A large portion of influencer income comes from merchandise, aka: merch...so it felt like a no-brainer to have the Founder of the top merch brand, Fanjoy, Chris Vaccarino come on the show and break down why this poiece of the puzzle was so relevant. On this episode, you'll learn how Chris turned promoting his brother's band with t-shirts into a mulit-billion dollar merchandise company. Chris also tells us what's next for Fanjoy, and drops behind the scenes knowledge about the influencers he has worked with, from David Dobrik to Elle Mills to Jake Paul.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Behind the influence a production of I Heart
Radio and TDC Media. There's probably some times where we
were like, this is our last the last month, and
then we get a phone call and a project will
kind of come through, and we went from essentially selling
twenty thousand units and we shift almost like eight hundred thousand.
(00:22):
But we were able to kind of adjust, We adapted,
and we just kept going and kind of kept pushing
every ten knowes we gotta yes. All those yes is
kind of kept fueling us and kept fueling the company
to the next level. Chris's company is a small, little
company you may have heard of, called fan Joy. When
I say small, I'm lying. It's basically the leading merch brand.
(00:42):
That's what I would say. I say it's number one, Chris.
We couldn't say anything less. No, it's something that's definitely
number one. It didn't just become number one overnight. And
you also the path to getting to where you are
today interesting story, and we want to dive into that.
With a lot of tech influencers and start up up
phenomenons like yourself, we really like to get the backstory
(01:03):
because there's a lot of people that are gonna be
listening to this that want to start their own companies,
they may be overwhelmed, intimidated and kind of hearing your
journey and maybe the places you may have failed and
then overcome those failures might inspire somebody to kind of
take the leap like you did. So let's take your
way back. I don't think you went to school thinking
I'm going to make T shirts for David Dobrick one
(01:24):
day and be super successful at it. So what was
the path? Yeah? I mean the path was. I think
I've always had something kind of like an it or
like a burn to like build something, and like want
to build something big. I don't think I ever had
the right concept or idea in the very beginning. My
my mom actually was an entrepreneur. She's always you know,
(01:44):
started her own businesses, and I've kind of got that
drive from from her and just seeing kind of her
being persistent with the businesses that she had, mainly like
the restaurant space. I don't know. I think I think
for that, you know, being a CEO or a founder,
you kind of have freedom to do whatever you want.
And I think I was really attracted to that, you know,
growing up by I was like it was in like
(02:04):
the hospitality restaurant industry, and then after college, you know,
I really wanted to focus something that was outside of
outside of that, and not knowing what I wanted to
want to do, I moved to San Francisco with my
girlfriend at the time, who's not my wife, who's about
to have our our child any minute now, and we
moved to San Francisco. I took a sales job at
(02:26):
just a random, random company, and during that time, my
brother's band, A Great Big World. They had a hit
song called say Something with Christina Aguilera that kind of
blew up, and from there, my brother was like, Hey,
we need to go on tour. Do you want to
come with us? And for me, I think that was
kind of like a once in a lifetime opportunity just
to say yes and do something different and kind of
(02:48):
from there, you know, touring the US for six months
selling merchandise on the road, I just I just saw,
you know, the magic and like the fans eyes every
single night when they saw them perform, and I was like,
how can I capture this experience or even connect them
in a more meaningful way outside of the venue, because
at the venue, everyone is super energetic, super positive, and
(03:10):
I didn't want that to die after the venue experience,
you know, ended. I wanted to keep keep living on
in some kind of former fashion. So I was trying
to brainstorm different ways to kind of connect musicians with
their fans. You know, there are a bunch of subscription
box companies out there, and I was like, can I
build a subscription box company for musicians to their fans
and would people buy it? So we actually launched in
(03:33):
twenty woteen. We launched with a subscription box from a
great big World to their fans, and we had about
two hundred fifty people signed up. And we we actually
almost made like a care package from musicians to their fans.
So we had five to seven different items in each
package and every three months they receive a package in
the mail. So we launched in January two subscribers. We
(03:56):
launched the second package in April two subscribe. Not that's
pretty decent for no marketing or right, Yeah, I mean
we use their social channels, right, their YouTube channel to
kind of get the word out there people are signing
up for a subscription. Yeah. It was good, it was great,
It was awesome. It was great. It was kind of
like you know, once you saw kind of like money
(04:16):
come in, like okay, this this could work, this is working.
How do we you know, grow it from there? You know,
for me, I wanted to kind of just get more
musicians signed up, and I would talk to all of
these you know, managers or agencies, and nobody wanted to
do a subscription box. It was like the one thing
that people didn't want to do. But I did connect
with Hillary duffs manager at the time, and she had
(04:38):
a new album coming out and I think it was
her first album in eight years, and he was like,
I don't want to do subscription box, but I do
want to do an album box. And I was like, okay,
let's let's do that. So that actually, you know, when
we watched that one, she sold thousands of units. And
from from that moment on, we kind of just started
doing more one off based packages, so around album releases
(04:59):
or book releases, and we worked with you know, the
Maria Maria Kerrey, the Elvis Estate, We worked with Pentatonics
all time, low a bunch of different musicians, and you know,
it went well. First year, I think we we did
ten thousand packages shipped, and then the second year, we
did about twenty packages ships. So is this just you
at the time or yeah, just beformer team. Did you
(05:20):
call it a company? Was it a company? It was
a company. Yeah. We actually had the paperwork filed, so
we were actually company. You weren't just in your house
like the first the first package together was actually in
my house and then after that experience, I didn't want
to do that again. But it was really good to
just kind of get hands on boxes everywhere. Yeah, I mean,
when you have seven different items that go into package,
(05:40):
it's just a lot of work that has to be
kind of coordinated and figured out. It's so curated exactly
how are you finding the what was going into the box?
Who was coming up with the creative for that? So
a lot of it, a lot of it was kind
of me giving suggestions to the to the talent, but
really we're trying to use their life experiences and their
interests in you know, what they liked and what they
you know, wanted to share with their fans. Talk us
(06:02):
through a box. I'm trying to wrap box. So it
was like exclusive merchandise and then products from brands that
she loved. So we had that because we had brands
kind of integrated into the packages that it maybe have
like a strong message behind the product or just something
that she used in it on a daily basis. I
think that that's genius. It was awesome. Yeah, fans really
loved it. It was just so personal and curated. I
(06:24):
love that. Yeah, okay, yeah. We applied that to the
different musicians that we kind of worked with, and a
great idea of Chris, thank you, thank you. I was trying.
I was trying to make something work, right. I was
like this, there's something here that is connecting with fans
when they received the package, and you know, people love
getting packages in the mail. I mean the surprise element.
I think totally super fun and like this limited edition
(06:47):
it's exclusive. Sometimes we had like signed albums in the
box or just signed items, one off items, polaroids, so
we try to get really that custom with it. I
guess for twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen years, you know,
we we really just went and tried to scale this business.
But it was just me in the company. So it's
(07:08):
hard to just do it as yourself and do it
by yourself. You know. We tried to raise money from BCS.
We tried to get into accelerated programs, and every time
they would just be like, it's not a scalable business,
something that's not for us. We even had a meeting
with a big music company and we were pitching this
idea for one of their artists, something that they weren't
(07:29):
doing at the time, and they actually like blew up
the meeting. Like as we were talking and describing what
we're gonna do, they just had a massive, massive, you
know argument in front of us, with half the team
wanting to do it with us, the other half saying
they can do it in the house. And it was
just like it was just like a big wake up call,
being like we don't need you guys. Kind of kind
of moment for it was. Yeah, even though there were,
(07:52):
you know, people on their team that were like, this
is a good idea, we should use fan Joy, you know,
they kind of have the mentality we can do it ourselves.
