Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Joseph Maxwell and Jon Guess

Damon Pistulka  00:05

All right, everyone, welcome once again, it is Friday. And you know what that means? It is time for manufacturing ecommerce success. I’m one of the CO hosts the show today Damon Pistolka. That lovely guy right over there. Curt Anderson, co host further with the most take it away because we are talking about b2b e commerce readiness training today, my friend, let’s get it going.

Curt Anderson  00:34

Dude, who knew like four years ago when we came up with a show that you know, when we named the show is really for these two guests here today. Right? Yeah. We knew that he had the premonition to like, come up with that one. So Happy Friday, everybody. Happy March 1, man. It’s a new month. And I think it’s Women’s History Month. So women of your life. It’s a wonderful month and here we are like spring is just around the corner. And it is my honor. It is my privilege to introduce our two guests here today, man. I’m just absolutely thrilled. Joseph Maxwell, I want to start with you my friend. Happy Friday. How are you dude?

Joseph Maxwell  01:11

absolutely outstanding. Having a great day. Spring is actually here in Kansas. So we are we’re loving it. Occasion cool temperatures, but it is it feels like Florida, man. It’s It’s amazing here. on the warm side. On

Curt Anderson  01:25

the warm side. Yeah, I was talking to somebody in St. Louis the other day though. It’s at like literally. Yeah, and I live in snow country. It’s supposed to be 70 here this weekend, so I don’t know what’s going on. So, Damon, Our second guest of the day is we have a repeat offender. My goodness gracious. He needs to talk to his mother be a better judge of character. But he’s back on the call. Mr. Jon Guess  happy Friday. John, how are you dude?

Jon Guess  01:50

Doing great. Glad to be here. Um, I always love talking about manufacturing and ecommerce. So let’s let’s geek out on it. I’m excited. Well,

Curt Anderson  01:58

it’s our favorite topic. So guys, everybody out there drop us a note. Let us know where you’re coming from. And if you have E commerce questions, boy, this is the amendment so Hey, Whitney Houston is in the house here. So this is a fan favorite of ours right here. Whitney Houston. Whitney. Happy Friday to me. Happy Women’s History Month to our friend Whitney. Guys, drop us a note. Let us know that you’re out there and again, you want to connect with our two guests here. High level E commerce experts. But before we go there, Damon I’m doing I’m doing it. I don’t think I did it with Jon when He was on last time. We’re gonna do it. You’re ready. You guys. Yeah. Everybody’s sitting down. Is everybody ready guys already?

Joseph Maxwell  02:36

We’re not here. Right? Since Jon’s

Curt Anderson  02:39

a repeat I’m gonna start with Joseph so Joseph my friend man might the respect and admiration I have for this guy just we become dear buddies. Joseph, my question for you that I want to start with now. Jon, I’m gonna hit you with a different question. So just you sit back and relax. Please my friend. Joseph, could you please share with the folks when you were little guy growing up you just shared with us that you’re born in Seattle live in Kansas maybe moved around? When you were little guy growing up? Who was your hero? Who was your hero as a little guy growing up?

Damon Pistulka  03:09

My dad was a great answer.

Joseph Maxwell  03:13

And we’ve been we’ve been best friends. So yeah, he’s he’s he’s been my hero for for many years.

Curt Anderson  03:21

Many years a lifetime. And that’s and please share with folks why what makes dad such an amazing hero. Let’s go there.

Joseph Maxwell  03:28

Yeah, so he, he works him got to be a good dad to us. And he took spend time with us. He helped. We saw a lot of the country together. He was he was a good role model for me. And ultimately, we’re not quite as close now just due to some distance as far as geographical distance. But I worked to emulate a lot of what I learned from him to be a good dad myself. And so it’s he was a very good role model not having that himself in pre in when he was growing up. He worked to be a good dad to us. Again, that was my hero growing he was my hero growing up.

Curt Anderson  04:04

Wow, absolutely love it. And Dad’s name please, Steve. Steve. Alright, well, hey, big shout out to Steve and what a great job he did. And I can tell firsthand Damon, Joseph is an amazing father. He’s one of these guys. I just I love hanging out with him. He makes me a better person. And just I really admire how you what a great family man you are Josep

Absolutely. Well, and again, it’s been anh. So thank you for sharing that with us.

Joseph Maxwell  04:26

absolute pleasure hanging out with you to Curt Hi. Lots of good memories already. And we’re just getting started

Curt Anderson  04:34

and we’re just getting the party started. So I hey, we’ve got friends here. So Anna is here today? Surely Connecticut So Anna Great. Man. She is a wonderful engineer. She had a little post on LinkedIn. We had a little exchange and and a Happy Friday you my friend, John Buck Leno. But glean here man coming to us live from Jersey. So Jon, happy Friday. Thank you for joining us here today. Guys connect you see John’s picture

Damon Pistulka  04:59

for I gotta stop. Picture coaching the basketball team. I might have missed it. You gotta go back and check it out. Sorry. I get distracted.

Curt Anderson  05:11

Talking about you know what timeout great dad’s Jon Burge lino is his dad’s. He’ll be on the baseball. You know, in as a matter of fact, we’re gonna be talking about hockey. He was at the outdoor hockey game right at the Meadowlands just a couple of weeks ago. So, John, drop, drop, drop a note in the chat box about that, Mr. biglietto. So, alright, guys, let’s keep the party rolling. We’ve got Jon Guess here. So Jon, I’m gonna hit you with a different question. Are you sitting down? Are you ready for the next question? Ready? Let’s go. I’m ready. Okay, you know what? I don’t have a new question, Jon, when you were a little guy growing up, who was your hero? Who was your hero?

Jon Guess  05:47

I was actually thinking it’s probably good. You have a different, different question for me, because my answer was going to be the exact same. My father, um, a little over five years ago, grew up the son of a preacher, man, I think they made a song about that. And about a godly man. I think, you know, it’s still deeply rooted within me, my Morehouse. And um, you know, I owe that to him. Definitely nice,

Curt Anderson  06:16

man that I That’s awesome. Dad’s name

Jon Guess  06:19

please. Don Guess being great, Don guess

Curt Anderson  06:23

Don Josh, the man of the cloth. And so what? What do you got? Damon?

