How Hannah Williams Built a 3M-Follower Media Brand Around Salary Transparency

0:00One of my favorite statistics about our impact is early on, I remember in year one, I ran a survey with our community and I asked them, I wanted to know, you know, have we helped people make more money? Like, have we actually had impact? And I put it in our stories and I asked people first question, like, have, have you made more money after watching our content because of our content? You know, not, not because of other factors. Several people said yes. And then I asked them, okay, what were you making before? And what are you making now? And I calculated the difference and I put it all together.

0:33Data analyst, you know, I love the numbers. And the number was, I forget the exact amount, but it was well over a million dollars.

0:41Hannah Williams:Welcome to the Hot Start Receipt podcast, the show where we break down how celebrities and creators build billion dollar brands. Today, I'm joined by Hannah Williams, the founder of Salary Transparency Street, the viral street interview platform on a mission to normalize paid transparency. Hannah skilled SDS to over 3 million followers and ultimately sold the company in a seven-figure acquisition to now this. In this episode, we unpack why salary transparency mattered so much to her, how she turned street interviews into a media business, what the acquisition process looked like, and what is next for the brand.

1:14Hannah Williams:So without further ado, let's get into the conversation. Hannah, thank you so much for being here. Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Scott. It's such a pleasure. Yeah, so you built Salary Transparency Street by interviewing people on the street about their salaries for the last four years. You grew up following over 3 million people and you recently sold the company for a seven-figure amount. But let's go back to the start. Why was salary transparency so important for you to begin with? Yeah, so very simple. I found out that I was underpaid myself. So back in the day, this was 2021, I was a senior data analyst supporting a government contract.

1:49and I found out that I was underpaid about$25 ,000 compared to other people doing the exact same thing. And it was just because of a lack of transparency that I didn't know what was out there. I hadn't learned how to negotiate or know my worth in college. And I just realized, you know, this is a system that is very broken, that needs a lot of information, and we're not seeing any change from, you know, the higher ups. We're not seeing companies make changes. So maybe if I bring people together and I make everybody realize that this information is helpful, we can cause change ourselves. And so that was really the motivating factor and then the goal.

2:28Hannah Williams:And you solved it, obviously, by doing street interviews. But was that really like the initial business idea that you had? Or did you also think about other formats or other business ideas to actually tackle the problem of paid transparency? That's a good question. So I had actually not created like hardly any content before starting Salary Transparent Street, but I had started kind of dabbling and doing my own content about how I became a data analyst. And that gave me a little bit of courage to start STS and get a sense of how to create content. But I had done a video where it was like my, you know, just talking to the camera and a sound, you know, like some voiceover.

3:06and I did how much I made in every job I've had because that was like my first taste of transparency and feeling like, okay, if I found out that I was underpaid and I never imagined I could make this much, maybe other people need that information too. So that was my first trial of any content related to transparency. And keep in mind, like I was not even a celebrity at that point, quote unquote celebrity, like I had no followers. And that video went viral, like it had over a million views and I was like wow okay this is not only a problem but clearly people are interested in getting information like this but I was like okay I can only talk about myself for so long I need to bring other people into it and I had seen people had started doing street interviews they weren't as popular back in like 2022 as they are now but I was seeing that that was kind of the the theme and where people were going.

4:01And so I remember just watching other other channels and trying to look at their mic and be like, What microphone are they using? How are they filming this? And I thought I felt like that was the best way to incorporate strangers get the most amount of data out there that I could get. And you know, it's easy to go up to people very quickly on the street like that versus trying to set it up and do like a podcast. I was like, this seems like the easiest format to get the most amount of people in data.

4:28Hannah Williams:Yeah, very interesting. And how is that interview format also evolved? Like, what is it right now? I look back at our first videos and I cringe so much, Scott. It's so hard to watch, but it has evolved. And it's crazy to see it from day one to day now. When we first started, you can even go back and see our videos. It was very direct. Like, what do you do? How much do you make? And I think it was because I was very scared and I just had not, you know, gotten comfortable with those questions yet. So it was very much like, OK, I have two questions for you. I'm terrified to ask you, like, let's just do it.

5:04And then I think I asked them, like, what's your dream job? And now I'm so much more comfortable talking to strangers that I can have a full blown conversation with them. That's very calm, very casual. And I get way more information. So it's not just what do you do and how much do you make? I try to get the backstory, like what's their educational background? How long have they been doing it? What industry are they in? Career advice. It has definitely evolved to include way more questions and a lot more depth.