So it was fan Joy at that time. Totally. Yeah,
same same name name. Yeah. I mean there's there's a
lot of ups and downs. In the very beginning. You know,
we didn't raise any money, so a lot of it
was just credit cards using one project to kind of
fuel the next and some lucky breaks. There's probably some
(08:14):
times where we were like, this is our last the
last month, and then we get a phone call and
a project will kind of come through, and we kind
of they were one off projects. One off projects. Yeah,
people would want to do a subscription and the economics
just weren't there. I mean, a box that you everyone
wants to deal, everyone wants you know that the price
point has to be a certain certain price for people
(08:35):
to stay subscribed, and it was just it was just challenging. Yeah,
it was hard. It was hard to kind of keep
that going. But we did. We did test in just
doing like one off merchandise pieces, so selling just T
shirts and hoodies. And this was still for musicians, so
still for um well you were branching out, yeah, just
(08:56):
random people that would reach out to us, you know,
people who we did packages for, you know, box sets
for They were like, hey, can you make a T
shirt for us? And it was just me in the
company at the time, so I was trying to design
the shirt to myself. I'm in no way a graphic designer,
but I kind of got start. I opened up Photoshop
and kind of learned a little bit and try to
figure things out. It was always kind of just feeling
(09:17):
like you you have a challenge that you can't overcome,
and that was like kind of like what that time
of my life felt like. But it was also rewarding
knowing that, you know, once we did make it and
we kept going, that there could be light at the
end of the tunnel if I just keep trying. So yeah,
for so we you know, started working with just different influencers.
(09:38):
I started seeing on Instagram just random teenagers with you know,
hundreds of thousands of likes on pictures and I think
even at the time when someone got like ten tho likes,
I was like, whoa, this is big, Like this is
this is big, and I would like keep researching on
Instagram just seeing you know, sixteen year olds like twenty
year old just getting massive, massive engagement online um and
(10:01):
on their their social channels. So for us and for me,
that was kind of like an opportunity to see can
these kids sell anything? Do they have the power too?
Because they weren't selling it at the time, Like no
one was really pushing merchandise or products or their own
products at the time. Mostly brand deals, yeah, exactly, mostly
brand deals, but no no, no, No one really had
(10:21):
the aspirations to like build their own brand, or if
they did, they just weren't doing it, or at least
not through T shirts and hoodies. Right. So I actually
got a couple of influencers just via emailing them from
their email listening their Instagram profile, saying, hey, my company's
fan joy. We basically do all the work to create merchandise,
(10:44):
packages and experiences. Do you want to work together? And
this is still just Chris Chris. Yeah. And I had
a couple of responses from from two people, one being
Jake Paul him, Yeah, you've heard of him. He's actually
on this series. Nice, awesome, And and Jake actually responded
to two of the Team ten members that I reached
out to saying, hey, you know, I'm I'm working with
(11:06):
these guys. We can we can chat. This is the
end of okay, that makes perfect sense. And this is
when he Team ten and Jake Paul were literally the
top of the game. Yeah, just like started it. They
just started putting out a ton of content and Jake
wasn't doing merchandise at the time. I think after about
three months we kind of went back and forth and
(11:27):
he was like, I want to do a subscription box
and I was like, no, I think you want to
launch a hoodie. I was like, it's probably a lot
easier for us to just get started and just get
a product sold and into the hands of your fans
and them kind of you know, repping the community that
you're you're building. Did you know at that time how
big Jake Paul was going to be or did did
you see the trajectory, because obviously around that time his
(11:50):
following was growing rapidly. Did you have any idea? I
don't think I knew the kind of scale. Um, you know,
you saw all the the team members that he had
there following, the views they were getting on YouTube, they
engagement they were getting on their social channels, and I
don't think anybody really knew what was what was kind
of coming during that time or if it was just
(12:13):
a trend right exactly trendy. And we launched at the
end of sixteen going into the holidays a hoodie and
it did really well. I still remember the first Jake
Paul hoodie. Yeah, it was just a Team ten hoodie.
Was it just like a plane black hoodie with Team
(12:33):
ten logo on it? Simple didn't have twelve different items
in a box. It was just one hoodie that was
being produced and then shipped to fans. And that process
seems scalable, Like once we started selling thousands of them,
it became a much like feasible task for us to
kind of scale this business. But you didn't sell thousands
right away? Was it right away? It was almost immediate?
(12:56):
So he puts out I guess a photo or whatever
saying my marches available, or in his YouTube videos he
often points to merch that people could buy. How are
you able to even come up with a price point
because they're not cheap. The march is not cheap, I think.
We mean, in the very beginning, we kind of base
it off of other like clothing brands and kind of
(13:16):
what they were selling hoodies and T shirt tour. You know,
at the time, we weren't selling a ton of merchandise,
so we really didn't have a good concept or grasp
of what price people would pay for it. And especially
the demo, for example, Jake's demo. It's a little younger,
so where are they getting their money from? Obviously parents
give their kids whatever they want nowadays assholes. Yeah, but
(13:39):
you have to consider that too. Right, so totally. I mean,
we we priced it I think at forty dollars for
a hoodie, just pretty reasonable. Now reasonable I'm thinking about
that as a price point. It's great thinking about an
eight year old. Yeah, for children's clothing is probably way
way too expensive, which we kind of adjusted kind of
as we started launching youth youth sizes. And but you know,
(14:00):
the very beginning, we just we just sold adult unisex
you know, hoodies, and you know, it did, it did
really well. And from that moment on, I was I
was still in San Francisco at the time, and I
was like, I need to build a team around this
because as we continue to sell more and more products,
I can't do it alone. So I actually hired two
people January, and one was a graphic designer, one was
(14:22):
a project manager, and we just kind of hit the
ground running. We would essentially launch products almost weekly with
with Team ten, and then we would just basically on
board new talent, new clients. Almost every other week we
would get a referral, or we would get an incoming message,
or I would reach out to them, and we just
(14:43):
started on boarding more and more clients. In seventeen and
we went from essentially selling twenty thousand units then seen
we shifted almost like eight hundred thousand items. So with
the strategy behind I always under this when Jake was
promoting his merch it was constantly changing. Was that a
(15:04):
part of the strategy into making it feel limited release?
And did you notice that that helped? Because immediately things
were sold out and then there's this like you were
left out feeling, so the next time you're going to
jump on it quicker. What was the strategy behind that? Yeah,
a little bit of everything, right. I think at the
very beginning, we didn't know what would work, what wouldn't work,
so we tried everything that you can possibly think of
(15:27):
to see what would basically convert to sales. And for us,
I think we're now looking ourselves as we're an e
commerce company, so we had to kind of optimize and
figure out what strategies would work for for our clients
to make the most amount of money as possible. So
for us, you know, we would we would push that
limit edition message message as well as making sure that
(15:50):
you know, fans just also just felt part of the
community when receiving that product. So whether it's an insert
with a note from their favorite creator or winning I
don't know, a FaceTime after they purchased the product, whatever
it was. We just wanted to see what would work
and what kind of what didn't As we kind of
moved on and and onboard more clients and try to
(16:11):
apply these same strategies to you know, their brands. So
the supply and demand theory definitely works. It's you know,
human nature to want something you can't have, so that
was obvious and then changing it up making it more personal.
How is that process working with influencers because were they
a part of the creative process, Because now you have
a graphic designer chrisism In Potot, which is great cots
(16:35):
on that. So how hands on were the influencers with
the creative process? They're very hands on. You know, all
of them have kind of their own They're all creatives
in their own way, so they all have their own
you know, thoughts and ideas, and for us, it's kind
of just taking their design direction and aesthetic and kind
of running with it and hopefully creating something that they love.
(16:55):
But ultimately they would have you know, final approval, and
you know, they would give us most of the direction
of what we were actually creating. So if they didn't
love the product that we made, we weren't going to
sell it because they have to love the product and
wear the product for to sell. You know, people watching,
you know, consumers can tell if something is just kind
of being plugged and not you know, and that and
(17:16):
not like an organic or genuine way. So if they
actually wore it in their videos, if they if they
forgot was going to say. So. A perfect example I
think of what you're trying to say is when I
first met Jake this is like three or four years ago,
when he first moved to l A. He came to
some set and he was wearing a tight eye shirt. Right.
His merch includes tight eye hoodies. So basically, I think
(17:39):
you're trying to say the people, the people creating the merch,
it's stuff that they would wear basically, right, So we're
taking trends that they might wear elsewhere and kind of
a plan to their own brands. They're making apparel that
they would wear. Are you guys a part of the
direction and kind of guiding trends as well? Absolutely? Yeah,
So what we have a creative director kind of leads
(18:00):
that charge and just helps them find a unique direction
that can take inspiration from others, but kind of be
their own. We don't want to copy be a copycat.
We don't want to you know, step on any one
other other brands toes. We want to make sure they're
unique in their own way. So so totally were involved
in that whole design process, but for us, we also
take care of basically everything else. So on Fanjoy side
(18:23):
and helping build their brand, we look to the talent
and our creators to promote the product and kind of
give design direction and then FANJROI takes care of the rest.
