Founder of the Social Media Escape Club
Instead of posting something on social media tonight, email an old acquaintance. Text someone a photo or link. Tell them about a book you’re reading. Send an email to someone you admire. Ask someone how they’re doing. Write a letter. Call your bestie.
In getting away from the algorithms and the walled garden of social media DMs, we return to a wide open world of possibilities.
Quiet week, good for afternoon walks and taking in the views.
A client who has worked with some big names wanted to build their email list, and I gave them this idea:
Think of the amazing people you worked with throughout the years, and think of all those stories you shared, and the memories you’ve made. They’ve got to have dozens of those stories to write, right?
So write that post, with that one person in mind. Then email that person a link to the piece.
This gets you around sending a boring email to “all your contacts” saying, “hey, I have a newsletter now, you should subscribe.”
Write a post that will resonate with the person you’re emailing. Yes, even if it’s just that one person. Email the person the link. Maybe they subscribe, or at least reply and you two catch up, and who knows where that leads?
It’s not always about striking it rich and getting 100 new sign ups. Sometimes the right message to the right person at the right time is all you need.
The area around a park I frequent is seeing some development. Where once there were empty fields, now a bunch of buildings are going up.
Night walks lead to interesting lights in mundane places.
Love this bit from Derek Sivers:
Making money depends on other people, so it’s harder. It’s not entirely under your control. It’s an outer game.
Reducing what you “need” to be happy is easier. It’s entirely under your control. It’s an inner game.
Would I like to replace my car from 2015 with over 100,000 miles? Sure. But that means a car payment and higher insurance premiums.
I don’t need that new car, which helps me be a little more rich.
“More music is being released today (in a single day) than was released in the calendar year of 1989.”
Lowering the bar to entry into the music world has been a wonderful thing. Along with the internet, it’s made it possible for anyone in the world to hear your music.
The problem is that every musician is doing the same thing. Everyone competing for the same listens and streams and downloads.
(source)
This is so good, from ‘No one benefits from you scrolling and feeling sad.’
“I think the root of the problem is the globalization of all problems.
Now, it feels like anything bad that happens anywhere in the world is somehow relevant to me and my responsibility. It’s like, I’m not allowed to be happy as long as someone, somewhere, is having a bad time.
Especially with global problems, it’s like, how are you allowed to smile when there’s climate change? These problems are really bad, but you can’t change everything yourself.
No one benefits from you scrolling on your phone and feeling sad and then going to Starbucks.
The antidote is figuring out what you care about, what you’re good at, and what you like doing that can make the world a little bit better.
Then, really do that thing.“
The only people who said blogs were dead were the corporate overlords who bought them all up, tried to lower costs by cutting staff, and realized 18 ads on every page turned readers away.
Trust me, I know. I worked at AOL from 2006-2011 or so. I was around the whole “let’s just make a bunch of sites, throw ads on them, and link to them from the AOL homepage” and holy shit, it worked until it didn’t, I guess.
I spoke with Thought Enthusiast about Social Media Escape Club, mantras, and Noah Kalina!
“hey… you don’t need to be loud and jump around and do stunts to connect and share your work. Like, you can just be who you are, and that’s enough, and even though the algorithm might not “reward” that, oh well. Being yourself makes it easy to sustain your work because you’re not wasting energy being someone else.”
Read more here.
