We sit down and talk with Dominic Toliver who is the owner of the family channel called @thetoliverfam on TikTok who has 11.4M followers.
In this episode you will learn:
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Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
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Kyle Kaplanis
LinkedIn - Kyle Kaplanis
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IG - @kyle_kaplanis
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We sit down and talk with Dominic Toliver who is the owner of the family channel called @thetoliverfam on TikTok who has 11.4M followers.
In this episode you will learn:
Be sure to Follow the Tomorrow Today Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a new episode.
Follow us on Social Media
Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
Duke McKenzie
LinkedIn - Duke McKenzie
Kyle Kaplanis
LinkedIn - Kyle Kaplanis
TikTok - @theweb3guy
IG - @kyle_kaplanis
YT - The Web3 Guy
Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Tomorrow Today. I have myself Kyle Kaplanis and our host,
Duke McKenzie:Duke McKenzie, what's up, kyle, how you doing? I'm excited about today.
Kyle Kaplanis:I'm really pumped because we have one of our creators that we work with, one of our favorite creators, especially in the family spectrum, Dominic Toliver is in the house today. And Dominic runs, the Toliver family channel over on TikTok that have 11.4 million followers and Dominic welcome to Tomorrow Today.
Dominic Toliver:How's it going?
Duke McKenzie:Welcome. Dominic. Welcome. Welcome.
Dominic Toliver:What's good. What's good. Yo, thanks for having me on. I'm super excited. Very stoked to be on here and yeah, let's go.
Duke McKenzie:So as Kyle and I were talking about, guests for the upcoming show, so we get blessed that in our day jobs we get to work with and talk to great creators like yourself all the time. You're welcome. You're welcome. And one of the things that I realized when, we're out in the real world, talking to people, is that it's you're sort of like an alien, right. Creators are like aliens. They're like, who are these people that make money off the internet and do all these social posts and all of these types of things. Where as our philosophy is it's really important for all consumer focused businesses, particularly to get to know creators, to see how they tick and all that type of stuff, because, creators are some of the largest audience aggregators in the world. So for example, you've aggregated an audience of over 11.4 million people on TikTok. Right. So
Dominic Toliver:yeah, it's insane
Duke McKenzie:That's why we're having you on. And I think the first question would be , just having here and thank you for coming is how do you get started?
Dominic Toliver:Everything starts with, a dream aspiration mm-hmm before the TikTok, before Instagram, I always wanted to be an actor I've always wanted to perform in front of people, or I've always wanted to be like in the scene in the camera scene and just creating things, content wise. And then TikTok just fell in my lap. Once TikTok came out, I saw an opportunity. I Seeked it and I started creating content. And from there everything is history, but originally how I started was I was making comedy videos, just myself and with some friends. And then I, gained a little bit of following and then I started connecting with people on TikTok and the community on TikTok was amazing. and it's still, it's always been amazing. Mm-hmm . And so I connected people from different cities, , different states and I collaborate with them. And I think that's one of the most amazing things when you collaborate with other creators, because right. You can grow with mm-hmm with each other, they helped me push to get to where I'm at now. And then, along the process, along the way I, met Isabella. We created, content together, which we started a couple channel. And then we popped out a baby
Duke McKenzie:about a year. That's always the way that's always the way. And is that why? Okay, so when you started, and you started collaborating and whatever, what were you doing like before? Was it comedy? What type of content were you doing before? And then why do you think, you resonated and started building a community.
Dominic Toliver:The content I was doing before was straight comedy. I used to write all my sketches down and it was original. And, I just started doing comedy videos and people just love that. That became my niche. So I just kept pursuing in that. And then I met people along the way who were in that same lane. So we just collaborated and made some funny videos, you know? Right.
Kyle Kaplanis:I just gonna say Dominic you're one of the best, as far as comedic creators on the app, I think you're really one of the top ones. Part of, you know, part of TikTok is also using the creative sounds and you do such a good job lip syncing to those sounds, because if that is a talent in itself, so many people cannot do it. And it cringes me out when it's not in time and yours is always in time and I'm just so appreciative of that. And that takes a lot of talent. So I just have to think,
Dominic Toliver:thank you, man. And it's also the animated faces I do too. I. It really resonates together. When I just add like those facial expressions, because I don't look like a robot, imitating the lip sync part, I try to exaggerate the faces so they can see like, wow, this guy is insane. He's cool. I feel, I feel everything in the video now.
