
Sept 17, 2021
The Mass Business Podcast
Season 1, Episode 15 – Being Customer Focused & Caring For Our Clients, with Gina Ahtof
Right here on episode 15, we have Gina Ahtof. She is a graphic designer with a promotional print company and explains why she cares for her clients. Gina and I talk about why caring is such an important component of business and referrals. She also tells us how she approaches the challenge of productivity and how she’s learned by focusing on one big project at a time. Gina’s a big believer in doing business with people who bring you joy and knows exactly who her ideal client is. Are you ready? Let’s go!
Resources mentioned in this episode –
Trello Zapier Audible Libby Script Workflow Automation
http://Hubspot.com Find Your Why – Simon Sinek
Contact Gina –
774-314-1195 PromoPrintPlus.com Gina@promoprintplus.com Instagram
If you or someone you know would like to be a guest on our show please visit us on Facebook or at our Website –
MassBusinessPodcast.com Find Us On Facebook Subscribe On YouTube
MORE Word Of Mouth referrals: Lifelong Customers & Raving Fans
Gina Ahtof-audio
Wed, 8/11 9:29AM • 34:40
Matt Ward 00:00
Hey there, my name is Matt Ward. I’m your host for the Mass Business Podcast and we are back with Episode 15. I got my good friend Gina Ahtof on this episode. We’re gonna talk about growing a small business printing, marketing, all fun things promotional products. She’s based out of Worcester. Gina is the founder of Promo Print Plus. She’s been in the industry for 20 plus years, and she helps businesses market themselves. She’s a big fan of networking, educating herself, and she lives in Worcester with her 28 cats. Are you ready? Let’s go. Welcome to the Mass Business Podcast where small business owners, also known as risk takers, share their stories about the growth of their business and themselves. Our interviews, and our content is focused on growing a small business, and understanding networking and referrals. I say it all the time. And I’ll say it again today. You never know where your next referral will come from. Hey, I say it all the time. And I’ll say it again today. You never know where your next referral is gonna come from. It might be today from our guests Gina Ahtof. How are you?
Gina Ahtof 01:32
I’m doing great. Thanks, Matt. Thanks for having me on the podcast.
Matt Ward 01:35
Oh, you’re welcome. It’s exciting to have you. I know. I talk to you all the time. And I’m so excited for you to join me. I mean, I’m waiting for your 28 cats to come on the screen here.
Gina Ahtof 01:44
Yeah, so I need to make a little correction there. I only have one cat, but he’ll jump up on the screen 28 times.
Matt Ward 01:52
I always thought it was like 28 because I was counting. There should be like a little dinger thing that if the cat comes on the screen, then we can think you know, kind of increment up throughout the podcast. And then at the end of the podcast, whoever guessed might win a prize? I don’t know anyway,
Gina Ahtof 02:09
That doesn’t sound like something people want to see. But go ahead.
Matt Ward 02:13
And in a quick 30 seconds or so why don’t you share with our listening audience and our viewers on YouTube? What exactly it is that you do at Promo Print Plus,
Gina Ahtof 02:24
I know it’s a mouthful. Promo Print Plus, I get tripped up with it sometimes too. So as you said, I help businesses market themselves with print and promotional items. I focus on customer service and helping people find the right promotional items, or the right product for them.
Matt Ward 02:42
Yeah, and I think that’s key, right? Because we’re always trying to get out and get the messaging out on our business. And sometimes the promo item, the product that we’re trying to put out in the marketplace to help best represent us doesn’t have a meaning. It’s just like another pen. Do you know how many pens I have?
Gina Ahtof 03:04
Do you know how many pens I have?
Matt Ward 03:06
I can only imagine. Is it 28? Or is it, Is it just the same pen that keeps showing up? So you’ve been in business now how long with Promo Print Plus.
Gina Ahtof 03:22
So I have worked for various other people for around 15 years. And then about five years ago, I went out on my own. I was commuting a lot and was really focusing on trying to figure out how to make my quality of life better. And thinking, yeah, I’m sick and tired to make money for other people. So why not try and do it for myself.
