Cool Stuff on the Web

Loyalty: Checkered Past – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

“I’ll take fifty percent efficiency to get one hundred percent loyalty.”

Sam Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn is no saint, but I suppose the tired excuse that he was a product of his time fits. But what he was, was an incredibly successful businessman. And if he will take loyalty over efficiency, I’ll believe him.

We’re all about efficiency. At Interfanatic, we’re all about systems and processes that ensure success, are efficient, and are sustainable.

But loyalty – sustainability in people – is a beautiful thing. Having somebody you can depend on is about as good as it gets.

Immediately, I think of Chris Locke. Locke’s Checkered Past Racing and Checkered Past Productions™, and all of his successful business relationships, are surely built on his loyalty. Not just being good to everyone he meets, but being good to the right people.

Locke has enjoyed being a major proponent of the Lotus brand in historic motorsports for decades. And a fine purveyor of their story, he is – driving everything from Jimmy Clark to Mario Andretti’s Formula One cars. And many other wonderful historic race cars.

But now, as he establishes himself as successful in event and film productions, he’ll surely look to rely on and practice more of his famous loyalty – with the right people.

We work hard to earn loyal customers. And our hard work has paid off. And we remain loyal to our customers, working hard for them when times get tough so that we can all enjoy the spoils when things get good.

So is having somebody we can trust more important than having somebody who will finish the job quickly? Over the long haul, yes. We aim for both, but we know that when recessions hit and things get bleak, we want to be with the right people, and have the right people.

It was Sam Goldwyn’s way. It’s the Interfanatic way. And that’s Chris Locke’s Checkered Past way.

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Adaptability: Team Tyrrell – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

…the most successful people are those who accept, and adapt to constant change.

Paul Lutus

The Internet is a sea of constant change. We must be like water, and conform to its incessant morphing waves.

Through 20 years, we’ve watched revolution after revolution, heard about millions of “shortcuts to success”, but stuck to doing things the right way.

In that, we’re reminded of Team Tyrrell, Ken Tyrrell’s Formula One constructor dating from the 1960’s. In the early days, Ken’s only job was to give the brilliant Jackie Stewart a good enough car to win. Ken did his job.

The way to make a car win a race is to engineer it so that it’s easy to drive. Tyrrell’s most successful cars weren’t easy to drive at first, but with hard work, they adapted the chassis to the job. And with a brilliant driver up to the task, they were able to make the aspects that were most difficult into absolute advantages, securing easy wins with regularity.

The cars were so good in fact, that Jackie’s lesser-known team mate won and could have won many more races. Francois Cevert was an excellent driver, but no Jackie Stewart. Nonetheless, because the cars were adaptable, Cevert was able to beat Jackie Stewart on his day with the same machinery – no easy feat.

Tyrrell had to remain vigilant, his cars adaptable to the ever changing conditions and tracks around the world.

We must remain vigilant and adaptable to the ever-changing environment of online business.

It has been our pleasure to be associated with Team Tyrrell during its vintage motorsport campaigns. Many of the cars that were successful in their day are still fan favorites, running around the country at historic motorsport events. We at Interfanatic are pleased and humbled have our name associated with such an iconic brand as Team Tyrrell.

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Courage: The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

Anaïs Nin

Nin knew about courage. My goodness, did she know. So she saw the effect of courageous behavior, both first- and second-hand many times through her life.

Life expands. Life shrinks. But we’re here for business, and we’re here for expanding business. It takes courage.

Life definitely expanded for Wally Parks, the namesake of the National Hot Rod Association Museum. He was a pioneer, a journalist, and an advocate. He increased the safety of drag racing with incredible effect, mostly by making sure there were safe venues for racing, instead of letting it continue on the streets.

In a macho world, fresh off the loss of thousands in wars, when we accepted drastic loss as a part of living, Wally Parks stood up and made a difference.

It took courage.

And when you go to the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, you see how much courage the drivers of these insane vehicles had. They took their life in their hands regularly to push the boundaries. To be faster. To make progress.

And Parks pushed for that progress, safely.

