Only Scrans - Why Food Influencers Need a Licence, His £40k YouTube Gamble & Building LADbible’s 100 Million + Audience

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Why does Jonny argue that food influencers should need a licensing test?

Unknown 0:03

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the GoTo Food Pod, which is brought with you by Blink, the greatest POS system in the world. And we have a man in front of us who's done pretty much everything. He's gone from touring the world as a rock guitarist and blitzkit to one of your favourite bands to scaling audiences past the 100 million at Loud Bible. But you probably know him best as the man behind OnlyScrands, one of the UK's most engaged food publishers with over 1.5 million followers across various socials. Um, beyond the screen, he's built media agencies, he's helping out incredible court. Corporates. Uh last year he launched his own sports bar go and recently gambled tens of thousand I say gambled, invested tens of thousands of pounds in his long form YouTube journey around America and Mexico and Canada.

Unknown 0:40

It's the brilliant Johnny Yates. How are you, sir? I'm excellent. That was that that's made me so

Jonny Yates 0:44

It's a lot of big numbers. Very impressive there, really. You are incredibly impressive.

Unknown 0:46

No, you are impressive.

Jonny Yates 0:47

That's a lot of numbers though. Yeah, that is a lot of numbers. Yeah. It's been uh it's been a it's been an interesting ten years to get to this point. Well we're gonna

Unknown 0:55

jump around all of that, but let's start with your recent incredible videos in America, Canada, Netzka for the World Cup. Firstly, my how much fun was that getting out of here? Incredible. Incredible.

Jonny Yates 1:02

Yeah. Absolutely unbelievable. Meeting the owners of these sort of like fourth, fifth generation institutions in like these cities, New York, Seattle, Vancouver, like the you know, the barbecue houses over in Texas, the taco places in Mexico. It was just for me an absolute dream. Like genuinely, I basically, you know, I say like, you know, I invested for forty grand is it's it's a big holiday for me. Yeah. I'm documenting it, I'm making the videos, I know how to make those quite well. Yeah. But really I wanted to do it regardless. Anyway, it was just something that I wanted to do. I've always wanted to go to all these places and this is a perfect excuse. Yeah, yeah.

Unknown 1:41

Sure you had opportunities to do it sponsored, as the kids say, hashtag sponsored or partnered.

Jonny Yates 1:45

Yeah, w I had quite a lot of people when I was and I was pitching it originally to to sort of offset that cost so that someone else would just take the burden of it.

Unknown 1:54

Yeah.

Jonny Yates 1:54

Um spoke to a load of brands, but their ask was a little bit Too much for me. It was like, oh, in the first two minutes, can you say this about our VPN thing? And it's just like, no. Yeah. Like I'd rather I'd much rather that content remain evergreen and stand the test of time than get a quick book. Yeah. Like for me it's like everything I do I think of like five, ten years on. Yeah. Like I don't really care about the short term.

Unknown 2:22

But for those terrified to put money into anything, would you encourage the go 'cause obviously like I was on your LinkedIn yesterday, forty grand, you paid it back. But like it feels like a big step. Even for like us putting five grand into something, but like it's worth it, right? You've got to invest to get the result.

Jonny Yates 2:36

One hundred percent. I'm a huge, huge believer in, you know, if you're fortunate enough to have capital, just do things that you believe in. Like and I believe in myself. Um, I've made other investments as well. I I um invested in Willie's pies. Like so Yeah, yeah. So I really really close with those boys. So I I Good little business when I when I see things that I want to sort of back I'm in a f position now where I've worked hard enough and I've got

Unknown 3:02

yeah

Jonny Yates 3:02

enough capital to sort of you know, bet on certain horses that I believe will return. And I was one of them and going to America and Canada and Mexico was one of those things that I just felt like it was a bit of a calling for me. Yeah. Like I've I've all I've gone there like so many times in the past, but to go there and do this like before the World Cup, so it was like a guy for people who were going out there, you know, like these lads were messaging me being like, Oh mate, we're in Vancouver, we're going to this sushi place, like it's amazing like that th that you

