Making a living as a creator shouldn’t be some elusive thing. And what’s the best way to learn how creators are making it work? To go behind-the-scenes. These bi-weekly interview issues are like having coffee with your favorite creators. If we haven’t met before, I’m Amanda Smith. I write about solopreneurship and the creator economy.
Good morning. I love this week’s story for so many reasons. For sticking it to the man, for helping the little guys (or gals) win with finances, and for opening up the conversation about finances, as more than just money.
Money is still a taboo conversation, but it shouldn’t be.
This week’s creator story highlights how needed accessible financial information really is.
Let’s jump in.
🌀 What’s new in the creator world?
Instagram adds “Watch History” feature
Instagram users will now be able to access their previously watched videos from the past 30 days.
X’s algorithm is changing to a Grok-powered model
X’s feed will soon be fully automated by XAI’s Grok system.
Physical creator campuses coming soon
The Lighthouse, a creator and talent management company, is investing in IRL campuses for influencers. Watch the IRL space.
Creator profile: Rose Han
Handle: itsrosehan
# of followers: 1,154,000
Annual revenue: Not disclosed
Acquisition channel: Organic
Biggest lesson: “You can get desensitized to seeing 1M. It’s important to think about every subscriber or view as a real person. 5,000 views on my channel would be considered low, but 5,000 in a room is a lot of people.”
Supported by Betterment
A solo 401(k) is a retirement account that’s built just for you — with tax advantages and contribution limits up to $70,000. Plus, at Betterment, you can open and fund by December 31 to waive your annual fee for the first year.
Here’s what else makes our solo 401(k) stand out:
Fully digital setup with automated contribution tracking
Get up to a $1,500 tax credit with auto-contributions
Low-cost ETF portfolios designed for growth
She left Wall Street to help millions master money
At 25, Rose Han had landed a cushy career on Wall Street. But it didn’t take long for her to realize she was unfulfilled. Most of her coworkers were just there for the paycheck and it just felt like money was being moved from one rich person to the next. Han knew she wanted more out of life, so she quit. She spent five years post-Wall Street in a period of exploration, trying her hand at real estate, dance, reiki, and bookkeeping.
Her old coworkers were on the fast track to Harvard MBA, while Han was hanging out with her favorite YouTubers at night. Mentors like Mario Forleo and Tony Robbins. She started getting message “downloads” from the universe that she would help everyday people create wealth.
Han hosted a meetup in the basement of a coworking space to teach women about money and investing. She did this for a year to gain confidence, then recorded one session so she could put online to reach more people.
This was the start of her YouTube career, unknowingly. Her goal was to post once a week and start collecting email addresses. It took Han 50 hours to make one video, but she didn’t miss a single week. On month 13, it started taking off. Then, Covid hit and the stock market crashed. The creator economy wasn’t really a thing when Han started out, and she was one of maybe five financial influencers.
Today, she has a million subscribers on YouTube and over 100,000 on her email list.
Consistency + luck
Han’s first paycheck was $1.13 after she got monetized, but the next month was $300. The following month was $2,000 and soon after, $15,000 per month – all from AdSense. While it’s gone down since Covid times, this was when Han realized there’s real money in YouTube.
“All these brands started reaching out to me. Journalists from the Wall Street Journal asked to feature me. The wife of the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange saw me in the paper over breakfast and told her husband to include me in the NYSE commercial. There’s been so many opportunities that have come from just being online,” Han shared.
But her favorite messages are from everyday people who say thank you for being able to get out of debt, retire their parents, and help change their lives.
YouTube as TOFU
Han views YouTube as the top-of-the-funnel traffic generation that pays you. She built her entire email list from YouTube traffic.
“A lot of creators spend a bunch of money on ads or put up a lot of social posts to get people to their offers. There have been periods where we took breaks but because I had funnels from YouTube videos to my evergreen course programs, videos from five years ago still generate sales for me today.”
In 2020, she launched her first online program about investing, about 18 months after she started her channel. “I made $160,000 in seven days, but it really took 18 months to build up that trust. It’s really about building up goodwill and trust, then you don’t really have to sell them,” she explained.
Her revenue streams are a mix of AdSense, affiliate income, brand deals and her book deal, but the majority of her money comes from her online courses. She has an 8-week investing program and a 12-week options trading program, both of which are getting revamped.
The “Oprah effect”
Han doesn’t need to be on all platforms. Long-form YouTube is her bread and butter. Shorts are just a way to drive traffic to her long videos. Her first 100,000 followers on Instagram just came from people who saw her YouTube videos. “All you have to do is build that relationship in one place.”
You can grow elsewhere, but you’ll need a team to execute well. Han has cycled with different team styles but as of today, she has a part-time video editor, a part-time copywriter, a marketing project manager / EA, and an operations manager. She said she has one seat that’s missing, which is a YouTube channel manager.
She shared how her YouTube channel suffered a bit while she was writing her book. “If I was just making YouTube videos, that’s really the source of all the revenue opportunities and what I love doing the most.”
Series have done well for her in the past, such as the options trading series (which feeds into her paid courses). “The goal is to create that Oprah effect when you run home to watch your Oprah prime time, like it’s a part of your routine.” Han is focused on creating a predictable format and to build a consistent relationship with her audience. It also helps the algorithm out.
Han’s biggest prediction
“When something becomes easier, there’s less barrier to entry. AI has made content creation a lot easier, but I do see this as a bad thing. It’s more a change in the landscape,” she said. Han compared the changing times to the shift from a few big network television channels to the Netflix/streaming era.
“Now we can cater to even more niche profiles of people. More than ever, it’s the time to showcase who you are, not just in your niche, but also your hobbies, relationships, lifestyle, and viewpoints. Because if people can watch content from 100 different finance people, they’re going to watch my content because they align with my beliefs and interests.”
“There’s going to be way more creators but we’re all going to go miles deep with our audience, instead of a few creators that are going inches deep with many people,” Han concluded.
Takeaways
There’s a lot of other financial influencers now, but people watch me because I make them feel empowered. Think about your unique USP.
Go all-in on one platform and master it. Create one pillar/hero piece of content per week. It’s an evergreen asset, unlike ads.
Take inspiration from the best series and shows of all time. Emulate that under your own creator brand.
How's the depth of today's edition?
As always, hit reply if something in here hits home.
Speak soon,
Amanda
P.S. If you want to get a feature about your own IP, reply to this email. If you’d like to reach our newsletter audience (founders, creators, and marketers), click the button below.
If you’re new here, I’m over the moon you’ve joined us! To help me craft content that’s actually useful (and not just noise in your inbox), I’d love it if you took 1 minute to answer this quick survey below. Your insights help shape everything I write.
✨ Insane Media is more than one voice
Dive into our other newsletters - where psychology meets the founders, e-commerce marketing, Human resources and AI trends.
