 G'day guys, welcome to the Life of Sev, the Sevo show, many names for it, still haven't really nutted down on one yet. That's the start of every episode, isn't it? On this very special episode, something I haven't done in over five months, probably half a year now, which is record a YouTube episode or video. And with this one here, I'm still relatively testing it out and stuff and make sure that it's working and all that. But I'm recording this on the video, and every time you see me look up at the screen there, I'm looking at myself going, damn, that's nasty. But it's a Monday, it's raining, it's 8.55 in the morning, November 9th, and I'm using my brand new road mic that I got from a friend who never used it. Shoutouts to uh, shit, who did it? I gotta get it up now. But yeah, on Facebook, someone was like selling my mic and I'm like sold, I'm doing it. I'll have it. So I've got a good little rig there, you can see it and see if I can find it. But, but anyway, nonetheless, I've got my mic, everything's happening. Josh, his name's Josh. Shout out to Josh Penagrath. Glad to have my phone there ready and willing to go. Anyway, so to keep this interesting today, what I'm going to do is I'm going to practice my live story pretty much like a summary of where I'm at and where I've come from. So, and this is to help me with my speech that I have coming up on the 24th of November. I have been invited to keynote speak, which is something I actually wanted for a very long time. Actually, not a very long time, very short time. I don't know why I said long time, but recently, this year, sometime earlier this year, I was like, you know what, it'd be cool to be a keynote speaker of some day, whether it's providing value, selling something or just, just, you know, telling my story or all of the above in no particular order. Probably just storytelling. I love it. And then, yeah, it came about and I said to put my hand up and I was like, you know what, let's do it. Let's fucking do it. So here we are, alive, grateful, thankful. It's been an absolutely amazing year for me anyway, even though 2020 is shat on a lot of people, a lot of the world for majority of them. So here we go. The prequel, the prequel to who the fuck am I? I was born in the former Soviet Union in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, in a little town called Tokmak, where I grew up with my grandpa, uncle, grandma, my mom was a teacher. She left me to hang out with my grandparents while she worked as a teacher all around the country, in particular places like Krosnoyarsk. And I think she did a little bit of a stint in Moscow. In 1997, I migrated with her to Australia at the tender age of six. And I, yeah, couldn't understand anything anyone was saying. Couldn't speak English at all. So it was year one, first grade. And yeah, don't know what the hell I was talking about. Anyway, long story short, for my younger life, I grew into it, learnt the English language, started falling in love with things like, you know, footy and video games and things like that. And that was me. That was me pretty much through primary school, riding my bike and starting to learn how to use a computer. Because, you know, like, even though the computer was around by the time I was born, it started to really evolve and I evolved with it, which is really cool. My dad, my stepdad always had a computer and I was always using it, figuring out how to do things and playing little printing games. I remember my first time I figured out how to use a printer accidentally. I was like, what's this button doing? It started printing my little picture that I'd drawn up and I was like, what the fuck? I was like, dad, what the fuck? What's happening here? And yeah, he was like, oh, that's the printer. Don't waste my ink. And I was like, oh, sorry for being exploratory. Yeah, done one. Anyway, 2002, I moved to Calguli, which is a country town five, 600 kilometers east of Perth City, Perth City being one of the most secluded cities in the world. Yeah, so I was secluded even more in a country town with pretty much starting again in grade eight, first year of high school here in Australia. And yeah, just started to make new friends, get into the countryside of football and get through school there, got into a little bit more gaming, started taking a little bit more seriously, but towards the end of my high school career, where I graduated, no special things or anything involved with it, no honors or anything, just graduated, just graduated. And it was really into my gaming. My first person shooters, I love the guitar hero and all of that stuff. But then what happened was I, my mom said to me, you got to go to uni or you got to get a job. So I said, okay, I'll get a job. Got a job as a lifeguard, loved it, hated the boss, hated the bosses, hated the politics. And then I said, fuck it, I'll go play footy and back in Perth, moved to Perth spontaneously and started playing footy. I wanted to get into the AFL, really, really wanted to make the AFL. And after eight years of the waffle, it never happened. I didn't end up getting in there. But during that time, I learned a lot about myself, and particularly through my younger years of adulthood in my 20s. I grew as a person, matured a little bit more, in particular, the whole emotional maturity, which really helped. I got a degree in Bachelor of Teaching. And I also grew the passion of photography, which was really cool. And within the first, so 2017, I graduated. At the same time, I lost my passion for footy, gained a real, real big interest in the passion with photography. And then I started to work as a teacher. So 2018 was my first year out of uni. And the first three terms, or the first two terms, so the first semester, I was just a relief teacher. And then I managed to get my first contract by term three. And then by term four, I had been made permanent. So I was like, sick. That's me. That's me. That's me for at least the next five, 10 years. I was stoked. 