Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Emily Wilkins

Curt Anderson  0:00

Oh, there we go. Happy Monday. Good morning for folks where it’s morning. Good afternoon where it’s afternoon so Happy Monday. Damon, how are you my friend?

Damon Pistulka  0:10

I’m doing great, Kurt.

Curt Anderson  0:11

How was your weekend?

Damon Pistulka  0:13

Awesome.

Curt Anderson  0:13

Awesome, awesome weekend. So here we are weekend number two, Monday, number two of 2022. And man, I hope everybody’s sitting down for this. We have a phenomenal, amazing, incredible guest, my dear friend Emily Wilkins, Emily, join Wilkins. How are you this morning this afternoon.

Emily Wilkins  0:31

I’m fantastic. Thank you so much for having me. Sorry, guys, today,

Curt Anderson  0:37

we are doing and better than ever. So we have so much to unpack. So Emily, you and I came together and man I’m telling you like you just really sing our song and so many levels. And we have so much uncovered in such a short period of time. So let’s just dig right in. So your business is marketing metal marketing metal. Why manufacturing you are like the guru of helping poor manufacturers with their online presence with branding. How please, let’s give a little background and your story. How Why did you pick to go towards manufacturers? Yeah, so

Emily Wilkins  1:13

honestly, it was a it was really hard for me to to make the decision and really commit to manufacturing because I started my business three years ago, and I love working with small businesses in general. I love entrepreneurs, they’re, you know, they’re, we’re a different breed. Right? We’re a different kind of people. So I love working with entrepreneurs and I’ve worked with a number of different businesses from hospitality to my sorry, my cat is joining us here. Hospitality too. I have a crop insurance agent that I’ve worked with i Mr. Does cookies. And so it was really it was really hard for me to make that decision. My most of my experience is in manufacturing. And when before I started my business, that’s kind of where I was, um, and I did initially plan on focusing on manufacturers but then I had you know, I think when COVID hit everyone was like yeah, this is the perfect time to start my business. I had all these people like come Yeah, hey, make me a website, you know, and this was kind of right when I was getting started so but then over the summer I really took a step back and was like this is what this is why I started this is what I really wanted to do so let’s let’s refocus here and get back into it and I’m so glad that I did it’s really an add person like me with lots of passions and interests it’s really hard to pick something and run with it. But once I did it really opened opened things up for me it made it made my business a lot easier and more more focused, you know, I have I have goals I have things that I’m trying to achieve, you know, now versus before it was like, whatever small business is referred to me I’ll pick them up and work with them and so yeah, so I don’t know if I really answered

Curt Anderson  3:25

your pick this was absolutely perfect because well I ran it so I put out a blog post last week it was called niche down till it hurts so good. And I just I feel like what you’ve done you’ve really gone that direction. And guys, you have to connect with Emily and Emily, I just want to I you have one of my favorite headlines on Leanne. I just want to share real quick if you guys haven’t seen it, I help job shops make big profits and even bigger impact by building a radical brand and marketing machine in just a few days. Empowering empowering them to use it. So Emily, let’s let’s just man let’s break that apart. First off, what a great headline that you you are super concise. You are clear. If I’m a restaurant if I’m a hair salon, I’m not coming to my friend Emily but boy if you are a job shop, you are dedicated you are fiercely focused on helping that manufacturer please like enlighten us what is radical brandy? What is a radical job shops? Share that with us.

Emily Wilkins  4:24

Yeah, so, um, the, you know, the traditional job shop model, we’ll start there is we do everything you know, whatever job comes to us where you know, we’re gonna execute it to the best of our abilities and, and that’s great. You know, it doing lots of different things gives you lots of new skills and you know, it helps you grow and all that but um, but once you’ve been in business for a little while you can kind of start to realize, oh, we really like this one thing, or we’re really good at this one thing, and maybe you’re good at all the things but like, this thing is really awesome for us, we really make a lot of profit here. We really love these customers, we do a great job. And then by narrowing into that area, that’s really where the magic happens. That’s where you’re, you’re not just a job shop anymore. You’re someone that people can refer you, right? You they remember who you are, they say, Oh, this this job shop does this one specific thing so I know exactly who they’re looking for. So that’s really at the heart of the the radical brand and really making yourself memorable and shareable. As you know, as you guys know, you’re on LinkedIn and, um, you know, being noticeable, memorable and shareable. Are is key. And if you’re, if you’re not distinguishing yourself, if you’re not really saying anything with your brand, then you’re just another job shop and you’re just, you know, at the whim of whatever comes through your door.

