# How to Make $16k/mo as a UGC Creator | Blaze Shelter #24

Channel: Owen Nurminen
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esmo4bp_UjI
Duration: 31 min
Language: English
Words: 5918
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/esmo4bp_UjI

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[0:00] Bla1, welcome to the show, the content economy, episode number 24. You are one of the best UGC coaches in the space. Uh, you know, we worked together for a little while there in content economy. Um, and you know, I want to learn your story and how you've been able to have so much success both as a creator and now as a coach, what you're teaching creators and how people can learn from you. So, Blaze, welcome to the show. How

[0:22] have you been? Thank you. It's been been amazing. Um, feel like we haven't talked in way too long, but been a crazy year since I since I started this whole thing. It's only been one year. That's crazy. What? Like not even beginning of September, so we're like you're like two weeks from a year. But how did you get into UGC? Like, you

[0:44] know, tell me tell me the story. Well, I've I mean, I saw one of your videos on Instagram. It would have been like this time last year and I was probably the fastest close for your team ever. I followed you, your setter sent me a DM like I was on a call like the next day and it was like Yeah,

[1:07] bro. What do you mean? That was me. You're talking to me, right? Right. Sorry. No, no, no, no, you're good. No, no, you're good. Um you you know I actually did get rid of the setter in the sales process because we've been working on RTC which is our creator platform and uh you know you really have to focus I feel however that definitely hurt you know my income streams. So um yeah it's kind of a little bit of push and pull. Uh so you joined about a year ago um what happened next and like what did that process look

[1:37] like for you? Um, I joined I actually think I joined be more than a year ago, but then I kind of like forgot. I kind of forgot about it and then um I was got a drilling job. It was a rough spot last summer. Like the business I the company I was working for fell through. Uh the guy was going through a divorce just ghosted us. We were like on a job waiting for material stuff. Never

[2:07] showed up. didn't hear from him for like two weeks because he shut down the business, whatever. So then I got a drilling job. Uh went into debt, was living on the floor of my friend's apartment. Like it sounds like a fake story. Um but then I was there for three and a half months and was just like I hate my life. My entire life is showing up to the office at 5:00 am, driving to a job site, and then getting home at like 6:00 to 8:00 PM, sleeping, doing it again. I had like no didn't see any friends, didn't stop going to the gym, barely ever saw my

[2:44] family, work with like my entire life. And that's when I realized it's like, all right, I I've got to reach out to this Owen guy that I messaged and went golfing with that one time. almost like I I forgot about that and I need something different right now. Oh, that's actually brutal. Um, you know, I I kind of forgot that that's the place that you were in because so much has changed. So, what was your your best month doing UGC and how long did it kind of take you to ramp up to get from, you know, my Yeah. So, my best month with just UGC um like not not any coaching February

[3:19] and March were close. So, I started doing it in September. SE that first month in September, I did $4,800. Quit my job like three weeks in before I actually got paid from UGC just from like the deals that I had coming. And I was like, I'll be paid in a week from this. I'm done. Um, my best month was

[3:39] March. It was like 16,500 or something. And then the month before that was 14,000. Incredible. Wasn't that the best feeling ever, bro? getting like that those first deals coming in. It was insane. Like I was totally expecting like to spend a few months working on it, pick up a few deals, and my goal was like, "Okay, I'm going to try UGC. I'm going to do it until I find what I want to do, but that'll give me more time to where like my whole life isn't work." And then once I started, I was like, "Oh, this is going to be my full-time thing." Like, but to be

[4:16] honest, I got lazy. I would say like I've had students some of my students way surpass my first three months. Like it took me from September to February to break 10K. But if I was to do it again, I probably would have hit 10K like my first month because I got so lazy from working like 50 to 60 hours a week. Then once I realized I could make five to seven grand a month by working two hours a day, I was like screw that. I'm gonna go hang out with my friends, go to Florida, go on like went on a cruise, started just traveling and then moved to

