David is the founder of Purely Imagined. Purely Imagined is a motion graphics company. They tell your story using Custom-made animations. The Pandemic caused them to severely pivot their business in ways they never thought possible before.

• CEO Hack: Project management app called Notion
• CEO Nugget: (1) Consistency is the name of the game (2) Commit to networking (3) Do all the crap you don't feel like doing
• CEO Defined: To always have an open mind of what could be in the future and have a grip on what's happening now

Website: http://www.purelyimagined.com/

Facebook: @purelyimaginedstudios

FULL INTERVIEW

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Transcription

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00:02 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:30 – Gresham Harkless:

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I had a very special guest on the show today. I have David Pascaru of Purely Imagined. David, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:39 – David Pascaru:

Thanks, I'm very happy to be here, I'm excited.

00:41 – Gresham Harkless:

No problem, definitely excited as well too. And before we jump into the interview, I wanted to read a little bit more about David so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And David is the founder of Purely Imagine. Purely Imagine is a motion graphics company. They tell your story using custom-made animations. The pandemic caused them to severely pivot their business in ways they never thought possible before. David, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:05 – David Pascaru:

Oh yeah, let's do it.

01:06 – Gresham Harkless:

Let's do it. Yes, absolutely. And so I wanted to kick everything off and hear a little bit more about how you got to where you are now. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story? We'll let you get started with all the awesome things you're working on.

01:19 – David Pascaru:

Yeah, definitely. So this is sort of our pivot story. Prior to all the shutdowns, you know, 6 or so months ago, we were a videography company, we were shooting a lot of events, mostly weddings, and other video-type projects. The shutdowns caused all of our weddings and other jobs to go away. My partner and I, Alan, we kind of, you know, as everyone else confused in the beginning, but we didn't take very long to realize that we needed to move forward, that we, even if we could go shoot weddings again, we probably don't want to shoot weddings anymore. So we took the time that we had because we only had time, nothing else. And we bought online classes in motion graphics and animations.

Alan took like a 20-hour after-effects class and a 40-hour animation class. And we really just went all into motion graphics and animations. I noticed Alan was very into the animation. So I thought instead of me learning what he is already learning, already knows, let me learn the other side. So I started buying books and classes on business and sales and marketing, which is why I'm here today to continue to get our name out there and just teach the people about this niche industry we found, which is motion graphics and animations. That's kind of our story.

02:42 – Gresham Harkless:

Nice, I absolutely appreciate that. I love that. I'll always say the year for, the word for 2020 should definitely probably be pivot. I've heard that so many times in the business circle, but I love how, like you said, you had nothing but time. So rather than sometimes trying to change things we can't change focus on what you can change, what pivot you can make, and double down on getting those skills better so that you guys can provide quality services.

03:07 -David Pascaru:

Yeah, that was our thought process. I mean, I like to joke around and say, I'm not one to sit around and mourn very often. I'm always like, let's get going. What do we get to do next? And there were definitely a few days, maybe even weeks or so where we were confused. We were playing around. I think we made some cooking videos. We made some workout videos to try to figure out what we wanted to do. And the animation thing popped up into our minds. We ran with it. one video led to 2 videos, which led to 3 videos where the organic growth has shown us like this, you're in the right position here, keep going. So that's what we're doing.

03:43 – Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, I absolutely love that. And I think so many times we forget about, you know, the process and what it takes to get there. And a lot of times we forget about that experimentation process or that level where you're trying to figure out what works, what sticks, so to speak. And then once you find something that sticks, you double down on that and make sure you keep pulling that, pushing that forward. And so I know you touched a little bit upon like what's the, the animation piece. Could you take us through a little bit more about that, that niche, and how you serve the clients you work with?

04:13 – David Pascaru:

Sure. Yeah. Well, really, really interestingly enough, we, while we were learning and trying to figure out what's going to stick. We started playing around with pre-made templates on the internet. And those raw animations but we didn't know how they were made we were just using the template to where now we basically are creating those same things where, you know, it kind of went from just sort of seeing it to being able to do it. So what we do for our clients, I always like to say is we create promotional videos or explainer videos in the sense of, if you have a process or a certain aspect of your business that you'd like to give to tell your clients or something that you repeat on a daily basis to your clients.

