Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - 1 Million Followers in 30 Days: Brendan Kane’s Proven Strategy for Going Viral | E125

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

Brendan Kane didn’t break into Hollywood through connections. He started out making coffee on film sets. Spotting the untapped power of MySpace and YouTube, he launched one of the first influencer campaigns, catching the attention of studio executives and A-list actors like Jason Statham. That bold move launched his journey from Hollywood to advising global icons such as Taylor Swift and Rihanna on social media strategy. In this episode, Brendan joins Ilana to reveal how he built one million followers in just 30 days, the formula for going viral, and the psychology behind grabbing and holding attention. Brendan Kane is a digital marketing expert who has helped top celebrities, Fortune 500 companies, and entrepreneurs dominate social media and generate millions in revenue. He specializes in data-driven strategies that drive massive social media engagement. In this episode, Ilana and Brendan will discuss: (00:00) Introduction  (02:07) His Childhood Love for Movies and Storytelling (03:17) Breaking into Hollywood Without Connections (08:16) The Bold Move That Led to Working With A-List Actors (10:37) Diving into Tech and Working with Taylor Swift, Rihanna, etc (17:51) Lessons from Managing $100M in YouTube Ad Spend (22:06) Uncovering the Secrets to Social Media Success (27:40) How Brendan Hit a Million Followers in 30 Days (34:51) Strategies for Marketing Bestselling Books (39:10) How to Adapt to Ever-Changing Platforms (44:01) Low-Cost Strategies to Stand Out on Social Media (45:35) Navigating the Challenges of Entrepreneurship Brendan Kane is a digital marketing expert who has helped top celebrities, Fortune 500 companies, and entrepreneurs dominate social media and generate millions in revenue. Known for building a following of over 1 million in just 30 days, Brendan specializes in data-driven strategies that drive massive social media engagement. He is the bestselling author of One Million Followers, Hook Point, and The Guide to Going Viral, where he reveals proven methods for scaling influence in today’s noisy digital world. Connect with Brendan: Brendan’s Website: brendanjkane.com  Brendan’s Instagram: instagram.com/brendankane  Resources Mentioned: Get Brendan’s Book, The Guide to Going Viral, for FREE: hookpoint.com/leap  Download Brendan’s Book, Hook Point for Free: hookpoint.com  Brendan’s Book, One Million Followers: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days: https://www.amazon.com/One-Million-Followers-Updated-Following/dp/195066547X  The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss: https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357  Leap Academy: Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW WAY for professionals to fast-track their careers and leap to bigger opportunities. Check out our free training today at https://bit.ly/leap--free-training

Wow, this show is going to be incredible. So buckle up, and I'm sure you're going to enjoy it. But before we get started, I want to ask you for a favor. See, it's really, really important for me to help millions of people elevate their career, fast-track to leadership, land dream rules, jump to entrepreneurship, or create portfolio careers. And this podcast is all about enabling this for millions of people to see a map of what it actually takes for big leaders to reach success. So subscribe and download.

ever miss it. Plus, it really, really helps me continue to bring amazing guests. Okay? So, let's dive in. There are so many myths and demonizations about, oh, the algorithms are out to get me. They're suppressing my reach on purpose. That is completely false. The reality is it's much simpler than that. It's pure storytelling. Brandon Kane is a gross strategist, keynote speaker, best-selling author. But what really sets Brendan apart is the ability to break down the science behind influence. make it accessible to anyone. I saw a lot of the mismanagement and waste that was going on with the type of content that these major brands were advertising.

I figured there's got to be a better way to do this. How were you not afraid to go after a technology thing? It can get really overwhelming for entrepreneurs. The blessing of a true entrepreneur is they have no idea what they're getting themselves into and yet they still get into it anyway. Stories over the course of civilization has built everything that we see. Yet, social media feels like this completely different thing. But it's just another medium to tell stories.

Now, the difference is... I heard about our next guest five years ago, when I just started Leap Academy, he wrote a brilliant book called One Million Followers. how I built a massive social following in 30 days and I got so much out of the book that I had to bring him on the show. Brandon Kane is a gross strategist,

keynote speaker, bestselling author who worked with some of the biggest names and brands on the planet from Taylor Swift, Rihanna, MTV, but what really sets Brendan apart is the ability to break down the science behind influence and make it accessible to anyone. From Hookpoint to a latest book, the going viral, you will enjoy it. So lean in, you're going to learn a lot. Let's have some fun.

Brandon, thank you so much for being here on the show. Thanks for having me. It's a true pleasure to connect with you and everybody that's turning into this. So, Brandon, I have to take you a little bit back to the beginning. You grew up in Chicago. What was about your childhood that first sparked that interest in media or communication or psychology? Like, what's the way? What's that you? What's, sparked all of this? Well, I would say that it comes from looking back now. I don't think I recognize it or realize it as I was growing up, but one of the things was I absolutely just loved movies as a kid. You know that question you ask little kids, what do you want to be when you grow up? Well, my answer would change every time I watched a movie. So basically, if I watched a movie

about firefighters, I wanted to be a firefighter. If I watched a movie about a detective, I wanted to be a detective. It would always change because I would get so inspired by the experience. of being engulfed in these stories. So as I grew older, you know, in high school, I picked up a camera and started making just videos of our friends. And then when it time to go to college, I was like, well, I want to tell stories because I just loved that process of watching movies

so much that I wanted to figure out what does it take to make a movie. So that's how I got drawn into that passion. Again, you made some bold moves in the early age. Is that why you decided to go to Hollywood? Because Hollywood, without any connections, is actually really, really scary. Is that why you decided together? So I went to film school.

