Off the Grid: Leaving Social Media

Hosted by Softer Sounds

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238

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Oct 2026

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About the show

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

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60 recent

October 23, 2026Episode 18543 min

🌾 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 get, the more you matter. Then we step away from all that and make space for what can come through when you heal your worthiness wounds. This episode was recorded in fall 2025 for paid Clubhouse supporters and this new edit is being shared with all listeners now. If you’d like to hear more conversations like this, please support the show today . RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for exclusive bonus episodes + emails OCTOBER COMMUNITY SPONSOR ✨ Stop scrolling and start shuffling. Come home to your mind, body, and business with Be With Your Body Tarot. Get 25% off the deck and/or autumn planner with code OFFTHEGRID at: bewithyourbody.com/off-the-grid

October 21, 2026Episode 1841 hr 23 min

📨 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: Exactly how many subscribers are on our email lists The difference between marketing our 1:1 and 1:many businesses Building the courage & self-trust to take big swings How we really feel about unsubscribes What to do when a launch “fails” Audience growth strategies and what’s working for us right now Living in the present and the future with your business ⭐️ If you enjoy this conversation, join Podge and I at our FREE workshop on October 30th. RSVP for: How to Build a Creative Marketing Plan in Notion & send the link to your friends! RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for exclusive bonus episodes + emails OCTOBER COMMUNITY SPONSOR ✨ Stop scrolling and start shuffling. Come home to your mind, body, and business with Be With Your Body Tarot. Get 25% off the deck and/or autumn planner with code OFFTHEGRID at: bewithyourbody.com/off-the-grid

October 19, 20265 min

🔒 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 included) 🧮 Then I talk about the essential mindset and habit shifts needed to go from part-time to full-time 🧱 And finally, I talk through three examples how I would make that leap if I were a book editor, spiritual teacher, or creative coach 📈 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 bonus episodes (and counting), curated tech + creative business newsletters, and more. Plus your own private podcast feed, comments threads, and behind-the-scenes updates on the show. Please join the Clubhouse to support the show! And find this specific episode here :) RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for exclusive bonus episodes + emails

October 14, 2026Episode 1831 hr 22 min

👛 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 capitalist Busting the money myths our inner punk teenagers tell us Getting rid of the girlboss in your head (and on your feed) Why ‘charging your worth’ is inherently problematic How to figure out the right rates + pricing for your business model Bear’s recommended financial accessibility strategies The importance of transparency in marketing + sales Exactly how Bear talks about money on sales calls Ways to survive a bad economy Identifying your ‘apocalypse skills’ for business resilience in 2026 + beyond This conversation is a GIFT! And I’m so thrilled to share it with you. If you enjoy it, definitely go get Bear’s anti-capitalist pricing workshop Freely . RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for exclusive bonus episodes + emails OCTOBER COMMUNITY SPONSOR ✨ Stop scrolling and start shuffling. Come home to your mind, body, and business with Be With Your Body Tarot. Get 25% off the deck and/or autumn planner with code OFFTHEGRID at: bewithyourbody.com/off-the-grid

October 12, 202616 min

🔒 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. 👇 👇 👇 👇 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 updates on the show. Please join the Clubhouse to support the show! And find this specific episode here :) RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for exclusive bonus episodes + emails

October 7, 2026Episode 18252 min

🧢 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 means Saturnian influences on our energy + creativity How to make aligned choices within constraints Cultivating the permission to radically change our lives Ways to move through our fears (+ experiences) of judgment Consistency and presence as gifts of this work ⭐️ If you enjoy this episode, join me at Catherine's next Be Your Own Daddy retreat on October 23rd ! Or grab her free Design Your Daddy workshop here . RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for exclusive bonus episodes + emails OCTOBER COMMUNITY SPONSOR ✨ Stop scrolling and start shuffling. Come home to your mind, body, and business with Be With Your Body Tarot. Get 25% off the deck and/or autumn planner with code OFFTHEGRID at: bewithyourbody.com/off-the-grid

October 2, 2026Episode 1811 hr 20 min

♾️ 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 You — Learning How to Pause & Quit And if this makes you want more biz friend community, check out the Interweb and put yourself on the waitlist before doors open next week! RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for exclusive bonus episodes + emails 🔥 Learn more about ad opportunities with Off the Grid OCTOBER COMMUNITY SPONSOR ✨ Stop scrolling and start shuffling. Come home to your mind, body, and business with Be With Your Body Tarot. Get 25% off the deck and/or autumn planner with code OFFTHEGRID at: bewithyourbody.com/off-the-grid

September 30, 2026Episode 1801 hr 7 min

🤠 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: How self-employment journeys often begin in bad-fit jobs Why Heather & Amelia both took detours through coding bootcamps The benefits of a bridge job as you grow or change your business A quick checklist on how Heather started her retail shop (& you can too!) Why Heather had a full-time job for the first 8 months of running the store The realities of transitioning to e-commerce during COVID Hiring + grieving at the same time Leaning on the community of your business in hard times When quitting ISN’T failing How big changes in our work can impact our self-trust For the astro-curious, Heather is a 6/2 Projector and a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon, and Gemini Rising. You can book a Human Designed Business Session with her and use code OFFTHEGRID for 10%! RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for exclusive bonus episodes + emails OCTOBER COMMUNITY SPONSOR ✨ Stop scrolling and start shuffling. Come home to your mind, body, and business with Be With Your Body Tarot. Get 25% off the deck and/or autumn planner with code OFFTHEGRID at: bewithyourbody.com/off-the-grid

September 23, 2026Episode 1791 hr 5 min

🌅 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 farms How moving to Colorado spurred her love of knitting The realities of turning a hobby into a side hustle Specific ways to center your values in your business How multiple losses + a health crisis led Chereen through a transformative grief portal Different methods of building community in and around your business How to evolve when your work is wrapped up in your ego + identity The grief the comes when your industry changes and it hurts your business Why Chereen & Amelia both took sabbaticals before deciding to close their companies How we grapple with public opinions + projection as we share our work online RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for exclusive bonus episodes + emails ⭐️ Use this link to book a free 30-minute session with Chereen: https://calendar.app.google/UydiFHhcLgqzvNUr9 ⭐️ RSVP for the free workshop with Podge in October: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/fTY89RN7TfS1grKD7Vs64g OCTOBER COMMUNITY SPONSOR ✨ Stop scrolling and start shuffling. Come home to your mind, body, and business with Be With Your Body Tarot. Get 25% off the deck and/or autumn planner with code OFFTHEGRID at: bewithyourbody.com/off-the-grid

September 21, 202622 min

🔒 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. 👇 👇 👇 👇 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 updates on the show. Please join the Clubhouse to support the show! And find this specific episode here :) RESOURCES + LINKS 👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit 🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for creative business courses + community 💓 Join the Clubhouse for exclusive bonus episodes + emails