Red Bull Apprentice vs. Seasoned Founder: A Masterclass in Videography

Welcome back to another episode of The Garage Guide. Today we've got a bit of a different episode. We've got Jaden, who is an apprentice in videography and photography at Red Bull, and we've got Brady, who'll be coming on to the show later. And we're really going to be sort of delving into a masterclass in all things careers in videography and content. Um, you know, starting off, Jaden, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, man.

It's good to see you again. Yeah, yeah, the event you hosted.

Yeah, great to have you on, mate. And, um, and I think a nice place to start is you did a law degree, um, but you don't work in law. Um, what, what were you thinking when you went to university your career was going to be like? Why did you pick law?

So for me, at sixth form I studied law. My older sister is a lawyer, and from seeing her go to university, do law, and then finding herself a job in law, I thought, oh, I like this. It was interesting hearing about what she did on a day-to-day And then throughout sixth form, I started like creating content about study videos, and it kind of just all segmented into this path of like, oh, I enjoy studying and I can see myself being a lawyer.

Yeah. And when was it in that time you were there, like, you realized you actually had a skill for, yeah, photography and content creation?

So the content creation, I'd say when I got to university I believe I was around 50k, but within 4 months it spiked up to 300. Um, so that's when I was starting to look into that analytics and how social media works, what works, how to connect with people. And then about a year after, I kind of just became sick of studying. Like, it became so tedious and I just— I burnt myself out. And for a whole summer I just didn't post. And then I kept waiting, and then on my 20th birthday, I bought a camera. And from then, the last year and a half, it's just been like kind of finding that passion again for content, but then through cameras.

And what do you think is the difference, like, living your career and like building it with the presence of passion versus without it? Like, what do you think's seen the tangible difference in terms of like work ethic and like willingness to do more than you're meant to?

That's a, that's a very fun question. Um, I'd say the main thing for me is a lot of people say to me like, how do you work so much? But I feel like when something is your passion, it doesn't feel like work. I can't remember the exact— there's like a quote along that, like, I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. But yeah, it just feels like for me everything socially just comes like naturally. Like if I go out on a shoot, um, say for a client but from that I can repurpose it into my own content. And I just feel like things just come up here and they switch, and I can go home and I can create stuff without feeling that pressure of like, oh, I need to post. It's, oh, I'm actually enjoying what I'm posting.

And I think a lot of people throughout their career journey, like, they have to mold and sometimes relearn their relationship of what being a creative means. Um, obviously you said you only bought your camera when you, you were 20, but But before that, growing up, what was your like relationship with the term being a creative? Have you always felt like a creative person?

To be honest, no, actually.

I've always—

I always enjoyed— when I was younger, I always enjoyed consuming creative stuff. Huge fan of like KSI, um, back in his like FIFA Road to Glory, which is obviously very different to what I sort of post now, but just that like creative nature and just kind of feeling free in a way of what you do and what you post. And then, um, I don't know. Oh, Casey Neistat, that's a big one for me, the king of vlogging. His sort of style and just the way he puts things out in the world really just inspired me to create stuff and pick up a camera.

Yeah, I guess both you and I grew up in this, this era, in this period where it went from being a creator was like a pipe dream, like you didn't know you could make a career out of it, which is all these sort of young people putting stuff out there and seeing what happens. And now we know, and you've been growing a big social media presence, and you can actually see that there is a career in this, like there is something to aim for. What do you think, like, from the beginning, you know, bear in mind, like, you know, you're still very early on this journey, have been like some lessons that you knew, you wish you knew at the beginning about actually making a career and doing this?

