Quick-Pivot Payoffs: Steal These Ideas from Businesses that are Making It Work

To help all of you in this challenging time, we wanted to share the amazing ideas from a recent Insider Training (a webinar training just for our Insiders and Lab members) all for free.

These tactics were just too good to keep behind the paywall, so we pulled this training out of Lab and have the video and transcript here for you to look over and pull ideas from!

Watch the video, or keep scrolling to read more!

Full Transcript

Maya Hughley:

Welcome insiders and DigitalMarketer lab members to your Insider Training, also known to some as Office Hours. I’m Maya Hughley, for the first time ever on video, this is what I look like. I’m the content coordinator here in production and I’ll be your host. We’re also joined by our community manager, Michelle Dalton. She’s in the chat making sure your questions are heard and we also have Jenna helping with our speakers today. Jenna used to be the host of DigitalMarketer’s Insider Training and Office Hours, and now it’s me, so I’m happy to have Jenna here helping out. If you’re brand new to Office Hours/Insider Training, we cover a variety of specific marketing strategies with new expert guests. Sometimes they’re live like today and sometimes they’re not, but they’re always recorded and if you’re a paying lab member or an insider, that recording will be inside of your lab platform under the insider training tab within 24 hours.

Maya Hughley:

But of course, attending live gets you the added benefit of getting your question answered live by our guest. This week, we have a very special training. I’ll be interviewing founders and entrepreneurs that have found amazing ways to pivot their businesses during a global crisis. Each interview will be just a few minutes with time for one or two questions at the end. So please put your questions in the chat as you think of them so Michelle can get them to me. It looks like I may not be on camera right now, so let me fix that so you guys can see me. Let’s see. All right. Can everyone see me? I think. Put it in the chats if you can. Oh, perfect. I was already on camera. Thank you Robert. I appreciate that.

Maya Hughley:

So we’re going to go ahead and jump in here with some of these interviews. I’m sure you guys are so excited to hear and get some new strategies for your businesses as well. We’re all going through this really strange time and these people that we’re going to be interviewing have gotten really creative with how they’re doing their business. So first up, we have Abigail Gilman from Wantable as long… Excuse me, as well as Tiffany Cooley. Thank you guys so much for being here. Wantable is doing amazing things. You guys work for a company that does personal selling, is that right? Personal shopping and styling and are now making masks and delivering masks. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Tiffany Cooley:

Yeah, Wantable is a… Hi guys. I’m Tiffany Cooley, the chief marketing officer at Wantable. Wantable is a try before you buy personal styling company. We service primarily a women demographic, but we also have a men’s added and we pivoted our business pretty quickly after hearing everything that’s been going on in the world and in the country with COVID-19 and our platform really lended itself to a really easy solution for us to be able to crowdsource customers who are able to sell… Customers or people who just wanted to help and chip in and make masks. We have a great proprietary shipping platform that then could take in those shipments and then reship them out and distribute them to healthcare workers and medical people on the front lines. So it’s been a really successful campaign.

Maya Hughley:

Absolutely. I mean, that’s amazing to hear. You’re doing such a wonderful thing and I’m sure everyone on the frontline super appreciates it. Before all of this, before the global pandemic, how were you normally conducting business? I imagine doing drop shipping for frontline medical personnel was not in the business plan at all?

Tiffany Cooley:

No, I mean we ran probably very similar to a lot of traditional e-Comm players or other people in our space. We have a warehouse located in Milwaukee. We were working primarily one large shift, mostly Monday through Friday. Some things that we did to pivot to protect our employees really was to break those shifts into multiple and throughout the weekends, just to limit the contact that people would have with each other. And then we separated some of the workflows that came from customers and separated that from how we’re handling the So Good Campaign with the masks and so forth.

Tiffany Cooley:

So the good news is we actually were able to leverage a lot of the same technology and tools that we had as we made that change and added that last piece to our business. So we haven’t had to change a lot there. There’s honestly been a lot more change on the other operational teams within the organization. So our photo team, for example, since we’re talking to a group of marketers here on the call, that’s been a really big shift for us. We were in studio shooting product on models, touching product with our merchant teams and having that hands on experience. So getting that digitally has been one of the largest changes among many. So on that point we’re leaning into a lot of organic and UGC content right now.

Maya Hughley:

That makes sense. That makes a lot of sense.

Abigail Gilman:

Yeah, to layer onto what Tiffany was saying, and I think many people can relate to this in the marketing space, but we plan quite a bit out and have strategies in place for what we’re going to be doing months and quarters in advance. And it’s sort of hard to say, “All right, we’re going to put all of that on the back burner and maybe hopefully we’ll get to it someday, but we’re going to have shift all of our gears and be really graceful in the content that we share right now and sort of be a little bit more lenient about the aesthetic that we have and be scrappy and resourceful in the way that we’re sourcing and sharing images.” And it’s actually been a lot of fun to collaborate cross-functionally with different teams and find ways to come up with content from our home offices.

Maya Hughley:

Absolutely. That’s so good to hear. I’m sure a lot of our audience is feeling the same thing. I know DigitalMarketer is feeling the same thing. We have a video trying… A video team trying to make videos without access to people, which is difficult. So have you found that some of your new strategies have been successful and is there anything that you think you’re going to continue doing in the future because of this?

Tiffany Cooley:

I just say that we started… So pre-COVID, I think is becoming a time period. So pre-COVID, we had started working on the next evolution of our brand. I mean we’re about seven years old, so we’ve been kind of operating with the same foundation for our brand for a while. We really wanted to hone in on why we exist for customers and kind of go back to roots was our brand purpose. This is all pre everything happening. What we’ve found and what I think has been really successful for us is just leaning faster and more deliberately into that messaging now, to go back to our company’s true roots, to the core values, simplify, there is a lot of things to Abi’s point that we’ve had in the works and on the table, but I think just trying to go back to your core business, your core values, all the reasons why your customers come to you and love you has been extremely helpful.

Tiffany Cooley:

And then also just like Abi said, there’s a lot of grace that we have in our messaging, in our photography, how we handle employees in the company and so forth. Leaning into the times with empathy and kindness and also knowing that every single employee that we have behind the other screen as we’re working through those time period, has something going on, the same holds true for our customers. So we’ve really made sure that we’ve embraced every individual customer, every individual employee, knowing that there’s something unique going on with them about their situation and just flexing our business model with all the tools we have to help people in the best way possible.

Maya Hughley:

Absolutely. I think that makes so much sense and I find that a lot of people are using this time to kind of reconnect with what they meant to be doing in the beginning. It’s a great time to sort of do that. So we have one more interview question before we open it up to the chat. So our last question is what are some of the first steps you would recommend to a similar business or maybe a business that’s just kind of taking off if they want to pivot their business in a similar way?

Tiffany Cooley:

Yeah, I think that I’ll take a couple and then Abi, I know you’ve got a ton of really great thoughts on this topic as well. Going back to what we said, just to reiterate that really focusing on your original brand purpose and simplifying, also just kind of treating our employees well. I can speak from the executive leadership team level. We went into this knowing that we were going to have to cut for a period of time and we actually even shut down proactively to protect our employees for a week or so. Just knowing that we value our employees and their safety and health above all.

Tiffany Cooley:

So leaning into making sure that we’ve got everything set up or in place to be successful but also safe, it was important to us. We were able to pivot some of the roles that maybe would have less work as we slowed our operations down for a little bit, cross utilize, cross train them in other areas. They got this really cool learning experience, but we were able to make a bunch of changes as we downshifted our revenue without laying anyone off, and without having to furlough anyone just by being creative and pairing teams. They’ve been incredibly resilient and flexible and nimble throughout this process.

Maya Hughley:

That’s spectacular.

Abigail Gilman:

One tip that I would have is to mute when your neighbor’s dog is barking.

Maya Hughley:

I appreciate that, it’s a great tip.

Abigail Gilman:

I just keep reminding myself that we are humans serving humans. We are all just working with the best that we have to provide the best service and experience to the customers that we’re serving and just keeping close connections with all the cross functional teams. I think it’s been a really unique and interesting experience trying to collaborate together to hear all of the customer stories, whether they’re about our So Good Campaign sourcing masks and truly making a difference in our community and across the country, as well as just the response from some of our customers, how they’re being impacted and how we can use this experience just to create a real strong loyalty with them. And make sure that they understand we’re here for them too.

