Do the hustle!
Madi Coleman dropped out of college to make TikTok videos, but she’s not an influencer — or broke.
Coleman works 20 hours a week and earns $10,000 a month as a user-generated content creator.
“Brands pay UGC creators to create videos with their product, for the brand to post on their own socials or use in their ads,” she explained in a TikTok video.
“It’s different from influencing because the brand isn’t paying you for your influence — all they care about is your skills, which is good news because you don’t have to have any followers to start.”
The Georgian said that she began eight months ago by studying successful UGC and creating her own portfolio of video content. Coleman then went on to build a pricing structure and began marketing herself on Twitter and TikTok.
After just two weeks, she signed her first client and continued to grow from there.
TikTokers were desperate to learn more about Coleman’s side hustle-turned-full-time job, prompting her to create a separate gig coaching people to become UGC creators.
Coleman shared her story of getting started recounting how she took low-budget and free collabs to get experience and build her portfolio. She claimed she made $5,000 in her first full month of doing content creation.
Several of the brands she first partnered with came back and signed her on a retainer, she explained, which allowed her to work more sustainably on a consistent income by focusing on just a few brands, rather than constantly switching it up.
Coleman told viewers that after a few months, she and her husband quit school and reportedly took their side hustle full-time.
“It is just such a blessing because we are both able to bring in money being creative helping brands grow,” she said in a follow-up TikTok video. “When we have our kids, they’re gonna be able to see mom and dad all throughout their day raising them, loving on them, instead of never seeing them because we’re at a 9-to-5, stuck somewhere else.”
Along with all her helpful videos, Coleman also offers a free portfolio plan and several guides available for purchase.
She has only been working as a full-time UGC creator for several months but charges from $250 for a 15- to 30-second post and $3,600 for 30 posts a month featuring 6- to 45-second videos.
Although she’s adamant that she is not an influencer, Coleman has created her own following, sharing her tips and tricks with 28,500 TikTok followers and logging thousands of views on each of her videos.
As salaries and minimum wage continuously fail to rise at the same rate as the cost of living and inflation, more and more people are turning to side hustles and the gig economy to maintain their lifestyles.
About 36% of workers in the US — or 57.3 million — are currently participating in the gig economy, with more than 50% likely to participate by 2027, according to a 2022 report from project management software company TeamStage.
Many hustlers are spreading the news and sharing how they’re supplementing or earning their income. TikTok is flooded with videos sharing the side hustles that are allowing Gen Z and millennials to keep up with rising costs.
People claim to be building their savings with random small tasks such as washing windows or reporting idling trucks to full-time gigs like travel blogs and fashion labels.