Marshall Atkinson | Planting your Flag | On the Lime Marketing Podcast Ep. 11

On the Lime Marketing and Business Podcast in Bowling Green, Ky

We talked to Marshall Atkinson, a decorated apparel industry consultant, about his philosophies on operating a business, maximizing efficiencies, leading your team, and dreaming bigger. Check it out on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/3ejuqb5 at or wherever you like to listen.

Episode 11 Transcription:

Will Kronenberger 0:04
Hello, and welcome to this week’s episode of on the lime. I’m Will.

Kayla Bitner 0:09
And I’m Kayla and today we’re talking to Marshall Atkinson of Atkinson consulting. He’s a decorated apparel industry business coach, which sounds like such a fun job now that we’ve talked to him,

Will Kronenberger 0:21
so Marshall consults or coaches, a bunch of different companies around the country that produce all kinds of different decorated apparel such as t shirts, garments, hats, anything you can think of.

Kayla Bitner 0:33
Yeah, I think Marshall said in the interview, that decorated apparel is just like anything you wear that has a design on it. That’s decorated apparel.

Will Kronenberger 0:43
Yeah, he’s got a lot of experience in the field and a lot of great information not only on running print shops and apparel decorators, but just business practices in general.

Kayla Bitner 0:53
Yeah, I really enjoyed his thoughts on leadership and leading a business and setting goals from the beginning so that you know where you’re going. He talks about like planting your flag. And I don’t know that’s I’m such a sucker for anything about leadership. And he had some really good things to say.

Will Kronenberger 1:11
Yeah, we managed to catch up with him on the phone call. So the audio might be a little weird, but stick with it. There’s some really good information.

We kind of start things off with like three I statements just to kind of get to know Marshall Atkinson as a person before we hop into the main podcast.

Marshall Atkinson 1:31
I already have those.

Will Kronenberger 1:32
Oh, cool. Cool.

Marshall Atkinson 1:33
Okay, so you’re ready?

Will Kronenberger 1:34
I’m ready.

Kayla Bitner 1:35
Number one,

Marshall Atkinson 1:36
Number one. I am a photorealistic watercolor artist.

Will Kronenberger 1:44
Really? I would have- you can’t find that on the internet, so So what so? Wow, how’d you get involved in that? Is that just something you were interested in from a young age or you just kind of what? How did you get started?

Marshall Atkinson 1:55
Here’s a secret secret about me. I actually have degrees from an art from Florida State University.

Kayla Bitner 2:05
Wow.

Marshall Atkinson 2:07
Yeah, and Yep, graduate 1996.

Will Kronenberger 2:11
Okay,

Marshall Atkinson 2:12
I have a BS in art and I’ll tell you what BS means but your listeners can figure it out. And that leads me to a good segueway to my second I statement is I am a Florida State University fan.

Will Kronenberger 2:30
Nice.

Marshall Atkinson 2:30
Go Seminoles. Yeah, we just won ACC basketball, currently ranked number four. Can’t wait for March Madness where we lose our first game and we’re out. No, just kidding. Now, hopefully we’ll go very far to the tournament.

Will Kronenberger 2:49
Yeah, you got to be an optimist. You got to be an optimist.

Marshall Atkinson 2:52
I am an optimist, So we’ll see what happens.

Kayla Bitner 2:55
So Will actually lived in Florida for a while.

Will Kronenberger 2:57
Yeah, I’m from Naples, Florida. So I’m I’m aware of the Seminoles for sure. I don’t follow sports much though.

Marshall Atkinson 3:04
Why not?

Will Kronenberger 3:05
Well, I follow baseball. But that’s about it. Baseball is my sport and Tampa Bay Rays.

Marshall Atkinson 3:11
We have a great baseball team, too. Anyway. So my, my third I statement is, I am a proud dad. My son is named Jack. He’s 15. He’s a sophomore in high school. Very smart, funny kid. And very proud of him. So that’s my last statement and probably the most valuable.

Will Kronenberger 3:36
Definitely. That’s awesome. That’s awesome.

Kayla Bitner 3:38
So, is Jack following in his father’s footsteps with art and creativity?

