Note: This transcript was auto generated then some poor soul sat and listened to it, and followed through correcting any mistakes they spotted. Please however expect human error and shout if you spot an issue. Email: lee [fancy curly symbol] trailblazer.fm.
Verbatim text
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Foreigners and design agencies exploring the world of WordPress and online business. And now your host, Lee Jackson. Hi, this is Lee at the WP Innovator podcast. And first of all, thank you. It’s Friday, and thank you for bearing with me. I had terrible man flu manbola at the beginning of the week, so this meant I was unable to get on with editing all of the audio and all of the other good stuff that has to happen to get episodes live. So here we are, it’s Friday. It’s episode 34.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
And this is a brilliant one because we get to talk about my favorite show. Actually, it’s kind of one of my. One of my many favorite 80s movies because they. They just did movies. Really corny, but great back in the 80s. And this is Ghostbusters. So, yep, today we’re gonna talk to a guy that creates immersive experiences, one of them being for the new Ghostbusters movie. This is pretty incredible.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
A great story about how he started his agency. His agency is a virtual agency. Has been for over 15 years. They work all around the world from their home offices. So it’s an absolute fascinating story. And the things they get up to are incredible. The ideas, the people they work with are inspiring. This is just a freaking amazing episode.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So I’m gonna shut up, but before I do, don’t forget to head on over to the facebook [email protected] group. It will redirect you. That’s Leejacksondev. Leejacksondev.com group. It will redirect you to Facebook and come and join the conversation. People are asking loads of cool stuff, from tech questions right through to contract questions to hosting questions to. And cat pictures. All right, guys, enjoy the show.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, and good night. Please don’t sue me. Guys, from the Truman show, this is Lee Jackson, your host. And today we have with us Brian Mazeros. How are you doing?
Bryan Meszaros:
I’m doing well. It’s great to be here and chatting with you today.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I know, it’s really great. We were just talking about the fact that for me, it’s nearly beer time. And unfortunately for you guys over there, not to rub it in or anything, but you’ve still got kind of the. The rest of a productive day to do.
Bryan Meszaros:
I know five more hours to get through before I can join you virtually for a beer.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Although, I mean, there was a saying that it’s five o’ clock somewhere in the world. So, you know, I guess it could always be beer time whenever you want. Really?
Bryan Meszaros:
That’s True. That is true. It’s a good point. I never thought of it that way.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
It’s five o’. Clock. So someone looks at you at 10:00am in the morning. What are you doing? It’s five o’.
Bryan Meszaros:
Clock. It’s five o’ clock somewhere.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Exactly. I don’t have a problem. That’s amazing. So, Brian, great to meet you. I’m gonna tell them all about you, Brian. You are. This is like. This is your life.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I don’t know if you got that over there.
Bryan Meszaros:
This is my life. In one minute.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
This is your life.
Bryan Meszaros:
My life.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Brian is the founder of OpenEye Global. They call themselves a customer experience design agency that incorporates not only creative and design, but also programming and development. And you’ve worked with people like Madame Tussauds, Santander and even YouTubers such as Jenna Marbles, which I’m kind of impressed with that. That’s pretty awesome.
Bryan Meszaros:
Yeah. That makes two of us. I think that sort of elevated our celebrity status.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I know she’s got millions of followers and you’re like working with people like that.
Bryan Meszaros:
It’s crazy. We are like studs in the YouTube or V blogger. We’ve also worked with Smosh, another part of the clan. So I feel very cool, very hip. I feel very connected socially these days.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Well, it does make you very cool. So, I mean, that was my introduction that I gleaned. So our friend Steve introduced us, which was great. He’s been boasting about how awesome you guys are. And I totally wanted to kind of unpack your history, your story and what you do and stuff, but that was my intro. Do you mind kind of giving us a bit more of a more grounded intro, obviously, who you are and kind of a bit more about the company, what you guys do.
Bryan Meszaros:
Yeah, sure. So we are, as you said, we’re a customer experience design agency. We are coming up in December. We’ll actually be 15 years old. It has crazy. I know, I know. And I mean, I’m only 38 and here we are 15 years. So I guess it makes.
Bryan Meszaros:
Half of my life have been devoted towards OpenAI. But we are a very interesting group. You know, we’ve gone down this path of really trying to create these type of engagements, these physical engagements that connect people back to the place and being able to tell stories and being able to iterate what brands are trying to do through a very interactive storytelling fashion. You know, there’s the front of it, which is the storytelling part of it, and there’s the ability for us to go behind the scenes and really kind of link in a lot of data, a lot of things that are happening in the background that make these interactions more engaging and more meaningful to the customer when they’re in the space. But, you know, we are a unique group in a sense too, that we’re all virtual. You know, we do not actually have a physical office that we call home. We all work from, you know, anywhere there’s a really good wifi reception or where there’s a place to sit down at. And this has always been sort of the way OpenAI has formed over the years is that we’ve just been on such a go and we always found ourselves going to the client or going to an agency we’re working with at the time and camping out there and talking to them about technology.
