Terms
Wonder Jam Wonder Jam is "a family of brands that helps entrepreneurs grow in a way that is soulful, shrewd, and spirited", in the immortal words of Daft Punk, harder, better, more speedy and more powerful. One of those brand names, Wonderly, builds websites, visual branding assets and Membership software that helps its customers "set them apart". I talked to the its managing associate Allie Lehman and developer Matt Hart to find out more.
Fine art and freelance work to the freedom of
"My experience is in art of fine and I spent my childhood taking part in a lot of drawing and oil painting," starts Allie Lehman. "At high school, I had a great art instructor who, funny enough, told me that you might be an illustrator or graphic artist'' even though I didn't really know which of those terms were! I chose graphic design and went to college to study it."
Allie graduated during the recession in 2009 and went into Web Hosting Support. "It was a bit stressful however, I did learn a lot about hosting servers, how WordPress got installed, everything related to a website," she remembers. "In 2013, I launched The Wonder Jam, now The Wonder Jam is our parent company. I quit my job as a designer and started that full time."
She'd been working together with Matt Hart for a couple years by this point; Matt Hart would create websites and she would develop them. At this point, they started working together regularly: "We've been working together for more than 10 years, beginning as freelancers. Their collaboration came about naturally. We now focus on companies that offer services, and creating WordPress websites." Allie adds.
Matt begins: "I do primarily WordPress development. The process was taught by myself in the early 2010s. For a lot of those who had a chance to enter the WordPress world and were thinking, 'We need to do CSS to make this theme be able to match the appropriate colors' and that got very boring very fast!" he smiles. With the introduction of page builders such as Beaver Builder and Elementor came into the picture, they were able to gain some flexibility: "We could do things using a customized approach which was geared towards the particular requirements of our customers, and really satisfied us creatively."
Since the beginning of their collaboration, Allie and Matt have focused on "going customized in a manner that is affordable" according to Matt says: "We do only what the clients want and don't do the things that our clients do not. This is something that our clients care about: they do not want to be like a mystery. They want to feel empowered. With these tools, let us accomplish that."
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Allie adds: "In 2013, I created The Wonder Jam with my husband after I had been freelance for myself as a freelancer on my own. We also had Matt as Developer Contractor. We had a desire to work. we were looking to be able to create our own thing, we wanted that freedom." That's how the Wonder Jam was born.
Soil, support and systems
"We are from Columbus, Ohio and it's an extremely welcoming and open-minded area for small-scale businesses," she continues. "Matt visited from Seattle and we began working with local clients; we'd walk along the streets downtown, and check out all the different businesses we've worked with." The year is 2020. following seven years with The Wonder Jam and as they started to expand nationally, they made it the parent company, which now has three brands that are sister brands.
Wonderly is a service-oriented business that focuses on, including authors, nonprofits chef's and fitness instructors. There's a sister brand named Basis, focusing on retailers and people selling products, along with a different brand called Studio Wonder, an events area and photography studio in Columbus.
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Three brands that allow for a great deal of creative flexibility: "It allows our team to be focused on the things they would like to accomplish and to have individual processes to follow," Allie says. "Because Matt and I started working together from the start, we have a decade of processes under our belt. I have photos from 2017 of us whiteboarding every step of our process, in order to make sure our clients feel really guided.
"The Wonder Jam operates as the "soil" to supply the things every small business requires to be able to go under the hood Then each sister brand can'sprout each in their own manner and gets to do what it wants with any opportunities that arise. That lets all of the routes be clearly defined and without a hiccup caused by factors that create difficulties for running an individual or two-person business," Matt continues. "We have several businesses that can support each other."
For example, the Basis brand is primarily Shopify and online shopping, however, every once in a while there's a client that wants to start blogging and wants to offer something better than the services Shopify can offer. Therefore, Wonderly will come in and advise the Basis client about processes that relate to WordPress. "We have the ability to help and interact with one another and are a cohesive team even though each of us gets to focus on a particular area that is pleasing to the individual," he smiles.
"The Wonder Jam sits as an enabling foundation. No one has the final say in deciding who we should work with or how much profit to generate - that's up to the managing partner," adds Allie. The brands have shared the resources of software and system for managing projects and client concierge. The management partners are able to book a project; the team members can then take over the project, and also handle everything back-end administration including invoicing, contracts and so on.
"It helps people such as Matt and myself really be focused on what they do," Allie smiles. "I consider that we've created an environment that is great for working in; the key is to make sure our clients have great experiences. If they email us and feel that they're receiving prompt responses and feel that they're being guided through the process."
Matt says: "We say we don't create for you, but we design in partnership with you. We're not going to go away for a few months to create something for them. We get together often and show them how we work from beginning until the end. This is in contrast to leaving to our crafty rooms and making stuff by ourselves!"
Contexts and clients
Matt and Allie have worked with many of organizations who need the website to be accessible in many different ways. "Some of our customers are non-profits. And those tend to be extremely robust websites. They're almost too complicated, or they've been around for quite a while. Therefore, we tend to consolidate or condensing so the site could be more simple," Matt explains.
"We're also working with people who are looking for membership websites, such as people from the food business," Allie continues. Wonderly's clients tend to be people who do human-service-oriented work: "They're fighting for equality, they're looking to talk to their audience a little differently. We tend to work with those who've put a ton of their own passion, money and time in their venture," she adds.
Wonder Jam Wonder Jam brands work with anyone, from large-scale nonprofits to single-person entrepreneurs who are transitioning to full-time from a side hustle. "We've attempted to create solutions that meet the needs of both. We're learning about what scales well and how to think about differently in cases where the scale is dramatically different. This is a lot of fun to discover!" Matt laughs.
The author adds that "With non-profit organizations, they typically have something established and they've already figured out all of the legal hurdles they needed to jump through. We'll often make this way feasible, since we don't want to necessarily make a fresh start." The group can reframe the situation and determine what kind of context could motivate someone to give, and make the donation process easier.
At the beginning of the partnership and with every single client regardless of the type of company and the size of the website, the Wonder Jam team talks about the methodology of customer service. "A website can be an instrument that's efficient in making a sale. It can also become extremely effective at gaining returning customers, or being an asset. We usually ask, 'Is this a resource, or could it help in creating VIPs?' those who are considered to be the most crucial customers to small-scale businesses," Allie explains.
Matt and Allie both agree that websites can't be all things for everybody and is crucial to have a plan of action. "Whenever we're creating one that is a member-based site The most important factor we're considering is that we want people to come back and continue to visit it all the time and feel like it's the greatest value they've ever had," Matt adds.
Case research: Simi and Molly
Allie begins: "One of our clients, Simi Botic, has an exercise group and a participation in Unmeasured and is centered around body movement, called the Barre Method. She has such a compassionate view of "Just move' and not seeking to punish your body. There are many different alternatives based on the mobility of your body."
When Simi first joined Wonderly, she had only a few videos to choose from and they could be changed once per week. "It allows for things to be more organized and allows Simi to match what's practical with her schedule" Allie confirms. "After two or three years, we expanded the members' list, which gives her the chance to give an even greater service to her customers this is awe-inspiring. We're thrilled to be capable of changing our approach when clients' objectives change. we're simply reassessing our design, making some small changes, and then implementing that in development."
Another customer, Molly Baz, wanted to transition from her existing platform to one that could be more brand-named and interactive. "Her brand's visual identity is dynamic and so specific to her. She wanted her viewers to feel 'live with her in this way They received recipes, updates as well as the exact type of content they're familiar with however, in a way that was on-brand and really specific to her personality," Allie explains.
We've all heard that Molly's network has become significant for her. "To have the ability to place it into a format which is consistent to her aesthetic - changing the site from "Oh, yeah there's a photo of Molly - go buy the cookbook' to something that is substantial, both inside as well as outside the membership. It adds a lot of value," Allie muses.
"Something we've been trying to do with all our clients is think about what the future will look the experience for them if we're not talking to them every day. We make sure they have the right systems in place for them to utilize the tool that we've made specifically for them. Molly's experience was an excellent illustration of this," Matt agrees.
Future projects and more information
Matt and Allie have been working with sites and companies that need "a large amount of accessibility" to accommodate customers who are disabled. "We're cooperating with truly amazing organizations who work in order to get these websites and their prototypes recognized by this group of users."
The majority of them agree that, overall they've enjoyed a great experience in their relationships with clients "It's an amazing experience to continue to work with really excellent people. They are very sensitive and they always are respected and appreciated," Allie concludes. "We get to work with really fascinating people who's values guide their activities. It's a great feeling to be able to make things that are for them," Matt smiles.
Find out more information on Allie Lehman and Matt Hart as well as their team and look into working with them, at thewonderjam.com as well withwonderly.com.