Produced By - Relevance Over Reach: Why More Views Won’t Fix Your Business | 155: Lewis Kemp

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Lewis Kemp is the founder of Lightbulb Media, known for his no fluff approach to marketing. He specialises in paid ads, content, and copywriting for e commerce brands, helping businesses grow through a data led approach that drives real results. He is also the co founder of the University of Creative Idiots, where he teaches practical marketing without the usual hype. In this episode, Lewis breaks down how he built his agency and attracts clients worldwide through content. He shares how to grow your brand online, especially on LinkedIn, by being genuine, creative, and consistent. No tricks. You will also learn why chasing virality can quietly hold your business back, how to use AI properly, and how to build with clarity and long term thinking.Connect with Lewis:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewis-kemp-marketing-manchester/https://www.lightbulbmedia.co.uk/https://joinuci.com/Timestamps: 00:00 - Why chasing virality kills your business 01:11 - Introduction 01:21 - What he does and who he helps 01:57 - His journey into marketing 03:09 - Why following passion is bad advice 04:16 - Writing like a human and standing out 05:36 - Why being yourself wins in content 06:27 - Starting an agency eight years ago 08:18 - How covid changed the business 09:27 - How to get your first clients 11:04 - Why niching down matters 12:36 - First big client and why bigger brands are easier 14:53 - Why more budget means better data 16:41 - Dream clients and ideal industries 18:02 - How the market has changed 20:20 - Why you must adapt constantly 21:42 - The truth about ai in marketing 23:56 - How linkedin changed everything 24:48 - Why consistency beats virality 25:20 - How to actually grow on linkedin 28:02 - Why followers mean nothing 28:41 - The truth about fake experts and plagiarism  32:39 - How he comes up with content ideas 34:47 - What the university of creative idiots is 37:03 - Why creative thinking was punished 37:20 - Time management and discipline 38:55 - Life outside work and routine 40:12 - His dog and personal life 40:57 - Books and learning 43:20 - Future plans and new projects 44:30 - Where to find him 45:23 - Final advice and why you should not buy hope Connect with Tomas:X: https://x.com/TomasLoucky⁠⁠⁠Stan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKRiverside: https://riverside.sjv.io/vDnDodFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Don't try and go viral. Absolutely no use having 100,000 people in your audience if you can only sell to 10. The people that tend to go viral, the people that sell hope because hope is a universally applicable product. So they will sell you the dream of quitting your 9 to 5 or the dream of 100K followers and chasing dopamine. We are the people that have to sit there and have people come to us with 50, 60, 70,000 followers that say, oh, well, I did this. And then actually nothing's come from it. And now my audience is completely ravaged because I've got 50,000 people. it that I can't sell to. And every time they comment on it, it goes to their network who I also can't sell to. So now it's almost impossible for me to get my message out to the people that need

to see it who are actually going to buy from me. So I would focus on relevance more than anything. Yes, you can do top funnel posts that engage everybody because that's the purpose of casting the net wide. So touch on universally relatable topics like politics, business, parenting or whatever it is that you want to do. But after when you've got all those eyeballs, you need to start pulling that net back in, which is when you can then talk about the problems that you. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys. Thank you.

Hello, Louis. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, looking forward to it. So, Louis, for those who don't know you, can you please introduce yourself? Yeah, so I'm the founder of Lightbulb Media. We do paid ads, content and copyrighting for predominantly e-commerce brands around the world, helping them make more money. And also the co-founder of University of Creative Videos, which is an online marketing community

for people who can't afford agencies, but still need and want better marketing. I saw somewhere recently there was like a good title, I think, was some kind of promotion of an event. And I think there was a role or like your title as a creative idiot, which was a really good one. I mean, I don't know if they knew that I had a company called Creative Videos. Maybe it was just calling me a Creative Video, who knows these days. it's pretty cool i think it stands out we'll be happy to dive into it more but for people who don't know you can you tell us a bit more about your background and your journey of course not the whole

tv but a bit more to get to know you yeah so like most people in marketing i find my way in there because i wasn't very good at sales the first jobs were kind of the standard knocking on doors raising for charity things like that basically you get you get very comfortable with rejection because you get told to f off 99 times a day which is pretty good teaches your resilience but then after that kind of far my way through the different kind of ranks of marketing. So I've done, you know, tele sales. I've done email marketing. And then I went into kind of the comm social media side with a friend of a friend's business a few years ago.

And that's kind of where I got the bug for it. From there, I spent a year and a half as I had a digital. But the brands were pretty boring. It was like financial services and lead gen. So I really wanted to kind of get into the meat of like creating cool stuff where you, where you weren't kind of really restricted by like compliance and things like that. So eight years ago now, I started light bulb media coming up to it, I think. So, yeah, I mean, touch wood.

It's all still going pretty well. And was it actually like your kind of dream career or something that you wanted to do? No, I think for me, I want to work with dogs. That's my dream. That's my dream career. I don't think I was smart enough to be a vet or anything like that. So it's one of those things, isn't it? Where people say, like, follow your passion.

And actually, it's probably really poor advice. What you should really do is do what you're really good at. so you've got enough money to follow your passion. So out of Christy, why didn't you then try it? Like, I don't know, something with dogs, whether it's wet or something else. It was just literally growing up kind of where I grew up. I don't really think I had time to go and do, you know, five, six years as like learning as a vet and qualifying and things like that. It had to be, I contribute to the household pretty quickly.

