Ian Boggs has built an 18 million subscriber channel on YouTube with comedic skits, challenges, and TikTok reviews. Says Boggs: “With TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, we can create short, condensed versions of movies that people can easily watch and consume.” The former National Geographic photographer has partnered with top streamers including Netflix, Google, Hulu, FX, and Prime Video.
Read the full story on Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2024/10/28/top-creators-2024-the-influencers-turning-buzz-into-billions/
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Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I'm gonna be flat-out honest like
00:02Social media can be a game like you do have to know how to play it
00:06Well, it's this life life is a game. You gotta know how to play business and learn business and play it. Well
00:14Hey everybody, welcome to Forbes top creators
00:16I'm Forbes assistant editor Stephen Bertone and today I'm here with Ian fogs. Let's go
00:22Here we go Forbes top creator new Forbes under 30. He has more than
00:2845 million followers 37 37 37 million
00:33Across YouTube tick-tock Instagram, you know it he does comedy skits acting you name it Ian Boggs. Welcome to the show
00:39Thank you very much. Wow, great intro. I
00:41Everyone Stephen Bertone amazing human that has helped me out so much in this journey. So thank you so much, man
00:47Well, thanks for coming. So you just landed from LA. Yeah, you're on two hours of sleep. Yeah, so thanks. You're looking peppy
00:53I'm trying I send you to Stumptown. We're in down in the village. We got Stumptown coffee
00:57Coffee is great. First time in Stumptown. So what were you doing?
01:01For the last week when you've had like two hours of sleep for the last week. Um, well yesterday morning
01:06We were promoting the Craven movie. They had like a big
01:10creator
01:12they didn't have like activation where you go and you do the Craven workouts and meet Aaron the actor of Craven and then
01:18I got to edit the video for that to pub free free publication right now. Yeah Craven
01:24And
01:25Published that sometime this week. But before that I was filming a bunch of videos. I was in acting classes and acting intensive
01:31and just working really hard on auditions and
01:35Making videos every single day. What happens in an active intensive?
01:39You get kind of swear on you. Yeah, you get your
01:43Forbes for 16 years and you're the first tank top interview ever done. I hope that's okay
01:47You're sure I was worried. This was too comfortable. So and the cold is keeping me awake right now your shoulders look great. It's fine
01:52Thank you. Okay. Thank you. The calisthenics is working. Um, so
01:57So yeah, the arm with an active intensive. Yeah, your ask is torn apart by whatever teacher you're learning from right now
02:03I'm with Yvonne. I'm sure she's awesome. Um, she's taught like Holly Berry Jim Carrey
02:08Leonardo DiCaprio, I'm pretty sure at some point
02:10Well the same birthday as okay. Nice trying to live up to that, you know, um the acting part and
02:17Yeah, you just
02:18Acting is all about raw pure emotion and vulnerability and to be able to share that is a very true unique art and talent
02:25I think and that's why I want to work on so much
02:27Are you doing this acting intensive and improving your acting for social or are you looking to for everything? Okay?
02:33I mean like when I started taking acting classes when I first came to LA that was when I decided like I'm gonna
02:38not care about how I think I need to be on social media and just go into it and
02:43Honestly helped me so much because that was when that was when
02:46Videos started to hit like 10 million every single time. There's a point on point in time on tick-tock
02:51I think three years ago where like I posted twice a day every video got over over 10 million views
02:56and
02:57yeah at that point I was one of the fastest going on tick-tock and then it we were over to YouTube and then Instagram and
03:03then
03:04Now we're here and doing everything. So what was your secret about getting those 10 million view videos?
03:12I would say that there was a whole year of posting every day like one to three times a day before that
03:20huge amount of growth happened
03:22Before that I was doing like I would say anime related videos like teaching Japanese in a funny way
03:28I was I think the original person to turn
03:31Teaching a language in comedic skits into a business on social media now so many people do it
03:38But I can say
03:40Confidently that I was one of the first people first people do that
03:42And then I just decided like I'm in LA
03:46I moved out here because I want to write stories. I want to act
03:50I want to inspire people and eventually direct and produce my own films. Okay on a very large scale and
03:56If I'm not doing that, I'm not being true to myself
03:59So one day I saw a comment that said you should make your own anime and I was like, I mean and tick-tock
04:05I just released the the
04:08Ability to reply to a comment with the video. Okay, so I took that ability and decided let me write this short little
04:16summary of like an anime idea where like a
04:19Comment falls to the planet and like gives people superpowers and this one guy doesn't have any superpowers
04:23it was a whole story, but I
04:26my background is photography videography, so I use that to create cool b-roll and
04:31Layer out like a trailer for a story. Were you creating animation yourself?
04:35No, I grabbed some b-roll from stock footage from online mixed with my own stock footage of me doing VFX videos as well, okay and
04:43Posted that thinking that it would tank and not do well because it's so different from everything else
04:47I had done it was so true to myself and that was the first video
04:52That was truly original to me and unique to me that got over a million likes and 10 million views and then from then on
04:59I was like, you know what screw it
05:00I'm just gonna be myself and post whatever I want to post and then every single video after that started hit
05:0510 million that was posting twice twice a day at that point
05:07So I started doing the stories where I would like POV format
05:11Yeah, make stories make little short films every single day and that
05:15Just took off and grew me from 3 million to over 10 million and six months
05:20So this was three years ago on tik-tok and then of course different things happen on YouTube and Instagram
05:25Yeah, yeah
05:26I mean
05:26How does your mindset change when you have first had that video that gets like 10 million views?
05:30Is there like a lot of pressure or yours like you know what you said like I'm gonna be my own
05:34Freaky self. I'm gonna keep it going. Like do you become like almost a trigger shy because you're like, whoa
05:39I have to get another hit another hit all these eyeballs around me. How did that work?
