This is the full transcript for Episode #247 of the Wild Business Growth Podcast featuring Leeanna Gantt – Dosage Designer, Founder of tooktake. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.
Leeanna Gantt 0:00
Just I say go for it. Don’t blame me but go for it.
Max Branstetter 0:21
Hellooooooo the more times they say hello the weirder I sound. 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 MaxPodcasting. And you can email me at to save time with your high-quality podcast. This is episode 2478. Who do we appreciate and take out the 8, and today’s guest is Leeanna Gantt. Leeanna is the incredible Founder and CEO of tooktake. Tooktake is tracking labels for your medication for your pills for your vitamins, that helps keep you organized helps keep you on track. Whether you needed to take something hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, you name it. And in this episode, we talk Leeanna’s incredible story. She’s a breast cancer survivor. She has some incredible lessons on life and business and everything beyond it in between, as well as the design and crafting of tooktake both from the visual aesthetic sense in the business-building sense. And of course, Leeanna has favorite moments from artsing and crafting and in crafting print magazine ads earlier in her career. It is Leeanna. Enjooooooooy Lee shoooooow!
Aaaaaalrightyyyyy we are here with Leeanna Gantt, who is the Founder and CEO of tooktake, who’s after my heart already because I love alliteration and the double t’s and your businesses is almost as many three t’s as my last name. I can’t even pronounce that. But tooktake, really, really cool story. And we’re gonna get to that and all the fun stuff and amazing stuff there. I did want to start on a bit of a darker or scarier or all kinds of emotions note because you’ve been through a hell of a journey on the personal side. First of all, with that teaser, welcome Leeanna How you doing today?
Leeanna Gantt 2:32
I’m doing great that that just sounded really ominous.
Max Branstetter 2:36
Yeah, we’ll start really dark and then we’ll get really bright, probably too bright. People need sunglasses, but you had quite the journey with breast cancer. Can you take us through what was going on in your mind the moment they actually found out you were diagnosed with breast cancer?
Leeanna Gantt 2:52
i My husband says I was just kind of in denial and then just went into like my normal like checklist mode, like where they’re like, Okay, here’s the doctrine, like, here’s what we’re gonna do. And here’s what’s next. And I’m like, Okay, well, I have plans, and they’re like, no, because you’re like, Okay, well, I’ll move those. And we’ll do these things. And like, I think it took me like a good six months to really catch up with what was happening. I’m just like, oh, yeah, I’ve got these new things to work in to my schedule. And eventually, I realized this was my new schedule. I was going to be in treatment for a year, and I wasn’t going to do much else.
Max Branstetter 3:29
I love the checklist mode, though.
Leeanna Gantt 3:31
Yeah, they’re like, You need to get this scan and go here and do this. I’m like, Okay, I’ll write it down.
Max Branstetter 3:38
Yeah, that’s, I think, when you’re the, I don’t know if that’s considered type A or not, but that like if you’re, if you’re that personality type that so many entrepreneurs have that it just like getting stuff done and checking off tasks and checking off things and checklists. Like, I mean, your example is just proof of that, like, you could be in a wide range of scenarios in life. And still, it’s like, that’s kind of where your thinking is. Exactly. But that’s awesome. You kind of were thinking like, action mode and like, All right, just, it’s like, what is that scene from Monty Python Te Black Knight? Oh, just a flesh wound.
Leeanna Gantt 4:11
Blood spraying out of his arm.
Max Branstetter 4:14
Exactly. You know, obviously, it’s one thing when you first hear that to you know, there’s it takes some time to react to it even joke that you took some time for you to catch up to it. It’s another thing to actually you know, move through the process and see how it impacts your life and in a number of ways. What, uh, what was the biggest wrinkle that it kind of threw in your, your life? That became clear over time?
Leeanna Gantt 4:37
I think really just so suddenly, having like, you know, our whole life kind of turned upside down to where it’s like, you know, one day, I was fine. And the next day I still thought I was fine, but I’m being told I’m not fine. And then really just even the simplest things like spending time with my husband and my daughter and just like the little things I couldn’t do suddenly became really important, like, you know, eating breakfast together. Because, you know, some days I couldn’t get out of bed. So it was like, I’d miss like all those little things. So I think that was the hardest part was just having just like a switch. My like whole life changed with no time to like plan or prepare. It’s just like nope, here’s what you’re doing. Like oh already?
