Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Parinda Saetia

Damon Pistulka 0:00
Oh, we can fix that.

Curt Anderson 0:04
All right, man. Hey, Damon, Happy Monday to you, brother. How are you doing today?

Damon Pistulka 0:10
I’m doing great Curt. Happy Monday to you.

Curt Anderson 0:12
Well, thank you very much my friend. Are you in? I don’t know. I think there’s something going on this week. Is there not something at the end of the week? I’m not 100% Sure. Is there something coming up?

Damon Pistulka 0:21
I think so.

Curt Anderson 0:22
And is that big? Are you ready? Are you ready for the holiday? Like everything wrapped everything done everything? Like a chopped? No, no,

Damon Pistulka 0:30
it’s not wrapped, wrapped, but it’s all been in in my possession for a while now.

Curt Anderson 0:37
Well, hey, dude, you’re like 20 steps ahead of me. You get all your cookies baked and all that good stuff. Right. So you’re good there. Right?

Damon Pistulka 0:43
I actually I should show some pictures of that. I can get it at the end because we had we were doing we did like 10 dozen sugar cookies this weekend.

Curt Anderson 0:52
Oh, it was cookie Palooza at the Palooza and it’s

Damon Pistulka 0:55
just getting started. So

Curt Anderson 0:56
let’s get this party started. So I have no manufacturing Monday motivation. You talk about motivating this today. Damon, what a great way to close out the year because this is our last site. And and this is just we’re gonna be rocking and rolling. I’ve got two dear friends on stage today. This is just so awesome. So right below me is this wonderful person. Parinda Happy Monday. How are you today?

Parinda Saetia 1:20
I’m great. Thank you.

Curt Anderson 1:22
Thank you for joining us and she comes from the great city of Chicago and she has an amazing company. She’s just as relentless entrepreneur. We’re going to talk about my Klein and she has been rocking it for many years, though she doesn’t look like it. We have my other dear friend Jacqueline. Jacqueline, you’re ready you know you know I got this lock down. Perfect right collo j. So Jacqueline Hello J there we go from iMac the Illinois and II P Manufacturing Extension Partnership. So I printed my first question for you that we’d love to kick off our program with I’m coming at your first and foremost being that you’re a big you know, you’re a big time CEO, you know that I’m like, I’m Damon I’m a little intimidated. Right now we’ve got this big CEO on stage here. So Parinda, my question to you is when you were a young person growing up, and you’ve had just this wonderful, adventurous life that you’ve lived, who was your hero growing up who was like a big influence that big motivator to you who was your hero when you were a young person growing up?

Parinda Saetia 2:26
My biggest hero is my father. So so he’s, you know, has been working since he was very, very young, like 11 years old. So he’s always my inspiration. So he just you know, helped me guide me through you know, college to starting the business to everyday and to you now he still does. He’s been in business, same business as us like, but doing a lot of mass produced like mass Motrin. So and then he sent us to the state we are from I’m from Thailand. So he’s been in the luggage business making bags for you know like what like I think all my life 40 years plus so yeah, he he had a really like a good like visions. And you know, he just like work hard for that provide for his family. Yeah, just has a lot of integrity and like take care of his customer. And that’s you know, that’s why I think he’s

Curt Anderson 3:42
so he’s your hero and what’s dad’s name?

Parinda Saetia 3:45
TC

Curt Anderson 3:45
TC All right, well, hey, Dan and I are huge girl dads and so man I just I couldn’t love that answer more. So we send a big shout out to TC for raising such an amazing incredible person as you print us so again give a big shout out send our our warm wishes to dad on doing such a great job today. She’s

Parinda Saetia 4:06
birthday. He’s nice.

Curt Anderson 4:10
Thank you know what Damien’s a great singer. And so Damon. You might have a birthday to teach. Yeah. What do you think? Oh, great. sagen not not okay. Maybe at the end we will say that me I will say that the end because we don’t want anybody to leave right now. Right? We’ll hang on to that for a minute. But hey, happy birthday, and sending best warm wishes to TC in what we heard just love it. Integrity. Great work ethic took care of his family. And so what an inspiration that is. Thank you for sharing that. Hey, Jacqueline, how are you today?

Jaclyn Kolodziej 4:43
I’m doing lovely. How are you?

Curt Anderson 4:45
Well, you you know what Damon Jacqueline is a repeat offender. How about that been on the program before? So Jacqueline we dug into your hero last time. So I’m gonna slide gears a little bit differently. So you work with IMEC the MVP of Illinois. and you are your marketing guru you and I have connected from day one. I just really respect admire your your expertise, share with the folks like, you know, what motivates you to deliver your superpowers and your passion for helping manufacturers with marketing just share just word this, what’s your motivation for helping manufacturers with marketing?

Jaclyn Kolodziej 5:22
So I think my biggest motivation is it comes from the results. So after working with clients and seeing the just the success of their marketing programs, and helping give them some education and knowledge, get them off their feet, that’s what kind of continues to motivate me to wake up every morning and do more. So it’s not necessarily like something that I’m just like, oh, okay, you know, my family motivates me or this, that and the other, it’s being able to connect with companies with entrepreneurs and help them just move to become even more successful than they already are.

