My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Trust Depth Over Reach Breadth
When evaluating audience partnerships, trust depth (how much influence you actually have) matters exponentially more than reach breadth (total follower count).
Decision Rule
Test if the audience would show up to a coffee shop if you announced you'd be there, or set an alarm if you said something important was launching at a specific time.
How It Works
Trust translates directly to revenue through purchasing decisions, while reach without trust generates impressions but no business outcomes.
Failure Modes
Focusing on vanity metrics like follower count instead of engagement quality
Assuming high view counts equal high trust
Partnering based on audience size rather than audience alignment
Not testing trust levels before making partnership commitments
Example Decision
“Choose a podcast host with 50K highly engaged B2B listeners over an Instagram influencer with 500K followers but low trust in business recommendations.”