I donated some bikes to the CAT Bicycle Cooperative last weekend. The space was a bee-hive of activity, buzzing with volunteers and folks hanging out.

I visited a new store front in town because I’ve been talking with the owner over the years, and I bought some delicious cookies and coffee, and might be helping them set up an email announcement list.

This is just a span of a few days, and the result of IRL conversations and interactions, limited only by geography and time.

The best networking is just being a part of community. This doesn’t mean you need to join every group or sign up to volunteer every weekend, but find folks and orgs that you vibe with and say hello on occasion.

As I’ve said recently, “the more I think about Social Media Escape Club, the more I realize it’s all about the personal connections. It’s not just about the conversations, the encouragement, the support, the regular check ins, but the depth of those interactions.”

Like, I’ve been following Cody Cook-Parrott for awhile, since their posts about leaving Instagram a few years back. They were a big inspiration for me for leaning into the work I’m doing here!

So I reached out sometime in late 2024 and asked if they’d be up for a short Zoom chat about email segments, and they said yes – you can watch the video here! Also, check out their Reclaim the Archive, a fundraiser workshop for Cody’s books.

“This workshop is about reclaiming and re-animating your own archive — as an artist, writer, or small business owner.”

Rad!

So, reach out. Connect. Strike up a conversation. Send that email. As Carly Valancy says, “your future self is begging you to reach out.”

“While reaching out I found myself. I found my voice. I had the beautiful epiphany we all hope to have at some point, which is that you are responsible for your life. You are responsible for your decisions and opportunities and to a large extent, your luck. Reaching out instilled the belief in me that literally anything could happen if you connect with the right person.”

Social media wants us working alone, isolated, cut off from real support, trusting only the algorithm, buying another lottery ticket and hoping the next post get 13 likes.

Or, as Seth Godin says, we can seek out the others.

“Our best work is far more likely to happen when we have peers. You’re likely to become the average of the people you spend professional time, so choosing your cohort is best not left to chance.

There’s no map for this, no step by step guide, and that’s why it’s so important to start now.

Here are two notes from people who joined our recent calls.

I’m not saying you need to join our weekly Zoom calls (though you could), but being around other creative people really helps.

It gets you out of your own head.
It shows you that you’re not alone.
Thousands of others have the same challenges you have.

We are better together.

At the casual poet library in Singapore you can rent a bookshelf and curate your own little space as a way to contribute and support the library.

The thing I love about this is you don’t need a million followers on TikTok for it to work. A spot like just needs 50-100 people in the area who love the space and the mission to pay SGD$565 per year to rent a bookshelf.

On top of that, library members pay a yearly fee to borrow five books a month.

Today’s thinking is “how can I get everyone on the internet to care?” Or, “how do I find my audience on the noisy internet?”

Instead, can we imagine our mission on a smaller scale, without the need for viral attention?

From an interview with Craig Lewis earlier this year:

“Do I believe we can exist without social media? Absolutely I do.

There’s so many ways that we can get in touch and build community and build audience and build a fan group around what we do without putting all our magic onto other people’s platforms.”

For some, posting on social media can be dangerous, as South Central Run Club explains:

“Most of our runners are Black and brown and you never know when ICE is gonna pull up. Instead of broadcasting our runs and making us vulnerable to surveillance, we stopped putting it on Instagram to make people feel safer to come and hang out.”

Love this from Florencia Ornelas:

“I gave myself the task to sketch as many strangers as possible during my commute to work instead of scrolling and it was a great exercise to get my creative brain working and have something to look forward every day before working 9-10 hours on my laptop.”

If we wait until we’re a full time artist, we might be waiting a long time. Better to start right where we’re at, with what we’ve got, with the time that is available.

We don’t become great in 10 minutes, but we can get a little better 10 minutes at a time.

Saw this at the bottom of The Oatmeal’s very excellent post “A Cartoonist’s Review of AI Art.“

As I said back in 2023, “stop telling fans to follow you on platforms that are built to limit your ability to reach them.”

If you (or the Oatmeal) drive 1,000 people to Instagram and they all follow you, you’ll be lucky if 100 of those people see your next post.

So why not just focus on getting 100 new email subscribers? That’s a lot easier than trying to update several other platforms just so 90% of your followers won’t see your latest stuff.

Join me (Seth Werkheiser) and the Social Media Escape Club community for a 90-minute PIZZA PARTY.

Have you wanted to start a GROUP ZOOM CALL but don’t know where to start? Start here!

I believe magic happens when we gather people to trade ideas, share challenges, and remember we’re not doing this alone, so this month we’re diving into how to get started with building small, intentional spaces online.

​We’ll talk about setting intentions, grounded hosting, and the mix of safety and spontaneity that keeps people coming back.

​Some stories, examples, and a few practical ideas you can try with your new (or next) Zoom gathering, creative circle, or a community get together.

​Video and audio replay will be available afterwards for everyone who signs up.

Last week Tom Violett joined one of our Mini Escape Pod Zoom calls. He’s making his first documentary (Voices For Change) at 62 with his 19 year old filmmaker son Ray.

He told us how he went to a documentary screening of a young filmmaker in Philadelphia, PA.

“It turned out to be a Video Consortium Hub event, with both experienced and emerging filmmakers all in the same room,” said Tom. “That night, I turned to Ray and said, ‘I want one of these in New Jersey.'”

And that’s what he did!

“So I made it happen — connected with a few people — and we had our launch event a few weeks ago. We brought together emerging filmmakers, a documentary filmmaker who’s been doing a PBS series for 13 years, and another friend who’s been an editor for 30 years, doing high-end work like Super Bowl commercials.

They all just talked.

We’re building that community, and people are hungry for it. It’s tough when you’re out there on your own, but once you find that community, it just takes off.”

They all just talked.

That’s it, friends. That’s the magic.

Talking gets you closer to the answer you’re seeking. The Unholy Trinity (The Data, The Device, and The Distraction) would rather we just post more, or watch a few more how-to videos on YouTube – anything but putting our phones down and talking to one another about our work, our mission, or the magic we’re trying to bring to the world.

You can find this taking place online, like in Alex’s BAT CAVE Zoom meetings, and Beth’s Introvert Drawing Club, and Frederick Woodruff’s Moon Zooms and the Social Media Escape Club Escape Pod Zoom calls. But this is all happening offline, too. There are (and have been) Punk Rock Flea Markets, zine fests, indie movie screenings, house shows, open studios, and so much more.

These all existed before social media, and they’ll continue long after the lights go out at Meta.