Ina Coveney I have the pleasure of talking to one of my social media heroes.

Brock Johnson I am so great. That's an honor to be called one of your social media heroes. I really appreciate that, and I'm so happy to be here.

Ina Coveney I am super excited to talk to you. There's so much to cover today. But before we start, why don't you tell everybody what you do right now and who you help right now?

Brock Johnson Yeah, I love that you're specifying "right now," because for me, that's changed so often, and it's always evolving. But right now, I am helping creators and small business owners grow and market themselves on Instagram. Specifically, that's really my forte.

Ina Coveney Alright. One thing that I love is you have built an incredible online presence. Can you tell everybody how many followers on Instagram you have right now?

Brock Johnson Something over 600,000. I'm not sure exactly how many, but somewhere around 600,000.

Ina Coveney I started following you around the 50,000 mark, and your growth has been marvelous. It's been amazing to see. And I want to ask you so much about this, but I'm going to go back. I'd like to go chronologically. We're gonna go back. You come from an entrepreneurial family! Can you tell everybody who your mother is?

Brock Johnson Sure. Yeah, my mom is Chalene Johnson—not Shalene, not Charlene Johnson. A lot of people know her from the fitness industry. Growing up, she was one of those celebrity fitness trainers, and I put that in air quotes because basically, what she did was make those like 3 a.m. infomercials that you'd see if you ever turned on the TV late at night, or you went to a hotel, and that was playing on one of the TVs. And so that's what a lot of people know her for. But the reason that her fitness career was so successful was because she always had a marketing brain. So yes, I come from a very entrepreneurial family. My entire life, my parents have bought, owned, and sold businesses together. My mom's always been the marketing person, the outward-facing person who everyone knows, and then my dad works behind the scenes on the numbers and the more analytical and financial side of things. But my entire life they've worked together, and they've owned businesses. So I really got to see a lot of that before my eyes growing up.

Ina Coveney You said once that you were charging kids in your school to show them how to tie their shoes in a particular way, and I'm like, wait a minute. What does that even mean? How does that happen?

Brock Johnson Yeah, I got a random little book for Christmas that showed you different ways to lace up shoes. You could weave them and make little checkerboard patterns. That was one that I remember really stood out to me, and that was it. It was a Christmas present. And so I started tying my shoes different ways, and I considered myself, growing up, a little bit of a shoe aficionado. I had a wide variety of different rainbow-colored Nikes, and I would start wearing them to school, right?
And pretty soon after starting to wear my fun Nikes with the fun shoelace designs to school, I had my classmates like, "Hey, where did you get those? How did you get that done? How can I get that myself?" And myself, being the little entrepreneur in training that I was, I was like, "Oh, well, I'll charge you for that." So I started charging my classmates, I think it was like maybe $5 or $10, and I was like, "You bring your shoes, you pick from the book what lace design you want and what color shoelaces you want, and then I'll take your shoes home, lace them up, and bring them back the next day."
So that was what I started doing. And my mom had no idea about this. So like one day, I remember, I came home, and she was like, "Why do you have a trash bag just full of random kids' shoes?" But I brought a whole bunch of shoes, and I started lacing them up. Eventually, with my mom's help, I bought a domain name for the shoes. I even remember going to the mall and going to the shoe stores there, being like, "Hey, could you guys put this flyer up for the shoelace company?" And so I was into the marketing. But that didn't last long. It only lasted for like two or three months, and then my young brain was onto the next thing. It was probably summer break, and I just forgot about it. But that was what that business was.

Ina Coveney Yeah, we're gonna start transitioning into something else, which is going to start with you telling us what the number 11 means in Johnson, which is your Instagram handle.

Brock Johnson Yes, yes. So 11 comes from my sports background. That's why I'm verified on Instagram. So people see the blue checkmark, and they think, "Oh, he's this great Instagram coach, so he got verified." No, I got verified because I was a college football player. My dad was a college football player and played professionally. My uncle played professionally, my grandpa played college football as well, and growing up, they were all football coaches.
My grandpa is the second-winningest coach in the history of the state of California. And so basically, I say all that to say I come from a long history of not just athletes, but football players. And not just football players, but quarterbacks. And not just quarterbacks, but quarterbacks who wore the number 11. So it's kind of our family tradition. It was something that I adopted from a really young age. My sister, and now all the other Johnson cousins, always wear number 11 in every sport. It's just our family number. It means a lot to us. It's not just a lucky number we see every once in a while. It really represents our generational family tree. And so when I first got started on Instagram, I put the 11 in my username, and it's just stuck ever since.