So it was like, shit, what makes money fast now and what can I get quite good at? And I kind of, because I studied kind of like psychology and sociology as well. I've always been interested in people and influence and how you can make people do things. And I've always been kind of a naturally good copyizer as well, which is kind of the core of pretty much every aspect of marketing, whether it's, you know, emails or its ads or its website copy, copies at the root of it all. So yeah, I just thought that would be a really good applicable skill and it has been so far. Yeah, I can confirm like from your presence and from what you do. And if people look at, as I said, your presence, your content and stuff like that, are someone who's always been like enthusiastic, positive and had fun?

Because as you can see, your content stands out that it's really different in a good way. So are you someone who's been always like that? Good. Yeah, I think it's important. I think particularly now these days, right at the start, don't get me wrong, I did the exact same thing as everyone else told me to do. You know, I was sharing blog posts and I was thrilled to announce and humble to this. And nobody cares because nobody really cares about you.

They care about themselves. So I just thought, why not kind of right as I speak and try and have a little bit of fun with it? And if people like it, they like it. If they don't, they don't. Then I'll go back to square one. But it has proved kind of one of the easiest ways to stand out, which is strange to say that being a normal human and speaking like a normal human is one of the best ways to stand out. But it's crazy how many people struggle with that just because, you know, they were never, they'd never really encouraged like that in school. Or if they've been working in corporate, they've got like really bad behaviors that they struggle to unlearn.

so they can't help but speak like a corporate drone. So getting people to unlearn that is often quite a challenge. There is a good point, and you've got so a lot of competition, content and people out there. And if everyone sounds the same, afterwards, this is the best way how to stand out. Exactly. Everyone does the same thing. The only thing that's really going to be a differentiator in this game is you. So you may as well lean all the way into it because if people just wanted a service,

they just go on Google and figure out who's at the top more often than not. So you've got to use content to kind of get ahead of that and think, oh, when they do actually need that service, who's the first person they think of or who's the first brand that comes to mind. And then you can kind of jump ahead of the queue a little bit rather than relying on Google to send your clients. Exactly. And I think we will discuss it later, LinkedIn, but one of the pieces of advice that I hear

is to be unique and stand out. And I know it gets over it, but after all, it's true because they're. That's what makes unique different. And as I said, looking at your content, you don't really see anyone like that. So it just proves the point that we need to have fun, stand out and be different than others. Good. I appreciate it. I'm glad somebody reads it.

Yeah. And again, before we discuss it more, you said you started agency, if I remember correctly, like eight years ago, which from now is quite a while. So what does it actually back then to do it? Because sometimes it feels like that these days, people may do it maybe more frequently. I don't know because it's trendy or because I don't know anyone around like agency on LinkedIn, but you got some experience. What was it like before? You know what?

It was kind of pros and cons. The cons were obviously you're starting in a saturated industry and you're struggling to prove yourself because you need the results. So obviously like everybody that starts an agency, you overservice and you undercharge. But in the grand scheme of everything else, in terms of the economy, it was a beautiful place. I think 2018 and 2019, you know, that's when everything was last, I suppose, normal before COVID hit and then from there it's just been a disaster between World War pandemic lockdown, pandemic, world war financial crisis for the last like six years. So it's, I kind of miss what

the economy was like back then, but I don't miss kind of having to scramble around for stuff. But you just got to roll with the punches, you know, nothing's ever going to be perfect. There's always going to be an issue somewhere. And that's kind of where marketing lies. You know, we saw it with COVID when it hit. You know, we were a pretty new business at the time. And then suddenly everything's locked down and we were working with loads of like bars and restaurants and we were like, oh shit, what's going to happen now? But then thankfully, kind of with what we did in terms of helping people get their online presence online, there were still so many people that were behind the times and not having a proper website, not running ads, you know,

not putting out engaging social contents. It kind of did give people a kick and we kind of became like an essential service, which I think we did benefit from to a point. And you kind of feel guilty for saying that, but it's kind of some people like did really well and some people did really badly. And we were just fortunate enough to be something that was in. quite high demand at the time, so it was quite beneficial. Yeah, I was going to say that it's obviously not a nice thing to say, but at the same time, because everyone had to go online, I guess they understood the importance and maybe it was actually a good thing for you that you got more clients.

Yeah, definitely. And then the key was making sure that we kind of kept up that traction afterwards, because obviously when it opens up again, there's a, you know, kind of like rebound effect, for instance. So like some industries we were working with, you know, when everything locked down, everyone started renovating the house or making their garden nicer and all those brands were going crazy. And they were like, oh my God, this is going to be amazing for the rest of it. And I said, no, no, no, when this, when everything opens up back up again and goes to normal,

you will drop. So be prepared for that. So sometimes it's easy to get excited with how everything's going, but you've got to keep like one eye on the reality of the world and behavior and things like that. And that's what we kind of try and do our best to do for our partners. Yeah, as you said before, it's always challenging to find clients when you are starting out. So what would be like your advice for many people from the audience, from the listeners, you know how to find your first clients? Because sometimes you can use portfolio, but again, if you're starting away, it's challenging. So what will be our advice on this?

