How Katie Fang Turned Her Viral Tears Into A Social Media Empire

How Katie Fang Turned Her Viral Tears Into A Social Media Empire

How do you turn a silent GRWM video of yourself crying before a dreaded restaurant shift into a full-time, highly lucrative career? Welcome to the Forbes Top Creator Show! This week, host Steven Bertoni records live from the Cannes Lions festival for a special two-for-one episode featuring Forbes Under 30 creator Katie Fang and Adobe’s Head of Social Media for Creators, Jared Carneson. (Produced in partnership with Adobe.) In this episode, Katie breaks down her explosive growth from 800 followers to 1 million in a single month and how she leveraged her relatable "get ready with me" content into massive, long-term brand deals. Together, Katie and Jared dissect the current state of the media landscape, diving into why Gen Z has ditched traditional news for 30-second TikTok clips and the rising necessity of "clip farming." Jared shares profound insights on why AI "generates a repository of the predictable," and explains Adobe's pivot from traditional ads to scripted workplace microdramas. Finally, Katie shares her strategy for maintaining long-term audience credibility, revealing exactly why she isn't afraid to say "no" and turn down massive brand paydays. #KatieFang #Adobe #ForbesTopCreators #CreatorEconomy #SocialMediaMarketing Check out the Forbes Top Creator List: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2026/06/23/forbes-top-creators-2026/ [https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2026/06/23/forbes-top-creators-2026/] 0:00 Live from Cannes Lions 1:13 Katie Fang’s Viral Origin Story: Crying on TikTok 2:45 Jared Carneson: From Mommy Bloggers to Head of Social Media 4:15 Heart Over Tools: What Actually Makes Content Successful? 5:26 Katie’s Breakthrough Kit with Glow Recipe 6:44 AI Hype & The Gossip Goblin 8:39 What are Microdramas? The New Face of Entertainment 11:30 Why Gen Z Ditched TV News for TikTok 14:21 The #1 Mistake Brands Make with Creators 17:26 Inside Katie's Long-Term Deal with Pink 20:34 Dealing with the Hamster Wheel of Content Pressure 23:30 Katie’s Ultimate Secret to Staying Relatable 29:22 Traditional Media vs "Clip Farming" 36:02 Turning Down Massive Brand Deals (Katie Spills the Tea!) 38:20 Future Outlook: What to Expect at Cannes 2027 41:20 How Gen Z Students Actually Use AI at NYU Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Brooke Monk’s Viral Strategy: Posting Every Day For 6 Years

How do you go from finishing high school early to amassing 50 million followers and self-funding your own beauty brand using just an iPhone stuck to a window? Welcome to the Forbes Top Creator Show! This week, host Steven Bertoni decodes the business of influence with master of short-form and long-form, Brooke Monk. In this episode, Brooke breaks down her explosive growth, revealing her obsessive consistency of posting nearly every single day by 1:00 PM for six years straight. She explains how she analyzes audience data down to the caption length, her DIY setup with zero production crew, and how she confidently cold-pitches massive brands on LinkedIn. Brooke also shares the story behind self-funding her new eyelash company, Doting Beauty, and why true authenticity will always beat a strict brand script. From moving out at 18 to running the London Marathon and speaking at Oxford, Brooke proves that treating content creation like a highly-optimized business pays massive dividends! #BrookeMonk #ForbesTopCreators #CreatorEconomy #ContentCreator 0:00 Meet Brooke Monk 1:35 The Homeschool Hustle 4:17 The Viral Spark: Super Long Lashes and TikTok Fame 7:18 Moving Out at 18: Turning a Hobby Into a Career 9:54 The Blueprint: Posting Every Day by 1:00 PM 14:05 Algorithm Secrets: TikTok vs. YouTube Strategy 16:47 The Art of Cold-Pitching Brands on LinkedIn 23:00 Self-Funding Doting Beauty 27:33 Brooke Monk's Advice for Aspiring Creators 31:37 The One-Woman Studio: Why Brooke Still Shoots on an iPhone Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

