The New Way to Win On Instagram (Watch Before 2026) ft. Ryan Leak

Yo, so what if everything that we've been taught about how to build our brand on Instagram was wrong? Like, I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but it's true that a lot of the tried and true advice and tactics from so called quote unquote experts turns out to be actually not the best advice for your brand and your account. And so I wanted to sit down with someone who not only talks the talk, but walks the walk in terms of he is blowing up right now on Instagram 2025, but he's also getting a lot of business opportunities. He's not just getting views, he's getting actual clients. And how is he structuring this? What is he doing to cut through all the noise? And so you guys are in for a real treat today because this conversation was actually part of a live event. And I got to sit down with my friend Ryan Leak, who is just crushing the game in terms of his business and also his brand on ig. And so we just had a quick discussion on what is he doing and how can all of us get better at this? So anyways, check it out. And by the way, tag me on ig if you love this conversation or if you want me to go deeper on these types of topics, just tag me ig. It's ealhome. And for now, let's get into the episode.

You have started to take your social media presence to the next level and you've been obviously on the speaking surrogate and coaching and all these things for quite a while. But what was the shift where I noticed, I don't know if it was about a year ago or plus where you just hit another level.

Yeah.

And I. I don't know if you guys follow Ryan. I don't know what it is, bro, but every time I open my feed in the morning.

Yeah.

You're the first reel that pops up every day. I think you guys post daily. Is it daily or Monday through Friday?

I appreciate you saying you guys because I give the impression that it's multiple people. It's just me that does it. So that's good. Means we're doing or I'm doing something. Right. We post a lot of things around 4am, okay. So that when you do wake up, it's one of the first things you start your morning with. And that's not for virality purposes. It's. We try to create as much positive content as we possibly can. People speak very badly about the Internet and social media. And I just, I actually had a friend challenge me. I Used to not be on social media, like, right before COVID And a friend of mine said, hey, why aren't you on social media? And I started ranting.

I'm like, oh, it's dark and all.

This stuff, and I just hate it and it's toxic. And she said, well, it would be nice if you shined a light for us. And she said, you are one of the most positive voices our life, but you're not on the Internet, so would you help us out and shine a light in this thing that you think is dark? And so it just. It changed my mindset around social media that for me, it's not about showing you my house or my car or our vacation. It's about literally inspiring people every single day and creating content that we believe is going to add value to somebody's life. And I think, yeah, I want you to start your morning off with. With somebody positive, because the world's coming for you for the rest of the day. So if I can get you at 6am and reframe your mindset around something, I really think I could change your whole day. The real shift a year ago where you saw an uptick was very, very interesting. I had all of these people from two previous book campaigns. I got all of these bots. In fact, I had one book, book campaign manager. They said, hey, we're gonna boost your social media. And I was like, okay, they're gonna do ads or something. Well, they just bought followers. All of a sudden, I started seeing models started following me. Men and women was like, when did. All these beautiful people just started following me out of nowhere?

Like, 10,000 of them.

I'm just like. I said, hey, stop that. I don't need a fake account. Like, I'd rather just build it the hard way. And then Instagram came out with the clean feature.

Yeah, I don't know if.

I don't know if you know about the clean feature. You literally can clean your account, and it will get rid of all of your fake followers in one swoop. And so last August, I had 130,000 followers or something like that. And. And then I hit the clean feature, and I went down to 70. And I was like, man, I had 60,000 bots. And people in there go, hey, I.

Can increase your stuff. Look, I just increased it by 2000, and over time, it was like 60,000 people.

I was like, but, man, I don't really want to go under a hundred. You know what I'm saying?

Neil might be following me.

Like, man, who's this Guy, he's got under 100, you know, like.

Like, perception can be reality sometimes.

But again, I. Like I said earlier, it's like, do I have social media? Does social media have me? And so I just hit clean. I hit clean, and the video I posted the next day got 5 million views, and I got all 70,000 real followers in the same week.

Dang.

So nobody even knew that I lost followers. And I just thought that day I went, man, I think that in a world where you can feel tempted to take shortcuts, I thought, man, there's something powerful that I think just happens organically when you just say, hey, I'm gonna be me, and I'm gonna try and do everything in my power to build.

