The Meme Economy: How Tank Sinatra Turned Internet Jokes into a Multi Million Dollar Business

Summary

Networth and Chill with Your Rich BFF

Episode: The Meme Economy: How Tank Sinatra Turned Internet Jokes into a Multi Million Dollar Business

Date: May 6, 2026
Host: Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF
Guest: Tank Sinatra

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Vivian Tu sits down with meme mogul Tank Sinatra to unpack the finances, hustle, and sometimes absurd realities behind the meme economy. Tank reveals his journey from fence salesman to running a multi-million dollar meme business, the mechanics of monetizing internet jokes, and the shifting landscape of content creation. Listeners get inside tips on content longevity, brand partnerships, creator burnout, and why sometimes, the “easy” job of making memes is anything but. Tank gets candid about numbers, strategy, and the real work behind a seemingly funny business.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Origins: From Fence Salesman to Meme Mogul

• Early Internet Days:
  • Tank began posting memes on Reddit in 2008 while working at his friend’s fence company on Long Island.
    • “I was making memes and posting them on Reddit in like 2008. And then I just didn’t stop.” (00:00)
  • He viewed his cousin (an IBM exec) as an example of stability, only to learn:
    • “Nobody has security. I don’t have security. I could be fired tomorrow.” (00:31)
  • Struggles with self-worth as a kid led Tank to pursue humor as a form of validation.
    • “I felt I had no worth and I was not chill. Unless I was funny and unless I was strong.” (06:43)

Building a Meme Empire

• Growth and Community:
  • Tank began on mainstream platforms in 2014, inspired by meme pioneers like The Fat Jewish.
    • “By the way, at this time, 2014, I swear… there were probably like seven or eight meme accounts total.” (09:18)
  • Early collaborative spirit: created group chats with other meme accounts for support and innovation.
    • “I had to like manufacture a community.” (10:25)
  • Emotional impact of creating original work:
    • “Let me tell you the difference in feeling between posting a meme of your own and having it do well… I was hooked instantaneously.” (11:49)

Monetizing Memes: The Money Breakdown

• Sponsored Posts & Partnerships:
  • Brand deals pay anywhere from $25K–$40K per post, sometimes more depending on negotiation and scale.
    • “The standard is 25 to 40… thousand dollars. But I’ve gotten… paid a lot more and I’ve taken less.” (13:56)
    • Preparation H paid $85K for a Valentine’s Day meme. Mike’s Hard Lemonade paid $100K for three posts—“For three posts… that is what a person who is very successful makes in a year.” (19:03)
  • Revenue primarily comes from partnerships, evenly split between his main accounts:
    • “Tank Sinatra and Tanks Good News are pretty equal. Influencers in the Wild is less frequent, but more when I get them.” (19:39)
• Income Context:
  • Tank revealed his total meme-generated earnings:
    • “Maybe 8, 9 million.” (45:43)
  • Diversification: Investments in fitness ventures (“The Pack” gym), gas station TV partnerships, and a meme agency (Cornelia Creative). (26:36, 46:18)

The Realities of Meme Work

• Audience and Value:
  • Value for brands comes from massive, engaged, and “brand safe” audiences, providing “captive attention” at scale compared to archaic TV ad metrics. (21:25, 22:19)
• Platform Dependency and Algorithm Anxiety:
  • “If Instagram disappears...Everybody’s in trouble… It’s not just me.” (26:44)
  • Tank consciously avoids “rage-bait” and clickbait, sticking to content he enjoys and believes in. (26:27)
• The Work Behind the Joke:
  • Meme creation is high-paced and mentally taxing, with creative cycles, failed experiments, and a constant pressure to stay relevant.
    • “It’s not hard work comparatively to… someone who’s an ER nurse… But I did all of the hard work before that. Figuring out what I wanted to do. That is the hardest part.” (29:20)
• Changing Content Strategies:
  • Tank has shifted to more video, direct-to-camera content for validation and connection, though memes are still core.
    • “It just feels better when the videos do well. Yeah, it just feels more like...validation of my sense of humor.” (32:29)

Brand Collabs: Hits, Misses, and Chéuginess

• Brand Blunders:
  • Many brands fail by joining meme trends too late, leading to out-of-touch campaigns:
    • “That’s cheugy… Chéugy is like the commercial version of cringe. Cringe is residential; Chéugy’s commercial.” (36:14)
  • Examples include “Yanni/Laurel” references months after the meme died. (36:35)
• Tension Between Creatives and Executives:
  • Frequent disconnect on what works online leads to frustrating rounds of edits:
    • “I feel like they thought, how could we make this worse? In what way could we make this worse and less appealing to people?” (37:57)
  • Everyone “has a number” for how much they’ll put up with on brand work. (38:20)

AI & the Future of Creativity

• Tank’s Take on AI:
  • He’s skeptical about AI’s impact on meme culture, citing its current unreliability and lack of accountability.
    • “The less you understand it, the more concerned you are, because it’s just so far away from being able to be effective.” (38:41)
  • Audiences can often sense staged or AI-generated content—authenticity and human creativity still win out. (41:06)

