This episode is part of the January Joy(ful) Growth Club with Russell and Claire program I’m running with Claire Venus ✨. Join and get access to special challenge and interviews all month.
In it, I sat down with Seth Werkheiser from SOCIAL MEDIA ESCAPE CLUB to talk about why social media is making people miserable, and how it’s not actually helping most of us build sustainable creative careers.
We talked a lot about:
Why creators keep chasing scale before they’re ready for it
Why people want the audience now without putting in the reps.
Why “nobody cares” is actually one of the best places you can start.
And why building something small, slow, and human often beats trying to impress strangers on the internet.
One of my favorite threads in this conversation was that musicians don’t build careers by going viral once. They build them by playing to five people on a Tuesday night, learning what works, getting better, and slowly expanding outward. That model works for authors, artists, and entrepreneurs too, but social media keeps convincing us to skip the middle.
We also dug into why email lists matter, why platforms always get worse over time, and why you should never confuse attention with access. At the end of the day, a thousand followers you can’t reach is worth far less than a hundred people who actually opted in.
At its core, this episode is about choosing work that compounds instead of work that drains you. It’s about trading performative growth for durable growth. And it’s about remembering that success is a trailing indicator, you only see it after the work has already been done.
If you’ve been feeling burned out, behind, or like you’re doing everything “right” but nothing is clicking, this conversation might help you recalibrate what actually matters—and where your energy is best spent.
Key takeaways
“Nobody cares” is a gift. When the stakes are low, you get to practice, experiment, and make mistakes without pressure. That’s how you build skill and confidence before scale.
Reps beat reach. Playing to five people, hosting a small Zoom call, or writing for a tiny list builds muscles that going viral never will.
Success comes after the work, not before it. People don’t blow up out of nowhere—they just make the invisible work look sudden in hindsight.
Attention isn’t the same as access. If you can’t reach your audience directly, you don’t actually have one.
Energy exchange matters. If a platform consistently gives you less back than you put in, it will eventually drain your joy—no matter how “important” it seems.
Build where you can leave without it damaging you. Platforms change. Owned channels travel with you.
If you want growth that actually feels good, start by asking a different question—not “How do I get bigger?” but “Where does my energy come back to me?”
That question changes everything.
