Austin has turned content covering fashion, family, and faith into a social media juggernaut. The Dallas native began posting on YouTube in 2012 and now has over 3 million followers across her accounts. Meanwhile, her haircare brand Divi offers serums, shampoos, and conditioners to combat hair loss. Other brand deals include Stanley, Walmart, Abercrombie, and QVC.
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 would say the first time that I really realized this was going to be a full-time gig is I got a five-figure brand deal
00:05When I was in 2015 with court furniture, okay, and I was like Dan like this is it like I'm gonna be famous
00:18Hey everybody welcome top creators, I'm thrilled to have the creator and
00:24An entrepreneur business owner brand boss Danny Austin in stu in our studio in LA
00:31For the top creator show Danny. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. This is my third time third time being on this list
00:37I can't even believe it. You're like that's you're a 3p. That's rare. I'm a 3p
00:41I couldn't believe it the first time I got the email, you know the first time I thought it was spam
00:45I told my husband I'm like, this is not real. This is not legit. And here we are three years later
00:49Very thankful to be here. Yes, you may call this and we all we do is we take a snapshot
00:52It's quantitative we count the money in the followers and you're putting up the big stats. So yeah, welcome. Thank you
00:59Let's talk about beef. So right now you have more than 3 million followers. Mm-hmm
01:03What were you doing before you became an influencer?
01:06So I have been I am like an old an oldie in this industry. I've been creating videos since
01:132012 I started when I was 19 years old
01:16The term influencer was not even around you a vlogger
01:19I was a vlog I was a lifestream like lifecasters lifecasters. I'd heard that I was technically a youtuber
01:26Okay, and so I was studying to become a physical therapist at the University of Texas
01:31yeah, and you see it in Austin and Austin's love Austin and
01:36I found so my brother was a musician on YouTube and so he started but he had a talent
01:41so he started posting these videos and he had some videos pop off because people thought he was John Mayer a couple of his
01:46Videos and so he like quickly garnered this audience. He's only John Mayer. You know, he kind of did nice
01:51He's a singer-songwriter does a lot of like slower acoustic versions of popular songs
01:56And so he introduced me to this space online
01:58I'm like, that's so weird. Like I have real friends like I don't need like online friends
02:02But he started putting me in some of his vlogs
02:04We did like a sibling tag and I fell in love with the community so much
02:08I secretly started making videos in my dorm room because my girlfriends would have thought that was so weird
02:13Okay, so I started posting them way ahead of your time
02:15Well, it was it was so crazy because my audience was really young too. So I was 19
02:19my audience was probably like, you know 12 to 15 and
02:23Within three months. I had a hundred thousand subscribers and I had connected with some girls that were doing it
02:28You know full-time in Los Angeles and YouTube space was about to be built. There were some agencies out in LA
02:34So I kind of had this like inkling I'm like, okay
02:36Nobody is doing this in Texas, but if it's happening in California, it's probably gonna trickle down here
02:42So every summer from then on out I would move to LA collaborate worked at YouTube space
02:47Worked with a manager that was managing other like way bigger talent and kind of learned the business side
02:53What were you posting back then? Like what was you said like your brother is musicians. We had songs
02:57What were you doing on the film? So I was creating content. I had a series called things
03:02I wish a sister taught me okay, so I never had a sister growing up
03:05And so everything that I was learning or going through as you know as my personal experience in college
03:10I would I would vlog about okay, so whether that was, you know studying and double majoring or it was
03:17My fitness routine in college or rushing a sorority whatever it was. So it was a lot of lifestyle
03:23Okay, cool
03:23And I think my audience really related to because they were so young it was it was actually funny
03:27The only reason that my friends found out that I was making videos. I was at ACL the
03:32It's a big music festival in Austin and I had a bunch of like 12 year olds run up to me Danny Danny
03:39Can we get a picture and my friends are like what what that like just Danny what's going on?
03:43But um, but yeah, so since then I've really just grown with my audience
03:47It's so crazy. I'll meet people and they're like I followed you before you even met your husband
03:51That's crazy. Like they've known me longer than I've known my husband. What would you film on that?
