Produced By - The Blueprint for Creating Compelling and Authentic Video Content | #SPECIAL: Jonny Rose

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

Jonny Rose is a passionate entrepreneur, videographer, and podcast host with a knack for storytelling through video. As the founder of The Story Club, Jonny helps businesses around the world elevate their online presence by creating compelling, story-driven video content. With over five years of experience as a Marketing Manager for Slater Menswear, Jonny discovered that authentic, narrative-focused videos consistently outperformed flashy brand promotions. Jonny can guide you in building your confidence on camera and teach your teams how to create engaging video content that sparks conversation, builds relationships, and most importantly, drives revenue. If you prefer an experienced professional to plan, record, edit, and deliver the entire project from start to finish, Jonny is the person you need. Tune in to hear Jonny’s insights on nomadic living, running a business on the move, and leveraging video content to engage and grow your audience. Connect with Jonny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnysrose/ https://linkin.bio/iamjonnyrose/ The Story Club Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thestoryclubpodcast  https://www.youtube.com/@iamjonnyrose  Connect with Tommen: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠  Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠  X: ⁠https://x.com/TomasLoucky⁠  Podcast: Links: ⁠https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠  Website: ⁠https://produced-by-podcast.com/⁠  Support: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/ProducedByPodcast⁠  Produced (email newsletter): https://produced.beehiiv.com/  More: Trailblazed (marketing agency): ⁠https://trailblazed.digital/⁠  My SkillShare Course: ⁠https://skl.sh/3Rh7ZtY⁠  Produced (LinkedIn newsletter): ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7092551882589528065⁠⁠  Produced By with Tommen is your weekly dose of inspiration where ambition meets creativity. Join us as we dive into the journeys of content creators, entrepreneurs, and other remarkable individuals who break barriers and redefine success. Each episode shares unique stories, challenges, and triumphs. From heartfelt struggles to incredible successes, these conversations will motivate you to push beyond your limits and chase your own dreams. Whether you're on a creative path or just love great stories, tune in and become part of a community that constantly strives to push the boundaries. Sit back, relax and enjoy. 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.

I always think of this because I ask my podcast guest a similar thing, but what's sticking with me now is be ruthless with your time. There's a lot of people out there, like people who you speak to, whether in personal or in business, and like we need to catch up sometime. If they're not getting the diary out there and then, don't waste your time chasing them. And the same with people you're doing business with.

Some people try and tell the story of, yeah, never give up until you get a no, always keep chasing five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times. But if someone's not getting back to you. Yeah, it's not worth it. They're already telling you something, or you're going to come up, you've had to work hard to convince them to work with you, and you're constantly going to be up against it.

And sure, 5% of the time people will be like, oh, the client I worked the hardest for is the best relationship I've got. That is the minority. 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, Johnny. Thank you for doing us today.

and welcome to the show. Hey, Thomas, my absolute pleasure, mate. So, Jenny, for those who do know you, can you please introduce yourself? Sure. I'm Johnny, founder of the Story Club, which is a video agency for founder-led content, for business owners who want to show more of their personality,

the personalities within their business, allow their customers to kind of represent them if they're not confident talking about themselves, and I also run the Story Club podcast where I speak to founders, find it more about them, and try and draw their wisdom. Like all podcasts these days. And I always like to get to know better about your background. So can you tell us more about where you come from, maybe something about your childhood and stuff like that?

Sure, yeah. So I'm from Glasgow in Scotland. And I would be lying if I said marketing is always where I saw myself ending up. If I was to go back to childhood, it's kind of funny. I've actually found old video footage of, you know, when my mum has a bunch of USB sticks, and it's all old video cassettes for anyone born after the 2000. That was things you had to put into a video player. It's not very good at breaking down what it is.

But it's now been moved digitally. So I've actually found old videos of me running around with a video camera being really, really annoying, really, really intense, shoving the camera in people's faces. So it's actually led quite naturally. It's where I am. At some point, I will share some of those videos on LinkedIn. I have to get past the fact that I'm wearing, like, big glasses. I've got very ginger hair, and my voice hasn't broken yet.

So it's funny seeing them, not remembering them at all, and evolution to actually start doing videos. So that's me doing the brandy thing of trying to make the story make sense. But even for me, that was a nice surprise. And sorry, where maybe your parents, like videographers or stuff like that. No, no, nothing like that. My mum was marketing director at the family business, which was a chain of men's retail stores, like men's clothing, suits, casual, that sort of thing. And my dad was an entrepreneur, does his own business, which is sort of in the steel fastenings kind of way. So I guess you could say I grew up with entrepreneurial parents, or at least parent, you know, an entrepreneurial grandparent. And they both had. Freedom is the best way to put it. So I think I always knew I wanted to do my own thing.

That was always in the back of my mind. But I never necessarily knew what that was going to be. So for relevant sake, school, university, great times from a social aspect, from leading down the path where I am, less so. And what did you study actually at university? Was it something creative? So, no, again, really showing off a lack of that creative gene here, but I'll maybe talk about that later, about the creative side of things. But right now, I did, I really enjoyed modern studies in school.

