18 Years of Going Viral Advice in 28 Minutes

after working with Taylor Swift MTV Vice magazine Ikea YouTube Yahoo mind Valley and countless other brands our viral content model has generated over 60 billion views 100 million followers and 1 billion in Revenue now during our 18 years of repeated success we've learned this going viral is not luck it's a science and the real problem is almost no one knows how to create repeated viral success because they're missing a model now this is why my team and I have developed the viral content model a process that anyone can use to go viral and increase their

revenue in just a few months even if they're not rich and famous just like Tanner a Lea Craftsman who after 6 months of working with us went from 2,000 to 800,000 Tik Tok followers and increased his website traffic from 10,000 to over 100,000 visitors so sit back because over the next half hour I'll share with you our stepbystep model to help you go viral not once not twice but dozens of times allowing you to expose your business to more people get more clients and maybe even double your Revenue the first thing that you need to

know about going viral is there is a mistake almost everyone I know from Big Brands to small entrepreneurs makes when they start on social media this this mistake costs people a lot of money and even worse a lot of their time but the solution is actually simple and the root of it stems from an Abraham Lincoln quote give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe but what does sharpening an axe look like when it comes to social media first let's look at what it doesn't

look like let's say you wake up one day determined to finally give social media chance and you think that this will change your business forever you've seen teenagers get millions millions of likes and followers in a matter of months so how hard can it actually be you create an account and post your first video unaware of what will actually happen the video is a passionate explanation of the most important aspect of your business you educate viewers on why this is so important give them actionable tips and of course ask people to buy your products and

services at the end but as you look at the screen you see only a few dozen views time goes by and you don't see any improvements in fact fact a part of you almost thinks that you actually see the views go lower you're disappointed you think the game is rigged against you the algorithm doesn't want you to succeed only a few lucky people can make money from social media so you give up walk away from the pile of cash you should have made but it doesn't need to be like that here's why everything went wrong

you don't understand how the algorithm works but if you do you'll never have to waste money on ads or time on content nobody will ever watch again and you'll finally get new customers people think the algorithms are there to suppress their reach on purpose so they have to pay for ads but if that were the case they wouldn't see people going viral organically only the biggest brands and the people with the biggest budgets would go viral here's what the algorithms do they optimize for making you stay and because of this because the more time you

spend on the platform forms the more ads they can serve and thus the more profits they can generate and the reality is with social media platforms they don't create any original content as opposed to a Netflix or a Disney which invest billions of dollars in original Creations however we do we are the fuel behind social media so the platforms want to be our friends because we create content for them we are the fuel that runs these platforms it's never about beating the algorithms it's about partnering with them but how do you create content that the

algorithm will love well this isn't easy but it is simple it's not about Reinventing the wheel it's about doing what already works this is why the number one step to going viral is to find a success Trail now what I what I mean is that you'll analyze Creator content so that you understand the trail that led them to success doing this guarantees your knowledge about what works on social media is sharp before you go and try and chop down that tree or post that video I've seen this small Insight changed the lives of dozens of

clients where before they would post stuff only they liked and get almost no views now they study other successful creators find out what works and consistently get high views on their content so here's an action point so you can start doing the same choose three successful creators in the social media platform of your choice remember successful creators aren't those who have only a few hit videos but those who can pull off hundreds of thousands or even millions of views in most of their videos without being a celebrity then find their success Trail but now you

may be wondering how do you find someone's success Trail you have to pay attention to the structure behind their content when you build a house it's nice to think about the color of the walls and the furniture but if you don't build a solid structure you'll never get to these details it's the same with social media success the result is a lot of people go viral but their views go downhill just like a house with a weak structure falling down to the ground this happens because most people try to make content based on Trends instead

of formats so what is the difference well a trend is a post or topic or an idea that's hyped or popularized for a limited period of time just like the ice bucket challenge a lot of people who posted something like that at the time of the challenge would get a lot of views but those were just the tip of the iceberg because a lot more people who made videos about it they didn't get any views you just didn't know that because the algorithm only shows you the videos that get a lot of Engagement and a

lot of visibility so if you try to create a video about that now your chances of success will be even worse and you'll get next to zero views but with a format it's different a format is a storytelling structure that is designed to work for any subject matter and lasts for years even decades so for example every time Steven Spielberg makes a movie he's not Reinventing the 3x structure that would be a massive waste of time every single one of his movies still has a setup conflict and resolution he follows a format and the simple

truth to going viral is you need to master one single format over time choosing a format is more powerful than any Trend could ever be because as Bruce Lee once said I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times and this principle is especially true for people who want to go viral to advertise their business or services as opposed to becoming an influencer because when you master format people get attached to your content it's familiar they keep coming back and eventually they

