Backstage Careers

In this episode I talk to Bryan Wish (@bryanwish_)the founder of BW Missions who's worked with a bunch of best selling authors to help them launch their books and build a movement around their book launches.

To give you an example, one of his clients is Nir Eyal the bestselling author of "Hooked: how to build habit forming products."

Bryan has an incredible story of how he finally found his passion after years of therapy, self reflection and experimentation and he has a lot of lessons to share that I think can benefit some of you guys who haven't found work you love yet.

SHOW NOTES: 

00:00 Bryan's way to finding mentors
04:00 How Bryan overcame a quarter life crisis
10:20 Self discovery and finding a way out
14:30 Working with a sports psychologist to find stability
16:30 Building meaningful relationships
19:10 Career change from a sports firm to starting wishdish
23:55 Discovering and joining Kairos
31:50 Working as an apprentice for Allen Gannett
38:10 Bryan's path to seeking mentors 
48:10 From an apprentice to launching his own company
01:00:10 The long term vision for his agency
01:04:50 Working with Nir Eyal on launching his book
01:12:05 Soul searching after a hard breakup 
01:22:30 His company's mission and values


Links and resources from this episode:

Find Bryan in Twitter at: https://twitter.com/bryanwish_?lang=en
BW Missions website: https://bwmissions.com
Wish Dish Website: https://thewishdish.com
Kairos website: https://www.kairos-society.eu

And if you're reading this, don't be shy! Shoot me a DM on Instagram and let me know what you thought of this episode or let me know if you have any questions! My handle is @jeremyjohnmary!

In this episode I talk to Zack Honarvar (@ZackHonarvar) who's the business manager for not 1 but 2 HUGE YouTube channels you might know of: Airrack  and Yes Theory. He also manages the cheeky boyos, 2 Tiktokers who have over 10M followers on the platform.

What's unique about Zack's management style is that instead of managing a dozen clients, he's decided to manage only 3 and go all in on them.

That allows him to go beyond the basic brand deals and merch drops, and instead partner up with his clients for the long run to build massive businesses and brands.

Before diving into all of that, we start the episode off talking about Zack's entrepreneurial background as a teenager as well as his experience working as an early Shopify employee and how those contributed to him being an amazing manager.


SHOW NOTES: 

00:00 Zack’s vision for Creator management
03:15 Zack’s Background story
10:52 The story behind starting a tutoring company
24:10 His advice about starting a side hustle
27:20 His experience working at Shopify
38:10 Meeting the Yes Theory team
41:00 The vision and business model for his creator management company
01:00:25 Working with  @Yes Theory  
01:11:35 Meeting Airrack 
01:16:45 Starting Creator Now With Airrack
01:27:50 Advice for aspiring Creator managers

Links and resources from this episode:
Creatornow program: https://creatornow.club
Go follow Zack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zackhonarvar
Go follow Zack on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zackhonarvar

And if you're reading this, don't be shy! Shoot me a DM on Instagram and let me know what you thought of this episode or let me know if you have any questions! My handle is @jeremyjohnmary!

Cale Owen is the general manager at Gym Launch, a $30M/year info business that helps mom and pop gyms get customers and grow into million dollar businesses.

We start the interview by talking about Cale's background being homeschooled, playing as a professional baseball player in the MLB and opening up his own gym, and the impact those have had on his overall career.

But if you're mostly interested in the nitty gritty details about Gym Launch's business operations and sales funnels, and what it's like to be the general manager of a $30M business, feel free to skip ahead, you can find the time stamps below.


SHOW NOTES:

03:13 Cale Owen's career background
06:00 How homeschooling impacted his career and leadership style
08:00 His experience starting a gym business
18:25 Growing and selling his gym
24:50 Starting to work at Gym Launch
30:00 Pivoting the Gym Launch business model during COVID
34:50 What it's like working as a General Manager for Gym Launch
46:15 Gym Launch's marketing plan for the next 12 months
48:30 Career change from sales manager to general manager
53:20 How Cale works on his leadership and coaching skills
01:00:50 The crazy morning routing of the Gym Launch sales team
1:07:39 What drives him to push for excellence
1:13:25 Cale's relationship with Alex and Leila Hormozi
1:18:50 How Cale balance between work and family life


Links and resources from this episode:
Gym Launch Website: https://gymlaunch.com
Cale Owen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caleowen/

And if you're reading this, don't be shy! Shoot me a DM on Instagram/Twitter and let me know what you thought of this episode or let me know if you have any questions! My handle is @jeremyjohnmary!

In today's episode I talk to Brandon Zhang (@brandonthezhang) who at 19 years old, landed an apprenticeship with Jack Butcher from Visualize Value.

Like a lot of the guests on this show, Brandon didn't just apply to be an apprentice, in fact there was no job opening. It all started when Jack agreed to be interviewed on his podcast...

In this episode, we dive deep into the strategies that Brandon used to convince Jack Butcher to come on his small podcast, but also how he transformed a simple podcast interview into a dream job opportunity.... Brandon even shares the exact DMs and emails he sent.

SHOW NOTES:

02:58 How everything started with Twitter
08:29 Sharing the exact DMs and emails he used to get in touch
15:35 Why "Permissionless Apprenticeships" are the future of work
21:00 What does a mentorship style apprenticeship look like
24:03 Biggest lessons from the apprenticeship
29:20 Using his podcast again to land a job at OnDeck
39:20 Starting his own entrepreneurial projects
45:45 Advice for people who want to follow a similar path
52:40 Brandon's plan for the next 10 years

Links and resources from this episode:
Link to Visualize Value program: https://visualizevalue.com/products/the-permissionless-apprentice
Link to Brandon's course: https://makersmark.school
Go follow Brandon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandonthezhang


And if you're reading this, don't be shy! Shoot me a DM on Instagram/Twitter and let me know what you thought of this episode or let me know if you have any questions! My handle is @jeremyjohnmary!

