🧞‍♀️ Social-media-free launches, human design to get offline & control vs collaboration [Listener Q&A pt 2]

Amelia [00:00:02] [Music overlapping with introduction to the episode] Welcome to Off the Grid, a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing all their clients.

Amelia [00:00:08] I'm Amelia Hruby, writer, speaker, and founder of Softer Sounds podcast studio. On this show, I share stories, strategies, and experiments for growing your business with radical generosity and energetic sovereignty.

Amelia [00:00:22] Download your free Leaving Social Media Toolkit at softersounds.studio/byeig and join us as we do it all off the grid [intro music jams and then fades out].

Amelia [00:00:35] Hello, hello, friends. Amelia here. Welcome back to Off the Grid for our final episode of Season One [sings "one"]. As promised, this is Part Two of our listener questions answered series.

Amelia [00:00:50] So, in today's episode, I will be answering even more questions from amazing Off the Grid listeners like you and helping you feel calm, confident, and clear about how you are doing marketing differently in your business.

Amelia [00:01:04] If you caught the last episode, you know that we ended it on a note that was all about clarity. And y'all, I am coming into this one feeling so clear, aligned, and alive, and just excited to be in conversation with you one more time during this final episode of Season One of Off the Grid.

Amelia [00:01:22] So, before we dive into more questions and our giveaway winner— don't let me forget that part [chuckles]. Before we dive in, I'm going to remind you one more time that the Leaving Social Media Toolkit is free and online and waiting for you to download it.

Amelia [00:01:39] So, this toolkit includes my top three tools to support you in leaving social media and doing marketing differently. It's got my five-step plan for leaving any social platform. My list of 100 Ways to Share Your Work Off Social Media and a Creative Marketing Experiments Database that you can use to plan your marketing going forward.

Amelia [00:02:01] So, you can find all of those tools and the Leaving Social Media Toolkit and there are podcast episodes to help you work through them. All of that is waiting for you at softersounds.studio/byeig. That's softersounds dot studio slash b-y-e-i-g. It's linked in the show notes or in the comments if you're on YouTube. Go get it. It's great. Can't wait for you to love it [laughs].

Amelia [00:02:24] And if you love the Leaving Social Media Toolkit, I also want to encourage you to join me at The Refresh. The Refresh is my three-part workshop series for freelancers, influencers, and small business owners who want to refresh their relationship with social media and chart a new algorithm-free or algorithm-less-dependent path forward. So, if you're feeling fed up, burnt out, totally sick of social media, or you just have a sneaking suspicion that your marketing is not doing it for you, and you want it to feel better—

Amelia [00:02:58] Come hang with me at The Refresh on August 23rd, 24th, and 25th. We're going to gather for three live workshops on Clearing the Fear, Weaving the Web, and Making the Map.

Amelia [00:03:10] In the first one, we're going to release our anxiety and change our mindset about marketing.

Amelia [00:03:14] In the second one, we're going to identify our core offers, channels, and collaborators that'll help us succeed.

Amelia [00:03:20] And then in the third one, we're going to make these really cool maps, like literal maps on paper or in Notion or wherever you like to work [laughs] that connect to your marketing, your messaging, and your offerings or products.

Amelia [00:03:31] So, these workshops are going to be super hands-on. I'm thinking of them as, like, a little bit summer sabbatical, a little bit fall planning, and like all of it is just a party to celebrate the first season of Off the Grid, which, you know, I'm a Capricorn Rising. I used to be a teacher. My type of party is, like, a workshop series. That's just who I am [laughs].

Amelia [00:03:49] So, come join me. Head to softersounds.studio/refresh to sign up. Again, the link is in the show notes or in the comments if you're in YouTube. You can get all the details there. Have I mentioned it's only $99 for the workshops, the recordings, the Notion doc, the playlist, the postcards? There's lots of cool goodies that aren't even mentioned on the sales page because I love surprises. The crew I've got signed up so far is great, but I'd love to see more of your shining faces with us. And if you can't make it live, that's cool too. The recordings will be [makes a "mwah" sound] chef's kiss. Delicious. Wonderful. You'll love them.

Amelia [00:04:26] So, now I'm going to take a breath [laughs]. And thank you for signing up for The Refresh and take us into this episode [jazzy sound transition].

Amelia [00:04:37] Alright, ya'll. Last time we talked about some really great listener questions that dealt with the FOMO that we're worried about if we leave social media, what to do if we've ghosted your followers, if things like Pinterest or LinkedIn are actually social media platforms, or maybe something else, how to be more intentional in all of your marketing, and if there are specific points where it makes sense to leave social media.

