We were lucky to catch up with Lisa Levin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.

I chose this topic because in working with/at Shuffled Ink, I’ve experienced both positive and negative things when working with family. My dad started the company in 1999. When I first started REALLY working for him, I was 17 years old. I was handling mostly international projects and doing a great job (if I may say so myself). I was hitting record sales amounts, I was reorganizing the process of handling the international side of our business. Everything was going great, relatively. However, because I was only 17 and the youngest girl out of 5 kids, there was definitely difficulty from my dad’s side, treating me like an employee rather than his little girl. There was also a lot I had to learn about the working world. Maybe it was me feeling like I didn’t quite belong here yet, but the dynamic between my dad and I ultimately made me quit and start focusing on a career more related to my major in college – Hospitality Management. I ran (mostly) corporate events at Universal Studios for 6 years, but also worked with production shootings, parades, concerts, etc. Anything that could be labeled as an event, I was there! I learned so much about “the corporate world” and how to speak to customers (especially upset ones) and how to truly manage a team. When I felt the time was right, I found myself wanting to come back and work with the family business again. I brought my maturity and experiences that I learned at Universal and proved to my dad that I wasn’t just his little girl anymore. I was/am a serious, successful professional. Now, working with not only him but my two brothers as well, the experiences have been night and day. We all truly work as a team to make the best decisions for our company. It also works because we each have our own niche. My dad now heads our marketing and international sales, my older brother heads all of production & logistics, I am head of sales and accounting, and my younger brother assists in our production area. It’s so wonderful being able to work with and see them every day – to rely on and lean on each other. They understand and can be the shoulder to lean on when I’m going through rough days. And my success are their successes to – which makes it even more amazing.

Lisa, 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?

Becoming manufacturers was a total accident. My dad was in marketing and started making boxes of cards and maps that he would put in hotels around Central Florida. The boxes would also have a booklet of coupons for popular places in the area – Disney, Universal, restaurants, etc. He would get so many phone calls where people would request custom decks that he thought to himself …. well, I don’t do that, but I guess I could find a way to do it. He started out by turning our 3-car garage into his office, where we strictly did admin work. We had to outsource everything. As the business continued to grow, our partners saw our real potential and started raising pricing for us – almost to the point where we would barely be able to make anything. So, we started to slowly buy different pieces of equipment.

Now, not only can we make custom playing cards, but we can also do any type of card game, affirmation decks, tarot decks, oracle decks, instructions, booklets, and boxes.

The biggest thing that sets us apart from others is our customer services. Nowadays, you can’t get anyone on the phone. No one really cares about the product their manufacturing. You’re just another job to them. That couldn’t be further from the truth with us. It doesn’t matter how big or small your order is, we are happy to get on the phone and talk to clients for hours (and yes, that happens). Our graphics team works with clients directly, via email and phone calls. We are live and we care. Not only is that what sets us apart, that’s what I hold most near to my heart and I’m most proud of. If you go look at our review on Google, I still get emotional reading all of them, seeing such wonderful things clients have to say about their experience. Out of 800+ of those reviews 99% of them are about the customer service we provide.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

One of my favorite stories is about a job we worked on where a family member had passed away and they wanted to make cards in their honor. The client and I had been communicating via email for quite some time and all of a sudden, I got a call from her. She said “I have to ask you something and please don’t think I’m crazy or weird”. I responded simply saying “Never. Go for it”. She asked me if she could send us her grandmother’s ashes and we sprinkle them onto the cards before they get coated. To say I was stunned would be an understatement. In this industry, you see and hear A LOT. But I had never gotten that type of question before. I didn’t know if it was even legal! I told her, if we can do it – absolutely! I spoke to the production manager to make sure it wouldn’t mess up our coating machine and/or if we could clean everything perfectly so it didn’t get on the next order. I checked with my dad to make sure he would be okay with doing this. And, of course, I looked up to see if I/we could get in trouble for doing so. It was a go! We made the decks for her and her family and they were beyond thrilled. She called us crying tears of joy when the order was delivered to her. While we were a little uneasy about actually doing it, the amazing feeling that brought me and the team made it all worth it!

Any advice for managing a team?

When you run a family-owned business and almost all the managers/upper management members are part of that family, it’s hard to navigate relationships with everyone and make sure there isn’t any feeling of unfair treatment or nepotism. But, in my experience with working and managing teams at Universal vs managing the company at Shuffled Ink, it all comes down to the same concept – respect. It is so important to show all team members that you respect them; their feelings, their opinions, their input. Just because some of my best friends work for the company, it doesn’t mean I can treat them like a best friend at work. I have to treat them just as I do all the other employees. It’s important to show everyone that they are valued. Reward people for their successes and have the difficult talks when someone needs to improve something. I’ve also found that it’s okay to talk about things that are not work related. While keeping things professional, employees find it very comforting when you are interested in who they really are.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shuffledink.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shuffledink/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShuffledInk
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shuffled-ink/
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/ShuffledInk/