The Art of Visual Storytelling: From Commercial Kitchens to Private Chef - Hercules Noble.

my heart just sang and I was like holy [ __ ] and I went and did it and she was like wait hang on all right man welcome to the podcast Stanley thank you for having me no thank you for coming in why don't you quickly introduce yourself and we'll get started hey guys my name is Hercules Noble um I'm a private chef and a content creator I cook for people for dinner parties events and things like that and I make silly ass s videos online and promote my private catering I love it I love this so much SC I don't know how much you know about me but like my old life was all hoso I was hos I did not know you had a background

in so I I like literally like ran hotels restaurants bars my whole career so you know the struggle dude you know struggle I how long we how long we going hospo for 15 years holy [ __ ] you lasted longer than me I don't consider myself as hoso still no you know I'm just private shift well I mean h hos for four or five years you're saying it's not the same the same it's a whole different world but still like it is still the world of service that's what I was going to say it's service it's not quite hospitality the difference that like where where I think Hospitality plays is that people who go to restaurants and bars and hotels maybe not nightclubs or Barry bars but

like when you're going into these places to have a meal or sleep or whatever it's kind of like a sick home you know what I mean like that doesn't happen to many other businesses right like in a lot like in our business we're definitely not a SE home like people are out of their comfort zone when they come here but you go to a restaurant you expect things to be the way they are at home Y and yours is to the extreme probably priv dude mine mine is my life is just all meshed into one you know like that's that's what I struggle with a lot actually is separating professional life from personal life tell me about that more before we get into other stuff

you taken me somewhere else so let's go tell me that struggle dude um look you know Hospitality I work we work on the weekends you know we get up our social lives uh are like Saturday and Sunday are like a Wednesday morning like a stray Wednesday morning or a stray Wednesday evening when you have a day off um and what I struggle with now actually is so much of my content revolves around me yeah and I struggle to uh to really like know when to switch off and with with growth as well I struggle to be um I struggle to see where my Persona is got it where your online character is got it where what Hercules is like when he's being interviewed Y and

when I'm just like myself yeah you know it's there a fine line which is quite difficult is cooking or chefing is like was that a passion for you first yes I always like my early memories uh I'm British so um my I grew up in uh in England and my parents they used to have this oven called an ARA yeah okay um and it's on it's a very traditional classic English listeners will know what that what I'm talking about um it's always on which is ridiculous and I used to sit next to that when I was that big with my dad and my dad will be cooking and I always kind of enjoyed it I remember tasting I remember my dad always would give me

a bit of spaghetti and be like is it done HK all that sort of stuff and then I started watching Jamie Oliver and then I was like got it I like this like this I like this a lot love it and that's that's when it's hard for people to switch off because when it's when you've build a career on your passion oh dude the thing you want to do to relax is do the thing you do to make money exactly and I feel right now I do still actually have a good relationship with food you know so shifts dude so many shifts uh terrible I I'll make you fantastic food for 12 hours and I'm working I go home I'm having like uh I'm weing

takeouts a freezer meal whatever it is it's so common or you finish your shift I remember working in kitchen dude you finish your like 12 hours or something and you sit there and You' eat like a bunch of leftover fried chips or something and be like I've just been making nice ass food for people and now I'm eating this it's so normal like I that's why when I was watching like the beer series I found that so good have you watched it I haven't watched oh mate you you if you've come from hoso like it's a good show anyway but if you come from hoso the way they were able to capture the Frantic chaos that happens in a kitchen in a restaurant but also

just like when he finished work then he'd be at home and he was just eating crap like just eating like a burger or something like just terrible food he just made the best food possible I'm thrilled that that even though I haven't seen it I'm thrilled that that comes across on it and that it became such a hit show because people are like especially what in the last like 5 10 years yeah especially right now like you know celebrity chefs became a thing then Instagram became became a thing Tik Tok and you know there are like a whole another level of creatives that are creators that are chefs and they are everyone's like oh my God you're a chef Creator yeah yeah yeah it's not

it's like being a chef is not a glamorous job no 99% of the time no if you work in a commercial kitchen most especially there right if you work in any sort of kitchen that's terrible and like just unhealthy yeah some people love it and some people were made for that yeah I learned after 5 years I was not made for it I learned a hell of a lot I'm so lucky I did it yeah but where did you work in that world what what were you doing when you were working as a um like in the hospital world in the hospital world yeah so I actually left school yeah I'll start I'll ask the question starting from a slightly different point I left school

um I left I I went to a private school and their whole thing was her no sorry not her like everyone you got to go to university we pride ourselves on our univ entrance does matter if you're going become aor like need to go do this you need to go and your six seven years whatever it is or you're just going to be uh study art or something which isn't always necessary you know um so I left school as a creative and I was like man what do I do I'm good at designing things I'm good at drawing things I come from a family of creatives let's go and do that um design course at University which for me was a bit of a joke

but that's because it doesn't inspire me I don't learn in a classroom and I got a part-time job at little Friday Cafe oh yeah you know little Friday yeah yeah they're just down yeah so the one in Belmont used to be in te oh not exactly T um it's so funny man I think back to this moment whenever anyone ask me about this as well yeah I remember being on my semester break so I did my first six months of design school at University in in Wellington at Massie yeah was so uninspired just doing your first year typical first year university things and I went to little on Friday cuz we my family loved it as a 19-year-old my mom was sitting there with me

in the cafe and she was like there's Kim there's the owner yeah I know you like food you're up here for 3 weeks you're not going to sit on my like so for doing nothing all all all all this time go and ask her for a job I do I remember like my heart just Sayang and I was like holy [ __ ] and I went and did it and she was like yeah you can Chef or you can like yeah I'll pay you minimum wage to like make my life easier absolutely she said yes which I'm so grateful for that's so because that started me in it and I got that part-time job I was only supposed to be doing it for 3 weeks after two

weeks the chef that I was following like shadowing left and she was like can you take this roll up and I was like [ __ ] yeah I can wow like [ __ ] yeah I can of course I went back to my family and thought about it for a couple of days it's a big decision and they were like like hook like drop out if you really think this is what you want to do then do it and dude I'm so grateful so so grateful I did yeah and so okay wait hang on cuz sorry I'm a bit all over the place I love this but so you went you took their job two weeks you said I was there for two weeks Y and then I got

the job okay when we're saying you're taking over this Chef's job what was their job uh so this is another funny thing dude it went from um I went from my my un life of Maximum 20 hours a week yeah and what like drinking two or three nights a week y not excessively but just first year uni you know it is what it is and got this part time job and she was like yeah you can help but you're starting at 5:00 in the morning or 6:00 in the morning so going from this to this um and that was my first experience of being like Oh my goodness I get satisfaction out of what I'm doing out of the work that I'm putting in cool