Curt Anderson  6:01

Right? Absolutely. Good morning, John Buck Leno’s with us. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  6:04

John, for this day.

Curt Anderson  6:06

Happy Monday, John. So again, I absolutely love this, Emily, because, man, I love your mug, too. Can we see that? Oh, bad mug. So let’s you know what that that’s, that’s a perfect segue. Let’s just dive into your next question.

Emily Wilkins  6:18

I don’t know, I should show you the other side.

Curt Anderson  6:23

We saw nothing you can go by. That’s always that’s funny. If, and let’s hit on that. So again. So you and I were connected through our dear friend Megan, the mavens of manufacturing. And so what I love that you’re talking about here, so again, as a job shop, okay, cost of manufacture. You know, again, for any of us entrepreneurs, we call it like that entrepreneurial curse, where you know, just happy for a sale or leave them in the door. And when we try to be everything, we are nothing to no one right. So please share, please enlighten, you know, like, so a job shop. Let’s go through that process. Okay, yeah, I bend metal, I am a 3d printer, I make circuit boards, whatever custom product that I make, you know, I treat myself as a commodity. How do we flip the script and help that manufacturer to realize like, No, you are delivering incredible problem, you’re solving amazing problems. You’re performing magic? How do you help these manufacturers see that?

Emily Wilkins  7:20

Yeah, um, so we start with this thing called the setup, which is a two hour intensive interview that I I really deep dive with these manufacturers on. What do you want? Like, what did you why did you start this business to begin with? What? You know, What compelled you to do this? Why? What experiences did you have that really made you say, Wow, I, I want to be a business owner, because it’s not easy to business, right? We all know, this, it’s, it’s not an easy thing. It’s, it’s hard work. Like, it sounds great to be your own boss, but until you realize that you’re the hardest boss you’ve ever had. Right? So I’m so doing this going through this process and getting to the heart of why did they really start this thing? What is their magic sauce? Why, you know, why do people come to them? Why did their customers come to them? And why did they stay? And trying to really pick apart? What is that process? You know, what are what is that background experience that, that you have that makes you not just a commodity? You know, I think it’s getting them out of the the time and materials mindset, because that’s, that’s what everyone’s in, you know, all these jobs. They’re there in that time and materials mindset, and it’s getting them out of that it’s helping them realize that, yes, you’re spending, you know, whatever, five hours building this part, but it’s the, you know, 10 years of experience that you have, that allows you to build it in five hours. And like, you know, offer design suggestions and all these things like so they’re not and you have to be competitive, of course, you know, there’s there’s a range there, but if you’re offering more than just your, your skilled trade, then you can you can charge more and you can be more profitable and you can build a business around that.

Damon Pistulka  9:25

Yeah. Right. You know, it’s interesting, I had Brian bed dig on my face his business show last week, and he runs kavaler Cavalier tool and manufacturing in Windsor, Canada. And he’s like he said he was a 26 largest injection molded producer in the in the world. And they’ve spent a tremendous amount of money, getting really good at getting really good and really fast to make molds and he said the same thing, no matter what you do. If you work if you compete on price, you’re it’s a race to the bottom. Yep. And he said we have focused on in their case, they focus on speed, and quality of the product they build. And, and not just the quality of the actual physical product, but the quality of the service they provide, because they do a lot of engineering and, and troubleshooting virtually. And then the speed that they’ve developed because they run offshore operations to, you know, to complement and 24 hour day design and manufacturing. To really speed up the process. That is their key. And they can charge a little bit more because of it. Like you said, yeah, right.

Curt Anderson  10:39

Yeah. Yeah, that’s and that’s what I absolutely love. Emily’s like, so what you’re doing is you’re laser focusing on, you know, you have some interesting, you know, things over your shoulder there. So, you know, we’re talking about Super, not necessarily Superheroes over your shoulder. But superpowers for these manufacturers like what I saw somewhere like, you know, reflecting visioning and goal setting is part of your process. Yeah, our dear friend Megan’s with us today, she got the notes. So glad to have Emily on love her backdrop, being a business owner is so hard, but such a satisfying journey. And on Friday, we had a we had Yeah, founder of biggest fans on the program. And he said, he said, if you’re having fun as an entrepreneur, you’re not doing it. Right. That is, that was phenomenal. So solar is sure a little bit like how do you sold for that manufacturer? We’re like, they are so creative. They’re innovative. They’re widget experts, boy, they know how to make their parts like nobody else. However, maybe marketing sales just isn’t their thing? How do you hope that manufacturer pull those superpowers out? And understand, you know, the non commoditize? Is that a word? I think it is made up a word? How do you how do you help them not be the commodity? Yeah,

