Hey, everybody. Welcome to the hustle. A podcast about digital product design. I'm Anthony. Um, so today, Tony Sanchez, one of the newest members of the team. Tony, won't you say hello and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hey, Anthony. Thanks for having me super stoked to be here. It fun size? Um, I am a designer. I come from somewhat of a traditional design background. Um, more step more rooted in in, ah, graphic design recently have made the transition into the digital product world and, ah, feeling very comfortable and still very challenged. And very, very green. Very humble. And, ah, ready to learn and continue learning.

So, um, there's lots of people that we work with that fun size that come from different backgrounds. Why don't you dig in a little bit more about What were you doing the last few years before

you found our company? Absolutely. So whenever I whenever I moved to Austin, which was in 2010 I came out of a traditional screen printing job, Um, where we were producing T shirts and posters and a lot of printed goods. Um, And during that time, I was a little burned out with that job because not only was I working commercially as a screen printer, I was also, uh, co running a independent clothing line with one of my best friends, which happened to be in my room, mate. So I had a lot of things going on there in terms of, ah, balls in the air,

irons in the fire. And, ah, I was kind of hesitant to get back into that world once I graduated college and then got away from my hometown. Now, with that being said, I love screen printing. It will always be a part of my life and will always be some. It'll always be with me. So at some point in some capacity, so I fell back into the job. I needed a job because the market for a graphic designer in Austin, as you could assume, is extremely saturated.

I think we just found a title for the show screen printing to screen design.

Oh, I like that. That's good. I actually like that a lot. Um, So I got a job as just a printer at a local shop in South Austin, and, um and ah, I had it was a different, complete, different experience than I had had before. And it was nice. It was much more family run much more, um, fun. And so, uh,

I liked it, and I stuck with it. And I quickly became a production manager with that company, you know, managing deadlines and everything under the sun with with running the production end of a screen printing company. Um, and I did that for probably until 2015 um, and then a tender 2015. There's a long story to this, and I will spare all of you with

the story. Let's get to why you became interested in digital product design. When when did that? When did that light bulb go off? How did you realize that you needed to make another change? And what did you How did you How did you decide to go after that? What did you do?

Well, I had some really close friends along the way that have also gone the same path that I have been on. And they went into the desert product world several to three years before I did, and I had always been really interested in in that that design industry and how they did what they did and why they did what they did and the end results of what they were designing. And, um, one of my again, one of my close friends, Jonathan, I pick his brain a lot about about, you know, design. And

you thought you talk about Jonathan Haber

the John. I know John Haber, but not on Avery. Okay, Jonathan about, But, um, again, part of the story I was laid off from my other job, and, uh, then I had a choice where I could go to try to find Bree. Start my process of finding another graphic design job, or I picked I had the opportunity to pick Jonathan's brain. Said, Hey, what are you what are you doing?

And so that sparked my, you know, sparked the fire that drove me into wanting to go into digital product design. Um, and with that being said, I, um, enrolled in a in a general assembly for the U ex design immersive class. Um, which was a big step for me in a big investment in commitment for me because it's not cheap is 33 months long, 9 to 5 Monday through Friday like a job, and I didn't have a job at the time, so I relied on my family to support me. Ah, and really push me through to the next level. And so having having a lot of people behind you is even more motivation.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, Natalie, if it wasn't for Natalie, I don't think fun size would exist because she enabled me to quit my previous job and told me, Hey, you know, go and try something new and give it Give it 3 to 6 months, and if you if you fail, or if you're not happy with it, just go do something else. I think you have toe. You have to be willing to put in some time, Thio, you know. Go.

Go for it, you know? Yeah. And so I mean, we don't have to talk too much about G A. Unless you want to, you know? But I think a lot of people that are listening, probably familiar with it. My perspective, it is, is it's ah, really, you know, intensive, you know,

short program to really give people a primer. And this the skills of the folks that I'm seeing coming out of that have a very interesting mix of skills that compliment our existing team. It was very specifically most of our team are like great u x ah, visual design product design executioners. There's a lot of design. Research is being taught there. Ah, you know, a year to go. That was kind of scary, but we're talking about research a lot more on the show. Um and I remember I don't know if this is how we got introduced or not, but I remember getting any amount any mail from you saying, Hey, you know, I'll bring you cookies or something.

I just wantto see you doughnuts. Doughnuts? Yeah, I want to see if there's an opportunity to talk about work. Why? Why did you? Um so there's a lot of different types of companies that you could start out working for, from inter enterprise corporations to start ups and tech companies to advertising agencies and product design studios. What kind of jobs were you looking for? Um, why? Why? Why a small company? Why a small company?

