The biggest opportunity to build a personal brand - is right now.

In the past month, I have reached almost 4.8 million people on Instagram - without using any ads or boosting. All I did was post videos of things that I am interested in, and content that makes people laugh.

Check it out here

For the past decade, Instagram creators have gotten huge by embellishing their real lives. The new generation of social media users can see through this - and in many cases don’t care.

Yes, everyone wants to get rich and go on crazy vacations, but when people are scrolling, they just want to discover content by people they can relate to.

That was my mindset when I started regularly posting on Instagram about a month and a half ago.

I was posting mostly tech-focused content earlier this year and had some mild success. The only thing, is that news content has a very short shelf life and quickly becomes outdated.

This works on something like X (formerly Twitter) where your posts get removed from the algorithm within 24 hours, but with something like Instagram - it’s much better to create content that people can binge.

This is where I struggled and it took me awhile to figure out what to focus on.

Last month, I joined Cut30, which is a course that teaches people of all skill levels on how to create short form video content.

Note: Before I say anymore, I want you all to know that this is NOT an ad. I loved this course and I genuinely think it’s a great place to start for those who want more hands-on guidance.

Cut30 is built to set up creators for success with actual advice on how to make your videos better - while also meeting a bunch of other people who are working on the same thing.

Oren and Colin (who have both built big followings on Instagram/TikTok) gave me a bunch of feedback that I immediately started using in my new videos.

One change suggested by Oren, resulted in one of my videos getting 8.2 million views!

I quickly realized that in order to actually get views, I needed to focus on the psychology of creating videos more than anything else.

This is when I came to the realization that anyone can create videos that blow up on short-form video platforms.

You just need to know how to get people to stop scrolling and watch your video for as long as possible.

Simple? Not really - but it’s a skill that you can learn.

Over the next few issues, I’m going to write about some of the strategies I’ve used to accomplish this.

Homework

If you are thinking about starting on Instagram in 2024 - spend the next week watching Reels.

But instead of passively watching them - make notes on WHY you actually watched them, and what kept you watching. What you liked about the video and at what point you wanted to scroll away.

Spend your scrolling time learning - instead of consuming.

Shoutout

If you are serious about building your Instagram check out Cut30, their next intake is starting in a couple of weeks.