I get to talk to a lot of creative people, and whenever I mention the whole “having a website,” folks tune out. I think this happens because for the last decade we’ve been hammering our creative round pegs into the templated square hole website builder platforms, and they feel gross.

Not to mention we’ve been throwing our best work onto social media platforms, where at least we get some LIKES and replies on occasion, right (even when hardly anyone sees them).

For me, posting to my site (like right now) is lower stakes writing. I don’t need to think about if an algorithm will pick it, or if someone might misinterpret me and leave a nasty comment.

This site exists between something like Morning Pages, which no one will see, or a full-blown email newsletter, which goes to thousands of people.

Here is where ideas germinate, in public, with just enough tension. Something I write is likely to be referenced a week from now, or even a year (or more) later.

“My blog posts inform the posts I haven’t written yet, they become the solutions to problems I didn’t know I had. They get referenced in member calls and workshops. They become subconscious scripts for future conversations I’ll have months from now.”

Good ideas have to start somewhere.

This came up in yesterday’s Break Up 💔 With Social Media call.

“I’ve had (group) calls with one other person… “but I have all these thousands of subscribers, this should be bigger,” I’ll think… but that one conversation might be the seed of something you post two months later that turns into something else.”

If four people show up for your Live stream, or 10 people read your newsletter, be present in the moment and realize you’re still building even when it doesn’t look it. I know it’s hard because I’ve been there, but we can’t always hit home runs every time we step up to the plate.

Come to our next Let’s Break Up 💔 With Social Media call with Chuck Marshall, where he’ll be talking about Why Every Artist Needs a Website.

If you ever want to write something a little different, but you’re worried what people might think – that they might (GASP) unsubscribe – fear not, friend. As I mentioned in this week’s Escape Pod Zoom call, when someone brought this up:

“As the artist, as the creative person… I’m the lead magnet. People signed up for me, so they’re getting me. And if people get huffy about it and unsubscribe? Bye. I don’t want to hold back. I’m not a magazine. I don’t have editors. I want to write what I want to write.”

That’s the sort of stuff we talk about on our weekly calls. If you ever have pangs of doubt, fear, or apprehension about the work you produce, please join us!

THIS WEEKEND:

• BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #03: How do we reach new people without social media? Sat, May 2 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/n628yxes

NEXT WEEK:

• CO-WORK ESCAPE POD. FREE. Tue, May 5 at 12:00pm EST: https://luma.com/1y6p4ead (two hours of virtual co-working!)
• ESCAPE POD #118 W/ SPECIAL GUEST MEG LEWIS. FREE. Thu May 7th at 2:00pm EST: https://luma.com/jzdkvpp2
• BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #04: Why Every Artist Needs a Website with Chuck Marshall! Sat, May 9 at 12pm EST: https://luma.com/mtvucpt5

See all events here: https://luma.com/escape-pods

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A photographer I spoke with recently asked a question a lot of creatives ask: why bother with a website when nobody visits?

Here’s my reframe: you don’t need a hundred visitors, you just need two creative directors.

The people who like your photo on Instagram won’t hire you. The creative director who finds your site and sees your work? They can hire you, then you can send you an invoice. That’s the difference between audience and client.

It’s not about volume, it’s about the right people finding you, and your website is where that can actually happen.

The isolation of social media is apparent when we fall into a doom scroll, or go down a rabbit hole of the latest drama. When we finally “snap out of it,” we realize the time that’s passed, and the missed text messages from friends.

Breaking up with social media is hard, not just because it consumes so much of our day, but our life. Social media soothes, takes the edge off, lets you unwind after a long day at work, which sounds much like how we describe cigarettes, alcohol, and other various substances.

Like a toxic partner, social media keeps us from our friends and family, from our hobbies and passions. It doesn’t demand our attention, but it makes it irresistible.

We can delete the apps and go cold turkey, but I believe the way out is other people. It’s community. It’s relationships. Maybe that includes the Social Media Escape Club Zoom calls. Or maybe it’s joining a group on campus.

Whatever it looks like, it’s making eye contact and talking with other people just like you, to help you realize that you’re not weak, or stupid, or that you don’t have willpower.

We need to understand that lots of people get paid huge salaries to keep us coming back for more. The cure, though, is even more people who want to see us blossom.

As Substack co-founder Hamish KcKenzie recently said “email is an important distribution channel. It should not be your only one.”

I’m pretty he didn’t mean “if you’ve built everything on Substack and Substack goes away tomorrow, you’re fucked,” but well, the shoe fits.