03:54You have like a webcam back in the day. So I did do because my brother is a musician
03:58He really set me up
03:59So he told me like you better start investing so I would I would sell my clothes on eBay
04:03Okay, and I bought a bunch of equipment a Canon
04:07And then I invested in a nice lens like pretty early on and then but I did have clip-on light bulbs that I got from
04:12Like Home Depot for the lighting nice lighting was horrible
04:15But I invested in my equipment early on I knew I was like, I think this would be a thing
04:19But I need to have good quality. So when did become a full-time thing?
04:22So you're at UT but then you're going out to LA this crazy YouTube house in the summers and getting going back to UT
04:28Did you finish college finish college reluctantly
04:332015 graduated called my dad said dad. I love you, but I'm not gonna be a physical therapist
04:39I'm gonna be a youtuber and he was appalled of course, so, you know, but it's funny
04:44I graduated and I still had side gigs because I wasn't making enough to really just do living in downtown Austin
04:49There's no way yeah
04:50so I was like a social media manager for a couple of startups and I just like dabbled in other things to really but I
04:57Had such a I hung out a lot of food bloggers. Yes, so I had kind of a free lifestyle. That's cool
05:02That's good. So I got free food all the time. So I was like, I'm living the life
05:05Yeah, well, I got was fed
05:06well
05:06and
05:07But I would say the first time that I really realized this was gonna be a full-time gig is I got a five-figure brand
05:13Deal when I was in 2015 with court furniture
05:16Okay, and I was like dad like this is it like I'm gonna be famous
05:22and I remember I sat at a
05:25This big like boardroom with all these guys in suits and I signed this big contract
05:29and it was the first time that a brand had really invested in me like big big dollars and
05:35From then on out like it's just crazy because I think I was still on top of or ahead of the curve
05:41That ever since then everything just kind of came, you know
05:44It just like it started like trickling and back then I will say
05:48Because there wasn't a lot of competition with influencers
05:51There weren't a lot of us like I only knew one other girl in Texas creating content, but there were no opportunities
05:56So we were all fighting for the same opportunities now
05:59There's so much opportunity, but it's been really fun for the past 10 years to see that all trickle in
06:03What was the furniture deal you you had to like do one post on the furniture or like they were gonna?
06:07Outfit your studio with the furniture. What was the they outfitted my whole
06:12Apartment. Yes, and I had to do like a YouTube video
06:15Of course like now I look back and I'm like, I probably should have charged more because they ran so many ads with that
06:20video
06:21They used it for like years to come but but yeah, so it was like a whole it was a whole production
06:26But I did my I did all my own filming editing
06:29I couldn't first of all, I I couldn't afford to hire talent if I wanted to to work for me
06:34but also
06:35There wasn't anyone that really like if you were to find a photographer back then they would have charged you like
06:40Ten grand for a photo shoot. I'm like, I just need one photo
06:44Yeah, you know that nobody really my whole but like I'm on I'm getting paid five grand for this
06:48It's been like you're making more than I am on this or they would come in and try to make it a commercial and I'm
06:52Like no, no, no, like this is like a vlog like we want lower quality
06:54We want it to be relatable
06:55And so they're just weren't a lot of people on that same wavelength
06:58I would go to LA and find a little bit more talent
07:01But no, I mean you really had to do everything yourself when you're in Texas
07:04How did you kind of find out like what the the style like you said you wanted to be a little bit more low-quality?
07:08Like how did you kind of understand like what the vibe needs to be the look the feel of it not being a commercial a
07:14Commercial commercial but more of a vlog more of a YouTube commercial like did you just observe or were you talking to your friends in?
