Introduction

Quitting corporate to be a full-time content creator was never part of the plan. It was the exact opposite, to be honest. I assumed my career path would be straight and unwavering. I was so wrong…

Let me preface this newsletter by saying this is not a get-rich-quick story, and I don’t intend on upselling you. I simply enjoy storytelling and hope you can find some value as I share my thoughts and lessons learned as an almost 29-year-old. I’d like this newsletter to lend itself to open discussions surrounding the current corporate climate, starting your own business, pursuing creative ventures, and learning how to make serious money as a content creator. I worked in investment banking in Los Angeles for ~four years before leaving the industry and starting my own business as a content creator, which I’ve been able to scale to a six-figure business in about 6 months. There are very specific steps I took to do this, and I want to share exactly how I’m making money through TikTok, Instagram, and brand deals. I’d also like to help cut through the bullshit clickbait you see when scrolling. I’d also like to note I’m not using AI to write any of these newsletters. I didn’t get a perfect score on the reading and writing portion of my SAT for nothing 😉. Ok…let’s dive in.

Back Story

I’ve always believed in the power of self-branding as a form of entrepreneurship. It’s the sole reason I downloaded TikTok in 2021. I was slaving away as an investment banker at the peak of the post-Covid stock market boom, working closely with a few Managing Directors who were, let’s say, “ethically challenged”. I’ll be fully transparent, I made a lot of money cashing in on overpriced IPOs and riding the equity markets thinking this was totally normal for a 23-year-old. I also thought it was normal to work 100-hour weeks and measure my successes and productivity by how much I had suffered through work each week. The wake-up call came when I developed an autoimmune disease called Ulcerative Colitis from the stress I was under and experienced what were probably panic attacks from being overworked and malnourished. I still think my departure from the firm led to the downfall of B. Riley Securities, but that’s a story for another day (the company faced SEC investigations for being sketchy after I left, google it). Oh, and my ethically challenged Managing Director failed to close a deal for 2 years after I left and was “quit fired” and forced to move back to Paris where he’s from because nobody could tolerate doing deals with him after I left…adieu and good riddance!

In my efforts to escape the daily realities of being emotionally abused (as investment banking analysts often are), I started making music and used TikTok to promote it. I had some success and even garnered around 500K streams on Spotify. But what I learned along the way was that I love storytelling and creating relatable content about my life. People connected with my videos about the corporate struggle, life in your 20s, and sometimes cringy comedic skits (I’ll surely regret these when I have kids).

Fast forward ~two years and I’ve gained around 30K followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube (not a humble brag…quite the opposite actually). Don’t get me wrong, I’m damn grateful for my 30K followers. And if you’re reading this and you are one of them, THANK YOU. I bring this up only to demonstrate the power of UGC, self-branding, and how the current social media landscape and industry lends itself to incredible monetization opportunities, especially for people who don’t have a ton of followers. The game has changed, and you can create a prosperous, self-run business with a decent following.

What’s Next?

I’d like to cover a few topics that are top of mind in the coming newsletters, including:

1. Why the current job market is such a struggle
2. How I broke into UGC and set up my LLC through ZenBusiness
3. 30 agencies I work with regularly to create social media ad campaigns for +175 brands
4. The importance of storytelling and how I structure my personal content
5. Creator Outlet, a marketplace for creators to sell UGC overflow products
6. UGC best practices and know-how including the workflow template I created to track all of my campaigns

I have a lot of free-flowing thoughts outside of these topics, including life hacks I’ve found useful, what I’ve learned in my 20s, fitness, and nutrition habits as a former D1 athlete, and a whole lot more. I’d like to try and synthesize all of these thoughts into these newsletters that will remain permanently posted on this medium, so you can utilize what we discuss here for yourself. All I ask in return is for you to subscribe to this newsletter and follow my socials so we can keep things going.

Stay creative,

Josh