Vivian Tu
Vivian Tu built a name for herself as "Your Rich BFF" online through her mission to make the finance industry less "male, pale, and stale", and provide important information about building wealth to her audience. Marginalized communities, in particular, have been the cornerstone of her brand since 2021.
Her knack for breaking down complex financial topics is informed by her prior role as a trader at investment firm J.P. Morgan and has helped her build a very strong, engaged community of almost 7 million social media users across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn. By 2022, she was making enough money from her social media income streams, like brand partnerships and speaking engagements, that she quit her job at media company BuzzFeed to focus on her brand full-time.
As she grew her social-media business, she discovered her audience wanted more in-depth knowledge about personal finance than the 30-second videos she initially went viral for; thus, the podcast "Networth & Chill" was launched in March 2023. Here, Tu interviewed wealthy, online personalities like real estate mogul Ryan Serhant, fitness creator Cassey Ho, and Bilt Rewards founder Ankur Jain about how they manage their money. She also spent some episodes breaking down topics like the racial pay gap and the psychology behind bad spending decisions.
Now, 30-year-old Tu is partnering with Vox Media and the newly rebranded wellness brand PS, formerly known as PopSugar, to launch a second season of the podcast. The podcast will now include a video format and dive deeper into exactly how financially well-off individuals were able to grow their net worth into the millions.
"This season, I'm asking the hard-hitting questions," Tu told Business Insider. "I'm asking for dollar amounts because I think that's so important for people to hear."
Vox Media was one of many suitors vying for the chance to collaborate with Tu, but they won because of an aligned vision and handing over creative control.
The video podcasting space is particularly popular — and lucrative right now, with prominent creators like Alix Earle and Jake Shane, recently launching their own ventures.
A report from Spotify published in June found that 63% of respondents trust their favorite podcast host more than their other favorite influencer. It's also lucrative for creators to branch out into audio; the same report found that 48% of Gen Zers and millennials said they're more likely to be interested in ads and products when they're promoted by their favorite podcasters. This means creators who choose to host podcasts can tap into a new stream of income by making money from the ads promoted within each episode.
Tu said that moving into video podcasting wasn't just a "strategic business decision", it was to save her significant time. While season one of "Networth & Chill" gained over 2 million downloads, Tu spent a lot of her day creating separate social assets to promote the podcast because it was only audio. With video podcasts, she can now quickly use existing visual clips and post them on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to spread the word about new episodes.
"I wanted to work smarter so I didn't have to duplicate work," she said.
Vox Media and PS' new vision to center health and wellness content was a big reason she picked them; that, alongside her familiarity with their work producing podcasts, was what sealed the deal.
"Financial wellness is such a huge component of our rebrand so I think it felt like such a natural home for Vivian because there's a shared mission to have open and honest conversations around money and have taboo or uncomfortable topics accessible to a much wider audience," Lillian Xu, Executive Director of Vox Media's Podcast Business, told BI. "Having a very clear mission statement, like Vivian does, really helps us determine the success of a podcast."
According to Xu, Vox Media and Tu will work very closely together on the podcast's sales, marketing, and distribution, such as posting teasers of new episodes across Your Rich BFF and PS' social media accounts.
"This podcast is going to be about the questions you've been too afraid and too nervous to ask anybody in your life," Tu said. "Even if you can't have those conversations with your own friends, you can have them with mine."