Amelia [00:05:02] So, all of that happened in the last episode. If you haven't tuned in, go catch it. Lots of great stuff there, but today I've got a whole nother set of questions.

Amelia [00:05:11] I'm going to kick things off with a question from Jessica, who also happens to be the person who transcribes this podcast. So, if you've ever read the transcripts on the website— yes, there are transcripts on our website [laughs lightly]. If you've ever looked at those, Jessica creates them. Go check out her work, love her, and love this question.

Amelia [00:05:31] After listening to my episode with Patty from the Fiery Well, all about systems supporting your business, Jessica wrote in and said, "I'd love to hear more about your personal three log-on and log-off procedures for your daily business operations."

Amelia [00:05:46] So, apparently, I talked about this in the episode and didn't share them, which, you know, happens when you're mid-conversation. But I love this question because it made me, like, revisit my log-on and log-off procedures and then be a little more honest about what I'm actually doing in the day-to-day of my business.

Amelia [00:06:01] So here we go, y'all. If you have better log-on and log-off procedures than this, please hit me up, let me know. I'd love to crowdsource some improvements. But anyway, here's what I actually do when I log on each day—

Amelia [00:06:12] Three check-ins that I do at the start of every workday. The first thing I do is I check in with myself. How do I feel today and what feels important today? So, before I look at anything else, before I look at my computer, before I look at my email, before I look at my Notion, before I look at my Voxer, before I look at my texts— although I don't let clients text me so that's personal, not business but [chuckles] —

Amelia [00:06:36] Before I look at anything, I check in with myself. How do I feel today? I started asking myself this question because I realized that some days, I had a lot of energy and some days, I had very little to no energy. So, I like to check in and just be like, "Is this feel like a green, yellow, or red day for me?" You know, I use a stoplight system, learned it in kindergarten, never stopping. Like is it a green day where I'm like full steam ahead? Is it yellow where I'm like feeling kind of slow? Is it red where I'm like full stop, barely functioning?

Amelia [00:07:05] And that just kind of tells me where to set the expectation. You might remember, if you've listened to the episode about creative marketing practices, I talk about my necessary, nice, and ideal framework, the how some tasks in business are necessary, some are nice, and some are ideal. And I'm always learning to let go of the ideal ones [laughs].

Amelia [00:07:25] Well, this maps on to the stoplight a little bit. If I'm on a red day, I am only doing what's necessary. And by necessary, I mean like necessary to do that day, like time-sensitive necessary. If it's a red day, that's what I'm doing.

Amelia [00:07:38] If it's yellow day, I'll do some stuff that's necessary and nice.

Amelia [00:07:41] And if it's a green day, that's when I might get to my ideal tasks. So, that's kind of how I check-in with myself and gauge what feels important today. So, how do I feel today and what feels important today? And with that second question too, you know, I ask myself that before I go to my to-do list or my email because particularly for me, I tend to get really wrapped up in client work. And if I start my day with client work, I'm probably going to do a whole day of client work. I'm just going to keep going to what other people need from me, answering their requests, doing their stuff. And some days that's what I need to do, but I like to at least ask myself what feels important today?

Amelia [00:08:18] So, if I have a check-in around like, "Oh, what actually feels important today is, like, thinking about this system or writing this marketing email or, like, setting up a meeting with XYZ person." You know, I have that noted before I wade into my to-do list and my email inbox.

Amelia [00:08:35] So, first step in my log-on procedure, check in with myself.

Amelia [00:08:38] Second step in my log-on procedure, check my to-do list.

Amelia [00:08:42] Now for me, this lives in Notion. I've got a weekly agenda dashboard and I have it set up so I've got like a master task database and then I mark things by a week and then at the start of the week I assign everything a day of the week that I'm going to do it. And then generally at the end of the day, I adjust that. So, when I log on in the morning, I kind of look at my day and in there I have, like, my appointments for the day as well as— here's like the things I had planned to do today.

Amelia [00:09:08] So, that's my second check-in. And generally [chuckles], if I'm being honest, I normally at that point will, like, push one or two things to the next day or later in the week. I always am overly ambitious about what I think I can get done, and then I'm like, "Eh, not today, another day." So that's my second check, checking my to-do list in Notion.

Amelia [00:09:26] And then my third check is my email. Go into my inbox and I see what do other people need. What's happening here? Is anything time sensitive? Is there anything I need to add to my to-do list, etc. I'm going to be honest with ya'll, many a day I go to my email first [exhales].

