In this episode of Beyond Page One, host Mickey interviews Dean Stanzel, an entrepreneur and the creative force behind Top of Mind Gifts. Dean shares his unique journey from an engineering background to becoming a successful business owner, emphasizing the importance of memorable gifts in building client relationships. He discusses the impact of COVID-19 on his business model, leading to a shift towards online sales and international reach. Dean also introduces his innovative 3D pop-up cards, which serve as a unique way to engage clients and stand out in a crowded market. In this conversation, Dean Stanzel discusses innovative gift solutions that create lasting impressions, the importance of automation and AI in scaling a business, and the challenges of maintaining work-life balance as an entrepreneur. He emphasizes the need for differentiation in a saturated market and shares his vision for the future, focusing on personal growth and meaningful experiences.

Listen On Spotify- https://open.spotify.com/episode/23yPOg3jbXRkZSaw6VXvDA?si=UUrnLQQuSBOYZ1k0uTTXrw

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Email- dean@topofmindgifts.ca
dean@strategic3dcards.com

• Dean’s journey into entrepreneurship began unexpectedly through a sales job.
• He values flexibility and independence over traditional employment.
• The importance of being top of mind for referrals in business.
• Memorable gifts can create lasting impressions and strengthen relationships.
• COVID-19 prompted a shift to online business models and international reach.
• Dean emphasizes the significance of trust and honesty in business relationships.
• He believes in the power of unique, thoughtful gifts for clients.
• The 3D pop-up cards are a unique way to engage clients and stand out.
• Networking has led to unique business opportunities for Dean.
• Dean’s approach combines creativity with strategic gifting. Every time I show, I haven’t had anybody that weren’t impressed.
• It’s about them, it’s not about you.
• Our cards not only get out, they get opened, they get shown.
• People go back to the booth just to get their own pop-up card.
• Automation and AI are crucial for scaling.
• Networking is the biggest marketing channel.
• You have to have a position and respect your worth.
• You have to believe what you do and why you do it.
• Handwritten cards have a really big impact.
• It’s important to combine work and personal life experiences.

Mickey (00:00)

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Mickey. I’m your host on Beyond Page One’s podcast. Joining us today is Dean, entrepreneur, storyteller, and creative force behind the top of mind gifts. Dean has turned a simple act of giving into a powerful business strategy, helping companies leave lasting impressions through quality, meaningful gifts. With a background in sales, a passion for appreciation, a firsthand experience in running multiple businesses. ⁓ We are really thrilled to have him.

Dean, welcome to the show and let’s start from the beginning. What first sparked your entrepreneurial spirit?

Dean Stanzel (00:37)

Yeah, sure. Well, thanks for having me. And I’ve got an interesting background. I actually have an engineering physics degree, which has nothing to do with what I’m doing now. But it is the of the instant ⁓ start into entrepreneurship because in my last year of university, like maybe many of your viewers, I was recruited by Cutco to sell knives in home, do presentations, and I’d never done sales before.

Mickey (00:47)

Ha

Dean Stanzel (01:06)

I did well, ran an office, things like that. So kind of fell into it, if you will, and liked what I was doing. I soon found out that ⁓ I don’t like having a boss, so ⁓ employment or traditional, I guess, work life wasn’t for me, and I liked the flexibility.

success with sales and so that was the start and I did the cut cove for a while and I took a little bit of time off. actually started my own financial services brokerage, ran that for a decade, learned some lessons especially in the market crash of 2008 and 2009 and then decided that wasn’t the industry for me. I took a little bit of time off then with my son when he was born and then got reintroduced. I guess I should say I’m married 28 years now.

Mickey (01:45)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (01:58)

I have three kids, 25, 23 and 15. And so when we had our youngest, I had taken a few years off while he was, you know, preschool. And then my middle daughter was in university and was recruited by Cutco to sell knives 30 years later, which is kind of a full circle moment. I’ve always had Cutco, I’ve loved it. And the reason I’m mentioning that is it’s key to part of the gifting business.

Mickey (02:19)

Mm-hmm.

Dean Stanzel (02:27)

So she was selling some knives. I got back in touch with some of the management that I’d worked with who had worked their way up. And I was curious, because this was during COVID, how you sell a physical, tangible product on Zoom. everything I’d done was in person. So I was asking about that. they’d said that, know, Cutco has been around 75 years. So they’ve got quite a history. And in Canada, 30 years. So.

people knew about it at that point and it was referral based so the ability to show people and share was much more acceptable or possible than in my day when I was the first rep in Saskatchewan and ⁓ nobody had ever heard of or seen the product before. So ⁓ that was an interesting kind of just visit back in the past but during that conversation it came up, you what am I doing these days and I was, I like to joke.

