Ivan Acuna

professional storyteller

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

1 cold DM at 19 when i was 3 months behind on rent broke during COVID and living in the hood of Chicago got me in the room to run social media for an 8 figure entrepreneur

I took 2 trains and 2 buses in the Chicago snow for a 2 hr commute to suburbs to his office everyday bc I didn't have a car

I had ZERO experience but worked every day to learn social media and filmmaking

when he replied and gave me a shot i maxed out a $1200 best buy credit card on a new camera so i could have the gear to make it work

Took me 6 months of free/low cost one off projects for him to offer me a $2k/mo part time job

i dropped out of film school on the spot and worked full time even though he didnt ask me to

Followed him with that camera everywhere for 4 years of my life, traveled the country every week, filmed interviews and was behind the scenes to meet Deion Sanders, Dr Eric Thomas, Les Brown, Tim Tebow, Patrick Bet David, Bo Jackson, Dave Meltzer, Mike Tyson, Charlie Kirk and more

We grew the channel to 296k subs during my time there and i got a youtube plaque

today i leverage that work and portfolio and work with investment bankers, private equity, and a family office helping them with their content

Been able to meet the founder of the Ritz Carlton, professional athletes, former director of the NCAA, former owner of the Chicago Bulls, billionaires and more off the back of content

even worked with an evangelist who used content to raise money to free brick slaves in pakistan who'd been enslaved for generations

1 cold dm changed the trajectory of my entire life and the generation that will follow me

ur mom is right. u just don't want it bad enough

[OSCAR @now_thats_oscar]

parents told me i should email Tarantino and ask to work on his sets for a film job. "even if you're just bringing people their coffee, it's a way in!"

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

Read this and found it very inspiring

Until I noticed the date it was posted. Then my brain broke

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

19 years ago, when my 1st company got bought, I had to decide between buying a house in Palo Alto or a McLaren F1 (best car ever imo). Was no contest. I bought F1 & a small condo that was much cheaper than the car. New Tesla Roadster will exceed all gas sports cars in every way…

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@MireloAI yep videos using this will now feel agi. been trying to hack this together with elevenlabs sfx generation via api but this is so clean

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@DallasAptGP best thing that ever happened to city of frisco with the Dallas cowboys. what followed the cowboys is also amazing. so much growth here since i grew up

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@VladIlyusha exit

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

if you do this i guarantee your life will change forever the way my client's is changing right now

this applies to you if you've been intentional about documenting your life with photos and videos

how to increase content output by 100x

step 1
take all of your footage and photos from icloud into a central file storage (everything you possibly can get a hold of)

step 2 (if you have terabytes of long footage)
get claude code to spin up google VMs (very cheap) and to download the footage in batches to each VM. ask it to analyze the frames and trnascribe every single one using elevenlabs API. you will also ask to build low res proxies for each one.

this is huge if you have hours and hours of footage of 4k sales calls, vlogs, etc

i was able to get about 5 years of footage done in like 5 hrs while i slept

step 3
have one claude code session begin to build a broll library. have it analyze every frame of the "broll" folder you created in your g drive. not only should it label it by shot type, but also the content inside of the footage.

you in car
you at dinner
you with family
etc etc etc

once its got that it should
A. create proxies for all broll
b. create a single MD file of a map of all footage. assign each photo/video an ID number that can be immediately referenced

step 4
once all your long footage and broll has been proxied, use jev to automatically sort them into folders you agree on before hand (your md file map).

have a cheap LLM rename the footage to include an ID number as well

step 5
create a private database your proxied footage can live on. make sure it is secure. give your claude code access to it

step 6
use Muse to download all videos that you have liked before from instagram or saved. edits you have liked, motion design, etc etc etc. have it pipe to a database with mp4, mp3, and trnascript

use grok bot for videos from X or youtube

step 7
have claude code analyze every single one frame by frame to create the skill files to recreate each video (this is expensive and slow)

step 8
every single video editing style can be turned into a skill. your footage can now be edited using ffmpeg, your private database of proxied footage (which means it will be LIGHTNING FAST), and claude

step 9
ask every single video to be delviered via frame io. give claude code ur frame io api. everytime you leave comments, ask it to pull those comments and iterate on the skill as well

step 10
once your skills are reliably producing results you like, ask claude to turn your editing skills into deterministic code based on your preferences. make sure to tell it to use hardware encoding NOT software

