What we talked about
Aaron Gaeir is the CEO and owner of GDX Studios in San Diego. In this conversation, Aaron explains how GDX Studios operates in the experience business and why he believes the future is “fidgital” where the physical and the digital become seamless. He shares the idea that people see thousands of ads a day, but decisions are driven by emotion, and the best way to evoke emotion is through real experiences that create strong memory and recall.
Show notes
Aaron Gaeir built a $47 million agency called Grand Design, sold it to a London-based private equity firm, and then started over with GDX Studios, this time organized entirely around a single conviction: physical experience is the engine that drives lasting digital engagement, not the other way around. He says that two to three years ago, brands would have called him crazy for saying that. Now they’re calling him to help them do it.
What we covered
- Aaron coined the term “fidgital” to describe the convergence of physical and digital into a seamless spatial web. He argues that people see over 10,000 ads per day, but decision-making is driven by emotion, and that emotion is built through lived experience, not impressions. Every other medium tells people what to buy; an experience creates a conversation and lets people choose how to participate.
- GDX Studios built a floating island in Mission Bay in San Diego for Brawl Stars, a roughly $3 to $4 billion gaming brand based in Finland, where players competed in a physical version of the game during Comic-Con. The activation generated over a billion social shares worldwide, and Aaron describes events like that as gasoline, the physical experience forms real relationships among people who then carry those bonds back into online communities.
- Aaron tracks serotonin levels, heart rate, and dwell times at GDX activations to understand how environment shapes emotional receptivity. He used the example of airport advertising to make the point: AI would recommend the security line because dwell times are long, but people in the security line are stressed and thinking about their passports, the food court after clearing security is when they’re actually open to messaging.
- He described his wife’s stated preference for Mexican food as a case study in the gap between survey responses and real behavior, she doesn’t like Mexican food, she likes margaritas. That kind of deeper behavioral truth, he argues, only surfaces in authentic environments, not traditional market research. Brands that build experiences can uncover these insights and then target digitally based on what actually drove each person’s emotional state during the experience.
- Aaron cited Dr. Paul Zak, a neuroscientist at Cal Northridge who has published extensively on trust and behavior, to explain why people give socially acceptable answers rather than true ones, and why creating an environment of trust is the only reliable way to access what people actually think and feel.
- His advice to agency and studio founders was to get out of their own way and stop waiting for the right moment: the number one factor in entrepreneurial success is timing, and timing is not something you can fully plan for. He believes the actual business model almost never resembles the original plan, and that the role of the founder is to hire free thinkers who recognize opportunity when it appears and move toward it.
About Aaron
Aaron Gaeir is the CEO and owner of GDX Studios in San Diego, named best experiential company in the world by Ad Age. His previous agency, Grand Design, grew to $47 million in revenue and was sold to a London-based private equity firm.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-gaeir-82b97666
- Website: https://gdxstudios.com
Episode 117 of the PreVetted Podcast.
Full transcript
Federico Ramallo (00:00) Welcome back to the Prevetted Podcast, where we spotlight extraordinary people and remarkable talent reshaping our world. Today, I am joined by Aaron Geyer. He’s a CEO and owner of GDX Studios in San Diego. Aaron has built profitable ventures across media, healthcare, and biotech, and he’s known for creating new revenue streams and big, bold campaigns.
His previous agency, Grand Design, grew into a $47 million business, was recognized by the San Diego Business Journal, and was later sold to a London-based private equity firm. Now he’s building GDX Studios with a strong focus on people, culture, and entrepreneurship inside the company. Aaron, welcome to the show.
Aaron Gaeir (00:48) Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Federico Ramallo (00:50) honored to have you here today. So what is GDX Studios and who do you serve?
Aaron Gaeir (00:55) Well, GDX Studios is in the experience business. I’ve been a serial entrepreneur and kind of DNA was in out of home business, media business. But really I had always a niche or a passion for people and what I felt to be the strongest assets of my business and how can I cultivate and build an entrepreneurial environment with dynamic people.
And in a business or a vertical of experiential, for lack of a better word, or experiences seem to be a perfect fit. If we’re cultivating people and creating entrepreneurial environments and helping them grow personally, professionally, and financially, what better venue to do that or media business to be in?
than the experiential business or the experience business, where you are with people in authentic environments with authentic content and dialogue.
Federico Ramallo (01:55) You talk a little bit about Fitchital, right? Can you tell us a little bit more what that means to you?