Bryan Meszaros:
And then it started to kind of grow further to where, hey, we’re always trying to find something new and innovative that’s out there and get inspired and bring that back to our customers. And so we found ourselves even more on the go and never really being able to sit still for a minute. And we just continued to build this culture to the point of we said, what’s really the point of actually having an office where one, there’s all this amazing technology that exists that can connect us, and secondly, our whole point is about educating people on these different experiences and trends and things that are happening. So some of that, obviously you can read by sitting at home and then looking online, but other things, you just need to experience it. And so we’re purposely spread out across the country and each one of us has these different experiences in their own backyard that we’re able to bring and share and put them in the strategies that we’re working on with our clients. I’m even impressed too. And the clients that we’ve been able to attract over the years, like I mentioned, Santander Westfield is another client that we work with, and Madame Tussauds and all of Merlin Entertainment as well. So there’s Sea Life Aquarium brand and Legoland Discovery center, and we’ve done work for the Smithsonian.
Bryan Meszaros:
We even earlier on had done a little bit of work for Apple on some concepts for their retail store. So it’s amazing that these big brands are turning to us to figure out what can they do in their store, in their space that is really innovative and engaging. And it’s something that their customers will be, you know, will appeal to them and want to connect them further to that environment.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I mean, you almost sound like, like Disney because you’re creating immersive environments. For people to walk in and experience. So I love that line you said about you need to experience it. Sometimes you can read something, you can read a story, but if you can actually be immersed in it and experience it, that’s. That’s so powerful. So you guys get to create these amazing, immersive, interactive stories where you get to be a part of it as the customer. Would that be a good. Kind of my humble understanding of what you guys know?
Bryan Meszaros:
It’s spot on. It really is spot on.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
That is so cool. And I’ve been itching to ask. Tell us all about Ghostbusters, please.
Bryan Meszaros:
Oh, God, yes. Ghostbusters. So for the past seven months. Seven months, we’ve been involved in developing the Ghostbusters experience that debuted literally two hours ago this morning at Madame Tussauds.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Congratulations.
Bryan Meszaros:
This has been, I mean, as you can imagine, just months. And this final week was crunch time and spending overnight. I mean, we basically camped out at Madame T’s and just being there. But the whole experience, it’s based on the movie. You know, it’s interesting because the movie itself, it’s a reboot. And so it’s not a sequel. It’s not a continuation of the story. It is entirely something that is new.
Bryan Meszaros:
And so we started to get exposed to the story, started to get exposed to what this experience was meant to be. And there were so many different groups that were involved in this as well. There was a design agency over in London called MXW that had designed the space itself. And so we started to see the theme book, and we started to see a bit of the narrative and the story of what’s actually taking place in the movie. And as this started to progress, we started to see opportunities in there that we can really bring to life this whole experience through some visual engagements. And that’s where really the fun started, because you look at the space and you say, wow, there’s just so much we can do in bringing these ghosts and these characters to life in the film. And then when we started to outline what we thought were experiences that we can focus on, and then the fun started, because then we got connected with Sony Pictures, and so then now we’re on a conversation with Sony and we’re, you know, they’re offering up assets from the movie for us to work with. They’re giving us the actual Maya file for Slimer.
Bryan Meszaros:
They’re giving us screenshots and stills and treatments and everything that you could possibly just imagine. And we’re all movie geeks. And I mean, a lot of us Grew up watching Ghostbusters. Found my Ghostbusters T shirt from when I was a little kid. You know, it’s. It’s like, oh, my God. You know, there it is. And the toys.
Bryan Meszaros:
And here we are working on this. And, you know, we were in situations where we’re, you know, creating these characters, some of these characters we were only to get only so many assets out of it. And this one in particular, who’s called Sparky, you know, we had to. Actually, all we had was a still, and we had to go and we had to create him from scratch. And so this is where we had this creative opportunity to really reinvent, almost somewhat reinvent and bring this character to life that we’ve not seen before on film. And so we were able to find the actual makeup artists that worked in the movie. They lived out in Long island, not that far from us, and we became friends with them. They came out, we set up a live action shoot.
Bryan Meszaros:
Our own creative director went and designed his own costume based upon the still that we had received from Sony. And we bought to life Sparky. And we did all the visual effects on him to really. Because he’s a prisoner that’s been electrocuted and haunts a subway car. And so here we are. This opportunity to redesign and bring this character to life. And just being on that shoot that we set up and having that moment, we thought, wow, we’re actually doing this. And I think the moment that it really was that pinched me was that this week, as they were unveiling this whole experience, there was a photograph that I had seen online the other day where Ivan Reitman was there to actually take a tour of the space.
