TIKTOK STAR TURNED BUSINESS OWNER.

time is cadis I run a business called Redline digital and I also have my own personal brand out there which is revolving around cars and being a loose [ __ ] I was asking you some information about like you know I was picking your brain on some [ __ ] around tick tock for us and you're like don't forget this is my fifth one I've tried yeah and so talk to me about that like because like most people will only know you from the Cars yeah but that wasn't you didn't just one day put a cavity up and cracked it like you you this is a process right tell me about that yeah well yeah I think that's the main thing to remember is that where I'm at now

is not as accidental as people think right there was a plan in place although part of it was like oh [ __ ] million views what the [ __ ] but there was definitely a plan to you know move into that um sort of short form content um but I first started off like halfway through 2021 yeah because I was getting sick of University and I was just not even covert was in place so like we weren't there yeah and I'm a useless online learner he he hit me on like a online lecture the zooms yeah I'm out I'm not because you've got a computer there and I'm like oh YouTube yeah you know all PornHub on the side right like there's so many other things to do except

watch like a boring person talk because someone who got the lecturist speaking the other one you've got [ __ ] jerking off on the side oh my God I love it I was just getting sick of uni and [ __ ] and I was like nah [ __ ] so I gave Tick-Tock a go yeah surprisingly the first sort of Punt that I had had nothing to do with cars was actually all like music based yeah it was me like playing guitar to um to tick tocks I was like [ __ ] it I'll be a [ __ ] guitarist that that's still successful right yeah like who's the like name guitars from the last two years oh the last two years I don't know exactly because they're not successful right um so I gave

that a punt and it failed yeah the [ __ ] fail bro and then they're still out there those videos are they online I don't I don't know if I should have said this now I'm not nervous look for them go for it yeah keep going I'm [ __ ] yeah and then that just failed like I think the most amount of views I got was what was the channel name it was literally on the same the same Tick Tock account that I used for my car videos oh okay so it's gone for sure they might be on Google somewhere oh they might you might find them on YouTube oh [ __ ] [ __ ] YouTube find YouTube and but that one will be from like years ago like 2018. um so

you did that it suffered it was [ __ ] and then yeah so you stopped doing music yeah and then but I didn't ignore Tick Tock so I sort of just kept keep data and sort of looked at what people on Tick Tock do and if you're actually look at my for you page and stuff half of it's funny but the other half is to like how to make a good Tick Tock and like business business stuff right yep um and so I just keep like learning from that and then later that year I'd started uh I wanted to start a business because I had all this cash but no idea where to put it and I'm useless with money and I'll buy cars and I did

buy a car it's been [ __ ] sixty thousand dollars on a [ __ ] V8 that I couldn't get insurance for because I was only 21. um oh [ __ ] it was a good car though [ __ ] you know um but but yeah I had all this money I was like [ __ ] I'm your business and I thought what do I like I like music but music there's nowhere right you can't yeah music's just a completely different piece and then I thought cars I love cars I love all things cars whether it's technology the engines the suspension everything to do with them so I decided to launch a tick tock of these dash cam videos because I keep getting these [ __ ] [ __ ] yeah Auckland drivers yeah on the worst and I

had a dash cam and I was like I suppose some of these and then steal some others from the internet yeah and that's when Tick Tock first started taking off for me right and I remember getting the second video on there it got like 8 000 views and to me at the time I was like holy [ __ ] this is like life changing yeah [ __ ] yeah and then um from there like the videos just keep getting momentum there's a few with like 500 000 views and stuff um and from there a little company in South Auckland called trust Motors saw what I was doing and because I'd always been in contact with them because I applied for a sales role there and didn't get it yeah

um and then they hired me to do content and that's where the car stuff started originating from okay um and then we tried things at trust Motors I can't find the guitars but show um I tried things with um trust Motors and I'm telling you for like the first sort of three to six months yeah we failed it tick tock completely failed yeah no one watched our videos or anything and then so then that Christmas sort of New Year break sort of came out and I thought to myself I know reviews always do well and I like watching reviews and I want to I think I could do a good review I love you know Top Gear I think I could be a Jeremy Clarkson

or whatever yeah absolutely and then as I thought about it and I was like but if I made it more about and because I always find those sort of songs work well with the videos yeah it's a banger yeah um I use Gangnam Style and then I didn't put the music on The Tick Tock I had the music behind on the clip or on the video but I didn't sign up yeah and I got taken down for the copyright after like 8 000 views that's enough and then it wasn't until like three days later my mate was like oh can you re-upload it I did and then they got like 60 000 views and then I was like what the [ __ ] because at that time

that was nuts to me yeah and then and then from there it was like okay our daughter trust Motors first time we did it trust Motors was 200 000 views and then we just kept doing it um and then we posted Facebook advertise it all over Facebook um and that's sort of where I started figuring out how you can actually utilize this into your sales funnel properly and we can sell more cars and that's what ended up happening later on down down the line which was how my business operates now yeah um and yeah they keep going 500 000 views I think was the most we got again yep and then I don't know one one day because I started touring around with the idea

of leaving trust Motors and sort of doing the whole marketing thing and I I hated marketing agencies because I always find them all cringy and I never never ever wanted to be a marketing agency but I really felt like the car dealers could benefit from it and the the typical marketing agencies don't know how to sell cars which is where I come in yeah um because I do know how to sell cars yeah so that was cool and I thought well I need to get some more videos on my own profile to get it sort of proofed up and then I thought oh [ __ ] I'll do one on that glance around when I was driving around the previous day and I just thought of all

these things to say about it and I was like [ __ ] perfect went home scripted it took it out the next day um with my misses yeah and we filmed it yeah and so she's the one who filmed it oh she pressed record on the camera when it was all set up on the tripod um wait give us some credit I'm dead she pressed record she did a good job pressing that record button yeah she's responsible for 0.001 of those views okay um yeah then we just went for it and then filmed it headed up that day 3 15 p.m is when it got uploaded so that time always sticks with me that's the best time to upload and then at first it like flopped and

like after like an hour it only had like 100 views and because I by that time I was used to tick tock I was like [ __ ] that's not good not good yeah but I sort of said to my misters you know it could go either way it could go up or it could just stagnate and I was getting a bit nervous I was like [ __ ] this is like the Michael break what if the [ __ ] doesn't work yeah and then [ __ ] I was like [ __ ] it you know what I'm hungry let's go to Wendy's I want a [ __ ] big burger yeah and [ __ ] and so we went to Wendy's um at the drive-through and then we checked my phone it was like 30 000 views and

