We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cole Kovnesky. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cole below.
Cole , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?
The first dollar I earned on social media made me cry. I have a screenshot of it actually saved in my phone. I told my mom, fiancé, brother, and best friends immediately after I saw the deposit hit my checking account. Most people will see it like its just a dollar, and a dollar will get you nothing but 4 quarters in todays world, but I saw something different. To me it was more than a dollar. It was unlimited opportunity to monetize my passion. It was a door opening to walk the path to building the life I want, by doing something I love.
My first ever check from social media actually came from YouTube. Which is the hardest of the 3 main platforms to monetize. It wasn’t just one dollar either. It was $256. I made a longform video, its called “Spider-Man Escape the Spider-Verse Parkour POV” It was a story telling video that was shot entirely from a GoPro in my mouth, and It started as me minding my business, then I got a crime alert, I parkoured to the crime, and at the crime a portal sent me to a “different earth” where there was another spiderman (Miles) and then after parkouring with him, I fell into another portal onto an earth parallel to mine, but I wasn’t sure if it was me or not, as evidence from the last world was still next to me. (cliff hanger to make another)
The video got over 200K views and gained me about 2,000 subscribers alone. It got me 7,000 hours of public watch time which is more than enough for YouTube to ask me to be a partner. After the 4,000 hours of watch time, I began earning on views and Ad revenue, and about 150k views is worth $180. I had some short form videos do really well at that time and I earned from those as well.
This video took me about 4 hours to gather footage, and 8 hours to edit. I made 3 separate versions of it before I was happy with it.
The day this check hit my account was life changing. Both physically and mentally. I have officially monetized my passion. I dedicated 8 years of my life training to get to my professional level in parkour, and I finally monetized the skill. The coolest part is that I now have access to completely control the amounts I pull in. I am a partner on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok now and the more I post, the more I grow, and the more I make. For now, my earnings come in small amounts, but its only been 2 months since I’ve been monetized and I have earned over $600 through Ad revenue and brand collaborations. Not to mention the free products (a trampoline) and the opportunities (a Red Bull competition) this has presented to me.
Social media is like pushing a snowball down a mountain. Once the ball starts rolling, it gets bigger and faster at a steady rate, and nothing stops that until I delete the accounts or stop posting.
Fortunately, this is just the start to getting my ball to roll!
Cole , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m Cole. A 23 year old online parkour influencer and coach.
Parkour for me started 8 years ago in May of 2017. I was on my friends trampoline and I challenged myself to learning a backflip. I ended up being able to get it in the first session and the level of accomplishment I felt was addicting. The rush of dopamine had me hooked and all I wanted to do after that was challenge myself to learning more tricks.
How did I monetize that though?
That wasn’t until 7 years later, where I decided to take the risk. The risk in question is putting my progress clips to the side, and start posting content geared towards engagement. To start posting videos more relevant to a greater audience. I had accumulated 1600 followers through my progress videos. But it wasn’t until I posted educational videos that I gained enough to become an influencer. The second half of the risk was talking to the camera. The internet is a harsh place, and talking to the camera is a level of “putting myself out there” that I was not comfortable with. However I always knew I had the character for it, as all my friends told me.
9 months of educational content later, I am fully monetized. The journey to get to that was a LOT of work filming and editing for little to no reward, and it was extremely demoralizing. However I got to a point where I wanted to quit, but didn’t because filming and posting became a habit, and I couldn’t have quit if I tried. That’s a trait I acquired from learning parkour and I’m eternally grateful for that.
My creative service is an online coach. I create and post videos recommending tricks to try, awareness drills, starting drills, safety drills, and etc. so people have easy access to find, try, and one day learn themselves so they get the same feeling I got when I started.
I primarily post step by step trick tutorials specifically designed to be learned with little to no equipment.
And that is the problem I solve in the community. A lot of creators will post drills meant to be done with gym equipment, but not everyone looking to learn the sport is able to access the proper learning tools like that.
More specifically, what I do is offer alternative ways of learning a skill that do not require flipping over your head. So more people will be inclined to try it because it does not look scary, and it does not require experience or equipment. Some will consider my strategy controversial, but I have seen it help a LOT more people than it has hurt.
My main mission is to inspire through movement. I want to inspire as many people as possible to try my sport, in hopes it will change their lives as significantly as it changed mine. I feel my strategy makes learning possible for anyone who wants to try, and that can grow the sport much greater than if we put limits on learning via equipment.
I am most proud of the people that have DM’d me privately for help. I will always take the time to text them back and fourth to help them get the skill they are looking to get. I’m like a free online coach and the people who take the time to understand and learn the skill by applying what I told them, are the people I do it for.
