As a small business owner, have you ever felt that there's only a
limited number of options available for you to promote your business?
A lot of times we rely on what's online and what we can do there.
But when you think outside of your computer and you think of
the real world, there is a ton of different options available to us.
And one of them is custom brand and merchandise.
And if you've ever been concerned about how to get started or worried that custom
brand and merchandise felt too out of reach or too expensive, today's guest
is here to flip that script because Amanda Hofman, the co founder and CEO
of GoToMarket is proving that custom high quality branded products can be
significant game changer for growing your business, no matter your size.
In today's episode, Amanda walks us through concrete strategies and how
to use merchandise to improve your visibility, drive sales, and take
your business to the next level.
It's an opportunity that's often overlooked and has the potential
to change everything for you.
So get ready to rethink what's possible in this episode.
Thank you for joining us today.
We're all about passionately driven entrepreneurs, guiding you to success in
business and in life, because it's never too late to make your business and career
work for you and not the other way around.
Learn more at KendraLosee.
com.
Welcome, Amanda.
Thanks for being here today.
Thanks so much.
I'm really excited to talk to you.
I know I've been following your Instagram account and some of the
stuff that you're doing online for a while and it's fantastic.
So you're welcome.
Can you share with those people who's are fabulous and tuning in a little
bit about yourself and what you do?
Yes.
My name is Amanda Hofman.
I live in New York city and my company GoToMarket, is really focused on changing
the way that businesses approach branded merchandise on a large scale, right?
Like we're trying to teach companies how to be more sustainable, more
interesting, and how to use merchandise as a tool to actually grow their
business instead of just like junk that you're handing out or an annoying, you
know, Task on your to do list, right?
Like it should be a part of your marketing engine and it's a
really fun part of the business.
And so we're teaching people how to embrace that and get excited
about their brand of merchandise because they're doing it in this
like sustainable, non stressful way.
I love so many things about this.
And as someone who started my career as the marketing specialist and doing
booths and trying to be responsible for the brand, for buying merchandise
for trade shows and that kind of thing.
I, it was, I can't tell you how many books I've poured through, how many websites
I've poured through trying to figure out like what's going to be meaningful
and actually tie into what we're doing and still be something that people are
going to want to wear, keep around, like.
I call it like coming from a beach, like Northern California, like hippie
town, like waste drives me nuts.
So seeing all the waste at trade shows drives and like just
merchandise in general, I think it makes a lot of people upset.
And I think that one thing that companies miss is that when you're
giving someone a gift, if they don't want it, it is not a gift.
It's garbage and it's a burden.
So it's just the kind of thing that's, it's a wildly.
Large missed opportunity because not only are you creating a
negative experience, right?
Obviously, it's a positive experience when somebody first gets something
because everyone loves to get a little gift But then they realize
like oh this keychain is garbage.
I don't actually want this.
And then it's like, well, then you have the waste question.
It's like, okay, well now I have the choice of like throwing
this out or donating it or finding a way to repurpose it.
And then people have the decision fatigue and they end up just like shoving it in a
drawer, which is really bad for everyone.
So we encourage companies.
And just going back to another thing you said about trade
shows, how it's stressful.
One of the things that companies get wrong is that they're thinking
about getting like the latest tech thing or trying there.
They think that the magic of branded merchandise is actually
in like the gadgetiness of the item that they're getting.
And that's actually not it at all.
We advise companies to design trendy, cool on, on trend, fashionable, exciting
items that people actually want to wear.
So it is still a t shirt or a sweatshirt or a hat or a tote bag.
There's no like, chip in it.
It's not like, it's not doing anything magical, but it's like
meaningful because it represents the company and it looks cool.
Which is magical in itself.
Right.
When you can get it right.
There's so many times where like the polos with the logo, you're like, cool.
There are some people who want the polos with the logo though.
And that's why we're such big advocates of choice.
Right, like we like to say, let people choose the merchandise that they want.
And there are people, so one of our clients is a bookkeeping
and accounting firm, and they're really like edgy and cool.
We have these, this shirt for them that says Finance Rebel, and it's
really cool, but there's a big part of their team who are these like middle
aged white guys and they want the.
with the embroidered logo on it.
And like, we can offer that to them, but not everybody has to wear that.
Some people can have the finance rebel, lightning bolt, David Bowie type t shirt.
And so there's something for everyone.
And people can order in the size, shape, style, color that they
want in a way that The company doesn't have to have any inventory.