It the right way.

And so I had never had a video get over a million views since the surprise wedding from me and my wife in 2013. And I think we've had 11 or 12. I think we have almost one or two a month since I just cleaned my account. So it's weird because I think I have 320,000 new followers since August that are truly authentic to just the growth over the last year. And it's not millions, but it's like, I treasure those 381,000 followers that I have right now because it's like, these are the people that I'm trying to inspire every single day, and I know they're real. So that's been our journey over the last year. That is as authentic and as human as we can possibly be.

Yeah.

And I think, like, this time next year, that's going to be double or more. You know, it's like, you hit that hockey stick growth.

Yeah.

And it's just really taken off. But I love two things really quick. So one thing you brought up earlier, and then we'll talk about posting some duds, you know, because they're not. You got to post some flops before you get a banger, right? Oh, yeah. But before I said that, you know, Ryan talked about earlier, like, ask people how they're doing twice, you know, and call people and do this stuff. And this last week, I had something bad happen to me.

Yeah.

And, you know, a few people call me. A lot of people text me. A lot of people in this room reached out, and I appreciate all of you. And there's just, you know, maybe on one hand, people that called me, and Ryan was one of them. He just called me.

Yeah.

And just like, how's it going, man? How are you feeling? How's the family? You know, and, yeah, And I was like, okay. And then he asked me again, and then I told him the truth.

Right. Yeah.

And I just thought that was weird because, like, I do. No offense to anybody, but I do see this trend of people on social media to talk about something, but they're not about it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, they don't practice. Like, it sounds cool to say what you said on stage, but do you really do. You're a busy guy. You're on the road.

Yeah.

And like, we just met, bro, like, a few months ago.

Sure.

He called me.

Yeah.

And so I just thought that was cool that you practice with your preacher. It's a good moment. But getting back to social media, like, you talk about, you know, you have these bangers, there are millions of views. But, like, I've just found this, bro.

That, like, there's people in the room.

Who are not afraid of posting and having it flop.

Yes.

They're afraid of everybody else in the room seeing that it flopped.

Yeah.

I mean, for sure, you're not, like, you're okay failing. You just don't want anyone to see it.

Yeah.

So, like, you're like, I've seen people literally stop posting altogether because they couldn't repeat success. Like, they had these videos blow up. And then I'm telling you this is true. They told me. I said, why did you stop posting so consistently? And said, well, because I wasn't getting the views anymore.

Wow.

I'm like, you know why? Really? You were doing it for the. You know what people say. And so I think, like, I don't necessarily go to someone's page, scan their thing and be like, oh, I noticed that your views were higher in the past. Now they are like, I don't really care.

Hey, here are your duds.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, it doesn't seem like you care because you do post some duds.

Oh, yeah, I post dubs, bro. There's.

There's, like, I'll see one, and I can tell, like, it didn't do well. I like it still, but, like, it wasn't a banger.

Yeah.

I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to continue to put out the absolute best content that's going to help you move your business and brand forward. But I need your help. So many of you guys are watching this channel, but you're not subscribed. And that's the number one thing that's.

Going to help me grow.

So if you haven't done so already, hit that subscribe button. Normally, I'd Have a fancy ad read and promote some product. But today, all I want you to do is just subscribe to the channel. And now let's get back to the.

Episode part of the first part of my talk, where this idea of awareness, I wake up with the sense that I don't have it. Because if you wake up with that sense, then you're going to constantly look for ways to learn. I am pleasantly and frustratingly surprised by what actually is a banger and what is not a banger. You know, it's like sometimes we post what I think is a dud. A. I'm like, this is the worst video we got. But I paid a guy, and I don't want to be offended. And so post and boom, viral. And then it's like, we have my guy Ben here, who's, like, dope with it.

We'll make a cold video.

And it's like, I'm like, I'll text.

Ben, like, dude, that was an amazing video. He's like, I thought it was an amazing video too, but apparently the rest of the Internet doesn't.

I was speaking about three weeks ago at this church, and we pulled nine reels from. From this message. And if I had to rank one through nine, number nine was this story about me being at an airport. And I had chicken wings, bro, I.

Got some chicken tenders.

