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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds engages with Jake Isham, a creative agency owner, discussing the importance of storytelling in branding and personal growth. Jake shares his journey from an artist to an accidental marketer, emphasizing the significance of personal branding in driving business success. The conversation delves into the lessons learned from adversity, the role of humility in entrepreneurship, and the necessity of building trust through effective branding strategies, particularly in the real estate sector. Jake highlights the need for real estate professionals to establish their brand to connect with clients and solve their problems, ultimately leading to greater success.
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Jake Isham (00:00)
but it also does not hurt your ego at the slightest. And so like, it’s definitely that like, that shift of like, yeah, I don’t know that. But yeah, so then the confidence to be able to say, yeah, so teach me please. No, no, no, like the confidence in your humbleness. if the more I found that one can lock into that, like those are the most successful entrepreneurs that they are confidently humble.Quentin Edmonds (00:13)
Hoo!Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. I just got a little giddy, Y’all been following me. Y’all know the value I put on stories. I love when people come through with their stories, the authenticity of their story. I’m going to say it now. You know, I know I say it later, but stories have a way of planting seeds that can grow long after you meet somebody. Sometimes your story just plants a seed in them.
And sometimes somebody come and water it, but then the growth you may never see, but it is a seed that you put down in people. so today, man, I have a storyteller here, and I have someone ⁓ who, everything that he does, his business is around helping people brand and tell their story the correct way. And I’m going to let him tell it, but I’m just, like I said, I’m giddy because I know this is going be a great podcast. We’re going to talk about real estate. I’m not going to like make sure that we don’t go too far. We’re going to keep it all in confidence.
I just want to introduce you all to, well, actually, I will say it like this. Introduce to some and present to others, because some of y’all may already know him, Mr. Isham. Mr. Jake, how you doing today, Good. And did I do the last thing? Isham. I did good, right? Was I on it? All right, you just now, I’m practicing in my head. like, wait a did I get it right? So that’s awesome, man. Hey, listen, I want your voice to be the predominant voice. I want to dive in.
Jake Isham (03:11)
I’m doing great. How are you doing?Quentin Edmonds (03:27)
I would love for you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. We would love an origin story. We love the hero’s journey, man. So if you want to tell us, know kind of how you got started to the place where you are now. We would love to know that. And then, man, geographically, where you are in the world. so, Jake, sir, you have the floor,Jake Isham (03:46)
Well, I run a creative agency based in Los Angeles. We service clients around the country. ⁓ We focus on helping entrepreneurs build their personal brand that drives growth for their business. That’s the simplicity of what we do and how we do it. ⁓ So we work with different people in different industries, but typically individuals who are heavily investing in their personal brand and understand that, youthat personal brand is going to drive their growth. And I did not start off from a hero’s journey. is not any, if you would have told like five year old, 10 year old, 15 year old, even 20 year old Jake, this is where you’d end up in his thirties. He would be like, what are you talking about? I jokingly say I call myself an accidental marketer. I never planned on marketing. I don’t have an MBA.
Quentin Edmonds (04:33)
Yeah. ⁓Jake Isham (04:41)
I have a BFA Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production. I’m so fancy with my film degree. So I grew up acting and being on stage and I grew up doing music, performing in front of thousands of people and a lot of fun. ⁓ But then I was sick of waiting for gigs and you could say at heart an entrepreneur, like didn’t understandQuentin Edmonds (04:44)
Yeah. Yeah.Mmm.
