How PE Guy Turned One TikTok Deal Into an AI-Assisted Business

Johnny Hilbrant’s first brand deal started with a problem many creators face: he did not know what to charge.

The Black Tux had approached him after his satirical PE Guy character began gaining attention. As Hilbrant explained in a June 2025 Business Insider interview, he asked ChatGPT for pricing guidance, chose a figure and sent it to the brand. They agreed.

That deal proved PE Guy could work on sponsored content. It also brought more opportunities, more emails and more administrative work.

Hilbrant later began using AI for outreach, email and accounting. He kept it away from his scripts. That distinction is the real lesson in his story.

Although the interview was published in June 2025, its central insight has become more relevant as creators increasingly use AI to manage business workflows while protecting their human voice.

Creativity attracted the opportunity. AI helped him manage the business that followed.

How this article was developed: This article uses Hilbrant’s Business Insider interview as its primary source. The AI-agent workflows discussed later are editorial examples, not systems Hilbrant has publicly said he uses.

PE Guy gave brands an obvious opening

Hilbrant began posting PE Guy videos in March 2025. The character had a clear voice, a recognizable world and a repeatable format.

Viewers quickly understood the joke. Brands could understand it too.

PE Guy was not a general comedy account with an undefined audience. The character represented a specific type of person, lifestyle and professional culture.

That made commercial partnerships easier to imagine. Around two months after Hilbrant began posting, The Black Tux approached him.

The fit was natural. Formalwear could enter the PE Guy world without changing what made the content entertaining.

This is one reason clear creator identities attract brands. Follower count matters, but it is not the whole decision.

Brands also look for audience relevance, credibility and a natural way to appear in the content. The strongest partnerships fit the creator’s existing world rather than forcing a new one.

Creators do not need fictional characters to achieve this. They do need a clear answer to three questions: what is the account known for, who is watching and where could a brand fit?

The easier those answers are to see, the easier it becomes for a company to imagine a partnership.

ChatGPT helped him find a starting price

When The Black Tux contacted Hilbrant, he had no established sponsorship rate. He asked ChatGPT what he might charge based on his social media presence.

The response gave him a starting point. It did not determine a perfect price.

Brand-deal rates can depend on average views, engagement, production work, revisions, usage rights and exclusivity. Permission to reuse a creator’s video in paid advertising can also increase its value.

ChatGPT could help organize those variables. Hilbrant still had to choose the number, send it and own the conversation.

That difference matters. AI supported the decision, but it did not control the negotiation.

The partnership also gave other companies proof that PE Guy could work in branded content. Hilbrant said more brands contacted him after seeing the campaign.

One deal became social proof. It also became the beginning of a larger operating problem.

Then the inbox started growing

Hilbrant said his business inbox went from roughly one email per day to around 20. That number captures the hidden side of creator growth.

Each opportunity can create a chain of new tasks. A creator may need to review a brief, ask about budget, check usage rights, manage revisions and track deadlines.

The work can continue after the content is published. Reporting, invoicing and payment follow-ups can stretch across several weeks.

The wider PE Guy business also expanded beyond sponsorships. Business Insider reported that it included personalized videos, Cameo, merchandise, live appearances, TikTok payments and brand partnerships.

The publication said the combined operation generated more than $1 million over the previous year. That was not sponsorship income alone, and ChatGPT did not create it.

Business Insider said it verified Hilbrant’s TikTok and Cameo earnings. It also reviewed records connected to some brand deals and personalized videos.

The larger point is more practical. Success created enough administration to compete with the creative work that caused the success.

That is where AI became more useful. Not as a replacement for the creator, but as protection for the creator’s time.

Hilbrant uses AI around the character

Hilbrant has drawn a clear boundary. He uses AI for administrative work, but he does not use it to write PE Guy scripts.

That boundary protects the most valuable part of the business. People follow PE Guy because of the voice, timing, observations and character details.

They do not follow him because his inbox is well organized.

AI can support pricing research, outreach, email and accounting. Hilbrant still controls the scripts, partnerships and final decisions.

That control is especially important for brand fit. A company may look relevant on paper and still feel wrong for the audience.

