Dimitri Fostinis- Tik Tok Agencies

DJ and Tik Tok Agency host, Dimitri Fostinis, explains and educates us on Tik Tok Agencies.

Follow him here:
https://www.instagram.com/meetch/

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Hi everyone. My name is SarahHarrelson and you are listening to Mind Your
Music Business podcast. So today joiningme is Dimitri Fustinas. Is that right?
Yeah? That was perfect awesome outof Los Angeles. So he ran
the agency bygo Live for the lastsix years and has just begun working with

(00:28):
another TikTok agency called Visionaries. Sothank you Dimitri for joining me today.
Yeah, no problem. Yeah,So why don't you start off by explaining
to us what a TikTok agency oran agency in general is. This is
something that's been very new to mein the last month. Yeah. So

(00:48):
an agency on like a I guessa platform like TikTok or any other live
streaming platform is basically, ah,it's a basically it's you know me or
whoever else is running it with meon this agency, it's me and Keith.
We bring in you know, differentpersonalities, music, dancers or whatever

(01:10):
talent or if you don't have atalent, you just like to talk and
socialize. That works too. Youbring in anyone that is trying to make
money, you know, through livestreaming, and the purpose of being with
an agency versus not being with anagency is that you know, we have
a big team of people that willbe collaborating together and you know, utilizing

(01:30):
each other to help get more fans. You know, do stuff like what
we're doing. We're well currently we'rebattling I guess on TikTok at the same
time. So just using each otherto to you know, help get more
fans, get more entertainment, maybeplay games, do things that people find
entertaining and where they will send virtualgifts which you know, costs another person
money to spend and buy virtual giftsand send them a cute little animation which

(01:53):
earns the host or broadcaster money.Gifts turn into real money and then they
can cash out. And then thepurpose of the agency is that, you
know, the agency normally gets abonus from the app itself, not coming
out of the host at all.So it's just like, you know,
the agency makes money off the app, and host makes also money off the

(02:15):
app, and the agency just helpsthem get more money. Yeah, very
cool. So how did you getstarted working with agencies? Well, when
I moved to California in like twentyseventeen, I remember I already had like
a normal job, like a marketingjob that I got right before I moved.

(02:37):
And what happened was during that Iapplied for like another live another social
media marketing job. I was tryingto leave the job I had. I
applied for it on indeed, andthis happened to be. This happened to
be like a couple months after Iwas already living here. So I applied
for another job. And then Iremember I went in there and basically it

(03:02):
was, you know, a normalinterview like everything else, and it was
for another app call or an appcalled I Go Live. And I never
knew I never knew anything about livestreaming apps or it was just very random.
I was like, oh, socialmedia marketing job. That's cool.
So I was doing the interview andthey really liked me and they wanted to
hire me, but they needed someoneimmediately, and I was literally going to

(03:23):
Mexico the next week, so Iwas, oh, you know, like
I'm going to Mexico, so youknow, kind of starting to get back.
They're like, oh, no,we need someone, you know,
immediately. But they're like, youknow, we have another position open.
It's for being a broadcaster. Whydon't you come back tomorrow at blah blah
blah time. And I was like, all right. So then the next
day, I come back dressed ina full suit, just like I did

(03:46):
for the you know, the previousday. I was dressed really nice,
and I go to the same office, but they bring me into another room
and I sit down in a roomwith like six girls that were just like
dressed normally, and I'm like theonly guy in the room with like a
big suit on. And I thoughtit was really funny because I was completely
I felt out of place because Iwas the only guy there and I didn't
really know what was going to happen. And then you know, this lady
walks in and she had she handedus all well, she handed us phones.

(04:11):
I think she either handed us phonesor she told us to download the
app. And she basically wanted usto go live on this app like a
live stream and like tell us ajust like tell us tell the phone about
the day or whatever. Yes,there's here, Hi, Jimmy Moon.
Yeah. So and then I waslike, okay, that that's fine.
So I did it, and thenthey like hired me, and it was

(04:31):
really weird. It's really easy.It was like sixteen or nineteen dollars an
hour, but we can stream asmuch as we want no limit, and
literally that's all I did for thenext month. I was just streaming.
I went to Mexico streaming on theboat and I was as much as I
can because I was like, man, nineteen dollars an hour just to go
alive. I was like, thisis so cool. And then I met
I met a bunch of really coolpeople. I remember, like the couple

