Tara Ingalls – Tingalls Graphic Design

There are an almost unlimited amount of places to get your logo, business cards, website or brochures designed.  There are about as many places to work to peddle your design skills as well.  The interesting thing with business is that it is the little things that often keep people coming back for more, whether as a client, or an employee.
Tara Ingalls started Tingalls Graphic Design over 20 years ago.  That alone is impressive.  But think of all that she has experienced during her ongoing entrepreneurship journey.  A few scattered years of recessions, a dried up employee market, a pandemic, 9/11, 2008 and a medley of competitors found through the internet.
Still, Tara presses on with a dynamic crew and a loyal client base.
Listen as Tara shares some of her experiences of owning her graphic design firm for over two decades, specifically how she not only survived, but thrived through that whole debacle we made it past.
This is the second interview I have done with Tara.  She is a business owner worth paying attention to and someone that is extremely fun to chat with.
Enjoy!
Visit Tara at: https://tingalls.com
Authentic Business Adventures Podcast

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You have found

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Authentic Business Adventures, a business
program that brings you

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the struggles, stories, and triumphant successes of business owners across the land.

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Downloadable audio episodes

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of the Authentic Business Adventures
program can be found on the podcast link.

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found at drawincustomers.com. We are

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locally underwritten
by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

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My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur,

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author, speaker, and helpful coach to
small business owners across the country.

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Today we’re welcoming/ preparing to learn from

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Tara Ingalls,
the owner of Tingalls Graphic Design.

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Tara has been on the show, I don’t know,

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it seems like 500 years ago,
but it’s probably three years ago.

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We aged, at least.

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So, Tara, how are you doing today?
I’m great.

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Happy to be here.
Yeah.

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So I’m excited.

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Your business survives pandemic.

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Survived and flourished, yeah. Right along.

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High fives right there.

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So when you were interviewed on here a few
years ago well, let’s just back up a step.

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How would the Pandemic treat you,
I guess business wise?

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Yeah, so actually, it was just
interviewed by Park Bank.

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We just switched banks and they wanted

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to do a story on they do a story on new
businesses, and one of the questions they

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asked was, what are you most
proud of in your business?

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And actually, I would have to say the way

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that our company survived
the Pandemic was definitely nice.

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All right, so
we all went home on that Friday

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with the potential that we might not come
back to work on Monday, or if we did,

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we’d already talked to our It firm about
getting us remote.

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And so we staged the comeback
on that Monday, the 16th I think it was,

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and came out their computers
went home and everything.

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And within minutes or hours,
we were up and running and on Zoom

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together, talking about
projects and stuff.

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So 2020 was my 20th years in business.
So.

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Thanks a lot COVID.
20th.

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20th.
Holy jolly.

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I made it really easy for my husband.
We got married then.

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That’s what happened.

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Yeah.

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I had been speaking kind
of all up into the Pandemic.

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I had actually just spoke
to Middleton Chamber two weeks prior

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to the Pandemic, and we had a boatload
of business come in for that.

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So we had business we had customers that
were relying on us to get that work done.

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And we had to get up
and running pretty quickly.

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So our IT guy got us all
up and running remotely.

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And we only had one employee
that had connectivity issues.

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But it was scary.
It was really scary.

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We had no idea the first week,
we were like, what’s going on?

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Nobody knew what was going on.

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And I kind of just embraced

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my core values of kind of how we run
the business and how I am as a person.

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And all I really cared about
was how people were doing.

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I was, how are you mentally?

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How are you physically?

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What are your husband’s doing?

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How are your kids doing?

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And that’s really what we led
with everyday was kind of a check

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in mentally and physically,
making sure everyone was safe.

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And I think by that we just became closer
as a unit, closer as friends,

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and just created sort of this
collaborative, supportive nature that when

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we came back from the pandemic has just
sort of been there and really is what

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drives I feel like productivity,
client relations, everything like that.

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So I’m really proud of the culture
that we created during the pandemic.

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We played spoons and we were doing all

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that kind of stuff that we love
doing as part of our culture.

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And when we got that ripped out

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from underneath us, it was like, how are
we going to stay connected over screen?

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And so

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we found some like cards and community
things that you could do online.

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We would play pictionary online and like
zoom was just sort of not its infancy.

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It was around for a while,

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but getting to know the whiteboarding and
the breakout rooms and all that stuff.

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So just checking in every single day.

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We did Zoom every day together

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for at least a half an hour just to kind
of check in and see how things were going.

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I was on every Zoom that I could possibly
get invited to, to learn about what does

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this do, what is a pandemic, what is it,
what does it do to businesses?

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And just kind of like the same 2008, 2009

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recession that everyone
wouldn’t we just stayed active.

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We just stayed continuously
open to new business.

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A lot of my competitors,
I was going out to their websites just

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checking to see what are they
doing to help their customers.

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And a lot of them just went dark.

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They just didn’t put anything on their
home page, nothing on their social media.

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And so through that I think people just

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they weren’t getting
their answers questions.

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They weren’t getting their questions

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answered, they weren’t
getting any service.

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And so we started talking to not only our
clients but new business saying, hey,

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I need to let my clients know that we have
curbside, that we are revamping our

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ordering if there was hospitality
or whatever and Tingalls.

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We’ve done hundreds of brands and so
we have clients that went dark.

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We have clients that were like,
no, we are first responders.

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We are what are the frontliners

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frontliners that we need
to get the word out and stuff.

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And so we just sort of started
offering website edits for free.

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We’re like, hey, do you need edits?

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Let’s get your edits done.

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We’ll worry about billing later.

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We offered website design,
no payments for 90 days.

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We had a lot of new business come in.

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Yeah, that year our squarespace
product just ballooned.

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I think we did over 100
websites that first year.

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Two, three, four months.

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Helping people get up and get going.

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Oh yeah, it was a very weird booming time.

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We did fine financially, as a business,
we grew 2021, kind of went down a little

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bit, and now I feel like we’re
kind of ramping back up.

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I don’t know.
It’s hard to really attribute it really

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to anyone other than just
solidifying ourselves as our team.

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The PPP loans that came through were
really financially helpful

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to the business,
to the employees that we have on staff.

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So, yeah, so that’s what happened.
Nice.

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You touched on a lot of stuff there.

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First, I want to say it’s super awesome

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that you play cards against
humanity with your crew.

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I know that the one we found online was

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a little more PC than buying a store,
but it’s still pretty awesome.

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I mean, playing games in general,

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team building is a huge
component of my company.

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I’m a very lighthearted person.

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I feel like the more fun you can have
at work, the more you’re going to want

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to go and the more you’re
going to want to stay.

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And our spoons tournament that we do twice

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a year, we do one for March Madness was
actually going to happen two weeks after

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the Pandemic, and people were like,
you can still have it.

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And we’re like, no,
we’re not going to have it.

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So we’re bringing Spooky
spoons back for Halloween.

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We have to do it the week before.

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Halloween is on a Monday,
so it’s a spoons tournament.

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So if you’ve never played spoons before,

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I mean, people are like, I haven’t
played spoons since I was a kid.

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Well, it’s really fun,

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and there’s no skill involved
except maybe quick reflexes.

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But yeah, playing games is just part

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of our culture and kind
of who we are as a company.

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I put a very high value on low stress work

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environments, and I love that about our
company, is that we put up with my Antex.

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Nice.
It’s fun.