So Fanjoy will take on any all the design, production, fulfillment,
all the customer support, everything regarding e commerce, so website development,
website management, we do email marketing, Facebook, Instagram advertising, everything
(18:46):
that it takes to build a brand is what Fanjoy
takes on. So we try to make it as turnkey
as possible for anyone with the following to kind of
build a brand and not have any headaches doing So, Yeah,
that was you kind of answered what I was gonna
ask next, was it's obvious why you would want to
work with influencers, why would they want to work with you?
But if it's so turn key. It sounds like a
no brainer. And then from a business standpoint, are the
(19:09):
influencers almost partners in the project with you? Are they
getting Obviously they're getting a cut or I don't even
know how to call it's not commission per se, but
it's their likeliness, right, So yeah, I mean they're they're
making it definitely is like a partnership model. You know,
they're making revenue on every item sold. Obviously we take
(19:30):
a small fee you know, of course per item sold,
but that kind of covers everything else that we kind
of handle in the back end. So really with them
the ones who are making pretty decent money with merchandise,
the ones who are doing at scale and selling dollands
of units kind of per month. And how many partners
do you have right now that are in that category? Um,
we have a we have a good amount. You have
(19:50):
a good amount of good amount that do that that much.
In sales, it definitely varies by creator and the amount
of kind of effort they put into it. So all
of their fans are kind of watching their platforms, so
if they're not pushing it or promoting it, it's really
hard for them to generate sales. But when they do,
you know, promoted on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook wherever
(20:12):
they'll see kind of return in sales. And then as
far as expectations when you do and turn to these
partnerships with influencers, is there on your end an expectation
from them to produce a certain amount of merch per quarter,
per or these all this is just like from a
business standpoint, do they are they obligated first, because you
(20:36):
have a business to run. At the end of the way, well,
we have, you know, we have standards and expectations that
we hope they hit. But I think for us kind
of something that we've learned along the way is that
even with somebody with six million followers doesn't necessarily mean
they're going to be able to sell a ton of
merchandise and products. Who are the people who are selling
not not names, but who what's the type of influencer
(20:59):
who's selling the most. It's a good question. I think
the ones who are super genuine and good at their craft.
So somebody who is a really good storyteller, Somebody who
can who has created a community instead of just a
following based on their looks, Somebody who's actually you know,
(21:19):
having influence over their fans by developing a deeper connection
that I don't know rises rises above just kind of
what you see scrolling through Instagram. Somebody who can connect
on a deeper level. It's not just the look at
me influencer, it's the we're in this together influencer. And
it's kind of hard to differentiate as well. I mean,
(21:41):
I think as many as people that you can look
on Instagram and YouTube and see, you know, views or numbers,
it's hard to see who's actually gonna be able to
sell products. So that's interesting because you're behind the scenes, right,
so you're seeing the inner workings and actually who has influence?
In our trailer we say people of influence, the real
(22:02):
kind because nowadays everyone is an influencer or a self
dubbed influencer. And I think your business model is like
very black and white as to who actually has influence
because if they're if they're driving sales, they have influence.
At the end of the day, we are influenced every
single day for what we buy, what we listen to,
(22:23):
how we think, even without even knowing it half the time.
Has there been anything that has surprised you in working
with influencers or their lack of influence or their power. Yeah,
I think the lack of influences the surprising part, just
because you see, you can see the engagement, and then
when they tell someone to do a swipe up or
(22:46):
click the link in my bio and they can't generate traffic.
You just started a question kind of who's following them?
Are they real people? Are they just way too young
to buy anything? Almost like is is all this real? Like?
What's real about this? That you can't get people to
click on a link and buy something? But obviously so
(23:07):
much of it is real because you're your company has
blown up in the last two years, right, like substantially
blown up. It's it's always been successful and the things
that you've tried, you know, but influencers kind of took
it to the next level. So there there is some
power to it. I guess it's just a matter of who, Yeah,
(23:29):
who has that power. But it's also I mean, on
the other side, it's also very surprising of who who
has that power and the people who do just the
amount of influence they do have over there over the
people who are supporting them. And I mean obviously, like
I don't want to say numbers, but they're they're just
being they're able to know. We want to know numbers.
(23:49):
You don't have to say names, but like because because
you know, I don't think people really understand how much
money there is in merch which is why I thought
this interview would be fantas stick. And I was saying
before we went on air that a lot of these
influencers are making most of their money from merch sales,
not from YouTube views, right, I mean, for the ones
(24:10):
who are doing really well with with merchandise and an apparel,
I think there are a lot of their merchandise sales
have surpassed any other stream of revenue they have, So
some of them are making hundreds of thousand dollars per month,
and you know, that kind of goes to tell you
that they do have power, they do have um influence,
(24:32):
and they are like starting especially with the apparel, they're
starting their own trends right that they're able to kind
of use they're they're um, you know, they're kind of
they're able to use you know, what they like in
their personal life and what they would wear and translate
that into their own products. And that's kind of when
they when they start wearing their own products and the
videos when they're always wearing it on Instagram. That's kind
(24:54):
of when fans are like, this is more than just
a piece of merchandise. I want to be part part
of this community that they're building. I think that piece
of merchandise to other people could be a T shirt,
but to some it's just it's a It kind of
gets them closer to the ones that they admired the most,
and they're able to to feel a deeper connection by
just owning a piece of their brand or something that
(25:14):
says something that relates to their favorite creators, and that's special.
And we see, you know, we see unpackaging, like unboxing
videos all the time of just fans, you know, crying
when they receive a T shirt, and some of us
are just like, why are they crying? But it's just
much more than that, Like they're they're they're impacting lives
on a daily basis that that we kind of can't
(25:35):
relate to because well, one they're probably younger than us
and they just have um they're almost seen as like
their best friend, and they might be to us might
be people who are just making YouTube videos, but to others,
they actually have this like friendship connection with something that
they watched, you know, constantly and consistently. What was the
(25:56):
because obviously you've worked with musicians and now you've moved
into this influencers base. Has that been the major difference
that because I know, when we think of rock stars
and they're on this, it's almost like they're on a
pedestal above us. With influencers, like you said, it's almost
like they're in the living room with you. So now
they want to support and buy. And did you notice
(26:17):
a direct correlation in sales between the two. Yes, so
I think, which is shocking because you look at musicians
and you're like, oh my god, Drake, But then I
wonder how much of his tour March sold versus David Dobrick,
for example. I mean, I think with musicians they can
sell the issue, and the kind of challenge there is
(26:39):
that they're not always putting out content to be able
to promote products. So if they are only pushing merchandise
or products on tour or on their socials because they
know they're not putting out other things in between, it
might just be seen as kind of like a money grab.
Whereas like these creators and YouTubers. You know, they're constantly
(27:00):
now content and they're not afraid to plug the merchandise,
whereas someone like, you know, a famous musician might be
be seen as like that's that's tacky, that's cheesy, I'm
not gonna push my own products, whereas this is kind
of the livelihood of a lot of our clients. So
like this generates most of the revenue for them on
a monthly basis, So they're gonna promote it and they
are going to push it, which yeah, musicians kind of
(27:23):
have there's they'll promote two times, whereas like a creator
will promote twenty times, and that's kind of like, you know,
it's all about traffic and click throughs and people who
see the product pages to eventually buy. So it's just
more much more consistent and constant with the influencers. So
when influencers partner with you, is this something that are
(27:45):
you actively seeking out partnerships with people that you think
are good for the brand or is has it been
an organic thing? Because I'm sure a lot of people
just make introductions and they're like, hey, you should meet
with this person, they'd be great for it. And what's
the process like for you now now that it's super
successful and you don't have to introduce yourself when you
walk into a room. They know what FANJOI is. Yeah,
(28:06):
I mean now we have a lot of incoming kind
of client client outreach to us. For us, I think
we're at the point where, in the very beginning, we
were saying yes to literally everyone, which it's probably a
very bad thing to do, but I think it kind
of we learned along the way of not onto the
traps of onboarding somebody who's not able to sell something,
(28:26):
and now we're much more selective of who we who
we bring on and mainly looking for the top tier
talent that can that can build a brand and not
just put out merchandise, because I think the creators that
we work with have the ability to build a brand
that kind of lives far beyond their face on a
T shirt. And yeah, I mean for us on the
outreach side, Yeah, I'm constantly d m in top talent. Yeah,
(28:53):
you have to you have to be you kind of
have to. You know, it's either their manager or their
agent or them. And I don't think it's bad to
go after all three and see who responds. In the
very beginning, I was only getting responses because I was
cold emailing or cold calling. So it works. So I'm
going to do it, and it's probably a little easier
(29:16):
now that you have the roster that you do yeah,
and you have Yeah, we have the case studies in
place to show that we have the know how and
the process is to help scale a company. And they're
making they're making money. It's like who's going to turn
down revenue stream? That is basically you guys are taking
all the work out of So you got into the
(29:37):
influencer space and you have all these wonderful people working
for you. Jake is kind of what spear headed, I
would say, is that pretty true? Spear headed the huge
surge and now you have this incredible roster of people
that you're working with. Can you name some of the
partners on Fanjoy totally? So right now we are supporting
around sixty different content creators um with building their brands,
(30:01):
some like David Dobrick. We have Sam and Colby, We
have the Try guys. We have Adelaide Morin, we have
l Mills, we have oh Man, we have a lot,
we have a lot. We have Tanna. We can't forget Tanna.
