The School of Greatness - 523 Going Viral: The Magic of Creating Mind-Blowing Content with Julius Dein
Episode Date: August 14, 2017"Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life." If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/523 ...
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This is episode number 5, 2, 3 with the viral magician, Julius Dean.
Welcome to the School of Greatness.
My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur.
And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock
your inner greatness.
Thanks for spending some time with me today.
Now let the class begin.
J.K. Rowling said that we do not need magic to transform our world.
We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.
Welcome to today's interview. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.
Welcome to today's interview.
We have Julius Dean in the house.
Born and raised in London, he has fast become one of the world's most recognized social media stars through his magic and viral videos on Facebook, Instagram, and everywhere online.
Mixing together mind-blowing magic with hilarious pranks, travel, and everywhere online, mixing together mind-blowing magic with hilarious
pranks, travel, culture.
Julius Dean has over 10 million followers across his online platforms.
His videos have received over 1 billion views, and every time he puts out a video now, it
gets 50 plus million views per video.
It's amazing how he's hacked the social media world, how he's hacked
culture, how he's hacked the travel world through his skill and talent magic. And some of the things
we cover today are why doing magic brings everyone together. Also, whether storytelling or doing
tricks is more powerful to captivate an audience.
The value of a loyal social media following and what you can create with it.
Why the first three seconds of any video online are so vital and the elements you need to have in them.
The key components of any viral video and how to make sure you create a viral video every time it comes out.
How to succeed in a super competitive industry, and so much more.
I think you guys are going to love this one.
Before we dive in, I want to give a shout out to our fan and review of the week.
This is from MitchMitty1, who said,
The School of Greatness podcast is absolutely my go-to podcast.
go-to podcast. On my frequent commutes throughout the day between appointments and meetings, I delve into the inspiring lessons and stories from successful leaders of our world. I find myself
naturally referencing what I learned in a recent podcast in conversations, integrating myself with
the knowledge of my new mentors. Thank you so much, Lewis Howes, for bringing these new people
into my life and for expertly navigating their interviews in a seemingly effortless way that only you can do.
Thank you so much, MitchieMid1 for that. And if you haven't left your review yet about the
podcast, just go on over to iTunes or your podcast app, leave a review for your chance to get a shout
out as the review and fan of the week.
All right, guys, let's get into the show. I'm super pumped for this. Get ready for some magic
with the one, the only Julius Dean. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. We
have Mr. Black Magic himself, Julius Dean in the house. Hey, how's it going? Good to see you. Now, you have, I think you've gained over a billion views on your videos.
You're one of the biggest social media stars right now,
specifically on Facebook with over 10 million fans.
You've got videos that have over 100 million views,
and it seems like every video put out now
gets at least like 30, 40, 50 million views within a few days.
So you've kind of cracked the code on a
couple of things. One, doing funny magic that's like mind-blowing, inspiring, fun. You have this
kind of fun-loving approach to it. And two, translating your craft, your art into something
that people see all over the world. And most people have neither of those.
They don't have a talent
and they don't know how to turn their talent
that's shared to the world.
And then some people who have a powerful gift
that no one knows about them
or they get a thousand views
haven't learned how to translate it
into millions of views
or millions of fans or an audience.
You've done both of those.
You're only 23.
You're from London.
And it's been fun to connect.
This is our third time meeting this week, right?
We met a few nights ago
then another night.
So it's been really cool
to connect with you
and I'm excited that you're here
so thanks for being here, man.
Thank you for inviting me.
Well, you did a couple tricks
for my team before.
It's funny,
Sarah, my assistant,
she's like got nervous
when I showed her
one of your videos yesterday.
She's like,
what is this guy doing?
How is he doing all this stuff? Yeah, she ran away from me. She ran away. She was like praying this morning. She's like, I showed her one of your videos yesterday. She's like, what is this guy doing? How is he doing all this stuff?
Yeah, she ran away from me.
She ran away.
She was praying this morning.
She's like, I don't know when he's going to show up.
I go, don't worry.
It's all just magic.
Yeah.
But I'm excited you're here, man.
It's been cool.
And when did you first get into the idea of magic?
When was your first trick?
Or when were you like, I want to be like that magician?
Yeah, so I was a kid.
I was nine years old.
I picked up a magic set. And I was like, whoa, this is cool.
Started doing it, getting reactions, and then I fell in love with the art.
And over the last 10 years, I've just been performing at higher and higher levels.
And when I was 14, 15, I got my first job doing a bar mitzvah.
Really?
And then I started doing a few parties.
And then whilst I was at university, I got into social media.
Really?
Which changed the business.
Where did you go to school?
I went to King's College, London.
King's College.
Okay.
So you were going to school.
Were you making money as a magician before then?
Yeah.
A little bit?
Yeah, a little bit.
I was getting the old gig.
Something like that, yeah.
I thought I was killing life.
I was like, whoa, I'm getting 300.
250 bar mitzvah, yeah.
Cash.
Cash.
Right, right.
And what were you going to school for then?
I was studying international relations, like history, economics type thing at my university.
And I was going because, you know, my parents were like, right, you don't know what you're doing in your life.
Being a magician is...
This magic thing isn't going to make any money.
It's just a hobby.
Yeah, well, they didn't say that.
But they just said, look, it's good to have multiple options.
Got it, got it.
And it doesn't hurt you to have a degree if you don't know what you're doing.
Sure.
Were they...
Did you always think you wanted to be a magician,
like a full-time working magician?
No, I actually wasn't interested in being just a magician.
I was entrepreneurial.
I was always thinking of ways I could expand my enterprise,
which is why I got into social media
because social media is a way of scaling a business as a magician.
Right, right.
But did you think that magic was the tool
that you wanted to be working in at least? yeah i actually had ups and downs with magic so i i was obsessed with magic
and then whilst i was at university i saw it as a i enjoyed it but i saw it as more of a tool to
to be able to talk to people and you know to be able to like really break the ice very quickly
and then i and then and then i in the last year i've really and then I kind of moved away from it a bit
and then I've really got back into it
in the last year
really
yeah
you moved away for a couple years
or like a year
yeah it's kind of ups and downs
some months you're in it
and then other months you're like
yeah
I'm taking a break
yeah exactly
because I became known as
when I was at university
I became known as the magician
and everywhere I would go
people would say
oh dude
oh mate he's a magician
yeah show him a trick
show him a trick
show him a trick
sometimes you're like,
all right,
I'm over this.
Yeah,
exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I'm a human being.
Yeah.
Let me just like enjoy my moment.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But then,
I mean,
the first thing he came in,
I was like,
do a trick,
do a trick.
Yeah.
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Yeah. that get old for you when you're constantly asked to do stuff then or no i actually so i came to a
decision in my life i was like right so i'm i've kind of you know i've built i've built my social
i've built a social media following and i'm you know i've got a big audience now do i want to be
defined as a magician because i know that for the rest of my life wherever i go in the world people
are going to ask me i'll do a trick you're the magician from you're from instagram or facebook
and then i thought you know what it's fun like it's really fun to be able to just entertain and amaze.
So I was like, you know what,
let's do this.
Embrace it.
Exactly.
Embrace it.
And you bring this level of,
again, it's fun.
People will remember it.
You do something
where people are always going to remember you
when you do a trick.
If you just have a normal conversation
with someone,
it may not be as memorable
as like that one guy
still blown away at how he did it
or it was just a fun moment
and you bring other people around. Again, it's the best icebreaker yeah i don't know any other
icebreaker that has an effect of shock awe inspire like uh wonder you know how did he do that exactly
it makes people little kids again people forget about their insecurities and trying to be cool
and people just become little kids again it's a great way of breaking people down and getting right into the heart of who they are as a person yeah and
because when you are blown away and you react like a crazy like three-year-old that your mind is
blown you don't look cool when you're like no way and you're like freaking out exactly exactly
that's hilarious man so you've learned to embrace it now right and you don't mind when people ask
you you've always got something on you've got a deck of cards you've got something pretty much all the time right you're ready to go uh and are there tricks that you do that are better that you're
better than than other things like can you do things that just are sleight of hand that you
don't even need like props or anything um or you like card tricks or do you have a certain style
of tricks that you like the most yes so i have a variety
every magician has a pack of cards as do i i think it's really important to be able to do
things without packs of cards i get asked very commonly oh can you do something without a pack
of cards and i can so that's actually what i've incorporated into my into my videos i try and do
things that belong to people like using using phones using rings rings coins dollars exactly yeah because
i mean that's more impromptu people are like whoa this is my belonging so it's right it's not a
setup hmm interesting what gets the best reaction best reaction is stuff that's super visual the
closer it is to real magic the better the reaction you know sometimes you can you can magicians can
beat around the bush with a pack of cards put it in you know all this complicated you can you know
there's something going on right but with the videos that I create.