I wanted to be a film producer. I want to understand the business aspect of it. So the interesting thing about going to film school is they don't teach you anything about business. So while I was going to film school, I started creating my own companies, which were internet companies, because it was the most cost-efficient way at the time to build them. But then, as you mentioned, when I finished my college, then I moved to L.A. to pursue a career in film. So this was around 2004, 2005. And yes, I would say one of the good things about the film industry is they make everybody start at the bottom. Nobody gets past working in the mail room or make it copies. So I was jumping from set to set. I was making deliveries. I was making coffee for people. But obviously with that, you don't want to be stuck doing. that for so long. So I needed to find what was my edge, what was my way that I could stand out. And my goal at that time was how do I get in contact or on the radar of the head of the studio

or directors or producers, things of that nature? And when I had the initial opportunity and people would ask me, well, why did you move to L.A. to pursue a career here? And I said I wanted to be a film producer. You could see everybody's eyes glaze over. Now, it's not as bad as wanting to be a director or an actor, but you're still one of a million people with this pipe dream of trying to break in as a movie producer. So I knew that I needed to find what my hook point was, my way of standing out and grabbing attention. So I just took a step back in the first studio I was working for, and I just would analyze the environment of what was happening around me. And I noticed that every time we finished a film, there would be a sense of anxiety and stress that would come over

the office. Why? Because we would invest tens of millions of dollars into a single piece of content, one piece of content. It's not like any other industry where you have years or decades to build a brand. You literally have months to get hundreds of millions of people around the world to know about this single piece of content and you're investing tens of millions of dollars more to market it. So I just saw an opportunity because again, this was around 2005, 2006. Everybody was still reliant on traditional media, television, print, radio, things of that nature, and social media was just starting out. MySpace was the prominent player at the time. There was less than 25 million people on the platform. Facebook was only at 6 million, and YouTube in its first year got to 8 million.

So we're talking to the true infancy of these platforms, but nobody in the movie industry was paying attention to it. So I just went to the head of the studio and I said, hey, there's these new emerging platforms, why don't we tap into the power of this? And actually around a movie called Crank with Jason Statham, I got the head of the studio initially reluctantly, but when he found out it wouldn't cost him any money, he was on board to allow me to create the first influencer campaign on YouTube for that movie. Now, at the time, there's no such thing as an influencer. It wasn't a term. There was just people creating content on these platforms and reaching millions of people. What gave you the courage, maybe, to reach out.

with this idea because he could have laughed you out of the room or whatever. Like, I think a lot of us don't do exactly this because we're afraid. So let me just put my head down, work hard, and hope that my hard work will speak for itself, right? So what made you actually go there and get the courage to do it? I think that there's a few things, the ways I look at it. Number one, when I'm bringing something to the table, I'm bringing it because I think it's actually going to provide tremendous value for the other person. I'm helping solve a problem. You know, I saw that a lot in the entertainment industry, and I see it a lot today. I'm sure

you see it, and a lot of people see it on LinkedIn, the cesspool of DMs that are trying to sell you something. Like, you can read through it super clearly, but I think when you come from a genuine standpoint of, I actually can solve this major problem for somebody if I just put it in front of them and it's going to help them. I think, number one, that looks at it. And then two, I just have this relentless nature of I want to become the best person I can be. I want to build the best things. I want to work with the best people. And somehow, I don't know that I could definitively pinpoint why. I just push those things outside of my purview. Sometimes I will feel the anxiety or the concern or the fear, but it's just I want it bad enough and I wanted it bad enough

that it's just I have to do this. I have to find a way to make this happen. I love that. because it's come from a very honest place in full integrity. So I think that fuels you. So take us to that movie because now I have to hear how it went. So you got the volunteering position. What happened? Again, at the time I was doing this, I was still at the bottom. I was making coffees, copies, deliveries,

but I started to get invited to meetings. So I got invited to meetings with the directors. So for that movie, it was two directors that also wrote the screenplay, like a duo. And basically what I did is I just cold DMs as many top YouTubers. And again, it wasn't even called YouTubers at the time. This was 2006. But I just said, hey, do you want to interview a movie star? And I got five to six responses of some of the biggest ones, people that were generating

millions of views and had them engage with the cast, the directors. So this was a lower budget film. So I believe the budget was around like $12 to $14 million. which sounds like a lot of money, but when you talk about an action movie, action movies are typically over $100 million. And then we didn't have that much money to market it. So through these efforts,

we were able to generate millions and millions of views and a lot of awareness for free compared to what we were doing in other traditional media, but also it felt unique and different to it. So the movie ended up grossing like $45 million at the box office, which again, it doesn't sound like a big, number, but in relation to what they spent, was a lot. But also back then, DVD sales were a big

portion of revenue, where today that's gone. So most movies today are really relying on that box office, and they do get streaming revenue, but it's not like what it once was. At one point in time, it was like 60% or more of the revenue would actually come off of DVD sales and DVD rentals. It was wildly successful to that. And then also it was interesting because the actor Jason Statham had invited me to his house to talk about what does social media mean for him? How should he pursue it and things of that nature? Again, I'm some kid that's running around making coffee and copies and I'm being invited into, you know, an A-list star's home to talk about these things or being included in

conversations with studio executives and directors and things of that nature. So it was a really transformative experience for me just getting started in the industry. I mean, it definitely got their attention. It's clearly moved the needle. So what happened next? I need to hear the story. How from that you got to generating million followers in 30 days? So I got promoted and I got to create the first social media division for the studio I was working for.

