Good morning!! We hope this weekend has been the best yet. 🗣📚📘🗞️💬

This week, we had the privilege of interviewing Tom Oswald about his widely popular Homeboy cafe, which has amassed 530,000 followers across various platforms. He shares the 1 conversation that opened a new world for him. Next, we give our opinion on the ‘Scarce vs. Available’ creator debate & discuss how to decide on the diversity of your own unique creator ecosystem.

The Viral Story of Homeboy Café: The Power Of Collaboration

Imagine getting the opportunity to run your own cafe at 18. Now imagine a community of 500,000 people online supporting it all. Even further, imagine you’re now designing clothes and selling coffee beans under your own brand. Well, it’s all happening in the life of Tom Oswald. You’ve probably seen his story unfold online. But not many people know how it all began.

When I asked Tom how this interview could best benefit him he replied, “I would love to give credit to those who helped me at the start and talk a little bit about how it all began.”

So, here we go.

A summary of how it all began:  Well, it all began when I was made aware of a pop-up café that was not in operation, owned by The PaintBox Art Supplies Shop in Hahndorf.  I arranged a meeting with the owner Bec Madden and explained “I had worked in a small café in Adelaide previously and was interested in the possibility of running the café by myself’”.

Rebecca was willing to talk and explained to me that as a proud member of the Traditional Shops Movement, Thieles Shop in association with the adjacent The PaintBox Art Supplies Store have been sponsoring start-ups for many years to foster entrepreneurship and community engagement. Tom’s job was to work in a collaborative way with The PaintBox to hopefully make the cafe a lively “destination” and build a community of people interested in coffee and art. The best part was that the sponsorship covered 100% of venue hire costs for the first 4 months, then 80% for the remainder of the pop-up! This way, Tom could test his dream of running his own business without exposing himself to the enormous financial risk that comes along with starting a café from scratch.

But for an 18-year-old inexperienced kid, it really wouldn’t be that easy…

Why an 18-year-old might actually be perfect for the job? Growing up idolising Casey Neistat’s cinematic vlog style YouTube videos, Tom understood the role storytelling might play in marketing his café and The PaintBox. But with no social media experience, what can you do? Armed with nothing more than a smartphone, he set up and documented his first day running the cafe. Unfortunately, not many customers showed up… so he posted his first TikTok video “opened a cafe and nobody came”, documenting this low moment. This marked Day 1 of Tom’s story.

Little did Tom know the algorithm had other plans. The video went mega viral - gaining 1.4M views, a thousand comments & 120k likes. Photographers offered free photo shoots, strangers said they’re on their way, marketers suggested free business cards and the best part is people from around the world said they’re willing to fly out to support!

A couple weeks later, he picked a name for his pop-up store – Homeboy - a destination for aspiring entrepreneurs and coffee/art aficionados alike, thanks to the generosity and support of The PaintBox. But that was only the beginning. To build a community of 500,000 people around Homeboy, Tom’s video storytelling ability would play the most important part.

Over the next few months, he captured a large audience but how do you translate that social media interest into a financial success?

Building The Homeboy World: Fuelled by the success of his early videos, Tom expanded the Homeboy brand into a dynamic creator start-up. It’s fascinating what can be done on the internet today.

I asked Tom, what do you honestly believe caused the success of Homeboy?

1) The PaintBox = a generous entrepreneurial sponsorship providing the venue hire costs for Homeboy over the last 9 months. Offering kind hospitality, mentorship, and all the support he needed to achieve his wildest dreams. A feat that truly wouldn’t be possible without them!

2. Community = Without community homeboy is nothing! The support from the community has always been out of this world. People travelling up to an hour for a coffee, followers commenting on homeboy’s posts from the other side of the globe, the support from friends/family – it all makes this possible!

3) Authenticity = from no customers to now busy Saturdays, behind the scenes on admin days, unpacking new equipment, training employees, business trips to pick bean flavours etc - Tom will bring you along on his coffee journey and you can vicariously live the Homeboy experience

As Tom Oswald continues to chart new territories and expand the Homeboy universe, one thing remains certain - the power of collaboration and the generous provision of start-up opportunities for young entrepreneurs can indeed ignite a spark of creativity that can change the course of one young person’s life.

The Scarce vs Available Creator Debate: What’s better for you?

Do you prefer following binge-worthy content by a highly personable creator or are you drawn to more exclusivity and illusiveness?

