404: Meet The Expert That Makes Anyone Go Viral

Summary

The Think Media Podcast
Episode 404: Meet The Expert That Makes Anyone Go Viral
Release Date: April 10, 2025

Host: Sean Cannell
Guest: Adley, Founder of Viralish

---

Introduction & Guest Background

In Episode 404 of The Think Media Podcast, Sean Cannell welcomes Adley, the founder of Viralish, a seasoned expert in creating viral video content across multiple platforms. Recorded live at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego, the episode delves into Adley's proven six-part framework designed to exponentially increase video reach, engagement, and ultimately, leads and sales for businesses.

“I'm super pumped because Adley is on the Think Media podcast... How's it going?”
[00:52] Sean Cannell

“It's an honor to be here. I'm so excited for your speech tonight.”
[02:11] Adley

The 6-Part Framework to Go Viral

Adley unveils a comprehensive six-part framework that has consistently enabled videos to achieve viral status. Each component is meticulously crafted to enhance specific aspects of content creation and distribution.

1. Hook

“If you can get 90% retention in your first six seconds, everything else matters.”
[03:17] Adley

The hook is paramount in capturing the audience's attention within the initial moments. Adley emphasizes the necessity of a compelling start to stop the scroll and retain viewers.

• Combo Method: Combining two contrasting elements to create curiosity.
  “Combining visuals that don’t normally go together creates a curiosity gap...”
  [04:01] Adley

2. Suspense

“Suspense equals retention. It’s the difference between good creators and the best creators.”
[08:36] Adley

Suspense maintains viewer interest throughout the video. By introducing unresolved tension, creators can keep their audience engaged and invested in the narrative.

• Storytelling Example: Drawing parallels with movies like Taken to illustrate sustained tension.
  “If Liam Neeson rescued his daughter halfway, would we keep watching?”
  [09:18] Sean Cannell

3. Payoff

“The payoff is where people decide how they feel about you.”
[10:12] Adley

The conclusion of the video is crucial for leaving a lasting impression and encouraging actions such as following, sharing, or commenting. A strong payoff resolves the initial curiosity gap and reinforces the video's message.

• Example: Adley shares her own experience with a potentially awkward video that unexpectedly went viral.
  “I had $80,000 in my trash can...”
  [24:13] Adley

4. Raising the Stakes

“Stakes determine why people care and how you’re going to get a majority of people to watch your video.”
[12:19] Adley

Elevating the stakes involves enhancing the story's importance through elements like location, props, wardrobe, and casting. Higher stakes increase viewer investment and interest.

• Practical Application: Changing video settings to create a more compelling narrative.
  “Get on the roof instead of behind a desk to make it more interesting.”
  [14:09] Adley

5. Engagement Tactics

“Engagement tactics are just another word for talking points. They’re necessary.”
[35:16] Adley

Encouraging audience interaction through comments and discussions boosts video visibility and algorithm favorability. Subtle Easter eggs or intriguing elements prompt viewers to engage.

• Example: Adley describes a video where hidden elements sparked widespread comments.
  “She put tampons in the fridge with ketchup... the entire comment section was talking about it.”
  [26:11] Adley

6. Split Testing

“Split testing was our linchpin to success.”
[37:04] Adley

Testing different versions of content to determine what resonates best with the audience is essential. Adley discusses using Facebook dark posts and Instagram trial reels to refine video elements before full publication.

• Method: Running A/B tests on hooks, thumbnails, and captions to optimize performance.
  “We would split test hooks, thumbnails, captions differently to see what resonates.”
  [38:19] Adley

Practical Examples & Success Stories

Adley shares multiple success stories illustrating the efficacy of her framework. Notable examples include:

• Egg Tie-Dying Video: A seemingly mundane video that, with a minor adjustment to the hook, skyrocketed from 1,800 to 3.6 million views.
  “By restructuring the first few seconds, his video made 3.6 million views.”
  [17:32] Adley

• Will Colon’s TikTok Growth: A case where a musician’s experimentation with engaging content led to a dramatic increase in followers.
  “He grew 3 million followers in a matter of months by simply changing his approach.”
  [20:24] Adley

Tools and Strategies: Instagram Trial Reels

A significant highlight of the conversation is the introduction of Instagram's Trial Reels feature, which Adley identifies as a game-changer for content creators.

“Trial Reels are the number one way to grow on Instagram in 2025.”
[40:09] Sean Cannell

• Functionality: Allows creators to post reels that are only visible to non-followers, enhancing discoverability without affecting current follower engagement.
  “It publishes only to non-followers, automatically placing your content in the Discover section.”
  [40:16] Adley

• Implementation Tips: Repost top-performing content and experiment with new hooks to determine the most effective elements for broader reach.
  “Repost your best content as trial reels to test different hooks without risking your main feed’s performance.”
  [41:05] Adley

Importance of Personal Brand

Adley underscores the critical role of personal branding in achieving long-term success and influence.

“Personal brand will be more valuable than Bitcoin by 2030...”
[25:59] Adley

• Scalability: AI advancements allow for continuous content presence even when creators are unavailable, enhancing brand consistency and reach.
  “AI videos with your voice and cloned images ensure your content remains active.”
  [33:55] Adley

Action Steps for Listeners

Adley provides actionable steps for listeners to implement her framework and start creating viral content:

1. Engage with Adley:
   “Comment the word BVF on any of my Instagram posts and DM me for a free ebook on the formula.”
   [42:35] Adley

2. Start Split Testing:
   Use tools like trial reels to experiment with different content variations and refine based on performance metrics.
   “Repost your best content as trial reels and let the data guide your main feed posts.”
   [41:05] Adley

3. Build Your Personal Brand:
   Invest time in developing a unique and authentic personal brand that stands out and resonates with your audience.
   “Find something unique that represents your brand and use it consistently across all content.”
   [32:58] Sean Cannell

4. Join Mastermind Groups:
   Adley highlights the value of accountability and continuous learning through mastermind groups or coaching programs.
   “We become like a fractional member of your team, offering weekly accountability and feedback.”
   [42:35] Adley

Conclusion

Sean and Adley wrap up the episode by reiterating the importance of implementing the discussed strategies to achieve viral success. They encourage listeners to take immediate action, leverage available tools, and continuously refine their content creation processes.

