Terms

Wonder Jam Wonder Jam is "a family of brands who aid entrepreneurs in growing their businesses in a way that is intelligent, clever and lively" as described in the song that were immortalized by Daft Punk, harder and more effective, faster and more durable. One of these companies, Wonderly, builds websites, visual branding assets and membership software that helps its clients "set themselves out from the crowd". I spoke to the company's managing assistant Allie Lehman and developer Matt Hart to learn more.

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"My origins are in the fine arts; I spent my childhood doing a lot of drawing and oil painting," begins Allie Lehman. "At high school, I had a great art teacher who, funnily enough, told me I should become graphic artist and illustrator'' when I didn't know what those things were! I decided on graphic design and went on to university to learn about it."

Allie left during the recession in 2009 and moved into support of webhosting. "It was quite stressful, but I learned a lot about servers and the process of how WordPress was installed, and all things 'website'," she remembers. "In 2013, I started The Wonder Jam, now The Wonder Jam is our parent company. I quit my job as a designer and began working full-time in the business."

She'd been working with Matt Hart for several years by this point; Matt would write websites, and she would develop websites. In the end, they started working together regularly: "We've been working together for over 10 years. At first, we worked as freelancers. Their collaboration began organically. The focus is now on service-based businesses building WordPress websites." Allie adds.

Matt begins: "I do primarily WordPress development. The process was taught by myself at the beginning of this decade. A lot of people who had the opportunity to join the WordPress world the first thought was, 'We need to learn CSS in order to make the theme be able to fit the correct colours'. That got quite boring fast!" He smiles. He smiles. Beaver Builder and Elementor came into play, they gained flexibility: "We could do things in a very custom way that was tailored to the exact needs of our clients, and were able to satisfy us with our creativity."

Since the start of their collaboration, Allie and Matt have been focusing on "going to make things custom to make sure that it is reasonable" as Matt says: "We do only what our clients need and not the things that our customers don't. This is something that our customers care about. They don't want to feel strange. They're trying to be more comfortable. By using these tools, we can achieve that."

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Allie says: "In 2013, I began The Wonder Jam with my husband after I had started freelancing for myself as a one-person freelancer. We also had Matt as our developer contractor. We wanted to be a part of the team. We wanted to be able to create our own thing, we wanted the freedom." It was then that the Wonder Jam was born.

Support, soil, and systems

"We are residents of Columbus, Ohio and it's an open and friendly neighborhood especially for businesses with a small budget," she continues. "Matt would visit from Seattle and we started working with local customers; we'd stroll through the downtown streets, and visit the businesses that we've collaborated with." The year is 2020. After 7 years with The Wonder Jam and as The Wonder Jam began expanding nationwide, they became its parent company, with three brands which are identical to their sister brands.

Wonderly is focused on companies which offer services such as authors, non-profits, chefs and fitness instructors. Wonderly also runs an additional brand called Basis that focuses on retail stores along with people selling products, as well as a different brand called Studio Wonder, an events area and photography studio situated in Columbus.

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The three brands offer the greatest amount of creative flexibility: "It allows our team to be focused on the goals they truly want to achieve as well as specific processes that they can follow," Allie says. "Because Matt and I started working with each other from the very beginning in 2000, we've accumulated more than a decade of process we've learned. There are photos from 2017 , of us whiteboarding every step of our process, so that our clients are completely informed.

"The Wonder Jam operates as the "soil" that provides all the elements that every small business needs underneath the hood. Then, each sister brand gets to 'sprout according to its own style and can do whatever it likes with possibilities that come up. This lets each of those paths be open and not be obstructed by the things which make it difficult to operate a single or two-person business," Matt continues. "We have a variety of firms that have the ability to cooperate."

The Basis brand is principally Shopify as well as E-commerce. Sometimes, however, customers want to establish a blog as well as offer more than the one Shopify provides. Therefore, Wonderly will be able to guide the Base customer with the procedures connected to WordPress. "We have the ability to help and interact with one another and work as a team, even though everyone gets to specialize in a way that is pleasing to the person," he smiles.

"The Wonder Jam sits as an unifying foundation. There is no one at the top giving us advice on who to collaborate with or how much profit to do - it's really dependent on the managing partner," adds Allie. They share equipment like software, project management systems as well as a concierge service for clients. The management partners are able to schedule a project. Team members are able to onboard the project and handle everything back-end administration like invoicing and contracts.