I am also proud of all of the DM’s and comments I have gotten that just say “Thank you for helping me get my backflip” or some even comment stuff like “THIS VIDEO GOT ME MY FIRST SIDELIP” and they will be all excited and more people will comment saying “prove it” and they will post a video and tag me and I will get to see first hand the effect my work has on others.
When I really think about that I get emotional lol.
To my viewers who are not yet following. I want them to know I have been a certified coach in gymnastics and parkour for over 5 years. I want them to watch my videos while knowing my techniques are designed to bend the rules of form and axis in order to make it more suitable for a greater range of people to learn. I want them to understand that everyone learns differently, and there are different ways to learn everything. My goal is nothing more than to inspire you (the viewer) to go outside and try something new. If my video gets you even thinking about trying something, I will consider my work done!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Building my presence on social media was nothing short of trial and error. Then it was like a switch flipped. A common way I explained it to my friends was like this. It was 8 months of pure grind, for absolutely no results. Then all of a sudden everything happened at once within the same month and my life changed forever. That was two months ago and my platforms have tripled in size and they still grow at a regular rate.
In terms of those 9 months, I think I got very lucky. Most influencers post for years before getting any results. It was grueling work. Quite demoralizing. I would film 4-8 videos every weekend, edit them throughout the week and keep a perfect consistency of posting every other day. I would expect it to be the same type of journey for everyone else trying to become and influencer. I dedicated nearly every minute of my free time editing, researching, thinking of video ideas to make. I had very late nights and very early mornings. There were several instances where all I wanted to do was give up. Whether it was a creative block, I lacked motivation, or my personal life was getting in the way, (which did happen). About halfway through my journey I was pushed to a breaking point, I started putting my craft before the people I love in my life and if pushed them to the edge too. Thankfully we worked out a way to get through it and in the end all parties benefit!
Some tips I have for anybody looking to build an audience that I wish I knew sooner!
– Evergreen Content, make something that will be circulated through the algorithm forever. Something with keywords that match a lot of common searches in your niche.
– Stop Blaming the Algorithm. The algo does NOT hate you, your content just is not engaging enough. The sooner you accept that and adapt your content style, the sooner you will get your audience!
– Three types of content: Educational, Entertaining, Emotional. Those are the 3 keys to building an audience. Either teach someone something, make someone laugh, or relate to somebody on a emotional level. (just to keep it simple)
– Follow Trends. I had a big issue with creating videos based on a different video in my niche that got good results. But every channel needs to be able to capitalize on trending style videos and audios.
– Study your competition. Follow your competitors to see what they are doing to gain retention, do NOT copy it, but twist it but improve it and twist it to match your own brand.
– DO NOT GIVE UP. Being an influencer is one of the most competitive paths anyone can ever take, take every loss as a lesson and carry on. If your video does terrible, disregard it and move on to the next. Sometimes that video you think “is the one” never is. The video you expect to do the least is always the one that goes the furthest. Adapt and stay versatile!
– Motivation is not real. It’s a complete myth. If you ever think “I don’t have the motivation to film today” is the case, you are wrong. You are not always going to love the process enough to stay steadily working on it. You need discipline to keep the consistency required to get what you want! So it’s not that you lack motivation, you lack discipline!
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
A book I read during my come up is called “Outwitting The Devil” by Napoleon Hill. An early 1900’s philosopher. The book was hidden from the public for its outrageous opinions on religion and the education systems. This book changed my life, and I guarantee it will change anyone else’s life too.
Of the hundreds of ideologies I have pulled and put to use from this book, the BIGGEST one was the “Personal Success Formula” that is in the prologue of ONLY the paper copy. It is not included in the audio book. Its a formula that applies to everyone with entrepreneurial pursuit and passion. I would recommend you take a look at the personal success formula, fill in the variable with what applies to you, and if the outcome does not add up, it will tell you the the influencer path is not meant for you.
In terms of the basis of the book, its written as an interview with Napoleon asking “the devil” questions about who he is, and what his job is. The devil will say things like “I instill fear in the minds of the youth”. Fear is what stops everyone from reaching their potential, and amongst the other profound statements in that book, it will create a level awareness that will change how you feel about your journey significantly. Basically, when you get a negative thought that says something like “man this video did bad, I’m terrible, I should give up on this” THAT is the devil speaking to you, that is not you. So perhaps having the awareness to put a name and personify those thoughts will make it easier for you disregard them! It flipped my mentality right around and gave me the strength I needed to continue my relentless pursuit.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_okcole/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cole.kovnesky/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8iNNn_DW-PoCPnsXVbaMTg
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@_okcole
Image Credits
I own the photos I have submitted