That's a tough, that's a tough one. Off the top of my head, in terms of just starting out, I'd wish I'd known that other people in my, like, career path— so other photographers, other videographers, or like creative directors— it's not— they're not there to challenge you. It's like, it's not you versus them, it's you and them, you know. The way Like, for me myself, I have a friend called Marche. He's got a following of 300k, and he taught me a lot about photography. And he was always so into this, like, ethos of, like, not, I have this client and you're never going to touch them. It's like, oh, I'm happy to give you this if I can't make it. And also just, like, sharing advice for free. Like, in the creative world, everyone has their own unique style, so it doesn't matter if you give out all of your advice, because at the end of the day, we can all tell a story along the same lines, but is it going to be the same? Probably not.

Yeah, and I think obviously all creators have that, their own individualism, but there's a lot of lessons that I think other industries and bigger corporates can take from the way that Red Bull, for example, takes those creatives and really, like, empowers them to, to be themselves in it. What have you found working at Red Bull has been like? You know, the way they've actually like helped cultivate and harness your, your own creativity?

So I have only been there for a month, so it's still quite new, but I'd say it's just being different, you know. Not one big thing, we don't, we don't do trends, you know, it's just being unique and focusing on your own style and your own craft. So in some ways, like for me personally, I try my best not to consume like TikTok because most of it is just like memes and funny stuff. And personally, I don't want to sit there for 3 hours and waste my night. But Instagram I love to look at because my feed is like photographers I follow, videographers I follow, and I see that as inspiration, but I don't use it as something that I directly copy.

Yeah. And, uh, you know, we've been talking about the actual career in content creation, but I want to focus on the actual sort of art form of it a little bit. What advice to somebody who might be sitting here? I think everybody like sometimes often has a, not direct like desire to be a photographer, but everyone likes to pick up a camera and like capture their life in the moment. But what's the actual, you know, steps from transitioning to sort of casual photographer to, okay, like you actually have equipped yourself with the skills and, you know, the mindset to make yourself desirable to a company like Red Bull.

Yeah, I think in terms of photography, I'd say rather than seeing it as like, oh, it is a marathon, actually is a marathon. And I think one big thing in the photography industry is to begin with, me personally, I found that one, working for free is like a huge thing. But two, there's so much— so, so many people nowadays, they enjoy talking about stuff like, oh, I'm gonna do this, like, oh, I'm gonna take photos of like Manchester United, or I'm gonna take photos of Red Bull, or I'm gonna take photos of this. But whilst they're talking, there's someone out there who's doing. And I feel like with something creative like photography, it's just pick up the camera, go on YouTube and literally write in how to do street photography. Or a big one I personally learned from was Peter McKinnon. He has like these things called Two Minute Tuesdays where for 2 minutes he just gives out loads of tips. I'd watch it, I'd go out, I'd do it like what he said to do, and I'd come home, edit it, put it out, and just rinse and recycle. And then another big thing is speak to everyone. Like, everyone in this world, you can learn from someone in no matter what it is but photography. Like, you can just learn from people. They know so many things. Like, everyone has their own unique style and The way you can bounce off of other creators as well can then ping ideas in your own head. So it's just like not being scared that they're not gonna like give you advice, or they might shun you out because they might think you're stealing their work. It's not like that in this industry at all. It's like everyone is there to support one another and give advice and, you know, just learn from one another.

Yeah, and, uh, you know, you're obviously at the beginning of your career journey, but I always like to ask my guests the same question, and my final question to you, which is you know, you would have this certain idea of what success would look like going through a law degree in your career. However, you know, fast forward to where you are now and, and the environment that you're, you're working within, how's that definition of success changed, you know, to— how do you perceive a career sort of going from now?

Yeah, I feel as I grew up I was definitely focused on just— I wanted to have like a nice car, a nice house, go on lots of holidays, and a lot of it was driven solely by money, you know, capitalism, money, money, money. But now as I've moved to London and found like— I've only been here for a month, but I've already found like new friends, new creatives. You yourself, we hopped on a call, and it's nice knowing like I've made these connections. And it's just learning that doing— it's not about money, it's doing something that makes you like happy. It's like I'm happy because even though I can capture things in a professional way, I can also capture things of my family my friends, do stuff like this. So it's finding freedom in happiness, not finding freedom through money.

