The Leap of Faith – Transforming Challenges into Opportunities

The Leap of Faith – Transforming Challenges into Opportunities

Nazim Ahmed:

You have to take a leap of faith and invest into something that you believe that on the other side of it is gonna come to fruition. It’s a journey of evolution Right. And learning and experimentation. Something has to change inside you Yeah. For you to drive the company to another level because that company is run by someone who is not you right now. You’re an athlete going out there every day in the ring. You need coaches to take a look at every different vertical so you can keep working on them. There’s never gonna be a perfect time to start.

Nazim Ahmed:

Mhmm. So you just have to start.

Eric Deschamps:

Welcome to the Living Rich It’s so great to have you back with us this week. We appreciate you tuning in every weekend. We’re really excited about this week’s show.

Rob Dale:

This is gonna be great.

Eric Deschamps:

We have a great friend And guest who’s joining us today in the studio, Naz Ahmed. Naz, it’s so great to have you here today.

Nazim Ahmed:

Awesome being here. I can’t wait Get into it.

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah. You and I have been coaching together now. I’ve known each other for about 3 years, but we’ve been coaching together for about 3 years, and it’s been amazing to watch, your growth journey. You’re the former founder and CEO of, Canvas Pop, which was a, digital art to print Sort of, gig right on the Internet, served over a 1000000 people, I think, by the time it was all said and done. Yeah. Exited that in 2021 very successfully. Currently involved in a great, new venture called Remix that you’re gonna be telling us about. This is a really cool, cool play in the Digital again, digital space, but, totally different, different approach.

Eric Deschamps:

And you’re also you’re an entrepreneur. You’re a dad. You’re a husband, and you’re here today to tell us your story. Welcome, man.

Nazim Ahmed:

Thanks for having me. I can’t wait to get into it. We’ve had, you know, a great relationship over the last few years and Big fan of coaching, but, excited to get deeper into the whole story here. Yeah.

Rob Dale:

It’s it’s gonna be great. I so I I’ve got a question right out of the gate, and it’s around entrepreneurship. Are you born an entrepreneur, or do you become an entrepreneur? So so maybe a little bit of your background. What what, led you to become a serial entrepreneur, really.

Nazim Ahmed:

Yeah. So, so my journey is based on my, Where how I got here is based on 4 basic pillars. So number 1 is my experience love for science. Number 2 is my Experience love for company building and big business. Number 3, my love and experience around art and design. And then number 4, my love for entrepreneurship and startups. And over the last 20 years, there’s been experiences in my life that have hit each of those pillars that have gotten me to the stage.

Eric Deschamps:

Now when did you know? Like, you you know, these are the things that attracted you, but what was that moment where you just knew That you would not be happy in a JOB, following sort of the pattern most people follow. One of the things I really admire about you is you you had you’ve had dreams that you’ve gone after, or and you’ve gone after them with your whole heart. But when did what was that moment? Is there a particular moment where all that clinched or was it an evolution? It was definitely an evolution. You know, my father came here from India with a small suitcase.

Nazim Ahmed:

In evolution, you know, my father came here from India with a small suitcase to do his PhD in Canada. He came here to live the Canadian dream, and he was a scientist, a physics physicist, and chemist moved to Ottawa, grew his family here. So I was raised in a science family, and I was raised to be a scientist. So I went on to do a degree in genetics, and my whole life is out around science. So when I went to Western, I was surrounded around a lot of business people. So Western was all about Richard Ivey School of Business, one of the best business schools in the world, and started hanging out with some of these people that were talking about different things in science. So I’d go to my science classes, I’d hang around with business people, and over time, that start opening up, you know, opportunities and and thinking more about business. But what I really knew is when I finished my genetics degree, I decided not to become a scientist.

Nazim Ahmed:

I did a couple years of software engineering, and, at that point, I’m gonna experience this world of of business, so I went and worked for a biotech company for a few years.

Eric Deschamps:

Mhmm.

Nazim Ahmed:

And I loved it. It was it was out of San Francisco. It’s a large $1,000,000,000, you know, publicly traded company. But Nights and weekends. Every single night, every single weekend, I had a group of entrepreneurial friends, and we would do these things called side hustles. We would come up with ideas. Wow. And try ideas and try to create products and see if they work.

Nazim Ahmed:

And it was failure after failure after failure. So I’d work my day job during the the the day, like my serious day job. And then nights and weekends, it would be projects and, you know, several failures, and one of them hit, which we can get to in a moment. Yeah. And once that thing hit, It was just a life that took of it

Rob Dale:

on the soup. It, is I all the I’m I’m sitting here thinking about, you know, there’s there’s that saying about, never be the smartest person in

Nazim Ahmed:

the room.

Eric Deschamps:

So I don’t have a problem with that. That comes naturally to me.

Rob Dale:

That’s pretty obvious right now. Alright. Well, god.

Nazim Ahmed:

I don’t

Rob Dale:

know about that. Incredible journey. Maybe talk to us. So as you started to, make that shift, What were some of those initial challenges that you faced? Yeah. So, so, obviously,

Nazim Ahmed:

you know, those nights and weekends, several different ideas didn’t work. One idea, wasn’t actually supposed to be a business. My best friend at the time, Adrian Selimovic and I, we did this side project where we took people’s DNA and turned it into pieces personalized artwork. Wow. Never meant to be a business. And what ended up happening was I love this intersection of art design and technology, And I ended up spending literally every hour on it, where my day job suffered, and I ended up getting fired from my job. Great story. Yeah.

