Dan Martell - Watch This if You Want to Go Viral in 2026 [Adley Interview]

00:00:00.000 we're doing over a billion views a month it was like printing money a lot of people think that

00:00:03.920 we only go viral because of our personality it is a formula not a personality i was waiting for a

00:00:09.920 suit behind a desk to give me permission to be successful if you have a karen and she takes a

00:00:15.360 giant slurpee and throws it on somebody's car that's gonna grab you and then if she takes

00:00:21.200 chalk paint keeps shaking it but doesn't do anything but she's just yelling at you you're

00:00:24.800 like what is she about to do with that that is the difference in good creators and the best creators

00:00:31.040 and their ability to hold suspense 2017 to now 2024 who did you need to become to deal with this

00:00:38.640 level of success adley thanks for having me and you're beautiful beautiful what do you guys call

00:00:47.280 it a creator house or viralish house viralish house that makes sense of course it's viral

00:00:52.160 ish you know not every video but ish at least ish that's so cool well i mean obviously do we first

00:01:00.020 meet on clubhouse is that back yes yeah 2021 where that was it was clubhouse yeah 2021 um i

00:01:06.640 remember after i don't even know what the conversation was but we messaged each other

00:01:09.740 on instagram afterwards and kind of i always knew i wanted to connect with you and we were coming to

00:01:14.180 nashville and um i think sam had saw something and connected us through ryan megan i believe

00:01:20.060 so i'm pumped i'm here right off the bat you guys do a billion views a month do a billion views a

00:01:27.640 month that's conservative i'd say really yeah because i mean with with the content you're

00:01:31.460 putting out there i mean you can you know go up 20 30 percent like it's just it can fluctuate

00:01:37.360 based on the day based on supply and demand of ads yeah you know and so it's it's very

00:01:43.020 unpredictable but we've learned how to manage our expectations and manage that at scale so i asked

00:01:47.800 you earlier off camera about you know because i knew you were a cheerleader did you always feel

00:01:52.560 like you'd be an entertainer and i know you there's there's because your videos go viral

00:01:57.620 because you're trying to figure out what in the culture can we do what is the formula for you

00:02:04.360 to create a viral video like can anybody do or do they have to be somebody like yourself that has

00:02:08.800 that kind of personality this may sound cliche but a lot of people think that we only go viral

00:02:12.740 because of our personality i've taught people to make faceless videos people who are have terrible

00:02:18.040 anxiety because it is a formula not a personality a personality is just icing on the cake but

00:02:24.200 ultimately it's your authenticity that has to come through i'm silly i'm very very goofy a lot

00:02:29.880 of people will see that and be like i couldn't make viral videos as a job and then i just want

00:02:34.600 to show them all of our other channels that you would not even know are ours my face just so

00:02:38.820 everybody knows what they are what are the other channels oh you could look at my husband's

00:02:42.720 my husband, we gave him a challenge. My husband, Blake, we gave him a challenge to grow a million

00:02:47.560 followers on Tik TOK. And this is a great example of just the formula at work. My husband is

00:02:52.240 terrified of being on camera. He doesn't like to speak. He has camera. He just has anxiety

00:02:58.100 about being on camera. So we said, all right, you're going to grow a million followers on Tik

00:03:02.320 TOK and you have to use the formula and you can't speak. So you box them into like,

00:03:08.320 this is the creative form. It's what we teach people. Yes. You have to use it and you can't

00:03:12.480 talk because we want to that's the the the challenge forcing function yes and so that

00:03:17.380 anybody can do this and you have to pick a smaller niche like diy okay and he did it in 29 videos

00:03:23.820 come on 29 how much time did it take him to a million followers about five months 29 videos

00:03:30.540 five months 29 shot 29 videos i don't have a million followers on tiktok i want a million

00:03:35.700 followers we got you let's do this like collab with blake is how i gotta do

00:03:39.720 like let's hang um but do you mind sharing the formula or pieces of it no not at all okay cool

00:03:48.020 i want to know yeah so it sounds it sounds simple right this is storytelling 101 but we've adapted

00:03:54.400 it in a really unique way for social so first obviously there's the hook always and we have

00:04:00.420 seven elements of a great hook then we go into suspense and suspense tension create tension and

00:04:06.200 that is the difference in good creators and the best creators in the world really is their ability

00:04:11.720 to hold suspense and then we have the payoff we have engagement tactics and we have what's the

00:04:18.480 other one probably called action stakes and raising the stakes and so those sound so surface level and

00:04:24.040 people are like that's that's it yes but it goes in really deep of how you're going to hold the

00:04:30.240 psychology of attention second over second over a second how you're going to emotionally anchor

00:04:34.920 somebody and we see this in sitcoms we see this in the best movies you see it in mr beast you see it

00:04:39.400 in mr beast yeah if you actually know what you know because like i love this i think everybody

00:04:44.040 listening is going to get a master class today and how to create better content even if their desire

00:04:49.320 isn't to get a million views or followers on tick tock or go viral it's just better like if you're

00:04:54.280 a presenter you should learn this stuff you know if you're even oh my gosh i would actually enjoy

00:04:59.000 listening to boring powerpoint presentation if you understood hey kick it off with a great hook tell

00:05:03.720 Tell me what the payoff's gonna be to create the suspension.

00:05:06.360 But it's interesting because I've been doing content

00:05:10.440 for a while and everybody's got thoughts.

00:05:12.940 Let's just start with the hook.

00:05:14.640 And you said you have different formats.

00:05:17.480 Do you always script your videos out

00:05:19.100 or do you sometimes shoot and then have the person prompt

00:05:22.100 for different hooks?

00:05:22.940 Because I've done both.

00:05:23.780 I've done scripted and I've done prompts

00:05:25.880 based on what I'm sharing.

00:05:27.720 Am I losing the precision by not scripting everything?

00:05:32.640 Is there a way to not script and still nail the hook?

00:05:35.960 I would say if you want to go predictably and sustainably viral, you script it.

00:05:41.160 You increase your chances at bat every single time.

00:05:44.340 But let your authenticity come through still.

00:05:46.620 But you have your parameters.

00:05:48.300 You have your bullets.

00:05:49.780 And you're just a little bit more well thought out.

00:05:51.460 Because even if you have your boundaries, you can play inside those.

00:05:54.440 But you know that you've anchored the emotion within the first three seconds.

00:05:57.620 What's an example of that?

00:05:59.840 A first three seconds.

00:06:01.260 Anchor of emotion.

