Here is everything I’ve learned growing from 100 to 100,000 TikTok followers in 60 days 🚀

• WITHOUT dancing

• WITHOUT selling out

• WITHOUT spending money

• WITHOUT an existing audience

Building an audience on TikTok was never on my radar.

I’ve been off social media for many years.

Quite happily.

Before creating content, I didn’t use TikTok, Instagram, or Twitter. On Youtube, I only watched music playlists. I have fewer than 100 Facebook friends.

My point is:

In this post, I share everything I’ve learned, observed, and experienced.

I give you my proven step-by-step growth playbook, my 1:1 profile audit that I paid $300 for, and 19 insights to help you launch a personal brand.

• 19 Things I Learned From 100 to 100k Followers

• My Proven Step-By-Step Growth Playbook

• Read My $300 1:1 In-Depth Profile Audit

• A Few Words on AI and ChatGPT

• 116 Scroll-Stopping Hooks

  • Positive Hooks

  • Negative Hooks

  • Visual Hooks

• FAQ

Whether you’re just starting or looking to grow…

There is no other course you need to take.

I share all I’ve learned from dozens of big creators and my own experience, so you don’t have to waste your time or wonder what else is out there.

This playbook is FREE, just subscribe to my newsletter by clicking below:

19 Things I Learned From 100 to 100k Followers

1. Virality vs. Followers

Sensational trending content goes viral more easily, but educational content is what drives high quality followers — and the right kind.

For example, I made a viral video about Elon Musk’s AI fashion show, but it resulted in fewer followers than an educational view with 1/10th the views.

2. Self-Doubt

If you told me when I started that I'd hit 100k followers this year, I would’ve laughed. Looking back, I’m embarrassed by my self-imposed limits.

3. Handling Haters

Yes, there are haters. But some offer thoughtful views. It’s a tough balance: being open vs. protecting my energy. As an education creator, I probably get less hate than others, so this hasn’t been a huge issue.

The most common jabs are my low voice and big lips (??), yet I also get positive messages about both (??). It’s thoroughly confusing 😅 The most important thing — I don’t try to change myself, despite the comments, positive or negative.

4. Burned By Gurus

Many assume I’m in it just for money. They don’t realize I’m not selling anything. Sadly, this reflects the current state of internet marketing — people have been burned by unrealistic promises and expectations.

5. Gatekeeping

Through my journey, I realized I’m not opposed to making money as a creator. But, I don’t believe in gatekeeping beginner level content. I’d much rather see more people learning AI, building useful apps for their micro communities, and participating in discussions about the future direction and governance of AI.

I want to emphasize — I wasn’t sure about all this when I started. But, creating content and meeting folks from all walks of life helped me crystallize my perspective. It’s OK to not have everything figured out at the start.

6. Nothing Fancy

You don’t need an expensive course, fancy video editing, guru secrets, or a team. It’s just me and ChatGPT. I film and edit all my videos in the TikTok mobile app, unless I’m experimenting with a new AI tool.

Keep it simple - that way you’ll actually stick to it, consistently, over a long period of time.

7. Top Challenge

My top challenge is creating content for both beginners and intermediate AI users, while also juggling passion projects like agent simulations and games.

My current structure:

• beginner level content on TikTok

• beginner-intermediate content on Linkedin

• intermediate-advanced content on Youtube and this newsletter

8. Fulfillment

I love waking up each day to questions from people learning AI — spanning teens to retirees. I’ve received countless messages from folks who have felt inspired by my content to pursue learning, building an app, starting a business, building their brand, etc.

I used to avoid social media like the plague because of all the bad stuff - the FOMO, self worth issues, comparing to others’ fake lives, etc. But, now I realize that I can be a positive inspiring force, lifting up hundreds of thousands (eventually millions 🤞 ) of people.

9. Scaling Myself

I genuinely feel bad I can’t help everyone who asks me. I’m constantly brainstorming ways to scale myself.

10. Consistency

My formula is consistency plus learning from data.

Even if I’m gone all day, I make one small piece of content before bed.

If you’re starting out, commit to 100 days of consistently posting content.

You’ll start to see patterns in what’s working vs. not working.

Double down on what’s working.

Like me, you’ll look back and be amazed at your progress in 100 days!

11. Starting from Zero

If I can do it, anyone can.

Seriously.

100 days ago, I knew nothing about social media. I didn't have Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, or Youtube accounts. On Facebook, I have < 100 friends.

12. Scammers

Scammers are a real problem. They steal my identity and trick followers into thinking I’ll mentor them for money. Sadly, followers have fallen victim to this.

13. Follower Demographics

93% of my followers are over 25 years old.

You no longer have to dance to skyrocket on TikTok!