“This episode is fire. If you're getting value, hit the like button and share wherever you listen.”
[25:36] Sean Cannell

“Every good thing that happens to us is not ours to keep. It’s to share the knowledge.”
[39:54] Adley

Connect with Adley:

• Instagram & TikTok: @AdleyShow
• Website: viralish.com
• YouTube: The Adley Show

---

This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for content creators aiming to amplify their reach and impact through strategic video creation and distribution. Adley's insights and proven methods provide listeners with the tools necessary to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of online video marketing.

Transcript

[Sean Cannell]

If you've been trying to grow your.

[Blake]

YouTube channel on your own, you might.

[Sean Cannell]

Be frustrated because it's kind of like.

[Blake]

Trying to get in shape without a coach.

[Sean Cannell]

Slow, frustrating and full of trial and error. That's why we created the Think Media one on one coaching program where you will get a dedicated expert to walk you through your next steps, to hold you accountable and to teach you advanced growth strategies. Plus, you get connected with the right expert in specific areas from our Think Media team for whatever challenge you're facing.

[Blake]

But here's the deal.

[Sean Cannell]

The annual fee is going up soon, so if you've been on the fence, now's the time to lock in your spot. Just go to yt coaching.com to apply before the price increases.

[Adley]

Personal brand will be more valuable than bitcoin by 2030 because bitcoin may 100x but your personal brand can 1000x your income, your influence and your impact in the world.

[Sean Cannell]

One of the world's leading viral video experts who has the real results.

[Adley]

And so for people to not be taking advantage of that right now, they're going to fall behind to everybody else who is it is an arms race.

[Sean Cannell]

You revealed the number one way to grow on Instagram in 2025.

[Adley]

Oh my gosh.

[Sean Cannell]

What is it?

[Adley]

Absolute hidden gem.

[Sean Cannell]

If you what are they? How do they work?

[Adley]

Oh my gosh, a goat.

[Sean Cannell]

Imagine multiplying Your video views 5x overnight. Not days from now, not weeks from now, not even months from now, but in the next 24 hours. In this video, I get to interview one of the world's leading viral video experts who has the real results. She's done it on multiple platforms, she's helped her clients do it and she's going to be breaking down her six part framework that anyone can implement to to start getting more reach, more impact, more views and ultimately more leads and sales in your business on your very next piece of content. I'm super pumped because Adley is on the Think Media podcast. Founder of Viralish. She's done so many cool things and right now she is crushing it on stages. We're in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World and I'm excited to have you on the podcast. How's it going?

[Adley]

It's an honor to be here. I'm so excited for your speech tonight.

[Sean Cannell]

So I want to get into your story, do some other things as we, as the conversation evolves. But let's get straight into the framework. What's number one?

[Adley]

Yeah, get into the value. So when I explain the six step formula, you're going to be like at. Why do people pay you millions of dollars for this? Because it sounds basic, but with each step there's probably seven to eight different components that when combined make it just incredibly powerful. And I'll preface that we built this formula or it was shown to us after making literally thousands of viral videos, viral being 5 million and up. And we just saw very clearly of all these videos, the formulas appeared. Wow. The ones that really rose have this all the same structure in common. So then when we started just using that and applying it to every single video, whether it was an ad for Land Rover or whether it was me pranking my husband or staging a Karen on an airplane, it. I'm not gonna look you in the eyes and say it works every single time, but I would say our batting average increased to 7 out of 10 videos going viral every time we use this framework.

[Sean Cannell]

I can't wait. What's number one?

[Adley]

So number one is obviously it is the hook. But what we aim for people to do is to get 90% retention in that first six seconds. Because if you can get 90% retention in your first six seconds, according to our TikTok rep now confirmed based off our publishing on every single major discovery based platform, it is true across all of them. So aiming to get 90% retention, we just have different frameworks where we help you do that because if you don't stop the scroll in your first three seconds, literally nothing else that we talk about matters. So when people harp on the hook, it's because of that fact. It is all that matters matters to get the attention. Because if you don't win that nothing else that we do matters. So one of the ways that we get 90% retention is what we call the combo method, which is essentially just combining two things that don't normally go together. Right? Those could be if you're doing talking head content, it could be opposite ideologies, right? Pinning Democrats versus Republicans. Any type of conflicting ideology of combining things that you don't normally see that make you feel something one and have a curiosity gap to where they're going to stick around and you're going to create this itch that you do not scratch until the very end of your video. I'm not sure if it's the same for YouTube long form or if you bury the payoff somewhere in the middle. But for short form at least you want to get those watch time minutes and the same way that you do in long form, but you just want to create the curiosity gap and the itch and then just don't. Don't pay it off and be a good storyteller throughout. But really, we have to set that framework up in the hook.

[Sean Cannell]

That's so strong. Yeah. One of. I think it's a exactly right for YouTube long form. And I think what's interesting in long form is it's doing that but then doing it multiple times. Any good storytelling will create some tension, create a curiosity gap, and then stakes will rise throughout the content and more tension and more curiosity gaps will be open because you're sort of multiplying that throughout the ultimate viral videos on YouTube over longer amount of minutes. But I'm curious, what's one of the other you mentioned, frameworks? Maybe some other starters that could get us inspired for what we could do in the hook to get attention in our next piece of content?

[Adley]

Yeah, I would say if. If you have. It's. For me, it's a threshold of tolerance. Like, I am like, lean into funny content. I lead with humor because humor is relatable to the masses, and we all have these shared common experiences. And humor doesn't have to look like absurdist stuff like I used to do and still sometimes do. Like, for me, it would look like pouring tequila in the back of a coffee pot. And you just like, why are you doing that? But then I show you how to make batch margaritas for a party.