(04:53):
weeks after I got back, theyhad like a big party at the Beverly
Hills Hotel. So I was like, oh, this is this is so
cool and like I met a lotof really well streamers who I'm still friends
of today from that literally meeting anduh yeah. And then it was like
a month into it and then theylike basically fired everyone and I was like
what. I was like, thisis so weird. Like it was just
like a month of it and thenit just stopped. But because I met

(05:15):
these other people at the at theparty, there was another girl like,
hey, there's another app like thisyou want to you want to join on
this app? And I was abroadcaster. I wasn't like a thing.
By the way, is this isthis enough? And like can I keep
going? Because I don't know ifthis will enough? Or like no please,
okay, okay going if you want, Yeah, okay cool. I
didn't know if like you had likea time, like okay, yeah,
because I have. I man,I got stories after stories of this.
But anyway, so she's like,oh, yeah, there's another app.

(05:39):
My friend Brianna, who I justactually was on the phone with Yesterday's so
crazy. I met her on thisapp. And this is like twenty seventeen
when I moved out here. Shewas like she was like, oh yeah,
you mean another app. And itwas like an app called up Live.
And I was like, okay,this is cool. So this was
like one thousand dollars a month forfifty or sixty hours of live streaming.

(06:00):
So I was like, oh cool. I was like all right, so
like eat like first month, pastseven month, past second month's path and
like I just met people on thisapp and like we would do stuff like
this, you know, battle peoplejust talk and I mean it was literally
like easy money. I was juststreaming and making whatever. And then after
the third month they switched the contractand they say, oh, okay,
you're not gonna get paid a thousanddollars and I may have to earn a

(06:20):
certain amount of gifts to get paidand everyone was like, no, fuck
that, we're leaving blah blah blah. Then I because of that app,
I got into another app, whichwas Bigo Live at that point, the
app that you know I told youabout or a little bit whatever. But
then it was the same sort ofthing. I joined an agency, made
like a thousand dollars a month,and then after the second or third month,

(06:43):
they did the same thing. Butbecause of this this, I mean,
this is crazy. Because of thisthis guy, this guy that was
like a manager, he flipped outon the app and because of this contract
change and like he basically got firedas the manager. And what happened was
when he got fired, I hitup the app and I was like,

(07:03):
hey, you know, like wehave this team of people, now we
don't have a manager. I waslike, can I be that person?
And they were like yeah sure.So I then just drafted and took over
the team of like thirteen people,and I asked one of the girls that
I met on I Go Live originallyyou know, the year or two before
however, months before whatever it was, and I asked her to be my

(07:23):
partner for it, and she wasin LA but yeah, she was in
LA and I met her on theapp. So then anyway, like I'll
try I'll try to speed this upbecause like it gets a little bit dicey.
But so what happened was we startedto get bring in people. We
were making a little bit of money, but now it was the contract wasn't
just people. It was like kindof like what TikTok is in a way,

(07:46):
not the same actual I shouldn't saythat yet, but it was like
you have to earn a certain amountof diamonds or whatever you want to call
it, and hit a certain amountof tier to get paid. So people
have to earn a certain amount oftips to get a bonus, and there
was no flat pay like it usedto be. But it started to work
because so everyone was really active onthe adage a lot of people in America.
This live streaming just hit America.So there's like so many people interested,
so many cool people. I metpeople across the Old Country because of

(08:07):
this and other countries. So westarted taking over. We started build up
the team a little bit, andthen at some point this girl we brought
on our team who ended up beingmy business partner for the last five years.
But you know that recently ended,which sucks. But she I wanted
to fire the girl that I wasactually currently working with because she moved back

(08:28):
to Sweden and it didn't really work. It didn't really work out because like
the time difference and everything. Sothis girl helped me draft to fire this
girl, and it was the bestdecision I ever made, it didn't.
I Mean, we were like thatwas bad because it ended in like all
this like online bullying and all thisbull shit. Sorry if I can't curse.
But when I took over the teamand I had the new girl that

(08:50):
helped me fire her, we justkind of started working together and then it
built up from like twenty people tothirty people, forty people, fifty people,
and then we had like an agencyof over like one hundred and fifty
one hundred and twenty p people atsome point, and you know, over
the last four or five years,we were just using the same team and
yeah, that was kind of it. And then, you know, that
was over the last five six years, and then recently things happened and I