00:06:02.180 so golden rule is in the first three seconds you're going to create an itch that does not pay

00:06:07.660 off until your last three seconds and your suspense is the bridge in the between and that

00:06:13.020 holding that tension is what separates good creators from we're going one creators in the

00:06:17.140 world two three and it sounds like a lot to do but if you can accomplish 90 retention on your

00:06:23.840 first six seconds you're off to an incredible is this where people say things like uh these are

00:06:29.620 the four things that most people get wrong and the fifth one's definitely the thing you're not

00:06:32.940 doing that's one way to do it yeah okay what's other examples of that um let's use the oldest

00:06:38.540 trick in the book if somebody's sleeping on a couch and i put shaving cream in their hand

00:06:43.560 you immediately know what you're waiting for and i could hold that moment 30 seconds we did that to

00:06:48.160 each other growing up so yes and you can choose hold that moment for 30 seconds hold it for a

00:06:52.960 minute in our case for optimizing for facebook monetization policies currently we're holding

00:06:57.460 that moment for three minutes or 18 minutes which is how if you've ever watched a video and wasted

00:07:03.480 three minutes of your life that's what that was our specialty but you would do it too if you knew

00:07:08.100 how much it paid well yeah no shame in the game it's so it's so interesting you but what's funny

00:07:14.040 talking to adley is that you say you know it's the oldest trick in the book and and i'm like uh i'm a

00:07:19.280 kid in a candy shop like i'm like oh i didn't know that like it's it's so good what you're sharing is

00:07:24.160 so good and you talked about like kind of the concept of entertainment and also education

00:07:28.720 yes kind of the mr beast meets a hermosi how do you do that what are you looking for hooks that

00:07:35.060 are similar in a business context or do you still do something as silly and then fill with the

00:07:41.940 business lessons i think if you're gonna go here's how i would do it if so you do a lot of thought

00:07:47.540 leader content if we're gonna why if we're gonna unleash ourselves and that's really what we teach

00:07:52.460 people how to do i don't care if you're a small candle company you have to unleash yourselves to

00:07:56.780 get past your existing audience so say i was a small candle company and we wanted to use the

00:08:01.820 oldest trick in the book of shaving cream in the hand sleeping guy waiting for him to hit his face

00:08:06.520 i would have sleeping guy here and i would have the candle company right here and his face is here

00:08:12.100 and as you set up that shot you get the branding of the candle but it's very seamless yeah and then

00:08:17.660 this is our first hundred million view video yeah and here's how i would advertise a small

00:08:22.800 candle company okay we're making this up but i would have my head here uh for the actor here

00:08:28.140 and then the narrator the person who's filming um they're going to get that candle there okay

00:08:33.680 so it's established it's a piece of it and the candle is lit so you're adding a moment of tension

00:08:37.760 with a candle burning by somebody's hair and head right here oh the hair too see you just got me

00:08:42.520 with the hair a little bit of tension and putting by the way you're filming you're increasing a

00:08:46.740 possibility that that could happen because this person is sleeping we're obviously playing with

00:08:51.300 them right so then me as the actress back here i would maybe pick this candle up over the sleeping

00:08:57.660 guy and he'd be like and he goes no no that's my favorite candle whoever's holding the phone

00:09:02.720 this one essential say the brand he goes yes i just got the two for one at target i just got

00:09:09.580 30 of them put it down you know and this is the person behind the camera oh my gosh that's getting

00:09:13.840 the messaging out there so good saying there's social proofing because you stocked up on it

00:09:18.220 telling me where to get it yes did you want to target i just got 30 set it down now wow so then

00:09:24.320 that's somewhere in the middle of a three minute video then later as i'm messing with this guy i

00:09:29.140 have a fly app so i'm just buzzing over his head so he thinks there's a fly and we he's about to

00:09:35.660 slap himself any moment but then as i'm doing this above his head i would be like god this

00:09:40.100 smells so good. You know, just to edify, this is the best smelling candle out there. Then that's

00:09:46.240 how it would get a hundred million views for free. Then if you have a media buyer, you can retarget

00:09:50.880 viewers of specific videos. So then they're going to see that again and attach a coupon for where

00:09:57.260 to go get it, advertise the sale, use mini chat to put in the caption or the payoff of the video

00:10:02.200 where they can go get that candle. And you just hijacked a hundred million views for free. That

00:10:06.560 would have cost you a fortune that's interesting so i love the product placement and i'm going to

00:10:13.100 come back because i got a hot sauce question for you it's kind of my new passions i eat a lot of

00:10:17.840 plain food but i got to get some locale hot sauce um what how would you do content that is viral and

00:10:25.500 like thought leadership like how would you do both like a little bit more i feel like i'm a little

00:10:31.860 to education and not enough entertainment so where where does that balance come into play

00:10:37.280 i think you could do so we have different formats and different buckets that we but would you start

00:10:41.600 with the education part and then try to figure out the entertainment angle no you have to start

00:10:45.420 with the viral entertainment yes because if you start saying here's how to save 30 on taxes

00:10:51.540 most of us are out right i mean the large part of the population this is why i paid 1.2 million

00:10:58.100 in taxes and then people like what's that or here's how i lost one more two million taxes or

00:11:02.320 right yeah and i'd say i mean this is how viral she does it so we most people when they describe

00:11:09.060 a video they're describing the outcome we do every video in reverse if you're going to pitch a video

00:11:15.680 to me you're going to pitch the first game with the end in mind or sorry you're going to pitch

00:11:19.460 the first three seconds you're going to say i'm going to crack an egg into a thing of quaker oats

00:11:24.960 It's Quaker Oats in the middle of a Target.

00:11:27.460 And then if I'm interested, I'd say keep going

00:11:30.280 because that mimics the viewer's experience.

00:11:33.240 You literally feel like you wait to feel.

00:11:35.960 Say what it is.

00:11:37.960 Yeah, I would say I'm going to crack an egg.

00:11:40.480 If I'm pitching you an idea, I would say I'm going to crack an egg

00:11:42.960 into a thing of Quaker Oats in the middle of the aisle at Target.

00:11:47.820 And then I'd say, I like it.

00:11:49.360 Keep going.

00:11:50.100 Because you just pitched me the scroll.

00:11:52.160 You pitched me an opening three.

00:11:53.480 and then I would say, okay, now I'll hear the rest of your idea. But most people say,

00:11:57.520 here's my idea. I'm going to show people how to save 30% on taxes. I'm going to show them the

00:12:01.040 best three ingredient brownie recipe. With all due respect, even if you make the best video out

00:12:05.260 there, less than 20% of people are maybe making it to the end. So they're never going to see that

00:12:10.220 amazing tax strategy. They're never going to look at the amazing brownies. They're never going to

00:12:14.040 learn how to save money in real estate because they're not making it to the end. So we have

00:12:17.800 people describe a video by the opening shot. If we like it, they can continue telling us the video

00:12:22.720 in sequence because that's the viewer's experience so good it's so interesting because um i think i

00:12:29.120 spend too much time on like how can i help people so i want to create inner educational content

00:12:34.640 but i would help a lot more people if i could figure out that because then i get more views

00:12:38.640 and more people learn more cool things what if you did we've done this before for an educational

00:12:43.520 piece it was how to save money on taxes yeah and it was a paper towel roll because that's interesting

00:12:50.080 and it has writing on it and it says the first paper towel says if you saved a penny

00:12:55.300 dot dot dot then you pull the next thing down it reveals the second piece of the paper towel

00:12:59.420 every day for a year no first one it says first paper towel roll says would you rather

00:13:04.680 oh yeah okay would you rather have a penny every day for a year i need to know what the second one

00:13:10.620 is or whatever that other stuff is yeah you know and you just take them line by line through this

00:13:16.800 paper towel roll um of laying out a story and you educate them but it's something visual 82 percent

