Produced By - The Content Trenches: What It Really Takes to Win With Video | #122: Jack Gaisford

Starting point is 00:00:00 There's beauty in it. Because when you get those clients, they stick around for a long time because they feel like they know you. They implicitly trust you. You seem to them more as a friend as opposed to that transactional relationship, right, which is how traditional business is done. You run ads, you get a customer because they don't know you or they don't feel connected to the brand, but they want the solution. Maybe they turn slightly faster. So there's a whole psychological aspect of it here as well. But my genuine advice to people who are wanting to do LinkedIn is to win on the platform, just go a little bit harder than other people and do it for longer than anybody can be able to do it. That is how you win. And that ultimately is also how you win in business. Just do a little bit better than everybody else and do it for longer than anybody can be able to do it.

Starting point is 00:00:35 It's not about being the best. It's just about being the person who commits for the longest. Because over time, you start to perfect and you start to finesse your messaging and you start to realize the certain styles of content that work really well. Three months in, mate, I can tell you now, you might have a lucky few people on your cohort and in your course who have gone from zero to six figures in 90 days. But I can fucking assure you that most people are not going to do that. It's a long, long, long road, you know. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys.

Starting point is 00:01:09 Thank you. Hello, Jack. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to the show. Awesome. Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate you being here. So Jack, for those who don't know you, can you please introduce yourself? So I'm Jack. I run a community called the Content Club where I have.

Starting point is 00:01:27 help founders to be able to create videos that actually get results for the business and help them to grow and scale and essentially live the dreams, really. So, yeah. And Jack, because what you do, and I've got a little bit of background in kind of video as well, I'm really curious, what's your journey like? If you're like someone who actually studied video or maybe a film or this type of content creation, or did you learn it by yourself or what's your journey like? Yeah, great question. Also, I've taught. So I spent pretty much my early days in school, in uni, in those sorts of things, kind of toying around with Premier Pro and toying around with making YouTube videos.

Starting point is 00:02:08 I got quite good at YouTube. I made, I sort of built some pretty big channels, which is great. All deleted now, which is such a shame. I really regret deleting them. I wish I could look back on what I looked like and what I sounded like. But hey-ho. Do you remember? Maybe what was the number of subscribers, if it was any bit of?

Starting point is 00:02:23 So I had a gaming channel. Before gaming was really a thing. on YouTube. It was just a way for me to kind of like switch off, chill out. That reached about, I think it's 15,000 subscribers we had. But that was in the space of a year. So zero to one year, we got to 15,000, which I thought at the time was pretty good. But due to being bullied a lot of school for it, I shut the whole thing down. I thought, I'm never going to pursue gaming again. This is awful. And you know what? I just, I really wish I just continue with it because I reckon I'd be up there with some of the big ones now, you know? This was at the time when Hoopie Pye was playing

Starting point is 00:02:54 amnesia gaming videos and you know it wasn't really even a thing so who knows who knows where that path would have taken me but yeah just as you mentioned it was it like people making fun of you because you record content online yeah pretty much so it was more because i guess i was young maybe like squeaky voice typical like hasn't hadn't gone for you puberty yet properly but i think it was because it was so different to the norm you know nowadays you walk down the street especially here in the UK and you'll see people with vlogging cameras talking to cameras and you know just on their own. It's so accepted now. You don't even kind of, you don't bat an eyelid at it. You don't double take. Whereas I think when I was at school, everyone talked about it. You came in. I remember

Starting point is 00:03:33 going into school and some of the, some of the like the horrible kids in the school had basically printed a picture off of myself from my gaming video and stuck it all around the school like a hundred times. And it made me feel awful. So yeah, like peak of the bullying. But it's fine because I think it makes you a stronger person, right? Because nobody in school at the time was creating videos. There weren't any vloggers. There weren't any like influences. It wasn't really a thing. So to see one of your friends or someone from your year create videos on YouTube about games, it was really strange. So for me, it was just kind of like, you know, it was the tunnel vision. It was like, oh, I'm in this bubble.

Starting point is 00:04:05 People don't like my videos. I'm getting like cyber bullied on the internet. I'm going to shut it all down because I don't want the hate for it. Nowadays, I wish I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to push through because I think it's funny. But I didn't have the confidence that I have now with it. So, yeah, sad story. Sorry to hear such experience.

Starting point is 00:04:22 But it's okay, man. I agree because if I look at myself, I would be really scared as well and find it strange to put myself out there and especially to hear from other people like their reactions. But I've seen so many statistics like these days that one of the most popular types of jobs

Starting point is 00:04:43 that kids want to do when they grow out is like to be an influencer. So the time has changed so much. So I can imagine. I think the, I think it was something like in in gen Z's or gen alphas, I can't remember the stats to take this to the pinch of salt, but I read this maybe a year ago that the second job that people wanted to be

Starting point is 00:05:00 was a YouTuber above anything else, astronaut, whatever. It was they wanted to be a YouTuber. And that just kind of shows you how far the industry has come. You know, every young person sees YouTube or creating content as a great way to earn money, as a way to earn living, as a way to get yourself out there and build your brand and, you know, have a bit of fun whilst doing it. So, but when I was younger back in school,

Starting point is 00:05:19 I didn't even know how long, 2010, maybe. It just wasn't a thing. So in 15 years, that's how far we've come to the point that almost nowadays, if you don't do it, you're seen as a bit strange. You know, it's kind of gone full 180. It's really odd. Yeah, wild ride, mate. Wow, right.

