June 22, 2026
The Secrets that Filmmakers Know About Marketing That Most Business Owners Never Learn
Jake Isham is a filmmaker and accidental marketer. In this episode he shares the lessons he has learned about branding, marketing, and running a business without letting go of your art.
That Solo Life Episode 344: The Secrets that Filmmakers Know About Marketing That Most Business Owners Never Learn with Jake Isham
Episode Summary
Jake Isham describes himself as an accidental marketer. He went to film school, realized he wasn't going back for a grad degree, and spent his 20s learning to build a business the hard way. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Creative Minds, a creative agency rooted in filmmaking and storytelling that helps entrepreneurs build personal brands through video content, photography, and a signature podcast model that takes clients out of the studio and into the environments where they actually come alive.
In this episode, Jake joins Karen and Michelle to talk about his journey and the hard-won lessons along the way. He breaks down how a filmmaker's lens changes the work he does for clients, why the Hero's Journey is a more useful brand-building framework than most marketing playbooks, how his on-location podcast model turns a client's hobby into a content engine, and the business development principle that he wishes someone had told him on day one: promote at a volume that feels impossible, measure the results six weeks later, and get 1% better every time.
Episode Highlights
- [01:43] The Accidental Marketer Origin Story: Jake went to film school, considered grad school for about a semester, and decided he'd already spent four years doing what he was about to spend two and a half more years doing. What followed was a decade of figuring it out, freelancing, building, and course-correcting, guided by a piece of advice from his father.
- [07:35] The Filmmaker's Lens: Why the Hero's Journey Is the Real Brand Framework: When everyone claims to tell stories, the differentiator is understanding what storytelling actually means. Jake draws the line between sharing an anecdote and structuring a narrative. payoff. He uses Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey as a practical brand-building tool: who is your hero, who is your enemy, who are your allies, what are you standing for, what are you standing against. These are the questions that build a brand identity rather than a content calendar.
- [10:24] Getting Clients Comfortable on Camera: Jake's superpower as a director is making people comfortable in front of a camera, and he leverages that in his work with clients. He describes a client whose first shoot took four hours with a teleprompter. Their most recent shoot took one hour, no teleprompter, off the top of his head, and produced more usable content than the first session ever did. The skill is not just technical but the accumulated experience of working with actors, directing scenes, and creating the conditions for someone to be fully themselves.
- [12:30] The Signature Series Podcast Model: Rather than building another studio podcast, Jake developed a signature format: take the client's hobby or genuine interest and build a location-based show around it. A golf enthusiast on the course. A client at their place of worship. The host is in an environment that makes them feel natural and engaged, which changes everything about how they show up on camera.
- [20:12] The Business Development Truth Nobody Tells Creative Entrepreneurs: When asked what he wishes someone had told him at the start, Jake doesn't hesitate: promote, promote, promote, promote. He describes watching a gym owner tell his mentor he had distributed 300 flyers. The mentor's response: I do 5,000 a day. The lesson is not that what you're doing is wrong. It is that you are almost certainly not doing it at anywhere near the volume required. Jake shared the experiment he used and the data that he relies on for business development success.
- [23:04] The Six-Week Lag: How to Measure Business Development Without Losing Your Mind: Jake has identified a consistent pattern in his own practice in which promotion activity produces income results approximately six weeks later. The implication is practical and clarifying. Don't judge a business development effort in the first six weeks. Measure from week six to week twelve.
- [26:52] The 1% Better Principle: Why You Don't Need to Leap to Progress: Jake co-hosts a filmmaking show called The Creative Lens. He shows his first episode as an example: his setup was visibly rough next to his co-host's polished rig. By episode eight or nine, the gap had closed — not through a single overhaul, but through consistent incremental improvement. One better backdrop. One better light. One more structured opening. He applies the same logic to business development: not 100 posts more, but one more post. Not a complete brand overhaul, but one sharper headline. Get 1% better. Then do it again.
About Jake Isham
Jake Isham is a filmmaker, photographer, and the owner and founder of Creative Minds, a creative agency focused on personal brand building through video content, photography, and signature podcast production. After film school and a brief flirtation with grad school, Jake spent his 20s learning how to build a business without a mentor and without a safety net — and has turned that hard-won experience into a practice that helps entrepreneurs show up authentically on camera and build content strategies that compound over time. He is also the co-host of The Creative Lens, a podcast about filmmaking, gear, and the business of visual storytelling. Jake is based in the Los Angeles area and works with entrepreneurs building personal brands at every stage.
- Website: creativemindsofficial.com
- Instagram: @JakeCreativeMarketing
- LinkedIn: Jake Isham
Resources & Related Episodes
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell: Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey
- That Solo Life, Episode 308: Branding, Bravery and Breaking Through with Melissa Vela-Williamson
- That Solo Life, Episode 296: The Big Idea with Jess Sato
- That Solo Life, Episode 319: Succeeding at Business Development in a Tough Year
- Join the Solo PR Pro membership community: Solo PR Pro
Host & Show Info
That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape.
Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com.
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That Solo Life Episode 344: The Secrets that Filmmakers Know About Marketing That Most Business Owners Never Learn with Jake Isham
Karen Swim, APR (00:12):
So Michelle, question of the day for you. When you first started your business, how long did it take you to really think of yourself as a business owner?
Michelle Kane (00:28):
Funnily enough, yes, I was just at a chamber of commerce thing this morning for owners of the business and it actually finally, it took a while. Definitely took a few years and I think because we sit here at our desks talking to ourselves a lot, we don't consider ourselves as CEO C-suite, but yeah, maybe 17 years in, it finally feels that way.
