#16: Running 11 Marathons and Multiple Businesses with Zachary Murray
Josh and Zach discuss a wide range of topics including running and scaling multiple businesses at once, business in the time of COVID-19, design tools, creative processes, tools and systems for capturing ideas, and things good and bad about Apple products and the App Store ecosystem.
Episode Description
This is part 1 of 2 with Zachary Murray.
Josh and Zach discuss a wide range of topics including running and scaling multiple businesses at once, business in the time of COVID-19, design tools, creative processes, tools and systems for capturing ideas, and things good and bad about Apple products and the App Store ecosystem.
Zachary Murray is the Founder & Creative Director at Foreplay, a Toronto based performance marketing and creative agency helping e-commerce and D2C brands scale alongside their own internal ventures including Nomadic Fabrics which scaled to over 7 Figures in the first year.
Connect with Zach is on Instagram @thisis_zach
Foreplay is currently hiring @weareforeplay
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- Zach ran the equivalent of 11 marathons in one month
- 30 Day running challenge by Jessie Itzler
- Listening to podcasts and music while running vs. your internal dialogue
- Zach's companies: Nomadic Fabrics, Vanquished Media and Foreplay
- "Feast or famine" with businesses during COVID-19 pandemic
- Zach's first digital marketing agency saw a big increase in clients wanting to create more digital media during COVID-19 pandemic
- Zach's second digital marketing agency Foreplay creates and manages e-commerce solutions
- Foreplay is also creating digital marketing content for a Fantasy Sports startup
- Zach's advice for managing multiple companies and projects and avoid burnout
- Managing your "Inner Diva" and letting some things fall through the cracks
- Scaling your business to a point where you're only working on the stuff you want to work on
- Delegating work you like doing vs. doing it yourself
- Trying to delegate work, but then the quality doesn't meet your standard and then having to do it yourself anyway
- Big companies shifting to permanent work from home during COVID-19 pandemic
- Restaurants got hit hard during COVID-19 shutdown and continue to struggle
- Loom — a remote work tool that Zach showed Josh
- Josh mentions this Mind Meld episode with Jay Vasantharaj
- Zach's transition from a service business to e-commerce
- Zack's maker mindset. He's not interested in anything that's not making things.
- Elon Musk vs. Jeff Bezos
- Zach wants nothing to do with Jeff Bezos' day-to-day life
- Making lots of money vs. spending the money on material things
- "Does money buy happiness?"
- Ownership vs. access to material things like sports cars, etc.
- Getting the benefits of owning a nice car by using services like Turo
- Airbnb filing for an IPO this year
- Airbnb's shift to digital experiences
- Apple threatened to take down Airbnb from the App Store
- Apple vs. Fortnite / Epic Games lawsuit
- Podcast episode with Epic Games CEO Time Sweeney talking about free markets and his issues with the Apple App Store
- Epic Games Store marketplace
- The safety and security of the App Store
- Zach sees Apple as a technological Utopia
- After 5 years of owning a Samsung phone, Josh wants to switch to iPhone this year
- The true value of your devices based on how much you use it and the value it brings to your life
- The device upgrade lifecycle — Zach upgrades his phone ever 1 - 1.5 years
- Zach uses the iPad Pro 2020 with Apple Pencil
- Logitech MX Master 3 mouse
- Logitech Craft Keyboard
- Zach fixed his shoulder pain by switching from the Apple Magic mouse to the Logitech mouse
- Taking desk ergonomics more seriously
- Findng a good mouse is like finding a good running shoe
- Sacrificing design and aesthetics for functionality and utlity
- Losing creative momentum by answering messages and emails
- Zach's tools and processes for capturing different types of ideas
- War of Art book by Steven Pressfield
- Procreate app for iPad
- Chiseling away at a design vs. invisioning the final piece from the beginning
- Virtual Production in Unreal Engine
- Using an iPad as a wireless virtual camera in Unreal Engine
- Matt Workman
- Gernalists and Polymaths
- The TikTok "For You Page" algorithm
- James Jani YouTube channel
- Creating short tutorials for TikTok instead of a big YouTube production
- Learning shortcuts and functions of your devices to become more efficient
- Bigscreen VR app as a virtual meeting space
- The mental barrier of getting into VR
- Oculus Quest
- Facebook needing to Integrate Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp And Oculus better
- iCloud is a whitelabelled Google Drive
- Facebook's UI design update
- LinkedIn
- Twitter has become a powerful business network
- Substack newsletter subscription platform
- Morning Brew daily newsletter
- Tim Ferriss' 5 Bullet Friday Newsletter
Thanks for coming this far! if you're reading this, it is no accident. The universe brought you to this corner of the internet for a reason, and you're on the right track. I already know that you're an amazing person and I can't wait to connect with you!
— Josh
Josh Gonsalves
Mind Meld Podcast Host
Hi, I'm Josh Gonsalves, the host and producer of Mind Meld. I'm also a Canadian Academy Award-nominated director and Co-founder of Contraverse, an immersive media company. I'm a multi-media experience designer living and working in Toronto, operating at the intersection of design and exponential technologies to develop solutions that change the world for the better.
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