like my they were just piling and notification after notification you know and I was like what the [ __ ] and then by the time we got out of the drive-thru it was at like 35 000 views then we went to Z on the way home was at 70 000 000 views when we got home which was like 15 minutes later it was in 150 000 views yeah and I was like what the [ __ ] bro I've never seen this and it just kept going and going and [ __ ] going and then I was like what the [ __ ] and then that night I've got a million views and I was like okay this is like too good to ignore and then as you can see I kept sort of

kept at it for a bit Yeah to see if it would work and quite clearly it did um so then I was like okay cool I'm gonna leave my job this is too big to ignore yeah left my job and started a little marketing agency and here I am at the table so I mean if we like look at some of these as well like these especially that food is what I mean he had like 6.4 million or something so when that's happening and you're um [ __ ] this whole YouTube clip will get demonetized taken down but when you're seeing this happen what does it feel like like 7652 comments like do you read these I try to yeah I [ __ ] what was that like when

that first cracked off that massively because there's shitloads coming through right like 7 000 of those would have been the first few days yeah yeah um yeah it was nuts it was [ __ ] mental um yeah I don't know it was that's a it's a weird feeling because you saw you're kind of sitting there on your phone you're like [ __ ] like At first um there's a lot of comments on here which will probably be further down um where I was trying to you know reply to them all because at first I was like I'll be that guy that replies to all the comments but eventually after like 150 comments you're like [ __ ] I can't and that's still coming but by the time you've replied to 150

you've got another 500 yeah and you're just like [ __ ] yeah you know um what we're most of them about like for you because I mean obviously read them all but like what for you what were some of the main things coming up people were calling me Lister from Grand Theft Auto 5 which I still don't think I look anything like him but I [ __ ] oh [ __ ] yes I did not even know that Lester l e s t uh what have I done I've come here to be bullied yeah [ __ ] he's a handsome character actually oh yeah look if you go on the comments they're all like Alicia's comment the wish.com version like that's the witch.com I don't even look like Lister oh can we everyone

in the comments please just tell us what do you think the resemblance is let's settle this debate there is no debate so you had people call it's the what else another thing it's like was there anything in there that you're like apart from Lister that you're like [ __ ] what the [ __ ] like that's a bit [ __ ] no that was all good stuff it's all just funny majority of it was good stuff and Ryan's true on a lot of my videos where a lot of the comments are like good comments and I was real surprised because I thought [ __ ] I'll be easily hated on me listen to you guys talking [ __ ] about me with [ __ ] list [Laughter] what would I love what I love it because I

recently that's me is that yeah is it really that was I crashed that car um when I was 16 and what's worse because that was on a walking Track um that me and my mate broke into and we're just getting it up on the walking Track uh crash it and the bumper came off but we just drove away into the middle and it was like the basis of the video because that's why I own a glance I was like [ __ ] first car yeah you just can do anything I love it that's my first car because I must have flipped it and I remember being in bed in the morning and like hearing my dad like you know like told off Dad voice like in the

kitchen we shared the car and they're like like woke up like what happened and mum's like at least your sister's alive I'm like no but the collapse so bad that's so [ __ ] it's a good story everyone was all good no worries now I was gonna say like comments like a lot of people we talked to are worried sometimes around like this hate and stuff and stuff but what I see on Tick Tock is actually there's not a lot of it there isn't different student if you're like real political or real like [ __ ] you're trying to yeah I find like our nails like it's all for a laugh yeah and that's the like I honestly I don't get much hate at all and I thought I

thought yeah genuinely I thought I would but I just didn't give a [ __ ] yeah I was like [ __ ] it [ __ ] [ __ ] them yeah you know but like it's nothing like even like the one we put out me the one where this name stand playing come from when I'm doing mansplane I'm like in Chinese man and I'm like yeah because you're a stupid [ __ ] woman [Laughter] we're gonna cancel and then everything's in there like like girls are in there going sorry Joni but he's right like my favorite part of tick tock is the community yeah it's outrageous the community like the like how many people uh into like commenting on other videos about other videos and like is there like much of that happening throughout your

commentary like people referencing things yeah a little bit um what I've noticed as well is I'll go and comment on a random video because this is still like my personal account really yeah um and I'll take my misses in a funny video I like and it gets like 150 likes or something yeah and then people will be replying like [ __ ] Earth and like and I love it and then some guy was like reply to the comment and then was like is she your girlfriend because she's lucky to have you if she is and I was like yeah that's so good yeah people do the same like they just follow you around almost yeah it's [ __ ] crazy but it's cool like I love that about Community

because like on LinkedIn where most of our world is it's still cool the community is great there but like they're all professional trying to be professional so they're all a little bit tame of their responses even I try to be proficient yeah a little bit yeah a little bit I'll still post the old video and be like hot views and then these guys are just like not gonna [ __ ] troll you all day it's just so good I love it um so you've been putting you see start putting these out you start building up the sort of following stuff this 250 000 followers like how long like tell me that trajectory so you put out the first video when did you start cracking like 50 000

hundred thousand like did that all happen pretty fast or has it been a slow linear build no fast um 50 000 was overnight um so the first sort of million views yeah um the 50 000 followers and that sort of that to me was a good indication of what sort of content actually attracts an audience because there's the content which you can get lots of views on but you're not going to get the followers on like um actually one of my employees has a um he had a viral Tick Tock yeah um it was in Albany and it was um this dude on a wheelchair on the road going around the roundabout um someone surely someone's seen that um yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

those in the news and stuff that's one of my marketing guys he um he like he was asking me like [ __ ] how do your videos get all the views but then also get followers because he only got like maybe a thousand followers from it whereas the same amount of like views for like one of my videos got me 50 000 and you know I sort of hit that 100 000 Mark then the week after yeah um because a lot of the videos followed up pretty fast and then 200 000 came pretty quick um but I think now it's probably if I if I do take this like more serious and keep going at it um which I do want to but time constraints at the

moment um I think the the growth will be a lot slower because now people know who I am they know what content it is yeah um yeah I think I've lost followers as well I think I've lost about 200 was that 255 at one point yeah bastards but I think you're right like I think to continue to grow I think well first I think you're right two ways the videos that get views and videos that get followers but also to continue to get followers you need to evolve the content to 100 yeah right and I and like for us what we noticed is um there's heaps of other marketing agencies out there who have got plenty of views on their posts but they go like

