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Wisdom: Career Change Guide, by Michael B. Schoettle – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Customer Spotlight, Partners

“Honesty is the 1st chapter in the book of wisdom.”

– Thomas Jefferson

We get the opportunity to work with some wise people! But Michael Schoettles don’t come along often.

Mike Schoettle is a gold-medal Olympic sailor, a Navy veteran, and a career executive recruiter. After such and illustrious career, he wanted to give. So he used all of his experience and four years to write the book, Career Change Guide. He champions a values-based approach that starts with you getting to know yourself, understanding that when you’re happy and fulfilled, the money will come.

So of course this quote from Jefferson fits. To create a successful life, you must employ a foundation of wisdom by first being honest with yourself. Schoettle was honest with himself, and look where it got him!

We recently discussed his journey. It’s not always easy to be honest with yourself. You have to peel back the layers of expectation and external influence to get at your core. But once you do, it will be much easier to find fulfillment and success. And, if you’re successful enough, you’ll be able to share your wisdom freely, as Schoettle did with his first book, Career Change Guide.

Wisdom: An Interfanatic Quality

Okay, okay, I’m not here telling you I’m wise. But, as always, these qualities are those we strive to embody. And of course, we do have an incredible amount of wisdom when it comes to digital marketing. You can’t be good at it for over 20 years and not glean at least some!

Wisdom drives which clients we wish to work with. It drives our decisions. Wisdom guides our processes. We use our experience to develop systems to simplify and expedite work. All of that comes from our decades of earned wisdom. Wisdom earned: sometimes the easy way, oftentimes not!

Career Change Guide: Author Michael Schoettle Sharing His Wisdom

Schoettle used Career Change Guide as an opportunity to help. He just wants to help young people find a great career. He wants to help people dissatisfied with their current job, and help them figure out taking the right path. Indeed, a theme behind his book is from the Frost poem, The Road Not Taken.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I– I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

Schoettle’s book cover states, “taking the right path could make all the difference.”

In Schoettle’s experience, it may not always be about the path less taken. For him, it’s about finding the right path for you. Oftentimes, the right path for you is a different path than that of others’ expectations of you. Or, finding exactly what makes you tick is slightly different than anybody else’s path.

It’s funny – finding the right path is a bit like tuning sales. Anybody with basic knowledge can get the boat moving in the right direction. But the last 5% of tuning the jib and main add the most to boat speed and separate those who get to the mark first.

“Taking the right path could make all the difference.”

Career Change Guide, by Mike Schoettle

You can use Schoettle’s wisdom to guide you to your right path. (Or left one, as the case may be.) We recently completed a new website for Schoettle’s book that allows you to preview the book before you buy it. The book is under $15 on Amazon in paperback or Kindle, so you could definitely just get it if career path is on your mind. But if you want to, check it out first. You can read the first chapter, see the table of contents, and preview his recommended actions. He really has made a great, simple, step-by-step guide for anybody considering career change.

I highly recommend it for everyone. If for no other reason than to read about successful people changing career paths successfully, or reading some wisdom from a highly accomplished and decorated man. Mike really is a good guy. To access this body of wisdom from him so easily is a blessing for us all.

Interfanatic Service Focus: Interfanatic Power Social Advertising

On top of a website, we’re helping Mike with a number of launch campaigns. We’re helping him to advertise his book and website on Linkedin, Google, and directly on Amazon.

And we can help you, too.

Linkedin is an oft untapped resource for B2B marketing. They have many great advertising options. They’re easy enough for most people to figure out, but sometimes it’s difficult and people feel in over their head. If that’s the case, contact us and we’ll get you squared away. Linkedin is an interesting and unique place for Social Media Marketing, and Social Ads there are effective when handled properly.

Advertising on Amazon is not for the faint of heart. It’s complicated and there are many pitfalls. But if you have a product or book you want to advertise on Amazon, again, we’re here to help.

And, of course, Google is the King of Ads in Digital Marketing, 2021. We run many Google Ads campaigns monthly for customers of all sizes, and have for over a decade.

The last prong of our marketing approach for Schoettle so far was to send an email to several hundred of Mike’s acquaintances. For this marketing email, we used MailChimp, but we’ve used many other services in the past. Many times people think it’s a good idea to just send from their personal email account, but this is a terrible idea. It’s much better to leave it to a professional email services so you don’t ruin your personal email address. Again, email marketing sends is something we done hundreds of times through the years, to hundreds of thousands of email recipients.

