This year I’m making big changes in my business…

So I wanted to bring back my quarterly recaps to share the highlights, challenges, and financial details of Softer Sounds & Off the Grid each season!

Tune in to this episode preview to hear about the highs & lows of winter in my biz. Then become a paid subscriber of the Clubhouse at offthegrid.fun/clubhouse to get all the details on how much $$ I made.

When you join the Clubhouse, you'll get access to over 40 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 courses + community
💓 Join the Clubhouse for more episodes + emails
📔 Buy Amelia's book at yourattentionissacred.com!
 

Earlier this spring, I asked Interweb members: 'What are your thorniest tax questions?'

Then I brought those questions to Hannah Cole of Sunlight Tax, so we could get answers from an actual tax expert!
  

Tune in to this episode to learn:

• How to know if you should be an LLC or an S-Corp
• The best way to calculate your quarterly estimated taxes
• When you need to use Quickbooks (& when you don’t)
• Why tax protests don’t benefit you in the short term or the long run
• What to do if you don’t file your taxes on time and need to pay back taxes

 
At the end we also play a game of ‘asking for a friend…can I expense this?’ — and Hannah has great answers on what we can write off for our creative biz!

 
 
RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit
🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for courses + community
💓 Join the Clubhouse for more episodes + emails
📔 Buy Amelia's book at yourattentionissacred.com!
 

  
FREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

❊ Rebel Archetype Assessment from Meg Kissack

❊ Standout Reinventions series on Substack from Kevin Chung

❊ Enter to win a free monthly website review from Ana Luísa

❊ More free resources from Close Biz Friends!

🌟 Join COME TO CLASS — a 3-day intensive on how to teach online with confidence & care. Rescheduled for June 4th, 5th & 6th. Learn more & sign up here: https://softersounds.notion.site/come-to-class

We heard you might be stressed about the IRS… so we’re arriving with extra support before US taxes are due on April 15th!
 

Today I’m joined by Aneisha Velazquez of Yellow Sky Business Services, who’s here to talk about finances for microbusinesses, including:

• What bookkeeping really is (& what it’s not)
• The financial systems solopreneurs need to have in place
• Tips for neurodivergent business owners struggling with bookkeeping
• Why we love Profit First (and Amelia recommends her fave bank Novo)
• Aneisha's top two bookkeeping tips for beginners
• A pep talk for tax season & not being afraid of the IRS

   
RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit
🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for courses + community
💓 Join the Clubhouse for more episodes + emails
📔 Buy Amelia's book at yourattentionissacred.com!
 

  
FREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

❊ Rebel Archetype Assessment from Meg Kissack

❊ Standout Reinventions series on Substack from Kevin Chung

❊ Enter to win a free monthly website review from Ana Luísa

❊ More free resources from Close Biz Friends!

🌟 Join COME TO CLASS — a 3-day intensive on how to teach online with confidence & care. Rescheduled for June 4th, 5th & 6th. Learn more & sign up here: https://softersounds.notion.site/come-to-class

Nic Antoinette is back! And we’re finally beginning the monthly series we promised you back in January.

For April, it's a long-form chat with plenty of laughter and maybe a few tears along the way. So settle in, subscribe to Nic’s newsletter, and press play to hear us talk about:

• How we coped when Q1 didn’t go as planned
• Financial plans in the turmoil of 2026
• How to talk about grief in public
• The most divisive Instagram post Amelia ever made
• What’s bringing us joy
• The upcoming 2026 Astro & Biz Planning Summit
• & lots more!

 
RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit
🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for courses + community
💓 Join the Clubhouse for more episodes + emails
📔 Buy Amelia's book at yourattentionissacred.com!
 

  
FREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

❊ Rebel Archetype Assessment from Meg Kissack

❊ Standout Reinventions series on Substack from Kevin Chung

❊ Enter to win a free monthly website review from Ana Luísa

❊ More free resources from Close Biz Friends!