Aaron Gaeir (02:02) Yeah, I think, you know, for some of the tech savvy people that you have, they might look at it as the spatial web. And I’m a big believer that that is the future of how we engage. If it’s not already here, I believe that this, this thing right here makes it near impossible to, to actually be able to go out in society and, commerce and
and entertainment without a cell phone. And I think post COVID, we found out that interaction with human beings is paramount to our mental stability. And so, you know, it’s part of our DNA and this soon to be as part of our DNA if it isn’t already. So it’s where the physical meets the digital is becoming seamless. And when you go to a concert or the airport,
Venmo or purchase a coffee at Starbucks. Everything is becoming, you know, digital and physical. And, you know, thank God that old guys like me, the old experiences or being able to interact with other human beings is paramount to our health. And so being in the business of experiences and engaging with digital
and creating a Fidgetal, basically a spatial web that I’ve kind of dumbed down to say, the physical meets the digital. And at GDX, we believe we’re the first to offer a fully integrated offering of Fidgetal experiences for big brands globally.
Federico Ramallo (03:39) Right, right. Yeah, the phones are great technology, but we don’t live the moment. Their social networks are supposed to connect us, but they are isolating us more. And I’ve seen the population, people in the world are less connected. They project a lot of the, you go to Instagram, then you have this projected lifestyle that is not real.
People are more depressed because of that. And as you said, isolated. We are social creatures by nature. So we want to have that connection. Actually, the worst punishment you can get in prison is isolation. ⁓
Aaron Gaeir (04:14) Yeah, that’s a
great point. I’d like to go back a little bit and really in media or advertising, whatever you want to call it, how people are influenced. They see over 10,000 ads a day and they’re barraged with advertising everywhere, right? But what influences
the decision making for us as human beings is actually emotion. Emotion is what drives us to do everything, get out of bed, to what we purchase. And so what I really went back to is if emotion drives our decision making, then how can I invoke emotion? Well, it’s through life’s experiences. That’s how we get these, build these strong emotions.
this frontal lobe recall of these experiences that we went through in our lives through a child. When you burn your hand in fire, you then have that emotion of fear, anxiety, and when you see fire, right? And that will always be with you. And that’s through that experience. really is really the foundation is the emotional state of us. And I’m really
You know, I think we’ve all been scared of technology and isolation like you’ve talked about. And I think COVID has opened our eyes to say that that still is paramount to our mental stability, that engaging with other humans is part of our life, you know, or a healthy life mentally and physically. And so it’s always going to be there. it’s funny you just say that.
I was just contemplating this the other day. We’re big in Comic Con. We are in San Diego, which is the biggest Comic Con epicenter globally. 300,000 people will come here and the whole world will watch movies and comics and television, entertainment in and around Comic Con. There’s a lot of different cultures and different people that attend these types of events. People that
quite honestly are not very introverted audience. The culture of a lot of those fandom or followers are ones that are very clannish and they are very tight-knit communities that are very isolated. And you don’t see them in a lot of outdoor
you know, engaging with lots of people. It’s uncomfortable, especially for younger people and that type of audience, right? It’s just not how they socially interact. But yet they come, right? And they come in droves and they follow, right? Globally. We did the floating island for Brawl Stars, which is a huge online gaming that I’m sure people know of based out of Finland.
They’re about a three, four billion dollar brand where we had a floating island in the middle of Mission Bay and created this amazing interactive game, physical game and digital that had over a billion social shares worldwide. So what do those people do when Comic Con is over? Well, they take those relationships that they’ve met and built in Comic Con physical experience.
And now they’ve taken it to the meta, your roadblocks, to their online communities. So I believe that what we do is we’re the gasoline or we are the funnel to drive the digital, the meta, the communities. And so you still need both, but we’re that megaphone.
Federico Ramallo (07:42) Right.
Aaron Gaeir (08:00) that says, come here and meet others like you that enjoy like-minded things in an authentic way. I can’t emphasize that enough because it comes naturally, authentically. It’s shared authentically. People open sharing authentically because it’s from a trusted source, their friends, their family. And then they go home and we’re still connected because we’re the ones that
that built that community. think this is going to be huge and it’s refreshing to know that we aren’t all going to be in our cubicles or immediately in our homes. That we need this physical, but now people are realizing, at least brands, that the physical is actually the driver to the digital. Now, two, three, four, five years ago, they would call me crazy.
Digital was the driver to everything and how can you say that? But now brands have come full circle and said I need physical first before I get to digital. And then I keep them and I have brand infinity and lifetime consumer and customer.
