Dan Martell - January 10, 2025


How to Win On Social Media in 2026

Hosted by
Dan Martell
Mentioned
Joe Rogan Peter Drucker Grow Rich Lady Gaga Oprah
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Episode Stats


Length

17 minutes

Words per minute

227.71

Word count

3,993

Sentence count

116

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I share the 5 simple rules of content creation that I use to go from zero audience to getting over 100 million views a month today. When I started reading, a book that just transformed my life was "Think and Grow Rich". So what I did is I found the 200+ books that influenced that author and read those ones so I could add to my collection of knowledge. And if you want to be world-class at creating content, you have to go back to building your collection.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 In the last 18 months, I've grown my personal brand
00:00:03.020 to over 3 million followers across all platforms.
00:00:06.280 And in this video, I'm gonna share
00:00:08.060 the five simple rules of content creation
00:00:10.100 that I use to go from zero audience
00:00:12.440 to getting over 100 million views a month today.
00:00:15.500 Rule number one, build your collection.
00:00:17.200 When I started reading, a book that just transformed my life
00:00:20.460 was Think and Grow Rich.
00:00:21.840 So what I did is I found the 200 plus books
00:00:25.080 that influenced that author and read those ones
00:00:28.520 so I could add to my collection of knowledge.
00:00:31.060 You need to go that detailed in your niche.
00:00:34.280 New wisdom grows from ancient roots,
00:00:36.580 which means there's nothing new.
00:00:38.080 Everything is a remix based on historical best practices.
00:00:41.960 In many ways, a lot of the modern day philosophy
00:00:44.060 came from the Bible or Stoicism or even poetry.
00:00:47.800 And if you want to be world-class at creating content,
00:00:50.420 you have to go back to build your collection.
00:00:53.000 I wanna share with you the five formats of collection
00:00:55.140 that I use every day.
00:00:56.320 Number one is books.
00:00:57.220 This is essentially what I'm learning.
00:00:59.240 In real time, as I'm studying books, not just reading them,
00:01:02.120 I'm writing the passages down in a note file.
00:01:05.140 I'm rewriting them in my words.
00:01:06.680 I'm integrating them into my life
00:01:08.720 because I'm trying to really become one with the knowledge
00:01:11.540 that I'm acquiring from the books.
00:01:13.060 Number two is the questions I'm being asked.
00:01:15.140 Think about it.
00:01:15.640 What are people asking you?
00:01:16.980 Those questions should give you insights
00:01:18.880 into what you know about
00:01:20.260 and helps you try out and test different concepts,
00:01:23.760 different insights, different ways of teaching other people.
00:01:26.120 number three is observation what i see in my family my friends people around me i believe the
00:01:31.640 world will show you where you're not free things that frustrate you so that you can use that as
00:01:36.760 content to teach other people there's a reason why when you see somebody do something that you
00:01:41.160 don't agree with that it resonates with you because it's actually meant for you to take
00:01:45.240 that moment and share with other people not the person that did it how you would have done it
00:01:49.960 differently. And it comes with the feeling that other people feel. Number four, top content. Now,
00:01:56.040 I know this sounds crazy, but I spend hours a day scrolling on TikTok to be inspired by other
00:02:00.820 people to see what the world is excited about. What are the trends? What are the ideas going on
00:02:06.360 in culture? I mean, the other reason I do it is because I want to bathe in the language of the
00:02:11.460 industry I'm in. I want to study the best. If you're not unfollowing all the ding-dongs on the 1.00
00:02:16.260 social and then resubscribing to the people that are talking about your industry, then you're
00:02:20.660 missing opportunities to use social as a way to teach yourself. The way I like to think about it
00:02:24.860 is you want to use your feed to feed your mind. Number five, I think about the young me. What I
00:02:29.360 needed earlier in my life, what are the beliefs I had, the thoughts I had, the meaning I associated
00:02:34.180 to different circumstances earlier on, and how did I overcome them? Because those lessons learned
00:02:39.240 are what made you who you are. It's a thing that people are going to resonate the most with,
00:02:43.540 So you have to share them.
00:02:44.840 Too often, people don't wanna talk about the things
00:02:46.600 they went through that were hard,
00:02:47.960 but I believe you're actually best equipped
00:02:49.920 to help those people that you once were.
00:02:52.100 And it's why you went through those circumstances.
00:02:53.980 So use those old stories of young version of you
00:02:57.060 to help people today.
00:02:58.300 Now that you've got your collection of ideas,
00:02:59.980 I'm gonna show you how to feed it
