Like many, Kaz Sawyer started his creator career with one viral video.
It was early 2020, and at the time, Sawyer had a minimum-wage job, was working part time as a wedding photographer, and had just started his own clothing business.
He thought he’d try TikTok to build an audience and funnel some of it toward his businesses.
Soon, he noticed the videos promoting his business weren’t gaining traction, so he decided to just have fun, mainly posting pranks and challenges. In February, one video gained millions of views.
“I really believed in it, so I kind of dropped everything and went full force,” Sawyer told Insider.
He went into content creation full time, and two years later, he’s made videos like “We sent a turkey to space” and “I found out how to actually walk on water.” He mainly posts on TikTok, where he has 6.7 million followers, and YouTube, where he has 2.8 million.
Sawyer broke down the amounts he spent to shoot two of his video series, which included “We Built The World’s First Double-Sided Prius” and “Sending My GoPro Down A Treacherous Water Hole.”
The majority of Sawyer’s videos involve a lot of planning, traveling, and supplies purchases to create the challenges, which can end up costing thousands of dollars.
While creators like him may earn a lot, Sawyer said, they also spend a lot — and not only on videos.
Sawyer pays an accountant, a part-time assistant, a part-time video editor, and an attorney to help him with contracts.
His lifestyle has changed, too.
“I still live with my family, but I’m going to be moving out soon,” he said. “Personally, I’d be fine living in a smaller apartment, but for my videos, I probably have to rent a place that has a really nice yard, so that will be a big expense.”
The opportunity to film his Prius video series — which includes three TikTok posts, three YouTube Shorts, and one long-form YouTube video — came while he was filming another video.
Sawyer and a friend got stuck in the desert in Southern California. By chance, they met and got help from Chris Nosalek, who owns an auto shop focused on hybrid and electric cars in the town of Orange.
Nosalek had some old Priuses in his shop, so he pitched Sawyer the idea of creating a double-sided Prius by cutting two cars in half and piecing them together.
“It came together so naturally — we just did it,” Sawyer said, adding: “For a lot of my videos, there is a lot of prep ahead of time, I have a detailed script, but that one was a bit more spontaneous.”
Nosalek provided the cars and additional materials for free. In return, Sawyer provided the shop with exposure on his videos.
Sawyer spent only $350 but estimated the total cost for the video would have been about $13,200 without the free support.
His expenses were $200 for his video editor, $100 for a thumbnail designer for the long-form YouTube video, and $50 on food for those helping him film it.
Sawyer personally edited the footage that was published on TikTok and YouTube Shorts, as he normally does. He also had help from a friend who worked as a camera operator for free.
He estimated the Priuses would have cost him $10,000, alongside $1,500 for a Prius battery. And he estimated he would have had to pay $1,500 for mechanics to do the work Nosalek’s staff did.
Nosalek also provided $150 worth of welding metal, Sawyer estimated.
The idea for this video came when Sawyer saw a post on TikTok showing a water canal in Oregon.
He noticed that people were commenting and asking to see what the canal looked like on the inside, so he made a video asking his audience whether they would want to see him send his GoPro down it.
That video got a lot of traction — it now has more than 46 million views — and Sawyer decided to fly from his hometown in California to Oregon and put his GoPro in the canal. He attached his camera to a small remote-controlled boat with a light.
In total, Sawyer spent about $2,500 on it, including an estimated $300 on gas he put into the car he rented once in Oregon.
This video series — which is made up of six TikToks, five YouTube Shorts, and one long-form YouTube video — was expensive compared with the previous one. But it also had a good return on investment.
The series made him $1,456 from ads on his long-form YouTube video and about $3,750 from creator funds on TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
The videos got a total of over 37 million views on TikTok alone and allowed Sawyer to grow by over 1 million followers. He also gained 31,000 subscribers on YouTube.
The growth in followers is what matters in the long run, Sawyer said, because it makes him attractive for brand partnerships.
“I don’t ever really care about the initial return on investment,” he said. “I could spend thousands and not make that back initially and I’ll be more than excited. Whenever I grow, I see a noticeable gap in what I’m able to charge for brand deals, and that’s what I really care about.”
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