I was talking to a friend last week about how he would market himself alongside his brand. The debate became if remaining cool / mysterious or becoming the audience’s friend is better.

It’s a good question…in a short answer - do whatever fits your personality. But here’s some consideration.

What sort of Creator can you be? What type suits you? Let’s check it out…

The scare creator doesn’t bombard with daily content, they build-up and keep anticipation and suspense in making content drops focused. It doesn’t happen often, so don’t miss it when it does come. It’s powerful, but also pressure on the creator to deliver on the expectations - e.g a new music video by Cole Bennett.

The active creator is always there, delivering up the constant posts that make you part of their world or industry. They’re highly relatable and our go-to BFFs around their content. These creators work really hard, but have the ability to be a little more flexible and casual in their approach - e.g Ali Abdaal on YouTube.

Industry matters: Not all approaches work for everyone or styles of content. Exclusivity is demanded sometimes. For example, London streetwear brand Corteiz thrives off mystery, they build hype by focusing on utmost exclusivity. People want what others want. Think fashion or film, music or other arts… they build suspense for new releases that people cannot wait to consume, or be the first to have.

But then there are those creators we embrace more frequently, like the Colin & Samir creator podcast, or Yes Theory with their weekly dose of adventure and inspiration.

So… who do you want to be?

Here’s our checklist to help with that question:

• Content Creation: Do you prefer a constant flow or focus on quality over quantity?

• Personality: Are you comfortable sharing your life/business or a more curated version?

• Content Passion: What truly excites you to create, and what reaction do you want in a follower?

• Target Audience: Who are you trying to reach? Who are their influences?

The best approach might be a blend of both. Experiment, have fun, and find the style that makes you – and your audience – tick! The key is to stand out, whichever side of the coin… Remember, you can create anything!

How to figure out the diversity of your creator ecosystem?

Being a creator is a multi-faceted journey between making content, growing the business and building your community. It’s a lot, but any business always is. So…To succeed you need an “ecosystem” - where each aspect of the business supports one another.

Take a look at the Nelk Boys Ecosystem;

The easiest part is step 1: the content. Make what you love & are passionate about. This is where you build community - to monetise later on. If you take the videos away from Mr Beast or Mark Rober, both their respective companies Feastables and Crunch Labs will fail. The content is where you maintain human connection and interest.

Step 2 is longevity: if you can’t post a main channel video every week, create something that’s easier to produce (e.g weekly BTS, interviews, a podcast etc). You’ll notice The Inspired Unemployed don’t post every week on their YouTube channel but their podcast always get’s out weekly. Find something which is easier to be consistent.

Step 3: Monetisation: think beyond courses / clothes. it’s tricky but ironically this is where you have to be most creative. People are over buying courses and selling clothes require a high-volume / low margin model. I think as creators we can easily fall into the trap of selling a course or making merchandise, but the future will be combining traditional business with the creator economy. Lean into what mainstream businesses are building;

Monetisation ideas

• Build an app

• Invest in current start-ups

• Create a repeatable purchase (drink, snacks)

• Build a software as a service (SASS).

The key = solve a problem & sell the solution.

Think about how many people can search up the problem on YouTube over buying your $1,000 course. It’s brutal, but true.

Happenings in the creator space 💡

1. Australian creator Spanian signs to streaming company Kick

2. Emma Chamberlain raises $4.6M equity for Chamberlain Coffee

3. MKBHD goes sneaker shopping on Complex (spent $2,783.53)

4. Red Bull are sponsoring creators to travel across Europe with just their drink cans as currency. It’s a 7 day race called “Can you make it?” involving hundreds of popular creators

5. Kevin Hart’s guest appearance on Kai Cenat’s Twitch stream broke the channel’s record, attracting 300,000 live viewers during a single stream.

Top 3 Videos Of The Week 🌐

The STORY STREET spotlight 💫⭐

Up & Coming Creators To Watch

• Tejas Huller - a 23-year old, NYC based creator sharing “mini-movies” about life, pop-culture and the creator economy on YouTube

• Beau Miles - an Australian YouTuber, filmmaker, and author known for his unique and offbeat adventures, turning ordinary tasks into engaging storytelling

• Luke Eich - an adventure creator amassing nearly 400k subscribers on YouTube, creating content around skating, travel and his relationship