When you’re looking to get your name, service, or product out there, we’re here to help.

Interfanatic: Trying to Tap into Some Wisdom, Even a Little Drop Will Do

As is often the case, that’s a Paul Simon quote. But we do – we try to tap into wisdom from many sources: our clients, our friends, our family, and, of course, our experience. When you’ve been doing this as long as we have, you’re bound to get some! And we have many little drops to help you with after two decades. We’re here to share that wisdom with you.

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Resolution: Paul Neights for School Board – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Customer Spotlight, Partners

“He who is firm and resolute in will moulds the world to himself.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Resolution of will. When we battle for what’s right it is the exact time to be resolute in will.

No matter what you think about Goethe, he’s got a point. The person who is resolute in will molds the world to themselves. We see it in civil rights, we see it in business. We see it in success.

But in every opposition to success, somebody’s failure, we see it, too. It often comes down to a battle of wills, whether it be one person or the collective will. Democracy, influenced by will. The movement with the greater collective will is known for success, and the opposing movement is not. However, often the “losing” opposition moves the victorious. Compromise.

With that in mind, how resolute are you?

Resolution: An Interfanatic Quality

We’re insistent upon finishing projects. Despite setbacks, despite opposition, we feel driven to complete. That’s what we do.

Perhaps that’s why we’ve been in business for so long.

That’s certainly why we’ve completed so many projects.

Paul Neights – Attempting to Mold the World with Resolution

Paul Neights came to us about a decade ago. He had been to a couple of school board meetings and was appalled at what he’d heard. Immediately, he set about molding the world to himself – he decided he could do it better.

Ultimately, Neights did not win his position in election. But by being resolute, by taking action for what he believed in, he was able to sway the board, and some of the things he cared most about changed.

Change takes time and effort. And we don’t see Paul’s effort as a failure because in the end, he molded the world – in some small, but important way – to himself.

We were proud to be a part of this small local political campaign, and to help him mold the world the way he thought was best. Even in not winning a seat, the took a leadership role and succeeded in affecting change. We helped him put together a quick website that explained his platform, and it educated both his supporters and his opposition to his viewpoint. And what he wanted partly came true.

“…Paul Neights molded the world – in some small, but important way – to himself.”

It was fun to play a small part in this great American democracy. It was our first foray, and we’re pleased we helped an individual improve his world around him.

Keep your Customers Coming Back:
Interfanatic Power Weekly Email Marketing

If you have a substantial network, email is a great way to generate business. If you don’t have a substantial network, there’s no time to begin building one like the present.

For email to work, it must that a huge list – we’re talking thousands of interested subscribers. And you can’t just send an email to hundreds or thousands without using a service. Try it, and your personal email will be labeled as spam, and your personal email will be basically shut down.

Also, your content must be compelling. You can’t just send drivel and hope to have a fantastic response. Your subject line must be on point to get the open, and your content must seem and be useful to keep getting clicks.

But, you see, effective email marketing what we do. We’re here to help. We’re here to bend the world to yourself, to help you be more successful. We can be on your team to help mold the world to your ideas of success.

Interfanatic and Resolve

Not only will we advise you and get your project started. We’ll stick with it until you find the success you need.

That is the Interfanatic way. To keep at it; to bend the world to our customer’s will.

This week’s image:
Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

Resolution, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
Resolution, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

Ken Tyrrell resolved to bend the world to his will. He hired Jackie Stewart, then Derek Gardner, to create a world-beating F1 team. Pictured above is the “shed”, Ockham, England. This is where Ken and Derek built the Formula One World Championship Tyrrells. It doesn’t look like much. Compared to the factory at Maranello, it wasn’t much. But it was here that Ken’s resolution molded the world to his will. I was honored to go there after the restoration of the 1972 Tyrrell 006 (middle right). It is pictured with the 1970 Tyrrell 001. Ken, Derek and team built Tyrrell 006 in this shed. Derek built Tyrrell 001 in his own garage. Sadly, the shed from Ockham is gone. However, the Tyrrells live on, a testament to Ken Tyrrell and a celebration of his resolute will.

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Family: Cook’s Doors & Windows – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Customer Spotlight, Partners

“Everyone needs a house to live in, but a supportive family is what builds a home.”

– Anthony Liccione

According to the descendants of George & Charles Merriam and Noah Webster, a quality is an inherent feature. By that definition, the inherent feature we celebrate this week at Interfanatic is that of family. As such, family is definitely an inherent feature of this collective business, with our associates and clientele.