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah.

[Adley]

You know, or I'm taking a rack of ribs and putting it on the engine of my. To show you how to cook a Thanksgiving meal real quick on your road trip to dinner with your family. You know, stuff like that. But if you don't have the tolerance for that, you can still do things that combine visuals that have a curiosity gap. So say we have a holistic therapist. I might have a pink balloon that says your brain on it in Sharpie. And I might be filling it with shaving cream. Right. I'm just filling it up, and then I'm putting sticky notes on it that say, your family, your finances, your business, your health. And you're like, where is she going with this? And then I have a pin, and I'm about to pop the balloon that's full of shaving cream while I'm talking to you and driving my point home. But there's suspense and tension held in this visual. And then at the very end, maybe I do pop it and show how if you don't resolve your trauma, that crap gets everywhere and it's very, very messy.

[Sean Cannell]

Wow.

[Adley]

So it's just combining visuals to show what you're Talking about rather than just talking head, talking about it the same way everybody else does.

[Sean Cannell]

And is this some of the stuff I see is sometimes if someone's going to be doing talking head or explaining something if. If simply what they're doing is like making lunch or doing something else, maybe that's not enough to go viral. Ish. But is it the same concept?

[Adley]

Yes. One time we did a video where I didn't need to do a talking head style, but I was just boiling tennis balls, like boiling water and just lowering tennis balls into them. And people are just like they're absorbing what I'm saying. But there's an anchor of curiosity. Why the heck is she boiling? Ever resolve why I didn't. Because I'm a butthead.

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah, but that probably starts comment people like what's. And then it gets a whole comment engagement thing.

[Adley]

Yes. And people may jump into step number.

[Sean Cannell]

Five, witty about the comments, like theories about the tennis balls and like debate about the tennis ball.

[Adley]

And then the best part is when people like, oh, of course you boiled tennis balls. You should always boil your tennis balls. And they go into being like to make it stuff.

[Sean Cannell]

You had no clue. You're like, I don't know about that. Maybe it actually does mean something. Yeah, that's fascinating. I also have heard such things as, like this versus that viral video. If you're just talking head, it might fall flat. If you were like a real estate agent and walking through a neighborhood, why? Talking, walking and talking. And like the more things you lay on, it could just be more engaging. Is there anything you could do to tweak that?

[Adley]

Here's why I think that works. Just changing your location, it raises the stakes and it makes it feel a bit more real. Instead of sitting here in front of the camera with the perfect lighting. And now you're going to do the influencer thing and you're set up to make a video. It looks like you just set up to make a video versus same script, but you're just walking down the streets of San Diego delivering it. It makes it feel like this is so top of mind. I eat, sleep, breathe this. And I just, I have to say this right now. So let me pull up my camera and I just have to tell you this. Same script, but different location and different vibe. And I think it reads a little bit better.

[Sean Cannell]

Wow. Okay. How about number two?

[Adley]

Number two. So after your hook, if people make it through there, obviously we get into the body of it, the structure, the skeleton. And that is suspense. And suspense, in my opinion, is the Difference between good creators and the best creators in the world is your ability to hold suspense. And look at, I mean, this isn't anything different than we're used to seeing in sitcoms or your favorite movie. Right. I use this example a lot because I love the movie Taken and I think Liam Neeson is a total kick butt guy, but he, if he like rescued his daughter halfway through the movie, would we keep watching? No. If Ross and Rachel actually stayed together in season two, would it have gone on for 10 seasons? Probably not.

[Sean Cannell]

Gotta have to tension the whole time.

[Adley]

Tension equals reset.

[Sean Cannell]

And the on and off they get together, but they break up.

[Adley]

Yes. You have to have unresolved tension. So how can you do that? And whether you're making people problem aware or solution aware in any content pillar that you're doing, how can you invoke suspense? Not even just in the micro, not even in a single piece of content, which is very important. But how can you do it on the macro to where people just are invested in your business's story? They're invested in your story and what you're building. If you can evoke suspense and tension, that is sticky for people and that's going to keep them sticking around. So before you make your next video and as you're planning out your business and how you're storytelling yourself from the inside out, how can you evoke tension and suspense into your storytelling?

[Sean Cannell]

So if somebody was like a, a CPA or an accountant and they're thinking about like, okay, I'm trying to get into, to get leads and sales, how do I get unresolved tension in like somebody that's doing financial services?

[Adley]

So it depends on how you want to storytell yourself. So immediately like man in the streets came to mind. But not everybody wants to do man in the streets.

[Sean Cannell]

What is that? Let's say that we'll say we did.

[Adley]

That like a man in the streets. Like street interview style or challenges. So think in these content buckets. So say you had a challenge and the CPA was doing how to maximize 100 bucks. And you could talk about investing, you can talk about all these different things, but give three people in the street 100 bucks and go see who makes the most ro out of it. And then teach principles from that. But you're showing it's harder, it takes more effort. Sure. But now you're gonna have a simple, repeatable and scalable format that you can do over and over again. And be known for that guy who makes that wider, more entertaining top of funnel video to teach Your principles. And I think that's who's really going to stand out over the next three years, is who builds that personal brand and learns how to storytell what they do in a way that's relatable to the most amount of people.

[Sean Cannell]

Okay, what's number three?

[Adley]

So then we move into the end, which is the end of the skeleton, which is the top three nuts there. That is the payoff. And the payoff is really where people decide how they feel about you. Right. They decide if they're gonna follow. They decide if they're gonna unfollow. They decide if they trust you a little bit. They decide if they're gonna share with a friend or drop a comment, you know, and so that's your opportunity to. To win them over. And that's where you can make your call to action. But it's really the end of that itch. I said I want you to scratch in the first three seconds. That's where you're going to scratch that itch. And you can have them follow for part two or just keep them invested in the story. So that's just the end of the.

