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Hamid Shojaee is an entrepreneur and investor. He moved to Arizona from Iran when he was 10 years old, and has called Arizona his home ever since. Since he was 12 years old, Hamid was passionate about programming and wanted to one day be an entrepreneur like his parents. He absolutely achieved that goal and has started several successful businesses throughout his career. “By the end of high school, I knew I was going to do something in software for myself one day. So, I kept dabbling and putting out software products and putting them on the internet for free.”In college, Hamid started his first software business with his roommate. After 5 years, he left his business to go work at Microsoft for a couple years. It was during those years that Hamid worked nights and weekends developing software for project management, which eventually turned into Axosoft. Axosoft is an organization that develops software to help companies with project management needs. In 2014, he left his position at Axosoft to become the CEO of Pure Chat, a company he had started during his time there. Hamid recently sold both Axosoft and Pure Chat last year in 2020. Since having two large exits last year, he and his wife decided they wanted to invest 10 million dollars into Arizona startups. What inspired you to invest 10 million into Arizona tech startups?“When we decided to invest, I wanted to focus on making Arizona that much better, because Arizona has given so much to me.”What is one thing you learned from your first software company that you applied to starting Axosoft? “The one major mistake we made in our first company was that we tried to do 4 or 5 different things right off the bat, and that was a huge mistake. Coming off of that, focus was a big lesson I had learned… As an entrepreneur, it's hard not to pursue your ideas because you don't just have one idea. You have lots of them.” What is the “30 days off” philosophy?At Axosoft, “once a year, we would take 30 days off and do other things. We made that part of our system. Every year, we would take a month and dedicate it to all of us working on other products that have nothing to do with our business… Those side projects ended up creating two other products that they themselves became million dollar companies.”Advice on starting a business:“One of the discussions that I had recently was how important it is to accept that 90% of what you're doing is probably a mistake. That is okay, because that 10% that works ends up making up for the 90% that doesn't work.”Additional Links:Follow him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamidshojaee/Learn more about AZ Disruptors https://azdisruptors.com/Listen to Hamid's AZ Tech Podcast https://aztechbeat.com/podcast/

Mike Spangenberg is the co-founder and CEO of State Forty Eight. The company was founded in 2013 and has evolved into being more than just an apparel line. State Forty Eight is about having community and pride in your state. Mike wanted to create a brand that anyone could feel stylish and comfortable in. Mike began his career in the hospitality industry. He spent 15 years in that industry and eventually worked his way up to becoming a general manager. Through his experience, he learned leadership skills and teamwork, as well as a passion for people. Mike says these are all things he took with him when laying the foundation and mission for State Forty Eight. “This is my passion in life. This is what I want to do forever if I can.” How has collaborations with other businesses affected State Forty Eight?“Collaborations were never a part of the business model at the beginning... Now it’s a huge part of our business. It was almost half our revenue last year.” State Forty Eight offers collaborations with other businesses who want to have their brand represented with the SFE brand. This has led the company to new partnerships with the Arizona sports teams, which was always a dream for Mike. Companies can use these shirts for revenue generating opportunities, team representation, or marketing assets. What products do your customers gravitate towards most: “The first couple of years we just put our main logo on every color combination possible. It’s really our bread and butter” Having their main logo become an icon in the Arizona-themed apparel industry has really given them influence and remains a staple in most of their branded/collaborative products.  What type of marketing do you guys do for the company?The first 4-5 years of business, SFE’s marketing efforts were organic. Now, they have seen success through email automations, drip campaigns, and paid ads. Mike says they really didn’t focus on marketing at the beginning, but he wonders if it would have been really beneficial had they started sooner. They do their best to be on every social channel, in order to reach every type of customer. “We’re never complacent and we’re always saying ‘how do we get better and better?’”  How did COVID affect your business?“Thankfully, we had collaborations, online, wholesale, different license deals, and retail. All our eggs weren’t in one basket. We just made the best out of it, and 2020 ended up being our best year yet.” What is the State Forty Eight Foundation?Mike recently started State Forty Eight Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the community in Arizona with a focus on youth and entrepreneurship. They started the foundation back in December and are very excited for the potential impact they hope to have on the community in the future. Additional Links:State Forty Eight website and online store: https://statefortyeight.com/Mike on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikespank/?hl=enMike’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-spangenberg-0ab69a165/State Forty Eight Foundation: www.statefortyeightfoundation.org

