Distribution Is Not Marketing (I Learned This the Hard Way)
Why most creators are building in the woods and praying for foot traffic
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Most creators underestimate distribution.
They treat it like marketing you do after the work is done. It’s not.
It’s the system that turns work into outcomes.
Without it, even great work might as well not exist.
One reason we miss this? Maker’s bias.
Maker’s bias: We optimize the product, not the path.
We spend 95% of our time on the product and 5% on getting it seen.
In reality, how you get it to the audience matters just as much as what you made.
Which is why treating distribution as an afterthought is so costly.
The cost of treating distribution as an afterthought
Distribution is not what you do with your content.
It’s what you build before you need it.
The stronger it is, the faster you can turn ideas into income.
The weaker it is, the more you’re starting from zero every time.
And too often, we make this mistake because we’re fooled by what looks like reach.
The algorithm mirage
Rented reach masquerades as audience until the algorithm turns.
A viral post can feel like strategy (it’s not). It’s luck.
When your reach depends entirely on someone else’s platform, you don’t have distribution.
You have temporary access.
Real distribution is what you own, not what you rent.
And that confusion leads to the biggest misunderstanding creators have about audience building.
The mistake that makes creators think they have an audience
They confuse reach with distribution.
Reach is how many people see something.
Distribution is the set of roads that work can travel (email, YouTube, podcasts).
If you have no roads, there’s no traffic. And if you have roads but no traffic, you have a resonance problem, not a distribution problem.
The trick is to build these roads before you need them. That means laying down multiple lanes:
An email list you own.
Searchable archives that get found while you sleep.
Partner channels that open their audience to you.
A cadence that trains people to expect your work.
An audience you can’t reach is no audience at all.
You can see this principle clearly in the music business.
What the music industry taught me about distribution
In music, talent is just the entry ticket.
The biggest artists aren’t necessarily the most talented; they have the best distribution.
Taylor Swift doesn’t just release a song. She controls:
Where it appears
How it’s promoted
Which playlists it’s on
Who talks about it first
How fans can buy tickets before anyone else
That’s distribution:
Owned channels (fan email list, app, presales)
Partnered channels (Spotify playlists, TV appearances)
Rented channels (social media, press coverage)
A great song with no distribution is a diary entry. A good song with world-class distribution is a hit.
And for creators, the stakes are just as high.
Why your career depends on distribution
Good distribution does three things:
Lowers customer acquisition cost
Increases pricing power
Compounds reach even when you’re not posting
Without it, you start from zero with every new thing you make.
With it, each launch is faster, easier, and more profitable.
The best test: If your main platform disappeared tomorrow, could you still reach your audience next week?
If not, it means at least one part of your distribution system is missing.
The 3 jobs that make distribution work
Discovery → Get in front of your ideal reader where they already are.
Capture → Turn borrowed attention into owned attention you control.
Activation → Turn subscribers into engaged readers and customers.
Do job one without jobs two and three, and you’re just expensive entertainment.
Knowing the jobs is one thing. Knowing where your system is weakest is another.
The scorecard that shows where you’re losing money
Your distribution is only as strong as its weakest link.
Rate your main channel 1–5 on:
Ownership → Do you control access to this audience?
Targeting → Are you reaching the right people?
Intent → Are they here to buy or just browse?
Compounding → Does it get easier to grow over time?
Friction → How easy is it to subscribe or buy?
Follow-up → Do you re-engage people automatically?
Any weak score is a growth bottleneck.
Pick your lowest score and improve it by 1 point this month before adding new channels.
Because without strong distribution, your best work will never reach the people it’s meant for.
The bottom line
If you can’t reach people, your idea doesn’t exist.
Distribution is existence.
Don’t just make the work. Build the system that makes the work matter.
Because when you own the route to your audience, no one can block you, throttle you, or take a cut unless you let them.
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Interesting point. Reach can be fleeting, but distribution builds lasting impact and connection over time.
How do you personally decide which “roads” to invest in first?