05:42I think it was the exact opposite and this is the funny part because um
05:47You would think that maybe you do get a little trigger shy because you're like, oh every single video has to be a hit
05:52but once you have that first video where you really just let yourself be like your own ideas flow and they and that
05:58Video is the one to like go the most viral and make you feel the best
06:02That's all you want to do, of course like you got to take into account that like there is
06:08algorithmic I
06:09Guess technicalities I go into a video. Okay, you got to catch someone's attention the first couple of seconds second even and
06:17you have to
06:19figure out if a brand is gonna align with this and want to work with that that was like my main thing in the beginning
06:24and
06:25and then within those
06:27Borders finding what best describes you and then going all out it and I think that was what gave me the ability after a
06:35year of just posting every day and like knowing what does well and
06:38Then working in those factors of myself to make a video go viral that I love
06:43Gotcha, everyone mentions the algorithm and they want to like either game the algorithm or not game or just understand how it goes
06:48Yeah in my mind. I fit you I picture like
06:51creators with like a giant like matrix like
06:54Like standing with like bars and thing like is it a do you actually go to is there a way to look at stats and
06:59Look at numbers or is it more of a feel thing?
07:01Like you said like you just know you need a fast hook and then the algorithm like likes that like how do you actually study?
07:06It or is it just yeah look for features that work well and try to make sure you check those boxes in each
07:10I'm gonna be flat-out honest like
07:13Social media can be a game like you do have to know how to play it
07:16Well, it's this life life is a game. You gotta know how to play business and learn business and play it. Well, but I
07:22Know every social media platform wants to to do its best to help creators grow, which is awesome because
07:29Creators are what people people on the platform. Yeah, but
07:34The other creators I talked to myself even
07:37What I find best and worst best for me is just taking an hour a day or two hours a day
07:42this intentionally to scroll through and see what's trending and
07:46Looking at that and figuring out how I can do what's trending
07:50But in a way where if it's a niche where I can still grow my business and work with other businesses
07:54Give me some shoutouts like who were the there's some a few creators that you look to for inspiration
07:58Oh, yeah, I mean like really good stuff or is it random like oh, this is cool
08:02I don't know this person but they fed my algorithm or like you always go to a few people see what they're doing
08:07It's well, you're just with him Adam W. He's one of my biggest inspirations. Now. He's my friend, which is awesome
08:13Um
08:14Also been kind of a little bit of a mentor. So that's shout out Adam. You've been crushing it. Yeah, absolutely question it
08:21Adams on the show. We're gonna we have
08:23Dude, we hit it bro. I love you. Okay, um
08:27He him for Instagram because he's just absolutely he's killing on everything. Yeah, but YouTube my audience is a little younger
08:33So I would say other creators who do skits. There's a guy named Juge who's really awesome. He's based in Brazil
08:41Luke Davidson, he's based in Canada
08:44For me
08:46Mr. Beast to yeah, like he's obviously number one
08:48So I see what he's doing, but I don't want one top creator Forbes three years in a row
08:53Yeah, he's not I don't want to make the same videos
08:56He does but just looking at what he does in his videos in his thumbnails
08:59Like if you're not studying with the number one person is doing what are you? What are you doing? But also like not
09:05Not because everyone gets inspiration
09:07But what did what makes you different is you someone told me once that you're
09:14Your niche is your face
09:15okay, if you you're if you use your face your niche is your face or your voice and I really resonated with that because
09:20Every great artist takes from from many different artists and then makes their own little thing
09:25Yeah, I truly believe in that like nothing is completely original
09:30Sometimes they are but like nothing is completely original in my mind
09:33And so when you use your face as your brand
09:37It just gives you so much power to like
09:40Take inspiration from everyone and make your own little thing. I want to I'm always fascinated with starting at the beginning
09:46Like what creators are doing before they said they're gonna get into this full-time
09:50Yeah, what they were doing before they hit it big like you mentioned Adam W. Adam was working as a valet
09:55He says he still has his little, you know, his little red vest before you hit it big in LA
10:00Yeah, I know you're like the international man of mystery
10:02Tell me a little bit about like your background and also like what you were doing before
10:07You decided to you make these videos two three times a day during the during the pandemic
10:12It's so funny. You say mystery because I just learned that Scorpios are meant to be like mysterious. Oh, you're a Scorpio Scorpio
10:18But um, I just got really into LA makes you get into that kind. Yeah, you're definitely in that you have crystals at home
10:23Like I don't have Christmas. Oh, yeah, you're going full in. I'm gonna fall in. Yeah, but I love it
10:28It's good for my content and like VFX and storytelling. Yeah, um and writing so, uh, yeah before doing social media
10:35I was a full-time photographer. I had my own business. I was doing weddings. I was doing grad shoes
10:40I was doing fashion shoots. I remember my most paid shoe was I made a thousand dollars in four hours
10:47And I was like, oh my god, you can make a thousand dollars in four hours. It's crazy
10:51She's got a photo a fashion fashion shoe
10:54And and I was like and I only had to edit ten photos like what is crazy
10:59Weddings like, you know, it's a thousand you can make good money from weddings if you but you got to work really hard
11:03You gotta make everyone happy. You got to be a real good people pleaser. Those are long days. That's like a full day
11:08Yeah, and you got to deal with people's
11:11biggest day in their life. Yeah for most of them and
11:16Yeah, it's very beautiful, but it just wasn't for me. Like I love doing it
11:20I love photography love being creative
11:21But I just always felt that I like being in front of the camera a little more than I did being behind it
11:29Eventually when I write I mean eventually when I direct I also want to be in front of it in
11:33some way or form like that's I think every a lot of people are creators goals. That's what they do and
11:40So before that I was yeah a photographer videographer for
11:45Everything I could do there's I will mention one thing that um, I have a video on my youtube channel
11:50It's one of my first videos. So it's not one of the most viewed videos
11:52Okay, but it's one of my first like long-form testing videos that I did
11:56It was titled how I scam my college and pay off my tuition and the story I'd watch that. Yeah. Thank you
12:03I appreciate it. Yeah, I hope it the algorithm picks it up later on when my long-form
12:07I don't know like something it's weird how like sometimes past videos just like blow up because the the current ones go up
12:14So I hope that one blows up later on who knows. All right, everyone watching who has to pay. Yes for college
12:20Yeah, is it how to pay college by scamming how I how I
12:25How I paid off my tuition by scamming my college. How'd you scam?
