Business
Isaac John aka Ice is an ex professional NRL rugby league player turned entrepreneur, podcaster, vlogger and card collector. He is the founder of clothing brand YKTR (you know the rules). Since following him I have seen him leverage the power of social media, authenticity and storytelling to grow his business. Today we dive into his thought process, what is working right now for him, how it can work for you and the biggest challenges he faces with growing his business and personal brand. Connect with Isaac John Instagram Youtube Itunes Victor Ahipene: Speaking nation, what’s happening? Welcome to another episode of public speaking secrets. Super stoked to have you listening and tuning in today. I’ve got Isaac John aka Ice, who is a founder of a clothing company, and I want to talk to you as his clothing company called YKTR. Check it out. It’s a, you know, the rules, and he’s also done a lot for getting his company off the ground, which I want to delve into and some, uh, some insights that he’s gained in a bit of the behind the scenes in that aspect. Because I know a lot of you, I know I’ve watched what he’s been doing and I know this works just not for clothing companies and it can work for you out there. So we’ll get another aspect of that public speaking, which is the digital side. So with all that being said, welcome to this show, my man. Isaac John: Thanks Bro. Thanks for having me on. Victor Ahipene : So give us a quick background of, you, how did you get to kind of be doing the clothing side of things and then we’ll delve into kind of the aspects that you’ve used to I guess, leverage social media to grow. Isaac John : Short or long version? Victor Ahipene: Just go, the medium. Isaac John: Nah, so just, I grew up in a small town, um, had ambitious to play sort of rugby league play for the play in the NRL and sort of was able to do that, uh, through my NRL career, very average player through, um, had a lot of injuries and stuff like that. So through injuries I was actually, um, through injuries actually started reading up on books and had outside interests and from there sort of dived into business once I finished football. Kind of just wanted to really pursue business and YKTR, was one of those things and been lucky enough so far for it to eight. Victor Ahipene: Cool. And I mean, I guess, guess part of that, and I know, I see with the questions that people ask on your Instagram who will like oh, how do you do it if you’re not an ex NRL player. And I’m like, I mean, I’ve, I’ve, um, myself, I’ve physio for the magpies I know quite a lot of like sports, like all blacks and whatnot ends. I mean, you know, outside of them getting sponsorships from external companies, they wouldn’t know how to leverage any of that anyway. So it’s like, yeah, I feel like it may be a little bit of a fire onto the flame, but it’s like if you don’t have the, um, the kindling or the water or whatever, it’s just going to die out anyway. So, yeah. How did you initially leverage that? Like, did it help for your initial growth or was it the kind of the stuff that you threw out and tried that you felt kind of grew the brand? Um, yeah, like, um, obviously I understand like it’s just, it’s just where I’ve come from. I can’t really change my career or my previous past. It’s kind of a weird scenario cause a lot of people would think that they’re like, Oh cause you’re friends with chicko and Cory. That’s what made your brand grow. But obviously anyone that’s sort of been in business understands, that’s probably not the case or anyone that actually knows those two boys. That’s not the case as well. So to say, it didn’t help would be fucking ignorant of me, which I’d never say that, but to