Can a 20-year-old with no experience turn one TikTok creator into a £250,000 opportunity and build one of the UK’s most respected social-first talent agencies?Benjy Leslie is the founder and CEO of Connect Management, one of the UK’s leading creator talent management and influencer marketing agencies. In just six years, Connect has grown from a lockdown start-up into a major force in the creator economy, working with social-first talent, YouTubers, TikTok creators, brands, agencies and some of the biggest names in modern media.Want more from Building The Brand - connect here:https://buildingthebrand.co.uk/newsletterConnect with Benjy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjy-leslie-837b64144/In this episode, Benjy explains how he made £250,000 from one creator in three months, why social media is “the free lottery” for founders, how Connect Academy generated £1m for micro-creators in its first year, why brands need to move beyond one-off influencer campaigns, and why the future belongs to creators, entrepreneurs and businesses that can build attention, adapt quickly and turn content into long-term brand value.▪️How Benjy Leslie built Connect Management during lockdown

▪️Turning one TikTok creator into £250,000 revenue

▪️Why energy, belief and naivety can beat experience

▪️How creators become salespeople, media brands and business owners

▪️How Connect Academy generated £1m for micro-creators

▪️Why brands need to move beyond one-off influencer campaigns

▪️How YouTube shows are shaping the future of branded content

▪️Why social-first creators are changing TV and media

▪️Building culture through incentives, rewards and high standards

▪️Why founder content drives clients, talent, trust and recruitment

▪️Why social media is the free lottery for entrepreneurs

▪️Launching Connect Management in America without losing culture

KEY MOMENTS:

0:00 — Why social media is the free lottery

1:33 — 3.3 billion views and the bedroom start-up story

3:43 — Making £250,000 from one TikTok creator

5:14 — Naivety, belief and early-stage founder energy

6:05 — What Connect Management does for creators

7:02 — Connect Academy and the creator pathway

10:06 — What makes a creator commercially valuable

13:21 — Using data and AI to track creator trends

15:05 — Scaling to 60 staff while staying bootstrapped

19:51 — PAUSE POINT: Culture as a business growth strategy

24:53 — Best boss PR, incentives and sales motivation

30:52 — Why brands get influencer marketing wrong

31:05 — YouTube shows and the future of branded content

33:08 — Why creators need patience and consistency

37:57 — Targeted sales, attention and commercial logic

40:24 — Why great salespeople listen and move on

47:17 — Why TV is not dying, it is evolving

49:39 — 360 talent management and creator brands

51:30 — PAUSE POINT: Evolution, relevance and content strategy

54:41 — Why founders should treat social media as the free lottery

58:11 — Recruitment, founder brand and social proof

1:00:14 — Launching Connect Management in America

1:02:43 — Selling Fletcher Holman to Wolves through social media

1:03:59 — PAUSE POINT: Finding million-pound ideas in unexpected places

1:06:58 — Scaling without losing company culture

1:10:30 — Ronaldo, Haaland and authentic content