I try and make every clip,
you know,
10 seconds or so,
10 to 15 seconds.
And the trick is just super,
super visual.
So bang,
something crazy happens.
Everyone freaks out next clip moving on.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you can,
if you can make it fast paced,
if you,
if you can make it like real magic,
people are going to believe it's real magic.
They're going to give you that reaction.
Wow.
Okay, so in a moment, we're going to do a couple tricks.
Yeah.
And then after we do these tricks, I want to talk about and breaking down
how to create the viral and viral moments through video on social media
and how to grow your audience using this because you've kind of cracked the code.
You've got a formula that we were talking about the other night.
So I think it would be really fascinating to learn how you grew so quickly in
really like a year and a half, right?
And all this happened in the last year and a half.
And how you're now teaching others.
You did one case study where I'm not sure where this guy's at right now,
but you show me he had like 6,000 fans on Facebook.
600 fans.
This was two days ago.
Two days ago.
And then you showed me that like six hours later at night.
He had like 80,000 fans.
Yeah.
What's he at?
Almost 300,000.
300,000 from one video.
Yeah.
So not only have you done this for yourself,
but you've replicated and taught someone else how to do it,
which I think is fascinating for my audience to learn
because we have a lot of people that are entrepreneurs
that want to grow their business and learn about content creation.
So we'll set up that trick first through you showing a trick uh and some of your
magic on the on the uh the podcast so do you have one you said you had two for us right yeah i put
a couple i put a couple of chances on okay let's let's do one first we'll do one we'll do one so
i'm going to show you something with a pack of cards. Okay.
Now, you know, I said to you that everyone asks me to do magic all the time.
I do love it.
I love being a magician, right?
I've embraced it.
Sometimes I'm like, I'm going to take a step out.
So I brought with me my little friend today.
This is him over here.
Okay.
You see him?
The guy holding the cards, yes.
Yeah.
Coming out of a can.
Yes. Okay. And where's the camera? Is that the camera?. Yeah. Yeah, coming out of a can. Yes.
Oh, okay.
And where's the camera?
Is that the camera?
Right here.
I can see it right there.
All right.
So I'm going to get you to think of a card.
Okay.
All right.
Thinking of a card?
Yes.
All right.
Say the card.
King of Diamonds.
King of Diamonds.
It's my little man over there,
a little cartoon character.
I'm going to go through.
Check this out.
Little man.
He's getting into the cannon.
Do you see that?
Uh-huh.
Oh, I like it.
Now, how did you create that?
Oh, I just drew on every card.
Nice.
He did the trick.
Yeah, there you go.
I'll do it one more time just so you see that.
Look.
Little man.
He's getting into the cannon.
Yes. He's shooting into the cannon. Yes.
He's shooting out the cards.
He's got one card.
He's the king of diamonds.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
Smooth.
There you go.
Smooth operator.
There we go, yeah.
Okay.
Awesome.
And you got one more trick?
Should we do it now or what?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's up to you.
Let's do it now.
Let's do it.
I'm going to show you this, right?
So as a magician, I try to influence people in different ways.
So I've got a pack of cards.
Now, you're a smart guy.
How many cards in a pack?
52, right?
52 cards, right.
So if you're going to split them into four equal piles.
Don't ask me to do math, but what is that?
Four piles of 13.
13, okay.
All right, so you need to instinctively just take off 13 cards and put them over there. All right, so you need to instinctively
just take off 13 cards and put them over there.
All right, hold on.
Okay, you need to do this instinctively, right?
Because if you follow your intuition,
this is going to work.
All right, you're going to take off 13 cards.
We're going to split them into four equal parts
and it's going to be through intuition.
All right, so 52 cards in the pack.
Three, two, one, take off 13 cards, put them there.
All right, how do you think you did?
I think it was a little more. Yeah, all right, fine. Another 13, Put them there. All right. All right. How do you think you did? I think it was a little more.
Yeah?
All right, fine.
Another 13.
Put them there.
Here we go.
Just intuition.
Go with the flow.
Boom.
Last 13.
Put them there.
Okay.
How do you think you've done?
Close.
Close?
I don't know.
Close.
It felt good.
Yeah?
Yeah. It felt good? All right. Let's see. Let's see. It felt good know. Hello. I felt good. Yeah. Yeah.
It felt good.
All right.
Let's see.
Let's see.
I don't know if it felt good,
but I see one,
one or two off.
Two,
three,
four,
five,
six,
seven,
eight,
nine,
10,
11,
12,
13,
14,
15,
15.
I wasn't,
it wasn't quite the 13.
Yes.
But you did cut to the four aces.
That's impressive.
Yeah.
That's impressive.
All the cards are different, by the way.
Wow.
So I cut to the aces, but not equally.
It's still pretty impressive.
That's interesting.
Wow.
Okay.
It's weird.
You followed your intuition?
I don't know how I did it, but yeah.
Yeah.
Well, dude, you're the magician, dude.
I am the magician.
You would have thought.
You should be a bit worried, right?
I like it.
Giving away the tricks of virality.
Wow.
If you're going to.
I'm not sure how it's done.
That's pretty cool.
You did it, dude.
I didn't touch it.
Nice.
Wow.
Okay.
Cool.
I'll have to ask him how he did it later
I like it man
I like it
what's your favorite
trick to do
favorite trick
I don't have a favorite
trick
you don't have a favorite
trick
no no no
I just test it on the
individual
you're obviously
you're business
orientated
you're a thoughtful
guy
you know you're very kind of. You're a thoughtful guy.
You seem intellectual.
So I thought this is kind of cool because I'm taking a step back.
And you know the odds of you cuttings for aces next to none.
So that's why I thought that would be cool.
Sometimes if you've got like a really giggly person,
I'll do something a little bit more visual
where it's just like, bang.
Oh my God.
Yeah, right, right.
That'd be Christine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Amazing, man. You know what I did with Christine earlier with the balls just jumping'd be Christine. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Amazing, man.
You know what I did with Christine earlier
with the balls just jumping into her hand.
There you go.
And then I was holding balls afterwards.
Exactly.
Another version of balls.
He's got to wear it up.
As a magician, I'm a performer as well.
I've got to wear up each situation
and just figure out what the best thing is.
How much of it is the trick itself
and how much of it is the setup
and the storytelling and the persuasion for you?
Storytelling,
well, it's funny because I would say storytelling
is everything, but
because I'm creating viral
online videos, it's actually become
more about the trick because every
clip has to be short. 10 seconds.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's not as much storytelling. Exactly, yeah.
For live performance, it's about the story, it's about the character but for for virality i'd say it's
as much about the trick you know when you see david blaine and dynamo and chris angel right
like a lot of these guys don't have huge personalities right but but it's their kind
of intensity yeah exactly that's what makes an amazing magic is what gonna drive their brand
do you feel like because you're more of this you know you have this humor-based magic i would say So that's what makes an amazing magic is what's going to drive their brand.
Do you feel like because you're more of this, you know, you have this humor-based magic, I would say, in general, right? You bring more like kind of laughter and fun love to it.
Do you think that's to your advantage or to disadvantage based on these other characters who are more dark and mysterious?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, it's all about being, I think it's important to be different, not to follow the trend.
There's been trends in the magic world.
You had the David Copperfields
with the suited and booted
with the white rabbits
and that style of magic
that he moved over in the 21st century
to the street magic.
You've got the David Blaines,
you've got the Chris Angels, right?
And now with the rise of social media,
you've got TV shows
like the Carbonara Effect,
which are prank orientated.
