Videographer and Marketer An Interview with Jacob Landis Eigsti from Jacob LE

This is the transcript of our interview. Please excuse any grammar inconsistencies. 

Please scroll to the end to see links to Jacob's sites and FREE content.

Content covered in this interview includes:

• Ultimate Marketing Strategy for Small Business Owners
• Time blocking
• Creating a Compelling Vision
• Effectively communicate the ways you're better than every competitor
• Using a variety of Marketing Tactics
• Productivity Planning (get Jacob's new planner for FREE)
• Three books Jacob highly recommends

Barry: Hi, this is Barry Donovan with first impression warrior. Thank you for joining us. First impression warrior is designed for you, the warrior that is on the front lines creating great first impressions for your clients. Whether you're a graphic designer, freelancer; whether you're an agency or a print shop. We're here to help you grow your business. Now let's get right to our podcasts. Today we have a special guest, Jacob Landis Eigsti. Did I get that right Jacob?

Jacob: Perfect.

Barry: All right. Jacob is with Jacob LE. He's a video production producer as well as a small business consultant in the area of marketing. But I'm going to shut up and let Jacob introduce himself. So Jacob, tell the audience who you are, what you do. And again, welcome to the podcast.

Jacob: Thank you so much for having me on. I started my business about four years ago. It was an addition to a marketing job, so it started off just being on the weekends. It started off just being video production, but in time I learned people don't just want a video, they want a specific result. So I start incorporating strategy. Recently I've been offering that as its own service, just trying to do everything I can to help out small business owners, get them the biggest results possible and really help them to change their business and shape it into something that they love showing up to every single day.

Barry: So you've been at it a while and I've known you for four years now and I've seen you go from just getting started to doing some great video work. Jacob knows what he's doing there folks. When I talked to you about doing the podcast my focus was on video, since then like you said, incorporated helping the small business people get started, marketing strategies, those types of things. And you've actually written an ebook called the Ultimate Marketing Strategy for Small Business Owners. Tell us about that.

Jacob: Yes. So I've found there's so many helpful resources in terms of marketing, but they're just small little takeaways. So I really wanted to create a game plan for myself to use. But after talking to hundreds of business owners now and learning what they're struggling with or the challenges they're facing, creating something that really looks at what's the highest impact things that people can do for their business or for their marketing and really pinpointing those, looking at ways to save time so you can actually implement what you're planning out with your limited time and limited resources. What you can do that'll really move the needle for your business and get you exactly where you want to go. I think a lot of people jump into tactics like a Facebook ads or blogging or things like that, but often the highest impact things, the core is really your message, knowing exactly who your audience is and precisely what they want to hear.

Barry: Great. In your book, I noticed you have four bullet points on the second or third page that talk about picking the right marketing priorities. You want to talk about those? I'll read them off and you speak to it. How's that?

Jacob: Perfect.

Barry: So the first one you mentioned is block off time for marketing and do it consistently.

Jacob: Yes. I think that is so key because with hitting any goal, whether, it's like losing weight, people can create this unbelievable plan and then a week later it falls apart. So really it's about creating habits. And often I think marketing can have some of the highest impacts. So I do the most important marketing tasks very first thing in the morning before I check email and before I do anything else. I do this so I can get in like at least an hour or 90 minutes of really high impact activities. A lot of small business owners just randomly do stuff when they have the time. But if you make marketing part of your schedule, even when things are fairly busy. . . it's so important to have a steady flow of customers, so focus on marketing first. That's really what changed my business in such a huge way. Also to have some choices and be able to say no and actually find the right customers because it's just so different working with people who have the money and are great to work with versus having to take on whoever and having that feast or famine where things go up and down with your number of customers and your income.

Barry: Yes, time blocking and consistent consistency are key. I totally agree with you. 100% I tried to do this, and it can be very difficult. There are so many interruptions. You have to be very good about saying no to those interruptions. Right?

Jacob: Absolutely. Yes. So time blocking is where you just create a list of things you're going to get through and spend like 60 to 90 minutes with notifications off. I usually have my phone in the other room and just so laser focused. It's amazing how much you can accomplish when you just have all your focus and energy in 60 minutes. You can do things that'll really make a big impact for your business.

