Success Stories Ep 86 - "The Oracle of Merch"

On today's Success Stories podcast, the guest is none other than Nashville's own Adam Tanaka. Adam is a thought leader, consultant, and merch specialist and he's also an entrepreneur with several businesses to his name. 

On today's show, we'll chat with Adam about his origins, building companies, and you're gonna want to know this to future of merch. 

This is one you don't want to miss!

Transcript

Marshall Atkinson 
On today's Success Stories podcast, the guest is none other than Nashville's own Adam Tanaka. Adam is a thought leader, consultant, and merch specialist. He's also an entrepreneur with several businesses to his name. On today's show, we'll chat with Adam about his origins, building companies. And, and you're gonna want to know this, the future of merch. This is one you don't want to miss. So Adam, welcome to the Success Stories podcast.

Adam Tanaka 
Hey, Marshall, thanks so much for having me, man. I'm excited.

Marshall Atkinson 
Yeah, and I think it's gonna be a great show. And I think we kind of like, see each other out in the wings of things all the time. You know, and I think it's gonna have an interesting conversation. You know, I don't know many people that live in Nashville. So this is going to be a cool thing. And maybe we'll have a discussion on that hot chicken here soon. So

Adam Tanaka 
that'll be a quick, quick discussion, because that's a tough one for me. Hot Chicken. I can't I can't.

Marshall Atkinson 
 It's just too hot. Right. So I did that. How easy? Is that? The place to go?

Adam Tanaka 
I've been? It's a good one. Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 
All right. Well, cool.So let's start it off. And, you know, frequent listeners to the show, you know, already know that I like to start the conversations off with, you know, the famed origin story, right. So Adam, how and more importantly, why don't you get started in this crazy industry?

Adam Tanaka 
I'm still trying to answer that. Why? No, I'm just kidding. I, so I got started in merch, and specifically production. Back in, I believe it was 2004. I moved to Nashville, and immediately started on a job hunt, not knowing what I was going to do. I was driving in this industrial complex, and I saw this, this door, this this warehouse door open. And some lady was loading boxes of shirts. And so I ran over and I said, Hey, I need a job. Are you guys hiring? She said actually, yes, we production needs need somebody. And so she's like, just running there now and let them know, because I think we're about to try to do hire. And so I ran inside and talked to someone there. They said, Yeah, can you start Monday, and it was I think it was like Wednesday or Thursday, I was like, I can start now. I was super desperate, needed a job broke. And so they actually had me start the next day, instead of waiting. And I, I My job was literally like, in the back room where the two manual best text presses were in, in their inks. And it was a very small shop in the back, but I cleaned the buckets and scrub the floors. And and then that really that primarily was my job mopping sweeping, cleaning the bathrooms, cutting the grass to the warehouse, eventually learning how to clean screens. They they gave me the title shot bitch probably wouldn't fly now. But back then it was it. It works, whatever. And so and so yeah, it was a very close small company. The owners were in house. And and so yeah, I went from that to work my way up to attempting to print setting up multicolor jobs moving to fulfillment, and learning that process.

Marshall Atkinson 
So how long were you there until you drop that title?

Adam Tanaka 
You know, I feel like that even though I was moving through the ranks, that was just still my title. You know, but so I was there for I want to say it was like two and a half years. And so their fulfillment, their fulfillment platform was proprietary, built in house. One of the owners was a tech guy, and he built it, they were kind of in my is 2004 They were kind of ahead of it at that time. But eventually the company got bought and then went under. And so I feel like you know, obviously it was like timing stuff, but but I feel like they were kind of ahead of their time back then with with tech, but just not quite sure what happened. But the owners were in house that got to pick their brains realizing, you know, they primarily dealt with musicians, you know, bands. There was this big need there that I don't think was being fulfilled. And that was more Oh, I think that that community that that that real, real relationship, it was kind of just quantity, pumping them out as much as fast as you can. So I left there, I was in a band at the time I left there and went on tour, came back and took some odd jobs, and started my first screen printing company in 2008. I was overdrawn, 350 bucks in my account, and middle of recessions. 2008, it was May, and a lot of friends, a lot of family is like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And so this is what I want to do. I actually, you know, when I saw him what I did, I loved it. And so yeah, went for it. I didn't know what I was doing. I think at that back at that time, I think the popular thing that kind of helped me navigate was tshirt. forums.com, which I think you and I talked about you probably on there, I