Family is a bond. Family is a way of doing things.

“Okay, sure,” you say. But a lot of companies blather on about how they treat their customers “like family.”

But do a lot of companies, before they begin work in earnest, spend two hours, or twelve hours, getting to know their customers?

Interfanatic does.

Family: An Interfanatic Quality

Whether our customer is a $100/mo customer or a $150,000 project customer, we spend tremendous getting to know them. Understanding their business. Understanding what they love about it, and how we can best help them accomplish their long-term and short-term goals.

And yes, we spend at least two hours, but sometimes as long as twelve or more hours getting to know our customers, their tastes, and their business.

And that’s a turn off for some people. They see us as problem solvers. We’re here to quickly and efficiently solve their problems.

But we feel that without knowing our clients properly, we can’t make the best decisions for their long-term interest. We’re in this for decades-long relationships, not a week-long or a month-long one. We take your business and our part in it very seriously.

Which may be why we have customer relationships that span a decade or two. They’re our favorite customers because they give us the privilege to make them that way.

Cook’s Doors & Windows: A Business Built on Family

We really enjoyed our time working with Cook’s Doors and Windows, in Lawndale, CA on Hawthorne Boulevard.

Cook Lumber started out as a family business in 1923. It evolved when sons Bob and Jim Cook took their portion of the business and turned into one that sold doors and windows to Southern California.

“We’re in this for decades-long relationships… [w]e take your business and our part in it very seriously.”

– Interfanatic Digital Marketing with Web Site Maintenance & Design

We got to work with Jim and Bob Cook over ten years ago. And though we’ve parted ways, the website we built for them worked well for their business until just this month.

We’re grateful for the opportunity and to play a part in this company’s storied history.

Interfanatic Web Site Management: We’re the Long-term, Trustworthy Resource

For businesses that recognize that their website and digital marketing are integral to their operations, we are the excellent resource. So many companies that do what we do last a few months, or a year, and disappear into the ether.

I can’t tell you how many times a business owner will come to us and say, “I can’t get a hold of our web guy anymore, he just won’t answer the phone”, or, “well, our web girl got a job with a big company and doesn’t have time for us anymore.”

Our business was designed around providing excellent service over the long-term. We keep our people around as long as we can. And our customers don’t have to deal with a revolving door – they deal with one person – for a very, very long time.

Our website management services have always been value-packed. But the truth is, to people who have been through the rigamaroles we’re talking about here, us just being around consistently and doing our job IS our greatest value proposition.

Interfanatic & Family

And all of that is to say that, yes, indeed: we treat our customers like family. Because they are.

This week’s image:
Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

Ha! I took this one years ago. We were out for a sail on a friend’s boat when we stumbled upon this clan orh-ing it up in Redondo Beach’s King Harbor. It reminds my of my own father, who does an excellent vocal impression and would fit right in on this buoy if he so chose.

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Love: Laguna Seca Raceway – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Customer Spotlight, Partners

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”

– Aristotle

A single soul inhabiting two bodies. A beautiful thought… It reminds of marriage vows… and of racing a motor car.

You probably have a different thought when you think of racing a motor car than I do. But doing it well is especially reflective of a beautiful love affair.

When you’re racing a car, when you’re in the zone, you feel the cars tires as an extension of your own body. The two of you become one and glide fluidly through space, without drama. Everything else disappears and the lap times fall, relentlessly.

At first, it’s just you, and your car. Then, the car becomes you, and it’s just you. It all just happens.

So it is with Laguna Seca Raceway. I think they call it WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca these days. But when we designed and built an incredibly high-tech, forward thinking website for them fifteen years ago, it was Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

The track, at the time, was run by SCRAMP: love for motorsport and the cherished circuit inhabiting many bodies. Now, there will always be protagonists and antagonists, but the fact remains: everyone does it because they love racing.

Love: An Interfanatic Quality

We designed and built an incredible website for them. It was incredibly high-tech and advanced for its time. Some thought too advanced. Perhaps a little before its time. But we created Laguna Seca’s site with love.

“Interfanatic created Laguna Seca’s site with love.”

If you don’t know Laguna Seca, let me try to explain it to you.

In the middle of an Army ordinance range, some crazy folks decided to create a racetrack. They ran a ribbon of gray asphalt around a small brown mountain. Then they hurled their bright red, blue, orange, yellow, and silver sporty cars around that ribbon of asphalt. And it became racing. And it was good.