You've got viral YouTube,
like the pranks and the magic
that have a more
comedy element
and the hidden camera shows
and that's the more
the style that I'm focusing on
I'm still about
the mind blowing
mind
you know
mind messing magic stuff
but I have a more
fun enjoyable
millennial style to it
rather than taking it
too seriously
that's my style
just enjoying life
and how much do you
study the craft do you study it and research it a lot i know you have uh
consultants that you work with as well on kind of developing new tricks and coming up with new
stories but how much do you personally feel like you're just studying researching mastering
breaking down how magician did something so you can learn and apply it to your style yeah well
i'm immersed in the magic world if i go on my facebook feed you know it's 50
percent my my rivals on facebook really and well you know just watching them yeah yeah watch it
watching them bit of news and a lot of magic other magicians i'm i'm in the magic circle in the uk
which is this kind of elite magic society which only a few people only a few thousand people are
in it in the wild and we all share tricks all the time and you know we're constantly in conversation
so um i'm very involved in the magic world i'm constantly learning new tricks i do have
consultants because i'm focused so much on the creative um and the kind of um the business side
of things that often i don't have time to kind of strategize create exactly yeah but but the way
the way it works with with with my kind of recent trend of videos is to do magic in different parts of the world on a weekly basis so i've just released the miami video this morning um last
week last week i released a new york video you know the last couple of weeks i've done ibiza
i've done rome and it's creating fan bases in those areas but i've got about five titles lined
up i have my magic consultant who's working on different tricks for that and then i'll come up
with some concepts as well we We'll sit down together.
We'll kind of figure out what the best tricks are,
what's going to go the most viral.
Practice them.
Exactly, and then we'll go shoot them.
Well, how long does it take for you to practice something until you feel like you've actually mastered it
where you can get it 9 out of 10 times
or 99 out of 100 times
where you've performed it perfectly?
Yeah, well, I'd first getting the first 90 percent
of a trick so if you say 100 is the best you can get a trick first 90 can be learned quite
relatively quickly yeah it's that final 10 that can take months or years to learn really yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah wow and so when you learn a new trick do you start performing it a week later
like if you if you learn it in a few days or you can't wait a few months where you're like okay let me really perfect this no i'm fast also you've got to
remember like this isn't live performance i'm filming this so if i mess up i just do it again
do it again you know yeah so you can you don't need it to be perfect every time you can just do
it and yeah you even you do fail videos as well we're like oh we messed up right right that was
initially i there was a you know a couple of tricks right where i like i didn't get it right and then there was a situation i can't remember which what happened oh yeah this
is what it was it was in it was in my rome video that went insane on 135 million views on facebook
over a million shares and what it was it was um these these three asian ladies sitting by like
the coliseum i saw this one exactly i You saw it, exactly. You burst out laughing.
You saw that in front of me, yeah.
And I went over to them
and I plucked like a sponge ball
from behind their ear, right?
And I was expecting, you know,
applause,
just some type of reaction.
And they just stared at me, right?
And I just kind of stared at them.
And it was just this moment of nothingness.
And, you know,
I put that into the video as this kind of fast- of nothingness and you know i i put that into
the videos this kind of fast-paced viral you know like crazy like high energy magic like boom boom
everyone's tagging their friends sharing but then the most the most tags and shares of those tags
and seem to be from comments this clip yeah exactly the most comments where everyone's
tagging their friends going lol this is yeah so so i was from the fail it's from a fail trip
right right right exactly and then i
have the slow-mo with the sad music yes for me yeah exactly i wouldn't say that too much you
might get striked on youtube yeah you're allowed to do like a two-second clip or something right
yeah exactly um amazing so you started realizing that they you know you started testing these
different things what was the first video that actually went viral for you?
When was it?
So the first video went viral was not even magic.
It was actually, it was like a snake prank.
And I just took a fake snake and I put it on people in London on South Bank.
And I made a little compilation of it, posted it online,
and it just started getting hundreds of thousands of shares. And I think the video is now 50 million Facebook views.
Wow. When was this, a year ago? This was about a year ago ago this was yeah about a year ago so it wasn't even a magic trick right video right yeah prank video yeah yeah and and then when did
you try to do the magic style of a viral video so magic style was well i'd basically been incorporating
magic the whole way so bits and pieces of magic kind of more prank sketch
orientated videos and then my first viral magic video was called the invisible chair illusion
right and i basically took i basically where you sit down and one leg or whatever right exactly and
then i can lean back it's like the matrix i always wonder how that trick happens keep wondering my
friend yeah yeah i always wondered that i don't know if i saw i think i saw
a video of someone else doing this yeah it was with you yeah it's actually funny sit down and
like reading a paper and you're like right but that's exactly that's exactly what i did yeah
it's funny that trick yeah i did that trick and then it trended i think it got like half a million
views on youtube and then like 20 30 million views on facebook just doing in different locations and
getting reactions right or the people walking by exactly homeless people like well you know whatever exactly interesting so what that was about a
year ago as well about yeah right afterwards that right yeah yeah i just started i was a
production machine when i when i started the social media game i was a production machine
like i would i would go i was third year of university i'm 23 now i was 22 back then or
you know maybe just turning 22.
So it was about a year and a half.
And I was intent on building my social media profile.
So I didn't have a lot of money in the bank,
but I would hire videographers on Craigslist or Gumtree
for like 50 to $100.
They'd come out with me for the day.
We'd come up with a concept.
We'd go out, film it all day, have a laugh.
And then I would take the footage the footage go home edit it up and i would post it online the same day i was in like the the the the drive i had back then and i was making
three four videos a week so i was really production machine i was production editing you know
protagonist and the actor in the video so yeah so you know creating the storyline creating everything exactly yeah and then i and then i had the situation with one of my videos just pop
and the thing about social media is once one thing goes viral your audience will just come
it's crazy so the first videos weren't going as viral maybe it sounds like until yeah how long
were you doing these three to four videos a week until one popped yeah i was put about six six
six seven months.
Really?
Six, seven months of nothingness.
What's nothingness?
A couple thousand views or 10,000 views maybe?
Is this on Facebook or YouTube or both?
This is on both, basically, yeah.
So a couple thousand views.
Well, actually, I'll tell you.
It was, yeah, a couple thousand views.
Now, should I tell you about my strategy in terms of how I blew up?
Yeah, yeah.
But first off, I mean, yes, I want to hear that.
So you did the snake video first, which got many views about 30 40 million and then after that you started doing three to four videos a week for months i was doing i was
doing three to four actually i'll tell you i'll tell you that actually it wasn't the snake video
that went viral first it was a prank video with this with like a girl that was the first video
that popped but it was basically the same time as a snake video they were within about two three days of each other yeah the first video
that went absolutely bonkers was a was a was like a prank war i did with this girl who was like my
my girlfriend at the time and then i posted that video online and that's what popped got it and
this was after six months of you doing videos that weren't doing anything they were they were doing a
little bit bits and pieces yeah yeah i was getting some traction, but I had about 10,000 likes.
Yeah, that's it.
Yeah, it was a grind.
For six months, trying, working every single day, 10,000 fans.
Yeah, yeah.
10,000 to 50,000 views, maybe a video max.
Right, right, right, exactly.
What kept you continuing to do this when you weren't making any money,
your audience wasn't growing, you weren't seeing the views grow?
Why did you keep doing this grind yeah 10 12 hours a day yeah well it's the social
media building a following is is priceless you can't buy a social media following so i saw the
value in that i still do um and the fact i was getting some positive comments i think drove you
enough yeah yeah and you were in college you didn't have too many responsibilities so like
honestly it was there was a level of boredom.
There was absolutely.
I was at university.
I don't know how it is in America,
but in the UK,
you sometimes get six, seven, eight hours a week
of lecture time.
Yeah, bored.
My degree was relatively easy.
I had a lot of free time.
I had some options.
I could either go to the societies or the clubs.
And I was like, right,
I really want to build the social media.
I'm doing some magic gigs.
I understand the kind of the magic world.
And I understand, you know, I spent a year in UCLA.
So I met a lot of the, I met the kind of Vine community.
So I was, when I got back to the UK for my year abroad,
I was intent on building what they'd already done.
It's crazy.
These people in LA.
Machines.
Machines. They built, you you know fantastic incomes and fantastic careers off their hard work
in their childhood and their young adulthood so when i got back to london i was like right i really
should have been making videos so yeah i just did it and i was driven and i think it was a mixture of
um free time boredom yeah a bit of boredom. Okay. And also good fitness.
