Trading Secrets - 335. Your Rich BFF Vivian Tu: $1M Bet,  $8.2M Creator Empire & The Truth About Money in 2026

Episode Date: September 28, 2026

Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF, is back on Trading Secrets nearly three years after her first appearance—and a lot has changed. With over 10 million followers and $8.2M in annual earnings, Vivian breaks down exactly where the money comes from, including brand deals, speaking, books, and podcasting, plus the team and expenses behind that massive top-line number. She reveals why she invested over $1M of her own money into building Ask Dolly, her new financial wellness app, and why she chose to self-fund instead of raising outside capital. Vivian also shares how she’s grown her audience without spending a dollar on paid ads, why she still posts every day, and how the creator economy is evolving beyond traditional influencers. Plus, Vivian gets into the current financial uncertainty, emergency funds, high-interest debt, wedding budgeting after her Lake Como wedding went 3X over budget, and the $10K wedding expense she regrets. She also opens up about speaking on financial policy, whether she’d ever consider politics, and why her newest Trading Secret is knowing when it’s worth fighting for what you want. Host: Jason Tartick Audio: John Gurney Video: Marc Colcer Guest: Vivian Tu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Just go to my skylight.com slash secrets for $30 off your 15-inch calendar. That's M-Y-S-K-Y-L-G-H-T dot com slash secrets. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we're joined by someone who turned a Wall Street trading desk into a media empire built on 90-second explainers. It's Vivian 2, known to millions as Your Rich BFF, the New York Times bestselling author of Rich A.F and well-endowed, host of podcast, Net Worth and Chill, and the founder of CEO of Your Rich BFF, a company built to make financial literacy accessible to everyone. She's been a guest on Trading Secrets. It was almost three years ago to the day.

And since then, has grown her socials to over 10 million. Made the time 100 creators list. The top 50 Forbes creator list of the year is now the chief of financial empowerment at SOFI. That is just the short list of the many things she's done in the last three years. There is so much to cover what's happening in the world of finance today. How Vivian thinks I should financially plan for my wedding. You got married in Lake Como. I got engaged there.

And of course, everything happened in the last three years for you. Welcome back to Trading Secrets. Thank you so much for having me. Honestly, I just got to start with congratulations. You think about what you've done in the last three years and continue to do. It's absolutely amazing. When you look back on it, just thinking about where we were three years ago, what's your reflection?

What's the state of the union? Okay. So the state of the union is everything is amazing and I haven't gotten really to appreciate it, if I'm honest. I think something that I have struggled with for my entire life, really, is being like a golden retriever. You run to the fire hydrant and then you run to the tree and then you run to the stop sign. And the chase is so much fun for me.

But when I actually get there, I don't know if I actually sit and take enough time to smell the roses because there is so much going on. So that's something I'm certainly working on. I recently read this quote and it blew my mind a little bit. It said, the man who loves walking will always go further than the man who loves the destination. And I think, Jason, I think I love walking. And maybe that'll just be me for the rest of my life. You love walking, but like you do get these moments. We get to see it on Instagram.

You're going on a safari. You had your wedding. It was just unbelievable lake home. So you have these moments where you do get to sit back and be like, wow, we both. You and your husband get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Is there a desk? Like, do you have your eyes on what that destination might be? I know you enjoy the walk, but like there's got, especially as someone who's in finance,

planning is the name of the game. Is there that potential exit? That retirement plan is there a destination site? Exit retirement plan? I don't know. When I think about what I want out of my career, I hope that one day when people close their eyes and they think about money and they think about finance and they think about business and they think about economics, they see my face.

In the same way that, you know, people see Andrew Ross Sorkin's face or they see Jim Kramer or Dave Ramsey, Susie Ormond. Those, I would say, are like the greats of my parents' generation. And I want to be the great of mine. I love it. I think that's beautiful. When I think you look at some of the greats, one of the things they always say about greats, especially in leadership and impact, is that they have someone within the space

they kind of got to go after. They got to have some, their group that they lead has to have a common enemy. I feel like you might have a couple of those. Is that by design? Is that by strategy? who would you say is the common enemy of the person that you're like, they did it wrong, I'm doing it right?

I don't think there's anybody that I look to that I'm like, they did it wrong. But, you know, some of those greats, I would say I actually think of them as friendly competition because they have accomplished so much, because they've achieved so much. It's not necessarily that I want to emulate their career,

but I want my career to be even bigger and batter and, like, greater. And I think that gives me really good perspective because I find that in our business, I'm sure you know, you feel this often too, it can get a little competitive. There are some people who are not particularly friendly. They don't want to talk about, you know, what they got paid on stuff. They don't want to tell you who, you know, is helping them with their graphics.

They don't want to share information. Fine. I have friends who do, and I'm so grateful to have those people in my life. I mean, you yourself, I literally hit you up, I think after our last interview. I was like, Jason, you need to tell me who's doing your podcast clips. I need a little bit of insight. I don't know how to improve mine. And you are so, so forthcoming.

I think there is a chance that creators right now who see other creators in their space, it can get a little combative, a little competitive, but I actually don't see it that way. I think that the more people are talking about money, the more people that are talking about business, because it is an undersaturated area versus something like a fashion or a beauty, we're just going to have more opportunities.

