[00:00:27] Jay: Hi, everyone. Welcome to The First Customer podcast. My name is Jay Aigner.. We are sponsored by JDAQA software testing your manual automated performance and security testing resource. So today I'm lucky enough to be joined by Bobby Reed. He is our first executive producer, founder, Bobby. Welcome. Thank you.

Thank you for joining me.

[00:00:46] Bobby: Yeah, thanks for having me. It's gonna be fun.

[00:00:48] Jay: So Loaded Pixel. Our tagline is a video production company. That's what we settled on before this So we'll have to flesh that out a little bit, but let's get started with you Where'd you grow up and kind of did that have any impact on you being an entrepreneur later in your life?

[00:01:02] Bobby: Uh, that's a great start. I was born in Kansas. So most people in this part of the world don't know where that is. It's directly in the middle of the country. It's a flyover state. And then I moved to Denver when I was seven years old. Grew up there, played football for, a year and it was division two.

I'm not that good. And, and then I transferred to Nebraska because I wanted to get into this film and, video production world. And they had a program called Husker vision, which they travel around with, all the sports teams doing all the big screen events and gathering footage and content and editing.

And it was, You know, you use all the pro equipment, while getting the experience and getting experience from, other professionals. So, that's, I transferred to Nebraska to get into Husker Division, got in there and, had a great reel and then, got my first job in, St. Louis, Missouri, which again, for those folks, on the East Coast, it's another flyover state.

It's right next to Kansas. You know, all those things. So, yeah, got my start in sports and live events and, and post production editing. And that was, that was kind of the start. I just wanted to, I just wanted to create pretty pictures and, that was kind of the start of it.

[00:02:05] Jay: Did you do any of that as a kid did you do like did you like doing video stuff or was it later?

[00:02:09] Bobby: Yeah, I get. So it really changed when I was like a sophomore junior in high school. So I had a teacher, an English teacher, and I was not a great English student to be fair. And he said, I'm starting this video production class. I want you to be in it as a junior and it's only offered to seniors. So I was going to be the only underclassmen in this senior level class.

And so I was like, yeah, hell yeah, I'll be in this class. And, there was probably a girl that I thought was cute in the class too or something. So I was like, yeah, of course. So, I remember the first day starting and he handed us these cameras and showed us like, this was iMovie on, I 2000, you know, 2000.

So, he goes, this is editing software and, have at it and do whatever you want. and funny story there, this, that was one of the many times that I, or that class was one of, one of the many times that I almost got kicked out of one, a school, and At the time, Jackass was a very big, you know, popular show on TV.

And so me and my friends were like, Oh, let's recreate Jackass. So we went to the school and we did a bunch of Jackass things. I shot it all, edited it all. And I was going to air it on the, you know, the, the in house TV network. And the principal got involved and was like that you can't do this. And like, wanted to suspend me and all these things.

And my mom, everyone had to get involved. And, thankfully I didn't get kicked out, but, but yeah, that was kind of the start of. 

[00:03:27] Jay: So You were the Jeff Tremaine, is that his name? The guy from Jack the, who's the director guy from, who's the guy who's always behind the camera in, jackass.

[00:03:35] Bobby: Oh, I don't know the behind the camera 

[00:03:36] Jay: there's, he's like the main guy who's like, he's like the creator of not any of the actual talent, but there's like the one guy who like, they always talk anyway.

he's the guy, he's the guy who's always like egging him on and he is like, you know, trying to

get him to do the crazy stuff while he's like safely sitting behind the camera. That's just what I envisioned you doing in high school.

Um. 

[00:03:53] Bobby: probably.

[00:03:54] Jay: So you had a bunch of cool little stops along the way I saw in your background just different kind of film You know media jobs What kind of led you to starting your own video production company

[00:04:08] Bobby: So I always had a feeling like that's what I wanted to do, but I never really knew how to start it or had, you know, had the, you know, the aha moment of like, this is Exactly. This is what I'm going to do it until I moved to Philadelphia and I got in with the NBC Sports Network. I was a post production editor there having a blast making as much.

