Off the Grid: Leaving Social Media
Off the Grid is a podcast for artists, writers & creative business owners who want to leave social media without losing all their income. ✌️ Our host, Amelia Hruby PhD, shares stories, strategies & experiments for growing your business with radical generosity & energetic sovereignty. 🌐 Get the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit at offthegrid.fun/toolkit
🛒 Divest from Amazon & Co-Create What’s Next — with Erin & Kate from Little Blue Cart
Today we’re continuing our e-commerce series with Kate and Erin of Little Blue Cart and Little Blue Market.
They’ve launched a business directory and online marketplace for creatives who are explicitly Anti-Trump to advertise their services and products.
In the process, they’ve also become vocally critical of Amazon and Etsy. And they’re offering an alternative place to sell and shop online!
➡️ Tune in then submit yourself to their directory and shop the market.
RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit
🌐 Get...
🏪 Let’s Talk Ecommerce — Online Shops & SEO with Christine Corbin
This week, we’re deep-diving into all things retail, products, and ecommerce.
To start that conversation, I’m joined by Christine Corbin to talk about how to grow a thriving retail brand or product line in 2026 and beyond.
We discuss:
🌈 Attention is for Everyone — Inventing New Forms & Why the Emergency Was Curiosity with Christie George
This week, I'm thrilled to be joined by investor, producer, and writer Christie George.
She's here discuss attention as care and her book report project: The Emergency Was Curiosity.
Together we have a conversation about the role of art in our lives as we explore:
Why gratitude is fundamental for working artistsBook reports as attentional structuresLiving archives as artistic practicesHow social media killed Amelia’s journalling practiceWhat it means to be in conversation with a work of artTurning a book project into a gallery exhibition & event seriesA defense of non-monetized creative projectsAttention as a co...🌀 How to Use Intuitive Tools with Integrity — with Verena Borell, Sarah Arantza-Amador & Natasha Levinger
Happy almost-Halloween/Samhein, friends!
In honor of the season, today I’m sharing a very special community conversation on intuitive integrity and creative/business practice.
I’m joined by Verena Borell, Sarah Arantza-Amador, and Natasha Levinger — as we originally recorded this for a panel at our spring astro summit.
This episode is for intuitive practitioners who want to build better boundaries with clients, creative people seeking spiritual support, and anyone who’s curious about modalities like astrology, tarot, and energy healing.
If you like this one, you might also enjoy:
3 Magical R...🏹 Be With Your Body — Tarot Guidance & Embodiment in Creative Business with Sarah-Jane Chapman
This week, Sarah Jane Chapman joins me on the podcast to get magical with her deck & business: Be With Your Body.
We explore the business of tarot AND the magical practice of tarot, as we discuss Sarah Jane’s business ecosystem and the cards guiding her through the fall.
Tune in to hear about:
Why we love tarot and how we got into reading cardsSarah Jane’s Body Metta practiceWhat it really takes to create a tarot deckA best-case-scenario for biz partnership dissolutionHow Sarah Jane manages her business with products, services, online & IRL offer...🔒 How to Price When You Already Have Enough Money
After my episode on pricing with Bear Hebert, I got a question from a listener that went something like this—
"How do you price yourself and your services when you already have enough money? In my case, my spouse has a very good job, so we don’t need an income from me. But I am also a creative, a gatherer, a podcaster, a stay-at-home parent, and lots more. I do these things because I love them, and I could do them for free and not charge... but is that the right / anti-capitalist answer? Help!"
I thin...
🌾 The Deep Work (& Rest) of Leaving Social Media — with Ashley Neese
In 2019, Ashley Neese had a bestselling book, a thriving breathwork practice, a new baby, and 30k Instagram followers.
Now seven years later, she’s left social media and moved away from the world of wellness™️ entirely.
In this conversation, we chart Ashley’s journey from being an influencer in the 2010s LA wellness scene to becoming a parent who refuses to perform wellness when she doesn’t feel well.
Together, we unpack the insidious logic of early influencer culture: that the more you post, the more followers you’ll get — and the more followers you...
