Plateaus happen to everybody and very few are able to push past them.
The ones who keep going – past 3 month plateaus, 6 months, even 1 year… the ones who persist, are the ones who win.
Every morning when I wake up, I jot down how many followers I have on TikTok.
TikTok is no longer my favorite or most valuable marketing channel, but it’s what I started on when I began making daily videos in 2022, so I continue monitoring TikTok growth.
This is what my spreadsheet looks like:
And an interesting thing happens when I turn my daily follower count into a line chart:
PLATEAUS!
So many of them. Long ones, too.
So here’s what I’ve found…
There are people who read these weekly articles who are WAY bigger than me. They get plateaus too.
Or… when I had a smaller following and was plateauing, I thought… if I could only get to X followers, I would feel better. I got there, plateaued, and it still was unpleasant.
Plateaus are inevitable.
Even when I’m in periods of growth, I know a plateau will eventually come. Doesn’t bother me anymore.
Plateaus don't last.
I popped off on TikTok LONG before I did on Instagram.
Now I’m substantially bigger on IG and value it more, but that wasn’t always the case.
In fact, on IG, here’s what happened:
- My first 5 months, nobody watched my daily Reels. Average views were 0-50.
- Month 5 I had a short success. A Reel got 160,000 views and it got me from ~600 followers to ~3,000.
- Then… for the next 6 months… I plateaued. All my daily Reels got 50-200 views. As you can see from my TikTok chart above, I was plateauing there too. This was SUCH a difficult plateau. It was my first real plateau with social media. Day after day I strongly considered stopping. I kept going because despite the pain, I believed I would eventually figure it out.
- Month 11, the automation I was using to have my TikToks automatically republish to IG Reels went down for a day. So I manually uploaded my video to Instagram instead of using my automation. It did a lot better. Then I tried manually uploading a previous viral TikTok. It EXPLODED. I tried more previously viral TikToks. They exploded too! I tested extensively and realized the IG algorithm was dampening the reach of videos automatically published with 3rd party tools. It took me 11 months of pain to accidentally discover this, and then I started growing. Fast.
- For those wondering, it looks like the algorithm no longer dampens the reach of videos automatically published with 3rd party tools. This person grew from 0 to 150,000 followers in 6 months using the automation, which in 2022, was getting suppressed.
- This is also why I say do things you like – because when the plateaus occur – the enjoyment of what you’re doing will get you through them.
My daily podcast was another similar case.
For the first year, it was slow and I was doing everything wrong. I kept saying to myself, “Starting this podcast was the dumbest decision of my life. What was I thinking starting a freaking daily podcast.” But in the back of my mind, I believed I would eventually figure it out.
Again, plateaus are relative, but this is my average podcast engagement over time:
Push past the plateaus.
Last week I was walking through a random small European city. I got recognized on the street. Crazy. Guy watches my Instagram. Asked for advice on his startup.
I’m also now constantly mentioned on LinkedIn by viewers of the podcast – they learn something and share it, citing me. So amazing that people are watching.
And lots of people are buying Compact Keywords. From the last few days:
I wanted to write this article because from my experience with marketing, with business, with entrepreneurship, the #1 lesson I personally have received (and maybe you’ve received it as well) is to push past the plateaus.
Plateaus are relative.