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EXCLUSIVE: This Entrepreneur Built A 15M Follower Instagram Empire. Here’s How He Did It

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What’s up, WealthGANG… so we all know the importance of social media in today’s media and business landscape.

In a world where follows and likes are currency, the ones who know how to win on social media, win big.

(Just ask The Rock. He charges studios $1M just to tweet about the movie he’s in…)

In this WealthLAB exclusive, we sat down with NuMedia CEO Brandon Harris, who’s built a modern media powerhouse by acquiring popular Instagram handles and growing these accounts to seven figures in annual revenue.

Across the board, Brandon has over 15M followers and gets more than 1B views a year. Here’s how he did it…

WealthLAB: What’s good, Brandon?!

Harris: What’s up.

Let’s get right to it. What is NuMedia?

NuMedia’s a hybrid media-company-slash-influencer-marketing-agency with almost 15 million followers. We generate over 1B views per year. And, we help brands reach and engage with Millennials at scale.

How did it come about?

I’ve been in the sports industry since I was 19 and I identified a huge opportunity. I was on the buying side of a large basketball apparel brand, and I was seeing 12, 14, 15-year old kids make over $50,000 per year off us because of these enormous Instagram channels they built.

No way.

Yeah. And, the crazy part was, even with the high prices they were charging, it was insanely profitable on our end, too.

I knew Instagram influencer marketing was a rare win-win niche. I decided I wanted to be the biggest sports network on Instagram.

And, outside of Bleacher Report, ESPN and other huge corporations, there are pretty much no other companies with our level of reach in the extremely passionate sports media industry, available at prices that small businesses can afford.

You’ve gotten crazy follower numbers on IG. How did you do it?

Many people are social media gurus/experts. I’m not. I’m an entrepreneur. And, that’s probably my greatest advantage in this industry.

Do tell…

I am super passionate about finding growth hacks. I constantly look to find scalable methods of growth. And, the biggest driver in this case is basic understanding of unit economics.

For example, this person has this many followers, they get this much engagement per post, their prices are x, their daily sales volume is y. What levers can I pull to squeeze more dollars, more followers from this channel?

We always look to invest in consultation and staying with a finger on the pulse of the latest social growth techniques. First it was share for share, then giveaways, then private/DM technique, and now it’s essentially impossible to gain followers organically.

Who do you work with and how do you decide to go about it?

We hire under-appreciated young content creators. I hire operations people so I can focus on sales and business development. It’s a daily grind of looking at ways to improve the people and processes. We strive to get better every day.

It’s been a lot of growth hacks—social growth and sales growth—a lot of reinvesting, and a lot of strategic acquisitions to help us get to where we are now with the business.

I gotta ask you this. How the hell did you get those popular handle names?

I would love to say I have the secret sauce. To be honest, it’s mostly relationships.

The same person who helped me land the username @sports, helped me acquire @peace. @Acknowledge was someone who I spent over $100,000 on shoutouts with. @Legal was someone who wanted to work for me.

Which one? 1,2,3?

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So acquisitions mainly?

Yeah. And I made sure that everyone who was doing major things in the industry knew who we were. And, I got in very early and collaborated with the biggest influencers in the game. They knew they could trust me, given my history of making many of them very wealthy when I was solely on the buying side. So there wasn’t very much I had to do other than respond to incoming inquiries.

Lots of channels sell shoutouts. You have a different monetization strategy. Why is that — and how does it work for you?

I think the biggest difference is, like I touched on earlier, I’m much more of a general business person than a social media expert.

While others were focused on content and social growth, I was focused on scalable content systems, sales processes, other services, branding and so on.

Our monetization model is super balanced. We sell shoutouts like the others, but we’ve also built such a large network that we can offer guaranteed growth at a firm cost per follower.

We sell seven figures in apparel, we drive traffic to media content for a fixed CPC [cost-per-click], we create viral branded content and we help popularize hip hop artists, among other revenue sources. We’re always looking for new ways to profit without damaging our network.

Lots of entrepreneurs—budding entrepreneurs—are reading this. What’s your number one advice for someone who wants to start a business but still is on the fence?

I’m a big believer in taking risks and jumping at opportunities. Learn as much as you can, be great at what you’re doing, and understand that failure, at its worst, is temporary.