12:29College first. I'll tell I went to college at UCI UCI. I love you. Please don't what's you see?
12:33I think you see as University of California at Irvine. Gotcha. We're on the East Coast
12:37I don't know all I feel cool. Yeah, the cool LA you see they're like the the cool. Yeah, I know that yeah public
12:43Could be private like type scores in and UCI is I think like I think it's up there in the ranks now
12:50It's like it's right below Berkeley. Berkeley is like it's a us
12:55no, it's
12:57Stanford USC
12:59UCLA you see oh, I think you see I might be above you say, I don't know. I can't I don't know
13:03I don't know what it is now up there. That's like a friend. I went to UCSD Santa Barbara
13:08Wait, I'm like, how would you stay in school? I would fail out if I was living. Yeah, let me go there
13:12He didn't even let me apply. I think um, but I'm glad I went to UCI and this is
13:17the reason so the reason why the title the video is I scammed my college is because
13:23colleges all have their own
13:25graduation photographers, okay, and
13:28My sophomore year Oh end of my freshman years when I I left Greek life because I was tired of it
13:33I it wasn't for me. I mean I nothing against it. It's just like it was not for me
13:37I was a frat boy to believe. Oh, okay. Cool, which I was a beta theta pie
13:42Oh, we didn't have that in my school. Were you I'm sure it was the best one though. Um, they're all the same
13:47It was Sigma Chi Sigma. Yeah, we had that. Oh, okay. Yeah, but I'm Derby days. We did. Yeah, that's so funny
13:53I was always jealous. Oh my gosh, that's wild. Yeah, but it wasn't for me. Um, and I found my people in
14:02which yeah, nothing against it, but I found my people in like student government and creative clubs and
14:08Like this organizations on camp like I was a student orientation leader. Okay
14:13so many things but
14:15found my people through photography videography classes for creating and
14:23it's long story short switched from bio pre-med into film and media studies because I
14:28Realized that I need to be creating in order to be happy. That's a big shift. It is it is
14:33So you create in biomed you get in trouble?
14:36Well, it's hard to be creative because you're always looking at books about things that are done a certain way
14:42There's certain rules. Otherwise, yeah, so you gotta follow exactly you have to you have to yeah
14:45And of course the best doctors are creative and I like do things that are out of norm and but do it well
14:51but it's okay, so I I scanned my college because
14:55and
14:57It was all it was all legal
14:59basically
15:01Colleges have their own graduation photographers who charge like five hundred three hundred dollars per one photo. Okay?
15:08And it's like in a studio. It's like like lighting is all the same for every single person. It's like the
15:14It's like a middle school. Yeah, why would I pay three hundred four dollars for that when I'm a broke college student?
15:19This makes no sense. I'm already that's like the price of
15:21It's like half the price of rent already. And so and now it's probably a quarter but
15:27So I was like this is crazy and there were a lot of good photographers at my campus
15:31They would all do like graduation photos
15:32so I would learn from them see how they're editing them to do all that stuff and then I would just see what could I
15:38Do to make it me and better and better in the way of it being my own thing
15:43yeah in my own mind and so I
15:46Just posted everywhere. I could like every UC College in California. I just posted like hey
15:53Taking us I would make myself the cheapest photographer at first we posting online posting online on Facebook groups
15:59I would post like this is where the social media business mind started happening really well where um,
16:05I would post on every Facebook college group
16:07I could of like seeing what the rates were for the general amount of graduation photos and me having already
16:13I would say being a good photographer at that point. Um, I would
16:18Charge lower than the I guess not the lowest but lower than the average cost of what people were charging for photos
16:26Get a good deal
16:26Yeah
16:26and then just get as many shoots as I couldn't my first you're doing my thoughts my sophomore year and I think that year was
16:32Like that that year was the first time I made five thousand bucks in a month
16:35That's my own like my own thought photography and I was like, wow, this is crazy
16:39I can make money from this and then the next month next year. I made
16:437,000 from graduation photos and then the next year I made
16:4610,000 just like in a month from graduation photos. We were traveling from school to school
16:49I was doing like UCLA UCI. I went to San Diego a couple times and I was like a three-hour drive
16:55I think I went to
16:58Riverside was just like a long drive to
17:00But yeah, my car was torn apart by the end of this
17:05That's also a great way to kind of build a network. I'm sure it was some like amazing people through that
17:08Yeah, yeah, and that's something that's it's funny like every single job
17:13leads to a different job like
17:15before photography I was
17:18What was it like this one's not too like leading but I was a personal trainer and I mean
17:24you gotta be active to walk around campus five times a day and take photos but the photography led to
17:29Consecration because that was what helped me learn lighting angles and differentiate my content from other skit creators and make it super high quality
17:37Yeah, very cool. So let's fast-forward now
17:41So you've posted these you start posting your kind of skits if you will like you're oh, oh, I'm sorry
17:47I said scam because I ended up making more money than the actual colleges photographers because I was doing my own thing and
17:53Giving better photos. Yeah, you got to put scam in there to get the get the clicks. I guess I get a
17:59Provocative headline and then you you know explain exactly. Yeah
18:01I mean, yeah
18:02I want to fast-forward to now now you're making your own videos a lot of like, you know point of view acting if you will
18:07Skits, you're getting 10 million views. When did you start making money? I
18:12So my first brand deal was I
18:16will say now my brand deals go from anywhere from like
18:2050,000 to 30. I mean not 30 300,000
18:25If they're longer one, right? Is that like you get for that like a few posts? I would say
18:31300,000 would be about
18:34They can move into your house sleeping on your floor they can use your kitchen. Yeah. Yeah at that point. Yeah
18:40Yeah, but um, so you said five like I'm on five videos. Yeah, but again like a like a set
18:45Yeah format, but for one video like even
18:4975,000 I think we've done once that was pretty cool
18:51I know some creators are same size as me who've done a million dollars for a post like one post. That's crazy
18:58But yeah now now now I'm like, I don't know what you do, you know, but
19:03I'm gonna keep going so I don't never quit. Yeah
19:06That's not an option
19:08And the question that I'm getting back to when you first start
19:12When did you first start making money and what was like your first deal?