Duke McKenzie:And then I'm curious talk to me about like the growth, right? So you're 11.4 now, when did you break a mil? Like when did you know, boy, I could do this for my job,
Dominic Toliver:man. That is a long time ago. Uh, Uhhuh.
Duke McKenzie:Yeah.
Dominic Toliver:Maybe be honest, I've been doing to TikTok for about, I would say four and a half years about all right. So on the musically. Yeah. Yeah. Initially I started on musically mm-hmm and then TikTok came in. So I've been on musically TikTok for about four,
Duke McKenzie:four and a half years. And just so everybody knows, cuz everyone isn't steeped in the TikTok world. So musically was the company that TikTok bought Chinese baseball dance Byte Dance. Sorry Byte Dance. That's it. Musically was a company that Byte Dance. And that kick started what you see TikTok in North America and all that stuff right now. So you've been on there for about four years and all that stuff. And then when did you talk to me about your first, like when million? Yeah. Like how you, when you got to your first million you were collaborating, you were doing those things and why do you think you broke through in your opinion?
Dominic Toliver:I think one of the main reasons of why I broke through a million, my first million mm-hmm, which was very exciting by the way. And I never thought in my life I would ever hit a million, anything, you know, but when I hit my first million and I think the reason why I got to that point is because, on the journey to a million. I was meeting different people. I was networking. I was invited to some meet and greets, especially out in LA. And I met people who are just like me in the same field, doing musically slash TikTok. I think it is more of like when you collaborate with different creators, mm-hmm, people love to see that because they're like, Oh, it's not just Dom. Oh, that's someone else that we know, you know? Yeah. That's someone. Wow. So it brings in this excitement and people love it. And, I just kind of erupted with, followers across not even nationally, but globally, you know? Right, right. So that's, I think was one of the reasons why I blew up to my first million is because of just collaborations. And then I would say a major help was Isabella, because once I add hers on videos, It went crazy. It went stupid, crazy. It went dumb, crazy because it went, wow. He has a girlfriend like rumor, like, oh wow. Who's she? You know, so people were like going crazy over that. And then honestly, when I started doing more videos with my girlfriend at the time, Which was Bella. We grew quickly and we accumulated more and more followers because we're doing funny couple things, couple goals, and also collaborated with my friends at the same time. And collaborate with other couples. So I think collaborations basically got me to where I am today,
Duke McKenzie:that's great. It is not always the way. Is that always the way? Yes.
Kyle Kaplanis:What was your thoughts as you were growing really quickly, what were you feeling during that?
Dominic Toliver:I guess it was like the energy from everyone. And I think what was so cool is once we started getting noticed, we were getting noticed in stores, on the street, especially in the mall, there would be like, oh my God, like you're Dominic and I never had that before, you know, mm-hmm and it was just like a new feeling and a new energy. So it's like that fuel me mm-hmm and to, to never stop, you know, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna continue this, no matter what, cuz this is so cool. If I can make someone else happy by making videos and they can brighten up their day and go on being happy because they watch something inspirational or just something just to laugh about. If they're stressing out during the. I'm all for it and I'm gonna make it happen, you know? Right. Because they bring me happiness by just like even acknowledging me, and that just gave me the energy to pump out content. I was pumping out like three, four videos a day
Duke McKenzie:when you're a content creator, what does your day look like? Take the listener through sort of what, what is a day in the life of what, when you're producing content and how do you produce content? How much time do you spending? Like what, what does your day look like? What's the job.
Dominic Toliver:Are you talking about before the baby or after the baby? Cause it's different.
Duke McKenzie:I knew that you could talk about right now. Like it's sort of like, cuz you're, you're pumping out. I see if you go on your channel, like how many videos on average, are you releasing a day? One or two? Like three,
Dominic Toliver:About one or two. And I also have like other platforms, but let me bring it back to the. Before my baby and I love her so much. Her name is Rose Jane, by the way, Rose Jane Toliver. There you go. Plug that in real quick, but before I had Rose the day of life with me was basically wake up, have some breakfast and right away, I would have three or four ideas lined. And I actually produce four or five videos a day. We would sit down like at the couch or just anywhere. And we'll think of some ideas or we actually look on the, , TikTok platform for inspiration. And I think that's a really, really great help because you can see what's trending, what's new and like what song drop, we'll try to hit that sound before everyone else rushes in, you know, right. But majority of the time I like to have my own sketches written down. And if you scroll down like 5,000 videos before you'll see a lot, of original content for me. And I used to always sit down and write and sometimes at nighttime, before I sleep, I will always have an idea for the next day mm-hmm So day in the life is basically wake. Eat make videos for half a day, Uhhuh. And then just kind of, when you say,
Duke McKenzie:when you say making videos for half a day, putting on a tripod, coming up with your idea, taking, making video down, when we put up one of your videos or TikTok or Instagram, whatever it is, how long does it take to make one of those things? Would you say making videos for half of the day, what does.