I feel like I need to pull out, pull out
my roster. But yeah, we have a good amount, and
you know, all of them are kind of unique in
(30:21):
their own way, and they're able to connect with their
audience on a much deeper level and have continue to
do it for years now, and I've kind of built
up that community that supports them no matter what. And
a lot of them have, you know, strong messages behind
what they do. And I don't know if I mentioned
Adelaide Morn, but she has a huge, you know, girls
supporting Girls campaign that she's done the last two years
(30:42):
where every month she basically donates proceeds to a new charity.
You know, people are really doing good in the world
with the products that they're making, which we can totally
support and give. I love that, so you do a
give back. They can do percentages based on and is
that through fanjoy or they do it through their own Yes,
it's do the FANJROI merchandise that they sell totally. Yeah,
And you know, at the end of the day, it's
(31:04):
it's kind of their messages whatever they wanted to be
and if they're able to use it for good, then
you know, we support. This is an unfair question to ask,
but I'm just gonna ask it. It's like asking who
your favorite child is to a mother, is there a
certain partner that you just have really enjoyed working with.
It's no shade to anybody else. It's just, hey, I've
(31:26):
really enjoyed working with this person. It's okay to have favorites.
We have favorite ice cream flavors. Nobody gets no I know,
I I really love David Dobrick. You know, David has
you know, created an incredible community with his his fan base,
and it's all via four minutes and two videos. Everybody
(31:47):
loves David. He's just he's just the golden child. Do
you know why he's the golden child. He's very likable.
David's very likable. If you don't know, if you ever
met David, but he has a very strong personality and
passion about his filmmaking, so that every time you see him,
the only thing really on his mind is what can
(32:08):
I film for the for the next video I'm making.
So he's very determined and very driven and being able
to see the scale at which his merchandise has kind
of reached. The brand has has grown that you know,
the clickbait brand is kind of taking on its own
its own best, so it's very it's very inspired to
see kind of where he was two years ago to
kind of what he's doing now and kind of that
(32:29):
growth along the way. And he's on tour doing with
Jason Nash. They have that views podcast tour they've done,
which also is very you know, it's very successful. I
think it's the top five top ten podcast. So yeah,
I mean, he has a lot of things in the
works at the moment, and it's interesting to see kind
of where our clients will be in a couple of
years from now, because a lot of them are you know,
(32:51):
when we started working for them, they were nineteen. Now
they're twenty three, which sounds I mean, it's still very young,
and they still have kind of a long ways to
go in their career. And you know, the ones who
will succeed will do great things for hopefully hopefully for
the world and kind of make a big impact. That's
so cool. Is there somebody is there a certain brand
(33:13):
or a certain influencer that you can't keep product because
it just always flies off the shelf. Would be David
at this point. David is one of them. Yeah, we
also work with the Try Guys, who are amazing group
of guys who make amazing videos and you know, they
really have built you know, their brand of the last
two years using their YouTube channel and using their their
(33:33):
comedy and their wit, and I've just been able to
generate a really strong bond with you know, all the
people who watch their videos. So people like the Try Guys,
people like David Dobrick, people like Sam and Colby, they're
just doing really well right now, and they're kind of
paving the way with a lot of like the more
custom pieces that we're doing as well. So for us,
you know, it's all about evolving the product. So if
(33:56):
we're able to create a much stronger product and a
much higher AUDI product, then the fans are going to
kind of see that and you know, want more of it.
So for us, it's always evolving and always testing what works,
what their fans want, what they don't want, and then
kind of going from there. So our show, we have
influencers on all the time, so I'll keep my eye
out and see who's a good fit for fan Joy
(34:18):
got to be top notch, top notch talent, authentic connect
with their fans will I'll have them slide directly into
your d I'll be there. Where do you see fan
Joy evolving, because obviously things change constantly. Is it the
(34:38):
company evolves or is it the type of people you
are reaching out to and partnering with? Does that evolve
take a little bit of both. I think I think
for us, you know, we kind of have the YouTube segment.
You know, talent tapped in, tapped in, you have the
case that he's there. I think, you know, obviously, beauty
(34:59):
is a big space, professional athletes is a big space.
Music is a big space. So we have these areas
that we can kind of grow out and continue to
do merchandise with our merchandise four. But I also think
there's a the ability to kind of work with our
top tier talent and just build upon the brands that
they have and see what other categories we can get into,
or what other products we can make outside of apparel,
(35:21):
outside of apparel, and trying to trying to follow what
Kylie did with Kylie Cosmetics, using her we all want
to follow. Yeah, yeah, we all just want to building
the company. So it's kind of taking learnings from that
and seeing like who else we can kind of partner
with and build something at a bigger scale. That's incredible,
that's really cool. So to advice to somebody who wants
(35:45):
to follow in the footsteps not necessarily exactly what you did,
but obviously you heard a lot of nose in the beginning,
and it had to have been a little bit depressing, right,
but you just kept going and now you have this
uber six deskbul company. So what do you say to
a young entrepreneur who wants to do his own thing
or her own thing. The first thing to do is
(36:07):
just start. Start, Like I know, it's it's always you know,
you're always trying to look for like the right idea,
the right passion project. But if you don't start and
just continue to try and evolve, you're never gonna get anywhere.
I also think making sure that you're able to adapt
and adjust when you see kind of the market shifting
(36:27):
is super powerful. And you know, how do we never
have moved over to merchandise in apparel after everyone was like, no,
the markets too saturated. We probably would be in the
same position that we were in, but we were able
to kind of adjust, We adapted, and we just kept
going and kind of kept pushing and you know, all
those nose it hurts. But I think we kind of
(36:48):
just we would take the note like every ten knows
we gotta yes, and we all those yes. Is kind
of kept fueling us and kept fueling the company to
the next level. And once you kind of find your
footing and find your your passion and it doesn't feel
like work anymore, that's kind of the ultimate goal. But
I never said out to kind of just chase money.
(37:09):
It was kind of that's a good benefit of it.
But my whole thing was I wanted to build something
that connected people, and I wanted to find a way
to do that at scale. So with that kind of
being the foundation of the company is kind of what
helped get us to where we are today. The other
thing that really stuck out for me as we were
talking is you did not have an ego along the way.
(37:29):
It seems like you were, like I just said, in
the trenches and you didn't have a problem. D m NG.
People are learning how to use photoshop, and I think
that that's something that I'm noticing. Anytime I am I'm
afraid to try something. It's the thing that holds me back.
So it's like just getting in there and not and
just doing it. It was just you for so much
of this journey. Yeah, it's really inspiring. It's also it's
(37:54):
I mean, it's gonna be tough, but I think that's
kind of what builds character, that builds you into a leader.
And then eventually when you're ready to hire people, you
just hire the best people that you think are good
for the job. But also remember that you have the
fire fast. Never forget fire fast. Oh my god, I
(38:15):
did forget. Thanks for reminding me. Now I can go
cry under my bed. It was so nice talking to you, Chris.
Thank you so much for stopping in. We are going
to be doing a giveaway with some cool fanjoy product,
so make sure you guys check us out on our
Instagram so you can win some cool ship. You know,
you just so much and I'm excited to see where
(38:38):
Android is going to go. So we will be keeping
tabs on you and I'm sure you will be surpassing Kylie.