2 000 followers or ten thousand followers but they might have a six million View Post and what we notice is that the the difference between ours and these was that there was dialogue that there were like actual stories being told and yeah interaction between characters were they all doing Trend videos and there's this whole thing about this trend video right yep I [ __ ] hate Trends yeah I hate truth and I hate Dance videos yeah and I had another marketing I don't even know what they were a marketing agency they also do like Film Production and they were trying to tell me you know like because I'd only seen the videos I've done with another country which reported to cars at their highest videos 700 000

views and they're sort of telling me you know like um if you incorporate some dances and some trending sound to go from 700 000 views to a million views and I sat there and I was looking at this woman and I was like yeah because I was like no no lady no like all respect to ladies obviously but [ __ ] up woman yeah God I was I was [ __ ] off I was like bro do you even know who you're talking to it was all good because I went to the boss of that company he's like oh that [ __ ] happens to me all the time like um people think like people that have their version of what's best might not fit yours but you just gotta luckily

in that meeting I was professional it was [ __ ] I was like oh yeah yeah oh maybe we'll take them on board yeah yeah but it is so true like for like so so Trends and dancers have its place on Tick Tock for sure 100 but if you're a company trying like that it doesn't work it's not right and it's not unless you're a [ __ ] dance studio yeah yeah like it doesn't work if you're 100 agree everything you've just see it like yeah like dancing in like the train videos they have to place on Tick Tock but if you're a business that's trying to get customers yeah how is doing the same thing as like a million other people on Tick Tock yeah gonna separate your

brand from everyone else agreed which is like when we did ours like we were thinking of like let's chuckle the [ __ ] out well let's learn from this because I like you at the beginning like we didn't like Jenny knew how to make she knew the platform and how it works but we would I said to just throw [ __ ] at the wall test because don't don't assume you know and let's just put out as much as we can to see and then we started to realize that like it's the for us as a brand as a culture what we're trying to do is have people love our culture as a team and how we interact as a team that will bring us customers because people are

buying us they're not buying a pair of shoes they're buying this team so they need to know how we work together yeah so just so we actually sat down as a team all of us and we all like went through every person in the team whatever our characteristics which one do we doll up to 11 when we're on film and like made characters right we had these whole people that we identify with like so like you know those people like for me it was like Shrek and Ron Swanson I think all the [ __ ] ones that was me yeah and then like you know like we had all this sort of [ __ ] right I'm like the grumpy old boss but also like we'll clap back at

you and like you know like we're on Swanson would right like he's the grumpy old [ __ ] but like actually I love Ronald he will do what I'm standing so we like sit around and built those characters and then like as we've gone through obviously Joni's Limited in her time and production so I'm using most of it but here because of the way our operation works but like as we like we actually noticed like and this is this is going to cool out Sean Sean can we go to tears so we had been having all these massive um videos going out right as you saw like some of the big ones that when you started to notice the tears one and then I mean you me

and Jenny knew what it was and then the guys had an idea for another video with Conaway in the prank and it was funny video um but like it's crack up because I look at it like this 53k and most of those views have come from everyone coming from the other views yeah it's not its own and there's nothing wrong with this video it's hilarious but I think no one knew the characters no one knew Shawn like Sean hadn't been in enough to like people just switched past it because they're like oh I don't know these guys yeah they've got to recognize the characters right so what we've realized it's actually stupidly funny like it's really crack up yeah I think this one actually came

off my for you page I watched it not realizing it was the attention to you yeah exactly what you guys said but I keep watching because it's funny that's it and like you know Sean was too cool to be in them in the first space and so so forth and all the other guys they're too cool of it oh [ __ ] off your little tick tocks and then it blows up and then everyone wants to the internet and then but what we have to do what we learned and why it was good to put the suppers to continue to grow the characters we have to bring them in bit by bit you know like we have we can't just go then we have to be like

Joni has to do convincing the videographers to do something yeah they do that and then introduces Joni or I'm pretending that this comments about me though so what is it off are you honestly yes definitely not about it but yeah um my point of that thing is is that like for brains like some of the deals like since we're blown up recently like the amount of clients that have come in from around the world like asking us to run their Tick Tock now and what we've been saying them all is you need character and this is like product based business we want to talk about the product and I was like we can talk about the product but not not a product we're not going

to be hey buy my [ __ ] [ __ ] like we're going to make some it doesn't all have to be funny but we're gonna make some [ __ ] about like we're going to create a storyline characters 100 yeah and it's funny you say that because um with like Portage cars for example um I've started getting the staff more involved in the videos as well because I want to get them like that's the goal there's just to not rely on me so much but also have some of them because for for especially at the new zealand-based customers um they'll watch the videos they want to see the people in the videos at the yard when they go there yeah and so obviously I'm not directly working at Portage cars

so they go there look where's the fat [ __ ] no I'm not and I'm not there you know what I mean so it's it's kind of weaning them in there so you don't want to make a video with without me necessarily because it's just like where's the fat cat right like we don't like you get out like bring back the other guy you know yeah and we tried that actually and that's exactly what the comments were like yeah exactly yeah so it's all about slow slowly integrating them and training the audience training the audience exactly and bringing them in and that's yeah that's exactly it and I think for our what we talked about followers versus views like we get it we got so many more

followers once the storyline stuff started like our cat video which is a bit was about to hit 10 million views got I think it's only it oh I can tell you actually because yeah that one oh no that was our repost just to see what would happen because we're testing some [ __ ] out yeah but it doesn't depend on the distance but if you um yeah because I remember seeing that one first yeah and that there has had 9728 followers the Cat video from that video so 10 million views only not even 10 000 followers yeah but then you go to like uh the [ __ ] one of her or is it four million the four million views one where we're doing the storyline [ __ ] and that

one there is 46 000. 46 000 followers so like five almost five times the followers with half the views because it was storyline yeah it was that cat videos not story that's just funny it's a funny video got the views but [ __ ] all followers and then the OneNote which is convincing my boss to do stuff 50 000 followers from that one video so two of our videos 96 000 of our [ __ ] followers of the 130 just because they were still alive they were storyline videos yeah character development storylines and that's what we know like like even this video here although it's me when we made it we knew it'd be it would get we'll get it we'll get 50 to 100 000 views eventually but