"It allows people such as Matt as well as me to focus on what they do." Allie smiles. "I think we've made an environment that is great to work in. It is about ensuring that our clients have great satisfaction. If they reach us by email and are satisfied that they're getting a quick response and they feel at ease throughout the procedure."

Matt has a similar opinion: "We say we don't make designs for you. We create things together with you. We're not planning to take off for a couple of months to make something with them. There are a lot of gatherings and will show them how things work from start to end and not leaving our crafting spaces to create things by ourselves!"

Contexts and Clients

Matt along with Allie have collaborated with lots different organizations who require their website to be accessible in lots of different ways. "Some of our customers are not-for-profits. They tend to be extremely sturdy websites. They're probably too complicated or they've existed for quite some period of. Therefore, we tend to simplify or condense the sites so they can be simpler," Matt explains.

"We're in contact with individuals looking to sign up for a membership website as do those in the industry of food," 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. It's not uncommon for us to work with those who've put an enormous amount of their own passion, energy, funds, and time into their venture," she adds.

The Wonder Jam brand works for everyone from large-scale non-profits , to entrepreneurs that have one person moving into full-time work after having side jobs. "We've been trying to design systems that can accommodate each. We're still learning about what scales work best and what we can think about differently, in cases when the scales are dramatically different. It's really enjoyable to discover!" Matt is laughing.

The author continues "With the majority of charities, they are governed by a structure that is established and were successful in figuring out the legal hoops they had to cross. It's how we make it work, as we're not trying build a fresh wheel." It's possible for the group to reframe the situation and find the context that could motivate someone to make a donation, making the process of donation simpler.

In the beginning of the partnership and with each customer regardless of the type of business or the size of the site Wonder Jam team has a discussion about the concept of customer experience. "A website could be an effective tool at getting a first purchase however, it can also help in attracting regular customers or acting as an advantage. It is often asked if it is a source? It is also adept at fostering VIPs?' Which are the most important people to a small business," Allie explains.

Matt and Allie both are of the opinion that websites shouldn't attempt to cater to all users and it's crucial to plan your website's design. "Whenever you're creating an online membership site, the first factor we're considering is that the users should keep returning every day and believe that it's been the best experience they've ever received," Matt adds.

Case studies: Simi and Molly

Allie starts: "One of our clients, Simi Botic, has an exercise group and a part in Unmeasured, which is all about body movements, called"the Barre Method. Simi is so compassionate and has a approach of "Just move instead of trying to punish your body. There are a variety of alternatives based on the mobility of your body."

In the beginning, when Simi first joined Wonderly there were only a handful of videos on the site , and she was switched once a week. "It lets things be more organized and permits Simi to work to her schedule" Allie confirms. "After around two or three years of operation The membership was increased in order to allow her the opportunity to provide more quality to the clients she works with and it's a great thing. We are thrilled that we're flexible enough to change our strategies when clients have different goals. we're simply reassessing our structure, making tiny changes and incorporate them into the process of development."

Another client, Molly Baz, wanted to move from her current platform to one that would be more brand-named and full of life. "Her brand's visual identity is vibrant and exclusive to her. Her goal was to make her customers feel 'live with her by this means. They received updates and recipes, and all the kind of info they're accustomed to but in a way that was consistent and specific to her personality," Allie explains.

It's been reported that Molly's fan base has increased to become so vital to her. "To be able to place the website in a way that fits in with her design aesthetic while also changing the look of the website from "Oh yes, there's a picture of Molly Get her cookbook' to something very important, inside and outside the membership. This adds up to many advantages," Allie muses.

"Something we've been trying to communicate with our customers is to consider how the future might look like in terms of like for them if they aren't in contact with them throughout the throughout the day. We've made sure that they've got all the necessary technology in place to use the software we've developed specifically for them. Molly's situation is an excellent instance of that." Matt agrees.

More information and future projects

Matt and Allie are working on behalf of companies and sites that need "a massive lens of accessibility" to accommodate disabled users. "We're cooperating with truly amazing organisations that work hard to ensure that these prototypes and sites approved by the groups of users."

The majority of them agree that they've had a wonderful relationship with their customers "It's incredible to keep working with truly amazing people. The clients we work with are extremely sensitive , and always possess an attitude of respect for each other," Allie concludes. "We get to work with really interesting people whose beliefs guide their work. It's gratifying to be able to make things that are for them," Matt smiles.

Learn more on Allie Lehman and Matt Hart and their team, and consider collaboration opportunities with them on thewonderjam.com and withwonderly.com.

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