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Well, friends. I did it. Ive now had my highest-income month of my life again. So begins a TikTok video by content creator Chelsea Langenstam detailing her $56,244 income month breakdown, along with deductibles, as a solopreneur. Langenstam then outlines her various income streams: budget templates, brand deals, referral fees. I dont share to brag, she says in the video, currently sitting at over 100,000 views. I share because I want to show you whats possible in real time. Her videos are among hundreds on TikTok and Instagram, lifting the curtain on how much solopreneurs of all kinds actually earn month to monthand exactly where each dollar comes from. These income breakdowns sit within a wider trend toward financial transparency online. From loud budgeting to no-spend challenges, talking about money is no longer taboo for the online generation. They are bucking the decades-old trend of silence: 53% of Gen Zers and 58% of millennials say they would post how much money they make online. Show me the money Solopreneursor businesses with no paid employeescontribute $1.7 trillion to the U.S. economy, representing 6.8% of total economic activity, according to recently published U.S. Census Bureau data. But when striking out on ones own, the honest truth is that few have any idea what theyre doing at first, let alone where the next paycheck is coming from. Now, social media is democratizing the process, with a number of content creators breaking down the financials of running a business solo. Not every month is a five-figure month for Langenstam. She has also divulged what a lower-income month looks like, for the sake of transparency. Others reveal their financial particulars to advocate for the solopreneur life, breaking free from the corporate grind and embracing the freelance economy. Freelance social media manager Mila Holmes has been sharing her project rates since 2020, but only recently started opening up about income breakdowns. The whole reason I make content on TikTok is to advocate for freelancing, she says, explaining which streams of income made her $14,616.99 over the past three weeks. These include consulting calls, freelance influencer marketing, and hosting classes on brand partnerships. I want people to know financial security and prosperity are possible through nontraditional means, Holmes tells Fast Company. I think a lot of people view freelancing and/or content creation as a temporary thing between real jobs. I believe it can be more than that. It’s one thing to tell them that’s possible, and another to actually show earnings. A new model of transparency Income breakdowns push the needle further by modeling how the money is made, as well as how much. But, as with anything you see online, influencers announcing regular five-figure months should be taken with a grain of salt. In particular, you should be wary of any income breakdowns by those who try to sell you quick fixes, with a promise of achieving similar results. Still, thats not to say solopreneurship cant be lucrative. According to MBO Partners 2025 “State of Independence” report, 5.6 million independent workers reported earning more than $100,000 annually. This was up 19% from 2024, and nearly double the number of six-figure earners in 2020. The average U.S. worker salary, by comparison, is $66,000. When I started freelancing, the idea of a $10,000 month felt like it was a world away, and a $20,000 month felt even further, solopreneur Grace Lemire says in a TikTok video, reporting an income of $10,700 for the month. But when I started to see other entrepreneurs break down their revenue streams, it started to feel within reach. Lemire doesnt reveal her top-line revenue, but she did start sharing what she charges clients, as well as certain monthly earnings, a few years ago. I share because I want people to see what’s possible, Lemire tells Fast Company. I want to show people that there is more out there for them than they might be able to conceptualize with the information they have available to them. For a younger generation already seeking a fast track to success, the allure of solopreneurship is clear. A 2023 study found that Gen Z places greater importance on being rich than any other age demographic. And with the traditional career ladder shakier than ever, young and ambitious workers are forging their own paths and not risking their future in anyone elses hands. Thanks to social media, its never been easier to go it alone. Instagram, YouTube, Patreon, and TikTok give solopreneurs a number of platforms to establish their brands and get their products or services in front of millions of people worldwide. Thats something these young female solopreneurs understand better than most. Finance is a big player, and content earnings are high, Holmes explains. Creating under #financialtransparency, #income, #money, and #budgeting opens up a whole new world of opportunity for me. Not only on the brand partnership side, but also on the digital product side. For young solo business owners online, sharing income breakdowns not only promotes financial transparency, but its also a smart business strategy.