And obviously, through that process, I worked on 18 different movies over that time span. But I also started to get a little bit bored with it because people see the movie industry and they think it's this super creative process. And it can be if you're a director or an actor or screenwriter, but when you're working in a studio, it's literally just another corporation. So there's a lot of talk of wanting to innovate, but not a lot of that happening.

There's a lot of political red tape and things of that nature. So I actually, at the time, so when I was working at the studio, I noticed my space got acquired by Fox for $580 million. And I wanted to understand, well, how are they? going to monetize these platforms to justify that amount of money. Now, today, acquiring a social media platform for $580 million feels like nothing. But back then, that was a massive, massive step.

So when I was doing my research into it, well, I noticed that they weren't really making a lot of money because they were relying on banner ads and putting it on people's profiles. This wasn't like Facebook or YouTube or TikTok today where they had their own ad platforms. That didn't exist back then. But what I did notice was happening was on MySpace, for example, for those of people that use MySpace back in the day, and it's pretty outdated at this point, but it was all about customizing your profile. I want to put the things on that profile that represent me as a person. So they would put movie trailers, Nike posters, product posters, whatever the products and the media they connected with. Yet the amazing thing is MySpace wasn't making any money

off of that. So I built a technology layer where people could take those assets, put it on their profile, and the person putting on the profile could earn money from that because it was peer-to-peer marketing. But then it would give the opportunity for MySpace to get a cut of that revenue as well. So it was the first iteration of what influencer marketing would become. And I ended up licensing that technology to Viacom and MTV. And we did several, different tasks. We worked with Lionsgate, MGM, Vice Magazine, Rock Band, the video game company, Yahoo. And the fascinating thing was it was outperforming every other asset, media or advertising asset by 10 to 1. The problem was there's no such thing as influencer marketing. Influencers didn't

exist in that form. There wasn't the scale that it was today, so it was just too early. So from there, I created another technology platform, licensed it to MTV and Viacom again, that was kind of an enterprise square space or enterprise Wix that would help major musicians, professional athletes and celebrities harness the power of their social media traffic to build communities on their own destinations and monetize it. MTV opened up the door for me to work with Taylor Swift very early on. Rihanna and other people in that space to help them grow through that. So I left the movie industry, was running those technology startups in partnership with MTV and Viacom for a few years. Before we go there, so you didn't come from the technology space.

It wasn't as common to be a little more techie, savvy, if you will. So how were you not afraid to go after a technology thing? Because I think even today, it can get really overwhelming for entrepreneurs. Well, I think the blessing of a true entrepreneur is they have no idea what they're getting themselves into, and yet they still get into it anyways. So looking back on it, yeah, it's a pretty daunting task and to kind of think that. But I was just like, listen, I'm just going to find coders to help me put it to life and put it together. And listen, that's challenging. Anybody that's

worked with developers back on the day, it's not as easy as it is now with AI and things like that. It's challenging. Dealing with developers, getting them to do what you need them to do, finding the right people you can trust and things of that nature. But again, sometimes I don't think that far in advance. It's just like this seems like something that needs to be built. So I'm going to go out and figure out how to build it. How did you even sponsor it? Did you raise capital? Like, even just paying for these. Yes. So the fascinating thing was for the influencer technology platform, I went to the head of the studio that I was working for because I was still working for that studio, and I said, hey, I have this idea, and he cut me a check, and then I had another

advisor that cut me a check for the prototype of it. It wasn't a lot of money, but it got enough to build the prototype that we could go in and pitch people. Now, I think one of the things that definitely pains me to look back on is I had the ability when Facebook was in a single building and less than 400 employees to sell the patent applications to Facebook, but I license it to MTV and Viacom instead. So I'd probably be in a much different position and we'd be having a much different conversation right now if I want that other route. Or maybe not, right? You know, it would suck your soul and we would have a different conversation. Who knows? But I love it. So you're in these technology spaces completely out of your comfort zone by crushing it and doing all these things

was MTV and Rihanna and Taylor Swift and all these cool things. Do you have these pinch me moments? How did that become my life? Or are you just grinding on what's next? I am stuck in the moment. I think it's a challenge that I try to work on. I would say that the pinch me moments honestly should have come more in the movie industry because, again, when I worked with Taylor Swift, this was probably, and I get dates

messed up, was probably like 2010-ish, 2009-ish. I didn't even know who she was when MTV's like, hey, do you want to meet Taylor Swift? But the executive, his name is Jeff Yap, that was working with MTV. I just trusted him. He's just like, hey, let's go meet Taylor Swift and our manager and talk about how we can work with it. But the movie industry, I think, was more of those, like getting invited to, like, Jason Statham's home or going to something like Comic-Con. Comic-Con, I don't know if you've been or people listening to this, but it's like a massive thing. I think 100,000 people go.