Matt Ward 03:43
So you’ve been doing it now five years. So you’re in that five years zone that the SBA loves to talk about, and you’re still around, which is awesome and amazing. Even through COVID, I imagine the SBA numbers are gonna change quite a bit because the COVID numbers, but talk to me about sort of some of the biggest wins in your business in five years of growing it.
Gina Ahtof 04:10
So I went from being completely confident in knowing how to sell print and promotional items, knowing those things inside and out to now having to run a business doing that. So I didn’t, didn’t really know what I was doing when I started business wise in terms of running a business. I mean, my parents owned a body shop for 30 years. And so I sort of learned, I learned from looking at them and I knew it was a great thing, definitely worthwhile. But nobody taught me how to use QuickBooks. So that was one of the really challenging things. I mean, you just you’re in it to just try and make people happy, help people and make some money while you’re doing it. But if you’re not paying attention to all the little details, those things can catch up on you really quickly. So over the last five years, I think I have successfully learned how to put the infrastructure into place so that as I grow, continuing to grow, that my infrastructure will grow with me. So that’s a huge, that’s been a huge thing for me.
Matt Ward 05:15
And that takes time, right? I mean, infrastructure, systems, processes, for some people, it’s fun. For others, it’s painful. It’s painful at times for me, but also fun to solve the problem of process. And I think that that’s a struggle that a lot of small business owners have, it’s like what to do first, how do I optimize this way of doing this? How do you deal with that type of approach in business? And like, how do you prioritize what to do first versus something else? How do you handle that?
Gina Ahtof 05:55
I love lists. I love lists so much that I made notepads for myself with my company name on them so that I could have an endless amount of lists. Well, what I was realizing is, I had seven lists in front of me, and I would keep changing them. And it didn’t really I would lose lists, and then misplace things and all that fun stuff. So I was introduced to a really awesome app called Trello. And now I can do all of my lists, and it’s electronic lists, eletronic organizing, you really can make of it what you want to, and that has helped me tremendously. It’s such a simple thing. But oh, my goodness, like project management, which is a huge part of what I do, and has helped streamline that tremendously.
Matt Ward 06:42
We, we use Trello in my business, and we use Trello to manage the Mass Business Podcast, all the things that have to get done for that. Yeah, it’s a great tool. And you can, there’s even ways to automate it using Zapier, for those of you who don’t know, Zapier is an integration tool that will allow you to have one piece of software, talk to another piece of software, so that you can automate things in your business rather than having to manually do them. So it’s a lot of fun and exciting to do. I was manually automating moving a Trello card from one list to another list based on the fact that a calendar appointment got set up. I mean, that’s pretty cool stuff. Like 20 years ago, that stuff didn’t exist, like, and, and then I did this whole thing. And Heather’s like, Yeah, I just managed it in the spreadsheet. And I was like, oh, like, okay, no worries. I’ll set it up to change in the spreadsheet.
Gina Ahtof 07:42
You can teach me how to do that, how to set that up with the….
Matt Ward 07:44
The moving the card stuff? Oh, yeah, it’s fun. Yeah. So you know, and that’s the thing is that business growth and processes are never ending, right? They’re constantly evolving. And, you know, once you automate this one thing, then there’s another thing that has to grow. And I know in the first five years of business that I didn’t sleep much, you know, it’s one of those things where it’s kind of like always thinking about the next sale, always thinking about the next process. How do you manage all the stuff that’s coming in all the time, from every different direction as a small business owner?
