About

Guest: Hugh Rees Company: Expose Media Website: https://expose.media LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugh-rees-1925072b/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/HughReesEntrepreneur/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/hugh_rees/ Nicole Holland 0:00 Hey there, welcome to the show. I'm Nicole Holland, your host and I am thrilled to bring you the fascinating founders Podcast, where we dive in and uncover the stories that came before the success of some of the world's most fascinating founders. hailing from a multitude of industries and socio economic starts, you're going to learn what's made these fascinating men and women realize their dreams from an inspired idea to millions in revenue, disrupting, innovating and impacting humanity for the better. You never know what's going to come up in our casual conversations. So get your notebook ready, cozy up with a great Cup of Joe and join us as I dive in to learn how these inspiring individuals have figured out how to thrive in a time where most people give up on their dreams. Now, before we get into it, let me ask you this. Have you ever wondered how you can get featured on popular podcasts that you're ideal clients and customers are already listening to. In addition to being a highly rated podcaster myself, I'm also the creator of interviews that convert, and I've got a brand new course I'd love to give to you. It's my way of thanking you for being an engaged listener, and to help you achieve your Podcast Guesting goals too. If you want to have more leads, more opportunities, and more recognition for the work that you do. This easy to implement course is designed especially for you. It's completely free. There's no strings attached. Simply visit I want interviews, calm to register, you do the work, book, your interviews, and then let's celebrate your success together. By the way, when you register for the course you're also going to get instant access to my bonus playbook that reveals why dozens of popular podcasters will outright ignore or reject your pitch. And thwart all future opportunities to guest on their shows. You will not find this level of insider information anywhere else. So if being a featured podcast guest is something that you want to do enroll for free at I want interviews.com now and grab your bonus playbook to Joining me today is a dear friend and colleague who's taken home the marketing Entrepreneur of the Year award and has been named a top 100 Australian entrepreneur for his work as the co founder and head of digital at exposed media, a creative agency specializing in Facebook ads sales funnels, lead gen and web design for e commerce companies. In this episode who Reese and I chatted about how he and his match made in heaven business partner founded expose media over a handshake their rapid year over year growth and international expansion as well as some personal parts of his journey that most people People would never share making this interview especially relatable for anyone who's ever mixed business with pleasure, pay special attention when he starts talking about failure and what it means in his life. Hugh, thank you so much for being with us. Hugh Rees 3:16 Thanks for having me, Nicole. What an intro. I like that. Nicole Holland 3:18 I'm super excited to have you with us. And before we dive into your backstory, let's bring people up to date. Excellent. So Hugh Rees 3:26 we are now located in two countries. So Australia is a home base. And so Brisbane, Australia. And we have had a service office in San Francisco for the last year. And we've finally moved that to Austin, Texas, which I'm really excited about. And we've got our first ever employee in the United States to help manage our US expansion. As you mentioned, we're pushing hard into the US because that market is is huge for us. And that's where, where we're finding the most cutthroat at the moment and And letting us expand at a rapid pace, as you said, so we now 17 strongly in our company, which is cool and scary at the same time. And we basically doubled our growth every year for the last three years. So we're on a very, very fast track to and this year as well to do to expand and grow. So we're basically an ideal client is space is an e commerce brand looking to expand and scale. So we help brands as sort of cut through that that revenue ceiling that they're hitting at the moment through omni channel marketing, as you said, and really get to that next level. And it's exciting. I love working with brands and then making them money. It's it's I'm not gonna lie, making money is good. So much fun. Yeah, I get it, I get a really good kick out of it. So it's been exciting, exciting challenge for us. And also, as you mentioned, I have been awarded Entrepreneur of the Year in Australia for marketing, which is cool, and then voted top 100 hundred Winners of 2018. So that's awesome. Cool, nice little pat on the back for this. Nicole Holland 5:04 Very cool, very cool. And as all