TikTok 'NPC Streamer' Makes $7,000 From ONE Stream | Share Your Screen Ep. 3

[00:02] Reedan. And this is episode three of share your screen. Thank you guys so episodes. You're like the OG listeners. Dude, this is We honestly been getting would. Wow. Yeah, thank you guys. So, this

[00:16] Wow. Yeah, thank you guys. So, this episode is the slideshow that I made and wanted to do the niche the you go the quicker you grow, one of my favorite coco-isms. Uh-huh. Which is Pinky Doll. Pinky Doll

[00:29] has been the topic of conversation. Literally feels like within just a week. Like not even just oh, she's on the for you page a lot, but like a Washington Post, a New York Times article, Insider article. Like this has been a mass

[00:44] hysteria. I can't remember the last time we've had a creator take over mainstream Yeah, truly. And we're going to get to that because very Yeah, I always say that especially with TikTok, people often stay in this little snow

[00:58] followers on TikTok and like no one knows you when you go to Target. Yeah. But this is like you could be in a grocery store and yell Pinky and someone on another aisle yells doll. Not even Yeah, you could go gang gang and

[01:10] meant. Yum yum blip blip blip. Yep. Mhm, ice cream so good. Thank you Jackie. Gang gang. Gang gang. Gang gang. you're probably so confused. So, we are going to get all into that and she is an

[01:25] NPC streamer, which you're like what is that? So, we're going to get into it. So, first slide, which will be the origin of the NPC trend. Now, like Nicki said, if you Google

[01:38] uh Pinky Doll NPC and stuff, like she's all There's so many news articles and in the gear up for this slideshow, I was updating it every day and I kept updating it every day and I kept Googling her and more articles and

[01:50] interviews were coming out about her. Um but one of the biggest questions that people are asking, like if you type Pinky Doll into your Google search bar, one of the first questions that comes up is what is NPC?

[02:03] Now, NPC is known as non-playable character and it is a trend that it's believed to have roots in 2021 in Japan. Okay. Now, Dexerto did an interview with

[02:21] a Japanese creator. Um I tried to look up the pronunciation of the name and I couldn't find anything, so bear with me, but it's I think it's Naughty Coco. And Coco.

[02:35] Are you a something you want to tell us? Right. Me promoting my NPC life. See, alternate life. Naughty Coco. Um and it NPC is a reference to if you've ever

[02:51] Zelda. I always think of like uh Grand Theft Auto. Like the random people walking around. Yeah, and if you do talk to them, they over again cuz they're supposed to like guide the story.

[03:04] what it means. Right. Yes, and so there was this creator, um Naughty Coco, and she started out as a cosplay creator. So, she would dress as different anime or video games and go

[03:19] as different anime or video games and go live and she actually started this trend as a social experiment with her audience on TikTok because she wanted to figure out a way to communicate with her audience where they could send her cues

[03:32] and she would like like have certain set replies that she sends back versus you always just see in lives, it's like I like your necklace, they're like Yeah. got And it also makes sense too that you said that she was doing this like while

[03:44] cosplaying and stuff because then there is actual like ties for a reason for her she is cosplaying the video game character or is cosplaying as an anime movie, anything. Like there is a an actual fictional character, so she is

[03:59] Yeah. a lot of sense for the origin. Yeah. And so one of the ways that she realized she could bridge the gap of communication is

[04:11] when her fans on live would send her certain gifts, she started coming up repeat over and over as they were sending the gifts. So, it was like the And now, before I get into the next slide, I do feel like I have to note

[04:27] up, but I also think in a way it's a non-factor. Like anytime we've made videos about this, I say anytime, it's only been a week, but people are always only been a week, but people are always like it has origins in sex work. And I

[04:42] they were like leave sex workers out of this. I think people are saying that it? Well, yeah, and my thing is so some of the comments that I see, I haven't it's true or not, that they're like oh, Pinky Doll is an OF creator, but my

[04:58] thing is say she was, I feel like if someone is a sex worker, society is like And then someone who's a sex worker finds a new easier way to make money and

[05:10] provide for their kid and now society is like you were a sex worker, you can't have this job. I literally think it is society resenting women for making high income, especially when it's over something that they could do themself.

[05:25] resentment. It's like you could NPC stream, you could have an OF, you choose it's your life. Nothing wrong with that, but then don't criticize someone else with that. Yeah. Exactly. So, I felt like I had to

[05:39] acknowledge that because it's something that comes up, but where I stand is like also if there is someone who gets off on this, like the creator because they're not inherently doing anything sexual at all.