(09:13):
decided to you know, leave thelive I literally decided to leave the live
streaming world to do you know,real estate and music which is the stuff
I'm doing right now, like literallycurrently. But and then of course,
like TikTok kind of just got involvedand like at the same time as Keith
hit me up to to like dodo like an agency thing because we kind

(09:35):
of worked together, i'd go atthe same time he hit me up,
I also got an email from TikToksaying, hey, like you should do
this, Like this guy was likeyou should be an agency year and I
was like, oh, that wasreally weird. It was like the timing.
So I was like, all right, fuck it, I'll start an
agency on TikTok. By the way, Salvo, I have an agency on
TikTok, not that that matters,but so yeah, so that's kind of
that's kind of how how it allhappen. I know, I just like
went through like a million different things, but I know it was like a

(09:58):
long story. Yeah, it's sogreat to hear and for people who listen
to the podcast later on, we'realso going live on TikTok at the same
time, so that's why we mightevery now and then interact with people on
the live stream. But it's justamazing in general how people can make a
living just live streaming on different platforms, and I think one of the current

(10:22):
themes I've noticed like, Okay,you can make a lot of money going
live on Big, but then aftera month, like maybe you're not making
as much revenue, and so yougo to the next one, and you
go to the next one. Sodo you think making a living with live
streaming is a fad or do youthink it's here to stay? It just
matters about the platform. I definitelydon't think. I mean it could be

(10:46):
some sort of career. I thinkit's more of like an additional thing,
like you have to have something elsegoing and you're doing live streaming at the
same time. Because like it's thewhole entire livestreaming world. Savo could even
agree it is so saturated. Imean, like everyone was doing it,
and it's very hard to get organicgifting on. I mean, TikTok is
different. That's why I'm here becauseTikTok has like it's so big and everyone
knows it, so it's it's easierto make you know, tips or whatever

(11:09):
you want to call it, easierto make money on TikTok. That's kind
of why I'm in this right now. But I mean I mean, it
really depends. I don't think it'sgoing to last forever. I think that
these are like foreign companies that ownthese types of apps, so the rules
are always changing. Everything's you neverknow what's what, Like there's a new
rule left and right, and becauseof that, people don't like the real

(11:31):
changes. The real changes might notbe in favor of someone. They might
be upset because they can't do thisor can't do that, or something gets
banned when it used to not getbanned, and that's not even up to
us. So I think live streamingaway is a I mean, it started
my life and it got me towhere I am, and like I bought
my second house because of it,you know, like it's it helped.

(11:52):
But the reason I stepped away isbecause like I just really didn't like it
anymore. I didn't want to doit anymore. So I yeah, so
I stept away, and of coursenow here I am back on it again
hopefully. Man. But I gottasay, if I was able to if
I was able to redo my entirelike live streaming life from how I started

(12:18):
in twenty seventeen, if I wasable to redo it with TikTok right now,
starting from day one and like itwas about to blow up like it
did, I would one hundred percentdo it again. So that's kind of
why I'm here hoping that happens.Maybe I think that's the difference too.
It's already so saturated. Everyone knowsabout it, so everyone wants to do
it, so you really have tocome up with original content. Like you're

(12:39):
a DJ, right, so youusually have j on your live streams.
Yeah, I do that, andthen I mean I have my own radio
show, so I'm doing that andlike I produce as well. So like
I kind of want to start doingproducing online streaming. But at the same
time, I don't really like Idon't really like people hearing what I'm doing.
So I like to like to justlike hit people with songs like left

(13:01):
and right, and just like Iwant to like constantly surprise people with new
stuff. I don't want to likeshow people what I do. But maybe
if I'm like toying around with ita little bit, like I have some
stuff that I was working on theother day. Yeah, I just that's
kind of that's kind of what I'mwhat I'm up to, Okay, So
it's my understanding to go live onTikTok, you have to have ten thousand
followers unless oh no, okay,no, you need one thousand followers.

