6 minute read
To Achieve You
Achieve You Achieve You
Local Social Media Influencers Share A Message of Positivity With the World
By Nicole Willis A
group of five young content creators from Pensacola have gained tons of traction on the popular social media app, TikTok. Known for posting their wholesome interactions with strangers, triplets Cody, Stain and Brandon Rode along with their friends Ledarius Joshua and Kye Burton make up the creative collective “Achieve You.”
Their content revolves around honest and sometimes emotional interview-style videos in which the guys ask random strangers questions about their lives and loved ones, or play a game of truth or dare with some wholesome prompts added in for a fun twist. Think man on the street, but with more meaningful interactions. People across the country have started following their videos; in a short amount of time, the Pensacola locals have amassed around 2.5 million followers on TikTok and 132k on Instagram through their social media handle @toachieveyou.
In 2019, the group began conducting their first interviews throughout the downtown area. After some time spent interviewing people throughout downtown, the group ran into a problem that made them realize it was time to expand by conducting interviews with people in other areas of the city.
“We started downtown, but it came to a point where we would interview somebody, and they’d be like, ‘you’ve already asked me this before!’ That’s when we realized that it was time to switch it up a little bit,” Cody explained. “So then, we went to UWF and things started going a lot better, in my opinion, and people were more comfortable talking to us. Downtown, many of the older individuals we approached were standoffish because they weren’t raised to talk about their feelings.”
After just a short amount of time conducting interviews, the guys became all the buzz around the UWF campus and before they knew it, they were also buzzing on TikTok. After experiencing success locally, the group traveled to regional universities, and they recently visited multiple schools in California.
The concept behind the group’s creative process initially began with an idea from the triplets’ friend, Edmund, who suggested that the guys create a chat room-style website in which people could discuss what they are going through to provide a platform for people to support each other. The guys loved the message of positivity and growth behind this idea, but they wanted to implement it on a different type of platform that allows their message to reach more people. “Over time we were trying to evolve and have a more modernized approach,” Cody explained. “So now, we make videos doing kind of the mission that we started off with, which is people talking about something they’ve gone through or their experiences in life, and other people relate in the comments.”
Since going viral, the group has adopted this idea of providing people with a platform where they open up about something difficult or troubling they might be going through in their life or just to simply provide a positive and supportive space for people to get things off their chest. A typical Achieve You video begins with the guys asking someone a question that prompts them to reflect on a memory, expose something about themselves or explain how they feel about something.
Examples of some of the questions include “When was the last time you cried and why?”, “Who is someone you miss?” or “Are you happy? Explain.” The guys also sometimes play truth or dare with interviewees, with the “truth” prompts being similar to those questions. For one of the “dare” prompts, the guys will request their interviewees perform a positive action, such as calling someone to tell them that they love them or daring them to go Depending on the questions asked and how open the interviewee is with their response, the content captured for Achieve You videos can range from funny and lighthearted to deep and heart-wrenching conversations. Cody described the overall nature of their content as “wholesome.”
In a world filled with YouTube pranks and cruel jokes, some may be hesitant to interact with complete strangers walking around with a camera. However, the Achieve You guys are working to turn this narrative around and show that wholesome and well-meant content creators still exist. The group aims to approach people with kindness and honesty. Brandon and Stain explained that people appreciate the sincerity of their approach: “There’s a lot of other content creators that ask goofy questions. When we come up and ask them a serious one, they actually appreciate it and want to answer it,” the duo explained.
The Achieve You Team currently has plans to spread their message even further beyond their social media pages. As part of their
latest venture, the guys have launched a card game called “How Deep Will You Go?” that is centered around the same concept behind their videos. “We took the experience you get from (watching) Achieve You videos and put it in a box, so that people can literally have it,” Stain explained.
The card game prompts players to be vulnerable and make connections with each other by answering questions like the ones asked in the Achieve You videos. “We combined all the questions we ask people (in our videos), took the best ones, and condensed them down into a card game where it gamifies a way of building deeper connections with people you love,” Stain elaborated.
The idea for the game came from the various responses the guys received in some of their earlier videos; people wanted the experience of connecting with the people in their own lives in the same way that the Achieve You guys connect with people in their videos. According to Cody, viewers would send direct messages to the Achieve You account and ask for a document with the different interview questions that the guys ask in their videos. “We always get direct messages saying things like ‘Yo, can you send me a doc with other questions? I want to play with my friends.’ So, Stain thought ‘why don’t we turn it into an actual game?’” From there, the guys knew they wanted to make this type of content accessible and bring this experience to their audience.
The game features three levels, with the intensity of the questions increasing with each level. Level one is titled “Icebreaker” and features meaningful but less intimidating questions to help players feel more comfortable with opening up. Level two is called “Confessions” which amps up in intensity. In this level, players are asked to get honest and explain how they really feel about a particular topic. Finally, level three is the most intense level titled “Getting Deep.” This level features the deepest questions of the game, which are more uncomfortable to talk about and often require players to dig deep into a memory or a feeling from their past and talk about it.
The card game “How Deep Will You Go?” is currently still in production, but the group has received final samples and says it will be set to make its debut in the very near future. The guys have also set up a special text and email list for those interested in subscribing to receive notifications when the game is released and available for purchase on their website. To sign up for the notification list, visit howdeepwillyougo.com.
You can also keep up with the guys by following @toacheiveyou on both TikTok and Instagram, where they continue to post new content daily.