Bryan Meszaros:
And there he is inside the subway car, and Sparky is looking over his shoulder. And there’s this photo that sits out there now, Getty Images. And we thought, this is Ivan Reitman, who is interacting with the experience that we help to create. I mean, how cool is that? But it just was a fun project because it’s a change, because here we are, we’re not trying to sell a product. We’re not really trying to instill brand equity. People are already familiar with the Ghostbusters brand. People are familiar with what this is about. And we were just trying to bring this to life.
Bryan Meszaros:
And we had creative freedom, obviously, to keep in mind with the story, but to work in that kind of environment where you have all these different agencies that are involved, from ones that are building out the set to those that are developing the whole experience itself, and it’s just A room full of designers that are having fun and bringing to life this narrative. So absolutely amazing. And now to step back and see it, I mean, we’re blown away at what we’re able to accomplish. I mean, here we are creating hologram of slimer. To creating a full life Sparky. To doing sort of a mock graffiti ghost on the wall that comes to life.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Oh, I like that. I saw that on your Instagram the other day.
Bryan Meszaros:
Was it the. No.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah, it was the other day. And he animates in and they spray over him.
Bryan Meszaros:
Yes.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah, it’s wicked.
Bryan Meszaros:
So real fun. Just be able to kind of go on. It’s fun. And so we’re excited. We have not seen the movie yet. We were unfortunately not able to see the movie during the shoot. We saw the script, and we’ve seen some stills, but we have not seen the movie yet. So we’re taking off that Friday the 15th when it comes out, and we are all going to see Ghostbusters.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
To see whether you managed to capture it despite not having the pleasure of
Bryan Meszaros:
seeing it, we need to know now.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So how much did the old Ghostbusters inspire you? Or did you kind of have to throw that out and just pretend that didn’t exist?
Bryan Meszaros:
We had to throw it out and really pretend it didn’t exist. It’s a news story. I think the movie itself, there’s some references to the past, but not direct references. I know Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson made cameos, but they’re more of relatives to the actual figures. So we really had to start from scratch with it. But you can’t help but going back and screening and watching little Ghostbusters for a little bit of inspiration.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
That is so cool. Now, I mean, the question. Well, there’s two things. Number one, I know that there are probably hundreds of people right now listening to this, wanting to apply for a job with you guys, because it sounds so freaking amazing. So if you want to go ahead and do that, guys, you just head on over to open iglobal.com. you never know. And secondly, how did you guys get. Like, how did you get into this? Like, how did you get into creating these experiences? Did you just wake up one one morning and go, hey, I’m gonna.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I’m gonna create a company that does customer experiences, get up to do something else, and kind of fell into this naturally. I mean, how do you get into this space?
Bryan Meszaros:
The real short story to it. So I started Openeye pretty much one year out of university. I went to school for graphic design, and 3D animation, communication Arts. And I had taken an internship almost towards my last year of school that was with a college marketing company. And they had this idea of using digital displays for advertising purposes. And at the time I thought, this is cool. I love the idea. I was able to come in and be a bit of the technical part, because I was that kid that would go in the basement and rip apart a computer and build it at the same time, would love to create something with my hands.
Bryan Meszaros:
And I thought, well, this is kind of like this is best of both worlds. I’m able to use the technology and I’m able to design things and I’m able to travel as well, because it was a program that was deployed through numerous large universities in the US and so here I would go around and I would help develop this program. And when it came time to go back to school for my final year, the company had said, is there a way that maybe you can continue on and somehow complete your last year virtually? And so I don’t know. And so I was able to approach. I went to Seton Hall University and I was able to approach them and ask somehow if there was ability to do this. And actually my boss had come up and the CEO of the company I was working for came up as well. And Seton hall said, this is a great opportunity. I mean, the whole point is to obviously have people graduate and walk into a job like this.
Bryan Meszaros:
And so they allowed me to work with the company still. My last year was basically done me traveling around the US and checking in with my professors. And when I graduated, I was hired full time and the program was continuing on and it was doing well. But at the same time, the college marketing company was more traditional marketing and they were struggling to generate sales for this network. And you can start to see it sort of winding down, which was sad. And at the same time too, I was being transitioned over to more of just web and graphic design. And that just to me, was not exciting at that point. And you go and you look for a job and yet there’s nothing out there.
Bryan Meszaros:
There’s zero. And so I thought, I really don’t like where this is going. And I just. I don’t know, I just want to try it. I want to try to do something. And so I decided to quit. And I started OpenAI pretty much right after. It was like December 2000, January 2002.
