my ultimate goal is to build a community, not an audience, in the industry i love.

in my early days as a ghostwriter, one thing i'd 'promise' potential clients was that we'd grow their following by 2-3x.

for the most part i was able to pull that off, but i soon started noticing that more followers did not equal more engagement.

think of all those stories we hear of influencers with millions of followers not being able to sell a tshirt.

they built an audience, not a community.

a few years ago i remember coming across a newsletter that capped its subscribers at 1000.

i was so intrigued because it went against everything everyone else was doing (still is).

you stop opening the emails? you were out... so a more engaged subscriber could sub.

i don't know if this newsletter still exists but i think about it often.

vip lounges, members clubs, luxury events. they all have caps.

in many cases, more is not merrier.

​one thousand club caps membership at 1000 per city.

when i worked at cirque du soleil, vip tix were capped at 250 per show (because that was the perfect number of guests for our salon).

this got me thinking about my own following.

with a bottle of wine chilled and popped, i went through my list, connection by connection and removed anyone who didn't fit.

anyone who wasn't in entertainment entertainment/events/media? out.

anyone who wasn't active at all? out.

anyone whose work/content wasn't interesting to me? out.

i made exceptions for people i knew personally and people in other industries i thought were genuinely interesting/building interested things.

i also noted down anyone who i could help with my ghostwriting services and anyone i wanted to reconnect with.

i deleted over 3000 people that weekend.

think of how many lists in your own life you cull (or should cull)... playlists, phone contacts, whatsapp chats, instagram followers, belongings, vege drawer.

it's how we continue to grow with a network around us that aligns with our own evolution.

now when i open linkedin, my feed is filled with content i'm actually interested in and my DMs are full of conversations i actually want to have.

i don't care about the count.

and i don't think you should either.

before you hit 'connect' or accept a request coming your way, ask yourself

is their content interesting to me

am i interested in what role they have or the company they work for

do they seem like someone i want to learn more about

in other words...

build for the long term with the most interesting people you come across.

if every time you open these emails you think.... man i really need to start on linkedin... reply back with this - 👻 - and i'll help you out.