October 25, 2022 • 29 mins
I love helping others but I have a tough time selling myself. So here are six quick things about me and my work. Quick and easy so no one gets hurt.
1. I've built a series of online businesses that range from e-commerce to content to large online service enterprises. I have dozens of amazing team members around the world that help me to complete this work and have built incredible relationships with them even though we've never met in person. I have helped clients around the world to grow their businesses and inspire them to build bigger than they ever thought possible.
2. I hate social media because I do not believe in self-promotion. My actions speak louder than my words. Unfortunately, my CMO says I have to do this.
3. I started in finance after deciding I didn't want to be a doctor and this gave me the skills to recognize a really strong business vs one that won't stand the test of time.
4. I have two incredible young daughters. My oldest has a knack for voice-over work and is on track to have saved for retirement by the time she will be in her early 20s.
5. Here's how I sum up what I do: I find something I'm interested in, I determine if it is sustainable, I find the right people that I can trust to help me, I empower them to make decisions and then I get out of the way.
6. I am a stickler for principles. This has served me well in my life and those that understand my principles, love me for them. Those that don't get it, struggle with it. I always stay true to who I am.
Discover Morehttps://www.pixeltrue.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-sawrey-29312a14/https://open.spotify.com/show/7e3uz7SFMjCZO2RFDBjkawhttps://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-flawed-dads-guide-to-parenting/id1547060999
if you enjoyed the show be sure to check out my info:
https://app.wingcard.io/ROB3SA64
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Josh Bolton (00:00):
Welcome, everybody.
Today we have Graham sorry,he'll correct me later if
they're wrong. But awesome,dude. Just fun already to chat
with him. You know, I don't wantto like ramble on too much
deliver one about yourself.
Unknown (00:16):
Well, hi, everyone. As Josh said, there, my name is
Graham, I work at a work on acompany called that pixel
true.com. And we are a fullservice design company. So
that's, that's the main, one ofthe main things I do with my
time, etc. On on a couple otherwebsites as well run up, right,
(00:40):
those two, but the main one is,is pixel true. So it keeps us
busy. For sure.
Josh Bolton (00:47):
I was looking at your website before hopping on
and just the the caliber of whatyou offer up my plow. That's
tremendous value for the price.
Unknown (00:55):
Well, thank you. I appreciate it. That that's what
we try and do for sure. It'salways it's always a careful
balance with trying to priceofferings, etc. It's it's always
a challenge. But I think we'vewe've met a pretty good to sell
sweet spot for it. But thank youfor checking out the website and
things. Yeah, we've certainlyhad many, many compliments on
(01:19):
the overall design of it, whichis always always nice to hear.
Josh Bolton (01:23):
It's very slick clean, just like we're to say
it's very modern compared tomost websites.
Unknown (01:29):
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, it's, we
have to be a little differentbeing a design company. You
know, you gotta ya gotta dosomething. For sure. So, yeah, I
appreciate it.
Josh Bolton (01:40):
Awesome. Yeah, we'll see if I went into a
normal like, WordPress basics,or Elena's like, she really
designed though.
Unknown (01:48):
That's right. Exactly.
Do they really know what they'redoing? Yeah.
Josh Bolton (01:54):
So tell us a little about yourself, like your up and
coming story, what led to thispoint. And all that.
Unknown (01:59):
Backstory wise, I, I was originally, sort of career
wise, I was in the financeindustry, and ended up working
for one of the largest mortgageprivate mortgage groups within
Canada here, and did that forquite some time, and just
(02:22):
working long hours, put a lot ofpressure on myself, I suppose.
And just realize it's not reallynot really something that I was
wanting to continue to doingjust with the amount of time and
effort involved in wanting tojump out and start my own
business, etc. So started buyinga couple of websites, running
(02:45):
and operating those and thencame around on to pixel true a
little over a year ago, and I'vebeen doing that ever since.
Josh Bolton (02:55):
So what were some of the websites that you started
before he got to this
Unknown (03:00):
just a few content sites, there was a computer
gaming website how to how tobuild and construct computers,
or different price pointshelping people Yeah, cuz mainly
the content was aroundconstructing gaming computers at
different price points. Sochoose apart and that was back
(03:25):
that was back when the Bitcoinmining was was really taking
off. So it was actually reallyvery challenging to keep the
content updated and freshbecause all the computer parts
would go out of stock and theplace where the price would
fluctuate so much in a shortperiod of time that it was when
(03:47):
most of the articles werecentered around a certain price
point $500,000 $1,500 etc. Thatyou know, the the price of the
computer parts the build of theconstruction would change from
$1,500 at the time and then itwould jump up to 1800 like that,
which obviously didn't jive withthe proper amount and so you
have to reconfigure that and itwas it was a it was a lot of
(04:09):
work and effort and so end upselling that when realizing
ironically, you know got awayfrom my other job because it was
so much work and effort to tryand keep things up etc and then
go to this gaming website whereit was ironically the same thing
it was it was fine until theBitcoin the Bitcoin mining
(04:33):
really hit and then it wasparked for hours out of stock
and overpriced and it was it wasa wild time. So was it for sure.
Josh Bolton (04:42):
Was it predominantly like a blog or
video too?
Unknown (04:45):
It was it was mostly blog and it was all blog. It was
not. It was not talking aboutspecifically piecing things
together on video or anythinglike that. We stayed away from
that we don't have thatminicomputers here to try and
piece everything together youknow, we weren't that
established like Linus techtips, if you know that group
(05:07):
etc. Like they, they've beendoing it for quite some time
they get sent all these partsand do all these things. So
they're a lot more established.