Federico Ramallo (09:16) Right, because when digital was new, everyone wanted to be in digital because it was a new thing, right? As well as we are social creatures, we also like shiny objects, right? But then we get to the limit of over-saturation, right? And then we…
Aaron Gaeir (09:29) Yeah, yeah, a good point.
Federico Ramallo (09:38) We look for what’s the next thing that is going to entertain us, right? Or call our attention. So I can understand how companies want to go back to physical because that’s what is cutting people’s attention now, right?
Aaron Gaeir (09:51) And your natural behaviors, your sentiment, the why, what drove you to these certain physical things will then dictate how you’re communicated to digitally. Whether it’s nostalgia, love, camaraderie, whether it’s sportsmen, patriotism, these are all strong emotional states, fear.
right? Happiness. We have the ability of GDX studios to invoke those emotions, to build those emotional states, to create those environments that let people go through that. And then we know that what you may have resonated with in the same experience may be far different than what I resonate with. And so how I communicate
digitally to the you is going to be far different, even though we experienced the same. went to the same experience, the floating Island, right? And maybe that floating Island was really fun because I loved the gamesmanship of it, right? I loved the fact that I could build a utility, a digital wallet, and, I can actually have an NFT or tokenize my experience. then
use that to purchase other things. That’s maybe my thing, but maybe for you it’s the camaraderie of other like-minded people that love to play the game. The message would be totally different, but yet we’d be on the island, we’d both be on the island doing the same things, right?
Federico Ramallo (11:18) Great.
Right, right. And it’s interesting, you were mentioning earlier before the Comic-Con, It’s, you know, people see the shows or the sci-fi, you know, all of that development, but they see it as a third party, right? They are a passive passenger, right? They’re not in the story. But then…
when they started doing cosplay, when they go to Comic-Con, not only they find other people like them, but they also, they can become part of the story. They can pretend to be that character that they resonate with them a lot, right? And that allows them to go from passive to become a creative part of the story, right? ⁓
Aaron Gaeir (12:05) Yeah,
yeah, great point.
Federico Ramallo (12:06) ⁓ And
that’s what makes it more interesting, right? And then they have that level of protection, if you like, where you mentioned that they don’t have…
as much social skills as developed as other groups is that they have the level of protection of the mask, of the costume. So it’s not them, it’s the character that has the courage and they can piggyback that courage.
Aaron Gaeir (12:30) But well, it’s the what other media form television, radio, print, you know, parts of digital social media, all the different ways of people. are billboards out of home? What do they all do? They say, by me, I’m the best. I’m the smartest. I’m the biggest. I’m the cheapest. Right. They they all tell you what.
they are or what they think they are or how, why you’ll buy their product or their service. An experience creates a conversation. It then creates dialogue. It opens it up to say, look, we’re doing this. You can come or you don’t have to come. We’re inviting you and you can engage and you can participate at whatever level you choose. And that gives them the freedom
to be able to do exactly what you said, to be able to be authentic and be able to create their own experience, right? To curate it and participate in their own, create dialogue of what their passionate or their beliefs systems are. And that’s very, very unique. I think also, behavior is super key. I believe…
We track serotonin levels, heart rate levels, dwell times. So, you know, it really depends on the messaging in the environment that you’re in. The way you maybe get a message when you’re on a train commuting to work to Manhattan and the way you talk and you engage with that message digitally, indifferent then with your friends at a happy hour at a bar, with the same question.
would be a totally different answer. And again, environment changes that, right? So we have this unique ability to create these unique environments to help people uncover or hopefully behaviors and emotions and to really realize really what’s important to them. I think I mentioned it.
Federico Ramallo (14:21) Right.
Aaron Gaeir (14:41) this to you about my wife on behaviors. Instead, if you ask my wife what her favorite food is, she’ll say Mexican food. But my wife doesn’t like Mexican food. She likes margaritas. that every survey, every question, every message is what food and it all leads to Mexican.
Federico Ramallo (14:50) Right.
Yeah
Aaron Gaeir (15:05) But only until you actually know her, engage with her, and understand really what’s the driver behind that, it’s the margarita. So if you did all of your messaging around the carne asada, you would never get her. But if you knew and had that unique insight, which is another thing I want to highlight, is that we believe that we have the ability to uncover unique insights that you can’t uncover in traditional market research.
