Timothy Sykes' Instagram Growth Secrets That Built Two 1M+ Follower Accounts (+ 8-Figure Business)

Thinking about safety, I mean, 2020 is a year of change, not just in the world, but in a lot of people's perspective. And a lot of things like, you know, if you look at like the engagement of influencers crushed all down like 60, 70, 80, 90%, because without their sponsored trips, without, you know, the whole industry, like, they're not that special, right? So I think people really need to start developing their brain and their education more. I'm actually going to do a post on like my fro in a little bit, and I'm going to talk about like, you don't need to care so much about your looks. Like, start thinking about how to grow what's up, what's up hair, what's up here, right? Um, I'm gonna use that joke maybe. I don't know. We'll see.

I think anybody that's a marketing nerd should just go to Tim's websites and check out how the funnel is structured. You can look at his ads and everything too, just to get an idea of something that's really dialed in.

Yeah, I mean, we, as you know, I mean, we, we've come a long way. We've innovated. Um, I'm trying to teach, but we're also trying to grow the business. Um, so it's, it's not an exact science. Like, everyone's like, oh, just follow this blueprint. No, like, you have to choose and you have to figure out what's your demographic, what's the opportunity, what's your value proposition, what's the right price point. Um, you know, on this 30-day boot camp, we didn't know it would be such a huge hit. I mean, we sold nearly like 10,000 of them now at $79 a pop. Um, and it frankly should be worth like $700, but sometimes you offer something that's just so good and people love it, and you want people to see that because then they start saying, oh, wait a minute, like, now I'm— I trust you more, I take your education more seriously. So I think everyone should have a— no matter what they do, they should have like a low-priced or even a free, um, guide, which kind of becomes like your, your virtual business card these days.

Got it. What would you say, you know, Tim Sykes' mission 8 years ago compared to his mission now? What do you think the difference is?

Um, I mean, I always wanted to just cut through the BS and show that there's a lot of opportunity with penny stocks. So a lot can happen, um, over the years, and I think people really need to realize no matter what business they're in, you're gonna have the most success 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years in. So what can you do today, this week, this month to position yourself properly for years from now. But too many people don't think that. A lot of people in the internet space are like, gotta make as much money as I can in year 1. And you're just not gonna do that if you, if you think short term. You won't build properly. You won't build a solid foundation. You won't be patient. And you'll probably end up burning your customers, and you'll probably end up burning yourself. Just like a lot of penny stock promoters. Like all the penny stock promoters that, you know, I used to expose, they They burnt through all their customers, they lost everybody, and people gradually gravitated towards me because they saw that I was right. So people can hate me at first, they can love me, I don't care. What I care about is how you play the game over time, and can it increase your wealth? Can you increase your knowledge account?

You know what, what's, what's good? I think, um, you know, how you grew your first Instagram account past, uh, 1 million people was you're unapologetically you. Right? You'll say whatever you want, um, and you'll do whatever you want too. And so I guess the question would be, um, you know, first Instagram account, people are like, oh, everyone wants a big Instagram account. How do we get to a million followers? You've done it. So you've done it twice. Do you have any advice for people that want to grow their Instagram accounts?

3 times now. Save the Reef is closing in on a million too. Um, you really just have to look at your, your industry and see where the opportunity is. For me, at first, you know, I'm a stock trader. Why should you get into stocks? Like, what's the reason? Oh, it's money. Let me show off the money. So I did that. I didn't mean to get in in fights with rappers. I just woke up a few days and like broke rappers would steal my photos, and then I would call them out. And like a radio station had me on, and they're like, Tim Sykes, you're petty. I was like, I am petty. I accept that. But when a rapper steals my photo, and he's got millions of followers, and then you know Bow Wow did a post like everyone go attack Timothy Sykes. And I was like, oh damn, and he linked me. And but because my photos were better than his, I got like 400,000 followers like over 2 days. And people attacking me, what do they do? They put a little L or a little snake emoji. And I'm like, I don't feel attacked, and I just doubled my followers. Attack me more. Um, so that was just, you know, a lucky coincidence. Um, so you try different stuff and you see what takes off. And that's all I can say. There's— I can't compare, you know, trying to save the rhino with getting in fights with rappers, but both of them went viral. So you have to try to figure out what can you do to really get your point across. And understand, you don't want to just go viral for the wrong reasons. Like, I could post a lot of stuff, but it's not consistent with who I am or with my brand. But if I'm exposing misinformation with rhinos, that's consistent with our charity. If I'm showing off my money and being petty, that's who I am, so I'll show that off. And I think that you have to understand what your goals are, who you are, and then, you know, it doesn't have to be straight, like right to who you are to go viral, but you have to start to think where are the opportunities for people to share it. And a lot of stupid stuff gets shared, a lot of negativity gets shared, you know, TikTok dances now get shared. I'm not a dancer. I probably, if I could do a dance, I could probably go more viral, but I mean, you know, people listen, they're like, oh, you know, they want tactics, right?