It's it was costly if you if youtry and buy all these parts and
put together videos, etc. Sojust stick to the stick to the
blogs. But that was that's how Isort of got started in the
content world and transitionedto a couple other websites and
environmental website on one anddog website delve a little bit
(05:32):
of an E commerce as well triedthat. Well. The pixel true is
technically ecommerce as well.
Of course, it does sellsomething online. But physical
products is more of what I'mtalking about. E commerce. So
Josh Bolton (05:47):
was it like a dropship?
Unknown (05:48):
A lot of stuff? Yeah, did some drop shipping? Exactly.
Everyone. A lot of people trythat too. So they had some
success. But it's also justtrying to find something that
sort of fits with my overallpersonality and profile,
something where you don'tnecessarily have to, if you have
a right team, you don't have tobe in the business all the time.
(06:11):
And so that's sort of what whatI've built towards with the with
the design company. No,
Josh Bolton (06:17):
that's awesome.
Yeah. So then what was the that?
That point, you realize, oh, Ishould open to the design site?
Was it like all your friends getback to you asking you to, like
do designs for them?
Unknown (06:31):
Well, actually, the business of the website itself
came up for sale. So I didn'tactually start the website. But
with, after purchasing it, youknow, have really worked towards
improving our service offerings,the types of offers that we do
(06:54):
our customer service and a wholebunch of things. So we've had
had a lot of positives, but didnot start it myself. Someone
else did. And I've sort of tookover the reins and and went from
there.
Josh Bolton (07:03):
It's very smart to do it that way. You don't have
to worry about the foundation,you're just coming in on a
prebuilt foundation.
Unknown (07:11):
Yeah, there's positives and negatives to both obviously,
you pay for that heavily. Right?
I mean, it's, it's, it's a lotof sweat equity, that another
person has put in and has nowearned something as a result of
that. So, you know, it's if youhave the time and the know how
and the savvy and the Moxie,etc, to do it yourself, then
(07:34):
it's it's more profitable tostart from nothing. And less
risky other than your time, ofcourse, if by buying businesses,
if something happens to, to falloff, you know, the traffic
starts to disappear, yourclients start to leave or
something like that, then thenyou've bought something that
that, you know, doesn't, doesn'tearn any more money or anything
(07:56):
like that. So that's, that canbe a problem too. So the risks
of everything, you'd have tomake sure you're, you're doing
the right thing, and so far, sogood for us.
Josh Bolton (08:06):
So what was that journey that you went on? That,
like you said, you did the hardworking with the bank company
than your gamer? One? ordinateDid you realize you wanted the
work life balance? And how didyou achieve it? Hmm,
Unknown (08:19):
yeah. I've, by nature, I've always been quite frugal.
And so I sort of came to theconclusion that there are three
different main reasons whypeople end up working. Okay. The
first reason is that people workto survive, right. So the
(08:43):
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs typething, like, obviously, you need
to have enough money to be ableto buy food, to have a place to
stay close, you know, just basicneeds type stuff. Awfully within
North America, there aren't asmany people in that zone. And
most people are in the secondphase, where I see where most
(09:04):
people are working to retire.
They want to, they want to stopworking, and they want to have
enough money to be able tosurvive and meet those sort of
basic needs or whatever it ismeet their lifestyle
requirements. But they don'twant to work anymore. Right?
That's largely most individuals,right? They are. If given a
lottery ticket, where they wonumpteen million dollars, then
(09:27):
most people would quit theirjobs and not do anything. Right.
That's the those are the peoplethat I'm talking about in that
group two. And then there's agroup three, where there are
people that don't necessarilyneed to work, but work because
they very much enjoy it. Andback when when I was working
(09:52):
before, I didn't feel that Iactually met any of those
levels. I Because I'm frugal bynature, we had enough savings
that we could live quitereasonably, without having any
income coming in, etc, justbecause of our savings and the
spending that we have, etc. So Ididn't fit in group two, I
(10:16):
didn't fit in group one, and Ididn't fully enjoy what I was
doing. So I didn't fit in groupthree. So where did that leave
me, had to go and try and findsomething in group three. So
that was, that was the reasonwhy I left and tried to go on
and do something else I'vealways been interested in, in
computers and the online world,websites, etc. And so jumped
(10:39):
into that. And then because Ihave finance sort of business
acumen, etc, the online world ofbuying businesses isn't a
potentially lucrative orattractive place to invest. I
mean, again, Google, and there'sthere are always risks with
(11:06):
buying any business, especiallyan internet based business too.
But it's always interested me.
So the binder design company iscertainly more of an established
one. But it's, it's somethingthat had a staff already had,
(11:27):
you know, a fairly good basethat I could build off of, and
use a lot of my expertise, notnecessarily the design world.
But more in the businessmanagement side of things, the
growing of the business, clientrelationships, sales, even to a
degree, all of those things Ifelt like a good tribute to and,
and we've done some good work sofar, so happy with it. That's
Josh Bolton (11:50):
awesome. What was some of the, I guess, the trials
and tribulations when acquiringthe new business that you
weren't expecting, whenpurchased, that Rana works, when
you purchase the business
Unknown (12:03):
trials, and anytime you, you step into someone
else's business, or house, orcar, or whatever it is, everyone
has their own way of doingthings, right. Some people will
drive a certain way, some peoplewill make their food a certain
way, eat a certain way, runtheir business a certain way,
(12:24):
etc. And so it's always a bit ofa call it a challenge to
understand the landscape of howthings are operating as it
stands, and to fight. And avoidmaking changes rapidly and right
(12:44):
when you first come in, becauseit coming from stepping into a
new business where there arestaff and other things involved.