Advice for Aspiring Creators

• Quality vs. Quantity:
  • The key is authenticity:
    • “There’s nothing worse than posting something that you don’t believe in because you think it’s going to get likes and then it doesn’t get likes. It’s devastating.” (42:49)
  • Take time to figure out what you really want; stick with it longer than you want to, but know when to pivot.
    • “Pick a thing, take time, take a good amount of time. Nobody should be in any rush… Stick with it longer than you want to.” (43:38)
• Persistence Required:
  • Examples of creators finding massive success after years of “documenting and never stopping” (Tracks NYC, Uncut Gems cameo). (44:34)
• Tank’s Philosophy:
  • “Create, create, create, anomaly, capitalize, create, create, create. That’s the cycle over and over and over.” (47:22)
  • On growth and humility: “Just be easy to work with. Do not be difficult… had this happened when I was 23, I have no doubt it would have changed who I am or how I saw myself.” (47:29)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Security:
  • “Nobody has security. I don’t have security. I could be fired tomorrow.” — Tank’s cousin (00:31)
• On Brain Rot & Screen Time:
  • “Do you feel like you have brain rot?” — Vivian Tu (03:34)
  • “No. I’m very smart… I talk to people in real life and on the phone. I interact, I engage with the world.” — Tank (03:38; 03:55)
• On Originality and Internet Culture:
  • “Not one original thought on the Internet. We’re all operating from the same universal consciousness.” — Tank (33:27)
• On Making Money from Memes:
  • “I was so amazed by it…I took a picture of it and sent it to [my wife]...It was $2,000...couldn’t believe that that amount of money came in in one shot.” (14:10)
  • “Preparation H…$85K, they paid for one meme about itchy buttholes on my page.” (14:07)
• On Knowing When a Meme Is Viral:
  • “I used to know if I got 300 likes per minute for the first 10 minutes, it was gonna be a banger… There’s no way to know now.” (34:39)
  • “The less I care, the better I do.” (35:12)
• On Creator Burnout:
  • “People give up way too easy. They also stay on things too long that are obviously not working… You have to be honest with yourself.” (43:45)
• On Total Meme Career Earnings:
  • “Maybe 8, 9 million.” — Tank (45:43)
  • “And I’ve invested well. Thank God.” (45:47)
• On Building Wealth and Investing:
  • “I actually sold bitcoin to invest in [The Pack]. And like, that’s my, that’s like my…never sell. I sold it at the peak, which was good in retrospect.” (46:34)
• On Success Cycle:
  • “Create, create, create. Anomaly. Capitalize, create, create, create. That’s the cycle over and over and over.” (47:22)
• On Sticking With It:
  • “Be willing to abandon ship for a bad idea, but never your own ship.” (48:15)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:00 – 01:52: Tank’s early days, inspiration, and internet roots.
• 06:02: Childhood stories & humor as coping.
• 09:18: Meme platform landscape in 2014.
• 13:04 – 15:12: Money talk — rates per branded post, striking big deals, why brands pay.
• 19:26 – 22:19: Income breakdown & the value proposition for advertisers.
• 25:53 – 26:44: Algorithm fears and contingency planning.
• 29:20 – 31:14: The real work behind memes — process & hustle.
• 32:29 – 35:12: Shift to direct video, originality, handling content theft.
• 36:05 – 38:20: Brand cringe, chèuginess, and creative versus executive standoffs.
• 38:33 – 41:54: Thoughts on AI’s impact and the creative process.
• 42:07 – 44:46: Honest advice for aspiring creators.
• 45:43 – 46:34: Total earnings & investment philosophy.
• 47:22 – 48:51: Catchphrase success cycles and parting wisdom.

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Key Takeaways & Advice

For Aspiring Creators:

• Authenticity over Trend-Chasing:
  “Take the time to figure out what you want to do and stick with it longer than you want to… Pick a thing, take time.”
• Persistence Is Key:
  “There will be an anomaly… Capitalize on that. Get back to work.”
• Recognize When to Pivot:
  “Be willing to abandon ship for a bad idea, but never your own ship.”
• Be Easy to Work With:
  “Just be easy to work with and be consistent… had this happened when I was 23, I have no doubt it would have changed who I am.”
• Diversify for Longevity:
  Don’t rely solely on any one platform or stream—invest in new ventures, be prepared for change.

On the Meme Economy:

• It’s Business:
  Even jokes are serious business — structuring deals, understanding audience data, and scaling to multi-million dollar operations.
• Culture Moves Fast:
  Brands need to act and adapt quickly or risk “chèugy” embarrassment.
• Changes Are Constant:
  From algorithm tweaks to AI, staying nimble and creative is crucial.

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Where to Find Tank Sinatra

• Instagram: @TankSinatra, @TanksGoodNews, @Influencersinthewild
• In Person: The Pack gym (Flatiron, NYC)
• Everywhere: Gas station TV screens across the country

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Final Note:
Tank’s story is a testament to the power of humor, hustle, and adaptability in turning internet culture into a thriving business—and to the fact that real security is never guaranteed, but relentless creativity can take you far.

Transcript

[Tank Sinatra]

I was making memes and posting them on Reddit in like 2008. And then I just didn't stop. And I was selling fence for my friend's fence company on Long Island. I was like, this is what I do. I'm a husband, I'm a dad, I sell fence. It is what it is. My Cousin was at IBM for 15 years as an executive trainer. I see him as someone who's very dependable and successful. I said, do you think I'm being stupid, quitting my job and leaving the security of a job? And he goes, nobody has security. I don't have security. I could be fired tomorrow. And we. And when he said that, I was like, wow.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

What's up, besties? Welcome back to another episode of Net Worth and Chill with me, your host,

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Vivian Tu, AKA Urich, bff and your favorite Wall street girly. When I first started posting on social media, it was truly for the love of the game. I had a bunch of co workers who had no idea how to start building their own wealth. And I quickly realized that there are a lot of people out there who really needed personal finance advice. But if you went back in time, walked into my little cubicle on Wall street and told me that my TikToks would become my own business, that they'd get me on the Forbes and Time lists and put my face on a billboard in Times Square, I don't know if I would have believed it right away. Not because I didn't believe in myself, but because between then and now, the creator economy has grown so much over the past 10 to 20 years, content creation has become a force to be reckoned with. You've got streamers, makeup gurus, wellness influencers, and people making hundreds of thousands of dollars off Pinterest. And yes, that includes the meme counts that we go to for a daily dose of laughs. Those faceless accounts sharing wholesome news, reposting

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

viral tweets, and even teasing influencers for

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

things that they say in the wild. Yeah, they're making bank. And oftentimes these people are running an

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

empire of meme platforms.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

One of the most well known creators doing this is Tank Sinatra, who you probably follow on Tanks, good news, Influencer Influencers in the Wild, or his personal account, Tank sinatra. Tank has 15 million followers across all of his platforms, sharing everything from sketches to funny TikToks. And he's here to chat with us about everything social media and the meme economy. Tank Sinatra, thanks for joining us.

[Tank Sinatra]

I am here to chat about that

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Baby Beluga's in the house.

[Tank Sinatra]

Thank you for having me. Yeah. I have yet to crack Pinterest. I know what's going on there. I cannot figure it out.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

The. I'm gonna be really honest. The only time I was super locked in on Pinterest was when I was wedding planning, of course. And I was just like hyper consuming.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

But then it got to be quite overwhelming.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah. I wish you could make money on buying stuff off Etsy. Oh, buying.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Not making. Buying.

[Tank Sinatra]

I wish. Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Okay, so we have to start with a fun little icebreaker, and this is truly going to be me trying to make myself feel better about my personal behavior. Okay, what is your screen time?

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Support for Net worth and chill comes from Adobe. Planning your finances means taking a realistic picture of your life as it is now and where you want to be. But you also got to plan for the unexpected because life happens and you need to be able to edit, adapt, and collaborate with others to reach your goals. Adobe gets that, which is why they made a tool that's just as flexible PDF spaces. In Acrobat, your PDF files are no longer static. Instead, they're living documents that flex with you and your project's needs. Learn [e-mail] do that with Acrobat.

[Tank Sinatra]

Oh, it's not great. It's a lot. It hasn't been less than eight hours in like ten years.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Really?

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Do you feel like you have brain rot?

[Tank Sinatra]

No.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Really?

[Tank Sinatra]

No. I'm very smart.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

No, I feel like as I spend more time in front of a screen, I'm getting dumber.

[Tank Sinatra]

Isn't that something someone with brain rot would say, though?

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Oh, you're saying, like, I would not have that consciousness.

[Tank Sinatra]

How would I even know? My dumb rotted brain.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah. Yeah, you know what?

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

That's actually really fair. Self awareness.

[Tank Sinatra]

I'm still pretty sharp. I read a lot. I talk to people in real life and on the phone. I interact, I engage with the world. I'm a man. I'm like a full blown adult, a grown man. And I was when this happened. Which is the only reason I think I've been able to do it for so long.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

We'll get to that. But before we get into that, I need to know, what's your favorite meme at the moment?

[Tank Sinatra]

His name is Grant Loy. Can I just show you something for 10 seconds? What up, gang? One month of influencing with my wife Liv. His name's Grant Loy. He pretends to take a picture with her and then just speaks so loud and he's just like embarrassing her and it's so funny to me.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

You know what, though? I love the. When, like, dads or husbands pretend to be their influencer wives and they're doing the clickety clackity on the bottle or like the puff, puff, puff, puff, puff on their, like, makeup. I think it's really funny.

[Tank Sinatra]

What up, gang? What up, gang? He's probably never said that in his real life.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Never.

[Tank Sinatra]

That. That. I'm just. I'm. I. That was a.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

That was a white man in a polo who looked like he was very country club.

[Tank Sinatra]

That end. I will always stop if there's a compilation of kids telling their parents that their favorite celebrity has died.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

I can't. It's.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

And it's so funny because the parents get so, like, if somebody told me

[Tank Sinatra]

Jay Z died, I'd be like, I would collapse. No, I would. I would be heartbroken.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Oh, okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

That's the only, like, aside from my family and friends and whatever. Yeah, Jay Z. I'm not looking forward to that. They would get me with that. I would be the mom or the. Not the mom, the dad in the video that's like, shut up. No, that can't wait. Yeah. And I'll start crying immediately before I even got a chance to look it up.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

So. Yeah, hopefully that doesn't happen ever.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Okay, cool. He's pretty rich, so if he's. Someone's gonna figure it out, he can

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Brian Johnson himself into the.

[Tank Sinatra]

Exactly.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Into the future.

[Tank Sinatra]

Exactly.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

So undoubtedly, you're one of the most followed meme accounts on the entire Internet. I need to hear your villain origin story. When and why did you start making these accounts? Were you always funny?

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah. So my actual proper villain origin story is two things. One, in kindergarten, I pulled up to the playground. We were going to play soccer. I had no shirt on. Some kid goes, oh, my God, he's got boobs. I was five, mind you, later on, 11 12. Boobs. Tits. I have. He has. Oh, my God, he has tits. So it was like age appropriate bullying to an extent. I mean, 11:12 is a little whatever. I just, like, I felt I had no worth and I was not chill. Unless I was funny.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

Unless I was funny and unless I was strong.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

So that's the origin story. Instagram is like the 12th thing that I've tried.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Just in the social media realm. I'm so glad you sent 10 to 20 years. Because when I tell people I've been on the Internet every day straight since 2002, they're like, what the hell were you doing on the Internet.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

In 2002, I turned to.

[Tank Sinatra]

Literally, I was keeping it alive for you. I was an early adapter on MySpace. Exactly. MySpace.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Tumblr.

[Tank Sinatra]

Crazy. No way before Tumblr. Bigboys.com. it sounds wild, I know. But it became break.com.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

i don't know what this is.

[Tank Sinatra]

It was like a user generated website with memes. Before they were memes, viral videos, movie clips, jokes, whatever. And Ebaum's World, which you may have heard of.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Ebam's World is the bigger version of break. I spent so much time on that.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

Oh my God. And I just, I loved it. I love laughing. Yeah, I love laughing. I love making people laugh. So if. If there's a laugh to be had, I'm going to get it.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Okay, so you've been on the Internet since 2002. When did you really get started on more mainstream platforms?

[Tank Sinatra]

So Instagram was 2014.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Is that when Instagram was invented?

[Tank Sinatra]

That's when I started on Instagram. Started, I believe in 2011.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

I had an account. That's crazy. Immediately crazy. But I didn't post on it. And then I was making memes and posting them on Reddit in like 2008.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

2009. There was like 10 choices of pictures and you had to reiterate over and over and over again different jokes based on the personality of the picture. Bad luck. Brian.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

College freshman, the good looking runner guy. Like there was these things that were popping up, but it was so limited. I went, I had a couple of front page memes back then, but there was like nothing you could do with that.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

So then I got married. I had a child. Thank you. Yeah. And then I. And then I was, I was, I was a grown up for like two years.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

And I was selling fence for my friend's fence company on Long Island. Yeah. Victorian fence. If you need a fence.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

If you need. If you need a new fence, give them a call.

[Tank Sinatra]

They're still, still kicking it, still killing it. And I was like, this is what I do. I'm a. I'm a husband, I'm a dad, I sell fence. It is what it is.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

I'm going to enjoy it because I did love it. I had, I was in sales, so I had a lot of free time. I was, you know, I could have done that probably forever.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Ye.

[Tank Sinatra]

But then I saw the fat Jewish post something on Instagram and I had just seen it on Reddit. Yeah. So I went to his page to get his email address. I was already following him. By the way, at this time, 2014, I swear to God, without over exaggerating, there were probably like seven or eight meme accounts total.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

2014, I wasn't legally able to have a beer and.

[Tank Sinatra]

And I was like, well, I'm too late, obviously. There's already eight meme accounts. What am I going to do?

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

You know? That's crazy.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

ABC, CBS, NBC. It can only be three.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

You know, like, that's. I was born in 1980, so I'm still. I have that legacy, traditional brain as far as media goes. But I emailed him and I emailed him. His email address was emailio addressdemail.com. okay. Right. So I'm like, how do I get him to open this email? Yeah, I had a flash of inspiration. Tank Sinatra. Hi. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Send. Opened it immediately. I was like, sick. My open rate is 100%.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

And I said basically, like, I'd like to help you source content. And that was it. And then he kind of like carried me to like, up to like 300,000 followers. 350,000 maybe.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

What was it? That you would just source content for him and he would like, give you a shout out.

