Josh Richards is a whole vibe.
Josh Richards grew up in a small town outside of Toronto. He had his first business when he was 13. Five years later, he had 30 million followers on social media. Now he’s got his hands in everything: talent agency, energy drink, dog food, podcast, he’s the CSO of Triller, and on and on.
Reflecting on his success, he told Ed Mylett consistency is key. “I took two years where I was posting five videos a day on TikTok. Two years. Five videos a day plus live streaming for four hours every single night from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. Straight. Four hours. Because I knew the only way I was going to be able to get ahead of the millions and millions of people who are doing social media was to just out-work them.”
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In addition to being gritty, Josh says you have to really care about what you’re creating. You can’t just go look at what your competitors are doing and copy them verbatim and expect it to work out. “You need to build out your own identity. It’s super important,” Josh stressed.
And don’t think your life’s not exciting enough to document on social media, he adds, telling how he was just a normal, everyday teenager; played sports; went to school dances; didn’t come from money; and he simply picked up his iPhone 4 (or whatever it was at the time) and started filming videos; and, well, here we are.
But which platform should you be on? All of ’em, says Josh. “You can’t hold yourself to one social media platform—at all. That’s like the worst decision I think any content creator can make.” By being everywhere, not only does your business become anti-fragile, but you can cross-promote all of your different channels to grow them even quicker.
“My Rolls seat belt hotter than a patty melt.” — Josh Richards
Josh also recommends you track your numbers. Whether that’s new subscribers, likes, comments, how many of your YouTube subscribers are converting to Instagram followers, you name it. Just make sure they’re always trending up; and if not, what do you need to do in order to fix it?
Another thing you can do, especially in the early days, is to just go interact with the biggest names in your space. When they post something, you like it, comment below it, follow some of their followers, and ethically siphon some of their audience over to your profile. It’s not sexy, but it is effective. Josh had his sister do this, daily, in the beginning.
That’s an important distinction. Josh wasn’t just cranking out videos, hoping one would blow up one day. He was business-like in his approach. “I want to be huge on social media. How am I gonna get there?” Once he found a winning formula, he executed. The good news is, you won’t have to grind forever. Sooner or later, you reach that tipping point, and momentum takes over.
So how rich is Josh Richards?
Through merchandise sales, ad share, brand deals, and, more recently, taking equity in various businesses, Josh Richards is making money hand over fist. We estimate his net worth at $2.5 million dollars, and rising fast. For more on his story and what the future holds, check out the interview below.
