TK Business Magazine To Compass: Building Community-Driven Marketing in Topeka | Tara Dimick

This is about as dressed up as I generally get. You know.

How do we take something, make it really incredible, and do it in a way that makes people really proud?

She's a good work. She's always cooking up something.

Basically foreshadows sabotage it.

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Today we have Tara Dimmick with TK Business Magazine. Let's go. Encompassed Marketing and Advertising Partners. CMAP in the house. Let's go. Thank you. Come on.

Thank you. Thank you guys for having me. Can you tell us?

A little bit about you. Uh, how did you get to Topeka? What's your story and to where you are today?

That's a longer story than you may not be.

Tell us literally everything you know about everything.

Three minutes young, but I'm not sure.

Can you just start reading this encyclopedia to us out? That'd be great.

Well, I came here because of Washburn, so I'm a big Washburn fan. Yeah, I go bots. Yeah, I love the bods. I I'm haven't got a kid to actually go to uh Washburn yet, but I've got one more left, so I'm holding strong that that she'll be the one.

How close to graduating?

She's still got a few more years. So she's a seventh grader. A few more years at the time. Okay, yeah. Yeah, she gets to play on Coach Heron's. Like he's got a young uh girls that that play volleyball for him competitively, and he is the best with them. And and so I'm I'm hoping maybe that will be one more. And Dr. Mazachek is so amazing.

Like, yeah, yeah. So anyway, well, it helps if she's already on like a developmental team coached by the same person.

I know.

And they're the volleyball team's killing it right now.

They're killing it. They're killing it. They're so amazing.

They were like number two in the nation recently. I think they like won a tournament last weekend.

You're looking to me for verification, and I have no idea.

Well, I'm just really not the sports guy on the podcast. So I thought you'd have my back on it.

You knew it was gonna be a sports podcast. Uh there, you know, what makes them even better though is they're the best women. Like they're just such strong character, they are positive. They come and talk to the young girls, and I mean my daughter just admires those young women.

So we have a bunch of them in our church. They're awesome. They are awesome. Yeah, they're so great. Yeah.

So anyway, I came, I played softball.

Okay.

And um attempted, did pretty good a few years. And then my husband played baseball. So we met because that's what happens. Baseball hangs out with softball, and volleyball hangs out with football, and basketball hangs out with yeah, it's a whole thing. I don't know if it's a lot of people.

Are there certain teams that only hang out with other certain teams?

It really is because you only play sports and you're like playing entering the same season, and so you kind of have the same schedule.

Oh, you're on football?

That was like 25 years ago. So maybe it's like a Disney movie.

There's like the bully, you know, like, oh, you're on football? We don't talk to you.

Yeah. We all liked each other. We just didn't necessarily see each other very often. Um but yeah, so that's what brought me to take out. We left for a while. Um, our family owns, my husband's family owned um some restaurants, and so we went up into Nebraska and then we came back. Uh I worked with Chris Keeshin, who's an incredible fundraiser that works here in town and all over the state and beyond to help um major campaigns. And so that's brought me back. Wow. And then somewhere along the way, I decided I needed to have my own company. So I built that and we had a marketing company, took over TK, and yeah. Then I I joined Invista, which was a great part of my journey, taught me so much. Um What is that? In Vista Federal Credit Union is the credit union here in town. They've got like 40,000 members.

They are so plugged into the community. Oh, they're so fantastic. What does that mean to join a credit union? Oh, yeah.

So it's just like a financial institution. You're just paying five dollars to become a part of a member, be a member to the credit union.

It's just like a bank.

It's just like a bank. It's fantastic.

It's not like you open an account, you join it.

When you open an account, that you become a member.

Look at you. You just, yeah, we'll make you a lot of things. I'll give them a little heads out that we've got a spokesperson here.

Absolutely, yeah.

Um but they I spent um six years with them. I got to be their chief business development officer, so I got to do everything from helping a community, which was amazing, to be able to really give back into the community and find the things that that we felt like really would help the members, our employees want to stay in Topeka. And that was amazing. Got to help with the product development and the marketing team. And and now they're just they're amazing. They're led by a great team. Some of my favorite people in the world are their leadership team. And then three years ago, I started Compass Marketing and Advertising Partners uh with a good friend who I'd been friends with for 20 years, Tim Colling. And so today we're celebrating approximately three years.

Let's go, come on. Yeah, congratulations, congrats, you're excited. That's good. Okay, so I I have a question about I'm I'm still like, you seem obviously very entrepreneurial, um, but the you don't have like the most like you don't have a standard career path. You know, like people are like, I got hired here, and then I worked my way up and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You're like, yeah, I helped my family with restaurants, then I helped this fundraising guy, and then I started a bank account and they gave me a job. Like, like, I'm trying to just like, okay, like you you obviously have like a real gift to just like make things happen. Like, where did that where did that come from? You know, is that something that was just like part of your family? Is that just kind of your own unique gift?

Yeah, that's really cool. Um, I would say I'm unhirable. I just can't know. Um, I came from an entrepreneurial family, and each one of us, you know, I'm everybody would looks at their siblings and kind of goes, who did what? My sister is incredible, but she is, you know, in that work focus. Um she could be an entrepreneur in a heart in a heartbeat. But my dad was the entrepreneur of the family, and I look at him, and that was who I always wanted to be, right? Like um I just yeah, being an entrepreneur felt like the only option.

Wow. Yeah. So yeah, I have I have three young kids and I'm constantly trying to think because my my brain does not normally let work like that. Uh we've kind of joked, like, I'm not the one who's like, hmm, if I had $50, how could I make $5,000? You know, like what would I, what mechanism would I use to and it just seems like some people either their brain naturally works that or they're trained from a young age to see opportunities like that. Is that kind of how it was? Like you were trained to like see opportunities and how to capitalize on that. Like, do you have maybe maybe go the lens as a parent? How what are some things I could do to help my children? Oh, that's really see opportunities in that kind of way to like theoretically be able to be entrepreneurial later in life.

