November 25, 2024 • 29 mins
In today’s episode, Steve sits down with Missy and April from Alliance Print Services to explore the crucial role of visual branding in podcasting and beyond. They discuss how effective logo design and professional printing can elevate your brand, common pitfalls to avoid, and tips for ensuring your visual elements make a lasting impression. Whether you're a podcaster needing eye-catching artwork or a business owner aiming to enhance your branding, this conversation offers valuable insights.
Key Takeaways:
- Professional Logo Design Matters:
- Missy and April emphasize the importance of professionally designed logos that translate well into print.
- They discuss common issues with DIY designs and how their skilled graphic designer can help create versatile, high-quality logos.
- Understanding Color Consistency:
- They explain the challenges of matching digital colors to print and the significance of Pantone Matching System (PMS) colors.
- Flexibility is key when exact color matches aren't possible due to different printing processes and materials.
- Simplicity is Key in Design:
- Intricate details may not reproduce well in certain printing techniques.
- They advise focusing on clean, bold designs for clarity and impact across various mediums.
- Innovative Promotional Products:
- The duo shares unique ideas like branded beach balls, cooler bags, and rack cards with detachable business cards.
- Choosing the right promotional items can leave a memorable impression on clients and customers.
- Evolving with Printing Technology:
- April reflects on advancements from traditional methods to modern digital presses.
- They highlight new services like laser engraving and dye sublimation to meet diverse client needs.
What's Next?
Visit www.sobersteve.com for more information on Steve’s Podcast Launch Program and his Branding and Business Bootcamp for Badasses suffering from PodPhobia.
Connect with Alliance Print Services!
Enhance your branding with Missy and April's expertise. Reach out to Alliance Print Services for personalized solutions to bring your visual branding to life.
Keep listening to Podcasting Badass for more expert insights and tips to become a true badass in the podcasting world!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey there it's sober steve thepodcast guy here with a, another
episode of podcasting.
Bad-ass.
I am so excited to share thisinterview.
I did last month.
With Missy and April fromAlliance print services, they
are wonderful people and what Iloved about my conversation with
them is taking what they do fora living, which is helping
(00:22):
people turn their brands intoreally eye-catching engaging
wowing products.
And would it be like turningthat into a podcast about
branding?
So with that, enjoy the episode.
Steve (00:35):
Hey there, it's Sober Steve here with Missy and April
from Alliance Print Services.
Welcome to the show.
Missy (00:42):
Hi, thank you.
Steve (00:44):
Yes.
And I had the pleasure ofmeeting you, Missy, at Let's
Connect, Braid in Tin, with thenetworking events and learned a
little bit about what you do.
So why don't you both introduceyourselves to the listeners and
viewers of who you are and whatyou do?
April (00:58):
Okay, great.
I am the owner of Alliance PrintServices.
My name is April Pyle, and I, inmy marketing career, am known as
the Princess, hence the tiara onmy head.
We've been in printing since1982.
My dad was the original owner.
Steve (01:15):
Wow, I love that.
Missy (01:17):
And my name is Missy, and April is my aunt.
So we are truly family owned andoperated in downtown Bradenton
we're a full service commercialprint shop.
Steve (01:31):
Yeah, and I love what you do and I definitely imagine
having printed microphones withmy little logo on it once I do
my redesign.
So I can't wait to work withyou.
I approached you actually aboutthis topic in this episode, but
have you ever consideredpodcasting before, either
personally about something youlove or professionally?
Missy (01:51):
No, but I am definitely a consumer.
I love a podcast.
I listen all the time in my carwhen I don't have my little one
with me.
Steve (02:02):
We love a good murder podcast.
April (02:05):
Beat that.
Steve (02:08):
Excellent.
The reason why I mentioned toyou is because one of the ideas
that I'm going to be going over.
With new clients creating theirpodcasts as part of his creating
their visual brand, creatingtheir logos and cover art and
things like that.
And I'm sure that visualbranding plays a role in kind of
what you do every day withhaving to print these people's
logos.
Would you agree?
April (02:28):
Absolutely.
We do everything from the veryget go from concept, we design
logos.
We have the most fabulous.
Graphic designer that's beenwith our family over 30 years,
and she draws in vector, whichis a skill that people just
don't have anymore.
So anything from start to finishof.
(02:50):
Someone's concept when they walkin the front door.
We help them with that.
And we help them achieve that.
Steve (02:56):
I love that.
So what would you say are someof the biggest obstacles that
your new customers are facingwhen they find you that they
need help with?
Missy (03:06):
Logo redesign essentially.
Because there are so manyawesome apps.
that help the regular person becreative and have input into a
design, but sometimes thosedon't translate well to print on
paper.
We at least have the capabilityto help fix where they might've
(03:29):
gone wrong a little bit.
April (03:30):
So when we get their art and they have something that
they need help fixing that theycan't quite do.
We send it to our designer maybethey've captured a PNG, like a
screen grab from something andplaced it in a document and you
can tell.
And that's where our phenomenaldesigner, comes into play and
(03:51):
helps us, fix and make their arttruly professional, a lot of it
is people using Canva and justnot having quite yet the skill
they do great, per se, but notquite up to the skill level that
they really need for finishedproduction art.
Steve (04:06):
Yeah, no, and I can completely agree.
And there are times where I'mtrying to, whether it be in
Canva, trying to get somethingto do something where the
technology is just not thereyet, the biggest fights that I
have in my life nowadays aren'twith humans.
It's with my chat GPT assistant,like trying to create pictures
in art because talking it out,making like workout plans, work
plans, brainstorming content.
Oh, that's great for the moment.
(04:26):
I say make this picture.
It gets really wonky reallyquickly.
So I understand the importanceof there's certain things that
you can do.
With technology and there'scertain things you can't.
So I love how you can help thepeople that they can't do it
themselves.
So with that, as you are nowlike helping people with their
branding and their redesigns,how have you seen logos, like
(04:48):
what works and what doesn'tchange over the years?
Cause as the princess of yourarea for so long, I'm sure that
there have been some fads andchanges.
April (04:56):
Oh my gosh.
Do you not realize how old I am?
I literally have seen fromPasteUp making lines of type and
having to use a waxer and pastethem on a board and then shoot
them with a camera.
To get either a negative or apositive version of that, what
we're trying to do.
I just can't even tell you thethings that I've seen is just
(05:17):
huge and broad, right?
But now, everything is just sostreamlined from concept to
shooting straight back to ourdigital machine and printing off
a finished brochure, and totallyskipping the negatives and the
stripping and the plating thatyou need to go to press for
(05:39):
large runs, there's still that.
And we still do big projectslike that, but also too, the
digital press is truly ourfriend now.
And huge part of everybody'slife per se, yeah I've seen it
all.
