The Post Game Podcast #85: Aidan Melograna - D3 Basketball to Building a 6-Figure Marketing Business
Aidan Melograna is a college basketball player and founder of Melo Media, a fast-growing marketing agency helping local service businesses scale through Instagram and social media.
He founded a second business recently, Ace1 Consulting, helping online creators scale through Instagram and YouTube.
He shares how he went from cold-calling 100+ businesses with zero experience to generating thousands in revenue through Instagram marketing.
What You’ll Hear:
- How Aidan came up with Melo Media after a summer internship
- The mindset shift from student-athlete to business owner
- Cold calling 100+ prospects and turning rejection into results
- Building Instagram pages optimized for sales, not vanity metrics
- Why storytelling and founder-led brands dominate social media
- How resumes are dying and portfolios are replacing them
- What it’s really like to start a business while still in college
Timestamps:
(0:00) - Intro to Aidan
(2:30) - Basketball journey and path to Arcadia University
(3:50) - Choosing a major in Global Media & Marketing
(5:45) - Realistic outlook on D3 basketball
(7:30) - From internship to entrepreneurship
(10:00) - How cold calling landed his first $1,000 client
(12:15) - The “value first” approach that worked
(13:30) - Melo Media’s pivot to full-service Instagram marketing
(15:30) - Why Instagram is the new website
(16:30) - Speaking directly to your dream client
(18:40) - The “best known > best” mindset shift
(19:50) - Crafting the perfect Instagram bio
(20:40) - The 4 essentials of a winning profile
(22:30) - Why 22–40-year-olds are the ideal target audience
(24:30) - TikTok vs Instagram for local service businesses
(25:45) - How to win attention in a short-attention world
(27:50) - Expanding into info products: Golf recruiting platform
(29:30) - Why resumes are becoming obsolete
(30:30) - Building digital real estate instead of interning
(33:30) - Making real money and finding consistency
(35:45) - The late-night grind and inconsistent income
(37:30) - Handling doubt and criticism
(40:30) - Power of connections and introductions
(40:50) - Where to find Aidan
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/aidan.melograna/
How I Used Storytelling to Generate 10K/mo. (USE THIS FRAMEWORK)
The Post Game Podcast:
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Email me: joe.poduslenko@gmail.com