Marketing Vs. Branding: Strategies to Differentiate and Thrive in Business

About the Guests:

Dr. Scott Grant is the CEO of Triple Threat Leadership and a professor at the University of Findlay. With a career in teaching and leadership development, Scott has been instrumental in educating individuals and organizations on identifying core values and leveraging them for personal and professional growth.

Andrea Kramer is the owner of City Apparel. Under her guidance, City Apparel has grown significantly, known for its managed programs and personalized solutions in the promotional products industry.

Episode Summary:

In this Best of Chamber Amplified episode, Doug Jenkins from the Findlay-Hancock County Chamber of Commerce revisits a popular discussion with Dr. Scott Grant and Andrea Kramer. As we look ahead to new beginnings in the upcoming year, Doug highlights crucial insights shared by Dr. Grant on branding and its differentiation from marketing. Delving into the importance of core values, Dr. Grant explains how businesses can effectively establish their brand by consistently aligning their actions with said values.

Later in this episode, Andrea Kramer, owner of City Apparel, shares her journey as a business owner in Findlay, Ohio. Recognized for her outstanding contribution to the local business scene, Andrea discusses the evolution of the apparel and promotional industry and highlights her company's transition to a downtown location.

Key Takeaways:

• Brand vs. Marketing: Understanding your company's core values is fundamental to establishing a brand that consistently represents your business across all interactions.
• LinkedIn Utilization: Actively engaging on LinkedIn is crucial for business networking, helping professionals showcase their expertise and build industry credibility without hard selling.
• Community-Centric Business: Andrea Kramer's move of City Apparel to downtown Findlay emphasizes the value of community involvement and the impact of location on business growth.
• Innovative Solutions: City Apparel’s development of managed programs and custom online solutions highlights the importance of innovation in meeting customer needs and exceeding industry standards.
• Learning from Experience: Gaining diverse industry experience is key for aspiring entrepreneurs, encouraging adaptability and growth within the business landscape.

Music and sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Transcript

0:00:00 - (Doug Jenkins): Hey, everybody. Doug Jenkins from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. Welcome to another Best of episode of Chamber Amplified. Happy to have you along with us. Hope you enjoyed your Christmas and are looking ahead to the new year again. We're doing Best of Episodes here for the next few weeks to get through the holidays. Also have a conference coming up, so just have that all covered. Kind of hard to get interviews lined up this time of year. People are kind of packing it in as we're recording this quick intro.
0:00:24 - (Doug Jenkins): So we'll have a whole host of new episodes coming up in 2025, but we thought it'd be fun to look back at some of the episodes we've in the past. Did you know if you listened last week, you already know this, but we've been doing this since March of 2022. We have well over 100 episodes. So maybe you missed something. Maybe you want to brush up on something. For this episode, we're talking marketing again. We did that last week.
0:00:45 - (Doug Jenkins): This time it is going to be Dr. Scott Grant from Triple Threat Leadership at the University of Findlay talking about differentiating your brand from your marketing. They're two different things, and it's a really important distinction to. And again, there's a bonus interview on this as well with one of our previous Small Business Award winners, so you'll be able to listen to that as well. Thanks again for listening again.
0:01:07 - (Doug Jenkins): Really appreciate you spreading the word, telling people about it. We've heard a lot of kind words about the podcast over the last several weeks, and we will continue to go strong with it in 2025. Don't you worry about that. Plenty of episodes are on the agenda, but we're in the holidays right now, so we're just going to take it a little easier. Without any further ado, here's our interview with Scott Grant coming up next on Chamber Amplified.
0:01:30 - (Scott Grant): So if somebody is going to come do business with me compared to somebody else, what are the expectations? What's the experience? How do. How do I ensure that when they walk away and somebody asks them, hey, what's it like on the other side of that business or that person? I know what that conversation is because I created it, right? I was intentional. I knew what I wanted those values to be and I knew how I was going to treat or interact or follow up or do whatever I do on a daily basis, not just selling, but in all those other pieces that I know exactly that brand that I'm building in the minds and the perceptions of people.
0:02:07 - (Doug Jenkins): Welcome to the show. I'm Doug Jenkins from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. On each episode of Chamber Amplified, we examine issues impacting the local business community. You've heard me talk about this before. Whether it's employee recruitment, retention, marketing, IT issues, cybersecurity, all of that. We're covering it right here on the podcast. Our goal is to give our members tips each week on at least one way that they can improve operations and thrive in the current business environment.
0:02:32 - (Doug Jenkins): Each week, we're also talking to long tenured Chamber of Commerce members to learn more about how they got started and their twists and turns along the way. Right now, we're even featuring our small business award winners from October. So today on the show, we're talking about branding. You might think that's the same thing as marketing, but it's actually quite a bit different. And it's very important to understand the difference.