It wasn't a ton of money, but it was the most money I ever made in my life. And so I was having a great time. I made a bunch of great friends and then they moved their whole operation up to Connecticut and they offered me a staff position up there for less money. And. So I was kind of confused and I, and at the time I, when I first moved to Philly, I guess I should back up.

I didn't have, I didn't know anybody. I didn't have a job. I didn't, I knew no one. And so I started, tutoring and I really, I only got one call from, for it to be a tutor in, in, in this world. In film and video production, you know, Photoshop, you know, Illustrator, all those things. And, and so this family I got pretty close with over the years.

And so I went to the dad who was a entrepreneur himself, business owner, and I told him this. I was like, Hey, they want to move me to Connecticut and yada, yada. And he goes, let me, he's like, why don't you just start your own company? And I said, I have no idea how to do that. He goes, I'll help you do it.

It's not that hard, but you should do it and do it now. This is a perfect opportunity. So I just kind of trusted him and, and did it and went to one of my friends at NBC sports and, actually two of my friends there and we started Loaded Pixel in 2012, so. NBC moves to Connecticut. We start Loaded Pixel.

We have basically we kept NBC as a client. and we had, you know, not a ton of work, but some work. And, we all sort of took jobs other places to keep the, you know, keep food on the table and then, you know, and slowly we built it up to where it is today. But that was the genesis was I have a, I had a buddy that I tutored his kids and he was like, you should do it.

I'll help you. And that was 

[00:06:02] Jay: So was so as NBC Sports or you're technically your first customer for a Loaded Pixel

[00:06:08] Bobby: Well, it would be, I guess technically it would be this guy because he's, he said, he goes, I need a video done for something he did for YPO, the thing, this thing he was in and, he goes, can you do it, but give me a discount. And I said, how about this? How about you? You pay me in, if you buy me a camera and a couple of lights and I'll do the rest for free.

And he was like, deal. And so that so we got a camera and a couple lights and a microphone and we did this job for him and then, then right off that NBC moves and we keep them as a client, doing stuff. So that was, yeah, that was the start. It was a wild way. So I still have that camera too, which is weird,

[00:06:45] Jay: That's well, you got to keep it forever. I mean even if you just like mounted on the wall

[00:06:49] Bobby: right? Right.

[00:06:50] Jay: Well, I mean that's for The audience will know what I'm about to say, for those who have listened before, which is the friends and family plan, right? I mean, it's always almost the number one way to start a business is, 

somebody, you find somebody, it's not this, like, there's this misnomer that there's this magical grind that happens.

And like, you can just like materialize clients. It's usually somebody in your network. It's usually somebody, you know, from somebody else. And you just have to ask, or they ask you. 

And you jump at it, and it sounds like it was kind of the same deal for you guys.

[00:07:25] Bobby: Yeah, absolutely. I think. Yeah. My whole life, I've never had a, I've never been staffed anywhere. I've always been a freelancer. So in other words, I've always had to hustle to get clients. They vote. So it's in a different, you know, world than I'd say an entrepreneur or business in the sense that, you know, in live events or in editing, you're just looking, you know exactly who you're looking for.

You're looking for production companies or, you know. you know, film companies that are going to use your service of editing or shooting or whatever it is, right? and so you can canvas. It's the same thing I did when I moved to Philly. I didn't know anyone. And so I just canvassed for months, to try to find work.

And it's a slow going at first, but then eventually you, somebody calls you back, they give you a job for a day or a week, and then You know, you do a good job, they call you back and then they introduce you to four other people and then you, they call you and then now your network grows. It's, so it doesn't happen overnight.

It's not as easy as like just applying to a job, giving your resume and sitting down and they hire you and now you're locked in for 10 years. It's, it takes a lot more effort. So I was used to that risk. I was used to that grind or that hustle, I guess I should say. And, and not being afraid that if I didn't work for a month, it was not the world.