[05:53] it's art, whether it's anything, like it's your job to create the content, to create the art and put it out in the world. You cannot be responsible for the way every single There's 7 billion people on Earth. You cannot be

[06:06] it. Like you can only be responsible for what you put into it and what you create. And if there's nothing like it's not overtly sexual, so it's If people their problem. Yeah. And I've seen even like male

[06:20] Yeah. And I've seen even like male celebrities start doing these streams as money and no one's commenting that they're like these like banished people it. Exactly. So, I had to note that. I just

[06:34] think it's a non-factor, but So, now that you guys know the origin of the NPC trend, we'll go onto the next slide, which is going to be Before we get into Pinky Doll, I had to nod to the rise of live streaming on

[06:51] TikTok. Of course, you have Twitch. For me, the reason I never really got into Twitch is I felt like it was harder to navigate, but um we've talked about live streaming to Nicki and I in other videos, but um I made this prediction

[07:04] like a little over a year ago actually, where I said that I think live streaming is going to get even bigger on TikTok and we're going to see some of the TikTok in the next year aren't just going to be you know, dancers like

[07:17] Addison Rae, they're going to be live streamers. And I didn't realize it would manifest in Pinky Doll. And we got our our founding mother. We Joe, the founding mother invented live streaming, but No, so

[07:31] Terry Joe, aka It's Iconic, is a creator on TikTok who I've talked about in videos and I almost think that the viralness of the videos I've made about It's Iconic weren't even necessarily for anything I was talking about. I think

[07:45] that It's Iconic has very loyal fans. Oh, yeah. Which goes to what we were saying in the episode you're on of my podcast Ahead of the Curve, where we broke down the we went to an article that about the psychology of fandoms and

[07:59] how part of it is attachment theory, where we form strong attachments to a face that we see more often than others. And live streamers, if you're seeing them for an hour every day, you form an attachment.

[08:12] weird attachment thing about live streaming specifically because it's not just you're seeing them frequently, it's you're seeing them doing something at the exact same moment you're doing something. So, it literally feels like

[08:26] It's not just like oh, this person made this video last week, then they send it it back, they send notes and it's posted a week later. It's like I'm sitting on my sofa, so is that person at exactly this moment, even if

[08:39] they're thousands of miles away. Like something about that builds this sense And I think that's why you see live streamers like Pinky Doll, like It's Iconic, get such consistent viewers. Yeah. Yeah, it it's again that note of

[08:53] like companionship over entertainment. Like it can be entertaining, but half the time. So, for those of you listening and if you don't know who It's Iconic and if you don't know who It's Iconic is, they're a creator who their name is

[09:05] Keilani, um but they I'm using the term they because there's multiple characters. Yeah, multiple genders. Yeah, and so they go on live and dress as characters like Terry Joe, who's a southern Christian

[09:20] Terry Joe, who's a southern Christian woman and will basically on TikTok, you of someone else who's live, even if they just have 10 people. And Terry Joe has these inside jokes with her audience, where she's trying to get a reaction

[09:34] from the other person on live and people are confused. Mhm. Um and now you have live because they just want to be featured by her. So, like uh famously, Ziwe do it. Ziwe, yeah. And I also think too,

[09:49] there's like two sides to It's Iconic. There's the people who have no idea who they are and are like this person's just trolling, what is going on? Why do they have so many viewers? Or it's people who are very familiar

[10:03] with its iconic, and are there to try and like break Terry Joe. Like get her to laugh, get her to break character. So it's almost become either way, no matter what outcome she gets, she wins. Yeah, I think that there is something really

[10:16] viral, which we're going to touch on later with to specifically live streaming on TikTok where some of the people that go the most viral are the ones where the audience is trying to get

[10:28] them to laugh or go off script, and I actually think this really the origin of this was when I started seeing lives on my feed about a year and a half ago. with notes app behind their head, and it was just like

[10:44] water in their mouth, and they're like the live will end once someone makes me just people sending comments. Or I see other times where it's like people will be green screening with the notes app, and it's like a take about

[10:56] that I'm wrong. And then other people come in and like give their argument. Yes. Yeah, so it's that breaking of the fourth wall. But something I have found very fascinating about live streaming on TikTok specifically is like lives have

[11:10] Facebook lives, there's YouTube lives now, there's Twitch. And throughout all of that, we've always seen live streaming culture be synonymous.

[11:22] biggest one, or there's video games on YouTube too, and there's video games wherever, or cooking, or like mukbangs, right? But the interesting thing to me about TikTok live is it's really starting to develop its own culture.

[11:36] Yeah. Like things that are originating live on TikTok aren't things that are originating live on Twitch. Like it's iconic as its complete She's just like a complete own category. And now in PC streaming is its

[11:49] completely own category. Or even like the defending my take type streams is so interesting, and part of that I think is because TikTok has such a low barrier to Yeah. to going live. Like going live on Twitch is difficult. You have to have a

[12:02] setup, you have to have Yeah. you know, monitor to play your video game on, then you have to just be sharing the screen and edit that in, but with TikTok like up and go live. Yeah. And I think that has led to

[12:15] there being such niche interests on TikTok live because literally anyone can do it, and also it allows for these happy accidents. Because there's no like I don't think Terry Joe would have happened if itsiconic had to like sit

[12:28] and plan it and buy equipment. It's just like probably something they did once or doing it cuz it's easy." Exactly. And I think the for you page accidents. Like I'd never Yeah. actively seeking out live

[12:42] That's so true. come up on my feed, and what actually got me was people would post screen recordings from Terry Joe's lives, itsiconic's lives, and I would search it, and then like followed itsiconic so

[12:56] in. And I also think that um with itsiconic they really had an uphill battle because I think when you go live

