Building a Profitable Business in 3 Months Using TikTok

In my opinion, the most predictable way, proven way to have a seven figure.

Business is to build an audience, even.

A small one, and to launch products.

Four products, 25 sales a day, $30 price point, that's a million dollar business. And build a brand that you can scale and sell.

And right now audiences are being built on TikTok faster than I have ever seen. And I brought on three people who.

Have built successful followings and launched products to them and sold lots of stuff to them onto this call that you are about to see. Now, each one of these three guys has built a big enough following to have a full time business. One has 3 million followers, one has 500,000 followers, one only has 20,000 followers. And all three of them are big enough to have really successful, profitable businesses. So in this call we did this for our members inside the 1% where we mentor people to build million dollar businesses. We talk about how they built their audiences, how they used those audiences to launch products in a really cool way that didn't burn their audience and what the mindsets were for, how they cultivated this audience that wanted to buy from them in the first place. Most importantly, we talk about how to do this in a way that feels effortless, in a way that doesn't feel like it's a constant grind. Because I, I know one of the things that holds people back from creating content on any platform is feeling like you don't have something to say or you don't want to dance in front of the screen. None of these guys did that. And yet they built profitable audiences that allowed them to have product launches that were profitable, that helped them build full time businesses on their following.

And one of them did it in three months.

One of them built the audience in three months, launched the business, now is a full time entrepreneur as a result of three months of building an audience. I'm here to tell you this stuff works. I'm here to tell you that building an audience and launching stuff to them is a really great way to build a business. And it's the foundation of everything that we teach@capitalism.com and it is the path through which we mentor people inside of our community. The 1%, which is where this call is taken from.

Now you're going to get all the.

Content that they shared inside of this call. The most valuable piece of this is when we dive deep on the one on ones. After we record the content, we go one on one with Q and A and we figure out what they're struggling with. We bring this board of advisors to Help them clear their bottlenecks and build a million dollar business. That is not in this call. It is reserved only for the live calls inside the 1%. But you're going to see all the content of how these three guys built this following, built their followings and built successful, profitable businesses as a result. Whenever you are ready to say, all right, fine, I'm in.

Let's do this.

Please get off the sidelines and come join us inside the 1%. We got this. We do this. This is what we help people do. Build million dollar businesses and do it fast using strategies like the ones that you're going to hear about in this video. So whenever you're ready, come join us@capitalism.com 1. Now let's go learn how to build audiences using TikTok.

Today we're going to throw some gasoline on the fire we're going to throw some gasoline on the fire by talking about the fastest growing platform in the world right now, which is TikTok. I just went and did a very quick session, 60 second TikTok right before this call. And we've structured this very intentionally where we have a couple people who have really big audiences who can tell you how to get tons and tons of traffic on there for free. And we've got someone on there who just used the platform to have a profitable launch, had a small audience, but still sold over a thousand units with this small audience and then someone who's got a decent audience and is now using that to document the journey, to build that seed audience. So you're covering the whole thing here and I want you to pay attention here and to see how you can start using this platform to grow your business. So, Chris, Evan, Damian, are you guys ready to party? Give me a thumbs up. Let's go, Chris.

Let's go.

Good morning, Damian.

What up, man?

There's Evan. Whoa, look at this good looking room in here.

Oh, there.

Evan will not be here today, but his mustache will be. We'll be speaking on Evan's behalf. How the hell are you guys?

I'm good.

Going good, man. How are you?

I'm. I'm doing great. Damien, I want to start with you because you did not have a tick tock presence. No six months ago at all. Yeah.

December 24th.

December 24th was your first post.

Yep. Well, no. Well, it was like my first business consistent post. Yeah. Business post.

So I want to skip the in between and let's just say, okay, December 24, 2020 1. We're recording this on May 5th of 2020. 2. So less than six months later, I want to skip the build and I want to go right to the results. So you, on the other side of posting consistently, you just had a launch.

What.

When did you take orders?

Two months ago, January 27th.

Oh, it was that soon? So a month after starting consistent posting, you started taking orders?

Yeah, so I was, I was super lucky. The first video I posted hit and that video alone helped us build a 6,000 person waiting list. And, and I, I read somewhere where like, yeah, one video. It was insane. And I read somewhere that the longer.

I, I just, I gotta interject here because it wasn't really one video. There was a little bit more of a complete strategy. Like you did have a video hit, but there was more of a strategy that. And we're gonna break that down in this, but please continue. Tell us about the results of the sales and the launch and all that.

Yeah, so that video hit, we had us, we built a 6,000 person waiting list. And then I read somewhere that, you know, the longer you kind of keep people on a waiting list, the less likely they're to convert over a long period of time. So we had that happen. So we had the list early January. So I decided to take a pre order on January 27th. So the week leading up before June 27th, we kind of, you know, hyped it up. Had some scarcity and it was real scarcity too. So we said. So we did a 20 run first. So that was about like a thousand units. And we said that the first, you know, people first. A thousand people who order will get their order like a month and a half before anyone else does. So that was, that was real. And you know, on day one we sold about 800 units.

And then you said wait, on day one?

Yeah, on day one. Like on January.

800 units on day one.

Yeah. Well, it was. Sorry, 700 units. 700 units.

Oh, oh, it was only 700. Okay, I will enter my enthusiasm that you only sold 700 units in 24 hours. Yeah, I didn't realize it was that many. Was, was that, was that $10,000 in sales?

It was about like eight grand.

Okay, eight grand in sales within about 24 hours and.

What?

Yeah. Oh, that's so freaking great. Like, I know. How are you?

So, so I won't.

It was like a crate.

I don't know. I am now. But dude, it was like one of the, the craziest things that ever happened. So the night before we launched the pre orders, I stayed up to like 5am because our website Everything I did before didn't save. So from like Midnight to like 5am I like redo everything. So I woke up. So we, we launched at 9am I remember that. And then I woke up at like 8:59. And then right when I woke up, my phone just started like buzzing like crazy.

