SOS Short: Looking Back...

James Lott Jr looks back on Yahoo Business, Vista Print, Fast Signs and other tools he used to begin the brand building back in the day! 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to another SOS short. I'mJames Lott Junior. Our regular show is
CSAs Show with James Lott Junior,where episodes coming but in between these little
shorts, and these are almost alwaysaudio only, So to thank my audio
listeners for their long standing listening,the shorts are for you this short.

(00:21):
This time, I'm just looking backas I'm getting to my nine year anniversary
of doing the show, when Ifirst at my fifteen year anniversary of being
in the business. When I firststarted people because people asked me, when
you first started, how'd you buildyour website? Well, this is twenty
this is twenty twenty twenty nine,they say, we're two thousand and nine.

(00:42):
So in two thousand and nine iswhen I actually started my business.
And I had to get a website, of course, and so I went
to Yahoo okay folks, Yahoo Business, and I can't remember why I went.
I was I was not text atby by any means back then.

(01:02):
It's a Yahoo business and they wereuser friendly. I had a Yahoo account
by then I had I had anAol account and the nice I had a
Yaho account and they actually I boughta package and it was not expensive where
I can do a website, ownthe website and also do a blog,

(01:23):
and then also I have webmail access. But there was a whole one sheet.
It was like a whole thing.So I signed up for it,
folks, and I did it,and I built my own website. Back
then it was very simple. Ihad my logos. I just built the
colors around my logo the way youcan set it up. It was it

(01:45):
was not exciting, but I thinkit was clean and I looked back at
my my pictures was clean. Itwas easy to read. I had pictures
to get at pages easily. Itwas. It was really cool and I
and it just I used it likefor the ten years. And so y'ahoo

(02:07):
went out of business and I rememberI said they were go out and they're
like, no, go out ofbusiness. I did. I just did.
I did, like I and nowmy website I have it on WordPress.
Everybody but it's like it's not thebest, but it's it's I remember
it was very user friendly. Icould do it myself. I can handle
it myself, upload things, dailyshift stuff. It was really great.

(02:30):
I mean it was not expensive.I remember it wasn't expensive and I was
able to keep it and it wasa good start because when I was starting
out, and so you guys,don't you start out, you're trying to
brand yourself. And see back thenwe used to produce postcards and business cards.
I went everything uniform, and Idid between. For me, I

(02:52):
had everything uniform. I would staybetween Yahoo Business and Vista Prints. I
went Vista Prints. Those two thingsreally just like were there for me.
I mean it was saying fredex,Kinko's and and all these these different things
that were there in the beginning.That was so that now you do a
lot of stuff online and there's justit's a whole of the world now.

(03:14):
But I'm smiling as I'm talking toyou, and I just I missed that
stuff. I miss it on somelevel. This seprint was so inexpensive.
There's also a place called Fast Signsthat I used in the previous business I
was in. I made some signsfor signage for conferences and in personal stuff.

(03:38):
I had T shirts but from VisperI had T shirts made. Again,
they were so you did all yourit was copy and paste and you
did everything yourself. But I hadT shirts made, bags made. I
still have them too. I sawthe bags I should I should find it
and post them. Uh, ButI had my bags and T shirt.
I mean, I kept all Imade all kinds of stuff so that when
I went out on I remember Ihad polo shirts made. It became my

(04:01):
signature when I went on TV.But it was funny. But I had
those made to go for consultations.Then I had T shirts made to wear
when I did the work. Sosmart, so smart, and it was
all branding. Everything was branding.I just but they made it easy for
everything was made so easy. AndI mean I could get five hundred postcards
for like five dollars and all thisstuff was just it was so I don't

(04:26):
know, I just kind of i'dlaugh. But I don't know many of
you at home who are long timerslike me, And that's something that I've
been I did a show on thiskind of recently too. I really want
to do more I'm going to doI'm going to do more shows and shorts
on long timers because a lot ofus are. We have some great stories
to share that are fun, butalso we have different needs. Now,

(04:48):
we're different than people who are justgetting into the business or who are news
in the business. We went aroundfor a long time, and it was
who we're talking over ten years.I'm I'm talking it's fift year, twenty
year, twenty five plus. Wehave different needs, different ones, different
desires, different goals. We alsoby said we also have stories, and

(05:10):
I just I'm like I said,right now, I'm just smiling. I
go get my postcards they coming tomail. I got my I had like
four different sets of business cards readto my businesses, and I pass them
out and it was just so muchfun. I had had a lot of
fun like them. It was like, I'm sinner smiling about that. I
understand we're saving paper now, savingthose things we're saving because of the environment.

(05:34):
But sometimes everything being online and digitaljust isn't the same. And that's
because I'm old now. I guess. I just I just had a birthday
and I'm feeling that to you,and I'm like, I know, I
just feel like I missed the intouch, as we say, culching high
touch communication where we're in front ofthe person and you're handling him something.

(05:54):
So'd you miss that? I'm Jameslot Junior, I know it with a
little shorts and a lot of helpdot com go there for everything. I
am for hire, Talk to youlater by