Joy Gendusa is founder & CEO of PostcardMania. In 1998, it was just Joy with a phone and a computer and now she has more than 200 employees and brings in more than $40 million in revenue annually.
Watch this interview to see: [Video & mp3 included]
-What did she do that doubled their revenue?
-How does her no fail hiring system work?
For much more click below to watch!
Watch the Full Episode
Prefer to listen to Audio instead? >> “Right click” here for the mp3
Listen to this interview with Joy as she talks about how her hustle allowed her to track down money that a client owed her. She also talks about what a fireable offense is in the company. Joy talks about what happened with her building when the recession hit and how she got rid of the naysayers in her life.
FUN FACT: Joy was a high school dropout.
Business Mentors, Tools, Books mentioned:
basecamp
A little PostcardMania background:
PostcardMania® was founded in 1998 by Joy Gendusa—her only assets a computer and a phone. After being sorely disappointed by a printing company when using them to promote her business, Joy Rockwell Enterprises, she had the bright idea to specialize in postcards and give all her marketing experience away for free. With no start-up money or capital injections of any kind, Joy started PostcardMania as a pilot project. The company has more than 57,103 customers. For 3 chapters in Joys book free click here… PostcardMania Marketing (optin is asked for on that page)
Please Leave a comment Below on one thing you found Most Inspiring or Helpful
Inspiring ! It’s so cool that Joy was a mum woth two little kids and it didn’t stop her from starting a business. It’s cool that she took risks and tried new approaches to her business. I’m also interested in the approach she has taken with the company culture, and how that has contributed to their success. I always feel like companies couldn’t care less about their employees and that really fosters a negative environment (often with a high staff turnover!). It also seems that it’s a consistent pattern for entrepreneurs to change who they associate with – I keep hearing the “you’re the average of the 5 people you are closest to” thing. This has given me food for thought.
I agree Sheila. Hearing how she started a successful company with pure hustle while raising 2 kids is inspiring. Thanks for watching and for your comments.
Thanks a lot for your feedback Sheila! One of the main reasons why I started PostcardMania was to create a fun place to work. This is where we spend most of our time, right?! So we should enjoy coming to work and get along with our co-workers. I love my staff and I always try to come up with new things in order to keep PostcardMania a fun place to work at 🙂
Hi Joy, it’s so true! I really admire and respect that. I hear “happy staff are productive staff” but haven’t seen that in action in my experience. We can spend copious amounts of time working and it can really affect our general wellbeing, including after hours. It’s great that you made it happen, rather than wait around for it to happen. Wish I had a boss like you?! Lol =)
I really enjoyed this interview!
Hey Eric! I am glad you enjoyed it.
What did you like so I make sure to keep that in mind for future interviews?
thanks.
I really enjoy inspirational stories that give people with dreams hope, to hear a positive story making it seem possible for somebody to make a dream a reality.
Keep it up!
Thanks Eric.
Yes, I agree it is about making the dream into a reality. (with hustle,drive,etc)
This is the spot for inspirational stories and having proven entrepreneurs talk about some of the highs and lows. If you think of any other entrepreneurs you want to see interviewed then let me know.
Hi Eric, I’m glad you liked it 🙂
Awesomeness! We actually watched this before getting out of bed this morning. Yep, even when we “sleep in” we’re working. I’ve been a Realtor since 2007 and I used to be a tax preparer, so I am pretty sure I’ve come across Joy’s website before. TODAY, it is fantabulous. I think my husband just got himself an instant marketing department and I can cross a couple of positions off our “future career opportunities” list. Postcardmaina.com ROCKS!
Hey Toni!
That sounds like a great way to start the day with listening to Joy’s journey. Yes they are the experts at marketing. What does your husband do that he will be marketing? have a great day!
He’s my marketing manager for both my online coaching business and soon to be relaunched real estate business. He also has a couple companies he provides marketing and brand management services for, but he’s mostly MINE. 😉
He is mostly yours 😉 what does your online coaching business focus on ? Do you do any direct mail now in the business?
Real estate. I don’t use direct mail now, but I can. Listening to this made me really consider it in addition to email marketing. I am sure we’d get a higher “open” rate (joke). Seriously, we’d get a higher response and quicker conversion because the strategy would be different than my email strategy. I am a believer in direct mail. It’s how I found clients for my tax biz. We’ll definitely use DM as part of our strategy when we build our new real estate team.
I agree. Sometimes we get so caught up in the “virtual” world with email, text, etc. that it is nice to get something physically in the mail and further establishes the relationship.
Exactly! I email between 200-300 new real estate agents each week, with a 3% opt-in rate. I have to build a relationship with them before I attempt to sell them. That can take weeks. Imagine a DM campaign to the same agents with a postcard offer. Hmmmm. I may need to call a strategy session. 😉
Toni, if you need any assistance with direct mail or have any questions just let me know. I’d be more than happy to help 🙂
Thanks, Joy. Will do!
Thanks Toni!
I knew you were out there Joy! thanks for the great information and sharing your stories and lessons from the business with us.
Toni! how have you been? tell me what is new and exciting with you
The really interesting part about this interview for me came at the end when Joy talked about differentiating their service once it had become a “commodity”. One of the businesses I run is an SMS gateway … it really does nothing but sit there and spin off a bit of revenue each month and every time I try and grow it or put effort into it, I realise that it’s a losing battle because there are so many other SMS operators out there, the competition is so fierce and it’s just a race to the bottom in terms of price. But what Joy said about innovating with how they track their postcards and looking at what value they can provide to customers based on their experience really got me thinking … if you can find ways to differentiate your “commodity” postcard service, why can’t I do the same? Hmmmmm …
I knew someday I would get the insightful comments of Iain! Great to hear from you. You bring up a good point that I think I missed even after the 7 times I have watched this. What can we all be doing to separate ourselves and differentiate our customers experience. For me it is trying to respond to your comment Iain in less than 10minutes 🙂
Great interview and then I Googled for more information on the company in question..
I’m not going to repeat anything here because … well, you’ll see.. but I suggest that you Google Postcardmania and then let Google Suggest do its thing.
What you do from here Jeremy is your call but knowing what I now know, there’s no way I’d be keeping this interview on my site and I’d suggest you think of something similar.
Hi Matthew, thanks for watching. I am glad you liked the interview and I will check that out on google. Please feel free to email me directly support (at) inspiredinsider.com or put in the comments if there is something I was not seeing. Thanks again for being so detailed.