I like that you got to put things out in
the universe, and I just put that out there, so
give me a cut. I got you behind the influence
of the production of I Heart Radio and t DC
Media
Welcome to Behind the influence a production of I Heart
Radio and TDC Media. There's probably some times where we
were like, this is our last the last month, and
then we get a phone call and a project will
kind of come through, and we went from essentially selling
twenty thousand units and we shift almost like eight hundred thousand.
(00:22):
But we were able to kind of adjust, We adapted,
and we just kept going and kind of kept pushing
every ten knowes we gotta yes. All those yes is
kind of kept fueling us and kept fueling the company
to the next level. Chris's company is a small, little
company you may have heard of, called fan Joy. When
I say small, I'm lying. It's basically the leading merch brand.
(00:42):
That's what I would say. I say it's number one, Chris.
We couldn't say anything less. No, it's something that's definitely
number one. It didn't just become number one overnight. And
you also the path to getting to where you are
today interesting story, and we want to dive into that.
With a lot of tech influencers and start up up
phenomenons like yourself, we really like to get the backstory
(01:03):
because there's a lot of people that are gonna be
listening to this that want to start their own companies,
they may be overwhelmed, intimidated and kind of hearing your
journey and maybe the places you may have failed and
then overcome those failures might inspire somebody to kind of
take the leap like you did. So let's take your
way back. I don't think you went to school thinking
I'm going to make T shirts for David Dobrick one
(01:24):
day and be super successful at it. So what was
the path? Yeah? I mean the path was. I think
I've always had something kind of like an it or
like a burn to like build something, and like want
to build something big. I don't think I ever had
the right concept or idea in the very beginning. My
my mom actually was an entrepreneur. She's always you know,
(01:44):
started her own businesses, and I've kind of got that
drive from from her and just seeing kind of her
being persistent with the businesses that she had, mainly like
the restaurant space. I don't know. I think I think
for that, you know, being a CEO or a founder,
you kind of have freedom to do whatever you want.
And I think I was really attracted to that, you know,
growing up by I was like it was in like
(02:04):
the hospitality restaurant industry, and then after college, you know,
I really wanted to focus something that was outside of
outside of that, and not knowing what I wanted to
want to do, I moved to San Francisco with my
girlfriend at the time, who's not my wife, who's about
to have our our child any minute now, and we
moved to San Francisco. I took a sales job at
(02:26):
just a random, random company, and during that time, my
brother's band, A Great Big World. They had a hit
song called say Something with Christina Aguilera that kind of
blew up, and from there, my brother was like, Hey,
we need to go on tour. Do you want to
come with us? And for me, I think that was
kind of like a once in a lifetime opportunity just
to say yes and do something different and kind of
(02:48):
from there, you know, touring the US for six months
selling merchandise on the road, I just I just saw,
you know, the magic and like the fans eyes every
single night when they saw them perform, and I was like,
how can I capture this experience or even connect them
in a more meaningful way outside of the venue, because
at the venue, everyone is super energetic, super positive, and
(03:10):
I didn't want that to die after the venue experience,
you know, ended. I wanted to keep keep living on
in some kind of former fashion. So I was trying
to brainstorm different ways to kind of connect musicians with
their fans. You know, there are a bunch of subscription
box companies out there, and I was like, can I
build a subscription box company for musicians to their fans
and would people buy it? So we actually launched in
(03:33):
twenty woteen. We launched with a subscription box from a
great big World to their fans, and we had about
two hundred fifty people signed up. And we we actually
almost made like a care package from musicians to their fans.
So we had five to seven different items in each
package and every three months they receive a package in
the mail. So we launched in January two subscribers. We
(03:56):
launched the second package in April two subscribe. Not that's
pretty decent for no marketing or right, Yeah, I mean
we use their social channels, right, their YouTube channel to
kind of get the word out there people are signing
up for a subscription. Yeah. It was good, it was great,
It was awesome. It was great. It was kind of
like you know, once you saw kind of like money
(04:16):
come in, like okay, this this could work, this is working.
How do we you know, grow it from there? You know,
for me, I wanted to kind of just get more
musicians signed up, and I would talk to all of
these you know, managers or agencies, and nobody wanted to
do a subscription box. It was like the one thing
that people didn't want to do. But I did connect
with Hillary duffs manager at the time, and she had
(04:38):
a new album coming out and I think it was
her first album in eight years, and he was like,
I don't want to do subscription box, but I do
want to do an album box. And I was like, okay,
let's let's do that. So that actually, you know, when
we watched that one, she sold thousands of units. And
from from that moment on, we kind of just started
doing more one off based packages, so around album releases
(04:59):
or book releases, and we worked with you know, the
Maria Maria Kerrey, the Elvis Estate, We worked with Pentatonics
all time, low a bunch of different musicians, and you know,
it went well. First year, I think we we did
ten thousand packages shipped, and then the second year, we
did about twenty packages ships. So is this just you
at the time or yeah, just beformer team. Did you
(05:20):
call it a company? Was it a company? It was
a company. Yeah. We actually had the paperwork filed, so
we were actually company. You weren't just in your house
like the first the first package together was actually in
my house and then after that experience, I didn't want
to do that again. But it was really good to
just kind of get hands on boxes everywhere. Yeah, I mean,
when you have seven different items that go into package,
(05:40):
it's just a lot of work that has to be
kind of coordinated and figured out. It's so curated exactly
how are you finding the what was going into the box?
Who was coming up with the creative for that? So
a lot of it, a lot of it was kind
of me giving suggestions to the to the talent, but
really we're trying to use their life experiences and their
interests in you know, what they liked and what they
you know, wanted to share with their fans. Talk us
(06:02):
through a box. I'm trying to wrap box. So it
was like exclusive merchandise and then products from brands that
she loved. So we had that because we had brands
kind of integrated into the packages that it maybe have
like a strong message behind the product or just something
that she used in it on a daily basis. I
think that that's genius. It was awesome. Yeah, fans really
loved it. It was just so personal and curated. I
(06:24):
love that. Yeah, okay, yeah. We applied that to the
different musicians that we kind of worked with, and a
great idea of Chris, thank you, thank you. I was trying.
I was trying to make something work, right. I was
like this, there's something here that is connecting with fans
when they received the package, and you know, people love
getting packages in the mail. I mean the surprise element.
I think totally super fun and like this limited edition
(06:47):
it's exclusive. Sometimes we had like signed albums in the
box or just signed items, one off items, polaroids, so
we try to get really that custom with it. I
guess for twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen years, you know,
we we really just went and tried to scale this business.
But it was just me in the company. So it's
(07:08):
hard to just do it as yourself and do it
by yourself. You know. We tried to raise money from BCS.
We tried to get into accelerated programs, and every time
they would just be like, it's not a scalable business,
something that's not for us. We even had a meeting
with a big music company and we were pitching this
idea for one of their artists, something that they weren't
(07:29):
doing at the time, and they actually like blew up
the meeting. Like as we were talking and describing what
we're gonna do, they just had a massive, massive, you
know argument in front of us, with half the team
wanting to do it with us, the other half saying
they can do it in the house. And it was
just like it was just like a big wake up call,
being like we don't need you guys. Kind of kind
of moment for it was. Yeah, even though there were,
(07:52):
you know, people on their team that were like, this
is a good idea, we should use fan Joy, you know,
they kind of have the mentality we can do it ourselves.
So it was fan Joy at that time. Totally. Yeah,
same same name name. Yeah. I mean there's there's a
lot of ups and downs. In the very beginning. You know,
we didn't raise any money, so a lot of it
was just credit cards using one project to kind of
fuel the next and some lucky breaks. There's probably some
(08:14):
times where we were like, this is our last the
last month, and then we get a phone call and
a project will kind of come through, and we kind
of they were one off projects. One off projects. Yeah,
people would want to do a subscription and the economics
just weren't there. I mean, a box that you everyone
wants to deal, everyone wants you know that the price
point has to be a certain certain price for people
(08:35):
to stay subscribed, and it was just it was just challenging. Yeah,
it was hard. It was hard to kind of keep
that going. But we did. We did test in just
doing like one off merchandise pieces, so selling just T
shirts and hoodies. And this was still for musicians, so
still for um well you were branching out, yeah, just
(08:56):
random people that would reach out to us, you know,
people who we did packages for, you know, box sets
for They were like, hey, can you make a T
shirt for us? And it was just me in the
company at the time, so I was trying to design
the shirt to myself. I'm in no way a graphic designer,
but I kind of got start. I opened up Photoshop
and kind of learned a little bit and try to
figure things out. It was always kind of just feeling
(09:17):
like you you have a challenge that you can't overcome,
and that was like kind of like what that time
of my life felt like. But it was also rewarding
knowing that, you know, once we did make it and
we kept going, that there could be light at the
end of the tunnel if I just keep trying. So yeah,
for so we you know, started working with just different influencers.
