My First Million8 (extremely specific) rules to grow on social media
My First Million
Building an audience the unconventional way 0:00
Over five years the podcast has passed 100 million downloads, gained a million YouTube subscribers, and half a million followers on Twitter. The advice here is not the usual tips about posting consistently. It is the harder, less obvious lessons learned from actually doing it.
Who follows you matters more than how many 1:00
The first rule is that the identity of your audience matters more than its size. Tim Ferris asked whether you'd rather have 100,000 random readers or the 100 CEOs of the Fortune 100. Ferrari sells only 13,000 cars a year yet is worth more than General Motors, which sells two and a half million, because it reaches the right customers rather than the most customers.
Find your inner nerd 2:31
Most people don't know what to talk about. The answer is not to guess what the audience wants but to lean into whatever you already obsess over, even if it seems odd, like an uncle who spends nights perfecting the timing of lights on a model train set. A perfume-tour guide in New York or a writer who spends a thousand words on pant cuffs both prove that the internet always contains an audience as nerdy as you are, which removes competition and guarantees a kind of success that isn't tied to fame.
The five Ds of being known well 5:00
The goal is not to be well known but to be known well, through five things: what you've done, what you deliver, what you do for work and fun, what you dream about, like Gary Vee's openly stated wish to buy the Jets, and what you dork out about. Sharing these builds real connection and brings unexpected luck, as people start sending you the exact things you love.
Length, delivery, and the binge bank 7:00
There is no such thing as too long content, only too boring content, which is why Joe Rogan's three-hour episodes work. Early on, focus on A+ content with C minus delivery rather than polished production with weak ideas, the way Mr. Beast's oldest videos or Rogan's cheesy early webcam episodes show. When view counts are still small, build a binge bank instead, a full hour of content strong enough that anyone who discovered it would binge it and become a fan.
Selling a feeling and the rule of 100 9:01
People don't remember information, they remember a feeling, whether that's David Blaine's awe, James Clear's sense of self-control, the UFC's holy moments, or CrossFit's satisfying sweat. Mr. Beast's advice sums it up: make a hundred pieces of content, improving one thing each time, since that persistence is the real algorithm. In an age of AI-generated content, what will stand out most is simply someone who feels real.
AI-generated summary. It can be wrong or incomplete - check anything that matters against the original.