Karen Swim, APR (00:53):
Well, I think that most of us relate to that. It takes a while to switch those hats or to blend them.
Michelle Kane (01:01):
And
Karen Swim, APR (01:01):
So I'm super excited about our guest today because he's going to talk about his own really interesting journey as well as some really smart advice around topics that our audience is going to enjoy.
Michelle Kane (01:15):
You know it. Yes. So welcome to That Solo Life. I am Michelle Kane with Voice Matters, and this is the podcast for microagency and solo owners who are building things for themselves. People like our guest today, Jake Isham, and he is the owner, founder. He's a filmmaker, he's a photographer and his company is Creative Minds. Welcome, Jake. Thanks for joining us today.
Jake Isham (01:43):
Thanks for having me.
Michelle Kane (01:45):
Absolutely. So you describe yourself as an accidental marketer, which I know sometimes we all kind of feel that way even if we studied it, but someone who went to film school, building a creative agency, walk us through how you went from focusing fully on your storytelling and filmmaking to, "Oh, hey, now I run a
Jake Isham (02:12):
Business." Again, just like you said in the intro, it was definitely not an overnight thing. So yeah, went to film school, even did a semester of grad school and realized I was just going to spend two and a half years what I just spent four years doing. So I was like, okay, I just spent four years doing this. I don't need to do this, which left me in a very interesting kind of situation. I was kind of like, "Okay, what do I do next?" And I'm very fortunate that both my parents are artists where the idea of go get a job was never really in their vocabulary, which is a massive pro, but also kind of an interesting con because it was very much, "Okay, you want to direct films? Well, go figure it out. Go,
Michelle Kane (03:13):
Go,
Jake Isham (03:13):
Go, go, go. " I'm like, "Huh." And so I personally struggled always to find a mentor. I never had a mentor and I've had, you could say mentors a little bit. My father is definitely ... I've taken bits of wisdom from people, but I'm not like how to mentor. So it's very much been an interesting journey of trying to figure it out myself and where again, I was kind of like scraping by for work and doing kind of anything. My father's advice kind of post school and into this was based off of his own journey, which he came up as a trumpet player and he would take any job that kept a trumpet in his hand. So he would play Chinese funerals in the streets of San Francisco. He would play in the orchestra. He would play in the Holiday Inn band on Friday nights.
(04:09):
Anything that got him a paycheck that kept a trumpet in his hand compared to a buddy of his who drove a cab during the day and would only play jazz music at night. He's like, "I'm a jazz musician. I only play jazz." Which neither is right nor wrong.
Michelle Kane (04:29):
It
Jake Isham (04:29):
Was just the career my dad had, he attributed it tremendously to being able to get basically paid to practice. And so that was a core lesson of mine early on, which was just like, keep a camera in my hand. And it led to more freelancing. And then I looked at the individuals that I really admired who were not starving artists and who were able to escape it, who kind of escaped that net and that trap. And so many of them had the mindset of entrepreneurship and were business owners and that's when I kind of went, "Oh, I kind of need to start an agency." And then thus at 25, I had to basically now teach myself business, which I had never learned before.
Michelle Kane (05:29):
Right. I love your dad's mindset, keep a trumpet in my hands. That's fabulous. And just to sidetrack a tiny bit, even when you started, even though of course clearly you started in the era of everyone's online and social media, I don't know if recently I've noticed on threads, Spike Lee is out there openly contacting young creatives willing to give them his time. And I'm thinking, "Can we go back?" All
Jake Isham (05:57):
The time. I mean, Timbaland, the musician, legendary producer, is on livestream taking up young artists and critiquing songs and making beats on live. It's a fascinating space we're in now. I mean, right now, especially in the film industry,
Michelle Kane (06:20):
You
Jake Isham (06:20):
Can just make things and right now the big two trending things are the movies obsession and backrooms, both made by Curry Baker, who's 25, 26 years old and Kane Parsons, who's 20 years old. Both movies have grossed over $150 million and both started off just making videos on YouTube. Fabulous. But then they just, again, made the practice. They were making brand deals, they were making videos online, but they just put in the work.
Karen Swim, APR (06:57):
Yeah. I love that. Talking about your lens, which is unique and it really is a differentiator for you, you are filmmaker and you use those filmmaker and storyteller instincts in your marketing. These days, everybody claims to tell a story, but it's the thing, tell a story. Some do, some do not. But I'd love to know how your unique lens, how does that change the work you do for clients?
Jake Isham (07:35):
So I mean, I guess I have two parts to that answer. One was just on the storytelling itself, which is I look at storytelling in two perspectives because you have one, which is you could say the obvious like, "Oh, tell a story." Well, the story of my dad that I was just telling you about playing trumpet, that's a story, which is I think a lot of the storytelling aspect gets muddled up between that concept and the ability to tell a story, which is beginning, middle, and end, conflict, resolution, build up, set up payoff.That's an art of storytelling and brand building is you look at, there's a very famous story, I don't know what you would call him, but he basically wrote the book of breaking down storytelling. His name is Joseph Campbell and he talks about what's called the Hero's Journey.
(08:44):
And so it's all of these steps that a hero goes through, came from The Odyssey and Homer writing The Iliad and The Odyssey and it is kind of, you could say the Bible for every epic movie that we've ever seen and every epic story, Star Wars to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, it's all the same formula and it's based off of the hero's journey. And so one of the things when you're building that personal brand, it's understanding those elements. Who is your enemy? Who are your allies? What are you standing up for? What are you standing against? It's all of those elements, not just, "Hey, when I was a kid back in 1993, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
Michelle Kane (09:34):
And so
Jake Isham (09:34):
I think that's that aspect of storytelling that is not overtly spoken about or thought about as much.
