This is the full transcript for Episode #294 of the Wild Business Growth podcast featuring Hilah Stahl – Interior Design Producer, Co-Founder of Spoak. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.
Hilah Stahl 0:00
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
Max Branstetter 0:17
Spoak it into existence. Welcome back to the Wild Business Growth podcast. This is your place to hear from a new entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning who’s turning Wild ideas into Wild growth. I’m your host, Max Branstetter, Founder and Podcast Producer at Max podcasting. And you can email me at to save time with your high-quality podcast. This is episode 294. And today’s guest is Hilah Stahl, the Co-founder and CEO of Spoak. Spoak is an incredibly cool online interior design platform that makes interior design easier, faster, more fun than ever groundbreaking category defining technology. And in this episode, we talk everything from how in the world Hilah went from some very interesting reality TV shows to an interior design platform, how to approach your target market when it might actually be made up of a subset of different types of sectors within your target audience that rolls off the tongue, and everything from loading the dishwasher masterfully to the secret to making tasty maple syrup. It is Hilah. Enjoyyyyy the showwwwwwww! Aaaaaalrightyyyyyyy we are here with Hilah Stahl, Co-Founder and CEO of Spoak, one of the most Spoak-tastic companies as it’s broadly known. No, one of the coolest most creative companies have come about super cool. And interior design tool platform, whatever you prefer. Here. Thank you so much for joining. So excited chat with you how you doing today.
Hilah Stahl 2:18
I’m great. Thank you so much for having me.
Max Branstetter 2:21
Yeah, of course. And, and I actually saw that you started the business in September 2018. Is that date still accurate?
Hilah Stahl 2:31
Wow, that’s good research. You’re a good Sleuth. Yeah. So that I mean, that’s literally when I like applied for, you know, to be a C Corp. The actual business launched months after that early 2019 actually was like the very first version of the business, the version of the business that as we pivoted about a year in so the version of the business you now know, was in actually March 1 of 2020. So or chaos. Right.
Max Branstetter 3:01
Exactly. A couple timing. Exactly. What the initial initial filing date, September 2018. This podcasts, we launched our first episodes in August 2018. So Oh, my gosh, this just totally, totally timed up.
Hilah Stahl 3:17
We’re the same age, we’d be the same grade in school. Yeah, exactly.
Max Branstetter 3:20
Basically, we’re growing up before. Exactly. So so it’s a wonderful, wild and bespoke timing there. But before we get to the Spoak journey further, I saw that one of your roles, which I’m not sure if I was full time or internship, you were a production coordinator for TLC International, I sure what that is, what that actually was like, what shows what that looked like.
Hilah Stahl 3:46
Yeah, it was both actually a summer internship and then was a full time job right when I got out of school. Basically, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my career when I left college and knew I wanted to do something creative, but something in business and I hadn’t quite figured out what that meant yet, obviously planting early seeds for what would become spoke but then at the time, I thought maybe media was like where I ought to be. So anyway, long story short, I applied for jobs with a Discovery Channel. I got hired as a production assistant slash coordinator for TLC international TLC, it’s the same TLC you know here just obviously for the international audience, it was a riot. Like I was there when they were producing Honey BooBoo, and like My Strange Addiction and all of these, you know, it was both very fascinating and I think on paper very cool, but in reality, it was honestly a pretty depressing, it was a pretty depressing job right? Like you’re uncovering. It didn’t like sit well with me to sort of like display such. I don’t know, like we had this one show called like my, oh my god, I can’t remember what it was called. But it was about people with like body anomalies like you know, things that were distorted or bizarre. bumps, tumors, etc. And I just felt so morally conflicted that we were like making entertainment out of it. But I think I think a lot of you know, friends of mine were like, Oh my God, that job is so cool. Anyway, long story short, I could only really stomach it for about 10 months and then I quit with no other job. I was just like, I gotta I gotta do something else. I was I found a very sad. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 5:21
no, I could I could totally see that. I mean, those are, it’s kind of been like a strange part of TV, or now the streaming channels, where those different types of reality shows like that. It’s almost like the more obscure the more listeners you’ll I mean, the more the more of an audience. Yeah, like, there’s people that will watch anything. And then yes, there’s people that get really weird entertainment out of watching like some kind of, I don’t know, we’ll come outside the box reality shows. But you you hit some old timers there.
Hilah Stahl 5:53
I know. I think I think the other thing too, for me with reality television is is like it’s there’s nothing wrong with things that are like funny or entertaining. I think the key thing for me is that the talent is in on the joke or in on the entertainment. It feels a little bit sad when they are not. And I felt a little bit yeah.
Max Branstetter 6:12
Oh, totally with you. So content aside? What did you actually do in that role? Like, what does it look like is it is a PC, if they call it it is
Hilah Stahl 6:22
it is easy. So basically, what would happen is production companies. So what I didn’t realize is like, I didn’t know this going into the media world, but production companies are the ones that actually like, commissioned the pilots for the shows. So they film come up with them, and then they send the pilots at the time, it was still DVDs, and we’re like aging, CDs, amazing. Even
Max Branstetter 6:44
blu rays me exactly.