It only comes through experiences and environments that produce authentic engagement and unique insights, sentiments, these are huge because if you look at technology and say, well, I’ll give you another analogy. If you asked AI where I should advertise at the LAX airport,
AI would say, well, probably the security line because the dwell times are really long.
People wait, they wait before they get And so advertising to those people would be really good in the security line, right? Well, the fact is people’s mind and behavior at that time and emotion, they’re not receptive to receive ads at that time. They’re stressed out. They’re thinking about what they forgot. Do they have their passport? Are they gonna make their gate on time? Where is their gate? It’s not until they get to their gate and go,
after that, their emotional state and their behavior says now is when you advertise to them. In the food court, for instance, would be a better place. So again, this is how complex hopefully and gives us competitive advantage or helps us harness this superpower of AI in that we can create environments and then use AI.
to then enhance that experience. And we feel that that is, that we’re, dare I say, AI proof in this digital, physical, digital experiences that enable us to do unique things for brands.
Federico Ramallo (17:19) Right, right. And from what I’m hearing, it’s both an art and science, right?
Aaron Gaeir (17:25) I hope so. mean, absolutely, you know, believe so. I put a lot of money and time behind that. And hopefully our brands are testament to that. We were awarded the best experiential company in the world by ad age and, and, you know, received a number of awards for, hopefully some of this, some of this thinking that, yeah, I think, you know, that’s a great example for, you know, face value.
You would of course do some more advertise as somebody with long dwell times that makes total sense, but there’s more to it than that, right? And even as human beings, we don’t know what we want. To your point, we get distracted by the shiny toy, And start, you know, maybe even, I’m pretty sure if I ask everybody if they want to save money,
I’m sure every person would say, of course, I want to save money. But then when I’d ask them why, I would get a gazillion different answers, right?
Federico Ramallo (18:31) Right, right. And that.
Aaron Gaeir (18:32) So as the most important,
you know, if I just did this with my wife, I said, you know, what, you know, what does she really, really want? And she said, I’d really like to buy a vacation house, right? And when you, was really, it was number one answer. But then when we really dove in and understood, it was just to have a place that we could take the family for generations.
It didn’t really matter if it was a house or where the house was. Right. And so the why, I guess, is what we’re in the end getting to. And I think we are with technology getting more complex that where AI is asking us those questions to really find out what drives us in our decision making. So that’s for sure. And hopefully at GDX studios, we can help enhance that by creating the environments that open the mind.
to those kinds of why questions, right?
Federico Ramallo (19:28) Right. Right.
you get authentic storytelling through experiences?
Aaron Gaeir (19:33) That’s big question. think that, you know, there is, it’s funny, was, if I ask most people in a creative, give me a picture, an example of nostalgia. How could you, you know, nostalgia? What would be a creative photo for nostalgia? And maybe it would be an old Ferris wheel.
you know, that reminds you of the circus or the fair, right? As kids grow up, they remember going in the smell of cotton candy, right? And maybe it, the best environment to do that, I guess to answer your question, is a tactile environment. Touch, feel, sound, taste. That’s how you,
That’s how you create the best experience with the strongest recall for that kind of impression, mental impression that will stay with you for life, right? The more tactile, the more impactful. So if I say that I went to this amazing beach in San Diego,
and I explained that the sunset was amazing and the smell of the ocean air. I could only go so far, but if I actually took your shoes off and put your feet in sand, and then I pumped salt air and birds chirping in the air, sunbirds or seagulls, and put a margarita in your hand, your visual would be a lot stronger. The context around that would be a lot more
advanced, right? Because now you’re talking on all senses and making that impact, right? Who invented that? Probably Walt Disney World, right? He created all these immersive experiences waiting in line for the ride is half the fun. Right? That’s the kind of the same thing is how can we create and make it more tactile. And that’s where you build the strongest emotion.
Federico Ramallo (21:16) Right.
Aaron Gaeir (21:42) and the brand infinity that hopefully will never go away, right? And the storytelling component, in your story, Kelly component, right?
Federico Ramallo (21:51) Right, Yeah, we associate.
nostalgia we associated with our childhood, with our teenage, where we had that first love and we were eating a piece of chocolate for a specific brand. And we associate those feelings together. And those experiences, we carry them through all our life. Or watching a movie with a loved one.
you know, maybe that person is no longer with us, right? But then that experience becomes much more relevant for us, right?
