From Isolation to Hustle - Grit Personified - Mad Mind Studios

Company: Mad Mind Studios

Guests: Omid Mousaei

Year Started: 2008

Employees: 11-25

What does it take to build a creative agency from nothing…without connections, experience, or a safety net? In this episode, Omid Mousaei of Mad Mind Studios shares how his journey from immigrant to agency founder shaped the values, mindset, and grit behind his business. If you've ever faced setbacks or felt alone in the chaos of agency life, this episode will remind you you're not the only one and that grit can become your greatest asset.

Inside this episode:

• Why betting on yourself with a have to is often the most strategic move you can make
• The overlooked mindset shift that changes how clients perceive value
• What AI can and can’t replace in creative strategy
• Why comfort is the enemy of creativity

Chapters

• 0:00 Mad Mind Studios
• 1:41 Intro
• 2:42 Go to Beaches in LA
• 3:36 Forged through FIre - Immigration Hardships
• 11:28 Hustle and Learn
• 15:09 Rethinking Junk Mail as Art
• 19:12 The Power of a Have To
• 27:28 Embracing Chaos
• 29:47 Strategy is Greater than AI
• 34:25 Born or Made?
• 37:35 A Lesson of R&D in Slow Times

Transcript

0:02

Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. From the excitement of starting up the first big sale, passion, doubt, fear, freedom, and the emotional rollercoaster of growth, hear it all on An Agency Story podcast. An Agency Story podcast is hosted by Russel Dubree, successful agency owner with an eight figure exit turned business coach. Enjoy the next agency story.

Russel: 0:41

What happens when a 14-year-old immigrant who doesn't speak a word of English decides failure simply isn't an option? Welcome to an Agency Story podcast. I'm your host Russel.'In today's episode of an agency story, I sit down with Omid Mousaei, the founder of Los Angeles based Mad Mind Studios, a full service branding and digital agency that's been pushing boundaries for over 15 years. From navigating life as a young immigrant with nothing but grit to cold walking into businesses with a handful of flyers and building a successful 15 person agency, Omid's journey is nothing short of inspiring. In this episode, we explore the mindset behind surviving chaos in the agency world. How Omid scaled from scrappy designer to strategic leader and why embracing discomfort is the secret to long-term creative success. If you've ever felt like the odds were stacked against you, this episode will remind you that resourcefulness, resilience, and a bit of madness might be your greatest tools. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today everyone. I have Omid Mousaei with us here today with Mad Mind Studios. Thank you so much for joining us today, Omid.

Omid: 1:48

Thank you so much for having me. Excited to chat with you.

Russel: 1:52

I can't wait. But start us right out of the gate and tell us what Mad Mind Studios does, and who you do it for?

Omid: 1:58

Absolutely. We are a full marketing and web design agency based out of Los Angeles. We have been in business over 15 years. We provide services ranging from web design, search engine optimization, Google ads, graphic design, animation, all the way to print marketing for businesses, uh, ranging in industries from real estate law firms, construction home services, all the way to local vendors and e-commerce.

Russel: 2:26

Perfect. Wonderful. Well put together. It sounds like you've put some time and effort into being able to say that so eloquently and from LA. All right. I've always spent a little bit of time in LA, I imagine it's a place a lot of people travel to. What's like a hidden gem in LA that people need to know about?

Omid: 2:42

I would say, um, definitely either Hermosa or Manhattan Beach. It's a lot less crowded than Santa Monica, on Venice Beach typically. On the weekends, if I, I, I want to get some run exercise or just kind of go somewhere where it's not as crowded, I tend to go to those two locations. Lots of, um, activities to do in addition to good quality restaurants and easier parking, which I'm sure anyone that comes to LA faces.

Russel: 3:14

There we go. We have it from a pro. Yeah. I'm a, I'm a pure suburban guy, so that whenever I have to go to the city, that's what stresses me out more than anything is where do I freaking park? Can't stand that, that angst, but great suggestions. I'll have to try that out next time I make it out that way. I want to get to all your good agency stuff, but before we do that, I want to hear about young Omid. What was he doing in the world and who did he want to be when he grew up?

