We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amy Lokken a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Amy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a customer success story with us?
One of my favorite clients, SagePresence came to me because 2020 (COVID) had pushed them into the virtual world, and they weren’t feeling as good as they wanted to about how they looked on virtual interactions. SagePresence exists to help their clients elevate their presence and were concerned that their screen presence was hampered by their somewhat “basic” backgrounds. Therefore, I sat down with them (virtually), and helped them view ‘presence’ beyond themselves ‘the person’ and see the relationship between their individual presence and the environment they place themselves in. I talked to them through the possibilities of how we could take their existing backgrounds/environments to a new level. One that would bring their visual presence up to the same equal value they were asking for their services– by showing up more credible and confident with their backgrounds inside their environments. I quickly developed an understanding of their business, and we collaborated to design backgrounds and set components that represent the essence of their brand, and now they present and work with their virtual clients more impactfully.
I’ll share this recent comment that was left on one of our social media posts, by Dean Hyers, co-founder for SagePresence about their experience;
“Amy and Müd Modualr represented a game changer move for our business. Some of the best money we ever spent, and it wasn’t much compared to the impact we got.”
For me there is nothing better than receiving a comment given by a client that felt they received more value than they initially expected.
Amy, 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?
From a very young age, I had an inquisitive passion for unique, high-quality design which led me to get my degree in Industrial Design. Through that I found I had an innate ability to understand human psychology and what role that plays in our daily lives; how we make decisions, buy products, and interact with each other. Being somewhere on the dyslexia spectrum, I have found that I think through and see things very differently. I like to see things from a different perspective and identify what unique abilities we all bring to the table and how to translate that into a visual experience. After leaving my career in the shopping center industry in 2008, as a retail designer I knew there had to be a better way for businesses to keep their brand and messaging fresh and relevant. I decided to take an idea I had and create a simple yet impactful modular marketing display system that allowed businesses to interact with their audience and give them the experience of what it would be like to work them through their visual presence. Müd (pronounced Mood) Modular displays are simple collapsible branded graphic columns that are used today as backgrounds and set components for high-level professionals who what to show up as their best and not fall into being mediocre and are willing to rise above the status que. They want to and understand that they need to look credible, competent, and powerful through the camera lens to their audiences. I help professionals identify what their brand’s visual presence feels like and how to convey that through the camera lens. I’ve been in the design world for over 27 years and have been honored to be a co-host, as a visual marketing expert on the streaming show called “The Advisers” on the Notoriety Network app, which has won 7 International awards for season 1 and 2.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
March 11, 2020, I had just landed back in Minneapolis, MN after attending a National Conference in Florida. I was completing my follow up with the leads from the expo and preparing for the following day. As my husband and I woke up the next morning, we continued our normal routine and left in separate directions. By the time we returned home that night we felt like we had entered the twilight zone. Within the following 48+ hours, life as we all knew it instantly changed. The ‘hot’ leads from the trade show were gone with no sight of them returning anytime soon. Since most of my customers at that time were using my modular marketing displays at trade shows, I basically had no one in need of my products anymore. Even though, I had originally built my displays to be used in a variety of ways—such as in backgrounds for videos. Most of my customers or prospects were strictly focused on their immediate needs, which were generally trade shows. Once the initial shock of the world going virtual and seeing an astonishing number of businesspeople seemingly forget how to show up as credible and with power through a camera lens I knew I needed to reintroduce my modular displays as a way to transform their virtual environments as a reflection of who they are and what they are about with credibility and power from their home offices without using fake or blurred backgrounds; which only distract the audience and worse leave them wondering what you are hiding—ultimately leading to a distrust in their subconscious. Thanks to 2020 I now create environments for high-level business professionals to be confident in how they and their brand are showing up online, on video, on-camera anywhere, anytime. Blending my eye for visual presence, and an innate ability to understand human psychology to create one-of-a-kind visual experiences that both my clients and their audiences love, proves there is always a way to reinvent yourself and your business if you have determination and resilience.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
When I started my business in 2009, I had just moved my parents into our home and became their primary caregiver. Therefore, I couldn’t travel far to work with manufacturers. I was working on a shoestring budget. However, having a background in Industrial Design was an advantage in understanding how something I designed should be built. Therefore, I learned to reach out to my networks, network. Throughout the years, I have been blessed to build a large network and community through my career that consists of a wide variety of industries. I also knew I wanted to build my product with other small businesses and as locally as I could. I started working with a local one-woman run printing shop to print my customers graphics and where she introduces me to different signage materials. Through my network relationship with Angela, I was introduced to a small family-run local boat tarp / upholstery shop that makes the carrying cases for my displays. I source my steel from a local area steel company that delivers to a high school in rural west central Wisconsin that has a manufacturing business inside the school. They cut all my steel rods to specifications. The remainder of my raw materials/supplies come from other small companies primarily throughout the Midwest of the United States. It was important to me to source as close to home if possible. I learned having a have a solid and vast network is critical when manufacturing a product. I also found that talking about and sharing my thoughts and ideas early on leads to more connections and an excitement that paves the way for interest of the product and more connections. I believe that you cannot do it all and need to understand your lane and stay in it. For instance, yes, could I have brought pieces of equipment, such as the printer and done that part in-house? Sure, however, that was going to be a piece of the puzzle I didn’t have background knowledge in and working with a small business that did that piece, meant I could help another small business stay a little busier during recession.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mudmodular.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mudmodular/ | https://www.instagram.com/theamylokken/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MudModular
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amylokken/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mudmodular/videos
- Other: https://www.notorietychannels.com/ https://www.notorietychannels.com/limited-shows/the-advisers https://www.notorietychannels.com/limited-shows/impact-influence