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No culture of business is tough.
Yeah.

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And I think right now in this hiring,

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one of the things we’re telling people is
when we’re doing website design for them,

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is that if you have a careers page,
that’s great.

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You need to put your jobs out there,

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but you need to be talking about what
it’s like to work there for real.

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What is the culture like?

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What do the employees do outside
of work to build the community?

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What do they do to build each other?

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What do they do
for professional development?

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What does work life balance,
meanwhile, is flexible?

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You have to define all that stuff now

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because people are very
picky about where they want to work based

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on how they were treated during
the Pandemic, I believe.

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And so if you have a website and you have

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a careers page, I really would encourage
you to put photos out there,

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something visual so people can see
what you’re doing, what it’s like.

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Get employees to write testimonials

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of what they love most about
working there on video.

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Even better.

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But asking them what they love
might not even be the work.

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Maybe it’s the work environment,
maybe it’s their best, it has a window.

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Maybe it’s, you know, that someone
brings cookies in on Friday.

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I don’t know what it is.
But I think that there is less I don’t

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want to say there’s less importance
on what people do for a living.

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But how they do it.
Where they do it.

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Who they do it with after the Pandemic is
like it’s so important because people want

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to love what they do because
they had this glimpse of like.

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Being in a work environment that well.
I don’t know.

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Everybody went through the PM.

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You could have two completely similar
families, even in the same jobs,

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and everybody was in the same
storm on different boats.

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It was like totally,
really hard to really have a connect.

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Even our best friends who we’ve done life
with for 20 years were dealing with all

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kinds of different stuff
than we were dealing with.

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So it’s really hard to say what
worked and what didn’t work.

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But I think people really evaluated

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their work life and whether or not
they were happy where they were.

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And we did a ton of startup work
and consulting work during the Pandemic.

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People who were let go from their jobs

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that were like, hey, I’m going to start
my own jam and do their own thing.

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So that was really fun.

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And people love what they do,

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but didn’t like what they did it or they
didn’t like it, so that was really fun.

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We love doing startup work.

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That’s like our bread and butter.
All right.

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I think what gets me out of bed
and gives me the most joy.

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For sure, it is fun working with startups.
Yeah, that’s for sure.

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Yeah, I mean, they said the most
intimate nonprofit work.

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I mean, they’re the most
passionate for what they do.

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They know exactly who their target
audiences, they know those kinds of things

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are really important
to even get 501 status.

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So they have to have
application stuff done.

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But yeah, those are our two main those
are our two main people we work with.

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Nice.

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It’s interesting talking about

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the Pandemic in different
boats in the same storm.

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I had employees that just went I would
say mentally we’re mentally challenged.

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I think they just watch the news
too much when it came down to.

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Yeah, well, I think that happened
to a lot of people.

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We started a campaign called

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Radiate Positivity,
which we’ve still continued to this day,

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which was every week or twice a week,
we would put out something positive

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that was literally just something
uplifting because there was so much

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doomsday stuff on Facebook that let’s be
a light, let’s be some sort of positive

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thing for people to follow,
like check, share, whatever.

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Our Facebook grew immensely from just
a little campaign like that.

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Really?

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Yeah, just people are like, oh,
tingles is they’re hopeful over here.

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I’m going to follow them
and follow their stuff.

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I mean, we don’t use Facebook for sales.

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We use it for culture posts and

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unboxing of new stuff when
it comes back from press.

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It’s not like a real
salesy type thing for us.

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We try to make it more of a sure.

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Right, I get it.

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Because I guess Facebook,

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from my perspective, is more checking
on a company to see where they’re at.

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Yeah, like relational marketing.

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I mean, Tingles has really built its

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entire foundation on relationship
marketing and building relationships

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and understanding our clients needs
from more of a not what can I push towards

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them and what can I sell,
but what do you need,

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what can I do to help you and what are
your pain points and things like that?

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Facebook is something it’s
a platform I’m comfortable with.

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And since I manage I don’t manage all

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of our social media,
but I do a big chunk of it.

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We actually have Sarah on our staff right

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now that’s really taken the lead
with that and made calendars and things

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like that, which is really, really
helpful when it comes to social media.

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But I’m not comfortable on things like

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TikTok, Snapchat,
whatever my dad calls it.

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Snapchat, Snapchat, TikTok.

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Or he’ll call it the Face.
What does he call it?

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The InstaFace.

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He just doesn’t know.

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Face.

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Yes, face space.

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But I’m comfortable on that.

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And part of our target market is
people my age, people in their 20s.

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People that don’t TikTok.

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Yeah, people that don’t do the TikTok.

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But I have a law firm
that has embraced TikTok.

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They’re younger millennials law firm,
and they’re using it to reach people.

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That’s definitely where you want to do

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an audit on whether or not your
people are actually there.

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But the other thing that we’re doing

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with Facebook is if we have a job, I want
them to see what it’s like to work here.

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And Facebook is the best place
that and Instagram are kind of the best

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places for people to see that and get
to know us from that standpoint.

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But also, clients, they do check out
Facebook and what are these people?

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What are they like, what are they
doing to support the community?

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All those kinds of things.

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How many reviews do they have?

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Sure, that kind of stuff.

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Yeah, social media stuff
is quite the rabbit hole.

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I was just listening
to a podcast on the way here.

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A gentleman named Rob Dial that I’ve

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started following called
the Mindset Mentor.

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I think you and I talked about lunch,
and he was talking about how

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your reality will create like you create
your own reality,

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and if you’re tuning into the wrong
channel, that is what is your reality.

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And he was like, if you’re on social media
and you engage in things that are negative

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or you have reactions, your Facebook
is like, oh, she likes that.

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She’s the algorithm.
Yeah.

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I’m going to show her more of that versus,
if you, like,

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tune into a bunch of Facebook pages
that are talking about positive things or

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who are uplifting or whatever, facebook is
like, I’m going to show her more of that.

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So it’s kind of like tuning into whichever

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is going to give you
that reality, that channel.

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It’s an interesting concept.

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I’ve never thought about
that before, but it is.

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Yes.

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The whole thing is it’s not the facts,
it’s your reaction to the facts.

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Right.

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And I guess from my standpoint through

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the pandemic, as you would read or listen
to what was going on and what we were told

[00:13:53]
had to happen, you can’t be in your
office, all this stuff, blah, blah, blah.

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I just felt like it was a chess game.

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I still feel like it’s a chess game.

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An infinite neverending.

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I just can’t believe we’re
still going through this.

[00:14:05]
I know.

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More people getting COVID and out of work
than I did during 2020, honestly.

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I mean, people were home,
and the stay at home thing obviously

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prevented people from getting because they
were home, but I still feel like so many

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people are missing work and having to stay
home even when they get it,

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because there are people out there
that haven’t got it yet or who have

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potential medical issues that couldn’t
get the vaccines, et cetera.

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So it’s definitely still
rampant and it sucks.

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Triumphant or just around.

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I don’t know.

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I mean, I feel like every single week I

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meet someone who’s either had
it or recently getting over it.

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Oh, really?
Oh, yeah, big time.

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All right.
I mean, I’m on the silence watching

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my kids play soccer, so, I mean,
there’s a lot of talk about it,

[00:14:50]
a lot of parents there,
so I get around parents a lot.

[00:14:53]
But yeah, when you hear about a whole

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family, I just met a gentleman
who went to a wedding.