And then. And, kind of being okay with that, and that's, it's a scary thing for a lot of people, for most people to have that mentality, but that's,

[00:08:40] Jay: I I never, yeah, and it's a great point too, because, and we were talking a little bit about the documentary that, that I'm weirdly enough being, part of right now. I didn't realize most of the film folks are freelancers. I didn't realize that like, they're literally like, you know, sports people, where you're just like, you know, you're getting a contract here and there, like You're getting referred to places like people see your work and they're like, oh, yeah, I'd like that guy didn't I don't think people it's a very it's a very like You know common thing to see video all day every day on everything we do and just have no idea what goes on behind it, you know, you don't know that

there's this world of just plug and play people and you're finding editors and producers and directors and they all meld together to make these projects when as a just a straight consumer I had always kind of just assumed it was like this company and like this thing that like, you know, it was this nice little, you know, package that comes together everywhere and they all go to this place and they all do these things.

And I didn't realize there was a lot of this, like I said, plug and play kind of thing. So I do want to ask, what's the difference in your day to day now, you know, X number of years and I don't know how many years you can tell me, since you started Loaded Pixel and today, like what's your kind of. What things have you shifted to business wise just your day to day as opposed to when you started?

[00:10:00] Bobby: Well, I mean, it's when I first started, it was, so I, again, first it was, there was three of us, and then the third, Person dropped out pretty quick cause he wanted, he didn't, he wasn't in love with the, the risk, I'll just say that. So he dropped out pretty quick. And then, so it was just me and my partner, but my partner is a writer director, so he doesn't, you know, there's definitely a lot of talent in that and there's a definite need for that.

But when I first started, I was doing all the sales, all the client relations, you know, account services, editing, producing, I was doing, you know, all of that stuff. And so. You know, while I was our, one of our big clients, when we first got Wawa, I was doing all of it. I was editing it all. I was getting the call from the client.

I was sending it out for mix, you know, doing a lot of the mixing myself. So all the color correcting, like I was doing all the graphics myself, like everything was me. And then, you know, eventually as we got more clients, I have to then hire people or get a freelance staff or a freelance pool of people to then take on this load.

So I haven't edited anything for Loaded Pixel. in two years, which is great. I have a full time production manager and slash producer. So she takes on a lot of roles for producing. So most of my day to day now is moved more towards managing those people, managing our number one client and then finding new clients.

And, you know, which is a whole host of different challenges than just editing a law commercial or something. So, and that's the fun part now for me is trying to figure that out, you know, how to be more efficient with my time, with everyone else's time, while still being cognizant of all of the needs for the clients, for my employees needs, my freelancers needs just, you know, running the business now, is more of what I'm learning to do every day.

[00:11:47] Jay: How did you get Wawa if I'm allowed to hear that story, I'm just curious like how the hell did you land? I mean and for people who are not in the East Coast or Philadelphia region may not understand how cult like the following is for Wawa around here that has slowly spread out along the East Coast, but How did you guys get that connection?

[00:12:07] Bobby: Yeah, that's that's it's a that's a fun story. So, My, my buddy who told me to start the company, he had a friend at Wawa and he said, and he introduced me to her. She was the, I don't know exactly what her title was, but she was in marketing and, kind of high up. And so it was more, so he introduced us and the meeting that I said was a coffee, like, Hey, I'll come to Wawa for a coffee to meet you.

I've never met this woman before. And to learn more about their needs, because traditionally a company of that size of Wawa size will hire. an ad agency to then run all the production through that. So then I would be basically working for the ad agency, not directly with Wawa. So

[00:12:48] Jay: Wow

[00:12:52] Bobby: more about how it all works with them, what their needs are.

Maybe I can slide in somewhere or learn enough to then go to an ad agency and be like, Hey, you know, I'm working. So I walk in. I meet this one for 15 minutes and she goes, Well, let's go to this other, let's go to this conference room. I walk in every, she brings in everyone from the marketing department and everyone from the PR department and everyone from the some other department.

