Archive for TikTok

James Droz- What Happened??

James Droz is one of the most popular sports influencers on the planet right now. He is from a small town in Oklahoma called Bartlesville. James has down syndrome but that doesn’t stop him from doing what he loves, watching sports. His fame began in January of 2022 when Tom Brady and the Buccaneers lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship. He got his popularity by repeating the phrase “what happened?” to the losing team. James has acquired over 850k followers on TikTok and about 20 million total views. One of his followers helped him go to the Oklahoma versus Oklahoma State game where James celebrated with his favorite team (Oklahoma) and made a video using his catchphrase. With his popularity he was able to create merchandise such as hats, shirts, and sweatshirts. James and his family use their entrepreneurship abilities to take advantage of his rising popularity to make money. James Droz isn’t just making merch, he has been invited to do some radio shows and invited to some high school and collegiate football games. It’s incredible to see that he is able to do all of this on his own even with a disability. Safe to say that James Droz is any fanbase’s worst nightmare, especially if you go to USC.

Olivia Dunne- Queen of NILs

Olivia Dunne is a 20 year old gymnast from Louisiana State University(LSU). She joined TikTok in 2020 and quickly gained a big following. With over 6 million followers on TikTok and another 1 million on Instagram, Livvy is the most followed NCAA athlete on social media. In July of 2021, NCAA allowed athletes to make money using their name, image, and likeness. With her already huge following, Livvy was in a prime spot to make a lot of money. To help spread her entrepreneurship, she signed with the major talent agency, WME Sports(now Endeavor Group). With the agency, Olivia is able to post sponsored content and promote many different brands. She signed her first exclusive brand partnership with the athletic clothing brand, Vuori. Livvy’s net worth is roughly $2.3 million, mainly from her partnership with Vuori. Although she isn’t the traditional entrepreneur, Olivia uses her platform in a unique way in order to create an income. In fact, per post, Livvy makes around $10k for sponsored videos. Olivia’s older sister, who is also at LSU, handles a lot of Livvy’s NIL deals and sponsorships. She tries to post on TikTok everyday to keep up with her fans. She has been quoted as saying that she wants to focus more on her brand a become an entrepreneur.

Jake Guidas – Entrepreneur

Jake Guidas is a recent graduate of Grove City College. Jake was an entrepreneurship major and has just recently got a prestigious job in Silicon Valley. Jake is working as an SDR, selling technology software for a company called Skyflow. This type of position at that kind of company does not come to just anyone. Jake is an extremely motivated individual with a clear vision of what he wants for his future. He is an example of young entrepreneur in the early stages of developing his idea.

At the age of 10, Jake was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. This restricted his ability to play the sports and do the activities that he loved. Although his life completely changed, Jake still persevered and did not let his health drag him down. Jake has done countless trial and error research for 12 years, with little success. He came to realize he found most of his improvement in dieting and doing various holistic, health-conscious activities on a daily basis and staying consistent.

So many people in the world have health issues, especially Lyme Disease. Jake has begun his Entrepreneurial journey on the side, while he continues to build success in the sales world. Jake has recently started a TikTok page called limitlesstitan. His mission of the page is to help young people live healthier lives, with a niche audience of young individuals trying to overcome Lyme Disease. He began this past summer and has continued to produce quality content on TikTok. Like all great things, it is a process. Jake has already seen growth in the short amount of time he has been producing content. He plans to expand upon his brand and eventually form it into something huge in the future.

Jake Guidas is also an avid student of self-development. Jake has completed the 75 Hard Challege (a mental toughness challenge that I discussed in detail in my last blog) and Phase 1 of the Live Hard program. If you asked Jake, he would tell you that doing these self-development challenges really pushed him to be the best form of himself and not worry about the opinion of others.

Jake is a prime example of a young entrepreneur going out and taking action on what he wants. He could easily hold in all of his knowledge on health and living a healthy lifestyle, but he decided to share it with the world. Our world needs more people like Jake who are willing to take risks and improve our world with the knowledge they hold.

Corn Kid

Many of you have probably heard or seen the “corn kid” on TikTok. 7-year-old, Tarik, is a corn connoisseur and his TikTok has gone viral on TikTok in the past few weeks. Tarik didn’t stop by just going viral on TikTok, he is trying to make some money off of his fame. His video alone has gotten over 23 million views on TikTok and 3 million views on youtube. To make some money Tarik has started selling personal videos of him talking about corn. He has sold 21 of these videos already, charging anywhere from 150-500 dollars. The University of Nebraska was a customer of Tarik, in which they received a video of him saying “It’s cornhusker football, I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful thing. This Nebraska team has the juice! Have a corn-tactic season huskers.” Tarik is showing some young entrepreneurial traits by taking advantage of his fame and making some money off of it. It’ll be interesting to see if Tarik is able to continue his fame or if it will just be a one-time thing. I have attached the original youtube video that Tarik starred in, the sound of this video is now going viral on TikTok and youtube as well.

Bradley Kraut- Academic Warrior

Brad Kraut is a popular tiktoker who goes by the username @name_is_brad. With over 9 million likes, Brad uses his following and popularity to spread positive messages about how to be a good college student. He encourages people to become an “academic warrior” with his company Kicking The Sheets. In addition to making money off of TikTok and his company, he is also a partner in the company Jerpa, which specializes in comfortable clothing mainly for college students. Brad is taking advantage of the current popularity of TikTok and consumers need to buy merchandise. The entrepreneurship doesn’t stop there, he also uses his fame to sell videos on the website Cameo.com. The Penn State celebrity uses his popularity to spread positive messages and encourages students to become more involved with their schoolwork; these messages allow him to generate a revenue through his personal merchandise or through other sites like Cameo.