Yeah, yeah. And this. I forgot to get barbecue sauce. I said, hey, can I get a side of barbecue sauce? And the guy says, sorry, that'll be 75 cents.

I was like, really, bro? Like, you gonna make me pay 75 cents?

So, you know, I give him my card. I'm like, you're gonna make me pay 75 cents, which means you're gonna give.

Me a merchant copy, customer copy. And then I gotta decide if I'm gonna give you a tip.

I'm like, I. But then I thought, man, do I really want him to ruin my day?

So I gave him a $10 tip. Not because I'm a baller, but because.

I wanted to prove a point that I don't have to match the energy.

I get to set the standard. And so I told this story at.

A church, and I'm thinking, this is number nine of all of all of the videos. It is the only video I have ever posted in my life that got traction on every single platform ever. Then some random person, God love her, she did a reaction video.

All it is is her saying, you gotta watch this.

That's it. That's it. That's all she did.

Nine million views now, in the story, I talk about mediocre barbecue sauce and mediocre chicken tenders. So now, because she blew up, and then she did another video of mine.

That just says, you gotta watch this.

3 million views. Then another girl was like, oh, I'll just try it and see what happens. 2 million views on YouTube. I'm like, all you're doing is watching me talk, you know? And so now people at the airport are like, hey, mediocre barbecue sauce. I'm like, this is not what I.

Want to be known for.

It's very frustrating. People stop me at the gym. They're like, bro, mediocre barbecue sauce. I needed that, bro. I'm like, what doesn't like. It's a very frustrating thing. I'm like, this is not it. We didn't even pay for this video. Like, I just cut it up on my phone, and it just.

And it just takes off. And so I'm okay with the duds. I'm okay with the bangers. It's like, that's. That's the point of serving people is like, you do. You do your best to help as many people as you can, and you don't get to go, well, I want. I really want to help them with this one. It's just like, no, Wake up every day and just go, how can I have valued to the people that follow.

How can I add value to their life?

And if it just so happens to.

Be mediocre barbecue sauce stories, well, then start making T shirts that say mediocre barbecue sauce. I don't know.

I'm thinking about it.

It might be a whole brand. I don't really want that to be.

The thing, but nevertheless, it's one of those things where we just say, hey, each and every week. We are just committed to creating as much content as we possibly can.

Help you. Yeah, I think I really love the fact that, you know, you don't have to create content. You just get to be the content, you know, because you're already out here. So today's talk was filmed. There's. You guys might notice on his feed. One morning, you wake up at 6am first video on the feed is gonna be like, yeah, Ryan at forward. Like, they cut it up quick, you know? And so. But the thing that I think people in the room struggle with is like, yo, I'm not speaking on stages. Like, Ryan, bro, I'm not doing calls. Like, one thing I really love is, like, creating some sort of repeatable process in your business that you could just record. So for Example, like, I was talking with my buddy Jeff Ligoni, who's in the group here, and he was like, yo, I do this call. What was it called, Jeff? The weekly call, The Growth zone monthly call. Sorry. And so he does a growth zone call for his business partners, and everybody's welcome to come to it. I think you'll let anybody come, honestly. And he puts. He does the call and zoom. But he puts the camera like this at an angle right there.

Sure.

And every day, like, there's endless clips coming from the growth zone. Like, what? I'm just starting to think, like, how could you create what. Ryan's on the stage all the time, but maybe you could do it on zoom, bro. There's so many ways for us to just integrate it into our life rather than have to like, oh, dude, I gotta go make content. Fuck, you know, I don't have time.

Yeah. And I think of business in the sense of how can we solve a massive problem? And sometimes you have to look for the problem beneath the problem. And so it's like, you know, when you think about the economy right now, what's the number one thing? People are navigating fear 100%. So why not be the person that calms their fears? Why not be the trusted voice that. That you get to be the kind person says, hey, you don't be afraid of this. Yeah, you. You can move towards this, and let me help you understand what's happening in our country and why you should be just fine. Like, you can be the voice of reason and the voice of peace in somebody's feed if you want to be. And so you do this really well. There's a news headline. You're just responding to it. You know, it's just, hey, here's what I see this week, and here's some thoughts on it. If you really want to go, like, viral, you could just take Neil's videos and just say, watch this.

