personal brand will be more valuable than Bitcoin by 2030 because Bitcoin may 100x but your personal brand can 1,000x your income your influence and your impact in the world One of the world's leading viral video experts who has the real results And so for people to not be taking advantage of that right now they're going to fall behind to everybody else who is it is an arms race You revealed the number one way to grow on Instagram in 2025 Oh my gosh What is it absolute hidden gem If you What are they how do they work oh my gosh A goat Imagine multiplying your video views 5x overnight Not days from now not weeks from now not even months from now but in the next 24 hours In this video I get to interview one of the world's leading viral video experts who has the real results She's done it on multiple platforms She's helped her clients do it and she's going to be breaking down her sixpart framework that anyone can implement to start getting more reach more impact more views and ultimately more leads and sales in your business on your very next piece of content I'm super pumped because Adley is on the Think Media podcast founder of Viralish She's done so many cool things and right now she is crushing it on stages We're in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World and uh I'm excited to uh have you on the podcast How's it going it's an honor to be here I'm so excited for your speech tonight So I want to get into your story do some other things as we as the conversation evolves but let's get straight into the framework What's number one yeah Get into the value Uh so when I explain the sixstep formula you're going to be at why do people pay millions of dollars for this because it sounds basic but with each step there's probably seven to eight different components that when combined make it just incredibly powerful And I'll preface that we built this formula or it was shown to us after making literally thousands of viral videos Viral being 5 million and up And we just saw very clearly of all these videos the formula appeared wow the ones that really rose have this all the same structure in common So then when we started just using that and applying it to every single video whether it was an ad for Land Rover or whether it was me pranking my husband or staging a Karen on an airplane it I'm not going to look you in the eyes and say it works every single time but I would say our batting average increased to seven out of 10 videos going viral every time we use this framework I can't wait What's number one so number one is obviously it is the hook but what we aim for people to do is to get 90% retention in that first six seconds because if you can get 90% retention in your first 6 seconds according to our Tik Tok rep now confirmed based off our publishing on every single major discovery based platform it is true across all of them So aiming to get 90% retention we just have different frameworks where we help you do that because if you don't stop the scroll in your first 3 seconds literally nothing else that we talk about matters So when people harp on the hook it's because of that fact It is all that matters to get the attention because if you don't win that nothing else that we do matters So one of the ways that we get 90% retention is what we call the combo method which is essentially just combining two things that don't normally go together right uh those could be if you're doing talking head content it could be opposite ideologies right pinning Democrats versus Republicans Any type of conflicting ideology of combining things that you don't normally see that make you feel something one and have a curiosity gap to where they're going to stick around and you're going to create this itch that you do not scratch until the very end of your video I'm not sure if it's the same for YouTube long form or if you bury the payoff somewhere in the middle but uh for short form at least you want to get those watch time minutes and the same way that you do in long form But you just want to create the curiosity gap and the itch and then just don't don't pay it off and be a good storyteller throughout But really we have to set that framework up in the hook That's so strong Yeah One of I think it's exactly right for YouTube long form and I think what's interesting in long form is it's doing that but then doing it multiple times Any good storytelling will create some tension create a curiosity gap and then stakes will rise throughout the content and more tension and more curiosity gaps will be open because you're sort of multiplying that throughout the ultimate viral videos on YouTube over longer amount of minutes But I'm curious what's one of the other you mentioned frameworks maybe some other starters that could get us inspired for what we could do in the hook to get attention in our next p piece of content yeah I would say if if you have it's for me it's a threshold of tolerance Like I am like lean into funny content I lead with humor because humor is relatable to the masses and we all have these shared common experiences and humor doesn't have to look like absurdest stuff like I used to do and still sometimes do Like for me it would look like pouring tequila in the back of a coffee pot and you like why are you doing that but then I show you how to make batch margaritas for a party Yeah You know or I'm taking a rack of ribs and putting it on the engine of my car to show you how to cook a Thanksgiving meal real quick on your road trip to dinner with your family you know stuff like that But if you don't have the tolerance for that you can still do things that combine visuals that have a curiosity gap So say we have a holistic therapist I might have a pink balloon that says your brain on it in Sharpie and I might be filling it with shaving cream right i'm just filling it up and then I'm putting sticky notes on it that say your family your finances your business your health And you're just like where is