00:13:23.300 of people are watching without sound it's interesting because i even watch like some

00:13:26.420 of these tiktokers that are sitting there making tea and singing yes and i'm like they could just

00:13:31.680 sing but there's something about watching them make their coffee or their tea that it's kind of

00:13:36.780 like i'm curious what they're drinking today yes it's so i'm like why why am i that it's just some

00:13:42.360 visual it's a part of our brain that wants to know yeah or a part that represents a piece of

00:13:48.340 you like i like tea it's giving you some emotional tangible thing to be like i'm like that person

00:13:53.680 rather than just sitting in a chair hearing somebody talking and a lot of people are

00:13:58.080 substituting sitting in a chair talking they know they need visual so they're just substituting with

00:14:02.480 editing but if you can create a physical anchor yeah that has suspense even better say you were

00:14:09.020 a trauma psychologist yeah how would you do that you could have a balloon filling it i'm making

00:14:16.040 but you could have a balloon fill it up with shaving cream with a great verbal hook second

00:14:21.180 sentence has a ton of suspense and you're like what's she doing with the shaving cream though

00:14:24.240 it's a visual demonstration that's the thing it's like i heard what you said but what are you doing

00:14:28.520 with that yeah and so i'm continuing to tell you and i'm never going to let my voice drop down like

00:14:32.860 this and finish a sentence because if you finish a sentence then people have a second to swipe away

00:14:37.400 so you're never going to just end it and leave a moment where somebody could swipe away because

00:14:40.900 then they would so you it's how you speak to and where they like can't find a moment to to get away

00:14:47.540 and they're anchored with a visual the whole time it's interesting because you keep bringing your

00:14:52.420 g like the genius that you keep saying is like even the suspense and the anger the the the emotional

00:14:57.080 second thing or the hook and it's fascinating because i went down the rabbit hole of studying

00:15:01.840 mr beast videos okay because if i'm gonna create youtube videos i gotta study the best and i found

00:15:06.360 a lot of people that have dissected i mean to the level of edits where they show how he raises

00:15:12.440 all the stuff you said yeah and i'm like watching this and to normal person to my 10 11 year old

00:15:17.880 boys they're just like this is a cool video and to me now i cannot stop seeing the jump cuts the

00:15:24.620 the the frames like whatever these things are called and it is a master class in just what are

00:15:32.100 some of these things people could consider even language patterns like words you don't say i think

00:15:35.980 it was like don't say but say and or something like that like yes so talk to me about some of

00:15:40.200 the ideas around creating high retention through a video because at the end of the day that's one

00:15:45.040 of the metrics that kind of tell the algorithm to you know the kind of completion rates yeah

00:15:49.680 how do you how do you create tension suspense engagement it is creating that itch i mean

00:15:56.940 number one thing is creating that itch in the first three seconds that isn't going to pay off

00:16:00.200 and then relatable moments like say that's why politics works so well or controversial

00:16:06.080 things a protagonist and an antagonist and these are things that you can plant in your video karma

00:16:11.940 videos karen's it's a whole psychological play of say more what do you mean by karen's you know

00:16:17.620 karen's like in a i know karen's i had an hr person named karen and she was right she was

00:16:23.160 the karen i don't even know how she got the job but yes it's good to have a karen if she's your

00:16:28.740 Karen she wasn't a good Karen okay sorry Karen it's all good bringing you into this

00:16:33.220 but if you have a Karen and she takes a giant slurpee and throws it on somebody's car that's

00:16:42.740 gonna grab you and then if she takes chalk paint or something and then just keeps shaking it but

00:16:47.980 doesn't do anything but she's just yelling at you you're like what is she about to do with that

00:16:52.160 you know you're creating a moment that you're not waiting out you're gonna hold on for that moment

00:16:57.420 the entire time but she could be saying something that you want to learn that you're educating being

00:17:01.940 educated about politically so say she's taking the you're saying this is my political the videos do

00:17:08.740 well is because she's acting doing a thing that psychologically speaking we will want to watch

00:17:14.360 play out but she's screaming a point of view that we're indirectly not realizing that we're absorbing

00:17:20.960 that and you're either gonna hate her and you're gonna want to see her fail and you're gonna

00:17:27.300 to want to see karma so we'd always introduce karma to a karen or we either identify with her

00:17:33.780 like yeah she's right you did take her parking spot you did you are in the wrong so we would

00:17:38.420 create videos that cause tension and who's right who's wrong and we would pin two characters against

00:17:42.980 each other but you're going to see yourself in one of those characters so good in my husband

00:17:47.120 and i's videos you're either going to see i you're going to identify with him or you're going to

00:17:51.000 identify with me and we lean heavily into those characters they're real to us but we lean into

00:17:56.840 because we're representing audiences that are bigger than ourselves the level of sophistication

00:18:02.160 is awesome like you're really it's very thoughtful like you're literally saying these are the audience

00:18:06.360 we'll appeal to and we got to say these words and roll them into this narrative that we're creating

00:18:10.300 tension around um and then to me it's the payoff because i mean you say you got to pitch the first

00:18:17.480 three seconds but there needs to be a purpose and eventually you got to release the tension

00:18:21.400 and if you do that well do you get a second view if you don't do that like how does because what

00:18:28.720 if i don't do it what if i never do the payoff am i penalizing myself in the future for like do

00:18:34.460 people get mad and like oh and then thumb it down until part two yeah yeah yeah everything's

00:18:39.640 followed for part two and then all your search is like i've done this i'm on tiktok and in my

00:18:43.580 search it's like third video and i'm like oh i don't have the third video because sometimes i

00:18:47.540 can't they do that now they got me now i know why they do that they cut up a 15 minute video

00:18:52.360 in these shorter ones to make me keep looking for the next one and they have a winning piece

00:18:56.780 of content they know it so they're just they know they're gonna take one it could have had one video

00:19:01.140 but now they have five and they're gonna make more money they're gonna get more followers milking

00:19:05.240 a winner instead of just all right i did it once yeah that's so crazy so so is is there any downside

00:19:12.300 of not doing a payoff well i think it depends on what you're optimizing for are you optimizing for

00:19:17.340 people to like you? Or get follows? Are you optimizing to

00:19:20.820 get followers and earn most money from the platform? Are you

00:19:23.520 optimizing conversions? I don't know that I would do that, then

00:19:26.340 I think you need to be lazy. You want to make sure the payoff

00:19:28.760 actually gets delivered. Sometimes I start stories, I

00:19:31.740 forget to finish them. All the time. I've done it three times.