Max Branstetter 5:25
How did that change your your outlook each day like when you woke up each morning? How did that factor how you plan out your day? Or of what you could plan yourself? Yeah,
Leeanna Gantt 5:34
most of it, I didn’t plan like I had a really rough go of it. I everybody’s treatment is different. I don’t want to scare anybody out there. Because there’s people who are like get breast cancer and they’re running a marathon, I was not that person. I knew nothing about breast cancer either. Like I thought it was like one thing. And there was one treatment, but there’s like a billion different factors. So you know, I ended up basically in bed for the first six months of it, and then just still really trying to recover for the next six months and still getting like infusions and scans and radiation and things. I didn’t really plan my days, it was just, you know, let’s see how I feel the next day and see what I could do. And my bar was super low, like getting dressed was like a big. Like, I can laugh now. But at the time, it was like, maybe I’ll get dressed today. Maybe it well.
Max Branstetter 6:23
Yeah, totally. I don’t blame you. When you look back at that experience. Now, what’s a really good like, life lesson like something you you learned from that experience that you can share with any, you know, just anybody going through life.
Leeanna Gantt 6:38
I mean, I think all the things I think of are so cliche, like, you know, don’t take the little things for granted. But really, that was the biggest one for me is it was the little things that I miss it, it wasn’t like, oh, we can’t take a big vacation this year. It was like I really miss sitting at the table and eating with my family. Because like I couldn’t really eat, I couldn’t really like stay awake very long. So like it was really the little things. It was also my daughter’s senior year before she went to college. So there’s all these sort of milestone moments and like, you know, shopping for a prom dress, or you know, it’s like, Oh, I really want to go do this. And it would take like weeks of sort of preparing, it’s like, okay, next Tuesday, we’re gonna go for like an hour. So I think that it just made me appreciate the little things I can do. And even now that I can go back to doing most of the things that I did before, I like really appreciate, just, you know, seeing a friend or talking on the phone with a friend or seeing my family like extended family just, that means a lot, because that’s what I really miss the most.
Max Branstetter 7:37
I appreciate you sharing that. It’s, it’s such a nice message. And I think anybody who’s in situations like that, or big scares, like, to your point. There’s a lot of cliche sayings or outlooks like that, but it’s really true. And it reminds me of a story. I had like right out of college when I was living and working in Connecticut, there was going to gonna blow your mind, there was a Target in the town that I was in Crazy, right. And I just remember going to the Target once and this guy walked in, like around the time I walked in, and then a bird flew in, you know, and it’s always like, kind of crazy when a bird flies around inside inside a store airport or something like that. And this guy just looked up and he goes, you see that he goes, it’s so beautiful. It’s so beautiful. And I was just kind of caught off guard by I was like, oh, like it’s like a bird. And he and he, you know, before too long. He was like, I just had open heart surgery. And he’s like, it’s just like, I’m appreciating everything. And so it’s it’s really nice when you hear messages like that, but yeah, I appreciate you sharing everything and and that’s it for this. I’m just talking to you. You’re a trooper that actually flows really well into your, oddly enough your entrepreneurial story. And there’s a really smooth tie between your own personal health journey and took take. So let’s talk took take which sorry for all the T alliteration extra. You made that easy for for me, totally. But let’s get into how you went from your own experience to building an actual business. So what along your journey was the insight for something in this space of what now became tooktake?
Leeanna Gantt 9:31
I think it was really addressing our own problem because especially during the chemotherapy part of my treatment, I had so many things to manage the side effects because I was one of those really cool people who seemed to get them all and like, you know, the doctors were like, wow, that’s not usual. But hey, cool, you’ve got that one too. So there was all these like things in most of them weren’t pills like that they gave me to treat side effects. I had like a mouthwash and like creams and there were some pills but then they were like Everything was on a different schedule. It’s like use this every three hours, you take this for three days, twice a day. And it was really confusing because I wasn’t a medication person or supplement person or anything before. So I didn’t have any system I was used to. And then I was also pretty drugged up clearly.
Max Branstetter 10:17
What do you mean clearly hurting yourself?
Leeanna Gantt 10:21
Between like chemo, and then taking all these things I like, wasn’t it my bass maybe. So you, my husband come in and be like, Oh, it’s time to take this. And I’d be like, say, with great confidence, I took that. And he’s like today, like, maybe. So it was like really stressful, because then he’s trying to be like, you know, responsible and, and make sure I do all these things. And I’m throwing a wrench in it every chance I get by, you know, just messing with it. So he was like, Yeah, this, we need to do something. So I started to like, just put little, you know, sticky notes on things so we could keep track. And then when I’d like sit in bed, I’d be like, Oh, hey, you know, this isn’t really working, I need to change it. So it works this way. And I kind of kept playing with them. And at a certain point, I was like, Hey, I think we could make this into like a product, I think this would be cool. And my husband and I both have a design background. So we sort of when I was feeling better, we’d kind of play with it. And he take my little sticky note things, I made a little drawings I made and make them nicer for me, and we’d stick them on to things and it was just something more for me to look forward to, through the year like something to kind of keep working on it take my mind off what was going on and like to have a thought for something in the future. But by the time I was done with treatment, I’m like, these are kind of cool, like actually really liked these. And then they said I had this one pill I was supposed to take like every day for like 10 years. And it’s supposed to keep my cancer from coming back. But you think like, wow, that’s, that’s something you’re gonna remember to do. But no, like, you when you when your whole day is not revolving around what medicine you take when, and you’re like, back to life. I went back to sort of like, the thing where I’d see it on the kitchen counter and be like, Hmm, did anyone see if I took that? So, you know, busted out the little labels again, and was like, Hey, these are actually really cool. Even when I’m not feeling like garbage. Like I’m not all drugged up and I still need these. Go figure. So that’s when we decided to like really give it a go and see if we can make it into something.