Curt Anderson 6:04
Yeah, bringing out their best selves, right? That yeah, what an inspiration that is, and that’s awesome. And that’s what the MVPs you know, IMEC in your team and we’re gonna dig deep into your team as we go through the program. Print it you’ve been an entrepreneur you mentioned you know, Dad, TC said this business for many, many years, you guys we’re gonna show some examples, guys, so you don’t want to go anywhere. He has amazing, incredible dynamic briefcases, rolling briefcases, laptop bags, predominantly a lot of women bags, and I’d say she’s doing just an incredible job. Now printer you mentioned college. I think Babson College is that where you went was Babson. Okay,

Parinda Saetia 6:39
I graduated in 98. Well, gosh,

Curt Anderson 6:41
98. So when you graduate from college at 12 years old, that is so impressive. It’s such a young age. And 25 years later, you’re this relentless entrepreneur, just share with the folks out there, you know, maybe there’s some aspiring, you know, there’s young folks maybe just coming out of college, or maybe there’s corporate warriors that are thinking, Man, I’d love to be an entrepreneur, perintah you’ve been an entrepreneur for 25 years, just share a little bit like your journey, maybe some of the ups and downs, like what’s it been like for you? Being a business owner and entrepreneur, CEO of mccline for the past 25 years?

Parinda Saetia 7:13
Um, well, right off of college, we, you know, start small, we have a, you know, probably 5000 square feet of warehouse. Yeah, I mean, along the way, you know, my brother and I chair sit here, so he just, you know, recent graduate, or, I mean, you know, at that time as well, he says a year older than me. So, both of us. He, his expertise was marketing, and I am like, I, my, my degree was accounting and MIS, which is computer system. So I, you know, I, I work on website, I work on, you know, accounting, you know, stuff like that. And then so basically, you have to have a great team, like, you know, so me and my brother, so we, we start off hiring one person, and then we do picking and packing and we start chipping. And, and at that time, ecommerce was, you know, coming along, and yeah, we, I designed the website, even though it was just a simple, you know, HTML website. And yeah, just, um, just work hard. And, and we go to attend, you know, business trade shows. And so that’s how we get to know, you know, retail stores, and, you know, we exhibit every year. And so, that’s the travel goods industry. So they focus on, you know, the luggage industry, so, so you have to find your niche on like, Okay, how do you get, you know, your customer? So, that’s, that’s where, you know, how we get our customer? Why, by exhibiting, we, you know, bring, we chip our bags, and you know, we just, you know, have like a 10 by 10 booth and just, you know, doing it like that for the last like, what, 25 years, but, you know, given the COVID we didn’t have the tradeshow for two years. But, you know, other than that, you know, that’s how we, you know, like, imagine, like, you know, Amazon came by, like in 2005. And, you know, I think I think Jeff bends over there, but then I didn’t I don’t recognize that but my dad, he remember because he always come with us, even though he doesn’t speak English very well. But you know, me and my brother, we, you know, we take care of customer we, you know, show our bags and stuff like that. So, yeah. And every year like, you know, you get new customers, whether it’s a retailer or just e commerce, you know, companies that Stop by and then like, who are you? And you know, then we just kind of like start building the brand, like, you know, from there.

Curt Anderson 10:06
Okay, lots of uncover, uncover right there, man, I have like four questions, I won’t fire all four of them at once. But I want to start with, you know, what’s fascinating the E commerce like, so say if we’re selling a commodity, okay? Like, you know, whatever I’m selling this pen or, you know, a can of Coke, you know, whatever it might be, you know, I don’t have to be, I’m not the product expert, I don’t be, you know, style guru, I’m just selling this commodity for you. Like, not only do you need to be the relentless entrepreneur, you need the guerrilla marketer, you also need to be like, on the cutting edge of style. And you know, styles come and go and change, the technology has changed. And I’m going to, we’re going to talk about, you know, you have hundreds and hundreds, probably 1000s of five star reviews on your products, and people rant and rave on, like how amazing your products are, please dig into, like, you know, how do you appease your customers from a style standpoint? And how are you constantly changing with the times on technology? You know, when laptops were new, or say tablets are new? Talk a little bit about the styleside from your perspective.

Parinda Saetia 11:08
Um, well, my, my brother, he’s, he loves like, online shopping. So he’s like, you know, always like looking for new ideas, or, basically human. I mean, my dad, like, It’s a family business. So, you know, because we attend trade shows, we look at, like how, you know, the market is, we also like, just, you can Google and bags idea and different, like, colors, and, you know, styles. But for me, I’m not a very I’m like, What do you say? Like, I’m not an artist, cuz, you know, like, I’m very young. I, my, my game is what accounting and you know, so um, yeah,

Curt Anderson 11:57
you’re more practical, right? Yeah,

Parinda Saetia 11:59
I’m very practical. And my brother and my dad, they are like, very young. They, they have like, great visions. And so that’s cool. How we come up with like, different designs and stuff like that. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka 12:49
So, yeah, well, and you can keep refining the, the performance of your products over time, to make them better and better and better. And then when new products are designed, they can incorporate that what you know, already so, and all the way through the manufacturing process. That’s awesome. That’s awesome.

Curt Anderson 13:08
So printing, let’s dig into E commerce. So like, so you’re at a tradeshow and Jeff Bezos was there. How cool is that? Now? I know you sell not only you sell to Amazon, is that correct? Not just through Amazon, you sell to?

Parinda Saetia 13:21
To them? Yes, we do that. And now we also sell to department store over the years. You know, we sell to mass merchants like Costco, Macy’s, and then we do a lot like, you know, a lot of online business with major accounts such as staples, Office Depot, Home Depot, you know, Kohl’s, right. Target target as well.