Michelle Kane (09:45):
Right. So true.That's
Jake Isham (09:47):
The long-winded thing that I wanted just to say about, which did not answer your question in the slightest. But I think what my unique lens is, is partially that mentality is that I come from, for lack of sounding pretentious and precocious, legit storytelling, right? I'm not a marketer, I'm a filmmaker. These posters here are my movies. I've put movies out into film festivals. I've won awards and
(10:24):
I bring that mentality rather than, "Okay, great. Let's just sell your product and let's get it out there." And what I work with entrepreneurs because I do a lot of personal brand building is I think the additional kind of selling point I have is that ability to make them comfortable on camera because a lot of the entrepreneurs I work with are not ... I have a million followers and they're Gary V and they've been doing this for 15 years and they speak in front of 20,000 people like it's nothing. These are guys who you put a camera on them and they're like ... Yeah.
Michelle Kane (11:02):
"I
Jake Isham (11:02):
Don't know what to say. I don't know how to say." They go full Ricky Bobby with like, "I don't know what to do with my hands." And I have ability as a director. And I think that's where that skill of having made movies, having worked with lots of actors to make them comfortable in front of camera, that they do know what to say. And because one of my, you could say biggest ones is when I work with clients, their first shoots are usually about like four-ish hours to then I worked with a client who we've done now our fourth shoot together. I just shot with him yesterday. We did it in an hour. We got more content in one hour than we first did in four hours and that's just by getting him comfortable in front of camera and knowing what to say, knowing how to say it.
(11:49):
And that first shoot we did was with a teleprompter and it took four hours and this first time now we did in one hour with no teleprompter off the top of the head and he crushed it.
Michelle Kane (12:02):
Yeah. And honestly, that's a talent that you also bring to your podcast, right? And you're sort of developing a signature model for this, right where the format itself becomes part of the brand story. You're out on the golf course, you're in their house of worship. How did you get to that? What was your thinking behind that and what type of client is that right for? Is it right for everyone?
Jake Isham (12:30):
Yeah. So when we shoot podcasts for clients, there's obviously two obvious ways to do it. One like this, which is a remote podcast,
(12:41):
And then you have the in studio podcast. And I was like, okay, everyone's doing that. How can I make a fun, unique way of doing this that's filmmakery, that's beholden to us and my company and that mentality that I try to bring to my agency. And we basically came up with this kind of signature series model, which is let's take a hobby or an interest of yours and let's create this series where it's a talk show. It is a podcast, but it's out in the world and it's out doing something you'd love in an environment that you enjoy and allowing you to have that interview, have that conversation, but not just sitting at a studio or sitting via Zoom. And so who is it right for? That was your second follow-up question to send to that.
Michelle Kane (13:41):
That's okay.
Jake Isham (13:43):
It's all right. I mean, to an entrepreneur who is really focusing on building their personal brand, wanting to use this to leverage relationships, I'm a big proponent of podcasting as a great networking tool. I think it is one of the best most underutilized networking tool. People think about podcasts primarily, obviously the long form, but so many people are leveraging for the clips. Let me get on podcasts so I get all the clips for social,
(14:11):
Which is great, but that's first and foremost, if you're doing an entertainment podcast, this is a business podcast, right? This is to help grow your business. But because of this podcast, the three of us can network. We can help each other with business. I was on a podcast, for example, a couple months ago, the host and I kicked it off with really cool and we talked after and I was like, "Well, oh, you have a coaching program." "Well, if you ever need me, I'm more than happy to speak to your guys totally free. "That went great. And then he invited me to actually speak at his mastermind and now he's an affiliate of mine and pushing customers to me, but that all came from a simple podcast.
Michelle Kane (15:06):
Yeah, that's
Karen Swim, APR (15:09):
Great. I mean, the thread that keeps coming through and I'm glad that you set the table with the story about your dad and the trumpet, that's really going to stick with me is the lesson that I took from that story is that when you stay really focused on what lights you up on your passion, then you build the world around that rather than sometimes what we do is we dim our light and we try to fit into a mold. You haven't done that either. You have made sure to keep your passion the core, the thing that lights you up, which means work never feels old. And so everything that you do, every thread is centered around what really drives you including your podcast method and what you're pulling out of guests. You're showing them how they can leverage those things that light them up, their hobbies, the things that really bring them joy and leverage that and build business around that.
(16:02):
So I really, I love that focus and that internal compass that you have. I think a lot of our audience will be able to relate to that because communicators and creatives, we're not monoliths. A lot of our communications people do these interesting and diverse things, everything from bodybuilding to teaching yoga to mindfulness coaching, it's everywhere, to teaching. They're a group that uses all of those skillsets in their practice. So I think that this is a way for you to also pay it forward to those entrepreneurs coming up behind you to see that it's not a box. You don't have to do it like everyone else, but if you keep this thing in mind as your North Star, that's going to make it a lot easier. So I'm so glad that you shared that.
Jake Isham (16:54):
Thank you. Yeah. It's taken, to be honest, a lot of work because it seems so easy and I've said, yeah, okay, great. Yeah. But the amount of internal strife, mental angst that I've gone through over the last decade, there are still parts that I go through that days that I'm like, " This sucks. "I've not always had the North Star. I go back to it. Sometimes I lose the light a little bit and I'm going this direction and I'm like, " Okay, wait, hold on. I got to come back, focus again. "Because one of the hardest lessons, and it's the second lesson to that story, if I may add to it, which is the hardest lesson because I didn't do that for my 20s, which was while taking any job, he'd get enough money to pay the bills, to make sure that there's food on the table and then he would go work on his creative projects on the side and then have that fund all of his creative projects
(18:15):
Until he got a record deal. And it was something that I didn't really focus on and I'm now in my 30s really more working on, okay, great. Hey, I need to actually ... The business is one thing, career is another thing and really need to make sure that I do prioritize both. And I've gave up the security of a nine to five and going, okay, great. I know I can just clock in at 9:00 AM and leave at 6:00 PM and then I can go work on my art for freedoms. So I have to basically hunt for everything I eat in a sense. I have to go out promote and then sell it, close it, deliver it, but I have no cap. I have no ceiling. So I gave up the security of that, but to not forget, if the real passion is this, still go for that.
