🌕 My Golden Nuggets This Week

📜 Quote:

“Read 7 books about writing?
Or write 7 books to learn writing?”
~ myself

🎧 Music:

Miyamoto Musashi Meditation : Flow State On Top Of The Mountain (One Hour)
great for work 🍃

▶️ Video

📦 Product: planning to buy the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 for videos outside

yess I too suffer from GAS syndrome…

👨‍💻 Tool: I started using hypefury for Twitter / X scheduling and some other features
so far so good

🌱 Habit: Walk & Talk (more about it below)

🤣 Laugh a bit

I Posted a Reel on Instagram EVERYDAY for 3 Months (Honest 2024 Results)

Comment to get more comments

DM to get more DMs

Story Like to get more story likes

Engage to get more engagement

That’s just the tip of the iceberg that I learned after 3 months of posting daily on Instagram

I will share some honest insights with you

Because growing a small account is not easy, is it?

I posted on Instagram everyday for over 3 months now

With maybe 3 or 4 days missed

And my goal with these posts is to give you a high signal : noise ratio

So when you go back to conquering the world

You have at least learned 1 new thing

One of them is to engage more to get more engagement

It makes sense right?

Instagram and other Social Media platforms LOVE “Dwell Time”

So they can show you more ads

And make more money

And when you “Engage” with others

For example in the comments

You are ACTUALLY using the platform

And making them more money

The CEO of Instagram (@mosseri)

Actually mentioned that ‘text’ on Instagram, mainly in DM’s

Is a huge % of the total time spent by young users on their platform

Later in this post more about engagement

BUT…

…There is a big BUT

IF you feel down at the moment because your Instagram page doesn’t really grow much

Or if you stopped some time ago

Or ‘plan’ to get started

PS: which is just another way of saying: “it is ACCEPTABLE to me to not start”

I want to say something to you

Not some “you got this girl”

Or “just do it brother”

Type of motivational speech

Just the honest truth

To get to the truth

Ask yourself

“Why do I feel down?”

“Why did I stop?”

“Why didn’t I even start?”

I am very aware that maybe only 1 person who is reading this might actually ask him/herself these questions

Not as a ‘mechanical doing’

And subconsciously not really caring about ‘finding out’

But as a sincere desire to really, really find out what it is that is causing your ‘negative emotion’

To me, asking these questions led to huge realizations

THE STORY

Let me tell you the story

For a long time I wanted to start, but I did not start posting

Because I knew the people who would see it

And they would form an opinion

And I knew I would see them again

Some sooner than others

And the fear that they would ‘reject me’ or just even ‘change their behaviour’, because of the videos they would see from me, and the opinion I would share, led me to the following realization:

“I didn’t start posting, because my desire to ‘be liked’ was greater than my desire to share”

Let me repeat that…

Desire to be liked > Desire to share

When I understood this

I couldn’t accept that

I couldn’t accept others to withhold me from doing what I would be doing if there was no other human in the world

If there was no other human in the world I would be

…Talking

…Filming

…Writing

…Finding

…Flowing

…Creating

…Screaming

…Expressing

…Discovering

Art

So if you think that suddenly having a viral reel will solve your emotional problem

I think you have to think twice

Because the root of the problem is still there

You just got a positive emotion instead of a negative one

How would you feel if you had NO NEED or ATTACHMENT to the #views you get?

Just because you haven’t experienced this ‘state of mind’

Doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist

I recommend pausing here and truly think about the above before reading further…

THE MYTH OF CONSISTENCY

“Being consistent” is screamed through the roofs by every influencer on social media

And every motivational speaker on YouTube

And even by your idols, the people you look up to the most

But have you ever questioned the statement that consistency leads you to your destination?

Let’s say you want to walk to Egypt and the great pyramids

You step out of your front door and start walking ‘consistently’

10,000 steps a day

Will you get to Egypt?

Will you eventually see the pyramids?

It depends if you walk on the right path

1° more to the north or south and you end up in Sydney or Iceland

So how does this relate to social media?

