One of my (many) favourite things about Abbie Chatfield as a media personality is how open and transparent she is about the industry. Today she took to TikTok to explain that despite how shiny and cool it is to be a TV host, generally speaking, you can make more as an influencer on social media.
As the host of FBoy Island Australia, Abbie explained that it was her favourite job to date. However, the money just doesn’t compare to the bag she’d get if she focused on social media posts.
“If you’re coming from social media, you have a decent following and you earn decent money on socials, you have to want to do TV,” she said in response to a comment.
“My favourite job is FBoy Island. My second favourite would be live touring, and my third favourite would be the podcast in terms of fulfilment. I love doing all those jobs so much. If I lost any of them, I’d be so upset,” she explained.
“I could cry now thinking about it because the crew are amazing. The show is amazing. It’s so much fun. It’s my dream job. I love it.
“But the money you get offered to do a gig like that, if you compare it to the time and energy that it would take to get the same amount of money on social media, it’s like, it’s not really worth it.”
In the video, Abbie is clear that it’s not like she’s getting paid buttons to do the show. But now that she knows how much earning potential social media has for her, it puts opportunities in perspective when they arise.
She went on to explain an offer she once had to appear as a regular on a TV show every week. While it was a great opportunity, it was a lot of work and it wasn’t something that she was overly passionate about.
“If I didn’t know how much I could earn on socials like that, the amount of money they offered me for a year would’ve been one post a month for me,” she continued.
“The time and energy commitment for a project I wasn’t that committed to like I wasn’t excited about this TV show that much. I liked it as an audience member but didn’t want to be part of it every week. It was a huge amount of effort,” she said.
Although she didn’t give any number of references, I’m honestly so impressed by how real Abbie is with her audience about her experience in the media industry.
I think for many people who choose creative professions, so often the dream job isn’t a very lucrative pursuit, even if it’s something that looks super cool and comes with a lot of clout.
Abbie’s honesty just feels really refreshing and this is why she’s the golden gal of Aussie media.