00:19:36.780 It's like, I want to buy a bike. What? squirrely brain. But you

00:19:42.600 know, when you think of the metrics, as you mentioned this

00:19:44.520 a few times, and I'm a software guy, so I'm a bit nerdy on

00:19:46.840 this like obviously well maybe not i'm not gonna assume anybody knows this stuff but i've gone down

00:19:51.620 the rabbit hole i studied what are the numbers that the algorithm or you look at on a video to

00:19:58.420 know this is a banger a marriage of watch time and percentage completed say more if you do a six

00:20:07.600 second video of course you're gonna have a high percent completed you may even have 112 percent

00:20:12.920 completed because they re-watched it but there's creators that are better than you that are making

00:20:18.500 minute three minute long videos that are not just getting six seconds they're getting 15

00:20:23.240 they're getting 45 second watch time so they're trumping your six second all day so we teach

00:20:31.140 people at viralish to hold attention for longer so take that six second and we'll show you you

00:20:36.200 could have paid off that fly prank smack yourself in the face you could have done that in 30 seconds

00:20:40.820 we're going to hold you for three minutes and we're going to have a higher percent completed

00:20:44.880 maybe not a higher percent completed but relative our watch time is going to be significantly higher

00:20:50.140 interesting i wouldn't do a three minute video if it was going to have 90 completion at a minute 20

00:20:57.440 yeah that makes sense yeah you just it's kind of like the average watch time per viewer has to be

00:21:03.520 the highest because then you know that there there's engagement on the video yes so that's

00:21:07.520 interesting and then what about like um click-through rates because obviously the hook is

00:21:12.060 gonna get at least i mean is it do you look at three second pass like what's the percentage of

00:21:16.680 people that watch more than three seconds and know you had a good hook like do you test i know on

00:21:20.940 youtube we have click-through rates yeah because there's thumbnails but with a lot of your social

00:21:24.680 content it's more of a scroll right so we're not playing to dedicated audience it's like rolling

00:21:29.120 it's yeah it's like yeah i'd say 35 million followers 99 of our views come from non-followers

00:21:35.180 yeah so we don't play to dedicated audience because we're trying to get more we know that

00:21:39.780 they like us we're trying to get outside of them and find more new ones so we're constantly

00:21:44.620 unneaching ourselves to where if we were going to sell a tie-dye kit you're not going to know

00:21:49.420 that i'm selling you a tie-dye kit until the very end i wouldn't lead with here's five things you

00:21:53.860 should know about tie-dye yeah you're out yeah yeah it's very you know yeah we would find a

00:21:58.340 totally different and engaging way to back you into caring and then by the end you're like oh

00:22:03.280 my god i love that tie-dye kit where can i get it you know yeah i could buy for somebody else even

00:22:07.060 if i'm not in the market let's talk about the business of viralish in this this house like

00:22:12.220 how big is this team because i met so many people as soon as i walked in and this is a calm day

00:22:17.160 yeah this is a i know i don't know where you park i mean it's a big house but i mean do they go into

00:22:21.420 the street and stuff like no i would love to have a batman thing where you pull into that circle

00:22:24.860 under the house yeah our neighbors would love that too yeah they would um we've had as many as

00:22:31.060 20 in the house but right now in and out of the house we have staff creators yeah and then we

00:22:37.640 have creators that we manage so depending on the day anywhere from 6 to 15 in this house how does

00:22:45.840 the business let me stay on your business then we'll talk about the business of managing creators

00:22:50.000 so how long you've been doing viralish for publicly a year we've been in business so

00:22:57.760 content creation and distribution i'd say since 2020 yeah that's so crazy congrats that's amazing

00:23:03.560 i love it and then um uh how do you monetize what's the is it brand deals no it's completely

00:23:10.400 opposite than every creator influencer that we know and and we're switching this model a little

00:23:15.880 bit but all of our money to date 90 of our money to date has been made from platform revenue and

00:23:21.520 just dominating the news feeds and recommendations and what's interesting about these platforms like

00:23:25.760 a meta like my understanding is they don't really give you a rep right do you have no so like we do

00:23:31.400 at an enterprise level but i don't specifically as a creator so i mean there's things that could

00:23:36.260 happen that do happen yes and do you ever feel like concentration risk of the business like is

00:23:41.660 yes how does how do you resolve that in your mind how do you deal with those emotional swings so my

00:23:46.240 main 10 million follower page has had a penalty wrongfully yeah for a year and a half so we have

00:23:52.560 40 pages now you know and some of our brand new pages because the content knows how to hold

00:23:58.880 attention we have brand new pages making more than my 10 million follower page and that was

00:24:04.060 in a response to somebody you know obviously wrongfully um penalizing you guys but it's

00:24:09.460 interesting because in that what probably was a moment of like oh no you said let's go diversify

00:24:16.380 which today is a better business is a much better much better business because we didn't always my

00:24:21.520 husband and i we didn't want to dance for our dinner yeah and during covid we were having the

00:24:26.600 time of our lives we went from averaging 20 million views a week to 200 million views a week

00:24:31.260 and all of our friends and family were really struggling there's the music industry down here

00:24:35.420 yeah you know it shut down and we were like we can teach you how to make videos we can teach you how

00:24:39.740 to hold attention people need levity and comedy right now so let's teach you and they started

00:24:44.740 making millions of dollars and we're like holy crap what have we all stumbled upon here so that's

00:24:49.580 how it started and then but you can't but even on the back end of a global pandemic you found

00:24:55.220 this thing attention so everybody was here so we were like we got to be there the consumption went

00:25:01.640 just through i mean everybody's numbers netflix everybody clubhouse i mean it's just yes people

00:25:07.580 wanted like entertain me i'm home entertain you got nothing to do we got you everybody used to

00:25:12.140 work stop working start consuming and so you had this kind of like not artificial but enhanced

00:25:18.860 demand which probably made it easier at first to have these hits right that in the past might have

00:25:24.740 only had a fifth of the views but it gave you the confidence to be like hey this is really cool

00:25:30.200 it gave us speed yeah it gave us quantity and i quantity breeds quality talk about this say what

00:25:35.980 you want to say but quantity does breed quality because if i sat here and i was like i'm putting

00:25:39.680 out a video this week i'm gonna put out a video every week one then i have so much emotional weight

00:25:44.840 on that single video, and it may or may not be good,

00:25:48.560 it's subjective, right?

00:25:49.820 And so you had all emotional weight on that video

00:25:51.600 and it flops, or it did okay.

00:25:54.140 But I'm putting out 80 videos a week

00:25:56.080 and not all are gonna be great.

00:25:57.800 But when it was COVID time

00:25:59.140 and we had all the time in the world

00:26:00.360 and it was profiting as much as it was,

00:26:02.020 it was like printing money.

00:26:03.540 So we're making every type of video imaginable

00:26:06.060 so we get data faster than anybody else.

00:26:09.000 And we're studying 40 pages of data to see what's working.

00:26:12.680 And then we double down,

00:26:13.620 we create double of that the next day and we're just learning at a scale that most people couldn't

00:26:19.420 replicate and that's what we still do today is let the quantity lead so so i'm just curious we

00:26:25.360 go back four years and and you you know publish what was the first viral video

00:26:30.060 this was pre-covid but i put chickens in a bathtub um it was a 19 second video i was a touring

00:26:38.480 musician at the time i put chickens in a bathtub and it blew up it did okay 2017 why did you did

00:26:45.140 you was it planned or you just happened to record some chickens in a bathtub both okay so i was

00:26:50.540 creating it never occurred to me i should put chickens in a bathtub oh you should totally

00:26:53.820 but like this is what's beautiful about your mind is that you you're just like i want to be

00:26:58.060 so you must have had some previous experience with how crazy chickens are this was my first

00:27:03.340 Well, I had chickens, and I loved them.