00:03:01.480 into a content creation flywheel.
00:03:03.760 If you wanna see how this flywheel plays out in my videos
00:03:06.440 that reach millions every week, hit subscribe.
00:03:09.400 Rule number two, the content creation flywheel.
00:03:12.160 Now, when we start, we have to do everything
00:03:14.640 because there's nobody else to delegate to.
00:03:16.760 But as you grow and you build your content,
00:03:19.100 you want to focus on your zone of genius.
00:03:21.560 You wanna focus on the thing that only you can do,
00:03:23.560 especially as it pertains to your personal brand
00:03:25.380 and creating content.
00:03:26.420 If you have an energy of frustration creating the content,
00:03:29.620 trust me, it'll be felt from your viewer.
00:03:31.700 I love this fun quote by Peter Drucker.
00:03:33.580 He said, do what you do best and outsource the rest.
00:03:36.100 I want you to be the talent, not the doer.
00:03:39.100 You might have to at the beginning,
00:03:40.200 but as fast as you can, hire somebody to record
00:03:42.820 or edit your videos or review the first drafts
00:03:45.500 of your blog post so that you can just do the creation part
00:03:48.360 and none of the other stuff that take away
00:03:50.060 from the energy of creating.
00:03:51.360 This is the content creation flywheel.
00:03:53.420 Number one is you wanna collect.
00:03:54.900 You wanna take all the ideas we were talking about earlier
00:03:56.880 and put them in different places where you can review them
00:03:59.620 to be inputs to your creative process.
00:04:02.460 Step two is to create.
00:04:04.320 Now, this is how I wake up and I start my days.
00:04:06.800 I call it my creative process.
00:04:08.100 I create connected to my creator
00:04:09.940 and I review all of the different ideas
00:04:12.000 and I think of outlines for videos I wanna create
00:04:14.620 or tweets I wanna write or even my book writing.
00:04:17.220 All my time writing my books are done in the morning
00:04:19.980 because those are my creation blocks.
00:04:21.700 That's when I feel most aligned with the universe
00:04:23.900 and what God's got for me
00:04:25.220 and I just pour it into my content because it feels perfect.
00:04:29.220 Those early morning times when my brain is fresh
00:04:31.960 and I have what I call the ability to pull vocabulary
00:04:34.600 allows me to come up and be inspired by ideas
00:04:37.660 and situations and really add some depth
00:04:40.260 to the content I'm creating.
00:04:41.860 Number three is teach.
00:04:43.080 And this is about finding opportunities to teach
00:04:45.960 because some of you may not have a platform yet,
00:04:48.140 but you wanna get better at telling stories
00:04:50.380 and teaching concepts.
00:04:51.360 So I would say, look around you.
00:04:53.260 It might be offering to do some team training,
00:04:55.500 your coaching calls with clients maybe.
00:04:57.460 It could be offering to be on other people's stages,
00:05:00.080 both virtual and in person like podcasts
00:05:02.360 or speaking at local business associations
00:05:04.400 or even offering to do interviews for other people
00:05:07.460 that they're creating content
00:05:08.700 because then you'll be prompted to tell stories.
00:05:11.280 You can even create other situations to teach.
00:05:14.220 I'm a big fan of creating containers
00:05:15.820 where you have to teach.
00:05:17.040 So for example, I have this program called King's Club
00:05:19.160 where I have the privilege of mentoring
00:05:20.500 15 to 20 year old young men.
00:05:22.500 And I talk about success and I draw out models 0.99
00:05:24.860 and I tell stories and I get to revisit past stories
00:05:28.000 of who I was and reflect on them
00:05:30.000 and use those moments to share and teach other young men
00:05:32.960 to be inspired, to be more successful.
00:05:34.720 The goal is to spend as much time as you can
00:05:36.380 in this flywheel as possible.
00:05:37.940 But the big idea is that as you're buying back your time,
00:05:40.620 you gotta make sure it stays sold.
00:05:42.320 So if you hire an editor, let them edit.
00:05:44.500 If you hire somebody to post on your social media,
00:05:46.900 let them post.
00:05:47.760 Give them corrections if they do it wrong,
00:05:49.440 but don't take the job back from them
00:05:51.080 just because it wasn't done exactly the way you want it done.
00:05:53.760 But there's a big problem that so many people fall into
00:05:56.840 and it's mindlessly copying other people.
00:05:59.320 Which brings us to rule number three, be 100% you.
00:06:02.800 I believe everybody's a unique fingerprint.
00:06:04.660 When I was 17, I found myself in prison and eventually released to rehab.
00:06:08.920 And I didn't share that story for 15 years.
00:06:11.460 The reason why is I had a lot of shame and fear and concern that if people found out,
00:06:15.360 they wouldn't think very highly of me.
00:06:16.800 It turns out the first time, 10 years ago, that I ever shared that story with anybody,
00:06:21.880 including my fiance, now my wife, did not know.
00:06:24.460 Every person that came up to me after hearing that said, I now feel connected to you.
