🎙 Escaping the Spiral: A Conversation with Seth Werkeiser

Thank you again

Seth Werkheiser

, for joining me in a discussion on how to escape the social media spiral.

🎮 Escaping the Spiral, Stealth Style

During our chat, I jokingly called Seth the social media escape artist. When I asked if that title was okay, he said yes — because he loves “the devilishness of sneaking past the guards and unlocking things.”

That line hit me like a flash bomb. (tee hee! If you’re a Thief fan, you’ll get it 😉)

If you’ve ever played Thief: The Dark Project,¹ you know what I mean. You’re not charging into social media head-on. You’re slipping past the noise. Watching patterns. Learning the backdoors. Waiting for the right moment to drop that message that actually matters.

That’s the game we’re playing now. Not for virality — but for resonance. Not for reach — but for real relationships.

🧭 Philosophy First

What I’m seeing over and over — and trying to live into — is this:

Philosophy first.
Clarity first.
Then apply strategic, evidence-based tools.

This idea is at the heart of The Compassion Reset Quest, a book I’m writing in public. You can follow along here on Substack as I explore what it means to recover from burnout and build a business that actually honors your nervous system.

Back to the conversation. OMG Seth, I just realized that you are wearing a cute cat shirt! I love it! Furbabies are the best.

Some of my other favorite moments:

• 00:02:01 – “Why does social media feel like such a failure for so many of us?”

• 00:03:04 – “We did business before social media. We’ll do it after.”

• 00:07:01 – “Your website is digital real estate.”

• 00:12:10 – “Substack is the delivery truck. Your blog is your home.”²

• 00:16:30 – “Sometimes it’s just about showing up and being helpful.” (a nod to

  Scott Perry
  ’s ‘be a blessing’ ethos)

• 00:23:00 – “Most websites feel like a grocery store. Make yours more like IKEA.” (let’s be tour guides to our websites)³

• 00:33:00 – “Let your blog eat first.”

• 00:42:00 – “It’s new to someone.”

💡 Seth reminded us that we’re allowed to reshare old posts, simplify our sites, back up our archives, and build little cozy corners of the internet that truly reflect who we are. Not just what we’re trying to sell.

👾 Want to collaborate?

Allison Riney

and I are keeping a quiet list of folks who want to experiment with collaborative posts, creative boosts, and low-pressure amplification — beyond the algorithm.
Let us know if that sounds like something you’d love to be part of. ✨

Please subscribe to Seth’s blog, it’s amazeballs!

You should already be subscribed to me if you see this post but if you haven’t yet, hit that button.

I’ll be sharing more reflections from this conversation in upcoming posts — especially as I write Chapter 4 of The Compassion Reset Quest, which is all about social media and escaping the spiral. This is just the beginning.

Join us on Discord for even more nerdy business tips, games and side-quests.

💬 Huge thanks to everyone who tuned in live to my conversation with Seth!

Special shoutouts to Thank you also to

Sol Luckman

,

Penny Harris ACC

,

Jen Mayer | Makeist

,

Bob, the Free Radical

, and many others for tuning into the live video with

Seth Werkheiser

!

📝 Coming Soon:

Allison Riney

and I just recorded a super fun podcast episode for my new show, Neurospicy Voices (still in launch mode — editing now!). We talked about writing, trauma, creativity, and the process of sharing stories that actually matter.

In upcoming episodes for my general podcast, we’ll also be sharing reflections and reviews of some of the stories in Beyond Stories 2.⁴ As contributors and collaborators in that project, we’re excited to explore the work of fellow authors and uplift the voices inside this powerful collection.

1. 🎮 What’s Thief?
Thief: The Dark Project (1998) is a first-person stealth game where you play a rogue slipping past guards, stealing treasure, and navigating secrets in a medieval fantasy world. Its legacy lives on in The Dark Mod, a free open-source reimagining for modern systems. Yes, it’s brilliant. No, I’m not an affiliate — just a longtime nerdy fan.

2. Here is Seth’s post about social media being the delivery trucks to our websites.

Update your website then tell people with your delivery truck

3. Here’s Businessfornerds.com in case your wondering. Take a tour of the nerdiverse.

4. My amazon affiliate link. This is a collab of amazing authors including best selling author

Alexander Semenyuk

! My second short story is in here.