00:27:05.320 So this is the story.

00:27:06.340 It was 2017, and I was creating content for a meme page at the time.

00:27:10.500 It was horrible.

00:27:11.260 I had no idea how to work a camera, lighting, do anything, or act.

00:27:15.660 And I was doing it all on a GoPro, so I couldn't even see what I was doing.

00:27:18.580 And I had to turn around a new video every morning by 6 a.m.

00:27:21.540 And so I'm writing, scripting.

00:27:22.640 That was all I could do every single day.

00:27:24.220 Why did you have to turn around a video?

00:27:25.460 That was my deadline for this meme page.

00:27:28.300 And so I would do that.

00:27:29.260 You were freelancing for this page?

00:27:30.780 Mm-hmm.

00:27:31.280 Okay.

00:27:31.520 Just trying to figure it out while I was a touring musician, but I was waiting for a

00:27:35.060 suit behind a desk to give me permission to be successful.

00:27:38.100 And they were saying, ah, you're good, but not now, not entertaining enough.

00:27:41.840 And I was just getting frustrated.

00:27:43.200 So I was like, I'm going to do this on my own terms.

00:27:45.160 I want to entertain people.

00:27:46.340 I think that's why God put me here is to represent who I am.

00:27:51.240 Not because I'm so cool, but so other people can see pieces of themselves in me and this

00:27:56.920 success that we had from touring.

00:27:58.500 I was touring with Blake Shelton at the time.

00:28:00.000 So cool.

00:28:00.480 It was awesome.

00:28:01.000 yeah but my footage was destroyed one night it's one in the morning and I got to turn something in

00:28:04.960 by six and I was just crying I was like what am I gonna do and my boyfriend at the time was like

00:28:10.600 go get those chickens in the backyard and do something with them they make you happy

00:28:14.080 and I was like I have no other option so okay I went and got the chickens and I put them in a

00:28:19.420 bathtub and I pretended like I was curling one on the counter's hair and we had him bust them go

00:28:24.220 what are you doing why is there a chicken in the bathroom and I'm like he was lonely and then I

00:28:29.240 pull back the curtain and there's all my chickens in the bathroom and they had funny names like

00:28:33.440 chick norris ellen de henris oh come on uh kim kardashian shakira shakira they look alike

00:28:40.260 and so people were just like i want to be this girl every comment was just a tag and this is so

00:28:46.460 me this was so relatable yeah we just become best friends like they're just like i want to hang out

00:28:51.140 it was that and so that was did 19 million views overnight whoa which in 2017 was huge

00:28:57.040 and grew me 100,000 followers.

00:28:59.280 And I was like, that's it.

00:29:00.940 I quit trying to do what everybody else was doing

00:29:03.100 on this meme page.

00:29:04.320 I was put back against the wall

00:29:06.380 and I just did myself.

00:29:08.280 I just did what made me happy.

00:29:09.840 And that's what resonated.

00:29:11.500 And that's been my North Star.

00:29:12.440 Can I share something with you?

00:29:13.800 Because I've been actually talking to Sam,

00:29:16.060 you know, creative director, Sam.

00:29:18.040 Workouts.

00:29:18.580 Yeah, lifts heavy stuff, puts it back down,

00:29:20.300 picks it up again, Sam.

00:29:21.780 And I said this to him on the flight down here.

00:29:24.240 i said sam every person is one creative project away from being a superstar i believe that and

00:29:31.340 and the only way that ever happens for them is if they allow themselves to actually listen to

00:29:36.000 their heart which is a scary thing to do it is though and it's it's like scary because it's the

00:29:41.160 hardest you literally have to say i want this i love this i don't know why i know my family's

00:29:49.260 going to judge me i know there's a chance that everybody else is going to hate it but for some

00:29:54.580 reason i just keep thinking about this thing and i'm going to do it what would you say to somebody

00:29:58.180 who doesn't know what they want to do i ask them what they don't want to do and when they tell me

00:30:04.760 that i go it's the opposite of that because that's how everybody wants because everybody

00:30:09.860 tell you what they don't want yeah and if they tell you what they don't want it's actually what

00:30:14.340 they do want right so what are you not like what's the opposite of that perfect go do that i don't

00:30:20.460 know i just i just find that like such a fascinating concept and i've studied this because like the

00:30:24.660 oliver anthony's oprah with color purple you know all the music a lot of the musicians there was

00:30:29.620 always john maxwell's book 21 year for all laws of leadership number 13 for him okay every and it

00:30:35.740 became the number one he's the goat of leadership like everybody that is the tip of the spear from

00:30:40.760 the rock to whoever what we admire about them is they allowed themselves to absolutely honor their

00:30:47.380 personal preferences and i think it's interesting because we can sometimes get caught in after that

00:30:54.800 incrementally improving and we get away from the creative part right and we don't have the collabs

00:31:00.240 like a lincoln park and a jay-z for me personally that yeah that that album i was like i needed that

00:31:06.440 my life and that's like that numb encore is like one of my favorite songs in the history of the

00:31:11.240 world i knew i liked you i like you so much more because i shared with you who i am isn't that

00:31:16.740 crazy yeah and i think that's what happens a lot of people walk around the world they're actually

00:31:20.680 fascinating people but they're wearing a mask yeah they love chickens let's see i love yeah i

00:31:25.420 like you more tell them about the shakira shakira that's funny shakira shakira shakira that's just

00:31:30.280 they're great yeah so you do that that brings you into the world and then covet is this beautiful

00:31:35.660 blessing for you now i don't know about you i'm in software software went awesome and i had to feel

00:31:41.980 a little bit of guilt because while the rest of the world was melting so i'm just curious like

00:31:47.160 you went from a touring musician and most people music don't make money i was bankrupt okay actually

00:31:52.760 perfect so you're there and now you're making money like like how did that feel were you worried

00:32:01.040 it would stop tomorrow did you did you put it away did you carpe diem it a little bit like how

00:32:07.220 did you respond invest it immediately is the real because you just got so nervous this may not last

00:32:11.620 yeah and i still had that bankrupt mentality if this isn't gonna last so i need to make hay while

00:32:15.920 the sun is shining and then past that i feel like this is just the human experience that once

00:32:20.820 you have your immediate needs met the immediate next thing you want to do is go show everybody

00:32:27.200 else how to find the level of joy that you found, especially because my success was tied

00:32:31.160 intrinsically to who I was as a person. I'm pranking my husband every day and I'm playing

00:32:35.580 with my chickens. And I was like, this is the best, most authentic gift I could ever be given.