I don't even know the foundation, whoever uses video. She brought everyone in. It was maybe 20 people in this room and she's like, Hey, everybody, here's Bobby Reed and he does video production. Bobby, take it away. And I go, I have nothing. I felt like I was totally caught with my pants down like. The worst opportunity.

I said, well, if you have internet in here and we can pull up my website, like I, you know, and luckily at that point I had worked at Superbowl and Olympics and, some other bigger events on the live event side. And so I was able just to basically BS my way through this meeting and. I mean, I'm sweating the whole time.

I walked out of that meeting and I called my buddy and I said, you totally bagged me, like she raked me over the coals with, she brought me in front of everybody. I had, I literally had nothing. And, and so he goes, ah, you'll be fine. Like it was a good experience or whatever he said, you know?

And, and then a month later I got a call and they said, Hey, can you just put some new music on this spot for us?

And I was like, yeah, sure. And it took me 10 minutes and I just, they just started calling me to do little things like that here and there. And they said, oh, can you also do shoots? And I said, yeah, sure. So they gave me this little shoot to do. And then they said, oh, can you do this bigger thing? And I said, yeah, sure.

And then he said, oh, can you do all of our production now? And I said, yeah, sure. You know, so just sort of,

[00:14:29] Jay: was that from that meeting until you guys kind of took it all over

[00:14:33] Bobby: it was a few years. So that was the first meeting was probably five years ago, five or six years ago. And then really the pandemic is what. What took off for us because they weren't allowed to, you know, the ad agencies weren't allowed to travel anywhere. They, you know, with all the unions and stuff that are involved in video production, they, it was very difficult to get anything shot and done.

And so, so while I called me and they said, Hey, you know. We need to shoot stuff. And I said, can you do it? And I said, yeah, sure. So I remember our first shoot was in April of 2020. So this is still locked down. We can only have 10 people. So typical Wawa shoot production, broadcast production, we'll have 40, 50 people on set, you know, not including the client that are running around doing different things.

It's there's a big sets. And then all of a sudden they said, you got to do it with 10 people total. And then we were like. Okay, but it was, I'm telling you some of the best phone calls I made. I called the guy, you know, one of the guys who shoots all of our stuff and I said, do you want to work?

And he said, he started crying. He said, yes, I'll do whatever it takes because at that point, nobody knew, especially in this business, when they were going to work again,

 because of all these different stipulations with COVID and people were, so, we did, we could, we all wore masks. We, you know, there was only 10 of us and we shot a ton of stuff and then, When we started to turn that stuff around and do it quick and they started to see how fast and well we could do things and honestly, it was cost effective for them to do it.

they were like, Hey, like, why don't you just start doing all of it for us? So,

[00:15:58] Jay: So like the little I mean, is it everything now like you are there? like

the stuff at the pump like all the You know all those little videos you see when you're at the little kiosk like all the stuff in there

[00:16:10] Bobby: it's slowly becoming, I guess. In that respect, we probably do 80%. Like we're starting to do more of their social. We're starting to do, I mean, some of that stuff with the pump is already things that we do. the, like the cat screen stuff.

[00:16:23] Jay: The stuff. that everybody loves by the way, everybody loves the super loud videos that autoplay as soon as you turn

I know, everybody loves those

[00:16:31] Bobby: you know, it's funny about that is we've had to do so much research on decibel levels at the pump because of exactly what you're talking about. And every pump is different. We, it, there's all this technical jargon I can get into, but we had to go around with different microphones and microphone recorders and sound check or sound level recorders to different wah wahs and record how loud it was.

And then. And then as we, you know, produce this stuff for the pump, we have a, like a set limit, a decibel level, if you will, you know, of how high we go based on all of these like meter 

[00:17:03] Jay: Interest thatthat's super cool. I

like that a lot I actually love that and I do have a

related question that I've always wondered is there some sort of standard For a TV commercial volume 

[00:17:15] Bobby: Yes. 

[00:17:16] Jay: be at, 

[00:17:17] Bobby: Yes.