she going with this and then I have a pen and I'm about to pop the balloon that's full of shaving cream while I'm talking to you and driving my point home But there's suspense and tension held in this visual And then at the very end maybe I do pop it and show how if you don't resolve your trauma that crap gets everywhere and it's very very messy Wow So it's just combining visuals to show what you're talking about rather than just talking head talking about it the same way everybody else does And is this some of the stuff I see is sometimes if someone's going to be doing talking head or explaining something if if simply what they're doing is like making lunch or doing something else maybe that's not enough to go viralish but is it the same concept yes One time we did a video where I didn't need to do a talking head style but I was just like boiling tennis balls Okay Okay And like boiling water and just lowering tennis balls into them and people are just like they're absorbing what I'm saying but there's an anchor of curiosity of why the heck is she boiling Did you ever resolve why I didn't because I'm a buttthead Uh but part two or something Well that probably starts com people like what's and then it gets a whole comment engagement thing Yes And people jump to step number five Witty about the comments like theories about the tennis balls and like debate about the tennis balls And then the best part is when people like oh of course you should boiled tennis balls you should always boiler your tennis balls and they go into being like to make it something and you had no clue You're like I don't know about that Maybe it actually does mean something That's that's fascinating I also have heard such things as like this versus that viral video If you're just talking head it might fall flat If you were like a real estate agent and walking through a neighborhood why talking walking and talking and and like the more things you lay on it could just be more engaging Is there anything you could do to tweak that here's what I think that works Just changing your location it raises the stakes and it makes it feel a bit more real Instead of sitting here in front of the camera with the perfect lighting and now you're going to do the influencer thing and you're set up to make a video it looks like you're just set up to make a video versus same script but you're just walking down the streets of San Diego delivering it It makes it feel like this is so top of mind I eat sleep breathe this And I just I have to say this right now told me pull up my camera and I just have to tell you this Same script but different location and different vibe and I think it reads a little bit better Wow Okay How about number two number two So after your hook if people make it through there obviously we get into the body of it the structure the skeleton and that is suspense And suspense in my opinion is the difference between good creators and the best creators in the world is your ability to hold suspense And look at I mean this isn't anything different than we're used to seeing in sitcoms or your favorite movie right i use this example a lot because I love the movie Taken and I think Liam Niss is a total kick butt guy but he if he like rescued his daughter halfway through the movie would we keep watching no If Ross and Rachel actually stayed together in season two would it have gone on for 10 seasons probably not Got to have tension the whole time Tension equals retention On and off They get together but they break up Yes you have to have unresolved tension So how can you do that in whether you're making people problem aware or solution aware in any content pillar that you're doing how can you invoke suspense not even just in the micro not even in a single piece of content which is very important but how can you do it on the macro to where people just are invested in your business's story they're invested in your story and what you're building If you can evoke suspense and tension that is sticky for people and that's going to keep them sticking around So before you make your next video and as you're planning out your business and how you're storytelling yourself from the inside out how can you evoke tension and suspense into your storytelling so if somebody was like a a CPA or an accountant and they're thinking about like okay I'm trying to get into content to get leads and sales How do I get unresolved tension in like somebody that's doing financial services so it depends on how you want to storytell yourself So immediately like man in the streets came to mind but not everybody wants to do man in the streets Let's say that say we did that like a man in the streets like street interview style or challenges So think in these content buckets So say you had a challenge and the CPA was doing how to maximize a hundred bucks and you could talk about investing You can talk about all these different things but give three people on the street a hundred bucks and go see who makes the most ROI out of it and then teach principles from that But you're showing It's harder It takes more effort sure but now you're going to have a simple repeatable and scalable format that you can do over and over again and be known for that guy who makes that wider more entertaining top offunnel video to teach your principles And I think that's who's really going to stand out over the next three years is who builds that personal brand and learns how to storytell what they do in a way that's relatable to the most amount of people Okay what's number three so then we move into the end which is the end of the skeleton which is the top three uh nuts there That is the payoff And the payoff is really where people decide how they feel about you right they decide if they're going to follow They decide if they're going to unfollow They decide if they trust you a little bit Um they decide if they're going to share with a friend or drop a comment you know and so that's