and so my job was I was in the Savory kitchen man so I would be the dude that got there in the morning and pulled out the giant tub like giant tub of beaten up eggs and pour them into the kiches got it uh start rolling up all the Brios the poor bread woman had been there since 4:00 in the morning yeah uh making the the Brios not jealous of bread people yeah yeah yeah chefs think they have it worst man oh my goodness if you're a baker yeah Bakers the worst yeah so I mean so you started off as like I mean I don't know if Lil and Friday had the same Brigade style thing but essentially a comei start off in a comei

role yeah yeah yeah and did you like so as you went through that career like did you just hands-on experience going through it or like did you properly go through an apprentiship and be qualified or you just went through handson I'm not a qualified ship yeah that's awesome I love this yeah yeah um I just I I just started and thought SK school or a course is for some people yeah like I think I made it pretty clear that throughout school I didn't I don't learn in a classroom I can't even learn Stanley if you were about to tell me how to do this I have to be doing it with you yeah okay got it I have to be handson yeah and that was

my first experience of being like handson yeah in an area in a kitchen where I was wide eyed you know wide eyed and you go and you're like oh my goodness I'm not going to [ __ ] this up cool and you give it everything and yeah yeah and how did you like how did you progress through like because like I'm fascinated because like I've not really met a lot of people who did it that way CU I know I know of people who have but a lot of the chefs I've worked with have all done quite a traditional process of going through they would have not a lot of them studied most of them did it through a prip I've only met a a handful who

went to like tertiary education and did it that way most of them just like went and got an apprenticeship started but so like you went in as come sort of essentially how did you get to the point where you're at now like what was that Journey like getting up until the point where you were confident enough to go out as a private Chef oh dude this is uh an 8ye yeah journey man tell me about that like what the milestones at least uh so I did my first two years as a chef at little on Friday cool and yeah I'm not going to in any way be like oh I Rose to the top but I became a value like a very heavily meant Val

member of staff and that was an awesome experience and then I got to a point dude am I going have to like go through the last 10 years of my life now just just hit me the mileston the big moments that were like key differences as you learn cuz you obviously know more than just Patisserie and baking right CU you seen you do other things yeah I mean it was it was a it was a hobby of mine still I still somehow managed to be like I enjoy cooking when I get home cool there were definitely periods where I didn't um so I did my two years at on Friday yep I was towards burned out you know being burned out and at about 21

I was s to my dad I was like I'm looking for an overseas opportunity something different to do and he said oh I worked on a Vineyard about 30 years ago in the south of France I could probably dig up someone's email and put you in contact and you could go and help out and which way y I went over I mean we can go into detail later if you want to but I went over there and I helped uh for 2 months working in a in a beautiful Vineyard in South France and and I told him I was a shift but I was like look I'm not going to come here and go I'm a shift I know what I'm doing I'm I'm a

dude that's been working in kitchens for two years uh and so I helped out in a seller for about a few days and then they were like her do you want to start doing your bit of cooking for the team yeah and I got on a y moped like so idic so ulous I got on a moped in the south of France in this beautiful Vineyard the most like I can see now the most outrageous views and I would go down to all theal markets and the like all the fish shops the the bonger and pick dude in the Mediterranean as well you know where you are like south on the top of the Mediterranean think about what you have access to there in terms

of food so I was there going I'm getting to fulfill my creative like Drive in the kitchen I was learning a lot and I got to a point where I got I thought oh I'm not getting fulfilled creatively anymore yeah then I had this experience I was making whatever I wanted for them every single day they were loving it were you just thinking you Jamie Oliver on his little moped going to the the markets just like you know like his old show dude everything I do I do for Jamie love that's so that's all I can see in my head is just like rocking down your little mop head getting your fresh talking to the market so hyic man as like a 21 or 22

year old so I did that for um two months then I came back to New Zealand did a little bit more work with it on Friday and then early the following Year my brother who lived in London said hey there's this really awesome kiwi place called ozone coffe and we've got a place in Old Street in East London um there's a che running it I know you're looking for a new overseas experience again went there did that for about 8 months before I was fully like just absolutely wrecked yeah my parents came over and said herk you look unwell you know hospit in London's another thing whole another thing it's a whole another thing yeah yeah mine was five doubles in a single my roster

every week five dou in a single I was like wait what do you mean they're like yeah so five double shifts so 9 to 11 9 to 11 every day that's five days a week and then one day a week you get to do 9 till 5 that's like your short day like what the [ __ ] oh D you're pay me what to do that yeah yeah yeah minimum minimum why am I here it doesn't make sense but you do it and some people go through and they do that and that's either they either love it or they don't have anything else to do and I [ __ ] man I I feel grateful that I've gotten out of it in a sense but so so I I

did that stint and it just so happened that I was going to quit at the time where I went back to France the previous year so I got in contact with them and said guys going to do this again for you cool they were like yeah come back for another two months the that was beautiful came back to New Zealand at the start of summertime y went all right this is time off for me this is I haven't been in the country for much of a year uh I want to spend some time with family and friends and some family friends some beautiful dear family friends of ours said her can you just start doing your odd like job for us just cook for some

you know when we have some friends over yeah yeah yeah I was like [ __ ] yeah dude it will be a good way of me making a few hundred every every week or two and then some of their friends were like can you do something for me yeah and it just went from there there there then one of them said hey her can you come to New York with us to work for us for a good six months no I ha it no terrible idea and then it went from there and and and that's and that was where I actually learned too uh thinking about this out loud actually it's quite funny that's where I learned to a big part of being a private shf is

you're going to someone's house yeah and you have to it's not just about making nice food for you I can't come into your house and be an Absol C I've got to come into your house and make you feel comfortable um it's weird having a stranger come into your house so so I learned there to live with the client and make sure that you know um you're presenting yourself well you're easy to work and live with to a certain extent yeah and I did that for six months in New York that's so good co oh yeah and then well Co came back here yeah and that's when I got the courage to start putting stuff on social media okay so this is when it started

yeah what was that 202 you're a lockdown baby like so many people but it was good right it's a catalyst for so many people yes yeah and you know what it was actually it's so funny to think and I do think about sometimes Instagram took away the like count yeah around that period And I finally just went holy [ __ ] no one can see how many likes it get so if I put up this photo and it only gets like 12 likes I don't think anyone can see yeah and so I started putting stuff up and didn't really worry about it too much cuz you're so worried about what people are going to think now of course I'm at the point where I don't really give

a [ __ ] cuz I realize it doesn't mean much does much um so yeah started sharing food on just the food that I was cooking over lockdown started my souro journey yeah and like everyone else and then and they just blew up it just started going and people started saying hey can you do something for me a lovely family again I had never heard of um oh sorry never been in contact with prior they said oh H we're about to go into the second lockdown which was a two we lockdown we know how long it was going to be can you come and work for us fulltime as a private Chef [ __ ] yeah I can all right do that learn a lot Shar it all on

social media cuz while everyone's inside doing sweet [ __ ] all I'm there being like look at all the food I'm creating cooking for people good learning a lot um and then it really just went from there man and it I you know like I have seasons yeah I have seasons where summer time is my busy season Y so kind of just parties and things and events or just yeah yeah you know before before Christmas it's all the Christmas parties and it's everyone's coming out of um in springtime and go oh let's do things again yeah let's do stuff and then after Christmas when everyone's on holiday in January you're like [ __ ] all right wedding season yeah let's go okay cool yeah so you do a few

