We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Adam Schultz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Adam , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
The biggest life changing risk I have ever took was back in 2012. This was the year I decided to quit my job and go all in on my business. Leading up to telling my boss the news, I spent months and months after my job, working on my business to get momentum. 8-5 at the job, 5pm to midnight on my business. I was completely obsessed with my upcoming venture, I remember there were nights that I couldn’t sleep due to excitement. Once I felt that I was ready to make the jump, it took me a week or so to actually tell my boss that I was going into business for myself. The conversation had me nervous and scared at the same time. Was I doing the right thing? What if my business failed? Luckily I set myself up enough where the risk of losing everything wasn’t as big as the reward of working for myself. After I told my boss the news, he was excited and proud of me. I put my 2 weeks in and I was off to the races.
I have always dreamt of being my own boss. Having the freedom to do what I want, when I want and how I want. I liked the idea of holding myself accountable for my success, and also it bothered me (at all of my jobs) that the owner always reaped the benefits of their hard working employees, while the employees were just making a living wage. I always told myself that I could be the guy, it just took enough balls to go for it. It’s a terrifying and exciting feeling all in one, a very odd feeling to have both of those emotions running high. When you finally go for it, the adrenaline kicks in and there is no looking back. That is one of my favorite feelings to this day, when the adrenaline kicks in.
The reason this was the biggest risk of my life is because my first business didn’t work out, nor my second. It took me three business’s to be where I am today. I learned a lot from my first failure, I learned the most from my second failure as it was a much bigger risk than my first and my third business, IOMMI Designs, would not exist without my second failure. IOMMI Designs came to fruition through my second failing business, building websites was my side hustle to keep my second business alive. Finally IOMMI Designs became so busy that my second business was holding IOMMI Designs back, so I made the decision to call it quits on my second business and focus solely on IOMMI Designs, building websites. After all of these years, IOMMI Designs is thriving.
Adam , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Adam Schultz, Founder of IOMMI Designs. We are a web design and development company based out of Dallas, TX. I got started in web design at the age of 13 when I built my first html site. My father was a huge computer guru in the early 1990s which inspired me to explore computers and technology. Once the internet became mainstream my curiousness pushed me into building my first website.
Fast forward 10-15 years, I started building websites for bands that I was in, I am a musician at heart. It seemed I was quit good and had an eye for design so web design became my hobby. I wasn’t fully in business, but I would design websites for friends bands for a small fee. I never looked at it as something I would be doing full time, I just loved the idea of creating websites and was very motivated to learn more about the growing technologies that the internet offered, which was evolving exponentially.
IOMMI Designs provides web design and development services. We help small to mid sized business grow a presence online which in turn helps their business grow. We also specialize in graphic design and search engine optimization. Due to Covid we have seen a huge increase in business’s looking to increase their online presence as consumers are turning to the web to find goods and services. We offer three types of Services: Build, Grow & Support. All three services are vital for business’s to keep their website traffic increasing which essentially grows their business and online presence.
Our Build program offers either a complete re-design of the clients website or for startups, a brand new website. The process of our Build program includes a Discovery phase, which we learn more about the clients current state online, the clients goals and the clients current challenges. We also dive deep into the clients business services and what they offer to their clients. This helps us during the creative process while designing Hifi mockups of their website which addresses our clients current challenges online and provides a user experience that lead to conversions. Once the creative designs are signed off on by our clients, we then move into the development phase. The development phase is turning the Hifi designs into the actual website.
Our Grow program offers clients with existing websites to continue to grow their online presence. This can be with A/B testing, adding additional functionality and/or content to increase the users experience online, which then leads to higher website conversions.
The support program is for websites post launch. With technologies rapidly evolving, it is vital that the clients have all of the software in use updated and all of the websites functions working properly. The support program also includes site security monitoring, hackers are everywhere these days! These are monthly support contracts that we manage our clients websites.