Steve (05:53):
Yeah I'm sure you have.
And I know that I'm very bigwith all my clients, especially
business owners andentrepreneurs who are podcasting
or that I'm working with is to,if they have a brand or a logo
or something like that, theyshould have an idea of what the
color is and not just have it belike blue or red, but they
should have in a documentsomewhere, the color code.
They should know what font itis.
Are there any other types ofthings like that, that you find
(06:14):
most people don't have when theycome to you that they should
know?
April (06:18):
Also one thing that we have a lot of problem with is
people that have a website orthey have their art for a
website.
Art for a website is not finalproduction art on paper.
They want to give us a lot ofinformation that they would need
for a website and colors.
on the screen of their computer,but they got to remember that
we're on paper.
(06:38):
And I have an old fashioned PMSbook, and it's got a thousand
different ink mixes in there.
And if we know that, if we knowour PMS, what the final color is
supposed to be, then we can doour best to make it work.
Digitally match that or if we'reon press, we can mix the ink and
(06:59):
we can truly match that PMS onan envelope, a letterhead, a
business card, and one thingthat people don't understand is
when they're talking about thefull marketing scheme of
everything that they need, whichthat's us, we do everything
here, but when you're talkingdifferent processes and
different substrates, And you'retrying to brand yourself, right?
(07:22):
All these different processes.
Sometimes it's a little hard toget that perfect color as far as
going to the digital, straightto mixed ink that's going on a
press, or a banner that's comingoff a different printer.
It's an art.
That's what people don'tunderstand sometimes things
don't translate from the largeprinter to a mixed ink in the
(07:46):
back, so there is got to be somegive and take in their color.
Missy (07:50):
Branding
April (07:51):
guys.
The branding guidelines ofcolor,
Steve (07:53):
Yeah, definitely a whole layer of things that I would
never know about branding had Inot been printing for as long as
you have.
So I love with all thisinformation that you have, when
people come to you, or ifthey're wondering whether or not
their logo or brand needs aredesign, what are some of the
big don'ts that like people havein their logos where you would
see their logo and say, Oh, youmight need to call me or we
(08:15):
should talk about a redesign.
April (08:17):
Well, a lot of fine detail we did just have a
business card that we reallycouldn't do.
It had such fine lines and thefinish process that he wanted.
Which I don't know if it's asuede soft touch business card,
it feels soft like suede andthen they do a, yeah, they do a
(08:39):
3d raised, you can do likesilver foil, gold foil or raised
clear, right?
But, it's like working with puffpaint.
You can't get all these littlefine details with that and
people don't understand that.
So we had to.
Basically tell the guy like whatyou're wanting is cool, but it's
not realistic, you can't get afine line with a puffy
(09:04):
thermograved process.
We had to either tell him wehave to move what your final
piece is gonna look like, or wehave to reconstruct your logo so
that it is more cohesive withwhat you're wanting.
Steve (09:18):
Yeah, that definitely I can see how that would happen on
a larger scale because I, as Istarted learning how to do my
little dangerous bit of graphicdesign, my tendency with
everything like in life as anaddict and recovery is like my
default is more and then I haveto like tone it back.
So my first few designs is verymuch yeah.
As intricate as you possibly canget as many details as I could
(09:39):
fit on that eight and a half by11 or as as on that Instagram
square, I would put as much as Ipossibly could.
And then be wondering why I waslike hard on people's eyes are
difficult to read or a littlebit distracting.
So I'm going to learn how tokeep it simple.
I am sure it's like somethingthat works for logos as well as
podcast artists is one thingthat I talk with my clients
about.
Missy, as a True crime podcastlistener.
(10:02):
If you're looking for your nextpodcast, what about cover art
for podcasts draws yourattention visually as a
listener?
Missy (10:09):
Oh, that's an interesting question.
Yeah, if the branding shouldmatch maybe the name bright,
colorful something to, That'sappealing visually for sure.
Steve (10:24):
Yeah, no, but with logos that's what happens.
April, I'm sure you've watchedNetflix or Hulu or Disney plus
or something at some pointbefore.
So similarly, like with thoseshows, like when you're picking
out things, like what aboutcover art gets you to click on
it?
April (10:38):
Yeah.
When you're clicking, you'retrying to get.
Everything that's in that moviethat you're going to watch,
right?
You're clicking through andyou're like, Oh, I don't know
what that's about, but itdoesn't even look interesting.
How do you even know that,right?
You have to capture the interestof your listeners or your people
visually, right?
So yeah, I mean there's a lot.
(10:59):
There's a lot that goes intodesigning and of course, we're
not the designers we're thegirls that do everything and
produce everything And ourdesigner is the lady that has
all of that up here, When peopleare trying to have us create a
logo we have to get her a roadto go down I always tell
everybody more information in anemail for whatever you're trying
(11:21):
to look.
If you're trying to do a coverfor something or a logo, give us
even what you don't like,because if you don't like the
color orange, we don't want togive you back three of the logos
that have orange in it becauseyou're not going to like it.
And, so we have to help peopletell those stories of what
they're trying to get across totheir consumer.
Steve (11:42):
Yeah, for sure, communication and like what you
like and what you don't like aresometimes just as important as
each other.
So you have your wonderfuldesigner who recreates these
beautiful logos, or I'm sure ifsomeone comes to you with the
perfect logo, you can take it asis and print it on things.
But the printing process itself,what would you say are some of
the hot items to print like thatare popular right now and really
(12:04):
wow or leave an impression onpeople?
Missy (12:07):
I really like a rack card or if your business is
neighborhood based lawnmaintenance or something like
that a door hanger.
And that's something that youcan have a photograph on you can
list your services, you can doyour logo, phone number, contact
info, so I really like to offerthat to clients.
(12:30):
And we also have a really cooloption of doing a rack card with
a detachable business card atthe bottom.
It's, just a little bit moreinformation to leave your client
with.
Steve (12:41):
Yeah, I like that.
And are there any products whereif a client comes to you saying,
I want a thousand pens, you'llsay, Oh honey, you don't want
pens or like you talk them outof, are there any items that
people come to you saying theywant that you recommend against
because there's other betterways to advertise yourself with
print that are,
April (13:00):
I don't know if there's anything that I steer people
away from per se, because itreally depends on.
The event that they're going toand the attention that they're
trying to capture at that event,I know that people love to give
giveaways for instance, we justhad a pool company come in and
we did their business card.
We helped them out with a littlerevision and their new client.
(13:21):
And so they came into our lobbyand they saw that, Oh my gosh,
you have everything here.
You do tumblers, you do shirts,you do banners where I was,
showing them everything that wedid.
And I said, what you need isthey wanted to leave behind.
What's perfect, the beach ballwith your brand on it.
And then they leave a littlecooler bag that's full of little
(13:44):
tchotchkes, an SPF lip balm, asunscreen, a koozie, and the
little cooler.
So they just loved the beachball idea.
And yeah, they came in forbusiness cards and they left
with ordering like fivedifferent things to leave behind
once they build the pool.
That's the kind of stuff that wehelp.
(14:05):
I don't know if there's anythingthat I say Oh gosh, you don't
want to do that.
Per se, I don't know.
I've never really thought aboutit.
Missy (14:11):
Anything that we would say would be a time constraint,
they come in on Monday and theywant a thousand pens on Friday
Steve (14:18):
so
April (14:21):
they got to remember that shipping is involved where we do
that.
The promo products.
Although there are things thatwe can do with the laser, we can
do a powder coated tumbler andlaser their logo on that, and
leather patches on baseballcaps, leather patches on cooler
bags we do wood burning here, sothere's a lot of stuff that we
(14:43):
can do here, but when you'retalking about the bulk promo,
that's outsourced and they haveto remember that we have
shipping involved and also theyprobably have a thousand other
jobs that get out before yourjob.
Steve (14:57):
Yeah.
I can definitely see thedifference there.
April (14:59):
Yeah.
Steve (15:00):
And I love being that you can print or laser or work on
literally almost anything.
I'm sure you get to create allthese amazing, wonderful things.
What's the weirdest or strangestthing you've ever printed or
marketed?
Whether that's like a coolstrange or like an odd strange,
but what's the most unique?
April (15:17):
I thought about that too.
I know we had like a condommatchbook cover.
Yeah, condom and you opened itup.
It looked like a matchbook, butit was a condom inside.
So that, okay.
That was a little kooky,
Steve (15:30):
but you opened the condom and was there like a funny, like
matchbook, condom, punassociated with it?
April (15:35):
Yeah it had a cute cover and then you open it up and then
the condom was wrapped on theinside, but it looked like a
matchbook,
Steve (15:42):
oh, okay.
April (15:42):
that was a little crazy, yeah.
A poker chip business card.
Yeah, poker.
Poker chip business card.
Your business card on a pokerchip,
Steve (15:51):
yeah,
April (15:53):
There's so much crazy stuff that we can do and get for
people.
And I literally tell everybodyif you're thinking about putting
your logo on anything, Call mefirst because I guarantee you
that I'm going to be able to getit for you or at least I know
who does it best in town.
So I can refer a good businesspartner, to get that thing done.
But even like logo golf ballsback scratchers with a logo on
(16:17):
it hot and cold packs that we'vedone for our good friends at
Parkwood dental, a tooth shapedcold pack for your face just
tons and tons of stuff.
Water bottles, logoed and thentoo, you got to think about how
are you going to hand this toyour customer?
So logoed bags of all sorts,paper, plastic we do tote bags
(16:40):
just everything that you canthink of,
Steve (16:42):
I love that.
And I'm sure that my listenerswill be like challenge accepted
and come out with you with evenmore wild ideas, which I love.
Who are some partners inadjacent industries who help you
succeed that you can't imaginedoing your job without?
April (16:54):
With us being like a one stop shop for marketing I guess
I would say some of our productsthat are outsourced.
Missy (17:02):
Another marketing company that maybe doesn't have
accessibility to actualprinting.
So another graphic designer thatis just a standalone graphic
designer and they want to cometo us or refer their clients to
us.
Steve (17:17):
Podcasters,
Missy (17:22):
companies, sign business.
I know it's a similar field, butyeah, some sign companies don't
necessarily have access to theXerox copier digital machine
that we do.
April (17:34):
In our industry every commercial print shop, has a
little bit different equipmentright down the road, right?
So we have an aqueous coder.
We take in other print shops,digital items, and then we put
this beautiful high glossyvarnish on their final product.
So it looks upscale.
So we do that for other peoplein our industry.
(17:56):
And then we have a letter pressand like door hangers.
A lot of people don't haveaccess to that in their own shop
on premise.
And so we do that for otherlocal shops and crash numbering
and stuff like that.
I'd like to think of us likewe're, yes, we are old school
and we actually have a smallpress here that we, mix ink and
(18:17):
put into.
And we have letterpress and wehave aqueous color that we can
do for other people.
But then we also are taking onthe attitude of what else can we
do?
And keep here at the shop sothat we're giving our customer a
one stop shop, so that would bewhere Missy can tell you a
(18:37):
little bit more about the laserproducts, that we've been
working with that's new to usand dye sublimation.
Missy (18:44):
Yeah, so we do We have two lasers here.
My husband actually started thelaser engraving.
He can engrave on metal, woodeven silicone.
I did a silicone, that's like aglass with a silicone wrapped
tumbler.
So we're always pivoting, tryingto see what else we can do
(19:05):
because, maybe people are movingaway from paper, but they still
want their logo on something.
We got into dye sublimation,which is heat press.
Your heat pressing ink intofabrics or ceramics so we can do
coffee mugs and that is a fullcolor process as well.
(19:25):
The laser is not full color.
You just get the metal that'sunder.
Steve (19:29):
Yeah.
No, I got it.
So with that, if we were to thenput all of this together with
this like awesome work thatyou're doing and how I can help
people and like with mylisteners, they'll definitely be
able to take this brandingadvice as they start their
podcasts.
But if you were to start apodcast of your own, do you see
it being something where youwould tell a short story from A
(19:49):
to Z about what someone mightneed to know about branding?
Or do you see it maybe being anongoing discussion of Branding
and printing in your industry asit grows and changes as well as
like looking back on how it'schanged over the decades.
Missy (20:05):
Yeah, I think it would be an ongoing like I was thinking
about this as per yourquestionnaire and I think it
would be an ongoingconversation.
Look at this different machinerythat we have.
Look what it can do.
Look at this different process.
It's all about the print shopbecause it's, there's not many,
there's not many print shopsaround.
(20:25):
There's a handful betweenSarasota and Bradenton
Steve (20:28):
to
Missy (20:30):
Tell a story about our shop.
Steve (20:33):
Yeah, no, I love that.
And I see you agreeing April,I'm sure you have lots of
stories to tell as looking backas well as looking ahead and
giving your hot takes on trends.
I can see there being like a lotof content that you can have
there.
So if you were to use it as partof your business, where do you
see that being in terms of yourclient or listener journey, if
(20:54):
someone were to listen to yourshow, I would guess the ideal
result would be that they thenhave you redesign their logos or
make their logos and print it onand all their products.
Correct.
Yeah.
April (21:05):
We could we have such a broad array of Stuff that we,
things that we give to ourclients as a finished product.
I think that we have so manythings that we could talk about
and then look at this newproduct that we did and show
people what we're doing everyday.
