Matt Helt | SecretPenguin Blog

FoofQueens.com

We’re really excited to announce the launch of FoofQueens.com!  We’ve been working hard on this site for eight months and are very happy with how it turned out.

The FoofQueens themselves are Rocky Krebs, LuAnn Kuyper, and Betty Tharpe. They’re three of the most fun, energetic ladies you’ll ever meet. The product they developed has the potential to drastically change the way people wrap gifts. Instead of boring wrapping paper or a gift bag, they developed a clear tubular product called GiftGloss that “glosses” the present. The website was developed to sell the product, but more importantly, it gives you ideas on how to “foof” your present. GiftGloss is just one element of the process, but foofing is the addition of tissue papers, trinkets or “embellishments,” and ribbons. Put this all together and you’ve got a present that will absolutely impress the recipient no matter what the actual gift is.

We’re so happy that the FoofQueens chose us to develop their website. It’s been an amazing project to work on. And credit needs to be given to Carrie Ratcliff (@careratcliff) who established the overall brand look and feel. She did a fantastic job. Her work made our job easy, so for that we say a big thank you to Carrie!

I think it was Gary Vaynerchuk who said business owners need to have an immigrant mentality. If it wasn’t him who said it, then I apologize to whoever did. But I thought about that concept today when I saw a Latino family cross the street near my home. They appeared to me as if they hadn’t been in the U.S. very long, therefore likely had a good chance of being immigrants. They sparked this reaction in me, something that I hadn’t experienced before. My sense was that these people were grateful to be here. They were grateful to have clean water, fresh food, and housing. And they were probably very grateful to have work. They looked like the many Latinos I’ve seen lined up early in the morning looking for a day job - anything that would pay.

So many of us who were born here take our situation for granted. We’ve become an entitled society. The “we deserve this because we’re Americans” mentality is starting to bring us down. Our insatiable appetite for “things” has made us weak.

What if we shifted our thinking and began to think like an immigrant? What if we became hungry for the simple things again, instead of the flat-panel TV and stainless steel appliances that we’re been made to believe we all deserve? Tough to swallow, I know. But it wouldn’t be that hard to do. In thinking like an immigrant, we’d put the needs of the group ahead of our personal needs. Through that action we’d make some real progress and change many of the injustices that occur in our country.

In the business sense, thinking like an immigrant will make you succeed no matter what gets in your way. I’ve seen countless examples of immigrants starting their own businesses because they know they only have themselves to count on. And they work harder than anyone to keep their dream of living here alive. Immigrants pass that work ethic on to their children who in turn want a better life than the one their parents had. I can see why those who oppose immigration are afraid. Immigrants are willing to out hustle them. And the offspring of these immigrants are more adept to out hustle their American counterparts.

Me, I’m not worried. I’m going to learn from these folks and try imitate their actions. I’m also going to raise my kids so they know that hard work is the only way to get things in a honest manner. If you want it, you got to work for it. Healthcare, though, is another matter altogether. But we’ll save that for another post.

I got a call this morning from a journalist by the name of Joel Rice. Joel wrote a story for McSweeney’s about one of our clients, the legendary skateboarder Christian Hosoi. Joel saw a retweet I sent out about his article and wanted to know how to use social media to drive people to his articles. After the call, I thought about what we talked about and I realized how much of a mystery social media is to most people. Dave said I should write up a post about this issue. So taking his advice I present to you the basics of social media.

Social Media 101:

1. Be yourself.
2. Talk about relevant things.
3. Give people value for following you.

Okay, that’s pretty much it. A lot of people will try to convince you that there’s a ’science’ behind all of this and it’s much more complicated than I’m making it out be. But those are the people who are trying to keep it mystical. They don’t want you to understand it because if you did they’d be out of a job. Just follow those three things above and you’ll be fine. In fact, the people who are the most successful with social media consistently stick to these principles.

So what’s a big company supposed to do? My answer: Hire someone and tell them to stick to these three principles. Easy as that. And make sure to inject some humanity into your messages. People are tired of canned advertisements. If you engage in social media, talk like a person, not a company pitchman.