Good morning. The Cannes Film Festival kicks off today, including its first-ever partnership with TikTok. I’m not sure what to expect—doggface208 in a tux? Khaby Lame in a short film? I’m hoping yes to both.

–Hannah Doyle

Ali Abdaal Aims for $6 Million in Year-End Revenue

The doctor turned full-time education creator recently outlined his business goals for the year, revealing that he’s made more money from his Part-Time YouTuber Academy course than he has from YouTube itself.

The Part-Time YouTuber Academy teaches students how to run a successful YouTube channel in online cohort-based courses.

The courses start at $1,495. Across his entire business, Abdaal plans to generate $6 million in revenue, up $2 million from last year’s earnings.

Abdaal’s 2022 Income Breakdown

Projected from his $6 million revenue goal

60% → Part-Time YouTuber Academy (4 cohorts/year)

20% → YouTube Channel (brand deals and AdSense)

20% → Other courses (Skillshare and self-paced courses)

“The challenge with the Part-Time YouTuber Academy is to what extent do we want this to be the major part of the business because it's something that happened completely by accident,” Abdaal said.

When Abdaal started the Academy over four years ago, he didn’t know it’d grow to provide the lionshare of income for his business. He tried it out in tandem with other offerings, like his courses on how to get into med school and study for exams, as well as videos on tips for productivity and entrepreneurship.

Currently five of his staff work full-time on the Academy, and with all the work required, he’s figuring out how to reduce his personal involvement. “The challenge is figuring out how much do I want to continue to be involved with [the Part-Time YouTuber Academy],” Abdaal said. “It’s fun doing the live sessions but there's so much work behind the scenes to put it all together, and we need to hire more people to make it happen.”

His 2022 roadmap includes four cohorts in the Academy, along with four separate courses, with a goal to make $123,000 per month across them all. He also plans to finish writing his book, create a sales and marketing funnel to drive course enrollments, and sharpen the business’ internal production processes.

Our Take

Unlike traditional small businesses that build a product before finding an audience, creators build an audience first, then find products that fit the audience. The challenge that Ali and many creators face is that he is required for all aspects of the business. By sharing his highs and lows publicly, Ali is highlighting the need for creators to hire operations teams that help scale these business functions, and prioritize which of these "accidental" businesses to invest in long term.

Fake Commercial Creator Hired to Direct National Ad Campaign

TikToker Grace Wells has amassed a following of 2 million making ads in her bedroom for random objects like a paperclip and a bread crumb.

Now she’s being hired to direct national campaigns for brands, most recently Airwick, directing a team of over 50 for a shoot.

Wells started on TikTok in 2020 just before her college graduation. She was a linguistics major and practiced photography and video as a hobby. Wanting a creative outlet, she took to social and uploaded a fake commercial for a fork in June 2020. When that blew up, she decided to run with it and make fake commercials her niche.

By the next May, she had quit her full-time job with a cosmetic company and has been working with brands like Celsius and Logitech, as well as participating in the creator program at Tool of North America.

Our Take

Creative agencies charge a lot of money to concept, direct, and edit campaigns to get a brand’s messaging to millions of people. This move shows us that the next generation of storytellers might not just have a "creator" title but can also function as creative and commercial directors.

Compared to agencies, creators typically cost less and can be much more nimble and plugged into what works on the internet. Expect to see more brands engaging creators—and maybe young creators banding together to start the next big ad agency.

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US Podcast Revenue Doubles Over The Last Year

According to a new study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PwC, podcast revenue rose to $1.4 billion last year, surpassing $1 billion for the first time. It’s expected to top $2 billion by the end of year, even reaching $4 billion by 2024.

The study credits the ongoing increase in podcast listeners, content, and an increased use of automated ad tech and more ad spending in genres that historically had low spending amounts, such as sports and religion.

Our Take

Due to the low barrier to entry, there are 3.2 million podcasts on Spotify, yet only the top 1% generate the majority of downloads. Often topping the charts are creators like Alex Cooper, Emma Chamberlain, Cody Ko and Noel Miller—the latter two are even building their own podcast network. With the ability to cultivate a captive audience week after week, creators are set to dominate the podcast market.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Daniel Howell launches a world tour.

• TikToker Josh Brubaker appears in Netflix’s The Circle.

• Niko Omilana’s latest video gets 10 million views in two days.

• Hank Green criticizes Instagram’s NFT integrations.

• Create a loyalty loop, rewarding your biggest supporters, with Backstage.Army.*

• PewDiePie shares next steps after moving to Japan.

• YouTube is expanding its test of membership gifting.

*This is sponsored advertising content.