Connor and Brianna (Music/Content Creation)

Connor and Brianna's story begins in 2010 at the Oakwoods apartment complex in LA, where child actors stayed during audition season. Connor was there because of roles in films like *Cinderella Man*; Brianna's sister Chloe was also acting. They stayed in touch, swapped AIM addresses, and eventually married. For years, Connor pursued traditional acting—landing a lead role on the series *X Company* for three seasons—while Brianna worked as a nanny and then pivoted into e-commerce marketing at Alpha Paw, a pet ramp company.

When COVID shut down film and TV production in 2020, Connor's acting work dried up. Meanwhile, Brianna had become the marketing force behind Alpha Paw's explosive growth, scaling the company from a bathroom-sized office to a 20,000-square-foot warehouse in one year using emotional, story-driven video ads. Connor had always loved hip-hop and was a decent rapper, but he was "anti-social media"—he thought TikTok was "lame." Brianna, however, saw the opportunity. She took some YouTube videos Connor had filmed, converted them to vertical format, and posted them to TikTok. When one went viral and immediately translated to Spotify streams the next day, Connor was sold.

The early content was rough. Connor's first song, "S," was about overcoming a childhood stutter—clever concept, but it didn't break through. The turning point came when Brianna realized the issue: on TikTok, announcing "check out my song" makes people swipe away. You have to entertain first, sell second.

Brianna leveraged Connor's biggest asset—he'd been acting since age six. She created opening skits (inspired by Eddie Murphy and Tyler Perry's character work) that hooked viewers in the first 2–3 seconds, *then* hit them with the song. This was a complete reversal of how music was traditionally promoted. The skits worked instantly because they were entertainment first, and the music reveal became the payoff.

She also brought in family: Connor's mom, his sister Chloe, and later his brother-in-law Christian (who plays instruments and mixes/masters). Every ad, every skit was either filmed in their living room or Chloe's. They obsessed over the TikTok algorithm, studying MrBeast's editing style (fast cuts, one-word-at-a-time text, constant hooks every 4–5 seconds) and applying it to music videos.

The real inflection point was the "Spin the Globe" series. Brianna came up with the idea in the gym, texted Connor, and they bought a globe at Target for $19. The hook was simple and visual: "I'm going to spin this globe, and wherever my finger lands, I'm going to find an artist to collaborate with."

The first episode landed on Zambia. They found a young independent rapper named Killa with just 189 monthly listeners. They sent him a beat, he recorded a verse, and they posted the skit + song on a Sunday. It got 3 million views the same day. Brianna immediately started planning episode two (Dutch artist, which became the song "Spinnin'").

Here's the magic: that first globe video has 72 million views on both TikTok *and* YouTube Shorts, posted months apart. The second episode's song, "Spinnin'," has over 100 million Spotify streams in less than 9 months. Killa went from 189 monthly listeners to over 1 million.

The biggest insight: **every skit video outperformed non-skit videos by enormous margins.** Once they figured that out, they stopped experimenting and doubled down. They even began reverse-engineering—thinking of the content first, then writing the song around it. When Brianna's brother-in-law made a carrot flute at Christmas, they thought, "What if we make a song where he plays a carrot flute?" They did, and now Connor is "the carrot flute guy."

Revenue acceleration was dramatic. They started earning under $1,000/month. After the globe series went viral, they hit their first six-figure month. The three-month accounting delay from Spotify meant they saw the payout in April—a jaw-dropping moment. Connor had dreamed of hitting $10K/month; they eclipsed that immediately.

Now they average **60 million Spotify streams per month**, which translates to roughly $240,000 MRR (at ~$4,000 per million streams on Spotify). Revenue streams include: (1) Spotify/streaming (by far #1), (2) YouTube Shorts ad revenue (they got 800K subscribers in November 2023 after posting every day; YouTube called them the most-subscribed artist for that month), (3) brand deals (six figures), (4) syncs (songs in commercials, games, TV), (5) publishing royalties, (6) merch, and (7) live shows (currently pop-up shows and festivals, not full tours—they break even on tours due to bus rental, tour manager, etc., but do them for fan connection).

What didn't work: full touring at this stage. They opened for Hoodie Allen in Europe for three weeks and broke even. The infrastructure cost is enormous. Instead, they do pop-up shows and festival gigs, which pay them directly and require minimal time away from their 4-month-old son, Jude.

Connor and Brianna are independent artists who own 100% of their catalog—a rarity in music. They've brought their entire family into the business: sister Chloe, brother-in-law Christian (producer/mixer), little brother. Everyone quit their jobs. They work out of coffee shops, coordinate via shared documents, and prioritize family over growth (taking turns pulling all-nighters when their baby was newborn, but always putting his health first).

Their booking agent is Cara Lewis, who formerly repped Eminem and currently reps Ice Spice. They're thinking like a business: Brianna negotiates syncs and brand deals; Connor writes, records, and performs. They've discussed selling the catalog for a nine-figure valuation in 3–4 years ("500 million," Brianna said confidently).

On YouTube Shorts, they cracked a different algorithm by simply re-uploading their viral TikToks without the watermark. Both platforms reported the exact same 72-million-view count on the globe series, months apart—a five-figure monthly passive income from YouTube's algorithm boost. YouTube is more creator-friendly (pinned comments with stream links; the top comment on the first globe video on YouTube has 40K upvotes and drives direct traffic to Spotify). TikTok hides comments with "link in bio" or "Spotify"—it wants to keep users on the app.

Their philosophy: build as much "real estate" as possible. Mike Studd's comparison stuck with them—every song is like a property, and while some will be "shacks," others become "mansions." They're not chasing Drake-level arena tours; they're optimizing for content velocity, catalog depth, and passive income. Connor's goal is to stay creative and own the work. Brianna's goal is to scale it like a business.

In three years, they went from Connor helping Ramon move boxes at Alpha Paw (doped up on flight medicine) to being a legitimate independent music force with tens of millions of monthly listeners, a family operation, and a clear 3–4 year exit strategy.