Jake Isham (05:11)
The concept of an entrepreneur wasn’t familiar. It was just an artist. But I think every entrepreneur doesn’t like waiting, doesn’t like being passive, and doesn’t like being in control. So there was always that. I always wanted to control my own destiny. So I went to film school, did that, and then left film school going, okay, how do I make money at this now?Quentin Edmonds (05:21)
Yeah.Yeah, yeah,
Jake Isham (06:24)
And through a series of events, you know, we could spend, you know, an hour just talking about that, but basically a lot of ups and downs to eventually starting my own agency, a lot of ups and downs throughout building the agency. And, but here I am, you know, we’ve done over a billion views online for clients. We’ve driven millions of dollars in revenue for them and had a lot of fun laughs and tears along the way.Quentin Edmonds (06:50)
Yeah, yeah, I love it. I love it, man. Listen, I mean, I see the trajectory. If I can talk to five-year-old Jake, I see the trajectory, actually, but I would say this, and I say this probably, Jake, I say this probably once an episode, destiny has no wasted moments. And when I say that, you know, when I say that, I mean, we are amalgamation of just moments in our life. And I think when we trace back,Jake Isham (07:09)
Amen.Quentin Edmonds (07:20)
even to five year old Jake, I think we can start to see that these are moments that kind of make us kind of who we are today, right? And so I would love to know, during the journey, I’ll say it like this, what has destiny taught you about yourself, right? Has it taught you vision? Has it taught you humility? Has it taught you ⁓ patience? Like out of these moments, what has destiny taught you? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.Jake Isham (07:41)
All of the above. All of the above and more. And I thinkit also just comes with age and just doing it enough. I was literally just in a meeting earlier today and he’s a gentleman, a couple years my senior and we were just talking about like, you get old enough and you do it enough, like you just end up realizing like you don’t, you can be humble. You have to hump like how much you’re willing to just be like, yeah, I don’t know that. And there’s…
but it also does not hurt your ego at the slightest. And so like, it’s definitely that like, that shift of like, yeah, I don’t know that. But yeah, so then the confidence to be able to say, yeah, so teach me please. No, no, no, like the confidence in your humbleness. if the more I found that one can lock into that, like those are the most successful entrepreneurs that they are confidently humble.
Quentin Edmonds (08:23)
Hoo!Confidently humble. I mean, that’s, that’s, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her do those words put together like that, but it makes so much sense. You know, I, you know, I do, you know, reading, ⁓ I read a lot. And one of the things that I read is that sometimes you gotta humble yourself. Meaning like you sometimes you just gotta take your ego out of it. Sometimes you gotta put yourself in a position to ask the question and stop acting like you know everything, right?
Jake Isham (08:59)
Thank you.Quentin Edmonds (09:05)
And I love that, you know, we probably gonna talk about it more like relationships, but I always say that community, healing happens in community. And I say community is common unity, it’s us on the same page, working towards the same thing. And I think what you described, like putting yourself asking, building a community where you can ask somebody something, it takes the ego out of it. It lets you know that you can’t do this journey alone. And so I love, man, I love that you said that.And I would love to know along the journey, of course, your success, man, you did over 1 billion views online for your clients. I mean, that’s success. But I would love to know that’s the shiny object. I want to know the journey to get there. Have adversity found you? And if adversity has found you, how has it looked on your journey towards success?
Jake Isham (09:56)
my God, yeah, but it’s interesting because my adversity is not like, I’m unbelievably privileged.loving parents, great family. I have an amazing wife. We’ve now been married, but we’ve been together for over a decade.
I don’t have anything to complain about. don’t have like, I literally just made a video about this the other day, which was like, I don’t have ops. Like, like, I don’t have like, I need to prove my third teacher wrong, because he said I would never amount to like, I went to a nice private school, like, I’m a nice kid, like, I’m a nice kid from the valley in Los Angeles, like, and I was like, the biggest op I’ve had is myself.
Quentin Edmonds (10:39)
No.Jake Isham (11:20)
Like it is the man in the mirror that I’ve had to handle for the last several days, like my entire life, every venture I’ve done, the only person who’s really stopped me is me. Like I am my biggest enemy and still to this day, I am my biggest op. And it’s very funny. I have to literally, like, mean, it’s cause I’ve heard it from like Michael Jordan, where it’s like,I would have to find anything for me to hate that person. And I mean, it’s great because like I have two younger brothers. It’s beautiful because my parents have built a very loving relationship between the three of us. And at the same time, an unbelievably competitive relationship between us. And like recently, my younger brothers have started to like really pick up steam and like really expanding their businesses. And I’m like, ⁓ I don’t know if I’m out of curse, but like, you know.
Quentin Edmonds (11:57)
Mmm.Absolutely.
