Episode 5: Spring Breakthrough

If your entire online presence vanished tomorrow, would your work still have a way to reach the people who support you? That question is the heartbeat of this Smith Street conversation, sparked by the noise around LaRussell stepping back from social media after backlash. What catches my attention isn’t the hot takes; it’s the leverage: selling 30,000 copies independently means you can log off and still communicate with your audience, because you built direct access. 

We dig into what that really takes in the creator economy: an owned audience through email marketing, text updates, and a contact list you control. We talk about why “more followers” is often the wrong goal, how the social media algorithm can quietly cut your reach, and how information silos make us think everyone sees what we see. Platform mergers and curated feeds raise the stakes, so the most valuable metric becomes simple: can you reach your people on demand? 

From there, I get practical and personal: sending your work to real people, building a site, staying consistent while you experiment, and permitting yourself to start now, not on somebody else’s schedule. We even detour into small life updates and shoutouts, because progress is rarely just business, it’s a mindset too. If this hit home, subscribe, share it with one creator who needs a backup plan, and leave a review with your answer: what’s your best way to stay reachable off-platform?

Ending Song - Pick it Up - Smith Street 

Spring Breakthrough Playlist - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/53VwxVXTxfLYuuCKybZ9Mg?si=81f94cc5e34746b5

Yore on Smith Street is a weekly culture and commentary podcast hosted by Smith Street. Blending current events, pop culture, and storytelling, each episode connects today’s headlines to the deeper narratives behind them — because every moment has a backstory.

https://www.smithstreetsounds.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

If everything you built online disappeared tomorrow, would you be able to still reach your people? Let's think about that for a second. Welcome back to Yorin Smith Street. Shout out to all the streetlights. If you're here, you already know what it is. This episode might hit a bit different. So the internet has been a buzz about LaRushell stepping away from social media because of the backlash from his song Heaven's Sent. Now, what stood out to me wasn't the backlash as much as it was the fact that he stepped away. Now, what I saw was a lot of maybe he shouldn't have said that, he should have listened to his engineer and you know those kind of comments. But what I don't think people are taking into consideration is the fact that LaRussell has just sold 30,000 copies independently,

What If Social Vanished

SPEAKER_01 0:59

which means that he can close down his social medias, and if his heart's desire is to drop, he can press send, and 30,000 people will get that drop, which is something that a lot of independent

LaRussell Proves Direct Access

SPEAKER_01 1:20

artists, myself included, cannot do. Whether you like LaRussell's music or not, LaRussell has sold 30,000 copies of an album independently, which does not happen by accident, it happens intentionally with text, emails, and contact list. So when he's ready to drop, he sends his email out, and 30,000 people get it. And the question is if we were to drop something today, could we do it reach people without Instagram? How many people could we reach without it? It's something that I see on a daily basis. I see people with millions and millions of followers complaining that they cannot reach them due to the algorithm. And the algorithm or the people that run the algorithm are saying, Oh, we're sending you things that you're interested in. And the people are saying, Well, we just want to see the people that we followed, that's what we're interested in. Like, but the whole idea is these information silos. I was just talking about this with a buddy of mine to keep people separated. Like your algorithm will be showing you Ray, and my algorithm will be showing me uh Olivia Dean. And in both are our minds, they're the biggest thing, which is interesting. The other scary thing is all these mergers and companies being bought by major companies, these streaming platforms that are being

Algorithms Create Separate Realities

SPEAKER_01 3:02

bought by major companies, and what's ending up happening is not only are we seeing one thing, but we only see what they want us to see, which is even more dangerous. But this is something that I've been thinking about a lot, because I mean as much as we want to go viral and we want those vanity metrics, I think the more important thing is to be reachable or be able to reach people. But a lot of people, and myself included, think that we need more followers when in reality we really need to just be able to contact the people who already follow us. For example, I did two or three, maybe two episodes before I really started sending the episodes to people that I knew, and to my surprise, they were interested. You know? Like I you didn't you think you're bothering people, and sometimes you are, but screw those people. So yeah, I've been building my site, planning out my email list, trying to be more consistent

Reachability Over Vanity Metrics

SPEAKER_01 4:11

with posting, but even that posting every day, trying in different formats, that's all experimentation because you're figuring it out in real time, same as me. Keep on going, you know? Let's get this done. I've actually been eating cleaner, cutting out certain things. For example, meat. Okay, so I tried

Sending Work To Real People

SPEAKER_01 4:38

what was it? Thursday. I went all day, but around midnight I felt like I was about to pass out. So I went to Popeye's and I got me a little three piece. Then the next day I did it again, but around about 9 30, that stomach started touching my back again. I went and got me some chicken race and french fries for the Chinese pie. But Saturday I did it. Went all day. And today is Wednesday. So from Saturday to Wednesday, I have not eaten any meat. And truthfully, I can tell a big difference in my mood.

Eating Cleaner And Starting Anytime

SPEAKER_01 5:25

I don't I think that has a lot to do with it. I've been intentional about being calm in situations and not letting things bother me, but I just notice a spike in energy and things, and I'm almost certain it has something to do with that. But back to starting now, because you know a lot of people be like, oh no, the people that try to get fit in the spring, it never works out. You worry about yourself. We'll start whenever we feel like it, and we will get it done in our time, okay? So you keep those negative things to yourself, please and thank you. And also, anybody heard about the new year starting in the spring? Hello. Like it will work itself out. If you got to follow the normal rules, fine, but some of us don't that doesn't apply to us. Anyway, our job is not to prove anything to those people, our job is to prove it to ourselves that we can do it. Because we can, and we will. Okay. A quick side note every time I see online someone says MJB won an Oscar, you know. Shout out to MJB. I automatically think they talking about Mary J. Blige. It's just my mind goes to Mary J. Blige. And of course, I know Mary J. Blige. I'm like, oh, we're talking about Michael B. Jordan. And I don't know. I've just felt the need to share that. But yeah, I'm about to get out of here. Shout out to my guy Lamont Gwen. Today's his birthday. Shout out to Lamont and Tabber to Lamont. I just wanted to show my brother some love because you know, he's had so much growth in the last few years. And right now, he's experiencing a lot of new beginnings. And it's his birthday, new place, and career, and

Quick Asides And Birthday Love

SPEAKER_01 7:27

all these just great things happening for my brother. And I just wanted to send him some love, you know. So shout out to Lamont. Happy birthday, Lamont. And morum. That's it. I'll catch you next time on Smith Street. Keep your head up. Keeping your head up.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

All this love wages for you. Hurry, hurry, coming with me. All this love, wait just for you. I'm a top in my life ever. All the time. Nobody but me here. Only the good Lord knows I'm not crying.

Farewell And Closing Track

SPEAKER_00 8:39

No, I'll take it up with me. I'm waiting for the so I'm baby with me. All this way. All this dog. Right for you, babies. That's a bad chicken. Toast to the baby. That's why. I'm waiting right. But it's so like that. Just follow you. If you want to be a baby.