Forbes Top Creators Show

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The Forbes Top Creators Show, hosted by Steve Bertoni, brings you unrivaled access behind the brands and businesses of the internet's most watched (and highest earning) creators. Each episode uncovers the incredible stories behind their success, and offers unmatched insights to the next wave of inspiring creators.

  1. hace 4 días

    Why Erika Kullberg Turned Down A $100,000 Brand Deal To Build Trust With Her Audience

    How do you go from working grueling 100-hour weeks as a corporate M&A lawyer to building an audience of over 20 million followers and running a multi-faceted financial media business? Welcome to the Forbes Top Creator Show! This week, host Steven Bertoni decodes the business of influence with attorney, financial creator, and entrepreneur Erika Kullberg. In this episode, Erika opens up about the heartbreaking turning point that led her to quit her big-firm corporate law job after her boss refused her time off to see her dying grandfather. She details her transition from $200,000 in student debt to launching her startup, Plug and Law. Erika delivers a true masterclass on how she systematically studied YouTube and TikTok like an M&A deal, writing down over 100 viral hooks to decode the rhythm of the algorithm. She reveals the $1,000 daily-posting bet that forced her onto TikTok, her legendary 30-second Nike shoe refund video that gained 1 million followers in 24 hours, and why she turned down a massive $100,000 brand deal in her second month to protect audience trust. Finally, Erika breaks down her 90/10 investment rule, how to bypass algorithm suppression, and how she used her massive platform as a "selfish" backdoor to interview her business heroes on her hit podcast, Erika Taught Me. #ErikaKullberg #ForbesTopCreators #CreatorEconomy #PersonalFinance Check out the Forbes Top Creator List: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2026/06/23/forbes-top-creators-2026/ 0:00 Meet Erika Kullberg 1:29 Quitting the 100 Hour Corporate Law Grind 3:01 Shifting to Entrepreneurship & Launching Plug and Law 4:23 The M&A Method: How to Study Viral Hooks Like a Deal 8:05 Gaining 5 Million Followers in 30 Days From a $1,000 Bet 9:20 Why Erika Turned Down a $100,000 Brand Deal to Protect Trust 10:26 Organizing a 100,000-Person Live Investing Workshop 12:22 The Business of Erika Kullberg: Diversifying Revenue Streams 14:12 Launching Erika Taught Me and Meeting Her Heroes 17:46 The Truth About Short-Form vs. Long-Form 18:47 Why You Absolutely Should NOT Start a Podcast 19:29 Bypassing the Algorithm with Owned Email Lists 21:17 Erika's Three Commandments of Personal Finance 21:42 The 7-Day Rule: Overcoming Impulse Buying 23:10 Financial Nihilism & Erika's 90/10 Investment Strategy 24:23 From Splitting Tissues in Law School to True Wealth 26:32 If Your Content Isn't Shareable, What's the Point? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  2. 4 ago

    How 200+ Failed Videos Led To A Meme With Over 7 Billion Views | Steven He

    How do you go from losing your biggest commercial acting break to creating a viral meme that has been viewed over 7 billion times? Welcome to the Forbes Top Creator Show! This week, host Steven Bertoni decodes the business of influence with comedian, filmmaker, and "recovering actor" Steven He. In this episode, Steven opens up about his unique Chinese-Irish upbringing and the harsh realities of trying to survive as a traditional actor in New York City. He reveals the exact strategy he used to pivot into social media, grinding through 220 failed comedy sketches before finally hitting his first million-view spark on video 221. He breaks down the chaotic, uncontrollable 7-billion view success of the "Emotional Damage" meme, and frankly discusses his biggest business failure: investing massive amounts of time and money into a highly-produced show that alienated his audience and tanked his channel's revenue by 90%. Steven delivers a true masterclass in how to pivot your YouTube strategy, shifting content just 10% at a time to successfully launch his new 30-minute action-comedy series, James Bao, and why your failures just might be your greatest asset. #StevenHe #ForbesTopCreators #EmotionalDamage #CreatorEconomy Check out the Forbes Top Creator List:https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2026/06/23/forbes-top-creators-2026/ 0:00 Meet Steven He 1:11 From A Chinese-Irish Upbringing To The NYC Acting Grind 3:00 Heartbreak: Losing A $34,000 Big Break To The Pandemic 4:39 The Turning Point: Grinding Through 220 Failed Videos 8:57 The 7 Billion View Accident: The "Emotional Damage" Phenomenon 11:41 The Ultimate Fail: How A Massive Budget Tanked 90% Of Views 14:52 Boiling The Frog: The 10% Pivot Strategy 21:56 Taking Power Back From The Bullies 25:38 The Next Flex: Competing At The Box Office With James Bao 31:36 The Mic Drop: Why Your Failures Forge You Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  3. 28 jul

    Why Radical Vulnerability Beat Viral Fame: Rebecca Zamolo's Blueprint For True Community