That's an interesting question. And ah, one of the note about the doughnut email is that I threw out everything that I would do, I want. I want my personality to show and I want to remain who I am. I'm not going to short change myself, um, for and try to sell myself anything, anything other than what I think that I am, Um and that's letting my personality's showing through now to speak to what type of company I was looking for. It's It's an interesting perspective because coming out of General Assembly and coming from coming from my background of the kind of small, family run businesses that I have been worked for unassociated with, I honestly, I wanted to change. I wanted to be part of a big company, and I and I kind of looked at, you know,

several large companies in town and made efforts to be part of those companies, and he kind of It kind of didn't didn't come to fruition for me, and it really made me think about me as a person and what type of person I am and what type of person, what type of people that I want to be around, Um, which goes back to saying that I feel like I feel like smaller family type companies are more supportive of each other and care and actually care about each other. And that's something that I believe in. And so I had, you know, on through my through my job search, I had come across some fun size, and I familiar familiarized myself with the content on the Web site and the vision of the company and you guys as people. And I really identified with you guys and, um and I decided to reach out.

Yeah. I mean, you know, I think from the other side of the fence, the same principles apply. You know, where we are, a small company. It's important that we find people that share our vision of the kind of work we want to do. The lives we can't we wantto lead, you know, the kind of people the kind of people that we're gonna want to spend our days with. We spent more time at work than we do at home, and I think that's really important. And, you know, um,

for me, aside from passion and skill and humility and all these other things, I think, um, one of the things that I look for the most in people is the beer test, right? Like, um, how How willing is someone to be spur of the moment and choose to sit down and have a conversation over a beer? And in with that? Is that conversation interesting and fun like What? Will we laugh? We dream when we talk about how you know how exciting is that be in those you know, And then So then you know, you think about it, you have to work.

You have to work with people that you want to get excited about. So not to toot your own a little bit that I think that's why you know we were You know, that's why that's what would tip the scales for us a little bit because you embodied all those things. So, um, fund sizes Apprentice program is relatively old, but it's not very formal. We've had great success creating very strong designers of the program. In a very impromptu way. I can count three people that started out as apprentices that are now like, highly functioning like almost to the extent of being able to lead projects. And I like doing that a little bit more than hiring senior people and then having to rewire the brain. Because I think with younger people to the industry, there's there's less wrote roadblocks to get over to shape people the way they need to be shaped. I think a lot of senior people probably have developed, like,

one core area of expertise and the thought of having to learn, you know, you know, the other. You know, too, that we look for is hard with a lot of younger people. I think there is a general, they're generalists across the board, and it's really exciting from my vantage point to be ableto figure out like how someone's it were someone skill and ability lives. So, um, you started out as an apprentice. I guess. Technically, you still are.

Um, but I think you know, the kind of work that you're that you're doing is proving that you know that the the apprenticeship graduation is near. Um, why don't you tell, um, can you tell us a little bit about the You know, you don't mention anything sensitive, but tell us about the kinds of work that you've been doing. Um, over the last three months, types of projects, types of clients types of activities tell us a little bit about what that three months has felt like for you.

Ah, it's felt it's felt initially it was, um, as anyone could say, going into something new is a little, little, little scary. But, um, I think that it quickly became accustomed to the workflow and the, you know, the the way that you guys work and the types of clients you work with. Um, you know, during those three months, I've worked with very, very small,

early stage incubator style clients to enterprise level clients that have, um, a lot of market share and what they do. Um, and it's been an interesting perspective across those two, because me being in the point in the in, in the stage of my career and my my growth is that I get to see at the same time how those two can connect to each other and and how you can learn to apply, you know, things from one to the other, and vice versa. Um, you know, the types of work that I've been doing, um, have been from easy as you know, a simple wire frame about a flow for somebody needing to access a file or access to document our access.

Um, a portion of a website to full concept formulation of of, of a new product. Um, and both have been very exciting.

Well, you've also done, you know. So you have worked on very early stage stuff and fun size of insurers where we've been doing the work for free. That gave you an opportunity to work together. One on one. It's a prod, a project that you could own yourself. For the most part, um, you've worked on several mid stage companies doing research and conceptual design and visual design, production and all that. I'm kind of wondering, like how if that's kind of crazy, you know, like because I'm curious. Like,

I wonder if, at a more formal company someone would be training someone in one skill set, Is it Is it stressful to be, you know, powering the powering and leveling up on design research, You x and visual design all at one time? Or is that actually exciting?

From my point of view, I think it's exciting. I can definitely see how it would be. It would be scary to try to do that all at one time. And I think that, yeah, probably in a enterprise level company with on boarding a new employee, it might be more geared towards a specific skill set or discipline for that import for that new higher too, you know, have that for a long time. Um, the reason why I feel like, you know, learning and being exposed to a lot of different ideas all at one time and improving skills together all at one time is important, um, to be versatile and to be flexible and to be able to like on the fly jump into a white boarding session with another team. But just because you overheard something, you know, whenever you have five minutes on the fly and be able to, you know, quickly get your get your bearings on what's going on and then be able to contribute to the contribute to the problem or the solution.

Yeah. Um, we operate on and under very basic principles. Like once someone has established our trust. The sky's the limit, you know, like what once the levels of trust there were, You know, there's not a lot of babies saying it's sinking. It's sink or swim like where there's a difference in a title and a role, you know, like a design director could do. Production design. A junior person could potentially lead a project. Um, it's where people go and people take it is really up to them. Um,

what is it like working on a team where you know you have, Let's say, let's call it a this 0.4 months of professional experience and you're paired up with the designer that has 15 years of experience. What? What does that feel like?

