MEDIUM MAGAZINE ARTICLE LINK: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/meet-the-disruptors-steve-zilberman-of-lucky-touch-on-the-three-things-you-need-to-shake-up-your-60e8654feb98
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Meet The Disruptors: Steve Zilberman of Lucky Touch On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
NEVER GIVE UP!!! This is the most cliche but arguably the most important. It can take you 1 year to be valued, 5 years, 10, maybe 20! Stone Temple Pilots weren’t even a band until they were 30 years old. Age is a number and time is relative. Don’t give up.
Asa part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Zilberman.
With well over 1.5 billion video views under his belt, viral engineer Steve Zilberman has gained a deep understanding of what will perform well online. While helping build Atlantic Records artist Oliver Tree from 10K followers on Instagram to over 1 million in the course of 16 months, he was able to keep Oliver’s engagement at an average high of 28%. Steve specializes as a cinematographer, video editor, creative director, Photoshop expert, producer, project manager, content marketer, & photographer. He has worked with countless celebrities & has won multiple awards for his work. Steve has had his hands in several viral moments on the internet and will continue guiding both new & old influencers on how to maximize their online reach.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’ll try to keep my story as congested as possible because I can fill a novel of information. I moved to Chicago with my mom from a poor area in Odessa, Ukraine when I was 6 years old. Throughout high school I never knew what I wanted. After graduating, my friends got signed to a metal band & since I wasn’t good at any instruments I decided to learn how to film & edit media. Going from tour to tour, I would learn the ropes pretty quickly. Whenever I would be off tour, I would be doing music videos for local Chicago-area artists. Eventually my jobs started getting bigger; I did several commercials for businesses and even somehow landed a DP position for a McDonald’s documentary at their headquarters. I met my ex GF in Canada on tour and that led me into living in Toronto, Denmark, and eventually Los Angeles while simultaneously building a clientele and network in all of those countries.
My ex was Estonian and I got led into a community that was easier to compete in via film since the country is so small. I eventually won several years in a row at the EstDocs Film Festival and thought “if I could do this alone and still win, maybe I could start competing with the big fish.” So I decided to move to LA! This is where my story takes off.
At first I used Craigslist and other job sites to get gigs. I would put out posts looking for videographers to scope my competition so I built a demo reel that blew those guys out of the water. This led me into getting jobs with everyone from Monster, Google, to one of my favorite projects with Stone Temple Pilots. My favorite band of all time growing up was Linkin Park so to be put in a room with a guy like Chester Bennington made me see the potential of LA more than anything else I’ve done. Not to mention the place I worked out of was Dave Grohl’s studio, which is essentially a Nirvana museum. Another cool gig I got was working with Chad Calek who is a paranormal investigator. He was the co-star and director for one of the first big ghost shows called Paranormal State. So I would travel around the country and eventually the most haunted places around the world for ghost hunting. Yes..I am a professional ghost hunter technically haha. I always forget to add that one to my resume.
My first long term gig I got hired onto was a Silicon Valley tech startup called NuBryte. They put me in a content marketing position so I started working with the marketing team to create the most engaging content. It was this that made me consider what sort of color will evoke what emotion or what clip is more important to keep than another. Simultaneously, I started filming and editing for YouTubers. Channels like Bria & Chrissy, Cherdleys, LAHWF. Comedic timing is important and this is how I learned it. My first 6 videos I made with Cherdleys we would get 1 million plays within 24 hours. We were crushing! This brought attention to a funny looking little guy named Oliver Tree. He reached out to us so he could collaborate and sooner or later Cherdleys, Blake Webber, and Oliver Tree would become the new age Three Stooges. Oliver didn’t mention for a while but he was a recording artist and got signed to Atlantic Records. He got a budget & used that budget to put me on salary for him full time. What that did is now the content that I would be making would have an end goal to funnel it into. Music.
I spent 3+ years living with Oliver and touring around the world creating content nonstop. He gave me the opportunity to DP & edit huge 6–7 figure music videos. I would be making large scale projects like that while also making behind the scenes of these projects which in turn became just as iconic as the videos. It’s a rare thing to get the chance to build up an artist from ground zero so I learned the music industry very well the way a new major label artist would. I get the politics and I get the game you have to play. In today’s world, people don’t care about your music at first. But what people care about is creators & crazy content. So how do you get somebody to listen to your song?
You sing your song in a bathtub filled with hot Cheetos while smoking out of one of them.
Combining everything I’ve learned from my content marketing days to making content for large scale audiences like YouTube was the perfect storm of ingredients. This next part of my life happened very quickly so I’ll keep it even more brief than I tried with the story so far. A video in Walmart of a boy yodeling started taking off. The management team I work with who manages Oliver got lucky and ended up in contact with the boy’s family during all the craziness. We got him on the team and brought him out to Coachella. My tweet was one of 3 carefully calculated posts to make this moment go viral. Again, I had the opportunity to work on an artist from the ground floor but being so busy with Oliver, the management team split and moved over to Nashville to tackle the country scene. This is where they discovered “Old Town Road”, which eventually became one of the biggest songs of all time. The Oliver project started weighing heavy on not just me but Oliver as well so I began slowly moving away. This happened right before the pandemic.