07:20LA to kind of see what the aesthetic was
07:21I see I saw a lot of girls in LA
07:24But at the same time I knew for a fact that people did not want to hear from a model or this perfect person
07:30I think people were so over that. I mean I grew up in the age of 17 magazine
07:33Yeah
07:34You know
07:35Disney Channel stars promoting things and I think people were so over that and they just wanted to hear from like a real girl
07:41and so I quickly I mean
07:42I've started looking my analytics and it would be crazy because
07:45The most low-quality just off-the-cuff videos would always do best
07:49And if I ever did a brand deal where they would bring in a photographer, they'd bring in a stylist you hated that
07:55I did a couple collabs with 17 magazine and like they dressed me and they put makeup on me
07:59They're like, this is not Danny. This is not we want to see so it's so funny. It's like the lower budget did better
08:04It's funny. Did you start when did you switch from obviously being the the advice?
08:09I never got from this being the sister. You never had when you kind of switch your content
08:13So when Instagram became really popular, okay and Instagram stories, I got pretty burnt out
08:19I'm gonna be honest YouTube was hard for me. Like it the grind mentally was so much
08:25Yeah
08:25That I got to a point probably four or five years in where I was like, I don't even really want this anymore
08:30like I love creating content, but I it's not worth all of the struggle and the strive in and
08:37So I moved back to Dallas I actually planned on quitting and I was gonna work for LTK reward style, you know, and
08:44But there were a couple of bloggers in Dallas that were like come live in a house with us
08:49And we'll teach you how to blog and we'll teach you how to use LTK and you can make money from these affiliate
08:55So it was LTK
08:56Like to know it. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, so reward style like to know it
09:00It's basically a platform where you post your outfit and you make affiliate
09:04Affiliate sales off of really anything Ember Vans box, right? Yes. Yes. She's awesome. Yeah, she's awesome
09:09We just spoke on a panel together
09:12and so
09:13Yeah, so I was like, okay
09:14This is amazing because I can stay in this space and then Instagram stories came out and let me tell you that was like
09:19The platform for me because it was video it was personality
09:23There was a little bit of production to it
09:25But it was real quick in time connect with your audience right then in there swipe up if you if you want to link
09:31And so I got to kind of blend everything that I loved about YouTube with
09:35Also sales, I would say that's cool. And it just like took off from there
09:40So that was about from stories. That was the stories and blogging. Okay, so and that was a completely different format
09:46You know switching from these videos that it would take me 10 hours to vid it video
09:49And then I would just take like one picture and post on Instagram or take like, you know, six pictures for a blog
09:55I'm like, this is so much easier
09:57And for the first time I really started making the money that I needed to support myself
10:02Mainly from affiliate sales, which is so great
10:04I love affiliates and I love brand deals
10:06But affiliates are really cool because you have control over your content
10:09So like I'm not sitting around waiting for a brand to knock on my door if they're not coming around
10:12I'll just start posting things that I love and make you know a little commission off of it. That's very cool
10:17What is your day in the life like today?
10:18I mean, I know that you're expecting a child soon and obviously that's taking up a lot
10:23but what is you said like when you have your Instagram stories of your team of your company kind of like how you decide what to
10:29Post and like what's kind of like a normal week for you? Yes. So now I have a team of six
10:36They all they work out of an office space in Dallas. I have a couple of contractors actually out in LA and
10:42So a lot of the content like the bigger ideas are put on the calendar, you know months in advance
10:47I just did a $65,000 giveaway and that was something I will be honest
10:51We're a little scrappy that probably took us two weeks to put together
10:54You're giving away 65 granted. So I did
10:58$65,000 worth of have you ever seen those like suitcase giveaways on Instagram? No, okay
11:02They pop off like I've posted one and I gained like a hundred thousand followers and what for like one giveaway. It's crazy
11:08She's saying like you like what?