Jake Isham (12:19)
All right, boys. All right. And you know, my wife just gives me a little look like, you’re gonna let your little brothers do that to you? And I’m like, my wife, that’s, but that’s the best spouse. You’re, you’re, ideally, your spouse is the person who kicks your butt and gives you a kiss at the same time. You know, who’s like, Hey, you better go out there. Exactly. You know, exactly. Like, who’s out there going, Okay, great. You got to be the man youQuentin Edmonds (12:26)
She’s gassing it up.Jake Isham (12:48)
that I married, but also I love who you are, baby. You know, at the same time. And so, you know, the most important decision you’ll ever make, the person you spend your life with, it’s the one person in your life that you like have the most control over who you pick.Quentin Edmonds (12:52)
Mmm!Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Bro, you got.
Jake Isham (13:06)
Like your friends will comeand go, but like your spouse will be there forever. And like your kids, don’t like, you don’t really get to pick your kids. You don’t really get to pick your parents. You don’t get to pick your siblings. You get to pick your spouse and that person is gonna be ideally with you for 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years.
Quentin Edmonds (13:16)
Yeah.Man, you about to make me cry on this podcast, cause I know what you talking about, bro.
Jake Isham (13:34)
We haven’t even touched into real estate yet.Quentin Edmonds (13:42)
You’re We’re gonna get there. But man, you’re right. ⁓ Man, you said so many things that line up. When you talked about, you know, really the app is yourself. Like the inner me is my enemy, right? It’s the inner me that I gotta check. ⁓Jake Isham (13:56)
Because at theend of the day, look, I’m an artist. And so being an entrepreneur was never naturally in my DNA, you could say. It was always just like, I love to lead teams and I love to direct. And so I always naturally was a leader, but I was never like, oh, okay, I’m gonna build a business. They’re two different skill sets. And the idea of sales and marketing and running a team, okay.
Quentin Edmonds (14:17)
Yeah. Gotcha.Jake Isham (14:26)
could run a team, but it doesn’t go, great. How do you do sales? Sales is gross as an artist. That’s why you get an agent, so you don’t have to sell. That’s the entire reason why agents are paid 15 % of everything you make.Quentin Edmonds (14:40)
Exactly. Talk about it.Talk about it. Yeah. Nah, man, you talking. You are absolutely on it, I hear you loud and So let me ask you this. So wasn’t expected to be on Trinidad, but now you are, So what is the next real goal for creative minds? Like, what are you looking to solve? What are you looking to scale? What’s next,
Jake Isham (15:47)
Scale you know, let’s help more people because at the end of the like the biggest thing I realized on the flip side of the artist to the entrepreneur journey is it just comes down to the how many people you can help. If you can just help more people and you get paid a dollar, you get paid a million dollars. Like, okay, if you want to make a million dollars, you either have to solve one person’s problem for a million dollars or you solve a million people’s problems for a dollar.or anything in between. like…
You know, it’s so it just comes down to helping more people and really solving. But that’s how do you help more people? It’s like, well, solve their problems. And so I’ve been able to help solve people’s problems of like, how do you get attention? A lot of people who work with me are creating content for the first time. They’re not, you know, I yes, I have worked with Grant Cardone. They’re not the Grant Cardone’s.
Quentin Edmonds (16:44)
Yeah. ⁓Jake Isham (16:50)
know, Grant worked with me because he flew out to LA and needed a shoot team. didn’t bring, it was cheaper to work with us who were based in LA than to bring his team out here to do the job. So it was a financial decision. It’s all okay, great. We invest with somebody who knows what they’re doing. Great. We don’t have to think about it. Where, but I work with people who never been on camera before. And so they work with me like they work with a personal trainer. Why do you hire a personal trainer? Well,You don’t know what to do at the gym. You need the accountability to even show up in the first place. You know, you’re going to spend a little bit more of a premium so that you like, great, I got my workout in. But I also knew that my workout was effective. That’s going to achieve a result rather than, okay, I don’t like, all right. You know, I tell people all the time, you don’t need to hire me. You have a 4K camera right here. But do know what to say, how to say it, where to stand, how to make it look good?
