Growing on Social Media Used to Be Hard (Until Now)
A creator who took one Instagram account from zero to 10,000 followers in 60 days on an iPhone breaks down the four things he'd focus on starting from scratch.
Posted
1 weeks ago
Duration
Format
Talking Head
educational
Views
3.9K
47 likes
57 · 43
Big Idea
The argument in one line.
Instagram's algorithm stopped rewarding hacks like hashtags and trending sounds and started rewarding whatever makes real humans keep watching, so growth now comes down to a clear bio, fast low-effort posting, disciplined use of trial reels, and manufactured curiosity in the opening seconds.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
You're starting an Instagram or Reels account from zero and want a starting checklist that isn't hashtags or posting-time hacks.
You have an account already but your bio doesn't make it obvious what problem you solve for people.
You're posting inconsistently because you're overproducing every piece of content before it goes out.
You want to understand what Instagram's Reels insights (skip rate, shares, saves) actually mean and which one to fix first.
SKIP IF…
You're looking for platform-specific TikTok or YouTube tactics — this is Instagram/Reels-specific advice.
You already have a documented positioning statement and are past the beginner-growth stage.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
Instagram's Reels algorithm used to reward trending sounds, hashtags, and wall-of-text captions, but it now tests every post against real viewers and ranks based on whether they actually watched, so those old hacks stopped working. The creator grew an account from zero to 10,000 followers in 60 days on an iPhone by fixing four things in order: writing a bio that states the exact problem the account solves (most accounts fail this), reducing the time from idea to posted video so volume goes up, using Instagram's trial reels feature to test formats without showing followers the misses, and reading Reels insights in the order Instagram ranks them, with skip rate mattering most. The final skill is engineering curiosity in the first three to five seconds by stating the topic in terms of what the viewer wants, then withholding a specific detail so they have to keep watching.
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Names the current moment: Yap-style talking-to-camera content is producing six-figure businesses, and growing used to be much harder.
00:34 – 01:04
02 · Why the old Reels algorithm was miserable
The 2020-era algorithm rewarded three-second Reels, trending sounds, and wall-of-text captions people didn't actually like; that's changed for the better.
01:04 – 02:19
03 · Zero to 10,000 followers in 60 days
States the result: grew an Instagram account from zero to 10,000 followers in 60 days using only an iPhone, no fancy camera, unimpressive edits; claims most growth advice online is a distraction designed to get its own creator views.
02:19 – 03:12
04 · Positioning: the bio problem
Introduces the first focus area. Reviewing hundreds of Instagram accounts, nine out of ten bios don't clearly state the problem the account solves, which signals the content is confused too; first bad bio example (Podcast Hall of Fame radio host).
03:12 – 03:57
05 · More bad bio examples
More vague bios (beauty/color-analysis account, cat mom, 'stay weird nerds,' travel account) that give no clue what the account is actually for.
03:57 – 05:18
06 · Good bio examples and what outcome the audience wants
Clear counterexamples ('helping freelancers get paying clients since 2019,' toddler sleep support, helping divorced men rebuild strength and purpose) followed by the outcome reframe: deadlift form doesn't matter to the audience, a bigger butt does; a better mindset doesn't matter to entrepreneurs, more money with less stress does.
05:18 – 06:05
07 · Low effort content
Second focus area: low effort doesn't mean low value, it means shrinking the time from idea to posted video, including overcoming the mental friction of self-consciousness on camera.
06:05 – 07:39
08 · Post volume and trial reels
Describes posting roughly six times a day using the Instagram Edits app, then introduces trial reels: posts shown only to non-followers so creators can test formats (clone effect, top-down whiteboard, reaction videos) without any stakes with an existing audience.
07:39 – 08:57
09 · Reading Reels insights
Introduces the analytics section: Instagram ranks metrics in a fixed order of importance to reach, with skip rate mattering most, followed by shares, likes, saves, reposts, and comments.
08:57 – 09:32
10 · You're not shadowbanned
Instagram tests every video on roughly 200 people to measure real human reaction; low performance means humans didn't like the content, not that the algorithm is against the creator.
09:32 – 10:28
11 · The curiosity homework assignment
Introduces curiosity as the deciding skill and assigns a homework exercise: watch Reels/TikToks and reverse-engineer why you personally didn't swipe away past the first few seconds.
10:28 – 11:25
12 · Speak to what they want first
Before adding curiosity, the topic itself has to be framed around what the audience wants (e.g. entrepreneurs wanting more money with less stress) rather than what the creator wants to say.
