Writer, musician, wizardly guide to platform independence
Sam Altman on burnout:
This quote is the clincher for me:
“Oh, actually when I’m doing this thing that I like and that is working I have a huge amount of energy and I can get a lot of stuff done.”
When I am doing things I loathe, I have zero energy, drive, or ambition.
Takeaway – do more of the things that give you energy.
Be around people that give you energy.
Watch and listen to things that give you energy.
This is a wonderful little bit of Christmas music, and a nice break from my usual holiay listening.
Why is it so hard to quit social media?
“(Social media) platforms are designed to trap viewers in a social media rabbit hole: They offer bite-sized content that makes it easy to quickly consume several videos or posts in a row, they often automatically suggest similar content, and many of them even automatically start playing similar videos, reducing the potential for interruptions.”
More, more, more. Unending more. This from ‘The Psychology of Your Scrolling Addiction,’ via The Trend Report.
Love this by @madebynelson from Instagram.
“Stop shrinking into places you’ve outgrown 🌸✨
It’s important to continue to plant ourselves in bigger pots and new gardens as we continue to grow and evolve.
Enjoy your week! I cannot believe it’s December”
See the full post here.
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.
From Mike Cessario, the CEO and co-founder of Liquid Death:
Most brands are marketing their liquid, not their company. Your company is your brand. You cant actually own your liquid. It’s easily replicated. But no one can copy your company, what you stand for, what you care about more than anyone else, what makes you laugh, what you love, what you hate. Making people love your company creates far longer term success than only being able to make them love your liquid.
Stop marketing your vinyl, your tour dates, your next class, your whatever, and sell everything that is YOU, through and through.
Riffs? I got riffs. How-to guides? Got a million on YouTube.
But I will support people with less flashy videos, with basic websites, because of who they are.
Found via Instagram, but it seems the original image is from the Whitney Museum of American Art.
This is it, right here (from Neil Mason):
Connect with 3 new fans each day, and you’re building a broad and deep audience.
Imagine — 1,095 new friends who can open doors to opportunities and insights.
Create value and connect.
Start there, then rinse, and repeat.
The algorithms will always work against you, but for now you can always DM a fan, you can always reply to someone who likes your work.
The vault is still open, take what you can get.
This from ‘In 2024, the Tension Between Macroculture and Microculture Will Turn into War,’ by Ted Gioia:
I’m still puzzled why NPR and CNN and Harvard and other legacy institutions haven’t set up on Substack. But they clearly have zero interest in doing so—even if they could make money and expand their audience.
Yet these same institutions launched on Threads the very first day. They couldn’t sign up as soliders for Mark Zuckerberg’s new empire fast enough.
Also true for bands, record labels, and independent musicians.
That somehow the thing that has ruined our lives will also save our lives, our careers, our music, our art.
I don’t fucking get it.
These social media platforms are not on our side. Spotify is not on our side. Fuck, Bandcamp hardly seems to be on our side, now.
Can Substack shit the bed, too? Absolutely (and some will say they already have).
But with Substack I can export my fucking email list and go somewhere else. I will always have that. The day I’m fed up and walk, I didn’t lose a fucking thing.
Spending more than one god damn hour on Threads is just building share-holder value for Meta and making sure Zuck can top off his yachts gas tank this weekend.
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?