One Lesson From Gary Vee To Go Insanely Viral On TikTok in 2020
This one man rode a skateboard to work and the video went viral
Nathan Apodaca took a 43-year-old song, rode a skateboard while drinking Oceanspray Cranberry Juice, and his video went viral on TikTok with millions of views in less than 21 days. Within a few days, Nathan was getting interviewed by an L.A. based manager. That’s a good way to turn something you do for fun into a viral video.
The song “Dreams” was the number one hit on Billboard 100 in 1977 on June 18, 1977. Since then the song has resurfaced as a trending song on Spotify and video streams for “Dream” have more than doubled. Nathan’s video had over 19 million views and 3.7 million likes on TikTok.
Singer and songwriter Stevie Nicks wrote this song when her band was going through some rough times. Members of the group were transitioning and some parting ways with their girlfriend and spouse. Stevie Nicks went off in a room by herself and composed the song.
Nathan saw his daughter doing dances on Tik Tok and Nathan thought he could something similar. After a while, he gained fans and his daughter urged him to continue. Nathan built a following of 132,000 until TikTok banned him for promoting his merchandise and beanies at the end of 2019.
Nathan created another channel and goes by the TikTok screen name @420doggface208. 420 was in reference to the cannabis culture which is what he does in his free time. Doggface was in honor of hip hop legend Nate Dogg. The 208 is the area code for where he lives and works in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
In a recent video, Nathan saw Gary Vee talk about Tik Tok and to give people what they want. One day Nathan was using his skateboard to go to work as his truck was broke. He bought the cranberry juice
When Nathan saw his daughters dance to the songs on Tik Tok, he thought he could do the same. He already had a fan base on Instagram with over 100,000 followers. One of his daughters downloaded the Tik Tok app on his phone and he started playing with the app.
One day Nathan’s 2005 Dodge Durango was broken so he rode his skateboard and didn’t want to be late for work. He skated to the country song “Dreams” and created his Tik Tok video. At the end of the video, he lipsynched part of the words to the classic song. In less than 24 hours, the song had over 700,000 views and 100,000 likes.
Ocean Spray partnered with a local Nissan Dealer and Nathan was gifted a new “cranberry red” Nissan Frontier pickup truck filled with juice. Ocean Spray Chief Executive Tom Hayes gave Nathan exactly what he needed — a truck. Nathan mentioned in an interview that he had over 300,000 miles on his truck.
What did Nathan do to go viral?
1. Give people what they want
With 800 million users, the majority of Tik Tok users are between the ages of 18–24. They like quick and short videos. His video covered those two points.
Nathan didn’t do anything too complicated. He rode his skateboard, drank a little bit of juice, and lip-synched a song. Nathan gave his viewers a good feeling as they watched his video. I’m sure they watched the video a second and third time as well — I did.
2. Be yourself
In the video, Nathan didn’t plan anything special. He thought it would be a good idea to shot a video of himself going off to work. He never imagined the video taking off like this. Anyone can tell, he was just being himself. Watching the video makes it look and feel so authentic and real like you were there with him.
3. Be different
Nathan clearly was not doing a typical TikTok dance or changing his outfits five or six times in a video. Also, you don’t see many thirty-somethings riding a skateboard and enjoying life. The overall feel made a good impression on viewers. Watching the video makes you want to get on a skateboard and drink some juice from Ocean Spray.
Here are the words to the song.
Dreams
Now here you go again
You say you want your freedom
Well, who am I to keep you down
It’s only right that you should
Play the way you feel it
But listen carefully
To the sound of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
And what you had
And what you lost
Thunder only happens when it’s rainin’
Players only love you when they’re playin’
Say women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know
You’ll know
Now here I go again
I see the crystal visions
I keep my visions to myself
It’s only me who wants to wrap around your dreams
And have you any dreams you’d like to sell?
Dreams of loneliness
Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
And what you had
Ooh, what you lost
Thunder only happens when it’s rainin’
Players only love you when they’re playin’
Women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know
Oh, thunder only happens when it’s rainin’
Players only love you when they’re playin’
Say women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know
You’ll know
You will know
Oh, you’ll know
References:
Fleetwood Mac ‘Dream”s experience huge spike in sale and streams following viral TikTok video
Nathan Apodaca is the skateboarding, Fleetwood Mac-loving TikTok star that 2020 needs
Tom Handy is a top writer on Medium, former Quora writer, and father of two kids. He retired from the Army and sits on several non-profit boards. You can find him on Twitter @tomhandy1.