[4:55] Bali. And it wasn't until I got on a call with Nash, another one of your students. He was like, "Bro, look at my side shift account." He's like, "Lock in. What are you doing?" And I was like, "Fick." Okay. Yeah. So that was in January. And then the next month I was like just head down, got to Bali, uh was like had I had batch recorded like almost two weeks of content for when I got there. That is an unreal feeling when I like open my phone, post a video, switch accounts, post another video, and I'm like at a beach cafe just not

[5:30] working. But yeah, I' I'd say there's definitely a faster path to get to those months if you actually aren't as lazy as I was when I started. Incredible, bro. Um that is such an awesome journey. Um yeah, I mean just super proud. That's really so awesome. Like think about that. you know, you were literally doing a job that you despised and you you just took it in your own your own hands, locked in, did

[5:58] UGC and you got 16K a month is crazy. So, what do you do now and like how has it changed? So I am still doing UGC um more on like tribe stuff like meta ads and less on retainers but primarily like I have 109 students uh doing UGC right now. Um and that's just been growing really fast. But actually was in contact with a guy you put me in contact with to pick up another UGC deal. Um, and then I'm getting on another retainer tomorrow. I want to make sure I'm in it enough that I'm like understanding what I'm coaching still because I could easily get sidetracked in just like pulling a

[6:45] ton of people in the community, getting them started, but I want to make sure I'm like actually in all of the in the weeds still. Jump right back into it. I actually ran into kind of the same problem. I had uh started doing coaching and running the agency and obviously I was taking less deals because you just you know make more money from running an agency and doing coaching. So I was like all right well I should prioritize that and make sure we're giving our creators

[7:10] like the best opportunities possible. Make sure we have more deals coming in for them. All that stuff now it's a software product because it's even more scalable and even better for our creators. Um and Artekch should be live in the next week or two. If you're a UGC creator or you're a creator in general, Rtech is not going to be like a normal platform. Um, suite of tools so that you as a creator can make sure you're making great content, learning from your favorite coaches all in one place. Um, and obviously getting the best uh deals possible. Um, so we've been working on that for coming up on a year, which is

[7:41] crazy. Um, and it's changed a ton and it's been the bane of my existence, except we pivoted recently and everything has flown naturally. It's been insane. Um, just all the connections we needed, everything coming together and I can feel like it's about to be extremely worth it. But I want to get back to you.

[7:59] That's awesome. Um, I've been using Art for like eight months now, but it's just been like analyzing videos so far. Right. Exactly. And we we actually haven't been able to upload our new version um because we had to wait for connections with Meta and different platforms. Um, a lot of friction with Apple even. Um, so just bunch of different problems, but it's been worth it and it's going to be extremely awesome for for creators to use. So very excited for that to be out. Um, that's cool. But what do you do for your creators that's allowing them to have

[8:30] success? Well, I do a mix. Like obviously I have different creators that have different needs. Like some of them step in with a big personal brand. They're already really good at content and then they're just like, "Okay, I need to actually like monetize from this um and make money from content, not just like do it as a hobby." So those creators obviously have a different path of like I'm just connecting them to the best deals in the space and then teaching them how to make the ads different which is different

[8:59] from like their personal brand content. But for the most part my students have like never created a piece of content before. Most people are just like in the position I was in. I don't like my job. I need something different. So we get them in first go over the basics of like just creating content. um like the first week and then obviously like setting up their different profiles on the platforms, getting them connected. But recently, I've been having less students get deals on platform and because I've had a lot of campaign managers like been reaching out to me. So, kind of just handing them deals now. Uh but we do

[9:40] there's a obviously a lot of like training content and then we do a lot of calls. So that's like the majority of my time is just calls, Zoom calls, one-on ones, group calls, all of it. Yeah, that's that's where creators seem to learn the most in my experience is calls and then also just working with different teams and creator managers. So let's say, you know, uh a creator who is going to calls and learning and asking questions is great, but a creator who's also going to calls for a specific brand and learning what makes that content go viral and having to really perform for them is going to 10x their learning

[10:12] also. So, I kind of do a mix of both where it's like, let's get you introductions to deals and then let's also make sure that you're going to calls and you're learning. It's kind of both. That's been huge. I mean, my my girlfriend, I got her started in UGC um a month and a half ago. She did like seven grand her first month and is on track to do the same if not a little bit more this month, but she cut like half of her deals because she's putting more

[10:40] time and effort into the better deals. Like actually joining all their training calls and actually like she's on two deals right now, but going super viral instead of seven deals just putting out decent content. So she's doing organic canvas UGC deals only. No paid ads ad stuff. She's doing tribe, too. Okay. What is better?