They don't know who you are,they don't know how you operate,
etc. And so the best way tobuild a rapport and relationship
with these individuals. Cuz someof them might be a little
(13:06):
concerned, what is this person'strying to do? Are they going to,
like me, let me go promote meall these different questions
going on. And so I find the bestways to just make sure that the
ship is is continuing as is. Soyou're not really rocking or
shifting anything, adjustingthings too much. It's just
(13:31):
letting leaving almost a statusquo for a few months, while you
understand why things are donethe way they are. If there are
maybe some opportunities tochange things, but not make them
yet just sort of build therapport etc, etc. So that's
always a bit of a challenge isfighting that I think a lot of
people's, if they do step intosomething and they maybe see
(13:52):
something that isn't the waythat they would do it. You want
to jump in and fix it rightaway, hey, we're not doing this
anymore. We're doing this,you're maybe you're you're
shifted over here and make bigchanges. And so that's the was
the biggest challenge initially,for sure, is trying to fight
that and know that you can makechanges, but don't don't want to
(14:13):
make too too quick. So that wasas a big one. And then later on.
I mean, it's always a challengelooking for customers, you
naturally want to be growing thebusiness as much as possible.
Right now. Over the past,however many months, you know,
(14:33):
the global economy has sloweddown. So there's maybe a bit of
a recession or whatever, there'sdefinitely the word recession is
being talked about quite ofteneach other. So that is always a
bit of a concern when you'rewriting a service based business
(14:54):
is you know, our our clientsgoing to be suffering as well
and so they have to make somecuts for things. Yeah, it's
always a bit of a concern to uswe've had, we've had maybe a few
clients drop off and slow thingsdown. But you know, that's the
nature of the business. Sothere's always that as well is
(15:16):
constantly trying to find newnew ways to get in front of
people reach out to themconnect, and gain new customers
to so that's, that's, I mean,for every business, if anyone's
a business owner listening tothis, you know, podcasting,
everything right is how can weget out in front of more
eyeballs? How can we do betterevery day? So?
Josh Bolton (15:40):
Oh, 100%? Yeah, that's the biggest one,
especially with how everything'sshifting. You may have thought
you had a consistent client, butdue to a shift in the market or
trend, suddenly the clientsgone, and you're like, but what
did I do wrong? Kind of thing.
Unknown (15:55):
Yeah, and sometimes you didn't do anything wrong. It's
just, you know, unfortunately,cuts after we made big
companies, small companies layoff staff a lot of times, and
when you're a service basedcompany that we don't have any
commitments, you can go month bymonth, right, like any sort of
software or anything else. Andso when you do provide that
(16:20):
flexibility, then it's also easyto cut ties, as well. So that's
a that's always a concern, butit's the life that we live as a
business.
Josh Bolton (16:33):
Yeah, especially in this fast paced tick tock world
where shit moves quick.
Unknown (16:39):
Absolutely, yeah. Yeah.
It tiktoks an interesting,interesting world, isn't it?
It's, it is very, very fast.
Josh Bolton (16:49):
There was one time I stopped using it a while ago,
like, I know, I should use itfor marketing, but it's the how
the algorithm algorithm ticklesmy brain, I just don't like it.
But in five minutes watching, somaybe like, five, eight clips,
they went from one trend toAmelia Nuland was starting by
(17:09):
the 10th. One, this, this one'salready dead. And this one
started and I'm like, Oh, thatwas so as
Unknown (17:16):
this. Yeah, you, you have to be on it for sure. You
have to use it. It'sfascinating. The different
platforms just, you know, fromour capacity as well, we have,
over the past few months reallymade more of a push to get into
putting our brand out on socialmedia, etc. So we use tick tock
(17:38):
and we use YouTube shorts as themain tool that we use. Just
because our line of work is morevisual. So the video platform
does make sense. Instagram,maybe a little bit, but the
reels haven't been as effectivefor us. But wildly different
(17:59):
platforms between concepts ofYouTube shorts versus tick tock.
And when one thing doesreasonably well on tick tock, it
doesn't necessarily translateover to YouTube, and it's just
different audiences withdifferent opinions. And it's,
it's very interesting, tick tockis, I feel like the more
(18:21):
controversial the more way. Likeit's like any publicity is good
publicity. If you've heard thatbefore. That's sort of I think
the same thing with with ticktock is my experience is that as
long as you're, you'repolarizing or making some type
of opinion, then that gets thealgorithm going. It's, it's
(18:43):
interesting.
Josh Bolton (18:44):
It is, I went on a trip in Italy, and my sister had
her tiktoks on her phone, andshe mentioned that, wow. In New
York, the tiktoks differentbecause we landed there for men
and shake, but in Italy, it'seven way more different.
Unknown (18:59):
Yes, they are very location specific. For sure.
It's. And that's one thing thatwe realized as well, because our
staff is global. And, and sodifferent people posting on our
channel, on tick tock for us,they would post from different
(19:19):
countries. And the results orthe views would be wildly
different. We're trying tounderstand why. And we realized
that was the case. And so itactually, it actually depends on
where you upload the video aswell, which is fascinating. How
it changes things. So we now usea VPN and just make sure it's
always from the same locationevery time we upload. It's the
(19:43):
things you learn over time,right? Yeah,
Josh Bolton (19:47):
yeah, it was when I was doing that vacation. I took
a GoPro video of me like jumpingoff a cliff. And I saw I
uploaded on YouTube short.
That's where I was likechuckling in my head. That thing
like viral got like 10,000 viewslike almost under an hour and
was like, I've never seen thatbefore. Like, what the hell kind
of thing? Yeah. And then, but Iput on my Oh, I'll upload it to
tick tock kind of thing. floppeddead in the water delivery like
(20:08):
50 views?
Unknown (20:11):
Yes. Yeah, what's happened here? What's, what's
the I know? It depends on themarket YouTube. Yeah, it's, we
can talk for hours on things.
