Jason Tartick was known for making moves in the banking world. The University of Rochester MBA generated buzz as he quickly ascended the corporate ladder. In the spring of 2018, he also captured the attention of the American public, this time for a different reason—his dating life.
Nine weeks as a contestant on ABC’s The Bachelorette launched Tartick into a new reality. At first, it seemed a far cry from the suit-and-tie life he’d been living, especially given his newfound access to endorsement deals. More money could be made in a week by showing up to a club opening or posting a photo on social media to hype up a toothpaste or atleisure brand than you could pull in a month from a day job.
“It was [like] the fire hose, full-speed coming at you, trying to drink out of it and just thinking, ‘I don’t know what’s hitting me in the face right now, but I like it and I need to figure it out,’” Tartick says.
After double-dipping for a year and a half, Tartick’s employer asked him to pick a lane. While content creation hadn’t been the stuff of his childhood dreams, he ultimately decided to leave the banking world behind and fully embrace this new-to-him field.
Carving Out His Niche
Tartick used the skills that brought him corporate success—his energy, analytical nature and entrepreneurial spirit—to help him find his footing in his next career. After doing some research, Tartick realized that achieving longevity as a content creator would require building an online following.
“If that community is properly managed, you can make life-changing and legacy-changing money with [it] while providing immense value,” Tartick says.
This value hinged on occupying a niche that would differentiate him from other reality show cast members and helped him command higher endorsement rates.
“They [followers] came for your personal life from the show,” Tartick says. “They’re now starting to dabble in a niche that you’ve created. You have to figure out how to make sure you’re blending both.”
For Tartick, the “both” meant merging what first drew the larger public to him—his relationship and time on The Bachelorette—with his financial background. He used social media to beta test this new hybrid model. In 2020, when the market crashed, Tartick polled his followers, asking them to define in three sentences the S&P 500.
“Over 250,000 people responded to it, and 91% of them said they couldn’t do it…. So, at that point, I was like, ‘I need to take the personal finance background and bring it in a very light, friendly, almost sexy way to this audience.’”
He Had His “What”… Now, Here’s the “How”
Seven years after not receiving The Bachelorette’s Final Rose, 2024 will be Tartick’s highest-earning year yet as a content creator. He currently holds seven jobs, all offshoots of his brand:
- Podcast host of Trading Secrets
- Professional speaker
- Content creator
- Talent management company owner/CEO
- Business monthly networking group owner
- Real estate and investing company owner
- And author
In April he published his second book, Talk Money to Me: The 8 Essential Financial Questions to Discuss With Your Partner. While the book functions as a business card to establish credibility and open more doors, Tartick also wanted to explore an issue he believes doesn’t receive enough airtime.
“We weren’t taught how to manage and understand our money in our systems,” Tartick says. “And if we weren’t taught how to understand them, we really need to explore: Do we know how to talk about them?”
Statistics show that financial arguments are the second leading reason behind divorce after infidelity.
“People at ages 65 and older have a 3x higher divorce rate than they did in 1990,” Tartick says. A lack of understanding our money impacts all ages, from 18-year-olds getting their first credit card to retirees at 65 and older.
Passion Fuels Energy
Content creation isn’t a nine-to-five gig. During his spring book tour, Tartick often worked 14- to 16-hour days. But he wasn’t counting the hours because he feels so passionate about this space.
“Truly, all I’m thinking is, ‘Am I healthy enough? Am I eating right? And can I sleep enough?’”
Another often-unpleasant byproduct of living a public life is getting hate. But Tartick believes that receiving negative feedback means he’s doing his job.
“Anybody I found who has achieved material success has some form of polarizing features in them that make people love or hate them, but they watch them,” he says.
And while he tries not to give the naysayers credence, he is working on listening more to someone else—himself.
“I think the older we get and the more life throws at us, we are told to suppress that little kid, that little curious side of you, and act a certain way. What I realized is the more I [listened] to that person and stopped caring about what other people thought and started really diving into curiosities—that is when I started to notice things were changing for all areas, my financial success, my happiness, etc.”
Tartick thinks multibillion-dollar businesses could be behind all those curiosities.
“And you could have a piece of that puzzle,” he says. “I do believe it’s the curiosity and the natural instincts of gravitation toward those things that create the biggest leaders in those spaces.”
Your Entire Life Could Change, Too
Tartick believes, if you’re tactful and entrepreneurial with the access a social media platform affords, you can unlock a host of opportunities—from investing in businesses and sitting on boards to collaborating with other creators. And these days, you don’t have to get dumped on national TV or compete on a challenge show for that platform to materialize.
“You can literally have an idea or an education piece or insight or something that’s just purely fun and entertaining, and take your phone out and put it on,” he says. “And tomorrow you can go viral, and in 24 hours, your entire life can change.”
This article originally appeared in the Sept/Oct 2024 issue of SUCCESS magazine. Photo by Samuel Kim
