This soldier built a side hustle on TikTok and Instagram and says it’s now paying better than the Army

• Sgt. 1st Class Johnny Vargas fills a niche online spotlighting military news and culture for troops.
• Vargas hopes to help other soldiers achieve the same financial success he has.
• This is the first installment of a three-part series on the rise of military influencers.

Sgt. 1st Class Johnny Vargas built a booming business on his phone and says he now earns more money online than through the Army.

Vargas never planned to become an influencer. But when a 2023 video of his wife sharing a toddler playtime hack at the beach went viral, he was suddenly thrust into social media stardom. Now Vargas is on a mission to help other service members cash in too.

“I don’t care how old or how young you are, what your gender is, or who you pray to or don’t pray to,” he said. “I always preach, ‘You can do this.”

Vargas said that he’s paid off debt, started college savings plans for his kids, and boosted his and his wife’s retirement funds. Business Insider verified portions of his income through snapshots of monthly earnings and consulting payments.

“It’s taken away the fear and anxiety that I previously had with swiping a debit card or swiping a credit card or opening up my bank app,” he said. His social media success is now opening doors at the highest levels of the Department of Defense.

Vargas has interviewed the secretary of Veterans Affairs and met with the secretary of the Army and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. He’s also part of a top-level Army pilot program that partners with soldier-influencers to help the Army recruit more young people online. (That program was recently paused for a legal review.)

Today, he reaches about 25 million views a month on TikTok and Instagram, with more than 270,000 followers across social platforms. Not everyone is a fan, though. Vargas has faced criticism from some who say he profits from his uniform, blurring the line between his military role and personal brand. The Pentagon’s rules on that remain murky.

“It can look bad to some people, but social media has changed my life and my family’s life financially and career-wise,” he said. “It has put me in rooms I never expected to be in.”

Vargas declined to share exactly how much he earns as a creator, but said the new income has transformed his family’s finances. Most platforms pay on a scale that can vary drastically depending on reach, content, and audience demographics — a metric known as “revenue per mile.” Some videos might bring in $30, while others generate several hundred dollars. The best money, Vargas said, comes from consulting.

“Last year, my first full year, I made nearly as much as the Army paid me for the year, and this year I have made well more than my total Army compensation,” he said.

The content creation game

Vargas has been on active duty for nearly 13 years — most recently as a cavalry scout at Fort Hood, Texas. Social media started as a side hustle, and it now rivals his military career in terms of time commitment, he said. Most soldiers with similar rank, experience, and family size typically earn around $8,000 a month, or nearly $98,000 yearly, according to a government military pay calculator.

He started by posting funny skits and “top five” lists before finding a niche in military news. Now, his typical reels stitch together headlines from outlets like Task & Purpose, Stars and Stripes, and Military Times into fast summaries. Vargas’ recent posts have highlighted pay changes for troops and potential privatization of military grocery stores. Other videos rib top enlisted leaders for the services. His explainer videos on military peculiarities are especially popular.

Troops are hungry for news about the military, Vargas said. That hunger for information reflects a wider decline in the availability of military-focused journalism. Vargas doesn’t view himself as a journalist; he just values good storytelling and raising awareness.

“I just want you to know what happened, and then I want to know what you feel,” he said. In his reels, Vargas zeroes in on whatever he’s “immediately fired up” about that could affect troops and their families. He doesn’t shy away from negative press about the Army, which has occasionally drawn calls from senior officers.

“You either want to make people learn, make them laugh, or make them cry,” he said, explaining his tenets for content creation. “Between those three pillars, I’ve been able to create this business, but also protect the authenticity of my story and my words.”

He films almost everything on his iPhone using the CapCut app, usually from his truck or home office. Because military guidelines prohibit government employees from receiving compensation tied to their official name, image, and likeness, he typically appears in civilian clothes to draw a line between his military job and personal work.

From soldier to brand strategist

Vargas aims to post two videos a day, with the exception of Saturday, when engagement tends to dip. Each video takes roughly 90 minutes to produce, between filming, shooting, editing, and uploading. He often records before or after work, and publishes in late morning or evening when his audience, which he described as mostly men under 34 years of age, tends to scroll, he said. He handles almost everything himself, though a remote assistant helps with admin and responding to DMs.

Anyone can do it, he said. “I’m not the most attractive person, I’m not the funniest person, or the most well-equipped. But that doesn’t matter.”

Recently, Vargas branched out into consulting, joining a wave of creators helping companies reach younger consumers. He works with a handful of financial companies and several nonprofits, billing by the hour to help sharpen their messaging. He reached a turning point, he said, when he realized he was no longer “Johnny,” but a brand and media company.

The military is still trying to figure out how to treat employee influencers like Vargas who build online audiences while serving on active duty.

Monetization in social media, in particular, is a major gray area for the Army, said Col. Kris Saling, an Army talent management expert who oversees eight influencers, part of a Pentagon program aiming to boost recruitment.

“These guys drive engagement, and they drive positive engagement in a way that we haven’t seen, both for recruiting and just for general Army content development,” she said of the group of influencers. “And the ROI is one we can’t ignore.”

“We can figure something out” to help keep military influencers in compliance with Pentagon rules, she said. “We just don’t know what that is yet.”

As his following has grown, Vargas has created an LLC, works with a military lawyer to ensure that he operates within the military justice system, and hired a civilian lawyer to help defend everything he’s built. He says the work is worth it.

“I would love, more than anything, for every service member to have access to making even an extra, like, $20,000 a year,” he said. “I feel like that would change so many lives.”