I started working social media campaigns, disguising content in memes or creative ways to push traffic to artists’ Instagram or Twitter pages. I also ran social media for Borgore, Fuckjerrys’ ex Head of Marketing Jilly Hendrix, & would tap in as a ‘ringer’ for many artists like LoveLeo. When the pandemic hit, songs started going viral on tiktok which would in turn land the song on the Billboard charts. Since the entire world was shut down, TikTok is where record labels started looking. Oliver’s ex manager Danny Kang flew me out to Nashville to start working on the Mason Ramsey project and during this time is when we created the macarena challenge for Tyga. We were working closely with Tyga at this time and it worked so well for his music that we all came to LA to start focusing on TikTok.
We literally brought over the biggest TikToker’s like @justmaiko to meet Tyga and make content. The rest is history. Tyga is one of the most successful artists on the platform when it comes to affecting his music streams. Since Tyga, I’ve worked with several artists and content creators which eventually brought me into working with Bella Poarch. This was a similar story to Mason Ramsey and she’s managed by the same team. This sparked the attention of mega producer Benny Blanco. I started his tiktok from 0 and we now have higher engagement than Addison Rae. I’m working with many artists now to help transition content into music streams but I can’t give any details on this since its current. But they are household names! I’ve been working on creating what I call a new genre online just like the way there are new genres of music. Check out my tiktok “Zilbersteve” which I would use to test my theories. I’m taking the non conspicuous filming route on something completely planned. You’re combining behind the scenes content with the main content piece. This year, my manager (Amir Oosman) & I have built a creative agency that will consolidate all the talents, abilities, and network I have. What the future holds for me, I don’t know. But what I do know is that TikTok is the hottest thing in music so it’s what I will be sticking with for now.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
I’ll give you a specific example. I’m posting a video of me playing with a dildo on tiktok that’s getting 40 million plays which links back to a song that has nothing to do with the video. Traditionally speaking, a record label would pay up to a million dollars for that type of traffic. I am able to do this single handedly with an iPhone, an idea, and how it’s all packaged together. I’m disrupting a multi-trillion dollar industry with what others have coined my “lucky touch”.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’m not sure any of my mistakes have been funny. Mainly sad and more importantly informative. But the biggest mistake any creator makes is undervaluing their work. Fortunately for me, I’ve been doing this long enough to where it’s clear now that my work has value. But I haven’t thought that until just these past few years. When you’re thinking “I want to charge $200 for this but they may think it’s too much”, you charge $400. Or better yet, hire a manager who is a shark like I did!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
My biggest mentor is somebody who has nothing to do with entertainment. He’s a lawyer that did a case for me at 17. It was his first year in law and since then, we talk or hang out regularly. He taught me the importance of honesty and respect. The moment you stop doing things for yourself and focus on everybody around you is the moment you can reach real nirvana. That’s how you thrive. Another mentor of mine is Danny Kang. He’s Oliver’s ex manager who originally brought me onto that project. He’s the craziest guy I’ve ever met but this is why he’s so successful in what he does. These mentors are good anchors in my life because they couldn’t be any more polar opposite.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disrupting is always good. No matter what. It’s why Mother Nature gives us storms that destroy things. Life is a cycle and like every cycle, disruption is part of it. One meteor carrying the building blocks to life disrupted earth. A guy like Donald Trump who comes in and creates disruption can be seen by some as good. Because now as a country America sees what they don’t want. As much as it split the country, it brought both of the split sides closer to each other. Because of Trump, we now have a definitive line that was drawn which would be blurry without him. One example I can say who definitely causes issues is somebody like Supreme Patty. He’s not hurting other people or saying bad things about other people the way Trump would do. But kids may look at him and say “cool let’s jump off a roof to get views” and then they actually do it, which is not good. 69 is another one but to me is less mild than the supreme patty formula. Anybody can squirt lime into their eyes but nobody should. I have faith that the human race will sooner or later transcend into where we need to be. But until then, disrupters will help to bring us there.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
I mentioned a big one above:
Don’t undervalue yourself. Simultaneously, don’t overvalue yourself either because nobody likes cockiness. Be the middle porridge!
Don’t take the route everybody is taking. If it’s different, it doesn’t matter how dumb it is…you’re on the right path! The world right now is filled with an over saturation of art. To me, it’s like we’re living in a modern day Renaissance period. This is why you need to stick out.
NEVER GIVE UP!!! This is the most cliche but arguably the most important. It can take you 1 year to be valued, 5 years, 10, maybe 20! Stone Temple Pilots weren’t even a band until they were 30 years old. Age is a number and time is relative. Don’t give up.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I’m going to administer a general council for the United Nations that overlooks/or regulates the internet) one day.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
There are two huge ones in my life. “Propaganda” by Edward Bernays and “The Secret” by Edward Bernays — he is not just the biggest marketing brain the world has ever seen, he single handedly created it. Whether it’s for the better or worst is arguable. Before Bernays, we would only buy something we need. He created the need for want, by combining psychology with desire. I use similar tactics in my marketing. The Secret is more straightforward than that. It’s a concept that claims that if you imagine something, you could obtain it. It’s a textbook manifestation. Extremely important in life no matter who you are.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Treat others the way you want to be treated. Working with celebrities and artists so often, you need to have a sense of personability. I don’t want people kissing my feet each time they see me so I don’t do that to others. That’s helped me build relationships and a big part of my job description is artist relations/development.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
The ‘say a nice compliment to your friend each time you see them’ movement :D
How can our readers follow you online?
They don’t have to look hard if they’re looking for my work. But if you want to follow my account personally, it’s @zilbersteve across all platforms. Instagram is where I’m most active.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!