19:14And then how do you think about this as a business now because you said like, you know
19:18Yeah, the word creator is great
19:20But you guys really are your entrepreneurs your your filmmakers your content makers your small bit your big businesses. Yep
19:26What was your first deal?
19:27So my first deal was for a little app where you could create your own avatar and
19:33Talk to your pen pals around the world where I forgot the name of it, which I knew because it was it was a cool
19:37app, um, I
19:39Think I had like a hundred K on tik-tok and I was like, whoa
19:42I get I think it was 75 bucks and I was like, let's freaking go
19:45can make 75 bucks from like just posting a little video and
19:49I was so hyped for it posted it people loved it. They download the app. I had my own face on there
19:55And that was the first time I made money on social media five bucks for 75 bucks, okay, so cool the other time was
20:02There so there's this thing where you could only go a lot when tik-tok was first getting bigger in the pandemic
20:07um, I wanted it so bad that like
20:12When you hit a thousand followers you're able to go live and so once I hit a thousand followers
20:16I would go live all night. Like I would have the camera on me while I was sleeping and
20:21And um, it's like that's a little creepy. It was a little creepy, but I just wanted is so bad
20:25I was okay willing to whatever it took and
20:28people enjoyed watching that for some reason so
20:31I built an audience from that and
20:34this one time I made 400 bucks because I was doing these like thirst trap videos and
20:41There were these like
20:44Girls, I guess who were like will demo you
20:4725 bucks for each time you flex on the on live and I was like
20:51Really? This is this has to be a lie. I did it and they sent me 25 bucks
20:55And then that day I made 400 bucks from this flexing. Do you have an only fans account yet?
21:00I don't know I
21:02Know disrespect against it, but that's I can't do that. Yeah, so just reflect
21:06So that was like a live kind of kind of thing. Yeah
21:09Yeah, and that that that I was like, oh so cool
21:12And then my then I had no idea when my dad was there watching it
21:15He texted me he was like Ian you ever do anything like that again, I'm disowning you
21:18I think you never gonna do it. Okay, you never and none of that kind of stuff. Don't ever go in
21:23He's just jealous. No, it's paying him. No, it's fine. He's just being a yes. Yes, sir. Yes, but um
21:29but I mean now, of course like I can do whatever I want all that stuff, but
21:33the
21:35Was I trying to say so?
21:38Yeah, and then I didn't do a brand deal purposely didn't do a brand deal once I hit a million
21:42Because I just wanted to lock in on building a really strong core audience and
21:48Trying to make money just from the videos itself
21:50Okay, because I think that was when tick-tock launched it's like creator fun
21:53And then that was when you two shorts came around too
21:57And so I was like, okay
21:58How much can I make without doing brand deals because also I don't want to do any until I hit 10 million
22:03Okay, I love the million
22:04I was like on the verge of quitting and then my dad told me in get your head out of gas
22:10You can make money from this and I was like, you know stir a military dad. Yes advice
22:14Oh, yeah, your dad's in the Navy's was a former Navy. Yep. Yep. Yep. Super awesome
22:19Thank you for your service dad
22:21Love him, and I actually almost went into the military before
22:25Going all in on social media. It's a very different. Those are that's a very binary different life right there
22:29Very different life very different. Although we need some military creators. We don't think we have. Yeah, actually
22:33Yeah, that's probably against a lot of a lot of rules. Yeah, but I mean military they do commercials, you know
22:39Of course, they need a lot of formal military podcasts and I like it stuff
22:44So, what are you doing?
22:45So why why 10 million was that just a number in your head or is there a certain is there a certain like?
22:50Incentive if you wait, well, it was actually five million because so here's a story where
22:55we're almost wanting to quit after hitting a million on tick-tock and
23:00This was about three or four. Why'd you want to quit? What was the what were the challenges obviously a lot?
23:05Well, of course
23:06Around that time those pandemic people had a lot of like hate just living inside of them and just a lot of like angst
23:12I think for just being trapped inside all day
23:14So I would get a lot of hate comments just for like no reason like your ears are too big
23:18What did oh, I would do these Japanese skits where they're like actually why is he so likes focus on Japanese?
23:24Always he's not even full Japanese. He's half Japanese. It's like so many things that didn't make any sense
23:29And I was like I want to quit because I just can't handle this like I can't handle getting torn apart
23:34Online all the time and then I was complaining to my dad and another creator. Yeah, genie weenie
23:41She's like a mom to me like my LA mom. We've been friends since we had a hundred K on tik-tok
23:48So I called her first when I hit a million she was like Ian that's so awesome and I was like, yeah
23:52But I want to quit because I just can't take it anymore
23:55All these hate comments are just getting to me and she was like in you're talented at what you do
24:00You can literally keep going if you just keep going at this
24:04she had two million at that time and
24:05I just looked up to her so much because she had such great engagement and I just wanted to get to where she was and
24:11She was like I had days where people get hate every single creator. It's hate comments it a lot of hate all day. Yep
24:18What my she?