Emily Wilkins  11:52

so that that two hour interview is a huge part of it. And it’s so funny, I, I hear every time I do it, they’re like, does everyone have this much trouble with this? Like, yes, they do. It’s really hard. And that’s why, you know, that’s why so many shops fail, I think to, to do it. Because it’s, it’s really, it’s really looking inward, it’s and that’s not an easy thing to do in our society, not a lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about their feelings and what they want. And so yeah, so that’s a big part of it. And then at the end of that two hour thing, I write up a brief that, you know, details what we talked about, it really gets to the heart of what they have going on for them that great and maybe what their challenges are, and then I give recommendations of how they can, they can really level up and, and move forward. And, you know, I provide a quote at the end if, you know, if you want to hire us to do that cool. If not, that’s cool, too. You know, it’s, um, it’s a great process, because it’s not, it’s not me giving an hour of my time for free, and then them feeling like they owe me something to like, giving them this huge package at the end of it. Like this is how most marketing agencies work. So you, you get an hour of time for free and then you give them this huge proposal at the end and they’re like, oh my god, I was not expecting anywhere near that, that price, right? I I have my prices right on my website, which is most marketing agencies do not do so. So that helps set the expectations and it helps them you know, not be super shocked at the end of this. And it doesn’t waste my time it doesn’t waste their time. And it actually gives them something of value at the end of it that they can that they can execute on their own

Curt Anderson  13:49

right. And that’s and I love it again what’s great about you is you’re not talking to talk you’re walking a lot so again you guys check out Emily’s website. It is absolutely awesome. You have tons of information on there. And again you walk through you talk about that process so if somebody’s just like Hey Emily, I just need a website just you know something just you know, please throw it up there. You’re not a good fit for that, you know, project like you’re playing the role of like, partner, strategist, you’re gonna come in on the branding side. Let’s talk about I want to give a couple shout outs we have my friend Rosemary Rosemary down in Miami. So rosemary, you’re gonna love this. So like I’m in upstate New York where it’s freezing. Damon’s in Seattle, Emily’s in Michigan so my friend Rosemary I was just on a call with her earlier she’s on today Prasad is here today loving hearing about manufacturing in the E commerce Emily so talk about like some things like you know job shops can break out of local markets better you can create a better quoting process building authentic brand and legacy which I know is music curious, Damon, talk a little bit about like, how do you help? Why is branding so I’m a little job shop. Why is branding so important to me and I just didn’t like how do you help them see that process?

Emily Wilkins  14:58

Yeah, so the The way that I explain it is sales do doing sales work, that’s, um, it’s, it’s single use, right? It’s like single use plastic, you get one use out of it. And then you throw it away, you might get a, you know, you might get one customer that maybe sticks with you, and then you have a, you know, maybe you get work from them going forward. Yeah, maybe you get some ongoing work, but, but branding is something that is, is sustainable, right? If you have a brand, and you focus, and it’s again, it’s that focusing inward on, on what you have going on what you have to offer, obviously, understanding your customers important too, that’s a big piece of it, but But it starts with you, it starts with what you really want and what you’re really good at and, and what you envision for your for your business going forward. And by doing that, it you can, if you position yourself, well, you can create exponential growth for your for your company. And so like another example, a sales meeting with, with what a one on one sales meeting with one company that that lasts as long as the meeting lasts, right? Maybe you get it maybe don’t, it’s 5050 chance, if you do a video, that you where you really help your customer understand a concept that you know that you are an expert in, that lasts forever. You know, as long as as long as YouTube lasts, or whatever, you know, that lasts forever. And that’s always out there. And that’s something that you can use in your sales process to make your to sell yourself easier. So

Damon Pistulka  16:49

you Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s amazing how those little like, you talked about video, right? And I use it in our business even? Yeah, when you’ve created a lot of videos, and someone has a question. Yeah, rather than answering the question, sending a video link to say, well, here’s something that we did on this on YouTube, you can just watch this when you when you think and kind of how we look at this, or how we solve this particular problem. And those videos are so invaluable, because like you said, it’s it’s keeps on going

Emily Wilkins  17:19

keeps on going forever. Yeah, you do it once and you have it. It’s another another analogy that I use is like it’s like a high frequency lane. Right? It’s, it’s a big investment initially, but once you pay it off that net profit. Right,

Curt Anderson  17:37

exactly. And so and you know what, that’s a perfect segue for our next question and lead. So I love what you’re saying, Damon, you know, you know, we deal with a lot of manufacturers without training, and folks that you work with, and, you know, we can see here like the feast and famine of a custom job shop, right? And it’s always a challenge, like, hey, we need business. And so you know, pre bovid, hey, let’s go to a trade show or you know, sales rep is going to go on the road pounding pavement, hey, we have business, we have a full pipeline. Now we don’t need sales. And so we kind of ignore it. So it’s that roller coaster of that feast and famine. What’s your approach? How do you what’s your advice to that custom job shop? How do you help them kind of flatten out the curve? Or like, how can we get into a more of a growth trajectory? How do you help them with that?