Starting point is 00:05:34 Yeah, and it makes one curious, what is it going to be in the next few years? You know, if it's going to be completely different or even grow even more? I don't know. I mean, I think the only way that it can go is growth. I think that with the influence of AI and the barrier to entry for creating content getting lower and lower and lower in terms of equipment's getting cheaper, tech is getting easier to use, it's becoming more affordable. I think you're going to see more creators, but I think with that you're going to see

Starting point is 00:06:04 a landscape of content that is absolutely rife with just bad messaging and bad, bad, positioning and bad creation just because people feel pressured to do it, you know. So I think we're entering a wave where people almost feel pressured to have to do it, as opposed to they feel intrinsically that they want to do it. So it comes from that core. I want to. I feel it's the right thing to do. So I think we'll see a new wave of it in the next five,

Starting point is 00:06:28 10 years. People who feel like they're not, it's not their natural thing to do, trying to push themselves out that company zone, which is exciting, but it's also concerning for social as a thing at the same time. That is true. And I agree.

Starting point is 00:06:41 I'm just maybe a bit afraid that it might go more into the direction of quantity or quality, for example, with all the AI tools that make it much easier. Sometimes it feels like that people just keep dropping content a lot just to attract, to reach as many people as possible and I guess monetize it, but I guess we will see over time. Yeah, totally agree.

Starting point is 00:07:02 I think so. I think that's where it will go. I think people were for the pressure to post. They'll post the wrong stuff. They won't really give thought to what or why or how they're creating their content. And before you know it, the feed in terms of social media will just be saturated and overwhelming

Starting point is 00:07:17 and I think at that point social media, which is already changing very quickly in terms of how we engage with it, we'll have to change. I think we're in for a really exciting but scary next five, five, ten years on the internet. I think it's going to change massively

Starting point is 00:07:33 and I don't think people are ready for that change. I think so. Then we discussed it before the recording but you started your YouTube channel from scratch again. So what did it feel like? We're excited, scared or something. Yeah, good question. Like, I love YouTube. I've spent the last seven years creating majority on LinkedIn. I do a lot of email as well, but I've been predominantly on focused on LinkedIn. So YouTube for me is a really nice, very nostalgic platform. You know, it's very different to LinkedIn in the sense that it's creator led. So you are encouraged and incentivized to create and to become better at creating through monetization or affiliates or brand deals or, you know, just further reach.

Starting point is 00:08:17 a performance. YouTube's really got that locked in. And I think it's a great platform to be on. LinkedIn, I think, is a great platform, but it's not a YouTube. It's not creator-led. You know, there's no real incentive to post other than to get leads and to get customers for your business, which is easier said than done, right? So the way that the platform works is totally opposite. I think just after spending such a long time on LinkedIn where I would argue that the creativity or the barrier is quite dull on that platform in terms of content, it's really nice to have a challenge with YouTube, to really put my creative skills to the test and kind of battle it out with the algorithm to a degree.

Starting point is 00:08:56 You know, every piece of content I make, I am looking at the analytics just like a hawk. I'm laser focused on them. I'm looking at retention, click-through rates, engagement, are people clicking? Is it coming up into search? Is it becoming through YouTube recommendation? All this data or this science behind the madness, that's really getting me going at the moment. I'm an absolute nerd over the data side of things. But I think you have to be on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:09:21 Whereas on LinkedIn, I think you can kind of fall into this trap of becoming a bit passive with it. You know, it's post five times a week, talk about your personal brand. You know, it's a very different approach. So I'm loving it. What you did before. Yeah, I'm loving it. I'm absolutely loving it. It's a breath of fresh air.

Starting point is 00:09:37 And ultimately, it helps me to grow more as a creator, which then helps me to help my clients. You know, if I'm not practicing what I preach, if I'm not learning myself, I can't then teach that to my clients and my customers, my members. So it's a really good exercise to get into the out. And I'm really enjoying it. I think it's actually the right approach because the technology is evolving. The competition is growing on social media. So you actually need to be tracking the numbers, the analytics to keep improving.

Starting point is 00:10:05 I know just about to mention, as you said, that you tried to track it and improve it that I saw. You posted video yesterday. And when I saw it again, you changed the thumbnail, which reminded me, what obviously YouTubers do to test different thumbnails to improve. So it was just what came to my mind when you said that. Yeah, I think you've got a test. I think so I do what's called A-B testing on YouTube. You now have the ability in platform to be able to automate the change of thumbnails,

Starting point is 00:10:32 which is great. I think you can add up to three or maybe more. In 24 hours when the numbers have kind of reached this point where it gives you the data, you can really see the difference between how many people have clicked on what. So it's a really good way. I mean, look, this is like basic marketing, right? It's just a, B, blood testing. It's such a basic thing.

Starting point is 00:10:47 But you can now do it on YouTube, which is great. On other platforms, I don't think you can. LinkedIn, you definitely can't yet, so it's much more guest work. But again, you know, how consumers behave and the data that you get from your audience, kind of translate to other platforms. So if you can learn it on YouTube, if you can really get to grips with what works, what consumers want to digest, what people are searching for, and you apply that to other platforms, the likelihood is that you're going to get better results on those platforms as well,

Starting point is 00:11:09 even though they don't give you the data as much as YouTube. That's why I love it. It's kind of this power. for information that is applicable to other social feeds. So I think it's a great, I think it's a great place to realize how bad you are at creative content. And I like that challenge. I like to learn where are the gaps, what I'm missing, what am I not thinking about? Because that helps me to make a bit of stuff. And that obviously helps me to the market my business. So yeah, man, it's great. I call it being in the trenches. It's great being in the trenches with YouTube again.