Omid: 3:36

Omid, um, going back, I'm originally from Iran. We moved out of Iran when I was 14 years old as a young lad, uh, definitely had a vision of becoming a firefighter, but that all changed when I went to school in a common Persian household, uh, lawyers, engineers, and doctors, uh, are, are a common theme so I was following that same footstep in medical field. Then, uh, one day everything changed for me as I was walking through the campus and I was, uh, passing the art department. I was looking at fine art, graphic design work, um, and just seeing all the creative work. This was something I, I knew I had the urge of trying and experimenting with, because even, um, when I was going to school, I was doing stuff, creative writing on the side. I loved making things, um, I liked producing and I knew at some place in my life I would come back to this, even if it's as a hobby or a side project. But that ended up putting me on a whole, uh, different career path when one day I came back home and I was like, mom, I'm changing careers. She was, I think, very worried in terms of how I'm gonna be able to financially support myself. I made a promise that if there's one thing I'm gonna make sure to do is I never reach out to ask for financial support. I will find a way. I'll put that kind of burden on myself to make sure I'll make it and if I don't, there is no backup plan. This is the plan. I have to figure out a way to approach it to support myself.

Russel: 5:18

That's really interesting man.'Cause I always talk all the time, the power of a have to. it is so powerful. If you don't believe that there's any safety net, I think it, it can really force us to do some really cool things. Was that a conscious thought to say that, or was that just like a thought you had to, do you had to say to get your, your parents to buy into this idea? Or did you know, like, hey, if I don't say this, I might, I might find myself reverting back?

Omid: 5:40

I'm Type A personality. It's always kind of been get up early, get stuff done, do one extra thing, learn something new, work hard. I love old Persian sayings and sayings from all cultures. One that I always follow is when one door closes, another door opens. Failure is always part of success and the more you listen to people who made it and you see their background and one, uh, I'm a graphic person. I see everything through visuals. That photo of Jeff Bezo sitting in the office by himself with like stack of paper and it's such a lonely office and he's sitting there working after hours. That's how he made it from there to a multi-billion dollar company, hitting probably a trillion soon. It's all about waking up, having that energy and positivity and being driven. Trying things and not being, uh, afraid to push boundaries and taking a risk. That has always been my motto, whether and school, outside of school, work related, trying to land jobs and stuff.

Russel: 6:51

I couldn't agree more. I can see where that can be very helpful in an entrepreneurial endeavor, as I imagine a lot of people are shaking their heads listening right now. I want to go back to, you said 14 years old, right? There's all kinds of angst going on in, in young teenagers in life in general, but that had to be a pretty big culture shock. Tell me a little bit, just, just a quick little glimpse into that experience coming to the US.

Omid: 7:12

Getting honestly goosebumps, uh, as you brought that up,'cause I'm going back to first day of school and not being able to understand the word of English, attending school.

Russel: 7:25

Like no English at all?

Omid: 7:26

No English at all. I pretty much knew how to say thank you and hello, and just very basic words. I couldn't put a word, uh, a sentence together right away. They put me in ESL. Within three months, they decided, that I should go two levels behind. I was a eighth grader back in Iran when I came here. Gradually, they, uh, mentioned that I'm not gonna be able to make it. I'm gonna end up failing all the classes. They wanted me to go back to either sixth or seventh grade after evaluation. Very challenging. Our schools are separated between boys and girls. Everything has to do with like certain languages. We weren't able to learn English. It was majority Farsi Pe in terms of sports. It's about half an hour to an hour, and if there was one kid that had caused any issues or trouble, they would take that away. I mean, Coming from there, like soccer and sport is our world. Getting out just like any other kid wanting to run around and have some sort of activity. It was a lot of changes that I had to go through, not in terms of just learning the language, being cool, something that I wasn't worried about'cause I was acing every class. I was the captain of our soccer team. I was competing for different, two different languages back in Iran and in creative writing space. I came from a, a campus of 200 kids to a campus of 1000 kids, and all of a sudden I'd go from being like the top student, someone that most people knew to nobody knows about me and I'm trying to catch up. Dress, right? That was another thing. This is when the Eminem was on TRL, NSYNC was on TRL. Britney. Fashion mattered. People were dressing cool, had cool shoes. It was challenging. Definitely got picked on a lot, but overcome all those experiences.

Russel: 9:20

I can't even imagine, honestly. I am trying to think in here, just sharing that my, my heart goes out to young Omid here. What a difficult time to navigate. Was there a happy ending to your, your high school journey where you got on the other side of all of this and and, um, you, you, you finally, things were clicking

Omid: 9:35

The happier side was this, I think in my belief. I ended up not, um, following what they mentioned to my parents and my uncle who was doing a lot of the translation. I told my uncle if they put me two grades behind, I'm just not gonna go to school. I need to start out high school level. I ended up getting into Beverly Hills High School.