100 percent there is.

[00:17:18] Jay: Yeah. Yeah. I guess you could always be under, but yeah, you try, you keep it at a certain level, for broadcast standards. And you can't go over that now that, you know, they do pump up the volume on, not after I, you know, that's after I deliver it. So the master control will, we'll throw it up.

[00:17:35] Bobby: So that's why commercials tend to be that. And now they've controlled that over the years. So you, it's not as drastic as it once 

[00:17:41] Jay: Yeah. the late night infomercials that are like screaming at you. Yeah.

that's an interesting point. if you had to start your production company over again today, with everything you've learned, what would be step one?

Step one. Oh, yeah, you did ask me this and I'd never I should I meant to think about this longer. I'm glad you didn't. I'm glad you didn't. I'm glad we're doing it live right now together. That's much better for me. I like that better. You should know that. This is much better content than

you just, you know, rambling off some pre canned answer.

[00:18:14] Bobby: yeah, I guess if I would do it again I wouldn't wait Yeah on to do certain things. I would just Go for it and not be as afraid or as cautious or I would dive in harder, to, to things. I mean, I, you know, and some of it was just learning. I think some of it was not knowing what to dive into maybe.

but I know that I, how I've mentally changed over the last at least five, six, seven years when the business has taken off and, The one piece of advice that I got from a different business mentor was there's better. There's never a better time than right now. So if you're talking about it, then stop talking about it and go do it.

If you're thinking about it, you can think about it, but think about it in terms of how to make a plan that you're going to make a plan to go do it that day or tomorrow or the next, you know, that week, as soon as you can do it. And, and that's one thing that's helped, I think, get us to where we're going again.

 When you're going super fast, you're going to make some mistakes and that's the hard part. And I made some mistakes with Wawa. I made mistakes with every, not every client, but you make mistakes. You just have to find your best way to understand what they are and then make sure they don't happen again and then explain that to the client.

Hey, look, we made a mistake and own up to it because I found that if at least you own up to it. Ahead of time, they're more willing to work with you and be understanding of whatever it is, unstil, unless they find it, right? And if they find it, then you're that's when you 

[00:19:40] Jay: That, Yeah,

that is, and even then, I think, that's a great point and something I still am shocked that I see in business owners today is There's literally nothing to gain by pushing blame off. Like there's not like you don't look better. It doesn't solve the problem. It doesn't make them go, Oh, well then.

Okay. Yeah. It's all, even if it's their fault, like take ownership and just, you know, fix the problem and 99. 99 percent of the time, it'll be fine. It's just the backpedaling and the, Oh my God. Like, I don't know how that happened. Like if you really just take it and you own it, I've had a much better experience as a business center.

Just. Kind of, like you said, just going for it, just tackling it, and be like, yeah, that was totally our fault, like, we'll make sure that doesn't happen again, and you work through it, so, I think that's a great piece of advice. Alright, one thing we'll end on, if there's aspiring video production company owners out there, which may be a limited audience, maybe not, and, you know, there's guys out there that do film today, What would you kind of tell them, you know, what would you tell your younger self?

And maybe some of it is not to wait, and we can, you know, that can maybe be one of the things. But, what would you tell them, you know, what would you tell your younger self? If you were gonna kind of look back and say, Hey, don't wait, go do it. here's what you need to go do.

[00:21:03] Bobby: I think there's probably, there's a couple things there. One thing that I've I said there's a few things. One short one is it Loaded Pixel. The big joke is always be the director, because if you could be the director, you have, you know, you get all the money and glory and none of the pain and suffering of like dealing with the client or like all the blame, you know, from all the, you know, you know, the producing side is, sometimes thankless and long, but as the directors always say, that's why the producers, take the Oscar for best pictures.

Cause they have to deal with all the. that's one thing I will also say if I find a lot of young filmmakers and creatives really get bogged down and owning the art and the creative, in game or in peace, in other words, they feel like whatever they're putting out is the best it can be for this thing.

