Influencer Brandon Edelman, known online as Bran Flakezz, is opening up about his content creation earnings after hitting 1 million followers on TikTok.
“Obviously, as you grow as a creator, your rates go up,” Edelman, 28, explained on the Monday, May 5, episode of Jason Tartick’s “Trading Secrets” podcast. “With more and more eyes on your content, that’s more and more eyes for advertising dollars.”
Before turning to content creation, Edelman worked in retail — including a stint at Forever 21 where he earned $8.65 per hour.
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“I then wanted to work for Urban Outfitters Inc.’s corporate,” Edelman recalled. “So I was like, I need to work at their store first. So I made $8.25. I took a pay cut. I was like, ‘I’m going to switch to Urban Outfitters.’ I worked the fitting room. Loved it. Best job ever.”
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Edelman was ultimately hired for Urban Outfitters Inc.’s corporate, which he noted owns Urban Outfitters, Free People and Anthropologie. As a result, he made $41,000 a year working as a merchandise assistant specifically for Anthropologie.
“But while I was working that job, I was like, ‘OK, this is not going to pay my bills. I have $30,000 in student loans that I still need to pay off. I have parents that need to retire that I want to help support. How am I going to make more money?’” Edelman said. “And then when I heard about TikTok, I just started posting on it. I was like, ‘Maybe eventually this will monetize.’ Sure enough, it did.”
Edelman began posting in 2021. After leaving Anthropologie, Edelman pivoted to GoPuff and was given a $73,000 salary on the social team — but he got “burnt out really quickly.” At the same time, Edelman pursued his own brand deals and made about $15,000.
When he took a step back from the corporate world in 2022, Edelman said he made double his GoPuff salary in one year just with brand deals over the course of a summer. That year, he made “probably about $150,000” in brand deals with about 400,000 followers. In 2023, Edelman said he made “probably $300,000,” noting it was pre-taxes and management fees (which are about 20 percent of his earnings). The next year, he made $768,000.
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When it comes to 2025, Edelman weighed in on whether he’s outperforming the previous year. “I think so,” he said. “If the goal was to hit 1 million followers, the goal for this year was to hit $1 million.”
After Tartick, 36, asked whether Edelman was on track for that goal, the influencer replied, “I think so.”
When it comes to the creator fund on TikTok, Edelman said he has been “trending up” to about $5,000 per month.
“What people don’t realize about TikTok is, I just get money from the creator fund. I see creators that really use TikTok Shop and they’re making like $10,000 to $15,000 a month on TikTok Shop, which is crazy,” he claimed, noting that the majority of his income is brand partnerships. “I’m not a product pusher. I’m not a linker. Do I do it here and there? Absolutely. But that’s never going to be the bread and butter of my business. I’m more entertainment, comedy focused.”
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As for the future, Edelman is playing around with the idea of hiring an assistant — which he considers to be an investment that could pay off in the long-run.
“I’m at the point of my career now where I’m like, ‘OK, but do I need to put $70,000 of that towards an assistant who can help me then post on threads, post on Snapchat? And then I’m paying her $70,000 but what if she’s able to make me a few $100,000 off of other platforms that I’m too spread thin right now to manage?” he said.
He continued, “So those are more of the conversations I’m having now as a business person. It’s like, ‘OK, how do I sustain the business?’ Always the most important thing. How do I sustain? How do I grow? And how can we get creative with growth because now the following is there. It’s great. Of course I always want to grow my platform, but I’m very happy with my platform size. Now it’s like how do I actually grow that dollar amount? And it’s having those conversations of, do I invest in this, do I invest in that? So I think that’s kind of the interesting part of it all.”
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