It's the best feeling ever.

It is. And these were your first sales, right? I mean, you don't have reviews, you don't have a giant audience, you don't have influencers. You are your first sales and you wake up to 700 of them.

Yeah.

Within 24 hours. All right, listen, I just need to pause. Any of you who are watching live right now, I need you to tell me if you are awake in the chat. Like just here, just say just. You can put here or hello or question mark or. I'm breathing in the chat because like your heart should be doing some of this right now. 700 units. And he had, he hadn't posted a piece of content until a month prior. A month prior. James is breathing, Marcus breathing, Tony's breathing. All right now, Damien, let's fast forward to the end. What have you done in total sales since. Since this launch? Because you did, you, you had 4, 000 units that you ordered.

Yeah.

That was pretty much everything that you had.

Yeah.

You know, financially. So what, what's happened?

It was a lot. It was a lot of money, man. It was a lot of money. So fast forward to like now. We've sold about like 2,000 units.

Yeah, our first order was 4,000. 4,100. So just about half.

And our, you know, the rest of our production runs starting like in a week. So.

Yeah, that's amazing. And, and by the way, Damien, you've done a amazing job with the product. Thanks. So Damien sells well, essentially sugar free cookies. He's got them right here. So they are, they're chocolate chip cookies that taste like chips Ahoy, but they have I think one gram of sugar, one gram of sugar in the whole thing. And they're delicious. My kids love them. I ordered four boxes and I'm already more than a halfway through them. I got them like a month ago. Right. We've poured through them, which by the way, they make a ridiculous cereal. If you break them up and milk on them and make it.

You should try a cookie, an ice cream sandwich. Those are bombs. Yeah.

So I would please, please, if you have not bought Damien's cookies, quit hitting around effing goodsnacks.com go get him. Support the guy. He's put his Heart and his soul into this. Now, Damian, the strategy that I know you followed was you were essentially documenting the growth of the business. You were, you weren't saying like, here's why these cookies are amazing. You were just showing the incremental steps that you were taking in the business. And you had your, your link in your bio to get on the, on the, the waiting list for people to buy. To buy cookies. Yeah. Was that pretty much the overall strategy or am I missing any nuances in there?

You mean like in the beginning or.

Yeah, yeah, to like, to build that, that 6,000 person list that was ready to buy from you.

Yeah, just basically kind of like sharing what I'm doing. So after I had that first video hit, you need, you need like a thousand followers, I think, to have like a bio. So all I did was I had a link in bio that was like a landing page, very simple landing page that said like, you know, this is what the product's about. You know, 1 gram sugar, sign up when we launch. Very simple page. And yeah, just basically shared what I'm doing, answered questions, and then, you know, told people this is when we're gonna go live. And I did, I did a lot of that in the email side too. Yeah, Kind of just like sharing what's been going on. You know, I had, I wrote like whiteboards, like, oh my God, we had like 6,000 person waiting list. Took a picture, like told my girlfriend to take a picture of me and then attach that photo. It's like email. So kind of like keep people in the loop. But yeah, dude, that's. That's basically kind of, kind of what I did and what. Well, from now. So that was like the beginning. And then I guess like, especially when you first post on TikTok, you don't really know what you like to make. So it really takes a lot of like testing new formats and new ideas to really figure out like, what you like and plus like what works. So you kind of have like, there's two combos to figure out what you should be posting. And since for like the past like couple months, I really kind of like honed in on like what I really like making, which is kind of like more like storytelling videos. So like what happened in the business and then kind of putting together like footage with like a voiceover and then kind of like talking with like a beginning.

Yeah. So Damien, how big is that launch list now of people who raise their hand and say, hey, I want to try the food cookies? 8,000, 8,000 people in five months. And six months.

Six months.

No. January, February, March, April. It's not. We're not even done with May. It's been four and a half months.

Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right.

You're right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know numbers are hard.

So. So, Damien, how much ad spend have you spent to build that list of 8,000 people?

$0.

$0. $0. Friends, I am harpering on this point and I brag about Damien all the time because the. Just works.

Does it gets kind of annoying.

It just works. Okay, I'm gonna take a second and I want to brag on Mark Cuda, who is watching on the live right now. Mark Cuda, who has never sold a physical product before, had no audience, just grinded his way into having a small little audience, opened up DMS with a few influencers, followed the plan, just launched, and within the first week had $20,000 in sales on a product that every single one of you would say, oh, there's too much competition. There's too much competition. I can't break into that. $20,000 in sales. Doesn't even have the product at a fulfillment house yet. He and his wife are packing boxes, working day and night to ship them out. My friends, if you are not on this train, it's leaving the station. Hop on. This is happening, guys. It's happening right now. But I missed the boat. But it's too late. But it's too competitive. But inflation. But Joe Biden. But Ryan's white privilege. It's happening, guys. It's moving. Let's go. All right, I want to skip over to Chris, because, Chris, you're sort of at the other end of things. Like, you are a. A by the book influencer.

I became that. Yeah. I don't like to call myself that, but I became that.

No one does. But what you have, I think 3 million followers on TikTok. Is that right?

I think 2 million on TikTok, 500,000 on Instagram, about a million on Facebook. And I only had like 10,000 when I first started, which is like year and a half to two years ago.

Okay, so you've built nuts. Over 2 million people in a year and a half. That is indeed nuts. So you. You have more reach than most news stations at this point. A year and a half. Pretty not bad, Chris. Now, if I. Last time we talked, you did not have a physical product. You were. You were monetizing in other ways. Is that still the case?