playing too much pickleball and being a semi-retired person. And so I said, well, I’m kind of looking for the next step and what to do. And they mentioned that Cutco now had a B2B program, which was different than I’d seen, but it made a lot of sense. I mean, I love the product. People I sold to love the product. Lots of people who own it love the product. The biggest objection, I’d say maybe the only one is…

It’s premium, it costs a lot and therefore people maybe can’t justify or can’t afford it. So the idea of having a company using it as a business gift was perfect. It made sense because people love the gift and there’s so much, not transactional, guess, consumable gifting that’s done out there that’s kind of rote. People do it without really thinking why, that having a practical, thoughtful gift made a lot of sense and

than the marketing side of it where it’s a product that everybody uses. They use it every day when it’s branded, they see it every day and the nature of true top of mind awareness becomes very important for all businesses. ⁓ And I always like to clarify for people that having customers that like you, like your work, whatever your business is and are happy with you and even would refer you does not mean that they are the top of mind or that you are top of mind with them.

Top of mind means in the six seconds, maybe even less nowadays, ⁓ when somebody asks them for a referral, hey, I’m moving, do know a good realtor? Or, you I need to do my shingles again, do know a good roofer? You need to be top of mind, which means they don’t have to think about it. You know, if somebody says, what country do you live in? You don’t have to stop and go, geez, you know, I know the name of it, but it’s there, it’s top of mind, your spouse’s name, you don’t have to think. You need to be in that position as a business with your clients to be referred.

Mickey (05:05)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (05:19)

And there’s huge opportunities. Lots of people will refer you, but if you’re not top of mind, they don’t and those opportunities are lost. So there’s a big opportunity for businesses to increase their exposure in their business simply by strengthening their relationships with their existing clients and being top of mind. So that’s where kind of the full circle came in with Cutco.

love the product, makes good sense as a business gift. Strategically and logistically, there’s some really nice benefits. I can work anywhere, drop ship, customize. Everything I do is very tied to an individual business. And that’s where the whole business gifting strategy and appreciation kind of came from. And the idea of Top of Mind Gifts, the company. And it’s interesting. I’m not by any means a kind of social engineer or historian or whatever, but

I reflect back to prior to my day, even the 60s and the 70s where business was done over the table, shake of a hand, I trust you, you’re gonna look after me, I know you, that kind of stuff. And then in the 80s, you we started to get a little bit more technology in the 90s. It was amazing, we were all impressed because we could get access to so much information and we didn’t need anybody else, we could research it ourselves. Then social media in the 2000s and things exploding. And then…

I think about 2010, that decade leading up, probably was, I’m not sure when exactly it happened, but in there and then the recent boom in AI, I think we’ve actually got to the point in society where there’s too much information if you can believe that. We have so much that you can’t find, you can find everything and anything and more than you need to or want to know and you don’t even know how to sift through it, how to decipher it, if it’s true or not.

Mickey (06:59)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (07:10)

So it’s funny that about 50 years later, I’m finding more and more businesses are going back to, you know somebody I can trust? And that comes very much into appreciation, recognition, top of mind awareness. So we’re kind of full circle there. And I like the idea of being ⁓ at the front of that, but also being unique. I’m not a promo company. I don’t do mugs or pens or t-shirts. All I do is

the cut code, the branding, gifting there, and then the pop-up cards, which was something that recently came in.

Mickey (07:44)

Awesome. Before founding Top of Mind Gifts, you mentioned you own several businesses. Can you share some insights from those ventures, how it shaped your current approach?

Dean Stanzel (07:56)

Yeah, the first thing I guess is I’m a little, I’ve got some.

Interesting engineering personality traits a little bit ADHD, you know ⁓ shiny thing over here I like the details I get into the nitty-gritty. I also tend to get ⁓ overly hung up on some some points that don’t necessarily matter and The reason I bring those up is those things that sometimes can seem in octuous You know that they’re not really relevant do have an impact on business some ways good some ways bad and that combined with

Mickey (08:06)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (08:31)

⁓ I would say my innocence in a way, or my willingness to believe people and take them at face value and trust, those are probably some of the maybe hardest lessons I learned in that it’s not that there’s people out to get you, but everybody’s got ultimately deep down their own self-interest at heart and…

you can’t just take somebody at face value and assume that they’re gonna go out of their way to make sure that you’re looked after. And that’s just the way it is. I guess coming to grips with that and looking at, I wanna help other people. I like to think my motto is say what you’re gonna do, do it, and then make sure you did what you said.

and do everything in your power to do that and achieve it. ⁓ unfortunately, that’s not the common practice in business. There’s lots of excuses and other things. So ⁓ that’s one of the key things. And that applies again to any business. Financial services, sales, I’ve worked in different types of retail sales.

sold, you know, Schwanns, I’ve sold ice cream, I love ice cream, but sold ice cream, you know, industrial equipment and so on. Never did practice as an engineer, but it tends to show up in different parts of everything I’ve done. And then getting back into this, I’m, what did somebody call me? Professionally, passionately persistent. So that means I don’t give up. And if I say I’m going to follow up or do something, I will do it. And that’s much to the

I guess, fringe of people who try and ghost nowadays or don’t respond. So I’m very much reverting back from the traditional sales or even just the sales approach to more the consulting and the information and the service approach. And that comes back to mainly being honest and being blunt. More and more people, I’ve been criticized in the past for having the stereotypical engineer.

