Brandon Edelman, known as Bran_Flakezz on TikTok, has gone from an hourly wage at a clothing store to nearly $800,000 in earnings last year. On a recent episode of Jason Tartick's podcast "Trading Secrets," Edelman broke down his content creator earnings, expenses, goals, and more.
Edelman's Content Creator Earnings Aren't Typical — But They Aren't Unrealistic, Either
Obviously, Edelman is one of the top creators on TikTok and his earnings are not typical of the average content creator. The 28-year-old, Philadelphia-based creator currently sits at 1.2 million followers, nearly 500,000 of which came in 2025. But really the biggest thing separating somebody like Edelman from other creators is intention and strategy.
How It Started
In 2021, Edelman was earning just over $8 an hour working at clothing chains with an eye towards working for corporate. He started posting TikTok videos largely around his sense of humor and storytelling. When it comes to his content strategy, "it sounds corny, but all I had to do was be myself," Edelman tells Tartick.
He eventually moved into several salaried positions while doing content on the side. As his TikTok following grew, his first several brand deals were netting him around $3,000 a month, which he opted to save instead of spend. By April 2022, Edelman had between $10,000-15,000 from brand deals and his annual salary bonus saved. He decided to use those savings quit his job and go all in on content, giving himself at least the summer to see where it went.
By the end of 2022, he had made almost $150,000 from content, about $130,000 of which was from working with brands. That number doubled what would've been his salary, and there was no looking back. By the end of 2022, Edelman had around 400,000 followers on TikTok (but only 15,000 on Instagram — something he chose to address later in 2023).
Steady Growth On All Fronts — And New Things To Think About
The following year, Edelman signed with a manager and made around $300,000 from his content creator earnings — though he stresses he certainly didn't see that much money. "That was pre-management fees, pre-taxes," he says. "I'm not seeing $300,000 go into my bank."
Edelman's management takes 20 percent of his earnings, but also helped book substantially more opportunities. In March 2023, he also committed to repurposing content on platforms like Instagram, which took his following from 15,000 to more than 300,000 now.
In 2024, Edelman and his team continued their trend of doubling his revenue growth, totaling $768,000 dollars, the vast majority of which came from brand deals.
What It Means To Be Making Nearly $800,000 As A Content Creator
With the substantial boost in revenue, Edelman also started to fully treat his career as a business. He formed an S-corp and started working with his team to file taxes monthly and quarterly in order to manage cash flow. In 2025 he hired a business manager ("That's something I really recommend," he says). And he saved the vast majority of his income after expenses.
At one point, Tartick asks Edelman how much of his $768,000 he put into savings. Edelman says after covering his expenses and taxes, he saved about $300,000 — with an eye towards a lifelong dream of buying a beach home in New Jersey.
Most of his revenue still comes from brand deals, though Edelman does note that he's now making around $5,000 per month just from TikTok's creator fund. And he says he knows there are great opportunities for creators who utilize TikTok Shop — it just doesn't really fit his content style. "I'm not a product pusher; I'm not a linker," he says. "That's never going to be the bread and butter of my business. I'm more entertainment/comedy focused."
How Edelman Thinks About Content Now
When he was first hustling as a full-time creator, Edelman says he thought often about the hooks of his content — and admits that while he may have been working 40 to 60 hours a week at his old job, doing content is a 24/7 gig for him.
In the beginning, Edelman says he often thought about the MLA essay structure, having a strong opening that would interest you in two seconds, followed by three supporting arguments, and a strong closing. He adapted that style around funny viewpoints in order to keep new viewers engaged. Though he also often focused on particularly short videos that emphasized rewatch-ability.
And while he's still always thinking about different ideas, series, and styles of content, he says now that his audience has surpassed one million followers he's often just thinking about how to stay present for them. How to grow the business versus how to hit following milestones. He says if the goal used to be about hitting one million followers, now it's about hitting one million dollars in revenue (a goal he thinks he can hit in 2025).
"I'm at the point of my career now where I'm like, okay, but do I need to put $70,000 of that towards an assistant who can help me then post on threads, post on Snapchat?" Edelman says to Tartick. "And then I'm paying her $70k, but what if she's able to make me a few hundred thousand dollars off of other platforms that I'm too spread thin right now to manage? So those are more of the conversations I'm having now as a business person. It's like, okay, how do I sustain the business? Always the first, the most important thing. How do I sustain? How do I grow? And how can we get creative with growth?"
Reinvesting money back into the company is now at the forefront of his mind. That, and focusing on collaborations that are more than just money. "Financially, my biggest deal was with Google in 2024," he says. "Like for me if I'm getting $40,000-50,000 per deal, that's a knockout. At the time it was probably $40,000-50,000 for a couple TikToks. That's changed now [with the growth]."
But instead of just thinking about numbers, Edelman wants to do the types of collaborations where he truly gets to work with the brand. His first big opportunity for that was in July 2024, when he partnered with Just Salad and soft drink company Poppi to create a seasonal Summer menu. "My dream in 2025 — I want to do a campaign with Boys Lie [clothing company]," he says.
Key Takeaways To Increase You Content Creator Earnings
So what can we learn from Edelman's appearance on "Trading Secrets"? For starters, being yourself is the most direct path to an audience. For Edelman that means comedy, lifestyle, and a brutally honest approach to what he shares online. But for others it could be about a particular skill or passion. You have to love doing it in order to do it enough for it to stick.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway, though, is to invest in yourself. Edelman saved all the money from his first brand deals until he got to the point where he could really take a chance on creating full time. But he never would've been able to turn content creation into his job if he hadn't saved up that money so that he could treat it like a job. And then he posted consistently in order to keep growing.
And finally — don't just treat it like your job, treat it like the business it is. It's a subtle mindset shift, but when you realize you're a business, you start to think about what all the best businesses have. One big thing? Multiple people handing multiple moving parts. There comes a time when paying for help or giving up a percentage of your earnings unlocks a new level that wasn't possible before.