Emily Wilkins  18:20

Yeah, um, it depends on the shop. Obviously, every, every business is different. And what works for one isn’t going to work for another but um, it’s helping them really build out a process for for developing business that is sustainable for them. So something you know, breaking it down into one, you’re there one killer strategy that is going to bring them the exact business that they want, repeatedly, that they can, you know, they know what they have to do every week, to get, you know, to get the results that they want. And they just, they just stick to it. And it really helps take, you know, take the pressure off of like, oh my god, I should be doing all the things like, like, all business owners feel like, I should be doing all the things and I’m really only not, I’m failing miserably, like, feeling like you’re failing all the time, because you’re not doing all the things because there’s so many things. There’s, you know, there’s video, there’s LinkedIn, there’s Facebook, there’s website, and, you know, you could be doing ads with trade shows, and oh, you know, and, and, and, and, and so,

Curt Anderson  19:30

yeah, it gets, right, especially for a manufacturer where they’re, you know, they don’t typically have their marketing hat on. And again, you know, when you think of the job shops and small manufacturers that you deal with, you know, you think I’m literally an hourly basis, you know, one minute they’re their own HR department, the next minute, they’re dealing with supply chain issues, the next minute they’re dealing with, you know, hey, new safety regulations through COVID. You know, I mean, every hour there, something’s different. And then also like, hey, at 11 o’clock, let’s try to throw in our marketing sales hat and see what we get, you know, so like every hour, they’re doing something different. So it’s so nice to align themselves with a trusted guide, a resource partner expert like yourself. And I love what you know, just kind of recapping what you’re saying, Yeah, I’m gonna sit down, we’re gonna dig deep. We’re gonna go through your strengths, your opportunities, what are you absolutely bust that? And David, I know, we’re constantly listening to like, you know, hey, again, like, you know, our famous I bend metal I could see. Yeah, so from like, a keyword strategy, you know, when you’re helping with someone’s website, you know, like, when you talk to them long enough, like you’re, you know, in plastic injection molding, like, Well, man, if we want to go after that key word. Good luck. Not Yeah. orgy. But when he talked to me, yeah, within our present, you know that our session, they’re going to start telling you what we do plastic injection for aerospace or plastic injection molding for this specific industry, this specific part turbine engines, how do you help folks kind of like, narrow that down? So they’re not trying to be everything to everybody to get that length to speak that right language on their website?

Emily Wilkins  21:03

Yeah, um, so I have a really, very radical view on SEO. I think SEO for the sake of SEO is not gonna work, ever. Um, so it’s more, it’s building that foundation of what are we? You know, what’s our message? What are we great at? What what, what expertise can we bring to the table, and building out content for that, and just by doing that, that, that’s your SEO, that’s where your search is gonna come from, that’s where your, your best customers are gonna find you is these, you know, the content that you’re doing and, and sharing that content too, right? The more you share your your content, the more the better it does, and the more years you get on it, etc. So,

Curt Anderson  21:56

how do you look for those job shops were like, you know, they’ve never, you know, the thought of like, doing any content is like, pretty foreign. How do you like, how do you help them get into the baby steps of like, during that first video, or the first piece of content or case study? Or like, how do you help them? Are they kicking and screaming? Or like, how do you make it? Not necessarily fun? How do you make it palatable for for a company that’s maybe they’re digital immigrants or old guys like me, and it’s new to them? How do you help those guys conquer that day? That content challenge?

Emily Wilkins  22:25

Yeah. I think by the time they make the decision to to actually come to me, they know they need to do something. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s not it’s not always they’re not always kicking and screaming. They might be but they’re, they’re willing, you know? Yeah. Yeah. They might not love it, but they know that they have to do it. Yeah, do it. But But also, I think, I think that’s one thing. One example where me being a woman actually really helps because I I have that kind of, I don’t know that nurturing like, Yeah, let’s make this fun, kind of, yeah, kind of a vibe and it helps them relax more and get more, you know, be more of themselves, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  23:15

Right. That’s awesome. And we got Katie gotta Hello, good. Happy Monday. Katie, we have cargo we have Margo cargo Margo, with us. Yeah, she’s in sunny LA. Yeah, Margo, Happy Monday to you. So let’s, I know you love your you are very brash with like, You’re just like your mug, you’re like, no BS cuts through, you know, like, how do you help these guys cut through the BS and like, get through all the noise. And in again, so So folks that are are apt and receptive to creating that content? What are some of those first steps? Like, like, is it a blog post? Is it social posts? Like how are you going to help them? What are they doing what the describe those first steps that you walk those guys through?

Emily Wilkins  23:58

Um, the first step is, is developing the core of what their message is going to be and, and developing the legs, right? Like, this is our core message. These are some of the, you know, the things that go along with that. Like, it’s just kind of mind mapping. And then from there, helping them realize that once you have the message, that’s the easy part, or that’s the hard part. But the easy part is like turning it into all the things and you can you know, you can hire people to do that. If if if you don’t have any talent in any of these areas. You can, you can hire people to execute it for you. But you still have to come up with the ideas. The ideas, are you there. That’s the important part. Yeah, yeah. And really doing it just do it. Like,

Damon Pistulka  24:53

yeah, well, I think I think a lot of manufacturers because they think about manufacturing in general. It’s very exciting. Acting. It’s scary. Oh, yeah. It’s the you know, the quality demands are through the roof. You can’t have a mistake, right? So they’re always worried about making mistakes with content content is completely the other way. I think anyway. Yeah. You just got to go do it. Yeah. And if you screw up, it’s like, what’s a really matter? Right? Yeah. Yeah. And go get just start going for it.

Emily Wilkins  25:23

Yeah. And honestly, the the beauty of just starting and, and forgetting the trying to be perfect about everything is you probably don’t have much of an audience. Yes. Yeah. Screw up. You’re not gonna, you know, there’s not that many people are gonna see

Damon Pistulka  25:39

exactly what occurred. I mean, I don’t even count anymore. How many shows you and I have done? And we’re continually looking at? Okay, we really did. Yeah, just, you know, it was not good. What are we going to do to go better? And, and it’s, it’s never gonna go, that’s never gonna go away? I don’t? Yeah, no. So just gonna get started.

Curt Anderson  26:00

Yeah, the founder of LinkedIn says, if, if, if you’re, if you’re not embarrassed by your first outing, you waited too long. Yeah. Well, that could be whether I was assigned to a group call if if Rosemary stir still here. And you know, we had someone in our group who’s like now launching on Twitter, she was like, Man, I wasn’t even sure how to use Yeah, you know. So again, like, whatever platform that you feel that those ideal buyers are hanging out at, you know, just be, be yourself, be authentic. You know, none of us are perfect. We have another hello from Chile, New Hampshire. Jay Taylor. Hey, Jay. Happy Monday, my friend. Thanks for joining us. So Emily, let’s talk about the website itself now. So like, you know, you’re a visionary, creative, very innovative. So again, you know, Job Shop, typically, you know, we have, unfortunately, a little bit of that stereotype, if you will, you know, kind of machinery and greasy so on and so forth. How do you bring How do you bring, like your magic and your creativity into a website. So let’s go in that process. So like, you’ve, you’ve got you broken that barrier, where like, they know they need your help, they want to get on content that you, as you mentioned before, if anybody’s just joining us, you have your prices, were right on your website, which I absolutely love, I think that’s phenomenal. Talk about your process, and on how you actually tack the web design itself.

Emily Wilkins  27:16

Um, yeah, again, it, it comes from their personality, we try to really make that central. And, you know, good, bad or ugly, whatever, like, yeah, trying to make it authentic to them. And using using what they have, you know, it’s taking their raw materials and turning it into something that, that is cohesive, and shows, you know, shows them or shows them off in the way that they want to be, you know, the way they want to show up in the world. So, and a good website doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, you know, a good website is something that has content that really speaks to your customer, like the the messaging and, and what you put in the website is way more important than, than the layout and the platform that you’re using, and all of that, like, those things are their secondary and, and that’s where I’ve been able to really, you know, create my process, my process that I’ve branded for myself is you know, we have a specific platform that we use, we have specific things that we go through, we have a you know, filing system that we use to give our clients everything at the end of the project, we you know, we go through training with them at you know, towards the end, right before we launch, we record it all so that they have it going forward. So they have power over their website, I I’ve been in marketing a long time and, and the point was always to, you know, to build something that the customer doesn’t know how to use so that they have to keep coming back but I’m doing the opposite of that I I want to empower them to use it because your website can be very powerful if you you know if you keep if you keep adding to it and creating new things for it so so it’s really just building that that baseline that framework for them that then they can take and run with. Yeah, I absolutely