I got internships to learn SEO, I bought courses on social media, I’ve spent six figures on conferences and masterminds. There’s nothing more powerful than investing in knowledge and experience. Then, all it comes down to, is moving quickly and jumping at opportunities.

You can follow Brandon and NuMedia on Instagram here and here

Travel or clean? 🔥 (via @kobi_simmons2 h/t @bestcrosses)

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Business

How Big Real Estate Moguls Avoid Taxes (And How You Can, Too) 👀

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I was looking around Google for an old article on tax strategies and this five-year old video of myself happened to pop up.

I’m interviewing a tax expert about how real estate investors avoid paying taxes in perpetuity—AND how everyday citizens can do the same thing.

(Real estate—our TEMPLE I and TEMPLE II projects included—has a number of tax benefits savvy investors have capitalized on for years, including Opportunity Zone breaks and 10-year tax abatements.)

There’s the 1031 exchange, of course, which I’ve shared with you guys before. 

Just to refresh your memory, the 1031 Exchange allows you to roll over gains from your last project into a new property TAX FREE—as long as said property is worth the same or more.

But there’s ANOTHER TAX LOOPHOLE that can take your portfolio to an entirely new level by splitting your capital gains into MULTIPLE properties.

So I thought I’d share it with you guys. 💎

You can check it out here.

Let me know what you think. 😎

PS: In our next update, I’m going to break down how real estate moguls get paid from their properties…tax free. 👀
PPS: If you want to learn how to implement generational wealth strategies like this one, you can join our NYCE wealth academy (TRIBE U) here.

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Business

How I run a $300M+ business from the beach…(and how you can TOO!)

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Yes, you read that right.

If there’s anything the pandemic taught us, it’s that the paradigm of “office” and “workspace” has been shaken to its CORE.

Universities are teaching via Zoom, court dates are done virtually, FULLY REMOTE businesses are valued at $1B+, and legitimate Inc. 5000 startups are run from…wherever. 📲

This is my office for the day…

I am actually running our business from the beach, typing this from here.

It’s 4:28 pm CET, which means it’s 10:28 am EST and I am CRUSHING my to-do list.

(And the team will continue to crush it while I’m asleep. That’s the 🗝)

So how did we get here? 

We launched NYCE and our mission to create 100,000 millionaires in March, 2020…just as the global COVID-19 lockdown happened. 😳

As a result, we shut down our main office and set EVERYTHING up to run remotely…

SMOOTHLY! And a system that allows us to outperform competition by 200%. (You can build this system, too. More on this in a second.)

Here’s what we were able to do since then:

  • Gained 6M+ followers across all platforms 📈
  • Add 1500+ new apartments to the portfolio 🤑
  • Grow to $300M in real estate 🚀
  • 105% investor returns 🎉
  • 700K+ community members 🤝

And here’s the best part…

Having team members in all the main time zones gives us a 24-hour work cycle vs. 9-5/eight-hour on-the-clock performance.

This means we get 3x the productivity of a similar company. 🔥

Let me repeat that…3x PRODUCTIVITY vs. our competitors.

Meanwhile our project management software grants us 24-hour TEAM-WIDE connectivity that tracks all tasks and lets us know if productivity dips even a little bit.

There is ALWAYS someone senior awake. It could be Martin in Barcelona…Nat in New York…Vineet & Arif in New Delhi.

All the while giving YOU GUYS wealth hacks and daily content. 🔥

OK, so how can you do it?!

Well, the first step is to have an actual side hustle you’re launching. Not just an idea, a validated business.

MAJOR KEY: Do NOT spend money until you’ve made your FIRST DOLLAR! 🗝🗝🗝🗝

(You can catch a replay Business Launch masterclass here and see TRIBE member Nessa launched her business on the spot and got her first $45K client shortly after.)

One of the easiest ways to start is with Airbnb—you can start that in 10 minutes. Literally. (Here’s a guide if you need it.)

Once you have your business, you build a virtual infrastructure (you really just need two softwares, which are FREE), manage the team accordingly and run the business from there.

I’m gonna put together a step-by-step video breakdown this weekend inside the new TRIBE U on the FIVE key things you need to do this for YOURSELF. 💵 💎

From what software to use, how to build a team, how to keep.