Maya Hughley:

That’s beautiful. Humans working with humans is the core of it all. I really, really like that. Absolutely. Let me see if we have any questions from our Q&A. And it doesn’t look like we have any additional questions for you, but if someone has a question that they’re holding onto or they want to find out more about Wantable, where should we send them to?

Tiffany Cooley:

You could send them to either of our email addresses. I think they’re in the meeting guide. Otherwise, we could type them in the chat if that helps as well.

Maya Hughley:

Absolutely. So we have Abigail at [email protected] and Tiffany is [email protected] and if you just want more information about Wantable and you want to support their cause of getting masks to frontline workers, you can visit them at wantable.com. Thank you guys so much for being here. That was so great.

Tiffany Cooley:

Thanks.

Abigail Gilman:

Thank you so much Maya.

Maya Hughley:

Absolutely. So next up we have Alisa Dusan. Alisa Dusan is a dietitian who works in the Austin area and she has had to pivot her entire business to being online, which as you know, if you’ve ever been to a dietitian that’s normally an in office personal experience. So that’s been a huge transition for her. And I’m really excited to hear from her about the changes that she had to make and some of the things that she had to do to make that happen and to make that work for her. So let’s get her in here. One second. There we go. How’s it going Alisa, can you hear me? Oh, and I don’t think I can hear you. Oh, maybe now I can.

Alisa Dusan:

How about now?

Maya Hughley:

Yes. Perfect.

Alisa Dusan:

Yay.

Maya Hughley:

How are you doing?

Alisa Dusan:

I’m good. How are you?

Maya Hughley:

I’m doing good. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you being here.

Alisa Dusan:

Yeah, my pleasure.

Maya Hughley:

Absolutely. So first question before all COVID-19, before this pandemic, how were you normally conducting your business?

Alisa Dusan:

Right, so I have an office right outside of Austin, Texas. And so almost a hundred percent of my clients, it was just one on one meetings in our office. It’s super cozy and personal. So I really enjoyed that one on one interaction with them and getting to sit and really do hands on things with them. We also cook sometimes too together, so lots of in-person stuff before COVID-19. I did always have a tele-health option as a backup. I always viewed it as kind of like the last resort, if someone just couldn’t make it or kids were home sick from school or something like that. So I had that in my back pocket but never kind of saw it as a primary way to go about business.

Maya Hughley:

Gotcha. So what exactly are you doing now that none of that can happen?

Alisa Dusan:

Right. So we had to… Well I made a quick switch over to tele-health only. I was really grateful that I do have an EHR, an electronic health record that allows for HIPAA compliant tele-health. So I had that set up. I immediately when we had stay at home orders, just sent out a message to all my clients and said, “Good news, we can continue business. You’re good. We’ll be meeting online from here on out. Here’s your instructions for your next appointment.” Just tried to be really positive and shift my mindset and seeing it as a backup or a last resort as something that could be a really effective tool for my clients that we didn’t have to completely slip off in this time. So yeah, we just switched over to tele-health. I did my best to just kind of word it as, “This is great. We’re so lucky we can keep going forward that way.” Yeah.

Maya Hughley:

What was the client response to that? I’m sure they were all experiencing, the same stay at home order. But did you get any pushback or any really positive reactions to going fully online?

Alisa Dusan:

Yeah, I would say about 75% was just fine with the transition, ready to go. I did get some pushback. People that are less comfortable with technology don’t like the idea of doing things over a screen. So I definitely have had some pushback. There has been a suspension in the requirement for these platforms to be HIPAA compliant for a season, which has allowed me to in those, to transition some people over. So being able to use something as long as they are aware that it’s not a secure platform like FaceTime or something, in that first session was always the goal of going to a more secure platform, has been a nice thing to do for people that aren’t as used to it.

Alisa Dusan:

I’ve had a few, just a very small percentage of clients that were very nervous about it and one in particular didn’t think she wanted to do it. I kind of said, “Let’s hang in there and try one.” And she was so excited afterwards, because she realized if she could do that, she could do her meetings with me over lunch at work in the future and not have to take off a half day to come see me. And so she actually switched in the course of the one meeting to, “I just want to do this from now on. This is so much more convenient.” So that was kind of a nice surprise to see some people really finding it better. And I think in the long run, the force to do it well and for me to learn tele-health really well, will be an added benefit for clients in the future. And for me to not just see it as this last case scenario, but something I can actually offer as another service in the future. It’s kind of forced me out of my comfort zone that way.

Maya Hughley:

Yeah, that was actually leading right into my next question was, is there any facets of it that you think you’re going to continue doing after the pandemic? But it sounds like you’ve learned a lot of new things that you can kind of carry on as a part of your business even after the stay at home is lifted.

Alisa Dusan:

Right. So I think that there’s just definitely some skills that I’ve learned. I have a lot of teenager clients and so having to really brainstorm with other people who work in tele-health and other dieticians and getting their advice on how to keep, especially younger clients engaged over a screen for that time has been a challenge. But I’ve learned a lot with that way. It’s also really forced me to learn tele-health laws and insurance compliance, all of those things better. So it’s kind of been a forced growth for me that I think will benefit the practice in the future.

Maya Hughley:

That makes a lot of sense. That is spectacular. Everyone’s learning so much about how their business runs and the kind of things that they can do to make it better in general. So last question here is what are some of the first steps you might recommend to someone in a similar industry or someone that is used to meeting with clients one-on-one, if they want to make an online pivot?

Alisa Dusan:

Right. So something that’s been invaluable for me has been some private Facebook groups that I’m a part of that are specific to dietitians in private practice, as places to really brainstorm these things. And so I’ve been so grateful for people that are business coaches in this area, or other people where we can really brainstorm together, “Hey, this isn’t working for me. What works for you?” We also specifically in one of the groups I have for insurance for dietitians in private practice, a spreadsheet that we’ve all shared, where we put in information for different insurance companies, what codes are working, things like that. So I would say to network, to find those places, hire a business coach that’s been there and don’t try to do it on your own because the resource of people that are ahead of me, that understand these things more and being able to ask questions and really share so that we all kind of rise together in this situation, has been invaluable for me.

Maya Hughley:

Absolutely. That’s amazing advice. That makes a lot of sense to me to network with your peers and make sure you’re supporting other people in your industry. If people are looking to get in touch with you, ask you some questions, or just find out more about your business, your website is alisadusan.com, correct?

Alisa Dusan:

Yep. And they can send me a message from there.

Maya Hughley:

All right, well thank you so much for being here, Alyssa. I really appreciate it.

Alisa Dusan:

My pleasure.

Maya Hughley:

All right. So next up we have, let’s see here. Got to get my list in front of me. Justin. Hi Justin.

Justin Bajan:

Hello.

Maya Hughley:

How’s it going?

Justin Bajan:

Look at me, I’m right on time.

Maya Hughley:

How are you doing? You are indeed.

Justin Bajan:

I’m good.

Maya Hughley:

So we can go ahead and hop into some questions here if you’re good.

Justin Bajan:

Sure.

Maya Hughley:

Absolutely. So first of all, before all of everything that’s going on, how did Familiar Creatures usually go about doing their business?

Justin Bajan:

We went about doing our business by establishing relationships with brands we were interested in through our own connections or through connections of connections, if that makes sense. And then if they had a need and the timing was right, we would initiate a contract and do work for them. Starting with strategy, going into what we call ad like objects and then doing the work that you will actually see out in the world. And then we’d actually get a production company to shoot and direct it, edit it, all those good things.

Maya Hughley:

Absolutely. So sorry, I realize I skipped a step here. You work for Familiar Creatures, which is an ad agency based in Richmond, Virginia, correct?

Justin Bajan:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Maya Hughley:

Hey, there we go. Perfect. So the reason that we reached out to talk to you is because we saw that you guys had made a website specifically for Richmond helping small businesses and restaurants just kind of get their name out there, their delivery options, their curbside options. So can you tell me a little bit more about how you’re doing business now?

Justin Bajan:

How we’re doing business now is thinking a little bit more proactively and how should I say it, being a lot more responsive to the COVID situation and the fact that brands are now kind of in a moment of crisis. And so being a little bit less cold call-y and sales focused and being a lot more respectful of the moment and only approaching brands if we really are super close to them relationally wise and then on the flip side of that, doing work that gets out in the market, like our website, and we have some other things in the works too, that’s just proving out our expertise and our quality and just building a groundswell through that.