Damon Pistulka  06:27

I love it. The great, Don. That’s right. If I can be remembered like that if my kid said something about that, like me once in my life, you know, it would be awesome. You know, and I’m so happy I’m so happy that you had a father like that. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  06:46

and and same thing, John great father. We’ve gotten gotten to know John I’ve worked on multiple projects. We’ve been together in person several times and I just want to give a shout out these guys Damon. These guys are Trooper so I live in the middle of nowhere in New York. It’s cold here. It’s right near Buffalo. tons of snow and you know what these guys do? They come visit me in December. Man it was I’m like nobody comes here and December these two guys come here in December took them to a Buffalo Sabres game.

Joseph Maxwell  07:11

But Kurt made it worth it like we had a blast. Like it was it was a wonderful time. Yeah, absolutely.

Curt Anderson  07:16

How about how about giving a shout out to them? If people want chicken wings, man, you gotta come here. Oh, yeah, it’s true. Right. Before we dive into E commerce let’s have a little chicken wing conversation here.

Joseph Maxwell  07:27

Yeah, those wings you took us to what was the name of the place the anchor grill your

Curt Anderson  07:31

original? It’s the original chicken wing place. It’s called the Hey, yeah. Buffalo

Joseph Maxwell  07:37

the anchor but they were they were so good that I on my way flying out the next day. I was in the Buffalo airport. And I saw a sign there’s the anchor bars. Like you know that sounds pretty fun. That’s where I ate last night. Now I would be probably I’m guessing it’s not the exact same recipe you know, airport food is never the same but yeah, those were pretty damn good. Right there again, I was like, I just have to get myself some more of those wings.

Jon Guess  08:02

I went back the next day to the original one. So

Curt Anderson  08:08

I don’t know if I didn’t know that either. You know, I had like I had a whole lineup we’re gonna go to different restaurants. I’m like, Hey, come to Buffalo you got to go this place and this and this man. We’re just all about the wings. So it was we had a great time we got a Buffalo Sabres game, John McLean. Oh, you definitely come up and visit dude. And I’m gonna get you some wings. That is no doubt about it. Now come down to you and get some Jersey pizza. Anna says Hey, she went to alrighty man. That’s one of the top engineering schools in the country. That’s Anna. That’s why you’re the problem solver. Is because you’re from upstate New York going to alrighty my friend. That’s very impressive. Alright guys, let’s dive in. We’re going to like totally geek out about e commerce, manufacturing e commerce success. Joseph, let’s start with you, my friend. Let’s go here. Why e commerce? Why did you your path. You’re a young guy, you know, your dad was your hero and you’re kind of get things off the ground. How did you pick your path and career in E commerce.

Joseph Maxwell  09:02

I kind of landed in it. So I’m 34 years old. And when I was 10 years old, I started fooling around with writing computer programs. And that was back in the day where there was those handheld blocks of plastic and metal that we now we used to call PDAs. Not that type of PDA you see on the news nowadays, but portable desktop assistant or something like that. And so that’s right, there are massive. I started playing around with that when I was 15. I had an opportunity to build an actual ecommerce application, which I did not transacted about half a million dollars in revenue up about 20 years ago. And so that was kind of what got me started in that and then I through actually as a family business I got started then on the E commerce side while working with some customers there who had a need. That was back 2010 2011 Somewhere They’re so still somewhat early for the mass entrance of E commerce into the market. And honestly, since then it’s been it’s been a blast, like being able to help people realize their vision of employing. We kind of call it software engineering, the seeing that there’s a legitimate engineer in the in the house here, I can’t, I really shouldn’t use that term because it’s not like we’re, you have the sign off like a PE doesn’t that kind of thing. But that’s basically solving problems with software. And that’s what I’ve loved, absolutely loved doing that for the past. You could argue almost 20 years of my life, but it’s really in in earnest over the past 15 years. Well,

Curt Anderson  10:38

I tell you, what’s awesome is that you just you know, to discover your passion at such a young age, and then to bring it to, you know, to reality. And what’s the expression if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life. So if you’re just joining us, we’re here with Joseph Maxwell, John guests they are was swift otter, what a great name. We’re gonna dive into that. E commerce experts e commerce extraordinaire, there’s so I that’s you’ve been executing e commerce for 20 years. That is just amazing. John, let’s come to you, my friend. Now Daymond did you I don’t really notice something about these two. And it’s really difficult. You know, we’ve become pretty good friends. Right? I right. You guys agree with that? We’ve become absolutely, absolutely. Best hair in E commerce is I’m telling you. It’s really difficult for me to hang out with these two guys. So I talked about great hair. John guess. Can you just share a little bit? How did you get your path started in E commerce? Let’s go there. Actually,

Jon Guess  11:35

it’s a it’s a, I’m happy to talk about this. So I worked for a distribution company for about 15 years. And I started out there as a network admin. And so had a little bit of technical wherewithal and this company was they had a website, but they weren’t doing any ecommerce. And so I you know, with my technical background, even though I didn’t know anything about e commerce, I kind of became and got tagged as the champion of that project. And then, you know, we got online actually started with a sister division that we grew in a multimillion dollars and, you know, grew and grew. And the company, you know, during that time shifted the way they do business, it was incredible to watch. But during that time, you know, since I became that champion, that kind of really carved out a career for me, like I enjoyed it, I started, went back to school, got my MBA in marketing, and just really dove into E commerce, about three or four years ago left that distribution company went to the agency side, and you know, it’s what I enjoy. It’s, it’s what I geek out on what we’re doing a little bit today. And but it all came from being a network admin, and we didn’t have anybody that did ecommerce. So they dropped it in my lap. So the space. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  12:49

Alright, so we have we have one that found you know, as in grade school, right, and the other one literally, accidental e commerce expert, if you will, again, I’ve had the honor and privilege of working with John and a couple of projects, and he is, man, he’s the real deal. And so it’s just an honor and privilege to work with you, John. Just high integrity, high expertise. Joseph, let’s go here. So, you know, as a young guy, you know, kind of getting your path started, you know, it’s very easy, like, Hey, I’m gonna go work for somebody get started job get a career. What’s it like, as it’s an incredibly young entrepreneur, what was too young to like, realize how scary it is? Was it scary? Like what go take us there take us, like, 12 years ago, when you started swift out, or what was that, like?

