Bobbi Althoff's Success Is No Accident

I didn't grow up with money,

I am on a lifelong journey- You want money.

[Bobbi] To get money.

I love that I'm able to take care of my family,

I love, like it's- Money's nice.

It's amazing.

Today, Wired is talking to online celebrity

and podcaster, Bobbi Althoff,

about making lots of money on the internet.

This is The Big Interview.

[upbeat music]

Let me start by welcoming you to The Big Interview.

You're a really interesting case study in

what it looks like to go from TikTok celebrity

all the way into what I would say is sort of

like a People magazine is writing about you,

TMZ is writing about you.

Can you tell us a little bit about the start of your rise?

I believe it was right after I had my first daughter,

so 2020. 2020.

I think I posted my first video in November of 2020.

And was that planned?

Did you think to yourself, TikTok celebrity, here I come?

Yes. I'm doing it.

Yes. And correct me if I'm wrong,

there was a banana?

Were you dancing with a banana?

So, what's really funny is that didn't go viral.

That was just a video I put up

that had like barely any views.

How many views

is a few views? At the time, okay,

at the time it got a million views,

but it was- I mean-

It was a slow million.

A million is a lot of-

Yeah. Eyeballs.

On someone dancing- It is.

With a banana.

But the videos it was surrounded by

had like at least five million.

Okay, so as a mommy TikToker,

what is Bobbi's claim to fame?

I started doing this thing

where I was calling my daughter Richard,

'cause her name is kind of unisex, is that the word?

Yeah. Yeah, unisex.

Okay, so, I was like thinking about it,

I didn't know, okay.

Someone maybe made fun of that or something, so I was like,

I'm gonna take this a step further,

let me just go with a name

that is not for girls- So, Richard.

So, Richard.

I was like holding my daughter in my arm and I was like,

Yeah, I wanted, 'cause they were like,

You named your daughter Richard?

And I was like, Yeah, I wanted a boy,

but I had a girl, so I named her Richard anyway.

And I had a few viral ones before that,

but I feel like there's a difference between

getting a viral video that gains you an audience

versus getting a viral video that just gets nothing,

like it doesn't go anywhere,

it didn't get followers or anything.

So I think it got five million views,

and then I created a character of a person

who was just only worried about looks.

I was like, I only let my daughter wear neutrals,

I only let her play with toys that are

of the earth and stuff.

And like, I think I even called it, like,

a parody of a really bad mom,

was like that my bio at the time.

And then I just went, that was it,

that was like the start.

And so you found yourself in a world all of a sudden

where you had fans. Yes.

And they were moms. Yeah, mostly.

Mostly moms. Yeah.

Mom fans. Moms got it,

'cause there is like some moms that are like very,

no hate to them from me, but- Mm.

Are very just into dressing their kids

and their aesthetics, so I was just,

Let me take this a step further and really create that.

I was so determined to get my TikTok page to blow up,

when I tell you I had notes, I was trying so many things.

My first videos were like, because I used to be a nanny

before I had my baby, I stopped because of COVID.

My first videos were literally like,

How to become a nanny on care.com.

Like, I was trying every avenue until finally that took off,

but I was like, something would take off.

Mm. There's just no way

that I don't make money in my life,

I need to figure out- I wanna talk to you

about money. Something.

Yeah. I have some questions

for you about money.

Okay. Okay.

[camera clicking]

Brand deals. Mhm.

And making money on TikTok- Yes.

You're still in your TikTok era-

Yeah. I know you've changed eras

since then, how did that work for you?

And how much money were you making?

I wanna say that before I had my, like, big break,

I don't know, last July,

I was making around like 250 to 300 a year.

Thousand. Yeah.

From brand deals on TikTok. From brand deals on TikTok-

Wow. And from The Creator Fund

and just combined, that was just off of,

I had three million followers before.

I mean, yeah, I was doing pretty well for myself,

I thought I had like really made it,

I didn't know there was like a level above that ever,

I was like, I did this, guys.

Well, I'm excited to talk about that level.

Yeah.

How would you decide, though, like,

Yes, I will wipe up milk

with your paper towels in my TikTok,

but no, I will not do X, Y, Z.

What were the lines?

And what was like the worst brand request you ever got?

The worst ones, I don't think that I've ever had,

I got really lucky, as soon as my little break

into the mommy TikTok era,

I signed to like a management team

and I got like pretty good brand deals,

and I think I was making, like,

between like five and $10,000 per branded video,

I wanna say.

Like, there was a couple that were over that

and I remember being like, No way, why are you gonna pay me

to make this video that much?-

That's a good question, yeah.

It is. Yeah.

But, you know, they're gonna get their millions of views,

and they're gonna- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm like, I don't, but it's, yeah, I don't know.