I think if you know
when you're going to the gym every day
and you're eating super healthy
you just your mind
is in a different place.
Yeah clear.
You have ideas running all the time
and you want to go create.
Exactly.
Exactly.
You wanted to build something.
Yeah.
So
but it still took you some time
to kind of figure it out.
These six month window of time
where you weren't really
doing much
but it was kind of like your testing ground.
You were seeing what worked, what didn't work.
Right.
Then you figured out the model, it sounds like.
You did a couple of videos that went viral.
And is that when you were like, okay,
now I see all the elements that need to be in one video
for it to have the potential to get some traction?
Is that what you kind of recognized as this aha moment?
Yeah, yeah.
So let me give you the rundown.
So I had no followers, no likes. likes step one get my friends and family to
like my page right you know message everyone hey can you like my page beg them please i don't have
anything cool yeah do it anyways yeah and it's funny because i i sent everyone uh that question
the same copy and pasted hey can you like my page exactly and it's funny because these people hit me
up like a year and a half later and like oh hey like i'm doing a i'm doing a fundraiser and i just see like the previous
thing it's me asking them a question yeah you know it's interesting that but um that was step one
and then so step two which was going to take me from about a thousand likes to seven thousand
likes overnight was what i would do is i would i was thinking how could i make my videos get some
traction okay so um on, it was about Reddit.
Reddit, trying to get on the front page of Reddit,
just trying to get, I mean,
I'd have like fake proxy accounts doing upvotes and stuff,
which is how some of my videos got like a million views.
But more Facebook orientated,
what I would do is I would reach out to pages
that have followings, right?
And there are so many pages on Facebook
with 200,000 likes, 400,000 likes, et cetera,
as there are YouTube channels with 200,000 likes 400,000 likes etc as there are YouTube
channels with 200,000 subscribers etc so I would basically message hundreds of them and say hey
got a great video can you share my video and the way I would find these pages is I would go onto
another viral page so for example like you know whatever go onto Tiger's page and then I would
click on all the people the shares to say it's got 100,000 shares on the video. I would just choose one person, right?
And their public profiles
because they appear in the shares.
And then I would just go on that profile
and just scroll through their newsfeed,
this random person somewhere in the world
and just see what stuff they'd shared.
And it's usually from pages.
So then I would just find loads of random pages
from around the world
through finding these random people
from these public celebrities or viral pages. And I would send them the message hey i'm you know got a great video
can you share that video right and i would i mean it was i sent so many messages i ended up getting
blocked for a day um yeah yeah and and what happened is is after sending a couple of hundred
messages i eventually got a response you got 10 20 different pages that are like sure i'll share
it out yeah it's It's interesting, right?
Yeah.
It wasn't 10,
20 pages,
but there were a few.
Okay.
Some asked for money.
Yeah.
Some did it from the kindness
of their heart
or whatever reason.
I'm not sure why they did it,
but I got a page
called Mayor Boss.
He had 5 million followers.
Mayor?
M-A-Y-O-R
space B-O-S-S.
Mayor Boss.
He's going to get
an influx of messages now.
And for some
for some reason
on a thousand likes
he
I got a message from him
a month later
and he said
yeah bro
got you
I'm like what
and then I look at my pages
and I'm
I'm refreshing
and they're just
bombing up
the likes on my page
because he shared one video
he shared one of my videos
it got reshared
and when something gets
reshared on Facebook
the traffic will just
come back in because your video will appear on the news feed with the like button
next to it right so i went from a thousand to seven thousand likes overnight and that was really
what gave me the momentum i was like oh when people share my videos yeah and it's exactly
grow it faster exactly and i thought i'd made it i was like mom i'm done with university that's it
see you later guys yeah yeah okay yeah and then the grind continued and then there was um and
then i there were some big pages on facebook that run apps in the background right so i've got a
good friend um cool who runs a page called fortify right and they run the app color switch um color
switch has been on the top 10 in the app store for the last um
year pretty much kind of moving off occasionally but it's top 10 you know making a lot of money
from the ad revenue something you know it's like number six or something on the free anyway their
business model is they get influencers who are small on facebook or on social media to make them
a video that involves their game and in return they get a tag so you know
if you're a big page and fortify has 10 million followers sure right so it's big
page right there like a viral sharing page but so so you're an influencer I'm
for defy I say to you you know can you make me a video and in return I'll give
you a share I'll give you a tag so that means when the video goes viral there
are your page will be tagged exactly So then I started getting traffic from that.
And also, maybe down the line,
if you need some help with a share,
later down the line,
I'm going to do that for you.
So I made a ton of videos.
I started getting followers just off the tag
because I had a big page using my content.
And then at the same time,
I was making my own content.
And then one day, this was actually the first truly viral video um february the 14th 2016 i made this video at 6
1 p.m it was it was probably about 2 30 p.m i remember it was exactly i remember it because
it changed my life because i went from a small-time influencer but i went from 60 000 likes to half a
million likes overnight right i mean guy. To the guy.
Yeah.
A celebrity in a moment.
Dude, it was nuts.
And people were hitting me up
from all around the world.
So let's just backtrack to it.
So I made this video,
and I had earned a share
from a powerful page.
Now, to get a viral video online
in any aspect,
whether it's Instagram, Facebook,
YouTube, et cetera,
you've got to have good content
and good distribution, right?
To start with now
that I've built you know 10 million followers I don't necessarily need people to help me out
because I've got my own audience they're going to share distribution exactly exactly well it's still
under Facebook but you know more so than someone with no followers but it's very important to
consider so the point is I had a great viral video proven by the fact it got reshared so many times
but I had a great video that was obviously had fact it got re-shared so many times. But I had a great video
that obviously had viral potential.
Posted it on my page.
It was doing really well.
And then I hit up my share pod.
I hit up Fortify.
I said, hey, bro.
Can you give me a share?
I've got my credit.
I want you to share this one.
This is it.
This is the one.
This is the one.
How many views did you have
before he shared?
It's like a couple of thousand.
Oh, so it wasn't even that viral yet
10,000
it had like 100 shares
I was like whoa
100 shares in like an hour
but you were like okay it's got something
I mean
for your audience size
you're like oh that's more than like 20
which I normally get
exactly
got it
so you're like okay this is the one
yeah this is the one
so I posted
so I got him to share it
and it was just mayhem
I did not sleep for like 36 hours refresh refresh refresh I was just refresh refresh and it was just mayhem for the time i did not sleep for like 36 hours refresh refresh
i was just refreshed refresh and i was just watching i was i was every time i'd refresh
my likes i would go up like 100 200 likes and pop like it was in and this video was trending so i
ended up getting like over half a million shares and then the next the next day how many views did
it get you got like seven 76 million views something like that. And the most you ever got before then was? I mean,
maybe 50,
100,000 views.
Wow.
Yeah,
yeah,
yeah.
But it basically led me.
Showed you the power of distribution.
Right,
right,
exactly.
Because having a viral video on its own
or a great piece of content on its own
is not going to get the views
unless you have some help with distribution,
it sounds like.
yeah,
well,
I mean,
it's different on Facebook to YouTube.
YouTube, the algorithm can pick it up or reddit can pick it up but on facebook the barriers to entry are
much lower so if you can find someone so people who are watching this might be thinking right how
can i create my own viral video for my product or for myself if you can find a page that is willing
to share your content whether for a fee or for free or you can do some type of favor in return
like exactly i i've done
all three then you can take that video and potentially make it go viral but you need to
have good content and that is what most people miss they miss either good content or good
distribution as you mentioned at the beginning so if you're someone like me i don't know if you've
you've seen some of my stuff it's mostly inspirational interviews, inspiring people, moments, messages, two to three minutes,
kind of inspirational words, speeches type of stuff.
How could someone like myself continue to not even just grow, but take it to a 100x
different level?
Is there a way to do that?
Yeah, absolutely.
Obviously, there's other pages like Goldcast and other pages that do this with videos.
They're just taking two-minute clips of Arnold Schwarzenegger and then creating like a little viral video and they've figured out how to do it.
But what would you recommend for someone like me or I guess really just anyone?
You know what I mean?
Anyone in any space of business or industry.
Right, right, right.
