What I didn't know when I agreed to speak at Ben Allsop's events was that I was about to become an example of my own talk.
These pictures are from one of his Shape Your Destiny events. I spoke at his events in London, Manchester and Bristol, and my talk was all about the ripple effect. The idea that small actions spread out further than you'll ever see.
The funny part
It was only at the first of those events that I found out I'd already created a ripple in Ben's life, years before.
After attending his first Tony Robbins event, Ben had decided to try juicing. And somewhere along the way, the content I'd been putting out about juicing had played its part in that.
I had no idea. I'd been sharing my own story and what had worked for me, mostly in the hope that it might help somebody somewhere. That somebody turned out to be the person who would one day invite me on to his stage to talk about ripples.
It's a small world. You couldn't make it up.
You never know who's watching
The lesson I took from it is simple. You never know who your content is influencing, or the ripples it will create.
Most of the time, you'll never find out. You post something, a few people like it, and it disappears down the feed. It's very easy to decide it made no difference at all.
But somewhere, someone may have read it at exactly the right moment. They might never comment. They might never like it. They might just quietly change one thing because of something you said. And years later, if you're lucky, you hear about it.
I'm always hugely grateful when I do get to hear those stories. They're a big part of why I keep sharing.
Why this matters for your business
If you run a business and you're putting content out into the world, this is worth remembering on the days when it feels like nobody's listening.
The numbers on a post only show you the people who clicked. They don't show you the person who read it twice, screenshotted it and sent it to their partner. They don't show you the potential client who's been quietly following you for two years and is nearly ready to get in touch.
Consistency matters because ripples take time to travel. The post you write this week might reach the right person next year.
I wrote about this idea in more depth in What ripples do you create?. Ben's story is one of my favourite examples of it, because I got to see both ends of the ripple.
So if you've been holding back from sharing something because you think nobody will care, share it anyway. You won't always find out who it reached. But every now and then, someone will invite you on to their stage and tell you.