Yeah, I'm still actually thinking of a product to launch. So during Sensor Conversation. What I did was I did launch my shirt, and I did sell about, like $30,000 worth of shirt. Not units. Yeah, about 30,000 plus. And we sell, I don't know, a couple thousand worth every week. But I only did that to figure out. While I'm figuring it out, I'm just trying to build an audience trust. If there's like missing shipment, we're just sending them a new one or we're just building a customer service. Right. Because I honestly don't care about the revenue right now, because I care about building the brand and building that connection. So when I do launch, coming up.

With that physical product idea, I know a guy or two that can help. But Chris, what. So I. What I want to talk to you about specifically is Damien started from the beginning building an audience specifically for his business. You did not. You went. You were. You were just building an audience. So what did you do to build such a responsive, large audience in such a short amount of time? Can you walk us through your mindset as you started?

So it could kind of go a little deep? So when Pandemic hit. So I actually. So, okay, I'm a chef. I have two restaurants, one with my family, one of my own. So I used to do marketing, like Instagram marketing for the restaurant. And I double my parents restaurant by seven figures in four years by just doing, like, with only like 3 to 4,000 followers on Instagram. But I knew it was that important to connect, reply back to every comment, post the food picture. Hey, we have drink special today. Hey, we have barbecue special today. So I always knew that. But when I opened up my own restaurant, I never got to shoot content. I outsourced the people who are like, hey, I'll grow your Instagram. I'm the best photographer. You know, I'll do all of this. And then I had to be the chef, the manager, the dishwasher and everything. So I stopped marketing. Yeah. And I didn't know that I was good at marketing. And when people. When I outsourced it, it never worked. So I made a promise to myself, if I ever get a chance to time, I'm gonna make content. And when Pandemic hit, I gave all my schedule out to all my crew. And I had so much time left in my hand, and I was like, all right, all right, bro. Right? This is the time, you know, like, so I had no excuse to create content. But so the mindset was I just decided to start creating content. People were stuck at home, anxiety, depression, scared to go to the market. And I just start making content. I start catering for my audience. They're like, oh, my God, I don't have those ingredients. All right, let's cook with the ingredients. With the. With the ingredients you have at home. Most people had some rice at home, some soy sauce at home, even ramen or dumpling at home, or leftover dumplings. So I'm like, yo, let's make dumpling fried rice. Let's make ramen fries.

Very beginning of the pandemic, right?

Yeah.

And you. You got. You got time. You know, other people have time, and you're like, rice, soy sauce, chicken, dumplings.

Let's go making. Making recipes with the ingredients they have. So basically, I'm going into their kitchen and what kind of ingredients do you have? And I just cook with there instead of going to the market. Right. And then people were telling me, hey, I'm going through so much. I'm anxious. I'm going through depression. Your video made me laugh, and I'm like, oh, shit, I'm funny. So I started making my videos a little bit more funny too. Cause I'm like. It was meaningful, right? And I'm like, damn, I can't believe I made someone laug. I can't believe they're going through this and I'm helping them. But also, my mindset was I might not survive the pandemic. Like, my restaurant might close or I felt like, oh, I might die. And it sounds weird that we say this. We all really felt like we're gonna.

Have that moment, right?

Yeah, we felt like our business wasn't gonna survive.

Except for Evan, because Evan lives in, like, the middle of nowhere, so he has. He has. There's seven people in his city. He was. He was fine. The rest of us, we were. We were afraid for our life.

It was. It was bad.

Yeah, so. So you started just making, like, everyday cooking videos and took off. You had decent timing. You enjoyed what you were creating, and you were very active in the community. And you knew, based on previous experience, that if you jump in and build a community by replying to every comment and creating connection and relationships there, that good things will happen. Is that a fair summary?

Yes. But to be honest with you, my mindset was, you know, my restaurant might close, I might die. Let's leave everything behind. And my thing was, in 15 to 20 years from now, if my son ever asked me what I did in pandemic, I wanted to tell him I gave my all right? And it was that deep. I was like, oh, my God, let's give all the recipe, let's not shy away from sharing it. I left everything behind there and then. I never thought I'll be exactly where I'm at. I never knew I'd get paid this much. I'll grow this big. So I tell people, people can't compete with that. You can't. You can't compete when someone's thinking with, I want a hundred thousand followers. I want to make millions. I came to die, like, right here to give all. All and, like, not leave a legacy, but tell my son 20 years from now, like, hey, I didn't slack off. I really tried my best, even though if I had to close my restaurant and I didn't. And also, it go. It goes that deep. Like, what is your big. Why?

What happened to the restaurant when things reopened as a result of you having this audience?

Restaurant did well. But to be honest, I'm not targeting all the traffic to the restaurant too much, even though so many people are traveling to the restaurant, because that's another whole business to keep growing and take care of. It's almost like I'm afraid, you know, every time I shoot out a post, people just rush out, where's Chef man? I thought, he's here. So, you know, I'm just balancing it. So I'm not. I like to keep the traffic online more because it's like two different business we're kind of juggling with, you know?

But yeah, yeah, I. I totally get it. So your mindset going in was I'm just going to leave it all on the court. I'm going to give everything I have. I don't care what happens. I'm just going to give to people. I'm going to make them smile. I want to leave Legacy might be too strong of a word, but I'm going to do my best to leave a dentist. I'm gonna get involved in people's lives and their comments, and I'm just gonna give.

Yeah, that's.

Does that sound familiar, ladies and gentlemen? Does any of this ring any like, oh, this sounds familiar. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I'm gonna document the process. I'm gonna respond to comments, I'm gonna give my all to people, and some good things will happen. This is audience building, what I've been preaching in your ears every day for the last five years, and lo and behold, it still works. It just so happens that there is a platform now that is rewarding that at scale, and it's called TikTok.