your opportunity to to win them over And that's where you can make your call to action But it's really the end of that itch I said I want you to scratch in the first three seconds That's where you're going to scratch that itch and you can have them follow for part two or just keep them invested in the story So that's just the end of the skeleton where people decide Liam Niss does rescue his daughter and he does and that's the payoff You did did you still deliver a payoff when you were boiling the tennis balls technically because you you you still kept a curiosity gap and tension going But I mean were you just teaching something practical and still had like a final point i think there's Yeah I guess two aspects to the payoff One is it's just the end of your video Yeah you know and it's where you sign off or you just have a call to action But I left that anchor unresolved Yeah I did not say why I was boing those tennis balls because I wanted to go into step number five which is engagement tactics and designing your comment section Okay So then let's keep moving What's number four though number four we've got uh why am I blinking uh raising the stakes So raising the stakes determine why somebody cares Stakes determine why people care and how you're going to get a majority of people to watch your video that otherwise wouldn't So there's four main ways that we raise the stakes One is location props wardrobe and casting So if you and I are going to do a video maybe people care Like say it was a reuniting video and we're like "Oh my god Sean I haven't seen you in two weeks We're finally going to be reunited." Nobody cares The stakes are low But if it's a high school sweethearts who haven't seen each other in 50 years and they're old and adorable and going to be reunited casting just change out the cast same format When someone in the military comes back they that's the headline and it's like they're coming back after five years and everybody watches wardrobe Yeah You know wardrobe and what the reunited reunited from five years So you see how you have suspense built in there You see how you have high stakes built in there and these are just storytelling mechanisms that are age-old but we're just adapting them and how they show up for social So location I think is the easiest for anybody to do just by changing the location So for example we have like roofing people in our um in our communities and we say what are you doing on the ground behind a desk get on the roof You're on a roof every day I want you to count shingles like they're dollar bills Like do something interesting that is visual and just change your location do it from the truck Like do just be more interesting Get do it in the aisle at a supermarket instead of in your kitchen Do it in the car If you're going to make a meal and show an ingredient um how these ingredients make up this really simple recipe don't show me in your kitchen Show me that you're doing it in a car when you only have 10 minutes in a lunch break to show how simple and easy this is right and so just changing your location can make a world of difference when you are encouraging individuals Like some of the objections that come up is like okay I actually can see this is practical but I'm also kind of stressed because I'm busy and like I I'm trying to just sit behind my desk and create content and I can see the ROI here Help me reconcile one how quickly and efficiency or how much time I devote to this And then two um the ROI because I mean the ROI of doubling your business and hiring help or the ROI of uh more revenue and that you can reinvest and and buying back your time But but help us understand that because you know it's it's one thing to even have a few minutes to just record a Zoom and then chop it up and put it online or sit at your desk but let alone get out there get creative film all of that stuff Yeah I think sometimes low effort leads to low results and sometimes it doesn't It depends on you can have a really loweffort concept and it hit because you've combined you found how it resonates and it was really simple and you can make 30 in an hour and that's great We have a format I'm working on where I'm just going to go look I'm just going to go look like I'm flashing people and get the shocked faces and then when I turn around it's positive messages exposing positivity I get to do 30 of those in an afternoon Yeah But my video says like make compelling videos and so it's like yeah so it's a shot from behind and then a shot in front So even and it's all the faces and you're like oh you think I just flashed but it follows see how that follows the formula perfectly but very low effort but novel in a sense We haven't seen that before and it proves my point that you need to make more compelling videos So that would be very easy So if you're going to go loweffort find something that you can batshoot that has something that nobody's really seen before but it's still low effort Um so I think bat shooting is huge for a lot of people but lately what I've been doing is just I have been posting less but having more effective posts because either I'm going to win you're either going to win by volume posting two three times a day for that type of omniresence and syndicating that content or you're going to have one awesome video a a week or every other week that's going to get same amount of time investment from people but that video is going to be more successful than all these other small ones combined So I think you have to solve for your own constraints For example my husband has anxiety He has billions of views under his belt personally and he does not like making videos He just is an engineer mine and he can just see oh I do this and this and this and it works and he just thinks about it that black and white when he applies the formula But he makes videos and he doesn't talk in any of them because he gets anxious on camera and gets tongue tied So solve for your