0:02:52 - (Doug Jenkins): Dr. Scott Grant from the University of Finland. Like a dozen other things, he's going to be joining me to talk all about that. We're also going to be talking about why your business should be using LinkedIn. In fact, that's the whole reason we scheduled the interview that we did. But then we got talking about branding and we decided to just put it all together. Look, trust me, I've looked at some of your LinkedIn profiles on for your Business on LinkedIn.
0:03:12 - (Doug Jenkins): There's a lot more you can be doing with it. So we're going to be talking about that today as well. And we're also, as I said, continuing to highlight our small business award winners. Today we'll be joined by the Women in Business award winner, Andrea Kramer of Citi Apparel. Of course, the Kramer family has a long history in the Findlay business community. And Andrea will be telling us about how she carved her path within that and how the apparel business has changed over the years.
0:03:35 - (Doug Jenkins): Thanks again for tuning in. Remember, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, you can rate and review the show. Believe me, that does go a long way in helping spread the word. Now let's get into it. And welcome again to the show Dr. Scott Grant, the CEO of Triple Threat Leadership and nlieducation.com also a professor at the University of Findlay. I'm not going to go through your whole bio here, Scout. We don't have that much time. You've done a lot, so. But we want to talk about brand education and specifically what you've done in that field. But first and foremost, thanks for joining us today.
0:04:06 - (Scott Grant): Yeah, no, thanks so much for having me. I'm Excited to be here.
0:04:09 - (Doug Jenkins): So let's talk about building a brand. And it's one thing to advertise. I think we talk to a lot of our members here about you want to advertise, you want that exposure, right. That's what's going to get people's customers. But if it's not tied to an overall brand, what are people missing?
0:04:24 - (Scott Grant): Yeah. So I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that like branding is all about creating energy.
0:04:29 - (B): Right.
0:04:29 - (Scott Grant): And people do that every single day. And branding, a lot of people, I think teach it in a way that like it's icky, like it's not branding. Branding is really just about figuring out who you want to be, what your values are as a person or an organization, then figure out ways to, to maximize that for yourself and for people around you. It's not a bad thing. Now sometimes people come out it the wrong way, but at the end of the day it's really just okay, this is what I want to be about. Right. Like I want to add value in this way and then doing that consistency consistently. Branding is about compounding that energy around whatever it is that you want to be. So when, when the movement started, where we're going to teach everybody about personal branding or branding your company, etc, everybody thought about logos and all these taglines, everything else and it's, it's really just value creation.
0:05:16 - (B): Right.
0:05:16 - (Scott Grant): And then figuring out ways to continually compound that value that you're trying to add. So for me, I always found it that people just made it way too hard. Like don't make it that hard. Don't make it something more than it is other than just like, hey, who do you want to be? And then let's figure out ways to ensure that's coming across every single day.
0:05:36 - (Doug Jenkins): I do like how you said that some people have certainly gone about it the wrong way. I think the one that always comes to mind is the, the Kylie Jenner Pepsi ad co opting social movements into it. So there are different areas there where you need to. A little bit careful. But you're right, you have to tell people who you are and, and that then becomes the overall feel for your brand or whatever you want to call it. So it's just kind of knowing yourself too and knowing what your company is probably goes a long way.
0:06:04 - (Scott Grant): Absolutely. So I, I started teaching about personal branding like 2015, right before people even cared about it. And, and really it was, it was in essence I was trying to teach kids how to use social media well, but they, they didn't really understand how to use it well, because they didn't really understand or figure out who they wanted to be yet. The same, same thing from an organizational perspective, right?
0:06:22 - (Scott Grant): Like let's use social media and they start posting and all these things. But it's like, well, who do you want to be, right? What are your core values? And then you, you fill those buckets, right? Those brand values, that's what you do. So all of those pieces have to be in alignment before then the next step of, of outward projection. And that's what I think everybody starts thinking about where really when I sit down with students or people or businesses, say, okay, what are your core values? And they can usually list them. And then I, I ask them, how do you bring those to life every single day?
0:06:52 - (Scott Grant): That's branding in true essence, right? All of those activities. Now when you start marketing, that, that's a whole nother element. But at the end of the day, like you're just living your values. That is consistent branding every single day. If you don't like the word, find a new word. But that's what it is. And that's, that's a, that's a good thing.
0:07:12 - (Doug Jenkins): Why do I think our retailers know they need to have a brand? I think our restaurants know they need to have brand. A brand. But when it comes to your just, you know, your brick and mortar office, whether it's a financial firm or maybe it's an and somewhere out in tall timbers or something like that, why is it important for them to also have that brand? And we're. And again, separating brand from marketing.
0:07:36 - (Doug Jenkins): Marketing is the advertising you're going to do to try and bring people in. But that brand is what people in the community are going to think of you.