Russel: 9:58

Is this like Beverly Hills 90210?

Omid: 10:00

Yes. Ended up pretty much getting D's and F's the first semester. Then, uh, somehow just I was like, okay, something needs to change. I need to change friends in terms of not constantly speaking in Farsi, change the group of friends I was with, reading more books, taking more courses, classes after class. I want to give a shout out to my ESL teacher, Ms. Sji. I hope one day she gets to hear your podcast. She, very supportive always went out of her way to make sure we're picking up, not just me, everybody in the class picking up the language, uh, the correct grammar, the correct spelling, what books to read, what to avoid and not to avoid.'Cause she went through the same experiences. She just had that manual to hand to us. I don't think I realized at that moment someone is giving me a blueprint till now where I'm able to pass that information on to other people that I meet or I see they're kind of going through the same experience. That was helpful.

Russel: 11:00

Wow. Just a glimpse into what, again, had to be such a very difficult time. Thank you for going down memory lane and sharing that perspective for, for everyone. Changed my view on just how difficult a path that is for someone to come and, and do what you did. This is all playing out now, why you're doing a very difficult thing of entrepreneurship in an agency space. So let's, let's segue to that. You broke mom and dad's heart a little bit with this, um, with this switch to the, the creative space. Walk us into ultimately how did you start an agency?

Omid: 11:28

After I graduated from college, it was very, um, challenging to land a job,'cause uh, I felt like majority of the projects we did kind of didn't resonate with the real world issues. That's something we hear from like a lot of college students where they work on outdated projects. They never get real time challenges to work on. Within two, three months I found myself in a position where I'm like, okay, I gotta try something differently. This is not working out. The way I thought, started partnering up with few printing agencies and one development agency in different areas of Los Angeles. Walked up to them. I said, hey, I, I'm just fresh outta college. I'm not gonna charge much. I'm pretty good at graphic design, making brochures, print material. Got hired for a couple of small projects. I was not getting paid good at all, like probably under even minimum wage. They were just giving me side jobs. But one of the vendors I was working with they had a sales rep. This guy would get out and pick up a portfolio of business cards, brochures, printout, mailers, and walk store to store from mechanics to restaurants to every type of business that was around them. He would show the work, say, this is what we do. I could pick one of these templates. We revamp it, we print the business card, we'll come drop it off to you. I started picking up a lot of, creative ways to understand how to land the job, what programs they use from this particular person. Around that time, I was seeing a high need of stepping out of this safe zone of using templates,'cause one thing that was consistent between all these print shops and even the web develop, uh, the web design agency I work with, they tend to go, which option do you want? It was like going in, in and out, option 1, 2, 3. We could customize any of those, but the bare bone was a template, structure that you couldn't mold or shape, you had to abide by those kind of foundation. I think that that's where the name of, uh, our company started come to Fruitation. It was called Mad Mind Media. Then later on I changed it to Mad Mind Studios. I wanted to step outside of that mold. That template being, playing it safe and going after taking more risks, uh, focusing on more breaking boundaries and so forth.

Russel: 14:00

And how old are you at this point? I'm getting the sense, timeline wise, you're must have been pretty young.

Omid: 14:04

I was around 20. I was 23, I would say. In terms of, um, project wise, like, it, it started with family and friends, but that led to no kind of creative challenges. It ended up turning into, okay, let's go pick up some challenges, real world and see if I could even survive. It was a very difficult time, but exciting because, uh, I was getting offered the opportunity and I was grateful for that. You have to kind of know sometimes where you are and when you, where you stand. At that point it was more understanding, okay, I need to make a name for myself. I need to build a portfolio instead of making other people successful and just not getting paid for it. Found a solution. Everything I'm learning from them, I could do more through my own agency.

Russel: 14:54

Do you think you were always gearing up for an entrepreneurial path in your own mind, or if or versus, right, if you'd, someone would just given you an opportunity in a decent paying, full-time job right outta college, you would've maybe just done a career path? Did you know you, you were always gonna end up having your own business?