So I went off to university to do politics and international relations. Wow. I wasn't expecting that. No, no. I was very fortunate. I had some great modern studies teachers. And there is something, maybe not the state of the world now, but there is. something really cool, at least then, you know, being in Glasgow, seeing what politicians, like the way the world kind of connected together, kind of with countries negotiated with one another, like it was just an interesting understanding of the world. And don't get me wrong, when I went off to university, at the end of the day, it's what they call a social science

degree, which are a bit of a butt of a joke, especially as degrees are being more and more devalued. You know things like engineering law need them for people understand social sciences could be considered a bit of a pistee you're just going to uni for a good time which i did have don't get me wrong but so it's still good to continue that but it's nothing i couldn't do like i could have skipped uni and read all the books yeah in the curriculum and still got the same level of education yeah i understand and when you studied that course what was your idea of what would you like to become afterwards Oh, Thomas had no idea. So at the university when I was 17, underage, you know, for the first couple of months,

luckily my brother let me borrow his passport, so I could still enjoy Pressure's week. But uni really was just, like, I've no regrets, but it was just a good time. I definitely fell in the camp of turning it into almost a four-year holiday. I made good friends, joined sports teams, took advantage of the social side massively, which is probably why I became the social secretary of the lacrosse team. Never turned up to the game. Turned up to all the party. I was organizing them.

I had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew I didn't want to go back to Glasgow. I knew I didn't want to stay in Aberdeen. So what a lot of my friends did, and it's probably carved the path out a wee bit more. I moved down to London. And again, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I ended up doing the classic.

When people first moved down to London and they don't really know what to do, they've nothing set up. You've got two options. You can either become an estate agent or work in recruitment. So funnily enough, those were the two jobs that I got offers for. I'm very fortunate that. I was going to add to a third one. You can also work in a pub. True, true. Yeah, but I think, like, not like I worked in retail my whole life leading up to that point and customer facing

roles, I mean, in a pub. I've been a bad customer at times, I'm sure like everyone has. I see what they have to be all with. I'm not sure it's the path I wanted to go. But I ended up being very fortunate. Sorry for the listeners that I've clearly got a bit of hay fever and I'm sniffing.

But I was quite fortunate. The company I got a internship with. Really, I was very fortunate. It was a small startup recruitment consultancy. Because you hear the horror stories about the big recruitment firms, your haze or whoever, who chew you up, spit you out.

I was very lucky it was company, I'm happy to give a shout out to, Daniel Marks, ran by the CEO, Dan Matthews. He was 35 at the time, which is scary because that's how old I am now. The managing director, Robin, who was 30. The year before I joined, they took on two interns, and the year I joined with somebody else was interns.

So it was like that startup mentality. and what made it really cool was it was in the advertising agency space. So we were working with the likes of OgoV, BBAH, above the line agency, through the line. And you could say that was my introduction to the marketing world because my clients were heads of account management, account directors, account managers, all these things. Because back to that, I hadn't really done any creative things up to this point. I am probably more of an account handler by nature. My favorite thing about the job is spending time with people, building relationships,

and drawing out stories. So that was definitely where those seeds were planted. And Dan and Robin were very good trainers. Like working in recruitment is a very good trial by fire for any industry, right? Because any sales job, you're used. I'm convinced you to buy something in recruitment. not to call the people you're

working with products, but you're trying to convince the product to go into somewhere and you're trying to convince that somewhere to buy into the product. So you're trying to work both sides. You're negotiating for both sides. And in recruitment, you get given your own desk. You're given a lot of trust. You've got to manage the finances,

the people, the outreach, the sales. So it was like an unbelievable experience. I knew recruitment wasn't for me because I didn't want to be, like nobody, very few people trust recruiters. And I didn't want to spend my whole life convincing people. I was one of the good ones. Because you're already up against it. Yeah, yeah.

So even though I knew we were one of the good agencies and good people, I didn't want to spend 10, 20, 30 years with people the moment you reach out to them, they've got their backs up a little bit. So I had a great time, learned a lot about the agency world. and then that was kind of my first real introduction to marketing agencies. And how did you actually land such a job? Because since you studied something different, was it difficult to get this type of job or you had already some experience?

No, because I worked on like a retail shop floor. They knew I was able to like communicate with people and sit in. And things like that are quite relationshipy. There's probably two types of personalities drawn to recruit. salespeople and relationship builders. That's black or white. There's probably people in the middle. So when I went in, they could tell I was a sociable guy,

a conversationalist. I think, like I said, I probably have a background and personality similar to a lot of account handlers. So they saw where I'd fit in the industry or in their business. Yes. Yes. So did this job then convince you that you want to continue working in some type of marketing job?

Well, definitely for ages. I'm obviously running my own business now, but for a while, one of my big dreams was to work for BBAH, which is one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world. And I just loved going in to visit them. They've got the catchphrase, which is something I try to carry through my life as well. When everybody's zigzag. So when everybody's doing something, start doing the opposite.

And when we get to LinkedIn, we'll talk about that, I'm sure. but it was just you went into this place the buzz the vibe the energy there was something really infectious about it and like I said I'd worked on a retail shop floor which anyone will tell you isn't the most exciting place so and that was for the while definitely my dream to work for a big advertising agency now I wasn't sure how I was going to do it but and even then I think in the back of my head like I'm not going to but part of me that still sounds amazing and exciting just because I spent a lot of time with my clients and candidates yeah and the way their enthusiasm the way they spoke about the projects the campaigns they worked for that was infectious so I definitely again just continued pushing me to that path of marketing yeah yeah and if I'm not mistaken you even traveled and moved to other countries and places right yeah So I knew I didn't want to do recruitment and I knew that in my mind, so this would have been 2015.

In my mind, the window for travelling was closing. Career breaks, people, digital nomads, that's a lot more common now. Back then, I knew how, because I was dealing with CVs and employers, I knew how employers viewed CVs, like gaps in a CV. Oh, career breaks and that kind of thing. It was not looked upon well. Like it was actually judged. Whereas now, people understand it a lot more, right? So I would have been like 25, 26.