Can I add just one more thing on top so you Like, I think Damian said it, I wrote it down. He said, find out what you like. He figured out he likes storytelling, but also when you're finding what you like, you got to find out what works, right? So Damian figured out a formula that worked for him. I started TikTok because when I first really started TikTok, I started it about, yeah, half a year and a half, two years ago. When I started, I meant to do motivational video, you know, and then it never popped off because I didn't want to make super aggressive motivational video on Instagram because my family and friends are there. So I went on Tick Tock to try it out. But that motivation inspiration video never popped off right. But people just really like seeing me cook, so I just gave the audience what they want. I'm still going to do inspiration motivational later. But I grew my brand so much, I get about 100,000 views on my, like, IG story, right? I tell people, dude, I still get 100,000 views. If I want to talk about motivation inspiration, I don't got to kill the brain by being selfish and be like, nah, I'm going to talk about what I want to talk about. Sometimes you got to realize what the world loves you for, you know, but you don't always have to. But for me, I'm trying to. Like, people are telling me this is what they want to watch from me, and I'm giving them more of it. And later I. I'll be the whole motivation inspiration thing, you know, that's the goal. But right now, I'm just trying to grow the. So. So find out what you love so you could do it every day or it's going to be a hard task every day.

Whenever you're ready to start that motivational podcast, you give us a call and we can publish it on capitalism.com.

I get to do it right here. Thank you. That's right.

So let's. Let's combine these two strategies so far so that those of you who are building businesses can see where this overlaps. So Chris is talking about on the traffic side. First of all, he has a person and an intent. That person at the time was stuck at home. He's looking at what's in their kitchen. How can I help them? Goes all in on that person and builds a community on TikTok. Just leaves it all on the court there. Audience building 101. Give them what they want. Be involved in the interactions. Don't think about the hundred thousand people who aren't following you. You think about the six that actually give a crap, that are commenting and liking. That's where it starts. And then Damien is using that strategically to build a launch list. All he has is a link in bio to get first in line to be able to buy the cookies. Those two things combined consistently giving to the community, documenting whatever you're doing, Chris, for Chris, it's cooking. For Damian, it was the building of the business that documenting builds the story and the bond that people who are watching have with you. And then they're signing up for the launch list. Damian goes and has a stellar launch. Chris is building restaurants and building a personal brand. Now let's talk about Evan, because Evan has been doing a hybrid of this for a little bit of time. Evan, you built the audience for another business and now you're sort of going back and warming that audience up for a business that at first you were like, I don't think this has anything to do with my TikTok following. So walk us through what your current audience is and how that built the business that you have.

Well, the audience I have now is like millennial males in the US who have a business idea and kind of get stuck with it. You know, they're entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs. That's a bit, that's the audience I have now on Tick Tock and Instagram, email and all that stuff. But I started building a business for my.

Well, but before, before you go, which.

One do you want to talk about?

That, that, that audience that you built of male business owners built that to a pretty decent size. Last I checked, it was over half a million people on Tick Tock. So, so how did that come about first? And then I want to talk about how we're using that, the other business pandemic.

I was with Chris.

Okay, tell us more.

Yeah, I was still at the fire department during the pandemic, and so I was still running 911 calls. And I remember I was out of county, we were refilling helicopters with water to drop water on this big wildfire. And I pulled out my cell phone and I documented what we were doing. Documented. And I showed them how to, like, what we were doing, how it worked and why. And boom, I got attention. And I was like, oh, this is new, this is interesting. I was like, what if I actually started talking about something that I cared about? And so that's when, I don't know, late 2020, August, I posted my very first business oriented TikTok video. And I was like, I don't even care, dude. I, I, I just, I got to talk about what I want. I don't want to talk about firefighting for the rest of my life. I'm not going to do it forever. What I really want to do my sport business and I want, I want.

To, I want to give a little bit of insight to people who don't know you. You were a full time firefighter and the business you like, the, the content you started making was not like, here's how to start a business. If I remember correctly, it was like accounting stuff.

Yeah.

Like, like financial. Here's, here's how to manage your finances in your business. Is that correct?

Yeah, I still do a lot of that because that's like my fundamentals are. I had, when I started my business, I was like upside down when it came to taxes and the different types of taxes that you pay and how to set up your business legally. And it gave, it took a lot of confidence from me. Took away a lot of confidence. So I was like the same thing I did in paramedic school. Like I was worried about running calls on pediatrics and kids and I'm like, I'm gonna make this my best subject. So I'm not afraid anymore. And so I did the same thing with business and I started talking about like your S Corp structure and how to start LLCs and stuff. And people cared.

It's cool. Now I wanted to highlight that because accounting isn't sexy. Like no one, no one wakes up in the morning is like, I am going to make the best accounting video ever. Right. But you have someone like Evan who just struggled with this, learned some things, started sharing what he was learning and some of you might be familiar with. This is kind of a famous TikTok example of Ms. Excel. Ms. Excel is a pretty prominent, you'd say business influencer who makes videos all about how to use Excel and she has hundreds of thousands of followers. She has a seven figure business selling Excel templates.

So.

But my market's too small. But nobody wants to hear this, but it's too late.

We're talking about accounting videos. And Evan starts to grow a business of people who are paying to have help with that. So Evan, you start doing business videos, you build a business that allows you to be full time as a result of you doing this. How big did that audience get? And did you do anything intentionally to make that business pop?

The business last year made the whole just tick tock personal brand thing made me about 250, 000 last year of existence. And a lot of that came from affiliate marketing and brand deals. And so the audience size, to answer the first part of your question, grew to a little over half a million on Tick Tock and then, you know, sprinkling on the other social media channels that are now growing.

It's amazing. So amazing work.