Will Shaw is the CEO of Better Agency, an all-in-one insurance CRM platform. Growing up, Will had one focus: football. He spent the first part of his career playing in the NFL. After his time playing football professionally, he landed a job in the tech industry, where he was inspired to start his journey in entrepreneurship. Since his time at Infusionsoft, Will started several businesses all in the marketing and tech industry. In 2019, he founded Better Agency with four other founders, and has been the CEO of the company ever since. Will pitched the idea of the product to a room of 24 insurance agents before building the software. He put together a 3 page PDF of the idea, and 11 of the agents agreed to sign up for the software before it even existed. They didn’t pay much for marketing in the early months of the software, instead they built an affiliate relationship with someone with influence within the insurance industry. “We’re going to build a product for agents, by agents.”Their goal for their customers using the platform: “We are dealing with true small businesses. Instead of being a CRM that takes your time and your money to set up. Can we be something you plug in and within 14 days you are making enough money to pay for the life of your application?”Are there any routines or traits from your days in football that you carry into your role as CEO of Better Agency?“Probably the biggest thing I got from playing football was being in a room of people who are committed to being the best at their craft. Any position on the team - you’re committed to being the best at your craft. It doesn’t matter what you do in life, if you’re committed to being the best - you can be the best and be successful doing it.”A game-changing moment:Will went to a couple of his current paying customers and asked if they would like to invest in the company. “Through our customers we raised 250,000 in about 30 days… This was the biggest validation.” Additional Links:Check out Better Agency: https://betteragency.io/Follow along with Will: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willshaw8/

Jake Shaefer is the CEO of Elevato, a new company serving all things web. The new brand encompasses several different brands that Jake and his business partner have acquired, in order to create one large conglomerate to serve all digital needs a business may have. From advanced website design and intelligent digital marketing campaigns to secure hosting and data warehousing, Elevato has digital experts at every level to help businesses grow. Jake got started in his career as a young account executive for a local radio station in the Midwest. His job was to secure new accounts, and that’s where he was able to learn business skills that have influenced his career today. In 2006, he started his own traditional media company. Since then, he’s sold that business, acquired established businesses, developed and sold an app, and is now creating a new brand called Elevato. Our conversation with Jake was really interesting, especially for business owners who have ever thought about acquiring a business or selling their own. We hope you enjoy the episode. Here are a few thoughts to summarize our conversation: When you purchased your first digital agency, was it well received by the employees at that agency?“They received us very well. The leadership team that was there prior stayed, so my approach to it was to be very humble. I’m not here to change things. I’m not here to tell you a better way. I’m just going to observe and offer to help. My goal was to get in and be of assistance and add more than take away.” Has buying agencies been a game changing decision for you?“I just learned along the way that we liked to buy momentum. There’s lots of great things that come with that. You buy into a book of business that’s stable if you know how to analyze it. You buy people, resources, which in our business - people are our business. They are our product. You buy expertise. You buy a shortcut past all of those long, tough mistakes that are made in business. You meet with the staff and you realize they already solved these problems 5 years ago and if I did this on my own, I’d be learning those things the hard way. It is my preference to buy my way past some of the toddler phases and get into a more mature business situation.”How have you managed acquiring a team and getting them acclimated to the new culture?Aligning them on the vision of the company and where we're goingThe values - what are the handful of values or concepts that we can all rally around? Having good communication along the wayBiggest takeaway from implementing EOS in 2020: “We are going to lead this company on purpose. We’re not going to grow on accident. It’s going to be on purpose.”What is the new company you’re starting?Elevato is the name of the new brand and our vision and positioning statement is “All Things Web.” Anything under the digital umbrella that a business has to work with we can handle. What’s your long term goal?“I want to do badass work. Work with people that I love working with. I want to have resources for everyone to make a ton of money, and I want to have fun. The only way for me to do that is to grow.” If you want to sell your business, here are a few tips: Go find a buyer. Go think of the types of people that would potentially want to buy your business and call them. We have sold three businesses that way.Don’t treat your business like the typical small business. Keep your books super clean. Don’t use the business credit card on Netflix, childcare, or dry cleaning. Just keep it clean. Work yourself out of the business. Once you’re gone, you’re going to be very hard to replace for the buyer. Consider pulling yourself off payroll, just take distributions. This way you aren’t taking resources that could be used elsewhere. Additional Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-sheafer-51a67117/Startup Weekend: https://www.techstars.com/communities/startup-weekendHe mentions the book Traction and the EOS system: https://www.eosworldwide.com/