Well, every kid's different, so while I'll give advice. I have no idea. Sure, yeah, yeah.

All the all the caveats, you know, of yeah.

My kids are really interesting because um everything I did, I tended to be like, well, how would you make that a business? Right? Like before kiddos. Like my daughter was selling clothes when she was like 14 years old. She even got scammed by the time she was 16, you know, like the first time where somebody's like, Well, you know, let's go offline this platform and see if you couldn't give me a check. Um, my daughter then said, What's a check?

But um she was very like Venmo or Yeah, I know.

So she was really entrepreneurial, always looked at like, how can I create or make something or sell something? And and so I think when you see that in them, it's uh kind of about how do you harness that and like give them that. Just like I have a son who's into architecture, so the amount of Legos we own is unreal. Yeah. And so it's it's kind of seeing the spark and just feeding the spark.

Okay, yeah. I will say maybe in the family line in some ways. The spark is probably gonna be there.

It's there. Okay, yeah. It's kind of interesting because I think a lot of I think a lot of entrepreneurs, they don't really care about money. Money's like the side piece, right? Like, cool, that was worth it. Now I've got more to try the next idea that I have. But like, if anything, I've had to train myself to make sure that I'm making money in that thing that I go, ooh, that squirrel, I should follow it. That looks like fun.

Yeah, okay. So it's really you just have like things you're excited to try. And money is kind of like, hey, if this works, then it provides and it kind of goes somewhere. Interesting.

Something I've noticed too with even my wife and I, because my wife is very much not entrepreneurial. Yeah. And I am very much like, let's I'll tell you how I'd make 500 bucks out of 50 or whatever. Yeah. I think there's also setting your kids up, and I'm giving parent advice, I don't have any kids. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. It's always fun to look back on. We have one cooking. Oh, good.

Congratulations.

I think that's also creating an environment where failure's allowed.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, where it's like, hey, maybe even celebrate it. Yeah. Like I'm gonna give you $50 and you're gonna try and make $5,000. And if it doesn't work out, here's another $50, go do something different. Yeah. Because I think that's the story of every entrepreneur's life is you're gonna hit on one idea, and for every one, there were 25 that didn't work. Right. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah, it's so good. Yeah, yeah. I love that.

Okay, give us the story of let's start with TK Business Magazine. Um when did you you said you acquired TK Business Magazine?

So back in like October of 2009, uh, Kevin Dole, he had done an awesome job uh building it and creating it. It was about two and a half, three years old. And was just kind of thinking about like maybe this is the end of this journey. Um, and so we chatted, and again, entrepreneurial, right? Like, he probably told me every reason not to do it, and I was like, Yeah, let's go. Like, that sounds like fun. So um we I I just said, okay, I'll do it. And so there was a process of acquiring it that that kind of happened and payments that like we had we did all that piece. But it was he was also in the process of like a shaker from MLM. Yeah, I know, right? 2009. We were still in check mode.

No, yeah.

Uh Kevin actually worked a lot with me to like help me really understand, okay, how the heck do I do this? I was a marketing professional, not a journalist. So I had great people. Um, Lisa Lowen, who still writes for us, she's been our editor-in-chief in the bat and historically, but she I will never forget the first issue. I am literally sitting with my designer and Lisa trying to figure out like how do I better communicate what I'm trying to get across. And so, yeah, so we just launched. Um, I said a lot of please just trust me, I'm sure I'll figure this out fast enough. And fortunately, we have a lot of advertisers that have been with us since literally October 2009.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. You said something there that uh I think sums up entrepreneurs is entrepreneurs take the take the standpoint of I'll figure it out.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. People who aren't entrepreneurs are afraid of the I don't think I'll figure this out. Entrepreneurs have no reason to think they're gonna figure it out, but they just take the stance of I'll figure it out. It might not be today, tomorrow or next year, but it'll it'll come together. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Uh so 2009 is when you acquired it. Have there have been some ch I'm sure there's been some changes. Was that like a rebrand year or what stayed the same? What's changed?

So many years ago. Uh, you know, the logo changed. It was TK magazine. Now we call it TK Business Magazine as much as we can. I mean, the website's still TK magazine and stuff, more just so that people understand, like we try to stay in the niche of of business. Uh, we very rarely veer from it. There's other platforms, there's other spaces that can take on other things that are really important in our community, whether it's government or nonprofit or just community-based.

Sure.

But for me, as maybe as a family of a small business owner, I always felt like the heart of a business owner was something special. And something, and not just a business owner, but the people who make those small businesses work, right? Like there's all these incredible people. Like, when I look at Compass, like I'm I'm like this big, and everybody else on the team, they make it happen. So, how do we how do we celebrate that? At the time, in my opinion, in 2009, business in our community sometimes struggled to have a positive feel, even about being a business because we're such a government community.

Sure.

And um, and so yeah, so it was all about how do we take something, make it really incredible, have a focus on innovation, growth, leadership, inspiration, and do it in a way that makes people really proud to be a part of it. Yeah. And and so that that's kind of been our goal. We haven't done a ton of rebrands, we've done a few throughout the years. I think our biggest shift was we were quarterly, and then we went to every other month.

That was my next question. How many issues do you guys do? Yeah.

So every other month we publish um monthly feels like a lot.

Yeah.

Um, but every other month feels just right. Yeah.

Yeah. And we were talking about this a little off air, but I I think you should put out as many issues as you can do quality. And, you know, we were talking about how we only release twice a month. Most podcasts are every week.

Yeah.

And it's like, well, you know, if we're gonna go every week, we're gonna get burnt out, it's not gonna go well, we're gonna run out of things to talk about, and then we'll be done in six months.

Yes.

If you go, you know, every other week, twice a month, it's like, hey, we could do this for five years once we get some systems down. Yeah. So that's cool. I have a lot of respect for that.

People get excited about it too, because they've got to wait a little bit for the next one to come. And um, yeah, it makes it makes it a little more uh exclusive. Yeah.

Oh, I see them in my office. Yeah. We get them at our office. And good. How many uh sorry, I don't mean to hog this. How many uh copies do you guys print? Yeah. Like how many get did it?

Depending on the issue, it's between eight and ten thousand. And then we have another readership that's pretty heavy online.

Okay.

And then we have the we have the print issue, we have the issue on issue, and then we have um all of them separated into blogs. So it gives a chance for people to get them in different ways. Yeah, sure. Depending on how they consume it.

What's the issue on issue?

So issue is a website called issue, and uh you it's a page turning publication.

Oh, I've seen that. I know.

Like, well, we've got me embedded, but it's a little different. Right.

Uh yeah, I've seen that where it it's like the physical magazine, but on a yeah, yeah, yeah.

You pull it up full screen, and then you can touch it and it'll like take you places. So it is a really we do a lot of work there, and we have like thousands of people that look at it that way too. Really? Yeah.

So that's been a lot of what's the most is print still more popular than the online. People love the print. I love the print.

Yeah, they want the print, they want to touch it, which is so good because you know, I remember just even 10 years ago, we were already talking about like when will be when will we be obsolete?

Right.

And I feel like in some ways we went the other direction. We had definitely a turn in uh COVID, right? Because nobody wanted to touch anything that somebody else had touched. So we did a lot of changes during those years, but then we came back and I think we're back.

Yeah. Yeah. What are the other like competing methods? Like uh like is it like email newsletters, like social media, or is that kind of the competing formats with print and blog forms?

Oh, that's interesting. So I I guess I feel like we're kind of the the biggest competitor that would keep us out is just people stop wanting print. Yeah. The other honestly, the other biggest reason print would go away is it is incredibly expensive.

Yeah.

Um we go with a very high quality.

Yeah.

So we have like butter paper and all the things that we think are special, and it's also got a big price tag.

Yeah. Well, I'll say from a consumer perspective, worth it. Yeah. I can tell that yours are made quality and with the I'm sure there's you know tiers to it. You can upgrade, you know, have a different cover, different page feel. You can tell when you pick it up, it's like, oh, this is nice. Yeah.

Just from a consumer perspective. It's nice to have like a really high quality magazine like on a coffee table and things like that. Or maybe I don't know, in a waiting room if you're a business or something.

Yeah, yeah. That's and we distribute it to 500 to 600 places, all free. We have subscribers, but those are just ones that potentially want it in their uh you know, in their mail. Uh so it's not a huge list, but it it's free. So we don't expect it to be a huge list. But it's um our way of being like, okay, anywhere you go, can you see it? That's our big goal.

So how does that how is that financially sustainable? Like how does it cover itself?

Yeah, everything is paid for by our advertisers. So if you like the magazine, go to our advertisers, right? Because they're they're just funding everything that happens.

Yeah. So is uh maybe more of a standard magazine approach funded by subscription, or are they still generally funded by advertisers?

I think that that's what's hurting magazines as well. Is that the subscription is tough and people can go online to get so much. Right. But this is something you can't, you know, we we we do distribute it online and someday maybe it'll go that way. But really, the only thing that hits us hard is that price tag.

Interesting. How many advertisers do you typically have on an issue?

Oh.

Well is I didn't know if there was like a No, that's a great question.

Somewhere between 60ish, I want to say. My husband actually does all of that portion. He oversees all the things with the magazine. It's always not easy uh working with your spouse, but he has he has done a great job of working with me. And so he is.

What are you guys currently fighting about? I know I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

No, what is today's actually the best part is we do not fight about work anymore. Come on, I know. I know. It took us a lot of years, but we're there.

That's awesome.

Yeah, it strengthened you, forced in the fires of the magazine.

I know. I love it.

I I what I love most about the the print side of things, especially something like a magazine, is you know, you can take that same article or that issue and put it on Facebook, you can put it on a blog.

Yeah.

And, you know, people will see the post for 24 to 48 hours and then it's gone within the feed. You know, those magazines, those have been those can sit on a desk for months, yeah, six months. And my guess is a lot of the that information, the stories, the issues, they're they're timeless. I mean, they could sit there for a year and someone could pick it up and still feel like, oh, this was informational. Yeah. So I mean, those things stick around for a long time.

It is fun to go into an office and like see somebody who's actually got all the like as part of their bookshelf. Like, oh that always makes me feel really good. That is cool. Yeah.

That's awesome. What's it? Uh what what are some lessons you've learned along the way in the last it's been 16 years now of learning the magazine?

Oh, lessons. Well, there's for some way, I don't know, there's always new stories, and they always inspire me, which I think is interesting too. I think that um so lessons I've learned is probably that people are really whole and complete and they have great stories to tell. Um I I love the people side of what what this is, and that we get to put a heart to the what I think sometimes gets a negative connotation of like, oh, they just make a lot of money. Um truthfully, nope, they're probably barely getting by, and if we can help them a little bit, that would be great. Um, I think sometimes you just gotta like let it go. The hardest part for me with doing the magazine initially was like my perfectionism. And I still can't read a magazine after it comes out. Like, I know I'm gonna find something in it, and it's gonna like rip me apart to see like this air that we made. Um, let really good people do really great work.

Yeah.

Our writers and our photographers, oh my gosh, our photographers are fantastic, our writers are fantastic. Oh, we have an editor-in-chief. All of those people do great work. And if I just stay out of their way, greatness happens. Um learning.

So you're saying let great people do great work. Like let them work. Don't micromanage. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, I've heard uh so good.

I don't know who it was. I want to say Steve Jobs. A quote from him on you know, the people you hire, if you're hiring good people or the right person, they should tell you what to do.

Yeah.