I would say that, um, I as you know, Eisen my position. Look to that person. Not not to, you know, give me a punchless of things to do but to guide me in, Ah, in the quality of what I'm doing. Um, and I feel like if if the if the shoe was on the other foot and if I were the person with 15 years under my belt, um, I would feel empowered to help that person achieve the levels that they would want to achieve.

Yeah, I think that learning happens on both opposite sides of the spectrum. Agree? You know Natalie. Natalie, where is working with you on a big bay area, you know, product, you know, you know, a very big one, very high stakes one. And she tells me that she learns things from you, and you bring a different perspective to the mix. I'm sure you learn from her, but I think that's what's important. Um,

diversity in not just in a different people skill sets, but a diversity and people's years of experience and backgrounds. And from I think all those things when you have, like 234 those kind of people very, very diverse on team, and I think that's where good ideas comes from. You know, I don't want to argue the point that everyone could do design, because I don't think that's true. But I think that, um, the more people that you can get to participate in it, um, the more maybe not necessarily, the better it is. But the more fun it could be. And

I think the more people the more I would I would agree with you. The more brains you could have put together going towards a goal the more fast it's you have to look at in terms of, um what what the correct solution could be.

Yeah. Where do you want to be in a year? Like, um, some summarizing in the shortest form you can about you know, what kind of designer you wanna be A year from today.

It's funny. The last first then asked me that question. Was Rick at? Ah, the fun size. Ah, envision happening. Happy hour. This is where you wanna be in five years. And I said, As simple as it is, I want to be having fun, making cool shit with my friends. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Still the same. Yeah. Having a good time smile on my face, hanging out with people that I like making cool things.

If you had to rank those three, how would you rank

them hanging out with cool people? Then what? Having fun? Yes, it's

it's interesting because, you know, I mean, everyone has a different perspective. Those are the three things that I look for. Two. I mean, sure, I run the business, but if it's not fun, I'm not gonna come to work. And if I don't get to work with my friends and that kind of to me, that kind of defeats the purpose because that's why we created this company. We created this company to be able to work with our friends. And then, you know, obviously, if we're not doing cool stuff, then why are we doing this in the first place?

I think the third comes naturally. Whenever you put cool people that like each other together, you kind of especially creative, cool people that like each other things happen.

Yeah, so in, you know, in the in the notes you have you made a note in the show notes about what is we mean? Why don't you talk a little bit about that? Because I'm not actually sure what your thoughts were on that.

What does we mean? I jotted that down just because of ah, again just harking back to the idea of the environment that we're working in. Ah, that everyone here fun size is working in as as a whole. It's a week, it's not an eye. And you guys were very adamant about that. And I really respect that. And that's something that I identify with a lot as an individual. Is that, um you know, I value each, like if I found one on team with two people. Or if I'm on a team with 20 people, everybody has. Everybody has a contribution is valuable, and everybody is is part of the wind or everybody is part of the fail. Doesn't matter who's what happens. We're all in it together.

That's awesome. Um, So what kind of advice would you give for other folks out there who are thinking about a career change and getting into this field? Uh huh. You know, what would you say to them?

I would say, um, be honest. Be humble. And don't be afraid to be yourself. Ah, and then when it comes Thio, you know the work environment work fast and work and share early and get the ideas out. Um, grab a pencil, write it down, grab a dry erase board anyone you can find anywhere in the room, Write it down. Um, because you don't know when those ideas come and they could be gone in a second. Um, and I would say that,

um, being a team player is extremely important and and knowing, knowing what you can do and knowing what you can't do and knowing what you want to do, Um are all three things that are important as well, because you shouldn't over sell yourself in any given circumstance. But if you feel like you have the bandwidth and you have the skill set to accomplish something, then you should sell yourself to be able to make it to the next level. And ah, and help help the people around you. So I don't know. That's a lot. That's good. That's a lot.

Well, Tony, why don't you let people know how they can find you on the internet?

So I have a Twitter account. It is at I am u ex D. I am your ex d I have a, uh, instagram account. Same at I am your ex d. And my personal email is Tony at I am u x d dot com.

And you also got a durable account that you're supposed to be posting fun size work to that. You're that you're not. I posted today, huh? Thanks for joining 20. Everyone reach out to Tony. Say hello. Follow him. He's a cool guy. Thanks for Thanks for, uh, thanks for hanging

out, Tony. Thanks for having me.

Ah, One last shot out to, um, a partner, Rick Messer. I really appreciate all the years of all the awesome work that we did together, all the cool stuff we did with the podcast and all the memories that we created without you. A whole lot of this wouldn't be possible. Rick has moved on to more exciting things. He's, Ah, starting his own business, and we're really proud of him. And, um, hopefully, he will still be a part of the show.

Maybe we'll get him on as a guest and you guys should definitely follow him and keep up with what he's doing. A whole season. Thanks this'll episode of Hustle is brought to you by Envision designed better, faster together. Learn more at in vision. App dot com. Hustle is brought to you by Fun Size, a digital product design studio that craps delightful digital user experiences with inspiring product companies.