Part 1 of 4: The Discovery Channel

All month I’ll be exploring the channels that shape a fandom orbit. Here is what I’ll be covering:

By the end of December, I hope you can see the energy of your own orbit with more clarity and less pressure.

For the first part of this series, I want to start at the place where people first wander in. Let’s talk about the Discovery Channel!

When I say discovery, I mean spaces built for wandering. People are already scrolling, swiping, tapping, or searching. I recently heard that the average person scrolls the length of the Statue of Liberty every single day. These are places where people are not really looking for anything or for you, yet they still stumble onto something that feels interesting. For many creators and brands, discovery feels like the whole job. It feels like the thing we are supposed to chase. That feeling is strong for a reason. Discovery channels are designed for movement and novelty. They are also designed to keep moving without you.

Before we go deeper, I want to anchor this in my framework.

At the center, we start with the (no pun intended) most obvious: The Center, which is the thing fans orbit. Then there is The Lore, which is the storytelling, the source material, the history, the meaning. Then come The Channels, which are the pathways that carry the center outward and invite fans to move closer. These pathways are not a small detail. They are the connectors that bring the orbit to life. A fandom comes alive when the center, the lore, the channel, and the orbit are all in sync.

This is why discovery matters. It is the first thread between the center and the outer ring of the orbit.

Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest, and even search all fall into this category. Substack does too. People often think of Substack as a publishing tool or a writing home, but it has become a discovery and social platform in its own way. Posts circulate. Notes circulate. People share and reshare and get pulled toward each other. That is discovery.

Each platform has its own logic, but they share a similar rhythm (and they have an algorithm). They are light and wide. They reward speed and getting sucked in and they let people drift in (and out). Discovery is a mix of intention and accident which is why so many people feel restless inside it.

And discovery is shifting again. Instagram is openly trying to become a sharing platform more than a consumption platform. They want people to send things to each other. They want posts to travel in private channels, not public ones. It is changing what gets surfaced and why. The most important moments on Instagram do not live out in public. They live inside group chats, DMs, and the connections between people who already know each other. (This is written about at length by Rachel Karten at Link in Bio which I pay for).

Tools like ManyChat are part of this shift too. At scale, discovery creates a volume of attention no human can respond to. That is what makes ManyChat so interesting. It is essentially an automation layer at the edge of the orbit. It catches people the moment they drift into your world. It responds instantly. It bridges the gap between curiosity and the next step.

But I’m here to remind you that discovery is not where fandom is built or resides!! It is where someone sees a tiny bit of your world and feels that first pull. Some people will stay on the edge. Some will wander closer. Some will forget they ever saw you. And none of that is personal (usually). It is simply how these channels behave.

Where discovery becomes powerful is in the small signals it gives you. What shapes catch attention? What parts of your lore float easily? What ideas seem to travel? Discovery shows you what makes people pause. It tells you something about your world and the pieces that stick out even in a quick scroll.

The challenge I see is that many people try to turn discovery into the center, which is where things start to crack. They try to make their world fit the rhythm of a discovery platform. They try to optimize everything for reach. They treat the algorithm like a decision maker or the center’s boss. And this is where burnout begins. Discovery channels cannot hold your world. They can only introduce it.

If you prioritize the center and the other channels you own (we’ll discuss next week and the weeks following), you can use discovery for what it truly is: a doorway or a starting point or a spark. Nothing more and nothing less. The goal is to pay close attention to how people behave when a stranger meets you for the first time. That is part of the magic.

So as you think about your own orbit, consider this question. What is the smallest glimpse of your world that still carries the feeling you want a fan to have?

PS. If you are wondering where to show up, start by noticing where your fans already hang out. Not where you wish they were, but where they actually spend their time. Discovery works best when you meet people in the places where they are already are.