Amelia [00:09:44] I hate saying it out loud. Many a day I'm still in bed and I look at my email on my phone. I don't feel, like, shame around that because I don't— like [laughs] why? Why bother with shame in this instance. But, like, I do feel like I'm letting myself down when I do that because if I don't let myself center in myself and I go to my email first, I've, like, given my day away to other people— almost always it's so hard to recenter in what I wanted or needed to do that day if I went straight to my email.

Amelia [00:10:14] So, I really like to start with myself. Go to the list of things I had made for my day, and then go to my email and see what other people need. And every day I try not to check my email on my phone before I get out of bed. Every day, y'all. This is a real Capricorn Rising problem [laughs], probably everybody problem, but it feels like a Capricorn Rising part of myself.

Amelia [00:10:34] So, that's my log-on procedure.

Amelia [00:10:36] Now, my log-off procedure. This was where [chuckles] I, like, looked at Jessica's question and I was like, "Huh, if I'm being honest, a lot of days I just, like, dive bomb out of work and I'm just like, ‘Oh, I'm tired of working. I'm going to quit and close the computer and I like go away.’" But those are also most often the days that I end up working on my phone or, like, making a bunch of notes elsewhere because I didn't take the time to wrap up.

Amelia [00:11:01] So on an ideal day, my log-off procedure is to open up my calendar, mark off what got done that day— like mark it as completed, move any task didn't get done to another day, and then check tomorrow's calendar and to-do list and get that set up and that's kind of it.

Amelia [00:11:19] At different points in different— in time, I've done, like, energetic or emotional check-ins. I've ended the day with meditation, I've ended the day with stretches. Like, I've done a lot of different things to end the day, but for the summer, because I'm often like— my attention's really being pulled somewhere else.

Amelia [00:11:34] At this point in time, I'm just trying to wrap up with like a one log-off procedure, which is go to my Notion agenda, check off what got done today, and set up the next day. And that's, like, enough for me right now.

Amelia [00:11:47] I also wanted to mention here that even more than my like log-on and log-off procedure for each day, what I've really been working on developing is my start of the month and end of the month procedures.

Amelia [00:11:59] And so, I have a pretty substantial end of the month one now that, like, is a list I keep in Notion that's a checklist. Like, on the last workday of each month, I have my marketing tasks, I have my team tasks, I have my sales and finances tasks, and I have my operations tasks that I go through.

Amelia [00:12:16] So, you know, these sorts of procedures or systems check-ins, you know, they work on, like, the micro and the macro. You know, I've got the daily one, then I've got the monthly one, then I've got the quarterly one, then I've got the annual one [laughs], right?

Amelia [00:12:28] So, I'm always fine-tuning and adjusting, but I hope that maybe hearing my three-step log-on and at this point my one-step log-off procedure was helpful. And again, that came from Jessica's question, which she had after listening to the episode with Patty, and if you were listening to all that thinking, "Wow, I don't have any business systems. I have never thought about how I log on or log off work." Highly suggest going and listening to my conversation with Patty of The Fiery Well and then you can come join me in The Fiery Well because Patty is amazing and, like, is so supportive of building systems in that online community. So, come join us.

Amelia [00:13:08] Okay. Let's move on to the next question. This one— we had one of these last time— we have one again, [laughs lightly] which is a voice note that's not so much a question as like a really, really nice note that has, like, a nugget in it that I really want to talk about. So, let's listen in to this super sweet note from Rachel.

Rachel [00:13:26] Hello, Amelia. Oh, my goodness. I am so excited to leave you this message. I found you on the 100 Ways to Leave Social Media. You know, I've been on social media for two years and not once signed a client from it, and it feels just so icky. And today, when I was listening to the episode that you had with Chelsea, you mentioned, you know, Human Design and stuff like that. And it was so interesting because as she was talking, I was thinking to myself, I was like, "She is a 2/4 projector because that's what I am. I'm a 2/4 planet projector." And then you said she was a generator sac— sacral. And I was like, "Oh, my gosh, this is so interesting. It's not just projectors that are being encouraged to slow down, it's also generators." [Sings] Hallelujah! So glad to be introduced into your world and I will meet you soon.

Amelia [00:14:12] Ahhh, so nice [laughs]. Does anybody else, like, I don't know, blush and, like, feel really bashful when people say nice things about stuff that you're doing? Because I definitely do. And I'm so grateful for all of you.