One of the formulas that I figured out was, dude, there's a lot, there's a lot of out there that people say about TikTok and how to grow on media. And just like Chris and Damien said, you gotta find your spot. Because every single person I truly believe has a voice, like a voice, you know, on social media. And you gotta find it and you kind of gotta try a little bit over here and a little bit over here. And for me it was just educational explainers. Like, I love doing that. Some people like to motivate, some people like to make people laugh. You know, some people like to inspire. But I had a really good time just grabbing my notebook and just drawing and making it visual and simple. And I was like, okay, how simple can I make this concept? And that's kind of like I would challenge myself with. And so that's, that was my formula was like, how simple can I make this lesson? And that's what I keep doing with my content. And it seems to work.

Yeah.

And it's, that's, I've noticed that that's the content that really hits for you now. So. So that business, six figure business. Congratulations. Allowed you to become a full time entrepreneur, but then you started another business that had nothing to do with this personal brand and it was a physical products brand. Give us, you were holding it up earlier. Show us that. And then I want to talk about how you're working this into your business.

This product actually started in 2018 and I'd been working on the side for a while. It's a wood burning marker. So if you draw on wood with it and then apply heat, it just burns where you drew. So my wife and I invented this while I was still at the fire department. So I'm working on this business for like three, four years.

Fighting fires with your full time and then you're starting fires on the side. This is a perfect business. You can never lose your job security when the two businesses serve each other.

This is so true.

So this, so this, this is a pen that burns wood and you were selling this on Amazon, correct?

Yeah, yeah, that's where we started off.

Because I know it's doing well. When did it take off?

It started taking off last year was the first year we did over a million in Sales.

Okay.

And that was really awesome.

Amazing. Yeah. Did the creation of content have anything to do with that?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, definitely. I definitely took some of the stuff that I translated, you know, from experimenting with my brand and translated it over to Scorch Marker and it worked. But I had been building Scorch Marker before I got good at social media, like on my own.

Good. All right, so this, this is the punchline, everybody. So this, this is. This is why we saved you for last, because you are the combination of Chris and Damien is where, oh, you got the business going, you've got some audience, and now you're coming back and you're combining that to grow a physical products brand. So what of these lessons did you translate over that help you pass the million and. And is now helping you cast a vision for something bigger? What, what did you bring over? What were you like? Okay, this worked. And now I'm going to bring this over into this business.

Trying to think about the most effective thing I would say.

Would be being able to tell our story on social media. That was probably the most effective, to be able to get in there and, like, set up a camera and know how to start telling a story while doing something to entertain and keep the attention going. That really helped because if you can just keep them there past the first second or two, you have a chance, you know, you have a chance to explain your message. And it's that first, second or two sometimes that's so critical. But I would say that was probably the most significant.

And Evan, are you doing that on the personal brand or did you start another account for the pen?

Scorch Marker has its own social media account with, I don't know, maybe a hundred thousand followers or so.

Okay, only a hundred thousand followers.

No, it's a. It's spread out. It's a little spread out.

100,000 people who signed up to look at content for my pen.

The reason I say that is because followers do not equal sales. Of course, I learned this lesson the hard way.

Well, Evan, I know that you've started now to blend your personal brand into the documentation of the pen. And that's fairly recent. It's been in the last couple months. So tell us about what you've seen as the result of starting to bring in the business side into the personal brand.

So you were one that told me to do that, suggested it. You're like, go forth, you know, share. And I'm like, oh, that's a really good idea. I didn't think about it, you know, What? You know, the honest truth. You guys, the honest, honest truth was I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed of my own product, straight up. Because I had this idea of what it could be and what it's not and how I can fix it and improve it. And I was afraid to mix because I was afraid to devalue myself somehow. I don't know. It's all up in here. Trust me, the product is good.

It sells.

But that's really why I didn't. I hesitated. And so when I heard you say that, like, go out, like, you can talk about this, and maybe you will find the people that your. Who's that you need will come to you. And whether it's for investing or whether it's for helping you make it better, it doesn't matter. And so once I started to talk about the struggles and the real shit with Scorch Marker, my failures, my challenges, things that I've overcome, it's made creating content easier, and it's allowed me to connect a little bit deeper with my fans. And it's cool because I'm one of those people who. I really like creating those connections with people. I always encourage my followers to DM me on Instagram so I can send them a video because I'm that type of person. I love video messages. I like making people feel like they're heard because I legitimately listen to them. And so now I'm kind of morphing those together. And it's really helping me, like, take ownership, which is something I like to do. And so, yeah, it's. It's good stuff.

What. What have you seen happen with the. The pen business, if anything, as a result of you sharing more on your personal brand? Have there been any tangible results?

Yep. Yep, there have been. And I started talking about it, and then now when, for example, a couple weeks ago, I made a post and I'm like, hey, I need someone to help me find new products. I need help. I need someone. And this is what it's like. And I had tons of people who wanted to come work with me. And so I got to interview people for weeks. I didn't have to put job posting on indeed or anything. I just reached out on social media and I found exactly who I was looking for.

I think that's cool.

Yeah. And so if Evan ever wanted to say, all right, like, I'm gonna make a real go at making this a $25 million a year company, and I'm gonna need to raise $4 million to make this happen at a 10 million dollar valuation, you would have 500, 000 people who are familiar with the brand.

There's probably 50 investors on there. Would we say 1/10 of 1% might have capital that they want to put into the business. Regardless of what's on your pitch deck, regardless of any junk that's in your head that tells you that you can't, are there 50 people who are like, dude, I want to be a part of this?

Sometimes there's people out there that you just. You don't know. You need them, and your content gives them an opportunity to come find you and get together. I've had that happen a couple times, and it's been awesome.

What I. What I love about what you're sharing is that you never mentioned talking about how great the pen was in your content.

Right.

You never brought up, like, why you should go buy the pet. You talked about the building of the business. You talked about the struggle points. You talked about the things that you weren't sure about, and that built the connection with the audience. Now, I want to ask a question, just Overall to the three of you in regards to TikTok specifically, is it too late?