Curt Anderson 13:49
Yep. So, like, you know, the biggest of the you know, the biggest players on the market and then you also do e commerce where you sell direct to consumers, How challenging is it for a small business small family operation to piece in all these major Fortune, you know, 100 companies compared to like, you know, trying to take care of, you know, direct to consumer, how does

Parinda Saetia 14:12
that design you know, we have a very, we have a patented design, so, my my brother and my dad, they come up with, they came up with this like detachable bag. So it’s, um, you can like, take, like, slip on and off and buckle them, you can then carry it with them on your shoulder and you can roll so at the same time, so it’s kind of like a two in one. So that’s how I’m how we build our niche our like uniqueness, because you have to have, you know, something special, because otherwise then you’re just another bad company. So that’s, you know, my because we’re in Chicago. We see a lot of snow. So sometimes if it is snowing out or you know, raining and the pavement is When you don’t want to be like rolling your bag, you know, outside, you can actually, you know, detach them, put your wheels in your, in the trunk of your car, and then you know, put your bag on your shoulder and walk into a meeting. Very professional.

Curt Anderson 15:17
Alright, so let’s dive right in here. So you decide that you need some, you want to start stepping up your ecommerce game, your online marketing game, you reach out to iMac so Jacqueline, my dear friend. Hello, Jay. Let’s talk about I met for a little bit. So again, you have a great background. I think like Finn, recreation coordinator, you’ve been like a behavior specialists like, again, what I love about the MEPS is just like the walk of life, the amount of talent skills, passion that someone like yourself that you bring to the MVP network. Just share with everybody out there that’s not familiar with iMac what what is who and what is iMac.

Jaclyn Kolodziej 15:54
So I’m back is like you had mentioned earlier and we are considered an MEP center. So the manufacturing excellence partnership is a national federal organization. And then each state, as well as Puerto Rico has its own MEP centers. So IMEC is Illinois MVP center. So we are the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence center. We have a group of industry improvement experts on my team. They’re all amazing and wonderful. And our goal is to be able to reach the Illinois manufacturing community and ignite that manufacturing excellence for our state. So with that, we have we have all of these industry experts, whether it’s operationally focused, leadership focused growth and marketing focus, people focused. So really connecting with the manufacturing community in Illinois, figuring out and identifying what some of the goals are, of the companies we’re working with, or maybe some of their challenges, and pairing up our solutions with all of our improvement experts within the industry to really help guide them to the next step, reach their goals, achieve great results and just keep continuing being dynamic. And helping the Illinois manufacturers be even more dynamic.

Curt Anderson 17:25
That’s awesome. And so again, I I’m unable to mention everybody, but you have just a rockstar team. Starts off with your fearless late leader the amazing incredible Dr. David belay, Michelle Fossett and Melissa Zerbo Paola Raisa gyno Jain Azera. Cameron, who else do I have? I’ve got, you know, Megan, Eric Mary. No, I’ve worked with Christie Cameron was on our program just a couple of weeks ago, Cassie, so you know, and boy, please forgive me if I’m leaving anybody out. But you have just just an enormous amount of really just a crazy wealth of talent on iMac, just share a little bit like when somebody reaches out to you like printed dead in print, I’m going to, we’re going to talk about how you reach out to iMac. But just, you know, Jacqueline, just talk a little bit about your team, the talent and just how when a client comes into the portfolio, how you help them. Yeah, so

Jaclyn Kolodziej 18:19
structurally, you know, if you’re reaching out to us from our info@imec.org, email, our marketing team fields, those emails identifies who you are, what your needs are. And then regionally, we, we have team members who are in charge of different territories throughout the state. And so from there, the connection is made between the regional manager and the client, to build that relationship, get on a call, figure out who they are, what they need, and then how can we support them. So from a regional management level, regional managers know all of all of the technical specialists, all of our services, and they’re really that that strategic guide, maybe like the tour guide, to figure out who to engage from our internal team to make those connections and get project work going for the client. And aside from that, we have a team of partnerships like Kurt at b2b. So because there’s only about 50 to 55 of us that are in charge of the whole state. We really rely on building those partnerships with different resources to reach as many clients and help them as possible. So that’s kind of the gist, I think, in 2021, we reached over 1600 Different manufacturers within Illinois. Our goal is to double that this coming year. Just really make those impacts

Curt Anderson 19:53
very ambitious and I know like you know earlier when you were writing the program back in May we were working on the Grow Your Future program and boy, you guys just absolutely crushed it, move the needle 127 Different manufacturers Daymond we had multiple folks on our program. So Jacqueline, our hats off to you, your entire team, iMac, you guys are just doing amazing work helping entrepreneurs, manufacturers in a great state of Illinois, you know, and again, you know, entrepreneurship, we talked about this probably every week Damon, it’s challenging, it’s stressful, it’s daunting. perintah, what encouraged you what enticed you to reach out to the team at IMEC?

