Brianna LaPaglia & Josh Richards: How to Become a Content Creator and Life after BFFs

0:09 Alright, everybody, it's time for the main event.

0:13 Our fireside chat All right, they're here already.

0:16 she is and American podcaster, social media personality,

0:22 and content creator for Barstool Sports.

0:26 Please welcome to the stage, Briana LaPaglia.

0:29 Hi, everybody.

0:30 How are we doing?

0:31 So happy to see all your faces in here.

0:33 This is great.

0:34 And of course, he is a Canadian actor, host, entrepreneur.

0:39 The list goes on.

0:41 The king of the viral to venture pipeline.

0:45 How about a warm welcome for Josh Richards?

0:49 What's up everybody.

0:50 Actor first is crazy by the way, but I like it.

0:53 It kind of kind of gave me some confidence up here.

0:55 How's everyone doing?

0:57 You guys can answer.

0:58 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:59 That's great.

0:59 Me and Bri haven't been together for a while.

1:01 Obviously, with BFFs coming to an end, sadly.

1:03 Yeah.

1:04 But we're back, and there is a lot to talk about.

1:06 A lot to cover.

1:07 Yeah, there is.

1:07 And it's exciting to be here, too, because how we created,

1:10 it kind of started off a little bit different for both of us.

1:13 And I don't know, does anybody in here like looking to be

1:16 a creator or get into that field or do stuff like that?

1:19 Yeah, I feel like I see a lot of people.

1:20 I see a lot of nervous hands.

1:22 You gotta be confident with it.

1:23 Put that hand up?

1:23 Yeah.

1:24 Say yes, I want to do it.

1:25 I want to do it.

1:26 We all have to start somewhere.

1:29 And I don't know if you guys remember,

1:30 app called Musical.ly, but, sadly, that is where I started.

1:33 So there's a lot of embarrassing videos of me online.

1:36 But at the end of the day, it did get me here.

1:38 And I think that is a good thing to to point out, right?

1:40 Its embarrassing to start.

1:42 It will be.

1:43 Because no one's following you.

1:44 Yeah, yeah.

1:45 So you're posting to no people and then you're posting something.

1:48 You're going to be cringe.

1:49 You have to get over the fact that you're going to be

1:51 cringe for a little bit if you want to make it.

1:53 I mean, at the end of the day, I think, you know, cringe is,

1:55 cringe is views and views at the end of the day

1:57 is going to get you to the right place.

1:58 Right?

1:58 And it's how you adapt with your content.

2:00 So, when I was younger, when I was 14,

2:03 13 and I was doing social media videos on Musical.ly,

2:05 it's going to be a very different type of video than I make today,

2:08 being 24, hopefully.

2:09 So, you know, you got to age up with your audience.

2:12 And I think that's just something that you learn as you go on.

2:15 I was very young doing it and, you know,

2:17 having to juggle school and social media all at the same time.

2:20 And, you know, extracurriculars,

2:21 if you're somebody that's in sports or in clubs or whatever you're doing,

2:25 there is a lot to balance.

2:26 But I think one of the great things that we have today,

2:29 that we didn't have as much of, back in the day was

2:32 the technology to be able to do everything in one place, right?

2:35 So with stuff like Windows, I mean,

2:37 having the ability to have a PC set up where you're able to, you know,

2:40 stream, which is a massive part of social media today.

2:42 Well, yeah.

2:42 Everyone that streams uses a PC.

2:45 Everybody.

2:46 Yes.

2:46 For streaming, for gaming, everyone that's gaming, that's doing that.

2:49 It's also so easy to edit on.

2:51 I think, if you are looking to get into creation,

2:54 one of the most important things to become good at is editing.

2:58 And like knowing your voice through your edits.

3:00 I think that kind of makes you step apart from people,

3:02 and to do it on Windows is honestly the easiest thing that you can possibly do.

3:06 Do you have like an early Windows memory?

3:09 Like even this is so nostalgic.

3:11 Right?

3:11 Like this brings me back.

3:12 When I was younger, I think when I started making content,

3:15 I was doing like movies,

3:16 and I used Windows, I was all on my PC You started in college, right?

3:20 Like, yeah, I started when and I wasn't even in the beginning of college either.

3:24 2019 is when I was like, okay,

3:25 you can see that you can make a career out of this.