Quentin Edmonds (17:25)
Yeah.Jake Isham (17:49)
how to be an effect, know, make sure it’s effective. it reaching your audience? Like these are all the nuanced things that being that I’ve done it for so long, come secondhand to me the same way, like as a real estate professional, they hire you. Yeah, they could go find a house and self represent themselves or source their own deals or, you know, sell their own house, right? But they hire a real estate professional because it just makes them that much easier. So they’re willing to pay that commission. They’re willing to pay that fee because they’re like, I don’t have to deal with this.Quentin Edmonds (18:09)
Yeah. Yeah.Yeah.
Yeah. I love it, man. People, they’re not hiring you because you can work a camera. You know what they’re really hiring you for? For the way you think and your expertise. That’s what they’re hiring you for. It’s not, I like you said, everybody has a camera, but they’re hiring you for the way you think. You’re going to think about a story. You’re going to think about a brand in a way that only your mind works that way.
Jake Isham (18:20)
So it’s the same thing.Exactly.
Quentin Edmonds (18:44)
And I’m sure again, you probably been crapping this since she was five year old. Like you’re creative, just mine. I can just imagine a five year old you, being a creative, right? I can imagine him, yeah, yeah.Jake Isham (18:55)
That’s the unique, you know, you could say my USP is that I’m a director at the end of the day. I’m bringing in the filmmaking into social media marketing and branding. Like, that’s I’m coming from that angle rather than okay, great. I’m a marketer and helping tell your story. I’m like, great. What’s your story? Let’s help make it the spin it towards a marketing angle.Quentin Edmonds (18:58)
Yeah. Yeah.Yeah, yeah. So Jake, 15 minutes in, man. That’s all some real estate, right?
Jake Isham (19:23)
Might have to make that exception on the rule for that 20 minute episode. ⁓Quentin Edmonds (19:27)
Right, right,exactly right, right. Give me five minutes, five minutes of real estate. And I want it within your world, within your context, within your framing. So I’m gonna ask you like this. Real estate professionals are looking here. They’re looking, they’re listening to you. Talk to them and tell them why they need a brand. And I’m gonna say this real quick. I think everybody has a brand and you piggyback off this, you can correct me or piggyback off of it.
I think everybody has a brand and that brand is their character. Everybody has a brand. Everybody can promote themselves, promote their character, promote their authenticity. And so real estate professionals, they’re looking. Jake, tell them why they need a brand.
Jake Isham (20:12)
I mean, at the end of the day, it’s the old business cliche. People do business with people they know and trust, right? Actually in real estate, like especially in real estate. So social media and building a brand does those specific two things. No, people they know, you got to get attention. If they don’t know you, as Grant Cardone says, you know, I’m sure there’s a lot of either Grant Cardone lovers or haters on your podcast.Quentin Edmonds (20:19)
Yep. Yeah.Rationally, really, yeah.
Right, right, One of the other rights amazing, but yeah.
Jake Isham (20:42)
It’s a little polarized. If theydon’t know you, they can’t flow you. That’s a grand cardonism. That’s not a me. you know, you gotta give credit where credit’s due. But it’s just that. If they don’t know you, they can’t do business with you. It’s just the simplicity of that. And you have to be top of mind. Next, okay, great, they know you, but if they don’t trust you…
Quentin Edmonds (20:51)
Okay, good.Yeah, yeah,
Yeah.
Jake Isham (21:11)
They’re not gonna do business with you. So how do you build trust? I’ve kind of narrowed it down to a couple points is you know their pain. Whatever problem they’re trying to solve, you know it. You can then communicate that you do know it and that you can communicate that you can solve it and that you have solved it. If you can communicate those points, you’re gonna build trust. You’re gonna go, oh.Let’s say, know, let’s just take a real estate agent, right? Trying to sell a house. ⁓ I’ve sold 17 houses all in this price range in this market. ⁓ okay. You know what you’re talking about? Hey, great. When I sell a house, these are the three main things I do first. ⁓ okay, this person knows what he’s doing. Like I’m a big believer of the kind of ism of
sell a show and give away all of the secrets and sell the implementation.
