Meet Tyler Polarek | Meme Page Owner & Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tyler Polarek and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tyler, what’s the end goal, career-wise?
Working in such a non-traditional field, like memes on social media, I knew that this would always be a temporary pursuit in order to get me where I wanted to end up professionally. This is in part due to the nature of social media and how unpredictable the future of it is. I also was thrown into this field at such a young age, before I even knew what I had wanted to be when I was older. For the longest time I have always wanted to be a founder and designer for my very own luxury fashion line. That field, however, especially when trying to build your own brand, requires a lot of funding, which would be hard to obtain as a first-generation low income graduate. So, ideally I would work to build this business until the time comes when I am ready to begin my designing journey, and use the money to fund my brand entirely. Meaning, meme pages are simply a stepping stone I am using in order to make my dreams in the fashion industry become a reality, when the time comes.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My business started as a fun hobby when I was around 13, so around 2014. My older sister introduced me to an app called Instagram and insisted that I join and create an account so that I could add her. Being that I was so young and wasn’t into taking photos of myself, I decided to start posting about things I loved. During this time I was obsessed with Harry Potter and YouTubers like Tyler Oakley and Connor Franta, so, I decided to start posting about them. On that account, I would make fan edits using apps like Photoshop and video editing software. I would spend countless hours interacting with people, making friends with other fans, and building an online community. After doing this for some time, I built an audience of over 10,000+ followers on that account. Being 13, I thought I could make some money from this success and decided to sell it for a $20 iTunes gift card. What a deal.

After some time being without my account, a hobby I spent well over 40 hours on every week, I realized I was craving the online community I once had. I decided to make another account, except this one was about DIYs and ways to promote self-care. My account would post self-care content on Instagram which would range from topics such as healthy recipes, ways to work out at home, places to shop for clothes, etc. After posting 10+ pieces of content daily, I established myself as one of the largest self-care pages on Instagram with over 300,000+ followers in just under 4 months. Through this rise in growth, I accumulated tons of messages asking for me to post advertisements for brands. These clients ranged from similar accounts paying for shoutouts, boutique clothing stores, and other influencers asking for content reposts. After realizing the consistency of these clients, I realized that this could be a profitable business for me.

This venture forced me to think strategically about how I could make this work. I branched out to making and posting on multiple accounts, now switching to posting memes. Memes, unlike some of the other trends I have seen on Instagram, tend to be more timeless because they always, in a sense, have shaped online culture. A majority of what we see on social media is shaped through memes and or is influenced by them. This also allows for my accounts to have more reach in terms of establishing an audience, because they are not limited to a specific niche. With this decision of posting on multiple accounts and doing so consistently each day, I had begun to connect with more clients and have an even broader reach online. After doing so for years, this has since transformed, now, to over 6 accounts run by me, organically surpassing over 2.1 million followers and reaching billions in organic content impressions annually. Memes have allowed me to do ads for people I have looked up to including Lana Del Rey, Katy Perry, Travis Barker, and Willow Smith, and now expand my expertise into contract work and making memes for leading companies. I have since become a jack of all trades relating to social media, especially Instagram, because of how long I have remained a native on the platform.

I think the reason I have seen so much success is because my venture, in a sense, had no choice but to succeed. Growing up low income and eventually becoming a first-generation college student, I did not have the luxury of getting financial support from my single parent. Growing up in this particular situation causes you to live in a “survival mode” if you want to make something for yourself. Unlike my peers, I did not have financial support or connections, everything down to my livelihood relied on my ability to be creative, not let a single opportunity pass, being aggressive with my strategy, and most importantly, remain delusional in what I could accomplish. I knew I had something going from a young age, built out of passion, and simply would not let the possibility of this even slipping out of my hands happen.

My story has consistently shown the importance of being aggressive with business and most importantly, being passionate about what your business is about. My work has allowed me to wake up excited about the content that I am sharing online. Being able to make billions of people join together as a community through relatable and funny content that I make is truly a privilege I’ve grown to enjoy. Having the ability to bring together and build online communities through laughter is something that I’ve learned to love and has shaped me in some ways. Now, being 22 and reflecting on the little under 10 years I’ve spent working, little did I know that the Harry Potter fan page I had started as a young teenager would transform into a full-time meme page venture for myself post-graduating from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Each morning I would take them to one of my favorite coffee shops to start off the day on the right foot. Some of my favorite cafes throughout LA are ilcaffe, Basil and Cheese, Stereoscope, Glossier x Alfreds Cafe, and About Time. Following that, I would take them to some of my favorite spots to spend the day. Some of those spots include shopping around Melrose Place, thrifting at the Goodwill Outlet, doing a picnic on the beach, going to the Getty Center, and playing tennis at any one of LA”s many courts. For food, I would take us to Ggiata Delicatessen, Mr. Masala, Prince Street Pizza, Pasta e Pasta, and Mirate. Finally, I would end the night with dessert- some of my favorite places include Garçons de Café for a drink or Salt & Straw for ice cream.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to thank my elementary school best friend, Gwen Storey, for playing such a crucial role in the early stages of this and to this day is still supportive. I’d also like to thank Professor Michael Paranal and the USC GEMS program for equipping me with the skills and confidence to continue on with this venture.

Instagram: @Goalsofteens @Requoting @Bitchclasses @Remarkeds @Txlerp

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerpolarek

Other: For meme contracting and partnership inquiries please email: Goalsofteensbi@gmail.com

Image Credits
Screenshots feature memes of @Requoting @Remarkeds @Bitchclasses – memes are parody and credit to respective owners