Today we’d like to introduce you to Hermes Jimenez.
Hi Hermes, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I worked for big advertising agencies like Hearst and Sinclair. One being print and digital media and the other mostly TV. I saw how advertising mainly fits big businesses. There was very little product for the small to med size businesses since the pricing is one size fits all. If you’re hooters and want to advertise it will cost the local taqueria the same amount and that seemed off to me as profit margins are very different.
Having been in leadership positions my whole life and having learned about advertising through the training in those companies while I also self-taught a bunch of things and then as a PLUS I’m a very creative person I decided to bet on myself. I had a co-worker who had his own business with his wife. I would always share knowledge on advertising and I told him how I wanted to start my business and he told me “do it, it’s the best thing you can do… Do something every week or at least every month to get you there. One week get your license, then get your website then get your logo, and so on” and I did exactly that.
We are trying to grow more and more and even though I struggle with anxiety, being my own boss has been the best thing I could have done for myself. I’m an immigrant and so are my parents so im very proud to accomplish all this.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Leaving the last 8-5 job I had to start was the hardest. At the time my dog of 11 years had died and I was going through depression. So many things hit at once and on top of that I battle with anxiety. My anxiety is something I’ve had since I was very young. Around 17 years old, and I’m 41 now. All those things and sprinkle in some uncertainty that came with starting a new business and you have a ton of pressure. I didn’t have money saved up or a 401k so it was do or die. Luckily I was able to get clients quickly and went slowly but surely.
This also allowed me the time to work on myself. I weighed 330 lbs at the time and was able to bring it all down to 230 which was a little over 100lbs. All through working out and gym and eating better. That would not have happened had I not started the business as I now had the freedom to work on myself on my own terms.
My bad sleeping patterns became better and through yoga, meditation, and therapy I am now able and have helped others with their anxiety. Especially men who never talk about it. When Covid hit, we struggled a bit but were able to get back on track. I now don’t struggle with anxiety as I once did. So I am very blessed to be in this position.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We work with small to medium businesses. We will work with big companies, but we really try to help the local businesses. A ton of business owners do not know the 1st thing about advertising, and they get taken advantage of by advertising salesmen. That’s why advertising in general has such a stigma to it. I remember when I worked for the big ad agencies if a customer wanted something a little extra done to a campaign it would cost them.
If it was something that would take us little to no effort to do and would help the client, it would end up costing them an additional so and so number of dollars. I never understood why that would make any sense. It’s going to help the customer. It’s going to help the campaign perform better. It’s going to keep the customer happy and it cost us nothing to add, so why not do it? Well, that’s 1 of the things that sets us apart. Another is the ad creation we do for free for the customer. I have been blessed with a creative mind that ad creation and video creation are easy, so many times we include them in the campaigns we run for customers.
Again, it takes me little to no time, it’s easy it’s going to help the campaign, and it’s going to help the customer. We all win. We also do not do contracts. that is unheard of in marketing. We just do a 30-day notice without clients if they want to cancel or stop service. That is in writing. Those things set us far apart from the typical advertising agency. We also do a lot of free work for local businesses. We showcase businesses all the time for free through social media. All that free work we do, I see it as just good karma that will eventually come back to us.
The business logo is the silhouette of my dog that died a few years back. You can see the ears and the snout. It’s just a nod to my awesome dog that is with me all the time.
So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why.
That the business we are advertising for is successful. If they are successful we are successful. That’s the bottom line.
The relationship with the business owner is also meaningful to me because we have to be able to have a very down-to-earth conversation about what they need and what ideas may be working. By having a good relationship we are able to remove the awkwardness that can come with a disagreement or a bad idea. Those are things that mean the most to me and I think as long as we have that in mind, we will be fine.
Contact Info:
- Email: Info@beknowncreativemedia.com
- Website: Beknowncreativemedia.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/beknowncreativemedia
- Facebook: facebook.com/beknowncreativemedia