Maya Hughley:

Absolutely.

Justin Bajan:

Yeah.

Maya Hughley:

So what was sort of the decision making process like for making your pivot? Was it was just a lot of meetings talking about what’s next or how did that go?

Justin Bajan:

It was… So we’re a small agency, we’re four people strong. And we’re in a cool area in Richmond called Scott’s Addition, that’s been growing and blowing up with breweries, hipster food places, restaurants, grocery stores and stuff. And we just thought, this is like March 14th or 15th. We’re down in Virginia where you know, COVID kept hitting the North, the West, and then it started going South.

Justin Bajan:

So it started becoming real for us mid March. And so we just were like, “Hey, you know what? All these places, what the heck’s going to happen to them?” And we just started thinking quickly on the spot, it’s how we do everything, we think about something and then we just do it. And so we thought, how can we help these restaurants and these breweries, what’s a good URL? We thought of a few, Keep Calm and Nom On, stuck, and it was luckily available.

Speaker 1:

For good reason, it’s a great one.

Justin Bajan:

And then we started working on it on a Friday, and over the weekend we had half of it done, and on Monday we launched it in earnest. So that was how that happened for sure.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. So as you’ve been sort of transitioning and finding new ways to get business and things like that, have you had success with anything, any new strategies that you think you’re going to continue to do even after the pandemic is over?

Justin Bajan:

Yeah. I think that we’re still assessing the damage of the pending economic downturn. And our value proposition, if I could put it that way, has always been that we bring you big agency experience and expertise, but way more efficiently and not as expensive.

Justin Bajan:

And so, that will be even more of a desire I’m assuming, of brands moving forward. And so it’s just making sure that that comes through in how we communicate ourselves on our website, which we’re in the process of completely redoing, and how we talk on Instagram, how we talk on LinkedIn and such.

Speaker 1:

That makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. So our last question here, if there’s anyone with questions in the chat for Justin, let me know and I’ll slip some of those in here. But our last question on our side is we do have some members of our audience, our lab members, our certified partners who do have agencies. What are some steps or some ideas you would recommend for trying to make a pivot like this?

Justin Bajan:

I would say that it’s like an intrinsic thing, it’s courage. You need to have courage collectively, in a high of mind kind of way, to pick a lane and go at it like the Juggernaut from X-Men, and try to eliminate processes and old ways of coming to do business as fast as you can. And be as smart as you can about it, but if it feels right, just do it. And that sounds like something from a movie from the eighties or something, but it’s all about embracing the challenger brand mindset, which we have. We think of ourselves as a challenger brand, even though we’re an agency, and you kind of just already know how you do things and you just do them as soon as you can.

Justin Bajan:

There’s so much out there to be gained, now with marketers pulling back and stuff, there’s a captive audience waiting all day long for funny things or for a good message. So you’ve got to figure out how to deliver stuff to them that will capture their attention and their eyeballs and stuff.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense, and you know eighties movies are the truest movies, so it only makes sense to me. Thank you so much for being here, Justin. If you guys want to check out the website that Familiar Creatures made for Richmond, it’s keep keepcalmandnomon.com. If you want to check out more about Familiar Creatures, it’s familiarcreatures.com. And thank you so much for being here, I appreciate your time.

Justin Bajan:

Yeah, thank you for inviting me. Nice to meet everybody.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. All right, so I’m sorry. It looks like we may have gotten a little out of order there, but we’re going to bring up our next guest. We’re going to keep things moving because there’s so much great content that I want you guys to hear about, and so many great pivots that we’re making. So next up we have Jeremy Gabrysch, and I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly, from Remedy Urgent Care. Jeremy, how you doing? Oh, he was there for a second and then he disappeared on me.

Jeremy Gabrysch:

Can you hear me?

Speaker 1:

Oh, I can hear you. There you are, perfect.

Jeremy Gabrysch:

Good deal, hi.

Speaker 1:

Hi. How are you?

Jeremy Gabrysch:

Good, good. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I appreciate you being here. You are kind of the man of the hour when it comes to healthcare, and what is going on right now I think everyone very much wants to hear what urgent care is doing, what ER’s are doing, and the entire healthcare industry. But before the whole pandemic, how was Remedy regularly going about business?

Jeremy Gabrysch:

Yeah, we’re a little bit of a unique case, in the sense that we have actually not changed our business model much. So, we’re a house call service, a virtual video visit service, we’ve sort of always been a big fan of doing medical care outside of the four walls of the clinic. That’s kind of how we’ve always done it. And so if anything, the COVID-19 thing has sort of shone a light on the way we do things.

Jeremy Gabrysch:

And yeah, I mean we had, at least in the Austin market, we do have one walk-in clinic, which we actually are not operating during COVID-19, and have instead pivoted to a drive through testing facility. So we changed a little bit of the things that we were doing, mostly around the needs to do more high volume. So we had a lot of people who wanted to be tested for COVID, or maybe they don’t think they have COVID, but maybe they want to be tested for strep, or flu or something else. And so we needed a way to do a lot of that efficiently. So we have spun up drive through locations for that reason.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. I’m thankful to that because I am in Austin. So if the time comes, I’m sure I’ll be looking you guys up. As far as making this pivot, what was the decision making like? When you decided to close the walkup clinic, when you decided to kind of focus on volume, was there a whole team that kind of had to deal with that?

Jeremy Gabrysch:

Yeah, there was. So fairly early on, we sort of created a COVID task force, and we pulled leaders from across every functional area of the company. So we had a representative of the nursing team, we had representative of the laboratory team, we had a rep of the operations, and a person from marketing. And so we had basically like a 10 person COVID cabinet, is what we called them.

Jeremy Gabrysch:

And so we started meeting regularly, initially it was before shelter in place started, so we were meeting in person. Then there came the day when we said, “Okay guys, we got to dissolve this and do all this from home.” But yeah, I mean we had to make a decision to pivot to that. I mean, some of it had to do with PPE, and if you’ve been watching the news, everybody knows PPE now, which is funny to me, but personal protective equipment, it’s an acronym that we use in the medical field.

Jeremy Gabrysch:

And really the thoughts around how do you use it wisely. We have always done house calls, but the problem with house calls with PPE is, you take it, you put it on, you go in the home, you come out, you take it off, you get back in the car, you have to throw it away, discard it, get in the car and then use new PPE for each patient. And so this really made us go, we’re not going to be able to use the limited amounts of PBE efficiently if we stick with house calls. And so, we are actually doing very few house calls right now, and instead we are basically shunting all of that business to our drive through locations.

Speaker 1:

That makes sense.

Jeremy Gabrysch:

Yeah. And that way our people can sort of, they can stay gowned up, and they’re gowned up, they’ve got their mask and all that stuff. And then people are just coming through in their cars rolling down their window, you do what you need to do. But we can conserve the amount of PPE that we use in that situation.

Speaker 1:

Right. That makes a lot of sense. Have you had any difficulty dealing with an increase in demand, just in general for your services?

Jeremy Gabrysch:

Yeah. I mean, our volume has been up like a thousand percent.

Speaker 1:

Oh, boy.

Jeremy Gabrysch:

Since last year. So we’re dealing with a huge surge in volume, but one of the interesting things is that a lot of traditional brick and mortar clinics and facilities are less busy than they used to be. And some of those have had to furlough some people unfortunately. And we’ve been able to bring some of those people on, and get them back providing frontline medical care, just via video instead of the way they were doing it.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. So one more question here. And for anyone that is in a similar industry, so we’ll say the healthcare industry, that is trying to figure out maybe to emulate a little bit of what you do, or to maybe have an online option, what are some steps that you might recommend?

Jeremy Gabrysch:

Yeah. I mean, there are some third party softwares that you can use if you want to get set up for seeing patients virtually. There are several out there that are good, and you can provide your patients with a link that they can click, and then go in and be talking with you virtually.