Mickey (10:24)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (10:31)

I just ask it straight out. I’m blunt. I’m not politically correct or diplomatic. I’ve tried to be in sales, but it’s refreshing to see that that is actually becoming more more respected nowadays in business. you know, I’m a big boy. I can take no. If you’re not interested, tell me. If you are, great. I’ll help you. I’ll bend over backwards to look after you. But don’t don’t mess around. You know, I’ll give people a scale now and say on a scale of one to four, do you want to do business?

Mickey (10:43)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (11:01)

Are you interested in doing business soon? You know, we should talk. You like it, but not right now, or I’m not interested. Just, just pick one. Tell me. It doesn’t matter to me which, but let’s not waste each other’s time on any kind of trying to hide that. So yeah, that’s ⁓ kind of some of the things.

Mickey (11:09)

Yeah.

100%.

Yeah,

it’s funny that you say what you what you said because on my mugs I say we do what we say we will do Right. So, you know just do what you say are gonna do it. Life is a lot easier. Your clients are a lot happier Your wife’s a lot happier

Dean Stanzel (11:35)

The sad thing about that is that that’s not a very high bar. Like, it should be the basic of everything. But that impresses people nowadays. So, yeah.

Mickey (11:40)

⁓ It should be the basic, but yeah.

Yeah.

Was there a defining moment or interaction that you had that solidified your belief in a memorable gift?

Dean Stanzel (11:59)

well, that’s a tough question. I don’t think there’s a single defining, defining moment, but ⁓ as I look back from the perspective I’m in now, there are things that have happened, whether they be physical, tangible gifts or experiences ⁓ that I still remember. I have a poor memory. ⁓ could forget, you know, what we started doing 15 minutes ago, but there are things still that I can remember from

Mickey (12:04)

Yeah.

Hmm.

You

Dean Stanzel (12:28)

40 years ago and a lot of those, well they’re all positive things, they all had impact, some of them were gifts. I love the Lego set I got for Christmas when I was nine, you know, I’d done things like that and those to me stand out as, you know, they had an impact. So how can we do that in business? How can you have a similar or some kind of an impact like that?

And then, you know, having people where you find the perfect gift, getting to be more recently and they love the product. In my case, you know, they love their cut code, they call back. You know, if you give a gift as a business and the client calls you back personally to thank you for it, you know you’ve done something right. Yeah, exactly. So some of those experiences have been the best and the results of that effectively have been, I was telling somebody yesterday,

Mickey (13:09)

Yeah, you did a good job.

Dean Stanzel (13:21)

⁓ neat and fun, which is as a salesperson, I’ve tried to go out, promote, represent, sell products and to have people happy enough with services and products where they’re actually now coming to me, calling me saying, hey, can I buy more from you? ⁓ That’s, think, a good reflection, not just of me, but also of the products and the gifts and the effectiveness of it. So, yeah.

Mickey (13:46)

100 % well said. At the beginning of the podcast, you mentioned ⁓ COVID-19 and, you know, obviously directly impacting the world. ⁓ But how did it impact your business and what adaptations did you make in response to selling a physical product now being online?

Dean Stanzel (13:52)

Yes.

Yeah. Well, three things. One, that’s why I kind of looked into the cutcom work because I didn’t understand how that would work. Obviously, we’re all dealing with a lot.

Mickey (14:14)

Mm-hmm.

Dean Stanzel (14:16)

But the ability to work online and I think in a broad sense, the normalization of Zoom of media like this, the acceptance, the, I was in financial services before the turn of the decade, turn of the century. And we were all excited then about, yay, you know, no more papers, all electronic signatures and everything. And no, just meant we had to do two sets. But finally, this prompted the ability to have a contract signed electronically and accepted. So those kind of

Mickey (14:38)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (14:46)

changes really in a positive way for me impacted things because what was traditionally a very local in your city kind of within an hour drive maybe doing some trade shows type of business within

within a year, know, some pivoting became an international business. I could work with somebody. I don’t inventory. I don’t do the engraving. I don’t stock. So I’m not that kind of a business, but in call it a service business, I could work with somebody in Florida or California as easy as I could work with somebody down the street. Makes no difference. And so that was huge. ⁓ the other part of it, I think is the logistics of my business. It’s, I was fortunate in the sense that I can drop ship. I can have things sent.