Max Branstetter 12:29
Your business is like the stacking dolls of invention. It’s like inventions within invention. Because I think I think one of the most famous invention stories of all time is actually like the sticky note. Do you know that story by chance?
Leeanna Gantt 12:44
I know I’ve heard it. I can’t remember the whole thing right now.
Max Branstetter 12:47
Darnell is gonna have you recite that instead of me. I remember learning about it in college and thought it was like the coolest thing. I’m gonna butcher it. But I’ll give the super SparkNotes cliffnotes version of it. Basically, this guy was like a, in the choir in church. And he would always lose what pages in his songbook that he was going to. And either him or like somebody he knew, had some sort of adhesive that would was like strong enough to stick something for a little bit, but wasn’t strong enough to like keep it fully superglue to something. And this guy had previously use, you know, like little index cards or something in his songbook. And they just always would fall out and would drive them crazy. So he somebody had the idea to combine that with the glue. And then that design like became the sticky note. That’s the additional entrepreneurship lesson for him today. But anyway, your business is like taking a business on top of that sticky note design and like doing a whole separate use for it, which is so awesome. Because I also remember learning in school that like, it’s hard to come up with, like totally brand new inventions. But if you take other inventions or ideas from other places and apply them to different industries or different uses, and that’s totally what what you’ve done. So these little sticky things and labels have have become toxic, which is so awesome. So how was it? I’m going to take a breath because that story was something now how was what were your first steps once you said, Alright, let’s actually see if we can turn this into a real thing and help out other people.
Leeanna Gantt 14:15
Our first step was trying to find like, a printer because I naively thought, like, Oh, these will be super easy to make because it’s, you know, it’s a sticker. There’s like a low tack adhesive. I can’t, like you know, that’s easy. Turns out they’re really, really hard to make because they have perforated tabs. And, you know, I didn’t want things square because they’re harder to lift. Like I had all these weird little designing things that made them really hard to print. And at the same time we were doing that we talked to a friend of ours introduced us to a patent attorney because I was like, I don’t really know if I should get a patent or like I didn’t have not having a business background. I wasn’t sure it was even something we needed. So we spoke to our friends friend who said, you know, let me do a little research for you. I Don’t think you’re gonna build a patent this there, I’m sure that there’s things like this out there. But I’ll let you know, I’ll let you know what I think you should do. And she did that for us. And then she called a couple days later, she’s just like, there is nothing like this out there. There’s no patent, there’s no, like, she’s like, you want to get a patent on this thing. So. So at the same time, we were trying to figure out how to get it made. We were also applying for our patent, which we did get. And apparently, we got it in record time. Like I didn’t know it was supposed to be like this multi year process, and we got it in less than a year. So that was pretty fun. Yeah, and then we eventually, we almost gave up because we couldn’t find a printer. But then eventually, we found someone who helped us find somebody.
Max Branstetter 15:42
The actual design of it, it makes sense, when you look when you look at the picture of it like now it’s at a point where it’s just it’s beautiful, and super clear, and simple and easy to read, easy to use all those things, but you can see that yeah, it is, you know, it’s not just as simple as printing out like, one little square. But there’s, there’s multiple, multiple uses for it. I know you have a background in design, how hands on were you in the actual design of the, of the design.
Leeanna Gantt 16:09
i My husband and I work together, he did the part. You know, he actually like built the templates and designed it on the computer and picked our color palettes. And I designed more of the the actual function like saying like these tabs need to be rounded, so they’re easier to pull off. And this has to be perforated. So it doesn’t tear. But that was just through trial and error. So we did a lot of it together. But he ultimately did like the design part like the actual mechanical design for it.
Max Branstetter 16:40
At the time of this recording its current version, how many iterations has it been design wise to get to this point? I don’t,
Leeanna Gantt 16:47
we did a lot. But you know, most of the iterations were done while I was in treatment. So they were very one off like our homemade versions and printing them out and and cutting them with an exacto blade. And like, we bought this like you can buy sort of the postage glue, like a glue stick. So most of the iterations were done the year I was in treatment. So by the time we were talking to a printer, I think they did three or four rounds, but that was really to refine the process that they came up with to make. Our design didn’t change, it was getting them to be able to do our design.
Max Branstetter 17:25
That’s a good point, though. That’s you hear about entrepreneurs starting businesses when they have a lot going on in their life, but you kind of take that to a new level. How long before you were officially proclaimed? cancer free? Did you officially start the business?
Leeanna Gantt 17:40
We started making, you know, our little homemade versions. Pretty early in my treatment, I think it was probably about halfway through that we decided like this might be something if we could figure out how how it would work. And then we didn’t start the actual business until I was done with treatment. So it was January 2019. So I was cancer free in December. And then in January, we’re like, hey, let’s try this.
Max Branstetter 18:04
That’s awesome. That’s like a natural like, alright, full go. Let’s let’s do it. How did you so that there’s the design aspect of it. There’s the idea in the first place, like those are all obviously super important, the early days. Also important and more and more important over time as finding customers for it. And so you’re at an interesting place, because it’s, you know, the end product is b2c, but you also sell to retailers as well. And you know, at the time of this recording, you’re, you’re in Walmart, you’re in CVS, you’re on Amazon, I mean huge, huge players, first of all, congrats on that, like that’s, that’s pretty cool. It’s come a long way from from a little idea in a sticky note. Yes, but how did you go about one getting customers like researching, finding customers in the first place and to starting to get those like giant, you know, what people say white whales of retailers,
Leeanna Gantt 18:58
you know, since I would say I went to art school, not business school, I went about things kind of backwards. And I didn’t know that then. So we’re still customer awareness is our biggest thing like with a lot of brands and awareness with very little marketing dollars is really hard. Retailers and like distributors like Cardinal Health, like these big places. Anyone in the medical field, really understands why this is good and how simple it is. And also we’re we try to talk to a much younger audience we say we’re for, for busy people who want to get and stay well, like we just help you do whatever it is you’re trying to do. There’s enough stuff for the elderly. So anyone in the medical fields, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, they all understand the product like super fast and get really excited about it. So that’s why CVS and Walmart, they were really excited. I it wasn’t a hard sell for us and the distributors and like, so we start sort of started top down and It would have been great to come with a lot of consumer awareness and then go into retail, because that helps in retail, obviously, if the people know what you are, but that didn’t happen like word of mouth spread, but at a very high level. And now we’re kind of playing catch up and working backwards because we, you know, we’re in over 5000 retailers, but we still have, you know, a pretty low awareness of the product. And we’re super small, like our packages, like, it’s like two and three quarters by four inches and flat so it doesn’t jump off the shelf at you all the
Max Branstetter 20:35
time. You should create a an enormous took take label just for you know, like, yeah, they have giant versions for promotional displays, they had two giant pill bottles.
Leeanna Gantt 20:47
We should just have people walking around in CVS and like the big stuffed pill bottles. Perfect. Welcome. I’m sure they’d love us. But yeah, I think, you know, we’re doing things a wee bit backwards, but I’m just going with it.
Max Branstetter 21:03
Words to live by that awareness piece is I feel like anybody like feels that in their heart. Anybody with a small marketing budget? Or I mean, even sometimes with a big marketing budget, it doesn’t work out. But like, what’s your what’s your advice for any company or entrepreneur out there that needs major help in the awareness space, but there’s only so many dollars that you can’t you can’t just throw a billion dollars out there like blink of an eye?
Leeanna Gantt 21:31
Yeah, if I had the answer to that one.
Max Branstetter 21:35
Hey, you’re in some major, you’re doing some things, right. I think.
Leeanna Gantt 21:39
I think listening to the consumers really, like I personally tried to reply to any comments we get on social media event when they’re, you know, negative, which, thankfully, we don’t really
Max Branstetter 21:52
get a lot of those. I was gonna say, what, how terrible of a person do you need to?
Leeanna Gantt 21:57
Occasionally we get a weird one. And I try to publicly respond to it so people can see like, it’s a real person. And it’s like, Hey, I’m not trying to do bad things. Or I’m like to try to be helpful. Yeah, just I think we’re just always trying different things, really listening. If people say something wasn’t funny that we thought was funny. I like to be light hearted, because I really don’t want to be only thought of in association with like, illness and sickness because it’s really I think of tech take as a wellness product. Like use it on your vitamins, use it on your protein powder, whatever you think keeps you healthy. Just, we help you do it regularly. So I’m trying to stay in that area. Sometimes I’ll go off a little too far in the being silly area, and people will be like, Yeah, that wasn’t funny.
Max Branstetter 22:44
I think the more the sillier, the merrier. Yeah, I agree. And you’ve done a great job with it. Like your, from the colors of your packaging, to like your your presence on social media. Like it’s a very like fun, uplifting vibe. It’s definitely yeah, you could have decided to go the total opposite direction and been like scare tactics and stuff like, Yeah, I’m glad. I’m glad you’re going with your natural, you know, like upbeat side of things.