0:07:42 - (Scott Grant): Absolutely. So, I mean, anytime someone interacts with you, it creates some sort of perception in the brain, right? So the reason why people love going to Chick Fil A, and I'm not discounting Chick Fil A's chicken, but at the end of the day, like, I don't even know if their chicken's that good. But the way in which they, they've branded all of their actions, right, they're very clear and intentional.
0:08:01 - (Scott Grant): I feel better when I leave the place whether or not I had a good chicken sandwich or not. So the important piece is, is if you want to be a financial investment firm or you want to be a whatever business, what do you truly want the experience on the other side of you to be and how are you ensuring that is coming through in a lot of different actions. So if someone interacts with you, what. How are you greeting them? How are you answering the phones? How are you following up all of those pieces stack to build a perception, a brand that people think of when they think of you.
0:08:34 - (B): Right?
0:08:34 - (Scott Grant): So if I say I want to be the most energetic teacher in the room, right? Like, I have to be ready. Like, I have to be energetic every single time, right. I have lollipops, we play games. Like, all of that's part of who I want to be. And from a business perspective, every single opportunity that we have for a touch point has to align with something specific about. This is what we value. This is who we are.
0:08:56 - (B): Right?
0:08:56 - (Scott Grant): And there. There are companies in town that I think of when we're having this conversation, right? Like AJ's Heavenly Pizza. They've done a great job of. Of branding. Now if you ask them, like, how are you branding yourself? They're really. They're living their values. They're branding themselves, right? They're living their core values. So I guess if. If people struggle with that concept, take away the brand name and just say, what are our core values? And how are we living those and continually doing that over and over and over, then you're building your brand.
0:09:23 - (Doug Jenkins): I'm suddenly hungry for either Chick Fil A or Seriously.
0:09:27 - (Scott Grant): Seriously.
0:09:28 - (Doug Jenkins): It sounds like it, and maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong here, but your brand is about more than selling things. And I think maybe that's where people get confused.
0:09:35 - (Scott Grant): Absolutely right. It's. It's a differentiation. It's a unique value proposition. So if somebody's going to come do business with me compared to somebody else, what are the expectations? What's the experience? How do. How do I ensure that when they walk away and somebody asks them, hey, what's it like on the other side of that business or that person? I know what that conversation is because I created it.
0:09:57 - (B): Right?
0:09:58 - (Scott Grant): I. I was intentional. I knew what I wanted those values to be, and I knew how I was going to treat or interact or follow up or do whatever I do on a daily bas, not just selling, but in all those other pieces that I know exactly that brand that I'm building in the minds and the perceptions of people and growing my business as part of that.
0:10:18 - (Doug Jenkins): So here's the best part of this is this is not even the reason why we brought you on the podcast to talk about it, but I just wanted to get. I started thinking about brands as we got going. Hey, let's pick Scott's brain about this. What we actually came to talk about a little bit is using LinkedIn. I know you use LinkedIn quite a bit. I certainly do. But as I look at our membership role, I don't see a lot of our members active on LinkedIn. They might have a profile for their business, they themselves may have a profile, but they don't seem to really be utilizing it. Scott, what are they missing?
0:10:49 - (Scott Grant): Yeah, I mean, LinkedIn at the end of the day is an unbelievable professional learning network in all avenues. Right. It's an opportunity for you to showcase your organization, your views, the values that you bring to the table, but also to engage with people all over the world. I mean, I have former students, I have, I have companies that I work with, people reaching out who I would have never found or never interacted with in any other platform. It's, it's a social media aspect, but it's focused on business engagement.
0:11:17 - (Scott Grant): Now the tough part is, is some people go on LinkedIn purely to sell.
0:11:21 - (B): Right.
0:11:21 - (Scott Grant): That's. And, and when I get those messages, it's like, I don't even know you.
0:11:25 - (B): Right.
0:11:25 - (Scott Grant): You've not built any sort of relationship or expectation or experience in general. You're just like, oh, let's sell this. I, I don't trust you yet.
0:11:33 - (B): Right.
0:11:33 - (Scott Grant): But it's an opportunity for like minded businesses and individuals to come together and really start to identify who are the leaders in these spaces and how are they adding value to everyone within this platform.
0:11:46 - (B): Right.
0:11:46 - (Scott Grant): Are you writing articles, are you posting content, Are you helping in the space that you are doing business? That's the one thing I think people miss with some of these social media platforms, especially LinkedIn. It's an opportunity to help. Now when you help, usually business grows in some manner because people trust you and they, they view you as experts because you're continuously helping and adding value.
0:12:10 - (Scott Grant): So I think that's a big miss.
