Canadian TikToker Shares How She Went From Cutting Hair To Making $4M On Social Media

This content creator from Vancouver, B.C., is the second-highest paid TikToker in all of Canada, and here's how she accidentally made it a full-time career.

Before becoming an internet sensation, Kris Collins was a regular hairdresser who lost her job due to the closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with Narcity, Collins said she started making TikToks "for fun and to just pass the time."

"I soon realized I had a knack for it and saw it as an opportunity to try it out full-time," Collins said.

The hobby that quickly turned into a career has earned her over $4.75 million, according to Forbes.

Today, she has a combined total of 57.6 million followers across all of her social media platforms including TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

Not only has Collins been name-dropped by Forbes magazine, but Kallmekris was named the second most searched YouTube creator in all of Canada.

Now she spends her days rubbing elbows with some of the world's biggest stars.

"I have gotten to work with, meet, and talk to people like Derek Hough, Michael Bublé, Nickelback, Nick Kroll, Dr. Phil, and more," she said.

"I'd say my coolest story so far is getting to be in Nickelback's newest music video. It was a complete luck of the draw, impromptu meeting. It just happened to be that I made a random video about them one day, and the day after they were shooting their video 30 minutes away from me, and they invited me to be a part of it the day of, all because of the video I made the day before. Pretty serendipitous," she added.

But there are downsides to being so active on social media, too, that Collins said she needs to safeguard against.

"The main thing I struggle with is creative burnout and not taking enough days off. I find it hard to turn my mind off," the TikTok star admitted. "So if I find myself with free time, I feel like it could be better spent brainstorming, writing a script, filming ... it's a recipe for being a workaholic."

So, Collins said she works to find time to relax and unplug.

"Working every day in the creative space comes with writer's block and burnout, and that's where I'm starting to learn that taking a couple of days off in the week benefits me and my content greatly. Giving your brain a break is really important," Collins said.

When it comes to making content, the social media sensation said that YouTube is definitely a harder platform to break into when comparing it to TikTok.

"It is really important to spread yourself across several platforms. It gives you the opportunity to generate more income, more audiences and more flexibility with content creation," she said.

"So, I say start on TikTok and recycle that material on Youtube, Instagram, Facebook etc. and see how those audiences react and adjust accordingly. I offer a little something different on each platform now, but I still often recycle content from TikTok onto my other platforms too, because there are actually a lot of people that don't use the TikTok app," she added.

When you do start on YouTube, Collins said the best way to go about it is to have a broad niche that you enjoy making videos about and that allows you to constantly experiment and evolve with.

"Staying consistent and listening to what your audience likes is key as well," Collins said.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.