Joseph Maxwell  13:35

It was interesting. And to be honest, I didn’t know what I was biting off. It was. It was what was so it was part of my, my dad, my older brothers family business umbrella. And it was kind of it started under that 2016, we split off into our own corporation, but it was basically needing to provide the services and I saw a vision, like I felt like this was going to going to go somewhere. And I needed to establish it as such, we were able to solve problems we were we were able to get business we were able to grow and let’s see, I would have been that would have been early 20s at that point. And it was, again, it was not something I really anticipated getting to this point in the slightest. But it has been a really fascinating journey. It’s had its ups and its downs. But overall, it’s been an Outstanding, outstanding ride.

Curt Anderson  14:29

Well, I love it. Let’s go here. Like, you know, you go to the family business and they have the dollar, you know, framed on the wall. Yeah. Can you go back and like, do you remember your, you know, see, when you went outside of the family business, who was that first client? What was that like? Have like taken on that? firt like, Hey, I have a customer somebody wants to pay me for something inside my head. Like what can you take us back there? What was that like? Absolutely.

Joseph Maxwell  14:54

So that the client and actually they are a client of ours? This day, Mark Oh boy uniforms. Yep. Yep. Marla white. And they they’re actually in Leavenworth, Kansas where pretty much where I grew up. I was born in Washington but grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas, in Leavenworth, Kansas. At the time, we had more prisons and pawn shops. We had plenty of prisons. And there’s a whole history lesson behind how that happened. But of in Leavenworth, though, it’s right next to the fort. And they have a whole bunch of military uniforms or military officers that come through, because it’s a college. And that’s what Marlo white sells to those, those people. So my older brothers had gotten a shopping cart as we call it back in the day setup, and it was working. But they were they were running into consistent headaches with these limitations that were in the software. And that was back in the day when Magento was what Shopify is now or Bigcommerce is as well, but Shopify has more of that brand recognition, where people say I want to go to Shopify, well back then they say I want to go Magento. So that’s, that’s they came to us and said, Hey, what would you think about this at the time Magento was a beast, there was hundreds of 1000s of lines of code. And I’m like, all learn it then. So they said, Okay, we like working with you guys. You can learn it, we brought on a consultant as well, who ultimately trained me, Lee safe, right? He has been very instrumental in my career and helping me grow to a really good place of technical proficiency. And we got that and we built it, we launched it, learned a lot in the process, made a few mistakes, but ultimately, have proceeded on and built some other really great projects for them, and then started getting additional clients after that. Yeah, so cool. Okay. All right.

Curt Anderson  16:47

Now, John, Hang on one second, because I’ve got to piggyback off of that. So Damon, this is fasten if you guys so guys, we’re here with Joseph Maxwell, Jon Guess of Swift otter, if you go to Swift writers website, and Damon, what do we love the preach that line that we love out teach the competition? If you go to Swift otter, they provide training and certification for developers for Magento, which is Adobe now, developers, Joseph pop quiz. I don’t know if you studied for this or not. Pop quiz. How many folks have you have gone through your training? Now now just catch what he just said, I’m going to teach myself Magento. He raised his hand, like, hey, I’ll do that. There’s a there’s a customer is willing to pay me. I’m not sure what I’m doing. But I’m gonna learn. Joseph, how many folks have gone through your training process since that time.

Joseph Maxwell  17:37

I estimate about 10,000 people have actually received Adobe certification as a result of our training material. It’s been way more than that, that have actually used our materials, but trying to be conservative, about 10,000 that have really gotten certified. And that ultimately, that came from back in that day. I was like, How can I level up? How can I prove our expertise? I was trying to get some big fish to get business and I was like, Well, I can get certified. So ultimately, I got I think, what didn’t they have what six or eight certifications on the the Magento platform again, before it became Adobe, there were six or eight certifications. I got every one of those. And then when Magento two came out, which is now Adobe commerce, I went through the process and got every one of those certifications. And that’s where I started helping people become your achieve those certifications because it was kind of a wild west.

Curt Anderson  18:33

That is that I love that story. That is absolutely insane. And we ate. And Damon Let’s go the chatbox man we’ve got gal is here today. Let’s hear from you join us here in a few weeks. So Gail, happy Friday. Send lots of love to you, my friend. All right, that is phenomenal. What a story. And so for folks out there. You know, I received a note on LinkedIn the other day like hey, Curt, I’m I’m trying to crack into some manufacturing and manufacturing not sure where to start, man, take a page out of this book right here be the fierce educator, and you are going to be the by default, you become the industry, the industry thought leader, John, my friend, when you alright, so you’re kind of like by default, like, I don’t know, if you drew the short straw or what happened at the distributor, right? Like, Hey, John can do it. Where are you in? So for folks out there that are listening like man, you know, I’m the solo marketer at my manufacturer, or I’m the solopreneur. And I want to get into E commerce. Talk a little bit about if you can go back several years when you’re at that distributor and also this falls on your plate. What were your first steps of trying to figure out this ecommerce thing?

Jon Guess  19:42

You know, yeah, it was a lot of trial and error. It was a lot of kind of what Joseph was just talking about a willingness to dive in and learn and you know, I think you’ve got to, I saw it. To be clear. I saw it as a career move for me. I saw that we’re successful. I can be successful. It’s something that I enjoyed in the beginning enough to put that time in. You know, we did work with an agency, I learned a ton from them along the way, it wasn’t just me doing along, I learned a ton from agency, there’s a ton of good agencies out there, they know what they’re doing. They, you know, working with them, you can learn a lot through that. But a lot of it was me doing the research, you know, if podcasts weren’t as big around then so it wasn’t as accessible to go do that. But it was a lot of studying on my own, researching on my own trial error, getting in the trenches, and just, you know, learning as you go, you know, we built a website. And, you know, I think part of the people in our business thought, Okay, we’re here, we had just a website. And so you know, just, you’re always getting to that next level growing and growing and trying new things. And then when you get into the marketing side of it, you can’t just do that one thing, you’ve got to do 100 different things. So, you know, it’s fun. It’s fun. It’s still fun.