You know, if you're hiring a really good editor-in-chief, a good photographer, it shouldn't be you as the CEO owner saying, hey, this is how this should be done. They should be telling you, actually, no, this is how it should be done. You as a CEO also take need to take a step back and know I hired them for a reason and should listen. I agree.

I have I have a question about that, actually. Uh you seem, you know, you're entrepreneurial. I'm going to take a stab and say you probably have a some sort of creative vision for the magazine.

Yeah.

Have you what's it like navigating the tension when you're trying to hire someone to do something or bring someone on the team and trying to kind of impart the creative vision, you know? Obviously, you know, I'm not asking you to name names or anything like that, but I imagine, I imagine there's been some time over the last 15 years where you're like, ah, that's not really what I'm looking for. Like, how do you navigate? Like, I don't want to micromanage you, but I also that's not what I'm looking for.

So there's a little bit of a gift in that we use a lot of subcontractors. And so if we don't like it, it's not a fit, it's just not a fit, and we don't publish, right? So there's a lot of those spaces where that might show up. Um, if something goes around.

So it's not like your best friend who's the you know, like a part owner with you, and you're like, I can't correct you.

Yeah. Yeah. Um I would say I've got a little like anybody who watches this will know that I'm also a recovering control freak. So I'm not gonna lie that sometimes there is a veto and and that happens. And I think that that's that's okay. Somebody's gotta be that person who's gotta be the bad guy. So I've decided like that's an okay role for me to take on. Yeah, I'm nice, but I'm also all you know, I want it to be the best.

Little compliment sandwich. Hey, I love what you're doing over here. Over here, not so much. Yeah, that's funny. But good try. Yeah, yeah. Good try. That's funny you say that. I I like the effort you're putting in. I I go through that a lot with Gabe. Yeah, as we're as we're putting on this show. I'm not saying I tell Gabe no a lot, but it's a constant, like, okay, Gabe's a professional, Gabe knows what he's doing. That's not quite what I had envisioned for how we're gonna introduce the show with the graphic or how we do this. And so it's a a little bit of a give and take where Gabe will take a stab at something, and I have to be like, yeah, no. But then there's also times Gabe takes a stab at something, like the way Gabe uh edits our our our ad reads uh or in the beginning one, he did it way different than what I had pictured, the first our first one going, and then he did it, and I watched it, and I was like, that's actually way better than what I had in mind. Like it's it's good that we have this give and take relationship with, and you can do that with contractors.

Yeah, I've also found that a lot of times, yeah, there's a lot of reflection of like, what did we do wrong to give them the information that they like if we wanted something, then we should have directed better, right?

So there it's like it should have been more clear what we were asking for.

Yes, there's definitely the clearest kind process, right? Like and we were just talking about this the other day. Um, my husband was saying, you know, I really have a vision for how this looks, and so I've really got to put together even the questions and and so recognizing like when it fails, it's there's always it's coming back at us. Right.

Yeah, I know that makes sense. Yeah. Gabe, I'm curious where uh where you've seen Justin's vision is not as good as yours.

Are we waiting to put into specifics here?

I mean, he's getting into specifics about you, and you don't have a chance to defend yourself here. Okay, next question before we follow. No.

No, it's it's great because like me and Justin have worked together for years. So like sometimes we're kind of completely on the same page, but then there's other times where it's like he kind of has a general idea, and then I kind of have a general idea, but we kind of have to figure out where it's gonna end up. So it's like there there's always that you know process of figuring out what it's finally gonna look like, but usually the more that we work together, the more we kind of know what we're looking for.

Yeah, that's cool.

That's cool.

And there's no cameras pointed at you, so it's just a a voiceless or a faceless blob saying all of that.

Yeah, it's okay. People the viewers can see everybody staring directly at the camera. Yeah, okay.

What are they looking at?

I love it.

Well, let's maybe transition to compass marketing and advertising partners. I'm pretty proud of myself for remembering that. That was really good. Yeah. When did you start that? What what do you what do you guys do there? Yeah. Hey, quick heads up. If you've been thinking about making a move, Topeka might just pay you.

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So just about three years ago, we got started in it. Um, we are, I we are what you would call a full service agency. So we can come in and do a rebrand and do a video and a commercial, all the things. But what I really think we have become, right? Sometimes your uh clients tell you what you are more than you get to decide. They've always felt like that's what you listen to, is we kind of fall in and become a marketing department for a lot of our clients. So they depend on depend on us in kind of a bigger scope than just to come in and do one piece of the puzzle. Most of the time we're we're trying our best to do way more than that and to look at it from a uh way up high, but then we often get in the weeds with them and become that marketing person. And it's really been a good fit for maybe a company that's not the right size, whether it's whether it's size or industry, that they don't really need a marketing director, or they have a phenomenal marketing director, but they that person maybe doesn't have the capacity to have a whole team around them. Then we could be that team. And so we do everything from strategic planning and campaign development into okay, well, what's the story we're trying to tell? How do we build the photos, all the content, blogs, everything, right? We we do video from kind of a simple video to a full-on commercial. Uh and then we go in and we also I always it always drove me nuts to work with any, you know, you'd get all this great stuff, and then you had to then send it to the printer. So we handle all the printer communication and we handle getting the commercials out, we handle all the traditional media buys as well as the digital media buys.

Yeah.

So basically, you get like a one-stop shop for all the things marketing, and we handle it right. So, but we also we have some um clients who maybe just want media buying or maybe just want a marketing piece or an ad done. Then we do that too.

Yeah. Wow. Um okay, how many employees do you guys have for that business?

Yeah, there's 11 of us right now. Yes. Yeah, it's a good team.

I've got all kinds of different roles and stuff.

Most most of the some of our subs, the ones that are internal, are all on the team. I do have a lot of unicorns that work for me. So they're very special, magical people.

And then is there any overlap between the two businesses? Are those just very much separate?

The only overlap is that um one of our employees does a lot of the website work for Compass or for TK. So uh that's now handled internal, but only because we hired him. Gotcha.