5:30Hannah Williams:And also like content format wise, because like if you only have two questions, that is really good, obviously for short form content versus if you really want to get into the long form story about why they do what they do or what is their dream job, what is their motivation? It becomes obviously a different type of content fees for a different platform. So how are you also thinking about content format per platform? Yeah, that is such a good question because that's exactly what we're trying to figure out how to break into YouTube for now. So now that we've really like nailed short form, we know kind of what the theme looks like, what the structure, what the format, all of that.

6:06How do we apply that now to YouTube? And so our goal now with the NowThis team, since we've been acquired, having way better editors, way better camera equipment, I'm hoping that we can take it to the next step and really do, you know, that let's go a step further. Let's get into their backstory. Let's get way better content. Let's go a little bit longer than 60 seconds. And that's where we're hoping to go now.

6:29Hannah Williams:And yeah, you mentioned that with your first video, you immediately went viral. I think like after the first video, you got like 50k followers. Two weeks later, you already had 400k followers. Why do you think that the content resonated so well instantly? I think timing was a big part of it. I know some people had created content here and there asking people how much they made. but no channel had been created yet whose sole purpose was to ask people how much they make and in a repeatable daily format where you know exactly what you're going to get whenever you follow and so I really think that the timing was that crucial bit of it that we were the first to do it and I get a lot of hate for that because people are like you own asking people how much they make it's like I'm not saying that but I was the first to create a street interview channel out of it and it has you know inspired a lot of similar channels today so I don't think it's a bad thing I think the more transparency that's out there the better but there is something to be said about being the first to do it and that being the reason for why we're so successful versus other channels that start similarly today I'm sure they'll experience some success but will you achieve the exact same success that we've had I'm not sure yeah it's so interesting because like I I literally was just on holiday with friends that I've been friends with for the last 15 years.

7:47Hannah Williams:And some people are very transparent about their salary and some people I have no idea. And they also don't want to say anything about their salary. Why do you think there's so much stigma around the topic of salaries in general? I love this question. I think it's very personal. I think we have yet as a society to remove the personal aspect from our pay. And I think that a lot of us internalize our pay and think that however much we make reflects something about us. You know, I've talked to so many people. And one of the things that makes me always sad that I hear on the street is when I ask people, can I interview you?

8:21A frequent response I get is I don't make enough. Like, I don't think it's worth my it's worth your time for me to even share with you. It's not going to help anybody. And I'm like, actually, you're who I really want to talk to because I think we need to expose the low pay. Like everybody can make six figures, seven figures, you know, and there's always a little bit of a is that true? But no one questioned if it's true about how low somebody makes. And I think that there's just shame that people internalize that shouldn't exist. What we make says absolutely nothing about who we are, our value to society, or what we bring to our daily lives.

8:55Pay is determined by company and economy. It's not determined by our personality or our values or who we are. So I think it's really a lot of people are feeling shame about how much they make, and that can be for low earners and high earners as well. There's people who have family dynamics. Another common thing I hear is, I don't want my family to see how much I make. And that's always interesting to me because I'm like, what's going on here? But like I said, it's incredibly personal. And I think everybody has their reasons for wanting to be transparent or not wanting to be transparent. But ultimately, I hope that we realize that when we have the opportunity to uplift someone, especially in a similar career path, that's where transparency matters the most.

9:38You know, if you talk to somebody in a completely different career path and find out how much they make and you have no interest in that career path, then it's very high level. It's more of a calm conversation. But if there's a lot at stake, that's when people, I think, get nervous. And so always proceed cautiously in those conversations. Give people grace and don't take it personally yourself either.

9:59Hannah Williams:I love that. And especially in the needs of business owners, because like as a starting entrepreneur, you don't make any money and you can barely pay yourself. And then three years later, when you have a little bit of success or you hire your first person or whatsoever, the outside world immediately thinks that you can buy like a Ferrari and you can buy like a nice first class plane ticket or whatsoever. But people obviously don't know what's behind the numbers or whatsoever. And also different business models, right? Like for me, like everything in my business is focused on building equity positions.

10:29Hannah Williams:Whereas like our friends who chose to be dropshippers. And for them, it's about cash flow. It's about making as much money as you can right now, but there's not much equity value down the road. So I think it's also very interesting just in the niche of business owners to be more transparent about what is the short term and also long term business model of yourself. Absolutely. And the more we talk about it, the more everybody can learn from one another. But that really plays into if we don't talk about it, there's that secrecy and it allows people to make more mistakes instead of learning from our own mistakes.