Well –
Because they might say, well, he's a magician so it's like a cool thing to watch and I'm like yeah uh you know an entrepreneur that just sells insurance you know whatever i don't know yeah no i understand
what you're saying well look the what i would say is that when you're looking on your news feed
things are going viral from all walks of life whether it's inspirational talks to um you know
to to to ask for you know uh you know cancer research donations to puppies to to magic tricks
to social experiments to you know
health awareness everything in its different formats political stuff everything exactly
right so so people that say oh you're a magician you know you know it's not even true because most
magicians don't go viral i'm right i mean i think i'm the only really the only really really really
viral magician i've got a few friends that are doing social media really well but i'm definitely
the one that's consistently making viral videos so i wouldn't for magic for magic um so i wouldn't i
wouldn't say that oh you're a magician that makes much difference because a lot of magicians that
can't get any views exactly exactly but what i mean there are a few great guys don't get me wrong
um but what i would say is um you there is there is a formula to going viral okay particularly
particularly on facebook right and the formula is to remember okay that that um on facebook people are just scrolling let's scroll scroll
scroll scroll scroll so you've got to catch them right on youtube is a different story
youtube is about long form content it's about fan base right facebook is about virality it's about
sharing it's about something exploding on the internet.
So you've got to remember, YouTube and Facebook are very different. They're both powerful. So
what I would say is that for my YouTube audience, I've got a more, and my Instagram audience,
I've got a more loyal fan base to understand what I'm up to in life. With Facebook, it's just about
viral. If you can smash 100 million views on a video, you can build a huge audience. And from
that, you can target ads, you can build a business you you know get exposure you can potentially you know start
to get loads of emails um from building your brand but but let me answer your question so
on facebook people are scrolling you need to catch their attention so forget about a long
introduction right the first three seconds are crucial so if i was in your position right let
me say in my position i've just released a video on Facebook called Miami Reacts to Magic.
It's on about three and a half million views
in three hours.
And the first three seconds of that video,
something really interesting is happening.
It's like, bang, magic trick,
someone freaks out, right?
So it's catchy.
First three seconds.
So you got that formula down, you know,
okay, here's the moment,
we're putting that first.
Yeah, and to put that into your position,
say you were going to do an inspirational talk
on how to build a business.
For me, if I was in your position,
which is a similar thing to what Gary Vaynerchuk has done,
some of his videos have had 20, 30, 50 million views
on Facebook.
He starts with something interesting.
So he'll ask you a question, you know?
So it might be, you know,
the first three seconds might be,
so what do you want in life?
That could be an example, you know?
Or it could be like,
when you die what are
you going to regret just something that brings people in right so that so that's why i would
say have a have a snappy introduction have a question evoking question exactly exactly yeah
it doesn't necessarily have to be a question but just think to yourself are people going to find
this interesting yes because i've seen the difference between putting a boring introduction
and an interesting introduction and it can lead to the difference of millions of views right because
people click off straight away,
you're going to have way less people
who are going to share that video.
It's going to go way less viral.
Okay, so that's the first part.
First part.
So, okay, so forget these long introductions.
It's not a YouTube video.
People don't know who you are.
You're talking to people
that some of them may have no idea who you are.
Right.
Especially when it gets re-shared
onto some random person's timeline
in the Philippines.
Yes.
You know, they just want to see something in action.
Yes.
Right?
Second thing, right?
Make sure that what the content you're making
is common.
People want to tag their friends, right?
So if you're doing something inspirational,
you want to create the type of content
that people want to tag their friends.
So whether it's funny or emotionally eliciting
or it's cute, right?
It's very important that you're creating format
that people want to tag their friends
because that's what Facebook is all about and Instagram as well.
People tagging their friends, making each other aware.
The most viral videos in the world
are the ones where people are tagging their friends
and shareable videos, which is inherent to the video being viral.
Right, right. Okay.
So that's the next thing.
Yeah.
Is there another element?
There's having, I think, clickbait, having a clickbait thumbnail. Having an image. Do. So that's the next thing. Yeah. Is there another element? Oh, there's having,
I think clickbait,
having a clickbait thumbnail.
Having an image.
Do you always have an image thumbnail
on Facebook as well?
I actually take it separately.
Yeah, I take it separately.
Separate image.
Yeah.
And you upload it with the video.
You can make a thumbnail
in Facebook videos.
Is that the deal?
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
I subtitle everything.
On Facebook,
70% of people
sometimes won't.
Don't turn on the sound.
Right, because they're at work
they're scrolling
you know there's no sound
so I subtitle everything manually
I know Facebook have like an auto subtitle
but I don't even bother with that
I just subtitle it manually
make it crystal clear
you want to make your content crystal clear
where some videos lack
is there is a lack of clarity
so maybe you know 15 seconds to 19 seconds
there's you know something happens
it's not very usually exactly exactly and then there's no easier place to exit than the internet
you just carry on scrolling you click on lost gone exactly so it's got to be crystal clear
throughout the entire thing what's the duration the length that you found is the best length for
something to be shared yeah so if we're talking facebook i guess right now we're on the facebook
topic i'd say between one and two minutes.
Facebook are pushing longer form content.
So if you can make a two, three minute video
that's viral, that's a great video,
then so be it.
But six second videos don't really seem to do,
if you look at your feed now,
there's not really many six second videos anymore,
are they?
Because on the algorithm,
Facebook are pushing long form content
the same way
they're introducing
new TV shows
and they're introducing
monetization for videos
over a minute and a half.
They're introducing
this big glossing.
An ad in a half way.
Exactly.
That's being introduced.
So yeah.
So a minute to two minutes
and if you can extend it
to three or four
and still keep it interesting
and good edits
and subtitles crystal clear
and unique and you know or thought provoking then you can kind of stretch it to three or four and still keep it interesting and good edits and subtitles crystal clear and
unique and you know or thought-provoking then you can kind of stretch it to three or four
sounds right i keep my videos i try and keep them between two and three minutes because i know that
that's going to reach most of my audience because it's a it's a longer form video so it's going to
you know show better on the algorithm and then what about the end of a video we talked about
the beginning yeah middle what about the end yeah well it? We talked about the beginning, the middle.
What about the end?
Yeah, well, it's nice to have a twist.
So if you look at the most viral videos on the planet
with the Viners or even with my video,
so the video that got 135,
whatever it is, 133 million views from May,
there was a funny twist at the end,
which is where I steal the guy's girlfriend
with a magic trick.
And it was more of a sketch
than an actual trick.
But people tagged
the hell out of that.
The grandparents, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
The older lady
and the older guy
who's like running after you
in Rome or something.
Yeah, yeah.
The video,
it was called
How to Impress a Girl
with a Magic Trick.
And the final clip
was that I make a lollipop
appear from fire.
Yes.
And then she'd give me
a kiss on the cheek.
And then the final,
the very final clip
is me walking off with her and her husband running after me shouting no that's my wife yes cut people
it's just funny yeah people want to share i mean that video has over a million shares crazy yeah
right now it's getting shares probably about you know 50 to 100 shares a minute right in this very
second still yeah yeah months later yeah exactly it's still going viral yeah so do you always have a
twist at the end then not every time why not if you know that's the thing that does it yeah well
it's difficult to come up with twists yeah i mean i've the video i've released logan talked about
this though too when i had him on he was like always having like a double you know joke in the
joke and in a six when he was talking about vining back right he was like
you know something about he didn't slip on the banana pill and then he did and then he did a
backflip you know it's like a whole joke and a joke and a joke you know bringing it full circle
or whatever so you've got to think about what people want to share if you can if you can they
watch a great video they've enjoyed it oh this, this is cool. You know that, you know, and then something happens that brings them to the next level of emotion.
They're going to share that.
Yeah.
Or much more chance.
I'm going to share it.
Then if it kind of goes up and then it goes down,
you know,
because if it goes down,
then people go,
that's kind of a move on.
Yeah.
You want to keep the,
you want to keep the excitement high,
you know,
and then you can kind of like bump up and down,
but you want to make the ending.
Great.
You know,
so if you look at my,
my last,
my last video that I posted last week
or the video that I posted today with Miami,
the ending, it's not a twist, but it's a great trick.
Everyone's freaking out, high energy, bang, finish.
So it should get a lot of virality from it.
Yeah, I think it's got 20,000 shares
since I posted it a couple hours ago.
How many times are you posting a week right now?