24:21Her at is my my win my my healthy dish my healthy dish. Yes. She's awesome
24:26Also on top here tonight, yeah, and um, she sent me her book super awesome. Love you
24:31She said in the Forbes
24:35Upfronts that if you're not getting hate comments, you're if you're getting hate comments, you're doing something, right?
24:40Yeah, because people are it's a reflection of themselves
24:44Because they obvious there's no reason to put a hate comment if you don't want to be doing what someone else is
24:49Yeah, it just it makes no sense. They're jealous. They're jealous. They're exactly. Yeah, and so sad behind all that mad
24:55exactly
24:57so
24:59That's basically what she told me and I was like, yeah, you're right. I guess you're right
25:02I gotta keep going and then I told my dad and my dad was just like
25:05Ian get your head out of your ass. You have a million followers a
25:09Dollar per follower. That's a million dollars. I was like, yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right and that and I'm a very firm believer
25:16and writing down your goals and
25:18breaking them down to short-term goals and
25:21Really because we all know what we need to do to achieve our goals
25:23We just got to make it happen
25:24But writing it down makes it running down running it down as a first step because you're you're doing something to to make it real
25:30yeah, and so that night I wrote on a paper like I
25:34Need to get to five million followers before the end of the year
25:37and then the next year and that was or end of the year because it was
25:42January or December the year before and
25:46Wrote down my short-term goals all these things how much I want to make I think it was
25:50a hundred hundred thousand dollars
25:53and
25:54It was and I also wrote down like I have to move back to LA
25:57Okay, because I was living my parents in Colorado at that time
25:59I just graduated college and I decided let me live with my parents save some money. And
26:04Yeah, good goals make a hundred K and move out from home. That's yeah, and
26:07It's five million followers. Okay, and then I left that on the kitchen table on accident and it was at night
26:14And then I didn't want anyone to see it. So I went to sleep and then
26:18Forgot it there next day. I was like, oh shoot. I left it downstairs
26:21I hope my parents didn't see it and I come down. I'm like, hey mom
26:25Did you uh, did you see the paper on my table on the table?
26:28I left there and she was like, yeah, dad saw it. It's on the it's on the fridge
26:31She's like we have it framed. Yeah, it's framed. Oh my god
26:34And I was like, what did dad say? I was like, it was my mom said yeah, he said he was cute. Yeah cute
26:40Oh my god. Thanks. Now. I have to make it happen. And so, um
26:45Yeah
26:47That I bet part of you intention
26:48I bet part of you intentionally left it out there cuz you knew your dad the military man would make you do it
26:54Yeah, possibly. I mean possibly yeah
26:58But yeah, then at that point I was like, okay, there's no quitting now. There's no going back now. I have to do this thing and
27:05Yeah a month later. I moved back to California at first
27:07I moved back close to my college because that's where I knew rent would be cheap
27:10Yeah, and then rent situation didn't work out
27:13So I was like, alright
27:14So you never tell me I got to move to LA and then I did made a bunch of friends
27:17Learned always surrounded myself with people who are bigger than me
27:20yeah, and knew more than me or were older than me because
27:24Those were the ones I could always learn from and or just people in general
27:28I could always learn something from and you can learn something from everybody but in terms of what I wanted to do. Yeah, so
27:34yeah, and then just
27:36Went at it and in the first month there
27:38Grew from like
27:401.7 to 3 million and then at 3 million decided I'm in LA
27:43Let me do this thing and it just skyrocketed to 10 million by the end of the year
27:48Well, I want to talk about real quick about you mentioned the hate you get online and I know all creators get hate
27:53It's part of unfortunately the deal and I've heard all of advice like I
27:57It's a good though who was telling Danny Austin who was on the show. She believes in she says post in ghost
28:02Oh, yeah
28:04Post and not, you know, don't look in the comments other people
28:07They they basically have their assistants go through the comments so they can you know
28:12Get feedback from what people want but kind of the shield so you're not getting like that really vicious mean
28:17Yes, which is crazy. What how do you deal with it? How do you deal with that constant hate?
28:22obviously, there's fans, but there's also just trolls and just some very
28:26Unhappy people up there that are looking at. Yeah views
28:29Well, I mean I'll mention something that like I was afraid to mention before but now like talking about it to other creators
28:34Yeah, I'm so much more comfortable with it. There's a point in time where like someone try to
28:39Just like not really cancel because it was a really silly thing
28:41But it was just like a weird and this guy ended up getting cancer for something later on. But basically
28:47what happened was I
28:49Posted a video series about like it's not called this it's called that and Jack for Japanese things. Okay
28:55So I did a video where it's like it's not called soy sauce
28:57It's cultural use when you go to Japan make sure to say did it do it and soy sauce is not Japanese
29:01And I knew that but I was like just posting I was like a video to post and then someone took it out
29:06It's yeah, I mean, it's part of Japanese culture, right? It isn't Japanese culture. I think it's originally from China
29:11Oh, well, everything's everything's from somewhere some exactly
29:13And so this person like stitched it and mocked me was like actually it is called soy sauce
29:17And actually it's not even Japanese so many things and then both those videos got a couple billion couple million views
29:24Thousands of comments just like either defending me or going way against me saying like why is this guy gatekeeping soy sauce?