11:25 – 11:53
13 · Adding the curiosity hook
Demonstrates layering a specific curiosity detail on top of the outcome-framed topic, using a $300,000-business example.
11:53 – 12:44
14 · Bali example, recap and sign-off
Closes with a travel-cost curiosity example, recaps the four focuses (positioning, low effort content, trial reels/analytics, curiosity), reiterates the algorithm isn't against creators, and asks viewers to subscribe.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
Instagram tests every new post on roughly 200 people before it decides whether to push it further, so growth now depends on genuine watch behavior, not settings tweaks.
Skip rate is the single most important Reels metric and should stay under roughly 50% for a post to have a shot at reaching further.
Reels insights rank in a fixed order of importance: skip rate first, then shares, then likes, saves, reposts, and comments last.
A bio that doesn't clearly state the problem the account solves is a signal the account's content is confused too, not just the bio.
Low effort content doesn't mean low value — it means shrinking the time between having an idea and posting it.
Instagram's trial reels only show a post to non-followers, which is designed to let creators experiment with new formats without annoying an existing audience.
Audiences care about outcomes, not mechanisms: deadlift technique matters less to viewers than a bigger butt, and a better mindset matters less to entrepreneurs than making more money with less stress.
Curiosity is generated by stating a topic in terms of what the viewer already wants, then holding back one specific detail so they have to keep watching to get it.
Roughly 70-80% of Instagram growth advice online is a distraction, because that content is optimized to get its own creator views by promising quick, low-effort settings hacks.
An account grew to 10,000 followers in 60 days using only an iPhone, averaging around six posts a day, with each day's content taking roughly one to two hours total.
Takeaway
Fix your bio before you fix your hashtags
WHAT TO LEARN
Growth now comes from a bio that states the exact problem you solve, content that ships fast instead of polished, disciplined use of trial reels to experiment safely, and a first few seconds engineered to withhold something the viewer wants to know.
Audit your own bio first: if a stranger can't tell what problem you solve for them in one line, your content is confused for the same reason.
Reframe topics around what your audience wants, not what you want to say about it — a bigger outcome beats a better process every time.
Reduce the time between having an idea and posting it; volume and iteration matter more than any single polished piece.
Use a low-stakes testing lane (trial reels or the equivalent on your platform) to try new formats without risking your existing audience's attention.
When you check analytics, look at skip rate first — it's the leading signal for whether a post gets pushed further, above likes, saves, or comments.
Manufacture curiosity deliberately: state the topic in terms of the viewer's want, then hold back one concrete detail so they have to keep watching.
Treat a viral hack promising a shortcut (settings tweaks, posting times, hashtags) as a red flag — real growth signals came from watch behavior, not platform tricks.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
Trial reels
An Instagram feature that shows a new Reel only to non-followers instead of the creator's existing audience, letting creators test formats and hooks without disrupting people who already follow them.
Skip rate
The percentage of viewers who swipe away from a Reel in the first few seconds; Instagram treats it as the most important ranking signal for how far a video reaches.
Positioning
How clearly an account's bio and content state the specific problem it solves for a specific audience, distinct from simply describing who the creator is.
Resources
Things they pointed at.
09:06toolInstagram Edits app
09:56toolTrial reels (Instagram feature)
Quotables
Lines you could clip.
02:45
“When I look at these bios, nine out of 10 times, I have no clue what the fuck these people do.”
blunt, specific complaint that lands as both funny and diagnostic→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
07:40
“Low effort does not mean not valuable. Low effort means reducing the time it takes to make the value that you have to provide accessible online.”
reframes a common objection in one clean sentence→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
14:32
“You're not shadowbanned. The algorithm doesn't hate you. Humans just didn't like your content.”
reassuring but blunt one-liner that reframes a common creator complaint→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
15:46
“Nothing is more important than the skill of generating curiosity.”
clean thesis statement, works standalone→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
The Script
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
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metaphoranalogy
Social media is changing. I think we can all feel a big shift kinda happening right now. With the rise of Yap content, which my wife has been doing for several years now, there are people blowing up and growing massive followings on social media by literally just talking to their phone.
It's crazy. They're creating massive businesses. They're launching mini courses and making, like, multiple 6 figures in just a week, and it's from the comfort of their own home using their iPhone.
In my opinion, it's never been a better time to be alive, but it didn't always used to be this easy. From, like, 2020 up until now, growing on Instagram felt like pulling teeth. It seems like the Reels algorithm back then prioritized three second Reels with trending sound and a wall of text, so you're hacking it and trying to get people to read the long caption.