Amelia [00:14:25] You know, in the podcasting process it can just feel so— I don't want to say lonely, but, like, it can be really hard to get responses and feedback from people. And so, it can often just feel like you're, like, talking into your mic and like, no one's listening and you know, they're listening because you like, see the download numbers that you're like, "Who are you and what do you think about while you listen to me?" So, I'm just really grateful for those of you who left voice notes and wrote in and shared with me what you were thinking.

Amelia [00:14:52] And I really wanted to share this note from Rachel because I love what she shared about Human Design. Like, I think that there are things about our Human Design, our types, and our authorities that make social media feel different to different types or authorities.

Amelia [00:15:07] But there are also, as Rachel points to, like a shared experiences we have of these platforms. So, I think that, like, any Human Design type can be sick of social media or, like, struggle to have boundaries with social media. But I think that there are, like, different types are more or less perhaps just might struggle in different ways or enjoy it in different ways. So, for me and Human Design, I am a generator and I have sacral authority.

Amelia [00:15:33] And so, what I noticed is that, like, when I didn't want to be on social media anymore, like, I was done. Like my— when my gut says no, my body gives me like no energy to do something. So, that's a very sacral authority thing. That's like I am a generator and so I generate energy and my sacral— my gut response is if it says yes to something, I can generate like endless energy for it.

Amelia [00:15:58] And if it says no, I cannot come up with any energy. So, that definitely came up in my relationship and experience with social media. And I would also say, for me, I— my, like, lines were really important in my— and one of the reasons I loved social media. So, I'm a 3/5, which is a martyr heretic and the three— that martyr part of myself, that, like, public-facing and like aw— conscious part of myself— like martyrs, in my opinion, do great on social media.

Amelia [00:16:27] If you're not familiar with Human Design, bear with me, I'll be out of this rabbit hole in a second. But you know, martyr is such a weird word, but like what it seems to mean to me, at least in Human Design is like the person who is going to just like go do the thing and report back on how it goes [laughs].

Amelia [00:16:42] So, that's what I did on social media over and over again. I just would be like— do something frankly like kind of weird or unconventional, and then I'd share how it felt, what happened, what didn't happen went well, what didn't go well. You know, I did that over and over again, and I built my audience in that way by people relating to me and feeling like, "Oh, okay, Amelia's doing this."

Amelia [00:17:02] Like, I was very much just like a one step ahead sort of mentor or guide. I like to say that on this show, like [chuckles], you know, I don't have it all figured out. I just took like maybe one step that you're not sure you're ready to take yet and, like, I can report from there.

Amelia [00:17:16] So, I think that that really lended itself well to social media. And like my three was like— loved being on there. But then, as I've already talked about on the show, a lot changed for me, a lot changed on the platforms, and I just like— it didn't feel good anymore. And I— my sacral was like, "No, thanks." And that I had to get out.

Amelia [00:17:34] You know, I mention all of this because I would love to talk to a Human Design practitioner about types and social media in Season Two of the show. So, if that person is you, if you're listening to this, if you know a little or a lot maybe about Human Design and you want to talk about, like, Human Design and leaving social media or being on social media. Send me an email— hi@softersounds.studio, I'd love to talk to you and we can talk about Season Two of the podcast, whenever that happens. Not promising anything yet [laughs].

Amelia [00:18:05] Okay. Let's move on to another different sort of question, but another voice note. This one comes from April.

April [00:18:13] Hi, Amelia. So, my name is April and I have a podcast, so I was really excited to listen to your episode on podcasts. My question for you is for someone who feels a need to control all the aspects of the podcast production process from editing to show notes, etc., how can they start to release some of that control?

April [00:18:47] Because I'll just say I— this is me— I tell myself that only I know exactly what I'm looking for, what I want it to sound like, what I want it to look like. But at the same time, it's so time intensive because I have my Mercury in retrograde, in my natal chart, so I have that need to review and edit, etc. before I put it out there into the world. And then on top of that, I have misophonia, the hearing sensitivity. So, it's a really time-intensive process. How can I release control and invite in collaboration?

Amelia [00:19:26] Thank you so much for this question, April. I am briefly going to change from my host of Off the Grid hat to my founder of Softer Sounds podcast studio hat [laughs lightly] to answer this question. You know, it's probably a little bit of both. I'm always doing both. But what— where I want to start is just like affirming your experience.

Amelia [00:19:45] Like, podcasts are so much work and it's so hard to let go of control. It is so hard to let go of control, especially if you're sensitive to sound. And that said, it's also so important to get support, like the number one reason I see people quit making their podcasts, you know, it's never because they run out of ideas or excitement, it's because they ran out of energy. It's just so much work to do every piece of the podcast creation process yourself.