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He had it unbeknownst to him
and gave it to his entire family.

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Thanks, guys.
I know.

[00:15:04]
And, you know, he said it,

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and it was kind of Laze fair about it,
and I’m like, oh my God, a wedding.

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There’s older people there.

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So of course he didn’t know you.
That’s just the thing.

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You don’t know you have it, and a lot
of people are I don’t know, it’s crazy.

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No, you know, we still don’t know.

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Go, bunch of business,
move on with your life.

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Will you try?

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That’s my perspective.

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But that’s not necessarily the shared
perspective as far as that goes.

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I don’t know.
Well, you have to live life and

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you have to get over it, or the only
way to get over it is get through it.

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Right.

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So it’s like you have to finally you have
to accept that it’s here,

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if you haven’t already, and then
learn to live with the new normal.

[00:15:43]
Everyone talks about
the new normal, right?

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Oh, my gosh, I haven’t heard that since
I heard the word pivot pivot.

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True,

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we could talk about the Pandemic all day,
but the silver lions that have come out

[00:15:57]
of the Pandemic have been pretty amazing
on so many different levels emotionally,

[00:16:02]
environmentally, relationally,
whatever they are.

[00:16:05]
But we have a work at home policy now

[00:16:07]
at Tingles, and if you want to work
from home, you can work from home.

[00:16:09]
You don’t have to have an excuse per
se of why you want to work home.

[00:16:12]
Most people are like, oh,
my child, is that graphic?

[00:16:14]
My dog to the vet or whatever.

[00:16:15]
But my employees tend to be more
productive when they work at home because

[00:16:20]
there’s not the distraction
being in the office.

[00:16:23]
When we were working from home,

[00:16:24]
people were more productive
and build more hours.

[00:16:27]
I don’t know why that was.

[00:16:28]
I mean, probably because they didn’t have

[00:16:30]
all the interruptions and the social
issues or whatever going on in the office.

[00:16:36]
So if they want to work from home
and that’s where the head space is

[00:16:38]
for them that day, they can,
and I’m fine with that.

[00:16:41]
But that’s not going to work for everyone.

[00:16:43]
Can my best friend owns
the relief day spot.

[00:16:46]
They can’t do us after from home.

[00:16:48]
So, like, if someone has coveted,
they’re all resumed.

[00:16:54]
No, it’s not going to work.

[00:16:55]
So it doesn’t work for every profession,
but I mean, for those professions that it

[00:16:59]
can, I think it offers
that work life balance.

[00:17:03]
Again, it just gives my staff something

[00:17:06]
really awesome that maybe
other people can’t offer.

[00:17:09]
Sure.
I don’t know.

[00:17:10]
Let me shift gears to something
more black and white, I guess.

[00:17:14]
The work from home thing when you want.

[00:17:17]
How do you even work that with
technology that you guys have?

[00:17:19]
Because I can see I got a laptop.

[00:17:21]
I’m checking email and the big thing.

[00:17:22]
But if you got photoshop on this.

[00:17:25]
Super awesome fancy computer,
they all have multiple computers.

[00:17:28]
They have computer at work and computer.
Wow.

[00:17:30]
Okay.

[00:17:31]
And was that your investment
or was that their investment?

[00:17:33]
It was an investment we made because we
had a team of seven before the Ependemic.

[00:17:37]
After the Pandemic, we slimmed down.

[00:17:41]
Well, due to workload,
I brought on the account management.

[00:17:43]
I was doing sales and account management.

[00:17:44]
We only had two designers that came back

[00:17:47]
from so it was just the three
of us out of seven.

[00:17:49]
So you had extra machine.

[00:17:51]
So they just left their machines at home.

[00:17:53]
And I did buy all new computers,

[00:17:55]
but I’m pretty sure that I
bought those pre tandemic.

[00:17:58]
So the ones they have at home, they’re
not super robust, but they do the job.

[00:18:02]
There are certain things
they probably can’t do.

[00:18:04]
They can’t do,
like super high end illustration on those

[00:18:07]
machines because they’re
not robust enough.

[00:18:08]
One of them still has Internet issues,

[00:18:11]
so she can’t do much from just to figure
out what she can do either online.

[00:18:16]
I mean, since we’re doing so much
square space, that’s all online.

[00:18:19]
So, like, we’re building online.

[00:18:21]
There’s no server access necessary
and stuff, but, yeah, they make it work.

[00:18:29]
They could do logo design, logo
illustration on iPad, things like that.

[00:18:33]
Oh, really?
Yeah, there’s a lot of stuff that they can

[00:18:36]
do and still be or they’ll
just take a vacation day.

[00:18:39]
Okay, there’s that.

[00:18:41]
The mental health is so important.

[00:18:43]
And as a creative, too, it’s unrealistic.

[00:18:48]
And I tried I was
a business coach for years.

[00:18:49]
It was like, I don’t
understand your employees.

[00:18:51]
They work 8 hours a day,
but they’re only billing four or 5 hours.

[00:18:54]
I don’t understand that.

[00:18:55]
Well, he was coming from, like,
a very non creative industry.

[00:18:59]
As a business coach,
that’d be tough to bill 100%.

[00:19:02]
It would.

[00:19:02]
It’s impossible almost, because
there are things we can’t bill for.

[00:19:08]
We can’t bill for our own creed of, like,

[00:19:10]
I need to go for a walk
to clear my head kind of stuff.

[00:19:13]
We have a bill for that on.

[00:19:15]
The invoice walk to the park.
Yes.

[00:19:19]
Took a walk around the office,
got upstretched things, whatever it is.

[00:19:22]
But as creatives,
I was only a creative in my own company

[00:19:27]
for about maybe about eight years,
and then I did take a step back and became

[00:19:32]
more of a sales and overseer
of the company.

[00:19:34]
So when I was doing design,
I was billing a lot and things like that,

[00:19:39]
but the design I was doing is nowhere
near the creativity that we pump out now.

[00:19:43]
Like, not even close.
All right.

[00:19:45]
And so I wonder,
how did my nonprofit or my little business

[00:19:51]
become what it is today into this full
blown agency where, like, we’re doing,

[00:19:55]
you know, we’re working with large,
large firms and stuff?

[00:19:58]
Because it’s like, you look
at my portfolio and you’re like, really?

[00:20:04]
So I think 50% productivity is kind
of what we shoot for in the company,

[00:20:10]
and if we’re really busy, they’ll hit
more than that and things like that.

[00:20:14]
But we aim to have the best product,
and sometimes that takes time to do things

[00:20:20]
we can’t build for, like research or
sketch stuff that people just don’t do.

[00:20:27]
Right, I get it.

[00:20:29]
It’s funny you mentioned the portfolio

[00:20:30]
thing, because I can remember I was
in school for graphic design a long time

[00:20:34]
ago, and I can remember applying
for a job, and they asked for a portfolio,

[00:20:38]
and I sent it to them thinking I
was just cats meow kind of thing.

[00:20:42]
And I look at it now, and I’m like,

[00:20:43]
I might as well just have
given them a coloring book.

[00:20:46]
Just a mess.
Not even in the line, here’s my stuff.

[00:20:52]
I remember at the time thinking,
like, why won’t you hire me?

[00:20:55]
I’m awesome.
Look at that.

[00:20:57]
Now you’re like, Jesus.