(19:25):
Don't lose that North Star. So that's something that as I've gone into my 30s, that's what I've been making sure to keep.
Michelle Kane (19:34):
Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, and as you said at the outset, you've built your whole career on having to just figure it out, which is fantastic. So for our listeners who are maybe thinking of stepping out or have just stepped out, they might be earlier in their journey, still finding their footing, they haven't quite made the identity shift. What's one thing you wish someone had told you at the start that might've saved you a lot of time and/or the anguish, even though sometimes the anguish is necessary?
Jake Isham (20:12):
Promote, promote, promote, promote, promote, promote, promote, promote. If there is one thing to really figure out, but the degree of promotion that it takes to be successful,
(20:31):
It is so understated and you don't know until you know if you don't have that mentor, because again, I never worked at an agency, I've literally always had to just unfortunately figure it out and I've been like, well, should I go get a job and just so I can learn it and mentor? And then I'm like, I'm 28, why do I want to do that? Or I'm 30. Why do I want to do that? Or 33, why do I want ... I'm like, no, okay. And then I go, "Well, maybe I should have. " Okay, well, it's a little too late now. And then two years later, "Well, it's a little too late now." I'm like, "All right." There's a mentor because I found a lot of mentors via YouTube, successful business owners that do podcasts, that have YouTube channels. And I've been very fortunate in this age that we're in an era that people give a lot of information that's really successful.
(21:29):
And there was a gentleman that I was watching and he gives this great example of him learning a similar lesson. He was in the gym space and he put out 300 flyers to promote his gym and to get new people because heard that's how you promote for a gym, you go out, pass out flyers and he posted 300. He then went to a mentor and he said, "Okay, I did it. I did 300 flyers." Or the mentor was like, "How many you did it? " He said, 300. And he says, "Oh, well, that's why." He's like, "What are you talking about? " He's like, "I do 5,000 a day." He said, "You did 300, I do 5,000 every single day." And so it really goes to show what you're doing for promotion is not wrong. Call the email, social media, cool calling, call, whatever marketing you're doing, it's not wrong.
(22:33):
You're probably just not doing it the volume that's nearly sufficient enough. And that's been one of the hardest lessons that I've had to learn and every time I've ... It's very interesting because it constantly happens, unfortunately. And I'm actually working with my team to continue to happen this ... Basically, I've noticed that there's a six week lag. So you do promotion
(23:04):
And then the income is about six weeks and it's pretty consistently six weeks after. And again, this is just what I've seen to be very true. And so you do promotion, don't worry about it, but judge it from week six to week 12. That's when you can judge your promotion. Don't judge it for the first six weeks, but you got to be going hard for six weeks. And that's again, being patient, being willing to be consistent. So the overall lesson beyond that is just consistency is the key.
Michelle Kane (23:38):
As an
Jake Isham (23:39):
Artist, it's the hardest for me because I just want to create. I want to do the
Michelle Kane (23:43):
Next
Jake Isham (23:43):
Thing. People call it ADD. I disagree with that personally because it's just being an artist. That's what artists do. There's nothing mentally wrong with that's just being an artist and it's being creative. And as an entrepreneur, you are an artist. You're literally creating something that was never there before a business, a product, a service. It didn't exist until you put it there. You're an artist. That's a whole nother rant that I can get into.
Karen Swim, APR (24:14):
But I think that that business development lesson, it's one that we talk about a lot, but you frame it in a way that everybody should take this lesson. It's
Michelle Kane (24:25):
The
Karen Swim, APR (24:25):
Consistency, but it's doing so much more than you think is necessary because people will be consistent, but they're doing what feels like a lot because they're not comfortable doing business development, but it's really not enough. So amp it up like times 20
Michelle Kane (24:45):
And
Karen Swim, APR (24:45):
You're getting closer. And I think that that's something that has to be said and we see people that are putting themselves out there and they're consistent and they're telling stories and they're sharing reels and they're doing things and you see them all the time and it feels like a lot to you and it feels like they have a superpower. They don't. They just know that volume matters. It's not just the consistency, it's volume. Now obviously you've got to have the quality and the stuff to back it up, but I also like that you look at the data, but you measure it when you know you're supposed to, because you're right, you can't do something for like four weeks and then think, "Okay, well, that didn't work. I'm just going to go sit at my desk and talk to my friends and hope that they refer me business.".
Jake Isham (25:34):
Okay, great. It didn't work. I posted on social media for four weeks. It didn't work. Well, first of all, how many posts did you do? It was interesting when I started posting on ... Again, I did an experiment. I posted on social media, I was posting three times a day on multiple channels, like three different videos every single day. And then again, six weeks later, the income jumps up. It is literally ... But again, I'm posting three times a day. So right now I'm working on how do I post up to six times a day across multiple ... Granted, I have my photography, I have my filmmaking, I have
Michelle Kane (26:11):
My
Jake Isham (26:12):
Marketing channel, so I can post a bit more, but great, how can you do just so much volume? And once you do enough volume, the quality gets there and it's something that you need to ... I always look at 1% better. So just to give a quick example, if I may. So I started a new show with a buddy of mine. We talk about filmmaking, news in the filmmaking space and gear, et cetera, because we just shooting the shit one day and my-
Michelle Kane (26:50):
Is that the name of it?