(09:38):
I started seeing on Instagram just random teenagers with you know,
hundreds of thousands of likes on pictures and I think
even at the time when someone got like ten tho likes,
I was like, whoa, this is big, Like this is
this is big, and I would like keep researching on
Instagram just seeing you know, sixteen year olds like twenty
year old just getting massive, massive engagement online um and
(10:01):
on their their social channels. So for us and for me,
that was kind of like an opportunity to see can
these kids sell anything? Do they have the power too?
Because they weren't selling it at the time, Like no
one was really pushing merchandise or products or their own
products at the time. Mostly brand deals, yeah, exactly, mostly
brand deals, but no no, no, No one really had
(10:21):
the aspirations to like build their own brand, or if
they did, they just weren't doing it, or at least
not through T shirts and hoodies. Right. So I actually
got a couple of influencers just via emailing them from
their email listening their Instagram profile, saying, hey, my company's
fan joy. We basically do all the work to create merchandise,
(10:44):
packages and experiences. Do you want to work together? And
this is still just Chris Chris. Yeah. And I had
a couple of responses from from two people, one being
Jake Paul him, Yeah, you've heard of him. He's actually
on this series. Nice, awesome, And and Jake actually responded
to two of the Team ten members that I reached
out to saying, hey, you know, I'm I'm working with
(11:06):
these guys. We can we can chat. This is the
end of okay, that makes perfect sense. And this is
when he Team ten and Jake Paul were literally the
top of the game. Yeah, just like started it. They
just started putting out a ton of content and Jake
wasn't doing merchandise at the time. I think after about
three months we kind of went back and forth and
(11:27):
he was like, I want to do a subscription box
and I was like, no, I think you want to
launch a hoodie. I was like, it's probably a lot
easier for us to just get started and just get
a product sold and into the hands of your fans
and them kind of you know, repping the community that
you're you're building. Did you know at that time how
big Jake Paul was going to be or did did
you see the trajectory, because obviously around that time his
(11:50):
following was growing rapidly. Did you have any idea? I
don't think I knew the kind of scale. Um, you know,
you saw all the the team members that he had
there following, the views they were getting on YouTube, they
engagement they were getting on their social channels, and I
don't think anybody really knew what was what was kind
of coming during that time or if it was just
(12:13):
a trend right exactly trendy. And we launched at the
end of sixteen going into the holidays a hoodie and
it did really well. I still remember the first Jake
Paul hoodie. Yeah, it was just a Team ten hoodie.
Was it just like a plane black hoodie with Team
(12:33):
ten logo on it? Simple didn't have twelve different items
in a box. It was just one hoodie that was
being produced and then shipped to fans. And that process
seems scalable, Like once we started selling thousands of them,
it became a much like feasible task for us to
kind of scale this business. But you didn't sell thousands
right away? Was it right away? It was almost immediate?
(12:56):
So he puts out I guess a photo or whatever
saying my marches available, or in his YouTube videos he
often points to merch that people could buy. How are
you able to even come up with a price point
because they're not cheap. The march is not cheap, I think.
We mean, in the very beginning, we kind of base
it off of other like clothing brands and kind of
(13:16):
what they were selling hoodies and T shirt tour. You know,
at the time, we weren't selling a ton of merchandise,
so we really didn't have a good concept or grasp
of what price people would pay for it. And especially
the demo, for example, Jake's demo. It's a little younger,
so where are they getting their money from? Obviously parents
give their kids whatever they want nowadays assholes. Yeah, but
(13:39):
you have to consider that too. Right, so totally. I mean,
we we priced it I think at forty dollars for
a hoodie, just pretty reasonable. Now reasonable I'm thinking about
that as a price point. It's great thinking about an
eight year old. Yeah, for children's clothing is probably way
way too expensive, which we kind of adjusted kind of
as we started launching youth youth sizes. And but you know,
(14:00):
the very beginning, we just we just sold adult unisex
you know, hoodies, and you know, it did, it did
really well. And from that moment on, I was I
was still in San Francisco at the time, and I
was like, I need to build a team around this
because as we continue to sell more and more products,
I can't do it alone. So I actually hired two
people January, and one was a graphic designer, one was
(14:22):
a project manager, and we just kind of hit the
ground running. We would essentially launch products almost weekly with
with Team ten, and then we would just basically on
board new talent, new clients. Almost every other week we
would get a referral, or we would get an incoming message,
or I would reach out to them, and we just
(14:43):
started on boarding more and more clients. In seventeen and
we went from essentially selling twenty thousand units then seen
we shifted almost like eight hundred thousand items. So with
the strategy behind I always under this when Jake was
promoting his merch it was constantly changing. Was that a
(15:04):
part of the strategy into making it feel limited release?
And did you notice that that helped? Because immediately things
were sold out and then there's this like you were
left out feeling, so the next time you're going to
jump on it quicker. What was the strategy behind that? Yeah,
a little bit of everything, right. I think at the
very beginning, we didn't know what would work, what wouldn't work,
so we tried everything that you can possibly think of
(15:27):
to see what would basically convert to sales. And for us,
I think we're now looking ourselves as we're an e
commerce company, so we had to kind of optimize and
figure out what strategies would work for for our clients
to make the most amount of money as possible. So
for us, you know, we would we would push that
limit edition message message as well as making sure that
(15:50):
you know, fans just also just felt part of the
community when receiving that product. So whether it's an insert
with a note from their favorite creator or winning I
don't know, a FaceTime after they purchased the product, whatever
it was. We just wanted to see what would work
and what kind of what didn't As we kind of
moved on and and onboard more clients and try to
(16:11):
apply these same strategies to you know, their brands. So
the supply and demand theory definitely works. It's you know,
human nature to want something you can't have, so that
was obvious and then changing it up making it more personal.
How is that process working with influencers because were they
a part of the creative process, Because now you have
a graphic designer chrisism In Potot, which is great cots
(16:35):
on that. So how hands on were the influencers with
the creative process? They're very hands on. You know, all
of them have kind of their own They're all creatives
in their own way, so they all have their own
you know, thoughts and ideas, and for us, it's kind
of just taking their design direction and aesthetic and kind
of running with it and hopefully creating something that they love.
(16:55):
But ultimately they would have you know, final approval, and
you know, they would give us most of the direction
of what we were actually creating. So if they didn't
love the product that we made, we weren't going to
sell it because they have to love the product and
wear the product for to sell. You know, people watching,
you know, consumers can tell if something is just kind
of being plugged and not you know, and that and
(17:16):
not like an organic or genuine way. So if they
actually wore it in their videos, if they if they
forgot was going to say. So. A perfect example I
think of what you're trying to say is when I
first met Jake this is like three or four years ago,
when he first moved to l A. He came to
some set and he was wearing a tight eye shirt. Right.
His merch includes tight eye hoodies. So basically, I think
(17:39):
you're trying to say the people, the people creating the merch,
it's stuff that they would wear basically, right, So we're
taking trends that they might wear elsewhere and kind of
a plan to their own brands. They're making apparel that
they would wear. Are you guys a part of the
direction and kind of guiding trends as well? Absolutely? Yeah,
So what we have a creative director kind of leads
(18:00):
that charge and just helps them find a unique direction
that can take inspiration from others, but kind of be
their own. We don't want to copy be a copycat.
We don't want to you know, step on any one
other other brands toes. We want to make sure they're
unique in their own way. So so totally were involved
in that whole design process, but for us, we also
take care of basically everything else. So on Fanjoy side
(18:23):
and helping build their brand, we look to the talent
and our creators to promote the product and kind of
give design direction and then FANJROI takes care of the rest.