Nazim Ahmed:

Because all I was thinking about was this intersection of, you know, DNA art technology design. So, DNA 11 was not making any money at the time, so I decided to cash out all my RSPs, and I went all in

Eric Deschamps:

Wow.

Nazim Ahmed:

To try to make this thing work. I knew it wasn’t gonna be a big business, but I was so passionate about this intersection, personalization, art, design, technology. I said, give it a try instead of taking a step back and then jumping into a different biotech job and say, okay. I gotta get serious here.

Eric Deschamps:

Right.

Nazim Ahmed:

You know? And, and and that was the moment when I went all in that I knew that I was wired a little bit differently.

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah. That’s amazing. I mean, big part of the Living Richter message is encouraging people to not live the supposed life, not live the scripted, family expectations, societal expectations to follow your heart, right, and to go forward, which you clearly did. And I love the story about getting fired From your day job, because you were so passionate about your dream, and that’s where your energy was going. Can you take us inside perhaps your head and your heart in those in back In those days, you were kinda early stage entrepreneur leaning into it. What were what was your what was your self talk? What were the what were the mindsets You were embracing or perhaps even struggling with, as you were getting started.

Rob Dale:

So a lot of it has to

Nazim Ahmed:

do around, You know, one thing is mindset, and then number 2 is just practical matters from cash flow to try and keep the business alive. So, you know, when we started, You know, launch the site. There’s still not a lot of traffic towards it. There’s not a lot of sales. You’re burning away your savings. Everyone around you is, like, saying, are you an idiot? You know? Yeah. So so that’s a problem. And then there’s this moment of called the leap of faith.

Nazim Ahmed:

Mhmm.

Eric Deschamps:

And while

Nazim Ahmed:

I’ve been building businesses, there’s always these moments where you have to take a leap of faith and invest into something that you believe that on the other side of it is gonna come to fruition and is gonna open up new possibilities. And for me, when I looked at this product, I thought, you know, no. It’s not gonna be a $1,000,000,000 product, but it’s gonna give me experience, and it’s gonna give me resources to do other things if this ends up working. So as on my last, you know, For you couple of $1,000, nothing was working, then USA Today wrote an article on DNA 11. I remember being my cofounder out for breakfast that morning. We got back to our desks. I was already planning on moving back from my parents, and then the sales just started pouring in. Wow.

Nazim Ahmed:

And then as soon as that came in, then we started you know, We had the cash flow to improve the site, expand the product line, and then from there, I mean, there’s Canvas Pop. There’s other Yeah. Startups they had resources for and exit, but we’ll get into that moment.

Rob Dale:

So Exciting. You’re you’re you’re launching into this. I’m hearing you’re cashing out RSPs. Your your savings are dwindling. Like, all

Eric Deschamps:

Getting ready to move back in with mom and dad.

Rob Dale:

Move With mom back in with mom and dad. I was close. I don’t know I don’t know if you were married at the time, but here’s your dad who was a scientist, you know, his own background. And this is often what keeps people from from taking that leap of faith are the people around them, their loved ones, their family members Who are you know, what was the response? Did you were they were they supportive? Were they were they thinking, what on earth are you doing? How did you kinda deal with the Influence of the people closest to you.

Nazim Ahmed:

Yeah. So first thing is there’s whenever you start something new, there’s always gonna be a lack of belief. Right? And I think you have to just accept that. It used to bother me before when I started, you know, building a product or start building the site, and people wouldn’t believe in it. And I just realized over time, no. That’s just natural tendency. I do the same thing when I hear about new ideas. So you just have to accept that, number 1.

Nazim Ahmed:

Number 2, you just have to show through action and execution. And over time, you start seeing small results, which Right. You know, lead to medium results, which lead to bigger results, then all of a sudden you start winning 1 person over at a time. 1, my parents start looking at me and saying, okay. Well, you know,

Rob Dale:

This might bookkeeping. You’re

Nazim Ahmed:

not a you’re not a PhD published in science magazine or or in Cell. However, this is you know, you’re you’re You’re you know, you’re pursuing your passion. You’re doing something interesting. Then all of a sudden, people around you, collaborators, start coming and helping out, and then Your friends start helping out, and then your customers start liking your product, and they start helping out, and then it just starts growing from there.

Rob Dale:

Yeah.

Nazim Ahmed:

But as an entrepreneur, you have to get that flywheel started, and it’s all on you and your cofounders to do that.

Rob Dale:

It’s amazing how when you put something out in the universe. Right? The universe we often say it here. The universe conspires with you. Yeah. And you start to see those right People coming into your into your life.

Eric Deschamps:

But but let’s face it. Like, fear is a thing. Right? You you talked about how, the people around us, Because they love us, they wanna protect us, we’ll often not be too jazzed about our ideas or our pursuits or our dreams. And really, often, that’s really is what’s driving their behaviors. They They don’t want us to get hurt. So that can hold us back. But the other is is is fear, fear of failure, fear of the unknown. How did that show up for you, and how did you overcome it, through throughout your career?

