@joe well...couple things....
You're on your own instance and have follow requests on and tell people not to follow you. Fediverse works by follow relationships for the most part. If nobody follows you, your posts don't go very far. I'm actually surprised your post reached me.
Also, you only have 13 posts in your month and a half of being here.
It's still social media. You'll have to post a bit more than that and hope a few of them catches on. Not all posts will be seen, liked, or boosted.
And I'm sure you figured out that you should use hashtags, but don't abuse them. Use them like little categories for your posts. If I'm talking about Fediverse or Mastodon directly, I use those tags, for example.
Hope these tips could help.🤷♂️