Damon Pistulka  21:06

Well, yeah, and when do you when you started that out to like you said, there was an all the abundance of information now you’re probably gleaned in through tech boards and communities and everything else asking questions, you know, those old days like that you really had to dig for information. You now, you know, that it wasn’t common knowledge like it is today. I mean, you mentioned it, Joseph, how Shopify has just made it like QuickBooks, you know, for some people anymore to to if you got a small store, you don’t need much. So that’s right. That’s right. Absolutely.

Curt Anderson  21:39

And we’ve getting guys if you have any questions boys drop box, we do we

Damon Pistulka  21:45

got a question in here, we’re gonna bring it up. So approximately, how long would it take to become Magento? Become a Magento? To developer having no prior experience, just admin e commerce support? With no coding? That

Joseph Maxwell  22:01

is a outstanding question. I wish I had a more pleasant answer for you. I usually estimated it would probably take two years to become reasonably proficient. For somebody that doesn’t have that development background, it’s, it’s going to be an incredibly steep and at times, unfortunately, discouraging learning curve like there’s, it’s, it’s tough. But at the end of the day, the power that you are able to, you will have in being able to manage and work with such an incredibly powerful system is amazing. And so it’s it’s a long journey, but well worth it in the end. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  22:44

Well, you know, and I love what John was talking about. And that, you know, John, that you kind of gave me like a little, little aha moment is, you know, for that solo marketer that wants to, you know, you know, I’m sorry to say this, you know, not only you’re not always secure at that job. We had a friend of ours on the show two weeks ago, Jordan Yes. And I’m so I’m not like she was on the live show. I was at the industrial marketing summit a month ago. And she was on stage as a keynote speaker and a panelist and she is a powerhouse speaker, man. And she’s gushing about her company in this at the other thing, she got laid off on Tuesday, three or four days after being at a conference talking about her company. And because she’s branded herself and just doing such an amazing job on LinkedIn, she started a side hustle started her marketing firm, and it it eases that it certainly hurts to lose that job. But she put herself by being proactive. So John, I love what you’re saying about that certification enhances you and your credentials and your value in the market. Right?

Jon Guess  23:52

Absolutely. Absolutely. And a little fun fact I two before I worked at swift otter use their training materials to get my Adobe certification. So that’s kind of how Joseph and I got connected. And so yeah, it sounds not just the certification side, it’s the networking side. It’s community side. So

Curt Anderson  24:10

so let’s go here as a Go ahead, Damon. Well, you

Damon Pistulka  24:15

said one thing to Joseph at the end and I always, always like to preface this when when you you said it is difficult, it’s going to be a steep hill, but it will be worth it. And that is the thing that power you will yield at the end. So don’t get discouraged just because it’s difficult. It often if you are the one that goes to the difficult path, you will benefit a lot more than everyone around you that doesn’t so as

Joseph Maxwell  24:40

a result Yeah, as a result of learning and that’s the one thing I forgot to say their salaries for a proficient Magento to developer Adobe commerce developer art, let me put it this way are very healthy. So you know there you that is a career investment and and I want People understand that it’s a it’s an investment and it’s all investments. There’s pain in the investment, but the end is worth it.

Curt Anderson  25:06

Yeah. And hate and we and Daymond on Monday, we have a guest, we have Jennifer from Adobe commerce, which is Magento. She’s gonna be on the show Monday. And we’re gonna be talking about Adobe commerce slash Magento on Monday. So Joseph, let’s go here. So for folks that are, you know, we love speaking to manufacturers, that’s our jam that’s just love our manufacturers with a deep passion in how can we help our American manufacturers be as competitive as possible? And man, I’m just shamelessly biased about e commerce, I think everybody should be really where, let’s, let’s talk about like some some starting points. There’s that manufacturer out there. They’re like, you know, what I, you know, I don’t make, you know, $10 widgets. And, you know, walk me through what, let’s take a little bit of an E commerce one on one for folks out there.

Joseph Maxwell  25:55

Apps. Absolutely. So there are. So basically, ecommerce allows you to sell online, it’s digital sales, which opens up a whole new market for being able to get your goods out there. So buyers, you can say, as we all age by new buyers are coming into the market, which again, based off how that works, they tend to be younger people. So younger people are much more digitally inclined. And so being able to offer our products to those younger buyers, is an immediate win those younger buyers don’t like to get on the phone as much they don’t like certainly they some of them haven’t even heard of a fax machine. Right. So being able to present our products digitally is critical. Now, the process to get there is could be seem onerous, honestly, in some cases, like there is a process to get there. And that’s actually what we’re what we have in this cohort coming up is kind of breaking that down. But a couple of the steps that are really critical is first understanding your products, understanding what subset of products would be best suited for E commerce. Not all products can be sold through E commerce, for example, if you’re a manufacturer that provide that does custom plastic injection, and every every order is different. At the surface, you might say, well, it might not be good ecommerce fit. But in some cases, they’re being able to allow customers to come back and reorder products that you have created for them might be a good fit. So even in those type of cases, there are some creative opportunities for going to e commerce. Yeah, yeah,

