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Powerful Storytelling to grow your business with Jake Isham final · Inspiring Stories

0:04
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the picture of the radiant rat.
0:28
Speaker 2: You readything to me? Oh well, well say, oh well.
0:57
Speaker 1: Not a bad.
1:01
Speaker 2: Stop. I'd you see so Callas shoes.
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Speaker 1: So it says, welcome back to inspiring stories. In a
1:41
few minutes, I'm going to have Jake is Am come
1:44
on the show. But while you're gathering those last minute drinks,
1:49
snacks and getting comfortable in your seat, so as you
1:52
can listen to what Jake has to say, why don't
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we tell you a little bit about who Jake is
2:00
is a filmmaker turned brand strategist and a creative director
2:05
who helps founders and entrepreneurs turn their expertise into authority
2:13
through powerful storytelling. Over the past decade, Jake has worked
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with more than one hundred and fifty entrepreneurs and companies,
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including Grant Cardone Callaway, five eleven, Tactical, and Travis Matthew,
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creating content that generates over one billion in views online.
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Jake focuses on blending his background in filmmaking with deep
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marketing strategy with creating digital shows and social media content
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for CEOs and entrepreneurs to cut through the noise by
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crafting content that builds trust drives visibility and creates a
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true omnipresence across platforms. Rather scaling a founder led brand
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or launching a thought leadership show, Jake brings unique creative
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lens to improven playbooks that turn storytelling into growth. So
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finished gathering up those last minute items so that she
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can be comfortable in your seat, because when we come back,
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I'll have Jake with me. All right, So, Jake, welcome
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to the show. You're well a great film filmmaker and
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a marketing fireball.
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Speaker 3: I appreciate that. I like that modifier fireball. Yeah, I
4:28
haven't had that one before, but so I'll take it.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Well, the thing is is a lot of entrepreneurs,
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especially those who are listening to us, they need that
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uh not just a spark, but they need that burst
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of fire to get the rockets going so that they
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can truly launch, right amen. So yeah, so yeah, tell
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us a little bit about how you actually got started
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in film and you know what keeps you going.
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Speaker 3: So I'm very fortunate to have two parents who are
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both artists and working artists, and so the idea of
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having a career as an artist was obvious. Was in
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a sense of like it was never like, WHOA, don't
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get a real job, because that was my parent's real job.
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So I was very much encouraged from a young age,
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and I was so fortunate to be pushed and encouraged
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tremendously to be an artist. And so I feel like
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almost you could say the stereotypical LA kid where I
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grew up acting. I grew up doing music, did the
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piano lessons, being on stage, and so I my first
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love was very much performing and being an actor. Yeah,
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and then I had the agent, had the manager, was
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going to the acting classes, and I was I was
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getting more auditions from myself by self submissions than my
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age and manager. And then what was waiting for callbacks
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was not booking as much as I would like. And
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so sixteen year old pretentious Jake was like, well, I'm
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just going to write and direct all my own things then,
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and so I got into directing and I went to
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a camp New York Film Academy when it was just
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starting out. They had an acting intensive over the summer.
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I went to it, loved it and it was awesome
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because we got to work on the back lots of Universal.
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We got to actually like that was where our camp
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was and so it was such an amazing exposure. I
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then went back the next year for they're directing intensive,
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and so I got to shoot on sixteen millimeter film
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at the age of seventeen, on the back lots of Universal.
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I mean, for anybody who knows film like that is
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a dream, like I was living the dream at seventeen
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years old, and as an actor, I was doing the
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same thing, but on the acting side at sixteen, and
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so I just got addicted. It was so much fun.
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I then ended up going to Chapman University. I picked
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it because I got to make three films my first
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semester freshman year, which for those who, again who don't
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know about film school, you're lucky to direct a film
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and touch a camera until you're junior or even senior
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year like USC. To my knowledge, at least when I
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was applying, you got into a lottery. Like if you
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went for being a director, you'd get into a lottery
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to potentially direct, even though you're paying ungoudly amount of
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money to go like you don't make movies. So I
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was very fortunate at Chapman to get pushed to make
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movies consistently and by my junior senior year. I'd completely
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forgotten that I even wanted to be an actor, that
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that was even remotely even a pipe dream of mine.
