Dhar Mann rises from total failure to build major social media empire
This week Dhar Mann released a video on YouTube titled, BRO Leaves SISTER ALONE on HALLOWEEN, What Happens is Shocking. Celebrated each year on October 31st, Halloween is the most popular celebration for kids in America, who go “trick or treating” or to parties dressed up as ghosts, film characters, historical figures, animals or as other characters in costume, often with accompanying props. Perhaps then it is not surprising that Mann’s Halloween video has gotten nearly five million views.
The videos of Dhar Mann Studios, which is based in Los Angeles, are simple, blunt, scripted, acted tales, with click-bait titles and a moral theme based on real life stories, including from Mann’s life.
Many of the videos are about problems faced by pre-teens and teenagers in school. For instance, one is titled Shy Kid Gets Humiliated At School. It has gotten over 24 million views on YouTube. Another video, Kids Laugh At Student Who Can't Spell, They Instantly Regret It, has been viewed more than 12 million times on YouTube.
Mann’s videos also appeal to mothers. Early this year, he posted a video on YouTube, EVIL BABYSITTER Mistreats KID, What Happens Next Is Shocking, which has been viewed 24 million times. Another titled, “Kid WON'T SHOW MOM Report Card, What Happens Is Shocking”, has gotten 17 million views.
Mann, 37-years-old, also takes on social issues, siding with the underdog, characters with less power, popular prestige, or money. For instance, Girls Get FAT SHAMED By Others, What Happens Next Will Shock You, has gotten over 600,000 views on YouTube. Another video, Maids GET FIRED By Their Bosses, What Happens is Shocking has gotten 105,000 views
The videos and other content he creates focus “on developing ideas that have a massive impact and have helped change the lives of people all across the globe,” Mann states on his website. “You CAN change. And my mission is to help you do that.”
Mann has more than 64 million followers on social media, including 26 million on Facebook, 13 million on YouTube, 10 million on Twitter and nearly 5 million on TikTok. In addition to videos, Mann creates podcasts, films and written content. His content has been viewed a total of more than 26 billion times, with about 40% of the audience from outside the U.S.
Mann has figured out how to make use of social media to promote content and grow his audience without spending any money. “The craziest part,” he tweets, “is this is all 100% organic without spending $1 on marketing. Talk about the power of an Online community.”
Dhar Mann’s Life Story
Dharminder (Dhar) Mann Singh grew up in Oakland, California, in the San Francisco Bay area. His parents, immigrants from India, ran and built the Friendly Cab taxi business. The Singh family is described as a prominent, politically connected “taxi monopolist” by the local media. Instead of spending time with him, his parents gave him “money to do things,” he told The New York Times. This led him to believe that “in order to have love and live a meaningful life, you have to have money.”
At age 19, while studying at University of California, Davis, Mann launched a real estate mortgage brokerage. He grew the business to three offices, more than 25 employees and funded millions of dollars in real estate loans. He dropped out from college to focus on the business, but due to family pressure, went back and earned a degree in Economics and Political Science.
In 2010, at age 26, he co-founded weGrow, a marijuana company, with Derek Peterson, a former banker from Morgan Stanley. The “Ganjapreneurs” split and sold the company, suing each other for allegedly piling up unpaid debts and financial shenanigans. Peterson accused Mann of running a “hydroponzi scheme.” Mann countersued Peterson and won a settlement.
In 2014, Mann pleaded no contest to five felony counts of defrauding Oakland city by pocketing $44,400 in city grant money meant for building improvements. “No matter how connected you are, or how much money you have, or how many photos of your Lamborghini you post on social media, we will hold you accountable if you attempt to defraud Oakland taxpayers," Barbara Parker, Oakland City attorney, said in a statement at that time.
Mann, who faced no jail time, was sentenced to five years of probation and fined $37,500. He wrote in an email to The New York Times that his conviction was later expunged, erased from court records.
At age 30, Mann “found himself at the lowest point in my life. I was completely broke, going through a difficult (romantic) break-up and feeling really depressed. I thought I was a total failure,” he notes on his website. But, “In your darkest moments is when you’ll start to see the light.” He read, meditated, prayed and "focused on making a lot of positive changes on the inside which led to a lot of great changes on the outside." His struggles, Mann says, taught him to "stay focused; be open; accept responsibility; inspire people; be a good person; never give up."
In 2015, Mann started LiveGlam, which began as an online makeup school. Together with his fiancée Laura Avila, Laura G a beautician, he expanded the company into manufacturing and selling subscriptions for vegan cosmetic products. It is a subscription for “happiness” and to “join the glammerazzi”, with the best of beauty delivered to your door, states the LiveGlam website.
Mann and Laura have two baby girls, Ella Rose and Myla Sky, and they post updates on their family on their YouTube channel, which has more than 1.3 million subscribers.
Mann is CEO of LiveGlam, which has shipped over 10 million products, has more than 100 employees and two million social media followers. He is still active in real estate and his ventures include property management and buying and selling property.
In 2018, Mann founded Dhar Mann Studios, to create “inspirational videos on life, business, and relationships…(to) teach important life lessons,” driven in part by his success and failure. Starting with posts on Facebook, he has rapidly expanded the audience, raking in advertising revenues as well as selling T-Shirts and other apparel with “iconic sayings.” With a net worth estimated to be $250 million, he lives in the Los Angeles area in a mansion he bought for $16 million formerly owned by celebrity Khloe Kardashian.
Mann’s goal for his studios, he states on his website, is to “have more views than any other individual or company in the world.” He told The New York Times, “I may have grown up eating naan and lentils, and you may have grown up eating eggs and potatoes…There’s a lot of things that connect us at the same time, right?”