Marshall Atkinson 3:44
Oh, no. My son isn’t very skilled at that. He’s, uh, if there’s anything he’s currently skilled at right now is pushing dad’s buttons

Will Kronenberger 4:00
Oh, well, it is that age for sure.

Marshall Atkinson 4:02
or blowing up stuff with video games. So if, if you could make money at that I’m sure some people do. You’d be a millionaire

Will Kronenberger 4:15
Well, you have like people like Ninja and stuff like that, that are making a lot of money in that industry.

Marshall Atkinson 4:21
They figured out how to monetize it. He just… that’s all he wants to do.

Kayla Bitner 4:26
There’s an audience for everything.

Will Kronenberger 4:28
Well, he’s got a long road ahead of him. So he’s got plenty of time to figure it out. And that’s a good point.

Marshall Atkinson 4:32
Yes.

Kayla Bitner 4:33
Cool. So Marshall, on your website, you are identified as a decorated apparel industry expert, which I think is the coolest thing ever. We know of you through our common coworker Austin, who has collaborated with you and Jerzees on the Adventures in Apparel Decorating series. Can you tell our listeners, if they haven’t watched it yet, a little bit about that series?

Marshall Atkinson 5:02
Yeah. So for people who don’t know, there are folks out there that make all the shirts that you wear, you know, that cool t shirt you got at the concert, or that embroidered Polo that you have to wear to work. There’s people out there that have to make those things.

Kayla Bitner 5:20
Oh Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 5:21
So that’s the industry that I’ve been in and kind of backed into. I started way back when in 1993. And at that time, I was in my master’s- working on my master’s degree in architecture and had a small business doing shirts for fraternities and sororities. And the company that was doing my shirts for me, offered me the job as their art director. And I switched over, so I got it, I kind of backed into the whole thing and love it and never left. And so with all those years of experience and kind of, I moved up the ladder and eventually, I was a Chief Operating Officer for a huge company up in Wisconsin. But now I am just coaching. So I’m a consultant. I travel all over the United States helping people with their workflow and efficiency and that kind of stuff. But for Jerzees. The idea came to me. And I pitched them the idea for the show. After watching, believe it or not the Food Network, and watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

Will Kronenberger 6:43
Yeah,

Marshall Atkinson 6:43
um, are you familiar with that show?

Kayla Bitner 6:45
Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 6:45
Yeah. Yeah, well, Guy Fieri, right. So I’m like, Hey, I could do that. Yeah. So what I said to jerseys was hey, here’s the idea for the show. Instead of the guy going to the restaurant and learning how to cook lasagna. Yeah, we could go to the T shirt shop and we could learn how he prints shirts. And they, they bought the idea. And we’re off to the races. And Austin is my number one guy ‘cuz he makes me sound like I know what I’m talking about. And I love it. And so we finished season one last year and we’re busy recording Season Two right now. In fact, next week, we’ll be in Lubbock, Texas, and learning all about how to print with what’s called a digital squeegee, which is crazy, brand new technology.

Will Kronenberger 7:36
That’s awesome.

Marshall Atkinson 7:39
I can give you a huge explanation about that, but it’s gonna be really cool. And you should watch the show instead.

Will Kronenberger 7:44
Yeah, definitely. That’s where you need to find out about it. But I mean, I think it’s really cool that you’re going around and using this as a way to, you know, share information amongst the like different people in the industry because I think that’s just a way that everybody grows, you know, like, it’s really Important to kind of, you know, put put stuff back and new ideas into the industry. And that’s awesome.

Marshall Atkinson 8:08
Yeah, what you’ll see at each of the shows is that everybody does things a little differently. So, you know, there’s some large, really large companies and then there’s some really small companies and in but what makes it really unique is these are all small business owners. They’re all entrepreneurs, they all have a different background, a different take on the industry and how they approach it. They’re all doing something a little bit different. But what’s really fun is that they’re all decorating shirts. And, and so each episode takes a different slice of that. So there’s different technique, there’s a different shirt, there’s different creative processes that we do. And those all come out in each episode. That is so by the way, expertly filmed by By Austin.