Amelia [00:20:12] So— so hard to let go of control, so important to get support. And as I was thinking about how I wanted to answer this question, a quote from Sister Corita Kent just kept running through my head. And so, she wrote, "Find a place you trust and try trusting it for a while."

Amelia [00:20:27] And as I was thinking of your question, like, "How do I start to release some of the control and invite in collaboration?" I just kept thinking, find a person you trust, and try trusting them for a while. And that doesn't mean it's gonna be perfect— doesn't mean it's going to be easy. But I think it's just, like, taking those small steps toward like, "Okay, who's somebody I can trust? And how can I try this out?" And be open to whatever comes from it. That, to me— like trust, to me, is like how we release control— it's like what we need is the antidote to control. In certain instances, it's just trust.

Amelia [00:20:58] So, in terms of how to do that [laughs lightly], you know, not just to give you like, you know, a lovely affirmation, which is always great, but how would I go about doing that? I would start by documenting your standard operating procedure for how you make your podcast. This goes back to my episode with Patty again on systems. We talk about standard operating procedures or SOPs in that episode.

Amelia [00:21:22] You've been making your podcast yourself, so document how you make it. Like, what is your entire process from start to finish? What are all of the things that you do? I think that's the first step.

Amelia [00:21:32] For the next step, I would try to make, like, a soft style guide for your audio preferences and your writing preferences— like what is important to you when you're editing the audio? Do you like to cut out every breath sound? Do you like to fade the music under that dialog or do you like to have the music end and then the dialog starts? Like, what are all those little tiny stylistic choices you make when you do the audio?

Amelia [00:21:57] And same with, like, when you write the show notes and stuff— like do you have a format you like to use? Do you write it in the first person or in the third person? Like try to make, you know, make your little style guide for each of the— for how you edit and write. And I think when you have those three pieces— like your standard operating procedure and your audio style guide and your copywriting style guide, that will help you have a clear picture of what you're doing. And when you're ready to get support, it'll help you communicate your expectations because I think often when we go to get support, sometimes we'll just be like, "This thing is too much, so I just want to give it to this other person [chuckles]."

Amelia [00:22:30] And then we, like, hand it off and they don't do it how we wanted it, but we didn't actually give them enough information to do it that way. That's an experience I've had when I've hired support and I've been like, "Oh, this person is totally competent and amazing and wonderful and talented. I just didn't communicate well enough." So that's— that— I just want to— I think that's the first step is like get the SOP and the style guides.

Amelia [00:22:50] So, then I think once you have particularly the SOP, you'll want to look at, like, what parts of this process, what I— do I wish someone else could do, like what— where are the places that I want support?

Amelia [00:23:01] And then, the next question is what type and degree of support do you want? So, when I think specifically about podcasts, you know, I think there are kind of two levels of support.

Amelia [00:23:10] You can get a sort of, like, a VA-level support or virtual assistant-level support and there are podcast VAs and podcast managers out there and I think what they do best is kind of support you along the way. So, you know, you can tell a VA like, "Will you make these cuts to this audio, or will you do these things or will you, like, make the show notes from this template or will you, like, put all the links in? I'm still going to write the description." So, I think with— with that VA-level of support, like it's more of a doing it with you while you're doing it together, but you have support in the process.

Amelia [00:23:40] Or do you want more of like an expert professional level support? So, that is, like, where I think that professional will just take it off your plate. They will bring expertise to it that you don't have. They might do it a little differently than you because they have their own process, you know. But they know what they're doing and you can trust that. And that can be hard. I get it. Like that can be challenging, but I think that that's really where you've like totally delegated this to another person. You've hired them to take care of it for you.

Amelia [00:24:07] I think of VAs as a little more like— do it with you and I think of that, like, professional level of support is like done for you.

Amelia [00:24:13] So, for instance, that's what we do at Softer Sounds. Like, when someone hires us to edit or produce their show, like, we do all of it like [laughs]— that's— there are different levels, like, you know, sometimes it's just audio, sometimes audio and show notes. But like, I'm really coming in as like the professional that's going to take this off your plate and bring my own process and my own expertise. I think if you want someone to join you in your process and like come in to do it the way you do it already, a VA is a great option for that.

Amelia [00:24:38] Just to recap that, I think that the first step is documenting your SOP and your style guides.

Amelia [00:24:44] The second step is figuring out where in your process you want support.

Amelia [00:24:49] The third step is figuring out like what degree of support you want.