29:31Yeah, Oliver soy sauce and I had it like that was the first time where I was so overwhelmed
29:36I had to take a break from social media and I literally like my parents took me on a hike like they were really worried
29:42for me and
29:43I think I got a little depressed over I was like this is thousands of people like
29:48Just dragging me across over a food item over a food
29:51I'm helping explain how to translate it in different language like this. Yeah, and
29:56after some time to think on it, I actually
29:58called this guy because we had some mutual friends and I was like, I actually just thanked him because I was like, hey
30:05This happening made me realize I don't want to be teaching Japanese online. Like that's not what I want to do
30:11I want to make people laugh feel something like make skits act, right and
30:16I
30:18After I came back. I did that
30:20I posted a skit for the first time in a long time and that one got over a couple million views and I was like
30:24Oh, I can do whatever I want on here
30:26I don't have to be doing what I think I have to do because I have to people please or whatever
30:31And that gave me really thick skin
30:36So I have no problem looking at hate comments. If something's like really
30:39derogatory against like me or my race or different race or like something like this that shouldn't be online
30:45then I'll delete it gotcha, but if it's like like why are your ears like that or something like something about my like
30:52Facial feature or like whatever
30:54I'm just I'm gonna leave it on there because I know that my followers will either defend me or it'll like start like a
30:59Swarm of comments. Yeah, which is ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah, or it's just like
31:03You're making a fool out of yourself by commenting this so
31:06I'll just leave it there because
31:08You put it there and it's gonna help me in my video. Anyways, yeah
31:11You mentioned moving to LA and like did you find it when you get like you had like a million followers and five then it
31:16Jumped like do you find like does it grow exponentially? Like once you start getting bigger, do your jumps get bigger?
31:22Yeah
31:22I think the waterfall effect is definitely real like it starts with one drop and then boom boom boom boom boom and then all of a
31:28Sudden you got a waterfall going
31:30but I think like I
31:33guess waterfalls do kind of go on forever, but
31:36You got to also know when it's time to like grow out of something
31:40Because for me the POV is it really well a previous story time?
31:44Yeah short film type videos did really well on tick-tock and then they did grow my YouTube and Instagram
31:49but then YouTube started liking a different kind of content more and
31:53Instagram started liking a different kind of content more you Instagram's audience became older and
31:57I guess like my around my age like late high school and above yeah
32:03And then YouTube became really like middle school early high school and lower and tick-tock
32:09I think it's a mixture of everybody and so my YouTube content
32:12I started making different content for different platforms my YouTube became a lot more
32:17Silly like a part of me that is very like Jim Carrey like very animated and that I enjoy doing
32:24It's making people young people kids laugh and all that
32:28and then Instagram started become more real and like grounded acting and
32:34I
32:35Was able it became a platform for me to like test out what I've been practicing in classes and like really just
32:42Creating cinematic stuff and then tick-tock kind of became a mixture of both those things just testing out what's working. So you gotta always be
32:49Studying and learning what's going because the POV is that got 10 million views every single video
32:54Of course slowly and surely got down down down to like 5 million
32:58Gotcha bouncing around 5 to 10 and then I had a still massive, but I love how you have to always adapt in this world
33:03yeah, I mean even mr. Beast talked about how like
33:06You can't keep a series going for too long. You have to know when it's dying out
33:09yeah, because not if I mean biggest actors in the world like the Rocks the most followed actor in the world, I think and
33:17He does so many different roles. He's the same person every single movie because she's found out what he's good at but
33:24Does different things all the time you have different types of movies? Yeah, what is your audience?
33:28Like in terms of like what's the age is it to skew male females are broken down even like what do you what's kind of?
33:33Yeah, Instagram is 5050. Okay. I try to make content for everybody because one it's great for brands
33:40yes, I want to work with every brand possible that is in good stature and that is a
33:46That supports my creativity and my creative freedom and I don't just work is forward to once my goals as well
33:54which is almost every brand out there, but
33:57It's about 5050 male female on Instagram and YouTube around the same a little more in the mail
34:05Because it's very comedic. Okay, I'm a guy and I guess guys can relate to that a little bit more and then tick tock
34:11it's 5050 as well and
34:12Yeah, YouTube. I want to say it's like it's funny because it goes from like 18 and below is like very big, you know, like
34:20Become a it's still big but a little bit smaller in like the 20s range and then 30 to 40
34:25It just jumps again because all the kids are watching it and and that's really good because they'll grow up with me
34:29Yeah, it's like I grew up with my YouTube favorite youtubers and actors and so it's like kids watching on their parents accounts
34:35Yeah, okay, and they'll subscribe in their parents accounts
34:37So parents will sometimes like stop me at a mall and be like, oh my god
34:39My son watches you and I'm like, wow, even you people will stop my like assistant while he's walking my dog
34:45I do walk my dog too. But sometimes my assistant needs to walk my dogs. I'm busy
34:50People stop my assistant because they recognize my dog on the street. Yeah
34:55Even your dog's famous. Yeah, she's she's she's killing it. She's awesome. She's doing her own little thing growing up
35:01yeah, then Instagram kind of like
35:04Where that the age range kind of dips in YouTube a little bit
35:08Instagram is where I get that audience because they're more on Instagram got like the 18 to like 24 or 30
35:15Yeah, what is the Ian Boggs business today? How are you? How do you make money today?
35:18I know you do a lot. I know you're doing a lot of yeah of movie things as oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah
35:24The business today is
35:26She's I've been doing a lot more acting stuff. Um, that's been really awesome. And that's what I want to head more towards, too
35:32I'm never gonna leave social media. That's something I think I
35:35Understand super well now and this is only it's only gonna help me and everything else
35:39I want to do making movies acting all that stuff. Um, what kind of acting you're doing right now? Uh,
35:44I like to do every single role my what kind of what kind of thing getting paid for right now?
35:48What what kind of thing? What are we gonna see?