[Tank Sinatra]

In the beginning, I was sourcing it and writing the captions, and then I started to make my own. This is a very long story, but when I. When we first started. I'll make it short, by the way. It's very long, but I'll. Perfect, I'll condense it. When I hit like 30,000 followers, I got a group of like 10 or 12 other meme accounts and put us all in a group chat. It was like, hi, I'm Tank. You know, I. We're all doing the same thing. I caught. I thought it could be fun to. To know each other or whatever, because I hate doing things alone. I really like. Alone is not it for me. So I had to like, manufacture a community. So there was a guy in there, his page was Trev. So electric. He was making all of his own memes. He was like the only person that I knew at that time that was making his own memes. And he would always tell us, like, if you can. If you can post a meme and then write a funny caption, you can make your own meme. Just take the picture and write that caption above.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Come up with another caption for that

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

and just like burn it into the image.

[Tank Sinatra]

Exactly. So unfortunately, he died. Oh, yeah, he died. And it wasn't like, oh, I have to carry the torch for this guy. That I barely knew. But it was a little bit.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

A little bit like that.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

You built a community.

[Tank Sinatra]

Biggie died so I could become Jay Z, basically. You know what I mean? There is no Jay Z if Biggie's still here. There's a different version. But then let me tell you the difference in feeling between posting a meme of your own and having it do well and posting a meme that you found and having it do well. I was hooked instantaneously.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

I was like, I don't know if I'm ever going to post anybody's meme ever again. Unless it's as a. A favor.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

To somebody.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

You know, because you want people to. Hehehaha.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

At your meme.

[Tank Sinatra]

At my brain.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

I want them to laugh at my brain.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

But like you said, faceless meme accounts. Like, nobody knew, nobody cared. So there was a lot of stealing going on. Fat, Jewish, Never. He was the. He was always good to me. Like, he'll have infinite credit with me.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

There was a couple of pages that would steal and whatever, but it was like, what am I going to do, police everybody? Like, thank you for thinking it's good enough to steal.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

That's how I had to treat it. And then I just didn't stop.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

I love that.

[Tank Sinatra]

Didn't stop.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

That's a good villain origin story and I like it. But now, you know, this is a money podcast, so I got to ask you the questions for people who are really curious about what you make. I see on your feed that you recently posted a meme on your account in partnership with DoorDash.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

It's a square post, one slide text and a screenshot.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yep.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

I'm not asking you specifically what you got paid on this deal, but what's the range of what you could get paid for a meme partnership?

[Tank Sinatra]

So it's funny you brought that one up, because that came through Cornelia Creative, which is a meme agency that I'm a partner in.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Oh, amazing. There are meme agencies. I didn't even know this one.

[Tank Sinatra]

There's one. We're the only one. And they do such a good job. It's. Christina and Connor run it. I'm kind of like there when they need me, but they do such a good job. And that one, when they come from Cornelia, I take less because I have a partnership in the company. Right. But standard across tank Sinatra tanks. Good news and influencers in the wild. The standard is 25 to 40.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Wow.

[Tank Sinatra]

Thousand dollars. But I've gotten. Yeah. US by the way. But I've been paid a lot more and I've taken less.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

When. When it calls for it.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Do you ever think that you can make that kind of money?

[Tank Sinatra]

No. Absolutely.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Making little jokes?

[Tank Sinatra]

No. You know, it's funny. I actually. A memory was served to me in my photo album, and I sent it to my wife, and it was a check that I got a commission check that I got from the fence company. It was. I was so amazed by it that I took a picture of it and sent it to her. I was basically saying, yo, we're good. It was $2,000. And it was. I couldn't believe that that amount of money came in in one shot. But, yeah, in thinking, grow rich. I don't know if you've ever read that before. It's transformative book. He said something in there along the lines of like, once the money starts coming in, it'll come in so rapidly and aggressively, it'll make you wonder where it was all those years. Yeah. And I just became open to the fact that I might be able to make a good living doing stuff that I love. And then once you start asking and people start saying yes, then, you know, sometimes you go overboard. But I've also. One of my favorite stories is I got an email from Preparation.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Hmm.

[Tank Sinatra]

Right. I actually have two great stories. I don't know if we're gonna have

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

time, but do you have two great hemorrhoids?

[Tank Sinatra]

No, I have zero.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Oh, okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

Zero hemorrhoids. So I got an email from Preparation H. They even. They knew. They were like, hey, can we.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Preparation H?

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah, we know who we are, but we want to have fun with it.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

So I got on a call with them, and this is two times that I did this, where I said basically, like, in order for me to post a meme about itchy buttholes on my page on Valentine's Day, no less.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yes.

[Tank Sinatra]

It's gotta be a number I don't even have to think about.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Right.

[Tank Sinatra]

And they said, what would that be? And I was like, I don't know. A hundred? And they were like, let us get back to you. It was not a no. It was not A what? Yeah, 85. They paid for one meme about itchy buttholes on my page. The other story, I will condense. I worked with a girl who went on to become. Actually, I don't remember if it was Vox or Mike or Complex in general, the editor in chief of at least one, if not multiple. I think maybe she was the editor in chief at Mike and Then complex. So, anyway, she sent out an email. She was looking for subjects for a documentary that she was doing. I replied because I'm a good person and I don't leave people hanging, even though I hadn't heard from her in years, maybe a decade. And I said, I don't know anybody, but I'll keep my eyes peeled. I'll let you know. All hell broke loose because she somehow had me reply to, like, 700 people that she had built over the years of contacts of editors and press people. And you know, all these people. You know how it is. People get frustrated immediately. Get this girl. Get this. Get this me off this list. It's like, sorry, I don't. I'm not. I don't even know if that's possible. Yeah, there's an email. So I was able to crush it with humor after like, four or five back and forth, like, hey, I'm sorry. I. I replied to this. I didn't realize it was the whole list. Whatever. And. And then on one email, I was like, by the way, follow me on Instagram at Tank Sinatra. You got to make the most of it, right? And then people started writing, oh, my God, we already follow you. We love you, whatever. So that dies. Two years later, I get an email from somebody asking me to do a campaign for Mike's Hard Lemonade. So I'm in recovery, so I don't, like, typically deal with alcohol brands. I gave it a lot of thought, but basically she got my. She's like, we were on that email disaster, and we liked the way you handled it, and we love Tanks Good News. I had just started Tanks Good News at that point, and I was very apprehensive. Cause I'm like, I don't know. I don't. Like, I don't. I just. I'm not sure. She's like, let me just tell you what it is. So they wanted to take Tanks Good News post and make a newspaper out of it. Nothing to do with alcohol. Right. Basically, it was just a Mike's Hard Lemonade Tanks Good News collaborative newspaper. Like a physical newspaper in 13 or 14 different metro areas. And again, I said, it's got to be something. Like, I don't even. Something I don't have to think about, right? So we get off the phone, she emails me, and she says, this is by. I have, like, 800,000 followers on Thanksgiving News, by the way. And she goes, would 50 work? And then I replied. I said, you know what? For some reason, I don't know why, again, like, it's just a number. I'm. I'm thinking. I was. I was thinking 150. She replies again. Two seconds later she goes, we can do it for 100. And I wrote back and said, I will not do it for less than $100,001. You could take a hike. LOL. Just kidding. Let's do it. And it was like, holy shit. Sorry. You can core $100,000.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

For. For. It was three posts, but still, that's like. Then my mind, that is what a

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

person who is very successful makes in a year. I love how open and vulnerable and transparent you've been with me about money. So let's do a little bit more of that to paint a really specific picture. What is the breakdown of your income? So, like, how much do you earn per platform? How much do you make from partnerships, like, etc. Like, where is all of this coming from?

