012 - Niching Down to Increase Income - How Kyne Makes Money on TikTok with Drag Math
On this episode Business of Drag episode I chat with Kyne about how she makes money from TikTok, why you need a business bank account, and the importance of bookkeeping and tracking your ROI.
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On today’s episode of Business of Drag, I sit down with Kyne from Season 1 of Canada’s Drag Race.
Diving into our lightning round, Kyne shares her favorite queens, go-to lip sync song, favorite time of the year for drag and if you can find her out or at home on a night off.
Known as Kyne both in and out of drag (she/her or he/him), she started her makeup YouTube channel in high school shortly after coming out. She started watching RuPaul’s Drag Race and saw that the queens were doing what she was doing with makeup, but taking it to a new level with costumes and wigs. She went to her first drag show during university and slowly just added to her makeup looks to evolve into full drag.
The audience on Kyne’s YouTube tutorial channel grew to over 100,000 subscribers before she was on the show. When COVID came, Kyne stopped her tutorials and eventually moved into making math videos. Studying math in university, she used to keep her math and her drag separate, until she noticed it was performing well, especially on TikTok, when she started merging the two. Social media is now Kyne’s primary source of income.
Prior to being on Drag Race, Kyne had been doing drag for about three years. When Canada announced Drag Race was coming, she applied to challenge herself. The season aired during July 2020, in between UK Seasons 1 and 2.
Kyne’s TikTok generates income with a few brand deal videos a month interspersed between her math content, attracting a wide audience including Gen Z and teachers. She likes working a few days a week and the flexibility and potential that comes with TikTok.
As a freelancer, Kyne started filing taxes in 2017 for her YouTube channel. She went to an accountant and during the start of the pandemic switched to trying TurboTax because she heard it was easy. She now has an accountant that focuses on entertainment clients.
Currently, Kyne has one personal bank account and two credit cards. I recommend she open a business bank account and then ideally open a business credit card linked to the business bank account, but in the meantime use one of the personal credit cards for business expenses and one for personal so it’s easier to differentiate on bank statements and better categorize business expenses.
If Kyne could go back and give herself one piece of advice, it would be to treat drag more like a business and keep better track of the finances. Too often queens are spending money to avoid wearing a look more than once when they could repeat looks to cut down significantly on expenses.
At the end of the day, it’s all about the ROI. If you invest $50,000 but those looks that get you to the Top 3, you will see a greater ROI than spending a ton of money than if you don’t make it as far.
Currently at 1.3 million followers on TikTok, Kyne is negotiating brand deals with the help of her manager for brands such as DoorDash, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Proactiv and more. She said she saves a lot of her money because you never know when TikTok won’t be what it currently is and the brand deals won’t be there anymore.
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