Bryan Meszaros:
So not probably the best of times to start a company since we were heading into a recession. But I thought I was not good at business, so that didn’t even phase me at the time. But I basically went and cashed in on the savings that I had. And I was fortunate to stay in my mother’s house. And she was, hey, this is your one shot at it. Go for it. Very supportive. And I would go around and pitch to whoever would listen about, hey, this is what we’re doing.
Bryan Meszaros:
We can help you bring technology into your space. And. And a lot of people thought, well, this makes no sense. No one’s going to do that. And also they would classify you as
Lee Matthew Jackson:
a dot com, especially after the bubble burst as well.
Bryan Meszaros:
Exactly. And so again, wrong time to start a business like this. And I would do random jobs in the meantime. I worked at Staples. I did graphic design for friends, a logo, a website. And it took several years. And a lot of it in the beginning was really just reselling technology, just selling a screen and then trying to say, hey, we can help you come up with a strategy for it. And a lot of IT comp work doing some stuff for free, but trying to prove the point.
Bryan Meszaros:
And I think it just became this persistence and saying, there’s something here. I believe in it and I really think there’s an opportunity. The interesting Twist came around 2000, I think it was five, where a company out of New Zealand had found us on the Internet because I was very good at design and creating this marketing campaign and making OpenAI look much bigger than it was when it was really just a person in his mother’s basement at the time. And here we go. And this group in New Zealand is saying, we love the name OpenEye. We love what you’re trying to do. We have some opportunities down here. Can you help us with it? And I thought, well, this is strange because I just don’t expect this.
Bryan Meszaros:
And so they said, well, we’d like to carry the name openeye in New Zealand, and if we win this project, we’ll fly you down. We can’t really pay you for using a name because we’re kind of in the same situation, but if you help us. And I thought, well, this is very cool. And so I helped them win some business down in New Zealand. And next thing I know, I’m on a plane heading down to Auckland to work on a couple of projects down there. So hence how openeye sort of became global very early on in our days. And then you start to, you know, creatively use the fact that you’ve done jobs in New Zealand to then go back and change the perception of how big OpenEye is. Because obviously, if you’re Working international, you must be big.
Bryan Meszaros:
And then next thing I know is we’re getting more, more people that are looking at us and more people are seeing, hey, this is interesting, this is an interesting concept. And then we started to kind of grow that way. And then bigger companies would look at us and you know, we’ve gotten attraction from 3M to do help them with some projects that they were working on with using some of their technology. And then, and then I was just very relentless. I just would put myself out there and go to conferences and just shake hands and just network and just try to sell this vision, which eventually, you know, it came to what it is today. So I could say it’s been just 10 years of, or 15 years, I’m sorry, of just hitting the streets and just also I think waiting for the market to mature too, because I think more so than ever now, retailers are understanding that technology is that differentiator, that experience is what really separates them from their competition. So in part it was just waiting for that moment to happen and just having the patience for 15 years to wait for that to come to what it is today.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s really cool. It sounds as well like you’re saying that relationships have been one of the most important things a. You are one of the earlier adopters, if not one of the first people to kind of move into this space. And you created relationships over time, networking, doing some comp works, etc. Which some people shudder at the idea of. But sometimes it’s great to be able to create relationships, create connections, etc. And then as the markets matured, you guys have been perceived as the global player in this space. That is the go to guys.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
And that’s freaking awesome.
Bryan Meszaros:
It’s been a while to ride. It’s been a while to ride, but
Lee Matthew Jackson:
it sounds like a fun ride. I mean, again, you know, I’ve got a huge respect for Walt Disney and what he achieved with the Disney company, you know, and the space they were in, etc. And this kind of, you know, this is almost that kind of story to me. This, you know, something that is just essentially in my eyes, magical. These experiences that you create are magical. You’re transported to somewhere else. I think it’s freaking amazing. And even the more corporate stuff is just, you know, it’s just great to experience those sorts of things.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
And you guys get to create those, you get to be on those teams, you get to travel the world. And the fact that for 15 years you’ve actually been doing the virtual office thing way ahead of Time, so. I love that, mate. That’s amazing. What a cool story. How big’s your head now? Can you get out the door? Are you gonna be.
Bryan Meszaros:
No, it’s. It’s not. It’s not. I think it’s definitely not. You know, it’s funny because I, you know, I think people, I don’t really realize it and I think part of it is just because we’re having fun with it and we just enjoy what we do. And I’ve been able to hire a lot of people that are in OpenAI are friends that I’ve known for years, and they are people that we all share the same passion and we all share the same drive and that’s why we’re friends. And to be able to hire them, it’s just a unique opportunity that I definitely do not take for granted. I thought that this is just, it’s just fun.