Marshall Atkinson 
used to go on there, until I got to the point where it was it was it was really hard to you would ask her a question. And then some there will be all these posts that just flamed you or whatever. And then you had all these other people like that spider guy that just like ruined it, and you know, so, you know, it's like one of these things where everything has its time, you know, so,

Adam Tanaka 
right? That was that. So it helped me kind of figure out what I needed in terms of, you know, I had no money. And so I knew I needed to do a couple of things, I needed to probably build what I needed and get a job that paid to save up to build. So I got a job at an art store while starting my company. And so I would work at the art store during the day, come home and print at night, I knew I needed to make more money because my hand built exposure unit, my hand built press was just not cutting and I was printing shirts on the floor, holding screens down my feet, carrying them in the oven on a baking sheet. And I mean, it was it was awful. And, and so so I at that, at that art store, I knew I needed to figure something out. So I've worked really hard and became manager. And so I started making more money, but my hours were like 7am to 7pm as a manager. So as I was brutal, so I get home, you know, it was it was about a 2025 minute drive. So I would get home about 730 and then just eat a quick meal and open up the garage door to to you know, my next phase of the business, which was a little tiny garage with some if you could call it a press and I would print from like 830 to about two o'clock in the morning, wake up at six the next day and and get to the art store. And so that was my that was kind of my thing for about two years. I would leave during lunch on my break from the art store to come print a job and deliver it and then get back to work. Finally, you know, as a corporate art store, the my boss flew in from North Carolina, said hey, we need to talk bought me bought me lunch, we sat down and he said, Hey, I heard you have your own business. That's great. But as a manager of an art store you need to choose and so I stood up, didn't touch my food. I laid my napkin down and shook his hand. I said thank you for the pleasure of working here. I'm going to head to the house I need to start printing and so I left pretty much walked out and was scared to death the whole way home. I

Marshall Atkinson 
was like the guy's mouth was wide open. Oh, yeah, totally.

Adam Tanaka 
Yes. Good guy. But man, I mean, I had to make that choice. And so whole way home, I was like, what, what did I just do, I just, I just screwed everything up in my life, like, my life is over all those things. And so I'm driving home, I forget about everything because I see my little garage full of boxes. And so I just start printing. And it was the following is a few days went by. And then it was that following Monday, Tuesday, where just inbox started kind of filling up. And I really didn't do any like I wasn't pushing it. I wasn't promoting I wasn't doing any paid ads. Like I wasn't really doing much with like promotion and just the fact that that you know, inbox started filling up I attribute that to just putting it out there.

Marshall Atkinson 
You know, sometimes and I'm a big believer in this The universe provides if you ask you know and on board and at that that's happened several times in my life, you know, where like, I needed something, you know, we want to get into all those crazy stories but you know, and then it just shows up right and and, you know, call it luck or divine intervention or whatever you want to call it. But you know, the thing that I think is you have to kind of know what you want and until You know what you want? I don't think the universe gives you what you want, right? You have to kind of decide, right? I don't know if that's too out there or not. But no,

Adam Tanaka 
you're, we could go real deep on that for sure. And we can save that for another day. But that that is exam right on board with you, especially in the last couple of years. And where my headspace has been that I'm right there with you. Yeah,

Marshall Atkinson 
the scariest thing is, is taking that step. You know, and because, you know, when we have a job and your case, you're managing an art store, right? You know, that's comfort, you know, you're getting paid, you might even have insurance or you know, whatever, it's, it's a known thing, right? Doing your own deal. And jumping off the cliff. It with the will, there's no safety net, your water is so scary that let me tell you, most people don't do that. They just don't do it, right. Because it's really hard to be an entrepreneur, it's really hard to, like, go out on your own and take a risk. And what's funny, is that people who aren't entrepreneurs will tell you not to do it. Right. But the people who are will be supportive, because they've already they've already jumped off the cliff, and they know what that feels like. So it's kind of a weird thing. I think sometimes where, you know, you'll have people who tell you, No, you can't do that. Don't do that, you know, you'll fail or whatever. And, but they never done anything like that. So how do they know? Right?

