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ISOBEL BERMAN
Makeup and Hair: Emily Foley; Photographer: Lewis Darling
ISOBEL BERMAN is a name that ought to be remembered. Having been awarded one of Hearst Group’s ’30 under 30 newcomers’, she is the founder and CEO of one of the UK’s hottest boutique fashion influencer agencies, I SHO. She seeks to disrupt the industry’s status quo - which is often purely transactional and less about the people—one of the first of its kind, the agency doubles as a concierge. I SHO caters to the modern influencer, providing everything from photography to PR to personal shopping, whilst also collaborating with high-street, premium and luxury brands like Farfetch, Karen Millen and The Hut Group across beauty, fashion and lifestyle; who ethically align with its ethos to promote quality products that will last rather than typical fast fashion. Its unique luxury closet rental service has created a way in for many young women wanting to pursue a career as an influencer, who don’t typically come from wealthy families or backgrounds.
Before the inception of her luxe agency, Isobel occupied her dream position in PR, having worked her way up from managing the company’s brand ambassador programme. “It wasn’t something I saw myself doing (referring to owning her own business). If you’d told me two years ago that I’d be doing this, I would have laughed,” she admitted to WOTC. After dedicating over two years to the company, watching it grow from a small business to an international company turning over millions, she recalls sitting FROW at a fabulous Vivienne Westwood fashion show during Paris Fashion Week. In this moment, Isobel was sure she was at the highlight of her career, “I remembered calling my Mum who was back in the UK and saying 'I don't understand how my life gets to be this good, I'm in a job that I love, in Paris, with amazing people around me,’” however she didn't realise that she was quickly approaching burnout.
Makeup and Hair: Emily Foley; Photographer: Lewis Darling
On her return to the United Kingdom, things took a further turn for Isobel as she faced a health scare, which inevitably put several things into perspective for her - namely the future of her once upon a time dream role. Her life goals had taken on a new meaning and she knew she needed time to put herself first. So, at the beginning of the 2020 global pandemic, she decided to depart from the company on amicable terms, counting her old team as “some of the biggest supporters of my onward success.” Isobel, who had worked solidly since the tender age of fourteen years old, was admittedly relieved to have some time to rest. “It was a really important time [for me] because it allowed me to - as cliché as it sounds, connect to who I was, what I believed in and figure out what’s important to me.”
It was here that I SHO was born, and within under a year of its inception, the agency had expanded from Isobel’s home, where she had first started, to a fully staffed office. There was no plan B for the young entrepreneur. She believed that her business would work, conceptualising I SHO in July 2020, and by August, gaining her first client, launching the company officially. “Getting that first client is like jumping through ten hurdles at once. Once you’ve done that, you’re on a roll, but getting to that point is really difficult.” What was most important to Isobel was the service and care she provided each client with. With the modern-day influencer not typically knowing much about business operations and legalities, she wanted to go the opposite direction to her counterparts, who usually saw their clients as paychecks. Isobel invests time getting to know each of her clients, finding out their plans and goals for the future, as well as their interests - questions that most had never been asked before. Within a month of her first client joining the agency, I SHO had worked with an additional twenty influencers through word of mouth.
I SHO look to expand their affluent influencer brokerage department, which runs influencer campaigns for premium brands. Proving to be the solution to existing PR models, which saw brands invest large budgets into agencies who often didn’t deliver and relied largely on free and gifted influencer content, Isobel sought to become the change. “The way we work is different, because we benefit when influencers get paid so we give the brands budget directly to influencers. This way the content creators get a livable rate that they deserve, and the brand gets better, quality content for its money that it can subject to creative direction and consistent messaging - everything we do is about improving the fairness of the industry, whether that comes to content creators getting paid properly for their work or brands getting the return on investment they deserve from campaigns we run.”
For the young disruptor, the people are who really matters to her. “I’m not trying to go anywhere alone - I SHO was never a solo mission. The moment I SHO grows, is the moment my staff and incredible clients grow too,” she comments. Going on, she says “I am surrounded by inspirational women and that makes it easier to be an ‘inspiring woman.’ Our business relies on the success of other women’s businesses as content creators, and not one day goes past where I’m not conscious of that.”
Isobel’s pledge for change within the industry is to become the first carbon neutral influencer agency in the UK. “I’m always facing a personal conflict in that I adore my industry, but I know it isn't the most environmentally ethical place to be,” she admits. “I SHO are currently calculating all of its emissions and offsetting them by planting trees in Haiti, whilst also recycling all packaging received from PR parcels.”
She advises young women who want to follow in her footsteps that they cannot have a plan B. “It’s not the most responsible advice and your parents won’t thank me for saying it, but if you have a plan B, it means you’re not 100% invested in Plan A. That sucks for two reasons: 1, you won’t be giving it your full energy and 2, how can you expect your future customers to believe in you if you don’t?” She goes on to speak about the importance of networking. “Never stop networking, [..] Even if you think there isn’t any opportunity there for you, you never know who or what they’ll know and by working hard to maintain relationships in a genuine, celebratory way, [..] I started I SHO with an amazingly inspiring network around me and this was integral to my success.”
Knowing what she knows now, Isobel admits that she would have worried less. “I now say to myself, ‘will I be worried about this in five years, and if the answer is no, then don’t spend more than five minutes worrying about it.”
Rounding up, WOTC wanted to know what the future of the industry looked like to Isobel. “It’s a very fast changing industry, so trends come and go on a bi-weekly basis, which I love. When I first started in the industry, brands relied on a photographer, stylist, model, set-designer, lighting assistant, MUA, Hair-Stylist, copy-writer AND a platform to advertise the result on. Brands are realising that content creators do all of the above by themselves, brilliantly, and that even if they are paid fairly, it is still cheaper (thus more ROI) than running an entire set. I would like to see creators in the industry continue to take ownership of this and more respect for creators as an independent publication rather than just ‘people who post stuff online.’”
To find out more about the new-age talent management agency, visit www.i-sho.co.uk.
Makeup and Hair: Emily Foley; Photographer: Lewis Darling
Makeup and Hair: Emily Foley; Photographer: Lewis Darling