8 (stupidly simple) rules to grow on social media
Executive Summary
A My First Million solo episode (episode 862) in which Shaan Puri shares what he calls non-obvious rules for building an audience, drawn from his experience with a podcast he says has over 100 million downloads. Rules covered include who follows you mattering more than how many, finding your inner nerd, content before packaging, building a binge bank, and people wanting a feeling more than information. Sponsor: HubSpot, which offers a free guide of the episode's notes, read in the episode and linked in the description. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this note covers the intro, rules one and two, the HubSpot read, rules about content first and the binge bank, rule seven and the closing, and does not cover every part of the roughly 18 minute episode, and not every one of the eight rules in detail. Audience figures and examples are Shaan's own and not independently checked.
Key Takeaways
Who follows matters, not how many
Shaan says it is better to be read by 100 Fortune 100 CEOs than 100,000 random people, so be intentional about the audience you care about.
The Ferrari versus GM analogy
He says GM sells about 2.5 million cars and is worth around $50 billion, while Ferrari sells 13,000 and is worth about $80 billion, so fewer, higher-end customers can be worth more.
Sponsor: HubSpot
He says the episode's sponsor HubSpot has turned the notes into a free guide to download from the description.
Find your inner nerd
He says to ask what you nerd out about most, and illustrates with his uncle's elaborate model train set, because the internet will find others as nerdy as you.
Content first, packaging later
He says Joe Rogan's early episodes had cheesy effects and an old webcam, and the content mattered most.
Create a binge bank
He says to build an hour of content that someone could binge and come away loving you, instead of focusing on tiny view counts.
People want a feeling
He says he was wrong for a long time to focus on information, and that people want a feeling, and his closing message is to be yourself with an actual playbook.
The Conversation Breakdown
Who follows matters, not how many
⏱ Untimed topicShaan says it is better to be read by 100 Fortune 100 CEOs than 100,000 random people, so be intentional about the audience you care about.
The Ferrari versus GM analogy
⏱ Untimed topicHe says GM sells about 2.5 million cars and is worth around $50 billion, while Ferrari sells 13,000 and is worth about $80 billion, so fewer, higher-end customers can be worth more.
Sponsor: HubSpot
⏱ Untimed topicHe says the episode's sponsor HubSpot has turned the notes into a free guide to download from the description.
Find your inner nerd
⏱ Untimed topicHe says to ask what you nerd out about most, and illustrates with his uncle's elaborate model train set, because the internet will find others as nerdy as you.
Content first, packaging later
⏱ Untimed topicHe says Joe Rogan's early episodes had cheesy effects and an old webcam, and the content mattered most.
Create a binge bank
⏱ Untimed topicHe says to build an hour of content that someone could binge and come away loving you, instead of focusing on tiny view counts.
People want a feeling
⏱ Untimed topicHe says he was wrong for a long time to focus on information, and that people want a feeling, and his closing message is to be yourself with an actual playbook.
Core Frameworks & Ideas
Right audience over big audience - rule one
Optimise for who follows you.
Inner nerd - rule two
Choose the topic you obsess over, even if it seems boring.
Binge bank - rule six
Create a first season of content worth a full hour binge.
Actionable Next Steps
- ✓Write down the 100 people you would most want to reach.
- ✓List the topic you could talk about for hours and publish one piece on it.
- ✓Build a binge bank of six or seven pieces before judging the numbers.
- ✓Check any audience or valuation figure from reliable sources before quoting it.
Notable Quotes
“who follows you is what's important, not how many people follow you”
“I call this finding your inner nerd.”
“Lesson number seven, people do not want information. They want a feeling.”
The One Thing to Remember
Shaan says audience growth comes from reaching the right people, leaning into what you nerd out about, and creating a first hour of great content, not from chasing numbers.