We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ryan Marshall a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ryan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

Education today has become scrutinized and, in my opinion, bacterized. We always look at people as different from one another. Everyone has their own thoughts, views and opinions. No matter how much you want to fight that idea it always rings true. So why do we place kids in large classrooms to learn a single curriculum? It doesn’t really make sense to me. Yes, it works for the early years like 1st through 5th grade but the push towards the student’s identity should start within that time frame as well. Then years after are more geared towards the students’ ambitions and dreams. Connecting the dots of different subjects to how they relate in the real world. We are told that math and science are everything in this world yet, we have our children literally sit in classrooms for 13 years. If those 2 subjects alone are everything then why not teach it with everything. How much math is in sports? How much Science is in sports. Why do we not teach math in the gymnasium? Why is science class not outside or at the very least moving around for 90% of the teachings? Instead of exposing the students to the world and how it works together we expect them to sit and read from someone else’s experience ands their interpretation.
Teaching is also a very difficult area. These are the people that decided to dedicate their lives to the future. Yet we pay them very little. Then we give them a specific path to take on how they need to approach their students. Teaching is unique. Again, every person in this world is different from the next. So handcuffing teachers as to how they need to teach does nobody any favors. Some people learn differently from others, and they might take some extra time or extra attention to comprehend what is being asked of them. Yet in another topic I could excel very quickly and grasp the concept faster than someone else. But this is not recognized.
Education should never be standard. Prepare the students for live and expose them to the possibilities of what is to come. Exposing young children to livestock and farming at a young age should not be looked down upon in a school. The same goes for a child that might want to sit at a computer for the rest of his life. Maybe instead of the word education we should use the word exposure. Expose the youth to tomorrow and then educate them how it works in everyday life.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Ryan Marshall, and I am the owner of Wolfdog Printing. We are a screen printing and embroidery company based out of Harrison Township Michigan. We provide custom apparel to many different schools, businesses and organizations. We like to say we are creating memories, one shirt at a time. We believe that your apparel is like a personal billboard. It often can tell a person a lot about you. Shows your interests and maybe just what kind of person you are. So it’s very important we work with each client personally to make sure we provide the best possible outcome for their apparel. We are very proud of that fact and that we do not try and streamline the entire process. After all this is custom work and each project needs to be handled as such

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

. As many probably did. Covid was the big one. Before covid online was the way to go. We were a 2-person company working out of my garage with no plans to really move into a retail location. Our closest customer was an hour away and our furthest was in Long Beach California. So, we were in no hurry to put more strain on our business with expensive building overhead. But Covid did a number. A lot of our market dried up and everything went to a local market. We went from nobody coming around to see our shop to every customer stopping by unannounced. So, we had no choice but to get a retail shop. Not too many people willing to do work with someone out of their garage.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

In the beginning there was a lot of hardship. Going into business for yourself generally has a moment of faith when you must go all in or not. That time when your side hustle or start up needs you to be all in. Unfortunately, this time is not when you’re making a living. This is the time when you need to be involved all day and every day to get to the point of making a living. For me I did not have a ton of capital. I started out as a side hustle and always wanted to go full time but always wanted the impossible of a smooth transition from my day job to my business. Once I took the leap of faith it was a long road of debt collectors calling, watching my house going into foreclosure, sleepless nights just wonder if I would wake up to my power being shut off. But persistence and a very understanding wife made it possible to be in the position I am in now. There are still everyday struggles and often take that leap of faith again when trying to continue to grow. But the lessons of the past help you navigate those waters a little quicker each time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wolfdogprinting.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wolfdogprinting

Image Credits

WolfDog Printing