Executive Voice
Learn How This 18 Year Old Grew 14,000 Instagram Followers In A Day

Recently, I sat down with Sam Young– an 18 year old social media influencer, to uncover his story, and find out more about how he got into the marketing industry.
How did you get into the realm of social media?
I started Instagram with my best friend around 5 years ago where we would make edits of NFL players. Eventually we got bored, so I switched the account to a fan page of my favorite YouTuber, Danny Duncan. He was always an inspiration to me, and I would post about him daily. After around 3 months of posting, Danny began to notice me and we started messaging. We found a time to meet up at one of his shows, and it was a great experience. He then posted a shoutout for my page, which boosted me from 10,000 followers to 24,000 in one day.
Are there any entrepreneurs that you look up to, if so, who, and how have they impacted what you do?
There are many entrepreneurs I look up to, but my biggest inspiration has to be Carter Jamison. After around a year of owning the Danny Duncan fan page, Carter messaged me and said he wanted to buy my account. He offered me $400. At the time, I didn’t understand that social media could make money and I was very confused as to why he would want my account. I turned him down because the account meant so much to me, but we stayed in touch. We talked for around 3 months, until my page was deleted by Instagram for a violation of their terms of service. I was heartbroken that my account was gone, but even more broken from all of the friends like Carter that I lost. Eventually I got the page back, and Carter helped me. He showed me how to grow my first page from 40,000 followers to over 100,000 in a short few months. We’ve been friends ever since, and he has been a great mentor.
Were there any moments in your journey that you’d consider the ‘turning points’ and if so could you outline them?
My biggest turning point was having my account deleted at 40,000 followers. I would spend 10+ hours every day on Instagram, so to have it all taken away from me was a huge setback for me. I quit Instagram for almost a full year, until I found someone who could help bring it back. This opened a whole new world of connections and possibilities, and has changed the way I view social media drastically.
How would you define success?
I would define success as happiness. In order to be successful as a person, you need to be happy. Money is just a concept, happiness is something that you can’t buy.
Where do you see yourself and your business in a couple years? What’s your dream?
In a couple of years, I hope that I am still on Instagram, with a much larger network of followers. As of now, I have around 1.5 million followers across all of my accounts. In December of 2019, I had 40,000. I want to keep growing my clients’ tens of thousands of followers every day.
Most of all, I want to continue making friendships through Instagram. It’s hard to understand the connection you can build with someone over the computer, but these friendships are real. I consider some of my “Instagram friends” to be some of my best friends.
-
Entrepreneurship1 week ago
Uncovering the Stories of the World’s Most Impactful Entrepreneurs: Meet Dr. Amit Kumar CEO of Anixa Biosciences
-
Executive Voice1 week ago
Endexx Announced Joint Venture with DJ Khaled and Now Its The Stock to Own
-
Community1 week ago
Mover and Shaker, Money Maker & Law Breaker: Meet Mac Mcclafferty
-
Community5 days ago
Who Is Bando Beej?
-
Entrepreneurship2 weeks ago
Charlene Izere is Building 3 Business Ventures to Build Black Economic Power
-
Entrepreneurship4 days ago
To Live And Sell Authentically With Austin Bergman, Fort Lauderdale’s Leading Luxury Agent
-
Community1 week ago
British Model Bonnie Locket is Taking Social Media by Storm
-
Branding2 days ago
Disrupting or Disturbing? This Might Just Change The Way You Buy Your Next Pair of Football Boots