Aaron Gaeir (22:19) I had to, think I was talking to somebody in digital the other day about this. They were saying, Aaron, you know, I’m a shoe company and I, I know exactly when you’re looking to buy shoes, like when you go on the computer and you start searching shoes, let’s say running shoes or, know, why I’m advertising to you at the most opportune time.
when you’re ready to make a decision to buy shoes, right? Why would I do any other advertising, right? And I said, well, because my first sports shoe that I remember was these cleats that my mom and dad bought me for soccer and those were a deus. And I’ll always be an adious guy, right? Because that’s what I remember as a child.
That’s what my mom and dad or if I went camping I bought a Coleman stove or a IKEA tent or we cooked on that right those those moments as a child or those experiences Then have been instilled with me forever. So I have the brand infinity now If I’m saying, you know what I have more than Than just a commodity shoe. I have a relationship with the brand now
And it’s through my experiences. And that’s why I think the digital people are even becoming full circle. And they’re seeing that, these are transactional people and they’re all commodities that we want to buy and we don’t really care. We just need it. And time and speed is most important to us, right? But a lot of the other brands and services when you have these experiences are what makes you a lifetime customer, right?
And people are getting more sophisticated. They’re understanding that even influencers and the way that we, that the content that these people create are, you know, it’s, it’s bought media, you know, it’s, they’re still selling stuff. And so getting people in authentic content, real life content, getting real life people, you know, if you, if you asked my, I don’t, my wife, if you asked my wife,
where she makes her decisions. It’s not because the Kardashians make up. It’s because another mother that has three kids like her that she could resonate with told her that’s the best makeup. And that means authentic. And that’s why, you know, I trust that person. So if I create those again, coming full circle, if I play that video game on a floating island in middle of San Diego Mission Bay for Comic-Con,
Federico Ramallo (24:45) Right.
Aaron Gaeir (25:02) I’m a lifer now, but more importantly, I’m going to be passionately selling that product indirectly to my network to say, this is an amazing game and it’s authentic. And so people open it because it’s from a trusted source and that’s how we build brand infinity outside driven by us. Then the digital can pick it up from there.
Federico Ramallo (25:25) Right.
the experience that we feel physical has much more impact in our lives. And the ROI of that investment is, once a customer becomes a customer for life, it’s multiples of paying ads and ads and ads, right? ⁓
Aaron Gaeir (25:39) Yeah. And now we’re getting sophisticated
enough to actually find out, my gosh, it was that experience. You know, it wasn’t the billboard. It wasn’t the Super Bowl ad. It was the experience that drove that decision making, you know? And now we can track that to an ROI level where no one, we could never do that before.
Federico Ramallo (25:49) Right.
Right.
Aaron Gaeir (26:04) And that’s why experiences also are becoming more predominant. And we’re now harnessing that because now remember through, you know, NFTs and digital wallets and tokenization of experiences and gamification. When they leave, can still, you know, I can still reach out to them. can, you know, I still have them as a lifetime customer. And, you know, it’s not just done and see you next year at Comic Con.
It’s, it’s constant dialogue and authentic on point dialogue member, because I found out that this is what you love. This is what you love. Right.
Federico Ramallo (26:36) right.
Right, right. And the other thing that happens with that is because people can choose to buy a specific brand or could be a repeated customer, but they don’t engage with the brand. And once you have that level of, you know…
of relationship with a customer, then you have a customer that is actively promoting the brand, but also actively giving you feedback, interacting with the company, saying, I want, you know, blue shoes, following the example of the shoes, right? Or whatever they might want, right? Now, they are also saving money on research because now you have an active community that are telling you what they want.
Aaron Gaeir (27:15) Yeah.
And you know it’s deeper and authentic, right? I mean, it’s really, you know, we have a, if you ask a fireman why he’s a fireman, he’ll tell you it’s to save the forest or save lives, right? Or to save a building or, you know, families, right? But the fact, the number one reason is
Federico Ramallo (27:27) Right.
Aaron Gaeir (27:46) or the flexibility and the money that a fireman job has, right? But that’s not the answer they think you want to hear. And yes, I think, don’t get me wrong, think that firemen hopefully do that for that reason, but it’s not the number one reason, right? If you ask a nurse, I have a special needs daughter, I have nurses that live with us and we live a life in hospitals.
and you ask them why they’re a nurse, they’ll say, to help people in their health. Well, again, the truth is it’s flexibility and money. Now, yes, that’s important to them to be able, I hope, to be passionate about helping others, but that’s not the number one answer. And so I think that when you’re put in a place of say, know, trust, you can give the real answers.