Parinda Saetia 20:32
Um, wow, that relationship goals like many, many, many years, like, after the first time I, when I had heard of iMac was I think I’m 2015 When iMac support like it, you know, Illinois manufacturing, so and, you know, mccline, we will add a point when num. So 2015 was, what, 17 years ago, what, how many, seven years ago. So at that time, we, we had been looking at using QuickBooks, you know, as a small company, and, and we were like struggling because my house, so my operation meet a next level. And I Mac came into the picture, and gave us the grant on how to improve our operation, to be able to, you know, manage my distribution, they so that’s, you know, how we got to know them, and they help us guide we know, with the grant, and we were able to upgrade to like SAP system, which is like, Oh my God, for a small company like us. That’s a game changer. Yeah. You know, we, QuickBooks is not sophisticated enough for us to be able to manage inventory to, you know, to what else like accounting system to run my reports and all that stuff. So just the day to day operation. So that’s what I Mac help us with? Not, you know, so that’s like, in terms of software, training, implementing and all that and, and then, and then every year, there’s always something they always have some sort of program that can help us, like, small guys like us. You know, whether it’s management, like be a better, you know, leader. And, you know, just like an in marketing tips to help us with marketing leads, and with you guys, you know, just like I want to know something about SEO, and I’m right now in almost an expert.

Curt Anderson 22:48
That is awesome. So alright, we’re gonna, we’re gonna dig into that demo. We’ve got a couple of folks Whitney’s here. Today she comes. She says, Merry Christmas, Happy Monday. So and then Rich says, you know, hey, I want to let’s introduce the manufacturer of the product types. And we’re going to do that exactly right now. And when he says Happy Birthday to your dad, oh, TC today. So alright, for now, what I’m going to do is I’m going to, I’m going to pull up your website, and we’re going to talk about a couple of different things. But let’s go through like some of your product and what have you. So let’s, let’s go there. How about we go there right now? Can you see I was just looking? Yes. Okay, so here, we’re on McLean, USA. And so for him to just kind of walk us through some of the changes that boy, oh, man, I’m blown away, you’ve done an amazing job stepping up your game, talk about the website a little bit. And let’s talk about the product line. And just let’s introduce everybody to what you have going on.

Parinda Saetia 23:42
Sure. Um, you know, my website, my client usa.com We offer you know, business case computer cases for women’s for men, you know, for business professional, we have over 80 Different like unique, neat design, and everything comes in many different multiple colors. And I you know, because of Kurt we you know, he like helped me with, you know, like, the, how I can speak to my soulmate, which is my consumers, Nicole

Curt Anderson 24:22
Damon, and guess who a There she is right there. We create a little we did a buyer persona and there’s Nicole right there if you guys can see that. There we go. So when so I’m like, Hey, we might as well use Nicole Donnelly, Nicole was going to Europe. She’s been traveling all over and I was like, and she met Nicole a couple of different webinars that we did and I’m like, Man, I think your soulmate and guys if you’re new to that, we call those ideal buyers those ICPs soulmates so, man printer, I think you’re doing a phenomenal job here of speaking to your soulmate. Don’t man. Do you guys think?

Parinda Saetia 24:56
Yeah, thank you. So you know, basically My website was like kind of boring before now because of Kurt he wants me to speak directly to Nicole so I try to kind of update and you know less about me and like more about my customer and you know, like more just images and what else?

Curt Anderson 25:27
Yeah, I mean this is just you’ve done such an amazing job it’s the categories are clean, they’re organized and just you know, you know, this is just boy you’ve done an amazing job. Oh, yeah.

Parinda Saetia 25:38
Videos two to two on the front page.

Curt Anderson 25:41
Yep, right there. And there’s your soulmate right there right in Alright, so let’s go here for a second print. And we’re like alright, well how do we know that soulmate? So guys, if you’re out there if you’re an OEM like print is you know, original equipment manufacturer, and you’re manufacturing product and you know, courage you you know, get on Amazon get in those marketplaces. And we’re like, you know, hey, what are they saying, you know, if we can’t talk to everybody, boy go to these reviews. Daymond check this out. And she has 1000s and 1000s of five star reviews on our product line. This is just one product. Check this out. Beautiful bag. This is perfect. I’ve ordered three times you know, great rolling case perfect for overnight travel, great look and durability. She you know, some of these are she sewn a lot of products in Mexico. So a lot of these are coming in Spanish, beautiful, polished, standout look great. lapped you know, just it goes on and on and on. And so, you know, what we did is we were like, you know, boy, our soulmate, that ideal client is telling us the type of language that they’re looking for. They’re cheering them on, they’re, they’re doing us a huge favor. What is important to them, you know, look at this huge compliments, easy for travel. And so print out what I really commend you is, you know, now you’ve taken the verbiage that the folks are sharing on Amazon, and now you’re speaking clearly and concisely to what they’re, you know, right here. So, you know, security, you know, with the with the bag, that was things, those were important that we saw in those reviews. And, boy, I commend you great job here. Thank you, Jacqueline, what what’s your take on this?

Jaclyn Kolodziej 27:22
Well, I want all of it.

Damon Pistulka 27:25
Yeah, that sounds like it sounds like there’s some cool stuff. And so

Curt Anderson 27:28
yeah, so anybody out there hasn’t done your holiday shopping. You know, Jacqueline would love one of each. I know your spouse, your significant other would love to get a bunch of these. So man, these are just fantastic. Let me just go into some different styles here. Let’s go in, you know, number of slides into keywords next. Okay. So she says briefcases and look at how I mean, just look at how wonderful these look.

Jaclyn Kolodziej 27:53
That’s the problem with working with so many great manufacturers my pocket. It’s they’re empty, because I just want to buy everything.

