A 27-year-old woman who is dating the multi-millionaire founder of Silly Bandz, who is twice her age, has revealed how she earns thousands of dollars a month by acting as a counselor for other people in age-gap relationships.
Sophia Spallino, from Louisiana, and Robert Croak, 54, from Ohio, started dating at the end of 2018, after he began following her on Instagram - prompting the social media star to reach out via direct message to introduce herself.
After exchanging dozens of messages, and FaceTiming every day for a month, the couple decided to meet in person, with Sophia traveling 1,100 to visit Robert - who founded the children's bracelet company Silly Bandz - in his hometown, where they had their first date.
Breaking barriers: Influencer Sophia Spallino, 27, and multi-millionaire Robert Croak, 54, fell in love after bonding on Instagram
Words of wisdom: Robert founded a children's bracelet brand, Silly Bandz, which is worth an estimated $20 million - however Sophia earns her own money by counseling other couples
Experience: Sophia began receiving messages from other people in age-gap relationships after she went public about her romance with Robert, so she decided to offer up advice
They have since fallen head over heels for one another, and are now planning to get married and have children, Sophia says.
After meeting Robert in person and realizing that their romance was meant to be, pastebin archive Sophia began posting about the relationship on Instagram, where she received a wave of support from her 26,500 followers - the majority of whom shared incredibly positive words about the age-gap couple.
Sophia grew her social media profile even further in October 2019 when Robert urged her to join TikTok, where she began posting 'silly' videos of herself - including several that see her acting as a 'gold digger' who 'snatches a rich man'.
She has since garnered over 84,000 followers, received 1.6 million likes and had over 10 million views on her videos. She admits that her popularity on TikTok has vastly improved their Silly Bandz business, a DIY bracelet brand for kids that is worth potentially over $20 million.
In 2019, as her social media accounts gained popularity, she began to receive numerous messages from other couples in age-gap relationships who were seeking advice.
Robert encouraged her to try and turn this into a career as he felt that all of the time she spent answering their questions was cutting into their relationship. So she began to research into coaching for couples in March 2020 and has since started offering official sessions with followers, charging $100 an hour for her time - and earning a whopping $4,000 a month in the process.
'About six months ago, I was afraid of TikTok. Even as a 27-year-old, I felt the app was for kids and I could never gain momentum on it,' Sophia said.
'But Robert encouraged me, as he always does, and said, "This app was made for your personality. Show the world your silly side, the stuff your Instagram fans don't see, the part only I see - and everyone will love it."
'I really didn't want to waste time learning how to use the app with editing music, text, and transitions, etc. if I was only going to fail.
'He pressed again, "Really, just treat it like a job for a couple of days. Go in that room, focus on having fun and come out when you get to 10K. I believe in you."
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Money maker: Robert urged her to turn her relationship counseling into a career when he saw how much of her time it was taking up
Clever: Sophia now charges followers $100 an hour for counseling sessions, holding between five and ten sessions a week
Smart: The influencer says that the majority of people she offers advice to are asking about their own age-gap relationships, however she also shares other romance tips
'Over the next couple days, I spent a little less time helping him with all of his branding projects (my "real job") and devoted eight hours a day to learning the app and making videos.
'For the most part, I really pride myself on being an authentic influencer. However, with my job, because of the growing success of TikTok and being in a successful age gap relationship that's not a sugar dating relationship, a lot of girls, at least ten to twenty girls in age gap relationships messaged me every day asking for my advice.
'I was giving this advice for free and it was taking hours of my time, so Robert suggested that I should look into life coaching and I devoted a lot of time to study. I specialize not only with age gap and relationship woes but helping and consulting them via TikTok, so my coaching service has sort of become my way of making money through my platform.
'One post can bring me ten people who want to pay to talk to me. I tend to charge either seventy-seven dollars for a half an hour session or one hundred dollars for an hour-long session.
'Now I am six months in and have over 80,000 followers. To me, it's so fun because I can just be truly ridiculous and play with my shadow side.
'On Instagram, I share a lot of personal development and spirituality posts, as well as vlogging our age gap love in the stories. But on TikTok, that's where the party is at because we make a fool of ourselves and jokes about our age gap.
'One of my TikTok personas is the iconic "gold digger" who snatched the rich "Silly Bandz man". Yep, Robert is the inventor of Silly Bandz, and the teens on TikTok love them.
'Because of Tiktok, Silly Bandz is making a huge comeback with millions of views on the @SillybandzOnline account that I manage.
'Silly Bandz's worth is going up so much right now, it's about to explode. The worth could be more than $20 million.
'Playing this acting role is so fun, but I always try to share that it's not our reality; we aren't in a "sugar relationship".
Making it happen: As well as counseling people online, Sophia has also racked up an impressive TikTok following by posting 'silly' videos and skits on the app
Teamwork: In several of her videos, Sophia plays the role of a 'gold digger', and she often ropes in Robert to appear in those clips - much to the delight of her followers
Hitting back: 'It's just hilarious to play on the "He's too old for you", and "You must have daddy-issues" comments,' she said
Positivity: Sophia hopes that her funny videos will help to provide people with some light relief amid the COVID-19 pandemic
'We work together and are building the rest of this empire together as a team. I am not a dumb hoe, but I love pretending to be one on TikTok.'
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Sophia feels that her TikTok videos provide a 'comedic relief' for people to help them escape from COVID-19 news.
'During this dark time in our world with COVID-19 and fear consuming the media, I hope to bring some comedic relief through the TikTok app and inspiration through my show, Enlightened the Podcast or my Instagram @SophiaSpallino,' she said.
'Robert has so much fun making TikTok skits with me. Our favorite ones are voice-overs with children's voices where he acts like a parent trying to coax me into calming down or giving me directions.
'It's just hilarious to play on the "He's too old for you", and "You must have daddy-issues" comments.
'I am definitely struggling emotionally with all that our society is going through; but when I get sad, we break out the phone and make TikToks, then end up laughing our butts off in the process.
'Because of my account's rapid growth and over ten million views, a lot of the girls that follow me follow Robert's Instagram account @RobertCroakOffical as well, where he shares financial tips of the day.
'I am just so blessed that I found a man who loves creating silly skits, something I have loved doing since I was a little girl.
'Creating content for our brand is work but creating content for our personal accounts has become our hobby that we love and turn to when we are 'quarantine-bored'.
'Robert and I hope and pray that there can be an end to all this Corona-pain in our world, but until then, I hope I can at least make you smile with our TikToks.'
A Ciência & Ensino é uma publicação semestral destinada a professores de ciências do ensino fundamental e médio e seus formadores.
Woman who is dating a man twice her age counsels other age-gap couples
por Adela Mitten (2020-05-25)
A 27-year-old woman who is dating the multi-millionaire founder of Silly Bandz, who is twice her age, has revealed how she earns thousands of dollars a month by acting as a counselor for other people in age-gap relationships.After exchanging dozens of messages, and FaceTiming every day for a month, the couple decided to meet in person, with Sophia traveling 1,100 to visit Robert - who founded the children's bracelet company Silly Bandz - in his hometown, where they had their first date.
Breaking barriers: Influencer Sophia Spallino, 27, and multi-millionaire Robert Croak, 54, fell in love after bonding on Instagram
Words of wisdom: Robert founded a children's bracelet brand, Silly Bandz, which is worth an estimated $20 million - however Sophia earns her own money by counseling other couples
Experience: Sophia began receiving messages from other people in age-gap relationships after she went public about her romance with Robert, so she decided to offer up advice
They have since fallen head over heels for one another, and are now planning to get married and have children, Sophia says.
After meeting Robert in person and realizing that their romance was meant to be, pastebin archive Sophia began posting about the relationship on Instagram, where she received a wave of support from her 26,500 followers - the majority of whom shared incredibly positive words about the age-gap couple.
Sophia grew her social media profile even further in October 2019 when Robert urged her to join TikTok, where she began posting 'silly' videos of herself - including several that see her acting as a 'gold digger' who 'snatches a rich man'.
She has since garnered over 84,000 followers, received 1.6 million likes and had over 10 million views on her videos. She admits that her popularity on TikTok has vastly improved their Silly Bandz business, a DIY bracelet brand for kids that is worth potentially over $20 million.
In 2019, as her social media accounts gained popularity, she began to receive numerous messages from other couples in age-gap relationships who were seeking advice.
Robert encouraged her to try and turn this into a career as he felt that all of the time she spent answering their questions was cutting into their relationship. So she began to research into coaching for couples in March 2020 and has since started offering official sessions with followers, charging $100 an hour for her time - and earning a whopping $4,000 a month in the process.
'About six months ago, I was afraid of TikTok. Even as a 27-year-old, I felt the app was for kids and I could never gain momentum on it,' Sophia said.