    How do you pivot from chasing empty viral trends to building a fiercely loyal community of over 40 million followers? Welcome to the Forbes Top Creator Show! This week, host Steven Bertoni sits down with creator and entrepreneur Rebecca Zamolo. In this episode, Rebecca reveals her biggest career mistake: focusing entirely on viral videos and realizing her massive audience didn't actually know her. She opens up about shifting her strategy to true vulnerability, sharing her battle with a severe, life-altering illness and an isolating two-year struggle with infertility. Rebecca explains why she downsized her production crew from 20 people to just 5, leaning into the philosophy that high-retention storytelling on a $5,000 budget can successfully compete with bloated, multi-million dollar productions. She also details her obsessive process of A/B testing up to five different thumbnails per upload, and her unique strategy of targeting different demographics on each platform: treating TikTok like the "cool kids" for viral trends, using Instagram for deep connections with moms, and building elaborate story-driven videos for YouTube. #RebeccaZamolo #ForbesTopCreators #CreatorEconomy #YouTubeStrategy Check out the Forbes Top Creator List:https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2026/06/23/forbes-top-creators-2026/ 0:00 Meet Rebecca Zamolo 1:18 The Biggest Mistake: Viral Videos vs. True Community 4:16 The Origin Story: Facing Surgery and Opening Up Online 7:02 Content Strategy: Building Backyard Bunkers and Waterparks 9:37 The Masterclass: The Science of A/B Testing 15:45 Balancing Boundaries and Vlogging for 500 Days Straight 21:24 Running a 15-Person Mini-Studio 24:33 Platform Strategy: YouTube vs. TikTok vs. Instagram 28:34 Multiple Revenue Streams 29:08 Launching Molo Wellness 31:58 What's Next: Expanding Beyond the Camera Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  4. 21 jul

    How Anwar Turned 6-Second Videos Into A Multi-Million Dollar Business

    How do you go from running a "cash for gold" shop and hiding your content from your family to becoming an 83-million follower comedy powerhouse? Welcome to the Forbes Top Creator Show! This week, host Steven Bertoni sits down with short-form sketch comedy legend and entrepreneur Anwar in his first podcast appearance ever! In this episode, Anwar reveals his journey from being the class clown to avoid getting bullied, to accidentally going viral by stopping freeway traffic with a fake magic trick involving a loose toilet. He opens up about dropping out of college, hiding his early success from his traditional Middle Eastern family, and eventually moving into 1600 Vine—the legendary Hollywood apartment building where he lived and collaborated with creators like King Bach, Lele Pons, and Logan Paul. Anwar breaks down his highly optimized downtown studio production process, his strategy of continuously repurposing 10-year-old videos, and his strict boundaries on turning down lucrative brand deals to protect his credibility. Finally, he discusses taking his comedic inspiration from legends like Jim Carrey and Edgar Wright to fuel his ambitious pivot from 6-second clips to writing and directing a feature film. #Anwar #ForbesTopCreators #CreatorEconomy #ComedySketches 0:00 Anwar's First Podcast 1:37 The Origin Story: Using Comedy to Avoid Bullying 4:14 The First Viral Hit: A Magic Trick With a Loose Toilet 6:32 Dropping Out of College To Create 8:40 Inside Anwar's Production Studio and Creative Process 10:39 The Strategy Behind Repurposing 10 Year Old Videos 18:35 Moving to 1600 Vine: The Creator Incubator 24:24 Protecting Credibility 29:17 The Next Step: Directing Feature Films Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  5. 14 jul

    From Living In A Car To 140M Subscribers: Inside The Stokes Twins' Success & New Netflix Deal

    How did The Stokes Twins go from living out of their car and sneaking into Costco for free samples to running a 70-person production company with more than 30 billion views, and soon a new series on Netflix? Welcome to the Forbes Top Creator Show! This week, host Steven Bertoni sits down with the masterminds of YouTube retention, Alan and Alex, The Stokes Twins. In this episode, the brothers open up about dropping out of medical school and moving to LA with no plan, facing homelessness, and relying on a scuffed Costco card just to eat. They share how a single viral video ("What It's Like to Be a Twin") gained 10 million views in a week and changed their lives forever. The twins break down their obsessive, highly analytical approach to studying their audience, why they believe 90% of the work is in the core idea, and how they scaled from a two-man team editing on iMovie to a massive 70-person production operation. They also reveal exclusive details about their most expensive video to date (a $1 million Squid Game recreation featuring VFX artists from Endgame and Avatar), a surprise phone call from MrBeast, and a sneak peek into their massive new unscripted competition series coming soon to Netflix. #StokesTwins #ForbesTopCreators #CreatorEconomy #YouTubeSuccess 0:00 Meet The Stokes Twins 1:58 The Origin Story: Making Videos Since Age 10 4:24 The First Viral Hit: "What It's Like to Be a Twin" 5:51 Living in a Car & Sneaking into Costco 12:36 Scaling the Business & Analyzing the Algorithm 22:01 Spending $1 Million on a Squid Game Video 27:05 YouTube Heroes & Getting a Call From MrBeast 31:43 Building a 70-Person Production Team 38:52 The Next Level: Creating a Netflix Original Series Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  6. 9 jul

    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, 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/ 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

  7. 7 jul

    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

  8. 23 jun

    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

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The Forbes Top Creators Show, hosted by Steve Bertoni, brings you unrivaled access behind the brands and businesses of the internet's most watched (and highest earning) creators. Each episode uncovers the incredible stories behind their success, and offers unmatched insights to the next wave of inspiring creators.

Información

  • Canal
    Forbes
  • Creador
    Forbes
  • Años de actividad
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodios
    38
  • Copyright
    © Forbes

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