So Fanjoy will take on any all the design, production, fulfillment,
all the customer support, everything regarding e commerce, so website development,
website management, we do email marketing, Facebook, Instagram advertising, everything
(18:46):
that it takes to build a brand is what Fanjoy
takes on. So we try to make it as turnkey
as possible for anyone with the following to kind of
build a brand and not have any headaches doing So, Yeah,
that was you kind of answered what I was gonna
ask next, was it's obvious why you would want to
work with influencers, why would they want to work with you?
But if it's so turn key. It sounds like a
no brainer. And then from a business standpoint, are the
(19:09):
influencers almost partners in the project with you? Are they
getting Obviously they're getting a cut or I don't even
know how to call it's not commission per se, but
it's their likeliness, right, So yeah, I mean they're they're
making it definitely is like a partnership model. You know,
they're making revenue on every item sold. Obviously we take
(19:30):
a small fee you know, of course per item sold,
but that kind of covers everything else that we kind
of handle in the back end. So really with them
the ones who are making pretty decent money with merchandise,
the ones who are doing at scale and selling dollands
of units kind of per month. And how many partners
do you have right now that are in that category? Um,
we have a we have a good amount. You have
(19:50):
a good amount of good amount that do that that much.
In sales, it definitely varies by creator and the amount
of kind of effort they put into it. So all
of their fans are kind of watching their platforms, so
if they're not pushing it or promoting it, it's really
hard for them to generate sales. But when they do,
you know, promoted on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook wherever
(20:12):
they'll see kind of return in sales. And then as
far as expectations when you do and turn to these
partnerships with influencers, is there on your end an expectation
from them to produce a certain amount of merch per quarter,
per or these all this is just like from a
business standpoint, do they are they obligated first, because you
(20:36):
have a business to run. At the end of the way, well,
we have, you know, we have standards and expectations that
we hope they hit. But I think for us kind
of something that we've learned along the way is that
even with somebody with six million followers doesn't necessarily mean
they're going to be able to sell a ton of
merchandise and products. Who are the people who are selling
not not names, but who what's the type of influencer
(20:59):
who's selling the most. It's a good question. I think
the ones who are super genuine and good at their craft.
So somebody who is a really good storyteller, Somebody who
can who has created a community instead of just a
following based on their looks, Somebody who's actually you know,
(21:19):
having influence over their fans by developing a deeper connection
that I don't know rises rises above just kind of
what you see scrolling through Instagram. Somebody who can connect
on a deeper level. It's not just the look at
me influencer, it's the we're in this together influencer. And
it's kind of hard to differentiate as well. I mean,
(21:41):
I think as many as people that you can look
on Instagram and YouTube and see, you know, views or numbers,
it's hard to see who's actually gonna be able to
sell products. So that's interesting because you're behind the scenes, right,
so you're seeing the inner workings and actually who has influence?
In our trailer we say people of influence, the real
(22:02):
kind because nowadays everyone is an influencer or a self
dubbed influencer. And I think your business model is like
very black and white as to who actually has influence
because if they're if they're driving sales, they have influence.
At the end of the day, we are influenced every
single day for what we buy, what we listen to,
(22:23):
how we think, even without even knowing it half the time.
Has there been anything that has surprised you in working
with influencers or their lack of influence or their power. Yeah,
I think the lack of influences the surprising part, just
because you see, you can see the engagement, and then
when they tell someone to do a swipe up or
(22:46):
click the link in my bio and they can't generate traffic.
You just started a question kind of who's following them?
Are they real people? Are they just way too young
to buy anything? Almost like is is all this real? Like?
What's real about this? That you can't get people to
click on a link and buy something? But obviously so
(23:07):
much of it is real because you're your company has
blown up in the last two years, right, like substantially
blown up. It's it's always been successful and the things
that you've tried, you know, but influencers kind of took
it to the next level. So there there is some
power to it. I guess it's just a matter of who, Yeah,
(23:29):
who has that power. But it's also I mean, on
the other side, it's also very surprising of who who
has that power and the people who do just the
amount of influence they do have over there over the
people who are supporting them. And I mean obviously, like
I don't want to say numbers, but they're they're just
being they're able to know. We want to know numbers.
(23:49):
You don't have to say names, but like because because
you know, I don't think people really understand how much
money there is in merch which is why I thought
this interview would be fantas stick. And I was saying
before we went on air that a lot of these
influencers are making most of their money from merch sales,
not from YouTube views, right, I mean, for the ones
(24:10):
who are doing really well with with merchandise and an apparel,
I think there are a lot of their merchandise sales
have surpassed any other stream of revenue they have, So
some of them are making hundreds of thousand dollars per month,
and you know, that kind of goes to tell you
that they do have power, they do have um influence,
(24:32):
and they are like starting especially with the apparel, they're
starting their own trends right that they're able to kind
of use they're they're um, you know, they're kind of
they're able to use you know, what they like in
their personal life and what they would wear and translate
that into their own products. And that's kind of when
they when they start wearing their own products and the
videos when they're always wearing it on Instagram. That's kind
(24:54):
of when fans are like, this is more than just
a piece of merchandise. I want to be part part
of this community that they're building. I think that piece
of merchandise to other people could be a T shirt,
but to some it's just it's a It kind of
gets them closer to the ones that they admired the most,
and they're able to to feel a deeper connection by
just owning a piece of their brand or something that
(25:14):
says something that relates to their favorite creators, and that's special.
And we see, you know, we see unpackaging, like unboxing
videos all the time of just fans, you know, crying
when they receive a T shirt, and some of us
are just like, why are they crying? But it's just
much more than that, Like they're they're they're impacting lives
on a daily basis that that we kind of can't
(25:35):
relate to because well, one they're probably younger than us
and they just have um they're almost seen as like
their best friend, and they might be to us might
be people who are just making YouTube videos, but to others,
they actually have this like friendship connection with something that
they watched, you know, constantly and consistently. What was the
(25:56):
because obviously you've worked with musicians and now you've moved
into this influencers base. Has that been the major difference
that because I know, when we think of rock stars
and they're on this, it's almost like they're on a
pedestal above us. With influencers, like you said, it's almost
like they're in the living room with you. So now
they want to support and buy. And did you notice
(26:17):
a direct correlation in sales between the two. Yes, so
I think, which is shocking because you look at musicians
and you're like, oh my god, Drake, But then I
wonder how much of his tour March sold versus David Dobrick,
for example. I mean, I think with musicians they can
sell the issue, and the kind of challenge there is
(26:39):
that they're not always putting out content to be able
to promote products. So if they are only pushing merchandise
or products on tour or on their socials because they
know they're not putting out other things in between, it
might just be seen as kind of like a money grab.
Whereas like these creators and YouTubers. You know, they're constantly
(27:00):
now content and they're not afraid to plug the merchandise,
whereas someone like, you know, a famous musician might be
be seen as like that's that's tacky, that's cheesy, I'm
not gonna push my own products, whereas this is kind
of the livelihood of a lot of our clients. So
like this generates most of the revenue for them on
a monthly basis, So they're gonna promote it and they
are going to push it, which yeah, musicians kind of
(27:23):
have there's they'll promote two times, whereas like a creator
will promote twenty times, and that's kind of like, you know,
it's all about traffic and click throughs and people who
see the product pages to eventually buy. So it's just
more much more consistent and constant with the influencers. So
when influencers partner with you, is this something that are
(27:45):
you actively seeking out partnerships with people that you think
are good for the brand or is has it been
an organic thing? Because I'm sure a lot of people
just make introductions and they're like, hey, you should meet
with this person, they'd be great for it. And what's
the process like for you now now that it's super
successful and you don't have to introduce yourself when you
walk into a room. They know what FANJOI is. Yeah,
(28:06):
I mean now we have a lot of incoming kind
of client client outreach to us. For us, I think
we're at the point where, in the very beginning, we
were saying yes to literally everyone, which it's probably a
very bad thing to do, but I think it kind
of we learned along the way of not onto the
traps of onboarding somebody who's not able to sell something,
(28:26):
and now we're much more selective of who we who
we bring on and mainly looking for the top tier
talent that can that can build a brand and not
just put out merchandise, because I think the creators that
we work with have the ability to build a brand
that kind of lives far beyond their face on a
T shirt. And yeah, I mean for us on the
outreach side, Yeah, I'm constantly d m in top talent. Yeah,
(28:53):
you have to you have to be you kind of
have to. You know, it's either their manager or their
agent or them. And I don't think it's bad to
go after all three and see who responds. In the
very beginning, I was only getting responses because I was
cold emailing or cold calling. So it works. So I'm
going to do it, and it's probably a little easier
(29:16):
now that you have the roster that you do yeah,
and you have Yeah, we have the case studies in
place to show that we have the know how and
the process is to help scale a company. And they're
making they're making money. It's like who's going to turn
down revenue stream? That is basically you guys are taking
all the work out of So you got into the
(29:37):
influencer space and you have all these wonderful people working
for you. Jake is kind of what spear headed, I
would say, is that pretty true? Spear headed the huge
surge and now you have this incredible roster of people
that you're working with. Can you name some of the
partners on Fanjoy totally? So right now we are supporting
around sixty different content creators um with building their brands,
(30:01):
some like David Dobrick. We have Sam and Colby, We
have the Try guys. We have Adelaide Morin, we have
l Mills, we have oh Man, we have a lot,
we have a lot. We have Tanna. We can't forget Tanna.