And when you're behind the stages in the green rooms with not just the actors that you're working on films with, but actors on every other movie like major movies or going to like a red carpet premiere, things of that nature, that's a little bit, I think more of like a pinch me type moment, even though I don't know if I experienced it that much. I was so caught up and just, well, how do I take this to the next level? How do I read the room? How do I understand where I fit in? How do I provide the most value and can, with people and things of that nature. Which happens a lot, right? We have these situations and we keep thinking, how do we maximize instead of pinching ourselves, how the heck did I get here? Which resonates with me a lot. Okay, so you're in these technology things. Take me there.

Okay, so what started this whole followers thing and writing books about it? Yeah, so after I was working on those technology companies, I found a company. there was three guys around a kitchen table and they were one of the first companies that would run ads for other brands on YouTube ads. So again, people don't realize that YouTube when it first started and for a while did not have an advertising platform. It didn't exist. But when they built their advertising platform, there were companies like this one that started to run paid

advertising for other clients. So when I found them, they were like three guys around a table, managing $300,000 a year and paid media spend. And I leveraged my connections for the entertainment industry and brought in some key players that I had met over the years. And that company grew to managing about $100 million a year and advertising spending grew to 250 employees. But that experience was a really eye-opening experience for me and that I saw a lot of the mismanagement and waste that was going on with the type of content that these major brands

were advertising. So there's a wave of mistakes I have seen. In the beginning, it was brands would take traditional assets, a TV commercial or a print ad, and just put it on social media and expect it to perform. Then they got a little bit wiser and like, okay, that doesn't work. So we're going to create content specifically for these platforms. However, they are using outdated creative models to create those assets. They're not looking at how does content need to be designed and created specifically for social media. Let's take our experiences in producing commercials and then just apply it to social media. And then again, I saw it falling flat. And some of these brands, we were working with major brands that were investing millions and millions of dollars a month. We're just throwing

away cash. So I figured there's got to be a better way to do this. So I left that company and just started building the foundations of what we do today of understanding what causes stories to break through versus fall flat. What causes brands to break through versus fall flat? What causes individuals to break through versus fall flat? And just a lot of testing, a lot of working with journalists, professional athletes, actors, some brands. And I was just gaining a lot of knowledge. I was gaining a lot of experience in that. And then the ideas came up because I wanted to share this knowledge because I knew it worked. But you would always get this feedback of, of, well, yeah, Brendan, it's great.

You made it work for this professional athlete or this celebrity or those journalists. It's not going to work for me. And then it just seated the idea in my head is, okay, well, how do I prove it? I was always inspired by Tim Ferriss's The Four Our Work Week as a hook and a book. And I was like, well, maybe my way to do this,

to share this knowledge, to prove this is capable, is to write a book. But I knew from all of my experience, I needed to find a way to stand out at the highest level. I needed to find something to grab people's attention, and that's where I came up with the idea of one million followers, how he built a massive social audience in 30 days, running experiments on myself. Now, I knew it was possible because I tested so much prior to that, but I wasn't going to do it unless I would get a book deal.

I got an introduction to a literary agent, and I said, hey, I'm thinking about doing this experiment. If I do it, will you get me a book deal? And he said, yes. So that's where the experiment came from. And the first book spawned from that idea. And I loved it because honestly, I listened to it again, again, again. You know, my first ads were based on you, Brendan.

So first of all, I owe you. And Leap Academy. Well, thank you. It's always good to hear that because you write a book, you put it out there, and you don't know what happens with. You know people buy it. You see the sales numbers, but you don't know the stories behind it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Actually, I waited until we passed a million people in the podcast until I bring you in. So, Brandon, this is really fun. If you're feeling stuck, underpaid or unappreciated, or you're simply ready to take your career in life to the next level, I have the perfect solution for you. We have a program that helps you fast track and leap your reputation and career. Become the best version of yourself. Get the dream role you deserve, move up to leadership, jump to entrepreneurship, or even build a the portfolio career. This program helps hundreds a year, and it will help you gain the income,

influence, and impact that will transform the second part of your life. Watch our free training today at leapacademy.com slash free hyphen training. The link is in the show notes. Now back to the show. But talk to me because I think everyone wants to grab attention to their ideas, but they don't know how. So walk me through a little bit of what you did. You got this book deal. But it's really hard to get a million followers in 30 days. It is and it isn't. I didn't just wake up one morning and say, I'm going to do this. I had done years and years of testing and trial and year in understanding what this is.