35:50I usually go out for like the I just did one in New Jersey recently
35:55It was like a micro budget independent film, but I was a love interest
35:58I usually go out for an audition for roles where I'm like the lead love interest kind of guy rom-com guy
36:05Yeah, but my goal of course is like I want to be a Marvel superhero
36:09I want to be an action hero like my biggest my biggest inspiration is Johnny Depp, but I also
36:16Love how Ryan Reynolds and the Rock turned their careers into businesses. Yeah, that's what I look at a lot as well
36:23Jim Carrey is an inspiration and
36:25The Anaheim DiCaprio is a great actor. Yeah, we had Ryan Reynolds speak at our Iconoclast summit
36:30Oh, which is like our big finance summit. That's awesome
36:33Amazing what he did with like, yeah buying the soccer team buying rexum
36:37Yeah, then building a whole ecosystem on that what he does for his old like marketing campaign
36:42Media and also his marketing agencies and he creates like
36:46Aviator gin then uses all of his talents and his connections to market for free. It's very I mean, yeah, it's very interesting
36:51I was dead cool into there. He does
36:54Marvel collabs, you don't see in the movies and he's on YouTube
36:56Which is like like why isn't every other Marvel actor doing that? You know, like there's so much power in that it's but um
37:03The things I would do if I was you know, and I gotta work towards getting to those shoes
37:07You make most your money now, though. Do you make it on brand deals? Do you make it on Adsense?
37:11Do you make it on like on streams? How what's like? What's your bread? How do you pay the bills?
37:15I would say right now. It's more so brand deals
37:20Adsense is like a good constant flow Adsense is like the I
37:24always say the stable bread and butter because you always kind of know what it's gonna be like every month depending on how much you're
37:29posting
37:30How viral you're going for?
37:34Sometimes I know for a lot of creators
37:35it's the same where
37:37some months are gonna be a little bit lower because
37:39One like the quarters is yes
37:41like one or two quarter three quarter three and four always didn't pay a lot more than other quarters at least on YouTube and
37:47That's why a lot of youtubers like work super hard build up their video
37:50Catalog and then take a break in January in February because AdSense will be a little bit lower
37:53There's that so YouTube slows down January February. I
37:57Is it January February or like April it slows down somewhere in the year, but it really hasn't
38:04For me in the past couple of years because shorts
38:08fund exists now and you I mean well not shorts, but it's the shorts AdSense share that they do and
38:14Shorts is actually starting to go up in AdSense now along with the long form
38:18Yeah, but I would say because I've been doing a lot more brand deals. I'm more focused towards working with like
38:24Production companies streamers like Netflix Sony Amazon Hulu all them
38:30HBO like they
38:33Are they give a great amount of creative freedom and they make great activations to make great brand deal
38:39Branded content that seems authentic and real to the creator
38:43I've been focused on those and those have been paying out. Well as well. Well, very cool
38:47Yeah, what has been your biggest surprise in this whole creator journey?
38:52biggest surprise
38:54How many opportunities there really are like when you really go for it and
38:59Work, sorry, excuse my language work your ass off to like make things happen because I feel like I sacrificed
39:04Everything to move out to LA when I first moved out here
39:07I was like living meal to meal like I would meal prep every Sunday and like
39:12Something I only I literally only had abs because I was starving and I was like working out really just like stay healthy and
39:18Not be too anxious. That'd be a good t-shirt. I only have abs because I'm starting. Yeah, that is a good teacher
39:23You probably offend a lot of people but that's okay. Oh, you're right. Yeah
39:25But you get in trouble for soy sauce you can't throw starving on a t-shirt, you're right, you're right. I can't do that. Um, but
39:32yeah, biggest surprise is how much opportunity there is how much opportunity there is to make more money, um,
39:39Because of course sometimes you have to say no to a brand because you're sucking a different like partnership or whatever
39:45But then it works out later on where you can get out of partnership. You have things just work out in their own way. But um
39:52Yeah, how many opportunities there are?
39:54Yeah, how many opportunities there are because
39:57It's insane. I mean Forbes. This is an incredible opportunity. Like I can't thanks. Thanks for joining me, man
40:02I know thank you for having me. I will give you a hug. Yeah, my swim there. But um,
40:06yeah, I mean
40:07How much opportunity there is when you really just like let go?
40:11of who you think you should be and just
40:14Be yourself. I mean what's trending really a lot right now on tiktok
40:18Especially as people who are just being themselves in front of a camera like, um
40:22Who's that one girl the blonde girl who just like took off out of nowhere?
40:25Um, i'm not sure you know more than me forgot but uh, she just does like those get ready with me videos, you know
40:30I don't know but she's like took off randomly just for being herself and i'm like alex earl. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool
40:35Yeah, she's a forbes under 30 and top creator too. Yeah, like that. She's a jersey girl, too
40:40So a shout out to mammoth county. Alex. Yeah, the the the girl who uh
40:44cooks for her kids and husband like a very uh
40:48fancy way
40:50There's that girl too. Yeah
40:51I mean people just being themselves and like that's inspired me as well because
40:56I'm constantly looking at what's trending and of course i'm more i'm a little more focused on youtube and instagram right now
41:01And I love tiktok so much. I love it so much. Yeah, but um
41:05that's just kind of like where my personality headed to and I know eventually i'm gonna
41:10have more time and
41:12Dedication to focus more towards tiktok and all all the platforms more again, and there's snapchat facebook
41:18um
41:19Chinese platforms now there's um
41:22There's I mean
41:24Samsung is coming out with their own clap like or there's so many things too many platforms linkedin. Um, but
41:31Yeah, it's just like catering to all of them. Um
41:35I don't know. There's so much so much. So it's wild. It's too much to keep up with it's insane. Yeah
41:40Yeah, it's like another platform if you were starting out
41:44Today in social media. Yeah, what advice would you give yourself? What tips?
