EP 10 - The Classical Musician Breaking All The Rules

Dylan Huey started live streaming on Musical.ly at 14, five hours a day for three years straight, because he was being bullied in middle school and wanted to find his people online. At USC he joined a 40-member club whose members had 20 million followers between them, and turned it into REACH: a creator organization on 150 campuses and a 45-person company with a marketing agency, talent management, ventures, a studio and a data business.In this episode of The Volume Game, Lukas Steiner speaks with Dylan Huey: CEO of REACH, creator with 6 million followers, and at 24 one of the youngest people at his own company.Dylan grew up in Silicon Valley with a father who was CFO of Sega for 20 years and a mother who launched Sonic the Hedgehog and Xbox Live, and he deliberately stayed away from gaming content. By 16 he was producing EDM, touring 500-cap rooms on Fridays and managing friends like Chase Hudson from 200,000 to 5 million followers, until it all started to feel like work and he burnt out. At USC, during COVID, he joined 16 clubs. One of them, USC Reach, was a weekly Zoom with a guest speaker. He joined the executive board, brought in Puma, Boohoo and BYLT Basics, took over as president, and applications went from 30–40 a semester to 250, then 400.Lukas Steiner and Dylan talk about how he played the student card: 100 cold pitches a week and calls with CMOs between classes, and the advice from a USC business comms professor that still shapes how he uses LinkedIn. Why REACH took no money for its first three years, and how brands paid creators directly so nothing touched a student organization's bank account. How the nonprofit chapters and the for-profit agency work together, what happens when members graduate, and why alumni who go on to Meta or Rare Beauty come back to REACH for access to its members. And what the Sourcify acquisition adds: proprietary data on what 300,000 brands spend on influencer marketing, and 6 million TikTok creators.Plus: why live streaming now runs on MrBeast-style hooks and Kai Cenat-style events, the emoji game he used to gamify his streams, the NFT company that cost him $100,000, the three lessons he would take into a restart (build a team, stay in an industry you know, hire slow and fire fast), and the one question he asks every REACH applicant.If you run an agency, manage creators, or want to reach Gen Z on campus, this episode is for you.Follow Dylan Huey and REACH:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reach-famWebsite: https://reachprojects.coChapters00:00 Intro: a USC club with 20 million followers01:32 Silicon Valley kid, five hours a day on Musical.ly02:34 Bullied in middle school, finding his people online04:38 Why live streaming now runs on hooks: MrBeast and Kai Cenat07:15 No strategy: juggling, the emoji game and early gamification09:33 Parents at Sega and Xbox, and why he never streamed games11:11 EDM, touring and managing Chase Hudson to 5M followers13:44 Burnout at 16, and how he picks platforms now18:41 Joining 16 clubs and taking over USC Reach21:48 Going national: 150 universities and a full company23:15 The through line: always finding community27:21 Playing the student card: 100 brand pitches a week32:54 No money for three years, and how creators got paid35:22 Nonprofit chapters, for-profit agency36:19 What happens when members graduate38:02 The goal: a creator-led conglomerate and an IPO40:50 Sourcify: data on 300,000 brands42:53 Starting over: three failed companies, three lessons48:12 Failure culture in Europe and the US49:53 A question for the next guest

He started out editing podcasts for $20 an episode — today his agency has put nearly $60 million into the pockets of creators, across more than 5,000 brand deals.In this episode of The Volume Game, Lukas Steiner speaks with Apple Crider: founder and CEO of Creators Agency, former finance YouTuber and one of the most thoughtful operators in the creator economy.Apple started making personal finance videos at 19, with one goal: earn enough to drop out of college. What followed: a podcast that briefly hit the top 100 business charts, a podcast editing business that ended up handling over 100 shows, and an $88,000 first brand deal, signed over a few Zoom calls before he even had a company.We talk about why a YouTube channel with just 25,000 subscribers brought in over $700,000 through affiliates. Why finance and business audiences are worth so much to brands. How he cut his team from 25 people to 10 — and now closes more deals than ever. Why 95% of the creators who leave Creators Agency end up coming back. And the three core values every single deal has to pass: long-term thinking, fairness and trust.Plus: performance vs. brand marketing, whether brands will cut out agencies and go direct, why complacency will kill a lot of agencies in the next five years, AI avatars selling 24/7 — and why he would walk across the US if he had to start over.If you make content, run an agency, or spend marketing budget on creators — this episode is a must.Follow Apple Crider and Creators Agency:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/applecriderWebsite: https://creatorsagency.co/Chapters00:00 Welcome & the plan to drop out of college05:16 The podcast editing business: 100+ shows at $20 an episode07:50 The first $88,000 brand deal10:00 Sit on the bench, watch, then go all in12:17 25K subscribers, $700K+ from affiliates13:34 Why finance audiences are so valuable — and $60M paid to creators14:52 Performance vs. brand marketing18:01 The volume game vs. relationships: the 95% boomerang rate23:12 Why they scrapped the entertainment roster25:55 From 25 employees to 10, with AI30:05 The three core values: long-term, fairness, trust35:01 Why a CEO has to keep repeating himself37:02 Where attention is moving: the creator economy41:08 Agencies vs. brands going direct44:38 Making 5,000 brand deals work, deal after deal50:23 Making the brand's partner manager look good52:41 AI avatars, and what humans still do better57:07 A question for the next guest

Aditya Aima started in television, watched media move from print to TV to mobile, and was among the first to sell mobile ads in markets where a smartphone is a person's only door to the internet. Today he helps run AnyMind alongside its management team, a 2,000-person, 31-nationality company that owns almost every link in the creator value chain: the influencer platform, the creator app, the e-commerce engine, the warehouses, the live-streaming studio, and an avatar bank in Hangzhou that lets one creator sell in six languages at once.In this episode of The Volume Game, Lukas Steiner speaks with Aditya Aima: Managing Director, Growth Markets at AnyMind Group, the Singapore-founded company built through 16 acquisitions across 15 markets.In March 2020, the week the world locked down, AnyMind acquired the company where Aditya was running Southeast Asia. Six years later he's still there, and he explains what AnyMind's founders did right: buy the team, not just the company. From there the conversation walks the whole chain. AnyTag, where a brand types a brief and AI returns a vetted creator list. AnyCreator, where that brief reaches the right creators in seconds. AnyX for storefronts, AnyLogi for warehouses, and AnyLive, where a live streamer's avatar keeps selling after they've gone home.Why creators are partners, never exclusives. The creators who became brand owners: MrBeast, Skims, Li Ziqi's $8.5M-a-month noodles, and the athleisure label AnyMind bought and took offline. What "business process as a service" means and why it beats SaaS at scale. Whether AI avatars outperform humans, and who gets paid when your face sells in a market you've never visited. Why live shopping failed in the US and thrives in Asia. Why the best minds are no longer leaving Asia. And what has to be in place before volume arrives: passion, a sharp go-to-market, specialists in cash flow, and a healthy dose of internal conflict.If you want to understand how the creator economy gets industrialized, this episode is for you.Follow Aditya Aima and AnyMind Group:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditya-aimaWebsite: https://anymindgroup.com/Chapters00:00 Introduction: industrializing the creator economy00:31 How does it feel to be acquired? Six years after the March 2020 deal01:54 What AnyMind's founders did right: buy the team, keep the autonomy04:46 From TV to mobile: two decades of watching the wave shift08:42 From content creators to brand owners09:37 Creators as partners: no exclusives, growth teams, studios10:46 MrBeast, Skims, Li Ziqi's $8.5M-a-month noodles11:52 Acquiring a YouTuber's athleisure brand and taking it offline16:44 Why TikTok changed how content connects to commerce17:40 AnyTag and AnyCreator: AI picks the creators, the app broadcasts the brief20:56 BPaaS explained: business process as a service vs SaaS22:44 Was there a master plan? 16 acquisitions in 10 years24:45 Walking the chain: AnyX, warehouses and logistics28:47 AnyLive: from human live streamers to AI avatars29:39 One avatar, six languages, six markets31:22 Who gets paid when your avatar sells33:13 AI vs human: which performs better?35:55 Will trust survive when AI has to be labeled?37:11 Why live shopping failed in the US and thrived in Asia38:54 Super apps and two-click checkout39:28 Why Silicon Valley is blind to it41:00 Why the best minds are no longer leaving Asia43:09 Going West: Latin America, North America and Europe45:55 Before the volume: passion, GTM, specialists, omnichannel47:45 Conflict as a growth strategy48:53 Why the CFO should be the Chief Health Officer51:27 Managing 2,000 people across 31 nationalities52:20 A question for the next guest52:42 Closing thanks

He was born in Dubai, grew up as an immigrant kid in Toronto with no network and no money, and flew back to the Middle East in 2015 to bluff his way into a meeting with a media agency — wearing a blazer in the desert heat. That meeting turned into a $150K brand deal with 25 creators, and a bet on a region nobody in the creator economy was looking at. In this episode of Monetized, we sit down with Mohammad Fattal: founder and CEO of Alfan, the Dubai-based creator marketing engine that has paid out more than $100 million to creators, runs over 7,500 brand collaborations a year, and is on a mission to get $1 billion into creators' hands by 2030.Mohammad's story is the story of the Middle East's creator economy itself: a government that decided to back creators as an industry and built the 1 Billion Followers Summit, brands that still treat a region of hundreds of millions as one market, and a payments problem so hard that PayPal, Wise and more than 15 vendors either couldn't understand it or shut him down. So he built the stack himself: wallets, KYC, a flat 15% fee every creator can see, and a payout cycle creators can track like a parcel.We talk about what brands get wrong about MENA — why a Lebanese celebrity won't reach Riyadh, why a Saudi creator reaches 70–90% of their market and a UAE creator only 5%, and why reaching out to Egyptian creators from a UAE phone number costs you five times the price. Why Ramadan is "our Christmas": 300 creators live in one month, and 30–40% of a brand's yearly budget in a single season. How Alfan grew from 200 collabs to thousands without becoming a talent agency, and why he refuses to represent anyone. How an 800,000-follower organic funnel replaced outbound sales. And why the second campaign, not the first, is the only success metric that matters.Plus: bootstrapping to $30 million in GMV before raising, keeping majority ownership through two rounds, what the JellySmack and Spotter wave taught the region, crypto and stablecoin payouts, why he won't expand to the US yet, and what it's like to do business in a place where trust moves slowly but lasts for years.If you care about how money actually reaches creators — or about building a company in a market everyone else overlooks — this episode is for you.🔗 Follow Mohammad Fattal & Alfan:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mofattalX: x.com/mofattalWebsite: alfangroup.com🎙 Listen to The Volume Game:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqZKkgeer0NZUGmqH3nw?si=4d8c70c055d74c99👍 Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe, leave a comment and share it with someone who's building something where nobody else is looking.🎵 Music creditsIntro: "Fragments" by Rusanda Panfili & Johannes WinklerOutro: "Know My Number" by Lucy Dreams

She became the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory at 11 — moved there alone, barely speaking German, and went on to perform as solo violinist for Hans Zimmer in arenas across the world, tour with Andrea Bocelli, and debut at the Royal Albert Hall. In this episode of Monetized, we sit down with Rusanda Panfili: Moldovan-born violinist, composer, arranger and winner of the Austrian Film Academy Award 2026.Her story starts with a girl in Bucharest imitating her mother's violin with kitchen utensils — and ends up in sold-out O2 arenas and Hollywood film scores. In between: a surprise conservatory audition she thought was a family trip, years living alone as a child in a foreign country, a viral moment that attracted as much hate as love, and the decision to walk away from one of the biggest touring jobs in music to focus entirely on her own voice.We talk about why she shares YouTube revenue directly with her superfans, what Hans Zimmer taught her about going beyond her own limits, how she was among the first classical artists to go all in on social media, and what it really means to be both an artist and a brand without losing either.Plus: the wedding story involving spilled wine and a borrowed hairdryer, brand partnerships, covering iconic film scores with full orchestra, and what comes next.🔗 Follow Rusanda Panfili:Instagram: instagram.com/rusandapanfiliYouTube: youtube.com/c/RusandaPanfiliWebsite: rusandapanfili.com🎙 Listen to Monetized:Spotify: search "Monetized"👍 Enjoyed this? Subscribe, leave a comment and share it with someone who believes in doing things their own way.🎵 Music creditsIntro: "Fragments" by Rusanda Panfili & Johannes WinklerOutro: "Know My Number" by Lucy Dreams⏱ Timestamps00:00 – Introduction: why the audience is everything to Rusanda03:01 – Growing up in Bucharest, imitating her mother's violin with kitchen utensils08:02 – The surprise Vienna audition she thought was a holiday10:23 – Moving to Vienna at 11 — alone, zero German, tourist visa13:23 – Meeting Johannes, the wedding and the spilled wine story16:58 – Sharing YouTube revenue directly with her superfans19:49 – Going all in as a content creator — and the viral backlash23:54 – Royal Albert Hall debut and composing cadenzas for every country24:45 – How she joined Hans Zimmer's live band26:35 – Why she stepped away from the tour to focus on her own music28:46 – Why she posts every day and what she gets back33:07 – Brand partnerships: what she accepts, what she turns down38:08 – New cinematic album: iconic soundtracks, full orchestra, her perspective41:07 – Closing thanks

She moved from Italy to Vienna at 13 with nothing but a cello and a dream — and ended up becoming the only Deutsche Grammophon artist in the world recording viola da gamba. In this episode of Monetized, we sit down with Maddalena Del Gobbo: baroque musician, cellist, viola da gamba soloist, and living proof that breaking the rules in classical music might be the only way to survive it.She heard an instrument in a record shop she had never seen before, became obsessed, secretly learned it while professors told her it was unprofessional, then quit the cello after her master's degree — and within months, Deutsche Grammophon called. Three albums on Archiv Produktion, the Musikverein Vienna, the Salzburger Festspiele, and one of the most distinctive personal brands in classical music today.We talk about why passion is a genuine business strategy. How she built an audience on Instagram and TikTok with cottagecore and dark academia content — before posting a single note of music. Why a Vienna Ball video with 10M views flooded her comments with rage from the US. How Facebook quietly started paying her while she wasn't looking. And why classical music was the last genre to show up to the social media party.Plus: TikTok's payment gap in Austria, paid subscriptions, concert bookings from followers in South America, AI and whether it can ever have a soul, and why she still hasn't figured out YouTube — but is getting close.🔗 Follow Maddalena Del Gobbo:Instagram: instagram.com/maddalenadelgobboYouTube: youtube.com/@MaddalenaDelGobboFacebook: facebook.com/MaddalenaDelGobboWebsite: maddalenadelgobbo.com👍 Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe, leave a comment and share it with someone who loves music or building something truly their own.🎵 Music creditsIntro: "Fragments" by Rusanda Panfili & Johannes WinklerOutro: "Know My Number" by Lucy Dreams⏱ Timestamps00:00 – Introduction & moving from Italy to Vienna at 1302:29 – Hearing the viola da gamba in a record shop for the first time07:18 – Quitting the cello cold turkey — and Deutsche Grammophon calls09:08 – Returning to the cello through grief and rediscovering joy11:13 – Why passion is the best business strategy13:26 – Growing up in a 17th-century monastery and loving history18:56 – Recordings vs. concert income: where classical musicians actually earn19:54 – Why social media changed everything for classical musicians26:41 – The Facebook monetization she discovered completely by accident29:36 – A Vienna Ball video, 10M views and 300 angry comments a day35:48 – How Instagram directly leads to concert bookings42:46 – Cottagecore, dark academia and where these aesthetics come from51:38 – How she uses AI — and why humans still create with soul54:21 – Advice for classical musicians: start social media as early as possible

She has 169,000 followers on TikTok, 61,000 on Instagram, her own pumpkin seed oil and an album in the drawer — all as an alter ego that was never planned. In this episode, Gini Lampl, better known as Billie Steirisch, joins us: singer, actress, comedian and arguably Austria's most unconventional content entrepreneur.Gini studied music and acting, was about to launch her stage career — and then the pandemic hit. What followed: comedy sketches on TikTok, a viral breakthrough with Styrian dialect content, 30,000 followers in three months, and somehow an alter ego called Billie Steirisch that grew bigger than anything she had ever planned.We talk about how to be a musician, comedian and actress at the same time without completely losing the algorithm. How brand deals actually work when you're bold, unconventional and completely unfiltered. Why she refuses to accept a single script. How a pumpkin seed oil merch line was born because a farmer left a comment on TikTok. And why her upcoming album is the most vulnerable thing she has ever made — while the rest of the world only sees her making people laugh.Plus: algorithm tricks, shadow-banning on TikTok, why posting breaks cost up to four weeks of reach, and what she urgently advises every aspiring creator to do — and what to absolutely avoid.If you make content, work with creators, or simply want to know how to genuinely build something in Austria with dialect, humor and heart — this episode is a must.🔗 Follow Gini Lampl aka Billie Steirisch:TikTok: tiktok.com/@billiesteirischInstagram: instagram.com/billiesteirischWebsite: billiesteirisch.at🎙 Listen to Monetized:Spotify: search "Monetized Lukas Diner"🎵 Music creditsIntro: "Fragments" by Rusanda Panfili & Johannes WinklerOutro: "Know My Number" by Lucy Dreams🎙 Timestamps00:00 – Welcome & the Billie Steirisch alter ego explained01:37 – Pandemic kills the stage — comedy sketches are born04:03 – Musical journey since childhood: guitar, singing, musical theatre05:24 – Two accounts, two personas — and why they stay separate08:36 – Staying true to yourself with brand deals12:20 – How 90% of brand requests come in on their own16:20 – The pumpkin seed oil: how a TikTok comment turned into a product20:50 – The upcoming album: vulnerable, emotional and nothing like what fans expect25:12 – When a song became a fan's last memory of her late stepfather30:46 – Shadow-banning, feminist content & tricking the algorithm35:37 – Why a posting break costs you four weeks of reach41:08 – Tips for new creators & clear no-gos45:01 – Closing thoughts & one last pumpkin seed oil joke

She moved to Vienna alone, not knowing anyone — and turned that loneliness into a community of 35K+ on Instagram and 39K+ on TikTok with 4.4M likes. In this episode, Vlada (@vlakis_life) — content creator, digital bestie, and Latvia-born Vienna local — opens up about what it really takes to build an audience from scratch, how a video about university condoms launched her career, and why she's now in the middle of reinventing herself completely.We talk about the pressure Gen Z faces online vs. offline, why brands keep getting it wrong when they try to talk to younger audiences, what she absolutely refuses to do in brand deals, and the painful reality of invoices, payment delays, and creative control as a creator. Plus: her honest take on the mid-20s crisis, why she wants to go full-time on YouTube, and the moment real-life strangers told her she changed their lives.If you're a creator trying to grow, a brand trying to reach Gen Z, or just someone figuring out what's next — this one is for you.🔗 Follow Vlada:Instagram: instagram.com/vlakis_lifeTikTok: tiktok.com/@vlakis_YouTube: youtube.com/@vlakislife📩 Listen to Monetized:Spotify: search "Monetized Lukas Diner"🎵 Music creditsIntro music: "Fragments" by Rusanda Panfili & Johannes WinklerOutro music: "Know My Number" by Lucy Dreams🎙 Timestamps00:00 – Intro & who is Vlada?01:04 – Building a Vienna community from zero04:02 – The viral university goodie bag video that started it all07:09 – Moving from Latvia to Vienna based on Pinterest pictures09:35 – Posting 3 TikToks a day and the early growth strategy11:55 – Rebranding beyond student life: figuring out what's next17:03 – How Gen Z communicates online — and what brands get wrong19:39 – Generation Alpha creators are already beating everyone23:14 – Gen Z going offline: the movement against social media pressure29:45 – Social pressure, comparison culture & the mental health spiral33:04 – What companies get wrong when targeting Gen Z36:04 – Rejecting scripted ads & negotiating creative freedom37:54 – Payment delays, invoices & the creator economy's broken side42:13 – Advice for new creators: reach out 100 times, get 5 replies43:05 – YouTube dreams and starting from zero again44:05 – Closing thoughts & what comes next for Vlada