[11:01] A bonus. Um, she likes the organic stuff. Interesting. Yeah. Creators kind of differ on what they prefer. Um, yeah. I don't know like like what's the split come down to? What do you like better? Why does she like that one better over the other? I I personally like the tribe deals better. I feel like once you're an experienced creator that can make a really good content, like

[11:32] you're gonna make more money. The upside, you're gonna make more money on paid ads where you're getting not just view bonuses posting every day for $50 a video, but like I can make a good ad and there's a there's a hat brand, August 11. I'm sure you've seen them. Um Johnny Pearson owns it. I made an ad for them two months ago that's still getting me like two to three sales a day. And like some of my best videos on Tribe have made me over $1,000 a piece. And like you can't like generate that necessarily unless you hit like millions

[12:07] of views on an organic video. 100% as you gain like or as I gain like the experience of creating the good ads just seems to perform better. I totally agree. And our our best creators have this natural process where we start them with organic. They get to learn and get a lot of reps in and make money which is great. And then we kind of slowly transition them over to paid where they are making less videos, getting paid more per video. Still performance, just a better performance vehicle. So, I think in the future that's where everything is going to go for creators. There's so many new

[12:42] creators joining. Like, if you're watching this right now and you're like kind of on the fence, now is definitely the time because, you know, a year from now, it's going to be harder. There's going to be more opportunity for sure because it's just going to grow. I think the creator economy is supposed to like triple by 2030. So, there's going to be tons of opportunity, but there's also going to be a lot more creators that are coming in, especially with AI replacing jobs. Content is going to be one of the last gig gig economies available for

[13:04] people. Um, which is super interesting. So, where do you how do you kind of recommend structure creators right when they join? Like, do you give them any deals or do you make them work for it yourself or themselves? So, I kind of have like two pools of deals. Um, they get in obviously like set up their portfolio. I do have them get set up on Sideshift and reach out to brands, but I have like my deals that are $15 to $25 a video that I give to new creators. And then the higher paying deals, I kind of like wait until I have good creators come in or wait till my

[13:37] new creators are like two to three months in. So, a little bit of both. I can put people on like two to three deals like right as they start. Um, but I mean the majority of them still will go pick up some deals off Sideshift or uh like a Discord. That's exactly what we do. What do you think separates like like kind of not great UGC creators from people that are doing 10 20k a months pretty

[14:02] consistently? There's a lot of things, but I would say like the separation seems to be like creators doing less than five grand a month and then over 10 grand. There's not a whole lot in between because once you like crack once it clicks and once you crack it and like understand like dang okay this is this is my system. Um, batch recording is a huge thing that I teach and preach like to every one of my students because when you're creating say for like six brands and having to follow different scripts, different formats and like change characters six times a day, that's where I was capped. I could not

[14:44] take on more than six brands. But then once I started batch recording, I was like, "Dang, I'm done Tuesday." by like Tuesday at lunch, I was done with all of my content just by sitting down doing seven videos for one brand. Okay, that's huge. And then the second piece is like mentally not taking it as a side hustle. I see a lot of students that are kind of like, "Yeah, I'll test it out uh and

[15:09] kind of see if this works." And then it doesn't because or it doesn't work very well because they're not like giving it the extra effort. But it's honestly so easy to become like the top 10% of creators by just trying a little bit. Like if you send files to a brand, like naming the Google Drive, sending them on time, sending them multiple like hooks, multiple call to actions, there's little things that like

[15:36] nobody does. I totally agree. And it's it's very easy to separate yourself even if you're just showing up to calls on time, you know, being very punctual, like very simple things because a lot of UGC creators are just younger and they don't have a lot of experience. Um, so it's been super interesting to see which people the people who come from like a a tech sales background usually just absolutely crush

