July 6, 2025 • 38 mins
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
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:24):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:41):
What happens when a 14-year-old immigrant who
doesn't speak a word of Englishdecides failure simply isn't an
option?
Welcome to an Agency Storypodcast.
I'm your host Russel.
'In today's episode of an agencystory, I sit down with Omid
Mousaei, the founder of LosAngeles based Mad Mind Studios,
a full service branding anddigital agency that's been
(01:02):
pushing boundaries for over 15years.
From navigating life as a youngimmigrant with nothing but grit
to cold walking into businesseswith a handful of flyers and
building a successful 15 personagency, Omid's journey is
nothing short of inspiring.
In this episode, we explore themindset behind surviving chaos
in the agency world.
How Omid scaled from scrappydesigner to strategic leader and
(01:26):
why embracing discomfort is thesecret to long-term creative
success.
If you've ever felt like theodds were stacked against you,
this episode will remind youthat resourcefulness,
resilience, and a bit of madnessmight be your greatest tools.
Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show todayeveryone.
I have Omid Mousaei with us heretoday with Mad Mind Studios.
(01:46):
Thank you so much for joining ustoday, Omid.
Omid (01:48):
Thank you so much for having me.
Excited to chat with you.
Russel (01:52):
I can't wait.
But start us right out of thegate and tell us what Mad Mind
Studios does, and who you do itfor?
Omid (01:58):
Absolutely.
We are a full marketing and webdesign agency based out of Los
Angeles.
We have been in business over 15years.
We provide services ranging fromweb design, search engine
optimization, Google ads,graphic design, animation, all
the way to print marketing forbusinesses, uh, ranging in
(02:18):
industries from real estate lawfirms, construction home
services, all the way to localvendors and e-commerce.
Russel (02:26):
Perfect.
Wonderful.
Well put together.
It sounds like you've put sometime and effort into being able
to say that so eloquently andfrom LA.
All right.
I've always spent a little bitof time in LA, I imagine it's a
place a lot of people travel to.
What's like a hidden gem in LAthat people need to know about?
Omid (02:42):
I would say, um, definitely either Hermosa or
Manhattan Beach.
It's a lot less crowded thanSanta Monica, on Venice Beach
typically.
On the weekends, if I, I, I wantto get some run exercise or just
kind of go somewhere where it'snot as crowded, I tend to go to
(03:03):
those two locations.
Lots of, um, activities to do inaddition to good quality
restaurants and easier parking,which I'm sure anyone that comes
to LA faces.
Russel (03:14):
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 stressesme 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 nexttime I make it out that way.
I want to get to all your goodagency stuff, but before we do
that, I want to hear about youngOmid.
What was he doing in the worldand who did he want to be when
(03:36):
he grew up?
Omid (03:36):
Omid, um, going back, I'm originally from Iran.
We moved out of Iran when I was14 years old as a young lad, uh,
definitely had a vision ofbecoming a firefighter, but that
all changed when I went toschool in a common Persian
household, uh, lawyers,engineers, and doctors, uh, are,
(03:59):
are a common theme so I wasfollowing that same footstep in
medical field.
Then, uh, one day everythingchanged 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 creativework.
This was something I, I knew Ihad the urge of trying and
(04:23):
experimenting with, becauseeven, um, when I was going to
school, I was doing stuff,creative writing on the side.
I loved making things, um, Iliked producing and I knew at
some place in my life I wouldcome back to this, even if it's
as a hobby or a side project.
But that ended up putting me ona whole, uh, different career
(04:46):
path when one day I came backhome and I was like, mom, I'm
changing careers.
She was, I think, very worriedin terms of how I'm gonna be
able to financially supportmyself.
I made a promise that if there'sone thing I'm gonna make sure to
do is I never reach out to askfor financial support.
I will find a way.
I'll put that kind of burden onmyself to make sure I'll make it
(05:09):
and if I don't, there is nobackup plan.
This is the plan.
I have to figure out a way toapproach it to support myself.
Russel (05:18):
That's really interesting man.
'Cause I always talk all thetime, the power of a have to.
it is so powerful.
If you don't believe thatthere's any safety net, I think
it, it can really force us to dosome really cool things.
Was that a conscious thought tosay that, or was that just like
a thought you had to, do you hadto say to get your, your parents
to buy into this idea?
Or did you know, like, hey, if Idon't say this, I might, I might
(05:38):
find myself reverting back?
Omid (05:40):
I'm Type A personality.
It's always kind of been get upearly, get stuff done, do one
extra thing, learn somethingnew, work hard.
I love old Persian sayings andsayings from all cultures.
One that I always follow is whenone door closes, another door
(06:01):
opens.
Failure is always part ofsuccess and the more you listen
to people who made it and yousee their background and one,
uh, I'm a graphic person.
I see everything throughvisuals.
That photo of Jeff Bezo sittingin the office by himself with
like stack of paper and it'ssuch a lonely office and he's
(06:22):
sitting there working afterhours.
That's how he made it from thereto a multi-billion dollar
company, hitting probably atrillion soon.
It's all about waking up, havingthat energy and positivity and
being driven.
Trying things and not being, uh,afraid to push boundaries and
(06:42):
taking a risk.
That has always been my motto,whether and school, outside of
school, work related, trying toland jobs and stuff.
Russel (06:51):
I couldn't agree more.
I can see where that can be veryhelpful in an entrepreneurial
endeavor, as I imagine a lot ofpeople are shaking their heads
listening right now.
I want to go back to, you said14 years old, right?
There's all kinds of angst goingon in, in young teenagers in
life in general, but that had tobe a pretty big culture shock.
Tell me a little bit, just, justa quick little glimpse into that
experience coming to the US.
Omid (07:12):
Getting honestly goosebumps, uh, as you brought
that up,'cause I'm going back tofirst day of school and not
being able to understand theword of English, attending
school.
Russel (07:25):
Like no English at all?
Omid (07:26):
No English at all.
I pretty much knew how to saythank you and hello, and just
very basic words.
I couldn't put a word, uh, asentence together right away.
They put me in ESL.
Within three months, theydecided, that I should go two
levels behind.
I was a eighth grader back inIran when I came here.
(07:46):
Gradually, they, uh, mentionedthat I'm not gonna be able to
make it.
I'm gonna end up failing all theclasses.
They wanted me to go back toeither sixth or seventh grade
after evaluation.
Very challenging.
Our schools are separatedbetween boys and girls.
Everything has to do with likecertain languages.
We weren't able to learnEnglish.
(08:07):
It was majority Farsi Pe interms of sports.
It's about half an hour to anhour, and if there was one kid
that had caused any issues ortrouble, they would take that
away.
I mean, Coming from there, likesoccer and sport is our world.
Getting out just like any otherkid wanting to run around and
have some sort of activity.
(08:28):
It was a lot of changes that Ihad to go through, not in terms
of just learning the language,being cool, something that I
wasn't worried about'cause I wasacing every class.
I was the captain of our soccerteam.
I was competing for different,two different languages back in
Iran and in creative writingspace.
I came from a, a campus of 200kids to a campus of 1000 kids,
(08:53):
and all of a sudden I'd go frombeing like the top student,
someone that most people knew tonobody knows about me and I'm
trying to catch up.
Dress, right?
That was another thing.
This is when the Eminem was onTRL, NSYNC was on TRL.
Britney.
Fashion mattered.
People were dressing cool, hadcool shoes.
(09:14):
It was challenging.
Definitely got picked on a lot,but overcome all those
experiences.
Russel (09:20):
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 tonavigate.
Was there a happy ending toyour, your high school journey
where you got on the other sideof all of this and and, um, you,
you, you finally, things wereclicking
Omid (09:35):
The happier side was this, I think in my belief.
I ended up not, um, followingwhat they mentioned to my
parents and my uncle who wasdoing a lot of the translation.
I told my uncle if they put metwo grades behind, I'm just not
gonna go to school.
I need to start out high schoollevel.
I ended up getting into BeverlyHills High School.
Russel (09:58):
Is this like Beverly Hills 90210?
Omid (10:00):
Yes.
Ended up pretty much getting D'sand F's the first semester.
Then, uh, somehow just I waslike, okay, something needs to
change.
I need to change friends interms of not constantly speaking
in Farsi, change the group offriends I was with, reading more
books, taking more courses,classes after class.
I want to give a shout out to myESL teacher, Ms.
(10:23):
Sji.
I hope one day she gets to hearyour podcast.
She, very supportive always wentout of her way to make sure
we're picking up, not just me,everybody in the class picking
up the language, uh, the correctgrammar, the correct spelling,
what books to read, what toavoid and not to avoid.
'Cause she went through the sameexperiences.
(10:43):
She just had that manual to handto us.
I don't think I realized at thatmoment someone is giving me a
blueprint till now where I'mable to pass that information on
to other people that I meet or Isee 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 memorylane and sharing that
perspective for, for everyone.
Changed my view on just howdifficult a path that is for
someone to come and, and do whatyou did.
This is all playing out now, whyyou're doing a very difficult
thing of entrepreneurship in anagency space.
So let's, let's segue to that.
You broke mom and dad's heart alittle bit with this, um, with
(11:23):
this switch to the, the creativespace.
Walk us into ultimately how didyou start an agency?
Omid (11:28):
After I graduated from college, it was very, um,
challenging to land a job,'causeuh, I felt like majority of the
projects we did kind of didn'tresonate with the real world
issues.
That's something we hear fromlike a lot of college students
where they work on outdatedprojects.
(11:49):
They never get real timechallenges to work on.
Within two, three months I foundmyself in a position where I'm
like, okay, I gotta trysomething differently.
This is not working out.
The way I thought, startedpartnering up with few printing
agencies and one developmentagency in different areas of Los
Angeles.
(12:10):
Walked up to them.
I said, hey, I, I'm just freshoutta college.
I'm not gonna charge much.
I'm pretty good at graphicdesign, making brochures, print
material.
Got hired for a couple of smallprojects.
I was not getting paid good atall, like probably under even
minimum wage.
They were just giving me sidejobs.
But one of the vendors I wasworking with they had a sales
(12:34):
rep.
This guy would get out and pickup a portfolio of business
cards, brochures, printout,mailers, and walk store to store
from mechanics to restaurants toevery type of business that was
around them.
He would show the work, say,this is what we do.
I could pick one of thesetemplates.
We revamp it, we print thebusiness card, we'll come drop
(12:55):
it off to you.
I started picking up a lot of,creative ways to understand how
to land the job, what programsthey use from this particular
person.
Around that time, I was seeing ahigh need of stepping out of
this safe zone of usingtemplates,'cause one thing that
(13:16):
was consistent between all theseprint shops and even the web
develop, uh, the web designagency I work with, they tend to
go, which option do you want?
It was like going in, in andout, option 1, 2, 3.
We could customize any of those,but the bare bone was a
template, structure that youcouldn't mold or shape, you had
to abide by those kind offoundation.
(13:37):
I think that that's where thename of, uh, our company started
come to Fruitation.
It was called Mad Mind Media.
Then later on I changed it toMad Mind Studios.
I wanted to step outside of thatmold.
That template being, playing itsafe and going after taking more
risks, uh, focusing on morebreaking boundaries and so
(14:00):
forth.
Russel (14:00):
And how old are you at this point?
I'm getting the sense, timelinewise, 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 nokind of creative challenges.
It ended up turning into, okay,let's go pick up some
challenges, real world and seeif I could even survive.
(14:24):
It was a very difficult time,but exciting because, uh, I was
getting offered the opportunityand I was grateful for that.
You have to kind of knowsometimes where you are and when
you, where you stand.
At that point it was moreunderstanding, okay, I need to
make a name for myself.
I need to build a portfolioinstead of making other people
(14:45):
successful and just not gettingpaid for it.
Found a solution.
Everything I'm learning fromthem, 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 ownmind, or if or versus, right, if
you'd, someone would just givenyou an opportunity in a decent
paying, full-time job rightoutta college, you would've
maybe just done a career path?
Did you know you, you werealways gonna end up having your
own business?
Omid (15:09):
That's a very interesting question.
I don't think I realized what Iwas getting myself into, to be
honest, at that time.
As a graphic designer, I cameoutta school just like any other
graphic designer.
I'm like, great, I haveportfolios.
I have a movie poster, I havelogos, I have business cards.
I have all the samples.
(15:30):
I'm gonna get offered a job.
Then reality kind of sets inthat now, you know, you need to
know web design.
Do you know packaging, like as agraphic designer?
You end up taking more than, uh,what you're thinking you're
taking on.
You gotta sometimes build astrategy, and the companies will
work with the team members that,were there.
(15:51):
They handled couple ofpositions.
It wasn't just one.
It was like becoming a jack ofall trades.
Slowly I understood that perhapsalong this path that I'm taking,
which I had no knowledge of webdesign, I was barely learning
from the agency'cause I was justdoing majority of their graphic
design work, not necessarilytaking coding.
(16:13):
That maybe there is a way Icould learn the business aspect
of things and learning how tosell 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 ratherthan, hey, I need to charge you
5,000 to do this.
(16:34):
More of, what kind of result canI get for you if you end up
hiring me rather than theseother companies that keep doing
template stuff for you?
I think that just kind ofslowly, gradually set in that,
um, at some point, um, I'm gonnaend up, uh, bringing smarter
people than myselves, morecreative people than myselves
(16:54):
and learning how to operate andrun an agency because at some
point I'm gonna exhaust all myskills and everything I know in
order to be able to hold ontothe client.
There's additional services thatI need to, uh, start providing
to have that continuous work andrelationship and being able to
see their success.
(17:15):
One of the things was I wouldfinish a project, whether it was
a brochure or a print materialand print marketing, and, uh, I
would never hear back from theclient in terms of, hey, here's
a copy of what you did, here'swhere it's being posted, or this
is what we did, or if we getresults 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 oflike when you open your mailbox
on daily basis, the amount ofdesign 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 thatgoes and my mom always has these
(17:58):
calendars from taxi cabs andlike restaurants or that she has
these catalogs where they havecertain like promotional stuff,
but she keeps it and I go, whyare you keeping this?
She's like, I need that item onit.
I'm like, okay, that was aclever way.
If it was someone else that theydid not include this yearly
calendar on this magnet, shewould've probably threw it away.
(18:20):
But now the name is on thefridge.
I see it.
Someone else sees it.
If we end up needing theservice, 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 guiltyfor a second.
When I throw away junk mail, I'mlike, 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 alittle bit different perspective
when I go check the mail laterand, and see something, I get
like, all right, someone'ssitting somewhere designed this.
Kudos to them, but I'll probablystill throw it away.
I see where, you know, focusedon value, right?
(18:51):
That is so important.
It's not about just hawking and,and selling skills in front of
people.
You were talking about this ideaof, you know, needing to bring
on some other experts and, andpeople to surround yourself
with.
I'm guessing to even be able todo that.
Some way somehow you, you had tosolve the challenge of getting a
decent amount of business andclient 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 memberand creatives.
As the saying goes, might not begetting, saying it, right?
It's like you, you can make asound with one finger, but you
could snap with two fingers.
It takes a team to have asuccessful business,
(19:32):
responsible, creative,accountable, and, uh, putting
the right structure.
My first goal was, uh, having abetter understanding of how I
want to scale up the company.
As someone that has never ran abusiness, always worked for
somebody, always kind of tackledthe challenges of other people
in a smaller scale, but nowbecoming my own sales rep, my
(19:57):
own accountant training somebodyto 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 downsin terms of learning and
gathering that knowledge, makingmistakes, but essentially what I
did was I ended up, saving somemoney and hiring the right team
(20:18):
members that knew more than Idid 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-commercebrands.
In terms of getting more supportin that area, I need to bring
someone that's creative,knowledgeable, has worked with
the different guidelines andparameters to bring that
(20:41):
expertise to the field.
Web design, same situation interms of, going through classes.
Learning how to operate, grow,scale up, what management tools
to get and so forth.
Gradually everything cametogether.
I think there's always room formaking things, uh, easier, uh,
more scalable, but those aregradual things that I don't
(21:02):
think, uh, you get handed toyou.
Especially at that time when Iwas coming up.
YouTube, Facebook, social mediawasn't blowing up the way it is
now where you could go learnfrom a podcast, top five gadgets
to get.
There wasn't an AI where itwould filter my thoughts and go,
oh, these are the issues you'redealing with.
(21:22):
Here's a solution where I couldhave a foundation.
It was more kind of going tosomebody and say, hey, uh, I'm
having this issue.
How are you dealing with thischallenge and what do you
recommend?
Russel (21:33):
I love you shared of, you know, save money to give
yourself some runway to makethese hires.
It wasn't just blind faith, butyou said to replace yourself so
that you could go focus on morebusiness development.
Were you pretty confident inyour ability to go get more
business?
What were you doing, maybe morespecifically to bring on new
clients, new business once youstarted 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 haslimitation and I knew I had
limitations.
One thing I was always a hundredpercent sure of was myself and
(22:15):
my capabilities and knowing noone would do it better than I
would do it in terms of goingout there and risking and not
being worried.
Going out there, creatingopportunities and not being
afraid with the setbacks andchallenges, that's something
that you don't have control,where you have other members on
your team.
There are certain things youcould guide, put, courses,
(22:38):
training.
Putting pretty much a foundationin place, but, I had control
over what I had, which wasmyself and my own expertise.
It just became very apparentafter I hired the first designer
to take my place that I had itin me to go able to create
opportunities.
I took everything I learned fromthose, uh, companies that I was
(23:01):
working with.
I went the complete oppositedirection with having the
template system as a safeguardif 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 samething?
(23:22):
What if there's this opportunitythat you could go about it this
way and get more clients'causethis person is not doing this,
right?
I highly believe in alwaysshowing value, not, uh, being so
focused on how much something isworth.
Because when someone sees thevalue that you bring to the
(23:43):
table that they haven't beenoffered, they are willing to
take that financial risk orinvestment to proceed with your
services or what you'reoffering.
Russel (23:53):
Were you just walking into businesses cold, from that
earlier example you weresharing?
Omid (23:57):
Absolutely.
Russel (23:58):
Wow.
Omid (23:58):
Not afraid to say it.
I was putting business cards oncars.
I was walking in with flyers.
I got cussed at by a businessowner that I didn't realize he
was doing the same thing I, Iwas doing in terms of services.
He called me and left a reallynasty message.
But it's part of the process.
Again, going back to when you'rehungry, if stuck in the middle
(24:20):
of a jungle, there's no onearound 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, whatopportunities are available and
there are more of a low hangingfruit, and what opportunities is
something you take on whenfinances become available?
At that time, straight out ofcollege, thankfully, with little
(24:44):
amount of depth, I was able toslowly grow the company, not
quickly, but surely in the rightpath to be able to scale it up.
Then have the ability toadvertise on Yelp, get a little
advertisement in terms ofmailers and so forth to get a
buzz around my name.
Russel (25:01):
Wow.
I can just appreciate the hustleaspect and, and as you said it,
it all comes back to the powerof a have to.
And it also helps, right?
We talked about runway and justthe reality of being young and
not having as many life expensesand things that you feel like
you have to keep up with.
I can see again, see how this isall coming together.
Was there a point in time whenyou feel like you were, uh, you,
(25:23):
you didn't have to hustle somuch 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 thebusiness is in a far better
place than, than it was thereearly days.
Omid (25:34):
You get to a point where you start solving certain small
challenges, right?
You get rewarded by someonereaching out and saying, hey,
thank you so much.
That landing page you made me,got me a lot of conversion.
That email newsletter you senthad a really good open rate,
that print marketing materialyou did, people are bringing the
(25:55):
coupon in.
That excitement turns into morehunger for, okay, what else am I
capable of that I haven'tdiscovered yet?
What other challenges can Itackle that I haven't?
Why can I swim with the sharkswhen there's four or five other
design agencies near me andthey're not doing half of the
(26:16):
stuff and creativity I'm puttinginto this?
They're set in stone with theirway.
Here's what you get, here's whatyou could do.
Here's a package for$50 permonth, or$90 a month.
What makes me stand out on frontof the, the bigger clients?
That drive just comes I feelnaturally after you get rewarded
(26:38):
and I hope it doesn't turn intocomfort for me ever.
I like that excitement ofdealing, waking up and dealing
with new challenges daily.
I always in my head, reward,doctors, nurses, firefighters,
policemen,'cause they deal withsame situation.
Every day is a little bitdifferent.
They don't know what they'regetting handed, what kind of
(27:00):
challenge.
Even though we're in a fieldthat's some problem or a cookie
cutter system, you just solve itby doing something.
I think when it comes tocreative strategy, it's very
unique'cause there is no onesize fits all in a world where
everyone is stuck in thistemplates safe choice situation
(27:22):
where you get teased by acheaper, affordable option, but
now you look like everybodyelse.
Russel (27:28):
The note that was just going through my head there is
just embracing chaos and I thinkthat's really important in the
agency space.
That was really a mantra we usedto say in our agency is like,
look.
I don't know how to tell youotherwise.
This is a chaotic environment.
Things are constantly moving.
The clients are constantlythrowing wrenches at you.
All kinds of wrenches are beingthrown at you from all different
directions, and so you caneither fight it or you can
(27:49):
embrace it.
But it, it sounds like you're,you, you chose the latter.
You've just said, I'm gonnaembrace chaos.
Omid (27:54):
What you said about throwing wrenches.
That's daily.
That hasn't changed.
I don't think there is a daywhere you start work and you go,
okay, everything is gonna goperfect.
We're in a constant changeshift.
Things move around depending onthe news, what's going on.
I give you a really goodexample, the LA fires.
(28:15):
I think it just, woke up a lotof people in different
industries in terms of like theway they're operating, in terms
of their outreach, and my heartgoes out to all those people
that lost their houses, theirbusiness.
But when you look at the newsand just the other day there
was, I don't remember the brandname.
There was this lady, she hadcookies, close to like Malibu
(28:38):
areas where she's finding otherways to put, to go orders'cause
she doesn't have space forpeople to come sit or enjoy a
cup of coffee or a cookie.
She's getting creative with herapproach to make sure that
traffic is coming.
It all comes back to, uh, havingcreative, I think strategy and
figuring out ways because daily,like you said, things might
(29:00):
change.
Clients want to be involved incertain aspect of the design
process and strategy, and thereare moments where I want to go,
I wouldn't go that way.
It's building that foundationwith them, getting to know them.
Also, understanding thechallenges they deal with face
to face.
We always want to be part oftheir team and understand and
(29:21):
really, uh, digest the concernsthat they have and be able to
find a strategy that worksmutually for everybody and also
being result driven at the endof the day.
Russel (29:31):
Focus on value, be results driven, embrace chaos.
Another nugget that I picked upon is just never get
comfortable.
Even when you could find a wayto, continue to be
uncomfortable.
What are you trying to achievefor the future?
What is the big picture forrunning, 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 soonis creative strategy.
AI is able to, right now, it'sable to offer these kind of
goofy looking stock visual logosand everything.
I think it's gonna be some timethat it's able to catch up and
(30:09):
become smarter and do more.
What we are to, uh, trying toachieve is stay up to the trend.
We're not afraid of AI.
Matter of fact, just like otheragencies that, they use it to
grow and help and assist andstreamline certain stuff, do the
same, but also expand on ourknowledge base in other areas.
(30:31):
Using the power of AI and otherassets that are out there to not
only scale of, scale up ouroperation, but to take on new,
bigger challenges.
We've come a long way.
Myself coming from, being agraphic designer to being in the
print world and getting intoprinting services, signage, and
(30:52):
now all the way, managing a teamof 15, handling web Google ads,
SEO, all aspects of, digitalspace.
Never stop growing.
That's one of our motto,learning, adjusting.
Not taking anything for grantedand also thinking, think
differently, break boundaries.
(31:12):
That's pretty much where ourname comes from.
It's with this notion of youhave 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'mgoing back to where I started
again, where I didn't want to beconfined by again, a whole
structure, a template, anythingthat comes that helps us grow
(31:35):
and add more value to ourclients, to their business.
Russel (31:39):
It's fascinating.
It sounds like, I'm sure you hadsome of these traits, obviously
from, from very young age, butreally your middle years
defining a moment in thisexperience that you had really,
I think seems like it justshaped you for really building
in these traits.
Call it survival of the fittest.
That all these foundationalprinciples, it seems like how
you operate and how you've bakedinto the framework of the
(31:59):
business is, is yeah, I'm, I'm,I'm very fascinated continuing
to see how that journey evolvesand, 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 lasthowever many years.
I remember in the late 2000s wewere still working really hard
to convince people to build awebsite.
You need a website for yourbusiness.
It's this really thing.
15 years later, it's you know,like you're saying, AI.
Now people are want, hoping andwanting robots to build their
business, but we're nowhere nearthere yet.
(32:29):
It's just putting all the moreemphasis on strategy.
Yes, it's still, it's just atool still.
We've just gotta be all the morestrategic in how we use the
tools we have.
Omid (32:38):
Couldn't agree with you more.
AI could do everything, but it'snot able to do your brand
positioning.
AI is able to write yourcontent, but it's not able to,
sometimes, majority of times,you read the content, not able
to make a connection with youraudience.
Having a strategic team that notonly focuses on your brand
(32:58):
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 askingme, right?
You value my story.
You're interested to know how wecame about having the company
that we have.
(33:19):
We apply the same approach tothe clients that we work with.
It's just making sure we fullyunderstand the scope of their
project, their branding would,result we're aiming for, and
kind of day-to-day challengesthey 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 oflike a practical example of like
AI, I wanna write a very sternemail to the client to, for
these, because they're, givingall this feedback to this
design.
AI is gonna write a really greatemail to answer that question,
but it's not gonna come back andask you, should you write this?
Or like, what's the real intentand strategy here first?
No, it's people pleasing.
It's going to do what it, whatyou ask it to do.
(33:59):
All the more emphasis onstrategy.
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 fascinatingconversation.
I guess we gotta wind it downhere.
But, uh, again, I can't, I can'twait to see the continued
evolution of your journey.
One question I am curious aboutthough, 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 withit, if I didn't have the life
experiences and challenges andto overcome those challenges, I
wouldn't be the person or thebusiness owner that I am.
Everything is kind of throughtrial and error and seeing
what's successful, and areasthat you grow and where else you
(34:48):
could push up boundaries.
Through those experiences I wasable 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, interms 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 ofyour own experience and cases
you shared.
If people wanna know more aboutMad 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 ifthey need somebody to, consult,
do a audit, or go over theirbusiness or any challenges
they're facing atomid@madmindstudios.com.
That's omid@madmindstudios.com.
Russel (35:37):
Wonderful.
There you have it folks.
Gosh, I mean, so many greattakeaways from today's show.
Thank you for sharing so manythe, the ups and downs of your
experience.
The key reminders, focus onvalue, the power of a have to,
um, embracing chaos and neverget comfortable are all great
lessons to remind ourselves andeveryone there at home today.
Really appreciate you taking thetime to share that with us,
(35:58):
Omid.
Omid (35:59):
Absolutely.
I appreciate you.
One thing I want to leave beforewe end our chat is thank you so
much for doing this.
I been sharing not just withteam, with other creatives, your
podcast.
I think at the time when I wascoming up, these resources
weren't available.
There was this constant alsofear in the back of my mind, am
(36:22):
I alone?
Am I the only one that wasfailing?
Am I the only one facing thesechallenges and listening to few
of the stories on your podcast,I, I, I see I wasn't alone.
I think other people that aregetting into the creative and
digital space, whether they'rein it now or they're getting
into it, or they're startingtheir own journey in terms of
(36:42):
being an entrepreneur, startingtheir business, they could
benefit from your podcast.
So thank you again for doingthis.
Russel (36:48):
Thank you.
It touches my heart, very kindwords and, and your stories and
what you shared are exactly thereason why I do it.
My thanks to you as well.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
(37:11):
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
Omid (37:35):
while I was trying to land a job as a graphic designer, I
ended up getting hired as aserver at this cafe that was in
a very pre, predominantly Jewishneighborhood where, I don't
think the owner realized thatfor the, uh, for Sabbath, which
goes from Friday all the way toSaturday night.
(37:57):
This neighborhood is gonna be aghost town.
I think that's where, uh, someof 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 pushboundaries in terms of signage
and put visuals outside to getto go orders on those days where
(38:21):
the rest, the cafe wascompletely empty.
That was a fun story in terms oflike, uh, being able to do
playful stuff and having funwith what I was doing, not just
have it be all serious in termsof drawing visuals or creating
graphics or posters to be ableto 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.
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:24):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:41):
What happens when a 14-year-old immigrant who
doesn't speak a word of Englishdecides failure simply isn't an
option?
Welcome to an Agency Storypodcast.
I'm your host Russel.
'In today's episode of an agencystory, I sit down with Omid
Mousaei, the founder of LosAngeles based Mad Mind Studios,
a full service branding anddigital agency that's been
(01:02):
pushing boundaries for over 15years.
From navigating life as a youngimmigrant with nothing but grit
to cold walking into businesseswith a handful of flyers and
building a successful 15 personagency, Omid's journey is
nothing short of inspiring.
In this episode, we explore themindset behind surviving chaos
in the agency world.
How Omid scaled from scrappydesigner to strategic leader and
(01:26):
why embracing discomfort is thesecret to long-term creative
success.
If you've ever felt like theodds were stacked against you,
this episode will remind youthat resourcefulness,
resilience, and a bit of madnessmight be your greatest tools.
Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show todayeveryone.
I have Omid Mousaei with us heretoday with Mad Mind Studios.
(01:46):
Thank you so much for joining ustoday, Omid.
Omid (01:48):
Thank you so much for having me.
Excited to chat with you.
Russel (01:52):
I can't wait.
But start us right out of thegate and tell us what Mad Mind
Studios does, and who you do itfor?
Omid (01:58):
Absolutely.
We are a full marketing and webdesign agency based out of Los
Angeles.
We have been in business over 15years.
We provide services ranging fromweb design, search engine
optimization, Google ads,graphic design, animation, all
the way to print marketing forbusinesses, uh, ranging in
(02:18):
industries from real estate lawfirms, construction home
services, all the way to localvendors and e-commerce.
Russel (02:26):
Perfect.
Wonderful.
Well put together.
It sounds like you've put sometime and effort into being able
to say that so eloquently andfrom LA.
All right.
I've always spent a little bitof time in LA, I imagine it's a
place a lot of people travel to.
What's like a hidden gem in LAthat people need to know about?
Omid (02:42):
I would say, um, definitely either Hermosa or
Manhattan Beach.
It's a lot less crowded thanSanta Monica, on Venice Beach
typically.
On the weekends, if I, I, I wantto get some run exercise or just
kind of go somewhere where it'snot as crowded, I tend to go to
(03:03):
those two locations.
Lots of, um, activities to do inaddition to good quality
restaurants and easier parking,which I'm sure anyone that comes
to LA faces.
Russel (03:14):
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 stressesme 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 nexttime I make it out that way.
I want to get to all your goodagency stuff, but before we do
that, I want to hear about youngOmid.
What was he doing in the worldand who did he want to be when
(03:36):
he grew up?
Omid (03:36):
Omid, um, going back, I'm originally from Iran.
We moved out of Iran when I was14 years old as a young lad, uh,
definitely had a vision ofbecoming a firefighter, but that
all changed when I went toschool in a common Persian
household, uh, lawyers,engineers, and doctors, uh, are,
(03:59):
are a common theme so I wasfollowing that same footstep in
medical field.
Then, uh, one day everythingchanged 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 creativework.
This was something I, I knew Ihad the urge of trying and
(04:23):
experimenting with, becauseeven, um, when I was going to
school, I was doing stuff,creative writing on the side.
I loved making things, um, Iliked producing and I knew at
some place in my life I wouldcome back to this, even if it's
as a hobby or a side project.
But that ended up putting me ona whole, uh, different career
(04:46):
path when one day I came backhome and I was like, mom, I'm
changing careers.
She was, I think, very worriedin terms of how I'm gonna be
able to financially supportmyself.
I made a promise that if there'sone thing I'm gonna make sure to
do is I never reach out to askfor financial support.
I will find a way.
I'll put that kind of burden onmyself to make sure I'll make it
(05:09):
and if I don't, there is nobackup plan.
This is the plan.
I have to figure out a way toapproach it to support myself.
Russel (05:18):
That's really interesting man.
'Cause I always talk all thetime, the power of a have to.
it is so powerful.
If you don't believe thatthere's any safety net, I think
it, it can really force us to dosome really cool things.
Was that a conscious thought tosay that, or was that just like
a thought you had to, do you hadto say to get your, your parents
to buy into this idea?
Or did you know, like, hey, if Idon't say this, I might, I might
(05:38):
find myself reverting back?
Omid (05:40):
I'm Type A personality.
It's always kind of been get upearly, get stuff done, do one
extra thing, learn somethingnew, work hard.
I love old Persian sayings andsayings from all cultures.
One that I always follow is whenone door closes, another door
(06:01):
opens.
Failure is always part ofsuccess and the more you listen
to people who made it and yousee their background and one,
uh, I'm a graphic person.
I see everything throughvisuals.
That photo of Jeff Bezo sittingin the office by himself with
like stack of paper and it'ssuch a lonely office and he's
(06:22):
sitting there working afterhours.
That's how he made it from thereto a multi-billion dollar
company, hitting probably atrillion soon.
It's all about waking up, havingthat energy and positivity and
being driven.
Trying things and not being, uh,afraid to push boundaries and
(06:42):
taking a risk.
That has always been my motto,whether and school, outside of
school, work related, trying toland jobs and stuff.
Russel (06:51):
I couldn't agree more.
I can see where that can be veryhelpful in an entrepreneurial
endeavor, as I imagine a lot ofpeople are shaking their heads
listening right now.
I want to go back to, you said14 years old, right?
There's all kinds of angst goingon in, in young teenagers in
life in general, but that had tobe a pretty big culture shock.
Tell me a little bit, just, justa quick little glimpse into that
experience coming to the US.
Omid (07:12):
Getting honestly goosebumps, uh, as you brought
that up,'cause I'm going back tofirst day of school and not
being able to understand theword of English, attending
school.
Russel (07:25):
Like no English at all?
Omid (07:26):
No English at all.
I pretty much knew how to saythank you and hello, and just
very basic words.
I couldn't put a word, uh, asentence together right away.
They put me in ESL.
Within three months, theydecided, that I should go two
levels behind.
I was a eighth grader back inIran when I came here.
(07:46):
Gradually, they, uh, mentionedthat I'm not gonna be able to
make it.
I'm gonna end up failing all theclasses.
They wanted me to go back toeither sixth or seventh grade
after evaluation.
Very challenging.
Our schools are separatedbetween boys and girls.
Everything has to do with likecertain languages.
We weren't able to learnEnglish.
(08:07):
It was majority Farsi Pe interms of sports.
It's about half an hour to anhour, and if there was one kid
that had caused any issues ortrouble, they would take that
away.
I mean, Coming from there, likesoccer and sport is our world.
Getting out just like any otherkid wanting to run around and
have some sort of activity.
(08:28):
It was a lot of changes that Ihad to go through, not in terms
of just learning the language,being cool, something that I
wasn't worried about'cause I wasacing every class.
I was the captain of our soccerteam.
I was competing for different,two different languages back in
Iran and in creative writingspace.
I came from a, a campus of 200kids to a campus of 1000 kids,
(08:53):
and all of a sudden I'd go frombeing like the top student,
someone that most people knew tonobody knows about me and I'm
trying to catch up.
Dress, right?
That was another thing.
This is when the Eminem was onTRL, NSYNC was on TRL.