Curt Anderson 28:02
Exactly. So this is boy, I’m just I’m absolutely thrilled. So I’m gonna come back to you guys. I’m going to so print it. Let’s go here. So we talked, you know, we, you were like, hey, I need some help with, you know, SEO strategies. I want to dig into this. And so when we started uncovering things also we’re like, Man tryna like, like, you’re on first page rankings on Google I numerous of your key words, you

Parinda Saetia 28:27
know, so I did not know that though. Until you show me. So in

Curt Anderson 28:31
the challenges if it’s not a priority, you just might not know. Yeah, where we’re exactly what’s going on there. And so what was fascinating is, you know, as we dug in, we’re like, you know, Hey, who’s that ideal buyer where, you know, like, Hey, here’s Nicole, what’s Nicole typing? What’s her problem? What’s her challenge? So we’d start doing some key words and all sudden, I’m like, Damon, she’s coming up first page on briefcase. Wow. Like I’d like this isn’t niche like, you know, briefcases that are pink that I buy on Tuesdays? Yeah, this is like she’s coming up first page on briefcases, laptop bags with wheels printed just share a little bit like what was some of the discovery that we were finding on? That’s amazing.

Parinda Saetia 29:12
Um, well, you you have shown me like I could do more, but what I can do to improve my site is, you know, I need to rename all my back my back end of the images. And also, you introduced me to SEO Yoast, and trying to like the more the better. So different strategy that you you know, have shown me through the course and I think those are my room for improvement and I can like not just some of them, I could be on the second or third page and that’s, you know, I can once I make all those changes that you recommend, I can be like on the first because you know, people like if you’re not on the first Hey, sometimes they just kind of like, That’s it, you know, they once they click on Macy’s and that, you know, then then then it just, you know, they lost MCLI now, so,

Curt Anderson 30:09
right. And that’s the thing is like, you know, Damon, you’re you’re huge on talking about that social trust and social proof. And so, you know, printers on Shopify, and so you know, incredible, wonderful product line. And so, you know, the challenge is if somebody’s like, Hey, I landed on Macy’s, or hey, who’s this mccline in Atlanta mccline, you know, that, you know, do I know them? Do I trust that will be cut? Thanks. So like, what her brother or father this amazing work that she’s done through Amazon, there is that social trust. And so now what we were talking about, like, hey, let’s pull those reviews onto the website, or, you know, go back and forth between Amazon and her ecommerce store. And just really try to give that customer that Nicole, that ideal client out there, that peace of mind that mccline has been around for decades. They have quality, amazing, incredible product. Don’t take our word for it. Here’s tons and tons of reviews. But so let’s print it. Let’s go here. So you know, with Shopify, you now you know, you have an SEO tool, we mentioned SEO Yoast. So now you can go in and like, optimize, make Google friendly, those product pages. And now like I felt like once you started digging into like, it was almost kind of like, I don’t know if it goes hard to call it fun, right? But now you understand it. And it is a little bit fun. And now it’s now you can take it on as a challenge of like, okay, how can I move up from now that I know that I’m ranking 15? So I’m just over on page two. Now, if I start doing some work, I can move up on page one, just share like, you know, what are some thoughts or strategies goals for 2023 Now that you’re better equipped with SEO?

Parinda Saetia 31:42
Yeah, I now since I know the tools, I have the tools to do them. I can, you know, start working with my categories. You give me you’re very organized. So I have the Google sheet that I can organize and you know, go from category to category, you know, whether it’s wheels, duffles backpack, I can you know, like better the I can improve on those keywords using the tools that you know, I have learned which is the Yoast and then just you know, plug it in and little by little it will be you know, I’ll get him done.

Curt Anderson 32:22
Absolutely. And our friend Whitney says, you know, man, it looks so sophisticated. Great for business travel for sure. Enrich ask a great question here. Rich, thanks for joining us today. Happy Monday. And guys, you know, do me a favor, man. Do yourself a favor, connect with Pirna here on LinkedIn, connect with Jacqueline and you. You absolutely want to connect with the amazing team at iMac. But he has he How do you feel McClain ranks compared to luxury brands like Gucci coach Louie Vuitton? What are your thoughts there? And back to the search standpoint, for a small company like mccline We’re seeing from a search ranking. And on Amazon, you absolutely can compete but to answer Rich’s question directly, how do you feel that you compare to some of these luxury brands?

Parinda Saetia 33:05
Well, we don’t we are not a luxury brand. We are middle middle type. Like brand. You I mean for every bad everyday person, like you know, you can if you our price range is you know no more than it’s about between 100 to 300 Max and you know, you get a you know, whether it’s nylon material or leather material, you can get those quality like business case. On we’ll for those prices. Yeah, I do not compare myself to like Gucci because that will be like in 1000s and 1000s of dollars. Yeah, yep. Everyday people.

Curt Anderson 33:49
And I think you know what, and that’s what’s so important and when we talk a lot about niching down, you know, knowing where you’re at and printer what I admire is like you guys know your niche, you know, Nicole, you know that soulmate, and you stay in that lane and so it’s really it’s the practical, you know, are saying like, Hey, is it that working professional mom, you know, maybe they’re a pharmaceutical rep, maybe they’re in finance or whatever their position is, they do a fair amount of traveling and you know, they want to look good without spending a fortune because like they have other priorities and like you know, so your style, your affordability and again when we checked out those reviews, that’s exactly what those soulmates are saying in those reviews great value perfect forum travel stylish fits in my overhead been in you’re really crushing it with the wheels right when we saw those key words you are just time and time again. So a great message for anybody out there is like you know what she’s done like hey, you know though she’s coming up on first page or like re that was like, top of second beimel First like she was flirting back and forth like that. 910 positions, amen. But you know, is is you guys go out there you know niche down, find that line. Find that lane find what you’re best at, but You from a search standpoint, you’re competing with major players. Right? We saw you coming up, over and over, right for

Parinda Saetia 35:07
now. Yes.