We can take that information and make it a very visually stimulating piece that will grab their attention and make them follow along and read and laugh at the animations or whatever. The whole point to me is to just engage with them. Everyone is always busy. You have like 3 seconds to actually talk to get anyone's attention nowadays. So our animations are all usually in the 32nd range, not any longer, because they want to pay attention. Sometimes even shorter, because we just want to grab the attention. And it's, it's more of an advertising piece where, you know, the animation will start, you'll look at it, it'll grab your attention. And then ideally you click on it, you read the bio, and then you move on with the, you know, in the advertising funnel in which, you know, maybe you go to the landing page or something like that.

But everything we do is very customized. So we talk to the client and we hear, you know, what they want and, you know, what their style is or maybe what videos from us they liked more or not. And we just look through their website and we create a video that's just for them. They're the only ones who have it. It's not a templated video because there are a lot of explainer videos out there that are templated where everyone has the same one. It's a different color. Basically, That's not what you get when you call us. You're gonna get your own custom animated video that tells your story.

06:23 – Gresham Harkless:

Nice, yeah. And I absolutely love that. I loved explaining our videos when we first connected, we talked a little bit about that and just how A lot of times hearing somebody, an actual live person, I guess you can say, a human person, maybe a better way to say, explaining certain things, sometimes as it resonates as much as having the graphics, having the funny animations and the things that people want to be able to communicate and maybe aren't able to communicate as well. It sticks with your end users, sticks with the people that are within your organization, and just gives that opportunity for you to be in more places, more than one place at the same time, and be able to provide and make an impact.

07:00 – David Pascaru:

Definitely. Yes, that's a great way to put it. You should come on with me when I talk to potential clients.

07:05 -Gresham Harkless:

Absolutely. Put me in on a schedule, on a schedule call. So do you feel like that part you spoke to is your secret sauce, The thing you feel kind of sets you apart, that ability to be able to not just create something that's cookie cutter, but to create something that really speaks for a client, speaks for a customer, because you have done that work in due diligence to find out who they are and what they wanna communicate.

07:28 – David Pascaru:

Yes, yeah, that's definitely, I could call that the secret sauce where that's what sets us apart from the other, just even just video companies where, you know, if somebody wants to promote their hair salon, you're probably going to hire a videographer to come in there and film the hair salon. You might not even want to do that right now in the certain times we're living in. So that's where we come in where I say, hold on, we don't even have to meet. I've worked with clients all over the country. You, me and you, we met over the internet and we live thousands of miles away. So we can go in there. We can tell that same story of the hair salon without having to actually be in there without even just doing the normal video filming.

If they want to provide us with some footage or some video we incorporate that into our animations, But we really are able to just, we're able to articulate information in a much more engaging way than just reading it in a blog post or just seeing a video. The fast-moving images really get your attention and that's our whole thing. So yeah, that's the secret sauce.

08:35 -Gresham Harkless:

And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

08:47 – David Pascaru:

So open up my computer right now, like it always is, there's an application called Notion, which is just a project management app. There are tons of them out there. We like this one. It's just more colors. It's just a very interactive spreadsheet that you know, you can make different views. So say I can click someone from a lead to a client and they'll just pop off one list and pop to the other list, which is just very helpful. It does reminders and all that.

09:12 – Gresham Harkless:

I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client, or if you happen to be a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

09:23 – David Pascaru:

So I think my golden nugget that if I could have told myself a few years ago, honestly, it's, I mean, for business, and I guess for just life in general, 2 things. One would be consistency. You know, Gresham that me, myself and my fiance, my partner in the last few years, we've gone into nutrition and exercise and all of that. And the number one name of the game there is consistency. If I eat a pizza tomorrow, I mean, yesterday, today, it's okay, I'm not gonna give up my consistency, I'm just gonna just go harder at it. And so I think I've embodied that same mentality into my business, just I'm gonna wake up every day and I'm going to do the things I said I'm going to do to just get to where I want to be. And it's been working.

