North Texas Content Creators: From Side Hustles to Successful Influencer Careers

Social media content creators and influencers are everywhere on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok.

Thousands of them are estimated to live in North Texas. But how many do they make, and could anyone succeed?

Meet DFW Content Creators and Influencers

You’ll find Courtney Stensland at the fair, in the grounds, and anywhere there’s good food.

You might also find Krystyan Lazarin there, or promoting a sports and skincare line.

Cord Green is a chef cooking classics and cashing in while doing it from the comfort of his own kitchen.

These are DFW social media influencers who took a big risk leaving 9 to 5 office jobs to build what has been a successful career in a growing industry.

“You know, I worked in corporate America, different jobs, and then during the pandemic is when I came back to try to do our YouTube,” Green said.

“I was at this job 9 to 5,” said Lazarin, a social media creator/influencer. “You know, I had a job where I was traveling an hour and to work, and it was almost like ‘Wow, I’m making a lot of money, but I’m not happy because I can’t use it.’ “”

“I was really scared to go, you know, full-time anymore,” said Stensland, a social media creator/influencer. “I left my corporate job two years ago.”

Getting Started: Tips from Content Creators and Influencers

These content creators say they are now scraping by on income as online entrepreneurs. We spent some time with them to find out how they do it and how you can too.

In Green’s case, he’s now the author of a popular line of cookbooks for his YouTube subscribers because he sees them as more than just numbers.

“Community focus isn’t about how many followers you have, it’s about the quality of followers you have,” Green said.

Stensland says the key to standing above others in her profession, as she did, is knowing your audience and only promoting what you truly love.

“Since I’m from Dallas, I want people to love Dallas as much as I do,” Stensland said. “It’s easy when you promote the things you use every day.”

Lazarin went from being a leading amateur tennis and pickleball player, and now, with over 400,000 followers, says he has more branding opportunities to make money than he can handle.

But he says you have to be willing to invest in quality equipment.

“So a lot of people don’t know, you know, like it’s going to come out of my pocket, but I want to make sure I’m giving the best quality content, whether it’s on my page or for a company that I’m working with,” Lazarin said. “But I probably have four or five different editing apps that I’ll use in terms of video or photo.”

You may have to settle for getting free products or services when starting a career as a content creator.

But those who do say, as their base grows, the $200, $500 and $1,000 payments for posts start to add up.

There are 50 million global content creators, according to research from the Wall Street Journal, which found that only 13% earn more than $100,000 a year.

From side hustle to full-time employment

But the money people make from it is expected to double in 2 years to $480 billion.

It started as a side hustle for those North Texans who say if you post regularly and follow their path, it may eventually pay off.

“You don’t know what you’re doing, but that’s the beauty of it,” Green said.