And that's really important too.
So there's, I have so many questions for you because as a small business
owner, it's, you usually think of merchandise, you're like, Oh my gosh,
it's going to be really expensive.
I want to give something out to my clients, but I
don't necessarily know what.
There's a lot of things or something to my team.
If I, if people have a small team, like.
And even like, I would love to have something cool to be able
to send out to my podcast guests.
Like, how do you work with people?
Who are in that situation?
Like I said, it's really different from what traditional
branded merchandise is, right?
So like a traditional company is going to funnel you into bulk purchasing.
And what that means is that there's order minimums.
You have to know your sizes in advance.
You commit to a style with like limited colors and you're like, okay, I'm going
to do this like yellow and blue t shirt this many and small, this many and medium,
this many and large and ship it to me.
I'm going to have it here and then I'm going to distribute it.
And that model is.
Very like time consuming, expensive, annoying, and inefficient.
So what we do, and wasteful, yes.
So what we do is we design custom print on demand shops for businesses.
So if your podcast.
For example, where to have branded merch, we would create a beautiful
digital storefront f for, for you that had, that highlighted the
values of invisible to invincible.
So it's not just gonna say invisible to invincible, it's gonna really make, it's,
it's like gonna feel like what people feel like when they're listening to the show or
relating to you or like working with you.
People who are drawn to you are drawn to you for a reason.
And we are figuring out what that reason is and designing it for beautiful
branded merchandise, and then setting up a custom print on demand shop so that
you can have merchandise for everyone who listens to you, no matter where
they are in an inventory free way.
That's amazing.
That is absolutely amazing.
What an amazing service.
Once again, as someone who has spent hours, I would say days or
weeks of my life trying to figure out like what the perfect thing is.
And it's all, and it's very, and this might just be my age talking, but like
I always think merchandise and giveaway stuff, I always think like trade shows,
but it doesn't have to be limited now that we don't have to have inventory on hand.
It doesn't have to be limited to trade shows.
It can be, it opens it up for.
cool t shirts just to be able to wear like yours, like you're wearing now.
So it goes way beyond trade shows, right?
So trade shows are a few people think of them for branded merchandise because you
want to have something to give people.
But I would say don't, if you don't have anything nice to
say, don't say anything at all.
If you only have junk, don't give away junk.
Better to give away nothing than to give away junk to somebody.
But we like to advise.
That companies use brand and merchandise as a gifting platform as a loyalty
reward as an incentive for purchase for community building as thank you gifts.
Like there's a million ways to and also to highlight your values in
social media to help you stand out and to add legitimacy to your business
and excitement and fresh content.
Like there's so many ways that you can use merchandise to
actually grow your business.
It's not just the pens that you're giving out to people, right?
In fact, we tell people not to print pens.
Like pens are not relationship builders.
Unless you're a stationary company or there's some like really
compelling reason to do it.
Right.
Yeah, no, that makes sense.
I have a friend who they went to, Oh gosh, the big tech.
I momentarily forgot the name, the big tech conference in Vegas every year.
And they had led backpacks that had messages on the back.
And she's like, I've never had been stopped so many times with like that
creative idea of for her business.
And like, then she had the cool t shirts and things to go with it.
And it's just so fascinating how creative you can become When you stop thinking of
like, okay, it's gotta be a polo shirt.
It's gotta be this, it's gotta be a pen and all the traditional ways that
we're used to seeing merchandise.
Well, companies really run into a problem because.
They're thinking in terms of giving something to everyone, right?
I would say, and then the budget gets really small, which is
why people end up making junk.
They're like, okay, well we actually only have $5 per person.
And it's like, well, what can we, I get this all the time.
What can we do with $5 per person?
It's like, do nothing.
Invest in something.
I would say instead, take your budget, give fewer.
thing, give high quality things to fewer people, right?
So like just give it to your team or give it to your top, the people who
spend the most amount of money with you, the people who spend the most
amount of time for you, people who are referring the most number of people,
give them a gorgeous hoodie, right?
Let them buy into your business and think about branded merchandise
as an investment in advertising.
So like if you have a local business, There is no reason that you should
not be designing something beautiful that people actually want to wear
and will wear around your town.
Because how much would you pay someone to wear your brand around town?
That's a walking billboard.
Such a good way to look at this.
And Amanda, how did you get into this area?
So this is my second company.
My first business was an events company for women in New York city, which
was really fun and crazy and wild.
