r/nextfuckinglevel 17h ago

The Transformation of a Van

41.8k Upvotes

3.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

380

u/EXPLODEDman 17h ago

Wealth from things that aren't having a job.

130

u/wearing_moist_socks 17h ago

You are watching them do their job.

2

u/Girafferage 17h ago

Influencers?

54

u/wearing_moist_socks 17h ago

No. You're watching them build it. That's not what influencers do.

They build these for customers.

23

u/TimotheusIV 14h ago

With a 700K subscriber instagram following. They are raking in 25-50K for every single sponsored post they put out there. Safe to say they are influencers as well.

9

u/Unoriginal_Man 9h ago

Sure, but it's an influencer career that's ancillary to their main career of refitting these vans. Or at least I'm assuming they didn't start their business solely so they could launch an influencer career off of it.

-4

u/TimotheusIV 9h ago

But, kinda safe to say that these two are far off from ‘upper middle class’. They are likely multi-millionaires if their business is in any way healthy. You could be retiring at 45 on the instagram cashflow alone.

u/Fast-Map-7853 45m ago

Okay, and? Sounds like they made a successful living for themselves and you're jealous of it.

u/TimotheusIV 42m ago

I’m not jealous at all. They earned it and good on them.

I’m just correcting the perspective that these are middle class folks doing this. Nah, they filthy rich. But that doesn’t make the van less awesome.

u/Fast-Map-7853 29m ago

The only thing being talked about across this thread is how this couple is "generationally wealthy" and only have the time to do this because of such wealth.

The reality is that this guy is doing literal blue collar work to sell off later and using social media to promote it.

3

u/Rocky-Jockey 8h ago

Instagram ad money has dropped off a fucking cliff recently. Lots of influencers have had to go back to 9-5s. Brands don’t feel like the ROI is worth it anymore.

0

u/blackwifebeater 8h ago

It's not the ad revenue from Instagram that makes the money, it's sponsored content. And you could make a lot with 700k followers.

3

u/Rocky-Jockey 8h ago

That’s what I’m talking about actually. Brands don’t throw money around like they used to. There are lots of influencers talking about it right now. Like millions plus accounts having their monthly take home go down to a 1/4 of what they were making.

Seems like these guys are a van conversion business with a really good social media presence so good for them.

1

u/Rock_Strongo 5h ago

Using instagram for an additional source of marketing (showing them doing work they would have been doing anyway) is not even remotely the same thing as being an "influencer".

Maybe it's not as effective as it used to be - but in this case whatever additional sales they get based on their instagram posts is basically free money - because it cost them little to set up some cameras and do basic editing on work they were going to do anyway.

3

u/sittingonahillside 9h ago edited 8h ago

It's just taking advantage of and utilising the modern market for advertising. A business that creates things such as this would be silly not put at least some effort into having an online presence.

1

u/wearing_moist_socks 5h ago

Showcasing a product you made makes you an influencer?

2

u/Girafferage 16h ago

Some influencers do these sorts of building things for views or to show their "initial setup" before they started. But that's cool that they build these for people. Sounds like a neat job.

1

u/NDSU 2h ago

There is no way they can afford this build just from doing builds for other people

There are way too many people who want to do builds to make much money. The competitive pressure is too high. If they were doing custom builds, they would be looking at ~$15/hour for labor

That build looks like ~$80k without labor. I don't know anyone who can afford that and 2 kids at $15/hour