[00:20:59]
So as part of our internship program
that we have,

[00:21:03]
the intern can bring in her portfolios or
her portfolio, and then the designers will

[00:21:07]
look at it and give critiques and things,
especially if they’re still in school.

[00:21:10]
And so one day we were like,
let’s all bring our portfolios in.

[00:21:13]
And we’re like, okay.
So mine was in like the back where

[00:21:17]
there was a giant, like three
by four with boards and stuff.

[00:21:21]
Everything was like pasted
with the sticky spray.

[00:21:27]
But I brought it out and we’re looking
at it and not only is it horribly damaged

[00:21:32]
from whatever rain had gotten
into that basement or whatever,

[00:21:35]
but I’m looking at this going,
I showed people I got business from this.

[00:21:42]
This is my kids.
I’m sorry to realize I was self taught.

[00:21:46]
So everything I learned about graphic

[00:21:48]
design was taught in an
insurance environment.

[00:21:51]
So I was doing insurance.

[00:21:52]
Yeah, I started at WPS Health Insurance.
Oh, wow.

[00:21:54]
Okay.
So I started doing application forms

[00:21:57]
and brochures, and I had three
colors and two fonts to choose from.

[00:22:01]
So that’s why I became a feeling,
because I was bored.

[00:22:04]
I was like, yeah.

[00:22:06]
So I started in that environment
and learned the software that way.

[00:22:10]
And like, any time we would get thrown

[00:22:12]
a bone, like, hey,
there’s a Christmas party.

[00:22:14]
I’m like, can I take it?

[00:22:15]
Can I do that?

[00:22:16]
I’ll do that.

[00:22:17]
But I’m looking at this portfolio and I’m
just like, oh my God, it’s so bad.

[00:22:21]
And then I look at I eventually threw it

[00:22:23]
away because I was like,
this is just something that’s not

[00:22:25]
servicing me anymore
by having this around.

[00:22:28]
Oh, that’s funny.

[00:22:30]
It was very like cathartic.

[00:22:33]
My wife and I were just talking about

[00:22:35]
my portfolio from college because I’m
like, I think it’s time to throw it away.

[00:22:40]
You know what I also have are all
my rejection letters from when I got out

[00:22:44]
of college, when I was trying to
get into design and get into that thing.

[00:22:49]
And they would look at my portfolio or

[00:22:51]
even just what I did in school,
and they’re like, what can you do for us?

[00:22:53]
And I’m like, I can learn.

[00:22:55]
That’s what I can do.

[00:22:57]
Those people now are my competition,

[00:22:59]
the few that are still in business, those
agencies that are still in business.

[00:23:02]
And so I have those still.

[00:23:04]
I probably should ride those too, because.

[00:23:07]
If it’s a motivator yeah, I guess.

[00:23:09]
It’S a motivator, but kind of stumbled.

[00:23:12]
Across maybe the portfolio is not so
much motivated, not in my world anyways.

[00:23:16]
I don’t know.
It was but the ship is sales.

[00:23:20]
Yeah, interesting, for sure.

[00:23:22]
So tell me, let’s talk marketing,
because businesses need to do that.

[00:23:25]
Should do that.
Yes.

[00:23:27]
So I have been doing a lot of talking
to people, a lot of startups.

[00:23:32]
The Score mentors, bring me in.

[00:23:35]
If you’re not familiar with Score,
check out Score Madison.

[00:23:37]
I’ll give them a plug.

[00:23:38]
They are free consulting for really
anything about your business.

[00:23:42]
Just phenomenal resource
that Madison has a great group.

[00:23:44]
Yes.

[00:23:44]
As well as the Small Business Development
Center SBDC through the University

[00:23:48]
of Wisconsin Business I’m
speaking to them as well.

[00:23:50]
And what they are hearing is people want
to know about well, besides social media.

[00:23:58]
They’re overwhelmed with all
of the different places that they should

[00:24:01]
be marketing or they’re being
told that they should be.

[00:24:03]
Yeah.

[00:24:03]
It’s not just yellow pages
in the local newspaper.

[00:24:05]
No, it’s not.

[00:24:07]
And I need to create this graphic one day

[00:24:10]
that’s going to be like this giant
umbrella that shows all of the links.

[00:24:15]
It’s like saying you’re a doctor, like,
someone’s like, oh, I do marketing.

[00:24:19]
It’s like, I’m a doctor.

[00:24:22]
What do you specialize in?

[00:24:23]
What’s the age category?

[00:24:24]
So, like, Tingles is really solid

[00:24:26]
in the branding, graphic design,
website design lane.

[00:24:29]
We’re very good there.

[00:24:30]
But we have partners in videography

[00:24:33]
photography, business coaching,
whatever else our clients might need.

[00:24:37]
But marketing is this gigantic

[00:24:38]
of umbrella, of myriads of different
possibilities to spend your dollar.

[00:24:43]
And every single one of those lanes will

[00:24:45]
give justification why
you need to go with them.

[00:24:47]
They all do.
Even traditional marketing?

[00:24:49]
Sure.

[00:24:50]
It’s like, oh, you work there
and your clients are over here.

[00:24:52]
Well, you should billboard advertising or,
oh, your clientele is females.

[00:24:56]
You should be in Bravo magazine.

[00:24:57]
Now, there are definitely time and place

[00:24:59]
for traditional based marketing,
and don’t get me wrong at all,

[00:25:01]
because I do have clients
that do traditional marketing.

[00:25:04]
But with the onset and popularity
of social media and even doing direct

[00:25:08]
mails through
the United States Postal Service,

[00:25:11]
there are really great ways you can
do low cost, very targeted marketing.

[00:25:15]
And so what I’m doing in my coaching
and speaking arm of my businesses,

[00:25:19]
I’m talking to businesses about
creating targeted personas.

[00:25:23]
So instead of saying, let’s say I am.

[00:25:28]
My friend Nicole owns vineyards.

[00:25:30]
Let’s use your example.

[00:25:31]
I’m looking for overworked moms who

[00:25:39]
normally the demographic information is
I’m looking for women between the ages

[00:25:42]
of 35 and 45 that work 40 hours a week,
that live in Fitchburg,

[00:25:47]
because that’s where her spa is, who,
you know, who have two, three kids.

[00:25:52]
And that’s usually what the demographic
that’s where it would end.

[00:25:56]
But what I’m trying to teach clients is

[00:25:58]
that there’s all this psychological, like,
psychographic information, like,

[00:26:02]
what are they struggles with,
like, what can you solve for them?

[00:26:07]
And getting my clients to really think

[00:26:09]
about those kinds of things instead
of just females, because you can create

[00:26:13]
more strategic messaging around those pain
points to help grab people emotionally.

[00:26:20]
And that’s what you have
to do in marketing nowadays.

[00:26:22]
You have to grab them
on an emotional level.

[00:26:24]
So once you have, like, your

[00:26:26]
personas and you have these and there’s
usually more than one, people

[00:26:32]
always have more than one persona
because there’s more than one business.

[00:26:36]
Even if a business is like a massage

[00:26:38]
therapy like she does, she’s got people
who might come there looking for a job.

[00:26:43]
So that’s another persona that they’re
targeting with their marketing.

[00:26:45]
They might be looking to do a story
on current esthetician trends.

[00:26:53]
A magazine might be going
to that website or whatever.

[00:26:55]
So you have to think about all those

[00:26:57]
people that might be interacting with your
brand and create these different personas.