constraints and make your format fit something that you actually enjoy doing Like if I had a hat I would say make content fun again That would be that would be my motto is make do something that you think that you can sustain and is fun for you Otherwise you are going to burn out That's really good And I'm curious too like share some of the numbers too of client results or the ROI of this because most listening have not experienced a million views let alone multi-millions of views or even you're talking about the promise of this title is how to 5x your reach So if we're normally getting 300 views and now we start getting a couple thousand or we get a hundred thousand it could be very significant So what what people even implement this not even perfect because it's the goal where you know we'll hit number five doing the steps but if you just improve some of this stuff what can people expect oh my gosh sometime we had a guy it was his third video that he'd make made trying the formula first two were not executed the right way The third one he posted and it was he was tie dying eggs or something for Easter and I watched this video and I'm like he didn't nail the hook and this is not gonna do well But I saw seconds 12 to 14 I was like that's your hook And I said Michael I don't even care if you take this down right now but you're going to repost this and I want you just put seconds 12 to 14 on on your first two seconds and repost it That's it You don't have to reshoot anything Just restructure this video And the first time it did 1,800 views and now that made it to 3.6 6 million I believe just by changing that little thing Yeah You know just simple reit Did you talk to um Pat Flynn do you know him well no I don't know him at all So so you know Pat Flynn is a legend We just did a conversation here on the Think Media podcast We'll link it up in the show notes He started a dedicated YouTube shorts channel for Pokemon and uh he's got a Deep Pocket Monster channel long form Uh and this was new He wasn't even into Pokemon He got into it because of his kids He has a whole smart passive income kind of typical education for online business owners and stuff and people getting started But started a whole new project grew a YouTube channel a million subscribers but wanted to start a different format and started a shorts channel vertical video only But what it made me think was you're talking about do something you can batch do something that's sustainable And I think it's uh do we open it or do we keep it sealed which is do you open the pack of Pokemon cards or keep it sealed and he had uh he kind of built it out It's a show It has a jingle in the beginning jingle in the end but he can shoot it by himself No team nobody else helping He just film he batch shoots them He uploads one a day It's a routine for people It's got kind of a few tweaks He he hired a voice actor to just on wherever Fiverr or something like that to do kind of you know oh no the hack wasn't that good or oh it was pretty good All that to say is he's at two billion views Wow The channel grew He got a gold play button in like 199 days Wow Grew his YouTube channel to a million subs Made $126,000 in YouTube ad revenue from the shorts Shorts Yeah Right around there Um and but but he found a format He found a sustainable format Doesn't have to go outside but like it it's a show It's like a mini 60-minute show and in the dialed in the details And of course you know content creation I think it's like a skill You get stronger with reps And he wasn't starting at scratch He's got a lot of experience under his belt But I just hope that encourages listeners to just think about these principles are powerful And it's probably not it may not be the first thing or the sixth thing you try but by committing to this you can build that strength And and I mean I you're one show away from a billion views 1,000% There was a kid of ours he we used to pay him $2 per reel Will Cullen official or official Will Cullen if you look him up and he was trying to figure out he was making viral videos for us and he got really really good at it and he was like but I'm a musician how do I marry the two and he was trying different formats and then the third one maybe it was even more than three but the third one that I watched him try popped and he grew three million followers in a matter of months over on TikTok just go taking his guitar going up to Pretty Girls in the park around V Vanderbilt and Belmont campuses and just being like hey what are you listening to do you mind if I cool do you mind if I sit and play it and the girls are like ah But he would just go around singing to pretty girls Popped and just changed his life Wow You know but he had tried so many other formats So I firmly believe that everybody has at least 100 bad videos in them Sure That you just have to get out That is the right of passage And maybe it's even more than that I heard this stat that you would probably know if it's true more than me but it was YouTube saying anybody with over a million subscribers the average videos that they had posted was over a thousand videos before people got a million subscribers Yeah I think it was a stat a study done by uh TubeBuddy and it was crazy numbers like they they studied people that hit 100,000 people that hit 500,000 people that hit a million and it might have been over a thousand videos or even over 2,000 videos if they got to to a million subscribers which again speaks to the amount of reps I think we get so self-reflective and I I've heard that what you just said is called the rule of 100 The rule of post 100 videos where you're counting uploads not views Beautiful Like let's just count uploads not views as our measurement for success because this is our practice season This is our find our voice season This is our experiment and figure things out season Yes I love that That's 1,000 tries 100 tries and chances at bat And you don't know if it's the 101st