00:06:28.660 I feel like I understand you.
00:06:30.020 I feel closer to you.
00:06:31.100 And it occurred to me that the worst thing
00:06:33.080 that I ever went through could be the most powerful thing
00:06:35.800 I have to help other people, which is my story.
00:06:37.900 And I believe that if you have friends that know you,
00:06:40.940 like really know you and like you,
00:06:42.920 that who you are is the most unique thing you've got
00:06:46.360 and allowing yourself to be that person 100% you
00:06:50.420 is what makes you interesting.
00:06:52.660 A lot of the people you admire, the Joe Rogans,
00:06:55.040 The Rock, Oprah, Lady Gaga, Post Malone, Jelly Roll,
00:06:58.500 What you love about them is that they are 100% themselves.
00:07:03.260 They're so authentic.
00:07:04.540 The good, the bad, the indifferent, the conflict,
00:07:06.980 the kryptonite, and the superpower.
00:07:09.540 All those things make them who they are.
00:07:11.300 So how do you figure that for yourself?
00:07:13.000 Number one, I always talk about the struggle.
00:07:15.480 What did you go through that you struggled with
00:07:17.680 that in that moment of trying to figure it out,
00:07:20.480 it allowed you to transform to be the person
00:07:22.500 that's here today teaching?
00:07:23.740 Those stories you have, it's what makes you not only unique,
00:07:27.060 but gives you the opportunity
00:07:28.480 to transform other people's lives.
00:07:30.260 Nobody's gonna change unless you inspire them.
00:07:32.500 And if you wanna help people,
00:07:33.820 if the people you love the most,
00:07:34.980 you wanna help change and transform,
00:07:36.660 then you have to be willing to bear your soul.
00:07:39.160 You have to be willing to share stories
00:07:40.980 that feel a little uncomfortable.
00:07:42.340 So what I like to do is I like to combine my teaching
00:07:44.960 with unique stories.
00:07:46.300 I like to ask myself, when did I learn this?
00:07:48.360 What beliefs did I have about that thing that changed
00:07:51.740 and how did that impact me getting good
00:07:53.980 at the stuff that I learned?
00:07:55.060 and using your unique story ends up being the glue,
00:07:59.160 the vehicle for change in the people listening to you.
00:08:02.060 Have you ever been in an audience
00:08:03.240 and you see somebody on stage
00:08:04.500 and they're talking about being successful
00:08:06.080 and you're like, what have you even done?
00:08:08.120 What challenges have you ever faced?
00:08:09.480 You look like you were born into the lucky whatever club.
00:08:12.080 You just don't trust them.
00:08:13.140 It's because they weren't willing
00:08:14.520 to tell you about their journey.
00:08:16.240 They're not willing to be honest about their struggles.
00:08:18.660 They're not willing to be honest about their setbacks
00:08:20.760 and you're sitting there going, you don't get me.
00:08:23.200 The worst part is you teaching other people
00:08:25.460 and actually being just like them
00:08:27.500 and them not feeling that
00:08:28.680 because you weren't willing to be 100% you.
00:08:30.880 Authenticity means being 100% you on and off camera.
00:08:34.660 All your quirks, like for me, heavy on the protein,
00:08:37.460 pretty jokey, very supportive of my friends.
00:08:39.580 I like to give a lot of myself.
00:08:40.920 I don't take myself too seriously.
00:08:42.500 I try to give all of it.
00:08:44.120 The high energy, the low energy, the emotion.
00:08:46.540 I'm an emotional person.
00:08:47.580 If I watch a video of a sad situation, I usually tear up
00:08:50.540 and I have no problems doing that on and off camera
00:08:52.800 because it's who I am.
00:08:53.880 And if that frustrates you or you judge me for that,
00:08:56.320 cool, go find somebody else to follow.
00:08:58.240 Every person that you admire does this.
00:09:01.360 The more you learn to be yourself on camera,
00:09:04.440 the more you will understand what makes you tick
00:09:06.480 and the more powerful you'll become.
00:09:08.280 And the cool part is,
00:09:09.060 is you will take you with you for the rest of your life.
00:09:11.960 You will take you in every situation,
00:09:13.820 every communication,
00:09:14.960 every interaction with another person,
00:09:16.460 the more upgraded version of you
00:09:18.080 because you decided to put it all out there
00:09:19.780 on the content side
00:09:20.720 and you will become better for having created that content.
00:09:23.640 That is the coolest part that nobody talks about
00:09:25.620 is who you get to become in the process
00:09:27.880 of putting your stories out there.
00:09:29.240 But the truth is ideas and authenticity,
00:09:31.600 they're not enough to grow your brand in 2025.
00:09:34.200 You need systems to make it happen.
00:09:35.920 Which brings us to rule number four,
00:09:37.700 build your content stencils.
00:09:39.300 When I started, I created everything from scratch,
00:09:42.240 from blog posts to YouTube outlines,
00:09:44.940 to lists of tweets, to Instagram ideas.
00:09:47.760 Now I model what's worked in the past