Curt Anderson 35:09
Okay. So as we dig in Jacqueline, I’m gonna come back to you, you know, again, we talked about, you know, so today we’re talking about SEO marketing services that your superpower printer you talked about, like, you know, great experience with s SAP installation. You know, accounting, Jacqueline, just talk a little bit about like operational excellence, leadership, just like some of the other things as folks are out there like, hey, for New Year’s resolution, I’m going to step up my game. What are some of the other things I dropped the iMac website into the chat box? What are some other things that folks can count on for iMac coming into the new year?

Jaclyn Kolodziej 35:47
Right. So a lot of times when we engage with the client about one thing, they just think we do the one thing, right, yeah. And so we hear about all of our different our service framework and our offerings, then the comment comes after, Oh, you do all of that. It’s like, yes, we can. So from an operation standpoint, our team of experts, works with clients through like Kaizen events, different lean manufacturing, simulation workshops, getting in and doing kind of lean manufacturing audits, five s for the clients. If you’re looking for an ISO certification, come to us, we’ll be able to help you work through getting the ISO certifications, which are somewhat daunting at times, and a lot of work and a lot of information, safety assessments and audits and implementation. So operationally, if you feel like, you know, it’s time to step up your game, in that regard for 2023, we are definitely a great resource for you to do that. Leadership stuff. So we do a lot of different leadership services. If you’re looking for succession planning, what your next step is with your business. You know, that’s a great thing to start thinking about, regardless of if you’re looking to sell your business or hand it to your next generation. Strategic planning, strategic business planning and models. Growth. So we talked about growth and marketing. We do SEOs, websites, social media packages and programs. And then people I know, right, the past few years, the buzzwords have been, you know, talent, attraction and retention, right? How do we get people and so we come in with different talent and retention services, employee engagement surveys, so the whole gamut. And if there’s something that we don’t do, ourselves, our team of experts can guide you to figure out and our connections, who to connect you to so that you can achieve an amazing 2023

Curt Anderson 38:06
That is phenomenal. Lulu Damon little mic drop moment right there, Jacqueline. So just bam,

Jaclyn Kolodziej 38:13
my pen.

Curt Anderson 38:16
And so Jacqueline, let’s go here, you know, I know all the cool kids are reaching out to their MEP and you just shared, you know what makes the iMac? So awesome. Now, you know, another thing for folks out there to think about grant funds. Now you have a couple of exciting grant programs going on at IMEC. If you’re coming to us from a different state or you’re catching this on replay, boy reach out to your local MEP, whatever state you’re in, you know, printers, just sharing just you know, a wealth of of excitement that she’s experienced working with her local MEP. Jacqueline, you have a couple of grant programs, can you just share, like how you know what those are, what those look like and things that folks could be looking forward to in 2023?

Jaclyn Kolodziej 39:00
Yeah, absolutely. So for those of you out of Illinois, outside of Illinois, if you’re looking for your MEP Center, you can go to nist.gov forward slash MEP. On that website. You just click on the link to say find my local MEP, and they’ll get you connected. For iMac and our grant programs. This year. Well, we always have an opportunity to run really amazing grant programs. And so since August, and for the next few years, we’ll be running the Cook County manufacturing reinvented grant program and then the advanced McHenry County grant program to so we’re able to team up with Cook County specific as well as McHenry County specific and have justice really nice selection of different types of services very similar to what I recently talked about with operations, leadership, growth and people For the client for the manufacturer in Illinois, you come to our website, you fill out the application, and you identify how your business has been impacted as a result of COVID. And from there, you’re able to select, probably at least 20 different types of programs and projects. And so based on what your needs are and what you’re interested in, you can you can select the program that you know you want, or you can consult with us and we can help you select the program. And all of it is free of cost to the client, which is amazing. So, small, medium sized manufacturers who think they they need some help and can’t necessarily afford it right away. This is a great opportunity. And it doesn’t hurt to apply.

Curt Anderson 40:55
Whoo, how much What was that word? I didn’t catch that.

Jaclyn Kolodziej 40:58
Oh, your favorite word? Free.

Curt Anderson 41:00
Thank you. Thanks. I wasn’t you know, you know, I’m little I’m a I’m on the cheap side, you know, so I did hear free and hate. I want to be mindful there was time but before we were gonna start winding down here. Rich. Thank you, man. Thank you for joining us today. I love the idea of helping manufacturers be able to go from b2b or job shop of work to be able to go to retail. It does open a whole new kind of headaches. So can you talk about that dynamic so rich? I’m going to I’ll jump in there first so i Men i mean can you pause on that can i There we go. I love that question riches matter of fact I would love if you want to demonized we could take this offline. But what we do it Damon I think my mom says there’s this great little book out there right called Stop secret. So I’ve heard it. I’ve heard of it. So anyway, so hey, there it is. Damon look at that book. So a printer. You gotta copy that recently. That was printed. That was my birthday. Hey, that’s my birthday gift. A TC so like Christmas gift, birthday gift. But you know, I’ll share this real quick. Jacqueline, if you want to time chime in team if you want to chime in. For custom job shot manufacturer is a little different than printer printer has OEM. She has her product line that her brother dad had been knocking down for decades. The job shop out there that custom manufacturer they feel left out that E commerce party. However, that job shop that custom manufacturer has a proprietary process. Yep, that prepare Chai proprietary process Say that five times fast is where your E commerce opportunity falls. And that’s you know, we do live webinars, workshops, trainings, all sorts of fun things, one on ones on exactly how to get into E commerce party for job shops and for customer manufacturers. We do it with him through the MVP network. So whatever state you’re coming from, but rich, I’d love to connect with you. We’ll take that another step further. Daymond. Jacqueline, anything that you guys want to piggyback on that with?

Damon Pistulka 43:00
I think it is there are a lot of different dynamics when you when you try to do that, right? Because the primary one is if you’re going to go direct, b2c, from a job shop kind of thing is, how do I go from shipping palletized orders B to B to individual orders that get not only it’s an individual order, but it gets delivered to someone’s home or place of business. And it has to arrive there without damage. It has to arrive there with a lot more community well, consistent communication, you gotta be able to, I mean, it’s just, it’s a whole different thing than if you’re sending things truckload or less than truckload quantities.

Curt Anderson 43:40
A you know what, Damon? I think so Damon has a LinkedIn live show. It’s called Faces of business. And Damon, I think you have a goofy, some goofy looking guy that said your guest tomorrow night? Yeah, I think we might hit that or definitely that one. So I guess we’ll dig deeper in that conversation tomorrow. Jacqueline, any, any any comments that you have on that topic?

Jaclyn Kolodziej 44:00
Oh, just I mean, obviously, with b2b and b2c is a little different dynamics. But if you’re looking to go from b2b to b2c, getting my words twisted now say that fast. So, market research, product development, figuring out maybe what that next step is to utilize what equipment you have in house, where you can go next is, is a good kind of gameplan obviously, building out your marketing communications program when you are you know, connecting to different different customers and consumers, logistically speaking, how do you how do you scale and switch your your operations to be able to you know, hit two different lanes with the same facility and structure and things like that. So there’s a lot to consider. It’s a lot to take on, especially if you are smaller, but you know, we’re Looking to to build out what that plan is that next step and then how do you scale accordingly by way of making your business without breaking your business is something that we’ll definitely always be happy to help you work through another mic drop

Curt Anderson 45:22
Jacqueline, drop that pen again while you please I like I’m gonna we’re gonna be breaking our pens here today. Man, that was so phenomenal. That was like spot on. And so let’s go here print out you are in the b2b b2c Space Damon and we’ve worked with numerous you know, you have, I’m thinking numerous companies that we work with that are in that b2b. But so when Richie, when we say retail, right? That retail could be it could still be an A b2b end user, it’s not necessarily you know, going to somebody’s home printer you’re selling to you mentioned Amazon, Target, staples, you know, the who’s who the coveted major retailers, plus you’re selling to consumers. So you’re in that b2b, b2c space? What advice suggestions do you have for rich or for anybody out there that’s looking to tackle both,

Parinda Saetia 46:08
um, I, you, we, if we already have the logistic, you know, so because we are a distribution center, so we already shipping on behalf of Macy’s and the big guy, so it’s not that difficult to, you know, directly to consumer. It’s just a little bit more detail. A little bit more, you know, work on on, you know, learning how to, like, speak directly to the consumer, because now you’re going to be like, oh, where’s my shipment? And when, you know, so it’s, it’s just, I think it’s, it’s, it’s doable,

Curt Anderson 46:45
right? This, I tell you, you know, in the software, we just showed that, you know, printer has an amazing website, if you missed it, please hit rewind, and just, you know, mind blowing, I got turned on. So, like a proud uncle right now, I’m just so thrilled of what you’ve done the work that you’ve done, but great website, you’re on Shopify man, super inexpensive. So if you’re a manufacturer, you want to dip your toe in E commerce, there’s all sorts of like software, tools, resources, you know, for shipping, you know, you have, you know, ShipStation there’s all sorts of things that you can do to make your life by 20 years ago, much different animal today, a lot of tools, a lot of resources, you have the MEP network, you know, there’s all sorts of guides that can help navigate print, I want to be mindful of time, man, I like I’m keeping us over right now. So let’s, let’s start winding down. What are you excited about for 2023? For you, your brother dad coming into the new year? What are you looking forward to some goals, what’s exciting in the new year,

Parinda Saetia 47:44
while we just introduced a whole bunch of like, new items, and with all the things that I have learned on, you know, SEO and on the back end, and you know, I think it’s so much more to do and to you know, tackled the brand and to build on it. And yeah, I think there’s so much to be happy about.

Curt Anderson 48:15
But, you know, it’s, I can remember, you know, I had my E commerce business 10 years ago and you know, I’m like, man, like, have I done everything, but then when all sudden you’re like, boy, like it’s endless, and if you you know, like reduce, don’t get overwhelmed of like how much there is to do. But boy, when you think about there’s so much upside potential and you stay half fold. There’s a so much, so much to look forward to as an entrepreneur because it is daunting, it does get challenging. So print it you reach out to iMac to your friends, family, your sister’s dog, anybody out there? Do you recommend the amazing incredible team at IMEC? Would you recommend these other entrepreneurs out there reach out to her Jacqueline and the Rockstar team at iMac 100% So

Parinda Saetia 48:59
they are here to like help and I think I have learned so much you know with this program with you guys, I you know, I really get great like program to to if you if you want to do e commerce, definitely you know hook up with Kurt and Daymond so

Curt Anderson 49:18
well, thank you. Thank you. Okay, we’re gonna wind down I have one last question for you to Jacqueline. Are you sitting down for this one just is she’s like, oh, man, are you gonna throw out a curveball? It’s a good sneeze. All right. So man, we talked about TCS birthday demon. Are you ready to sing? Yeah, we’re gonna sing about TC Dude, we wish you an amazing, wonderful birthday. And you mentioned that that’s not you know, English. English. You translate that for us. Right? Yeah, translate Happy Birthday to dad. We tell him we wish him many, many more. Thank him for just what a joy and pleasure that you are for and I asked you know, what are you excited about? I’m going to twist the question a little bit. I want to talk about inspiration. Dad was your hero growing up Coming into the new year 20 I can’t believe it’s 2023 like we’re gonna be three years in a COVID already, right? I mean, did that just go by like that or one? What let’s talk about inspiration. What is your inspiration coming into the new year? Who or what is your inspiration? perintah

Parinda Saetia 50:20
Oh, wow. Well, I mean, I mean, this this New Year, everybody’s gonna start traveling. So everyone answer so everyone’s gonna be you know, needing the bags. And I think we have so much to look forward to, you know, everybody’s traveling everybody is you know, going on vacation going to meet clients and so I think they’re going to need bags and you know, go visit usa.com

Curt Anderson 50:51
You know, your your your demeanor completely changed, dude. We’re gonna do me a favor. Drop the pen. Well, yeah. An answer that was we haven’t had one like that traveling. How exciting is that is that we can finally get out there. I’m just Daymond we were showing pictures before I came out to visit you in Seattle. And you know, business travel, personal travel. So guys, if you want to look stylish, if you want to look amazing. By checkout mccline, super. Nobody wants to be like that awkward bag font, you know, everything for the bag at the airport. So Jacqueline, I’m coming at you with the same question. You just boy, wonderful traveling, you’re gonna be traveling over the holiday. You just came off with traveling. So you’re taking printers advice? What’s your what inspiring inspiration for you coming into the new year? How are you feeling? What are you thinking? What’s your inspiration? Coming into 2023?

Jaclyn Kolodziej 51:42
Well, I’ve done a little bit of reflecting and I I realized that with COVID, you know, lasting three years. And you know, hopefully we can see. See that next the transition into some normalcy. But I really just want to, I’m inspired by people and connecting with people. And so I really want to be more intentional in 2023 on how to connect. And I’ve been practicing that because I gave her a phone call instead of sending him an email

Curt Anderson 52:20
you made my day is a demon your demon. We’re old enough like we’re the old guys in the room. Do you remember like when people would actually physically pick up a phone and call number those days?

Damon Pistulka 52:28
Yeah, that’s, that happens once in a while now, but not nearly as often as it was.

Curt Anderson 52:34
Last week, I looked down, my phone’s ringing. And I’m like, like, if my phone rings today, I’m like something happened. Like somebody’s in trouble. somebody’s sick, or something bad has happened. I looked down and it’s Jacqueline. I’m like, Hey, Jacqueline. Now like you totally made my day. So Jacqueline, you can call me anytime we have. I love our working relationship. You and I’ve worked on multiple projects together. You’re a gift you’re a blessing to IMEC. And so I will wind down and wrap up for into. Alright, everybody out there. And we’ve been we went much longer than I anticipated you if you’ve been sitting down right just stand up. Let’s give perintah let’s give Jacqueline a big round of applause for being just amazing, wonderful entrepreneurs, fearless, relentless and just such an insane man was teaming was this a great conversation are awesome. Dude, are you fired up for 23 are like, yep. It’s like running. I like printer you got me. so fired up on Monday motivation. That’s right, we’re ready. I’m ready to run through a wall. It’s like we just got out of football practice or something here. So Kirinda Thank you, we support we salute you, your brother, your dad for all the great products and just think of those 1000s and 1000s of reviews. Damon, we were like you go if you go to a bad restaurant, have a bad experience, you know, like you’re gonna share that. But if you have a go to restaurant have a good experience, you’re less likely to share it. Rinda has 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of people that are taking that are not only taking the time to type about her product, they’re taking pictures of her product, showing her pictures, showing them with her product. They’re just so proud and so printer, just look at the lives that you’re changing the impact that you’re having, how you’re making the world a better place. And so thank you for that. Jacqueline, thank you for all the great work and the friendship and support appreciate you. We shout out to our friends at iMac we’re gonna mind down that Damon is our last show for the year dude. I know I’m like a little choked up. So hey, I wish everybody an amazing incredible magic holiday season whatever holiday you celebrate boy just spend with family be generous. Give more just learn love. Just be kind gracious and just embrace every minute so Damon any words of wisdom the part of the part of salt with no. Brenda Jacqueline, hang out with us for one second. We’re gonna close out the program guys God bless everybody Merry New Year Happy New Year whatever you celebrate Happy Hanukkah and just boy we send you the best So guys thank you thank you and we’re ending the broadcast now see you next year hanging out friends