Leeanna Gantt 23:08
Definitely. And I think yeah, I think advice for other people would be, stay true to your brand, stick with it. And I don’t think there is an easy way or a shortcut to do it. In you, I’ve seen friends with other companies suddenly go viral on, you know, tick tock or something like that. And even they don’t know what happened or why, like, they’re like, I’ve been doing the same thing for two years. And I don’t know why that one did it. But hey, I’m just gonna go with it. So I think that’s it, keep going and cross your fingers.
Max Branstetter 23:42
That’s a gem, another gem from Gantt for alliteration. But you alluded to the fact that you knew that, you know, people in the medical and healthcare wellness world would recognize like, pretty quickly the value of this product. And you’ve been statements on your social media, like recommended by doctors, nurse pharmacists, moms, how have you done like that side of your, I mean, in a way, it’s almost like PR advertising, but it’s like a genuine, you know, it goes back to the core of the brand, like how have you got those, whether they’re official or unofficial, like certifications, stamp of approval.
Leeanna Gantt 24:20
I think a lot of coaches when we very first started, I really genuinely wanted the opinion of, you know, pharmacists, and nurses and doctors. So I just went on social media and found, you know, people who were posting a lot and said, Hey, I made this new product. I’m a mom, I’m a small business owner, I just wonder if I could send it to you. And you could just tell me if you like it, like I didn’t ask them to post or do anything. And I just want to know your opinion. Because I’m new to this. I don’t have a background in medicine. I was a patient but you know, I’m making a lot of assumptions. And the more I sent out the more they would just rave about it. And they tell me different reasons depends. on their, you know, specific field, it’s pharmacist said like, this is great, especially for travel because you’re not supposed to take them out of the container. You know, some countries, you could get in trouble for traveling with loose pills. People say it’s like, Oh yeah, and certain things need to be kept in the darker colored bottles, or they can go bad quickly and like things I never knew. And then a lot of them also happen to be moms, and they really, really love them. There’s like, there was no way to track these liquid cold medicines for my kids. This is brilliant. So I’m like, Okay, I’m, I’m on the right track. I really just reached out and asked people, can you tell me, is this good? Like, should I be trying to sell this to people?
Max Branstetter 25:38
That goes back to like, your comment on social media comments about like, being genuine and interacting. And like, it is amazing. Like, I know, there’s a lot of spam and bots and all sorts of whatever on social media, but like, the world is become so much smaller and making it contactable, you know, like able to reach out to other people that previously you would have had to like, you know, fly across the world more than previously. So you’re definitely using that to your advantage. And when you look at took take overall, what do you think has been the most important tactic that you’ve done or that you’ve done as a company that has helped grow tactic?
Leeanna Gantt 26:20
Sampling is still our best thing. It’s, I’m lucky I have a product that is really affordable for me to sample I don’t have a you know, product that several $100
Max Branstetter 26:32
Well just wait until you get the life size. Yeah. That might change hit your bottom line a little bit.
Leeanna Gantt 26:38
It will that will change things for me. But right now, if somebody asks a question, and they seem uncertain, I could say, Hey, let me just send you some, if you’d like them, just let me know. And I think being able to give out samples and samples, take away people’s fear, even though it’s a low price product, in my opinion, I do acknowledge there’s a lot of people that adding an extra couple of dollars a month to their prescription costs is impossible, like they’re struggling just to pay for their medications or over the counter things they need. So I want to be aware of that. And just if I can help someone a different way, I just if they like it, maybe they’ll tell someone or they’ll tell their pharmacist I never asked them to but most people just do if I if I’m able to do something, and they like it, they’ll share people like to talk about things they find that are helping them. So that’s worked in our favor. And so I think that’s been our best thing really is just sampling the product, getting people to try it and see if they like it.
Max Branstetter 27:40
I’ve got something for you to sample. It’s short and sweet into your inbox every Thursday, and includes podcasting tips, entrepreneurship tips, and terrible puns that are sure to make you you know, wipe sweat off your forehead, is the Podcasting to the Max newsletter. And I want to shout out one of our newest subscribers, Sheryl Gottdiener. And you know how the saying goes, once your mother-in-law signs up for your newsletter, you really got something cooking, so that I think I learned that in school once. Thank you, Sheryl! But if you’re interested in getting Podcasting to the Max, all you got to do is go to MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. And apologies in advance for my terrible sense of humor. All right, let’s get to some more samples. So let’s sample let’s get a sample size of your inspiration and creativity. That was very corny. You’re welcome. And also sorry. I really curious what you know, obviously, you’ve had some experiences and serious motivators and things that change your life. But curious, like, these days, what you do, if you can ever get your mind to stop thinking about the business for a few seconds? What do you do to stay creative and kind of unplug of it?