By making ‘consistency’ your goal

You get just that

Consistent videos on your timeline…

If you made ‘getting a viral video’ your desire

You get just that

A viral video eventually…

If you made ‘losing yourself in your art’ your greatest desire

You get that

A flow state achieved every day where time is lost and full emersion is experienced

Be careful what you desire

The greatest desire always wins

Staying ignorant also has consequences

Your current situation is created by the consequences of your past desires

Don’t believe anything of what I say

Examine for yourself if consistently posting brought you anywhere

THE UNTRUTH ABOUT ‘PRODUCTION QUALITY’

Take a look at this example

This reel was my 2nd best-performing reel in the last 20 days

And the production quality is awful

The audio is good

But the low-light footage is terrible

You can barely see my face

So if posting 4K videos with perfect softbox lighting and cinematic backdrop with candles in the background would perform better

Then why is my 10 AM Low Light pixelated video with horrible lighting my 2nd best-performing video?

Again, question for yourself if production quality really matters

Does it play a role?

Yeah sure, probably…

But are we looking for the dry, leftover breadcrumbs?

Or the fresh, crispy baguette?

THE SCAM OF HARD WORK

The content you spent the most time on, might not be the content that goes viral

Read that again if it didn’t reach your brain hemisphere

My most viral YouTube video (750K+ views now)

Was created in 90 minutes

90 MINUTES

I remember creating it

I didn’t particularly enjoy it

I was in a rush to go to the gym

Which was about to close in 120 minutes

So I quickly created a Keynote presentation

Turned on the camera

Recorded it with Cleanshot (which is a screen recorder)

And uploaded it to YouTube

When I came back from the gym I changed the thumbnail

And the Title

And it took off…

PS: the main reasons behind the virality of this particular video are (very honestly)

1. the click-bait title (religious people love conversion stories, for whatever reason…)

2. the trending topic (interview was just released)

This story proves to me that also ‘hard work’ is a fallacy propagated by the ignorant people in our lives (read 99.99999% of people)

Once again…

Question for yourself if your hard work got you what you wanted…

Did you work hard?

What did you get?

Is that what you wanted?

Did it come from the hard work? or from something else?

THE FALLACY OF HOPE

Hope is a terrible disease only a tiny % of the population can escape from

The hope of consistency

The hope of hard work

The hope that sacrifices today will lead to tomorrow’s betterment

Do you hope that your Instagram account will take off?

Do you think that ‘that hope’ serves you?

Or could it be that ‘that hope’ leads to a wasted life?

That all your hopes fall apart the moment you are about to die and make you see them for what they truly are…

…just hopes, unrealized goals, and intangible results to show for it?

DON’T BELIEVE ME

ASK YOURSELF

THE PERSPECTIVE

Most creators want viral videos

But nobody seems to ask the question

“Is a viral video good for me?”

Is it truly lots of views that you want?

Or do you want something else?

Do you want lots of $ money?

Do you want the YouTube Golden Play Button to boost your ego?

Do you want to be recognized on the street when you are walking with your parents?

Do you crave to be liked by more people than the # of people who bullied you at school?

Do you really want all those views?

AND the negative consequences that come with it too?

If you believe I am pushing you into the opposite, you are wrong

I’m simply implying the following

Not questioning could lead to a wasted life

Are you okay with that?

SHALLOW METRICS OR DEEP MEANING?

Missing a day of posting is a mental problem, not a real one.

Don’t believe me…just check for yourself what happens when you miss a day (spoiler alert: nothing happens)

Interestingly, letting your Instagram story expire (or even delete it) before posting a new one, could increase reach…

Just because everyone around you keeps swimming in the pool

Doesn’t mean you cannot attack the ocean

The one who attacks the ocean might drown

But to him, he died in peace

She found what she was truly looking for in life

He found it in the ocean

And when she found it, she was okay with drowning

He didn’t want to drown, but he didn’t fear it any longer

She was at peace

Finally.

So where do you want to swim?

PLAY THE GAME

Have you ever seen Instagram as a game that is being played by the character that you call “I”?