Absolutely not. I think it's still early, honestly.

Tell me.

I mean, I met a. I met a guy two days ago, so I have like 26 something thousand followers. I met a guy two weeks ago. He had like 200 followers. He makes like these protein candy. So we just got connected. One video hit, and he's at 47, 000 followers.

Wow.

Yeah, it's insane. So I think there's. There's so much tailwind and Runway with the platform. And if you just get started now, you're still so early.

Yeah, I. I started posting consistently 45 to 60 days ago. I'm at 21,000, and I still think I suck at it. Like, I suck at TikTok right now. But I've just been belligerently consistent and a few have hit, you know, a few have done well. Chris, what about you? You mean you started during the pandemic? Perfect timing. Is it? What about those who are starting now?

I thought it would be, but no, I mean, if you feel like TikTok's too late, there's still YouTube shorts. That's new. There's Facebook Real, that's popping. So my Facebook, I just gained 150,000 following on Facebook Reel as well, too. So if you want to be the first, like, person to adapt to it, go to YouTube shorts, go to, you know, Facebook Real. Like, no one's doing it right but other than that, I just think, I mean, maybe if it's even easier, right, Because Ryan, I know you see like Alex Hormozi and other people are doing it. People have the blueprint out there for you. When we started, we had to create the whole blueprint, right. So now there's like 50 different type of people who made it happen. So you could even see what works for them and make it to your style. So to me, in that sense, it could be even easier. But just be you. I think no one could compete when you're being you. Like, Damian wins because Damien's Damian, Evan's Evan because Evan and Ryan's Ryan. I feel like when you're you, it doesn't matter the timing or anything. I think they just want to hear from you and no one could compete with that. Like millions people can be you, you know, I don't care how better looking you are, better business person you are, better chef, you are, you're not Chris Cho. And that's what I stand out for, you know?

Yeah. I cannot compete with Chris at being Chris.

Yeah.

I just, I absolutely cannot. So this is good timing. I, I, I actually hired a consultant, a tick tock consultant, someone that I follow that. It's not really a tick tock consultant. It's more of like a content.

Like finding, finding you and bringing that out into your content. But his specialty is TikTok. And I spoke with him yesterday and what he helped me see is that our strategy for YouTube, which is longer form a little bit me talking at a slower pace, it does not necessarily translate directly over to TikTok. TikTok is all about personality and connection and authenticity. It is all about Chris being Chris and Damien being Damien and Evan being Evan and Ryan being Ryan. It is all about throwing things at the wall and seeing what you can find that feels authentic to you so you can connect with the audience in the way that is in alignment with who you are. Whereas YouTube, in terms of the like, long form content is a little bit more polished, a little bit more planned still you, but more, a little bit more structured. That is the playbook for YouTube. Whereas TikTok is like we're all on here being ourselves and we can read through inauthenticity real, real fast. Which is why you can tell Evan's style, Evan's tone, Evan's presence is different than mine, different than Daniel's, different than Chris. And we're all, we're all doing fine on the platform. I'm getting sales on the platform. Evan's getting sales on the platform, etc. Right. So I'd love to hear from specifically Evan and Chris because you've been doing this quite a while. How do you find that for yourself? Both of you mentioned trying different things and throwing things at the wall, but oftentimes new creators will get in their head about, like, over serving people or, like, overthinking about what other people are going to like rather than doing what I want. But there's this awkward balance of, like, I got to do what's sustainable that I like, but also I got to give the audience what they want. How do you find that sweet spot for yourself?

Through the audience, grew the audience and what they think. Ryan, it doesn't matter. Look, there's something that happens when you start in TikTok. And so let's just say you're really good at yoga, right? And yoga is your thing, and that's what you do when that's what you're doing. So you start filming yourself on TikTok about yoga. And then all of a sudden, like, you know, you're.

It's slow.

It's slow moving. You get a few people following in. And then one day you do a yoga pose with your shirt off, and it gets hella likes and you're pumped and you're like, oh, I'm in it for the likes.

I'm.

So I'm gonna keep taking my shirt off and I'm gonna keep doing yoga. It's a slippery slope. It's a slippery slope. And that happens to so many different content creators who are, like, really good at rollerblading. And now all of a sudden, they're bikini models. And I'm like, holy, you guys. You have to stick with it long enough for your people to find you. You have to. If you're not giving them a chance to find you for who you are, then you're doing them a disservice. You have to give it enough chance. You have to give it a chance. You have to be able to find your voice and. And really stick with your content until those people who really want to see you for who you are can come out of the woodwork and watch your stuff. Just stick with it.

That's.

That's my opinion, at least.

Well said.

So to jump on top of Evan, I. I say people overthink their TikTok, you know, just shoot content. Content creator need to create content. You know, like, let me just slow that down for you. Content creator need to create content. Everybody wants to do everything other than create content. Right. But to break, like, to break it down, I think people post 10 IG stories of their kid, their cat, their cooking, their workout. So many different things, right? But when it comes to TikTok or whatever, they're like, oh, man, what should I do? I just tell people to post whatever thing that you're not even thinking of getting views on IG stories to tick tock. And like, Evan said, find out what clicks I worked out with my shirt off. I. I show them my pull up challenge. They don't like that, you know, And I'm like, all right, I keep that shit to myself, you know, like, and. And when I cook, people are just so into it. I'm like, okay, cooking video gets million view. Working out gets 50,000 views. Let's not be a and do what the world wants me to serve them as. Or, like, just listen to the audience more, you know? Another thing, what Ryan said was hire people. I just paid somebody 500 yesterday to come in for like hour and a half, shoot five different kind of content, which is out of my comfort zone. And this is the same guy I hired about a year and a half ago who taught me how to do TikTok, you know, like, I just searched Philadelphia on the hashtag. He was one of the top viral guys. I say, hey, how much for an hour for your time? Can I have four session? He came to the restaurant and made me do some silly stuff that was out of my comfort zone. Right? Like yesterday, he shot something like, it's like a reverse challenge where you act like you don't know what to expect from what someone's doing. But, like, salt, instead of splashing something, he was like, splash it on your face. And he's like, instead of chopping the food, chop the, like, I don't know, a cutting board. You know, it's just weird. And I'm like, that's not me. But sometimes I like to test stuff too, because I don't want to be the OG and I don't want to be the old dog who doesn't learn the new trick, you know, so hire.