Starting point is 00:11:36 Because I've really missed it. And it's a good community, man, good energy on that platform as well. I was going to say that I like the mindset and when I look into the dashboard of YouTube when I'm posting the podcast sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed with all the options and everything that there is and also as someone who spends

Starting point is 00:11:55 a lot of time on YouTube as well I want to improve it and everything so I think I should add up to more of such mindset as well that I would neglect it but sometimes it just feels a bit a lot but it's a good point to dive into it yeah definitely I think you have to

Starting point is 00:12:10 I don't think you can afford to not understand the data. I think if you treat YouTube as other platforms where you kind of post and ghost, for example, you aren't going to grow on it. You are going to stagnate. And there's an argument there of, well, give it time and keep posting, keep posting, I think that's a very small piece of the puzzle. And it's a very small cog in the system of YouTube. You've really got to understand SEO, thumbnail design, copyright descriptions, chapters,

Starting point is 00:12:37 structure of content, pacing. There's so many things there. You've got a really nail, and it's brutal, because if you don't get the right, you're not going to win. You know, only the best of the best, the best are rewarded with the views and news subscribers and cloud and notoriety. Other platforms are very different. So I think it's a great, I think it's a great platform. I think it's still my favorite platform ever. I'll put it out there.

Starting point is 00:12:59 It's my favorite platform ever. To be honest, I feel like I've spent too much time there, so it's a lot of time. And of course, I like LinkedIn as well, but I don't want to make a fix between these two. But anyway, my question was, because I watch it a lot as well, so what are some of your favorite channels on YouTube, whether entertainment, inspiration? So I use YouTube much more of a chill-out platform for me. I treat it as business.

Starting point is 00:13:24 So all my content is about business. I see a lot of kind of big entrepreneurial creators like Ed Lawrence. He's a great creator, James Smith, you know, founder of I think's New Tropics and a New Tonic. There's some pretty big people here. I've always been a big fan of Casey Neistat, you know, the OG vlogger on YouTube, Peter McKinion,

Starting point is 00:13:39 one of the OG filmmakers, videographers. So there's an educational side to it that I like, but I do feel YouTube for me is much more of that wind down. It's the replacement of Netflix. So I watch, because I'm a big PC gamer, I used to do that in a lot of my spare time. I like to just kind of watch other gaming YouTubers and just chill out or vloggers. I've got back into watching vloggers as well,

Starting point is 00:13:59 just to kind of see what goes on behind the screen. You know, the guys over at Represent Clothing, do a vlog, which I think is really cool, just inside the business, what's happening. What else do I watch? Yeah, it's just, chilled out stuff, man, really. I think that's also why I like it, because it's not, it's not always business, you know, I'm not creating it and then I'm learning from it constantly. I think you need the downtime. And that's, that's what helps me to ultimately become

Starting point is 00:14:20 better at what I do, because if I can rest, my ideas tend to be better and my content tends to be better as well. I've spent almost a decade of not resting in between work and it's quietly killed me, you know, so it's nice to have a bit more leisure time, relax in the evening, spend time with family, you know, that's Ryan Trey, Man, huge YouTuber, absolutely love his stuff. It was the latest video about him, right? Yeah. Man, this is the thing.

Starting point is 00:14:45 Like, I'm kind of breaking down why he's done well, you know? 50 status in 50 days is a huge challenge. So the recent video that I've created is about breaking down how he's done it. You know, what's the tactics, what's the insights from a sales, from a marketing perspective. How was he managed to do? I think he did $11.5 million in 50 videos. That's insane. That is absolutely insane.

Starting point is 00:15:06 But there's real wit. and intelligence behind how he's done that. And I think you can replicate it to a degree. And that's kind of what my latest video is all about. It's how has he done this and how can you replicate or introduce the tactics that he has used for your own business? You know, how can you create 50 videos and get $11.5 million in donations? It's possible, hard, but possible. And that's what I'm trying to break down.

Starting point is 00:15:31 So we'll see how it goes. But yeah, I think I might have missed the timeliness of it because it's about a month or two after he's done it. So we'll see. We'll see. I was just about to add that you said that you use it, for example, instead of Netflix. So I'm actually someone who does the same because, yeah, there are some good stuff on Netflix. But as you said, I flagged that the YouTube, of course you can be scrolling and kind of lose time there. But at the same time, there are so many good channels that you can maybe play just in the background,

Starting point is 00:15:58 whether it's podcast, blogs or something that you don't have to really think about. and for me it's also something that I play kind of in the background all the time so I like what you said and that is something that I can definitely relate with yeah definitely I think I think YouTube for me at least is just the wind down platform you know it's not always so intense and that's I think probably why I like it so much yeah yeah are you struggling to stay consistent on LinkedIn pen post helps you create high quality posts in minutes so you can write faster show up more and stress way less

Starting point is 00:16:32 built by creators for creators is the easiest way to grow your presents without burning out try it free at fanpost.com so this was about youtube and where does actually LinkedIn come into the place what's your experience with the platform or when and why did you start there yeah that's a good question that's a long story so i try and condense it where i can so i i started on LinkedIn, 2016, 2017. I actually used to work with my old man who used to run a recruitment company called Red Sprout. At the time, nobody, not a single person, at least from my network, so maybe outside of that, but I don't know, was posting video. It was to the point that you can actually natively post videos onto the platform. It wasn't even a feature. So we had to have a big

Starting point is 00:17:20 workaround to try and figure out how to do it. It was a nightmare, but we figured it out. Crazy, right? It's just insane to think that. So we started to do myself behind the scenes. I wasn't on camera, but I was filming my dad to go about his day and do a, do a weekly vlog called, I think it's called Sprouting About, is what we called it. And it was just about what's happening in the recruitment space, who have we placed candidates, all this sort of stuff. And very quickly, six months later, we realized that we just couldn't, we couldn't work together, family dramas or the rest of it. And I started my first agency, which was called B-21. The way that we got clients was by creating videos that were just silly little funny internet

Starting point is 00:17:52 videos, skits and sketches and comedy stuff, which did really well. So did that for, you know, probably up until 2024. Lots of stuff changed in that time. And then they started to introduce native video. So suddenly we saw more video creators on the platform. The agency was about, you know, helping people to really push content on LinkedIn. Then we kind of grew up a little bit in the sense of that. We started work with some of the biggest brands in the world.

