We love the myth of the masterpiece. The idea that one well-placed stroke of genius can change everything. That the right strategy, the right content, the right offer — executed once with surgical precision — will be enough.
This is why people agonize over the “perfect” launch, the “perfect” email, the “perfect” website. They tell themselves: if I get this right the first time, I won’t need to do it again.
But this belief isn’t just wrong. It’s paralyzing.
If you’ve ever felt this paralysis, you’re going to love Vanessa Törnblom’s resource below: it draws on Nordic principles to help you avoid overwhelm and burnout while still meeting your goals.
📣 Brought to you by 📣
Performance Atelier
What if working harder is the very reason you’re not getting ahead?
When you’re busy, it’s tempting to push harder — but that often leads to burnout, not breakthroughs.
‘Slow performance’ is a concept that Vanessa Törnblom got me hooked on. It is about doing less, with intention, clarity, and focus.
Not familiar with it?
Vanessa generously packaged the 101 as a free resource called The Nordic Reset: A 7-Day Blueprint to Recharge, Refocus, and Perform. It introduces 7 transformative concepts to help you break free from the grind and take sustainable action so that you can show up at your best both for your business and yourself.
Say goodbye to burnout and hello to a slow, balanced life, Nordic-style.
Want your name up here? Grab a slot before the prices go up!
(Sold out until April 2025)
The Fallacy of the Perfect Creation
The best work — the kind that shapes industries, builds audiences, and creates impact — rarely emerges fully formed. It’s the product of iteration, of relentless practice, of quantity leading to quality.
And yet, the idea of prioritizing volume feels…wrong. Because we’ve been conditioned to believe that “more” is sloppy. That it means selling out. That it’s the path to mediocrity.
“Instead of 10 crappy posts, I prefer to write one that’s great” — how many times have you heard this from online gurus? Enough to repeat it to yourself?
See, when you love your craft, you tend to be precious about it — pedantic to the point of obnoxiousness even. I’ve seen many online writers say “I’m not a sellout, I don’t write for likes. I respect my work” with a haughtiness worthy of a Nobel-prize winner.
Frankly, I may have been there too.
So join me in stepping off the “quality over quantity” soapbox and ask yourself:
What if that’s exactly backward? What if quantity begets quality?
Exhibit A: even art benefits from a quantitative approach
In Atomic Habits, James Clear tells the story of a photography professor who split his class into two groups:
- One group was graded on quantity — the more photos they took, the higher their grade.
- The other was graded on quality — they only had to submit one perfect photo.
At the end of the semester, something fascinating happened.
The students who took more photos didn’t just have a higher volume of work. They had the best work. Their skills had improved through sheer repetition — by making mistakes, fixing them, and trying again.
Meanwhile, the “quality” group had spent all their time thinking about the perfect shot but never practicing enough to actually take one.
Oftentimes, quality is a byproduct of action, not of planning.
And yet, in the world of founders, where every decision feels high-stakes, it’s easy to default to caution. To focus on crafting instead of producing. To edit endlessly instead of shipping.
Because shipping means exposure. Exposure means judgment. And judgment means risk.
There’s a lot to be said here about why we avoid exposing ourselves, warts and all, but I feel like this conversation is better left to a therapist.
The audience size fallacy
I got a lot of pushback when I first launched Audience Accelerator. People kept giving me examples of “a friend of a friend” who makes millions with only 2K followers.
Of course, there were also the people who told me they didn’t want to be influencers, that they had a real skillset and they didn’t want to focus on vanity metrics.
And let’s not forget the most frequent argument of all: “you only need 1,000 true fans to have a lucrative business”, Kevin Kelly’s theory that has been making the rounds since 2008 — but it’s SO badly misunderstood.
I wrote a full issue on how the internet over-simplified his (otherwise great) theory → The “1,000 true fans” theory doesn’t work anymore.
Truthfully, I understand why this idea caught root even with the new breed of creators. It’s a comforting thought.
Focus on depth, not breadth. Go all in on relationship-building, not on growth.
And while the theory holds some truth, the reality is messier.
- Not every fan buys.
- Not every customer stays.
- And not every person who loves your work today will still care about it in six months.
If you never grow the top of the funnel, you shrink your future opportunities.
Like it or not, more reach = more resonance. Not shallow resonance — better resonance.
Because when you have more touchpoints, you don’t just get a bigger audience. You get better data. You see patterns you couldn’t see before. You understand who’s actually engaged and who’s just nodding along politely.
And for solopreneurs and small businesses, where marketing budgets are tight and every customer counts, that difference is everything.
This is why you’ll rarely see people who have a tiny audience do seven- or even six-figure launches. Volume matters. To find “1,000 true fans” you need at least 10 times that many casual followers.
Why more channels don’t dilute your message
The idea that spreading yourself across too many channels waters down your impact is also a prevalent talking point in the quantity vs quality debate.
I hear this all the time:
“I don’t want to be everywhere. I want to go deep on one platform.”
I get it. The thought of managing a LinkedIn, a newsletter, a podcast, and an Instagram feels overwhelming. But here’s the thing:
Your audience isn’t monolithic. They don’t all consume content the same way.
- Some people love long-form newsletters.
- Some people only find content through social media.