What sets us apart from our competitors is experience. We have built hundreds of websites over the years for all types of industries, overcame challenges and have been humbled more than a few times over the years. We not only have experience, but we also like to educate our clients on evolving technologies in the digital world so they are up to date on the current technologies and what is currently available for their website to grow. Over the years we have never lost a client post launch. We always go the extra mile and make our clients number 1.
We are most proud of our client retention. With client retention I know we are doing something right, which means clients are growing. Helping business’s grow is a passion and seeing the final product and our happy clients is what keeps me going. We aren’t just a website company who goes through the motions and builds you a website and moves on to the next. We aim to build long lasting relationships with all of clients. We listen to our clients, we address their current challenges and always keep open communication during the entire process and after the website launches. I like to call us creative nerds who love culture, music and technology and we love to have a good time while keeping it professional. No bull shit with us, we advise our clients (and potential clients) on best practice and our recommendations on what they need in order to have a successful website that converts.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Being a business owner, we all learn how to adapt to changing times, slow markets and other variables that lay outside of our control. Once I went into business for myself, I told myself I would never have another job again, no matter what was at stake. Well, there was a brief moment where I had to reassess things. In 2017-18 we were bombarded with development projects, building custom solutions for clients and creating additional functionality for clients websites. It was rare for us to be doing a complete re-design or new website build as we had a growing reputation for doing great development work. We were also so busy we slowed down marketing for new clients and focused strictly on referrals and current clients as we could hardly keep up with our current work load. Then Covid hit and it seemed for a brief moment business slowed down and current clients were hesitant to keep moving forward with current projects as no one knew what was in store with the pandemic and the economy. Long story short, without clients being able to keep their retainers going, and the economy questionable, I had to make the second hardest decision in my life, I applied for a job.
Now keep in mind I am a self taught web designer and developer. I have learned this entire process over the years with no training, no classes, just with google searches, hard lessons and a fair share of adversity to boot. I didn’t know my value or my worth. I applied for 5 jobs with a resume that did not have any actual work experience, other than what I have done on my own. I knew it was a long shot but I had to do what I had to do.
A week later I got a call back from the 4th globally ranked website design agency in the world, ranked #1 in New York City for an upper level management position. The interview process was grueling and I made it to the final round, which had 5 remaining candidates (including me) out of 140 applicants. The other 4 candidates were all from top tier web design agency’s, I was the only entrepreneur. After the final interview I waited and 2 weeks later I got a phone call from the co-founder with an offer which I accepted…..I did what I never said I would do again..i got a job.
I felt a feeling of grief, as I was letting my business starve by taking this position, but I also had a feeling of value, I finally knew my value and worth by getting hired by one of the top ranked website agency’s in the world. My first project I managed for them was for a company who Jeff Bezo’s was a stakeholder in, this was big time.
I started to grow into my new role with the agency, but I also started to feel anxious as I knew I was meant to work for myself and not for a company. After 4 months I had a talk with the owner to address my concerns on wether I made the right choice or not. When I took the position, I had no choice as the economy was questionable. I was in the same spot I was in in 2012, do I keep the job security, or do I. make the jump back into working for myself. I decided to go back into work for myself and focus solely on IOMMI Designs.
The biggest lesson from this I learned was my value. I went up against 140 applicants who had agency experience, and I got the position. From what I learned and the process’s from the agency I worked for are priceless and it is something I will be forever grateful for. It made IOMMI Designs better as a whole and it made me realize that no matter the adversity, you will come out more wise and thankful for those hard decisions you have to make.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Doing this as long as I have, experience is the key player in building our reputation. I don’t think there is one business owner who can say they haven’t made mistakes along the way. I sure have, but have always used mistakes as a learning experience and got better from it. Over the years our experience has morphed into a selling point. There are thousands of “new” web designers using basic web builders and templates saying they are a developer. This isn’t exactly the case. There is a lot more to web design and websites than just using templates and adding in content. I learned this through trials through out the years which we’ve always overcame and our experience in all aspects of our industry is top notch, however, there is always more to learn. I am thankful for everything we have overcome and grateful to be able to advise our clients on best practice in web design.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.iommidesigns.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iommidesigns/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iommidesigns