Nazim Ahmed:

Sure. So, You know, there’s there’s always whenever you you know, you’re climbing a mountain, you get to a stage where you have to reinvent yourself. You have to keep evolving. So everyone, when DNA eleven start going, everyone’s like, well, you can’t do this forever. You realize that. And then other people are like, you realize you’re gonna be a tiny little business. Like, yeah, absolutely. But we’re gonna use these resources, experience, and we’re gonna figure something out to expand it.

Nazim Ahmed:

For fee. You know, space start hitting, as since the iPhone launched 2007, we started that saw that explode. So we just used all of our experience to launch a sister site called canvaspop.com to allow you to take your, you know, mobile photographs and have it printed as art. And, that started growing tremendously. It went from 1 to 1,800,000 to 3 to 5.6 to it just started growing revenue wise. And then that’s another curve, and then you start, you know, then you start getting another say source of belief. But then at the at At a certain point in time, you’re like, well, it’s just an ecommerce company. How big can it get? Then you take those resources, and we built an ERP and a manufacturing system in the back.

Nazim Ahmed:

Then we open up something called an API. So mobile and web applications can plug into us and leverage our back end and our infrastructure. Now you’re a platform, and you just keep evolving like that. Up to the point where Canvas Pop became the leading, you know, photo art ran in the in the entire world, competing against Costco and Shutterfly and, you know, Walmart, and then the largest manufacturer in the world in this space wanted the best consumer brand to plug into their facility, and they purchased us for an excellent exit. And and that’s a journey. It’s a journey of evolution Right. And learning and experimentation, and I encourage everyone to just keep that evolution going.

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah. I love that. It’s this whole we often, we we look at people that have achieved, or significant, accomplishments, and we often look at the What the achievement and we we fail to recognize the little steps daily.

Rob Dale:

The journey.

Eric Deschamps:

Little by little, slowly by slowly, the microevolution that led them To ultimately this, you know, if you hadn’t taken that risk way back when you decided to pursue a different direction, your your life may have turned out very, very differently. Right.

Nazim Ahmed:

Yeah. Absolutely. And I and I think the core of it is just have to really believe in what you’re doing. Mhmm. And for me, it was never about, you know, putting ink on paper. It was about creating a customer experience that the end customers were just fell in love with. Right? So every component of our site was absolute perfection. The speed and the engineering that we put in our back end created that experience.

Nazim Ahmed:

So I believed in that. I believed in the culture we’re building internally and how we treated our employees and how they were learning and using cutting edge technology. So from the exterior, everyone’s just thinking, oh, it’s ink on paper. But internally, it’s all these other things of creating this amazing You know, I look back on as as science as this working cell, you know, that’s growing and communicating, that’s creating value in the world. That’s the exciting part about it. So it’s that belief in what you’re doing, I think, is the core of everything.

Rob Dale:

So, externally, you’ve got this success Success going on. You’ve got, you know, your companies are growing. Yours everyone’s probably looking at you going, this guy’s, you know, got it made. Life is great. Everything is perfect. Was it? Yeah. So great question. So there’s always, you know, series of

Nazim Ahmed:

growth where everything’s going well, then all of a sudden they hit a certain point of extreme difficulty. Right? So, you know, a couple of stories, for example. There is one moment in our journey, I think it was 2011, where all of our back end systems were falling apart. The website wasn’t working correctly. And there’s just no way that we could create, like, a profitable business working that way. So we had to hire a big engineering team, which increased our overhead substantially. And it took a long time to rebuild everything, and then we start running out of cash. So what I had to do is take a second mortgage out of my home at the time, which So back on it was absolutely insane.

Nazim Ahmed:

And then my wife pregnant with our 1st child, Jaden, you know, this is, You know, before my daughter Alyanna, we had to go to the bank, and she had to believe in me that I was doing the right thing and sign on those papers. So So we took the line of credit. I bridged the company. And then once the back end new back end turned on, the speed of the website went up. The conversion went up. The profitability went up. And then all of a sudden, we can get on the good stuff, which is creating new products and building the company, but it was that leap of faith. And if I hadn’t done it, the company would’ve died.

Nazim Ahmed:

Right. Where a lot of our competitors never invested into that back end experience and and the mobile experience and so on, and they all ended up dying. Right.

Eric Deschamps:

Well, I think a lot of folks can relate to you know, we we we know it takes a leap of faith to step out of the life we’re living now into what we envision. But often when hardship starts to show up and, obstacles start to show up, fear starts to really magnify, and I think a lot of folks often stop Just shy of the goal. Right? And yet you just kept making that risk. So in addition to the leap of faith, tremendous courage is required. And and And what I love about courage is it’s fear walking. It’s not this attitude where I’m not afraid, because I think we’ve had some conversations at times at critical junctures in your story where you’re like, Oh, shit. Like like, this just happened. I’m not sure how this is gonna work, and and and we you know, you you work it through.

Eric Deschamps:

How often, and did imposter syndrome follow you around? I mean, I I think a lot of leaders watching the show can relate to imposter syndrome where you’re like, if people only knew. There’s there’s the person you see. There’s the person the public me that you see, and then there’s the private me, sometimes cowering in the corner going, what am I gonna do next? What was the experience for you with impostor syndrome?

Nazim Ahmed:

So I think it comes down to acceptance Mhmm. That this entrepreneurial thing is really fucking hard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right? And and you just have to accept that whether you’re building a $100,000,000 company, a $1,000,000 company. If you just look Statistics alone, you know, I think 90, 95% of companies fail, and it’s this weeding out process that has to happen To train an entrepreneur to fail early because in the future, you will not be able to scale that company and grow that company and hit all those different obstacles. So for me, it’s just I finally got to peace over time that acceptance, accepting as difficult, gets you to the point where you could start figuring out problems a lot faster and a lot sooner.

Nazim Ahmed:

So so that was was number 1. And then the 2nd part is just a framework that I’ve created now when I hit obstacles, and we could chat about that if you want.

Rob Dale:

Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. We wanna hear about it. Yep. I wanna hear exactly about that. Yeah. So what’s the framework?

Nazim Ahmed:

So, so The base of everything I do is always coaching, and we’re gonna talk about coaching. But I believe, you know, every professional athlete has a coach. Their Sports team has a coach. You have to have coaching to be able to look at your highlight reel. So that’s a base of everything. Once I hit in really tricky spots, I work on 2 tracks. The first is physiology. So I spend a few days, and the first thing that I do is I say, okay.

Nazim Ahmed:

Let me get my physiology straight to attack this problem. So number 1, I do a water fast for 2 days. Okay? Only drink water, clears the mind, clears the head, gets you focused, and prepares you kind of physically to be able to tackle a problem. Right. Then once that’s done, then I start counting my calories and making sure I’m eating the right amount of calories, and then increase my exercise, and get my mind my body straight, and that’s the first, you know, weak, and then the background thinking of the problem. Then the next, I get into the root cause analysis and find out what is the 1 problem I can fix immediately that’ll have the highest impact in the problem that I’m at or the juncture I’m at.

Eric Deschamps:

I love that.

Nazim Ahmed:

Once I identify that, then you go to your team, and you bring in all of their expertise. They know you know, they bring in all the data. You bring in great minds, and I have a phenomenal team. My cofounders, Paul Spencer, he is a, you know, CTO of our of our company, and then Mike Montgomery, our chief creative officer. And then I have a phenomenal team around me, so I bring these great minds to the table to start figuring out the problems than an execution plan. But it really just, you know, starts going through those those steps.

Eric Deschamps:

I love that because you’re you’re literally slowing yourself down. I think, A lot of, a lot of us when we’re in we’re not getting the results that we want or we’re experiencing setbacks potentially or We’re at a crossroads not knowing where to go. We can engage in what, you know, we call methodless enthusiasm. Right? We just start taking action to try to fix things, but we’re not necessarily at our best. We’re usually in those moments highly anxious. Right? And, what’s the saying? When The more anxious you are, the the dumber you are. Like, you your your your your thinking is is compromised. Instead of just jumping immediately into action, you actually, even before you get into problem solving, you you slow yourself down and say, hey.

Eric Deschamps:

How’s this thing going? How’s my mind? How’s my body? Let’s get that in tune so that I can actually be at my best, and then what is the best way forward As opposed to just attacking the problem and hoping that, it’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. Right? Like That’s it. Your approach is a lot more strategic. I I love that.

Rob Dale:

Yeah. Yeah. There’s a book, and I’m, blanking on the author, but I’m I’m gonna this is for Eric here. It’s called The One Thing.

Eric Deschamps:

The one thing.

Rob Dale:

Oh, I’m waiting for you to do that. Oh, oh, the oh, wow. Like, he even even Steve knew I was happy you involved in this team. Steve. You know, but this book, the one thing, and and that’s what basically, I always joke that and and, you know, it’s a great book, interest easy read, but it really could have been summarized in a a blog post. Right? It’s because Really, at the end of the day, the whole premise of the book is what’s the one thing that will have the greatest impact on everything. Right. And I love how you have in that whole process, the Idea of taking control of what you have control over.

Eric Deschamps:

Right.

Rob Dale:

Right. And focusing in and and how you worded that is once you once you’ve centered yourself, Once you’ve taken that moment to breathe, to really kinda reflect, now it’s what do I have control over and what’s the most important thing, and and What a great process to go through with people.

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah.

Nazim Ahmed:

Yeah. It’s, it’s liberating when you have a framework Because when you hit in those tricky situations and you’ve had experience getting through it in the past, it gets easier and easier every time

Eric Deschamps:

Right.

Nazim Ahmed:

Which is great. And then I’m just a big fan of frameworks because it gives you structure on how to deal with the situation. Right?

Eric Deschamps:

And and you’ve decided how you’re gonna respond to the situation before for you’re in the thick of things. Right? Because I think in the thick of things, it’s again natural for our fight and flight, mechanism to kick in. The amygdala starts to Higher cortisol and adrenaline pumping through our body. And, again, our our our higher, thinking faculties are actually compromised in that moment.

Rob Dale:

Yeah. But I wanna know this. Okay? Now let’s get honest here. This is different, Rich Lee. There’s vulnerability here. When your wife comes to you and she’s got a real issue to deal with, do you say to her, honey, I need to fast for 2 days. I can check my calories. I’ll get back to you in a week.

Nazim Ahmed:

My framework for business is very different from my framework in my merit and my framework as a father. Yeah. Let’s just say that probably wouldn’t go really well. You hold on, babe. Let’s get the water out.

Rob Dale:

Yeah. You know where that water is going.