Hilah Stahl 6:46
They would send sort of these, these pilots to my boss, who was the head of basically content at TLC. And he would have me like watch all of the pitches and decide which shows were interesting to move forward with that was like maybe 33% of my job. The third 33% was honestly frankly, a lot of like business operations like budgeting, reporting updates to the rest of the team. And then the other 33% was for the shows we did have greenlit, and in production, we he and I reviewed cuts together. So like the production company would send us episodes, we’d take detailed notes, send them back, and we probably did that two or three times per episodes, we’d comment on everything from like music to plotline to like actual takes. And for the show that I was just telling you about like those in particular with like, physical issues, I don’t know what to call, we the TLC would actually like sponsor a surgery, like the episode was like, here’s my issue. And then the medically let’s take care of it. And now like look at how amazing my life is post operation that was sort of like the storyline. And so we actually had to like watch the surgery and I’m on the show, like, while I was kind of taking these notes, and I’m a really squeamish person. So that was another reason why the job was very difficult for me, I was sort of like, hey, in this view, you have to show the like open heart surgery from a different angle and was like, I can’t believe I’m watching this. So yeah, I had a difficult time. But I think for some people, it’s like the dream job.
Max Branstetter 8:13
So let’s get from squeamish to interior design, which is not. So pretty much the same thing. You were doing it TLC now. Just kidding. At what point in your life to this passion for interior design come up about a boot as they would say in Canada.
Hilah Stahl 8:35
I mean, I’m from Minnesota, it’s not far. I mean, I mentioned even in college, I knew that I was trying to find a career path that meant married creativity with business somewhere. I was always a creative person. You know, I always like loved the arts and crafts and I was just sort of trying to like figure out how to turn that. But I was an econ major, right. So it was just sort of like trying to find what felt like an impossible combination. I refuse to believe that like creativity was for hobbies and work was for work. I really wanted to find something that married the two I didn’t yet know I loved interior design because quite honestly, I had never actually designed. I mean, I was a college kid I had like, Yeah, I like liked decorating my dorm room. But beyond that I didn’t really know what that meant. From TLC. I got a job at a startup that was a media and video company that liked that I had media background but I was basically like a jack of all trades. I was one of the first employees who wasn’t an engineer and I just basically like ran around helping the founding team and in that process wild Yes, video was the reason I got the job from discovery. I ended up pivoting me toward like a tech environment and I really loved working on basically technology that was suited toward create like in which building the technology required creativity right required was either for creatives or was a creative job by nature. That led me into product management, which brought me after that job. I went to Gilt Groupe which was like Have you gotten aging myself here like a flash sale site from the early aughts? Yeah,
Max Branstetter 10:05
no no GILT. Yes.
Hilah Stahl 10:06
You know GILT. Okay, good. Great. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 10:08
I feel a little guilty about it but
Hilah Stahl 10:10
your funds are amazing. And then from guilt I went to bonobo which I challenge you to make up on four because I don’t think you can. And then basically, long story short when I was a bonobos at this point, I’m in my late 20s. And I moved in with he’s not my husband, but at the time, he was my boyfriend we moved in together in the city. And it was really that was actually my first time really decorating a place I had it was a two salary, one bedroom apartment in New York, which was the first time I basically wasn’t still living in like a tiny dorm room ask apartment with my girlfriends. And I had my style and he had his we both had furniture from our prior apartments. And it was like really the first time I was challenged creatively to decorate a space and in so doing honestly fell in love with it. To be fair, that’s interior decorating and not interior design. But I absolutely loved it and felt and that’s actually where the idea for spokes started. I was looking, I was trying so hard to do it myself. And I felt like there was just this enormous swath of companies that were focused on the inspiration phase of interior design, right Pinterest, Instagram. And then basically, as soon as you figure it out what ideas you like, they all stopped being helpful. They were sort of like, okay, good luck. You’re on your own. Now you like all these Pinterest photos, but like Godspeed and actually implementing any of your own ideas. And I felt like that lack of software was really profound and really frustrating, not just for me, but then I started doing research and felt like pros also had a really difficult time. I mean, short of like, Photoshop, SketchUp, AutoCAD, all of which have a massively high barrier to entry, both financially and logistically, like they require training and are very complicated to learn. I felt like there was a massive opportunity somewhere in the middle for honestly similar to what Canva did for graphic design, but for interior design, and I had been in software at that point for almost 10 years. And so I called a friend of mine, and we said, let’s do it.