Curt Anderson  27:32

I shamelessly. Damon, you and I talk about this all the time. We struggle to think that they’re there. There’s there’s not a situation that you can’t do e commerce in some capacity. Right. And I just write I as a matter of fact, we should almost have a show of like, you know, a challenge us on it. You know, I would love to get you know, stump stump the E commerce geeks. You know what I mean? Right, John, you’re nodding. So John, let’s let’s slide over to my friend we had and speaking in Buffalo we hit we had a really fun project that you and I did together in Buffalo tuck in jet. And Joseph just mentioned that customer portal. So here’s a manufacturer they sold a covert antennas, man, just wonderful. That was last year on the show. We were on site and did a did a live show with the the owner, President founder, Kyle and I had a great conversation. That Damon, they had a product I’m putting like, it’s right behind me. Right. They had a product that came out of there was a solution from 911. I mean, it was very emotional, very member giant. I mean, that was like, yeah, it touched me. It touched me. Yeah, that was a powerful episode on how there were a lot of communication challenges. I’m getting chills just talking about right now. There were communication challenges, obviously 911. And they created some solutions. And she had one right behind us why we’re doing our live stream. And talking about it. It was a very powerful experience. So they’re not selling to consumers or son of first responders, military, that type of thing to John Joseph’s point, you know, this isn’t like, Hey, I’m going to come on and hit the buy button. But the buyer, the FBI agent, the DEA agent, they want that customer portal explained to folks that they’re like customer portal, what are you talking about? Take us through a little one on one and what a customer portal looks like for a b2b manufacturer.

Jon Guess  29:11

Yeah, I think Joseph touched on some elements of that. I mean, you know, as much as you guys like manufacturers we do too. Typically, manufacturers have more sophisticated needs and you know, need assistance on selling selling online, it’s not just going spinning up a store on Shopify, and a buyer portal is going to give you those b2b tools for repurchases for shopping list or requisition lists for when you’re reordering a b2b portal could have some some quick order tools. So maybe, you know typically though, those buyers have much longer to list you’re not just going and adding one item to the car. So So tools to make that easier and a b2b portal is is going to be you know, out in an area for you to go do business in the non traditional way, not for not like a direct consumer, perhaps it’s a place where you can do quotes, maybe there needs to be some price negotiation. And so, um, you know, I think that that covers the most of it, but me a b2b portal can be a lot of things, I think we would need to run through those requirements with the client, but that’s a good, good idea of it.

Joseph Maxwell  30:25

One other things that, go ahead, go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry. I was gonna say one other thing that we find that people ask for a lot is being able to give customers visibility as far as order status. And the term that is often most often used is the Domino’s style pizza. Domino’s Pizza style tracker tracker. Yeah, they’re able to see they’re not calling up customer service saying, hey, where the heck is my Yeah, widgets that I ordered, they’re able to go right there, see it get those shipping confirmations. And depending on the manufacturer system, in a lot of cases, that information is already there already available. It’s just a matter of just linking it up to the website. It’s not generally that big of a deal. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  31:05

that’s a huge thing. You know, because when you look at most manufactured products, it takes a while to get them right. And even if you understand, hey, the materials are in house, hey, they’re in the production floor, are there this step that step? That’s a perfect example for that. And I think about this the common stuff to you go way back years ago, some of the leaders in E commerce in the in the b2b space had reorder list had things like that. And I think the ones that didn’t, back in my history, like even things like sheet steel or tooling, there were so many companies that weren’t using it that now you look at that repeat buyer, that that may not want to do it eight to five may not want to email you something and get something back. But when you can go into that portal and go yep, here’s all the materials we need. Rather than, you know, we should do Kanban junk, you know, and email, all that stuff, your email back and forth. You just take that all away, because I’m online and I can have people on the floor. Just going to this is what I need. And it comes in right into the to the portal form and does what they need. It takes so much out of it for everybody.

Joseph Maxwell  32:18

I think what we really are seeing is technology as a differentiator, because you’re in the US. I mean, I am grateful. And I’m really happy to see manufacturing coming back. I think it’s it. It’s amazing. And it really thrills me to see that. But when you’re manufacturing is some people just say is widgets like what’s the difference between me and somebody else manufacturing widgets, and I think Home Depot, they’re not a manufacturer, per se, but they are great case study, they started investing in technology heavily 10 to 15 years ago, when you go to the self checkout those you scan it and has that of course computer screen, my understanding is that it’s all custom built, specifically by Home Depot for their needs, integrated into the website, their ecommerce system, all of that is tied together. And that has given them a massive advantage over their competition with Lowe’s and some other hardware stores. Unfortunately, the local ones as well, but it has given them an unbelievable advantage, this technology technological differentiating factor.

Damon Pistulka  33:24

That is a great case example. Because I really did they I mean, all the way through they’ve done a good job of that. And when when COVID hit, they were ready for it. Absolutely. They were absolutely loved everyone else in the dust. Absolutely. We

Jon Guess  33:40

hear that as an example all the time in our industry, people will bring up the Home Depot website as an example for what they’re trying to do especially with manufacture. Yeah, so it’s, they get it right. And they did it the right time.

Damon Pistulka  33:53

Well, and then then to Home Depot also is a third party platform for other people that are manufacturing items that would sell into a Home Depot. And they’ve used that as a now a gateway into their stores. If they’re popular enough. It isn’t Yes. Yeah. I won’t be I won’t be that it’s a long road. But that’s something that it’s really cool what they’ve done. And and it is a differentiator like you said it competitive on the street.

Joseph Maxwell  34:18

Absolutely. Yes. It made that investment. And again, ecommerce is just one facet of it. But ecommerce is that connection between the manufacturer and this new digital buyer. That is, again, becoming much more common in the marketplace.

Curt Anderson  34:33

Yeah, absolutely. So and hate and for a shameless plug, we’re talking about e commerce, we’re talking about readiness. We are talking about education. I’ve dropped a link in the chat, Damon, I don’t know if you could do me a favor. If you grab that link, drop it on your LinkedIn, put it on LinkedIn. Thank you, dude. And so I want to talk about education for a minute and to unpack what we were just talking about there. Not only is it a differentiator, it now Out is a necessity. If you don’t have like, hey, how do we separate ourselves? Or do we love talking about like blue ocean? Right? You know, Mary, if you haven’t read the book to ocean boy go out and grab it this weekend was amazing book. But man, I hate to tell you as you’re saying, Joseph, if you don’t have ecommerce, not only is this now potentially not a differentiator, it might be a differentiator the wrong way. And I just did a webinar, I was at a gym and I did a webinar yesterday at the New York MEP in a woman we chatted, we ran Remo yesterday, remember, our remote platform and a woman came back to the table and what they’re hearing, it’s really difficult to order from you. When your customer is telling you it’s really difficult to order from you. I don’t know Joseph, like how big of a, like, how big that’s about