And I was like, I want to go travelling. And so I went travelling for six months. Really cool. Did a lot of Asia and that kind of thing. But I was right because when you're doing the hostel traveling thing, the majority of people were either 17, 18, people fresh out of school, taking the gap year before university, or, you know, 21, 22, people who just left university and were taking a gap before their job.

So I definitely felt like older and this was at 26, which is insane now. But it was really cool. I'm not going to say, you know, I went away and it changed me and all these kind of things. I went to some amazing countries. I saw some really cool things. I made some really cool people. And there was a point because I was doing it quite intensely, you know, week by week, trying to fit as much as possible.

There was two weeks where I did just take a break. on the chilling hostel in one of the coes in Thailand. I give it a shout because it was such a good time. Run by an Irish guy just packed it all in and decided to set up a hostel. I spent two weeks just chilling there because they had a kind of beach front bit. But genuinely, first world problem, right? Five, six days in, I was like, this is boring. Yeah, yeah.

I was so bored. And that's when I kind of realized maybe, you know, 50, say when I'm more tired, like retirement will be a good idea. But everyone thinks they want to retire, they want to do the lowest effort thing for the maximum income. And I realized that's boring. Nobody is going to be happy or fulfilled doing that. So that's when I was like, right, I need to start making plans for when I get back. Yeah. And also since you've got this experience, because I've never done that, is that something that you would recommend to maybe students fresh from university or people who don't know maybe what type of career to pursue?

100%. I'm not, I'm not going to lie and say it's going to help you figure out your career, because it's not. But traveling is just one of the coolest things you can do, right? Everyone, I think one of the big problems right now is everyone just knows their little world, their little bubble. But when you go to other countries, you experience other cultures, and you stay aware, you're not just going to. and getting hammered every second of every day because then it becomes a blur. But if you really take in these amazing places with their own history, their own identity, it's just unreal.

It does expand your mindset and give you an appreciation that your world, your city, your country, isn't the all and end all. Yeah, I can only agree with that. Yeah. And out of curiosity, you went to Southeast Asia, right? Yeah, it did. And what was reason specifically for this? Is it because it's like a general nomad, nomad kind of area on a map?

Well, so it's become a nomad area. Back then, it was just where, you know, the lost souls and the travelers went. So it was just nowhere in the world I'd done. Like, as a kid, I was very fortunate. We went to America, a fair amount, Spain, Europe, those kind of things on the doorstep. Just never done it. So when I went traveling, it was New York, Canada, Los Angeles, New Zealand, Australia, Bally, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. Wow.

It's good to remember all of them so quickly. Well, that's because I've said it so many times through the years. But in Australia, I was quite fortunate. I knew a couple of people, so it was good to catch up with them. One of my old school friends lived in Hong Kong, so it was nice to see people I hadn't maybe seen for two or three years. But it was just, it was the unknown. These are places I've never been, I've heard around, I've heard about. And also they were classic traveller places.

You knew you could go and stay in a hostel. And you'd find a lot of like-minded people. People who were up for sightseeing, traveling, doing the tourists kind of things. So that's what led me down those days. And really, like, I do desperately want to go back. It's just finding time. You know, to be honest, I spoke with some people and even seen like on social media, on LinkedIn or connecting with others. It's been on my mind as well.

Because I've never been to Southeast Asia, maybe not necessarily to move there, but at least to visit the area. So that is something I can definitely realize. Well, it's because once, like it's expensive to get over there. But once you're there, traveling around internally is quite cheap. So it's the sort of thing. I'd almost want to do, this just says a lot about my intense personality, I'd almost want to do it the same way as I did last time, maybe three weeks, but every three days kind of hopping

to try and see as many places and experience as many different things as possible. Yeah, I mean, it sounds great. Hopefully it will work out for you. And then coming back to when you were in that hotel and thinking that this is not the way how you basically want to spend your life, what was then your plan once you come back? Well, funnily enough, I remember exactly what it was as well because it would have been in Australia

and I was like, right, I need to start making plans for when I get back and like I said, I knew how employers viewed a gap in the CV so I knew a lot of people who did this program called the Mountbatten program. It's a work study program. For people outside of the US, it lets you work and study in New York for a year. or for Americans, they get to go to London for a year.

So I knew a few people who did it. And it was something I wanted to do for years as well. But again, the average age was probably 22, 23. But I was like, you know what, I'm just going to go for it. And I did. So basically, the reason I remember it is because I was in Australia, I didn't have any nice clothes. I was obviously living out like a traveller's backpack.

So I had to go buy a shirt and a tag. just for the photo to send in. And I sent my application, did the interviews, and I got in. Nice. So I knew the moment I got back from traveling, I'd have about two months, and then I was going over to New York in August for the year. Oh, and sorry, you got in, but you made it sound like it was easy. So was it actually easy or were on such a good level,

or what is it like to actually get accepted? I'll be diplomatic because I'm unsure because it is a charity, but they do make money in some sense from the people going paying and also the companies that they hire out to. I'm sure there's some recruitment fear anything. So maybe this is just me. Like anytime I get accepted into something, I almost devalue it because I've just clearly got like an awful opinion of myself

because I'm like, how did I get in? So here I am just making excuses. But there was interviews. Maybe my experience is better than I give it credit for, but we all undervalue what we've been through, right? But also when I speak to people in interviews, I do think I come across quite well. So I think that all allowed me to get into this program.

And are you the type of person who prepares well in advance, or are you someone who just shows up and does kind of freestyle? For my clients and the video jobs I do, weeks of preparation, which they can vouch for for my own stuff, sadly, or I still thrive in the 11th hour, which is kind of a saying for, it's almost another way of saying necessity is the mother of invention. The more urgent something is, like if it's due tomorrow, I'm better. But as I evolve as a business owner, I am trying to get better at structuring my days, time blocking and all that. because when you've got more to do, you cannot do everything in the 11th hour. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand, yeah.