Ina Coveney And I'm going to say that your football pedigree is very impressive. Your uncle played in the NFL and actually won a Super Bowl. Your grandfather was your coach, and your father was your coach in high school. And I would like to show you something and get your reaction to it. Okay?

Brock Johnson Sure!

Ina Coveney
Plays a clip. There’s been three generations—I’m the third generation now—of quarterbacks. And with that, there’s a lot of pressure, but there’s also a lot of knowledge other quarterbacks maybe don’t have.

Brock Johnson
Chuckles. Yeah, those were the good old days.

Ina Coveney Initial reaction when you see that?

Brock Johnson Gosh, I need to grow a beard ASAP, and that’s why I’ve grown a beard ASAP! But no, that was such a special time. Something that was definitely very challenging, and there was a lot of external pressure put on me during that time. But I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It was so rewarding.

Ina Coveney Both your father and your uncle made it a point to say you were under a lot of pressure, and you could feel it. What were they talking about?

Brock Johnson Yeah, just growing up with the generational family tree that I had, everyone in our community knew who my family was—especially within the high school community and our county. Everyone knew who we were. They knew who my grandpa was, and they knew that I was coming up in the ranks. So there were high expectations. I internalized a lot of that pressure, too. I put a lot of pressure on myself, and I think we might get into that a little bit later, but that was definitely something I dealt with in high school—internalized pressure that I put on myself.

Ina Coveney Tell me a little bit more about that pressure. Was it something that continued, like putting pressure on yourself to succeed in whatever it is you were doing? Or was this a football-specific thing?

Brock Johnson Totally. I think it was definitely most specific to football, but it extended into every other area of my life. I’ve said this on my own Instagram before: I was a hardcore perfectionist, very much a people-pleaser from a young age. I wanted to make everyone happy, do everything right—not just right, but perfect. I ended up having consecutive days for months where I was going to therapy, trying to unlearn these things and heal, and breaking away from those tendencies of perfectionism. It's night and day now from what it used to be. But definitely, at that time in high school, I was a hardcore perfectionist and people-pleaser, and it affected a lot of my friendships and relationships. I’m really happy to be in a different place now, but it was the result of a long childhood of putting pressure on myself.

Ina Coveney The expectation, the dream, that you would go pro with football—was that ever a thought in your mind?

Brock Johnson Yeah, that was not only a thought in my mind—it was the only thought in my mind. It was actually when I was in therapy during my freshman year of college. I was 20 years old, and my therapist asked me, “What happens if you don’t make it to the NFL?” And I just sat there dumbfounded. Later in one of our last sessions, she said, “You didn’t have an answer because that’s something you had never thought of before.”
When she asked me that again later, I was finally able to answer it. I could say, “Here’s how my life will be. Here’s how my happiness will be. Here’s where I’ll find my joy. Here’s how I know I’ll be okay if I don’t achieve this unimaginable dream that less than 0.001% of high school players ever get to achieve.” That showed me the progress I’d made. But yeah, growing up, that was the dream. That was all I wanted—to play in the NFL.

Ina Coveney I love that. And you started tapping into the online world while you were a freshman in college. I want you to tell the story of your Snapchat business and how the NCAA shut it down. I need you to tell that story for us.

Brock Johnson Yeah, crazy story. It’s funny now when I say it, but freshman year of college, I was super homesick. My mom came out to visit me because I went to Georgetown, which is on the opposite end of the country from California, where I grew up. Not only was I homesick, but I was struggling financially. My parents, even though they were successful and offered to pay for everything—groceries, food—I didn’t feel comfortable with that. I wanted to take the silver spoon out of my mouth. I didn’t want to just rely on them to pay for everything. I wanted to provide for myself, but I also didn’t want my standard of living to drop.
So my mom was like, “Well, then start your own business, just like you’ve done your whole life.” She asked me, “What do you like? What are you good at? What’s a hole in the market? What’s a problem that people are facing?” At that time, it was 2015, and all over the news was Snapchat—how dangerous it was, teens doing crazy things, disappearing messages. So I thought, “I can solve this problem. I can teach parents how to keep their kids safe on Snapchat.” That’s how the business started.

Ina Coveney And what happened?

Brock Johnson I launched it, and it was pretty successful. About six months later, I transferred to UC Davis. I was telling a counselor there about my business, and they were like, “We might need to take a look at that.” At the time, student-athletes couldn’t make money from their likeness. Essentially, I couldn’t use my face on social media or in any business capacity to make money.
The NCAA got involved, and they were quick to say, “Shut it all down.” They had to make sure there weren’t any boosters or donors funneling money to me through a fake business. They did a full investigation—accessed my logins, customer data, everything. They even threatened that I might have to refund everything I made or donate it to a charity of their choice.
Six months later, they came back and said, “You’re good. Go ahead.” But those six months were tough because I couldn’t run the business I had started.

Ina Coveney And then you decided to pivot into Instagram. How did that switch happen? You were the Snapchat guru. How did Instagram become the focus?

Brock Johnson I was the Snapchat guru, and I laugh at the term “guru.” I was definitely an expert on Snapchat marketing—it was such a niche market then. But what I realized was that what made Snapchat special was the Stories feature. That’s what everyone consumed.
Around this time, Instagram released a direct copy of Snapchat Stories. Big influencers started leaving Snapchat for Instagram Stories, and I saw the shift happening. It was the perfect time to pivot because my business had been on pause for six months. I shifted to teaching Instagram marketing and never looked back.

Ina Coveney At what point did you start to get into TikTok?

Brock Johnson TikTok was such a funny story of how it got started. We were at my parents' marketing conference, the Marketing Impact Academy, and one evening, while we were in my parents' room before dinner, I said, “Hey, have you heard of this app called TikTok?” My mom was like, “A little bit, but not really.” So we all downloaded it.
We started watching videos, and it was just dancing videos. I love to dance, so I thought, “What if I made one?” I made a couple with my friends and teammates, went back to UC Davis, and kept making them. Then they started going viral—one after another. This was in early 2019, during the Wild West days of TikTok, when almost every video you posted had a chance of going viral. This was a year and a half before TikTok really exploded in 2020 during COVID.
It was wild to see the growth. I had one video hit 12 million views, the next one got 7 million, then 6 million, then 3 million. It was consecutive viral videos, and I grew a big following really quickly. There was no substance to what I was posting—they were just silly dancing videos and trends, mostly with my UC Davis teammates. Looking back, it’s hilarious, but it was a really fun time.

Ina Coveney And I’m about to quote you back to yourself so you can add some color to this. At that time, in 2019, you were still playing college football, and you wrote: "Super honesty time. At one point during the season, I got super self-conscious about my TikToks because apparently after every game, at least one player from the opposing team would come up to me and sarcastically say, ‘Love the TikToks.’" Can you tell us what was happening around that?

Brock Johnson Yeah. We had a wildly successful junior year, but the next year wasn’t as great. We didn’t win as much as we had the year before. Losing games was frustrating, and on top of that, after every game, at least one guy from the other team would make a sarcastic comment like, “Love the TikToks.”
At that time, I was a backup quarterback on a team that might have just lost, and it didn’t sit well with me to get that kind of attention for social media instead of football. It made me self-conscious.

Ina Coveney For someone listening who might feel the same way—maybe their family doesn’t understand what they’re doing or they’re getting teased—what would you say to them? A lot of entrepreneurs have big visions that not everyone gets. What would you tell someone starting out, feeling self-conscious, and posting less and less because of it?

Brock Johnson It’s so awesome that you’re getting those comments! It’s such an honor that people dislike what you’re posting because that means you’re reaching enough people to hit those who are jealous. Those comments often come from people reflecting their insecurities. They see you stepping into your courage, and it makes them uncomfortable because they’re not bold enough to do what you’re doing. So they want to pull you back down to their level.
If someone is making fun of you, it means you’re doing something right. Keep going. Don’t stop. I wish I could go back and tell 2019 Brock, “There are going to be guys who make comments, but keep posting.”

Ina Coveney Thank you, Brock. You and your mom started the "Build Your Tribe" podcast. Whose idea was it, and what was the origin?