I don’t have to worry about large inventories and again that was part of the benefits of using or choosing Cutco. ⁓ One other I guess pivot or I guess thing that may be able to adapt is the framework or the way I view my business.

And that is that I’m not a coach or anything like that. do, you know, I’ve found give advice, a lot of things people haven’t thought of before. But when I tell people ultimately what I truly think of as my product and what I sell, it’s top of mind awareness. It’s relationships. It’s strengthening those, getting more referrals. That’s what I’m trying to provide. The fact that I use Cutco to do it, awesome product, but it really doesn’t matter. That’s not the focus of the business.

Mickey (16:16)

Mm-hmm.

Dean Stanzel (16:20)

And so having any tangible product didn’t really matter with that philosophy because on the other end too, any business I talk to, they like the idea they get it, the logic’s there. But when it’s deep down, they could care less. They want the referrals, they want the appreciation for their clients, they want that. And how I get it to them doesn’t really matter. Yeah.

Mickey (16:43)

Yeah,

yeah, I mean that makes sense. had mentioned earlier on ⁓ the 3D pop-up cards. ⁓ They seem quite unique. you A, tell us a little bit about it and B, can you walk us kind of through the creative process behind designing these cards?

Dean Stanzel (16:51)

Yes.

Yeah, for

sure. Well, again, interesting story. The more, you know, it’s one of those things, the more I network, the more I run into opportunities. You know, they say the harder you work, the luckier you get, that kind of thing. And so part of my networking, again, it’s unique enough that I have to tell people firsthand, I can’t go out and just do Google ads or something. So I do a lot of networking, meet a lot of people and share a lot of information, which creates some interesting contacts. And one gentleman I met just last year, I guess about a year ago, he

Mickey (17:11)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (17:31)

He was a coach thinking business and he was you know were talking about what we do and I told him about the knives and the gifting and he said ⁓ You know, there’s a guy that think you might be interested in meeting he he does these pop-up cards And I said that’s kind of cool and he said yeah I think my wife was saying he actually did a cut code knife pop-up card. I was like, ⁓

Well that’s pretty cool, I gotta see this. And so I met with him and found out about the product and I have to say, you I was familiar with the concept but what he was doing was quite a bit beyond that.

And we got talking and I liked the idea of using the product and then the kind of the evolution went from using it to offering it to other people to being a distributor to building a distributor base, kind of looking after Canada. And now I’m, I won’t say everything, but I’m kind of behind the national, international.

distributor base base distributor program and building that base as well as doing some retail and larger events. But it’s it’s a crazy story and introduction and business because we’re the only ones that do what we do.

And what I mean by that is there are pop-up cards, there are pop-up card companies out there, but we’re business-to-business focused and we build the 3D models. So it’s not a generic, you buy it off the shelf, it’s already there. We will take themes, we’ll take ideas, we’ll be creative and we’ll actually make something for you. And that can be houses, it can be animals, it can be themes. If it’s video, you guys can see stuff like this. Here’s one.

great for real estate. A little thank you card. If you got this as a thank you card when you bought your house, I think you’d be pretty impressed. Here’s one I did car dealerships. There’s my little car, is again tailored, that’s my car, tailored to me. everybody recognizes this lady, Statue of Liberty. There’s one from New York.

Mickey (19:20)

Yeah, wow.

I think that would be it. No kidding.

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (19:44)

and on and on. There’s hundreds of different cards that I can show you. they’re all of those models are not generic. They’re built for specific people or purposes. And that makes them that much more unique. Everybody’s got a kid in them. Everybody loves a pop-up card, period. You know, we remember the princess and the dragon books and all that kind of stuff. But the ability to combine that.

Mickey (20:03)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (20:06)

with something that breaks through the noise nowadays that actually gets to the person you want to get it to, that is read by the person that is intended for, and for the most part that is kept and shown by that person to others. Which, again, the fact that nobody else does it is great for me now and was quite ⁓ flabbergasting back when I first found out about it because the marketing side for me, I was like, this is amazing. Everybody should be doing this.

And the fact that nobody else was is great. ⁓ Then there’s one other further aspect which is even cooler and this is more on a global basis. We do the regular, know, medium, small, large cards, traditional sizes you’d see in stores, but we do mini ones. And these are business card size, but they are…

Mickey (20:55)

Cool.

