Sawaram Suthar / January 7, 2023 | 11 Mins Read
Updated: January 7, 2023
Today my guest is Josh. Josh is one of the youngest leaders and CEOs at MODRN Media
MODRN Media—a digital marketing agency that trains and employs content creators while offering budget-friendly video production and social media management services to small businesses—is a business he developed in his high school Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) class. Through sharpening his entrepreneurial mindset, Josh realized some noteworthy concepts that make MODRN Media a winning business:
He won the $10K and a mentorship session with The People’s Shark and CEO of FUBU Daymond John through a national pitch competition with his business MODRN Media.
He will talk about how he started a business in the early stage and give advice to newbies who want to create a personal and professional brand on social media like TikTok and Instagram. Let's hear more from him.
Sam:
All right, fine. So welcome to the show Josh, and really excited to learn more about you and about your company and your business, and what exactly you're doing, so please, let's go ahead and tell more about you.
Josh:
Yeah, yeah. So thanks for having me. So basically, my name is Josh Krueger, and I was named the 2022 Top Young Entrepreneur of the Year at Nifty, which is a network for teaching entrepreneurship for high school students in the United States. Yeah, so I was basically I got through a lot of rounds of the competition and we had about seven minutes to pitch our business idea to the judges. And after that, I pitched it probably 10 or 11 times at different rounds and slowly narrowed it down. And I was not expecting it by the, I eventually got first place, which it blew my mind. So yeah, that's what, that was my most recent endeavor. So,
Sam:
Yeah. That's really good. I think that you won $10,000 from that, right?
Josh:
I think, yeah, I won. That's great. Yeah, I won the $10,000 from that, and then I also won a mentorship call with Damon John from Shark Tank. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. And the thing is that there was so many amazing businesses that I competed against, and I was genuinely not expecting to make it that far in the competition. So I, it just goes to show that you could do whatever you want in life, even if you don't expect it, just go for it.
Sam:
Okay, That's great. So tell us about business, so what do they and what are the services that you guys are offering and how you're making something different in the industries?
Josh:
Essentially, we are a marketing agency that trains and employs people from low-income communities and underserved communities that are young, early-stage content creators that want to basically make a living in this industry, the video marketing industry or the social media industry. So we find them, we train and employ them, and basically, we allow them to build a portfolio within our business to then go off and do bigger and better things. And then our clients are small businesses from the same communities. So it's sort of a bridge between the content creators and the small businesses from the same places.
Sam:
Okay. That's great. So what are the things that inspire you to start, because just early and you already studying with your colleagues, what other things inspired you to start a business while studying?
Josh:
Yeah, so I basically followed this guy on Instagram and I saw that he owned his own agency and I was like, I wonder what this is. So I check it out and I thought it was really cool and it was just a basic social media marketing agency. So I messaged him and I said, what is this? How did you start this? And all these things. And I wanted to apply it to myself and to my interests and see if I could do something similar just in my own way. And I also have always been interested in video production, video editing, filming for the past eight years or so. And I also have grown my YouTube channel, my TikTok, my Instagram. One of my passions is social media in general for my personal brand. So I just put all of it together into one as a business, and I also figured out how I could give back to people and leave a positive impact in the community.
Sam:
Wow, that's great. I know that only a few people are doing it for the community, We just wanna earn a lot of money but don't give anything to the community. Exactly. Yeah. I see you have a similar kind of message that Mark Zuckerberg, so he used to say, I just wanted to give to something community So that's a different case. Okay. So, I don't know whether you know about it, but Twitter, right? So what do you think having not a lot of complete and lot of news about Twitter that whether it's to run under the new leadership or not and how it's going, it'll survive. Since you are more into social media and all these things, so definitely you know about it, right? So do you have any feedback from your side that how you, you'll see them in a future?
Josh:
Yeah. I mean, honestly, Twitter is one of those platforms I'm trying to get more into. My friends have been telling me I need to get into it if this is, I'm working in this industry and everything like that. But I, as far as I think I'm thinking about it, I think Elon Musk I mean, he's grown many companies and I think that he knows what he is doing. So with that being said, I feel like he's taking Twitter to a new season almost. It's like a new stage and I feel like it's negative if you like the things he's getting rid of, but it's a positive thing in the long run. I think people will look back on it and think that he makes good decisions.