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And from there it was was just that. I mean,
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that was the birth of the whole thing, and and
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started and fell in love with just the art of directing.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that is the true art. I will say
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this about because I've loved movies since I was since
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I don't know how how young I was. Movies were
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the thing for me, right, you know, And it is
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do you take somebody's book or script as it were, right,
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and you interpret it through your eyes, how you see it,
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how you vision it. So, I mean that's what makes
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directing an art. Then each person who's acting in it
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is doing the same things, so you get all that
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added together. And if if if everybody connects, it's like
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that's that's where where your magic is, right, everybody connects,
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and everybody understands, Hey, I see that that character that way,
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I see this, I see you know.
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Speaker 3: And there's so many departments and divisions that go into filmmaking.
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And I was very fortunate because of the extensive background
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I had throughout the arts, you know, from my acting,
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but Also, I had an entire career in music that
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I rarely talk about that I stopped like, I ran
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a recording studio, I produced several albums and performed in
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front of thousands of people. Again, all before the age
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of twenty, and all of that helped in terms of
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and continues to help and serve me as a director
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that I can talk to a music department, I can
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talk to production design, and I can talk to editors.
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I could talk to like every single department of a
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film is creative, and so it really it's a lot
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as a director where you're you're the final creative, you know,
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final sign off on all positions, and so it's a
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lot of fun. But being able to work with all
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the artists creatively and push them to create their best work.
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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, in some respects I mentioned, it's like being
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a coach, you know, getting the getting your team to
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to produce the what they're supposed to. C's excellence level, right, Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Claywood said, you know, has a great line where he says,
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I think it was ninety five percent of directing is casting.
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You just cast the right people, your job is done.
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And I look at that even further and it probably
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It means it in the same respect as you're casting
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not only your cast, your actors, but you're also casting
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all the roles your director of photography, your editor, you're
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you know, production designer, you're produced like your team. You're casting,
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you're hiring, and you know it lays the same way
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in business. You know to transition for a second, where
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as a CEO, as a founder, as an entrepreneur, ninety
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five percent of your job is just hiring the right person.
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You just hire the right person. You can step back
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because they got it. They are the right person, and
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the right person makes your job easy. It makes you
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look good. Yeah, you know, like I always laugh when
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I hear directors. For myself this is and again I'm
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not nearly at the level of the top directors in
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the industry, but I always laugh when I hear directors
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or I get whatever is when I see directors sitting
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with their editors full time. It's like you hired the
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editor to edit, Let the editor do their job, then
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come in and finalize it. The same way you're not
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going to sit with your marketing director and go, okay, great,
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what exactly we do it? Like, let the marketing director
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do the marketing director's job. Let your sales guy do
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the sales guy job. Now if they're not doing their job,
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well step in.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well yeah, that's exactly it, I know for for ourselves.
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When we were actually doing a documentary that I put
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I had to destroy together and then another one of
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my other partners watches it and then cuts it into
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into ribbons and says, put it back together again. And
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he keeps making me put it back together again. It
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was one time we were we were like literally less
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than twelve hours away from release to film festivals, and
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he had me re editing this thing because and then
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when I when I finally got it out to him
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that that one last time, he said, I cried. That
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was it. That was the one we wanted. And that's
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what he as a director, that's what you're trying to
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get your people to do. They get that that emotional
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effect to come out in the work. Right.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. There's a definition of art that I love, which
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is the quality of communication. So you can say better art.
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It's a higher quality of communication and it impacts more
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and you know, and to the same point where you
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know this is being done at the top level. I
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heard a story of Chris McCurry and Tom Cruise on
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the most recent mission. Impossible that they finished the edit
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twelve hours before the premiere. That literally no one had
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seen the edit until the act the final movie until
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the actual premiere of the movie, which is insane to
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think about. Oh, you know, it's being done at the
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top level.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, then again, it happens to make sure that that
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best work is out there. Right, So now you have this,
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there's other driving force for we said said about you
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being that that marketing fireball, how does all that translate
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into you driving views and getting attention and that as
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we put it in your intro that on the presence thing,
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how do you how does all that translate into into that? Now?
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Speaker 3: So I realized, like, okay, how do I make money
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doing this? You know, after film school? To you could say,
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continue on my journey after film school? I was like, well,
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all right, what do I do now? And my youngest brother,
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who's five years younger than me, was in college and
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he started a side hustle on the weekends shooting videos,
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except he didn't have any skills official training as a videographer,
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but he was making close to ninety thousand dollars working
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on the weekends, part time shooting videos with his camera
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on auto. And I'm there, the broke, starving artists cliche
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leave film school and I'm like, well, that that piece
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of papers, you know, gonna keep me warm for about
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you know, two minutes before it burns up. And that's
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about it. And I realized what is the differentiator between
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him and I. It's not particularly skills. I have more skills,
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but he was a business major. And that's when I
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really started to kind of nail down, Oh, I need
15:37
to be an entrepreneur. And I really realized at that moment,
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like all artists are entrepreneurs. The best artists are entrepreneurs.
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They understand sales, they understand marketing, they understand having a
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great product. Like that's what comes down to a great business.
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And so I start, okay, great, the basic simple way
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of starting a businesses, well, what problem do I solve
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for people? The problem I want to solve for people
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is shooting videos for them, So and shoot it. So
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I took basically and then again having parents who are artist,
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my dad being my first and biggest mentor, his advice
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was keep a camera in your hand, you know, basically,
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which is what he did very successfully growing up, which
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he was a trumpet player, and he was like, did
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any job that paid him to play trumpet? And so
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I did the same thing. Took any job that kept
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a camera in my hand. So I did product photography,
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social media, corporate like you kind of name it. It
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was less what I enjoyed and more what paid the bills.
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And so for many years jumped around and continue to
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just do anything that kept a camera in my hand.
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And that's when I just learned more and more skills.
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And another mentor of mine talks about like, he was like,
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you've got to stack skills, Like if you're not explaining
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is because there's some skill you're lacking. So I learned sales,
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I learned marketing, and I learned I got better at
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producing the product for them. You know, I shot a
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lot of product photography and I tried to be creative,
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realizing that's not what they want. They want high converting photos.
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So I went, Oh, Another big lesson was if I
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can make products, if my service can make my clients
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more money, they're going to hire me more. Like it
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sounds obvious, but that was a hard lesson to learn.
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Why are people. Why am I not getting referrals and
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why am I not getting people to re sign? Well,
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it's because my product is not making them money. It's me,
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It's it's it's scratching a creative itch, which is great,
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but if it's not making the money, there's no reason
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to hire me. So it's the balance of that, especially
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as a creative and it's been it's been a lot
18:01
of fun. It's been a lot of fun. And then
18:03
to continue to marry the creative itch with the business.
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And so I'll go with on and off, I'm going
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off on my own story. So I'll I'm probably jumping
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into questions that you might want to ask, but you know,
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so marrying that creative itch constantly, so I have services
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that are more creative, but I've been able to figure
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out how can it help make me happy as an
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entrepreneur and as an artist, but also make my clients
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very happy and make them more money. Additionally, I then
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go off on my own creative itch is on the
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outside of work, and like recently last year or this year,
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I made fourteen short films in four months. So there's
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still very much that working on both sides at all times.
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Because they only help on all it all.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, well there there are some other interesting is there,
19:04
like a Jake Secret sauce or a Jake process that
19:08
you did you apply these things to so that they
19:12
actually make your clients money.
19:16
Speaker 3: So there's a couple of things. First, there's this kind
19:21
of just fundamental idea because I work with a lot
19:23
of entrepreneurs building their personal brand. Like that's kind of
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a niche that I've really found and kind of gravitated
19:29
towards that been able to have some really good success
19:35
in and I enjoy it and it's a lot of fun.
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And so you could say the secret sauce, which is
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the silliest thing, but it's the thing that I have
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to remind all of my clients, especially because I work
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with a lot of people who are just starting to
19:50
build their personal brand. They reach out to me because
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anybody can do this. Now, don't have my phones right here?
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You know, all you need is this, You just need
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a phone. You can just create content, just be like, hey, guys,
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what's up? So you know here, like we don't need
20:04
anything crazy expensive, but people hire me because they want
20:09
help with it, they want that personal trainer. What do
20:12
I say? How do I say it, where do I look?
20:14
What gear to it? Like? It takes them out of
20:16
analysis paralysis and they just go great, hand hold me
20:19
to the finish line. And so the things that I
20:24
push them to say is the obvious things but realize
20:28
because it's so obvious to you because you've been doing
20:31
it for so long. That's the secret sauce that people
20:36
don't realize that people who want to learn and want
20:38
to work with you need to know the same way
20:41
if I were to ask you, you know about making documentaries,
20:44
right we wanted to hire you to make documentaries or
20:46
I'm looking to get somebody to hire about documentary. The
20:50
very simple obvious things to you, because you've done so
20:53
many of them are the things that I probably want
20:56
to know. That's why you have FAQs frequently ask questions
21:01
because everybody asked these questions. So it's that type of
21:04
data that if you just start giving away for free,
21:07
no matter the industry, like, people are not going to
21:11
do the action. They want to know that you know
21:15
it because people do business with people they know and trust.
21:18
How do you build trust? You just demonstrate that you
21:22
have the knowledge to talk about case studies, talk about
21:24
past work, talk about show you doing the work, talk
21:28
about the lessons learned over the years of doing it,
21:32
like it's obvious, it's simple, like that is the secret sauce.
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And then it's just the continuation of doing it the
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same way you would go to the gym. You just
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do it more and more and more, gonna get the results.
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Speaker 1: Right, right, right? Yeah, And that's the whole thing is
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you talk about frequently asked the questions. The key word
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there is frequent.
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Speaker 3: You know.
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Speaker 1: You you built that up and of course in the
22:06
rape video just stating that absolutely, like you said the obvious, right, So,
22:12
but you have I would imagine that that because there's
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story behind this, right. People love hearing a good story,
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So how do you work that all together so that
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it produces a story that people are gonna want to
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follow and and further build that that trust with.
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Speaker 3: So I look at storytelling in content in two different ways.
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One is structure, which is basic storytelling, but then you
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also have your stories, and so there's there's these great
22:50
two angles of it and I can I can go
22:53
into both well. And first in the story structure, where
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you have a beginning, middle and that's how we tell
23:01
every story. And in marketing, you have a hook, you know,
23:06
content and either call to action or a close and
23:12
it's a very simple structure. Or all storytelling is that structure.
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And so if you were to start creating content, I
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highly recommend more than anything is to spend sixty to
23:23
eighty percent of your time, if not even ninety percent
23:26
of your time focused on the hook that first three seconds,
23:30
because in our digital age where we're just swiping, swiping, swiping,
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you have that first sentence, that first three seconds to
23:37
capture them. Now, that could be with what you say,
23:39
it could be with what you do, it could be
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what's in the background. It could be with what you're wearing.
23:43
It could be a or the combination of two or more.
23:50
A really simple silly thing that I help coach my
23:54
clients is make sure you say that sentence cleanly and quickly. So,
24:00
for example, if you say, here are three things that
24:05
you need to know about documentary filmmaking, set of these
24:10
are the three things that go wrong in documentary filmmaking
24:13
that you need to know, you can say, yes, that
24:16
took is it's a little bit more spicy, a little
24:19
bit more controversial of a hook. It's a little bit
24:22
more words but I set it a little bit quicker,
24:25
a little bit more energy. That's why you have a
24:27
lot of that social media kind of Hey guys, what's up.
24:30
This is what we're doing. And I'm I'm saying, you know,
24:32
everyone has to do that, but do it in your
24:34
own way, and then you could say. The second large
24:38
picture is on storytelling. I feel storytelling is such a
24:43
valuable tool because they're only your stories that you've noticed
24:48
a couple of the stories I've told in this podcast
24:52
about how my brother was making more money than me
24:54
and I had to figure it out, and I figured
24:56
out why. It's because he was a business picacher. My
24:58
dad telling me to you know, get paid to practice,
25:02
get you know, keep a camera in my hand. These
25:04
different stories aren't my stories to tell. They're the reason
25:08
why I learned these lessons. We learn lessons through storytelling. Hey,
25:15
don't do this because you will get eaten by a
25:18
crocodile if you go this way. Here's the story. You know,
25:23
do this and you'll make a lot of money. That's
25:26
where books come from, ace oup fables like we all
25:28
learn through storytelling. So I find it such a valuable
25:33
tool that if you take a second being on podcasts
25:37
is a fantastic way because you start learning, Oh, what
25:39
are my stories that I'm going to tell? I tell
25:42
my brother story arguably every podcast I'm on, because it
25:46
was the reason and the way I got into entrepreneurship.
25:49
I never planned on running a business. I never plan
25:51
on being a marketer. But because I saw my brother
25:55
making ninety thousand dollars a year at twenty years old
25:59
part time without the skill set that I had, and
26:03
I know what is the missing piece? And because that
26:06
story is my story, it's not your story. Nobody else
26:09
can tell that story. But you can now share that
26:13
story with other people because I told you that story,
26:17
and it could potentially help another artist that you talked to, going, Hey,
26:21
I talked to this guy Jake. This is his story.
26:24
Maybe it'll help you to learn a little bit more
26:27
that you need to take more responsibility as an entrepreneur.
26:32
Speaker 1: That's the power of story exactly.
26:37
Speaker 3: And so I mean another story about the power of story.
26:42
I have a client who is a ex music executive,
26:46
was one of the top executives at one of the
26:48
biggest record labels, and she now has written a book
26:54
and is starting to do speaking And we did a
26:56
video about how she was kind of the instrumental key
27:01
to put the players together to write the song Genie
27:04
in a Bottle and then got that to Christina Aguilera,
27:07
sixteen year old Christina Aguilera when she was just coming out,
27:10
which was her breakout song, you know, multi multi, multi platinum, etc.
27:15
And I'm telling that story to another client of mine
27:18
and they're like, oh my god, I never knew about this.
27:22
I'm like, yeah, because it's my client story, Like, it's
27:25
her story to tell. Nobody else can tell that story.
27:30
It's only hers. And so all of your experiences, good, bad, ugly, traumatic, amazing,
27:41
they're your stories to tell, only your stories. Nobody else
27:44
can tell that story unless you tell that story. So
27:49
I constantly tell stories of my mentors, tell stories of
27:53
people that I admire only because they shared those stories
27:57
in the first place.
27:59
Speaker 1: Yeah.
28:00
Speaker 3: So I'm a big proponent of sharing your stories, sharing
28:04
your lessons because you can help inspire and educate others.
28:11
Speaker 1: Right, So there's that catch term out there. Auenth autenthsity,
28:22
I'm stumbling over the word. But do you know what
28:24
I'm trying to authenticity? Yes, being authentic, being authentic with people,
28:30
and that is part of your story because you're telling
28:33
your story and not trying to tell someone else's story.
28:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it was on a podcast earlier and they
28:44
were talking about AI and Jake, do you think AI
28:48
is going to take over your job as a content
28:51
creator with the rise of Sorah, the rise of you know,
28:54
Nano Banana, whatever it is, Google and all of that
28:57
Jazz and I went, I don't think so, because we're
29:03
going to strive for human connections more than ever. You know,
29:07
covid really showed us that we really want human connections
29:14
that we really you know, are group and if you
29:21
look at the rise of who are the biggest you
29:23
could say Internet celebrities or just even celebrities these days
29:27
are not the traditional Hollywood celebrities. You look at the
29:31
election where it's the pundance on the news is not
29:34
the celebrities that they used to be. It's not even
29:38
and it's growing even more to the standpoint of it's
29:41
not even YouTubers, but it's live streamers. It's you're getting
29:46
to live with real people. You're seeing how people really
29:50
live like YouTubers right there, and then it's even and
29:55
it really goes to show it's like we are striving
29:58
for human connection. You see the rise of podcast because
30:00
you're seeing actual conversations like this, and so more than ever,
30:08
you know, human connection is so valuable and being authentic
30:12
and being you because especially in business, people do business
30:15
with people they know and trust. It's always going to
30:20
be that way.
30:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, people are always going to want to strive for
30:29
not just the surface truth, but that deep underlying truth.
30:35
And if you're sitting there trying to tell someone else's
30:38
story that you just heard from a third or fourth party,
30:43
it's never going to ring right.
30:47
Speaker 3: Yeah. A mentor of mine, Alex Ramosi, I love what
30:52
he says in terms of it's like, Okay, well I
30:55
don't know what stories to tell. I don't have any stories.
30:58
Well do epic shit talk about it. Like, if you
31:04
don't have stories to tell, well go do something, Go
31:06
create something, go go experience life to have a story
31:12
to tell. I mean you look at you with making documentaries.
31:15
If they weren't interesting, you wouldn't make a documentary about them, right,
31:20
If they didn't have something valuable to share and a
31:23
story that had to be told, you wouldn't make a
31:25
documentary about them. So I tell this always to every
31:29
entrepreneur who I especially start working with. It's like, you
31:32
have epic stories, but to you, they're just your life.
31:37
So you're like, is that really that epic? Like the
31:39
woman that I was talking to again, that client who
31:41
did the Christina agular, She's like, yeah, okay, I have
31:45
stories I guess I could tell about share and about
31:47
this artist. I was like, are you kidding me? These
31:51
are epic, but they were just her life. So she's like,
31:55
I don't know, this is this is whatever? Like and
31:59
so you don't realize how cool your stories are until
32:04
you start sharing them. Then how much a little story
32:08
can completely impact one person. There was wha to share
32:16
again somebody else's story. There was this author. I want
32:19
to make sure I don't butcher it, but just the
32:22
power of what one story can impact. There was an
32:25
author who wrote a book. It was a children's book,
32:30
and okay, I have it. So there was an author
32:33
who wrote a children's book and he's and it's sold
32:36
millions and millions of copies and very very successful. And
32:40
he does a book signing one day. It's going through
32:44
signing books, signing books, and a gentleman comes up and
32:47
it's like, sir, thank you so much for writing this book.
32:49
And he's like, oh, of course, you know who do
32:50
I make it? No, He's like, no, no, no, thank
32:52
you so much for writing this book. Because of your book,
32:56
I chose not to take my life. And the guy
33:01
just went what And I mean and I'm tear up
33:09
talking about it, and I get total goosebumps talking about it,
33:12
because that is the power of what a story can do.
33:15
The power of a story can change of life.
33:19
Speaker 1: You know.
33:19
Speaker 3: Now this was a fictional story, but even just the
33:21
power of telling that story, of what a power of
33:24
a story could do, can completely change the trajectory of
33:28
somebody's life. So never never take for granted what storytelling
33:34
and getting your stories out there can do.
33:38
Speaker 1: Wow, I can't even picture being in a book signing
33:42
and having someone tell me that. I can't even picture that.
33:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I saw that video and I was like,
33:54
and especially as as an artist, that's I mean, like,
34:01
I mean, as you know, a fellow filmmaker, you know,
34:04
it hits, it hits. But that's what like an entrepreneur
34:09
or anybody like the power of you sharing your story
34:15
and the moments that mean something to you, whether you
34:19
realize it or not like completely can change somebody's trajectory.
34:24
And so that is what the value of you getting
34:26
out there, you putting out your content on social media,
34:30
as long as you're seeking to help, as long as
34:34
you're seeking to enrich, like, you can't do wrong, right,
34:39
because you never know where it's going to reach, what
34:41
it's going to do. And so I always recommend, like,
34:46
don't worry about a call to action, don't worry, just
34:48
seek to help, seek to enrich, because it will come
34:52
back tenfold in ways you might not see. You might
34:57
save that person's life. Literally, you never know, So just
35:03
put it out there and continue to put it out there.
35:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's focus on that for a second, right,
35:09
changing lives and things like that, because there's this other
35:13
little word out there, audience that everybody talks about, right,
35:18
and okay, that's this one is a bit extreme that
35:25
that this story stopped this man from taking his life.
35:29
But you talk about target audience, there it is that
35:34
is target audience. So how do we design the story
35:42
as as directors and editors, how do we design the
35:46
story so that it does target that audience?
35:51
Speaker 3: So I look at it in two different ways. I look,
35:53
there's the artist side of me, and then there's the
35:56
entrepreneurial side of me, And which one do you want?
36:00
Do care? What do you start with, because there are
36:02
two very different viewpoints. So let's for the entrepreneurs who
36:07
are listening, I'll start with you. Your audience is your customers.
36:14
It's as simple as that. It's the people who are
36:16
going to pay for you and who are going to
36:18
exchange with you, who you're going to help. So when
36:22
you speak to them, you're speaking. When you're creating content,
36:24
you're speaking to the people you're going to help. So
36:30
I always look at like, it's again those FAQ videos,
36:33
it's those all of those things should show them that
36:36
you know what you're doing. That. It's the case studies.
36:39
It's the like, yeah, you have that trust because you
36:44
are constantly in their ear, and you know you look at,
36:49
for example, iPhones, there's no iPhone salesman. You walk into
36:55
an Apple store and the person goes, gosh, your credit.
36:59
They're not selling you. They're just taking your money. You're
37:05
walked in sold because they do enough ads and they
37:08
do enough marketing that you go, hell, yeah, this is
37:14
what I want. Tesla is the same thing. Whether you
37:19
agree with Elon now politically or not, I'm not, you know,
37:22
getting into that. What I'm going into is he's built
37:25
such a personal brand that again, there's no you walk
37:28
into a Tesla store. It's not like walking into a
37:31
Ford dealership or any other type of car dealership. They
37:34
just go great, pick it up like I had a Tesla.
37:39
You buy it online like it's Amazon, the same way
37:42
you would buy anything online. You know, it is unlike
37:46
any car buying experience. But that's done through the power
37:51
of storytelling and marketing, and so you're reaching your target
37:55
audience by doing that now. And that's why just one
37:59
last point on that is that that's why I'm a
38:01
big component of views don't matter, because if you've got
38:05
one hundred views and fifty of those views for buying customers,
38:11
most B to B entrepreneurs couldn't handle fifty new customers,
38:15
much less ten new customers, much less three new customers
38:20
right now. And so you don't need a million views.
38:23
You're not trying to be mister beast if you're trying
38:25
to build a business through your content. Now, that transitions
38:30
me to the other side as an artist, as a storyteller.
38:34
On the artistic side, you are trying to reach a
38:39
certain audience, You're trying to communicate a certain message. So
38:44
I your job is to communicate that message the best
38:48
it can. Marketing's job is to get that message in
38:52
front of the right people. And that's where it's different.
38:58
As an artist, you're really trying to communicate that message
39:02
the best you can, and it really is the quality
39:06
of communication. How good are you communicating that message? And
39:11
I'm not saying you need to be pedantic and shove
39:14
it down their face and be very overt about it,
39:16
because if anything, that's probably not the right way to
39:20
do it. But it is that amount of subtext, the
39:24
amount of implication with still being over about it, that
39:29
is right. So it's a different job to understand marketing
39:36
versus the artists had and where you see these cult
39:41
classics that were flops because they weren't marketed well. They
39:44
were amazing films, but didn't know how to market it well.
39:49
For example, they're one of my favorite films is Fight Club.
39:52
There's a book by the producer Art Linson who talks
39:57
about literally the Fox executive when I don't get the film,
40:01
I don't know how to market it. We're not going
40:03
to market it. Literally in the book he talks about
40:06
like how the marketing executive just went, eh, I don't know,
40:09
I don't get it, I don't like it. Yeah, and
40:12
it was a commercial flop even though it is a
40:15
massive cult favorite because but also the irony in it
40:21
is most people don't understand the message of that film.
40:24
They look at Tyler as a hero, you know, the ironies.
40:30
People have misinterpreted that message all the time. So all
40:34
you can do as an artist is make the best
40:37
art that you can and get it out there into
40:39
the world.
40:42
Speaker 1: Fight Club, I would say, definitely is it is a
40:48
a great art film, one hundred percent. And I can
40:54
see a marketing director saying I don't know what to
40:59
do with this. I could see that. And it's not
41:03
the first film to be that because the first one
41:05
they came to my mind for for uh, because we're
41:09
kind of different generations. But was the Rocky horror picture film. Now,
41:16
the three stars in that film, how big were their
41:20
careers because they did that film right, you know, great
41:28
art film, hard to market. It became a cult thing.
41:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, and look at least in film a lot of
41:39
the time, the most artistic, the most you could say,
41:45
I don't know, it's not really right. Commercial doesn't always
41:48
go with critical success. Most of the time, critical culse
41:52
success is not married with commercial success, and that's totally fine.
41:57
There's a great interview with Michael Bay. He's like, I
41:59
love making movies for ten year old boys because at
42:01
the end of the day, I'm just a ten year
42:03
old boy. I like explosions. I want to make movies
42:06
that have explosions like and there's nothing wrong with that.
42:10
You look at the Fast and Furious movies, they're fantastic
42:12
popcorn movies. You look at a gentleman like Tom Cruise.
42:17
He made a very conscious choice. What was it like
42:19
fifteen years ago to stop making any art films and
42:23
to solely become the biggest action hero, that biggest action
42:26
star on the planet. He made it. He stopped making
42:28
movies after Magnolia that were like Magnolia and you know, Eyes,
42:34
White Shot. He's like, he made all of these cool
42:37
art films while also being the Tom Cruise that we
42:40
all know, and what I'm just gonna do the you know,
42:45
Ethan Hunt, big action hero type movies, and they're fun,
42:50
they're amazing, But that was he made a conscious choice
42:53
and there's nothing wrong or right. It's you, as an
42:56
artist can make the art you want to see. And
42:58
that's why, Like there's a quote from Tarantine, I know,
43:00
which is just make the film that you want to watch.
43:06
And you see, Tarantino style is a very specific style
43:09
and it's very it's a Tarantino film, but he makes
43:12
the movies he wants to see in the world, simple
43:16
as that. Yeah, And some of those might be more
43:21
art house films that are you can say, a little
43:24
bit more art arty and have less of a commercial
43:27
appeal but are more critical appeal versus you know, big
43:33
Hollywood films that are much more commercial but are less
43:37
critically acclaimed. And then you're Peter Jackson and you make
43:40
beautifully critically acclaimed films while also being highly commercial.
43:45
Speaker 1: Or James Cameron, Yeah, there you go. You know what,
43:51
but we all can't be James Cameron that. Yeah, you know.
43:56
Speaker 3: There are literally like five filmmakers on his planet who
44:00
who can do that?
44:02
Speaker 1: Yeah?
44:03
Speaker 3: Steven Spielberg, you know, winning an oscar same year for
44:07
Jurassic Park and Schandler's List same year, same year at
44:13
the Academy Awards.
44:14
Speaker 1: And look at the distance between those two.
44:16
Speaker 3: Films exactly like, so there is again you can count
44:20
them on one, if not maybe two hands who can
44:23
marry both worlds, much less be successful in one of them.
44:28
You know, I always compare it to to sports. My
44:30
brothers both were D one college football players, and one
44:34
of them was literally on a trajectory to go to
44:36
the NFL before he followed the family business and became
44:39
another artist. And he we looked at it like, there
44:45
are literally thirty two positions, only thirty two job openings
44:50
to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. There's only
44:53
thirty two. And if you really look at it, and
44:55
you kind of it's a same across sports pitching. You know,
45:00
if you wanted to be a starting player on a
45:01
professional team, it's about let's say, anywhere thirty to forty.
45:07
Now there's people in the bench and whatnot, but it's
45:11
about the same. In the arts, there's roughly about thirty
45:16
to forty top working directors, actors you could say male
45:21
actors and female actress but there's about thirty to forty
45:25
top name actors. The same, like same across all positions.
45:30
And so if you're going to be a top artist,
45:32
just know that that's the degree of competition you're going into. Yeah,
45:37
hence why you have also in business the fortune one
45:40
hundred companies.
45:43
Speaker 1: Here it is, right, Yeah, there's only there's only a
45:49
few of those those companies available now. But how do you,
45:56
on the other hand, like for you and I, how
45:59
do we port those businesses in a way that we
46:05
get exactly what we need out of it and not
46:08
just what they want us to have out of it.
46:10
Speaker 3: And that's where I always go back to. It's like,
46:13
how do you help make you money? How do we
46:16
help make you money? If you keep making money and
46:21
you can see how I help make you money, you're
46:22
going to keep paying me the same reason why. You know,
46:27
it's health, wealth, and relationships. That's why people pay money. Health, wealth,
46:32
and relationships. Those three things either going to help them
46:35
make more money, going to help build your relationship better,
46:38
or you're gonna help with your health like and so
46:45
us in the business a business space, it's like you're
46:47
going to help make that company more money, and you're
46:51
going to get it rewarded for that by given money
46:58
or referrals or this or that, like it could be
47:01
you know, notoriety, Like I've worked with bigger brands and
47:05
have gotten paid less, but now I have them on
47:07
my CV. Like I say, I've worked with blood Blah
47:10
even though they technically paid me less than my rate,
47:13
which you know whatever. That helped me close six other
47:17
clients because of it, so I knew it was a
47:19
strategic move.
47:20
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, something else to be thought about. But we
47:26
will need to actually save that strategic rate for another
47:30
conversation because we're running out of time. So best way
47:38
is to get a hold of you and work with you.
47:41
Speaker 3: Well, you'll have the link in the show notes and
47:44
the description if you want to take a call with me.
47:47
Totally free. How I help entrepreneurs. I get help build
47:50
their personal brand through content. We do video podcasts, digital shows,
47:54
and content creation totally free. I love just to get help.
47:59
I've I've very much learned that the more people I help,
48:03
I will eventually make more money by just helping more people.
48:06
It's while love being on these podcasts and just helping
48:09
as many people as I can. Outside of that, LinkedIn
48:13
is great, Jake Eisham, really easy Jake is Ham. Otherwise,
48:19
you can just search my name pretty much on any
48:21
social media anywhere. You'll see probably different pages between the business, photography,
48:26
filmmaking and reach out. But I yeah, always always happy
48:31
to chat talk shop and if you want to help
48:34
building your personal brand and getting out there, see what
48:37
I can do.
48:39
Speaker 1: All right, and best link to contact you.
48:44
Speaker 3: Say that one more time.
48:44
Speaker 1: Best linked to contact you.
48:48
Speaker 3: LinkedIn and it's a little bit longer, so it's it's
48:52
I don't have it optimized yet. So but digital my
48:56
landing pages, digital show dot Creative Minds official dot com.
49:01
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, thanks Jake. It's been great having you
49:06
and look to look forward to having you back again.
49:09
They continue the conversation.
49:11
Speaker 3: So yeah, looking forward to it.
49:12
Speaker 1: All right, all right, thank you everybody for listening and
49:16
connect with Jake if you want to build your brand
49:18
up and reach the optimal people so that it builds
49:23
your brand uh to to its heights. All right, talk
49:28
to everybody later. Bye for now. ABO.
50:00
Speaker 2: So I wish your phone action.
50:04
Speaker 1: So why.
50:12
Speaker 2: This is days.
50:17
Speaker 1: A reason to.
50:24
Speaker 2: Save me out cho shows? We can't try cur wait.
51:54
Speaker 1: The show has been produced by Depictions Media. Please contact
51:59
us at depictions dot Media for more information.