Starting point is 00:18:15 We used to do like the trailers for some like Call the Duty campaigns we did. We did stuff like Microsoft Xbox, Tshiba, Panasonic, or the Scouts in the UK, huge brand. like we used to work with some of the big dogs. And how we got our clients was through LinkedIn, you know, just making fun, personalable, very natural, very authentic pieces of content that weren't necessarily there to sell, but they just showed us as people, showed our personality, showed the work that we were creating as well.

Starting point is 00:18:40 There's that social proof credibility side of things as well. And I shut that business down, start of 2024. I then launched the Content Club, which is then my video community for founders, where I essentially teach them all the knowledge that I had in creating videos for big brands to do themselves. You know, because I don't think you need an agency. I don't think you need to hire freelancers anymore.

Starting point is 00:18:59 I think you can get away with filming content on your phone. If you know how to film it properly, if you can get the messaging rights. And still to this day, it's how I get all of my members, you know, or majority of them. Some people come through YouTube, a lot of people come through email. But I would say 70% come through LinkedIn, which is still pretty strong. And again, I haven't really changed the approach, man. It's just create stuff that people want to watch. That's kind of it, you know.

Starting point is 00:19:24 I think it's such a good platform to stand out on. There's nobody, there's very few. I, you know, and I'm going to be honest, I would be able to, I would probably say there's under a thousand creators on LinkedIn that are good. Compared to the users, which I think are about a billion, but I might, I might be wrong there. That's nothing. That is a needle in a haystack in terms of opportunity, you know, which is why I love the platform. There's very few good people creating on it.

Starting point is 00:19:49 And I think soon enough, LinkedIn are going to have to change that. they're going to have to incentivize creators to be on the platform. So I think it's a great place to be on for the creative boom, but I do think is about to happen. I don't know when, but I can just feel it. I feel people in the comments saying, ah, the content on this platform is not good. We need some more content.

Starting point is 00:20:06 And it's kind of like, well, do it. Be the person to create the stuff. So there's this switch clicking in people right now. And I'm quite excited for it. So, yeah, all on LinkedIn, mate. So for almost 10 years, been creating on it. So, oh, geez. Oh, my God.

Starting point is 00:20:20 You're like on the OGs. Yeah. That's it, man. That's it. But what you said like with the statistics, because I've seen it as well, it's also when you compare the number of people that are on LinkedIn compared to other platforms, which is still quite low, for example, I don't know, Instagram or something else, then if you look at the number of people that are on LinkedIn, in relation to people who actually post regularly, it's still so low.

Starting point is 00:20:46 And people often, you can hear them or like, I don't know, in a comments or posting that, you know, it feels like they try late into the game. Because, yes, now it's, after you said that you've been showing up for 10 years, people might feel like it's late. But as we just discussed now, it's never late. There is still such a big potential. So I think people still think, you know, it's late, but just start today and you'll see how it goes.

Starting point is 00:21:10 And as people keep coming. So I think also there is a really untapped potential. It's only going to grow. Totally agree. I totally agree. I think it is outside of YouTube for Beater, be businesses, especially smaller ones, which I think is a huge opportunity at the moment. I think LinkedIn is probably my number one platform right now. Yes, reach is down and

Starting point is 00:21:29 algorithms change. It just is what it is. Suck it up and get on with it. That's how social media works. I think, but I just have a quick look. So 1.2 million members are on the platform from July 2025. So it's very, very recent. 1.2 billion people. I haven't got a list of creators that don't keep tabs, but I'm just generally speaking here. I'd say about a thousand people on that platform are creating genuinely good content. You know, stuff that belongs on YouTube, stuff that belongs on Instagram that could do really well. So I think it's really missing the creator landscape at the moment.

Starting point is 00:22:00 And I do think LinkedIn has to change that, you know, for years and years and years, because I've been on it for such a long time, not compared to some people, some people want it for 20 plus years, you know, but for 10, almost 10 years, that's a long time in the game. I've kind of seen the trends that have gone around on LinkedIn and I've, I've, you know, seen what people create, I've seen what people want. But more so now, people are saying, you know, I don't know if I like this platform anymore. It's just the same people all the time, the same sort of content, you know, mass produce. If this influencer or LinkedIn creates this, suddenly you're going to have 500 other people who copied the same sort of template and use the same framework.

Starting point is 00:22:31 So I think the influences or the big dogs, and I say big dogs, but I mean, you know, 200, 300, 300K followers, which in the grand scheme of things is nothing. You know, YouTubers on YouTube, that would make much more sense. The influencers on that platform, there are 30, 50 million subscribers. You know, so they are the big dogs on the platform. The big dogs on LinkedIn are so small. They're so small. But they've got huge egos. And I think because of that, people get influences by them very well.