Adam Tanaka 
That's it. And, and I love that the whole just the whole idea of putting it out there in the universe, and, you know, knowing what you want putting it out there and didn't delivers. And so I I'm 100% it's happened. I mean, I can't deny it, it happened. So, so yeah, I started printing, you know, years went by, I was able to start upgrading machines was staying in my garage, and you know, got my first little, little workhorse conveyor dryer, I thought I had reached just the mat, like, I thought I had made it like this was it.

Marshall Atkinson 
I've got I'm not using my oven. Yes,

Adam Tanaka 
you know, or heat gun or flash, you know, I've got a conveyor dryer, and it took it took up pretty much half the garage, but you know, and then I got a nice wash booth and I got stuff to just help me be more efficient in the shop. And so I remember the day that I was able to look at it, you know, I've taken a break in between to look at everything on the computer financials and get some work orders printed, and I saw, Oh my gosh, I can hire somebody in so I remember bringing on that first employee at my house in my backyard. And that was just school,

Marshall Atkinson 
what year? What year was that? Adam? That was 20.

Adam Tanaka 
That was 2013. That was 2013. Okay. My first employee was 2013. I, I was really I was really nervous about bringing somebody on. Even at that point, you know, am I making the wrong decision? I've never had an employee before, like, what does this look like? How do I What is what benefits me? How do I pay on all these things? And so, you know. So, from that point, a lot started happening pretty fast. And, and at first, it's felt really good, because it was just this fast growth from there. I mean, you know, I hit six figures pretty quickly, you know, and, and then realizing, like, that's not the way for me, and in everything that was just not the way to go. It was it was really, you know, and now stepping back. It's like, I'm a firm believer in the Slow and steady wins almost every time and slow growth is steady growth, which means it's fast growth. And so at that time, I was just buried, just buried in it daily, couldn't get out of it. And took me through, you know, that took me through to 2019 I hit seven figures, the business was doing incredible. I was having six figure months, that was a normal thing. And it just took a toll. Like I set everything aside my physical health, my mental health. It was just, you know, I shelled it and forgot about it. And so inevitably, it shows back up in really dark ways and bad ways. And so So yeah, I mean, and then and then taking that, that pivot after that, but it was an exciting start, you know, printing shirts on the floor, then it got hard and it was like what am I doing? And then things got better and the video is constant failure success is you know, repeat but Oh, yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 
So how did you solve problems, because I think a lot of people are listening in, I don't know where you if you're listening where you are on your journey, right. But you know, everybody starts with, you know, wherever they started. And then something happens, they have to pay taxes or payroll or, like you got to unhappy customer or you need to learn this charge or whatever. So how did you learn how to do all these things? Did you go to trade shows? Did you read books? Did you watch videos? Did you take a class? I mean, how did you get that knowledge inside your head?

Adam Tanaka 
Well, you're you're probably not going to be you're not going to like this answer. I've never been to a trade show before.

Marshall Atkinson 
I've never been, you know, they have them every year

Adam Tanaka 
all the time. I hear you know, No, I've never been to a trade show. I, you know, I hear

Marshall Atkinson 
here's an interesting thing out of you know, only about 10% of businesses in this industry actually go to a trade show. Right? And of that group, you know, 10, maybe 15% of that group. Most people only go maybe once every three to five years. Yeah. Okay. So it's not like, there's people who go every year, right? I know those people, then there's people who go occasionally, and then there's people like you've never been right. And, and we can have a whole discussion about what you're missing. Right? But you still had to learn this stuff. Right? So how did you learn? How did you learn how to do all these things?