I feel like I need to pull out, pull out
my roster. But yeah, we have a good amount, and
you know, all of them are kind of unique in
(30:21):
their own way, and they're able to connect with their
audience on a much deeper level and have continue to
do it for years now, and I've kind of built
up that community that supports them no matter what. And
a lot of them have, you know, strong messages behind
what they do. And I don't know if I mentioned
Adelaide Morn, but she has a huge, you know, girls
supporting Girls campaign that she's done the last two years
(30:42):
where every month she basically donates proceeds to a new charity.
You know, people are really doing good in the world
with the products that they're making, which we can totally
support and give. I love that, so you do a
give back. They can do percentages based on and is
that through fanjoy or they do it through their own Yes,
it's do the FANJROI merchandise that they sell totally. Yeah,
And you know, at the end of the day, it's
(31:04):
it's kind of their messages whatever they wanted to be
and if they're able to use it for good, then
you know, we support. This is an unfair question to ask,
but I'm just gonna ask it. It's like asking who
your favorite child is to a mother, is there a
certain partner that you just have really enjoyed working with.
It's no shade to anybody else. It's just, hey, I've
(31:26):
really enjoyed working with this person. It's okay to have favorites.
We have favorite ice cream flavors. Nobody gets no I know,
I I really love David Dobrick. You know, David has
you know, created an incredible community with his his fan base,
and it's all via four minutes and two videos. Everybody
(31:47):
loves David. He's just he's just the golden child. Do
you know why he's the golden child. He's very likable.
David's very likable. If you don't know, if you ever
met David, but he has a very strong personality and
passion about his filmmaking, so that every time you see him,
the only thing really on his mind is what can
(32:08):
I film for the for the next video I'm making.
So he's very determined and very driven and being able
to see the scale at which his merchandise has kind
of reached. The brand has has grown that you know,
the clickbait brand is kind of taking on its own
its own best, so it's very it's very inspired to
see kind of where he was two years ago to
kind of what he's doing now and kind of that
(32:29):
growth along the way. And he's on tour doing with
Jason Nash. They have that views podcast tour they've done,
which also is very you know, it's very successful. I
think it's the top five top ten podcast. So yeah,
I mean, he has a lot of things in the
works at the moment, and it's interesting to see kind
of where our clients will be in a couple of
years from now, because a lot of them are you know,
(32:51):
when we started working for them, they were nineteen. Now
they're twenty three, which sounds I mean, it's still very young,
and they still have kind of a long ways to
go in their career. And you know, the ones who
will succeed will do great things for hopefully hopefully for
the world and kind of make a big impact. That's
so cool. Is there somebody is there a certain brand
(33:13):
or a certain influencer that you can't keep product because
it just always flies off the shelf. Would be David
at this point. David is one of them. Yeah, we
also work with the Try Guys, who are amazing group
of guys who make amazing videos and you know, they
really have built you know, their brand of the last
two years using their YouTube channel and using their their
(33:33):
comedy and their wit, and I've just been able to
generate a really strong bond with you know, all the
people who watch their videos. So people like the Try Guys,
people like David Dobrick, people like Sam and Colby, they're
just doing really well right now, and they're kind of
paving the way with a lot of like the more
custom pieces that we're doing as well. So for us,
you know, it's all about evolving the product. So if
(33:56):
we're able to create a much stronger product and a
much higher AUDI product, then the fans are going to
kind of see that and you know, want more of it.
So for us, it's always evolving and always testing what works,
what their fans want, what they don't want, and then
kind of going from there. So our show, we have
influencers on all the time, so I'll keep my eye
out and see who's a good fit for fan Joy
(34:18):
got to be top notch, top notch talent, authentic connect
with their fans will I'll have them slide directly into
your d I'll be there. Where do you see fan
Joy evolving, because obviously things change constantly. Is it the
(34:38):
company evolves or is it the type of people you
are reaching out to and partnering with? Does that evolve
take a little bit of both. I think I think
for us, you know, we kind of have the YouTube segment.
You know, talent tapped in, tapped in, you have the
case that he's there. I think, you know, obviously, beauty
(34:59):
is a big space, professional athletes is a big space.
Music is a big space. So we have these areas
that we can kind of grow out and continue to
do merchandise with our merchandise four. But I also think
there's a the ability to kind of work with our
top tier talent and just build upon the brands that
they have and see what other categories we can get into,
or what other products we can make outside of apparel,
(35:21):
outside of apparel, and trying to trying to follow what
Kylie did with Kylie Cosmetics, using her we all want
to follow. Yeah, yeah, we all just want to building
the company. So it's kind of taking learnings from that
and seeing like who else we can kind of partner
with and build something at a bigger scale. That's incredible,
that's really cool. So to advice to somebody who wants
(35:45):
to follow in the footsteps not necessarily exactly what you did,
but obviously you heard a lot of nose in the beginning,
and it had to have been a little bit depressing, right,
but you just kept going and now you have this
uber six deskbul company. So what do you say to
a young entrepreneur who wants to do his own thing
or her own thing. The first thing to do is
(36:07):
just start. Start, Like I know, it's it's always you know,
you're always trying to look for like the right idea,
the right passion project. But if you don't start and
just continue to try and evolve, you're never gonna get anywhere.
I also think making sure that you're able to adapt
and adjust when you see kind of the market shifting
(36:27):
is super powerful. And you know, how do we never
have moved over to merchandise in apparel after everyone was like, no,
the markets too saturated. We probably would be in the
same position that we were in, but we were able
to kind of adjust, We adapted, and we just kept
going and kind of kept pushing and you know, all
those nose it hurts. But I think we kind of
(36:48):
just we would take the note like every ten knows
we gotta yes, and we all those yes. Is kind
of kept fueling us and kept fueling the company to
the next level. And once you kind of find your
footing and find your your passion and it doesn't feel
like work anymore, that's kind of the ultimate goal. But
I never said out to kind of just chase money.
(37:09):
It was kind of that's a good benefit of it.
But my whole thing was I wanted to build something
that connected people, and I wanted to find a way
to do that at scale. So with that kind of
being the foundation of the company is kind of what
helped get us to where we are today. The other
thing that really stuck out for me as we were
talking is you did not have an ego along the way.
(37:29):
It seems like you were, like I just said, in
the trenches and you didn't have a problem. D m NG.
People are learning how to use photoshop, and I think
that that's something that I'm noticing. Anytime I am I'm
afraid to try something. It's the thing that holds me back.
So it's like just getting in there and not and
just doing it. It was just you for so much
of this journey. Yeah, it's really inspiring. It's also it's
(37:54):
I mean, it's gonna be tough, but I think that's
kind of what builds character, that builds you into a leader.
And then eventually when you're ready to hire people, you
just hire the best people that you think are good
for the job. But also remember that you have the
fire fast. Never forget fire fast. Oh my god, I
(38:15):
did forget. Thanks for reminding me. Now I can go
cry under my bed. It was so nice talking to you, Chris.
Thank you so much for stopping in. We are going
to be doing a giveaway with some cool fanjoy product,
so make sure you guys check us out on our
Instagram so you can win some cool ship. You know,
you just so much and I'm excited to see where
(38:38):
Android is going to go. So we will be keeping
tabs on you and I'm sure you will be surpassing Kylie.
I like that you got to put things out in
the universe, and I just put that out there, so
give me a cut. I got you behind the influence
of the production of I Heart Radio and t DC
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