14. Most Surprising Demographic

I’ve noticed many retirees want to learn AI to generate income to supplement retirement savings. This surprised me! And, I sense interesting opportunities will arise from this shift.

15. Most Common Question

“How do I make money with AI?" is the #1 question I get.

Now I understand why most AI influencers sell this idea. But fundamentally, I disagree with the premise. AI should scale or supplement a proven income path -- whether it's blogging, affiliate, etsy, consulting, freelancing, courses, whatever. In most cases, AI should not be the central focus.

16. First Viral Video

My first viral video was a curation of free educational resources.

Curation performs consistently well, e.g., “3 prompts to accomplish X task” or “5 best apps for X.”

Probably because there’s so much gatekeeping of content, plus a firehose of new content every day. For a beginner, it’s intimidating and confusing to navigate all this information and figure out where to start learning inexpensively.

17. Inbound Opportunities

Now that I have a decent sized following, about 150,000 total…

I get daily inbound requests from AI companies to promote, affiliate, or collaborate. I also get requests for consulting, podcasts, partnerships, etc.

Many huge content creators have repeatedly said:

Building a personal brand increases your luck surface area, your exposure to positive opportunities, and your leverage in doing deals, recruiting, etc.

💯 true!

It’s not necessary, but it sure helps… and honestly it’s a lot of fun!

18. Not Mutually Exclusive

Building a personal brand is NOT mutually exclusive with starting a company.

In fact, I feel I have more optionality now than ever before.

Testing an idea is as simple as posting a TikTok video to get instant feedback.

It seems obvious, but I mention this because many folks out there may want to start something, but don’t know what.

Building a personal brand increases the possibilities of what you can build and achieve, rather than constraining you.

19. Moving Goalpost

It’s been a wild ride. Now, I’m aiming for 1 million followers!

Perhaps in 1 year I'll look back and kick myself for setting it too low again 😂 

My Proven Step-By-Step Growth Playbook

1. Niche

Choose 1 niche to start with.

This was challenging for me because I love to talk about multiple topics.

Besides AI, I also enjoy reading, hiking, skiing, tea, mushrooms, philosophy, music, weightlifting, swimming, and video games!

But when you first start out, you need to develop your unique voice, style, and perspective. It will involve a lot of experimentation, trial and error.

It’s much easier if you lock down 1 niche to start with.

2. Volume

When starting out, you need to make A LOT of videos.

Wayyyy more than you realize! A LOT 🤯 

Get your reps in.

Don’t underestimate the power of volume and quantity.

• Experiment A LOT

• Get comfortable filming yourself

• Get over your fear of embarrassment

• Figure out how to be consistent (e.g. SIMPLIFYING video editing)

…and soon, you'll see what's working and where to double down.

I strongly suggest 3-5 videos per day.

When starting out, film shorter videos ~30 seconds. It’s easier, less pressure, and you learn to communicate succinctly, cutting the fluff.

Holding myself accountable to hitting this number forced me to simplify my filming and editing process.

3. Value

If you’re an educational creator like me, treat each TikTok video as a bite-sized actionable lesson.

My best performing educational videos always have something actionable — courses to try, links to go to, a ChatGPT prompt to try, an AI tool to check out.

You don’t need to explain the universe in a 30-second video.

Just share a useful tip, tool, or insight and guide your viewers to an actionable next step. Let your audience discover and learn interactively from your content!

3. Minimize Video Editing

No fancy editing, mic, or camera.

Film and edit everything in the TikTok mobile app.

On your phone.

In a typical video, I trim silences. I’ll add a text title at the beginning for a couple seconds. I add TikTok’s autogenerated captions, if there’s enough screen space. Editing a video takes me 10 minutes max.

I know the basics of Adobe Premiere, Da Vinci Pro, Capcut, Captions, Submagic, etc. but it's not necessary!

The only accessory I recommend is a cheap selfie stick with a stand. Anything on Amazon is fine. It doesn’t matter which one. It’s not about the equipment or fancy video editing.

Also, natural lighting is your best friend!

If you can, try to film outside, sitting in the shade, like a patio or porch. My videos that look brighter, where I look more alive, tend to perform better.

4. For Women

Personally, I don’t wear makeup or dress up.

But, I use TikTok’s retouch feature to hide my eyebags — thanks to my 2 floof pups! It's the magic wand icon when you film inside the Tiktok app.

5. Keyword Strategy

Use TikTok’s Creator Search Insights feature.

Search for keywords in your niche, and create videos around those keywords. Repeat the keywords in your title, description, and captions.

You can also see “Content Gaps” — topics people are searching for, but there isn’t enough content on those topics.

Some big creators I follow speculate TikTok wants to compete with Google as a search platform.

So, sprinkle your videos with keywords!

Keep in mind, all your public TikToks appear in Google search results.

