We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Phillip Dane a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Phillip, appreciate you joining us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?
Eight years ago, after more than thirty years in the events business, I started looking for better ways to communicate with my vendors. I came across Joy Of Text, a plug-in that pairs with WordPress sites. Upon using it, I immediately saw the power of short message service (SMS) – also known as texting – for the events space.
One day, we had a major, last-minute change to an event we were producing and the entire load-in process had to be changed. We were able to quickly reach the five hundred vendors on our list to notify them of the change.
Things went flawlessly. If we were to have used email, it’s likely four hundred and ninety-nine of them wouldn’t have gotten the information in time. But Joy Of Text plug-in sent a text message to vendors with the new set-up details and it worked. I realized we were on to something big and instantaneous.
As I continued using the app for my business, I didn’t feel Joy Of Text was keeping up with the times. I tried 7 other plug-ins during that time. They looked cool, but were inferior to Joy Of Text. I made an offer to Joy Of Text’s creator and he accepted it. We rebranded it, taking out thousands of lines of code and adding relevant new add-ons to meet the needs of not only the event business, but of all marketing genres. We called the new platform Ultimate WP SMS, or UWS.
So, I started as a customer and then bought the company and started adjusting it to do all the things I wanted it to do, as a small business owner needing to reach lots of people quickly.
The capabilities we’ve unlocked with UWS are only the tip of the iceberg. Today, everyone wants instant gratification. When people get a text, they open it. With an email, people don’t experience the same urgency. SMS is the way of the future and our plug-in will soon be leading the way.
The opportunities are endless. SMS will become interactive. UWS will soon launch an app so people can communicate on the go. It enables them to give customers support immediately via text with no more waiting forty-eight hours for a response to something critical.
It brings a human element to companies and that means a lot to customers.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a serial entrepreneur and started my first company when I was fourteen. I go after businesses because I like them – not because of their money-making potential, but because I think they’re fun, challenging and unique.
I own multiple businesses with my wife – all of them, in fact – except UWS. One thing Joy Of Text’s owner, Stewart, and I had in common was that our wives were business partners. Stewart owned Joy Of Text with his wife.
Joy Of Text had so many great features, but I also felt it could be better. Stewart was great at customer support, but oddly enough, he was using email and I changed that in a hurry.
He only had eight hundred subscribers to the platform, while his nearest competitor had eight thousand subscribers. When it came to performance, Joy Of Text was far better. The competitor’s system would get bogged down and stop working.
I saw a vision of where the plug-in could be and fell in love with that. A lot of that involved marketing. It needed to be packaged the right way, be more intuitive while also being lighter and more fun.
My wife and I have been producing events for thirty-four years. With events, timing is everything. If you have a new act or rain causes a change of venue, that mission critical information needs to reach people fast. The only way to do that is through text. You can reach people as quickly as you can call them. But these days, they’re unlikely to answer their phone if they don’t recognize the number, so texting is ideal. If they don’t want to hear from you, it’s easy to ignore, delete or reply STOP to halt communications completely.
It’s great for promotions and engagement. It’s personal, interactive and fun.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
UWS is my side hustle and it’s just one of many businesses that I own. I’ve started so many businesses simply because I saw a need. Four years ago, I went to Hawaii with my son and my forehead got burned so I needed a headband. We went to thirty different places on the island and not a single one of them had headbands.
Back in the hotel, my son and I went to lunch. While he was eating, I went online and grabbed a domain, messaged my designer and told him to design fifteen headbands and sell them as print-on-demand. Before my son was finished with his poke bowl, the website was up and headbands were for sale.
Just before I started UWS, my wife told me that if I opened up one more company, she would either divorce me or I’d end up on the news. So I had to pivot and make it my hobby instead, to which she said, “Changing the words around doesn’t change what you did.”
So UWS became my side hustle. We’re gaining subscribers, slowly but surely. When people realize the power of UWS, it will catch on. My goal is to turn my events business into something my kids can run.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
My work ethic is what helped me build my reputation as a go-getter.
I was a junior in high school living in NY back when the pay phone industry was becoming deregulated. I teamed up with one of the largest independent manufacturers of pay phones and called up a business in Massachusetts, Cumberland Farms. They’re a bit like a 7-Eleven.
They wanted to meet with me so I left school and went to the airport to fly to Massachusetts. At age 17, I looked 23, so I got away with it. I plugged in the phone and gave them a pitch. The owner put a quarter in and made a phone call.
They only had answering machines then and when I got home, I had a message that the company wanted a $1.4 million contract.
My first big deal showed me that I should follow my whims. More times than not, they fail. But you don’t know until you try it.
I don’t regret any of them. I enjoy what I do. That’s a lost art, sadly.
My kids have gained from watching what I do. They’re hustling in good ways. While all their friends want to be influencers, they want to work hard like me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ultimatewpsms.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ultimatewpsms/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ultimatewpsms
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillipdane/
- Twitter: https://x.com/ultimatewpsms
Image Credits
Wolf Kroger