If You Started Your Business BEFORE Social Media, Watch This Video... (CRUSH IT IN 2026)

If you built your business before social media was a thing, before YouTube was a thing, before TikTok was a thing, Instagram was a thing, before this whole content idea was a thing, then this video is for you. Majority of the people that we help are in this exact situation, and so I don't want you to feel like you're alone in this space. There are plenty of others who have the same exact questions because most of the time, if they started before content was a thing then they are very confused. They don't know how it works and they're seeing everybody around them utilize the power of social media, utilizing TikTok and Instagram and YouTube, and they're getting crazy good results. And so in this video, I hope to teach you a little bit about how you can do the same thing. And I want to start from the very beginning of what is content itself. A lot of business owners feel behind with this whole content thing, not because they're bad at marketing. It's just because The game has changed, the rules have changed, and it's completely different than what the traditional marketing route used to be like. I want to start off with why this happened in the first place, and it all started back in the day. YouTube was one of the biggest platforms. It was a platform to just upload your fun videos to, to upload your funny videos to. It was a place for primarily entertainment and dumping files that you didn't want to keep around, you wanted to share with others. And this is slowly developed into platforms come along like Vine, um, platforms come along like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, TikTok. And this really completely shifts the whole playing field to now fast forward to 2026. It is primarily video-centric focused. And so this is why you're seeing so much video content. This is why you're seeing so many Instagram Reels and YouTube videos. Back in the day when it used to be newspapers, magazines, like people would go to these places, the local theater, uh, TV ads. This used to be the main way that you market your business and the main way that you get out there. With the amount of people online in 2026, I mean, YouTube alone has, I think about 5 billion people a month log onto that platform and watch YouTube videos. And it really didn't hit me until I was out of college and I started doing this whole media thing, making content, helping with social media for different types of businesses and business owners. And it didn't hit me until then because I had grown up with it. It was around me everywhere. I made my first YouTube video whenever I was in the 6th grade. And for me, how many years ago was that? 11, 12 years ago. Which is wild. Maybe more. But that is wild to say because majority of people we work with have never made a video in their entire life and they are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and even 60s. Probably not as many 30-year-olds are in that situation, but they have no experience making these videos or making content. They don't even know where to start. And it's not their fault. Because this has rapidly changed so fast. TikTok came out in 2020 during COVID uh, that was what was big at the time and it's still huge, but they came along and changed the landscape for what social looks like. They changed it from being social media and turned it into what we call now interest media. That's not the technical term, but that's what it feels like because these platforms are only feeding content that you as an individual like to watch. So it basically has learned you, what you like to watch, your hobbies, what you do for work based on your scrolling patterns, etc. The things you share, the things you comment on, the things you engage with. So if you ever are on one of these platforms and you search up a random topic that you have never talked about or even looked up before. Say example, me, I get a lot of camera videos. So videos about business, about cameras. Say one day I get off into a rabbit hole of hiking. All of a sudden I'm going to start seeing more hiking videos. Even if I search it one time, I'm going to start seeing hiking videos everywhere in front of me. I think one of the core shifts and like a big aha moment for culture, for society, was whenever the internet shifted to gaining attention instead of just visibility. And so used to, for example, if you have a website, you are visible technically, but nobody sees you because these platforms are not pushing your stuff. So what have we had to do now? People have figured out a way to create content these videos on TikTok and Instagram to get the eyeballs on their business and brand, funneling everybody who sees it back to their business and their website, however they want to purchase that service or product. And so this is what I want you to think about. Where are the people at? How can you reach those people that you want to serve within your business? And so depending on the age, depending on the type of business, these are the different areas you're going to find your ideal client on these different platforms. For me, I service business owners who want to grow online with video. So my main platforms are YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. LinkedIn sometimes. I'm not a huge LinkedIn fan. Um, it can serve a great purpose, and there are lots of people who find success on LinkedIn, but it's just not for me. So I've been heavily invested into YouTube and I don't get millions of views, but this is what's crazy. We run a 5-day free Build With Video challenge for business owners just like you, which is actually who's sponsoring this episode. But the way that we do this, this is basically a big lead magnet to get people who are interested in our services or in learning more that they can go through an experience and gain lots of trust because this is like an experience that you won't find hardly anywhere else. It's one-on-one for 5 days, 45 minutes each, me and you, not with my team, not with my coaches, not— it's me and you for 5 days on a Zoom call going over what it takes to actually make content work for your business instead of against your business. So that's an example of I'm putting valuable content out there, therefore Hopefully you are finding me and finding value within the content that I bring. And then in turn, it eventually leads to funneling people who are interested in my products and services back to me on a sales call or with my team and eventually working together. So we do this with my coaching program. We also do this with our content agency here in Abilene, Texas. That's what you're seeing now. That's where I film all this stuff. Though I'm not the only person who films in here. There's also business owners who come and do this as well. But this is just an example. And a big thing nowadays