Community Highlights: Meet Jordan Turner of Flake Films

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Turner

Hi Jordan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Like everyone else and their dog, I moved to Nashville originally for music. I had a growing music production business in Utah prior to moving to Nashville, and when we decided to move it here, I was expecting to take a couple years to get integrated into the community. Three days after arriving in our new spot, we found out that my wife was pregnant with our first. It was a strange mixture of excitement (because I’ve always wanted to be a dad since I was like 10 years old) and, extreme fear (because I had left all of my clientele in Utah, and essentially was starting from scratch).

Around the same time a friend of mine that I met at church told me about a position selling Google fiber Internet door-to-door. I know, I know, that sounds pretty awful, but it ended up being the greatest thing for me. I took the job thinking it would be pretty temporary, even part-time, as I got my feet under me in the music world, but it ended up being a two-year full-time position: most days working about 10-12 hours. I ended up being a manager over about 14 other door-to-door salesman and I attribute much of my current success in my business to what I learned selling door-to-door, and managing a team of salesmen and saleswomen.

After about a year and half of working there, some upper management found out that I had a background in “media “and asked if I could do some video work internally for Google Fiber. I took the challenge on, and they really liked what I produced for them. In time, they were asking for videos frequently enough that it was starting to compete with my managerial responsibilities. I suggested to the upper management that I could continue to make videos for them if they relieved me of some of my managerial responsibilities, or if they could at least compensate me for the time I was spending on top of my daily responsibilities. Both suggestions were denied and it left me wondering if I could make this happen on my own.

So that’s what I did. Door-to-door sales taught me a couple major lessons in life. I was not afraid of rejection whatsoever, and I am the author of my own success. Since then, I have been providing commercial marketing for companies, not only in Tennessee, but around the United States. my first year alone of doing commercial videography, I worked with companies and clientele from Saudi Arabia to Bad Axe, Michigan and it only continues to get better.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think any entrepreneur goes through a bumpy road, but you can prevent some of those bumps just from consistently doing the little things every day.

I’ve definitely made some mistakes (not set enough boundaries with some of my clientele, and had to eat the cost). I’ve also had some clientele that are extremely generous.

In the end, it evens out, and I wouldn’t rather do anything else.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I don’t consider myself just a videographer or just a DP. I consider myself a video strategist.

Anytime I meet with a potential client, I ask a lot of questions before we ever start talking about a video. I want to know about their business: what they’re struggling with, what their goals are, what they’ve tried as far as marketing goes, what is working, what isn’t working…

Especially in today’s day and age, every company knows in the back of their mind that they should be releasing content of some sort. What happens as a result of this is usually “quantity over quality”. A lot of companies will put anything out mostly to check a box saying that they are marketing.

My hope is that whatever content I create for companies, solves a specific need.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
I’ve had a lot of supporters and cheerleaders in my life, encouraging me and believing in me.

My wife has been an incredible source of strength and support as I’ve been running this business.

Even at a younger age, I got a lot of encouragement to pursue interests from my parents. My dad usually was the one that said I should pick a more stable career path. My mom was the dreamer that told me I could do anything. And to this day, both of them are still major supports in their own regards.

I also grew up in a church congregation with a man named Greg Winters. He owns a production company out in North Carolina, and I had no idea that that relationship would circle back to me over 20 years later. When I started my business, I reached out to him and he would talk to me on the phone for hours giving me advice, talking through problems… I’ve no idea why he took such an interest in me but I am so grateful for the help that he has given me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.flakefilms.com/
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jordan-turner-ab6285b0
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@flake-films