Amelia [00:24:54] And then, I think you're well-poised to go look for that support. And there are lots of different places to find it. Thank you for that question. I love talking about podcasts [laughs]. I know that's not necessarily what Off the Grid listeners are here for, but I love that some of you are.

Amelia [00:25:08] And in fact, I have another question about podcasts [laughs lightly]. So, for the final voice note of our listener Q&A, this one's from Becca. It's actually got two questions in it. So, I'll play you the note and then I'll answer both of those questions.

Becca [00:25:23] Hi, Amelia. Thank you so much for your podcast. I just discovered you on Chelsea Riffe's podcast, In My Non-Expert Opinion. And yeah, you turned up on that just the right time, when I was getting so disillusioned with social media and starting to look at launching my business but feeling just that social media didn't feel quite right for me. So, I wanted to say thank you for that and that I've started listening to your podcast. I'm really enjoying the episode with Mary Grace. I was listening to it for more of the, kind of, social media side but talking about energetic sovereignty was actually really powerful for me as well. So, thank you for that.

Becca [00:25:59] And yeah, in terms of ideas, if these are things that you were interested in covering, that would be amazing. An episode on perhaps focusing specifically on how we can grow our podcast without social media would be amazing and a way of actually launching our business— our online business off social media. And that's where I'm at. I've launched, but haven't quite— I haven't got any clients yet. So, I'm just wondering if you have any advice for people who are in that position of being really new to it, how they can market off social media. Thank you so much. I hope you had a lovely weekend. Bye!

Amelia [00:26:33] What great questions. Honestly, I could have done an entire episode just on these two questions [laughs gently], but I'm not going to do that. I already had to break the listener questions into two episodes. We're not going for three. So I will keep this brief. Let's talk about the podcasting question first while I still have on my Softer Sounds hat.

Amelia [00:26:49] How can you grow your podcast without social media? I love this question because in the podcast industry I actually see lots of people saying social media is not a podcast growth strategy [laughs] and I love people who say that, and I agree with it. Social media is a great way to keep up with people who already listen to your podcast. It's not actually a great way to get new listeners.

Amelia [00:27:12] So, it's really if you think about the three types of marketing, I talk about doing or three stages of your marketing journey that I talk about on this podcast, I talk about how you need to grow your audience, nurture your community, and sell your offerings.

Amelia [00:27:25] Well, social media is a great way to nurture your podcast community. It's not actually a great way to grow your podcast audience. Why is that? Because when someone is on a social media platform, they're not generally in podcast listening mode, so they're much less likely to actually click through, go to your show, and listen to something. On occasion, you might get someone who's going to click through and go subscribe and listen later. But it's not that— just not the most effective place to grow. It's a really great way to remind your listeners to go actually listen to that episode you just posted [laughs], but it's not the best place to grow your audience.

Amelia [00:28:02] So, how do you grow your podcast? Well, the best way to grow your podcast, in my opinion, is to get your show in front of more podcast listeners.

Amelia [00:28:12] So, how do you do that? Well, one strategy is on other podcasts. Lots of different ways to get your show on other podcasts. One that you're probably already thinking of is to be a guest on other shows, or to do what's often called a guest swap. So, if someone else has a podcast and you have a podcast, you say, "Hey, will you come on my podcast and have me on your podcast and we'll swap?" That, in fact, as you heard Becca mention here in her voice note, is how she found me because I did a guest swap with Chelsea of In My Non-Expert Opinion. You know, she was on my podcast, I was on her podcast. It's a beautiful moment for our audiences to get to know each other. Some of them came and subscribed to my show. Some of you probably went and subscribed to her show. Beautiful.

Amelia [00:28:54] But you don't always have to be a guest on another show to get your podcast in front of other podcast listeners. So, you can also do something called a feed drop where you arrange to drop an episode of your podcast on someone else's podcast feed.

Amelia [00:29:07] Or you can do a promo swap where at the beginning of your episode, you know, you promote someone else's podcast, and they promote your podcast in turn. So, those are a couple ways to get your show in front of other podcast— to get your show on other podcasts.

Amelia [00:29:19] Another common way in the podcast industry is to get your show featured in podcast newsletters. So, this could be through paid ads, it could be through, you know, writing in and suggesting your show. There are a lot of great podcast newsletters out there and I would say the more, like, unique your show is and, like, relevant to something happening in the world, the more likely you would be to get featured in one of those podcast newsletters.

