01Where the account was in May 2021
Adnan Hashmi runs Inspired Analyst, a verified finance account covering crypto, stocks, forex, and data. Today he sits at 2.7M+ followers across platforms: 533K+ on Instagram, 1M+ on TikTok, 675K+ on Facebook, 101K on YouTube, and a 166K+ member Discord trading community. He hosts Pakistan's first Urdu crypto podcast and has run brand campaigns with Binance, Exness, Ledger, PrimeXBT, CapCut, and Algorand.
None of that existed when I joined in May 2021. Instagram was at 25.3K, TikTok was around 100K, and there was no YouTube channel. Since then I have edited and scripted his content through a near-daily posting schedule: over 1,500 videos, including hundreds of brand-deal videos.
02The videos, live, with view counts
These are reels on his account right now, cut by me. Tap any of them and check the numbers yourself. For scale: the 12 most recent reels on the account pulled a combined 7.68 million views, and that is an ordinary month, not a highlight run.
03The three things I fixed first
The account was growing slowly for reasons that had nothing to do with effort. Adnan was posting hard, but three things were missing.
No content strategy behind the posting
Videos went out randomly, with no split between content types. I rebuilt his output around a simple content funnel: top-of-funnel awareness videos that reach cold viewers who have never heard of you, middle-of-funnel trust videos that show depth and keep people following, and bottom-of-funnel conversion videos that turn followers into community members and customers. Once every video had a job, the account stopped leaking attention. Awareness clips fed new followers, trust content kept them, and conversion videos filled the Discord, which now holds over 166K members.
No subtitles
None of his videos had captions. Publisher data reported by Digiday found that as much as 85% of social video is watched without sound, and later studies put silent mobile viewing even higher. A finance video without subtitles loses most of its audience in the first seconds, silently. Captions went on every video from my first week, styled to be readable on a phone in direct sunlight. It is one of the most common gaps I still see on finance accounts.
Edits built for other editors, not for viewers
The fashionable finance edit is fast, flashy, and exhausting. My position is the opposite: the edit should make the idea easier to see, not harder. Finance is a broad niche with very different sub-niches, and each needs its own treatment. Trading content is the clearest example: instead of pasting a screen recording of a chart, I rebuild the chart as a clean animation, so a complete beginner can watch a price level break and understand why it matters. When a viewer can visualise the idea, they stay, and retention is what the algorithm pays for.
04The CURB framework: my final-pass audit
CURB is a content audit framework I run as the final pass on every edit. It is built on one principle: every element in a video must justify its existence, or it gets cut. After the edit is done, I go back through the cut and flag anything that falls into four categories. Filler and dead weight are what make viewers drop off, and CURB is the system for finding them before the video goes live.
Confusing
The viewer cannot follow it. Unexplained jargon, broken logic, abrupt topic switches. The test: would someone with no prior knowledge immediately understand this line? If not, it gets flagged. In finance this kills more videos than anything, because acronyms like MRR and CAC feel normal to the creator and mean nothing to a cold viewer.
Unbelievable
The viewer will not believe it. Big claims with no proof in the same clip get cut, or kept only when the evidence directly follows. The test: if this claim appeared in an ad, would you roll your eyes? Superlatives without proof cost credibility, and in money content credibility is the whole product.
Repeatable
The viewer already heard it. Restated points, paraphrased repeats, and recap lines add seconds without adding value. In short form, a summary of what was just said almost never survives the audit. In long form, repetition is the main reason people leave.
Boring
The viewer will skip past it. Filler words, throat clearing, thank-you intros, and tangents that cost pace without adding information or personality. The test: if this was cut, would the video lose anything meaningful? In short form, Boring is the most expensive category there is.
What survives a CURB pass is the clearest, most direct version of what was recorded, and that is what retention pays for. A 60-second video with no CURB in it beats a 90-second video full of it.
05The podcast, and the videos he almost did not post
The podcast nobody could figure out
Adnan wanted a crypto podcast, but there was a real problem: everyone was recording from home, and remote podcasts usually look like a sad grid of webcams. I proposed the concept and designed the graphics package that carried it, built so the visuals do the work the studio normally does. The result became Pakistan's first Urdu crypto podcast, and the graphics drew consistent praise from viewers who had never seen a remote show presented that way. The same thinking now goes into my scriptwriting work for other creators.
The videos he did not want to post
Several of the account's biggest videos almost did not go out. Adnan was unsure about them, I pushed to publish, and they went on to pull millions of views. That happened enough times that the working relationship changed: he now trusts the editorial call, not just the edit. That is the actual difference between hiring an editor and hiring someone who owns the creative.
"Hammad is a very hard-working and talented person. He is the best team mate you could ask for. He is an asset for sure when it comes to being creative and video editing is his top notch quality."
06Styles I match on request
Clients usually arrive with a reference: "cut it like this creator." That is exactly how I work. Send 2 or 3 reference videos and the edit matches their pacing, caption style, sound design, and structure. Styles clients ask for most:
Your reference is not on the list? Send it anyway. Matching a style from reference is the normal workflow here, not a special request. More of my editing is on the main portfolio.
07Common questions
Want this done to your finance content?
Message me what you make and where the account stands. You get an honest read and a quote back within 30 minutes.