Curt Anderson  29:27

love this. I love that there’s someone like you that is laser focus, because so many manufacturers are going to go to a web designer, and you know, this company is helping with restaurants retail of different industries. It because you’ve niched down and laser focused on you know, exhausting your superpowers in helping them I have to love the direction love what you’re saying here. And not only do you are you creating raving fans, you’re helping your clients create their own raving fans. Yeah, I’m sure a little bit so on the content side if you don’t mind I know I keep kind of keep hammering this and I don’t mean to like reframe the question. If I’m you know, what would be like, say job shop, you know, and I’m like, geez, Emily, I just I’m not sure where to start. Can you give me some advice? Like, you know, should I start with a video? Should I start with, you know, what would be a good first step for someone that’s new? I’m a digital immigrant, like, what would be a good step for me as far as like taking that plunge into content?

Emily Wilkins  30:20

It’s really what are you most comfortable with? Personally, I think video is video packs the biggest punch because you can transcribe the video and turn it into a blog post really easily. Right? Yeah. And and then once you have a blog post, you can take little pieces of it and post it on social media and, you know, talk about it in different ways. So I think video probably has the most legs, right it can, you can move it along, but but not everybody is willing to go on video. It’s even something that I’m terrible at. So I’m, I’m trying to get myself there by doing some of these. Will podcasting

Curt Anderson  31:05

kind of practice what you preach a little bit? Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Emily Wilkins  31:08

Because I, I’m a better writer, I’ve always been a good writer. So that’s where I, I really shine. So I’ve been writing blog posts and right, and that’s going really well for me, but but I do want to start doing more videos.

Curt Anderson  31:25

Yeah, it is. Megan just dropped a note. She said you can repurpose video in so many ways. And he is a force with Megan, you are so aggressive. And she completely agrees. And Damon, you do a fantastic job with transcribe, you know, posting video. And for a little tip out there for folks. You know, otter.ai? Yo, yeah.

Damon Pistulka  31:49

It’s awesome.

Emily Wilkins  31:50

Yeah, I do. It’s amazing.

Damon Pistulka  31:52

It is it really is. You know, I want to just back up just for one second, because you said something, Emily, that I think every manufacturer should just commit to memory. You don’t need a pretty website that’s elaborate or anything. It just has to say the right things and show the right things. It’s got it I mean, because so many people obsess over the details of the visuals on a website, when you got about five seconds to capture somebody’s attention, and show them why they should do business with you and what the next step is. And if you don’t do that, that, you know, a $50,000 website doesn’t do you any good. If you don’t do that, and consequently, a much less expensive website will perform wonderfully with maybe the colors not so great. Maybe the text size is not quite perfect or some Your

Emily Wilkins  32:49

logo is made in 1970. Yeah, that’s not

Damon Pistulka  32:53

a big deal. If it’s got the if it really grabs the attention of the of your soulmate. And you said that I’m just like, so many people that are that are providing web services or website development services. Don’t focus on the content, like you were talking, which is far more important than the graphics.

Emily Wilkins  33:12

Yeah. 100%.

Damon Pistulka  33:13

Yeah, very good. Very good.

Curt Anderson  33:16

No, I absolutely loved it. There’s some good comments here. So Katie dropped, you know, I love Vidyard for quick, like intros. Jay dropped another, you know, I think those pencil sketch videos, it’s like subtitles for pitchers. Oh, yeah. That’s cool. Yeah. So again, so great, great conversation here. Great advice. So Emily, again, I want to be mindful of your time we have so much that we could just talk about now, on a personal note, you shared a couple things with me that I hopefully if you don’t mind me bringing up Crohn’s disease you had shared with me and that you feel that that has been a force that really inspires you to be a better entrepreneur. More success. Share a little bit. Give us some insight there. What’s going on?

Emily Wilkins  33:58

Oh, man, how much time do we have?

Curt Anderson  34:02

All day? You know, I fight again, you know, you’re not like that. Thanks to Megan here. Megan. Hello, thank you for joining us. I just find you so inspiring. I love the work that you’re doing. You and I are collaborating on talking about like how, you know, I feel that, you know, I have numerous folks that that need your superpowers. Just if you’re in again, we don’t go super deep. Whatever your Well, you had mentioned that, you know, you’re very vocal about this topic. And you know, you’re a big outdoors person, very active. Just hear a little bit of like, how, and I find it very inspiring, that you’re not using as your uses as an excuse to be successful as an excuse to not be successful. Just share a little bit on what’s going on.