I can see that being of interestto people, because I'll tell you
when they come in, what I do isI take them in the front and I
(21:28):
show them what's up on the wallsand on the shelves, and then I
take them into my office where Ihave.
Two shelves of all promo itemsthat we've produced and also to
some printing pieces.
And then on the wall, I've gotbags and a tablecloth.
And then we have a retractablebanner that we can set up and
down for somebody to actuallysee.
People like to see what they canchoose from per se, right?
(21:50):
Yeah.
Steve (21:51):
Visual.
April (21:52):
Yeah, exactly.
So we have as much as wepossibly can because we only
have so much space, right?
I love show and tell.
So we bring people in and we,physically show them what we've
done for other people.
Everything that we do, we keepone, we put it up on the shelf
and, hope that we can helpsomebody else get that product
with their logo on it, so thatthey can market themselves and
get their brand out.
Steve (22:14):
Yeah, and the beauty of podcasting today is that there
is always the ability to havethe visual elements as well
because you are talking about avisual medium.
So whether that be through alsohaving it be a video podcast
that they can watch the wholething on YouTube or whether it
be that whenever you take thesehighlights or clips where you're
talking about a specificmachine, you can overlay it with
videos.
(22:35):
of the machine for social media.
There's so many different waysthat you could blend the two
together that I can see beingreally helpful.
Now with the goal of having thisbe to help build your business
what do you think would be Someways you'd like to deliver that
information to them.
I always talk about differentepisode formats.
It sounds like you would be verycomfortable talking either like
(22:56):
solo episodes or with eachother, but pretty much you're
not looking to talk with adifferent stranger each week.
Would you agree?
April (23:04):
think that if we were to do something like that, I think
it would be like our own in shopprocesses and what we're finding
for our clients and then see howwe're going to handle that
marketing project for thatparticular customer.
And we're constantly, I've beenin industry since I was like 10
years old.
Yeah.
And I'm not going to tell youhow old I am, I know.
(23:24):
It's all right.
Steve (23:25):
I know better than to ask, but I can tell that you
know your stuff.
And it is very impressive.
April (23:31):
From a different t shirt, we've had to learn, we've had to
branch out to, we're doingclothing, right?
But you wouldn't believe all thestuff that entails all of these
different materials and whatdoesn't work on what material
and oh my gosh, we can't do thatanymore because that's not
working.
This happens every day.
It's not just something that isa cut and dry thing.
(23:51):
We had it happen recently.
We had to say oh gosh, we're notgoing to be able to do that
process on this particularmaterial anymore because the
material.
Makeup was changed.
It's made in China and theychanged the makeup of that
material.
So when we put it in the heatpress, it burns and scalds.
So every day we have to goaround everything.
(24:11):
It's like we have to keep movingand manipulating around
everything, every day.
Steve (24:18):
Yeah, hearing all of that, just thinking about
brainstorming, what a podcastcould look like with what I
teach my clients, something foryou to think on and something
for my listeners who listen tothis can applying everything
that we've talked about, or likeI've gone over in these episodes
about.
The episode formats, I thinkthat having solo episodes where
you're talking about yourexperience is going to be the
(24:39):
huge driving force of your show.
I think that it sounds likehaving a mix of current modern
like do's and don'ts, industrytips and tricks, having that be
like one of your episode formatsthat you do if you're going to
be printing, this is things youneed to know, or if you're
creating a logo, these arethings you need to know.
And I always like to have acouple different episode
formats.
You can also do episodes whereyou're going specifically into
(25:01):
one machine, how it works, thedetails, the science, the, all
the fun, nerdy techie stuff thatlike the branding people will
all love.
And that's going to be veryhelpful.
And then I can imagine being inbusiness for so long that you
have clients that have workedwith you for quite some time as
well.
I think that a great way to showyourselves as experts would also
be occasionally, maybe once amonth, having one of your
(25:23):
longtime clients on about whattheir journey of working with
you is like so that while it'sthem kind of talking about
themselves, it's also talking tohow awesome you've been helping
them.
So it could be a great way tokind from their perspective,
what that relationship is like,because oftentimes, especially
now at the days of AI and thingslike that, you don't always
trust salespeople.
(25:44):
And so if someone views you as asalesperson selling you
something, they'll tend toquestion a little bit more than
if you have someone else come onand say the same thing about you
for you.
So I think that would be a greatway to also mix it up is like
your solo episodes on likemodern tips, tricks, trends, and
then deep dives.
And then The client journeyepisodes would be a great way to
make an amazing badass brandingshow.
April (26:05):
Did.
I love that.
We did a little tiny thing whereI did a pen and I put I stole
this from the princess and thenI would give them out and then I
would come to people, Hey, sendme a picture of you and your
business with my holding my penup.
And then I say, look, Oh, Ifound another person who stole
my pen.
And then I do it a little hit ontheir business.
(26:27):
This is so and they do flooringand blah, blah, blah, blah.
I tell about their business.
So we incorporated that one yearand that was really fun, it was
exciting to introduce otherbusinesses, we weren't just
talking about ourselves, but wewere introducing other
businesses to our customers andstuff.
So that was an interestinglittle moment that we had that
(26:47):
we were really proud of, yeah,no, that was posted on
Missy (26:49):
social media.
Steve (26:50):
People love getting involved.
Like both like listeners thatlisten to podcasts, marketers
and networkers that you workwith.
That's why people have beenreally enjoying like this
opportunity that I'm offering tothem.
Cause it's whether you end uppodcasting or not, it's going to
be fun for you, it's fun for me,and then the listeners who hear
it, get to see what it wouldlike, review some materials and
maybe learn something aboutthemselves with what they need
(27:11):
for branding or podcasting alongthe way.
So we all win here.
With this entire conversationabout branding, visual branding
and turning it into a podcast,what would you say are some of
your biggest takeaways?
Missy (27:24):
I loved your idea of introducing a business partner
or a client.
If we were to do A podcastbecause honestly I didn't
consider that, but I think it'sawesome.
A great idea for your coachingand
April (27:41):
yeah, I think that it put a thought in my head of, we have
so many things here that we dosuch a variety of, I think that
would be interesting for us todo a little video or podcast on
the From start to end, of aproduct.
Steve (27:58):
Yeah, it definitely is a way to do it as well.
Cause the same way we weretalking about doing client
journeys, you can do a productjourney where you talk about
over an episode or two here'show from the moment we start a
product, here's how we finishedit.
So it can be a mix of product orany client journey episodes.
I love it.
All right.
Thank you so much.
If people wanted to find you,connect with you, work with you,
(28:18):
give you all their business andprinting, how would they do
that?
April (28:20):
Give us a call or they can check out our website.
They can email us, everybodythat walks through the front
door.
We consider a custom order.
So there is no, there's no likeboard.