[00:27:00]
So that’s, like, the first thing that I

[00:27:02]
would do with your business is really
identify who they are,

[00:27:06]
not only geographically
and demographically,

[00:27:07]
but then also what are the needs
that you can help them with.

[00:27:11]
And then the thing that I brought in today

[00:27:13]
to talk about is what I
call Tingles four PS.

[00:27:15]
So differentiation in the marketplace
is what branding is all about.

[00:27:19]
And whenever I go speak somewhere,

[00:27:21]
they say I’ll say to the group,
how many of you raise your hand if you

[00:27:25]
have great customer service and everyone
in the room raises their hand?

[00:27:27]
Yeah, all right.

[00:27:29]
And then how many of you have
exceptional friendly staff that answer

[00:27:34]
the phone, raise their hand,
and then do you have affordable prices?

[00:27:37]
And I say, yeah, those are the top three

[00:27:39]
things that people tell me
that are about their business.

[00:27:42]
The great customer service,
friendly staff and affordable pricing if

[00:27:45]
everybody’s saying
that you’re not different.

[00:27:48]
Monetize right, so what I did is develop
these like four PS and kind of breaking

[00:27:53]
people’s companies down into these four PS
and we’ll go over them really quickly

[00:27:56]
of like how they are
different in the marketplace.

[00:27:59]
And when you’re brainstorming these
things, if somebody else does it,

[00:28:03]
it’s not a differentiation point
unless you can put a spin on it.

[00:28:08]
The first one is people.

[00:28:09]
So like what skills, ongoing education,

[00:28:13]
what do your people have
that other employees don’t have?

[00:28:16]
Maybe it’s longevity in the company.

[00:28:18]
Maybe combined skills bring a broader base

[00:28:23]
of service opportunities with onestop
shopping, whatever that is.

[00:28:26]
So like thinking about your people,
how long have they been in the industry?

[00:28:32]
Are they empowered to make customer

[00:28:33]
centric decisions so you don’t have
to wait forever to get an answer?

[00:28:38]
Are they cross trained,
are they cross promoted?

[00:28:41]
And whatever the company does so
that you don’t have to wait for a call.

[00:28:46]
So like thinking about your people
and what do they bring to the table

[00:28:49]
and you might not even know what like I
did this exercise with my team and one

[00:28:55]
of the things that they brought
to the table is that they all worked

[00:28:57]
in customer service related
industries prior to working for me.

[00:29:00]
Oh, and you didn’t know that?

[00:29:02]
I didn’t think of that as an asset.

[00:29:04]
But then when you think about it,

[00:29:06]
one of them worked in a hotel, one
of them worked in a veterinary clinic.

[00:29:09]
So I mean, when you think about dealing

[00:29:11]
with people or not dealing working
with people, you can safe place

[00:29:18]
when you’re dealing with customer
complaints, like how do you manage that?

[00:29:21]
You acknowledge the frustration and then

[00:29:23]
you try to make it right
or whatever it is.

[00:29:25]
If people don’t have those soft skills
with people

[00:29:28]
and you have to train that before you
can train their graphic design skills.

[00:29:34]
Very tough to train.
It’s hard to train.

[00:29:36]
My mentality at Tingles
is trained personality.

[00:29:38]
First train hire for personality
trainer skills, right?

[00:29:43]
Yeah, training a personality, I’m like no.
That’S not what I meant.

[00:29:47]
But hiring somebody because they have good
rapport, they’re going to fit

[00:29:50]
in the culture, they are a good person,
they’re dependable, whatever that is.

[00:29:54]
But that’s always been my mentality
with hiring people, because if you bring

[00:29:59]
if you hire someone on paper and they’re
bad culturally, it’s not going to work.

[00:30:02]
But people culture, skills,
those are kind of the first thing.

[00:30:07]
The second is products.

[00:30:08]
So products and services
are kind of the same thing.

[00:30:11]
But I was trying to stick to the four PS,
so I did products.

[00:30:13]
But products and services are
kind of the same bucket, right?

[00:30:15]
So what features or value does your
product bring that someone else doesn’t?

[00:30:21]
Or another way of thinking about this is
like, what does your product or service do

[00:30:25]
that your competition
wouldn’t even sync up?

[00:30:27]
Right?
So it has that five day turnaround.

[00:30:29]
We don’t know anybody that can do
that kind of turnaround for a website.

[00:30:32]
Or home page for a website.

[00:30:34]
We can get done in a week.

[00:30:35]
Anything we can get done in a week,
we get lots done in a week.

[00:30:39]
All right.

[00:30:40]
But yeah, if you have short term needs,

[00:30:42]
that’s one of the reasons our clients
love us, is that dependability.

[00:30:44]
So that’s one thing we know
that makes us different.

[00:30:47]
Is that product term, that kind of thing.

[00:30:51]
Is your product or service more reliable?
Is it durable?

[00:30:54]
Does it offer a warranty?

[00:30:55]
I mean, I know warranties are really hard,
especially in my line of work.

[00:30:57]
I cannot guarantee
that you will love our design the first

[00:31:01]
pass, but I can guarantee that I will do
what I can upfront to make sure we gather

[00:31:05]
all the details and make sure we
try to hit it in the first half.

[00:31:07]
Right.
We don’t like to do revisions either.

[00:31:10]
We want to get it done the right way

[00:31:12]
and then maybe your product can be more
easily maintained throughout its lifetime.

[00:31:16]
So if you’re searching for a car,

[00:31:17]
maybe you choose a domestic
car over something like that.

[00:31:21]
So thinking about your products
and services in a different way that I

[00:31:25]
mean, I think that’s probably the easiest
one for people to do because they know

[00:31:28]
they wouldn’t be in business unless they
knew that they had some sort of an angle.

[00:31:33]
But they believe they do.
Right?

[00:31:35]
Yeah.

[00:31:36]
Process is the next one.

[00:31:38]
So how is it easy?

[00:31:39]
Is it for people to obtain,
like, a quote from your company?

[00:31:43]
How is it for them to find
information about your company?

[00:31:45]
Yeah, easy as pier.

[00:31:48]
What is your onboarding for a new client?

[00:31:50]
Like, that is something that I need

[00:31:51]
to personally document so that I can
train somebody on my team to do that.

[00:31:55]
Because right now it’s like, well,

[00:31:56]
I write them a handwritten note and they
enter into the system and then I send them

[00:31:59]
a welcome packet and I do all this stuff,
but I don’t have that written down.

[00:32:03]
It’s just something I do.

[00:32:04]
It’s so interesting you say that,

[00:32:06]
because I had a client, potential client,
ask for that because they reached out

[00:32:11]
to us and they’re like, hey,
we want some call answering services.

[00:32:13]
Yeah.

[00:32:14]
And I’m like, Great, you have for phone
call or zoom, so we can just bangs out.

[00:32:19]
And they asked for our process.

[00:32:23]
Your process for onboarding.
Okay.

[00:32:26]
And I’m like, what?

[00:32:28]
You sign up, magic happens.

[00:32:31]
Like, that’s a two step process.

[00:32:34]
And the more I thought about it,

[00:32:35]
which was about 10 seconds, it’s like,
they don’t know that.

[00:32:40]
Magic is not like, oh, we signed up
for this company because Magic happens.

[00:32:45]
In my mind, that’s okay.

[00:32:46]
In their mind, it should not be okay.
Yeah, right.

[00:32:49]
So I’m like, we’ve been around eleven

[00:32:50]
years, and I don’t have this
documented on the website.

