How I Gained 1.8M Followers (and Make $930,000/Month)

LinkedIn channel to 272,000 14 months X to 170,000 10 months Instagram to 710,000 11 months and here's today this is the audience I've built in only 2 years an audience powering two massive companies a network of Allstars and the freedom to work when where and how I want I'm going to teach you my three part system to grow an audience from Z to 100,000 followers on any platform starting from zero audience zero budget and zero experience so you can have a business in life you love starting with level one going from zero to 1,000 followers when I asked you guys how big your audience was 73.9% of you said you had fewer than a thousand followers total so with that in mind let's start and assume you have zero audience you haven't built an organic following before and you have minimal or no cash to grow an existing business to speed things up if so congratulations because hey that's exactly where I started you're like basically everyone when they start out the first a th000 followers suck to get I know because that's exactly how I started out with no clue how to do any of this zero ad span just an internet connection and a keyboard this is what we call level one of building your audience and there are three key moves you must make when you're starting out from nothing first you need to pick one one channel to grow on the biggest mistake I see people make is trying to get going on too many platforms all at once instead pick just one channel that fits the following two criteria it's fast to start creating and it's fast to start improving first let's pick a channel with a low barrier to entry we don't have to go and buy a camera expensive gear grow some massive team or get all these extra tools to get started instead pick a channel where you can get writing immediately a channel where organic reach is strong a channel where you can determine how well your content is going to go right away this criteria will immediately throw at about half of the options available to us which is a good thing so here's what we have left my top two recommendations for your first channel to grow to 100,000 are LinkedIn or X these are the Grand Slam platforms they use written texts which means you can practice your copywriting immediately and once you get good at writing copy you can take that skill anywhere to any platform form and already have a huge Advantage Instagram and YouTube are examples of platforms that are great but they're a little trickier to get started on you need to spend either money or time and energy to stand out and they sometimes require more video image based designs and a bit more of a team so start with either X or LinkedIn if you force me to pick I'd choose LinkedIn because the organic reach is amazing right now so it's a lot easier to stand out X is a lot more competitive and it requires you to already be great at copyrighting so avoid that if you're just getting started next after you pick your first channel pick one topic when you're on your way to your first a th000 followers you want to become known for one thing it's important to pick a topic that's narrow enough that you can dominate it but you also want to pick a topic that is true to who you are and the people that you want to serve one exercise that has helped me is the icky guy exercise this exercise helps you find the meeting point between what you're good at what you love what the world needs and what you can be paid for so make four lists and start to populate your icky guy with topics the few topics that meet all at the center point are your icky guy your calling and these will make up your content categories these will be your North Star on your road to 100,000 followers when I completed my iy guy I discovered my topics were systems audience growth community building and Entrepreneurship so I create content focused on helping a 100 million Founders achieve their dreams through proven systems and every morning I jump out of bed excited to talk about these topics because they're truly in my calling in life everything I create helps people understand these topics so they can get where they want to be faster the worst thing you can do is pick a topic that you don't feel passionate about you just end up writing about stuff that you hate make sure it's a topic you love and you're an expert on at a minimum from there you want to explore it at a deep level sharing your discoveries and above all else don't pick too many topics to go after all at once your content category should revolve around one core idea ideally you want to end up owning one word in the mind of your audience for me that's systems for James Clear that's habits for Ryan holiday it's stoicism for all abdall it's productivity if you spread your topic too thin you're Pace towards your first a th000 followers will be much slower once you have a channel and your topic step three is learning to succeed without a budget the final barrier between you and a th000 followers on any platform is this you don't know what good content looks like yet it's not a lack of money it's not a bad topic it's knowing what's good and then making a little bit of that consistently to improve you must develop your intuition for what good looks like specifically for your topic on your one channel and there are only a few things that can help you discover that first find Role Models imitate before you innovate you need someone who already has figured out what works on your platform and then learn from them if you're starting out on LinkedIn X or Instagram please use my social channels as your role model I have spent hundreds of hours studying these platforms and reverse engineering what works on each one of them meticulously and I'll be sharing the game tape of everything I know about each each of these in my upcoming videos the easiest way to jump ahead on these platforms would be to model my top 10 performing posts on each platform I've created a detailed breakdown guide on my best post from each platform which you can use to make sure that you stand out you can find that Below in the description if I had this one guide it would have saved me hundreds of hours when I was just getting started all that testing and experimentation I've done is all Below in the description in that guide so go down to the description of this video right below the like button and download the guide and while you're down there like And subscribe to this video to help me reach more Founders just like you step two to blow up with zero budget is to establish a posting Cadence consistency is key put in the Reps and if you are consistent good things happen the only way to Excellence is through repetition Excellence is a daily habit when going from Zer to 1,000 you're learning the skills and the language of that given platform you don't know much yet you know you're just getting started but the more reps you put in the faster you're going to bridge that ignorance Gap here's my exact recommended schedule for consistency on X and Linkedin I post a LinkedIn 7 days a week at exactly 8:07 a.m. estd and I post a x 7 days a week twice a day at both 811 a.m. EST and 20:07 p.m. EST volume is everything you should post on