Sure. More commercial brands are going to think of people who talk about money as someone they want to work with versus feeling like I sometimes have to break new ground and explain to a non-finance company. This is why you should still want me. So that's why I don't think I feel competition with anyone who's in the business doing what I do right now, but more so folks who've already done, folks like a Robert Kiyosaki, he wrote such a great book and obviously has built a business. I'm wanting to be one of the folks that people keep talking about on a podcast years later. It's an interesting take. It's a great take. It's one I agree with. Do you find that now that your platform continues to grow, last time you're on the show, two million on Instagram, two and a half million on TikTok, those numbers have more than doubled?

Do you find that now that you're on this platform and talked about competition, but do you feel like more people that are either competing against you or have envy for what you have, you hear more noise as far as people trying to take you down or battle you? Of course. How do you deal with that? Of course. Jason, nobody's punching down. They're always trying to punch up in the hopes that you punch down and then drag them up to your level. Correct.

And I think at first it really like got under my skin. I was like, ah, like who does this person think they are? They're so annoying. I can't believe that they would say these things about me. True or untrue. Like, it was really hurtful. But now I take a look around and I'm like, what do I have to gain to actually? you know, go against this person or say something and make a statement. Because you know what?

People copy my shit all the time. People will literally copy the exact graphics that my team has painstakingly made that frankly I have paid someone to do. People have copied podcast stuff from me verbatim, which by the way, we have an incredible producer. We have an incredible writer who helps us with that that we are paying. That's plagiarism. You are stealing from someone who is getting paid to do that. And it's also really hard for my team sometimes to see that. But to what benefit does that really serve me to think on that versus coming up with the next great new idea? And then you can copy that in three months too. There you go. It's the finest form of flattery. Another thing, too, you brought up was the conversation that we had about the podcast, cuts and

clips. I actually forgot about that. But two conversations I'll never forget I had with you. One was we were at, this was two years ago or so we're at a Pizza Hut event. Like, it'd be great to see you. And you go to me just, and this is why I love. And this is why I love. about what you do because you practice what you preach. You go, what the hell? I don't know what the hell I'm doing here. Are you getting paid to be here? And I was like, yeah, I am getting paid to be here. I go, are you? And you go, no, and you go, I'm leaving. I was like, that was unbelievable. And I love the financial transparency. You live, you learn, you keep doing different things. The second one was after our last podcast. It just always stuck with me. We're in the subway. We're talking shop.

Okay. Now on your podcast, for anyone that doesn't know, in the Wall Street world, you had talked about that people would say, I want to make a stick. A sticks a million bucks. A yards a billion, right? We were on the subway and we're talking. And this was 2023 and you're like, what do you think you'll do this year just on social? I was like, I'll probably make just over a stick. And I go, how about you? And you're like, you look around. You're like, it's probably going to be about four.

I was like, damn, girl. I was on the subway. I'm like, damn, girl, I got to step my shit up. You are killing it. Let's go. But now I read the article, right? Your number 45 on top Forbes 50 creators. And you have to publish your earnings on there.

Which, by the way, they make you send. tax statements for that. So it's, it's real. That is crazy. For something like that, top creators, do they ask you to be nominated? Do you nominate yourself? Do you have to pay to be nominated? How does that happen? Yeah. So I wish I could pay to be higher on that list. I think it gives such great exposure and visibility. But typically how it works is my PR team has a great relationship with the Forbes team. It's a little bit of a back and forth. I think we're in conversations with a bunch of different publications throughout the year for different opportunities. But they'll typically reach and say, hey, like, is this of interest? And my team will come to me. We'll get all the numbers

and we'll be able to share that with their team. Amazing. On this list, it says you've made $8.2 million in one year. That's more than double than our stick conversation three years ago. When you break down the economics of that 8.2 from an educational standpoint, where does majority of that revenue come from? Yeah. So I've definitely diversified since we last spoke, but I will still be honest. The majority, I would say probably over half of that number comes from branded partnerships. And what I love about that is I see a lot of creators creating closed gate communities, whether that be on Patreon, whether that be through their live streaming platforms, great. They're crushing. I love that for them. But I don't think the content that I am making should be behind a paywall. I need as many people to be able to see this,

whether or not you can afford to pay me. So what I love is that my brand partners are literally subsidizing that content for my audience. I don't need to get paid by my audience because I can get paid by my brand partners to make this helpful content. That's a beautiful thing right there. Plus your margins are larger. Yeah, exactly. And then I would say I get a good deal of money from public speaking. So I go to corporate events, whether that be talking about personal finance for an employee resource group all the way to maybe it's a consulting business that's thinking about how to get onto social media. I can go speak at that as well. I got in advance for both of my books, which is really nice. Unfortunately, you don't get any royalties until the publisher's

actually able to recoup everything that they've paid you. I'm still working towards that. Podcast advertisers as well, that does have a revenue share with my podcast network, Fox Media, And obviously, I think what people oftentimes forget is that 8.2, real good number, real sexy. I'm paying agents, publicists, business managers, attorney. I'm building out my own venture. And we can talk about this in a second. Ask Dolly. But, like, I have now multiple full-time employees, probably about half a dozen.

I've got another half a dozen folks who are part-time freelancers. I've got a lot of folks that are working for me on an agent-style basis. They have other clients, but they're working for me as well. Everybody's got to get paid before I get paid. Sure, yeah. And so, you know, I think we appreciate the top line number, but I am making some big investments in my business as well. Unfortunately, no new house, no new car.