start to trust you just like what happened with our client Tanner if I can become the trusted leather adviser in front of these people over time they will understand okay if this guy says something good about this brand I trust it and in the long run it will obviously turn into sales for my own brand because once they figure out I'm an exp they trust me direct correlation they will at least try because they don't have that trust issue anymore I don't need to try to sell this is why choosing a format is step two

of our method but how do you identify the right format for your social media strategy to answer this question let's take a look at Dr Julie Smith she's an accomplished psychologist who wanted to teach millions of people and make mental health more accessible but the problem is the average person is not really interested in hearing com complex psychological Concepts so they probably won't click on a video with this topic so Dr Julie Smith chose a different approach that allowed her to get over 12 million views in a single video sell over 1 million copies of

her book and appear in major TV shows let's watch one of her videos to find out what her approach was I want you to pay attention and see if you can identify a format write down three things that you notice about the structure of this video don't make this mistake when you're working on your own happiness imagine this is you and this is your life but like most people's lives there are problems that can make it toxic if a fish is living in a toxic environment eventually it gets sick so you take her out of

the dirty water and put her in a new tank for a while kind of like how you take a break you go on a holiday for a few weeks into a new environment and it helps everything gets better and feels great great for a while until you return and go right back to that toxic situation again and it doesn't matter how clean the water was on your break or how refreshed you feel eventually you will get sick again if you want to thrive in the longterm you have to focus on cleaning up the environment that

is affecting you every day I'm a psychologist follow for more so we can see there are three key things about this video there's an abstract or complex topic a visual representation of the topic with physical objects and a verbal explanation of the topic these all make the format which is best explained with an analogy think of when you go to Subway you can add different types of ingredients every time you go there they all taste a little bit different but at the end of the day they are still a sandwich so you can imagine a

Subway meal as a format meaning the sandwich is the format and all the little ingredients that you put into it are different video ideas understanding this is key to driving more awareness and sales for your business because on social media what's important isn't what you say but how you say it so if you find a format that helps you explain your topics in a creative and engaging way then you'll get thousands or even millions of views later I'll show you exactly why and how more views convert into more sales but for now let's see what

your action points are for this section search for keywords in your field like house dog or sale when you do that you'll probably realize you're not finding repeatable formats but you'll find oneoff funny dog videos but that's not something that you can create over and over again successfully so the next step is to pair the keywords in your field with a format keyword here's a list of all the format keywords we use with clients pause the video and write them down so for example if you're in the cooking Niche you can pair the keyword cooking

with a form format keyword like hack and type that on the search bar to find good references now finding a format will be easy but remember only choose formats that consistently bring hundreds of thousands or even millions of views otherwise it's going to be harder to succeed finally watch the Creator's most watch videos and try to identify their core elements then transpose the format to your field for example we just saw Julie Smith's visual metaphor format now if you're a lawyer can you think of a similar way to explain law topics but finding a format

is just one half of the problem because some people make videos in successful formats and still fail and sometimes even the same Creator can see a dramatic difference in performance in the same format like Julie Smith herself to explain how you can avoid that I will show you two videos one did 12 million views while the other only got a couple hundred th000 so as you watch the two videos trying to determine which one performed better and why now imagine this is you and these are all the bad things that happen to you so each

one represents a memory of traumatic experiences that you've been through and as you go about your life the things seems like it's overflowing memories just keep falling out when you don't want them to emotionally overwhelming you and you can't seem to focus on the rest of your life so what can we do about it well I'm a psychologist and this is what happens in trauma therapy first of all a therapist would gear you up with all the skills that you need to manage just how painful those memories can be and then you take one memory

at a time carefully open it up at your own pace and allow you to process that memory and then you can neatly Fold It Up you do the same with the next one and the next one until what you're left with is a neat little pile of memories that fit neat neatly at the bottom living you more capacity to focus on the life that you want to have today so that's the first video we're going to watch the second video and again as you watch a second video think about which one performed better which one

got the 12 million views and which one underperformed and why imagine for a moment that you're stood in front of a busy road with traffic going both ways and each of those Vehicles represents a thought or a feeling coming in and out of your mind now you might be like most other people and spend a good deal of your time in the middle of that road trying to direct the traffic there are some thoughts you want to hold on to right and there's others that you want to push away but doing that causes more stress

because the traffic just keeps on coming now if I asked you to just step back from the curb and watch the traffic instead of trying to control it just allowing it to pass and watching as it goes that would be the process of mindfulness when you know notice that you're trying to hold on to certain thoughts and push others away see if you can step back from the traffic and let it pause so which one performed better the first or the second now if you want a second press pause and think about it jot down

