The writing formula that scaled this 13-year-old's brand to 500 orders a week
How to find your 'viral angle'
Happy Sunday 👋,
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Over the last 2 days, I went deep into the TikTok rabbit hole and stumbled on a story that's even crazier than the 19-year-old making $1M in her first year.
A 13-year-old launched a scrunchie business and went from zero to 500 orders a day.
Here’s the kicker—there’s one HUGE thing she’s doing that makes all the difference.
Let’s get into it 👇
Step 1: Start bad
The best advice in the beginning?
Just start and recognize you’re going to be bad at this thing.
Start where you are, with the idea you have, and lower your expectations of going viral tomorrow, because it’s not happening.
Instead here’s the best way to approach it: I’m going to show up for the next 6 months and try my best, then I’m going to listen *intensely* to what’s working and do more of that. That’s exactly what Dasha did.
Introducing: Enchanted Scrunchies
Enchanted scrunchies (a hair scrunchy company) started in Dasha’s childhood bedroom because she couldn’t find the scrunchies she wanted on the market.
So she made her own (almost all good startup stories start with scratching your own itch).
I scrolled back (what felt like a million posts) to the launch of Enchanted Scrunchies.
To my surprise, no initial post launching the brand. Instead, her first post was of a conversation between Dasha and a customer.
It’s a walk-through of a conversation with a typical ‘Karen’ type customer response demanding that the order be shipped faster. After a couple of those type posts, she switched gear into a new angle. Her mom bought her a tonne of poly mailers and she hasn’t had a sale in ages, see that post below.
Dasha’s first 5 posts:
Post 1: Karen customer conversation — video: packing orders
Post 2: Karen customer conversation — video: packing orders
Post 3: Polymailers from mom — video: mailers
Post 4: Launch of silk scrunchies — video: silk scrunchies
Post 5: Small business ‘stuff’ writing a note to a customer — video: note writing
As you can see, nothing revolutionary in her first few posts.
But the important thing was that she just got started and committed to the craft of posting consistently. Without that, your brand will flop. But without this second part, you’ll be posting into the void.
I’ve spoken before about the importance of listening to what works, figuring out why, and capitalizing on that. So I switched over to Dasha’s most popular posts to see if there was a theme and turns out, there it was…
Step 2: Figure out what’s working
The beauty of posting daily (or multiple times) is getting instant feedback on what works.
After a few weeks, you can review and see what’s clicking—and why. That’s exactly what Dasha did.
Check out her most popular videos for a breakdown:
Post 1: ‘‘TikToker’ have we really only sold 11 scrunchies??’ #scrunchielove #scrunchies #teenentrepreneur #shopping video: a snapshot of comment with a talking head from Dasha — 25.1M views
Post 2: ‘‘TikToker’ we never waste work or time unnecessarily’ #breakingscrunchies #scrunchies #qualitycontrol #scrunchielover #teenentrepreneur #shopping #QuakerPregrain video: a snapshot of comment with a talking head from Dasha— 7.2M views
Post 3: ‘‘TikToker’ gotta break all the bad scrunchies to fix em up!! #brokenscunchies #breaking #hair #shopping #scrunchielover #qualitycheck #holidays’ video: a snapshot of comment with a talking head from Dasha — 12.8M views
Post 4: ‘And if your scrunchie breaks, I’ll send over a new scrunchie!! #scrunchielover #scrunchies #teenentrepreneur #breaking scrunchies video: breaking scrunchies — 7.1M views
Post 5: ‘Whoops’ #smallbusiness #teenbizowner #christmas #shopping #holidayshopping #scrunchielover video: stocking shelves text: when nobody would hire a 14-year old so you just create your own scrunchie business’ 4.5M views
She’s obviously come a long way from her early days of posting pictures of her packaging (and note we spoke last week about videos of SoulMate Customs videos of packing orders but remember there is something unique and transformational about their order packaging).
Step 3: Interrogate your data
Once you have a load of data, it’s your job to interrogate it. Ask why it worked, what was different, and what could it be that got the traction.
Here’s what I notice about Dasha’s most popular videos:
3x are replying to comments (with the comment snapshot in the top corner)
All are potentially controversial (drama-fuelled) topics like ‘have we really only sold 11 scrunchies’ for a viral TikTok brand
3x breaking scrunchies
Dasha in the frame from the start
Scrunchies in the background
Many start mid-breaking the scrunchies
You never know what’s going to take off, in Dasha’s case, it seems that an unusual amount of people were triggered when she started breaking scrunchies.
*Yep, you heard that right, pulling scrunchies until they break (the internet is weird).*
Turns out, lots of people had a lot to say about Dasha breaking scrunchies.
And if you know one thing about content, if lots of people have lots to say about it, lots more probably will too.
I think this works because it’s initially very confusing (and then makes tonnes of sense) an ‘audience’ transformation if you will — confusing initially because it seems to be a big waste of time, pulling apart a thing that she’s spent ages making. But underneath, there’s a real good reason for pulling apart these scrunchies. It’s actually quality control. You see if the scrunchie breaks, Dasha isn’t selling it.
I’ve talked before about making your marketing part of your daily business (here), there is a real genius to taking moments and capturing them:
Step 1: Find tiny moments in your day to capture
Step 2: Post them and see what works
Find your ‘moments’ that get traction rinse and repeat but go REALLY HARD on reusing what works. Make it part of your brand.
You can see tonnes of posts breaking scrunchies and she’s even created a ‘breaking scrunchies’ section on TikTok and it’s her USP ‘unbreakable scrunchies’ — phenomenal.
What I think is unique about Dasha is that she can find her unique perspective and use it to her advantage. Almost all her posts have ‘teenbizowner’ as a hashtag. How many people can say they’ve started a successful business at 13? Not many, that’s her unique angle.
Remember, the market is flooded with ‘same-same’ content from people all trying to do that same stuff. The only way you can truly stand out is by leaning into what makes you honestly unique and then using that to your advantage.
For Dasha, that was being a 13-year-old business owner breaking her scrunchies that took her hours to make.
If you can find your viral angle, you increase your chances of making it a success.
Step 4: Your viral angle post GPT
To help you find your unique, viral angle, here’s the GPT prompt that will generate 10 creative story-driven content ideas tailored to your business (to help you stand out).