[Tank Sinatra]

It's. I don't know the percentage. It's largely partnerships on the pages.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

On Instagram.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

What about, like, where the distribution of dollars goes between, like, Tank Sinatra Tanks Good News Influencers of the Wild?

[Tank Sinatra]

Tank Sinatra and Tanks Good News are pretty equal.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Influencers in the Wild is less frequent, but more when I get them.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Oh, interesting.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Why do you think that is?

[Tank Sinatra]

It's double the. It's 5 million followers and it's got a cultural status, an IP.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Do you think it's all about the follower count, though, or is it more about views?

[Tank Sinatra]

Well, I mean, you're. Over the last three months, nothing matters anymore. Who knows what's going on on Instagram? But also I've. So I've people that complain about not getting enough views on something when you have. I remember when I first started my YouTube channel, which I don't have anymore. Yeah. This was one of the things that I tried. I got like 11 views on a video and I was like, who are these 11 people? I want to hug them. You watch my video, you watched even a second of it, I couldn't believe that people were watching the video. So, like, for me to complain about getting 200, 000 views on a video because I have 3 million followers or on. On Tank Sinatra is like, bro, just enjoy what you got.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Because everybody, get a grip. Everybody's suffering from it. They don't even know what's happening.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Why do you think people are willing

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

to pay so much to get posted on your page?

[Tank Sinatra]

I think that. I think it's a multiple pronged assessment on their part. I think that for me, I'll speak for Myself. Tanks. Good news. Very brand safe. Yeah. Tank Sinatra. Very, very brand safe. Influencers in the Wild. Not, not brand safe, but very unique. And it takes. We have to like really think about what we're going to post on there together. But I think that I've always thought of it like I have three different TV stations.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Under my umbrella and I know what they charge for a 32nd spot for a commercial on primetime. And it is like, good luck getting anybody to see that. Pay attention to it.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Do you have like a rough estimate of what a TV spot was?

[Tank Sinatra]

I looked it up a while ago. It was like 80,000 to 200,000.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Wow.

[Tank Sinatra]

And those primetime shows are getting like a million views maybe.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

The Colbert show, I think is the biggest show on TV that gets 4 million views nightly and then it drops off wildly. Like the late night shows get a lot of. A lot of views. But. But yeah, I think that you have a captive audience. And the fact that they still use Nielsen ratings is beyond archaic to me. I can't believe they don't know for sure who's watching. They still use like sample satellites in neighborhoods. I can tell you exactly how many people saw the post.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

By the way, I just found out. You may know this, but the reason that views are down, they just change the way they score views. You know that?

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Tell me about it.

[Tank Sinatra]

It used to be that if you opened up the Explore page and your video was just playing kind of like passively, that counted as a view. So nobody's views are actually down. They're just being counted correctly now. Which makes me feel better because I thought everyone just decided to hate me collectively. Six months ago I was like, damn, they really hate me.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Support for Net Worth and Chill comes from Adobe. Things change, Life happens, Timeline shift, and your financial strategy. It has to be able to keep up and fit the current moment. So if you need to be flexible and adaptable, then the documents you use to keep track of it all should be too. That's where PDF spaces from Adobe Acrobat comes in. With Acrobat, you can do so much more with a PDF file than you ever thought possible. PDF Spaces takes those documents and turns them into a living project you can edit, engage with, and collaborate with others on. You can even put all your files into one workspace and have a whole conversation with your AI assistant about it. Then you can ask questions to get deep insights about your project, all without leaving the PDF space. You can also invite people to your PDF space and let them add files, comments, notes, and more. You can brainstorm through sketches or even synthesize all the info in podcast form. That's right, Acrobat lets you generate an audio overview of your project in just one click. The world isn't static, and thanks to Acrobat, Neither are your PDFs. Learn more at Adobe.com do that with Acrobat hi friends, Quick pause in our show to take a question from my besties in phone, a friend presented by Adobe Acrobat Sammy asks how do I delegate? I feel so overwhelmed in my life and at work, but I have a very hard time letting go. Listen, take it from me, I am a control enthusiast. Delegating is a skill. You have to learn how to do it properly. And trust me, not being able to do so can be really, really frustrating. Here are a few strategies that have worked for me, so hopefully you get to use this and get into a smarter delegation pattern. First, here's what you need to understand. Delegating is not losing control, it's leveraging your resources. You wouldn't put 100% of your money into one stock because that's terrifying and risky. So why would you do that with your own time? Next, we have to do an audit. We're going to write down everything you did this week and honestly ask yourself, does this require me specifically? If the answer is no, that's a task you might be able to delegate. Another thing to keep in mind is stop waiting for people to do things exactly how you would do them. No one is going to be able to do things exactly as you have, but they still might be able to do them pretty well. If someone else can do the task 80% as well as you can, then that's something that can and should be delegated to them. So, for example, if somebody you know in your life does the dishes or the laundry 80% as well as you do, even though you're really particular about how you like them stacked, or how you like your whites and darks and colored sorted in your clothes, you can still delegate. That 80% is pretty well done. And when it comes to delegating at work, specifically reframe how you think about handing things off. When you delete to a team member, you're not offloading your leftovers onto them. You're actually giving them an opportunity to

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

grow, to develop a new skill skill,

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

and to show what they're actually capable of. Good managers delegate intentionally. The best leaders build other leaders by trusting people with real responsibility. Now back to our show.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

And so, like with your income being so heavily tied to Brand partnerships. And there obviously is this fear of, like, you're so reliant on these platforms to always kind of keep you at the front of people's, like, feeds. Have you thought about how you're going to build a contingency plan to stay relevant and continue to make money, even if one day the algo doesn't favor you?

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah, well, it doesn't favor me now, by the way. I don't think it favors anybody. It favors. It favors really visually dynamic stuff and rage.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Unfortunately.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Which I'm not willing to do. There's been a lot of things I'm not willing to do. I don't have tactics or hacks or anything like that. If I can't just do what I want to do, I'll go get a job.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

You know, you've had one before. I've had so many. Yeah. I've had a lot of jobs. First of all, if Instagram disappears. Yeah. Everybody's in trouble.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

It's not just me. Get your. Get your. Your rations of doomsday prepping and get out there because something went horribly wrong. I would figure, you know, contingency plan. Yes. I. I invested in the pack, which is the. The gym that I own in Flatiron with the founders of Rumble Co Own Small. I should. I don't even know if, like, I'm a small equity partner in that. I have the gas station TV thing with tanks. Good news. So those, you know, those videos are on 120 million people's eyeballs every month across the country. That brings in money, too. And I don't know. I just. I'm not concerned. Yeah, I'm not concerned. A, I would. I'll figure it out. B, I've waited tables before. I know how to do it. I was actually really good at it. I could go do that again. Worst. I wouldn't want to do it now, but I don't have to now, you know, So I think that if you are. So my cousin said to me, my cousin was at IBM for 15 years as an executive trainer and then went to bank of America. He's been there for 20. And when I quit my job selling fence, I talked to him about it because I see him as someone who's very dependable and successful. And I said, do you think I'm being stupid, quitting my job and leaving the security of a job? And he goes, what do you. Nobody has security. Yeah, I don't have security. I could be fired tomorrow. And when he said that, I was like, wow. So my, my value is in provision of content and maintaining eyeballs and keeping people's attention. If I can do that, then I'll be good. If I stop being able to do it, I won't. But nothing's going to, like, nothing external is going to. Is going to change that. I remember when I worked in restaurants, people used to complain about it not being busy. People just be complaining.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

People just love to complain.

[Tank Sinatra]

They love to complain. It shifts responsibility away from them.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Okay. So there is a perception that what we do is very easy.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

I would love for you to walk me through the process of, like, being a meme account mogul. Like, is it hard? Why or why not?

[Tank Sinatra]

That sounds cool.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Better.

[Tank Sinatra]

Meme account mogul.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Meme account mogul.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Versus I make little jokes on the Internet.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Way better. But like, walk us through like a post and like, what you think about, because it's. I can feel your brain, like just the gears are spinning. You're thinking about analytics, you're thinking about data, you're thinking about, is this gonna perform? Who is this going to appeal to? You're thinking about so many things, but, like, walk us through a process of one post.

[Tank Sinatra]

So I will say just before I get to that, and I'm probably going to forget the question, but it's relevant. It's not hard work comparatively to A, B, or C. I would never tell somebody my job is hard, sells fences or who, who installs the fences or someone who's an ER nurse or any number of things. I have been told to get a real job, though, and I looked at the guy's profile, I was like, bro, you sit in an office all day. I work a thousand times harder than you.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

You sit in front of a computer and you do what people tell you to do.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

That's easy because you don't have to think.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

When I read Four Hour Workweek two decades ago, probably he said something along the lines of, like, busyness is a noble form of laziness. Right. So I wouldn't say that I. My job is hard now because I love it. But I did all of the hard work before that. Figuring out what I wanted to do. That is the hardest part. You can really be anything you want when you grow up. Two things. You got to figure out what you want. Near impossible. And you got to decide when you're a grownup. Also very difficult. So it's really on the person to. To figure out, take the time, do that hard work to figure out what you want to do. And then Doing it is easy because you took so much time figuring out what you wanted to do. But as far as the post goes, it happens like it happens real fast. I'll see something, I'll take an. I'll text myself or write a note about it and then get ready to. I'll start envisioning the scene. Start like, you know, doing a shot list in my head, maybe write a little bit of a script and that's it. As far as Tank's good news goes, that's different because that's sourcing news from all the sources and influencers. In the Wild is a dream because they're all user generated clips and they come to us. We just have to pick which ones we. Which ones we like.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

I guess I have a good question

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

for you is just like, I feel

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

like when I first started following you it was all like just memes. But as of lately, I have noticed that you've actually pivoted to speaking a lot directly to camera. You are making the jokes yourself. There is a running gag about you being a beluga whale because of your very shiny, very smooth head.

[Tank Sinatra]

Bulbous beluga head.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Your beluga head. But like, what was the decision to do that? Is it because people kept stealing your content and you wanted to like.

[Tank Sinatra]

No. No. So it's interesting to me because you know what you've done the whole way, right? When people say to me, which through no fault of your own, that I've been making videos as of late. I started in 2020 with the videos. That's how long ago it was. But it takes. Either you don't register it or you're not paying attention because you have your own life and you're running your own business and you're not thinking, when did he convert from memes to videos? Because I still do the memes. Sometimes an idea is a little bit too complex to be a meme and it needs to be fleshed out and it needs to be acted out. I also like doing it because I like again. So imagine a meme that you didn't make doing well versus a meme that you did make doing well versus a video that features you. And as your original idea doing well. It just feels better when the videos do well. Yeah, it just feels more like, okay, it's more of, more validation of my sense of humor. More of a vote of confidence of me as a person rather than just somebody who posts memes or somebody who makes memes. Because nobody cares who makes the memes. Yeah, nobody cares. Yeah, you saw that with with fuck Jerry when they tried to, to get him off the Internet.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Nobody cares. A few people care.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

And they make a big, a big, you know, stink. But to do, to do about it. But I remember when the fat Jewish had his controversy, there was some guy who was, who said, he stole my tweet. He posted it, he cut my name out. Lo and behold, that guy stole the tweet. So like, what are you, what are we doing here?

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Not one original thought on the Internet.

[Tank Sinatra]

We're all operating from the same universal consciousness. And if I make a joke before you, like, I just saw somebody do a video that I did three days before I did it. It looks very much like I stole the video. I have no idea who this person is. I just happened to see it on my, my Explore page. So there's like, we're all doing a certain amount of things. We're living, we're being friends, being family members, being employees. And like, how much can you really, how much can you not only consume, but there's no original ideas like you just said, especially on the Internet. So I just like, you know, I like, sometimes I like somebody's take on it.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Better than another person's.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

How do you know when a meme is hot and gaining steam and when it's cooked?

[Tank Sinatra]

I check back in like three months and I know.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

You don't know in the, in the moment.