Jeremy Gabrysch:

I mean, the thing that I keep coming back to is, what is the new normal going to be after this? And so I’m really encouraging medical providers to think about, don’t think about this temporary video solution as, “Okay, we’re going to do this. And then after this is over, we’re going to go back to business as usual.” A lot of patients are trying this and they really like it. I mean, they need to have their medicine refilled or they need something easy and the doc gets on and sees them by video, and it gets taken care of. And the patients are going, “Hey, that was pretty cool.” And so, I’m really advising people, think about how when this is over, maybe you do half of your visits virtually and give people the option. They can come in the office if they want, or they can do it like this.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And I think that’s such good advice, even for the people out there that aren’t in healthcare, is to think about what the strategies they’re doing now can help them in the future. Make some great decisions now that you can kind of keep doing, even after this is over. That’s excellent advice. Thank you so much for being here Jeremy, I really appreciate it. If people want to check out more about Remedy Urgent Care, the website is myremedy.com, correct?

Jeremy Gabrysch:

That’s correct.

Speaker 1:

All right. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Jeremy Gabrysch:

All right, you’re welcome.

Speaker 1:

All right, I’m having a great time. This is going… I hope you’re taking notes on some of the great advice we’re getting. Next up we have Donnine Souhrada from We Are Teachers. This, if you’re not familiar, is a website for teachers that really helps provide resources, and now they’re helping teachers with resources for teaching online, which is new to a lot of people. So they’re doing some great work, and I’m so happy she’s here to talk about it.

Donnine Souhrada :

And it looks like my video camera [inaudible 00:35:45] there. So let’s see if we can fix that.

Speaker 1:

No worries, can you see me?

Donnine Souhrada :

Hi. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Perfect. Thank you so much for being here, I really appreciate it. So we can hop right into some questions if you feel okay.

Donnine Souhrada :

Yeah, ready.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. So before all of this, what was We Are Teachers normally doing business wise?

Donnine Souhrada :

Yeah. So We Are Teachers, we are an agency and media brand. So we work with customers that want to expose their brand into schools. And so a lot of things that we were doing were really connecting brands to the school calendar, and what was going on in schools at the time, and making their products, or service, or causes relevant to the school market at that time. And that all shifted, because [inaudible 00:36:42] schools closed, and the school calendar became very different when school became at home. So a big shift overnight when everybody was schooling at home.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. So what was the decision making process like, for changing up the business?

Donnine Souhrada :

Yeah, we pivoted quickly. The working style was great because we’re already a remote team, that’s across the US, so there was just a couple of people that were used to working in an office that we had to send home when buildings closed. And the immediate thing we did is we got our creative director, our editorial director and our program managers together, and we pulled everything that was planning to launch in market over the next 90 days, and just paused it.

Donnine Souhrada :

And we went through each communication strategy for each program, and figured out how to tweak to make it relevant, to make sure we weren’t tone deaf, that we weren’t talking about schools, but instead we’re talking about learning at home. So it was a lot of content switching, and just kind of vocabulary on how we are relevant to the current situation that everybody is in with educating at home. Some of the customers that we are working with, we had to pause their program, because it’s just a classroom or school site solution that can’t be done virtually. So we just paused those. And I think that the key is being super flexible as a company to all your customers, your readers, et cetera, to adapt to the situation, and still be relevant to them and their services.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And it sounds like you guys were honestly just a really great team kind of making that happen. As far as the pivot that you guys made, are there any successes that you’ve seen from that, that you think you’re just going to keep rolling with in the future?

Donnine Souhrada :

I think that what was interesting is that we really, I think in working with the customers and the clients and the programs, there was just this kind of leaning and trust. We were in such an unknown period, and I think that really talking through, you know, before when you’re working with clients that are thinking about their product launch and when they want to hit the market, and all of the things that are kind of company, product-centric. At this point, you really had to know your users, and how they were going to consume these messages and use what you were offering in this new way. So I think that it gives us more leverage to put the customer first, customer messaging first, and be a little bit less product-centric, and have that validity with the customers when you’re talking about that.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense to me. It looks like I have one more question for you. If there’s anybody who has a question in the chat for We Are Teachers, let me know, Michelle will get it to me. But for anyone who’s in sort of a similar spot as you in a similar business, do you have any recommendations, or just kind of what’s the first step if they’re looking to make a pivot in their business?

Donnine Souhrada :

Yeah. I think the first thing is just, it’s not business as usual. And to be super flexible in adapting to the environment, and that’s both internally and externally. So really taking care of your team members, you know, people aren’t used to working with their significant others in the same house, and having children schooling in the room next door, and so there might need to be some modifications there. And then just taking a look, obviously many live conferences weren’t happening, so you see a lot of digital media is big right now, and lots of innovation happening so quickly, it’s very exciting. So just coming up with ways to serve your readership and your target audience in ways in this environment, and being able to make those pivots very quickly.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. Being sensitive to your customers and to your people and your staff, that makes so much sense. It looks like we do have one question from the chat for you. This question is from Robert, and he wants to know if you can give a specific example of what the end user is getting now.

Donnine Souhrada :

So one of the things that we pivoted and put together really quickly, we have a lot of media on the topic of education on weareteachers.com, but we quickly built a microsite called Learning At Home, because that’s what was happening. And we sent out, we put all of the learning at home resources that our editors can find, and did a call out to companies that were giving free resources to families and educators, that could be online done virtually, that they could be included in our Learning At Home microsite.

Donnine Souhrada :

So that was something new, we went through kind of a lot of existing content and just kind of changed language for classroom use to home use. And now we’re thinking about when we go back to a environment where we can be face to face, and students can be in buildings, how that can again be leveraged for over summer students who may need to work at home because of health issues, et cetera. I think that there will be many purposes for this type of content in the future.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean that makes so much sense, and I’m hoping that it builds a more inclusive, more diverse for all businesses, as they come out on the other side of this.

Donnine Souhrada :

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for being here, Donnine, I’m sorry, am I pronouncing your name correctly?

Donnine Souhrada . That’s fine, yes.

Speaker 1:

Perfect. Sorry, I didn’t want to get that wrong on camera. Thank you so much for being here, Donnine. We super appreciate your time. If you guys want to learn more about We Are Teachers, you can check that out at weareteachers.com.

Speaker 1:

All right. Next up we have Fillip Hord from Horderly. Horderly is an organizing company, and before this you guys were doing in house in home organizing, correct?

Fillip Hord:

Yep, exactly. Go into homes and help them get their kitchens, pantries and closets all in order.

Speaker 1:

I could certainly use that. How are things working now?

Fillip Hord:

Well we’re not in homes, that’s for sure. That was the biggest change for us, and pretty traumatic, we have about 30 employees and we work in [inaudible 00:44:24] so going from casually, a ton of billable hours and our organizers working full time in people’s homes, to not being able to go into clients’ homes and it being an hourly function and an hourly service, where we charge by the hour and we pay by the hour. It was really devastating, that when the government said no more in home, and just before that even happened, it was the health of our clients and employees was that risk. So we started pulling back and doing certain protocols to be extra safe. But then even that, everyday things changed, and then all of a sudden we had to pivot, make a big shift.

Speaker 1:

Right, absolutely. What was the decision making process like for making a pivot? Because you pivoted to doing online consultations, correct?

Fillip Hord:

Yeah. So decision was really quick. It happened before we, before all in home organizing was canceled, and before we shut that down. Just because we saw it was happening and trending, and there was scare of, you know, once China fully shut down and Italy fully shut down, it’s coming to the West coast of America. So we kind of figured, we’re in New York City, the biggest hub of people right now, in America at least, and we decided to pivot to virtual organizing. And it’s more like coaching and consulting, so if you’ve ever seen the Marie Kondo Netflix show, where she comes and kind of coaches, then leaves and comes back a month later, that’s like what virtual-

Maya:

Got it.

Fillip Hord:

It makes sense, and it’s great for us because now we can reach a much broader audience and we’re working worldwide instead of just in the seven states that we actually have physical organizing. So it was a pivot that needed to be made but kind of pushed us over the edge to expedite it.

Maya:

Absolutely. So, it sounds like this is something that you’re probably going to continue doing even after the stay-at-home orders are lifted.

Fillip Hord:

Yeah, I mean if you can be optimistic in this time and see something at the end of the tunnel that is going to brighten your day, this has forced us to create an entire additional service to our company. So if we can thrive and create it and expedite making it a solid service, the right price, the right amount of protocols, and having the right effect on clients during these however many months. Then when we come out of this, we have a worldwide audience and clientele that we never had before. We have a service that when, say our California team has a recession, but our New York team doesn’t, well, we can virtually organize from anywhere. So, now our team that has less hours are going to get more virtual sessions because you can do it from home.