[Sean Cannell]

Skeleton, where people decide Liam Neeson does rescue his daughter, and he does. And that's the payoff. You did. Did you still deliver a payoff when you were boiling the tennis balls? Technically, because you. You. You still kept a curiosity gap and tension going. But, I mean, were you just teaching something practical and still had, like, a final point?

[Adley]

I think there's, Yeah, I guess two aspects to the payoff. One is it's just the end of your video.

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah.

[Adley]

You know, and it's where you sign off or you just have a call to action. But I left that anchor unresolved.

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah.

[Adley]

I did not say why I was wearing those tennis balls because I wanted to go into step number five, which is engagement tactics and designing your comments.

[Sean Cannell]

Okay, so then let's keep moving. What's number four, though?

[Adley]

Number four, we've got. Why am I blinking? Raising the stakes. So raise the stakes. Determine why somebody cares. Stakes determine why people care and how you're going to get a majority of people to watch your video that otherwise wouldn't. So there's four main ways that we raise the stakes. One is location, props, wardrobe, and casting. So if you and I are going to do a video, maybe people care. Like, say it was a reuniting video, and we're like, oh, my gosh, Sean, I haven't seen you in two weeks. We're finally going to be reunited. Nobody cares. The stakes are low. But if it's a high school sweethearts who haven't seen each other in 50 years and they're old and adorable and going to be reunited. Casting. Just change out the cast. Same format.

[Sean Cannell]

When someone in the military comes back, that's the headline. And it's like they're coming back after five years and everybody watches wardrobe. Yeah. You know, wardrobe and what the. Reunited. Reunited from five years. So you have.

[Adley]

You see how you have suspense built in there. You see how you have high stakes built in there. And these are just storytelling mechanisms that are age old, but we're just adapting them and how they show up for social. So location, I think, is the easiest for anybody to do just by changing the location. So, for example, we have like, roofing people in our. In our communities, and we say, what are you doing on the ground and behind a desk? Get on the roof. You're on a roof every day. I want you to count shingles like they're dollar bills. Like, do something interesting that is visual and just change your location. Do it from the truck. Like, do. Just be more interesting. Get. Do it in the aisle at a supermarket instead of in your kitchen. Do it in the car if you're gonna make a meal and show an ingr how these ingredients make up this really simple recipe. Don't show me in your kitchen. Show me that you're doing it in a car when you only have 10 minutes and a lunch break to show how simple and easy this is. Right. And so just changing your location can.

[Sean Cannell]

Make a world of difference when you are encouraging individuals. Like, some of the objections that come up is like, okay, I actually can see this is practical, but I'm also kind of stressed because I'm busy. And like, I. I'm trying to just sit behind my desk and create content. And I could see the ROI here. Help me reconcile one. How quickly inefficiency or how much time I devote to this and then to the roi, because I mean, the ROI of doubling your business and hiring help or the ROI of more revenue and that you can reinvest and. And buying back your time. But. But help us understand that. Because, you know, it's one thing to even have a few minutes to just record a zoom and then chop it up and put it online or sit at your desk, but let alone get out there, get creative, film all of that stuff.

[Adley]

Yeah, I think sometimes low effort leads to low results, and sometimes it doesn't. It depends on. You can have a really low effort concept and it hit because you've combined, you found how it resonates and it was really simple. And you can make 30 in an hour and that's great. We have a format I'm working on where I'm just gonna go look. I'm just gonna go look like I'm flashing people and get the shocked faces. And when I turn around, it's positive messages exposing positivity. I could do 30 of those in an afternoon. Yeah, but my video says like make compelling videos.

[Sean Cannell]

And so it's like, yeah, so it's a shot from behind and then a shot in front.

[Adley]

So even that's all the faces and you're like, oh, you think I just flashed. But it follows. Yeah, that follows the formula perfectly. But very low effort, but novel in a sense. We haven't seen that before. And it proves my point that you need to make more compelling videos. So that would be very easy. So if you're going to go low effort, find something that you can bat, shoot that as something that nobody's really seen before. But it's still low effort. So I think bad shooting is huge for a lot of people. But lately what I've been doing is just, I have been posting less but having more effective posts because either I'm going to win, you're either going to win by volume posting two, three times a day for that type of omnipresence and syndicating that content, or you're going to have one awesome video a week or every other week that's going to get same amount of time investment from people. But that video is going to be more successful than all these other small ones combined. So I think you have to solve for your own constraints. For example, my husband has anxiety. He has billions of views under his belt personally and he does not like making videos. He just is an engineer mine and he can just see, oh, I do this and this and this and it works. And he just thinks about it that black and white when he applies the formula. But he makes videos and he doesn't talk in any of them because he gets anxious on camera and gets tongue tied. So solve for your constraints and make your format fit something that you actually enjoy doing. Like if I had a hat, I would say make content fun again, that would be my motto. Do something that you think that you can sustain and it's fun for you, otherwise you are going to burn out.

[Sean Cannell]

That's really good. And I'm curious too, like share some of the numbers too of client results or the ROI of this because most listening have not experienced a Million views, let alone multi millions of views or even you're talking about. The promise of this title is how to 5x your reach. So if we're normally getting 300 views and now we start getting a couple thousand or we get a hundred thousand, it could be very significant. So what, what when people even implement this, not even perfect, because it's the goal where, you know, we'll hit number five doing the steps. But if you just improve some of this stuff, what can people expect?

[Adley]

Oh my gosh. Sometimes. We had a guy, it was his third video that he'd make made trying the formula. First two were not executed the right way. The third one he posted and it was. He was tie dying eggs or something for Easter. And I watched this video and I'm like, he didn't nail the hook and this is not gonna do well. But I saw seconds 12 to 14. I was like, that's your hook. And I said, michael, I don't even care if you take this down right now, but you're gonna repost this. And I want you to put seconds 12 to 14 on. On your first two seconds and repost it. That's it. You don't have to reshoot anything. Just restructure this video. And the first time it did 1800 views. And now that made it to 3.6 million, I believe. Just by changing that little thing. Yeah, you know, that's simple reiterate.