Jake Isham (26:52):
It's called The Creative Lens. So if there's any filmmaking
Michelle Kane (26:54):
Notes out there- Okay. I like shooting the shit though. That's good. That could be for your next podcast, shooting
Jake Isham (27:01):
The shit. Exactly. And if you remember from the pre-interview probably, my setup looked nothing like this. If you look at the first episode, we've done, I think, eight or nine episodes so far at the time of this recording right now. And if you look at the first episode, his setup looks legit. It looks awesome. Mine looks horrible. I'm in a white room. I'm like, "It looks not interesting." And then if you look at it like just a frame from each episode over the next eight episodes, you go, "Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow." And so I'm a big proponent of like, what's one thing you can do to make it look a little better, to make it a little bit more professional, to make it a little more interesting for the audience. It doesn't need to be, "Okay, we need to go jump to 10." No, it's the same thing like working out.
(27:53):
You're not going to throw a hundred more pounds on whatever weight you're doing. You go, "Let me do five more pounds at the gym for my bench press. Then let me put another five pounds." So eventually you are at a hundred pounds more, but it really just takes the discipline of, let me just get a little better, a little better.
Karen Swim, APR (28:16):
Yeah, I love that. I think that's a great note to leave with our listeners. Wow,
Michelle Kane (28:23):
For sure, for sure. So how can our listeners connect with you? Do you prefer LinkedIn? Hit us up. Tell us where they can find you online.
Jake Isham (28:32):
Totally. LinkedIn is great. Search my name Instagram, Jake Creative Marketing. Oh my God, I have way too many social media platforms. Jake Creative Marketing on Instagram, LinkedIn. Otherwise, you can kind of Google my name. You'll see my photography, my filmmaking, my agency stuff, otherwise creativemindsofficial.com. More than happy to help just always reach out.
Karen Swim, APR (29:00):
And don't worry, listeners, we will of course have all this in the show notes for you as always so that you can connect with Jake. And we know for a fact that we have filmmakers in our audience, we have photographers in our audience. And so I know that this is probably really good for you that you're really excited about this. I know somebody specifically that went to my alma mater and went to film school there, so this one's for you.
Michelle Kane (29:32):
Wow. And we thank you so much for being here, Jake. And to our listeners, thanks for listening if you got something out of this, and of course you did, please share it around, hit us up at soloprpro.com and of course our podcasts are all available at thatsololife.com. And until next time, thanks for listening.
Karen Swim, APR (00:12):
So Michelle, question of the day for you. When you first started your business, how long did it take you to really think of yourself as a business owner?
Michelle Kane (00:28):
Funnily enough, yes, I was just at a chamber of commerce thing this morning for owners of the business and it actually finally, it took a while. Definitely took a few years and I think because we sit here at our desks talking to ourselves a lot, we don't consider ourselves as CEO C-suite, but yeah, maybe 17 years in, it finally feels that way.
Karen Swim, APR (00:53):
Well, I think that most of us relate to that. It takes a while to switch those hats or to blend them.
Michelle Kane (01:01):
And
Karen Swim, APR (01:01):
So I'm super excited about our guest today because he's going to talk about his own really interesting journey as well as some really smart advice around topics that our audience is going to enjoy.
Michelle Kane (01:15):
You know it. Yes. So welcome to That Solo Life. I am Michelle Kane with Voice Matters, and this is the podcast for microagency and solo owners who are building things for themselves. People like our guest today, Jake Isham, and he is the owner, founder. He's a filmmaker, he's a photographer and his company is Creative Minds. Welcome, Jake. Thanks for joining us today.
Jake Isham (01:43):
Thanks for having me.
Michelle Kane (01:45):
Absolutely. So you describe yourself as an accidental marketer, which I know sometimes we all kind of feel that way even if we studied it, but someone who went to film school, building a creative agency, walk us through how you went from focusing fully on your storytelling and filmmaking to, "Oh, hey, now I run a
Jake Isham (02:12):
Business." Again, just like you said in the intro, it was definitely not an overnight thing. So yeah, went to film school, even did a semester of grad school and realized I was just going to spend two and a half years what I just spent four years doing. So I was like, okay, I just spent four years doing this. I don't need to do this, which left me in a very interesting kind of situation. I was kind of like, "Okay, what do I do next?" And I'm very fortunate that both my parents are artists where the idea of go get a job was never really in their vocabulary, which is a massive pro, but also kind of an interesting con because it was very much, "Okay, you want to direct films? Well, go figure it out. Go,
Michelle Kane (03:13):
Go,
Jake Isham (03:13):
Go, go, go. " I'm like, "Huh." And so I personally struggled always to find a mentor. I never had a mentor and I've had, you could say mentors a little bit. My father is definitely ... I've taken bits of wisdom from people, but I'm not like how to mentor. So it's very much been an interesting journey of trying to figure it out myself and where again, I was kind of like scraping by for work and doing kind of anything. My father's advice kind of post school and into this was based off of his own journey, which he came up as a trumpet player and he would take any job that kept a trumpet in his hand. So he would play Chinese funerals in the streets of San Francisco. He would play in the orchestra. He would play in the Holiday Inn band on Friday nights.
(04:09):
Anything that got him a paycheck that kept a trumpet in his hand compared to a buddy of his who drove a cab during the day and would only play jazz music at night. He's like, "I'm a jazz musician. I only play jazz." Which neither is right nor wrong.
Michelle Kane (04:29):
It
Jake Isham (04:29):
Was just the career my dad had, he attributed it tremendously to being able to get basically paid to practice. And so that was a core lesson of mine early on, which was just like, keep a camera in my hand. And it led to more freelancing. And then I looked at the individuals that I really admired who were not starving artists and who were able to escape it, who kind of escaped that net and that trap. And so many of them had the mindset of entrepreneurship and were business owners and that's when I kind of went, "Oh, I kind of need to start an agency." And then thus at 25, I had to basically now teach myself business, which I had never learned before.
Michelle Kane (05:29):
Right. I love your dad's mindset, keep a trumpet in my hands. That's fabulous. And just to sidetrack a tiny bit, even when you started, even though of course clearly you started in the era of everyone's online and social media, I don't know if recently I've noticed on threads, Spike Lee is out there openly contacting young creatives willing to give them his time. And I'm thinking, "Can we go back?" All
Jake Isham (05:57):
The time. I mean, Timbaland, the musician, legendary producer, is on livestream taking up young artists and critiquing songs and making beats on live. It's a fascinating space we're in now. I mean, right now, especially in the film industry,
Michelle Kane (06:20):
You
Jake Isham (06:20):
Can just make things and right now the big two trending things are the movies obsession and backrooms, both made by Curry Baker, who's 25, 26 years old and Kane Parsons, who's 20 years old. Both movies have grossed over $150 million and both started off just making videos on YouTube. Fabulous. But then they just, again, made the practice. They were making brand deals, they were making videos online, but they just put in the work.
Karen Swim, APR (06:57):
Yeah. I love that. Talking about your lens, which is unique and it really is a differentiator for you, you are filmmaker and you use those filmmaker and storyteller instincts in your marketing. These days, everybody claims to tell a story, but it's the thing, tell a story. Some do, some do not. But I'd love to know how your unique lens, how does that change the work you do for clients?
Jake Isham (07:35):
So I mean, I guess I have two parts to that answer. One was just on the storytelling itself, which is I look at storytelling in two perspectives because you have one, which is you could say the obvious like, "Oh, tell a story." Well, the story of my dad that I was just telling you about playing trumpet, that's a story, which is I think a lot of the storytelling aspect gets muddled up between that concept and the ability to tell a story, which is beginning, middle, and end, conflict, resolution, build up, set up payoff.That's an art of storytelling and brand building is you look at, there's a very famous story, I don't know what you would call him, but he basically wrote the book of breaking down storytelling. His name is Joseph Campbell and he talks about what's called the Hero's Journey.
(08:44):
And so it's all of these steps that a hero goes through, came from The Odyssey and Homer writing The Iliad and The Odyssey and it is kind of, you could say the Bible for every epic movie that we've ever seen and every epic story, Star Wars to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, it's all the same formula and it's based off of the hero's journey. And so one of the things when you're building that personal brand, it's understanding those elements. Who is your enemy? Who are your allies? What are you standing up for? What are you standing against? It's all of those elements, not just, "Hey, when I was a kid back in 1993, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
Michelle Kane (09:34):
And so
Jake Isham (09:34):
I think that's that aspect of storytelling that is not overtly spoken about or thought about as much.
Michelle Kane (09:45):
Right. So true.That's
Jake Isham (09:47):
The long-winded thing that I wanted just to say about, which did not answer your question in the slightest. But I think what my unique lens is, is partially that mentality is that I come from, for lack of sounding pretentious and precocious, legit storytelling, right? I'm not a marketer, I'm a filmmaker. These posters here are my movies. I've put movies out into film festivals. I've won awards and
(10:24):
I bring that mentality rather than, "Okay, great. Let's just sell your product and let's get it out there." And what I work with entrepreneurs because I do a lot of personal brand building is I think the additional kind of selling point I have is that ability to make them comfortable on camera because a lot of the entrepreneurs I work with are not ... I have a million followers and they're Gary V and they've been doing this for 15 years and they speak in front of 20,000 people like it's nothing. These are guys who you put a camera on them and they're like ... Yeah.
Michelle Kane (11:02):
"I
Jake Isham (11:02):
Don't know what to say. I don't know how to say." They go full Ricky Bobby with like, "I don't know what to do with my hands." And I have ability as a director. And I think that's where that skill of having made movies, having worked with lots of actors to make them comfortable in front of camera, that they do know what to say. And because one of my, you could say biggest ones is when I work with clients, their first shoots are usually about like four-ish hours to then I worked with a client who we've done now our fourth shoot together. I just shot with him yesterday. We did it in an hour. We got more content in one hour than we first did in four hours and that's just by getting him comfortable in front of camera and knowing what to say, knowing how to say it.
(11:49):
And that first shoot we did was with a teleprompter and it took four hours and this first time now we did in one hour with no teleprompter off the top of the head and he crushed it.
Michelle Kane (12:02):
Yeah. And honestly, that's a talent that you also bring to your podcast, right? And you're sort of developing a signature model for this, right where the format itself becomes part of the brand story. You're out on the golf course, you're in their house of worship. How did you get to that? What was your thinking behind that and what type of client is that right for? Is it right for everyone?
Jake Isham (12:30):
Yeah. So when we shoot podcasts for clients, there's obviously two obvious ways to do it. One like this, which is a remote podcast,
(12:41):
And then you have the in studio podcast. And I was like, okay, everyone's doing that. How can I make a fun, unique way of doing this that's filmmakery, that's beholden to us and my company and that mentality that I try to bring to my agency. And we basically came up with this kind of signature series model, which is let's take a hobby or an interest of yours and let's create this series where it's a talk show. It is a podcast, but it's out in the world and it's out doing something you'd love in an environment that you enjoy and allowing you to have that interview, have that conversation, but not just sitting at a studio or sitting via Zoom. And so who is it right for? That was your second follow-up question to send to that.
Michelle Kane (13:41):
That's okay.
Jake Isham (13:43):
It's all right. I mean, to an entrepreneur who is really focusing on building their personal brand, wanting to use this to leverage relationships, I'm a big proponent of podcasting as a great networking tool. I think it is one of the best most underutilized networking tool. People think about podcasts primarily, obviously the long form, but so many people are leveraging for the clips. Let me get on podcasts so I get all the clips for social,
(14:11):
Which is great, but that's first and foremost, if you're doing an entertainment podcast, this is a business podcast, right? This is to help grow your business. But because of this podcast, the three of us can network. We can help each other with business. I was on a podcast, for example, a couple months ago, the host and I kicked it off with really cool and we talked after and I was like, "Well, oh, you have a coaching program." "Well, if you ever need me, I'm more than happy to speak to your guys totally free. "That went great. And then he invited me to actually speak at his mastermind and now he's an affiliate of mine and pushing customers to me, but that all came from a simple podcast.
Michelle Kane (15:06):
Yeah, that's
Karen Swim, APR (15:09):
Great. I mean, the thread that keeps coming through and I'm glad that you set the table with the story about your dad and the trumpet, that's really going to stick with me is the lesson that I took from that story is that when you stay really focused on what lights you up on your passion, then you build the world around that rather than sometimes what we do is we dim our light and we try to fit into a mold. You haven't done that either. You have made sure to keep your passion the core, the thing that lights you up, which means work never feels old. And so everything that you do, every thread is centered around what really drives you including your podcast method and what you're pulling out of guests. You're showing them how they can leverage those things that light them up, their hobbies, the things that really bring them joy and leverage that and build business around that.
(16:02):
So I really, I love that focus and that internal compass that you have. I think a lot of our audience will be able to relate to that because communicators and creatives, we're not monoliths. A lot of our communications people do these interesting and diverse things, everything from bodybuilding to teaching yoga to mindfulness coaching, it's everywhere, to teaching. They're a group that uses all of those skillsets in their practice. So I think that this is a way for you to also pay it forward to those entrepreneurs coming up behind you to see that it's not a box. You don't have to do it like everyone else, but if you keep this thing in mind as your North Star, that's going to make it a lot easier. So I'm so glad that you shared that.
Jake Isham (16:54):
Thank you. Yeah. It's taken, to be honest, a lot of work because it seems so easy and I've said, yeah, okay, great. Yeah. But the amount of internal strife, mental angst that I've gone through over the last decade, there are still parts that I go through that days that I'm like, " This sucks. "I've not always had the North Star. I go back to it. Sometimes I lose the light a little bit and I'm going this direction and I'm like, " Okay, wait, hold on. I got to come back, focus again. "Because one of the hardest lessons, and it's the second lesson to that story, if I may add to it, which is the hardest lesson because I didn't do that for my 20s, which was while taking any job, he'd get enough money to pay the bills, to make sure that there's food on the table and then he would go work on his creative projects on the side and then have that fund all of his creative projects
(18:15):
Until he got a record deal. And it was something that I didn't really focus on and I'm now in my 30s really more working on, okay, great. Hey, I need to actually ... The business is one thing, career is another thing and really need to make sure that I do prioritize both. And I've gave up the security of a nine to five and going, okay, great. I know I can just clock in at 9:00 AM and leave at 6:00 PM and then I can go work on my art for freedoms. So I have to basically hunt for everything I eat in a sense. I have to go out promote and then sell it, close it, deliver it, but I have no cap. I have no ceiling. So I gave up the security of that, but to not forget, if the real passion is this, still go for that.
(19:25):
Don't lose that North Star. So that's something that as I've gone into my 30s, that's what I've been making sure to keep.
Michelle Kane (19:34):
Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, and as you said at the outset, you've built your whole career on having to just figure it out, which is fantastic. So for our listeners who are maybe thinking of stepping out or have just stepped out, they might be earlier in their journey, still finding their footing, they haven't quite made the identity shift. What's one thing you wish someone had told you at the start that might've saved you a lot of time and/or the anguish, even though sometimes the anguish is necessary?
Jake Isham (20:12):
Promote, promote, promote, promote, promote, promote, promote, promote. If there is one thing to really figure out, but the degree of promotion that it takes to be successful,
(20:31):
It is so understated and you don't know until you know if you don't have that mentor, because again, I never worked at an agency, I've literally always had to just unfortunately figure it out and I've been like, well, should I go get a job and just so I can learn it and mentor? And then I'm like, I'm 28, why do I want to do that? Or I'm 30. Why do I want to do that? Or 33, why do I want ... I'm like, no, okay. And then I go, "Well, maybe I should have. " Okay, well, it's a little too late now. And then two years later, "Well, it's a little too late now." I'm like, "All right." There's a mentor because I found a lot of mentors via YouTube, successful business owners that do podcasts, that have YouTube channels. And I've been very fortunate in this age that we're in an era that people give a lot of information that's really successful.
(21:29):
And there was a gentleman that I was watching and he gives this great example of him learning a similar lesson. He was in the gym space and he put out 300 flyers to promote his gym and to get new people because heard that's how you promote for a gym, you go out, pass out flyers and he posted 300. He then went to a mentor and he said, "Okay, I did it. I did 300 flyers." Or the mentor was like, "How many you did it? " He said, 300. And he says, "Oh, well, that's why." He's like, "What are you talking about? " He's like, "I do 5,000 a day." He said, "You did 300, I do 5,000 every single day." And so it really goes to show what you're doing for promotion is not wrong. Call the email, social media, cool calling, call, whatever marketing you're doing, it's not wrong.