So for right now, as of December, we're booked. If so, if you call me tomorrow for a project, I'm going to tell you, you know, we can work on it in January. To me, that's amazing, right? If you asked me 3 months ago if I would have been booked in December, I would have said no. But I was consistent from then to now to where all of my ideas and all of my leads and all of my tryings panned out to where now December we're booked, you know, and like that's an amazing feeling because now all that means is I'll be able to book in January and then, you know, so it just keeps me going. So it's consistency, But also I think networking is a huge, huge part of business ownership and entrepreneurship where just networking in, you know, like right here we're talking or in the different networking groups that are out there for people.

I just think the more people you know not directly pitching to them, the more I want you to buy a product for me. 100%. I'll sell you something tomorrow. But I would rather you just know me and see my work. And then one day at some point in the future something's going to click and either you'll call me or your friend will call me and I've seen it happen over and over again that just to where now I'm like a huge opponent of networking. I started networking I was probably like 22 or 23 years old when I joined a networking group. I was a little hesitant about joining it. You know, it was a lot of money I was paying for myself. So it was just like, Oh my God, $600 for the whole year. I don't know. My dad gave me some advice and he said, just do it. And if you learn, if you don't get business from it, you're going to learn how to talk about yourself.

You're going to learn how other business owners talk about themselves and how they run their business. And it really just kicked me into shape. I ask myself what I do, I can answer in a sentence now when before, you know, you, well, this is kind of what we do. And we can also do this. That's, that doesn't fly when you're trying to like, you know, really be a professional, like entrepreneur, business owner. So really consistency and networking, I think will, I'm trying it right now. I'm committed to it. I was told never to say you're trying. I was told to say you're committed to it. So I'm committed to it. And we'll see. I know that was a very long answer. I do have one more answer for the secret golden nugget. I heard it's do all the crap you don't feel like doing. And I wake up in the morning and I think about that and then I do that crap.

12:46 – Gresham Harkless:

Definitely appreciate those nuggets. And so now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So David, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:00 – David Pascaru:

Okay. Being a CEO, I think it really just means always having an open mind to what could be in the future and having a very good grip on what is happening right now in the sense we have projects we're working on now. So let's manage those projects and make sure they get done to the quality of which, you know, we say they're going to get done. But don't just get caught up in what you're doing now because You need to always be thinking about what's happening in the future, whether it's not just your next client, just maybe what's the next marketing strategy you're gonna do. What's the next fun thing you're gonna come up with that changes the way people see you? We're always thinking, we're gonna have a cartoon show one day, right?

We're going to, want to host this web seminar coming up soon. So, you know, these are just all things that I just think about on a daily basis. What's the next thing I can do that's going to help my company grow while we're still in the moment of doing the work? Cause if you get stuck doing the work, the work's gonna end and you're not gonna have anything. If you're always living in the future, nothing's grounding you to actually work. So that's, I think it's just striking a good balance between the technician who's sitting here and working right now, the manager who has to manage all those things, and then also the entrepreneur who is thinking about tomorrow. That's my answer.

14:31 – Gresham Harkless:

Truly appreciate that definition. I appreciate that. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

14:46 – David Pascaru:

Sure, yeah. I think we covered a lot of great stuff in this. I appreciate all the questions. And I did give a little E-Myth out there. And I just, like I said, I'm reading books constantly. So I'm just taking in as much information as I can for the listeners and the readers. So Purely Imagine, we make custom-made animations and explainer videos. We'll be able to tell your story and we inspire a different type of story, not the same thing you've seen every day when you scroll through Facebook. When you stop and you watch something, you know, that's what we're trying to do for people.

The best way to get in touch, you know, it's just my email, David at purely imagined calm, you can check out our videos on our portfolio on purely imagined calm, we send out a newsletter every so often I like to call Saturday morning cartoons, And we drop in a couple of the videos we've been working on. The whole point here is to try to hit a little nostalgia. You know, I want you to open my email and I want you to think about when you were a kid and you were eating cereal, watching cartoons, and just that nice feeling you got, we're gonna take that and put it into your business.

15:53 – Gresham Harkless:

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I definitely appreciate that, David. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. But I love all the ways in which you're helping businesses to be able to tell their story, talk about what it is that they do, and get back to those Saturday morning cartoons as well, which takes me back to those fun cereal-eating mornings as well. So David, truly appreciate that. Appreciate all the awesome things you're doing and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:22 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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