The Founder Diaries is a new interview article series dedicated to business, innovation, and entrepreneurship. With experience in the fashion industry as a designer and more recently as an entrepreneur, I have discovered that there are vast amounts of knowledge and continuous learning that can be gained from engaging with various innovators, entrepreneurs, designers, and professionals across related creative sectors. The realms of business, and technology are rich with creativity and innovation, where individuals bravely rise to the challenge (whether social, business, political, environmental), devising inventive solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems. These difficult challenges encourage each of us to learn, grow, adapt, and make an impact in the world.

In this week’s article, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stanley Henry, founder of The Attention Seeker. The Attention Seeker is a brand marketing agency specialising in “attention acceleration,” creating tailored social media strategies and campaigns to enhance branding power for companies, individuals, service businesses, or products. Stanley, who has garnered an impressive 16,850 followers on LinkedIn, has built a strong social media reputation due to his consistent insights and posts on personal branding, effective digital marketing, and social media engagement. The Attention Seeker has over 1 million followers across Instagram, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook (2.3 million if including the social channels of team members).

The company is in a unique place of its journey—founded in Auckland, New Zealand, The Attention Seeker is now taking on New York, with the goal of achieving $35 million in revenue by 2028 across its operations. I wanted to find out about the major challenges Stanley has faced so far in the digital marketing/social media landscape, the different challenges he has faced in New York, and the inspiration behind Stanley’s entrepreneurial journey. Here are the highlights from our conversation.

Your journey from your previous life experiences, to founding a successful creative agency is incredibly inspiring. Can you share what initially motivated you to dive into the world of business branding, personal branding, and marketing? Were there any pivotal moments or influences that shaped your path, and helped you find strength?

A pivotal moment in my previous career as a hotel general manager acted as a catalyst and inspired me to start my own company. During a long-awaited overseas vacation, I received a call from my employer inquiring about my whereabouts and return to work. This experience highlighted the relentless demands of working for someone else and the lack of control over my own decisions. It became clear that to break free from this cycle, I needed to become my own boss.

Although my entrepreneurial spirit was strong from a young age, I was uncertain about the type of company I wanted to establish in 2019. However, I recognised the power of personal branding and was inspired by entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. I focused on expanding my professional network on LinkedIn and achieved significant results through my efforts. What happened next was a matter of consistent effort, as well as timing—the COVID-19 pandemic hit and everyone was in lockdown. People in my network started to ask me, “Can you build my personal brand too?”. It was then that I knew what I wanted to do next and that there was so much potential to grow this into a company.

LinkedIn is unique in the way that it fosters professional connections, the process is based on ‘mutual decision’, in this way it fosters a stronger connection built on reputation and trust, especially when career history is more easily validated on LinkedIn.

‘Attention Acceleration’ emphasises targeting the right audience, message, creative content, and placement. Could you elaborate on how this methodology has evolved over time and how it sets your agency apart from others in the industry?

At The Attention Seeker, we view 'attention' as the currency of the modern economy. Our focus is on achieving exponential rather than linear growth. We prioritise strategic, organic content over paid advertising or PR, leveraging the power of organic algorithms to reach and engage the right audiences effectively. Our content creation is centered around authenticity, crafting stories that resonate and build emotional connections. For instance, series-based content encourages viewers to follow characters and their journeys, fostering a deeper emotional engagement. This approach not only captivates audiences but also strengthens the personal brands of our team members.

Overall, we have focused on an authentic and genuine approach vs a purely ‘aesthetic’ based approach—people who align with us know exactly who we are, what we do, and what we are about, helping narrow down our target audiences.

What are some of the biggest differences/unique challenges you have noticed when it comes to approaching and managing your clients based in metropolises like New York City?

One key observation is that as clients grow larger, processes become more complex, and decisions take longer due to the increased number of stakeholders. For context, New Zealand's GDP is approximately $410 billion USD, while New York's GDP alone is around $1.78 trillion USD, highlighting the scale of operations. However, what truly distinguishes New York is its ‘think big’ mentality. In New York, there's a prevalent belief that it's feasible to scale a $20 million company to $200 million or far greater than that, and this confidence plays a crucial role in realising more ambitious visions.

Before establishing a New York office, The Attention Seeker had already built a significant presence in the U.S., with 55% of our total audience and 2% specifically in New York, so expanding further in the U.S. was the natural next step.

With over 2.3 million followers across your agency and your team’s personal social media profiles, you've clearly found the right ingredients to personal and business branding. What are the biggest lessons you've learned about personal branding and digital marketing that you believe are crucial for others looking to build their own brands?

Building trust is essential—people need to have confidence in our ability to deliver on our promises. Unlike many marketing agencies, we stand out with our substantial social media following and established reputation. Here are two key takeaways.

Firstly, invest significantly in social media strategy and campaigns. Major companies should allocate as much to their social media efforts as they do to traditional advertising mediums like TV commercials.

Secondly, immerse yourself in social media content to fully grasp the unique cultures of different platforms (e.g., TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter). I like to use the ‘sandwich’ analogy: just as preferences for sandwiches vary between New York and Paris, so do preferences for social media content. Continuously refine and iterate your content and strategy. For instance, one of our campaigns involved publishing 50 pieces of content weekly on TikTok. We analysed performance to determine what resonated best with different audiences.

Looking ahead, what are your goals for The Attention Seeker? How do you envision the agency evolving in the next five years, and what impact do you hope to have on the industry and your clients' brands?

Our goal is to establish The Attention Seeker as a truly global company, seamlessly managing clients across the world. We aim to remain a ‘social-first’ company while strategically integrating traditional media, such as billboard advertisements, into our approach. This method ensures that viewers who see a billboard can connect it back to The Attention Seeker’s core ideas, and other offerings.

In line with this vision, we are also developing more 'TV show' style series for social media. These series will serve as a central and unique narrative, with the ability to generate their own products and revenues for example, further enhancing our brand's global presence.