🌟 Join COME TO CLASS — a 3-day intensive on how to teach online with confidence & care. Rescheduled for June 4th, 5th & 6th. Learn more & sign up here: https://softersounds.notion.site/come-to-class

If we stop trying to get ahead online, what becomes possible?
 
Today Ayana Zaire Cotton of Seeda School returns to the podcast to explore why she quit using ChatGPT and other AI tools.
 

She helps us slowwww down, unpack shame, and align our desire with our capacity — a process and methodology she created and calls Erotic Engineering.
 

Tune in to reconnect with your values, reclaim self-respect, and step off the path of certainty with us.
 
I also highly recommend reading Ayana’s essay — and learning more about The Powerhouse Portal at: https://www.seedaschool.com/ph

*This episode is part of our AI Series. Find the the full series at: offthegrid.fun/ai-series

 
 
RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit
🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for courses + community
👉 Join our conversation about AI in the Clubhouse
 

  
FREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

❊ Rebel Archetype Assessment from Meg Kissack

❊ Standout Reinventions series on Substack from Kevin Chung

❊ Enter to win a free monthly website review from Ana Luísa

❊ More free resources from Close Biz Friends!

🌟 Join COME TO CLASS — a 3-day intensive on how to teach online with confidence & care. Rescheduled for June 4th, 5th & 6th. Learn more & sign up here: https://softersounds.notion.site/come-to-class

Today I’m doing something I said I’d never do… inviting my partner on the podcast!

In this Clubhouse-exclusive episode, my spouse JJ Lang joins me for an unexpected conversation about AI.

JJ is a high-level chess player and works for US Chess. They’re here to talk about how algorithms and AI engines have been a big part of the chess world for decades — and also why JJ doesn’t use Generative AI or LLMs in their work today.

I wanted to share this conversation, because:

1. It’s fun to give you a cute behind-the-scenes in to my personal life!
2. It’s good to talk to someone being told to use AI at their job alongside our conversations centering self-employment.
3. The origin of contemporary AI (at least at Deep Mind) was building chess engines. So JJ can help us understand algorithms vs AI and what computers are actually “doing” when they answer a question.

This is a nerdy, sweet conversation, and I hope you enjoy it. To hear the whole thing, join the Clubhouse at offthegrid.fun/clubhouse

When you do, you'll get access to over 40 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 :)

  
FREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

❊ Rebel Archetype Assessment from Meg Kissack

❊ Standout Reinventions series on Substack from Kevin Chung

❊ Enter to win a free monthly website review from Ana Luísa

❊ More free resources from Close Biz Friends!

🌟 Join COME TO CLASS — a 3-day intensive on how to teach online with confidence & care. Rescheduled for June 4th, 5th & 6th. Learn more & sign up here: https://softersounds.notion.site/come-to-class

Let's get into all our feels about AI. 🌀

In this episode, I share some of the messages I've gotten from people who are using AI but feeling bad about it.

And I talk through three reasons I think many of us (especially listeners of this show) feel so much tension about these technologies.

Tune in for a lot of empathy and even more clarity. Then join our community conversation about AI in the Clubhouse!

MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE

• Find all the episodes in our AI series here
• The Tension of Platforms & Why I Haven’t Left Substack (Yet)
• Cut Off the Spigot: ChatGPT Alternatives
• What is Moral Injury? (from the Moral Injury Project)
• AI is African Intelligence: The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back (from 404 Media)
• The Emotional Labor Behind AI Intimacy
• AI has an environmental problem (from the UN)
• AI Doesn’t Reduce Work— It Intensifies It (from HBR)
• If you want to learn about ethical approaches to AI, I recommend:
  • Shae Omonijo's work — Find her on Substack or listen to Critical Thinking in the Age of AI (on Apple & Spotify)
  • & Aggressively Human Podcast with Jessica Lackey and Meg Casebolt

 
RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit
🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for courses + community
👉 Join our conversation about AI in the Clubhouse
 

  
FREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

❊ Rebel Archetype Assessment from Meg Kissack

❊ Standout Reinventions series on Substack from Kevin Chung

❊ Enter to win a free monthly website review from Ana Luísa

❊ More free resources from Close Biz Friends!

