He didn't want to be locked up at home as well

So he did. And he was bored out of his mind.

"I was really bored. I had nothing to do."

TikTok hadn't really taken off when he went inside. When he came out, it had. He downloaded it and started searching for places to eat, partly to get out of the house, partly because he wanted to find the food he'd actually missed. Not the fine dining restaurants dominating his feed. The other stuff. Kebab shops. Fish and chip spots. Places that felt like home.

There was almost nothing.

He spotted a new Islander shop opening on Facebook, went in, thought "I might document this." He spent a day watching YouTube tutorials on how to edit a video, put something together, then sat on it for two days.

"I was like, do I really want to do this and put myself out there, especially from the past I came from."

He posted it anyway. Within an hour or two, 5,000 views. By the next day, 20,000.

"I was really high for a couple of days."

He started driving around, finding more places, including some he used to go before he went in. Every video blew up. At 50 followers, businesses were reaching out. Within months he was getting invited to A&P shows with his own tent, earning free haircuts for a year, and picking up food vouchers at markets. Big companies started offering $500 a video.

He turned most of it down.

His whole approach was to show up unannounced so places gave him what they gave everyone else. He won't let businesses see the video before it goes up, and he won't budge on that. It's his honesty that built the audience, and he's not trading it. He films everything on an old iPhone. Nothing fancy.

He deliberately keeps his rates low for the small businesses he set out to champion, the ones that can't afford the influencers charging $1,000 a visit.

"I just want to keep it real."

He has a five-year-old daughter who just started school and a two-year-old son who, in his words, "just loves life and is so energetic." He slowed down for a while to be home with them. He's picking it back up now.

When asked what he'd tell someone just getting out, he didn't overthink it.

"Just do something you want to do."

He still cringes at his early videos. He still gets paranoid when strangers call his name in public. He's still figuring it out as he goes.

"I still don't really know what I'm doing. But I'm just doing that."

You can find him at @rocketsguide501 on TikTok. 

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