Going Viral for the First Time
Entrepreneur Diaries
I went viral for the first time right before Christmas.
And it was a lot harder (and easier) than I thought it would be. Here’s what happened and what I learned.
The Story
I went viral for my new business- in a totally different field: horses.
My mentor had offered some of our existing clients a special Christmas lights ride, then casually asked me if I knew anyone else who might be interested. I popped into a horse’s stall, took a quick video, and didn’t even get around to posting it til two days later. I was expecting maybe 30 likes and an inquiry or two if I was lucky. It was a new social media account with less than 100 followers, after all.
I didn’t check my phone til that evening, and, to my shock, found more than 100 people commenting, messaging, and wanting to book.
Then it was 200.
Then it was more.
Likes, comments, DMs on DMs on DMs. Coordinating with my mentor. Juggling running and marketing The Squad, teaching my riding lessons, and getting alarming amounts of notifications whenever I looked at my phone. It was so much at once, it felt like my brain was short-circuiting.
It was quite modest in terms of “going viral” but it was far more visibility and attention than I was used to. Good, right? I should have been popping champagne and giving myself a hearty pat on the back.
Here’s what happened instead: my anxiety spiked.
I had a panic attack and still couldn’t look away from my phone.
I took my anxiety meds. I walked my dog.
I could not stop panicking.
I asked ChatGPT about whether this was a normal reaction to going viral: apparently, it is.
My body was interpreting my visibility, the amount of people wanting something from me -and the volume of people I could potentially disappoint- as a life-threatening emergency.
My business partner was over the moon when I showed her the response.
I wanted to delete my video, throw my phone away, and hide under the covers until January. I suddenly missed my 5-30 likes per post days.
I dreaded answering the comments and DMs of everyone wanting not just a Christmas lights ride, but also riding lessons and other horse experiences- kinda the dream for anyone launching a new business.
It took at least two whole days for me to calm down and to recognize this as the achievement and opportunity that it was.
So, what happened?
Now that I’ve calmed down, answered all my comments and DMs, quadrupled my followers in less than a week, added several new clients (though less than you’d think)- I’ve decided to reflect on the experience so I can make the most of the lessons learned and save you some head and heartaches should you happen to go viral.
The Business Takeaways
#1 Following a formula or even best practices didn’t make it go viral.
This company, the one I’m writing this blog for, started out as a marketing agency. (It’s since evolved, but I’ll have to get into that in a later piece.) Before I launched my business in 2021, I’d been working in marketing for 6 years. Before that, I ran all the social media for the little newspaper for which I served as news editor for 2½ years.
In all that time, I never went viral.
Sometimes a post would pop off- a bit. As in, 100 likes felt like a crazy big deal.
(There was one time I guest-wrote an article for Mitú that got what felt like a lot of attention and I stopped reading or looking at the response after the first 5 comments and promptly erased it from my brain. So much so that I forgot that I even had that experience until I started editing this blog post!)
The truth was, deep down, minimal likes and views felt safe to me. Despite my surface-level frustration and disappointment in my lack of growth.
So my follower count stayed low.
My engagement rates weren’t great.
I’d tried other people’s best practices. I made similar content to what I saw working for other people. Hardly anything ever came of it.
But here’s the thing, people would often buy something off of a post that only got 5 likes.
But it didn’t feel like enough at the time to keep pouring effort in. And so after years of trying different things, I fully gave up on social media marketing for this business for the better part of 2025.
But as I prepared to open my horse business, it seemed a more natural fit for social media marketing. I made a TikTok for it and posted a few cute horse videos. Sometimes I’d get like 300 likes, and that felt good. But nothing like the hundreds of comments and DMs of the week before Christmas.
The video that actually went viral, I made in less than 5 minutes. I only did one take. I didn’t script or rehearse it. There were no transitions, filters, or trending songs. I just got it done.
I shared it after not posting for nearly a week and extremely intermittently before that.
I didn’t think it would go anywhere, as I’d noticed that social media platforms tended to show my stuff to fewer people whenever I was explicitly selling something.
As tempted as I am to debunk social media formulas business influencers are trying to oversell you on- I must admit that I did use some strategy. I did do a title. I did do a caption. I changed up my hashtag game a little by including location hashtags like #losangeles and #longbeach instead of using more thematic hashtags. I was wearing an adorable Christmas sweater, and while I don’t think I got the most flattering angle of my face, I looked cute. And of course, the video featured a lovely horse in the background… Like most of my videos.
Bottom line: not a lot was different from videos I’d made that went nowhere.
But this one went viral.
Not really because of strategy. Because I’d used the same strategy before to crickets.