11:11It's on so it's on Instagram and you fill these little suitcase base suitcases
11:16okay, Mitchell owns base or she's found a vehicle and
11:20You fill them with goodies
11:21So it's like all of the products that I love and rave about on my on my stories on tik-tok, whatever it is
11:28So it could be a designer bag like a Louis Vuitton
11:30It could be my favorite setting spray my favorite lip gloss my blankets that I use like just everything lifestyle
11:35You know Stanley cups are really big
11:37I fill those things like full of you a thousand dollars worth of product and then you give them away
11:43So I gave away 32 of them how you decide who gets them random
11:48We have a random code generator thing
11:50We actually showed people and the people who sign up for it is like followers
11:53So we do all to all types a lot of times like I'm planning another one where I want to give away like a trip
11:58To Sabrina Carpenter and for that one, I will just have people like like in in comment
12:03Maybe tag a friend
12:03But I feel like it's just a really fun way to a lot of times it's things that I'm experienced myself that I love
12:08Like whether it's a Taylor Swift concert Sabrina Carpenter a cup that I like those are hard sells to
12:14Concert hard sell and people love it. And so and it's like you're giving people what they what I love, too
12:19And so yeah
12:20We just did a big one of those where I literally had 32 suitcases show up at my front door and not only that but every
12:26Single bag had a designer item. So we actually hired a security guard
12:30I can say comment our content and to like guard the content while we're giving everything away to the brands of the brands pay
12:36It's almost like Oprah's favorite things, right?
12:38They're like do brands pay you to be included or just like these are your favorite things. No, I would never let a brand
12:42Okay, I mean they would probably want to but I want it to be like very authentic
12:46Like I want it to be like no like I put the work into this
12:48No
12:49I said a great we need to start like a Forbes under 30 giveaway suitcase because so many people make incredible
12:54You've been to under 30. We always stock our green rooms with all products from under 30s
12:59Like that's a good we should start doing that. Yeah, you got a CMO of rare beauty. Yeah, she was here
13:03She dropped off a bunch of goodies now. I'm using a bunch of stuff
13:05I didn't know about you got neuro mints, which are like the caffeine mints that no one knew about it the first time
13:10So there's eating mints and getting absolutely jazzed on them. See I need that. I'm pregnant now, but after like I need those minutes
13:16That's cool. And what's the purpose of sook? Is it for is it to get?
13:21Engagement is it to get more followers? Like what is kind of the it's obviously a lot of work
13:25Like what is the the motivation behind these giveaways?
13:27I think a little treat so people come back and they know that you're trying to take care of them
13:32And like I I love to share things that I love with my audience
13:36Yes, sometimes you grow from followers like the $65,000 giveaway. I didn't grow like that wasn't the goal
13:43That was more so just to like listen to my audience and give them something that they wanted
13:47So there's a there's different girls goals for each one. But like who doesn't love the opportunity to win something? Yeah, it's very cool
13:53I enter people's giveaways
13:54So you're doing that ever entered a giveaway never entered a giveaway. I just I have no idea what this is
13:59It might be kind of sketchy because they'd be like they'd look you up and be like Oh Forbes. He can't win
14:03He can't win. He's too confident. I can't get any gifts worth more than $100 because that's really it's seen as bribing
14:10Oh, I didn't know that just like so everyone sent me a gift for 999 dollars
14:16Yeah, that is very cool what how you decide like so you're blogging post how you decide like
14:22Besides the big, you know the big calendar items how you wake up and have an idea in post
14:27Like how do you decide? Yeah, so I go off a lot of trends
14:30But I try to make trends more unique to whatever I'm going through in life. Like obviously I'm pregnant
14:35So recently we did a spoof of Love Island
14:38And of course that is like a very sexy show where you have these girls walking around in heels and their bikinis and that's not
14:43Necessarily my brand but I thought oh, this will be really funny if I do it while I'm pregnant
14:47And so we launched a a divvy product that was Love Island themed like and so it's things like that that are treading
14:54Islands a whole nother that's a whole different islands
14:56I mean, have you ever seen like I mean, it's not common that you see like this pregnant girl walking around
15:00And it wasn't for like the sex appeal is like to be funny
15:03And so things like that that are trendy that I just try to fit into my personal life
15:08I mean, I have three kids or two kids
15:10Technically two babies one on the way and it's very humbling
15:13And so I try to mix in those like funny viral moments, but like really what is it?
15:17Like being a mom at home, like what's it really what's really going on? That's very cool
15:21Yeah, do your kids know that you're this like famous creator?