Now, I barely slept those 30 days. And also, I think the big thing is, and you know because you read the book, doing that was an experiment. It was an experiment of me testing a lot of different concepts, a lot of different ideas. to see what would latch on to people that didn't know who I was because I was always behind the camera. I was starting from scratch. I was starting from zero. Now, obviously, I've rewritten that book like five times and it was first published in 2017. And the platforms have changed a bit since that time. But the core essence of what we do is also evolved with that. So the biggest, I would say change in that and it'll lead into the question that you had is how can people

master social media. So thinking back to when I first started, there's less than 50 million people on these platforms. Today, we're at 5.4 billion people across social media. So the amount of noise and the amount of competition that is there is just enormous. So the way that we have to think about social media, the exercise I'd like to do is if everybody listening to this could push aside everything they've been told about social media and just ignore it for like a few minutes. There are so many myths and demonizations about, oh, the algorithms are out to get me. They're suppressing my reach on purpose in order to get me to pay to boost my posts and stuff. Number one, I'll just dispel that myth. That is completely false because if that were the case, Mr. Beast wouldn't be

the most subscribed person on YouTube. It'd be somebody like Apple or IKEA or McDonald's or a brand that's spending billions and billions of dollars in advertising dollars. They're also not shadow banning you. Ninety-nine percent of people that come to me at all my accounts being shadow band. I look at it. It's not the case. So they also think this is just some mystery black box or I have to use the right hashtags or I have to post 10 times a date or I have to do a silly TikTok dance video to break through. But the reality is it's much simpler than that. It's pure storytelling. Now, the fascinating thing is people are ignoring history. Do you know when the first story ever told was how long ago?

assume many, many years ago. I don't know, Adam and Eve. I don't know. 50,000 years ago. Okay. 15,000 years ago. So 50,000 years ago, we told our first stories. It was around campfires. It wasn't for entertainment. It wasn't fairy tales. It was survival. How to hunt, what to eat. Stories over the course of civilization has built everything that we see. Everything that we see around a state was built by stories. Yet social media feels like this completely different thing. but it's just another medium to tell stories. Now, the difference is, the big difference is every single one of us has one of these in our pockets,

and I'm pointing to a phone for those who are just listening in, is that it's democratized communication to the masses. If you think 25 years ago before social media, how did any of us reach the masses? 99.9% of us could it. We either needed to have a publicist, we needed to have a big marketing budget, we need to get on radio, television, in magazines. means it just wasn't accessible. But today, with this device in our pocket, we have infinite storytelling possibilities at our disposal. So the way the algorithms work, the way these platforms work, they're all based on a singular business model, which is serving ads. What that means is the more time people spend on these platforms, the more time you and I spend consuming content

on these platforms, the more ads they can serve, and thus the more profit they generate. So what they are focused on, these platforms, these algorithms, is monitoring which content creators, what pieces of content grab and hold attention longer than others. And if you can master the art of a story, which is the most effective way to grab and hold attention, we've been telling them for 50,000 years, that is where you can excel with social media. And that's why I say kind of push everything to the side of what you've heard. And if you just simplify it and just think, well, how can I tell the most compelling story? Listen, it's very simplistic in nature, but it's not easy to master. It's very in depth. And we can get into how we look at that in a second.

But that's really what causes people to succeed or fail on social media. A, I love that because when you started talking about the campfire, and I absolutely agree, the entire Bible was created from stories, like the entire history was created from stories. People wrote stories on, I don't know, caves in Egypt. But I feel like, like we had more patience. So as creatures, we were able to sit for an hour and hear a story. And now it's like this. But then you said something really, really interesting. It's not just about getting that tension. It's holding that tension. And I think this is where I think a lot of us, even if we understood hooks, we don't know how to continue with the hook. So yeah, I want to hear

more because then you had this second book, which is hook point. But yeah, I still want to hear how you got the million, and then how does that translate into hook point and going viral? Yeah. So first, I think you said something really important that I want to just call out for a second is, yes, we will live in a world for microattention in terms of grabbing attention. But once we've grabbed it, people are willing to stick with it. We're on a medium. We're like 30 minutes in. People listening to this have spent 30 minutes with us right now. You think about Netflix when Squid Games comes out. Somebody will sit there, a lot of, not just somebody, a lot of people will sit there on a Saturday and binge watch for seven, eight hours. So we live in a microattention

world from grabbing it, but once we grab it, if we do an effective job and we tell a compelling story, we can harness that to get people to pay attention. Now, in terms of how I built a million followers and how we approach social media to tell effective stories, so at Hookpoint, we built a creative model from scratch, and it started from the process pre-generating a million followers. But essentially, the core element of it is we look for what's called storytelling formats. So I started my career in the movie industry, which you've talked about. If you think about any movie that you've watched over the past 100 years, they all follow the same format. It's a three-act structure. It doesn't matter if it's Indiana Jones. It doesn't matter if it's the movie Halloween. It doesn't matter

if it's a World War II movie, they all follow the same three-act structure of the format. Now, in social media, there's thousands of these formats. So at my company, Huckpoint, we've literally spent 15,000 hours research. We have a research department. It's about 15,000 hours, and we've identified 500 formats that we've researched. So to give you some examples to connect the dots. So I'm going to give examples not as recommendations for people, but recommendations that people have all seen.

So one is man on the street. So you approach a random stranger in the street, and you engage with them in some story and fold. So some examples of that account school of hard knocks. They approach successful people on the street, ask them, well, how did you make your first million dollars? They've generated a billion views with that format. They have 500 videos with over a million views on it. Then you have somebody like Body by Mark, where he approaches fit people on the street and ask them, hey, you're fit.