1 skill = 1 script
all using the same hardware encoding render engine running locally on ur computer

running these scripts against sales calls i was able to clip up 50 hrs of sales calls for free in an afternoon

make 15 trending edit compilations using real broll in about 15 minutes

step 11
test, iterate, repeat. you have a self improving editing farm that turns terabytes of footage into sick unreplicatable videos and runs on a 256gb mac mini m4

you are using REAL footage so these videos are POWERFUL. transformations, before and afters, super emotional and powerful stuff

every video editing skill you make should be converted to scripts. NOW you can edit without a shit ton of token usage. my max plan feels legitimately infinite

step 12
if u wanna get crazy push those to git, and now u can run an unlimited amount of cloud based agents whether u use claude code or any other harness in the cloud

as long as u have cloud compute, the database, frame, and github.

thats about it

claude is no longer editing the videos, it wrote the scripts that edit the videos for free

evnetually u have enough reps that the judgement aspects can be delegated to cheaper LLMs

then u have unlimited vlogs, documentaries, cinematic shorts, etc

the code is editing for free

congrats u just hired a legion of infinitely cracked video editors without a single large file touching your computer, that can work with virtually any cheap LLM

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@JamesonCamp storytellers need a story worth telling. most don't have one

advice if ur recruiting this person: its not about the $$$

its about the ROI on the emotional attachment required to make it work

- someone who's been hired for this role before the title "head of content" existed

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@katiewav if you're a founder looking for this role id be willing to help 3 of you find this hire pro bono if i like what you are building. DM me

credentials: i've been this creative director/head of content hire before anyone knew what it was

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@adelwu_ if you're a founder looking for this role id be willing to help 3 of you find this hire pro bono if i like what you are building. DM me

credentials: i've been this creative director/head of content hire before anyone knew what it was

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@CristinCulver someone who finally gets it

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@avizurlo @katiewav this role isn't day to day. it is all day everyday

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

the most misunderstood thing about this hire is NOT that the people with the skills required are rare

they aren't and the ability to become one is more available than ever.

the truth most founders don't wanna hear is this:

a fundamental requirement for a "storyteller" to do their job is to have a story actually WORTH telling

and frankly, 99% of start ups do not have one

even their founders don't know the story, and that's why they're outsourcing it

the best of the best for this position attach a piece of their heart and soul into everything they put out

ask guys like @AustinGeorgas who most of you couldn't pay enough to poach from whop

thats why it works

it isn't about the $$$, its about having something worth attaching that level of emotional commitment to

and honestly most start ups don't have that

they are boring, have no mission, and no one has taken the time to understand the problem they actually solve and the value it creates

[adel 🌟 @adelwu_]

literal hardest role to hire for rn and every ai startup wants someone

> chronically online (knows trends)
> has taste & can create (new media)
> understands ai & technical
> can execute with quality (operator)

such a small niche of folks who can do this

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@cbwritescopy astra

cant stand it

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@Suprva02 also ur niche is b2b SaaS. post the videos directly here on X with hook like text and chapters. free views

x is SaaS capital od the world

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

1. question why u want 100k views. arbitrary goal. if u want views over everything stop making videos about cold email. if goal is rev, then views don't matter

2. stop doing things AI can do. ("how to" knowledge dumping). Focus on things AI can't do. Free live consulting (look at jeremy haynes), challenges (look at Instantly YT), real case studies with the how to embeded in them

3. answer this question: what is the one thing only i can do that others can't that im willing to do (ex: look at video topics from #2)

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@athyuttamre @MaryAdelua_ One you can create with elevenlabs

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@oliverbrocato Have friend that does this for billionaires and athletes. DM

[Ivan Acuna @ivan13acuna]

@0xCrosss the best artists steal anyway. cope