Adam Tanaka 
It was a lot of, I will say it was? Well, I was pulling from what I remembered, having worked for a print shop a merch company back in the day from, from the from what I, you know, what I knew about the sales side of it to the prepping and production, I mean, I, they were showing me how to prep screens back then how to set up eight color jobs, one color job, state color jobs, all these things. And so I was pulling from that. And then eventually, being able to start watching video tutorials or specific things of, you know, why is my Underbase doing this one thing. And then so for the operational side, you know, it was truly like trying to pull from what I had learned previously, and then also watching some videos and reading again, t shirt forums back then was was really big, and it really did help me. But But then, with the, the accounting, the just running a business systems, like I didn't have systems in place. I didn't have systems in place until I moved into my first actual standalone space, which was in about 2016. I didn't, it's embarrassing, but I'm even admit it is true. It's I just didn't have systems in place until, you know, eight years after I started the business. And that was after I had probably at that point, I had five or six employees at that time. So trying to implement systems for the first time, in a new space with multiple employees. It was a mess. And on the outside and the numbers were growing like crazy. internally. It was It was awful.

Marshall Atkinson 
It was not healthy. Here's so here's here's the thing is like you don't know what you don't know, right? And this is the reason why trade shows or Shirt Lab or conferences or meetups or whatever, right? Anything that you can do to get together with your tribe, which are people just like you, and you can like, hey, how do you do that? And then people will tell you, right? That's like the real benefit, I think of networking in this industry is whatever ridiculous problem you have. Somebody's already solved that. Right? Yeah. And you just have to be brave enough to raise your hand and go, Hey, I don't know how to do something. Right? And that's really super scary for a lot of people is to admit that they don't know something. Or they need help, which is even worse, right? I need help. And because that's somehow look, it's frowned upon that you need help, right? And, and like, you know, sometimes online, Facebook or some group or whatever, if you ask a question, you get all these people who just can't wait to slam you because you're such an idiot, right? And so what happens is nobody asks these questions and they just kind of struggle and whatever. So finding a safe space is just the like the perfect thing sometimes so

Adam Tanaka 
yeah, it's it's necessary. I think my my go to I have to name drop this guy. You know, his name was Mark. He He was my, my old boss when I was scrubbing floors and stuff back in the day that we became friends at, you know, after the fact. And he was a vital part of moving effectively. Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 
Right. So, so where are you now? Like describe your business today? What what's going on?

Adam Tanaka 
So I sold the production over the company in late 2019 finalized it in January 2020. But so right now I am, I am sourcing everything through my the same print shop name that I've had through that same brand, but sourcing and, and that is looking to be acquired by by print shot, the brand being acquired by a print shop outside of town, here in Nashville. And then I'm doing more merch consulting for brands and creators that you know, that need merch. So,

Marshall Atkinson 
right. So you've you've grown your business to the point where it's more exciting for you just to do the sales into things. And you're going to just outsource all the production because it makes sense for where you are in your journey.

Adam Tanaka 
It does, yeah, and I wanted to get closer to the customer. I wanted to be there to help them from point A to point A to point Z, and realizing that, you know, I wanted to be there Obi Wan Kenobi to their Luke Skywalker, you know if that makes sense. So,

Marshall Atkinson 
because they have read storebrand so we're all good. Oh, right

Adam Tanaka 
on. Yes. You had mentioned? Yes. Yes. So um, and so I like to say that a lot to to the clients, because they, like you said they only they don't know what they don't know. And it's, it's moved past the point of just, hey, I need 50 shirts, cool turnaround times 10 to 12 days, you know, here's your invoice, we'll have them to deliver to you pick them out. Like it's it's so much more than that anybody can learn how to screenprint it's really and truly like, the need meeting the needs from beginning to end. I think

Marshall Atkinson 
what a lot of people don't realize, and maybe I'd love to hear your your take on this is that anybody can print a shirt or embroider a polo, like it's not hard, right? And the value, right is understanding the solution to a customer's problem. Which could be that, you know, they need a different shirt, or here's how to do an online store or, you know, the perfect thing for this isn't a shirt, it's a hoodie, right? And so it's really understanding what they're trying to accomplish, and developing solutions in a more bespoke manner. And I think this is where the value this is where you earn your money is doing that, right? So if you're just, you know, if somebody calls you on the phone and says, Hey, I need some shirts, and your first question is, how many what call her right? You're doing it wrong, right? To me. It's like, how are you using the shirts? What are you doing? What is this for? Right? And they can say, well, we're trying to raise money, we want to put stadium lights at the high school. Stadium, right? And then so so what can we do with that, right? And so it all becomes about solving that problem and less about, Hey, I just need 50 shirts with the logo on. Right, right? which anybody can do, right? What's your take on that?