Max Branstetter 12:07
That bonobo is brand. Always monkeying around. Oh, my
Hilah Stahl 12:11
God, you managed it. I’m so proud of you. That was really impressive. And
Max Branstetter 12:15
I apologize. I didn’t hear anything. You said the past 10 minutes? Because I’ve been thinking of no. Yeah, exactly. So throw, throw any brand at me? No, no, that’s a wonderful story. No, I just felt up to the challenge there. So thank you for that. But it’s a really like organic way of discovering a problem and discovering a business idea, which is like one of my favorite things to hear talking to fellow founders entrepreneurs out there, you have the knowledge of the software space, it’s one thing to like be familiar with software versus create software in like kind of a totally untapped space. Like, what was it like breaking into that and the interior design slash decorating?
Hilah Stahl 12:54
It was really hard. I mean, to be fair, I understood generally how to build software. But that is a really vague and kind of hand wavy concept. Like it varies so much between company to company, all I really understood was like the basic tenants of building software, which is like, you know, that like the whole concept of like coming iteration, right, coming up with an MVP, that is like pretty low effort to build 80% of the value of 20% of the work type of mindset. And we just basically tried to apply. So my co founder, John worked with me at Gilt he was the head of engineering there, and I was the product manager there. So we were obviously colleagues and a lot of different ways. We became very close friends. And I remember when I left school to work up an LLC was like, I hope we meet I hope we work together again someday. And I was like, Don’t worry, John, one day, we’re gonna start a company together. And then he was like, Okay, you call me when you have an idea. And then a couple years later, actually, on my wedding in 2018, in July of 2018, he was at my wedding. And I was like, Hey, I have a company idea for you. And he was like, he like not at your wedding. We’ll
Max Branstetter 13:52
talk some other time. What point of the wedding was this?
Hilah Stahl 13:56
on the dance floor? Actually, I came up to him and I was like, Do you have a minute? He was like, we’re not doing this.
Max Branstetter 14:01
Wow, that’s one of the best business partner courting stories.
Hilah Stahl 14:07
I call them about a month later was like, Okay, do you have a minute now? And then he was very excited. And he actually he was like, Yeah, I’ll work on it part time while I kind of decide if I want to do this. And two days later, he quit his job. So it was it was a really fun story. But anyway, yeah. Going back to your original question, how did we like extrapolate that we basically just tried to apply those same core principles. To this, it was kind of like treating it like any challenge, right? How do you take a problem? You know, you want to solve a technology come up with a very basic version of the technology that will at least answer your first question, then build what will answer your second question and just keep doing this sequentially until all of your core questions are answered. I mean, as I mentioned, we actually launched the wrong business the first time and then slowly answered enough questions to realize that and pivoted about a year in
Max Branstetter 14:56
I like that sequential by question. In Spite questions sequentially, Regis Philbin would be proud. But no, that’s it’s a really good way to go about it. Like the time of this recording we recently had on co founder of good or sunglasses, Steven lease, and he’s also not so much anymore, but he still does. He’s like an ultra distance runner and did like 100 miler race through Zion like crazy stuff like that. And like, How in the world? Do you get, you know, like, it’s enough to worry about like a 5k? Or 10k? Or full mirror? Yeah, like, how do you do something crazy like that. And he’s like, any runner will tell you the same thing. Like, you don’t think about the full thing you think about the next exam? Yeah,
Hilah Stahl 15:40
I got I got great advice. I mean, I’m not a runner. So I don’t know it. But from a business perspective, I do. I mean, I got great advice when I was founding the company, which was like, Don’t ever look at the Everest in front of you just put one foot in front of the other. And that’s, like, set up your email alias and figure out what the company is going to be. Just don’t let yourself get tripped up with what was what was all it’s going to take, you know, I think even then, if I knew what the what the five years it’s been, since I haven’t had had in store for me, I probably would have been overwhelmed. But naivety is also a blessing. Yeah, it
Max Branstetter 16:16
definitely is on that note, what’s something that like, early on in forming the company that did like in hindsight, it did trip you up for a while, but you were able to get a result. Okay,
Hilah Stahl 16:26
so always from the beginning, the core, the core problem we were trying to solve was this, like, it’s really hard to decorate, it’s really hard to take an idea and actually implement it. When we were first starting, we had decided we wanted to bootstrap. So we sort of did trouble trying to answer those first couple of questions, as I mentioned, but also do it in such a way where we could start charging right away, right, because we needed revenue to operate. And the way we thought was the best way to accomplish both at the same time was basically to launch like, a very hands on IE design service, in which basically, I was designing for clients who paid us a monthly subscription fee. And in so doing, we were obviously taking in revenue. But using that experience of me designing for a modern client on a budget to determine what products we were gonna have to build when we wanted to flip the switch and basically give the keys to the people who wanted to do the decorating themselves and have their own software. But at the time, we thought, hey, listen, like when we launched the business, we didn’t launch it, thinking eventually, we would sunset it, we launched it thinking, this will tell us a lot, we’ll get a lot of revenue, and we’ll get enough revenue to operate. And then we’ll add software supplementally to it later. But once we started running it, we were like, Why is it so hard to find clients? Like why isn’t nobody signing up? Why is it so why is everyone so so frustrated with this process? Why is like it was just friction at every point, I remember at one point we had these like waves were we’d get a couple of signups a day and then we wouldn’t for a few days, and then we’d have a great week. And then we wanted and John and I were desperate to try and find some rhyme or reason behind why it was so intermittent and variable. And so we had these, like, we had French doors at my apartment at the time, I was actually living in Germany at the time, and my co founders in Ireland. So he was like in Germany with me. And we had like all of these pieces of paper with a timeline on this big glass window I had it was literally A Beautiful Mind in my apartment. And we were like try just trying to find a pattern anywhere. Until eventually he looked at me and he was like maybe the pattern is just that it’s not working. Like maybe there is no pattern. And this is just a pretty terrible business model. And that I mean, that was the first sign when what ended up being like a two or three month painful process in which we realized we had to sunset that version of the business and launch the software as soon as possible. So
Max Branstetter 18:54
just out of curiosity, what part of Germany were you in? By the way?