that could be the breakthrough I have so many stories and times where I did not want to upload or did not want to shoot Thought the video was trash You already know where I'm going with this It popped It was the one The one the video that you make when you are tired and you're exhausted and you just say "One more I'm just going to post it Just do one more I had $80,000 in my trash can once." Every day you want to start your YouTube channel is another day of missed opportunities and untapped potential Here's the truth YouTube reaches more 18 to 49year-olds than all the cable networks combined The opportunity is massive and the Think Media team and I want to help you seize it I'm excited to announce our YouTube 1K challenge a free 5-day event that will give you the exact blueprint to start and grow your YouTube channel in 2025 Whether you're an entrepreneur business owner or somebody ready to grow their personal brand this challenge is your roadmap to success To register just go to tube1kchallenge.com We're going to be doing one training session a day for 5 days And you're going to learn how to get your first 1,000 subscribers and start earning real income Insider strategies that make viewers want to click on your videos and keep watching Multiple different ways to earn money from your YouTube channel even if you have a small audience and how to build an authentic personal brand that truly connects with people But it gets even better We are giving away prizes every single day of the challenge You could win professional microphones lighting kits and premium content creation software And during this challenge you're getting access to the exact training that we offer in our $4,000 coaching program but you're getting it completely for free And you can start with just your smartphone So if you're ready to turn 2025 into your YouTube breakthrough year go to tube1kchallenge.com to register That's tube1kchallenge.com or click the link in the show notes or YouTube description to register for our upcoming challenge $80,000 sitting in a trash can Blake and I shot this video very silly video where I have two boys make a circle We're on a boat and they make a circle with their hands and I say "I'm going to jump through the circle." But I jump through like this And I keep saying "I'm going to jump through like this." And your brain is like "How are you going to do that?" And then at the end I just run and I'm like one two three and I just run and I just push them both in and they're close That was it But you could see my extensions $8,000 in the tracks I'm getting there Okay I had I we did this video and I didn't want to post it because you could see my extensions and my hair and I was really insecure about that and it looked horrible And even though that would have gotten a ton of comments I'm sure I was like I I'm personally just embarrassed and I just made a vanity decision to like just trash it And Blake was like "Where's that footage?" I was like "I deleted it I looked terrible." and he got it out and he edited it which does not happen and posted it that made $80,000 in two days And you just you never know what video it's going to be It's usually the one that you least expect is the one that's going to pop because you didn't care and you weren't trying so hard and somehow that resonated Man it's really great Okay we got to hit number five and number six in just a second But this episode is fire If you're getting value uh if you watch on YouTube hit the like button and if you listen to the podcast it always means the world if you share rate review wherever you watch or listen Number one recapping we have the hook Number two suspense Number three payoff Number four raising the stakes What's number five Adley number five is engagement tactics So this is how you would get somebody who would never normally leave a comment on anything and get them to comment Um and this also ranges your threshold of absurdity Um for example uh we did a video These are friends of ours who did a video and they were doing some cooking style video life hack thing and she goes to get like ketchup out of the fridge and there's just a box of tampons in there Don't call attention to it but she just got the ketchup never called attention to the tampons The entire comment section was "Are we supposed to be refrigerating our tampons what is going on with that?" And then other people are like "Yes of course you're supposed to refrigerate your tampons." and we just forgot they were in there from a different bit That video popped made tens of thousands of dollars just because of that little Easter egg I made a wine pie one time and my fly was undone which I did do intentionally because I have no business making a pie and nobody has business watching me cook but I needed to make this pie for something and I just had my zipper undone 14 million views on me making a pie But the thing is is that didn't take away from my credibility Say you were a chef and you were doing something serious Can you do can you do an engagement tactic for retention and for an anchor and for something just a little bit Easter eggy in your video that still feels authentic to you and doesn't steal your credibility a lot of people don't want to mispronounce a name or spell something wrong because that can rob you of credibility but could you just have one earring in maybe like a natural human mistake could you have a fly undone cuz people will be like "Oh girl I'm so sorry I feel for you This video's popping." And you're caught in an embarrassing moment like what can humanize you a little bit that you're comfortable with or that is just really unique to you I think we put a safety pin in Blake's beard once or just like one little pink strip something just something to make people stop in their crazy brain and just be like what is that I've never seen that before or this person's unique It's just stopping them and pattern interrupting long enough for them to