An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Ad revenue from content. Platforms like YouTube pay their creators handsomely for allowing advertisers to place ads in their videos. That revenue is shared between the creator and the advertiser. YouTube channel Ryan’s World generated $30M in 2021, and Ryan is just 9 years old.
As part of my series about “How Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand”. I had the pleasure of interviewing Kieran O’Brien.
Kieran is a 22 year old tech entrepreneur and co-founder of MediaKits.com. At the age of 16, Kieran started his first company, a marketing firm in the automotive industry, which led him into creating marketing technology solutions and scaling tech startups.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit more. What is your “backstory”? What brought you to this point in your career?
So where I am today is actually a direct result of my very first business venture. When I was 16, I started a company that built brand partnerships with digital creators and influencers — which ultimately led me into the creator economy space and sparked the idea for MediaKits.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you in the course of your career?
When I graduated high school in 2017, I decided to take a gap year. My parents wanted me to go to college, but I didn’t want to — so we agreed that I would take a year off to prove that I didn’t necessarily need to go to college to be successful.
So during that gap year, I booked a one way flight to Australia — and once I landed there, I was flying from Brisbane to Sydney — and was seated next to a guy who happens to own one of the largest automotive brands in the country — and my business at the time was doing digital marketing for automotive brands. We struck up a conversation on the plane — and then a few weeks later, we went out in Sydney, where I ended up closing a very large deal with his company and solidified my decision not to go to college.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
So my mentor, Kevin Gordon, is the founder of a charity called the Driven Project; and the mission of this charity is to take terminally ill children for rides in fancy cars. It’s such an amazing organization and I volunteer with that organization as much as I possibly can.
Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but know that their dreams might be dashed?
I have a two pronged answer to this one. So, I’ll start by answering this through the lens of being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship gives you the power to choose your own path in life — and while it gives you complete control over your career development and your income — it can also be extremely difficult. My advice to others who are looking to head down this path would be to not give up. Keep pushing through. It’s not easy, there are going to be lots of ups and downs. It won’t always be glamorous — but it’s absolutely worth it. The skills you learn as a byproduct of trying — from sales to psychology to how to raise money — are the biggest ROI, the biggest reward.
So that leads me to the second half of my answer — and they’re interrelated, to a point because all startup founders are entrepreneurs, but not all entrepreneurs are startup founders. So if you’re looking to also be a startup founder — I would say to focus on building a real business. Give yourself time to learn how to generate sales and earn money without investors or venture capital. Do that for a few years and then turn your focus to raising money. It will give you time to be an entrepreneur first before you step into the role as a startup founder as well.
Is there a particular person who made a profound difference in your life to whom you are grateful? Can you share a story?
So I’ll go back to my mentor, Kevin Gordon. I met him nearly four years ago and he’s been like an older brother figure to me. We have very similar backgrounds — and honestly, sometimes it feels like we’re the same person, just a decade apart. I’ve been fortunate enough to have on his counsel throughout my entrepreneurial path — from my previous company to, now, starting and growing MediaKits. Having him believe in me and continue to offer his thoughts, perspective, and guidance so freely has just been an amazing thing to experience.
So what are the most exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
Well, of course, MediaKits is the largest project I’m currently working on — and both myself and my partner, Casey Adams are doing it to help creators in the creator economy. One of the things that makes MediaKits so unique is that we’re creator first. We’re not building a tool where creators sign up, give us all their data, and then we sell it to various brands — we’re actually doing the opposite. We want creators to be in complete control of their data, their presence, and their partnerships. The impact that we’re chasing in this industry is building a tool that supports the creators and what they’re looking to build.
What are your “Top Five Ways That Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand” . (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Brand Deals. Building brand partnerships can be extremely lucrative for both parties — but you have to be prepared. You’ll want to have a media kit, portfolio, or other professional-looking materials to help land this type of paid deal. David Dobrik’s deal with Chipotle is a great example to look at.
- Ad revenue from content. Platforms like YouTube pay their creators handsomely for allowing advertisers to place ads in their videos. That revenue is shared between the creator and the advertiser. YouTube channel Ryan’s World generated $30M in 2021, and Ryan is just 9 years old.
- Creator funds. TikTok popularized this tactic — but creator funds are pools of money that creators can tap into by creating viral content on the platform.
- Merchandise. Many creators choose to offer merchandise and market the items to their followers. Yes Theory is a great example of this with their brand “Seek Discomfort”
- Courses. Oftentimes, creators grew their fame online by being great at one specific thing, which opens the opportunity for them to teach their audience how to do it as well.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
You already heard me talk about my gap year and how that time really shaped who I am, not only as a person, but as an entrepreneur and startup founder; so if I could spearhead a movement, it would be advocating for and promoting gap years before heading into the university system. Maybe they travel, like I did, maybe they achieve a professional certification, or just go experience the world in a new way.
The reality is, though, that finances are often a barrier for students considering a gap year — so, eventually, I’d love to fund gap years for underprivileged students; and this is particularly applicable in the creator economy space. Many creators pursue their careers right out of high school because they’re already generating some income through content creation; and I think that’s inspiring and I would love to see more young people feel comfortable to take a risk like that.
Maybe they reconsider college in the future, maybe not — but no matter what, that gap year will give them an entirely new perspective on life — and that’s a movement I’d love to start.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?
Peter Thiel; because I believe that Peter is one of the most impactful technology entrepreneurs of our time and also has one of the most interesting investment strategies I’ve seen to date. He seems like an incredibly interesting person to share a meal with and I would relish an opportunity to pick his brain.
What is the best way our readers can follow your work online?
You can find us online at MediaKits.com, on TikTok at @MediaKits, Instagram @MediaKits. My personal instagram is @kieranobrien
What is the best way our readers can follow your work online?
Kieran O’Brien of MediaKits: Five Ways For Influencers To Monetize Their Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.