Terms

Wonder Jam Wonder Jam is "a family of brands designed to aid entrepreneurs in growing their businesses by being clever, soulful and full of energy" as per the lyrics immortalized by Daft Punk, harder, faster, better and more powerful. Wonderly is one of them. Wonderly creates websites with visual branding and Membership software that help its customers "set their own apart". I spoke to managing Partner Allie Lehman and developer Matt Hart for more information.

Fine art to freelance into freedom

"My background is in the fine arts. I spent my childhood performing numerous drawing sessions and oil painting" begins Allie Lehman. "At high school, I had a fantastic art teacher , who funny enough, told me that you could become an illustrator or graphic designer'' even though I wasn't aware of how to differentiate between the two different things! I chose graphic design , and then went to the college."

Allie was a graduate through the economic downturn of 2009 and was employed in the field of Web Hosting Support. "It was a bit stressful however, I did learn a lot about servers , the process of how WordPress was installed, and everything related to a website," she remembers. "In 2013 I launched The Wonder Jam, now the parent company of our business. I quit my job as a designer and started the company full-time."

She worked with Matt Hart for a couple years at this point. Matt Hart would create websites and she was the designer of the websites. After that, they started regularly working together: "We've been working together since the past 10 years initially as freelancers. The collaboration was organic. Now, the focus is on those who offer services as well as building WordPress websites," Allie adds.

Matt begins: "I do primarily WordPress development. The method was taught to myself in the beginning of 2010. A lot of people who had the chance to enter the WordPress world, and thought"we need to create CSS to ensure that the theme has the proper colors'. It was soon boring!" He laughs. As page builder tools like Beaver Builder and Elementor came in and allowed them to gain some flexibilities: "We could do things with a custom approach which was geared towards specific needs of our clients which really pleased us in a creative manner."

Since the start of their relationship, Allie and Matt have focused on "going customized in a manner that's affordable" and according to Matt explains: "We do only what the clients want and don't do what our clients don't. It's something our clients want to be aware of: they're not seeking to look odd. They're trying to appear more comfortable. With these tools, let us accomplish that."

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Allie says: "In 2013, I started The Wonder Jam with my husband. The first year we had begun by working for myself as a freelancer on my own. We were blessed to have Matt as Developer Contractor. We wanted to be a part of the team. We were hoping to be able to create the things we had always wanted to create as well as the opportunity to create what we wanted." The Wonder Jam was born.

Systems, soils , and supports

"We are from Columbus, Ohio and it's an extremely welcoming and open-minded neighborhood for small businesses," she continues. "Matt came on his way to Seattle and we started cooperating with clients within the local area; we could walk along the main street and look at each business we've collaborated with." In 2020, the Wonder Jam had been around for seven years. This was Wonder Jam and as the business grew in the US, they made the company their parent, which now has three brands that are sister brands.

Wonderly concentrates on businesses who offer services such as writers, non-profits, as well as fitness teachers, cooks, and chefs. Wonderly also operates another brand, called Basis, focusing on retailers as well as people who sell products in addition to a company known as Studio Wonder, an events location and photography studio located in Columbus.

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Three brands give you plenty of flexibility: "It allows our team to be focused on the tasks they want to achieve, and have individual processes to follow," Allie says. "Because Matt and I started working together from the start and we have more than a decade of processes in our backs. I have photos from 2017 , which show us whiteboarding each step in our process in order to make sure our clients feel really guided.

"The Wonder Jam operates as the "soil" that provides everything a small-scale company needs to function in the background. Each of the sister brands is able to "produce each in their unique way" and take whatever they wish with opportunities that present themselves. That lets all of the pathways be clear and without a hiccup caused by factors that hinder the running of a oneor two-person business," Matt continues. "We are a collective of companies which can work together."

The Basis brand focuses on Shopify as well as e-commerce. However, often, a customer wants to start blogging and would like to offer something superior to the products Shopify can provide. This is why Wonderly can come in for advice and guidance for the customer of Basis on the processes that are associated with WordPress. "We are able to assist and work with each other and are an integrated team, yet we can all specialize and be suitable for each person," he smiles.

"The Wonder Jam sits as an enabling foundation. No one is responsible for telling us what to do with, or the amount of revenue to earn - that's completely dependent on the executive partners to choose," says Allie. They collaborate with tools such as tools, software, project management systems and also a client service. The managers are able to schedule projects. The team members then assume the responsibility for the project and also handle all administration for the back-end, including billing, contracts, and other.

