The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth19 Maalis 2024

157: Your Merch Mentor with Amanda Hofman of Go To Market Studio

Amanda Hofman of Go To Market Studio is the "go-to" for creating anti-boring custom merch for your business that will turn heads and keep you top of mind for your ideal clients and customers. Amanda is a wife, human mom of 2, dog mom, and co-founder of Go To Market, her second company in her entrepreneurial career. She and her company create custom-branded merchandise for businesses, authors, podcasters, and more. They're flipping the branded merchandise industry on its head by challenging the age-old practice of sticking the company's logo in the middle of whatever product they are handing out, be it tee shirts, hats, pens, lunch boxes, tumblers, etc. Instead, Amanda and her design team dig into their client's mission, vision, and branding to create designs that represent their values. As a result, they create swag that clients and customers are willing and excited to rep! The other part of the Go To Market model that is revolutionizing the industry hinges on sustainability and inclusion. All their client's online merch shops are print-on-demand, meaning companies don't have to order and store massive quantities of coffee cups, pre-sized tee shirts, and the like. Clients and customers can place their orders online and get the size, shape, color, style that they want. This leads to less waste and more intentional and valued usage of the products. Key Takeaways from Today's Episode

"You gotta walk through the suck to get through to the other side."
"We expect things to be custom and meaningful and interesting and targeted."
"We're focusing on teaching companies…how to make items that really reflect their values. So we're not printing their logo front and center, we're printing something that's meaningful to the business. We're trying to harness the thing that makes a business, an author, a podcaster special."
"The other part we're doing is the sustainability piece where everything prints on-demand…everything prints as it's ordered, so that people get what they want in the size, shape, color, style that they want it."
"It's really about connection…People aren't connected to your logo, they're connected to ideas. They're connected to the way that you make them feel."
"So many business owners want branded merch because they love their brand."
"There are risks that we're willing to take and not."
"That I feel like we just have to acknowledge it…Entrepreneurship, a variable income is very challenging if you're raising a family. A variable income is challenging, period. And then if you're raising a family, like, I can't imagine that level of stress."
"I'm not a failure. I tried something, and it didn't work out."
"When a company is giving a gift where there isn't choice, even if it's thoughtful, even if it's beautiful to you, you're still giving a burden to people at some level."