[Sean Cannell]

Did you talk to Pat Flynn? Do you know him well?

[Adley]

No, I don't know him at all.

[Sean Cannell]

So. So you know, Pat Flynn is a legend. We just did a conversation here on the Think Media podcast. We'll link it up in the show notes. He started a dedicated YouTube shorts channel for Pokemon and he's got a deep pocket monster channel, long form. And this was new. He wasn't even into Pokemon. He got into it because of his kids. He has a whole smart, passive income kind of typical education for online business owners and stuff and people getting started. But started a whole new project, grew a YouTube channel, a million subscribers. But wanted to start a different format and started a shorts channel, vertical video only. But what it made me think was, you're talking about do something you can batch. Do something that's sustainable. And I think it's do we open it or do we keep it sealed? Which is do you open the pack of Pokemon cards or keep it sealed? And he had. He kind of built it out. It's a show. It has a jingle in the beginning, jingle in the end, but he can shoot it by himself. No team, nobody else helping. He just film. He batch shoots them. He uploads one a day. It's a routine for people. It's got kind of a few tweaks. He hired a voice actor to just on wherever Fiverr or something like that to do kind of, you know, oh, no, the hack wasn't that good or oh, it was pretty good. All that to say is he's at 2 billion views.

[Adley]

Wow.

[Sean Cannell]

The channel grew. He got a gold play button in like 199 days through his YouTube channel. Two million subs made. $126,000 in YouTube ad revenue.

[Adley]

That's short shorts.

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah. Right around there. And. But. But he found a format. He found a sustainable format. Doesn't have to go outside, but like it's a show. It's like a mini 60 minute show. And in the dialed in the details and of course, you know, content creation, I think it's like a skill. You get stronger with reps. And he wasn't starting at scratch. He's got a lot of experience under his belt. But I just hope that encourages listeners to just think about these principles are powerful and it's probably not. It may not be the first thing or the sixth thing you try, but by committing to this, you can build that strength. And I mean, you're one show away from a billion views.

[Adley]

1,000%. There's a kid of ours, we used to pay him $2 per reel. Will Colon. Official or official Will Colon. If you look him up. And he was trying to figure out he was making viral videos for us. And he got really, really good at it. He was like, but I'm a musician. How do I marry the two? And he was trying different formats. And then the third one, maybe it was even more than three, but the third one that I watched him try popped and he grew 3 million followers in a matter of months.

[Sean Cannell]

Geez.

[Adley]

Over on TikTok, just taking his guitar, going up to pretty girls in the park around Vanderbilt and Belmont campuses and just being like, hey, what are you listening to? Yeah, do you mind if I cool. Do you mind if I sit and play it? And the girls are like. But he would just go around singing to pretty girls. Popped. And just changed his life.

[Sean Cannell]

Wow.

[Adley]

You know, but he had tried so many other formats. So I firmly believe that everybody has at least 100 bad videos in them.

[Sean Cannell]

Sure.

[Adley]

That you just have to get out. That is the rite of passage. And maybe it's even more than that. I heard the stat that you would probably know if it's true. More than me. But it was YouTube saying anybody with over a million subscribers, the average videos that they had posted was over a thousand videos before people got a million subscribers.

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah, I think it was a stat, a study done by tubebuddy and it was crazy numbers. Like they, they studied people that hit a hundred thousand people that hit 500,000 people that hit a million. And it might have been over a thousand videos or even over 2000 videos if they got to a to a million subscribers. Which again speaks to the amount of reps I think we get. So self reflective. And I've heard that what you just said is called the rule of 100. The rule of post 100 videos where you're counting uploads, not views.

[Adley]

Beautiful.

[Sean Cannell]

Like let's just count uploads, not views as our measurement for success because this is our practice season. This is our find our voice season. This is our experiment and figure things out season.

[Adley]

Yes. I Love that. That's 1,000 tries. 100 tries and chances at bat. And you don't know if it's the 100 that could be the breakthrough. I have so many stories and times where I did not want to upload or did not want to shoot. Thought the video was trash. You already know where I'm going with this. It popped. It was the one. The one. The video that you make when you are tired and you're exhausted and you just say one more. I'm just going to post it. Just do one more. I had $80,000 in my trash can once.

[Blake]

Every day you want to start your YouTube channel is another day of missed opportunities and untapped potential. Here's the truth. YouTube reaches more 18 to 49 year olds than all the cable networks combined. The opportunity is massive and the Think media team and I want to help you seize it. I'm excited to announce our YouTube 1K Challenge, a free five day event that will give you the exact blueprint to start and grow your YouTube channel in 2025. Whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner or somebody ready to grow their personal brand, this challenge is your roadmap to success. To register, just go to tube1k challenge.

[Sean Cannell]

Com.

[Blake]

We're going to be doing one training session a day for five days and you're going to learn how to get your first 1,000 subscribers and start earning real income. Insider strategies that make viewers want to click on your videos and keep watching multiple different ways to earn money from your YouTube channel, even if you have a small audience. And how to build an authentic personal brand that truly connects with people. But it gets even better. We are giving away prizes every single day of the challenge. You could win professional microphones, lighting kits, and premium content creation software. And during this challenge, you're getting access to the exact training that we offer in our $4,000 coaching program. But you're getting it completely for free. And you can start with just your smartphone. So if you're Ready to turn 2025 into your YouTube breakthrough year, go to tube1kchallenge.com to register. That's tube1kchallenge.com. Or click the link in the show notes or YouTube description to register for our upcoming challenge.