15:24No, but my daughter because people come up and they'll say Danny Austin
15:28And so my mom or my daughter will be like Danny Austin and she's only three
15:32She just turned four and that's always weird. I'm like, do you know your daddy's name? She's like daddy
15:36And she's like, but you're Danny Austin. It sounds Danny daddy
15:40Like it's like it's kind of safety. Like I'm glad that she knows my name
15:42So she ever gets lost you can see Danny Austin
15:45Let's talk about Divi. So Divi's
15:47Huge. Yeah, I think we've I've heard like a hundred million in revenue goal for end of 2025 goal
15:53that's my goal to but I'm starting a lot lower spot, but let's talked about this because I
15:58Find you've been doing like you you're an old-school creator
16:01Mm-hmm, but I you know creators are there the economy's growing but also the the creators themselves are growing up in senses
16:08They're going from entertainers to entrepreneurs. They're launching brands companies products medias, you know whole media platforms
16:15You've launched a big brand. Mm-hmm. Tell me about this. Tell me how it started and how you grew it so much
16:20Yes did not know it's gonna be as big as it is today
16:23but very thankful it adds a lot of like this like security to my
16:28my career and the industry just because it is evolving so fast and I put so much pressure on myself to
16:34Stay relevant and to keep up and to have something else to fall back on that
16:39I really wanted to grow something that was bigger than me that could be relevant
16:42Even if I'm not around not creating content anymore, and that feels really good
16:47but it's all born from my personal hair loss journey where in
16:522019 I
16:53Transitioned into wigs because I was losing so much hair probably because I was so stressed out from editing all these dang videos
16:59Like honestly, and so then I got hair extensions to cover it up
17:03Which made it even worse and so as I kind of I decided I'm gonna walk through this journey with my audience
17:09And I discovered this hidden epidemic of women that were going through something similar
17:12It must be so hard because you live in the public eye you live on camera and obviously, you know
17:17Hair loss is happens to everyone but it's more thought of as a male thing than female thing
17:21What was that like going through as someone who lives on the camera? I was so extremely embarrassed
17:27I'm not gonna lie. Like I woke up one morning and looked at my husband. I was also newly married
17:31I'm like, I don't even want to leave the house. I'm so embarrassed and
17:35He was like, well the Kardashians wear wigs. Why don't you wear a wig? You know, we lived in Dallas, Texas
17:40There's no wig shops. So we flew out to
17:42Last year and a good bullet. We would go out to LA and found my first wig named her Kim after Kim Kardashian
17:48Here we go. And I wore that to Kim for the wigs. Shout out to Kim
17:52I wore that for an exactly a year and I decided you know what?
17:56Okay, when I do share my wounds when I make them visible to people that's whenever I have the the creative space
18:03To use them to kind of lighten the burden of pain and suffering for other people. Yeah, so I decided okay
18:11I'm gonna do this and just share it and see what happens and
18:14That I think is when I really built this strong connection with my audience where we're crying. We're laughing
18:19We're like it's it's different. It's like family and when I meet people
18:23that's whenever they started coming up and like
18:25Thanking me and tears and it was just so powerful. And so but during all of that I shared my wig experience
18:32But I also shared okay
18:33I want to get to the root of what's going on with my hair loss like I'm gonna
18:36Start putting together these serums. I had a minor in chemistry. So I understood
18:40I'm no like chemist, but I understood the basic systems of your body studying science for for physical therapy. Yes
18:47Yes, and no, it's all coming. So I'm like, I'm gonna use this degree and
18:53Yeah, so I started making I was like a little you know
18:55I was kind of a scientist in my bathroom and I was using a lot of natural ingredients
18:59I had jojoba oil with my carrier oil. I'm sharing the benefits of each
19:03ingredient and
19:05My audience was like, can you share the same thing because your hair is looking great
19:08it looks like it's growing back and
19:10so I told my husband I said I think I need to find a chemist and like really go full tilt and find and
19:15Create something for people that is powerful, you know has efficacy
19:19But it's also clean because a lot of the ingredients out there that do are proven to help with hair loss
19:24You can't use when you're pregnant or you can't use if you're trying to start a family like propitious stuff
19:28It's like it's like if you're a woman don't even touch it
19:32If you're pregnant they have like
19:34Crazy warnings on this and a lot of things like even you know, Rogan, whatever it is. It helps temporarily but long-term
19:40It's not good. So I told my husband I was like, let's do this thing
19:44And so we met with a chemist and we came out with our first hero product
19:48it was our scalp serum the first year we did 40 million Wow and
19:52Honestly, that was strictly because of the before and after so people started sending to me they were documenting themselves
19:58I did not even ask for these before and afters and people would be like, okay, I'm gonna use it for three months Danny
20:02I'm gonna send you the pictures
20:03But then they would post them online to share with their friends and they were getting absolutely no benefit from it except for just to
20:08Help their friends and to help their neighbors and I think because it's so emotional people wanted to help anybody else going through it
20:15And so it was just crazy since then it's been more so just listening to my audience and listening to my my my girls
20:22I call my girls and I'm like, what do y'all want next?
20:24Okay, you you like dry shampoo, but you don't like the ingredients in it
20:28You don't like the way it feels like you don't like this color
20:30And so I'm just constantly in my DMS constantly doing polls
20:34Just I have a ton of in-person events where I like I will literally invite 30 people over to my house and we'll watch like
20:40The new Taylor Swift reputation, whatever and I'll just get to know them
20:44They'll bring their moms and I'll talk to them and and try to like listen
20:47It basically just provide an answer to their problem. Like what is going on? How can I help? And so
20:54So that's honestly how every single divi product has has has come to fruition
20:59We went from having one skew then we went to three which that's when we got into Ulta
21:04Okay, three skews, which was crazy with just three skews and now we have eight
21:08So we it's like we're not growing really we are growing fast
21:12But like our skews in our product we take a lot of time with because like hell hair loss is such it's a holy grail
21:17It's a giant business obviously like you know
21:21They've even been like Simpsons about it when it's like homework is a miracle as hair grows back and like Rogaine and Ropecia
21:26Those are like big pharma, you know billions of R&D and makes a lot of money. How did you decide like, you know what?
21:33I'm gonna try this
21:34I'm gonna get into the game with like in your chemistry set and try and like organic like does it how is it?
21:40Is it like is it? How does it work? Like what is it? Is it?
21:43Have you solved baldness or is it for certain issues? It's great to kind of
21:47I think anyone that's going through hair loss is desperate like you will try anything
21:52But you're also when you are trying to start a family or you there's just there's just things that are off-limit
21:58And so for me, it was finding alternatives that did the same thing as some of these other, you know
22:06Prescription drugs did but finding alternatives that were more natural that had that were that worked
22:12But that's why I also wanted to connect with the chemist because I knew it was like beyond my my knowledge
22:17And so there were amino acids and peptides and things that I just couldn't get my hands on and so we honestly
22:23We have an in-house
22:25Team of female scientists that and then our VP of product development came from Nutraful
22:30And so to be honest, it is still over my head these days
22:32The science and the clinicals and everything we do with all of our ingredients
22:36But my biggest thing is I want people to be able to use it long term
22:39How did you use your social media footprint to get Divi off the ground?
22:44Yeah, so I mean everything was through social media like that 40 million were through
22:49My links that I just shared on my Instagram stories. I didn't even have I had no retailers
22:54we should we just had a you know D to C and
22:57But my biggest thing was more so like the Divi community when I first
23:02When I first launched I always knew yes, I came from an influencer, you know space and background
23:08But like I wasn't gonna be traditional in the sense of having influencers
23:11I wanted my customers to be my influence. Okay, so when I did my first
23:15I think we had three SKUs when I did my first influencer trip
23:18I spent over a hundred thousand dollars, which this is a lot for like the beginning of our brand
23:24on an influencer trip where I just had like some people that reviewed our product and I
23:30Invited them to Cabo put them an amazing hotel treated them with like I mean just like an influencer trip and I'm like these
23:36This is the way I want my brand to go
23:38I don't want to be hiring people and convincing them to use Debbie because I think people just see you right through that now
23:43It's like really fun because influencers actually use Debbie and then we can hire them
23:47But my from the from day one, I was like my customers are my influencers
23:51That's when I do some of these giveaways or whenever you know
23:54Debbie we have an event like I always call it like an influencer dinner or an influencer event and it's just it's it's my girls
24:00That actually helped me grow the company. That's so cool. What is going to be your plan for the next year?