My jewelry collection is good, but it hasn't gotten better since I last saw you. I'm going to be honest, I haven't made any big, like, big, big purchases in that way. Spent a husky chunk on my wedding. Three times your budget. Kill me now. You will, too, by the way. So you're not better than me. I know.

Can you give me a target of what the budget was? I'll tell you what mine, like, where I want to start. Let me guess. Yeah. You want to start around 200K. It was around like 150 to 200. Yeah. If you get married in a major, like, East,

Coast, West Coast City, that's probably what you're going to be spending for like a decent wedding. But I'm going to be honest. You live on social. So your videographer and photographer needs are probably going to be higher than someone who's just a normal bride and groom. Your needs might be larger because you're a really popular guy. You got a lot of friends. I don't know how many people you want at this wedding. But if you want press coverage of your wedding, Are you going to pay a PR team for that? Like there are costs for you that the average person doesn't have to budget in. Sure.

And we can have a deeper conversation about the wedding stuff, but I'm so excited for you. When you call me in three months and you're like, I'm so over my skis, I'm going to be like, embrace it. Okay. You're over budget. It is what it is. Do you, we're going to get back to some of the earnings of your business, but real quickly, do you look at some of those things? I mean, listen, this might sound, Nikki, to some people, it's also the reality. Do you look at some of those investments into your wedding

because it's publicized and lives on social as an investment back into you? No. I think for me, it was part of the brand building. It was part of the community building because I did make so much content about like, this is what I'm doing,

this is how I'm getting my dress, this is what I'm spending. And like I talked about like ways I was saving and things that I didn't want. But at the end of the day, it was my wedding. Yeah. And I think for me, me and my husband, I want to say it was a big special weekend just for us. That weekend wasn't even

about me. That weekend was not about us. That weekend somehow ended up becoming just a really, really fun weekend getaway for our friends and family. And I feel okay with the way we spent our money to do that. All right. I'm taking notes here as you're telling me about the wedding. We'll talk a little bit more about that. Let's get back into your investment. So we've had A. Rod on, we've had Sergio Garcia, some of these big athletes. And the biggest thing that they say is the best investment I make is always into myself, into my team. You just talked about how much you have to spend on your team. What do you think is the most expensive check you've written as an investment back to you that you've been able to measure the ROI in something like an $8.2 million earnings

an annual basis? It was two things. One, I would say hiring production and social media support has been so game-changing for me. I used to have to ideate, film, edit, come up with like the copy, the thumbnail, post it myself. That would take hours and hours and hours. Now I really only have to begin that process. So I ideate in film. Once it's done, I throw the clips over to someone else. And my social media manager then clips it all together.

She does the editing. She thinks of the copy. She thinks of the thumbnail. She's like, hey, Vivian, I need these things from you. So send me these pictures. And it's such a more streamlined process that it's taken chunks of time off of my table, which is great.

I would say, and I can't believe this is the second thing I'm telling you instead of I didn't lead with this, I buried the lead. I made a million dollar splurge.

Okay. It was, this is the most expensive thing I've ever bought, by the way. It's more than my home down payment, more than my wedding. It was like more than everything.

Okay. Frankly, more than it all combined, probably. I invested over a million dollars to build my app, Ask Dolly. Yes. Dolly is short for dollar.

I downloaded it today. Did you? It's got 19 reviews on Apple. Oh, are you about to be 20? I'm not to be talking. And, you know, we're currently in beta, but essentially what I was really frustrated by was the fact that I was getting a thousand DMs a day, and these were such personalized questions.

And someone had taken the time to entrust me with their information. And first off, I'm like, please don't tell me your social. I don't want any of this on our Instagram data. I'm like, please, please, please, this needs to be protected. But also, like, some of the questions I was being asked, I can't really help you unless I know, exactly how much is in your bank account. I can't help you unless I know when your retirement goal ages. Sure. I don't, I can't help you if I don't know if you have kids. I don't know if you're married. I don't know where you live. What's what is all of this? Yeah. And so we actually built an

app that allows you to get a holistic financial wellness assessment of your money. In the same way that you go to the doctor every single year and you get a physical, they do your blood work. They're like, hey, Jason, everything looks great except maybe cholesterol is a little high. And, we're going to put you on a staten to like, you know, that's probably not even the right medical term, but like, it is. Oh, is it? But we're putting you on something to address that one specific problem. This is for your money. So with Astali, what you can do is you can connect all of your accounts. And we do a wellness assessment of, hey, you are crushing it with the saving, but you got a little too much, actually, in savings. Why don't we start directing some of this money into investing so that it can do more for you?

So we're able to get a holistic wellness assessment of your money. Okay. Then this comes the questions. You're able to get your questions answered about financial topics 24-7. And if you ask a question that is too niche that we cannot get an answer for based on my content, based on helpful resources on the internet, we actually connect you with a live human CFP. Oh, wow. So it's one-on-one financial advice. And then certainly, last but not least, part of my brand has been being the finance whisper.

I joke, all of the headlines that you see in the news, my number one question is like, well, what the hell is this got to do with me? Sure. That is the question we answer for you with every headline, with all of the news coming. We're going to say, if this happens, this will happen for you specifically. Or if this happens, if you make more than this amount, this is good. If you make less than this amount, that's bad. Interest rates remain unchanged.