The algorithm just didn't like all kinds of content. It seems like it really prioritized that trending bullshit that nobody liked, and that's all we saw in the feed. As of recently, it has really changed and for the better too.
Growing on social media used to be really hard until recently. I grew this Instagram account from, like, literally zero to 10,000 followers in sixty days. I didn't use a fancy camera.
I just used my iPhone. Even though I have a fancy camera, which I'm recording on right now, it cost $5,000, didn't use it at all.
My edits really aren't super impressive. I just get the job done. I just have an iPhone and something to say, but I do have a unique skill that I wanted to share, and I'm able to provide value to people for free.
There are especially on Instagram, a lot of people teaching people how to grow on Instagram, and I watch their content. A lot of it. I wanna say 70 to 80% of the content that is posted out there telling you how to grow on Instagram is a distraction.
It's meant for that content creator to get views. They're playing to your desire to want to get quick results. So they'll post things telling you to change your settings on Instagram, and it'll make you go viral, stuff like that.
It's complete bullshit. I've been doing this a long time. My wife has built her personal brand over the past six years.
My wife and I, we don't have regular day jobs. We make a living off of this. She's grown multiple social media accounts to several hundreds of thousands of followers.
Her YouTube channel has grown to 85,000 subscribers in, ten months. And so in this video, I'm gonna tell you exactly what I would have focused on if I was starting from zero.
I didn't focus on post times. I didn't focus on Instagram settings. I didn't use one hashtag the entire time, and I didn't jump on trends or, like, stupid hacks.
I did none of this stuff. The first thing we're gonna talk about is positioning, and I know this sounds boring. Do not gloss over this.
I've reviewed hundreds of Instagram accounts from people saying, review my account. Review my account. Give me feedback.
Give me feedback. 99.999% of accounts I looked at have a positioning problem, and I'm gonna tell you why this is important.
Okay? When I review these Instagram accounts, I look at their bios, which explains what you do. I'm not saying the bio itself is the important thing, but it guides you in terms of what content you are making.
It lets me know how clear you are with the problem you solve for people. And if you can't even get it right in your bio, I know you're not getting it right in your content. When I look at these bios, nine out of 10 times, I have no clue what the fuck these people do.
So let's just really quickly review some good and bad examples. Okay. First one, let's let's look at this podcast hall of fame.
Uh, radio host twenty years, recovering attorney, speaker, storyteller. Turn passion to profession. Like, what do you do?
The only thing in this bio line is turn passion to profession. That should be at the top. Basically, what this person does is, like, you help me make money doing the things I like to do.
That's all the bio should have said. I don't know what the rest of this shit is. Beauty isn't created here.
It's uncovered. Color analysis, simple makeup.
Again, I get that you are in the beauty industry. You do something with makeup, but it's really confusing what problem you solve for me. Say something like makeup made simple.
Figure out how to do your makeup in an easy way. Like like, say it more plainly. Lover of good people, a good laugh, and little adventures.
Cat mom. Nobody cares about that. Choosing joy, growth, and authenticity.
Come along for the ride. What the fuck do you do? I have no clue.
Stay weird, nerds. Identity not found. What is this?
Shifting your identity to make you look iconic. What does iconic even mean? Is that like a like, you wanna be like Beyonce?
Online image LinkedIn learning instructor. Break free. Subscribe to.
No clue what you do. No clue. And if you can't even state it in your bio, your content is confusing too.
I guarantee it. Director of sales at Amway Waters.
Travelers to unforgettable journeys. Europe, Asia. What?
Here's some better examples. Helping freelancers get paying clients since 2019. Super clear.
We grow your business in online presence. Super clear. Personalized toddler and preschool sleep support for moms who've tried it all.
Sleep support for little kids. Super clear. Um, here's another one.
Helping divorced and struggling men rebuild their strength, confidence, and purpose. So you help divorced men who are obviously struggling. You see how much more clear these bios are?
And that informs the content that you're making because it states the problem that you solve. Your content should be reflected by that statement. And if it's confusing, people are not gonna follow you.
You're not gonna be able to provide value to people. What is the outcome that your audience wants? Don't wanna get better at did lifts.
They want a bigger butt. Entrepreneurs don't want a better mindset. They wanna make more money with less stress.
Dog owners don't really care so much about the dog's diet. They just want less vet visits, and they want their dog to stop licking their paws all the time. Do you see what I'm getting at?