Adam Tanaka 
I agree with you on 100% in terms of, you know, for me now, where I am, in my career, on that side of things, the production side of it is just, it's something I know really well. I can do it in my sleep, but it's something now that gets in my way. That's somebody else's job. That's somebody who, who's just got a an efficient and amazing operation. That's their job, my job is selling basically, you know, it's no longer selling the products, it's, you've heard this before selling the outcome. So it's like, I can let the customer I can help the customer See, see that outcome in them getting so excited, not just because they opened a box and shirts in their print and their design is on the shirt. But now it's like what happens after that? What happens before that, and helping them to build systems around it so they can actually create and well that so they can actually see and create a revenue stream a significant revenue stream with their merch and not just throw it to their intern or throw it to their marketing person and say, Hey, we need merch. Do we need like ordered like 100? You know, and if you tell them like if you ask them? Why are you ordering a shirt? Like what's the what do you want to accomplish? They may not have? Yeah,

Marshall Atkinson 
they don't know the answer. They just put 100 on there but right and maybe they needed 1000 Or maybe they only needed 50 Right so or maybe they didn't need shirts at all. Exactly. Yeah. They made it needed something else right. So I think I think you know this It really kind of leads into my second question here is like, you know, so over time, you know, building a business is mainly about finding the right book of customers that you can serve. Right? So when you started your business, you probably doing one thing. And then now you probably have morphed and changed probably several times, right? Over the years. Right? So what you're doing now, right? So what do you know? Now, you know, looking back that you didn't know that you kind of wish you knew, right? What you know, because there's people listening that kind of maybe need to know this. Right? So what would you tell yourself? You know, going back to like, your present day, atom, meats, you know, the old the old atom that's, that's working out of his garage? What would you what would you say? Not about production? But about customers? What would you what would you say?

Adam Tanaka 
I, I was, you know, I was casting a wide net, I thought if I made myself available to anybody and everybody back then that not only would I be busy, but busy. What I thought back then was busy equal money. And, and so I that would be the first thing that I would you know, that past? Adam would have told, you know, me years ago, like a pump the brakes busy does not mean, you're making money. And I've told this to so many brands, print shops, you name it. You know, it's like, I don't know, what do you wish I had the best year ever? And then you look at the books, and it's like, how come we we are under like negative. And it's like, knowing your gross profit and your net profit, you have to know the difference. And,

Marshall Atkinson 
and so and here's what I tell you, like, if you're talking with other shops, right? You know, this is that you ask them that question, and they don't know, right? And then they'll say, Well, my accountant has to let me know, I was like, What are you getting an information is like, well, he's still working on September. And it's like, okay, will the information gonna get as irrelevant? Because, you know, it's not September, it's another month, right? So we need to be understanding this at all times. Because if you, if you don't have relevant, fresh information, you cannot make a decision to adjust. And that's such vital this is super vital. Right? And, and then what and, of course, you know, my good friend, Mark, who Dre, you know, his big thing is, you know, are you busy being busy? Are you busy being profitable, right. And so like, when you take a 20 piece order, right, just because you need to work or a 200 piece order or what you know, you want to your you mainly go direct, but yours is going to be a contract printer on the side to fill up your press, there's, there's profit consequences to doing that, that I don't think a lot of people understand, because they haven't ever crunched the numbers on it. Right?

