How have you been?

What have you been up to? What's, what's the latest in your life?

Dude, latest in our life and both of our lives is we're both husbands now. But that's, that's definitely the biggest update. Nothing, nothing, none of my work stuff will compare to that moment, which is really cool. So that's the biggest update in terms of what I'm up to right now. For those that don't know, I run a company called Creator X. We're basically a modern day recruiting firm for brands to hire content creators in house. The thesis that I have is that every company that wants to be relevant within culture right now needs to understand how to do social media well in an organic sense rather than being a paid sense because we're so inundated with ads that now you need to be able to watch the content without people paying for it to be watched. So the way that I think companies are going to do that is first and foremost I think they're going to look to find people that really understand how to make content.

Well, that is usually content creators. And so I think we're living in a world now where a lot of companies are going to try and hire content creators on their team. And so we act as the recruiting firm and it's a bit of recruiting, it's a bit of recruiting and a bit of consulting. We act as the first consulting to get you clear on what your company is looking for in a creator and like the content you should be making. And then we go out and find those creators for you, for you to hire as either employees or part time. 1099 to make content for your brand account. So that's what I spend the majority of my time doing. Happy to give background on me or whatever too, but stoked to chat.

Yeah. And one of the reasons I was super excited for this convo is like obviously getting so far into content, there's a couple ways to do it, right? Like there's the creator side where you are the creator building your business, you're trying to figure out the strategy and you're able to turn that content into your business. And then there's the other side where you're running a business and you know that, you know you can create content. You want to put out founder led content, but you know you can grow even faster by bringing in a creator who can like really, you know, be able to scale up your content initiatives alongside you. So I think both of those topics are like super right on the money and where we're going to be focusing the convo. But I'll go ahead and give a little background about, you know, you today's convo and then we can actually just jump right into it. So as you mentioned, JT is the founder of Creator X where they connect brands of all sizes, some even major ones that I don't think JT shouted out. But brands like Microsoft, Skechers and Nissan Power tap into the power of creators to grow organically.

So JT himself is one of my favorite creators, which is why I wanted to bring him on. I think his, his style is super approachable but also very informative. Right. There's a lot of creators who you see and you're like, they're chasing trends, they're not putting out what feels authentic. But like, I think JT does a great job himself as a creator and also knows the creative strategy behind how to run all this. So in today's episode we're going to be breaking down how and why to partner with creators to grow if you're a business, the most impactful strategies and trends for crushing it on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn in 2025 and JT playbook for building a sustainable six figure business as a professional creator. So with that, JT officially welcome to this recording of uploading and yeah, why don't we break it off? Why don't we kick it off from there? So you started with $0 in your bank account and you built a seven figure business in less than a couple years. So why don't you just tell us how it happened for you?