founders know, there's a lot of sacrifice that goes into building a company building a brand and scaling it. And so I feel like we could maybe talk a little bit about that. But first I want to get back to when did your entrepreneurial bug bite you? So how, how long ago was it Hugh Rees 5:28 so I am a little bit of a serial entrepreneur. I actually started my first business in my first year of university in 1998. So I left I was a country boy born and raised. And anyone listening knows where rural Queensland is in Australia. That's that's where I grew up and I cattle farm and my parents were very much very much that fostering of my my interest in in business and trying to do more. And so they they, you know, helped me on the way to go to get a degree University. And when I got there, I actually, I didn't I didn't really enjoy University. It just never really stuck with me. I struggled to go through uni I struggled to do the reading and, and get good grades. And my mind was always elsewhere. So I guess that's sort of that that, you know, trying to struggle trying to focus thing and you always look at it shiny object syndrome we're always talking about, you know, and so I've just got, I've got that opportunity to start working with, with a local travel agency and helping them with their it. And yeah, it's sort of stuck. And that was the first one. So from there, I had a few shoes fails and she tries. Yeah, it's I've never really had a full time job, or actually a lie. I did have a full time job. I got a job software company. I was actually headhunted. So yeah, I was headhunted to be to work as a software developer. And I worked with them for seven years. But on the side, I was always having a side hustle thing. Just go Nicole Holland 6:59 cool. So was that sort of a consulting role than that? When you say you were helping the travel agency? Well, I like was there a specific company that you established? Or was this just you saying, Hey, I can help you? And I'm ready. I'm a contractor. Hugh Rees 7:17 Yeah. So it was it was that, um, so my, I went to university for software engineering, so as a Bachelor of it majoring in software engineering. So I've always been sort of that analytical mindset. So when an opportunity came up, I'll help them with actually writing their booking system to actually book travel. So I was doing the code writing all the software, helping them with their local computer tech, you know, networking, all that sort of thing. Yeah. And and, you know, software is all it was always a passion for me. It always, always was. Even I think I I've actually stopped coding two years ago, I made a conscious decision to to sort of quit it. I just didn't enjoy it anymore, but I still love it. I still geek out about it. It's a fascinating thing. Nicole Holland 8:02 That's awesome. So how did you shift then from the software into expose media? Like what was sort of that path to get from? You were working full time doing software, had some side hustle going on. And all the sudden, bam, you have an agency. Hugh Rees 8:25 It's my journey is an interesting one. Come with I'm going to go into this. This is crazy. So when I do the juicy stuff, Nicole Holland 8:34 we want the juicy juicy stuff. Hugh Rees 8:36 Yeah. So when I was I was working at the software company. I was the national Cloud Service Manager at the time. I met a young lady who sort of took me by storm and she had a design agency here in Brisbane. So I left my job and to help her with her agency end up marrying her, which was, which is cool. And then we got divorced a bit later. Yeah. And I. So when we split, I sort of took the web side of things and digital side of things. And I went out on my own. And so that was a probably about two or three years doing that by myself. And a mutual friend of mine introduced me to a guy called Phil Winton, who had a design agency who needed some help with their web building web design. So obviously, he had design I had web. So we sort of started working together. And that was 2011. When they get I'm gonna say 2011 2012. So, yeah, why sort of moved into his office, we started doing work together and it got to the point where We were just immersing each other so much. So we was like, yeah, we're doing so much work. And we came to, I think was 2014. We're like, this is ridiculous. We need to join forces and start doing it as one. So that is essentially how expose media was born. We, we sat down and we shook each other's hands. And we said, right, let's do this. And then, yeah, fastrack five years now. And here we are. Nicole Holland 10:23 Amazing. It's a Hugh Rees 10:24 Yeah, it's an interesting journey. Because we were a traditional web design graphic design company. We never even thought about doing digital marketing. Never. And yeah, it's it's crazy and how that sort of pivoted as well. Nicole Holland 10:36 And how did that pivot? At what point did you decide that you wanted to go into digital marketing? Hugh Rees 10:42 So we started doing a lot of e commerce websites