Joseph Maxwell  35:51

as big of a problem as it gets. Because that means they like your product, there is no reason to inhibit purchasing other than how the heck do I purchase from you. And the solution is, as I would say, is as easy as it gets from the idea perspective. But there is some work to get ecommerce going, I don’t want to, like say it’s super easy there. But like, the the solution is well defined, it’s there, it’s right in front of you. So make your customers be able to buy from you do it

Curt Anderson  36:20

that I kind of took my breath. I’m like, oh, no, you know, and the thing is not you know, I don’t want to be a hypocrite because like, you know, I’m you know, I’m sure there’s plenty of things that I could be doing better and being different. So it’s very easy to point fingers. However manufacturer, you know, if you have a sizable company, your sales are in, you know, seven figures, eight figures, you know, boy, I we really encourage you strongly, you know, to make that a top priority. Joseph, let’s go here. Education. We’re doing a fun jam session this Tuesday, ecommerce readiness for manufacturers. They’re really it’s overwhelming. daunting, John, we’ve seen clients where they’ve invested an enormous amount of money. I know what I know, you’re, you know, the client, I’m thinking of where, you know, they got burned on a bad website situation. And now they need to come back. There’s all sorts you guys mentioned, podcasts, webinars, experts like yourselves to help people be a Sherpa be a guide, get through that path. Joseph, talk a little bit about that E commerce readiness. I know we’re gonna shamelessly let’s talk about our jam session coming up Tuesday, we have a cohort running. Why don’t you just talk about that education, education piece why educating your customers has been so important to you?

Joseph Maxwell  37:25

Absolutely. Absolutely. So our customers as the core of what they need to ask from an agency, a developer defined for themselves. One of the big challenges with E commerce in general is where are where are we going, like with software development, to infinity and beyond? Right? So there’s there’s no limits. The issue is though, how do we actually get this done? Like, what where do we go next? How can we improve sales. And so a vision for E commerce is the one of the most important aspects Now obviously, there’s the nuts and bolts, we have to have our product catalog defined, and we have to have some contents and pictures, that kind of thing. But knowing where we’re going to be heading is number one. And that’s where that education comes in. Because as I understand what’s out there, I understand what works. I’m going to try some things, I’ll fail out a few things, of course, but that’s, again, increase increases the educational aspect of what I’m doing here. Me as an educated buyer means that I know what to ask for. And I will be able to make more. Again, I keep over you. I’m overusing the word educated, but I will be making educated decisions as far as guiding this ship this, this website exactly to a destination of more success.

Curt Anderson  38:48

Absolutely love it. Jon, could you piggyback on that just talk about like, how important that educated, you know, and you’ve mentioned something earlier that I want to touch on, when you run the distributor side, you called your partners, you called your agency, the partners, they guided you, they educated you taught, you’ve been on both sides of the fence share a little bit like how important it is, you played that role? You know, you not respect that role as an educator. Talk a little bit about that for folks, please.

Jon Guess  39:14

Yeah, I mean, you know, the agency taught me a lot, a lot working with an agency, of course, they’re gonna be building the website for you, but they’re going to be asking you questions throughout that process that you haven’t thought of before. And so, you know, being able to run through that process, you’re going to learn a lot, even if you didn’t mean to, and the agencies hadn’t been there. They know what questions to ask, they know how to draw those questions out of you. They know how to help you establish that vision. And, um, you know, I think the biggest thing to take away from that is, you know, use one Call one run through a discovery with them. They’re going to be able to walk walking guide you through that, and you’re gonna learn a lot, you’re gonna get asked questions that you’re not going to know. And you’re gonna have to go find answers and you have internal conversations with the rest of your company to get those things answered. That’s right. Yeah. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  40:17

Joseph, what do you want to piggyback on that? Well,

Joseph Maxwell  40:20

then that’s where the training course that we’re going to be talking about more here in the future, like, that’s where that comes in to help and to help guide some of those questions to be able to even short circuit some of that. Yeah. Right.

Curt Anderson  40:36

Well, you know what, let’s, let’s go here. And again, I want to be mindful of time. If you’re just joining us, it’s Hey, happy Friday. Thank you for joining us. We want to connect with Joseph Maxwell, on LinkedIn, please connect with Joe get as Jon Guess on LinkedIn. These guys, our E commerce extraordinaire is from Swift otter. Let’s talk about it. So we’re doing a jam session on Tuesday. We have a cohort coming up e commerce readiness cohort, Joseph much. Let’s dive in just talk about some of the things that folks will be learning at the jam session and through the cohort.

Joseph Maxwell  41:06

Absolutely. So in both of these that are coming up, we’re going to be talking about five specific subjects as related to e commerce. The first one is setting that vision we road trip, we’re gonna use that as an analogy, like how we get to this destination, what are things that are really important for us to consider along the way, the value also that ecommerce springs, we’re going to talk about building out your website, like what type of content do you need to have on there in order to be successful your product catalog, how we get that ready, and determine which products should be in that catalog to be pushed up to the website. My favorite one is creating an emotional connection. You’ll hear the term around in the industry B to C means business to consumer. In some b2c instances, I think it should be leveraged more, there’s a heart connection, there’s a reason why this brand got started. That really resonates with customers. Unfortunately, that is not an all b2c cases. But if there it’s not an all b2c cases, it’s even far less on the b2b side b2b is generally stale. It’s just like this white wall, and it’s very transactional. And the goal in this than that talk there is to put some emotional connection in there to infuse some heart connection into your, into your brand as it is presented to your customers, which will, which is right there a differentiating factor. So we’re talking about e commerce being a differentiating factor, but also that, that connection, that heart connection, if as we can develop that through your value proposition and your brand’s story, etc. And then, of course, dealing with the nuts and bolts like checkout and cart and sales tax, and all that kind of stuff as well. But in a fun way as well, just to make sure that all of this information is highly digestible by everybody who have all technical levels to be able to join and get a lot out of this. And hands on as well. That’s right, hands on.

