We were lucky to catch up with Justin Joseph Espejo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Justin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

The one thing I’ve seen and heard from most successful people is that they had the energy to just keep going for much longer than their competitors or other people in their niche had, and that if you just did that, then you’d be successful.

I think as people, we have this idea of a solo creative who’s able to withstand stress and a number of multiple challenges, day in and day out. While I really believe that having grit, being relentless and stubborn about your idea and vision regardless of whether or not you’re seeing results is important, I would never have been put in the situation that I’m in now without the support of my wife and my family.

So I would say grit, but also having a support system is even more important.

Justin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was living in Manila, running my own small Architecture studio when the pandemic hit. The city was in complete lockdown so I got stuck at home with my wife and my then almost 2-year old daughter. That’s when I started trying out making videos.

Prior to the pandemic, my wife and I had always traveled, and I had always taken photos. However, I never believed I would ever learn how to make videos, so I never did. I’ve always thought that I just didn’t have the “eye” for it. Nevertheless, I had always wanted to learn. So, as we found ourselves stranded within the walls of our homes, I began by copying things I saw on YouTube. I started filming short 15-second videos (I don’t think TikTok was a thing yet back then) about anything I could find inside our place: the flowers outside our window, the coffee maker, you name it.

During the lockdown, I became part of this Facebook group called ‘Pinoy Midnight Snackers,’ which was born out of people getting bored in their homes. They would post photos of the food they ate during midnight, and I had the idea of posting short videos instead of photos there, so I did.

A few weeks later, the Pinoy Midnight Snackers group became big, attracting a lot of attention, and I started getting reached out to by restaurants wanting to market their food. Consequently, we started receiving a lot of food sent to our home, and I began making short videos in exchange. I didn’t get paid, but not having to worry about food during the pandemic was a huge blessing.

One day, I got contacted by someone from Nestle to do a quick video to post in the Facebook group and I got paid Php 5,000 (100USD) as a “nano-influencer” and I couldn’t believe it. I was so happy.

Fast forward to a year, still in the pandemic, my wife gets a job offer in Vienna, Austria and with the way things were going on in the Philippines, we strongly felt that moving half-way across the world was the best decision for our family. So in August of 2021, we left everything behind, friends, family and closing down my business in the process as well.

Moving to a country where you have no friends, no family, and didn’t even speak the language was a huge adjustment for us. One of those adjustments was that we decided it would be best if my wife had the full-time job while I was more available and flexible in terms of taking care of our daughter and handling whatever else we would need to make our adjustment easier. That’s when I became a full-time Girl Dad.

It was during this time that we decided to go all in on YouTube and social media. So, for 2 years, I would be making videos about photography, filmmaking, and travel on my channel without earning anything from it. I joined a few worldwide competitions, even though I had no experience, because in my mind, I really had nothing to lose anyway. I joined with very little expectations, and I ended up becoming one of the winners!

It wouldn’t be until around February of 2023, after around 2 years of making content, that my wife and I decided to give short-form video a try, to maybe change things up. I was scared and worried about it because I had no idea what to do with it; up until that point, I had only ever really made long-form YouTube videos. Regardless, we gave ourselves a deadline – 30 to 60 days of making shorts, and whatever happens, happens. I had about 2,000 subscribers on YouTube and about 2,000 followers on Instagram.

I decided if I was going to do this, I would just give it my best shot. It took about 18 days of posting high-quality, valuable content before something happened to my account on Instagram. It was nothing like I had ever seen. My Instagram account grew to 300K in 30 days, and it seemed like I had become an overnight success. Which couldn’t be further from the truth, to be completely honest.

How did you build your audience on social media?

There’s a famous saying, ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ In February of 2023, my wife and I sat down and had a really deep talk about how the past 2 years of making content had been and what we could do moving forward. So, we decided to give making short-form content a try and gave ourselves a deadline of 30 to 60 days to reassess and try something new.

So, I started posting short-form content every day with the intent of making it as best as I could and improving at least 1% each day. It was honestly one of the most tiring phases of my life as a creative, as creating high-quality content, not just in production level, but also in value, was more challenging than most people think.

I kept doing it, putting in the work, while learning new things to push myself and my content even further, and within the next 30 days, my life and my work suddenly felt like they took a complete turn for the best.

While consistency and showing up everyday is very much an important part of growing in social media, a lot of people think it’s enough and then wonder why they’re not growing. You also need to really think about the value you’re giving people and how you’re packaging it. You could be saying the most correct, most factual thing in the world, but if you can’t package it in a way that people are willing to accept, it probably won’t do too well. Social media is a social game and you always have to think about other people.

If someone were to ask me what to do if they wanted to grow on social media right now, I would say, focus on developing your skills, whether it’s editing, storytelling, writing, or presentation. Focus on improving 1% each time and put it out there, and then do it all over again. Do it for a certain period of time and do it because you like it and you’re having fun. Understand that it might not happen as fast as it did for me, but if you’re not having fun, then you probably won’t last long.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The pandemic made me realize that what I wanted more than anything else was to always be with my family. So, even though it wasn’t clear and we weren’t really sure if things would work out, I really tried to figure out a way to design my work around our lives, instead of the other way around. Which of course would never have been possible without the full and utmost support of my wife.

It was really hard in the beginning because we had to deal with our daughter adjusting to a foreign country and not understanding anything, which meant I was always with her and taking care of her. The only free time I had to work on anything I wanted was around midnight until the morning before I had to take her to kindergarten. This was where my training and experience as an architect came in handy: I was already used to pulling all-nighters, and the stress I was dealing with was way less than what I was dealing with when I was running my own firm and handling multiple projects. So, regardless if it wasn’t really the normal route, we really thought that not practicing as an architect anymore and focusing on photography, filmmaking and travel content would be the best route, given our situation.

The question always was, ‘What was the alternative?’ If it came down to choosing between my family and work, it became easy: my priority would be my family. Again, I know not a lot of people can have that chance. I know that I was privileged, and that’s why I never take it for granted.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.justinespejo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justin_joseph_espejo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/justinespejo
• Other: https://stan.store/justinjosephespejo