[13:08] people are more likely to get banned weirdly. Like TikTok is very sensitive than videos cuz people could do something crazy on live, but Right. itsiconic I followed multiple of their accounts cuz they would get banned

[13:20] at like 100k followers and then have to restart. Now they're verified, have 2 million followers, and they've been featured on H3 podcast, they've been featured in Paper Magazine. So they're They fought an uphill battle, but never

[13:33] "Okay, I've gotten banned five times, let me just start doing like dances like Addison Rae." They still stuck to what they knew would work for them. I have a theory that itsiconic getting banned so many times actually made them way more

[13:47] Really? Like more famous? Yeah. Because one, I think it happened banned, people would start to search them. Huh. Right? To find their account. So it's gaming SEO, right? So like their SEO's just through the roof. Everyone's

[14:00] searched 100 times." Like the algorithm's going to pump it out, right? algorithm's going to pump it out, right? Two, I think it really built this like be there, right? Because you're watching the live, and then they could get banned

[14:12] tomorrow. So it's really like building this community factor, and then also everyone's like, "Oh my god, itsiconic's back." Blah blah blah. Like it became an event. So much to the point where I think TikTok really gave up

[14:25] Yeah. But I think that because it was she was having things happen, it created this deeper sense of community to be like, "We need to find itsiconic. Like we won't let the big TikTok win. It's we

[14:39] community factor. That's so true. I think you're right about the SEO. Like the algorithm was probably uh not understanding why 50,000 people day. every week too, cuz it happens every

[14:54] single time she gets banned. Yeah. I think that's so genius. And now now that we've talked about itsiconic, it's going to lead to the next slide, um which is who is Pinky Doll? The question of the hour. So

[15:09] mind you, she's blown up really recently, so there wasn't like a ton of out Yeah. um as time goes on. I've even reached out to her for an interview, and she was down, but she wasn't in LA, so

[15:25] manifesting. Pinky Doll, come on. LA, you're so welcome to come. We'd love LA, you're so welcome to come. We'd love to talk to you. Um so from what I found online is she blew up really in July, which it's

[15:39] 27th, so It just shows you how powerful TikTok It just shows you how powerful TikTok is. Um and she blew up even though she was on TikTok live, where she blew up was people posting screen recordings to

[15:55] Twitter. Interesting. of her, but that's why she got famous. of her, but that's why she got famous. Dude, Twitter is like the root of all all evil, and it's like anytime there's a situation it's like how many degrees

[16:07] of Twitter? Yeah. It's always like two degrees of separation from tweet that Yep. Um and so she's known for repeating catchphrases on live like "Ice cream so good" whenever viewers send her gifts.

[16:20] Um my favorite is she like if someone sent her a balloon, she's like gang gang. Gang gang's my favorite. Yes. And you mentioned this, I didn't even notice it when we were filming prior,

[16:33] but that she uses a hair straightener to pop kernels of popcorn. It's so funny. I have no idea where the origin of that came from, but from like a pure TikTok standpoint, I think it is genius. Imagine you are in rapid scroll

[16:48] Pinky Doll in your life, and then you see a live of somebody holding a hair straightener with a popcorn. I think you're like you stop to view it to see if the kernel will actually pop. Yes. Right? It's so visually captivating, and

[17:01] like, "Does that Yeah. work?" So then you click on it, and you're stopping for Yeah. to do that. But then you're getting hooked cuz now you're like, "Why times. It's almost like Pinky Doll has kind of created a mystery for somebody

[17:14] of have to click on it to solve the mystery, but then once you're in, she hooks you. Yes. And you're so right with like I think sometimes the most And this is where brands go wrong, but with Pinky Doll popping popcorn with a

[17:30] notion that sometimes the most viral pieces of content are the ones that leave more questions than answers. And if you never address Like in the like, "This is why I'm doing it." But if she never acknowledges it, people are

[17:44] Exactly. this unanswered question is why people want to consume more and more. Yeah, it's like they feel like they need to keep looking and keep doing to solve the problem. There's no problem to solve.

[17:57] Exactly. And I also someone commented on one of my TikToks really genius. They said the popping of the popcorn like one at a time, it gives the audience

[18:09] a sense of like time, and so they're watching like I'll just watch until this saying. And then they're like, "Okay, maybe just the next think people stop in rapid scroll. I literally think they're like, "Why is

[18:21] that if that works." And then it pops, but by then it's like you she's gotten you to click the live button. Yeah. And I think that it's not really a strategy. I guess actually I lied, I have used this strategy, but I think

[18:34] especially with TikTok I've always said, more so when trending audios were a thing, I think TikTok is moving away from trending music and Mhm. as they lean into longer videos, but

[18:46] I feel like there's this subconscious thing that happens when you hear an audio over and over again where you almost get hypnotized. Like you almost get in this trance where you're waiting to hear it again and again and again.