it's not the same storyline yeah it's not carrying on the um so we've got a few storylines we're going to get standard Shaker ass that's one video trying to get me to dance one of the other ones is her trying to convince me to buy her a phone or get her a new stuff I mean like getting jokes that's [ __ ] funny yeah trying to convince me to bio [ __ ] essentially so there's storylines there that then people crack into but this won't happen here so it'll be interesting to see where it goes it's just offers Antics but I think we still need that I think it's good to have that balance yeah still build some culture yeah and and the true fans will get yeah and

like even even sort of more not necessarily proof but you know when people see a video that's got 10 million views on the for you page and then come on your profile they want to see what you're about that is a good exactly yes because in this because sometimes then they look a bit staged and then they see this oh this looks real natural yeah oh this is actually who they are even though it's pretty [ __ ] staged I love that Journey video where she's asking for a pay rise and she's like well I'm a sick [ __ ] yeah and there's a comments are like wait Joni's got a sick what like all the Americans don't know like not understanding the joke like it was too funny

that was the funniest thing we got out of there okay so We've joked around we got our philosophy on how we think Tick Tock should work and time will tell for you and I are right um so far we are but tell me about tell me about this thing this business I like how the [ __ ] did you have the confidence to just quit your job and goal in on this like what what gave you that confidence well it was a [ __ ] uphill battle really because I sort of got the idea and like early May and it was sort of just where my previous business or my previous job was I just wasn't that Keen on continuing down I felt like my vision didn't really align

with their Vision like brand wise yeah um because I wanted to do their thing and that's cool they think's [ __ ] awesome um especially because they get the high quality cars now and the videos they do now are less funny they're more of the high quality cars yeah um and I I felt personally there wasn't much more room for me to grow yeah okay and if I don't if I can't keep changing then I'm [ __ ] bored enough I'm [ __ ] bored then I'm miserable if I'm miserable I'm gonna [ __ ] off yeah right um yeah and then to be honest it was more of a [ __ ] like looking at what all the other dealerships are doing online and seeing that this this massive Gap and no one wants

to pay attention to tick tock because in in the minds of these people they've only heard about on news and stuff and they think well it's just dancing isn't it um and I thought [ __ ] you know like guys I can seriously make you guys like more money through social media because you know there's the big big elephant in the room or the big bird in the country which is trade me right yeah yeah you want to buy a car in New Zealand you go and trade me yeah and that's where most like leads come from yep but you can still get it from social media while whilst like cementing your brand yeah to like New Zealand culture right which is just as important but a

lot of dealerships don't care about the brand because it's almost as if selling cars in New Zealand is too easy yeah because we've got all the like we've got the trading Marketplace we've also got the Facebook Marketplace you know there's all these other things you can do so no one really cares about the brand but there are dealers that do want their Brand Power you know they want to sort of yeah be like a Tina from Turners and stuff yep um it's me sending those videos to join again what the [ __ ] is this we have to smash this video like we have to pull it apart that's why it's so funny like what the [ __ ] is Tina from tennis yeah I mean uh Portage cars

and I have a we're gonna do something yeah in response it's good it's gonna be good good sorry um [ __ ] where was I actually um so you're talking about leaving going out on your own yeah [ __ ] and like there are a lot of deal dealerships that just because they don't have to care about a brand but there's a lot of dealers that do care about a brand and just don't know how to do it and there's a lot of marketing agencies worldwide that don't know the the complexities of the car dealership which is what I had was just what I learned right yeah because a lot of like marketing agencies right there experienced in e-commerce right and selling a selling 200 product on a Shopify

store is not the same as selling a 50 000 car through Facebook and like Tick Tock right um so I sort of sort of saw that Gap and I sort of thought about it and I was like well you know I'm not am I happy at my job no is my job close to home no it was [ __ ] an hour commute each way so we're talking about two hours stuck in traffic five days a week that's 10 hours loss yeah right off my week and I was like [ __ ] I want more time to myself but I want to [ __ ] drive the cars that I keep buying and [ __ ] um so I weighed up all the all the pros and cons and I was like okay

do I have a mortgage no do I have kids no am I going to be miserable if it doesn't work out no let's find out yeah and it worked out awesome so like I was just [ __ ] like or if I stay at the job there's not really much more room to grow I don't really think I'm paid enough I suppose we all think that but I I I I thought you know if I could be paid a bit more especially for the money I brought in um so I was like well [ __ ] it let's just take a punt to myself I've got I've got the proof yeah for social proof what's the worst that can happen it doesn't work out yep and then how did

you get your first customer um so technically I had my first customer before I left because I was a bit cheeky in the background and was like [ __ ] you know what but um so that would have added to your confidence to leave too because you're like you've already proved I can get one yeah and that was you know it was all right money um fortunately he's not a customer anymore but he was my first customer um and then my first my first proper customer I found because I'd seen I've seen haven't comment on like the old trust Motors videos saying this guy would fit in well at his dealership yeah and then so I figured out who he was got in contact boom just like

that and the rest the rest of them is literally just like my network like um like Portage cars is through my network yep um there's a compliance Workshop that we do which is again through my network because one of the people I did um a video on his car worked with this compliance Workshop which you know was like oh [ __ ] we could use him you know and then they were just that sort of just perfectly lined up and then through them was Portage and all these other places and the rest is on my network because you know like my business I haven't like marketed or anything no it's nowhere yeah because it's pretty because we're not feening for clients yet yeah it will be fine

we'll be [ __ ] out we're coming but at the moment it's sort of that slow slow growth to make sure everything's running efficiently before we take on too much so we can chill and have [ __ ] yeah negative response and it's such a classic thing with New Zealand businesses is like this is why we have a business is that your network is what grows your business at the beginning and everyone has a network we all have reputations and then like we've talked about before your personal brand is what takes you to the next place it's like curating that reputation and [ __ ] making it something and scaling it online I mean you've already got the audience on Tick Tock so you've got proof there um but that's it

right like you keep scaling it there and then the leads will just bring themselves because they they it's like when you get a deal from people coming because they know you it's that's there's no sale process it's just like cool how much do we charge yeah for this work that you know we're going to do where's like like what I find real fun is like when people play the leads game like I want leads I'm gonna [ __ ] run ads but then they don't have a sales engine to support that lead and they're like oh these leads are [ __ ] I was like no it's like you've never had to sell yeah you've only ever been given referrals because of your reputation and that's what you're used

