Creator Unplugged

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Brock Johnson has taught Instagram strategy for almost a decade and built an audience of a million followers doing it. Jun and Brock get into the system that made him one of the most consistent creators in the game from the story bank he’s kept since his early days to the task-batching workflow that films a month of reels in one sitting.

They also break down what’s working on Instagram right now, the two kinds of content that will win over the next few years, the number one rule that keeps videos feeling real, and a trial reels playbook that gets one video three separate rounds of reach.

Then Brock opens up the business side: the funnel behind his audience, why he runs one offer instead of many, and the reason every creator needs an email list.

This episode is for creators tired of overthinking their content, the expert whose page is all value and no story, and anyone who’s ready to own more of what they’ve built.

Chapters:

• 02:48 How Jun and Brock met
• 03:31 Breaking the “only share value” rule
• 09:11 Weaving your life into your content
• 10:46 Build a story bank
• 15:58 Brock's upbringing in an entrepreneurial household
• 20:25 How to practice discipline
• 25:43 Work-life balance as priority number one
• 30:10 Batching 30 reels in one sitting
• 32:31 Hiring, leadership and who's on Brock’s team today
• 43:39 Realness comes from speed
• 51:21 The trial reels playbook
• 58:02 Inside Brock’s funnel
• 1:09:18 What still matters in 5 years

Stay connected:

• Creator Unplugged on Instagram
• Creator Unplugged on TikTok
• Jun on Instagram

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Vishen Lakhiani built Mindvalley into a nine-figure company on blogs and email, and avoided the camera until age 40. Jun talks with Vishen about why founders who stay invisible are shooting themselves in the foot, and how showing up on camera helped take Mindvalley from $30M to $140M.

Vishen unpacks the childhood programming that makes being seen feel unsafe, and traces his own back being bullied in school, plus the healing practice that finally freed him to post.

Then comes the masterclass: his full storytelling framework with real examples, the science of why stories are 22x more memorable than facts, why confident voices beat qualified ones online, and the trick for creators who think they have no original ideas.

At the end, Vishen flips the interview, pulling Jun's real story out of him layer by layer, and ends with a warning that everyone needs to hear.

This is an episode you don't want to miss.

Chapters:

• 02:36 The limiting beliefs Vishen started with
• 04:20 "Is it too late for me?" and starting at 40
• 06:10 The video that took on Nestlé
• 08:07 How storytelling took Mindvalley from $30M to $140M
• 10:49 Visibility wounding, explained
• 15:24 The inner child & the meaning-making machine
• 22:40 The practice for healing your fear of being seen
• 25:04 The HSTSS storytelling framework
• 25:46 The hook
• 32:28 The stakes
• 33:21 The turn
• 38:45 The scene
• 45:09 Vishen flips the interview on Jun
• 55:05 Why Vishen won't stop until a million lives change

Stay connected:

• Creator Unplugged on Instagram
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• Jun on Instagram

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Jordan Schwarzenberger is the co-founder of Arcade, the entertainment company behind some of the biggest names in the creator world, and he has news for you: you're probably not as entertaining as you think you are.

At 29, Jordan runs multiple companies, leads a 22-person agency, hosts his own podcast, and is raising 5 kids. Jun starts where most interviews don't: how he holds it all together.

Jordan's answer runs through faith, why pride is at the root of most professional self-sabotage, and the ordering of his life that makes everything else work.

Then it gets tactical: why the future belongs to "content engineers," what makes people care enough to follow you, why delivery beats hooks, and how to stop sounding like a presenter.

And for those of you interested in expanding to live events, Jordan breaks down his fool-proof formula for his live-events business.

This is for anyone who wants to stop guessing at content and start engineering it, and for the ambitious ones trying to build big without losing themselves in the process.

