Rich Dudes│How Liver King Built His $12M Net Worth

Liver King, who famously advocates for the consumption of raw liver, is reportedly worth $12 million. Here’s what his supplements startups, real estate, and endorsements are worth.

Updated Sep 12, 2024

Updated Sep 12, 2024

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Liver King, the social media influencer, is famous for his promotion of eating raw liver and bull testicles. But he didn’t reach an eight-figure net worth by just eating raw meat.

If the average profit margin of supplements is 38%, then the business probably makes somewhere between $380,000 and $3M in profit.

Liver King's real name is Brian Johnson. He's a popular bodybuilding and wellness influencer best known for eating raw meat and espousing a primitive lifestyle. Most of his wealth comes from investments in ancestral health brands, supplement startups, and real estate.

Liver King's self-proclaimed net worth is $310 million in 2023. However, assuming he owns his properties outright and with fair valuations of his businesses, his estimated illiquid net worth is closer to $12 million. He also confirmed that his wellness enterprises and his personal brand generate $100 million in annual revenue.

In this article, we will dissect Liver King’s net worth, business, investment portfolio, real estate, and endorsements.

Liver King net worth at a glance

Net worth

$12 million

Born

April 7, 1977

Nationality

American from San Antonio, Texas

Occupation

Influencer & entrepreneur

Sources of wealth

Wellness startups & endorsements

Asset classes

Real estate & startups

How did Brian Johnson become Liver King? Liver King early life

Brian Johnson was born in San Antonio, Texas on April 7, 1977. Not much is known about Liver King's childhood other than that he was severely bullied in school. He attended Texas Tech University where he received his bachelor's degree in applied science in biochemistry in 2000. After attending Texas Tech University, Johnson dropped out of medical school and got a job at a pharmaceutical company.

Johnson was a lifelong fitness fanatic and gym rat, but his high-paying job in pharma enabled him to do more expensive sports like snowboarding. In fact, he met his future Liver Queen, Barbara, while shredding slopes. But this was all long before he began his Instagram Liver King career.

How did Liver King make his money?

After marrying Liver Queen Barbara Johnson, Liver King founded a vertically integrated dentistry practice with his wife—a business they eventually sold. After exiting from their successful dentist practice, the Johnsons began selling nutritional supplements and influencing full-time.

It was around this time that his wife, Liver Queen supported Brian's ancestral lifestyle, which helped start Liver King's journey as a muscular shirtless influencer.

These businesses are built on a philosophy called “Ancestral Living,” meaning a lifestyle inspired by the practices of our early ancestors. This includes a paleo diet consisting of raw flesh, bone marrow, and animal liver, and pushing the human body to its limits.

Brian Johnson makes most of his money from social media endorsement deals and businesses. In 2022, Johnson became a well-known social media influencer in the U.S. with millions of followers across his social media accounts.

By disclosing his food and exercise routine, Johnson draws in new people. Liver King net worth mostly comes from his ancestral lifestyle supplement brand. He also makes money from the fitness sector as a bodybuilder through sponsorship deals and brand endorsements, which he advertises on his social media.

Johnson's wealth has grown exponentially over the past few years. Liver King's annual income in 2022 approximately equals what his net worth was in 2018.

How does Liver King invest his money?

Liver King might be a controversial, liver-eating caveman that walks around without a shirt, but he sure knows how to invest his money.

If Brain Johnson owns his real estate outright, then the Liver King's net worth is around $12 million based on public information.

Startups 

Liver King has a stake in four supplement brands, each doing over $1 million in annual revenue. He also claims to have 10 to 12 projects that aren't public.


Before Liver King and his wife went full-blown into investing in supplement startups and influencing, they both managed a dentistry clinic called Dentiq Dentistry based in Texas. They started the business with an initial $500,000 investment split 50-50 and sold it for an undisclosed sum.

Liver Queen Barbara is a dentist, making her the perfect fit for the business. It began as a boutique dentist, but Liver King gradually expanded the business to include other orthodontics and other dental services. They pivoted to other business ventures after selling Dentiq in 2010.

Ancestral Supplements 

The Ancestral lifestyle brand is Johnson's primary business that sells supplements made from animal organs, mainly protein powders. It claims that modern nutrition prevents us from leading the vibrant life we were supposed to. According to public estimates, ancestral supplements does $1 million to $10 million in revenue.