People, you know, like, all right, so I want to, I want to talk. First of all, I want to bring this back to all of you who are starting businesses or who are selling products, who have heard me say in my book and my podcast and all my content. You don't need that many people. You need like a few hundred raving fans to give you a really successful launch. Mark Cuda, who I brought up earlier, does not have a big audience he has a few hundred people who are listening, need a twenty thousand dollar launch in the first seven days. I'm so freaking fired up and proud of this guy, right? If like that, it is obviously going to be a seven figure business because he's doing all the hard work necessary at the early stages.

So if you can't prove that you are willing to do this work in the early stages when there's six people listening, what do you think you're going to do? When there's 60,000 people listening, what makes you think you're ever going to get to the point that 60,000 people are listening? And so for those of you who are early and you're saying, all right, I got my person, I got my product, but only seven people are giving, who cares?

This is the time to test, to figure things out, to build the habit, to build the systems so that this carries you to a seven figure business. Which means you have to be responding to those comments, building those relationships, putting out the consistency. If part of your business strategy is to build a responsive audience, just know that once it's a few hundred or a few thousand people, that is enough to have a five figure launch, a six figure month, a seven figure business. Now with that in mind, I had to put in that disclaimer there before we go over to tactics and strategy. So I wanted to slip that in there. Now I want to talk about are there things that you are doing in order to increase engagement? Things like are you using hashtags strategically? Have you experimented with the ad platform? Platform? What have you done that's outside of just putting out consistent content? Is there anything that comes to mind?

I think hashtags are done.

Ryan, hashtags are done.

Yeah.

I can think of like two things on the top of my mind. Replying to video, replying to comments with videos work really well for me. And going live, especially after you post a video, really increases it. So I'll give you an example. I was in LA three weeks ago to pack and pack orders. So while I was packing orders a UPS driver came over to like sample the cookies while I was packing. So I posted that video and then I went live. And usually I get about like, you know, 10, 20k views. That video got like 300,000 views after I went live. So I tried it again.

The same thing and it worked again. So I don't know what it is, but going live just really helps like boost the engagement of the videos you post. Okay, but yeah, agreed.

Evan, would you comment there? You said that you think Hashtags are dead. And that you agree with Going Live.

I do. I. Especially if you have a video that's on the for you page at the moment. It really helps. Really helps a ton. But here's the thing about Going Live. And I figured this out because I've been testing this tactic the other day.

Like, if you can get, like, a whiteboard or, like, have a picture that has text behind you or in front of you when they swipe onto your live. Because they have zero context of what you're talking about, who you are. So unless they're visually engaged, they're going to swipe past it, you know, so have something that they can read or at least understand the context of what you're talking about. Like, I might go live later today and say, ask me any question about an llc and then, like, maybe some information in the back to keep people engaged long enough to buy into the context. I think it's a great tactic.

So you're trying to hook them immediately with something visual so they don't have to wait to hear you explain what this video is about.

Yep.

As a result of doing that, you're actually increasing the engagement on the platform.

I did the exact same thing when I was packing orders. I had a sign, like, a paper sign behind me that said, like, 500 viewers and I'll jump in the pool with all my clothes on. So. And it worked.

Yeah.

Nice.

So yesterday I made a video. I just got a hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube, so they gave me awards. So I pulled out the. At the first two second to three second hook is important. So I did. Let me show you. So I said.

Hey, are you chasing after your dream? Because it took. And then you just got to catch the attention right away. Because, like, you know, that as the YouTube thing. And I talk about what would catch their dream. I'm like, hey, are you chasing after your dream? Some people might say I got lucky, but it took me seven years, actually 320 videos to get this plaque. 100,000 subscriber. Boom. I caught them. Right. Or. And then I go into the story. Or, like, you don't want to bore people. Like, if I. If I want to make a video of, hey, this is how I got 2 million followers in a year and a half. You catch them like that instead of being, like, doing a whole bio of yourself, man. I'm Chef Chris Cho. I'm from Philadelphia. I have two restaurants. I've been cooking. It's like you already lost them, you know, like. But try to get in their Mind what do they want to learn? Hey, do you want to get a six pack abs or like hey, have you. Do you want to lose, lose weight eating cookies all day? You know, like, you know like, or like hey, look at this paper burning. Like catch their attention. Then go into the, not the boring stuff but the detail, you know. But I always tell people, if you catch people's attention, you might get a million view, you know, but if you put the nuggets and I mean if you tell us tell the boring stuff in the front and put the interesting at the end, you might get 50,000 view. The difference is 50,000 to a million just for the hook. And when I make recipe video, everybody does this now too. Instead of going like, hey guys, this is how you make a steak. I have the finished product as the intro. Hey, this is how you make a juicy steak. Do you get what I'm saying? Like have the finished product and show it first. Like this is how you make a pretzel, you know, instead of going like, hey, this is the ingredients you need for pretzel, you know, so just, just. I think that tip alone is, is going in right there.

That makes sense. Have, have any of you experimented with the TikTok AD platform to boost views, to boost engagement?

I experimented at running ads for this, but it was in 2020 and I was a diff. Had a difficult time tracking attribution, so I didn't know if it was working okay.