📨 Dispatches from a Tiny List — How to Make Money with Under 500 Subscribers with Podge Thomas
This might be the most real-talk, behind-the-scenes, high-key-giggly, low-key-chaos episode I’ve ever recorded. 👀
Today, Podge Thomas returns to the show for the third time to talk about building a business with a tiny email list.
We tell you:
...
🔒 How to Make the Leap to Full-Time — My Path & 3 Examples from $10k/year to $100k/year
Today's paid-supporter-exclusive episode answers the most popular query from our summer AMA:
"I've been working on my business for a few years now, but I'm still not making full-time income from this work. How do I make the jump from $10-$20k per year to $50-$100k per year?"
This is a nuanced question and different for every business owner!
So in this episode, I do a few things to make sense of it:
First, I walk you through my journey from 10k to 100k annual revenue (exact numbers and timeline inc...👛 Anti-Capitalist Business in This Economy — How to Set Your Prices & Offer Financial Accessibility with Bear Hebert
Bear Hebert is here on Off the Grid! And they’ve arrived to bust capitalist myths, teach us how to price, and unpack the nuance of financial accessibility.
Tune in, as we discuss:
Why business doesn’t have to be capitalistBusting the money myths our inner punk teenagers tell usGetting rid of the girlboss in your head (and on your feed) Why ‘charging your worth’ is inherently problematicHow to figure out the right rates + pricing for your business modelBear’s recommended financial accessibility strategiesThe importance of transparency in marketing + salesExactly how Bear talks about money on sales calls...🔒 My Q3 Biz Recap — Highs, Lows & How Much $$ I Made
Join me as I convince myself it's ok to raise my prices 😬
In this quarterly recap episode, I walk through the highs, lows, and finances of Softer Sounds & Off the Grid so far this year...
And I figure out how to make the money work as I officially close Softer Sounds and raise the price of the Interweb for 2027!
Tune in to an episode preview here, and become a paid subscriber of the Clubhouse at offthegrid.fun/clubhouse to get all the $$$ details.
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When you join the Clubhouse, you'll get access to o...
🧢 Be Your Own Daddy — Energetic Sovereignty & Creative Constraints with Catherine LaSota
This week we’re debuting our new brand!
And rolling the metaphorical tape allllll the way back to the beginning of the show to revisit energetic sovereignty through a new lens.
To do that, I’m joined by creative coach Catherine LaSota who’s here to teach us how to “be your own daddy” AKA ways to cultivate energetic sovereignty in your work and life.
Together we discuss:
What “Be Your Own Daddy” really meansSaturnian influences on our energy + creativityHow to make aligned choices within constraintsCultivating the permission to radically change our livesWays to m...♾️ Foraging for What’s Next — Creative Seasons & Why the Internet’s So Boring Now with Nic Antoinette
Nic Antoinette is back on the pod this week as we continue our year-long series around enoughness, grief, and deep evolution.
This time, we’re focused on creative burnout, seasonality in business, and why we find the internet so boring these days.
If you haven’t listened to the series before, here are links to those episodes:
♾️ Business Degrowth — Slowing Down & Noticing Patterns
♾️ Well, That Didn’t Go As Planned… Grief, Joy & Money in 2026
♾️ “You Needing Money Doesn't Make Stuff Sell” — Consistency & Collapse in Online Business
♾️ Take the Break Before the Break Takes...
🤠 Reinventing Yourself & Your Work — From Dog Trainer to Retail Store Owner to Business Strategist with Heather Bax
For the third and final installment in our business pivots + evolutions series, I’m talking to Heather Bax of Small Business Rodeo!
Heather is a business advisor, human design reader, notion lover, and occasional artist. Her expertise spans decades of service, product, and brick & mortar small business stewardship, and she’s supported all kinds of creative businesses along the way.
In this conversation, we explore:
🌅 The Grief of Sunsetting a Business & The Joy of Being Multipassionate — with Chereen Leong Schwarz
Chereen Leong Schwarz is a founder, maker, outdoor adventurer, and rewilding guide. She’s a former chef who started a knitwear brand and then moved into creative retreats — after a period of prolonged grief.