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E-Commerce
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a leading Democratic critic of President Donald Trump, says he will consider running for the White House in 2028 after the midterm elections next year.Asked in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” whether if would be fair to say he would give a campaign serious thought after the November 2026 vote, the term-limited governor said, “I’d be lying otherwise.”Newsom has been trying to raise his national profile, adopting a combative style that parodies Trump’s social media strategy with similar all-caps posts, memes and merchandise.The Democratic governor has sparred with the Republican president over the deployment of the California National Guard following immigration protests and Trump’s redistricting moves in Texas. Newsom has also led a campaign to redraw California’s own maps to add five Democratic U.S. House seats in response to the changes in Texas. Voting is underway on the so-called Proposition 50 and concludes Nov. 4.“I’m looking forward to who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. And that’s the question for the American people,” he said in the interview that aired Sunday.The feud between Trump and Newsom does not seem like it’s going away anytime soon. On Thursday, Trump acknowledged he had agreed to halt a planned show of federal force planned for this weekend in San Francisco after appeals from tech executives and the mayor. Newsom was mayor of San Francisco between 2004 and 2011.In the interview, Newsom described Trump as an “invasive species.”“He’s a wrecking ball. Not just the symbolism and substance of the East Wing,” Newsom said, referring to the demolition of that part of the White House to build a ballroom. “He’s wrecking alliances, truth, trust, tradition, institutions.”Earlier this year, Newsom launched a podcast in an effort to brand himself as a centrist. During the show, he has held conversations with influential figures all across the political spectrum, from late conservative Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on a college campus tour, as well as former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat. Adriana Gomez Licon, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
For most of its two-decade history, ActBlue hummed along in relative obscurityand for Democrats, it might have been better off that way. The online donation platform for the left was founded in 2004 with a mission to harness the power of the internet and fuel political campaigns through small dollar donations. In the 2008 presidential cycle, it set out with the humble goal of raising $100 million for Democrats; this year, it raised nearly eight times that much in the first half of 2025 alone. ActBlue processed another $482 million in the third quarter of this year. As ActBlues coffers have grown, so has the target on its back. What began as a series of spurious online rumors about alleged fraud on the platform has since spiraled into a slew of state investigations, a lengthy ongoing probe led by House Republicans, and a Department of Justice investigation ordered by President Trump himself in April. At the same time, the organization, which operates as a political action committee, has recently seen a number of high profile departures, including within its legal team, which have only fanned the flames of Republican inquiries. The DOJs deadline to complete its investigation has already passed, and the department declined to comment for this story. The Houses investigation, meanwhile, has yielded one preliminary report, which charges ActBlue executives with failing to take the threat of fraud seriously, without identifying any instances of potential fraud that ActBlue hadnt already caught. The report also made no mention of WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform, which is facing its own investigations regarding allegedly deceptive fundraising practices. Still, the political attacks and turnover have placed substantial strain on a vital piece of Democratic infrastructure, through which billions of dollars in funding flow. Now, the question is whether ActBlue can survive this relentless firestormand what it will mean to the party if it cant. Fast Company spoke with more than a dozen sources, including ActBlues CEO, current leadership, former employees, Democratic strategists, and other former party officials. These conversations show that even as Democrats rally around ActBlue in the face of what they say are dangerous attacks from the right, they are also sharply divided over whether the organization is equipped to handle these blows and whether the right leaders are in place to meet the moment. Internal turmoil One figure at the center of this divide is ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones, who joined the organization in 2023 after spending her career working at tech companies (eBay, Facebook, Yahoo) and serving in local government in East Palo Alto. After The New York Times reported on the departures of at least seven senior ActBlue leaders in April, ActBlue sought to cast the moves as part of the natural turnover after the 2024 election cycle. But former ActBlue employees and Democratic strategists familiar with the exits told Fast Company that many of the