LinkedIn directly without scheduling and use hype Fury to schedule content for x above everything else be consistent third when you're growing to a th000 followers without a budget you have to overcome your limiting beliefs at this stage people trip on their own preconceptions to getting started you know they're Their Own Worst Enemy Steve GNA is one founder who came to me through founder OS but when we initially started working together he hesitated to get going and growing on social media why well he'd say I don't want to be famous or I'm not even sure if I can add any value you he didn't want the exposure and he didn't want to come across as inauthentic to grow an audience but after Steve joined found roest that all changed he realized he could find an authentic route forward he started at level one with no Channel no topic and no budget but once he built an audience on LinkedIn he started quickly seeing massive growth the podcast that he started grew to over 2 million downloads in just 3 months not only that but Steve's new SAS business went from zero to $7 million of annual recurring Revenue which is insane whether you like it or not you have a personal brand the question is whether you're intentionally growing it the only choice you have is whether to take control of your brand or let others decide for you if you're consistent you focus on one platform with one topic your first thousand followers will happen almost automatically which brings us to level two growing to 10,000 followers once you get to 1,000 followers you've expanded your surface area for luck Community connections and cash flows significantly you're ready to now take off your training wheels a thousand followers might have taken you a month three months or maybe even longer but getting your first a thousand is often 10 times more difficult and painful than getting your next 9,000 so that's the good news but it's also exhilarating because your rate of growth and learning is going to start speeding up considerably and once you SAR past a thousand you can start to increase your speed by by using the following tactics first develop your content templates if getting to level one is all about picking a topic and posting consistently level two is about how you post this is when you get skilled at the art of content creation your goal at this stage is to refine your topics into templates then when you post you know it will perform because the format itself drives engagement no matter the topic to craft amazing templates learn your chosen platform's format Essentials each platform has its own nuances on how things perform for example on LinkedIn use carousels images and long form texts and avoid things like polls and videos for X create two tweets per day at 8: a.m. EST and at 2 p.m. EST and create four long form thread posts per week for Instagram treat your page like a variety show have a mix of talking head reels animated reels raw carousels to kind of give it that variety feel and keep people entertained post carousels and raw behind the-scenes photos from your life and post five stories a day keep in mind that these are just the bare minimum of what's working on these platforms I'll go into far greater detail in my upcoming videos the key is to master each platform's specific nuances then once you understand the platform itself you can focus on the infinite game right the universal game of constantly improving and getting 1% better every day on each platform I've discovered that there are three un ival principles to Great content scroll stopping hooks value packed posts and engagement from other creators these three skills are Universal no matter the platform they are essential once you master them on your first platform you can bring them to any future platforms you decide to take over and dominate then you can build templates to hijack the algorithms on those new platforms too here are three great examples of showstopping hooks on each platform that I've mentioned so far and I've used these time and time again to grow massive audiences now notice how each template and example makes a short quick promise gives value and leaves you wanting more that's the scroll stopping hook mastering hooks is vital to getting to your first 10,000 followers it is essential 80% of the success of your content comes from the hook so make sure your hook is captivating your big goal is to settle on 10 to 15 formats that consistently perform for your audience again I share my top post per platform and break down the secret structure of each of those posts that I share get that guide in the description below this video and it's going to save you hundreds of hours on your content creation after you develop your templates the next step on the road to 10,000 followers is to optimize your profitable profile while your posts are the welcome mat of your social media presence your profile page is the front door that your audience needs to walk through a good profile has an incredible visit to follower ratio your starting goal is to have 5% of everyone who visits your profile click follow but once you build up a true profitable profile you can get those numbers even higher than 20% for example for every thousand people who visit my profile around 190 people will follow me that's about a 19% visit to- follower ratio so a lot higher than the average person that's just 2% every percentage you can increase your metrics will grow your surface area for luck which means more opportunities sales and top talent coming to you here are some things you can do immediately to optimize your social profiles on LinkedIn update your tagline cover photo and featured section add a call to action button to your profile to sell people on what you're about and promote your most important next step on X optimize your description cover photo and website link pin your best performing post to the top of your feed this is key and make sure that your PIN post is a thread that drives people to an important lead magnet on Instagram pin your top post to the top of your profile optimize your bio and add a CTA link to your newsletter link your threads account if you have one and on every platform get a great head shot not this garbage it's pretty underrated but it's worth it your profitable profile is the front door to the rest of your business welcome your audience in show your future customers what you've custombuilt for them na your profile it's your first impression step three to get 10,000 followers is making your social media truly social your goal is to develop a community of creators who are also Allin on your platform of choice find people who are at a similar or just a little bit ahead of you on that platform and you want to encourage them to go and comment on your posts respond to people who post on your posts and reach out through direct messages once you connect share what you're learning off platform in a dedicated WhatsApp group you'll grow a 100 times faster having a group of peers with your back that are also helping you grow on the platform here's a script that you can follow to build your group of peers in a platform like WhatsApp additionally schedule time to respond to replies on social media I'd