We were lucky to catch up with Brendan Hernandez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brendan, thanks for joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

It started back in 2020, I was working at this place called Trulucks in uptown Dallas. February of that year I was let go but at the same time I was working for free for a real estate firm in the process of getting my license. My interview went horrible and the CEO Chastin J. Miles had no plan of hiring me and saw it going no where. He eventually hired me because I said “I will work for free” after bugging him for a week straight. I wanted to be around a team so I could learn. I eventually asked for a job in marketing so I could create and earn a living in the process of getting licensed. I did that for 2 months when come to find out I wasn’t very good at it. Chastin was a real estate influencer  and had a camera lying around. One day I took that camera and decided to shoot a podcast wanting to start a Youtube channel around interviewing entrepreneurs. At this point in my life I just wanted to be successful at SOMETHING. I felt like I was failing at everything. A year prior to this I had to move back home with my parents from California and had to borrow $300 to get back which was paid back. I couldn’t get a job, so my little sister got me a job at McDonald’s from sun up to sun down we worked together. I worked a few restaurant jobs leading up to the real estate company.

Back to the interview. The next day when I came in Chastin called me into his office and said ” obviously marketing isn’t for you, but I don’t want to let you go, because what you did yesterday sparked an idea in me, and I see something in you. I’m going to create a roll for you to document “my entrepreneurial journey” and from that day on I haven’t looked back. I worked 3 years for him, and along that journey we traveled a lot, shot a numerous amount of vlogs went to many seminars and a lot of those speakers I would listen to til 4 am because I couldn’t sleep that I’ve now met and worked with some. I basically became Chastin’s “D-Rock” and for those of you who don’t know who that is, that’s Garyvee’s camera and social media guy. So within 3 years I helped Chastin grow his following from 40k to 80k on YouTube, 18k to 122k on Instagram, and 0-350k on TikTok.

I eventually got my real estate license after failing the exam 5 times. I did real estate for about one and a half years, I did a lot of leases but wasn’t as good at it as I was being a videographer and digital creator. So when the beginning of 2023 came around I knew I had to make a decision, and the decision was I can’t do both anymore, and it was time to move on from the company, that’s when my true entrepreneurial journey started.

I started reaching out to realtors who I had built relationships with attending so many seminars and meeting people, I followed up with them the same way you get business in real estate I just applied it to my social media business, I started doing one time offers as a freelancer, recording video and photography, and eventually rolled that into real estate agents  getting them on monthly retainers creating package deals for them to build there brands, followers, presence, and social media platforms. The start of 2023 was tough because I had a few one timers but it wasn’t enough to pay the bills, I had to go back to bar backing at a restaurant, while running my business on the side. My first big client outside of Chastin was Naeem Boucher, a realtor I met at a EXP Realty event 2 years before this. He reached out before a shift asking me to come to San Diego to record him speaking on stage, the biggest audience he had ever spoken in front of. The dates were the same dates I had to work a shift and ill never forget before one shift I was hesitant on going because I didn’t want to lose my job, and said ” brother if you don’t jump now, then you never will… and then shouted there are two types of people in this world, Lions and sheep, which one are you? I quit that same day and went. Got my first retainer that same year in May and by then end of 2023 I had traveled 25 times, 16 different cities, and ended the year with 4 people on monthly retainers. One of them being Ramon Casaus owner of Roc Real Estate Partners out of Scottsdale Arizona, and business partners with Tarek El Moussa best known for co-hosting HGTV’s Flip or Flop.

By the end of 2023, that year facing multiple evictions, car repossession, power shut off multiple times, showering with cold water in the dark in tears, sleeping in my car in a different city I was in to do business with, and multiple breakdowns leading to breakthroughs started to pay off. My thought process changed that year to “there is no going back”, because you’re doing what God had sen you out to do. Sharing your gifts to help and inspire the world the way he does.

Brendan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a creator, it started when I was 7 years old, my parents bought me a guitar for my birthday from Walmart, I wanted to learn how to play, and over the course of 20 years I became highly good at eventually evolving into my own sound. I didn’t realize I had been working the left side of my brain (the creative part) that it was very easy to transition and spark of creativeness into other creative things.

I grew up also a fan of video, documentaries, music videos, artist on tour vlogs, that I was planting cool ideas I was seeing into my subconcious mind at a very young age til when I picked up a camera it was easy for me to just go.

It basically all came from one person giving me ONE shot to become his personal videographer which then led to other things involving social media and brand awareness. Which included Youtube Videos (shooting and editing) repurposing content, text graphics, vlog style videos, Short form videos like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube shorts, captions, and motion graphics to carry out the videos vision. So when it was time to start my own business I offered the same services for people in real estate who I had built relationships with in the last 4 years and seminars and networking events.

The problem I solve for clients is the consistency of creating and posting content that tells the world who they are to gain a following, inspire and get people on there wave. whether it’s for business advice or to do any sort of business.

What separates me from the rest is my view and go about on creativity, I believe everyone has it just some lean into if not ever or more than others, I also have a certain style with what I do. The same way I developed playing the guitar.

I’m most proud of is the ability to connect with others with what I do, it inspires others to want to be more creative than what they actually are, and what I love working with my clients is I Learn about them, their stories and what they’re set out to do, in a way becoming a therapist because getting “feeling” involved creates a better result. Feeling is the secret.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Yes. To help and inspire the world with the gifts God has given me. I think one of the saddest things is being great at something and no one ever knows about it, or have never tried, let alone use it bring others up.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the idea of scarcity, that there is an endless amounts of opportunity out there. I learned that real fast being a realtor, I would get worked up when I got ghosted by clients, or them deciding they were going to use someone else. So I had to practice the “Law Of Detachment” so in my Social Media Business if I lost someone I just thought, “there’s more out there.”

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brendan_j9/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@brendan_j9