Gina Ahtof 08:23
So I am quite the opposite of you. I sleep all the time, because it’s my coping mechanism. It’s the only way to shut my brain off. Because So yeah, I look forward to and I mean, I have ideas all the way up into I mean, they say yeah, running a business is great. You can work when you want but you never stop working. You’re always thinking about….. You’re in the shower, you’re thinking about Okay, what’s How can I present myself doing this and whatever, you know, you’re driving, you’re always thinking about it, so I have realized over you know, some time has, some time has gone by that just because somebody sends me a text or I get a message and I get them through Facebook Messenger text messenger, you know, all these apps, voxer, which you now so all these places people are trying to, you know, hey, Gina, hey, Gina, listen to me, listen to me with it, you know, and just because they’re demanding your attention, doesn’t mean you need to give it to them at the time that they are demanding it. So as a result, I have turned off notifications for pretty much everything. So when I am ready, when I’m done with a project, I will go check my email and see what has come in next. It used to be it would be bing, bing, bing, all these emails would come in and I look over and say, Oh, no, I need to deal with that. It’s not a good way to be productive. You have to be able to focus on what you are working on at the time. And that’s the way to just stay focused and be productive because otherwise it’s just not going to happen.
Matt Ward 09:55
How did you learn that Gina? Because I mean, I feel like in small business ownership like there’s no class. I mean, maybe there’s a, I don’t know, I didn’t go to college for this stuff, right? So I wrote in my new book that there’s no gut trusting 101 in Business School, right? And so like, I how did you learn that this was the thing that you needed to do in order to free your mind and focus on what you need to get done.
Gina Ahtof 10:24
So I was spending all this time thinking, Oh, my God, I’m so busy. This is wonderful. I’m so busy. But then I started to think. And I was also trying to think, do I need to hire somebody? So I said, Okay, I want to make sure that I’m making the right decision in terms of hiring somebody. So I’m going to do a time study, I’m going to start thinking about what am I actually doing that’s productive. And I couldn’t even make a list. Because I would be going from this to that to this to that. And I said, Alright, what is sparking all of that? What’s making it the thing that’s dragging me from one thing to the next? These notifications, they kept showing up for every little thing that was going on in the world. And I was like, No, I can’t. So I was, I can focus on things for an extensive period of time, and my customers deserve that. And that’s one of the things that I realized that they deserve my full attention when I’m working on their estimates, or their purchase orders, or whatever it is I’m doing for them. They deserve my full attention. Like being in a meeting with you. I am completely paying attention to you. My email is not up, my phone is off all of that stuff. He needs to be present and you need to be focused, or else.
Matt Ward 11:34
Yeah, and I think that’s an important part, right? We expect that of other people when we’re meeting with other people, but we often never expect it of ourselves. And that is a huge, small business flaw. I think that once we get to the point of frustration, when we realize at the end of the day, and we look back, and we’re like, you know what, I got nothing done today. We’ve all had those days. I’ve had those days, when we look back and say I got nothing done today. That’s the trigger that has to change the way we do things. So that change occurs, and we can start focusing in on what can make us more productive. I am by no means a productivity expert. I have my days too. But that notification point is super important. I think if you’re listening to this podcast on your favorite podcast platform, or you’re watching us on YouTube, Hey, how you doing? Um, we Yeah, you might want to think if you’re not being productive, what can you do? Can you turn off your notifications? Can you just turn them off for an hour and just kind of hyper focus? Maybe that’ll be a perspective. Hopefully, you’re learning something listening to what Gina’s talking about, and Gina that allows me to segue into how do you learn new things in your small business?
Gina Ahtof 12:56
I love learning, that’s one of the reasons why I got into doing what I’m doing because I get to research all different kinds of things. So I same thing about running my business, I tried to read as much as possible, listen to podcasts, like this one, and, and listen to audiobooks when I’m driving around going from customer to customer, and just trying to get as much as I possibly can into those sort of dead times when you’re not really thinking about, you know, other when you’re, you know, not doing anything else. So yeah, driving in between meetings has been a great way to get some learning in every day, when you’re not. I’m somebody who, when I’m working, I can’t really sometimes I can listen to music, but sometimes I’m just so focused on what I’m doing. I can’t listen to anything. So I mean, you know, multitasking is, you know, jack of all trades master of none, right? So you actually need to be paying attention to what you’re listening to. So yeah, I take books out of the library, that old thing, and because it gives me a timeframe to listen to read them or listen to them. And I’ve been part of book clubs where we discuss those things. So accountability is huge for me, for you know, being able to listen and learn all of these things, and then have a chance and opportunity to discuss them with other business professionals.