But that's been my, myexperience of of it is that
YouTube was it's just entirelydifferent. As I said like one
(20:31):
video you think, Oh, well thisis done well, and there's for
sure it will be as like, how,how different can the people be
from one to the next is the sameconcept shorts versus Tiktok?
It's, it's got to be the same,right? No, no, not at all. So
yeah, it's it's an interestingworld for sure. And just trying
(20:53):
to navigate the branding aspectand trying to trying to keep the
algorithm happy, but also beingable to promote our brand as
well. Like, you know, you putcontent out you want to see
something from it to not justpat on the back that you got
some views out of it.
Josh Bolton (21:11):
You got two views as you f5 in the page. is enough
for you Sure. Yeah. I know wegot that hard. Stop coming up
here soon. So I wanted to justtake it away. Is there anything
specific I might have missedthat you want to cover? I
(21:31):
obviously you got like fiveminutes, though. Well, I
Unknown (21:33):
can I can talk. I mean.
Josh Bolton (21:38):
We got to we definitely got to reschedule
one.
Unknown (21:41):
Thank you. Yeah. But for it, I mean, what what is it
your audience is largely lookingfor? Because I'm happy to you
know, are they are the businessowners themselves?
Josh Bolton (21:54):
The business owners probably overworking themselves
listening to one too manypodcasts or tiktoks. Yeah, does
not have a work life balance.
Yeah.
Unknown (22:03):
Yeah, the work life balance is always challenging
when you're a business owner andtrying to kind of get going on
things. I it's always achallenge when it is your own
business. And any extra timethat you put into the business,
you shouldn't see something fromit. So it's difficult to pull
yourself away entirely. And thenequally say if there are some
(22:27):
stresses too, how do you how doyou decouple that work stress or
stress in general, potentiallyand and not bring that home to
your loved ones and familymembers, if you have the MC
cetera? It's, it's always achallenge. I recognize that it's
(22:52):
no expert on my end, as well,unnecessarily but just taking a
moment, I think in at least forme, if there are times where I'm
maybe a little stressed, orwhatever it is, I find like,
frankly, just I guess I choose aword that sort of like a hot
(23:14):
word, I suppose acknowledgingyour stress or whatever it is,
and just saying like, okay,yeah, this is this what it is,
is there something that I can doabout right now on this? Or is
Am I just stressing about it,and if there's nothing you can
do it right then and there thenthere's not much you know,
there's there's not any point incontinuing to stress about it in
(23:36):
that time. But that's lessstress on work on actions that
we can do after the fact. And ifyou're with your, I mean, I've
got a family, two kids and wife,etc. And if you're there with
your two kids and your mind issomewhere else then yeah, you
may as well not be there or youmay as well just focus on them
(24:00):
and have their time because theydon't they don't want to or care
too much about your stress. Imean, I think ultimately, your
family members probably do butthey have their own things going
on etc and so just enjoying thetime and realizing that it's
it's not necessarily theirpressure as well and just trying
(24:20):
to enjoy time with them at thattime and then focus on things
that you can actually take afterthe fact too so that's from a
work life balance that's a veryimportant part is almost a
compartmentalize your, you know,you park your stress for the
(24:41):
time being live in the momentand then go back to something
and and try to actually takeaction instead of just stressing
and not doing anything at all.
Focusing more on the stress sideof things, but I find that
stress or whatever the thoughtof work life balance of your own
was thinking about work. Ifyou're always thinking about
this one thing, then it willdetract and pull away from your
(25:03):
other. Your loved ones or yourlife outside of work, which is,
can be a challenge after a bitof time, right? If you're you
want to have healthyrelationships, you want to have
a life outside of workeventually, I mean, that's going
back to my like three phases,right? You want to be able to
(25:23):
enjoy what you're doing too. Andso if you're always thinking
about it, and not spending timeand enjoying with friends and
everything else, then what'swhat's almost the point of why
you're working to begin with so?
Josh Bolton (25:40):
Absolutely. Like for me, I do martial arts on the
side. I'll talk about like the15 other things I already do.
And then the biggest one I'vetold my instructors that I you
thank you for doing what you dobecause you he he said very
bluntly, he's like when you comethrough because he has a cool
like Japanese keyhole entrance.
Okay? Is it when you comethrough that keyhole, all your
(26:00):
shit is lifted outside of thatkeyhole? Right view when you
hear it's here. And then whenyou leave, you can pick it up.
But usually when you leave, halfof them are gone because you
didn't attend to them. Right?
I've told them of like that thatlike mindset of like, if I
establish if I walk through thisroom, all my problems are
outside that door until I reopenit kind of thing.
Unknown (26:19):
Yes, exactly. Yeah, it's a great way. It's just
another way of saying what I wasgetting at. It's a shorter
version of it. But yeah, if youcan work on exactly parking it,
some physical barrier, where youjust imagine leaving something
behind and work on the present,or whatever's in front of you.
(26:42):
Enjoying those moments, savoringyour food, enjoying what it is
you're eating, rather than justlaughing
Josh Bolton (26:48):
it down. It's
Unknown (26:49):
quick. Yeah, well, that's it, there's so many small
things that we can do. And Imean, when we talk on podcast,
it sounds like we're allexperts. And we're doing it all
the time. I'm I'm don't do itall the time. But it is a
reminder that I try and evendoing these discussions, etc,
that you realize, like, yeah,you can enjoy meals a little bit
(27:10):
more not think you're notthinking about whatever else it
is, while you're eating, you canreally enjoy the banana that
you're having, and reallyfocused on that. And there's so
many things you can just be moreaware of, I think, and it's an
exercise, like martial arts,like a job, like whatever it is,
(27:30):
always practice and everythingwith balance, it's important,
extremely important.
Josh Bolton (27:39):
I want to say our heart stops coming up here, I
don't want to bump into anythingelse for you. So where can
everyone contact you at?