Barry: I agree 100%. Actually one of my little tricks is I take the timer on my iPhone and I set it for an hour and I hit start and then until that buzzer goes off, I don't take any phone calls. I don't look at email. I focused on the task at hand.

Jacob:  That's awesome. Yes, that's an amazing strategy. I even have some music where it's kind of high energy, but no words that just, it's almost like a cue. It puts me in the mood of okay, this CD is playing and every time it plays I'm super productive, so it's a mental cue to get me in that zone.

Barry: Yes, that's a great strategy. Now the second thing you mentioned is create a compelling vision for where you'd like to take your business.

Jacob: I want to speak to that. Yes. I think that is just so valuable because as a small business owner, as an entrepreneur, there will just be so many challenges and struggles and things to overcome and it becomes so much easier once you have a compelling vision. Once I became really obsessed with my clients and had a longer term vision for where I wanted to take the business. . . .that's what has made a huge difference. So I wake up every morning just feeling excited about what I get to do, who I get to help. So, just having that really clear vision, not only will help motivate you and get you through the tough times, but it'll make it so much easier to communicate with your customers and put them first and in all your marketing, connect with them directly and actually say the things that they're going to resonate with them.

Barry: Makes total sense to me. So the next one I'm looking at here is effectively communicate the ways you're better than every competitor. So differentiating yourself from your competition. Is that what we're talking about here?

Jacob: It is. It's just often people want to communicate that they're great at this thing or that thing or this other thing. But I think it's so powerful finding one area to really focus on and saying, okay, we are going to be better than anyone else at this one thing. If you're a pizza company there's so many different things that you could be the very, very best at. But let's say if it is just the best ingredients in town, just really committing to that and communicating that really, really well. Put a lot of your energy and focus into it. When people talk or they're thinking of referring you or things like that, if there's one area where you just absolutely excel above everyone else and you're talking about that more than anyone else, that's just a really powerful way to get yourself known and to stand up from the crowd.

Barry: Yes. And in something that ties into that I read this morning actually, I have a book called Copywriting Secrets by Jim Edwards and now I'm on his mailing list, right? But he provides some great value in his emails. So I do read them. Something he put in one of these emails this morning was "focus on what the product does for people, not on what it is." 

Jacob: Right.

Barry: If you think about that it makes total total sense. So many of us are guilty of wanting to spew out there and say, this is what my product is. . . . and we kind of put on the back burner what it does for the person.

Jacob: Yes. That is so key. And yes, that's a great book. I have that one as well and I'm on his list. Yes, differentiation could be being the very best, I have a very specific outcome for the customer or a very specific experience for the customer. But if you can create something, someone can't find to the same extent anywhere else, that's really, really powerful for your business.

Barry: Exactly. Okay. Then the last bullet point or item that you talk about in your ebook is look at a variety of marketing tactics and then pick a couple of them that you can focus on.

Jacob: Yes, I think that this is absolutely huge. So there's a hundred potential things that you can be doing and I think what a lot of small business owners do is they just hear someone says, Oh, you need to be doing this on Facebook, so they start doing that. They don't really see results so they jumped to the next thing and are just kind of randomly picking different tactics and I think it's so much more powerful if you look at what's out there . . . because some are going to work better for you than others. I think the level that you enjoy doing things is really important. If you just hate going on Instagram, that's probably not the best tactic to take. There's a lot of choices, committ to a few, having a realistic idea of how much time and how much money it's going to take to get really, really good at that to get a bunch of customers and just be laser focused on a few things.

Jacob: For me it was building up my website traffic. It took six months. I knew that going in and it was a lot of hard work, but six months later it really, really paid off. You know, it's constantly trying to improve and get better and better and better at those things. I've seen a lot of people who pick something and they say I'm going to do YouTube, but they're not really improving or getting better or seeing what's not working. And it's possible to stay stagnant if you're not learning and adapting and getting better over time.

Barry: Yes. Laser focus was the word I wrote down as you were speaking. It makes total sense that we get focused on these things and that's kind of a common theme throughout everything we've been talking about . . . be consistent. And narrowing down to what is that key differentiator that your you have over your competition. What are you better at? Right. And then focusing on how am I going to get the word out? What am I going to use? And being consistent about that over time.