Here’s why I think this one did the numbers it did:
Kind of because my offer was cute AF and had a broader appeal than many of my other offers.
But, I believe, mostly because I caught people at the right place and right time. Sheer luck. Mixed with some strategy. I’ll give y’all that much. But I didn’t follow someone else’s formula to make it happen.
There was a healthy dose of experimentation (new hashtags, new offer) added to the mix.
And quite a bit of detachment. I didn’t even look at my phone all day, which made those 100s of messages all the more shocking.
The takeaway for you:
There isn’t a virality formula you can buy from someone that will make it happen. The algorithms are always in flux. People are coming to social media marketing from very different contexts- so one-size-fits-all strategies don’t work. Especially if your social media influencer is preaching tactics that work for their huge platform of dedicated followers to their personal brand that it took them years to build before monetizing and you’re just starting out. You gotta find your own way. With support and informed suggestions (when you ask for them), sure. But no one gets out of the experimentation phase. That’s just a part of marketing.
#2 Followers ≠ Dollars
Ok, I can’t quite calculate total profit yet because we’ve got more rides booked, and I may have gotten some private lesson clients out of the ordeal (we’ll see)- but so far I’ve made more money from my marketing services & cheerleading posts that had like 5 likes than this one with 1500+ likes and hundreds of saves, follows, comments, and DMs.
Dang, when they say followers do not equal dollars, they weren’t kidding.
Especially because the 5 likes and nicely spaced client communications for this marketing business have never broken or even strained my business systems.
But the viral post sure did.
I didn’t have a centralized place to send people for more info at first.
My business partner and I weren’t yet on the same page about scheduling.
I even got banned from answering my DMs for like 24 hours because I was using a templated response to answer hordes of inquiries and the TikTok algorithm flagged it as spam, even though I was only sending information to people who asked for it.
We were scrambling to meet the demand at first- a major trigger for the anxiety that made going viral so scary for me at first.
The takeaway for you:
You don’t need to go viral to make sales. Posts that get 5 likes and a lucrative new client are worth more than posts with thousands of likes that don’t convert OR that shatter your systems by astronomically increasing demand overnight.
#3 Same video, different platforms can have wildly different results.
The same video that went viral on TikTok had next to 0 engagement on Instagram. Literally.
The takeaway for you:
Posts not taking off or getting you sales? Have you tested different social media platforms? Maybe you’ve got great content that’s just on the wrong channel.
#4 You don’t have to post multiple times a day or even every day to go viral.
Again, I’d posted on this TikTok intermittently at best. I hadn’t posted for 6 days before my viral post. I was probably averaging a post once a week or less before that.
The takeaway for you:
You don’t have to show up multiple times a day or even every day on social media. That might not be feasible for your capacity. Show up consistently- in a rhythm that works for you rather than drains you, try new things, see what works for you. Grinding yourself into burnout is not necessary for your words to hit new audiences. Don’t overwork and don’t give up.
# 5 Systems Will Save You
It should be obvious by now that I was NOT prepared to go viral. My previous lackluster social media marketing performance afforded me a luxury I did not know was a luxury at the time: I didn’t NEED systems in place to handle the response. A 4ish times a week Asana reminder to respond to comments more than sufficed. But with this level of engagement? That didn’t cut it.
Nor did simply giving information in the DMs- as TikTok gets mad when you send the same message over and over again- even if that info has been requested.
So, here’s what I will have in place next time, so things go smoother.
Designated times to respond. Seeing that much response so quickly made things feel a lot more urgent than they actually were. I could have protected my mental health and emotional capacity a lot more those first two days if I’d turned off my phone except for when I had spoons to answer everyone once or twice a day.
A system for tracking who I had and hadn’t responded to. I learned the hard way that when you have zillions of comments, the app sometimes takes a while to accurately show who you’ve responded to directly on the post. (Sorry to those folks I responded to multiple times!) I also had a hard time finding the direct messages I’d accepted but not responded to. And it took me a while to realize I could filter the Activity section of my inbox by comments. Next time, I will only heart a comment after I’ve already responded to it or if it doesn’t require a response. This will help me keep track of who I have and haven’t addressed yet. I will only accept and look at DMs once a day when I have time to respond to prevent them from falling through the cracks.
A centralized place with info. As I’ve mentioned before, TikTok did not appreciate me answering info requests with the same copy/paste DM. I’m just going to have to build a web page to send people to from the start from now on.
For the love of gawd, don’t save a spot for anyone without a deposit. Y’all ruined the honor system. 🤣 I’d been burned so many times before by offering the honor system, I should have learned my lesson long before this. But: never hold a spot that you have to turn away others for if you haven’t been paid yet. Low investment unfortunately, all too often, equals low commitment. Don’t rearrange times, don’t make accommodations, don’t do favors for anyone who hasn’t paid.