'But Robert encouraged me, as he always does, and said, "This app was made for your personality. Show the world your silly side, the stuff your Instagram fans don't see, the part only I see - and everyone will love it."
'I really didn't want to waste time learning how to use the app with editing music, text, and transitions, etc. if I was only going to fail.
'He pressed again, "Really, just treat it like a job for a couple of days. Go in that room, focus on having fun and come out when you get to 10K. I believe in you."
RELATED ARTICLES
Previous
1
Next
Former painkiller addict shares shocking image of himself... Grandma, 73, who lost 65lbs and came off blood pressure and...
Share this article
Share
Money maker: Robert urged her to turn her relationship counseling into a career when he saw how much of her time it was taking up
Clever: Sophia now charges followers $100 an hour for counseling sessions, holding between five and ten sessions a week
Smart: The influencer says that the majority of people she offers advice to are asking about their own age-gap relationships, however she also shares other romance tips
'Over the next couple days, I spent a little less time helping him with all of his branding projects (my "real job") and devoted eight hours a day to learning the app and making videos.
'For the most part, I really pride myself on being an authentic influencer. However, with my job, because of the growing success of TikTok and being in a successful age gap relationship that's not a sugar dating relationship, a lot of girls, at least ten to twenty girls in age gap relationships messaged me every day asking for my advice.
'I was giving this advice for free and it was taking hours of my time, so Robert suggested that I should look into life coaching and I devoted a lot of time to study. I specialize not only with age gap and relationship woes but helping and consulting them via TikTok, so my coaching service has sort of become my way of making money through my platform.
'One post can bring me ten people who want to pay to talk to me. I tend to charge either seventy-seven dollars for a half an hour session or one hundred dollars for an hour-long session.
'Now I am six months in and have over 80,000 followers. To me, it's so fun because I can just be truly ridiculous and play with my shadow side.
'On Instagram, I share a lot of personal development and spirituality posts, as well as vlogging our age gap love in the stories. But on TikTok, that's where the party is at because we make a fool of ourselves and jokes about our age gap.
'One of my TikTok personas is the iconic "gold digger" who snatched the rich "Silly Bandz man". Yep, Robert is the inventor of Silly Bandz, and the teens on TikTok love them.
'Because of Tiktok, Silly Bandz is making a huge comeback with millions of views on the @SillybandzOnline account that I manage.
'Silly Bandz's worth is going up so much right now, it's about to explode. The worth could be more than $20 million.
'Playing this acting role is so fun, but I always try to share that it's not our reality; we aren't in a "sugar relationship".
Making it happen: As well as counseling people online, Sophia has also racked up an impressive TikTok following by posting 'silly' videos and skits on the app
Teamwork: In several of her videos, Sophia plays the role of a 'gold digger', and she often ropes in Robert to appear in those clips - much to the delight of her followers
Hitting back: 'It's just hilarious to play on the "He's too old for you", and "You must have daddy-issues" comments,' she said
Positivity: Sophia hopes that her funny videos will help to provide people with some light relief amid the COVID-19 pandemic
'We work together and are building the rest of this empire together as a team. I am not a dumb hoe, but I love pretending to be one on TikTok.'
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Sophia feels that her TikTok videos provide a 'comedic relief' for people to help them escape from COVID-19 news.
'During this dark time in our world with COVID-19 and fear consuming the media, I hope to bring some comedic relief through the TikTok app and inspiration through my show, Enlightened the Podcast or my Instagram @SophiaSpallino,' she said.
'Robert has so much fun making TikTok skits with me. Our favorite ones are voice-overs with children's voices where he acts like a parent trying to coax me into calming down or giving me directions.
'It's just hilarious to play on the "He's too old for you", and "You must have daddy-issues" comments.
'I am definitely struggling emotionally with all that our society is going through; but when I get sad, we break out the phone and make TikToks, then end up laughing our butts off in the process.
'Because of my account's rapid growth and over ten million views, a lot of the girls that follow me follow Robert's Instagram account @RobertCroakOffical as well, where he shares financial tips of the day.
'I am just so blessed that I found a man who loves creating silly skits, something I have loved doing since I was a little girl.
'Creating content for our brand is work but creating content for our personal accounts has become our hobby that we love and turn to when we are 'quarantine-bored'.
'Robert and I hope and pray that there can be an end to all this Corona-pain in our world, but until then, I hope I can at least make you smile with our TikToks.'