How This TikToker Landed Over 100 Brand Deals

In simply two and a half years, TikToker Toni Bravo has made a full-time profession out of her social media. In reality, the 23-year-old is financially unbiased and has been in a position to maintain her Los Angeles life-style via model offers and different gigs she’s landed via TikTok.

Whereas the content material creator is grateful for her job, she by no means got down to have this profession –  it occurred organically. However this isn’t stunning contemplating her background.

“I used to be positively a theater child. I used to be at all times recording myself and filming issues. I used to be on YouTube once I was 9. None of this feels new,” Toni mentioned. “I feel the largest transition was turning it right into a full time job.”

Right here’s how the 23-year-old went from an beginner creator to creating social media – significantly TikTok – a profession.

In spring 2020, when the pandemic had first began, Toni moved dwelling from school as everybody was getting ready for a lockdown. However as an alternative of simply staying cooped up inside, she started curler skating along with her buddies at skateparks from 8 am to three pm and posting all of it on TikTok.

These preliminary TikToks weren’t staged or extremely edited however confirmed herself and her friends having enjoyable whereas skating. Her movies started getting traction on-line, and Toni discovered herself in a really uncommon place: manufacturers have been contacting her.

“Curler skating is unquestionably what launched me to social media being a job and having the ability to become profitable and work with ridiculous manufacturers,” Toni mentioned. “I had no administration, I had no illustration, I used to be doing every part myself. It’s insane, as a result of I did some fairly cool issues with some buddies.”

For reference, Toni has modeled for manufacturers together with Coca-Cola, Calvin Klein, and Nike. And was even featured in Buzzfeed, Teen Vogue, and Vogue, to call a couple of publications, all due to her curler skating.

After Toni’s preliminary success with curler skating content material, she graduated from school in June 2022 and bought a job at Uncommon Magnificence – a make-up model created by Selena Gomez – as a social media affiliate. By means of this job, Tony naturally grew to become extra within the magnificence neighborhood and was studying so much via dealing with Rare Beauty’s TikTok.

“I used to be creating TikToks, developing with TikToks, enhancing TikToks. Posting and monitoring the remark part and simply studying so much in regards to the magnificence neighborhood,” she mentioned. “So this was my first expertise posting about make-up and making movies relating to magnificence.”

Toni then began posting make-up content material persistently on her personal TikTok in late 2022 and noticed her account develop considerably. In reality, she’s now reached over 370,000 followers.

Whereas her company job at Uncommon Magnificence helped Toni broaden her horizons as a TikToker, she additionally bought a crash course on creating nice content material when she utilized and bought accepted to certainly one of Buzzfeed’s creator packages. There she was in a position to sit in on model conferences and be taught from social media strategists and artistic consultants.

“It mainly centered round us being one of the best creators we could possibly be,” Toni mentioned.

When Toni was initially approached by manufacturers again in 2020, she was with out an agent. However, as an alternative of dealing with contracts by herself, she labored along with her buddies to barter offers.

The creator and her buddies have been clear in regards to the affords they have been getting and the charges that they have been charging for creating content material. On this approach, pay transparency was big for the content material creator firstly of her profession. By being so clear about cash, Toni and her buddies knew from early on what they deserved and weren’t afraid to ask manufacturers to rethink their affords.

“If we have been all engaged on a undertaking we might negotiate affords collectively. We might pop on calls and be like, ‘here is what they’re providing you. That is what they’re providing me.’ Let’s all come again to them with this quantity,” Toni mentioned. “We might all simply be like, ‘yo, like, let’s demand this.’ And we’d get it each time.”

Toni went on dealing with model offers on her personal for a while. Since she posted her electronic mail on all of her social media bios, she discovered that manufacturers have been in a position to simply contact her. And since she gained a lot traction on-line along with her rollerskating, she was in demand.

In late 2022, it bought to a degree the place the content material creator felt overwhelmed and knew it was time to get a supervisor.

“I used to be lacking out on emails and threads, as a result of they have been simply too many. And I couldn’t observe the main points and numbers and contracts,” Toni mentioned. “And that is once I was like, okay it is smart [to get a manager].”

Whereas Toni’s supervisor, Kiki, handles the entire logistics of her model offers, Toni is looped into each side. She is usually given a artistic transient, data on the model’s particular marketing campaign, together with a contract that particulars the entire monetary features and the timeline of the deal.

A model she’s labored with a number of instances is Saie, the wonder model first contacted her again in 2020 after discovering Toni via Instagram, they usually’ve not too long ago labored with TikToker once more for a latest launch.

When making these movies, Toni by no means goes out of her option to over-produce them. As a substitute, she retains them as lowkey and easy as doable. Oftentimes, she’s simply filming in her automobile, making her content material really feel genuine and real.

Whereas some manufacturers are a bit extra strict than others, Toni enjoys creating branded content material and says she’s in a position to make every TikTok and Reel her personal creation – her favourite a part of her job.

“I’ve an enormous quantity of autonomy, which is why I like doing it,” she mentioned. “I like having enjoyable with how I make issues and the way I edit issues.”

As Toni is in her third yr creating TikToks, she’s been in a position to make this her full-time job and is getting paid properly for her work. Whereas a part of her wage enhance has to do with the charges she’s charging going up as she continues to develop her accounts, she additionally credit it to the early conversations she had along with her buddies about salaries.

“Clearly, the extra you begin doing gigs, the charges go up because the followers go up, and the engagements go up,” she mentioned.” And I feel an enormous half was additionally having these conversations with my buddies.”

She advises aspiring TikTokers to be constant in posting and likewise to pay attention and have interaction with their audiences. However most significantly, she thinks the principle purpose for her success is that she solely posts content material that she’s genuinely pleased to create.

As Toni continues her social media profession, she is adamant on not boxing herself into one class. She’s made movies on curler skating, magnificence, knitting, and her canine, and believes the explanation all of this content material performs so properly – and has landed her dozens of name offers – is as a result of she genuinely cares about her work.

“I feel simply exhibiting up authentically [on social media] is at all times one of the simplest ways.”