And then I wouldn't want to spend too much time on it and miss on other interesting parts of your journey. So when did you actually get the idea to start your own business? So that does nicely tie back to New York because at the end of the day, I ended up working for this financial technology company, which sounds sick on paper, but at the end of the day, really what I was doing was I was looking at an Excel document on one screen. and another and finding discrepancies. Not the most exciting. Really cool company, but not the most exciting job.

But it was like a little internship. So it was always good. When you said that I was expecting some cool fintech startup. Yeah. It's actually like a massive fintech business that runs a little like a startup. LiquidNet, shout out. So there was also the education side of the program I was telling you about. but after about three, four months,

we called it the Mountbatten Bubble because the way the programme worked is you had about 120 people, 80% from the UK, 20% from other parts of Europe. And you were all in these flat blocks over in Jersey City, so just across the river from Manhattan.

And it was a bit like university, like first year of halls because you could be working, but then your friends coming up knocking at the door, everyone's WhatsApping. And it's also that mindset of, oh, we've only got 12 months left in New York. Yeah.

Eight months. Seven months. So everyone's just going for hell for leather for like going out, boozy brunches, seeing the sites, going to different parts. But after about three, four months, something did click.

And I was like, again, from being slightly older than everybody else, I was like, this is not what I wanted to get out of New York. I wanted to meet Americans. I wanted to go to events. So I did go on eventbrite.com, meetup.com, and I just started hammering marketing and

entrepreneurial events. Yeah. And, yeah, yeah, I guess I didn't view it as networking. It was just to be around like-minded people. And some of it was, there was a thing called startup weekend where you go and you've got Saturday, Sunday, you get partnered up with people and you come up with an idea. And then you've got to pitch it at the end. And some real businesses have actually come from it.

So that was my first introduction deeper into marketing, entrepreneurship. And in New York, obviously, it's on steroids. It's these people who've got side projects, side hustle after side hustle. It was 2017, so it was like prime Gary Vaynerchuk time. So I was on one of the events I went to was where you came up, you got teamed up, you came up with the business and you pitched at the end and my team won. So we all saw a copy of Gary Vaynerchuk's book. It was Jab, Jab, Right Hook.

Yeah, yeah. So I read it. I had never heard of Gary before. And at the end of the book, he put his email address. So, like I said, I was on this program. The education was okay. I was doing a job that I wasn't getting much value from. So I was like, fuck it, I have nothing to lose.

I'm going to email them. So I emailed him, giving him the whole spiel I just gave you. Hey, I'm on the program. It's okay, blah, blah, blah. and he got back to me. And I got invited to spend a day in Vayner Media with his team. Wow, that's pretty cool. So that was class and that walking into Vayner Media.

Again, it's funny how it all ties up nicely looking back. That's when they were starting Vayner Talent, which I don't know if it's around anymore. What they'd done for Garys, they built his team around him, and I got to spend the day with him. Two videographers, the person who did all the Instagram copy, then scam images, the Facebook stuff, the YouTube stuff. And what Vayner Talent was doing was it was doing that for business owners.

So this was back in 2017. You could see that was a personal branding agency, but they considered it a talent agency. Again, planting the seed for video first founder-led content. Yeah, I mean, that sounds awesome because to have experience like this with, I don't know, I'm not going to lie, back then I didn't know. who was a Gary, but obviously these days in Gary is huge. Which is

hilarious, because I hadn't heard of him either. But the moment I saw that, then in every coffee shop I went to, there was always at least one or two people watching his videos on YouTube. It's like the yellow car. The moment you start thinking about something, you start

seeing it everywhere. Love him or hate him. I've not watched any of his content in probably three, four years. But I think what Gary Vaynerchuk did for a lot of entrepreneurs is priceless he always went on about legacy I don't know if he does anymore

but inviting me in to his business eight years later I'm telling you that story other people are doing that story so whilst I don't agree with everything he says I'll always be grateful for that experience because that

continued putting me on the task it's a beautiful gesture wouldn't expect that and definitely big motivation for someone to start and maybe see it as some kind of, I'm not saying a goal, but as, you know, inspiration, what to achieve or what is possible. Yeah.

Yeah. And unless I know, it's a nice thing is, it makes someone gave me that experience. So it makes me want to do that for others. Are you looking to elevate your online presents? Check out Trailblazed, our digital marketing agency. Whether it's standing out on social media, crafting a stunning new website or developing impact to Luizios, Trailblaist has got your back. Visit TrailBased.digital and reach your online potentials a day.

Do you know what I mean? So it's almost like passing on gratitude and reciprocation and all those things because you know what it meant to you. So you're like, how can I do this for others? And was then your plan to come back to Scotland and start your business there? Or was it in the London or somewhere else? No. So the program came to an end. And I was back in Glasgow. So the plan was always to go back to New York. Oh, interesting. Yeah, so I actually got a flat in March 2020 in New York.

Now that's when the pandemic hit. Oh, perfect time, man. So the whole New York thing fell through, but I ended up still paying rent on a New York flat for a year, so that was fun. Oh, my God. I'm sorry to hear that. That was rough. And sorry, just out of curiosity, was it because you liked New York or the scene or the people?

Why was it? There's definitely something about New York that like it can be exhausting. It can be a rough place. But the energy, if you run a business, like for entrepreneurship, for being around like-minded people, it was just infectious. it's a very cool, vibrant place with a lot going on. And I'm quite a extrovert, fairly intense personality at times. So it probably suits who I am.

