The Marketing Playbook Behind a $100M Company

Podcast

Episode Transcript

Chris: Welcome, Joy Gendusa. I’m so glad you’re here.

Joy: I’m super happy to be here.

Chris: It’s a privilege to spend some time with you and learn more about you as an executive and about the growth of PostcardMania. For people who may not know the company, tell us a little about what PostcardMania is.

Joy: PostcardMania is a marketing company built specifically for small businesses. I was a tiny business owner myself at one point, and everything I learned along the way, I wanted to share with other entrepreneurs because I know what that struggle feels like.

Today we primarily serve small businesses, although we also work with medium-sized and larger companies. But honestly, small business owners are my passion – that’s who I love helping the most.

We have nearly 400 employees now, and we’ve been in business for over 27 years. I started the company in 1998 with little more than a phone and a computer. I didn’t have a formal business education, and, to be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. Looking back, it’s been an incredible journey.

Chris: Let’s go back to the beginning because everyone loves a good origin story. You started as a designer after attending art school. What was the moment that made you decide to start your own business?

Joy: It wasn’t really a moment where I woke up and thought, I’m going to start a business.

I was working for a printer when my boss handed me a computer and some new design software – Microsoft’s early attempt at desktop publishing – and said, “Figure this out.”

So I did.

Around that same time, I had my son, James. I couldn’t afford childcare, so I asked if I could bring him to work with me. My boss said yes, and his wife, Betty, was incredibly supportive. She’d even help feed James while I worked.

Eventually, though, James got sick. Printing presses smell like ink – which I actually love – but it’s not exactly ideal for a newborn. I realized I couldn’t keep bringing him into the print shop.

So I told my boss I needed to work from home.

He said, “Would you like to freelance?”

I remember thinking, Sure…but how do you freelance when you don’t even own a computer?

So I called my dad.

“Dad,” I said, “I need a computer.”

This was 1993, long before PostcardMania existed. My dad bought me one – a computer with a 400-megabyte hard drive that cost $5,000.

He believed in me.

My parents were incredible. I was the loud, rebellious kid who dropped out of school, but whenever I decided to pursue something, they backed me completely.

Now, my dad didn’t exactly give me the computer…

He made me pay him back.

Not only that – he charged me interest.

Years later, after I’d paid him well over the original amount, my husband Sam wrote “blood money” in the memo line of one of the checks. My dad wasn’t amused.

Chris: So you started freelancing from home. At what point did that turn into something bigger?

Joy: At first, I was simply taking on whatever graphic design work I could find. I continued doing projects for Larry and Betty, and then word started spreading. I wasn’t marketing myself at all – it was all referrals.

People would say, “Do you know Joy Rockwell? She can do that.”

I also had a neighbor named Sudy McCollum who became a huge influence on me. She was a true designer. Everything she created was done by hand – long before computers became the norm.

She taught me more than I learned in art school.

I’d help her with layouts on the computer so she didn’t have to go to a traditional typesetter, and in return I learned an incredible amount from her. She was probably my first freelance client, although I never charged her because I felt like I was getting far more value from what she was teaching me.

She was a tremendous inspiration.

If anyone ever looks up her artwork online – Sudy McCollum – it’s absolutely beautiful.

Chris: It sounds like there was a real exchange there. You were helping each other.

Joy: Exactly. I think that’s one of the wonderful things about creative people. We were both contributing what we could.

She was there for me at the very beginning.

Chris: So when did you hire your very first employee?

Joy: That’s actually a fun story.

As I continued freelancing, clients started asking me where they should get their projects printed.

Because I’d worked for two different printing companies, I understood printing. I knew how to compare vendors, negotiate pricing, and recommend the right printer for the right project.

So I started telling clients, “I’ll get multiple quotes for you, find the best option, and charge a 20% markup for managing the project.”

That quickly became much more profitable than the design work itself.

Instead of earning a few hundred dollars designing something, I might earn over a thousand dollars coordinating the printing.

I also made a decision very early on that I wouldn’t bill hourly for design.

Design is emotional. If you charge by the hour and a client doesn’t love the first version, suddenly they’re paying even more to revise it. That creates frustration.

Instead, I charged a flat design fee.

It was better for the client, and honestly it was better for me too.