Yeah, that makes sense.

From TK.

What made you want to start a marketing firm?

Um, so I had a marketing firm before I had TK. And uh I just I don't know, it it helps people. Like you get to be a part of the telling of their story. You know, I I I'm not the person who's necessarily going to do the operation side. I actually even have a team member who's starting to help me more on the operation side. I love getting to help people have their moment of fame, whether it's you know, telling the story right or just getting it out there. I tend to be an activator and I see one of the biggest people, the biggest problems company have is actually just letting it go. Right? They hold tight, they've it's gotta be a little bit better. And it's like, can I just help you put it on social? Because I bet we can do it. And if we do it, it won't feel quite as intense as you doing it.

Wow. Are you allowed do you work with any local companies? Uh are you maybe tell us? I know. Are you allowed to tell us who's from local companies?

One of our favorite to work with, you you get to talk to them once in a while, is the zoo. They're I mean, I don't know when this will air, but zoo lights is amazing.

Yep, yeah.

Um, we got to work with Squeegee Squad, and Squeegee Squad is the one that is like doing all the lights with the zoo. So they've got all the partnerships working together.

Yeah.

But the zoo's one of our favorites. So we've gotten to be with um kind of in a relationship with them for a little over two years, maybe even longer. And I mean, does it get any better than talking about animals? Oh, families.

What do you do for the zoo on their marketing side? What does that look like?

All the things, right? From photos and video to putting content together. They have a great team internal too. They have a great team doing fundraising and doing all the animal care. They have a great social um leader that it does their social. Their social is incredible. Um, we don't get to do all that.

Their social media pages.

Yeah, they do such an incredible job. They have so many followers.

Yeah, it's great. Whenever they collab on a post with us, it always does well.

Oh, yeah.

Isn't it cool?

Like, how can we craft a post where they want to collab with us? Because we can use the clout. I know.

There's nothing better though than like an anna. I think they're a lion inside of a bucket, right? Or tiger, whichever it was. It was just so cool to see the the world come alive for stuff like that for the speakers who are so what's the need like if someone is like coming to hire you?

Is it is the need like, hey, we just want more customers, or the word isn't getting out about our business enough? Is that kind of generally the need? And then you guys come in and say, well, okay, what can we do for you to help that? Yeah. Just kind of take it from there.

So it can be a lot of different things. One of the things might a lot of times we go actually, it starts on the executing side where maybe they already have some of the assets or they have an idea, but they just need to get it out. And so digital advertising and those platforms tend to be some of our starting places.

Like social media ads, ads and stuff. Yeah.

And then the other starting place is that maybe they've had a transition and they really need a new marketing company or a new marketing person. And so they'll come and visit with us about how would we do their marketing? It might be a rebrand, it might be they want to um tell their story differently, they need to capture the content development in a different way. Sometimes it's just we got a lot to do, we need some help.

Yeah, yeah. That's awesome.

Yeah.

Man, so how's it been going? Three years in.

It's great. It's great. We've got the best clients. Um we, you know, we get to work with people who care passionately about their business. And we work with them on their best days, and we also work with them on the days where we get to go, okay, how can we navigate this so that maybe a crisis communication situation or being the person who's there to support them? That it's a very special place you get to have in their life. Like this is we're the storyteller of what matters most to them. Yeah. Um, so that that's a pretty magical story. That is pretty awesome. Yeah.

What per maybe you know this, maybe you don't. What percentage of your clients for Compass are local? Like to Pico?

Majority of them are. I mean, we have a we have a company that's out of Canada and some kind of regional companies, but probably, I mean, maybe as high as 75%.

Because I guess my next question was is I was as a marketing guy myself, I'm trying to think how would I market a marketing agency to people who don't know us or don't know Tara? That's meta. Yeah, that's meta marketing. Right. Is that just word of mouth things happen to click, or do you have a strategy with that?

We have we have a team, and so we're out there kind of pushing the pavement, right? And going and meeting with people, connecting with them. We have an incredible team. I mean, Jen Getz on our team is she has a whole set of relationships. She's done so much good for our community, so that makes a huge difference. Tem Colling is another one who's had all these people he's helped grow their businesses from different platforms he's been working with. I've had a relationship with so many people. So initially, a lot of our relationships have helped grow our business, whether it's just connections and referrals. Um that's been that's been stage one, right? So the future now will be like, did we do good enough that somebody will refer us on? Or you know, we'll share a story beyond that. Um and and so we'll see how that goes.

Yeah, super cool. I love that. I love the differences in questions. It's like, hey, tell us a story about this. And he's like, give me the numbers. Yeah. What percentage of sales, of ads? Uh-huh. I'm like, huh.

That's the difference between John and I. John asks a question, like, that's I don't care about that. I asked a question, and John's like, yeah, I don't care about that. It's a good partnership.

You gotta get the hold. That's right, right?

That's right. Okay, so uh you moved to Topeka. So let's get to the numbers. Let's get to the numbers. You moved to Topeka for Washburn, you left a little bit, you come, you came back. What uh why is it why do you guys call Topeka home? I guess you you came back here for a reason and you stuck around. I know. Uh what do you love about Topeka?

This is kind of a weird answer, but I have since sixth grade knew I was gonna live in Topeka.

Wow.

Okay.

I came up to the Capitol and I was like, yeah, I'm supposed to be here. So I just always loved being in Topeka. So when people have a negative connotation to Topeka, I'm like, I also like Topeka though, because it's scrappy, it's kind of an underdog.

Yeah.

Um, and I like I like rooting for an underdog. Yeah. Although I would say it won't always be an underdog. I think we're on the right path.

Um it's kind of like the Chiefs, like we were underdogs for so long, and now that we're really good, everyone hates us.

I know.

And you're like, it wasn't always like this. Just let us have this one thing.

No, can we just like celebrate for that?

I know.