[Adley]

$80,000. Sitting in a trash can. Blake and I shot this video. Very silly video where I have two boys make a circle. We're on a boat, and they make a circle with their hands. And I say, I'm going to jump through the circle, But I jump through like this. And I keep saying, I'm going to jump through like this. And your brain is like, how are you gonna do that? And then at the end, I just run, and I'm like, 1, 2, 3. And I just run, and I just push them both in their clothes. That was it. But you could see my extension.

[Sean Cannell]

$80,000 in the tracks.

[Adley]

I'm getting there.

[Sean Cannell]

Oh, okay.

[Adley]

I had. I. We did this video, and I didn't want to post it because you could see my extensions in my hair. And I was really insecure about that, and it looked horrible. And even though that would have gotten a ton of comments, I'm sure I was like, I. I'm personally just embarrassed. And I just made a vanity decision to, like, just trash it. And Blake was like, where's that footage? I was like, I deleted it. I look terrible. And he got it out and he edited it, which does not happen, and posted it. That made $80,000 in two days. And you just. You never know what video it's going to be. It's usually the one that you least expect is the one that's going to pop because you didn't care and you weren't trying so hard. And somehow that resonated.

[Sean Cannell]

Man, it's really great. Okay, we got to hit number five and number six in just a second. But this episode is fire. If you're getting value, if you watch on YouTube, hit the like button. And if you listen to the podcast, it always means the world if you share rate, review wherever you watch your list. And number one, recapping. We have the hook. Number two, Suspense. Number three, Payoff. Number four, raising the stakes.

[Adley]

What's Number five, Adley number five is engagement tactics. So this is how you would get somebody who would never normally leave a comment on anything and get them to comment. And this also ranges your threshold of absurdity. For example, we did a video. These are friends of ours who did a video, and they were doing a some cooking style video life hack thing. And she goes to get like ketchup out of the fridge and there's just a box of tampons in there. Don't call attention to it, but she just got the ketchup. Never called attention to the tampons. The entire comment section was, are we supposed to be refrigerating our tampons? What is going on with that? And then other people are like, yes, of course you're supposed to refrigerate your tampons. And we just forgot they were in there. From a different bit, that video popped. Made tens of thousands of dollars just because of that little Easter egg. I made a wine pie one time and my fly was undone, which I did do intentionally because I have no business making a pie. Nobody has business watching me cook. But I needed to make this pie for something and I just had my zipper undone. 14 million views on me making a pie. But the thing is, is that didn't take away from my credibility. Say you were a chef and you were doing something serious. Can you do. Can you do an engagement tactic for retention and for an anchor and for something just a little bit Easter eggy in your video that still feels authentic to you and doesn't steal. A lot of people don't want to mispronounce a name or spell something wrong because that can rob you of credibility. But could you just have one earring in maybe like a natural human mistake? Could you have a fly undone? Because people will be like, oh, girl, I'm so sorry. I feel for you. This video's popping and you're caught in an embarrassing moment. Like, what can humanize you a little bit that you're comfortable with or that is just really unique to you? I think we put a safety pin in Blake's beard once. Or just like one little pink strip. Something. Just something to make people stop in their crazy brain and just be like, what is that? I've never seen that before. Or this person's unique. It's just stopping them and pattern interrupting long enough for them to actually realize, wow, this is really good content. And then you'll notice that that'll just make your engagement go crazy. And so whatever that threat, you live wherever you live in that threshold, if you find something that's comfortable for you, I just urge you to think about it. Just try before you design your next video. What could I do to inspire a comment section and design it in reverse? Because even that forethought, even just a little bit of it is going to go so much farther than you would not thinking about it otherwise.

[Sean Cannell]

I know at one point meta Facebook announced that they were shifting their algorithm not just for comments, but for conversation so that posts would spread not only on the amount of comments, but essentially debate. When people start commenting, the commentator, you know, and they go back and forth. And so to me this is also very interesting because just things to get people talking, debating, questioning and comments is certainly a factor on YouTube. It's a lot less. It's click through rate watch time like period on YouTube. Likes Comments are some reinforcing metrics, viewer satisfaction. But you're an expert in all these different platforms and it reminds me of somebody who was getting great results. And let me know if this is kind of one of those engagement tactics with educational content, screen sharing and showing tutorials of like websites that are free and helpful to create content. But you know how you like bookmark pages and it's at the top of your Google Chrome. He made that a little bit bigger and he renamed one that was like right at the front and he renamed it like Hunter Biden's laptop leak. And then he never addresses it and he just leaves it there. But what then also happened would people would get over 100% retention because they'd re let it play to be like, does that say what I think it says? And then they would be like, does he know? And then people would be debating in the comments and like, oh, he must be trolling. Like, no, that's legit. No, it's whatever. Then he tapped into politics. This guy must be a whatever. And somebody else like, no, I can't believe you know, the administration and and he was just like talking about, you know, free website software. But did it absolutely intentional as an engagement tactic. What do you think?

[Adley]

I love it. I think that's the best. You just see how it can be easy to just do something little that you never call attention to, but it makes you different. And you're giving people talking points like this is a secret superpower if you're willing to do it. Find something that's comfortable for you. Because people always get weird when it's like baiting engagement, but it's just giving people a reason to stop. It's a pattern Interrupt.

[Sean Cannell]

You know, what's funny is you just hit a concept. Have you talked a lot about talking points before?

[Adley]

No.

