Organic content and IG growth

@august_carlsson

A creative director "applies" for a job in public: he tears down a famous founder's (Grant Cardone) Instagram in a 2-minute reel and rebuilds the content strategy on screen (bio, stories, a top/middle/bottom-of-funnel reel plan). The pitch itself is the proof of skill, and the target replied in the comments.

616k plays · 17 Aug 2026

What they said

Framing: this is a job application, delivered as a public teardown. Claims he watched nearly all of the target's content and finds it "stuck in 2016".
Red flag 1 (0:14): no visible strategy. Argues a person with "5 billion dollars in real estate who sells a program online" should have a strategy for the most important social platform.
Fix 1, the bio (0:29): current bio is overwhelming, not scannable, does not communicate results. New bio, three lines: "$5B real estate portfolio", "850,000+ people trained", "Free real estate live training" (link below). Side-by-side before/after mockups of the profile shown.
Fix 2, stories (0:44): current stories are random ("I don't even know what it is"). Replace with 4 story types: (1) results-driven story sequences to send traffic to the lead magnet (free training), (2) lifestyle stories to humanise the brand, (3) value sequences to build trust and goodwill, (4) trailers to pitch events. Purpose: hit all triggers that move people through the content funnel. Drawn as a flow diagram: each story type maps to its job (lead magnet / humanise / build trust and goodwill / traffic to events).
Fix 3, reels (0:66), organised on an inverted-funnel diagram (TOF / MOF / BOF):
- Top of funnel, 3 formats: (a) live demonstrations, e.g. "fix my portfolio" (credited to what Hormozi's team has been blowing up with lately; shown example reel "We can't find good employees" with a Hormozi Q&A style split screen); (b) lifestyle content, which the target already does but with random, poor clip selection, so pick clips with bigger viral potential while keeping the right brand associations; (c) handheld yaps: target is funny and well spoken, so feed him proven topics and proven hooks and let him talk.
- Middle of funnel, 2 formats: (a) an "Ask / Don't" series ("Ask Cardone": people call in with questions, he answers, the calls become content); (b) storytelling using his "absolutely crazy stories", with a proven storytelling hook and a proven storytelling structure.
- Bottom of funnel: use stories (as explained above), no reels.
Implicit method: audit profile, then stories, then reels, all mapped to funnel stage; each content type is tied to one job.

Try this

Agencies and freelancers: Turn a prospect teardown into your outreach. Pick one brand you want to work with, audit its bio, stories and reels in a short screen-recorded video, and show the fixes on screen. The video is both the pitch and a portfolio piece. Keep the tone constructive: the main criticism of this approach was calling the prospect's content "horrible".
Everyone: Fix the bio first with a three-line formula: your biggest result as a number, a proof or scale number (people served, years, revenue), and one free thing to click below.
Brands and creators: Give each Story type one job: results sequences that send people to your lead magnet, lifestyle stories that humanise, value sequences that build trust, and trailers that pitch an event or drop.
Creators: Plan reels by funnel stage. Top: live demonstrations, well-chosen lifestyle clips and handheld talking-head "yaps" on proven topics. Middle: an ask-me-anything series built from real audience questions, plus storytelling with a proven hook and structure. Bottom: Stories, not reels.
Starting out: Draw the funnel on a whiteboard first. If you cannot say what each post is supposed to do (reach, trust, or convert), it is the strategy that is missing, not the editing.

Watch the original

Watch the full reel on Instagram by @august_carlsson. Follow them for more.

Video, voice and ideas belong to @august_carlsson. Shown here as a short preview with our own summary, for commentary and education. Want it removed? Tell us.

00:00