1.8 Billion Views A Month: Inside Dhar Mann’s Massive Creator Studio

How do you go from facing eviction at 30 years old to running a massive digital production studio that pulls in more daily views than the Game of Thrones finale? Welcome back to the Forbes Top Creator Show! This week, host Steven Bertoni sits down with the ultimate storytelling mogul, Dhar Mann, for an inside look at a modern creator-led studio. In this episode, Dhar opens up about his lowest point—completely starting over at age 30 after years of chasing paydays in industries he wasn't passionate about. He shares his early, agonizing struggles on social media where his videos couldn't even break 250 views, how he almost threw in the towel, and the exact moment where a last-minute napkin script unexpectedly unlocked 100 million views on Facebook. Dhar breaks down how a strict lack of budget forced him to build a cheap classroom set, accidentally tapping into a massive, highly engaged global YouTube audience that skyrocketed his monthly views to 500 million within two years. Today, his 250-person team operates out of a staggering 125,000-square-foot studio space, pumping out five hours of scripted content every single week. Discover the secrets behind their lightning-fast 21-day "script-to-screen" turnkey workflow and how they are currently bypassing traditional AdSense reliance. Dhar reveals how less than 20% of his studio's revenue now comes from YouTube, thanks to groundbreaking distribution deals like a dedicated streaming channel reaching 100 million global households on Samsung TV, and an explosive new partnership with Fox to produce 40 "vertical drama" films for the MyDrama app. Finally, Dhar pulls back the curtain on how major brands are moving past transactional ad reads to co-create massive cultural moments. He details serving as the NFL's "Chief Kindness Officer" during a Super Bowl activation that generated over 1 billion impressions, orchestrating the world's largest creator bootcamp with Adobe, and why he is actively breaking traditional Hollywood norms by offering 401(k) matching and corporate equity to his actors and employees. #DharMann #CreatorEconomy #Forbes #VerticalDramas #Hollywood #Entrepreneurs 00:00 Dhar Mann: Digital Storytelling Mogul 01:16 Billions of Views: The Shocking Scale of Dhar Mann Studios 03:18 Turning 30, Completely Broke, and Facing Eviction 07:55 The Napkin Script That Smashed 100 Million Views 12:19 Inside a 125,000-Square-Foot Content Factory 14:39 Scaling Beyond AdSense: Shifting Revenue Away From YouTube 16:43 Exploding the US Market: The $100B Phenomenon of Vertical Dramas 21:34 Partnering With Fox: 40 Films in 18 Months 25:02 Going From Script to Screen in 21 Days 31:48 How a Cheap Classroom Set Accidentally Unlocked YouTube 38:17 Becoming the NFL’s "Chief Kindness Officer" at the Super Bowl 42:06 Partnering with Adobe for the World's Largest Creator Bootcamp 44:45 Betting Big on the Creator Economy: Moving Into a Studio 3X the Size 46:00 Breaking the Hollywood Mold: Actor Equity & 401(k) Matching 47:33 The Ultimate Mindset Shift: Stop Worrying, What If It Works? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Why A Former OnlyFans CEO Is Building The 'HBO Of Social Media'

From launching the first cannabis cafe in West Hollywood to running OnlyFans, Ami Gan is risking it all to build a brand-new 18+ social network! Welcome back to the Forbes Top Creator Show! This week, host Steven Bertoni sits down with Ami Gan, the former CEO of OnlyFans and the visionary founder behind Vylit. Ami shares her jaw-dropping professional evolution, detailing what it was really like taking the helm at OnlyFans, scaling a borderless empire to 4 million creators with staggering 50% profit margins, and managing it all from home.Her next disruptive venture, Vylit, has been dubbed the "HBO of social media." Ami breaks down how Vylit fills the massive white space between traditional, heavily censored apps and adult platforms, their strict content boundaries ("freeing the nipple, but not the rest"), their creator-first 80/20 revenue split, and how she raised $2.7 million to get it off the ground with a lean team of her closest friends. Finally, Ami reveals how Vylit integrates human-trained generative AI tools to eliminate creator burnout without flooding the web with "artificial slop," tells the story behind their viral aerial banner stunt that caught the eye of Alix Earle during Miami's F1 weekend, and shares her ultimate advice for overcoming imposter syndrome by channeling "blind confidence." #AmiGan #Vylit #OnlyFansCEO #CreatorEconomy #TechStartups #Forbes 00:00 The Business of Influence 01:43 From West Hollywood Cannabis Cafes to OnlyFans HQ 04:13 Joining Tech’s Biggest Disrupter During the Pandemic Boom 07:10 Stepping Up as CEO: Heavy-Duty Lessons in Platform Safety 09:32 Athleisure & Zoom Disguises: The Un-Glamorous Reality of a Tech CEO 14:25 Launching Vylit: The "HBO of Social Media" Explained 18:57 Vylit's 80/20 Creator Split & Human-Trained AI Tools 22:03 Capitalizing on the "Messy Middle" of 18+ Social Media 24:53 The Playbook for Raising $2.7M & Starting a New Network 29:33 Going Viral: The "Free the Nipple" F1 Miami Marketing Stunt 32:39 The Future of AI & Why Humans Will Always Win 40:02 The Cure for Imposter Syndrome: Channeling "Blind Confidence" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

How PlaqueBoyMax Became The First Streamer Nominated For A Grammy

How did PlaqueBoyMax go from making a 30-slide PowerPoint presentation to convince his parents to let him pursue streaming, to entertaining 50,000 live viewers a day and producing Grammy-nominated music?Welcome to the Forbes Top Creator Show! This week, host Steven Bertoni sits down with the multi-hyphenate creator, musician, and streamer, PlaqueBoyMax. Max breaks down his "disruptive" approach to content, blending IRL streaming, comedy, and live music production in ways that haven't been done before. He opens up about the intense reality of entertaining thousands of live viewers, why live streaming creates a community connection that traditional YouTube videos simply cannot replicate, and the mental toll of managing a high-speed live chat for hours on end. Max also discusses how he manages his expanding business team, why he turned down a multi-million dollar gambling sponsorship to protect his younger audience, and how he organically incorporates top brands like Nike and Bose into his streams. Finally, Max reveals the incredible story behind linking up with Fred again.. and Skepta to produce the track "Victory Lap"—a collaboration born on his stream that made history by earning a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Record. 0:00 Meet PlaqueBoyMax 1:30 "Disruption": Blending Streaming, Music, and IRL Content 5:18 Rage Bait, Smashed Tables, and Live Stream Chaos 7:56 The Mental Toll & Psychology of Streaming 11:07 Why Live Streaming Creates Deeper Connections Than YouTube 15:41 The 30-Slide Presentation to Skip College 20:33 Managing the Creator Economy 25:07 Making Music Live on Stream with Top Artists 33:13 Unpacking the $30,000 IRL Streaming Backpack 36:42 Authentic Brand Deals & Turning Down Millions 43:31 Making History: A Grammy Nomination for "Victory Lap" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]