0:12:13 - (Doug Jenkins): Yeah. For instance, let's say that I run a restaurant and I'm reading articles about employee recruitment and retention and certainly the service sector is hardest hit by, by things going on in that arena. But you know, I can post something like, you know, here's a little something we've offered our employees. It seems to have helped, that helps build your credibility in it. And then based on that down the line, maybe you get a job opportunity or maybe people want to come work for you based on what you're saying. Or maybe people just want to come to your restaurant based on the. They align with your ideals.
0:12:42 - (Scott Grant): Absolutely. And the one thing people don't understand too is so I Have tons of students that I work with, and they'll be like, hey, Dr. Grant, I'm thinking, I want to move to Houston. Right. So the first thing we do is we go on LinkedIn, we typed in Houston, and up pops anyone who's gone to the University of Findlay, anyone that has any sort of connectivity point. And then it's like backtracking, like, okay, here's someone, and you start having those conversations. And it's this master massive web network that really, you know, there would be no way for some business to even know this kid's interested in moving to Houston.
0:13:11 - (B): Right.
0:13:11 - (Scott Grant): But it's an opportunity for finding new things. They're doing the research, and when you're more active, you're more engaged, that visibility increases. So it gives you a whole nother pocket that's specifically built for business development of a lot of different areas that I don't think people spend time just wanting to engage within. And the value, I think, is incredible.
0:13:33 - (Doug Jenkins): Absolutely. So it's, again, not necessarily about selling what you're doing. It's about building yourself as an industry leader. It's about letting people know you're there and what you're. You're an expert in. And I guess a lot of what we're focusing on is how to sell without selling things today.
0:13:48 - (Scott Grant): Absolutely. And I, and I think most people will tell you, right.
0:13:51 - (B): Part of.
0:13:51 - (Scott Grant): Part of selling is. Is helping. Right. People trust. They want to do business with people that they trust. There's a reason why my dad bought cars at the exact same place all of his life.
0:14:00 - (B): Right.
0:14:00 - (Scott Grant): Even when he moved away, because he trusted those people.
0:14:03 - (B): Right.
0:14:03 - (Scott Grant): When I'm looking to purchase things or when I'm looking to engage, I'm going to go to my wife. We're going to go to places that we've engaged with, that we've had good experiences with or that our friends tell us that they've had good experiences with. Right. Some of that. And a lot of it is comments, engagement. If I'm looking for something, I'm going to go do my research and I'm going to. I'm going to trust those people that are continually pushing content that helps, not just, hey, look what I do.
0:14:29 - (Scott Grant): Go ahead and use my service. No. How are you helping people so that I trust that you're doing this for the right reasons.
0:14:35 - (Doug Jenkins): Do you have any tips for maybe getting started? I. I know that, yeah, I post weekly. I usually put our podcast, actually, because the idea behind this podcast is trying to help people with different issues that they're having in their business or anything like that. But I know sometimes I sit down to put the post together and I'm like, what do I even want to say about this?
0:14:52 - (Scott Grant): Yeah. No, I think at the end of the day, that's where I think some people, they, they get. I don't want to say stage fright's not the right word, but they, they think it has to be perfect.
0:15:00 - (B): Right?
0:15:01 - (Scott Grant): Part of branding and, and building perceptions and building your value is, is being authentic and, and that's okay, right? Like, it's. There's never a perfect post. There's never a perfect copyright. There's never. There's never perfect anything. It's just about allowing people to see who you are, what you're about, and the value that you're providing. So I think sometimes it's just, man, you just got to jump in and do it, right? You just. You just got to connect. You reach out and ask for it.
0:15:28 - (Scott Grant): Same thing back in our day, it used to be, hey, call a person, ask for five minutes on the phone, have a conversation. Right now it's like, hey, find people that are in your space, research them, follow their stuff, and then reach out and be like, hey, I've been following your content for the last couple months. I'm really intrigued. I'd love to talk for 10 minutes about this article that you wrote. That's a better lead in thank pretty much anything, right?
0:15:51 - (Doug Jenkins): Absolutely.
0:15:52 - (Scott Grant): And this is actually an example. I spoke at a school the other day, and I was working with a girl, and she started LinkedIn. She wanted to go to Georgetown. She wanted to go to this really specific program in public policy. And she was like, but I'm having a really hard time finding the professors and everything else. We went to LinkedIn, found six different professors, all of their research, they're writing articles. And I said, if you go on a visit, you sit across from them and you say, hey, I read your research about this. I said, it's going to be game over. Like, it's going to be game over because you are engaging in a different way than most people, and they're going to look at you and say, wow, like, you're figuring out a way to use this to add value to your life and really move it forward.
0:16:26 - (Scott Grant): That's a business element. Structure, focus, moving forward. And that's the best part about all this. I think people sometimes miss.
0:16:35 - (Doug Jenkins): Yeah, absolutely. It sounds a little bit like going through the sports recruiting process a little bit. When you reach out to a coach or something, it's like, hey, I Saw where your team made some improvements this year, would love to be a part of it, that type of thing. Just those little nuggets that help you connect better.