Dominic Toliver:It depends, when it comes to videos, I'm kind of perfectionist, it can range from five minutes to 30, maybe to an hour. Mm-hmm, filming a video because, some videos just be quick and easy, but there's some that it's like more in debt and it takes a little more time, but it's also mainly because, I have to redo it. And if I don't like it the way it comes out, I redo it and redo it. I tell you, I it'll be like 40 times
Duke McKenzie:right, right, right,
Kyle Kaplanis:right. Yeah. But that's really good to know because so many people, aspire to be a content creator because they think, okay, it's easy. It looks so funny. Oh, life and glamorous, but it is not, no, the creator life is one of the, I feel one of the most difficult jobs in the world, because not only are you, having to make content, but you have an audience. Is responsive and you're responsible to fulfill that entertainment for them. And so that's really exactly just on top of that. That's something difficult and yeah. And it's funny, cuz a lot of people think they see the video and they think, oh, that just took them the 15 seconds to make. And I'm like, no, no, no. It's it takes a lot.
Dominic Toliver:It's just like any other work, any other field you're. It's it takes like sweat and tears. I kid you not when I make a video, I'll be sweating either cuz I'm dancing or my mouth is running dry, you know? Cause I'm lip syncing too much or whatever, but I actually sweat sometimes well most of the times, making TikTok. So it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. And if you're willing to put into work, anything is possible, you know, and being very persistent and consistent. You can go far
Duke McKenzie:I think that's a common theme. Would you think that that's a common theme? It's funny. Cuz we had another creator, , on the podcast, Alex Stemp. And he mentioned that what he found was consistently like posting every day, getting up there posting every day was really important. Would you agree with that? Or
Dominic Toliver:a hundred percent? I absolutely agree with that. If you're not consistent, Just like with anything in life. You won't see results. If you wanna see results, if you wanna see opportunities, you have to put in the work consistently, when it comes to social media, when you post and post and posts and you gain a bunch of followers, they wanna see you post, you know? Right. And I know sometimes it's good to take breaks, but like when you trying to reach a certain point in social media or wherever, people wanna see you keep producing. And if you get caught lacking, you know what I'm saying, you're gonna become inactive. And people unfollowed because they're like, ah, he's not posting as much. And I don't really see him at all. I would say consistency is key. Mm-hmm, , it's major, major factor into like content creation . And also, could be hard on the creator too, because we constantly have to come up with the ideas right as well.
Kyle Kaplanis:No, for sure.
Duke McKenzie:You're basically making, short TV skits every day, but you're the actor producer director and all of those things all on one with making that type of content writer, the whole thing. Right? Yeah. And what's the biggest change? So since you started, you started off doing comedy, you started off on musically, which was mostly a lip syncing platform. You went from a lip syncing platform and you focused a lot on comedy. And now you're focusing a lot on family content. I think what's interesting is that people assume. That, when you talk about TikTok, particularly, I know you're on other platforms, but you're born on TikTok creator, born on musically creator. They think of like little kids. Do you know what I mean? But yet you have a little kid, like you're doing family content. Just for you as , a person and creator, what's the difference now? In the family space versus when you were just doing, comedy by yourself or before you started rebranding as a family channel and doing things as family.
Dominic Toliver:There's a little bit of difference. So before I was just comedy and just doing whatever, and I didn't really care what I say, but now, like I have a daughter. And I still incorporate some comedy in my fam. So when I say I do family class now, it's not just like, oh, just strictly just family. But I incorporate that comedy humor as well. Mm-hmm . But the only difference is it's very censored, it's more gear. For families, like more family people, as opposed to what I used, I mean, if you go down, I used to post like anything, you know, everything. Right, right. Like rated G to rated R stuff. but now it's like, it's geared towards more family fun, , cute stuff, you know? yeah. Like PG that's how it goes. PG version. Yeah. Like Disney. Right.
Kyle Kaplanis:That makes sense. How did your audience, communicate with you when you switched from, being you and then having a family now were they, open to it? Were they excited? Did you gain new followers because of the family aspect of it?