weddings as well that's a big part of it yeah I know about six or seven weddings yeah yeah okay so oh man we went over so much stuff bro that was so good gave so much more context because like I didn't know I only know a lot about the creative Journey but it gives me a lot more context to say for stuff so thank you for sharing that um okay there's so many places I want to go here and I need to make sure that I'm actually asking you about creative stuff not just like getting into hoso Che Which con of knows like when I get hoso creators on it ends up me just like talking hoso J like what are you you could end

up with us just bitching about bitching about hos the whole time this guy was a massive [ __ ] and so I got I'm like a big part of my brain's like I want to ask him about this stuff but that's probably so irrelevant for what I actually asked him in for I want to First go back to putting out content so you started on Instagram and things when was it when did it when was the moment you knew [ __ ] I'm on to something here do you remember that moment was there a particular video or something kind of yes yes um once I had the confidence to start sharing more than just static images yeah um you know uh I started sharing how I make a delicious

steak how I make my breakfast videos stuff like that uh which was a good and and and my life as a private chef and in a certain extent which was good I'd do voiceovers and things and try and show more of my personality elevated personality you know the personality that you put on when you're in front of a TV screen or sorry camera or a microphone yeah um and it started you know like I remember hitting a thousand follows me like [ __ ] yeah that's cool man I'm pretty sure that makes me a micro influencer I love it uh and built steadily over the course of I'd say a following year and a half eventually made it to sort of around 10K y just doing bits

and pieces and people would say hook we like what you're doing that's cool and I'd love that and but I was aware I was going dude if I can if and that's when I started to make a tiny bit of money out of it as well like a company saying hey her can you use our pan or can you make a video with us using your our wine or something I was like oh man you can make money off us this is cool yeah then I've got a few Business Heavy friends yeah who are really good to chat about this sort of stuff perfect uh and basically I decided I was like all right I need to come up with a series yeah series All

the Rage gives you a reason to follow along oh I like what I just saw on my explore page uh if it's a series I know there's going to be more of it yeah um have you seen you know who Thomas ster is I know the name Thomas ster Bri Chef yeah he did uh a series of called All Things butter yeah and it was so good y this is all things butter this is um spice TI Masala butter and he started off with a beautiful Cornell put it down and show how show everyone how he made it yeah and you knew what you were going to get with it yep it's a 25 second clip yeah over and over he'd do about three a

week and they were blowing up everywhere I was like all right I need to do a series what can I do what's like a bit unique to me what y I was making content for two years going why aren't that many people paying attention because there are already a hundred or a thousand or 100 thousand other content creators out there doing what I'm doing EX better than me so why the [ __ ] should Instagram push my content why do people go why should people go oh H we like want your content y it's what it's not unique and I don't I don't think people realize that as well you can make decent content to a decent enough standard but as long as it's the same as

everyone else probably not going to get any growth no exactly so honestly Sly I did the I came up with the idea of s that's what me which is so [ __ ] stupid but it's so good it's so silly it's I'm just some dude putting different meals into s and people see it is one of the best it has been a staple of strategy sessions in our office really hey is that is Willet Curry yeah that's where that came from is that where what Willet Curry came from yeah yeah uh um Sid i' no I've seen that Sid I've seen that but the thing so Sid's a client yes and the thing with Sid is that he's too busy to do it properly yeah yeah yeah

because he just was like I don't have time to cook anything he can't cook on film he can't cook on film so we had we knew the idea was right we knew the idea was right but it required him to cook properly actually make curry out of stuff he's like n difficult to find time to do that right and he and he's a busy man he's got like four restaurants like he's [ __ ] busy as [ __ ] four amazing amazing top country oh am I going to try and start doing like long form like detailed content now so hard and we're like look we'll scripted everything we just need you for four hours to make one video and he's like no he's like no I'm not paying

you for that and so like so we did it but then we we had to abandon it cuz we're like look we tried to get it to work other ways it didn't so they've got a different concept I think they're filming Fray are you guys filming Friday yeah this Friday yeah they're filming Friday they're essentially just like strapping GoPro to him and putting some Ms in his kitchen and we're just going to film whole life service every month that's so good that's cuz people are interested in that people want to see behind the scenes there's so many people I'm guilty of it to a certain extent pushing the fancy side of it showing oh this is so awesome see what it's really like exact that's

what want someone at that level doing that being shift to Cuisine for a [ __ ] Cole or cassier or something it's going to be epic and uh I want to watch that that's the I to watch but the Willet like what yours is good because you did it right which was like you didn't like you built the meal into the bread you know like it became like the Salo was the thing yeah yeah you know like your big one that's like um I watched the other day the carbonara one like there's no other way to have done that is Carbonara bread yeah you know like the way you did it oh I learned a lot from that video hey I learned a lot from that but

that was the first one that went yeah and I just thought holy [ __ ] it's so good rinse and repeat it's a formula which I stumbled upon after [ __ ] around started the did for months voice over the top of it y doing some with music playing over top of it y captions and then I just stumbled across a uh ASMR version I guess quick paste capture people's attention Y and it worked I thought all right just do that rinse and repeat there are hundreds of different hundreds of thousands of meals out there that I can just we'll see how long it lasts I don't know one thing we've talked about a lot recently in the team is on viral content like this is if if you

can take a take a video and remove everything but the visuals and just get the visual if you can if you can literally watch your sound off and it works then it's good yes that's good you can add video and audio on top MH but often when you start with audio you make the audio the thing yes and then now humans don't understand it only English speaking people understand it oh I learned that not long ago cuz it's hard yeah yeah I follow a few of those content creators that are talking about strategies and things you're speaking English yeah a lot of the world speaks it but not not most people don't and so you need to visually tell the story first and if you

start from that perspective and add audio in later y fine and like with your like that Carbonaro and like there's little moments where you say something can right at the end when you're asking the mate to like figure it out yeah but like you can even see even if you turned off the what your audio for that last bit when you're asking him you know what's happening you're standing by him you can tell what's going on here can he tell what you've just done yeah so I I like I really like how you visually told it we have a guy in our team olle who's a bit of a director outside of this job he makes short films and did you watch the short film

the other day oh so you just made a short film the other day did 8 Minute one take filming and it was all about blocking and staging of where he moved the camera and moved all the actors and he did this massive visual storytelling you could turn off the audio and you would know exactly what happened you don't need the audio in fact if you listen to the dialogue nothing really happens nothing happens all the emotion is in the way that the actors stand and frame and move and interact with the camera MH and I feel like with your one that's what you got right you know you got to the point where you know like you know you got it right because it worked

like you got it right where the story you you don't even you don't need to know what you're doing you can see it straight away yeah well that just that's literally just as a result of stumbling upon it of throwing [ __ ] at the wall for a while and see what sticks yeah and then something sticks and you go all right let's do that and then you go all right how can I make it better how um and also one of the main things I learned about yeah uh one of the biggest things I learned um from that particular video is put some things in there that give people a reason to interact interact yeah I'm not saying go out there and try and piss off

a nation no but what I am saying is piss off a lot of a Nation by putting in uh Panetta instead of Guan chal and using Gran padana instead of picino to make a carbonara themed sour which at the time that's what I had in my friend I was like I'm not going down the road to buy that and then you have the amount of people in the comments going that's not proper carbonara it's like dude I'm putting carbonara in a bread I'm not trying to show you I'm not being like this is how you car traditionally and all the Italians so easy to Target got infuriated I mean that's a whole gen itself Italians getting angry West or like I shouldn't say westerners but

