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Iām a creative entrepreneur with a background in tech/marketing. I'm currently building a career that maximizes my creativity, fulfillment and freedom so that I can spend more meaningful time with my family.
I built Brand Stories⢠to give small-to-medium sized businesses access to powerful video production for marketing purposes. I spend the majority of my time running the company, producing videos and working with top-notch brands.
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In 2018 IĀ launched a Ā boutique photography service to help people optimize their dating profiles. Word-of-mouth spread fast, and it's really taken off. I'm currently in the process of expanding to the USĀ market and hiring top-notch photographers.
+Ā much more (will publicly announce at a later date)
I'm super grateful for the opportunity to work with some of the most forward-thinking brands in my first two years of running BrandĀ Storiesā¢.
The majority of this work has been through video production (brand story videos, paid social ads, customer testimonials) and photography (custom stock photos, creative portraiture, event photography).
In my spare time I contribute to Unsplash - a forward-thinking stock photography website that partners with major brands. Thanks to Unsplash, my photos have over +34,000,000 views and counting.
Even more exciting is that my work has been utilized by major brands in apps, websites, publications and more.
In my previous career track, I worked with major startups in western Canada to build and maintain customer communities.
Milestones include helping Clearly.ca build a +1mm social community across 5 platforms in the US, building the Unbounce Conversion Community from scratch and teaching the Digital Marketing cohort at BrainStation for two years.
The best way to get in contact with me is via email, but you can also find me on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium, Unsplash and YouTube.
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Iād love to speak at your (virtual) event, be a guest on your channel/podcast, contribute to your blog, or collaborate in another meaningful way.
āĀ Send me an email with your idea here
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Want to create a high-impact video for your brand or business?Ā We specialize in brand stories, product videos, explainers, social ads and website video backgrounds.
āĀ Apply to work with us here
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Want a unique, custom headshot that isn't so damn corporate?Ā IĀ specialize in stunning custom portraits for founders, business owners and creatives.
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View examples of our work āIn 2020 I started writing a little bit every day, and I found that it helped me think. Now I write in the open about life, creativity, tech and entrepreneurship. āĀ Check out the blog.
"A gifted and compelling visual storyteller.
I have had the pleasure of utilizing Justinās videography skills to tell the story of Community Building at Staples STUDIO. As well, we had him present in our Spotlight session. He is a joy to work with and more importantly is hyper-focused on delivering impactful results."
Some photographers enjoy shooting landscapes. For me, it's people. IĀ seem to have a certain knack for shooting candid, authentic photos of people who typically hate photos of themselves. The best way to describe my individual style is "not-so-corporate" headshots.
View more photos āĀ
I'm an open book when it comes to my background and my career.
I've always loved learning and creativity, so when it came time for post-secondary, IĀ decided to go all-in on Graphic Design. Going to design school taught me three things:
After school IĀ made it my mission to "work in a tech startup". IĀ remember reading about the foosball tables, bean bag chairs and beer on-tap - and the creative people who made magic happen behind the doors. IĀ hopped on a one-way flight from WindsorĀ ON āĀ Vancouver BC and elbowed my way into a trendy online eyewear company, Clearly.ca.
IĀ started in customer success, but eventually made my way into the marketing department as a Social Media Moderator. This started my career path in both Community +Ā Marketing. After helping to build their USĀ brands' community past +1 million, my role evolved to Social Media Coordinator and then Social Media Strategist.
From there IĀ did a short stint at Indochino, but ultimately left as the company was in it's infancy and wasn't quite a culture fit for me (IĀ hear it's much, much better now).
I left directly for greener pastures and joined the team at Unbounce. This is where IĀ helped design, build and curate the world's strongest community of landing page marketers on the web.
We built a customer advocacy program with all-star marketers from around the world (dubbed the Unbounce Experts) and took surprise &Ā delight to a whole other level with the Unbounce Market. We held class-leading conferences and did some really amazing stuff there.
I left the company after a few years to move to the Okanagan, but the whole Unbounce team, especially the founders, have my highest regard. Unbounce CEO, Rick Perreault, reminded me a few years ago "Once an Unbouncer, always an Unbouncer." IĀ can't recommend this company enough.
After Unbounce I also spent some time at Loop Digital, a Facebook Advertising agency, as Creative Director. I learned really valuable lessons at this company, particularly around what kind of creative actually converts and what falls flat (hint:Ā it's a lot more complex than you think). This knowledge gave me a huge head-start when I decided to open my own creative video agency.
While traditional education wasn't my cup of tea, IĀ still loved learning.
I continued my education throughout my entire career, but it wasn't through any kind of traditional school. Books, blogs, podcasts, tutorials, youtube, Udemy... IĀ was, and still am, obsessed with learning.
While at Unbounce, I regularly had the opportunity to speak in front of the company (150+) which led to me becoming more comfortable with an audience. I also had the opportunity to mentor or speak for really interesting initiatives, such as Girls Learning Code and Epicentr Academy.
But my love for teaching came from working with BrainStation, where I stumbled into an instructor role, and becoming Lead Educator for their popular Digital Marketing Course for 2+Ā years.
BrainStation flipped the traditional education model on its head and brought in industry experts Ā who were actively working in their field to teach niche, specific classes, like SEO and paid search. It was phenomenal working with such passionate, career-focused individuals who wanted to give back.
And over time, IĀ got the joy of watching my students (and faculty!)Ā go on to land phenomenal roles in companies like Adidas, Herschel, Lululemon and Netflix.
After college, I also opened a boutique wedding photography business that focused mostly on destination weddings. IĀ don't talk too much about this because, well... it tanked.
There was definitely demand, and IĀ got to capture some truly phenomenal destination weddings while we were open, but IĀ didn't have the proper skills to develop the company without becoming overwhelmed.
Fast forward to 2018. IĀ photographed a friend and colleague of mine for a blog post, which I then found out he used on an online dating app called Tinder. The next day he came in and said "Man, I've never had that many matches in my life!", which was odd to me, seeing as he's an arguably handsome dude and a beautiful human being.
Turns out, building your profile is kinda like marketing - you need to know your audience, make the offer appealing and showcase great photos/copywriting. A mix of skills that IĀ happened to have.
After consulting with friends, colleagues and conducting some highly-scientific market research (ie. IĀ swiped a whole lot)... IĀ decided to open a side hustle, aptly named PhotosForTinder.com.
āI had no idea it would become successful - but within 6 months IĀ was making more from photography than I was at my day job. What's even better is that my clients, who pretty much all turned out to be Ā amazing individuals who take self-improvement seriously, started matching with more and more amazing people because of my efforts.Ā Their results have been out of this world, and some of them are now even engaged to be married.
A year later, I saw another gap in the market while working at Loop Digital, this time in the B2B content space. Companies were heavily investing in video production for ads, commercials and content, but many of them were getting back low-impact/low-converting videos.
There was no shortage of videographers, but there was a shortage in video people that knew the in's and out's of marketing, conversion, copywriting and paid advertising.
Again, IĀ saw where my unique cross-section of skills could come together and offer immense value for my clients, and soon after opened BrandĀ Storiesā¢, is focused at helping small-to-medium sized businesses achieve better marketing results through strategic video creation.
This video production company seen some really impactful results in the 2.5 years we've been in business, and I've had the opportunity to work directly with major brands such as Staples, VIATEC, Ethical Bean, Accelerate Okanagan, Spud.ca and so many more.
Growing and scaling this business is where I spend the majority of my time. Turns out, helping business owners achieve better results is super rewarding.
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Build a rich and fulfilling life for me and my family by providing an absurd amount of value to people.