Good Neighbor Podcast: Frisco

EP 362: What If Your Logo Could Carry Your Journey

• Sophia Yvette

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What makes Alexander Machado with Custom Vibes a good neighbor?

 Alexander believes a sticker can carry more than a logo—it can carry a story. At Custom Vibes, he transforms simple designs into meaningful pieces that express a brand’s identity, a creator’s personality, or a small business’s journey. From first sketch to final peel, he shows how design, material choice, and message blend together to create a sticker people actually want to place where others will see it.

Alexander shares how Custom Vibes began with creative ideas that wouldn’t stay bottled up, leading him to take a leap into solo entrepreneurship. He opens up about the real behind-the-scenes work: mastering design tools, growing a marketing engine across Instagram, Facebook, and Nextdoor, and balancing digital reach with old-school community connection. We talk about why younger customers often drive the personalization trend, how their influence spreads to older audiences, and how a single custom order can evolve into an ongoing relationship. He also breaks down the practical side of the craft—die-cut vs. kiss-cut, matte vs. gloss, UV protection, adhesive strength—and why those tiny decisions determine whether a sticker becomes a keepsake or ends up forgotten.

What stands out most is Alexander’s belief that stickers are physical stories. Each one reflects hours of work, bold ideas, and a personal point of view—traveling through the world on laptops, water bottles, and storefronts as mini billboards for the people and brands behind them. If you’re a business, creator, or startup looking for high-impact, low-cost marketing, this conversation gives you clear tactics: start with small test runs, pair designs with simple CTAs, and let your community become your distribution network.

Custom Vibes isn’t just about stickers — it’s about capturing a small story in each design. Every piece may be just a bit of paper, but it’s created to carry meaning, personality, and a moment you can place somewhere special.

To learn more about Custom Vibes go to: www.instagram.com/customvibes.shop

Custom Vibes
+1 (214) 256-6134
 

SPEAKER_01:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Sophia Yvel.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a custom logo stickers company? Well, one might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Alexander Machados, with Custom Vibes. Alexander, how are you today?

SPEAKER_00:

Pretty good, pretty good. Kind of sick, but it's still good to go.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Awesome. Well, we're excited to learn all about you and your business today. Can you start off by telling us just a little bit about your company?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I make custom seekers for small business, personal ears, or special bands. My goal is to bring those areas that you have in mind to something that you can actually touch and feel, and that help express their style and help business to stand out.

SPEAKER_02:

Amazing. Now, how did you originally get into this business?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I've been employed for years and I consider myself a very creative person. So, you know, like always have ideas. I always like to propose to my to my bows, to my managers. But I think because egocentrism, they don't want to hear like those ideas of people that are just coming in. So I said, you know what? I think it's a good time to use all those ideas for myself, and here I am.

SPEAKER_02:

And the idea for the custom stickers, how in the world did you come up with that being your business?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, the same thing. I'm a creative person too, and I love marketing. So I said, like, how can I combine these two together? And well, I think it's a good idea to make stickers, you know? Because so I'm make the name of the company was kind of hard. So I'm trying to be general and add my touch on that. So uh I decided to go for custom vibes. And you know, I really love this. I like to make the designs, make a unique touch to combine the ideas from other people with mine and make one unique result. That's the thing that I lack.

SPEAKER_02:

Now, Alexander, what is the most common myth or misconception in your industry?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think like every other business, um, being stressed most of the time, I think it can be a myth, at least for me, in my opinion. Like um, it can be stressful because you don't know like how to do most of the things by yourself. So I think you have to be independent, be the in my case, I'm the designer, I'm the customer service, I'm the sales representative, I'm the marketing guy. So um it was hard, of course, because behind all this, um, behind the scenes, I have to take like all the courses, invest in myself, invest in my own education. Um because if you don't know like uh all the stuff and you just wanna swim in the ocean without know how to swim, what happens that you wanna die. So I have to invest those hours um for myself. It was stressful. Uh I have to sacrifice time with my friends, family, but it's worth it at the end. You get disciplined and so you get independent and you have an open mindset that you can work and achieve better goals.

SPEAKER_02:

So, to sum things up, the misconception is that it's easy to have a business.

SPEAKER_00:

If you do know how to deal with all that all the stuff around you and change bad habits for good habits that are really, really hard, really, really hard, especially if you're a younger, a younger person, I think it's worth it at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02:

Now we know marketing is the heart of every business. Who are your target customers or audience? And in terms of marketing, you said you love marketing. How do you attract them today?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think I would like to focus on the on the young people, uh, because I think uh the younger ones like to express themselves in a very, very special way. So they always like to do personification, and I'm included on that. Um, I always like to add my touch. I think for the older people, I'm not talking for everyone, of course, but most of them I consider that are more conservative. Of course, not all of them have been working with other customers that they really want to add their touch. And sometimes uh when they see like those young people aren't their own touch, they're they say, like, you know what? That doesn't look that bad. I would like to to try it too. So at the end of the day, it's basically all the people is welcome here. If if you add your own touch, something that you like to something that you can actually feel and touch. So why you don't want to like it? It's it's your idea, it's something that you want. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, and um, what social media platforms are you currently marketing on?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh right now I have uh Facebook, I have Instagram, and I'm trying to be local first. So I was also next door to. And sometimes I I'm old school too, so I'm working around and check some businesses, small businesses, and I say, you know what? I think you're gonna love this. Let me let me talk to you about this. If you have one minute, you wanna love this. So yeah, sometimes old school with new school, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Now, have you ever thought about having your own branded podcast before?

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, no, no, no. I I never thought about that. So it's it's really really fun to say right here. I never imagined being a podcast talking about something that I just made. Uh, it's just incredible, you know. Like you never expect things, you that things come to you just because the things that you do.

SPEAKER_02:

Amen to that. Now, please tell the listeners one thing they should remember about custom vibes.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, well, if you check custom vibes like in a very superficial way, um they're just stickers, right? But if you want to check it deeply, it's not just stickers. It all those checkers have a story behind like every small business, um they have to work hours uh just like me to have ideas and all that. And all that hard work behind scenes is just represented in one logo, in one thing, in one seeker. So yeah, you wanna you are superficial, they're just seekers. You wanna check deeply, there's a story behind every seeker. Every person has a story, and I would like to represent that your story with one sticker. Um I make stories in a physical, uh in a physical paper that you can peel and place it in a special location for you. So I think um I'm not I'm not giving you stickers, I'm giving you stories in a physical way that you can touch and feel.

SPEAKER_02:

So, Alexander, what our listeners really want to know today is where can they go to learn more about custom vibes?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you can check my Instagram there. I I post really, really cool pictures um every week. Uh, do collaborations with the brands I've been working on, and you can text me there or in my personal account in Alecito Machado or even in my uh business account, uh CustomVibes Lab Shop.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, Alexander, I really appreciate you being on the show today, and we wish you and your business the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01:

Really appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gmpfrisco.com. That's gmpfrisco.com or call 469-221-9345.