I think two points and one we've kind of already touched on, is you're going to have to find a unique way of grabbing attention because credibility at that point, that's kind of problem too, you know, having to retain the clients and deliver the work and things like that. But if you actually never get a chance, I see so many people that are so so credible at actually delivering the word, but so bad of being able to stop the scroll and garner attention and, you know, create an emotional response with their content that they never actually, they never actually get the chance

to do that. So I would say focus on the best ways of getting attention as the first point and whether that might be with your delivery or the platforms that you're using or the content you're distributing. And then also I think where people struggle is they don't have a deep knowledge of the people that they're helping. They confuse their ideal client. profile, which might be, you know, e-commerce brands doing 500K in beauty versus anyone with a website

or anyone that sells products online. And that's such a huge market. And you're trying to speak to all those people, whereas actually you can really tailor down and nail down your content and speak to the exact people with the exact pain points that you solve and give them a kind of measurable solution. So a lot of people try and kind of please everybody and wrongly assume that if I speak to more people, there's a higher chance of someone coming through, but this is the whole debate around virality as well. It's a bad thing, but people are so addicted to dopamine and chasing likes that they'll come and make a post and say,

it's an ice cream taste, it can get a thousand likes. But actually they sell software to CFOs in Illinois. Okay, well, what do you need those 10,000 people for? Your target market is 50 people. Speak to them. Yeah, that's a good point. I was about to ask you when it comes to niching down, because if I remember correct, you said before that you focus on e-commerce, correct me if I'm wrong. But when you started, did you also go broad or did you already focus or did it evolve over time?

Yeah, so we initially at the start, we did paid organic social and websites. Then very quickly realized that that's a lot of work for a very small team and it was a bit of a headache. Obviously working with SMEs across the board in that. So then we ditched websites pretty fast and basically just outsource that or just handed it over to somebody else. And then kind of as we've developed now, we've got a real niche in paid. We're very good at it. We have tons and tons of results over the years. And then the organic social conversation was something that we just lost a bit of spark for because it's something that isn't as easily measurable as paid. It's something that often older people in kind of corporates,

they don't really understand the benefit of it and the halo effects and things like that. And we were finding we were actually spending more time justifying and explaining and educating than actually doing the work. So, it just you lose a little bit of spark for it so we were just kind of like right well let let's that that can be someone else's problem page you cannot argue with in any way shape or form all the data is there so we just doubled down into that and then yeah pay search and pay social has been absolutely flying for the last few years makes sense and people can see the results on the website i was having a look and yeah plenty of case on there on the instagram page everything like that so if anyone needs to see any results we've we've got plenty of

them. Are there like any impressive clients or impressive specific project that you worked on and you would be willing to share maybe something that was challenging, fun, creative or a great result? I think getting our first kind of nine-figure client was pretty cool because it came inbound as well for LinkedIn and it was sort of like from a DM but it was like a faceless profile. So you know when they have the and it's just a blue egg, they were like, hey, looking for someone to elevate my business. And I was like, yeah, course. Here we go. Some kind of like scam or something like. that. Then I got on the call and they were like, yeah, so we do, we do around a hundred million dollars a year as a e-commerce retailer in the US. And I was like, oh, damn. Okay. Let's talk. Let's talk.

But yeah, I think that was, it was kind of a really good certification that we were doing the right things and that the content was working because we worked with like a lot of SMEs, but SMEs is quite a big thing. You know, you can have a one, two man, man, woman band. But then, you know, someone that's still 50, 60 heads can still be an SME in there. And that was a kind of like a further kind of of it as well because it sounds really strange but actually the bigger companies are the easier ones to deal with they have a more solid grasp of the metrics that actually matter their emotions aren't completely and utterly tied to everything that happens so they don't tend to bottleneck their own growth whereas for kind of smaller businesses on that sliding scale you see that the bottleneck is

often like the founder or the person closest to it because they want to do it a certain way and they kind of not ignore the data, but they blur the data to get what they want out of it, whereas when we come in, it's that very autistic approach of no, no, no, this is the data, this is what needs to be done, it's not a matter of opinion, this is what your reality is and this is what needs to happen afterwards. And once you've got enough data like we have over the last eight years now to go, this is where they were with your problem, this is what we did, and this is where they are now, it's an easier conversation to have. You still face people now that want to put their personal emotions over the efficiency of the business.

And that's okay, but it's not for us. So we just tend to kind of work with serious people now. And would you also say that if it's like a bigger company, it's easier when it comes to budget, because I feel like mostly people want to understand that be safe as much as possible. So is it the case or it really depends on everyone? Yeah, so that's another kind of way, I suppose, not easier because there's a lot of money kind of being spent.

But ultimately, the more you're spent, the faster you're getting data back in, the faster you learn. So you can take the bigger swings, whereas, you know, if you're dealing with a 2K budget or something like that, you can't test as aggressively. So you have to be, yes, there's a proportion of looking at. Yes, there's a proportion of data in it. You might only be able to test two angles instead of six, for instance. And then if neither of those work, then it's a big risk on your next two angles that you're going to test. So it is actually significantly more difficult to deal with a kind of like smaller spend client that isn't getting data in as fast.