[00:32:53]
People call on the phone either.

[00:32:55]
And I tell people all the time, you have
scripts when people call for sales.

[00:32:57]
And it’s just like,
I’m so much about telling you about your

[00:33:00]
company and get excited about it,
and then I’m next thing I know,

[00:33:03]
it’s 40 minutes later and I’ve
given him everything.

[00:33:06]
That’s why I started a coaching business,
because I’m like, I can’t do these calls

[00:33:08]
anymore, giving them everything,
but I don’t follow a script.

[00:33:13]
And it’s just like I don’t know.

[00:33:15]
It’s not my personality read
off piece paper at all.

[00:33:18]
No, I think there’s
also I want to qualify.

[00:33:21]
Yeah.
I want to make sure because I’m.

[00:33:22]
Like, are we a good one?
Use single?

[00:33:24]
Yeah, for sure.

[00:33:25]
No, because I don’t want
to waste their time.

[00:33:27]
I certainly don’t want
them to waste my time.

[00:33:29]
Right.

[00:33:30]
On the flip side, I guess,
in addition, one more thing.

[00:33:34]
I don’t know what I could put

[00:33:35]
in that checklist that someone
would say yes or no.

[00:33:40]
Like, oh, I like your
onboarding checklist.

[00:33:42]
How about that?
You have an onboarding checklist.

[00:33:44]
Could be it.
Maybe.

[00:33:45]
It could be.

[00:33:46]
Hey, we’ve been in business long enough

[00:33:48]
that here’s what we do to make sure
that everything is taken care of.

[00:33:52]
I mean, I guess we do in a roundabout way.

[00:33:55]
We follow a very strategic process when we

[00:33:58]
on board for new projects,
but not necessarily like when someone

[00:34:01]
signs on the dotted line, there’s an
execution of things that come after that.

[00:34:05]
And I don’t have that documented.

[00:34:06]
I know that we do, but everything that we

[00:34:09]
do is so customized that it’s more
of a flow chart rather than a process.

[00:34:15]
Flow chart.
That’s part of the process.

[00:34:17]
Just write it down.
That’s what you do.

[00:34:19]
Okay.

[00:34:20]
Your onboarding might
be three steps, James.

[00:34:22]
Sure.
Magic happens.

[00:34:24]
Yeah.

[00:34:24]
I remember working with my business coach
in 2008, and he was like,

[00:34:27]
even if it’s three steps,
it’s documented and it’s written down.

[00:34:31]
Yes.
Answering the phone, pick up the receiver.

[00:34:34]
Step number one.

[00:34:35]
I mean, come on, let’s dumb it down.

[00:34:37]
That’s step number one.

[00:34:39]
Say hello, Tingles Design,
how can I help you?

[00:34:41]
That’s step two.
I don’t know.

[00:34:43]
Scripting can be really valuable,

[00:34:45]
can be a huge time saver,
and it can help you from not getting off

[00:34:48]
on those horrible tangents
like you and I get.

[00:34:51]
Yeah, that’s the name of the game
of entrepreneurs, right?

[00:34:54]
The brain.
Keep going.

[00:34:55]
Yep.
Grow up.

[00:34:57]
All right, so back to process.

[00:34:58]
Okay, so we’re talking about onboarding,

[00:35:00]
and then how concise are
your customers documents?

[00:35:03]
Like, invoices quotes, things like that.

[00:35:05]
And then, obviously, are you reachable
after the product or service is complete?

[00:35:08]
Like, what’s the process after they buy?

[00:35:10]
Like, how do you stay in touch with them?

[00:35:12]
I gave this presentation to the
Verona Chamber yesterday morning.

[00:35:16]
Nice.

[00:35:16]
And one woman told me that she has bought
23 cars from one salesperson at Zimbabwe.

[00:35:22]
23?

[00:35:23]
23 cars over the span of the
relationship before he retired.

[00:35:26]
Wow.
Because he kept in touch with them.

[00:35:29]
He sent them birthday cards.
Anniversary cards.

[00:35:31]
He sent them anniversary cards
of when they bought their car.

[00:35:35]
Wow.
Like, he came over and did their garage

[00:35:38]
button in their car because
she couldn’t figure it out.

[00:35:40]
She turned her hazards on one time

[00:35:42]
on vacation and didn’t
know how to turn them off.

[00:35:44]
He was accessible and became
part of their family.

[00:35:47]
23 cars with one guy.

[00:35:49]
My husband’s in the car business.

[00:35:50]
That is amazing.
That is amazing.

[00:35:52]
And that’s after the sale, right.

[00:35:55]
He already got his paycheck.

[00:35:56]
It’s not so I don’t know.
What is your process?

[00:35:59]
All right, so the last one is pricing.

[00:36:01]
What does the pricing
reflect for the value offer?

[00:36:04]
Pricing is something that everybody asks

[00:36:06]
for, and it’s something you can’t get
around, and you just have to I think you

[00:36:10]
have to just be very careful
how you present your pricing.

[00:36:12]
So when I get Tingles,
we have an hourly rate,

[00:36:14]
and if I tell people what the hourly
rate is, it scares them off.

[00:36:17]
But if I multiply that by a number

[00:36:18]
of hours and tell them that rate,
that doesn’t scare them.

[00:36:22]
So I think if you can figure out a way
to present your pricing in a way

[00:36:26]
that there’s more value for the full
package of what you’re getting,

[00:36:29]
if you’re a service based like I am,
I think that’s helpful.

[00:36:33]
And then just be transparent.

[00:36:34]
Are you competitive?

[00:36:36]
How was your pricing model
different than others?

[00:36:38]
Like, I talked about that 90
day no payment website thing.

[00:36:40]
If you’re a startup and you’re struggling,
it’s the whole chicken and the egg thing.

[00:36:43]
Right.

[00:36:43]
You have to have a website to make money,
but you need money to make a website.

[00:36:47]
If you work with our firm,

[00:36:48]
we bridge that gap,
and we created that during the Pandemic.

[00:36:51]
And then do you offer
financing or payment plan?

[00:36:53]
I don’t know anybody that would say,

[00:36:55]
I’m going to build and design
you a $5,000 website.

[00:36:57]
You don’t have to pay for it for 90 days.

[00:36:59]
Tingles is big enough to float that money.
Yeah.

[00:37:01]
I don’t know anybody that would do that.

[00:37:03]
Well, they better pay.

[00:37:06]
That nice.

[00:37:08]
The pricing thing is always interesting

[00:37:10]
to me because from the sales training
that I’ve had, I’ve learned that whenever

[00:37:15]
somebody asks about price,
that means that they don’t necessarily

[00:37:18]
know what other questions to ask
because they don’t want to sound dumb.

[00:37:23]
Someone like me, when I’m going to a place

[00:37:25]
and I’m like, I don’t even
know what I’m looking for.

[00:37:27]
If I’m shopping for a TV or
something like price, if I ask them.

[00:37:32]
What their budget is or what is your

[00:37:33]
price, they typically say,
Well, I’m going to tell you.

[00:37:36]
Because then they don’t want to tell you.

[00:37:39]
They make my website, that’s $5,000.

[00:37:42]
We’re $499.

[00:37:43]
But I think it’s important.

[00:37:45]
So then I feel compelled to tell them,
well, this is our price.

[00:37:48]
It’s not my fault
that you can’t afford it.