Maya:

Absolutely.

Fillip Hord:

So it’s just going to make our company more helpful towards our audience and clients moving forward.

Maya:

That’s spectacular, and when you talk about taking lemons and making lemonade, I think that’s the definition of that.

Fillip Hord:

Yeah. It’s making big service adjustments in your company during times like this. It can only boost the morale from your team because this is a worldwide pandemic and it’s affecting everyone and especially small businesses. So, if you can make your team smile and look forward to something, I think that’s really helpful.

Maya:

Yeah. If anyone in our audience has questions for Fillip, you can throw those in the chat. Michelle will get them to me. But we do have one more question for you and it’s, for anyone in a business that might be kind of similar to yours that is now having to transition online, do you have any steps or recommendations you could make to them?

Fillip Hord:

Yeah, well, I have two recommendations just for small business owners or people with small business or as an entrepreneur, we’re like busy body people. First off, something like this happens, a recession, take a breath, read a book, relax, take time for family. That’s step one, because people are freaking out, I’m not making a bunch of money right now. It’s like, that’s all right. Survive. You’re going to get through this. We’re all going to get through this. That’s step one, which has no action item.

Fillip Hord:

Step two would be, move social. Go virtual, even if you have a small following on Instagram, focus on putting out content. There’s three different tiers of people. You might have three different tiers of clients or customers purchasing what you need. A very large audience is the free clientele. If you help the free clientele, the people with little money and more money to help support your business in the future will come along, but why don’t you build up your social media following? All you can do is sit home and make folding videos, if you’re professional organizing, put them on YouTube. If you’re a contractor, do some DIY videos, put those out right now, you’ll see the return down on the road with a new audience and clients that appreciate the free content now.

Maya:

Absolutely. That is such good advice and I hope our audience out there will listen to that and take it and run with it. Thank you so much for being here, Fillip Hord. I so appreciate your time. If people are looking to find out more about Horderly, horderly.com is the website.

Maya:

All right, so thank you so much, guys, for being here. I know we’re running a little behind, but we’re going to keep it moving. Next up, I’m so excited because we have Fae Gershenson. I hope I’m pronouncing your last name correctly, Fae. Fae is a member of our DigitalMarketer lab audience, just like you guys, and she had an amazing pivot with her business, so I’m super excited to hear about it. Thank you for being here, Fae.

Fae Gershenson:

Yeah, totally. Woo-hoo.

Maya:

Woo! Can you tell me a little bit more about Happily Ever Laughter and what you do?

Fae Gershenson:

Yeah, I am the girl that got to be a fairy princess when she grew up. That’s right. I have a staff of 50 wacky entertainers and we travel all over California and perform at hundreds of birthday parties and things every week, but not anymore.

Maya:

Oh, you got to laugh to keep from crying, right? Just a little bit. Just a little bit.

Fae Gershenson:

Yeah.

Maya:

Happily Ever Laughter was all in person, all children’s parties, events before all of this happened and now what does your business look like?

Fae Gershenson:

Now, well, I don’t know because I can’t see anyone, but no, now it’s unbelievable. We are doing virtual shows with children around the world.

Maya:

That’s beautiful.

Fae Gershenson:

We never thought we’d ever leave California. We’re getting bookings every 10 minutes and have ever since we released one video ad. So it’s definitely hitting the right tone for people, which I’ve heard all of you say, and that is number one. Just listen. Listen to what people need.

Maya:

That is spectacular. So, as far as moving this online, what was your sort of decision making process for that?

Fae Gershenson:

It was, okay, we got to figure out how to perform with children, but like double spaced, and then we’ll put them on a towel and we’ll call it a magic carpet. Oh wait, oh the next day. Oh, no more parties at all? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? And I called my co-fairy and said we have to change everything right now. All of it.

Maya:

I mean, yeah.

Fae Gershenson:

It was really an aha moment. There was no, I’m sure everyone’s kind of had this similar thing, it wasn’t a subtle thing. It was like bam, you’ve got to move now.

Maya:

You’ve got to do it right this second. So it sounds like it’s been really successful for you. Is this a new opportunity for you? Are you moving to online parties for the future?

Fae Gershenson:

Yeah, I’m never going to kill this. This is awesome. I mean, the cousins and things that never got to see each other, they finally get to party together. So awesome.

Maya:

Oh, that’s so nice.

Fae Gershenson:

Yeah, I’m stoked, and I’m also excited to fight with worker’s comp more to figure out how we can not pay as much since the girls will just be Zooming.

Maya:

Yes, absolutely. So, how has that, you mentioned the girls, the other fairies. How has their response been as employees? Is this something that they like doing or how has that been?

Fae Gershenson:

Oh, man. Communicating with people that you cannot see. I don’t know how everyone else is doing it, but my company has always been kind of distant. The performers are all over California. So, we have had a really strong Facebook group since the day Facebook came out with groups.

Maya:

Wow.

Fae Gershenson:

We fill it with memes and crazy silly stuff all the time. So when I had to shift the whole message of like, hey y’all, you’re out of work today. Oh, weird. All of a sudden you have work again. But we have to subtly roll this out. So some people are still at home wondering why they don’t have shows, anyway, that’s my own thing, but…

Maya:

But it’s difficult and as a business owner, it’s one of those things where everyone’s experiencing this for the first time. We’re all in this boat just experiencing all of this at once, which makes things difficult. But I’m sure there’s business owners out here that appreciate hearing that. Even with the success you’re having, there’s still some struggles there, so I super appreciate that. If anyone has any questions for Fae, throw those in the chat, but we do have one more question for you, which is, for someone who also has a business that was fully person to person interaction before this, do you have any suggestions that you would give them for discovering an online opportunity or moving their business online?

Fae Gershenson:

You know how you’ve probably seen somebody else in your industry attempting it, oh, maybe you’re too late or something, or you can’t do it as great as they can. Don’t listen to that. Just be prepared to work your tail off, harder than you’ve ever worked before, and you will totally be fine. You’ll be fine. It’s incredible. Everyone in my industry is doing this. Not one of them is getting any bookings. So, it’s all about messaging.

Maya:

Absolutely. Well, that’s all we have, Fae. Thank you so much for being here.

Fae Gershenson:

Bye.

Maya:

Thank you for bringing your DigitalMarketer experience. If you want to reach Fae, she is in our engaged Facebook group so you can talk to her directly there and if you want to learn more about Happily Ever Laughter, the website is happilyeverlaughter.com.

Maya:

And next up, we have Patrick McCarthy. Patrick McCarthy is the owner of Inish Free Irish Dance. That’s an Austin based dance studio and we’re super excited to have him here to talk about his experience. He’s had to deal with St. Patrick’s Day getting canceled, which is a huge thing for the Irish dance community. So I’m excited to hear some of the pivots he’d made in his business as well. We’re going to give him one second. It looks like he might need some tech help. Patrick, can you hear me?

Patrick McCarthy:

I can. Hello.

Maya:

Oh, there you are. Hello there, how’s it going?

Patrick McCarthy:

Yeah, good, good. Oh, I’ve gone again.

Maya:

Well, good thing I can still hear you.

Patrick McCarthy:

Yeah, I’m here. I think I’ll pop back up.

Maya:

No worries. While that’s happening, can you tell me a little bit more about the Inish Free Irish Dance and your dance studio?

Patrick McCarthy:

Yeah, so we predominantly just teach Irish dancing. That’s kind of our thing. We’re not like those regular down studios that do ballet and tap and stuff like that. So we’re kind of a niche market. On our day to day, we are in studio teaching kids ranging from four years of age up to adults. So I teach in Austin, Texas, and San Antonio. And over the space of a week, I probably see 200 children-

Maya:

Oh, wow.

Patrick McCarthy:

In blips and doing private lessons and teen dancing, lots of different things.

Maya:

Absolutely. So, as soon as the pandemic hit, it kind of meant that St. Patrick’s Day, which I’m sure is a pretty big event that you guys are normally doing things for, was canceled. How did that go? How did you guys handle that?