00:09:50.080 and i use stencils to create so i have to stare at a blank screen because i know those formats
00:09:54.720 work so i repurpose the things that worked in the past so that i can move faster when i create my
00:09:59.840 content i'm working within a structure so i don't have to stare at a blank screen and like hurt my
00:10:04.560 brain trying to come up with new creative ideas when i already know it works i just got to pull
00:10:08.240 that forward the truth is is most people get frustrated with their content or their marketing
00:10:12.240 before the market ever does they're like i already talked about this i'm not going to talk about it
00:10:15.760 from this angle why not it got you a hundred thousand views last time why don't you rerun the
00:10:20.480 play why don't you give it a different twist why don't you ask yourself what else do i know about
00:10:24.080 this topic why don't you double click on it a lot of artists get it confused because they think
00:10:28.800 constraints don't allow them to be creative and the truth is is those constraints those rails
00:10:34.080 actually help them be more creative most artistic people haven't realized that they can write down
00:10:39.360 their process for being creative there is a methodology they're following they just haven't
00:10:43.760 audited it to see how does it work how do i get to this final book project or blog post or a reel
00:10:50.080 or a youtube video there's actually a method behind the madness and if they took the time to
00:10:54.800 reflect on it then they could break the pieces apart to actually get better and create these
00:10:58.720 stencils to give them structure to create more effectively so here's the big idea a stencil
00:11:04.240 gives you the structure to repeat an outcome just like if i had a stencil for painting a blue bird
00:11:09.280 on a wall having that would allow me to generate a bunch of blue birds that are just beautiful and
00:11:13.920 perfect 100 times over but if i had to sit there with a paintbrush and brush on a wall 100 blue
00:11:18.480 birds it would take me all day long you want to make sure that you don't hate the artistic process
00:11:24.080 by doing the same thing that you don't have to do it again create the structure the stencil
00:11:28.800 the environment the container where you can insert your art to have the best content so this is my
00:11:34.800 most valuable content stencil and feel free to rip it off and use it as your own this is my gift to
00:11:39.840 you this is going to make your content go viral number one is you have to start with a clear
00:11:44.480 problem one clear problem what is the hook what is the pain what's going to get them to stop scrolling
00:11:50.720 number two story what's the context that you found yourself in what was the conflict that came up in
00:11:55.840 your life and what was the climax that you went through to try to discover the solution to the
00:12:00.800 frustration you found yourself in number three is the teach what framework did you use to come
00:12:05.360 through this what was the quote that inspired you what are some of the metaphors that you think
00:12:09.040 about when you reflect on that lesson learned i use this across all my videos i always start with
00:12:14.400 a clear problem i always go to a story so i can build the glue and then i teach from that point
00:12:18.800 of view and make sure that it's concise and clear on the story it could be a personal story which i
00:12:24.320 love or it could also be repeating a story of somebody else's situation i call this the reporter
00:12:29.360 frame where you're reporting on a client you're reporting on some history you're reporting on
00:12:33.280 something you might have seen or you read in a book but you have to start with a great story
00:12:37.280 i use this across all formats video written podcasts speeches not only my youtube videos
00:12:43.680 but on my shorts i always start here's a problem i want to talk about here's a story and then
00:12:46.800 here's the way i'm going to teach this so that you can get some value now that you see this
00:12:50.000 go check it out across all my platforms from tick tock to instagram to my email newsletter it's all
00:12:55.520 there even in this video i've used it several times to really get my point across that the way
00:13:00.240 i've edited this video is problem story teach but none of this will work unless you stay consistent
00:13:07.120 which brings us to rule number five make it easy here's the truth content used to be secondary
00:13:12.880 used to be the thing i had to do not the thing i enjoyed doing i used to brag that i would sit down
00:13:17.840 and batch 16 videos in two days and create a quarter worth of content when those shooting
00:13:22.560 days came along i hated it it was so frustrating and the truth was it didn't produce my best work
00:13:28.080 and because of that i didn't trust myself to show up and do what i needed to do what i've learned
00:13:33.360 is my confidence my ability to communicate comes from repeated activity over long periods of time
00:13:39.120 that trust that i built is when i showed up consistently and doing it once a quarter was
00:13:43.840 not frequent enough for me to do the reps to finally get it to be easy so don't force yourself
00:13:48.640 to do the work you hate design the machine to do it in a way that you love the truth is i've
00:13:54.080 see it all the time when people get busy the first thing that gets dropped is the content
00:13:58.000 they don't make it a priority then they get backed up then it's the thing they have to do and then
00:14:01.680 it's like a chore and they don't want to do it and then the energy of the frustration comes across
00:14:05.760 in the content it's not light it's not fun they're not enjoying themselves you can feel it and the
00:14:09.920 energy you feel when you create is felt by the viewer the energy you feel when you write is
00:14:14.640 felt by the reader think about how powerful that is and you're trying to rush it it doesn't work
00:14:19.200 like that one of the core strategies that i teach and i use is called the buyback loop
00:14:23.360 anytime i feel pain in my life around content creation as an example i go to auditing my
00:14:28.240 calendar i look at where i've been spending my time creating content and how i'm creating that
00:14:32.480 content and go okay if that's red how do i make it green what would need to be true so i think of
00:14:37.760 containers is there a way that i can take the thing i have to do but change the way it's done so that
00:14:43.440 i want to do it so for example if i need to create content people asking me questions can i do it
00:14:47.680 while i'm on my scooter can i do it while i'm hiking can i do it while i'm working out can i
00:14:52.560 do it while i'm driving one of my supercars it turns out you can that energy shift changed
00:14:57.760 everything for me what i do is i audit my calendar for things i'm doing in the content production
00:15:01.760 process i don't enjoy then i transfer it so for example a lot of the scripts and the work i do
00:15:06.720 on my books i work with other people that fill in the blanks because i want to edit i don't want to
00:15:11.600 author i'm a writer that speaks not a speaker that writes so i have other people that take my words
00:15:17.120 from my videos transcribe it put it in a book format and then i edit it from there to save
00:15:22.480 myself a ton of time with that new time i fill it up with becoming better by collecting more like i
00:15:28.400 mentioned at the beginning by doing the work to becoming more so i have more to teach if you're
00:15:33.120 somebody in a person's life that keeps growing they're gonna want to keep plugging in to learn
00:15:37.440 from you because they're gonna wonder what are they up to now you know the truth is is people
00:15:41.120 are impressed by consistency if you just show up every day for a thousand days and be consistent
00:15:46.900 you will be impressive to other people i don't know if you know this guy kai sanati he's one of
00:15:50.980 the top streamers he's like got millions and millions of views anyways he was on with benny
00:15:55.400 blanco one of the music producers asking who's done the longest subathon and they found a girl
00:16:01.240 named emily who had been live for three years straight and haven't missed they were so impressed
00:16:06.580 by that consistency they reached out to her not only put her live on his stream and invited her
00:16:11.160 to join them at the streamies which is the number one award for that industry and change her whole
00:16:16.440 life your audience wants to see that you're consistent if you say you're going to publish
00:16:21.440 every week and you miss a week you've just proven that you're not consistent if you say you're going
00:16:25.120 to go and do q a every friday you got to show up every friday ig live every monday you got to go
00:16:29.740 live every monday that's what i've been doing don't hear what i say watch what i do and copy
00:16:34.260 that for yourself the truth is success is not achieved in burst a lot of people get inspired
00:16:38.740 and they think success is achieved in burst and it's not it's in sustained effort over time a lot
00:16:44.260 of people are scared to be consistent they're like well if i start sharing my life on instagram i'm
00:16:48.580 always gonna have to do it and here's the deal it's not forever you can do it you can build it
00:16:54.020 up you can set it up and then you can give it to somebody else and they can manage you can just
00:16:59.300 live your life record your thing and have them edit the videos and publish it here's a crazy
00:17:03.940 idea everything you see from me i do not review or approve before it goes live i just sit down
00:17:09.300 and do my thing talk to a camera it gets edited it goes live why i know what i said there's nothing
00:17:14.020 wrong with it i trust the people on my team i decided to make it easy so that i didn't hate
00:17:18.900 doing it so i could do it for the rest of my life my goal is to die empty meaning everything i know
00:17:24.340 i'm going to give it to you for free right here if you want to learn the 13 simple rules of
00:17:29.220 of business that will make you rich click here and I'll see you on the other side.