We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Kindel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Amanda, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I certainly wasn’t a star athlete, but I did play several sports growing up. I think a lot of my work ethic came from my parents and how they raised me, but it was definitely honed on the field. The idea of “not cutting corners” when running practice laps around the bases or around the field – being sure to fully go around every 90 degree corner – I think that stuck with me. Even if no one catches it, I’ll know that I didn’t put forth my best effort, and that’s not who I want to be.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I have a background in graphic design, sales, and teaching, but I’ve been working at Custom Ink for about seven years now. Most of that time has been in our Showrooms, where I help customers create custom designs and get branded apparel and swag. I had the opportunity to start in our flagship store in Fairfax, VA, to move to Texas and work in a completely different type of store, and then to open and manage a brand new store in Southlake, TX. I’ve been there for three years now, and the best part has been that I’ve been able to get to know many people in the community and to build relationships with them. I love when people come in because someone referred us to them, or when a new business owner comes in and I already know what they are ordering for because I read about it or someone told me about it. Custom Ink is about more than screen printing t-shirts. We believe that what we do helps bring people together and especially in our Showrooms we love to be a part of the community. We follow our customers on social media, we see them at events, and people start to know us as a local place to go for an amazing experience with great customer service!
One of the newest things we are now offering that I’m excited to share with more and more folks is the ability for customers to order items and have them stored at Custom Ink. This enables them to take advantage of bulk discounts and not have to worry about finding the space at their office to store it all. It’s like a virtual swag closet with user friendly tools to keep track of everything. It’s really just a great way to simplify things for our customers who are responsible for ordering lots of branded gear, and making our customers’ lives as easy as possible is always our goal. Whether we can help by creating a custom design, identifying a product that folks will really love, or providing a quick and easy way for individuals in a group to choose their size and pay for their individual shirt, we want to be here to be a great partner to our customers!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The first is curiosity. I have always been naturally curious and I think this has helped me a lot in my professional life, especially during my time at Custom Ink. We offer a lot to our customers. Taking time to dive in, test things out on my own, and ask questions has helped me to more deeply understand the ins-and-outs of the company and our processes. Even in interacting with customers, being curious is helpful. Trying to understand things like what is their goal or who is the intended recipient of the custom swag they’re getting, and asking questions so I really know where they’re coming from, I think that has helped me to find solutions that are a good fit for them.
The second is a willingness to try something new. I took a big leap of faith on two separate occasions in my life to completely change up my career, and both times were for the better. It’s never too late to change things up professionally! Even within one role or company though, being willing or even eager to do something differently then how you’ve done it before is a huge asset. I’ve been lucky to work with many talented people and to have a company culture where people will proactively share knowledge and best practices so that others can learn from them. In addition, I’m well aware that everyone and anyone can learn from others so I like to ask people what’s working well for them so that I can try to incorporate that into what I do.
This leads into the third quality I feel has impacted my journey, which is a desire for continuous improvement. This applies to me as an individual, but I also see it play out in the way I interact with our tools and systems and the teams that maintain and update them. Whenever I have an idea for how something could be changed to make it more efficient for our internal users, or to make it a better experience for our customers, I try to share that through the appropriate channels. There are hundreds of people that work at Custom Ink and I’m passionate about continually making things better for everyone.
To develop in these areas, my best advice would be don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Just try to learn from them, and ask for feedback along the way!
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
We work with a wide variety of clients, but I think there are two main types of customers where we can make the biggest impact.
The first are individuals ordering for nonprofits or businesses that have continuous and repeating needs. Often when we know we’ve done something one year for an event, we’ll reach out ahead of time the next year to help our customers plan and stay on top of deadlines to ensure we have plenty of time to meet their schedule. Plus, because of the relationships we build with our customers we know what they like, what they’ve ordered in the past, and what worked and what didn’t. It helps us to make recommendations and offer products and services that they may not have even realized we offer! When we get to know the organization and the individual, these customers are the ones that get the most out of having a dedicated local account manager versus just ordering directly through our website.
The second are folks that have never ordered any kind of custom gear before and are undertaking this responsibility for the first time. A lot of PTA/PTO and school groups fall into this category. Sometimes the options can be overwhelming but we can provide design assistance, and a lot of guidance on what is popular, what will sell well, how to effectively sell merchandise to raise money, and more. Plus, they can come into our Showroom to discuss everything during a complimentary consultation. This in-person interaction, and the chance to touch and feel products, often helps ease a lot of overall stress as well as specific concerns about not knowing what they are buying.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.customink.com/parkvillage
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandakindel/
Image Credits
@parkvillagetx
