Today’s quick episode is a sample of something I’m creating for paid subscribers to What Works. I’m calling it my “This is Not Advice” column. Or, TINA for short. Not to be confused with TINA a la “there is no alternative”—if you know, you know.

Paid subscribers not only receive this subscriber-directed content, but they also have the chance to, well, direct the content! When you’re a paid subscriber, you can write in with a question, topic, or observation that you’d like my take on—some added context here and some sideways observations there. 

If you like today’s episode and want to get more of it, go to read.explorewhatworks.com and become a paid subscriber for just $7/month! 

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Today's Question:

To me, this isn’t only a question for independent workers and small business owners—although it’s especially salient for that group. It’s also a question that points to a bigger trend in work in general. And that trend is the way all workers are now encouraged to be entrepreneurs of themselves. This is evident in the portfolio career model, the lessons about personal branding, and what Micki McGee has called the ‘belabored self,’ that is, constant work on perfecting oneself to fit the market.

This question has become quite fraught over the last 9 months or so. When I would have once been able to begrudgingly prescribe a series of actions on various social media platforms or construct a content strategy designed to attract new readers/listeners/viewers, the media landscape has become, to borrow Cory Doctorow’s term, enshittified. Thanks to enshittification, none of the legacy platforms are viable candidates for a concerted strategy. And splitting one’s effort across multiple platforms is just watering down already ineffective action.

Listen to hear my answer! Or find the written version at read.explorewhatworks.com

Footnotes:

• Become a paid subscriber to What Works for just $7 per month!
• "The Enshittification of TikTok" by Cory Doctorow on Wired
• Micki McGee on the "belabored self"
• "How Audience-Building is Not the Same as Finding Clients" by Tara McMullin
• Psychopolitics by Byung-Chul Han
• Liquid Love by Zygmunt Bauman
• "Why Creating Remarkable Work Matters" by Tara McMullin
• "Revisiting Remarkable Content to Explore Digital Ecology" by Tara McMullin