Zero to 5.4M profile views in one month, run by one person.
A hyper-local TikTok and Instagram brand for UC Davis students that I grew, monetized, and turned into a playbook I ran a second time.
Posting was a system, not a hobby: fixed cadence, recurring series, hook-first edits built for the first two seconds.
The way to reach UC Davis students.
Once the audience was real, DavisWithMaya became the way to reach UC Davis students — for local restaurants with no marketing, and for national brands targeting college women. I handle every pitch, contract, shoot, edit, post, and results recap myself.
I run monthly giveaways and in-person pop-ups for UC Davis students — 5+ tablings so far. The first pop-up, promoted with one post and stories the day before, drew 100+ people; about 50 were lined up before I arrived.
Giveaways built for engagement, not views.
Giveaways were a growth tool for the partner. Every one was designed around comments and follows, because those are what a business actually keeps.
Turning trust into products.
The DMs kept asking the same questions. I packaged the answers instead of answering one at a time. The broad guide is free for every incoming student; the deep-dive guides sit behind it, sold through content that gives part of the solution away.
The UC Davis Starter Guide — 25 things I wish I knew before coming to Davis.
The flagship free guide: first week, getting around, campus vocabulary, apps, food, and the bucket list — written the way I'd say it over coffee at the CoHo, not the way a brochure would. It's the top of the funnel for every paid guide below it.
Running the playbook a second time.
DailyUCDavis is the proof the system isn't luck: a separate campus account, no personal-brand halo, same cadence and hook approach from day one. It cleared 1.2M profile views in its first month and is now the account parents DM before move-in.