By ndadmin on 01/20/2018
Listen to Prince with Art of Visuals on this episode of Decision Pints! Prince followed his passion and created, made art, inspired others, built a following, and a successful business around it all. Learn a bit about his story and Art of Visuals.
Here's a transcript of our conversation:
Jason: well welcome everybody to another long overdue episode of decision ponds. We have a superstar guests today prints with visuals, and we're having a buzz buzz. Is it a porter? Buzz coffee from a call, salmon, salmon, and call will a cheers to you. Look forward to learning how you got doing what you're doing. Absolutely nothing. So I'm an embellisher and it'll be like, oh man, you gotta meet this guy, he's got like a million instagram followers. And in your case, that's like under selling it big time. So tell us about our visuals, how you got started. And I got to this point, have a really being a big deal. Um, yeah, so started the company
Prince: funny a few years ago with one of my best friends, Travis, Leslie. And we basically started our visuals to inspire people to get out into the world and see beautiful places, meet the beautiful people and experience these things and then turn around and you know, and share those stories with the community to inspire people, other people around the world to do the same. So it's kind of like this loop, right? And
Prince: yeah, that was the whole vision behind it in the beginning. Like that's all it was.
Prince: It's very simple, very straight forward. there really wasn't more to it than that. And we started curating images basically on this instagram. So we started the [inaudible] instagram page and started curating all these beautiful images from all over the world because so many people our age and all they do is they go out and party on the weekends and that's it and never get out into nature. They just work. They're always in the concrete jungle as we call it. So we just want to inspire people to get out and see the world man.
Jason: And it's amazing. If you guys are watching right now, go to art visuals on Instagram, those photos are inspiring just by scrolling through the feed. But then to know you just started doing something you love. And then one point 2,000,000 people around the world following, but that's only on instagram. I mean, he got followers all over the place, everywhere you go. And then that parlayed into a business and now you're tribe had called me up one day. I was actually there
Prince: in San Francisco at the time. I was working on a different business at the time and we started chatting. We were going back on back and forth on ideas and different ways we can take a. and I flew out here for his wedding, October. we built a prototype for an APP while I was out here. And I basically came into the trail at actually and a blind pitched Jeff Reynolds and he, right away it was just like, this is amazing. This is really good. Like I'm in, like, I'll write you a check right now. And that gave us confidence to be like, OK,
Jason: yeah, you're doing something right. That was your first pitch. Yeah, that's a good reception.
Prince: We, yeah. So I, I went home back to San Francisco and I basically packed my bags, told my girlfriend at the time like, Hey, I'm moving to Boise. Like I got this new thing and it's time to go. This is the second time I've done that. And so yeah, just packed my jeep up and I drove out to boise and moved in with Travis and we started building the company. So.
Jason: So as I was doing a little bit of research here, stepping back one bit was introduced. Did you do research than actually I gained inspiration. How lame.
Prince: Well yeah, I did some reason. I'm like, Oh yeah, what'd you read? Like tell me something. And then they're like, well, you know,
Jason: fit your instagram your research, but I intended to research and I was like, Oh man, this guy sounds cooler than me. Look at this. It's all awesome. So I was looking at your about page and what really caught me was this line of we believe that the world is a better place if we experience new cultures, meet new people, create more art and exploring new places. Absolutely. And I think that resonates with a lot of us and a lot of like I've got kids and that's their aspiration. That's exactly what they do. As a matter of fact, there was a mark twain quote that was like the antidote to prejudices, travel, kind of live that connection to other people around the world and now you've created success and a business from doing it. So we're certainly inspired and look forward to learning more, you know, tell us, tell us what's next, what are you up to now?
Prince: Yeah. So, so after we did the prototype will that we raise just a little bit of money just to get the business off the ground. we've been, you know, bootstrapped ever since we've been approached by vcs and things like that, but have no desire taking money. we love what we do. We love the process of waking up and getting after it every day. so from there we basically, we launched the magazine, we had like a big article about how art visuals basically brought instagram to life because all these photos of course exist in the digital world. And we went backwards at a time when everyone's like, Prince Dad and her dad were like, now you guys are just doing it wrong. And so we created this, you know, this high quality print publication and we would do that quarterly. So we went out to San Francisco, we had like 300 people show up, people drove in from San Diego to San Francisco just to be at this gallery event.