Starting point is 00:22:58 And I think that kind of whitewashes this similar kind of vanilla content, you know. So it's an interesting platform. But I do think more people need to create on it. Not just to get business for themselves because that is a byproduct of creating on the platform. But just to start to kick. LinkedIn up the backside a little bit and say, I'm going to be one of the other people on this platform who gets attention, who stands out on the feed because it's very easy to do that at the moment. You just got to put your creative hat on, think about what do people want to watch, and create the bloody videos.

Starting point is 00:23:30 That is kind of as simple as that. Hard in execution, but in theory, it's pretty simple, you know, do what people aren't doing. Yeah, that's what I was about to say as well, that if people complain, you can be the one like who tries to stand out, come up with quality content. create. You can see that, yes, there are many people who are posting, but as you can see from the statistics, there is still big potential. So try to be unique, come up with something unexpected, which again, absolutely. Actually brings me to a question that I want to ask you as well. It's like when people ask you, I don't know, how to stand out, how to grow and this and that, which usually comes down to be unique, to stand out, find something that is, you know, different about yourself.

Starting point is 00:24:13 so that you come to people's minds, you stand out from the crowd and stuff like that. So come back to you, what will be your advice to such a question? I'm pretty sure that you get it in your DMs often as well. I do too. So I think it's always worth asking. Yeah, it's a good bomb.

Starting point is 00:24:30 I think outside of the traditional stuff, be yourself, think of no ideas, I think actually a lot of it it's just doing a little bit more than everybody else for longer than anybody can be able to do it. That's kind of it, you know, just go a little bit harder than everybody else on the platform, just put 5, 10% more effort into

Starting point is 00:24:48 your content and do that for longer than anybody, you'll do well. That's my kind of advice, because the thing is there's this huge message. And this kind of stems to business and marketing and social media in general. This whole mindset around, if I put three months of hard work into this, I'm going to win. No, you're not. Not for three months. You're not. Maybe three years, maybe you're just scratching the surface on it. But I think a lot of the big brands are like video coaches, especially like LinkedIn influencers, you know, the ghost writers, the personal brand builders, they really lead into this message of, you know, just be consistent post five days a week and, you know, be unique and show your personality and be authentic. It's not enough.

Starting point is 00:25:32 It is not enough to break through the noise, right? If everyone's doing that, then what are you thing's going to happen. You know, this is not easy stuff. I've done this for 10 years, you know, and that's been a hard 10 years. I'm going to be honest, mate. It's been super hard. Organic content, regardless of whether it's just LinkedIn, is one of the fucking hardest things that you can do. It is a absolute pain of the back side. But there's beauty in it. Because when you get those clients, they stick around for a long time because they feel like they know you. They implicitly trust you. You seem to them more as a friend as opposed to that transactional relationship, right, which is how traditional business is done. You run ads, you get a customer

Starting point is 00:26:08 because they don't know you or they don't feel connected to the brand, but they want the solution. Maybe they turn a slightly faster. So there's a whole psychological aspect of it here as well. But my genuine advice to people who are, you know, wanting to do LinkedIn is to win on the platform, just go a little bit harder than other people and do it for longer than anybody can be able to do it. That is how you win. And that ultimately is also how you win in business. Just do a little bit better than everybody else and do it for longer than anybody can be able to do it.

Starting point is 00:26:33 That's really it. It's not about being the best. It's just about being the person who commits for the longest. and you'll do well. That's that's kind of it, you know, because over time, you start to perfect and you start to finesse your messaging and you start to realize the certain styles of content that work really well. Three months in, mate, I can tell you now, you might have a lucky few people on your cohort and

Starting point is 00:26:54 your course who have gone from zero to six figures in 90 days, but I can fucking assure you that most people are not going to do that. It's a long, long, long road, you know. So continue using that as your marketing angles, guys, but I don't buy it. So I've been there, I've done it, I'm in the trenches a bit, and it's not how it works. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think people also often underestimate that it may feel like that it doesn't yield any results, but you never know if there is someone who's been like following you for months or even years.

Starting point is 00:27:23 And just waiting like for the moment to reach out. It doesn't need to happen immediately, but they've been following you for some time. They know you. They know like the quality of content that you produce, the experience you've got. and they just might be waiting for the perfect moment. I heard like stories like this that someone reached out, never engaged before, but reached out, for example, after months or years to finally collaborate together. So you never know when it might happen.

Starting point is 00:27:49 Totally agree. I think the saying goes, and I don't know where this comes from, but the saying goes that it takes between, I think it's like seven to 13 different touch points to close a client, right? I think that's right. I think that's right. I don't think that's true anymore. I think it, with so much content, the way that social has changed, I don't think it works. My opinion is that I think people need to consume content from me for about seven to ten

Starting point is 00:28:13 hours before they even decide that they want to work with you or they decide to even like you as a person. Seven to ten hours of content. If you're posting a 60 second video once a week, that's going to take you years and years and years of graft to amalgate to seven hours of content, right? If you're putting out a 10, 20 minute video on YouTube every single week, that might take you a couple of months, you know, because that time speeds up because the content and the quality of the content and the length of time that you spend with people is so much more frequent, the higher your chance of actually converting customers from it. So I can wholeheartedly and confidently say it works. In the last probably, I'd say five or six years, I've probably done about two million pounds just from LinkedIn. I've done no ads. I've just created content on the platform. People have come to me. I don't do any cold outreach. don't do any cold emails or cold calls. People watch my content. I just say, hey, I'm Jack. I'm the video guy and I can help make a better video. And people are adults, they will decide whether they