Laguna Seca has a character all its own. If you know what I’m talking about, skip ahead. There are only so many descriptions of the corkscrew a real racer can take. But if you don’t…

After coaxing your beast up the back of the hill, it reaches the top, breathless. It’s time to dig your heel hard into the binders and dance your hands and feet into second gear. A hard left and the world disappears beneath you as you lift off the brakes and accelerate. Your steed searches for footing, you gently coax her right and catch third in the air. When she settles in, you’re heading to a fast left with all hell screaming behind you.

When Phil Hill first hit that fast left in the Chapparel 2J, everyone held their collective breaths. There was NO WAY he could make it through Turn 9 at that mach number. But he did. And Jim Hall was right, and ground effect in motorsport was borne.

It’s a track filled with history. Young James Dean passed on driving his Porsche to Laguna Seca. Mark Donahue hustled the mighty “if you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower” 917/30 there. And Alex Zanardi gadzooked Bryan Herta, turning his IndyCar into a rally machine to make a nutty pass stick for the win.

It’s a place I kinda grew up.

Laguna Seca Raceway: A Project We Cannot Forget

So when Laguna Seca approached Interfanatic (nee Web Site Maintenance & Design) after hearing Carroll Smith crow about our site, it was a thrilling moment.

We love doing cutting edge. We love doing what can’t be done. And we, like the people behind Laguna Seca, love racing.

This week’s image:
Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

To make up for last week’s screenshot, this week we have a real photograph. An image of love. I took this slide with love; love for my father, love for motor racing, and love for photography. This, for me, has everything. I took this photograph at a dinky little throwback track called Moroso. It was phenomenal. I remember there wasn’t much in the way of safety back then. As I recall there were gators in a culvert at one of the turn exits. You didn’t want to get upside-down there (not that you would want to get shiny-side down anywhere). But apparently some guy got himself eaten after tipping over there the month before. But the lack of guardrails and corner-workers who gave a damned what I did allowed me to do this. To get the image I wanted. And, for me, it remains glorious.

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Industry: M A Trading – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Customer Spotlight, Partners

“Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all things easy.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Well now, hold your horses there Ben. Excuse me, poor Richard! It doesn’t make things easy, but industry certainly makes things easier…

Industry – doing things regularly and efficiently – does make things easier. But it doesn’t get any easier than sloth. Of course, nothing gets done with sloth, and everything gets done better with industry. But doing nothing will always be easier than getting things done.

That’s why we have vacation.

Industry: This Week’s Interfanatic Virtue

Keeping at it. Grinding away. Keeping your head down. These are the recipe of industry and, when focused on useful work, a primary element required to get things done.

At Interfanatic, we’re all about the unglamourous side of things – the industry of getting work done with positive long-term and short-term results. It’s not sexy. It’s not exciting. But we’re results-driven.

Industry in Action: M A Trading

When MA Trading came to us a few years ago requesting that we put their various catalogs on-line, they immediately impressed us with their industry. They’ve found a way to take artisans from all over the world and help them reliably and predictably create beautiful, hand-made home decor. It’s industry at scale, and it’s beautiful.

It was our pleasure to bring their websites into the modern era. They had, like so many of our clients, tried to get away with doing things the cheap way, and it blew up in their face. We got the right people on the job and created something both useful and beautiful for them and their customers. It was great working with them.

We love working with companies all over the world. And, as in this case, local companies, too. Their offices are just up the street from ours, in southern Redondo Beach, in the south part of Los Angeles, California. We’re on Skype calls at all hours of the day and night dealing with fabulous clients, so there’s something warming about getting to drive (or even walk) up the street to shake hands with a good customer you’ve gotten to know so well.

Walking up the street is not always industrious, but it is pleasant. And that’s what makes life worth living. At Interfanatic, we do the industry so we can afford the pleasant company of our great customers. Like M A Trading.

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Family: Raffaello Ristorante – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Cool Stuff on the Web, 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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Attention to Detail: Fowler & Moore Interior Design – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Customer Spotlight, Partners

Simple ingredients can be used to make elegant dishes with just a little extra attention to detail.

– Marcus Samuelsson

Focus on the fundamentals. Bring out the basics by getting them right – doing the details better. That’s what we’re about.

Now, just like Samuelsson no doubt loves to play with exotic ingredients, we here at Interfanatic love trying something new.

But the bread and butter of every business is getting the basics right. So it is for most of our projects.

Of course, we think of the design geniuses at Fowler & Moore Interior Design, just up the street from us here in Redondo Beach. They know how to balance a room with just the right details – just the right colors and accents – to completely transform it into something fresh and uniquely beautiful.

