Imagine standing in the middle of a stadium where everyone is screaming at the same time. No microphone. No stage. Just you and your voice competing against thousands of others.
That’s what building a presence online feels like right now.
The numbers tell a stark story. According to Sprout Social’s 2025 Content Benchmarks Report, brands published an average of 9.5 posts per day across networks in 2024. For some industries, that number quadruples. Meanwhile, research shows our collective attention span has plummeted – from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to just 47 seconds today.
So how do you get heard when everyone’s shouting?
You don’t shout louder. You develop a voice worth listening to.
The exhausting trap of volume-based influence
When I first started writing about wellness and mental resilience, I fell into the same trap most people do. I thought visibility meant posting constantly. I scheduled content around the clock, jumped on every trending topic, and measured success by how much I was producing.
It was exhausting. And honestly, it wasn’t working.
My brother Nate, who works in tech and watches me struggle with this stuff, finally said something that stuck: “You’re creating noise, not signal.” He was right. I was so focused on being everywhere that I’d stopped being intentional about what I was actually saying.
The problem with playing the volume game is that it’s unwinnable. You’re not just competing against other people in your niche—you’re competing against viral videos, breaking news, and everyone’s friends and family posting about their weekends. As one creative director quoted in Sprout Social’s research put it, “It’s everybody versus everybody.”
When you try to out-post and out-shout everyone else, you inevitably sacrifice depth for frequency. And depth is exactly what makes people stop scrolling.
What it actually means to have a voice
Having a voice isn’t about being loud. It’s about being recognizable.
Think about the writers, creators, or thought leaders whose work you genuinely follow. You probably don’t follow them because they post the most. You follow them because when they do post, it sounds like them. Their perspective is distinctive. Their values are clear. You know what you’re going to get, and that consistency builds trust.
Research from Harvard Business School found that 67% of Americans are willing to spend more with companies whose founders’ personal brands align with their values. Authenticity isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a competitive advantage.
But here’s what most people get wrong about authenticity: they think it means sharing everything or being maximally vulnerable. It doesn’t.
Authenticity means alignment. It means your public presence reflects your actual values, expertise, and point of view. It means saying things you genuinely believe, even when they’re not trendy.
My mom, who has taught yoga and nutrition for decades, never tries to be anyone she isn’t. Her students trust her because they know exactly who she is and what she stands for.
That consistency, that clarity of voice is magnetic in a way that volume can never be.
The science of why voice beats volume
Carol Dweck’s research on mindset has shaped how I think about influence. A fixed mindset says, “I need to prove myself constantly.” A growth mindset says, “I’m here to learn, contribute, and connect.”
The volume approach comes from a fixed mindset—a desperate need to stay visible, to prove you’re still relevant. But the 2025 Sprout Social Index shows that originality is one of the top factors that makes brands stand out in an increasingly saturated space. Forty-six percent of consumers say originality makes brands memorable on social media.
You can’t be original when you’re posting fifteen times a day. Original thinking requires space, reflection, and the willingness to let ideas marinate before you share them.
Brené Brown, whose work on vulnerability I come back to constantly, built her entire platform on one TED talk that captured something true and distinctive. She didn’t out-volume anyone. She said something that mattered, and it resonated.
Finding your voice takes subtraction, not addition
When I work with clients on building sustainable habits—whether in fitness, wellness, or professional development—I always start with the same question: What can we remove?
It’s counterintuitive. People come to me wanting to add more. More routines. More strategies. More content.
But addition creates noise. Subtraction creates clarity.
Finding your voice works the same way. It’s less about finding new things to say and more about stripping away everything that isn’t genuinely you. The trending topics you don’t actually care about. The content formats that feel forced. The opinions you share because you think you should, not because you believe them.
My cold plunges and trail runs with Luna aren’t just wellness practices—they’re clarity practices. Something about physical challenge strips away the mental clutter and helps me reconnect with what I actually think. The content I create after those sessions sounds different. It sounds like me.
Practical ways to build voice over volume
So what does this look like in practice?
Here’s what’s worked for me and the entrepreneurs and creators I’ve learned from:
Post less, but with intention. Before hitting publish, ask yourself: Is this something only I could say? Does it reflect what I genuinely believe? Would I still stand by this in a year?
Develop signature perspectives. What are the two or three ideas you keep returning to? For me, it’s the intersection of discipline and self-compassion, the importance of sustainable habits over quick fixes, and the underrated power of consistency. These aren’t just topics – they’re lenses through which I see everything.
Let silence work for you. Not posting is sometimes the most powerful statement. When you’re not everywhere, the places you do show up carry more weight.
Engage deeply rather than broadly. One meaningful conversation in the comments is worth more than a hundred surface-level interactions. People remember how you made them feel, not how often you appeared in their feed.
Be willing to take a stand. Voices are distinctive because they have perspective. If you agree with everyone, you’re not saying anything.
The compound effect of consistency
James Clear writes about how small habits compound into remarkable results. The same principle applies to voice.
Every piece of content that sounds genuinely like you—that reflects your values, your perspective, your way of seeing things—deposits a tiny amount of trust with your audience. Alone, each piece might feel insignificant. But over months and years, those deposits accumulate into something powerful: a reputation.
This is what my dad taught me through his years of coaching. He didn’t build trust with his athletes through grand gestures. He built it through showing up the same way, day after day, year after year. They knew what to expect from him. That predictability became trustworthiness.
Your voice works the same way. Consistency isn’t boring—it’s what makes you someone worth listening to.
Conclusion
The internet will only get noisier. The pressure to post more, shout louder, and chase trends will only intensify. But influence has never been about volume.
Real influence comes from being someone people want to hear from. Not because you’re everywhere, but because when you do speak, you say something worth hearing.
That requires courage. It means trusting that quality outweighs quantity. It means sitting with the discomfort of not posting while you wait for something genuine to say. It means being willing to be overlooked in the short term so you can be remembered in the long term.
The good news?
Most people won’t do this. They’ll keep shouting, keep churning out content, keep playing a game that exhausts them. Which means if you’re willing to take the slower path – developing a voice that’s genuinely yours – you’ll eventually stand out simply by being real.
Stop trying to be heard by everyone. Start trying to matter to someone.
