Writing Off Social: The Podcast | Build Your Platform and Grow Your Email List Without Social Media

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard some version of this: AI is here to stay, so you’d better learn to use it—or risk being left behind. But what if the greater risk isn’t refusing to embrace artificial intelligence—but allowing efficiency, convenience, and technology to replace something essential about the way God designed us to create?

This week we’re talking with Allen Arnold—author, creativity coach, fiction publisher of more than 500 novels, and co-host of the Wild at Heart podcast with John Eldredge. We’re talking about AI, social media, creative risk, and what it looks like to defy the artificial and create with the Creator. Listen in! 

For show notes go to https://writingoffsocial.com/104

Find our Recommended Vendor List at writingoffsocial.com/vendors-- a curated collection of businesses, creatives, and service providers trusted by our community. Every vendor featured here has been personally recommended by members who have actually worked with them and had a great experience.

Do you consider yourself a morning person? Because today’s guest says you are—even if you’re convinced you’re not.

Jennifer Dukes Lee studied more than 200 mornings in the Bible and discovered some surprising things about how God meets us at the beginning of our days. And as a writer and a farmer, she has some fascinating wisdom for those of us who are tired of feeling like we have to constantly produce, create, and grow. We talk about what farming can teach us about the seasons of our creative lives, why we might need to rethink the idea of a “morning routine,” and how we can create rhythms that make space for God, our writing, and the life happening all around us.

And who knows, today’s conversation might just convince you that you’re a morning person after all. This week we’re chatting with bestselling author, speaker, and morning evangelist Jennifer Dukes Lee. Listen in! For show notes go to https://writingoffsocial.com/103

Find our Recommended Vendor List at writingoffsocial.com/vendors-- a curated collection of businesses, creatives, and service providers trusted by our community. Every vendor featured here has been personally recommended by members who have actually worked with them and had a great experience.

Think you need a big email list before you can host your own virtual event? Think again! What if hosting an event is actually how you grow your list?

And what if you could do it without a huge budget, fancy technology, or an established audience? By collaborating with other writers and experts, you can introduce your work to new readers, build meaningful relationships, and grow your email list—all while creating something genuinely valuable for the people you want to serve.

This is episode 102, and this week we are thrilled to welcome back to the podcast goal planning and business strategist (and our friend!) Gabe Cox, to discuss how to use collaborative virtual events to grow your audience, even if you're starting from scratch. For show notes go to https://writingoffsocial.com/102

Find our Recommended Vendor List at writingoffsocial.com/vendors-- a curated collection of businesses, creatives, and service providers trusted by our community. Every vendor featured here has been personally recommended by members who have actually worked with them and had a great experience.

Hannah Miller King didn’t have a huge social media platform when she landed a traditional book deal with InterVarsity Press. Instead, she started small, writing short-form nonfiction for various publications, gradually working her way toward outlets like Christianity Today and The Holy Post. Along the way, she developed her craft, found her voice, built credibility, and ultimately caught the attention of an acquisitions editor. Her first book, Feasting on Hope, is part memoir, part theology, and part spiritual reflection—and it’s proof that there can be more than one way to build a path to publication. For show notes, go to https://writingoffsocial.com/101

Find our Recommended Vendor List at writingoffsocial.com/vendors-- a curated collection of businesses, creatives, and service providers trusted by our community. Every vendor featured here has been personally recommended by members who have actually worked with them and had a great experience.

Recently, during a group coaching call, one of our students told us she’d love to find someone to collaborate with in her business. Then she asked us a question: “How did you two find each other?” Well, the short answer is: It took years. And the long answer? That’s what we’re sharing today.

Because this is our 100th episode! 

So we’re taking you all the way back to the beginning—how we met, how our friendship grew, the moment we realized we should start a business together, and what we’ve learned about choosing the right person to collaborate with.

It’s story time with Sandy and Mary K. Listen in! For show notes go to https://writingoffsocial.com/100

Find our Recommended Vendor List at writingoffsocial.com/vendors-- a curated collection of businesses, creatives, and service providers trusted by our community. Every vendor featured here has been personally recommended by members who have actually worked with them and had a great experience.

When we launched Writing Off Social three years ago, we knew in our heart of hearts that it was possible to be a successful writer and author without social media . . . we just didn’t have the social proof to point to . . . yet. That’s why, over the last several seasons, it has been our joy to invite both fiction and nonfiction authors on to the show to share their publishing journeys with you. And today’s episode, we’re sharing yet another story of success. If you’re a writer on the cusp of leaving social media, but afraid that doing so means giving up your dreams of publishing, then lean in! Today we hear how multi-award-winning author Johanna Vann landed a book deal with a big 5 publisher and sold that book without social media. For show notes go to https://writingoffsocial.com/99

Find our Recommended Vendor List at writingoffsocial.com/vendors-- a curated collection of businesses, creatives, and service providers trusted by our community. Every vendor featured here has been personally recommended by members who have actually worked with them and had a great experience.

Writing can be a lonely endeavor. For years, women gathered in Facebook groups and comment threads to encourage one another. But the algorithms, the arguments, and the feeling of performing for a crowd made it more and more difficult to stay. Jessica DeYoung wanted something different, so she created The Story Haven — a free, invite-only community where Scripture, prayer, and everyday stories of God's faithfulness come first. A private, Christ-centered community for women–where you could connect with other storytellers and creatives and build the kind of community you lose when you step away from social media. For show notes go to https://writingoffsocial.com/98

Find our Recommended Vendor List at writingoffsocial.com/vendors-- a curated collection of businesses, creatives, and service providers trusted by our community. Every vendor featured here has been personally recommended by members who have actually worked with them and had a great experience.

After nearly 100 podcast episodes, more than 50 guest interviews, and 3 years of coaching writers, we've learned a few things we definitely did NOT know at the beginning. Some of them surprised us. Some challenged our assumptions. And a few have completely changed the way we think about writing, marketing, and platform building. It's our Season 7 Finale and we're discussing the biggest lessons we've learned after 3 years of helping writers grow without social media. Listen in! 

For show notes go to https://writingoffsocial.com/97

We're taking a summer podcast break and will be back in the fall with a whole new season. 

Find our Recommended Vendor List at writingoffsocial.com/vendors-- a curated collection of businesses, creatives, and service providers trusted by our community. Every vendor featured here has been personally recommended by members who have actually worked with them and had a great experience.

What would it feel like to stop chasing an audience and start trusting that faithful work in small places is enough? Our guest today, Rachel Allord, has lived that question for over twenty years — through freelance writing, missionary life in London, and eventually a book deal. Her story is a permission slip for every writer who's tired of performing, and a beautiful reminder of the difference between ambition and calling. This week, we're discussing what it looks like to write with a missional mindset and let God grow the audience. Listen in! For show notes go to https://writingoffsocial.com/96

Find our Recommended Vendor List at writingoffsocial.com/vendors-- a curated collection of businesses, creatives, and service providers trusted by our community. Every vendor featured here has been personally recommended by members who have actually worked with them and had a great experience.

If you've ever color-coded a brand new planner only to abandon it eleven weeks later, set a boundary around your time and felt like you could finally breathe again, or found yourself trying to figure out how to fit writing time, summer with your kids, and cleaning your own house into the margins of your day — this episode is for you. This week we are pulling back the curtain on our current working rhythms: what's changed, what's working, and what we had to learn the hard way. Listen in. For show notes go to https://writingoffsocial.com/95

Find our Recommended Vendor List at writingoffsocial.com/vendors-- a curated collection of businesses, creatives, and service providers trusted by our community. Every vendor featured here has been personally recommended by members who have actually worked with them and had a great experience.