Bryan Meszaros:
It’s just absolutely fun. And I love it too, because I feel like we’ve gotten this perception out there where we’re. That, that blue collar agency, it’s just like these are the guys that just walk in. There’s no egos. It’s just, hey, let’s just do it and have fun at it. So, yeah, it’s just, you just have to have fun with this. And I think just embrace the experience and it just continues to grow and I absolutely love it. And we’re just, you know, very thankful for the clients that continue to work with us and, and they become part of the family too, which is nice.
Bryan Meszaros:
And so they’re, they’re the ones that, that go and hang out with us at the, at the bar and have drinks and, you know, so it’s, it’s much more than just a client relationship. They become friends.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So that’s true. And even in our company, I mean, we’re quite a small company. We’ve got Karthika over in India, there’s me and Larissa here. But you know, again, we’ve got that same kind of friendship. We’re all friends here, kind of above anything else. And we love to have a good time and we like to work on projects that are going to be fun and we’ve got some quite funny banter going on with quite a lot of our clients, etc. If you listen to some of the conversations we have with clients, you would not think they were our clients. It probably goes against the A to Z rules of how to talk to your client.
Bryan Meszaros:
We are right there with you.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
It’s really funny. If I had a call With Steve, just. Was it yesterday or the day before, just off the back of having been out with friends. So there was a little bit of wine induced jokes in there as well, but he didn’t seem to mind because of the time difference. That was quite funny. That’s awesome. So, I mean, 15 years, you started in an industry that kind of didn’t exist to necessarily or at least wasn’t being widely embraced. I mean, that’s a challenge in its own right.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
But is there like one particular challenge or you know, something that happened that you think back that you learned a huge amount from over the last 15 years, where it went wrong or maybe where you pivoted slightly and lots of exciting stuff started happening?
Bryan Meszaros:
You know, three, three years ago, I mean, I think going, going actually way back. We were fortunate to get a project with a bank in Brooklyn. It was a very small regional regional bank and we developed a great relationship with them, but it was nothing major. And then they were acquired by another bank called Sovereign bank, which was a little bit bigger. And then again it was enough to keep me and another one of my friends afloat and it was fine. And then it was about three years ago that they were acquired by Santander was obviously a large global entity and Santander had heard a lot of great things about us and decided to retain us. And at that time, Santander decided to rebrand the entire entire network of branches for Sovereign, which was like 700 some. But we weren’t in, not at all.
Bryan Meszaros:
Our program was not in all those branches. And they had contracted us to take the program we built and deploy it across the whole network. And that was huge. And so it kind of was at the point where it was one or two options. Either a, just accept this program and deploy this and not really do anything more with OpenAI beyond that and just say, hey, me and maybe someone else that we would hire would be enough to do it. Or do I look at it and say, why don’t I just reinvest back into OpenAI and put the money on the table and let’s see what happens. Because here’s a chance to really build out this vision that I have for OpenEye and let’s see if it really makes sense or not. It was stupid because on one side I could have went and it could have been very comfortable and just maintain the one client or sell off that relationship.
Bryan Meszaros:
But I thought it’s either going to happen now or not. So I decided to put everything into OpenEye and hire a staff and see if the name holds up and see if company can hold up to what I think it’s possible of doing. And that was. I think that was a huge turning point. It was a very scary decision to make because here you go now, and you’re adding more people on. You’re relying on one client to support almost 10 people at the time. And you’re thinking, if we don’t get another client in within the next year, were out of business. And you’re really relying on what you hope that you set up with the brand and all the contacts you made and everything to really kind of put it to the test.
Bryan Meszaros:
And here we are now, three years after that moment. Three, four years after that moment, and we’re still standing, and we built a roster of even bigger clients of equal size, or if not that bigger than Santander. And it’s, you know, now I’m like, I can finally just rest and enjoy that. But I think that was the moment where it just. I just felt that we just have to commit to something. And it always felt like there was something special there. And it felt like there was a lot of people that were, if they had given the opportunity to work in this kind of culture, that, hey, there’s something that we can really do that is really disruptive in the industry. And I’m really glad I made that.
Bryan Meszaros:
And, you know, everyone that I bought into Openeye, you know, has contributed above and beyond and really embraced it and, you know, connecting with people like Steven, you know, for example, you know, he was sort of after that decision that had taken place. But, you know, you find people like that that really kind of help you then to grow that vision and be able to make more out of it. So I’m really glad that that was what I decided to do, and I’m glad that, you know, it has sort of come together in the way it has today, that it’s a cool story to share.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
That is cool.
Bryan Meszaros:
I think that was the moment. But I think every entrepreneur just sort of is restless and never wants to sit still.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah.