departures stemmed from what one former employee characterized as a verbally abusive working environment under Wallace-Jones, marked by major blowouts. This employee described Wallace-Jones as deeply distrustful of both the Democratic ecosystem and members of her own staff. The former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of being singled out by members of Congress, described a situation in which he briefed ActBlues general counsel on a potential sponsorship that could have had legal implications for ActBlue. According to internal communications viewed by Fast Company, Wallace-Jones later chastised the former employee for sharing information with ActBlues legal team, suggesting that doing so was tantamount to leaking. (ActBlue declined to respond directly to this claim). People did not just leave because it was the end of a cycle, the former employee said. We did not trust that she was the leader to take this organization forward anymore. “She made it very clear to everybody that they were replaceable,” said another former employee. According to The New York Timess reporting in April, unions representing ActBlue employees wrote a letter to the board asking it to hire outside counsel to investigate the current state of the organization and evaluate if our C.E.O. is doing her job in an appropriate, competent and responsible manner. A spokesperson for ActBlue told Fast Company the firm had in fact supported an independent and privileged investigation, which had concluded that the allegations in the letter could not be substantiated. Many of these interpersonal challenges would scarcely bear mentioning in the cutthroat world of politics or even tech, if it werent for the fact that theyve bled out into the public domain and are now being used as evidence by House Republicans that something must be awry within ActBlue. After the Times report, the committees investigating ActBlue shifted focus, sending another letter to the organization, this time demanding documents related to the resignations and possible retaliation against whistleblowers. In July, the committees subpoenaed ActBlue for further documents, arguing that the staff departures may be related to ActBlues fraud-prevention efforts. In September, the committees reportedly subpoenaed ActBlues former lawyers, including its former general counsel, Darrin Hurwitz. (Hurwitz did not respond to Fast Companys request for comment). The sources who spoke to Fast Company say ActBlues staff turnover has nothing to do with what they say are baseless allegations of fraud being leveled by Republicans. They want to say, Oh, all the executives fled the company because of all the craziness they saw, said one former employee. That could not be farther from the truth. Still, they point to these allegations as one side effect of Wallace-Joness leadership and an example of how the organization has failed to navigate the political messaging of this moment. At its core, ActBlue is a olitical organization that does tech, not a tech organization that works in politics. At every turn, theyve fucked up the politics, said one former Democratic National Committee official, who critiqued ActBlue for failing to work with the rest of the party to combat the GOPs attacks and disseminate information about the recent staff departures. No one knows whats going on over there. Thats led to more fear than is rational, he said. One of the former employees who spoke with Fast Company said Wallace-Jones did not appear to take the GOPs attacks on the platform seriously until it was too late. Of all the priorities, this was not a top one, and it should have been, considering the risk its yielded, the former employee said. Asked about this claim, an ActBlue spokesperson told Fast Company, Everything weve said from last August through today has demonstrated we are fighting these attacks aggressively, thoughtfully, and honestly. Hard choices In an interview with Fast Company, Wallace-Jones said she needed to make hard choices when she arrived at ActBlue. Indeed, a few months after she joined the organization, ActBlue laid off one-sixth of its staff in what Wallace-Jones said at the time was an effort to control costs and focus on its technology. Some of the former employees interviewed for this story agreed that, while painful, many of the organizational changes Wallace-Jones made were necessary. It is my job to bring ActBlue into its next phase of contribution, and in so doing, any CEO has got to evaluate what the present state of the organization is. Any CEO has got to evaluate whether all of the pieces are in place to support the go forward. In some cases there are hard choices to be made, Wallace-Jones told Fast Company. She said her current team is the right team to carry us forward into who we can become. An ActBlue spokesperson said in a statement that it would be difficult to imagine or point to an instance where a male CEO would be similarly scrutinized, let alone have a credible media article focused on such a non-issue. The spokesperson described the Republican attacks against ActBlue as attacks against democracy itself. [T]hey are coming after ActBlue because we are the largest, most successful and impactful technology-driven fundraising platform for Democratic candidates and Progressive causes, the spokesperson said. To suggest that