is what's called a founder-facing brand. So this is when the founder, the CEO, the head honcho of that company is actually the face of the brand. And they're in all the videos. You think of people like Alex Hormozi. He's a great example. If you've never heard of Alex Hormozi, go look him up right after you finish watching this video and go see how he does things because he is a true master, I believe, within his niche and his industry at creating content. And so he's leveraged content to now grow millions and millions of viewers, millions of subscribers, and he's only been posting for a little while. And I don't know the exact number of years, but recently he has released a book. And he broke the Guinness Book of World Records for a single day of book sales on a book launch. So this is the power of social media. This is the power of the internet. It has now gone to a place where you have access to anybody in the world. Used to, you would only have access to people in your, your city, people, maybe people in your state by word of mouth. The amount of reach that you can get is unfathomable. And I want you to really think about what that would change for your business. If you were to 10x, 100x, 1,000x, 10,000x the reach that you had to your ideal client. If you had an extra 100,000 views this month, would that change your business? For me, 100%. And it 100% already has. Hey, really quick, I wanted to to let you guys know about a 5-day challenge. It's called 5-Day Build Loop Video Challenge that we put together exactly for you, because if you're watching this, you're probably an entrepreneur, a business person, or a creator who's looking to monetize. And so if that's you, there's going to be a link in the description. We're going to be going over all of the things that I've learned and took away over the last 4 or 5 years to figure out how to make content work for your business. And not against your business. And so for us, this is how we get about 90% of our clients within our business, and it's 10x, sometimes 100x our engagement and views and even leads. Same exact thing goes for all of our clients. And so if you're interested in this, click the link below and apply today. There's only a limited number of spots because it is one-on-one. And so hope to see you in the challenge. Let's get back to the episode. Okay, so now that we have got that covered and you know how we got here, what it looks like now, you're asking, Darren, how do you actually go and pull this stuff off? What's the first thing that I need to do? To get very simple and practical here, you're gonna need some sort of camera to film with. So I recommend using your smartphone if you're just starting. Get a cheap wireless mic off of Amazon or a good one. They're only like $100. But get the basics that you need. Get a ring light. If you're filming what we call talking head videos for any platform, you're going to need light of some sort. So either get by a window or get a ring light to where it looks halfway decent. I want you to focus whenever you make these videos on the audio side of things more than the video side. I want you to think about it from the viewer's point of view. If you were viewing or consuming content, you're scrolling on Instagram and TikTok. If a video comes along and it looks fantastic, but the audio sucks, you're not going to watch it. Vice versa, if the audio is on point, they can understand you, but the video is kind of out of focus a little bit, a little bit dark. The amount of people that are willing to stay around and watch it are— go through the roof. Compared to the other way of doing it. So make sure to have something to film with. And I want you to think about, okay, what are we going to film now? What are we going to do with this camera that we have? First of all, go research what other people are doing in your industry, in your niche, and see if there's any videos that you can replicate. That's one way that you can do it. Replicate it, don't steal it. Put your own twist on it, obviously. The other thing is I want you to think about your experience and your expertise in your field. What do you do on a day-to-day basis? If, say, you help people, uh, with their health, if you're a health coach, what do you talk about on a day-to-day basis with your clients that would benefit anybody watching? Straight up, talk about that. Talk about the things you do every single day that help people win, that help people get good results. If you recently helped a client lose 50 pounds in 3 months, then people are going to love hearing about that story and they're going to be like, shoot, if they could do it, why couldn't I do it? And whenever you post these videos, make sure to point them towards the website, point them towards a link somewhere that gives them a clear next step to take action. Because once you put out content, this creates the awareness. Then the people who are aware of you now know about you, and it will funnel the people in who are slightly interested, and then voilà, eventually they become hopefully a client or a customer for you. So don't spend a ton of time trying to get the perfect shot because something beats nothing every single time. I want you to try to post something at least once per day, whether that's a photo, whether that's a video, a a livestream, whatever it is, pull your phone out on a normal day, film what you're already doing, talk about it, let people know about it, and hit post. Make sure to put captions in there. That's a little bit more advanced in the app's editing software, but there's tons of YouTube videos out there. There's tons of resources. Go to ChatGPT, say, how do I add captions to my video using Instagram? Immediately gives you an answer that works 10 times out of 10. And so use your tools like this. Don't forget about all the different things, but I hope this guy gave you a little bit of insight as to the new ways of marketing and how these businesses are utilizing the most powerful communication shift in the history of the planet, which is social media, which is video content primarily now. And so I want you to go and try to apply it because if you have an idea, If you have a thought, if you have a plan, but you have no action, then nothing happens. And so go out and today, right after you watch this video, go and try to make your first video if you haven't made one before. And I think you'll be surprised with the results that you get. Again, today's episode is sponsored by Build with Video Challenge. It's a 5-day free challenge with me and you. If you don't know where to start, I highly recommend you going through this. If you have a good grasp, then go and make the videos. So hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you want more content like this, let me know in the comments down below. Make sure to subscribe to the channel and we'll see you in the next one.