2019 came along. And I was ready for a big year. My first full year as a full time school teacher with designated allocated classes and students and parents to report to. And it was exciting. First term was good. Second term was great. And then the photography world really started to bug me a little bit in a good way. I started to do tours around the city. I started to network with a lot of people, a lot of creators started getting in a little bit into video. And then around, or I'd say July, August last year. So yeah, I decided to go, you know what, what would I be most disappointed in leaving? Because I found myself stuck. I couldn't do more than one thing to the best of my ability. It was either the option of being a jack of all trades master of none, or really, really doubling down on one specific thing for at least 12 months of seeing how I go. Now teaching is kind of what I did for those first 12 months, but I had that distraction of photography. I had no more footy. And then everything else that was in my life was, well, my obviously my lovely fiance, Sabine, my dog Wilson. And that's pretty much it. But school being invested full time as a school teacher and being invested as a full-time photographer is difficult. And I struggle with that hard because I couldn't juggle the two of them. So this year, I decided to go, hey, I'm going to take 12 months off of teaching and go for it and give it a go with my photography stuff. Fell in love with weddings, fell in love with the art of capturing two lovers' magical day where their two families meet. And yeah, March, early March, 2020. Fucking, what's it called? Coronavirus. How are ya? And I was like, shit, this is going to suck, even though the wedding industry is recession proof. It's not really pandemic proof because if no one's allowed to come out of their house to get married, I'm kind of fucked. So I hit up the school and said, hey, do you have any relief for me? And they said, yeah, we do. Do you mind taking a couple of classes full-time for the rest of the year, though, like a part-time role? And I was like, okay, I'll do one. Then a week later, we went into lockdown. So I had saved myself unintentionally in terms of cash flow. And that's a keyword, too. Cash flow is cash flow. You make money, you pay the bills. However, it wasn't something that was really calling out to me. I didn't want to get up in the morning and leave the house at 8am. See, right now I'm talking and it's currently 9.04. I should be at school by now, but I don't teach on Mondays and Fridays because my class, the only class I teach is on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Anyway, so I went in and dedicated to one class, my year aides, my love year aides. I still teach them right now. And as the pandemic started to lift in WA, God bless you, Mark McGowan. Thank you so much for what you've done so far. The restrictions eased up and the bookings and the demand for my skills in photography increased, which was originally the plan for this year. So I still managed to get a majority of my 2020 where I wanted it to be, which is in photography, but I also dabbed a little bit back into the teaching field just to make sure that I was covered. Anyway, meanwhile, starting from last year, I discovered a little app called TikTok because the students in the class were using it and I was like, the hell's that? And they're like, oh, it's TikTok, sir. Yeah, you should get on it. And I was like, really? Okay, I'll give it a go. I uploaded a couple of videos, thought nothing of it. It's pretty tricky to get around. And yeah. And I was like, yeah, I'll leave it at that for now and then come back to it whenever. Then a few days passed, a few weeks passed after I just started TikTok. This is back in 2019 now, like April. Yeah, April last year. And the kids started talking. I could hear them talking about my videos. I can hear them. And I'm like, how the hell do they know already where my account is? That was quick. Then they started telling me, sir, I love your TikToks. I was like, what? How do you know about my TikToks? It wasn't on private because I'm not a private person. I don't have any skeletons to hide. And yeah. Then I was like, oh, well, if they're watching me and they're talking to me, I've built rapport moment. So then what happened was I started to double down a little bit. I started to create some humorous, relatable teaching sort of videos. And the kids loved it. And when viral started talking about my height being a giant, you know, it's quite noticeable. And I like the fact that I can own something and be like, you know what? I'm tall. Here is a funny story of mine where I'm tall when viral account blew up 10,000 followers, 20,000 followers. By the end of 2019, I had to master over 50,000 followers and counting. By July 2020, I had 100,000 followers. Then 150,000 followers followed by verification, which is a pretty big goal in the scheme of things, especially for influencers and stuff. But I was still just fully investing in myself, investing in my ways of just making the videos for me and making a