Unknown (27:49):
Well, certainly, we do have the company has social
media presence, etc. Ipersonally don't do a whole
bunch of social media, we focusmore on the business side of
things. So if anyone has reachedout to me specifically, happy to
my email is just Graham gra JMat pixel true.com. But we have a
(28:11):
contact us page on our websiteas well. Pixel two.com. And if
there's anyone out there that'sinterested in actually looking
at trying to help one need somehelp with the design work, etc.
Then obviously happy to help inthat regard. We we know a thing
or two about design, so Oh yes,they can help there.
Josh Bolton (28:32):
Alright, absolute honor and pleasure to have you.
We definitely need to come onagain.
Unknown (28:36):
Yeah, well, thanks so much, Josh. Appreciate it.
Appreciate you
Welcome, everybody.
Today we have Graham sorry,he'll correct me later if
they're wrong. But awesome,dude. Just fun already to chat
with him. You know, I don't wantto like ramble on too much
deliver one about yourself.
Unknown (00:16):
Well, hi, everyone. As Josh said, there, my name is
Graham, I work at a work on acompany called that pixel
true.com. And we are a fullservice design company. So
that's, that's the main, one ofthe main things I do with my
time, etc. On on a couple otherwebsites as well run up, right,
(00:40):
those two, but the main one is,is pixel true. So it keeps us
busy. For sure.
Josh Bolton (00:47):
I was looking at your website before hopping on
and just the the caliber of whatyou offer up my plow. That's
tremendous value for the price.
Unknown (00:55):
Well, thank you. I appreciate it. That that's what
we try and do for sure. It'salways it's always a careful
balance with trying to priceofferings, etc. It's it's always
a challenge. But I think we'vewe've met a pretty good to sell
sweet spot for it. But thank youfor checking out the website and
things. Yeah, we've certainlyhad many, many compliments on
(01:19):
the overall design of it, whichis always always nice to hear.
Josh Bolton (01:23):
It's very slick clean, just like we're to say
it's very modern compared tomost websites.
Unknown (01:29):
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, it's, we
have to be a little differentbeing a design company. You
know, you gotta ya gotta dosomething. For sure. So, yeah, I
appreciate it.
Josh Bolton (01:40):
Awesome. Yeah, we'll see if I went into a
normal like, WordPress basics,or Elena's like, she really
designed though.
Unknown (01:48):
That's right. Exactly.
Do they really know what they'redoing? Yeah.
Josh Bolton (01:54):
So tell us a little about yourself, like your up and
coming story, what led to thispoint. And all that.
Unknown (01:59):
Backstory wise, I, I was originally, sort of career
wise, I was in the financeindustry, and ended up working
for one of the largest mortgageprivate mortgage groups within
Canada here, and did that forquite some time, and just
(02:22):
working long hours, put a lot ofpressure on myself, I suppose.
And just realize it's not reallynot really something that I was
wanting to continue to doingjust with the amount of time and
effort involved in wanting tojump out and start my own
business, etc. So started buyinga couple of websites, running
(02:45):
and operating those and thencame around on to pixel true a
little over a year ago, and I'vebeen doing that ever since.
Josh Bolton (02:55):
So what were some of the websites that you started
before he got to this
Unknown (03:00):
just a few content sites, there was a computer
gaming website how to how tobuild and construct computers,
or different price pointshelping people Yeah, cuz mainly
the content was aroundconstructing gaming computers at
different price points. Sochoose apart and that was back
(03:25):
that was back when the Bitcoinmining was was really taking
off. So it was actually reallyvery challenging to keep the
content updated and freshbecause all the computer parts
would go out of stock and theplace where the price would
fluctuate so much in a shortperiod of time that it was when
(03:47):
most of the articles werecentered around a certain price
point $500,000 $1,500 etc. Thatyou know, the the price of the
computer parts the build of theconstruction would change from
$1,500 at the time and then itwould jump up to 1800 like that,
which obviously didn't jive withthe proper amount and so you
have to reconfigure that and itwas it was a it was a lot of
(04:09):
work and effort and so end upselling that when realizing
ironically, you know got awayfrom my other job because it was
so much work and effort to tryand keep things up etc and then
go to this gaming website whereit was ironically the same thing
it was it was fine until theBitcoin the Bitcoin mining
(04:33):
really hit and then it wasparked for hours out of stock
and overpriced and it was it wasa wild time. So was it for sure.
Josh Bolton (04:42):
Was it predominantly like a blog or
video too?
Unknown (04:45):
It was it was mostly blog and it was all blog. It was
not. It was not talking aboutspecifically piecing things
together on video or anythinglike that. We stayed away from
that we don't have thatminicomputers here to try and
piece everything together youknow, we weren't that
established like Linus techtips, if you know that group
(05:07):
etc. Like they, they've beendoing it for quite some time
they get sent all these partsand do all these things. So
they're a lot more established.
It's it was costly if you if youtry and buy all these parts and
put together videos, etc. Sojust stick to the stick to the
blogs. But that was that's how Isort of got started in the
content world and transitionedto a couple other websites and
environmental website on one anddog website delve a little bit
(05:32):
of an E commerce as well triedthat. Well. The pixel true is
technically ecommerce as well.
Of course, it does sellsomething online. But physical
products is more of what I'mtalking about. E commerce. So
Josh Bolton (05:47):
was it like a dropship?
Unknown (05:48):
A lot of stuff? Yeah, did some drop shipping? Exactly.
Everyone. A lot of people trythat too. So they had some
success. But it's also justtrying to find something that
sort of fits with my overallpersonality and profile,
something where you don'tnecessarily have to, if you have
a right team, you don't have tobe in the business all the time.
(06:11):
And so that's sort of what whatI've built towards with the with
the design company. No,
Josh Bolton (06:17):
that's awesome.