Dean Stanzel (20:56)

business card pop-up. So this is for a trades company and the story I have there that’s kind of funny is I talk to plumbers and they think, most people think, oh I’ll put my logo or I’ll put something that’s my name or something like that. And I’ve said, this is an experience. People can see your name, they can see your logo, you’re a plumber. To me, what would stick out is let’s have a toilet pop-up.

that you’re not going to forget. And you’re going to keep the card and you’re going to know where it is and you’re going to refer people if they ever ask about it. And in some cases, depending Christmas cards and other things, they even get left out and displayed. So they create business. They create conversations about a company that never would come up otherwise. And there’s that one. So the audience, a few others, because to get the idea of the scope or what we can actually do is pretty crazy. This one for an airline or a travel company.

their airplane. ⁓ This is my traditional, my old one, gift box. Obviously a gifting company. And I’ll end with the staggering, some people like it, some people don’t, but everybody remembers it. This is my card now.

Mickey (22:04)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (22:14)

And there’s me.

Mickey (22:16)

No

way, that’s awesome.

Dean Stanzel (22:18)

So yeah, we can do amazing things. And there’s so many different applications. Every time I show, I haven’t had anybody, zero people that weren’t impressed. Not in a huge way, just they don’t have a crack smile and go, that’s so cute. That’s so cool. And to have a product that is like that is really fun and great. And the fact that it’s so effective nowadays in the environment, something tangible, something high quality, something that you get in the mail, which is so foreign nowadays.

⁓ It’s just effective on so many levels.

Mickey (22:52)

Hmm that is it’s it’s got my my wheels turning for you know when I send holiday cards or even thank you cards after we work with the client for a long time like You know, have to write these cards, which is great It’s a nice sentiment, but like it’d be really cool if I could pop up and their logo pops up in that card or whatever

Dean Stanzel (23:10)

Now what you just said there, their logo. Now sometimes that’s hard because you have customers and you have whole bunch of different logos so we have to do some production lines but ⁓ focusing on them, doing different ways to feature the customer because they, everybody feels special about themselves even if you say they don’t so.

Mickey (23:29)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (23:31)

That’s probably one of the themes to the entire business is, you know, it’s about them, it’s not about you. There’s nothing wrong with branding and being remembered. I don’t think that you can’t have your name or an association with yourself, but it has to be genuine. And the cards you were saying at Christmas, it’s one of the craziest things where…

I’m going to just make a generalization. We all know you get lots of cards at Christmas time. They go on the shelf, they go on the back wall, they go on the string hanging up or whatever. I’m not sure if they ever get read, certainly by the people I want to send them to, much less the admin staff. And after that, they’re left there and hopefully recycled at the end of the season. But our cards…

not only get out, they get opened, they get shown, they get to the people they want, they pass on the message. That’s all great. But they also are art. They’re, it’s called kiregami. It’s a Vietnamese art form. And they get left out and displayed because they’re just cool. And that has other people. So you’ve given something to your client, they’re displaying it because it’s cool. And their clients come in and see it. And they also think it’s cool. So they ask about it. And if you think about that,

Mickey (24:42)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (24:44)

You’ve got something that your clients are actually promoting you without you ever being there. It’s like it’s amazing. Same thing at trade shows. know, lot of people doing vendors and booths. can imagine everybody’s got their swag bag and what we’re trying to do. But people give out these cards, but you business cards and they’re just, neat. People go around, they play with them. They look at them. Other people see them go, where’d you get that? Because I don’t know, for me, at least half of the things that a trade show, you’re just going around getting cool stuff.

Mickey (24:57)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (25:14)

So people go back to the booth just to get their own pop-up card to play with. But if you’re a vendor at a trade show, really, that’s what you want. It’s just somebody coming up to say hi that you can actually talk to instead of trying to grab people and pull them in off the aisle. So they’re very effective there as well. Fundraisers, know, nonprofit, black tie, big events. If you happen to know, if anybody happens to know, I want to get in touch with a

Mickey (25:35)

Mm-hmm.

Dean Stanzel (25:41)

person that organizes one of these huge celebrity events or social events. Because picture this, I want to have at the Oscars, you we have the announcements, the runners up and everything. And the winner is and you get the envelope, right? They open it. It’s the Oscar, right? I was like, that would be so cool. And it’s not only that, those are people that are hard to impress. I mean, they’ve seen it all. They’ve been given it all. And I know for a fact, they’ve never seen this. So

Mickey (25:53)

You open it and it’s…

That would be awesome.

Dean Stanzel (26:09)

I think it would be great, anyways, that’s one of my dreams or my projects for at some point.

Mickey (26:16)

That’s really cool. Well, my next question actually leads into, you know, ⁓ scaling top of mind gifts. So obviously, you know, giving out gift cards like this, or sorry, gift cards, giving out these cards is gonna get you more leads or more people are gonna, you know, see it. So I’m sure that that’s been an effective way of scaling, right? ⁓ What are some other ways that you’ve scaled?