British yeah Jamie started that Jamie pissed off to Spanish European when he made a Pella and put or something no I love that that's so funny the we like often the terminology in our business is like what's the mechanism for engagement like what are we trying to get them to do and like are we trying to get them to follow to comment about something to engage in like so what is that thing you put into it to encourage engagement because someone can really love a video and think it's great but they won't like or engage because it's no mechanism in it yes so that's the thing that you need like what is that little bit yeah um give people a little prompt yeah you're not

always going to jump off the diving board by yourself you got to have the friends in the background be like mate a little p so tell me like um how did you like how did you get so good at making footage at making film oh it's a very nice compliment Stanley no but you are like you're very good at like uh framing you're very good at composition you're very good at lighting you're very good at like storytelling that's nice to hear that's so nice but it's true well I don't I don't know I don't get a lot of mess yeah but that's this the answer I thought it might be which is like I don't really know I just like try stuff you try [ __ ]

dude you try [ __ ] and you figure out and you look back at it you study the content and you go this looks nice this doesn't look nice yeah and do you consume a lot I consume a lot and I'm trying I think I have quite a healthy relationship with social media it's pretty much impossible to avoid a lot of the [ __ ] it just gets thrown at you even if you don't follow the accounts these days obviously but I do use social media as a learning tool as well cool follow so many awesome shifts awesome food accounts and I just pick up little bits and pieces SA a post I love the way you played that I love the way you created that content I love

the way that content shot cool save it go back and just look over things got it yeah we talk about this a lot um I mean con's getting real good at now because well he's getting better at it anyway where like a thing that we try to teach everyone is like you can't be good on social till you start to consume like people great filmmakers didn't just wake up one day and we great at film have Tarantino worked at the video store for years to and watch movies yeah and was an addict no doubt would be watching it all all of it so it's like we say to people like consume but and like you know one of the things we say to the guys

is like as you're scrolling through this and you stop to watch a video ask yourself why did I just watch that go back and watch it again what kept me there like what did they do at the start to hold me here what's the hook dude we have like what is it uh 90 milliseconds effectively TI it's nothing is that what it is it's nothing like literally like the way Janie and I have been talking about it lately in some strategy sessions is if I can look at the first frame and fully understand what I'm about to see like as if it was a thumbnail instant impression yes you got it y also don't give the person an opportunity to keep scrolling yeah I think

that's a big one hey move fast if you're yeah there's like a the move fast thing is um move push the narrative forward don't sit Don't Stop The Narrative so it doesn't have to be quick film cuts and stuff it has to be it moves for purpose y on short form yep you don't like once you've explained the narrative Point there's no more narrative Point anymore move forward into it so like in yours cooking you don't need to watch you cooking the paneta for a long time in fact in that one you don't even see it you just see it pouring in to the last piece right see you get it the narrow being move forward and that's a difficult again a difficult thing to

to pick up where where do I stop this where do I start this yeah cuz I'm there going I want to show everyone how I'm making this and then I go oh [ __ ] but I've only got 90 seconds to get it in there yeah so you got to pick and choose and is less about like cutting cutting cutting and more about like what we tried to say the guys is like is the narrative moving forward and if it's not then cut some stuff and if it sometimes you push a narrative too fast forward and then you're like I don't know how we got to this point I'm lost somewhere we're missing a narrative piece and how do you bring that back into it and I

think a lot of like a where people get into trap is like I just need this quick fast fast fast fast fast and it's like no but like I've lost the story now yeah that's a piece I think was quite interesting with you like I which I wanted to ask is how much do you think about it in story like how much do you think you're telling someone a story when you're making these well they're all all sorts of different forms of content obviously and I could and what I did used to do actually and this is still a success for for most for a lot of creators online is starting with the final product I see the final product holy [ __ ] I want to

know how to make that or I want to know how to style that shirt I want to know how they got to that point Y I've seen the end of the story I want to know how they got there my sort of style is the very beginning to the very end yeah and I feel like that gives people a reason to stick around if I didn't have the carbonara willeto at top there and it just started I might capture some people's attention but carbonara will AO and it starts yeah with the Guan chal going in yep mixing it all goes fast uh I feel like I am kind of telling a story it's completely and utterly irrelevant it's so silly I say this all the

time people go oh tell me about oh we love that s stuff like dude it's so silly yeah but at least it's not I don't think it's anything harmful and it's not wasting people's time necessarily it's It's Entertainment so much [ __ ] on social media is wasting someone's time or showing people harmless things encouraging people to act like [ __ ] to get attention yeah my thing is kind of just hey let's have a laugh and see if I can make this dish into a sad is it going to be nice yes no it's not whatever cool yeah I think that is like like when you you you you've said it a couple times now like oh it's so silly it's so stupid like this especially the will

salad thing but I think like if you think about food and the evolution of food and recipes and how things have changed over time it has always been about a bunch of people experimenting I've got the stuff in my kitchen yeah I need to put it together some way how do I make that work y will this work which is you will it sour though right it's the same thing like it's family meals are that right like family meals for for restaurants or Vineyards or what you were doing was about what have I got on hand I need to make like I remember the chefs like we had one Chef OE who was this Vietnamese French Vietnamese Chef who he's Vietnamese but he grew up

in France and did all his training in France and he was like old school French chef who for all the family meals all the staff meals was there's the bin he'd get one of the comies he'd be like there's the bin go make lunch and he' just have to take the scraps out of the bin okay and he'd have to figure out like I remember like eggshells and praw heads and yeah and they would have to learn how to make Del soup from that yeah a 21-year-old white kid who's never had pepper enjoy this thing made out of prawn heads and eggshells and they would yeah and so I guess what I'm trying to say from that is like that's why it's so interesting because

it's so human it's so human to take I've got the stuff how do I feed me feed myself but You' just done in like a very aesthetic and cool fun way and you you know how to cook so then therefore like more often than not even if it doesn't zeldo yeah you've still given it the best blooded shot to make it Z does that make sense yeah yeah so I actually think like I don't think it's stupid it's it's human it's yeah it's kind of a story and I guess it gives people somewhat of a reason to hang about um do you think of it a story like does it happen or is it just something that you maybe can post- rationalize that yeah I