Fifteen percent of the world lives with a disability—but most products still ship with barriers built in. In this episode, accessibility specialist and UX researcher Laura Wissiak explains why “if it’s not accessible, it’s not usable” and how treating accessibility as an add‑on is costing companies real money. We go from her early UX days and the question “why is this not accessible?” to her work at HopeTech, where she co‑builds Sixth Sense, a shoulder‑worn navigation aid for blind and low‑vision users that augments (instead of replacing) the white cane.Laura shares how she turned her research notes into A11y News, a blog and newsletter that grew into conference talks, government citations, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 nod—despite her initial fear of “not knowing enough” to publish. We talk about why startups ignore accessibility until it’s too late, what “community‑led” assistive tech actually looks like, and how to hire disabled talent in a way that improves both your product and your team. Then we dive into practical playbooks for creators and tech companies: from better captions and audio descriptions to rethinking input methods beyond the mouse and baking accessibility into every role instead of one overwhelmed specialist.If you work in product, UX, or content—and you want your next “growth lever” to be actually including more people instead of excluding them—this episode will give you concrete steps, mindset shifts, and lots of real‑world examples you can apply immediately.🔗 Follow Laura WissiakWebsite: https://www.laura-wissiak.com/A11y News newsletter: a11ynews.substack.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-wissiak/Listen to Monetized on Spotify: Music creditsIntro music: “Fragments” by Rusanda Panfili & Johannes Winkler.Outro music: “Know My Number” by Lucy Dreams.🎙 Timestamps00:00 – Intro and Laura’s background in UX and accessibility01:01 – What accessibility really means (and why it’s the foundation of usability)02:33 – Disability statistics, market size, and why 15–24% is still overlooked05:48 – Why startups ignore accessibility and treat it as a “cost factor”08:12 – HopeTech, assistive tech, and finding product‑market fit with blind users19:36 – The origin of Sixth Sense and why replacing the white cane failed28:39 – Structural barriers, extra costs, and mission‑driven investors in accessibility40:02 – A11y News: from first blog posts to conferences and government shout‑outs45:18 – Accessibility tips for content creators: captions, visual descriptions, brand voice51:35 – What’s next for HopeTech and Laura’s vision for accessibility in tech

Reinier Zonneveld trained an AI on 80 days of his own music and then took it on stage for marathon live sets with robots, holograms and a Guinness World Record in the bag. In this conversation, we go from his childhood between Metallica and classical piano to becoming one of the most streamed techno artists in the world and founder of Filth on Acid.We talk about how he walked away from a “safe” econometrics career, why big labels first passed on his tracks, and how that led to a label, a collab with Carl Cox, and music that ended up in major TV and streaming placements. Then we dive into the wild part: Reinier’s AI setup trained only on his own catalog, playing back-to-back with him for up to 10–11 hours.​If you care about techno, live performance, or what AI is really doing to music right now, this episode is a must-watch.🔗 Follow Reinier ZonneveldSpotify: [search “Reinier Zonneveld”]SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/reinier-zonneveldInstagram: @reinierzonneveldMusic creditsIntro music: “Fragments” by Rusanda Panfili & Johannes Winkler.Outro music: “Know My Number” by Lucy Dreams.-------------------------------------------------------learn more about Talentir and what we are building here:https://www.talentir.com/home