How this high schooler makes up to $2k/mo posting about food

Newsletter · Aug 11, 2024

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An entrepreneur's recipe for sweet success

3.5min Read

One of my favorite things about writing this newsletter is being able to talk to so many awesome entrepreneurs, hear their stories and then SHARE them with you. 🫵🏻

And this week’s email is one that I’m STOKED to share.

I had the opportunity to talk to a young up and coming entrepreneur who’s figuring out how to play the game in HIGH SCHOOL that most of us had no clue about at that point.

@Imgsfit has over 43 THOUSAND followers on Instagram and 3 different methods of monetizing his brand. That within itself is noteworthy. You don’t NEED that many followers to make money online, but having them only helps. Especially if you use those eyes 👀 to your advantage.

Before you check out because “you’re not into the social media thing”, wait one sec. ✋🏻

This isn’t JUST about the way he utilizes social media.

This is a crash course on branding and monetizing a passion.

I know you’re passionate about something.

What if you could figure out a way to keep doing that thing AND make an extra 1k-2k /month??

That’s what this article talks about and it’s TOTALLY possible to do.

***For privacy, through the article I’m going to refer to our rockstar guest this week by his IG handle “Imgsfit”. Cool? Cool.

ORIGIN STORY:

I’m always so fascinated with origin stories. You might also call them “starter stories”, but origin story just has the super hero feel to it, so we’re sticking with that today.

In my mind, hearing the origin of these successes makes them REAL and POSSIBLE.

Like taking the mask off the super hero you’re able to see who they are and where they came from.

Often we see how successful someone is and think that there’s NO way we can get to that point.

It feels so untouchable… but when you hear the origin of their success, it’s like you’re rewinding the tape.

You get to see that they started out just like you and I.

They had an idea, a dream, a passion… And they took that and ran with it.

Imgsfit started his IG page just as a hobby and at the time, he had no idea of the earning potential it had.

His page is dedicated to teaching people about healthy eating and how even as a high schooler, he manages to eat really well.

His focus is on making it easy and sustainable to eat GOOD, CLEAN, whole foods and cutting out the junk food.

Like I said, he didn’t start this page really for any other reason than the fact that he was/ is passionate about it himself.

This was something that he was ALREADY doing.

He just wanted to share it with others. It wasn’t until he started getting hit up by public relations packages for him to post about their products that he realized this could be a great side hustle.

Products that he was ALREADY using, wanted to pay him to feature their product on his page even more. It was a no brainer.

Healthy eating, fitness, nutrition are all crowded spaces, so the key is to find the edge. What was it that made him unique?

His age. Boom! ✅ That’s the ticket.

Imgsfit did a couple things really well here.

He found something that was unique about who he is and then leaned into that. (I talk about that more here)
He provided genuine value

And THAT right there was the start. But that doesn’t even come close to telling the whole story.

Imgsfit launched his page out of passion, with a unique platform to stand on and value to provide. His mission over everything has been to create a community of people who will continue to come back to his content.

It’s his understanding of this variable that we all need to take note of.

Let me say it again in a different way; Imgsfit realized that a key to his success was building a community. A tribe. A true fan.

He understood that and then built with that in mind from the very beginning.

A couple things happened really quick for Imgsfit that set him up for the success he has now.

As soon as he saw that he was gaining a substantial following, he started building out his community and products.
He paid attention to what posts of his were doing well and he stayed consistent with posting that kind of content.

This goes for any kind of business; build your tribe and understand what your customers want.

Seems simple enough, but few will execute these tactics.

Here’s a post of his that REALLY went viral and when the realization hit that he can actually build something big

Notice the timeline of this post. About 18 weeks ago. This was at the beginning of April. 2024… 🤯

He launched his page mid March… it’s August right now.

Are you seeing this?? This is crazy! The speed of this is insane. Which is another variable to his success.

He had an idea, he acted on it, he stayed consistent and it TOOK OFF! 🚀

Generally things don’t happen this fast, BUT if you go about whatever you’re working on with urgency and purpose, that will only help.

Let’s get down to the final 3 points here:

How much does he make?
If he could start over what would he change?
What is he planning to do in the future?
For his ebook with recipes he’s made in total, several hundred dollars with all the copies. But the real ticket here is where he gets paid monthly to use/ promote products. He’ll make anywhere from $900-1800/mo doing that.

Like I said, leveraging the eyeballs.

Quoted directly from Imgsfit when asked how we would have done things differently, he replied

“I could have started monetizing sooner, you don’t need as many followers as you might think to make money, I honestly could of started making money with a few thousand followers.”

You don’t need 43,000 followers. Straight from the source right here. This applies to every other business. You don’t need THOUSANDS of customers, in fact in a lot of cases you don’t need many.

Find that niche, define who your customer is and launch.

While Imgsfit doesn’t have a definitive plan for his future growth, he told me that he realized “SERIOUS money” can be made in social media. For now he’s going to continue to grow his page and his community and see how far he can take it.

Bringing this all together:

My hope for you is that you stick with this til the end. Because like I said in the beginning, this isn’t JUST a post on using social media to make money.

This is a break down of ESSENTIAL entrepreneur tactics that are being executed extremely well.

Are you passionate about something? I’m sure other people are, share your passion.
Once you have an idea. DO SOMETHING WITH IT. Launch and figure out as you go.
Pay attention to the feedback from your customers. Their likes and dislikes will guide you
You don’t need thousands of people to make some good money. Find your true fans and create/build for them.

If you DID stick with me til the end, thank you. you’re probably as obsessed with entrepreneurship as I am.

IF that is the case, you probably also like to read the same kinds of books.

If that in fact is YOU, then you’ll like this newsletter as well.

It’s literally the best highlights from the best non fiction/ entrepreneurial/ business/ biography books out there. Sent weekly-ish. This is the process I go through to put it together for you.

If you have business ideas that you're trying to work through and need assistance with launching or working out a piece of the puzzle, I'd love to help. I can talk through this stuff all day. And If I can't help, I probably know someone who can.

Speaking of business ideas and passions, here are the best tweets of the week talking about that:

@kevinasrx

Mid afternoon business idea: 🧠

Netflix for puzzlers.

Be honest, how many puzzles are you ever doing more than a couple of times…

I’d be surprised if you do one more than once.

But then do you do with them?

They go in a closet and take up space.

BUT WAIT

What if there…

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1820212220439212446

2:36 PM • Aug 4, 2024 ↗

@Persist_Change

I just got home from a week at a public park that grosses over 20M/yr (estimate).

And it's only open for 12 calendar weeks of the year!

Check this out:

10:6 AM • Aug 6, 2024 ↗

@trentjhughes

Tourism is a massive industry...

What tourism businesses can you start for under $10k?

6:41 AM • Aug 5, 2024 ↗