Kayla Bitner 9:03
We’ll pass that along to him. I know he loves working on the project for sure. And I think it’s it’s just so fascinating to me, because what you wear says so much about you. And so it’s interesting to see like, what the people who make those clothes like, the thought process that they put into, you know how they’re made and the designs that are created

Will Kronenberger 9:26
because the designs ultimately are working around the technology they have in the formats they have to use. So that’s that’s really cool.

Marshall Atkinson 9:34
Right and here’s- it so, that T-shirt that you’re wearing right now, probably about 15 to 20 people were involved in that creation. That’s all before it gets to you. That’s why the in there’s a lot of there’s a lot of these are people with jobs. They all have families, they all pay taxes, they all do stuff, right. And a lot of people just don’t really realize that What goes into it?

Will Kronenberger 10:01
Mm hmm.

Kayla Bitner 10:03
That’s fascinating. So something else that I really admire about the work that you do with the consulting and coaching is just how digital forward you’ve put yourself. I noticed on your website, you have E-courses and ebooks. And then we’ve even talked about how you utilize Google search in with your blog, which is- I’m a digital marketer, just by trade, but still, I can’t quite wrap my head around it. So can you tell me a little bit about that?

Marshall Atkinson 10:34
Yeah, so I want people to find me, right? That’s like our all that’s our dream as business owners, right, is for your customers to find you. So what I want to do is I’m going to leave some breadcrumbs. I don’t want to leave a trail. So if they’re having an issue, you know, what’s the first thing they’re going to do is they’re going to do a search. So I’d been writing a blog every single week since 2010.

Kayla Bitner 11:04
Wow.

Marshall Atkinson 11:05
So I got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of articles. In fact, I was working on the one that comes out this Saturday, earlier this morning when I was drinking my coffee. And that’s when I usually write is in the morning. And so what what is that? Well, that’s 2,000-4000 words a week for 10 years. On number one Google SEO without paying them a nickel.

Will Kronenberger 11:30
Yeah,

Kayla Bitner 11:30
that’s awesome.

Marshall Atkinson 11:31
Okay, that that’s the reason I have that. And so that’s how people find me. Now, here’s the scary part is that people don’t read anymore. And so seeing my readership go down a little bit. So the thing that I’m doing more with is video in, which is, I guess probably good for you guys. But so I just did an experiment. I did what I call the Facebook 30 Day Live Challenge where I did a facebook live every single day for 30 days straight. And, and of course I do the video with Austin and that’s all good but, you know Austin makes me look great because there’s lots of editing. You know, he films 4 hours of material for what? 10-15 minutes where the thing right?

Will Kronenberger 12:25
Yeah,

Marshall Atkinson 12:26
There’s there’s a lot of outtakes And trust me, I goof stuff up all the time. So I need I need to learn how to piece sentences together. So I sound like I know what I’m talking about. So I I tried this challenge where I did a live Facebook every single day for 30 days straight all on different topics and that kind of thing and it was really hard, right? but it was just part of me trying to grow and try to get the awkward out of the way. Get some hours in, you know, because you have to get your 10,000 hours in right ? Trying to get those under the under my belt and trying to get better with doing video which I think is going to help me with what I do stuff with Austin, if I can get a better relationship with the camera, and I can think on my feet a little better than these video shoots that I’m gonna do with jerseys will go easier. Right? And maybe they’ll be happier with me. Maybe Austin will be happier because he wants to do it, too. Okay, let’s do that one over, right. Maybe I’ll just do it right for once the first time.

Kayla Bitner 13:37
We always say one more for good luck.

Will Kronenberger 13:40
Yeah, one more. One more for safety. Right?

Marshall Atkinson 13:42
You never know. So, so anyway, you’re trying just trying to get better. Right? So that was my whole goal with that.

Will Kronenberger 13:48
So that’s cool. I’m not I’m not heard of it used as a tool to just, you know, get better at doing interviews and conducting you know, stuff. I mean, as you’ve done that 30 days have you seen, like an increase in people reaching out to you? I mean, I mean, when you’re getting in people’s feeds more often, and especially with that regularity, I think you kind of become a part of people’s daily routine. And they look forward to that. Have you noticed any increase that in that direction as well?

