Meet Dean and Alexis Indot, TikTok’s freshest finance couple via NewsFlicks

For those who’ve been on finance TikTok in recent times, you will have most likely observed Dean Indot resolution his spouse Alexis’s finance inquiries to the track of tens of millions of perspectives.

Dean, a business banking exec and Pepperdine MBA, and his spouse Alexis went viral from certainly one of their first-ever movies. It wasn’t lengthy sooner than Dean’s reading-chair rant on why you could now not wish to use your debit card very incessantly were given 14.5 million perspectives. Now, their TikTok account, @alexisanddean, has 1.7 million fans.

We sat down with Alexis and Dean to talk about why their content material struck this sort of chord, once they began making large cash from it, and why tutorial content material is so vital.

Alexis and Dean Idot
Credit score: Mashable composite: Zooey Liao; Instagram/ Getty Pictures

How did you guys get a hold of the particular thought in your movies?

Dean: Alexis is beautiful lively on social media. I am not in any respect. I exploit LinkedIn for paintings, and my corporate manages that for me. And I exploit Twitter or X for my funding information feeds and information. That is concerning the extent of my utilization of social media. 

She at all times asks me questions, simply as a pair, about finance stuff. It is simply how we communicate. We sit down down and we hang around, and it is at all times questions. Proper after the mini monetary disaster in ’23, I am immersed in that as a result of I am a banker. So the entire bankers in the market had been closely immersed in that for the ones two to a few weeks of chaos. The lengthy tale brief is: she requested me to give an explanation for it. She sought after to understand what used to be occurring for the reason that moderate particular person did not perceive what it manner when banks cross into chapter 11. Why? So she requested me a query, after which I defined, and that used to be the primary video.

Have been you uncomfortable in any respect with the theory of answering her questions about digicam?

Dean: No. I did not comprehend it used to be being recorded [at first]. I am not uncomfortable in any respect. And amusing truth: I do not watch any of my movies. I might most effective watch the movies in case there are enhancing necessities or some remark that claims I stated one thing untoward or fallacious. However I by no means watch my movies.

Do you edit them? 

Dean: Alexis does the whole lot. She comes from virtual advertising and is an entrepreneur. She had her personal trade for a few years, all of which used to be advertised and pushed via social media. I do not know what occurs after she takes the video.

Alexis: I movie the whole lot in a single take. If it is for a emblem [and] if a emblem calls for edits, I will be able to do it in CapCut, however all of our natural content material is filmed in a single take, after which I submit it at once on TikTok. I simply upload a bit of name to it in the course of the TikTok app, however I do not edit our content material in any way.

Dean: For those who see the setup right here, you’ll know there’s no manufacturing right here. I do not also have a mic. It is her iPhone.

Alexis: The whole thing’s completed at the iPhone digicam.

Dean: Now not even a stick or a stand. She simply holds it. And that has now not modified since day one.

Why do you assume audience gravitate towards that?

Dean: Authenticity. What you spot is what you get,

Alexis: [We get] feedback [about how people] really feel like they are sitting at a desk with us.

The place do you each get a hold of inspiration or concepts in your movies? 

Dean: I am very lively in being attentive to information, to the economic system, to markets. I am an lively dealer — now not via business, however for private causes. I am actually sitting right here each morning sooner than the marketplace opens, being attentive to information all day till it closes. I am a information hound. That is simply how I’m. What I do is interpret the scoop for the loads on social media who do not wish to learn or do not have the time to learn. So the content material concepts simply come organically. If it isn’t a emblem deal, it is in most cases natural. It is one thing attention-grabbing in the market that I wish to discuss, or she thinks it is in reality attention-grabbing that folks do not perceive.

Alexis: There will be a headline within the information, and Dean will probably be going off about it. And it makes highest sense to Dean, however I do not know what is going on. I may ask questions that appear fundamental to him, however I more or less constitute our target market in some way that now not everybody understands what is going on. So every so often it’s going to be me asking questions, simply seeking to get an evidence on present occasions. 

Are you able to kind of stroll me via the way you cross from ideation to publishing a submit?

Alexis: I ask Dean the query, [and] I will get the content material that I would like. After which, so far as posting it, every so often I will be able to backlog content material. We will movie a host of stuff in at some point. Dean’s in reality busy, so we’re going to have filming days the place we do a host of content material in at some point. If it is a scorching matter, we’re going to movie it that morning and submit it immediately. 

When I am able to submit that piece of content material, I add it to the TikTok app. It is essential to make use of hashtags on TikTok. Now not such a lot Instagram, however cataloging your content material on TikTok is in reality vital. So I make certain that I exploit as many related hashtags as I will bring to mind. A few of our favorites are #FinancialLiteracy and #FinancialEducation. Dean does not know the rest about hashtag technique.

Dean: No thought.

Alexis: I make certain that I at all times hashtag related hashtags. Then I tag the positioning, after which we add it. I do not stay the rest within the drafts; I simply stay it like on my digicam roll in my telephone. And it is in reality easy and easy. There in reality is not a lot of a procedure rather then we movie.

What number of movies are you posting on moderate each day?

Alexis: On moderate, we submit thrice per week. Something that we simply began is Monetary Literacy Fridays. I will movie a host of content material that is not time delicate with Dean after which stay it as a backlog. That method, I am posting each unmarried Friday, it doesn’t matter what. We simply did the primary one, and we were given nearly 1,000,000 perspectives. So it kind of feels to be well-received. And that’s the reason confidently a brand new cadence for us shifting ahead. 

When did you know it’s essential to generate a vital source of revenue from this? 

Dean: The primary video [we posted] went viral, however I did not in reality be aware of it in any respect. I might say six months into it.

Alexis: Dean idea it used to be more or less a comic story to start with, however we were given 1,000,000 perspectives at the first video, after which that very same week, we were given one thing with like 3 or 4 million perspectives, and not anything used to be getting beneath 300,000 [views]. And I knew that used to be a in reality large deal. [It took us] two months to get into the TikTok Writer Fund.

Dean: They began paying out in reality nicely on engagement. As soon as it handed 5 figures in earnings, that is after I [said], “Wait a minute, that is bonafide. This isn’t a comic story.”

You had been getting 5 figures from the Writer Fund?

Alexis: No, now not [at first]. Handiest this yr. 

Dean: At first, we had small emblem offers right here and there, what I name “humorous cash.” It is gasoline cash.

Alexis: However we are in reality most effective two-and-a-half years in, and to peer how a lot we’ve got grown has been in reality more or less loopy.

Which monetization strategies do you employ? 

Alexis: The Writer Fund. There’s something known as Specialised Rewards on TikTok, the place they praise creators who make what they name tutorial studying content material. And we’ve got been decided on to be in that program as nicely. In order that’s been in reality nice for emblem offers. 

Dean: Now we have a few longer-term contracts, however once more, we are very choosy about that, too, concerning the emblem offers. I view this trade now not simply as about making as a lot cash as I will as speedy as I will; it is extra about serving to the neighborhood… I might by no means do a emblem deal if it is a product that I would not use or that I have never used already. I am very, very strict about that.

Alexis: Even supposing it is a product that I feel is a superb product. If Dean’s like, “It is a excellent product, however it isn’t one thing that matches my way of life,” we nonetheless may not. It needs to be one thing that we for my part use and experience. 

Is that most commonly manufacturers coming to you? 

Dean: No, all of them come to us. 

Alexis: I’ve a supervisor, however I might say 98 % of the whole lot is inbound to us. 

How temporarily you become a hit on TikTok is fairly an anomaly, proper? It isn’t that commonplace to have your first video cross viral. Was once this your first strive at virality?

Dean: It wasn’t even a check out.

Alexis: I had different channels.

Dean: She idea it used to be humorous.

Alexis: Smartly, no, I had a small trade that I might put it on the market on Instagram that I have spent years development, and I by no means had the good fortune that I had with this channel. 

[For this project],I filmed one video and I offered myself and [said] what I used to be gonna be posting. After which that very same evening, I posted the first actual query I requested Dean, and out of the gate, it did in reality nicely. It wasn’t an concept that I had recycled and had to check out more than one occasions. It simply labored the primary time. I feel it used to be a mixture of the content material taste and the subject that we picked. It used to be this sort of scorching matter at the moment. I have discovered that the content material that does the most efficient on our channel every so often is a scorching matter. Being on it with what is related works in reality nicely with TikTok. The set of rules turns out to find it irresistible. 

What recommendation would you give to somebody who is beginning out in content material advent and is taking a look to construct a profession or develop their following very similar to yours?

Dean: What you spot is what you get. I am not attempting. I am not doing the rest that’s not in most cases me. 

Alexis: What Dean simply stated. When folks question me, “How are we able to reflect what you guys have completed?” I simply inform folks to be themselves. When you find yourself growing content material, if you are now not filming with a spouse in the way in which that we’re, I inform folks to behave like you might be on FaceTime with your mates. TikTok seems like a bit of neighborhood, a small circle of relatives, folks that you just communicate with each day, and interact along with your feedback. Movie as if you are speaking for your buddy on FaceTime.