[15:58] because they're used to being punctual. They're used to working with different companies. Um, they're very personable. like anyone who has corporate experience usually just absolutely dominates because so many kids are just not doing the little things right. You know what I mean? Um yeah, which is which is really interesting. But I wanted to get a little bit of your opinion on what have

[16:17] you seen working for formats right now? Like what kind of videos are going viral or you know where are creators seeing results um so that other people can kind of learn and do that too. Yeah, I mean there's a few that I'm like pushing pretty hard. Um, obviously like the the base story line still works. Like if you have a good story format like I can have 10 graders follow the same script and talk about the story line that works for like a lot of the college study apps because you're targeting like a younger audience. Um, obviously a lot of girls but another one is like green screen

[16:56] the the green screen videos where like you have products behind you. I've been using that one a lot. For instance, like I sold a pair of black sunglasses. I first got it and was like, "Okay, how am I gonna market just a $20 pair of black sunglasses with no logo?" But then, like, I started putting

[17:15] celebrities behind me on a green screen. And it's like, what did this person, this person, this person all have in common? And it's not that they're, you know, making millions of dollars a year. It's not that they're a household name across most countries. It's not this. It's not this. It's not that they've all played in your favorite movies. It's that they know that their accessories matter more than their outfit. And I'm not spending a thousand bucks on a pair of product glasses. Like whatever the script is, I've seen green screen videos and tier lists performing the best right

[17:42] now. That's awesome. And a reason for that, I think, is just always true throughout content. Visuals are so important for your hooks. You have your your your uh spoken hook, your written hook, and your visual hook. Um, and what you're describing that's always worked is the green screen or the listical or the tier list. Anything visual like that is really good for that visual hook. But what it also does, especially that the way you just phrased it, it creates an open curiosity loop where people are

[18:10] like, "Okay, so what is the difference?" And they're just consuming consuming because they're genuinely curious. You're not saying like, "You need to get these glasses because they're the best glasses under $50." That puts them in judge mode where they're judging your content, agreeing or disagreeing, and swiping and getting through. you're putting off the the um opinion or the thesis of that video until later on, which is increasing the average watch time. So, people are watching this video more and more and more until it gets to the point where you finally deliver it at which point it doesn't matter what you say because people are going to

[18:40] agree or disagree and they're going to comment about it because now they've watched and your engagement is going to go up. So, you've kind of like those formats are so so good. Visual hook, curiosity. I mean, I actually want to make a video about that right now. And you can do this for any niche. Um, and you have a pretty good chance of going viral. So, it's really interesting you

[18:57] say that. Yeah. And I want to backtrack to your question of like what makes a good creator stand out. That's another thing is what I went over like majority of my call with my community last night is selling the solution, selling the outcome, not like the actual benefits. You're not going to be like, "Oh my

[19:17] goodness, this cologne smells so good. These are the scents. Like nobody, no travel destination, no resort is going to sell the layovers, the plane flight, picking up your rental car. You don't sell all the details on the delivery. They sell the family photos, the meals, the beaches. Like, and if you can turn that into the product, like if I was going to sell this, I'm not going to go read the ingredients of how good the ingredients are. I'm going to read how much more money I can make because I'm productive in the morning instead of

[19:48] groggy and having a slow day. man, you're cooking. Um, so, so what's the plan or what, what do you see the, uh, future of UGC being? The future of UGC in general? In general, I mean, what we've seen, uh, you could take it either way, but we've seen uh, Tik Tok kind of, you know, maybe crack down a little bit on organic UGC accounts. They've done this in the past and there's always kind of a cat-and- mouse game there, but I want to know what your thoughts are on all these undisclosed ads. Recently, Poly Market got in trouble. Wall Street Journal made an article about them um for undisclosed

[20:24] ads, but the problem with those ads is they were literally lying, making up fake trades and stuff like that and promoting it, which is even crazier. So, just curious on your thoughts on the future of organic UGC or paid ad UC. Yeah, I would say like my opinion I think organic UGC is going to be it's it's not going anywhere. It is going to I feel like I'm excited with where it's going with what they're cracking down on specifically for like the lying aspect of it. Like so many brands will ask you to be like this is how I'm making 10 grand a month sitting on my couch working an hour a

