Terms
Wonder Jam Wonder Jam is "a family of brands that help small, creative businesses to grow" In the immortal words of Daft Punk, harder, better, faster and stronger. One of the companies, Wonderly, builds websites with visual branding, as well as membership software to help its customers "set themselves apart". I talked to the managing associate Allie Lehman and developer Matt Hart for more information.
Fine art can be freelanced to freedom
"My background is in the fine arts. I grew up performing an abundance of drawing as well as oil painting" begins Allie Lehman. "At high school I had an excellent art instructor who, funny enough, said, 'You could become an illustrator and graphic artist'' though I didn't really know the difference between these two things! I chose graphic design and took it up in college."
Allie was a graduate during the downturn in 2009 and went into web hosting support. "It was pretty stressful, but I learned a lot about servers as well as the process of how WordPress became installed, and everything related to a website," she remembers. "In 2013 I started The Wonder Jam, now our parent company. I quit my design job and began working full-time for the company."
She was working with Matt Hart for a couple years by this point; he would code websites and she would create the websites. At this point they began to work together regularly: "We've been working together for more than 10 years, beginning as freelancers. Their collaboration came about naturally. The focus is now on companies that offer services, and creating WordPress websites." Allie adds.
Matt begins: "I do primarily WordPress development. It was self-taught during the first decade of 2010. For a lot of users who were navigating the WordPress world and were thinking"We have to create CSS in order to make the theme have the right colours', and it got very boring very fast!" he smiles. With the introduction of page builders such as Beaver Builder and Elementor came in, they gained some versatility: "We could do things using a customized approach which was geared towards the particular needs of our clients, and we were able to satisfy us with our creativity."
From the start of their collaboration, Allie and Matt have been focused on "going to custom in a way that's affordable", as Matt states: "We do only what the clients want and don't do the things that our clients do not. This is something that our clients want to know: they do not want to be mysterious. They'd like to feel confident. And using these tools lets us accomplish that."
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Allie says: "In 2013, I started The Wonder Jam with my husband. We had started by freelancing on my own as a freelancer who was a solo artist. We were fortunate to have Matt as an developer contractor. We were looking to get work done, we wanted to do our own thing, we wanted that freedom." That's how the Wonder Jam was born.
Support, soil, and systems
"We live in Columbus, Ohio and it's a really welcoming open neighborhood for small business," she continues. "Matt visited on his way to Seattle and we began working with local clients; we'd stroll down the main street and look at every business we've worked with." In the year 2020, following seven years with The Wonder Jam and as the company began to grow across the country, they decided to make it the company's parent, with three sister brands.
Wonderly is a service-oriented business that focuses on which include non-profits, authors as well as fitness instructors, chefs and cooks. The brand also has a sister one called Basis that focuses on the retail industry and those selling items, along with a different brand called Studio Wonder, an events area and photography studio in Columbus.
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These three brands allow a great deal of creative freedom: "It allows our team to concentrate on what they really want to do, and have their own processes," Allie says. "Because Matt and I started working together from the start and have over 10 years of experience in our backs. I have pictures from 2017, of us drawing whiteboards on each of our processes to ensure that our clients are truly guided.
"The Wonder Jam operates as the 'soil' to provide the things every small company needs under the hood, then each sister brand can'sprout each in their own manner and gets to do what it wants with any opportunities that arise. It allows each of these pathways be clear and unhindered by things that hinder the running of as a two or one-person business," Matt continues. "We are a group of companies that can support each other."
For example, the Basis brand is primarily Shopify and online shopping, however, every once in a while clients want to start blogging and wants to create something stronger than the one Shopify offers. Therefore, Wonderly can come in to help the Basis customer on the processes that are related to WordPress. "We can support and collaborate with each other and feel like a team and yet everyone is able to specialize in a way that feels satisfying to their own," he smiles.
"The Wonder Jam sits as an enabling foundation. No one is at the top in deciding who we should work with or how much profit to generate - that's up to an executive partner to decide," continues Allie. The brands have shared resources like software and project management systems and a service for clients. This allows each managing partner to reserve a project. The team members then take over the project, and also handle everything back-end administration including invoicing, contracts and so on.
