Today we’d like to introduce you to Ranon Simonson
Hi Ranon, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I went to college at a small private university in Georgia called Point University. It was based out west point, a small town located about an hour south of Atlanta. I attended for 5 years, with the intention of graduating with my bachelor’s in accounting and business administration with a minor in Biblical studies. I was accepted with both an academic and athletic scholarship. Over those 5 years I acquired multiple certifications such as: Six-Sigma green belt, team leadership, social media marketing, CAP-M project management. After college I dipped my hands into a lot of industries. I worked at Budweiser as a merchandiser, Volano Management, the second largest subcontractor in America, I’ve own my own businesses, I’ve managed multiple restaurants, sales, flooring installation and so much more. Out of everything I learned over my time at university, and working at all these companies, I shortly learned that outside of college, companies did not care about your degree, but mainly the certifications under your belt. One certification I figured I could take advantage of was social media marketing.
I started my social media journey years ago on an old page. The username for that page originally was named “iWulfi_vt” and was created for my Hyundai Veloster. My inspirations came from watching a friend of mine and his social media following. He helped me grow that page and helped me with talking to certain businesses for sponsorships and partnership inquiries. Sadly, soon after, my car broke down, I was so close to finishing my vision for my final product. My drive to build my social media platform diminished. Come June of 2023, thanks to help of a childhood best friend, Michael Staples and newfound brother, Thomas Habhegger at Bozard Ford, I bought my dream car. That same week I decided I wanted to create a new page for my new Mustang.
My early on growth of my new page came from the help another friend Colby Dwyer, a local photographer and videographer. Over the last year and a half, I have grown my page from nothing to over 30,000 followers and have accrued over 100,000 views on my newly built YouTube page, I have partnerships with companies I could only dreamt of working with, companies such as: K&N Filters, American Muscle, Tiny Bot, Mitra-9 and many more. I’ve shown friends of mine how I use the knowledge I have accrued over the years to talk to companies and how to grow their engagement on their social profiles.
Over the years you learn what companies are really looking for and what insights to focus on in your page. One of the biggest lessons I learned was to stay CONSISTENT. Alot of people always say “it must be nice” but don’t realize how difficult it is to post 2-3x every single day on top working 50-60 hours a week. And they don’t realize that becoming an “influencer” is honestly just luck. the best way I can describe success on Instagram is like playing the lottery. When you play the lottery it’s very unlikely you win the first time. So, what do you do? You keep playing, over and over until you win. It’s the same for social media, you post over and over again until you hit the algorithm. So, for all you aspiring social media fanatics striving to be insta famous, stay consistent, collaborate with likeminded creators to expand your audience as much as possible.
To all of you that feel lost, just living day to day wondering what to do with your life. Change your mindset! In the words of Dwayne Johnson, never be too tired to work on your own aspirations. When you’re too tired to go to work, what do you do? You get up and go to work. You shouldn’t work yourself to death helping someone else achieve their dreams and not strive to work on your own. If you’re tired, do it tired.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Has it been a smooth road? Absolutely not, ha-ha. As a creator, you run into idea blocks, algorithm changes, content changes, follower demands and scheduling issues. There are times where you really start to grow, and everything is going your way and then all of a sudden, all your insights drop. You go throw dry spells and you start to panic wondering what the issue could be. Personal and work problems arise causing you to take a day or two off, and in the process, you take the chance of your numbers taking a hit. Or maybe your content goes stale, and you can’t find something new to post or you don’t have time to film the new content your followers requested. I feel like being on social media, especially being in an automotive niche, it’s hard to stay relevant. Unique ideas are hard to come by these days, unless you have a diehard following, it’s always a battle with the numbers.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in automotive style content. I’d say I’m mainly known for my car ha-ha. I try to keep it sleek and simplistic. Nice enough to let people know it’s not stock but doesn’t scream “look at me.” one of the things I am most proud of would be my car, I’ve worked so hard for years to even buy it, let alone create the vision I wanted to achieve. What sets me apart? I love to network and be as active as I can be. People always ask how I’ve done what I’ve done with my page when some pages have never even considered it. Networking and marketing myself on a continual basis is what sets me apart. I’m always interacting with my following, whether it’s replying to comments, responding to messages, or sending videos to specific followers I know would enjoy said video. It lets my followers know that regardless of how big the number is on my profile, I’m still a normal human being and I don’t view myself as some all mighty “influencer.” I’m just a dude posting his car enjoying the ride.
What matters most to you? Why?
Out of everything, inspiring people is what matters most to me. I remember a kid, I used to see these guys get in their nice cars and rev the engine for us or flooring it down the street to let us watch this beautiful machine go wild. Now today I see these children stare at my car that I as a child could have only dreamt of having, with the biggest smile or intense stare of intrigued interest. I get a kick out of it, knowing what they’re feeling and knowing that I might have just been the very person that inspired them to achieve a new goal in their life. I think I can speak for every car guy in general when I say that this is all we ever strive for. Inspiration.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://beacons.ai/iwulfi_s550
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iwulfi_s550
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@iwulfi_s550