This is how it impacts you. It's how it impacts you. Yes. Wow. It's brilliant. And so you put a million dollars into this? Over. Over a million dollars and what was the biggest cost of everything?

If you look at every line item of cash outflow, where did the biggest dollar amount go? Talent. Talent. I have an incredible C.O. She really is our quarterback. Shout out, Stephanie. She runs the ship. Yeah.

And she product manages everything. We hired a software engineer, machine learning engineer, CFPs. People cost a lot of money. They sure do. But I think it's really important to invest in the right team because you can't just vibe code something and then release it to my audience. Like I want to make sure this is amazing. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's a arm of you. It's everything you do on this is a reflection of your brand. So I feel like the importance of that is so critical. Is it self-funded? Do you raise capital?

Okay. So this is my biggest gripe with this whole VC world. Of course I self-funded it because I had money coming in from my media arm. But I know people who could be self-funding their businesses and instead they're raising money from outside investors to them be able to be like, ah, I raised $35 million. Sorry, the word raise just means I have $35 million of debt. You owe money to somebody. Like, can you imagine if I was like, I have $35 million of credit card debt? That's like freaky.

Like, why are you so excited about that? You now have a target on your back. There is an investor breathing down your neck saying, when am I getting my money back? When are you going to show me an ROI? are you doing this? What about my opinion? It's kind of like when your parents pay for part of your wedding and then they're like, you have to invite annoying Aunt Kathy. I hope you don't have an Aunt Kathy. Perfect. But like if someone gives you money, they now have a say. Your dad might get to pick the band. Your mom might have an opinion on the flowers. In the same way that an investor has money

in your business, they now care what your marketing strategy is. They now care what engineer you're working with. How quickly is everything happening? Is everybody working around the clock? I did not have a gun to my back. I wanted to build this the right way, not the right now way. And so I funded it myself. That's a big risk because over a million dollars, I could have bought a house. Yeah, 100%. I think it's also a really good take because not only is it credit, but it's credit, and especially, well, here's the deal. If you're on social media and you hear a creator talk about the fact that they've raised all this money, they are, and no hate to them, but what they're doing is they're also leveraging their brand to go raise capital. So not only do they have,

credit card that they have to debt that they have to adhere to and pay down and they're announcing that they have people of reputation and credibility that know them for their brand that are going to expect brands. So the reputational risk of them not paying that is about 100x reputation risk of not paying your credit card. So the pressure is hot and it is heavy and good for you. I can't wait. When is it launch like officially out of beta? Okay. So I'm not sure when this episode will be releasing but we are launching September 9th. So I'm hoping that everyone listening to this will go download it. You'll check it out.

All of your information is fully encrypted through Plaid. It is very safe. You can feel like full trust in us that none of this information will ever be shared. We want to make sure that people feel confident in their money and use this as a tool to upgrade your financial life. So check it out. Ask Dolly on the App Store. And we are hoping to roll out Android in a couple months. I love it.

Okay. Good stuff. Check it out, guys. All of this, all the conversations we're having are a derivative social media. You talked about investing into your social team. You've grown 2X in three years. How have you done it? What type of tips have you learned?

Algorithm, do you do any type of paid ads? Give me the breakdown of like anyone that's listening. It's like I'm trying so hard to grow my business page or I'm trying to get in this space into it. What are your tips, suggestions and what have you done the last three years? Not one single paid ad. Love? So I feel really good. Rare too.

Rare when I talk to other creators. It's another rarity. I will say you got to have a real high pain threshold. Like, I feel like a hamster on a wheel sometimes. Like, I'm like, okay, well, what are we making content about this week? And some weeks, by the way, it is so easy because there are news headlines, there are hot button topics. It's wedding season. Everybody wants to talk about the cost of going to a bachelorette or maybe it's holiday season and it's so easy because everybody wants to talk about how much they're spending on gifts.

And then there's like this the scariest, by the way, every single year, this happens. The scariest time period to be your rich BFF is May and June. All of a sudden, my views drop off a cliff. And that's consistent year to year. Consistent year to year. And I make this same comment to my team every year. I'm like, am I not funny, smart, cute? Did I lose it?

Yeah. Is my career over? And the answer is no. People are starting to think about summer vacation. They don't want to budget. They don't want to save. They don't want to invest. They want to shake ass on a yacht.

Great. I respect it. But around this time, we're moving into August, September, back to school, back to work, back to reality, right ahead of big spending season of the holidays. God has favorites. It's me again. And so I think I've started to really make my content time to when I know it's going to hit the hardest. So, like, am I releasing my best, most provocative? economic takes in May? No. Am I trying to bang out fresh, new, exciting content all fall? Yes.

I think it's really hard to put out an amazing video every single day. It's a real, real pressure. So don't put that stress on yourself. I've actually shifted a lot of my content in the early summer to travel because people want to learn about credit card points. They want to learn how to travel without debt. They want to learn about what's the hotel hack, what's this flight hack. Fall, we're getting into the nitty gritty. And so I think it's all about consistency. No matter if I feel good, no matter if I feel bad, I'm posting today. You're getting something from me. So you do post every day then. Okay. So every day, no matter what day of the year it is, no matter what month it is, rain or shine, one a day every day. And do you post them 365 times a year or do you sometimes post

2X in a day? I would say I don't usually post twice a day. That's a day. That's a day. I would say, That's a lot. But if I am on a podcast like this and you post a clip and then request a collab, I'll accept it. And that way I might have two or three pieces of content coming out of day. But it wouldn't be from my handle. Have you ever found that posting too much can decrease engagement, which then decreases rate towards brands? No. I don't think, like I think there is a threshold. I don't think someone like me would ever get there. Okay. Like you would, have to be like posting close to 15 to 20 videos a day on certain platforms to be doing that. Sure.