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Chapters

8 chapters

1 Why does Jonny argue that food influencers should need a licensing test? 0:03–9:30 2 How did Jonny decide to invest £40,000 in a self‑funded YouTube road trip across North America? 9:30–17:29 3 What lessons did Jonny learn about sponsorship pressure versus evergreen content? 17:29–25:17 4 How does Jonny use data, retention graphs and A/B testing to shape his videos? 25:17–33:27 5 What were the biggest challenges and hidden costs when opening his GO sports bar? 33:27–42:04 6 How did Jonny transition from touring as a rock guitarist to building LADbible’s 100 million audience? 42:04–50:56 7 Why does Jonny believe conflict and controversy drive food‑influencer engagement? 50:56–57:04 8 What advice does Jonny give to creators about consistency, packaging and staying authentic? 57:04–1:03:28

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YouTube 1 Instagram 1 TikTok 1 New York 1 Miami 2 Seattle 1 Vancouver 1 Mexico City 1 Danny 1 Bahamas 2 Blink 4 Cooker 1

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Recorded30 Jul 2026

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Show notes

This week, we’re joined by Only Scrans — one of the UK’s biggest and most engaged food creators, with more than 1.5 million followers and one of the most unusual career stories we’ve encountered. Jonny has toured the world as a guitarist, helped build LADbible’s audience past 100 million, launched FoodBible, worked with some of Britain’s biggest celebrities, built his own agencies and turned Only Scrans into a major food platform. Most recently, he has taken the ultimate step from commenting on hospitality to living it, opening his own sports bar and discovering exactly how difficult it is to make money from bricks and mortar.Jonny reveals why he spent £40,000 of his own money filming a huge long-form YouTube series across America, Canada and Mexico, visiting historic restaurants, Texas barbecue institutions and some of the world’s greatest taco spots. He explains why he refused to compromise the films with intrusive sponsorship demands, why he believes creators must be prepared to invest in themselves and how YouTube videos can suddenly return from the dead and collect another 100,000 views. He also takes us inside the obsessive world of retention graphs, thumbnails, titles and trial reels — while sharing the less glamorous reality of eating at 20 restaurants in a matter of days, including a disastrous final day in Mexico City after weeks of grasshoppers, tripe tacos and relentless filming.We also get into Jonny’s belief that food influencers should have to pass a test before they are allowed to review restaurants. He explains why somebody tasting their first-ever scallop has no business immediately declaring it a ten out of ten, calls out creators who deliberately attack brilliant independent restaurants to manufacture millions of views and comes to the defence of Bleecker after watching it receive a baffling six-out-of-ten review. At the same time, he acknowledges the extraordinary impact creators such as Eating With Tod can have on small businesses, explains why TopJaw’s combination of beautiful filmmaking and a divisive presenter works so well, and gives his verdict on the recent “shawarma wars” consuming the online food world.Jonny is equally candid about opening his sports bar, GO. The venue turned over £1 million in its first year, but he explains why that impressive figure looks very different once the money has gone back out again — leaving a profit of roughly ten per cent and nothing yet taken by Jonny personally. He recounts discovering chaotic wiring hidden above the ceiling, air-conditioning containing an illegal refrigerant and renovation costs that more than doubled almost overnight. Despite the financial pressure, he describes the extraordinary feeling of watching supporters stand on tables during England games, the pride of creating memories for customers and his ambition to expand the business rather than simply take the money.Finally, Jonny takes us back to his previous life in major-label rock band Blitz Kids. He reveals how the band could appear glamorous from the outside while its members were living on riders, drinking from morning until night and earning almost nothing, leaving him with memories of touring Helsinki, Stockholm and the rest of the world that he can barely recall. He speaks openly about alcohol, reaching a dark point and eventually becoming sober in his late thirties — before realising that he genuinely did still love food and football without the drinking attached. We then hear how he walked away from the band while living in his mum’s attic, joined LADbible as its eighth or ninth employee after an interview involving FIFA and several beers, created a viral livestream by melting ice lollies on a roof, used audience data to inform campaigns involving Craig David, and later found himself writing viral social posts for Georgia Toffolo. An extraordinary conversation about food, risk, addiction, creativity, hospitality and understanding what makes the internet click.BUY TICKETS TO OUR LIVE SHOW HERE ON MONDAY 27TH JULY - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/go-to-food-podcast-live-with-chef-adam-byatt-tickets-1992111901323?aff=oddtdtcreatorYou can book a virtual demonstration with Quooker to find the right setup for your kitchen and remember, until the end of August, if you use the code GO TO FOOD, you’ll get free installation and a free Quooker glassware set. Just head to www.Quooker.co.uk now!Get 2 Months of Blinq For Free - With Code - GOTOBLINQ - https://blinqme.com/Watch and Subscribe To Our Youtube Videos Here - https://www.youtube.com/@gotofood Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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