Curt Anderson  43:05

Yes. And hands on. And I love it. And I think the key is as the if you’re talking to b2b b2c, what do you always say, Damon, it’s H to H right? It says human human. And the goal is how to you constantly Daymond if you want to chime in on this, you know, you can see talked about that friction, how do you create that frictionless experience,

Damon Pistulka  43:26

make it easy to buy, make people very comfortable with you, all the kinds of things in E commerce doesn’t take that away, it just makes it you have to do it a different way. It’s the you know, you really have to keep that same, you have to do the same things. You’re just doing it in a listing on your website, in all these things have to tap to evoke that trust and confidence that what they’re going to buy from you is what they really want.

Joseph Maxwell  43:52

Absolutely. And there’s elements to that trust, like you were saying there, Damon on the website that has to be there, we there’s some boxes we have to check in as well. And all of that will be talked about Yes.

Curt Anderson  44:05

And again, whether you know plastic injection molding, if you’re a 3d printer, you’re making circuit boards, you know, whatever widget product that you make, if your custom manufacturer or contract manufacturer, or you’re the OEM, it comes it’s we’re all selling one thing and one thing only trust us it’s like do I trust you? Can I count on you, you know, my jobs on the line right now I’m leaving this supplier because they’ve upset me and so now I’m looking for a new supplier in my jobs. I got to report back to my supervisor. I can’t take a chance of aligning or partnering with a bad fit. Jon, let’s go from your your your experience as a we’ve got a couple of comments. You guys got

Damon Pistulka  44:44

some? Diane by herself. I wanted to make sure he said you know, she’s a longtime guest listener. Human human. That’s where it comes to MD back again. Thanks so much for stopping by today MD MD But yeah, it’s good stuff. Good stuff.

Curt Anderson  45:00

John as you as you’re building out your you know we had a fun conversation about Planet Fitness so I know that talked about ubiquitous you know, that’s a company everywhere. And I when you go into Planet Fitness man, they they tell you exactly who their ideal customer we use that word soulmate they tell you who their soulmate is a no, it’s not there, John, you had some experience there, but just talk about how important it is to understand that buyer. And again, I’m kind of beating that drum a little hard. But how do you provide that that wonderful, healthy, trusting experience?

Jon Guess  45:30

Yeah, I mean, I did work in a news industry that was familiar with Planet Fitness. I love that story. You know, they know who they are, and they know who they are not. And that’s so important on ecommerce. And that’s one of the first things that we would take you through when you’re starting to identify that vision for for E commerce, I think that’s so important is to know who you are, know how you’re transacting now, without e commerce, and then we’ll figure out how we can blend that in. But you know, the other thing about Planet Fitness is it’s very affordable, it was $10 a month or something at one point in time. It’s been a while since I was near that industry, but everybody told them, they couldn’t do it. Everybody told them, they couldn’t do it. And so it’s just a fantastic story. But, you know, I think at the end of the day, what we can learn from that is you’ve got to know who you are, know who you’re not, you’ve got to identify that vision on the front end for how you’re doing business now how your customers are interacting with you, and then tie that into how ecommerce can can work within that you’ve got to meet your customer where they’re at with E commerce. And there’s ways to do that, as we talked about with the some of the b2b tools out there now. And so I think navigating that in the beginning and having that vision is key. Key, very important.

Joseph Maxwell  46:47

One little thing I’ll throw out there in that class that we’re doing, every participant will have access to their own b2b e commerce environment. So what we’re doing if no, if they don’t have exposure already to e commerce or their own environment, at that point, they will be have free access to get in, make stuff, break stuff, it’s all there. We’ll we’ll work with you to make sure that you understand how that all works. But that’s going to be really powerful. Again, like we said, hands on making this incredibly practical and successful. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  47:23

So when is this when this again, so people understand what it is?

Curt Anderson  47:28

Yeah, absolutely. So we’re doing a jam session, we’re going to do a deep dive. It’s this Tuesday, March 5, it’s going to be 12 o’clock Eastern time, nine o’clock Pacific. So no excuses. You got to join us, man. We’re going to be I’ve got John and Joseph, I’m going to be moderating, we’re going to have a really fun workshop. We’ve got a couple examples that we’re going to be showing Joseph I’ve got the whole program all set dude. So there’s nothing that you guys need to even worry about. And then we’re following up we’re doing a cohort on March 19. And so Joseph I don’t know if let’s see, we should grab the link and drop that in there. Let’s see if I’ve got it in here. I do have let me grab that link and let me drop it in the chat box. And Damon if you could do me a massive favour maybe drop it drop

Damon Pistulka  48:09

it in the You bet.

Curt Anderson  48:10

So there’s a laser I want to be mindful of time because I know we’ve been geeking out for a while Joe so I’m probably keeping longer than I meant to so let’s start taking home parting thoughts words of wisdom any Damon What do you got?

Damon Pistulka  48:25

Drop it into the private chat please I don’t see it yet. I know I’ll make sure I get it to her.

Curt Anderson  48:30

Okay, I’ll send that over to Joseph any parting thoughts words of wisdom as we start winding down, just get it we’re here getting everybody juiced up and fired up for E commerce any your last

Joseph Maxwell  48:40

words here? Ecommerce is the way the future it’s critical it’s necessary. Come join us on the jam session on Tuesday. We also actually on it’s a swift auto site or doing a platform selection conversation just kind of talking about what what ecommerce looks like how to select a platform again, there’s so many things out there that can seem super daunting. We’re taking these boil it down to super super easy concepts. You’ll understand what these next steps are one at a time jam session next week we’re going to do that again the platform selection and all that is leading towards this cohort again boiling these what seems like really complex ideas down into things that are understandable by somebody at any technical level.