Sam:
Okay. And one more thing that he mentioned he's reactivating the vine app. That's a short video app. Is it something that he planning to compete with TikTok or something else?
So how do you see that from perspective? Because you are definitely very good on TikTok. You have a lot of followers on TikTok. So how do you see that? Do you think that will be compared to TikTok directly, or it'll be something different?
Josh:
Yeah, I mean, as Vine stands when they discontinued it, it cannot compete with TikTok just because it, the algorithm is old, the software is old, the way it works is old and TikTok is just so ahead as far as their algorithm, how their algorithm is the best algorithm out right now as far as giving people the content that they want. But if they're able to adapt Vine in the way that YouTube shorts and Instagram reels adapted to be similar to TikTok, if they're able to do that, there's a possibility that they'll be able to compete. I think the main thing that Vine has that others don't is just simply the nostalgia and the name behind them. That all these people are like, oh, Vine's back, I have to, people are going to be like, I have to re-download it and see what it's like.
It's been seven years or whatever. So I got it. Think that would be the main thing. But to get people to stick around on it, I think it's going to be a difficult feat considering that there are now four or five similar, very similar platforms out there. We have Instagram reels, Facebook reels, YouTube shorts, and TikTok all have very similar algorithms. And so I think it's going to be very difficult for Vine to compete after a while. I think at the beginning it's going to do, sorry, I think at the beginning it's going to do very well, but after a while, I don't know. It's really hard to say. Just based on so different now than whenever they discontinued it. So
Sam:
Are you currently studying, or you already completed your education?
Josh:
Yeah, so I graduated high school in May, and as of right now, I am not continuing my education and I will be doing so in the future if I see fit, but as of right now I have an immense amount of passion and just drive to basically chase my dreams to put it in the best way. And so I'm putting all my time and my effort into this business and into my personal brand social medias instead.
Sam:
Okay. On my blog, most of the people are marketers and founders, and they always wanted to increase their personal brand. So how they can increase their personal brand using LinkedIn or using TikTok, whatever. So are your suggested strategies to increase personal brand on TikTok and LinkedIn? Because these two are my favorite tools.
Josh:
Yeah, for sure. So I have a LinkedIn my profile is all, I have videos and my resume, everything like that on there. LinkedIn, I am less experienced on. I think that the reason why is because my target audience is definitely not as much on LinkedIn so I can't really speak towards LinkedIn personal branding, but TikTok is just the key to TikTok is being yourself and bring something that can, I don't know why that keeps going off. Let me real quick. I'm going to turn that. I don't know, my phone keeps Okay, finally it
So as far as TikTok goes, I think just to grow a personal burn on TikTok there, there's a balance between keeping up with trends and keeping up with what's popular with also what you like doing and what's unique to you.
All right, cool. So yeah, as far as TikTok goes, I think for personal branding on TikTok, it just takes having a balance between trends and what's popular and what you is unique to you and what you like doing. So you just have to think about what are you bringing to the table that somebody would enjoy watching on their phone, but also that they can't get anywhere else. And so the people I follow on TikTok are all people that you can't really duplicate what they're doing. They're doing something unique. And so I enjoy watching it and I can only get it from them, so therefore I'm going to follow them, I'm going to like their posts, et cetera. So I think it's just as long as you're unique to yourself, keep it with the trends and you'll be able to grow a personal brand that is, has intrinsic value.
Sam:
But we can't depend on one tool, just TikTok, because increasing or raising your personal brand is not something that just do on the TikTok. So what are the other things are way that you can just share your expertise on your views on that, that you can increase, someone really wanted to increase and they can do the follow road strategies. Because I personally don't believe on just one tool. Cause I don't know, let's say if I was blindly depend on the Twitter and then what happened, now people are just going out, some people are just, or maybe they started charging $8 for blue, so maybe people will pay or not. That depend we cannot say anything right now. But the most important is that in general, what is your opinion? What is strategy about with TikTok? TikTok is fine, I can understand that. And maybe the young age, especially from around 13 year to I can say maybe 25 years, those people are more on national ground. Sorry, TikTok, but if you talk about the other people, I'm not sure people are me or maybe in any other part, maybe in Asia or maybe some part of Asia, there is not available TikTok, would that depend if they wanted to grow their personal brand? So what is your strategy on those?