Adam Tanaka 
You you even laying out that example, gave me chills down my spine of remembering, you know, countless times that I did that back in the day of like, hey, there's a rush order coming through, I can charge this much for a rush order. So that means that's just extra profit, but then it'll just it just set us back even further. And, and so, it truly is not only you know, knowing you got to know your financial, you just got to know it. But not casting a wide net really, really dialing in your, your target customer and, and focusing on building systems around and segmenting those customers. You know, and so I started focusing on specific and when I started focusing on specific industries, and just really starting to chisel away at that that rock and then started finding like breweries, hospitality, outdoor brands, really just narrowing it down. That's when stuff that's when the real relationships started happening. You know,

Marshall Atkinson 
I've argued that you know, you like remote shops, three or four different types of customers. That's all you need. Yeah, I agree it like it. Really what you want is people who buy at different times during the year that way, you're always busy, right? And, and because if you only do you know, summer stuff, right, what are you going to be doing when it's cold? To kind of level things out. And so what a lot of people do is they wait until they run out of work and then they start selling Hey, we have no jobs booked. Oh, I guess we need to go call some people. Right? That's typically you know, kind of what people do all the time, right? And then you just kind of wait, it's kind of like they wait till there's a toothache and then they go See the census? Yes. Like once you hear so far, be sure to subscribe so you can get the latest from Success Stories. And now here's Zach shortly with the SMS spotlight from creating

Marshall Atkinson 
You know, it's no secret that, you know, after COVID Many things with businesses and markets have changed, right? So, you know, what tactics have you taken that have proved to be the most impactful for your company in the last couple of years.

Adam Tanaka 
So, you know, the first thing I would mention is it's not necessarily a business tactic, but it affects the way that you do business pretty significantly. And that that was for me, it was it was slowing down. You know, like I was saying earlier, I believe 100% and slow and steady wins. And really starting to prioritize my physical and mental health and what that looked like. You know, like I said, these were things that I was putting off to the side for a long time. And then inevitably, it just it showed up. And it showed up in really dark ways. And I think from what I heard from other founder friends, and just friends and family, you know, did for a lot of people. And you know, some people lost their businesses, some people were just lost in general, and some were raking in the money. You know, during that time, and but you know, once I started learning how to put to prioritize my mental and physical health and really putting those things first. That's when I gained like, massive clarity. And that's when I started learning more about growth mindset. As before, it was more fixed mindset, more survival, just just the next, you know, on to the next on to the next and survival mode. But once I was able to begin starting to really focus on what was really, truly important, I started gaining clarity, and, and then I was able to in turn, I would see it in my daily life and my bank account, and all of it was I was able to navigate effectively. Because Because of putting that first I mean, you can't pour from an empty cup. And, you know, I knew there was a time in 20 I think it was like 2018 I had an employee tell me that in private, and was like, you know, just wanna let you know, like, you can't pour from an empty cup. I felt like I needed to tell you this. And it was one of those things like, Oh, I saw that you were like, really burnout. Yes, it was to the point to where I was not, I didn't feel good about leaving leaving the shop to go eat lunch. I wasn't eating, I'm already a skinny guy. And I lost a ton of weight. Because I just wasn't eating because part of it was I wasn't really hungry, because I was just so stressed in not in the moment and just run around. But also because I felt bad about like Grant trying to eat breakfast before I got to the shop, I thought I had to be the first one there. And the last one to leave, I thought that was you know, commendable, and like, all of these things. And so, when that happened, it was really like, Whoa, really eye opening moment. But and so I think with the post COVID tactics, being able to, for me to be able to recognize that during 2020 of like pump the brakes, your physical and mental health has, has has is in damage mode, like you, it's gonna have start being repaired or it could get the you know, I don't know how much worse it could get. And so starting to put those in place and surrounding myself with what I call my personal board of directors started building those people out around my life. That changed the game for me. And then in turn opportunities just started happening like like we were talking about earlier with the the universe that started happening again. Yeah, and so putting that in place helped me you know, how helped me just navigate you know, unlike any other time I haven't ever as a founder ever changed it change is