Try googling yourself and review your TikTok video descriptions - would you click on them?

6. Troubleshooting Views

If your views are consistently < 50, something's wrong with your account. Initially, I made a new account and was stuck <50 views. I ended up having to use an old TikTok account.

If your views are consistently ~200, nothing's wrong with your account. But TikTok doesn't know the TOPIC of your videos. Click on a video, check top search bar, it should NOT say "Find Related Content". Be more explicit using niche keywords (such as “AI”) in your video title, description, and audio. Once you fix this, your views should be consistently ~1000 or more.

If a SINGLE video is stuck at low views but rest of your account is fine, change that video's privacy setting to PRIVATE, close TikTok app, reopen TikTok app, switch privacy setting back to EVERYONE.

7. Engagement

Reply to comments as much as possible.

Sometimes, I reply with a video to make it feel personal and directly address a person’s question. However, these “reply videos” usually perform worse in terms of views because they’re so specific.

8. Next Level

As you start gaining momentum, here are additional tactics:

• Use Blotato.com to repurpose tiktoks into other social media posts, and start growing your brand on other platforms w/o much additional work

• Drive traffic to your other social channels or newsletter, so that you can build deeper relationships

Read My $300 1:1 In-Depth Profile Audit

Around ~50,000 followers, I paid $300 for a 1:1 profile audit.

I learned about:

• Green screen

• Trend jacking

• Positive vs negative hooks

• Keep hook broad and generalizable, then narrow down topics throughout the video, like a funnel

• Interweave more personal, vulnerable, background stories to let people get to know the real me

Altogether, the audit was helpful… but NOT necessary.

I’m hoping to save you from spending $300 out of FOMO.

At the time of audit, I already had lots of momentum.

You definitely don’t need this early on.

You need VOLUME, so go pump out videos!

I was just curious about low-hanging fruits I might be missing and wanted a fresh outsider perspective. Especially because I never used TikTok as a consumer, so I wasn’t even familiar with basic things like Green Screen.

Here’s the full audit of my account, done by Evan Hand:

A Few Words on AI and ChatGPT

As an AI creator writing this AI newsletter, it may seem odd I haven’t talked about using AI.

My honest suggestion?

Forget about AI until you’ve created 3-5 videos for 30 DAYS IN A ROW. 

The main thing holding back new creators is mental:

• fear of embarrassment, humiliation, failure

• “not having time” because deep down you’re scared

• thinking you need to dish $$$ for a secret shortcut to success

• thinking you need more courses, more gurus, more help from others

• thinking you need certain equipment, hooks, scripts, or magical items

I swear to you - everything you need to know to grow on TikTok is on this page.

There is nothing I’m hiding behind some paywall!

So, I’m not going to distract you with shiny things like AI.

I don’t want you to think it’s a silver bullet. AI is not.

I don’t want you to think it’s necessary. AI is not.

Now, I’m sure I sound like a broken record:

You need to get started, making 3-5 videos a day, every single day, DESPITE your mental blocks.

116 Scroll-Stopping Hooks

Here are the 116 hooks from my 1:1 TikTok profile audit:

Positive Hooks

1. If you [do this], I automatically assume [desired outcome]

2. Alright, I have to confess something that's been on my mind for a long time

3. All right, I have to confess something that's been on my mind for a long time.

4. I recently [did something] and I found out something that EVERYONE needs to know.

5. Am I the only one who's realized...

6. Here's the simplest way to [desired outcome].

7. If you do X, you’re going to Y.

8. Here’s 5 things you can do to X.

9. Why aren’t more people talking about this?

10. I’m sure nobody saw this coming…

11. I don’t know who needs to hear this but…

12. I know how X and I’m going to prove it to you right now.

13. You will never guess what just happened.

14. Here’s what to do if…

15. X and Y are NOT the same thing.

16. No, you don’t understand!

17. 99% of [target audience] DO NOT understand this!