Your ideas are not necessarily good ideas. You have to think of your ideas with your audience in mind, but not just thinking of them, thinking about the way that they think about their problems, not the way that you think about their problems. This is very important.
I'm gonna get to why later on in this video. Because the reality is is that you can't control what people want. We try to do this by posting about topics that are phrased or positioned in a way that does not make people care.
This doesn't mean you have to change what you're talking about though. You change the positioning of the content to speak to what your audience wants.
The next thing I would focus on is low effort content. Low effort does not mean not valuable. Low effort means reducing the time it takes to make the value that you have to provide accessible online.
So from idea to post as short as possible. There are many ways to do this.
Record with the phone that you have, record inside the Instagram edits app because it makes your library of ideas easy to just sync over to the app, it saves everything as drafts. Get to this later. Reduce all the friction to go from idea to post as soon as possible.
And this includes friction with your mindset too. And arguably, people have the most friction with their thoughts about making content. What will people think?
I don't like how I sound on camera. I don't have anywhere nice to film. I always stumble over my words.
You have to get over yourself, and just trust that the more you post, the better you'll get. I've been doing this for six years, and even over the past sixty days, I averaged probably, like, six posts a day, which sounds crazy.
But even over these past sixty days, I've gotten better at it, and I've been doing this for a long time. So when I said I post six posts a day, it's because of trial reels. K?
You need to use trial reels. It unlocked for me at, like, 200 followers. So just post to your main feed until you get trial reels.
Instagram made trial reels for one reason, because they know that the more you post, the better you get at making content, and they knew that people were weird about over posting to their feed and bugging their followers. So if you post to trial reels, your followers won't see it. It'll only show it to non followers.
K? Post as much as you can to trial reels. Trial reels should be used for experimentation.
There's no stakes here. You're not posting to your followers. They're not watching you, so you need to be a scientist.
You need to try all different formats. Try the clone effect. Try, uh, top down with the whiteboard.
Try reaction videos. That's what I mean by different formats. You don't wanna just try one thing and expect different results.
That's the definition of insanity. You need to be trying all kinds of things. All change all kinds of variables.
Literally throw spaghetti at the wall. One of the nice things about the Instagram edits app is they have version control. I think this is a signal of how they want you to create content too.
So if you create a reel, you post it to trial reels, you get some data back, you can create a new version of this and change little things. You can cut out parts where people dipped out of the video.
You could change the hook. They make it very easy so you can try try to make changes to the video and then repost it again to trial reels, try to get a better result. They want you to become better content creators.
That's why they made this feature. Let's talk about analytics just really quick because I think this is important because if you're gonna be posting a lot of volume and you're gonna be experimenting, you need to act like a scientist.
You need to know what's important. Okay? Inside your Reels insights, Instagram literally lists the the metrics in order of importance to reach.
So the skip rate is the most important. That's when like, the first three seconds of the Reel, does somebody watch it or do they swipe it away? You need to get someone's attention.
We'll get to that in a second. Share is the next most important thing, likes, saves, reposts, comments in that order. You need to make a habit of looking at your analytics.
I've noticed it's never been just one variable like, oh, this got a shitload of shares, so it it did well. It kinda needs to do good in multiple areas to actually get a decent amount of views. The skip rate needs to be under 50% generally.
You need to have some shares, and the retention graph needs to not be a freaking nosedive right when it starts. K? Ultimately, at the end of the day, like, don't overthink all of this, but you need people to watch your stuff.
That's what Instagram is looking out for. When you post a video, they test it with 200 people, and they say, how did humans react to this video? How much did they watch?
Did they hit any of the buttons? Did they leave any text below it? Instagram is measuring how humans react to your video.
The algorithm has no bias against you. It never has. Instagram just wants people to stay on the app for as long as possible so they can sell as much ads as possible.
They want you to be successful because if you're successful, they will make way more money. I promise you.
You're not shadowbanned. The algorithm doesn't hate you. Humans just didn't like your content.
And you can be sad about that, or you can think to yourself, how can I get them to watch my videos for a longer duration of time? That's it. That's all it boils down to.
I promise. Make it a habit of looking at your insights, especially when a video does good and ask yourself, what's different here? How can I replicate this?
Curiosity. Nothing is more important than the skill of generating curiosity. You've probably heard this before.
Making someone curious will determine whether or not they swipe away from your video. That goes back to the skip rate in the previous slide. Uh-huh.
