Aspiring to Go Viral Is Lazy

Hundreds of businesses have jumped on the bandwagon, posting witty memes about a couple at a Coldplay concert, hoping — praying — to go viral.

I wish every business owner could go viral once, so they could realize how little it actually moves the needle.

Aspiring to go viral is like a kid dreaming of being discovered on American Idol, but never taking a singing lesson or booking a gig. Year after year passes while they wait to be “found”… but nothing changes. No growth. No traction. Just hope without effort.

Your business’s growth is NOT on the other side of going viral.

I’ll say it again for those in the back: Your business’s growth is NOT on the other side of going viral.

Believing otherwise isn’t just naive — it’s lazy.

The best singers, athletes, and business owners don’t wish their way to success. They train, they hire experts, and they outlast their competition. They remove every variable they can’t control and get to work on the ones they can.

Let’s break it down.

Hire Experts

The need for expertise becomes obvious the moment you get serious about growth.

Nearly every guest on To A Million And Beyond has echoed this truth: hiring the right people or firm unlocked a new level of performance in their business.

Growth is only “voodoo” to those who don’t understand the process.

Real marketing is not about making one flashy video. It’s not about chasing trends or creating something “viral-worthy.” It’s about crafting a strategy rooted in your business’s core identity—and building messaging that speaks to real people, consistently, over time.

Think about a cardiologist. They don’t just study the heart in isolation. They understand how the heart fits into the entire body — how every part influences the other. That’s what expert marketers do. We don’t just make things that look good; we make things that work together to build trust, spark emotion, and drive results.

That’s where many media companies fall short. Yes, they create beautiful videos. But their only goal is views. Their strategy? Get lucky.

“Hope is not a strategy.”

If you want impact beyond the post, you need a strategist who understands human behavior — someone who can craft felt messaging that aligns with a proven growth system.

If your marketing doesn’t make people feel something, it’s worthless.

And if people don’t know, like, and trust you, they won’t buy from you. Going viral might get you known (so does streaking across a football field), but if you’re forgotten tomorrow, what’s the point?

Train

Success isn’t a lottery. It’s earned.

You want predictable, compounding growth? Then stop waiting for a lucky break and start doing the work. Even if you go viral and get a big cash hit, what’s next? If you haven’t learned how to build and scale with intent, the money will dry up as fast as it came in.

True growth means evolving. As you scale, new challenges emerge — and your strategy must adapt with you.

Last week, I proposed a major revenue model update to a client. They’re seasoned business owners, but the ideas blew them away. Not because they were flashy. But because they fit seamlessly into their business’s larger picture — ideas only an outside expert with perspective could see clearly.

An expert gets you on course — and corrects you when you drift. But you still have to do the work. You still have to train.

Outlast the Competition

We call the first 9 months of any new marketing strategy the “chickening out period.” That’s how long it typically takes to start seeing meaningful revenue shifts. Why? Because trust takes time.

And most business owners aren’t used to that. They’ve been sold a lie: that they can go viral, run a couple of Google Ads, and cash in. It’s why we go out of our way to be brutally honest with prospective clients. We don’t promise fast money — we promise real growth.

But that growth is earned, not granted.

The ones who stay the course become household names.

The ones who quit? They keep playing Google’s slot machine, or hoping for the algorithm to smile on them.

The Bottom Line

I didn’t write this to discourage you. I wrote it to give you hope — the right kind of hope.

Hope rooted in reality.

If your current approach to marketing feels like a gamble, it probably is. But it doesn’t have to be. You can grow predictably. You can become a trusted brand. And you can build a business that lasts.

But you have to stop waiting to be discovered.

And start building on purpose.