00:32:40.120 And I want everybody else to learn how to make videos, learn this formula so they can make

00:32:43.940 videos around whatever makes them shine and have authentic, like have just trust in their own

00:32:49.780 authenticity and their own abilities because they see me living out mine and mine's way sillier

00:32:54.020 and less meaningful than yours my mission is really silly you know but you have important

00:32:58.680 missions and important messages and products and services that need to get out in the world so let

00:33:02.700 me tell you how to storytell them let me show you this formula that works seven out of ten times

00:33:08.060 that's a pretty good batting average that's crazy i don't know baseball but that seems i don't know

00:33:11.900 it either but it sounds good i don't even think they do seven out of ten i think it's out of a

00:33:15.240 thousand and it's got a zero point something in it yeah okay seven hundred yeah seven hundred we

00:33:20.220 just got people watching me they're like that's not even a thing dan adley what do you guys stick

00:33:25.240 to your chickens yeah um but let's let's talk about because a lot of people following me know

00:33:29.940 about the concept of buying back time yeah you don't build this if you're doing everything and

00:33:34.880 i met some i think i met some of your staff so like how did you who is the first hire like how

00:33:39.640 did you think you're making money and you're obviously like i got more creative projects i

00:33:43.480 want to do i'm assuming were you editing the videos at the beginning i still edit the videos

00:33:47.860 because i'm so particular yeah but what were some of those first hires first hire well so we were

00:33:53.640 we started managing creators i taught my brother and taught my friends how to do this first so we

00:33:57.720 could change their lives and then i was like i can't make my brother work more make more videos

00:34:02.580 that doesn't work too well not to family members not to family no so that's not scalable so that's

00:34:08.080 a definition of not scalable so i was like can't make my family member work more right and so we

00:34:13.420 taking a percentage so that was not scalable then it was higher staff creators uh we saw security

00:34:19.260 footage popping off well i can't pretend to be a robber or an amazon delivery driver at this point

00:34:25.500 but i could hire someone to be to take advantage of that opportunity tell me what that means what

00:34:30.380 you see you just said it as if you think what what do you mean staff creators and security footage

00:34:35.100 good point okay so have you ever watched a video of you mean like an uber camera yes yes

00:34:41.420 Uber camera, ring cameras, porch pirates, restaurant security footage.

00:34:46.460 You catch someone doing something they shouldn't be doing.

00:34:48.860 People love watching CCTV because you're getting to watch people do things

00:34:52.580 they don't think people are watching.

00:34:54.080 So we were like, well, let's just stage them.

00:34:56.520 Let's recreate wild things caught on camera.

00:35:00.600 Dude, let's filter.

00:35:02.340 Let's do some CCTV vids.

00:35:04.120 Yes, let's do it.

00:35:05.380 Wow.

00:35:06.400 Let's do it.

00:35:07.300 Because that, it just takes formats that people love watching in movies or sitcoms, repackage

00:35:12.580 them for social, and people think they're real, or at least they used to.

00:35:17.280 They did for many, many years.

00:35:18.660 Wow.

00:35:19.020 But you know what's crazy to me is people will get so mad at us for scripting videos,

00:35:23.620 but we watch scripted reality TV, we watch scripted entertainment like WWE, and you're

00:35:29.000 fine with that.

00:35:29.880 But I think we were so early to scripting social media entertainment, but that's what

00:35:35.580 eyeballs were.

00:35:36.200 I honestly thought all those videos were real.

00:35:38.560 It's fascinating.

00:35:39.680 Now that you say that, I know you're just like, oh, poor you, Dan.

00:35:43.540 Did you think that was real?

00:35:46.140 So don't break my heart, but what percentage of videos do you think that I watch it go viral that are fake?

00:35:53.180 A lot.

00:35:53.740 Is it more than 10%?

00:35:54.560 Oh, no.

00:35:56.740 What about the one, the police officer and the other person?

00:35:59.240 Is that not real either?

00:36:00.300 Oh, we had a police car for two years.

00:36:01.960 Oh, not cool.

00:36:02.540 We bought a police car, police outfits.

00:36:05.080 It all looked so real.

00:36:06.120 no yes it makes so much sense i know because the entrepreneur in me is so proud of you

00:36:12.120 but the consumer is like my life is a lot but it works so you can play on themes like

00:36:20.600 unboxing videos are super super hot so we're like all right what's a new take on an unboxing video

00:36:25.360 cops finding something strapped to a girl's leg like maybe we don't know we have to unbox

00:36:32.240 her everything we do is pg pg 13 but it was a cop pulling somebody over and saying what are you

00:36:38.380 hiding so it was ripping open the gene oh my whatever and unboxing a body because we love

00:36:43.860 the human body creative and we would just have very is this your concept i don't remember your

00:36:48.520 husband just take credit one of us very good it all happens you know awesome but we would just

00:36:52.660 unbox a human body you know but it's same thing but just more of what people we just try to blend

00:36:59.020 three boxes together so so when you say staff creator you hired them put them on salary and

00:37:05.260 then worked with them on scripts and they would just produce yes because we need them to be an

00:37:08.820 amazon delivery driver i've never heard this but my you know my boys watch is darman do you know

00:37:13.600 darman i love darman we tried to do darman and it was just cool for me because i knew darman before

00:37:18.700 he actually the the previous version of who he was really right yeah the internet guy and then he

00:37:23.180 came out with these darman videos and they all have a great message and my boys now and they

00:37:28.200 were like eight seven eight years old wanting to wanting to watch it yes i was like oh everyone

00:37:33.560 does exactly what you said they have like uh you know tension and then they've got the karen and

00:37:38.780 he's like you have no money you can't buy this car and then it's like and then he realized he

00:37:42.820 didn't know who he was and you know and it's just i don't know i think it's cool that that darman

00:37:47.840 created content for my kids that they actually wanted to watch and learned important life

00:37:52.640 everyone has a cool life lesson it actually watching that video sounds funny and even

00:37:56.560 watching paw patrol it made me realize that growing up i was being taught things through

00:38:02.160 astro boy and he-man and like instantly it never occurred to me it like isn't that crazy it never

00:38:08.980 occurred to me as a kid the shows i watch were all teaching me life lessons they were wrapped

00:38:13.820 up in entertainment and you can it's still wrapped up in entertainment it's still that's the format

00:38:17.880 look at the taken series we it was you learned about trafficking and what a problem that is

00:38:23.720 and we were educated by way of entertainment

00:38:26.480 and suspense is a huge part of that.

00:38:28.600 We were all hooked right away

00:38:30.040 but we would have stopped watching

00:38:31.480 if Liam Neeson had rescued his daughter

00:38:33.800 halfway through the movie.

00:38:35.460 You're not rescuing her until the end.

00:38:37.720 And the stakes were very high

00:38:39.180 because we wouldn't watch the movie

00:38:41.600 if her stuffed animal was stolen.

00:38:43.560 Or it wasn't his daughter.

00:38:44.860 Right.

00:38:45.680 Well, we watched Taken

00:38:46.780 because she was trafficked

00:38:48.720 to the other side of the world.

