Relevance Beats Reach, Most of the Time

Chasing numbers? Followers, impressions, subscribers, engagement rates. The whole thing’s become a game of who can look busiest, not who’s actually having an impact.

The thing is that most people aren’t even reaching anyone. They’re shouting into an empty room.

Scroll through LinkedIn and you’ll see endless posts from people “building their brand” while getting a handful of impressions and no engagement. It’s theatre. A performance for an audience that isn’t there.

People spend hours writing content no one will ever see, then wonder why it’s not working. They’ve convinced themselves that volume equals progress, but it doesn’t. If you’re producing content for a tiny or irrelevant audience, you’re not building awareness, you’re rehearsing in private.

The numbers don’t mean much if the wrong people are paying attention, and they mean nothing if no one’s paying attention at all.

Reach for the sake of reach is pointless, but strategic reach — the kind that comes from connecting with the right people and publishing with purpose — is everything. If your audience is small, your job isn’t to post more; it’s to connect better. Build a network that gives your work somewhere to land.

Your network doesn’t need to be huge, but it does need to exist.

Too many people start with content before they’ve earned the right to be heard. They publish for validation instead of connection. It feels productive, but it’s empty.

Relevance starts with people, not posts. Build relationships, then create content that deepens those relationships. That’s how reach becomes influence.

If you’re serious about growth, stop treating visibility like a numbers game. Focus on connection, consistency, and quality.

You build authority through focus, not scale.

The goal isn’t to shout louder. It’s to make sure someone’s actually listening.