As entrepreneurs, we often try and turn our social media feed into one big marketing pitch: proving that we are experts, sharing our products and services daily, signing our own praises and sharing testimonials, but let me tell you something: every single human being out there is struggling and sometimes when we can share that struggle, it can make more of an impact in this world than any marketing pitch ever could. So many people ask me how I grew my social media following-- like I have a secret and the truth is: I don’t really believe that secrets exist. I grew my following because I became a master at creating connection online… the kind of connection that leads people to talk about me like I’m their best friend and the same kind of connection that leaves people telling their friends about me. That, my friends, is the secret to growth: serve the people that are showing up for you SO well that they come back and they bring friends. It’s no surprise that I’m a big fan of social media analytics. I LOVE numbers, in fact, in episode 15 I shared that I was afraid to tell you how obsessive I can get with numbers. For me, in a creative world where very few things are concrete and measurable, numbers give me relief and so when I started to dig into my Instagram analytics, I wasn’t entirely shocked at the results, in fact, I smiled because 90% of my top performing posts had nothing to do with marketing or anything that I was selling, they had to do with something I’m passionate about and something I’m struggling with: body confidence. Now, hear me out before you think I’m about to tell you to show up online in your underpants (because I’ll be honest, I know you probably won’t do that… although I have to tell ya, it’s not as scary as you might think.) Sometimes the things we are most insecure about, most scared to share… those are the things that will form the deepest connections.