Internet, newsletters, design, music, etc.
Photo by Seth Werkheiser
There are so many distractions, so many shiny objects to chase. A splash of inspiration came way this morning, but had a good grounding call this afternoon to set me straight, a reminder to stay true to my own mission and style.
Photo by Seth Werkheiser
If an unpaid intern could write it, start over.
There are things can could be written by someone else on your behalf – announcing a new product, an upcoming tour, a fancy new something or other.
Lay out the facts. The dates. The logistics. “I’m really excited about this,” you say – gee, really?! Tell me more 😕
There’s enough safe, boring, dry text out there. Throwing chatGPT into the mix makes it even less spicy.
Your creativity is your magic. But please, don’t stop using it when it’s time to talk about the things you’re doing.
I wrote about this in ‘Find social media success by occasionally riding a horse,’ where I say:
“If all you can muster is “I updated my site,” lower your expectations. The algorithms are cruel, but it’s nothing personal. Is this fair or kind? No. But playing this game is a choice, and hardly anybody wins.”
Photo by Seth Werkheiser
All the hours spent on social media over the last several years – it stings. Hours I could have spent walking around town with a camera, or just sitting on a bench thinking about nothing.
Nothing, space, the void. Right now these are the most important items on my daily to-do list. Mind you, this doesn’t mean I spend 75% of my day in meditation, or staring at the walls while ignoring my cat, or my work stuff. I just mean capturing moments of nothing / space / the void when I can get it.
This means hour long runs with no music. Walks around town when I’ve completed work tasks. Leaving my phone outside of the kitchen when I’m making and eating lunch.
The goal each day is to grab as much nothing as posslb.e
Photo by Seth Werkheiser
It’s been way too hot lately, but a few nights here and there it drops to 70F and it’s tolerable enough for a photo walk.
I mean, who likes talking about the weather? What a cliche, right? But my god, the weather is becoming so unbearable, and it’s only the first of July.
Someone in town who I chat with now and again asked me, “do you just walk around all day?” To which I replied, “yep.”
My new work process is finish something, then instead of clicking around the series of websites I frequent, or checking email for the millionth time, I go for a walk, even if it’s just around the block. I think I’m at like 20,000 steps a day.
Oh, and I ran 100 miles in June, which is the highest I’ve run in a long time. I can’t believe I ran 1,100 miles in 2020, but I’m getting back to it. I’m at 262 miles so far this year, but I only really started on April 19th. That was my “okay, I’m tired of being tired all the time” moment. And my favorite winter jacket didn’t fit anymore. Tonight I ran eight miles. ON A MONDAY NIGHT.
Photo by Seth Werkheiser
The more I think about the marketing machine, and the how and the why and the strategies involved, the more it all seems impossible.
Like, everyone who wants to “get the word out” about their thing is competing with a million other people doing the same thing. Some of it rises to the top because it’s what everyone is talking about – tech reviews, AI, sports, Star Wars, etc.
Other folks who do stuff that’s not quite as “big,” well, they’re lost in the fray, unless we’re talking about BookTok, of course.
But like, do “we” need to be in all these popular online places to make it? Is it required?
I think about the tiny Chinese restaurant I visit in Palmerton, PA. They’re not on social media, nor do they need to be. People in that town (or people passing through, like me) want Chinese food.
They have it. That’s a simple and direct choice.
And I feel like when you have that immediate want, say, for Chinese food, you’re going to look locally.
And if the grass is getting too high in your yard, you have to get someone to cut it.
But a lot of other things – how to draw, people who talk about email newsletters with creative people (that’s me!), how to write better… there are a zillion options for everything out there, and no real guarantee that any of them are going to help in the end.
Chinese food? That’s simple. You can solve that problem in an hour.
All the other creative / strategy / marketing stuff? Endless variations of possible solutions, directions, and options.
Photo by Noah Kalina
Noah Kalina has a new zine out called ‘Protect the Network,’ all about how trees and branches are pruned so that the wires can safely pass, allowing for the network to be protected.
“I think we all have a fundamental understanding that what these lines of cable are doing is providing us with essential services. Power is essential. Phones, sure, for a few people. I might even argue the internet is more important than power. Either way, we depend on the network, and so we need to protect it.”
Photograph by Seth Werkheiser
Thinking a lot about the old web, and world building. Our blogs used to be an extension of who we were, and how we operated. Then we gave everything over to “social media profiles,” where we uploaded the perfect photo for our avatar, wrote a cute / informative / snarky bio, and then fed the machine one or two sentences at a time.