I did a lot of just, Oh, do I actually use this product,

or is this actually something that I would use?

And one of the things that's interesting about your,

you as sort of like a case study in online celebrity

is that you became the subject of internet conspiracies,

right? Of course.

And one of them, there are many,

one is that you were an industry plant.

You were so well connected

in LA- Yeah.

That you were able to get celebrity guests

and sort of gain a following,

and that sort of that's how you were able

to become so successful so quickly.

Well early on I was like, Is that a joke?

Like, What is an industry plant, you guys?

Right. And I would just

play into it, 'cause I was like, There's no way people

actually think that.

But then I realized, like, but people actually think that-

People actually, no I did my reading,

they actually think that. They really do.

And I think that it makes sense,

like from an outside looking in perspective,

I can see why they would think that.

But, I've been a hard worker for my whole life,

like my first job was when I was 16,

when I was in high school I was go with my parents

to the houses my dad would work on

and clean the houses with my mom,

and like I would skip out on football games

and stuff to like do that, to make money.

Even during COVID, I was selling face masks on Etsy

that I was- That's a hustle.

Oh, I was like eight months pregnant,

and I had a sewing machine my mom bought me,

and I wanted to make money 'cause my job as a nanny,

they didn't need me since COVID shut everything down.

When the CDC said you have to wear all cotton face masks,

so I was like, This is my time.

You can use- You were ready.

I was like, This is my time to shine.

Did you shine?

How much did you- I had $3,000.

That was like 300 face masks.

I would stay up all night and just sew.

A brand deal sounds way easier,

I'm gonna be honest. It was so much easier.

Yeah, it sounds better. It's so easy.

It sounds like a better way to make a living

on the internet, yeah. I agree.

I know that's a controversial thing,

'cause a lot of influencers say, like, This is so hard.

But as someone who's lived both lives-

Yeah. I will tell you right now-

Are you having a hard time? That,

no.

[Katie and Bobbi laughing]

I'm like, How is this real?

At any moment, I'm like, This could all just

be taken away, and I will go back to working

at like Sonic or Jersey Mike's,

or all the places I've worked in my life.

But, it's so easy, it's crazy.

Selling face masks was much harder.

My fingers hurt, I was tired- That sounds very difficult.

It wasn't as fun. That sounds

very unpleasant. Yeah.

[camera clicking]

As I've been thinking about it, you sort of,

you had your mommy TikTok era,

and then you launched The Really Good Podcast.

The way that my podcast started was that I was like,

250 is great and all, but it's hard to come up with content

with just me every day. $250,000 a year-

Yeah. As an annual income

is great an all? Yeah.

It is great.

It is great. It's great.

But I was like, This doesn't have longevity.

You know? Mhm.

Like it's not what, every day I'm having to come up

and like go viral, and it's like,

no matter how long you've been doing it,

going viral and keeping being viral is not easy.

So it's like every day I was still posting 10 videos a day,

even when I had my three million followers,

and some of those videos would completely flop

and get like 50,000 views,

and I was just constantly having to think.

And I was like, The only thing that

is so successful every time is collabs.

And then I saw this video of a girl talking about

how much she made from her podcast,

and I think I mentally decided

that she made like at least 300 a year on her podcast alone,

and I was like, That's what I need to do next,

like I need a podcast.

So, I started it, it was first called So You're Rich.

Was it? Yeah.

[Katie laughing]

And I was interviewing rich people.

Money, a recurring theme. I want,

I didn't grow up with money,

I am on a lifelong journey- You want money.

To get money, I love-

You want money. I love my life now,

I love that I'm able to take care of my family, I love,

like, it's- Money's nice.

It's amazing, like it's- Yeah.

I think more people should talk about the fact

that making money is- It's so life-

Can be a primary driver

of waking up in the morning- I know, I know,

I lived my whole life like struggling,

now to not struggle- Yeah.

It's like such a driver, like I wanna,

I wish I could help more people.

Like, that's why I'm so, I love teaching people

about TikTok and stuff and how if you just push yourself,

you can do it, you could do it

if you need to- I don't wanna do it.

You can. I don't want to.

You should. Hm.

You can make your first TikTok together.

Fine. Okay.

With you, fine.

So you moved into podcast worlds.

Mhm. You paid people

$300 I think to help you get your first guests.

Well, so, my first guest was Miranda Sings.

I was basically just DMing anybody I had with a following.

The idea was like I would interview rich people-

Okay. And I would be like,

So, you're rich, tell me about how you got there.

Yeah. It was supposed to be

a parody of Guy Raz, How I Built This.

