A PR Focused Conversation with Isaac Mashman

Isaac Mashman1:47

[Hey, Paul], how are you doing today, man? Thanks for the invitation.

Isaac Mashman1:58

Yeah, absolutely. My name is Isaac Mashman. I'm originally from Jacksonville, Florida, here in the United States, and I'm currently living in a state that probably most people who aren't from the United States forget about, and that is Little Rock, Arkansas. I've been here for about three years now.

Isaac Mashman2:29

Yeah, and you know, Bill Clinton is from... I don't think he's from Little Rock specifically, but he is from Arkansas, and the airport here is actually named after him. A little bit about me professionally: I run a public relations firm called Mashman Ventures. I specialize in personal branding. This is an aspect that is growing in our current culture. If you think about social media, you think about what you're doing online, you think about how you can grow a business, personal branding is at the center of that. Every single time you're on a social media platform, ultimately you are doing something to grow your personal brand.

A couple years ago, pretty much straight out of high school, I jumped into the world of business rather than taking the traditional route to go to college. It was a trial and error process of trying to find what I wanted to do, what I could see myself sticking with, and what was scalable for the foreseeable future. I was looking for that vehicle. We could talk about having that primary vehicle to allow you to make other investments, because real estate is not something that is my primary focus, but it's something that I definitely have a keen interest in and am looking to learn more about over the following couple of years.

But the thing is, I didn't want that to be my career; I wanted a vehicle to allow me to make those investments and do those things. So a lot of what I'm doing today is helping other people grow their personal brands in a consultancy fashion, and really just highlighting and pinpointing what they could do to improve their online presence, what they could do to grow their local reputation, what they could do to strengthen what they have going on. That's kind of a 30,000-foot overview.

Isaac Mashman5:23

Yeah, well, and I feel like we should simply mention that really quick, to kind of give the listeners insight into what we were talking about. I used the example of the real estate agent who, obviously, like every single person, has family, pretty much, for the most part. They're the realtor of the family, yet nobody in the family uses them, because they forget that, oh, cousin Susan is a real estate agent. So when it comes time to buy or sell a house, rather than going and using their family member and helping them benefit and helping them grow their business, grow their income, they use an external party.

They use somebody outside of the family. Not to sound too mafia-ish, mafia-like, using somebody outside the family, but think about who you want to give your business to, who you want to support. I want to see the people who are close to me, that I know, like, and trust, and that I'm even related to, benefit. I want to make sure that I'm able to help that. So one of the big things, if you're in real estate or if you're in any business, is really talking and having the confidence to let other people in on what you're doing, and kind of express that, hey, I can help solve this problem. I have the answer to your problem. That's something that a lot of people fail to do.

Isaac Mashman7:52

Well, I can think of a limiting belief that probably many people have, that I would have in my own business working with people to build out their personal brands, and in any other business for that matter: trying to sell any family member anything. You would think, oh, I'm introducing money into the equation. It can affect the relationship. It can affect the dynamic.

Isaac Mashman8:17

That's so true. It can definitely change the dynamic. But when you're talking about selling a house that you've probably been over to, and I don't want to spend too much time on this specific thing, but imagine. No, no, no, we don't have to. [A house] you've gone to, you've had dinner at, you've had Thanksgiving at, and then you're the person who also has an emotional connection and can relate to them. I would think that you would have their best interest at heart more than anybody else and more than an external party. But then the fear of [changing] that dynamic of the relationship could actually harm the relationship more, because then you would go into the Facebook group and say, wow, my brother used somebody other than me.

Now, not saying that every single person would have that, but imagine the animosity that you might have towards that person, of just knowing, like, man, you could have used me. Now you paid somebody else $5,000 or $10,000 in closing fees, and it's like, I could have used that. Those are the little dynamics and those little drama pieces that a lot of people probably have to play with. I like to say that personal branding is ultimately how you build your credibility. It's how you establish your reputation. It's how you really become well known, because you're going to have a personal brand regardless. You've had your personal brand from the moment you were born, but then you get into your career, you grow up, and then you start determining what you want to be known for, what you want to be known as.

Then you can start kind of manipulating that narrative and growing that narrative, and from there reaping the benefit. But if you're not telling the people that you're the most comfortable around, which would be your family members and your friends, about what you do, how can you possibly expect to be comfortable talking to complete strangers about what you do?

Isaac Mashman10:43

Yeah, and a lot of my business is actually online. I would say that 99.8% of the business is online, and I'm actually working to... I'm on this cusp of, do I want to go and expand more of my business offline and in my local area, or do I want to keep that 100% reserved?