In this conversation, we dive deep into what pivoting really feels like as we explore:
Chereen’s chef career from fine dining to farmsHow moving to Colorado spurred her love of knittingThe realities of turning a hobby into a side hustleSpecific ways to center your values in your businessHow multiple losses + a health crisis led Chereen through a transformative grief portalDifferent methods of bui...🔒 Why & How I Closed My Business — Letting Go of Softer Sounds
Softer Sounds is officially closed, my friends. And in this Clubhouse-exclusive episode, I'm telling you all about that journey.
This one's mostly-personal and a-little-bit-logistical – heavy on story with a checklist at the end.
Tune in to an episode preview here, and become a paid subscriber of the Clubhouse at offthegrid.fun/clubhouse to get all the details.
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When you join the Clubhouse, you'll get access to over 50 bonus episodes (and counting), curated tech + creative business newsletters, and more. Plus your own private podcast feed, comments threads, and behind-the-scenes u...
🪸 Seasons of Change in Self-Employment — Embracing Pivots & Destigmatizing Bankruptcy with Luca J. Davis
Today I’m joined by Luca J. Davis to talk about success, failure, and what 13 years of self-employment really entails.
Together we explore:
🚩 Business Triage: What to Do When Your Biz Isn’t Working
Welcome to Season 11 of Off the Grid!
This month, we're exploring strategies + stories of business pivots.
Today we start with my business triage process. It's a checklist of things to consider when your business feels bad and/or isn't making enough money.
Then for the next three weeks, we'll hear from business owners who have made major pivots in their self-employment journeys, including: quitting a dream job, filing for bankruptcy, closing a retail store, and more.
Tune in for lots of support, camaraderie + inspiration. And check the links below for extra...
⏰ This episode will disappear in 5 days...
Tune in for a quick reminder to join the Interweb waitlist before doors close on August 31st!
If you do, I'll also tell you exactly what's coming to Off the Grid this fall...
Because the show will be back with season 11 very soon! At least that's the plan!
Thanks for being here, and I hope to see you in the Interweb.
More soon xx
RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit
🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community
💓 Join the Clubhouse...
✳️ How to Refresh Your Ambition & Avoid Burnout in the Process — with Amina AlTai
Let's refresh our creative ambition before fall!
Today we're wrapping our Back to Biz Refresh series with leadership expert Amina AlTai.
Amina is the author of The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living.
Together we discuss:
What ambition actually is and why it's neutralHow core wounds create painful ambition — even if you love what you doWays to figure out if your ambition is helping or harming youFinding aliveness when you don't feel ambitiousWhat it takes to stay in business through hard times
RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE L...
💽 Set Up Your Tiny Biz Tech for $50/year or Less — My Guide to More Affordable Systems & Software
This episode is meant to save you money!
Today, I’m sharing my guide to more affordable business systems and software that can help you set up online for under $50/year — or lower your overhead with strategic tool swaps.
Tune in to hear my tech recommendations and how I think through software needs.
Also: These recs don’t include Google! Some of them are privacy focused, others are not. Some include AI functionality, others do not. Most of them are based in the US. All prices mentioned in the episode were as of August...
💼 How to Refresh Your Office & Your Whole Work Vibe — with Taylor Apolonio
Today we're refreshing our offices with the wonderful Taylor Apolonio of Habitat Interiors Co.
Taylor works at the intersection of interior design and psychology as a 'design psychologist'. They create physical spaces that are grounded in human behavior to genuinely support folks. This might look like improved circulation and functionality, better acoustics, or intentionally designing for gathering and memory-making.
Tune in to this episode for tips on tapping into the purpose of your work space and improving the layout, acoustics, and visuals.
And if you'd like Taylor's free list of 25+ low-lift recommendations...
🦚 The Quick (and Free!) Brand Refresh Your Biz Needs — with Alex McGinness
Have you ever put on a new outfit and felt like a totally different (and way better) person?
Today we're gonna do that for your business. 💁♀️
Join me and Alex McGinness of Arcoíris Design Studio as we talk through the four parts of a resonant brand refresh: essence, execution, expression, and experience.
ALSO! When it comes to DIY branding, we recommend:
Coolors for creating color palettesCanva for choosing fonts and designing graphicsSquarespace for websites (or Carrd [affiliate link] if you want a quick, cheap one-page site)
RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Downlo...
✌️ How to Make Pivoting Fun — Welcome to Our Back to Biz Refresh Series!
Hello hello and happy mid-August, friends!
Today we're kicking off a new Biz Refresh series — five episodes in five days to get you ready for fall in a fun, aligned way!
Press play to hear why I'm embracing a pivot, and tune in this week to learn:
How to refresh your brand (for free!)Ideas for updating your home office & work vibeMy guide to more affordable systems & software for your tiny bizA new approach to ambition that let's you dream big without burning outYou'll hear from amazing guests like Alex McGinness, Taylor Apolo...
⚡️ Making Content, Raising Revenue & Moving Off Substack — with Lex Roman of Revenue Rulebreaker
Today we’re talking about why I left Substack! Through a conversation with the amazing Lex Roman of Revenue Rulebreaker.
Together we explore:
If you like this episode...
🔒 My Q2 Biz Recap — Highs, Lows & How Much $$ I Made
Join me as I convince myself it's ok to sunset my business 😬
In this quarterly recap episode, I walk through the highs, lows, and finances of Softer Sounds & Off the Grid so far this year...
And I figure out how to make the money work as I pivot my business model from service provider to content creator!
Tune in to an episode preview here, and become a paid subscriber of the Clubhouse at offthegrid.fun/clubhouse to get all the $$$ details.
👇 👇 👇 👇
When you join the Clubhouse, you'll get access to over 50 bonu...
♾️ Take the Break Before the Break Takes You — Learning How to Pause & Quit with Nic Antoinette
Nic Antoinette is back to help me wrap season nine, and we’re talking about the breaks we are (and aren’t) taking this summer.
Tune in to hear us unpack:
🍕 Making Money as a Creative — Strategic Planning & Social Media with Andy J Pizza
HEY HI HELLO! 🍕
Today I’m thrilled to be joined by best-selling author, super-fun illustrator, and illustrious host of Creative Pep Talk podcast, Andy J Pizza!
In this upbeat conversation, we chat about:
RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit
🌐 Get...
✨ This One Thing Totally Transformed My Sales — Learning How to Pre-Launch with Nicole Cloutier [BEST OF]
If I had to name ONE THING that increased my sales more than anything else in the past year...
It'd be learning to polish my copywriting and pre-launch my offerings with Nicole Cloutier and her class Open Loop.
Open Loop is how I doubled Interweb sign-ups in 2026.
Open Loop is how I made over $10k on COME TO CLASS last month.
Open Loop is why I feel so confident selling this year.
And that's why I'm THRILLED to share that Open Loop is happening again in July and you can hop...
🌸 Creative Ecosystems, Community-Based Business & Breaking Up with Your Personal Brand — with Natalie Brite
Natalie Brite (they/them) is the founder and creative director of DoGoodBiz — an ethical creative studio for conscious leaders and the movements they're building.
On their Substack newsletter, they write about creativity, ecosystems, and doing work rooted in care. They also excoriate social media! But in a soft, supportive way, of course.
Today Natalie joins me to talk about why social media managers burn out so hard. And how their business when changed they let go of most of their retainer clients.
Together we explore:
The consequences of social media dependenceA step-by-step br...🔒 How to Run Your Creative Business During the Summer Slump (or Any Slow Time)
What do we do when business slows down over the summer? And how do we navigate that when a global recession and supply chain breakdown are happening at the same time??
In this Clubhouse-exclusive workshop replay, I share my best strategies for running your business during slow times — including somatic self-soothing ideas, ways to reduce expenses, and a framework for experimenting with new offerings.
I'm sharing a preview here, but to watch the whole thing (and get the workbook!), you have to join the Clubhouse at offthegrid.fun/clubhouse
When you do, you'll ge...
🪱 Cultivating Compassion in Polycrisis — Preparedness & Self-Publishing with Kailea Loften & Kate Weiner
Today I’m thrilled to have Kailea Rose Loften and Kate Rose Weiner of Loam on the podcast to discuss their new book, Compassion in Crisis, which just came out with Heyday Books.
Together we have a gentle, honest, and deep conversation exploring:
🔒 How Do I Grow My Email List Without Social Media?
Today I’m bringing you something really special—
A mini-coaching session where I answer a question about how to grow your email list before, during, and after leaving social media.
