“This course changed my life. If you want to get into content, start here.”

This course changed my life. If you want to get into content, start here.

Got a video with 14k views! This win was before I started CUT30, but still feels relevant to share as it might help someone else in here, especially designers/creatives. For this video, I designed a running shoe concept for Zach Pogrob. I love Zach, and I love Saucony, so when I saw a post of Zach running in them, I got the idea of doing a concept collaboration between the two. This is me using the idea of permissionless work, creating something of value for someone else without asking for anything back. The video gave Zach the opportunity to post to his story with the text 'I'm ready whenever you are Saucony.' So the post had the potential to actually land him a collab. I basically gave him a lay-up. The video currently has 14k views, which is my most by far. I've also seen this work for other creators. Kweinbydesign got 7.1 million views on a video doing a concept for The North Face. I think she even landed a job there. She has been absolutely smashing it. So if done correctly, doing permissionless work and sharing it can do wonders.

I definitely didn't create as much content as I'd originally planned, but even the few things I made taught me so much. I genuinely feel like a whole new world has opened up, and for the first time I feel like I actually get it. I've gained 1,200 Instagram followers (starting from fewer than 500), 300+ newsletter subscribers, my best video reached 37K views, and my best carousel got 3.5K likes and 3K saves, which feels pretty crazy considering this was my first real attempt at creating content, and I only made 7 posts in total. But more than any of those numbers, the biggest win was overcoming my complete mental block around creating content and putting myself out there. It honestly opened my mind to so many possibilities, not just for this business, but for everything else I do.

I took nearly 2 months off from posting after some great momentum last year and was genuinely worried I would lose it for good. My 2 recent videos have both done well. I was stuck at about 16K followers on TikTok for a long time, but after re-posting my reel there, it's now surpassing the original post on Instagram, around 4K new followers since posting these 2 videos. Don't give up, even if you have to take a break. And don't sleep on a platform just because another one loves you more sometimes.

My first 1M-view video of 2026 is a brand partnership, a huge leap for me, considering all of my previous branded content struggled to cross 10k views. Two major factors unlocked this growth: We aligned the narrative with the final week of the BNP Paribas tennis tournament, riding the wave of existing search and social momentum. I actually took a week-long vacation right before this. Stepping away from the daily pressure to produce content allowed me to return with the clarity needed to execute.

A little over a year ago I started Cut 30 with literally zero knowledge of social media or how to make a video. Had never even set up an Instagram or TikTok account. Never used CapCut. Didn't even know the basics. This past week I just crossed 100k followers across all channels. And honestly, there were quite a few months where I barely posted, I should be even further along if I had stayed consistent. It's been an awesome journey and feels like I'm still just getting started.

My IG had flatlined with views 50/50 followers to non-followers. I wondered if it was an IP issue from starting my account in Jamaica, so I had a friend start me a new account in the USA. I just started posting my old stuff there, and it's popping off already. I have more followers after 4 days than I got in 4 months before. Given the size of my niche I'm quite happy with views in the thousands for now, and 3 of my vids are already around 10k in 4 days.

Thought this one was going to be a fail because I made a few mistakes with the editing and timing, but it's actually doing ok! Very slow growth to start but I'm seeing lots of progress. All this to say, this program is amazing and I've been learning a lot from you guys, so thank you! I found a niche that I wasn't planning on even posting about. I wanted to focus on my concept designs, but honestly this has been a really cool learning process.