Jacob: Yes. And I think it's really important. You know, often we track return on investment . . . if I spend $1,000, what am I getting back? But I think it's also really important to track return on time. You know, as small business owner's time is incredibly valuable. So people may think of something as quote unquote free because it just cost them their time. But if you're spending a lot of your time on something and it's not getting the results, that's really costly to your business as well. And sometimes some of the best approaches do include spending money. Some of the best results I've gotten are through certain ads where it can just reach so many more people and be super targeted. And you know, as long as it's bringing me customers at the right cost, it's super beneficial for my business.

Barry: Right. Well time is everything. We can't get it back once we use it! Well, we've talked about some marketing strategies, some things to do to prioritize your marketing. Before I go to the next question, which is going to be once you land a prospect, after you do all this marketing, what is your process and procedures, kind of your pre engagement consulting, that type of thing. But before, I don't want to forget, you recently produced a productivity planner that I saw you posted on LinkedIn, so I want you to talk about that briefly right now and then we'll get to the next question.
​
Jacob:  Yes, I've found just with my business, a huge game changer for me has been using a planner where you can actually schedule out your time for each day. You know, when I started using it, I thought it would be very restrictive, but it's actually been the exact opposite. So I'm able to set my priorities for the day, have my to do list, and be like, okay, I actually have to figure out the order that I'm going to do them and how long they're going to take. Because what I found is I would also often have a to do list that's 15 items and then I'd get through six and they weren't the right six. Then I'll get really discouraged because I didn't make it through that list. So being able to schedule it out hour by hour, building in some buffer time, and some time for things to come up has been just such a big thing for productivity.

Jacob: I found one planner that I liked fairly well, it was $20 for a six month period, but I wanted to create something that was a little bit more affordable for people and also included things that weren't on any of the other ones. So I've done a lot of studying with science and productivity. Exercise is important, So actually planning and doing a workout, I try to do one at least five, six days a week because it gets so much energy and makes me a lot more productive. So it actually ends up saving me time. Same thing with having a time that you end your Workday. I also built in a thing where people can, for the task, give it a value. So to say, okay, this is a $8 an hour tasks that I'm doing. And you notice patterns and say, okay, what can I outsource? Or what can I eliminate?

Jacob: So it really puts the focus on the things that will have the biggest impact. So you, having daily, weekly, and 12 week plans. I think doing it this way is actually an awesome way to set goals because of the yearly goal. . .  It's such a long time period. It's easy to kind of fall behind in February and say, Oh, I'll make that. I've got, you know, 10 months to get back on track. Whereas, 12 weeks is a lot more concise and you can really sprint to the end of it but still accomplish really, really huge thing. So I've tried to really build it around what I've done that's had a huge impact and things that you can track that will really help you quite a bit.

Barry: Sounds awesome. Now, how can people get that?

Jacob: So it is on my website. It is Jacob-LE.com/planner. I have some other awesome offers that I created that people can get, but I'm doing it for free and people just have to pay for shipping. So I'm getting it to them for the exact costs that it cost me to produce and ship them.

Barry: Great. I will list that in the show notes, so you folks can check that out. Well thanks for that, Jacob. I didn't want to forget that. Now we're gonna move on here. We got about five more minutes and I'm just curious how you go about working with your clients. You know, what your procedure is during that pre engagement consultation that you have. So if you could speak to that and then we're going to wrap up with a few short questions.

Jacob: Perfect. Yes, so I always center it around exactly where people want to take their business and the exact result that they want to get. So for a lot of them I have a quick questionnaire where I can really see where they're at, where they're hoping to go. I have a few different consultation plans. So one of them are super focused two hour strategy sessions where at the end they'll have a to do list and a lot more clarity on their vision and things like that. And for another one, it's like a three month thing where we first strategize for a month and then we moved to building out their plan for a month and then automating it. Or it's bringing in a consistent amount of leads and that's more of a done for you solution. So the two hour consultation is more so for people who want to implement a lot of it themselves and getting clarity on that. But yes, for every single plan or every single time I talk with people, it's just really trying to pinpoint the best possible way we can get them results, valuing their time and valuing their dollars and really working with the resources that they have to get the results that they want.

Barry: It sounds like you've got a little something for everybody. Okay, I've got a couple more questions. These are short, quick fire questions. First, I'm going to put you on the spot here. What's the biggest mistake you've made as a business owner?