"It helps people such as Matt as well as myself focus on the work," Allie smiles. "I consider that we've created an ideal working environment. this is all about making sure that our customers enjoy great satisfaction. If they write us an email and feel that they're receiving prompt response and are supported throughout the whole process."

Matt tells us: "We say we don't make designs for you. We design things together in collaboration with you. We're not planning to go to the market for a long time and create something with their help. We meet regularly and let them see how the whole process plays out from beginning to end, rather than leaving to our crafty caves to make things on our own!"

Contexts and clients

Matt and Allie collaborate with many diverse organizations who require their website to be accessible in a variety of different ways. "Some of our customers are nonprofit organizations. They are usually extremely solid websites. They're often too complex, or exist for a long time. The tendency is to mix them up the two or reduce them until websites are easier to navigate." Matt explains.

"We're engaged with individuals that want to join an online membership platform, such as people in the food industry," 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 people who have invested a lot of their own energy, time and money into their businesses," she adds.

Wonder Jam Wonder Jam brands work with any type of organization, from big-scale corporations or solo entrepreneurs moving to full-time work after a part-time job. "We've worked hard to develop structures that will meet the needs of both. We're learning about what scales work well and what aspects you have to think about differently in cases where the scale drastically differs. This is a lot of fun for us to discover!" Matt smiles.

The author adds "With non-profit organisations, they typically already have a foundation and they've already figured out all of the legal hurdles to go through. It's how we usually get it done, since we're not seeking to create a fresh start." The group is going to reconsider what they've been through to determine the context that might move somebody to donate in a way that makes the process easier.

In the initial stages of the collaboration, and with each customer, regardless of their nature of business and dimensions of the website, the Wonder Jam team talks about how to provide customer service. "A site can be an effective tool for bringing customers to the first place, but it could be extremely effective in keeping customers coming back, or acting as a resource. The question we usually are asked is "Is it a source, or can it assist in getting VIPs to buy?' those who are considered to be the most crucial clients for small-scale companies," Allie explains.

Matt and Allie Both agree that websites aren't all things for everybody and is essential to think strategically. "Whenever we're creating websites for membership it's the first thing we're thinking about is getting people to keep returning constantly and be convinced that it's the greatest price they've ever had," Matt adds.

Case studies: Simi and Molly

Allie declares: "One of our clients, Simi Botic, has an exercise group and is a participant in Unmeasured and Unmeasured, which are all concentrated on movement of the body. It's called"the Barre Method. Simi offers a calming approach to "Just get moving" and not trying to 'punish' your body. There's an array of options depending on the mobility of your body."

At the time Simi began her journey on Wonderly when she first joined the site, she was able to upload very few videos on the site and they were updated every week. "It lets things appear more curated, and also allows her to pair what is useful with her daily schedule" Allie confirms. "After about two to three years, we widened the list of members and gave her the opportunity to provide an even greater service for her clients, which is awe-inspiring. We're delighted that we're open to changing the way we work when clients' goals change; it's only a matter of revising the design and making minor changes and then implement them in the development."

Another customer, Molly Baz, wanted to switch her platform and switch to one which was more distinct and engaging. "Her brand's visual identity is flexible and distinctive to her. The goal of her brand was to make followers to feel 'live like it' with her recipes, updates, and similar types of information they are familiar with, but in a manner that felt authentic and distinctive to her brand," Allie explains.

We all know that Molly's fan base has grown to be so significant for her. "To have the ability to organize it in an arrangement that's in with her style of design as well as changing the site to say 'Oh there's a picture of Molly and you can get her cookbook' into something that is more significant, in and out of the membership. That's some value" Allie muses.

"Something we've been trying to do with our customers is to think about what might be like for them in the absence of communicating with them every throughout the day. We ensure that they have adequate systems in place for them to utilize the software that we've designed for them Molly's situation can be a perfect example of this." Matt agrees.

Future projects and more information

Matt and Allie are working on businesses and websites that require "a large number of accessible" to those with disabilities. "We're cooperating with some impressive organisations that work hard to ensure that their prototypes and sites accepted by groups of people."

Most of them believe that overall they've enjoyed a great experience when it comes to their clients "It's been amazing to just work with really great people. Clients we have worked with have a great sense of empathy and always feel respected and valued," Allie concludes. "We enjoy the privilege of working with truly fascinating people who have values that drive the way they work. It's a great feeling being able to create stuff which is for them." Matt smiles.

Find out more information regarding Allie Lehman and Matt Hart and their team and also think about working with them, at thewonderjam.com as well withwonderly.com.

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