For YEARS, I've wanted to see what living and operating my business without social media would look like. October presented the perfect opportunity.

From comparing social media scrolling to an addiction, realizing I extract the most from MYSELF when I'm on it, and the withdrawals and "phantom limb" energy of not sharing my entire day from my matcha to my observations on life, I cover it all.

Tune in to hear a full report on the first few weeks of testing out an algorithm-free life, and what's to come.

Connect with Chelsea:

• 🌊 Audacity Waitlist - the pitching and visibility immersion for creative business owners
• 🪄 Ultimate Pitch Kit waitlist
• ☄️ SUPERNOVA waitlist
• 💻 Website
• 📜 Footnotes newsletter filled with rabbit holes, zeitgeist synthesis and more
• 📱 Instagram
• 🧵 Threads

Help run NFNTW: Your donations help cover costs of running the show; you can help fund NFTNW right HERE.

If you're unable to donate financially, share it. It all adds up!

Want to sponsor NFTNW? Email team@chelseariffe.com to discuss partnership packages!

When we're firehosed with dystopian headlines like "AI will kill the human race within ten years" or "prepare for the largest economic downturn we've ever seen!", it's pretty fkn hard to IMAGINE a better future.

But what if the problem isn't the news cycle... it's our imagination? What if we've been so conditioned by capitalism to not get a lil magical widdit, that we literally cannot picture a different way of operating?

Ximena Servin, Mexican environmental internationalist, ocean lover, and regenerative business educator, is on today's ep to break down the "Imagination Gap", why most of us are stuck in "reflective impotence" (we know everything's wrong but can't figure out what to do), and how "cathedral thinking" — building something you'll never see completed — might be the only way forward.

The main questions we explore: how to make flourishing more important than growth, what it takes to build a regenerative business, and how can we get comfortable with the concept of "enough"?

We get into:

• What the imagination gap actually is and why capitalism makes it feel like we can never access this magical part of our brains
• Cathedral thinking and why the online coaching industry is structurally the opposite of this
• The solo founder obsession vs. collective, ecosystem-based business... and why Chelsea might need to de-center her own personal brand soon
• Why you can't be the next Elon Musk AND run a regenerative business (and why the "go to space" tech bro mentality has become so popular)
• Why infinite growth requires infinite extraction, and what "flourishing" actually looks like as a success metric
• Why the word "enough" triggers people into scarcity spirals
• Sacred economics, and how the story of scarcity is a self-fulfilling prophecy we keep agreeing to
• Storytelling as the tool for collective reimagination
• Practical imagination exercises, like giraffes riding bikes...seriously

If you've been feeling stuck in short-term survival mode, questioning whether your business actually matters in what seems like a modern day apocalypse, or wondering if there's a way to build something that gives more than it takes, this episode is your invitation to stop optimizing for infinite growth and start building the cathedral you want to last for generations beyond you.

Connect with Ximena:

• The Field - Regenerative Business Course
• Natipical Instagram
• Ximena's Instagram

Connect with Chelsea:

• 🌊 Audacity Waitlist - the pitching and visibility immersion for creative business owners
• 🪄 Ultimate Pitch Kit waitlist
• ☄️ SUPERNOVA waitlist
• 💻 Website
• 📜 Footnotes newsletter filled with rabbit holes, zeitgeist synthesis and more
• 📱 Instagram
• 🧵 Threads

Help run NFNTW: Your donations help cover costs of running the show; you can help fund NFTNW right HERE.

If you're unable to donate financially, share it. It all adds up!

Want to sponsor NFTNW? Email team@chelseariffe.com to discuss partnership packages!

Modern media is the connective tissue of our online society. Where we consume content, what we read, share, and save directly reflects our values, impacts behavior, and shifts culture. RIP Buzzfeed listicles :(

Do you pay attention to the platforms you use? Who funds the media companies you publish on? Or why you're using them, and what for?

Lex Roman, founder of Revenue Rulebreaker, a community-fueled small business media backed by over 400 paid subscribers, is on today's ep to break down the misunderstood world of indie (independent) media, paid subscriptions and other revenue models, and why Substack might be the absolute worst place to build your writing career. Seriously.

The main question we explore: what if your audience was your investor — and that was enough?

We get into:

• What indie media actually means and why it's so important in today's fragmented landscape
• Why Lex hates Substack with the fire of a thousand suns and thinks everyone needs to get off... yesterday (including specific examples of how they steal your audience and revenue)
• The difference between a newsletter, an email list, and email marketing — and why we may be overcomplicating things
• Paid subscriptions vs. sponsorships vs. advertising: which revenue model fits your personality and daily workflow?
• How Lex sold her local politics newsletter, expanding our minds to what's possible when you have strong, valuable IP
• Subscription fatigue, the paywall police, and why patronage is not Netflix. The "dance for me because I paid you" mentality is tireddd
• How to stay hopeful in the media biz when tech CEOs are devolving into oligarchy and software prices are spiking 200%

If you've been questioning your presence on Substack, wondering whether anyone would actually pay for your writing, or assuming funding only happens to the Call Her Daddy's of the world — this episode is your invitation to look at the media landscape differently and build using your own playbook (and how to break a rule or two 😉).

Connect with Lex:

• Grab 20% off your first year of Lex's Legends subscription right HERE!
• Revenue Rulebreaker
• Threads

Connect with Chelsea:

• 🌊 Audacity Waitlist - the pitching and visibility immersion for creative business owners
• 🪄 Ultimate Pitch Kit waitlist
• ☄️ SUPERNOVA waitlist
• 💻 Website
• 📜 Footnotes newsletter filled with rabbit holes, zeitgeist synthesis and more
• 📱 Instagram
• 🧵 Threads

Help run NFNTW: Your donations help cover costs of running the show; you can help fund NFTNW right HERE.

If you're unable to donate financially, share it. It all adds up!

Want to sponsor NFTNW? Email team@chelseariffe.com to discuss partnership packages!