- Some binge podcasts but never read blog posts.
The more places you show up, the more likely you are to reach your best prospects. The data supports it too!
And no, that doesn’t mean running yourself into an early grave trying to do everything at once. It means repurposing, experimenting, and seeing what sticks [here’s how to repurpose and re-use your content].
Think about it this way: your best customers aren’t all in one place, on a single platform. Why would you be?
High-performers understand the power of quantity
If there’s one profession that understands this principle better than anyone, it’s stand-up comedy.
A Netflix special looks effortless. It feels like the comedian is just naturally hilarious. But what you’re seeing is the final product of hundreds of performances, rewrites, and failures.
Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and Jerry Seinfeld don’t step onto a big stage with untested material. They test it in small clubs first [here’s how Jerry Seinfled does it]. They tell jokes, watch them bomb, tweak them, and try again.
By the time the final show rolls around, what you’re watching isn’t luck or raw talent. It’s repetition, refinement, and volume producing quality.
And this applies to literally everything — writing, marketing, sales, product development. Just like the first pancake, the first version is never the best. It only gets better by doing it more.
The Matthew Effect of accumulated advantage
The Matthew Effect shows that the more work you put into the world, the higher your chances of success.
- Writers who publish more books have higher odds of a breakout hit. Think Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Isabel Allende, and pretty much any writer that springs to mind.
- Musicians who release more albums have better longevity. One-hit wonders quickly fade away from public memory.
You can’t predict success. You can only increase the odds.
I see this every day on social media, for instance. Most of my posts do OK-ish. Incredibly few (maybe one or two a month) break the barrier and become semi-viral.
Still, 500 views here, 2,000 there accumulate. People see me every day, they follow, they subscribe, and some buy.
If I obsessed over virality-or-nothing for every post, I’d publish much less and I’d get a much smaller “luck” surface area.
One final argument to let go of your pedantry:
“Art for art’s sake” is a neat stance but what if you have a business to run?
Tangent: if you recognized the quote above, high-five! You have fine taste in literature.
I didn’t write this issue to get you to work more and hustle harder than a bro at a Bali retreat. I wrote it because I know how hard it is to publish your work when you feel like it’s not perfect.
So you tend to procrastinate, polish, and publish less than you could.
But:
- No one’s work is perfect. Think of the one founder you respect and admire more than anyone — I guarantee you they have their doubts too.
- Too polished is slippery. The Pratfall Effect tells us that mistakes make you more relatable and, ultimately, more human. So publish that thing you’ve been postponing, a typo won’t kill your brand.
- Whatever you’re struggling with, you won’t get better at it if you avoid it. Write, record, speak as often as possible — badly at first maybe (although definitely not as bad as you think it is) but better and better with time.
“I don’t have an identity as a writer, so I write with AI” is something I recently heard on a mastermind call and it broke my heart.
After training dozens of writers, I know for a fact everyone has an identity as a writer because everyone has an identity as a human. If you let AI beige-ify your writing, you will never fully hone in on that identity.
You’ll blend in worse than Elmo.
Because quantity begets quality. You need the reps to create masterpieces.
Limitations: when quantity backfires (and why “more” isn’t always the answer)
Of course, there’s nuance here. There are situations where more isn’t better — where pushing for volume can lead to diminishing returns.
When the stakes are too high
- If you’re launching a high-ticket offer, sloppy execution hurts credibility.
- If you’re closing a huge client, you don’t need more value — you need better, deeper deliverables.
The format dictates the focus
- A LinkedIn post? Publish it, refine later — it lives less than a fruit fly anyway.
- A book? That’s a different story. Some things need more iteration before they go live.
When more = burnout
If you’re stretched too thin, doing more isn’t going to fix the problem. Strategic repetition works when it’s sustainable — when you can keep going without hitting a wall.
The goal isn’t just more for the sake of more. It’s more for the sake of mastery.
I’ll leave you to ponder this: what’s ONE thing you could do more of to grow your business? Just one, not ten — we’re not aiming for burnout here.
Reply and let me know!
🔦 Community Spotlight
Attention, Evernote users! Did you know that Evernote released 100+ new features last year? Maybe you’re like me, you used Evernote, then ditched it.
My friend Stacey Harmon got me to reconsider using Evernote. A talented teacher, productivity coach, and top power-user, she helps users to do more with Evernote through her free, weekly newsletter.
Each Monday, she sends out tips to help you keep up with new features, provides inspiration through real-world case studies, and shares organizational best practices that make using Evernote (and organizing your digital life) so much easier. If you’re serious about Evernote, don’t miss it!
This one’s for entrepreneurs ready to step up, build authority online, and sign more clients.
My friend and business coach, Ellen Donnelly, writes The Ask—a no-fluff newsletter packed with sharp insights, practical strategies, and the hard truths of entrepreneurship.
Join 4,700+ thought leaders, coaches, and consultants who rely on her advice to attract clients, refine their positioning, and make smarter business moves.
P.S.: Curious how you can do more without burning out? Strategically, of course!
My Growth Intensive clients produce as much content as needed to grow their business — not more, not less.
Here’s what Risa has to say about one of my 1:1 programs:
Want similar results? Grab your slot here or reply to this email to book a discovery call with me.