0:16:50 - (Scott Grant): Absolutely, Absolutely. I think the research and, And I think 90, 98% of HR directors look at social media profiles during the hiring process, right? So if you flip that to how often I'm going to look at people's reviews of. Of restaurants or reviews of financial services, or I'm gonna. I'm gonna go to. I was looking for a place to get my car work done, right? And I, I went on the reviews and I saw a review from somebody and who I trusted.
0:17:13 - (Scott Grant): That's how a lot of this works. Right. But part of it is you have to be active and engaged in those spaces where people can do that and they have good experiences and that's the name of this game. It's not they're out selling to me all the time. It's, yeah, I'm watching what they're doing and I'm watching how they're treating people.
0:17:31 - (Doug Jenkins): Conversely, if I'm a business, it's important to have that active profile for my business because as you've mentioned, the people are out there looking. And if you. And they're using this tool, if you're not listed there, if you're not actively putting things that you're working on or what your company ideals are or anything like that, in a world where pretty much all of the world is part of your. Your pool of candidates, you're really, really possibly missing out here 100%.
0:17:56 - (Scott Grant): So in. In, like you said, we, my family and I moved to Chapel Hill a couple years ago, right? We moved there. We had nothing. We. We knew nowhere to get our car, you know, fixed. We knew nothing. So all of our research was through social media, LinkedIn, online, web. So if you don't have engagement and you're not. You're not telling your own story and really showcasing what you're doing, it's hard for him to learn that. Findlay is a very unique town, right? We have a ton of people moving in, moving out all the time, and people are looking for ways to engage. It's amazing how many students I have that never even make it downtown until their senior year, right? Like, they're like, oh, I didn't even know downtown was that cool. And I'm like, oh, yeah, it's unbelievable, right? But they're getting their research and they're looking for those things in a different place than what a lot of us older individuals who have been around Are so it's.
0:18:45 - (Doug Jenkins): I think that sound you just heard is Alyssa Preston back at the CVB hitting her head on the, on her desk hearing what you, what you just said there. So I know they work to try and get the university students to come downtown, but I mean, that's, that's a good. You gotta, you gotta fish. Where the fish are is, I guess, the overall message.
0:19:01 - (Scott Grant): Absolutely. And I, and it's, it's hard because this, the phone has made it so much easier to do things, but at the end of the day, it's made it so much easier to access the value that companies provide as well.
0:19:13 - (B): Right?
0:19:13 - (Scott Grant): Like, I mean, it's instant, it's boom. But some people don't want to invest in, in, hey, let's, let's really start being active in what we do online and showcasing that value. And I've seen a lot of times they'll hire young people straight out of colleges, throw them, hey, go manage our LinkedIn. Well, that's not always the greatest idea either. If they've never used that.
0:19:33 - (B): Right.
0:19:33 - (Scott Grant): They know what your story. They don't know what your core values are. They don't know what you're all about. So it really is a strategic move. But it's so important because of all of these things that we've been talking about.
0:19:44 - (Doug Jenkins): It's got one last question for you because I think, you know, a lot of people like, all right, fine, I'll do LinkedIn now. But it's important to not make LinkedIn Facebook and use the two in different ways. Can you tell us a little bit about.
0:19:56 - (Scott Grant): Correct. Yeah, there could be, absolutely. I always tell people, you got to understand the platform, right. You got to understand a little bit about who's on there, who the targets are. And I always say purpose, right? What's the purpose for using it? What's your plan on how you going to use it? And what's the value in which you're going to showcase it? Right. I know that if I post something on Facebook, my dad, who lives in Florida is probably going to comment pretty quickly, right? Like, he, he's engaged. It's a family and friends thing. Like, it's, it's a, it's a network that I'm engaging with individual perspectives, I'm showcasing my family, those types of things on, on LinkedIn.
0:20:29 - (Scott Grant): It is a professional environment, right. It's like going to a networking event and, and you saying, hey, what do you do for a living? Or, you know, how do you do things different? And it's an opportunity for me to showcase the things that I love to do other than my family.
0:20:42 - (B): Right.
0:20:42 - (Scott Grant): Like nil education and branding and those types of pieces and creating content around these things that are important to me professionally. It's not. I'm not going to post on there. Oh, look at my twins. We had a great birthday party this weekend. That's. That's not what LinkedIn is. Right. It's business to business, it's professionals to professionals, but it's an opportunity for growth from a professional learning perspective. And I think if you come at it from that way, it'll help you so much better. Because you don't want to be the Facebook guy rolling on. On LinkedIn.
0:21:11 - (Scott Grant): Just. Just doing that.
0:21:13 - (Doug Jenkins): Yeah, Yeah, I see that. Every once in a while I'm like, wrong platform, wrong platform.