Omid: 15:09

That's a very interesting question. I don't think I realized what I was getting myself into, to be honest, at that time. As a graphic designer, I came outta school just like any other graphic designer. I'm like, great, I have portfolios. I have a movie poster, I have logos, I have business cards. I have all the samples. I'm gonna get offered a job. Then reality kind of sets in that now, you know, you need to know web design. Do you know packaging, like as a graphic designer? You end up taking more than, uh, what you're thinking you're taking on. You gotta sometimes build a strategy, and the companies will work with the team members that, were there. They handled couple of positions. It wasn't just one. It was like becoming a jack of all trades. Slowly I understood that perhaps along this path that I'm taking, which I had no knowledge of web design, I was barely learning from the agency'cause I was just doing majority of their graphic design work, not necessarily taking coding. That maybe there is a way I could learn the business aspect of things and learning how to sell and learning how to put value on my work. Not in terms of dollar signs, but in terms of what value will this add to a business rather than, hey, I need to charge you 5,000 to do this. More of, what kind of result can I get for you if you end up hiring me rather than these other companies that keep doing template stuff for you? I think that just kind of slowly, gradually set in that, um, at some point, um, I'm gonna end up, uh, bringing smarter people than myselves, more creative people than myselves and learning how to operate and run an agency because at some point I'm gonna exhaust all my skills and everything I know in order to be able to hold onto the client. There's additional services that I need to, uh, start providing to have that continuous work and relationship and being able to see their success. One of the things was I would finish a project, whether it was a brochure or a print material and print marketing, and, uh, I would never hear back from the client in terms of, hey, here's a copy of what you did, here's where it's being posted, or this is what we did, or if we get results or not.

Russel: 17:32

Just threw it in the never, never land of graphic design.

Omid: 17:35

Absolutely. If you think about the amount of like when you open your mailbox on daily basis, the amount of design and paper and things that go straight to the trash and, uh, we don't realize, we give it two to three seconds. Do I need the coupon? No. Is this look funny? Good. Okay, I'll put it on the fridge. Am I keeping this? There's a lot of tactic that goes and my mom always has these calendars from taxi cabs and like restaurants or that she has these catalogs where they have certain like promotional stuff, but she keeps it and I go, why are you keeping this? She's like, I need that item on it. I'm like, okay, that was a clever way. If it was someone else that they did not include this yearly calendar on this magnet, she would've probably threw it away. But now the name is on the fridge. I see it. Someone else sees it. If we end up needing the service, it's right there on the calendar. The attorney's name is on it, and so forth.

Russel: 18:30

I like that. I was starting to feel guilty for a second. When I throw away junk mail, I'm like, well, now I'm throwing away someone's art that they're, they're putting out into the world. But, uh, maybe, I'll have a little bit different perspective when I go check the mail later and, and see something, I get like, all right, someone's sitting somewhere designed this. Kudos to them, but I'll probably still throw it away. I see where, you know, focused on value, right? That is so important. It's not about just hawking and, and selling skills in front of people. You were talking about this idea of, you know, needing to bring on some other experts and, and people to surround yourself with. I'm guessing to even be able to do that. Some way somehow you, you had to solve the challenge of getting a decent amount of business and client relationships. What was the key to that? How were you able to do that?

Omid: 19:12

The key I think, to any successful business is having the right group of team member and creatives. As the saying goes, might not be getting, saying it, right? It's like you, you can make a sound with one finger, but you could snap with two fingers. It takes a team to have a successful business, responsible, creative, accountable, and, uh, putting the right structure. My first goal was, uh, having a better understanding of how I want to scale up the company. As someone that has never ran a business, always worked for somebody, always kind of tackled the challenges of other people in a smaller scale, but now becoming my own sales rep, my own accountant training somebody to do what I do and replace me so I could go get more leads, more jobs and so forth. Those were lots of ups and downs in terms of learning and gathering that knowledge, making mistakes, but essentially what I did was I ended up, saving some money and hiring the right team members that knew more than I did in certain places that I wasn't great at. Packaging wasn't my expertise, and I knew I'm dealing with a lot of food. A lot of food and e-commerce brands. In terms of getting more support in that area, I need to bring someone that's creative, knowledgeable, has worked with the different guidelines and parameters to bring that expertise to the field. Web design, same situation in terms of, going through classes. Learning how to operate, grow, scale up, what management tools to get and so forth. Gradually everything came together. I think there's always room for making things, uh, easier, uh, more scalable, but those are gradual things that I don't think, uh, you get handed to you. Especially at that time when I was coming up. YouTube, Facebook, social media wasn't blowing up the way it is now where you could go learn from a podcast, top five gadgets to get. There wasn't an AI where it would filter my thoughts and go, oh, these are the issues you're dealing with. Here's a solution where I could have a foundation. It was more kind of going to somebody and say, hey, uh, I'm having this issue. How are you dealing with this challenge and what do you recommend?

