If you've seen any of the daring, provocative, and hilarious prank videos by the NELK Boys, then you already know Austin Ermes — even if you've never actually seen him. You see, Austin is the guy behind the camera whenever the NELK Boys are getting up to something. He's been the director of content for two and a half years now and is absolutely loving his role in creating the content for the highly-popular YouTube channel and social media pages for NELK Boys and Full Send.
How Austin landed this dream job is a story of success from the beginning. Starting his journey at the University of Guelph-Humber graduating in Media Studies, with a diploma in Digital Communications, he became highly skilled at making engaging video content.
Striking Gold with East Coast Lifestyle
Before graduating, Austin managed to strike gold by landing a job with East Coast Lifestyle, a clothing and lifestyle brand, which seemed to pop off in a way that the founder never anticipated. What started out as a college project, turned into a wildly successful business.
Alex MacLean, the CEO of East Coast Lifestyle, was someone Austin was trying to reach out constantly, as Alex was someone he looked up to. However, he never got as much as an acknowledgment from him. So, Austin tried a different strategy. He sent him a video he shot the week before of Lil Yachty and Rae Sremmurd in concert. That worked!
Although they were originally going to do a quick phone call, Austin decided to fly out to see Alex in Halifax, Nova Scotia and shoot something with him. Alex thought it was a great idea, so Austin got the last of his beer money together and took the plunge. What was originally supposed to be a two-hour interview transformed into a two-day "behind the brand" documentary. The video was released a week later and quickly shot past a million views.
Alex was so impressed with Austin's work that he wanted to hire him full-time to work with the brand. Austin thought this was an amazing opportunity, so for the next two years he was creating content across North America for East Coast Lifestyle and creating influencer content for Alex MacLean. He had worked with brands like: American Express, Chevrolet, GMC, and XBOX to name a few.
As he was working full-time for ECL, Austin dove into freelance videography on evenings and weekends. It was just as much of a hobby as it was a job for him. He was loving doing both, and one day a friend mentioned that the NELK Boys were looking for an editor.
At the time, he didn't know who they were, but he did faintly remember seeing some of their most famous pranks. He figured what did he have to lose? Later that night, he sent a few links of his work and didn't expect anything to come from it. The rest is history.
Austin's talent for videography had led him down a path of success that today, places him in the incredible position, being the director of content for the now-legendary NELK Boys.