You can come in and look at thepricing or whatever.
We just.
We custom price everything andwe work with the customer
because that's too how we getthose little moments that we
(28:43):
pull out of people of they camein for a business card, but look
at, I let, they left with abeach ball, a backpack,
sunscreen,
Steve (28:50):
yeah.
Those are not things that wouldhave been recommended at a
shopping cart checkout.
April (28:53):
It's just that personal connection.
One thing that we strive forhere is our customer service is
number one, that's us whereyou're going to walk in here and
we're going to help you findwhat you need.
And we pride ourselves oncustomer service from start to
beginning, delivery, whetherthat be, the final product being
delivered, professional andcourteous is what you're going
(29:16):
to get out of Alliance printservices.
Steve (29:19):
All right.
Excellent.
I'll put all of that in the shownotes for listeners as well.
Thank you so much, Miss C andApril.
It's been a pleasure.
April (29:24):
Thanks, Steve.
Hey there it's sober steve thepodcast guy here with a, another
episode of podcasting.
Bad-ass.
I am so excited to share thisinterview.
I did last month.
With Missy and April fromAlliance print services, they
are wonderful people and what Iloved about my conversation with
them is taking what they do fora living, which is helping
(00:22):
people turn their brands intoreally eye-catching engaging
wowing products.
And would it be like turningthat into a podcast about
branding?
So with that, enjoy the episode.
Steve (00:35):
Hey there, it's Sober Steve here with Missy and April
from Alliance Print Services.
Welcome to the show.
Missy (00:42):
Hi, thank you.
Steve (00:44):
Yes.
And I had the pleasure ofmeeting you, Missy, at Let's
Connect, Braid in Tin, with thenetworking events and learned a
little bit about what you do.
So why don't you both introduceyourselves to the listeners and
viewers of who you are and whatyou do?
April (00:58):
Okay, great.
I am the owner of Alliance PrintServices.
My name is April Pyle, and I, inmy marketing career, am known as
the Princess, hence the tiara onmy head.
We've been in printing since1982.
My dad was the original owner.
Steve (01:15):
Wow, I love that.
Missy (01:17):
And my name is Missy, and April is my aunt.
So we are truly family owned andoperated in downtown Bradenton
we're a full service commercialprint shop.
Steve (01:31):
Yeah, and I love what you do and I definitely imagine
having printed microphones withmy little logo on it once I do
my redesign.
So I can't wait to work withyou.
I approached you actually aboutthis topic in this episode, but
have you ever consideredpodcasting before, either
personally about something youlove or professionally?
Missy (01:51):
No, but I am definitely a consumer.
I love a podcast.
I listen all the time in my carwhen I don't have my little one
with me.
Steve (02:02):
We love a good murder podcast.
April (02:05):
Beat that.
Steve (02:08):
Excellent.
The reason why I mentioned toyou is because one of the ideas
that I'm going to be going over.
With new clients creating theirpodcasts as part of his creating
their visual brand, creatingtheir logos and cover art and
things like that.
And I'm sure that visualbranding plays a role in kind of
what you do every day withhaving to print these people's
logos.
Would you agree?
April (02:28):
Absolutely.
We do everything from the veryget go from concept, we design
logos.
We have the most fabulous.
Graphic designer that's beenwith our family over 30 years,
and she draws in vector, whichis a skill that people just
don't have anymore.
So anything from start to finishof.
(02:50):
Someone's concept when they walkin the front door.
We help them with that.
And we help them achieve that.
Steve (02:56):
I love that.
So what would you say are someof the biggest obstacles that
your new customers are facingwhen they find you that they
need help with?
Missy (03:06):
Logo redesign essentially.
Because there are so manyawesome apps.
that help the regular person becreative and have input into a
design, but sometimes thosedon't translate well to print on
paper.
We at least have the capabilityto help fix where they might've
(03:29):
gone wrong a little bit.
April (03:30):
So when we get their art and they have something that
they need help fixing that theycan't quite do.
We send it to our designer maybethey've captured a PNG, like a
screen grab from something andplaced it in a document and you
can tell.
And that's where our phenomenaldesigner, comes into play and
(03:51):
helps us, fix and make their arttruly professional, a lot of it
is people using Canva and justnot having quite yet the skill
they do great, per se, but notquite up to the skill level that
they really need for finishedproduction art.
Steve (04:06):
Yeah, no, and I can completely agree.
And there are times where I'mtrying to, whether it be in
Canva, trying to get somethingto do something where the
technology is just not thereyet, the biggest fights that I
have in my life nowadays aren'twith humans.
It's with my chat GPT assistant,like trying to create pictures
in art because talking it out,making like workout plans, work
plans, brainstorming content.
Oh, that's great for the moment.
(04:26):
I say make this picture.
It gets really wonky reallyquickly.
So I understand the importanceof there's certain things that
you can do.
With technology and there'scertain things you can't.
So I love how you can help thepeople that they can't do it
themselves.
So with that, as you are nowlike helping people with their
branding and their redesigns,how have you seen logos, like
(04:48):
what works and what doesn'tchange over the years?
Cause as the princess of yourarea for so long, I'm sure that
there have been some fads andchanges.
April (04:56):
Oh my gosh.
Do you not realize how old I am?
I literally have seen fromPasteUp making lines of type and
having to use a waxer and pastethem on a board and then shoot
them with a camera.
To get either a negative or apositive version of that, what
we're trying to do.
I just can't even tell you thethings that I've seen is just
(05:17):
huge and broad, right?
But now, everything is just sostreamlined from concept to
shooting straight back to ourdigital machine and printing off
a finished brochure, and totallyskipping the negatives and the
stripping and the plating thatyou need to go to press for
(05:39):
large runs, there's still that.
And we still do big projectslike that, but also too, the
digital press is truly ourfriend now.
And huge part of everybody'slife per se, yeah I've seen it
all.
Steve (05:53):
Yeah I'm sure you have.
And I know that I'm very bigwith all my clients, especially
business owners andentrepreneurs who are podcasting
or that I'm working with is to,if they have a brand or a logo
or something like that, theyshould have an idea of what the
color is and not just have it belike blue or red, but they
should have in a documentsomewhere, the color code.
They should know what font itis.
Are there any other types ofthings like that, that you find
(06:14):
most people don't have when theycome to you that they should
know?
April (06:18):
Also one thing that we have a lot of problem with is
people that have a website orthey have their art for a
website.
Art for a website is not finalproduction art on paper.
They want to give us a lot ofinformation that they would need
for a website and colors.
on the screen of their computer,but they got to remember that
we're on paper.
(06:38):
And I have an old fashioned PMSbook, and it's got a thousand
different ink mixes in there.
And if we know that, if we knowour PMS, what the final color is
supposed to be, then we can doour best to make it work.