Matt Ward 14:15
Yeah, that’s key. You know, I want to give some resources to the listening audience too, because you, mentioned a couple great things. First of all, audio books. For those of you that have a library card, you can get a service called Libby which is connected to that and you can listen to audiobooks that way. And again, we’re gonna have all the links in the show notes. So make sure you check out the web page. Script is another one. That’s a service that you can subscribe to for, you know, like eight $9 a month maybe something like that. I’ve been a member of that for a while. And then obviously Audible, you know, you can get, you know a credit every month. But one thing I want to mention too, that you mentioned about listening to music is good friend of mine turned me on to this when you want to get in the zone and be very productive. Put the same song or album, on repeat, and just play it all the time.
Gina Ahtof 15:08
Songs that you know backwards and forwards. Absolutely,
Matt Ward 15:11
Yeah. And so he wrote an entire book listening to the same album over and over and over again. And the way he did was he wrote for like two hours every morning, and he would put the song on, and that would allow him to get zoned in and focused on the task that he was doing. And now that’s the song he does, or the album he plays when he is writing. Because he’s trained his brain to kind of connect to that, you know, right.
Gina Ahtof
So what do you listen to? Yeah, I’m putting you on the spot.
Matt Ward
So I have, I have one song that I listened to a lot when I’m trying to zone in on something. Well, there are now two songs, but the first one is sounds of silence by disturbed the version….Yeah. So it’s like, very low and low key for a while, and then it kind of crescendos and gets into this hardcore, like, you know, awesome chorus, and then back down again. And so what it does is, I feel like it slows my heartbeat down. And it allows me to focus. So that is very good when I’m writing in fact, when I was finishing up my new book, that’s what I was listening to. And then the other song is high five the world, which is our song for the podcast here. And I’ve been playing that over and over and over again. And I just, I love it. It’s just it brings a lot of joy to my face. It’s a big smile on my face. Because it’s it’s a fun song. And that for me is sort of my sunroof in my pickup truck windows open. Put it on repeat drive down the highway. Yes.
Gina Ahtof 15:38
Yeah. Yeah, that’s awesome. Awesome. I listened to Can I tell you what to do? I don’t listen to a specific song. But I listened to a specific station that plays the same stuff over and over again. So I listened to Sirius 80s on 8. 80s music when I’m focused and need to get stuff done. That’s it’s 80s music all the way.
Matt Ward 17:17
80s music. I am such a fan journey and all those groups of songs. Yeah, that’s good.
Gina Ahtof 17:25
And you sing along and it like brings this, you know, energy into you that you know, while you’re, you know, working on spreadsheets or whatever you’re doing.
Matt Ward 17:33
Yeah. So speaking of working, how important is networking to you in your business?
Gina Ahtof 17:41
It’s hugely important. It’s, you know, 90% of how I get, right now how I’m getting business, word of mouth referrals, I think it’s super important to get to know people and to build relationships, because what I do can be so transactional. Here you go have some pens, but….
Matt Ward 18:01
right, and they can buy them online. And but yeah, buying them online doesn’t what you talked about earlier is like the purpose, right? There’s a purpose behind this. And, you know, I just, I, I’ve worked with you on stuff. And I was in the business before I’ve worked with you on stuff. I I know how you talk to somebody about kind of what they’re using the item for? What’s the intent? What’s the purpose? How are you going to get it out into people’s hands? There’s a lot of stuff that goes on. A lot of people don’t think about. And yeah, I mean, I could buy a bunch of stuff online. But is that going to solve the problem? I’m not sure. You know,
Gina Ahtof 18:36
right, right. It’s, I mean, it’s, I really enjoy helping people. And I really want them to find the right thing. I want them to be, I do so I’m selfish about this. So the reason that I do it is like and I sometimes I’ll deliver my projects, the project to the client, is they open it up, and they have this huge smile on their face. And I almost always have my camera ready, because I want to take a picture and I want to put that up. And I want to look at that and be like, look at how happy they were, you know, when you’re having kind of a down day or whatever. You know, this is like, Look at that guy with a smile on his face. You just got a hat that has his logo across the front that he’s never had before.