Eric Deschamps:

Right. Exactly. She she might be applying a little bit of pressure there, beyond you. What what I love about the conversation so far and you telling your story is 1, again, this, well, the leap of faith, but the little by little, slowly by slowly, That, you literally, 1 decision at a time, 1 challenge at a time, have been building your faith muscle. It like someone would build muscle at the gym. Right? You you don’t go in and start if if you don’t exercise, you don’t go in and start trying to bench 300 pounds, you’re gonna you’re gonna hurt yourself. You’ve been building that muscle over years. And so someone might be listening and going, oh, yeah.

Eric Deschamps:

That sounds so unreachable for me. And and and I guess the encouragement would be you gotta start somewhere. Right? You gotta start somewhere.

Nazim Ahmed:

Yeah. Obviously, this has Been almost 20 year journey even before the businesses has been a journey, and you accept that life is a journey of self discovery. Right? And, you know, a good example is when we start our coaching. Right? We had some things that I needed to work on if I was able to get that business to the next level. Right? And and you always get these evolutionary moments, and something has to change inside you

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah. For

Nazim Ahmed:

you to drive the company to another level because that company is run by someone who is not you right now. That is a different person who’s running a $1,000,000 company, a $10,000,000 company, you You know, a $15,000,000 company, which was Canvas Pop’s height, now I’m trying to keep, build a $1,000,000,000 platform with with Remix. It’s a different human being that is running that business. So it’s a journey of evolution and identifying certain things that you need to change or you need to edit, to be able to be that person that could handle that type of business. Can can I

Eric Deschamps:

I I love that piece about becoming more. Right? That, as you follow your dream, you’re gonna be invited to Step up that the dream will always be bigger than you. Correct. And that’s the that’s the power of it is that it pulls you forward into that better version of yourself. You are the same person. You’re just a more evolved version of yourself Yeah. In order to pursue it. Right?

Nazim Ahmed:

You know, I always say it’s so funny. I always tell people, like, You’ll be judged for what you’re doing right now at that moment because people don’t know the inside of you. You’re not judged for what you will become. And if you’re the type of person that’s nonstop believes in nonstop evolution and nonstop improvement, then that person is not gonna judge you for what you are. They’re gonna judge you because they’re gonna know what you’re gonna become. Yeah. And many of the investors all my investors had invested into me over the years, and I’ve had some very sophisticated investors around my circle, They know that whatever they’re investing into is not the thing that’s gonna be the thing. It’s the thing that I’m gonna take with my team and evolve it into something bigger and the trust that I am going to do whatever is necessary on my part to become the person necessary to grow that type of business or be the leader of that type of company.

Rob Dale:

Yeah. So I’m curious. You mentioned coaching a number of times. Pretend Eric’s not in the room. Okay?

Eric Deschamps:

Eric’s not here.

Rob Dale:

It’s just just you and I having a conversation now. Still here. You know, we’re, and you have been working with Eric for a number of years now. We often will talk about on the podcast. Again, whether you’re in business or in your personal life, the value of having a mentor or a coach or somebody who is kinda speaking to life. What what has been for you the big take? Why do you keep coaching? Why do you believe in coaching as part of this, process for you? So I

Nazim Ahmed:

actually have a a a network of coaches, and they all take care of different verticals. Okay. So if I’m an MMA fighter, for example. Okay? I’ve got Are you? Wrestling coach.

Eric Deschamps:

Are you an MMA fighter?

Nazim Ahmed:

I let’s not get into it. You’ve got your wrestling coach. You’ve got your jujitsu coach. Right? You’ve got your boxing coach. There are different coaches for different disciplines, and then the greatest martial Artists like, you know, Dorsey and Pierre can put it all together in an amazing beautiful way. So Eric is my mindset coach. Right? Eric is the one who helps me to say, okay. What are my limiting beliefs and how am I gonna get around that? How am I gonna overcome that? Number 2, I have business coaches.

Nazim Ahmed:

I have people in my network that build multibillion dollar companies Yeah. That I speak to once a quarter around some very, you know, specific strategic issues. Right? Then number 3, actually, you know, My last company was a lot of self funding. I raised a little bit of money, but now, you know, I’m getting into the venture game. So I got a venture coach who was a former Very, experienced venture capitalist to say, okay. Well, what are the things that I need to change my approach now as I’m building a venture backed company as opposed Bose to a bootstrap company. So the way I look at it is, you know, you’re an athlete going out there every day in the ring. You need coaches to take a look at every different vertical so you can keep working on them.

Nazim Ahmed:

And then you need you know, every athlete has looks at video. They look at tape, you know. And and that’s an important part of the game. So Love it. Yeah. It’s critical. I love that. Critical.

Eric Deschamps:

What would you say, you refer to the importance of mindset? We talk a lot about mindset on the show. It’s one of the 4 elements of nature. Right? Water being the element that speaks of the mind and the intellect. In the last couple of years, if we look at that framework, what would you say has been the the most significant evolution in the way that you think and in your self talk, and perhaps even a limiting belief that you’ve had to overcome.