Amelia [00:29:43] Another thing you could do is submit your show to be featured in a podcast apps. So, this is not well known outside the podcast industry, but like New and Noteworthy in Apple Podcasts, Spotify Selects, like Stitcher Featured Shows. There are real humans who choose those things [laughs]. They are not, like, algorithmically bumped up there for any given reason. It is real live humans who choose those, and you can submit to be featured there. So, I highly suggest doing a quick Google, finding those forms, and submitting yourself to be featured on those shows as well. Or you can reach out to me too, and I can send you the links if you email me and ask nicely. Please don't over— don't flood my inbox, but I'm happy to share. I've got a whole resource list from Softer Sounds stuff.

Amelia [00:30:28] So, those are some great ways to grow your podcast. Like, really you want to be thinking about— how can I get more people who already listen to podcasts to listen to my podcast? And sometimes, let me take one more step deeper into this, sometimes that might mean that you really need to think about who you want to be listening to your show, and who your show is serving, and why they should listen to your show specifically.

Amelia [00:30:51] I have found in my work that my clients who launched their shows like five or six years ago, they really organically built great followings because when they started their podcast there weren't a ton of podcasts out there, but now there are way more podcasts. And so, every show has to work a little harder to get more of an audience because people who are listening to the podcast just feel like their apps are overwhelmed, too many new shows to listen to.

Amelia [00:31:16] So, the best thing that you can do to grow your show is to be really clear about who you're making it for and then to think about how you can get in front of those people. So, I emphasize getting on other podcasts, but then, you know, now it's all the regular marketing stuff we've talked about. Get people to mention you in newsletters, support word of mouth, ask your listeners to share your show. Most people won't listen to a podcast until someone they know says they like it. So, you want to get everyone who listens to tell somebody else that they like it so they'll come listen too.

Amelia [00:31:44] You know, those are some ways to grow your show without social media. And in fact, as I said at the top of this, social media is not a great way to grow your show. So, you don't need it. Yay! What a relief.

Amelia [00:31:55] Okay. Let's answer the second question here and then it's time to announce our giveaway winner. Yayyyy! So excited. Okay, last question. How can you launch a business without social media? Oh, my goodness. I love this question because I launched Softer Sounds without social media and it went great, if I'm being honest. So, let me slow down here [laughs].

Amelia [00:32:16] And get a little bit out of my excitement amp up and take my time with this question or take a moment with this question. How to launch a business without social media? You know, this, to me, is exactly what the Creative Marketing Experiment Database was made for. Actually, the whole Leaving Social Media Toolkit. Take that list of 100 Ways to Share Your Work Without Social Media. Put everyone that you're interested on your Creative Marketing Experiment Database, and that's how you launch your business.

Amelia [00:32:44] I would say you start with the people you already know, and you tell every single one of them that you can that you are launching this business.

Amelia [00:32:53] Start with the people who you think could be potential clients or who work in related areas. But don't forget to tell your friends. Don't forget to tell your family members. Don't forget to tell, you know, your college professors that you still talk to sometimes. Tell all of them and tell them directly. Don't just broadcast it out there, right?

Amelia [00:33:12] I think one of the reason that our social media launches underperform is because we're just broadcasting to everyone. We're not directly speaking to anyone.

Amelia [00:33:20] So, when you're launching without social media, directly speak to all these people. I've said this a bunch of times on the podcast, but when I launched Softer Sounds, I emailed over 50 people individually. Took me like three days [laughs], but I sent individual emails to them to tell them I was launching this business and I would love their support.

Amelia [00:33:37] And I heard back from like half of them and the other half I never heard back from and honestly, you know, hurt my ego a little bit, but then it was fine. Didn't take it personally. That's because I sent it from energetic sovereignty. Like, I felt good about that and so I didn't have to worry about if the other person didn't respond.

Amelia [00:33:52] But really, I say start there. Start with the people you know. And tell them directly that you are launching a business. Like this is a big moment. You know [laughs gently], we're not going to directly tell them every time you do something in your business or every time you have a, you know, new workshop, or every time you have a new blog post. Like you don't want to email people directly at that moment, but when you're launching your business, that is a big moment, and you can take that opportunity to just genuinely share your excitement and ask for support. That's just good relationship building.

Amelia [00:34:23] So after you've done that, then, you know, do all the fun, cool stuff or you know, the normal traditional stuff that's in the Leaving Social Media Toolkit, you know, email your list and broadcast it to them if you have one, make your signs, mail your postcards, send out stickers, get a bumper sticker for your car, you know, pick a dozen of those things and do them.