to these guys need to [ __ ] get to know you and warm up and you need to lick their balls a bit before they [ __ ] come on 100 it's all about looking them up I'm all about looking at them you've got to have that sales strategy right you've got to be able to convert those leads so okay so you cool you've got that you've got your invitation you got your network giving you clients and then you talked earlier when we first started chatting about staff and that this has been your this is your current [ __ ] problem yeah that's how's that going what do you what's what's keeping you up at night about it it's the the cost of good people is definitely one and I'm not

opposed to spending the money on the good people but the good people I don't know it seems to be the good people are really hard to find and the bad people think they're good um and it's one of those things and I've and I hate to say it like this but with the like videographers and stuff for example it seems to be because they're creatives they have their own creative process and that's fine and I'm all about you know integrating what your Creative Vision is but there is also the thing that we know works and we want you to start doing first and get really good at that but they don't want to um and so they'll keep doing their own thing and then you

know I'll follow up and it begins like you know that one minute video needs another like 10 hours of editing yeah after because I have to keep following up and following up So eventually it's just like yeah if this is this is happening again and again and again is it gonna stop or is it or am I going to have to you know find someone else yeah yeah unfortunately it's always been the letter yeah um and I was really surprised because I thought [ __ ] funny stuff would be [ __ ] easy right I thought there was like gonna be the easy part yeah well I was a bit [ __ ] blindsided by that it's a [ __ ] business lesson full we got [ __ ] like nah oh you I could

start and just hire all these people be [ __ ] gross oh yeah it's the hardest bit of business it is [ __ ] is yeah um it's funny when you talk about that like because I always give these guys [ __ ] about I'm not [ __ ] hiring artists like especially like when we go on to um like group interviews and stuff right like I'm always like I mean this one's not an artist she thinks she is but she's not she's a she's a Creator this is what I think of them different artists as creative yeah and Sean actually is not the artist well he's like Connor is Right Connor's like yeah I think in like this situation no no she's not an artist um she just wants to be an

artist um [ __ ] no but actually I I it doesn't mean you can't be it doesn't mean yeah like she does other stuff that is created but what I mean is I hit the brain I'm talking about it more around the brain how the brain works in these people like Connor's like [ __ ] epic when it comes to videography like he knows how to work a camera like no one else in our team just about right like he's he's an artist when it comes to it and so we've had to teach him to be what I think of as like a creator for business right like we got a business outcome we need to achieve kind of get it done and he's what's good about Connor he's

very good at like adapting and learning um but when I go into group interviews and interviews are for finding people I'm like if you're an artist [ __ ] off like I don't want an artist here I don't care if you're the best camera operator if you can't do the work he I don't give a [ __ ] he can't pay you and like even with the photographers like Chris like there's all these amazing photographers some way better than Chris but like he's not caught up on being an artist about it like he's just like get the job done move on I don't want to be stuck here doing the thing um but what I was lucky compared to you is that I um no I had I had

the experience in hiring and developing yeah because I was a gym and for Italian for 15 years right yeah so it's way harder when you haven't had that experience because you actually have to find the good people 100 so I can just find people who's never opened Premiere before and then be like hey you're my new video editor and just teach them yeah teach them my way I mean she didn't open up Premiere the day I had her she knew it she went home that night after the thing it was like YouTube like how to figure it out and now she's like does all my internal long-form content right that's all of it right and so um podcasts podcast is a cracker like I said

to start of oh in the last year in the last year about a year ago yeah when we got out of lockdown last year I said hey we need to figure out how to do podcasts we need to figure out how to make this a thing and so like she had those shitty 60 Canon camera with crappy lenses like [ __ ] quality yeah and I was like here you go figure out how to make a podcast use me and Drew and it was like terrible at the start not because of Sean just because our process we're trying to figure it out and we just spent I think we did like 20 episodes before everything was right every time something [ __ ] up and then we got the

audio we finally got all the pieces to gel the moment we did that I went to the client was okay you want to do podcast yeah and then we signed them on as broadcast client and that's how we've sort of built everything right like let's figure this out like we so we each time we we can do one thing we keep some money doing that while we're doing that let's learn to do the next thing okay we got that bang same with Tick Tock right yeah bring Joni in four months ago can't [ __ ] do Tick Tock I can't do short film video being figured out figured out cracked it now we've got like shitloads of inquiries and we've got the process to roll it out

yeah so let's maybe saying you can think about like how do you like streamline your little bit that you've got yeah make it real good and then it'll be okay to spend the money training someone to do the next part or the evolution of it yeah so I think that's definitely part of it a because [ __ ] because yeah part of the problem is Auntie I reckon The Artsy people are yeah it's funny you say that because I thought I was alone and thinking that but no obviously not yeah but the other other side of the problem is definitely me it's like a like because I never [ __ ] hide stuff before you've not had the experience of being here developing leader yeah no I'm going out

of my own and [ __ ] failing but but like you'd be if you got it right it would have been a fluke you know what I mean like it actually would have been what and that's actually maybe better you learned now because imagine if you had your 10 stuff and you fluked your way into getting the right people and then you need to scale and get another 10 people and they were all [ __ ] but you're at a level where I can't have 10 [ __ ] people I need them to perform otherwise the business collapses yeah so you're learning it now and it's good because you know the clients that I've got now I'm not focused on growing The Client List at the moment because I'm focused on

getting the results for the clients I've got now but the clients I've got now are all like really good like decent paying clients where so I've got that room to focus on okay getting the staff in place you know maybe I won't make as much money in the short term which is probably not my [ __ ] priorities anyway and then focusing on then growing and then getting out and getting the clients because for me right getting the clients was always the easiest part yeah it was [ __ ] [ __ ] especially like at at the moment like getting clients is like [ __ ] if I want to decline I'll just get on the phone third one I've got yeah right but [ __ ] it's everything behind the scenes of making the

business run efficiently and getting the proper results and having everything run smoothly is that's the [ __ ] part yeah 100 yeah and so what's your current thing apart from staff what else is [ __ ] you over at the moment with your branding the business what else is keeping you up to be honest probably this is more personal I think but my organizational skills suck yeah I am bad at time management like terrible at time management yeah I'm camera I'm the worst at [ __ ] time management I have a horrible for it I'm the [ __ ] worst I don't know how people put up with me yeah because I'm so [ __ ] like I'll say you know Portage cars I'll be there I'll be there like 11 30 I'll rock up