3:28 You can make money out of it.

3:29 I see Josh Richards and Griffin Johnson.

3:33 How old were you guys?

3:34 17, 18?

3:34 I was 17, I was the youngest one besides Quinn.

3:36 Yeah, and they're driving Lamborghinis and living in the hills and in Hollywood.

3:39 And I'm in the middle of Ohio at, like, a school in the middle of nowhere.

3:42 I'm like, I want to do this.

3:44 I want to make money, too.

3:45 But I'm not going to take my shirt off and dance.

3:47 What am I going to do?

3:48 I started off on TikTok and, it was so embarrassing,

3:52 But if you keep pushing and you want it bad enough,

3:56 you can end up going to the hills with Josh Richards Yeah,

3:59 and I mean, I think the other thing is, is that you realize,

4:01 like a lot of those people that, try to put you down to live themselves up.

4:04 All of those people do come knocking back as soon as you've made it right.

4:08 They're going to be the first people that are going to be like, oh, wait,

4:10 bring me out to LA or oh, wait, wait, I want to do this now.

4:13 Can you help me?

4:14 So, you know, it is something that will come

4:16 around and you will be the last one laughing.

4:19 You talk about finding your voice and editing yourself.

4:21 Like what was that process like how did you come to find your voice?

4:24 What was it that really made you feel like?

4:26 I think I just, like, found my demographic,

4:30 which was the college girls, and I was relatable to them.

4:33 I was doing like, my hung over content, my blue raspberry content.

4:36 I don't know if anyone remembers that, but that's when people like, really,

4:39 if you find your niche and you get people

4:41 to enjoy it and feel like they're there with you,

4:44 then they're along for the ride.

4:45 And it's not just like, hey, watch me do what I'm doing.

4:47 If you are somebody that you know is wanting to get into the social space,

4:51 and that is as a creator, as somebody in the back end with marketing

4:54 is if that is like bringing your company online,

4:57 whatever it is, any time you're using

4:59 something with social media, finding your niche.

5:01 You know, like Bri when she was first starting the college content,

5:03 what she was going through on the day

5:05 to day of partying and trying to juggle school,

5:08 having that chaos be the content of juggling both lives,

5:11 was relatable to a lot of people,

5:13 and then people were able to, become a part of that community

5:15 and feel like they were connected to you in one way.

5:17 so you're able to kind of, you know, give that message along a lot easier.

5:20 Yeah.

5:21 How did BFFs even become a thing?

5:23 Because that I feel like is what kind of catapulted us

5:26 and Dave just like into a different universe of social media.

5:29 I made a diss track and it went online, went viral,

5:33 and then David tweeted out about it and being like,

5:36 why are these wiggle dickers showing up on my feed?

5:38 Those were his exact words.

5:40 And so in that moment, you know, look at that and you go, okay, like,

5:43 how can we bring somebody that so outside of this world,

5:46 into this world of drama, fill them in.

5:48 And then now you have like a one plus one equals three situation where

5:52 the two of us are bringing completely

5:54 different audiences together to focus on one thing.

5:56 So we went live on Instagram together had good chemistry on there,

5:59 and we're able to go back and forth.

6:00 And from that, a brand actually came in and was like, hey,

6:04 we would love for you guys to do a show on our platform.

6:07 What brand?

6:08 And it was, it was Snapchat.

6:09 So then it's like me kind of improving

6:11 and pivoting as we're on the call, being like, well,

6:13 what if we took this series that I have called TeaTok

6:17 and we turn it into a podcast and it's me and you,

6:20 and I teach you all the drama that goes on in the world,

6:22 like what we just did on that livestream.

6:24 So then at this point, I'm just throwing out ideas,

6:26 hoping something, goes over well with Dave.

6:28 And he liked it and was like, yes, I'm down to do that.

6:31 Let's talk about it.

6:31 So then we figured that out, did it together,

6:34 didn't work perfectly with just us two,

6:36 and then brought and Bri and the show was great.

6:38 That's also something about social media that you

6:40 kind of have to know when to keep

6:42 doing something and when to leave it in the past and move on to the next thing,

6:47 because there are so many things that people

6:48 grasp on, onto and keep trying to make work.

6:51 not a bad thing to leave it.

6:53 It's just the start of the next story.

6:54 Right.

6:54 So, talking about that though, Bri, after BFFs, what is the next moves?

7:01 Obviously, you've done reality TV, now What's the next big thing for Bri?

7:04 Yeah, well, that's the scary thing about ending

7:07 something that was the biggest part of your career.

7:11 You don't really know what you're going to do and how you're going to pivot.

7:14 And especially with social media,

7:15 it is one of those jobs where you don't really know what's next, and with BFFs,

7:20 I think it gives you a perfect lane and a voice where you

7:23 can shift into other things where you're not just one, Reality TV perfect.

7:26 Lame.

7:27 And you can get into other TV and then you can just like

7:30 kind of network with what you've already had and just move the spiderweb.

7:34 For sure.

7:35 For sure.

7:35 What are some hard lessons you think you learned through social media?

7:39 you know, how have you balanced either a good, personal and work life balance?

7:43 How have you balanced the mental health of it all?

7:46 What's that like for you?

7:46 I mean, I think I've learned all the lessons,

7:48 but, There's so many people in this industry where they want to work with you,

7:54 they want to collaborate with you,

7:55 it's icky because it's a social it's kind of like a social ladder very much

7:59 teaches you how to interact on this is

8:02 work life and then separate it from friendships,

8:05 which, I think is a really good skill to have.

8:08 And once you kind of are able to balance the two,

8:11 then you see your business rush,

8:13 because if you mix the both like I did a lot, you kind of saw it crumble.

8:19 this business is scary and cut throat,

8:20 and you have to know who to trust and what questions to ask.

8:23 Like with Alix Earle joining.

8:26 Alex Cooper's unwell network, she was so excited to join it.

8:30 So she just signed whatever.

8:31 And you kind of lock yourself into contracts.

8:34 You don't know who to trust because everything's looks shiny and new.

8:37 That's a big lesson I've learned to, like ask questions and make sure you

8:41 have the right people in your corner

8:42 backing those up and, like, read everything.

8:45 But do you think there's anything that the audience that watches us online

8:49 wouldn't know that you struggle with, with social

8:52 media maybe it's not biggest struggle,

8:54 but I think people's preconceived notions about you.

8:58 Like when people think that they know who you are before,

9:00 and obviously we're the ones that are exposing ourselves to the social media.

9:03 So we asked for it.

9:04 Right?

9:05 But I think like the weird thing is when

9:08 you meet people and they tell you like, oh, I thought you were going to be like

9:11 this or that, and it's like a negative thing, you know?

9:13 I think that's strange.

9:15 But, I feel like with all these things,

9:17 when anything is mental health on the side of social media,

9:20 it's going and talking to someone like Gabby.

9:21 For me, it's going to talking to my mom and my dad or it's,

9:24 it's (shoutout Gabby), or talking to like a couple of my, my friends.

9:28 Like, I think there's like,

9:29 a few people that, I'm able to go and talk to and feel like,

9:32 okay, everything's good in the world.

9:34 So I if you have those people you're going to be, you're going to be just fine.

9:37 You guys ready for Q&A?

9:38 Yeah.

9:39 Let's do it.

9:39 Okay, so raise your hand if you have a question.

9:42 Think of those questions right now.

9:44 Oh, okay.

9:44 We have a question right here.

9:46 This is for Josh.

9:48 I was wondering when you talked about

9:50 pivoting areas and expanding out in your career,

9:53 going from social media to different industries,

9:56 and advice that you'd have to founders,

9:58 you whether they want to branch out from what they're currently doing,

10:01 maybe an influencer who's going to create a company

10:04 or something like that, or a VC fund.

10:06 Yeah, whenever you're pivoting out of one area to the other,

10:10 I think what's super important is going and seeing who's done it before.

10:14 for example, when I went to go start a fund,

10:16 I got on a lot of calls with Ashton Kutcher.

10:18 Ashton Kutcher is somebody that has been in the venture

10:22 space as an angel investor and a venture capitalist,

10:24 but also was in entertainment first, and he was able to make that pivot.

10:28 So I got on a phone with him and was like, hey,

10:30 How did you make people in this industry take you seriously when you're,

10:35 a comedy actor and you're going now and saying, hey, guys,

10:38 give me millions of dollars and I'm going to go invest this for you.

10:40 Really?

10:40 Well, make sure you get some money back.

10:42 Like what was the path you had to take to gain that trust.