do well actually I know I think this is the narrative I'm trying to get across I keep saying it's Stanley and it's but I do think it's silly uh it's like a silly entertainment it's like a silly drama film that isn't going to change your life no it's not going to teach you a valuable lesson no but it's just entertainment it's a silly comedy it's Adam sandet I don't know yeah yeah yeah I like it but I I guess I I guess what's interesting about that for people watching is that like you can see cuz you've already explained about how you've told a narrative mhm and it's the narrative that's the content too well you might not think of it consciously every time you go

into film you're just like I'm going to do this fun thing it's entertaining but there is definitely something subconscious planing into it like I need to put this in this order so people can follow along the reason you got stuff and I think that's interesting because that often separates the good and the bad someone else can do a Willet Salo and it won't work because they haven't got the narrative structure right so you're not going to get to the end I don't care yeah it's quite funny actually that makes me think because the way I shoot the video is I realize a good hook for me is to be putting whatever I'm putting in sad into the dough right away people aren't interested in seeing

me mix the dough beforehand also I just made like a berer loaf the other day and I put a handful of berer beef into the dough mixed it all up then let it ferment for 6 hours that would probably give someone food poisoning I don't use that I mix it in later yeah because it just makes more sense for the video yeah you know what I mean so you are mixing and changing yeah um just to make sure you try and cap just to make sure you get the right video yeah yeah that's good so you get in the narrative structure and even if that's not consciously what you're thinking at the time you know this is what I got to do right which I

think is important for creaders who are trying to figure out how to like get out of that like view jail they talk about you know like I can't The View jail like people talk about I can't get past a certain amount of viewership and it's mostly because you haven't carried the narrative forward with with the audience with you in the story like the Willet Salo style or content yeah you think about all the good like um Tik Tok chefs or Instagram chefs they're all very good at that right like like Andy Cooks is one where he'll like you know he's got such a good narrative structure for how he does stuff yeah I love it I love that's what I uh bro he's a big

inspiration for sure yeah uh where he opens the fridge what do you want for lunch babe yeah and it's just something that everyone goes ah yeah we know Andy yeah yeah all right Andy just this is one of Andy's video cool it's let's go so easy yeah and I tried to sort of copy that when I started doing my day in life of a private Shi videos but what can my start be so that everyone knows this is herk's video this is the one and it's me putting my Aon on sort of thing looking at the camera and starting a day that's the first few seconds yep and trying to copy that sort of a style basically for the creators I know what I'm getting

yeah exactly yeah I want to ask like from that okay so we've we're blown up everyone knows you now you've got this audience m um when I'm not sure if I'm big in New Zealand I don't think I'm big in New Zealand oh I mean I don't know I mean we it's our job to know so it's like I have a skewed version of like who knows who now because it's our job to know people yeah um but in scenes in in New Zealand in Oakland yeah but I I don't like I'm not even sure if that matters these days you know like this is one of the things this is a good conversation actually I don't think it matters geographically who watches your content

only matters if the thing you're trying to sell if you know as you're trying to if you're a Creator or a brand if you can only sell to a geographic location yes that's the only time it matter when it comes to monetizing content and collaborations yeah and it does for certain things it just depends on what sort of collaboration you're getting right yeah whereas like for you like actually there's so many Brands who are international who you could work with um that's more of a goal for sure to work with bigger Brands um yeah which means you just got to go back to New York yeah I mean it's just so hard Inland like it's so hard Inland the big International Brands like I could

get him or I could just get some massive person from the US yeah you know like that's just that's just where their heads are um okay I wanted to ask about you're doing this private shift thing which is cool because a lot of creators don't have this thing that's like actually the business honestly Stanley I think that's such a big issue for so many people so massive uh you have to be so interesting and entertaining if if your Instagram your social media account is purely you if you don't have a skill you better be [ __ ] entertaining you better right to be a personality it's so hard yeah it's so there I know so many influencers and had them on the show that are talented as

[ __ ] like so talented but like they got nothing else than their talent like their entertainment Factor but you've got this private Shi world so tell me about that like from a revenue perspective and growing that like did the cuz you sounded like you already had a pretty good gig here I mean you went to New York for six months you had this whole thing going on did the um content make uh like grow that business quite substantially 100% yeah 100% how tell me dude they go hand in hand y so well so so well I see Instagram as free marketing it is yeah yeah I have to put the work in myself yeah I don't get paid to make a video about my day cooking

for someone on a boat yep but if I make a quick video about it and I'm getting more and more of a following more and more people are seeing it more and more people are sharing it and if a few videos end up on the explore page yeah someone in France goes he can you come and do something for me yeah in the middle of the year for two weeks and you go holy [ __ ] yeah of course I can and amazing have come this year like I started my account gained traction early November I'd say around that period of time and since then it's it's gone and the opportunities it's been the biggest summer of my professional life and now going into winter time which

is usually more of my downtime I dip away a little bit here and there but work slows down now I'm about to go overseas for two months and work work work work and do some amazing that have purely come through Instagram so cool it's yeah and that's only because I started making silly s videos then started sharing more of my life as a private shf and just stopped giving too much of a [ __ ] of what people thought yeah and put it out there and people just some people someone goes oh that's her I saw herk doing this I want herk to do this and also you can show that you're hey you can make good food I'm not going to sit here and be like

I make the best food it's so silly I'm not no you know we speaking about s before I will never go to Sid's level never never s would have many people can no like s would have been a high level at 22 I'm 28 years old I'm not pretending I'm not trying to be that level what I am going is going look I can make pretty decent food I can Market myself I can probably Market your product Y and I'm trying to build a level of um Clouts the wrong word yeah yeah no I know what a like certain level where people go I want her to do my wedding it's a brand yeah yeah just building your it's the reason why we were why

I'm wearing this shirt as to watch reason like why Nike why people wear Nike shirts yeah why I'm wearing this these pants cuz I want to associate with their brand and I want people to go I want her Tik tokers are on runways yeah they're not models yeah but it's like oh that's so and so the Tik tocker yeah who cares it's like Haley Bailey at the moment like going to every single big thing right Haley Bailey the Creator from New York she's like I don't know 15 million followers now only started probably two years ago at best not even that just at the Met gar she goes the Oscars goes all things not because she's got anything except that people like her thing what's

her thing she just have skit she had this whole thing where she did like she pretended to have a billionaire boyfriend so she used to be a swimsuit model yep and then um gave up that life and started doing Tik toks over lockdown like everyone else did and it blew up oh no it wasn't even over lockdown it was October 2022 she started she got she got I think she had a divorce her ex partner was quite wealthy she got a really [ __ ] nice apartment in SoHo New York and wow okay this the guy in New York who walks around is like hey like how much do you pay for rent in New York oh I pay much can I go do a tour of

your house yeah so he did it with her just off the street in October 2022 and then she's like yeah sure he sees her apartment he's like wait this is outrageous it started blowing up and then so she started putting out content the next day and it took off and then literally within 11 months when I first heard her I first met her in New York and talked to her she was like in 11 months so it must be November 22 she um 11 million followers my God it's insane crazy and now she's like everywhere yeah but not because she's going to be the best at what she does the best celebrity but it's the clout P she's the it girl she's the New York