[18:58] And we're seeing that with these lives where they're repeating the same things over and over again because you almost People humans like something that's feels safe to watch it knowing that she's going to say certain things. You

[19:11] get hypnotized. And I've even noticed like in some of my videos, it's always a like in some of my videos, it's always a love or hate, but sometimes I'll say the same intro of like "Hi, I'm Kokomoko. I work in media. I made a career off of

[19:24] accurately predicting trends and rising stars." Yeah. And the follower conversion on those videos are crazy high. But I've been at in-person events, and people will come up to me and say the intro to me No way. They Yeah. And

[19:38] they're like, "I say the intro with you. Like if you deviate it a little bit, with me. And I think I did that on accident. I felt like I had to get credibility because I wanted people to understand where I was coming from, but

[19:51] I think that people really love being able to It's why you like singing the The lyrics aren't going to change from when you heard it 10 years ago. I think it speaks to the shrinking attention span problem. You know, it's

[20:04] like if people aren't going to remember something then you were if you repeat it 10 times eventually they will, you know. Yeah, and now I think that this amount is higher but according to a Vice News profile of Pinky Doll she's making

[20:18] $7,000 a day. This is back when she had 500k followers which was a week ago. Now I looked this morning she's at over 800k. So

[20:35] on the lower end she's making 7k a day that translates to $210,000 that translates to $210,000 a month or 2.5 million dollars a year which I don't know that this is so we're going to get into this. I don't think

[20:48] this is going to be sustaining. Like I don't think this is going to last forever because there's people popping up like Trisha Paytas who are trying to do it. So it's not going to be I think it's going to get old

[21:00] into other ventures which we'll get into. I could see the trends not lasting forever but I could see Pinky Doll lasting forever. You know, or maybe like not everyone can do it for as long as she

[21:15] does or maybe eventually Pinky Doll will start switching it up. Like I think if Pinky Doll ever just one day went live but none of the emoji reacts are the People would be like what is happening? What yeah.

[21:30] And I think that if I was Pinky Doll I wouldn't even know what resources to go to create this but I would just have an AI version of myself on live every day robot. Like not like a robot but like a hologram like on

[21:46] you know what I mean? Like a filter. Like something fake. And could you imagine the pandemonium of people being like wait, she glitched. Is this not real? Is Pinky Doll fake? That would go so viral.

[21:59] What if Pinky Doll created her own app where it was like an AI Pinky Doll? And you could talk to her. I think that there's so many like interesting career trajectory. I think she could do so many things. So we're

[22:11] We have a slide about that. And another side note is she's from Montreal, Canada but she recently said she wants to go to Hollywood due to career opportunities. I opportunities. Some people were calling her a scab but I I didn't watch the full

[22:27] a lot of them but in one of them where she was talking about Hollywood I didn't take it as her taking an acting SAG job. I think she's going to music which or I also just think that she means like she's getting opportunities.

[22:43] is live. That's not what I think people what I don't think people are thinking like she does things live which means that a lot of the career opportunities she's probably getting they want her to do them live in person which probably

[22:56] means she needs to move to go to Hollywood. What if she's moving here cuz she might go on the share your screen podcast? just the new star of late night? Like what if

[23:08] no more Jimmys? And it's just Pinky Doll. We need no more late night hosts with the name James, Jimmy, Jim. It's too much. That's the problem. The letter J needs to be banned from late night.

[23:21] That's a whole other slide show. Okay, now next slide which is going to be the predictions for her career but I had to acknowledge. So if you guys are listening to the podcast on screen I have

[23:35] a picture of this one girl her name's Nerdy Winter on TikTok. think she has 100k now which is a lot but she made a video green screen talking about Pinky Doll and this is where I

[23:48] learned about Pinky Doll. This video is where I discovered Pinky This video is where I discovered Pinky Doll. 17.6 million views her video and Doll. 17.6 million views her video and again I think this is why I feel like

[24:00] people the this is how so my career way back when when I was working at Famous Birthdays and you know, the first person to interview the D'Amelio family. the one thing it was subconscious at first. I didn't understand why I was

[24:13] doing it until later. One of the number one factors for how I predict someone I don't care if they have 10 million followers. I don't care if they have 10 followers. The moment that I see another creator talk about them

[24:27] and it's from a third perspective they've they've broke out of their snow they've they've broke out of their snow globe and they're going to be big.

[24:39] Winter's first video was the first domino. Now this has caused us to make a podcast about it which then we'll post it which means other people will see it. you're saying. It's taking you out of your snow globe as the metaphor you used

[24:52] earlier and it creates this domino effect of conversation where it's like hear? And it's this word of mouth spreading. And people are more likely to be interested in you outside of your like fandom but people are more likely

[25:07] to be interested in you if they hear about it from another person. So I always use the analogy of like if you're a creator or a brand you could walk into a small gathering and go up to the cool kids and be like I'm the funniest person

[25:19] me. Everyone get my phone number right now. Invite me to all your parties. I'm so cool. They're going to laugh at you and never look at you again. If you're just at the party hanging out and one of your friends walks over to them and says

[25:31] did you see that girl over there? She's so funny. Like she's you guys have to in you. Also it kind of reminds me of like a Yelp review almost. Like after if you see an advertisement for a restaurant

[25:44] billboard you're not even going to think about it. But if you see people on Yelp being like I ate here and this dish was so amazing. Here's a picture of it. You're like I need to try that. So she there's this photo with Nerdy

