“Consistency is key. You can’t be in the right place at the right time without showing up consistently. You have to fail—and keep failing—until you succeed. People see Keep The Meter Running and SubwayTakes, but they don’t see the ten other failures that helped me get here.”

Kareem Rahma over at Feed Me.

“But over time, Instagram became its own beast. It brought joy, connection, and incredible opportunities. It also exposed me to the darker sides of the internet. Chasing the algorithm and the constant buzz left me feeling burnt out. And as I grew personally and professionally, I realized it was no longer a fit for who I’d become.”

Kel Rakowski quit Instagram.

“One of my favorite things to do is to reach out to people in my network and acknowledge the cool things they’re doing. A quick message like this can be a mood booster for you both!”

Max Pete on Substack Notes.

“If I have to throw a pebble at your bedroom window every time I do something new, reminding you that I exist, then I’m not doing my best to even give you a reason to visit my website.”

True in 2018 when I wrote it, and still true six years later.

// FOUR THINGS TO DO

1. WRITE YOUR WAY

“Once I started trying to anticipate what other people would want, I lost my point of view,” says menswear designer Aaron Levine.

Don’t get caught up in how a newsletter to your fans is supposed to look. Don’t assume your fans want something short and sweet, or long and drawn out. You don’t make your art thinking about the audience, so don’t write and share your art in a way that forces you into form that is not your own.

2. TELL YOUR STORY

We talked about this in yesterday’s Escape Pod Zoom call (next one is Sunday at 10am ET), about making videos to showcase our work.

This doesn’t have to mean making dance videos, or shouting directly into the camera, either. Check out the work of Noah Kalina, Taylor Pendleton, Softer Sounds, and ISETTA FILM, and see how they tell stories in their own unique way.

And when I say make a video, I don’t mean produce a fully-featured clip and upload it to YouTube. Set up your smart phone, or turn on your web cam, or make some voice notes talking the thing you do. Do this today. Tomorrow. This will help you when you get interviewed about your work, or someone asks you about your art at the local coffee shop.

Practice talking about your stuff.

3. USE A DIFFERENT FROM NAME

Is the FROM NAME that you use for your newsletter familiar for your readers? If not, people might not open it.

For example, here’s the FROM name from my Substack, which totally makes sense:

But on KIT (which I use to send out emails about Escape Pod calls), the FROM name was…. my name. While many of my readers know my name, maybe some don’t!

So if you’re sending emails for your band, it might make sense to use your band name, while if you’re an independent photographer, it might be best to use your name.

4. PUT DOWN THE PHONE

You can come back to this email later, but for now put down the phone, or close the laptop, get up from the computer, and do the work.

You know what needs to be done. You know the next step.

That email you have to send, the print you need to finish, the form you need to fill out. They’re all small tasks and I know they can feel super big, but I promise putting off the tiny things will only compound.

BTW: have you done virtual co-working? It’s where you hop on a Zoom call with other people looking to get some work done. For the first 10 minutes you discuss what you’re working on, then everyone goes on mute and works together in silence. Then in the last 10 or so minutes we get together and talk about how it went. I’m gonna be offering this in 2025.

Social media companies want you sitting on your couch consuming as many ads as possible. It feels like a leisurely activity, but really you’re working very hard to increase shareholder value for massive corporations.

Sara Eckel wrote about this in ‘The People Who Don’t Want You to Sleep,’

“Social media companies don’t want you to go out and have fun with your friends—they want you to look at pictures of your friends having fun without you.”

Eckel references the the book Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention–And How to Think Deeply Again, in which former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris says “You can try having self-control, but there are a thousand engineers on the other side of the screen working against you.”

Breaking this habit takes more than just deleting the apps. It takes intentional action, which is what Joi Katskee is doing.

Joi (pronounced Joe-ee) runs Electric Radio Club, a weekly two hour radio show. But she also started bringing people together in real spaces to talk about music (watch the video above for the whole story).

Sure, it’s always going to be hard work to get the word out and get people to come out, but whoever shows up, well, that’s who shows up.

This is the work worth doing because it builds real world connection, unfazed by algorithms or “reach.” Social media platforms fear this, since now they are the ones missing out, unable to monetize our gathering and sell our data to advertisers.

So how could you apply this to your work? How do you get closer to the people who enjoy your art? What does it look like to do that in s sustainable way?

Years ago I ran a Patreon for my heavy metal trivia project called Skull Toaster.

That was bringing in $240/mo, and I was sending out a lot of stuff every month. Zines. Mystery metal CDs that I’d buy at the local music store. People could sponsor questions, and I’d make those hand written THANKS images and put them on social media.

I did a few virtual metal trivia hang outs, but I should have done more. I hid behind the social media posts because I was terrified of getting my questions wrong in a live space.

But like 

Scott Perry recently told me, “fear is a compass. It only shows up when we’re pointed in a direction worth exploring.”

What would happen if you did a Zoom call with the people who follow your work? Or if you planned a small dinner with other creative people in your orbit?

Say we use the internet as a tool to make the plans, and then we close the laptop and build with the handful of people in front of us – then what?

What could we do that we’re avoiding because we’re scared?

• Raise our rates? Fire that client?
• Post that musical performance from our bedroom on YouTube?
• Delete your music from Spotify? Delete Instagram from your phone?
• Join that class. Teach that class?

And what are we hiding behind?

• Making a dozen more vertical videos for 2% of your fans to see?
• Updating our About page for the 20th time this week?
• Spinning our wheels trying to get our website to look just right?
• Waiting to reach a certain number of followers before we believe in ourselves?

You know what the scary thing is. Now go do it.