The AI Influencer That Makes $10M A Year

0:00The AI influencer that makes 10 million a year. Neil's smiling because Neil thinks it's like an OnlyFans model. Yes, I was about to say, is this just like OnlyFans and they're creating like a fake avatar? No, so this is posted from Levels. He says, AI influencers are quickly starting to become a big business now. American AI influencer, Lil Mikaela. Oh man. I already know about this one. Okay, so I guess that one is an OnlyFans model? Lil deals with Prada, BMW, I think Gucci. Lil's been doing this for a long time. Here's another one. This is one of the original ones, by the way. Got on early. Nunori is this other one.

0:38It seems like some anime type of female character. That one generates... Okay, so Lil Mikaela,$10 million a year. And then the AI fashion model, the German one that I just mentioned, Nunori, that one does$500K a year. And then South African AI supermodel Shudu makes$2 ,000 per sponsored post. So last year, the industry was valued at$6 billion. And by 2030, it's projected to grow to$45 billion in money spent by people on virtual influencers. Yeah, I can see people spending a lot of money on virtual influencers over time. I can see that too. I mean, this is unfortunate, right? But I think especially me growing up as a gamer, that's stuff that...

1:18I'm a kid, right? And if I have some money to spend, I'm going to spend it on armor, gear, whatever. Maybe spend it on some AI influencer that I support. So I don't see it being like, why would it be blocked is my point. Here's a question for you. And I'm curious to see what you think is the number one reason. We work with a lot of large corporations that like AI influencers. If you had to guess, what do you think is the number one reason why they like AI influencers? Is it a deal with the human BS? Part of it. And kind of, you're going in the right direction. generally speaking of course the ai influencers don't have as much clout and pull as real human influencers they've been around longer can i add on one more yeah they're cheaper uh no not really not necessarily cheaper it's because they can get the ai influencer to do exactly what they want with no issues so a lot of times not necessarily the bs because i put those as two separate categories, but I did say you were on the right direction.

2:20Sometimes these influencers have personalities, like the human ones, of course, and they're hard to deal with. And the corporations are like, I'm writing a check and they start to deal with them whining or complaining or them not showing up on time or all this kind of stuff. With the AI influencer, literally, dude, you're putting in prompts, you're telling it you want it to X, Y, and Z, and it does exactly what you're looking for. And if not, you just go in and you modify it until you get it exactly the way you want. And there's no complaints based from the person who owns the AI influencer or the corporation.

2:51It's just easier. But what we are seeing with some of these AI influencers, the person running the account, right? Because it's owned by individual, sometimes starts having ego boost from all the money that they're making. And what's happening with these corporations is like, dude, we don't want to deal with this onto the next. Yeah. So see, that last part is interesting. So in essence, we were saying the same thing. This is interesting because Neil and I think differently, but we did actually say the same thing there. But towards the end, no matter what, you're still going to have to deal with some human BS because there is a human that's pulling the strings.

3:29And so, but I think we're going to see such a proliferation of these that maybe it won't matter as much, but we'll see how it goes. Yeah. All right. So let's move on to, let's move on to you pick one well my sheet's loading again here i'll pick i'll pick i'll pick okay so tesla's rich investors gave elon musk this advice and he ignored i thought this was interesting this is a story about um tesla love love him or hate him right so in 2018 tesla's investors gave elon musk advice number one don't do not tweet okay number two do not talk to politicians number three be polite. Number four, be boring.

4:13He ignored all the rules and proved them wrong. So this is written from Ron Barron. You know the guy that's on CNBC all the time? He was the one who gave that advice? Yeah, this is an email from him. So the subject line says, Jackie Robinson, Mandela, MLK, Gandhi, Reed Hastings. He's like, what do they all have in common? They turned the other cheek. My personal favorite as a Brooklyn Dodger fan and Jackie Robinson fan, Jackie Robinson, all ultimately successful. We have spoken before about all the interests aligned against you and Tesla. Short sellers, OEMs, dealers, unions, oil and gas companies, utilities, all want to see you fail.

4:43All want to have Tesla stock fail. They want you to go bankrupt. They want people to believe you can't make the cars. If you do, they won't be safe. If they are safe, they won't be profitable. You are an unstable leader. Competition is coming. You will need capital you can't obtain. You got the drill. Your job is just to make the cars and sell them and make them better every day. That's all. It's a lot, but that is under your control. Media is not. That is the answer. Don't let them distract you from the mission. I'm with him. I actually believe that is the better approach for most entrepreneurs and most executives.

5:19I think Elon has defied a lot of people. And when I say defied, I'm talking about the fact that he's just done so much more in a crazy good way than a lot of people have never expected. I would never bet against him. But the reality is, is the majority of us, at least I can speak to myself, we're not Elon Musk. It is very hard to do what he is doing from a business standpoint and creating all these quote unquote, you know, multi-hundred billion, if not, you know, trillion plus dollar companies and doing them at the same time. So I think for the average person, they should keep their mouth shut, not get into politics, not tweet about stuff that could be controversial and just focus on their business.

6:03This is correct advice. And I mean, from Ron Barron, it makes sense. I mean, he's a large shareholder in Tesla. So he's incentivized to protect his investment. I agree 99.99999 % of people should just follow this. And actually, you know what? If Elon had just not gotten involved with Twitter or politics and just kept his mouth shut, there'd probably be a lot more allure around him. But you know what? I'm entertained by it. so he can do whatever he wants. It seems like it's worked for him. I just don't think it's going to work for the vast, vast, vast majority of people. So take that to heart. If you're going to start a business, most of us just follow this advice, especially the be boring one.

6:39Yeah, but we're also seeing the pendulum swing globally in which it's being a little bit more accepted for people to start speaking out and speaking what's on their mind. I don't think it's totally fully accepted, but it's becoming a little bit more accepted. And a great example of this is Jamie Dimon said, I'm tired of this. And he said a cuss word. This is not how you run a great company. And he was talking about virtual work, right? He just spoke his mind and people are tracking up about it online with Zoom. I think he used the F word with Zoom. Yeah. So F-ing Zoomers, something. And he's like, look, people on Zoom, they talk crap about each other.

7:18They're texting about the other person. and he's just like, I'm paraphrasing here, but he's like, you just can't be as creative if you're not in the office, you can't do great work. And guys, don't hate me, I won't hate you, but it's a free country. You don't have to work here if you don't want to, you can go work somewhere else, but we're gonna run things. We didn't become a great company by working from home and the work from home Friday stuff, that's all BS. I can't get ahold of anyone on Fridays and I work seven days a week and we're gonna do things that got us to become the great company that we are today and I'm done with this BS.

7:48Yes. Yes. And on top of that, Jamie talks about something that's really important that I think people mess up on, not just in business, but in their personal lives as well. And he states, if you're in a meeting with him, you have his attention. He's listening. He's there. He's engaged. He's not texting on his phone or doing something else or thinking about something else. He's there in the moment. And when I look at a lot of entrepreneurs and marketers, not just in business, but also in their personal lives, they're too distracted. If you're going to do something, be in the moment. And I remember for me, it changed when I watched a Gary V clip years and years ago.

8:27And I remember Gary talking about how he travels a lot. He doesn't necessarily spend the most time with his children compared to someone who's a nine to fiver in his home each and every single day. But when Gary does spend the time, he's in at 110%. And for me, that's resonated with me for so many years, because when I eat dinner with my family, I'm in at 110%. I don't want to pick up my phone. I don't want to answer a call. We sit there, we talk, we're engaged, not just in the work environment, but also my personal and put in 110 % of your energy into whatever you're doing that moment. And you should see better results.

9:04You know, when we had the office in downtown LA, um, whenever we were in a meeting together, this was drilled into everyone. This was kind of beaten into everyone's brain here, where if you took out your phone, I would just stare at you. And then we paused the whole meeting and just say, we'll wait for you. Right. And the reason we did that was because of the same reason, like we want to be fully engaged. It's not. And if there's the only laptop that's out is the person that's running the meeting, unless we're doing a brainstorm or something like that. But you know, you take your phone out, we're going to look at you.

9:34You take your laptop out, we're going to because we know you're doing other stuff. And our ultimate rule here was you have to be respectful to each other. And it's very difficult to do through Zoom. I can't even hold people accountable. And sometimes I'm even looking at other stuff on my screen, right? And so as we continue to build in LA again, it's going to come back and where it's like, yeah, no, you're going to... In fact, when we do these EO or YPO meetings, your phones are required to be off and we actually put them in a box and you can't open them until it's like break time. Really? Yeah.

10:04Yeah. And some people really hate that. I brought that over to one of the retreats where Yaniv and Syed were there. Yaniv hated that one, right? Because Yaniv looks like his phone all the time. But it forces you to focus because the moment you look at an email and it says something, your mind's on that. It takes you out of it. I've seen it happen so many times. Yeah. Yeah. So look, and by the way, we're not saying Jamie is, he's doing what's right for him. And I think you have to understand what's right for you and just do whatever feels authentic to you. And speaking of authentic, you have a topic here about being raw and authentic is a great form of marketing.

10:38Yeah. Did you see how baby X was in the Oval Office? I think that kid's name is X, right? I'm not sure. Was it X? I don't think it's, I'm not sure. what's uh elon musk kid name in oval office uh elon musk brought his four-year-old but what's his four-year-old's kid's name it doesn't matter okay with president's four-year-old son x a e a often called little x so let's go call him x all right little x little x so trump and elon were speaking in the little office or in the oval office, Elon brought little X, his son and forget what they were talking about. I know what they're talking about, but let's forget that for the moment.

11:28I'm not saying what they're doing is right or wrong. That's people can decide on their own. Little X told Trump, shh. Did you see that? Uh, I didn't see. I told, I saw Trump telling the quiet down. Yeah. And, uh, do you also saw when he's like, you're not the president who little Alex. He said that to Trump? That's what people were telling me. I saw it all online. I didn't see it. Unless it was modified with AI. I didn't see it. You're probably right. I didn't see it. Right? But either way, forget what was happening. He was playing with his dad's head. He was messing around. And I didn't watch it live, but I just saw clips online.

12:05And again, some of them could have been modified by AI, so who knows what's real and who's not. But it was just raw and real. You're seeing people, you know, real time, things happening. It's not perfect. and it just becomes more authentic. It's more relatable. Another great example of this is Mark Zuckerberg. I cannot relate to the old Mark Zuckerberg. Heck, I don't necessarily relate to him now from like UFC and jujitsu or all this kind of stuff. I'm not into any of that. But when I just look at him, he looks more quote unquote relatable because it's just real. That old one just seemed like more like a robot that was programmed and is just, you know, doing what's supposed to be right instead of just being your real self.

12:47Let me ask you a question. Yeah. So this was tweeted by the White House this morning. Okay, this is authentic. Now let me ask you, when does authenticity go too far? So they tweeted a meme, the White House, the account with the grape check mark. And it showed a picture of Trump and then Hooman, the ice guy, the guy that's handling deportations, right? So it shows both their faces. It's like a pink meme. It's like a Valentine's Day card. It says, roses are red, violets are blue. come here illegally and we will deport you. The White House account posted that. I think corporations need to be to match whatever their brand or perception is supposed to be.

13:28So for example, the White House should be serious because it's a serious organization. But you can have individuals with personality and show them raw and authentic. I don't think that should have come from the White House account. No, I agree with that. That probably should have come from Trump or the ICE guy. I don't think that should have come from any of them. Well, that's where I think authenticity can be damaging because that's a pretty damn polarizing one. So it is. I think it's bringing your kids to work, I think, is authentic. I think you have to exercise your own judgment. And at the end of the day, who are Neil and I to tell you what you should and shouldn't do?

14:03Do whatever feels right to you. Totally agree with that. We look at it as you may have beliefs, but if your beliefs are going to make a lot of people hate you and you're in the business of making money, like selling cars or shoes or whatever it may be, you got to keep that in mind because the mission of the corporation is to generate revenue and ideally profits. So if you're doing something that can hinder it, you should watch out. It may not hurt you. Like if you look at Elon, he's done exceptionally well and his net worth has actually just climbed up since the Trump presidency election. But again, we're not Elon and I would say for most people, it's going to damage your business.

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16:57But inflation is coming up and interest rates won't be coming down soon. How does this affect market? And you know what's funny? That was one of my predictions. It's already coming true. You want to go to the bathroom while I go talk on this? Yes. All right. So what's happening right now is things like tariffs are affecting the economy. And you're seeing things like inflation go up. It was in January reported numbers were roughly 3%. There were some periods where it got down to, I believe, 2.3%, depending on what number you're looking at. But it doesn't necessarily just go down or stay flat. Directionally, it's been coming down, even if certain months, it starts going back up.