Marshall Atkinson 14:17
Well, not so much in sales or anything yet. And so my goal is the whole thing was really just to get out there. And here’s, here’s what I know, is that marketing has changed

Kayla Bitner 14:29
Oh Yeah,

Marshall Atkinson 14:30
People don’t want to be interrupted. They don’t want to be interrupted anymore. That’s why we have ad blockers. That’s why services like Netflix and Spotify exist, because nobody wants the radio commercial. Nobody wants to TV commercial. What we want is the content. And so if you are a content creator, right, that’s the reason I do blog articles.

Will Kronenberger 14:56
Yeah,

Marshall Atkinson 14:56
If you’re a content creator people come and find you. Right? So I need to move to video, I need to switch to video. So maybe instead of writing a blog, I’ll do a vlog, which is the video version. So it’s the same content, the same ideas that I might be distributing, but maybe I’ll do it in a video format. Maybe I’ll do more webinars, right? Because I really, I do them, but I do them for other businesses and organizations. I don’t really do them for myself. So I don’t really know what I want to do yet. I’m kind of just I want to get comfortable with just looking at a camera.

Will Kronenberger 15:33
Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 15:34
And talking. That was kind of my idea with this. So I just invested in a brand new webcam just a week ago, right, I got a brand new one. I just used it for the first time earlier today, because I was on a different podcast, they actually recorded it on Zoom. And there’s a video component to that. I used it for the first time just a minute ago. So so it’s like one of these things of just trying to get better. I’m trying to expand, but I think the thing that really goes back to your question is, you need to understand how people are consuming materials, how they’re consuming information that has all changed. And what’s really happening is business these days is becoming, especially with marketing, more human to human. People don’t do business with their enemies. They do business with their friends.

Kayla Bitner 16:25
Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 16:25
So if you show your face, even though I think I have a face for radio, right, if you show your face, and you’re funny, and you’re trying to do stuff and you’re, you’re awkward, it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you’re brave enough to put yourself out there, people will react to that and they will respond. And that’s what I saw with my Facebook 30 Day challenge. You know, I got hundreds and hundreds of comments. You know, for me, I’m not like a movie star or anything. I had about 3400 views. You know, which wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have any expectations, and I did them all different times of the day. I travel all the time. So I did them from the road, I did them from wherever I was, I did one from an Uber, you know, I just was trying to do different stuff, just to see how it would work. how, you know- just it was all a big experiment. And so, so I think for anybody, you know, listening to this, you know, my question to you is, how are you challenging yourself? What are you doing that makes you awkward? what’s what’s, what’s the thing that scares you? Well, that’s the thing you should be doing more often.

Kayla Bitner 17:35
Oh, yeah. I always hear magic- The magic happens outside your comfort zone.

Marshall Atkinson 17:40
Oh, yeah,

Will Kronenberger 17:41
definitely.

Marshall Atkinson 17:42
Yes. Right. Mm hmm.

Kayla Bitner 17:53
So we talked about the digital products that you offer. I am kind of a, this is the nerdiest thing to be nerdy about. But I’m kind of a leadership nerd. So when you said that, you know, you’re not just a consultant, you’re a coach. I really appreciated that. Because, you know, a coach is somebody who leads a team and inspires folks. What are some things that you’ve picked up along the way? some inspirational tips for people who are trying to, I don’t know, break into your industry, or things like that?

Marshall Atkinson 18:32
Well, to me, to me, a leader is one who shows the way forwards, right. And I believe in servant leadership. So like I’ve been managing. I mean, I don’t know I’ve managed hundreds and hundreds of people over my career. And my goal with all of them, you know, when I started managing, I was horrible. I was like, the worst manager ever. In fact, yes, in fact, If you if you remember there’s a show called Murphy Brown. with Candice Bergen. And she probably had an assistant a week because she would drive them crazy. And they would quit. I was the same way, right? I couldn’t, I was an art director, I needed help. I would hire somebody to work for me. And my level of perfection drove people insane. And they would quit. And so I had to learn to be a good manager and a good leader. And I’m not ashamed to say, I had to learn how to do it, right? And I had to understand that people aren’t going to do things the way that you do them. Right? They’re just not they’re their own person. And they bring their own experiences, their own skillset, their own talents to it, nobody’s gonna do it like you do it. So let them do it, how they do it and your job as a manager, your job as a leader, i to elevate. Yeah, your job is to increase performance how they do it. So it should be results oriented, not process-oriented. Right? So, so if as long as things happen with quality and on time, I don’t care how you do it. Just like that’s what, that’s what I’ve learned, right? I’ve learned just to let people do their thing. You hire them, because they’re smart, and they’re talented. And they have that special, whatever it is. That’s why you hired that person.