Dasha Derkach

Dasha Derkach started her company, Enchanted Scrunch, in 2021 after struggling to find the perfect scrunchies for her outfits. Pairing her passion for fashion with her sewing skills, Dasha was able to grow her business to include over 300 designs (all of which are handmade)! When the 14-year old entrepreneur initially promoted her products on TikTok, she had no idea that she’d cultivate a loyal customer base and nearly 186K followers.

What is most impressive about Dasha’s story is her incredible work ethic. Not only does she manage her own company, she is still a full time student and dancer. While she doesn’t make every scrunchie herself now that the orders flood in so frequently, Dasha is a fair and equitable boss who makes sure to pay her employees (parents) for their hard work.

Dasha has put the ‘fun’ into ‘functional’ with her high quality products, so make sure to check out her shop!

Jacob Zander, Spreading Positivity and Inspiration Through Footsouls.

Jacob Zander, a 23 year old from Santa Barbara, became a young entrepreneur after taking a college business class. He wrote in an article last year about how he developed an idea that he had been pondering through this class. At the end of the semester, Jacob had a product and a vision that he was ready and able to pitch to an investor.

Jacob’s idea of Footsouls, insoles for Converse, started when he was an employee at Trader Joe’s. With his friends, he frequently discussed that, although they wanted to wear their Converse to work, they always opted not to as they were too uncomfortable to wear for extended periods of time. To gauge initial interest for his product and idea, he asked his co-workers about it and sought their opinions. After this, because of his teacher, friends, traveling, and TikTok, Jacob’s insoles went viral.

Through his company and with his product, Jacob wants to inspire people and spread positivity. The product itself, a cream insole with the lettering “Feel Your Soul” written on it, was created to remind people every time they put their shoes on, to go out and truly live their lives. In addition to the insoles for Converse, Jacob’s company has expanded to creating insoles for Vans, clothing, and roller skates! Along with this, the company has a “Smile Fund” that takes a designated amount of every Footsouls purchase and uses it to give back to others.

What makes Jacob particularly creative, is his use of social media to help his company reach so many people. Before Footsouls was even born, Jacob filmed his entire creative and business process. Transparency was a huge goal of Jacob’s.  He wanted to show others his success hoping that they would gain the confidence they needed to succeed. Then, once he was able to manufacture the insoles, he began creating and posting TikToks. He used this as a way to advertise but also to give people a behind-the-scenes view of packaging and shipping process.

Since 2017, when Jacob was just beginning his journey with Footsouls, he has come a long way. With the help of mentors, friends, and social media, Jacob is inspiring others to follow their dreams and live every day to the fullest!

 

Jacob’s Website: https://feelyoursoul.com/


Sources

The Story of How Feel Your Soul Footsouls Started– FEEL YOUR SOUL

How Jacob Zander Spreads Positivity with Footsouls — Comeback Magazine

Sara Kays

Sara Kays is a 21 year old singer/songwriter from Indiana. Currently in college, Sara continues to write music while getting her degree and performing her songs. She started her craft when she was 13, taking an interest in guitar and learning to sing, write, and perform in high school.

After graduating high school, Sara moved to Georgia to grow in her music, and recently moved to Nashville to continue performing and writing. Sara Kays has been publishing her music since 2018, starting with releasing her first song, “Rich Boy”, in October 2018. After releasing that first song, she then released the accompanying album to “Rich Boy”, called “A House Too Big”.

Since 2018, Sara has released 3 singles in 2019, 4 singles in 2020, and an album in 2020. Her social media presence is most well-known on TikTok, but she also has YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, as well as a website for her merch (https://www.sarakays.com/).

Her music relates to our generation, speaking through the music to those who have been in negative situations and have been affected by those situations. It’s almost like Sara’s way of soothing the hurt many have felt and being a helping hand in her own way.

 

Anna Sitar: A Brand of Positive Encouragement

 

Anna Sitar is a social media influencer who’s main focus is to spread positivity and joy. She is active on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and has a website to sell some merchandise like t-shirts and sweatshirts with quotes specific to her personal brand on them. Not quite an influencer, Anna still manages to pull many viewers through her wholesome content. She recommends different brands all the time, and is real about her experiences with her followers.

Her big debut came with her Poland travel blog that she posted on YouTube. Then, once TikTok became popular in the States, Anna started a TikTok account. Her content shows that she is a good-natured, encouraging, kind, and humorous person. Two catch phrases Anna is known for are: “I don’t want it” and “get with it.” Either one is a common phrase in her TikToks.

Although Anna does not have a lot of products to sell and grow as a business, she is cultivating a brand that reaches much further than products. Her clean content and positive outlook help her followers believe in the good that is in the world. Anna Sitar is an encouragement all around, and her entrepreneurial mindset is taking her places.

Her website states her philosophy quite simply: “There is no such thing as an unrealistic standard. This brand represents the fighters, the lovers, and the humans who know what they want, and will not rest until it is achieved. If you don’t believe in us, we don’t want it.” It’s an honest and beautiful brand that can cheer anyone up.

 

https://www.annaxsitar.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/annasitar/featured