An AI tool can identify similar campaigns or summarize a company’s products. It cannot fully decide whether that product belongs inside a creator’s world.

The closer a task comes to identity, trust, money or legal responsibility, the more human control it needs.

AI can draft a response, but the creator should approve it. AI can flag a contract question, but the creator or an adviser should decide what it means.

AI can organize campaign results, but the creator remains responsible for their accuracy.

Hilbrant’s approach keeps AI close to the operation and away from the voice.

AI assistance is not the same as an agent

Hilbrant has not publicly described using a complete AI-agent system. His workflow appears closer to a mix of chatbot and copilot use.

A chatbot answers one request. Asking ChatGPT what to charge is a good example.

A copilot supports recurring work, such as repeated email, research or administrative tasks. An AI agent can connect approved steps across several tools and keep a workflow moving over time.

For a creator, that could mean linking email, notes, calendars and campaign records.

The system might detect a new brand inquiry, summarize it and wait for approval. After approval, it could research the company, prepare questions and create a campaign record.

The creator would still make every important decision.

The goal is not to build an artificial talent manager. It is to prevent important details from getting lost between inboxes, spreadsheets and calendars.

Hilbrant’s experience shows why creators may eventually need that kind of continuity. When opportunities grow, isolated prompts may no longer be enough.

The challenge becomes managing the full workflow.

What a creator agent could handle

A human-controlled creator agent could support the repetitive work surrounding a brand deal. It would organize information and prepare next steps, while the creator keeps control of every important decision.

1. Sort incoming opportunities

The agent could classify new messages as:

• Brand inquiries
• Event requests
• Affiliate offers
• Press requests
• Suspicious outreach

This would help the creator see which messages need attention first. The creator would still decide which opportunities are worth pursuing.

2. Research the brand

Once the creator approves an inquiry, the agent could gather public information about the company. This might include its products, previous creator campaigns, reputation signals and possible audience fit.

The agent could summarize what it finds, but it should not decide whether the partnership is trustworthy or suitable. That decision still depends on the creator’s knowledge of the audience, values and long-term positioning.

3. Prepare and track the campaign

The agent could draft a reply asking about:

• The campaign brief
• The available budget
• The deliverables
• The timeline
• The usage rights

The creator should review every message before it is sent.

If the deal moves forward, the agent could maintain one campaign record with deadlines, approvals, posting dates, invoices and expected payments. It could also flag missing details, such as unclear paid usage rights.

The system can raise the question. It should not approve legal or commercial terms.

4. Organize campaign results

After publication, the agent could organize approved data such as views, engagement, clicks and audience responses.

It should only use information the creator has supplied or explicitly authorized. The creator would remain responsible for checking the figures before they are shared with a brand.

The value is not independent decision-making. It is continuity.

The agent keeps the workflow moving while the creator controls the partnership, communication and audience relationship.

Why persistent infrastructure fits

A creator could test an agent workflow on a personal computer. But recurring tasks stop when that device closes, disconnects or becomes unavailable.

More persistent workflows need an environment that stays online. One possible setup is Hermes Agent on Bluehost VPS, which supports persistent memory, reusable skills and scheduled agent workflows beyond a local laptop session.

Hilbrant is not publicly known to use Hermes Agent or Bluehost. The connection is editorial, based on the administrative workload his experience illustrates.

A setup like this could keep approved campaign records, reminders and recurring tasks available between sessions. The creator would still control access, review communications and make every decision involving partnerships, money or audience trust.

Creativity wins the deal

Hilbrant’s story is not about ChatGPT creating a successful influencer. PE Guy attracted brands because the character was distinctive, relevant and easy to understand.

AI arrived after the creative work had already produced an opportunity. Its value was operational.

It helped Hilbrant approach an unfamiliar pricing decision. It later supported parts of the growing administrative workload.

A more connected agent could extend that support across email, deadlines, reporting and campaign records.

But the boundary should remain clear. The creator owns the voice, understands the audience and decides which partnership fits.

AI can support the business around those decisions. It should not replace the judgment that made the business valuable.