for our clients, Shopify custom builds. And they want more clients we did the web design for they said, Hey, can you do our digital marketing at the time we were you know, there was there was we had to staff was filling it stuff. We were small agency and as small agencies do they think, Oh yeah, we can do that. We can do this, we can do anything you want. We charge them a fee. And yet we're everyone's happy, small fee, and happy. And we were, honestly just throw ourselves into it. And I just found that it just made sense to me. It really the numbers and, you know, digital marketing for me is much like trading the stock market. You know, it's all money in money out, pulling the levers to get the most return, seeing what's working, what's not working. So it's Yeah, it just made sense. And so more and more, that started to happen. And then it was 2017. It was the day my daughter was born. I thought, we need to do better, I need to make more money. I have someone who relies on me now. So we basically pivoted and we went all in on digital marketing. And now what Three years later, we are Nicole Holland 12:00 That is awesome. So Hugh, if you could sum up some of your very best advice for a business owner who really resonated with your message and your history, and would love to follow in your footsteps, what would you tell them? Hugh Rees 12:18 Um, yeah, good question. Over the last 15 years, it's been an interesting journey and self discovery. I think and we may have touched on this a little bit earlier. I fail constantly. Every day, I make mistakes. But it's how you learn from those mistakes, pick yourself up and forward. Find your why what makes you get up in the morning, and really hold on to that and make let that drive you and don't be frightened and making mistakes because that's how we learn. I've made some, you know, over over the last 15 years, some decisions that obviously, we're not the best decisions, but I think they shaped me into who I am today and without them, I wouldn't be where I am. So just embrace that and, and really, really push forward and then know that you can do whatever you put your mind to. Nicole Holland 13:07 Awesome. And also, if you would love to share with our listeners about, you know how they can get in touch with you how they can get more support from you, if it's a fit, if they want to learn whatever the case may be, I want to turn over the mic to you for that. And also, if there's anything that you kind of wish I would have asked you, but didn't, please, you've got the mic share away. Hugh Rees 13:31 Sure. So basically, one of the things that I'm constantly pushing myself for is to get myself out there. I've always been one that sort of the person who sit in the corner and just do my thing and not really wave a flag and say, Hey, here I am. And I've had a few close friends who were very successful over the last year really, I would say slap me in the face and say, you've got to put yourself out there. You've got to film content. You've got to produce content. You've got to let the world know you're here. Then that only can can accelerate your growth when you put it into a paid media paid marketing strategy. That's, that's gold, pure gold. So I'm really starting to do that. And the reason why I'm on this show to sort of get get the world to know who I am. And yeah, if you guys want to follow up with me and want any help with marketing or have any questions in terms of e commerce growth, or how to run Facebook ads, if you want to help or run Google ads or Snapchat, any of those sort of channels, then reach out go to the website, expose dot media, it is just expose dot media and there's no.com it's it's one of those Koon domain names, or follow me on Instagram, Hugh underscore Reese. Yeah, and I'd love to hear from you. Nicole Holland 14:45 Amazing and I really, really appreciate your vulnerability there and sharing because a lot of times we know all of the things especially like those of us who do done for you services, it's like, you know, the cobblers shoes cobblers, kids shoes, right. So sometimes We know the things and we want to do the things but it really is so uncomfortable to take that step. Especially for introverts people who maybe aren't used to, you know, they haven't had the experience yet and they're not comfortable. And as you know, and as my listeners know, I'm a huge fan of Podcast Guesting it was not always easy for me. And still to this day, you know, I have discomfort when I do it. But it is so valuable and you know, with all of the different ways of doing content, like you said, being able to then put put money behind that. It is such a genius move, because you get to co create so like Podcast Guesting for example, I'm the one right now who's got to do the production has got to put it out who's got to get my audience etc, etc. And you as a guest get to come on, share about your stuff and then Like you're done, you shouldn't be done though. One of the things about Podcast Guesting is that there's so much more