The question comes from the wonderful Kate of Queen Bee Hormone Health who wrote to me and asked:
"Thanks to Off the Grid, I’ve backed wayyyy off posting on social media. I feel so much better, but I'm really struggling to get people moved onto my email list and wondering what advice you have for this part of the process? I don’t want t...🧶 Attachment Theory Explains Everything — Social Media & AI Addiction with Shannon Algeo
I often say I left social media because I was anxiously-attached to Instagram… but what does that actually mean?!
Today I’m joined by psychotherapist and author Shannon Algeo to explore why Attachment Theory explains so much about technology and smartphone addiction.
We discuss their new book, The Power in Your Hands, as we talk about:
What it means to be anxious, avoidant, or securely-attachedHow algorithms hack our attachment needs to get us addicted to platformsWhy it’s so harmful to outsource self-trust to social media or AIDepth psychology & why human relationships are necessary for he...🔒 Live-Building a Small Biz AI Policy — with Dr. Kate Henry
Today I’m doing something fun and different…
Live-writing an AI policy with my friend and colleague, Dr. Kate Henry of Honing In!
After listening to the Off the Grid AI series, Kate reached out to ask if I she could hire me to help her write an AI policy. I said no, because I’m not doing 1:1 advising right now… but I proposed that we record a chat about it for the Clubhouse instead!
So in this video and audio episode, you get to join me and Kate as we co-write the first dr...
🍓 Rewilding Your Business & How to Rest in Busy Times — with Lindsay Mack of Tarot for the Wild Soul
LINDSAY MACK IS HERE!
And while you’ve probably heard them talk about tarot on their wildly popular podcast…
Today they’re taking us deep behind the scenes of their work to explore:
How they built their creative tarot businessThe key inflection points that led to successful biz growthThe realities of being a breadwinner ~in this economy~Why they’re finally releasing a tarot deck and book& The tarot archetypes carrying Lindsay through this busy season
Tune in, then get a copy of Tarot for the Wild Soul and the Soul Tarot deck. (af...
👋 The Privilege of Leaving Social Media — Being a Working Writer & Valuing Art with River Selby
“My constant longing to be without social media is actually a longing to be in deeper connection with the world.”
River Selby was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. They worked as a wildland firefighter for seven years, and their debut memoir, Hotshot: A Life of Fire, was published in 2025 by Grove Atlantic.
Today, River joins me to talk about the realities of being an author from a working class, no-safety-net background — and how that has shaped their relationship to social media.
Together, we explore:
The gifts (and pe...⛓️💥 It's Time to Decolonize Your Teaching Style — with Podge Thomas
If you’ve been paying attention around here…
You likely know that next week I’m teaching a new intensive called COME TO CLASS!
It’s a 3-day workshop on how to teach online with confidence and care, and it’ll guide you through everything I’ve learned in 20 years of teaching — with a special focus on how learning to teach can help you improve your sales.
One of the bonuses that COME TO CLASS students get is behind-the-scenes conversations with my favorite online facilitators and course creators, and today I’m thrilled to bring you one...
👩🏫 Why Online Education is Broken (But We Can Fix It) — with Sally Burns of The Portal
I’ve had SO MANY conversations about the problems with online course platforms.
Mighty Networks vs Circle vs Kajabi vs Teachable — none of us like the existing options, and we’re waiting for someone to build something better.
So today I’ve invited Sally Burns to the show, because she’s building an alternate platform for teaching and learning online — a digital neighborhood called The Portal.
Tune in to hear about:
♾️ “You Needing Money Doesn't Make Stuff Sell” — Consistency & Collapse in Online Business with Nic Antoinette
My monthly-ish series with Nic Antoinette continues!
This time we’re talking about what it means to be “consistent” when you’re running a business in this economy.
We get into:
How we simultaneously rage against consistency and attribute our success to itThe relationship between consistency and cultivating trust with your audienceWays to build better (for you) rhythms in your businessWhat to do when your launch plans line up with a major (horrible) eventWhy it’s important to get off the do-or-die, boom-or-bust, sell-or-go-bankrupt hamster wheelCute baby sheep, gardening and cooking as tiny balms for the pr...