💯 100 ways to share your work off social media

[0:03] Off the Grid is a podcast for small business owners who want to leave social media without losing all their clients. I'm Amelia Hruby, a 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.

Download your free leaving social media toolkit at softersounds.studio/byeig and join us as we do it all off the grid.

[0:32] Music.

[0:35] Hello and welcome to episode 3 of Off the Grid, leaving social media without losing all your clients or customers.

I'm Amelia Hruby. I am a writer speaker and founder of Softer Sounds, a podcast studio for creatives and entrepreneurs, and I am so excited to be back for our third episode of this podcast all about building and growing thriving feel-good businesses off of social media.

So if you're just tuning in and this is your first episode of Off the Grid. welcome!

This is our third episode. In the first episode I talked about four common myths about social media marketing for small businesses and I broke those down and walked us through a lot of permission granting and truth-telling about why are you don't have to be on social media for your small business.

In episode 2, I shared my story of leaving Instagram and I walked you through how you too can leave any social media platform that you choose through the five-step process that I've created.

You can catch up on those episodes anytime anywhere that you listen to podcasts by finding Off the Grid: Leaving social media without losing all your clients.

And, of course I would be remiss not to tell you about our Leaving Social Media Toolkit.

This whole first season of Off the Grid is about strategies for leaving social media while continuing to grow your business, and that Leaving Social Media Toolkit basically gives you all those tools right up front. So you can download that by heading to softersounds.studio/byeig.

When you land on that page, you just drop your email and then you'll get an email with a wonderful notion dashboard designed to help you leave social media!

There are three tools in that toolkit. The first one walks you through the five step process I shared in the last episode with some really wonderful juicy reflection questions that I didn't share on the podcast but that you can get and work through in the toolkit.

The second piece of that toolkit is what I'm going to share in today's episode — which is a list of 100 ways to share your work and life that aren't social media. So we're going to talk about that today, but you can download the list by getting the Leaving Social Media Toolkit.

And then the third part of that tool kit is what we're going to cover in our next episode, which is a database to keep track of your Creative Marketing experiments.

So again all of that can be yours for free — yes, free 99 y'all — by heading to softersounds.studio/byeig.

[3:31] Before I dive into today's episode I also just want to say thank you to everyone who's already listening to the podcast and sending me emails and and telling me that everything is just really resonating so far.

I am so grateful for your thoughts and your feedback, and honestly I'm just really pumped to hear that this is resonating with you.

I've got lots of great stuff lined up for this season of Off the Grid, and of course if you have requests or things that you would like to have me talk about you can always shoot me an email at hi@softersounds.studio.

I'd love to hear what you're thinking, I’d love to answer your questions. So send me anything! Any big feelings, small feelings, huge opinions, whatever it may be in relationship to leaving social media. You can send those to hi@softersounds.studio, and they'll reach me. I'm the one who’s in that inbox so thanks for reaching out.

[4:28] So today's episode is about 100 ways to share your work and life that aren't social media.

I wrote this list when I was preparing to leave Instagram. I walked us through that whole story in the last episode, so I won't go through it again here. But in the winter and spring of 2021, I decided to leave Instagram.

And at first that was a really scary decision, because I had been selling books and courses and kind of building my platform on Instagram, and I was like oh shit … What am I going to do? How am I going to keep spreading the word about my work? How am I going to keep telling people about the things that I'm doing?

You might have had that reaction too, right? If you listened to the last episode, where I was like here's exactly how you can leave Instagram, maybe you were like…

[5:18] That's great Amelia…but I need you to actually tell me what else I'm going to do instead! And convince me I'm not going to totally lose my business if I get off Instagram before I'm willing to put that five-step plan into action.

Honestly I would feel the same way. Maybe the idea of leaving social media really appeals to you but you're like I need to know what is going to take the place of this marketing and sales I'm doing on social media. What's going to fill that void?

So today's episode is really meant to expand your imagination. It's going to speak to that Visionary expansive, imagining part of you, that just needs to know there's so much else you can be doing that’s not social media.

[6:02] And I can tell you firsthand that when I left Instagram I had so much more time to share my work in other ways.

And I think one of my biggest fears around leaving Instagram is that I was going to lose my community, and I was going to stop making sales. And I can tell you that in the process of making this list of 100 ways to share your work and life off social media, I realized that that I totally wasn't going to happen.