Yeah. So then what was the that?
That point, you realize, oh, Ishould open to the design site?
Was it like all your friends getback to you asking you to, like
do designs for them?
Unknown (06:31):
Well, actually, the business of the website itself
came up for sale. So I didn'tactually start the website. But
with, after purchasing it, youknow, have really worked towards
improving our service offerings,the types of offers that we do
(06:54):
our customer service and a wholebunch of things. So we've had
had a lot of positives, but didnot start it myself. Someone
else did. And I've sort of tookover the reins and and went from
there.
Josh Bolton (07:03):
It's very smart to do it that way. You don't have
to worry about the foundation,you're just coming in on a
prebuilt foundation.
Unknown (07:11):
Yeah, there's positives and negatives to both obviously,
you pay for that heavily. Right?
I mean, it's, it's, it's a lotof sweat equity, that another
person has put in and has nowearned something as a result of
that. So, you know, it's if youhave the time and the know how
and the savvy and the Moxie,etc, to do it yourself, then
(07:34):
it's it's more profitable tostart from nothing. And less
risky other than your time, ofcourse, if by buying businesses,
if something happens to, to falloff, you know, the traffic
starts to disappear, yourclients start to leave or
something like that, then thenyou've bought something that
that, you know, doesn't, doesn'tearn any more money or anything
(07:56):
like that. So that's, that canbe a problem too. So the risks
of everything, you'd have tomake sure you're, you're doing
the right thing, and so far, sogood for us.
Josh Bolton (08:06):
So what was that journey that you went on? That,
like you said, you did the hardworking with the bank company
than your gamer? One? ordinateDid you realize you wanted the
work life balance? And how didyou achieve it? Hmm,
Unknown (08:19):
yeah. I've, by nature, I've always been quite frugal.
And so I sort of came to theconclusion that there are three
different main reasons whypeople end up working. Okay. The
first reason is that people workto survive, right. So the
(08:43):
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs typething, like, obviously, you need
to have enough money to be ableto buy food, to have a place to
stay close, you know, just basicneeds type stuff. Awfully within
North America, there aren't asmany people in that zone. And
most people are in the secondphase, where I see where most
(09:04):
people are working to retire.
They want to, they want to stopworking, and they want to have
enough money to be able tosurvive and meet those sort of
basic needs or whatever it ismeet their lifestyle
requirements. But they don'twant to work anymore. Right?
That's largely most individuals,right? They are. If given a
lottery ticket, where they wonumpteen million dollars, then
(09:27):
most people would quit theirjobs and not do anything. Right.
That's the those are the peoplethat I'm talking about in that
group two. And then there's agroup three, where there are
people that don't necessarilyneed to work, but work because
they very much enjoy it. Andback when when I was working
(09:52):
before, I didn't feel that Iactually met any of those
levels. I Because I'm frugal bynature, we had enough savings
that we could live quitereasonably, without having any
income coming in, etc, justbecause of our savings and the
spending that we have, etc. So Ididn't fit in group two, I
(10:16):
didn't fit in group one, and Ididn't fully enjoy what I was
doing. So I didn't fit in groupthree. So where did that leave
me, had to go and try and findsomething in group three. So
that was, that was the reasonwhy I left and tried to go on
and do something else I'vealways been interested in, in
computers and the online world,websites, etc. And so jumped
(10:39):
into that. And then because Ihave finance sort of business
acumen, etc, the online world ofbuying businesses isn't a
potentially lucrative orattractive place to invest. I
mean, again, Google, and there'sthere are always risks with
(11:06):
buying any business, especiallyan internet based business too.
But it's always interested me.
So the binder design company iscertainly more of an established
one. But it's, it's somethingthat had a staff already had,
(11:27):
you know, a fairly good basethat I could build off of, and
use a lot of my expertise, notnecessarily the design world.
But more in the businessmanagement side of things, the
growing of the business, clientrelationships, sales, even to a
degree, all of those things Ifelt like a good tribute to and,
and we've done some good work sofar, so happy with it. That's
Josh Bolton (11:50):
awesome. What was some of the, I guess, the trials
and tribulations when acquiringthe new business that you
weren't expecting, whenpurchased, that Rana works, when
you purchase the business
Unknown (12:03):
trials, and anytime you, you step into someone
else's business, or house, orcar, or whatever it is, everyone
has their own way of doingthings, right. Some people will
drive a certain way, some peoplewill make their food a certain
way, eat a certain way, runtheir business a certain way,
(12:24):
etc. And so it's always a bit ofa call it a challenge to
understand the landscape of howthings are operating as it
stands, and to fight. And avoidmaking changes rapidly and right
(12:44):
when you first come in, becauseit coming from stepping into a
new business where there arestaff and other things involved.
They don't know who you are,they don't know how you operate,
etc. And so the best way tobuild a rapport and relationship
with these individuals. Cuz someof them might be a little
(13:06):
concerned, what is this person'strying to do? Are they going to,
like me, let me go promote meall these different questions
going on. And so I find the bestways to just make sure that the
ship is is continuing as is. Soyou're not really rocking or
shifting anything, adjustingthings too much. It's just
(13:31):
letting leaving almost a statusquo for a few months, while you
understand why things are donethe way they are. If there are
maybe some opportunities tochange things, but not make them
yet just sort of build therapport etc, etc. So that's
always a bit of a challenge isfighting that I think a lot of
people's, if they do step intosomething and they maybe see
(13:52):
something that isn't the waythat they would do it. You want
to jump in and fix it rightaway, hey, we're not doing this
anymore. We're doing this,you're maybe you're you're
shifted over here and make bigchanges. And so that's the was
the biggest challenge initially,for sure, is trying to fight
that and know that you can makechanges, but don't don't want to
(14:13):
make too too quick. So that wasas a big one. And then later on.
