A YouTube Channel Built on Authenticity and Helping Others With Josh Scott

Welcome LinkedIn friends! Your weekly insight to grow your relationships and book of business.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Josh Scott , he’s the owner of JHS Pedals, one of the largest guitar pedal companies in the world, and in this episode, he shares how he built his business from nothing to a massive organization.

Mo asked Josh:

“So Josh, drop us into YouTube, tell us when it all started to click and take us from there.”

Josh responded:

"It all started when I turned to this employee of mine, Nick, he's now well known. I said, “Hey, just start making content. Make commercials, make videos, do whatever you're excited to do.” I believe my employees need that autonomy. That's something so many people miss.

If my employees do only what I'm excited about, they won't last. Then I have to start over. So I gave him autonomy in that department. The synergy of his autonomy and my autonomy created this really explosive thing, which led us to YouTube.

One day, he came in and said, “Hey, let's do a YouTube channel. You've been doing those history talks, and you always get on Instagram and talk about history.” I said to him, “People watch YouTube?” This is 2017.

So, we started a channel where I talked about the history of guitar pedals. All my friends, companies, and I committed for two years never to talk about myself, and it was the most beautiful experience because I had never had to be a car salesman. I was literally doing it because of my love of history and my love for my friends' products.

I've always said that if my guitar pedals aren’t selling, it's no one else's problem. I just need to make a better guitar pedal. I've always had that mentality, I understand the economy and things do happen, but I've never been the victim in that world.

So I went in for two years and just committed to telling the story of guitar for free. Today, I know a lot of secrets because I've studied this stuff for years, and I'm friends with people. It just exploded because the people in my industry, for the first or one of the first times, were exposed to someone just teaching for the love of sharing and having no agenda.

I didn't have to be the car salesman, and it made me so happy. I loved my job for the first time in a long time. I was sharing, so I was learning. It was like it checked every box.

Now, on the JHS show, I talk about my stuff. We even make fun of it. We have clever ways of disarming awkwardness, and we've gotten really good at making sure the world knows I'm not just in here secretly peddling my product.

Making sure the audience knew that was important to me, because I didn't want it to seem like I was playing some game where I was going to turn on everyone a bait and switch. I really am doing it for the sake of history.

We stumbled into that and worked really hard at it. I have invited the world of guitar to watch me be a student and a complete nerd in front of them. I've shown that I love the same things you love. I’ve let them come along with me and look at the process I go through and even see my new releases and products. I've even told people how to build one of my pedals for free if they want to. I don't care because I want to give away everything I have. That's value.”

Dive deeper into the conversation with Josh Scott here .

Josh's YouTube journey started with giving Nick autonomy to create content. Rejecting traditional sales tactics, they built a channel driven by a genuine passion for history and product, fostering a community based on shared learning and transparency.

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Thanks for reading!

- Mo