[Tank Sinatra]

Not anymore. One of the worst things that ever happened to me as somebody who does this is getting a, like to ratio. A like to minute ratio. Way back when it was chronological. So I knew if I got 300 likes per minute for the first 10 minutes, it was going to be a banger.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

But there's no way to know now because you have no idea who's seeing it. You have no idea why it's being served or why it's not being served. It's like when I used to do stand up comedy, right? I used to imagine what would I do if there was a glass cage around me and I couldn't hear whether or not people were laughing. How would I know what was funny or not?

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

And then three days later, someone sees me on the street. They're like, yo, that thing you said was so funny at the night at the, at the comedy club. Oh really? I thought it sucked. Cause nobody laughed.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Right.

[Tank Sinatra]

You just don't know, like this algorithm thing. That's why the less I care, the better I do. I just, I simply cannot care anymore about performance because nobody knows what's happening.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Do you Think it is cool or cheugy. When are we not saying that anymore?

[Tank Sinatra]

I'm not a millennial, per se.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Okay.

[Tank Sinatra]

So I know chuggy is a millennial word.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

I'm in that era of forgotten children.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Forgot. Okay. But do you think it's actually cool?

[Tank Sinatra]

Cringe.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Cooler Cringe.

[Tank Sinatra]

Okay.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Is it cool or cringe that oftentimes new companies are trying to get into the meme economy because they find it as a source to be able to sell product, but then they try to, like, capitalize on the culture.

[Tank Sinatra]

That's cheugy. Oh, I will. I don't know exactly what chuggy means, but it sounds like something. Chuggy is like the commercial version of cringe.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Cringe is residential. Chuggy's commercial.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Commercial.

[Tank Sinatra]

Do not hit me with a meme from six months ago and try to get me to buy your like, I, I remember.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah. By the time that compliance has approved it.

[Tank Sinatra]

Oh, I, I. When Yanni. Laurel. Remember that was happening? Who's this Yanni? Laurel. What do you hear? Yanni or Laurel? Yanni or Laurel?

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Six months later. I'm not going to say the name of the company because I've said it publicly and somebody got really mad at me once. Their part of their ad was, do you hear Yanni or Laurel? If you hear Yanni, buy this. If you hear Laurel, this one's for you. It's like, that's dead. That's real. Way dead.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Kind of weird.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yes, Very weird.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

People, there's a friction between the creatives and the executives. And there always has been and there always will be, because the executives, the creatives, don't have the mental capacity to do what the executives do. But the executives think they have the creativity to do what the creatives do. And creatives admit it, executives don't. So they'll go, you know what? I think this idea would be really good. I did an ad for this financial company. Every single round of edits. They just, I feel like they thought, how could we make this worse? In what way could we make this worse and less appealing to people? Cuz let's do that. And by the way, they did like 15 rounds of edits. I told my agent, shout out to Kaylee, she's the best upreach agency. She took it over for me. I was like, I don't want the money. I don't want to do this anymore. Yeah. I don't want to deal with them anymore. It was so frustrating.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

What ended up happening?

[Tank Sinatra]

She finished it. She posted it she got more money because it was so many rounds. Because at that point, we were like, seven rounds in. We're like. We told him. We're like, we're not going to do this anymore.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

And they were like, what do you mean? I was like, we're not. I'm like, this is out of control. Yeah, we're not going to do this anymore. And then they said, what if he gave you more money? Well.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Well, consider it. Everybody's got a number.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

That's so funny. Why do you think AI is going to help meme creators or hurt the meme economy?

[Tank Sinatra]

I think. I think AI. I think people are a lot more worried about AI than they need to be.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Why?

[Tank Sinatra]

And the less you understand it, the more concerned you are, because it's just so far away from being able to be effective, 100% effective. There's no accountability with AI. I got into an argument with ChatGPT the other day. I asked it what lyric was on the road to riches and diamond rings. Real gangsters do real things. What song is that from? It's a biggie line. It said it's from Juicy. And then it gave me four lines and I said. And I. I got so frustrated. I said, where the fuck does it say on the road to riches? And oops, you got me. My bad. Sorry about that. It's actually in this verse, and it wasn't in that verse either. I was like, this thing is not taking anybody's chance.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Well, you're so good at the chatgpt voice.

[Tank Sinatra]

Oh, my God. Yeah. Oops, you caught me. What do you mean, caught? You were wrong.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

This could have just been a control F situation.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah. I asked it to give me every song Jay Z has ever done in chronological order. Albums, appearances, soundtracks, whatever it went. It said to me, that is a stupendous task, and I am unable to provide this list for you. And I was like, I could do this from memory if I really wanted to. I just wanted it easy. Like, I'm just not. I'm just not concerned about AI. I think that. I think that for a savvy person. Have you ever seen Ronny Chang's bit about AI?

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

No.

[Tank Sinatra]

Oh, my God. It's so good. It's so funny. He's trying to explain to his mom how he knows that Bigfoot is not in the Stop and Shop.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

And he's just like. Besides the context clues, I can just. The shadows are not right. Something's off. Like, the video. The image looks wrong. He's like, it's like my 10,000 hours have come to fruition. I just know. I can't explain to you how I know, but I feel like people know, even if they don't know. And when they feel like they got duped by it, I think there's going to be some more resentment around AI before there's acceptance, because it is just so annoying to see people fall for. I'm not a fan of staged content. I'm not a fan of manufactured content. The problem with it is that when you do stuff that depends on spontaneous interactions and you start getting traction, you can't count on them anymore because they don't happen organically enough or frequently enough. I don't know. I don't. I may sound. I sound like an old man. A little bit. Like, just.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

I love that, though.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah. Just. Just be creative. And if you're not creative, that's okay. Not everyone is creative. Sometimes being a creative is, like, not the best. Like, I. I was on the phone with a friend of mine. I was melting down. I forgot what it was, obviously wasn't important. And he said something like, you know, this is. This is the brain you got. You're doing the best you can with it. Right? And I was on my way to my friend's place, and when I got to my friend's place, he pulled up a video of mine. He's like, yo, how do you even think of this? And I was like, yeah, that's the brain. Comes with it. Comes with the territory. It's kind. You're kind of tortured by your own brain, but if you can focus it in a general. In a direction that will serve you, great.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

But that's hard for anyone who's trying to become a content creator. Now, what would your advice be and what do you think is more important? Quality or quantity?

[Tank Sinatra]

So it's funny. This is not a pitch for it, but after 10 years, I'm actually starting to teach people how to do it. And the thing I think is the most important to do is to spend the time to figure out what you want to do. Don't just pick something because you think it's going to do well. And it's trendy because, again, not to go back to this thing, but it's. It feels good when a meme that you believe in does well, but it feels good when a meme that you believe in doesn't do well because it's like, okay, a couple of thousand people like this, they have the same sense of humor as me. There's nothing worse than posting Something that you don't believe in because you think it's going to get likes and then it doesn't get likes. It's. It's devastating.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

It's like I didn't even like this. Why did I do that exactly? Because I thought you were going to like it.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah, you.