Chapters:

• 02:20 What anchors Jordan
• 11:35 Pride, humility & checking yourself
• 17:26 How he manages it all
• 19:35 Detachment: the skill nobody talks about
• 25:28 Why experts won't own their story
• 28:41 Content is engineering, not talent
• 34:17 How to actually sound natural
• 39:48 Why full-time creator shouldn't be the goal
• 42:30 The economics of live events
• 52:14 The trust crisis on social platforms
• 53:23 Instagram's big mistake
• 55:49 Scarcity & spontaneity always win
• 57:47 What he wants to be remembered for

Stay connected:

• Creator Unplugged on Instagram
• Creator Unplugged on TikTok
• Jun’s Instagram

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Partnerships/Inquiries: [email protected]

When something feels off with your health, you probably don't open Google anymore, you open TikTok, Instagram, Reddit... And for millions of people, the voice they land on is Dr. Karan Rajan, the surgeon who made the internet comfortable talking about the things it was too embarrassed to ask a doctor.

Jun talks with Karan about what it means to be a trusted voice at scale, how to spot a fake expert (the red flags are more subtle than you think), and how he protects his credibility while building his supplement company Loam.

They also get into the content strategy behind it all - reaction-video formats, vocalizing contrarian takes, scripting, and so much more.

This episode is for professionals who think their field is too technical and boring for social media.

Chapters

• 01:49 The patient who was too embarrassed to speak up
• 03:28 Making taboo topics watchable
• 04:46 Why informed patients are better patients
• 06:33 Red flags of a fake health expert
• 08:52 Building Loam for the skeptics
• 10:27 How he engineers his content
• 14:11 Inside the reaction-video format
• 18:14 The "secret sauce" AI can't replicate
• 22:10 How he sources what to react to
• 25:19 What entrepreneurship taught him
• 30:31 Brute-forcing your way past embarrassment
• 32:13 How content transformed his communication
• 36:26 Why he canceled his Oura ring subscription
• 39:15 Real health is resilience
• 45:46 Leaving surgery with zero regrets

Stay connected:

• Creator Unplugged on Instagram
• Creator Unplugged on TikTok
• Jun on Instagram

📌 Ditch all the social planning tools for Rella. Go to getrella.com and use code “CREATOR" for 10% off your first three months or annual plan.

Make sure you follow wherever you're listening! It takes 2 seconds and guarantees you never miss any of our upcoming episodes.

Partnerships/Inquiries: [email protected]

Maddie Borge has spent more than half her life on the internet. She started at 12, filming videos in her bedroom in Norway because she dreamed of living like the YouTubers she idolized. Today, she has an audience that literally grew up alongside her, and a travel brand that sold out its restock in 67 minutes.

Jun talks with Maddie about what over a decade online really builds: Why she never felt split between her online self and her real one, the money habits she formed to set her up for success, long-form vs. short-form, and how all those years of trust turned into Pastael, her viral packing-cube brand.

Then, they tackle the operator side of things when it comes to bootstrapping a physical product, six-figure stock orders, months of sellouts, hiring, and everything in between.

Chapters:

• 01:55 Starting YouTube at 12
• 06:14 Identity online and offline
• 09:35 The followers who grew up with her
• 12:59 Why she diversified her income
• 15:11 The idea for Pastel
• 17:55 The real cost of physical products
• 20:01 Building in public without knowing it
• 22:41 Learning to be an operator
• 25:46 What she's learned about hiring
• 27:21 Long form vs. short form strategy
• 32:28 Her "I made it" moment
• 33:37 What makes a pop-up actually work
• 39:30 Building community
• 42:01 What she'd tell her 12-year-old self

Stay connected:

• Creator Unplugged on Instagram
• Creator Unplugged on TikTok
• Jun’s Instagram

📌 Ditch all the social planning tools for Rella. Go to getrella.com and use code “CREATOR" for 10% off your first three months or annual plan.

Learn how to attract the right audience, turn them into paying clients and build a real business off the back of your content. Sign up for the FREE 5 day Masterclass: creatorcollege.com/c/live-webinar-organic

Make sure you follow the show! It takes 2 seconds and ensures you never miss any of our upcoming episodes.