Love it, James. Thanks for coming on, mate. Thank you. And, uh, welcome on Brady. All right, Brady, welcome, welcome to the podcast.

Nice one, man. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, well, it's a pleasure to have you on straight after James, who's obviously at the beginning of his career in the world of photography and videography. You yourself have had your own weird and wonderful career journey, I guess, uh, your massive passion and what you work in now, uh, being videography and capturing brands in your own authentic way. How would you describe the work that you do at this current moment in time?

Um, so first of all, yeah, Jaden's smashing it, by the way, like absolutely solid, like awesome to hear his perspective on certain things. Um, in terms of like my career and how I've kind of built it, I think I just grew up being obsessed with brands. Like, I'm a massive consumer, so whether that be music artists, like actual sports brands themselves, um, I've always really bought into this idea of like becoming a fan of something and like how brands can build a connection with you through their content, through their marketing. Um, and obviously over the last kind of 10 years, we've started to see some really creative like applications of that as well. So from my perspective, being able to kind of pave any sort of career that allowed me to be a little cog in that journey, to play a part in that, whether that be for individuals or for companies. Yeah, that was just something I kind of always wanted to do, and yeah, I'm really lucky in the sense that, yeah, I put myself out enough to kind of start building relationships that have allowed me to do that.

Yeah, I think you kind of started your career even though you wanted to do this in sales and Maybe the reason why was that you saw this industry as a bit inaccessible at the time. What have you learned about the industry now and how you can actually get into it with the experience you have and stuff that you wish you knew when you were entering the creative videography space?

I think you've got to be a little bit delusional to kind of go for some of those real big jobs. That's the reality of being a creative is You're gonna pitch for 10 jobs and you might receive 1 response. You're gonna send 100 DMs and you might get 3 or 4 back, but kind of banging on that door and being a bit relentless in regards to kind of just knowing what you offer and the value that you can bring. I think that's the bit that's really opened so many doors for me, is like, it's extremely hard when you scroll through— excuse me— it's extremely hard when you scroll through a social media feed to not see all of this incredible work and all of these exceptional creatives doing amazing things. But I think the danger with that is actually being put off and not feeling like you can then compete in that space, when actually, like, kind of Jaden alluded to, you develop your own style, you develop your own way of doing things, and actually you just have to have the confidence and belief that it's massively about self-belief of I could do something that would provide value to these people, and sometimes the door opens and you get the opportunity to do so, and you just, you need to grab it with both hands when that is the case.

I think a nice case study of that is growing up a Nottingham fan in football, you know, it must have been a dream to be involved with them in any way, and then, you know, fast forward, you've actually shot for them and worked with them. How did that, well, how did that feel for one, but in the in-between stage, what were like some of the actual real practicalities that you had to learn, maybe the hard way, for how you can get these gigs that you dream big for?

Yeah, so I actually worked for a number of years in kind of full-time roles. So I studied sport marketing at university, I then had a handful of jobs. I worked in Leeds, I worked in Nottingham, and then I moved down to London and worked here for a little while as well. So I think understanding the mechanics that happens within kind of creative agencies and seeing that from behind the door by professionals who are already kind of executing on those types of campaigns is the exposure that I really needed to understand, like, how that stuff comes together. Because like you say, um, you can learn so much at university, but actually, until you're in the room seeing stuff like that being produced, you really can't grasp like the steps or the processes that are required to be able to action on that stuff. So seeing that stuff was, was massive for me. And then I suppose just being extremely, extremely willing to like go out of your way and like say, do work for free, spend hours on YouTube learning how to do things. Like you have to be invested in the techniques of this stuff. And if you are, if you are willing to learn, we've never lived in a better time to go and find content that can provide you with that knowledge. So yeah, it's just really about developing a network, I suppose, whether that be through a career or through networking, through your social media presence, and then building the skill set that complements that. And if you're building good relationships and making good content, it's a matter of time. Like, that's kind of all that's required as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, I do think it's interesting you saying that you earned your badges within other companies, but at the end of the day, you were still very individual in the actual piece of work you're providing, which, you know, maybe isn't the case in every industry in the way that you earn your badges, but you know, fast forward to now when you're actually doing your own company, you're working for yourself, it's a whole different ball game, I guess, where like you're not just thinking purely about the art form but the business, everything, there's a lot to consider. So, you know, even in that, I bet you've had so many learnings about like how you actually can still keep hold of what made you very good at your job for other people, and running your own business? Like, what are some learnings there?