[21:00] day which is just like I can never pick up those campaigns. I'm like, "Okay, yeah, that's a they're paying a lot, but that's not worth it to me. I'm just straight up scamming some kid." It's like, "Oh, that's my business. I'm going to go start this business." Um, so I think it will I think, yeah, they'll continue to crack down on like the brands that are straight up scamming people or lying about results. But I don't think organic UGC is going anywhere just with how effective it is and how organic like with AI coming out

[21:32] and being so prominent. The whole point of UGC is to be authentic and relatable and there is nothing relatable seeing an AI character. Like I've tested some AI campaigns and that's why I'm like so confident in UGC staying around because views wise the AI campaigns performed way better. Like they get views for some reason, but the sales like the actual conversion from those videos was

[22:00] terrible. I think nobody wants to actually go purchase from an AI creator. The only time I've seen AI convert really really well is when they're targeting the older demographics on Facebook. Um, and I I have a friend who runs some AI campaigns and the boomers just can't tell anymore. Like, they're completely hopeless, you know? I mean, your parents probably send you reels and they're like, "This is so funny." And

[22:21] it's like, "That's just not real." Um, and so they're very easy to market to in that regard. Um, but mostly I fully agree. I think creators are obviously extremely important. Um, I talked to Tristan Ree, founder of Launchpoint, this past week in New York. um he was telling me that they've had creators that are promoting let's say uh make money online niches or um you know cryptoesque niches and they'll have accounts on one phone um they'll have two phones. This is common for UGC creators because they make a bunch of accounts and if they make something that's, you know, inauthentic on one account, let's say they're promoting like a polyarketesque

[23:00] thing, um, Tik Tok has facial recognition for those UGC accounts and can ban accounts on multiple devices now. So, if you mess up on one and you're talking about the wrong thing or you're lying or whatever, they'll nuke all your stuff. So there is there's becoming like more of an opportunity cost to putting out like the wrong negative stuff because that can nuke you

[23:20] know all of your earnings as a creator. This is also why paid ads are important because you're aligned with these platforms so they're not going to ban you. So I think organic still going to be around but I think you know that paid ad UC will become like even more valuable than it is already and there's already billions of dollars spent like every day or something crazy on meta. Um, well, and for a brand's perspective, it makes more sense to do performance-based paid ads because then the good creators are going to stand out. People are going to make really good ads and they're not having to waste money on people's like, you

[23:52] know, just trying to figure it out or spending a bunch on like a creative that's not going to perform. Exactly. I had a creator have like 20 accounts banned over the past month and a half and he was trying to figure it out and kept we kept going back to the drawing board. I'm like, "Dude, what are you doing?" And then we figured out it was that one of the accounts was that he kept restarting and trying again was like one of the make money online how I

[24:18] make 10 grand a month. It's just that niche, bro. Like it's a dangerous dangerous niche. So we tell our creators don't take any of these deals anymore. which is interesting because u that would mean that if creators can't promote it, it becomes harder to to promote apps in that that niche, which means less people are going to be launching apps in that niche. So if you are an app founder, there's probably opportunity there for you to launch an app and and especially if you're good at paid ads, then you know it might be you might have a little bit less competition or maybe it's the opposite where you launch this app,

[24:52] you're competing for ad space on Meta. now you're bidding against people that are no longer even spending on influencers or organic UGC. It's really only paid ads. So, who knows? Um it's a question for those guys in that space to to deal with. But it's always interesting this cat-and- mouse game and how quickly things change. That seems to be like all my friends that have apps that are just absolutely crushing. They figure out something that really works in their space and like quadruple down and just exploit it until you can't anymore. Um and I think organic UGC has

[25:20] kind of been that for that that space. Yeah, I'm I have an app that like I've been running so many problems with Apple getting it approved for the app store, but I have an app for UGC creators. It's like a dashboard to automate outreach and manage their posting calendar and everything, but it's been sitting on my dashboard and I've been using it, but can't

[25:43] release it yet. Apple is brutal. Um, you know, people don't like the fact that they take 30% of earnings, but the way I look at it, they're almost like a business partner where you get to be on everyone's device that they use all day every day. It's a crazy advantage. Yes, it comes with a cost, but if I, you know, let's say I was a CPG brand, um, you know, and I wanted to just be in everyone's kitchen, like if I'm a supplement or something, like literally everyone would have access to it. Like that's crazy. I think Apple's I think Apple can be underrated in that