Partnerships/Inquiries: [email protected]

Mia McGrath's first setup was an iPhone taped to her bedroom window. No mic, bad lighting, edited her videos on TikTok. Today, she’s making multiple six-figures from her content, signed a book deal, and started a cultural movement called “Frugal Chic.”

Jun talks with Mia about money the way nobody in finance talks about it: through psychology. They get into how she became the representation she never saw growing up, how "strategic people pleasing" became her content superpower, why she deliberately pays herself less than she could, and the tension she felt from sharing her income online.

They also break down the four-part framework behind every one of her talking videos and how to feel more natural speaking on camera.

This episode is for anyone building online who wants the honest math behind the highlight reel.

Chapters:

• 01:45 Money as psychology, not accounting
• 02:55 Becoming the representation she never had
• 04:41 The accidental first viral video
• 06:03 Strategic people pleasing
• 10:08 Journey POV vs. expert POV

• 12:16 Her 4-part video framework

• 15:39 From social anxiety to on-camera confidence
• 18:55 What watching yourself back teaches you
• 20:27 Leaving the 9-to-5 (and the 60-hour weeks)
• 21:38 Where the money actually goes now
• 24:34 The income transparency dilemma
• 26:48 How to share a win without losing people

• 29:28 The mistake that costs creators 50% of their income
• 32:14 Landing her first book deal
• 33:57 Income splits & the product she wants to build
• 36:46 What she'd tell her 15-year-old self

Stay connected:

• Creator Unplugged on Instagram
• Creator Unplugged on TikTok
• Jun’s Instagram

Ditch all the social planning tools for Rella! Go to getrella.com and use code “CREATOR" for 10% off your first three months or annual plan.

Learn how to attract the right audience, turn them into paying clients and build a real business off the back of your content. Sign up for the FREE 5 day Masterclass: creatorcollege.com/c/live-webinar-organic

Make sure you follow the show wherever you're listening right now! It takes 2 seconds and ensures you never miss any of our upcoming episodes.

Partnerships/Inquiries: [email protected]

Erin McGoff spent 30 minutes making a video about the world's most annoying interview question, went to sleep, and woke up to 20 million views. Then she deleted the account. She was an award-winning filmmaker with her sights on Sundance, and "influencer" was the last thing she wanted to be.

Jun talks with Erin about what changed her mind, how her work as a filmmaker assisted her creator career, the impact of her work on other people’s lives, and her "seeding vs. harvesting" seasons for avoiding burnout.

They break down her content strategy, operations, and systems that led her to scaling her platform to millions and launching her career-focused app “StupidFish.”

This episode is for the creators who want to be taken seriously and the professionals scared a personal brand will cost them that.

Chapters:

• 02:06 Where the drive to serve comes from
• 04:27 Letting go of the Sundance dream
• 08:24 The viral video she ran away from
• 12:05 Inside her lean operation
• 14:12 Why she still edits everything herself
• 18:20 Treat content like a job
• 20:02 Be your own CFO
• 26:09 The one question that makes decisions easy
• 27:54 Dream life vs. dream job
• 32:45 Build StupidFish
• 38:29 What hiring taught her about leadership
• 43:22 The 25,000-person waitlist
• 44:24 How she stays in tune with her audience
• 47:41 For anyone afraid to be seen

Stay connected:

• Creator Unplugged on Instagram
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• Jun’s Instagram

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Inquiries/Partnerships: [email protected]

Noah Anderson turned down the corporate path his degree was built for, and started posting YouTube videos that nobody watched at first, but he kept going anyway. Now he's a full-time creator with several viral series, a self-produced Ironman documentary, and a video about quitting vaping that reached 18+ million people.

Jun talks with Noah about becoming the proof of your own potential, posting through the long stretch when zero people were watching, how he builds content around big events instead of a finish line, and the power of experimenting and vulnerability.

This is a masterclass in long-form storytelling: why YouTube rewards depth over hooks, how to turn your life into content people watch, and why most people quit two attempts too early.

If you thought your stories were too ordinary to share, tune in and take notes.