[25:58] Winter who 17 million views talking about her. You also have Trisha Paytas about her. You also have Trisha Paytas the queen of cosplay trying to do it as well and then Tana Mongeau and Brooke Schofield's

[26:10] podcast Cancelled where one of their recent episodes was Tana talking about I don't know if it's verified and I mean coming from Tana you never know but that she made over $100,000 doing this trend on TikTok live

[26:23] fact that they have Pinky Doll in the thumbnail and Tana's like a legacy doesn't just put anyone in the thumbnail unless she knows that there's a lot of craze. Exactly what you're saying. It's like the second another creator talks

[26:37] about them is when it starts to now another way in which she's been acknowledged is Cardi B tweeted about Pinky Doll which I feel like Cardi B is

[26:51] like not in a bad way kind of like me but like chronically online. Like Cardi but like chronically online. Like Cardi B always knows what's about to pop off. Whereas a lot of celebrities are like kind of highbrow and like I don't go on

[27:05] TikTok. I'm not that girl. And then Timbaland was revealed as one of Pinky Doll's biggest donators during a live and he's now rumored to be

[27:17] working with Pinky Doll on a new song. So talked about Pinky Doll. I wouldn't be surprised and we're going to get into this. I think that producers and musicians and

[27:30] rappers are trying to get her attention to have her on a song. Yeah, I mean again I think it's so genius to just sample her sound. Like use the gang gang or use the hot hot whatever. Like it's so repetitive and that's how beats

[27:43] function. So it would be so easy to incorporate into a song. yeah, so there's just been YouTubers trying to recreate and I just think it's

[27:57] really interesting how I think Pinky Doll's become bigger than herself in a matter I found out about her two weeks ago and now she's ago you're going to make a slideshow about a girl named Pinky Doll I'd be

[28:09] like who? It just shows how powerful this is. And again I think that's the power of the for you page like you said. Like even if you could have just heard of Pinky Doll but never seen one of her videos but

[28:23] you. Like whether you chose to search her out or not eventually it will appear on your feed and that curiosity of that word of mouth spread and marketing that you're talking about will make you click on it and be like oh yeah, this is that

[28:36] Pinky Doll girl everyone's talking about. Totally. It's and and so this will lead me to the next slide which is I essentially feel like you know, on I essentially feel like you know, on on TikTok specifically the faster that

[28:51] you blow up sometimes the shorter shelf life you have. I think slower I always reference Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast it took him five years to reach his first 100,000 subscribers like and now he's the biggest person in the world.

[29:03] And so like how she'll be able to sustain it I didn't realize in between projections for her career what we would advise but I wanted to just also touch on this slide here is why can't you look away and like what our theories are on.

[29:17] like again I think audiences desire again I think audiences desire companionship talented and have something to offer but they're usually not the ones that are

[29:32] doing something drastic every single day. They're just the ones who are their audiences a safe and predictable place to go every day. Yeah, I think it's especially this predictability factor. Like if you know what you're

[29:47] stick around. Yeah. You don't want to watch a movie necessarily unless you know how it's going to make you feel. But once you know those two things, you'll click on it every time if you know what you're going to get. Yeah. Or

[30:00] of media in the world. Totally. Or why you have like a comfort Or like a comfort podcast. Like something you just have this expected like, "I'm going to laugh." Or "I'm going to cry." Like whatever feeling

[30:13] you're going to get, it's like when you expect it, then you crave that feeling, then you seek out that content to satisfy that feeling. Right. And with in general, whether it be Twitch and

[30:25] TikTok, is unlike other forms of media, even YouTube or TikTok media, there's this instant gratification that happens. Yep. Or this like you want the acknowledge you, the fact that it could happen next time of like you saying

[30:41] immediately replying to you. Yeah, and something that actually watch Twitch as much, it's called super chats, which is when people can depends for the creator, but let's say it's five bucks and they get a certain

[30:55] amount of characters and the message will literally appear on screen and it. it. Yep. So it's literally paying for Attention. Wow, that yeah. Um another thing which we talked about,

[31:09] I think this is really such a thing with lives, which is wanting them to break character. Yeah. I think of there's this show growing up on think of there's this show growing up on MTV called Silent Library. I love Silent

[31:22] Yeah, also do you remember when Liza Koshy recreated it on YouTube? Genius. interesting concept because you have high retention because people are watching to see if they make a noise or break character or Exactly. And it's and

[31:37] it's constantly going like that meter is constantly in the corner. They follow. So you're watching to see if they break the rule. Yeah. And then another one which is like

[31:49] what you said about super chats is there's a social currency of having your comment appear on a live that you know millions are watching and I think it's similar to a modern-day billboard. So if you're watching a live stream and a

[32:03] funny moment happens where she breaks character and your comment happens to be one of the one that floats up there, when people repost the screen recording, your comment and your username will get millions of views without you having to

[32:18] Yeah, and I think you get the satisfaction of like everybody else is the one who got it. it in this moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So different factors which I could talk about forever, but now

[32:32] we'll go on to the next slide which I think is my favorite and it is essentially like what happens next and this is the last slide. So this is the last slide. So I think that for Pinky Doll