And that's still okay and it's still doable provided that you don't have to deal with all the emotional baggage of it as well. So the managing expectations piece is way more important on a smaller level, whereas the big companies, they kind of get it. And they're usually looking for, you know, 10, 15, 20% efficiency gains here and here, rather than a full end-to-end business transformation, which is kind of where we've had to go to now because ads are just one piece of a puzzle,

we just find the right person and get the click. But actually, it doesn't matter how good your ads are, how much you're spending, if your offers poor, your landing pages, your website, your returns are sky high. So we kind of come in end-to-end now and say, look, based off all the data, here are all the weak points in that journey.

let's plug them and then by the nature of it, you won't even need to spend any more money because you're saving 10% here, 5% there, 20% there. So you're actually making more money off the same spend, which is the first kind of logical place to start before you just start ramping spend. So we can come at it from that angle as an efficiency standpoint. Get the foundations right first.

Is there then, Louis, like a dream client that you've got, company that would like to work with or specific client? In terms of a dream client? Honestly, I would say anything to do with animals. I love dealing with like pet brands and things like that because it's just, it's just so much fun, you know, getting the content and basically just getting to look or film or edit videos of like cute dogs or whatever. So I just love working with pet brands.

I think it's brilliant. So any pet brands out there, holler because we like it. But yeah, I do like that. And then I think there's so much kind of FMCG stuff out there at the minute we'd like consumables and wellness and things like that. So we do love working with them as well because it's just such a big market and there's enough room for everyone to eat as well. But everyone kind of sees who's doing well and then tries to do a B-Tech rip-off version of that and just change the phone color and then tries to do it again. No, no, no, it's fine.

Let them have those people and then you go and get your other people with a different kind of USP. Yep, that makes sense. And speaking of the market, can you compare like how it evolved, such as when you started before to, for example, now, of course, it's changed like our different business. with the development of online and digital and everything but do you feel like that competition is emerging clients are rising as well or what is it like yeah I think I never really like to look at anybody as competition and maybe that's kind of arrogant but I just think everyone can be good in their own way and there's there's no real like this is the way to do Google ads or meta ads there are loads of different ways

that will work dependent on what what that business needs and what what approach they want from the people as well as well as doing the work the actual relationship of how that approaches. You will see people pop up thinking it's an easy job. It's click a few buttons and automate this and AI this because all the Google and Meta have been like, hey, come on, just click this one button and we'll do the rest for you, which is horrific, by the way, because they're nowhere near doing that. But they're trying to make it easier for other people to advertise kind of themselves and steal all the money away from them because they don't really know what they're looking at. So whilst it's a competitive space, I'm not really too fussed about

that, but it's more about the attitude of it. So in probably the last nine, 12 months. We found like way more success in the American market. So kind of like when you saw with COVID, a lot of people just batten down the hatches and hope for the best. The brands that stayed marketing through it now have way higher market share, whereas some of the people that stopped, they tried to start again a year later and they couldn't get back to where they were because he lost that traction. And people falsely assume that loads of people are loyal out there. If I'm buying this supplement here and you shut down and don't deliver it and then someone else comes and I like it. Why would I now have the friction of them moving over? You kind of left me,

so I'm just going to stick with these people. So I think people are a little bit misguided with that. But yeah, the US market is, in times of crisis, they tend to be like, right, let's shoot our way out of this with marketing and they're very kind of aggressive and they understand it. Whereas sometimes you're finding the UK market, people are just very fearful, shut down, overanalyze, over-optimized and it's very, very difficult to get around that attitude, even with data sometimes. So speaking of this, I assume that you work with the clients from all around the world, not just UK and the US, but everywhere. Yeah, I've got clients all around the world. I mean, the only issue with that is when they're not from the US and they want to sell in the US because we, again, tariffs are up, tariffs down, double the tariffs, no tariffs.

So that's the only slight issue at the moment with people that want to sell in the. especially trying to keep up now with everything every day is a new battle it's like who's in a recession who's got a tariff and then what's changed in the platforms every day it's so strange because you kind of a few years ago once you kind of knew the basics not a lot changed in the last you know since the start of this year the amount of platform changes alone you know if you're not at the call face of this every single day and you've just set something up last year and left that you're so far behind i can't even tell you how far behind you are with all the changes that are happening. So you need to be on this all the time and making sure that you're being fluid

with what's happening and getting the most out of your spend. Yeah, yeah, I agree and understood. Quick one, before we get back to it. If you like this kind of conversation, I've started sharing short videos on YouTube, where I break down what I've learned from more than 150 episodes, content, podcasting, personal brand. no fluff, just what actually works.

Just search Produced Buy on YouTube or don't, and keep figuring out the hard way. And we haven't discussed this yet, but obviously the AI plays a big role as well in everything, whether it's business or personal brand in and this stuff. So what is your take on this? And are you someone who follows AI or do that just because it's kind of necessary? Yeah, we use AI.

I think AI is a bit kind of oxymoronic as a concept because, you know, it's an amalgamation of things that already exist on the internet. So by nature of it, you'll never really get a unique idea out of it. You'll just get, you know, a merged view of everything that's already out there. But also, your output's only ever as good as your input. So if you don't know what good looks like, you don't know what a good ad looks like, you don't know what good copy looks like or anything like that. what you'll do is all, well, this can give me something quickly. Giving it to you quickly doesn't mean it's good, but you don't know that it's not good.

So you will just go, let's just keep churning stuff out. And it can cause more damage than benefit because you can now have the potential to turn off tens of thousands of ideal customers in a week by churning out, you know, a thousand posts or terrible ads or anything like that. So I think, you know, there will be a rebound. Everyone, the great irony is everyone's, trying to be unique with their copy content and ads,

but pushing the same prompt into the same AI, which will give them the same answer as 1,000 other people are getting and then wondering why the results aren't following. So it's harsh, but you need to fundamentally be good to get the best out of AI. So yeah, we use it in terms of doing deep research or linking things together and pre-populating kind of reports and insights and flags and things like that. But in terms of the bit where our value lies as a market agency,

It's we use it to get rid of the admin times that we have more time to do the thing which is going to move the needle, which is think of good ideas, think of unique ideas and apply them. I like it. I think it's a great answer. Like when people discuss if AI is going to take your job, it ultimately comes down to it's as good as the person behind actually the tool. Like, you know, they discuss what the tool is the best one, but it's after it's about the person who's using the tool, isn't it?

Yeah. How about are you your job? That's what I would say. You're scared the AI is going to call your job. How bad are you? Because I'll tell you. That is true. I like you.

And Lewis, we discussed it just briefly before, but actually when does the LinkedIn come to the place? Like, what was the point that you discard the platform or discover the potential behind the platform? I was posting just like the stuff that everyone told me to post because I thought it was a professional kind of CV place for a few months. And then as soon as I started kind of writing as I spoke and putting together the same strategies that I would use for someone. else onto kind of my own content within you know five months of that got the first got the first lead through only like a 9k project or something like that but that was the only thing I needed so it was like nothing nothing nothing one came in and then that was a spark to go right well if one can come then 10 can come and I just continued kind of going going through that and then from there we've

pretty much been yeah 100% inbound for the last eight years so it works but again we're in the era of Amazon next day delivery aren't we so If people don't see results in something in 30 days or seven days, they tend to give up. But a lot of success with content marketing is just continuing to do the basics right longer than anybody else. That is true. Need to keep showing up every day, no overnight successes. And just for the context, I think, Louis, you've got more than 50K followers, if I'm not mistaken.

So I'd just like to remind people, you know, they think that it takes, I don't know, a few weeks or a few months to keep showing up and suddenly happens like that, which is not true. And my favorite question, I'm sure that you get messages for DMs like Lewis, how to grow on LinkedIn. I want to say they weren't viral, but to grow your brand, but have you got any advice or ideas for people who want to grow their presence there? Yeah, don't try and go viral. Absolutely no use having, you know, 100,000 people in your, in your audience. If you can only sell to 10, the people that tend to go viral, the people that sell hope. Because hope is a universally applicable product.

so they will sell you the dream of quitting your 9 to 5 or, you know, the dream of 100K followers and chasing dopamine. We are the people that have had to sit there and have people come to us with 50, 60, 70,000 followers that say, oh, well, I did this and then actually nothing's come from it. And now my audience is, you know, completely ravaged because I've got 50,000 people in it that I can't sell to. And every time they comment on it, it goes to their network who I also can't sell to. So now it's almost impossible for me to get my method. message out to the people that need to see it who are actually going to buy from me.

So I would focus on relevance more than anything. Yes, you can do top funnel posts that engage everybody because that's the purpose of casting the net wide. So touch on universally relatable topics like politics or business or parenting or whatever it is that you want to do. But after when you've got all those eyeballs, you need to start pulling that net back in, which is when you can then talk about the problems that you've solved or a real story and the results that you've got, which is basically soft social proof that's an

engaging story with some emotion, some humor, some anger, some kind of thing that they can relate to with the result showing that you help them so that you position yourself as the hero in that story and you continually cast the net wide and then pull it back in with credibility and you'll start seeing the relevant people going, well, I like them as a person and what they stand for in their views because they're their top funnel posts. Now I also know they're credible. And then that's when you'll start seeing DMs, profile views, website visits, lead form fills and things like that. a lot of people get too trapped in the top funnel stuff

because that's where the dopamine is. Everybody wants to see 100 likes, 500 likes, 600, 600, you know, it's the human condition to want to kind of be liked. But then they fail to do anything else after that because they're so addicted to getting the dopamine and then they try and post something about what they do and they only get two likes on it.

And then they go, oh, no, I'm going to go back to this because this performs better. It doesn't perform better. You've not created a funnel. You're literally not getting to the second stage of the funnel. And the only thing that you're serving is your ego and not your business. So you need to actually have a strategy behind it. It's a good point. It needs to be mindful of what we are chasing. And as you really well said before, that sometimes they might be accounts with high

followings, but you never see what it's like in the background that someone with high following can struggle to find clients, whereas there might be account with just a few followers, much less and doing really well. So you never see the whole story and don't compare yourself to others because you don't know what is going on. Never buy from anyone that's promising you followers. It means absolutely nothing. There are less intelligent people out there who will try and equate follow account to credibility.

They're the people that they intentionally target with these courses and things like that to sell them dreams and to sell them hope. But yeah, I always say the easiest way to do it is when was the last time you saw this person post about some results that weren't their own? So what we do all the time is say, look what we did for client A, B, C, D, E, F,

whereas what they will say is, look how many followers I have look how much money I made they make their money from selling you the dream of the thing that they are doing not from actually doing the thing yeah that is true which I don't want to bring it up

as we are now recording with Lewis just for the audience recent post that Lewis made I think made me actually think and realize as well that some people might be selling something now what I'm referring to is the post about plagiarism that we discussed before and I would honestly never expect it I didn't see that coming, which then you don't know how many people are there that they are doing that as well.

And you just don't know. And it's just example. It's something that I wasn't expecting. I wouldn't say that exactly that person was doing that and see, now it kind of opened my eyes as well. So don't be naive and don't trust everything that you see. It is. You have to look at credibility. I mean, plagiarism is rife on there.

But you're quite right. You know, it was kind of luck that that was just delivered into my feed. And it was like, hey, you might like this post. and I was like, I do like that because I wrote that post. And then as soon as I clicked on it, and it was like selling an AI course to help you create better content, I thought, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, I'm not having my content used to do that.

So, you know, if people aren't good or they don't have a skill, but they still want to get their grift on, they're going to take the concept of someone else's skill. So again, pull those people in that are desperate or vulnerable and convinced them that this is the solution for it. But yeah, again, due diligence, you know, people need to be doing more due diligence. Where is the history, you know, over a long period of time of you achieving success in the thing that you are teaching me that is not based off your own results or income, which you get from selling this cohort, this course? I will give me the evidence of when you've actually delivered that.

Show me some of your work in the wild for real so that I know you were a top 1% copyrighter or this or that. And if they go quiet or they tell you that that's not a winner's mentality or anything like this, it's a grift. Yeah, this is a guru of bullshit. But Louis, I really wanted to ask you, like, is this actually how you found out? Because if I remember, it was like a few months ago. So I wondered, how did you actually discover that post? Literally, LinkedIn delivered it into my feed and was like suggested post that you might like. So yeah, the algorithm gods were very kind.

And then obviously, because I don't use AI to write, I recognize my own copy because it'd come out of my head. So I always kind of recognize everything that I've ever written because I know how I write. So I was like, oh, that hook looks familiar. And then I clicked the rest of it. And I was like, that's the exact same post. So I was like, oh, thanks, LinkedIn. And then, yeah, I commented on it just to open up and give the opportunity to acknowledge, apologize, and was told that this is how the internet works.

People use other people's posts all the time. So I thought, okay, opportunity was there. that's the approach let's see how the internet really works so then i made my own post about it the next day and then we found out how the internet really worked and you know i could see that was selling the concept of going viral well i helped you go viral how did it go but yeah let's see how it goes after and let's see if there are more posts appearing like this hopefully not by it will be i think you have to teach people through pain sometimes you know you have to let your child touch the stove otherwise they don't know it's hot so you know i would do it from my own content of course i would

I would go Old Testament on anybody that was found with my stuff because it's important to teach people that that's not the way to do it. But I would also do that for anybody else as well and highlight that because at the end of this, there is some poor person with their wallet just about to buy something that doesn't exist. And I always think of that person. So yes, whilst it's harsh on the person who gets caught, actually we can't change behavior unless we collectively call it out and put a stop to it. I agree. And speaking of this, what is actually like your inspiration? because you've got original content that stands out that it's unique and cool. Is it like everything just comes to you naturally or any favorite sources or where you learn?

I think we say this in our community all the time because people struggle with kind of idea generation. Don't try and force yourself to be creative. It's the worst thing you can do if you say I'm going to write a lot of posts every Tuesday at 9am. That's not how kind of creativity comes. So always keep your phone on you. So for me, I just have hundreds and hundreds of posts in my notes app. And I can find inspiration from kind of most places. And I think if you're struggling to write, then read and listen more.

And that could be literally weird stuff that you hear people say on the train or in the office or on the news because all these things, if they make you react in a certain way like, ha ha, or that's disgusting or whatever, that will make other people reacting that way. And the goal of a piece of top funnel content is to generate an emotional response. Whatever that emotional response might be, because that's the thing that stops the scroll. So the second you get something like that, you think, oh, that's quite funny. You don't have to flesh it out and do the whole post. Just write something down in your notes and say, oh, this happened today and this happened in the news. And I heard this.

And I overheard it. A client asked me this question, for instance. You can record all these things. And then when you come to actually write something, you have a bank of like topic prompts here, which you can then flesh out and look at it and go, well, that's quite prevalent at the moment because this new release happens. So let's talk about this because everyone will be feeling quite emotional about this.

So it's giving yourself, like when you're in that flow state, that's when you can get stuff down. then you can come and edit it later on. But that's where most people kind of stop. It's because they force themselves and say, I will write 15 posts today. Right. Now, it means to happen.

Yeah. I like it. When I have like the idea or something, I try to write it down, even just something so that I don't forget it and can develop it anytime later. It's a great one. And don't force yourself.

I don't think it works either. Steal it. Steal mine. Borrow. And, Luis, you mentioned it briefly about your community, the university. First, I think the title is just perfect. As I was having look at it a bit more, I saw even other details, such as the logo and some other stuff, which I recommend people to check it out. But can you just ask more about it? Like to introduce

it, what makes it different from other, I don't know, courses, cohorts universities? Yeah, so I think the main thing around it is kind of everything that we're doing now. We are still both business owners. We are applying these things. whether it's the creative ideas or whether it's ad changes or formats or templates and things like that. These are things that we are doing right now in real time that are working that we are putting in there. So yes, we have the community element of it in terms of where people are chatting and we can do like live LinkedIn post feedback to help them create better content. We do weekly Q&As like live calls where people can bring their questions in. We've got lots of resources that people can actually use and go off and apply immediately in terms of like setting up campaigns.

all the things that, you know, if you're a solo marketer in a company and you've got no resource or help because no one else knows marketing, you can come in here and go, right, other people will give you advice and hear all these things that you need to do to make yourself look really good in the company. And similarly, if you're a brand owner and you can't afford to spend 3, 4, 5K on an agency yet, but you need the basics to DIY it until you can afford to outsource it. It's just getting access to to that in terms of the micro lessons and then guest lectures from when people come in and talk about kind of, all their different ways of marketing in their different industries, because it is different per industry. So the community element is good, but ideally we want actionable advice. And sometimes that does come with a bit of a kick up the ass, let's just say, because a lot of people's own worst enemies themselves.

And then, yeah, we get off a call sometimes. They go and apply it and then immediately close two, three clients. And they go, I don't know why I didn't do that before. So sometimes they just need the kick. So I suppose I don't want to be a coach. I don't know if it is class as coaching, but I just shout at people. until they do things.

Yeah, and see the results finally. And it's called University of Creative Idiots, right? Just for the people. Whose idea was it to name it like it? Oh, that was Dan's. Yeah, we're always called idiots for being creative. And then, you know, you were kind of punished for it at school, for thinking a little bit differently.

And now suddenly you get into the working world. And actual true creatives are probably the most valuable people in a company because they can be the person that can drive that forward and help you stand out, whereas everyone else has been kind of ground down by corporate compliance, which makes it very difficult to stand out in a saturated market. Yeah, that's true. And a bit different question, but as we discussed now, your agency, university, building your own brand, how is it with your time management?

Because you do many things. I'm sure you try to injure your life as well, have life outside, so how do you manage all the things? With great difficulty is the answer. No, it's the team definitely, the team definitely help, obviously. It's the first time I've had a co-founder in the university side of things, so it's nice to be able to split that work there. And then in the agency now, obviously we've got like systems, processes, SOPs, which means I can kind of take that helicopter view of everything and kind of drive

forward the strategy, focus on, you know, the acquisition of new clients. And then the team can kind of deliver that, deliver that work and retain those clients. So I'm not saying I've mastered it by no means, but trying to be, you know, I've had the years previously where I was very poor with time management, but being really disciplined with your own time now. So if you get up, right, 6 a.m. goes to the gym, non-negotiable. I think if you're waiting around for motivation, motivation comes and it goes, whereas discipline is just doing the thing whether you like it or you don't like it,

just do the thing anyway. So I'm quite disciplined and regimented with my routine to make sure that I'm getting the best out of myself because I used to get up at 6am and then just work all the way through to 9pm. And actually, you're probably only productive for about 30% of that time. So now it's just like breaking it up and doing it. doing like bursts of things that will move the needle. But that couldn't be time and you have to kind of listen to your body. It took me a long time to get there.

Trust me, particularly for the first like two, three years, it was all hands to the pump. I agree. And I have it the same. Like, for example, exercises is kind of non-negotiable because it helps you to switch off and need to balance rest of your life and to do other things as well. So I can rate with them. I really like it. And you now mentioned the gym.

So I wanted to ask you kind of lighter questions as we'll be. approaching the end. So what are some of your hobbies or something that you like to do in your free time? Yeah, I do like it. I do like training, to be fair. I think it's a really good part of the routine. I've just realized just going out for walks and stuff. I mean, we were just talking about how it's always miserable weather in the UK. But actually now that it's not actually going out driving into the hills somewhere and then just walking around for like two, three hours with like waterfalls and stuff. I'm getting a little bit more of a as I've grown up now. If you asked me before, it'd be like going out till 6 a.m. or like going partying and it'd be.

ether or something like that. But now I actually just like doing wholesome stuff. I'll go around, see my mom, go take her dog out for a walk. I try and try and live a wholesome life because if we do drink now, the hangovers hit me for about 16 days. So I'm not really on top form anymore. I'm not made out magic like I was in my 20s. I could get up and do whatever. So now, yeah, I just listen to my body a lot more. Going out, good food, good people, keep the circle small. And then, yeah, sometimes just stick Harry Potter or Marvel on all day and just not move for eight hours. Oh, excited for a new Harry Potter TV series that is coming? I've seen, yeah, I'm excited.

I'll give it a watch. They might ruin it, but we'll see. That is true. And I was actually about to ask you just said that about your dog, which I would be surprised if you didn't have one, considering your passion for animals or for the dog. So what is your dog's name? So I got one for my mum called Betty.