The further I see through the game

The better I play

The more I win

While not ‘having to win’ being my desire

It’s just a natural consequence of controlling the joystick of the 3rd person who is in the game

PRACTICAL TRUTH

Enough Philosophy, what does work? Practically?

Engage to get more engagement is a practical truth I found on Instagram, LinkedIn and X / Twitter

But I only found out through experimentation

Lots of exploration

Many trials & errors

And the serious individual knows that is the only way to find the truth

EXPERIMENT

What can you experiment with?

What did I experiment with?

Here is some inspiration

Font
Polls
Outfit
Music
Colors
Alt Text
Tonality
Location
Loopable
Hashtags
Manychat
Giveaways
Thumbnail
Posting Time
New Account
New Features
Schedule Tools
Body Language
Create a new account
Record outside vs inside
Use Hashtags vs No Hashtags
Wear clothes or just a swim short
Use video with music or choose music from Instagram’s library
Edit the Alt text

• Not for the reason Jay Alic gives in his LinkedIn post (to be more inclusive)

• Because I don’t subscribe to the idea that people do things for others

• People ultimately do things for themselves, which I don’t see as good or bad, just the truth

• But editing the Alt Text could help you reach more people

Posting Time

• Audience dependent

• I am focusing on both 8AM & 1PM EST at the moment

Polls Feature

• IF people engage with the poll, you can expect reach to increase

• But usually only works IF they have a reason to engage with the poll

New features

• Longer than 90 seconds Reels is a BIG update

Giveaways

• If you have something valuable to give, you might as well try this out

• For @desirichkid so see a ±10X difference on his giveaway post

Ask people to comment to get access to something valuable

• Lead Capture

• Many people use Manychat (verified Meta partner)

• These comments lead to more engagement & likely more reach

Tonality

• "Tone is a much more potent communicator than content" ~ Kapil Gupta

Loopable

• Making your video loopable (like I did here) is low-hanging fruit for a higher Average View Duration

Thumbnail

• Instagram & Facebook allow you to upload a custom thumbnail, which is shown on the Explore page and has a big impact on your CTR %

• HACK: if you add that thumbnail image as the first 2 frames of your short (here), you can also have the thumbnail shown on YouTube Shorts, X / Twitter, Threads, TikTok, Snapchat, and basically any platform that I have tried…

Body Language

• Standing vs Sitting

Try the complete opposite

• From fancy studio with an f1.4 lens to an iPhone outside when it is raining and dark

Subtract don’t add

• How about trying to remove things that you’ve always done?

Niche vs No Niche

• You don’t control the demographics for organic content

• Trying to control it might limit your growth

• I am experimenting with niche accounts and general accounts to see if there is a difference

PATTERN RECOGNITION

Make assumptions

Big creators are guessing TOO

But they might be better at GUESSING

So I start from their guesses

I check the Instagram app and desktop site multiple times a day

I make assumptions about why a video performs better or worse

And if you are serious about growing on Instagram, understanding what works better is a necessity

Pattern recognition is a great skill to build

Here are the things I’ve found to be most impactful

HIGHEST IMPACT (on Instagram)

1. Hook

2. Topic

3. Retention

4. Thumbnail

5. Anything else

   1. e.g. record outside

The above applies if you want views

But what if you want to create art

What if you want to stop wasting time and create for yourself instead of others?

To that person I say

What about your message

Do you believe in it?

I stopped making videos about Andrew Tate, because I no longer found it interesting

I didn’t start making videos about religion either

Even though the majority of my 5K+ subscribers on YouTube were religious and love this topic

I DIDN’T LOVE IT

ANTI GOALS

What are your anti-goals?