[00:37:50]
This is my price.
Like, somebody told me that once you’re

[00:37:52]
like, stop feeling bad
for what your price is.

[00:37:55]
It is what it is if they can’t afford it.

[00:37:58]
And I was like, yeah, yes and no.

[00:38:00]
We have ways of like, okay,

[00:38:02]
if it’s a brand new startup and they don’t
have any money

[00:38:06]
to put towards their marketing,
that’s probably not my ideal fit, right?

[00:38:09]
Because they’re not going
to do any continuous work.

[00:38:11]
They’re not going to see the value in what

[00:38:13]
we can bring, and they’re not going
to take my suggestions to run their

[00:38:15]
business better with more
marketing options.

[00:38:19]
So that’s not my target, right?

[00:38:21]
But it’s important for me to know, like,

[00:38:23]
whether someone thinks
that a website is 500 or 5000.

[00:38:26]
Like, there’s a big gap in there.

[00:38:27]
And so what I find is that the more they

[00:38:29]
call around, the more they realize,
oh, Tingles was affordable.

[00:38:33]
So I always follow up with all my leads

[00:38:35]
and make sure if I don’t hear from them,
hey, did you go somewhere else?

[00:38:39]
Or what happened?

[00:38:40]
And so your pricing and your follow up,
is that part of your process.

[00:38:43]
Is to follow up?

[00:38:44]
But I don’t know.

[00:38:47]
I mean, we could talk
circles about pricing.

[00:38:49]
I feel like we talked about price on our
last podcast, too, because probably.

[00:38:52]
Well, it’s interesting,
especially with what you do.

[00:38:55]
What I do, it’s very
difficult to commoditize it.

[00:39:00]
Yeah, because someone’s like I mean,

[00:39:02]
just imagine,
even I was listening to a book on book

[00:39:05]
on CD, right, that’s all about book
on tape, book on Eight trick on Leonardo.

[00:39:13]
And Leonardo had a very hard time

[00:39:15]
finishing the works that he was
commissioned for, including Mona Lisa.

[00:39:21]
She looks like she’s mad.

[00:39:23]
There’s a whole oh, my God.

[00:39:26]
People spend a lot of time
trying to figure out that.

[00:39:28]
So I won’t get into that.
Okay.

[00:39:30]
But just he’s got all these works

[00:39:32]
that aren’t necessarily 100%
complete from his perception.

[00:39:35]
Okay.

[00:39:37]
So it’s funny because I’m like,
if someone were to commission

[00:39:40]
the Mona Lisa, they’re going to call
around and be like, hey, paint a person.

[00:39:44]
How much to paint a picture
like the Mona Lisa, right?

[00:39:48]
How would a painter know
what to charge for that.

[00:39:50]
No, I wouldn’t.

[00:39:51]
And how would you know
what to pay for that?

[00:39:53]
No, yeah, I mean, you have to shop
around in order to get I don’t know.

[00:39:57]
It’s perceived value.
Right?

[00:39:59]
Yeah.
Right.

[00:40:00]
So it’s one of those things where
you’re just like, what is this worth?

[00:40:03]
You not necessarily what the price is.
Right?

[00:40:05]
Right.

[00:40:05]
Because if I can say, hey,
I got this hobby business.

[00:40:07]
I want a new logo, and you’re like,
hey, a new logo is only $50,000.

[00:40:13]
And they’re like, you know what?

[00:40:15]
This is a hobby business.

[00:40:16]
But if Pepsi comes to you and says, hey,

[00:40:18]
we want a new logo, and you’re like,
$50,000, well, what is that?

[00:40:21]
That’s like, a minute’s worth
of people buying Pepsi.

[00:40:24]
So, yeah, here’s the case.

[00:40:26]
Here’s the bag of money kind of thing.

[00:40:28]
So it’s really a perception of value.

[00:40:29]
What it’s worth to the it is.

[00:40:30]
A perception, but it’s also like when you

[00:40:32]
go to my website and you look at my work,
I like to say to people,

[00:40:37]
do you really think that that website
costs that company $500?

[00:40:42]
It is hard.

[00:40:44]
And if you’re competing with some
kid in their basement yeah.

[00:40:47]
And that’s who I competing tingles in this
really weird niche that 22 years

[00:40:51]
in business, we’re still
seen as this freelancer.

[00:40:54]
I actually lost work recently because
I didn’t have enough people on staff.

[00:40:58]
Really?
Yeah.

[00:40:59]
I lost it to an agency that had more
people, and I’m like, okay,

[00:41:02]
you want to pay more overhead by having
three people between you and the designer.

[00:41:07]
Awesome.
You do.

[00:41:08]
You right.

[00:41:09]
That’s not the type
of clients that we work with.

[00:41:12]
Our clients are like,

[00:41:13]
love the fact that they can call their
designer and talk to them on the phone.

[00:41:17]
We lost business because of that.

[00:41:19]
And I was really sad about it,

[00:41:21]
and I really thought about it,
and I was like, you know what, Terry?

[00:41:23]
You can’t be sad about
something you didn’t have.

[00:41:26]
Like, I didn’t have the business and.

[00:41:28]
Then lost you can’t lose
what you didn’t have.

[00:41:29]
Right.
So I was just like, again, like this.

[00:41:31]
And I want to follow up with someone.

[00:41:33]
Six months.

[00:41:34]
I hope you’re happy.

[00:41:35]
We’re still waiting to hear
back from the design team.

[00:41:38]
Yeah, gosh, it happens all the time.

[00:41:40]
But, you know, I love some of my favorite

[00:41:42]
memes online are the ones of, like,
the tattoo artist, right, where it’s like,

[00:41:46]
somebody brings in,
like, a unicorn, right?

[00:41:48]
And they’re like,

[00:41:48]
I want this unicorn tattoo,
and it’s a picture of a unicorn,

[00:41:51]
and the guy ends up literally
drawing gumbo or gumby.

[00:41:55]
Gumby.
The donkey?

[00:41:57]
No, the horse guy.

[00:41:59]
The horse gumby.

[00:42:00]
And it’s like, somebody can
always do it for cheaper.

[00:42:03]
Sure, that’s totally true.

[00:42:05]
There are websites out there that you can

[00:42:07]
get logos at and pick your own icon out
of a hat and hope that the landscaping

[00:42:12]
company next door doesn’t
have the same icon.

[00:42:14]
There is always going to be something
that’s going to be cheaper than me.

[00:42:18]
It’s just kind of staying true to our core

[00:42:19]
values, that people who value good design
are willing to pay for it and willing

[00:42:23]
to understand the creative
process that goes into it.

[00:42:25]
And I’ve been in business for 22 years,
1200 brands we’ve worked on,

[00:42:31]
and there’s no shortage of people
who value that because just like they

[00:42:36]
value an attorney to review a document
for them, they pay that attorney $250

[00:42:41]
an hour or they’re CPA to do their
doctors, they pay 2000 $2,500 a year

[00:42:45]
for that their value
in getting it done, right?

[00:42:48]
And hiring a professional.

[00:42:49]
Nobody uses a coupon for Lasake, right?

[00:42:53]
They shouldn’t, right?

[00:42:54]
Why would I get one?

[00:42:56]
That’s so true.
And I don’t know why.

[00:42:58]
Marketing, for some reason is like,
I can do it, I can do it myself.

[00:43:02]
It’s okay.