I mean, it's always a challengelooking for customers, you
naturally want to be growing thebusiness as much as possible.
Right now. Over the past,however many months, you know,
(14:33):
the global economy has sloweddown. So there's maybe a bit of
a recession or whatever, there'sdefinitely the word recession is
being talked about quite ofteneach other. So that is always a
bit of a concern when you'rewriting a service based business
(14:54):
is you know, our our clientsgoing to be suffering as well
and so they have to make somecuts for things. Yeah, it's
always a bit of a concern to uswe've had, we've had maybe a few
clients drop off and slow thingsdown. But you know, that's the
nature of the business. Sothere's always that as well is
(15:16):
constantly trying to find newnew ways to get in front of
people reach out to themconnect, and gain new customers
to so that's, that's, I mean,for every business, if anyone's
a business owner listening tothis, you know, podcasting,
everything right is how can weget out in front of more
eyeballs? How can we do betterevery day? So?
Josh Bolton (15:40):
Oh, 100%? Yeah, that's the biggest one,
especially with how everything'sshifting. You may have thought
you had a consistent client, butdue to a shift in the market or
trend, suddenly the clientsgone, and you're like, but what
did I do wrong? Kind of thing.
Unknown (15:55):
Yeah, and sometimes you didn't do anything wrong. It's
just, you know, unfortunately,cuts after we made big
companies, small companies layoff staff a lot of times, and
when you're a service basedcompany that we don't have any
commitments, you can go month bymonth, right, like any sort of
software or anything else. Andso when you do provide that
(16:20):
flexibility, then it's also easyto cut ties, as well. So that's
a that's always a concern, butit's the life that we live as a
business.
Josh Bolton (16:33):
Yeah, especially in this fast paced tick tock world
where shit moves quick.
Unknown (16:39):
Absolutely, yeah. Yeah.
It tiktoks an interesting,interesting world, isn't it?
It's, it is very, very fast.
Josh Bolton (16:49):
There was one time I stopped using it a while ago,
like, I know, I should use itfor marketing, but it's the how
the algorithm algorithm ticklesmy brain, I just don't like it.
But in five minutes watching, somaybe like, five, eight clips,
they went from one trend toAmelia Nuland was starting by
(17:09):
the 10th. One, this, this one'salready dead. And this one
started and I'm like, Oh, thatwas so as
Unknown (17:16):
this. Yeah, you, you have to be on it for sure. You
have to use it. It'sfascinating. The different
platforms just, you know, fromour capacity as well, we have,
over the past few months reallymade more of a push to get into
putting our brand out on socialmedia, etc. So we use tick tock
(17:38):
and we use YouTube shorts as themain tool that we use. Just
because our line of work is morevisual. So the video platform
does make sense. Instagram,maybe a little bit, but the
reels haven't been as effectivefor us. But wildly different
(17:59):
platforms between concepts ofYouTube shorts versus tick tock.
And when one thing doesreasonably well on tick tock, it
doesn't necessarily translateover to YouTube, and it's just
different audiences withdifferent opinions. And it's,
it's very interesting, tick tockis, I feel like the more
(18:21):
controversial the more way. Likeit's like any publicity is good
publicity. If you've heard thatbefore. That's sort of I think
the same thing with with ticktock is my experience is that as
long as you're, you'repolarizing or making some type
of opinion, then that gets thealgorithm going. It's, it's
(18:43):
interesting.
Josh Bolton (18:44):
It is, I went on a trip in Italy, and my sister had
her tiktoks on her phone, andshe mentioned that, wow. In New
York, the tiktoks differentbecause we landed there for men
and shake, but in Italy, it'seven way more different.
Unknown (18:59):
Yes, they are very location specific. For sure.
It's. And that's one thing thatwe realized as well, because our
staff is global. And, and sodifferent people posting on our
channel, on tick tock for us,they would post from different
(19:19):
countries. And the results orthe views would be wildly
different. We're trying tounderstand why. And we realized
that was the case. And so itactually, it actually depends on
where you upload the video aswell, which is fascinating. How
it changes things. So we now usea VPN and just make sure it's
always from the same locationevery time we upload. It's the
(19:43):
things you learn over time,right? Yeah,
Josh Bolton (19:47):
yeah, it was when I was doing that vacation. I took
a GoPro video of me like jumpingoff a cliff. And I saw I
uploaded on YouTube short.
That's where I was likechuckling in my head. That thing
like viral got like 10,000 viewslike almost under an hour and
was like, I've never seen thatbefore. Like, what the hell kind
of thing? Yeah. And then, but Iput on my Oh, I'll upload it to
tick tock kind of thing. floppeddead in the water delivery like
(20:08):
50 views?
Unknown (20:11):
Yes. Yeah, what's happened here? What's, what's
the I know? It depends on themarket YouTube. Yeah, it's, we
can talk for hours on things.
But that's been my, myexperience of of it is that
YouTube was it's just entirelydifferent. As I said like one
(20:31):
video you think, Oh, well thisis done well, and there's for
sure it will be as like, how,how different can the people be
from one to the next is the sameconcept shorts versus Tiktok?
It's, it's got to be the same,right? No, no, not at all. So
yeah, it's it's an interestingworld for sure. And just trying
(20:53):
to navigate the branding aspectand trying to trying to keep the
algorithm happy, but also beingable to promote our brand as
well. Like, you know, you putcontent out you want to see
something from it to not justpat on the back that you got
some views out of it.
Josh Bolton (21:11):
You got two views as you f5 in the page. is enough
for you Sure. Yeah. I know wegot that hard. Stop coming up
here soon. So I wanted to justtake it away. Is there anything
specific I might have missedthat you want to cover? I
(21:31):
obviously you got like fiveminutes, though. Well, I
Unknown (21:33):
can I can talk. I mean.
