Your reel is not competing with the algorithm. It is competing with forgettable.

Last week we talked about the pink at the World Cup. You felt it. My inbox is still full of it.

This week I want to stay on Instagram with you, but go somewhere quieter. Reels.

I spent this week inside reels with a few of you. Not the kind that chases a trend and disappears by Tuesday. The kind that makes someone stop and think, oh, that is her.

Here is what I keep coming back to. Most people make a reel hoping to be seen. The work is making a reel that makes you recognizable. Those are not the same thing.

Being seen is a number. Being recognized is a feeling in someone else's body when your face shows up on their screen. It is the difference between traffic and belonging.

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The mistake I watched this week was reels that could belong to anyone. Good lighting. Trending sound. A tip that fifty other accounts posted the same morning.

Nothing wrong with any of it. But nothing in it was you.

Your reel carries your art direction whether you plan it or not. The color you wear. The room behind you. The three words you open with. The pace you speak at. That is your visual identity moving at thirty frames a second.

When it is intentional, people start to know you before they ever read your caption.

This Sunday