0:21:18 - (Scott Grant): And that's tough because it, you know, people do that across. They're like, oh, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. It's like those are all completely different. They have different needs, different purposes, different services, different targets. And that's a lot for people to understand because they're like, oh, I can't do one right. Like, how do you expect me to do all four of these? So it's hard.
0:21:37 - (Doug Jenkins): Scott, we'll have to have you back to talk more about branding and everything. If NIL ever passes for high school athletes in Ohio, I think we're definitely going to have a conversation because that could be interesting.
0:21:48 - (Scott Grant): I'm telling you, we're at 20 states right now in the U.S. and yeah, if you look at the Data trend, by 2024, it's going to be all of them. So just the way, just the way it's going. And there's a couple lawsuits right now if they pass. I don't think states can stop it. So there's a lot to it, man. So that'll be next episode.
0:22:05 - (Doug Jenkins): Absolutely. That'll be something for businesses to consider in terms of endorsements, I suppose. Scott, if people want to learn more about everything you're doing, what's the best way to do that?
0:22:13 - (Scott Grant): Yeah. So you. I have websites. It's www.triple threatleadership.com. you can email me at Scott triple threatleadership.com and if I can help in any way, I'm always here.
0:22:23 - (Doug Jenkins): Awesome. Scott, thanks for joining us today.
0:22:25 - (Scott Grant): Hey, thank you so much. Have a great rest of your day.
0:22:29 - (Doug Jenkins): Thanks again to Scott for joining us. Hopefully you're a little bit more informed about what your brand is or at the very least, what you need to do to establish that. Seriously, get to work on your LinkedIn pages. You're missing out on opportunities. If you're not doing that. One quick chamber note to run by you. While our digital billboard program is sold out through the end of the year, we are going to be signing up for the first round of 2023 billboards very soon.
0:22:53 - (Doug Jenkins): We've made some changes to help our members get even more exposure with the plan. So if that's something that your business could use in the coming year, let me know. I'll get you all the information and you can have a billboard out there on Tiffin Avenue to start the new year. Now let's get back into the show and we're joined on the podcast now by Andrea Kramer of Citi Apparel. Andrea recently was honored with the Women in Business Award at our Small Business Awards ceremony. Thanks for joining us, Ani.
0:23:20 - (D): Thank you. Doug. Good to see you as always.
0:23:23 - (Doug Jenkins): Absolutely. So we'll start with the Small Business Award. And I preface this every time we talk to someone about the award, I know they're going to say they don't do it for the award. And certainly that's why I think people win awards is they just do good work and and then it shines through. But what did it mean to you to win the award?
0:23:40 - (D): Honestly, I was completely surprised. I think I may have had an idea that I was on a list to be potentially a recipient of one of the awards, but I wasn't really paying attention. But I was really excited and focused on that day. And the awards was specifically the Do Good Award, which I don't know if you know the history behind that, but it took me about three years to get that award on the calendar with the Chamber Small Business Awards. So I know this is only our second year, but I was very excited just about that. And so truly I was just surprised and very grateful.
0:24:18 - (Doug Jenkins): And we actually had the winner of the Do Good Award, which is sponsored by City Apparel. Josh Elker was on a couple of weeks ago on the podcast, too, so we get to talk to him. We, of course, appreciate you participating that tell me what it's like to and I always feel weird asking this question. I don't know if it comes off as patronizing or not as a guy, but what is it like to come up as a woman in business in Finland?
0:24:43 - (D): Well, I've had many people ahead of me. That's kind of made the path easy. One of the women that I had looked up to in business was Beth Heck. I don't know if you're familiar with Beth Heck. She owned Kennedy Printing. She was also a lifelong neighbor growing up, so I got to watch her get fancy every day and come home. And I was friends with her daughter, so she was always an inspiration. And then when I started my career in the community, I started attending chamber events and I think I was on an advisory board, and Beth Heck was on that board as well.
0:25:19 - (D): And so she kind of laid. Gave me the lay. The lay of the land on where I need to be spending my time and was a great inspiration. So I don't. I don't want to say that there haven't been hiccups being a woman in business, but certainly I don't want to. To create a picture of that. It's been difficult, impossible, and we should all quit tomorrow.
0:25:40 - (Doug Jenkins): Certainly hurdles along the way, but I mean, from what you're saying, and I think this rings true for a lot of people in Findlay in all sorts of walks of life. There are a lot of good role models for us here that you can kind of template your journey after if. If you're looking in the right places anyway.
0:25:56 - (D): Right, Absolutely. And I've had many, like many of others along this path. Right. So, I mean, it can start from coaches to teachers to parents, grandparents. I think many people have touched my life in a positive way, and I hope to project and instill that in the people I encounter in my daily business as well.