Because I was just going to do other awesome things to keep up with my community members and keep marketing and selling my offerings and products.

So this list is really designed to help you get into that expansive space and start seeing possibilities.

In future episodes of the podcast we're actually going to talk about making a plan for how you will do those things. But in today's episode I really just want you to keep an open mind and I really want to invite you to you know get that.

I already said it — turn on your imagination station, like pull your train into Imagination Station and we are going to go high-speed train ahead on this one. Sorry for that metaphor. I'm not really not sure that it worked at all.

[7:07] So in this episode I'm going to read you the list of 100 ways to share your work and life that aren't social media. And I debated if I was going to do this on the podcast. Like… reading a list of 100 things. Does anyone care? Does anyone want to listen to that?

But what I decided was that my one of my core beliefs about podcasting is that by speaking and using our voices, we bring our body to our communications, and we bring our body to our actions and to our values.

So as much as I’ve publish this list on the internet, as much as you've already downloaded the Leaving Social Media Toolkit and you have the list saved and duplicated into your Notion, there's still a huge difference between just knowing that list is there and actually spending the time with me and my voice reading it to you.

By listening to this list you are going to bring it more into your world. I'm embodying it. You’re embodying it by listening, and we're going to help bring all of these ideas closer to fruition for you.

So, if that's not your thing that's fine. Wait for the next episode or skip ahead to the next episode of Off the Grid, but I think that by listening to this list and just paying attention to which items grab your attention today, what stands out, what feels good. I think you'll really get a lot out of that process.

[8:29] Now of course I know lots of us just listen to podcasts in the background of stuff that we're doing but I think there are two ways you can kind of take up this invitation I'm offering you.

One — if you're listening in the background, that’s great. Keep doing that. I'm sure a few of the options I give will just pique your interest and will make you tune in more. Just notice — which one's did you tune into? Which ones stood out even if you were doing the dishes while you were listening? Notice those.

For your second way — you could take a really active listening approach. You could go to the Leaving Social Media Toolkit. You could look at the list with me and as I'm reading you could really highlight or mark or make notes or if you want to do this on pen and paper write down the items on the list that stand out. And then at the end you'll have your own new list of just the stuff that you want to do.

Because I want to be really clear that this list of 100 ways to share your work and life that aren't social media is not intended to be a to do list.

I'm not here telling you you're going to do 100 of these things. It's just a list of possibilities.

So I want you to take this list and curate what feels good and true and right to you to do now. And then add your own stuff to it.

There's so much more. There's so many more ways you could share your work and life that aren't social media and that aren't on this list.

[9:51] So now that we're like 10 minutes into this episode. Now that I have given you my full recap of past episodes , and rundown of what's coming, and suggestions for how to listen to this…

Let's dive in to this list of 100 ways to share your work and life that aren't social media!

[10:15] Music

Hi Off the Grid friends. Amelia here interrupting myself, because I want to share one of my favorite self-care tools that helps get you off social media.

Have you been listening to these episodes and thinking, all of this is great Amelia but how do I actually stop scrolling?

The instead deck by Inner Workout is for you.

If you’ve ever said to yourself, I don't have time for self-care and then found yourself scrolling on social media for hours a day, this card deck is going to be your new best friend.

The Instead deck has 50 cards with bite-sized activities, affirmations, and prompts that will help you infuse self-care into even the smallest moments. Some of my favorite cards say things like — what would you rather be doing? slow down. you don't need social media to be connected. and feel your feet on the floor.

When I used to get stuck in the scroll, I loved having the Instead deck nearby. I’d pull out the cards, do a quick shuffle and then I'd pull.

Today my card is — document the moment just for you. Off the grid listeners can get ten percent off the Instead deck, using the code OFFTHEGRID. Just head to innerworkout.co/shop to check out, and don't forget to use the code OFFTHEGRID for 10% off.

Let's divest from distraction and reinvest in our self-care, babes. Now we'll get back to this episode of Off the Grid.

[11:47] All right. 100 Ways to Share Your Work That Aren’t Social Media, y'all. Let's go!

Number 1: start an email newsletter

Number 2: send a postcard.

Number 3: call your friends and family.

