How He Doubled His Tech Sales Income Working Just Two Hours a Day | Bryce Marin E6

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the UGC Industry Podcast, the show that brings creators, brands, and everyone building the UGC space into one conversation. I'm Brandon Heen, your host, and every week I sit down with the folks who are leading this industry, from the creators landing brand deals to the founders and agencies behind them. Let's get into it. On this episode, we have Bryce Marin, who has a very interesting story because he started his career in tech sales, which is commonly known as a very lucrative industry, but he was able to leave it in less than six months after discovering UGC and literally doubling his income. So, Bryce, what was that experience like getting into a job that many would consider really good right out of college and basically skipping corporate America?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Yeah, what's up, guys? What's up, Brandon? Thanks for having me on. I'd say like tech sales is a great career opportunity. I'm not hitting on it. I never have. I just did it specifically because I wanted to stay out in San Diego after I graduated. For me personally, it got really, really tiring after doing 120 outbounds, cold calls every single day. Um, if you're about it, you're about it. Like, all props to you, but I just couldn't do it. I saw myself traveling, I saw myself working for myself. Were you looking for other side hustles or stuff to get into, or how did you even discover UGC? So I discovered UGC mainly because I was stuck inside working eight or nine hours a day building decks, cold calling, and my roommate was working an hour or two a day doing UGC, which I was making fun of him for in the beginning. I was like, dude, like, how are you doing this? Like, I can't post videos like that. I was like, Yeah, you gotta put me on. He put me on. Shout out Giuliano Martello. He connected me with Owen, who's also running content economy. And um, I joined that. And next thing, next thing we know, I doubled my income.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

You're kind of like an OG in the UGC space. So, how long ago was this? A little bit over a year ago. And so UGC has evolved in the last year, but when you started, what did it look like?

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Good question. So I didn't think any of this was real. Most people that come to me to get coached also don't think any of it's real in the beginning. At that time, you were doing three text-on-screen videos a day. What does text on screen video mean? So a text-on-screen video is like a seven-second, eight-second video with a face reaction.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Yeah, so guys, the kind of UGC that me and Bryce both started with is called organic UGC, also synonymous with Canvas or Tech UGC. And essentially, you're promoting apps. So there's so many people creating apps these days, and you're essentially creating fresh accounts on Instagram and TikTok to market these accounts as if you were a regular person. So if you've ever seen a video on Instagram and it's somebody with a shocked reaction saying, I can't believe I just saved this much money on my next cruise, and they flip to a cruise app, that is organic UGC and it's it's blowing up right now. Um, Bryce, why do you think that's such a high-paying type of UGC right now?

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Organic UGC is so highly paid, and I think it's only gonna get more and more expensive for these brands if you're a good creator, because organic UGC converts so well. I mean, yeah, you could put a bunch of ad spend behind something that's really hyper-targeting their ICP, but organic's great because you're really only paying a creator at times $30 for a video and it can get five million views. If you have a good call to action, it's gonna convert at a high rate. Um, now given that if you're working with bad creators, you're just gonna blow through a lot of money and you're gonna run into things like low view counts and stuff like that. But if you can get high quality creators and run up an organic UGC campaign, man, you can drive a lot of downloads.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Yeah. So I want to get into more of your story in a bit, but since you're mentioning good and bad creators, so you've really advanced fast through the UGC space from being a top creator to being an agency owner to now working on managing creators with the with another really big agency. How how did you make that ascension for from going from being a creator to managing and coaching creators?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, so I think the cool thought thing about UGC is like you're becoming really tapped in in the consumer space and you're making so many connections. Like the connections I was making in the tech sales space, like sure, I was meeting like 50 year olds on LinkedIn, but the consumer space is growing, and their main distribution right now is UGC. So you're meeting so many founders, CEOs, CMOs, uh, growth op leaders, and you're just becoming so tapped in. Just being in the space starting now, you're gonna make so many connections and you can really, after five or six months in, navigate whichever way you want.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Yeah. What's so cool about the UGC space is that it's so new, you can really climb the ladder so quick. Whereas with a regular job, you got to work one, two, three years to get a promotion, and you really got to work a decade to get up to any type of senior position. Whereas UGC, you can be meeting with CEOs of multi-million dollar companies just within a matter of months.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

I think our last conversation was the content economy is supposed to 4X in the next five years. Like that should tell you enough to just dive in. Even if it's just posting with one brand or getting used to it, you should be creating content. There's no gap now. You can create brand new accounts and post without your friends or your parents or your family or your high school friends from however many years ago seeing your content.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Yeah. So you said your friend was doing it. You didn't really believe it was real. And then what was the experience like of getting into it and starting to have your first success? What it would like your first big paycheck.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