24:05With Debbie we just with with your with your brand your platform
24:11Baby first but after that
24:13Really fun projects going on. I'm like, it's so fun because we have Debbie which I'm working on
24:18We just hired our CEO this past year, which has been huge
24:21We have some partners that we my husband and I just bootstrap, you know, we did everything ourselves
24:26And so we're excited now
24:28We know some of the things that we want to accomplish with Debbie and we're excited to find partners that can help us get help
24:33Get us there. So with Debbie there's a lot to be done. I have my eye on other retailers going international
24:39I mean, there's so much with the personal brand
24:43Honestly, there's there's lots of work to be done there too. We've been talking about a book
24:47We've been talking about there's a couple of shows that are shopping in Dallas
24:51What's a book about? What are the shows about? Like I can't tell you the shows, but I wish I could
24:55It'd be like a sitcom or drama like you play you're gonna play yourself
24:58You're the writer I would play myself, but no it wouldn't be like I'm not an actress
25:03And then
25:05book I have a lot of like personal journeys that I still haven't shared with my audience which I'm just kind of looking for the
25:10Pat like the right platform to do so
25:12so I've always wanted to write a book and then honestly like I'm just really I
25:17Love finding new ways to give back to my audience
25:20like that's my biggest thing is I want to use the resources that I feel like God has put on my lap and love on
25:25other people and
25:27So it's just like being creative in that way, but also being a mom
25:32If I'm a big brand manager a big CMO, and I want to work with Danny Austin
25:35I want to work with you what what should brands know before working with you, and what do you look for in partnerships?
25:40I'm probably gonna ask for something that I'm gonna probably ask you to help me tell a story
25:46That's never been told before with your brand
25:49Because I want it to be unique and I want to be special so it's not so much like
25:54Of course I'm picky about the brands that I work with but I want to know more
25:58And I love storytelling storytelling is like everything for me
26:01so it can't just be like a
26:03Product or band like I want to know like who came up with this idea and like how can I help like?
26:08Just tell more I feel like I'm so sick of seeing like just like the traditional brand deal
26:12And I don't think a lot of people trust it
26:14so that's probably what I'm gonna ask for and maybe like
26:17An exclusive promo code would be nice. Yeah, that works. I want to do a couple like lightning-round questions
26:22What if you can go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice before you became a creator, what would it be?
26:29my best or what the advice I would give myself before I came a creator is
26:33to build your inner circle and have really solid friends and
26:37community to fall back on because you're gonna get a lot of feedback from a lot of people and you're not gonna go you're not
26:42Gonna know left from right or right from left and to have those people that you can fall back on and be like, okay
26:46Wait, am I being a good friend? Am I being a good wife? Am I being a good mom?
26:49That's all that really matters. It doesn't really matter like all the noise that's going on outside
26:53You mentioned about you know, the the grind of YouTube and also the stress that yes
26:57The stress was having you maybe having you lose hair
26:59What like is what's been like the like the downside of being creator? And how do you get through that?
27:04the downside of being a creator is
27:09Honestly just if you don't have a lot of room to make mistakes
27:11I feel like especially if you've been on for 12 years, you're not gonna be perfect
27:16And so a lot of my mistakes are just like blasted online
27:21I'm like, there's no way you were perfect
27:22you know becoming a mom or
27:24sometimes even the way that I strapped my kids in the stroller or whatever it was and and sometimes I feel like just I can't
27:30Make the same mistakes that other people can make
27:32But like I said, it's just that's why it matters your community matters most you feel like everyone's watching just nitpicking every little thing
27:38Yeah, how would you feel?