Emily Wilkins  34:41

Yeah, that what you just said is, is totally accurate. It’s, um, I was diagnosed when I was 16. And, um, I had a really hard time with it for a long time. I was always like a really picky eater as a kid Had I, you know, I chicken nuggets and mac and cheese like that was my thing. Um, and, and you know, being 16 I was just getting into, like, you know, starting to like, Well, maybe it’s 1718 but like starting to like party and you know, and then college right college, just just, no one takes care of themselves. And

Damon Pistulka  35:23

yeah.

Curt Anderson  35:25

David did but other than that

Emily Wilkins  35:28

athletes, maybe as

Damon Pistulka  35:30

athletes to college athletes

Emily Wilkins  35:32

lives up here. And um, you know, I struggled for a really long time. And then, you know, and then after college I, I, right, went right into the workforce, and I actually worked. I went to Kettering University, and we did Co Op, every other term was Mark.

Curt Anderson  35:50

Did I see? I’m sorry, Emily, did I see? Did you work at GE did I see that on your LinkedIn? Yes. Like, you know, you worked for General Electric. I mean, you were you know, that’s, that’s serious. Yeah, that was the

Emily Wilkins  36:01

thing. Yeah. That they’re definitely the biggest company I’ve ever worked to. Yeah. Or by a long shot. I didn’t work for big companies very well. So yeah, I did. I did document editing for engineering documentation. That was really exciting. Um, and being in the cube farm was really fun. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  36:26

The Sea of cube the sea of

Emily Wilkins  36:28

kids. Yeah. Um, so I am having to be in an office for eight hours a day, that was a huge struggle for me as, as someone with Crohn’s because I’m, you know, I do grow stuff, like I need, I’d like to be near my own, like bathroom, I’m able to, like, do my own thing. And, and then, you know, when I actually got serious about, about taking care of myself, and eating healthy, like, that’s impossible to do when you’re in an office. So um, so that was a huge point of contention at my previous job, because I, I started an agency as part of a product development engineering firm. And it, I mean, it was great, because it gave me the experience and a lot of contacts that I still have, I still work with some of those customers that I got then. But I just always kind of my boss, and I always, really didn’t see eye to eye on the having to be in the office. And remember, this is before COVID. So long before anyone was working from home. And I was just, I pushed it all the time. Like, I need to be home, like, I’ll come into the office for a couple hours, I don’t mind doing that. Every day, I can come in a couple hours every day, it’s fine. But to be there for eight hours is really hard for me to take care of myself. And so yeah, that that’s one thing, one, one driving force that was like, Okay, I’m done with this, I’m actually going to start my own thing and be my own boss. But, but in terms of how it prepared me for being my own boss, um, I have to take my health into my own hands, you know, I doctors, um, first of all don’t know anything about nutrition. Yeah, like nothing. They have like, one class on nutrition, in their eight years in school, whatever. Um, so I really had to learn a lot about about taking care of myself. And again, I, I didn’t eat green things as a child. So. So this was a huge, like, huge change in my life that I that I had to really push myself to do. And so yeah, I think just like, pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and, and taking charge of taking responsibility, really, for my destiny. That was that was a huge learning curve with Crohn’s that really prepared me to be a good entrepreneur and someone who, you know, because there’s no one telling you that you have to work right? There’s no one you have to get done. You’re the you’re the one you know, you you have to hold yourself accountable to these things and yeah, Crohn’s really pushed me to be that person because I I was I was not that person. Growing up I had I had major add, I forgot things all the time. I went without a winter coat one year because my mom because I lost my winter coat, like multiple times, and my mom was like, I’m not I need another winter coat. You can freeze like you need to keep track of your stuff. I showed up. Practice without my flute one morning like like I was just terrible,

Curt Anderson  40:03

right right that yeah that didn’t go over well Prasad dropped a nice note. We said hey, if this is any help, my good friends to see CFO of a nonprofit organization, Crohn’s and Colitis foundation.

Emily Wilkins  40:14

Oh wow. Very familiar. Yep. So

Curt Anderson  40:17

he dropped a link in the chat box there so when somebody check that out connect with preset, so again, guys, I want to wind down. Yeah. Emily, this is just such a great conversation. Steven Smith dropped a comment 70% of the world’s population are visually oriented video may work. It is absolutely working. So again, tons of choices, YouTube, Vimeo, tic tac, so lots of opportunities here. Emily, last question for you. Before we move on with our Monday. You’ve shared with me something really fascinating. And Damon, this is a conversation you and I have never had on any of our diet in any of our interviews, Terek cards, tarot cards, with you and Tarek cards.