And that’s why I think we can get deeper with people and quicker because we created that environment that invokes authenticity, right?
Federico Ramallo (28:47) Right, right. Usually
I’ve seen people don’t have like one particular reason, they may have a stronger reason, but usually it’s multiple reasons to make a decision, right? And as you said, know, it’s a fireman would…
Aaron Gaeir (28:56) Yeah, for sure.
Federico Ramallo (29:00) appreciate the flexibility and the money and those are probably stronger reasons to do that. But they also would appreciate save lives, right? But then they balance them out, right? And as you said, sometimes people say what…
Aaron Gaeir (29:10) For sure.
Federico Ramallo (29:16) other people expect them to say, right? So once they’re built that level of trust, then they can be more honest and your data is not going to be as cute, right?
Aaron Gaeir (29:18) Shick.
Well, I think I mentioned to you, you know, Dr. Paul Zach, Z-A-K, he’s done many Ted Talks. He’s a neuroscientist professor, I think at Cal Northridge. He’s done a study on this, behaviors. And what he will say in a lot of his Ted Talks is that it’s because people lie. People lie. And we all do it.
We all do it. I think I always test, you know, my employees, say, you know, first, I walked Aaron, what do you mean? I lie. How could you say that? And I said, well, have you ever had your husband or wife or boyfriend, girlfriend get dressed up to go on a hot date? And and she says, how do think I look? And you’re thinking, I hate that dress. Of course, you’re not going to say that you look you look nice, honey.
Federico Ramallo (30:12) You
Aaron Gaeir (30:17) Right? What most of us would say, especially our married ones would say. But it’s same, it goes both ways. I’m sure there’s plenty of outfits that my wife said, yes, those pants look nice on you. And, but the truth is, probably said, I hate those pants. Right? Or you go to a dinner and the waiter says, how was your food? And you’re thinking, it was terrible. So you’re not going to say that. You say it was fine. It was okay. Right?
Federico Ramallo (30:39) Right.
Aaron Gaeir (30:42) Big difference between terrible and okay. Big difference. So if you knew that and you told the chef, yeah, they thought it was okay. Big difference of saying, no, it tasted like shit. Okay, well, I wish I had known that, right? So that’s the difference. know, people lie and it’s hard to get to the truth. But when you create the environment that lets them do that, then you get right to, you know, these
Federico Ramallo (30:45) Right.
Aaron Gaeir (31:11) you know, right to the point quicker and you build relationships quicker and you build a lifetime customer, right?
Federico Ramallo (31:18) Right, right. You mentioned earlier before that you won major awards, right? What work are you the most proud of?
Aaron Gaeir (31:26) Wow, that’s a simple answer. Quickly, it’s the next job. That would be my answer. We’ve done amazing things that I’m incredibly proud of that have won a number of awards. We built the It House in middle of Hollywood and Highland for the It movie and billions of social shares, the floating island.
Federico Ramallo (31:35) Bye.
Aaron Gaeir (31:48) We were the first to do the Ryder Cup live experience in the middle of Rockefeller Center in New York. But really, truthfully, I think it’s the next job. The next job we’re doing. It never lives up to what I envision. And I know that sounds, what is it, maybe neurotic, maybe it’s the word.
Federico Ramallo (32:07) Yeah ⁓
Aaron Gaeir (32:08) But it’s not. mean, I’m proud of what we do and I’m really proud of what our people have accomplished. I’m most proud of our culture and our environment and our family atmosphere. That I’m incredibly proud of. But as far as our work goes, I always feel it could be better. I’m always expected to be better.
And that’s my job, right, is to make sure that we’re pushing, always pushing. And to be honest, probably shouldn’t do everything that I think we should do because it will probably be too far ahead. The number one reason for success of entrepreneurs, it has nothing to do with the idea. It’s timing. It’s timing. And so a lot of things that I think
that we should be doing or brands should be doing, quite honestly, are probably too progressive and probably we’re not ready for. So when we do stuff that’s a little bit more watered down, it’s probably best at this particular time. But I’m always gonna want to do something better, bigger, more advanced, and not just to be big and not just to be different. I believe passionately it should be done for success.
But humbly, think I’m over, it could be too far advanced for some brands because it’s a little too progressive. You know, I mean, look at, look at Elon Musk, you know, he’s, he’s ready to go to the moon and Mars after that, and we’re all going to live there and he’s going there. Right. And that seems incredibly audacious and arrogant, but I have no doubt he will do it. I believe he will, if anybody can.