Prince: Um, and that was really kind of like when he took off, like it became real, right? Like we were this digital online community in that live event and like having 300 people on a dime, you know, like, I mean we planned it like a week out. People just show up to an event is like, it was insane for us. It was just such a surreal moment where like, wow, like we've, we built something that has enough heart and soul that 300 people left their homes to come hang out with us. That's mind blowing to see and to meet each other. And we built this community. and so from there we started working our mobile APP. So we have an APP to the APP store now it's still in Beta if you just search are the visuals up. But we're excited to start promoting that and really pushing that here soon.
Prince: But it's got about 18,000 users. It's a really cool app if you're an artist, you love it. So check it out from there, man. I mean we do all types of things. We work with a lot of brands. We do a lot of tours and stuff with the state here. We do a lot of the visit Idaho stuff, a lot of the sweetest stuff. So if you've seen like sweaters, new website, all that, all the content on there is all hours. Southwest Idaho Tourism Association. So super grateful to work with. Amazing, you know, local tourism agencies. Super blessed to work with some of the top brands around the world. Being h photo, north face, Adorama a non-box. I mean just all, you know, a low clip, all types of different brands. Unique. I just got to droughts and today it was pretty cool. So they just sent you. They're like, hey, this guy needs to drill.
Prince: So I'm excited to, to play with that and get that charge up. And that's awesome that that's like. And yeah man, we just got back from London not too long ago. I was telling you about that earlier, Jason. Yeah, we need to hear more about that. So please. Yeah. So basically flew out to London and I have some guys out there, so we have a global community. We have over a million content creators in a hundred and 22 countries. and so we basically, we have a vibrant community in London and they've been asking us to come to and come to London and do something in London. So I flew out to London, my buddy Chris and Goo, he goes by at the tech creative on instagram is like my counterpart in London, for the Aov community. And so, we basically set up this really sweet event where you rent rented out like this beautiful historic five story downtown building and you know, right in the heart of the city and the whole building.
Prince: Yeah. they had, I showed up there is like a security guard, but he's like, oh yeah, of course they come in middle school. I was like, oh, this is beautiful. I mean really, like, each room had like these vintage scenes, like, you know, wondering had a bathtub with like claw handled fee, like very, anti type vintage feel to it. So it's a really, it was a very trendy place to do a portrait workshop. So we basically had, you know, five beautiful models there. We had hair and makeup designers, we had fashion designers, stylists, so it was really cool to, to, to put together this production. And then we had five, you know, some of the top portrait photographers in the world, like a lute goat and lead who goes by Victor Valencia. He's a Denver based portrait photographers and he's like one of the best up and coming like portrait photographers in the, you know, in that industry right now.
Prince: And so we had guys like that. They're, you know, all these people that showed up here. We basically split everyone into groups of 10 and they all got like this one on one private experience to a shoot. Beautiful models in a stunning, you know, seeing that they wouldn't have been able to experience this on their own. Um, and they're also learning from, you know, these amazing photographers firsthand, so they're getting some awesome real world experience and you know, not watching a video online or something like that. So that's part of, you know, where we're headed in the future is providing a lot more live experiences, and really just focusing on the APP and continue to inspire people to chase their dreams and make their dreams come true. Like our goal is to turn people in the doers like, you know, like ideas are worth nothing, you know, it's all about action. As marshawn Lynch says, Dude, all about that action, all about that action. So that's our goal is to not only just inspire people to get out and explore the world and to create a but to show them how and, and really get them to take action. Because I like inspiring and motivating people. Not Enough. Like, you know, you really want to help them. You know him the pieces to get them from a to z because I don't know they need it.