Marshall Atkinson 
something that I've been doing for a really long time is I do a little bit of meditation and some box breathing right after lunch right before I start back for the rest of my day. And that has made a significant impact on me. I don't know if you know what that is. But it's just really nice to do just to be very thoughtful and mindful about things. And so after lunch, typically I'll sit in my chair, and close my eyes and get comfortable. And I'll just breathe in and hold it and breathe out. And I'll do that for about two minutes. And of course, what's that's doing is, is driving oxygen to my brain, I tried to just to be mindful of what's going on and just not really move or speak or do anything, and just listen and be present. And one of my ways that I concentrate to it, because when you're doing meditation, it's really hard, you got all these thoughts going through your head, is I tried to concentrate I want the end of my nose feels like, which is impossible, because you can feel the end of your nose. And just like just that point. And that and I just hold that right, and just you just do it for a couple moments. Right? And it's, it's incredibly refreshing. Yeah, and that kind of just gets all the stress out. And you know, you're ready to face the rest of the afternoon. And, and I've been doing that for 10 years, easy on it, maybe 12. I don't know, like a really long time. And it's really, it's really good thing, right? So, if you feel a lot of stress, because you've got deadlines and things and you can make that phone call, you know, your customer is going to chew you out because whatever. You just gotta take a moment and be present. Breathe, relax a little bit. It's gonna be okay. And just take things and, and do and the other thing I learned a long time ago is to what I call eat the frog, right, where you just do the absolute worst thing you got to do first. Yep. Once that's out of the way the recipe is golden.

Adam Tanaka 
That is, that's been that's been a big impact. For me that used to frog thing. It's, it makes me sick every time I say it, but it's true. It's kind of a gross eating or kind of a gross thing. Yeah. But But yeah, man, that stuff has been an absolute game changer practicing gratitude and, you know, exercising, running, doing all that stuff. It's amazing.

Marshall Atkinson 
Yeah, good, right. All right. So crystal ball time, right. So I want you to think about the future of merch, this is where you live, right? Where are we heading? What should people know? What what you know, what's around the corner that nobody has thought of? Right? So what do you what's your thoughts on this?

Adam Tanaka 
Yeah. Well, I think that 2024 I think this year is going to be a pretty wild ride, like more than maybe it ever has been, I don't know but if whether it is or not, I'm here. I'm all in and I'm here for it. But I think as a whether you're a brand or you're a decorator you know print shop. I think that with with, you know, with AI and everything happening in it happening so quickly, and it's just going to happen even faster. This sounds really old. I know this is gonna sound really old school but I think now more than ever feel like it's gonna rely heavily on getting serious about you know, print shops and people brands telling their story and finding like you said earlier their tribe their target customers now more than ever, and really building that connection and community again, I know that sounds very old school. But what I mean I've already kind of been talking to other people about that of like, in this age of where we're at people we're going to want to reach out and touch a human and like talk to a face and more more than they ever have and so and you know, we can do a lot of video calls and phone calls later you know in the last several years and and so I think it's really going to be that it's it sounds backwards but I think really community driven in a way and at the same time you know, like for stay successful shops, I think they're already in terms of decorators successful shops are already incorporating automation, more automation. They're already staying ahead by incorporating efficient systems with AI in their workflow like what you talk about all the time mid journey, chat GPT just to streamline what they're doing. They have other revenue streams and separate arms that are company that's up and running. And in I think that with everyone else, you know all the other shops in the decorator, talking about decorators specifically I think that they're just it's asking the right questions. I think that for so long, there's they're still, you know, asking the wrong questions. And so always being open to learn, like, instead of asking, you know, how should we price? How should we price our work? That's just such a bad question. Like, which machine is best? Like, what brand of ink? What brand of whitening has the best opacity? These are not the questions to be asking right now, these are not high level questions, it's, you know, it's really getting on board with the changes of, of AI and embracing, you know, delegating, in some way to, like, you'd like you have a VA, but, um, but yeah, so, I mean, I think that it's super unknown. I know that with, with merch in general, the thing that I talk about most with my clients is collaboration and,

Adam Tanaka 
and, you know, I think that that's going to be a big driver. You know, so I know, again, it sounds old school, like I'm going backwards. It's

