MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. — For 21-year-old AJ Joyner, a normal day involves him and his team making driveways and sidewalks look like new.

Joyner founded Advanced Pressure Washing when he was just 18 and business was booming, until COVID-19 washed away nearly all his commercial clients.

“You want to push even harder during the tough times and I knew COVID was going to be terrible,” Joyner said.

Like many businesses during the pandemic, Joyner looked to social media to increase his online presence, but not Facebook and Twitter; Joyner took to the video app, TikTok.

“I started looking at different options on the marketing side and that’s how I kind of led into TikTok because I can create these fun, entertaining videos and I gave it a try,” Joyner said.

He got much more engagement than he was expecting, with some videos receiving more than six million views.

Joyner said he credits his recent success with new customers to his newfound TikTok stardom. He isn’t looking for fame, however. He’s looking help other businesses succeed as well.

“You do not have to be in with the times,” Joyner said. “It’s just documenting; documenting and uploading. Because if you create one video on your smart phone or whatever you may have, and you upload it and you get one client from it, what did that cost you, nothing—your time just to make that one video.”

To see Joyner’s videos on TikTok, click here.