REMEMBER THE MAGIC

Tonight, a friend walked me around their space, showing me the works of art left to her. A precious, sweet remembrance of a dear friend.

Tomorrow, I drive to upstate New York to visit an aunt in the hospital. She’s not an artist by definition, but she made people laugh and smile. What else is art but joy?

Remember the laughter, the smiles, the experences along the way. Celebrate the sunset, the dinner together, the conversations that flow like music into the evening.

GROWING WITHOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

Just got off a call with Deanna Seymour, talking about my work with Social Media Escape Club.

When talking about “how I find new people” since I’m not on social media, I just said I meet new people all the time and do cool stuff with good people, like the podcast we were recording!

I then explained that a few of her listeners will hear my interview and go, hey! Seth seems cool, I’m gonna go check him out!

Deanna then hit the nail on the head, then, reminding everyone; “a few.”

Me being on one podcast won’t bring in 1000 new subscribers probably. But hey, maybe 3 or 5 or 10 people over a month, right?

Stop thinking of posting on social media and the infinite reach. Put value in showing up for 10 people.

HONOR YOUR OLDER WORK

The work we create doesn’t has an expiration date. The photo books we make, or the poetry chapbook, the music video, the demo tape, the essay, the course, the piece of art. Most of our work is timeless yet we let it expire, starving it of attention as we move onto the next thing.

“Well, the last thing didn’t take off, might as well work on the new thing,” we say, even though maybe 100 people saw it the first time.

What happens when 25 more people see it?

GOING FIRST IS A RISK

People want proof because they don’t want risk.

When I dare suggest that maybe we can exist without social media, or musicians can take their music off streaming platforms, I basically hear this: “give me 25 examples of people doing it that are successful.”

As in, prove that other people have done it and maybe I’ll entertain the idea.

And really, eh, I’m not trying to convince anyone. If you wanna use something, use it. I ain’t your dad.

But if using a particular product or service pains you, if it’s triggering, it’s harmful to your mental health, or your sobriety, ummm… yeah, I think it’s okay to entertain the idea of not using that particular product.

If you’re a recovering addict, it’s okay if you don’t wanna play in bars.

Hell, if you just hate the bar scene, I’d say it’s okay to not play in bars.

Going first, without evidence, is hard. Which is maybe why so few do it.

SEASONS

We’re definitely in between seasons here in PA. Yesterday it was 75F, then on my morning walk it’s in the low 40s. I don’t know if it’s just getting older, or being more in tune with my feelings, but it’s taken me for a ride this year.

I haven’t written as much. I eased up on booking so many Zoom call interviews. Sent less newsletters.

Trying to put my energy into the bigger things (like a Zoom class I hosted this week where we built HTML pages from plain text files and uploaded them to a web host), and then conserve energy in other places, like this constant nag of publishing.

Seth Godin publishes everyday. Gary Vee posts 900 times a day. It’s like you have to pick one or other, and days off aren’t encouraged.

A friend said they feel like they have to have a monthly offering or else they’ll go broke.

It doesn’t help that gas is nearing $4/gallon here. Or that just 50 years ago people could work regular jobs and buy a house, and now lawyers and people with degrees and “grown up” jobs can’t seem to make it work.

This is America.