00:38:51.200 He had to get her within three days

00:38:53.080 and 100 people in the process yeah so we take stakes we take timing we take suspense the way

00:38:58.260 that we traditionally know them but pack them in a way for social media and make them relatable

00:39:02.340 make yourself be able to see yourselves in the character even if it's really dumbed down it's

00:39:06.940 so great yeah i heard one time somebody say the quote they said the bigger the monster the bigger

00:39:12.420 the hero i think that's what it was i like that yeah because essentially the the bigger the monster

00:39:17.120 the bigger the villain yeah the bigger the hero has to become so it's like that's why when i watch

00:39:22.380 like uh x-men or whatever these movies are like a dc movie and it's like whatever the guy the the

00:39:28.360 bad guy's name is like you know dom and you know it's like this crazy multiverse bad guy it's like

00:39:33.440 he's got all the powers ever created it's like it's gotten a little silly like he's undefeatable

00:39:38.860 and then they're like you know then all the x-men have to get together to fight him but again it's

00:39:44.060 like the bigger the tension the bigger the evil then the more the transformation has to occur

00:39:48.880 yes so i think it's a fun concept when when i tell stories i i i try to remember to talk about

00:39:55.460 how bad it was yes because if i do a good job there i guess when i'm getting the tension yeah

00:40:01.320 because it's like a meaningful thing an obstacle that has to be overcome yes and every story has

00:40:06.040 a villain kind of whether you want it to or not you got to develop the villain in our stories

00:40:09.980 our old selves were the villain yeah my past but if you don't tell how bad you were in the past or

00:40:15.900 the thoughts you had in the past it actually doesn't make the story as interesting as it could

00:40:19.620 be right that's you're undervaluing your testimony and why did you go through all that to be here

00:40:25.380 and the people who are still stuck in that need to hear that you were there too because look at

00:40:30.020 where you are now and that's the light they're looking for so on the staff creators do you have

00:40:35.580 any that you produce that are their own creators and you do the percent fee or you don't do that

00:40:39.760 at all we give them a percentage of the video's earnings because if we just said hey you're going

00:40:45.020 to be an amazon delivery driver in this video you're gonna be pregnant in the next video third

00:40:48.360 video of the day you're gonna get evicted then they can just run through them and not care not

00:40:53.300 say stop restart and i'll stop and restart you eight times yeah i'm crazy if i'm behind the

00:40:58.020 camera and i need them to have that level of consideration for the psychology yeah and so

00:41:03.320 we started incentivizing them based on the videos okay so but you've never done like an agent model

00:41:08.040 where you you produce other people and they do it and then that you take care of some aspect of the

00:41:12.240 business you still do the stuff that's the only model you guys currently do no we do have staff

00:41:16.000 and management so for some of our managed creators and how does that typically look okay so youtube

00:41:21.220 do you do the facebook do you manage all their social channels they do no they do the uploading

00:41:25.580 still because they need to learn it they need to learn the editing because if you learn editing

00:41:29.480 it makes you a better creator because you're seeing wow i shot that horribly or i should

00:41:34.060 have said this then you're going to get way better if you have to look at what you did yeah if you're

00:41:38.380 just in front of the camera and then phoning it in for someone else to deal with you're never

00:41:42.060 going to see all the mistakes so that's fascinating and i was you know obviously i'm all about buying

00:41:46.320 back my time i've never edited a video yeah but i realized i got a great sam and a team of

00:41:52.160 bodybuilders though but um what but i'm not learning like you just said because what you're

00:41:57.940 getting is you're seeing where you had to edit around you to know next time hey complete your

00:42:03.800 thought yes annunciate your words yes sam has to probably feel i'm sorry dude like i know how bad

00:42:09.440 i can be sometimes where he'll be like bang oh we forgot to close the story and i'm just like

00:42:15.520 all right well so we go volume game but um when when you work with these other creators where

00:42:22.360 you're doing the management side that starts to look potentially like what the music labels

00:42:27.720 do with their artists right yes so how do what have you done something different around that

00:42:32.500 the way you do it is it traditional like is it like i don't know because i've seen i've seen a

00:42:36.580 lot of people like a bradley martin and he had a person he produced and got pissed off because they

00:42:40.660 built them up and they left yeah and they get in a lawsuit like that part's always fascinating to

00:42:46.100 me when you work with other creatives because we're all crazy i'm just a little crazy i don't

00:42:50.480 know if you would okay cool we're all i'm totally normal i don't know yeah what my business

00:42:56.360 um but what do you what is the model like what do you do is it how do you do it so that everybody

00:43:02.660 stay as friends if somebody doesn't want to do business with us anymore we we let them go it's

00:43:08.860 that plain and simple okay you don't worry too much about it no no one's left yet like we'll

00:43:13.260 cross that bridge when we get there but i in the music industry i always wanted a seat at the table

00:43:18.160 yeah always and now i have a table yeah and i want to pull up as many chairs as possible so i'm

00:43:24.420 going to create the best table where everybody's invited you have to be really good but once you're

00:43:28.840 here we want to see what do you need how else can we serve you how do we build that out and if we

00:43:32.920 don't have that model yet go elsewhere or if we're not serving you as good as so and so could

00:43:37.720 then go go figure out that and see if that makes sense to you but so far we're still young we still

00:43:43.620 have a lot to learn but if we take care of our people they take care of us that's the way to do

00:43:48.140 it yeah my philosophy as long as i help my team members achieve their dreams i've learned a lot

00:43:53.080 from you you want to know the biggest thing i've learned from you recently i would love to hear

00:43:55.820 the difference between traditional and transformational leadership you said that and

00:44:00.040 i oh it rocked me i was like i'm what is it traditional leadership uh transactional is

00:44:06.920 transactional leadership and i am such a transactional leader i have a big problem delegating

00:44:12.480 yeah and so i would just task oriented task oriented which just kept me you're having to

00:44:17.980 do the work and not buying back my time you get maxed out and then you get burned out on the work

00:44:21.800 that actually is beautiful

00:44:23.780 if you just get this time back.

00:44:25.460 And they can see an escalation process

00:44:27.140 for themselves too.

00:44:28.740 And it intrinsically binds them

00:44:30.260 more to the mission and vision of the company

00:44:31.780 when they're attached to the outcomes.

00:44:33.820 So the day after you said that,

00:44:35.060 I gathered everybody in the living room

00:44:36.460 and I told them what I learned.

00:44:39.400 You guys never own this stuff.

00:44:40.500 No, you never have to give me credit.

00:44:41.840 No, I did.

00:44:42.280 I just love that you learned that.

00:44:43.880 I learned something.

00:44:44.560 It was radical for me.

00:44:45.780 That's exactly what I needed to do

00:44:47.400 to buy back my time

00:44:48.720 was turn into a transformational leader

00:44:50.700 and attach them to the outcomes

00:44:52.960 and then let them go.

00:44:54.660 And then when they came to me with the issue.

00:44:56.380 One, three, one?

00:44:57.100 One, three, one.

00:44:57.920 I did.

00:44:59.340 It was so good.

00:45:01.300 I've learned a lot.

00:45:02.080 You've helped me become a better leader.

00:45:03.540 You just made my day.

00:45:04.860 Thank you.

00:45:05.500 I love, you know, you put work out in the world

00:45:06.960 and you hope it kind of resonates with people

00:45:09.080 and just hearing how it has,

00:45:10.680 especially watching what you've created here

00:45:12.000 is just so inspiring.

00:45:13.360 Like it really inspires me.

00:45:15.400 You're doing the Lord's work.

00:45:16.320 When people come up to me and say,

00:45:17.620 I love your work.

00:45:18.340 I tried to make ribs on my car engine too.

00:45:20.700 It doesn't feel as good.