it girl she has to maintain that as well there have been hundred other girls beforehand and how do you maintain your thing you got to stay up to date with it don't you you got to you and like to be honest what she's real clever she's a real smart girl um she just needs to build a business out of it at the moment she's getting paid so much for appearances and stuff like we um yeah we saw her I proba said it on this camera cuz I'll probably get in trouble but we saw her fee structure and it's huge wow like one post is like more than most of my guys get paid in a year yeah one Instagram post yeah absurd honestly that's what

you start to realize hey you suddenly start I've got to a point where I'm kind of making the same amount amount of money on social media as private shifing Y and they should go hand in hand and keep pushing up in terms of what I charge but the Social Media stuff is the it's impressive what you can make through that oh 100% And like you got a really good Niche because chefing cooking that world is such an established media world it's such an established media world with very good like Brands who understand celebrity chefs and this world whereas like it's very different in other lifestyle markets they're not as used to having these sort of like pseudo celebrities with chefs right cuz like in like

um in the uh say makeup world it's always been actresses and models who are already famous for something else yep but with chefs like they're kind of not really famous you've now made them sh put them on TV something yes yes right and so so but they but now like there's a lot of chefs who are sponsored by these people even just having lots of restaurants right because their restaurants are so good so they'll they'll have their brand like Sid is a good example Sid's always getting offers yeah but not necessarily because he's got massive socials the socials aren't that big he's just he's Sid like people know they know he's one of the best sh in New Zealand and so because of that the

brands are used to pain in these sort of like I wouldn't say like not normal famous people M for brand deals so when the influence of chefs came along like yourself it was already established market so what you make in that world is so different to like lifestyle creators lifestyle creators in New Zealand are not getting great money yeah like not not unless they're huge yeah not unless they're huge um and but they get to go on pretty amazing trips don't they lifestyle creat I mean they get they get like PR events and stuff but they're also like from new they're not great like might get Sydney yeah yeah I mean like it's cool like it's cool when you're 22 awesome yes like I wasn't

doing that at 22 yeah I wasn't getting to go on PR events you know that's amazing but like what I love about your world is that you're essentially our business that has a Tik Tok and an Instagram not an Instagram that then geted you get what I mean like you you're the private share first yeah one quick thing I want to ask you cuz I realized it's already quarter past 5 is that um oh [ __ ] Are we flying through this yeah we only got like 10 minutes before we an hour um is how much are you willing to share like like how do you charge for private cheffing like I know that number probably will continue to rise the bigger you get oh man I

struggled St for I don't know how you'd price this and you know what it's like uh being a freelancer you struggle to Value yourself 100% luckily I'm with an agency now for Social Media stuff so they take control of that which is really helpful cuz I don't have to deal with any and it's a Minefield anyway but when it comes to catering for dinner parties uh I charge by the head now and that makes things really easy I have a price for single course two course and three course cool really straightforward sweet so when um cuz you know sometimes someone will go oh 150 people for canop and then someone will go eight people for three course dinner 50 people for two courses yeah and

you going holy [ __ ] how do I do with this oh man I'm trying to figure out what to charge and then you just have a by the head cool simp easy so no different to how a hotel would do it for events same way you just have a price per thing and so um do you what about like something like going over to France for two weeks mhm like how do you how do you think about pricing something for that well that I'm quite happy and honest happy to be open and honest about that I'm not getting paid well for a lot of my work that I'm doing overseas not getting paid badly but I would be able to make more honey money here if

it was summertime but obviously I'm in win time and there's much less bigger events yeah but if I can go overseas for two months and put myself in new environments which I don't know what will come from them y That's always something something my mom's always said to me as well my mom's always been like look you might not get paid well yeah um you might not get paid at all yeah but you're going to go into a new environment and put yourself in foreign situations and learn a [ __ ] ton and potentially build a relationship with certain people that might go I her can you do this for me once every year we'll fly you over there y you know I'm getting free flights and

stuff which is awesome awesome and getting to cook for all sorts of different people and you never know where these opportunities will go no I've always tried to do that that's like Mom saying to me go and ask him for a job on Friday yeah you just don't know what will happen dude if I didn't do that holy [ __ ] you would be sitting here I do not know what I'd be doing do not know no and those the little decisions you be a little graphic designer for some brand agency or something just you and had no idea what to do or how well I'm going to do and and not have a passion yeah yeah yeah I I think that is an interesting point like

we talk about that with the interns that we have like we have a lot of inter people who want to intern with us and we're like look we don't need we don't need you we don't need interns like we if we if you want a job with us apply for a job so when we do have interns cuz they're like people like no we really want to come work like try like learn we're like all right well it's unpaid internship and this is what it is like we don't pay the interns we don't get them to work on and and what do they say then to half of them turn around and go yeah like a bu we're so public about it that now we

don't get people who ask knows now they know that we don't pay so we still get the good they still get a bunch of them but yeah you're right there's a bunch of them a m we have had them sort of turn around once we told them and then they just would give us another reason a look it's not right or whatever yeah but um that's how you fish out the people that are willing to work and people that aren't willing to work yeah it's so obvious and you don't know that when you're younger no you don't know and our big thing is and what I've been saying the guys like you just got to make sure that we can't be profiting off their time

that's a big thing I don't do like cuz I came from the hospitality world where you would get like almost like unpaid apprentices pretty much working for free but they making the business money and I just wasn't about it yeah iar so I'm like look if like we got one girl on the team now is's an intern and she's actually doing productive work so I've said log all your time I'll pay you for it like you're going to get paid minimum wage but I'm going to pay you for it um cuz you are still learning yeah and how long was this person working for you unpaid three months three months before he did holy [ __ ] I mean that dude if someone's willing to do that

yeah and fulltime fulltime wow came from Belgium wow came from Belgium to work for choc hard workers six months oh five months AG she total with us four months not entirely sure but a while four months four months total with us three months is unpaid and then the last month which is now in may she's getting paid like for all the hour she works on the client but when she's not working on that particular kindli she's not get paid still W is unpaid she had to do as part of a university as part of it yeah but I guess what I was saying is like you got to take those opportuni if you really want stuff in life and you don't have anything like it's

a good so I'm all worth I'm all about working cheap or free I've done heaps of in my life the only reason I got to become like get to the top of like the hospitality game is cu I did everything like I'd put my hand out like I wanted shifts in I wanted more shifts cuz I was like casual at the time and so I went down to concierge and I was just like I want to do con I need more shifts like you don't you've never done I was like I'll work for free I'll just turn up every Saturday Sunday work for free and that's what I did until he was like oh like like with the chef leaving with you same oh I

need you to do something I actually need something now I'm like cool now you can pay me like yeah sure put you on the roster until then I could do every job in the hotel and then I became a GM I started running hotels right bottom you know what you do like when you want to do it um so I'm all for that so if you um so if we think about like I'm going to try wrap up a whole bunch that I wanted to talk to yeah I'm sorry we Dr I am really happy with that CU we went to some places that I wanted I didn't realize we' get to and I think it's important cuz I think there's a lot of people

out there who listen to this who always ask me at such a fundamental level of like how do I get started with content and who have knowledge like you have had where you just like I didn't know how to make Willet zeldo straight away I threw [ __ ] at a wall and then I got oh man that's such a big thing I I have friends that are creatives as well and people are scared to put something out in the open cuz you want this thing whether it's a big project or luckily I make short form content yeah and that's just like put it out there sweet someone sees it once cool whatever I'm not trying to write a hit song or anything so I'm not putting