0:26:17 - (Doug Jenkins): So talking about City Apparel, it's been a fairly eventful year for you here in 2022. A few things going on, including a move to downtown.
0:26:24 - (D): Yes, very exciting.
0:26:27 - (Doug Jenkins): What was that process like when you decided to. When the dry cleaning went away and you decided to move the apparel business downtown? That's. I can't imagine was an easy decision.
0:26:38 - (D): Yeah, no, I mean, truly. So I. I bought the business, City Apparel from my family in 2017. And we decided the best path for me was to forge my own path. I moved out, did some rebranding, ended up kind of in a cul de sac behind them in the industrial park by Coal Distribution, but immediately had been trying to identify a commercial property to move my business. So I. I had been at on Bentley Court for about four years, had looked at many properties, but nothing seemed to be the right fit for our organization.
0:27:12 - (D): And my dad called me in early 2021 and said, you know, I've got some good news and bad news. Don't know how you want to take it. We had had the conversations that if they decided to ever park pass with a dry cleaning business, that I would be interested. That was a business that I grew up in. I worked the counter when I was in seventh, eighth and ninth grade and even through. Through college, you know, did some odd jobs here and there. So he said that, you know, the pandemic basically was a nail in the coffin for that industry.
0:27:42 - (D): People obviously weren't going out dressing up. Lots of different factors.
0:27:46 - (Doug Jenkins): Yeah.
0:27:46 - (D): And the much larger of the businesses, of the family businesses, is city uniforms in linen. And they said, we really just think we should focus our time and energy on that business. And so fortunately, all the employees that were currently employed here in downtown Findlay kept their jobs and just moved locations under city uniforms and linens roof. So that was a positive that, although it was sad, this is the original location that my grandfather started the business in 1944.
0:28:17 - (D): You know, retail and home laundry. Although this is not the same building, it is the same parcel. So there's a lot of history here. And so I was very excited and honored that, you know, my family wanted to give me the opportunity to buy the building that already had my last name on it. Made that an easy transition. And so in a positive way, in their eyes, they gave me a great deal. And I think that they did.
0:28:43 - (D): But I certainly purchased the business, had to get financing with a great bank here in downtown Findlay as well, State bank, but knew that I had to do a lot to the building to kind of get it acclimated for our business. So that started in September of 2021, where I closed on. On the. On the property. And we hired a great partner to come in and do some dem remodeling. And luckily you've been able to watch across the street all the transitions that have happened. I mean, a bulk of the work was done, I would say earlier 2022, but I was finally able to get our painter out this fall to finish the rooftop painting. So we've got the symmetry of all charcoal gray throughout the outside of the property. So it's been an exciting time for sure.
0:29:29 - (Doug Jenkins): It looks good and it has been fun to watch. I love watching the just continued evolution of downtown Findlay. I mean, certainly you've been in fin your whole life. And I went to college here back in the late 90s, early 2000s. And I just. Anytime we have friends coming back in who, you know, left or they come back to visit, they just can't believe all of the different restaurants, offices, retail space, everything that's there that just wasn't 27 years ago. And I, yes, hard to say.
0:30:01 - (D): It's totally fantastic. I mean, look, as an employer, you know, I was Excited about bringing our organization in a downtown community where there are all those restaurants and, you know, outside sources of fun, outside of our walls for our associates. You know, previously most of my career I was working out of a very nice office, but out of an industrial park. So it wasn't, you know, often that we would walk down the street and be able to grab some lunch real quick. So just the location itself and all of our neighbors are just fantastic.
0:30:33 - (D): Super excited to be down here.
0:30:35 - (Doug Jenkins): Well, not only, you know, being a part of it, but being an active part of the downtown community. With the food trucks on Thursdays. I know that. I appreciate it because it's really easy to walk across and get a burger or a euro every now and then. But adding your own stamp to everything that's already happening here, it seems to be. It was a priority for you.
0:30:54 - (D): Yes, absolutely. I mean, we. Again, it was another opportunity to thank our employees every Thursday through the warmer months with some good food, but also kind of joining hands with the community members, letting them know that it was open to anyone. But specifically kind of going back to the do Good philosophy. We were taking donations that was going to the Halt Hunger initiative through the United Way.
0:31:19 - (D): We were also doing our own contributions. And then each of the food trucks were also had the ability to do a percentage, I think they did 10% back of the sales from each event. So it really was a do good, eat good all around fun time every Thursday.
0:31:36 - (Doug Jenkins): I, I hope those come back next year because I. If we certainly enjoyed it. Let's talk a little bit about what city apparel does. Obviously apparel, that would be clothing and things like that, but you guys have all sorts of promotional items and things like that. How has that industry changed since you got started?