Isaac Mashman11:20

Definitely. But one of the examples of a client that did come up in my mind is actually a realtor and real estate agent who is in Texas. She's about half an hour outside of Dallas, and the Dallas market is going big, but she wants to really focus most of her business on kind of one of the outside towns, so she doesn't have to kind of intrude and go into the city. She wants to be able to ensure that she's giving whoever's working with her the utmost experience and being able to serve them the best way possible. So one of the things I was telling her is, number one, you need to put your face out there, but you don't want to be a cliche.

A lot of people in real estate, they're cliches. You think about the business cards that have the face, and I'm calling people out, but it's like they only have the contact number, they have the email, they have the face, but they don't even take the time to put their social media handle on the business card, because there's this misconception that they need to keep business and personal life separate. Now, from a mental health, emotional well-being standpoint, you don't want to be sitting on the couch watching TV or at a ballgame with your kids and doing business on your phone, but to an extent, there is no fine line there, to where if you're on social media, you can be marketing yourself and positioning yourself as that real estate agent and as that person, and sharing your social media handles.

I think about all the different little pickets that go into the yard that have the for sale, for lease, and here's a phone number, and they have the realtor's face on it. They never have the social media handle. If I'm wanting somebody to represent me, I want to know them personally as well. I want to be able to connect with them and trust them. Oh, you're a family person too. You have kids as well. My daughter is the same age as your daughter. So something that is actionable is: put your social media handles out there. If you're not using social media for your business and for your real estate business, then you need to start introducing that aspect and say, well, I just did a showing, and start documenting what you're doing in your day to day.

Isaac Mashman15:57

Yeah. One of the other things that I was telling her too is don't just focus on the business. This, I need to kind of go into detail about, because that would be enough to make me turn off any podcast. Like, don't focus on the business? Let me clarify that before you decide to cut off. One of the things that I was telling her is don't just focus on growing the real estate business, but also focus on growing your personal brand outside of the business and being known as who you are, who she is. Her name is [Promise Roads]. She has no quarrels or qualms with me mentioning her name, but I was like, you need to be known as Promise Roads, the quirky and true military [person], the person that instills confidence in your buying and selling decision.

I'm the realtor that instills confidence. That is the marketing message and such. But then I told her, I was like, something that you could think about is getting into the press, getting into the media, getting these placements, showing and really demonstrating that even if you're early on in your process, you still have value to deliver. Every single thing online, every single opportunity... I found you, Paul, through searching on Twitter, and I came across your page and then reached out and had a conversation. That's as simple as it can be. If you think about it, it was a three-, four-step process that now has established this new budding friendship and this acquaintance. That is the same thing with building your business and building your personal brand.

Isaac Mashman19:07

And another thing is, they're afraid of talking about themselves. That's a big problem people have, because they feel like if they're talking about themselves, they'll be perceived negatively, or they'll be perceived in the wrong way, or what if I say [something wrong]? Our minds have this keen little trait where we all of a sudden pinpoint every single thing that could go wrong. We never focus on what could go right in a situation. That's survival instinct, if we're thinking about, oh, if we set up camp here, what if a tiger comes through, or what if this tree limb falls over, or what if there's a [sinkhole] that opens up underneath us? It's what makes us human, but at the same time...

Isaac Mashman20:06

Now, what I would also say, though, is a quick kind of action item, something that they could do. If you don't like talking about yourself initially, making the conversation about you, I have found that if you make the conversation about the other person, more times than not, you're going to realize that you can introduce what you do in a healthy way, to where you're not coming across as, hey, I'm the realtor, you need to work with me, like you're looking desperate. But let's say you're meeting somebody for the first time in the mall or at a coffee shop, and, for example, you see the name Jack on the cup.

Just say, like, yeah, Jack, that's my grandfather's name. Then you get into a conversation with this random guy who's picking up coffee on a Sunday morning or a Monday morning, and [mingling], you get into a conversation. You're just asking questions about Jack and trying to find out, and Jack is looking to sell his house. Now all of a sudden... and this is in a perfect world, where every single scenario goes right. But it can be a conversation that is as simple as, no way, I know that person too, or, hey, I could do that, or, I've seen that happen before. You just ask questions about that person, and you find layers of rapport.

You start finding ways that you can connect with that person and establish some common ground. With time, that common ground can open up those opportunities to work together, or to be that, you know, Superman who swoops in and is like, hey, I have the solution.

Isaac Mashman22:33

Paul, thank you again for the invitation. I know that you're in between some client meetings too, so I know you've got to get running, but I appreciate it again. If anybody wants to kind of reach out to me, I can be found everywhere online just by Googling Isaac Mashman, or on all my social media handles.

Isaac Mashman23:17

Absolutely, and Paul, you have a great day as well.