Britney.
Fashion mattered.
People were dressing cool, hadcool shoes.
(09:14):
It was challenging.
Definitely got picked on a lot,but overcome all those
experiences.
Russel (09:20):
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 tonavigate.
Was there a happy ending toyour, your high school journey
where you got on the other sideof all of this and and, um, you,
you, you finally, things wereclicking
Omid (09:35):
The happier side was this, I think in my belief.
I ended up not, um, followingwhat they mentioned to my
parents and my uncle who wasdoing a lot of the translation.
I told my uncle if they put metwo grades behind, I'm just not
gonna go to school.
I need to start out high schoollevel.
I ended up getting into BeverlyHills High School.
Russel (09:58):
Is this like Beverly Hills 90210?
Omid (10:00):
Yes.
Ended up pretty much getting D'sand F's the first semester.
Then, uh, somehow just I waslike, okay, something needs to
change.
I need to change friends interms of not constantly speaking
in Farsi, change the group offriends I was with, reading more
books, taking more courses,classes after class.
I want to give a shout out to myESL teacher, Ms.
(10:23):
Sji.
I hope one day she gets to hearyour podcast.
She, very supportive always wentout of her way to make sure
we're picking up, not just me,everybody in the class picking
up the language, uh, the correctgrammar, the correct spelling,
what books to read, what toavoid and not to avoid.
'Cause she went through the sameexperiences.
(10:43):
She just had that manual to handto us.
I don't think I realized at thatmoment someone is giving me a
blueprint till now where I'mable to pass that information on
to other people that I meet or Isee 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 memorylane and sharing that
perspective for, for everyone.
Changed my view on just howdifficult a path that is for
someone to come and, and do whatyou did.
This is all playing out now, whyyou're doing a very difficult
thing of entrepreneurship in anagency space.
So let's, let's segue to that.
You broke mom and dad's heart alittle bit with this, um, with
(11:23):
this switch to the, the creativespace.
Walk us into ultimately how didyou start an agency?
Omid (11:28):
After I graduated from college, it was very, um,
challenging to land a job,'causeuh, I felt like majority of the
projects we did kind of didn'tresonate with the real world
issues.
That's something we hear fromlike a lot of college students
where they work on outdatedprojects.
(11:49):
They never get real timechallenges to work on.
Within two, three months I foundmyself in a position where I'm
like, okay, I gotta trysomething differently.
This is not working out.
The way I thought, startedpartnering up with few printing
agencies and one developmentagency in different areas of Los
Angeles.
(12:10):
Walked up to them.
I said, hey, I, I'm just freshoutta college.
I'm not gonna charge much.
I'm pretty good at graphicdesign, making brochures, print
material.
Got hired for a couple of smallprojects.
I was not getting paid good atall, like probably under even
minimum wage.
They were just giving me sidejobs.
But one of the vendors I wasworking with they had a sales
(12:34):
rep.
This guy would get out and pickup a portfolio of business
cards, brochures, printout,mailers, and walk store to store
from mechanics to restaurants toevery type of business that was
around them.
He would show the work, say,this is what we do.
I could pick one of thesetemplates.
We revamp it, we print thebusiness card, we'll come drop
(12:55):
it off to you.
I started picking up a lot of,creative ways to understand how
to land the job, what programsthey use from this particular
person.
Around that time, I was seeing ahigh need of stepping out of
this safe zone of usingtemplates,'cause one thing that
(13:16):
was consistent between all theseprint shops and even the web
develop, uh, the web designagency I work with, they tend to
go, which option do you want?
It was like going in, in andout, option 1, 2, 3.
We could customize any of those,but the bare bone was a
template, structure that youcouldn't mold or shape, you had
to abide by those kind offoundation.
(13:37):
I think that that's where thename of, uh, our company started
come to Fruitation.
It was called Mad Mind Media.
Then later on I changed it toMad Mind Studios.
I wanted to step outside of thatmold.
That template being, playing itsafe and going after taking more
risks, uh, focusing on morebreaking boundaries and so
(14:00):
forth.
Russel (14:00):
And how old are you at this point?
I'm getting the sense, timelinewise, 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 nokind of creative challenges.
It ended up turning into, okay,let's go pick up some
challenges, real world and seeif I could even survive.
(14:24):
It was a very difficult time,but exciting because, uh, I was
getting offered the opportunityand I was grateful for that.
You have to kind of knowsometimes where you are and when
you, where you stand.
At that point it was moreunderstanding, okay, I need to
make a name for myself.
I need to build a portfolioinstead of making other people
(14:45):
successful and just not gettingpaid for it.
Found a solution.
Everything I'm learning fromthem, 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 ownmind, or if or versus, right, if
you'd, someone would just givenyou an opportunity in a decent
paying, full-time job rightoutta college, you would've
maybe just done a career path?
Did you know you, you werealways gonna end up having your
own business?
Omid (15:09):
That's a very interesting question.
I don't think I realized what Iwas getting myself into, to be
honest, at that time.
As a graphic designer, I cameoutta school just like any other
graphic designer.
I'm like, great, I haveportfolios.
I have a movie poster, I havelogos, I have business cards.
I have all the samples.
(15:30):
I'm gonna get offered a job.
Then reality kind of sets inthat now, you know, you need to
know web design.
Do you know packaging, like as agraphic designer?
You end up taking more than, uh,what you're thinking you're
taking on.
You gotta sometimes build astrategy, and the companies will
work with the team members that,were there.
(15:51):
They handled couple ofpositions.
It wasn't just one.
It was like becoming a jack ofall trades.
Slowly I understood that perhapsalong this path that I'm taking,
which I had no knowledge of webdesign, I was barely learning
from the agency'cause I was justdoing majority of their graphic
design work, not necessarilytaking coding.
(16:13):
That maybe there is a way Icould learn the business aspect
of things and learning how tosell 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 ratherthan, hey, I need to charge you
5,000 to do this.
(16:34):
More of, what kind of result canI get for you if you end up
hiring me rather than theseother companies that keep doing
template stuff for you?
I think that just kind ofslowly, gradually set in that,
um, at some point, um, I'm gonnaend up, uh, bringing smarter
people than myselves, morecreative people than myselves
(16:54):
and learning how to operate andrun an agency because at some
point I'm gonna exhaust all myskills and everything I know in
order to be able to hold ontothe client.
There's additional services thatI need to, uh, start providing
to have that continuous work andrelationship and being able to
see their success.
(17:15):
One of the things was I wouldfinish a project, whether it was
a brochure or a print materialand print marketing, and, uh, I
would never hear back from theclient in terms of, hey, here's
a copy of what you did, here'swhere it's being posted, or this
is what we did, or if we getresults 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 oflike when you open your mailbox
on daily basis, the amount ofdesign 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 thatgoes and my mom always has these
(17:58):
calendars from taxi cabs andlike restaurants or that she has
these catalogs where they havecertain like promotional stuff,
but she keeps it and I go, whyare you keeping this?
She's like, I need that item onit.
I'm like, okay, that was aclever way.
If it was someone else that theydid not include this yearly
calendar on this magnet, shewould've probably threw it away.
(18:20):
But now the name is on thefridge.
I see it.
Someone else sees it.
If we end up needing theservice, 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 guiltyfor a second.