Bryan Meszaros:
And they just say, hey, you know what? I have no consciousness of my thoughts and my decisions and inability to control them. So I’m just going to make irrational decisions and just take all this money and I’m just going to invest it without knowing if there’s an ROI attached to it.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So, yeah, so you could have settled and be safe, whereas instead you kind of went for it and, like you said, disrupted the industry.
Bryan Meszaros:
Well, I will say the other part of the other detail left out is that prior to this we ended up in an RFP battle for Santander because they also, even though they liked us, they were still inviting other agencies to the table that could have crushed us. And the scary part was, was that we were almost down to our last few dollars, literally. And so I think we were maybe about a week or two away from actually just being out and just having to call it a day when that deal came through for us. So, you know, I think that that’s another test for an entrepreneur. It’s like if you really love something, you will see it to the very last dollar.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yep.
Bryan Meszaros:
So, you know, so you just have to face the cliff. And when you face the cliff, you’re. If you survive that, then you’re golden.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s a beautiful picture. And it’s true, I think quite a lot of us of entrepreneurs have been there where there’s a lot of month left at the end of the money and you’re like, oh crap, how are we going to do this? Somehow things happen and opportunities come in place. So that always amazes me, to be honest. I’ll be busy on several projects and at the back of my mind there’ll be this niggle, you know, what’s coming up in the future. And then almost without trying something else, you know, almost a day later we’ll come in and, you know, the opportunity will be there and we’ll start to pitch and all that sort of stuff and then we’ll win that. And that will be, you know, that’s then September sorted and then November sorted, etc. And it just blows my mind how that happens. Obviously I’m doing stuff like marketing, etc.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
There are things happening. It’s not just all magic, but sometimes it really does feel like magic. Especially when, you know, on those rougher months where you’re thinking, oh no, you know, we’ve got all this work to do, but what happens next?
Bryan Meszaros:
Exactly. So, exactly.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
You mentioned as well, you guys are all over the world. You’ve, you’ve, you love fun. How, how do you create kind of a quote unquote office atmosphere? I don’t mean an office atmosphere, but how do you kind of build up that friendship and camaraderie and, you know, banter and all that sort of stuff with 15 guys all around the world?
Bryan Meszaros:
It’s a good question. I think, you know, the challenge has been, is to just try to find people with this type of similar personalities. That. Which is hard. I mean, it’s not easy. It’s not as if they’re right next to You. And I think it’s. I kind of tend to look at it as, like, this journey.
Bryan Meszaros:
You just have to be conscious of this journey that you go through. And these people that you end up interacting with, some of them have been from client side that have just jumped over, and some of them have been people that we’ve met through organization, affiliations, or just networking, a good conversation. And I think that helps to kind of create this foundation where we just. We enjoy our space, but at the same time, we enjoy sort of this banter where we’ll have these moments and we think, I really want to know what Andy or Chris or Steven thinks of it. And you can text the photo. You can do a quick FaceTime. You know, we travel together, obviously, on projects or going to conferences or, you know, we do try to get everyone together a couple times throughout the course of the year. But I think it’s.
Bryan Meszaros:
It’s. I don’t know, it’s kind of like, you know, if you’re. When you’re friends, and I guess the thing I can equate it to is, you know, you go to college and, you know, you create this friendship with your roommate or, you know, the fraternity that you’re in, and when you graduate, you just. You just want to continue to connect with them. They’re a part of your life. They’re part of your personality. And you just keep thinking, I want to share something more with them or want to talk to them about what they think. And I think that’s how it’s been for us, is that we’ve moved away from one another, we’ve relocated, we’re on the other side of the country, but yet we still understand that everyone’s just a phone call away or everyone is just a Skype session away.
Bryan Meszaros:
The people that are over in the UK are for us, and again, here we’re talking on Skype, and it’s a great conversation, and you’re always just a Skype call away. So I think that’s how we look at it. Maybe that’s just our generation and realizing that technology can definitely help put together these relationships. But at the same time, too, we’re fortunate to connect with each other during the course of the year and have these other experiences that are fun. I don’t know. I think it goes back to just finding people with the same personalities and the same drive.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah.
Bryan Meszaros:
That we’ve been lucky people who can
Lee Matthew Jackson:
be friends as well as colleagues. That’s awesome. Okay, well, you get to play with lots of shiny objects and create lots of shiny, cool objects. However, I was really pleased that you use WordPress on your main website because I had a look and had a quick look at the source code. You guys use WordPress and that’s awesome. The podcast is actually all about people like yourselves, entrepreneurs who have creative agencies and their journey. But there is a one slight underlying theme where we do like to mention WordPress now and again and you’ve told me that you’ve probably got a plugin that you would recommend people go ahead and check out. So do you want to share that with people? Just so that we can tick the box of WordPress and people who like to go and play with things can go check that out.
