Julian Sewell is known for his short-form comedy sketches and for portraying the fictional actress Paloma Diamond. Photo / Logan Church
Julian Sewell is known for his short-form comedy sketches and for portraying the fictional actress Paloma Diamond. Photo / Logan Church
It might appear like an easy path to fame and fortune, but one Kiwi online content creator is warning those who aspire to a social media career that it still requires hard work.
A survey by American polling company Morning Consult found 57% of Gen Zs would like to become a social media influencer.
Kiwi Julian Sewell’s comedic sketches have helped him amass three million followers across TikTok and Instagram, with his parodies of Hollywood’s awards season, in particular, amassing tens of millions of views.
He told Nadine Higgins on The Prosperity Project podcast that while his content is designed to be fun, you have to take it seriously to turn it into a career.
“You have to approach it like a professional job. This is not a just a side gig that you can do fulltime. You have to be really determined about your goals, you’ve gotta have a bit of a schedule. I’ve invested a lot of money and time.”
Sewell says monetising a large following is more difficult for those with New Zealand-based TikTok accounts, as the company doesn’t offer its Creator Fund here.
TikTok star Julian Sewell.
“TikTok offers creators over a certain follower account - I dunno what it is - but if each video of theirs gets more than a certain number of views, they get awarded a bit of cash, essentially.”
Brand deals are how he’s turned his huge following into enough income to make it his fulltime job – and the money is much better overseas.
“A lot of people actually go, what an interesting time, Julian, to be moving to the United States. But ... it’s because I get a lot more money in the United States versus if I was a content creator in New Zealand.”
His social media fame has also proved helpful when trying to expand his career into other avenues.
“I can get like the chance to audition for big things versus if I didn’t have this following, I would not.”
Julian says the number of people who tell him his videos brighten their day amid tough times makes the hard work feel worthwhile.
“People are like, ‘I’m going through chemo at the moment’, or ‘I just lost my partner to cancer’ ... and it’s nice because it kind of makes me go, okay, well what I do isn’t meaningless.”
Listen to the full episode of The Prosperity Project for more from Julian Sewell on making a career on social.
The podcast is hosted by Nadine Higgins, an experienced broadcaster and a financial adviser at Enable Me.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.