I don't I don't dwell on this for just make it to a certain that's put it out there and just start putting out there but people are so scared people scared and I understand it you know if you if you're going to try and show a bit of your personality online in a video be prepared for people to be like that's a bit [ __ ] or you did that the wrong way or you don't know how to cook if you're getting those comments there's a hundred positive ones next to it but what do we focus on man negatives yeah I my life is amazing I love my life but I'm still I still come home sometimes from work and go [ __ ] I'm just naked I'm I'm

I'm sad or upset about certain things and you dwell on that and you have to try and catch yourself and go dude like I'm so lucky to be doing what I'm doing and the way you do that is by see seeing what goes on in the world you know a real interesting thing which is like probably so off topic right now but on Tik Tok my wife um she's always like talking about these videos and all the negativity in the comments and stuff and I'm like man like what do you watch like I never see this I don't know what you're talking about and anyway so there was this video that she told me about where a millennial put dipped her hair in the water

and then flicked it back and I was like did you and she does this whole thing with her hair she's like did any other Millennials out there do this when they were kids blah blah blah this is fun blah and then was like yeah I did that that's fun when in the comments and everyone's like ripping into this lady going how are you a millennial you look 60 like how the blah blah blah like just ripping into this Tik Tok comments man Tik Tok I was like hey I think this is one of those times we need to test this send me the link and I'll open it up too so I opened up the same video which had like 8 million views or whatever

I hit the comments my comments were like yeah me too I love that you're so cool this is what I did when I was there and caire was just like you're fat you shouldn't be on Tik Tok you're too old and mine's like I love this this is a what's so amazing about that is that we think that Tik Tok is just like oh it's just people putting videos up and it's just comment are there no it's being changed like you interact with right and she was like a whole another level of what you know you get showed certain content that you like that that the algorithm knows you're going to like but that's a whole another level of like depth of we're going to

show some people these comments other people's and like that's interesting from Tik Tok though I to do that cuz it would push people off from I had a I had a feeling that's was happening on her page cuz I she always talk NE negative about the commentary that she'd see and I was like I just don't see negative I'm always positive and then and she used to do the same about in the comments no I don't I don't and this is what I said to her I said like so she got angry she was like this is so [ __ ] Tik Tok [ __ ] and I was like you know what it's not Tik tok's fault you train the algorithm to serve you this like I'm really

good on my algorithm of like why am I seeing this not interested do not show me this again I don't want to see it like I'm always going through it to clean out my algorithm yeah is the old not interested button still there uh on Tik Tok it's changed I can't remember what it is now but like um I I just won't interact and I'll try move through things on YouTube definitely I do it all the time I just had to do a big clean out the day my my YouTube shorts like turned into this real weird crap Yeah clean up but anyway so I thought that was quite interesting because like I when we put up a Tik Tok on our own like an

attention Seekers and it goes off we get like I know a bunch of comments when I scroll through I'm like oh people love us yeah clear Scrolls through she's like everyone's hating on you Stan I'm like where is it I don't see I have to scroll for ages you know so and what you you it's good to um it's good to make yourself aware of those negative comments you can't just be like the sun shines out of my ass and I'm only going to look at the good stuff if I served someone food that's really awesome and they're like [ __ ] yeah and if I serve some people that they're like oh that's not good enough you're like oh [ __ ] all right I need yeah yeah

that's how you and you need feedback and I think that I still will like I'll still I'm good enough to know that like I have to go we go through most every comment and like our coms management team will bring up things of their patterns and stuff to make sure know but like just like from a feeling like I don't get the feeling of negativity that CA my wife gets which I thought was quite interesting for people but um anyway I keep going on tangents and what I wanted to ask you it's very interesting it's it is an interesting thing it's really funny talking this is my first podcast and it's really funny how well conversation flows when you're like I've got to be excited

I've got to talk about things and it's it everything's really it's all interesting and especially cuz like it's When Worlds Collide yep like you you smash Two Worlds together and you're like oh this is interesting and you don't any feed off each other because of it yeah I want to ask you something that I definitely want to ask you about is I want to asking you about Mr Sanders oh yeah I want you to tell me about this experience because I missed out on it and I'm really angry about it but it looked [ __ ] cool yeah what was your experience of it though cuz I only saw it from the Glamorous social media side exactly that's what you see man that's what you see um

that was my first time inal for a while for one week straight we did five nights and four or three or four lunches y so very much back into the all go first thing in the morning till the end of the evening um and at first when KFC approached me yeah they went through my agency and I thought I'm not sure if this is me or not I'm never going to go hey guys eat KFC I love KFC yeah that's pointless that's not me what I will do though is if someone says hey h can you make an elevated KFC product for a like five course short um special one week only event yeah absolutely that's like there's a little bit of the child inside

you that you s a lot of KFC and go oh man how can I like [ __ ] with this and make it like this and try and make it a bit more fancy yeah um it was it was a hell of an experience man cuzz I do I do I do big jobs all the time I've done weddings for like the biggest number I've cooked for is 120 people for obviously with help uh and that's a oneoff thing that's like one night one big wedding cool get it done there three or four days of in all the [ __ ] beforehand but doing the the the Colonel Sanders thing yeah Mr Sanders man it was a whole another level the lead up to it all doing the marketing

for it making promos going in for the photo shoots beforehand the prep and the two days leading up to the MonDay where we started doing the taste test before it was very much a reminder of what I don't want to be doing and saying that I enjoyed it all it was a hell of an experience the team that I worked with um putting the marketing on the KFC team was so awesome to work with and actually it was the first time I said this to you before we started recording one thing I missed about yeah hospitality and one thing I lack in my job is is a bit lonely you're doing a lot of [ __ ] by yourself and this was working with a team in

terms of an agency team y working with the KFC team and then putting together I have a few chefs that come and help me for jobs and bringing him together and being like guys I'm going to need you for one week straight I told him like two months in advance yeah and the camaraderie of that yeah so awesome yeah and you felt so you finish yeah yeah and so the first day the lead up to it you're yeah how am I going to make this happen we've done all the prep but I'm nervous and it happens and you go all right that was all right the Tuesday comes along and you go [ __ ] this is our first big Day lunch and dinner you do it