recommend 30 minutes every single morning to go and respond to the community and get involved and show them that you're active and listening to them some of the questions they have can also become great content topics finally one thing you don't want to forget from a th000 to 10,000 followers is to establish your your convertkit email list go to convertkit it's the best platform for growing your email list create a simple landing page with a value proposition you know it could be a lead magnet that you already have or something that's going to come out in the future that you're promising your community so you can go and convert them to your owned audience then incorporate that landing page into key spots on your profitable profile as you grow your audience you want to convert followers from your rented audience to your owned audience in your newsletter get the audience past the front door and into your home which is your business this is the place where you can offer the greatest value to them your email list is amazing because this is the community that you actually own and it will eventually become the highest paying part of your entire content funnel don't focus on sending emails yet set up an automatic email that tells your subscribers your future plans you don't want to start sending to that list until you get your main first channel cranking once your email list is set up throughout all your profiles it will grow while your social media following grows as well that's how start turning that rented attention into owned attention which leads us to level three growing to a 100,000 followers now you're in the big leagues this is when your account starts attracting opportunities almost magnetically you will start to connect to people that you've never had access to in your life when you publish a post it's going to get massive attention instantly other people start using your channel as their example of social media Excellence you'll see people copying your content after you post it and as you go go to 10,000 and Beyond you will continue to tweak your systems your standard for what good enough looks like will increase in increase over time and this can end up being exhausting and if you get burnt out you lose valuable momentum we want to avoid that that's why from 10,000 to 100,000 my one goal for you is to increase your leverage so you can get off the content hamster wheel here's how first we need to monetize your audience remember that email list we established once your followers approach 50,000 or more you can confidently begin to monetize your audience step by step to start you can offer a one-time one-day Workshop to your email list alternatively offer a discounted offer on one month of services exclusive to the list the goal is to start experimenting with generating revenue from the attention that you've created this allows you to start to create some cash flow to then increase your leverage then you can use what you earn and invest it back into your team and into your tools the biggest risk from 10K to 100K is that you stop that you give up and then you lose all your momentum I know because I've been there I grew my personal brand to 1.8 million people in 18 months but then it became too much luckily I had the foresight to start surrounding myself with a core team of a players my social Avengers social manager to grow my profitable media Empire a video editor to create inspiring videos a designer to help create value packed images and a tech lead to be the mechanic to my Formula 1 content engine if you're on LinkedIn or X I'd start with a social manager to post content for you at scheduled times throughout the day so you don't always need to be on the schedule on Instagram a designer is a good hire to be able to increase the visual value of your post beyond what you can do by yourself and a video editor is going to help you make some incredible reels but you know we know making videos is a lot of work so getting some help is going to be useful you likely won't need a tech lead until you're close to crossing a 100,000 followers and are scaling your email list but there are a few High leverage tools to help you scale even if you're doing everything on your own on LinkedIn I use tap Leo X's Chrome extension to track my analytics and discover new content ideas on X I use hype Fury to schedule my content and I use twex to discover the best content for my favorite creators on Instagram I use figma to design stories after effects to create animated reels in Premier Pro as my all-in-one video editor you can use these tools to discover inspiration and you can highlight the best performing content from other creators you can schedule your content and generate original assets at a low cost having a team in tools means you can post more often while maintaining quality and avoiding burnout and at the end of the day the more you create the better maintain your schedule while increasing the quality 1% each time do this and you'll Skyrocket to 100,000 followers in just a matter of time using this team and set of tools I've achieved 115% growth on LinkedIn with 166% increase in engagement at the same time on my slowest weeks on X I grow at 4,000 plus followers and 10 million impressions weekly and according to Tapo I'm the fastest growing Creator on LinkedIn that's cool and all but what does it mean it means I pushed myself every day to be consistent I optimized my profitable profile I found my icky and crafted content that I love and I dedicated myself to each platform I could grow on so I could create the most epic content possible for My Chosen topics and now opportunities just come to me my surface area for lock is so large right now that when I go to the negotiation room people just want to make a deal with me and it's practically closed I don't have to convince them top talent and legends Come to Me based on the brand and audience I've built and when I have something to sell there's a line of people outside the door who want to buy it because I offer value day in day out for just free to millions of followers if you're watching this wondering what to do next the best platform for most people to go from zero to 100K right now is LinkedIn it's Tech space business focused and it's the best way to explode an audience into existence fast that's why I created the ultimate breakdown of my entire process for LinkedIn growth in the next video in this series I don't hold anything back including how I use LinkedIn to add 2.9 million of annual revenue to my business click here to keep watching thanks for watching I look forward to seeing you grow to 100,000 followers and Beyond

Channel: Matt Gray

Views: 161,787

Keywords: matt gray, matt gray video, matt gray writing, matt gray course, matt gray systems, entrepreneurship, self improvement, mindset, personal development, online marketing, online business, make money online, spirituality, personal growth, motivation, social media growth, self mastery, actualization, matt gray animation, matt gray youtube video, 100k followers, how to get 100k followers, one person business, lifestyle design

Id: 0U_7KTXvWVY

Length: 21min 13sec (1273 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 28 2024