During our conversation, Lawrence shares where his vision started with coffee and community. He talks about his future goals for the business and how he values his employees. If you are local to the Phoenix area, we highly recommend you visit Provision Coffee in Phoenix!Where did the name PROVISION come from?Lawrence found his passion between coffee and supporting third world countries. He says, “I wanted to use coffee to provide provision, which was healthcare, education, water, micro-financing, sustainability. All of the things that the definition of provision would provide for someone.” Why does PROVISION believe in paying their baristas higher than minimum wage?“When you give somebody a livable wage in the state of Arizona, to own a home, to be able to provide for their family, to drive a car, and not be in debt, now they’re not stressed out. So when I take that off the table and give somebody security as an employee, they come to work and they are the best barista you’ve ever seen.” Advice for entrepreneurs:“Relationships will definitely unlock growth, but I think that the key as an entrepreneur is you just have to do stuff. You just need to start doing it. The relationship might start something, but as soon as you say yes, that’s where the fuel comes from.”Changing the paradigm of current culture:“If we start focusing on other people as opposed to our own success, what happens is that people start showing up for you. The focus of this narcissistic culture that we live in is no longer narcissistic, it’s focused on serving on the least of these.”Additional LinksFollow along with Lawrence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrence-jarvey-b5b99b76/Check out Provision Coffee’s website: https://provisioncoffee.com/

During our conversation with Scott, he shares what fascinated him in the marketing industry, how he started, and what the future of his new company looks like. Scott’s intrigue in marketing:“I got into the idea of ‘how do we create really cool experiences through content’ and evaluating not just the content but the overall customer journey that people would have while doing things online.”The complexities of marketing for companies:“There’s a million different ways that brands can communicate with customers. You can go online and you can tweet their CEO. You can send an email to the support people or get in touch with logistics. You can talk to people that are managing social media and marketing. You can really communicate in a number of different ways...and every part of that a customer experiences is incredibly important.”What does marketing look like today: “The customer has so much control over what that [buying] experience looks like and the expectations are so high for how they want to participate with the brands that they’re working with that they need to have a great experience on all those touch points.”What was a key decision you made when starting Lucid?“I wanted the details to be right. When we were delivering things to clients, I wanted everything to be perfect down to the cent in every report every time. We made sure that we were really good with analytics and understanding it. I was very passionate about how to make this understandable.” Are there any channels or strategies that you’re really optimistic about right now?“Instagram marketing is highly effective right now, particularly for e-commerce, direct sale, or direct lead generation. It’s very good, because they are a masterful platform at putting the right message in front of somebody in a time when they are engaged and thinking and looking at good content. For a number of reasons, it’s pretty effective comparatively to a lot of other channels. I think that will continue for quite a while.”Follow along with Scott:On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottkaufmann/Learn more about Highnoon: https://www.highnoon.co/