Dean Stanzel (26:43)

big part is automation and to some degree AI nowadays. ⁓ Maybe that’s the engineer in me, but I’m not scared of it. I’m healthily cautious about some of the things it can do nowadays because I’ve got a little bit of an understanding. But the ability to have a lot of the redundant tasks managed and looked after.

really appeal to me and I’ve taken interest and impacted or affected them. ⁓ Things from here’s a free plug I should maybe charge them for it but go high level that’s my CRM and I love it. There you go like I can do all kinds of stuff with it and ⁓ and it’s not only beneficial for me you know there’s the immediate service side of it there’s the automated touch points that you couldn’t do otherwise.

Mickey (27:16)

That’s my syrup.

Dean Stanzel (27:30)

but the ability to tie it all together and to make a plan and actually have something where you know it will be executed. Barring technology, obviously there’s always technology issues, but ⁓ there’s definitely an aspect of being able to rely on that happening instead of trying to have somebody remembering or all the effort in doing that. And it also frees up ⁓ the human labor side of it to do things that machines can’t. Instead of…

Repeatedly typing out an email. Maybe it’s spending time thinking about the best way or the way to craft it that kind of thing So that’s a huge part of scaling for me is the ability to automate and systemize and Really the limitless scaling involved with that it I don’t need to hire more staff the computer runs, you know hundred thousand hundred thousand doesn’t make a difference and So that frees me up to ultimately I get to the point where all I do

Mickey (28:18)

24-7. Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (28:26)

is meet with people and share ideas and get things started with what they want, which is a pretty cool place to be in.

Mickey (28:33)

That is very cool. What about like marketing channels? What have you found, which marketing channels have been most effective to catch your target audience?

Dean Stanzel (28:43)

⁓ Networking is the biggest one now ⁓ Marketing a lot of people think of the social media the ads the paid ads all that kind of stuff SEO searching stuff for my particular business and I won’t say this for everybody but It’s it’s common sense. I mean I tell people nice everybody uses it branded. They see it every day It’s like that makes sense and I never thought of it, but it makes sense and yet I can’t

Mickey (28:46)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (29:12)

get that message across in an ad or in a 15 second reel or whatever because the little things behind it make the difference and I have to tell people that. for me, networking in person, that’s one thing I can’t really scale and it’s word of mouth scales but I can only go out and see so many people and so that’s the best way to provide the most information to the most people because I need to do it in person.

Mickey (29:40)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (29:41)

The ability that the reason one of the things I chose cut go for as well is the ability to have their production. So I can order a gift or five gifts, but I can order 500 and I can expect the same quality gift, the same timelines and be able to deliver. And that was important to me because if I have expectations I’m setting for clients, I want to be able to deliver on that. The downside is there’s a lot of great artisans and crafts people that make really cool stuff, but

I’m not doing a one-off business, so I can’t use those kind of things. Same thing with the cards. We have the ability to manufacture. We’ve done 150s, a minimum run, from a printing standpoint or production, but we’ve done 10,000 runs like that. ⁓ Great for bigger companies. We had a pharmaceutical company that they actually had us create their molecular structure, their atom, their molecule, of their new drug, and that was the pop-up.

and they use the trade show and stuff like that. So again, just really creative ideas, but the ability to scale really on any level that way and support is important as well. I’ve understood and learned that as much as sometimes even still I get trapped in being in the business and doing the work, especially stuff that I like to do, that’s not necessarily something I should be doing, but I like to, ⁓ the ability to step outside of that and work on the business is…

Mickey (30:59)

Mm-hmm.

Dean Stanzel (31:08)

crucial than any kind of scaling. so that’s something I think everybody struggles with or has to do better at.

Mickey (31:16)

Yeah, 100 % and it’s a great great segue to actually the next kind of question that I had for you. ⁓ You know, managing that work-life balance, you know, especially when creativity is a key component of your work and networking and being out there being the face of it. How do do it as a business owner?

Dean Stanzel (31:36)

It’s been tough. My personality is such that when I get interested in something, I dive in wholeheartedly. to some extent, know, that’s the ADHD part of it. When I get focused, I can lose hours. I can be absorbed in something. And that’s tough on relationships. It’s great on whatever I’m focusing on, but it can distort other things. So…

Mickey (31:48)

Thank you.

Dean Stanzel (32:01)

Over the years, as I get older, I’d like to think I mature a bit. ⁓ The idea of saying, I need to be aware of that and I need to draw some boundaries and I need to respect other people in my life. My wife shouldn’t be the last person I’m trying to appease, she should be the first. And things like that, those are probably gonna be struggles or things I have to deal with forever.

But there are things that I think are very important and for the younger me, things that I didn’t think were as important. You know, I can put this off, I can do this later, she’ll understand, things like that. And it’s, no, it’s hard. I’m a people pleaser, which can be great and it can be a big negative. And I need to learn who to put first. And in some cases, that’s myself.

Sacrificing yourself for everybody else can be good in some ways, but you have to have a position. You have to respect yourself as well. So I don’t know if I’m saying how to balance it or how not to balance it. ⁓ I think have some boundaries in sales. It’s tough. There’s definitely there’s the employee mindset and that’s not a bad thing. It’s just the whole philosophical way of viewing work. And then there’s the entrepreneurial mindset.

Mickey (33:05)

Hahaha.

Dean Stanzel (33:21)

And the differences there, you know, nine to five, I clock in, I clock out, I’m getting paid no matter what I’m doing versus I work when I need to work. I can take time off, but I need to work sometimes when I, you know, at home or at night. I don’t get paid for every hour, but sometimes I get paid 10 grand for an hour and that kind of thing. the figuring out the way to have people on both sides of that fence work together is important. And from the entrepreneurial standpoint,

understanding that there are some boundaries are important. From the employee standpoint, from those people, a little bit of patience with the fact that, you know, I do have to work, I, whoever the entrepreneur has to work at odd hours or sometimes just to make a client happy, but that there are positives that go with that too. So I don’t know that anybody ever perfectly balances it, but yeah, it’s definitely an important piece. I think delegation is an important part of that as well.

Mickey (34:14)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (34:21)

⁓ The ultimate example I heard somebody was saying is they have five personal assistants. And I was like, you know, one definitely justifiable, maybe two, but five, come on. mean, that’s an ego play more than anything. And he said, you know, yeah, it seems like that. And it was weird getting to this place. But he said, I should only be doing something that pays me what I’m worth or that I want and like to do. Anything else should be delegated.

Mickey (34:35)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (34:51)

And then he got into some examples. He’s like, maybe I want to coach my kids soccer team. I choose to do that. I’ll spend the time. But if I’m not doing that, I have a driver that takes my kids to their soccer practices and other things. And I go to the games. And he’s like, it’s half an hour here, an hour there. But it’s not something I need to do. He, of course, has a chef that cooks. Because he says, I’m not a good cook, and it’s not worth my time. If I’m working, I’m worth.

$400 an hour and I can hire a chef for a lot less than $400 an hour. And so it wasn’t an ego thing. For me, logistically, it made a lot of sense. It’s like, why do I do these other things? We’ve all probably heard it on some level, hire a bookkeeper, hire an admin, things like that, but he just took it to the next level. And it’s still hard for me to conceptualize doing that, but it makes a lot of sense.

Mickey (35:41)

Mmm.

Dean Stanzel (35:49)

On one level or another, every business person needs to be doing that, ⁓ even on some of the basic tasks, if they want to scale at all.

Mickey (35:57)

100 % yeah, it’s delegation is a big part of you know, building a business but then trusting those people beneath you too, right? ⁓ That you know that they’re gonna get the job done, right? Whether it’s driving your kids to work or whether it’s coming up with that proposal or that slide deck, whatever it might be, right?

Dean Stanzel (36:09)

it.

Mickey (36:16)

⁓ What advice would you give entrepreneurs looking to differentiate themselves in a saturated market, especially like gifts, promo items and things like that. There’s a lot.

Dean Stanzel (36:30)

There’s a lot of people that have a race to the bottom, know, cheapest price and I think one of the things maybe very starting foundation is respect for yourself and your worth. If you don’t believe you’re better, different, special, can offer more to your clients, then ultimately the only thing that does distinguish you is the price. So and that

Mickey (36:33)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (36:54)

really nowadays as much as it’s an excuse and it’s the reason given, it’s very far down the list of the reasons why people actually buy things. Maybe outside of large corporations, Fortune 500, that have shareholders they have to appease, things like that. So having that mindset and then believing it and implementing it. Why, having a why, why am I different? If you don’t know why you’re better than your competitors, then fair question is, are you? ⁓

Mickey (37:22)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (37:23)

So what is your, I don’t know, they’re cliche, but what is your mission? What is your vision? What is your fundamental philosophy? And understanding that, believing it, and then having that ⁓ represented in everything you do. Those kind of things, ⁓ I think, are important to be able to then say, I’m special, I’m different, and to own that too. In gifting and in appreciation, sometimes I talk to people who are ⁓

embarrassed, you know, I want to do this for you, but you know, it’s nothing, nothing really big or not important and stuff and they downplay themselves and I’m guilty of doing that too sometimes. But you have to do, you have to believe what you do and why you do it. I’m very passionate about why, you know, I do the gifts I do and I’m very happy with them. I can’t represent things that I don’t believe in. ⁓ So having that whole mentality is there and then, shameless plug here,

doing some creative gifting like knives or pop-up cards of course to help differentiate you and so on. seriously, any product, not any product, any high quality non-consumable product where thoughts put in, ⁓ they’re all gonna work. Handwritten cards like you said are probably the easiest, cheapest thing that an average any entrepreneur can do that has a really big impact that a lot of people don’t realize. I was just talking to somebody, maybe it was even this week or last week,