I’m a big believer of that kind of methodology because as a real estate professional, people are inherently lazy. Why we hire trainers, that’s why we hire, that’s why the entire business of Amazon, Uber Eats, Uber, is based around laziness. We would rather wait two days for a package to arrive than go to Target. Like go to Walmart.
Quentin Edmonds (22:25)
Yes.Yeah. Soldier.
⁓ Tell it.
Tell it.
Jake Isham (22:45)
Wewould rather wait because we could just dial on our phone. Okay, great. I don’t have to leave my couch. I would rather pay a premium double the amount. These Uber eats and door dash fees are just getting double, but we’d rather pay double than go cook some food in the kitchen.
Quentin Edmonds (22:50)
Yeah.Devil Row.
Jake Isham (23:05)
Right? And so people are inherently lazy. People are, oh, I’m worried they’re gonna just do it themselves. You know how much work it takes to sell a house, to do a deal, to, they are not going to do it. Sure. 10%, 5%, 2 % are gonna do it. 90 % of the people are just gonna go, oh, thank God this person knows what he’s talking about. I’ve just been waiting for someone to actually know what they’re talking about and then, please, here’s my money, just.handle my problem for me. The reason why you get scam artists is that, you know, they don’t, they over promise. They go, oh, I’m help make you a million dollars. No, you’re not. But you can help them make $10,000. So they over promise and make a promise that’s so sexy when they can’t actually handle that problem. Say, okay, great. Well, I can sell your house within 90 days. But know your average is 60 days. Great.
Quentin Edmonds (23:43)
Come on.Yeah.
Jake Isham (24:05)
If you don’t, I’ll work for an extra 90 days for free or I’ll drop my commission by half a percent. If I don’t sell it in 90 days. ⁓ that’s a good offer. Okay. Right. So at the end of the day, just building a personal brand is just about building trust and it’s building trust through education. And I’ll just spill one last myth, which is, know, cause you always hear this when you listen to marketing people, which is provide value. And I just want to give a little bit of context on that, if I may.Quentin Edmonds (24:35)
Ooh,come on, J. Mm-hmm. Yes, sir. Yes, bro. I literally was gonna say that out of my mouth when he was done, so please, go ahead.
Jake Isham (24:35)
Right here provide value all the time, right? Everybody, you know that.What is that? What is value? I’ve kind of figured out that it’s defined by three things. People go on social media for one of three reasons. Is entertainment, education, or inspiration.
Quentin Edmonds (24:46)
Woo!Mm.
Jake Isham (25:03)
So let’s again, focus in the real estate space, because that’s what we’re talking about right now. You either need to educate them on the real estate process, your specific way you help people. You’re going to entertain them. Hey, here’s this funny sketch, which, know, look, I don’t recommend it particularly for real estate professionals. You can, but you don’t have to do that. So don’t worry about that. Or inspiration.Quentin Edmonds (25:18)
Yup.Jake Isham (25:32)
you see that’s done all the time online where you see, wow, look at this amazing house. Look at this amazing, you know, for real estate investors. Look at this passive income that you could be making.Quentin (25:46)
And so finally, you have inspiration, which in my opinion, real estate profession, is a fantastic one. It’s a very obvious one. Once I give you some examples, you go, oh, of course. Think about the walkthroughs of beautiful homes. That’s just inspiration. It’s hashtag goals for us millennials and what.Jake Isham (25:47)
you have inspiration, which in my opinion, as a, in root estate profession is a fantastic one. It’s a very obvious one. you go, once I give you some examples, you can go, Oh, of course. Think about the walkthroughs of beautiful homes. That’s just inspiration. It’s hashtag goals for us, know, millennials and whatnot.Right? What’s the Pinterest board? What’s the saved post? What’s the post I’m going to send to my wife or my husband? Right.