Bryan Meszaros:
I mean, WordPress has been huge for us and a couple parts too. I mean, one just the fact of we always like to obviously put out things that we’re doing and try to connect everything together, whether it’s the social, whether it’s Twitter, Instagram, blog entries, Vimeo, everything. And so WordPress has been great because we’ve been able to develop this Website Obviously using WordPress in the background, but it’s been able to connect everything that we’re doing and deliver it in one place and be able to control it from a dashboard. The fact that it’s just such an easy language to develop for and also have access to that if I’m on the road, or Steven’s on the road, or any one of our guys on the marketing side on the road, we can, we can add a thought, we can put something in place of it very quickly and develop something that’s sort of unique for it. We’ve also found WordPress quite unique to be in the back end of some of the experiences that we’re building out there as well, because it’s just such a flexible dashboard. It’s such a flexible. I like the fact it’s that open API atmosphere where there’s so many developers out there that are developing plugins for it that we can use an app that we found or we can create our own app that just adds another dimension of contextual element to something or allows us to control something and be more flexible with it. So it greatly adapts to our brand where we’re trying to keep up and we’re trying to take everything that we’re doing and be as real time as possible to also thinking of that and how do we apply that same type of strategy and mentality to projects we’re working on with clients? So we look at it on both sides from a client type of situation to also how do we use it to keep ourselves kind of in sync with one another and people that are and our followers and our ones that are watching us and watching the experience and the story unfold.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So are you saying as well, you’ll use the WordPress user interfaces in the back end and you’ll actually create, I don’t know, screens or something that will either control or be a part of an experience that you guys do as well?
Bryan Meszaros:
Yes, yes.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
What’s the coolest way of doing. What’s the coolest thing you’ve done?
Bryan Meszaros:
I mean, I wouldn’t say cool. I mean, we’ve used it for a Santander. There’s a couple pieces of dynamic content that we developed for them, which is mortgage rates. So I wouldn’t say it’s not cool. I mean, it’s cool.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Sounds cool to anyone who sounds amazing.
Bryan Meszaros:
Look at that mortgage rate stand. Whoa. Oh my God, it’s real time.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So totally awesome. Sorry.
Bryan Meszaros:
But you know, things like that, it’s cool because I guess sometimes people are thinking, well, you just, you know, you have to use real heavy development languages. And yet reality is you can use something as simple as that, which is very cost effective too.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Definitely. I mean, I remember years ago I actually using WordPress, I even just created a booking system for, for meeting rooms in a big office. And we essentially created an interface with the back end where people could tap on an Apple. It was the first Apple tablet which was stuck to walls, etc. And they could sign in and out and it synchronized with Microsoft Exchange Calendar as well in case someone had booked it by Microsoft Exchange. It was insane. It’s like just using WordPress instead of having to create something from scratch, you could use WordPress as a framework. And that was like five years ago.
Bryan Meszaros:
I can remember the first iterations of OpenAI the website, they’re all Flash. I know you want to change something and I wasn’t that good with ActionScript and so I would just do everything sort of manually, like, oh God, there’s a new press release. You need to go in and you edit that. And of course, if that was the right size and you have to go back and adjust something else, the other layer and then render it out and put the swip up. So I remember those days to be able to get past that and actually have a site that is easier to edit than have the jump in the Flash is greatly welcomed on your website as well.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
You’ve got an Instagram feed. Do you know what plugin that is that you’re using I don’t know which one that is.
Bryan Meszaros:
I know we just had to update it because it went dead a couple of weeks ago. I do not know which one we’re using.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
We’ll find that out if you will get that in the show notes as well. Because it’s actually quite rare to find a nice clean Instagram feed because there’s quite a few that are really heavy, feature heavy, etc. So they can load quite slow and your site loads beautifully fast. So just thought I’d pop that one on there. I’ll email you on that one separately. That’s really cool. So 15 years being an entrepreneur, I presume you have filled your mind with at least one book or maybe an online website or a podcast that you really love. Is there anything you’d recommend your fellow entrepreneurs go to go learn from and fill their mind with entrepreneurial type stuff?
Bryan Meszaros:
You know, I tend to read a lot of like Inc Magazine or Wired or Fast Company. I wouldn’t say there’s a particular blog. I mean a lot of it really kind of comes down to I’m jumping on a plane and I need something. And so I ended up picking a lot of it just sort of those magazines that I gravitate towards because I always kind of find it amusing. With the COVID article, It’s 10 Lessons to Learn from successful entrepreneurs and how to start your business in 20 days. And those kind of which I find that kind of hysterical. How do you know? How do you become the next Mark Zuckerberg? And I thought, all right, well I’m interested to read this one. Okay, how does that happen? I find those kind of interesting because you tend to look at some of the points that they try to make in the article and try to connect that back to you or you try to kind of pull out a couple things from there.