Digitally match that or if we'reon press, we can mix the ink and
(06:59):
we can truly match that PMS onan envelope, a letterhead, a
business card, and one thingthat people don't understand is
when they're talking about thefull marketing scheme of
everything that they need, whichthat's us, we do everything
here, but when you're talkingdifferent processes and
different substrates, And you'retrying to brand yourself, right?
(07:22):
All these different processes.
Sometimes it's a little hard toget that perfect color as far as
going to the digital, straightto mixed ink that's going on a
press, or a banner that's comingoff a different printer.
It's an art.
That's what people don'tunderstand sometimes things
don't translate from the largeprinter to a mixed ink in the
(07:46):
back, so there is got to be somegive and take in their color.
Missy (07:50):
Branding
April (07:51):
guys.
The branding guidelines ofcolor,
Steve (07:53):
Yeah, definitely a whole layer of things that I would
never know about branding had Inot been printing for as long as
you have.
So I love with all thisinformation that you have, when
people come to you, or ifthey're wondering whether or not
their logo or brand needs aredesign, what are some of the
big don'ts that like people havein their logos where you would
see their logo and say, Oh, youmight need to call me or we
(08:15):
should talk about a redesign.
April (08:17):
Well, a lot of fine detail we did just have a
business card that we reallycouldn't do.
It had such fine lines and thefinish process that he wanted.
Which I don't know if it's asuede soft touch business card,
it feels soft like suede andthen they do a, yeah, they do a
(08:39):
3d raised, you can do likesilver foil, gold foil or raised
clear, right?
But, it's like working with puffpaint.
You can't get all these littlefine details with that and
people don't understand that.
So we had to.
Basically tell the guy like whatyou're wanting is cool, but it's
not realistic, you can't get afine line with a puffy
(09:04):
thermograved process.
We had to either tell him wehave to move what your final
piece is gonna look like, or wehave to reconstruct your logo so
that it is more cohesive withwhat you're wanting.
Steve (09:18):
Yeah, that definitely I can see how that would happen on
a larger scale because I, as Istarted learning how to do my
little dangerous bit of graphicdesign, my tendency with
everything like in life as anaddict and recovery is like my
default is more and then I haveto like tone it back.
So my first few designs is verymuch yeah.
As intricate as you possibly canget as many details as I could
(09:39):
fit on that eight and a half by11 or as as on that Instagram
square, I would put as much as Ipossibly could.
And then be wondering why I waslike hard on people's eyes are
difficult to read or a littlebit distracting.
So I'm going to learn how tokeep it simple.
I am sure it's like somethingthat works for logos as well as
podcast artists is one thingthat I talk with my clients
about.
Missy, as a True crime podcastlistener.
(10:02):
If you're looking for your nextpodcast, what about cover art
for podcasts draws yourattention visually as a
listener?
Missy (10:09):
Oh, that's an interesting question.
Yeah, if the branding shouldmatch maybe the name bright,
colorful something to, That'sappealing visually for sure.
Steve (10:24):
Yeah, no, but with logos that's what happens.
April, I'm sure you've watchedNetflix or Hulu or Disney plus
or something at some pointbefore.
So similarly, like with thoseshows, like when you're picking
out things, like what aboutcover art gets you to click on
it?
April (10:38):
Yeah.
When you're clicking, you'retrying to get.
Everything that's in that moviethat you're going to watch,
right?
You're clicking through andyou're like, Oh, I don't know
what that's about, but itdoesn't even look interesting.
How do you even know that,right?
You have to capture the interestof your listeners or your people
visually, right?
So yeah, I mean there's a lot.
(10:59):
There's a lot that goes intodesigning and of course, we're
not the designers we're thegirls that do everything and
produce everything And ourdesigner is the lady that has
all of that up here, When peopleare trying to have us create a
logo we have to get her a roadto go down I always tell
everybody more information in anemail for whatever you're trying
(11:21):
to look.
If you're trying to do a coverfor something or a logo, give us
even what you don't like,because if you don't like the
color orange, we don't want togive you back three of the logos
that have orange in it becauseyou're not going to like it.
And, so we have to help peopletell those stories of what
they're trying to get across totheir consumer.
Steve (11:42):
Yeah, for sure, communication and like what you
like and what you don't like aresometimes just as important as
each other.
So you have your wonderfuldesigner who recreates these
beautiful logos, or I'm sure ifsomeone comes to you with the
perfect logo, you can take it asis and print it on things.
But the printing process itself,what would you say are some of
the hot items to print like thatare popular right now and really
(12:04):
wow or leave an impression onpeople?
Missy (12:07):
I really like a rack card or if your business is
neighborhood based lawnmaintenance or something like
that a door hanger.
And that's something that youcan have a photograph on you can
list your services, you can doyour logo, phone number, contact
info, so I really like to offerthat to clients.
(12:30):
And we also have a really cooloption of doing a rack card with
a detachable business card atthe bottom.
It's, just a little bit moreinformation to leave your client
with.
Steve (12:41):
Yeah, I like that.
And are there any products whereif a client comes to you saying,
I want a thousand pens, you'llsay, Oh honey, you don't want
pens or like you talk them outof, are there any items that
people come to you saying theywant that you recommend against
because there's other betterways to advertise yourself with
print that are,
April (13:00):
I don't know if there's anything that I steer people
away from per se, because itreally depends on.
The event that they're going toand the attention that they're
trying to capture at that event,I know that people love to give
giveaways for instance, we justhad a pool company come in and
we did their business card.
We helped them out with a littlerevision and their new client.
(13:21):
And so they came into our lobbyand they saw that, Oh my gosh,
you have everything here.
You do tumblers, you do shirts,you do banners where I was,
showing them everything that wedid.
And I said, what you need isthey wanted to leave behind.
What's perfect, the beach ballwith your brand on it.
And then they leave a littlecooler bag that's full of little
(13:44):
tchotchkes, an SPF lip balm, asunscreen, a koozie, and the
little cooler.
So they just loved the beachball idea.
And yeah, they came in forbusiness cards and they left
with ordering like fivedifferent things to leave behind
once they build the pool.
That's the kind of stuff that wehelp.
(14:05):
I don't know if there's anythingthat I say Oh gosh, you don't
want to do that.
Per se, I don't know.
I've never really thought aboutit.
Missy (14:11):
Anything that we would say would be a time constraint,
they come in on Monday and theywant a thousand pens on Friday
Steve (14:18):
so
April (14:21):
they got to remember that shipping is involved where we do
that.
The promo products.
Although there are things thatwe can do with the laser, we can
do a powder coated tumbler andlaser their logo on that, and
leather patches on baseballcaps, leather patches on cooler
bags we do wood burning here, sothere's a lot of stuff that we
(14:43):
can do here, but when you'retalking about the bulk promo,
that's outsourced and they haveto remember that we have
shipping involved and also theyprobably have a thousand other
jobs that get out before yourjob.
