The digital universe knows no boundaries, the world is Jordi's playground - as an influencer and entrepreneur. Some of the cities he has visited and people he has met in the past year. "Above all, it's bruising work and making videos. This is the show."
"Half the world was still in lockdown, yet the VidCon in Abu Dhabi went on as usual. I was invited to this annual convention for fans, influencers and online brands. Everything was facilitated, only I was expected to do some things at the event. That was fine with me, so - hup! - together with my friend Sophie, assistant Maurice and colleague Jeroen to Abu Dhabi, where we took up residence at the Marriott hotel Aloft Abu Dhabi. At the convention I met fellow influencers, including my ex Azzy, a Canadian YouTuber, and lots of fans. Extraordinary to experience how many fans I have all over the world. What struck me in Abu Dhabi is that everyone wants to shake your hand. Here it's more like 'Hey Kwebbel, everything good cock?' There you get thanked nicely, get little gifts and everyone is very respectful to my girlfriend. At the VidCon YouTube party, I ran into someone who asked me, 'Are you going to Formula One in Abu Dhabi next week, too? If you want I'll arrange tickets for you.' And so we landed in Abu Dhabi again a week later. We had ourselves chauffeured to the W Dubai The Palm - the racetrack is around the hotel, so we were seated first row. When we were dropped off in front of the hotel lobby, there was a million-dollar car in front of our cab and a million-dollar car behind our cab. The fattest cars I have ever seen in my life! Inside walked the most beautiful women and men. A dream world. Within the conviviality and organic conversations you make friends. I also managed to get a few partnerships out of it. While we were kneiterlam, hahaha! Most business is done at parties, when you really get to know each other, go into depth with each other. And then Max also became world champion, an incredible experience! In the evening I smuggled Joseph Klibansky and Rico Verhoeven into another party. Madness!"
"Personally, I'm not much into racing, but everyone kept talking about the Monaco Grand Prix. I thought: you know what, let's do it once. A bizarre experience! I was sitting at the start/finish line. In my poncho, because it was pouring down from the sky. And around the race were all kinds of social happenings. You go partying, networking, running into people. That's how I met funding guru Matthew Haycox. He invited me to lunch on his 55-meter yacht, which was also attended by Scottish singer Tallia Storm. I didn't want to make him feel like I was just taking advantage of his generosity, so very organically I gave him some social media advice and got on his podcast. It's give and take in this world. I'm not someone who stays in the same place for a long time, even if it's a yucky boat - I want to meet as many people as possible and make new friends. During the Grand Prix I met a lot of acquaintances, including Jelly, Chahid Charrak, Louis Klibansky and presenter Sylvana IJsselmuiden. Where do I stay when I'm in Monaco? I slept in the famous Hôtel de Paris once, which I loved. But I don't necessarily need to be in Monaco; this time we had a cottage outside the city, near Nice. Nice evening playing cards and the detective game Undercover. I wouldn't want to live in Monaco like my friend Jelly either. It suffices to go there every now and then, although it doesn't make my wallet happy."
"One time I had gone to London with Maurice (van den Oever, COO of JVDB Studios) for a meeting in the morning. The rest of the day we had nothing to do. Then we just went hiking and brainstorming. Such great things came out of that, and it was so good that I suggested we go to Paris for a day for the next brainstorming session. We did that last summer, with my assistant Jordi Izquierdo. Out by train in the morning, back in the evening. And during the day just walking through the city, from the Eiffel Tower along the Seine to the Louvre. And meanwhile discussing things, coming up with ideas. Super productive! One of the concrete things that came out of this brainstorming session was to put all our activities under one company and call it JVDB Studios. In the little park next to the Louvre, we bought the domain on our laptop. We also figured out in Paris to start lending our expertise to other companies instead of just profiting from it ourselves. Companies hire influencers to promote them, whereas I can say, "Peck, I'll make you your own influencer! That's much more productive. An afternoon sandwich and dinner on a terrace, and we were already going home. In Paris, we completely shook up our business."
Curious about the rest of this article? The winter issue of MASTERS was created in collaboration with Jordi van den Bussche. Many will know him as YouTuber Kwebbelkop, yet he has been working hard as an entrepreneur for some time, as he reveals in the Big Interview. What's new is that his company JVDB Studios is offering to do social media marketing and short-format content marketing for other companies. "They can also go and figure it out themselves, but we cracked the code." Jordi gives a stage to like-minded entrepreneurs such as Jay-Jay Boske, Demy de Zeeuw, Chahid Charrak and Marcella de Bie, and discusses developments around games, crypto and NFT: "Just as bitcoin turned the financial system upside down, the same will happen with gaming." This extra-thick winter issue also features Lengers' first own ship, an interview with Corendon chief Atilay Uslu, specials on the new BMW 7 Series and Samsung foldables, and - exclusively for MASTERS! - an interview with Max Verstappen.
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