Leeanna Gantt 28:58
That’s a good one. It’s really hard to not think about it. Because you know,
Max Branstetter 29:02
well, now that now that I said that every every time you try not to think about you’re thinking about it, so I know exactly.
Leeanna Gantt 29:07
Since my husband and I are both were creative directors before and we’re creative people and my daughter’s really creative. I think just family time for us, we we tend to just have a lot of fun and talk about different things and we’re always thinking it’s like what would we do next? What else could we be doing even though you know, we know we need to finish this and or you know, keep going with okay can make it work? It’s always fun to think about what other things we can do or make. I think as a family, we’re just kind of that way.
Max Branstetter 29:40
What are some examples of like, family You mean like activities you to get do together mean just like chillin out.
Leeanna Gantt 29:46
Sometimes we’ll sort of do crafty things or just, you know, want to make stuff but I think also just, we’d like to think about like, Okay, if we had another business, what would that be like? My daughter is always thinking, Do you know what we should do now? So yeah, what else we could do? And I’m like what else I can like, just keep this. I could just keep you this going right now. But it’s fun to kind of imagine it’s like, oh, well, what else could we do now that we sort of know how starting a company works where before? We didn’t? Like, my old doing design and branding work in stuff is a completely different than a product based business. So
Max Branstetter 30:21
what’s the biggest the staunchest difference that you’ve noticed from being in like the product and branding world to the tech tech world? The Entrepreneurship world.
Leeanna Gantt 30:29
Inventory.
Max Branstetter 30:31
Oh, that’s a big one. Yeah. Well, in your case, small product, but big inventory, yeah.
Leeanna Gantt 30:38
Inventory, shipping, logistics, all these things I didn’t. These words, I didn’t know. Like, when I first was talking to Walmart. I wish I could have recorded my first meeting. Because they asked a million questions. And I had talked to a friend of mine who just said, Just say yes, and write down notes and call me when you’re done. So it was I’m like, Okay, I said yes. To 3PL, what is that?
Max Branstetter 31:04
So many acronyms.
Leeanna Gantt 31:05
Yeah. Like I have just a bunch of letters on a piece of paper. I don’t know what I agreed to at all. But I agree. It’s,
Max Branstetter 31:13
it’s the more entrepreneurs I speak to the more acronyms. I learned that I have no idea what they are. That’s where the blogs come in. And using Google a lot. Yes. Yeah. So I have the same approach. Yes. And nod your head how about on the the arts and crafts side? He’s mentioned that something to do with your family? What is your favorite craft or project that you’ve ever done together?
Leeanna Gantt 31:38
A wild, I used to have a community art studio when my daughter was younger. So we’ve made all kinds of stuff. For a while we were making these big wooden signs, because we had done construction on the building we were in. And we have all this scrap wood leftover. So we would just like paint things for every bit Mitch made signs. And that was really fun. Because it’s like, I know if you ever do this, but like when you’re at someplace and have a really strange sign like, you know, don’t stick your arm in the lion cage. And you’re like, Well, what happened for them to need to make for that, like, really was not a problem.
Max Branstetter 32:11
Yeah, exactly. My grandpa Fred, one of his famous things was, “Don’t stick too many beans up your nose,” which that had to have happened for that to become a saint, somewhere along the lines.
Leeanna Gantt 32:26
Yes. So like we just these things that, you know, we’d see we just make signs that were kind of ridiculous, but like, well, they’re inspired by real life.
Max Branstetter 32:39
So speaking of the ridiculous, let’s get to the unusual, and I know you’ve been preparing for this. So this is your Super Bowl, piano. Pet peeves? quirks? Weird talents, we’ll we’ll start with the big one. I know you’ve been brainstorming for years on it, and I’m just going but we’re talents what’s what’s the talent you have? That’s maybe a party trick or something a little bit out there.
Leeanna Gantt 33:00
I couldn’t think of when I even asked my husband. I like what is my weird talent? He’s like, I don’t know. I think he’d say it’s not really a challenge. But the fact that I find so many things funny, like I think especially since I had breast cancer, like it’s really hard to rattle me. Yeah, just like these absurd things happen. And I’ll be like, Well, yeah, we’ll figure that out. And he’s like, What do you mean? And he was like, we should call someone I’m like, we’ll do it tomorrow. We’ll figure it out. Like, I don’t know. I’m tired.
Max Branstetter 33:34
Yeah, well, that’s a great lesson. Like the reality is there’s not like, I think just we like, everyday people you get so you typically get stressed about things way more than they actually should stress you.
Leeanna Gantt 33:47
My talent is that I’m not too bright. I don’t know. I don’t panic. I just I think I don’t panic easily, which I think actually is a challenge. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 34:01
I agree. That’s a great trait to have, especially for building a business with all the ups and downs there as well. Does that flow through to like watching movies and shows like, are you really good with like scary movies? Or like, violence shows things like that?