[32:45] um when you blow up seemingly overnight, you have to prove even more that you're not just a trend or a one-hit wonder. Yep. And even just the I see this a lot

[32:58] with creators and it's something I struggled with myself. Um when you blow up, you have to have infrastructure to support it. So things that you wouldn't support it. So things that you wouldn't even think about like having an LLC

[33:10] instead of like there was a year where I got super lucky and made a good amount of money and I had to give almost all of it back in taxes cuz I didn't have an LLC. And I was like those are things as a creator you don't think about. Yeah,

[33:22] and also I think especially with her in this mass hysteria and conversation going on about her at the same time, I feel like everything's coming at her 100 like that is like at the bottom of her mind. She's like, "I need to go live

[33:36] this New York Times article about me." Or answer the the producer in my DMs or whatever, you know. I think one of my favorite things to do when someone blows up overnight, I think the last person I did this for was like when Octopus Lover

[33:52] blew up, but on the back end of the industry, if we're doing something like this where we're diving into them um looking at their profile and seeing if they put a talent agency in their bio. That's

[34:04] always when you know they got signed is when their email goes from like @gmail to like @UTA or like @CAA or Right. And I also think the tough thing too is people who blow up rapidly, it's always because they do one thing and one

[34:18] Yeah. So Pinky Doll was NPC stream. You could say Octopus Lover was this comment reply form. You could say I remember like Pepperoni Muffin was the girl who was cutting fruit and all that stuff. And they blow up so fast cuz like you

[34:31] you know, you know exactly what's going to happen. If you like one of their videos, you'll like all of their videos. Yeah. But then they get trapped of in this like, "Oh no, if I keep doing it in this way, I'm going to be so

[34:45] I'll ever be able to pivot out of it." But also you're so punished for doing incentivized to do the thing that's always working. Yeah. And it's so hard because you have to realize eventually that

[35:00] thing will stop working. It is a nature of the internet, nothing lasts forever. Ever ask anyone who ask any person who grew on Vine. You know what I mean? Or like even YouTubers and stuff. Like they come in seasons or things come in waves

[35:12] and it's a hard thing to realize, but no matter what, when you're growing, part of it is like sometimes you have to take five steps back to take 10 forward taking a step forward or back, but taking a step sideways. You know, you're

[35:28] Or like, "I need these people to even know something about me personally so that if this thing starts to die out, then they will at least have some fondness or attachment to me as an individual so then I can pivot out of

[35:42] step to the side, it might be a dead end, but you have to be willing to hit those dead ends or else you're never going to evolve. I think that's one of the biggest things as a creator that I've learned is I mean, some people know

[35:54] Yeah. so crazy and I think that I had this realization when I was at Cannes recently where I was like there were times I was doing to

[36:08] text about tarot. Like I like I still have like decks. It's it's a part of me. I had I paid for an astrology reading yesterday with a reader. Like I love Um even though I'm not as public anymore about it. I've even been advised to like

[36:22] now is like consulting and I think it's a little woo-woo for people, but um there were times when I was doing tarot on TikTok and I was like, "FML. Like I just want these videos to go viral and I want to blow up and I've plateaued and I

[36:37] am like the worst creator ever." Um and it took me months to like really figure out how to pivot, which we would even on our lunch breaks at work go in like how we could get into pop culture

[36:50] commentary. And it was many failed videos, but I finally just took a break like, "This is what I'm going to do." I told my audience and I was thinking like if when I was at Cannes, I was like, "Damn, I could have 10 million followers

[37:06] that happened, I would have never been forced to pivot and I would have never with like CEOs of companies on panels." Exactly. I saw a TikTok somebody used this metaphor and I've just fallen in love with it ever since is like

[37:21] sometimes life or the universe or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. Think of it like a GPS. Oh. When you're right way, it seems like nothing's happening.

[37:33] drive for five miles or whatever. But when things aren't going right, like your destination. getting a thousand notifications. Turn left and turn right, blah, blah, blah. So sometimes you think like things are

[37:47] it's like, "Well, maybe things are going wrong and or not going well cuz they're go down this lane. You need to make a U-turn and go back and get back on the I've always really really liked that metaphor.

[38:02] like we could probably we wouldn't be in this room either of us if like you start mental health videos and that doesn't mean I'm not passionate about mental health, but I don't think it was a thing I was just meant to do full-time in that

[38:14] profession for that, you know. Um and I'm glad that I hit a plateau at some point and I there were literally months, I mean months me and and Coco were video and we were happy if I got 10K views on one video.