In today's episode I'm talking to Henry Belcaster (@HenryBelcaster on Twitter) who works behind the scenes with an impressive list of A-list entrepreneurs:

He's working with: 1) the "All In Podcast" besties (Jason Calcanis, Chamath, David Sachs, Friedberg.. you know them), 2) Naval Ravikant, 3) Sam Parr and Shaan Puri from the My First Million Podcast, 4) Hassan Minaj... and a bunch of other cool clients!

If you want to work with your dream mentors while growing your own business at the same time, you're going to love this episode!

SHOW NOTES:
05:14 The story on how Henry and Dylan got Sam Parr & Shaan Puri as their first clients

22:23 The strategy you can copy to work with successful entrepreneurs 

27:59 How to use "squatter marketing" to get clients

30:47 How did they get to work with the All In Podcast

34:35 On Getting Mentorship In Exchange For Free Work

40:30 How To Start An Agency & Work With Your Dream Mentors


And if you're reading this, don't be shy! Shoot me a DM on Instagram/Twitter and let me know what you thought of this episode or let me know if you have any questions! My handle is @jeremyjohnmary!

In today's episode I talk to Nejc (@heynejc on Twitter) who's currently working behind the scenes with Dave Nemetz the founder of  Bleacher Report  (a media company that sold for $175M in 2012).

Nejc is Dave's right hand man when it comes to producing and growing his personal brand -and we'll go into detail about what that means exactly.


SHOW NOTES: 
03:32 How Nejc's desire to work in the US started
07:05 The exact strategy Nejc used to get in touch with Nir Eyal (best selling author of Hooked)? 
18:245How he used the same strategy to get top tier programming internships
24:45 How starting his own podcast helped Nejc get a job with Dave Nemetz (the founder of Bleacher Report)
30:20  The exact strategy Nejc used to reach out to Dave Nemetz 
38:00 Why did Nejc get into production and business when he had a degree in computer science? 
41:20 What's it like working with Dave Nemetz?
50:20 What does Nejc actually do for Dave Nemetz?
54:16 Nejc advice for people who want to find a business mentor

Go follow Nejc on Twitter: https://twitter.com/heynejc

And if you're reading this, don't be shy! Shoot me a DM on Instagram and let me know what you thought of this episode or let me know if you have any questions! My handle is @jeremyjohnmary!

In this episode I talk to Chris Hladczuk (@chrishlad on Twitter) who popped on my radar last year when he became Shaan Puri's apprentice. Shaan is the founder of Bebo (acquired by Twitch for $25,000,000 in 2019).

Chris was still a senior at Yale when he landed the job and throughout his apprenticeship he worked with Shaan to research and ghostwrite twitter threads and newsletters to grow Shaan's audience. In the process he also grew his own Twitter following from 0 to 56,000 followers.

Here are a couple of things you'll enjoy from the interview:

1) The ASS Networking Framework that Chris uses to connect with entrepreneurs and CEOs 
2) The biggest lessons he learned from his apprenticeship with Shaan
3) How to grow your twitter audience when you're starting from 0

Go follow Chris on Twitter for frameworks, systems, and epic business stories: https://twitter.com/chrishlad

And if you're reading this, don't be shy! Shoot me a DM on Instagram and let me know what you thought of this episode or let me know if you have any questions! My handle is @jeremyjohnmary!

Tam Pham is pretty much the perfect guest for this podcast..

He dropped out of college and instead of pursuing a traditional path he decided that he wanted to go learn business from the entrepreneurs he looked up to.

He's apprenticed under 3 world class entrepreneurs that you might have heard of:

1) Sam Parr founder of the Hustle
2) Andrew Warner who's the host and founder of Mixergy
3) Jason Gaignard who's a master networker, event organizer, and best selling author (I first heard of him on the Tim Ferris podcast).

Along the way Tam's worked his way up from being an intern crashing on couches to becoming the right hand man and chief operator of MMT (Jason Gaignard's company).

If you're interested at all in apprenticing for an entrepreneur you look up you're going to love this episode.

If you want to get updates from Tam on what he's up to go sign up for his newsletter: https://www.tampham.co/jam/

And if you're reading this, don't be shy! Shoot me a DM on Instagram and let me know what you thought of this episode or let me know if you have any questions! My handle is @jeremyjohnmary!

In this episode I talk to David Draey who's the head of sales a Consulting.com a $30M/year educational business helping experts start and scale their business.

David joined consulting.com in 2018 and he's since become so valuable to the business that he was made a co-owner.

Here are a couple of things you might enjoy from this episode:

1) How David ended up in sales and why it might be a good fit for you.
2) How to be become so good at your job that you work yourself into becoming a partner in the company 
3) Why starting a company is the last thing you want on your mind if you want to crush it at your job


If you have any questions for David feel free to reach out to him on Facebook (David Draey) or Instagram (@ddraey).

Gabe Saldarriaga is the Chief Revenue Officer and Director of Media & Marketing for the Dan Lok organization.

He's been a key asset behind the growth of Dan Lok's business and social media presence over the last 4 years. 

He helped grow the business to 8 figures in revenue, and he's largely responsible for growing Dan Lok's YouTube channel from a couple thousand subscribers to over 3 Million subscribers!!