Emily Wilkins  41:01

I read tarot cards.

Curt Anderson  41:05

All right. Sure. So what’s going on? Like, can you can you are David Knight, am I ever gonna grow hair again? Like can you help me in like, is there any hope? Or no?

Emily Wilkins  41:15

The cards say no, no. Yeah, the

Damon Pistulka  41:17

cards say no. All right.

Curt Anderson  41:19

Well, I’ll move on to my next chair a little bit of what you have going on there.

Emily Wilkins  41:24

So yeah, I don’t even know when I first started getting into Tarot I was. I’ve always been in like counterculture. And you can see my I know, you’ve commented on my,

Curt Anderson  41:36

actually Dracula some. Yeah, I

Emily Wilkins  41:37

mean, they’re cool, like 40s and 50s. Movies, the scary movies. I was a huge my sister and I are like, huge, massive Harry Potter nerds like we have been to the world and we know all the things. And so yeah, I don’t know, I’ve just always been drawn to that like, kind of counter culture of superstitious magic kind of world. And so I bought my first tarot cards, probably 10 years ago, and then I didn’t really, I didn’t really do much with them. Like, every once in a while, my friends and I would get together and we’d like, try to you know, we do a little reading and try to figure out what it meant. And, but then it was actually when, when I started my business, I really started to use them as a way to just like, get myself to think differently about things and, and help me kind of plan and focus my focus on being so there’s a few different, you know, tarot gurus or whatever that I follow. And, and I just started doing it every day, I would I would just pull, like, at first, I would just do one card a day, and I would just pull it and I think like, how does this relate to my life or my situation? Or, you know, my asking a question, say, like, what is this? You know, how does this really and it’s not, it’s not a, it’s not voodoo, right? It’s not. I’m not predicting the future with it. I’m, I’m helping myself just see a different perspective and tried to think through different parts of my life, right. But it has been like, every once in a while, I do readings for other people. And they do like, tell me, they get goose bumps and stuff. And they’re like, Wow, this is amazing. Like, oh, spot on. I can’t believe it. But it’s cool.

Curt Anderson  43:37

Well, Megan, Megan dropped a note. She’s She she wants to connect with you. She wants a reading. And Jay dropped a classic note, he’s, you know, you should have played the trumpet. You never forget your trumpet. So, you know, a little too late for that. So yeah, you know, for those flutes, as a trumpet player, yeah. Players might want to get a tuba, you know, just get one. Yeah.

Emily Wilkins  44:01

Not forget a tuba. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  44:03

So well, Emily, we’re gonna wrap up. So this was such a blessing. This was just such a wonderful conversation. So combination of things. Damon Knight, we’re, you know, I love sharing this. We are big. We’re girl dads, and you are such an inspiration as an entrepreneur, for women in manufacturing. So our hats off to you for what you are doing. You are driving force, taking care of your health. And so we appreciate you. Thank you for spending time with us today to share your expertise, your power your superpowers, and men. We’re looking forward to a super exciting 2022. So, guys, if you get a chance, please connect with Emily. If you are dealing with any manufacturers where their website looks like from 2005 We have the answer for you right here. You want to connect with Emily, and she can put that to rest. So last comment here from Megan. They’re really interesting. I used to have a deck and it came with a book that explained everything so you know, maybe that’d be our next meeting. We’ll do a little

Damon Pistulka  44:59

recap Reading that’s right back on. I’ll

Emily Wilkins  45:01

do a reading for you. I’d love to

Curt Anderson  45:03

have people come on and we can do reading. So, guys, this is awesome. So Emily, hang out with us for one second. David, what do you got? Brother? One

Damon Pistulka  45:11

thing much. What do we got going on Friday? Kurt? You almost forgot.

Curt Anderson  45:16

I have a couple of things. So I’m at Temple University on Wednesday at noon. So anybody want a free man? You think you had fun today? We’re gonna have a blast at Temple University on Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time doing an e Commerce program. And this Friday. i EMILY, are you Damon? Are you sitting down? Are you guys sitting down for this? We have the editor in chief of Ink Magazine. So Emily, we know we want you on the Inc 5000 fastest growing company. So join us on Friday. Yeah, Scott. Scott. Oh, and he’s the editor in chief of Ink Magazine. And he’s going to be speaking with us on manufacturing ecommerce success on Friday, so that’s gonna be something guys have an awesome, awesome day. Keep crushing it through the week and we will see you on Friday. So hang on one second, guys. God bless you guys. Have a great day. And thanks, guys.