Jason: Yeah. I mean if you were to go buy the book and you're like, Hey, I'm going to be an entrepreneur, I'm going to start an online community. You didn't follow any path that I've ever heard of him. You're just like, I do this. I love this. People gravitate towards it. But you didn't stop there. You take a risk on the print advertising. You'd take a risk on setting up a big event in London, take risk after risk and, and here you are like just,
Prince: it's just a gay man. Like no, no one has the answer. Everyone wants to tell you they have the answer. Everyone thinks they have like, you know, just because something worked for one company does not mean it's going to work for yours and vice versa. Like there really is no. There is another secret. Like it's just, you just got to do man, like can I curse? Or you just got to do like you just got to do shit. Like that's just the truth and the faster you can do it, the faster you can learn and grow. So I mean we've taken tons of losses. Like I don't even, they forgotten about so fast. I don't, we don't do well, we're not, we don't beat ourselves up because we thought something was great in the market because at the end of the day the market decides everything. Right? And so if the market doesn't think the idea is great, we're not going to sit there and beat our heads off the wall and try to make it better and it's like, yeah, they just don't like our idea, so just move on to the next thing and that's what we did. It's just like cool that didn't learn, hey, that was fun, but that wasn't that profitable and it took a ton of time. Move on. And it's just, it's just that iteration of just like you just got to try things and look. I don't know. I think as long as you're always aiming to deliver value and bring positive change to your customers, the audience, community, whatever it may be, they're, you know, they'll stand by side as you were just figuring things out.
Jason: Absolutely. Couldn't agree there. So th, this is kind of a fun part to pause for a second. Let's, let's hear something that you did that you thought, hey, this is going to be awesome. And then it just
Prince: flopped and you turn the page and I put you on the spot. Sorry. Trying to think where you went. OK, this is, this is interesting. This week we haven't necessarily had anything that's like just, it's just really flopped I guess. But. And that's just because like we, like we are the community so we have, we have, we know what we're building. We didn't, we didn't, we didn't sneak in this and market and do a bunch of research and be like Oh hey we found this niche and photography and we can exploit it and make money. Like we are the guys like where the community we're building and making things for ourselves. So it's easier. But the way we do it, you know, has changed over time. So one time we wanted to do something called like the job creators network and it was going to be like this huge mix of education and mentorship and just like comes with like, this is like this package.
Prince: It'd be like this thousand dollar package. And it comes with all this stuff and you know, we spent a lot of time starting to build all this stuff out and create everything and then, you know, we started talking and the community and it just, it seemed like it was a lot. They're like, ah, you know, I don't know if I'd actually probably want more like this or basically we should've got the feedback beforehand and we just spent a lot of time building something that we just didn't end up ever come to fruition. We just wasted a ton of time in that. And that happens. Um, so I think more like we've made more spending mistakes than we have mistakes with our customers. Like you know, how bad hires or a yeah, I can only wasted a whole lot of money on early on on the APP and it's rare to developer.
Prince: I'm just kind of fall three on us. And so he left with the half built APP and on the money's not going to show or sorry about that. We've seen at the. You can laugh about it. Yeah, absolutely. You know, like I said, I was talking with my buddy last night and you know, if it wasn't for all the losses that we took in all the, like downtimes and, and, and, and the bad times, we wouldn't have all these great times. We wouldn't have all the weapons that we're having now. We wouldn't, we wouldn't be enjoying these wins right now if we didn't have these losses, you know, early on, you know, and that's what we learned from is the last years when all the time I think what would life be like if you just won
Jason: like your first investor pitch? They're like giving me my checkbook. Yeah, I think it's. And then you look at like what people want to do and a lot of people say, you know what? I want to maybe earn a lot of money or I want to do what I want to do. I'm going to travel places. I want to take photographs that are awesome. I want to inspire others will. That's what you do. And so talk to us a little bit about what you got upcoming because this is what you do for a living and where you are traveling to.
Prince: So next, I'm going to San Francisco next week for a week, in order just going to go live, man.
Jason: Well, I saw the, it must have been a drone photo of the Golden Gate Bridge. They're beautiful.