What did that look like for first getting into it? I was terrible in the camera. Everyone is. Um, but yeah, I I just like would say um a bunch of times. There was so much gap in between my talking, which we can get into later. It just really wasn't polished. I'd say after my first month, I had my first deal where I made 2.5k off of it, posting two times a day on text on screen. Just for one company. Just for one company. It was a big shock. So then I stacked up even harder in my second month, and hence why I always say I doubled my income in my second month. And then I realized, okay, well, if I can do this working an hour and a half a day, and I'm doing this tech sales job, and I'm living with the kid that also showed me, why would I even do this? So my third month, I quit and I went all in.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

What did your parents say when you told them you wanted to quit your highly prestigious job in order to make TikToks? I didn't tell my parents.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Yeah, I didn't tell my parents. But they soon realized like they were like, How are you going on these trips, bruh? Like, how are you doing all this? I was like, guys, I'm not working in tech sales anymore. But they were more than happy because I mean, obviously, it's what I wanted to do, and they're really respectful of that, but also at the same time, they saw I was making more money, so they were like, Okay, like why not? Now they don't care. Yeah. I just took my mom to uh to Europe, guys, for the first time. It's the opportunity it brings in the space.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

That's so cool. Yeah. Okay. So you were a creator for what, like six to eight months before you started your own agency? Because a lot of people wonder what is the career progression like in this space. One of those things is being starting an agency, which once you become a good UGC creator, you're gonna have more opportunities than you have time for in the day. So then what you can go do is you can tell those companies, hey, I know all these other creators. I'm gonna give you 10 creators, I'm gonna keep a cut, and now we can run your whole campaign. How did you have the idea of starting an agency or what did that look like from?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

I started my agency like five months after four or five months after I started. So my third month when I like, I guess, made it to the big leagues of the tech UGC creators, I started my own agency. It was very much just like, screw it, we're gonna figure this out. I built it from scratch, did like all my outbounding I did in tech sales for my new agency. And I would just figure it out as I go. If you want to grow quick, just figure it out and accept as much opportunity as possible. And if you can't fulfill the opportunity, then you know it's part of the lesson. Or you started doing outreach to brands. I did outreach to all these tech apps um using the skills I learned in tech sales, and I'd have a whole LinkedIn outbound system, whole X outbound system. I hired a bunch of VAs and I just said, we're gonna do this thing. I did the same thing with UGC, I'm gonna do it with the agency.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

So how did how did it feel like running these full campaigns for these companies? Because a lot, it's a lot of pressure, I'm sure. Yeah. And how did you get over that?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Definitely stressful, but at the time I was in content economy. So I just basically took all the creators in there and gave them the deals that I bring in. Managing the client was the hardest part because when you're starting these agencies out, guys, you're dealing with like a lot of people that don't have a lot of money. So they want to be part of all the actions. So it's very important to like set expectations first. And the quicker you can set expectations for the client, the more relief you're gonna have. And the easier the creators are gonna be on you. Because creators can be very it can cause a lot of stress if they're not being fulfilled properly.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yeah. So as someone who manages creators, what would you say is the biggest difference between creators who come in and kill it and make a ton of money versus the people who don't kind of just fizzle out?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Yeah, I think like you need to be experienced to be you have a lot of experience to be a good creator and come in and kill it. Um, I'm not gonna sugarcoat that. That's why it's important to get proper training because you got to understand the algorithm. There's so many things that go into being a good creator that you probably wouldn't even think about, like visual hooks, a good hook in the beginning, good cadence, good editing, all that stuff really does matter. So the sooner you can learn that, um, the better creator you're gonna be. Okay. How do people go about learning stuff like that? You guys can learn yourself. There's a bunch of information online. For example, you can go in Brandon's account um and learn that way, or you can learn through me. Or if you want to speed ramp that, I'd say join Content Economy. I mean, I did it, he did it, we've seen crazy results. Now we both coach in it.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Quick interruption here this video is brought to you by RTech, the all-in-one platform for UGC creators. So, as a UGC creator, there are really three things you need. One is a suite of tools to make you more efficient from editing, tracking your deals, tracking your finances so that you're not hopping around from a million different apps. Two, the knowledge and coaching and training from people who've already been there and done that. And then three, access to deals. RTEC provides you all three of those and and was built by some of the OGs from the UGC space who understand everything that UGC creators know what they need to be successful. You can go hop on and try it now for free. Just click the link below. And so I want to hear some of the stories of like the creators that you that you've worked with, you were managing. Who's the one that that stands out the most to you?