But to cover the gap between when I left the program and New York falling through, because that would have been 2017 to 2020. So I was very fortunate, like I mentioned, there was a family business, chain of men's retail stores. I went in being a classic millennial, oh, we need to start doing more video content, we need to start doing social media, and

a little bit of nepotism, they felt like they had to hire me, so they were like, just run with it. And that's when I started, everything I'd done marketing-wise in New York was a theory. In Glasgow, I did get to start putting it into action.

Yep. So, building up the YouTube, changing, like, updating the social media to be a bit more modern, kind of a brand redesign of the online appearance. And then that's when I started teaching myself video. So going behind camera and then

going in front of camera, because no one else in the shop floor was going to do it. And also it's the time I started the podcast because I moved back. I was like, eventbrite meetup.com, it's class. And I went to the ones in Glasgow and it was genuinely awful.

Like words can I've still not gone to any events in Scotland really because of it. Now, obviously things have changed. There's more people who want to start their own business. There's more energy around entrepreneurialism. But it's fair to say Scotland is still quite behind a lot of other places. And the one event I went to, I would have been about 28, 29 at this point. You had the teenagers or the people in the early 20s who were there to learn with like an eagerness,

which is totally cool. but no one for me to really learn from or the people in their 50s, 6 days, like these old school business dudes who just wanted to hand out their business cards and that was a stark contrast to and that was the problem. I'd experienced what you could call the top tier in New York

and then I'd gone down to what was definitely lower to bottom. Yeah. So that's what the podcast is an excuse to reach out to business owners. Yeah, that's, I mean, it's smart. but I'm sorry I interrupted you before you you were playing the rent in in New York and if COVID didn't happen would you end up in there probably yeah that's I'm sorry to hear that because that's the time I'm not no I'm not one to wallow on things which is maybe an advantage

that comes with age like it happens but but again this is coming from a position of privilege because I enjoy what I'm doing like I'm living a pretty good life now if I was in a job I hated and things weren't good then I'd be like yeah I missed out it was terrible if I'd gone there things could have been different but you know you have to make the best of the situation that you're in not not that was in a bad situation but as long as you make that good then you don't have too many regrets and who knows New York maybe the story club will open a branch there one day you never know that's true I was just about to say that now the loop or circle kind of closes from when little johnny was playing with

the camera and now he's back with the camera as you said uh filming for social media yeah yeah yeah it's all it's funny the word authenticity gets thrown around but i i like when i reflect and the whole journey feels authentic okay there's no like it all makes sense and again it's something that maybe comes with time. It's funny when you see all the little jigsaw pieces from your past join together to lead you to where you are. And it makes sense.

I have really cool. I have similar feeling because sometimes I don't know, do something new at work, but I use some skills or experience that I used before or I had to learn before and back then I didn't know if it would be actually ever

helpful but now looking back I'm actually grateful for those experiences. So there was a great point and something that I can relate to as well. Well, it's been said by wiser people, you know, even if they've been through massive trauma, they, after years, they say they don't regret it because it turned them into who they are. And again, if you're happy with who you are, that is easy to say. Yeah. But I think it does all those little moments that are bad in the time, you know, they're

shape your character. And I like the mindset, definitely. Then let's talk more about your business. You can promote it a bit or just tell us more about it? Yeah, so, I guess we can continue the journal a little bit how it led to it. So I was obviously doing front-led camera content on the YouTube channel, in the men's retail space, being like getting models in who were a lot taller and better looking than me, standing next and being like, here's how you tie like a lot.

Navy suit and all that. So, with that experience, I just realized where I was working, marketing, you know, for bricks and mortar, 51 year old company, marketing is never going to be a priority to them. And I wanted to feel like I could grow. And I said that entrepreneurial bug had always been in me. So it was always going to lead to doing my own thing, which led to the story club, which, funnily enough, the story club was originally called the social recipe

and the podcast was called the story club. Because what I knew was social media and video. But then moving with the development in the last couple of years of personal branding

and the written words been a bit cheapened by chat GBT and also ghost writers to an extent. because yes, you're, depending on the ghostwriter, you're getting the authentic person's story or you're just getting somebody just copies and past their style

on other. What you can't fake is videos. So rather from going from a social media first message to videos, it's more videos within platform management, distribution strategy, all that sort of thing. So like I said at the start, the story club is basically my skill sets, what I did for myself,

doing for other people. Because one of my biggest beefs, and this is rich coming from me, I know, is the loudest voices are always marketers and coaches. Even Gary Vaynerchuk, five, six years ago said marketers ruin everything. The moment people went on about TikTok, who rushed it, marketers. LinkedIn, who's flooding it? Marketers, coaches. And I know a ton of cool founders who are building maybe not that interesting businesses to you and me, but super interesting businesses. Maybe they've been doing it for two years, five years, 10 years, 20 years, but they never talk about it. Yeah, yeah. And it's about amplifying those voices a bit more, trying to find those voices, helping people find their confidence in front of camera, but also in their

personal story, business story, service story, all those things. And are there any specific niches that you focus on? No, I wouldn't actually say there's any niches, to be honest. It comes down to the founder. One of the good things, the really good things about LinkedIn so far is basically all my work's been inbound and word of mouth. Yeah. Yeah. So with that, it's obviously founders who feel a connection with me or they resonate with me. And 100% of the time, that works both ways. When they, when I meet them, they like me because of my personality, which they connect with, which usually means I'll connect with their personality, which is what happens. So basically, no, it's about the founder. And because they connect and I connect,

that's what works. Yeah. But I'm curious, filming like a professional, nice looking videos, or even if it's shorts or shorter content, it's not just like that. You need to have some skills when it comes to camera, sound, production and everything. How did you learn all of this? Or did you have already experience from before? Well, so it was at Slaters where I was watching YouTube videos and self-teaching, so doing all the things with cameras, lighting, all those bits. But since going my own way, I've had to keep improving. My content now is better than it was a year ago. A year ago, it was better than it was two years ago.

