Whether you use social media to stay connected with loved ones or to funnel traffic in order to build your business, most social media experts can agree on one thing: your online presence is your brand. However you build your brand on social media is entirely up to you, but relies heavily on the message your brand and its online presence carries. Because of this, social media accounts that focus on messages of success reached through positivity and growth – be it personal or professional – have thrived in recent years, becoming visionary leaders in their own right.
One of these accounts, @houseofleaders.co, achieved growth from its first follower to over 1 million followers over just three years. Founded in 2015 by @brilliant.liu, an entrepreneur from Jakarta, Indonesia, Liu attributes his success to a focus on messages of genuine kindness and growth.
“Before I graduated college, I didn’t care much about my surroundings,” says Liu. “I was selfish and ignorant. As luck would have it, I met my first mentor soon after college. He didn’t make me realize that I needed to make a shift in my life, but he showed me that my life was meant to be more.”
It turns out that Liu’s mentor could not have been more correct. By focusing less on a need to make hard changes in his own life and more on how to help others make those changes in theirs, Liu has been able to grow his House of Leaders platform and utilize his brand to bring inspiration to millions of people worldwide.
“I knew I wanted to leave this world with a positive legacy and spread positivity wherever I go as much as I can,” says Liu. “There are times when I’m not as positive as I want to be too and that is why I started House of Leaders…to be a place people can choose to go to when they’re feeling sad or happy, down or fired up…I want House of Leaders to be a force of positivity for everyone.”
And what a force of positivity it has become. Like many self-made success stories, Liu did not always have a positive outlook available. Though his family was never financially wealthy by any means, Liu learned as a teenager that fueling one’s passion – rather than working hard for the sake of making more money – would bring about true fulfillment.
“I began reading more books, networking with people who were at the level I wanted to be at and started to change the way I looked at life. I began understanding that what we feed our mind, what we tell ourselves constantly are very important.”
In true leadership fashion, Liu first began feeding his own mind with messages of positivity and happiness. Finding fulfillment in this, House of Leaders was formed in 2015, and Liu quickly began to provide his online followers with similar messages. As fate would have it, millions of social media users found themselves taking value from Liu’s brand.
“Growing an Instagram page isn’t an easy thing. It takes consistency, dedication, and patience,” says Liu. In fact, according to his brand’s own website, Liu very nearly gave up and sold his Instagram page just a few months after starting it, citing low personal funds. A year later, his account had boomed from roughly 6,000 followers to over 100,000 followers, and to over 700,000 the year after.
Liu attributes the vast majority of his success to his audience for the love and support they offered him. Undoubtedly, this support is a return on the perpetual value offered to his audience through his House of Leaders brand.
Along with positive values of patience and consistency, Liu likewise stresses the importance of refusing to give up on one’s passions or dreams. “I’m definitely not the smartest person I know, but I’m also the most resilient person I know. If there’s no door, I’ll make one.”