(13:26):
But when you join an agency,you don't need any followers. Yeah that
I knew. If you're with anagency like myself, you don't need a
minimum amount of followers to join.So what advice would you give someone who
wants to join a TikTok agency tostart monetizing on live streams? Are you
asking? You? Ask me whatif you have like a friend that wants

(13:48):
to join or something, yeah,or just in general, if someone's joining
and you know they have a talentand want to go live on TikTok,
how does one you know, finda TikTok agency? Is just through networking?
Yeah, I would say that.I mean people probably have websites for
it, you know, people thathave really big agencies probably websites. But
I got to say, you know, over the five years of doing this,

(14:11):
I never had a website. Wenever did any paid marketing. Was
all through referrals, and it wasall through people that knew people. You
know. We had recruiters that wouldbring in people and then make money off
the recruiters. So but that waswhen it was different. That was when
the people would make money off recruiting, when there was tears to hit,
so you knew you were going toget paid this amount if you got this,
Like you know, with TikTok,there is nothing like that, which

(14:33):
I don't I don't even know ifI'm really supposed to be talking much about
it. I don't think, soit's not really a big deal. Anyway.
I was thinking, because like we'reon TikTok, but I don't think,
Yeah, it's okay. Well,how did you and Keith go about
setting up your agency? Was thatwas that kind of hard to do?
Or Keith hit me up on likI found Keith messaged me on LinkedIn a

(14:56):
long time ago, saw that Ihad like big on my on my work
things, so they hit me up, and then he joined Bigo for got
a couple people, and then thingsdidn't really work out for us, and
then like it kind of slid away, and then I worked on some other
apps in between or during Bigo,I worked on a couple of other apps,
and then that the TikTok thing.He said randomly, isa, hey
start an agency on TikTok, andthen that was the same time where I

(15:16):
got the message from the sky,oh do you want to build a team
on TikTok. So like I gothit up from someone from TikTok to say,
hey, you should create this agency, And that's kind of really how
it happened. So it really wasn'tthat hard. And I don't think unless
it becomes very wildly successful, wouldI make a website for it and like
start, you know, making ita big deal. Though, I'd feel
more comfortable making a website saying Iwas a TikTok agency because of TikTok and

(15:39):
everyone knows what that is. SoTikTok is just a little bit overall,
like maybe they don't have the bestcontent and you kind of see stuff like
yoh, how was that? Howwas that on this? You know,
how is that even on here?Or something like that. But even though
that, it's like everyone still knowsTikTok. No one knows Bigo, no
one knows Igal, no one knowsthat stuff. So it's very it's it's

(16:00):
easier to get someone to come toTikTok and be a streamer than any other
app. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, And there's so many different things you
can do on TikTok live streaming,playing music, doing what we're doing.
Yeahing, I think it is itpinky doll she makes like yeah, she
makes like six or seven thousand dollarsa day. Yeah, sick money off

(16:22):
of TikTok. Is that like themost you've seen someone make on TikTok?
Maybe? I mean maybe on TikTokit. I guess maybe on TikTok,
But I mean, I know peoplemake a ton of money. I mean
yeah, I mean maybe in aday. If that's actually like what it
is in a day what she makes, Yeah, I would say daily,

(16:45):
that's probably the most I've seen someonemake. But I mean even I mean,
yeah, I don't know. It'sit's very hard to it's very hard
to compare. Yeah, it's justa little bit hard to compare. Yeah,
it's so interesting because there's no setmesod for what you need to do
to for people to give you giftswhich convert into money, as we mentioned,

(17:07):
but you know, some people canjust are naturally great at talking to
people, and these followers or viewerswant to throw gifts at the live streamer
and the other people are just doingtheir music and chatting, and sometimes the
viewers just maybe aren't as interacting orthey're only stepping in for a second and
then leaving. So for some it'sharder to gain these gifts and make money

(17:33):
off of live streaming. Yeah,I mean it definitely comes to a lot
of persistence. You need to likedo things a lot. You need to
go live like all the time ifyou want to turn it into like a
legitimate, like you know, alegitimate job. But I mean even on
the other apps, you know,we changed a lot of people's lives.

(17:53):
We made people earn a lot,Like a lot of people didn't work normal
jobs, like even me, likefor five six years, I mean even
still now, like I have notworked a nine to five job in such
a long time because of live streaming. So for now, and that's why
I'm trying to take I was tryingto take my income and invest in something

(18:14):
else and do something differently. Andthough it's not really working out how I've
really hoped it was. I hopethat you know, something does happen soon.
Though. I mean I've always beenI've always been really motivational and like
really really I wouldn't say lucky.I've been a hard worker and things have
just really happened for me, Andfuck man, do I hope that that
continues to happen for me because I'mgoing through some stressful shit right now.