couple of my students laugh. That was really it. It's still, still to this day, the intentions. So a dozen viral videos later, we're talking about it all over the school. Kids and older people started recognizing me on the street in Perth. And I'm just like, what? And they're asking me for a photo and I'm like, what? Okay, whatever. I like it. It's fun. And then I was invited into the creators group of TikTok and they introduced me to a whole bunch of creators all around Australia and New Zealand and the world. And I thought, damn, okay, we'll get to know these people and collaborate with them, share some ideas. I met some amazing, amazing creators and I still talk to them every day, made some good friends from it as well. So at the end of the day, if TikTok was deleted tomorrow or banned or whatever, I'd be super stoked with the people that I've met. That's it. That's really it. However, we're still going. We're still going. So what happens next? Because I've got my TikTok, it's blowing up, reached 200,000 followers and I would get brand deals. I started getting emails from all these different brands and I'm skeptical. I'm like, okay, what is this? Is this a scam? Is this a phishing attempt? What is this? Are they trying to get my password or something? And they said, hey, do you reckon you can play this song in the background of one of your videos? Yeah, okay. They're like, well, we'll give you 100 euros. And I was like, 100 euros? Okay, yeah, I can do that. Yeah, no worries. Did it. The video didn't do that well. But yeah, that was stoked. They were like, thank you for this so much. We'll hit you up soon. They didn't hit me up soon because I don't think the video did that well. But I was like, damn, was it that easy? Was it that easy? When I started doing live streams, people could donate and I'm just like, what? They can donate money in the form of gifts, you know? And then I cashed out on that and I was just like, okay, cool. As a kid started to ask me about my TikTok and if I was starting to make money from it, I actually said, yes, yes I am. And they got interested. The kids at school got interested. They were invested. They wanted to hear more of my story and I'm just like, well, here's what's happening. Here's an email I got the other day. I'm fully transparent in my journey and they love it. And then it hit me. It was just like, there's nothing more gangster than a teacher doing something that most of the kids want to do as well, but doing that in front of them day by day, every day and updating, it's gold. It's a gift and I'm embracing it. So anyway, back to my wedding photography story and this is where they start colliding. So we're in 2020 now. I am looking forward to a new innovation, not innovation, but you can really make it up as you go. But Instagram decided to go, I'm going to release something called Reels. And I said, okay, that's good. That's nice. I'm going to really cling on to that too. And because of my wedding photography page, I'm going to say, okay, what's a 15 second video that I can make for Reels that can be relatable to the wedding industry, attract clients and also have a bit of me involved in it, which is the humorous side. So I made a few videos and I also put them on TikTok. Why not? Both of them spread the net as wide as you can. And yeah, it worked. It worked. Even though I thought my audience was a majority kids from school that weren't probably going to get married anytime soon for the next at least 10 years, I thought stuff it. You know what? The worst case is they'll identify me as a photographer, as a wedding photographer, and they may have cousins, older cousins, or even parents who want to get married. Why not? And they'll recommend me. It only takes one. And then that one video that took me barely five minutes to make through the one year experience I had prior learning the app to, yeah, pull it out there and see how I go. Nothing to lose. Worst case is I get a few views, a few new followers, and a funny video that I can look back in 10 years time going, that was funny. So I've released the video. And the video was of me with a camera from my point of view. And I said, okay, this is what the camera, this is what the photographer sees. And it's the bride getting ready in the bathroom. And then I flipped the camera around on to me. And I said, this is what the bride sees. And it's the photographer. And because I'm tall, this is where my height comes in as well, which is helpful. There's me standing in the bathtub awkwardly with my head kind of like tilted because I'm about to touch the roof. And when viral, 300,000 views on TikTok. And I think about, I think over 20,000 views on Reels as well. There was another video as well. There was another one where the bride was sitting there waiting patiently waiting for her to go out to the ceremony. And I was sitting on the chair across from her. Now I had to sit down because of my height. She was sitting down. The angle was better. So I got the phone out again. And I said, hey, do you mind we can make a funny little video? She said, oh my God, yes. And the best thing is she knows me from TikTok. And this is where the story goes. So the first video that I did, the one in the bathroom, I got two clients from that, two people that hit me up on email saying, hey, I saw your video on TikTok. And I think you're hilarious. I'm from Perth. And I'm also getting married soon. What are your rates? I'd love to hire you. Bang, got it. Second one came in. Bang, got it. Easy. And I never intentionally even