their attacks are due to anything other than a desire to take out the infrastructure of the Left is short-sided at Best. [sic] Several current ActBlue executives and Democratic strategists also described Wallace-Jones as precisely the kind of leader the organization now requires. Jason Wong, who has been ActBlues vice president of engineering since 2022, said that prior to Wallace-Joness arrival ActBlue operated mostly on a consensus basis, making it difficult to move transformative projects forward. Wallace-Jones has brought more clarity to ActBlue, Wong said, and has pushed ActBlue to take on a bigger role within the party. Recently, the firm acquired its first company, a digital organizing platform called Impactive, and announced it would be donating $1 million to Democratic state parties to bolster their infrastructure. It also recently launched Raise, a simplified version of its fundraising tools, designed for down-ballot races. We’re a different company today than we were back then, Wong said. He acknowledged that, those transformations are difficult for everyone involved. Lawrence Oliver, ActBlues new chief legal officer, who joined the firm after the departure of its former general counsel, also described Wallace-Jones as the perfect leader for this. Is she demanding? Yes. Is she tough? Yes. But Ive worked for a lot of tough and demanding people, said Oliver, who was previously chief counsel of investigations at Boeing and a special counsel in the Cook County, Illinois State Attorneys Office. Others outside of the organization defended Wallace-Joness communication within the broader Democratic party. She worked overtime trying to make sure she had meetings with people, said Minyon Moore, who has previously served as chair of the Democratic National Convention Committee and CEO of the Democratic National Committee. She called the notion that Wallace-Jones has been slow to respond to the GOPs attacks BS. We can blame ActBlue for showing up slow or coming on too fast, but the fact is we all should be ready to pounce on that, Moore said. One platform, lots of vulnerabilities Some of the people Fast Company spoke to pointed to ActBlues record under Wallace-Jones, which includes processing more than $3.8 billion in donations in 2024. WinRed, by contrast, brought in less than half of that. But Wallace-Joness critics argue that ActBlue can only take so much credit for that cash bump. The money the party and the candidates are raising is because were in a huge crisis moment and huge fight, said the former DNC official. The historic nature of Democratic fundraising is despite ActBlue at this point, not because of it. Beyond the questions about ActBlues current leadership, the conflict surrounding the organization has highlighted the risks of relying on a single payment platform. Trump attacks or not, it’s a precarious place to be, said one Democratic strategist. Daniel Garcia, communications director for the Democratic party of New Mexico, said his team began working with another payment platform, GoodChange, in addition to ActBlue, earlier this year, in part due to the ongoing investigations. The potential for ActBlue to come under attack certainly is a concern for us, Garcia said. In the event something does happen to ActBlue because of the Trump administration, we do want to be prepared and have another option. GoodChange cofounder Becky Pittman told Fast Company the firm is now working with 20 state parties and county committees. She said GoodChanges platformwhich includes, among other things, event features and a tool that allows donors to donate spare change from every purchase they makeoften complements other payment platforms. And she condemned the GOPs attacks on ActBlue. It makes it dangerous for everyone, Pittman said. In an interview, Wallace-Jones said Democrats arent moving away from ActBlue, pointing to the amount of donations that have flowed through the platform this year. ActBlue has had, bar none, the most successful fundraising cycle its ever had in its history, she said. Of course, if Democrats wanted to distance themselves from ActBlue entirely, it would be no trivial thing. ActBlues sheer size and dominance has made it challenging for other startups to even raise the funding they would need to operate a viable challenger, said a Democratic strategist who spoke with Fast Company. ActBlue has also become the de facto keeper of Democratic donors information, an advantage that makes it possible for people to seamlessly donate across campaigns without reentering that information. Another enity can rebuild that, but it would just take time, said the strategist, adding that thats time most campaigns dont have. There are also risks inherent to experimenting with new technology. Wong, ActBlues vice president of engineering, noted that the platform saw unprecedented levels of traffic in 2024 without experiencing any outages, strain that newer platforms could struggle to withstand. And in a political climate in which the president appears hellbent on punishing perceived enemies, theres no guarantee a more diversified landscape would be any safer from political attacks. If they’re going to come after us, he said, they can come after anyone.
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E-Commerce
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