He grew his Twitter to 100,000 followers in less than 18 months.

He then grew his Instagram to 170,000 followers in 30 days.

By 25, he was hitting $100K months.

And now, he’s taking over LinkedIn.

Watch out! It's… Dakota Robertson.

Let’s rewind.

Because growing up, Dakota didn’t start with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Both his parents struggled with addiction

As a kid, Dakota lived in a motorhome with his mother.

His father was out of the picture.

His Mom worked 2 jobs as a waitress to support them.

Often, they would sneak into the cinema to avoid paying $10 for a ticket.

But one of the things young Dakota had going for him was his love of reading.

His mom’s boyfriend – who also lived with them – impressed upon Dakota the importance of reading books. 

Dakota lost himself in books when his mom was out working.

Home-cooked meals were also hard to come by.

So double-stuffed Oreos became a staple. When paired with his love of playing Xbox, Dakota gained weight.

Of course, the kids at school didn’t hold back.

The constant bullying wrote the narrative in his head

For a while there, Dakota disliked who he was. 

The teasing at school lowered his self-confidence and heightened his frustration.

That was until he signed up to fitness classes at the local YMCA with his mom’s boyfriend. He used the disdain he had for his classroom tormentors as fuel.

It wasn’t long before it started paying off. 

He saw results, which boosted his self-esteem.

But in 2011, his Mom and her boyfriend broke up.

By this time, Dakota was essentially raising himself. His Mom was rarely around.

At 14, he’d had enough and asked his grandparents whether he could live with them. They said yes, and Dakota quickly turned a corner. 

He lost weight, packed on some muscle, started getting attention from girls, and became the top football player at his school. 

But, he knew turning pro wasn’t on the cards.

When he left high school, he had no clue what he wanted to do. 

He just knew he wanted to make some money. So he trained as an electrician.

During this time, a fellow student handed him a copy of the book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” This sparked a strong desire in Dakota to become wealthy.

He consumed endless self-development books and podcasts while he continued his studies.

Life as an electrician was…

4am wake-ups.

Gruelling 12-hour days.

And 80+ hour weeks in freezing cold Alberta, Canada.

He hated it. 

Every day was the same. 

Eat. Sleep. Grind. Repeat.

When he looked at his fellow workmates, he just saw miserable people who lived for the weekend. 

This couldn’t be his future, could it?

That’s when, out of nowhere, Dakota’s world got rocked

In 2017, his mother died unexpectedly from an overdose. 

The people she was with left her.

There were no resuscitation efforts, no ambulance call-out…

Nothing. 

His Grandpa broke the news to him.

Dakota felt numb.

This sudden loss made him see the cruelty of life. He knew that if he wanted a more fulfilling future, it was on him to make it happen.

So, in late 2017, he left Canada for Cambodia.

For the next few months, he explored SE Asia.

He met people of all ages living on their own terms.

Travelling lit a fire under him

When Dakota returned to Canada, he flitted from job to job while figuring out how to make money online.

He tried many side hustles, including day trading, flipping items on eBay, iPhone repair, Amazon FBA, and blogging. 

All of them failed.

It’s now 2020, and he’s 2 years into his backup plan. College.

He was studying to become an English teacher.

Until one day… 

When his college professor asked the class to “mime a weather system” they were feeling that day. 

This was the final straw. He was paying thousands of dollars for this! All the while, he was learning more from 20-somethings online. 

So in Dec 2020, he dropped out, quit his job, and went all-in on Twitter.

A few months earlier, Dakota purchased an eBook for 40 bucks on how to grow a Twitter audience.

He began posting about things he was interested in, like philosophy and fitness. 

For months, he struggled to gain any traction.

Until he discovered “Money Twitter.” 

A small corner of the Twittersphere that really spoke to him.

He began studying bigger accounts he looked up to and realised these accounts did 2 things well:

1. They talked about who they were, which made them likeable 

2. And they talked about a skill, which made their content valuable

So he took their playbooks for himself and started pairing his own life experiences with copywriting

His first copywriting client paid him $200. It wasn’t much, but it got the ball rolling.

A few months later, he pivoted to “ghostwriting.” Things took off. He reached $11k after just 28 days. No fancy logo or any real idea of what he was doing. 

Just a 10-year-old laptop, a “shitty” landing page, and Starbucks WiFi. 

His secret? A bias towards taking action

8 months later, Dakota hit his first $50K month.

He was writing on behalf of 8-figure entrepreneurs, best-selling authors and even adult film stars.

He had also grown a sizeable Twitter audience.

So he decided to spend $6,000 on a course hosted by Dan Koe, that showed him how to monetise his following.

He went on to productise what he knew best: Growing on social media and monetising with ghostwriting.

His first cohort made him $150K in just one month.

And today:

• Dakota’s surpassed 500,000 followers across LinkedIn, Twitter (X), and Instagram

• He’s exceeded $250K months

• And works 4-6 hours a day

But he admits it wasn’t easy. He faced plenty of rejection, crippling self-doubt, and was bombarded with hate from people online.

Despite everything Dakota went through, he pushed on.

It just shows what’s possible if you:

• Self-educate like mad

• Share and build in public

• And refuse to play the victim

Our interview with Dakota Robertson

We asked Dakota 9 burning questions about growing a personal brand on LinkedIn.

Let’s dive into Dakota’s responses:

What’s one common mistake you see LinkedIn creators making?

They don't understand that everything boils down to incentives. If you're not useful to your target audience or don't understand what they value, then your content won't grow a following.

What’s your process for generating new content ideas?

I've interviewed many people from my target audience and compiled the data in a document.

Things like their:

• Pains

• FAQs

• Desires

• Obstacles

• Self-limiting beliefs

And create content that helps in one of those areas.

What’s the one change you’ve made to your content strategy that’s had a big impact?

For LinkedIn:

• Shortening my posts

• Creating more step-by-step type posts 

• Using a lot more bullet points to make it easier to skim

What's your creator tool stack?

1. Kleo - for idea generation

2. Beehiiv - for newsletter

3. Notion - for systems

4. Airtable - as a CRM

5. Things 3 - for to-do list

6. Chat-GPT (AI)

7. Figma - for design

How do you balance creating content with your other professional responsibilities?

I put my phone in a timed lockbox and use an app blocker for the first 6 hours of my day. During that time, I do my highest priority tasks and don't take any messages/calls.

I also create SOPs and frameworks for admin tasks I can delegate to my VA.

What’s your strategy for writing compelling LinkedIn hooks?

I always consider a few questions when I write hooks:

• What transformation does the reader want? (move away from pain/move closer to desired outcome)

• Why should they trust me? (social proof)

• How can I make it easy to consume? (numbers, short sentences, simple language)

• How can I make them curious? (open loops/storytelling)

I try to combine as many of these elements as possible in 2 simple sentences.

What’s one habit that has made you a better creator?

Not using social media or messaging apps at the start of my day.

What’s your advice for someone just starting out as a LinkedIn creator?

The key is to create content that meets market demand and also aligns with your interests.

Figure out painful problems you enjoy solving for other people. When you are useful, you are valued. When you are valued, it's a helluva lot easier to grow and monetize your social media.

And to end… What are you working on right now that excites you?

I'm launching my new community, Full Stack Creator, on October 1st. It's for business owners who want to grow and monetize their personal brand. Since I used to be a huge video game nerd, I gave it a video game theme and gamified it all.

***

Thank you, Dakota!

Make sure to follow (and subscribe to) Dakota Robertson on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Instagram.