Steve (14:57):
Yeah.
I can definitely see thedifference there.
April (14:59):
Yeah.
Steve (15:00):
And I love being that you can print or laser or work on
literally almost anything.
I'm sure you get to create allthese amazing, wonderful things.
What's the weirdest or strangestthing you've ever printed or
marketed?
Whether that's like a coolstrange or like an odd strange,
but what's the most unique?
April (15:17):
I thought about that too.
I know we had like a condommatchbook cover.
Yeah, condom and you opened itup.
It looked like a matchbook, butit was a condom inside.
So that, okay.
That was a little kooky,
Steve (15:30):
but you opened the condom and was there like a funny, like
matchbook, condom, punassociated with it?
April (15:35):
Yeah it had a cute cover and then you open it up and then
the condom was wrapped on theinside, but it looked like a
matchbook,
Steve (15:42):
oh, okay.
April (15:42):
that was a little crazy, yeah.
A poker chip business card.
Yeah, poker.
Poker chip business card.
Your business card on a pokerchip,
Steve (15:51):
yeah,
April (15:53):
There's so much crazy stuff that we can do and get for
people.
And I literally tell everybodyif you're thinking about putting
your logo on anything, Call mefirst because I guarantee you
that I'm going to be able to getit for you or at least I know
who does it best in town.
So I can refer a good businesspartner, to get that thing done.
But even like logo golf ballsback scratchers with a logo on
(16:17):
it hot and cold packs that we'vedone for our good friends at
Parkwood dental, a tooth shapedcold pack for your face just
tons and tons of stuff.
Water bottles, logoed and thentoo, you got to think about how
are you going to hand this toyour customer?
So logoed bags of all sorts,paper, plastic we do tote bags
(16:40):
just everything that you canthink of,
Steve (16:42):
I love that.
And I'm sure that my listenerswill be like challenge accepted
and come out with you with evenmore wild ideas, which I love.
Who are some partners inadjacent industries who help you
succeed that you can't imaginedoing your job without?
April (16:54):
With us being like a one stop shop for marketing I guess
I would say some of our productsthat are outsourced.
Missy (17:02):
Another marketing company that maybe doesn't have
accessibility to actualprinting.
So another graphic designer thatis just a standalone graphic
designer and they want to cometo us or refer their clients to
us.
Steve (17:17):
Podcasters,
Missy (17:22):
companies, sign business.
I know it's a similar field, butyeah, some sign companies don't
necessarily have access to theXerox copier digital machine
that we do.
April (17:34):
In our industry every commercial print shop, has a
little bit different equipmentright down the road, right?
So we have an aqueous coder.
We take in other print shops,digital items, and then we put
this beautiful high glossyvarnish on their final product.
So it looks upscale.
So we do that for other peoplein our industry.
(17:56):
And then we have a letter pressand like door hangers.
A lot of people don't haveaccess to that in their own shop
on premise.
And so we do that for otherlocal shops and crash numbering
and stuff like that.
I'd like to think of us likewe're, yes, we are old school
and we actually have a smallpress here that we, mix ink and
(18:17):
put into.
And we have letterpress and wehave aqueous color that we can
do for other people.
But then we also are taking onthe attitude of what else can we
do?
And keep here at the shop sothat we're giving our customer a
one stop shop, so that would bewhere Missy can tell you a
(18:37):
little bit more about the laserproducts, that we've been
working with that's new to usand dye sublimation.
Missy (18:44):
Yeah, so we do We have two lasers here.
My husband actually started thelaser engraving.
He can engrave on metal, woodeven silicone.
I did a silicone, that's like aglass with a silicone wrapped
tumbler.
So we're always pivoting, tryingto see what else we can do
(19:05):
because, maybe people are movingaway from paper, but they still
want their logo on something.
We got into dye sublimation,which is heat press.
Your heat pressing ink intofabrics or ceramics so we can do
coffee mugs and that is a fullcolor process as well.
(19:25):
The laser is not full color.
You just get the metal that'sunder.
Steve (19:29):
Yeah.
No, I got it.
So with that, if we were to thenput all of this together with
this like awesome work thatyou're doing and how I can help
people and like with mylisteners, they'll definitely be
able to take this brandingadvice as they start their
podcasts.
But if you were to start apodcast of your own, do you see
it being something where youwould tell a short story from A
(19:49):
to Z about what someone mightneed to know about branding?
Or do you see it maybe being anongoing discussion of Branding
and printing in your industry asit grows and changes as well as
like looking back on how it'schanged over the decades.
Missy (20:05):
Yeah, I think it would be an ongoing like I was thinking
about this as per yourquestionnaire and I think it
would be an ongoingconversation.
Look at this different machinerythat we have.
Look what it can do.
Look at this different process.
It's all about the print shopbecause it's, there's not many,
there's not many print shopsaround.
(20:25):
There's a handful betweenSarasota and Bradenton
Steve (20:28):
to
Missy (20:30):
Tell a story about our shop.
Steve (20:33):
Yeah, no, I love that.
And I see you agreeing April,I'm sure you have lots of
stories to tell as looking backas well as looking ahead and
giving your hot takes on trends.
I can see there being like a lotof content that you can have
there.
So if you were to use it as partof your business, where do you
see that being in terms of yourclient or listener journey, if
(20:54):
someone were to listen to yourshow, I would guess the ideal
result would be that they thenhave you redesign their logos or
make their logos and print it onand all their products.
Correct.
Yeah.
April (21:05):
We could we have such a broad array of Stuff that we,
things that we give to ourclients as a finished product.
I think that we have so manythings that we could talk about
and then look at this newproduct that we did and show
people what we're doing everyday.
I can see that being of interestto people, because I'll tell you
when they come in, what I do isI take them in the front and I
(21:28):
show them what's up on the wallsand on the shelves, and then I
take them into my office where Ihave.
Two shelves of all promo itemsthat we've produced and also to
some printing pieces.
And then on the wall, I've gotbags and a tablecloth.
And then we have a retractablebanner that we can set up and
down for somebody to actuallysee.
People like to see what they canchoose from per se, right?
(21:50):
Yeah.
Steve (21:51):
Visual.
April (21:52):
Yeah, exactly.
So we have as much as wepossibly can because we only
have so much space, right?
I love show and tell.
So we bring people in and we,physically show them what we've
done for other people.
Everything that we do, we keepone, we put it up on the shelf
and, hope that we can helpsomebody else get that product
with their logo on it, so thatthey can market themselves and
get their brand out.
Steve (22:14):
Yeah, and the beauty of podcasting today is that there
is always the ability to havethe visual elements as well
because you are talking about avisual medium.