"It allows people such as Matt and me concentrate on their work." Allie smiles. "I consider that we've created the perfect working environment. this is all about making certain that our customers have excellent experiences. When they contact us via email and feel that they're getting good response times and are supported throughout the entire process."
Matt is in agreement: "We say we don't make designs for you. We make things with you. We're not planning to go off for a couple of months and create something on our own. We meet a lot and show them how we work from beginning until the end. This is in contrast to leaving to our crafty caves and making things by ourselves!"
Clients and contexts
Matt and Allie have worked with many of different organizations that need their site to be accessible in lots of different ways. "Some of our customers are non-profits. They tend to be very robust sites. They're often too complex, or they've been around for a long time. We tend to combine or condensing the sites so they could be more simple," Matt explains.
"We're in contact with those who want membership sites for their businesses, like people working from the food business," 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 common for us to work with individuals who've invested an enormous amount of their personal energy, time and money into their business," she adds.
Wonder Jam Wonder Jam brands work with everyone, from nationwide nonprofits to single-person entrepreneurs who are transitioning to full-time employment from side jobs. "We've been trying to design structures that will meet each. We're learning about what scales well, and what you need to consider differently, in cases where the scale is dramatically different. This is a lot of fun to figure out!" Matt laughs.
He adds "With charities, they generally have something established and they've already figured out all of the legal hoops they had to cross. This is often how we make it happen, as we're not looking to reinvent this wheel." The team is going to reframe what they've experienced, and determine what kind of context could move somebody to donate, and then smooth the process.
In the beginning of our partnership and with each customer, regardless of their type of business and the scope of the site, the Wonder Jam team talks about the methodology of customer service. "A website could be a tool that's really good at getting a first purchase, but it could also become extremely effective at gaining clients returning, or acting as an asset. We usually ask, 'Is it a resource? Or can it be good at encouraging VIPs?' which are the most valuable customers to small-scale businesses," Allie explains.
Matt and Allie Both agree that websites can't be all things for everybody and is crucial to be strategic. "Whenever we're doing an online membership website The most important aspect we're thinking about is that we want customers to return continue to visit it all the time and feel like it's the best value they've ever received," Matt adds.
Case studies: Simi and Molly
Allie says: "One of our clients, Simi Botic, has an exercise group and a membership called Unmeasured, which is all about body movements, also known as"the Barre Method. Simi Botic has such a caring view of "Just move instead of seeking to punish your body. There are a variety of choices based on your flexibility."
When Simi first joined Wonderly there was only a handful of videos on the site and could be changed once per week. "It lets things be more organized and allows her to combine what's feasible with her time schedule," Allie confirms. "After about two to three years, we expanded the membership, to give her the opportunity to provide greater value to the people she serves and that's amazing. We love that we're able to shift when our clients' objectives change. it's just a matter of re-evaluating the layout, making a few tiny changes and applying them to the design."
Another client, Molly Baz, wanted to change her platform to one that could be more brand-named and immersive. "Her brand's visual identity is vibrant and exclusive to her. She wanted her audience to live' in that style; they got recipes and updates as well as the exact type of content they're used to however in a manner that felt on-brand and felt unique to her style," Allie explains.
As we at know, Molly's fan base has grown to be so important to her. "To have the ability to place the website in a way that fits with the rest of her style - shifting the site from "Oh, yeah there's a photo of Molly - go buy the cookbook' to something that is significant, both inside as well as outside the membership, brings many benefits," Allie muses.
"Something we've been trying to do with our clients is consider what it's going to be the experience for them if we don't talk to them daily. We try to ensure they've got good systems in place in order to make use of the software we've developed to them. Molly's was a great example of that," Matt agrees.
Further information, as well as future plans
Matt and Allie are currently working on behalf of companies and websites that require "a heavy lens of accessibility" to people with disabilities. "We're cooperating with truly amazing organizations who work to get those sites and prototypes approved by the groups of users."
They agree, in general, they've been very lucky in their relationships with clients "It's been amazing to just continue to work with really good individuals. Our clients are really thoughtful people and we always feel really respected," Allie concludes. "We have the privilege of working with really interesting people with values that guide their activities. It's satisfying that we can create things that are for them," Matt smiles.
You can learn more regarding Allie Lehman and Matt Hart along with their team, as well as consider collaboration with them at thewonderjam.com or withwonderly.com.