But I think more importantly, you're giving the high-level strategy in terms of, hey, like you're testing, you're experimenting with things. Some things might bomb, right? A long documentary takes a lot of time, takes a lot of money. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's the same thing. I mean, when it comes to putting together an ideal client profile, you're just thinking about what might the customer want? How do I iterate on that? And that's it, right? Forget about the tactics. Let's think about—

It's not always just about the ROI. I think too many people are focused on the ROI, especially in your industry. You gotta have more goals in life, right? Like if you're already sufficient, if you're already knowledgeable, if you already know that there's going to be value for your services, try and do something for others. Try and do something for the world. It, you know, when you look back on life, you're not going to be like on your deathbed like, oh, what is my bank account? Okay, I hit $100 million, then I can die. No, you're going to be like, what did I do with that $100 million? What did I do with my time? What did I do with my life? And I think that A lot of the problems we have in this world today is because people weren't thinking about others. People weren't thinking about what they were leaving behind, and we need to change that.

I think it's, it's impact over ROI or impact over revenues. That's what you're saying.

Yeah, and impact over profits. Like, you know, I love that Elon Musk— I mean, whenever he does like a conference call, he's like, yeah, you know, Tesla's record profits. But you know, we're not trying to make record profits. We're trying to change the world. Like he said, you know, before his stock just went up like 10 times, he said, I think Tesla stock is overvalued. No other CEO says that, right? But he's just being honest. He's being blunt, and that gives him extra credibility. And because he said, I think Tesla stock is overvalued, in a tweet, everyone's like, what? Like, how? This is crazy. Why would you say that? Not one other CEO has ever said that in any tweet or any press release. Because they're, they're specifically trying to get the stock up. They're trying for record profits. He has a different goal, a different, um, you know, way of thinking, and it's, you know, frankly paid off much more than a lot of the people who are always just kind of shooting themselves in the foot. Like most CEOs, I would compare to penny stock promoters. They're just cheerleaders. You're never going to get the real information. I mean, the day before Bear Stearns filed for bankruptcy, I think it was the CEO or CFO was on CNBC. They said, hey, how's everything? They're like, you know, It's fine. Everything's fine. They went bankrupt the next day. So like, you just can't trust management. You can't trust most people. The more real, the more blunt that you can be, that increases your credibility, that increases your value in this messed up world.

I love that.

I really like Hitmakers. Um, it's like the art and science of becoming, you know, what is a hit? And I think that'll work well with your audience. Have you read that?

I haven't. I haven't.

Whoa, that one is good because it talks about a lot of things that become hits, not necessarily the way that you think. Like, a lot of the best artists are only, um, you know, really triumphant after death for the wrong reasons. I'll give you a quick, quick story because this one actually really helps. Um, there are like— I forget the exact numbers, I'm not great with exact sciences— but there's like 7 great, uh, greatly valued artists from France. And you're like, why are these artists, you know, their paintings go for $50, $75, $100 million? Why is this so? Are they better than others? There was a study done where they took these, I think it's 7 artists, again, don't quote me. But let's just say 7 artists, and they compared their art in a blind study with like 20 other artists or 50 other artists. And they did a blind study. It's like, are these art pieces of art better than the others? And random people would answer After they did the study, not one discernible difference in terms of like talent, in terms of emotion. There was nothing better. Why are these 7 artists valued at tens of millions and all these other artists who are technically proficient not valued highly? Why do you think that is? Yes.

Brand?

Yes, but what created the value of their brand so much? Because they're not better technically. Yeah, what increased that?

I don't know, I couldn't even guess.

So the interesting thing is there was one French aristocrat who loved these, you know, basically broke artists, and he bequeathed the National Museum these artists' paintings along with all the famous artists of the time. And they said, look, here, on my death, give it all to the National Gallery. And it became a big controversy because the National Gallery was very happy to accept the famous artists of the time, but they didn't want to accept these 7, like, broke losers. And they're like, you know, no. But in his will, he's very specific. You have to accept all of my paintings or none at all. So it was in the courts for like a year or 2. The French newspapers are reporting on every single development. And then eventually, the National Museum was forced to take everything. So they put all the paintings in the National Museum. Which paintings got the most popularity? It was these 7 controversial artists, not because they were better artists, just because they were in the press for 2 years and everyone wanted to see for themselves, oh, is this, is this better? Should— does this deserve to be in the National Museum? And then because so many people came to see it, that made these 7 artists more famous than the other people. So it's, it's so stupid to think about who became like the best artist. You could train your entire life, but if you just get controversy and press, your paintings could theoretically be valued, you know, Multiple times more, and that's a really important lesson for all entrepreneurs, all people. If you want success, it's not just about your skill. I know there's a lot of people who say like, "Just just be quiet. Let your work do the talking." No, not at all. Get loud. Have your work be quality, but get loud and get attention for it however you can.

What's the best way for for people to find you online?

Google "Is Timothy Sykes a scam?" And see what happens, and and start laughing. And, you know, understand that I enjoy my haters. My first hater was also my first millionaire student, and I encourage the hate because even though the haters think that they're hurting me, they're helping me sift through non-dedicated students.

I love that. Tim, thanks so much for doing this.

Thanks for having me.