Quentin (26:07)
What’s the Pinterest board? What’s the saved post? What’s the post I’m gonna send to my wife or my husband?Right or hey, I’m gonna teach you how to get $10,000 a month of past income You want a place where you don’t have to pay taxes, right? inspiration For from in the investor real estate investor side, I’ve been in the real estate It’s a place for a bit now. Yeah, you know, I have a couple clients in it. So I know exactly what
Jake Isham (26:14)
Or, hey, I’m going to teach you how to get $10,000 a month passive income. You want a place where you don’t have to pay taxes, right? It’s inspiration for from the real estate investor side. I’ve been in the real estate space for a bit now. You know, I have a couple of clients in it, so I know exactly the buttons to pushthe sale online. And so that’s where you’re either providing education, entertainment, or inspiration.
Quentin (26:36)
push and say online. So that’s where you’re either providing education, entertainment or inspiration.Jake Isham (26:44)
I highly recommend staying in the education and inspiration spaces. But if you think, okay, great. Is this content that people are going to either want to save or share? That’s the great metric of kind of before you post, is this something worth saving or sharing? And if you do that,Quentin (26:45)
I highly recommend staying in the education and inspiration spaces. But if you think, okay, great, is this content that people are going to either want to save or share? That’s the great metric of kind of before you post, is this something worth saving or sharing? And if you do that,Jake Isham (27:06)
you’re going to have a great platform of like what to build because at the end of the day, that’s how you build trust.Quentin (27:06)
you’re going to have a great platform of like what to build because at the end of the day, that’s how youbuild trust. Man, so well said. Like, you know, I knew I was going to love this episode, but man, I really appreciate you. You definitely delivered. And I know our audience are picking up these nuggets because we talk about a lot of what you’re talking about, about your brand, your character being your brand.
You grow with yourself like you cannot divorce yourself from your business. If you are a business person, you, all of you is integrated into your business. your, your character, your, your name, all those things that built in. So this was gold for us, man. ⁓ listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, even collaborate. How can they get in contact with you, sir? LinkedIn, Instagram are both great.
Jake Isham (27:59)
LinkedIn, Instagram are both great.LinkedIn is obviously fantastic. ⁓ Instagram, Jake Creative Marketing. If you search Jake Isham you’ll probably find my photography, you’ll my filmmaking, because again, personal brand, but you got to like, it out. And so I have it everything, you so you can obviously DM me on any of them, I will respond. And a simple Google search will show up.
Quentin (28:02)
LinkedIn, LinkedIn is obviously fantastic. Instagram, Jake Creative Marketing. If you search Jake Action, you’ll probably find my photography, you’ve got my filmmaking, because again, personal brand, but you’ve got to like, boost it out. And so I have it everything, you can obviously DM me on any of them, I will respond. And a simple Google search willJake Isham (28:25)
If you want to learn more about my company and some of the more services how I offer and how I help people, ⁓Quentin (28:25)
show up. If you want to learn more about my company and some of the more services, how I offer, and how I help people.Jake Isham (28:32)
I recommend, you know, go to creativemindsofficial.com slash digital show. And, you know, we help build out digital shows and podcasts as a way to network and help build your personal brand.Quentin (28:32)
⁓ I recommend, you know, go to creativemindsofficial.com slash digital show and, you know, build out digital shows and podcasts as a way to network and help build your personalbrand. Yeah. Yeah. So Jake, let me say three things to you, First, thank you for your time because you could have been anywhere in the world, but you chose to be here with us and our value time. We can put a premium on our time.
We, people can pay for our time. we know time is very, very precious and valuable. So thank you for your time. ⁓ secondly, and I, and I say this and I always say it and make so much even today drives home the point. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for your narrative. Thank you for the gift of your vulnerability, the gift of your transparency. Like I said, stories have a way of just planting the seed and we just never know how, what the outcome is going to be. So man, thank you so much for sharing your story.
Lastly, man, thank you for your perspective. Thank you for your mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you, sir. Thank you for coming through, Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. So listen, y’all heard Jake. I tell y’all all the time we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people. So get into the show notes, check him out, contact with him, connect with him, learn more about what he’s doing, but definitely make sure you’re subscribed here because I promise you, and I say it all the time,
Jake Isham (29:41)
Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me.Quentin (30:01)
And I tell you, call me out when we don’t do it. We’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Jake. So sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, listen, y’all have a fantastic day.
