Off the Grid: Leaving Social Media

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

COMMUNITY SPONSORS
🐢 Turn inconsistent marketing into a clear & focused plan that actually leads to sales! Join the Decelerator with Amanda Laird, a guided program for solo business woenrs who are already doing a lot, but not seeing results. Learn more & save $100 with code AMELIASPALS: amandalaird.com/decelerator

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
 

COMMUNITY SPONSORS
🐢 Turn inconsistent marketing into a clear & focused plan that actually leads to sales! Join the Decelerator with Amanda Laird, a guided program for solo business woenrs who are already doing a lot, but not seeing results. Learn more & save $100 with code AMELIASPALS: amandalaird.com/decelerator

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
 

COMMUNITY SPONSORS
🐢 Turn inconsistent marketing into a clear & focused plan that actually leads to sales! Join the Decelerator with Amanda Laird, a guided program for solo business woenrs who are already doing a lot, but not seeing results. Learn more & save $100 with code AMELIASPALS: amandalaird.com/decelerator

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
 

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:

• Luca’s path from health teacher to personal trainer
• How they opened a gym with a dream and a GoFundMe
• The radically honest reality of brick-and-mortar finances
• When filing for bankruptcy is the best choice for you & your biz
• Luca’s detour as a Virtual Assistant & how they started their web design business
• The systems that help them book our their services while marketing only once a year
• How Luca’s Substack walks the line between personal sharing & biz promotion

 ➡️ If you'd like to hire Luca for website support in 2026/2027, just mention Off the Grid for $200 off your package!
 

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
 

COMMUNITY SPONSORS
🐢 Turn inconsistent marketing into a clear & focused plan that actually leads to sales! Join the Decelerator with Amanda Laird, a guided program for solo business woenrs who are already doing a lot, but not seeing results. Learn more & save $100 with code AMELIASPALS: amandalaird.com/decelerator

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 resources 👇
 

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
 

COMMUNITY SPONSORS
🐢 Turn inconsistent marketing into a clear & focused plan that actually leads to sales! Join the Decelerator with Amanda Laird, a guided program for solo business woenrs who are already doing a lot, but not seeing results. Learn more & save $100 with code AMELIASPALS: amandalaird.com/decelerator

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 for exclusive bonus episodes + emails
 

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 neutral
• How core wounds create painful ambition — even if you love what you do
• Ways to figure out if your ambition is helping or harming you
• Finding aliveness when you don't feel ambitious
• What it takes to stay in business through hard times

 
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
   
COMMUNITY SPONSOR
✏️ Looking for a fall planner that's about permission not perfection? Check out Nine to Kind. Get 50% off their digital planners with code OFFTHEGRID50 & 25% off analog products with code OFFTHEGRID25. Learn more & claim your discount at: https://www.ninetokind.com/pages/offthegrid

COMMUNITY SPONSORS
🐢 Turn inconsistent marketing into a clear & focused plan that actually leads to sales! Join the Decelerator with Amanda Laird, a guided program for solo business woenrs who are already doing a lot, but not seeing results. Learn more & save $100 with code AMELIASPALS: amandalaird.com/decelerator

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 2026 and may change.

 
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

• Free Checklist For Tool Decisions from Asha Noel-Hart
• Free Simple Tech Stacks Field Guide from Heather Bax
• Join the Interweb for more tech support from Amelia

 
RECOMMENDED TOOLS

• Namecheap for domain
• Carrd for website (affiliate link)
• Zoho for email inbox
• Sender or Email Octopus for email newsletter list 
• Canva (free plan) for simple design needs
• Notion for internal systems and client docs/dashboards
• Zoom, Proton Meet, or Whereby (free plans) for video calls
• Tidycal for scheduling, paid bookings, and digital products
• Novo for free business banking and invoicing — Use my affiliate link to get $40 when you open and fund your new account
• Stripe for payment processing and invoicing
• Breezedoc for contracts and invoicing together

 
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
 

COMMUNITY SPONSORS
🐢 Turn inconsistent marketing into a clear & focused plan that actually leads to sales! Join the Decelerator with Amanda Laird, a guided program for solo business woenrs who are already doing a lot, but not seeing results. Learn more & save $100 with code AMELIASPALS: amandalaird.com/decelerator

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 that better support sensory overwhelm in your office, fill out this form with the message 'OFF THE GRID' ☺️

 
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

COMMUNITY SPONSOR
✏️ Looking for a fall planner that's about permission not perfection? Check out Nine to Kind. Get 50% off their digital planners with code OFFTHEGRID50 & 25% off analog products with code OFFTHEGRID25. Learn more & claim your discount at: https://www.ninetokind.com/pages/offthegrid

COMMUNITY SPONSORS
🐢 Turn inconsistent marketing into a clear & focused plan that actually leads to sales! Join the Decelerator with Amanda Laird, a guided program for solo business woenrs who are already doing a lot, but not seeing results. Learn more & save $100 with code AMELIASPALS: amandalaird.com/decelerator