at like one and then and then because I'm [ __ ] because I'm mates with like the the sales people there I'll be like oh Andy what have you had for lunch Pro and he's like oh [ __ ] should we go to flight Bakery down the road [ __ ] in New Lynn bro the biggest Bakery it will go down there we'll have like double cheeseburgers each and [ __ ] and [ __ ] have like another like two hour yarn and then I'm like [ __ ] I've got to [ __ ] shoot like three videos I can't like and then we only shoot like like two right that's that that's a struggle for me if you showed up at one of your meant to be a little lemon you'd be like [ __ ] like I get I

get annoyed when these guys turn up 10 seconds later I'm like you just wasted my time yeah [ __ ] why the [ __ ] are you late [ __ ] like I I always stands up and leaves yeah we had meetings and they said 8 45 they start 8 45 you're not here I don't give a [ __ ] we're going no too bad and I say the same to them to me like I'm busy and I can't make it start shame on me for not [ __ ] being there like yeah make decisions like if there's some decisions that need to be made about the business make them if I'm not there [ __ ] tough [ __ ] yeah like you guys get to decide what we do now you know um but on time management

it's like a real normal thing for a lot of people that people suck at it and yeah man and like actually the younger you are the more chill you are about it usually like it's usually just something that you haven't had enough people slapping on the wrist telling you it's [ __ ] and like you know so you haven't had the consequence of what it is to be late all the time but I worked in hospital for 15 years you can't turn up and deliver lunch late yeah the client's gonna [ __ ] smash you you can set it up right so like and like I I run on like from 15 years of my life I ran on 24 hour time like you never ran on 12 hour

time so it still [ __ ] me up when people like oh I'll meet you at two and I'm I don't [ __ ] mute in the morning that's [ __ ] stupid no 1400 yeah that's it I'll be like oh 1400 oh [ __ ] yeah yeah because in hospital I mean hospital is paramilitary kitchens are all paramilitary they the ranking system and all the stuff it's all built oh yeah kitchens are the [ __ ] like yeah they're all built off Army sort of style things and so um so that's why I got really good of time because even when I was young I was like I'm half Islander I was always late like I'm [ __ ] Island time all the time built into me to like feel like you're [ __ ] yeah you're fired

like in hospital if you turn up late you're fired like mate you can't turn up like to a breakfast if you're counting up at nine o'clock when breakfast starts at seven because all the customers are gone but so it's real normal and we would see it a lot in hospital but get help actually at FBA my [ __ ] um my one of my like core clients is actually like working um with me on it because if she was much as she's a manager right and she's a manager at this um compliance workshop and she was much the same she turned out to have [ __ ] ADHD and she [ __ ] thinks I've got it yeah we are [ __ ] diagnosed like I meet so people it's like real common

to have ADHD or dyslexia yeah it gets real common I think I've got [ __ ] both actually I'll read I'll [ __ ] read words and like [ __ ] oh I was at the [ __ ] Mecca's drive through bro and there's these cards on the app that you get because I'm a cheap ass right I'm not gonna spend full price now give me the [ __ ] deals bro and I'm reading the I'm reading the number up to him he was like can you repeat that and I repeated it like three times he's like oh it's not coming up and then this is like you dumbass it says six not [ __ ] nine I'm like oh what and the worst part is I don't even think it was like a six and nine

around the right I think it was said seven and I was reading five or something like I was [ __ ] and I was like oh what the [ __ ] and I was like probably I mean they our guys how amazing he's dyslexic like 100 like he hates it when he's when he's in here and he's running his session he's we're all watching him right [ __ ] on the board he's like that's so good the cousin though where I'll be like writing something who comes up takes the Bible off you and then sits down he's like oh why am I even doing this [Laughter] definitely hit that HD but I know so many of our clients do too and it's such a common thing like adult diagnosed ADHD and

like what you can do about it like there's nothing wrong with mehd but it's good to know so you can manage it yeah work to it like one of our main clients Drew he got diagnosed earlier this year or late last year just having the knowledge has helped them [ __ ] that's why I do those things yeah and then you can manage it right and then there is medication for it as well but some people works really good for and some people it just [ __ ] off their head like an El naturality I'm [ __ ] we met some guy this one guy I know he got diagnosed he was probably late 50s when he got diagnosed he took the medication whatever it's called um and he's like [ __ ]

in you know what he's like is everyone this like it's all everyone's hit just this clear like can you just sit there and think oh I'm gonna do these things and then just do them I'm like yeah he's like [ __ ] that's magical he's like I've never I he's like I look at a list of things I need to do and then I go get lunch yeah because oh you know some of them will be urgent on my list of [ __ ] to do like oh but like if I just come eat lunch now and then the worst part is I'll spend like half an hour looking at [ __ ] to eat and then I'll end up doing something else and then I'm like [ __ ] I'm gonna do

this [ __ ] bro yeah [ __ ] that's it it's probably there just go get donut go see a doctor get some drugs are expensive yeah several did lens and then put the pressure on and then be like oh actually my deadline is the next day but in your head you've made it then yeah like it has to do make or break whatever that's what I do I'm like this is your deadline you cannot go home until you've done it and then in reality it actually is all good if I did it the next day yeah both and or like get someone else to give you the deadline yeah yeah like if you maybe you had a staff member or you missed as a son who's just like

or you'd say to your client hey Bossa deadline on me or you're walking out are you walking out as a client like say say to them like if you've got a good relationship with them or your staff or who yeah just be like force these on me because then you're just like because then your ADHD works because then you're like that's good that's perfect that's it tell her say to her like give me real penalties for it yeah and you'll [ __ ] learn real quick no I can't [ __ ] with this [ __ ] like I need to do this oh to be honest I've made a mistake yesterday I wanted to film videos I was [ __ ] nervous to like just apologize because I'm like well [ __ ] she's probably

