My name is LJ and over the past 4 years I have created and run my own sports interview channel LJ into the fire.
It all started in 2018 when I started getting really interested in youtube. At this stage I tried a few different things on youtube until with the help of my father decided that my love of media could match my love of sports.
Hence my idea of interviewing AFL players was born.
I started with my first interview being Mark Blicavs who was a family friend and Tom Hawkins who obviously was a friend of Mark. It was here I thought this is what I really wanted to do. After doing these interviews I knew I loved it but I didn't realise how much work it was. I learnt very quickly that if I was going to improve and make it my career in the future, I needed to give it the time and effort it required.
To further improve my channel I decided to branch out and include a variety of sports. I still remember my first cricket interview with the legendary Dale Steyn. It was such an awesome experience, which led to a segment on channel seven news and interviews with Alex Carey and Rashid Khan. During this year I was also lucky enough to be on the Bounce and a guest reporter for the Collingwood Football Club.
I also had the privilege of travelling to Utah in the United States and being the guest of the Utah Jazz. Getting to meet the players and be courtside for their warm up and game.
Although I really love meeting the stars of sport, I also love meeting those young guys who are about to take their skills to the elite level. So I started looking at the AFL draft seriously, interviewing future stars before the draft. I started this passion with an interview with Izak Rankine, I had so much fun meeting him and then following his journey. After the 2018 draft I decided to concentrate on this as a big part of my site. Interviewing the likes of Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson, Connor Rozee, Caleb Serong etc. This has built strongly over the last four years, with 75 possible draftees on my site in 2021.
I had a great time interviewing Olympic athletes in 2021 and have set my sights on being in the media for the 2024 Olympics, in the process trying to be the youngest media personality in Australia.
I proudly have over 700 youtube subscribers with over 135,000 views and over 1000 followers on instagram. I have also interviewed 298 athletes.
In the past 4 years I feel very fortunate to have met so many wonderful people and to travel to so many fantastic places. I never take for granted the opportunities that I have been given and am always trying to improve my skill set to be the best interviewer I can be. I’m not sure what lies ahead but I am excited for whatever happens.