Hilah Stahl 18:56
I was in Berlin. Okay,
Max Branstetter 18:58
that’s that’s a fun city. Lots to do. They’re tiny, tiny city. Nobody lives there.
Hilah Stahl 19:02
Yeah, exactly. very rural. Yeah, exactly.
Max Branstetter 19:06
That would definitely be how I describe Berlin. No, but yeah, that’s a good aha moment. Like, a good lesson is like, sometimes we just need to drop this. Like, if it’s a knife. We’re spending so much time trying to make this make sense.
Hilah Stahl 19:16
I think it’s really confusing, because you hear a lot as a founder that like, it’s all about perseverance and determination. And the companies that succeed are the ones that don’t give up. But I think there’s a really it’s a very nuanced, but it’s a very clear definition between deciding something doesn’t work and giving up, right, those are two. They’re very distinct. But it’s very hard to tell what the difference is, when you’re still in the very beginning. It feels like abandoning one business model to go to another one is in some ways, some kind of, I don’t know surrender in a way that doesn’t feel good at the time. And so I was like, No, it’s just perseverance. I just have to make it work. Right. And so it was trying to kind of like disentangle my mental relationships, what was happening from what was how happening before my eyes statistically was was a complicated thing that first year. So then
Max Branstetter 20:05
what happened in a positive light was the software. So if for anybody who’s not familiar with spoke, can you share like what your main differentiator is versus like somebody something somebody something else somebody could see, we can see I cannot talk. Let me just start over Hi, I’m Max, know something, versus anything else out there where somebody could get their interior design juices flowing. Yeah,
Hilah Stahl 20:31
I think there are two key differentiators. The first is that we’re basically a one stop shop. So everything you need to do, basically, from inspiration through to actual physical furniture arriving, you can do with spokes. So we have visualization, software, floor planning, but we also have budgeting, organization, order tracking, all in one place and all interconnected in a project. So when you’re working on a visualization, and you add, you know, a parachute sheets to your bed, those sheets get added to your project, and then you can add them to your budget. And it’s like all these are all just clicks, basically away from one another. I think the other key differentiator is the ease of use, right, we focus on it being a web app, instead of like a standalone desktop app or mobile app that you had to download. It’s fast, it’s easy to use no other design experience required, again, very similar to the value prop of Canva in that way, but for interior design, I think the other thing is many other design software’s out there, Photoshop SketchUp. And AutoCAD included our vert, our horizontal design solutions, meaning like they cater to people in almost every industry, or not every industry, but every industry that might need the software, right? Like AutoCAD is for architects and furniture designers, and Photoshop is for graphic designers and photographers and artists, etc. By focusing on a vertical solution, like by saying early on, we are only going to be for interior design, it has allowed us to put just an enormous amount of effort into things I think those other companies would deem really small or insignificant like in a one click, you can wallpaper a wall with spoke, or like you can, you know, in one click, you can like pick your tiling, and it applies to the whole floor like there are just these kind of like micro interactions, these mini flows that can be really niche to the interior design industry, because we’ve decided that we are only for interior design and ease of use is basically our primary KPI. So that’s the long and short of it. I think, obviously there there are a couple more, but I think that would be how I would tell anybody listening.
Max Branstetter 22:28
Appreciate that. What what is something that you’ve heard, like a tweak you’ve made to the software that you like, pretty quickly started getting really good feedback from users about that update? Two
Hilah Stahl 22:42
things. The first was we have one click background removal on images. So when you like add a product to the canvas, you can just click one button and the background is like smartly removed. So no, like magic last. So
Max Branstetter 22:54
that was like satisfying to hear about.
