A following is permission to be shown to people, revocable at any time, by an algorithm that owes you nothing. An audience is a list of people you can reach directly. The difference sounds academic until the day it isn't.
The test
Could you reach your people tomorrow if the platform changed its rules tonight? If the answer is no, you have a following. Every creator who's watched reach collapse after an algorithm update learned this with their rent money.
The fix is unglamorous
An email list, on a platform where you can export every subscriber, attached to a website you own. Social becomes the trailer; your site is the show. Every post builds an asset instead of feeding a feed.
That's what this site is — and it's the least exciting, most valuable thing a creator can own.