We’ve been working with Fowler & Moore for a long time. In fact, it’s time for their website to get another refresh. They’ve moved locations a few times, but their fundamentals are what drive their business. Great interior design. Serving their customers, and making their homes more beautiful.

Details & Fundamentals Win the Day

It’s all about details, it’s all about fundamentals. Perfection is the enemy of good, of progress. But when you have qualified professionals, whose fundamentals are sound and strong, paying attention to the details comes naturally.

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Respect: The Landmark Sports Agency – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Customer Spotlight

People don’t have to give you anything, so appreciate what people give you.

Aretha Franklin

I remember a high-profile project for then-Kobe Bryant’s agent, Rob Pelinka. Mr. Pelinka is now the Lakers’ General Manager (don’t call me looking for tickets – good luck with that!)

But I often think of the respect Pelinka gave us when we took on his agency’s website. I always felt we did a beautiful job on the site, and it outshone two or three websites that followed it. (After us, he gave it to his nephew to take over.) One of the signature pieces of the site we created for him was a phenomenal sound logo our friend and Hollywood composer Aaron Goldstein produced for us. It had just the right pop. That was a great website.

But he didn’t have to give it to us. He had, of course, his choice of agencies. My friend Eric Marentette recommended us, and he respected Eric’s recommendation. Then, Pelinka respected us, he trusted us, and we delivered.

We treat all of our customers, large and small, with immense respect. Some are striking out on their own for the first time. Others are institutions – small businesses that have worked to fill a need in their communities for generations. Either way, they deserve our respect, and we give it to them. We’re grateful for our partners all over. And we respect them immensely.

Shortly after we took over Landmark’s website, Kobe delivered another Championship to the Los Angeles Lakers. It went well for everyone.

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Ingenuity: Rockwell Medical Supply – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Customer Spotlight

Emenike says it: success comes from a combination of things. One of those primary ingredients is ingenuity. Unless you’re the only gig in town, it’s hard to be successful without a unique and compelling proposition.

Thinking about all of this immediately triggered a memory of Rockwell Medical Supply. What a great company! Lean and mean, and an ingenious method of selling. They outsmarted their competitors.

Rockwell has since been sold and merged into another company, accomplishing a dream of the founders.

Rockwell Medical Supply: A Great American Success Story of Ingenuity

Rockwell knew that their customers cared about certain products, and less about others. They also knew that in an extremely competitive field, they were hard-pressed to beat the competition with such tight margins. So they focused on their customers first, giving them what they needed at the price they wanted, and made up for tight margins in other ways.

It was ingenious, and it worked.

We designed and built an attractive, functional Magento-based website for Rockwell many years ago, long before ownership sold. Crucially, it was functional in the complicated way that it handled each customer. It wasn’t easy, but we all made it work. And work it did.

It wasn’t easy, but we all made it work. And work it did.

We love coming up with novel solutions for problems.

That’s one of the reasons we refuse to get stuck in a niche – you learn something new from every customer – when you listen.

And we listen.

We’ve already congratulated the Rockwell Team on their incredible success, but what they hey, we’ll do it again. Congrats on your fantastic achievement, Rockwell Medical Supply! And congratulations more on giving your customer exactly what they wanted – in an ingenious way nobody else could.

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Honesty: Aero-Vac Alloys & Forge – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Customer Spotlight, Partners

Mother Teresa’s quote pairs with an image I got to take of my Uncle flying. He was not Mother Teresa.

But my Uncle was honest and transparent.

Honest and transparent is the best way to do business.

Aero-Vac Alloys & Forge are plainly honest and transparent, with their partners, with their customers, an in everything they do.

Insert quote about Scotty talking about transparent aluminum.

We did AVAF’s original website years ago, and it’s still extremely productive. It’s fantastic to be working with a great group involved in aerospace production. As we’re all a little nerdy here, we’d love to do more of that!

Aero-Vac Alloys & Forge supplies rare and difficult to produce alloys of aerospace grade to its industrial customers. They moved from California up to Washington recently, and they’re really thriving. As I’m a native Washingtonian, I understand the allure of the Pacific Northwest – especially for business.

It’s a great company, lead by diversity, driven by success and superiority of product. They have to be honest or their products would lead to major failures. Their products succeed.

So if you’re ever in the market for stainless steel, corrosion resistant nickel alloys, or some other obscure metal for your project, go to Aero-Vac Alloys & Forge.

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