Kayla Bitner 20:34
you have to give people room to grow. So is that something that you find that comes up often when you are coaching and consulting businesses- that leaders in certain businesses kind of want to have more more control? I mean, you can only have so many plates up in the air.

Marshall Atkinson 20:53
Yeah, well, you what you want -and control is illusions start with, right there’s no such thing as control. Nobody. He’s in control, right? And so the fact, the harder you try to squeeze and get control, the less control you’re going to have. Right? So what we want to do is we want to, we want to train people, we want to make sure they know what they’re doing, right? We want to empower them to make good decisions. So we have to articulate what does success look like here? And so if you look at any business, I don’t care what you do. The reason that you might not be as successful as you think, or you want to be is because Have you really articulated what climbing the mountain and planting a flag looks like? So most of the time, businesses do do a really crappy job of that. So like one of the things that I always go back was, especially when I’m working with a new client is, you know, what is your goal? What do you want to do? What is what does success look like? Are you in alignment is-Is your business in alignment with your customers? Right?

Kayla Bitner 22:04
Right.

Marshall Atkinson 22:04
And so I tell a story all the time. Which is, you know, I’m from the south. I’m from Tallahassee, Florida, right? And so to me all types of soda everything is basically a coke. Yeah, like, so. There’s an ice just sitting there. I say, hey, me a coke. I don’t care what you pull out of it. I’m happy, right? As long as it’s not a Pepsi, because Pepsi is gross.

Kayla Bitner 22:27
I wholeheartedly agree.

Marshall Atkinson 22:30
I don’t care. Like if it’s free, like if you go to a restaurant, they go, Hey, I’d like a coke. Well, it’s Pepsi. Okay, no, I have a water. Yeah, it’s never okay. Because to me, my taste buds. It tastes like a flat coke. Okay, so it’s like one of these things. What we want in our businesses is we want alignment with our ideal customers. Now, to me, and the reason I tell us Pepsi-Coke story is what we want. If you’re if you’re selling Coke, right? If you’re selling Coca Cola, that’s your product. You know, it’s a you know, it’s a metaphor here.

Will Kronenberger 23:08
Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 23:09
What we want is to align with people who want coke. Yeah, right. We don’t really care about the Pepsi folks, because they’re never gonna buy from us ever anyway, right? Yeah. Okay. So if I’m selling for example, I’m selling business coaching for t shirt decorators. That’s what I do. Right? So I help people with all types of whatever. I’m not a good fit for somebody that’s an elephant trainer. I don’t worry about marketing to the elephant training business that needs help. Yeah, right. So what I want I want to find people who are my Coke drinkers, who is my audience. If it’s a target, I’m aiming for that bullseye. Yeah, where is that bullseye. That’s what I want. And I’m laser focused on that bullseye. Because I know that those are my Coke drink people? Right? Those are the people I’m going after. And so all my marketing and everything’s all about them. So if you look at my things that I do on social media and the blogs that I write and everything I do, everything is about the decorated apparel industry.

Kayla Bitner 24:16
Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 24:16
Right. It’s, it’s not about somebody who’s got an elephant training business, I don’t care. That might be that guy might be in trouble. And maybe I can talk to him and help him. But I’m not wasting any breath going after that guy.

Will Kronenberger 24:21
Yeah, right. Yes.

Marshall Atkinson 24:21
Because I know who my market is. And these are the people I’m trying to serve. Oh, yeah. So it’s so I think a lot of businesses they get really hung up in trying to please everybody, and trying to go after everybody and trying to think about, you know, so, you know, we’re gonna we’re gonna buy a radio ad or we’re gonna buy a billboard or we’re gonna, like it’s just mass shotgun stuff. But if you look at- if you want better results, how can you create a better experience? How can you create something where your Coke drinking customers that you want will come out of the woodwork and follow you and find you and come to you, and be raving fans? So you don’t even really have to market much? Because they’re all over you about stuff. Yeah. So that’s what we want to be doing.