Russel: 21:33

I love you shared of, you know, save money to give yourself some runway to make these hires. It wasn't just blind faith, but you said to replace yourself so that you could go focus on more business development. Were you pretty confident in your ability to go get more business? What were you doing, maybe more specifically to bring on new clients, new business once you started building up that team to do more of the execution?

Omid: 21:53

It feels primal in terms of you go gather food, you bring it, you share with the family, everybody's hungry again, and you gotta go bring more food, right? So in a way, everybody has limitation and I knew I had limitations. One thing I was always a hundred percent sure of was myself and my capabilities and knowing no one would do it better than I would do it in terms of going out there and risking and not being worried. Going out there, creating opportunities and not being afraid with the setbacks and challenges, that's something that you don't have control, where you have other members on your team. There are certain things you could guide, put, courses, training. Putting pretty much a foundation in place, but, I had control over what I had, which was myself and my own expertise. It just became very apparent after I hired the first designer to take my place that I had it in me to go able to create opportunities. I took everything I learned from those, uh, companies that I was working with. I went the complete opposite direction with having the template system as a safeguard if the budget wasn't there, but now going in and saying, hey, what if I told you the three, four businesses next to you, they're doing the same thing, here are their business cards, or here's their like mailers and they're all saying the same thing? What if there's this opportunity that you could go about it this way and get more clients'cause this person is not doing this, right? I highly believe in always showing value, not, uh, being so focused on how much something is worth. Because when someone sees the value that you bring to the table that they haven't been offered, they are willing to take that financial risk or investment to proceed with your services or what you're offering.

Russel: 23:53

Were you just walking into businesses cold, from that earlier example you were sharing?

Omid: 23:57

Absolutely.

Russel: 23:58

Wow.

Omid: 23:58

Not afraid to say it. I was putting business cards on cars. I was walking in with flyers. I got cussed at by a business owner that I didn't realize he was doing the same thing I, I was doing in terms of services. He called me and left a really nasty message. But it's part of the process. Again, going back to when you're hungry, if stuck in the middle of a jungle, there's no one around for two, three days, what do you do? Where do you get water? Where do you get food? Where do you get shelter? You start thinking, what opportunities are available and there are more of a low hanging fruit, and what opportunities is something you take on when finances become available? At that time, straight out of college, thankfully, with little amount of depth, I was able to slowly grow the company, not quickly, but surely in the right path to be able to scale it up. Then have the ability to advertise on Yelp, get a little advertisement in terms of mailers and so forth to get a buzz around my name.

Russel: 25:01

Wow. I can just appreciate the hustle aspect and, and as you said it, it all comes back to the power of a have to. And it also helps, right? We talked about runway and just the reality of being young and not having as many life expenses and things that you feel like you have to keep up with. I can see again, see how this is all coming together. Was there a point in time when you feel like you were, uh, you, you didn't have to hustle so much anymore, that, that was all starting to maybe come together? Or do you feel like no, you're, you're still in that place this very day? Even though I'm, I'm sure the business is in a far better place than, than it was there early days.

Omid: 25:34

You get to a point where you start solving certain small challenges, right? You get rewarded by someone reaching out and saying, hey, thank you so much. That landing page you made me, got me a lot of conversion. That email newsletter you sent had a really good open rate, that print marketing material you did, people are bringing the coupon in. That excitement turns into more hunger for, okay, what else am I capable of that I haven't discovered yet? What other challenges can I tackle that I haven't? Why can I swim with the sharks when there's four or five other design agencies near me and they're not doing half of the stuff and creativity I'm putting into this? They're set in stone with their way. Here's what you get, here's what you could do. Here's a package for$50 per month, or$90 a month. What makes me stand out on front of the, the bigger clients? That drive just comes I feel naturally after you get rewarded and I hope it doesn't turn into comfort for me ever. I like that excitement of dealing, waking up and dealing with new challenges daily. I always in my head, reward, doctors, nurses, firefighters, policemen,'cause they deal with same situation. Every day is a little bit different. They don't know what they're getting handed, what kind of challenge. Even though we're in a field that's some problem or a cookie cutter system, you just solve it by doing something. I think when it comes to creative strategy, it's very unique'cause there is no one size fits all in a world where everyone is stuck in this templates safe choice situation where you get teased by a cheaper, affordable option, but now you look like everybody else.