0:31:52 - (D): Well, I mean, I started when I started in the family business. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I went back to school, got my mba. Still was not clear on what my path was. By that time I was married and I had a little girl at home. So I started working part time in the family business, which at the time was primarily the retail dry cleaning and laundry, but then also city uniforms and linen. And I started doing, you know, from HR to safety to building a website, marketing, branding, you know, whatever I, I could get my hands on.
0:32:23 - (D): But a few years in, you know, my dad's like, why don't you go out and sell what we're currently service, which was at the time apparel and uniforms. Right? I mean, you bring your suits in or you're renting your uniforms from Us and so I would knock on any door that literally just had one car in the parking lot. I figured they had one employee and they needed some hats, jackets and. And swag for their organization.
0:32:47 - (D): And I quickly learned as our clientele grew and the larger of those clientele really we're looking for a single source vendor to supply them with all of their Logan merchandise need, whether that was a uniform that they're outfitting their team member in to employee gifts, to the pens and mugs, the marketing materials that they were offering. And so that's how we got into the promotional products business.
0:33:11 - (D): But I would say we really forged our path when we identified solutions to that. Right. So just to give you a little history on my industry, there are, there are 22, 000 distributors in the United States that are similar to us by similar. They offer promotional products and logo apparel. Right. But only about 700 of those 22,000 do a little over a million in revenue. So there are a lot of small players and we had to identify how we could differentiate ourselves to our customer base. So the solution that we provide are managed programs, meaning we build a custom online site.
0:33:52 - (D): Our customer, let's say P and G, they have a thousand employees, they want to give them a budget of $250 a year to buy, whether it be Logan merchandise or their uniforms for their everyday work workday. We developed a Technology in probably 2006 that was really, it was really the first to our industry that had a managed program. So an employee would log in and see the items that they were allowed to purchase with those points and be able to choose their.
0:34:21 - (D): So it was a really, yeah, early adapter of like E Commerce, but really tied specific to that organization's needs. So. And that's really where a lot of our wheelhouse is today. I mean, so you see our facility, we're doing lots of decoration in house, but what's happening in our walls are actually those program orders that are coming in, coming in every week. So we've got 100 Plus E commerce stores that are specific and managed allowances for employee programs.
0:34:53 - (D): And those items are being ordered in every week, decorated, packaged by employee, by location department, and off they go.
0:35:00 - (Doug Jenkins): Very good. So, Andrea, before we wrap things up, just tying it back to the small business awards and everything going on with that, what would your advice be to people getting into business in Findlay, the young entrepreneur in Findlay right now, or maybe not even young entrepreneur, someone who's retired and starting their second business or something like that. What. What do they need to know about doing business here in Findlay that maybe it's different elsewhere.
0:35:25 - (D): Well, I don't know about different, but I will say just had this conversation literally today with an intern that's a senior at Findlay High School or actually sorry, Van Buren. She spent today with us for her career day and so we, you know, I asked her what does success look like for her in our business today and we ultimately decided just to give her a smathering of all different areas of our business.
0:35:48 - (D): And I shared with her she would like to be, she wants to be an entrepreneur and I'm certain that she will. But I think the key is, is to go out and get some experience and see how other organizations run what they do well, what they don't do well, where there are gaps and really just gaining experience and surrounding yourself with like minded people and being, being open to learn every day and, and then share your success with those around you as well. So Findlay is a great community to, to start a business, own a business.
0:36:20 - (D): I think it's very business friendly and I think that there's lots of great networks that are happy to share their knowledge and lead us all to great success. So I don't know if that's Findlay specific, but I do think that that Findlay has a lot of specialties around that.
0:36:35 - (Doug Jenkins): I think it's a lot of good advice right there. If people want to touch base with you or learn more about City Apparel or anything like that, what's the best way to get in with you?
0:36:44 - (D): Easiest way is obviously our website which is city apparel.netflix we we can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, all the social media sites. We're pretty active when we got some good things going on. So that's probably the easiest way to get a hold of us.
0:37:01 - (Doug Jenkins): Very good. Thank you again for joining us today and again congratulations on the small business award.
0:37:06 - (D): Thank you so much.
0:37:11 - (Doug Jenkins): Thanks again to Ani for joining us again. Good to see her get recognized at last month's small Business Awards. And you should definitely check out the food trucks at City Apparel next summer. That was a lot of fun. So you can interact with them that way as well. That's gonna do it for this week's episode. I hope you learned a little something about the local business community and hopefully a little something about how to help your business run better. If you have any ideas on topics that we should cover, just, just send me an email. Djenkinsindlayhancockchamber.com
0:37:38 - (Doug Jenkins): Remember, if you're listening on a website, you can have every episode of Chamber Amplified delivered straight to your phone makes it a little bit easier. Just search for Chamber Amplified in your favorite podcast player. And if you don't have a favorite podcast player, ask me. I can suggest a couple. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time on Chamber Amplified. From the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce.