Have you been wanting to launch a physical product for your brand but feel stuck with a small audience? Has the size you are aiming for become a moving target for your business? For a long time, I told myself I would launch a product when my audience was bigger. When I hit the next milestone, when my engagement got stronger, or when I felt more established. I was struggling with imposter syndrome, and for years, it held me back from going after what I truly wanted.
But then one day, I realized the problem is that “bigger” is in fact just that! It is a moving target. When I was at 5,000 followers, I thought 20,000 would make me feel ready. At 20,000, I started looking for a specific engagement threshold. At 50,000, I thought I needed 100,000 to be taken seriously.
There is always another number, and the big brands that I did sponsorships with would often run this idea home to me. The longer I created content, the easier it was to justify waiting, partly because content growth feels productive. It’s visible, low risk, and doesn’t require much discomfort for me.
But here’s what I’ve learned… follower count and revenue readiness are not the same thing, and for me, it didn’t matter what Kraft thought of my audience; I wasn’t trying to compete with them anyway.
When I launched my physical product line, I did not have a massive, untouchable audience. What I had was something far more important. I had niche depth.
Niche depth matters more than scale for product launches.
I had spent years serving the same category. I knew what my audience struggled to find. I knew what they searched for seasonally. I knew what they were already buying. That knowledge mattered more than scale, and I wish I had listened to myself earlier on.
I picked this specific photo for this post because it is from a disco ball headband I created and posted way back in 2011. Does it look familiar to you? It should, as you can find it at Target and many other retailers today. I’m sure you want to know how much I made from this creative design we dreamt up all those years ago?
If you guessed ZERO dollars, you would be correct!
I made nothing from this concept that my team created as a DIY project all those years ago.
It went viral, Target picked up the concept, and I’m just guessing they made a pretty penny on carrying it over a decade in stores. I could have launched this and many other products when I had the ideas years ago, but my numbers never quite made me feel comfortable doing it. There’s something subtle that happens when you tell yourself, “I’ll launch when I’m bigger.” You delay discomfort.
But discomfort is exactly what our businesses need to keep growing. Launching a product introduces a different kind of responsibility. It’s not just posting content. It’s putting something into the market with a price attached, and that feels more permanent, more vulnerable. So waiting might feel strategic. But often, it’s simply just protective.
And here’s the crazy thing: after launching my first product line, my audience growth has compounded because of clarity. Once I launched my products, I began creating differently. I understood my customer better because of all the trials I had run over the years. I am no longer just building attention; I am building alignment, and that makes my entire business stronger.
The sooner we shift from chasing numbers to building assets, the sooner our businesses will start compounding in ways content alone rarely does. And the quicker we can be sure that when ideas go viral, we will be the ones to make the income from that imagination.
PS. When you are ready, I am happy to help you on your way. Email me here with your questions and ideas.
– Victoria