Depth over breadth.
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Nearly everyone I know on social media is obsessed with numbers.
How many followers and subscribers do I have? What are my impressions like? Is engagement up or down? The digital scoreboard is one major marker of success nowadays.
Behind the scenes, there’s a much different story. I know entrepreneurs who’ve built massive followings but can’t seem to make any real money. Not only do they struggle to monetize, but even worse, they feel completely disconnected from the people they’re supposed to be serving.
Isn’t connection and community the big idea?
The allure of a big audience can be extremely intoxicating. It feels like validation. Like you’ve finally “made it.”
But reach isn’t the same as impact.
If you really dig deep into the online entrepreneurs who have built sustainable businesses, I suspect you’ll find something very different. It’s not about their audience size. It’s about their connection depth. They don’t have the biggest audiences; they have the most engaged ones.
This isn’t necessarily about small versus big. I know folks with big, engaged audiences. It’s more about superficial versus meaningful.
Width creates awareness, while depth creates transformation. And transformation is what people pay for.
We’ve all heard some version of the idea that “when you focus on reaching everyone, you often end up reaching no one.” It’s true. Your message becomes diluted, and you avoid saying anything too specific because you might alienate someone.
But that’s a recipe for losing your personality. Those specific opinions (often polarizing, edgy, or unique) are exactly what creates impact for the people who choose to read what you’re writing.
I know this because I’ve been on both sides of this equation. I’ve flip-flopped between bigger numbers and more eyeballs and writing simply because I had something incredibly impactful to share. My business reached a high point when I found the intersection of what I love to write about and what makes a massive impact on my readers.
So, instead of asking “How can I reach more people?” start asking “How can I matter more to the people I already reach?”
Send more meaningful emails to your existing subscribers instead of obsessing over growing your list. Have deeper conversations with current customers instead of chasing new ones. Create more impactful content for your community rather than optimizing for whatever silly change the algorithm has made that week.
When you go deep instead of wide, something really interesting happens. The people you serve become evangelists. They spread the word because you’ve created something that genuinely matters to them. Something that changed them.
You’ll be surprised to find out that’s how most real growth happens anyway. It’s not through clever marketing tactics. It’s from people who are impacted, sharing something with a friend or family member who will feel its impact as well.
The scoreboard lies.
That impact is the only metric that matters.
Go deeper, not wider.
What’s your take on today’s article? Did it land? Miss the mark? Change your perspective?
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This is so true. It reminds me of a quote I heard from this gentleman who owned a really successful restaurant. Someone asked him, "What's your secret? How did your restaurant become so successful?" His response was simple, "The secret was always on the plate."
Give them what they came for. They'll tell others. Others will benefit from transformation as well. They'll in turn tell others. And so the snowball grows...
Thank you for the reminder :)