Josh Bolton (21:38):
We got to we definitely got to reschedule
one.
Unknown (21:41):
Thank you. Yeah. But for it, I mean, what what is it
your audience is largely lookingfor? Because I'm happy to you
know, are they are the businessowners themselves?
Josh Bolton (21:54):
The business owners probably overworking themselves
listening to one too manypodcasts or tiktoks. Yeah, does
not have a work life balance.
Yeah.
Unknown (22:03):
Yeah, the work life balance is always challenging
when you're a business owner andtrying to kind of get going on
things. I it's always achallenge when it is your own
business. And any extra timethat you put into the business,
you shouldn't see something fromit. So it's difficult to pull
yourself away entirely. And thenequally say if there are some
(22:27):
stresses too, how do you how doyou decouple that work stress or
stress in general, potentiallyand and not bring that home to
your loved ones and familymembers, if you have the MC
cetera? It's, it's always achallenge. I recognize that it's
(22:52):
no expert on my end, as well,unnecessarily but just taking a
moment, I think in at least forme, if there are times where I'm
maybe a little stressed, orwhatever it is, I find like,
frankly, just I guess I choose aword that sort of like a hot
(23:14):
word, I suppose acknowledgingyour stress or whatever it is,
and just saying like, okay,yeah, this is this what it is,
is there something that I can doabout right now on this? Or is
Am I just stressing about it,and if there's nothing you can
do it right then and there thenthere's not much you know,
there's there's not any point incontinuing to stress about it in
(23:36):
that time. But that's lessstress on work on actions that
we can do after the fact. And ifyou're with your, I mean, I've
got a family, two kids and wife,etc. And if you're there with
your two kids and your mind issomewhere else then yeah, you
may as well not be there or youmay as well just focus on them
(24:00):
and have their time because theydon't they don't want to or care
too much about your stress. Imean, I think ultimately, your
family members probably do butthey have their own things going
on etc and so just enjoying thetime and realizing that it's
it's not necessarily theirpressure as well and just trying
(24:20):
to enjoy time with them at thattime and then focus on things
that you can actually take afterthe fact too so that's from a
work life balance that's a veryimportant part is almost a
compartmentalize your, you know,you park your stress for the
(24:41):
time being live in the momentand then go back to something
and and try to actually takeaction instead of just stressing
and not doing anything at all.
Focusing more on the stress sideof things, but I find that
stress or whatever the thoughtof work life balance of your own
was thinking about work. Ifyou're always thinking about
this one thing, then it willdetract and pull away from your
(25:03):
other. Your loved ones or yourlife outside of work, which is,
can be a challenge after a bitof time, right? If you're you
want to have healthyrelationships, you want to have
a life outside of workeventually, I mean, that's going
back to my like three phases,right? You want to be able to
(25:23):
enjoy what you're doing too. Andso if you're always thinking
about it, and not spending timeand enjoying with friends and
everything else, then what'swhat's almost the point of why
you're working to begin with so?
Josh Bolton (25:40):
Absolutely. Like for me, I do martial arts on the
side. I'll talk about like the15 other things I already do.
And then the biggest one I'vetold my instructors that I you
thank you for doing what you dobecause you he he said very
bluntly, he's like when you comethrough because he has a cool
like Japanese keyhole entrance.
Okay? Is it when you comethrough that keyhole, all your
(26:00):
shit is lifted outside of thatkeyhole? Right view when you
hear it's here. And then whenyou leave, you can pick it up.
But usually when you leave, halfof them are gone because you
didn't attend to them. Right?
I've told them of like that thatlike mindset of like, if I
establish if I walk through thisroom, all my problems are
outside that door until I reopenit kind of thing.
Unknown (26:19):
Yes, exactly. Yeah, it's a great way. It's just
another way of saying what I wasgetting at. It's a shorter
version of it. But yeah, if youcan work on exactly parking it,
some physical barrier, where youjust imagine leaving something
behind and work on the present,or whatever's in front of you.
(26:42):
Enjoying those moments, savoringyour food, enjoying what it is
you're eating, rather than justlaughing
Josh Bolton (26:48):
it down. It's
Unknown (26:49):
quick. Yeah, well, that's it, there's so many small
things that we can do. And Imean, when we talk on podcast,
it sounds like we're allexperts. And we're doing it all
the time. I'm I'm don't do itall the time. But it is a
reminder that I try and evendoing these discussions, etc,
that you realize, like, yeah,you can enjoy meals a little bit
(27:10):
more not think you're notthinking about whatever else it
is, while you're eating, you canreally enjoy the banana that
you're having, and reallyfocused on that. And there's so
many things you can just be moreaware of, I think, and it's an
exercise, like martial arts,like a job, like whatever it is,
(27:30):
always practice and everythingwith balance, it's important,
extremely important.
Josh Bolton (27:39):
I want to say our heart stops coming up here, I
don't want to bump into anythingelse for you. So where can
everyone contact you at?
Unknown (27:49):
Well, certainly, we do have the company has social
media presence, etc. Ipersonally don't do a whole
bunch of social media, we focusmore on the business side of
things. So if anyone has reachedout to me specifically, happy to
my email is just Graham gra JMat pixel true.com. But we have a
(28:11):
contact us page on our websiteas well. Pixel two.com. And if
there's anyone out there that'sinterested in actually looking
at trying to help one need somehelp with the design work, etc.
Then obviously happy to help inthat regard. We we know a thing
or two about design, so Oh yes,they can help there.
Josh Bolton (28:32):
Alright, absolute honor and pleasure to have you.
We definitely need to come onagain.
Unknown (28:36):
Yeah, well, thanks so much, Josh. Appreciate it.
Appreciate you
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