[38:30] Literally and I remember being like overtly depressed about it. Like like prolonged periods of sadness because I had tied my worth so much into making these videos and getting views from it, but that's because I didn't inherently

[38:46] love the videos themselves. Like I love doing this because I think Pinky Doll is there's a camera on or not. Like I would love to talk to Coco about it cuz I thing happening in our time that makes me want to analyze and learn more about

[39:01] love what you're talking about regardless of whether the camera is on or not, you will continue to move forward in the path you're meant to move in because regardless your passion will continue to propel you in the direction

[39:14] the biggest things that you can be as a creator is be able to evolve and if you now, but you're not going to be Yeah, either you evolve or the world around you evolves. Ooh, that's good. We always say you want a career, not a

[39:29] a career, not a year. That's one of my favorites, too. Yes. So now pivoting back to specifically Pinky Doll, which is that Okay, let's do a little exercise marketing team, what would we have her do? I personally think she needs to get

[39:46] into music because it's only a matter of time before rappers or producers or maybe pop singers, whatever genre she wants to go into, um start sampling her sayings. I think she needs to beat them to the

[39:59] punch. I also would tell her to not sign a record label yet though because I think there are so many great producers like Timbaland and T-Pain out there who would work with her even if she doesn't sign on to a label yet. And I don't

[40:12] all of her leverage if she signed anything either. I think people will pay her a lot of money even just be a have to produce the song. I think she could literally come in for barely a few

[40:25] verses. As Nikki said 50K for a verse, no album out. like what did I say? Oh yeah. I realized you were talking about Nicki Minaj. Um I didn't realize that, yeah. She has so much leverage right now. Yeah, and also

[40:40] protect herself. That's always step one like copyright. If you you have these sayings and your voice and you're afraid people taking that, step one is protect you for it. Yes, exactly. Um and also if I was her

[40:55] manager, I would have her um do a magazine cover. I think Paper Paper magazine is so good at capitalizing off of moments like this. Like the It's iconic cover is so good. They really are great at like finding a

[41:10] wave of pop culture right before it's about to like hit its peak and crash. they're the first person to jump on something. So much so that I feel like it's kind of become a part of Paper's brand as like a recognizable symbol.

[41:22] feature like wow you're really up and coming. Yeah, I think of them as like the Julia Fox like they've worked with It's iconic. Yeah, exactly. And I think that she needs to as soon as possible. I

[41:35] don't think it's going to be hard but as soon as possible align herself with traditional media in the form of like a magazine cover so that she can break out of being known for one viral trend. Like she has to say I have a sign-off from

[41:48] Paper magazine. I have a sign-off from Teen Vogue and it will subconsciously change people's view of her in their mind as this short-term from traditional media now. Yeah, totally. My advice for her there was one

[42:03] thing that even she made a video about Neil and Musk tweeted that he wanted her to be the voice of Tesla. It's just such a good idea. I was thinking it would be funny too like I would have pitched her to Apple and been like let's make her

[42:15] the voice of Maps for a month or like a setting on Maps or even a car company. They have GPSs in cars and stuff, which would be so genius. Um another thing I think that she really really needs to do is get onto another platform. Not that

[42:30] she should stop TikTok but no one knows the future of TikTok live. It's such it's so unpredictable, such uncharted waters. And also it's I don't know if you know this, it's a really big thing in streaming culture to where they

[42:45] will actually like Twitch or YouTube will pay for a massive exclusivity fee Yes, like Spotify with podcasts. And I think if she only stays on TikTok, she'll never get a deal like that. But if she starts to go live on Twitch and

[43:00] can get them into a bidding war for her. Oh. Oh. You're so right.

[43:16] have such like buzz around you right now that people will pay to have that buzz You're so right. Like why would TikTok pay her extra if she's already doing it? Right, they cuz they're making money from half the donations and stuff so

[43:28] Also Twit Tik TikTok live doesn't even have ads. Twitch has ads and stuff. other stuff to it but I think if she does it all at once, people will kind of see it as a cash grab and be like Twitch to make more money. You should stay on

[43:42] I think she needs to do both Yeah. or balance it somehow or or like what if platform? Oh, literally the Pinky Doll cinematic universe where there's different

[43:56] characters with different emotes and different responses or like maybe she does interview lives on YouTube or like you know what I mean? Like I think she needs to take a piece of value and assign it to a platform so then people

[44:09] have a reason to go find her on other platforms because they're getting a from her just on TikTok. I like that. That's that you're so right about the bidding war um which I think we've seen with the payments we saw for like Call

[44:24] Spotify. That's how you That's the only time creators are getting these eight-figure deals is when it's a platform paying for them to produce exclusively on their platform. Yeah. Um and now another thing that I think

[44:38] she needs to do is work with some sort of like food brand going to say something like a straightener where you pop popcorn kernels but it's not for your hair. Like it looks like a hair straightener but

[44:53] something she could trademark. Yeah, I was going to say she should get good at these collab meals. Yeah. And I think it would be so easy for her to promote eating just McDonald's on the live or having like

[45:07] maybe the toys are emotes. Yeah. Or like you know what I mean? Like there's collab meal with that. Or maybe the McDonald's like having your boxes pink. dolls or the toys so it's like Pinky Doll, you know what I mean?

[45:20] Or like what I was saying in an earlier slide, I think that she what I could see slide, I think that she what I could see her doing is creating an AI version of Pinky Doll and having it stream for her like a little like a filter or hologram.