11:01Hannah Williams:And when you started this, did you always think that you could eventually turn this into a full-time job and even a business that you could eventually sell? Or was that not on the roadmap at all? I think when I started it, it was really just a passion project. I knew that I wanted to have impact. I wanted to help people. I was not thinking that this was something that was going to replace my full-time job at the time. I was like, this is going to be a nice, fun little side hustle that I can do on weekends. And that did not happen. Like we mentioned, you know, our first video went massively viral.

11:32And within the first week of, I think we posted the video on Saturday. And so the following week, I was DMs from major media organizations that wanted to interview me. I started having conversations with companies like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn. They were like, this is huge. Like, we would love to work with you and get in early. And as soon as I started talking to brands within those first two to three weeks, I was like, okay, I'm dumb. if I can't monetize this. Like there's clearly a business opportunity. And I think that was really inspiring for me because I knew that I wanted to do something that was a passion project that I felt good about, that I knew had impact.

12:10But a lot of people know that you can't monetize things like that. A lot of times the passion projects are just not monetizable. So it shocked me in the best way to see that there was a very immediate response to it. And ultimately, it was not my goal to quit my job, but I did end up quitting my job three weeks after our first video. I remember when I quit, my manager was like, you know, if this TikTok thing doesn't work out, like, you can come back. We'll take you back. And I was like, I'll let you know. Like, we'll see what happens. And my husband followed me a couple weeks later. We had about a six-month emergency fund stacked up.

12:46And I think we ran out of all of it. And we got our first payment from a brand deal, like, right at that six months. So we cut it very close, but we were able to monetize pretty quickly and it ended up all being worth it.

12:59Hannah Williams:That's crazy. I don't think I've ever met a creator who literally within three weeks of posting their first video, like actually ended their career to focus on it full time. Have you heard a similar story? No, and I don't recommend it. And I do want to stress to anybody listening that that is an outlier situation. I almost feel bad sometimes talking about it because I don't want other similar creators to feel like they're behind or they're doing something wrong. They're not. My story is truly the example of luck and timing. Like I mentioned, you know, being the first channel to really establish this niche helped us so much.

13:37It really skyrocketed our growth. But for most creators, 99 % of them, you're going to have to put in several months, if not several years of work to establish yourself and then take that leap of faith. But, you know, having those conversations with brands and figuring out how you can partner with them definitely helps speed up the process.

13:55Hannah Williams:Yeah, obviously you're very open about your own salary and about the business model of SDS as well. So can you actually break that down for us? Like, how do you make money as a company? We make money. 96, 97 % of our revenue comes directly from brand partnerships. So partnerships with Capital One Cafe, companies like Indeed, Glassdoor. And those partnerships are robust. They're usually months long. They're not just like a one video, one and done. They're multiple videos, multiple different deliverables. And this is where I think it's really important to have not just a channel, but to have additional factors like a newsletter, have a website, because those are all things you can upsell.

14:35Not only was I able to sell a video on my channel, I was able to sell a podcast ad and a newsletter ad and an ad on my website. So that's a way to increase the amount that you take home each month. And especially those long-term partnerships, make sure that you've got consistent revenue coming in. But 96, 97 % for brand partnerships, the other 3 % comes from ad revenue, like, you know, YouTube views, TikTok creator fund. We make no money from products. We don't sell any merch. We don't sell any courses, any digital products, nothing like that. Yeah, that's where all our revenue comes from. And like you mentioned, you know, once you start making money, people think that you, you know, are now rich.

15:14And I remember we made our first million dollars in gross revenue. And I think we profited 600 ,000, I believe in our in our first full year, which was phenomenal but I remember we reported it and my family was like okay so vacations on you next time and it was these conversations that I had to have with my friends and my family that you know just because the business made that much doesn't mean that I made that much I'm on salary and I believe when we started the business we didn't have you know a team and many expenses so my salary was set at I believe 150 to 200 ,000 maybe 250 at the highest but once we started hiring people and our expenses went up, my salary went down to 150k to, you know, make room for that.

15:59I was happy with it. And to this day, I still make 150k now at now this since we've been acquired.

16:05Hannah Williams:Yeah, very interesting. And I love that story. Because what I see is that many creators, they build a following. And I think you're different because you actually build a business, you have built different pillars, you have built a salary database, you have built resource platform, you've built a website, you built a newsletter, and you've built real assets that eventually could be acquired. And so many creators, they just create content and they cannot replace themselves or whatsoever. And you have actually built a platform that is not solely reliant on you, that can actually outlive you. So how have you actually decided to build what type of products or what type of resources in that process to thinking about, hey, this is actually an acquirable asset?

