Dickie Bush Twitter Powerhouse 🚢
#010 How this ex-BlackRock employee took over Twitter
In the mail 📧
The story 🎒: Let’s talk about the dentist that went all-in online.
Small ideas💡: Part-time creator ideas to ponder.
Web highlights 🌍: Cool things this week.
Tiny thought 🆕: On success.
Read time: 2 minutes
THE STORY:
Dickie Bush has taken over Twitter.
This is the story of how a guy working a 9-5 went from zero to over 280k followers in 2 years. Let’s dive in.
This story starts with a realization. The realization that Dickie Bush did not want to be 35 years old, working at BlackRock, and not having enough time to see and do all the things he wanted to in life.
That single thought sparked a 3-year journey that would change his life forever.
The humble beginnings
Back in Jan 2020, Dickie was looking for a starting point. With an appetite for learning about people all over the internet, he needed an outlet so he decided to start a newsletter. After 35-40 editions and endless blog posts he was getting frustrated, the feedback loop wasn’t fast enough.
After 6 months it was time to pivot. The numbers spoke for themselves: his newsletter was at 200 subs and his Twitter was at 100 followers.
Finding Twitter = the small bets, fast feedback system
So he decided to turn to Twitter, he knew he needed to get feedback on his work quicker and Twitter presented the perfect solution. After 8 months he’d hit 20,000 followers and things were starting to get serious.
His growth in numbers
August 2020 = 0
April 2021 = 20k
October 2021 = 70k
August 2022 = 239k
October 2022 = 273k
Since his start on Twitter his strategy was simple:
Post consistently (35 times a week + 2-3 threads a week)
Follow the data
This simple strategy led to some incredible moments that anyone would be shouting about.
Standout moments:
Tim Ferris mentioned his 10 journalling questions in his newsletter
Naval picked up a thread and he went from 500 Twitter followers to 1300 in 9 hours whilst he was sleeping.
Dickie posted ‘give the best advice you can in 2 words’ and it went viral.
Keep it simple yeah?
Dickie favors simplicity over anything else. Here’s a guy that decided to take small bets, put in the consistent work and focus on quality over anything else. In a few short years, he’s gone from Twitter-newbie to Twitter-authority.
To him, success is the result of compounding interest.
Resource 1, resource 2, resource 3 and resource 4.
Build unapologetically - What if you didn’t care what your high-school friends said about your online creator thing? Then what would you do?
The read-action rule - For every hour you spend reading a book, you have to spend the same amount of time implementing the lessons.
Delayed and instant gratification - It’s always one or the other but what if you can sprinkle in both together? Delay the big things, and reward the small.
Across the web 🌍
Tessa Davis the doctor who sells presentation tips.
I also discovered Nathan Barry this week, what a guy.
Tim Stoddart spits some real bangers on Twitter, you have to follow him.
Tiny thought:
Play the forever game. Find something you love so much that you’d do it for free because, for a good while, you’ll have to. But that’s okay, you’re already winning if you love what you’re doing. How can anyone outwork you if what they consider work is your fun?