[00:43:03]
Yeah, it’s perception value, right?

[00:43:05]
I can do it.

[00:43:06]
Well, I mean, with the call
answering thing, right?

[00:43:09]
People are just like, hey,
I even got this call last week

[00:43:13]
from a client’s, been with us for years,
eight years, I think.

[00:43:16]
He’s like, I got this part time stay

[00:43:19]
at home mom that can do just as
good a job for you as you guys do.

[00:43:24]
And when he said that, I laughed out loud

[00:43:26]
and I didn’t mean to be rude,
but it was one of those, like,

[00:43:29]
can she really, really kept ice cream and
kids totally do it as good as us, right?

[00:43:34]
Yeah.

[00:43:35]
And she’s like, well,
maybe not as good as you.

[00:43:38]
I’m like, okay, as long as you get that,
go ahead and take a walk.

[00:43:41]
Right?

[00:43:41]
Well, I mean, they have
to try though, too.

[00:43:44]
Everybody tries to save money,
and I totally get that.

[00:43:46]
And we did try a portion of our
business where we bundled things.

[00:43:51]
We bundled logo design with business cards

[00:43:54]
and a website, and it flopped,
completely flopped.

[00:43:57]
Was it really?
Yeah,

[00:43:59]
when we roll that out, people were like,
I don’t want to buy the package,

[00:44:03]
but then they’ll buy the services
individually and spend more.

[00:44:06]
It’s like this big.

[00:44:07]
When you package and you bundle, it’s
usually more expensive right up front.

[00:44:10]
So we’re sure fast food places, right?

[00:44:13]
You know, Wendy says a five dollar bundle,
five dollar biggie bag, right?

[00:44:16]
Now, how do you serve $5
worth of food and a drink?

[00:44:20]
Because it costs them a dime?

[00:44:21]
I didn’t exactly gourmet I know, but.

[00:44:24]
I was like, what?

[00:44:25]
Compared to their competition,
McDonald’s Night, which.

[00:44:30]
Is 895 for a biggie bag?
I don’t know.

[00:44:32]
It’s funny, we just went
just way tangent, right?

[00:44:34]
Yeah, we’re just at my kids soccer game
last weekend, so some of the parents

[00:44:38]
decided, hey, we’re going
to go out to eat, right?

[00:44:40]
Celebrate the little
championship, whatever.

[00:44:42]
Yeah, so we’re talking about going to some

[00:44:44]
fast food place, but I’m like,
that place is gross and it’s expensive.

[00:44:50]
So I ended up going to this Irish bar.

[00:44:53]
Same amount of money,
some of the best food I’ve ever had.

[00:44:56]
Yeah.

[00:44:57]
And it’s kind of funny because
we’re joking about it.

[00:44:59]
Like, if we take a quarter of this plate,
that would have been what we got.

[00:45:04]
Yeah.

[00:45:04]
We wouldn’t have had the cool
ambience of the restaurant.

[00:45:06]
And it was probably a chain.
The first one.

[00:45:08]
Yeah.

[00:45:10]
You’re paying for Google,
almost literally garbage.

[00:45:13]
And this place, you’re like,
way more memorable.

[00:45:16]
Fresh food, way better.

[00:45:18]
I don’t know if I’m going to say

[00:45:19]
necessarily better for you because it’s
still restaurant food,

[00:45:22]
but this was like 20 times better
experience and the same price.

[00:45:28]
Yeah.
So it’s interesting because that place,

[00:45:30]
I mean, I had a few people in it, but it
wasn’t bustling with the fast food chain.

[00:45:34]
There’s a line.

[00:45:36]
So it’s just the price of it.

[00:45:38]
It’s the perceived
convenience of fast food.

[00:45:42]
It’s interesting.
I know.

[00:45:43]
Interesting.
Do you have any more P’s?

[00:45:45]
Because we got that’s it.

[00:45:47]
That’s it for people, pricing, process.
That’s solid.

[00:45:49]
Take a piece of paper,
quadrant it off, do the exercise.

[00:45:52]
And the best part about this exercise is
that every single bullet point that you

[00:45:56]
put down in each one of those quadrants
becomes a piece of social media content.

[00:46:00]
Oh, right.

[00:46:01]
So that’s the best part,

[00:46:02]
is that once you do this exercise,
you begin to understand what social media

[00:46:06]
and what LinkedIn and Facebook and all
these places are craving as far as

[00:46:10]
content, is how you’re
unique and different.

[00:46:12]
All right.

[00:46:13]
So that was what I built this for,
was so that people could understand

[00:46:17]
that taking your company and breaking down
into like, really tiny bite size pizzas is

[00:46:23]
what builds brand recognition
and credibility and things like that.

[00:46:28]
If you can get clients to comment on any

[00:46:30]
of this, to give you testimonials
along these oh, rocket ship.

[00:46:34]
Rocket ship.

[00:46:35]
Because then they’re supporting
what you’re saying about yourself.

[00:46:38]
Because when you say it about
yourself, it’s an opinion.

[00:46:41]
But if someone else says
it’s about you, it’s a fact.

[00:46:42]
Right.

[00:46:43]
So if you can turn those into testimony,
that’s another tip.

[00:46:46]
That’s awesome.

[00:46:51]
Does it happen to be on your website?

[00:46:53]
What? The four P’s?

[00:46:55]
Absolutely is. Nice.
What’s the website?

[00:46:57]
Tingalls.com. Perfect.

[00:47:02]
Smart woman, having that on the website.

[00:47:04]
Look at that.
Sweet.

[00:47:05]
Tara, thanks so much
for being on the show.

[00:47:07]
You’re welcome.
Thanks for having me.

[00:47:08]
It’s been crazy fast.

[00:47:09]
I want to talk for another 3 hours.

[00:47:11]
That’s what happened with us.

[00:47:12]
We’ll have to have you on the show again.

[00:47:14]
Yes. There’s more.
There’s more.

[00:47:16]
This has been
Authentic Business Adventures,

[00:47:18]
the business program that brings the struggles, stories
and triumphant successes business owners across the land

[00:47:25]
We are underwritten locally by the Bank of Sun Prairie.

[00:47:27]
If you’re listening to this on the web,

[00:47:28]
please give it a thumbs up,
subscribe comment and share.

[00:47:31]
Smash that like button.
Smash that like button.

[00:47:33]
Right.
Don’t just touch it.

[00:47:34]
Don’t just click it.
We want smashing, smash and share.

[00:47:38]
Let’s see here.
My name is James Kademan

[00:47:40]
and Authentic Business Adventures is
brought to you by Calls on Calls offering call

[00:47:44]
answering and receptionist services for
service businesses across the country.

[00:47:48]
Way better than your stayathome mom.

[00:47:51]
Callsoncall.com

[00:47:54]
That’s true story.
I know.

[00:47:55]
And, of course, the Bold Business book.

[00:47:57]
A book for the entrepreneur in all of us
available wherever fine books are sold.

[00:48:01]
We’d like to thank you,
our wonderful listeners,

[00:48:03]
as well as our guest Tara Ingalls,
the owner of Tingalls Graphic Design.

[00:48:07]
Tara, can you tell us
that website one more time?

[00:48:09]
Tingalls.com

[00:48:13]
past episodes can be found
morning, noon and night.

[00:48:15]
Podcast link found at drawincustomers.com.
Thank you for listening.

[00:48:19]
We will see you next week.

 

 

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