With about 175,000 unique monthly visitors, an estimated average order of $80 (the cost of two supplements), and 2% conversion rate (a conservative estimate), the yearly revenue is around $3 million to $4 million just from the website. Orders from Amazon could bring in an additional $24 million in annual revenue.

Ancestral beef liver and beef organ supplements make an estimated $1 million in monthly revenue.
Source: Amazon.com

Liver King seems to be the majority stakeholder and claims to be the founder. If the average profit margin of supplements is 38%, then the business probably makes somewhere between $380,000 and $3 million in profit.

Based on a very conservative revenue and ownership holding estimate, the value of Johnson’s stake in the business is worth around $1 million.

Liver King's other companies

Liver King is a supplement mogul with several companies, including Heart and Soil, The Fittest, and Medicine Man plant company. Heart and Soil is a weight loss supplement company that makes about $5 million in revenue, while The Fittest is a strength supplement company that makes less than $5 million. 

Medicine Man is a mushroom-based supplement with joint venture partner Mark Vorderbruggen, and it has made about $1 million in its first year of operation. Liver King is most likely a minority stakeholder in these companies, so his equity is estimated to be worth significantly lower than Ancestral.
 

Real estate

Brian Johnson and his family live in an 8,300 square feet Spanish-style mansion in Austin, Texas. According to Zillow homes, houses like are worth $7 million on average. It's unclear if he owns the home or how much he paid for it out of pocket.

The house has a pool, sauna, and steam shower. From the house tour, it seems less grand than the $7 million houses and closer to the $4 million ones on Zillow, so lets estimate that his home is worth around $4 million.

Liver Ranch—located in and around Austin, Texas—contains a pool, pond, and space for cows and hens. On this land, Liver King has a ranch with at least three cows, two houses, and a garage.

Since we estimate that each requires about an acre, Liver King's ranch is most likely six to 10 acres. The price range for properties that suit this description is $500,000 to $1 million. Considering that it features a sauna, steam room, and pool, we can put its value at about $1 million.

How has Liver King investment portfolio performed?

Most of Liver King’s assets are in private companies and few residential properties, but it’s hard to paint an accurate picture of how much he returned.

Since Liver King has a ton of real estate in his portfolio, its historical performance is better both in the short and long term. Residential real estate was the best-performing asset class of 2022, according to the Case-Shiller U.S. home price index. On average, residential real estate outperforms farmland, gold, and the S&P.

Investing in real estate is super easy with EquityMultiple. With as little as $5,000, accredited investors can earn passive income by owning commercial properties.

Liver King is not a typical investor like Kevin O'leary or Shaq O'Neil, but he sure knows how to do more with his money by doing what he loves.

Liver King’s investment quotes

Liver King is a strong believer in anything natural. He believes if you can't go all in, then don’t go at all.

Liver King's advice is to “live naturally, live vibrantly, and own all parts of a supply chain. The best investment decisions are the ones that are done seriously and fully. You can’t half-ass an investment and it's better to just totally send it and try again if you fail.”

Liver King investing quote #1

Liver King investing quote #2

Liver King investing quote #3

Should you invest like Liver King?

Well, not everyone can dive right into the highly competitive beautify and wellness space. But everyone can own a stake in a startup. One certain takeaway from Liver King's story is that he invested in companies that were doing something he believed in. This makes it super easy for him to promote these companies’ products by just being himself.

Photo of Brian "Liver King" Johnson.
Source: youtube.com

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Does Liver King use steroids?

In a video titled "Liver King Confession... I Lied" uploaded to his YouTube channel, Johnson discussed having severe self-esteem problems that prompted him to use steroids and other physique-enhancing drugs.

This occurred days after leaked emails revealed that Johnson had been taking around $11,000 worth of the growth hormone Omnitrope per month, according to fitness and self-improvement YouTuber More Plates More Dates.

Liver King previously denied using steroids out of concern that it would damage his brand, which has about five million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Johnson's use of steroids puts his reputation for maintaining an ancestral lifestyle in jeopardy. It's uncertain how the Liver King net worth was impacted by this revelation.