Patrick McCarthy:

Well, we do a lot of steady contracted work for St. Patrick’s Day parades, lots of retirement facilities and they were one of the first kind of groups to cancel everything. I’m a physical therapist by trade, too, so I work in some of those settings. So, it was tough. It was tough because it’s one of the busiest time for the kids. We train a lot of performance time up to that point of the year and it was kind of quite quick that everything canceled. So, just for morale for the kids and stuff like that, it was tough for them not to be able to do any of their performances and have everything closed down at the same time.

Maya:

Absolutely. What is business looking like now? What are your plans for the near future?

Patrick McCarthy:

So, we’ve gone predominant, we’re pretty much done everything online now, so different platforms for doing classes online, doing private lessons online. We have a bit of an issue with, we obviously need to use the cameras but we’re using music, too, so one of the biggest things in dance is timing. So, it’s hard to have that perfect connection between the timing in the music and what you’re getting across lines. So we’re just doing as best we can. The kids are getting, one of the things we did was have them video all of their material and send them to us, and we just sit down and write notes about them. So we’re not having to do a two way conversation back and forth and not mess with the timing. But we also do Zoom classes, too. So, it’s worked good, and there are some definite benefits of doing it online.

Maya:

Absolutely, and I didn’t even think about the unique challenge that is of trying to cue up music and a live stream video at the same time. A lot of people are-

Patrick McCarthy:

Yeah, and then there’s also spacing on top of that because you have to have enough space to dance and a lot of these kids have maybe, I don’t know, live in apartments or have a garage, but it’s filled with all different types of junk, so…

Maya:

Absolutely. Well, as far as moving to video lessons and kind of moving your business that direction, do you see bringing any of the new things that you’re doing into your business for the future? Has any of it been so successful that you’re going to kind of keep up with it?

Patrick McCarthy:

So, at first I thought it was going to be a total nightmare doing this and I thought the parents, what we really did try to implement at first was to go above what we would normally do in classes. So, our classes are Mondays and Wednesdays and we knew that parents were being furloughed and parents were having to work from home, so they were going to have their kids at home with them all day and they’re having to do school work and then the parents had to do their work and then the parents have to try to do dance stuff on top.

Patrick McCarthy:

So, we give them lots of fun things that they could do, all the different levels and give them like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday work that they could just spread it out. The parents knew that if they had conference calls they could give their kids this to watch on the iPad and then go learn on their own. So, I think we kind of just inundated them with more than they would be used to, just to kind of help out because we understood that everyone’s kind of in a top position with us. And then with the furloughed people, we also told them, if you can afford this, send your kids to these classes anyway and it’ll all come out in the wash in the end.

Maya:

Absolutely.

Patrick McCarthy:

The Zoom classes are good. One of the really good things is getting the parents to video them, send them in and us giving them written notes because they can then pop them up on their wall, read the written notes before they start, and they’re getting that visual feedback straight away before they start.

Maya:

Absolutely. So, I have one last question for you. For anyone out there who has a business, and I know there’s some members of our audience that have things like karate studios, dance studios, in person businesses like that. Do you have any suggestions to them about how to implement this kind of video lessons in their work?

Patrick McCarthy:

Well, my biggest piece of advice would be to ask other people for advice that are doing this. I think in this time, everyone understands that we’re all under a lot of pressure. Things are not going well for lots of businesses, and I’ve had friends that have reached out to me and asked what we’re doing and I’m happy to help them. You realize its everyone’s livelihoods and people are having to pay bills for their families. So I think there’s a lot of goodwill out there to help people. So, ask for advice, look for resources. There’s plenty of resources popping up everywhere. We have an Irish dancing resource with 600 teachers on it, all giving different ideas, and then the last thing is you just have to adapt to it. That’s all there is. We’re all in the same boat. Everyone understands. You’re not going out and just changing your business totally, and people are wondering why you’re doing it. They know that you’re doing it, and you’re trying to do the best for your business, best for your customers, and they’ll be responsive to that and they’ll appreciate it when it all comes back to normal.

Maya:

Absolutely. Thank you so much for being here, Patrick. I really appreciate it.

Patrick McCarthy:

You’re very welcome. You’re very welcome.

Maya:

And if you’re looking for more information about Inish Free Irish dance, you can find Patrick’s studio at irishdanceaustin.com.

Maya:

Next up, we have Candace Wendt from FoodHead Catering and Sandwiches. Candice’s business has been actually working with the City of Austin to provide care meals to young students and their families in Austin. So, she’s doing great things with her business and I’m super excited for her to tell you guys about it. So, let’s see here, if we can pull Candace in.

Candace Wendt:

There we go.

Maya:

There we go. How’s it going, Candice?

Candace Wendt:

It’s going great. How are you today, Maya?

Maya:

Doing good, doing good. So, just to hop right in here, can you tell me what FoodHead catering service would normally be doing if there were no pandemic? What would business look like?

Candace Wendt:

Okay, so we are a cafe and a catering service. So we have a cafe close to UT campus and probably, our catering is 50% of what we do though. One of our biggest customers is University of Texas, and in all their different departments and so when they went down, we kind of went down, and started to have to reinvent what we do and how we do it.

Maya:

Absolutely.

Candace Wendt:

We did do some online ordering already, but we have expanded that. We’ve also started some, honestly, our community has been what’s kept us going and actually kept us reinventing ourselves. We do this one thing called, Lunch Bunch, and it was a friend of mine, and at the beginning of this, I felt like I was being told, listen to people’s ideas. You don’t have to do them, but listen and keep an open mind, and she came to me and said, “What if just start doing this lunch group in our neighborhoods and people can post it on Next Door and you can have a point person as a host and we pick up food at their houses.” And I was like, “Okay, let’s figure it out.” Well, the first week we did it, it was I think close to $2,000 worth of business.

Maya:

Oh, wow.

Candace Wendt:

Just on that one day and for that one group, and so we’ve been doing that weekly ever since, and just the response of people wanting to help small business, and from that it’s inspired us to want to keep busy but also help others. So, the Texas Restaurant Association has a program that you were referring to that is the comfort care packages and those are also part of the Texas Network of Family and Youth Success Programs. And so, basically what they’re doing and not just us, many restaurants are doing this, they are connecting with families that have children at risk and that need help. And so, in turn the restaurants are also providing meals for them and the restaurants get to work and we also get to provide a nice meal for these families. Plus, we also add paper goods or something that might be helpful for them because right now, you can’t get toilet paper, you can’t get some paper towels. So, that is helpful.

Maya:

Right, that’s spectacular. What was the decision making process like for some of these pivots that you’ve had to make? You mentioned listening and listening to other people’s ideas even if you don’t do them, but what was your process like for deciding what to just listen to and what to do?

Candace Wendt:

Well, basically you had to do something and you needed do it quickly, and things were changing drastically or every day rather, and you were like, okay, so this is what’s safe for our community and for our employees. So, how do we change this? How do we implement this? How do we keep our community but distance ourselves in the way that we’ve been asked to do? So, implementing online, ordering curbside, which we do, still keeps us working, keeps us seeing our customers and also just the connection, of being able to do that. And the other programs we’re doing, we’re also doing some things with meeting healthcare workers and that’s another way we’re keeping involved in our community. I think the biggest thing, and I know I keep on talking about this is, just the opportunity that we’ve had to be involved just beyond ourselves, and if we didn’t do that, I honestly think that, if I couldn’t focus outwardly, that just focusing inwardly would make me crazy. Uh oh, I’ve lost you.

Maya:

There we go. Sorry. Dogs barking in the background. That is a really good point, is we’re all stuck here, you might as well kind of look outwardly and see what you can do for your community and help your business at the same time if you can. Have you seen any specific successes that you think you’re going to continue on in your business even after we can kind of start meeting in person again?

Candace Wendt:

I think so. I think we’ve always wanted, it’s two things. We’ve always wanted to do things where we gave back a little bit more and always have tried to figure out how that was going to work, and I think that we’ll probably implement more of those programs because I think not only, it brings your community together because you have a purpose-

Candace:

I think it’s just it brings your community together because you have a purpose. The other thing is that we were doing that lunch bunch and what right now we’re trying to do is come up with some more family meals and hot entree kind of things. It’ll be cold when it gets to your house, but you’ll heat them up. So that might be something that we can still keep those lunch bunches going because people will have evening meals.