41:49Be yourself. Don't be afraid to be yourself. Yeah, but everyone everyone says everyone says that okay
41:56It's so cliche, but it's true because because everyone's gonna be themselves
42:00I would say I would say this
42:03Um, I guess from a more analytical standpoint. Um
42:08Look at this is what I tell every single person who wants to go on social media because this is facts
42:12Like and like no bs. This is facts
42:16There are at least like three things that you enjoy doing more than anything else
42:22I wouldn't say choose those three things
42:23I would say choose one of those things that you really really enjoy doing that you like more than anyone else, you know
42:29Look look it up on youtube instagram tiktok the the blueprints there for people who are who are
42:34Making videos about it and succeeding
42:36if you
42:37Gary v said this if you like smurfs, I don't know for no reason like look up smurfs and like be the smurf guy. Yeah
42:45Eventually another smurf movie will come out and you'll make a lot of money from that and i'm sure there's a smurf guy
42:49Girl, whatever. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I love naruto so much. So I know what naruto is like the biggest anime ever
42:56Okay, and they're making a movie. I'm not a big. I'm not a big anime guy. You're good lion's gate
43:00Oh, I gotta leave now then i'm sorry
43:03You're right. No, we got most of it in
43:05lion's gate is making a naruto movie now and one thing I would always say in my like long form videos was
43:10One day i'm gonna host the world's biggest narrow world's biggest naruto run and naruto run is like you're running like this
43:16And I had to hold on to run with your hands behind your back. Yeah, you're running behind
43:19Anime ninja character. Okay, and um, you do like the new york marathon in that in that pose. I so yeah, that would be amazing
43:26Yeah, yeah, I could do that. It's a lot of lower body work. Oh, yeah
43:30Um, I think a video I had where I would run in or I would it's a video idea that I have where I run
43:35a marathon as naruto like a naruto run, um
43:38But I didn't do it because I
43:41Wanted to wait until the naruto movie comes out because there'll be so much more hype around it
43:45and stuff like that like you there's something that you love more than anything else and
43:51if you can find a way to like build a career out of it and
43:56Look at what's trending around it
43:57What's worked on the internet and just finding a way to make it you and posting every single day no excuses literally every single day
44:05Something is going to hit and I would say if you're first starting out at least three times a day
44:10Because there is so much content out there so much
44:13Like if you're one little wave there are so many title waves out there
44:17That like I mean hailey cleo. She posts like five times a day. You gotta you gotta beat out
44:22A million people who are posting five times a day to really stand out especially in the beginning
44:27So post at least three times a day like when you're first starting out and eventually something will stick it has to it's just
44:34facts
44:35Something has to stand out and on that this is we're gonna close up in a second, but on that note
44:41The idea of posting three times a day, especially something creative or fun. It's so hard to be funny. It's hard
44:46It's hard to be funny once a week let alone three times a day
44:48Yeah, how do you come up with your ideas for content?
44:51And what advice do you have for folks even like me who need help with like creative ideas and how to create?
44:58Once a day let alone three times a day. Yeah, I mean
45:01The blueprint is there it's literally
45:04When you're scrolling through reels, you're seeing videos that are already catered towards you that make you laugh and are funny
45:10So if you can I mean
45:12Save those like somehow in your notes, whatever instagram literally has their own
45:16You can save it into a playlist like stuff like that send it to yourself
45:20I send videos to myself all the time. It might be a little lonely and depressing
45:24I do it all the time so I can
45:26Look back on it and be like oh that was cool
45:28That was cool, how can I remake it in my own way?
45:31Um so that it sticks with my audience, but also reaches a broader audience and bigger audience. Um
45:38I don't know
45:39It's literally there like you can anyone can anyone can do it and that's the thing
45:44Because anyone can do it. It's so much harder and because people
45:48Think they can do it. They're gonna leave hate comments, but are they doing it?
45:52no, like everyone has at least like when I first started I
45:56I think I only slept like
45:59four or three hours a night when I for the first week because I was like
46:02I was gonna make a youtube video called how to go viral on tiktok
46:04Okay, I hadn't gone viral yet. So I made like a little blueprint. I was like, this is what i'm gonna do
46:08For a week straight i'm gonna post 10 times a day
46:11And see what happens and then I ended up never posting that youtube video because by the end of the week
46:16I had gotten to 10k. I just kept it going until I got to 100k in a month and then
46:21I posted three times a day every single day for another six months and got to
46:25I think like that's when I got to three million and then and I moved out of
46:29My house that I graduated from in california
46:32And then moved in with my parents for I think another five months then go back to la
46:37Uh, just grinding out grinding out learning out. No sleep high energy
46:41There's I mean like in that time. I was also still working as a photographer
46:45I was still a student in college. It was spring break
46:47It was spring break so I did have a little more time, but I spent my last spring break of college
46:54Grinding on tiktok and going live literally all night and posting three videos a day and just like looking at
47:01What's trending on the for you page for you piece was very different back then
47:04Yeah, three or four years ago, but it's still a for you page. There's still videos there
47:08It's still the same thing. It just looks a little different. Perfect. Yeah
47:12A lot of work overnight success 10 years in the making right? That's what they say. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I
47:17My first video I posted it
47:192011 and things didn't pop off until 2021. I'd really pop off incredible years. Yeah
47:25Well, thank you. Ian boggs forbes top creator forbes 30 under 30
47:30Maybe forbes billionaire list someday. Who knows? Hopefully. I mean, that's the that's the goal
47:33You don't want a billion you want just like 500 million. That's that's fine
47:36You want to believe you heard it here folks. You heard it here before 40 before 40. That's mine
47:4210 videos a day. Here we go. Yeah, thanks so much. Thank you so much
47:47You
47:55You