Number 4: try out an audio convo app like quilt or Clubhouse

Number 5: create or update your website

Number 6: start a blog

Number 7: put up a flyer at a local coffee shop

Number 8: learn about and implement SEO so people actually see your website

Number 9: join a Discord Channel

Number 10: launch a podcast
Sidenote — shout out to Softer Sounds, come launch a podcast with me!

Number 11: make stickers and stick them all over town

Number 12: find your local community college and see what continuing ed courses and networking meetups they host, then go to one

Number 13: take a workshop and tell people what you do when you introduce yourself

Number 14: join a pen pal exchange.

[13:03]

Number 15: sign up to write letters to someone who's incarcerated

Number 16: make a zine

Number 17: host a workshop at a fave local or virtual spot

Number 18: ship a care package to a loved one

Number 19: put a sign in your window

Number 20: put a sign in your yard

Number 21: volunteer your expertise to a non-profit or mutual aid project

Number 22: write a fan letter or email to your favorite artist author podcaster or local government official

Number 23: invite someone for coffee or virtual coffee

Number 24: join a free online community like the Holisticism Hub — I'm a member come hang!

Number 25: pitch an article about your work to a journalist or publication

Number 26: set up a calendar link with a service like calendly so people can easily book time to chat on your calendar

[14:11]

Number 27: write a book

Number 28: host a book club

Number 29: make a playlist

Number 30: set up a group text

Number 31: let your Alumni Association know what you've been up to

Number 32: place an ad on a radio station

Number 33: place an ad in a magazine

Number 34: place an ad on a billboard — dream big babe!

Number 35: write an op-ed for your local newspaper

Number 36: create your own newspaper and put it in free little libraries around town

Number 37: ask a local business if you can put up a flyer in their window or leave business cards by their register

Number 38: see what's happening at your local library or rec center and show up for a community gathering

[15:08]

Number 39: set up a texting service like call multiplier to send text updates to your whole list

Number 40: host your own online community on a platform like Mighty Networks

Number 41: schedule a weekly friend date or virtual open office hours for virtual or IRL biz and babe hangs

Number 42: write an essay for an online or print publication.

Number 43: pitch yourself as a guest for a podcast

Number 44: ask a friend to share your work with their audience

Number 45: collaborate with a friend or colleague on an event or offering

Number 46: leave reviews for businesses, podcasts or authors you love

Number 47: ask customers, clients or admirers to leave you reviews

Number 48: create a yearbook or annual report

Number 49: develop an app

Number 50: create a magazine

[16:17] All right y'all let's take a deep breath. I feel like on podcasts we don't just like pause and notice our bodies enough.

I just read you 50 things, so I want to invite you as you're listening to just take a second and exhale any air you're holding on. Then let’s take one deep breath together. When you’re ready, we’ll inhale. And exhale.

How did hearing those first 50 things feel?

I was trying to pay attention to which ones felt really juicy to me as I was reading them, and I was like oh yeah I want to send a care package. Oh yeah I should put a sign in my yard, and oh yeah I'm going to make a playlist.

For right now, those are the things that just felt like yes yes and yes. I can send a care package to a family member or client. I can put up a sign in my yard, and then make a playlist. I love playlists. If you have paid much attention to anything Softer Sounds been doing you might notice that I make a playlist for everything. So stay tuned for more playlists in your future.

Okay let's keep going on our list of 100 things. We've got 50 more things. Are you guys ready? We’re diving back in.

[17:46]

Number 51: host a webinar

Number 52: stand outside and shout to the sky

Number 53: rent a booth at a local craft fair, business fair or trade show

Number 54: create or update your business cards

Number 55: join a local co-working space

Number 56: two words — bumper stickers

Number 57: two more words — graphic tees

Number 58: two final words — fanny packs. gotta love a fanny pack, y'all.

Number 59: ask everyone you know to tell one other person about your work

Number 60: send holiday cards

Number 61: make some funny memes

Number 62: hang out on a live streaming platform like twitch

Number 63: read or write fanfiction for your favorite series

Number 64: hang out at a local coffee shop bookstore bakery or bar and befriend the babes who work there

Number 65: send Valentines

Number 66: host a fundraiser for a favorite local org

Number 67: start a Free Little Library, Pantry or Love Fridge with your neighbors

Number 68: share some of your photos, sounds or words with a Creative Commons license for free use by others

Number 69: go to a virtual conference and actively participate — not just lurk. you can lurk too, but maybe try participating.

