Phoenix Do - Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App

Spotted a TikTok trend where women asked ChatGPT to write 'a day in your dream life' and posted crying reactions (10-20M-view videos, comments asking for the prompt). Built the app around it: after install users enter their goals, get their own 'day in your dream life' story as the emotional hook, then see daily affirmations tied to that story.

Early content A/B tests featured the 'day in your dream life' prompt output, the same thing viewers had seen in the ChatGPT trend.

Creator (Chloe) on camera: 'If you're seeing this before [date], repeat these affirmations for the next seven days from Copia and watch your dream life unfold.' A hard deadline in the hook plus a promised transformation; then she reads affirmations straight from the app while a phone-screen demo is overlaid. The date is swapped each time, so it stays timely and repeatable. Copied from creator Sarah Purl, who sold ~100K books with the same 'repeat these affirmations for seven days' content. Keep the demo subtle enough that it doesn't feel like a paid ad, and build curiosity in comments.

A video where Chloe only said 'These are the affirmations from Copia' without showing the app; viewers asked 'What's Copia?' in comments and some clicked the link in the Copia account bio.

After the first viral video, scrolled (while warming up new accounts) for the biggest creators in self-help, wellness, mindset and motivation, aiming at 500K+ to ~1M followers, and checked what products they sell, their link in bio and how they monetize. Found Sarah Purl, who repeated an affirmations format for 2.5 years (1M Instagram, 2.5M TikTok followers) and sold ~100K books; reasoned a subscription app could deliver the same value as the book.

While the product is unproven (usually the first 2-3 months), skip million-follower creators who protect their brand. Pay many creators with 50K-250K TikTok followers who don't get brand deals and often still have a job, pitching a mutually beneficial partnership. Target roughly a $1 CPM and raise it as the funnel proves out; the goal is traffic to learn and optimize funnel metrics.

Original onboarding: login, name, type your goals, then the dream-life story; many dropped at typing goals because trust wasn't built. Expanded it with social proof ('proven methods, meaningful results', inspirations, people who have done it), an onboarding video and a few progressive button questions to personalize before any typing. Screens use very few words (TikTok-caption style) because users won't read paragraphs; buttons give a small dopamine hit, like Duolingo.

Audience data showed mostly women 18-25, so hired matching creators fast through the SideShift UGC marketplace (10-20 good ones), plus college ambassadors, reaching 40 creators at once. Non-professional creators get strict guidelines: do a slideshow, the same hook-and-demo, the same product. Only the first 10 seconds (the hook) vary, which A/B tests hooks across creators; the demo stays the same.

Noticed 'crashing out' was a viral emotion (Chloe's rant video, Justin Bieber's Nobu Malibu outburst turned into an album billboard). Added a big red 'crash out now' button that launches a breathing exercise, then posted a funny two-slide TikTok slideshow showing it.

When the Coldplay kiss-cam clip of the Astronomer CEO went viral, created an account posing as his daughter. The account's second video included a Copia product placement ('get the bag, your dad's getting divorced').