Brief background on Scott Gates:Scott spent close to 10 years working at Western Window Systems. During his time there, he took the company from 6 million to 150 million revenue. One key growth initiative that made the company so successful was their rebranding. Western Window Systems started as a more technical branded company, and after their rebranding, they started focusing on how the product improves lifestyle. They focused on copy, reworking the website, and creating marketing assets that would appeal to their ideal customers. By the time Scott left the company, it had sold for 350 million. His time at Western Window Systems included a significant amount of growth not only for the company, but for himself. Here are his thoughts for balancing his work and family life: “A lesson for entrepreneurs: It’s not for the faint of heart. You can’t sacrifice your family along the way or you’re not going to be happy with the end results.” Scott earned his MBA during his time at Western Window Systems. He was able to implement the things he was learning in class and apply it to his role as CEO. “I would leave a statistics class learning about how to understand trends. None of the statistics and final exams had any relevance, but wait, how could I apply this?  We had to do a paper, and I turned my statistics class into an understanding of employee retention.” While he believes it to have been a truly great experience for himself at the time, he wouldn’t necessarily say everyone in business should go out and get their MBA. Here’s what he offers instead:“The best advice I try to give to entrepreneurs or business people is to just keep learning. So listening to podcasts like this, constantly reading books - that’s actually what is more valuable than the three letters (MBA).” Scott and Maria’s motivation for starting Awake Window & Door Co: “Let’s go build something together, do something that is going to be significant to us as a couple, try to make an impact in society and have the freedom to build something that is truly ours. I think that was a big decision, but I think it was the right one.” Awake Windows & Doors Co is a luxury window and door manufacturer offering massive sizes, narrow sightlines, & indoor outdoor living spaces. More importantly, their mission is to combat recidivism and the mass incarceration challenges we are facing in the United States.Maria shares the purpose of starting Awake and giving second chances to individuals with criminal records: “[We want to] give people a second chance but in a meaningful way. McDonalds is great, but it’s not a career. Really helping people come out of prison and acquire real skills that they need to have a career and support a family.” Giving them a real career path with a solid salary will allow them to not take on multiple jobs to pay their bills. Scott and Maria weren’t sure which industry to start their business in, but as they thought about it, they realized that the best use of their time is to utilize the experience Scott gained (20+ years) in the window and door industry. They had an advantage in that industry because he already knew what was trending, how to grow, and where to invest their time. “The best way we can have the biggest impact on people is we first have to make the company successful. So if this is about creating jobs, we better make a business that actually creates jobs.”Their mission to lead by example for other businesses: “I think that’s the only way to break down the stigma - is just by example. Doing it, and showing it can be successful, and it can work. Modeling it for other business owners.” Additional Links:Awake Windows & Door Co website (going live in February 2021): http://www.awakewdc.com/Follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AwakeWDC/Follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awakewdcConnect with Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmichaelgates/Connect with Maria: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-gates-bb1255201/The Last Mile prepares those incarcerated with business and technology training: https://thelastmile.org/Scott recommends - Just Mercy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Just-Mercy-Story-Justice-Redemption/dp/081298496XThe New Jim Crow book: https://newjimcrow.com/

