The Diary of a CEO Director of Trailers on How to Stop the Scroll and Grow Faster on Social Media

Anthony Smith was about to quit editing forever the night he saw the Diary of a CEO job posting. He'd just told his girlfriend he was done. She said give it one more chance.
He stayed up all night building a portfolio site on Wix, tracked down the co-founder's email, and turned a 20-minute job interview into a two-hour conversation.
Now he's the Director of Trailers behind the content that took Stephen Bartlett's YouTube from 300K to 15 million subscribers. And in this episode he's giving away everything: the storytelling frameworks, the cliffhanger technique, why your hook is actually killing your retention, and the real reason DOAC grew so fast that has nothing to do with production budget or Stephen's fame.
Oh, and he uses I Am Legend to explain why failing publicly is the smartest content strategy you can have. That part alone is worth the 48 minutes 🤯
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04:33 How he turned a Wix site into the most coveted content job in podcasting
06:34 The one step above method, why your application is getting ignored
19:38 Why information without storytelling will never convert
21:03 Your hook is working against you
24:09 The cliffhanger technique DOAC uses to turn reels into podcast listeners
26:05 Why going viral is the wrong goal
38:54 What I Am Legend taught him about experimentation
18:49 Effort and care beats talent. Every single time.
20:29 The real reason DOAC hit 15 million subscribers
About Anthony
Anthony Smith is the Director of Trailers at Diary of a CEO. Entirely self-taught, with a background in film, TV, and advertising, he joined DOAC when the channel had 300K subscribers and has been central to its growth to over 15 million. He shares storytelling and content creation tips on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Connect with Anthony
👍 Instagram: @anthonyr.smith
💼 LinkedIn: Anthony Smith
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson