Terms
Wonder Jam Wonder Jam is "a family of brands that help small, creative businesses to grow" according to the words immortalized by Daft Punk, harder, better, more speedy and more powerful. One of those companies, Wonderly, builds websites with visual branding, as well as software for membership to help clients "set them apart". I talked to the its managing associate Allie Lehman and developer Matt Hart for more information.
Fine art and freelance work into freedom
"My experience is in fine arts. I grew up taking part in a lot of drawing and oil painting" starts Allie Lehman. "At high school I had a fantastic art instructor who, funny enough, suggested that I might be an illustrator or graphic designer'' even when I had no idea the difference between these two things! I chose graphic design and went to college to study it."
Allie left during the recession in 2009 and went into Web Hosting Support. "It was pretty stressful, but I learned lots about servers and the process of how WordPress was installed, and everything related to a website," she remembers. "In 2013, I launched The Wonder Jam, now our parent company. I quit my job as a designer and started that full time."
She'd been working with Matt Hart for a couple years at this point. Matt would write websites, and she would create websites for them. At this point they began to work together frequently: "We've been working together for over 10 years, both initially as freelancers. It was a natural collaboration. Now we focus on companies that offer services, and creating WordPress websites." Allie adds.
Matt begins: "I do primarily WordPress development. The process was taught by myself in the early 2010s. A lot of users who were navigating the WordPress world and were thinking"We have to create CSS so that this theme can use the correct colors' and that quickly became boring!" he smiles. As page builder tools like Beaver Builder and Elementor came in, they gained some flexibilities: "We could do things with a custom approach which was geared towards the particular demands of our clients which really pleased us in a creative way."
From the start of their collaboration, Allie and Matt have been focused on "going to custom in a way which is cost-effective" according to Matt says: "We do only what the clients want and don't do what our clients don't. Our clients truly care about: they aren't looking to make this appear like a mystery. They'd like to feel confident. By using these tools let us do that."
See this article on Instagram
A shared post via The Wonder Jam (@thewonderjam)
Allie continues: "In 2013, I started The Wonder Jam with my husband after I had been freelance by myself as a freelancer on my own. We had Matt as an developer contractor. We wanted to work, we wanted to do things our way, and we were looking for the freedom to do so." That's how the Wonder Jam was born.
Soil, support and systems
"We reside in Columbus, Ohio and it's an extremely welcoming and open-minded community in terms of small business," she continues. "Matt came to visit us the city from Seattle and we would begin working with local clients. we would walk down the street downtown and see every business we've worked with." In 2020, following seven years with The Wonder Jam and as The Wonder Jam began expanding nationwide, they became the company's parent, and now have three brands that are sister brands.
Wonderly focuses on service-based businesses, including authors, nonprofits as well as fitness instructors, chefs and cooks. It also owns a brand called Basis that focuses on the retail industry as well as people who sell products as well as a brand called Studio Wonder, an events location and photography studio located situated in Columbus.
See this article on Instagram
A post shared by The Wonder Jam (@thewonderjam)
Three brands that allow for an abundance of creativity flexibility: "It allows our team to focus on what they really desire to achieve as well as individual processes to follow," Allie says. "Because Matt and I started working together from the start and have over a decade of processes in our backs. I have pictures from 2017 showing us whiteboarding each of our processes in order to make sure our clients feel truly guided.
"The Wonder Jam operates as the 'soil' to provide everything a small-scale company needs under the hood, then each sister brand is able to "produce each in their own manner and do what it wants with any possibilities that come up. It allows each of these pathways be clear and unhindered by things that create difficulties for running as a two or one-person business," Matt continues. "We are a group of companies that can support each other."
For example, the Basis brand is primarily Shopify and e-commerce, but every once in a while the client wants to get blogging going and to create something stronger than the one Shopify offers. Thus, Wonderly comes in to advise the Basis client about processes that relate to WordPress. "We can support and communicate with each other and work as a unit even though each of us gets to be specialized in a manner that is pleasing to them," he smiles.
"The Wonder Jam sits as an enabling foundation. No one is at the top telling us who to work with or what amount of revenue to do - it's really entirely up to an executive partner to decide," says Allie. The brands have shared the resources of software and project management systems and a client concierge. This allows each managing partner to reserve a project. The team members then onboard the project and handle everything back-end administration like invoicing and contracts.
"It helps people such as Matt and me focus on the work," Allie smiles. "I consider that we've created an environment that is great for working in; it comes back to making certain that our customers have excellent experiences. When they contact us via email and feel that they're receiving prompt responses and are guided through the process."
Matt is in agreement: "We say we don't design for you, we create in partnership with you. We're not planning to go off for a couple of months and create something on our own. We have a lot of meetings and let them see the process from start to end, rather than retreating to our own creative rooms and making stuff all on our own!"
Contexts and clients
Matt and Allie have worked with many of organizations who need the site to be accessible in lots of different ways. "Some of our clients are not-for-profit organizations. These are very robust sites. They're probably too complicated or have been in existence for a long time. Therefore, we tend to consolidate or condensing the sites so they can be simpler," Matt explains.
"We're as well working with individuals who want membership sites for their businesses, like people working from the food business," Allie continues. Wonderly's clients tend to be people who do human-service-oriented work: "They're fighting for equality, they're looking to talk to their audience a little differently. It's common for us to work with individuals who've invested lots of their own passion, money and time into their business," she adds.
Wonder Jam Wonder Jam brands work with all kinds of organizations, from national organizations to solo entrepreneurs who are transitioning to full-time employment from side jobs. "We've tried to build structures that will meet the needs of both. We're learning about what scales well, and what you need to consider in a different way, even when the size is different. That stuff's really fun to discover!" Matt laughs.
He continues "With non-profit organizations, they typically already have a foundation and they've already figured out all of the legal hurdles they needed to jump through. This is often how we make it feasible, since we're not looking to make a fresh start." The group is going to reframe what they've experienced, to determine the context that could make someone donate and smooth out that process.
At the beginning of the partnership as well with every client regardless of the type of business or the nature of the website, the Wonder Jam team talks about the customer experience methodology. "A website can be a tool that's really effective in securing a first purchase, but it could also become extremely effective at gaining returning customers, or being useful. The question we usually ask is: "Is this an asset, or can it be good at fostering VIPs?' - who are the most important individuals to small businesses," Allie explains.
Matt and Allie both agree that websites should not try to cater to everyone and it's crucial to plan it out. "Whenever you're working on a membership site, the number one factor we're considering is that we want users to keep coming back continue to visit it all the time, and to feel that it's the most valuable experience they've ever experienced," Matt adds.
Case studies: Simi and Molly
Allie starts: "One of our clients, Simi Botic, has an exercise group and a participation in Unmeasured that revolves focused on body movement. It's called the Barre Method. Simi Botic has such a caring view of "Just move instead of trying to 'punish' your body. There are many different alternatives based on the mobility of your body."
When Simi first came to Wonderly the site, she only had only a handful of videos on the site and were changed every week. "It lets things be more organized and allows her to combine what's feasible with her time schedule," Allie confirms. "After two or three years of operation, we increased the membership, to give her the opportunity to provide more to her audience and that's amazing. We're thrilled to be able to shift when our clients' objectives change. we're just reassessing the design, making some tiny changes and implement them in the development."
Another client, Molly Baz, wanted to change her platform to something that could be more distinctive and experiential. "Her aesthetic branding is fluid and unique to her. She wanted her audience to live with her in this way; they got recipes and updates, and all the kind of information they are familiar with however in a manner that felt authentic and unique to her style," Allie explains.
As we at know, Molly's community has become so important for her. "To be able to put it into a format that fits to her design aesthetic, and changing the site from "Oh, yeah there's a photo of Molly and you can buy her cookbook' into something very significant, both inside as well as outside the membership. This adds up to an enormous amount of value" Allie muses.
"Something we've attempted to do with our clients is consider the things that it will be similar for them when they're not in contact with us daily. We ensure that they have adequate systems in order to make use of the software we've developed specifically for them. Molly's case is a good example of that," Matt agrees.
More information and future projects
Matt and Allie have been working with sites and companies which require "a large amount of accessibility" for users with disabilities. "We're working with really amazing groups who are working to have these sites as well as prototypes, which are approved by these groups of users."
In general that they've had a lot of luck when it comes to their clients "It's an amazing experience to remain working with such great people. They are very thoughtful people and we always feel really respected," Allie concludes. "We have the privilege of working with very interesting individuals whose values drive their activities. It feels good to be able to make products that they can enjoy," Matt smiles.
Learn more on Allie Lehman and Matt Hart and their team, and think about joining them on thewonderjam.com or withwonderly.com.