Dominic Toliver:I think they were all for. Having a baby, majority of my fathers were just went crazy. It was like, oh my God. Oh my God, you the baby. Oh my God is so cute. You're gonna have a little Dom you know, so I think they were all for it. I don't think I had any issues of oh man, like you're a dad now, Lori. Right. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't anything like that. They were just very happy for me. I basically just opened a new chapter in my life and, essentially I can say like we evolved, I evolved into a father figure. Yes. And I just wanna let people know, I'm taking you through a whole journey where I, I started off real young , and you saw the different stages of how, the growth of me, of Dominic and mm-hmm and now he's a father, yep.. People love it. Cuz eventually, we all get old sometimes, you know, we have to get old
Duke McKenzie:you have to grow up from your lips to God's ears. That is so true. Yeah.
Dominic Toliver:So, uh, they love the transition. I don't think I had anything negative, feedback from that. But obviously there's always gonna be. Negative people in your comments just to troll on you. Which is natural, you know?
Kyle Kaplanis:Yeah, no for sure. Everybody gets hate sometimes.
Duke McKenzie:And it's funny because I think about 10% of everybody doesn't matter what you do. Like 10% of, everyone, has something bad to say, or negative comments is just being that the nature of your job. You get to see everybody's negative opinion on, of you all, all at once with all the positive as well.
Dominic Toliver:Yeah. That's a hundred percent true. And everyone has a right to their opinion, so everyone's gonna have some something, I have videos, they're like, oh, I don't think you should do that this way. Or I don't think you should do that. That way. You. But everyone was raised different. I don't think, anything that I post was negative, like impacted people in a bad way. I never wanna push anything out there. That's bad mm-hmm , but some people will have a different perception of how will they take it? How will they receive. So it's just, this is how it is, that's everyone I'm like that too sometimes. So yeah,
Duke McKenzie:no, no, totally. And you know what I find interesting, Kyle about Dominic and Dominic, what I find interesting about you is we talk about creators and people have sort of one image in their mind of a, especially on TikTok, a young TikTok are doing dances and all those things, but what I find it interesting is how you have grown with the platform and you are showing is that, you are one of the most popular creators in the platform and it's a young family. Do you know what I mean? It's different type of adult PG content and the thing is as you grow and as you evolve, your content may shift again, if your family decides to grow it can switch in that aspect as.
Dominic Toliver:Exactly.
Kyle Kaplanis:I love that you mentioned evolve because what I tell people that are wanting to be creators and they're like, oh, I'm nervous to become one or whatever. I always say the same thing, like scroll down to the bottom of a creator's journey and see . Because no matter what, even if they didn't grow a family, they still have evolved in other ways. And creators will continuously evolve within the new chapters of their life because we all matured. Like a lot of these creators were really young. Three years ago, but even three to a teen that are coming up to their early adult life are gonna be totally different from when they first started. Mm-hmm so, you know, yeah.
Dominic Toliver:That's so crazy just to, to say , man, Kyle, if you scroll, I don't know if you ever seen like my first, first, so you talk, but if you scroll all the way down, super cringe guy and I was so cringed,
Duke McKenzie:you would just see, Dominic Toliver: like evolution of Dom. Yeah. Right, right. Then versus now. But I would say I was totally different, back in the day, didn't know what was going on. I was going with the flow and then I figure out where I need to go. But
Kyle Kaplanis:yeah, I came
Dominic Toliver:a long way, you know? It's what, 2022, I started on this platform like 20 16, 20 16.
Duke McKenzie:That is crazy. That title FLS,
Dominic Toliver:if you scroll down to my, one of my first TikTok, you'll see like me back in 2016, the face I look the same to hair, everything nothing's changed, but maybe a little bit has changed, but my videos was very weird back then. And I'm still here 20, 22, still trying to go shocks, still not giving up because I love what I do. I'm gonna keep doing what I do. I love inspiring. I love to make people happy. I love to stay out of a job.
Duke McKenzie:job owning your own fate and owning your own destiny. I think, yes, that is a good place to close off. Unless Kyle, do you have another question I think that's a great place to wrap. Yeah, no, that's perfect. Dominic. It was great having you on. Thanks for spending this time with us and good luck on your journey. Thanks for sharing with the, tomorrow, today team. No,
Dominic Toliver:thank you guys for having me on it's. It's a great honor. And yeah, you guys are.. Kyle Kaplanis: Thank you. Awesome. Take care. Thanks everyone for listening and make sure you like and subscribe to the tomorrow. Today podcast. We'll see you next week. Like, and subscribe a review.
Duke McKenzie:We need some more reviews.
Dominic Toliver:Let's let's go.