Um, it's a tricky one. Um, I, I always wanted to run my own company. I always wanted to, to be my own boss, as it were. And I think as much as that's a vision that a lot of people have for their career, um, actually putting the building blocks in place to be able to do that is something that people don't necessarily understand. So one of the things that I try to talk about in, um, my LinkedIn content in particular, and whenever, whenever I do make more, more social content is the fact that whilst I was working full-time, I was building a client base as well. So not everybody is in a position to be able to kind of bridge the gap between graduating and then becoming kind of full-time freelance, whatever the, the vision is. Um, it's very hard to kind of like make that happen overnight. So for me, I was reaching out to people, I was doing work for free, I was creating content that nobody had asked me to create, but I'd get a new pair of trainers and I'd want to do content like that. So I would be, um, I'd be finding opportunities to make stuff for fun and to then, yeah, develop my skill set and showcase what I can do. Um, and I think being able to, being able to kind of tap into that passion side of things is the part that really kind of propels, um, your presence online and then makes other people aware of you. And kind of, I think if you're willing to do that stuff for free, inevitably if you're pushing it into the right spaces, the marketing managers, the brand managers, um, company founders in those spaces will start to pay attention to the effort that you're putting into that stuff. And, um, they don't have to use much imagination to imagine how that could be applied to their own company or their own content. So yeah, having that kind of approach I think is super important.

I think it's, uh, this podcast we explore a lot of like passions, involvement in careers, and you know, I've heard some, some arguments about just generally, um, it can be a very easy thing to dream about a career with passion. Like, that's the, the obvious answer, you know, like follow your passion. But there is an element of like some people just need to be allocated into what they're best at, and that can bring happiness in their career as well. But I think ultimately, like, it's about finding out who you are within your career, like what, like, what really fuels you. And, and for you, I bet there might have been times where, you know, given this is your passion, like hard things might have happened, you know, like maybe a client didn't— you didn't produce what you wanted to for them. And what was it that you had to keep reminding yourself in those harder times that, okay, no, this is me and I need— my career, like, is It's so essential that I'm working in the space of my passion.

Um, that's a great question, by the way. I think it's something that every creative struggles with at different points, and it's something that I definitely struggled with when I was starting out. And it's the ability, I think, to detach yourself from your work. So especially when I was working full-time roles and I'd have, whether it be the marketing manager or the CEO of the business, looking over my shoulder You put part of yourself into the work that you create a lot of the time, and I feel like as creatives we're a lot more invested in the stuff that we're putting together than, say for example, somebody who works in sales or in accounts. They can be naturally a lot more detached because they're not putting that kind of, that creative energy and parts of themselves into the work. So for me, I think it was about actually separating and understanding that any form of critique, any form of feedback is, as silly as it sounds, not actually a personal attack and just like solely focused on making the work as good as it can be. So yeah, when I started out, it used to, it used to hurt receiving negative feedback, but you kind of, you have to develop thick skin, you have to develop a resilience to that stuff, and you have to be able to separate from yourself. Seperate yourself from that so that you can take on board what's being said, review that constructively, and then actually, like, impact your work positively with that feedback as well.