I, I started playing with it a few weeks ago just to build, build followers. So I would run, you know, $50 to this video and then $50 to another video and see which cost per follower was the lowest list. And I was, I can get followers for about 10 cents. I will, I will pull that lever all day long. Oh yeah, you find the right video, you can buy, you know, 10,000 followers for a thousand dollars. Where do I crank the lever? Because I'll, I'll, I'll keep cranking that all day long. One thing I've noticed, I'd love to hear you comment on, is I've noticed that TikTok is definitely a discovery play. People who follow you don't necessarily see all of your content. I noticed that more new people see my content than people who follow me. So have you, have the three of you experienced the same thing? And what, like, what do you make of that? What do you, what do you do with that?

So, so the way I kind of think about it is you have your top of funnel content and your bottom of the funnel content. So the top of final content is you make it with the intent of going viral where it appeals to like a broad, you know, audience. So instead of saying like, what's an exact example?

Like discovery stuff, people that.

Yeah, yeah. So like you want to make like what Chris. Yeah, you want to see what Chris said. Like you want to make the hook like broad, like what everyone. You can catch like a wide kind of audience. And once you kind of hook those people in, you want to make the bottom of the funnel videos going deep, explaining kind of like what you do, just going like deep with those people. But for the top of the funnel, you want to go wide. So it's kind of like a little funnel.

And how are you, Are you just thinking about that content wise or are you actually using the platform somehow to enhance the people who find their way.

Through the funnel content wise?

Okay, I got you.

Yeah.

Chris, do you think about this? Do you think about how you get more engagement or are you just letting the platform.

You know, it's. I shoot for viral videos, but I mean, I hope my video gets a million, right? But if it gets 50 to 300,000 followers, I'm not mad. You know, my goal is to make most engaging thing. But if it goes viral, great. But I'm not chasing after the viralness too. I still got to serve the people who are actually my audience who want to see more authentic stuff. So I hooked them with the recipe video. Then I show my family, my wife, my newborn, my mom, you know, and another thing that I found out is that people want to hear from an Asian household because Asian food was never popular. They want to hear about how Asian kid grew up in America, all this Asian hate stuff. Or, you know, they want to show off their mind. So my funnel just keep going. And if I could even go down to the bottom of the funnel, it's because I want to talk about inspiration and motivation. And this is my bottom of the bottom of the funnel. And I'm here. I get invited around here. Yesterday I did a good day in New York. Like, you know, it's like I get to do what I do from the viral, but I try to catch it at the end. But just look at it long run. Sometimes you catch it, sometimes you don't. And just get in when you get it, you know, but don't stress over. We can't control viral video. So just do what you're passionate about.

Evan, what about. What about you? Since you're using TikTok so actively to build multiple businesses, have you noticed that It's a discovery platform and that you have to do something different to get people to become. Become engaged and buyers. How do you think about that?

I would agree with that. TikTok's a discovery platform for sure. The unique thing about TikTok is it's not like Facebook where you have your friends and family that already know you. Same with Instagram. You know these people. You know, TikTok serves your content to people that they think would like it. And so you're exposed to a whole new group of people you would have normally never crossed paths with. So it gives people to discover you in a unique way. But unless you keep putting out content that makes it on the for you page, you're not going to continue to reach those people. And so they'll follow your content and then they might not see a video from you for a little while because TikTok wants to keep serving up the most popular one so it can bring them in, but you need to figure out how to nurture them and get them somewhere else. And I don't think TikTok is the great, the best place to have an audience and nurture them on, you know, get them to figure out who you are. But you gotta sneak in like a little, some, something there, like, hey, the full videos on my YouTube channel or like if you want to DM me on Instagram, I'll tell you how to do it. You know, something like that. Then you got to bring them into a place where you can really nurture them and eventually get them on your email list so you can own it in case these platforms go belly up.

So I got a perfect example to just conclude this, right? It's like, it's like a stand up comedy. You have to come in with, with the best content. Your friends and family is not going to save you. So when you show up, you know, you have to like present it like no one knows you, you know, and I feel like you get booed or it goes great. You know, it's like a standard comedy. Don't rely on your friends and family to save you on this one.

Damian, you look like you want to chime in here.

Oh, I was going to say, which is why I think building, building an email list is so powerful. Yes, you own that. You own that list. You know, people on, whenever you post a piece of content on TikTok, they might not see it for a while, but every single time you broadcast an email, they'll, you know, if they open it, they'll see it and you can talk to those people, nurture those people, you know, get them to know like and trust you. Um, so I think like using TikTok as kind of like a top of the funnel and then siphoning them off to, you know, somewhere where you can own them is is kind of like the play.

So everybody tune in here if we're going to button this up beautifully. Inside of the six figures per month and six months training, which is in all of your members area, my opening video goes through the triangle, the traffic triangle. You need three places. You need a traffic source, a hopper and a conversion source. Traffic is discovery is where people are finding you, Hopper is engagement, where they are engaging with you and that you are being nurtured. And then conversion is where you can hit a button and they can buy. Most people try to do all three things on one platform. TikTok is the traffic arm of this period.

And then you have to bring them into another place where you can nurture and convert them. In Damien's case, that was an email list. What Evan is saying is that's another content platform with Chris, that's other content platforms. You can do conversion and nurturing in the same place. You can make that YouTube or email. Mine is discovery on TikTok, nurturing on podcasts and YouTube conversion on email. But you have to do all three of those things in order to build a six figure audience that buys all of your products that follows you everywhere. That becomes a very profitable business. Otherwise you just have an audience or you just have product. You don't have the combination of all three of those things that makes it possible to have a profitable product launch, which is what we are going to be talking about through the next chapter. Inside the 1% is how to stack the deck so that you're taking sales on day one.