And just stare at the camera for 60 seconds and just see what happens. You know, you'd be surprised by the.

Way that's all she does.

Dang.

She doesn't do anything else. She just does reaction videos and says, you gotta watch this. And she doesn't say anything. She doesn't even say, it's awesome. She's just like, wait for the end.

It's crazy.

She just changes clothes.

And so I think you get a lot of views. Yeah, but I don't think you build a brand like this. But, like, yeah, it's cool just to get a lot of views.

But it's amazing. Like, she's got a newsletter.

Oh, dang.

That people are subscribing to because they trust that she's going to bring a collection of the best content in for her people. And so it's like, you'd be surprised what you can do even just. Just doing that. You just never know.

I think you bring up something really important here, which is like, observation content. You know, like, hey, I'm just observing what happened. I'm gonna share it with you guys. I think there's this other dynamic of content where it's expert content, where I'm gonna preach to you. I'm tell you what to do. I'm tell you the advice. And then they're like, well, who are you to tell me? You know what I mean? Like, who's this motherfucker? I don't know.

Yeah.

And so maybe I scroll past, like it's another guy, another guru trying to give me advice or another realtor trying to tell me to buy a house.

Yeah.

What else are you gonna say? You know, we expect you to say it. So I think what's cool about why I think I just mix in those reactions to the headlines is like, yo, did you guys see this? You don't have to think like, do I trust Neil or not? You're just reading the headline like, I brought you the news. But then in there, I'm going to insert my opinion about it. And so I've had great success with that. I just done it several times recently with all the new tax law coming out of D.C. and you don't have to take a position, honestly. You could just share. Here's what's going. Here's how it's going to affect your bottom line. You know, here's the new rules. I mean, the rules are being rewritten all the time for people in our industry right now and our clients.

Yeah.

And you could be that person that brings it to them in a calm way.

No question about it. And I think, too, there's. There's this opportunity to be a voice of encouragement for your peers.

Yeah.

You know, there's. I know a lot of friends that were going to be in this room, and they said, hey, I can't afford.

To go this year, 100%.

And you just think about, like, who's going to encourage them in this industry. So I think you've got many problems to solve. But if you begin to think about, how can I be intentional, how can I solve a problem, and how can I bring my unique value to that problem? I really think people really want to hear from you in that regard. Like, you have an expertise in your field, but it's not a matter of being a talented voice. I think it's more important than ever when it comes to personal branding is being a trusted voice. Can I trust you? Can I trust you that you're not just trying to sell me something, that you're not just blowing smoke, that you're not just trying to be motivational? But like, no, like, do I trust this person? And I think the more you create authentic content, if you're helping somebody with their fears, make sure you share yours first to say, hey, I've been there. Like, this has rattled me. New, big, beautiful bill. Like, hey, I didn't know what that meant at first either. It made me shaky, but then I read it and so there is some humanity there. And I think people connect with that content so much so that they don't even know that they're even connecting with the brand because they're just so connected to you.

Yeah, it's meeting people where they're at 100%. And so this has been a theme. The last speaker, Sade, talked about it as well. It's like, hey, we have to have some empathy instead of lecturing people, you know, like, people don't want to be told like that. So, yeah, guys, I don't know if you know this, but Ryan's written a lot of best selling books and he just wrote under a new one. And it's called how to Work with Complicated people. What's the 32nd or 42nd synopsis on this one?

Yeah, how to Work with Complicated People is important because it would be easy if we just worked with people that were clones of us that had our same personality, pace and preferences. But I think the superpower comes in when you're willing to sit across from somebody that's different than you and then you can sell to somebody that's different than you. You can, you can get views from people that are different than you because you've expanded your perspective. And so I think that most people, whenever they're dealing with a difficult client, customer or, or colleague, they tend to run. And while it's an option, I don't think it's a growing option. And so our book is designed to help you move towards people with understanding instead of running away from them. And so when you see somebody that's different than you see a classroom, not a hurdle. And I think each and every person has a perspective to offer us that.

Can be extremely valuable to us 100%. But first and foremost, man, I just want to thank you so much for making the trip. Ryan was at another event this morning, and he took an early flight to be here. And so this is the second talk today. But, guys, give it up for Ryan Lee.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you, bro.