I know, and we could go all in Chiefs. I'm all in for Chiefs. Um, so I think that I think somewhere along the way, like we just we've always liked Topeka. Uh I also this is a weird one, but I like I'm not wearing jeans today, but like I like wearing jeans to work. I like being casual, and I've always felt like Topeka was casual. Like you could for us as un I'm it really is a very professional environment with the capital, things like that. I just always felt like people came as themselves. They weren't trying to be somebody else. They're just it's like a bigger, I'm from Great Bend. It's a bigger city than Great Bend, right? But it's Great Bend.

Right. That's yeah, I was that's what I was gonna ask is do you think it's kind of that like big small town feel of the like, hey, it's a little casual, it's not you know the New York hustle bustle, like you gotta keep the image, but like, hey, just like man, you're a person in my town, I'm gonna run into you at the grocery store, you know, stuff like that, you know.

There is that. Like, you really aren't gonna go someplace and not see somebody you probably know. Yeah. You know, you really have to work hard to pull that off.

You go to the grocery store, it's like, and you look like a slob one day. It's like I need to dress up a little bit. I know. I might see a bunch of people I know.

I'm so glad you said that all the time. I'm like, I don't really want to go to the grocery store right now.

I had that thought. I went to a coffee shop a couple days ago, and I I I mean, this is about as dressed up as I generally get. You know, it's jeans and a pullover, but uh, I went even slightly more casual than this. I think I was wearing like workout stuff or something, and I was like, if I run into people that know me in maybe a different setting, should I change before I go to this coffee shop? I don't maybe I should change. I don't know.

Yeah, but I think that people will go, oh hey. Right? Like that's the other part that I just love. I just don't feel like I don't know if there's we all have judgment, right? There's that doesn't go away. But I just feel like I'm much more accepted. I always have. Yeah, always felt that way. So I've gravitated here from more than just that little sixth grade visit. But yeah.

So you're from Great Bend. Yes. But you visited in sixth grade on like a school trip? Yeah. Cool. That's awesome.

I think I won some reading program.

Okay, let's go. That's awesome. That's funny. Man, so what are you dreaming about right now? Is is uh your world compass still just like man, I'm I want to maximize the next five to ten years. Do you still have do you have other dreams and ideas for the next, you know, she's an entrepreneur, she's always cooking up something on the other.

I know, I know. You know, I think that I am in a space where I'm kind of enjoying the ride a bit. Um, and I'm I'm distracted by my kids growing up and leaving and me trying to figure that out. Um, I've got one in Utah right now and one in Manhattan. And that's hard because then I feel like those extra moments that maybe are days that I would have used to been working. Now I kind of want to be like, okay, how do I get to Utah? How do I get to Manhattan? Yeah. Which is new for me. But I really want to see good things happen. I think that Compass is what's on my mind. I really have incredible people that work for me. Um, work with me. I think I work for them. They're they're so good at what they do.

Oh yeah.

Oh, they're so good at what they do that I just try to keep up and um give them space for greatness. And that's new for me a little bit. I told you I'm a recovering control freak. Um I also we had a a family, uh, we had a fire uh a few years ago, and that changed me, right? Because then I was like, I don't I want to be on fire and I want to do all the I use that reference now, but I want to be in that fire space, but I don't want to be burning everybody up that's around me or myself for that matter. So trying to find a happy place where really cool, great things happen, and I get to be a part of that, but I'm not all by myself, just trying to force things to happen. And sometimes it used to look like that. So being a better person, being a better version of myself is on my heart right now. Yeah.

That and maybe you can relate to this as an entrepreneur. I've always heard that on it's entrepreneurs gets it's so hard for them to stick with one thing because they become addicted to the chaos. Oh, yeah. When you're starting a venture, it's chaotic, it's crazy. You're going a million miles an hour, you think it's going well, then it's not, and it's just a chaotic world for a while. But then when things turn around and the business starts to mature, eventually you're no longer needed and it becomes peaceful for a little bit. Or there's always chaos, but maybe you have people who handle that for you. And so as an entrepreneur, when the chaos starts to subside, you're like, something's not going right, you know, and you you start trying to create chaos where there isn't any. And maybe that's I'm gonna, I'm not, I know you started another business, but you know, maybe it's I'm gonna go do something different because I need that chaos in my life.

And so I didn't know if you've ever Oh my goodness, absolutely.

It's just going too well.

I need to say nothing better than a crisis. Yeah, like give it to me so that I can deal with that.

Yeah.

But at the end of the day, it gets to be a lot. But I I yeah, that was definitely how I've lived.

I mean, we we're starting to feel that or I am well with this show in the beginning. When we started it, it's like, you know, we have tech problems, or you know, we need to find uh an ad, we need to find a sponsor for the episodes, and we gotta do this. We've hit a season where it's like this is going well. When's our next chaos? When's the chaos coming?

He basically foreshadows sabotage.

He has dropped some really cryptic like things on this show before.

I can't wait to see what happens.

Like when we were leading up to a year, he was like, Yeah, you know, my wife made me commit to a year, and we're about at a year. Like, what are you about what are you saying right now? You know? No, are you saying that again? You're like, I'm about to move on with it.

I just feel like I can be transparent with our 10 listeners, all right? Yeah, it's an open book. Yeah, it's an intimate uh connection we have. Yeah, but uh that's funny. I I hear that all the time. And my dad's an entrepreneur, and I can always just tell when things are going well, it's like uh he's just looking for when it's not gonna go well, and he's just excited to find that.

Yeah, I almost wonder, is it like more, you know, I in a in maybe a pessimistic way, it's like, oh, you're addicted to chaos. Uh in maybe a more optimistic lens, is it like, hey, I just really enjoy solving problems and like That was really nice of you. Yeah. Well, like developing like raw things, you know, you see the potential. Of like a raw thing, like uh what is it, the strength finder, the um like a maximizer. So anytime I see like ah, like this is 80%, but it could be better. Like I'm like addicted to that personally, you know, like hey, how can we make this even better? Uh I wonder if it's maybe something like that, you know, to where because I I I I agree. I think I you see, you know, you get bored, it's like, well, I need to be able to put my gifts to use somewhere. I want to start something, I want to build something, I want to see something increase. And if it's nothing's increasing, I'm gonna go somewhere else. Yeah, you know? Yeah.

I think that strengths is actually one of the ways that I've been able to like go, okay, this is what's going on. So I'm an activator and I have six significance. Okay. And so it has to be really important, and I really want to make it important to make an impact. And then I'm ready to say yes, like I can move things very quickly. That sometimes can cause problems.

Yeah. Which what what test is this?

Strength strength finder is the strength.

Yeah, it's Gallup.

Is that like your the Gallup one?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, like like like here at our church, I'm like constantly thinking of the next, like building update and like you know, things like systems in our church, like, okay, this is just it's inefficient, and people are like, we just changed this. I'm like, yeah, but I'm already thinking about the next five things we're gonna update, like because you know, it's just how I tend to operate.

Maximizer exposure.

Yeah, that's what's yours.

I have significance and activator. I think that that combo is what kind of creates some chaos.

What are those two mean?

So significance is that I want to make an impact, I want to do things that matter.

Yeah.

And then activator is like uh I say yes on steroids.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That could be a problem. I imagine. I'm like, yes, I could do that.

What the heck?

I took it several years ago, and I don't remember. I think it gave me five. Yep, yeah. Yeah, it gives you a top five. My my top one was uh woo.

Oh, you like making friends.

Yep, I like making friends. You're good with people. I like uh winning people over. Um it's awesome. Yeah, I could see that.

Yeah, yeah. You won me over. Thanks, John. Hey, so what would you tell someone in the city who wants to start a business or maybe uh is complaining about a lack of something? What are some tips or piece of advice that you would give to somebody in that position?

Well, I definitely think that, you know, if you're wanting to do a business, um hold on tight and be ready to go. Like I've I've kind of moved from being like, go for it, you should do it, to maybe you should go check out Omni Circle and hang out with Michael for a little bit and see, you know, learn a little bit more, put your game plan together so that it's not just on a napkin, although I will say all of mine have been on napkins. Yeah. I'm like, oh, we could do this. Um I actually write a lot in the shower on the shower walls. Oh, you're gonna be able to do it. Just on the shower walls, and my husband will be like, you know, I he'll go take his shower and be like, what are you working on? Like, what is this mess?

So is it you have like a dry erase marker in there? Like, is that what you're doing?

In one of our showers. And so, yeah, so it was problematic. He wouldn't find out about when I was like, oh, we should do something else. Uh, but I really do believe that um I I I love being an entrepreneur. I think you should give it a shot. I think you should do it while you're also still working so that you can play and learn uh before you just jump into something.

Yeah.

Um have somebody around you who like does the other side of it. So like I'm pretty money-based as far as not money motivated, but I like to run numbers, I like spreadsheets, I like to look at all that stuff. So, like, who else do I need around me? So, like, I have an attorney around me. I have a, you know, you need your board. So find those people. If you've got to hire them, hire them. If you've got to, you know, I I think Omni does just a great job. Uh Greater Speaker Partnership does a great job of having some of those conversations to see if your business is really viable. Um and then don't think that your friends and family are gonna be your best partners and all that. Um, see if you've got something beyond them because sometimes they can be really supportive, sometimes they can be negative. I think that's I've never really listened to my family on whether like my parents are still trying to figure out what I do, I think. You know, like what is marketing? What do you do? So I love telling them that I get to do digital advertising because then I'm like, you know how when you said that you liked their shoes and now you're getting ads, that's what I do.

I do that. Yeah. You know how Siri is spying on you? That's me. That's me. Funny.

Well, do we want to switch to some rapid fire? Yeah. My guess is they won't be so rapid, but yeah. Okay, we have some rapid fire questions that we'll hit you with. First thing that comes to your mind how many potholes did you hit on the way over here today?

Ooh, I don't know that I hit one.

Come on.

I I drove by a very big one getting fixed.

Okay. Dan Garrett's killing it. Thank you, Dan. Uh one of our previous episodes, we had Dan Garrett, who's in charge of basically the PR of the city. He told us that it was a couple weeks ago or whatever, but they fixed 650 potholes in a week.

Wow.

So that question made an ad game. Or you can like mark a pothole and submit it, which I didn't know. Didn't know that either. Yeah, that's cool.

Good for him.

Um when you think of Topeka, what is something that you think is missing? Like a restaurant or a shopping place that you would have to do. Activity something.

Yeah. Well, I think it's I think it's uh I I don't know if anything. I okay, I know what's missing. I drive, I really, really, really, really, really wish we had a complex that was for sports. Um we have like smaller complexes, but I would love to not drive. I mean, I drive to Kansas City all the time to play volleyball, to play soccer, to play basketball. Yeah. And half the time we're playing teams that are out of Topeka. Yeah.

I would just You're driving an hour to play someone who lives five minutes away.

Yeah, I would love to have I I'll I don't care which one. I I'd love to have a great soccer complex, though. That would be so awesome. And Sunflower has done a great job, but I want more for them.

Yeah, love it. Yeah, amazing. What else do we got? Yeah. Uh favorite restaurant. Do you have a favorite local restaurant?

So I I do. But it I like Los Charos, um, but I think it's because they treat me really nice and I like getting my margaritas and my chips and salsa there.

Uh-huh. Where's that one?

Um, it's across from the zoo.

Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah.

Um and I also like I love the pennant. Uh we were just there the other night, and I love playing little arcade games. I am Miss Pac-Man.

Okay.

I was I did do a little Tetris last night or the other night. That was good. Um Yeah, I I could play Pac-Man all day. I just love it.

Yeah, I mean the Pennant.