meant to make my TikTok a business page. It was just, it was just Sev's pics. And you can already tell, okay, this photographer, but it's just humorous stuff. And when I go around the, around the shops or the city or whatever, kids come up to me and say, hey, are you Sev's pics from TikTok? Can we have a photo? You know? And the parents see me and they see how much the kid likes me. And then they obviously have a stalk as well, you know, safety reasons, you know, who's this guy, big man with a camera and a mustache. That's sus. And then they see my content and then they like it. And then they tell their friends about it. And those friends are like, oh, he's a wedding photographer. I'm getting married soon. I might kid him up. Oh my God, I like his photos and I like his personality. True story. So then what happens? That second video I'm sitting there. I'm, I've got the phone out and I filmed the lady, the bride. Her name's Michelle. Shout outs to Michelle. And Michelle's just sitting there patiently waiting. She's, you know, being all nice. And I'm like, Hey, Michelle, do you reckon you can record me? Just do my thing. And yeah, she recorded me and I was a bit extra flamboyant with my little camera, you know, maneuvering. And yeah, put that on Reels, put that on TikTok, viral, viral, another booking. That's it. Creating content for the business and adding a little bit of humor, relatability, maybe a little bit of a shock horror, not too much, you know, don't want to jeopardize the business, but something relatable. And I was like, damn, is it that easy? It's, it's, it's, it's so simple. And you see how the business is doing, you see them talk about it. You're like, Oh, I don't know. You know, like in, in, uh, in America, I found a, I discovered a sunglass company called Rubo. And they were just starting out in, uh, in Wisconsin, Wisconsin or Minnesota, uh, one of the two. Anyway, they started out and I was like, Hey, I like your stuff. I really like your stuff. You guys are, you guys are fresh. And I really hope that you guys make it. And they sent me out a pair of sunglass. And then they went like, not because of me, but they started going viral. They started doing relatable content, even nothing, even to do with sunglasses. They were doing quirky things like little science projects or things that kind of reel you in and make you like, Oh, I want to watch more of this. I'm going to, I'm going to subscribe to them or follow them. And when they followed them, then every now and then they would start talking about their business saying, Hey, we've got sunglasses. People naturally want to want to purchase them. And not because they feel like they have to, because they feel like they need to, because they're watching this content. I'm like, Oh man, I really like those guys that make those really fun videos with the sunglasses. I'm going to buy a pair as well, you know, show them my support, you know, that's what people do. That's what people do. So I thought, okay, I want to do that too. So I'll have all these people, even kids, planting a seed in their brains to be like, Oh, he's a wedding photographer. Even 10 years down the track, I'd love to see where I'm at with those kids getting older. I see a lot of comments these days where the kids are like, I can't wait to get married now. I'm only 12, but when I get married, I'm hiring you as my photographer. I get that comment at least three or four times every video I make related to photography and especially wedding photography. So there's my kind of little success story. So now brands started noticing this and they're hitting me up and saying, Hey, would you like to review a product? Would you like to do this for me? Or in exchange for this product, can you make a video? Now I'm not really about contract because I really don't have as much time, but I thought it was a good opportunity to give it a go and practice and see how it goes. And my one main mission wasn't to get paid or to explode with more business deals, but to really make one, at least one business, go viral and grow exponentially in a short amount of time. That was my aim. Then came along social dot, social dot. Let's see if we can focus in on this. Come on, here we go. All right. So if you're watching the YouTube video, you can see the social dot logo sticker. It's on the back of my mobile. It's a little chip reader. Anyway, they gave me the little chip for free, sent it over from Queensland and I started making a couple of videos. But I didn't just create them a video and then posted it for them, tagged them in it, and then let them repost it as well. I looked at their TikTok and I looked at their Instagram and I said, Hey, this is what I would change. This is what I did and what worked for me. And this is how I would implement that same similar strategy into your work. And they said, we had a full on discussion about it. They were even on my podcast and we were talking about it. And then less than two to three weeks later, they hit the jackpot. They went viral. They started implementing the practice. And yeah, I mean, there's a testimonial that they wrote for me and it says it all. They said, after a couple of weeks, after talking with you, we've blown up through the roof and now we're even considering international sales again, which we kind of threw out the window prior. And I'm like, that's awesome. My goal was successful. I get fulfillment that a business was helped because of my expertise in quotations, but I wanted more. How do I do that more? I want more of this. So