We had the good fortune of connecting with Nick Meyer and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Nick, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Coming out of college as a finance major, I initially pursued a pretty standard career path as a financial advisor. I helped high net worth individuals manage their personal finances, navigate their employee benefits, and prepared their tax returns.
It was interesting to take a peek behind the curtain and see how the 1% manage their finances, but after 3 years in this role, I didn’t feel like I was having much of an impact. Our clients were multimillionaires, after all, so in all likelihood they’d be just fine financially with or without my help.
So, in August of 2020, I decided to create my TikTok page to teach what I wish younger me would’ve known about money in my teenage years/early 20s.
According to the Milken Institute, barely half of the US population is considered financially literate. Growing up in a household where money was far and away the #1 stressor, I saw firsthand the impact a lack of financially literacy could have on a family.
My original thought when making my TikTok page was that if I could help even one person take a step towards becoming financially literate, the effort would’ve been worth it. 2 Years later, and my videos have amassed nearly 100 million views.
Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My mission is to make the usually bland subject of personal finance as FUN as possible!
My videos aren’t just me in front of a whiteboard defining personal finance terms – they’re filmed in a more sitcom-esque style complete with wardrobe changes, wigs, & unique voices for each character.
It’s my strong belief that if an audience isn’t engaged, they aren’t learning. There’s no reason educational content can’t also be entertaining!
I’m 2 years into my career as a content creator (9 months full-time), and have nearly 1 million total followers.
Getting to this point was FAR from easy – I wasn’t one of those TikTok creators who has hundreds of thousands of followers within their first 5 videos. It took me around 6 months & 100+ videos to learn how to use the app, hone my content style, and amass my first 100,000 followers.
I was able to grind through the early days, where basically no money was coming in, because I genuinely had a fun time creating my videos & I could see the impact they were having on my followers.
The biggest lesson I learned is that consistency is KEY. My growth really took off around the 3rd month I was on TikTok after I had a conversation with a finance creator who had 500,000 followers at the time: I asked what his biggest piece of advice was for building an audience, and he said he literally posted every day for 90 days in a row, which led to massive follower growth for him.
So, naturally, I did this too, and achieved similar success.
Posting every day has a few benefits:
– More content = more chances for non-followers to come across your content
– The more videos you make, the better you get at making them
– You can quickly tell what content formats/topics perform the best
If you want to have success in your side hustle/business venture, go all-in and iterate constantly.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I just recently moved here from Minnesota to be close to the mountains (super original, I know), so I’d obviously have to show my friend around Rocky Mountain National Park, hike a 14er, and backpack around the rockies.
During our time outside of the mountains, I’d have to take them to eat at Bonfire Burritos & Edgewater Public Market, hang out around Sloan’s Lake, and catch a Rockies game.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The amazing community of fellow personal finance content creators are some of my biggest inspirations & have become some of my closest friends. Instead of treating each other like competitors, we all have an abundance mindset and truly believe we can all be winners. The insight they’ve provided me on content ideas, negotiation tactics, and brand building has been truly invaluable.
I also have to give a shoutout to my girlfriend Jenna, who, even in the early days, was supportive of her then 24 year-old boyfriend posting cringy money videos on an app used mainly by dancing teenagers.
Website: www.nicktalksmoney.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicktalksmoney/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-meyer-cfp%C2%AE-ea-0b679a113/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicktalksmoney
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8i8OTwJW7vXjfcfd6PVPLQ
Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nicktalksmoney?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1