What Gurus Don't Tell You About Marketing

Hey Shirt Heads, Elisa here.

First off, I want to give a huge thanks to those who said that the episode feat. MOI was helpful for you! It inspired me to continue to share what has (and hasn’t) worked with our shop, Don’t Lose Hope, in order to help you succeed and grow your shop into something sustainable and profitable — using marketing.

I’m gonna drop a few bombs first. Because let’s face it — it’s easy to talk the talk. But there’s a reason we don’t see as many peeps walking the walk, for one reason or another. As we all know when it comes to business, just because something may be simple to execute doesn’t mean it’s easy or realistic when allllllll the other factors involved in running a business come into play.

My hope is that by pulling back the curtain and highlighting what’s involved in building a sustainable, well-rounded marketing (and branding) strategy for your shop, you can hopefully be inspired to implement these steps on your own — or realize whether it’s not something you feel passionate about doing yourself, and if you need to outsource more marketing activities to someone else who loves the stuff. Because… you kinda gotta love it to keep with it.

I didn’t mention this on the pod, but the components that good marketing is made of — storytelling, photography, videography, writing, creativity — are what your girl has been doing her whole life. Hence why it thankfully has come in handy for thinking outside the box. As is our philosophy at Don’t Lose Hope, we always try to find ways to pay it forward for the industry, since that’s genuinely one of the main reasons Rodney has kept this joint going since 2007.

Anyway… let’s get into it!

Bomb #1

(Successful) Marketing is an investment in your business.

This means you will probably not see, notice, or get feedback about the difference it’s making in your sales or the public’s perception of you for a long… long… long… (just kidding, but it can feel that way) long time.

That’s something you’re gonna have to be okay with. DLH has the advantage of being in business and working with some high-caliber clients since 2007. The Instagram fairy (me) took over posting early 2022… and it wasn’t until really 2024 that we started consistently receiving compliments from customers (that’s when you know it’s real) about our fun branding and marketing “vibe.”

Bomb #2

Not everyone has means to do full-scale, omni-channel marketing depending on what you’ve got going on. We all have limited abilities to go after limited things when it comes to growing our business.

When it comes to dreaming up ways to improve your shop’s marketing:

• it takes time

• it takes creativity

• it takes strategy

• it takes experimentation

So, if you’re still in the trenches figuring out the basics of business ownership, tackle one thing at a time. Soak in this info, but don’t feel like you’re failing if you’re not yet able to promote your shop in the way that feels good to you. The early grind is a rite of passage and teaches lessons no one else will.

As Dylan mentioned in our episode, the earlier years for Upstate were almost kind of easy to post about. People love seeing the journey, and there’s always something new going on — for better or worse.

If you’re a blossoming screen printer who dreams of running a sustainable, profitable, enjoyable shop — use that grueling beginning stage to your advantage, and document as much as you can. We love using throwback content to help people who are new to the DLH world see where we came from — and it builds credibility, of course.

We small businesses have an edge. It’s relatable for our customers to see the grind with their own eyes, and that builds respect. Compared to flashy, sleek, AI-powered advertising from corporations, we have the upper hand.

Bomb #3

Unless you’re able to embrace (or at least ignore) the cringe — you’re going to be limited on your pathways to success or ways you can really set yourself apart from other screen printers, other businesses, even other things that a consumer could be looking at on their phone.

I know you’ve probably heard this before, but no one cares as much about you as you think they do (ouch). By that I mean… stop overthinking it! Who cares!

We’re human beings programmed by nature to not be different from the rest. We’re designed to fit in because fitting in feels safe. But it’s all an illusion, my dude.

When it comes to content — especially social media content — you have to figure out what it will take for you to post the thing. Unfortunately, no one else can do that for you. Successful marketing, successful selling, successful content creation — all of it requires you to be motivated (probably by money) and/or inspired enough (maybe by some DLH content) that you are willing to broadcast and promote your “thing,” whether that’s an IG video, an email to your clients, or standing on the corner doing some sign waving — it’s all the same.

You’ve got to reach the part of your psyche that knows the results you’ll gain from the cringe make it worth the discomfort. It’s not easy. But the good news is — you can absolutely fake it till you make it. That’s actually how I operate. You can also build up to your ideal brand image, bit by bit (that’s another strategy from the DLH playbook).

To walk the walk, so to say —HERE is the link to the IG video that really showed me how far being cringe (aka AUTHENTIC), gets you.

This dorky video went DLH-viral — without asking or prompting anyone, a bunch of our friends and clients reshared it. We got tons of great feedback and had a blast doing it. After putting lots of effort into looking polished and put-together (which is also necessary, I won’t lie), it turns out that the vids we’ve made just having fun turn out to be the ones that really “sell” people on who we are.

Hopefully… this got your wheels turning. I’m excited to share more from here.