Chapters:

• 02:03 Proving yourself right
• 03:42 Turning down the corporate path
• 07:40 Posting when nobody watched
• 09:19 His self-produced documentary
• 10:55 Three tries at the ice bath series & how his strategy changed
• 15:38 Talk to one person, not an audience
• 17:10 Where his video ideas come from
• 21:10 The stranger who believed in him
• 23:58 Content as self-improvement
• 29:12 Full-time job, training & YouTube at once
• 31:32 Why YouTube and long-form is the priority
• 35:58 What's next (& how he decides)
• 38:41 What he'd tell 12-year-old Noah

Stay connected:

• Creator Unplugged on Instagram
• Creator Unplugged on TikTok
• Jun’s Instagram

Turn “I don’t know what to post” into a daily habit that grows your audience. Join the Storytelling Challenge ⁠HERE⁠.

Inquiries/Partnerships: [email protected]

Tyler Chou is the attorney behind some of the biggest deals in the creator industry. She's in the middle of brokering a $100 million exit for one of her clients right now. And she'll tell you most creators are building their entire livelihood on rented land.

Jun sits down with Tyler to talk about what it actually takes to turn a following into a business you can own and one day sell. They get into the first product every creator needs to build, the channels that are literally worthless to buyers, the contract clauses that unintentionally rob you, and the exact AI prompt to protect yourself before you sign anything.

If you’re a creator with a dream of building a business (and not continuing to chase brand deals), this episode is for you.

Chapters:

• 02:53 From Hollywood lawyer to creator attorney
• 06:37 The power of a personal brand (and being job-proof)
• 08:37 Owning assets vs. the brand-deal hamster wheel
• 11:59 What buyers actually want
• 12:32 When you should NOT sell your business
• 18:00 Your first product: ask your audience
• 20:28 The channels no one will ever buy
• 25:36 The biggest contract mistakes creators make
• 28:49 Partnerships, trademarks & when to hire a lawyer
• 34:44 Burnout & the boundaries she set after
• 39:33 The psychology of a creator who can exit for $100M
• 42:06 The lawsuits big creators might face & how to avoid them

Don't forget to follow to the podcast! It takes 2 seconds and makes sure you never miss any of our upcoming episodes.

Stay connected:

• ⁠⁠⁠Creator Unplugged on Instagram ⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠Creator Unplugged on TikTok⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠Jun’s Instagram

Turn “I don’t know what to post” into a daily habit that grows your audience. Join the Storytelling Challenge HERE.

Inquiries/Partnerships: [email protected]

Dr. Sasha Haddad became one of the internet's first doctor-creators almost by accident, filming lighthearted skits in her scrubs between shifts while the world was stuck at home during the pandemic. What started as a study break turned into a personal brand with millions of followers, even though nearly everyone around her told her it was a waste of time.

Jun talks with Sasha about what it takes for a professional to put themselves online, the time she was told to choose between her platform and a job offer, and why she treated her following as an advantage to her career rather than a red flag, even when her mentors saw it the other way.

This one's for those who’ve been told a personal brand isn't for someone like them, and experts who are sitting on knowledge they can't figure out how to share.

Chapters:

• 01:24 Getting shunned by immigrant parents
• 03:06 The billboard test for what to post
• 07:00 Posting through med school
• 08:11 Why pressure made her most creative
• 12:55 The post-residency creative roadblock
• 16:19 "Once Upon a Doctor" & growing with your audience
• 18:20 Evolve or get left behind
• 21:56 Overcoming the cringe-factor of being a professional online
• 30:32 When she was told to choose between her platform and the job
• 36:06 How to stop overthinking getting started
• 42:02 How to package expertise into short form content
• 47:10 How platforms have changed
• 54:16 The mindset that kills the fear of posting

Don't forget to follow to the podcast! It takes 2 seconds and makes sure you never miss any of our upcoming episodes.

Stay connected:

• ⁠⁠Creator Unplugged on Instagram ⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠Creator Unplugged on TikTok⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠Jun’s Instagram