Latest / The Marketing Brief / Jake and Brian Connect On Personal Brand Marketing (S2 E4)
Transcript
- Brian Aucoin: the Marketing Brief Podcast. I am your host Brian Acquan, and this is the podcast where we briefly touch on subjects across the marketing landscape. As always, we are joined by an industry expert, and we were very excited to be joined by Jake Aisham today. Jake, welcome into the pod. That's great. We're excited to have you as well. Would you Jake Isham: Thanks for having me, excited to be here. Brian Aucoin: like to introduce yourself to the listeners? Jake Isham: Sure, I'm a filmmaker turned kind of brand strategist, agency owner, I don't know what we call myself, but basically I jokingly say I'm an accidental marketer. Never planned on getting marketing, but I run a creative agency based in Los Angeles where we help founders and entrepreneurs build their personal brands through content. And to date we've done over billion views. We've worked with guys like Grant Cardone, Marshall Falk, with brands like Travis Matthew. Campari 511, Callaway Golf, and lots more. Brian Aucoin: Mm That's amazing. I like the term accidental marketer. That's that's that's a great casual way that to get into marketing. Jake Isham: you Yeah, I mean, I don't have a BA Brian Aucoin: BF. Jake Isham: in marketing, an FA in marketing, or, you know, I am purely Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Jake Isham: all truly self-taught in a respect of just, you know, I've gone to YouTube University for this. Brian Aucoin: Hard knocks. That's awesome. This personal brand space has kind of just kind of jumped up in like the last couple years. Sounds like you've had a lot of experience in there. How do you start when you talk to a founder or an athlete or celebrity? Like, how do you start that conversation of like building their brand? What you can do for them? Is there something that you kind of try to grab like the essence of what they're trying to do? Like, how do you start that conversation? Jake Isham: Yeah, I mean, usually it's people that are like with their conversations with others, with, you know, seeing people online and being like, I gotta do this. I don't wanna do this, but I know I need to have a presence on social media. So they're usually coming to me with a little bit of like begrudgingly tail between their legs, like, I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna live on social. How do I do this? They're not the guys that already have a million followers and want to take it to 10 million. They're the guys who have zero followers and are like, ugh. So, you know, I go, look, this is actually a lot easier than you think it is. Cause a lot of them over complicated. They're like, cause there's so much mystery of like, what do I have to do? How long does it take? How many hours? But I have to run my business and I have to like, ugh. was like, yo, this is so much easier than you think. I usually do about like one shoot a month. with a client and I get all my content that I need from them. Like especially when we're first starting out, like the biggest thing is we just need to show up and we need to show up with some form of consistency. Brian Aucoin: sound. Jake Isham: Like it's not and then the next question is like, okay, well, what are going to do? It's like, well, all we have to do is show or talk about who you are. Like again, it's not like all of the stuff I'm gonna tell you and I'm gonna say here and what I say to prospects and clients, like it's all kind of like obvious, the door type thing. It's, it's, and, people overcomplicate it in their head. So like, you know, your listeners are probably gonna go like, all right, like nothing he's saying is groundbreaking. I'm like, yes, none of it is groundbreaking. None of it is this proprietary, whoa, how did Jake figure that out? reason to be honest why people work with me is the same reason why people hire you know a fitness trainer. is because someone needs to hold them accountable. Somebody needs them to just walk them through what to do and make sure that they actually do it. So, you know, what do we make content about is, well, what do you want to be known for? Or what do you want to be known as? Well, I run this business. Great. Let's talk about your business. What do you say to people on one to one? Well, I tell them this. Great, let's make a video about that. Brian Aucoin: Huh, that makes sense. Jake Isham: Like start there. So like, it's again, not particularly groundbreaking, crazy. what is it says? well, what do we make conscious? Like, well, what's coming up in sales objections? What are FAQs? What are you constantly reminding people about? Well, let's just make a video about that because then if they start watching your videos, they don't have those questions. They're ready for the next thing, which is probably your services. You're doing the whole goal that I look at it is in two folds in building a personal brand is first and foremost is like PR, which is just general awareness. If they don't know you like a great great cardone ism is if they don't know Brian Aucoin: You Jake Isham: you, they can't flow you. You know, but simply if they don't know you, they can't do business with you. It is, it's like one of those again, like, yeah, that's obvious. That's not groundbreaking, Jake, but the degree of to get known is the effort and the estimation of what it's going to take. People so misunderestimate. They're like, okay, if I do a post a month. Like, do you remember what you saw on social media this morning? Like how many, when you're scrolling through TikTok, really okay, like count the amount of videos that you, like in 15 minutes, how many videos do you go through? I guarantee you, you probably go through about 30 plus videos, maybe even 50 videos Brian Aucoin: Mm-hmm. Jake Isham: in a 15 minute mark. So that is the degree at which the content that needs to go Brian Aucoin: yeah, for sure. Jake Isham: out. So, but we build up to it. We don't get Brian Aucoin: Mm-hmm. Jake Isham: overwhelmed. We build up to it. So that there's a level of awareness that we just need to get attention. Then the next Brian Aucoin: Mm-hmm. Jake Isham: thing is conversions. How do you start working on conversions? Well, you start answering questions that people always ask. You start putting out content that's gonna make them go, well, shit, I need that. Yes, you could do it from your corporate account. Hey, you know, or imagine if this is, you know, we were talking about this right before we got jumped on the podcast, but people buy from people. Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Yep. Jake Isham: You know, I love, there's a great example of, my God, I'm blinking on Kinosow. Kinosow, think it's a SaaS. Basically it's an aggregate, whatever. Their social media is fantastic. The marketing director is a young gal. I don't know, she looks like she's mid-20s or something like that. And she's done such a great job. She's basically made their social media Brian Aucoin: Nice. Jake Isham: into a TV show. So all of the employees Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Jake Isham: are characters and it feels like you're watching the office, but their own version of the office where you have the CEO is doing content. you have their corporate channel has all this, but then all of them have their own personal channels. And so there's like five different characters and a main hub all putting out content, pushing forward this company. Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Clever. Jake Isham: And all of them have their own brands. All of them have their own little kind of stick character, you know, vibe. But you all go, it's funny, it's relatable, it's this, that, and it all pushes to going. Well, let me learn about this product. You know, again, some content that's more top of funnel for some more of the marketers who know what we're talking about here, you know, which is again, just pure awareness. I've never even heard of this. What is this? okay. Some goes, some that's more bottom-up on a more conversion-based, which is, okay, let me actually look at this. This might be actually something I need. Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Well, man, as an accidental marketer, I mean, you've just laid out a whole flywheel that I absolutely subscribe to. So, gosh, I was just taking notes as you were talking because so much of this Jake Isham: Appreciate it. Brian Aucoin: resonates with what I do. Let me go. Jake Isham: You open up the flood gates, you got a little bit of a rant. I'll get off the soapbox. Brian Aucoin: I like it. No, you're absolutely nailing it. I mean, the idea of trying to answer the questions for people is exactly what we try to do in marketing, right? It's like, if you can do that for them before they have, before they even know they have the question sometimes, right? That's the beginning of a relationship, the beginning of a conversation, whether it be between a brand or service and a person, right? Who is ultimately making the decision in everything. There's a person at the end. who's saying yes or no, and maybe they have to go get more, they have to get it approved by somebody else, or maybe it's a D to C where they're just hitting a button and saying bye. But there's always a person at the end that you have to relate to. So I love that when you're designing for it, that is what you're designing for is ultimately to reach a person. Jake Isham: The best sales calls you can talk to it if any marketing people talk to salespeople which they don't usually do but if they do the best sales calls that a salesman can have is when The prospect tells the Brian Aucoin: Yes. Jake Isham: salesman their script It's happened to me with prospects where I'm like You're literally telling me my script to you, but you're you're telling it to me it's the weirdest sensation for a salesman when And then all you have to do is the salesman is go. Do you want Zelle, credit card, ACH? How do you wanna pay? That's all you gotta say. There's no selling involved, but the way that's done is through great marketing. That's the way it's done. And it makes the salesman look really good. Brian Aucoin: And you made the point about, you know, awareness comes first. And I think that's where a lot of people get tripped up is they're like, I want conversions. I conversions on my website. How do I get more conversions on my website? And you really have to start with, well, you know, if your brand is nervous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jake Isham: Traffic. Yeah, you first have to start with traffic. We've got to get people to the site before they can convert. so one of the things I always talk to entrepreneurs when I consult or do seminars is what is your customer journey? Like again, is, it's so, it's nothing I talk about Brian Aucoin: It is. Jake Isham: is groundbreaking, but it's the fundamentals that aren't in. And then when they're in, works. It's like, great. We put out content. Is there a link in your social media so people can go to a landing page? No? Then how are they going to go to your website? I didn't think about that. Okay, great. If they go to your website, are they going to just your homepage or are they going to a landing page that's primed for them to, like, for them to learn more, to jump on a call. Is it Brian Aucoin: Yep, Jake Isham: easy? Brian Aucoin: customized experience. Yeah. I mean, when you say it's not groundbreaking, but it actually is this day and age, right? Because we've gotten, you know, when I work with clients, I call what I do a lot foundational marketing, right? It's like the, hey, who are you as a brand? Yeah, you can steal that. You can just hire me. It's like, what are your objectives? What's Jake Isham: I might steal it, right? Brian Aucoin: your strategy, right? Because everyone wants to jump to what's our Instagram ad, right? And it's like, I can't get there. unless I know why you exist as a brand, what you're trying to do, really nailing a strategy because then when you get to the tactics, that's the real fun stuff that everyone wants to jump into and they've got the idea and I had this idea and we should be over here and we should do that. But if it's not grounded in strategy, you're just jumping from idea to idea and you're lost. mean, one of them might work, then you're lost after that. And having a strategy, being grounded in strategy means you can do that over and over and over again. And you're building loyalty, you're building trust, you're building a brand. Jake Isham: Yeah, and it's I mean, okay, this is, I'm not gonna say this correctly, but if I'm not mistaken, like strategy comes from, there's a Latin word, but like it's based around war, strategy. And like you go into a battle with no strategy, you're probably gonna lose. And it's the same thing with anything. Like if you go into something with no strategy, you're not gonna win. Doesn't mean. Any strategy is going to be better than no strategy. And you improve your strategy either by learning more or by trying it and failing and going, great, we need to re-strategize. Brian Aucoin: Yes, yeah, the best strategies are iterative, right? Like you just try something, you get some data and then you tweak it. Okay, this worked a little bit. We should maybe talk about it a little bit differently, but you can always go back to what are we trying to do? Why do we exist as a brand or a service? And that comes from an authentic place. And then that will always be something that you can go back to and say, okay, what did we write down? Why do we exist? because we can go and try a bunch of different things to get people to understand that, but we have to know ourselves first before we can tell other people about it. Jake Isham: 100%. And that's where like, you know, doing some brand work is always good. And then I do want to throw out the one caveat is don't Brian Aucoin: . Jake Isham: spend all your time just doing strategy, you got to actually do the work and actually put it out there. Like, an ounce of strategy is better and a ton of work is much better than a ton of strategy and a bit of work. Brian Aucoin: Yeah, and that's what's changed in the modern media environment is that in the old days, you know, it's like I started in advertising in 1999, right? weren't getting immediate feedback all the time. Now we're in this place where it's like you can put something up and you get feedback Jake Isham: Mm-hmm. Brian Aucoin: in a day, right? And you can tweak it and try it again. Yeah. Yeah. Jake Isham: in an hour, you'll know. Like one of the easiest ways, like, so I work with a lot of artists at the same time, my brother, musician, and like, one of the, like the simple strategies is you could throw up five videos, put $10, $20 behind each video, and in an hour, you'll see which one is performing the best. Like you go look at the analytics, put 20, a hundred bucks together. $20 behind five video assets, run one day, couple hours, you'll see which one's performing the best, then you go, great, take away the other four, great, now we're gonna put $1,000 behind this one video ad. Because you know which one works. instant, like you'll know instantly viral videos happen immediately. Now, look, don't get me wrong, there are viral videos that like, especially long form YouTube videos that it like, Boom, Brian Aucoin: Mm-hmm. Jake Isham: three years later, it pops off. Five years later, it pops off. Like that does happen. But majority of the cases, viral videos, pretty Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Jake Isham: much start going. Like within a day, it's viral. And the more viral, it happens faster. It's like a literal rocket ship. I've seen it many a times with many a people, like it happens overnight now. So you'll know in terms of if your marketing campaign is resonating with people because it will happen. Yeah. Brian Aucoin: Yeah, you'll see it. Well, I always like to ask my guests a question. And here in season two, our question is, what is your superpower? Do know what your superpower is, I wrote down a couple for you. Jake Isham: I appreciate it. I think it's... I have a couple that I think that separates me. I think from a micro, I have an ability to make somebody Brian Aucoin: That's great. Jake Isham: very comfortable on camera. because I'm a director at the end of the day. I make films and I work with actors. So I'm used to, I bring that ability to get them to communicate relaxedly Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Jake Isham: and just get them to do that. And I think from the macro, I have an ability to think very big. And I think with very large futures and big expansion and like big... Numbers don't scare me. I'm like, great, let's make this a billion dollar company. Great. Let's do a million dollars in our first week. Like, all right. I'm a big believer in like the power of imagination. I know it sounds a little woo woo and whatever, but like it costs nothing to think big. It's free to go to dream and to go, hmm. And maybe it's because I'm an artist turned marketer, but I'm an artist first. And I go, Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Jake Isham: Why couldn't this be a billion dollar company? Why are we just thinking with a million? Or why are we thinking with a hundred thousand? Like, why not make a billion dollar company? Why not sell it for a hundred X ebola? Well, no one's done it for, I don't know, okay. But like, doesn't, and that's the thing, like people get scared to think big and I go, well, at least dream big. Worth Come As Worth, okay. It's only 50 million, not 100 million. I'd be okay with 50 million. Like, you know, the little things like that, like it doesn't cost to think big. And if you start training yourself to think bigger like that, it starts shifting a lot of stuff and energies within yourself. Like you start breaking Brian Aucoin: I that. Jake Isham: a lot of self-limiting beliefs of like, well, why couldn't I? Like even being around successful people, I've noticed I even think bigger than them. And it's like, well, Why couldn't I run my company while living around the world? Why couldn't I do this? Is there a logical reason I couldn't? Why couldn't this or that? You just start kind of going, wait a minute. And you just start seeing how much we're conditioned. So I think that's my ability to inspire others Brian Aucoin: I love that. Yeah, shoot for the stars. Jake Isham: that way too. I wanna hear what you said. In the 40 minutes we've been talking, know, couple of minutes before and 20 minutes now, I'll take the compliment. Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Well, I mean, I love Shoot for the Stars. You might just hit the moon is always a good way to look at it. So dream big. I love that. But, from our conversations, I think your adaptability, Jake Isham: Yeah. Love that. Brian Aucoin: your ability to learn things is really remarkable to me. Like your accidental marketing is like you spout off a flywheel that I use all the time, right? Awareness, consideration, conversion. Like that is what I always go back to. And you worked it out just through learning marketing on your own. So Very adaptive. Yeah. Jake Isham: Appreciate it. it. I was interested. was just talking about it with my wife this morning, just like, because we're talking about AI and she's like, I'm so happy that you're like learning this and like you're because I was implementing some AI with her and just like, I was like, oh, you can voice to text like this. And there's this new app that you can voice to text and it makes it even better. And just showing her these little things. And she was confident. I was like, like, Brian Aucoin: Yeah. Jake Isham: you have to always be learning a small now than ever. Like, you know, I'm in my mid thirties and I'm like, there's, and I'm starting to feel that age of like, God, tech tech is growing because tech is growing faster than ever, especially with the AI race, especially just with where we're moving and It is something that like to dedicate that extra hour once a day, like to not watch Netflix, not watch, you know, to listen to a podcast while working out, to like, to take that just discipline to take 20 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever, to learn a little bit something to make you a little bit better on whatever it is. It could be on your health, it could be on your business, it could be as a parent, could like, it doesn't matter. but how can I get a little bit better? And I think that's a skill that probably is again, a little bit, I'm just willing and I just enjoy trying to learn a little better. Brian Aucoin: Yeah, we'll put that in your superpower quiver. Jake Isham: Maybe it's because I'm the oldest of three boys, you know, I got a younger sister and I'm, you know, but I'm the shortest. so they've always, they're the athletes. And so there's the competitive older brother, my brothers could beat me up. Brian Aucoin: Yeah, how do I find an edge? Jake Isham: But I'm the oldest. Brian Aucoin: Well, thank you so much, Jake. It's been great getting to know you on the podcast. How do people get in touch with you if they're looking for your services? What's the name of your creative agency? Jake Isham: Creative Minds, you can look creativemindsofficial.com or you can go to, basically I'm on every social media platform annoyingly. You'll probably see my photography, my filmmaking, or if you go like on LinkedIn, you'll see my, you know, me and that's where a great place for my business standpoint. Otherwise Jake Creative Marketing on Instagram. But yeah. Google my name, as pretentious Brian Aucoin: Google me. Jake Isham: as this sounds, Google my name or search it on any platform and you'll find it. I've worked a little bit at trying to make myself discoverable. Brian Aucoin: Yeah, well, it's what you do. So that makes, you it's got to live the brand. Awesome. Well, Jake Isham, it has been great to have you Jake Isham: Yeah. Brian Aucoin: on the Marketing Brave podcast. This has been a brief conversation with Jake Isham. I am your host, Brian Acquan, and stay curious, everyone.