actually realize wow this is really good content and then you'll notice that that'll just make your engagement go crazy And so whatever that threat you live wherever you live in that threshold if you find something that's comfortable for you I just urge you to think about it Just try before you design your next video what could I do to inspire a comment section and design it in reverse because even that forethought even just a little bit of it is going to go so much farther than you would not thinking about it otherwise I know at one point Meta Facebook announced that they were shifting their algorithm not just for comments but for conversation So that posts would spread not only on the amount of comments but essentially debate when people start commenting the commentator you know and they go back and forth And so to me this is also very interesting because just things to get people talking debating questioning and and on comments is certainly a factor on YouTube It's a lot less It's click-through rate watch time like period on YouTube Likes comments are some reinforcing metrics viewer satisfaction But you're an expert in all these different platforms And it reminds me of somebody who was getting great results And and let me know if this is kind of one of those engagement tactics with educational content screen sharing and showing tutorials of like websites that are free and helpful to create content but you know how you like bookmark pages and it's at the top of your Google Chrome He made that a little bit bigger and he renamed one that was just right at the front and he he he renamed it like Hunter Biden's laptop leak and he and then he never addresses it and he just leaves it there But what then what then also happened would people would get over 100% retention cuz they'd relet it play to be like is that say what I think it says and then they would be like does he know and then people would be debating in the comments and like oh he must be trolling like no that's legit no it's whatever then he tapped into politics this guy must be a whatever somebody else like no I can't believe you know the administration and and he was just like talking about you know free website software but did it absolutely intentional as an engagement tactic What do you think i love it I think that's the best You just see how it can be easy to just do something little that you never call attention to but it makes you different and you're giving people talking points Like this is a secret superpower if you're willing to do it Find something that's comfortable for you cuz people always get weird when it's like baiting engagement but it's just giving people a reason to stop It's a pattern interrupt You know what's funny is you just hit a concept Have you talked a lot about talking points before no Talking points I was hearing in the in the music industry is an actual strategy everybody listening to this could benefit from And talking points is something for example if you were marketing yourself or wanting to get your name out there as a musician It's one thing of course you got to have good music maybe something you know you have a little a little bit of luck definitely tactics and how Spotify and things work and all those modern things but like a modern musician also needs to be like a world-class marketer And they talked about talking points and you write your name in the middle or your brand in the middle but then draw talking points around it And they were talking about this like white rapper that's been blowing up but they talked about his music video Like one there was a cybert truck in the music video It is just a talking point you know like it's trending It's whatever that but just one thing Then it was the fact that he was surrounded actually by all all of his homies were black guys around the white guy in the center And he was like "Yeah you know say what you will that people are going to notice that and they're going to" and and he goes "I'm not saying he manufactured it but like it's authentic to him but it's intentional They shot that music video with with that thing That's another talking point." He said you know Kanye West if you think about it this was a video I watched about talking points and musicians always has like he'll do stuff just for the talking It's gets people talking Yeah Stuff that's kind of And of course that's at the extreme of controversy So like you say what's your Yeah What's your level what's your tolerance for it but I had never really thought about that like those are talking points because you're trying to get people talking and it could be your wardrobe Um it could be he talked about opening lines Some of the best rap songs might have an opening line that is offensive and polarizes people If it's true to you it might pull people to one side but then it also might get people talking on the other side And and the bottom line was that the best of the best these are not accidents Yeah they're sitting down and thinking about what are our talking points Thoughts i I love it And we're talking about the same thing You realize all great storytellers and the people who break through all have talking points that are true to them like the white rapper with all of his guys around him that's real to him but you know it's going to get attention because you know it's not the norm So what is it about your business your unique selling points that helps you stand out because just being good enough is not enough Like just being good is not enough So how can you be good but also be different in a separator like why would I buy your shoe over somebody else's shoe out there where everybody's making shoes why is your shoe different i'm like to take it off your shoes off If you're on audio a shoe just came off Feet are out Socks are on the podcast You know you know what that's that's interesting I don't know if you've heard this one before because you like just being good enough is not enough