So it's honestly, it's something that's come with time. And also moving into running your own business, it's a million times more competitive. I've got friends who are videographers, and there's obviously other videographers who I don't even know. who are unbelievable, beautiful visuals. They're mainly video production guys. They've an amazing knowledge of camera settings, lighting, sounds like 10 times more than myself. But I've got my skill set,

and I'm striving to always get closer to them. So I'm always learning more, upgrading my knowledge on lights, sound, locations. It's what I do. and competition makes me have to be better. So those are what's led to that. And do you do it all by yourself or have you got a theme? I'm solo, solo founder.

Do it all by myself, which I'm happy with. Although, don't get me wrong, I've got people who I outsource to for different parts, copywriting, video editing every now and again. because I'm getting to that point two years into the business where I'm spending too much time editing in scriptwriting. So I am looking to outsource. Yeah. Because I can imagine. Because I don't want to borrow with details about myself, but I studied film.

So I know what it's like to do like a production or a short film production or something like that and the whole crew. And, you know, pre-production and production, post-production and hearing that you do everything by ourselves, I just find it in. impressive. Well, it's, I think, again, that's one of the, it's, it's not even my USP, but it is to an extent. I am a jack of all trades. Because my history is in a marketing manager. When I went into Slaters, it was as the marketing manager. So it was like strategy for the business. Whereas what I'm super passionate about is video and getting people on video and that sort of thing. So when someone comes to me it is the fool we sit down we talk we do the strategy ask questions come up with the scripts it's a full done for you package and i do love the thing i love most is back to that account handling side of me

is talking to people building the relationships with them so really diving deep on them and then working that end result i find that very fulfilling but it's not practical sense it doesn't make practical sense anymore as a business owner it does have to come down to starting to outsource more again though that's just a higher quality problem right it's finding the right partners the right people you can trust and that's something that also takes time so again all these the journey is definitely the fun part it's all these learnings and it'll come from time and then your plans for the future do you want to keep it this way or do you want to grow your team or what are our plans the eternal question I think...

I mean, besides another location in New York, as we discussed. Yeah, well, you will. If you're going that way, you've got to go the empire way, right? I think right now, the business has been working for me from a lifestyle aspect, but... And I'm not saying I necessarily want to go full-blown empire, but from kind of where I am now to full-blown empire. I could want to go the full way, you know, five, ten years from now. but right now I want to get more the business is at a point

it needs more systems it needs more processes it needs more automation and that naturally leads to growing a larger business and if that features employees one day potentially but right now I couldn't imagine anything worse

mainly because I speak to founder friends and these are people who've started successful businesses and they just look me dead and I and they're like never hire. Nothing gives you the fear quite like that. Yeah, yeah. So I'll wait for my competition, my competition to hire great people, train them,

and maybe when those people want to move on, I'll be in a position to be like, yeah, get over here. That is smart, yeah. And can you think of maybe some client or specific example that you worked with and you would be willing to share, maybe something that was interesting or challenging or just for some reason worth sharing? Yeah, I mean, I guess a message to give across

for anyone listening or watching is do fun content because the journey I like to think, the long-term journey I like to think I'm taking clients on is from the base level, which is talking head thought leadership content. It's where people feel most comfortable. You're just getting them speaking about their knowledge, things they already know. But I like to think there'll be a time

where they're evolving to being more confident in front of camera to do fun stuff. Now the reason I'm saying that is because there's two campaigns that come front of mind. One was with this copywriter, spent the day with him

and we did five thought leadership videos, but we did two absolute piss take videos. Like it was him pretending to be a hustle guy, like guys, join up to my course for 997 and we hung outside of Ferrari garage, got him taking pictures,

next to the cars. All the stuff you see like the broad like hustlers do. And another one was like a day in the life of a copywriter where he was he spent four hours, you know, having breakfast, staring into the guy and then just went on chat, GBT. Like genuinely hilarious.

People would call that top level awareness funnel because you're just having fun. You're not telling people what you do. You're not giving results. You're not sharing your knowledge. You're just having good time. And he got a bunch of leads from those videos.

Because they stopped the scroll, they were different, they were interesting. People going through their feeds would be like, what the hell is this? But then they'd go onto his page. Then they'd see his testimonials, his results, and then they'd want to work with him. And then there was these other,

these brothers who run a personal branding agency. We did a hostage video for them to announce a lead magnet they had coming up. And again, the first thing people saw was like, this guy with a bag in his head and hang up behind him. That stuff isn't stupid.

That stuff is how you get eyeballs on you. And if you're looking at LinkedIn solely as your funnel, you need that attention-grabbing content and in your landing page or whatever click-through link people should have. So, yeah, the reason you asked me

to mention two jobs, those are the two main ones because they are attention-grabbing and they give results and too many people think attention on video doesn't necessarily equal results. But if you're in a service-based industry, I promise you it does. And when it comes to coming up with ideas like this, is it you who comes up with the idea or is it brainstorming together or it depends?

Both. It's brainstorming. It's coming up with ideas together. The copywriter, to be honest, he came up with those ideas himself. He came to me being like, I want to do these two things. and then obviously I consult came up with the script and the short list. So he had the big

idea but then it trickled down into me being like right this is how we get there. Yeah, yeah. So it works both ways. Some people are creative and they come with idea and I can help translate that into video or they come to me telling me what their problem is

and then I'll create the creative from it. Yeah, you might be curious. I will need to Google that campaign because it sounds good like a good idea. Well, do you know what? I'll send you the links after. And if you want to include them in the comments, be like, here's the campaigns Johnny spoke about and you can see. Yeah, yeah.

