How to Speedrun Your First 10K Followers (Using Science)

A science-based method that you don't need to rely on luck.

Before we start, the Viral Playbook is on a launch exclusive discount (50% off) until October 25.

If you want to shortcut your audience growth past the valley of despair (i.e. 200-view jail), you can enroll here.

If you want to skip directly to the examples and implementation of Copy & Adapt, just scroll down to “How to Build an Audience (Speedrun Edition)”

I started posting on social media because I wanted to leave my corporate job.

That’s a growing trend these days.

With layoffs and an uncertain AI future, corporate jobs don’t feel safe. And the creator economy is driving massive FOMO as the new kid on the block.

Goldman Sachs forecasts the creator economy to hit $480 billion by 2027.

To be honest, the reason I say this isn’t doom and gloom. It’s because it’s literally what I felt and why I chose building an audience to be my vehicle out of corporate.

That’s why before we get into the method, I want to do my due diligence on telling you the upsides and the downsides of building an audience.

Let’s start with the downsides:

1. Hate. It’s inevitable. But the first time someone calls you a fraud in the comments, it will sting. Even though you know it’s just noise.

2. A lot to learn. When I started, I obsessed most of the days away studying, filming, editing, etc. Fun. But unsustainable if you’re not careful.

3. Attention. It’s pretty cool… but there will be times like “holy shit this is f*cking real”. It happens at smaller audience sizes than you’d think. One follower DM’d me about being recognized in public despite her page having under 10k followers.

Wingo used the method we’re going to talk about and saw the downside of massive attention firsthand. (We’ll worry about getting you there first.)

With disclaimers out the way, here are the upsides:

1. Independence. Independence from unreasonable boss and inevitable poor job markets. Fantastic if you’re like me and value your autonomy.

2. Income. It doesn’t come easy. But I promise you that no one forgets the core memory of their first internet dollar.

3. Leverage. With an audience, you exist at scale. Your words, thoughts, creativity, and income all have a forcing function behind them.

This picture of the MrBeast Burger launch at American Dream Mall puts it in perspective:

10,000 people at the launch

As you can imagine, when you have this much leverage, your personal brand opens opportunities to monetizing your interests, brand partnerships, and even meeting creators you watch (it’s pretty cool).

“Alright Jim, I’m in. You can stop acting like my mom now."

Alright, alright. I’ll get off my soapbox.

Let’s get you your first 10k followers.

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How to Build an Audience (Speedrun Edition)

Let’s dismantle the largest concrete walls that keeps people stuck.

I’m familiar with these beliefs because I had them:

• I thought that I had to reinvent the wheel.

• I thought I needed to “find my voice” before starting.

• I thought that I’d be cringe to all my friends and family and never make it.

All of these ended up being completely false. And it’s only cringe until it works. It just takes one breakout video.

After making over 170 short-form videos in six months, going viral over a dozen times, and helping students do the same, I learned that there is a system for beginners that gets you out of the valley of despair (200 view jail) ASAP.

And it’s so stupid simple.

Here it is:

1. Find outlier content (we’ll talk on this later)

2. Copy the format (hook, structure, pacing)

3. Insert YOUR story

Done.

Simple systems are the best systems. But let’s go a bit deeper.

I call this Copy & Adapt. With Copy & Adapt alone you can get to 10K, maybe 50k followers.

And before you call bullshit, it’s a system that got Wingo his first 20k followers in just 30 days from literal zero.

Wingo’s page after just 3 months of posting content.

Now that we know it works for beginners, let’s get into some examples.

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Left-side = inspiration. Right-side = adapted version.

A video where I copy and adapted @gazi.ai’s content and gained 15k followers:

Dylan used Copy & Adapt on my viral Project: Freedom reel to gain 200k views and thousands of followers in one video:

Mino Lee (a short-form content legend) copy and adapted one of my viral formats and both videos got over 2M views:

Great artists copy. The best steal.

-Pablo Picasso

These examples serve one purpose: break the illusion of social media.

If you want to progress fast as a beginner, do not do what 99% of beginners do and throw spaghetti at the wall. You Copy & Adapt.

That’s how you develop your Creator Sense like Andrew did.

Andrew went from stuck at hundreds of followers to over 8,000 followers in just 30 days using the systems found in The Viral Playbook.

Because the highest level of any craft is combining thousands of stolen ideas in your own unique way. Think of how your favorite music artists draw inspiration from their own idols.

The Viral Playbook walks you through Copy & Adapt, Systematic Killer Hooks, and a 5-Day Action Plan.