Will Kronenberger 25:21
So in doing that, it seems to me like you almost have to research the market enough to know and obviously, you’ve been in it so long. But I mean, on a scale, that’s not just a business you’ve been in for so long, you need to kind of rely on data. Is there any data you pull from like in in finding, like, what people are interested in the platforms they use the most? I mean, how do you get that information?

Marshall Atkinson 25:44
My data comes from talking to people and asking questions on a constant basis. So I’m asking my customers, hey, what’s your problem? What’s your biggest hang up? What do you do? What’s your… so like, for instance, next week, right. As you know, I’m flying with Austin to Lubbock, Texas to film another episode. Yeah. And then what happens? And immediately getting on a plane and going to New Jersey for a trade show, right? And I teach I teach some classes. But why am I doing that? I mean, it actually cost me money to go to that thing. It’s not like a profit center for me. The reason I’m going is because I have a room of 40 to 50 people in a class, who are all my potential customers. And then during that session, I’m teaching them but I’m also asking questions.

Will Kronenberger 26:33
It’s the demographic you’re after, you know, you’re right in a room with those people.

Marshall Atkinson 26:39
My coke drinkers, you’re in front of me. And so I’m listening to what they’re saying. I’ve got a piece of paper, and I’ll be writing some notes. And then after the class is over, I mean, it happens every single time. There’s six to 10 people who have that extra question. They want my business card. I got this thing. Can you help me… Right. That’s the And going yeah, right it’s to meet these people is to meet these, my Coke drinking people right there. And we have a chat, and they can see me face to face. And they relate to me as a human. They relate to me as a person. Right? They kind of understand what I’m all about.

Will Kronenberger 27:16
Yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 27:16
And then we build and then we build a relationship. Now, does everybody buy from me there? No, because sometimes we’re not a good fit, it always has to be a good fit. So but this gives me a better opportunity than just trying to just do my blogs and stuff. So you have to be – you have to show up. You have to be present. You have to participate. And, and I’m a big believer in that you have to go to trade shows, you got to meet people where they are. You can’t just sit at your desk, right? You got to get out there and do it.

Kayla Bitner 27:49
Right. Yeah. So find your niche and interact with your niche as much as possible.

Marshall Atkinson 27:54
Yeah, you got to be you can’t be in this city. You have to be other city, right? You got to be in your tribe. You got to know their vocabulary. You got to know where their pain points are. You got to know why their breath smells, you got to know all these things, right? That makes you so much more valuable to these people. Because they go, man, that guy gets me.

Kayla Bitner 28:19
For sure. So the way that we kind of wrap up our conversations on every episode, just just kind of reflecting back on your career, all the people that you’ve come across, is there a quote or a book or a person or just a life lesson that you constantly come back to? That has imparted some wisdom on you something that you could share with our listeners to kind of enrich their thought?

Marshall Atkinson 28:45
Yes, yes! All right. It’s my favorite quote ever. You ready?

Will Kronenberger 28:49
Okay.

Marshall Atkinson 28:50
So this comes from a book by a Navy SEAL. I love Navy SEALs. You can learn a lot from Navy SEALS. Jocko Willink. If you’ve never heard of him, look him up. He’s got this great book called Extreme Ownership. I highly recommend it, it is one of my favorite books. So there’s this great quote in it. I think it’s very applicable to businesses, which is, “it’s not what you preach. It’s what you tolerate.” It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate. So you’re not getting the performance that you want. Right? Well, what are you accepting? You got employees that show up late. Why do you tolerate that? Right? Yeah, right They’re on Facebook at two o’clock in the afternoon instead of working. It’s your fault. It’s not their fault. It’s your fault. Because you’re tolerating this behavior, right? Oh, you launched this marketing campaign. That wasn’t successful. Okay. What happened? You start dissecting it, you realize that you didn’t do the research right? Right. Yeah. Why didn’t you do it? Well, you did some shortcuts cuz you didn’t have the time. Right? Why didn’t you work harder?

Will Kronenberger 30:07
Yeah. Right.