[45:34] Yeah. And then she can go do her normal life and every day at 3:00 p.m. this AI Or that has she goes multiple platforms at once. Yeah. Another thing I think is good about doing the AI thing is like once you start to have, you know, a

[45:47] symbol or mascot, it starts to brand itself. Like you can sell a plushy. You can put it on a hoodie. Like I think putting just like your face on a hoodie, bunch of times. It's weird and never sells well but it's always really works

[46:02] symbol. I actually think that's why Emma Chamberlain had a symbol for Chamberlain associated with it at all but there's all these different mascots for the And I think it's cuz they know that as a marketing tactic. You're so right. Um do

[46:16] you have any last thoughts about Pinky Doll or what about seeing, Mhm. one of my favorite questions is like what do you think is year from now and then what do you think is going to be different about social

[46:31] year from now? I think first and foremost this is just the beginning of life. Yeah. That like live streaming is really still in its infancy stages and even like as a platform and on other platforms too. And

[46:47] I think that if you think It's iconic and Pinky Doll are going to be the last people to have this like rapid success on TikTok live, you are going to be sadly mistaken. Second, I think brands need to start thinking of way to tap

[47:00] into it especially because there are so many live viewers. Like you see sponsored posts, you've never seen a sponsored TikTok live. Yeah. think that going to see from a creator economy standpoint of they need to find ways to

[47:13] do this. And also I know that in Eastern Asian culture like live shopping and live is huge on platforms on social platforms. So I think we're really going platforms. So I think we're really going to see live take off in such a big way.

[47:26] for Pinky Doll specifically? It's so at her fingertips right now, right? Like she could do music, she could do hosting with this character. It's like I really think her move needs to be she needs to

[47:40] brand the character and turn the character into something that can live on its own so then she can take that character and put it into music, put it into TV, put it into movies, put it into a stuffed animal or a collab meal,

[47:53] she's going to be in a year cuz I feel like she can literally do anything. Like that's the genius of her character. But what do you think? No, I think you're right. I agree with the TikTok live. I think um

[48:05] I actually honestly feel like I've said this in a video a year ago that went viral and I think I kind of called it but I said people are wrong when they say TikTok's biggest

[48:18] competitor is Instagram or YouTube. I don't agree with that. I think TikTok's competing with Fox, Netflix, Hulu. Yeah. Oh yeah. streaming. The way that people tune in to TikTok and spend even when they have

[48:34] Netflix show up, they're on TikTok on their phone. And I think that TikTok's think in live specifically what we're going to see happen is they're going to start syndicating it or again, as things change they stay the same. I think we're

[48:50] with cable channels when I was a kid like at 6:00 p.m. you turn on p.m. you go watch Hannah Montana and then at 8:00 p.m. your parents put on And TikTok would be smart to start paying their people to go live at a

[49:04] p.m. is It's iconic, 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. is Pinky Brittany Broski or yeah. Report. You know what I mean? And also I think going back to your original point, TikTok is very deliberate about not competing with other social platforms

[49:19] but competing with other apps and services. Like it seems like YouTube and up to TikTok. We're going to add Reels. We're going to add Shorts. TikTok doesn't care. They're not adding long form like horizontal videos onto TikTok.

[49:33] They're adding Shopify. Like they're adding the TikTok marketplace to compete with Shopify. They're adding live to compete with Twitch and traditional TV. its own music app to compete with Spotify. Now they're getting into

[49:46] podcast on Tik Tok. Like, Tik Tok is always smart about not looking backwards, not looking at what are the older social platforms doing? What are these other big multi-billion dollar corporations doing? And how do we

[49:58] combine that into the power of the organic reach Tik Tok gives you? that Because if they can combine that power with Tik Tok shopping right now is is

[50:11] it's elevating small businesses in ways that no traditional media hasn't been able to in years. able to. Exactly, which makes it so small

[50:24] right? They're not copying someone else, they're actually giving tools for people that I think we're going to see in the next year. It's like all these apps are competing against each other and this is what happened in 2008 with the original

[50:39] boom of the internet. It was Facebook, it was Twitter, and it was YouTube. And YouTube won because YouTube very early created the YouTube partner program where they said we're going to split 50% of advertising revenue with you. And we

[50:52] are seeing this again in 2023 with Instagram, with YouTube shorts, and with Tik Tok. It's the it's the exact same thing but short-form content. Whoever wins is going to be whoever pays people first and can pay people the best. The

[51:06] most consistent income, creators will go there. Everybody needs money, everybody needs it to live, everybody craves stability. So I think the future of the creator economy will be the platform that finds out a way to monetize.

[51:19] Yeah. I think that's great and I think we can end on that note because tangent episode. I knew I literally text Nikki. I was slides but it's going to be very like just ideas based theory because and

[51:33] again like Pinky Dolls only and been I've only known of her for 2 weeks so it wasn't like there was this entire decade-long thing I could talk about. It what do we think is going to be the result of that?

[51:45] Totally and I hope that this is like at least a different side or different take of us or it's interesting to see to see things a bit more unfiltered and a bit less scripted or like thought out. This is literally like how we sound just

[51:59] getting coffee. It's like analyzing in our car at the Dragon Box drive-thru. Yeah, and if you guys made it this far and you're able to leave a five-star rating on Spotify or Apple or give us a comment on YouTube, like all of these

[52:12] things help us grow. We are literally chasing a dream. Yeah, we're chasing a can ever possibly describe. Yeah, and thank you guys so much for watching. We'll see you next Sunday. Yay.