You can get lifetime access here.

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Why This Works For Everyone (And Why Most People Don’t Do It)

You have to learn the rules in order to break them.

Copy & Adapt just speedruns you through the rulebook. Instead of relying on “just post and pray”, you’re using data.

It’s literally the scientific method.

But most people don’t do it because they don’t know how to make it original.

Here’s how you do that:

Adapt with your story—which no one can copy. You should be the only person who can make your exact video regardless of the format.

That’s what makes it Copy AND Adapt.

When I started, I wanted to be a special snowflake. Reinvent content creation itself. That was my ego getting in my way.

Andrew’s video (left) turned into a trend which Jun Yuh (right) copied and adapted:

If creators like Jun Yuh use the strategy, who are creators with 1,000 followers to not?

The funny thing is Andrew told me that he studied Jun Yuh’s content to make his video. It came back around. Copy & Adapt is the flywheel of the content world.

If you want to get ahead of 99% of creators and speedrun out of the valley of despair (where most dreams go to die), use Copy & Adapt to understand and experience the mechanics of viral content.

And if you’re worried about plagiarism and that you won’t develop your own skills, just remember: steal the format, not the content.

You will develop your own style as you progress through your journey. You’ll learn what works (e.g. hooks), how different elements interact (e.g. visuals + captions), and why things capture attention (e.g. curiosity).

Think of it like ingredients to a dish. If you want to cook a standout, original dish, but have no idea how ingredients interact, you’re stuck with experimenting blindly.

But if you had a recipe book AKA existing viral content, think about how much faster you’d learn compared to someone who doesn’t. Even the most experienced chefs (huge creators like Jun) who create their own dishes still study the recipes of others.

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How to Copy & Adapt

We’re going to use my example with Gazi to understand the how.

1) Find an Outlier

• Instagram search by keyword for a content topic (e.g. “quit job”)

• Look for outliers (videos with 3x more views than the creator has followers)

• Bookmark it

2) Notice the Format (Copy)

• Hook (first 3 seconds): Text on screen? Verbal? Visual?

  • Notice how similar the first 2 seconds of Gazi’s and my videos are

• Structure: Story? List? Comparison?

  • This example is a storytelling video

3) Adapt (Your Story)

• Adapt the hook (don’t change it too much - hooks are fragile in my experience)

  • Gazi’s verbal hook: “I resigned from Pinterest as a software engineer.”
    My adaptation: “I just quit my job at Google as a software engineer.”

  • Gazi’s visual hook: Pop-in effect at her computer desk. *Cut to brushing teeth*
    My adaptation: Pop-in effect at my computer desk. *Choke on water, look at camera*

  • Tip for hooks: Make it dead simple to understand. No big vocab or giant story.

• Insert your story/lessons/tips based on video type

  • Notice how my content is different even though the pacing (fast cuts) is similar

  • If you watch the originals, after the hook the videos completely diverge into different content (that’s what adapt means)

• Use your own style of filming + editing

  • Notice how all of the shots after the first are unique to me

With this, you have learned the foundation of the system that can take you from 0 to 10k so that you can actually start attracting opportunities and having your voice heard.

Now, just like with any information, it’s meaningless if you don’t implement.

That’s why I spent over a hundred hours creating The Viral Playbook.

If you’ve been wanting to post but:

• Feel like you’re missing a roadmap

• Already posted but nothing works and you don’t know why,

• Just want to get the Playbook at the best price while you can

Then I recommend you grab lifetime access to the Playbook here while its 50% off (ends October 25, 2025).

Everything you get in The Viral Playbook (not including bonuses)

Since people always seem to ask after the date for an exception for things like this, I am saying it here:

There are no exceptions out of fairness early purchasers. Price increase is final.

You can reverse-engineer everything in the Playbook from my free content (I don’t gatekeep)—but I have to admit it would take quite some time to connect all the dots.

If you want full, in-depth video guides and want to have everything neatly in one place, The Viral Playbook is the complete, tactical reference.

I compressed over 21,815 words from emails, the Personal Brand Challenge, and more undocumented personal strategies into a streamlined, high-signal playbook that you can cover in a weekend.

I’m not promising you’ll hit 300k followers in six months.

But I am telling you this: if you follow this system, you can and will build an audience better and faster than 99% of creators.

I’ll see you next week,

Jim

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P.S. If you’ve made it this far and are still on the fence: There’s a 30-day no-questions asked money back guarantee. I only sell what I truly believe in. [Grab lifetime access] to the Playbook now and try it risk-free before the price doubles forever.