When I throw away junk mail, I'mlike, 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 alittle bit different perspective
when I go check the mail laterand, and see something, I get
like, all right, someone'ssitting somewhere designed this.
Kudos to them, but I'll probablystill throw it away.
I see where, you know, focusedon value, right?
(18:51):
That is so important.
It's not about just hawking and,and selling skills in front of
people.
You were talking about this ideaof, you know, needing to bring
on some other experts and, andpeople to surround yourself
with.
I'm guessing to even be able todo that.
Some way somehow you, you had tosolve the challenge of getting a
decent amount of business andclient 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 memberand creatives.
As the saying goes, might not begetting, saying it, right?
It's like you, you can make asound with one finger, but you
could snap with two fingers.
It takes a team to have asuccessful business,
(19:32):
responsible, creative,accountable, and, uh, putting
the right structure.
My first goal was, uh, having abetter understanding of how I
want to scale up the company.
As someone that has never ran abusiness, always worked for
somebody, always kind of tackledthe challenges of other people
in a smaller scale, but nowbecoming my own sales rep, my
(19:57):
own accountant training somebodyto 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 downsin terms of learning and
gathering that knowledge, makingmistakes, but essentially what I
did was I ended up, saving somemoney and hiring the right team
(20:18):
members that knew more than Idid 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-commercebrands.
In terms of getting more supportin that area, I need to bring
someone that's creative,knowledgeable, has worked with
the different guidelines andparameters to bring that
(20:41):
expertise to the field.
Web design, same situation interms of, going through classes.
Learning how to operate, grow,scale up, what management tools
to get and so forth.
Gradually everything cametogether.
I think there's always room formaking things, uh, easier, uh,
more scalable, but those aregradual things that I don't
(21:02):
think, uh, you get handed toyou.
Especially at that time when Iwas coming up.
YouTube, Facebook, social mediawasn't blowing up the way it is
now where you could go learnfrom a podcast, top five gadgets
to get.
There wasn't an AI where itwould filter my thoughts and go,
oh, these are the issues you'redealing with.
(21:22):
Here's a solution where I couldhave a foundation.
It was more kind of going tosomebody and say, hey, uh, I'm
having this issue.
How are you dealing with thischallenge and what do you
recommend?
Russel (21:33):
I love you shared of, you know, save money to give
yourself some runway to makethese hires.
It wasn't just blind faith, butyou said to replace yourself so
that you could go focus on morebusiness development.
Were you pretty confident inyour ability to go get more
business?
What were you doing, maybe morespecifically to bring on new
clients, new business once youstarted 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 haslimitation and I knew I had
limitations.
One thing I was always a hundredpercent sure of was myself and
(22:15):
my capabilities and knowing noone would do it better than I
would do it in terms of goingout there and risking and not
being worried.
Going out there, creatingopportunities and not being
afraid with the setbacks andchallenges, that's something
that you don't have control,where you have other members on
your team.
There are certain things youcould guide, put, courses,
(22:38):
training.
Putting pretty much a foundationin place, but, I had control
over what I had, which wasmyself and my own expertise.
It just became very apparentafter I hired the first designer
to take my place that I had itin me to go able to create
opportunities.
I took everything I learned fromthose, uh, companies that I was
(23:01):
working with.
I went the complete oppositedirection with having the
template system as a safeguardif 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 samething?
(23:22):
What if there's this opportunitythat you could go about it this
way and get more clients'causethis person is not doing this,
right?
I highly believe in alwaysshowing value, not, uh, being so
focused on how much something isworth.
Because when someone sees thevalue that you bring to the
(23:43):
table that they haven't beenoffered, they are willing to
take that financial risk orinvestment to proceed with your
services or what you'reoffering.
Russel (23:53):
Were you just walking into businesses cold, from that
earlier example you weresharing?
Omid (23:57):
Absolutely.
Russel (23:58):
Wow.
Omid (23:58):
Not afraid to say it.
I was putting business cards oncars.
I was walking in with flyers.
I got cussed at by a businessowner that I didn't realize he
was doing the same thing I, Iwas doing in terms of services.
He called me and left a reallynasty message.
But it's part of the process.
Again, going back to when you'rehungry, if stuck in the middle
(24:20):
of a jungle, there's no onearound 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, whatopportunities are available and
there are more of a low hangingfruit, and what opportunities is
something you take on whenfinances become available?
At that time, straight out ofcollege, thankfully, with little
(24:44):
amount of depth, I was able toslowly grow the company, not
quickly, but surely in the rightpath to be able to scale it up.
Then have the ability toadvertise on Yelp, get a little
advertisement in terms ofmailers and so forth to get a
buzz around my name.
Russel (25:01):
Wow.
I can just appreciate the hustleaspect and, and as you said it,
it all comes back to the powerof a have to.
And it also helps, right?
We talked about runway and justthe reality of being young and
not having as many life expensesand things that you feel like
you have to keep up with.
I can see again, see how this isall coming together.
Was there a point in time whenyou feel like you were, uh, you,
(25:23):
you didn't have to hustle somuch 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 thebusiness is in a far better
place than, than it was thereearly days.
Omid (25:34):
You get to a point where you start solving certain small
challenges, right?
You get rewarded by someonereaching out and saying, hey,
thank you so much.
That landing page you made me,got me a lot of conversion.
That email newsletter you senthad a really good open rate,
that print marketing materialyou did, people are bringing the
(25:55):
coupon in.
That excitement turns into morehunger for, okay, what else am I
capable of that I haven'tdiscovered yet?
What other challenges can Itackle that I haven't?
Why can I swim with the sharkswhen there's four or five other
design agencies near me andthey're not doing half of the
(26:16):
stuff and creativity I'm puttinginto this?
They're set in stone with theirway.
Here's what you get, here's whatyou could do.
Here's a package for$50 permonth, or$90 a month.
What makes me stand out on frontof the, the bigger clients?
That drive just comes I feelnaturally after you get rewarded
(26:38):
and I hope it doesn't turn intocomfort for me ever.
I like that excitement ofdealing, waking up and dealing
with new challenges daily.
I always in my head, reward,doctors, nurses, firefighters,
policemen,'cause they deal withsame situation.
Every day is a little bitdifferent.
They don't know what they'regetting handed, what kind of
(27:00):
challenge.
Even though we're in a fieldthat's some problem or a cookie
cutter system, you just solve itby doing something.
I think when it comes tocreative strategy, it's very
unique'cause there is no onesize fits all in a world where
everyone is stuck in thistemplates safe choice situation
(27:22):
where you get teased by acheaper, affordable option, but
now you look like everybodyelse.
Russel (27:28):
The note that was just going through my head there is
just embracing chaos and I thinkthat's really important in the
agency space.
That was really a mantra we usedto say in our agency is like,
look.
I don't know how to tell youotherwise.
This is a chaotic environment.
Things are constantly moving.
The clients are constantlythrowing wrenches at you.
All kinds of wrenches are beingthrown at you from all different
directions, and so you caneither fight it or you can
(27:49):
embrace it.
But it, it sounds like you're,you, you chose the latter.
You've just said, I'm gonnaembrace chaos.
Omid (27:54):
What you said about throwing wrenches.
That's daily.
That hasn't changed.
I don't think there is a daywhere you start work and you go,
okay, everything is gonna goperfect.