Gabe Cooper is the CEO of Virtuous, a responsive nonprofit fundraising platform and CRM. Virtuous gives nonprofits the ability to activate new supporters, deepen existing partnerships, assist with marketing, and serves as a CRM all-in-one. Their company currently has a little over 30 employees and is continuing to grow. Gabe began his career in software development during the dot-com boom and later transitioned into working at a nonprofit leading their technical team. Since then, he has started three businesses: an agency, a golfing application, and now, Virtuous. His motivation for starting Virtuous and continuing work in the nonprofit sector:“Giving your time, talent, money away is one of the most personal things you’ll ever do. Super close to your heart. If you have a family member that gets cancer, you’ll give to cancer research. If you adopt a pet, that pet becomes part of your family. The entire rest of the world - Amazon, Netflix, Strava, they are all hyper-personalized to me. They are giving me super personal experiences. My experiences when I give to a nonprofit are hyper-impersonal. That should not be the case in 2020.” What successful nonprofits are made of: They break down silos. Marketing teams talk to sales teams. They talk about what is going on between each area of the organization.Listen more than they talk. Great nonprofits will listen to their donors and prioritize building relationships. They ruthlessly innovate. They are taking notes from startups and incorporating some of those innovative processes. Why they spent so much time developing their software before releasing it: “If we’re going to sell an enterprise solution as a system of record to nonprofits who depend on our software day in and day out, it can’t be half-baked.”“I like the fail fast mentality: ‘Fail fast and iterate.’ What I like even better is not failing quite as much.”His advice to anyone starting a business: “If you don't know the vertical or the domain, don’t start something there. Start something around what you know and care about deeply. It’s going to give you so much traction. I know you may think it’s boring or less sexy...Start with what you know, because it’s going to be so much more successful.”Their greatest challenge:“Our biggest challenge is attracting and retaining great talent and making sure our culture pushes through the whole organization in a meaningful way.”Additional Links:Learn more about Virtuous: https://www.virtuous.org/Follow along with Gabe: https://twitter.com/virtuousgabeGabe mentions the book and methodology called The Lean Startup, you can check it out here: http://theleanstartup.com/Another book mentioned is called What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz about creating company culture. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/What-You-Do-Who-Are-ebook/dp/B07NVN4QCM

Tammy Abernethy is the CEO of Hope Women’s Center. The center exists to encourage, engage, and equip women and teen girls facing difficult life situations. They offer classes, support groups, and one-on-one mentoring. They serve women in domestic violence, poverty, homelessness, unplanned pregnancy, addiction, or any other difficult life events. All of their services are free to these women. When her children were 5 years old and 18 months old, Tammy went through a difficult divorce, and it shaped her thoughts and feelings around supporting other single mothers. She found her passion was in helping others and using her gifts to lift women in these situations. She says most of her job consists of talking to others, spreading the good work of the center, and seeking donors to help continue the growth. At this time, Hope Women’s Center has five locations in Arizona. When Tammy joined on as the CEO, they had one center, and it has grown significantly since she started 7 years ago. About 90% of the work that gets done at the center is done by volunteers. She felt it was very important that they offer free childcare while mothers come to take classes and receive support. Her goal is to break down as many barriers for women being able to visit Hope Women’s Center. How COVID has affected their center: “We started crisis counseling during COVID, because we saw that was a need. We were seeing a lot of women coming in, struggling with mental health needs - very isolated - and they didn’t have the funding or resources to be able to get private counseling. We were able to have some donors come along to support that, and we were able to hire a licensed counselor that now provides the crisis counseling.”The importance of design in each location:“Safety is a big component for us, because when women are coming out of trauma and abuse, we want them to feel safe. We designed the space to be beautiful, warm, and inviting. Even our commercial spaces are still designed to be very warm and inviting.”Why they share the stories of women from the center:“The transformation in a life is what tells the story of what we do...The womens’ stories will inspire you to hear what they have overcome. It’s incredible. They give me so much courage and strength, just listening to their stories - what they’ve overcome, how they are coming back from healing from trauma, and how they are really trying to make a difference for their children.”Additional Links:Learn more about Hope Women’s Center here: https://hopewomenscenter.org/

Megan Greenwood is the owner of Greenwood Brewing. The brewery is located in downtown Phoenix in a brand new building on Roosevelt St. Greenwood Brewing is a woman owned and operated brewery, which you will learn why that is so huge throughout the conversation we have with Megan. Megan began her career in engineering, with a focus on renewable energy. She was gifted a home brewing kit by her roommate at the time and loved the process of making a product that someone could enjoy. After that experience, she created a microbrewery in her garage and began brewing every week. Since she started brewing beer, she couldn’t shake the feeling that women were extremely underrepresented in the beer industry. She spent almost a year doing market research to see if this was truly the case or if it was only her feeling that way. She surveyed and had conversations with 200 women and over half of the women agreed - they felt underrepresented. Megan describing her goal when she began distributing her beer:“My only goal was to get beer into the hands of consumers and see if they liked it. Did they like the concept? Did they like the fact that I was a woman? Or did that even matter?”Only 2% of breweries in the country are owned solely by women. In a predominantly male-focused industry, Megan made it her goal to ensure women felt included in the craft beer world and wanted to create a space that felt inviting to them. How Covid has affected her business:“My goal was to get distribution to a point where once we open our brewery, we’re smooth sailing. We already have a customer base. If we don’t sell a single beer over our counter, we still have our distribution to fall back on. It was wonderful in theory until 2020 happened… The whole business actually ended up flip-flopping, where all my business was now on premise.” Distributions of Megan’s beer began falling one by one because shut down orders caused bars to close in the state, removing the need for distribution. She opened up the doors to her new facility in July of 2020, and sales were solely in-store. Megan talks growing culture:“That’s a very real problem when you are starting a business. How am I going to foster an environment that is the culture I envision for this brand, for this business, and for my people? How do I keep them feeling like they want to come and show up every day? Because in the end, we’re all spending our lives together.”Greenwood Brewing’s brand pillars:“Our brand pillars are empowerment, confidence, and inclusivity, and they have made decisions for me.” When she is faced with making decisions about her business, she asks herself if it meets the three pillars. If she feels it meets all three, then she feels like she can move forward with making that decision. Having a mission is so important when you want to make sure your company is moving in a way that you want it to. Additional Links:Follow along with Greenwood Brewing: https://www.instagram.com/greenwoodbrewing/Check out their website: https://www.greenwoodbrews.com/Visit the location: 425 E Roosevelt St, Phoenix, AZ 85004

Drew Mercer is the CEO and co-founder of PayGround, a payment platform for healthcare practices of all sizes. During our conversation with Drew, we discuss his background, how he started PayGround, and his vision for the business in the future. As the son of a Pastor, Drew always felt like his identity was rooted in his father’s career. Although it was always assumed he would become a Pastor as his father and grandfather were, he felt more passionate about business and pursued healthcare sales after college. At 32, Drew learned he had testicular cancer, and luckily caught the diagnosis early on. After having his third child and dealing with his diagnosis, Drew realized how unorganized and overwhelming it was to pay all of their medical bills as a family. From pediatricians to oncologists, medical bills needed to be paid via check, phone, online, and through several different portals. He wanted to create a platform that would simplify this for healthcare providers and patients. Drew talks funding for PayGround:“My wife and I put in a substantial amount of our own income and savings, then we opened a friends and family round, so that was the initial funds to bring the idea to market. That was what brought us our first hire, brought on our Chief Growth Officer at PayGround, and brought us to the agency that got us to the MVP (minimum viable product).”A lesson he has learned in business:“I’ve learned the tighter you hold the reins, the less successful your company is going to be. You have to trust your own gut. You have to trust that you brought this person in for this reason, so you have to let them do their job. That allows you to focus on other things.”Advice he would give himself a couple years ago:“I would say to myself that you’re going to fail, and sometimes that’s the only way you’re going to learn.” Additional Notes:Learn more about PayGround here: https://payground.com/Follow along with Drew Mercer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewrmercer/Drew gives his wife’s small business a shoutout, you can see her handmade items here: https://www.mercermakery.com/