Brock Johnson My mom actually started it before I joined. At the time, I had my own podcast called “Social Media Moneymakers.” I put out about 50 episodes in six months. It was cool and awesome, but my mom also had "Build Your Tribe" at the same time, and both shows were in a similar lane—talking about social media and business.
Eventually, she said, “Hey, why don’t you come over to my podcast? You’re doing great with yours, but mine has a larger audience. We can share our knowledge together.” So she invited me to join, and now it’s our podcast.

Ina Coveney Let’s touch briefly on your incredible growth over the past couple of years—specifically your Instagram following. You’ve turned it into a million-dollar business. Tell us about that. What is it, and where can people find it?

Brock Johnson It’s called the Insta Club Hub, a membership my mom and I started because we were tired of making course after course for Instagram when the platform was always changing. We wanted something where people could join and get updates every month on what’s changed, what the advanced strategies are, and how to grow without spending hours on the app.
We’re about to launch on a new platform that makes it easier to consume the content. We’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars and months building this new experience to provide even more value. If people want to learn more, they can send me a DM on Instagram or visit Insta Club Hub online.

Ina Coveney I’ll make sure to put the links in the show notes so everyone can check it out. What do you think are the top three things that got you to 600,000 followers so quickly?

Brock Johnson First, consistency. It’s not sexy, but it’s the truth. On April 1, 2021, I challenged myself to post 30 reels in 30 days—one a day for the entire month. By the end of that month, I had grown by 36,000 net followers. I saw early success and kept going. Now, about 650 days later, I’m still posting at least one reel a day, sometimes two or three.
Second, testing and iterating. I constantly ask myself, “What can I do differently? What made this post do well? What didn’t work?” As entrepreneurs, our job isn’t to have all the answers—it’s to ask the right questions.
Finally, luck. Being in the right place at the right time matters. I started posting reels early, in April 2021, when Instagram Reels were still relatively new. If I started today, I probably wouldn’t have the same results. Timing played a huge role in my growth.

Ina Coveney Your work ethic and content are so inspiring. Every single thing you teach makes perfect sense to me, and it’s done with such integrity. I tell my audience all the time, if you’re ready to grow your audience, you should follow Brock Johnson. That said, you’ve been vocal about unethical growth practices. Can you share what people should look out for?

Brock Johnson There’s definitely a spectrum of unethical practices. At the far end, you have absolute no-nos like buying followers or engagement and the follow-unfollow strategy. Those are outdated and inauthentic.
A bit closer to the gray area are things like buying shoutouts, where someone pays an influencer—often with fake followers—to post about them and drive followers to their account. It leads to results, but it’s not organic growth because those followers aren’t choosing you based on your content or value.
One way to spot inauthentic growth is to check the comments section. If most comments are generic, like heart emojis or flames, it’s a red flag that the engagement might not be genuine.

Ina Coveney You’ve accomplished so much at such a young age. Can you tell everyone how old you are?

Brock Johnson I’m 25, turning 26 in a couple of months.

Ina Coveney Happy pre-birthday! What’s your big vision right now?

Brock Johnson It’s not numbers-based. My biggest goal is to be the best husband I can be to my wife and, one day, the best dad I can be. In a business sense, that means working less in my business and spending more time with family. I used to say I wanted to retire by 30, but now I realize I’ll always love working. My goal is to shift toward more philanthropic endeavors, mentoring, or just having more balance by the time I’m a dad.

Ina Coveney What’s the biggest misconception people have about you?

Brock Johnson That I have it all figured out. I don’t. I have posts that flop, I’m disorganized, and I fail all the time. I rely on my wife, my assistant, and my team to stay on track. I’ve figured out a few things, but I’m constantly learning and trying to improve.

Ina Coveney If everyone listening had to do one thing in the next 24 hours, what would it be?

Brock Johnson Ask for help. We often see asking for help as a sign of failure, but it’s the opposite—it’s the definition of not giving up. Whether it’s reaching out to a therapist, hiring someone, or leaning on your loved ones, asking for help is a sign of strength.

Ina Coveney This has been amazing. Thank you so much, Brock. Where can people find you?

Brock Johnson The best place is Instagram—@Brock11Johnson. It’s also my handle on TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. But Instagram is where I’m most active.

Ina Coveney Thank you so much for being here. It was a pleasure!

Brock Johnson Thank you for having me. I appreciate it!