Hilah Stahl 22:56
Yeah, it is it is almost as satisfying to hear about as it is to see visually, almost. The other one is that we don’t limit our products catalog a lot of the other like out of the box solutions kind of only work with certain brands in which for example they have like affiliate relationships with or they have the 3d models for we basically allow people to put a product in from anywhere on the internet, like as long as it has a photo and a name and a price. You can add it to the system. So are the other cool thing about that is that our product database is like collaborative, right? Every designer who’s ever worked on a project and Spoak is adding their own products. And now they’re there for you to discover. So it means it’s sort of this like pre filtered awesome catalog of products from around the internet. But you can add anything from anywhere. Both of which have been obviously, hugely sticky for us.
Max Branstetter 23:46
Yeah, oh, not enough people use work term sticky. That’s perfect. I think the ease of use is clear. It’s like something is a big focus for you and the team to build on. And it makes sense. Like I think being in a space where your your audience is so visually and designed focus like that ease needs to be there. Like if you’re tripping people up by what it takes to remove a background or like what it takes to integrate like other items, things like that, then it’s it’s just not going to work. So appreciate the commitment there.
Hilah Stahl 24:23
Yeah, I think the other thing too, is like by nature of actually charging for the product from the beginning. And for everyone like there is no free tier, which obviously has its huge downsides. But one of the great upsides about it is that our like business model and our customer was always have always been super clear, like, as long as the people paying us are happy, everybody wins. They get what they want out of the tool, we get, obviously our revenue stream, whereas I think, with other businesses where you know, you’re kind of monetizing your free users by ads or by affiliate revenue, like we only really make money from the subscription fees And so our only job is to keep our user happy. You know, we don’t favor certain brands we don’t fit, you know, and that that keeps it. I think that just basically means as long as we are making it easy to be creative, like we’re not limiting the products you can use or how you can use them. Theoretically, both both we and all of our designers should win.
Max Branstetter 25:18
Yeah, I actually was curious about that side as well as like, your users like you haven’t really interesting audience that appears because there’s kind of like multiple subsets of it. Like you have like, the hardcore, like professional interior designers like that’s an entire industry in itself. You have the category of like, hobbyists, and I’m sure there’s more on top of that, how do you break down who your customers are? And like, how does that sorry to question how do you how do you kind of split that from, from your view of who your main audience is? And then how does that impact like how you update and develop your software that you share with them?
Hilah Stahl 25:58
Internally, we talk about four basically key personas of our of our market, we’ve got the DIY buyer who’s like, basically just designing and renovating their own house, we have the hobbyist, who is someone who may have already finished their home project but doesn’t want to stop designing. So maybe they want to do it for fun, or they are starting to kind of casually maybe decorate for friends and family. We have a part time designer, these people were like moonlighting or freelancing or basically self employed. And then we have professional interior designers who are obviously also potentially self employed, but might also work at a firm or work at a brick with a brand right, like anthropology, I was professional interior designers who use spoke as a platform. So
Max Branstetter 26:40
don’t make me make an anthropology fun, too,
Hilah Stahl 26:42
I promise I won’t know I know you can is the scary thing I no longer
Max Branstetter 26:48
scary is a good word.
Hilah Stahl 26:51
At any given time in our history, we’ve had to really push ourselves to focus on which persona we’re building for at the time. Obviously, there are more DIY-ers and hobbyists in the world than there are professional interior designers. So when we were starting, that’s where we focus. But over time, we built out more and more sophisticated features, and you know, tried to get more and more professional interior designers. And now we’re sort of upping the ante, you’re kind of on to the next echelon, which are brands like how do we support brands looking to either design themselves or offer the software on their own website, or get in front of the designers using the tooling.
Max Branstetter 27:30
We kind of keep coming back to users and one of the things that’s been so impressive about your company is like the fact that like you’ve been able to have like great growth as far as user and, and revenue goes which obviously, especially for software business is super important, vitally important for any business. Looking back at your and I know it’s still all things considered early days of your journey. But looking back, what would you say is like the number one way that you’ve been able to grow your user base,
Hilah Stahl 27:55
I feel like I got to give a shoutout to our VP of growth Isalyn, who has educated me very thoroughly on the concept of demand, capture and demand creation rights, like at anytime, when it comes to our marketing and growth strategy. We’re trying to basically accomplish flywheels in both those categories. So how do you we’re in a lot of ways, we’re sort of a category definer, right, like, we are sort of the first, every day person easy to use interior design software, really, that’s out there. Like you have to create the demand when people don’t know that a company like yours even exists. So there’s demand creation, how do you get people to even know you exist or that something like your software is even possible? And then there’s the demand capture for the people who are looking for a tool like yours? How do you find them where they are? Right for demand creation? It’s been for us primarily social media, right? How do you like get exposed to new cool things, right? You either advertise on social media or you create viral content, in order to basically get in there so people can know who you are, or that’s something like you even exists for demand. Capture. It’s been frankly, SEO right? How do you people who are Googling bathroom bedroom layout planner, how do we make sure we show up where they are?
