Category: Work

BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER

A wonderful interview with Tina Roth Eisenberg (Swiss Miss), talking about creating and hosting Creative Mornings, and so many other gatherings of people.

“Be really clear why you’re gathering people.”

It also mentions The Art Of Gathering by Priya Parker, such a wonderful book and something I’ve been re-reading as I’ve been hosting more Zoom calls.

I mean it – career / work wise I’ve been WAITING. Hoping that someone would come along and just drop the perfect job / gig / NEXT THING in my lap. That’s how I’ve been for many years in my career… fortunate enough that some things led to other things, but in the last decade a lot of that work was work I settled on because I needed the money, which duh – is plenty okay, of course.

But now, lately, in these past two years, I’ve been deliberately carving out something, and in the last few MONTHS I’ve leaned hard into this “why not get together more often with energetic people?” space, and I swear, things are buzzing for me now, and I love it.

MORE AIN’T ALWAYS THE ANSWER

Straight up, this post ‘How “Building An Audience” Is Different From “Finding Clients”—And Why It Matters‘ has haunted me since I read it.

Its conventional wisdom of more fans, more readers; more subscribers are somehow the answer to every problem.

This makes sense of course for someone who does podcast editing (like the author of this post); sure, reach out to your network, and find paying clients. Word of mouth. The power of your reputation.

BUT… what about the artist who posts about their new work on Instagram and only reaches 12% of their followers?

This is why social media pushes more – because 12% of more is at least better, right?

Whereas, if you could simply email and reach 100% of your fans, and former customers, with a message about your new offering, you could earn a living, or at least pay your phone bill.

I’ve been thinking of making videos for social media, and starting a YouTube channel. These two things are sort of expected, right? If you’re seeking to make an impact, more people seeing the thing can’t hurt.

But what about the almost 700 email subscribers I have already?

If I make a great video for them, and it’s so good they tell three other people, then I’ve done my job. If it’s a dud and no one watches it, then I’ve learned something new.

But to take the time to build a whole new YouTube channel from scratch?

Why don’t I hone my message, my style, my technique with nearly 700 who’ve already bought into what I’m talking about?

THIS IS EVERYTHING

Ira Glass sums it all up in this recent interview with Vulture:

It’s just crazy to me that people are having a hard time earning money making something so many other people clearly want.

Well, part of the problem is that people aren’t paying for it, right?

Right. They’re accustomed to getting it for free.

That’s the hole in the business model.

Most people ain’t paying for shit.

There was a time when Limp Bizkit sold a million albums in one week. Now artists on labels with managers and lawyers are lucky to sell 50,000 in a month.

You used to have to pay money to go see a movie. Now you pay a few bucks a month for a few streaming services and never buy another DVD

Podcasts, websites, newsletters – free, free, free.

Yes, a small percentage of diehard fans support via Patreon, or Substack, or whatever, but for the most part there’s been more entertainment options that exist in the world.

Think about the 100 or 200 or 1000 things we read a day, and watch, and listen to. In a DAY. A MONTH.

I pay my ISP $56/month, and some streaming services. I don’t think I spend $100 a month on everything, and I can fill my eyes and ears with “content” every second of every day.

And we’re all paying that $100 every month, and more (much more), and a few people are making money from making the things that everyone loves.

Again, from the interview: people are having a hard time earning money making something so many other people clearly want.

What the fuck?

HEAVY METAL EMAIL HITS 500 SUBSCRIBERS

I started my HEAVY METAL EMAIL newsletter in late 2021, writing all about email marketing in the magical music world, in a very niche sort of way. It’s not for everybody, and that’s just fine.

But it’s for 500 people right now, apparently.

This happened mostly without social media. I deleted Twitter, stopped posting on Instagram, and Facebook? My goodness, I never log in, really.

All that time saved creating “assets” for social media platforms, and “engaging,” now I just spend that time on writing. Hell, I moved to a summer schedule, posting just once a week, down from three times per week.

Most of the subscribers come from Substack, and recommendations from other people who also have Substack newsletters. And I picked up two new clients from writing the newsletter.

Maybe this “not being on social media” thing will work out fine.

ELBOWS KNEES AND HEADS

What the hell are we doing?

“Victor has found that projects pop up very late at night, so he is in the habit of waking every three hours or so to check his queue. When a task is there, he’ll stay awake as long as he can to work. Once, he stayed up 36 hours straight labeling elbows and knees and heads in photographs of crowds — he has no idea why.”

From ‘AI Is a Lot of Work,’ all about the for-real humans that make AI seemingly work.

“Work stripped of all its normal trappings: a schedule, colleagues, knowledge of what they were working on or whom they were working for. In fact, they rarely called it work at all — just “tasking.” They were taskers.”

We’re doomed.

GET AWAY

Without Twitter (I shut down my account in early June, 2023) , what do I do now?

Well, I go outside more, wash my dishes, organize, go on bike rides, and talk on the phone more.

In this video below Jon Wayne talks about getting away from always being in the thing you wanna make (in his case, BEATS), and getting out and doing things that lend itself back to making beats.

Living a rich, well rounded, cultural life adds to your art.

Marlee Grace wrote about having someone else manage her Instagram:

I found that as I didn’t have access to my Instagram my interest in sharpening my website and offering came into clearer focus. I opened up my books for creative advising, saw opportunities for new classes, and started organizing plans for a new website. My ecosystem is so much more than an algorithmic grid.

Now that I’ve stopped focusing on tending to an app that many people don’t even use, I now have more time to work on things that can generate income, or give me joy, or fuck, just make my kitchen look nice.

And it’s not just about monetizing my hobbies or some shit. If anything it’s about not working – more bike rides, more running in the woods, more calm, casual conversations with friends.

So when it is time to work, I’m my best, most fulfilled self.

LONELY CONTENT MACHINES

I like this quote from New Creative Era:

THE CREATIVE STATUS QUO HAS MADE US LONELY CONTENT MACHINES
PRESSURED TO POST WITH UNNATURAL QUANTITY AND FREQUENCY
TO PURSUE OUR LIVELIHOODS AND EXPRESS OUR WORK
WE PLAY SOMEONE ELSE’S GAME

I’ve been thinking about that first line a bit, as I sort of felt isolated as a writer, as someone trying to offer up ideas. I feel like it’s me vs everyone, stacking up against everyone else trying to offer solutions and ideas in a busy, hyper-competitive world of music and culture.

Makes me think back to my high school days. I hung around creative musical people all the time, for years. The result was creative musical projects. These days, I’m not so creative with music anymore.

I wrote this in 2018:

We can’t do the “real life” thing if we’re scrolling through an app for hours a day. That’s not “keeping up” or “staying informed,” that’s taking time away from our creative pursuits! And emailing friends! Calling people. Have coffee with friends.

We are lonely content machines, cooped up in our rooms and studios trying to make everything ourselves.

The real life hangs and interactions came to an end in 2020 because of the pandemic, and I think it’s gonna take a minute to get back to that.

BANDCAMP UNION WINS

Very glad to see this:

“Bandcamp United and Bandcamp management are committed to working together to continue to advance fair economic conditions for our workers and the artists who rely on us. We look forward to negotiating with an open mind and working in good faith to promote the best interests of all of our staff and the artist and label community we serve.”

More here.

YOU LIVE IN A THEME PARK

From Dan Wentzel, a quote from Gareth Klieber:

My hot take on “15 minute cities” is if you can get to the coffee shop within fifteen minutes, but the barrista who makes your drink can’t afford to live closer than a half-hour away, then you live in a theme park.

Ain’t that the truth?