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Tara Ingalls – Tingalls Graphic Design
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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.
[00:13:37]
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.
[00:13:44]
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
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had to happen, you can’t be in your
office, all this stuff, blah, blah, blah.
[00:13:56]
I just felt like it was a chess game.
[00:13:58]
I still feel like it’s a chess game.
[00:14:00]
An infinite neverending.
[00:14:02]
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.
[00:14:09]
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.
[00:14:29]
So it’s definitely still
rampant and it sucks.
[00:14:34]
Triumphant or just around.
[00:14:37]
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.
[00:14:44]
Oh, really?
Oh, yeah, big time.
[00:14:46]
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,
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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.
[00:15:03]
Thanks, guys.
I know.
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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?
[00:15:45]
Oh, my gosh, I haven’t heard that since
I heard the word pivot pivot.
[00:15:49]
True,
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we could talk about the Pandemic all day,
but the silver lions that have come out
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of the Pandemic have been pretty amazing
on so many different levels emotionally,
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environmentally, relationally,
whatever they are.
[00:16:05]
But we have a work at home policy now
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at Tingles, and if you want to work
from home, you can work from home.
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You don’t have to have an excuse per
se of why you want to work home.
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Most people are like, oh,
my child, is that graphic?
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My dog to the vet or whatever.
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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
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answering and receptionist services for
service businesses across the country.
[00:47:48]
Way better than your stayathome mom.
[00:47:51]
Callsoncall.com
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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,
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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.
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We will see you next week.