Leeanna Gantt 34:14
Probably not. Now.
Max Branstetter 34:18
There’s a limit then.
Leeanna Gantt 34:19
Yeah, I’m wondering, do I like talk to the TV on that? Like, don’t open the door?
Max Branstetter 34:25
That’s awesome. How about quirks with something a little quirky about your personality? Your Husband, Daughter? Somebody calls you out for but it’s who you are. You mean,
Leeanna Gantt 34:35
besides talking to the television and yeah, besides not panicking.
Max Branstetter 34:39
You let that one on the back too early?
Leeanna Gantt 34:41
Yeah, I should have held on to that one. They make fun of me for talking to myself all the time. Because like, I’m constantly making like mental to do lists.
Max Branstetter 34:49
We wait so not only are you talking to the TV, you’re talking to yourself as well. So it’s a whole party going on.
Leeanna Gantt 34:55
I don’t maybe I should get that diagnosed. But I’ll be You’re like, oh, yeah, you know, we need more peanut butter and I stopped at Trader Joe’s. He’s like, did you say you want me to go to Trader Joe’s? Like, No, I wasn’t talking to you. And I was just like, look around. It’s like, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to tell when you like really are losing it because you’re talking all the time.
Max Branstetter 35:18
And then what about pet peeves? What’s something that just annoys you a little bit?
Leeanna Gantt 35:22
I have a business pet peeve. I am so annoyed when people cold email or message me and tell me how much they love my brand. And then if they say something that I’m kind of like, okay, you know, ask them a question back. They’re like, so tell me about what you do. Oh, yeah. Like, just your writing on LinkedIn. Click on the bio.
Max Branstetter 35:43
Yeah, exactly. That’s so easy. Yeah. Like,
Leeanna Gantt 35:46
don’t reach me if you haven’t looked at what I do. Because then if I do take the time to respond and be super annoyed.
Max Branstetter 35:53
Yeah, that’s, that’s a big one for me as well. Like, obviously, there’s automation and AI, like, that has added a crazy scale to a lot of business tasks. And like, there’s a lot of good that can come out of it. But also the, when you’re pitching somebody like the cold call, like especially to to work with them in business or like, from my standpoint as well. Like when people are like pitching to be on the podcast or like, collaborate in some form with the podcast. It’s like, if you don’t have any knowledge of like, specific like, what it’s even about, like the basic stuff like what it’s about or or even if somebody’s just like a love your podcast, but then they like pitched you on something right away. And you’re like, they could very easily just copy paste that to everybody. Like there’s nothing personal here. Yeah, that’s a big one. Well, let’s wrap up with some Rapid-Fire Q&A. You ready for it? Sure. Sure. All right. Were you talking to me, the listeners, the TV or yourself? With that?
Leeanna Gantt 36:48
I’ll let you decide. We’ll see how I do on the questions.
Max Branstetter 36:54
All right, let’s get Wild. What was your favorite and least favorite part of being in the ad agency world?
Leeanna Gantt 37:01
my favorite part was getting to be creative and work on different things all the time. I really liked getting it like change projects, and always do something a little different. Least favorite was having to like, the professional part that like going out with clients and all that I’m not good at that. The wining and dining Yeah, never was a big fan of that. Yeah, I think
Max Branstetter 37:25
when you go from that world, or like the corporate world to like the entrepreneurship world, you’re like, wait a second, like we think of something like we can just do it. We don’t have to like, wait, you know, we have to go about a whole process for Yeah. What is your favorite part of I’m guessing maybe kind of living close to the Rose Bowl,
Leeanna Gantt 37:42
you shouldn’t really close to the Rose Bowl. I really like Pasadena, we where we live right near Old Town Pasadena. So we can walk everywhere, which in LA is really kind of an unusual thing to walk to dinner, we could walk to the grocery we we really can walk a lot of places, which is very nice. Because parking stinks. So
Max Branstetter 38:06
have you watched the show Shrinking by any chance?
Leeanna Gantt 38:08
No.