Email lists are wonderful, of course, but only until Substack has an outage, or KIT suspends your account (I’ve heard that happen), or Gmail banishes your email to the promo folder (or worse).

The entirety of your work shouldn’t live on a platform you don’t own; not Substack, not Instagram, not YouTube. A website you own, on a hosting service you pay for, via files you can back up – that’s your safest bet.

Publishing your work on your own website ensures your biggest fans can find it, even when they don’t get an email from you.

​Join us later this week to talk about what a real owned presence looks like; things like your website, RSS, print, word of mouth, direct relationships, and more.

Thursday, April 30th at 2PM EST
Sign up here. https://luma.com/7asv89sv

On Monday I took my buddy Blue to the vet, and by Wednesday he returned to the cosmos. I’m so glad that some of you witnessed him during our Zoom calls and live streams!

Quick note – I am folding our “FOCUS ESCAPE PODS” into our regular Thursday calls, which you may have noticed have had a theme in recent weeks, and are hopefully just as helpful for everyone.

:: SATURDAY ::

BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #02
I’m trying a regular Saturday meeting to focus on BREAKING UP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.
Saturday, April 25 at 12PM EST
REGISTER HERE: https://luma.com/4eqvlsck

:: NEXT WEEK :: 

CO-WORK ESCAPE POD
Fix your keyboard, mend some shorts, pay your taxes (oops), draw some goats, practice your scales – together!
Tuesday, April 28 at 12PM EST
REGISTER: https://luma.com/vfukbhlk

“LET’S BUILD AND HOST YOUR OWN LINKTREE IN 90 MINUTES”
This MIGHT get cancelled, as not many people have signed up. 
Wednesday, April 29 at 12PM EST
REGISTER: CANCELLED

ESCAPE POD #117 – EMAIL, AND THEN WHAT?
​Substack’s Hamish McKenzie recently said, “Email is an important distribution channel. It should not be your only one.” WHAT??!
Thursday, April 30 at 2pm EST
REGISTER: https://luma.com/7asv89sv

:: NEXT MONTH ::

BREAK UP 💔 WITH SOCIAL MEDIA #03
How do we reach new people without social media? If you’re ready (or still deciding) to quit the major social media platforms, this question is everything. Like, it’s one thing to just delete the apps, but then what?
Saturday, April 25 at 12PM EST
REGISTER HERE: https://luma.com/n628yxes

“LET’S BUILD AND HOST YOUR OWN LINKTREE IN 90 MINUTES”
As mentioned above, this may get cancelled, so sign up if you’re interested!
Saturday, May 2 at 12PM EST
REGISTER: CANCELLED

One person on your email list can make a big difference.

I found out that Pearl Jam posted about the local nonprofit community art center Alice and I started, Art House Grandview, on their Instagram.

Three point eight million followers. A photo of a kid at Art House learning guitar, small hands on the neck of an instrument almost too big for them. Their foundation, the Vitalogy Foundation, picked Art House as the April recipient of their Future Days Fund grant. The money goes directly into the programs where we teach kids music for free.

Joshua Heath Scott wrote a newsletter, ‘HOW GUITAR CHANGED MY LIFE,’ and someone on the email list forwarded it to Pearl Jam’s foundation, which led to them highlighting Art House Grandview.

Joshua wrote that piece as only he could, talking about how Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’ album was a huge influence, and “I’ve spent a lot of time on this Substack trying to articulate why art and creativity matter — why guitar matters — why it’s more than an instrument, why it carries the weight of where music has been, why holding one connects you to something larger than yourself.”

This is the core of talking about what we do.

We don’t just play music, we change lives.

We don’t just write essays, we shape culture.

We don’t just take photos, we document the world around us.

When we reduce ourselves to commodity offerings (check out my song, buy my print, read my article), we can’t be surprised when it’s treated as “content.”

So talk about your work in the same creative manner in which you make it. Dare to say you’re a writer even if you’re not “published.” Call yourself a photographer, a musician, a poet.

If the ding-dongs running the United States right now can claim they know what they’re doing, you have my permission to be anything you wanna be.

Let’s not define ourselves by our primary source of income, as we were put on earth for reasons beyond comprehension, beyond punching someone else’s time clock to pay the rent.

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Join me and the Social Media Escape Club TOMORROW, April 23 at 2pm EST, as we talk about this (and more), and you’ll leave with some new ways to talk about your work – sign up here.