Posting once a week. Once a week yeah is that kind of the format too if you post
too much every day or every every week is it too much or um i would say it just takes time for you
to kind of develop a great video yeah well i'm focusing on other things as well so i mean i'm
doing i'm doing like corporate appearances um i've got production meetings which my agent resorted
out in la so I've been in LA
the last couple of weeks
for some kind of stuff
in that area.
But I don't need to be quantity.
I don't need to post
three, four videos a week.
I'm going to get burnt out.
You know,
I think with Facebook,
it's about viral.
So as long as I'm staying,
as long as I'm smashing
a 50 million view video.
People are still seeing
the video everywhere.
It's like,
you don't need to create
new content
exactly
and if I take
you've got to treat
every platform differently
so Facebook
the great thing about it
is if I don't post
for two months
well I'm not going to
fizzle out
I've seen some
YouTube channels
you've got to keep it up
consistently
I've seen some
big YouTube channels
miss a month
dead
dead to the world
can you imagine
you spend years
of your life building a relationship and then and then go i'm just burnt out i need a break right
too bad right which is lost people right right which is why it's so important heartbreaking it
is i would feel so sad if it happened to me fortunately i'm diversifying my audience i've
got you know one and a half million on on instagram um i've got a big snapchat audience about two three two two hundred fifty thousand daily snapchat viewers so i am moving them around
and i'm you know i'm doing it you know smart yeah what if one platform shuts you down for whatever
reason it's like oh exactly you're gonna spread it out yeah one thing i've learned is you can't
trust the the social media platform and they're not working for me you know i mean facebook's a
data company i mean i'm i'm helping them. You know, they're helping me,
but you know,
they're certainly not looking out for me.
No,
it's not like YouTube.
You know,
YouTube has a more community spirit.
Facebook is about viral,
you know,
trends,
moves,
fast moving,
you know,
but the benefit of the fast moving elements is that,
you know,
I can not post for a month and a half.
And then if I post an amazing video later,
it will go viral.
I don't,
I don't give six weeks off generally,
but I'll try and post once a week.
So,
and then as when I,
every time I post a viral video,
my Instagram will fly up.
You know,
my other socials will fly up.
Everything.
Yeah,
exactly.
Yeah.
So are you always doing new tricks as well?
Or do you repeat some of the tricks in your videos from previous?
Does it matter?
Yeah,
generally I do new stuff.
New stuff.
Yeah.
There's so,
there's so much out there in the magic world.
It's pretty crazy. There's like a, this is probably like a thousand tricks you could do with
a dollar bill it's you know i mean yeah that pack of cards over there i can i can entertain people
for hours yeah i mean it's just so and that's just a pack of cards coin same thing there's
millions of gimmicks there's different jokes on the same uh-huh yeah yeah are there any other
elements to a viral video that you think people should know about for Facebook?
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
Those are the main things.
Just keep it snappy.
Remember just to dive straight into it.
Don't bother with introducing yourself and all that jazz.
Right.
You stole my cards.
Magically appeared.
Wow.
There you go.
What's your vision?
I mean, it's been a year and a half, essentially,
since you've kind of gone from a nobody to having this recognition.
Like even when you came into the building, the doorman was like,
hey, aren't you Julius from Facebook?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, people are recognizing you all over the place.
You've done events with – is this correct?
You did events with Nelson Mandela and Kelly Rowland's birthday
and One Direction and Russell Brand and all these other people.
You've done different appearances for them.
What's it like for you now?
Again, a year and a half ago in school, you graduated.
Yeah.
Graduated.
And now all of a sudden, essentially kind of like overnight, you're getting this recognition.
How is that?
How are you staying humble, grounded?
Are you letting it get to your head? Is your ego bigger than your hair right now? My head's pretty big. night you're getting this recognition yeah how is that how are you staying humble grounded are
you letting it get to your head is your ego bigger than your hair right now my hair's pretty big i
know it's the jufa exactly yeah how are you managing it are you keeping good people around
you or people that are more like building you up too much what are you doing yeah well it's
this is a business well i'm having a great time i'm loving life i'm making a sustainable
income that's allowing me to travel create viral videos yeah um but this is this is my life right
and this is i don't see this as just like oh yeah i'm getting people dming on instagram right this
is like it's all about you know keep it keep seeing this as a business so um i have a business
model right and i have a way in which i deal with this so So I've got, so for example, at the end of every,
so let me tell you like the way I've broken it down, right?
So I've got the viral videos, right?
Which correlates to the ad revenue.
Which this is the way a lot of the YouTubers
and other social media stars will see it.
So you've got the ad revenue, right?
Which is one aspect of the business model.
You've got the live shows, live touring,
which is something I'm really excited about.
So at the end of every video, I'll'll say tell me where to go next right and then i'll get thousands of people commenting coming to florida come to fort lauderdale come to australia and that
creates people in their mind they're thinking about me coming to their city right and i'm
exciting a tour exactly why that's exactly what i'm doing and i'm excited because no there are i
don't think there's anyone in the world as a magician this constantly weekly creating viral magic
videos that have that kind of message which is I'm coming to this city I'm
coming to that city I think it is unique yeah right so I'm very excited for light
so light so live touring ad revenue which is kind of along YouTube and
Facebook Facebook's monetized now so that's important as well. Brand deals.
So as my profile builds,
as I get more Instagram followers,
more Facebook followers,
as my identity builds,
as I do more celebrity collaborations,
that's really important.
I've got the corporate side of things.
So doing corporate speaking,
kind of high profile events.
And then there's merch.
And I guess also kind of something similar to that
is book deals.
So these are all things,
and also live performance as well.
So, you know, whether it's like a Nelson Mandela's birthday party,
whatever it is, but that's a little bit similar to corporate events.
So those are kind of the areas of focus.
So really, the way I look at it is just to try and work on all those areas.
So, you know, I've got an agent and a manager that are, you know are helpful, but I'm certainly the one driving it.
Driving it all, yeah.
Yeah, so I mean, I could sit around and-
Wait, but they're not going to do anything.
I mean, one thing I've learned is people generally aren't going to do things for you.
Yeah.
That's, you know, the number of friends I've got in Los Angeles who are like, bro, I just need a good manager.
And I've said it as well.
Manager's not going to do anything for you.
You've got to be driving it it then they can kind of help support
and help make decisions
and negotiate
but you can't expect to be like,
I'm talented,
a manager's going to pick me up
and just make me millions.
It's just not going to happen.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And that's why it's important
to remain extremely proactive,
to expect nothing from people,
to surround yourself
with as many good people as you can.
It's so important.
If you're around good energy,
like my buddy over there,
he's come with me,
Danny,
shout out,
you know,
just good energy,
people that push you
outside your comfort zone,
that's really important
and to remain current.
Yeah,
I mean,
I made a video last week
in New York,
you know,
that went viral
and,
you know,
all of a sudden
I get a message from MTV.
So I had a meeting
with them this morning
about potentially
developing something and that's happened multiple times with different news outlets and and you know all of a sudden i get a message from mtv so i had a meeting with them this morning about potentially developing something and that's happened multiple times with
different news outlets and you know messages to come to india to perform at big events and all
this type of thing and the grand prix in a few months so um just for me the most important thing
is to stay hot um to tweaks to to and then to kind of focus on those areas of the business model
yeah um and then hopefully to leverage that into the TV stuff,
into the live stuff, into developing my brand further.
What's the vision for you, I guess, in the next few years then?
I guess that's it.
That's it.
It's to really – I'm having a great time.
You're 23.
You're just getting started.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm hitting new cities.
When I was 23, I didn't even know anything.
I was just like, what do I do?
Yeah, you seem to be doing great as well. Thanks, man. Yeah. exactly I'm hitting new cities when I was 23 I didn't even know like anything you know I was just like what do I do yeah
well you seem to be
doing great as well
thanks man
yeah
you run a school of greatness
you're great
thanks
there you go
but 23 you've done so much
and you've got
you know
so much has got to change
over the next five years
yeah
two years
a lot's got to change
five years
ten years
it's going to be
a completely different life
for you
different experience
you're going to learn so much
you're going to probably
make a ton of mistakes.
It's going to take a lot of risk right now,
I'm assuming.
And the stuff you think is going to work may not.
It might.
And stuff that you're like,
oh, we were just doing this for fun,
it's going to blow up.
You never know.
Definitely.