Whereas like on a place like TikTok, you post 15, 20 times a day, they're only going to reward you for it. Yeah. And we've seen some of the smartest creators who were, I would say kind of like the trailblazers before even me. Like I want to say like Victoria Paris was the one who taught me this. When she first started, she told me she was like, I was posting 20 videos a day. And I was like, about what?

And she was like, I would wake up and you would get a video of me ripping open my eyes, brushing my teeth. You would get a video of me eating my breakfast. You would get a video of me. Then she was still in school. She was like doing school stuff, going shopping. Like literally, she's like, I would do anything and you would see it. And then she would double down on the videos that worked.

And so 20 turned into maybe two. But she started with 20. And I thought that that was such a great learning. I don't have the capacity to do 20 today, but I do learn over longer stretches of periods of like, hey, what worked last month versus what works now. I like it. The budgeting for content creation, one of the things that you just mentioned is you go to your team and you're like, is my career over?

I thought it would be fun to do a little 2023 versus 2020. Yeah. These are things you said in 20203 on the podcast. Curious your take on it now in 2026. Like you held on to those. Oh, yeah. Well, in full transparency, I was working out this morning. And as I was working out, multitasking is my thing.

I was listening to it and I wrote these things down that caught my eye. So you said just so. I go to my team. Is my career over in 2023. You said, I call us NFL football players because you can only be the flavor of the moment for so long in football. You can blow out your knee and be done in this world. You can also burn out or shit. This was my take.

Shit, you can even be canceled and be done. In this space, we won't get 40 years like an accountant or a doctor does. What's your take on that today? I still agree with what I stand by what I. said. Okay. I will say my perspective has shifted a little bit because over the past three years, a lot more creators are getting real smart, really smart. How do you define really smart? Okay. I'll give you the influencer, Alex Earle, right? Maybe five, ten years ago, Alex Earle would have been the hot girl of the season. She would have done an unending number of

brand deals, maybe did some magazine shoots, magazine covers, and then in a couple of years, hotter, cooler, better girl would replace her. Right? Now, Alex is a mogul. She is building out her beauty brand, real actives. She's got, you know, a podcast that she relaunched, reality TV show coming. Like, they are becoming multi-hyphenates in the, like, most OG of the sense, Kardashian style. And I think the way that a lot of creators are starting to do that is building and buying them longevity.

So maybe someone like her does get a 40-year career. Maybe someone like her does have the opportunity to, you know, metamorphosize into something different. And in 15 years when there is a younger, hotter, whatever, next Alex, she's going to be the CEO of a beauty company. She's going to be sitting on a board of L'Oreal. Like I think we have really, really changed how we see, like, the slur of influencer.

it's now creator economy. Didn't you even hear the brand? It was like so silly. Like suddenly you throw the word economy and it's now. Or the word creator. Can't get an influencer, but you could be a creator. I don't know. Like media mogul.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Digital marketing expert. Call it whatever. These are all the same word, by the way. Oh, yeah. And so now we're actually seeing this industry is not something silly or, you know, kind of to be turning our noses up.

Like brands are realizing that we're doing their game better than they are. And all of a sudden, that gives us those business opportunities, that potential. We're getting chances to invest. I love seeing all of these creators start investing in like CPG brands because it's a space that they know very well. And that gives them an opportunity to really extend that five, 10 years. What's the why? Obviously, you have to analyze this and you've been able to do it. What is the why?

Why is Alex Earl able to do it? What does she have that like you can take away to your business and be like, okay, I have to apply that to my longevity? to my business plan. What are the takeaways when you analyze what she's done? Yeah, I think one, she's probably got an incredibly good team around her. I think her family helps her, her dad, who has historically been a business person. But I think, one, getting the right team and a team that's going to help push you to like the things that you want. I think, two, she's built a lot of trust with her audience, something that I have also felt like I've been able to do, obviously in a very different sector and a very different category. But three, I think she's also become

very smart with the economics of what she's willing to take. Yeah, brands can't afford a million dollars a post-girlie. So she said, okay, great, you can't afford me. Equity, please. She got that great equity stake. Poppy then sells. Now she's looking like a huge genius, right? And so I think it's, are you now wanting to be a shareholder? Are you changing the economics of how you're getting paid. Do you actually lean into being a business versus just being Alex? Okay. And that connects to another company. He said in 2023, only 4% of creators can make a living doing what they're doing. They love to do. And that's 4%. Only a tiny fraction can make a really good living. Most influencers are trying to skim the poverty line. Three years later, the creator

