Episode 223
Planning 2026? Here’s Why Your ‘Small’ Audience Is More Powerful Than You Think
If you’ve been looking at your audience lately — your email list, your downloads, your Instagram following — and thinking, “It’s just not big enough,” this episode is your gentle reset.
Today, I’m sharing an archived audio I originally recorded for my private client podcast. It’s a quiet reminder that the size of your audience has never been the thing that determines your success… the root system of your business does.
Inside, I share a story about repotting one of my new plants (yes, your girl is officially a plant mama 🌿) and what it taught me about sustainable business growth, especially for creative CEOs living with chronic illness or navigating burnout.
Whether you’re planning for 2026, feeling behind on your goals, or questioning whether your tiny audience can actually support a profitable, ease-filled business — this episode will remind you that small can be mighty, and depth can be more powerful than size.
Because sustainable businesses don’t grow by getting louder… they grow by getting rooted.
In this episode, we explore:
- Why your audience is not too small to support real growth
- How tiny, intentional communities create long-term sustainability
- The plant metaphor that changed how I look at business development
- What really matters more than list size or follower count
- How to build a business that feels nurturing, easeful, and profitable (even in low-capacity seasons)
- Why creative women and entrepreneurs with chronic illness thrive in depth-first business models
Key Takeaways
- A tiny audience can lead to powerful, sustainable results when you focus on connection over volume.
- Growth that ignores your health, your energy, and your capacity isn’t actually growth — it’s burnout.
- Your 2026 plan doesn’t have to be bigger; it has to be deeper.
- Small but mighty businesses create the strongest root systems — the ones that quietly grow, flourish, and stay profitable long-term.
Who This Episode Is For
- Creative CEOs craving sustainable business strategies
- Entrepreneurs with chronic illness who want growth without sacrificing their health
- Women navigating burnout who want to rebuild without pressure
- Anyone who feels behind on their 2025 goals and wants a calmer way to approach 2026
✨ Thank you for listening. Your Next Step:
→ Grab the Podcast Planner to start and grow your podcast with ease.
→ Or, learn my Voice-First System — Chronically You & Profitable (CYAP): the signature method featured and practiced on Business With Chronic Illness Podcast: CEO Women for Sustainable Growth and Burnout Support.
This system is designed for a woman entrepreneur, creative, a chronic boss, or a woman with an autoimmune illness who want simple business growth, sustainable sales, and burnout support, without sacrificing their health, energy, or self-care priorities.
💛 Inside CYAP, You’ll Learn How To:
- Manage your health and business with confidence.
- Grow a health-first business that supports your wellness, creativity, and income.
- Create sustainable systems that let your business serve your life, not take away from it.
⭐ Loved this episode? Leave a review and share it with a friend who’s ready to grow their business without burnout or sacrificing their well-being.
📱 Stay connected: Follow me on Instagram.
Transcript
I want to speak to you about something that comes often with clients that I'm talking to, whether they reach their goals or not.
Speaker A:It's a very real end of the year moment when you're looking at your audience, your sales and your growth and thinking it's not enough or you wish you did more.
Speaker A:Sometimes that's happening.
Speaker A:Sometimes that's maybe the voice you're trying to ignore or push to the background.
Speaker A:And if you've been feeling like your list is too small, your community isn't growing fast enough, and you're talking to the same people over and over again, that's what you feel.
Speaker A:I want you to take a moment and breathe for me for a second what you're about to hear.
Speaker A:And a little archived audio I originally shared inside my private podcast.
Speaker A:And honestly, it's even more relevant right now as we step into the new year.
Speaker A:The Most Sustainable burnout Proof businesses aren't ones chasing size, they're the ones nurturing depth.
Speaker A:Small doesn't mean stuck.
Speaker A:Small doesn't mean failing.
Speaker A:Small often means rooting, going deeper and rooted.
Speaker A:Things grow in their own time, in their own rhythm, and in a way that actually supports your health and your business long term.
Speaker A:So as you plan, dream and set intentions for the year ahead, let this be a gentle reminder that a tiny audience, whatever that definition is for you.
Speaker A:Because I've had clients that say like 10,000 followers or email list is tiny.
Speaker A:And then I've had people who say 100 is tiny.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Whatever that number is for, you can still be wildly powerful, profitable and even sustainable when you build it with intention.
Speaker A:So stay tuned.
Speaker B:Welcome to Business with Chronic Illness, the globally ranked podcast for women living with chronic illness who want to start and grow a business business online.
Speaker B:I'm your host, Nikita Williams and I went from living a normal life to all of a sudden being in constant pain with no answers to being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses and trying to make a livable income, I faced the challenge of adapting traditional business advice to fit my unique circumstances with chronic illness.
Speaker B:Feeling frustrated and more burned out than I already was while managing my chronic illness to becoming an award winning coach with a flexible, sustainable online coaching business, I found the surprisingly simple steps to starting and growing a profitable business without compromising my health or my peace.