not gonna do anything but still like she [ __ ] she was angry yesterday like not because I was there but because like you know running a business and [ __ ] like [ __ ] gets you [ __ ] off yeah and I showed up she's like oh [ __ ] you we'll go to this and I [ __ ] up and then I was like oh [ __ ] that he's not gonna tell her so yeah it probably worked yeah yeah that's it so you started your own business more stresses than you thought there was right yeah but what's really cool and why I wanted to bring up the stuff about businesses one it's [ __ ] hard so people out there with Brands don't just think you can just start a business because it's [ __ ] hard but it

can be done it can be done and it's [ __ ] awesome yeah like yeah there's a lot of [ __ ] hard work and like it's a struggle and some nights I don't [ __ ] sleep as much and then [ __ ] you know but [ __ ] I don't think I'd for me I don't really want to [ __ ] work for anyone else again I just want to [ __ ] keep doing this and like if this keeps going then you know [ __ ] maybe you have someone else manage it and then do the next [ __ ] thing yeah [ __ ] awesome and and as a like for people listening to this who have who have an audience right and they think you're like going out on themselves what I wouldn't mind and I'm going to make you

answer us anyway but um if you think about your ideal client that you're going to work with what are they worth to you in a year and it could be like because I know when you start out every time you sign a new client you're pretty much charging them they're more than you charge the last one so if you're going to charge the next client what what would be an annual fee for them or a monthly fee just off the bat just ballpark number say you're going to run their Tick Tock for them it was just their Tick Tock and nothing else marketing wise I'd be depending on the number of videos but I'd say a nice number at the moment is like that 15

20. yep Grand Mark for a month yep um but then the rest of the marketing strategy which ties into it and actually gets cars sold that will start moving up the more the car sell and the more we can so you're taking a bit of commission yeah right right or is it just used charging more because you're getting more conversions the letter yeah and but I'm working with really good like businessmen I'm like one of them is like [ __ ] like serial entrepreneur That's like [ __ ] like I can't say too much yeah on top of the [ __ ] automotive industry really and he's the [ __ ] mad dog and he's like working with me to you know get the get me paid more because I'm doing the [ __ ]

good work and actually getting more car sold and [ __ ] um but in the future yeah it'll be like a more of a commission yeah commission basis obviously can't be too much because car dealers are usually cheap [ __ ] yeah um and [ __ ] don't have a lot of spare cash but but that that number 15K because like the type of clients that you're working with are these big car dealerships and [ __ ] you're doing like what they're selling is massive and they're actually quite transactional stuff so like there's a client thing around that that you're working with awesome types of Industries and [ __ ] you're in the car industry so you cracked it getting into that industry as well because there's such a mess of Industry especially in company

like you know but for people listening like like people with more followers than you are getting paid a tenth of that for a job and they think [ __ ] we're doing awesome like like and I say this to Joni all the time like when I first met her she thought it was awesome she was getting 2K a gig for those brand deals and stuff that she's doing and I was like you're getting [ __ ] all like that [ __ ] like you're getting chewed up and sped out like um and I was telling you the same thing like with what we do like and then same with you that these people these influencers out there these brands are getting just absolute [ __ ] on by these big Brands knowing they

don't know their worth yeah but I love your story and I remember hearing when I talked to you and you're telling me these numbers and that's going this is [ __ ] legit like no one has the balls big enough to just go and be like hey it's 15 grand a month like thank you see you later yeah you know like no one does like I don't meet hardly anyone who does this usually when I talk to people and they're struggling with business or they're talking about business they're like like how much you're charging like oh like 800 bucks a month I'm like yeah that's your [ __ ] problem 100 exactly right and then even like when we talked and I was like bro you're doing setup fees

and you're like nah and you're like [ __ ] I've got to do sit-up things like that even that right like so I learned something a few around tick tock the value of it um because I wasn't sure right either for the big Brands which we haven't started going after yet we will we're going we've got our personal branding so personal brand is very different level but like you know speaking we're going after some of the bigger New Zealand brands at the moment and just knowing that like 20K is where we start that's the starting level it's probably 50 for some of the big guys um so they're saying I learn a few which is cool and then being able to tell you that like sit-up fees

because the reason I say I learned it off you because no one [ __ ] tells you this [ __ ] no one out there telling people that this is what you charge these big Brands because they're not going to tell you nah of course not because they're all can't they all have the cheapest price possible but like us as an industry especially when you're at the Forefront of tiktok because not the big agencies aren't it they all suck at it yeah they do yeah well you know it's not their fun I know a lot of them it's not their fault assistant it's so new they're still figuring it out um and they got such big ships that they can't move them fast enough right yeah so they can't

you can't expect them to just be like oh [ __ ] tick tocks here let's throw all these resources at it because they've got [ __ ] heaps with work on their busy [ __ ] you think we're busy you guys these guys have 100 200 people agencies they don't have time to just go just go [ __ ] invest all over there they are starting to and I think like agencies like ours need to [ __ ] make it quickly coming yeah I've that's actually another stress that's been on my mind is the fact the competition's coming like [ __ ] running away from the [ __ ] like the people that invaded America back in the 70s what your strength what you should be doing at your age because how old are you now just uh not

[ __ ] 22 22 right so you're at 22. what my advice would be for you because you're we're at a different stage in our life you should just be selling this business in the two years you should build up the business brand massive the operations get it re-humming and then these big agencies you can't be like hey buy my agency just take it off me get a few mil and then walk out and do something else yeah and I think the I think that because I was thinking about that just last night as well because the the powerful thing with it all is that I'm still like the Forefront of it right because people know me and my face and that's so I don't think like

like selling it I'm scared at the moment does that oh [ __ ] I'll lose everything I've worked foreign I'm also at the same time like I'll just do it again yeah just do it again and what's cool is that like like why I say one or two years is that use that time to build up the company brand and your brand so you keep your brand but you sell the company brand and the company and all the company clients and retainers and you sell that to the big agency but like to do that effectively you need to get out of the videos oh not only personal one but on the clients once that's which I know you I can yeah happening um and like Portage cars

for example they've signed me on exclusively so any dealers looking for me to be in their videos to know I'm sorry yeah but um yeah like that's already happening and then eventually that'll probably like fizzle out because there's only so many [ __ ] reviews a man can do I'm running out of like comedic jokes a lot of all I've got is [ __ ] [ __ ] someone in the [ __ ] boot or [ __ ] sex toys or you know and yeah I tried saying something was gender neutral now I can't post it as an ad on Facebook which is also part of the marketing strategy so it's like oh [ __ ] social issues and I'm like wasn't a good good way I wasn't talking needed I was um I forgot to haven't