here I am talking about the story and it's the beginning process. It's still all fresh because we just came out of COVID and we're still pretty much into it as well, especially for around the world. But as Brand started noticing me doing this, I found myself naturally teaching them how I would do better in their scenario. They implemented it, it worked and they gained traction in the sales. So more businesses are coming forward to have me help with their content, but I naturally started helping them with what they're at in their TikTok and social media integrations, integration surrounding their business. All of a sudden, they're listening and implementing set ideas and strategies, which is fucking cool. So here I am talking about with you and how I came to making relatable content for myself, to trialing a couple of TikToks with the pure intention of brand or business awareness. It worked and other brands asked me to help them with this or within the space of one year, just because I wanted to try it out because the kids were into it. Attention is where it's at. TikTok has helped me recognise the potential I already had as a teacher, but more so in the business world to capitalise on new opportunities within the social media world. So how do these brands contact me exactly? Well, TikTok has a creator marketplace and different brands from all over the world can choose a creator they like to potentially work and collaborate with in exchange for monetary or contra payment. I was approached multiple times and instead of just offering them a video in exchange for a free packet of face wash, I decided to dissect their channel to then throw some potential value their way on how I would improve it. You know, it's not hard. Just give a bit of value without expectations and you never know what can happen. They listen. It worked. I loved that more than just creating a 60 second video. I was hooked. I tried a few of my favourite businesses like restaurants, products and even my own merch. I even had merch and it worked. I tried it with a few other places like my favourite line or comment would be, I bought this from your TikTok you made or because of your TikTok. I'm here from your TikTok. I went to this restaurant and checked out this dish because you put it on TikTok and I thought I needed to have a go. So yeah, and that's pretty much it. That's where I'm at right now and it's been a fucking crazy journey. But going back to my own business and how I see my clients coming into hire me as their photographer, it's simply underpriced attention like never before. TikTok is Instagram back in 2012 slash 30. And TikTok is like Facebook back in 0708. It's something that you need to jump on. But yeah, at first even I was hesitant and as they were the clients but the insight I figured they would benefit from also worked and it's what I wanted to do. So if it's here to stay you might as well grow with it, learn it and help others implement it and benefit their brands, businesses, companies or personal identities such as influencers. I'm already excited for the next platform because I've had the practice and experience building from the ground up with TikTok. So my biggest advice to you though is document your journey. If you can do it in a comical or other interesting way, that is my number one most successful insight to any video or brand ever. Just document. Once the audience is watching you, product placement comes in and even though you're not forcing sales down once, they'll notice and will forward you onto someone that will. So yeah, I mean, that's it. That's pretty much the half hour spiel right there. And I think for timing wise, apart from a little bit at the start for my extra long life story, I hope you enjoyed it. That's pretty much where I'm at right now. And the journey that I've had going from getting my bachelor degree in teaching, not even knowing the English language 20 years prior, I mean 20 years, you can learn a lot of languages in that time. But yeah, going to actually considering quitting the profession in that specific department of the education system, but using those skills to teach others how to build their social media platform for their brand, business or personal influence. I love doing that because I have a feeling that it's going to be a lot more personal, a lot more double down on it in the next 10 to 20 years before the next big thing comes in. But I'm excited because it's fun. And I love networking. And once the people that realise that networking is what it's all about to not even drive sales to, but just to build a network of people that then can naturally push your brand onto them indirectly as well. That's what happened to me. And it's the best because you could talk to 100 people and it just takes one of them. You could talk to a thousand people. It just takes one of them. You could talk to 10,000 people. It just takes one of them to get you to the next level and then just go again. But as long as you love the journey, you're already winning. And I fucking love my journey. But yeah, that's it guys. Thanks for listening. Tap out there. If you guys have any questions, feel free to comment below. Send me a message on Instagram at Sev's Picks. You know the drill. If you listen to this episode, let me know about it and say, hey, Sev, I listened to your podcast. I like the episode. I want to know more about this. But until then, as always, good thanks. Have a great rest of your day and amazing time. Hope you're well. And yeah, I'll speak to you soon. Bye for now.