James Dumoulin: Authority Hacking & Growing Your Platform
From THE ED MYLETT SHOW by Ed Mylett
June 9, 2026 · 59 min
About this episode
James Dumoulin shares his journey from a Chick-fil-A employee to a social media powerhouse with 21 million followers and insights from billionaire interviews.
He posted 400 times on Instagram with 50 followers. Most people would have quit. James Dumoulin just kept going. I've been waiting to have this young man on for a while, and he did not disappoint. At 23 years old, James has built something I genuinely did not think was possible at this age: 21 million followers, 200 million views a month, 70 employees, and 48 billionaire interviews including Tom Cruise, Tom Brady, Will Smith, and Reid Hoffman. He built all of it from scratch, starting as a Chick-fil-A employee who saw TikTok as a marketing engine before anyone else did. James is the co-founder of the School of Hard Knocks, and what he has learned sitting across from the wealthiest people in the world will hit you in the best way possible. In this conversation, we go deep on what it actually takes to build something great when you have no connections, no credibility, and no one betting on you. James breaks down the exact strategy he used to get into rooms most people will never see, including how he cold-approached Mark Cuban at South by Southwest with nothing but nerve and a borrowed title. We talk about what the wealthiest people in the world actually have in common, whether…
People in this episode
Host: Ed Mylett
Guest: James Dumoulin
Topics covered
- authority hacking
- social media growth
- entrepreneurship
- personal development
- interviews with billionaires
Keywords
- TikTok
- marketing
- entrepreneurship
- billionaire interviews
- social media strategy
- personal growth
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: School of Hard Knocks
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