(22:33):
You're probably just not doing it the volume that's nearly sufficient enough. And that's been one of the hardest lessons that I've had to learn and every time I've ... It's very interesting because it constantly happens, unfortunately. And I'm actually working with my team to continue to happen this ... Basically, I've noticed that there's a six week lag. So you do promotion
(23:04):
And then the income is about six weeks and it's pretty consistently six weeks after. And again, this is just what I've seen to be very true. And so you do promotion, don't worry about it, but judge it from week six to week 12. That's when you can judge your promotion. Don't judge it for the first six weeks, but you got to be going hard for six weeks. And that's again, being patient, being willing to be consistent. So the overall lesson beyond that is just consistency is the key.
Michelle Kane (23:38):
As an
Jake Isham (23:39):
Artist, it's the hardest for me because I just want to create. I want to do the
Michelle Kane (23:43):
Next
Jake Isham (23:43):
Thing. People call it ADD. I disagree with that personally because it's just being an artist. That's what artists do. There's nothing mentally wrong with that's just being an artist and it's being creative. And as an entrepreneur, you are an artist. You're literally creating something that was never there before a business, a product, a service. It didn't exist until you put it there. You're an artist. That's a whole nother rant that I can get into.
Karen Swim, APR (24:14):
But I think that that business development lesson, it's one that we talk about a lot, but you frame it in a way that everybody should take this lesson. It's
Michelle Kane (24:25):
The
Karen Swim, APR (24:25):
Consistency, but it's doing so much more than you think is necessary because people will be consistent, but they're doing what feels like a lot because they're not comfortable doing business development, but it's really not enough. So amp it up like times 20
Michelle Kane (24:45):
And
Karen Swim, APR (24:45):
You're getting closer. And I think that that's something that has to be said and we see people that are putting themselves out there and they're consistent and they're telling stories and they're sharing reels and they're doing things and you see them all the time and it feels like a lot to you and it feels like they have a superpower. They don't. They just know that volume matters. It's not just the consistency, it's volume. Now obviously you've got to have the quality and the stuff to back it up, but I also like that you look at the data, but you measure it when you know you're supposed to, because you're right, you can't do something for like four weeks and then think, "Okay, well, that didn't work. I'm just going to go sit at my desk and talk to my friends and hope that they refer me business.".
Jake Isham (25:34):
Okay, great. It didn't work. I posted on social media for four weeks. It didn't work. Well, first of all, how many posts did you do? It was interesting when I started posting on ... Again, I did an experiment. I posted on social media, I was posting three times a day on multiple channels, like three different videos every single day. And then again, six weeks later, the income jumps up. It is literally ... But again, I'm posting three times a day. So right now I'm working on how do I post up to six times a day across multiple ... Granted, I have my photography, I have my filmmaking, I have
Michelle Kane (26:11):
My
Jake Isham (26:12):
Marketing channel, so I can post a bit more, but great, how can you do just so much volume? And once you do enough volume, the quality gets there and it's something that you need to ... I always look at 1% better. So just to give a quick example, if I may. So I started a new show with a buddy of mine. We talk about filmmaking, news in the filmmaking space and gear, et cetera, because we just shooting the shit one day and my-
Michelle Kane (26:50):
Is that the name of it?
Jake Isham (26:52):
It's called The Creative Lens. So if there's any filmmaking
Michelle Kane (26:54):
Notes out there- Okay. I like shooting the shit though. That's good. That could be for your next podcast, shooting
Jake Isham (27:01):
The shit. Exactly. And if you remember from the pre-interview probably, my setup looked nothing like this. If you look at the first episode, we've done, I think, eight or nine episodes so far at the time of this recording right now. And if you look at the first episode, his setup looks legit. It looks awesome. Mine looks horrible. I'm in a white room. I'm like, "It looks not interesting." And then if you look at it like just a frame from each episode over the next eight episodes, you go, "Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow." And so I'm a big proponent of like, what's one thing you can do to make it look a little better, to make it a little bit more professional, to make it a little more interesting for the audience. It doesn't need to be, "Okay, we need to go jump to 10." No, it's the same thing like working out.
(27:53):
You're not going to throw a hundred more pounds on whatever weight you're doing. You go, "Let me do five more pounds at the gym for my bench press. Then let me put another five pounds." So eventually you are at a hundred pounds more, but it really just takes the discipline of, let me just get a little better, a little better.
Karen Swim, APR (28:16):
Yeah, I love that. I think that's a great note to leave with our listeners. Wow,
Michelle Kane (28:23):
For sure, for sure. So how can our listeners connect with you? Do you prefer LinkedIn? Hit us up. Tell us where they can find you online.
Jake Isham (28:32):
Totally. LinkedIn is great. Search my name Instagram, Jake Creative Marketing. Oh my God, I have way too many social media platforms. Jake Creative Marketing on Instagram, LinkedIn. Otherwise, you can kind of Google my name. You'll see my photography, my filmmaking, my agency stuff, otherwise creativemindsofficial.com. More than happy to help just always reach out.
Karen Swim, APR (29:00):
And don't worry, listeners, we will of course have all this in the show notes for you as always so that you can connect with Jake. And we know for a fact that we have filmmakers in our audience, we have photographers in our audience. And so I know that this is probably really good for you that you're really excited about this. I know somebody specifically that went to my alma mater and went to film school there, so this one's for you.
Michelle Kane (29:32):
Wow. And we thank you so much for being here, Jake. And to our listeners, thanks for listening if you got something out of this, and of course you did, please share it around, hit us up at soloprpro.com and of course our podcasts are all available at thatsololife.com. And until next time, thanks for listening.