economy has grown significantly. What's your take on that? I don't know the exact stats now. However, I will say, I think that statement does still stand in that like, this whole creator economy is very much feed the rich, starve the poor. So like the folks at the top are crushing, right? These are people who can make a very, very comfortable living. And some of them are, you know, building up businesses. Some of them are just doing the brand deals, whatever they want to be doing. But they're making a great living. Now what has really emerged is what I call like the creator economy middle class. These are people who are either micro influencers who are making UGC content to then use that to supplement their W2 income and they're living way better than their peers who only have

the W2 job. And there's also people in this category who are probably medium-sized creators. They are not trying to do this forever. But they're thinking, hey, let me make a bunch of money for the next five years. And then this will actually be something to brag about. on my resume so that I can get a board seat in XYZ or so that I can be hired as the creative director for XYZ brand. And so that's that creator middle class. So instead of founding their own businesses, they're going to be able to be high up C-suit at somewhere else. And then I would say there is the emerging, the emerging group in the creator economy. This is still folks who are trying to make it. They're not really seeing consistent income yet.

they haven't built out the business infrastructure, but they're trying to get there. And I think more and more people will start to move upwards. And this creator middle class is really the important part, is getting bigger and bigger. That's such a good take. I've never heard anyone break it down like that, but it is so, so, so bang on. One of the other things you said, which I'm actually going to transition this into the next topic, billionaires shouldn't exist, but this, and we had a fun conversation about it. We took a couple shots at Elon Musk. I know you've taken a couple shots at SpaceX. You called that it would go down. It was, it was just great content. And Jason, was I right? And you were right. You nailed it. Absolutely right. So I want to ask you this

question. I see that you're now diving into touching the line with, flirting with politics and policy as it relates to finance. It almost feels like inevitable that you kind of have to. The two are so connected. But there also is a risk when you do that, that you're starting to touch that line of do you become a brand liability? Does it create a ton of polarization? How have you managed that? And what's your take on it as you move your business forward? I think I have the luxury now of being in a position where I can speak out about things like this.

And because I can, it is my duty and my obligation to do so. I have my pick of the litter when it comes to what brands I want to work with. I turn down a lot of the things that come into my inbox. My agent will literally send over offers and be like, yeah, it's good, but don't think you need to do this. Like, can you imagine? My agent, who by the way, only gets paid when I get paid is telling me not to do stuff.

That tells me there's stuff in the pipe that he thinks is going to be so much bigger and better. Basically supply and demand, right? Correct. He's like, don't sell the inventory. We need it for later. Okay, cool. Because of that, I feel it's my obligation to do that

because, one, I want to protect my audience from some, may be challenging decisions that they may be thinking about, that they may not be well informed or on, or the media has hyped up or that there's a lot of misinformation about. But I also feel like if a brand saw that content, and by the way, I'm not sitting on my channel being like, I endorse this candidate or I hate this person. I'm sitting here and saying these policies are going to impact your money. Whether you like it or not, whether you sit on one side of the aisle or the other, this is going to happen. It's just basic economics.

Sure. If a brand saw that and didn't like the fact that I could do that analysis and didn't like the fact that I was speaking about something that is going to be true, think that you're the right partner to work with me for. These days, most of my brand partners are long-term partners. They are, you know, no one-night stands. It's very much like, hey, do you want to be? boyfriend girlfriend, like we're going to be boyfriend girlfriend for a couple years in the contract.

Like we will be together for a while. And so because of that, I have a little bit more comfort in saying what I believe. And can I be real, real numbers? A little tacky. That SpaceX video, I gain 150,000 followers in a week on Instagram. Nobody follows you on Instagram anymore. Do you know how hard it is to gain 150,000 followers on Instagram? Stop it. Because people were so sick of people not telling the truth. People are so tired of being sugar-coated and using the kid gloves. When I was like, hey, I'm seeing some major red flags. Wow. They like the honesty. They like the honesty. I love it. It's a brilliant take. And I love that you give the perspective of looking at your own P&O. Like this, I'm going to be real with you. This is how I view my business. You all heard the numbers. I have to

reinvest in it. And I'm looking outside. So you're looking at a global approach. You're honest about that. And that's what makes you so credible. I only have so much time with you here. So let's get into like a little bit of a state of a union here of what's happening in finance. Real quick before we do that wedding. I just got to ask quick because I know we'll talk offline. But wedding costs, what is one thing that you overspent on how much was it, but it's non-negotiable that I should be aware of? I would say spend in the areas that's going to make your guests have the best time.

So what was that for you? Food. Food. You ever had shitty wedding food? All the time. It is atrocious. How much you spend on food? Give me a number.

Come on. How much did I spend on food? Probably six figures. Okay. But keep in mind, I had three events. I fed 95 people over three different days, and it wasn't just feeding them. It was the liquor. Yeah.

Alcohol is expensive. It's crazy. Turns out my friends and family drink a lot more than I had anticipated. And, you know, I think, like, food is super, super expensive. Okay. How about the opposite of that? One that you've budgeted to spend a lot on, you spent a lot on it. You're like, it just wasn't worth it.