[19:35]

Number 70: put up flyers on all the street corners around where you live

Number 71: practice telling people who you are. record an audio note of yourself saying it over and over again. write it down 10 or 100 times

Number 72: practice telling people how they can work with you. record an audio note of yourself saying it over and over again. write it down 10 or 100 times

Number 73: create a free presentation about something you're good at and share it so others can learn from you

Number 74: spend time writing or speaking about your ideal client or friend. imagine them into existence

Number 75: go for a walk and look around

Number 76: take a drive and look around

Number 77: buy domain names for popular things you do and reroute them to your website.

Number 78: reconsider what you really want to share

Number 79 reconsider who you really want to share with

Number 80: read The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer to embolden yourself to share and ask for what you need

Number 81: write yourself a theme song

Number 82: invest in a session with a healer or coach you admire.

Number 83: put all your info and links in your email signature

[21:03]

Number 84: use a service like Flodesk to set up a free download that you share with people who join your email list. we also call this a lead magnet

Number 85: drink something warm and care for your voice

Number 86: make a list of people who do similar things as you and reach out to see if you can collaborate on something

Number 87: make a list of people who do way different things than you and reach out to see if you can collaborate on something

Number 88: make a media kit

Number 89: take new headshots or promo photos you love

Number 90: create a Discord or Slack channel for your community

Number 91: launch a course on a searchable platform like teachable

Number 92: host a game night or online trivia

Number 93: create a useful tool or template using a service like airtable or notion, and send it to everyone you think might appreciate it

Number 94: chalk the sidewalk — who doesn't love sidewalk chalk?

Number 95: commission a mural

Number 96: write a guest post for a friend or colleague’s blog

Number 97: film a commercial for TV or just for your website

[22:22]

Number 98: make a giant sign and hire a sign spinner or do it yourself

Number 99: reach out to one new person a day for a whole month

Number 100: reconnect with one person you already know each day for a whole month

Number 101: bonus! actually do something or a lot of things on this list

That's it, y'all. That's our list of 100 ways to share your work and life that aren't social media.

You probably noticed that some of those things are very business-y, and some of them are not.

One of the important things I think so many of us forget as we launch or grow our businesses is that growing a business is so much about community building. And we can build community in so many ways.

I think that social media platforms invite us to think of them as a bubble and then they really like to get us stuck in that bubble. But there are so many ways and so many people you could be reaching out to about your business.

[23:26] Could you tell a family member about your business? Could you tell a friend? Could you tell an old teacher? Could you tell your neighbor about your business?

When I made that list I started by thinking really locally. I asked myself— who doesn't know what I do?

To be perfectly honest, my grandmother has no clue what I do. I've told her many times it’s podcasting, and she doesn't get it at all.

But I've heard her tell other family members that I run a podcast studio! Even though she has no clue what that means. And some of them might tell a colleague of theirs who needs a podcast person and ends up coming back to me.

I can't tell you how many simple word-of-mouth interactions have brought me new clients, and so many of those started from my immediate local community or from dear friends or from social media.

But I made this list because I want to encourage you to think about community building as a fun, enriching, nourishing, exciting activity — even if you're an introvert! Even if talking to people gives you a lot of anxiety or fear.

A lot of things on that list didn't involve talking to anybody, right? Sidewalk chalk. Yard signs. There are ways that you can tell the world what you do without having to speak directly to another person — although of course I suggest practicing that as well.

[24:38] On the next episode of Off the Grid I'm going to talk about how to take this beautiful big list of possibilities and start making a marketing plan and start doing some Creative Marketing experiments that set yourself up really well — either before you're leaving Instagram to not notice a drop in business when you leave, or to really grow your business after you've exited any social media platform.

As I said at the beginning, if you would like to have a copy of this list for yourself, you can download the free Leaving Social Media Toolkit at softersounds.studio/byeig

On the next episode we'll talk about those creative marketing ideas and plans. But for now I'm going to do one of these hundred things. And your task before next time is to do one of them too.

Sending you lots of love, and I will see you all off the grid. babes. Bye for now.

[25:37] Music.

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 softer sounds dot studio / b y e IG.

This podcast is a Softer Sounds production. Our music is by purple planet and our logo is by n'Atelier studio. If you'd like to make a podcast of your own, we'd love to help.

Learn more about our services at softersounds.studio. Until next time we'll see you off the grid.