it works the Wednesday comes along and you go we're halfway through the week everything's going swimmingly yeah we go again and you go to and suddenly you're one day away from the final day and then you're there on the final day and you go holy [ __ ] it worked it was a raging success and how good do you feel at the end of that yeah but also I feel sorry for people that do that fulltime man and so much respect to those people there's no I've said to my wife before like if we ever get back into the hospitality industry I'm only going in as an owner there's no way I'm doing any Hands-On I want nothing to do with it I love hoso I did

not leave hoso because I didn't like it I love it y I don't ever want to work in that environment again it's too hard as a business owner fine as the operator no [ __ ] way I want to ask you a question about that when you took on the job yeah like did you just know you could do it or was there like a his be like Stanley this happens like maybe six times a year I will go yeah I'll take that job cuz it's in 6 months time or it's in like two months time I can make that happen I'll worry about it then and it slowly starts approaching and you go holy [ __ ] I have to make this happen and somehow you do it

dude just figure it out yeah so you just like essentially like blindly accept like no way I'm going to turn down this opportunity because the money's right or whatever it's cool and then you figure it out yeah and there's you figure it out and nine times 99% of the time with my career I figured it out there have been times for sure really where I've accepted something and people have pushed you a little bit further to do further away from what you do yeah you know if I'm going to do KFC um Mr Sanders it's it's my way of doing it yeah and people start going oh can you just do a little and you start stretching further away from what you are people want

to want her to do it yeah cuz they want her cuz he can Market it well and they also yeah they want the face they they know the social media following will get hurt to do all he's he's the package in there yeah can you start doing different food and I'm not saying KFC we doing this but I'm just giving you an example you move away from what you are and sometimes you do get pushed away from what you are and you go [ __ ] I'm not happy with what I'm doing now I'm being pushed to do different food yeah it's like a content creator being pushed to do slightly different content you don't feel content you know what you're good at you know how you

do your thing and if you're paying me to do something for you let me do it way and it'll work for both parties yeah you know don't get Brad P to do a different I don't know like a horror I you know what I mean don't get an actor who only does comedies to do horror that's yeah you're not hiring a model you're hiring actual creatives yeah right and so and so if you're going to hire them let them do the Creative Direction because they know what their audiences want they did it they build their audience yeah yeah I agree we talk about all the time it's a tough thing he like when it comes to content as well peeps like like we we had

a discovery before this interview with a new client that's coming on board and like most of the first session we do with clients in the first 90 minutes is while after setting their goals for the campaign that we're trying to do with them it's like um all right like you guys are going to get nervous and you're going to want to do everything your own way as we get into this so we're going to set some boundaries now of like who where's the lines how do we cross them how much are you trusting us what do you definitely not want to do because like ultimately what happens if you don't have those conversations propa beginning you get down the line and the client's doing exactly

same like actually I think we should do this it's like ah you know you just paid me a five to six figure sum for this for you to tell me what we should you like why are we doing this so that first session for us is always just like trying to set those rules with them and like the bigger the brand the more they push back and we encourage them to but we encourage it for the dialogue to find the medium Middle Ground yes cuz like at the end of the day you're getting paid to do a thing and so you can't just say to the client no do it my way or [ __ ] off I mean you could but like you're going to alienate

you better be the best in the world that's what I say exactly if you're that exclusive back it up like that you got to be the best in the world right whereas we don't try to be the best in the world we're just trying we can do a really [ __ ] good job so we're going to meet you somewhere in the middle but we're not going to fully take all your ideas you're paying us to do this but you got you got to set those boundaries yeah can I ask you a question yeah how long have you been in this realm creative world like um I started this business uh I moved back to New Zealand in October 2019 yeah and then we had our first

client in May 2020 yeah and so back then I mean it was definitely not a creative agency we're like helping people get leads on LinkedIn yeah um I was building my brand on LinkedIn that was my first platform I I used cuz I was more B2B um and then we started putting out Tik toks in July 22 yeah it must have been now July 22 and so and we got our first like proper big social media client and oh a year ago pretty much just over a year ago now he yeah yeah oh yeah because Dan started when that started she she was a year ago today yeah so yeah we've been doing the business this our fifth year in business um but mostly probably

about two or so years two and a bit years now and like more creative but prior to that it was still in this world wasn't it it wasn't Hospitality no really I came straight out of running a hotel holy [ __ ] yeah I was a general manager a hotel in Melbourne okay I did like literally like so man I'm not old enough to have done that like I might look 55 but I'm only 37 um I was my so my career started um top of the sky tower yep so I was at the observatory restaurant that used to be there the buffet restaurant so I worked as a buser there then I quit uni cuz I I was the same as you couldn't learn at Uni

yeah I love school but like uni wasn't for me went to the uh go Coast got into hospital again there work through bunch of different hotels and restaurants and stuff went to London did a stunt there Japan did a stunt there ran hotels uh by the end of it I was running hotels in Melbourne or hotel in Melbourne I had 12 jobs in 11 years I was like the M fix it like they used to send me in places and like this place isn't working so well I go want to fix it I got to end of that Hospitality career I was like I want to own my own business like I had had a moment where I was on my first holiday in 2

and a half years I was in India for a friend's wedding the hotel I was running was awesome that we we were doing more in profit that January than they had ever done in Revenue any year before so like it was going good and I was away but the owners kept on sending emails out to me and my bosses complaining where was I the owners of the hotel I was like what the [ __ ] like what more do you want from me like I'm literally just I'm making you Bank like in that Financial year I was going to I had made them an additional million dollars cleared like after tax M was never enough and so that's when I said to clear like we got to

do our own thing m I can't buy a hotel because I don't ever spare $50 million and I can't I don't want to run a restaurant because restaurants don't make money yeah so let's get out of Hospital let's find something else and so I started building my brand on LinkedIn in October 2019 wow and then this but for context you were using LinkedIn and the hotels to find I knew LinkedIn that's where so LinkedIn I knew LinkedIn because of hotels so I had hired a coach a LinkedIn coach back in hotels and it would work really well there so I'd spent about 6 months learning how to use LinkedIn yeah to to generate business Y and so now I always knew I had skill sets

and I knew I knew a lot like I was really good at running businesses and leading people in hotels and so when I moved to New Zealand so I moved back to New Zealand because I had family and we could live for free and I didn't want to chew up all my money and rent so I could live with family and then uh oh yeah and then do you want me to push Paul's stop and start again oh just wrap up and then um and then anyway I got here yeah and then [ __ ] it's been a crazy ride bro been absolute nut yeah yeah well I mean what five five years four five years yeah like four and a half years now that's a quick

turnar around five years October yeah mean to anyway I think that was Conor telling us we should shut up and move on yeah bro there's so much more would want to talk to you about but I think that um part two yeah part two for sure and we'll do some fun [ __ ] together I think there's heaps of opportunity when you get back we should talk because we have clients in the food space and I think there's just cool [ __ ] we could do we're always trying you can already see it a Conor they're out there we should have got him for that filming there um but bro thank you so much for coming on really appreciate so awesome to meet you finally an absolute pleasure Stanley

honestly I was worried about coming on like the show man I've never done this sort of thing before but hey you made me feel super comfortable no you're awesome man very grateful Cheers Cheers