Karat Financial

Nikocado Avocado faked it all as a social experiment. 2 days ago he revealed that he had acted out his overweight childish personality as a "social experiment" - that everyone fell for. He's already lost 250 lbs of weight and had been releasing older pre-recorded videos to maintain the facade. A few thoughts here: 1. When creators become popular, many of them become influencers - aka famous for being famous. But unlike traditional celebrities, influencers often built their fame online organically - so we feel like we know them better and that they're being truthful. But events like this remind us that influencers are just as capable of manufacturing situations as the older generation of celebrities and reality TV stars. 2. Was it worth it? Nikocado Avocado released his new video titled "Two Steps Ahead" - revealing his secret plan all along. But it doesn't change the fact that he was dangerously overweight for a very long time - and in exchange, presumably made good AdSense revenue and built notoriety - at the cost of presenting himself and his life as entertainment. 3. We're likely going to see this more and more. I previously interviewed on the Karat Financial podcast another creator who'd faked a girlfriend launch on IG to sell his new apparel. And now - we're going to see AI take this to the next level. What do you think?

3 years ago, MrBeast held a contest for new creators where he’d crown a star and send that person millions of his followers. IsaiahPhoto competed- and while he didn’t win the contest, he won overall. Today, he has over 10M followers and regularly gets millions of views per longform video. This Thursday at 1pm PST- he’s sharing his secrets live in the Karat Financial discord- join to listen in or receive notes afterwards via link in comments! His main edge? He started with shortform focused around exploring one off ideas like seeing trading sand for a Tesla- but found ways to build a deeper narrative and connection with fans that translates over to longform. Excited to share more soon!

Two comedy TikTokers just shot a critically reviewed horror film - on a budget of $800 dollars - it's already covered by Variety. They turned down a film distributor to release it directly on YouTube. This is the future: the next generation of Hollywood filmmakers will come from social media creators - because that's the easiest way to practice your craft. Co-creators Curry Baker & Cooper Tomilson have posted hundreds of shortform comedy videos on TikTok & YouTube. I've seen these shorts - and they stood out because cleverly scripted and professionally shot - signs of two filmmakers developing their technique. It's because of that practice that they could be scrappy and film their own 62 minute horror shoot themselves. True to that spirit- they chose to release it on YouTube instead of going through distributors - because they wanted as many people to see it as possible & maintain creative control & the final cut. It worked. The video has hundreds of thousands of views and glowing industry coverage- and they're already working on their next film. What do you think?

Olympics athletes are starting OnlyFans accounts- and making millions of dollars. What's going on? 1. Most athletes just don't make much. Even Olympic gold medallists are turning to OnlyFans for financial stability - because they may have worked their entire lives to reach peak physical perfection - for one moment of shortlived glory. Bronze medallist Jack Laugher described OnlyFans as an "absolute lifeline". 2. The International Olympics Committee doesn't seem to mind- and OnlyFans loves it. When the AP asked a IOC spokesperson about it - he simply replied that athletes are also normal citizens that are allowed to do what they can. In the meantime, OnlyFans has highlighted the Olympic athletes on its platform - which makes sense - because - 3. We're seeing more and more - that no matter what you do and what kind of job - you can start to make income on the side through your content. We first saw this during COVID when nurses, teachers, and plumbers began making content and blowing up in ways that either allowed them to boost their 9-5 income or even go do content fulltime. This Olympics/ OnlyFans trend is just another manifestation of this trend. What do you think?

Quinn Rutledge runs a faceless Pokemon YouTube channel making $5k/ month - while also working fulltime at Karat Financial in growth. His secret? Hiring. He's automated away over 85% of the work - with a team of over 20 people. He contracts out work to a deep bench of 3 script writers, 2 editors, 5 thumbnail artists, 6 players who record gameplay- and brought on a channel manager to coordinate it all. To learn more how he did it - we recorded his talk in Karat Financial discord and shared a preview of the key takeaways - both in comments below! One nugget I'll share now from Quinn - he had to test 5x as many people as he initially thought in order to build out his team.

Instagram's thinking about getting rid of square photos. They're testing a version of the profile grid focused on vertical photos. On the one hand - this makes sense! We live in a 4:3 and 9:16 ratio world - and it means that photos can sit more comfortably with vertical videos. But I'm sad. Instagram's square format is iconic - and harkens back to an earlier, simpler time where just posting photos in itself felt new and special. What do you think - excited about the change or feeling nostalgic already?

Influencers are speaking at our nation's top national conventions. Republicans hosted model Amber Rose last month - and at the DNC, every night will feature an influencer speaker now on the same stage as Obama. The DNC traditionally reserves its podium for political luminaries - in addition to Obama, President Biden and Bill Clinton are speaking too - but this year, a group of Gen Z / millennial influencers with over 24M followers are joining too. This is a big deal. This is a prime speaking spot that millions across the nation watch - and can make your career - as Obama saw delivering his speech "The Audacity of Hope" at Kerry's 2004 DNC. And when you bring on influencers to represent your message - just as every brand knows - while you benefit from the reach & authenticity- you have to be very thoughtful that they stay on message. Is this the future? Will we be seeing more influencers involved in political campaigns - or even running for office themselves?

I met President Joe Biden today. He loves creators. He hosted the first ever White House Creator Economy Conference - where over 100 creators & executives met to figure out policy around AI, hate comments, and fair pay. Biden sees creators as the future of media - and declared that his grandchildren already don't read newspapers. He openly criticized the journalists in attendance for focusing on headlines- and asked us - as creators - to consider our obligations beyond clicks to stay true & honest. What a moment for creators & the industry to be recognized - as the future of media and small businesses. Proud to represent Karat Financial here today.

Shervin S. was making $4K/ month with just 5K subscribers - because he specifically focused his content on one niche and made 80% of his revenue through affiliate. His content was hyperfocused on health & wellness - and featured a lot of product reviews (eg reviewing the WHOOP or barefoot shoes or the Oura ring) - so he built authority and converted very well to affiliate product sales. Those videos made money - which he then used to also develop a series of more personal/ narrative focused videos - which didn't make as much money immediately but grew his brand & follower count. And as his follower count grew (he's over 170K subscribers today) - he also diversified his revenue stream beyond just affiliate and and now makes 30-40% just from brand sponsorships. If you want the full details, check out our write up of our hour long Karat Financial live talk with Shervin in our creator Discord - link in comments! We host one every week (next one is from Max Fosh's thumbnail editor on Thursday) live in our Discord (where you can join also via link in comments!)

People aren't actually leaving X (fka Twitter). Despite the criticism and uproar, we haven't seen any real decline in X's user base. As TechCrunch writes- Threads continues to grow (and how has over 200M users) - and while there's ton of Threads users posting how they've left X - actual data shows that X's user count is about the same. In fact - if you look at the US - while Threads grew 3% last month, X grew 2%. How do we reconcile this with the general "vibes" that people are leaving X? When I worked at Facebook, we'd see a lot of controversy & negative news reports on Facebook appear - people would get upset & threaten boycotts - but nobody would leave or stop using the service enough to affect numbers. Oftentimes, user sentiment just doesn't match user behavior. What do you think?