[Sean Cannell]

Talking points I was hearing in the, in the music industry is an actual strategy everybody listening to this could benefit from. And talking points is something. For example, if you were marketing yourself or wanting to get your name out there as a musician, it's one thing, of course, you got to have good music, maybe something, you know, you have a little, a little bit of luck, definitely tactics and how Spotify and things work and all those modern things. But like a modern musician also needs to be like a world class marketer. And they talked about talking points and you write your name in the middle or your brand in the middle, but then draw talking points around it. And they were talking about this like white rapper that's been blowing up. They talked about his music video. Like one, there was a cybertruck in the music video. It is just a talking point, you know, like it's trending, it's whatever. But like just one thing. Then it was the fact that he was surrounded actually by all. All of his homies were black guys around the white guy in the center. And he was like, yeah, you know, say what you will, that people are going to notice that and they're going to. And he goes, I'm not saying he manufactured it, but like it's authentic to him, but it's intentional. They shot that music video with, with that thing. That's another talking point said, you know, Kanye west, if you think about it, this was a video I watched about talking points. And musicians always has, like, he'll do stuff just for the talking. It gets people talking. Yeah, stuff that's kind of. And of course that's at the extreme of controversy. So like you say, what's your. Yeah, what's your level? What's your tolerance for it? But I had never really thought about that. Like, those are talking points because you're trying to get people talking. And it could be your wardrobe, it could be. He talked about opening lines. Some of the best rap songs might have an opening line that is offensive and polarizes people. If it's true to you, it might pull people to one side, but then it also might get people talking on the other side. And the bottom line was that the best of the best, these are not accidents. They're sitting down and thinking about what are our talking points? Thoughts.

[Adley]

I love it. We're talking about the same thing. You realize all great storytellers and the people who break through all have talking points that are true to them. Like the white rapper with all of his guys around him, that's real to him. But you know it's going to get attention because, you know, it's not the norm. So what is it about your business, your unique selling points that helps you stand out? Because just being good enough is not enough. Like, just being good is not enough. So how can you be good but also be different in a separator? Like, why would I buy your shoe over somebody else's shoe out there where everybody's making shoes? Why is your shoe different? To take it off your shoes off.

[Sean Cannell]

If you're on audio, a shoe just came off, feet are out, socks are on the podcast. You know. You know what? That's. That's interesting. I don't know if you've heard this one before because you say just being good enough is not enough. Content is king, but marketing is queen, and she runs the household.

[Adley]

Love that.

[Sean Cannell]

You heard that one?

[Adley]

No, I think that's beautiful.

[Sean Cannell]

I don't know. I stole that from everywhere. I stole that too, but I'll take credit.

[Adley]

You need talking points, whether it's in your content or just in your business by design. Because if it's in your business by design, it just filters into your content.

[Sean Cannell]

Even better if it goes down the big. And I've been thinking that we. Another conversation we're having, we're going to get to number six, y'all, but this is some good stuff. We're going to go deeper on world building and universe building around brands. You heard of some of that?

[Adley]

Yeah.

[Sean Cannell]

And so that. That starts being like, what. Who are your characters? What are some of the themes? What are some of the looks? What are the values? It's. But it's kind of more of an expansive. And you do think about the visuals and some of the best modern musicians are thinking about world building. It's not just about the song. It's about the whole experience on social. And so that would be true for content creators. And this is. This is, I think, the new era stuff. To your point, did you have a quote about personal brand yesterday? By 2020, by 2030. What was the quote?

[Adley]

Yeah, it was a bold statement, but I think I believe it. I really do. I said I think I really do. I think that personal brand will be more valuable than Bitcoin by 2030, because Bitcoin may 100x, but your personal brand can 1000x your income, your influence and your impact in the world. And we've just never been in a time like this where Personal brand is scalable thanks to AI for the first time in history. If you're burnt out, cool. You can make AI videos with your voice, you can clone your body and you can clip it and put it on all and syndicate it across all these platforms. You don't actually have to show up if you have the flu for two weeks. Your content can still be out there with your voice and your face and you don't have to do anything. That is crazy. And so for people to not be taking advantage of that right now, they're going to fall behind to everybody else who is. It is an arms race.

[Sean Cannell]

How much bitcoin do you have, Blake?

[Adley]

How much bitcoin do we have?

[Sean Cannell]

Have you decided instead of buying bitcoin to just invest in your brand doing both?

[Adley]

I'm double fisting over here. He didn't want us.

[Sean Cannell]

So engagement tactics and raising the stakes. We got to get to number six.

[Adley]

I love how you just pointed out though, I got to say that engagement tactics are just another word for talking points. They're just necessary. Like why is represent different than any other hoodie?

[Sean Cannell]

I can tell you. Okay, well, no, I mean represents like it's interesting. They're actually a really good brand at brand building. I think they're going to do 80 million this year. They're about 10 years old. Very kind of like lifestyle aspirational brand started by two brothers, like runners, athletes. They have a 247 is their athletic brand and all the mantras around it have a lot to do with just kind of ambitions. There's kind of an entrepreneurial edge on and it would be somewhat luxury street wear. So yeah, there's a whole thing and it comes into their website, their social. They have a YouTube show. There's, it's, it's all interesting. And you also, I guess it's. It steps to the game because they're over 10 years into it.

[Adley]

Yeah.

[Sean Cannell]

So I think some people listening to this are like, do I gotta build a world? I have to world build now.

[Adley]

Yeah, it's like it's not enough to just be good at music.

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah.

[Adley]

You have to be a tiktoker now too.

[Sean Cannell]

But it's gonna start with your first couple of videos and your first. And your first going viral and viralish and then. And then reinvesting. But, but yeah, there's, there's, I think a lot of talking points around that. And then it actually is interesting. I went to church on Sunday. I landed at social media market world randomly hopped in the car with Kenya Kelly. She's like, I got out, I didn't even know what I was going to do all Sunday. She's like, want to go to church? I was like, yeah, I guess. So I dropped my bags, we went to like Jesus culture San Diego and I walked in. But amongst anything else, we have a shared value much more important, like our faith. Some guy came up to me, he had a represent hat on. And it's like, if you know, you know. And I was like, bro, nice hat. And I'm wearing this represent owners club hoodie. And. And so community building, like connection and like, you also like, know what it means. And, and so there's a lot of different elements that are fascinating there. So. Okay, raising the stakes, engagement tactics. What's number six?

[Adley]

Split testing. Split testing was our linchpin to success. For four years. Since 2020, we split tested pretty much every video that we put out. But split testing tools were not available back then. No one was even publicly talking about split testing your content. Like Gary Vee or Hormozi would say that they would just post every version of the video on TikTok and then hide the ones that didn't pop and split test. That way we weren't. We were split testing before we were ever publishing. And how we would do it was run Facebook dark posts, put $5 behind each version of your video. So we would split test hooks, thumbnails, captions, the captions, because they would pre frame the way the audience views the video, you know, and we would just pin ideology, ideologies and victims and who's the bad guy in these captions differently. To see what resonate, we would test different links. And so we would split test and Facebook dark posts on a page that wasn't attached to ours to see which one would win. And after a thousand views, it spits you a retention line. So we would see, whoa, seconds 12 through 20, we lose 45% of people. What happened there? And maybe somebody whip pan too bad, or maybe there's an early payoff or. But we could see why didn't people like that. And that gave us an opportunity to bring it back and edit it. And so we would just edit till everything had the metrics that we thought it was the best that we could do at the time. And then that kept our page really hot because we were only posting bangers.

[Sean Cannell]

That is wild. What advice would you give to somebody who's like, I'm not at a point where I could start running Facebook dark posts on a separate page. Or would you say, suck it Up Buttercup. It's only a few bucks a post and like learn how to do it if you're just starting out.

[Adley]

If there's a video you really care about, I would say take the $15 and try it. At least try it to see if it is valuable to you. But now we're just running trial reels like crazy. We have 105 million views this month on just my Instagram alone, from trial reels alone. I've posted to my feed embarrassingly, embarrassingly twice this month, maybe three times. But we have a hundred million views on Instagram alone from trial reels. We're posting all of our old banger content that we know attracts new people to what we believe and how we entertain people. And then I'm using it to test new formats because I'm in this bridge right now of I'm an entertainer first, but then also love sharing how we entertain and how we storytell. And that's my way of just being a river and not a reservoir. Because I believe every good thing that happens to us is not ours to keep. It's not for me to sit here and get to be on Sean's podcast and talk about how cool I am and figured something out. It's to share the knowledge. Our knowledge is only as good to the extent that we pay it forward and pass it along to people. And so yeah, and that's what we do. And we just split test with trial reels now and it's allowing us to test these different formats to figure out if you don't know if your audience is going to like it or you just are a little fearful, it's okay. And they're just rewarding that and you're getting that real time feedback without the risk of posting it to your page.

[Sean Cannell]

So hang on, Adley, yesterday in your talk you just revealed what you just said. You revealed the number one way to grow on Instagram in 2025.

[Adley]

Oh my gosh.

[Sean Cannell]

What is it?

[Adley]

Trial reels. Absolute hidden gem. If you.

[Sean Cannell]

What are they? How do they work?

[Adley]

Oh my gosh. So go as if you're gonna post a reel. If you have not seen this, make sure your app is up to date and then go and you'll see right before you post there's a toggle on for trial. So that's gonna publish only to non followers. Boom. So it's just going to go find your audience to where you don't. You can do something inconsistent with what you believe the algorithm in your page is known for. Now to test New concepts and new styles and it's not going to your followers, it's going to non followers. So you're automatically in Discover. This is amazing. And with tools like this, we just don't know how long it's going to last. So I am begging and pleading for everybody to take advantage of this tool while we still have it.

[Sean Cannell]

Wow. And then practically, how could we implement reposting winners, experimenting with some new format formats. What should we do in the next couple of weeks or months to try out take action on this?

[Adley]

Practically, I would say repost your best content. You can't schedule trial reels, so that kind of sucks. It is a manual process, so either you or somebody on your team schedule at bare minimum one trial reel a day of posting your old content. And then this is a beautiful way to split test that costs you nothing. You don't have to run the dark posts and you can just say, hey, we have this podcast clip. But I'm not sure what the stronger hook is. Do both. Post both to trial reels and let the data tell you which is stronger and then publish that one to your page. You can split test things seven, eight different ways and it's not going to cost you anything. It is the most exciting time for free advertising that we've ever seen in the history of the world. I'm so passionate about this, but people just going all in on personal brand like this is the time and we don't know how long it's going to last. And you are just up against everybody else in your niche that is going to beat you with free tools, free ways to get as much attention as possible on your brand. Because attention equals leads, equals sales and we're in the greatest time of history of ever for marketing.

[Sean Cannell]

I have one more question for you, but before we get there, shout out your stuff. If people want to connect with you, it'll all be linked up in the show notes. But if people want to follow you, follow up anything you want to offer our audience.

[Adley]

Yeah, Instagram. I'm Adley. A D L E Y Tick Tock the Adley Show. Our website is viralish. Viralish.com YouTube's the Adley show too.

[Sean Cannell]

So final question is if we just. If you gave us a simple action plan. This was a lot. This is an episode to rewatch, it's an episode to study. But there's also levels to the game. What is like just my next step this week to put this stuff into practice.

[Adley]

Next up this week, if you actually want to go to my instagram and comment the word BVF on literally any poster. DM it to me. We'll send you the ebook for the formula for free. And then I really believe, like there's so much information in here and in all of your shows that people need the head knowledge because they need the exposure to new ideas because you never know which one's gonna have a light bulb. But really I think the difference is implementation and people need to just be told what to do, but then they still don't do it. So they need like the hand holding. So the way that we position like our mastermind or what Viralish does for people is we become like a fractional member of your team to where we're saying, okay, weekly accountability. Make the video, make the video. And then come with us on Thursdays and we'll review you and we'll say that's crap here, increase suspense this way. Just re edit. Make this go here and we just work with you to apply this to help people become better storytellers.

[Sean Cannell]

Adley, grateful for you so much value today and think media podcast like rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel and I cannot wait to connect with you in a future episode.