Mickey (38:26)

Yeah. ⁓

You

Dean Stanzel (38:52)

And they said, you know, something as little as a company was sending me a birthday card. Now, I get those too, and quite honestly, I maybe read them, you it’s not a big thing. But in their case, they said it wasn’t getting the cards that had the biggest impact. It was when they stopped doing that, that it really became apparent that I’m not even worth this anymore. And eventually they switched businesses. So thinking about… ⁓

how important those things are. Unfortunately, most people don’t really understand until they have a negative consequence from it. They lose that key employee that all they needed to do was show a little bit more appreciation, say thank you once in a while, express how important they are. That keeps people happy and working for you. And even just forgetting to do stuff like that can have a huge impact, much more so than a wage or an hourly negotiation or things like that. So… ⁓

I would say having your values, having your being rooted or grounded in what you do, why you do it, believing that you are different and actually being different for whatever reason. Some people, it’s fair enough, say, ultimately, I do your books. I do them well. I’m competent, but I’m here for you. Even you like me. That’s how I’m different. I’m a likable person. Or ⁓ I’m available more often than others. There’s lots of different ways to be unique.

Mickey (40:12)

We are.

Dean Stanzel (40:17)

and to stand out. And you’ve got to do something nowadays, otherwise you aren’t going to be remembered, you aren’t going to be used.

Mickey (40:26)

Well said, very well said. Thank you for sharing that. ⁓ Looking ahead, what is your vision ⁓ next three or five years from now? Is it about scaling, deepening the experience, or something else entirely?

Dean Stanzel (40:44)

⁓ It’s interesting. again, combination of attention, other things, I love new ideas and exploring and big picture. ⁓ And I have to say I don’t really like or am not very good at the minutiae, know, actually executing it. I’m, here’s what we want to do. Here’s why it’s going to be great. Here’s how you should do it. But you do it, not me. And that’s just more of a personality thing. So I…

would like to get these scaled but also systemized and automated where most of the things I don’t have to do and then also bring in the right kind of people to help grow it. But I think I’m always going to be open to or looking for new ideas, things to explore just because of the creative side of it and the opportunity, the excitement of something new. So

I think the businesses will be here. think they’ll be scaled, successful, ⁓ growing, but I think I will have less and less to do with the day-to-day or even in some respects the bigger overall. I never really thought about trying to be a buyout candidate, you build something and then sell it off, mainly because I don’t like the idea of giving up control. If there’s something, people, other things that I’ve put time into, I don’t want them screwed over. ⁓

Mickey (42:00)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dean Stanzel (42:11)

I also know, especially with the rate of change and how fast things are moving, that there’s going to be, I can’t even imagine what’s going to be happening in five years and what opportunities or what things may be available or not. personally, I just turned 50, just about 51, and I don’t know if it’s a significant milestone, but moving towards really long-term, you know, they say when you’re on your deathbed, what are you going to remember? What are you going to feel?

valuable for doing, who’s going to be there. ⁓ Those things in a lot of ways have nothing to do with my business. And so trying to get a foundation in that part of my life, that’s that work-life balance, know, all those things. ⁓ Combining those and having things like, it’s not having the money to go on a nice trip, but it’s the ability to go on an experience with your family. And I’ve been fortunate enough, I’ve had a family trip.

Mickey (42:54)

Yeah.

Dean Stanzel (43:10)

almost every year outside of a couple in COVID, where we’ve taken the whole family, all the kids every year and gone out. And that’s been very special, not because of necessarily where we went, but just it was, yeah, experience and it was the tradition. Yeah.

Mickey (43:21)

the experience.

Yeah.

That’s very cool. ⁓ Well, I want to thank you for your time today. I don’t have any other questions. If there’s anything else that you want to share, please go ahead.

Dean Stanzel (43:35)

Yeah,

I love to help people and share so if I can be of help or assistance to anybody that’s watching, I’d love to meet, I’d love to network. ⁓ I think you’re probably going to have the information in the chat, like the websites and so top of mind gifts and strategic 3D cards, look them up. If there’s anything I can do for you, great. And ⁓ thanks for having me on the show.

Mickey (43:58)

Yeah, of course. Thank you so much for coming down Dean. And yeah, like you said, I’ll be linking all of your socials and everything below or above depending on what platform you’re watching on. yeah, reach out to Dean and ask any questions. He seems like he will be quick to answer and pretty knowledgeable in what he does. So thanks again, Dean. Really appreciate it.

Dean Stanzel (44:15)

Yeah, thanks for having me. See you later.