Yeah, and you heard a little bit about the position that Jayden's in beforehand, and yeah, I bet there was probably elements of yourself that you saw in him, you know, at a younger, younger age. Is there one thing that you wish that you could tell your younger self or give back to Jayden and really cultivating and harnessing that raw talent they've got and saying, 'Listen, you can make a career in this, but you just need to know this.' Honestly, he kind of touched on it, and I think it was a fantastic point, so I'm kind of echoing what he said, but you just have to do more.

Like, if I could rewind the clock 10 years and go back to day one, I would just try and do double the amount, triple the amount that I've done up to this point.

And why do you think you didn't?

Um, I think like lacking self-belief in certain points in time, lacking kind of like knowledge and understanding, and, um, not understanding the power of networking as well. Like not reaching out to more people, not banging on more doors. Like that's something that even now I'm coming up to 5 years running a kind of creative content agency, if you like. There's a, there's a handful of guys that I work with It's no longer just a solo mission, but I still have to do business development. I still have to do outreach. I still have to put myself in front of people because it's such a competitive space that if you try and rest on your laurels, there's a very small percentage of people who have created enough incredible stuff today to, um, continue generating work. But I think to continue developing, to continue building, and to, um kind of like establish yourself in this space, you have to be on the ball always, and it, yeah, it's just a case of doing as much as you're capable of.

You've taken leaps in your career, you've jumped from different company to and starting your own thing. I think one thing that I'm particularly curious about, like obviously you can try and perfect the first step in your career as much as possible, but ultimately I think the next big challenge is actually knowing where to step next and when it's time to. So what would you say is a piece of advice to, to really know when it's the right time to challenge yourself with a new task?

Um, I think that's very specific to each individual, and I think they always— you know when you are not content with your current setup, you know when you are capable of more, you know when you provide more value. And I think, at the danger of repeating myself, it's coming back to that element of self-belief and just having the conviction to be able to almost throw yourself in the deep end. I think especially as I've got older, I'm obviously kind of 29 now, I'm at the back end of my 20s, I am watching more and more friends and people who I've looked up to throughout in my career continue to take big risks, continue to make jumps, and I think you just have to, you have to reset the goalposts. You have to realign with what it is that you're kind of trying to achieve. And if you, if you do reach a point where— there was a point in time where all I wanted to do was have a business that serviced myself, right, and be able to do things that I love and sort of make a living creating content for companies. Now that that's been established, it would be ridiculous for me to just kind of sit back and say, okay, fantastic, we made it. I don't feel like I've made it at all, and I think it's always about moving the goalposts to that next chapter and then looking towards what you're trying to achieve in the next kind of stage of your career.

My final question to you, already asked Jayden at the beginning of his career, but you know, you've learned and experienced so much in your career already, and I imagine that definition of success has changed quite a lot along the way. So what is your definition of success and how has it changed?

So, um, previously I, I wanted the, the freedom to be able to work for myself. I wanted to have creative control of the projects that I worked on, and I wanted to be, um, I wanted to be an asset for companies, to be able to kind of utilize me and my skill set to be able to bring their stuff to life. Now that that's something that kind of happens more often than not, and there's, there's still projects that go wrong, there's still ones that go in the bin, but now that that's the case, I think my drive for the next sort of 5 years is having established myself as an individual. Now I want to bring other creatives that I've spent time working with on board. I want to bring these guys up, I want to work on bigger projects, I want to work on more exciting campaigns and I actually want to build a little bit of a team around me that can help facilitate that stuff because there's so much talent in the creative industry. There's, there's so much kind of learning and joy to be bought from collaboration that working with other people is hands down, whether that be companies or other creatives, working with other people is hands down the most exciting thing about the role. So Yeah, being able to kind of facilitate that and bring other people on board to be able to experience those sort of things is definitely the direction that I want to head in.

Well, hopefully there's some work that you and Jayden can do together, and I'm sure the product would be incredible. So, mate, thanks so much for coming on. It's been a pleasure.

Awesome, man. Thank you. I appreciate it.