So when we think about courage around here, we think of our old partners at the NHRA. It was our great pleasure to work with them on a beautiful website design that their museum kept for about a decade of existence. The NHRA is all about the courage it takes to make progress.

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Goodness: Sunshine 25 Rentals – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”

Henry David Thoreau

Clearly, ol’ HD has never been the victim of “No good deed goes unpunished.” Ha!

But, it’s true. Where the investment manifests itself is of question, but some return is always apparent, whether it to be your soul or to another soul.

And look, when I think of “goodness” in people, my customers, many come to mind. It’s not an easy decision, but I always think of Karen Greenberg of Sunshine 25 Rentals. (We’ve worked with Karen on a number of projects, but Sunshine is the main one that comes to mind at the moment.)

Karen is just a good person. She’s always giving of her tremendous talents to philanthropy of one sort or another. She’s heavily involved in the community and charitable events, and just doing good in general.

Karen is good. (No, you Millenials with your memes, this Karen does not fit the bill!)

It’s always a pleasure to work with good people. That’s why we feel lucky to get to celebrate it today.

Karen, along with her husband David, are good landlords. If you’re ever in need of a high-value apartment in Long Beach, check out Sunshine25Rentals.com. They also do short term vacation rentals. If you ever have a need to get away, check out EscapeToSanFelipe.com. And if you ever want a local beer or wine, check out Karen’s Rotary Club and their SouthBayBeerWineFest.com.

We’ve been involved in all three projects, to various degrees through the years. And it’s always fun because we love working with Karen.

Because Karen invests, the goodness comes back and goes around. And we’re all better for it.

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Strength: D&G Paving – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

“You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.”

Bob Marley

Marley was certainly tested, which is why he gained so much insight into strength. He needed it to make his rebellious music, and his fans grew to need it from him. When we lost him, it was a tragedy for those who loved him – but his strength plays on.

Strength: strength of body, strength of character, strength of mind, strength of will.

When you look at Dan Ash of D&G Paving, his strengths are the first thing that strike you. Dan’s built a great business on strength, and on the strength of his product: great paving services.

Strength is a requirement of building a new business. It’s not easy. One must retain the fortitude to make it through the bumps.

I don’t know if Ash is the Yoda of asphalt, but some certainly consider him to be. He doesn’t need the Force, he just uses gigantic powerful machines to do his job beautifully and quickly in a way that has strength to stand the test of time.

If you look anywhere around Los Angeles, California’s South Bay, you’ll see the signature white and orange “D&G Paving” signs all over the place. You’ve probably noticed them before. There’s a reason for that – D&G is great at what they do.

Unless you’re a property owner or a property manager, you probably don’t have the need for fresh slurry very often. But next time you need asphalt or concrete work done for your business or parking lot, you know you can count on the strength of Dan Ash and D&G Paving.

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Humor: VDB Coins – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Like a warm summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you.“⁠

Langston Hughes

Humor makes everything better. As Hughes (one of my favorite poets) noted, humor can break the ice. No doubt, as he fought for Civil Rights, he had to break the tension more than once.

But humor is useful in business, too. In moderation, it makes business meetings easier to pass. It just makes dealings more fun.

And that’s where George Huber of VDB Coins uses humor to great effect.

George is a coin dealer. He works with only the nicest, most beautiful collectible coins. He doesn’t sell anything he wouldn’t want in his collection.

Because, as he puts it, “Life is too short to buy ugly coins.”

It’s memorable, it connects him to his customers, and it’s funny.

Coin collectors are picky, and sometimes very serious about the coins they buy. Light humor breathed into their consideration is a welcome respite from the seriousness of competition and strain of making just the right purchase.

And, George is a funny guy to talk to. Deadly serious about serious coins, but he just gets business.

Which is why we at Interfanatic were so pleased to design and build him a new website to replace his aging platform. George is great to work with. His customers seem to like his new site, too.

If you know nothing about the peak of collectible coins, but you find yourself piqued, take a peek into a worldwide traveling circus and multi-billion dollar industry:
https://vdbcoins.com

And if you know everything about collectible coins, check out VDB Coins. Talk to George Huber- he’ll teach you something. And you’re about guaranteed a chuckle, too.