Max Branstetter 29:14
Perfect. And then you made this joke before we started? I didn’t, but it could be people googling googling bathroom stall as well.
Hilah Stahl 29:23
Oh, my god. Yeah, exactly. Max asked me how to pronounce my last name. I said stall like bathroom stall, and he was pretty. He was pretty mortified. So yeah, someone might be Googling how to design a bathroom stall. And then I would really hope spoke shows up for them. Yeah, exactly.
Max Branstetter 29:38
And then spoke where the name come from.
Hilah Stahl 29:41
Spoak is a portmanteau of bespoke and the acronym oak for one of a kind. Oh,
Max Branstetter 29:49
okay. I was not gonna guess that I had a feeling it was bespoke. I would the No way. I was guessing the second part.
Hilah Stahl 29:55
Yeah, no, I mean, that also has great SEO right. I wanted to make sure it was a made up word, or at least just made up spelling so that we weren’t competing with with anything else you might be Googling,
Max Branstetter 30:04
you really Spoak it into existence.
Hilah Stahl 30:06
I really did. And you know what else our blog is called spoken word. Well spoken. We’ve got all kinds of puns internally across the board. There’s a
Max Branstetter 30:15
lot you can do with that. A lot of bicycle wheel analogies as well. Go down that road.
Hilah Stahl 30:20
Literally this morning and all hands I call this the spokes of the wheel like it never ends. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 30:26
well, congrats. And I’m sorry. All right. It never ends. That’s what readers of the Podcasting to the Max newsletter think. Every issue I send out? Pretty much. No, it is really short and sweet every Thursday, and it is where podcasting meets entrepreneurship. In the worst puns even worse than this episode if that, if that’s possible, have puns worse than those in this episode that you can find them in the Podcasting to the Max newsletter, and you could sign up for that at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. That is MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. And then, not only will you Run Wild, but you will also Pun Wild. I just, I just dropped the mic. That’s what that sound was. Alright, let’s we are in dire need of a switch up. Let’s switch it up a bit. Let’s get to wrap up with a couple of kind of segments full of puns now segments that are corny like these don’t have to tie back to your business but totally up to you if you want this for this first one’s called the unusual so this is kind of about you personality. Pet peeves, quirks weird talents, what is a quirk somebody your husband, Team friends family somebody calls you out for that’s a little quirky, but as who you are,
Hilah Stahl 31:48
I am a huge movie quoter and particularly like really stupid slapstick comedy movies, but I like thinking movie and TV show quotes. And my husband my husband was here he would also tell you that I can’t cut or draw or do anything in a straight line. Like leveling is not my not my jam. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 32:10
that’s but it’s pretty important for a lot of my favorite movie line of all time.
Hilah Stahl 32:15
Oh my god, you should have warned me you were gonna ask me this question because now I’m on this.
Max Branstetter 32:18
I didn’t know until about four seconds ago.
Hilah Stahl 32:21
That’s really fair. That’s really fair. Something I’ve been seeing a lot recently and I can’t believe I’m about to say it is the line that Stanley Tucci says in The Devil Wears Prada, where he screams to the whole office Gird your loins. And that is something that is that’s a gift I send around a lot again, aging myself, I’m a millennial. I send gifts in the workplace. I yeah, I have my flaws.
Max Branstetter 32:41
It’s sad that now says Millennials have to say that we’re aging ourselves. Like what did that? Where did that come from?
Hilah Stahl 32:48
Well, we’re all now. So that’s where it came from.
Max Branstetter 32:51
That’s probably where it was. Yeah, well shout out Stanley Tucci for his Italy show. Stanley
Hilah Stahl 32:55
Tucci. If you’re, if you’re listening to this, we love you.
Max Branstetter 33:01
What about weird talents or party tricks? Like what’s something that you have a knack for? But it’s literally just a minor thing around the house that doesn’t have any impact on your business?
Hilah Stahl 33:09
Okay, well, I’m incredible at loading the dishwasher. So like, I’m like a Tetris dishwasher. Queen. I don’t I’m not I’m not generally a big bragger but I I can fit more dishes in the dishwasher is and like, I would say 80% of people.
Max Branstetter 33:26
I have to say I take pride in that as well. I’m sure I’m way slower than you but oh, no, I
Hilah Stahl 33:31
didn’t say I’m fast. I just I can I can fill on stuff. I’m not fat. No.
Max Branstetter 33:38
Yeah, no, I like doing it with like, a full load every time. Yeah, so life day. My wife Dana is big on like, like, this isn’t gonna fit like this. I know.
Hilah Stahl 33:47
Sometimes Ben has looked my husband has loaded the dishwasher and then he’s like, this is all that fit I look at and I’m like, No, watch me. And I will like unload and reload it like it’s like a tight game of Tetris so that that’s a big one. I know. A lot of Eminem lyrics like if you put on an Eminem song, there’s like a DC more than decent chance. I know. I know the words which is it’s a long and windy road. Oh my god here speaks
Max Branstetter 34:16
to our age. I guess two of the most common are the you know the most well are Lose Yourself and Without Me.