17:39But directionally, it has been going down. And because things like tariffs and other things can be happening, and there's uncertainty with what's happening globally with trade and trade wars and all that kind of stuff, like China has increased tariffs on the US once Trump announced them. You're seeing things like this affect business. People are optimistic about the economy, but they're cautiously optimistic. And when I say people, I'm specifically talking about businesses and businesses, even if they think something's going to improve or not, they're not necessarily dumping a ton of money into marketing right now.

18:20You're seeing companies willing to spend more on ads as long as it's profitable. You're seeing companies be willing to spend more on specific marketing initiatives as long as you can show profitability. But when it comes to experimentation and running a lot of different tests, we're seeing companies just being more hesitant about the experimental side of marketing until the economy recovers, but they're okay spending more on marketing as long as a positive ROI could be produced. And realistically, because the Fed and others are saying, hey, it'll be later into the year where we think rates will probably start going down.

18:56It's more so businesses just aren't willing to risk a lot of dollars, whether it's on marketing or other things. But if you can show them profitability, they'll spend all day long. Yeah, profitability is cool again. And I think people are still, people are cautiously optimistic. They need to see, I mean, lower interest rates mean people will spend more, right? But here's the thing. People are like, oh my God, I have people fighting me. It's like, oh, this doge cutting things is bad. I'm like, look, if you can cut a trillion or$2 trillion or so, that actually ends up bringing inflation down, interest rates will come down as well, and then spending will go up more, and then the economy, hopefully, knock on wood, should be better.

19:34Without getting political, there's two types of things that kills people's money. One is inflation. I mean, one is, yeah, one is inflation. And what was the other one? Other one is just spending power? No, taxation? Taxation. Deflation kills you too. Deflation. I forgot what the two are. I'm not an economist, but inflation is the hidden one that a lot of people don't think about over time. Taxes happen no matter what, right? Taxes, which is like in the form of direct taxes. inflation is a form of tax as well. Yes. Yeah. And money printing is a form of inflation too. So ideally we control the spending so we don't keep acting like this drunken sailor.

20:13And so, yeah, don't want to get political, but inflation is bad for everybody. And I'm not an economist. I don't know most of us. Neither of us are. Yeah. Okay. So I got this one over here. Duolingo did this thing. Did you see what they did with their mascot? The birdie? Yeah, they have the bird. Yeah. So, okay. so Duolingo posted a tweet saying their mascot died so Dua Lipa I guess was the name and it got 69 million views in the statement and isn't that a singer? I don't know Dua Lipa? I don't know is Dua Lipa a singer? yeah so it mentioned Dua Lipa it is not? it mentioned Dua Lipa at the end because they sound similar right and so get 69 million views on statement and get a Dua Lipa quote tweet so I think that celebrity who you're talking about I guess saw it and it looked very similar so they like retweeted it or quote tweeted it.

21:03And the big brands like Netflix and Halo quote tweeted it. Search interest hit all time highs. And so it basically went like this after the tweet happened. So I think they did a form of hijacking a brand and then they actually liked the creativity around it. And then a post tweet, it said in lieu of flowers, please do a Duolingo lesson. Profit, this is a meme marketing masterclass. So they eliminated the character, the mascot, and they still got a lot of impressions for it. Do they technically really delete it or they're just saying temporarily it's dead? No, I think it's dead. Huh. So they're pretty much done with their mascot.

21:39And then the little mascot here, it shows the eyes with the two X's, so it's as if it's dead. And there's like a ghost in this suite. Dua Lipa. I thought that's the artist's name. Dua Lipa? It is. Look. Dua Lipa. It's just some singer. Yeah. I have no idea. Same spelling. D-U-A L-I-P-A? D-U-A L-I-P-A. Correct. Yeah. I don't know what she sings, but I know it's a popular singer. It's pretty funny. Oh, yeah. So she retweeted it. Look, so Dua Lipa retweeted it up top. Till death do a part. Ah, that's cool. Dua Lipa has 87 million followers just on Instagram. Yeah, that's smart. Probably happy for her that the same thing, you know.

22:23I wonder if they like, they probably collaborated ahead of time. Yes. Yeah. And they probably paid her. That's what happened. Did she put sponsored on there? No. She did not get paid. No. There's no way Duolingo would be paying people and not putting sponsored on there. Yeah. Duolingo, they're publicly traded from them. So yeah, they are. $18 billion markup. There's no way they paid her without putting sponsored. So that's what it is, guys. If you guys have any other questions, let us know. And that being said, go to marketingschool.io slash agency if you want to grow your agency faster. And we'll see you tomorrow.

22:59Thank you.