I Work For Steven Bartlett - Here's What I Learned: Will Perez

Will Perez is the filmmaker who spent three years documenting Steven Bartlett from inches away. As lead filmmaker and editor at FlightStory, he built Behind The Diary, the behind-the-scenes channel following The Diary Of A CEO, from zero to 400,000 subscribers and more than 12 million views. In April 2026 he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list for Media and Marketing, at 24.

He got there by dropping out. At 21, in his second year at Edinburgh University, Will texted his mum to say he was leaving to take a job with Steven Bartlett. Her reply, in Spanish, was blunt: are you crazy? He'd stolen his dad's camera at 16, shot weddings in Velcro Spider-Man shoes, and sent close to a thousand cold pitches that went nowhere. Gymshark said no. HBO said no. Then a referral put him on a call with Jack Sylvester, co-founder of Diary Of A CEO, and four days later he'd quit his degree and moved to London.

What followed was three years inside one of the biggest media operations on the planet. Last year alone that meant 54 flights in 54 weeks. He has since left to build his own studio, telling stories for founders, artists and brands.

He joins Jack and Zac for an unusually honest conversation about storytelling, YouTube strategy and what it actually costs to work at that level. Why nobody cares about your story, how a DOAC video gets packaged before a single frame is cut, the two hours after you hit publish that decide everything, and what Steven Bartlett does backstage that nobody films.

What you'll learn in this episode:

Chapters

00:00:00 Welcome to the Show: Meet Will Perez, The Man Behind Diary of a CEO

00:01:55 Nobody Cares About Your Story: The Three Assumptions That Kill Content

00:04:00 Brand vs Founder Storytelling: The Red Bull Strategy

00:07:08 The Story Seller Framework: How Real Estate Agents Hack Your Brain

00:11:09 The Dropout Decision: Texting Your Way Into Your Dream Job

00:17:34 Data Before Creative: The Title Testing Process That Changes Everything