And then I had kids and I was like, I don't, this is not,
this is not for me anymore.
So I sold that business.
I was home with my kids for a little while.
And then when I was ready to start another company, I was, Looking into
lots of different opportunities.
And obviously this is the very cleaned up tidy version.
This was much messier than it sounds, but I came across print on demand
technology, which is what I've been talking to you about, which means items
print one at a time as they're ordered.
So you don't have any inventory and you don't have the burden of distribution.
And I was like, coming from the entrepreneurial world, I knew how
many businesses needed this, how many businesses wanted branded merchandise
myself included, but like we're deterred by these minimum order sizes and all
of this headache and just the sheer overwhelm of like, what do you mean?
There are 80 types of t shirt, right?
Like I just, I can't like I have had the same trouble when I was planning
my wedding a million years ago.
I'm like, I don't know.
They're all napkins.
Like just, I cannot bother with like the colors here.
Now I was thinking about napkins.
I lost my train of thought.
How you started Print on Demand?
Actually helping to find choice.
I learned about print on demand.
I'm like, everyone needs to know about this and how to do it.
So we positioned ourselves.
I approached my, my business partner was my designer on my first company.
So we've been working together for a long time.
We knew each other pretty well.
I approached her with this idea and she was on board.
So.
Together we've been running this business for four and a half years almost.
That's amazing.
And I think that when you start to look at what you can do and the impact
that it can make, because a lot of people in my mind get so used to,
especially since the pandemic, right?
Like are so used to working with people online and meeting people online
that we forget the power of local.
And like you said, a walking billboard.
Well, not only that, when you're talking about remote, the, that
people being digital now, it's like some teams are fully remote.
And to have branded merchandise as like a tangible item to bring you
together is actually quite powerful.
So like everyone shows up to the team, to a team meeting and they're
wearing their company merch.
It's like nothing replaces being in person.
But given that we're not like a lot of companies are not doing that anymore or
doing it as often, branded merchandise is a thing that you hold in your hands
that connects you to your company.
I have been, we're using, we're streaming on e cam now and I just spoke
at one of their events last week and it's like for a streaming software
company, they're excellent at this.
I've got a mug that they sent for free and they offered us t shirts
and I frequently end up wearing my e cam t shirts because they're cool,
they're comfortable, they're fun and it's very much like, hey, I'm hanging
out in my key, my t shirt right now.
It does, there is an element of that loyalty that I think a lot of.
Business owners and entrepreneurs, it seems, I don't even know why,
like it's such an overlooked thing.
Because I think that people have this impression, rightly, that branded
merchandise is expensive, bulky, annoying, time consuming, and wasteful.
Yeah.
Which, when you order in bulk, a lot of the times, it is.
That's why we add, that's why we're trying to change things so dramatically.
We're creating this longterm, easy, sustainable solution for businesses.
And I think that the most important piece of what we do is that we're
not putting a logo on things.
I mean, your logo is on things, but it's not about your logo.
It's about the values of your business.
This is about the special part of your business.
It's that thing that draws your clients and your customers to you made it.
like manifest in gorgeous branded merchandise.
And I think that's, what's missing.
So like the e cam shirts that you wear, I'm sure it's not just
their logo on a shirt or a hat.
No.
And it's very much like the e cam fam and here's what it is.
And like, it's a very cool kind of edgy streaming type focus, but you know, I want
to go back to you for a second because you said this is your second business.
And.
When I see you on Instagram, like it's very much you highlighting
what's possible and what's there.
How did you Like did you always highlight yourself on as part of your business?
Is that something that you had to work towards like talk a little bit about how
you've incorporated yourself into it?
Yeah.
So my first business was pre social media and not to date myself too
much, but that, that was, we were in business from 2009 until 2014.
So like Instagram had really like just started.
Yeah.
So it really, I wasn't under pressure to like make reels, feature myself that way.
However, I, The events company very much grew from my own network and I actually
started very much front and center and eventually needed to extract myself from
it so that the business could grow because it wasn't just like friends of Amanda
and then friends of Amanda eventually it was like 10 degrees away from me
growing and like people who didn't know my name and that to me was success.
Could that work today?
Like, not as well.
Right.
I think that like the landscape has completely changed with.
Reels and TikTok and all of that, like people, I feel like if they
don't see that, they're like, well, wait, what's wrong with you?
Why wouldn't I?
Why would I connect to you if I can't like see you and meet you?
There's almost something suspicious about it.
If you're asking me if it's comfortable for me, like I
person, personality wise, yes.
And it's part of the reason that my business partner and I work
so well together is that we have completely opposite interests.
Like you'll never see her on the Instagram feed.
She's very much as much, she is as much a part of the company as I am, but
she is not She's an introvert, right?
Like she does not want to be, I mean, she'd rather I can't, I can
make you a list of a thousand things she'd rather do before she left.
And which is why it's nice that I can do that.
And of course there are things the other way around that she does
that I would never ever want to do or don't have the skills to do.
So I think that's a luxury that I have in Running a business with a partner.
That's absolutely true.
That is absolutely true.
I talked to so many people and so many people who tune in who don't
love to promote themselves, who don't love to get out in front of things.
But I also think that wearing brand and merchandise and having brand and
merchandise is an easy way to get started.
Right.
Absolutely.
It just communicates your values immediately.
It just, especially when you're in a crowded field.
So like if you're a coach, if you're a consultant, if you're a
fractional worker, if you're a VA, like any kind of business accountant,
bookkeepers, any kind of business that you're in, you want to stand out.
And a lot of that comes from like your content and how you show up.
But in a moment, in, in the blink of an eye, you want to
communicate as much as you can.
And like, so for example, I'm wearing my merch mentor.
t shirt.
Like I think this t shirt says a lot, even if you just see a
thumbnail of this podcast, it's like, you know what I'm about.
It's like, without really just with these two words and the way that this
is designed, you have an idea of.
Who I am and what I'm selling.
So I think that everybody could have that and it would be like a huge
leg up in the social media world.
Absolutely.
And my dog's growling over here.
I don't know if you can hear him, but he's like, I don't care.
I'm in here so I don't hear any background noise.
It's just all in the background to me.
Perfect.
Cause he's agreeing.
He's growling in agreement over here.
He's like, Amanda's right.
Yeah.
It's so interesting to me because it also like, I think the other
thing that I see that I get a little envious about is The people who show
up a lot in content and their merch becomes almost their uniform, right?
Like you're used to seeing it.
They don't have to worry about all their other clothes.
Pardon?
You're speaking my language.
I wear this shirt all the time.
It's this one or like my peace love merch or my, I just keep a bag of
these clothes right next to my desk.
I never show up to a call or a podcast without wearing one of
these things because it's my brand.
It's who I am.
I'm trying to connect in people's minds.
Amanda merch.
So anytime somebody thinks about merch, they think Amanda.
And it's actually worked.
I get quite a number of referrals from people who are just like,
Oh, this thing popped up.
And I thought of you and I'm like, yeah, it's cause I'm putting
it in your face constantly.
It's like, there it is.
Like it's effective.
And it's so smart, and it's one of those things where, if, for those of you tune,
tune, la la, for those of you tuning in, I hope you're paying attention to this
because it is something that it's as subtle as like having it on your back wall
when you see the neon signs or the signs that people have about their brand behind
you, when behind them, it's the same, but it's actually, I think, more effective.
Because it goes with you too, right?
Like you said, it's like a billboard whenever you go places
and it's a conversation starter.
Absolutely.
I could not agree more.
And it takes the pressure off of like, what am I going to
wear to this networking event?
You know what?
I wear these t shirts and sweatshirts to every event that I go to.
And it's smart.
You should.
And they're cute.
They're cute.
They're super cute.
So as we're looking as someone who might be thinking about how to stand
out what they can do What advice do you have for someone who might
be a solopreneur who might be like, that's not really in my budget.
Should it be like, what advice do you have for someone who is new to the merch
world and might be wanting to get their own networking, podcasting, video uniform?
Yeah.
So the, easiest thing that you can do.
Well, okay, I'll start at the top.
Everyone should hire us obviously to make a beautiful brand of
merchandise page for them.
Short of that, if you're going to do your own merchandise, the first thing I would
say is think about your brand values.
Right?
Don't just print your logo on a shirt.
That is not interesting.
It's not enough.
It's almost like printing the junkie pen.
It's like, it's good, but it's not really doing what you want it to do.
It's not relationship building.
It's not moving the needle forward.
So, I would brainstorm about like a two or three word phrase or a
few of them that encapsulates who you are and what you're about.
You can look at your Instagram feed and see what kind of text posts you've made in
the past that have your own language and you can pull from there and then you can
design one or two things on your own or.
Think about an easier way to do that if you know a designer, and then you could
just print like one or two things to wear.
If you just want to get started like print one thing like you can do it.
Go to a print on demand website like printful or printify upload your design
print one shirt, wear that one shirt.
That's like your, your, Step one, if you just want to get started, it's going
to cost you a bit of time, a little bit of trial and error and around 25.
And I actually can speak to that because I had my old live video was
part series was part of my old brand.
And I had a show called cannabis marketing live all puff, no fluff.
And so I created a hoodie and a couple other things that just said
all puff, no fluff, period, right?
Perfect.
On the back was the logo, but it was the all puff, no fluff
that like people got, right?
Like.
I'm going to interview people.
I'm going to talk to people.
There's zero extra, right?
We're going to get straight to the point.
It'll be fun.
It'll be entertaining, but this is what it is.
There you go.
And the colors that you choose and the fonts that you choose, all of that
also communicates about your brand.
And the same way that you take care when you make your logo, like
these things should reflect who you are and what you're about.
And if that feels intimidating, then you can reach out to us or a
company like ours that can help you design something That feels really,
it should feel good when you look at it, it should feel like your brand.
If it doesn't, you know, start again.
Yeah.
And I'm going to reiterate that.
Cause I was playing around to see what I could do.
And I took one of the like design your own stuff and Options to try and see
and get into the merchandise area for, so I'd have something for shows and
for guests and that kind of thing.
And I won't lie, it didn't feel like the final product felt good, but not great.
And it was cool to see it in print and wear it, but it wasn't like, it
was gray and it was just like, cool.
Yeah.
Brand and merchandise can feel like rockstar amazing when you have it right.
Yeah, so I think that's like a really good point that you've
made in terms of getting help.
So if you're thinking about this, check it out.
There are different options, but starting with someone like Amanda and
her company, someone that knows what they're doing and a designer and all
the places is a really solid place to start because then you're skipping all,
let's talk about how much time I spent by the way, because I pretend I'm a
designer, like the amount of time I spent, it would have been much better used.
handing it to someone who is an expert.
I think that people underestimate the amount of time that they spend
handling bulk merchandise, right?
Like deciding what to make, putting in the order.
And then the hardest part of our branded merch at sorry, bulk
print is that once you have it, that's when the real work starts.
Cause then you have to distribute that.
And for me, Going to the post office is like a nightmare.
I just like, don't want to do it really ever.
Like I will avoid returning things because I'm just like, I can't.
I'll drive around with them in my car.
They'll be fine.
Don't waste your time.
Like your time.
If you're starting a company, probably the thing that you're really good at,
the thing that you're selling, the thing that you're making the most money from
is not designing branded merchandise.
I'm guessing.
Otherwise you would be.
In my company or doing something similar.
So like if you are a coach consultant, fractional CMO, bookkeeper, accountant,
athlete, like do those things are going to make you money and outsource.
I'm really glad one.
That's great advice.
And two, I just, as we're talking, like I keep thinking of my, like I do an
outrigger canoe paddling and the teams and the race jerseys and everything.
Like you have to order them ahead of time because they're doing bulk
and you have this and you have that.
And there's so many things that could be created that would be so cool to have.
And also not have to be worried about excess inventory that's been sold
for way under cost the next year.
Yeah.
And also, or just like donate it or you don't want to see it
like in your local Goodwill.
Exactly.
Oh my gosh.
Yes.
Yeah.
There's so many different applications for this.
Not just, I know I'm talking to entrepreneurs and coaches, consultants
and business owners, but there's also Like a lot of us have more
than one thing in our lives, right?
And so there's so many different applications that this could be used for.
When you really start to think about how you want to stand out, what you want
to stand out, and also the different aspects of our lives that include
teams, and that include groups, or that include just fun things that,
you know, could use some branding.
Yeah, absolutely.
Amanda, we're going to wrap up here as we get ready to go.
Do you have any advice?
You already mentioned how to get started.
Do you have, can you tell everyone how they can get ahold of you?
The links and things will be below as well.
Yeah, so it's all those links.
You can see our website at gotomarket.
studio on Instagram.
We are gotomarketstudio.
I'm very active on LinkedIn.
I'd love for you to follow me there.
I'm Amanda Hofman with 1F and if you message me on any of those
platforms, I will happily reach out and talk to you about your business.
Awesome.
Thank you so much and thank you all for being here and until
next time, I'm Kendra Losee.
This is the Invisible to Invincible podcast.
Thank you.