Marshall Atkinson 30:03
So it’s like, everything comes down to what you tolerate. Right? So you we can be talking all day long about you need to do it, you need to do it. Let’s make sure here’s the thing. Here’s a checklist, right? But a lot of that it’s just babble.

Will Kronenberger 30:25
By tolerating it, you’re showing that you accept less and less, if you don’t accept less than you get more.

Marshall Atkinson 30:32
Right, right. So look at athletes look at navy seals, look at doctors, look at people who do anything at a high level, right? Like, you know, look at I don’t know, Michael Jordan or a basketball player or whatever. So why do they do 10,000 freethrows a day? or whatever? Right? Is it because that’s, if they want to be the best. That’s the level of sacrifice you have to do. So when you only do 10 in your backyard with a beer in your hand, are you ever going to be that good? No. Right? So if you don’t, but yeah, so no matter what you do look at our chef, right? How did that guy get to be the world class chef? Right? It’s because think about all the dishes that he ruined looking for that one special flavor.

Kayla Bitner 31:25
Yeah,

Will Kronenberger 31:25
yeah.

Marshall Atkinson 31:26
Right? He cooks up a bunch of stuff, tastes like crap, throws in the trash,starts over. Right? And so you have to be willing to do all that. And so what happens is, not all the people are willing. They’re willing to tolerate that mediocrity. So that’s my thing.

Will Kronenberger 31:44
That was Jocko Willink you said?

Marshall Atkinson 31:47
Yep. And Extreme Ownership. He’s the scariest looking guy you ever see look up a picture him. I don’t want to get in a fight with that guy.

Will Kronenberger 31:57
Yeah, I wouldn’t say so. He might know a few things.

Kayla Bitner 32:03
Well, Marshall, thank you so much. This has been great talking with you. We look forward to more of season two of Adventures in Apparel dDcorating. I know Austin has such a fun time with you on that. And we’ll, we’ll look forward to keeping up with all the other great things that you do as well.

Will Kronenberger 32:22
Definitely.

Marshall Atkinson 32:23
All right. Great. Well, thank you for the opportunity to talk today. I loved it. Lots of fun. Thanks.

Will Kronenberger 32:28
Thanks, Marshall. Have a good one.

So that was our talk with Marshall Atkinson. And what was his title again, Kayla?. I always get tongue-tied here.

Kayla Bitner 32:39
Decorated Apparel Industry Business Coach.

Will Kronenberger 32:42
He had a lot of great information. Again, not just on the design aspects, but just things that businesses need to keep in mind when they’re starting, and how to prepare for growth in their industry.

Marshall had some really good advice that you could translate to, to really in the industry, and on the next episode of On the Lime, we’re joined by Matt Plapp. He’s been focused more on restaurant marketing, and his ROI engine lately that has just taken off and help tons of restaurants become successful.

Matt Plapp 33:12
“Within a week $140 ad spend is $2800 in sales, and like 288 people have given us their email their cell phone phone number. Why did that launch so successfully in eight days? Because we’ve done it 1000 times.”

Kayla Bitner 33:25
Matt’s written several books, including Don’t 86 Your Restaurant Sales and Sell More Slices. And again, the ROI engine is kind of what he’s known best for.

Will Kronenberger 33:36
Yeah, he had a lot of really cool information that you don’t really think about when it comes to marketing a restaurant, and the different hurdles you may cross, even with what’s currently going on in today’s society with COVID-19. We touched on that a little bit. And I thought that was just really interesting. Some of the things he had to say about that as well. So it’s gonna be a good episode, and you need to subscribe to make sure it shows up in your feed and you get to listen that episode,

Kayla Bitner 34:05
Be sure that you follow us on social too. We’re on Facebook at On the Lime Podcast, you can follow us on Twitter at on the line pod. And while we’re at it, I can request that you leave review too because those always help us as well.

It’d be awesome. If you have an Apple Podcast App, just leave a quick like five star review or whatever you think it is.

Yeah, we’d love to hear from you all, so give us a follow subscribe and again, leave that review.

Will Kronenberger 34:30
So that’s it for this week’s episode of On the LKime Thanks for listening. Take care!

Kayla Bitner 34:34
See y’all later! Bye!