And. The client doesn't know any better. The producer, nobody knows any better. They're the ones, you know, whatever they're putting out is the best. And, what I've, what's been beneficial, I think, for me, explaining this to other editors, is you get one shot. So, If whatever you're, you know, whatever you're working on, you get one shot to wow the client to say, no changes.

This is where it can't be any more perfect than this. We're going to put this out as is amazing job. After that, you don't own it. It's their piece. They're paying for it. they want to put their stamp on it or make changes or whatever. That's you have to just do it and not. And not be broken hearted that somebody ruined your masterpiece or whatever, right?

There'll be a place in time for your masterpiece and that place in time is not now and it's not here. So, but you get one shot and I've seen it happen. It's not un, you know, it's not unattainable to just edit something and you put it in front of the client and they're like, this is perfect. Thank you.

It can't happen, but it doesn't happen often. So just, you know, don't hang on to it as long as you think. So, That's what I would say. Because then you can get upset. You can let a lot of emotions cloud your judgment, especially if you will be client basing. If you're going to run a business, so you can't, you can't take it to heart.

And a lot of creatives, a lot of people in this field are, are, they're emotional people just by nature. Cause that's what we are. and that's what makes great art and is, are the emotion of it. but sometimes you got to cut that off. So that's what I would say to a younger, That's one of the things I would say, 

[00:23:26] Jay: I like that. Yeah.

no, that's a great, those are great answers. alright, how do they find you, Bobby? How do they find LoadedPixel if they're looking to get in touch and get some high quality video work

[00:23:34] Bobby: Yeah, we're, so this is LoadedPixel. I think we were going to talk about this, we didn't get into it, but LoadedPixel was not the first 

[00:23:40] Jay: Yes, tell me about that story before we go. I do

want to know, tell me the genesis of the name.

[00:23:44] Bobby: it is quick. We wanted, I, I can't remember exactly what we wanted, like pixel harvest or something like that, but Pixel harvest.com was taken. And so we wanted pixel is kind of what you were mentioning earlier, is pixel's kind of a cool, fun thing.

And, we found that Loaded Pixel.com. The URL was not taken, so we were like, oh, great. But this again goes back to me being cautious and we again, we had no money, so I was like, let's. Submit the paperwork for the LLC. Once we get it back and we have the name for sure, then we'll buy the URL. Well, in the time when we got the name through the state and we got the paperwork back to say, we officially had it.

Somebody had bought some like, you know, guy that, you know, some squatter bought Loaded Pixel. com and then, and won't sell it back to us for less than like an astronomical price now. So, so, so we had to then, by that point we had to get, find another URL. So. , we went with something super long loaded.

Pixel creative.com is our URL. So it's, we, you could probably find us, I think we have Loaded Pixel tv, so if you sent an email to, or if you went to Loaded Pixel tv, you could find us. but, but yeah, so Loaded Pixel creative.com is the, is the URL. You can find us there. 

[00:24:50] Jay: And what about you, LinkedIn kind of guy? Are

you email focused? What's the best way to reach you?

[00:24:55] Bobby: Yeah. Best way to reach me is Bobby at Loaded Pixel creative or info at Loaded Pixel creative. you can find me on LinkedIn, Bobby Reed. it's, hopefully, I mean, it's a fairly common name, but hopefully 

[00:25:05] Jay: I think you came up pretty quickly when I searched you, so

we should be good. 

[00:25:08] Bobby: is getting there. Cause 

[00:25:09] Jay: Yeah.

you're skyrocketing to the top of LinkedIn, results. Well,

Bobby, it.

was great meeting you. I love your story, man. I hope, you know, some aspiring, filmmaker slash production slash, you know, anything film related.

there's some good stuff in here for people who want to kind of take that next step and be a business owner and kind of chase that dream of continuing on with film. So, thank you for being on, brother. It was great meeting you and have a great weekend, alright?

[00:25:33] Bobby: Yeah. Thanks Jay. It's 

[00:25:34] Jay: Thanks, Bobby. See ya. 

​