Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Maddux.
Hi Joshua, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m the founder of 95Visual digital agency in Los Angeles California and my path to business ownership is a little different. Everyone has their own story and their own path to business. For me, this was something that I enjoyed doing in college but was not my original career path. I saw the industry as a whole as something that a lot of agencies took advantage of small business owners who didn’t really understand what was going on in either web design or marketing. I wanted to make sure that in starting a business our clients knew what was happening, knew what was going on and were able to have some of that transparency that a lot of agencies don’t have.
As crazy as it is, that was 15 years ago. Now with a dedicated team and incredible clients, we continue to grow and continue to help businesses on a day to day.
I’ve always loved fast-paced change and from competing in startup weekends to having worked at other jobs in high school and seeing the lack of change, I really wanted to be in a field that I know would never stay the same. And the marketing industry is definitely one of the forefronts for change from technology to Legal to strategy changes there’s always something changing. I think that’s what really makes this industry is a whole both challenging yet rewarding at the same time.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I run a small business… so no. We were founded in 2008, I always joke that that was at the peak of you know financial prosperity in our economy. During the first few years of business, we had to get creative between part-time staff or staff having jobs at other agencies or just figuring out ways to keep afloat. However, despite all of those challenges, we made it thus far.
Then with events in 2020 such as the pandemic, changes to ad platforms and tracking, we continue to face change and the need to keep up. There’s always a struggle that you’re going through or a struggle that’s around the corner. That’s just running a business.
As you know, we’re big fans of 95Visual. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
For us it’s strategy, so many agencies just execute. They have a strategy that they’ve used for 10 other businesses in your industry and they assume that a copy and paste of that strategy will work in your business. Sadly so many business owners find out the hard way that a copy-and-paste strategy doesn’t work and that’s only after spending thousands of dollars over 12 months. At this point typically a business owner is left with no new clients, a marketing plan that doesn’t work, a website that isn’t the best, and unable to afford the services that they need. We hope to be able to have a conversation with that company before they sign that contract. Then we are able to show how custom strategy can help and make a big difference. From there, we set up a plan that actually helps the business owner.
I always equate this execution without a strategy to a road trip without a map, launching a business without a business plan, or something of the like. If you take a road trip without a map or a GPS, you will probably get to the destination… eventually. It may just take you 5, 10, 15, or 20 times longer to get there. Sadly this is the game that most marketing agencies play and most businesses can’t afford to spend 10X their marketing budget to hope that they can get there. This is where strategy comes in and where we help our clients execute.
So if you’re a small to medium business looking for more than just execution and want a strategy that’s going to work for your business, feel free to reach out or check out our website at http://95Visual.com
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Luck definitely helps all businesses. For ours specifically, there has definitely been some good connections made via luck. Being in the right place at the right time or the right networking event definitely has helped. However, as much as luck has played a role there’s also the strategy side ensuring that we’re in the right networking groups ensuring that we’re saying yes to those connections that is our strategy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.95visual.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/95visual_llc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/95Visual/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/95visual-llc
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/95visual/
Image Credits
Johnny Delamora
