Category: Life

EVIDENCE IS YOUR MARKETING

From my new post ‘YOUR EVIDENCE IS YOUR MARKETING‘ over at Social Media Escape Club:

“I saw someone marketing their music production services in text, outlining the discount, the expiration of the offer, and who might be interested.

No evidence, just details.

Their website showed the albums they worked, a display of musicians who trusted them with their art, their vision.

That’s evidence.”

From my time in the music industry, this was the foundation for so many bands in the metal and hardcore world. I didn’t find out about bands like Dillinger Escape Plan or Meshuggah from social media posts, I found out about them from friends who saw them and told me I need to hear them.

There was evidence; good sounding albums, word of mouth from their live shows. That was the marketing.

I know we’re in this always on / short form video world right now, but there are people out there making a living without being online 24/7 and without making short form videos.

I know a writer working on TV shows and they aren’t on social media. I know a musician with “just” 225 Patreon supporters and an email list and they’re making a living doing what they love.

Instead of trying to impress strangers, present your evidence to the right people in your own creative orbit.

WAKE UP, IT’S STILL BURING DOWN

From my interview with Thought Enthusiast in 2024:

I love seeing the mask pulled off from this big corporate con-game, where these platforms made it seem like a good idea to outsource our audience and community building on their spaces rather than our own. They got us hooked on the click traffic, then turned the screws and made us pay to reach our own audience, and then oops, now we’re all sort of waking up and seeing that we built our brands and systems in a house of cards, and the shit is falling down real quick.

Read the full interview here.

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.

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.

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 UNDOING

I’m in a season of undoing, as in, I’m hitting Ctrl Z on a lot of my possessions. This is partly because of rumors surrounding the sale of the building I live in, and also the expected 90% rise in my health care premiums in 2026. Fun!

These things are very much out of my control, so I’m ridding myself of excess, unused, and un-needed, and making way for what’s next, though just a bit more nimble.

This is happening both digitally, by removing my files from overpriced cloud storage, and physically, as in donating multiple bicycles and such.

CHANGE IS CORE

This theme came up in a recent Zoom meeting I was in:

“I took a sabbatical from my work as a photographer last year but I have a feeling my time as a commercial photographer might be coming to an end. I’ll always love photography and I’ll always be a photographer, but I feel my life force pushing me in different directions. When I tell my friends I might stop being a commercial photographer, they ask, but what will you do! And I realise how interesting that question is, and how we can limit ourselves and others when we think change is hard and things always have to be a certain way. In fact change is core to a vibrant, meaningful life, and we should expect change at any moment, without notice.”

From “reprogramming” by Rebecca Toh.

DEAD TELEVISION

I was gifted a 60″ television, something I would have never bought for myself.

It was older, which is part of the reason it was a gift, but it didn’t age well. It died this past week.

You don’t just “toss” a 60″ television though. It’s not really something you can leave on the curb, and there’s also e-waste recycling things to deal with.

Today, though, the TV is gone, and my life feels a little bit lighter. When off, it’s just this black monolith taking up space, mentally and physically.

I used the 1-800-GOT-JUNK folks, and they were great. Sure, a wee bit overprices for the TV and the other few items they took away, but it’s all gone, and the guys were super nice. Literally like, had a good laugh with them.

In a round about way, thinking less about televisions and “entertainment” and more about people. Bummer that it took the death of this giant TV to arrive at that place, but it was a good lesson learned.

Say no to gifts over 60″ in size.