Marshall Atkinson 
not old school. So you know, it's, I think, at the end of the day, people make buying decisions based on emotion, and make buying decisions based on connection and alignment. And, of course, you can have a chat GPT write your sales letter, because it'll do that in 30 seconds flat, right. But it doesn't know your story, it doesn't know about the conversation you just have with your customer. It doesn't know about the golf outing you had last spring with, you know, Fred, who makes the decision, right? So the more that you rely on experiences, the more that you include human to human connections with stuff, right? I think the better that a lot of this automation and AI and stuff can work. Right? So there has to be a human component to it, because that's what we relate to as other people. Right? And, you know, a lot of people who can spot Yeah, I can AI wrote that. Right? Or, you know, look, you know, that looks like aI designed it. Right? You can already almost tell, right? A lot of stuff you can't tell because it's really good. With some of the stuff you can tell, right? And, you know, AI to me, you know where we are with it, of course, it's only going to get better, but where we are currently, right? Is it gets you really close to what you want, but you still got to make it yours. It's kind of the way I phrase it right. And how I actually describe mid journey is let's pretend, you know, you're in the endzone and a football game and the kickoff just happened and you catch the ball. And you run the ball all the way down the field. So like the seven yard line, you know, that's an amazing play. And if that happened in a real game, the entire stands would erupt and go crazy. Okay, but guess what you didn't do you didn't score a touchdown. You still gotta make it right. You know, so when you create that piece of art and mid journey, or, you know, Dali three or stably fusion or whatever your Photoshop or whatever you're using, you know, this got the AI in it, right? You still gotta make it yours, you still got to make it the right color, you still got to separate it, you still got to put the customer's logo on it, you still got to technically make the file work for the production that you're using. So there's a lot of steps with that. And that's equivalent to run the seven yard line, we're gonna run a couple plays and we'll score, right. It's the same thing with with chat CPT or whatever you're using to write with, okay. It wrote this awesome thing. But if you didn't include the anecdote, it because nobody, you know, the tool doesn't know that story, because it wasn't there. Okay. And so the more human to human things you make things, the more alignment you're going to have. And I think, you know, I was listening to your answer. And one of the things I thought was really poignant here is the fact that people want their problems solved. Right? They don't care about what you're selling. They are trying to sell, they're trying to solve their problem, whatever their problem is. So the more questions you ask, the more detailed you get and specific about how you can help whatever with that challenges, the better you're going to have with that relationship and that alignment with a customer because they go yeah, that kind of gets it made. He asked things that nobody's ever asked me Right, because he gets me, right. And, and I think the more that you do that type of thing, the better connection that you're going to have. And that's going to course lead to, you know, not just customers, but customers that keep coming back if they don't leave you, right? And it's not about a commodity anymore, because you're solving their problem for them. Right? So like, if I can design a merch line for you, that sells, because I understand your end customer, right? It doesn't matter where you're getting it printed. Okay? Because I'm making you money. Right? Okay. And it's because I've got something that other people don't, whatever, whatever that secret component is. Right. And I think that component A lot of times, is asking more questions about what, what's the purpose of this thing? What are you doing with it? What's, what's the end result? You know, what do you want, right? And so, to me, you know, when we talk about the future emerge, that everybody's always gonna be buying stuff. And then whether that's a tote bag, or a t shirt, or a hoodie or a Stanley mug, or whatever, right? They're always there's always the next fidget spinner. Right? But what's the most applicable thing for what the customer wants? Because we can put a logo on anything. That doesn't necessarily help. The end goal of whoever your customer is, that's what we want to do is help with that. Right? Don't you think? That's kind of what you're talking about? Right? Yeah,

Adam Tanaka 
I think, you know, the first thing that comes to mind is truly just being like a brand partner. For them to, like you said, they asked, they asked the right questions to their, to their customer. And and that's going to be i that the overarching need, I feel like moving forward. Is, is having being a brand partner from from A to Z, being able to take care of them, man, they don't care where it gets printed. Like you said, they want to work with you. You know, your stuff. You're asking me the right questions I've never thought about. I want to work with you. And, and that's it. Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 
Well, cool. All right. Well, hey, Adam, thank you so much for sharing your story of success with us today. What is the best way to contact you? If someone wants to learn more about what you do? Or maybe how you can personally help them?

Adam Tanaka 
You can visit Adam tanaka.com. And, or you can, you can you can email me directly. Hello at Adam tanaka.com.

Marshall Atkinson 
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time today.

Adam Tanaka 
It's been a lot of fun. Marshall, it's been awesome, man. Thank you so much. Alright, see ya. See ya.