[26:20] regard. Um, 30%'s a lot, but you know, I do I do think it's it is worth in that case. I mean, everything's pay to play to be honest. That's life, you know. You got to put money down to make money. Yeah. What's the one of you I saw one of your uh somebody in Content Economy posted they were like, "Yeah, uh you

[26:41] have to buy a lottery ticket to win." Yeah. Um it's that quote from Nightcrawler, I think. The movie Nightcrawler. Did you ever see that? Okay. No, I have not. Um it's a Jake Gyllenhaal movie, but he basically goes, you know, my motto is you got to make the money to buy a ticket. Um something like that. He he says it over and over

[27:01] again. He's kind of like autistic guy. It's interesting. Um but you got to make the money to buy a ticket and then you got to buy the ticket and then you got to play the game, you know. Yeah. Um well, cool. Uh where can people find you and learn more about what you do, UGC

[27:14] and all that in general? Um just primarily on Instagram. Just I don't like to waste time on Tik Tok with how much the app changes. Just Instagram Blaze. Blaze_shhatler. S H E T L E R. Perfect. Well, Blaze, thank you for hopping on, bro. Congrats on all your success. Um, I'm glad you know everything's worked out for you in just a year. That's how quickly life can change. You know what I mean? Just commit to it. Especially if you're a

[27:44] hard worker. This space is incredible. You know, if you would have told me a year ago where I'd be at now, like there is 0% chance I would have believed you. Like honestly, I knew like since I was little, I was like, I'm going to own a business. I'm going to do this. I'm going to be an entrepreneur. But like the turnaround time from where I was at last summer to then like I just spent three months in Bali. I've hit six different states in the past month. It's just like it's just so weird having the complete location freedom and the funds to like do it

[28:18] actually use that freedom. Yeah, it's been cool. Yeah. The the combination of the money that you can spend and then also the fact that you can step away and actually enjoy it. Like that's the hardest thing is getting both of them. Um yeah, you know, we still need to do a fly fishing trip as well. Yeah. When is that happening? I was in Montana when you were going to plan

[28:37] that. You know, I I I really do want to I think what I might do is do something a little bit more remote. So, I'm thinking in the winter maybe we go to South America. Uh because that's a good time of year to do it out there in in like the Andes Mountains or Patagonia or something crazy. Um

[28:58] be insane. That's kind of what I'm thinking. I I love doing it out west in California, Montana. haven't really done as much as I'd like in Utah or Colorado, but um it's it's just yeah, I think it needs to be like a dedicated week-long trip where I'm not thinking about work or anything. And I think that'll come. And also with Rtech and and everything, it's just not the time right now. You know, I sacrificed I I worked really hard to become a UGC creator and do content and coaching and everything and run the agency so I could have freedom and then immediately I just doubled down and went

[29:30] back to software so I could work harder. kind of a kind of an interesting timeline. But anyways, brother, speaking of location, yeah, people need to know, are you going to end up in New York or West Palm? Put you on the spot here. The next two months, the next two months I'm going to be in New York. Um, this past week I was in New York. I met all of my consumer app founder friends. I, you know, went to some offices, some incubators. Like, I just do crazy stuff. I got two new angel investors. It was I've never seen anything feel more like where I should

[30:02] be for what I'm doing right now. And when you get signs from God that you're supposed to be somewhere, you just need to follow it and do it. And so I'm going to do it and trust God's plan. Never thought I'd be in New York. I never even liked New York. And this past week was completely changed my life. So, um, it's going to be going to be in New York for two months until it gets cold or three months maybe and then go down to West Palm, um, and enjoy Florida for the

[30:25] winter. kind of the plan. Never been up there. I might have to come see you. It's actually kind of peak, you know, West Village, Soho, um, Westside Highway, any of that stuff. It's just, it's fire. I really enjoyed it. That's cool, brother. Have a great week and, uh, I will see you soon. Yes, sir. Have a good one. Thanks.

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