00:45:23.380 I have a bath full of chickens too.

00:45:25.340 Yeah.

00:45:26.820 But the business side, like when you look at advertising versus brand deals,

00:45:34.760 why do you not do brand deals then?

00:45:36.600 So in the last year we have.

00:45:38.200 Okay.

00:45:38.540 So we were like, we're doing over a billion views a month.

00:45:41.980 Why are we not putting brands into our content?

00:45:45.780 We're leaving so much money on the table.

00:45:47.220 So we started Viralish X about a year ago now.

00:45:50.700 and that's doing really really well and our blue ocean with that is mass visibility and mass

00:45:56.700 awareness so what kind of products yeah land rover charman yeah like real brands hp drumstick tool

00:46:02.500 companies yeah who aren't looking for the immediate click through yeah in revenue it's great straight

00:46:07.280 to transaction our cpas that is so cool um what do you think like 10 years from now what happens

00:46:15.960 i want to create shows yeah i want to create what we do now but i want to verticalize some of our

00:46:23.920 youtube channels we have youtube channels with three two three million subscribers yeah we've

00:46:28.520 been on youtube 11 months and we have almost 10 million followers i don't know what's happening

00:46:33.680 or what i'm doing so looking to figure that out and get into long form because we're very good

00:46:39.380 at top of funnel but i want to take all this attention and really understand why did god give

00:46:44.140 us this unique ability to grab and hold attention and make people watch videos they don't even want

00:46:48.580 to watch what a superpower so why don't we use that for good and actually put more meaningful

00:46:55.060 content back into the world because for the two years that we ran we ran a fantastic experiment

00:47:00.180 on facebook for two years yeah nailed it learned it grabbing attention and and getting people to

00:47:05.520 watch videos that they didn't even want to be watching yeah so how do we translate that now

00:47:10.680 how do we step out of that amazing experiment and the difference between what people say they

00:47:15.720 want to watch versus what they actually pay attention to so now it's taking that attention

00:47:21.740 currency and knowing how to translate it for people who have messages missions or amazing

00:47:26.440 brands so good i got two questions left the first the first one is who are some of the

00:47:34.500 i will say women because my wife's also an entrepreneur and i know a lot of women um you

00:47:40.080 don't have as many role models to look up to that's true yeah because like for you know i know

00:47:45.400 why there's a bunch of men that are top of the but the you know if you actually look around the

00:47:49.220 women that run the companies i'm not an idiot my whole team um what who are some of those women

00:47:54.400 for you like when you think like entrepreneurial role models where you're like i love the way she

00:47:59.240 does business i love the way she does life i love the way she is with her friends who are some of

00:48:03.060 those people that come to mind it's sad that you say that now because a lot of my role models are

00:48:07.440 dead um but we can go we can go dead lucille ball okay a lot of people just know her as the

00:48:12.840 silly goofy entertainer but they don't know that she ran a content empire let's go with her husband

00:48:17.600 yeah but it was that dynamic that was the top of the funnel and the fuel and the attractant

00:48:21.920 to that allowed her to produce and scale and get people jobs and all that so she's a big role

00:48:28.720 model for me that's amazing and then lately the last several months oh now i'm curious our life

00:48:34.040 has just it's been transformed since we literally started running ads it's been a whole different

00:48:39.780 level of introductions and people that were some of those i'm just curious are any any specific

00:48:44.220 names it's like i think sarah blakely is one of the coolest i was gonna name sarah i don't know

00:48:48.140 her personally but we'll get to know her i don't know her either i'll get to know her i'll make

00:48:52.020 sure you get to know her i'll race you yeah if you get there first send the elevator back down

00:48:58.780 i'm just saying but um yeah i mean i just posted on instagram recently about the thing i do with

00:49:04.140 my boys every night where i ask them what they failed at and that came from that came from sarah

00:49:08.120 really 100 she said her dad used to do that with her every day hey what'd you fail at today

00:49:11.860 i love that yeah we celebrate our failures what a simple frame change that i think will have a

00:49:18.040 profound impact on my two boys i have i have no doubt so one say it's okay it's expected and

00:49:23.520 we celebrate it and you celebrate and and when they don't have something i'm like oh that sucks

00:49:27.860 yeah you didn't try enough yeah what next time what do you think you could try what did you know

00:49:32.420 um is there anybody else i just want one more uh laurie grenier all right you got to be close

00:49:37.600 with laurie during quarantine like we talk every night for three hours on the phone type of friends

00:49:42.920 whoa and blake when he still had a real job he would come home from his corporate job and i was

00:49:46.940 like and then he's going to bed five hours later he's like i guess good night what do you guys

00:49:52.240 talk about everything we talked about business a little bit but we talked about shows we talked

00:49:56.620 about attention we talked about you know how the qvc journey um customer journeys we just talked

00:50:02.420 about family about kids that's so beautiful it was a really really wonderful friendship

00:50:07.120 and she loves comedy enjoyed oh yeah i'm going to andrew schultz tonight are you really yeah i'm

00:50:13.000 i'm like comedy is my jam anyways uh last question adley when you look back at like you know 2017

00:50:20.180 when you first viral video let's start there 17 2017 to now 2024 who did you need to become

00:50:27.260 to deal with this level of success you can't be a people pleaser and do this business

00:50:33.360 and i was a people pleaser when i first started making videos and the comments would tear me apart

00:50:40.580 because they would misunderstand who i was what i was doing i was like no i'm not that person i

00:50:44.760 didn't say it like that you took it like that so i would change my next video to do everything

00:50:49.880 right, that nobody could have any room to be condescending towards me. And then I would still

00:50:57.280 get torn apart. And there would be two comments back to back. This is the best video you've ever

00:51:01.200 done. The second one was, you're absolute trash. This video is trash. Take it down. And I was like,

00:51:06.140 I can't please everybody. And now I'm just getting more and more inauthentic. And even when you try

00:51:11.480 to do everything right, you're still going to upset people. And so learning how to just care

00:51:17.000 about what I think what do I think of me because if I think I'm doing okay and I'm happy then

00:51:22.240 that's going to resonate and then other people the right people are going to be attracted to that

00:51:26.320 and that's who I'm doing this for that's who I'm trying to represent possibility for so that's been

00:51:32.140 the guiding north so beautiful I love that where should people follow you where's your favorite

00:51:35.860 platform to get to know you I say Instagram perfect same I think Instagram is my fave

00:51:41.940 um everybody go find adley on instagram give her a follow she's incredibly creative and here's the

00:51:48.460 deal if i was and i haven't bet if i could buy stock i'd buy stock in her she's going to create

00:51:52.580 a massive portfolio production company shows i have no doubt i have no doubt i like know it i've

00:51:57.920 already i can kind of already see it and it's because of the people you're talking to the

00:52:03.060 mindset you've built the willingness to take risk and build out the pieces of the empire and that

00:52:08.860 you stay close to the creative which is just awesome so thank you for having me thank you

00:52:13.260 so great a lot coming from you appreciate it means a lot have an amazing day

Dan Martell - May 24, 2024

Watch This if You Want to Go Viral in 2026 [Adley Interview]

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