Eventually I realized I couldn’t do everything myself. I couldn’t design every project, quote every print job, manage every vendor, and take care of every client.

So I needed help.

Chris: And that’s when your first employee came in?

Joy: Yes.

There was a woman named Joy Milford who owned the local typesetting business.

She was actually the only typesetter in town.

My mom was the one who suggested I ask her if she’d like to work with me.

I thought, That’s a great idea.

I reached out and said, “Would you ever consider coming to work for me? I can’t pay much, but I’d love your help.”

She said yes.

She ended up staying with me for fourteen years.

Chris: What’s interesting is that instead of hiring someone to manage production, you hired another designer so you could focus on the business. What drew you toward that side of things?

Joy: Honestly, I don’t know that I found it exciting.

I found it necessary.

I was hungry.

I already knew how to talk with clients. I understood printing. I knew how to quote jobs and solve problems.

Those things were harder to hand off than the actual design work.

So I kept doing what I knew best and hired someone who could take over the creative production.

Looking back, it’s funny because that’s still how PostcardMania works today.

We still charge a flat fee for design instead of billing hourly, and our marketing consultants work closely with small business owners the same way I worked with my very first clients.

The DNA of the company really hasn’t changed.

Chris: At what point did you realize this wasn’t just freelancing anymore – that you were building a real business?

Joy: I landed one very large client.

At one point they represented almost 90% of my revenue.

That’s actually pretty common for young businesses.

The client was growing quickly, and as they grew, I grew with them.

We became much more than a printing vendor. We were designing packaging, coordinating production, assembling products, solving problems – whatever they needed.

I was incredibly resourceful.

If something needed to get done, I’d figure out a way to do it.

But eventually I realized something important.

I didn’t like depending on one customer for almost all of my income.

I didn’t like not having time for other clients.

And I definitely didn’t like the fact that this customer bought me my very first cell phone because they wanted to be able to reach me at any moment.

That was a wake-up call.

I realized I needed to build something that didn’t rely on a single customer.

Chris: At that point it still wasn’t PostcardMania, though.

Joy: No.

Back then the business was called Joy Rockwell Design.

As I started selling printing instead of just design, people began making checks out to “Joy Rockwell Printing.”

Eventually my banker said, “Why don’t you just call the account Joy Rockwell Enterprises? Then you can deposit anything.”

So that’s what I did.

To this day, PostcardMania is actually Joy Rockwell Enterprises, doing business as PostcardMania.

Chris: As the business grew, who came next after Joy?

Joy: I wish Melissa were here because she’d remember exactly who everyone was.

There were a lot of temporary employees in those early years.

But one of the most important hires happened just a few months after I officially started PostcardMania in June of 1998.

I hired Melissa Bradshaw that October.

She was only nineteen years old.

Today she’s the president of PostcardMania.

Chris: That’s incredible.

Joy: Melissa has been my right arm ever since.

There’s no way I could have built this company without her.

She’s incredibly loyal, incredibly capable, and one of the smartest people I’ve ever worked with.

What’s funny is that I originally hired her as my assistant.

She answered the phones, took my kids to school, and helped with whatever needed to be done.

We didn’t even have a receptionist.

The first time she answered the phone she had this tiny little voice and said, “Joy Rockwell Enterprises…how can I help you?”

Then she’d put callers on hold and yell across the office, “Okay! I’ve got someone on the phone who needs this – who can answer it?”

She was nineteen years old, but she already acted like a manager.

I could tell immediately there was something special about her.

Chris: When did you realize she was capable of so much more?

Joy: We had Joy Milford handling production, but designers don’t always enjoy managing customers.

Clients have revisions. They ask questions. They change their minds.

That’s just part of the process.

So I told Melissa, “I want you to become our production manager.”

She looked at me with these huge eyes and said, “I can’t be Joy Milford’s boss.”

I told her, “Yes, you can.”

Because I knew she could.

She had an incredible ability to connect with people.

She could always get more with kindness than confrontation.

Customers loved her.

Years later she gave me one of the most meaningful gifts I’ve ever received.

It was a small handmade pottery piece that said:

I believed in me because you believed in me.

I’ve never forgotten that.

Chris: One thing that stands out about your story is your ability to recognize potential in people before they recognize it in themselves. Did you realize early on that finding talent was one of your strengths?

Joy: Not at all.