Curt Anderson  49:25

Absolutely love it. John, any any parting thoughts words of wisdom that you want to share with folks

Jon Guess  49:32

boom I think Joseph nailed it I think that I think that’s the biggest thing to take away we’re going to break it down into small chunks it’s going to be hands on and you know you’ll you’ll be able to walk away confident and be that champion and internally

Curt Anderson  49:46

well it’s do I love it let’s let’s take your home Damon so just a couple of things a recap on I just love you know guys, if you just joined us if you just you know, strongly encourage you welcome you number one. Connect with Joseph connect with you done on LinkedIn. Number two, go back and hit the rewind button man, there’s just all sorts if you’re new entrepreneur, Joseph shared a little bit of his kicking off his entrepreneurial journey. So there’s a lot of information there. If you are a business manufacturer and you’re trying to figure out this digital transformation, digital sales growth is what we’d love to talk about e commerce. Man, we covered a lot here. We have a fun program coming up on Tuesday. Alright guys, I have I have one. Damon, I have to ask them one last question I have.

Damon Pistulka  50:29

Let’s go with it. Let’s do it.

Curt Anderson  50:31

You think we should do it? I do. I think he can handle can they handle the truth? I started. I’m going to start with I’m going to start with John this time. I’m going to start here we go. Let’s do it. John, I don’t think I asked you this last time. You’re a repeat offender on the show. Again, guys connect with these guys on LinkedIn. Check out swift otter. You will tons tons of E commerce information there. John. You’re sports fan University Kentucky. Are you a baseball fan by any chance?

Jon Guess  51:02

Not as much college basketball mostly. Yeah. Okay.

Curt Anderson  51:05

So let’s just let’s say I don’t know who you’re near the reds. Right? Cincinnati. I don’t know if you’ve got let’s see team nearby, right.

Jon Guess  51:13

Let’s do Cardinals.

Curt Anderson  51:15

Let’s do the Cardinals. Okay, let’s go here. This I told John, I had I do have two different questions here. So I know I kind of threw curveball earlier. I have two different questions. So Joseph, you hang tight. So cardinals are playing the dread that hated cubs. It’s a bottom of the ninth or its tie score. There’s a guy on second base high score guy in second base two outs. They need the winning run. Like right now John, Gus, like right now, the manager turns down the bench and says, hey, guess guess who I need to go up and hit the winning run? You walk up you grab your helmet. You grab your bat, you’re walking to the play, like a lot of pressure. You’ve got to hit the winning run. What’s your walk up song?

Jon Guess  52:03

That is one part. But I love it. I love it. Um it’s going to be stated love and trust by Pearl Jam, because that song just pumps me up.

Curt Anderson  52:16

Bam. Oh my God, that sounds great. And what is it?

Damon Pistulka  52:20

What’s the name of that song stays date

Jon Guess  52:21

of love and trust by Pearl Jam. It’ll get you going? If it doesn’t. There’s something wrong with you.

Curt Anderson  52:30

Man, you know what? I’m a 90s grunge guy. And you’re the first person that’s thrown up Pearl Jam with Pearl Jam right there. So it’s ah, all right, Joseph. I have a different question. Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Are you are you?

Joseph Maxwell  52:50

I’m ready. I was actually thinking about my answer for the other one. So I’ll take a new one then go ahead.

Curt Anderson  52:56

Guess what? I don’t have another question. What’s your welcome

Joseph Maxwell  53:02

there’s a lot that that’ll get me going. I mean, a good Guns and Roses would probably do that. Yeah, Sweet Baby of mine. I like that one. Yeah, sweet. Yeah, that’s right. So child of mine. I’m actually really terrible song names. There you go. Yep, there you

Damon Pistulka  53:21

1. That would be a good one. You got Oh, god. Yeah, that would do

Curt Anderson  53:25

a great David Whitney says hey, I I never wrote a gas man. I was like full blown. I had hair back then what needs but I was full blown grunge that was pictures of that too. Man. I was just, I was at Planet Fitness. Yesterday. The gospels truth. They played Guns and Roses yesterday morning. And a young woman next to me. She had a red hot chili pepper shirt on. And I’m like, Man, I go you like the red hot chili pepper. We’re geeking out about that. And I’m telling her I go best concert of all time. I saw a 1995 Pearl Jam at the buffalo hockey arena that I took you guys to so that was i Hey, man, this was awesome. What a great conversation. Guys. Find these guys on LinkedIn. You can find them at swift otter. You can join us on Tuesday at our jam session, man we’re gonna be we’re on a mission to help as many manufacturers figure out this whole ecommerce thing. So thank you to everybody in the crowd today. We appreciate you. And if you guys have been hanging out here been about a little round of applause for our wonderful esteemed guests today. Joseph Maxwell and Jon Guess joining us thank you and for dads go back catch their heroes their dads were their heroes. Damon takeaways parting thoughts. What do you want to share?

Damon Pistulka  54:38

I’m just excited. I you guys are going to be dropping some great knowledge and helping helping people really understand ecommerce better to see how they should apply it in their business. And that’s good stuff.

Curt Anderson  54:48

Let’s do it. Well, I love it and say Anna says hey, champion by Carrie Underwood. And so we’ve got a couple of shout outs here. Dan says See you Tuesday. Have a marvelous weekend. So guys, God bless you. Thanks Whew, we appreciate you guys hanging out with us on Fridays. Connect with these guys. Damon, appreciate you, Joseph. Jon. Thank you, brothers. Thanks for having us on you guys. And hey, Damon as we wind down like I always love to say just go out and be someone’s inspiration just like these two guys were. Damon Take it away,

Damon Pistulka  55:19

dude. All right, Curt. Well, thanks so much, Joseph. And John, it was great having you guys on today. And I’m excited for your your jam session on Tuesday. If you didn’t catch that, go back in the comments and grab the link for the jam session on Tuesday. You guys, we also dropped the the link in there for your b2b cohort about e commerce readiness and figuring things out there. Go back and listen, go back to the beginning. Start over. And we always want to thank the people that were listening, making comments. Thank you. It makes us a lot of fun to interact with you while we’re doing this. And also those that didn’t have a chance to comment. We’d love you out there to just keep listening. And if you get a chance to comment, drop a question once in a while and we’ll happily answer them for you. But that’s all for now. And we’ll be back again guys hang out and we’ll finish up offline.