Content is king but marketing is queen And she runs the household Love that You heard that one no but I think that's beautiful I don't know I I stole that from everywhere I stole that too But I'll take credit Uh you need talking points whether it's in your content or just in your business by design because if it's in your business by design it just filters into your content Even better if it the big and I've been thinking that we another conversation we're having We're going to get to number six y'all but this is some good stuff Uh we're going to go deeper on world building and universe building around brands You heard of some of that yeah And so that that starts being like what who are your characters what are some of the themes what are some of the looks what are the values it's but it's kind of more of an expansive And you do think about the the visuals And some of the best modern musicians are thinking about world building It's not just about the song It's about the whole experience on social And so that would be true for content creators And this is this is I think the new era stuff to your point Did you have a quote about personal brand yesterday by 2020 by 2030 what was the quote yeah it was a bold statement but I think I believe it I really do I said I think I really do I think that personal brand will be more valuable than Bitcoin by 2030 because Bitcoin may 100x but your personal brand can 1,000x your income your influence and your impact in the world And we've just never been in a time like this where personal brand is scalable thanks to AI for the first time in history If you're burnt out cool You can make AI videos with your voice You can clone your body and you can clip it and put it on all and syndicate it across all these platforms and you don't actually have to show up if you have the flu for two weeks Your content can still be out there with your voice and your face and you don't have to do anything That is crazy And so for people to not be taking advantage of that right now they're going to fall behind to everybody else who is it is an arms race How much Bitcoin do you have Blake how much Bitcoin do we have have you decided instead of buying Bitcoin to just invest in your brand i'm doing both I'm double fisting over here Um you didn't want us So uh engagement tactics and raising the stakes We got to get to number six I love what you just pointed out though I got to say that engagement tactics are just another word for talking points They're just necessary Like why is represent different than any other hoodie i can tell you Okay I mean represents like it's interesting They they're actually a really good brand at brand building I think they're going to do 80 million this year They're about 10 years old Uh very kind of like lifestyle aspirational brand started by two brothers Um like runners athletes they have a 247 is their athletic brand Um and all the mantras around it have a lot to do with just kind of ambitions There's kind of an entrepreneurial edge on and it would be somewhat luxury street wear So yeah there's a whole thing and and it comes into their website their social they have a YouTube show Um it there's it's it it's all interesting and you also I guess it's it steps to the game because they're over 10 years into it Yeah So I think some people listening to this are like do I got to build a world i have to world build now It's like it's not enough to just be good at music You have to be a Tik Tocker now too But it's going to start with your first couple of videos and your first and and your first going viral and viralish and then and then reinvesting But but yeah there's there's I think a lot of talking points around that And then it actually is interesting I went to church on Sunday I landed at Social Media Marketing World randomly hopped in the car with Kenya Kelly She's like I got out I didn't even know what I was going to do all Sunday She's like want to go to church i was like yeah I guess Uh so I like dropped my bags We went to like Jesus Culture San Diego And I walked in but amongst anything else we have a shared value Much more important like our faith Yeah Some guy came up to me he had a represent hat on And it's like if you know you know And I was like bro nice hat And I'm wearing this represent owners club hoodie And And so community building like connection and like you also like know what it means Yeah And and so there's a lot of different elements that are are fascinating there So okay raising the stakes engagement tactics What's number six split testing M split testing was our lynch pin to success for four years since 2020 We split tested pretty much every video that we put out But the split testing tools were not available back then No one was even publicly talking about split testing your content Like Gary Vee or Horoszi would say that they would just post every version of the video on TikTok and then hide the ones that didn't pop and split test that way We weren't we were split testing before we were ever publishing And how we would do it was run Facebook dark posts um f put $5 behind each version of your video So we would split test hooks thumbnails captions the captions because they would pre-frame the way the audience views the video you know and we would just pin ideology ideologies and victims and who's the bad guy in these captions differently to see what would resonate We would test different lengths And so we would split test and Facebook dark post on a page that wasn't attached to ours um to see which one would win And after a,000 views it spits you a retention line So we would see wo seconds 12 through 20 we lose 45% of people What happened there and maybe somebody whip panned too bad or maybe there's an early payoff or but we could see why didn't people like that And that gave us an opportunity to bring it back and edit it And so we would just edit till everything had the metrics that we thought was the best that we could do at the