18. I can’t believe more people aren’t talking about this.

19. Has this happened to anyone else?

20. I just X, here’s how…

21. I gotta say it… [hot take].

22. This is ACTUALLY the best idea of all time.

23. This is the most insane situation ever.

24. If you’ve ever wanted to [target audience desire], now’s your chance.

25. This story is a lesson of why…

26. It could not be any more obvious that…

27. Does this look like the face of a… [green screen video].

28. Some big news coming out of [video topic] today, guys.

29. If there’s one thing that I know for sure, it’s this…

30. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but…

31. This is the craziest [video topic] in [video topic] history.

32. I can’t believe [person/company/thing] just did this.

33. Just when you thought X couldn’t get any crazier… here we are.

34. What in the hell is going on with [topic]?

35. One of the best parts about [topic] is…

36. Everyone please say a prayer for…

37. I cannot believe somebody actually did this.

38. To the surprise of absolutely no one…

39. What I ordered vs what I got.

40. Let me put y’all onto something quick.

41. Here’s how to [video topic].

42. This is my biggest secret to [desired outcome].

43. If you’re struggling with [this], all you need to do is [that].

44. I’m about to spill my secret on [topic], but I don’t even care.

45. This might be the best way to [topic].

46. I bet you didn’t know this [niche tip].

47. This is my #1 tip for [niche].

48. This is the EASIEST way to [desired outcome].

49. I WISH someone would’ve told me this when I was starting as a [target audience].

50. This is how you [desired outcome] in X seconds.

51. I have a confession…

Negative Hooks

1. If you do X, you’re going to [negative result].

2. Here’s 5 things you’re doing completely wrong when it comes to X.

3. You live under a rock if you don’t know about this.

4. We all knew [person/thing] was going to [negative outcome].

5. You’re not going to like this but…

6. If you think X is better than Y, I’m going to prove you wrong right now.

7. STOP doing [specific thing].

8. This is the number one killer of [niche topic].

9. Do not make this mistake when…

10. Do not do [this] if you want [that].

11. We’re screwed.

12. [target audience] is screwed.

13. [niche topic] is bullshit.

14. I’m probably going to get a lot of hate for this, but I don’t care.

15. If you’re a [target audience], you’re not going to like this…

16. You need to STOP doing this…

17. This is why [target audience tactic] isn’t working.

18. Do NOT buy this if you want [positive outcome].

19. [topic] is overrated.

20. I can’t believe people still believe [myth].

21. I HATE people who [do this].

22. You’re sick if you believe [topic].

23. I fucked up…

24. The [people in your niche] are going to hate me for this but…

25. People who [do this] make me laugh.

26. Why are you still [doing this] in 2024?

27. Do NOT make this mistake when [video topic].

28. You’re doing [this] completely wrong.

29. As a [title] NOBODY wants to hear you talk about [topic].

30. X myths that [niche] creators get all wrong…

31. Here’s a tough pill that [target audience] can't swallow…

32. It’s so weird when [specific group/person] does [this].

33. I can’t believe I’m about to say this but…

34. I fucked up so you don’t have to. Here’s X things I wish I knew about [niche] sooner.

35. I lost [$X,XXX] doing [niche topic].

36. You guys are going to roast me in the comments, but…

37. You are OUT OF YOUR MIND if you think [hot take].

38. Don’t tell me that you still think [topic/myth] is legit…

39. If you’re still [doing this], I’m begging you to listen to me…

40. This is what all the other [niche creators] are hiding from you…

41. As a [niche], PLEASE stop making this mistake.

Visual Hooks

1. Light a candle.

2. Hold a drink.

3. Jump/Slide into the frame.

4. Lean towards the camera.

5. Act like you’re setting up the phone.

6. Do your makeup while talking.

7. Make a quick cut or edit.

8. Hold microphone in your hand.

9. Brush your hair while talking.

10. Make dinner while talking.

11. Run at the screen.

12. Add green screen video in the background.

13. Have many moving elements.

14. TEXT ON THE SCREEN. This should be your hook worded differently. Every single video.

15. Tap the camera.

16. Zoom into your face in editing.

17. Show something unusual.

18. Catch or throw something.

19. Have something unusual in the background.

20. Change the color of your clothing.

21. Walking while talking.

22. Sit down.

23. Write something down.

24. Show yourself in the mirror.

FAQ

1. What course did you take to learn TikTok?

I took a $30 course, but I honestly can’t recommend it because what worked for me is opposite of what the course taught.

Most of my learning came from rapidly experimenting by producing 3-5 videos per day, then observing what worked.

The only exception is hooks. EVERYONE, including the course, says “spend 80% of your time on the hook!”

I personally spend 80% of my time learning AI-related things, rather than writing hooks, because it’s a better long-term investment for my sanity 😅 

And, you get better at hooks as you film more videos, see what works, and see other people’s content.

So, I reiterate my main point: make more videos!

2. How often do you post?

Nowadays, I post 20 videos per week.

When starting, I posted 3-5 videos per day.

3. Do you use any special tools for editing?

No, I keep it simple because I don’t enjoy the process of filming or editing.

I use my iPhone front camera and the TikTok mobile app for filming and editing.

4. Do you script your videos?

Rarely.

I’ll use the Teleprompter effect in TikTok if I’m reading a specific ChatGPT prompt or a curated list.

All other cases, I talk naturally, like I’m talking to a friend. Pause if I forget to breathe. Restart filming if needed. Nothing fancy.

Did I miss anything?

Have ideas or suggestions?

Message me on LinkedIn 👋

Sabrina Ramonov

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