The takeaway for you:
You can just do all of this from the start! Save yourself a lot of admin by having your systems sorted out first.
#6 Capture those interactions!
You need a system for capturing all those leads from that tidal wave of engagement!
Next time, in addition to having a web page to send people to from the start, I’m going to have a giant newsletter signup pop-up for that page so they can stay in the loop and learn about my other offers. And when I DM people the webpage, I can urge them to join my email list too.
I generally don’t like to have more than one call-to-action, but since scheduling didn’t work out for several interested parties, it would have been great to get them on an email list so they could be the first to hear and sign up for upcoming events!
The takeaway for you:
Be prepared with an easy way to collect names and contact info for interested parties. That’s how your viral moment doesn’t become a one-and-done and starts making conversions far into the future!
#7 The attention is nice, but when you cast such a wide net- not everyone is meant to be a client.
I’ve had trolls before, but they usually turned up when I was posting about much more controversial issues. I wasn’t expecting haters on something as innocent as Christmas rides on deeply pampered, gently handled, and beloved horses!
I did get an ignorant comment or two about animal exploitation- Central Park carriage rides these were not! And those comments did throw me for a minute.
I also got rude dismissals when folks learned they would have to wear a helmet. Frustration that there was a weight limit for how much the horse can safely carry. People were even mad at me that it might rain, and that in that case, we’d have to cancel! People were mad we hadn’t started booking in October and that they were just finding out about it now. People were mad when I didn’t instantly respond.
And while that felt like urgency in my body, it wasn’t. And while my people-pleasing and perfectionist programming was trying to convince me I needed to make everyone happy OR ELSE- I was proud that my only response was “Ok. Happy Holidays!” to the nasty or disgruntled. Valid criticism? That might get a more specific response. But, as I evaluate how I handled the whole thing, I’m glad that I didn’t backslide into “the customer is always right!” thinking OR believe that every interested person might be my last customer. Instead, I focused my attention on the best fits for the offer. And part of being a good fit was not being rude.
The takeaway for you:
You get a lot of attention when you go viral, and not all of it will be good. Focus your energy and effort on the folks who most deserve it. With that many people, you don’t have to convince any *one* person to buy. You can talk to the people who already want in! And you certainly don’t have to defend yourself in the comments to folks who are committed to being haters.
The Personal Takeaways
#1 Your lizard brain might interpret going viral as a life-threatening emergency.
My body sure did! And it turns out I’m not alone.
In The Squad, we talk a lot about how we are wired to perceive anything new as a threat, even if the new thing is something you want. Rightly or wrongly, you are wired to perceive the familiar as safe (even if it’s not) and the unfamiliar as unsafe (even if it’s not). Hence, why, for example, folks who grew up in abusive households are more likely to be in abusive relationships as adults.
This is why I see many entrepreneurs, particularly those who come from traumatic backgrounds, really struggle to receive positive attention, just compensation, and healthy working relationships. Because none of that feels normal.
Similarly, if you’ve been social media marketing to minimal response for a while, this has become your new familiar. Or if you haven’t marketed at all before, you’re probably not used to hundreds of strangers approaching you to ask about your offer, what your credentials are, and tell you what you’re doing wrong. So, it makes sense that if going viral isn’t your normal, it’s scary until it becomes your new familiar.
Evolutionarily, I don’t think the human physiology has adjusted to quite so much feedback all at once. Hence why content creators report higher levels of depression and anxiety than the general public. It’s a lot to process.
The good news is that you can interrupt your stress responses, bring a sense of safety to your body, and rewire your defaults when it comes to beliefs about work, money, boundaries, other humans, etc.
You just need the tools. And the practice actually using them. And supportive environments that will hold you accountable to doing just that. (Because when you’re in full-fledged fight or flight, it can be really hard to remember what you’re supposed to do, and it helps to have someone there to ground and remind you.)
That’s how you go viral without crashing out.
The takeaway for you:
Know in advance effective tools for interrupting your stress responses. Are you a meditation and yoga girlie or do you need to journal it out? Do we need a weekly therapy or coaching session so you’re not bottling up your normal challenges so much that you’ll emotionally explode should we throw something like going viral into the mix? Do you know the people you can confide in who won’t fuel your fear and anxiety? Do you have people in your life like that? If not, do you know where you can find them? (Hint: join The Squad!) Then, should your body interpret going viral as an imminent danger, you’ll know how to take care of yourself so you can respond with calm, clarity, and confidence instead of crashing out.