(18:37):
But yeah, so yeah, no, that's it's just amazing that you were
able to make that your career orlive streaming, And it sounds like consistency
is definitely the key if you wantto make money, Just keep going live
every day, getting yourself out there, getting more viewers and different owners,

(18:59):
which can in turn lead to makingmoney off of it. So I'm sure
it just takes patience if you're alive streamer, you know, going through
the motions to make money. Yeah, I mean, like because I started
out as a livestream right. Sothis is the other reason why I thought
it was good for me is becauseor why it worked out for me is
because I was a streamer for likea year before maybe a little less of

(19:22):
a year before I became a manager. So I under I understand both sides.
Yeah, though, you know withTikTok is I know rap Before we
started, I was just explaining toyou how TikTok's so different is that there's
no tiers, Like there's no likeway for people to like work to there's
no way for people to like workto earn something except for just getting gifts,

(19:45):
Like there's no bigger bonus, nobigger incentive, and I think that's
harder for people. But like Isaid, again, it's TikTok, so
it's people. People like it anyway, people want to be on it anyway,
and the people that struggle to getlike a thousand followers join an agency.
You know, you could stream ina day or whatever. It is.
So absolutely obviously things come and goin waves with being popular with technology,

(20:10):
and then you've been you know,through a few different live streaming platforms
as things have taken off and thengone down. So do you think the
future is still monetizing with technology andlive streaming? Yeah, I mean I
definitely a lot. I mean alot of the apps. I mean even
TikTok has like an e commerce thingyou could buy stuff like someone could live

(20:33):
stream like I could be a livestream I think if they get it activated
or something like if you have abusiness, you could live stream and show
your items, people could buy itduring that live So I think the live
streaming is going to continuously grow.I don't know if it's gonna be more
of an individual thing or more turnedinto like a business thing where every business
wants to have it. I meanI would love to, you know,

(20:55):
put my business on ecarms or onTikTok, but I don't have an e
commerce store though I try to commerceand that was very fucking hard. So
that did not work out for meeither, Amongst every other thing I've tried
to do that didn't work out forme, I always try to start something
new and like, and I've hada lot of success making my own businesses.
I've created a lot of businesses,but sometimes it just doesn't work out.
Yeah, well, maybe just livestreaming your new business on TikTok could

(21:19):
be the key. Yeah. Yeah, if there's anything to sell, you
know, it's I mean, it'sa money game, that's true. Yeah.
Yeah. So we mentioned that you'realso a DJ and you still go
live on TikTok for time to time. So those who are listening to the
podcast not on the TikTok live stream, where can they find you on TikTok

(21:41):
to follow you? I'd give themmy new one that I just went live
yesterday. It's meach Music m EE T C H m U s I
c it only has like thirty somethingfollowers because it's more of my brand new
account. But I'm dedicating that toonly my music so I can build that
more as my artist brand. LikeI have a really big following on Instagram,

(22:03):
so I want to now hopefully transferthat and start doing it on TikTok
hopefully. Okay, awesome. Yeah, I feel like live streaming, I
mean, live streaming was popular onInstagram during COVID, but I feel like
that's fallen out hugely and now it'smostly on TikTok. When I see a
live stream, yeah maybe, Imean, man, Bigo blu man,

(22:26):
we that we capitalized on COVID,and man, our team is so big
during COVID, no one a job, so everyone wanted to do that.
So I didn't really do TikTok livestreaming until very very recently. I never
needed to. But you're right,like Instagram does have a live app,
but I don't are a live part. But I've never seen anyone make a
lot of money streaming on Instagram atall. I've never seen that. I

(22:48):
know it's possible, but yeah,I'm not. I'm not sure you can
even monetize on it. If it'sthe same way where people can give you
gifts or not. Yeah, it'sthe same. It's the same thing.
You can you can give people gifts. I mean even on fake book.
You can go live on Facebook ifpeople give you gifts. But for some
reason it's not the same as theseapps. I don't know, right,
that's true. Yeah, yeah,so I don't know. Yeah, well

(23:08):
cool. Well, thank you somuch for joining the podcast today, Dimitri
giving us more information about what anagency is and live streaming in general.
Yeah, no problem. It wasfun, awesome. Thanks to everyone who's
been tuning in on TikTok