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Two of my best friends from high school, um, who I never thought would be creators ever. Now they're my roommates in New York. I put them on UGC the month I quit. And I was like, guys, we're all gonna move out to New York City and be roommates by January. They were like, How? I'm like, do this right now. They both stepped in. I said, You guys gotta give me a month of full commitment, and I swear I will get you to a point where you're making more than your actual jobs. So the rest is history, we all moved out to New York, and now they're doing it full-time, living in probably the most expensive city in the US. What made you want to move to New York? My parents both are from here. I feel like I always need to experience it, and thank God I moved here because I work with affiliate network. They're based here in Williamsburg. And New York City summer 2026, I have to say, was the best summer ever. I got to experience my favorite NBA team win the national championship. The Knicks won. I was here for that. The World Cup. If you guys know the Brooklyn Mirage, it got shut down and then Pacha bought it out and we're opened that. So I got to see another there.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah, what I love about that is like how quickly you can actually start making enough money to be fully financially stable yourself with UGC. I mean, think think about it. You get you go into a regular job out of college where you make 50 to 80k. You work for an entire year just to get a 5% raise.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

It's crazy. And like, why not take it into your own hands? Yeah. You don't need to be competitive. I mean, it helps if you're competitive, but like, why wait? Why keep putting it off? I mean, everyone knows content and being a creator is is the next big thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah. And so what a lot of people who have a job are asking themselves is is UGC stable, like or compared to my job? How how did you feel about that? About the stability of it versus just having a regular quote unquote job.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

I might be a little different, but I always am very much I'll figure it out. I knew that going into it. But after seeing the endless opportunity and myself denying jobs left and right while I was working a job, it just made me comfortable enough to know that like I can quit and I'll find endless opportunities. It's not to say, like, I get it's scary. Like job security is great, but also at the same time, it's like how secure is your job these days? People are getting fired left and right.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

That's what I'm saying. Like when you have a job, you have one single point of failure. Companies do layoffs every single year, and you have one company. I I mean, I have a thousand companies a month asking me to do UGC for them. I've quite literally never been more stable in my life.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Exactly. And you don't need to quit your job right away. For example, Griffin, who lives in Williamsburg, yeah, he reached out, he's a killer in content economy now. He still works on 9 to 5 and does 10k a month on top of that. On top of that.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

How long has he been doing it for? When did he join content economy?

SPEAKER_01 13:04

He joined content economy this summer. And in think of mine, guys, we're in September. And I always ask people this I'm like, what is your why? I think your why is the most important thing because your why just can't be money. You have to have a reason to fulfill the need for money. Like, money is a service, or I guess it's an object that you can use to go travel. Take your mom to Europe for exactly like mine is my family and traveling, so I want to do both. That's why I took my mom to Europe. Yeah. But uh, I think you just need to like focus on not just money because that's only gonna boost you for like a month or two. And see so many people fail because they don't have a strong reason to keep pushing.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Yeah. So what's your favorite part about doing UGC aside from the money?

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah, my favorite thing about UGC is the time, the freedom it gives. Um, you know, when I was just doing UGC, I was making upwards of 20K plus a month, and I was working three or four hours a day. That's that's like, you know, not every single month. It varies. Like one month I had 20k plus month, and like I was working four or five hours a day. Um, and then the next month I could be making 13k.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

How does a UGC creator go from making five to 10k a month to 20k a month?

SPEAKER_01 14:14

So you got to be really adaptable. And listen, you get to five to 10k a month easily with organic. You do know that. Yeah. Yeah. You can if you want to stack deals, you can. I know someone that had 30 to 35k a month just off organic deals. He had a whole system, he bailed out an agent to give him scripts and like hooked it up to his Discords and Slacks and where he's chatting with all of his managers. But he was also putting in eight to nine hours a day, doing 30 to 35k a month off oh, eight hours a day to make 30k a month. My point exactly.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

My point exactly. So horrible. Working from home.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

It's probably crazy to hear being on this like podcast, hearing this, hearing like 30k a month off eight or nine hours a day, but like that should be your motivation to start. If you're working eight to nine hours a day already and you're making 80k a year, then like you should start.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

And a common path that we see a lot of people take, um, because a lot of people that that we meet that join content economy, they join with jobs, obviously. So within two to three months, like you're doing something wrong if you're not at 5k a month. Yeah. And yeah, and and at that point, maybe that replaces your job. A lot of people have high-paying jobs that join, so it doesn't replace their job, but at least at that point, you know you can support yourself. So then you have the option to go all in. And so even if you don't end up wanting to quit your job, knowing that you have the ability to make your own money is a is a really freeing feeling.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah, to like kind of extend off that. When I hop on calls with people that want to join content economy, and I'm not sure if you do this too, but if if they don't have a strong why, I'll tell them, like, hey, I don't think it's a good fit right now. Let's wait a week and come back to me with a better reason on why you want to start. Because if it's just about money, then that's where I see people join and then they don't move past the 5k a month. And it's like, if you really want it, you can do 5x that in the next year. But yeah, some people just are either like, you know, not as motivated, and it's like we don't want people in there that aren't motivated.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Because really the the the whole point of the group is there there's so many brands who are out there looking for creators, is for agency owners and and stuff like that with Bryce, like to be able to source creators from. Like he said, when he when he started his agency, he pulled exclusively um from content economy. So we're looking for people who who are ready to come in and and and be the top creators, and uh really money will will never be an issue again.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

And dude, that's why we have such good deal flow because every single agency, every single tech app or consumer app wants to work with content economy creators.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

It's almost like exclusive. It's like we only Yeah, it is. It's like, bro, you have the badge, bro. But um, not to say that there's other communities that aren't crushing it too. I just think like being at least part of a community is the smartest thing you can do.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Find find find others, even even if it's just in Discord, find others who are on the same journey because when you see, when you really get like the the wool pulled off your eyes and see how many people are succeeding with UGC, you'll know that it's worth it to go all in. So I'm curious, like, where do you, you know, you've been in UGC for already a year now. Where do you see it going in the next year? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Um, the coolest thing about UGC is we always know like social media content is gonna be around. Yep. And when I started, the space was a lot different than it is now. But you adapt. So I think like as long as you can adapt, you will find so much success. You have to be a sponge. So whenever something new comes, like for example, you joined, you saw tribe or paid ads being something that you could kind of absorb, right? Yep. So you did it and now you're making a lot of money from it. But you always have to be adapting and hopping on the next big thing. Sure, like tribe could have easily died out, right? But you did it anyway, and yeah, now look where you are.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Yeah, so so in terms of like what you want to be doing, what are you doing now?

unknown 18:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Right now, I'm uh helping build out the uh UGC side to affiliate network. If you guys aren't familiar with affiliate network, affiliate network started off as a clipping agency, and now we're tackling the UGC side. So we're hiring the best of the best creators to come and work for us. We have really high paying deals um compared to a lot of the other agencies, and we make sure that like we're only accepting the best of the best creators.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Yeah, and I want to dive into like what these deal structures look like because there's a very common misconception among a bunch of UGC creators because when people think of UGC, they think of oh, I get paid $200 to make a video of this electrolyte powder. And then they they hear the deal structures of stuff like organic UGC and and they're just kind of confused about it. So, like, what what does a typical deal in in your agency look like now?

SPEAKER_01 18:56

That's a good question. So, what Brandon's referring to with the $200 a video for I don't know, power aid or whatever it is. Yeah, um, that's traditional UGC. That's how the space started. You would build a creative, you'd have a script given to you, and you would provide it to the client and they'd pay you 200 bucks, which would come not so often. You'd get like a couple of those a month, and you'd be like, okay, this is enough to pay like my rent.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Yeah. But grocery money.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yeah. The thing I like about our deals is you sign monthly retainers, recurring monthly retainers. So you're signing something anywhere from a thousand to five thousand dollars a month, base. Wow. And you're getting paid that per month. Now, you're not creating one video, you're creating one or two a day, and you're posting it on a brand new account. And how do these videos differ from traditional UGC videos? Yeah, of course. So these videos are much easier, um, in my opinion, and they're much more laid back. You'll get inspiration, you might get scripts, and you're just creating very similar videos every single day.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Selfie style videos.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Yeah, like talking on FaceTime.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Yeah, like like literally talking on FaceTime. You're not you're not setting up camera angles, um, like you don't need necessarily lighting, you don't need the B B roll of the product and all the different angles and overlays. It's literally just recording a selfie style video.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

It's literally like me right here with my phone talking. I could make one of these videos in five minutes, but that's just because I have the experience. Yeah, sure, you could too. Yeah. But that's that's organic UGC. So if you work with us, you can stack like four or five of them, and next thing you know, you're making seven to ten K a month just in base rate. And we have those opportunities available. You just have to be good.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yeah. And um, on top of that, and how do how like like what specifically makes someone a good UGC creator and and actually gets people to watch their videos?

SPEAKER_01 20:42

One, the most important thing is is you have to treat this like a business before I get into like what makes someone a good creator. If I see you come in and you're not posting on the uh the cadence that you agreed to agree to, uh-huh, then we're not gonna give you deals. You have to be professional because the gap in UGC right now is absurd. Your competition is a lot of people that are spoiled there in college or they just don't have the time to be professional about it. So if you can come in and provide the the amount of creatives that was agreed upon, which should be the norm, you will find a lot of success. So basically, doing the bare minimum is all you have to do. And then in terms of being a good creator, um literally just having good lighting, good visual hooks, making sure you're you have a strong call to action in the video itself because showing the product is is mostly probably the bet best thing you could do for the brand because it's gonna cause the conversions.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Yeah, and and when he says product, it's typically a website or like a web page. So you're not you're not carrying around products. And this this is why organic UGC is so nice if you want to be able to like travel and stuff like that. You don't have to get shipped anything, you're basically just showing websites.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, and that's why I started this because I like to travel and I don't have to get back to my apartment to get my Amazon boxes or whatever. Brand sends me because that would make it almost nearly impossible to travel. So that's why I love this because you're just working off apps and websites off your phone. I guess one more thing I want to touch on is going back to the deals that we have. The coolest thing about it is you get paid also on the views you drive in or the conversions you drive in. We had a client where two creators last month got paid $25,000 and $14,000 off one deal, plus their bases, which was I think four and five K each. So they made a total of 30K and 20K off of one client. Um, but that's because they drove in millions of views. So I think it's really important to like, yeah, base rates are cool, but as you advance, it's really, really important to become a good creator because that's how you make the big buffs.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Yeah, and what are these people like? Are they in college? Are they out of college? Like, what kind of people are they?

SPEAKER_01 22:49

These were actually Spanish guys. They were Mexicans, where they live in Mexico and they speak Spanish. Wow. Um, and they just killed it that month. You live in Mexico and they made 30k USD. You don't even have to be in the US guys. That's they didn't make it. Um, we also had another creator, uh Serafina, she was working on one of our campaigns and she had a 20K month as well the month before. So it's not unrealistic, guys. You just gotta start.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Yeah, how long had those people been doing UGC for? I believe they've been doing it for under six months. You genuinely can learn all the skills needed in like one to three months.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Yeah, and I'll still pick up a UGC deal here. If I can have a UGC deal and not have to worry about my rent and my groceries, why not? It takes me five, 10 minutes a day. Yep. You know, like I'll happily do it. Yeah. Um, I think everyone should be doing it. And I showed my brother too, and now he's already at 6k a month after starting two months ago.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Yep, literally. I put my brother on as well, and he he had 10k a month in his third month, had never done content before. That'd be crazy. Yeah, he he was he was actually playing basketball in Europe and and now when he quit, he didn't know what other job he was gonna do. So he just now that he's done with basketball, he's just doing UGC full time, never asked to get a job. You play basketball?

SPEAKER_01 24:03

No. Wait, wait, dude, didn't your mom hit a 30k a month or a 30k view video?

SPEAKER_00 24:08

Yeah, my mom actually she she just she just his she because my mom's doing UGC too. Um, and she just had her first quote unquote viral video, 22,000 views. Bro, if his mom's doing it literally, but uh yeah, she she she just wants a couple extra thousand bucks a month. Probably sounds absurd to most people. That she just wants a couple of extra thousand bucks a month. I mean, that is the ungodly easy to do that.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Yeah, I think this is the best thing. Like, if you guys are watching this coming from like wanting to start a side hustle, I have tried other side hustles. This is by far the only one that's actually stuck with me. Back in college, I was a videographer, so I was trying to build out like a videographer or a video agency.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

And um, I joined a community, I paid like an astronomical amount to join it. I saw success there, but I've never seen anything as easy as UGC. Um you just gotta do the bare minimum, like I talked about, and you will find so much success.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

So, what is the number one thing or piece of advice that you would give to someone who's curious about UGC?

SPEAKER_01 25:09

I'd say literally just go into it with no expectations. You hear a lot of this stuff about making X amount of money. It's 100% possible, but if you just start by creating good content and just copying someone's UGC account and just practicing, then that's the best position you can put yourself in. Because if you become a good creator, the deals will just come to you. That's all that matters.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

So, yeah, guys, you heard it here from Bryce. He basically was able to skip the whole corporate America trap. Um, even though he had a really good job, decided to go all in on himself, and it worked out really well. We have a lot of a lot of other people who are in tech sales in the group that leave or are about to leave. Would love to connect with you guys on the internet. I'm gonna drop Bryce's info down below. And thank you for tuning in to another episode of the UGC Industry Podcast. Yeah. Catch you next time.