you can do with it. So just don't let it lay. And I just from a personal standpoint, want to say how proud I am of you because I've probably talked with you about interviewing you for about a year. And so thank you for doing this. Thank you for your vulnerability. Thank you for sharing your truth and inspiring other founders to to do it too. Thanks to Hugh from expose media for being my guest on today's show and for sharing his founders journey with us. One of the things I really appreciated about this interview is that he is walking the talk. This was his first podcast interview and I am so proud of him. I'm so excited for him. It's a huge step. Most of us don't like shining the spotlight on us, or at least most of us behind the scenes kind of people. Oh, that's the Me and maybe YouTube, maybe it's you. And so maybe the idea of getting out there and speaking and being vulnerable and having your story heard by whoever having it out there having a public it can be really scary. And so Hugh's willingness to jump in and get uncomfortable meant so much. Also the fact that he was really vulnerable and open and he didn't hold back. And this is one of the top things that I teach my clients is be present when you're doing a podcast interview, be with the host and have that conversation. Don't have scripted out bullet points that you're going to share and you share everywhere really allow the conversation to go wherever it needs to go. And who really did such a great job with that and I don't even think I coached him on it. So Bravo, Hugh, I'm so excited for you and for Phil and the whole team over at expose media. They have been making leaps and bounds, just absolutely killing it for their clients. It's been a ton of fun to watch from my vantage point. And, and to have somebody who's really willing to share that to share the behind the scenes is what I'm looking for in fascinating founders, I want you to learn from those who have gone before, not the people who are out there saying, I'm so perfect. Look at me, we're really the ones who are down to earth and are going to give it to your real tell you about the struggles and tell you about the triumphs, how they've gotten there, what they think you can do to fast track so you don't make the same mistakes they have. These are the people I want to surround myself with. And these are the people I invite you to surround yourself with too. And we're just getting started here with fascinating founders, but there's so many more amazing people who you'll meet on the show who I trust that you are going to look From you're gonna be inspired by and they're going to help you meet your goals for both personal and professional success. Thanks again, you will have links for you to connect directly with him and check out his work, as well as the full transcript from this episode and more at fascinating founders.com. Now, how would you like to be featured as the expert guest on popular podcasts that your ideal clients and customers are already listening to? If you're thinking, heck yeah, I would. I'm going to teach you how to do it. Being a featured podcast guests can be your golden ticket to more leads, more opportunities, and more recognition on a global scale, getting heard by the people that you want to connect with. And because you're a loyal listener, I'm going to teach you for free. 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You're going to love season one. We're already recording more incredible interviews for season two as well. These episodes are inspiring and packed with a mindset, gold and implementable tactics. I would be absolutely honored if you'd help us spread the word. Here are three ways that you can really impact the show's growth. First of all, hit that subscribe button on your favorite podcast player right now. This lets the powers that be know that our show is worth listening to next, if you're moved by anything in a particular episode, be at a quote, a concept or anything that's noteworthy and that you want to remember. Please post it up on social media, using the hashtag fascinating founders so that everybody can benefit from your insights. And if you're on Instagram, be sure to tag me in your stories. My handle is the Nicole Holland and I will proudly and gratefully receive Share them to. Finally let's interact. I'd love to know how fascinating founders is personally impacting you. And to learn how we can further support your growth. There's a nifty contact form right on the fascinating founders website. And you could submit your thoughts, stories, questions and feedback there. Your message is going to come straight to me, and I can't wait to see what you have to say. One final thought that I'd like to leave you with is this successful people surround themselves with successful people look to see how you can spend more time with the ones who see your greatness and seek to celebrate the whole of who you are. Until next time, my friend this is Nicole Holland, signing off. Transcribed by https://otter.ai