So I retired my mom a couple of years ago. And then she was like, because I was always asking for a dog. And she was like, no, no, I can't because you work. I work and then so as soon as I retired her a few weeks later I said oh there's this dog that's been abandoned and she got the video she's like oh my god and then we brought around and then she's been there ever since so yeah betty is a jack chee which is the two most aggressively vocal dogs with jack russellers and chihuahua she's amazing just changed my mom's life and then yeah mine as well so because I'm living in the city center at the minute it's a bit hard to have all the dogs

that I want but yeah in the next couple of years once I move out there will absolutely be two maybe three. We'll have a little zoo at home. Do you lose read the books? And if so, have you got any recommendations? To be fair, I like to mix up the books. So being a creative person, I like to read a lot of kind of like fiction and fantasy because I believe that's how a lot of the best language is pulled from.

Yes, I have had kind of like periods where I've done ones around like the psychology of money, which I think is an important one and think and grow rich, the kind of ones that the people know about here but then I find myself going too far into a self-development, you know, really non-fiction mode. And then you lose a little bit of creativity. So actually, I try and balance the two now and try and find like, like, you know, fantasy series and things like that to kind of take your mind away and discover different language and then try and bring that into the actual kind of corporate side of things. So balancing the two.

But yeah, I'm a big fan of the money books. I think the psychology of money is a great book. It's from Morgan Housel, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really good one. I also like The Choice Factory by Richard Schotton, and he's got another one, The Illusion of Choice.

That's kind of a little bit mixed between the two, because it's kind of going into people and why they make the decisions they do and how you can use kind of like price anchoring and all these different things. So if you're interested in marketing and the human mind, I think Richard Schotton's books are brilliant as well. See, I don't think I know those.

Those are some good tips on the look. And from Fantasy then, I don't really read Fantasy, but some inspiration. What are your favorite? Well, the old classic is I'm just trying to read the Silmarillion at the minute, which is like, you know, the original Lord of the Rings one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a very, very hard read. But then I've been watching like the Rings of Power,

so I want to get like the old, all the old stuff and get up to speed on it. But then I read like the, I think it's called City of Bones, as a fantasy series. And then everyone's talking about this court of thorn and roses, which seems to be so popular at the minute. I haven't got on to that yet. But if you ask, any girl in our office has got that point. like on a desk so I'm like why is everyone reading this I don't know if it's like a 50 shades

grey thing I don't know I don't know everyone seems to be talking about it I don't really follow it but I know usually when there is like adaptation such as series or or a movie and then I kind of check out the book as well but I don't know it is might have put for the inspiration for people who might be listening to so some great tips and louis what are some of the plans like for the future if you've got any goals, ambitions or anything you want to achieve, whether it's related to maybe your own brand business or even for yourself. Yeah, exactly that. So we're going to continue building out the community on that side just to help people as kind of like, you know, time to get a bit tougher. They're going to need more cost effective ways to help. So I think

that will be really good building that out and continuing to grow that. And then we're also going to launch our own e-commerce brand that's owned by the agency as well, which I can't say too much about yet, but we're just putting plans in place, getting the domains, getting the suppliers, etc. Because I think it's just going to be an even easier argument if we're saying, do this, do this, do this. And they're saying, no, why should we? I go, well, we're not just telling you to do this. We've done this with our own money. We're doing it right now and it's working. So it just gives an extra bit of credibility to that as well. And it's another fun thing, you know, to do. And to add to your list so that you're not bored.

Well, I know, I say these things. I might regret them. Speak to me one year. And I might just say, I've given up everything now. I think it sounds exciting, of course, and considering your experience and what you've been building and working on, it's good to actually put it into practice and build something. So it sounds really cool. Thanks, man. I appreciate it.

Can you, Louis then please summarize where people can find you, follow you, and promote any of your services? Yes, so feel free to go to likebubmedia.com.com. The list of our services are on there, or you can find me on LinkedIn. It's the only social media platform I use personally, just because I work in it. So I just think, why would I spend all day on it and then go home and spend all night on it?

But yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. If you're easily offended, probably don't follow me because you probably won't like me. Please don't steal any of my shit. I like when it's simple, not over platforms, only one. So I will as always put any links to the show notes. So people can have a look. Check out the University of Creative Videos as well, just even to have fun. And also a little shout out to lightbulk media website.

I like when it's creative, when it's different, when it's visual, which yours is. So it looks great. Well done. Perfect. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. And then very last question. Is there anything I should have asked you, I did not, or anything you would like to leave the audience with?

I think probably the only point is times are going to get tough in this country. We will get through it if you're watching from the UK. I would just say, don't be drawn in, as we kind of discussed earlier in this chart. Don't be drawn in by the shiny promises and the shooting stars and things like that. Make sure you take the time to do your due diligence. Make sure you look for results in the wild. Make sure you look for undiscernerable proof. Be cynical.

It will save you lots and lots of money. Do not buy hope. And then, you know, hopefully in a couple of years it gets turned around once we have a new government in place. And everyone can start building and going and keeping a little bit more of the money that they make. Hopefully the better one, I agree. Well, Louis, want to say a big thank you. Really enjoyed it. Some great stuff.

I encourage people to follow you. Of course, if they don't want to get offended, but I think it's really important if there are people who have fun, who stand out and are kind of different, of course, in a positive way. So I really like it. Thank you so much for our time. Really enjoyed it. It was great to meet you.

And I wish you all the best on your journey. So thank you very much. Thanks for having me, make. Pleasure. Thanks for listening to Produce by with comment. Check the show notes for all the links. And don't forget to subscribe, like and share your feedback. Speak soon.