🌟 Join COME TO CLASS — a 3-day intensive on how to teach online with confidence & care. Rescheduled for June 4th, 5th & 6th. Learn more & sign up here: https://softersounds.notion.site/come-to-class

When ChatGPT launched in 2022, I noticed a few spiritual practitioners talking about its ‘oracular consciousness’ and I wondered… is that a thing??

Today I’m joined by Casey Zabala of Modern Witches to talk about how AI is reshaping mystical practices in real time — and why that’s harming our intuition and agency.

Tune in to hear us discuss:

• How Casey & I have used AI in the past
• The embedded inequity and colonial power dynamics of chatbots
• The astrology of 2026 and how it’s very AI-coded
• Why using AI might be ruining your intuition
• Considering where your body and the earth exist in relationship to AI
• Holding space for the connective potential of these technologies
• What an oracle actually is

And if you want to join the conversation... come chat with us on Substack! I've opened a community thread for paid subscribers. For only $5, it's a welcoming space to share your thoughts, feelings, experiences, and questions about AI with other considerate creatives. I'll also be chiming in to cheer and answer questions.

👉 Join our community conversation about AI in the Clubhouse! https://offthegridclubhouse.substack.com/p/want-to-talk-about-ai

RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit
🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for courses + community
💓 Join the Clubhouse for more episodes + emails
📔 Buy Amelia's book at yourattentionissacred.com!
 

  
FREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

❊ Rebel Archetype Assessment from Meg Kissack

❊ Standout Reinventions series on Substack from Kevin Chung

❊ Enter to win a free monthly website review from Ana Luísa

❊ More free resources from Close Biz Friends!

🌟 Join COME TO CLASS — a 3-day intensive on how to teach online with confidence & care. Rescheduled for June 4th, 5th & 6th. Learn more & sign up here: https://softersounds.notion.site/come-to-class

Let’s be more transparent about how we are and aren’t using AI in our work!

In this episode, I walk you through key considerations and a simple process for writing a thoughtful AI policy for your creative business.

You’ll also hear how I crafted the Interweb AI policy, as well as why I was really inspired by Mel Mitchell-Jackson’s AI policy in that process.

Press play, then click right here for more notes and resources!
 

  
FREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

❊ Rebel Archetype Assessment from Meg Kissack

❊ Standout Reinventions series on Substack from Kevin Chung

❊ Enter to win a free monthly website review from Ana Luísa

❊ More free resources from Close Biz Friends!

🌟 Join COME TO CLASS — a 3-day intensive on how to teach online with confidence & care. Rescheduled for June 4th, 5th & 6th. Learn more & sign up here: https://softersounds.notion.site/come-to-class

How are we feeling about AI these days, friends?

Ambivalent? Over it? Hopefully curious? 🧐

Today on the show, we’re kicking off a 3-week AI series, where we’ll explore the good, bad and ugly of LLMs.

Our first guest is Mel Mitchell-Jackson — who returns to the show to share their practice of AI Sobriety.

We get into why AI is a labor issue, how it’s impacting our creativity, and why we’re hopeful that locally-hosted small language models might save the day.

We also talk about addiction, accessibility, and why I’m practicing GPT-sobriety this year.

*This episode is part of our AI Series. Find the the full series at: offthegrid.fun/ai-series

RESOURCES + LINKS
👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit
🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for courses + community
💓 Join the Clubhouse for more episodes + emails
📔 Buy Amelia's book at yourattentionissacred.com!

  
FREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

❊ Rebel Archetype Assessment from Meg Kissack

❊ Standout Reinventions series on Substack from Kevin Chung

❊ Enter to win a free monthly website review from Ana Luísa

❊ More free resources from Close Biz Friends!

🌟 Join COME TO CLASS — a 3-day intensive on how to teach online with confidence & care. Rescheduled for June 4th, 5th & 6th. Learn more & sign up here: https://softersounds.notion.site/come-to-class