You want A but without B

To me the biggest one is ‘not wasting time anymore’

I have done enough of that already

And making videos for money is not on my list

I want to make them for its own sake

If you make content purely for money, than there is nothing wrong with that

Just find out if it is money, that you truly desire…

Let me tell you a quick story

This week I was walking for more than an hour to arrive at a place with almost zero people

And at that place in the middle of the open fields with grass all around me and the only sounds of cows and sheep

At that place

I was truly myself

And ohhh did I like that person

I was making crazy jokes

In my head and when I recorded some videos

I reached a place with “no mind”

Mainly because there were no people around me

No one around me to impress

Or better said:

No one around me to show the self-image I created for myself

The self-image of the “successful entrepreneur”

Or the “masculine man”

Or the “creative artist”

Or the “fill in the blanks”

Walking into the pasturelands works for me

But you could argue it is not solving the root of the problem of wanting to maintain this self-image in the first place

At the same time, it is a great place full of silence to start discovering from

I am not saying you need to start walking to solve a problem

I am not saying you need to do anything

The above was just a natural urge to go outside

To wander towards a place without people

A feeling deep inside

And I’m glad I followed it

Because the destination was worth it

So instead of giving you a 7-step list

I will ask you a question

What is your heart telling you, that you are trying to suppress?

You may pause here for a moment to let your mind wonder

INVISIBLE CAGE

Are you a big bear in an invisible cage?

Or a small bird in a clear blue sky?

Will you die without ever having lived?

Or will you live in truth at any moment?

What do I mean?

Out of all the animals you can choose

Why do you want to become the big bear that drives the Ferrari, owns the jet, lies on the yacht but lives in the invisible cage of regret?

Don’t you want to be the small bird that flies in the clear blue sky full of truth & sincerity?

The bird that understands what he truly wants even if he was the only bird alive

What do you truly want to get out of this?

WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMIZING FOR?

I did over $4M in revenue and hired over 40 people

Because those were my greatest desires

Which is very shallow looking back at it

Because the fundamental reasons behind the goals are flawed

They were external…

And anything that is external can’t last

It will always be dependent on something you can’t control

So what are you optimizing for? AND WHY?

4 months ago I had a moment of realization…

It came down to this

What would I want if I continued walking in this forest, but knowing that I was the only human alive?

I couldn’t think…

It is crazy to me how basically everything in our lives is build on reasons that have something to do with other people

I couldn’t think of something I truly wanted for myself (if I was the only human alive)

Since then, the question didn’t leave my mind

And I found some answers

So my question to you:

“What would you want if you were the only human on earth right now?”

Again, I recommend pausing here to let the question sink into the deeper cortex of your brain

WALK & TALK HABIT

I question my beliefs

I question the mind

I speak them out loud when I walk

Clarity is a natural consequence

Few do it

Few will find peace

PS: I am not saying you should go out walking & talking to your voice memo app to find peace or solve problems.

I just found it to be incredibly effective for me.

I found it through lots of experimentation and unpacking the ‘fear’ of speaking my thoughts out loud in public.

If you want to find something that works for you, I recommend you explore, experiment, but never ‘follow’.

For following is for followers.

And the greatness you desire is found alone, led by your own path.

THE CURSE OF COMPARISON

When you are walking your own path it is tempting to look how others walk their path

Especially the ‘successful one’s’

Comparing yourself with them is a natural consequence of doing so

Ask yourself if this is a net positive or net negative…

“If you're counting, you'll run out of patience before success actually arrives.” ~ Naval Ravikant

Counting is for the unserious

Because he/she is looking for a goal/milestone or trophy

And trying to glue a series of those moments together and call it “happiness”

The serious individual may finds peace in the daily pursuit

And moment to moment result from doing what he was born to do

FINAL WORDS

Maybe you were looking for motivation before you read this

But remember

The peaceful person isn’t looking for motivation

His peace is found in ‘no need’

Her happiness is found in ‘no attachment’

And isn’t it ‘peace’ what you want?

If you feel yourself being attached to the amount of views on your video

You may ask yourself why

And why

And why

And if you truly do that

You may find some deep answers

You may make some true realizations

Which may lead to effortless changes

Like speaking without the need to ‘perform’

Creating without the need to ‘create’

Achieving flow state without the need to be in the flow

May be the result

Of honest questions

You may leave inspired

But desire will tell

And questions may lead to understanding

So do you understand?