So whether that be through alsohaving it be a video podcast
that they can watch the wholething on YouTube or whether it
be that whenever you take thesehighlights or clips where you're
talking about a specificmachine, you can overlay it with
videos.
(22:35):
of the machine for social media.
There's so many different waysthat you could blend the two
together that I can see beingreally helpful.
Now with the goal of having thisbe to help build your business
what do you think would be Someways you'd like to deliver that
information to them.
I always talk about differentepisode formats.
It sounds like you would be verycomfortable talking either like
(22:56):
solo episodes or with eachother, but pretty much you're
not looking to talk with adifferent stranger each week.
Would you agree?
April (23:04):
think that if we were to do something like that, I think
it would be like our own in shopprocesses and what we're finding
for our clients and then see howwe're going to handle that
marketing project for thatparticular customer.
And we're constantly, I've beenin industry since I was like 10
years old.
Yeah.
And I'm not going to tell youhow old I am, I know.
(23:24):
It's all right.
Steve (23:25):
I know better than to ask, but I can tell that you
know your stuff.
And it is very impressive.
April (23:31):
From a different t shirt, we've had to learn, we've had to
branch out to, we're doingclothing, right?
But you wouldn't believe all thestuff that entails all of these
different materials and whatdoesn't work on what material
and oh my gosh, we can't do thatanymore because that's not
working.
This happens every day.
It's not just something that isa cut and dry thing.
(23:51):
We had it happen recently.
We had to say oh gosh, we're notgoing to be able to do that
process on this particularmaterial anymore because the
material.
Makeup was changed.
It's made in China and theychanged the makeup of that
material.
So when we put it in the heatpress, it burns and scalds.
So every day we have to goaround everything.
(24:11):
It's like we have to keep movingand manipulating around
everything, every day.
Steve (24:18):
Yeah, hearing all of that, just thinking about
brainstorming, what a podcastcould look like with what I
teach my clients, something foryou to think on and something
for my listeners who listen tothis can applying everything
that we've talked about, or likeI've gone over in these episodes
about.
The episode formats, I thinkthat having solo episodes where
you're talking about yourexperience is going to be the
(24:39):
huge driving force of your show.
I think that it sounds likehaving a mix of current modern
like do's and don'ts, industrytips and tricks, having that be
like one of your episode formatsthat you do if you're going to
be printing, this is things youneed to know, or if you're
creating a logo, these arethings you need to know.
And I always like to have acouple different episode
formats.
You can also do episodes whereyou're going specifically into
(25:01):
one machine, how it works, thedetails, the science, the, all
the fun, nerdy techie stuff thatlike the branding people will
all love.
And that's going to be veryhelpful.
And then I can imagine being inbusiness for so long that you
have clients that have workedwith you for quite some time as
well.
I think that a great way to showyourselves as experts would also
be occasionally, maybe once amonth, having one of your
(25:23):
longtime clients on about whattheir journey of working with
you is like so that while it'sthem kind of talking about
themselves, it's also talking tohow awesome you've been helping
them.
So it could be a great way tokind from their perspective,
what that relationship is like,because oftentimes, especially
now at the days of AI and thingslike that, you don't always
trust salespeople.
(25:44):
And so if someone views you as asalesperson selling you
something, they'll tend toquestion a little bit more than
if you have someone else come onand say the same thing about you
for you.
So I think that would be a greatway to also mix it up is like
your solo episodes on likemodern tips, tricks, trends, and
then deep dives.
And then The client journeyepisodes would be a great way to
make an amazing badass brandingshow.
April (26:05):
Did.
I love that.
We did a little tiny thing whereI did a pen and I put I stole
this from the princess and thenI would give them out and then I
would come to people, Hey, sendme a picture of you and your
business with my holding my penup.
And then I say, look, Oh, Ifound another person who stole
my pen.
And then I do it a little hit ontheir business.
(26:27):
This is so and they do flooringand blah, blah, blah, blah.
I tell about their business.
So we incorporated that one yearand that was really fun, it was
exciting to introduce otherbusinesses, we weren't just
talking about ourselves, but wewere introducing other
businesses to our customers andstuff.
So that was an interestinglittle moment that we had that
(26:47):
we were really proud of, yeah,no, that was posted on
Missy (26:49):
social media.
Steve (26:50):
People love getting involved.
Like both like listeners thatlisten to podcasts, marketers
and networkers that you workwith.
That's why people have beenreally enjoying like this
opportunity that I'm offering tothem.
Cause it's whether you end uppodcasting or not, it's going to
be fun for you, it's fun for me,and then the listeners who hear
it, get to see what it wouldlike, review some materials and
maybe learn something aboutthemselves with what they need
(27:11):
for branding or podcasting alongthe way.
So we all win here.
With this entire conversationabout branding, visual branding
and turning it into a podcast,what would you say are some of
your biggest takeaways?
Missy (27:24):
I loved your idea of introducing a business partner
or a client.
If we were to do A podcastbecause honestly I didn't
consider that, but I think it'sawesome.
A great idea for your coachingand
April (27:41):
yeah, I think that it put a thought in my head of, we have
so many things here that we dosuch a variety of, I think that
would be interesting for us todo a little video or podcast on
the From start to end, of aproduct.
Steve (27:58):
Yeah, it definitely is a way to do it as well.
Cause the same way we weretalking about doing client
journeys, you can do a productjourney where you talk about
over an episode or two here'show from the moment we start a
product, here's how we finishedit.
So it can be a mix of product orany client journey episodes.
I love it.
All right.
Thank you so much.
If people wanted to find you,connect with you, work with you,
(28:18):
give you all their business andprinting, how would they do
that?
April (28:20):
Give us a call or they can check out our website.
They can email us, everybodythat walks through the front
door.
We consider a custom order.
So there is no, there's no likeboard.
You can come in and look at thepricing or whatever.
We just.
We custom price everything andwe work with the customer
because that's too how we getthose little moments that we
(28:43):
pull out of people of they camein for a business card, but look
at, I let, they left with abeach ball, a backpack,
sunscreen,
Steve (28:50):
yeah.
Those are not things that wouldhave been recommended at a
shopping cart checkout.
April (28:53):
It's just that personal connection.
One thing that we strive forhere is our customer service is
number one, that's us whereyou're going to walk in here and
we're going to help you findwhat you need.
And we pride ourselves oncustomer service from start to
beginning, delivery, whetherthat be, the final product being
delivered, professional andcourteous is what you're going
(29:16):
to get out of Alliance printservices.
Steve (29:19):
All right.
Excellent.
I'll put all of that in the shownotes for listeners as well.
Thank you so much, Miss C andApril.
It's been a pleasure.
April (29:24):
Thanks, Steve.
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