Maya:

Right.

Candace:

They won’t probably have the daytime that they would use it, but they would have them deliver to their home and they’d be in an insulated bag and waiting for them as a convenience type food, but a healthy one.

Maya:

Absolutely. One last question here for you, unless someone in the chat has one, we’ll slip it in, but this is the last question for me. What are some steps or maybe suggestions you could recommend to people in a similar spot or a similar industry that are looking to find new avenues for their business?

Candace:

Like I said before, listen, flexible, being flexible. One day something right now, one day something works the next day it doesn’t seem to work. So being flexible with your plans and realizing that you might have to change weekly, daily, monthly what you’re doing. But we are going to make it through this and it’s going to be okay. Just rely upon your community, your social media community, but more importantly your personal community. Reach out to them, let them know what’s going on with you. Communication is huge-

Maya:

Absolutely.

Candace:

I think that those things are a good direction.

Maya:

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being here, Candace. If people are looking to find out more about your business and what you do, the website is foodheads.com right?

Candace:

Exactly.

Maya:

Absolutely. Well, thank you again. Super appreciate your time. Next up here we have Grace Nicholas from Crux Climbing Center. Crux is a climbing center based in Austin, Texas and it’s an in-person climbing gym where people go to climb. So you can imagine they’ve had to make a lot of changes considering everything that’s going on. So I’m super excited to hear Grace talk about some of the new programs are instituting and some of the changes that they’ve made to their business in this time. So let’s see if we can get Grace in here. One second and thanks for being patient to the audience and to our speakers as we work our way through this. 10 people is a lot to handle so I appreciate you being patient with us and working through it. Let me see here.

Jenna:

It looks I can’t bring Grace up but we do have our next panelist Kendall ready?

Maya:

No problem.

Jenna:

Kendall just let me know if you feel good about me bringing you up right now? Just put it in the chat. All right, she is ready to go. Here we go.

Maya:

Thanks Jenna. All right. We’ll give [crosstalk 01:12:31] Hi. How’s it going?

Kendall:

Hi, Maya, hanging in here. Thank you Jenna for getting me on. I currently have children literally corralled in my house. I’ve now been booted outside. There’s dogs barking, construction, so there’s a lot going on.

Maya:

We’re all experiencing the same thing. I just had to mute myself because my dog was growling at someone walking past. So I feel your pain. Thank you so much for being patient with us.

Kendall:

Yeah.

Maya:

So I am-

Kendall:

Hope that’s okay. That’s just, it’s 3:00 on COVID time whatever.

Maya:

It is always okay. 3:00 on COVID is the constant state of being. I am so excited to talk to you and about Antonelli’s Cheese. Also, so is all of DigitalMarketer. We’re based in Austin. We know Antonelli’s and if you could just tell our audience a little bit about what you guys normally do.

Kendall Antonelli:

Sure. We are a cut to order cheese shop. We just celebrated our 10th anniversary in February. I clearly made too many jokes about, “Yay! We hit 10, we can retire.” Because then COVID hit and were like, “No wait.” [crosstalk 01:13:37] “Let’s hang on.” So what does it cut to order cheese shop? It’s like an ice cream shop but you can come in and taste everything for free and fun. Then if you something we cut it to order, which keeps the cheese better. We support smaller producers from around the United States and globally. Then we, in addition to our cheese shop, which we do cheese, and meat, and beer, and wine, and honeys, and preserves, we also have an events house across the street where we do about 200 to 300 cheese tasting classes per year and private events.

Maya:

Oh wow.

Kendall Antonelli:

We have a third location, which is our warehouse. Out of there we do… We supply artisanal foods to about 150 local restaurants or central Texas restaurants. We run our e-commerce out of there as well. So we have three physical locations so we have four revenue lines.

Maya:

Absolutely. So you mentioned that you have the live event, so you have a couple of locations. How is business working now that the stay at home order is in place?

Kendall Antonelli:

Oh my goodness. Just we were hearing some of the other speakers, it’s like reliving it and I already have tried to bury that. But around that March 20th, 19th day, 20th day everything became real in Austin when South by Southwest was canceled. So for us [crosstalk 01:14:54] was canceled, it doesn’t bring a lot of traffic to our retail, but it canceled all of our wholesale program. So all of our restaurants, which had, had us ordered for them, of course it was hundreds of thousands of pounds of cheese that was canceled on and we can’t hold them accountable to it. They’re in the same boat we are. So we lost half of our business revenue overnight. Quickly had to start making some pivots there. Then we just looked at other area’s we’re in Seattle, we tried to quickly stay ahead of the game and make a lot of quick adjustments before.

Kendall Antonelli:

So one of the things we did strategically is instead of saying, “What could happen? Or let’s wait until shelter in place and then we’ll put something else.” We just said, “Here’s the five different zones and levels of what Mayor Adler, our mayor might declare.” We started moving through those and then we said, “Heck with it, let’s jump to five and already be working through these systems.” So before it was ever mandated, we kicked customers out of our shop. We launched online orders, we set up a call center, which we’ve never done before. Which sounds easy and is actually really challenging as a small business and you have to pay labor for somebody to sit there on a phone and hold it. Curbside delivery into trunks really quickly.

Kendall Antonelli:

Then one of our quickest moves was then all of our events got canceled. I heard some other folks talking about this. So we did tastings where we take 50 people out to a farm and we couldn’t all get on a bus and do that. So we transitioned all of those virtual tastings right now. Instead they have skyrocketed, they always sold out and now we have doubled down in retail, and we have doubled down and events. So both of those programs are really real well. Which is good because it’s making up for our huge lost revenues. So in the end we’re saying we’re working four times as hard for a quarter of the money. At the end of the day we’re just hoping we break even. But we’ve been luckily able to hold on to all of our team.

Maya:

That’s spectacular. I have to say the online tastings kind of set this whole call in motion because one of my teammates did an online tasting, and told all of us about it. We all want it to do one. So that honestly is what inspired us to look at how businesses are getting creative with how they do things. So I was going to ask if it was successful, but it sounds like yes.

Kendall Antonelli:

Yeah. I don’t know we’ve been asked what will we keep after when things go back to normal? There’s never a normal in entrepreneurship.

Maya:

Right.

Kendall Antonelli:

I have a guest who might walk in front of the screen okay. He has decided not to. Homeschooling is not going well today. So I don’t know, we’ll never be able to… I guess if I’m looking on the bright side what has been great is a lot of stuff was in our business plan. We eventually wanted to launch Cheesemonger Live. We’ve had that domain for five years. It’s basically for people who can’t access and come into the shop that they could still experience cheeses the same way.

Kendall Antonelli:

So you call in and visually see the case and we talk you through the tastes and flavors and you can select it that way and we’ll still cut it to order. So we just went ahead and launched that. The classes, I don’t think we’ll ever take back people now… I guess one of the cool things, sorry that was distracting-

Maya:

You’re fine.

Kendall Antonelli:

Out of all of this, I know everybody, my plumbing is out, which is why the plumbers are here. So I just watch my child run into my front lawn and go to the bathroom and run back and I’m trying… They don’t need to know, but now you all know I have no secrets. The amazing thing is we have always, our goal has been to spread joy and it just so happens that we get to do that through cheese. We launched the virtual tastings as a way to just keep that program afloat. We could not afford to give back all that revenue. That was cash we’d already received. So we went to it because we had to. But now the amazing part is people are saying “I have nothing else to do and I just got to celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary with you guys, so thank you for giving us something to do. Thank you for breaking up the monotony.”

Maya:

Absolutely.

Kendall Antonelli:

So we’re getting to still see [crosstalk 00:09:55]. Then it’s the part I don’t think we can ever take back because it’s connecting people across the United States. So now this weekend, this week we shipped out cheese tastings in a box to 20 different locations across the United States and they’re all celebrating the fact that one woman just finished her chemo cancer treatments.

Maya:

Oh that’s amazing.

Kendall Antonelli:

[crosstalk 01:19:15] lead a live tasting for her, but they’re all in different places across the United States. So we’ve just now found a new way to bring it all together. It’s just been exhausting like everybody else said.

Maya:

That’s spectacular though. You guys were doing amazing. I do have one question from the chat from multiple people who asked, how do you do a virtual tasting? So if you could just break down what that means.

Kendall Antonelli:

Yes, that is a great question. Because we’ve been doing these Facebook Live events and I’m like, “If you’re just tuning in, no people are not just sitting here watching me eat cheese. So locally in Austin you buy your ticket and then you come and you still pick up a cheese plate and so you pop your trunk. We don’t ever touch each other. We put it in the back of your trunk. You go home and you tune in at a certain time and we will guide you through the tasting. So we’re talking about the makers and how they made it, how it’s a labor of love. Our American cheese makers and all of our artists and producers are really hurting. It’s really commodities that are thriving right now and we’re losing a lot of farms through this.

Kendall Antonelli:

So now telling your story is more important now than ever. So people are getting a taste through it with us and we’re giving them science behind the cheese. We’re giving them theories on how to pair, and most importantly we’re just trying to connect with people in these isolating times. So virtual cheese tasting class is that you have a physical plate in front of you. Then you tune in with us and we’re talking you through a tasting. So now that’s why we’ve launched the 2.0 version where we will ship it to you and then you can join in on a tasting as well.

Maya:

Got it. Absolutely. Well Candace… Oh I’m sorry not Candace. Candace was before you.

Maya:

It’s fine. Kendall, we have one last question for you if no one else in the chat has anything to say. But for people that are looking to do a similar pivot, it’s the same question we asked everybody. Do you have any suggestions or any advice?

Kendall Antonelli:

Sure. This is not exactly answering your question, but I’m always off script.

Maya:

Go for it.

Kendall Antonelli:

I think any business should be doing right now is I am trying to intentionally support locally owned businesses, but if you don’t have your website updated, or your Instagram or… So for instance on our Instagram we just changed our profile and it just says open daily 11-6 pm here’s how to support us. So right now I think there’s a lot of people out there, there are a lot of people out there who want to support you, but if they don’t know how you just have to make it as easy as possible. So putting that, we created a whole tab on our website that says COVID-19 and on it, it just has how you can support us. It’s literally the information you find anywhere else on the website. It’s just bullet-by-bullet by this box, join this class, order online here.

Kendall Antonelli:

So making it as clear as possible to people and then staying… I’m so sick of my phone and my computer, but… And we don’t have a fancy marketing company, but I’m staying glued to it and responding to every inquiry and request I have right now. So that’s just people want to support you and trying to make sure that your messaging is out there in a way that they know how to support you. I think my biggest advice is giving ourselves a lot of grace. It doesn’t have to be perfect. We are repeating to ourselves this mantra which we read in a book, the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, who now lives in Austin. Quick, easy read, great business book. But it’s “Progress, not perfection.” So for so long we had put off a lot of these things because we needed them to be perfect, Have the right software, and the most high-tech awesome thing for the cheapest cost.

Kendall Antonelli:

All that went out the door, the day the pandemic hit. We were like, we need to do it now. It doesn’t matter if we have duct tape it to the door, we’re going to figure it out. Because we’ve stayed true to our voice and our branding that I don’t think has taken a hit for it. So I think it’s make it easy for people to support you. Give yourself grace and then it doesn’t have to be perfect to go for it and just celebrate our wins. Everybody celebrate our wins.

Maya:

Woo! That is a DigitalMarketer, core value. So that is right on brand with us. Kendall it was a joy talking to you. I had a great time. Thank you so much for being here.

Kendall Antonelli:

Thank y’all! Way to go the other business owners.

Maya:

For people that are looking to learn more about Antonelli’s Cheese Shop and to do a virtual tasting. I’m sure we’re all excited to do that now, antonellischeese.com is the website. So next up, last but not least is Grace Nicholas from Crux Climbing Center. Grace is in their marketing department and they have recently implemented some new sort of membership options for how people that can’t physically go to their climbing gym can still support them. So I’m super excited to have you here. Grace, thank you for being patient with us as we kind of work our way through these interviews. Thanks for being here. Oh, there you are. Can you say me or can you hear me?

Grace Nicholas:

Hi. I’m not hearing anything.

Maya:

Oh no.

Grace Nicholas:

One second. I’m not sure.

Maya:

No worries. We’ll give her some time to get that fixed. Let’s see. Jenna might be sending you a message to see if we can get you up and running.

Grace Nicholas:

Let’s try, then.

Maya:

Did that help? Can you hear me?

Grace Nicholas:

Yes I can.

Maya:

Woo!

Grace Nicholas:

There we go.

Maya:

Absolutely. Well thank you so much and it’s Grace Nichols.

Grace Nicholas:

Nicholas, there’s an A at the end but-

Maya:

Okay. We’ll fix. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being patient as we work our way through these interviews. I’m thinking we saved the best for last here. I’m very excited to hear about the things that y’all have going on, especially because I have some coworkers that go to Crux Climbing Center and love it very much. So, can you tell us a little bit about what business was before the pandemic?

Grace Nicholas:

Yeah, we are a climbing gym that has a membership monthly subscription as you would say. We also have pay in full and day pass drop-ins. We do a kids program. We were in the middle of our spring break camp. We have yoga, fitness, climbing classes, and a retail section. So there’s a lot of different revenue streams for our business.

Maya:

Got it. Absolutely. And so now you’ve pivoted your membership strategy because people can’t come to the gym at all. So can you tell me a little bit about what kind of changes you guys have made there?

Grace Nicholas:

Yeah, so a lot of gyms have done different versions of opt in or opt out. We decided that we’re going to freeze everybody and if they want to opt in, they’re allowed to opt in to keep their memberships going to support us and our staff during this time. In that process we said for everyone that will opt in to keep a membership, once we’re back open, then we will give a membership to somebody in our community that’s been affected by this COVID situation.

Maya:

Absolutely. What was the decision making process for that? How did you guys decide to go with the keep a membership given membership?

Grace Nicholas:

Yeah, we knew a lot of businesses were hurting, including ourselves and were… But more importantly that our community was hurting and how we can help them and support them. The other thought process being that if we return and only some of our membership comes back because they’re the ones that could afford it, it just seems so sad to us to think that when we get to come back not everybody would get to. That’s not fair. So we were like, obviously this will help us get the doors back open when we’re able to, and then we can also give that appreciation back, pay it forward.

Maya:

Absolutely. I absolutely love that. What kind of response have you seen to that from your members?

Grace Nicholas:

It’s been great, so we launched it after we decided to do the opt in section, but we saw pretty much double the amount of people that were opting in opted in after we launched that so.

Maya:

Oh wow.

Grace Nicholas:

Yeah, so-

Maya:

Absolutely.

Grace Nicholas:

It’s a great response.

Maya:

Absolutely. That’s so good to hear. If anyone has any questions for Grace, just a reminder to throw that in the chat for Michelle, but we do have one last question here for you, which is just for anyone that’s in a similar business, even if it’s specifically a gym,, or a personal trainer or something that, do you have any specific advice for them?

Grace Nicholas:

Right now I think community engagement is huge, so we offer our online yoga and fitness for free. We’re just trying to think of different ways to engage people in this time where people are still seeking out fitness. So you’re still top of mind, which is nice. Maybe not as top of mind as sport events, and like restaurants, and other businesses.

Maya:

Right.

Grace Nicholas:

But the fact that people still need fitness is great. I think right now any business, it’s how you treat your customers, how you treat your staff during this time is going to be a huge reflection. I think a lot of your customers base will value how you handle this situation.

Maya:

Absolutely. I think you’re 100% spot on with that. It doesn’t look we have any questions from the chat, so thank you so much Grace for being here. I think you had some excellent advice that people should really take. Especially, if they’re in that industry that’s very in-person and just kind of getting creative and listening to their customers. I think that’s absolutely amazing. If you are in Austin area and you want to check out Crux climbing center, it is cruxclimbingcenter.com correct?

Grace Nicholas:

Yes.

Maya:

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate your time.

Grace Nicholas:

Yeah, thank you.

Maya:

All right y’all. Thank you so much for hanging in here for this office hours/insider training. This has been an absolutely wonderful experience to get to talk to you. All of these entrepreneurs making things work for them and taking lemons and making them into lemonade. So thank you to all of our panelists. Thank you to Michelle for being in the chat and keeping things running. Thank you Jenna for managing our speakers and keeping things as organized as we could possibly make it. Thank you to our audience for attending and we’ll see you next time. Thanks so much. Bye.

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