And then the food is always fantastic. So do the shakes.

I love the phone. What's your go-to burger there?

Um, I like the Bourbonator. Yep, that's what I get. I like the Wolgast too. And they still have the Wolgast?

I don't know. I mean I always get the Burbanator too.

I like the Burbanator. Although I have their sunflower salad because I wasn't very hungry. It was delicious.

Yeah. Okay.

That was very, very good.

We should just like we should do like curated menus for restaurants. Like, here are the best five things on each each restaurant's menu.

What's your favorite uh shake?

Oh if you can remember. I don't know if I remember the names.

I get the Reese's Pieces one.

Yeah. I don't do that. That's so good. I don't I I forget what the other options are.

It's probably been a few months since I've had a shake from there, but I get the one that has like the cone, and I think it's strawberry ice cream, and then there's like cotton candy on it.

Ooh, okay. Those are both very different directions than I would go. I would probably go something like either something mint chocolate or peanut butter chocolate or brownie something. But I'm definitely I'm not a fruit and dessert guy. I don't mix my fruit and dessert. And uh generally I'm not gonna go anything like hard like MMs either. So that's kind of the route I'm gonna go.

Each their own.

Favorite coffee shop?

Uh well, circle, because I love David and what they're working on, and that one's fantastic.

And every visit is a recruitment visit.

It is. Yeah.

I can ask them again, David.

Do you want to come work at Campus? Um, I also love Blackbird.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Blackbird is a really good message. You go there all the time too. Yeah. Um, you're going uh date night, Friday night. What's a date? Yeah, exactly. As an entrepreneur, yeah. Uh so let's say your business is like, hey, happy anniversary. We're we're gifting you with a babysitter for six hours. Okay. You're you have to go somewhere. You cannot be here. What do you what's what's the evening gonna look like? Ideal situation.

It's really been a long time since we've been on a date. Poor guy. Uh it's not easy to be married to someone like me, I don't think. Um what's our favorite thing to do? So I would say we'd probably go to like Washburn and go to watch a basketball game or a volleyball game or something like that. And then I think we we love movies, so I do love BB. I love that I can sit in a because I have to bring my blanket and then like so I so I would say that would be another option. And we we uh tend to choose Mexican restaurants a lot. So I mean there's a lot of good ones. Cal is one of our bobos that we do together.

Which one?

The one on f uh Farallon and 21st is on the other two.

Yeah, yeah. Danny and I we're real tight. I don't know if you know Danny then. Yeah, you really tight. Real tight. He gives me free queso and a free Coke.

Oh, such a great queso. I love it.

Now everyone, all of our 10 listeners are gonna have the same relationship as I do.

Yeah, we're and there's salsa and just a big old Coke.

Like can't beat it.

Dude, what is it about Coke and Mexican food? It's the best. Smoke's marketing marketing department is killing it because you think Mexican food, like, I need a Coke. I need a Coke, it has to be it can't be Pepsi or Dr. Pepper or whatever, like it's gotta be a Coke. For sure. It's wild that like if you go, you could go to a hut in the middle of Africa and they have Coke. Yeah. You go anyway, you go to the Saharan deadness and they have Coke.

You know, it's like some guy like they don't have cars, they don't have streets, but they have Coke. Have I told you my uh Coke versus Pepsi conspiracy? Um there's it's a it's a going ongoing battle. Which one's better, Coke or Pepsi? And I think the answer is Coca-Cola. And everyone's like, well, you know, all the ballparks serve Pepsi when you go to Royals game, Chiefs game. And I always joke that the reason that is, is because it's an inferior product, and so they can get into the sports uh complexes cheaper. And when you go to one of those events, you don't have any other options. You have to have Pepsi, and so that that's why they sell them there because it's like you, you know, we're not gonna win out in the marketplace if you have two options. Well, but if they're at sports complexes, you get Pepsi or nothing. So I guess I'll have a Pepsi.

Do you remember when they were doing like the taste commercial marketing plan where they were like having people taste test blind taste test between Coke and Pepsi, and everyone would choose Pepsi? And I think my theory is, and maybe this isn't just my own theory, but Pepsi is sweeter. So if you're only having one sip, then it might taste better. But if you're having a whole can or a whole drink, then it's too sweet.

I I feel like this is just a future episode happening right now. Yeah.

Don't be sweet. Yeah. So so I my my theory, and I feel like maybe someone told me this, is like Pepsi designed to be better with one or two sips only. But it's like if you're having a whole drink, Coke is better.

Maybe.

I don't know. I grew up with Pepsi in my family. I even have um my mother-in-law, who's amazing, worked for Pepsi as like one of their uh key people.

Oh, so this is a dangerous opinion to have a we're in the dangerous territory here. This is later in the show, right? We're solid. So this will be behind the paywall.

No one's listening at this point behind the subscriber paywall. This is hot take land, right? Final uh rapid fire question. You're doing a home project. Lowe's menards home depot. Where are you going?

Uh well, I ain't going nowhere, but uh I do see a lot of menards rece uh receipts in my house.

You know what I've noticed? We have It doesn't count because she didn't go there herself. We have an ongoing internal debate. He's a Home Depot guy, I'm a Menards guy. And I'd say it's about 50-50, but what I've noticed is all the people who vote menards are people who actually don't really do home projects. It's me, too. I don't do home projects, but I love menards. And so it's like, yeah, I don't do home projects, menards. And then it's the all the people like, oh yeah, I love Home Depot. I'll go there a lot and do all my stuff there. I was there last week. Yeah, exactly.

Menard's got it has uh sunflower seeds that my husband likes. I haven't had that. Finally, where can people find you at if they want to follow TK, Compass, you, uh you guys on social media, websites, give us a run all the things, but if you just wanted to go to websites, we're at weareyourcompass.com for compass uh and then for TK, it's just TKmagazine.com.

Wow, awesome. Tara, thanks for being here. This is great. Super fun. We appreciate it.