Is having a massive social media following a prerequisite for having a successful business or passion project?

Well, I have proof that it is not necessary because that's actually my story.

Today I'm going to give you three reasons why having a large audience is not necessary before you can start making an impact.

And I'm also going to give you a little

loving kick in the pants to stop letting that belief, get in your way, and make the difference

that you know you're here to make. Welcome to Powerhouse Women, the podcast for women

who know they are ready for more. I'm Lindsay Schwartz, your host, and the founder of Powerhouse Women,

and together will unlock the confidence and clarity you are looking for

to help you get out of your own way and into action around your next big idea. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to hang out with you today and talk about

something that came up recently in a panel interview that I was a part of. I was at my

friend's event and I was

sharing the stage with some seriously kick-ass women, like the kind where you look around and

you're like, was everyone else busy? Did they just need to fill a spot? It was so cool just

to share the stage with people that I really admire and look up to. But it was interesting to hear some of the questions that we were

asked. And one in particular, immediately I like filed it away and said, okay, I'm going to do a

podcast episode on that because this is something that I know I have gotten tripped up by and I hear

so many others say the same. And that is the belief that I need some huge social media

following in order to start really making an impact or even to launch my business. And the question

was, it came from the audience and it was basically that it was, you know, how did you build your

audience? Did you have a big audience before you launched your business? And I'm looking around because they were basically like asking us how we built our audience. And I'm looking at the other two panelists who had over 100,000 and one over 500,000 followers. And I was like, okay, clearly this question is for them, not me. But then in that moment, I realized, no, it's really

important for me to share my side of the story and really what my journey has looked like

because I kind of love that I've done all of this backward. So if you are sitting there

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