16:43Yeah, I think my biggest tip here when it comes to building something that hopefully will acquire is to think long term and not to think short term or, you know, how quickly can I make, you know,$10 ,000 a month from this thing. I've made$0 from our salary database. Like we don't, I mean, I think we do Google ads. So I make like 10 bucks a month, which is nothing. But, you know, it's not something that I immediately saw as something that I could charge other people. I positioned, I tried to think of what is missing right now in the job search process. Like what else can fill a gap instead of recreating something that already exists?

17:23I feel like that is not always successful because, you know, if something already exists, sure, it can be acquired, but really the strength is something that is missing, that fills the gap. And in my experience finding out I was underpaid, when I would go to sites like Indeed and Glassdoor and I would look up how much does a data analyst make in my area, I would get an average. I would get a specific amount based on my years of experience, my education, all these things that were really important. So I figured the salary database is something that fills in that gap. Now people can share their salaries and look it up directly and it's individually searchable, not an aggregated result.

18:04So I also was asking myself, do I charge people for this? Like what kind of a product am I creating? And I could see another creator in a similar shoes charging for it and I think that's totally fine but personally for me I didn't feel good about charging for it I felt like this is information that should be easily accessible to all I made no money off of it I think I spent about$300 ,000 coding it from scratch with the team and building this beautiful product but for me I don't feel bad about it because I know that it's acquirable and actually part of our deal with now this is that they didn't want our technology they only wanted our content and our brand name.

18:43And I was okay with that because I was like, okay, you can go buy that. I'm going to keep building this. And I know that this is acquirable in the future as well. So I have a double acquisition here potentially on my hands. And I think that, you know, focusing on filling the gap and creating something that people find a lot of use for instead of monetizing another product has helped us build a really strong product that I hope will get us to acquisition sooner rather than later.

19:10Hannah Williams:Yeah, I love that you actually walk through the decision of monetizing your own business model, right? Because there's other creators, take someone like a Miss Excel, who was teaching people about Excel, and she actually has her own digital products or whatsoever. But for her, it makes much more sense to actually monetize that in the short term, then for you, you're actually building a movement, a platform. And the more eyeballs, the more people are on your platform, the more the value is of your platform, obviously. And it's very interesting that now this is actually not interested about that.

19:39Hannah Williams:So is that also in the future going to be somewhat of your focus building like out this platform, building out the tech component, building out a digital product that you can eventually exit as well? Absolutely. So I'm actually very excited about having kind of two jobs now where I'm a supervising producer at now this and I really get to wear the creative hat that I wasn't able to wear running the business. But now I still get to apply myself in that business building aspect of building out this tool that I love and just value so dearly. And where I can't tell you what we're doing now because I think it's such a good idea.

20:14And it's another one of those things that hasn't been done yet that I think is really going to change the way that we apply to jobs. But we're building something in the background with a team that I hired in Canada. And I'm so excited about what the future holds there.

20:27Hannah Williams:Super exciting. And as you mentioned, SDS was recently acquired by NowThis. So Kate, tell us more about what makes them the right partner for this acquisition and why did you actually decide to sell? Yeah, so we, I feel like some people might look at this and be like, I thought she said she would never sell. And that's true. In prior interviews early on, we had been asked, you know, is this something that you would sell? Are you interested in, you know, getting investment or anything? And I was very, very dead set on, I would never sell STS. STS is my baby. Like there's no right partner for this.

21:00Like we're going to do this all by ourselves. And around year three was when I realized this is a lot of work, like building a business, you know, not just creating content day to day, but having this robust map for, you know, a system for how STS works. It was a lot. And I also started to recognize my strengths as a founder and as a creator and my weaknesses. And, you know, putting ego aside, I recognized, you know, I love the creative side. I love brainstorming. I love coming up with content. I love executing the content. I don't like editing the content, which is what I've been doing for the last four years.

21:37I don't love sales calls. I don't love the negotiation with brands. And I've been doing that for the last four years. And so there was a lot of conflicting energy where there was a lot of movement propelling us forward. But I felt like I was almost holding us back from achieving these things because I was burning out. And I know some people would say, well, just hire, hire a team. And I had tried to hire, but it's very difficult to hire in the creator economy. You have to look for something very specific. I'd just been burned a lot and I think I was a little tired of trying to find the right people.