Nazim Ahmed:

I think there are over the evolution over the last several years, there’s There’s 2 things. 1, you realize that it’s okay to go into the fog, and everybody goes into the fog at a certain point. And when you’re in the fog and you’re looking for light in business, it’s product market fit or it’s, you know, something strategic that you need to do to get the business to the next level, Fog is an okay place to be, and there’s a process to get out of the fog and see the light with you and your team and get through that. So I think that is one thing that I learned a lot about through coaching is when you’re in the fog, what is the framework you gotta do to get out of the fog? Number 2, over the years, I’ve realized no matter how experienced an entrepreneur is, venture capitalist, start up person, no. No matter how successful they are, till they are as I get to know more and more and more of them. Behind the scenes, they’re all trying to figure it out. Okay? Now they could be trying to figure it out at a different level.

Rob Dale:

Right.

Nazim Ahmed:

But they’re all at a different level trying to figure out at whatever stage they’re at. So as long as you commit to a complete lifelong, you know, long journey of evolution and then realize that you’re gonna get those spots, plus you have moments of Amazing things and excellence and things working and flying.

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah.

Nazim Ahmed:

And it’s just a fun, amazing journey. But the key is to keep pushing out of that barrier and and etching away at what you’re not seeing or what you haven’t become yet, and, you know, go

Rob Dale:

I I just I love you saying that Around the concept, you know, no matter how big you are, no matter how successful you are, at at the core, we all have our same insecurities and our struggles. And So often, that’s what keeps a lot of people, entrepreneurs, from taking the leap, from people who are just, you know, Wanting to live their best life and not really stepping out and doing that is they look at other people and go, yeah, but you’re different or you’ve got all this going for you. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you’re a 10,000,000, 100,000,000, a $1,000,000,000 company, or individual leading one of those companies. There are, at your core, some of the same struggles and the same insecurities that that we all face.

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah. Yeah.

Nazim Ahmed:

Absolutely. But one commonality I have covered amongst the individuals that are, you know, doing long term things and and seem like they’re just constantly evolving their businesses or their companies or themselves is this absolute obsession over, self discovery, self improvement, reinventing yourself. So when you look at videos of them being interviewed, you know, 10 years before of what they are when they’re on stage in front of thousands of per people, if you look at that, It’s such an evolution that didn’t take overnight, but they committed to it over years. Right. You know, Like, several years ago, you’re like, you know, I was I couldn’t do this podcast.

Eric Deschamps:

Right. I

Nazim Ahmed:

had too much anxiety. I had, and I was, You know, I I was nervous. I had a lot of stage fright. When we got together and started coaching, I said, that’s the one thing that I wanna change because people that know me, that are close To me, they know my thoughts. They know my ideas. They know, you know, you know, they they they know how we think about business. But people on the outside don’t because I’m too fearful to to stand for the mic.

Eric Deschamps:

Right.

Nazim Ahmed:

So we worked on physiology. We worked on breathing techniques. You know? Eric is like, Naz, you realize that you’re just forgetting to breathe. Yeah. Yeah. And

Rob Dale:

I’m like,

Nazim Ahmed:

oh, I still

Eric Deschamps:

remember that moment. He goes, you’re right.

Nazim Ahmed:

And and once we went through that and I got more comfortable, like, okay. Finally, I can get my message out there, and I’m not depending on other people to own the message while I’m in the back just doing the work and and, you know, dredging along. So that’s a big, big unlock, but there’s other things now that I need to keep evolving. Right. Right? So

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah. And I love that because, the the the fear of public speaking. Like, it’s right there with the fear of death. Right? Like, it’s the 2 greatest fears often, and the joke is, You know, if people, get to choose between being in the box or giving the eulogy, most people would rather be in

Rob Dale:

the box. Okay? Because Yeah.

Eric Deschamps:

It it’s a real thing. But whether it’s overcoming a fear of public speaking, whether it’s, learning to overcome the fear of failure, again, it’s that, that little by little, Step by step, the microevolutions where you commit yourself, you may not know what it’s gonna look like a year from now. I mean, when you first launched out, You had no idea you’d have to work on, I’m sure, some of the skill sets you’ve had to develop over time, but you would have never got to where you are unless you took Right.

Nazim Ahmed:

Those early steps. Right? Absolutely. I I, I did a post on x, just yesterday actually. And it just said, just effing Start. Just start.

Eric Deschamps:

Love that.

Nazim Ahmed:

And it was a picture of me in 2005 rolling varnish on DNA portraits In my 700 square foot apartment with a large format printer in the back, and I was rolling these, printing these art pieces of artwork, Shipping them around the world, and everyone walking into my apartments, it smelled like ink, and I smelled like ink. Yeah. You know? And know everyone going, like, what what is going on here? Right. But you have this evil you have this vision of what This thing can turn into and can become. And at that moment, you might not know, but it’s the daily commitment to improvement, evolution, continuously thinking about new ideas, experimenting. And I go back to my science background. It’s all just experiments. Right.

Nazim Ahmed:

You have a creative idea. You run an experiment. You look at the data, and it’s either validating or invalidating your hypothesis, then you go back to it. And these These ideas are creative ideas. They can you know, I don’t know where they came from from the come from for the human brain, but you put it through that process. And and that’s all we’re doing. It’s just series of hypotheses, experiments, looking at data. Is it working, not working, adjusting? That’s all life really is.

Rob Dale:

It’s just science. Right.

Nazim Ahmed:

It’s raw scientist.