Prince: That's my buddy jonathon. Borrow sue out in San Francisco. So a, it's cool. I mean like we have a real community. It's neat. Like you, like you just name an image and I know that not by just as instagram and wishes at Johnny d gray, but like, I know like they just tell me like you describe it. I'm just like, yeah, boom. Like we're in tune like this is a family like this isn't. And I think that's like part of why we built what we built and why we have such a strong brand is because, you know, we built a really empower the community. So we're going to San Francisco. basically we're going to do a meet up with the community. I haven't figured that part out what we're going to do yet. Maybe do a barbecue, maybe do a photo walk somewhere, just do something fun. And the rest of the trip we're just gonna be out shooting content. So like we have our own merchandise with some new products and different things we're working on is going to go out and basically shoot a bunch of content for that stuff and hang out man. Sleep underneath the stars, wake up next to you know, fog over lake and just
Jason: sounds awesome. I mean I was feeling pretty good. I was like, Oh man, we're working on five continents or got clients in all these amazing things. And then it was the director of trailhead here, Dan that says, hey, you gotta you gotta come up here and meet Prince. And I remember just listening to you and just thinking, wow, that's so much cooler than like when I wake up and I'm like, this stuff's great. And here you are living this dream of like the creative professional of having a business, traveling the world, connecting people and and being inspiration for those that really want to step out and take, take the next step. So with that said, what advice do you have? There is there's somebody who's got a camera that wants to get out there. What would you say to them to say,
Prince: here's my advice for you. Just do it, do it. Don't talk about it, but be about it. Did it like show me ideas mean nothing. No one cares about what you have to say. Just show him my. It's really that simple. And everyone likes to complicate and over thinking stop thinking and start doing. That's what everyone that's, that's the real issue. Too much thinking. Not Enough. Doing stop thinking. Stop asking people for their opinions, their opinions don't matter. Have faith in yourself and just take an action man. Like those are the people, you know what I mean? Take action. It's like winter is always when I always win, if you like, look at like look at the successful people, you know, in any sport, business, anything. It's always the people that are just look at the rock. That dude is the number one, like the highest paid guy in Hollywood right now. It's not even like the rocks are gray. That dude, he just works though. Like he takes like, the guy is like non stop and now he's blue. He's blown up. He's in every movie, every TV show saying, I mean those are the, I don't know, like people just need to get more. We need to create a culture of more action. Taking less. Let's talk.
Jason: Great. Well cheers to that. I think that's great advice and hopefully everybody follows. And not only that, this inspired by going to our visuals and thinking, wow, I could, I could contribute to something like this. I could be something like this. I could wake up and say, you know what, I'm traveling to Tahiti.
Prince: Voting is not just for travelers or photography. I mean, do we have product designers in their community that you use? Are Images for inspiration and create mood boards. I can, I use your images on your APP to create all my new boards and then, you know, I've architects that do the same thing. Like I'm not even a photographer. I'm actually an architect and I just love like, I like looking at the colors and the tones and not just the shapes and things and it gives me inspiration for buildings and things like that. So, yeah, if you guys are just into, you guys just want to be inspired and take a look if you guys are into beautiful images and things like that.
Jason: And what was even better was I was talking to different people and so Sabrina, who we work with, our divisional, she looks it up like, oh, I'm already following. And a whole bunch of my friends located all around the country was like, wow, here it is. Brent's in Boise working out a trailhead all nonchalant. Just like, oh, I'm going to have this awesome business that everybody strives to achieve and you're doing it, you're making it happen. And we appreciate you coming on here and talking to us. And hopefully we follow up
Prince: again. We had no absolute generation anytime. That's fine.
Jason: All right. Thank you. Thanks everyone that joined a share. Any questions or other feedback but make sure a, let's all do everything we can to help our, the visuals a get even bigger.
Prince: Really good. How can I help you guys send me an email? Prints our visuals, [inaudible] I am here to serve. So like whatever you guys need. I have tons of resources on our site and I'd love to help anyone that I was looking for anything or if you just wanna have some coffee or something, shoot me an email.
Jason: Thanks everybody. OK.