I want you to do this. The next time you're watching reels or TikToks, for every reel or TikTok you watch past the three or five second mark, ask yourself why.
Why did you not swipe away? And I want you this is a homework assignment. Go do this right now after you watch this video.
Go to the reels, uh, tab. Go to the TikTok FYP, and start swiping. If you get past five seconds, reverse engineer why you didn't swipe away.
You were curious about the rest of the video for some reason, and that's what you need to do in your content. If you're an educator, meaning you teach someone about solving some type of problem or some topic, you can't make someone curious about something they don't care about. So the topic comes first, and it's not the topic that you think they care about.
So here's some examples. If I'm talking about retirement, anyone under the age of 50 is immediately gonna scroll away. Why do you think that is?
Why? I'm not I'm not of retirement age. This sounds obvious, but that's on purpose.
Okay? Because a lot of you are talking about important things just not in a way to make people care. Here are some examples.
If you wanna talk about mindset for entrepreneurs, you have to connect that to something they want at the beginning of your video. You can't open it with something like, if you're an entrepreneur, here's, uh, three ways to improve your mindset.
No. If If you're an entrepreneur and you wanna make more money and you want to grow your business a 100% year over year with less stress you see where I'm going with this?
I'm talking about the things the entrepreneur wants, not about what you talk about, not your solution to that problem. Say you wanna make travel videos. This is very common.
People just, like, vlog and post travel videos. If other people who like traveling follow your videos, how can you help them? Because if you're not solving problems for them, all you're doing is entertaining.
So if you were to solve problems for people who are also travelers, where are you? How much did it cost? Would you recommend it?
What activities are worth it in that city and what aren't? Do you see all those problems that you can help people solve? I I have a hard time with with these types of niches because you're not a fucking celebrity.
Like, nobody really cares about you. They care about themselves. They care about their problems, not not yours.
After you state the topic in a way to make them care, you sprinkle in a little curiosity. Okay?
You could say something like my business made $300,000 last year, and I boil all of its success down to one thing. And it was actually much easier than I thought once I realized how important it was.
Do you see how I'm just kind of just driving it, like, the point home about, like, what's the one thing? It was easier than you thought? Your topic should make the viewer hone in, and then the curiosity should make them think, wait.
What? Oh. Oh, I gotta hear what he's gotta say.
That's curiosity. For the travel influencer, it's like how much I spend traveling in Bali. You don't have to spend an arm and a leg to have a good time.
Wait. Really? I thought traveling was really expensive.
It's not? Tell me more. Curiosity.
You have to have this skill. Honestly, that's it. You need to stop overthinking it.
Stop overproducing your content. Provide value. Obviously, everyone says that.
Get it out fast. Reduce the friction to create to getting your idea out there because a lot of them are gonna flop. I promise you.
Talk about things people actually care about, not what you think they care about. Make them curious. Post a lot.
I averaged six posts a day, which sounds crazy, but I probably spent maybe an hour or two of content each day. It wasn't that much time. So that's it.
That's the only advice I would give somebody. I mean, if they're starting from zero, don't overthink it. Don't listen to all the other gurus bullshit.
This is all you need to get going on Instagram and actually grow a following. The algorithm is not against you, I promise. Be consistent, post a lot, and subscribe if you like more content like this.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
A creator opens by naming the shift underway on Instagram: people are building six-figure businesses just by talking to their phone, and the platform itself has stopped rewarding the hashtag-and-trending-sound hacks that made growth feel impossible a few years ago.
Frameworks
Named ideas worth stealing.
02:19list
The four things to focus on from zero
Positioning (bio states the exact problem you solve)
Low effort content (shrink idea-to-post time)
Trial reels (experiment without bugging followers)
Curiosity (make the first 3-5 seconds unskippable)
The creator's stated priority order for anyone starting an Instagram account from zero, explicitly excluding post times, hashtags, and platform-setting hacks.
Steal forany creator-growth checklist or onboarding sequence
11:31list
Reels insights ranking
Skip rate
Share rate
Like rate
Save rate
Repost rate
Comment rate
The order Instagram itself lists Reels metrics by importance to reach, per the creator's reading of the in-app insights screen.
Steal forany Instagram-analytics explainer or dashboard
CTA Breakdown
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
12:44subscribe
“Be consistent, post a lot, and subscribe if you like more content like this.”
Soft, single-line ask at the very end after the recap, no mid-roll pitch and no product sold on camera; the description links to a separate 'work with me' coaching page.
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
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