27:40It's horrible
27:43I've done video. I've done videos with with the creators like yourself and people are hating like, oh like, why is he?
27:48Why is he sitting like that? I'm like, I'm just sitting down like what like yeah, it's very very they would never say to your face
27:54No, they're telephone tough guys
27:57It's true. What is your secret to build a giant audience?
28:02Um, I just try to remember at the end of the day like I'm a service for people
28:06It's not really about me. So when I start to put so much pressure on myself of like, oh do you like me or?
28:11They did that video didn't get engagement. It doesn't really matter because everything I'm doing is truly to serve people
28:17That's the whole purpose of creating content. It kind of takes that pressure off of yourself
28:22Yeah, cuz like you don't really know what's gonna be here or not, right? I
28:25More talk to people. It's like consistency. And yeah, yeah and just thinking about them
28:29Like I'm thinking what I need to think about them not myself so much. What's been the biggest surprise about this journey?
28:35People are so caught up about
28:37Follower counts and I mean I might on the top creators list. I might have like the smallest amount of followers
28:43I mean, maybe the top at least in the bottom five when it comes to followers
28:48And I just don't think that's really what matters. I feel like it's more about the connection you have with your audience
28:54I don't know why I always had this number of 20,000 ever since I first started
28:57I'm like if I can just get
28:5820,000 people that know everything about me like know about like my dog's name and the foods that I like and what I'm allergic to
29:05And that's all that really matters. I don't need like millions of people
29:09And so I've kind of just always
29:11Remember that it's more about my engagement than anything. Yeah, cuz you I was gonna ask like you have a relatively small follower
29:17I mean still giant but on that list of 50
29:20Relatively small follower count but in terms of our estimated earnings very high like your ratio might be the highest
29:26For followers to earnings. How do you what's the secret behind that?
29:32Well, I
29:33Mean, like I said
29:34I just think that your content is a service and it's like if I can provide value that nobody else can like if I work
29:40With a brand and I can get the promo code or a discount or a story that you can't find anywhere else
29:45Yeah, that's what I'm fighting for. I'm not always fighting for like the biggest brand deals either
29:49That's a promo to give to your fans. Yeah promo to give to my fans
29:52Like I want people to know when they come to my page
29:54They're gonna get the best most exclusive deal that they can't find anywhere else
29:58And if I can't get the deal then I'm gonna find like the best
30:01Discounted version of that one TV that everybody's shopping for like I put a lot of research into
30:06What I'm sharing because I'm competitive and I want to be the best
30:11Give me a big prediction for the creator economy the next year or two
30:13well, what I'm seeing with Divi is that a lot of I
30:17Feel like the the nano micro influencers are moving the needle a lot
30:21And so investing more in like the masses instead of just like these big influencers
30:27Like I said, I think it's just becoming sometimes hard
30:30I don't know what that means for myself, but I feel like it's just becoming
30:33It's harder to trust them. Yeah, and so I'm just seeing better ROI investing in the smaller influencers that are maybe more niche
30:40That maybe they're not getting millions of views
30:42But they have a really strong and they're and they're experts and what they're focusing their experts. Yes, exactly
30:48What's like the most surprising niche you've come across?
30:53Well, I'll tell you the ones that I use the most I love following Trader Joe's accounts, okay
30:58Do you follow any of them? I do not do you shop at Trader Joe's?
31:00I went down the street a couple days ago. Yeah, you have to it
31:02They share all of the new Trader Joe's, you know fall cookies fall recipes
31:07so I love that and then I also follow a couple accounts that only share Target because I'm big Target girl and
31:13They'll show like the new
31:15You know dresses and new fashion that are out and so anything niche like that like I'm all about it. Very cool
31:22Yeah, well Danny. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. I'm so honored to be back. Yeah, this is great
31:26I hope back next year. Yes
31:29You have to bring us another stroller. Yeah. Yeah, that's so true or they get a get a trip away from the kids
31:34Yeah, no, we gotta do that. So but thank you for having me. Thanks joining