[Tank Sinatra]

The proverbial. You pick a thing, take time, take a good amount of time. Nobody should be any, in any rush to, to get this thing going if they're going to. You know, there's, there's certain verticals of content creation that do really well with spontaneous creation. Like just face the camera, whatever. If you're a great storyteller or if you're very knowledgeable about something and you're just going to prattle on about it for a little bit. Word of the day on my phone. But yeah, just take the time to figure out what you want to do and stick with it longer than you want to.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Stick with it longer than you want to.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

I feel like that's a really good piece of advice.

[Tank Sinatra]

Stick with it longer than you want to because you have no idea what's gonna be the thing.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

People give up too easy.

[Tank Sinatra]

They give up way too easy. They also stay on things too long that are obviously not working. So it's like you have to be honest with yourself. Like Tracks nyc, Right? You know who that is?

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

No.

[Tank Sinatra]

He's been.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Our, our Internets feel very different right now.

[Tank Sinatra]

Tracks NYC is the guy who went into the place and screamed at the guy, give me my money. You. You had to have seen the video. It has 300 million views.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

But Grace, you're young, you're hip. Have you seen this? Maybe?

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah, yeah. There was parodies of it. Whatever. He's been doing this for 15 years and he just had his most viral moment by far. Nothing even comes close. He was in Uncut Gems. Like he was such a well known social media jeweler that he was in Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Like he's been in the game a long time. Shout out to him. He's a really good example of someone who was doing something already and then just started documenting it and never stopped.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

But yeah. Give me my money. Where's my money? And he slams a bracelet. Some guy was pretending to use his. Pretending to be associated with him to sell like BS jewelry to people and scam them. But yeah. Oh, man.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Mega, mega viral.

[Tank Sinatra]

Oh, God.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

For weeks.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah. Okay, well, we are running out of time.

[Tank Sinatra]

No.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

But I have one question left for you.

[Tank Sinatra]

Okay.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

You've had an incredibly long, illustrious.

[Tank Sinatra]

Illustrious.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Illustrious.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

That's gonna be tomorrow's word of the day.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yep.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Probably career in making content online. Do you happen to know what you've made all of these years combined?

[Tank Sinatra]

Quick math. Quick maths. That's another meme. Maybe 8, 9 million.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

8 to 9 million, something like that. Making memes.

[Tank Sinatra]

And I've invested well.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

Thank God.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Let's actually last. I lied second to last or last question.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah, yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Is from the money that you have made this 8 to 9 million over the course of. Let's call it 20 some years.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

No, 10 ish years.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah, yeah. I wasn't making no money.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah. Over the past 10 years, you have mentioned that you are a part of a gym, that you're part of an agency. Talk to me about the thought of what you've been doing to take this money and redeploy it.

[Tank Sinatra]

Have you ever heard of Rumble Boxing?

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah, I've been.

[Tank Sinatra]

So the founders of Rumble Boxing opened this gym, the Pack Noah, I met 10 years ago. I watched what happened with Rumble. It was insane. They sold for. With his money podcast. They sold for $300 million.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

After being in business for four years. So when he told me about this, I was like, bro, please let me give you any amount of money just to be involved. I actually sold bitcoin to invest in this. And, like, that's my. That's like my. Never sell. I sold it at the peak, which was good in retrospect, but I think that if you're. If you're ubiquitous and good to an extent, like, you're not. There's, like, there's great. But great only happens, like, every once in a while. Like, my thing has been, my friend Adam said to me, create, create, create. Anomaly. Capitalize, create, create, create. That's this. That's the cycle over and over and over.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

So create, create, create.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

You have to work really, really hard.

[Tank Sinatra]

There will be an anomaly.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Something incredible will happen to you.

[Tank Sinatra]

Capitalize on that. Yep. Get back to work.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Wow.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah. And also be. Once you get into the business part of this, just be easy to work with. Do not be difficult. People get an attitude when they start getting some attention, which is very common. Which is why I said I was happy when this happened for me, when I was 35, 36, because had this happened when I was 23, I have no doubt it would have changed who I am or how I saw myself. I think I would have blew it at that point. But it was never going to happen for me because I was totally shot and out of my mind at that time. But yeah, just be easy to work with and be consistent and just, you know, just don't give up on ideas when the time is is ready. Do not give up on yourself.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Be willing to abandon ship for a bad idea, but never your own ship.

[Tank Sinatra]

Yeah, stick with something longer than you want to.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yep.

[Tank Sinatra]

Once it occurs to you it's done, be done with it. But you never quit on yourself. Like I said, I didn't even get into all the things I did before Instagram, between the blogs and the video blogs and the websites and, you know, the crazy ideas that were dead in the water but I thought were the lottery ticket for me.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

Yeah.

[Tank Sinatra]

You know, and execute. If you have an idea, do it because somebody out there is probably thinking the same thing you are and they're gonna do it before you trust yourself.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

I feel like that's a great place for us to end. Tank Sinatra, thank you so much for joining me. Can you tell everybody at home where

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

we can find you?

[Tank Sinatra]

Thank you for having me. I hope your listeners got some value out of it. You can find me on Instagram Tank Sinatra Tanks. Good news, influencers in the wild. You can find me at the pack in Flatiron 23rd between 5th and 6th. Come work out. It's a great time. And you can find me on the gas station TV screens across the country.

[Vivian Tu (YourRichBFF)]

I love that. Yeah, thanks for joining.

[Tank Sinatra]

You can't avoid me, honestly.

[Podcast Host (Net Worth and Chill)]

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Net Worth and Chill, part of the Vox Media podcast network. If you like the episode, make sure to leave a rating and review and subscribe so you never miss an episode and subscribe. Got a burning financial question that you want covered in a future episode? Write to us via podcastourrichbff.com follow net worth and Chill Pod on Instagram to stay up to date on all podcast related news. And you can follow me at YourRichBFF for even more financial know how. See you next week. Bye. Support for Net Worth and Chill comes from Adobe. For a long time, turning something into a PDF kind of felt like creating a digitized fossil, like you were encasing all your grammar errors in resin for your whole team to see in perpetuity. But what if your PDF was alive? You could engage with it, collaborate through it, and ask it questions with the help of an AI assistant. You could even let your PDF talk to you. By turning it into a podcast. With PDF Spaces, your PDFs stay dynamic and alive, letting you do more than you ever thought was possible. Learn [e-mail] do that with Acrobat.