Two things. If you're getting married in a place that's really, really beautiful. Don't bother getting a photo booth. My photo booth was like $10,000. And I looked through the photos. You know, half of them were of the cater waiters. Oh, come on. I'm dead serious. I have photos of Italian cater waiters in my photo booth. And I'm like, so nobody at my actual party used this. Cool. Sick. Huge waste of money. Another thing is I will say, like, flowers get expensive really quickly. I think for my actual wedding, I wouldn't cut back on the flowers, but I would have cut back on the flowers for the welcome event and the brunch after. Nobody really cared. Okay. Certain

areas for the flowers, photo booth. All right. Now we got to get in the state of the union of what is going on in the financial world. There's so much to cover, right? There's, there's inflationary environment we're living in. There's home affordability. There's health insurance issues. There's youth unemployment that's off the charts. Like, there is just so that we have a war in the Middle East. I mean, it's really just non-stop. I mean, what is the other good news for us? Yeah, right? So you got to manage it all. You got to speak to it all. You got to educate yourself in every single one of these forums. Right now, what is the most important for people to consider? And what's the best piece of advice you've given in any of these areas that you feel people are

feeling the most pain? I would say the big buzzword is just like uncertainty. Like, will, they won't they? I feel like we're sitting here and like, you know, the government's just picking daisies of like, war, no war. War, no war. Technically, right now, we are already in military conflict. But it's not technically defined as war until Congress approves it. But we have to actually think about all of the ramifications of that, right? So not only does war mean there's a critical oil choke point, the Strait of Hormuz, higher oil likely means higher inflation because everything is going to get more expensive to get to you. So your groceries, the appliances you're buying, everything.

Because of that, higher inflationary environment, means that the Fed will likely have to think about what can we do to tamper down inflation, which also probably means interest rates are going up. And interest rates going up means borrowing gets more expensive. So buying a house with the mortgage gets more expensive, car loan more expensive, pretty much everything. And what's really hard to say is how much this will actually impact us. Because if this gets resolved, because we're hearing the phrase peace talks every other day.

And we're also hearing drone strikes every other day. And aside from, which should always be first, the human lives lost, we actually have to think about, like, how do you protect your family? And I think one of the easiest ways to do that is to beef up your emergency fund. You're always going to want to have more on hand. If you get laid off, that is what buys you the time to get the next job. So typically I would say three to six months of living expenses for singleton, six to 12, if you're a head of household, have a family,

you might want to beef that up a little bit more. So maybe go to the higher end of those numbers or maybe even a little above that. Great. People are asking me, oh, should I pull all my money out of the market? No, straight up, no. I don't care what timeline we're living in.

You're not supposed to pull all of your money out of the market. No reputable financial advisor would tell you that. However, what you should consider is, hey, do I want to be investing in maybe some other things? So maybe those are international markets. maybe those are saying, hey, I don't want to put as much into my investment portfolio right now because I want to have that money for my emergency fund. So making some prioritizations.

And then I would say, if you can, make a plan to pay down high interest rate debt because typically if you have a floating rate on any of your stuff, if you have, so that that could potentially be like a private student loan where the rate changes. When we see, like, rates go up, your stuff is going to go up. Credit cards are already high. They're 20 to 30 percent APR, meaning that's what you're paying in interest. You buy a $100 shirt. You don't pay it off for a year. It's $120, $130 shirt. And so getting that debt paid down quickly is incredibly smart. I don't want to sound callous when people are trying to decide, do I pay my debt down or like, do I put food on the table? But that's the type of debt. If you

are paying down debt that you should be focused on, not your three, four percent federal student loan. You can keep making the minimum payment on that because the math is on your side. Yeah, and I think that's perfectly said that we live in a conundrum right now, where inflation's up, interest rates will have to go up. That's like us having to literally jump into a cold plunge.

It's gonna cool everything down, right? But markets are trading at all time high. It's like, it's very confusing time. And so I see where so many people that are following your advice get confused. And I like the idea of like, stop worrying about what's happening on an international level for seven,

billion people or 330 million in the United States. Worry about your household. Take care of that before you get caught up and everything else. And can I ask you a question, actually? Have you started to notice that there are some people on the internet, some creators, that are incredibly mindful. I'll give a shout out to a friend of ours, Brand Flakes. Oh, yes.

Genuinely, the nicest person on our. He's the best. Brand is like, hey, I know things are expensive right now. By the way, I have a bunch of leftover PR. can I just surprise and delight some of the people who love me? Wow, what a genius idea. Shout out to him. But then there are other creators.

I'm not going to name names because I'm not trying to start internet beef. But when you know people are having a hard time affording groceries, is there a reason why you're flexing your $200,000 necklace? Is there a reason why you're showing us your brand new Ferrari? Is there a reason why? It's just not necessary. It's not. It's not.

My take on it is it's not unless you're doing it in a way that's truly educational, right? Yeah. You want to talk about this Ferrari and the fact that you bought it? You better be super car blondie. Right. Or they've been able to flip it or they've been able to like learn. It's got to be an educational tool. I think flexing in a space like today is just idiotic.

Also, my fiancee runs a non-for-profit, right? So what they try and do, they rescues dogs. So they'll try and reach out to influencers. Might have to edit this out, but I'll put it out there. And it's a huge list. It's just saying, hey, we know PR packages are very prevalent. Can you give us anything that you're not using that we could just donate in our auction? All that goes back to the non-for-profit.

