Chef going full throttle to new career
A CHEF is going full throttle towards a new career as an online motorbike guru.
Anthony Mercer, 35, is the brains behind Ant on a Slant, a rapidly growing multi-platform account that sees him discussing motorbikes.
His Instagram and Facebook pages have almost 13,000 followers each, while almost 900 people subscribe to his YouTube account.
The success has been helped hugely by his girlfriend Saffron Shireffss, 25, and Google Digital Garage on King Street, Manchester.
Shireffss explains: “Ant was really unhappy in his job working such long days for not much money. I asked him ‘If you could do anything for work what would you do?’ and he said he’d love to make motorbikes his job.
“I urged him to give it a go and helped him set up platforms, create content and market himself. It picked up really quickly and now he’s constantly being approached by sponsors, offered track days and kit.
Shireffss, who works in law technology, taught herself digital marketing, and helped Mercer create content, edit videos and understand analytics.
They went along to Google Digital Garage, where Shireffss had a 1:1 session where she worked with a trainer and learnt pointers on the best times to post social content and ways in making the website more visible. She then attended a workshop on ‘Getting started with digital advertising’ where she learnt how to use and manage Google Adwords.
Mercer said: “We found the garage a fantastic resource to go along to and learn more tips on digital marketing. Everyone there is so friendly and really took the time to listen and understand what we were doing and keen to help.
“We’re now in the process of buying a house which is exciting. We already have assigned the back room as the content studio and we are converting the loft into my home office. Our goals are to hire more staff, including a video editor, and for Ant to be able to give up cheffing and work on this full-time.
“Thanks to the digital skills I’ve learnt, changing career has been far less daunting and very enjoyable. I now film and edit content myself which is a real achievement. I’m looking forward to going to the Google Digital Garage and furthering my digital skills.”
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