your ideas but now I'm going to reveal the results so the first video that we watched the one with the waste paper basket 12 million views versus the second video with the car's 130,000 views so the same Creator the same format over 11 million views difference in performance so why so in the high performer the first video there's an active metaphor so there's a clear visual story that involves the manipulation of the object demonstrating the topic of the video so as you notice with the waste paper basket she's actually manipulating object she's taking paper out

she's folding it she's putting it back in versus the underperformer in the second video instead of using an active metaphor she's asking the viewer to imagine the scenario and doesn't actually play with the objects now the second aspect is the tension so in the first video there is clear tension in those first few seconds and the first few seconds are critical to a video's performance within the first few seconds of the high performer we can definitely see that there is a clear problem there is a waste paper basket with a bunch of papers piled up

it's triggering in our subconscious that there is a problem that is occurring in what this video is going to talk about versus the underperformer there isn't this clear visual problem there's no visual tension on screen the next difference is the potential energy again with the high performer within the first second again this basket full of papers it hints to the viewer that there will be some interaction that Julie Smith is going to do something with it versus in the underperformer she doesn't reach for a car or have any other object on screen that's implying that's

there's going to be some interaction ction all she promises is a visual story that she's going to break through the final aspect is the cleverness of it so in the high performer it's very clever she's using everyday objects she's using a wastepaper basket and papers a filled trash can we use this on an everyday basis so it's extremely uh clever and it's unexpectedly smart of how she's breaking down this complex subject matter the low performer there's not an unexpected smart decision here or demonstration she asked the viewers to do work by imagining the metaphor so

again massive difference in performance with the same format and the same Creator so step three of going viral is analyzing high and low performers in the same format that way you're creating content based solely on what works and I promise doing this process will put you ahead of 99% of creators because they just don't do this now most creators just mind l l copy viral videos without understanding what makes them work and end up getting lackluster results now when we compare Dr Julie Smith's videos we wrote down the elements that made the high performer work

we call these elements performance drivers because well they drive the video's performance to a destination most of the time success to better understand this imagine your video like it's a Formula One car every car has the same Parts like the engine the transmission the tires but if but if the engine in one car is just slightly better than the other one this can bring the difference in milliseconds needed to win the truth is the devil is in the details in Formula 1 and social media your content might be good but with just a slight change

it can be 10 times better now I know identifying and applying these details can be hard this is why my team and I have spent thousands of hours identifying over 200 different performance drivers and we've boiled them down to the most powerful 20 but we don't have time to go through all of them in this video so I'll explain the one that might be the most important to get your audience interested in anything you have to say and maybe even eventually turn them into customers and it's called the generalist principle let's illustrate this with an

example there's a YouTuber Graham Stefan who teaches Finance to Millennials Finance is not really a sexy subject especially for Millennials but as most View video was how I bought a Tesla for $78 a month this works because he's framing the video in a way that anybody would be interested to see how this young guy bought a Tesla for $78 a month but then he's unfolding the story and teaching the fundamentals of Finance if the video was titled I'm going to teach you the five ways to maximize car financing nobody would really care the video would

have gotten 10,000 views instead of 9 million views now you may ask yourself what's the use of getting 9 million views for my business so let's break this down let's say that your business or brand today on average is generating 10,000 views a video and out of that let's say it's 80% let's be generous 80% of those 10,000 people watching your video are your core audience now let's push it up to 9 million views now there is going to be a drop off in terms of your core audience watching that content but let's just say

that it drops down to 10% so 10% of 9 million people watching that content is 900,000 so with this principle of going viral we've just gone from 8,000 people that could potentially buy our product watching our videos to over 900,000 so imagine that imagine that 900,000 people with each piece of content you produce is watching your video and could potentially buy your products and services how would that impact your bottom line let's dive into an example so Ryan surand is a luxury real estate agent in Manhattan New York so he sells luxury properties ranging from

15 million all the way up to 250 million so his core audience of what drives his business is extremely small but what he does is he plays the generalist principal so he creates videos like let me take you on a tour of a $7 million closet let me take you on a tour of a $250 million Ranch and he knows knows anybody would be interested in watching those videos so he generates millions and millions of views a month but he knows that only if less than 1% of those millions of people watching his content is

his core audience it will have a massive impact on his business he is even said a single YouTube video has sold a $30 million property in Manhattan now here's how you analyze formats to get the best out of them identify the high and low performers from a creator that you're researching then then play the high and low performers of a format side by side uncover the drivers that make each format successful and then write them down now before clients work with us most of them waste hours looking at a blank screen to try and come

up with a couple of ideas but after we go through our ideation system with them they unlock the ability to get over a 100 ideas in about an hour because the truth is getting a lot of good ideas fast is easy if you start from something already exists so let's put into practice step four of our viral method ideation so I'm going to pull up Tanner leather Stein one of our clients uh Tik Tok accounts and look at one of his most successful videos that has over 10 million views called our Coach leather bags worth

it now as we look at this video we want to break down what is the difference between a format and the idea so the format is is it worth it meaning he used uses this format over and over again to break down whether this leather good this purse this expensive product is worth the money that you're paying for it the idea is is the Coach leather bag worth it so he's using the coach bag as the idea other examples of ideas within this format is our Louis Vuitton wallets worth it our Christian Louis Vuitton shoes

worth it our Prada leather bags worth it so the product itself is the idea within the is it worth it format so how can you use this format in a different industry well think about whether you're a realtor so if you're a realtor you can do is a house in Beverly Hills worth it is a house in Miami Beach worth it is a $120,000 new townhouse worth it is a $5,000 house in Detroit worth it so again the format is is it worth it and then you can put your ideas into that specific format now

you can do that for 10 videos first find formats From Success creators replace the topic parts of the title with your own ideas try to have around 10 for each video and just like that you have a hundred video ideas but it's important to remember that you should write everything down even if some of the ideas seem to be bad singer songwriter Ed Sharon swears by this principle whenever he writes a song he uses this analogy to guide his process if you run the tap and the water is dirty at first instead of leaving the

tap and trying to find water elsewhere it's best to keep running the tap until the water becomes clear ideas are like this for songwriting and for social media you'll get the bad ones along with the good ones your job is to write everything down and choose the best ones later now here's where the biggest mistake of all comes in believe it or not big brands do it all the time and this mistake can put everything we've done so far to waste on the other hand if you learn to avoid it you'll be ahead of even

the biggest brands like Coca-Cola and Nike so what these brands do is they batch produce content and plan out these lengthy content calendars meaning they'll sit down they'll produce 20 30 or maybe even more videos or pieces of content at a time now the reason this is a huge mistake is there is a huge opportunity loss for learning with each piece of content meaning if you post the first out of 30 videos that you've produced and that video underperforms and you can look at and say oh man we did that wrong but we've got 29

other videos that we produced and we need to post them you lose a massive opportunity to fix that mistake for the next video and the next video and this is what catches creators up all the time as they post that first video it bombs they can't take those learnings to fix the other ones and thus they repeat the cycle over and over and over again consistently going viral on social media is not about quantity it is about quality this is why creating a single piece of content at a time is step five in our method

but if you don't believe quality can be quantity let me show you there's a Creator who posts YouTube videos one to two times a month sometimes he even goes a couple months without posting anything still he's one of the most successful Youtubers of his generation his name mark Rober the same could be said about Quinton reviews and even Mr Beast at one point was only posting once a month now of course quantity can be good the more you do something the better you get at it and if you already understood and perfected your format quantity

can make you grow even faster but if it makes you burn out it's just not worth it and there's a lot of proof that you can set your own pace and still achieve massive success now here's what you need to do to complete step five of the process choose the most promis ing idea from step four look at all the performance drivers that you found when analyzing the crators you chose in step two create a checklist with these performance drivers and have it by your side while you're creating your video create one piece of content

using these performance drivers now I must be blunt with you even if you do all of this your video might fail but don't worry we have a process to help you fix that our model has been tested with hundreds of creators so there are only two reasons people fail when they use it they paid attention to the wrong thing when analyzing the format or they executed it poorly this is why the last step in our viral model is to review your video and the results it generated this step is the reason one of our clients

Tanner leein was able to find a formula that worked every time and perfected it until it got him a 10 million views video we we did the Chanel video that video went viral first time I was shocked and we sit down okay now what happened here looking from you guys' lens these were the elements I feel like made the difference so I used the same formula applied into a Brooks Brothers bag and it worked just like that even better than the Chanel so here's how you review your results play the high performers from other creators

Side by side with your videos and be honest with yourself find all the ways that you might have failed to execute on a specific element now if you do this enough times you will get not only one but dozens of viral videos that will help you reach more people than you ever thought possible remember creating viral content is not luck it's a science with a repeatable process and if you have a good product or service inevitably your viral videos will bring you new customers you now have the road map to go viral but it would

be impossible for me to share everything that I've learned over the past 18 years of work in just one video that's why I distilled down all the strategies and secrets and shortcuts of our viral content model which has been used to generate over 60 billion views 100 million followers and 1 billion in client Revenue into a brand new book just for you so if you're ready to scale your brand click the link below in the description to download download the guide too viral for free and start your journey to viral success