Hilah Stahl 34:25
I know them both. Yeah. But I also like there are some like pretty hardcore like Marshall Mathers LP. So I also know.
Max Branstetter 34:33
Yeah, we could go we could go down a dark path.
Hilah Stahl 34:37
Maybe an episode for another.
Max Branstetter 34:40
Maybe for next one. Yeah, exactly. Well, we’ll put a double explicit rating on that one. Exactly. And then what’s a pet peeve you have besides dishwashers that are pretty empty. What’s something that grinds your gears a little bit? Do you know when misophonia is? No, that sounds like a phobia. That’s not even a phobia.
Hilah Stahl 34:56
Misophonia. It’s basically like people who it’s neurological. Obviously you’re like predisposed to being like highly irritated by certain sounds. I have it okay so like to people who are like tapping or chewing with their mouth open or just like any kind of like repetitive and slightly jarring sound is like really difficult for me I really like like remote working has been a such a blessing for me because like sitting next to people who are eating in offices or clicking away on their keyboard was like very very difficult for me to stomach.
Max Branstetter 35:28
Yeah, that’s a really good one. I I don’t know there’s a name for it. But yeah, like when you think about it, I feel like things that people are annoyed by the most often like it really comes down to sounds.
Hilah Stahl 35:40
Yeah, I think so. Sounds and rudeness right like people right? Just like a lack of just basic graciousness.
Max Branstetter 35:48
Yeah or rude sounds even worse Yeah.
Hilah Stahl 35:50
Or get or that the Holy Grail really of Pepe
Max Branstetter 35:59
will shout out Monty Python and shout out Marshall Mathers. Let us Slim Shady our way to some Rapid-Fire Q&A. You ready?
Hilah Stahl 36:06
Let’s do it. Yeah, I hope I can. I hope I can keep up let’s go. I’m ready. I’m bracing myself All
Max Branstetter 36:11
Alright, Let’s Get Wild! recite the second verse of Lose Yourself, no I was like oh no not gonna make you do it. Yeah, where it’s gonna be six minute freestyle. No, let’s get to I saw that actually. Now that you know I fully stocked you in preparation for this. I can share that I saw that you studied abroad in Barcelona as well I did. And so at the time of this recording pretty soon after this my wife Dana and I are going on a trip we’re super excited for to Spain and Portugal and the first stop we’re going to is Barsa so with that in mind we obviously are going to do Socrative familia Park well can hit up some tapas places la rumba rumba Romulus I should know by then any kind of like hidden gem of a either a restaurant or a spot in town that you’re like you know, most people don’t do this but you should do it.
Hilah Stahl 37:01
Okay, well first I have an answer. But again with the aging myself here I studied abroad are really very hard on yourself. I seem to run a pretty long time ago like so I don’t know if these places still exist but in general I know that the neighbor the neighborhood I would tell you to walk through is the Gothic Quarter, El Born okay it’s like right by the beach, amazing greatest shops, little restaurants, etc. There is also a now I’m kicking myself because I can’t remember basically okay, I started a business and then I became a mom there was like four years between those two events. But now my brain was basically like hey, any details you don’t need to know on a like day to day basis I have exited the building. So now like all of a sudden I used to have an incredible memory I can’t remember any more like names of things or anything but there is a top there is a top of slaves there exists the top of Barcelona you have to go do the navels which I honestly cannot remember but I will dig up and find and I will email it to you and I’m so sorry for the thank you answer to your I’m sure
Max Branstetter 38:01
I’m sure if I just searched Topas Barcelona will come up so Oh,
Hilah Stahl 38:06
you should be fine. It’s there’s only one tapas place in Barcelona. I’m sure you can’t miss it.
Max Branstetter 38:11
Oh, so I’m reminded now of a recent conversation we have with some friends over dinner. Shoutout Cody and Laney the where Dana called me out because every time like, I don’t think it’s just me. I think it’s anybody in general. You can’t say topless without it sounding like topless. So it’s a very dangerous word. And I’m looking for Barcelona is just a topless city. Yeah. Exactly. To a lot of trouble there. So you can tell the pace of my Rapid-Fire Q&A now. But thank you for that. What is something about going to Duke that most people would be surprised by Wow,
Hilah Stahl 38:46
that’s a great one. I love to do I think Duke is like the best place ever. I think Durham Durham has a bad Durham gets a bad rap Durham as a city is like one of the coolest most up and coming places in the country in my opinion, like incredible food art culture scene, highly underrated
Max Branstetter 39:04
will recite some Bull Durham quotes next. So, thank you for that. What is your favorite part about living in like the Hudson Valley area?