Russel: 27:28

The note that was just going through my head there is just embracing chaos and I think that's really important in the agency space. That was really a mantra we used to say in our agency is like, look. I don't know how to tell you otherwise. This is a chaotic environment. Things are constantly moving. The clients are constantly throwing wrenches at you. All kinds of wrenches are being thrown at you from all different directions, and so you can either fight it or you can embrace it. But it, it sounds like you're, you, you chose the latter. You've just said, I'm gonna embrace chaos.

Omid: 27:54

What you said about throwing wrenches. That's daily. That hasn't changed. I don't think there is a day where you start work and you go, okay, everything is gonna go perfect. We're in a constant change shift. Things move around depending on the news, what's going on. I give you a really good example, the LA fires. I think it just, woke up a lot of people in different industries in terms of like the way they're operating, in terms of their outreach, and my heart goes out to all those people that lost their houses, their business. But when you look at the news and just the other day there was, I don't remember the brand name. There was this lady, she had cookies, close to like Malibu areas where she's finding other ways to put, to go orders'cause she doesn't have space for people to come sit or enjoy a cup of coffee or a cookie. She's getting creative with her approach to make sure that traffic is coming. It all comes back to, uh, having creative, I think strategy and figuring out ways because daily, like you said, things might change. Clients want to be involved in certain aspect of the design process and strategy, and there are moments where I want to go, I wouldn't go that way. It's building that foundation with them, getting to know them. Also, understanding the challenges they deal with face to face. We always want to be part of their team and understand and really, uh, digest the concerns that they have and be able to find a strategy that works mutually for everybody and also being result driven at the end of the day.

Russel: 29:31

Focus on value, be results driven, embrace chaos. Another nugget that I picked up on is just never get comfortable. Even when you could find a way to, continue to be uncomfortable. What are you trying to achieve for the future? What is the big picture for running, doing this whole crazy thing to begin with?

Omid: 29:47

AI is changing the whole landscape, but one thing that's not, uh, going away anytime soon is creative strategy. AI is able to, right now, it's able to offer these kind of goofy looking stock visual logos and everything. I think it's gonna be some time that it's able to catch up and become smarter and do more. What we are to, uh, trying to achieve is stay up to the trend. We're not afraid of AI. Matter of fact, just like other agencies that, they use it to grow and help and assist and streamline certain stuff, do the same, but also expand on our knowledge base in other areas. Using the power of AI and other assets that are out there to not only scale of, scale up our operation, but to take on new, bigger challenges. We've come a long way. Myself coming from, being a graphic designer to being in the print world and getting into printing services, signage, and now all the way, managing a team of 15, handling web Google ads, SEO, all aspects of, digital space. Never stop growing. That's one of our motto, learning, adjusting. Not taking anything for granted and also thinking, think differently, break boundaries. That's pretty much where our name comes from. It's with this notion of you have to be a little mad, obviously in a, in the best way, right? To break that mold. As I'm saying this to you, I'm going back to where I started again, where I didn't want to be confined by again, a whole structure, a template, anything that comes that helps us grow and add more value to our clients, to their business.

Russel: 31:39

It's fascinating. It sounds like, I'm sure you had some of these traits, obviously from, from very young age, but really your middle years defining a moment in this experience that you had really, I think seems like it just shaped you for really building in these traits. Call it survival of the fittest. That all these foundational principles, it seems like how you operate and how you've baked into the framework of the business is, is yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm very fascinated continuing to see how that journey evolves and, and what the future looks like for you.

Omid: 32:07

Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

Russel: 32:09

One of the other things, you talk about just, just how fast we've moved in the last however many years. I remember in the late 2000s we were still working really hard to convince people to build a website. You need a website for your business. It's this really thing. 15 years later, it's you know, like you're saying, AI. Now people are want, hoping and wanting robots to build their business, but we're nowhere near there yet. It's just putting all the more emphasis on strategy. Yes, it's still, it's just a tool still. We've just gotta be all the more strategic in how we use the tools we have.