Back then I didn’t spend much time thinking about what I was good at. I wasn’t particularly self-reflective. I wasn’t sitting around analyzing my strengths or trying to understand myself.

I was just trying to survive.

Over time, though, I realized I was really good at hiring.

More importantly, I became good at creating an environment where people wanted to stay.

Honestly, that’s probably what I’m most proud of – not the revenue or the growth, but the amazing people who’ve built this company with me over the years.

Chris: That’s an interesting evolution because eventually you reach a point where you’re no longer hiring everyone yourself. The people you’ve hired begin hiring the next generation of leaders. How did you think about passing along your philosophy for finding great people?

Joy: That’s a great question.

As the company grew, something else was happening at the same time – I was growing too.

When I started the business, I honestly didn’t know much about running a company.

Now I look back and I’m amazed at how much I’ve learned.

Most of that education didn’t come from books or school.

It came from my customers.

Working with thousands of small businesses taught me how different companies operate, what makes them successful, and what kinds of challenges owners face every day.

That education has been priceless.

Chris: Before you became a business owner, though, you had another experience that seems to have shaped how you approached sales. You worked selling vacation packages over the phone.

Joy: (laughs) I did.

It was one of those call centers where people would receive a direct mail piece saying they’d won a vacation package.

Then they’d call the 800 number, and I’d answer the phone.

Everything was scripted.

If a customer had an objection, every possible response was literally posted on the walls around our cubicles.

All you had to do was memorize where each objection response was.

The interesting part was that every single objection ended exactly the same way.

After answering the concern, you’d immediately ask for the sale.

“How would you like to pay? Visa or Mastercard?”

Every single time.

Some of the other salespeople hated saying it over and over because it sounded scripted.

I didn’t think about it that way.

I figured someone had already tested this system.

They knew it worked.

So I followed the script exactly as I was trained.

I became one of the top producers in the company.

Chris: That’s fascinating because it shows a combination of humility and discipline. You weren’t trying to reinvent the process – you trusted that someone before you had already figured it out.

Joy: Exactly.

I thought, These people have built this business. They know what works.

Why would I ignore the process?

That experience taught me something I’ve carried with me ever since.

When you have a proven system, follow it.

You don’t have to make everything harder than it needs to be.

Years later, I actually hired the woman who originally hired me into that call center to come work at PostcardMania.

Chris: Before PostcardMania, you also worked for someone named Robert Schwartz. That seems like another pivotal chapter.

Joy: Absolutely.

I loved Robert.

He owned a business that operated hundreds of holiday kiosks in shopping malls across the country selling jewelry.

I worked there seasonally while I was doing freelance design.

One of my responsibilities was hiring the employees who would staff those kiosks.

Looking back, that was another place where I unknowingly learned how to hire people.

I also met Will Thorn there, who would eventually become our Vice President of Finance at PostcardMania.

Will stayed with the company for twenty-four years.

That job had a huge impact on my life in ways I never could have predicted.

Chris: But there was one conversation with Robert that really stayed with you.

Joy: I’ll never forget it.

One day he was driving me home.

We were sitting outside my house talking after the drive, and out of nowhere he looked at me and asked,

“Why don’t you have your own business?”

I remember thinking…

Is he crazy?

I had no idea how to run a business.

At the time I was around thirty years old with two young children.

Running a company wasn’t something I had ever seriously considered.

But that question stuck with me.

Chris: I love that he asked it as a question instead of telling you that you should start a business. There’s something powerful about that. A statement is easy to dismiss. A question forces you to answer it – even if only to yourself.

Joy: Exactly.

It stayed with me.

Robert also told me something else I’d never thought about before.

He said I took complete ownership of whatever role I was given.

That was one of the greatest compliments I’d ever received.

I didn’t think of myself that way.

I just thought I was someone trying to make a living, raising two little boys, and married to a guitar player.

But he saw something in me that I couldn’t see yet.

Chris: Looking back now, it’s clear he saw an entrepreneur before you did.

Joy: I think that’s true.

At the time, I certainly didn’t think of myself as an entrepreneur.

I wasn’t analyzing my strengths or planning out some grand vision.

I was just busy.

Busy working.

Busy raising kids.

Busy trying to survive.

Only later did I realize those experiences were preparing me for everything that came next.