Starting point is 00:29:09 will want to work with themselves. I'm not reaching out because they're not saying, hey, buy my stuff. Oh, I've just seen that you're on this list or in the group, do you want to buy my products? I'm just creating stuff that people want to watch. And they go, this guy's kind of cool. I quite like what he says. I didn't even think about that before I watched Jack's video. He's made me problem aware. I'm now solution aware. I've changed how it's his site. I've seen pastoral brand stuff. I've seen his client work. It all kind of adds up. I might reach out and just see, but maybe I'm not ready yet. My job is to keep myself front of mind. And your job, or if you're listening as a founder, is to do the same. Again, it goes back to doing the same

Starting point is 00:29:38 thing over and over and over and over again, finessing it slightly and just doing it for longer anybody else can do it. Because eventually, when someone's in the right frame of mind, or maybe they've changed a job, or maybe they've reached, I don't know, their 40th birthday, or they've got early inheritance, I don't know what happens, or they've got budget. They'll go, you know what, I'm going to spend some of this money with this person because I implicitly trust that they're going to help me to do the thing. So if you're thinking that you're going to run an ad, are you going to create a video and it's going to get you millions and millions of pounds

Starting point is 00:30:06 worth of comments? It's not how it works anymore. It's not how it works for more. You can hear it here from the pro. And Jack, what do you feel like that the video content has changed on LinkedIn over time? Because you remember, like recently or like, I don't know, a few months ago, LinkedIn introduced on the app the button for video, right? So they wanted to push it more.

Starting point is 00:30:29 then it somehow quickly disappeared again. So in your opinion, any experience, is it the video growing? Is it again, I don't know, going down or the same? Yeah, that's a great question. So obviously, I'm not on the LinkedIn teams. I don't know what they're doing. I can make the assumption and just an educated guess around where I think it's going to go. But again, whether or not it does, take it with a pinch of salt, it's just my perspective, right?

Starting point is 00:30:54 I think we, I think this is also a big question, Tom, around how social media is changing, though. And outside of just LinkedIn, you know, as consumers, we are now digesting and interacting with the internet even, right? There's this whole thing right now. I've put a video out of it, I think next week or tomorrow, I can't remember, about how social media, in my opinion, is dead. The concept of social media is not what it once was, you know. Go back to the times of Facebook, for example. The real power of social was that you held the control. You had the follow button.

Starting point is 00:31:23 You dictated who you consumed content from, whether that was friends, colleagues, employees, family, whatever, you chose to consume content for people that you got value from, that you felt inspired by, that you wanted to stay up to date with. That model of social has completely died. When TikTok introduced the for you algorithm, which most platforms now, YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, they all follow the same sort of suit here. It's based on relevance. So they display content based on the data of what you add into the platform, your dwell time, your click-through rate, you're engaging, what you don't like, what you scroll past. That's all built in a big, big data ball of consumer data information.

Starting point is 00:32:03 And they now display content not based on who you follow, but based on what they think that you will engage with or will stay, keep you on the platform for longer. That's great. Because in the other days, they can't, how do you monetize? How do you earn money from connection? You can't really. So the way to do it is to keep you on the platform for longer to show more adverts. And to show more adverts, you earn more money as a founder of the business or as shareholders or whatever. right. So their job is to change the algorithm to keep you on the platform for longer. So the whole

Starting point is 00:32:30 definition of social is really not the thing anymore. You are now being gamified. If what you are using is free, you are the product. You're giving your data away. And this, so this kind of comes back to how, you know, what is, you know, is video going to be a big thing on LinkedIn? Yes, because that's what people want. And if that's what people want, you need to cater to the mind of that platform to keep people on the platform to show more ads to earn more money. So I think we're entering this time, not of socialness, but I think of relevancy and of relatability. I think if you can create stuff that people are genuinely at the bottom of their heart interested in, you will do well on this platform. Regardless of whether it's video or written or a carousel or a design or a podcast, whatever it is, you have to

Starting point is 00:33:13 create stuff that people are interested in. The problem is a lot of people don't do that. A lot of people go, oh, we've just won this new client. I'm going to talk about myself or I'm going to share what makes me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Nobody. Nobody. cares. People are selfish. People aren't interested in that. What people want to be consuming is content that uplifts them, that motivates them. You might have seen this big shift recently in social in terms of like, you know, you've kind of gone from educational content to lifestyle content because people become a little bit overwhelmed with learning new stuff. They now want to aspire to do something with their own life. So they're watching other people share what they do in the day. Or you're seeing,

Starting point is 00:33:49 especially on LinkedIn right now, as of September 2025, people post their striped payment links saying, I've earned 100 grand this quarter. That one cares. No one cares. But deep down, people are interested in it. People are gripped at the edge of their seat because they're going, oh, he's earned 100K. I now feel pressure to do it. Or, you know, well done, that super.

Starting point is 00:34:07 People are engaging with this stuff. So the platforms are going to do more of that, some of the content. So what I'm going to come down to here, Tom, really is it's relevancy and it's interest. If you can create stuff that people are interested in regardless of whether it's video or not, I still think video is the way to do that because I think you can tell better stories, visually and engage people much more powerful through that way. you're going to win. But if you're creating videos that are about you or about your business

Starting point is 00:34:28 and you're there to sell or you're running ads, people aren't interested in that sort of stuff anymore. Your job now as a founder or a marketer or as a creator is not to create better quality stuff. It's to understand how human psychology works, is to understand the purse at the other end of that screen. And if you can do that successfully, you're going to really win. I think it's great answer, Jack, because I see so many times, like people discussing what's the to go if it's carousels, videos, just images. But if you find what works for you, what you enjoy and what people in the end react with or what fulfills your goals, whether it's to, I don't know, attract the leads, grow your

Starting point is 00:35:09 connections or something else. And it works for you. You don't have to follow the one that works for other people or that everyone says. Just find what works for you, dominate the game and continue with, you know, what's the best for you. So I like the answer to you have. Yeah, absolutely, ma'am. I think it's, I think you're right. I think that there are, there are formulas and frameworks and templates that all these big influences use or the biggest

Starting point is 00:35:34 creators, again, I see people become very inspired to the point that they pretty much blatantly steal that themselves and implement their own content. But above that, you just have to create stuff that your audience are interested in, you know, regardless of if this person has created this template that you can do this and this and structure your copy like this, this, this, that's what their audience are interested in. That content for them really, works well, but your audience, your demographic, your ICP, your customer, they're going to be very different to that person. So what works for them will probably most likely, in most cases, not work for you, you know, you've got to understand your people. You know, you've got to understand

Starting point is 00:36:08 what are they interested in, what riles them up, what agitates them, what makes them angry, what makes them so happy that they want to share that with their friends. You have to do that research and you can only do that through testing different types of content. So play ball. I say everything is open right now. So just go for it, do the thing. That's what I say. Just toast the bloody video. I agree.

Starting point is 00:36:29 And I think in the end is the best way how to find out if it works. Because if you just keep thinking about it and be like, oh, what if, what if? But you actually need to do it to find out if it's going to work or if it's not going to work. And then just based on that. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's like driving a car. You know, you only really know how to drive a car when you get in a sunset and you go,

Starting point is 00:36:49 oh, Christ, there's a third pedal. I thought that was just to go in and stop. What's this third one? You only do that through learning. You know, you can go through your driver lessons with an instructor. As soon as you get out there on yourself on the road, you really start to learn how to drive. You're taking your L plates off, people treat you like a normal driver. They're going around to their beeping your horn.

Starting point is 00:37:06 You have a few knocks here and there. That's how you learn stuff. You know, you learn through doing the thing that you want to get better at. Again, that's why I love YouTube because I'm pushing myself up up my company. I haven't done YouTube for a long time. The whole platform's changed so much. But I see it's my duty to learn how it. it works so I can help my clients. You know, if I understand how it works and I can go through

Starting point is 00:37:25 those challenges, I can help them solve that or speed that process up much faster. So, yeah, do the bloody thing. Do the bloody thing. I agree. And Jack, as you've been showing up for such a long time, even whether it's on LinkedIn, other platforms are creating content, what is it that helps you to kind of keep going? Because let's be honest, it's not always easy to feel motivated, to show up again. But what is it that drives you or that helps you? That's a really good question, Tom, because that's a very, it's a very introspective. You need to look inwards to understand that answer. I'm very in touch with, you know, what does success look like and what I want out of life? I've had that epiphany moment quite early on in my career, which is great. I'm turning 30 next year,

Starting point is 00:38:10 so I'm still in my late 20 years, which is a great position to be in to learn this, right? So I'm very aware that a lot of people learn that a little bit later. Genuinely, it's maybe not a lot of not the answer that you want here, but it's family. If I can continue to push, regardless of how I feel emotionally, but put the benefit of my business above myself, I can support future kids, I can support my wife, I can support my dog, I can pay our mortgage off, I can live a life that is much more relaxed. That's why I do it. You might see, if anybody, like, I do a lot of workshops, but as a throat of my dog, a foot of my wife, I literally, everything I do is for those two, you know, I want to have kids, I want to settle down properly. That's what motivates me. It's a

Starting point is 00:38:47 much more personal goal. Yes, of course, I love to help my members in the community. And I feel this huge sense of proudness and pride and gratification and fulfillment, helping other people to create videos that they finally go, oh, I feel so much more confident on camera. Or Jack, I've just had five calls, but next week because of this video I post, that brings me a huge sense of pride. But above most, because I'm selfish, I care about, I care about these two, man. You know, it's my family first. That's why I do it. That's why I wake up every day. It's why I'm on a podcast with COVID because you've got to get up and you've got to have that personal reason. You know, you've got to have that thing that motivates you. So for me, mate, it's family.

Starting point is 00:39:25 It's family of everything. And I also enjoy it. You know, I quite learning. I like learning how things work. I like getting things wrong to understand it's not a failure. It's a lesson. And I can improve just a little bit more, just one percent difference every time. That's really exciting. Really exciting. So, but above most, mate, family. Family more than it. I like it. And it makes complete. And as I said before, it's especially appreciated considering your health condition or recent health complications that you join us. So thank you. Mate. Good, man. All good.

Starting point is 00:39:57 Before we finish, I have a few lighter questions. So what is it that you enjoy doing in your free time? Or what are some of your hobbies? Yeah, I love that. I know. I haven't been asked that before on a podcast. So that's great. Big gamer. Love gaming. I've had like friends since I was like 13. So kind of Yogi. boys, you know. We all game. We all play games. So I like all that sort of stuff. And I'm not a gamer check, but if audience wants to know, what are your favorite games? So, this is what is this is proper nerdy. So there's a game called Rocket League, which is quite old. I am, this is really sad. I am one of the top 5% players in the world at the game.

Starting point is 00:40:35 So I really, really like it. I think it kind of, again, it's weird kind of talking out loud. It kind of stems from that very like analytical brain. I like to learn. I like to learn. I like to the mechanics intrinsically well better than anybody so that I can understand how to be good, right? Same thing with content. I like to understand the data. I like to understand the mechanics of how things work. So yeah, I'm top 5% of the world at Rocket League, which is quite sad. But kind of cool. I think it's a bit of a flex. So I play a lot of that. But after I play, like Red Debra Redemption 2, story-driven games, just things that you can go in, huge widescreen monitor and just switch off for like an hour or two. Just have a couple of snacks, have a beer here

Starting point is 00:41:12 and then just chill after a really busy week. That's what I absolutely love to do. Outside of that, I'm hot on the gym. I'm in it, you know, five, five, six days a week. After almost a decade of running an agency where I worked 16 hour days, I slept in the office to save on the commute, I pretty much damaged my body from doing it. It's nice to be able to have an hour in the gym and just release the stress, talk to cool people as well as a good community in the gym. Everyone is there to better themselves, to improve themselves to some degree. And I like that energy. I like that motivation. Golf, golf is a thing. I'll pay a lot of badminton. I'm all over. I'm very active right now, which is great. But I think almost 10 years of not doing it and not

Starting point is 00:41:49 looking after my health, I've realized how important it is. You know, if you show up in the best mindset, your business is going to do well. Your business is only ever really as good, especially when you're at a small business. You're only ever as good as how you feel or how you show up that day. So I think it's important to stay disciplined in making sure that you are mentally fit and physically well. So yeah, a lot of emphasis on that. I was going to say you must have a good time management as well, because I was going to say already before they should do a lot of stuff. And now what you said, it sounds impressive and great stuff. It's just balanced, man.

Starting point is 00:42:22 That's all it is. You know, people say they're busy, but you only ever do the thing that you most want to do at that moment in time. You know, so someone else is busy is just because it's not a priority for them, you know, a call or, you know, do you want to come play football? It's like, no, I'm not busy. It's just not good priority. That's absolutely fine. That's your opinion, right? For me, I'm just pretty, I'm pretty strict with it.

Starting point is 00:42:40 You know, I think that, you know, I've had lots of experiences in my life where I'm kind of like, it puts into perspective how short of time we have on this planet. And that we are also inevitably on a fucking floating rock in the middle of space. So whatever we do, it doesn't really miss it because we're all going to die. Nothing really is important. So just kind of have fun with it, you know. I don't really work until 2 a.m. in the morning. I want to be going on a hike and just trying to make memories and get experiences from stuff.

Starting point is 00:43:06 This is more philosophical, right? But I think it's so important to just value your time, you know, have that disciplined, militant mindset around I cut off at this time. These are the hours that you contact me. I think that's really important, you know, otherwise it starts to leak into family time and that starts to impact relationships and health and all the rest of it. You know, you can get quite deep on it. But for me, it's like a non-negotiable.

Starting point is 00:43:29 I'm in the gym every day. In fact, you know, I don't care if there was a six-figure client at my door. I'm saying, I'm going to go to the gym. That's how it is. I feel the same. For me, it's also something that I just don't want to or cannot really live without because it's going to negatively influence the rest. So I understand.

Starting point is 00:43:49 Jack, then, we discussed it already, but can you summarize where people can find you, follow you, and promote any of your services? Yeah, man, definitely. So just type in Jack Gaseford on LinkedIn or YouTube. I create a lot of stuff there. YouTube every week, LinkedIn pretty much every day. Check out the website. That's, I think it's WWW.

Starting point is 00:44:06 the dash content dash club.com. Not the mouthful. But just message me. If you want to, any questions, guys, I'm generally happy to help. I love helping other people.

Starting point is 00:44:15 So, drop me a message, drop me a DM, happy to help where I can. And yeah, we'll go from there. Yes. And as always,

Starting point is 00:44:21 I will add any links to the show notes. I also told Jack before that I like his branding, so make sure to check him out because he's got some beautiful designs, colors and everything. And the very last question, Jack,

Starting point is 00:44:32 is there anything that you would like to share any final piece of advice? or anything that I should have asked you and did not? I don't think so. I don't think so. My part of my words, probably Tom, are people listening. You know, if you are feeling a bit stuck or you're feeling a bit overwhelmed with the whole content creation thing, just take it day by day.

Starting point is 00:44:52 You know, there's absolutely no need to get it right first time. You know, I think, like we finally said here, you only, you're only improved by doing it. You know, you're not going to improve by joining loads of newsletters and getting loads of free stuff. You know, you're going to learn by doing the thing. and getting a little bit uncomfortable. You know, and sometimes that jump is really hard to make,

Starting point is 00:45:10 but it'll be the best decision you've ever made, just to push yourself out your comfort zone, do the thing that you want to get better at, and just accept that it's going to take time. You know, Rome wasn't built on a day. The reason that so many people aren't millionaires in the world is because running a business is really hard. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

Starting point is 00:45:27 And you chose to do this. No one else told you to do this. You've decided to do it yourself. So don't moan, don't complain, because you can make the decision to stop if you want to. Okay, you're putting yourself through this. So just keep going, that's what I say. That's true.

Starting point is 00:45:41 And it's a good one. Jack, I want to say a big thank you. I really enjoyed it. I'm sure that we could be talking for much longer. I wish we could discuss more of the video and other stuff as well. But again, big thank you. It was great to meet you outside of LinkedIn. You produced some amazing stuff.

Starting point is 00:45:59 You are definitely inspiration and I enjoy this chat. So thank you, especially for your health condition. And yeah, happy to stay in touch and keep doing the great work. Thank you, Jack. Sounds great Tom. Thanks for having me on, man. Really appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Produce By with Tomen.

Starting point is 00:46:16 Check the show notes for all the links. And don't forget to subscribe, like and share your feedback. Speak soon.

Produced By - The Content Trenches: What It Really Takes to Win With Video | #122: Jack Gaisford

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