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Endurance: Bryant Sports & Entertainment – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.“⁠

Maya Angelou

Ah, to be like a child. To not know better. To just do, and to try, and to not worry too much for consequences.

Growing up – experience – teaches us to be reticent, to be conservative, to go with care. Which is great! And terrible.

But when you don’t know better, you just go through it. You endure. You don’t know better.

Which is great! And terrible.

The trick, we learn, it learn when to endure and when to stop and move on.

LA is a tough place to endure anything. But if you think it’s tough running a business, try enduring in entertainment, or in sports. That’s exactly what Desi Bryant has done: endured.

Desi is a hustler of the best possible definition. He always has a few things going. But he’s able to single out and represent best his people through hard work and diligence.

Desi Bryant endures.

We do, too. Like Desi, we don’t give up. Interfanatic sticks with it until there are results. That’s why endurance is the virtue we highlight this week.

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Family: Raffaello Ristorante – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Family is a life jacket in the stormy sea of life.“⁠

J.K. Rowling

We can always depend on family. Rowling knows this – in the years she kept getting rejection for the Harry Potter novels, she indubitably had to rely on family more than once.

Family is always there for you – it’s always an embrace to keep you warm when things aren’t going the way you want.

And family is how we treat our customers. We bring them in and take care of them. When things get tough, we stand by and help them get through the issues.

Which brings me to Ráffaello Rístoranté.

You walk inside, and you are greeted with a smile and the smell of delicious Italian food. It’s not the fanciest of places, but it is the best of places. And a lot of that has to do with the way they treat you. They bring you into their family.

The restaurant business in LA is an even tougher one than most places. So for the Cutri family to last over 30 years feeding San Pedro – that’s impressive.

They’ve done it by providing exceptional food at an exceptional value. They always go a little further. They always do a little more.

And they treat you like family.

Next time you want the warm embrace of delicious italian, check out old San Pedro and Ráffaello Rístoranté. And you’ll find a whole new part of your family you didn’t know was there.

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Temperance: Tetra Graphics – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Temperance is a tree which has for its root very little contentment and for its fruit calm and peace.“⁠

Buddha⁠

Buddha tells us that temperance results from feeling unsettled, and that result of employing temperance is that we feel settled.

So temperance is important.

Temperance like eating a Handel’s chocolate fudge sundae rather than a knocking down a banana split by yourself, or a Vermonster. Yes, Handel’s chocolate fudge sundaes definitely represents temperance well.

Another, perhaps better, example of temperance is Mike Wratchko and his Tetra Graphics.

Mike came to us looking for help with SEO. It was fun and challenging working with him, to try to promote his business on the Web.

Wratchko works in a tough industry. There are a lot of printers in Torrance. There are a lot of printers – many of them huge.

You have to temper yourself when you go to real SEO. It takes months of dedicated work to get results. But it can definitely be done.

Of course, it depends on your industry. If your industry is very niche, like you create “precision rubber seals for medical photo equipment,” you can target keywords a bit more easily than if you want your site showing for “photo equipment.”

But whether you have longtail keywords to target or common ones, the right, dedicated SEO strategy will yield results, so long as you temper your patience and follow through with the hard work.

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Resolution: Affordable Bookkeeping & Payroll – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.“⁠

– Abraham Lincoln⁠

Candy Messer is a powerhouse.

It was fun working with her. She runs a tight ship, and she does a great job for her customers. And it is that way because she decided it would be that way. And she makes it that way. And she set down the law that this is how it shall be at her business.

Mind you, she’s not a miser. She’s just determined.

Like Honest Abe tells us, it is our own resolution to succeed that matters most.

Perhaps it was Lincoln’s resolution that brought the end of the Civil War. Perhaps it was a little divine intervention.

It could be the same for Candy. A champion for women-owned business; a champion for small and local business.

We had a lot of fun working with Candy, first updating her website, then designing her a new one. Since then, her company has grown, and she’s taken her site in-house. But she and her business are just the kind of local small business we enjoy working with.

Candy Messer’s Affordable Bookkeeping & Payroll is an inspiration of resolution.

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