment.

Instagram made $69 billion from us last year.
We made nothing.
Our attention is an asset.
Our imagination is their profit.
We create the value.
It’s time to send the bill.

The Meta Invoice creates an invoice to send to Mark Zuckerberg and company, saying:

“Meta Invoice takes the visible traces of your activity — posts, time, audience — and turns them into an invoice for the estimated value you’ve created for Meta.”

Link via Laura.

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.

Our regular Escape Pod meetings on Thursday can sometimes reach 10+ people, but our Mini Escape Pod Q&As are limited to just three guests.

I do this so guests can have a chance to bring up their challenges in a quieter space, and it leaves room for everyone to offer feedback and ideas.

I also vary the day and time that I offer these Mini Escape Pod Q&A sessions, too, just so people in different time zones and schedules can attend.

Become a trial member and get 30 days of access to our upcoming Escape Pod Zoom calls, co-working hang outs, and Pizza Parties.

Did a surprise Substack Live today on a whim. Just me, a webcam, and my cat (Blue) losing his mind in the background. OBS melted down half the time (I have no idea what I’m doing), but here’s some threads worth pulling out:

Serving the people who already showed up

I keep saying this because it never stops being true: Notes is just social media. Chasing the feed means a few winners and everyone else shouting into the void. The only sane move is making your best work for the folks who already subscribed, not every stranger on the internet.

Why I nuked every platform except substack

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn — all deleted. The only “social” thing I use now is Substack Notes, and even then it’s more of an on-ramp to my newsletter.

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Priya Parker spoke to over 1,000 people in a ballroom and said it felt intimate. She asked the organizer how that happened, and they said they invited with a capital “I.”

“They send a printed invitation to each guest as a formality. But months before the event, she personally calls every single potential guest by phone to invite them to the dinner. When I remarked that that was a lot of work, she smiled and said, “My entire job is to build community. The one-on-one time I get on that phone call is as important than the event itself.” Inviting with a capital “I,” means letting people, in whatever way appropriate to you and your context, know that you actually want them there.”

I tell anyone looking to start their own group Zoom calls to invite.

You can’t just put the Zoom link in a newsletter and expect people to show up. Be intentional with how the room is assembled. Invite the people that you’re already having conversations with, who show up with the same enthusiasm and energy.

When your brand new room has people you’ve already had conversations with, your guests will feed off the energy level they’re seeing. This sort of sets an example of how they can present themselves, and feel comfortable doing so because they see other people feeling the same way.

The biggest thing about getting away from social media and staring at our phone is remembering that things weren’t always like this.

The iPhone was launched in 2007, not even a decade ago, and we’re exhausted.

This new behavior came about by major companies (the unholy trinity) spending billions of dollars to instill the belief that we must be connected with everyone at all times.