10:44 And then I think it's also just a little bit of, of putting yourself out there,

10:49 which can be a little bit nerve wracking and can be a little bit scary.

10:51 But I always looked at it as like, what is the worst possible outcome I can

10:55 get from sending a cold email to someone?

10:57 They say, no, just making sure you put yourself out there and talking

11:00 to the right people and learning from them is is always the great first step.

11:03 already.

11:04 My name is Sammy.

11:05 I'm back here.

11:05 Oh, you see your head?

11:06 What's up man?

11:07 I have a big question.

11:08 So what if you don't like your niche?

11:10 And how do you, out niche your niche?

11:11 If that makes sense.

11:13 That's a really good question.

11:14 And that you see that happen to people all the time.

11:17 I think it's really hard to transition out of it,

11:19 especially if you build your fan base based off of that.

11:23 But if you solely, increment other content in, but you don't

11:27 rip your niche away immediately because your fans kind of feel betrayed,

11:31 then you gain a new audience while you're doing it,

11:33 and it's kind of like a slow burn into your new thing,

11:37 would agree with Bri where like, you don't want to just,

11:40 abolish this, this group of people that you've

11:42 built from that niche because they are your audience.

11:45 You were able to curate that.

11:46 You obviously know how to speak to them.

11:47 Every once in a while, sprinkling in a different post and see what works well

11:50 and what doesn't with a new niche that you would like that.

11:53 Gotcha.

11:54 Thank you.

11:54 Yeah.

11:55 No problem.

11:55 Because.

11:56 Hi, my name is Layla.

11:59 And, my question was, do you guys have a huge international audience

12:03 or are you planning to expand into international audience?

12:06 Because I know you're from Canada and you've lived in New York.

12:09 and I'm international.

12:10 That's why I was asking,

12:11 are you looking to expand or how has it helped you, maybe if you, for example,

12:15 speak a different language or if you can relate to other cultures,

12:19 how is it helped you in your path?

12:21 I think it's every creator's goal to be global and career spanned,

12:24 but it is really I think it's one of the hardest things to do.

12:27 I think with streaming, and with gaming and that whole aspect of it,

12:32 you see that kind of go global.

12:34 Speed.

12:34 Speed.

12:35 Yeah.

12:36 He's worldwide.

12:37 Yeah, sure.

12:38 I think everyone to an extent wants to, make

12:41 sure that their audience can transcend just America.

12:43 But, is a difficult crossover.

12:44 I think going to those countries is honestly the best way to do it.

12:48 Like whenever you're able to tap into those countries

12:50 and show them love and make some content for them,

12:53 I think they actually appreciate it more than anyone here does.

12:56 Anyone else, yeah.

12:57 And to the community talk.

12:59 You build a great community out of it.

13:00 So yeah.

13:00 Bri, you were talking about contracts earlier.

13:01 I was just wondering what's something you would want just to advise us to, like,

13:06 look out for when we're, like, reading contract signing contracts?

13:09 Ask everyone that you know.

13:10 Ask your mom.

13:11 Ask your dad.

13:12 Ask your teacher.

13:13 Ask a friend.

13:14 Don't be the only person to have eyes

13:16 on a contract because you're bound to miss something.

13:19 Also, you're young, you're impressionable,

13:21 and no one knows what the hell that thing says.

13:23 So make sure to get as many eyes on it as you can.

13:26 Especially I know when I first started

13:28 I didn't have lawyer that I knew directly.

13:30 So I just asked everyone that I knew to get it in the hands

13:33 of someone that could tell me what I'm reading and YouTube, dude.

13:36 Seriously, YouTube everything.

13:38 Yes.

13:38 Thank you.

13:39 All right.

13:41 Thank you so much for being here tonight.

13:44 As Microsoft kicks off the campus tour,

13:46 they wanted to make sure the first stop was Arizona State University.

13:51 Thank you so much Microsoft for the great company, the great conversation.

13:57 Student deals right now are amazing with Microsoft right now.

14:00 So you got a lot of things for a very good price.

14:03 So make sure to check it out.

14:04 Want to balance school and social?

14:06 Yeah.

14:06 Nothing better nothing better.

14:07 And you guys are the best.

14:08 Thank you so much for coming out and hanging out with us.

14:10 Thank you guys Josh and Bri.

14:12 Thank you.