Jacob: I think the biggest mistake was not knowing what I considered the most dangerous number in business, which is the number one. So relying on one customer or one channel for all your leads or things like that. I had one customer that was 85% of my income at one point and it was great. They were super happy with me and then that just went away overnight and almost crashed my business. I think a lot of people deal with this. If you're getting all of your leads through Google or all of them through Facebook or all your money from one customer, that potentially can wreck your business because it can go away overnight and a lot of times small businesses start out that way.

Barry: Yes, they think, oh, I got this client, I'm making this money, I'm going to start my own business now. It wasn't really a full time gig or anything, it was just. . . I think I can do this. And then they land this client who's paying the bills and they kind of forget that if you're going to run a business, you got to have people in the queue so to speak, lined up to bring them on new business. Otherwise that one client goes away, like you said, no more business.  The next thing I want to ask you is why do you think the majority of new businesses fail other than what we just talked about?

Jacob: Okay, so I think there are a number of reasons. I'll try to keep it brief though. But I think so many issues just come back down to having enough customers and that consistent flow. Cause I found with my business, what almost made it go away was I spent so much time lining up people. I worked with difficult clients, working a hundred hours a week and couldn't devote any time to marketing and then suddenly I just wouldn't have anything lined up. So building up a consistent flow of steady leads and being able to attract people who have enough money but also you really enjoy working with will just make your life so much easier. I think burnout or just being exhausted or fed up with the long hours or difficult customers can really lead to a lot of people giving up. Sometimes people just get more and more customers, but a lot of them are difficult and challenging or not paying them enough. Having a lot more leads really allows you to work with people that you love and really focus on the people you want to help the most.

Barry: Perfect. Now I know you and you're a vigorous reader, so I'm going to ask you, how many books did you read last year?

Jacob: Last year it was 180.

Barry: Are you reading them all or what's your technique here?

Jacob: Okay. Yes, so 20 of them I read the physical book and 160 of them were audio books. I trained myself to listen double speed and just be constantly listening when I was making dinner or doing laundry or certain tasks, or work I could do while listening to audio books.

Barry: Great. Well, just through osmosis doing that, you gotta learn something. You've done 180, let's say of those 180 what are the top three you might recommend to our listeners?

Jacob: The One Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib, it's pretty cheap on Amazon. That is just an amazing book, really focusing on similar things that I do. Marketing for small businesses, how it differs and it just does such an amazing job explaining how to find the right customers and create that plan. Atomic Habit is so powerful just in terms of forming habits and the science behind that for really anyone and number three Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson is really incredible. It covers selling and finding the right people and especially for anyone who's interested in doing a course or an information product or just finding their tribe or their people who they really connect with. It's just so packed with valuable information.

Barry: Yes, I have the last one, Expert Secrets sitting here on top of that, as I said, is Copywriting Secrets and both of them are dog-eared to death. Well Jacob, that's about all the time we have and I really appreciate you coming on today and sharing your knowledge and information about marketing. We didn't get into the details on video production and those types of things, but if people want to engage you on that, where can they find you?

Jacob: Yes, so I have the most on my website, I have a blog with a ton of posts and that's Jacob-le.com. The ebook, I have that for free. People just need to punch in their email. That's a jacob-le.com/ebook

Barry: Perfect and again, I will list this in the show notes for you folks to check out. I highly recommend them. Well again Jacob, thanks for coming on and folks check out Jacob's information. Next week I'm not sure who we're talking to cause I don't have my paper in front of me, but you know, be sure to check out our podcast folks and have a great day.

Jacob: Thanks so much for having me on. It was great talking with you.

Barry: You bet. Jacob, thank you.

Barry: 
Thank you for listening and please share our podcast with others if you found it of value. If you're interested in learning more about our platform VisnessWare, a platform that allows you to host, manage and publish your custom design digital business cards, please visit visibledigitalsolutions.com  Thank you again and go make it a great first impression.

Here are all of the links to the resources mentioned in this podcast:

Jacob's Website: https://jacob-le.com
​Ebook: https://jacob-le.com/ebook
​Planner: https://jacob-le.com/planner

Books:
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​The One Page Marketing Plan
​Atomic Habits
​Expert Secrets

Cheers til next time,

Barry "Custom-Designed Digital Business Card" Donovan