Okay, yeah. 'Cause that's my

favorite podcast, like I told you, I've been listening

to podcasts on how to build money my whole life.

And I was like, I'm gonna make a parody of that,

'cause I don't know how to interview.

'Cause first I was researching how he interviews people

and I was like, Oh, God, this is a lot of work,

let me just go in there and know nothing.

It is a lot of work.

It's so much work- Yes.

Like you have notes,

I just get to show up. I have a whole

notebook here, yeah. Yeah, no, my-

I have I think like multiple pages-

That's rough, I don't- Questions here.

Is the notebook just for show?

'Cause you kind of have it open

with like a paper on top of it, okay.

This is just my method. It's okay.

This is my method. Yeah, I will-

I'm a journalist- Yeah.

So I have my method.

I love it. You have yours.

I love it for you. Yeah.

Mine is nothing.

Sometimes I'll be like, Can you guys gimme a few pointers?

Right before I walk in, and then that's what I have.

It's what you do. It's just me,

and it's like, I don't know, it's easier.

And it makes money, but- And it makes money.

Exactly.

So when did it turn into The Very Good Podcast?

After the first episode.

The team that I was- Oh, okay,

it didn't last long.

No. Yeah, okay.

So the team that I was with at the time,

not gonna call them out or anything, they're great people.

Actually, the team- But you fired them, so.

Doesn't exist anymore, no,

I sent them in my pilot of it. Oh, no.

And then one day I was like, Finally they watched it,

I got an email.

And it was a thread that was sent between the company,

not meant for me to see- No.

And they were like, This is so bad, this is horrible,

this is not funny, I see what she's trying to do,

but it's just not funny.

And they just really, they were like,

Yeah, she should just stick to doing a regular podcast.

And stuff, so that's when the idea was born-

Okay. This is not gonna

just be a podcast, it's gonna be The Really Good Podcast.

Yeah. And you guys are gonna,

this is gonna be good.

So again, just DMing every person I knew

that had a following, and then I ran out of people I knew

that have followings. Sure.

And I was like, How do I get celebrities?

The celebrities don't benefit from $300,

that's what I can afford to give, but the celebrities

don't benefit from that. Mm, mm-mm.

But they could look generous

if like a random regular person is getting $300,

'cause they connected us.

So I had, If you comment a celebrity

and that leads to them being on my show,

I'll give you $300.

Marco was the first one, I think.

Somebody tagged him, that was the first time I saw him,

and I was like, Okay, if this comment leads

to me getting him, then I'll give you $300.

I posted a screenshot of that on my story and I tagged him,

and I remember thinking,

There's no way he's gonna see this.

'Cause he has five million followers I think,

like five or six million followers, I was like,

There's no way he's gonna see this.

And he replied so quickly-

And he did it. And I was like,

and he did it, he came all the way

to where I was living at the time, which was in Laguna,

pretty far.

And he did it, and he was, it was amazing.

Like that one went crazy online, the numbers were insane,

it was like such a fun experience.

And then from there- Okay.

I believe that Drake saw the clips of that one.

[camera clicking]

The incident with Drake.

There was, like, well, you know.

[Bobbi laughing]

No. Okay.

Well, what I know is- Uh-huh.

You did an interview with Drake, you were in bed.

Ha-ha, laughs, everyone laughing.

And that did incredibly well, right?

Like 10 million views. Yeah.

Mega viral, I think that's probably the first time I saw

one of your interviews, was that.

And it to me felt like this moment

where you were catapulted into this new level of celebrity,

right, like you became like famous.

And then all of a sudden you pulled all of those clips,

and there was all of this speculation, questions,

more of these internet conspiracies

that we were talking about earlier.

But, I'm curious sort of like in that moment,

the Drake thing, if we're not gonna call it the incident,

I was hoping we would.

[Katie and Bobbi laughing]

That sounds bad, let's not. I'm married to that.

Well it, okay, tell us why it's not bad.

It's just not, you know? Okay.

We're friends and everything is good,

I don't think of it as like- Everything is good?

Yeah. Are you gonna

put the video back up? I dunno.

Well. I could one day,

we'll see. You might be able

to monetize that.

I make enough money,

I don't- Oh, okay.

And now YouTube was once my biggest earner,

but now I'm good.

Okay. I don't think I make

my most money from YouTube these days.

Well, I was gonna ask you, as that was all happening,

that was a year ago. Mhm.

Did you feel at any moment like you had built something

that you couldn't control anymore?

Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

There was a moment in my life where I could walk in places

and no one is coming up to me, or if they were,

'cause with TikTok, you know, moms would come up to me-

Oh, okay. Or I knew who was

gonna come up to me, like I would still be able

to live my life as completely normal and do everything,

and then there was definitely a moment

where everything was like different.