Max Branstetter 38:10
It’s a good show. Shoutout my wife, Dana, who loves it. But I don’t know if it’s officially based in Pasadena. But like, there’s cameos of the Rose Bowl in it. And like it’s got to be it’s at least filmed in that area. But it must be based on that area as well. So that’s all I’ll reveal about the show. Your name, which I practiced with you several times before we went live here, but you have a spelling of your name that I imagined trips many people up, I’m just gonna go through it here. L – two E’s – A – 2 N’s – A. So there’s some multiple, multiple letters, kind of like my last name is as well. But how often does it come up that people are asking for like the spelling or the pronunciation when you’re out in public with it? I mean, not that you’re ever without your name. But
Leeanna Gantt 38:55
pretty much all the time. The funny part is like I’ll answer to like, anything that sounds kind of like my name because I’m so used to it. And my daughter will be like, Why don’t you correct them? And I’m just like, it’s not worth it. And then yeah, that’s my mom. That’s because it’s Leanna. It’s spelled exactly like you’d say it. But I think because there’s three vowels in a row. It’s L, E, E, A, N, N, A. So like, people have an aversion to three vowels being together. So they always want to take out an E or capitalize the A. So I asked my mom, I’m like, did you think about that, that like words don’t have three vowels together? Usually, like that’s not what people do. And she’s like, just like
Max Branstetter 39:39
it’s probably it’s probably spelled E-E-A.
Leeanna Gantt 39:43
Yeah, I’m like, really? You never thought about that? She’s like, No, I didn’t think people have a hard time with it.
Max Branstetter 39:51
Wow, that’s great. It’s great for as my wife is seeing and I see like whenever she’s in a Starbucks, I see it when we’re like ordering a sandwich or something somewhere. People always want to just mispronounce your name. Like even when your name is Dana or Max or like, you know Leeanna. Like, there’s always people try to complicate overcomplicate things. But yeah, this is tricky with the three vowels there. That’s, I think, maybe in the Dutch language that might be more common thing. Last one, besides stocktake, what is your favorite design or like piece of design work that you’ve ever created?
Leeanna Gantt 40:27
I think probably the first ad I ever did it advertising just because like seeing something I made in a magazine was really cool. Back in the old days when we did print advertising everywhere.
Max Branstetter 40:37
What kind of like what ad was it?
Leeanna Gantt 40:39
I was just thinking, I think the first thing I ever did that I saw, like out in the world was there was a bank that they used to put these little like billboards on the back of the bus, and they’ve done them for years. And they were these like, funny little sayings. So they were really bad puns is what they were. Oh, that’s my style. Yeah, like we had come up with some point. We, my partner, and I got assigned to do like three months of bus backs. And so I was driving and I was behind a bus with my thing. And it was before like cameras and phones and stuff. So like, I get to work and I’m like, I saw it. I saw a bus. Oh, that’s something I did on the back of the bus.
Max Branstetter 41:18
Yeah, that’s really cool. Anything with puns? Getting paid to think of puns that’s pretty cool. That’s kind of you know, life goal. But anyway. Leeanna, it has been fantastic. I was trying to think of another acronym but let’s just roll with it. It has been awesome. lol No, it’s been it’s been really really just amazing learning your story and all the ups and downs but just like your overall everything you’re doing with Taketake and you know, like the positive vibes and silliness is just awesome and inspiring. So thank you so much for coming on. And Where’s where’s the best place for people to learn more and try out took take as well as if they want to connect with you online.
Leeanna Gantt 42:02
take.com is the easiest way to learn all about tech take you can order it. You can. If you message through the website, you will get to me. I’m the only one who answers that. Yeah, if you just want to buy it near you. Try it out for yourself. CVS ,Walmart they love when people go in there and hunt or buy all the pill organizers so
Max Branstetter 42:24
perfect. Awesome. And I didn’t check before but I should have do you have a tooktake TikTok? Because I feel like that’s just a natural.
Leeanna Gantt 42:33
I just started on there. And man is that a tongue twister because we have a TikTok shop. So saying go to our tooktake shop on TikTok is I have to like stop and think really hard.
Max Branstetter 42:46
Yeah, you have to sell seashells on the way to store that I feel like that name is rolls off the tongue so much that the tongue rolls off the tongue so much that you could have just like an official sponsorship by TikTok almost like they could use that you know, tick tock to this for toothpicks business and speaking a whole different language. But perfect. Last thing, Final Thoughts, it could be a quote it could be another tongue-twister. Just words of advice. Whatever you want to leave us with. Take us home here.
Leeanna Gantt 43:16
Oh man, the pressure.
Max Branstetter 43:19
I thought you said you don’t experience pressure?
Leeanna Gantt 43:22
But I laugh about it. So I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to myself.
Max Branstetter 43:28
That’s a zinger.
Leeanna Gantt 43:30
If you have an idea, and you’re just really excited about it, if it’s not gonna like bankrupt your family or something like give it a try, because there’s really it’s really hard. It’s a lot of work starting a business but there’s really nothing else quite like it. So just I think go for it. Don’t blame me, but go for it.
Max Branstetter 43:51
Zingers on zingers on zingers from Leeanna. But don’t blame her. Leeanna, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, sharing your incredible story, tooktaking TikToking all around. 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 app and tell a friend about the podcast and see how many words with T you can say in a row. Terrific. You can also find us on Goodpods where there are good, good, terrific podcasts. 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!!
