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- How Kat’s Low-Follower TikToks Rack Up a Million Views Weekly Using Aspirational Slideshows
How Kat’s Low-Follower TikToks Rack Up a Million Views Weekly Using Aspirational Slideshows
PLUS: I read Mary Meeker's 340 Slide AI Deck—Here Are the Top Takeaways
Startup Spells 🪄
June 03, 2025
How Kat’s Low-Follower TikToks Rack Up a Million Views Weekly Using Aspirational Slideshows
Kat, the creator behind @katmoneybudget, has just 30,000 followers on TikTok.
Kat - Money & Budget
But her videos pull over a million views every single week. It’s not a fluke, and it’s not about being early. Her content follows a repeatable format that taps into trust, relatability, and transparent financial storytelling.
Her Hooks Are Designed to Stop the Scroll
Every slideshow starts with a short, ultra-clear text hook. No clickbait. No fluff. Just a specific statement of what the video is about.
“My financial goals. Mid year review.”
“5 money traps you should avoid in your 20s while you are saving for your first $100k”
“How much I saved in Q1 Jan-March 2025”
Each hook is written in first person. That detail matters—it signals transparency and pulls people in. And there’s always a number, date, or percent.
This kind of specificity cuts through the noise and makes the viewer stop.
The Selfie Is Doing More Work Than It Looks Like
The first image is always a selfie. But it’s not random—it’s a calculated mix of trust signals.
She’s usually indoors, in a bright, clean space.
Her expression is relaxed, confident, casual.
The image looks like it came straight from an iPhone.
The background—often a modern apartment—subtly signals success.
These choices make her relatable, competent, and aspirational all at once. It’s not about looking perfect. It’s about looking like someone who has her life together—just enough for people to believe what she’s saying.
Every Slide Is the Content—No Fluff, No Cutaways
Kat’s slides don’t waste space. Each one is either showing a personal goal, a budget breakdown, or a money insight. They’re tightly focused.
One slide: her rent, groceries, savings percentages.
Another: monthly progress toward a savings goal.
Next: her updated 2024 plan, now that it’s June.
There are no transition slides, branding, or filler. Every frame has useful information. And the rhythm of the slideshow keeps people engaged—because they’re swiping to get the next tip, not waiting through filler.
Kat Slides
She Uses Listicles Because They Work
Most of her videos follow a listicle structure. It’s not random. Listicles make content easier to watch, easier to create, and easier to repeat.
“3 financial goals for Q2”
“My 5 biggest expenses in May”
“4 things I stopped buying to save money”
It gives structure. Viewers know what they’re getting. And she doesn’t have to reinvent the format every time. New topic, same frame. That consistency builds loyalty—people know what to expect from her.
Every Slide Has a Number, Year, or Percent
There’s one more detail that makes the content feel trustworthy. Each slide includes real numbers.
“Rent: $1,350 (54% of income)”
“Goal: $10,000 in savings by 2026”
“Groceries: $320 this month”
These small bits of data do a lot of work. They create specificity, which builds credibility. Viewers aren’t just getting tips—they’re seeing real numbers from someone who lives what she posts. It makes people stay. It makes them trust.
Despite huge traction on TikTok, her Instagram has just 176 followers. That’s not a problem. Her format isn’t built for Instagram.
She’s just optimizing for where the format performs best. It’s TikTok-native content, built for a feed that thrives on short, visual storytelling.
Kat’s success doesn’t come from follower count. It comes from structure.
Kat's repeatable playbook:
Start with a clear hook: short, first-person, includes a number or goal.
Use a casual selfie that feels trustworthy but confident.
Structure the slideshow as a short listicle (3–5 slides).
Fill every slide with one useful, specific insight.
Ground each point in data: percentages, years, dollar amounts.
No fancy editing. No gimmicks. Just clear storytelling, real goals, and consistent visuals.
Hat Tip to Matt Welter for the insight.
Top Tweets of the day
1/
TIL that Cursor is the fastest growing SaaS in the history of SaaS
1-100m in 12 months WITH A WIDE AND SMOL CUSTOMER BASE (400k paying devs, means that growth is very predictable/sustainable, this thing is an Atlassian-level machine)
even beating the $23b Wiz
forking vscode is
— swyx 📍 @aiDotEngineer (@swyx)
3:41 AM • Feb 5, 2025
We live in an age where you can spend just 2 years of your life to build generational wealth.
Yet there are people who won't use AI. Become high agency and use AI.
2/
This nicely puts in words the feeling I got by using o1 more: it’s not really a chat model, more like a report generator.
So how I use it is pretty much how I would ask a colleague for help over email: dump all my context, info, and goals into the first message, then wait!
— Lucas Beyer (bl16) (@giffmana)
8:50 PM • Jan 12, 2025
Extremely good explanation of reasoning models. Imagine having a friend that can think better than you. That's what it feels like when using o3. Pair that up with Deep Research and you'll do research faster than ever.
3/
a mathematical habit I find useful for product thinking:
in the limit, what does ... look like?
for example, what will human-AI interaction look like in due time?
then walk backwards from the limit and ask:
how fast does it converge?
how fast can you make it converge?
— Greg Yang (@TheGregYang)
5:37 PM • Jun 1, 2025
Love this mental model. Its visualizing the end state and coming up with starting state to reach there.
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