8DRAGONS

At 8DRAGONS, our mission is to amplify Asian voices through TikTok. I want to unite the rich and diverse global Asian voice- from diaspora minority Asians to local majority Asians- to express the complete breadth and depth of what it means to be Asian now. I want to give our Asian TikTokers a private, safe space to network, learn how to grow their brands through educational podcasts with our own members, and get brand deal opportunities. Our creators want to create for a living, and we want to help them live out their dreams by feeding them through financial opportunities. We want to break the "cold and numbers-driven" influencer agency stereotype by providing them a warm community to interact with other influencers. If selected winner, we'd use the Elevate Prize funding to help us systematize what we're already trying to do in the networking, podcasting, and brand deal spaces. Further funding will go into a premium production pilot for a TV program featuring our best creators, including the directing, screenwriting, acting, post-production, sound, etc. of the production process. This kickstarts our efforts, where our future destination is an OTT video-streaming platform for Asian creators globally.

I was born and raised in Texas, USA. I taught ESL in High School for 13 years and opened a TikTok in December of 2019. My students doxxed me to the school, and my principal fired me. I was jobless and lived off my social media accounts for 5 months. During that time, I grew 3 TikTok accounts to 1.6 million followers in total, and then I got shadowbanned on all 3 accounts. I lost all my TikTok money and was left with nothing. I started 8DRAGONS with 2 TikTokers with the vision of not only breaking Asian stereotypes in the West but also giving "lone wolf" Asian creators a safe space to connect, learn how to go viral on TikTok, and get brand deals. Both my partners left to pursue their personal brands, and I'm all that's left in running this company. 8DRAGONS was named after 8 regions: Taiwan/China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Philippines, and Vietnam, from which most our members' ancestries are from. I see a global shift in all industries moving towards an Asian-centric future, and I want 8DRAGONS to lead its social media influencer facet. I want to unify the world through Asian voices.

We're solving a huge problem of influencers unable to find work and having to resort to full-time or multiple part-time jobs in order to feed themselves so they could focus on their dreams. We're giving them a community to help their mental health. We're teaching them how to use TikTok in order to grow their personal brands and speed up the reaching of their dreams of creating 24/7. We're reaching Asians globally from over 10 countries and counting. Over 200+ people are affected and millions more by our cumulative 130+ million follower count. The lack of transparency among agencies is something we're tackling. We want our members to trust that we have their best interests at heart. Asians aren't represented the right way in mainstream media, and we're changing that by taking over TikTok and taking advantage of social media becoming mainstream media. TikTok is the leader of social media today, and Asians are leading that. We're accelerating that change. Nobody is willing to sit down and create a library of wealth and knowledge for Asian creators, and we have over 30 podcast episodes and counting for our members to digest and learn from. Asian creators no longer feel alone.

Our network is perhaps the biggest single Asian TikTok community of over 200 members and growing by the week. Our cumulative reach is 130 million followers and growing. We're promoting ourselves on Clubhouse with our own club and I'm promoting 8DRAGONS everyday on the app. We've brought in like-minded business partners to work with and have been able to help our members earn a living that way. We're using WhatsApp, Discord, and Facebook to create a private network of members that personalizes our agency. We have Asians of all niches and all Asian countries. We're able to be flexible and fit our niche to any brand. We're working with cutting edge Asian-centered television shows and record labels to help accelerate the pace of global entertainment becoming more Asian-centric. We're not signing any of our members exclusively to us, giving them flexibility and eliminating the pressures to perform- supporting their mental health in the process. They're able to go out and be represented by other agencies. Our sheer number and premium quality of Asian creators is powerful enough for our members to stay in our group. They want to meet future strong Asian social media creators, and we are that place.

Our organization is helping Asians around the world support themselves through social media. We're also giving them a platform to reach global audiences they otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to reach. We're giving lone wolf creators a chance to become apart of something bigger and more meaningful. We let them connect with other creators they otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to connect with, as well as let them interview each other through weekly podcasts to educate them on how to use TikTok and set life goals for themselves. A lot of these TikTokers are struggling artists, doing their dreams part-time because they're currently unable to tackle them full-time. We want to provide enough funds for them through brand deals in order for them to be able to do their dreams full-time, which traditional agencies are unable to do. I am manually doing most of the recruiting, podcasting, brand-deal hunting and managing, talent relationship building myself to see how to automate and scale it in the future. We have been impacting millions by breaking Asian stereotypes across the West in our rich and diverse talents. Allowing our members to congregate openly and collaborate on projects in TikTok accelerates our impact.