Imagine you’re standing on a stage in front of a crowd, to talk about the things you’re most passionate about. Perhaps it’s your small business, your family… your faith. Perhaps you’re on that stage to share stories about the obstacles you’ve overcome to motivate others, or of your ideas about how to be more successful in business.

How many people would need to be in the audience for you to be excited? If you stood on that stage and looked out to see 100 faces smiling back at you, excited to hear what you had to say, how would you feel? Now, think about how many people would you need to impact for your message to be worthwhile? What if only one person’s life was positively impacted by the message you had to share? Would it have been a waste of time?

Your social media following is your audience.

Regardless of whether you’ve had an opportunity to be on a stage and even if that’s something you have no interest in doing, you have an audience. Your social media followers are the people who have voluntarily signed up to hear whatever you feel moved to share on any particular day. They are there to listen to what you’re passionate about, to learn from your mistakes, to share in your joys, or to support you through your struggles. There are no rules about what we have to share on social media, but the people who follow you are interested in what you choose to share.

Most of us have hundreds, if not thousands of followers… and yet, we question whether we have enough. We assign value to ourselves and others based on followers and chase after the coveted k (10,000+ instagram followers) like it’s the holy grail.

Please, stop valuing yourself based on how many followers the next person has. Celebrate those who show up to listen to what you have to say. Connect with those who support you.