Now we’re writing 400 words again, or more. Sometimes on Substack, or uploading a video to YouTube. We’re going offline, spending less time on our phones, craving a little more that consuming 10 hours of video every day in 15 second clips.
I say this, and try to live it, and yet I keep thinking of the “yeah, but” people. The folks who will say, “well that’s good for you, but what about…” and then list 100 different reasons why we need a new platform to inhabit. That somehow we’ll all agree on the next website to set up shop, and we’ll hand ourselves over again, like a cult.
I know some people will say that’s Substack, and that I’ve really drank the Kool-Aid, but my friends, the work I’ve put in there since October 2021 is an email list that I can export and use elsewhere. The investment had a payoff, unlike so many other social media platforms that have popped up (and gone away in short order).
All that to say, I can’t worry too much about people who want to say on an app, who want to consume and subsist on what an algorithm deems worthy of their attention.
This blog is on a magazine rack the size of Nebraska, and if you’ve found it, rad. If you’ve come back, or every typed my name into a search engine, I appreciate it.
But I think that’s it.
I don’t want an algorithm to determine my listening habits. I’m gonna trust my gut and my intuition and listen to what I want to listen to.
Oh, but Seth, how will you find new music?
Have you heard of… friends? They have great taste in music, and they know me much better than any computer algorithm, so when they suggest something, it’s worth something.
I’m an adult. I can find the things I want to find, and read the things I want to read.
But it’s all made better when it’s on the free and open web.
Photograph by Seth Werkheiser
Social media sold us on the idea that we can just post and lots of people would see it.
This was true for a moment, but it was a house of cards. As more and more people post more often 24/7, there are only so many people who can see everything that is posted.
The “reach” was a lie. It helped lots of people, yes, until it didn’t. So now, as we enter a post-social media world, we’re left searching for NEW apps and algorithms, but it’s just more of the same, and it will likely end the same way.
Resist the quick fix, the shortcut. One subscriber to your email list is worth the work, the struggle, the grind.
Photo by Seth Werkheiser
Love this from Mehret Biruk:
“I’m not searching for gmail.com, I’m searching for something, something of the past. That feeling. When I first learned to want and be wanted in a specific way; differently. All of it happened over the internet, the devices, the notifications. And what can I do about it now? Except hope that with enough time, enough effort, I will learn to forget the notifications. I will learn to want and be wanted in other ways; differently. Offline.”
From ‘Angry and curious‘
I do the same with email. Let me check one more time. Before a run. After a run. When I get home. As dinner is heating up. During dinner.
I’m searching for something. That email from someone that will sweep me off my feet. The job offer. The opportunity that gift wrapped from the universe just for me.
As Mehret says, time to deflect this feeling into something in the offline world, without a screen. I feel I get this more and more just by being outside. Finding myself stepping away from the computer more often. Going for walks. Long runs. Using my camera more often.
The search online never ends, but time on earth sure does.
Photo by Seth Werkheiser
Lots of people are making great art. And now AI is coming in to make things more tricky. Sure, Fiverr. All that.
The “great art” part is easy for consumers – they know it when they see it. They might not even care if you made it or a computer made it. They know what they like, and they buy it (or just save it to their desktop).
What I’m saying then is your art isn’t for those people. Your work isn’t for “I’ll take whatever is cheapest / easiest.”
Your work is for people who want to go deeper, who care, who think the person behind the art matters just as much as the art.
Those are your people, and if you’re lucky, they may someday become customers.
The text above was part of my reply to someone talking about the never-ending conundrum of “getting the word out” about what someone makes as an artist, or a painter, or a photographer. How we need social media, how everything is stacked against the independent creative person.
They had two posts on their Substack, so I mentioned this, too:
I read two of your posts – one about ADHD, and one about the atrocities of the war-ravaged world we live in. I already know you care, that you think about others, that you live with ADHD (something I know very little about)… but now I know a bit about you. You’ve already made it clear “this isn’t just about making pretty pictures.” You’ve put on full display, “This is me, this is what you get.” For what it’s worth, I’m going to subscribe – not (just) because of your art, but because of who you’ve shown yourself to be, which is how all this works.
I’ve channeled a lot of Seth Godin energy in this reply, but seriously… there’s a lot of great artwork out there. There’s no shortage of that. But there’s a shortage of people who care, who show up like you do. Keep doing that.