And then I guess the big part of your own company is marketing, obviously, not for a client, but of your company on its own. So actually what social media channels do you use? Well, so, ironically, Thomas, as a marketer, very bad at marketing my own business. but I'm working on my funnel shall we say because my main source of marketing right now is LinkedIn which is a dangerous game to play because you never want to rely on one platform but really it's the content I put out on LinkedIn connecting with people having those conversations so there's the there's the community conversation side and in their content

side but funny time to have the conversation I'm working on a lead magnet at the moment which will push people down and then they'll get put into email sequence which will push them further through whether that community or where I can just provide support or to actually doing a shoot with me or to working in an online capacity

those are the things but right now my marketing funnel is flax yeah no but I was going to say that I can recommend to follow Johnny because his content has been impressive I don't want to say just lately because then it's like it wasn't impressive before

but as you would expect from someone who works video like you do it's beautiful so give him follow and connect for inspiration thank you yeah I guess the way to say it is Johnny Rose on LinkedIn although I do not know what my LinkedIn handle is but just look for the guy kind of smiling off to the side in a white jumper and that is me it's Johnny S. Rose oh there you go

nice and simple perfect I'm always curious, how did you actually discover LinkedIn? Or why did you decide for this platform specifically? Well, funnily enough, I was a LinkedIn user way back in 2012 when I worked for that recruitment company. Oh, it's a long time. So that's back when LinkedIn was purely almost seen as a CV or an announcement platform. It's before it became almost social, which we could call it. a social platform now, right?

But great for businesses. So I go way back with LinkedIn. And even when I wasn't posting about my own business, I'd post every now and again. And even my friends would be like, oh, you're such a LinkedIn guy. This was like 2016. Yeah, I think I didn't know what was LinkedIn back then.

No, don't get wrong. There was no strategy. It was just kind of random posting. But I couldn't tell you the moment it clicked. And I was really when I said, start my own business probably I was like right this is my main funnel this is going to be my main funnel for connecting and thought leadership so it just naturally evolved from there and as you said before that you kind of rely on this platform right now do you plan to broaden to some other ones or

yeah social media social media platforms my YouTube channel will be one for my own podcast and also So I do need to start doing thought leadership content on it. And also there's a sort of mini micro series I'm thinking about doing. Similar to something I did at Slaters, but time will tell on that. And I'm just trying to figure out the right angle for it. And then things like Instagram, Facebook, not right now. There's no urgency around them. LinkedIn's great because you can actually talk directly to your ideal clients.

Instagram if you're doing paid ads or whatever yes you can target your ideal clients but that requires budget yeah so yeah right now it's about LinkedIn is the main also I need to set up my website I need to have a way I need to get my website so you start getting testimonials and stuff so LinkedIn right now

priorities website lead magnet and probably at some I I trialed it I want a basically like I'm happy to say I want to start a community, mainly because one post on LinkedIn a day is not enough to actually provide support for video. If you're trying to help people start videos, do thought leadership, introduce testimonials, bottom funnel stuff, and do educational and fun videos, it's very, it becomes very hard with one video. Yeah, yeah, I completely understand.

So with the community, I could actually provide ongoing support with people. and I did try on Slack for a while and people were really engaged for two weeks but then they dropped off and none of them have done their own videos since I ran a wee challenge so there's a problem to be solved there about having a community for people who want to do videos

and actually getting them to do videos so that's just another problem to figure out yeah you can add it to the road plan and hopefully in the future and then with your reach experience from your LinkedIn journey. Can you share some tips, tricks or advice, how to grow there, how to build your brand? Yeah. I mean, there's better placed people for LinkedIn growth. But speaking to people, the best advice I can give right now other than do videos is, which would be

obvious, is have fun with your content. Genuinely, people are finding LinkedIn a grind now. You speak to anyone. Nobody says they're enjoying LinkedIn. No one's like, I love LinkedIn because it's almost become like another job for people. Spend two hours in the morning, engaging, writing, stay on to comment to your post. Like the passion is gone.

Because people keep thinking they have to do this structure and the buzzword right now. Storytelling. Every post you do, you've got to somehow tie a story in. It's like a whole science to. to craft a post. Totally.

And that's why there's experts for it. Even with videos, right, people come to me, even personal brand managers who write their own content and do content for people. Because people find it very hard to get out of themselves. It's very, like, ask me to do video content for someone. I'll sit down with them, talk to them, come up with a bunch of ideas. Ask me to do my own video content. I have to really make time and space.

So if you're asking people before they post on LinkedIn to go back through their entire life history, find the moments that mattered, find what they've done for clients and all this, and tie that into every single post, people aren't going to post. Yeah. Or they're only going to post twice a week instead of five times a week because it's taking up such mental capacity. Whereas if you only give yourself one or two posts a week that you really have to give deep thought to.

And the other three is sharing something fun you did at the weekend or, you know, you know, shouting out people you've work with who've supported you or even creating a funny video where you're just having a rant or you're getting something off your shoulders. Not every post has to be massive value.

The valuable posts can be the ones that get your clients. The fun posts can be ones that draw in like-minded people. The problem rant posts can be the ones that divide an audience and get engagement. Post about what you want

30, 50% of the time. And this is for videos as well. Not every video has to be an education lecture with a covered up as a story. I've done some videos where I've duplicated myself. I'm just like having a laugh. And those are the ones to get the best, like engagement and people reaching out.

