Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Richard Jacobs. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Richard, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?

I want those that read this to know they are not alone.

Mental health as a business owner, freelancer, human being is tough. There are many ups and downs, successes and failures, that eat away at our perseverance to keep all the plates spinning. Inevitably a plate is going to fall and break. I want to share that we all have this battle and need to prop up the others around us, reach out and give them a call, sit down over some coffee, go for a walk, whatever.

I’ve had what they call passive suicidal ideation and that is a combination of words I’ve never wanted to say aloud. The thought that my family, friends, the world would be a better place without me. That is a crazy thought. Our colleagues in the creative space and small business world need time off. What I like to call MTO (mental time off). After all, we don’t get PTO (paid time off) :)

MTO keeps me alive. Keeps me pushing forward. Remember to take care of yourself. If you are having thoughts like these or are depressed, reach out to me, to a loved one, to a hotline, to someone. We need all the creatives in this world to make it a more beautiful place.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Richard Jacobs. I started this company out of my passion for technology and web design. My love for coding was developed in 1996 when I began to work in text editors, developing small websites and coding small applications. In my initial non-professional escapades, I was able to help a lot of churches and groups have a site that they could not afford to pay someone to do.

Fast forward to 2014 and the landscape of web design has completely changed. WordPress had taken over 25% of the web at that time. Therefore, after learning to apply HTML, CSS, PHP, JS, and JQuery to the WordPress CMS, I founded this company as Root Web Designs, who helped a lot of local Chattanooga, regional southeast, and national companies “take root” online.

We stress reiteration to our clients and conversion optimization is one of our specialties. Therefore in 2017, we changed our name to LeadStream to better emphasis what we actually do. We are a digital marketing company that creates you a stream of leads, a stream of revenue.

We have been honored to be named one of the top 12 branding agencies in Orlando for 3 years now by Expertise.com and one of the top web designers in Orlando by UpCity.

Some of the clients that we are proud of include the Gary Sinese Foundation, Advent Health, and every single one of the small businesses that we’ve helped in the Orlando area.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Past clients. My whole goal is to develop a relationship with every client. I desire to build trust through transparency, loyalty pricing, and always helping a client reach their goals. If I’m doing my job well, I can always reach out to them to see if they know anyone else I can help. But 9 times out of 10, they send me someone else before I ask.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The best thing about being a creative in my opinion is the delivery. I had a client that started a fish business and had such a huge passion for that industry. He came to me from a past client (his wife) and had nothing but a dream. I created logos, packaging materials, and an ecommerce website for him.

The day I delivered the assets to him, he said, “you’ve made my dream come alive.” I can remember that and it’s been 4 years.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://myleadstream.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myleadstream
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-jacobs-255624a0/