time And then that kept our page really hot because we were only posting bangers That is uh wild What advice would you give to somebody who's like "I'm not at a point where I could start running Facebook dark posts on a separate page." Or would you say "Suck it up buttercup It's only a few bucks a post." And like learn how to do it if you're just starting out If there's a video you really care about I would say take the $15 and and try it At least try it to see if it is valuable to you But now we're just running trial reels like crazy We have 105 million views this month on just my Instagram alone from trial reels alone I've posted to my feed embarrassingly embarrassingly twice this month maybe three times but we have a hundred million views on Instagram alone from trial reels We're posting all of our old banger content that we know attracts new people to what we believe in what how we entertain people And then I'm using it to test new formats because I'm in this bridge right now of I'm an entertainer first but then also love sharing how we entertain and how we storytell That's my way of just being a river and not a reservoir because I believe that every good thing that happens to us is not ours to keep It's not for me to sit here and get to be on Sean's podcast and talk about how cool I am and figured something out It's to share the knowledge Our knowledge is only as good to the extent that we pay it forward and pass it along to people And so yeah and that's what we do And we just split test with trial reels now and it's allowing us to test these different formats to figure out if you don't know if your audience is going to like it or you just are a little fearful It's okay And they're just rewarding that and you're getting that real-time feedback without the risk of posting it to your page So hang on Adley Yesterday in your talk you just revealed what you just said You revealed the number one way to grow on Instagram in 2025 Oh my gosh What is it trial reels Absolute hidden gem If you What are they how do they work oh my gosh So go as if you're going to post a real if you have not seen this Make sure your app is up to date and then go and you'll see right before you post there's a toggle on for trial So that's going to publish only to nonfollowers Boom So it's just going to go find your audience to where you don't you can do something inconsistent with what you believe the algorithm in your page is known for now to test new concepts and new styles and it's not going to your followers it's going to nonfollowers So you're automatically in discover This is amazing With tools like this we just don't know how long it's going to last So I am begging and pleading for everybody to take advantage of this tool while we still have it Wow And then practically how could we implement reposting winners experimenting with some new format formats what should we do in the next couple of weeks or months to try out take action on this practically i would say repost your best content You can't schedule trial reels So that kind of sucks It is a manual process So either you or somebody on your team schedule at at bare minimum one trial reel a day of posting your old content and then this is a beautiful way to split test that cost you nothing You don't have to run the dark posts and you can just say hey we had this podcast clip but I'm not sure what the stronger hook is Do both Post both to trial reels and let the data tell you which is stronger and then publish that one to your page You can split test things seven eight different ways and it's not going to cost you anything It is the most exciting time for free advertising that we've ever seen in the history of the world I'm so passionate about this and people just going all in on personal brand Like this is the time and we don't know how long it's going to last and you are just up against everybody else in your niche that is going to beat you with free tools free ways to get as much attention as possible on your brand because attention equals leads equals sales and we're in the greatest time of history of ever for marketing I have one more question for you but before we get there shout out your stuff If people want to connect with you it'll all be linked up in the show notes but if people want to follow you follow up anything you want to offer our audience Yeah Instagram I'm Adley Ady Um Tik Tok the Adley Show Our website is Viralish Viralish.com YouTube's the Adley show too So final question is if we just if you gave us a simple action plan this was a lot This is a episode to rewatch It's an episode to study but there's also levels to the game What is like just my next step this week to put the stuff into practice next step this week if you actually want to go to my Instagram and comment the word BVF on literally any post or DM it to me we'll send you the ebook for the formula for free And then I really believe like there's so much information in here and in all of your shows that may people need the head knowledge because they need the exposure to new ideas because you never know which one's going to have a light bulb But really I think the difference is implementation and people need to just be told what to do but then they still don't do it So they need like the handholding So the way that we position you like our mastermind or what Viralist does for people is we become like a fractional member of your team to where we're saying okay weekly accountability make the video Make the video and then come with us on Thursdays and we'll review you and we'll say that's crap here Increase suspense this way Just re-edit Make this go here And we just work with you to apply this to help people become better storytellers Adley grateful for you So much value today and Think Media Podcast Like rate share review wherever you watch or listen My name is Sean Kel your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel And I cannot wait to connect with you in a future