talked about this because I haven't caught up but that one you did off the the mum buying the thing I was like [ __ ] man there's some balls in that because that in this country like this New Zealand's like the workers country I've ever lived in and not that that's a bad thing I'm not like [ __ ] it whatever they want to do but that video is like [ __ ] crack up you were like borderline sleazy [ __ ] have you seen it oh man it's [ __ ] uh has it got music in it I think it's um royalty free music okay cool let's play it we can't do the sound on them the funny thing about that though is because I'm well aware of like the ballsiness of it but

a lot of the jokes came from a female salesperson because I've run I [ __ ] run all my jokes past the max amount of people because I like put it on the screen you don't want to be canceled yeah well the world's the world's [ __ ] sensitive and you know sometimes I could accidentally like offend someone you know because to me I don't give a [ __ ] like you I'll call myself a fan kind of give a [ __ ] but other other fat people they might be like oh yeah that's but rude to me bro I'm like oh absolutely so anyway as we wrap this up like I thought that was palsy too I was like like and I said to the guy's like [ __ ] this guy's got some

nuts um but awesome that you did it and it obviously worked because it [ __ ] cracked off that when we saw it like it probably wasn't a it's not like you're 6.4 million ones but nah but that's like that's definitely for a business for a business and and the thing with it which is very new to me is that it appealed to a lot of a lot of women yeah a lot of women love that video and they're all commenting on and that's because like my videos do good with blokes mainly because I'm a bloke I understand blokes I'm [ __ ] I'm such a kiwi bloke that it's [ __ ] not even funny but like that video like the the woman like really really loved it and they

were [ __ ] like oh such a move and then well the funniest thing about it was like the the kids taking one kid tagged his mate it was like your mum should get this car there's so many comments like that and I was like yeah that's [ __ ] funny oh that's so good all right man what's next from here what's your next moose I don't know I'm [ __ ] getting stuff and then just keep on moving up keeping grinding do you have an idea of where you want to evolve the the channel my personal brand yeah I think YouTube is definitely on the on the cards yep um but for that I sort of want to keep it all in house and not have to rely on like

other production but I want to go a bit bigger um make it all [ __ ] big ground layout and John whatever [ __ ] um well he's all big and [ __ ] Grand isn't he yeah um I love it but it's also you know like teaming up with other um other prominent um people in on the automotive space in Tick Tock to go YouTube as well because a lot of them they want to do it and they don't know how to do it and a lot of them especially don't have the the business knowledge that I've acquired which is still very virgin compared to someone like yourself so it's kind of collaborating on that like there's a project of four driving that I've gotten which is obviously very crowded

but then there's also doing those videos but longer and a bit more serious um where I can still joke around because obviously you want to be monetized on YouTube but you can't just go [ __ ] yeah you can't open the video saying you're a [ __ ] [ __ ] because it's not going to work but you could build your audience doing that don't manage wait and like because you know you're not gonna monetize for ages no until you've built up the subscriber base but you could start them all off like that and then over time slowly make them less yeah you get it into the monetization piece um but yeah I reckon that's what you do right like take yourself have you posted your tick tocks on YouTube shorts

I think I've done one yeah how did it go I honestly got no idea yeah YouTube shorts is a funny one eh like you because YouTube shorts also depends a lot on the titles and stuff as well because it shows up on the home screen as well which I've noticed yeah guitar videos no you're not gonna find it yeah there we are 400 degrees Yeah so we get the same like ours as um yeah far less views and stuff on YouTube shorts but we do think that YouTube is also still in the optimization period of it so we're we're going to make another play like this podcast for instance is going up on YouTube on a brand new Channel with a very specific strategy behind

it but it's before we're just [ __ ] again chucking [ __ ] at the wall see what's stuck yeah um getting monetized I'm much the same I don't think it's um probably one of the best advices I had which was from someone that ran an agency in Wellington was that don't just focus on Tick Tock if you're going to focus on anything if you want to focus on that focus on short form content across all the [ __ ] platforms and I was like oh dang even on LinkedIn like it doesn't play the same way on LinkedIn but the videos perform better yeah if you use the same mentality you use for these on LinkedIn from a professional Network standpoint [ __ ] it just kills way better [ __ ] I was actually

surprised by LinkedIn because they like my videos a lot of them yeah like I was really surprised about it because I thought oh this one's different man yeah because everyone on [ __ ] LinkedIn says Square all the time and then you come in and [ __ ] that is actually legit funny like our videos we post on our company page like they just repurpose straight to LinkedIn company page and Company Pages get [ __ ] all engagement on LinkedIn but our ones get like like four on the company page to get really good viewership yeah constantly like not like we're not talking tens of thousands of views but like we're getting a few thousand views on our videos yeah on a LinkedIn company page with no money behind it because

those views are business owners yeah you know they're not 18 year old kids [ __ ] having a laugh they're like 2 000 business owners watching our videos yeah fine yeah so like it does work like making better videos making better videos for LinkedIn using Philosophy from YouTube shorts and Tick Tock just makes bit of LinkedIn videos yeah and we've seen it all the time we've been like we've been involved in our videos like so much since we started doing them like when Sean started it was the first time we started doing a video for client we're always doing written [ __ ] and like the first video is it um that chanted were really good like we were really happy with them but now if we did those

same videos we'd be like that's for sure like that's for sure like we would never let them pass us that's like the key indicator of growth though because even even me like a year ago in the videos I was doing on Twitter were rubbish yeah I'll look back at the dash cam account that I had running and I'm like how did you even get views can't this [ __ ] terrible yeah even like the platforms though they're evolving at the same time everyone else's so when you make a Channel we've got to a stage where people kind of know what our stuff looks like absolutely yeah like being like if you're working on these platforms like especially Tick Tock and YouTube shorts they are all both learning

to figure out how they're going to work yeah how YouTube still hasn't figured themselves out yet but they will because especially because they're going to pay their subscribers pay their creators yeah the 45 that they're putting up but even Tick Tock hasn't figured themselves out yet like that's oh [ __ ] they rolled out a new feature for these animated [ __ ] people or whatever and they got [ __ ] on in the comments I was like what the [ __ ] are you guys doing I love seeing that [ __ ] yeah yeah it's funny I can love it all right man that was awesome yeah thanks for coming on thank you for having me we're going to cut this off now