Has The Audience Heard This Less Than 1000 Times?

“I’m going to say this more than once and less than 1000 times.” I heard a TikTok creator say this and it lodged into my brain because it represented a powerful lesson: I feared repeating myself too much. But just because I’m tired of saying something doesn’t mean the audience is tired of hearing it.

For example, I have followed the personal finance author Ramit Sethi for years. I have heard him say several dozen times that buying a home isn’t always a better financial decision than renting. If I had just heard it once, I doubt his message would have stuck.

Often the most influential voices don’t reinvent the wheel with every piece of content. They hammer home a core message, again and again, until it becomes a part of a subculture’s common understanding.

Important ideas need multiple passes, especially when it goes against common wisdom.

Almost every single video I make in favor of public transit is met with familiar counterarguments.

I’ve explained in about a dozen videos this year the problems with cars in cities, why more lanes makes traffic worse, and why cars are the more subsidized form of transportation (by far).

In his famous book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman explains that a consistent message is most impactful. “The mere-exposure effect,” as it’s called, “holds that when we are repeatedly exposed to something, we tend to trust or like it more,” says Kahneman.

My job as a creator isn’t to be novel. It’s to be clear and persistent. I repeat it. I refine it. But I don’t apologize for saying it more than once. Hopefully I won’t say it a thousand times, but enough that it starts to stick.

The magic isn’t in saying something new. The magic is in saying something important, over and over.