We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Isaac Odeniran. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Isaac below.

Isaac, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I believe it takes hard work, commitment, consistency, diligence, continuous development, re-invention of oneself, and faith to find ones purpose and to be successful in it. Hard work in the sense of working hard continuously. Developing oneself through training and exposure to current trends and the desire to acquire knowledge and catch up with changes. I also believe faith in God has a place in finding purpose in life. When we walk in purpose and combine hard work, diligence and consistency to the mix we are sure to find success. Success for one person may not be success for another. A successful mother is different from a successful baker or a successful accountant or a successful homemaker. Success is relative to the lane you were called to walk in.

Isaac, 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 first started out in housing and property management in 1990 then set up my own property business in 1992. I still run the property business and also own a portfolio of properties. In 1999 I founded an Entertainment Company that produces, promotes and distributes gospel music and we first ventured into film making in 2013. I wrote my first book The Commercial Sense Project in 2011 and wrote my second book Jordan’s Demeanours which was about the history of Gospel Music in The United Kingdom since 1948 in 2014. The record label I founded is called Zoe Records UK and the film company is called Zoe Films UK. The record label has released about 1000 tracks in 25 years and has a catalogue of about 300 music videos. The film imprint has made 10 feature films so far. We also have a syndicated radio show called Zoe UK sound of Gospel radio show which airs in America, Canada and the United Kingdom. We have a touring Exhibition called Jordan’s Demeanours exhibition which tours in cities across the United Kingdom. We curate live music shows to promote gospel artists called Zoe Nites and have an annual Gospel Music Festival called Freedom festival. Our record label has worked with artists such as 11 time Grammy award winning Shirley Caesar, Coko of Sisters with voices, JayEss, Beverley Moore, Dennis Parkes and Dawn Thomas Wallace.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

My main business which finances the creative work we do is property management which I have been involved with since 1992. From 1999 I started the record label and we started the film imprint 2013 when we made our first film. Since then I have gone on to do a Masters degree in film making and film making now takes a lot of my time even though this started as a side business. We have also received a lot of accolades and recognition for our film making ventures. The film making first started out of an idea to help a fellow film maker but in the process it led me to getting into film making and I now make more films than the person I started out to help. I have a slate of over 80 films as work in progress but this was never envisaged at the time I decided to help my friend out with her film.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think one of the things that help build our reputation in the area of film making is that we were probably the first to do what we do consistently at the scale we do it. Also I believe we tell authentic stories and we try our best to get the best quality for our budget. I believe the story we tell in our films resonate with our audiences and this helps to promote the films. We also try to make our films connect to a wide audience. This is intentional.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.zoefilms.co.uk www.zoerecords.co.uk
• Instagram: @zoerecordsuk @zoefilms1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zoefilms1/
• Linkedin: Isaac Odeniran
• Twitter: @ZoeRecordsUK @ZoeFilms1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMiUTCEEe9tRyjzkDxEq75Q

Image Credits

Photographs by Ryan Haven and Saikat Mridha