Josh:
Yeah I think, sorry I answered it cuz I thought you were talking about just LinkedIn and TikTok. No, it's okay. So overall, you basically asking overall what is my strategy for personal branding on all different platforms? Cool. Yeah. So for all different platforms, I mean think it's similar in the sense that just stay aware with what's popular what's working on the platforms whatever platform it might be, what's working for the people that are the popular ones on those platforms. But don't copy them. Just take what they have and make a balance between what's popular and you're good at what you have unique that bring, that you can bring to the table that other people can't. And if you create good quality content and you provide value to people consistently over a long period of time, eventually it will work out no matter how long it takes. And as long as you keep it unique to yourself and keep up to date with what's going on and what's working. Because obviously, for example, on YouTube, the YouTube landscape was completely different five years ago, completely different, five years later completely. It feels like a completely different platform. So the people that started in that time period five years ago, if they don't adapt, they're going to be stuck in the way that it works a long time ago. So just always be adapting and do something that could provide value to people and stay unique.
Sam:
Got it. Okay. Got it. And what is your future plan? What do you want to do in the future?
Josh:
So in the future I would like to, right now I'm looking for work in the industry and I actually have nearly almost have a job lined up and I have a lot of really good relationships in the industry. So basically what I want to do is just make a name for myself in the content creation space and chase my dreams on that side of things. That is where most of my passion lies is just making videos, networking, traveling, having fun, but also just creating that videos that people find of value and entertainment. So that's where I'm at when it comes to the future, I really want to just keep doing, making videos on YouTube and TikTok, et cetera, and see where it can take me because I really think that I can do something cool on these platforms to say the least. Got it.
Sam:
Okay. I might need your help in that. So maybe I will connect again up some time.
Josh:
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, just shoot me an email. That would definitely work. And then as far as the business side goes eventually I just want to establish myself in this industry and show people that I have what it takes and then get going with the business and say, okay we're going to make this in that business the best of the best and what content creators go to get experience.
Sam:
Great. That's great. Alright, fine. So I think first part is over now. Second. Yeah. So let's do Reground. Who inspire you most?
Who inspires you about the person or company, whatever? Yeah,
Josh:
I mean, I would like to say my older brothers are okay who inspired me the most, just because growing up with older brothers, they're doing everything before getting their driver's license or going to college, they're, and I see them being successful before I see myself being successful. So I think that really makes me wanna go out and do it.
Sam:
Okay, no worries. Okay. And how do you celebrate your success when, let's say, if you've got some good success, Anthem, how do you celebrate that?
Josh:
Yeah, I mean I really don't really do anything different when it comes to celebrating the success or the high points because I don't wanna let the, oh wait, this isn't supposed to be a deep question. Let me think. How don't I celebrate my success? I go out to eat and I like won't work for an entire day. It feels good. It's like a break.
Sam:
Wow, that's great. What generally, students do when they complete their exam. So as soon as the exam is complete, they just wait for the whole day.
Okay. Okay, great. That's great. Okay. And when you are not at work, what do you do?
Josh:
Well, my work life is very not separated because my office is in my room, so that doesn't really work out. But when I'm not working, I'll hang out with my girlfriend. I will play video games rarely. And sometimes I'll go to the skate park.
Sam:
Wow. Wow. That's great. And the last question if somebody wants to connect with you, what is the best way to connect?
Josh:
Yeah let's think. I would say on Instagram, you can DM me my Instagram is spelled like this. It's J O s h K R E U G Z. And then, okay. Or email if; I don't know if you're able to put my email in there, cuz I think you do have it. Is that,
Josh:
Cool. Yeah, yeah. Email is also great. So Instagram or email.
Sam:
All right, fine. Alright. So just thanks for coming and joining us today.
Josh:
Really. Yeah, thank you for having me. This was a really great experience. I appreciate it.
Sam:
Sure, thanks. Bye-bye.
Josh:
See you, Sam.