What do you do for your exercise? Or you have Alex Stemp, who we've done some work with, who's a photographer and offers people for professional photo shoots. The reason I gave us several examples of that, when we say the word format, it can be used for any industry or any sector. It's just the structure. So if you think about story is the soul and the format is the skeleton. So you can put different stories and different souls into a skeleton. Another example is called two characters, one light bulb, and it's when the same person plays two different characters. It's typically used to break down common misconceptions or

myths about subject matter. So you have Mark Tilbury that breaks down misconceptions about buying a car or buying a home. You have Erica Colberg that breaks down the fine print around what happens in legal contracts. What happens in your AirPods break? What happens when your flight gets canceled? These are examples of formats. Now, formats have been proven to succeed over and over and over again. So what we look for and what I was looking for when I was generating the million hours and 30 days is what formats are structures, could I insert my message into, they give it a greater likelihood of success? Now, when I say we research and analyze a format, we'll spend 15 to 25 hours researching a format. And basically what we're doing is we take the high performers using

those, like, let's just take a man on the street, we'll look at the videos that have millions and millions of views, and we'll cross-analyze it with the videos that just don't break through, within the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of views. And we're doing what I was trained to do at film school is we're looking for what are the qualitative elements that show up in those successful ones versus those unsuccessful ones so we can get a grasp on

what does it mean to tell a story in that format? And I'll just say about that that if you binge through some of your content, Brendan, on Instagram, that's exactly it. You basically show side to side because I've been through that. So, and it's really nice analysis of why some things cooked and worked and some things didn't. And it's so great to see the little things. Like, it can be so subtle and so meaningful.

And I love seeing that. It's crazy. If you're not succeeding on social media, you shouldn't take it personally. It's not about you. It's not about your message. It's really about the way that you're contextualizing the message that's not causing it to breakthrough. To give a larger analogy is like, how many movies have been made about World War II? Hundreds. But there's some that just completely break through and there's some that completely

flop. It's not the content of World War II. It's the context of how you tell the story around that. And that's so much of what success and failure is dictated on with social media is more about how you're presenting your story in these small nuances that cause it to break through. So the whole concept of hook, we call it hook story offer, that's going to repeat itself again, again, no matter if you're public speaking or you're doing an interview or you're doing a pitch to investors or wherever you are, you always need to hook them so they don't look at the phone. You always have to lead with a story. You always have to have some whatever, you know, CTA, whatever. How do you look at then that book became a huge success?

Did you understand that they will become such a phenomenal? No, it was a lot of work. It didn't start out that way. I had never published a book. It quickly realized publishers don't do anything for you in marketing and had to learn book marketing from scratch. And listen, it took a few years before it took off. And as I mentioned, we wrote it five times.

I drove our publisher crazy. And it's one of the reasons I don't use book publishers anymore because I just would get feedback, learn what was working, what wasn't working, and then refine it. Or I would learn something new. I didn't want to refine it and put it into the book. But no, obviously I had an inclination that the hook was good because I asked people and I tested it beforehand.

But I also didn't really understand what success would look like or would feel like because I had never done it before. And then also, I think it's a bit of the challenge that I face, too, is you're always benchmarking yourself against the top 1%. So you're always thriving for the next level, the next level, the next level. So definitely no. I obviously had an inclination that it would do well based upon the hook. Otherwise, I wouldn't have tackled it. But yeah, it's hard to know exactly what success really looks like when you've never done it before. If you can recap for just a little bit, because I have a book in the making, so I'm just curious. What is a book?

marketing look like? I just want to preface it by saying, I've taken a completely different approach. So a lot of people rely on book launches, which I think you should do if you have the means and the resources or knowledge to do it. I still haven't mastered a book launch. I've always built my marketing engines from a standpoint of I want it to be always on. My book sell more copies today than when they first launched because we create these sustainable engines.

One of the things that stood out to me with my literary agent is he said, you've got to seed as many copies into the market for word of mouth to takeover. And he said it was around 20,000 copies that you need to get into the market in order for word of mouth to have a chance. Like the book still has to be good. That's the biggest thing. If the book's not good, then it's going to be an uphill battle regardless. The challenge is the average published book sells less than 10,000 copies.

copies. So 99% of the books out there don't even get to that threshold. So one of the approaches, and this is more of a recent one, and it's challenging for books that are with publishers, is I just give away as many copies as possible. So like the guide to going viral, for example, my latest book, I've probably given away 80,000 copies of the PDF. And people listening to this can go to just hookpoint.com forward slash leap if they want to get it, or they even want to see if they're thinking about publishing a book of how I do it. Thank you, Brandon. We love gifts. Listeners, I want to hear you. Like, send us an email. Tell us that you got it. Tell us if it's exciting. We want to hear you. So, yeah, thank you, Brandon. This is so fun.

Everything that we've talked about today is detailed in that book, hookpoint.com forward slash leap. But so there's a lot of things I've tried. Getting as many copies into the market is one strategy. I would say Amazon ads is another great strategy. It's a very powerful tool to drive sales because, you know, people are in Amazon to buy stuff. And when they're browsing books, you can compete against different titles and things like that with ads. The one thing I will say about that and just book marketing in general, and I'm pretty sure you're probably following this. But books, typically, you're not going to make money off the book. It's what comes after the book.

So that's a big part of like, how do I turn our books into a, lead mechanism for us that it drives business so that you can keep reinvesting in the book marketing where I think a lot of people, and I missed that point for the first book, the first few drafts that I published is I didn't fully wrap my head around it, but the more you can make it more sustainable to market and push copies into people's hands, the more likely it is to take off. And if your book is really good, it can make money on its own, but I would just not go into it, thinking about it in that way. And then as much as you can do with speaking podcasts, things of that nature, to get the word out there. So those are kind of the elements that

I've played with that's allowed us to be successful. Let's talk about it. So that story, 1 million followers, becomes a phenomenal. You, I think, then put hook point, or now I'm not sure how you look at the order of things. So 1 million followers came out in 2017. and I updated it several times. I think the last update was 20, 2020, 2021. Then I published Hookpoint How to Stand Out in a Three Second World around 2021, just released a new version of that, the end of last year. And then the guide going viral came out at the same time as the re-release of Hookpoint.

And that's another thing. Like, if you look at me, I am not a traditional author. I just throw stuff out there and I test and I'm like, I am messy with it. that's why I want control over my books is like if I want to change like an entire chapter or entire section I just do it I just do it versus a publisher and I'm not recommending that for anybody it's not the easiest and it's not a painless path to do it it's just kind of the way that I'm wired I'm a marketer and I'm analyzed data and stuff so I kind of make those rash decisions to change things up often but I think it's really critical especially for the topics

you're writing about because I feel like maybe not but I feel like maybe it's changing also, everything around. What does go viral? What doesn't go viral? What creates hook? People got used to. So now you need to change. Like, I feel like it's changing. Maybe it's, I'm wrong. But, Brendan, how do you see it today? It's a great question. I would say the way that I look at is goes back to kind of when we started this is almost like ignoring everything else and just being like, how do you become the best storyteller? And that's the fundamental model that we have built is if every single social media platform that we used today was gone and five new ones came up, our model still works. Now, obviously, all of our research would have to be redone and things of that nature, but

it's just more and more apparent the longer I do this, it's how do we become masterful storytellers that will dictate that level of success. Now, with a book, I'll just give you a prime example to be transparent. It's like the guide to going viral, you know, we have several examples of TikTok. And when the TikTok ban, and it's still looming, I don't think it's going to happen, that freaked me out of it. It's like, well, I have to start working on a new draft that rips out the TikTok examples. Even though the core essence in the model will work, regardless, people will get caught up in it. But it doesn't change as much as people think. The core root of it is storytelling. And if you find the formats that succeed and understand the difference between why they succeed and why they

fail, you're going to succeed no matter what change comes. And I think what I love about your book is also, all your books talk about really at the end of the day, there's a storytelling, but also the psychology of what will move people's minds. And I think at the end of the day, it's still people, it's still psychology. So I think that is still the same. It was really interesting to look at it in a whole different lens than I think I used to. So I love that piece and it really, really helped me get relentless about what my audience needs and what would resonate, what would grab their attention, what's real for them.

But I do feel there's also just a lot of noise. So we're trying to fight endless noise in the system. And I think this is where even if you really generally understand the psychology and you do everything right, it's still hard. So how do you see all of it? Well, one example I want to back to your point of changes. The Man on the Street format that I mentioned earlier, the first time that format was used was in 1954 for the first season that's Night Show. So for over 70 years, that format has survived. Now, obviously, in today's world, it's vertical, it's shorter, it's faster, things of that nature,

but it survived because it works. The story is there, the tension is there, all of the key elements of a great story if you execute it properly there. And that's why you say all this noise. There is a lot of noise because all of us have this storytelling possibility in our pocket. There's 5.4 billion people on social media. However, I will say that 99% of people that are on these platforms creating content do not have the knowledge that we shared with them today. They don't know what a format is. I can tell you I work with multi-billion dollar corporations or social media managers don't even know what a format is. They don't understand the concept of actually cross-analyzing the high performers versus the low performers. They are chasing

tactics and trends and frequency and things of that nature. They're doing things that are not aligned to their brand just to break through and go viral. If you take all the things that we talk about today, you are going to be ahead of 99% of people creating content. And that's where, again, you're going to succeed. And I'm sure people can experience this also now in the world that we live in of, you know, back when you and I were watching TV, there wasn't streamers. You didn't have Netflix investing billions of dollars of content. We maybe had, I don't even remember. I think when I was younger, up until my teens, I think we had like 50 channels to choose from.

I don't know. I was stuck on Sesame Street, but yeah, go ahead. Yeah. But when you think about today, how much content we have between Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, cable, all of these things, all the movies, but what happens? The best rises to the top and everything gets pushed aside. And what's the common theme with the best? It's their great stories. People latch on to those stories. So it is a very noisy world. It's a very saturated world. But I can definitively tell you you can still win. You've just got to put all these elements together.

Can you win in a low-cost environment? Because again, walking on the street. You still need a camera person. You still need whatever. Like, it's still logistically maybe. And how do you win for people who are listening and they're saying, you know what? I'm trying to rise about the noise. I'm not getting interviews. I'm not getting whatever. Even if I want to start something, it's scary as heck. They're just kind of in this like, I don't even know what to do. And I'm not going to walk around on the street with a camera person. How do I get a chance? One thousand percent, you can do it with no budget. So that's why we've spent 15,000 hours analyzing 500 formats and keep analyzing them. There's two rules I have in choosing your format. One, start with the resources you have.

You do not need to extend beyond that. We literally have clients that are just sitting here on their iPhone. We have formats where they can capture it that. We have a hand doctor, never been on social media before. We gave her a format. She records it on our phone. She went from zero views, zero followers didn't have account to over 830,000 followers. She got a book deal from it, a podcast deal from it, and she's pitching a reality TV show out of it. So 1,000 percent, you can start with the resources that you have. You just have to find the format that matches those resources. And then the second rule I have is you have to find a format that feels authentic to you, that you love, that you're excited about, that you want to create. So this is not about how big your team is. This is not about how much

of a camera that you have, how much your advertising budget is. It's pure storytelling. And one question, though, about entrepreneurship, because entrepreneurship is really, really hard and you've been in this entrepreneurship endeavor for quite some time, Brendan. So you're probably one of the crazy ones like me. But first of all, you know, if you can cheer like a hard moment, because entrepreneurship always has a hard moment, why are you still at it or like what makes you continue and obviously at this point you probably don't see any other option right but it's like take us to a hard moment where like why am i doing this this is so hard i think it's a little bit easier when it's just you but then when you have employees you have payroll

you have burn those are the challenging times when you're figuring out how am i going to cover payroll we don't have enough money for it how are we going to do that what are you going to do or this client left or this employee left. Or there's businesses that are part of the just ultimately don't work. Those are extremely difficult. And I think a few things. One, I agree 100% with what you said is the way I've always viewed it is I'm never going to work a desk job. You will not find me a new corporate office ever again. I will not do a regular job. Even though being an entrepreneur, you work twice as many hours as a regular job. I just won't do it. I have never given myself permission or the option to think about that. But number two, I would just say,

you got to feel it. You have to feel that pain, the problems in order to get through it. And I will say the more times you go through it, the easier it gets because you have that experience, you kind of know what you're doing. But if you try and bottle it up and just say, oh, I'm going to push this aside, I think it eventually eats you up. I don't know if you You found it different. Oh, in the middle of the night, it comes back big time. Yeah, if you just try and push it aside. So I think it's managing it. The big thing about me is I've invested so much in my personal well-being of going to therapy, doing different types of things from a mindset perspective, because entrepreneurship is a professional sport. It's just a professional

sport that goes on and on and on and on. It's not like a regular professional athlete where you go five, 10, 15 years most, and then you retire. This is the ultimate endurance sport that you're going to be in. Oh, I love that, Brendan. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing because I think this is really, really important. And I will always say to listeners, if you're happy as number two, three, four, five, please be two, three, four, five, because honestly, I feel it's always going to be easier

than number one. Yeah, I mean, I wish I had that in me. It's an easier life. And like, those people are super valuable. And you can get super rich doing that. Like, if you find the right company and, like, you get with the right entrepreneur, the right company, and you contribute, it's an easier way to do it. And it's extremely valuable.

Yeah. And again, you can always build portfolio career on the side, which is what everybody does now. So if you don't have the bug, go for it. But anyway, Brendan, if there's something that you could have told yourself at a younger age, what would that be? Oh, wow. that's, I think that answer changes all the time. I mean, the answer used to be patience, but I think that to me, if I could go back,

is to work on myself a bit more and uncover why I do certain things and get to the bottom of that quicker. And it's everybody. We all experience traumas. We all experience things growing up that can be either of service or disservice to you. And the more you can get into the things that are being a disservice to you, you will, ultimately be successful quicker and have a happier life too. And I think that is true. I think as high achievers many times we think that just grinding and

persevering through anything instead of trying to reflect for a second and heal and give us a little bit of space for grace and then continue. I think we don't know how to do that. At least I don't. Yeah, and you can do it and you can be successful and push through, but there's going to be a toll. It's going to catch up to you eventually. We're all human beings. And if you don't take care of yourself, eventually, you're going to feel it. Yeah. And there's a reason why on planes they tell us to put our own oxygen mask on.

So put it on. Yeah. Brendan, thank you for coming to the show. Thank you for sharing all these incredible insights. I wrote a ton of notes. All of you have a gift at hookpoint.com slash leap. Thank you for giving that. And that's going to be this, like, right?

The guide to going viral. Yeah. And if they go to hookpoint.com, they can download the hookpoint book for free there too. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. So seriously, you're so generous with everything, was your knowledge, was your information. Following my on Instagram, like, oh my God, I got so much out of it.

So I hope you enjoyed the show. Write us. We love that you write us when you enjoy a show. So write us. Can't wait to continue seeing your shine, Brandon. Thank you so much for being on the show. Yeah, thank you. It was a pleasure connecting with you and everybody to tune into this. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. If you did, please share it with friends.

Now, also, if you're feeling stuck or simply want more from your own career, watch this 30-minute free training at leapacademy.com slash training. That's leapacademy.com. slash training, see you in the next episode of the Leap Academy with Ilan and Golan Show.