This teacher quit his day job for TikTok. So can you make a living on social media?
Making money through an online presence is harder in Canada, but doable
Before social media creator Steve Boots was pumping out content full-time for his hundreds of thousands of followers, he was a burnt-out elementary teacher in Regina.
The wear-and-tear of the daily grind prompted him to take a leave from teaching and turn his sights to making money from streaming channels full-time.
It's a far cry from going to school, teaching and writing report cards for the content creator, who uses the last name Boots online in lieu of his actual last name, Boutilier.
"I was just so tired. I was used up, I was grumpy. My social batteries were so depleted by the end of the day," he said.
Now he sets his own hours, breaking down news stories and happenings in short, digestible videos on platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. The past month saw him ride a roller-coaster high of being a politics creator during a Canadian election, while getting paid to do so.
"I consider what I do now still teaching in a different format," he said. "I kind of think of myself as a social studies teacher to the Canadian internet in a way."
So what does it take to be a successful content creator in Saskatchewan and support one's self through social media? The latest episode of CBC's podcast This is Saskatchewan dug into this question, with the help of creators like Boutilier.
How to pull in the dollars
There's a wide range of compensation streams for creators. In Canada, none of them come from TikTok. Its Creator Fund does not pay Canadian creators.
You can, however, earn money from YouTube. Boutilier said YouTube estimates his average monthly earnings from the platform are between $1,000 to $3,000. On the higher end, there's Sierra & Rhia FAM, a family of YouTubers based in Canada that features the antics of two sisters. The channel earns them an estimated $2 million dollars a month, according to Social Blade, a website that tracks creator statistics.
It's the kind of money Boutilier used to hear lots of his middle-school students daydream about making.
"What I wish I could convey to them is that the only way you can breakthrough is by working ludicrously hard and not looking like you're working hard while you're doing it," he said.
The good, the bad, the hustle
Agencies around the globe have sprung up to help content creators make money by connecting them with brand partners.
"We facilitate partnerships in the range of a few hundred dollars to well into six figures. So it's a pretty wide spectrum," said Doug Campbell, CEO of Moose Jaw-based Creatorade.
"We've seen it to be sustainable for multiple creators that are doing this full-time today."
There's a huge appetite from brands to get creators' support. Campbell pointed to estimates suggesting about $33 billion will be spent in the creator economy in 2025.
It can be frustrating for Canadian creators to see American creators raking in more money just by posting content, even with fewer followers.
That's certainly the case for Nick Myers, who posts under Leroy & Leroy. He said getting connected with Creatorade took the burden of how to make money off his shoulders, as it's given him sponsored content and brand partnership opportunities.
"I don't have to sell, I just get to meet people and create with them," he said.
His favourite part of the job remains travel — rolling up to small towns, talking to people and ending with his signature line: "There's always something to do."
Myers has also quit his full-time work in radio and media relations to focus on social media.
"It wasn't easy to walk away from a role like that, but it was at a time where I had to bet on myself," he said.
Rancher Dickson Delorme — better known as Quick Dick McDick online — said making a living as a Canadian content creator requires hustle.
"You need to be able to grab that traction, you need to be able to get views, you need to be able to get clicks, you need to be able to get impressions," he said. He noted there's an element of luck in capturing people's attention.
When it comes to dollars and cents, Delorme said one successful video with 200,000 views netted him $800 from YouTube. But on the other hand, some of his videos reflect hours and hours upon work — including one showing the life of a cow that took two years of work capturing video and drone footage.
"It's just a matter of how much time you're willing to put in to showcase what we do, and hopefully in an elevating manner where people laugh and chuckle a bit and learn something along the way."
Boutilier said he doesn't necessarily have a plan for the future of his Steve Boots social media career. He's simply enjoying the ride and seeing where it takes him.
"This is so obviously just lightning in a bottle and [I'm] just trying to keep with it, and trying to keep ahead of it and grow with it."
This story is from the This is Saskatchewan podcast — your connection to the stories Saskatchewan is talking about. Every week, we cover local issues that matter. Hear the voices that are creating change, shaping policy and fuelling creativity in Saskatchewan.
Tune into This is Saskatchewan every Wednesday and Friday on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
With files from CBC's Blue Sky