Hilah Stahl 39:13
Okay, well, I would tell you how much I love this area, but I don’t like but I feel like it’s also like the world’s best kept secret. So I’m also going to try to like underplay how amazing it is. But also
Max Branstetter 39:22
you could you could be top reasons why you hate this area. Wink wink.
Hilah Stahl 39:26
Yeah, exactly, exactly. No, I think for me, in particular, I was always sort of drawn to nature and I think I resisted that call for many years because I was an ambitious career woman and I thought working remote was not really a thing and I thought okay, I’m just gonna have to live in a city and that’ll be that. In that sense. COVID was such a huge blessing because I could really move anywhere I wanted I mean, like I have all of these now hobby like I’ve become kind of my husband. I become kind of homesteaders in a way like we have chickens and we I garden and we make our own maple syrup. And I actually had an investor telling me that he believes that my living here is a competitive advantage because where a lot of my peers are in these like high stress areas, I get to basically like leave a stressful meeting and go walk in the woods. And I believe that’s very true.
Max Branstetter 40:12
Yeah, totally. No, that sounds so nice. And then last one i i plan this months in advance. What’s the secret to making great maple syrup?
Hilah Stahl 40:23
The burn honestly and. Okay, so basically Okay, here’s Do you want me to like go deep on this I’m going to try and do something very
Max Branstetter 40:30
Shoutout, Super Troopers. Let’s get deep in this. Okay,
Hilah Stahl 40:33
let’s get super deep into maple syrup. Here’s the deal. In the northeast at least maple syrup season coincides with like the worst time of year, which is why I love it so much. Because like it’s so basically you have to tap your maple trees when it’s above freezing temps during the day, but below freezing temps at night, which in the Northeast is like February in March, okay, like in the pits of winter, when you’re just so ready, like holiday season’s over, you’re so ready for winter to be over. Although obviously like in the south, it’s much less like November, December. But anyway, for us, it’s February, March. Anyway, every day you go and collect the sap. Reason number one we love maple syrup is because it forces you outside every day during a period of time where you could just as easily like never leave the house. The sap is actually not syrupy. This is like a myth. It’s kind of it’s like water. It’s like sugar water. It’s like clear and highly viscous. It’s not like it’s not like sticky or syrupy. Anyway, then every week on Sunday, we would burn we burned the syrup, you we burn it outside on a on a fire for like the first eight hours, like until it’s kind of starting to darken. And then when all of the serve we’ve collected over that SAP we’ve collected over that week is down to a manageable amount like has burned down to a manageable amount. You take it off the fire and you bring it inside on the stove. So you can like really manage it like control the temperature control the mixing, like the color and the thickness. Come down to those last hour or two on your stovetop. Wow. Like I really regret asking.
Max Branstetter 42:01
No, no, I love it. It’s you never know what a question can answer turned out to be? No, I appreciate the fine tune. You know.
Hilah Stahl 42:12
The truth is, I mean, like I’m pretending like I know a lot literally Max we harvest or like we work on maple syrup for two months, we get like four mason jars of it. It’s by the end of the year. That’s how much like how hard it is and how little you got and then we give it all away to our friends within like two weeks and then that’s over. Hey so fast. It’s
Max Branstetter 42:28
a true labor of love. Pretty sweet at that. Wow. Hilah, thank you so much first for complimenting my puns. But second for coming on this podcast and sharing your awesome story. Yeah, yeah, of course. Just absolutely love what you’re doing and I know if people want to learn more about Spoak go to Spoak.com which now we know what it stands for. And Fortman. portmanteau Am I saying that right? portmanteau it’s like Toronto meets Atlanta. Yeah. Also, is there anywhere else? Like if people want to connect with you online? Where should they connect?
Hilah Stahl 43:07
Well, you can always find me on LinkedIn and you can find me on Instagram @HilahsThings no weird dashes or punctuation and Spoak is at @Spoak on Instagram.
Max Branstetter 43:18
Perfect. Spoak-en like a champion. And then last thing final thoughts. Stages yours it could be words to live by or another movie quote or your second favorite tapas place in Barcelona. I couldn’t resist whatever you want, just send it send us home here.
Hilah Stahl 43:33
Okay, a quote that my executive coach says to me all the time is pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
Max Branstetter 43:43
And Spoak is mandatory, as far as I’m concerned. Thank you so much healer for sharing and speaking to your wonderfully spoken Spoak journey, and dealing with all the puns. And thank you, Wild Listeners, for tuning in to another episode. If you want to hear more Wild stories like this one, make sure to follow the Wild Business Growth podcast on your favorite podcast platform. As well as subscribe to the Wild Business Growth podcast on YouTube on YouTube that’s actually at the channel is @MaxBranstetter. You can also find the Wild Business Growth podcast on Goodpods, where there are good good podcasts and podcast recommendations and people and for any help with podcast production, you can learn more at MaxPodcasting.com and sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter. That is at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. Until next time, let your business Run Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!