Eric Deschamps:

Before we move too fat you said something a moment ago about that post on x. Right? Just a fucking start. And I think there are folks watching the show right now. You’re tuning in, and you’ve been waiting for a sign. You’ve been waiting for A word from the universe, you’ve been waiting for some kind of sign. You just got the sign. The sign is just fucking start. Stop waiting.

Eric Deschamps:

Start creating the life that you want.

Rob Dale:

So good. So good. We talked a lot about the success. Have you ever failed?

Nazim Ahmed:

Oh, gosh. Yeah. I mean, jeez. Where do I start. The list is way too long because you’re having failure?

Rob Dale:

What’s a big failure? What did you learn from it?

Nazim Ahmed:

First of all, there’s micro failures sometimes during the day, some during the week, during the month, and then micro successes, and these micro successes build up to be larger successes. Will appreciate really difficult story. So, there was a period where Canvas Pop was absolutely flying. Sales are going through the roof. It was about 2014. The culture inside the company was absolutely phenomenal, and it it, you know. And and but the problem inside is, my ambition was bigger for what the company was. So we started opening up these different innovation tracks, which I figured out out of a at a different time how to handle your your execution layer, your innovation layer, which we won’t get into, but I was still experimenting with it at the time.

Nazim Ahmed:

And, there’s an app that we, you know, that we invested into, that we grew internally inside the company, and it end up getting traction. Then I had a 2 headed monster. One was going really well, but the other one was going really well as well. It was a gift app, called Popkey, and it started getting a ton of traction. And then, you know, I made the decision of trying to manage 2 teams, to be able to run both of them. And, you know, I ended up getting split. You know, my mind was split in 2 completely different directions. Popkey ended up ultimately failing because it was very you know, we just didn’t have the focus.

Nazim Ahmed:

And then the other business, Canvas Pop, start their sales start decreasing and competition start increasing, and we dropped her, you know, we we kept Drive the ball. Right? We draw you know, we drop the ball there. So I had to shut down PopKey. I had to go back to Canvas Pop, make massive changes, and reset Everything, you know, in, I think, it was, like, 2016, it went from, like, I don’t know, 30, 40 employees to, like, 8.

Rob Dale:

Wow. Wow.

Nazim Ahmed:

Wow. And, and a complete lack of confidence to those 8 people. And at that moment, I had to look internally, deeply internally about who I am, what kind of leader I am, and so on. And in that moment, you just take 1 step at a time. And after that, I never stopped appreciating the thing that’s in front of you and making that the best thing humanly possible. So Canvas Popeye polished it with a great Great group of amazing people to turn it into the most polished, perfect campus branding company in the world, which ended up resulting in in in, in a success. And now the fur new company, Remix, it’s a 100% focused on that and that only, but it’s a much bigger vision.

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah. It’s so powerful. And I I know because of our work together, and you’ve talked about this, I would in in various opportunities where you’ve been given to Share your story. You place a really high value on your employees. Talk to us a little bit about that. Yeah. So,

Nazim Ahmed:

One common thread with all the businesses or all the brands is this obsession with service. Right? It is the user experience on the app on the application that you’re building. It is the back end infrastructure providing the speed of the application. It is, you know, now I’m in the web three space, and it’s all about Communities, building your community, treating your community like gold. And and that service has been a common threat to all my businesses. And what that does, it leaks over to my team and my employees. And for them, it’s just really their experience working with your company. And the people that are on my team have a 1,000,000 choices of where to go.

Nazim Ahmed:

They’re highly talented. They’re highly recruited at some of the top tech companies in the world, but why are they working with us? And is creating this beautiful user experience for them

Eric Deschamps:

Love that.

Nazim Ahmed:

To know that they’re becoming better and more valuable just by sheer association with the company. So, you know, from the technologies that they use to how we communicate, you know, the, My last company, when it was more mature, all of my senior develop, my senior people had coaches. They had personal coaching as well. So not only were they able to experiment with new technologies, but they’re also doing self improvement also. Right. We’re a small start up now, so we did a bit of that as a group. But, as time grows, they’ll get more of that as well. So, you know, at the end of the day, We’re all just people coming up with ideas and executing them, especially the space that I’m in, and that’s all about your team.

Nazim Ahmed:

It’s All about a group of people are bonding together to create something great. So how can you not create an amazing culture for them?

Rob Dale:

Yeah. I And and the investment in your people, I love how you’ve talked about the one of the things that we recognized a number of years ago, at Rhapsody is that if we’re gonna be, really effective in supporting the companies that we work with. It was not just working with the key leaders, but working with The entire teams, the as much as we can to be involved with helping support the people who are supporting the leader with the vision.

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So you’re involved in this really cool new venture called Remix. Give us your elevator pitch. What’s it about? Sure.

Rob Dale:

So,

Nazim Ahmed:

When we were with Canvas Pop, we, you know, printed for, you know, hundreds of photographers and digital artists over the years. We had some great relationships in that space. And, you know, as we’re building Canvas, you know, our our other previous pre, commerce companies, one thing that we’ve always noticed which was a Problem is that these creatives wanna sell physical products, but they can’t do it in a profitable way. So they usually start an ecommerce site or they go on to an ecommerce form or or a marketplace. They put a piece of apparel up or artwork or design a toy or some sort of physical product. They try to drive traffic to the site, but that’s not enough to drive sales. And then they start paying for traffic that eats into their margins, and then they start paying for a bunch of clicks that don’t end up in sales, and it’s really difficult to do it in in a profitable way. At the tail end of Canvas Pop, we had an innovation team, Mike Montgomery, Paul Spencer, Zach James, myself.

