Our Story | Media Business Mastery

Before university

Thorpe Park.

Before any of this started, I worked at Thorpe Park for two seasons selling photos to people on rides. I kept the job going once I started university too. It was just a job, nothing exciting, but it taught me something I didn't understand the weight of at the time.

People were willing to pay for media. Photos, videos, moments captured and handed back to them. And every photo had a different value. The bigger the moment, the more they would pay for it. That observation sat with me for a long time.

International Business BA, Class of 2022

University years

The gap between what I was taught and what actually worked.

I was at university in London studying international business. I went in believing the degree was the plan. Finish the course, walk into a high-paying job, and the rest would take care of itself.

I went to networking events and sat in rooms with business owners 20 years ahead of me. I could see the gap between what we were being taught and what actually moved the needle. The people who built something were the ones who took action. Everyone else was waiting.

The shift

I looked at what was right in front of me.

I was training at the gym most days, and at the same time I had a creative module at university where I was learning the Adobe suite. I was picking up real, practical skills, but I had nowhere to put them.

So I started recording my own workouts. I would film, edit, practise and learn, and I was getting fit while I did it. I put it all on my training Instagram page, and while I was learning every skill I needed, I could see there were clients right there in the room.

The first was a guy at the gym who ran Elevation Fitness. I reached out and designed a graphic poster for him, the first one I had ever made. That taught me something. A poster needs media in it. And once I saw that, I realised video would pull more attention than a still image ever could.

The first clients

I asked three people.

I went to the people closest to me. My barber. A friend who was just starting a clothing brand. Another friend who was a musician. Not strangers, not cold pitches, just people I knew.

I told them I would make them a video, and I would do it at a fair price. I didn't own a camera. I didn't know how to edit. I just knew I could hold a camera and I could learn the rest through reps and their feedback. All three said yes.

I bought my first camera the day before the very first shoot.

I spent hours on YouTube learning how to actually use it, working out exactly what I needed to create something clean and simple and good. I charged each of those first clients between £200 and £250, and I delivered all of it. It took me a long time, but I got it done, and I was getting paid for what I could do.

6 months later

From my barber to Samuel Leeds.

Once I had done it, I wanted more of it, so I started telling people about the service. I would come in, capture media for their business, and either publish it or hand it over for them to publish.

A few months in, someone I had met at a networking event introduced me to Samuel Leeds, one of the biggest property educators in the UK. Within a week I was filming for him. Within a year I was running social channels doing millions of views a month and generating millions in revenue.

I asked. I showed up. I delivered.

It all came from the same move I had made with my barber.

Today

Seven Media.

I built an award-winning content agency for the property space. Team of 7 across videography, photography, accounts, operations, and sales. Award-winning within 12 months.

Today we work with brands like Rolls-Royce, Shawbrook Bank, Caviar House, and Wembley. None of it would have happened without the three people who said yes when I asked first.

Why this programme exists

The path that worked for me is teachable.

Most beginners follow the wrong sequence. They buy the camera, learn the craft, build the showreel, grow an audience, and then try to find clients. I did it the other way around: conversation first, client second, camera third.

Media Business Mastery exists because that approach is not a fluke. It is a repeatable framework, and it works for beginners who are willing to have real conversations with real businesses.

Three paying clients before I owned a camera