But if you could have it your way
with your clearest vision
in the next three to five years,
where do you think you'd want to be?
Yeah, right.
So it's a great question.
Think about it all the time.
I want to build my brand on all the platforms.
Right now, social media is power.
It is.
I mean, currency.
I mean, I did a collaboration last night
with a big YouTuber called David Dobrik
and he's not paying me.
I'm not paying him
right
the currency is
social media promotion
so
in the next
six or twelve months
I want to keep pushing
these viral videos
across my platforms
I want to get to
15, 20 million followers
on Facebook
and
yeah I mean now
every video I'm posting
is bumping me up
about half a million likes
so I mean
I don't know if I should
you know
if I refresh on my Facebook page right now,
I just constantly flick up, up, up,
every, you know, 50 likes, 50 likes.
So keep building my viral Facebook videos
that are getting me kind of worldwide recognition.
Focus on my YouTube audience,
which is, you know, the vlogging,
the more personal audience.
And then use that content to build my brand to get more to kind of get the
celebrity collabs in the next you know a couple of months drake followed me the other day on
instagram you know we had a little chit chat so maybe do some stuff with him do some stuff with
i did some magic with tiger the other day at an event but just build build you know become more
mainstream i guess is the point there yeah um have a have a tv show that's based around my brand my
travel my kind of pranky magic type brand
and then yeah
just to build the Julia Steen brand
over the next couple of years
and to position myself
as the leading
you know
fresh
pioneering
kind of social media
came from social media
magician
slash personality
but it's going to take a lot of grind
I'm happy that I'm
you know
a few of the footsteps in
but it's going to take a lot of work to really'm happy that I'm a few of the footsteps in, but it's going to take a lot of work
to really move off social media to the mainstream.
And I think that's the great challenge.
Not many social media celebrities or influencers
have done that.
I don't know actually many,
they've got their social media fame,
but they haven't converted into mainstream fame,
whether it be kind of the acting world
or like the credible magician world
or whatever it is, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
Do you know of any?
Who's really been able to translate it to be like,
oh, they're accepted within that space
and that industry is like somewhat credible.
Yeah, yeah.
Do you know?
Not really.
The YouTubers,
you got Lindsey Stirling maybe
as like a violin YouTuber
who's like now selling out arenas.
Yeah.
But she's a great performer and a great musician.
Do you know any other?
Not really.
Not really.
No,
but it's still very new.
They don't need to.
I can't remember their names,
but there is a YouTube channel that got picked up and became like a TV show.
I can't remember their name,
but I'm not worried.
You know,
I'm not,
I'm one thing I've,
I've,
I feel we were speaking about this the other day when we were hanging out is just not to focus too much
on other people.
Yeah.
Because they're on their journeys
and I'm on my journey.
As far as I'm concerned,
I'm doing something right.
You know,
I'm building my brand
and as we spoke about
at the beginning of this podcast,
magic touches people.
It gets right into their mind.
So,
and I'm all,
I'm in the habit
of getting outside my comfort zone
as much as possible.
So when I go to an event,
so when I was at the event the other day with Tiger,
you know, ran straight up to him.
I was like, hey, let me show you some magic.
You know, we've got it on video, you know, cool little bit.
But just, it's about the offline and the online.
So, you know, and that's what's important for me.
So I'm not thinking about other people.
Can they get to the, can they make it to the mainstream?
I think I can. And I think it's just about um the the right strategy keep pumping those viral videos
and then the offline approach which is celebrity collabs building up a fantastic live tour where
i'll go and see all those fans in different cities and and do something fantastic where i have a show
and then i think off the back of that it's just about brand building that's it man yeah doing shows like this yeah exactly exactly there we go what do you think's
missing or what do you think is going to be your biggest challenge in order to make this happen
yeah good question biggest challenge I think I'm so I'm building my team finding the right people
making sure yes makes, making sure.
Team is everything.
I think, yeah, I mean, you know, Dynamo, friend of mine,
he's got a fantastic manager, right?
And he was with him on the journey from the start.
So he got it.
He understood the whole process.
Yeah, he had a great magic team, right?
You know, a guy called Tom, a guy called Harry.
He's got a fantastic team, right? And if you look at any of the big social media stars and the mainstream stars as well, you know a guy called tom um a guy called harry he's got a fantastic team right and if you
look at any of the big social media stars and the mainstream stars as well you know they're only as
good as their team so my challenge in the upcoming months is to build a fantastic team whether it's
on the creative the vlogging videography side of things i mean i've already got some fantastic
people i've got a great magic consultant i've got a great like creative director um who you know i
can bounce ideas off um i've got a good editor as well but just about you know being the glue
to that team because i'm effectively a ceo of this team right and it's about keeping it together
and then sticking going on the journey up yeah well yeah i like it man and how's your family
supporting this now you know now so much has changed for the last year and a half what are
they are they supportive and are you the only child or yeah i've got two sisters asha tara my
little brother jonas two older sisters one one one older sister one younger sister and a little
brother got it and they all supportive and yeah they're great yeah great great family my dad still
doesn't know what twitter is right so i still struggle explaining to him that this is what i
do for a living yeah you know. But they're very supportive.
They know at the very least
they know that I'm funding my own lifestyle.
Yeah.
So they're not giving me any money.
Sure.
And they haven't given me any money.
I mean, they've obviously helped my life.
Right.
I mean, right now I'm running a business
and this is my lifestyle
and everyone I bring into it,
my people that come on my travels,
the people that help me with the videos,
that's all funded by me.
And they know that and they see the viral video. know, that's all funded by me and they know that
and they see the viral video.
My mom sees the viral videos as well
and she shows us.
Yeah,
and when her friends are like,
oh,
your child is doing something funny
or liked it
then it gives her some joy probably.
Yeah,
I mean,
I'm sure they're proud of me.
Yeah,
of course.
You know,
I'm very lucky to have my family
who are very supportive of what I do.
Yeah.
So my dad always said to me,
he always said,
you know,
just do what makes you happy.
Even the other day, I rang him up, I'm like, dad, said to me, he always said, you know, just do what makes you happy. Even the other day,
I rang him up.
I'm like,
dad,
thinking about moving to America,
you know,
it's just such a great place.
And my,
it was a little bit sad on the phone,
but he just said,
you know what,
you know,
this is your life.
You know,
you decide what you want to do.
And you know,
I'm very lucky to have that.
Yeah.
Are you going to move here?
That's a good question.
You'd like that,
wouldn't you?
That'd be fun.
It might happen.
I'm thinking about it. Or at least coming here like every couple of months for a month, you'd like that wouldn't you that'd be fun it might happen i'm thinking
about it or at least coming here like every couple months for a month you know at least
being here i feel like everyone in if you want to blow up in social media continue to grow you've
got to be coming to la for parts of the year i agree to have the relevancy the connection of the
influencers there's so much happening here yeah the center of the universe in that space and coming
from london i mean i mean the number
of times i've heard the word follower in my time in la is unbelievable like in london people don't
get it right i mean even like videographers like in camera and photographers right so in la in
london you know i'm looking for a good cameraman you know i'll get a quote you know the people
will quote me fees which is understandable right in la like i'll put one hashtag hashtag you know
whatever la or something okay and people messaging me all day on instagram hey can we do collab collab
collab collab and that's the culture social media followers equals currency you know and it's great
to be in a city where people are really they get it exactly yeah what does magic mean to you
to you? What does magic mean to me? Good question. Well, it's magic is magic is my language.
I'd say it's, it's my way of going into a room, a stuffy room full of, you know, high profile CEOs or, you know, a fashion event or, you know, even at a nightclub or a bar.
Whip out a pack of cards, do some mind-blowing stuff.
People, their comfort zone, they just become little kids again.
And whenever I leave the house, I'll carry some type of trick on me.
I think that's why people fall in love with magic and become magicians, because they can relate to people and talk to people in a way that's very unique.
I think it's a way
you can connect to someone
in such a powerful way
that most people can't do without magic.
It takes more of a time
to build a relationship and connect,
but you can connect in 30 seconds.
Yeah, exactly.
Blow someone's mind.
Especially when people think
you're getting in their mind.
Exactly.
If you're thinking right now
that I'm in your mind,
you're going to treat me very differently.
Level of respect. You're like, I'm going to in your mind, you're going to treat me very differently. Yeah.