In the meantime, drop a comment if you’re ready to build some wealth and any questions if you want more…

Let’s get to work. 🙌

PS: If you can’t be bothered with video and just wanna get to work, we’re hosting a TRIBE U workshop that will help you get this process started on the spot. It’s $479 $49. 🔥

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Entrepreneurs

EXCLUSIVE Q&A: This 26-Year Old Made $100K From Her IG In 90 Days. Here’s How She Did It 👀

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Yes, it’s a pandemic. Yes, the economy is down. Yet, some entrepreneurs have found opportunity in the “new normal” (whatever that means). 

In the public markets, FAANGs are booming: Amazon and Netflix are up dramatically, fueled by the need for home entertainment…and shopping.

One of them is Ariel Adams, a 26-year-old South Virginia-based realtor. In April, at the height of the lockdown, she had exactly 1000 followers on Instagram. 

Fast forward to today, she’s attracted over 100K followers, has made $100K in online sales (again, during the pandemic), and is now showing others how to do the same.

We sat down with Ariel to discuss how she made $100K in 90 days, what she sold, how she got her first customer, and how you can, too.

Let’s get right to it. You work in real estate but were able to make $100,000 from your IG in three months. Let’s start with the product. What did you sell?

Yes, that’s correct. I was shocked myself! My sales came from my digital products, mainly my e-book From Instagram to Instant Money. My e-book dives into how you can optimize your Instagram profile to grow a following and sell your own product. I talk to the Instagram algorithm and how to beat it to ultimately monetize the platform. My other digital product is my course How to $ave Like the Wealthy. As a realtor, I would receive a lot of questions in regards to saving up for a down payment on a home. I decided to create a video outlining the best way to save money and accumulate wealth. Both of those products got me to six figures!

How did you secure your first orders? Who were your buyers?

My sales came from my following. I would collaborate with other brands with significant followings and post my product on their page. This drew in a lot of traffic to my products and also pushed me to 100k followers on Instagram. My buyers were typically people looking to earn passive income by selling a product or service through Instagram.

Was the objective of your advertising to gain followers and sell later? Or did that just happen as a byproduct of people buying your courses?

I never was trying to gain followers, I was always trying to sell. I think people would see my ad, go to my page, and then turn into a follower because I always provide valuable content on my page. My Instagram consists of personal finance infographics, real estate tips, and inspirational quotes. I think people naturally gravitated toward that and I was able to retain and gain followers.

How do you consistently market it? Is this a model anyone can use?

I try to set up placements on these bigger Instagram pages 2-3 times a week. I aim for business pages, women-owned business pages, and black business pages. My product resonates well with entrepreneurs looking to scale their business through IG. It is absolutely a model anyone can use. I recommend following the other steps I speak to in my e-book. This will ensure the most success.

Most aren’t aware that partnerships can literally boost your business. How did you come up with the idea of collaboration and what made you target those pages exactly?

Being savvy to Instagram, I was always aware of Influencer Marketing. A lot of people think that’s just girls posting brands to their million or so followers, but it includes placements with ANY brand that has a substantial following. I knew this was a key to success. Collaboration on bigger platforms would be the most helpful for my brand. I targeted people I thought would be interested in my product; women CEOs, entrepreneurs, e-commerce enthusiasts, etc. I made sure to stay within that niche.

How did you come up with this idea?

I was inspired by other online entrepreneurs. I saw them making thousands online and I thought to myself, “Hey, I can do that.” So I decided to do it. I asked myself, “What am I skilled in? What can I teach people?” From my previous life managing artists in the music industry, I became an expert in Instagram. Combining what I studied at the University of Miami (Business) and my knowledge of Instagram, that’s what sparked my e-book on the subject.

What’s the number one advice you’d give someone who’s looking to make money for themselves but isn’t sure where to start?

My advice would be to write down what it is you’re good at. Brainstorm what skills you have. Maybe you have a passion for food? Good, create and sell a cookbook. Maybe you’re good at writing? You can become a freelance resume writer. We all have skills we can capitalize on. And if you need to learn how to market yourself, then Google is your best friend. Read, read, read. Self-educate and you will be on your way, and of course download my e-book to learn how to sell through Instagram!

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