Author: Seth Werkheiser

BEFORE 1000 TRUE FANS

I started my Social Media Escape Club newsletter in 2021 with an imported email list of 19 people.

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

These days I have 6,600 email subscribers, the biggest email list I’ve ever had.

Then I have around 100 paying members, which is also the largest paying membership I’ve ever had.

There’s a big distance between zero and Kevin Kelly’s “1000 true fans” dream, but it all starts somewhere, one person at a time.

There’s no one-size-fits-all path, I don’t think, because everyone we serve is human, and as humans we’re messy and unpredictable. So when people ask me about finding their “1000 true fans,” I usually ask if they found their 10, or their 50 yet.

You’re gonna learn so much with the smaller groups of people, lessons you’re going to need to learn before you even think of hitting 1000.

SOCIAL MEDIA WOULDN’T HELP ME

Wes: “…just bumming out my sponsors, you know. Like, they’d probably appreciate it if I drove the feed a little more… that would help them out a lot. I see that aspect — but it wouldn’t help me.”

That’s the big thing with not being on social media that a lot of people forget. That if we’re not staring at our phones for hours a day, then we’re doing something else. In Wes’s case, that’s obviously skateboarding, reading magazines, taking photos.

What happens when we reallocate those moments everyday? Moments add up to minutes and then hours, and for what? Like Wes says in this video, the internet never ends, there’s always more to read, view, watch.

A magazine ends. The day ends. The album ends.

Let things end.

(link, Dino)

BLOGGING IS TOTALLY NOT DEAD

From Josh Spector on LinkedIn (thanks Sarah B. for letting me know):

Blogging isn’t dead – it’s hiding.

Last night I spent a little time seeking out old school blogs and was pleasantly surprised at what I found.

Bloggers I had read regularly decades ago like Jason Kottke and Tina Eisenberg are still at it and still sharing interesting, valuable stuff I hadn’t seen elsewhere.

And I discovered bloggers who were new to me that immediately captured my attention – people like Seth Werkheiser.

I was even reminded that bloggers who I do still read regularly like Seth Godin and Austin Kleon have tons of stuff on their blogs that I had missed.

Equally interesting is that most of these bloggers are barely – if at all – using social media.

It’s funny, because I wanted to reply, but I don’t have a LinkedIn account anymore! I tracked down his email to say hello.

Absolutely humbled to have my name anywhere near the other names he mentioned in this post, sheesh! Like, what?!

But yeah – blogging was at one point deemed dead by the VC bros who bought up a bunch of the blogs we used to read, crammed them full of ads and pop ups, then wondered why no one visited anymore (I was living in NYC and working at AOL Music in 2008, I’ve seen things).

Then the VC and content moved to social media because it was a “cleaner reading experience,” and well, we’ve all seen how that turned out!

I set up this blog in 2018, and I’ve been “re-stocking it” with posts and photos dating back to 2004 from Flickr and assorted outlets. I figured since I deleted all my social media profiles, I might as well have one space for everything I’m doing.

SEEKING QUIET INPUTS

Great quote from ‘All we watch are millionaires,’ from Dense Discovery:

“Seeking out lesser-known voices isn’t just an act of cultural curation; it’s a philosophical stance, a refusal to let attention be the only metric that matters. Because the most interesting stuff usually happens on the margins.”

Link via Input Diet by Manuel Moreale

Manuel goes on to say, “I’m starting to believe that a phoneless life is, for me, the ultimate goal.”

Remember when people used to say they didn’t own a TV? Or a car?!? Someday not owning a phone is gonna feel the same way.

WALKING TEN MILES A DAY FOR NINE WEEKS

So it’s been nine full weeks of walking 10 miles per day. Over three hours per day on my feet, usually 2.5-4 miles at a time, a few times a day. Some days I ever the 10 miles wrapped up by 5pm, other days it’s a little later (as you can tell by the photo above).

I usually walk without music. Sometimes I’ll listen to a podcast. I guess I should listen to more audiobooks or something, but right now I like the singular focus.

When I have ideas, I’ll usually dictate them into my phone via Wisper Flow (affiliate link). When I get home, I’ll move those notes where they need to go, sometimes as to-do items, or ideas for upcoming Social Media Escape Club posts.

I can’t say I’ve lost a ton of weight, but I feel lighter, more mobile, clothes fit a bit better. Overall I think it’s the mental win each day, that I can do this physical thing day after day with my 50th birthday just a few months away.

NO WATCH

As I descend deeper into the undoing, I’ve landed on my watch. Earlier this year I bought a nice Coros watch to monitor my elevation gained in real time on my runs. These last two months, though, I’ve been deep into “just walking,” even though I’m covering 10 miles per day (I believe today is day 56 of 10 miles per day).

So for each walk, I hit a button on my watch, which has to calibrate the GPS and my heart rate. At the end of each walk, I have to hit stop on the watch, let it sync with the Coros app on my phone, which then syncs with Strava, which is where all my running and (lately) walking data is stored (since 2016).

Today, though, I left the watch at home. For each walk today (a total of four) I tracked the activity on my iPhone via the Strava app. Hit start, lock my iPhone, and throw it in my bag.

Now instead of two apps to track my walk, and two devices, it’s just one. This also means keeping track of charging one device, rather than two.

This season of undoing has me rethinking everything. It sounds small, but I’m out there nearly 24 hours a week, and every bit of mental clutter adds up. Simplifying what I have to manage for these walks feels like reclaiming a little peace at the end of the day.

THE LONG GAME

Started a music blog in 2001.

Launched a metal blog for AOL Music in 2008 (7 years later).

Starting posting metal trivia on Twitter in 2011.

Sorta co-founded Metal Bandcamp Gift Club in 2016 (and so broke I didn’t have a checking account).

Got back to blogging again in 2018.

Started doing D2C email marketing for a record label in 2020.

Started writing on Substack in 2021 with 19 subscribers.

Changed the name to Social Media Escape Club in 2023.

Stuff takes a minute, friends!

THE MATRIX COSM

I’m a big fan of The Matrix, so a few friends have sent me the clip of the movie being played at Cosm, which is a “massive dome theater that wraps the audience in a 360° projection — basically IMAX meets planetarium meets concert visuals.”

My take? Pass.

I saw The Matrix in theaters, when it first came out, and it blew my mind. It blew all our minds, so I’d rather hold onto that experience than add something flashy like this on top of it (and I can only imagine the cost).

If I was in LA and someone was going, sure, I’d go. But I’m not making any special trips to see something like that.