Where I'm like, Oh, paparazzi wants

to take photos of me now- Yeah.

Like, what is- Yeah.

Or if I do stuff it's making news, if I post a story

answering something people wanna know about,

it's now like I see it on TMZ and stuff,

and that was definitely like a huge, crazy thing.

I don't think it happened sudden,

'cause I don't really remember a moment,

it just kind of slowly happened

after I interviewed Drake, obviously,

that was- Yeah.

So huge.

My life before that and then my life after that

is just completely different, but I have no complaints

because I've dreamed of this life.

Like, I remember as a kid doing interviews in the mirror

by myself being like this,

dreaming of this moment right here

where I'm getting interviewed by you.

You dreamed of being interviewed by Wired magazine.

Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, I interview really cool people,

and I get interviewed by really cool people.

Thank you. You're welcome.

That's so nice of you.

How much money do you make now?

How much money do I make- Yeah.

Hm, I don't know, you'd have to ask my business manager.

Ooh, that's a sign that there's some real money happening.

That is a sign,

I will say, I don't- There's some real

money happening, that's amazing.

Worry about money anymore. Yeah.

And I'm able to help people without worrying

about money, like it's just, it's not,

I've been able to- Which I'm sure

is a really good feeling. Yeah, it's amazing.

One thing about celebrity, and I think,

I would say online celebrity in particular,

although someone could argue with me about that,

is that it is fickle, right?

Like it is finite and unpredictable and unstable.

If the goal is obviously to further your career-

Yeah. And also to never

worry about money again. Yeah.

How do you make that sustainable?

Without this, it's not like I had another stable option.

Like- Right.

I graduated from community college,

I have no, my family has no money,

I didn't have, there was no stable fallback plan.

It was like, just work hard and keep working hard,

and that's kind of the way that I am.

Like, just be a good person and keep working hard,

and I think that I'll be fine,

and I know that this career is definitely not like a lawyer,

or not like a doctor or anything, but there is skill to it

and I think a lot of people don't recognize that.

And even in the last year, so much is,

there's been times where I'm down and up and down and up

and I know how to climb back up,

and I know how not to let things get to me,

and I know how to just keep pushing through.

But, at the end of the day, if I had to go back

and work at Jersey Mike's again to support myself, I'll make

your sandwich for you. We'll meet you there.

[camera clicking]

You talk a lot about not working, right?

Mhm. You talk in your interviews

about not preparing. Mhm.

You never seem prepared, to be fair,

so it seems like that's true. Yeah.

But a lot of work goes into running a TikTok page, right,

or like doing a podcast. Yeah.

Like, what is the work behind the scenes

that people don't see,

can you tell us a little bit about that?

There's a lot of just running things.

It became a business out of nowhere,

like it started off as just like me

and one camera guy traveling together, and it was like,

Ha-ha.

Like one video, every time I get a guest, whatever.

Now it's, I have a lot of people depending on me,

a lot of people who work for me, and like,

I have a studio that owns my ad space,

so they take care of that,

but it's like me going to the studio,

recording ads, setting up the guest.

The majority of my guests are still set up

by me and through me.

I have a booker now, but the podcast

has become a full-time job. Right.

Whereas TikTok was never a full-time job,

it was like, Oh, okay, let me just film a couple ads.

The podcast, especially now that I'm having

to put out an episode every single week, it's like,

that means that I have to do lots of interviews,

and that's a lot of travel.

It's actually a lot that goes on behind the scenes

that I think it's easy to miss-

Yeah. 'Cause it looks like

I do just show up, but it's like,

if I show up alone, no interview is happening,

I show up and I have everything.

Where do we find Bobbi Althoff in 10 years?

In 10 years. my dream,

what I'm working towards right now is either having,

you know, a late night show, or having,

I would love to get into acting,

not like dramatic acting,

I don't think I'm ever gonna be, like,

I can't even think of an actress right now,

that's how my brain works.

But, you know- Like a Meryl Streep.

Like a good, yeah, no,

that's not gonna be me. You're no Meryl Streep.

No. No.

But, doing dry comedy type movies and stuff,

like that would be my dream, or shows,

like that's where I hope you've seen me

in 10 years. Okay.

I hope that I go from D-list to A-list,

that's my goal in 10 years

From D-list to A-list. Yes.

The Bobbi Althoff story. 10 years,

that's achievable, I think. 10 years is forever.

Thank you so much for being here,

this was- Thank you,

that was a good note to end on.

Really lovely. It was.

Thank you for joining us on The Big Interview.

Thank you for having me. Anytime.

The Really Big Interview.

The Really Big Interview. Yes.

I love it.

[camera clicking]

[upbeat music]

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