Nazim Ahmed:

And we started, working with augmented reality, NFTs, blockchain, AI, and how it intersects with creativity. And we ended up taking all of those pieces technology, creating a platform to help designers and artists to be able to sell product in a digitally native way that decreases marketing expenses, increases sales, and taps into a massive community, which we can get into the details if you’d like, but, that’s the core concept of

Rob Dale:

So what about, over the next number of years. So what’s in store for you? You we’re sitting down talking in 5 years. What’s gonna be the headlines?

Nazim Ahmed:

So like I mentioned, the common thread has always evolved forever. You know? And, the platform we’re building now and the group and the team that I’m putting I put together for this for this venture, It’s almost limitless to where this creativity platform can go. And what’s exciting is now my business does not have any confines in terms of where it could potentially go.

Eric Deschamps:

Right.

Nazim Ahmed:

Where my previous businesses, I was in a bit of a box. You know? So number 1 is It’s this constant evolution of where the product can go. Number 2, it’s creating, the world’s most, you know, supportive creative community in world to be able to elevate as many creatives as possible that are touching our platform or working with us. And then number 3, it’s creating an amazing culture. And as long as you work on those 3, you know, tracks, then the world is, you know, a great place to be.

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah. So powerful again to hear you, even though your current venture, it builds on everything you’ve done before, but continues to be True to who you are. It continues to like, right, like, when you go went back to what you what’s got you started in the beginning. You’ve continued to just, be true to those themes, those values, and they’ve led you to where you are today. What what word of advice would you give to a young entrepreneur, that is, ready to launch or take a big risk and wants to follow their dream. Given everything that you’ve learned, what would be Your word of advice to them watching the show right now.

Nazim Ahmed:

So, you know, if I were to look as an entrepreneur and talk to them, I would say, number 1, there’s never gonna be a perfect time to start.

Rob Dale:

Mhmm.

Nazim Ahmed:

So you just have to start. That’s the first thing, and start executing. Don’t don’t keep talking about it and and studying it and writing business plans about it. You just have to actually start. Number 2, be extremely passionate about the problem you’re solving or the product that you’re building because things get So difficult at certain points, and it’s that passion and that belief that you are going to need to get over those hurdles. Number 3, create a phenomenal team around you. Not only your cofounders have to be a 100% on board, But the early team that that you bring in, they have to be totally aligned in the vision and and make sure you attract quality people and treat them well. And number number 4, accept that this is a marathon not a sprint, and you have to commit to it for 20 years, okay, or 30 or whatever.

Nazim Ahmed:

And and it’s a nonstop process of evolution. Your problems don’t stop at a 1,000,000 in revenue or 10,000,000 in revenue or you raise $20,000,000 in venture capital. It just evolves, and we talk about new levels, new devils. So accept that’s an evolutionary process and enjoy it.

Eric Deschamps:

Yeah. That’s so good. And the advice you just gave, whether someone is starting a business of their own, or is pursuing any dream. Right? The were those words of wisdom will serve them really well.

Rob Dale:

Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Last question for you. You’ve done great. This has been really, really amazing. I thank you so much for being part of this because this is, just so much our, good stuff here. We’re called Living Richly, the Living Richly podcast.

Rob Dale:

What does living richly mean to you? Great question. So living

Nazim Ahmed:

ritually, for me, means everyone that you come in contact with or comes in contact with the thing that you’re creating leaves, whether it’s a reason, a season, or a lifetime

Eric Deschamps:

Mhmm.

Nazim Ahmed:

In an elevated state or a better person or they remember that positive experience. And that starts with your children, Your wife, your family, your employees, your community, your customers or your users, your investors, and then as many people as you can touch to try to elevate them. And they remember that being with that person or or you’re even close, they got into an elevated state or learn. If that to me is living richly. Love that answer. Love that answer.

Eric Deschamps:

How can people connect with you? I mean, you’ve been here on the show. I know you’re big on LinkedIn, but where where could people connect with you?

Nazim Ahmed:

So I’m most active on LinkedIn, as you guys know, x as well. So you could find me at Nazmomed. I think I handle just Naz. You know, Remix is remx.xyz. UmSoyoucouldcheckoutthesitethere. And, Yeah. That’s awesome. Awesome.

Nazim Ahmed:

We’ll put all looking for a part 2 of this. We’re definitely happy

Eric Deschamps:

to have you back. This has been fantastic. Thank you for sharing your story. Again, I knew, this was gonna be a great show just because of the relationship that we have. Thank you for being part of this and, for, blessing our listeners really with your courageous story. Folks, thank you so much for tuning in today. We hope you’ve enjoyed the show. So much great, wisdom shared about pursuing your dreams, and not living a supposed life.

Eric Deschamps:

We remind you to like, share, subscribe so you don’t miss any of the episodes. And, if you’re enjoying the content, please share it. Leave us a testimonial. This really helps the show gain more traction. Our YouTube channel’s really been blowing up, so you’re you wanna make sure to Subscribe there. We also encourage you to go to our website, living richly dot me, where you can find all the episode show notes and other helpful tools. Again, until next time. Thanks for joining in.

Eric Deschamps:

Keep living your best life.

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