Amelia [00:34:44] And that's how you start sharing. But I think the core of it when you're launching your business is just, like, making that really clear list of everyone you can think of to tell and then telling them. I know that makes it sound kind of simple. It is a lot of work, I get that. But, like, what it's going to do is bring you that word of mouth support and that's, like, the most precious thing we can cultivate in our marketing [jazzy transitional sound].

Amelia [00:35:06] And that's it, y'all. We are now at the moment where we announce our giveaway winner [laughs].

Amelia [00:35:14] If you have been tuned in for all of Season One, you know that we are giving away an Instead Deck from Inner Workout. This is a card deck to help you scroll less created by my friend Taylor Elyse Morrison, who was on the podcast for a great episode called Self-care for Staying on Social Media.

Amelia [00:35:33] We talked about her relationship to social media and how she has developed boundaries and gotten support for staying on the platform as she grows her business. It's, like, a must-listen for anyone who doesn't intend to leave social media but wants to be more intentional about being present there as we've been talking about.

Amelia [00:35:49] And I'm giving away one of her Instead Decks. So, I love this card deck. We pulled some cards in the episode with her and to enter to win, all you had to do, as you've heard me say all season, was send in a voice note or send an email with a question. And so, I had— I think it was like eight people who did that. My elite eight— bad basketball joke. Sorry.

Amelia [00:36:09] And I've put all of their names into a wheel of names at wheelofnames.com. And now I am going to click to spin it. Drum roll, please [audible drumroll].

Amelia [00:36:24] Alissa is our winner. Oh, how exciting. Well, Alissa, if you're listening, I probably already emailed you about receiving your prize, and I'm so excited to send it to you. And for the rest of you, you can get your own Instead Deck from Inner Workout at innerworkout.co and there's a special discount code for Off the Grid listeners.

Amelia [00:36:44] So, it's just OFFTHEGRID. All caps. One word— or all caps, no spaces. You enter that at checkout on the Inner Workout site, you will get 10% off of your Instead Deck. So, congrats to Alissa for winning the giveaway and highly, highly suggest that the rest of you go get those decks while they're still available.

Amelia [00:37:05] Okay, friends, I think it is officially time for me to wrap up Season One of Off the Grid. If you're listening to this live, I really hope that I will see you at The Refresh. It's going to be such a fun time. If you're listening to this right when this comes out, it is happening in less than two weeks.

Amelia [00:37:27] And, as I mentioned at the top of the episode, like, I really am thinking of this as a celebration of everything I've shared in Season One of this podcast and an opportunity for us to find community around it. You know, I think that we can often feel so alone when we're doing anything differently in our business. But when you're leaving social media, it can really feel like stepping away from your community, you're losing a community and it can feel really lonely. Or there could be a lot of fear around the loneliness.

Amelia [00:37:55] So, like, come join us. Like, there is a community of people who want to do their marketing differently, who want that algorithm-free or algorithm less-dependent future for their business and you can be a part of that.

Amelia [00:38:09] All you have to do is sign up for The Refresh. Again, it's only $99. You get the live workshops, access to me that whole time, the recordings, the Notion workbook, I'm sending playlists, I've been sending postcards. Like all of that is going out to everyone who signs up. So, come join us.

[00:38:28] And if you want more Off the Grid goodness, send me an email at hi@softersounds.studio and let me know so I can be hard at work on Season Two.

Amelia [00:38:39] As evidenced in these listener Q&A episodes, I love hearing from anyone who tunes in so I really do have an open inbox policy. Email me. I'm the one who reads that inbox. I'd love to hear from you.

Amelia [00:38:50] So again, last time for Season One, go download your Leaving Social Media Toolkit for free at softersounds slash byeig. Sign up for The Refresh. Come hang so we can Clear the Fear, Weave the Web, and Make the Map together.

Amelia [00:39:06] Send me an email at hi@softersounds.studio or leave a voice message speakpipe.com/offthegrid will still work, leaving that inbox up [outro music begins to play quietly]. I love you all. I am cheering you on and until Season Two rolls around, I will see you off the grid.

[00:39:28] Thanks for listening to Off the Grid. Find links and resources in the show notes and don't forget to grab your free Leaving Social Media Toolkit at softersounds.studio/byeig. That's softersounds dot studio slash b-y-e-i-g.

Amelia [00:39:44] This podcast is a Softer Sounds production. Our music is by Purple Planet and our logo is by n'atalier Studio. If you'd like to make a podcast of your own, we'd love to help.

Amelia [00:39:54] Find more about our services at softersounds.studio. Until next time, we'll see you off the grid.