We were lucky to catch up with Eric Zwartz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Eric , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I’ve been entrepreneurial from a young age, whether it was selling frogs I’d caught in the pond or flipping old gaming systems for a profit; I was always up to something. As I got older and had — what I thought — were better ideas, I enlisted the help of friends and family in an ongoing effort to strike gold. Of course none of the ideas worked and in hindsight, they were all missing the same thing… purpose.

Fast forward to the year 2020 where everyone is stuck in their homes trying to make sense of the world. I was in sales at the time and unless you were selling toilet paper, nobody was buying. My household income tanked and I had to do something fast. I spent weeks brainstorming and white boarding, to point where my house looked like something out of CSI. Then it hit me.

I had a lot of artist friends who were always looking for ways to get their work out to people. A few had tried options already available online but they all seemed to have the same complaints and unmet expectations. I knew we could do better.

I called a friend who was in a similar work situation and I called my brother-in-law, a web developer who had always been on board for my crazy schemes in the past. We identified pretty quickly that we’d need a programmer with god-like abilities and luckily, we knew just the guy. Together, the four of us planned our business around gaps in the marketplace and WAMI was born.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Most people don’t realize that “WAMI” is actually an acronym meaning “We All Make It”. From the very start, our mission was not only to succeed as a business, but to be a part of our customers’, our community’s, and our own individual successes as well.

I learned early in my career that cutting corners to make a buck is no way to run a business and we work hard to make sure that never happens here. With over 30yrs of combined experience is sales and service, we are absolutely customer crazy and strive to offer the very best customer experience from start to finish.

Our core platform offers artists and individuals, small businesses, schools and other organizations the ability to sell their own customized swag online without fees, hassle or overhead. We handle everything from hosting and payment processing to customer service. And for those that prefer a little extra attention, we offer full white-glove treatment on things like setup, bulk orders, design services and so much more. Seriously, it’s like we work down the hall only we don’t drink your coffee!

We have awesome stories of independent artists boosting their income, non-profits raising funds for their cause, schools filling their halls with spiritwear, and so many others. It’s successes like these that motivate us to keep improving our craft and we have a lot of really cool things to come.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Things don’t always go as you planned — this we know — and here at WAMI, we’ve definitely mastered the pivot maneuver.

Our original concept was built around design competitions; complete with automated submissions, a custom-built voting system, cash prizes and plenty of flair. It was a lot of fun and we met so many amazing people along the way but it just wasn’t getting us where we needed to be as a company. Users weren’t responding how we expected, profits were missing the mark and — let’s just say — our competitors made it clear they weren’t happy to see us.

My wife and I say “blessed are the flexible, for they shall not break” — and we didn’t. With a few (hundred) tweaks to the user interface and marketing, we were able to adapt our site and offer full-service, on-demand apparel shops for our customers. This has been hugely successful and we have an exciting roadmap ahead of us. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you see those competitions pop back up in the very near future.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Whether you have a 100-person team or just a brave few (like us), keeping everyone motivated can be a tall order; some wins will come easy, some will be hard-fought, and still others won’t be wins at all.

At WAMI, we stay focused on the “WHY?”. When your team understands the big picture and believes in WHY they are doing something, the “how” becomes a welcomed challenge; one we take on together. Each team member is empowered to make decisions and do what they do best.

Don’t be a manger. Instead, be an enabler; a motivator; a leader. These things are contagious and soon you’ll have a team of leaders alongside you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wamiswag.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/wamiswag
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/wamiswag
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/wamiswag