Category: Life

TALKING ABOUT THE WORK

“Talking about the work is just as important as making it“

Lots of truth in this statement, not just in a big “PR SALES!” sense, but even in how we talk about what we do with friends, and other people in our creative orbit.

Many artists would love for the “art to speak for itself,” but that’s not the world we live in anymore. There is simply too much art, music, news, drama – EVERYTHING – for things to speak for themselves.

Everything has its volume cranked to 11, and it never ends, and there’s more being added every minute, every hour, every day.

We get better at talking about the work by talking about it, not by trying to scream just as loud as everyone else.

Posting on social media can be like screaming, since we all have to scream to get attention on those platforms. We have to dance, or use the right trending audio, or hashtags.

Talking, though, is a lost art. How many people do you know that don’t even like talking on the phone with friends? Let alone creative directors, or booking people, or potential clients?

Talking is a lost fucking art, but it’s exactly what we need to get back to.

AVOID THE ALGORITHIMS

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.

THE RIGHT PEOPLE

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 INNER GAME

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.

REALLY DO THAT THING

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.“

KITTY HELP

I put this photo in Substack Notes, but taking my own advice and doing my best to also make sure I put this sort of stuff on my own blog, too. Substack can go away tomorrow, but as long as I keep paying my yearly server bill and domain name registration, this post will never go away.

IS THIS REAL?

“What did we do before talked about politics all the time?”

A great question posed to me by one of the most politically adpet people I know.

It’s wild, in that social media has conditioned us to constantly talk about politics, at least since 2016 or so.

That was the start of Trump’s foray into politics, when Twitter became as absolute shitshow, but where I’d stay until 2023 for some reason.

But I think social media has just made us think and connect like being online has been the answer the whole time, and everything leading up to it was wrong.

As if the before times, when not everyone had a personal computer at home, or a laptop that they could use on the couch, or a smartphone so they could check it constantly.

Maybe the current mode of living was created by companies that never had our best interest in mind.

Because, honestly, the more we’re online, the more we’re seeing ads. Even if we’re not using an ad blocker, we see ads on social media. Pre-roll ads on YouTube videos.

What if the reason we’re so perpetually online is because it’s in the best interest of those that build computers and sell the ads?

What if it doesn’t have to be this way?

MEETING A NEW PERSON

From ‘On a Saturday Afternoon,’ by Aimee Bender:

But even though I am making steady proclamations about who I will go for next, and why, and how it will all be different, it is brutal to imagine the idea of meeting a new person. Going through the same routine. Saying the same phrases I have now said many times: the big statements, the grand revelations about my childhood and character. The cautious revealing of insecurities. I have said them already, and they sit now in the minds of those people who are out living lives I have no access to anymore. Awhile ago, this sharing was tremendous; now, the idea of facing a new person and speaking the same core sentences seems like a mistake, an error of integrity. Surely it is not good for my own mind to make myself into a speech like that. The only major untouched field of discussion will have to do with this feeling, this tiredness, this exact speech.

The next person I love, I will sit across from in silence. We will have to learn it from each other some other way.

Ahhh, that line, “it is brutal to imagine the idea of meeting a new person.”