If I'm-
Level of respect.
You're like, watch your back.
I reveal some stuff on the podcast.
Exactly.
Although you've got the editing control,
so probably not.
Exactly, exactly.
I like it, man.
I'm excited for you.
It's been really cool to get to know you
over the last, you know, this week.
And I'm excited for your future.
I think it's going to be amazing.
A couple of final questions for you.
This one's called the three truths.
It's what I ask all my guests at the end.
And imagine it's your last day
a hundred years from now
because you have this magic trick
that extends your life
and you live a lot longer than most people.
And you've achieved everything you want in your life.
Yeah.
Every dream you've ever wanted,
it's happened.
And then some.
Yeah.
You had the life of your dreams.
And everyone else around you did as well.
But for whatever reason, all the content you ever created was erased.
No one had access to any videos or anything that you'd ever done.
Books, whatever you decided to do.
But you have a piece of paper and a pen to write down the three lessons,
the three truths that you know about your experience of everything you've learned
and that's all that the world would have
left of Julius.
What would you write down as the three
truths that you would share
with the world? The three truths.
Okay.
It's actually funny because I can take
out my phone. I've got a list of quotes
I abide by. Oh, do you? Yeah.
One of them is be happy for this moment. This is your life so people watching this everyone is in different situations a lot of
people will will will hit me up they'll be like oh you're doing so well you've got millions of
followers it's funny because right now being in the heart of la la land all you're looking at is
the other influencers and the other people are pairing you've got five million followers who've
got 15 million Facebook followers.
And I've realised that it's going to be difficult
to be happy permanently if you're competitive.
So the first thing is just to be happy for this moment.
This moment is alive to try and enjoy now
because this is your life.
If it's not how you want it to be,
then that's a shame.
But you can't just spend your life
being miserable about it.
You have to try and enjoy what is on the table
rather than what isn't.
That's the first one.
Can I take a look?
Yeah, go ahead.
Here we go.
Oh, he's bringing you.
Yeah, yeah.
So, I don't know.
I think it's not on there anyway
whatever
I would say
what's my second one
I would say
right so this is something
I live by
it's important
and
I would say
just paleo
is so great
paleo
yeah
yeah
my phone actually
doesn't have the quotes
but it's fine whatever paleo I just think that not this my phone actually doesn't have the the quotes now all right it's
fine whatever paleo i just think that i mean i was eating really unhealthy um eating like a lot
of carbs and then i just started eating paleo and i just felt so much better and lifting and lifting
weights that was so great so taking care of your health yeah yeah but i just i cut out all carbs
this is kind of sounds a bit weird but i literally go this is this was actually when i was at the
peak of my viral video making not even
the peak of my video making
when I was just making
as much content
I was a production machine
with no followers
and I was just going
to the gym everyday
lifting weights
so important
because you just feel
so creative
and you just
and then just cutting out
carbs
right
and just all processed food
that's so important
and after I had
my viral video
that went crazy viral
I started eating carbs
again and you just feel like bloated you know but then you just cut out carbs you go to you try to
go to the gym as much as possible just life is better you just feel like you're living um you're
just more energized you see the vision you know you get more excited so that's the second thing
i would say if i was and then the third truth yeah the third the third truth um or lesson to live by lesson to live by
i'd say i would i mean i've got i've got this friend called evan burger shall i ever and when
i met this guy he would do he was just he had this he wrote down every day right what he would do to get outside his comfort zone and he is just a
fantastic human being right because that because that was that was his life his life was not to
stay in a shell and to always do things that can get outside your comfort zone right so like even
me right now i'm creating a magic product right i'm like should i do this shouldn't i do this
um and you know i'm creating this product
and you know i'm and it's like it's going to be a course and some magicians might go you know
julius dean is revealing tricks but i'm getting outside my comfort zone by creating this course
and i would say that um you know same with the same with starting social media and started making
videos especially in the uk where the the culture isn't as supportive it's far more reserved in london people kind of frown at you a lot more when you're walking down the
streets whereas in la everyone's super hyper happy for whatever it is you're doing oh you're homeless
fantastic you know so i would say that um when i well that's that was kind of what got me started
just to get outside my comfort zone to do what other people don't usually do you know is to do
kind of ridiculous snake pranks and to go doing magic on pretty girls you know people didn't didn't look at it positively at
first people were like what is this guy doing but once you achieve some form of success then people
will start to look at you a different way but i think whatever aspect it is of your life i think
it's really important to try and get outside of comfort zone as much as you can every day because
you know whether it's talking to a pretty girl or approaching a ceo or sending that email you just do it once you do it you never regret it
yeah yeah i like those men thank you well before i ask the final question and tell people where to
follow you i want to acknowledge you for a moment julius for your fun-loving nature i think the
world needs more joy more humor more um magic and you bring that magic to people's lives.
Even if it's for a moment
when they're watching a video on Facebook,
you bring someone who's driving a truck all day
like a little bit of joy to their life.
And we need more of that in our lives
to be happier, to live healthier,
and to get out of our comfort zone,
which one of your three truths are.
So I want to acknowledge you for being a young gun
who's just going after your dreams
and trying to have fun along the way.
I think it's a great example
that a lot of other young people
and older people should follow
is doing the things they love.
So I want to acknowledge you for that, man.
Before I ask the final question,
where should we connect with you online?
Where can they learn more about the magic products
and everything that you're doing?
Sure.
So best one, Instagram. Steen J UL I us de I n okay and then get
get me on there but Facebook but that's you know I'm all good with that yeah
you're trying to grow the Instagram yeah I went up I went up 40,000 likes this
morning on Facebook Wow so it's just once you hit a certain level it's just
natural now but I'm really focusing on Instagram it's just, once you hit a certain level, it's just natural now. But I'm really focusing
on Instagram.
Being in LA has reminded me
how powerful Instagram is.
It's huge, man.
It's huge.
And do you have a website too
where we can follow you
for future tour stuff
or anything like that?
Yeah, I've got,
we've got www.juliesteen.com
but, you know,
that's more my socials
at the moment.
Got it.
So follow you on social media,
you'll learn everything
about what you're doing.
It's going to be,
and you'll be targeted
with ads that day.
But you will be
I'm just kidding
watch a video
yeah watch 95%
of a video
to be targeted
with the magic
the magic products
sorry
we were having a conversation
about this before
yeah yeah
and if you watch 50%
of the ad
you're going to be retargeted
for the next three months
so check them out yeah um well i appreciate you coming on my my final question for you is
what's your definition of greatness to a definition of greatness
definition of greatness i think comes back to getting outside your comfort zone and to and to not being a sheep in the crowd and to um have an instinct in your body or in your mind and to swallowing your
insecurity and just to getting out and doing whatever it is and whether you succeed or whether
you fail as long as you grow as a person that's the most important thing because when you get
outside the comfort zone you feel alive the fun The fun-loving, real-world Harry Potter.
Julius Dean, thanks, brother.
Great to meet you.
Thank you.
I hope you enjoyed this one, my friends.
I loved connecting with Julius.
I think he's got a powerful perspective.
Again, a young guy who has worked hard for a couple of years
to figure out how to get these videos to go viral
and grow an audience.
He's done something very specific.
Mastered a craft of learning magic
and was doing that for a long time.
Then said, hey, how can I get my craft,
my art form, my skill
to reach millions of people around the world?
Then he perfected this art.
So I hope you enjoyed this.
Make sure to take a screenshot of the podcast
and tag at Julius Dean and at Lewis Howes over on Instagram. perfected this art. So I hope you enjoyed this. Make sure to take a screenshot of the podcast and
tag at Julius Dean and at Lewis Howes over on Instagram. And let me know what you thought.
It's lewishowes.com slash 523. So have your friends swipe up on your Instagram story to
listen to the episode and also check out the full video interview back at the show notes at lewishouse.com slash 523.
Again, we do not need magic to transform our world.
We carry all the power we need inside of ourselves already, said J.K. Rowling, because we are magical.
We have magic within us.
Bring it out.
Bring it alive in your craft, in your business, in your art form, in your sport, in your music, whatever it is.
Bring it alive to the world. Share it with the world. Use the things that we talked about today
on how you can spread your message to the world and attract people interested in who you are,
what you do, and the gifts you can bring to the world. I love you very much,
and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Come on.