We're in a constant changeshift.
Things move around depending onthe news, what's going on.
I give you a really goodexample, the LA fires.
(28:15):
I think it just, woke up a lotof people in different
industries in terms of like theway they're operating, in terms
of their outreach, and my heartgoes out to all those people
that lost their houses, theirbusiness.
But when you look at the newsand just the other day there
was, I don't remember the brandname.
There was this lady, she hadcookies, close to like Malibu
(28:38):
areas where she's finding otherways to put, to go orders'cause
she doesn't have space forpeople to come sit or enjoy a
cup of coffee or a cookie.
She's getting creative with herapproach to make sure that
traffic is coming.
It all comes back to, uh, havingcreative, I think strategy and
figuring out ways because daily,like you said, things might
(29:00):
change.
Clients want to be involved incertain aspect of the design
process and strategy, and thereare moments where I want to go,
I wouldn't go that way.
It's building that foundationwith them, getting to know them.
Also, understanding thechallenges they deal with face
to face.
We always want to be part oftheir team and understand and
(29:21):
really, uh, digest the concernsthat they have and be able to
find a strategy that worksmutually for everybody and also
being result driven at the endof the day.
Russel (29:31):
Focus on value, be results driven, embrace chaos.
Another nugget that I picked upon is just never get
comfortable.
Even when you could find a wayto, continue to be
uncomfortable.
What are you trying to achievefor the future?
What is the big picture forrunning, 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 soonis creative strategy.
AI is able to, right now, it'sable to offer these kind of
goofy looking stock visual logosand everything.
I think it's gonna be some timethat it's able to catch up and
(30:09):
become smarter and do more.
What we are to, uh, trying toachieve is stay up to the trend.
We're not afraid of AI.
Matter of fact, just like otheragencies that, they use it to
grow and help and assist andstreamline certain stuff, do the
same, but also expand on ourknowledge base in other areas.
(30:31):
Using the power of AI and otherassets that are out there to not
only scale of, scale up ouroperation, but to take on new,
bigger challenges.
We've come a long way.
Myself coming from, being agraphic designer to being in the
print world and getting intoprinting services, signage, and
(30:52):
now all the way, managing a teamof 15, handling web Google ads,
SEO, all aspects of, digitalspace.
Never stop growing.
That's one of our motto,learning, adjusting.
Not taking anything for grantedand also thinking, think
differently, break boundaries.
(31:12):
That's pretty much where ourname comes from.
It's with this notion of youhave 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'mgoing back to where I started
again, where I didn't want to beconfined by again, a whole
structure, a template, anythingthat comes that helps us grow
(31:35):
and add more value to ourclients, to their business.
Russel (31:39):
It's fascinating.
It sounds like, I'm sure you hadsome of these traits, obviously
from, from very young age, butreally your middle years
defining a moment in thisexperience that you had really,
I think seems like it justshaped you for really building
in these traits.
Call it survival of the fittest.
That all these foundationalprinciples, it seems like how
you operate and how you've bakedinto the framework of the
(31:59):
business is, is yeah, I'm, I'm,I'm very fascinated continuing
to see how that journey evolvesand, 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 lasthowever many years.
I remember in the late 2000s wewere still working really hard
to convince people to build awebsite.
You need a website for yourbusiness.
It's this really thing.
15 years later, it's you know,like you're saying, AI.
Now people are want, hoping andwanting robots to build their
business, but we're nowhere nearthere yet.
(32:29):
It's just putting all the moreemphasis on strategy.
Yes, it's still, it's just atool still.
We've just gotta be all the morestrategic in how we use the
tools we have.
Omid (32:38):
Couldn't agree with you more.
AI could do everything, but it'snot able to do your brand
positioning.
AI is able to write yourcontent, but it's not able to,
sometimes, majority of times,you read the content, not able
to make a connection with youraudience.
Having a strategic team that notonly focuses on your brand
(32:58):
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 askingme, right?
You value my story.
You're interested to know how wecame about having the company
that we have.
(33:19):
We apply the same approach tothe clients that we work with.
It's just making sure we fullyunderstand the scope of their
project, their branding would,result we're aiming for, and
kind of day-to-day challengesthey 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 oflike a practical example of like
AI, I wanna write a very sternemail to the client to, for
these, because they're, givingall this feedback to this
design.
AI is gonna write a really greatemail to answer that question,
but it's not gonna come back andask you, should you write this?
Or like, what's the real intentand strategy here first?
No, it's people pleasing.
It's going to do what it, whatyou ask it to do.
(33:59):
All the more emphasis onstrategy.
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 fascinatingconversation.
I guess we gotta wind it downhere.
But, uh, again, I can't, I can'twait to see the continued
evolution of your journey.
One question I am curious aboutthough, 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 withit, if I didn't have the life
experiences and challenges andto overcome those challenges, I
wouldn't be the person or thebusiness owner that I am.
Everything is kind of throughtrial and error and seeing
what's successful, and areasthat you grow and where else you
(34:48):
could push up boundaries.
Through those experiences I wasable 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, interms 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 ofyour own experience and cases
you shared.
If people wanna know more aboutMad 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 ifthey need somebody to, consult,
do a audit, or go over theirbusiness or any challenges
they're facing atomid@madmindstudios.com.
That's omid@madmindstudios.com.
Russel (35:37):
Wonderful.
There you have it folks.
Gosh, I mean, so many greattakeaways from today's show.
Thank you for sharing so manythe, the ups and downs of your
experience.
The key reminders, focus onvalue, the power of a have to,
um, embracing chaos and neverget comfortable are all great
lessons to remind ourselves andeveryone there at home today.
Really appreciate you taking thetime to share that with us,
(35:58):
Omid.
Omid (35:59):
Absolutely.
I appreciate you.
One thing I want to leave beforewe end our chat is thank you so
much for doing this.
I been sharing not just withteam, with other creatives, your
podcast.
I think at the time when I wascoming up, these resources
weren't available.
There was this constant alsofear in the back of my mind, am
(36:22):
I alone?
Am I the only one that wasfailing?
Am I the only one facing thesechallenges and listening to few
of the stories on your podcast,I, I, I see I wasn't alone.
I think other people that aregetting into the creative and
digital space, whether they'rein it now or they're getting
into it, or they're startingtheir own journey in terms of
(36:42):
being an entrepreneur, startingtheir business, they could
benefit from your podcast.
So thank you again for doingthis.
Russel (36:48):
Thank you.
It touches my heart, very kindwords and, and your stories and
what you shared are exactly thereason why I do it.
My thanks to you as well.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
(37:11):
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
Omid (37:35):
while I was trying to land a job as a graphic designer, I
ended up getting hired as aserver at this cafe that was in
a very pre, predominantly Jewishneighborhood where, I don't
think the owner realized thatfor the, uh, for Sabbath, which
goes from Friday all the way toSaturday night.
(37:57):
This neighborhood is gonna be aghost town.
I think that's where, uh, someof 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 pushboundaries in terms of signage
and put visuals outside to getto go orders on those days where
(38:21):
the rest, the cafe wascompletely empty.
That was a fun story in terms oflike, uh, being able to do
playful stuff and having funwith what I was doing, not just
have it be all serious in termsof drawing visuals or creating
graphics or posters to be ableto 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.
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