Bryan Meszaros:
So magazines like that and I think some books, I think the biggest challenge for me is just kind of getting into this kind of CEO position as well. So there’s been a bunch of books that have gone onto my desk that talk more about leadership. So I’m here, I’m looking to my right right now and Tribes is on the reading list. How to win friends and influence People is another one that seemed to be. I don’t say Bibles, but they’re right next to me on my desk. So it’s kind of a combination of those blogs and stuff online. I tend to be more towards what’s in our industry and in a sense retail design Blog daily do. These are sort of industry related type of blogs that I follow.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s cool. I love Wired, by the way. I remember, I think it was a few years ago they had a cover, I think it was like Spotify, the savior of music or something along those lines. And they had the founder kind of almost like had like a halo around him and stuff like that. I was just. What? Yeah, it’s like these ways of getting you to read. Actually their articles are really good, but I just love the covers. They can be quite funny.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I like the way how could you become the next Mark Zuckerberg? And I think it’s probably impossible.
Bryan Meszaros:
It’s true. And it’s. But you’re like, oh, you know what, hey, I got a 5 over flight. I’m curious to see how do I do that?
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So I presume you didn’t read that because you’re not Mark Zuckerberg. So what’s going on?
Bryan Meszaros:
I’m not, I’m not. So obviously I didn’t finish that article.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
You could have.
Bryan Meszaros:
No, I got, I got halfway through it and then I thought, well, this is, is not going to work. So I decided to put my headphones on.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Don’t blame you, mate. It’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you. Your story is fascinating. People can check you out on open iglobal.com and I have a whole list of ways of following what you guys are up to here. Instagram, LinkedIn. You guys are everywhere and you’re posting really cool images. Before we say goodbye tearfully, because you’re awesome. Is there kind of one piece of advice that you would give entrepreneurs listening especially? I mean we’ve got agencies.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
A lot of, a lot of the agencies who are listening are kind of in the web space. It could be quite difficult sometimes. Sometimes it could be feast and famine. Is there any kind of encouraging piece of advice that you could give to people listening to kind of spur them on and then we’ll say goodbye?
Bryan Meszaros:
You know, I feel like it’s, it’s, I’d say dare to be different. I think it’s probably been said a bunch of times, probably. But I think I dare to be different. I think, you know, you just have to go out there and just do something that’s unique and try to find your own identity and that really forces you to be different. Accept it, enjoy it. And I think opportunities come to you when you, when you do that. Don’t be cookie cutter, don’t try to follow someone else’s playbook because it’s never really relevant to you. I Think that’s probably why the Mark Zuckerberg thing.
Bryan Meszaros:
Every business is always different. Exactly.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah.
Bryan Meszaros:
So just dare to be different.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s so cool. Now, I was thinking of a podcast title earlier. I was thinking maybe it should be who you’re going to call, but I think. I think Dare to Be different is a pretty good podcast title as well.
Bryan Meszaros:
Very nice.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
Thanks so much, guys. You can follow what the guys are up to on openidigital.com they’re also on Instagram. Again, that’s Open I Global, I believe. And also on Twitter, Open I Global. We’ll get all of this in of the show notes as well. Go and check out the amazing stuff as well they’re doing with the Ghostbusters because that is freaking awesome. So, mate, thank you for your time. You’re a legend.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
I’m so glad we’ve met. Fascinating story. Thanks for taking the time to share and have an awesome day, mate.
Bryan Meszaros:
Definitely. Thanks to you. I appreciate it and same to you.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So cheerio. Oh, and enjoy your beer.
Bryan Meszaros:
Cheers. Bye. Bye. Bye.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
So there you have it. The end of episode 34. And remember who you’re gonna call. That was the dulcet tones of Larissa Meikle, who is currently working hard on a new website and she is rocking and rolling.
Bryan Meszaros:
Yeah.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
All right, guys, thank you so much for listening. Don’t forget, come on over to the Facebook group, leejacksondev.com group. It’s going to redirect you there. Let’s have some conversations. Let’s have some fun. Next week’s episode, we’re interviewing Mark Ashquith and we’re talking all about his niche podcast website service that he set up. So I’ve talked about so many times creating a Squarespace competitor, but in your niche. And Mark is someone who has done that and done it well.
Lee Matthew Jackson:
He teamed up with John Lee Dumas, one of my other fanboy hero type guys. So he’s a fantastic story. You’re gonna love it. So tune in next week with Mr. Mark Asquith and myself. Have a freaking awesome weekend and keep innovating. Bye.