Matt Ward 19:14
Yeah, yeah, that’s super cool. I mean, I think you know, what, when when you care about other people in a way, even though that’s a transaction, right? They’re a client, but it happens all the time. I know that you sent people that have sent you referrals, you’ve done some stuff for them. And that brings them a lot of joy. That is why the new book is so awesome. Is this like, I keep coming back to this because I’m like, I don’t even understand how people can do business with people that don’t bring them joy. The whole idea of the book, right? We’re gonna hang around people that make us laugh and smile. That’s why you’re on this podcast. It’s not because I buy stuff from you or you buy stuff from me. It’s not about that. It’s about surrounding yourself with awesome people that uplift you every day. That’s what I think business is about.
Gina Ahtof 20:03
The more you talk about it. And the more you talk to people about wanting to do business with people that bring you, that bring you joy, the more that they start to light up and say, Yeah, I want to do business with cool people, I was just telling somebody today, I want to do business with cool people that I can’t wait to help, that I’m always thinking about ideas for that, and how to make them happy, and, you know, satisfy whatever it is they’re looking for.
Matt Ward 20:29
Yeah, I don’t know, there’s something about it. I don’t know, I struck a chord, we’ll see. We’ll see how the book sales go. Yeah, it’s gonna be out there in the world. Maybe I’ll sell two books, you never know. What, what do you think the biggest lesson so far in business ownership has been for you?
Gina Ahtof 20:49
You’re always gonna have to keep learning. If once you decide once you think that you know everything, that’s when you really, really need to be learning, there’s always going to be bigger and brighter things. And you just, yeah, you need to keep learning, you need to end you need to keep educating yourself about what’s going on, and how your specific industry is changing and evolving because that’s how you’ll always stay current. That’s how you always stay relevant.
Matt Ward 21:13
What is your challenge with constantly learning new things?
Gina Ahtof 21:21
It can be difficult to let go of ideas that you’ve had forever, that have been ingrained in you, especially when you were at the very beginning out of college learning or just, you know, getting your first job learning and say, No, we need to do things this way. Why? Well, that’s the way I always did it, okay. But that’s not always necessarily the best way. So you need to, you need to be able to adapt, that’s huge. Like, if 2020 taught us anything, it’s that we have to be able to adapt and pivot to whatever comes our way. Nobody asked whether we were comfortable doing what we did in 2020. But we had to deal if you wanted to stay in business.
Matt Ward 21:58
I know, right? Like I adaptability, the ability to be flexible throughout that timeframe was a big issue. And if you were open minded enough to listen to what your customers were saying, and to augment how you were doing business to get on zoom more often, and, and to do more social related activities and find ways to connect with people, when we couldn’t connect in person. You know, that was a struggle for a lot of people and is often not talked about, right. And now it’s also why a lot of people are pushing for this in person, relationship meetings and sales meetings, is because they’ve been on virtual for so long, you know, but I think there’s a, I think virtual is here to stay for a long time. For sure. It’s not going anywhere. But it’s going to be an interesting mix, right? Because we do need that in person touchpoints with other people, what do you thrive off of? Is it the in person? Do you like the virtual? Is it a combination? What do you like?
Gina Ahtof 23:01
So I really like being in person. And I did, obviously I did before, you know, if I had an eyes, there wasn’t really zoom meetings, many zoom meetings before. But if I had the opportunity to meet somebody in person, or have a phone call, I wouldn’t, you know, I would always try to meet them in person, customers, especially. You want to have that face to face, you want them to know that you’re a real person, and not just somebody typing an email. But then COVID happened, and we had no choice. So we had to do that. So I crammed as many networking and client meetings as I possibly could, because I never had to travel anywhere. You’re just clicking from here to there to here to there and whatever. And that was great. But now I’m finding Okay, well, there’s definitely a place for both when somebody can’t meet in person, or it’s, you know, prohibitive because of traffic and whatever. meeting on zoom is definitely better than having a phone call. And you know, you continue that relationship body cues, body language, you know, facial expressions, all of that stuff is super important to me, I am always looking people in the eye, even when I’m on zoom, when I’m talking to people. When I can see, I’ve become so good at looking, when people’s eyes are just kind of moving around and they are there’s like flashing of like different lights on them. You know, they’re opening up windows and whatever. And I’m like, they’re not paying attention. So you know, if it’s a customer and you’re like, Okay, I need to do something to grab them. If it’s somebody you’re networking with, maybe it’s not somebody that I mean, if you feel comfortable talking to them about that you can say something but….
Matt Ward 24:33
You’re in a business with promotional products where it’s very easy for you to redirect their attention back to the screen, because you can just be like here, look at this and hold up a promotion item, you know, and it’s not, you know, it’s much more difficult for other people to do that sometimes. What, what is the biggest pressing issue for you in your business nowadays?
Gina Ahtof 24:59
Biggest pressing issue. Um, I think it’s potentially convincing people why they need to use me, what the benefit of using me is. So, you know, I sell pens and mugs and shirts. I mean, I do tons more than that. But, you know, if we’re just looking at a surface level, that’s what I do. And they’re saying, Well, why can’t I just go online? Why can’t I just go online, click, click, click, or send me to your catalog, and I will be able to, you know, find whatever I want. So I don’t eve,r we meant I mentioned this before, I don’t ever want to be a true just a transactional company where you can just come to me order pens online, never want to be that I want to be able to help you. And the thing is, is you’re not paying extra for my service. You are, you are still paying the same price as you would for that pen. But I’m helping you in the ways that I was describing before I’m project managing, you don’t have to worry about anything, you just tell me what you’re looking for how much you want to pay, you can be as involved or not at all, if you don’t want to be. And again, I really try to focus on helping my clients and figuring out what the right solution is for them. You know, they say like, okay, printing, why don’t I just go direct to the printer? Well, they only have a certain amount of machines that they work with, and they can only sell to those machines if that’s not the right fit for your project. They’re kind of screwed. But for me, I have all of the machines at my disposal, and I can figure out which facility is going to be the best fit for you, for your budget, for your quality for all of that. And you know, it’s the best fit people are, you know, people are super happy with that kind of stuff. So there’s a ton of value add with not a lot of buy in, if any, you’re still paying the same price, I found that I’m much less expensive than other people who are selling direct from where they are. So just don’t be afraid of thinking a little bit outside the box to go to somebody who doesn’t, you know, necessarily have the stuff in their space.
Matt Ward 27:03
Yeah, and so that being the biggest pressing issue, you started off with convincing them to use you in your service. And obviously, you have a convincing and compelling message, which is the way in which you work with them to find the right fit. Sometimes they don’t care, though they care about the price. What do then?
Gina Ahtof 27:24
If that’s all they care about, and they don’t think that I add any value. Sadly, I’m just going to say, you know. II might even direct them to where the best, I have done that before….people come to me for business cards, that’s not exactly what I do. So I’ll say based on what you’re looking to spend, and what you’re trying to do go to Vistaprint, they can help you, they’ll charge you $15 for that. And then you don’t have to worry about it, if you want to come to me, and you want something designed something that, somebody who actually knows what they’re doing. And that’s going to be more expensive. That’s going to be you know, there’s a value in that.
Matt Ward 28:00
I think you and I might have had a conversation a couple weeks ago, or maybe a month ago or something that that there’s a spot for everybody in this world, right? There’s, there are services available at all different price points and service levels. And it’s about understanding where the customer is, and if you’re the fit and what their needs are. And it’s about asking the right questions to uncover that problem. Because if, if at the end of the day, they ultimately only have a Vistaprint budget, then they can’t hire Gina. And we don’t want to spend a ton of time with them. We really want to I learned a long time ago in sales. It was an interesting aspect. I mean, I don’t necessarily approach things this way. But it was an interesting approach, it was do everything you can to disqualify the client. Because you’re you want to ask the questions in a way in which they’re gonna opt out of you. And then they’ve self selected out as your potential client. Too many small business owners try and go about the other way, I’m going to try to make sure that they’re in my net.
Gina Ahtof 29:03
especially when you’re starting out, you’re hungry and you need to pay the bills, you’ll do anything. But yeah, once you get a year or two, when you start figuring out yeah, that’s wasting more time than it’s actually. So yeah, so you can do that. And I love that being able to and again, you bought you you select the clients that bring you joy, that make you happy that let you do your job well and that they understand the value in it. So that’s great for everyone.
Matt Ward 29:31
Your point now, you mentioned the software before was Trello. But I’m gonna ask you again because I’d like to ask everybody on this podcast what number one software would you recommend that other small business owners take a look at that could be a game changer for their business?
Gina Ahtof 29:43
So I yes, Trello is one of them. But something that I’ve been recently introduced to is HubSpot. So people kept talking about CRM, I didn’t even know what a CRM was. And then once it’s you have to get to a certain point to understand how it works when you’re just treading water, you don’t need something like that. But when you get to a point where you need to know, okay, who am I emailing? Who am I talking to? How can I touch these people? How can I email these people and get, you know, get in contact with them? It’s really great. It’s really, really great. It’s already started to streamline things that I’ve been doing. And anything that makes me spend less time, you know, in my business, and more sort of talking to my clients or potential clients is always going to be a better fit for me.
Matt Ward 30:33
Absolutely. Well, I have a link to that in the show notes as well. And what business book, would you recommend that other small business owners take a read?
Gina Ahtof 30:40
Um, I loved Finding Your Why by Simon Sinek. It’s, it’s, that’s it’s a lot of work. And I went through the process of it. And it was, it was great. It’s great. It helps me be more authentic with what I’m doing, which is something that I very much try to do in my business. Of course, your book.
Matt Ward 31:05
That’s nice. That’s very nice. Look at that. She’s got at our fingertips about that. Exactly. Your new book coming out, that I had a chance to preview it a little bit. Oh, thank you for that. Yeah, it’s gonna be a lot of fun. I’m really excited to be launching that that’s coming up October 26. So if you’re listening to this podcast before, then make sure you check out the pre sales on my website at MattWardspeaks.com thanks for mentioning that Gina. Yeah, that was not a setup at all. But I appreciate it. You know, thanks so much for coming on. Hopefully, the listeners have learned a great deal about what it’s like to be in business at the five year mark, the things you’ve shared the struggles you shared. I think being authentic, people are really going to get to know, like, trust, and care about you, which is the most important thing. If anybody wants to reach out and have a conversation, whether it be about networking, about business, or possibly even using your services. How could they get in touch with you Gina?
Gina Ahtof 32:11
You can go to my website, promoprintplus.com you can email me text me 774-314-1195 all my contact information is on my website. So if you’re able to go there, then Yep, you can find me.
Matt Ward 32:28
Awesome. And you’re you’re in the Worcester area andthen happy to deliver product to people all over the state, right?
Gina Ahtof 32:36
Yep, yep, absolutely.
Matt Ward 32:38
Absolutely. So if you’re in the area, or frankly anywhere in Massachusetts and looking for great print and promotional products person Gina Ahtof is the place to go and Promo Print Plus. Thanks for being on the show Gina. As always love to say. And for those of you who are listening on the audio form, make sure you subscribe to that your favorite podcast platform if you’re watching on YouTube, smash that like button and smash that subscribe button. We want to see more subscribers and don’t forget to live happy, smile a lot, and high five everyone around you. Thank you for listening to the Mass Business Podcast where we focus on growing a small business and understanding networking and referrals. Don’t forget to like on your favorite platform and share out this podcast. This show has been produced by Heather Grant music by Cailte Kelley. All rights reserved. I’m your host, professional speaker, author and word of mouth referral consultant, Matt Ward. Don’t forget the live happy smile a lot, and high five everyone around you.