Brad Casper is the CEO of Heart and Soul Marketing, which he started with his business partner, Matt Moore, in September this year. In our conversation with Brad, we talk to him about his past career experiences that have led him to where he is now, where his new business is headed, and his brief appearance on The Apprentice with Donald Trump!Brad, originally from Cincinnati, began his career as a Financial Analyst after graduating from Virginia Tech. He later started a job at Procter and Gamble in advertising and marketing - a role that evolved over 10 years and led him to have the professional experience he has today. He has worked for companies such as GE, Dial, Church & Dwight, and Phoenix Suns.Brad Casper describes his experience on The Apprentice: “Donald Trump gave me a tour and showed me the boardroom where he used to fire everybody. He asked my input about who he should fire and why, and I gave it to him. He actually did it. He followed through on my recommendation.”A key skill in running a business: “It’s got to be more than just being busy. You have to be intentional. You need to be choiceful. The heart of strategy is making tough choices - what to do as well as what not to do.”His thoughts on what culture looks like in a company:“Culture is more than foosball tables, bars, and Keurig coffee machines. People need to see professional growth. They need to feel that the leadership of the company knows them, respects them, wants them to prosper, as well as the company prosper.”His vision and inspiration for starting his company, Heart and Soul Marketing:“We started thinking, maybe it’s time for a kinder, gentler agency - maybe the most people-centric agency, where employees don’t just come to work because of a great culture or it’s fun. But they really feel like this agency and them are inseparable from the standpoint of kindness wrapped in capitalism. We want to have a purpose that is above profits. Obviously, we want to make a profit, but it’s less important right now for Matt and I than just doing great work.”  Additional Links:Heart And Soul Marketing: https://heartandsoulmarketing.com/Follow along with Brad Casper on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-casper/Brad mentions the book, Halftime by Bob Buford. You can order it here: https://www.amazon.com/Halftime-Changing-Your-Success-Significance-ebook/dp/B000SG9IUE

“What you like as a creative or a marketer is really irrelevant, it’s what works for the business. You have to marry what you like or what your art is with a business objective and figure out how to find that middle ground - and that’s where you’re going to find that sweet spot.” - Gil SandovalGil started as a designer when he was 17 years old in Los Angeles - knocking door-to-door offering businesses his design services. Sandoval Agency evolved from doing freelance designs and has grown into a full agency with design, film, and marketing services. The business is owned by Gil and his three brothers - Mani, Dan, and Josh.A pivotal moment was moving from a 675 sq. ft. office in downtown Chandler to a larger space next door where his business would have more room to support an in-house team. Everyone told him not to, because of where they were at in their business, but they took a chance. Since then, they have agencies in Arizona, Michigan, LA, and Mexico. They work with companies such as Lionsgate, Disney, and Warner Bro.Gil’s strategy when trying to gain new business:“We realized very quickly that if we just send in a proposal, we leave it up to their interpretation - whether they decide to sign it or not. So we started saying ‘We want to meet you.’ We don’t want to talk about the work - we just want to meet with you.”When asked about how he handles risk in business?“We can lose all of this tomorrow, but we can start again the next day. Because now we know the roadmap… If you guys lost all of this, imagine how much information, knowledge, wisdom you have now, knowing what you know - you can just do it again.”His thoughts on 2020:“We have to continue pushing the envelope to see how far we can take this and see how far we can grow. For us, it’s not about a website, not about a campaign, it’s not about a movie - it’s about where we’re going. It’s about our vision and the mission for our company. It goes beyond 2020. It goes beyond a bad year. A good month, for that matter.”The criteria of how they choose their next project and who to work with:1. We have to be passionate about the project2. Profitable for business3. Leads to growth for where we want to goGil is a part of two podcasts! You can listen to them here:Bench Players Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bench-players/id1503951760Seth & Gil Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seth-and-gil-podcast/id1502458673You can also visit Sandoval Agency’s website: https://www.sandovalagency.com/Follow along with Gil: https://www.instagram.com/thegilsandoval/Follow along with Sandoval Agency: https://www.instagram.com/sandoval.agency/

Seth Troutt is the Associate Pastor of Ministries at Redemption Church Gateway. He started his career working for a different church in the valley within their music department at 18 years old. Since then, he worked in several different roles in churches. He has been with Redemption Church since 2016. Redemption has 10 congregations all over Arizona. Seth works at the Gateway church, which is located in Mesa, Arizona. Seth describes his experience with leadership early in his career:“It was unpleasant and I didn’t have a lot of training. I kind of knew how you’re supposed to treat people. I knew that when people have skills, you want to maximize them. You don’t want to bottleneck them. You don’t want to micromanage them. At best, you’re leading with your heart and that is to inspire them to work hard. You’re not micromanaging them into efficiency.”One of the downsides of scaling into a larger organization:“There’s a grieving process that comes with scaling. People who used to know everything, now they don’t know everything - that’s frustrating… It makes the need to do culture work way more intentional.” Seth says that the number one job description for any role at their church is “culture-making.” Whether the job is to check children into the ministry program or to usher guests to seats, every single role should lead first to creating culture. How Seth and his church dealt with the challenges of 2020:“It’s not really any different than any other business. We all pivot or die.” Seth goes on to explain how his church recently spent 10.5 million on a new church building, only months before Covid hit the states. He jokes that their brand new church facility became a temporary video studio, since they decided to close their doors to the public in order to control the spread of the virus. Additional Notes: King & Culture is a podcast Seth is a part of - you can listen to it here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/king-culture/id1531036631The podcast, Startup, has an episode on church planting that is referenced in our conversation with Seth. You can listen to that episode here: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/startup/llhekv

Chris Cardinal, the co-founder of Synapse Studios, shares his experience starting a web application development agency in Arizona. He started the company at 18 years old with his business partner Bob, who was 22 years old at the time. They got their first clients by going door-to-door offering their web design services to local businesses. Today, Synapse Studios builds custom software for companies. They are located in Tempe, Arizona and have 46 employees working with them. Their team consists of project managers, coordinators, developers, QA engineers, and designers.His thoughts around networking:“I started grabbing lunch with literally anyone I could...This is a superpower. If you’re able to hold a conversation with someone. If you’re able to not be boring at lunch... If you’re able to grab lunch with people, listen to them, and identify and approach it as how could I be of service to this person?”In one year, he went to 135 lunches. He found the best way to manage his lunch schedule was to use Calendly. Chris loves using it! The app allows you to send your schedule to someone for them to pick the day and time that works best for them. It removes the back-and-forth emails about schedules and gets you to your goal quicker: to meet as many people as you can. He says in the episode that 4 out of his 9 active clients right now are a result of lunch referrals. Showing there is true value in his strategy. How he explains his day-to-day:“My job has transitioned fairly dramatically. I’m still the only business development person. I don’t have a sales team, it’s purely me. I’m usually talking to leads… A lot of my job has transitioned into culture and coaching. That caught me off guard, in a sense. I didn’t realize how much of my job was going to be that, but that’s actually way more fun for me. That’s the part of the job that I realized why I’m not going insane 17 years in.”His opinion on company culture:“Culture happens whether you make an effort or not. It is a gas. It will fill the vacuum - the space available. So if you’re not pumping gas into the room, somebody else is. It’s really important to drive that culture from the top down to make sure it’s continually being reinforced.”Additional Notes:Check out Synapse Studios: www.synapsestudios.comChris briefly mentions his friend Noah Barrasso’s web series, Martini Shot. You can watch more his videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpkD-fWk4Ho2BfVfM7ly3fQ/featuredOfficevibe, a weekly survey that is sent to your employees (all anonymous), is what Synapse Studios uses with his team: https://officevibe.com/

Check out Park St. Studio's website here:http://www.parkststudio.com/And their Instagram here:https://www.instagram.com/parkststudio/

Learn more about O'Neil Printing:https://oneilprint.com/

If you want to learn more about Malkin Creative you can find them at their website here:https://www.malkincreative.com/

Learn more about Onboard IT:https:onboardit.com/

Learn more about Live Love:https://www.whatislivelove.org/https://www.livelovemalawi.com/For a quick overview of their work in Chandler, AZ check out this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T6dPvTJghw&feature=emb_title

If you want to learn more about Palette Collective you can find them at their website here: https://palettecollective.studio/During the show Seth mentions a book called "Clockwork" which Kyle and Tyler have been reading and really enjoying. It can be found here:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seth-and-gil-podcast/id1502458673Seth has been recording his own podcast with Gil Sandoval from Sandoval Design and can be found here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seth-and-gil-podcast/id1502458673

For our first episode, Kyle and I start with a brief history of Motion Tactic and some of the struggles that we have faced as we bootstrapped a website design and development studio. We share some keys to success that we've had to learn the hard way!We hope you enjoy the show!Tyler & Kyle