They send it out to like 100 plus influencers in the area that we live. And Victoria Fuller, shout out from Bachelor Nation, was the only one to be like, come to my house, take it all. Right? And it's just like there's so many ways that you can take, I guess, the privilege of being in a space that's creating so much for you and giving back as opposed to making people. feel like shit. And it costs those people. Like shout out to Victoria. That's like such like such a killer move. Sure. But like it didn't cost or anything. Right. Except for, you know, her saying, hey, I don't need to be like this insane consumer using a special cream from my left ear lobe and a different cream from my right ear lobe. Like she doesn't need all that. She doesn't have enough

skin to possibly get through all of the product. I'm sure she's getting. She doesn't need all of it. But what I love is like when an influencer and I've done this for my audiences, I get a PR package. for makeup, they typically send you every single shade, just in the hopes that you'll use their lip gloss. I'm probably only using one of these. Sure. So let me take one out of the box. I get to still shout out the brand for sending it to me because it's a product that I do like. I don't want to ruin my relationship with the brand.

100%. But then there's eight lip glosses left that I can send to somebody else and make their day. They can share it. And I really think we got to be taking care of the people that support us. And there is just some real tone-deaf stuff being made right now. I mean, somebody was making a comment about like, oh, this is the nastiest grocery store I've ever seen in like the middle of like a very normal town

and it looked like a very normal grocery store. Like, hey, maybe we don't say that about places where a family may not have an option to shop. 100%. It's yucky. And truly, I think it's going to get worse before it gets better, but we need people like you advocating for this. And as we wrap this up,

because I know time is money and you've got to get going. I think about advocating. I think about what it might look like in three years when you come back, given the growth you've had in the last three years, would you ever get into politics? Would you ever get into some larger leadership role in a community basis like that?

Jason, you know, of all the interviews I've ever done, no one has ever asked me that? Wow, wow, I feel honored. I always like to ask a question that you've never been thrown. What do you think? Don't look at your PR team. You caught me off guard a little bit, if I'm honest.

I always joke that I can never get into politics because if you're doing a really good job, 50% of people still hate you. Yeah, that's true. And if you're doing bad, like 80% of people hate you. And so I think that would be really challenging for me, especially operating in so many systems that are so bureaucratically gate kept and guarded

that you have to like beg eight different people to get one thing done. I think that would drive someone like me and someone like us who has finance backgrounds insane because we're so used to everything being as streamlined as possible, as fast as possible. I want it done yesterday. Am I going to sit here and promise that I never might consider doing a local, thing? No, I don't think I hate the idea of that. What I think is more important to me even is to pass policy with the existing politicians in office of how do we make financial literacy a federally mandated topic we're teaching in schools because I don't care about A square plus B

squared equal C squared, but I really would like to be able to fill out a tax form without feeling like I'm going to jail. I would really like to understand how the interest rates work on a credit card before I get one. Not to mention a credit score. You know, there are secret rules that you need to know about that. We didn't get that in school and I really could have used those lessons versus some of the other stuff that I think I sat through. A hundred percent. Perfectly said, maybe we'll see you in your politics. Maybe we won't. I did see it on your podcast. You recently had someone in the healthcare space who said there's five billion dollar claims. Five billion claims out there and only a billion get approved. I just had a CEO of a healthcare insurance company

on saying that 75% of us don't know what a premium or deductible is in United States. States. We're not taught this stuff. We're not taught finance. We're not taught health care. Our biggest expenses, we have no form of education about it. And then we have to talk about it. And then we're shamed for talking about it. It's got to. And it's a systemic problem. So I'm saying you make a run at politics. But hey, we'll see. We'll catch back up in three years, hopefully sooner. But I appreciate you coming on trading secrets. Once this is launched, Ask Dolly will be out. So everyone go download, Ask Dolly. But you got to give us a trading secret. You've already given us one. That was back in 2023. You got to give us one in,

26. Specific to you, can't come from a professor, be read in a textbook only your experience. What trading secret can Vivian two leave us with? I think my trading secret is that you have to know when to fight because I think some people let things go too quick and they'll roll over and they'll just take the easiest path, the path of least resistance. I'll be able to talk about this more maybe in, you know, a couple years, what have you. But like I feel like I went through a phase in my business where I had to make some hard decisions. And I think actually fighting and getting what I wanted really paid off in the end.

And so I would just say, no one to cut your losses, but more importantly, no one to grit your teeth in and say, I am going to do this. I am going to fight. And then you're going to have to look at my mind. mug for the rest of your life and know that I won. Yeah, I think that is a brilliant trading secret. It resonates with me so much because I feel like lately I've been feeling that every day, I'm like, it's a fight out here. It's a fight out here. Just this past week, I could tell you, I've had 30 fights, but I feel like that's an inflection point. I feel like that's when change is

happening, growth is happening, disruption for the better and optimization. Like, I agree with you, and it's uncomfortable, and you want to squirm, you want to run, you want to fight, you want to cancel, you want to just hide from it and be comfortable. But I'm telling you, you're exactly right. When you keep fighting, you keep pushing. That's when the growth happened. So brilliant trading secret. I am sure that wasn't the same one as you had in 2020.

Vivian 2, Your Rich BFF. Thank you for being on trading secrets. Where can everyone find everything you have going on? You can find me across all social media as Your Rich BFF. And you can find Ask Dolly as Ask Dolly. I love it. Go check her out. And of course, download Ask Dolly.

Thank you so much for being on Trayek Secrets. Thank you so much for having me. Where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. A fad to some, the future of money to others. We see crypto's trillion-dollar swings. The end of jobs or the end of human struggle. We see the endless funds fueling the AI hype.

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