So make your content fun again. Yeah. Because even if you do a post and it bombs, nobody cares, nobody remembers. They're being blasted. with posts every single day and next week you go again. Yeah, I like it. I was just going to edit.

Just don't be too serious. As you said, sometimes drop something funny or experiment or export something different. Yeah, because people, the thing is as well, like there's a lot of good actors out there on LinkedIn who are giving you knowledge to enact. Like, they break down steps,

they tell you exactly what you need to do every single day to get a successful LinkedIn post. But then there's also people who are just doing it because they want to mentally exhaust you so that you go to them. Yeah. So it's about seeing the advice out there, utilizing it but staying true to you and then building your own brand and story from that. Yeah, I like it and I can only agree with you. What are, Johnny, some of your inspirations, whether it's some maybe people you follow. to inspire you as a people like from present development or inspirations when it comes to content

creation or videos, can you share some? Yeah, well, so sadly, just I've allowed myself to get too wrapped up in my own business. I was talking someone about this yesterday, that I've almost lost the stuff I used to do, which was self-education, self-development, books I had, YouTube videos I watched. So you've caught me at a time where I'm trying to jump back on that. But people I look to for inspiration. I can give a shout like Shweb Ahmed, videoed

with him recently, but I've known Shweb since I've started my LinkedIn journey. He's always giving really helpful, insightful tips. Two courses that are on, that I'm going to be doing this week, because I've blocked out this week for just things like this, is Leah Turner's LinkedIn course and also

Sam Winsbury, who runs Corogo. He has a school community where he's got an online, like, LinkedIn, figure out your offer and all that. So these are people... Haven't you done episode with Sam as well on a podcast? Sorry? Haven't you done episode with Sam as well?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. So these are people who I liked their message, I reached out to, I joined their communities, I'm going to do their courses because, obviously, I guess I do look up to them and I know they know their stuff. So what's true to what I'm about to teach myself is true for anyone listening or watching. Yeah, yeah. And can you remember some? that were maybe influential to you.

Oh, not off top of my head, Thomas. Unfortunately, I've got a pile of books that I need to get through. And just a busy right now. There's a pile down here, which is the urgent pile. There's a pile over there. There's three necks in my bed. Again, though, this is what I was saying, though. And I've started time blocking

so that, because you can always put things off, I'll read that book on holiday. Yeah. there in getting up 30 minutes earlier, spending 30 minutes in the morning reading. Yeah, it's understandable. Like, I can't remember the names of books, but if I go back, there's things like Seth Godin. It was a guy I listen to all the time around stuff in marketing when I worked at Slater. So he's someone, if his name's coming to my mind immediately, he obviously had an impact.

Yeah. I remember I read the, I think the first book I read from, he was Purple Cow. Yeah. And just kind of introduction. of him to me and since then we've been enjoying all of his books and content so it's a great tip yeah set's good one thing he said that all was stuck with me was it was around authenticity which is a massive buzzword these days but he was it was something along the lines of in marketing people don't mind a story being twisted like not twisted but over exaggerated to an extent

but what people won't accept as a lie and that's something i talked to a lot of people around. Because especially on LinkedIn, there's a lot of liars. Yeah. People trying to pretend. Yeah, totally. People who, whether they're in pods or whatever and they inflate their numbers and then they then go and sell courses after like what Seth Godin, like that quote to know what I'm seeing out there in the world, is pretty shocking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I understand.

And then Johnny, tell us when we can and expect some updates with your podcast. New episodes coming anytime? Yeah, funnily enough, that's why, like I said, I was purely working on my own stuff this week. So edited episode yesterday. I'm going to edit another one tomorrow. Then I've got, I'm down in London in a couple of weeks,

I'm doing two more. So it is getting back on track. It's just, as business owners, we all deprioritize our own stuff. Again, it's about time blocking, blending all that stuff together. So if we ever have another conversation, Thomas, I should be able to give more advice on business,

directing your days and all that. But for right now, I'm happy being honest. It's been a very productive doing things. But adding structure, I think, is key. I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad to hear that the podcast continues and we can expect something in a future. Yeah, yeah.

Next week, next week. Yeah, sounds good. And just to be aware of time, as we'll be finishing, is there any maybe final message or something that I forgot to ask you or something that you would like to share? I think it's funny,

I always think of this because I ask, my podcast guess is a similar thing, but what's sticking with me now is be ruthless with your time. There's a lot of people out there, like people who you speak to, whether in personal or in business, and like, we need to catch up sometime.

if they're not getting the diary out there and then don't waste your time chasing them and the same with people you're doing business with some people try and tell the story of yeah never give up till you get a no always keep chasing five six seven eight nine ten times but if someone's not getting back to you yeah it's they're already telling you something or you're going you're going to come up but you've had to work hard to convince them to work with you and you're constantly going to be up against it and sure five percent of the time people will be like oh the client i work the hardest for is the best relationship I've got. That is the minority.

Do not waste your time on people who someone who's worked with you, don't get back with you, conserve your energy, and just be ruthless with your time. Yeah, thank you. Great advice to finish with, but also, Jenny, feel free to promote either yourself

or your business. I will add it to show notes, but if you want to promote it, feel free to do so. Yeah, if you are, founder or business owner and you want to start getting on camera or you want to start using videos to share your business story whether that's through your customers or a pitch video or at an event i'd like to say i'm your guy yeah and we'll find everything in show notes i want to say a huge

thank you jenny i really enjoyed it although it's been a while coming it was definitely worth it and i will be more than happy to catch up any time in the future again so thank you for it Thomas, thank you for having me all, mate. It's been great. Thanks for listening to Produce Bye with Tomer. Check out show notes for all the links. And don't forget to like, subscribe and leave your feedback. Speak soon.