Federico Ramallo (33:38) you
Aaron Gaeir (33:54) It’s just when, right?
Federico Ramallo (33:56) Right. When I first heard about him thinking on going to Mars, I thought it was crazy. We sent some robots and the level of complexity to get there. But the more he keeps insisting, and I think this is what I’m saying.
I’ve had the same feeling with everybody, right? Like everybody kind of had that same feeling of, know, it’s crazy, it’s crazy. Well, it kind of makes sense, you know, maybe in the future, blah, blah, blah. And now it’s, you know, it feels like it’s going to happen, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, maybe not tomorrow, but, you know, in a few years, you know, it feels like that, right? So.
Aaron Gaeir (34:24) Yeah, can touch it. Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (34:33) it kind of pull us, all of us, all of the society up towards, you know, this is feasible, we can do it, right?
Aaron Gaeir (34:40) I think that
kind of goes in the vein of what we’ve talked about a lot is, especially with the younger generation, is AI and how my wife is well-educated, UCLA, University of Barcelona, and for the first time in our, gosh, history, as human beings, every generation has been smarter than the generation before. That’s a fact.
until now, until now. No, and it’s a fact that our test scores are children are, and it’s scary when you think of that, because AI is doing everything for our kids, they’re thinking for our kids are making decisions for our kids, right? And that is a scary thought. But for me,
Federico Ramallo (35:06) Hahaha ⁓
Aaron Gaeir (35:26) I personally believe that is freeing their brains up to think even more advanced, to think even beyond the way we think. Because all of those block and tackling things that we were all trained to do and trained to think about, work hard, have a family, buy a home, do these things, a lot of those things don’t apply to them. And so where does their mind go? Where does, and I believe that
that it goes to uncovering other things that we haven’t even contemplated because we didn’t have the mental capacity or the time or the energy. But now we do. I think that we’re going to be on AI is going to enable our younger people to be audacious and do things that we never dreamed of because
They have the ability to do that. They have the technology at their fingertips and the mental freedom to think really differently than we think.
Federico Ramallo (36:30) Right, right. Yeah, I think that the next next generation is going to make amazing things. What I see is polarization on the spectrum, if that makes sense. know, I see a lot of people that are getting smarter and smarter and they can leverage AI to do things that, you know, our generation couldn’t even think about, right. And then I see a lot of people that are
less and less educated, know. And their worldview is so narrow, shallow and small, right? That, you know, I feel sad for them because, you know, there’s so many interesting things in the world, right? That with a little bit of passion, they could, you know, develop a love for them, right?
Aaron Gaeir (37:14) Well, I think, you know, Elon Musk says that he says, you know, the future is, his biggest concern is that us as humans will have no purpose, that everything will be done for us. And when we get up, what would we do? What would we, why do we get up? What’s our purpose? And that’s what he’s most scared of is purpose. And believe it or not, as you’re talking,
There’s a lot to be said with the word enough, which I contemplate a lot. And sometimes I wish I was more of a simpleton, to be honest. Maybe that life’s a lot happier, right? Here we are trying to better ourselves, better our families, live a great quality life and do everything we can, mentally and physically to…
Federico Ramallo (37:49) You
Aaron Gaeir (38:03) live a great quality of life, right? But I see lots of people that have, you know, what’s the word, very, live very modestly, that are the happiest people I’ve ever seen. So again, it depends on how you look at it.
Federico Ramallo (38:18) You
Right, right. have some friends. They are romantic, right? They live the moment, the now, you Who cares about the future, right? ⁓ You want to buy a bigger car, you know, go for it. You deserve it, you know, because you don’t know if you’re going to live, you know, in the future, right? It’s kind of that mentality, right? And I…
Aaron Gaeir (38:31) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (38:45) I appreciate hanging out with them because sometimes we need that, you know, that live the moment. Right. And then, you know, the issue with that is if you do that to the extreme, right, the hedonist, right, becoming, you know, if you live the moment and you try to get all the satisfaction.
right now, then the extreme for that is becoming a drug addict. You destroy your future happiness for immediate gratification. But a little bit, being a little bit hedonist and enjoying the now, the moment, I think it’s great, because it allows us to have this positive thing.
Yeah. And then what I do is I have, pay myself a salary so that way I can be, I can live a blissful life as an employee of myself. And then, you know, I have all the responsibilities of an entrepreneur and managing people so that way I can have like the best of both worlds. Right.