#2 OMFG, TAKE A BREAK!
Part of my anxiety those first two days of going viral was that I couldn’t look away from my phone. All that response pouring in all the time- it felt like I should do something about it. It was also kind of addictive to have 200 new likes every time I opened the app.
It wasn’t until Day 3 when I led a meditation session for entrepreneurs when my internal systems were able to reset. I walked my dog. I did some yoga. I decided not to look or respond until a designated time, then I wouldn’t look or respond again until the next day.
The anxiety stopped. Everybody wanting something from me stopped feeling urgent. “Dang, I wish I’d been doing this since the first day!”, I thought. I certainly will be next time.
The takeaway for you:
Set no more than two times a day where you look and respond. And set a time limit for how long you’ll spend on it. It’s not an emergency. Better yet, set the response strategy and delegate implementing it. You will be more effective if you are responding from a place of calm, balance, and health rather than stress, anxiety, and panic. Fight or flight makes you “fast and dumb” as one of my mentors likes to say. No one, not your business, not all these potential customers and critics, needs a fast and dumb response from you. Take care of yourself first. Put strict boundaries around how and when you respond. And if you need to not look at it at all for a few days to protect your mental health, you can make that call. You’re allowed.
#3 Systems will save you
Again, know and practice your tools for interrupting your stress responses and protecting your mental health. For me, I now know that should I freak out while going viral again, I will need to:
Breathe. Slowing down my breath is an incredibly powerful tool for me to stop the anxiety spiral and interrupt my body from going into fight or flight. Breathing slow is not what you’d do if you had to run away from a lion. So when you intentionally slow your breath when your body thinks going viral is the same thing as a hungry lion springing at you, your body has to recalibrate because you’re breathing like you’re safe. This helps your body and your mind to regain your sense of safety. I really like the 4-7-8 breath for this: inhale for a count of 4, hold for a count of 7, exhale for a count of 8.
Do some cardio. Dance, gallop a horse, go for a fun with my dog, do that heavy-duty yard work I’ve been avoiding. I need this kind of hard, heavy exercise to release built-up tension in my body and open up the space for my calming tools. I go right to Step 2 if I’m not in a place where breathing is working to calm me down.
Stretch & meditate. This is my process for achieving clarity. I know I’ll get to the answers faster if I take the time to relax my body and go inward rather than trying to just busy work my way through the discomfort. It’s an exercise in releasing control and trusting that nothing will blow up if I don’t attend to it right away. Again, showing my body that going viral is not an emergency.
The takeaway for you:
Have your tools ready so you know what to do if going viral sends you into a panic spiral. Have them written and saved somewhere. Kind of like a “break glass in case of mental health emergency” sort of thing. Plan ahead what to do, even if you don’t tend to be an anxious person in general. Going viral very commonly triggers anxiety and other mental health issues. So if you’re aiming for more visibility, more engagement, more sales, please be prepared for how to EMOTIONALLY handle it as well as meet the demand from a business standpoint. If you don’t have your emotional systems ready, you won’t have the capacity to implement your business systems.
#4 People are more understanding than you give them credit for.
Around Day 2 of going viral, I was feeling as though everyone was mad at me. Everyone wanted information right now. TikTok wouldn’t let me keep replying to messages.
My sister called to congratulate me on my success and was surprised that I wasn’t over the moon. I shared with her how overwhelmed I was feeling with the sheer volume of people talking to me.
She was ready with the obvious answer: “Just do one of those posts small businesses do when they blow up overnight. Just explain it’s just the two of you and you’re doing your best to get back to everyone as fast as you can, and that you were thrilled by the response but surprised by it and are scrambling to keep up!”
Duh. Why didn’t I think of that? (Oh yeah, that whole fight or flight, fast and dumb thing.)
I posted it in a comment, made another cute video- and those got swarmed with likes, comments, and MORE DEMAND too!
Most people were gracious and understanding.
The ones who were rude wouldn’t have made good clients anyway!
The takeaway for you:
Just tell them what’s going on. They’re more likely to get annoyed or lose interest if you just totally go dark. But most people are understanding when given the chance to be.
Alright, that’s a wrap on what I learned from going viral for the first time! If you enjoyed this material and would like to navigate the unique challenges of entrepreneurship with grace, ease, and a whole crew of support and companionship- you gotta check out The Squad, my membership for entrepreneurs growing wildly successful businesses to make positive change in the world through mastering marketing. You get me as your on-call marketing director, and an amazing club of black sheep, rebel entrepreneurs who refuse to play it safe and demand that business be fun. Join today and you’ll be just in time to join our video marketing challenge for January!
