Dance Monkey, Dance.

Thoughts on virality, performance and my creative strategy...

It is so funny how these things have a way of working themselves out, I had an article in the drafts of my notes for a few weeks about virality.

My content on Instagram has been going off, I’ve gained almost 2000 followers in the last 2 weeks, loads of inquiries, new clients and all the fun stuff that comes with new aligned angelic beings entering your world - which, of course, we love.

I wanted to write something about how I kinda knew this was always going to happen and I do really want to talk about this but this article needed to come first because integration is everything, aint it?

My virality journey started in 2024 with Threads, then last year with Substack and this year we’ve come full circle to Instagram.

I don’t give a shit about going viral. I don’t give a shit about how many followers I have. My ego could truly care less about the difference between 2000 and 20,000 followers but my marketing brain of course knows there is a difference.

More humans is more humans.

And if you have a dialed message and leadership, even better, that shit will convert.

We swung the pendulum a little too hard on the whole followers don’t matter chat and although more followers doesn’t necessarily mean more money, if you do it right, it absolutely does.

But the last 2 weeks, I’ve felt pressure.

Pressure to say the right thing, the viral thing, the thing to hang onto to all the momentum.

What should I talk about next?
What will make people actually listen?
What is a sticky topic everyone will love?
How should I word my next reel?
How do I keep going viral? (Ugh I hate saying this out loud)

Really shit prompts if you ask me but this is what has been going through my brain.

My partner looked at me last week as I rambled off about the pressure to uphold my new found popularity and said, “yeah but Lex, you were never trying to go viral in the first place, you were just sharing what you love…”

Ah, yes. The pressure to perform is creative poison.

I noticed with a lot of creators who go and stay viral - it is because they see oh I’m going viral when I talk about this, so I’m going to make another reel talking about this and another and another - they bend the knee to the algorithmic gods and what was once a creative outlet becomes a ploy to “not lose momentum” - but fuck me nothing sounds worse.

I love the topic I went viral for, even The Most Radical Thing You Can Do In 2026 article here on Substack that went bonkers, I am absolutely nuts about that topic but do I want repeat myself 101x because that is how I stay viral, no thanks, fuck that.

I want to talk about whatever my heart desires (within the work that I do), which lately is around womanhood and societal pressure, why Amanda Batula ended up in this situation and how to not be a dumb fuck head like her, integrity in the online space, how your voice is your freedom.

A few things really tickling me right now and that I feel the call to excavate creatively.

I am not here to perform for an algorithm.
I am not here to perform for followers.
I am not here to perform for engagement.
I am here to use my voice.
I am here to share my leadership.
I am here to let myself create what sets my soul on fire.

These are the terms of my engagement as a business owner and I carved them in stone when I decided to stay in business after burn out nearly 3 years ago.

The pressure to perform, to “keep up the momentum”, to stay relevant is creative poison.

Let’s remember this isn’t just “content”, for so many of us this is our creative work, our outlet as deep thinkers, our body of work as thought leaders and our intellectual fucking property out in the world.

This pressure to perform keeps you asking the wrongs questions, as you saw above - shitty questions, equals shitty answers, equals shitty work.

But rather, creating from a place of clarity, connection and intention (and a genuine desire) is everything. Asking better questions and therefore, creating better work. Letting our creative process do its thing, regardless of what algorithms are doing or even what the numbers are saying.

This is my strategy as a creative, it has worked for me this long and I don’t plan on changing any time soon just because I’m going viral.