Speaker B:Since then, I've helped dozens of women just like you learn how to do the same.
Speaker B:If you're ready to create a thriving business that aligns with your lifestyle and well being, you're in the right place.
Speaker B:Together, we're shifting the narrative of what's possible for women with chronic illness and how we make a living.
Speaker A:This.
Speaker B:This is business with chronic illness.
Speaker C:I just got done planting, repotting.
Speaker C:I'm a new plant mama, so I'm a little nervous because I might have killed them, I might have killed the plants, but we don't know.
Speaker C:This is usually when things get icky.
Speaker C:But I have committed to myself that if they die, I will just start over again and learn a lesson and do some more research.
Speaker C:Okay, so I wanted to share with you guys something that I, you know, I've been really focusing on small but mighty small but mighty businesses, like going deeper, having more intimate connection and things like that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And how you can have a list of 30 people, 400 or a thousand, and make a business that's profitable and sustainable.
Speaker C:And I was replanting one of my viney plants.
Speaker C:Don't ask me the name.
Speaker C:I think it's a Pythos, potentially.
Speaker C:And since I'm a new plant mama, I don't know what the root systems all look like, except I have one plant that I'll have to post in the community when we get it up that is in, like, a glass jar and you can see the root system.
Speaker C:And I've started to replant plants, most of them, except for my bigger plants, into, like, a clear pot.
Speaker C:So it's easier to see what's going on with the roots and things like that.
Speaker C:Something I learned from someone that I follow.
Speaker C:But anyway, and I'm just looking at the vine of this plant that's just flourished into this beautiful thing.
Speaker C:And the root system is so tiny.
Speaker C:Like, comparative to the pot, the pot is bigger.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker C:The soil inside of the pot is bigger.
Speaker C:However, it's.
Speaker C:It just made me think about the nutrients and the happiness and the coziness and the experience that it had in this pot, right.
Speaker C:To foster this beautiful, growing, voluntuous plant.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:And it didn't need a whole lot of things.
Speaker C:It needed the right environment.
Speaker C:And I think in businesses, we're missing that.
Speaker C:Like, over the years, we definitely heard a lot of coaching and things and business like the numbers.
Speaker C:The numbers, the expansion, the expansion, the growth.
Speaker C:And for a lot of people, they had the growth, but they didn't have profit, they didn't have sustainability.
Speaker C:They have burnt out and paint.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And they quit their businesses.
Speaker C:And I wonder if we all just first start with the first mindset of I want to build small but mighty, nurturing, engaging communities that literally lead to more vines that connect out on the outside.
Speaker C:For me, and for those that I serve.
Speaker C:And so that's kind of like the mindset or the approach I think about businesses.
Speaker C:Like when you have one person show to show up to a master class, that's amazing.
Speaker C:If you have one person on your email, that's amazing.
Speaker C:If you have made a hundred dollars today or this month, that's amazing, right?
Speaker C:And those small things lead to these beautiful, luxurious like plants if you will your business, beautiful, sustainable and profitable business.
Speaker C:This is when we get too big, get in our like try to do all of the things, try to all of the stuff, right?
Speaker C:And we just focus on the big end game.
Speaker C:We miss out on the growth that happens and the profitability and the sustainable and the peace and the ease that comes with one to one connecting, building, nurturing and deep relationships with those that we want to serve.
Speaker C:And so it doesn't have to be this huge.
Speaker C:All or nothing huge is loud, right?
Speaker C:It can be loud.
Speaker C:And if you want a huge business, great.
Speaker C:But huge businesses that are sustainable and profitable start from small but mighty businesses, okay?
Speaker C:And so if you have a big business right now and you don't feel like it's deep or connected to your p, your purpose, mission and your vision and you feel disconnected, go back into the smaller things that led to this beautiful big community.
Speaker C:And for those of you who are just getting started, started, it's like love and appreciate and be filled with joy around the fact that you are building this nurturing, enriching community and business that's not only just going to serve people, but it's going to serve your life of what you want, how you want to live it, right?
Speaker C:And when we come from that place, it creates ripple, ripple effects, right?
Speaker C:It creates this vine, these beautiful vines that just keep telling others to come into your small but mining community and business.
Speaker C:And it's lovely.
Speaker C:So just wanted to share that as I finish cleaning up my mess of this small but mighty.
Speaker C:All right, loves, stay beautiful, stay wonderful.
Speaker A:Peace out.
Speaker B:That's a wrap for this episode of business with Queen Chronic illness.
Speaker B:If you would like to start and grow an online coaching business with me, head to the show notes to click a link to book a sales call and learn how to make money with chronic illness.
Speaker B:You can also check out our website@ww.CraftedToThrive.com for this episode's show notes and join our email list to get exclusive content where I coach you on how to chronically grow a profitable business while living with chronic illness.
Speaker B:Until next time, remember, yes, you are crafted to thrive.