Aaron Gaeir (39:41) Yeah, living in moderation, guess some would say is the key, right? ⁓ I’m not one of those people. I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a risk taker. You live for the day, for sure. It’s different. But that’s why I bring it up, because often I think, gosh, I wish maybe I did have that gene. Of course, I wouldn’t trade, because I’m
Federico Ramallo (39:47) Bye.
Aaron Gaeir (40:04) I’m more of the romantic, as you would say, living life in the moment. And that’s my best trait and my worst trait.
Federico Ramallo (40:08) brain.
Yeah,
I understand because I do the same thing. I ride the motorcycle as fast as I can. I try to figure out how further can I travel just in a day or in a week or whatever, just because I want to push those limits. ⁓
Aaron Gaeir (40:20) Yep.
Yep. Yep.
Federico Ramallo (40:32) And once I do that, then I have this tingling in my body saying, OK, what’s next? I’m hungry for more, right? Which is kind of what you’re describing, ⁓ Yeah. And I think that that difference that you’re talking about, being a perfectionist, that you have this vision, you want to build something amazing, right?
Aaron Gaeir (40:38) Yep. Yep.
That’s exactly right. Exactly right.
Federico Ramallo (40:55) So you’re never settled with how it’s done. You want to do it better, right? It’s a balance because you also have to work with the constraints of budget, timing. So it’s a delicate balance to do that. But being able to push those boundaries, I think that’s a big difference than…
Aaron Gaeir (41:04) Yeah.
Yes.
Federico Ramallo (41:15) It’s a very unique quality that can make a huge difference in the work that you do.
Aaron Gaeir (41:22) Yeah, you have to be put yourself in uncomfortable positions. You have to if you want to uncover greatness, you have to take challenges. You have to take on audacious, you know, tasks. You have to say yes to what most people say no to. But, you know, I think that we do. We start with yes at GDX Studios because
You know, we have the team and the intellect. And if anybody had the opportunity to say yes, it would be us as we lived it and we’ve done it. And I’m proud of that. You know, we hire entrepreneurial thinkers and when you do the never been done before, you need those types of thinkers that believe in their heart and their mind that they can get anything done. And, and we’ve been able to do that.
with a lot of success.
Federico Ramallo (42:13) Right, right, that’s amazing.
Aaron Gaeir (42:16) Yeah, I think.
Federico Ramallo (42:17) So we’re running a little bit out of time, so I’ll ask you one last question before we wrap it up. ⁓ What advice would you give founders building a studio or an agency? What advice would you give them?
Aaron Gaeir (42:23) here.
She not. I think that and this is just top of mind, because I’ve been going through this most recently is. I think it get out of your own way. Don’t assume anything. I think paralysis through analysis. I think people tend to grind and try to uncover all the answers. The answers.
The best thing is go do it. You will make mistakes. I’ve heard that many times. Go make mistakes fast, right? You will learn far more than if you continue to grind and wait for the proper time. It will never be the best time. Just go do it. I said the number one
factor to success of entrepreneur business is timing. And a lot of people think, well, it’s the business plan. You know, what is the business? And I think that’s number like seven or eight. It’s not most businesses never when they find success is nowhere close to what they thought it would be the to the business plan.
It’s hiring people that are, you free thinkers and are able to uncover opportunity and recognize it and then go down that path. Because lots of people might see opportunity, but then they don’t, you know, take it on. And I think that that’s what people don’t realize then.
Go in with good fundamentals and a good business plan and strategy and go to market. But be open to the fact that things will change. And it’s okay to do that.
Federico Ramallo (44:11) Right. Aaron, amazing insights. I’m honored to have you here today. Any final remarks before we wrap it up?
Aaron Gaeir (44:21) No, I’m I’m flattered that you had me. I thank you so much. I love talking about well what we do, but more importantly the who behind it. And yeah, GDX Studios would love telling our story and we love meeting dynamic entrepreneurs that or businesses that that look for hopefully fund dynamic companies and love look forward to.
to talking to every one of them. They know how to reach us and find us and see our work. And if they have interest in looking for somewhere to work, we look for PLUs, we call them, people like us. They’re hard to find. But if we find PLUs, those crazy entrepreneurs, risk-taking, dynamic people, we try to find a home for them here at GDX.
Federico Ramallo (44:58) Hahaha
And we’re going to leave the links in description below so people can reach out.
Aaron Gaeir (45:14) Great, thanks so much.
Federico Ramallo (45:16) Thank you, Aaron.