Omid: 32:38

Couldn't agree with you more. AI could do everything, but it's not able to do your brand positioning. AI is able to write your content, but it's not able to, sometimes, majority of times, you read the content, not able to make a connection with your audience. Having a strategic team that not only focuses on your brand positioning, who you are, getting to know what you do, your challenges day to day, where your business is coming from, what's your background, how you got into your business and so forth. Similar questions you're asking me, right? You value my story. You're interested to know how we came about having the company that we have. We apply the same approach to the clients that we work with. It's just making sure we fully understand the scope of their project, their branding would, result we're aiming for, and kind of day-to-day challenges they deal with that we could figure out a solution for.

Russel: 33:37

It is funny to, to the whole point about strategy, right? It's just making me think of like a practical example of like AI, I wanna write a very stern email to the client to, for these, because they're, giving all this feedback to this design. AI is gonna write a really great email to answer that question, but it's not gonna come back and ask you, should you write this? Or like, what's the real intent and strategy here first? No, it's people pleasing. It's going to do what it, what you ask it to do. All the more emphasis on strategy.

Omid: 34:01

That was beautifully said. That was a really good example.

Russel: 34:04

Thank you. We quipped before we hit record, it's the smartest, dumbest tool. It's the dumbest, smartest tool, I guess you could say, that you can find out there. Oh man. It is been such a, a fascinating conversation. I guess we gotta wind it down here. But, uh, again, I can't, I can't wait to see the continued evolution of your journey. One question I am curious about though, is are entrepreneurs born or are they made?

Omid: 34:25

Personally, I, I, I speak for myself. I think they're made. I think even if I was born with it, if I didn't have the life experiences and challenges and to overcome those challenges, I wouldn't be the person or the business owner that I am. Everything is kind of through trial and error and seeing what's successful, and areas that you grow and where else you could push up boundaries. Through those experiences I was able to elevate the company, the team, and be able to give back, give back to not just our team, but to the community as well. I think they're made, uh, in terms of learning and growing, constantly being able to adapt.

Russel: 35:07

I couldn't double stamp or triple stamp that idea more. Certainly seems indicative of your own experience and cases you shared. If people wanna know more about Mad Mind Studios and the Journey, where can they go?

Omid: 35:17

They could find us on madmindstudios.com or they could reach out to me personally if they need somebody to, consult, do a audit, or go over their business or any challenges they're facing at omid@madmindstudios.com. That's omid@madmindstudios.com.

Russel: 35:37

Wonderful. There you have it folks. Gosh, I mean, so many great takeaways from today's show. Thank you for sharing so many the, the ups and downs of your experience. The key reminders, focus on value, the power of a have to, um, embracing chaos and never get comfortable are all great lessons to remind ourselves and everyone there at home today. Really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us, Omid.

Omid: 35:59

Absolutely. I appreciate you. One thing I want to leave before we end our chat is thank you so much for doing this. I been sharing not just with team, with other creatives, your podcast. I think at the time when I was coming up, these resources weren't available. There was this constant also fear in the back of my mind, am I alone? Am I the only one that was failing? Am I the only one facing these challenges and listening to few of the stories on your podcast, I, I, I see I wasn't alone. I think other people that are getting into the creative and digital space, whether they're in it now or they're getting into it, or they're starting their own journey in terms of being an entrepreneur, starting their business, they could benefit from your podcast. So thank you again for doing this.

Russel: 36:48

Thank you. It touches my heart, very kind words and, and your stories and what you shared are exactly the reason why I do it. My thanks to you as well.

36:59

We hope you've enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.

Omid: 37:35

while I was trying to land a job as a graphic designer, I ended up getting hired as a server at this cafe that was in a very pre, predominantly Jewish neighborhood where, I don't think the owner realized that for the, uh, for Sabbath, which goes from Friday all the way to Saturday night. This neighborhood is gonna be a ghost town. I think that's where, uh, some of my facing challenges and opportunities came about where, uh, it became a, a fun activity to work with the owner. She knew I did graphic design. We were always trying to push boundaries in terms of signage and put visuals outside to get to go orders on those days where the rest, the cafe was completely empty. That was a fun story in terms of like, uh, being able to do playful stuff and having fun with what I was doing, not just have it be all serious in terms of drawing visuals or creating graphics or posters to be able to put, uh, outside of the business to get attention.

Russel: 38:41

This is why your technical job was actually a server, right? Is that what you said?

Omid: 38:44

Yes.

Russel: 38:45

Applying your trade wherever you go. I love it.